In an exclusive Run It Once Q&A session hosted on February 3, Tom Dwan revealed that his long-held beliefs about one of the most famous poker hands ever played – his stone-cold bluff against Phil Ivey in Season 6 of High Stakes Poker – differ dramatically from the narrative widely prescribed to by the poker community.
In a pot that ballooned to $676,900, Dwan fired three streets with a complete airball bluff against Ivey's ace-high flush draw. On the river, Ivey connected with a measly pair of sixes, but was faced with a chunky six-figure bet from Dwan.
Dwan: 
Ivey: 
Board: 
You can catch the full hand in the video below.
Speaking with Dwan, Run It Once's Mikey Stotz raised the subject of the hand – in particular, the perceived credit Ivey has received for the hand over the years. While Ivey eventually folded the winner, some have praised him for even considering a call in the spot (rightfully so, in this writer's mind).
Stotz appears to feel the praise is undue.
"Yeah, he thought a while, but he folded," Stotz said. "Everyone's like, 'Oh, Ivey smelled something, he knew something was up,' but ultimately he folded!"
Dwan then admitted that for many years he thought Ivey was posturing on the river – Hollywood-ing, as its known in the poker world – with no intention of calling the bet.
Instead, Dwan went on to say, he thought Ivey might have even been debating an all-in re-bluff.
'These streets were Ivey's, the live streets'
"I used to always think he was full of sh*t. I now have slightly weakened my opinion, only in the last two years or something. I had always thought he was just thinking of shoving – because his hand is a reasonable hand to shove," Dwan said. "And I don't think it's wrong that he might have smelled something, like he might have thought I was bluffing way more than normal.
"I still don't think he was... because I could easily be bluffing with some hands that have a pair."
If we follow the conversation here, it's somewhat plausible to assume that Dwan would have finished the first half of that thought with: 'going to call.'
Ivey had the entire world convinced he was thinking about a call, but not Dwan. They knew each other too well on the felt for that.
Phil Ivey has long been renowned for his live reads at the table and cuts an intimidating figure on the felt. Dwan went on to detail his relationship with Ivey on the felt at the time, offering his thoughts on who had the better of the other when it came to live reads.
"Sometimes Ivey would have reads on me, sometimes I would have them on him," he continued. "A lot of times, especially live, I think he was getting more than I was on him, but it was maybe 60/40, not 70/30. There were definitely times I was taxing him. I still think, in his prime, he was the best at live reads I've ever seen... so I think he probably had something on me in that hand. I kind of knew that these streets were Ivey's, the live streets. I thought I knew some of the math and frequency stuff a bit better, and I think I had a pretty good balance.
"I think there were times when he went with his reads a little too much, right? A hand that GTO Wizard would say is a close fold, he would call if he had a read. This kind of spot would have been pretty ridiculous. My suspicion is he was like, 'F**k. What do I do now? I'm probably getting bluffed on TV. F**king Tom, f**k you.'"
Dwan also clued listeners in to his dynamic with Ivey when it came to the really big pots.
"You know, that would have been like a thousand big blind pot. Ivey and I played each other a lot, we wouldn't try to Hollywood each other if we're shoving over 80 big blinds. We would occasionally Hollywood if it's 500 or 1,000 big blinds, you just gotta. Because the reality is you need to think longer."
Watch the full video above for more.
