Why do poker players sometimes try and get insurance and often lay the opponent ...

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Izaak

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Better odds? I take phil hellmuth as a prime example. He very often wants to get insurance on his hands but he always seems to give his opponents the edge.. Why?!?!?
 
BelgoSuisse

BelgoSuisse

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Hellmuth is in the entertainment business. Discussing insurance makes for good TV time. I doubt he does that when there are no cameras around.
 
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ClubArrow77

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Players like Phil and Mike who often take insurance think they always run worse than everyone else. They do sometimes get sick hands where they are a huge favorite and the opponent just happens to hit the hand they need to take the pot

In this hand, Helmuth has floped trips w/ top kicker against opponents KK and has the opponent committed all in. They run the hand 4 times and despite Helmuth being 85% to 15% favorite, only won 1 out of 4 times. See it here:
 
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