Norbert Szecsi Discusses Huge Hand that Propelled Him to Lead
Even an attentive poker player can occasionally make the mistake of not seeing a bet or miscounting a stack. The nightmare for tournament players is to have such a thing happen in a big spot, deep in a high-profile event.
That's exactly what happened to Norbert Szecsi deep in PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague Main Event. Luckily for him — and unluckily for his opponent — everything played out in absolutely ideal fashion after that, so much so that Szecsi now sits with a pile of chips that he likely never would have had if everything had gone standard from start to finish.
In that way, at least, he has his own error to thank for his chip lead at three-table redraw in the Main Event.
"That was a lucky one for me," he said to PokerNews on break. "Beautiful accident."
How the Hand Played Out
In the hand in question, Szecsi, sitting on a little under 2 million at 8,000/16,000/16,000, attempted to open the pot holding 
. Unfortunately, Philipp Zukernik hadn't yet acted on his right.
"He was thinking about what he's gonna do but I raised because I didn't check it," Szecsi said.
Zukernik opted to limp in, locking Szecsi raise of 35,000 into the middle. Action folded back to Zukernik and he came in raising with 130,000. Szecsi said it was pretty much what he expected. Luckily for Szecsi, he had position and they were around 90 big blinds deep, so he could peel.
"I had a good feeling about it," Szecsi said with a smile.
The flop came 
, a dream scenario for the Hungarian two-time bracelet winner. Zukernik bet another 130,000 and Szecsi made it 350,000. A preflop limp-raise hinted to Szecsi that there was value to be had here.
"I thought after his preflop action he is strong," Szecsi explained of his decision not to slowplay.
Zukernik stuck around for a 
turn. Given Szecsi's read of his opponent's range, he knew he might be up against an overpair with a one-card flush draw. Rather than attempt to bet big to protect his hand, he went for a small bet of 225,000.
When he wasn't raised, he was certain he had the best of it.
"It's only one bet in on the turn so that's good for me," Szecsi said. "I'm ahead against his overpairs and flush draws. If he has a flush, that sucks, it's a cooler for me, but I'm never gonna fold this hand."
The river brought in something of a dream card, the 
. Now, all of Zukernik's draws got there but were dead against Szecsi's full house. With only about half-pot left behind, Szecsi had one move when checked to, jamming for the rest.
As for Zukernik, Szecsi expects his opponent to have a second-best hand 100% of the time in this situation. Not many players are going to go for a limp-reraise with pocket sevens or pocket eights, as these hands will often be difficult to play out of position with deep stacks. Given Szecsi's read that his opponent had a big hand preflop, Szecsi's boat was essentially the nuts.
What that also meant for Zukernik was his strong flushes were at the top of his range. He had just such a hand with 
, and Szecsi said this hand is probably too strong to fold.
"Maybe his nut flushes, but that's it," Szecsi said when assessing which better hands Zukernik reaches the river with.
Fortunate Timing
Given that he had pocket threes preflop, Szecsi admitted the situation actually played out ideally. He got to flop a set in a three-bet pot when that would have never happened if Zukernik had opened his ace-king as he'd always be doing.
"If everything went as we would normally play, it's not gonna happen," Szecsi said.
Preflop, it would be pretty adventurous to set-hunt given there were still players to act behind them. So, at best, Szecsi would have been making his hand in a single-raised pot, where Zukernik could have gotten away much cheaper.
As it played out, Zukernik ran into an incredibly unfortunate situation, but one player's misfortune is another's windfall, and now Szecsi sits in a wonderful spot. He's chip leader of an EPT Main Event with well north of 200 big blinds and the three-table redraw in the rearview mirror.
"This is the first time this situation has happened to me, and it's a good time for it," Szecsi said.
Szecsi got to support fellow Hungarian pro Marton Czuczor a few years back when Czuczor made a run and chopped EPT Prague with Jasper Meijer van Putten for more than €600,000. Thanks in part to a "beautiful accident," he's now got a chance to do even better and bank the €1,005,600 first-place prize in 2019.