Phil Ivey Beats Patrik Antonius for $807,000

You can feel the tension in this hand as Phil Ivey flops the perfect monster full house against the trip aces of Antonius.  Ivey did something here that I think we can all add into our game – he milked the time.  He was able to do this because he was at a table full of elite professionals and he has a hardass reputation on the felt, but it was still a great move on his part.  The extended delay got Antonius wondering what he really did have.  Why was Ivey thinking for so long?  Was he bluffing?  If he had the hand, what could he be thinking about?  Brilliant strategy by Phil Ivey and it induced a call by Antonius.  The only annoying thing about the hand was the announcers acting like Antonius held jack squat.  He flopped trip aces and the announcers made it sound as if he was holding a J6.  Ivey has been known to play marginal hands very hard to force others out and he did an awfully lot of thinking.  I’m not sure if I get away from this one either.  Whether you lay down the aces here or not, I don’t think it was an obvious laydown.  It would have been a good one but letting go of trip aces is never easy.  My thinking would have been he has to either have pocket jacks or the case ace with a better kicker to beat me.  Not good odds.  He did raise on the flop but Ivey always raises so that could have meant anything.