Annie Duke made this incredible play on her way to victory in the 2004 Tournament Of Champions – we talk to her and Greg Raymer to get their thoughts on how the hand played out
Annie Duke: 10♣-10♦
Greg Raymer: K♥-K♣
Blinds: 8,000/16,000/3,000
The set-up
There are just seven players left in the ten-player invitational WSOP Tournament of Champions. Greg Raymer is chip leader with 453k, while Duke is one of the medium stacks with 289k. The short stack is Daniel Negreanu, who opens for 36k UTG with 5♠-5♦. Duke asks Daniel for a chip count then puts him all-in with a raise to 135k. It folds to Raymer on the BB who moves all-in over the top. Negreanu insta-folds and Annie is left with a decision for all her chips.
Annie Duke
This is going to sound a little strange, but the best hand I ever played is one that I didn’t win. It was at the Tournament of Champions in 2004, a few hands before the dinner break. Daniel Negreanu opened with a raise in first position. I reraised him in second position with T-T. It came all the way around to Greg Raymer in the big blind, and he moved all-in. I only had 150,000 left and the pot held 450,000. So I was getting 3-to-1 on my money, and if he held A-K I had the best of it. Overall, though, considering all the hands Greg could have possibly had, I was still a mathematical favourite. The only way I could have folded was if I knew he had a high pair as opposed to A-K.
Greg won the Main Event that year, but, other than that, nobody at the table had any experience with him. I had never played Greg before. But I had watched the Main Event with my brother [Howard Lederer], and we noticed that Greg had a tell. When he was skating a little bit he did one thing, and when he made a hand he did something else. I saw him do the thing he did when he had a hand, so I folded.
During the dinner break, Phil Hellmuth was telling me what an idiot I was. He knew Greg had A-K. I, of course, disagreed. The good news is that after I knocked Greg out, he hugged me and whispered in my ear, ‘I had Kings.’ I already believed that I made the right read, but his doing that really changed my confidence level for the rest of the tournament. What allowed me to win it was making the fold and staying in. I think Greg took a shine to me that night, and we have been good friends ever since.
Folding when you have 3-to-1 on an opponent is a really big deal. It’s the kind of play that doesn’t appear so flashy and too often gets overlooked when you watch poker on TV. The things that come off as really random and go relatively unnoticed are some of the best things you do. Being successful at poker is not about shoving all-in. It’s about the 20 hands inbetween.
Greg Raymer
Of course I remember that hand very well. It wasn’t long after I won the World Series. I had two Kings and I wasn’t going to fold them. I definitely wasn’t going to flat-call, as there were plenty of cards that could kill the action, which I couldn’t let happen – I wanted us to get our money in there. At the time, as soon as she laid down her cards, I knew it was a good fold on Annie’s part.
Later, though, when I saw she had pocket Tens, I was surprised. When she was considering all the hands I could have had, A-K should have been in the range she put me on. Now I’ve already heard about her having a tell on me. But I’ll repeat what somebody else said about that: ‘What do you mean you had a tell? Of course Greg had a big hand. He just four-bet all-in. You have to know he’s got something big.’
Looking back, it was either a great read on Annie’s part or else she got very lucky. Since she is a great player, though, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. I’ll assume that it was a great read.
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