Top 3 Worst Pro Mistakes

As the majority of readers here (and writers!) are amateur players, mistakes are part and parcel of our poker lives. We win and lose our money in ways that might be considered fundamental errors by pros.

However, that’s not to say that the world’s best are completely free from the blunders which plague the game at lower levels. Even the biggest names in poker produce some howlers! Let’s take a look at the best (or worst) of them…

The Ego has Landed - Hellmuth-Obrestad

When it comes to mistakes in poker, ego is one of the most difficult opponents to overcome! We’ve all been there – playing against somebody who we don’t believe is as good as ourselves.

We don’t rate their play highly so do things which we otherwise wouldn’t. We raise when we should only call, call when we ought to fold, and make plays which are based on our belief that they don’t understand the game as well as we do.

In our first pro mistake example, Phil Hellmuth – a man well-known for his letting his ego get the better of him – decides that the young upstart Annete Obrestad needs to be reigned in…

In her heads-up match against Hellmuth, Obrestad raises from the SB with her

J♠ J♥, making it $1200 to go with the blinds at $400/800. Hellmuth, already struggling in the match, looks down at A♦ 9♦ and decides to just call, then checks in the dark as the flop appears….

Q♣ 2♥ 9♥

Teenager Obrestad rarely needs a reason to aggressively push her advantage and bets $2500 into the $4k pot which Hellmuth, true to form, just calls.

The turn comes…

Q♣ 2♥ 9♥ (10♣)

giving the Norwegian prodigy an open-ended straight draw, and Hellmuth immediately checks again. Obrestad, probably only fearing an Ace on the river but perhaps wary that Hellmuth may be trapping, checks behind and we see the river…

Q♣ 2♥ 9♥ 10♣ (8♣)

completing Obrestad’s straight to the queen. Only the club flush or JK beats her, but both of these are unlikely given the play so far.

Now Helmuth decides to bet out a measly 1100 into the 8k pot, one of his trademark ‘blocking bets’. The problem with this, of course, is that it generally makes your hand quite transparent – almost always a weak made hand. You can counter this problem by making the same small bet with big made hands, but here it’s not clear what big hand Hellmuth is supposed to have!

Obrestad is nothing if not a fundamentally well-schooled professional poker player, and an aggressive one at that, and she quickly shoves all-in, putting Hellmuth to the test. Except that it isn’t really a test – he should quickly fold, lick his wounds and see if he can’t get back into the match over the next few hands.

But what does Phil do instead? He decides that “My heart says I’m supposed to ship it in there! That’s what my heart says!” This ‘instant gut feeling’ approach, as everyone knows, is the harbinger of poker disaster! Why?

Because no matter what the next five minutes of thought produces, no matter how much you replay the hand so far in your mind, working out what ranges you’re facing and how likely you are to be winning, it’s almost impossible to stop yourself from following the ‘gut instinct’ which in this case is so far wide of the mark as to be downright hilarious!

Hellmuth, sitting with 3rd pair, convinces himself that Obrestad is bluffing: raise, bet, check, re-raise? I doubt I’d be banking my tournament life on this being an elaborate bluff by Obrestad. Rather, it is what it looks like; a strong hand which has become even stronger by the river.

Hellmuth, however, runs through all the previous ‘lucky’ hands Obrestad has won against him, talking incessantly about bluffs and possible weak hands she might be bluffing with again, and his ego gets the better of him! He ‘should’ be beating this young upstart, so he convinces himself ‘he ‘is’ beating her.

Obrestad finally has enough of Phil’s verbal diarrhea and calls the clock. “Shut up and make your move!” as the commentary room describes it! Down to 10 seconds and Phil calls, only to see his entire thought process smacked down when Obrestad turns over the jacks.

“Looks like Phil’s heart just sent his mind and his body out the door,” was the commentaries parting shot. Replace heart with ego and you’ve got it just about right!

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The ultimate pro WTF moment - Tilly-Antonius

When a good pro player comes up against the world’s best, there is a tendency for them to believe almost anything the true stars of the game say or do.

Raising? They must have the nuts! Only checking? It’s a trap!

