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Benyamine blunders

Saturday, 23 August 2008

Heads-up is a horse of another color. Moves, plays and choices that would be ludicrous at a full table can be the only correct choices in a heads-up match.

To be a consistent winner playing heads-up poker, you must play the player, not the cards. In fact, the cards are irrelevant in many heads-up scenarios.

Benyamine and Galfond have played together at length, both online and live, and they're both world class players, tough and tricky. It's matches like this that are the most fun to watch, since it's impossible to be sure who's going to win.

In this hand, Benyamine makes a mistake, but it may not be as large an error as it seems:

7764501449 TABLE : RailHeaven (6 max) $500/$1000 - No Limit Hold'em - Sat Aug 23rd 2008 - 7:14am ET

Table SetupSeat 4: OMGClayAiken ($106,280.25)Seat 5: David Benyamine ($149,675.75)OMGClayAiken posts the small blind of $500David Benyamine posts the big blind of $1,000The button is in seat #4Pre-flop

OMGClayAiken raises to $3,000David Benyamine calls $2,000Flop [#4s#Qd#2c]

David Benyamine checksOMGClayAiken bets $4,200David Benyamine calls $4,200Turn [#4s#Qd#2c] [#6d]

David Benyamine checksOMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to actOMGClayAiken bets $11,200David Benyamine calls $11,200River [#4s#Qd#2c#6d] [#9s]

David Benyamine checksOMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to actOMGClayAiken has requested TIMEOMGClayAiken bets $22,400David Benyamine has 15 seconds left to actDavid Benyamine has requested TIMEDavid Benyamine raises to $109,000OMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to actOMGClayAiken has requested TIMEOMGClayAiken calls $65,480.25, and is all inUncalled bet of $21,119.75 returned to David BenyamineShowdown

David Benyamine shows [#6s#5h] a pair of SixesOMGClayAiken shows [#Qh#Ks] a pair of QueensOMGClayAiken wins the pot ($212,560) with a pair of Queens

Galfond will raise almost 100% of all his buttons, making it an easy pre-flop call for Benyamine. He has low connectors, making it unlikely he will run into kicker problems on a pair, or any other set-up situations.

The flop brings Benyamine a gutshot. The board is unconnected and rainbow. In heads-up, Ace high is a powerful hand, and any pair is considered good until proven otherwise. Either way, Galfond will bet this flop after having it checked to him almost automatically.

Benyamine feels that he has a legitimate chance at hitting to be ahead, or making a move since Galfond most likely has nothing but two unpaired cards, probably an ace high.

Once the turn pairs Benyamine's six, he is now ahead of anything Galfond holds, assuming he didn't hit the queen, or is holding a pocket pair. The river comes a nine of spades, a blank to this board. Benyamine now believes that Galfond has one of the following hands:

Ace highPocket pair below the QueenA Queen with a weak kicker

He is ahead of one of these, and can make Galfond fold the other two by making a large check-raise on the river. In the actual hand, Galfond had a decent kicker, and had no reason to believe he was behind.

The only hand Galfond loses to that Benyamine would play like he did would be two pair, such as 2-4. A set is unlikely as Benyamine would have most likely been more aggressive pre-flop with any pocket pair.

Although Benyamine was wrong, and did make a mistake for a $200,000 pot, it's not as huge of a mistake as it may appear at first glance.

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