Rivered - Final Hand at the WSOP 2007

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Final Hand at the WSOP* 2007

We are looking at the Final Hand at the WSOP* 2007 in which Jerry Yang walked away with over eight-million Dollars.

Texas Hold’em No-Limit WSOP* 2007

$10,000 Main Event: Silencing the Lam

Jerry Yang

Tuan Lam

Best hand percentage	Pre-Flop	The Flop	The Turn	The River
Jerry Yang	52.6%	12.0%	13.6%	100%
Tuan Lam	47.0%	88.0%	86.4%	0%

Action:

Yang enters the final table as one of the short stacks. He comes out swinging and quickly seizes the chip lead. His aggressive strategy also gives him a huge chip lead heading towards heads-up play against Tuan Lam, holding 80% of the chips in play at around 102 million. Lam has only 25.4 million.

With the blinds being 400,000/800,000 and a 100,000 chip ante, Yang sees his 8-8 and raises to 2.3 million. Lam looks down at A-Q and counters with an all-in over the top. Yang takes a moment… and finally calls the bet, putting Lam's tournament life in the pendulum.

But when the flop comes down 5s-Qc-9c, Lam takes a much-needed charge of the hand. Yang will need to catch one of the remaining eights or running cards in order to win.

When the turn brings the 7d, though, it adds four gutshot outs to Yang's two remaining eights.

The river reveals a 6h, bringing heartbreak for Tuan Lam, giving Yang a winning nine-high straight, the World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet and $8.25 million.

Analysis:

This hand didn’t leave much to the players. Yang makes a standard 3x the big blind with his 8-8. Lam, knowing Yang has been very aggressive thus far, has no choice but to move all-in with his short stack and A-Q. Once the flop comes down, Lam becomes a huge favorite. However, it’s Yang’s lucky day and he catches two running cards to make a straight. The beat looks much worse than it actually was. When the money went in, Yang was only a slight favorite for the coin flip with his pocket pair.

And that’s how unpredictable the magic of Poker can be – you think you have it and suddenly your opponent walks away the winner. I hope you enjoyed this look at how the greats did it.

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