Our first installment of Hand of the Week comes from the final table of the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS XIII Event #17: $300 Six-handed NLHE with rebuys. The remaining four players had locked up a minimum of $87,334, but a first-place prize of $246,071 was on the line, as well as the coveted FTOPS jersey.
David “The Dragon” Pham entered the final table fifth in chips and removed “rjinnj” in fifth place when his pocket aces held up against a pair of fives. Pham is recognized as one of the most terrorizing No Limit Hold’em players in the world because of his fearless approach toward the game. He has more than $8 million in cashes on the live tournament circuit and has reached seven WPT final tables.
Chris “Moorman1” Moorman is a highly respected online player who is ranked No. 2 on the Pocket Fives World Wide Rankings (as of September 1st). He’ll likely take over the No. 1 ranking, held by Shaun Deeb, after a brilliant performance in this FTOPS event. Moorman has more than $3.6 million in online tournament earnings.
Hand Setup:
Seat 2: Mark “xqsays” Radoja (2,469,184 chips)
Seat 3: footwork (587,356)
Seat 4: Chris “MoormanI” Moorman (2,255,947)
Seat 6: David Pham (968,103)
Blinds are 10K/20K with a 2.5K ante
Preflop:
footwork folds and Moorman raises to 49,750 from the button with [Ad][9d]. David Pham calls from the small blind with [9c][8c]. Radoja folds.
Flop: [Td][7d][6c]
Pham checks to Moorman, who fires 80,000 into a pot of 129,500. Pham comes over the top with a check-raise to 220,000. Moorman moves all in, having Pham covered, and David makes the call instantly.
Turn: [9h]
River: [6d]
Moorman makes a flush on the river and eliminates Pham in fourth place. Chris takes over the chip lead three-handed.
Analysis: Moorman has been the most aggressive player at the final table, if not the entire tournament, so Pham decides to call a raise out of position with suited connectors. With close to 50 big blinds in his stack he probably feels like he can either make a hand and win a big pot from Moorman or get away cheaply if he misses. Moorman has been raising nearly every button and his percentage of pots won without showdown thus far is phenomenal.
The hand plays itself out after an action-packed flop. Pham makes the nut straight and Moorman can conceivably believe that he’s favored against Pham’s range with the nut flush draw, a gutshot straight draw, and an overcard to the board. Should Pham have a hand like two pair here Moorman still has a 43% probability of winning the pot with his monster draw. A set would leave him at a 2-1 disadvantage but Moorman is a favorite against any pair. Thus, he moves in to put Pham to a decision and finds out that he needs help against a made hand.
Moorman gets there on the river and increases his stack to 3,246,460, giving him more than half the chips in play. He and Radoja agreed to chop the prize money once they reached heads-up play and Moorman collected $204,000 for his day of work — the largest score of his career. In the end, Radoja won the tournament and received $206,000 and his first FTOPS jersey.
By The Numbers:
Moorman: [Ad][9d]
Preflop: 66.6%
After the flop: 36.4% (with 7% chance of a split)
After the turn: 20.5% (with 4.5% chance of a split)
Pham: [9c][8c]
Preflop: 31.4%
After the flop: 56.7% (with 7% chance of a split)
After the turn: 75% (with 4.5% chance of a split)
