tilted behaviour

After two tough days previously, it was great to be back to a normal eight hour day on the floor.

Main Event Day 1b coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Main Event Day 1b coverage (PokerNews browser)

The night previously I was asked by Jai Kemp and Joel Dodds if they could be reported on under the name of Grant Levy. The reason behind it was that another Grant Levy – not the APPT Sydney Champion one – was the overnight chip leader in the ANZPT opening event before finishing third to create a wave of confusion amongst avid tournament followers. Consequently Jai and Joel thought it would be funny to take the piss on Grant, while also sending a pregnant wife into hysteria at the prospect of several Grant Levy’s in the chip counts.

Tim Horan, Ali Khalil and Dean Nyberg also jumped on the Grant Levy bandwagon and I assigned them all a number so as to distinguish them from one another. When writing up some of the hands that they were involved in, I attempt to portray an image of the person so that the ‘Grant Levy’ code could be broken.

Ali Khalil
Grant Levy5 opened to 400 from early position and was called by a player from the small blind.

Levy5 just shrugged his shoulders and collected the pot once his opponent folded.

Tim Horan
Twirling chips in one hand while staring blankly at the board, Levy6 took his allotted time before folding his hand.

Dean Nyberg
Grant Levy4 has had a fairly tough day so far.

Levy4 however – through some convincing – would like to give a shout out to his Mum back home who has bought countless of litres of Farmers Union Iced Coffee for him to keep him powering through those online sessions.

Joel Dodds
Grant Levy2 opened under the gun to 1,500 only to be shoved on from the button by an opponent for his last 21,500.

The board ran out 10♠ 6♣ 3♥ 5♣ Q♣to see Levy2′s Kings cracked to slip to 18,000 in chips.

All the Grant Levy’s ended up busting apart from Joel – who after the above mentioned hit – finished the day on over 48,000. The story of the day however would be the fact that Tony Hachem sat fifth in the counts to be in great shape at collecting his seventh cash from eight starts on the ANZPT.

Jonathan Karamalikis, Jai Kemp, Grant Levy, Stewart Scott, Yann Pauchon, Dan Sing, Andrew Meldrum, Van Marcus, Sally Snow, Jeff Lisandro, Ali Khalil, Tyron Krost, Jackie Glazier, Tony Hachem, Adam Monaghan

With the day wrapped up, me and Yann decided to head out to dinner somewhere, and after bumping into Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan and Adam Monaghan (who also bagged chips) we all decided to have a joint dinner somewhere around Darling Harbour.

Finding a quiet place where some other poker players had also taken a liking to we all ordered dinner and discussed everything poker.

Afterwards Yann met up some mates while the three of us headed to the poker room where Wonky and Adam decided to stake me in the $5-5 NLH game with an 80/20 deal in their favour. They shipped me two buy-ins – or $1,000 – and told me just one thing . . . WIN!

My first major hand came when I three-bet a hi-jack raise of $20 to $65 from the button holding A♠ 10♣. My continuation bet of $90 on the Q♣ J♣ 7♠ was met with a re-raise to $220 and I smacked myself in the head for betting a flop that nearly always hits his range before folding.

I topped up and about an hour later of holding King-rag, Queen-rag and the occasional weak Ace, I over-limped holding A♥ 3♥ to see a flop of 5♥ 4♥ 2♥ flop fall . . . yep that’s right . . . the STEEL WHEEL!

All seven players in the hand checked to see the 6♣ land on the turn and after three checks to me, I bet out $15 and was lucky to get a call from one of the fishy players on the table. The river fell the 7♠ and I was stuck in a spot of not really knowing what to deal. Eventually I decided with an overbet amounting to $150, and was lucky enough to get a call to see me push back to even.

On one of my final hands I raised to $35 after a limper holding Q♠ Q♣ and was called by an opponent on the button before the big blind tossed out a $100-denomination chip saying raise. The dealer however – although the player was in seat one – didn’t hear him and marked it as a call before dropping the 9♦ 7♠ 2♣ flop. The big blind fired out $100 and I opted with a raise to $275. The button passed and the big blind went into the tank muttering stuff to himself before folding his K♦ K♠ face up! I showed my Queens and the conversation afterwards revolved around the fact that because I was starring at the board so intently, he figured that I had flopped two pair. Phew!

I ended the night up only $49 after spewing some money to Ali Khalil and some other players on the table, and Wonky and Adam were kindly enough to let me keep the small profit instead of taking a cut as we ended our session at around 2am.

Personally one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in relation to poker is when I rock up for a day two or three or even a final table and get to rip open a bag full of chips before the start of play.

After bagging 47,300 in chips on Friday I rocked up on Sunday for day two of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series Main Event to see if I could outlast the 343 players remaining and take home the $100,000 first prize.

