All Hail King Phil!

No I am not talking about the dorkey loud mouth Phil. I am talking about the one who can actually play and is the greatest player in the world...Phil Ivey.

He has made the final table of the WSOP ME that will be played in November. This is a hell of an accomplishment and should be interesting to see his play when they come back. Unfortunately he is second to last in chips so that may make it difficult to utilize all of his creative play but if he gets some chips early I predict he will run over the table. I am sure ESPN is positively drooling over his presence as even casual poker players know who Phil Ivey is. He has already won 2 bracelets this year and a ME win would polish off one of the sickest years in WSOP history for sure.

Anytime I think of PI, I think of truly one of the great poker hands I have ever seen deep in a big buy-in tournament:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Qap3VT_ZY

The level of thinking here is mind boggling. Ivey know his hand is best the whole way and plays it accordingly. IMHO he is not bluffing.

Pre-Flop

He raises preflop and Jackson just calls. When Jackson doesn't reraise Phil can basically eliminate any pairs, any Ace and most Kings as all of those hands are likely reraises by Jackson. Heads up those hands are almost always re-raises.

Flop

Flop comes JJ7 and Phil leads at the pot. This is the key to the whole hand IMO. This enables Phil to really define Jackson's hand as it develops. So Jackson raises. You can almost see Phil putting the pieces together. He knows that Jackson is highly unlikely to raise holding a J as there is no value is that raise. In otherwords, if he held a J and believed that Phil had a pair why blow Phil off his hand now. Makes no sense. He also isn't going to raise with a 7 in case Phil actually does have a J. Though he most assuredly would call with a 7. So at this point it is unlikely that Jackson has most pairs, a 7, a J, an A and probably a K. Meaning Q high is good here. So Phil 3 bets him for value I believe. Then Jackson 4 bets and again Phil puts the pieces together and I am sure he knows he is good at this point. Again, he is highly unlikely to have anything that beats Phil's Q high and the 4 bet really looks like a bluff attempt. So he shoves and Jackson feels owned. Brilliant play.

Oddly if Jackson had used his position on the button and just called the hand dynamic plays out much differently and Phil may have given up on the turn. With a flat call on the flop now it does look like Jackson could have a 7 or J and Phil will tread much more carefully especially out of position in the hand.

Easy for me to analyze this after the fact but to do that under the lights with all that money on the line is insane.

Let's hope PI gets some chips early in November and is able to play some big hands because when he is on he is a pleasure to watch.