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Let’s be honest about it; no-one really wants to play heads-up with Gus Hansen. He raises with cards that most people wouldn’t even use as coasters, he’s about as predictable as the contents of a city banker’s yearly expense account, and – to top it all off – he’s one of the most complete poker players plying his trade in the game today.
However, while the Great Dane certainly doesn’t feature very high up on the list of players you’d like to go toe-to-toe with at the best of times, when there’s the small matter of nearly $3.5 million, a WPT World Championship title on the line and you’re a 5-to-1 underdog in chips, the situation soon becomes an absolute nightmare.
Those were the incredibly undesirable circumstances that Hansen’s fellow Full Tilt pro David Chiu found himself under at last year’s grand finale, but if anyone could successfully turn the situation on its head it was him. The four-time World Series bracelet winner has amassed poker winnings just shy of $6 million in a career spanning almost three decades and Chiu certainly showed every hand’s worth of experience to overturn the monumental deficit and take a slight chip lead into what would prove to be the tournament’s final hand.
Picking up a certifiable monster by his admittedly loose standards in 10s-8h, Hansen opens to $750,000 with the blinds at $150k/$300k and Chiu makes the call with a slightly more legitimate As-9s. However, as is so often the case when the Great Dane raises with napkins, a huge flop of Ac-10c-8s not only hits him hard for two-pair but also pairs Chiu’s ace to set the wheels of the ensuing train wreck into forward gear.
Electing to disguise the strength of what he undoubtedly considers to be the best hand, Chiu checks his pair of aces over to the Danish madman who does precisely what he’s supposed to do by betting $900,000 into the $1.5 million pot. Chiu ponders for a moment before making the call and a 5s on the turn prompts the Chinese-born Californian to fire out $1.2 million almost before the chips from his last call have settled in the pot.
Facing such an line of action in the hand, Hansen mulls over his options for a minute or so before settling on his favourite course of action – pulling the hammer with an all-in bet of $9.875 million. With Chiu rising to his feet and informing the crowd that this could well spell the end, he eventually makes the call and gets the bad news.
However, despite Hansen’s two-pair being out in front at the moment, Chiu has picked up four-to-a-flush and can win the pot with any ace, nine, five or spade going to the river. Hansen’s expression says it all as the Ah duly rolls off the deck to hand Chiu a winning three-of-a-kind worth $3,389,140.
With that fateful river, Chiu completed one of the greatest comebacks in WPT history, vanquishing one of the tour’s most successful competitors heads-up to secure the first World Championship of his glittering career. We can’t imagine he’ll be phoning Hansen for a rematch any time soon though. |
