Game Type: No Limit Texas Hold’em
Tournament: World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris
Players in hand: Jani Sointula, Christian Grundtvig
Starting Hands
Jani Sointula A
, 9
Christian Grundtvig Q
, Q
PreFlop
Christian Grundtvig - A pair of ladies pre flop is a tricky hand to play. Do you raise? Do you limp? Either path has its advantages and disadvantages. In this case the conservative Denmark pro decided to limp and just completed his small blind.
Jani Sointula - Jani, known as Hellraisers among his fellow poker pros from Finland, smelled a rat. He just checked his choice from the big blind, keeping his eyes open.
The Flop T, J, 5
Jani Sointula - First to act, Jani saw only a runner, runner straight draw and an over card; so nothing special, in other words. He checked to The Stamp.
Christian Grundtvig - The Stamp was ready to put his mark on this hand. He put a bet of 180k in the pot, using the big plaques they like at the Aviation Club.
Hellraiser now had his suspicions confirmed (and this, in turn, was confirmed by the commentary of Mike Sexton, the pro consultant on the WPT) and folded.
What happened? Christian did not raise the blind for the first time since the two started playing heads up, which set off Jani’s alarms. He used his powers of observation and applied them to take the appropriate action, a very professional and correct play.
Watch Haralabos Voulgaris chat with Sointula in this entertaining YouTube clip: