Phil Hellmuth likes jamming top players like Alex Foxen against the queen-four. The "Poker Brat" picked the infamous hand in a recent Hustler Casino Live stream at the Los Angeles casino. Then, he ran into it again in a meetup game the next day.
The 16-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner stunned many poker enthusiasts when he played with {q-Diamonds}{4-Hearts} in March during the 2022 U.S. Poker Open $25,000 no-limit hold 'em final table.
Foxen used {9-Spades}{9-Diamonds} to open to 125,000, Hellmuth made a three-wager to 350,000 and later called off his full 950,000 chips stack after his opponent made a four-bet.
Hellmuth, a former world winner, hit trip queens, shipped the pot, and went on to finish as runners-up behind Erik Seidel. The game made Twitter go into a tizzy as people bashed the Poker Hall of Famer's play. Still, it wasn't his last time last week to opt to go crazy with the starting hand.
It Was Suited
In last Monday's Hustler Casino Live stream, Hellmuth picked {q-Diamonds}{4-Diamonds}on the six-hour stream's first hand and made a call to a $300 raise by cutting off from Ben, who held {k-Hearts}{2-Hearts}.
Sunny, another talented player, came along with {q-Spades}{9-Spades} as the flop came out {10-Diamonds}{5-Diamonds}{3-Spades} thus enticing Hellmuth, who picked a flush draw. The preflop raiser went on with a $1,500 over-wager. Sunny got out of the way, yet Helmuth didn't go anywhere on the flop.
Instead, Hellmuth decided to go all-in for $3,200 more than his rival, who had $50,000 when the game began folded king-high. He asked other players at the table what they thought he had before he mucked his cards.
One player guessed that Hellmuth had queen-four, while others thought he had the top pair. Hellmuth flipped over all his cards and spread them at the table before shouting, "queen four." Some poker diehards who forgot that the raise was suited are criticizing the player for choosing a weak hand to call a preflop raise.
Even so, this is seemingly Hellmuth's new trademark hand, and it was unwise for him to fold. The poker pro continued and crushed the game partly because of his hand. Yet, he won a $21,000 pot using a pair of sixes against Barry Wallace.
Hellmuth's Hand Bluffed Him
The queen-four still got into Hellmuth's pot in a Tuesday game at Hustler Casino, Los Angeles. Matt Bandini bluffed him off the pot with {q-Hearts}{4-Hearts} on the first hand, and Hellmuth shared it on Twitter.
Surprisingly, Hellmuth ran again into {q-Clubs}{4-Diamonds} against Bandini after eight hands and tried to get revenge. He used {a-Diamonds}{2-Diamonds} on a {4-Spades}{3-Spades}{9-Diamonds}{7-Diamonds}{j-Hearts} board to fire out an all-in river bluff in the meetup game's second hand in the Q4.
Bandini held {q-Clubs}{4-Diamonds} when he made the call with a small pair out of principle. He amazed poker diehards when he won the pot.
Players couldn't choose different bet sizes at that moment, but it appears like the pot was almost $500.This can be due to GTO crushers and the solvers undervaluing {q-}{4-}. It is important to add a hand above their range.
