The Anatomy of a Bluff with Dennis Phillips
You may have seen this hand in the live reporting blog.
We don't know exactly how the action went preflop, or on the flop but we do know on a board reading 10♦Q♠5♦10x Dennis Phillips opted to check. Phillips' opponent, Kevin DeTienne fired out 160,000. Phillips' response was to move all-in for 431,000 more. DeTienne then went deep into the tank, pondering the right course of action.
A couple of minutes went by and all that could be heard was the gathered crowd questioning to themselves what either player could possess. Eventually DeTienne convinced himself he was second-best and folded his cards. Phillips then flipped over A♣5♣ for a pair of fives to much the approval and surprise of the crowd and table.
In the hand we saw Dennis Phillips make an amazing bluff with just bottom pair and he risks his entire stack to take down the pot. We caught up with Phillips on break during Event #29: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship to get a walk through of the hand with analysis from Phillips on what he was thinking.
"To set it up, the hand right before, the gentleman [Kevin DeTienne] had just sat down at our table. He was the chip leader, more than 2:1 over anyone else around there. He tried to bully a guy off of a pot, he made a massive three-bet preflop, made a continuation bet, and then shoved on the turn. The guy tanked for a while and went ahead and called him. He had an A♠7♠ for just a spade draw, so the guy was on tilt.
"He raises instantly, and I would've bet you 10:1 on a prop bet that he was going to raise the next hand with any two cards. So it folds around to me and I had an Ax5x, that's all I had. I just smooth called. That was it. I checked the flop, which I knew he would bet, which he did, and I just smooth called again. And I looked at him and he literally slid back in his chair when I called him. So I know that he's scared to death on that thing.
"The turn card comes and it's a perfect one, it puts a second ten out there. Which is a danger card. Again, I check, and he thinks for a minute tries to make it look like he's doing calculations in his head, which is bulls***. He starts counting chips, and finally he announces 160,000 and he takes it and just splashes it into the pot. I mean, he had so many tells that he was weak it was ridiculous. I tanked and tanked and tanked. The more I tanked, the redder his face got. The harder he breathed, the whole bit like that. Then I shoved. I think I had the best hand right there. I really think my pair of fives was going to win this thing. But he finally folded and I didn't get to see his cards. I was really just playing against the player there."
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