tilted behaviour

Although feeling good about my game and wanting to play, I decided to step back and let Heath and Josh partake in the sixth installment of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series $550 Main Event.

With a fairly weak player pool and a decent structure that normally results in a $300,000-plus prizepool, it is easily one of the best small buy-in tournaments that one should play throughout the year. Happily returning to the blogging desk however after a near six-week hiatus from the Aussie Millions, it was very good to see 623 players take to the felt over the three day one flights with 524 of these being unique entrants – ie not firing multiple shells like many of the regulars that did!

Day 1a Coverage
Day 1b Coverage
Day 1c Coverage

It was extremely surprising to see how many people punted off their stacks with ease, and consequently it drove me crazy sitting there writing these hands up as 214 players managed to sneak through to a day two berth. Heath went busto, but Josh managed to make it through meaning that a very busy Landon would have to take his seat on the blogging desk on Sunday for day two.

Heath Chick, Peter Aristidou, Nobbi Tanaka, Sean Dunwoodie, Octavian Voegele, David Morton, Haibo Chu, Kristian Lunardi, Jacob Chen, Julian Cohen, Tom Wing, Shao Liu, Michael Spilkin, Sean Keeton, Chris Barratt, Tom Grigg, David Gorr

No major hands stood out, but there was an odd occurrence during one of the flights that got my heart pumping for a moment.

Crown Director of Poker Operations Jonno Pittock grabbed me and asked if I was hungry and wanted to get some lunch. I wasn’t and kindly responded with a no, but he responded with, “well do you want to join us anyway?”

Thinking I was in trouble I decided to head upstairs with him and Christian, but alas I wasn’t in trouble but was called in to discuss the upcoming State of Origin event at the Victorian Poker Championships in late July. With so many dilemmas regarding the State of Origin – such as team selections and tournament structure – Jonno and Christian just wanted to run past some ideas they had for it, and after exchanging some thoughts for a while I happily returned to the poker room after enjoying a glass of coke on Crown’s wallet.

With day two kicking off just after midday, action flew fast and furious as people decided that a day outdoors would be better then capturing a piece of the $311,500 prizepool and preferably the $75,000 first prize.

Day 2 Coverage

Event 6: $340 Six-Handed Champion Craig Matthew became the bubble boy when his dominated ace failed to improve or chop as a happy fifty-four players were all now guaranteed some hard-earned money. Everyone however seemed to forget about the hefty money available to those that could finish on the top as eliminations continued to roll out the door as Raemin Alexander (48th), Peter Aristidou (46th), Nali Kaselias (44th), Michael Bancroft (42nd), Chris Barratt (39th), Dale Chapman (38th), Ricky Gov (35th), George Cotaidis (34th), Peter Pratis (26th), Sean Keeton (25th) and David Zhao (15th) all fell short of the final table.

With the final table being set roughly around midnight, the one aspect powering me through the long day was the fact that a mate could be heading home as the champion as Josh was still in contention for the top prize. $71,100 was the difference between tenth and first, and it was no surprise to see the word deal thrown around a few times – especially from Josh’s rail as they knew how the pay jumps were so dramatic in relation to a young uni student’s bankroll!

Eventually a deal was made with the top four extremely happy at the result after it was chopped up via chips with each player receiving roughly around $40,000. Josh busted in third when he pushed his five-big blind stack with connecters and ran into the pocket jacks of eventual champion Tien Tran.

The heads up duel was a surprising one as Tran was sitting at roughly a five-to-one disadvantage against Anthony Yarranton, but with chips flying, a double with treys and then an even bigger double with a superior flopped pair, Tran was inevitably crowned the sixth Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series Champion!

Having not played a poker championship tournament for some time, it was great to finally hit the felt for two of the upcoming Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series events.

Monday saw me take part in the $340 No Limit Holdem Terminator where each elimination saw you receive a $100 bounty on top of the normal prizepool. Although I sold a small section of my action on ChipMeUp I happily swapped 5% with Tom and Josh while Heath opted to sit out the percentage swap since he only had a small part of action courtesy of selling out on ChipMeUp.

My strategy was to play fairly tight until antes came in because the structure was pretty decent and I really didn’t want to leak unnecessary chips which may cost me in potential bounties. With a 15,000-chip starting bank, it wouldn’t be until the 150-300 level where I saw my stack soar after winning a few decent pots before flopping a set of fours and getting someone to donate their whole stack with just top pair on the turn. Several hands later after a new player limped under-the-gun, I made it 1,025 from middle position with 7♥ 5♥ and was called by a player in late position as well as the limper. I fired out 1,375 on the 10♦ 8♥ 6♠ flop with the player behind smooth-calling before the limper made it 4,000 to go. Since we were all deep – roughly having 30,000 in chips each – I decided to make the call to try and win a massive multi-way pot if I could spike my straight or hit some kind of backdoor flush.

