Double Double
by Court on 10.03.08, 12:30 am
As heads up play goes on, the trend so far has been for John Juanda to chip away and then for Stanislav Alekhin to get a big double up. Juanda started the heads up play with a decent chip lead and was able to add to it until he had enough to take a shot at Alekhin and even if he lost be back where he started heads up play.
That scenario played out when the two got all in preflop with Alekhin’s AQ dominating Juanda’s A2. 
The AQ was good enough for a double up that brought Juanda back down to around 4.4 million chips while doubling Stanislav back up to 2.8 million.
The next double up was more costly for Juanda though, and turned the tables on the chip counts. From the button Juanda raised to 100k (blinds 25k/50k) and Alekhim made it 300k to go. Juanda called and on the T
7
5 flop Stanislav led for 350k. After taking a while to make a decision Juanda moved all in and Alekhin called. Juanda had flopped top pair with his Q
T but Alekhin was sitting on an overpair with pocket jacks. The jacks made a set on the river to end any hopes of a suckout for Juanda and put Alekhin (left) back in the chip lead with 4.6 million chips to Juanda’s 2.6 million
Back to the grind as the night wears on. After the double double for Alekhin, he stayed hot
and won a majority of the next ten hands, small to medium small pots, but enough of them to eat away at Juanda.
That made it John’s turn to get the double up, and he did. Juanda made it 100k from the small blind and Stanislav raised to 300k. Juanda called and the flop came TT4 making the action and flop eerily similar to one of Alekhin’s earlier double ups. Stanislav led for 400k and Juanda wasted no time making the call. With the 2 on the turn Stanislav put Juanda to the test with an all in bet, but there was no question for Juanda who immediately called with flopped trips, holding the AT
. Alekhin again had pocket jacks, but this time there was no jack on the turn for him and Juanda (right) was able to double through to even things up.
Both players are now in the mid 3 million chip range. Juanda finished the hand with roughly 3.4 million while Alekhin lost the all in but still has a slight chip lead with 3.8 million chips.
