A David vs. Goliath tale, poker style

In October, the World Poker Tour’s Bestbet Bounty Scramble main event drew 323 players to Jacksonville, Fla. The battle for the $315,723 winner’s prize came down to Paul Petraglia, a local player and airline pilot, and defending champ Sam Panzica.

Petraglia had never cashed in a poker tournament formore than $20,000, while Panzica was a seasoned pro with more than $3.7million in live tournament earnings. It was a David vs. Goliath story, and the result was similar to the biblical tale, as Petraglia managed to fell the poker giant.

In what would be the final hand of the tournament, the blinds were 75,000150,000 with an ante of 25,000 when Petraglia raised to 350,000 holding 9s 7s and Panzica defended with Jh 3h.

The flop came down 8h 6h 5d. Panzica checked, and Petraglia bet 400,000.

Panzica, who was sitting with 2.35 million behind, had too large a stack to move all in on the flop. (A shove would have been for more than three times the pot.) As such, he had checked with the intention of check-raising with his flush draw. Petraglia’s bet allowed Panzica to do that, and of course Petraglia snap-called, having flopped the nut straight.

Panzica needed a heart to win, but he was left wanting as the 8c blanked on the turn, followed by the 2c on the river. With that, Panzica was eliminated in second place for $210,783, while Petraglia celebrated his championship and saw his name inscribed on the WPT Champions Cup.

In hindsight, could Panzica have played his hand any differently so as not to go bust? Given that J-3 suited is a weak hand, he could have folded preflop. However, it was heads-up play, and he was in the big blind. It’s important to loosen your range in the final stage of a tournament, especially when you have a good amount of chips invested in the hand. A fold wouldn’t have been terrible, butmost experienced tournament players would have called in that spot.

Once two hearts come down on the flop, the hand pretty much played itself. Panzica had the chance to move all in, but he didn’t want to chase out weak hands. He’d rather feign weakness with a check and have his opponent put in a continuation bet. That way when his opponent does have weak holdings (which is most of the time), Panzica is picking up extra chips by check-raising.

Another choice Panzica had was to just call and see if a heart appeared on the turn. However, when you’re the short stack, playing a strong draw passively while out of position is not a recipe for success. You’re prone to just bleed off chips when you miss and not get paid when you hit.

In this hand, Panzica did what almost any pro would do. He allowed his opponent to commit some chips before jamming to maximize both value and fold equity. Unfortunately for him, Petraglia had flopped the nuts and had an easy call. The rest was up to the poker gods.