Noel Furlong Versus Huck Seed
he following spectacular and mind-numbing hand pitted Huck Seed against Noel Furlong at the 1999 World Series of Poker’s final table. In 1999, Huck Seed was arguably the best no-limit Holdem player in the world. Huck was listed ahead of all of us on the odds sheet that year. By the way, another of the world’s best no limit Holdem players, Erik Seidel, was at the table as well.
Anyway, I bet $4,000 on Huck to win going into the last day at 4.75 to 1. With six players left on the final day of the WSOP, Huck Seed doubled his $4000,000 to over $800,000 in the first 10 minutes of play. I really thought poker he was on his way to the title when he doubles up so early. Within 20 minutes of the start of play poker card games, the following hand came up.
With the blinds at $10,000-$20,000 and the antes at $3,000 a hand, Huck “just” called $20,000. Noel Furlong then raised $80,000, making it $100,000 to go on the button. When it was Huck’s turn to act, he said, “I’m all.” The crowd noise rose, because everyone knew that Huck had just called the $80,000 and reraised over $700,000 advanced stud. But even before the gasps began, Noel – with $1.5 million in chips-calmly said, “I call.” Noel had decided to call Huck in less than one second. Huck then said, “Good call.”
The noise level was way up now, especially after the hands were turned faceup holdem poker game. Huck had Jd-8d and Noel had Ah-3h! I heard someone say, “I wouldn’t expect to see such junk in even a super satellite, let along the WSOP.” Good point. Even in a super satellite (a $100 buy-in poker tournament with rebuys), I never see such weak hands put in all the money. What the heck happened here?
One unnoticed fact was that Noel had been on Huck’s left for three straight days. Huck told me, late on day three, that Noel hadn’t let him make a move in two days. Huck was very leery of Noel, but expected Noel to make a mistake soon enough gaming money. Noel had confided to his friends, “I haven’t let that guy breathe in two days.” Everyone expected them to play a big pot eventually, because they were two of the most aggressive guys at the table limit stud.
At first glance, it looks like Huck’s play was weak. Why risk all of your chips against a loose cannon like Noel with no hand? But wait a minute! Hadn’t Huck correctly read Noel as being weak? In fact, Noel’s hand was so weak that it looks as if-at first glance, anyway-he made a worse call with his $700,000. In fact, Huck Seed had made a great move to raise all of his chips in this spot. The only thing that he hadn’t counted on was that Noel had read Huck as well as Huck had read Noel.
Why would you want to call a $700,000 reraise with the Ah-3h? The problem with that hand, of course, is that you are in bad shape if your opponent has a real hand. You’re a 2.5-to-1 underdog if Huck has a pair over twos, or even A-K or A-big. Even if your opponent is bluffing with, say a K-Q, you are still only about 3-to-2 favorite in this spot. Why not just fold and wait for a better spot?
Give Noel a lot of credit. He knew that Huck was bluffing, and that he might not get a better spot to play a pot against Huck the rest of the tournament. Huck Seed is a great player who won’t give anyone too many openings. Noel took the one opening he had had against Huck in two days. He simply coty award.
After a lot of thought on the hand, I realized that I wouldn’t have called Huck even if I knew he was bluffing. I believe I would want to get down to the final two or three players before really playing any huge pots, especially when I was holding over $1.5 million in chips. But I’m assuming that I, too, am among the best no-limit Holdem tournament players in the world today. With that mindset, I don’t mind folding the best hand, because I think I would win the tournament later anyway.
If you assume that Huck is a better no-limit Holdem player than Noel, then Noel made a great call European poker tour. Why not just be 3-to-2 favorite over Huck for all his money and perhaps get rid of him great call. With a flop of A-Q-3, it was all over for Huck, and Noel took his commanding chip lead “all the way.”
In fact, I was really impressed with the way Noel moved his chips and made his decisions the last two days of the WSOP. It is really something to watch a World Champion at the top of his game of cards. It seemed as if he was never really in trouble at any time during the last three days of the tournament, and that’s the way to win the WSOP.