In heads up play, hand values are much closer together than most people realize. My guess is that Dannenmann overvalued having an Ace in his hand. Most people seem to think that having an Ace heads up is golden. It is true that an A3o is a 56/44 favorite over a random hand, but that’s not a huge lead. It turns out that he was ahead of the 73o by a lot, but that’s just because the accidental domination of the 3. He was a 74/27 favorite against the actual 73o hand, but had Hachem had a 74o instead it would have been only 58/42.

In any event, once Hachem flopped a straight, with a flop of 4d 5d 6h it was pretty much all over for Dannenmann. Most of the money went in on the flop and the rest of it went in on the Turn when Dannenmann added a pair of Aces to his straight draw. Of course the pair did nothing to improve his chances of winning but he didn’t know that.

When the chips went in, Dannenmann didn’t have much of a chance; the 4c on the River sealed it. Hachem took the money and his year of fame.