My starting table wasn’t that bad as I knew how a few of the players played and was broken down as follows:
Seat 1: Karib Karib – 87,200
Seat 2: David ‘leewah’ Lee – 109,900
Seat 3: Craig Mischel – 47,900
Seat 4: Dean ‘Dinhjo’ Nyberg – 167,900
Seat 5: Robyn Ivankovich – 26,100
Seat 6: Tim Duckworth – 47,300
Seat 7: Antonio Cercone – 39,100
Seat 8: Brian Hull – 25,200
Seat 9: Jai Thomas – 64,000
Seat 10: Carone Guiseppe – 18,300

Having position on Dean Nyberg was fantastic as I knew he would play aggressive against me under the perception that I was a nit – therefore I was going to play back at him as lightly and as often as possible.

Play started like a tournament for me – I opened 4♠ 5♠ to 3,000 from under the gun at blinds of 600-1200 with a 200 ante and found two callers. I folded to a 3,500 bet on the flop of A♦ 3♠ 10♦ and was on the back foot early. Exactly an orbit later I would open to 3,000 with K♠ Q♠ and find three callers. I led out for 11,500 on a flop of K♦ 9♣ Q♦ and was met with an immediate all in. With everyone else passing I called the additional two thousand to be up against A♦ 10♦; and luckily for me the board bricked out and I was up to 63,600 before closing out the level with just under 65,000.

First hand into the 800-1600 with 200 ante level I doubled a guy up when I opened to 4,000 and called the all in of an additional 6,600 with A♦ 4♦ to be up against J♠ J♣. I turned a counterfeit draw but missed and was down to 53,800. I then played my first pot against Dean when he opened to 4,000 from the button and I put in a re-raise to 11,000 with my K♠ 8♠ to prompt an immediate fold – I was intent on not letting him push me round, and this was the first step to doing so. I was check-raised over my continuation bets twice to see me finish on a disappointing 34,000 for the level as we headed on our first break.

As I slumped down to an ante under the 30,000-chip mark I found a double-up through Dean after he opened to 5,000 at the 1000-2000 with 300 ante level. I pushed from the button with K♣ J♣ and Dean made the call tabling treys (on a side note the dealer mis-dealt a 3♣, but apparently Dean didn’t notice). I flopped a King and that would be all as I jumped back to 64,700, and ended the level on slightly over that after again three-betting Dean out of the blinds with Q♠ Q♦ to pick up some chips that I had lost in blinds and antes.

I would take care of my second opponent for the day when I opened to 6,000 with Q♠ Q♣ with blinds at 1200-2400 and a 400 ante. As it folded round to Karib Karib in the small blind he put in a re-raise to 20,000 and after the big blind passed I shipped it in with Karib making the call for his tournament life holding A♦ 9♠. The flop dropped a nine, but the Q♦ on the turn would end things as I sent Karib to the rail and surged up to 108,000 in chips.

The following level at 1500-3000 with a 500 ante I made it 10,000 to go from the cutoff with 10♠ 10♦ – which was yet another live mis-click as I thought the blinds were 2000-4000. Anyway I was re-raised all in for 46,500 total – and normally would fold my ten’s here, but this player had been playing fairly aggressive so I thought we were racing or had him at 80/20 and made the call. Bad read! He tabled aces and they held as I slipped to 41,000. I stole the blinds and antes the next hand and slowly grinded back to over 60,000 in chips with some further steals and all in manoeuvres.

As my good friend Luke McLean took a seat on my immediate left and posted the big blind as we moved into the 2000-4000 with 500 ante level I was dealt A♦ K♦ in the small blind. Ronnie Shabtay made it 16,000 to go and with it folding round to me I moved all in for 56,000 putting Shabtay into the tank. After over two minutes he made the call for his tournament life with sixes and the board would fall eight-high and I would be left crippled with 12,000. Two hands later I would wake up with K♥ J♣ in the cutoff but would be unable to out-run the power of the 10♥ 8♥ with the board running out Q♣ J♥ 3♥ 7♣ 6♥ to see me exit the tournament and find my way back to the blogging desk to work the remainder of the tournament.

Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series – Main Event Chip Stack Graph

Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick would go on to finish 25th for a $3,000 payday and take a giant lead in The Race To 10k as I would left to ponder “what if?” as Ronnie Shabtay would go on to finish third for $45,000.

All-in-all I was fairly happy with how I played throughout the Main Event and other events during the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series and took some satisfaction in my 143rd placing out of the 898 total runners which place me in the top 16% of the field (too bad it wasn’t a further 6%!).

There were a few points during the tournament where I wish I was able to capitalise and accumulate more chips so I would have had a better chance of cashing and making the final table – and therefore the origins of the below graph extend from.

Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series – Main Event Chip Stack Graph