WPT MIRAGE - chris bell cost himself $290,000

vegasbob · #1 03-09-2006, 03:59 AM

From watching the show tonight All I could think was how Chris Bell cost himself 2nd place by the way he played his AK in 3 way pot. I do understand he was probably on tilt from river gavin just hit on him and how ted cost him a pot earlier when he bet into dry sidepot. But I have to feel gavin would have checked down the hand to eliminate ted forrest. Any thoughts ???

wheatrich · #2 03-09-2006, 04:02 AM

He cost himself the money by his mistake with the A9 [calling was bad since he knew gavin would shove which meant he had to pretty much hit the perfect flop and he did (and then he got rivered with it) not the AK play. I thought the call was horrible.

I didn't mind the AK play--he knew he probably had forrest dominated and probably didn't even know gavin had two nines since gavin could have had a lot of different hands there. He also was probably trying to get the chips to increase his shot of winning and didn't care about the 2nd-3rd difference.

vegasbob · #3 03-09-2006, 04:12 AM

The A9 play he waited till he was winning the hand to put it all in and A9 is tough hand to fold 3 handed.
But i really think going all in with the AK in that hand was questionable. I understand he did not know gavins hand but by keeping gavin in the pot the had 2 chances to elimate ted.

wheatrich · #4 03-09-2006, 04:36 AM

he had a great chance to eliminate ted and pick up gavin's dead chips. *thinks* had he just called he would have had roughly 1.5 mil left which was about 33% of chips in play. He wins I think he has 2.5 mil (or a little more) [roughly half total]. Which is a better shot to win it all? I thought his AK play was a good one. He figured Ted had Ax and Gavin well just about anything and didn't want to have to check fold to gavin had he missed just bad result (and I think you're very results oriented here)

The A9 call was horrible. If I recall right he called 450k which was 1/3 his stack preflop. What flop can he reasonably call a push with that? KQ9--nope, an ace--well he's in trouble, QT9? nope, maybe one big card 9 one low card, and nine high. Lucky flop unlucky river. But he shouldn't have called. Pushing would have been an okay play but calling was the worst thing he could have done. He didn't make the most mistakes on that show obviously though. Just that one ended up costing him.

I don't think pushing would have been a mistake here though so the result would have been the same.

Dominic · #5 03-09-2006, 04:49 AM

actually, I thought Gavin's laying down of the 99 was a little suspect. The way Bell had to think about what to do before pushing he could be fairly certain he wasn't up against an overpair...I mean, the standard play if Bell had AA or KK there would be to just call Ted's all-in, right? Plus, Gavin would still have 1.5 mil. if he happened to lose the hand to Bell.

THAY3R · #6 03-09-2006, 05:06 AM

I think he played the AK hand optimally.

streetz · #7 03-09-2006, 07:38 AM

must push if you're playing for first.

graydot · #8 03-09-2006, 03:14 PM

Pushing and making gavin fold the best hand is optimal play. He lost to 3 outer

Yo Adrians! · #9 03-09-2006, 04:23 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Pushing and making gavin fold the best hand is optimal play. He lost to 3 outer

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the correct answer. B/C when he misses the flop (no A, no K, no draw) and Gavin leads out at him (if he does), he now has to fold, and AK is the kind of hand you really need to see all five cards with.

His push with AK was the right play. The way he played A9off, however, was not.

GixxerJoe · #10 03-09-2006, 05:54 PM

I wouldn't give Chris such a hard time on the A9 play. He could've very well thought he had the best hand. And he could've afforded the call. It was just a lucky/unlucky flop/river. After all, he did see Gavin raise and reraise all in with Ace-rag suited against KQ for his big double up. It's easy for us to criticize when we can see the hold cards. Gavin could very well had KQ, A8, 77, etc. plus Chris could see what Gavin was going to do when the flop hit.

As for the AK play, I would've just called and I'm sure Gavin would've understood the situation and they both would've checked it down with the Q - J - 7 flop, to eliminate Ted. But also remember, he got burned when Ted bluffed into the dry end of a pot with A9 suited. It was a bad play at the time, but I think it is what factored into Chris' moving all-in with AK.

The poor guy was just unlucky that day.