What the good players sometimes forget is that the cards often speak for themselves, regardless of who the opposition is. Let’s see how actress-turned-poker pro Jennifer Tilly makes a complete arse of herself when she forgets how to play poker…a priceless moment in the long history of poker blunders…

When Tilly sat down with Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Erick Lindgren, Phil Gordon and Jennifer Harman, it was a bit like putting one of Snow White’s little companions in with the Harlem Globetrotters – a spectacle of sorts but quite a distasteful one!

Still, poker at least gives you a chance to win, if only by the luck of the cards alone, so picking up J♦J♣, Tilly decided to raise to $1200 with the blinds at $200/400.

Antonius called behind her holding the 10♥ 8♥ and the rest of the superstars got out of the way.

The flop came…

10♠ J♥ 7♣

Which is nice for Antonius but huge for Tilly, so the Finn out of position checked. Tilly bet out $2000 into the $2800 pot and Antonius, with second pair and a gutshot, thought a little before calling. The turn appeared…

10♠ J♥ 7♣ (K♠)

and Antonius checked again, Tilly checking behind. This move, unlike Obrestad’s turn check against Hellmuth turns out not to be part of a grander plan as we will see…

The river fell the…

10♠ J♥ 7♣ K♠ (K♣)

And when the Finn checked, Tilly immediately followed suit – despite just having hit her full house against an opponent who had shown no real interest in the pot!

When Tilly turned her Jacks over, Antonius said, “you have a full house?! I can’t beat that!” and what followed will go down as silent movie history!

The usually slack-jawed Phil Ivey somehow found a way to make his face look even more incredulous, Jennifer Harman looked to be on the verge of hysterical laughter or perhaps tears, while Lindgren was simply gob-smacked.

“ I thought you had pocket kings,” laughed Tilly nervously, as the rest of the table tried to hide their shock, amusement, bemusement and, yes, disgust at having to share a high-stakes table with Tilly.

As one poster put it on YouTube:

As were the rest of the world my friend!

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Mucking around can be costly- Cates-Esfandiari

There are numerous cases where top pros simply misread the board, lose concentration, misread their own hands, or experience a combination of similar things. It's the kind of mistakes that we see every weekend in casinos the world over, but not one we expect at the highest level.

Poker, however, is an unforgiving game – one small lapse can prove to be very costly indeed, as Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates was to find out….

It was round16 at the National Heads-up Championship, and Cates was facing Antonio ’The Magician’ Esfandiari, leading him by about 125k to 75k.

Cates’ decided his 4♦ 2♥ was worth a call – heads up in the SB should almost always be played according to most experts – and Esfandiari was looking down at the 8♠ 3♥, another very poor hand.

However, the hand suddenly became interesting when the flop appeared…

8♦ 3♦ A♠

Giving Esfandiari two pair and Cates the wheel draw, and the Magician bets out 2/3rds of the pot, perhaps not wanting to give Cates a free card in case he’s messing about with Ax, which could see his own 2 pair counterfeit at some point.

Cates decides to call and gets rewarded when the turn comes….

8♦ 3♦ A♠ (5♥)

Completing his wheel. Esfandiari doesn’t know this, of course, and continues his aggressive play by betting out the pot, which again Cates just calls.

8♦ 3♦ A♠ 5♥ (A♥)

The ace hits and as the commentators say, “Antonio thinks that’s a bad card as it counterfeits his 8’s and 3’s, but it could save him a bundle here.” Seeing no reason to continue betting, Esfandiari checks and Cates surprisingly checks behind.

When Esfandiari turns his cards over, Cates takes a look and…mucks his winning straight! The crowd goes wild for Esfandiari as Cates sits and scratches his head. “Cates just mucked the winning hand, and that was no small pot!” cried the commentary booth.

What on earth was going through Cates’ mind when he saw Esfandiari’s cards? That he had a full house? Aces and eights and threes! It must have been something like this, as his calls on the flop and river mean he must have been aware of his own hand hitting?!

Unless he had missed his own wheel hitting, planned to bluff the river and gave up mentally when the second ace came home?

Whatever, it was a very costly hand – winning it would have put Esfandiari way, way behind in the match – and just goes to show what pressure and/or lack of concentration can do to a top poker pro’s mind!

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Now I’m sure there are plenty of other poker pro mistakes out there just waiting to be shared, so use the comments section below if you think you’ve found a better one than these.

For my part, I’m just happy to know that the experts can sometimes stoop to my own level of play!