Along with his impressive reading ability in the WSOPE, Daniel also had an uncanny ability to crack pocket aces. Funnily enough, both times his opponents made trip aces but they were still no match for Daniel's favorite type of hands.

His two unlucky opponents were good friends of his, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius. Because both players were huge chip leaders and were splashing a lot of chips around and with Daniel being relatively short stacked, Daniel was able to apply what he called an online short stack strategy.

In the first hand Daniel limps from early position with 7d 8d and Gus raises from middle position with As Ad. Daniel makes the call which brings the pot to 17,400. The flop is an interesting one, 2d Ac 3d giving Gus top set and Daniel a flush draw. Daniel checks to Gus who very casually checks behind. The turn is the 9d completing the flush and Daniel bets 9,600 and after looking at his cards like he might fold them, Gus makes the call. On the Qs river Daniel bets 25,000 and Gus reluctantly calls stating ‘Anybody else in the world and I would raise.' Daniel looks shocked when he sees Gus's hand claiming he feels like he is missing some money. A great display by Gus on how not to overplay your hand.

Daniel was soon back in action against Patrik Antonius. With blinds at 1200/2400, Daniel opened the pot for 5,000 in early position with the 5s 3s. Patrik then raised to 18,000 from the blinds with As Ac. Folded back to Daniel who studied the stone like Antonius before making the call. The pot contained almost 40,000 at this point with Daniel having little over double that amount left. The flop came 2c 5d 4d and Patrik lead out for 31,000. Daniel moves his cards, stacks his chips and slides them into the middle. Patrik insta-calls and is a 70% favorite to win the hand. Both laugh at the confrontation while the 10s turn gives Dan no help. However, the Ad on the river gives Daniel a straight. Daniel punches the air while Patrik punches the table.

Daniel said afterwards that both hands were funny because both times the players made 3 Aces. Im pretty certain Gus and Patrik would not have found it that amusing.