Chip Reese

From My 50 Most Memorable Hands, by Doyle Brunson.

My Achilles heel in poker has always been Chip Reese. I know Chip is a great player but it seems he wins 80 or 90 percent of the pots I play against him. no player in my lifetime has ever intimidated me except Chip. I'm not really superstitious, but I've done everything I know to do against him. I've varied my game to where I know it is impossible for him to get a read on how I'm playing.

This was one of the first hands I remember playing against him when he first came to Las Vegas from Dartmouth College. We were playing no-limit hold 'em and Chip and I were left alone. I held the Ad Jd in a raised pot.

The flop was 9d 7h 2s.

I checked and Chip checked. The next card was the Qd giving me the nut-flush draw. I checked. Chip bet and I thought he was weak so I raised. He called and the river was the 3s.

I moved in and he called me. It was a very big pot for the game we were playing and he turned over the 5d 2d. He had called me with two deuces!

He made the call because he put me on a busted flush draw and figured I had nothing. I asked him later what he would have done if a diamond had come, which would have given him a flush but me a bigger one. he told me he would have thrown his hand away. How do you handle that?

That was thirty years ago and I'm still trying to find the answer.