The player from late position made the call also as the 9♠ was delivered on the turn and the under-the-gun player led for 7,000. I thought for a while before sliding in my stack of 5,000 and 1,000-denomination chips to put both players all in. Surprisingly the smooth-caller from late position made the call as the turn aggressor folded to see my made straight up against a set of sixes. Fortunately the river bricked and I was now up to roughly 85,000 with two bounties under my sleeve.

A little while later I lost a three-way pot holding A♥ K♥ against jacks and sevens after I three-bet an open to roughly 4,000 and called off another 15,000 to see a pot of 50,000 in the middle (the player holding jacks was short). I flopped a flush draw but bricked my fifteen-outer to slip back to roughly 60,000. Quite tilted, I went for a walk to try and calm my mental state so I wouldn’t proceed to stack off, and on return I pretty much folded for a few levels not managing to catch any hands or find decent three-bet or squeeze spots.

With around two tables until the money, Joe Hachem moved to the table and we exchanged some friendly banter as we normally do – with this being only the second time we’ve played together since we met in 2007. As my stack dwindled, I opened 9♥ 8♥ only to have Hachem ship it on me. I Hollywooded for a little and folded before grabbing another bounty when my A♥ 8♥ held up against a weaker ace before eventually finding a double through Hachem when I open-jammed (after shipping the hand previously) from early position with Ace-King and being in great shape against his King-Queen. I flopped an ace, and that was that, as Hachem soon exited as we were about a table from the money.

I sat with a semi-decent stack of thirty big blinds, but with short-handed play and easily the best remaining players in the tournament on the table, I found it nearly impossible to accumulate. Whether I opened light, or three-bet, nothing seemed to work, and as we got to within a few spots from the money, my stack was somehow down to just over ten big blinds. It was just leaking chips in these pots, but with the bubble taking forever, the blinds had increased three times, but when I looked down at Ace-King in the big blind, I had no other option but to ship it all in over a Ben Savage under-the-gun open. He deliberated for ages before calling with nines only to see me spike trips to knock him out and receive another button; my fifth for the tournament after taking care of another short stack.

Eventually the bubble burst and when my jacks were unable to outdraw an opponent’s kings, I was out the door in 15th place (out of 156) for a $374 payday plus a further $500 in bounties. Josh managed to make the money also, but busted just prior to me as we decided that a 5am breakfast run to Maccas was exactly what was needed to cure our bust-out tilt!

Having spiked a cash in the Terminator, it made playing the $340 Eight Game Mixed a little more easier on the pocket as Heath and Tom were also part of the 59-player field.

Funnily enough both me and Tom drew the same table and it was a fairly uneventful few levels as a small amount of chips were just transferred around the six-handed table. Finally me and Tom tangled in a 2-7 Triple Draw pot when I caught a ten-perfect on the final draw after he stood pat with a jack. He bet, I check-called, and he went on tilt although he completely understood my reasoning for making the call apart from the ridiculous pot odds that I was getting after three of us exchanged chips on every street.

That table broke, and I moved to one that featured Dale Townsend, Peter Vratsidis and Ang Italiano. With some decent double average chips, I quickly increased my stack in the No Limit Holdem orbit. Dale opened, the guy between us called, and I three-bet Q♣ J♣. Both players folded and Dale stated he folded Ace-Queen. The next hand I opened Ace-King and won the blinds, the next hand I opened Queens before Peter three-bet his blinds, I four-bet and he folded as I showed my hand before winning the blinds the next with Ace-King again … talk about a heater!

That heater would kind of continue in the Pot Limit Orbit when I was dealt A♥ A♣ 6♠ 4♠ and Dale potted with K♦ T♠ 8♣ 4♥. I re-potted, and then Dale gave the lame speech that every donk gives when they fill like issuing a bad beat. Eventually he made the call as a 8♠ 6♦ 2♣ flop fell and I shipped in what remained of my stack. Dale obviously called, and when the river landed another eight, I got another speech as I exited in 22nd place.

This Sunday I decided that I wanted to play a full MTT schedule for a whole week. My first goal was to knock back 100 tournaments over the six days I was going to be able to play, and of course try and win some money!

With the alarm set at 6:45am, I awoke everyday and grabbed some Ribena from the fridge and some fruit before taking to my desk at 7am for the hopefully long grind.

For my first transition into full-tim MTT grinding, it wasn’t too successful. I made a final two-table run in the $3.30 rebuy, and some deepish runs in the $11 rebuy, but overall here is how my week turned out.

Sunday
PokerStars – 2/7 (cashes)
Full Tilt Poker – 0/2
Absolute Poker – 0/2

Monday
PokerStars – 4/15
Full Tilt Poker – 2/17
Absolute Poker – 0/1

Tuesday
PokerStars – 2/9
Full Tilt Poker – 1/12

Wednesday
PokerStars – 0/4
Full Tilt Poker – 1/9

Thursday
PokerStars – 4/11
Full Tilt Poker – 3/12

Friday
PokerStars – 2/6
Full Tilt Poker – 1/5

Although I continued my semi-decent ITM-rate going 22/112 over the six days, I was very disappointed in not managing to make any money.

Most of my cashes came in the smaller buy-in events as the bigger events – such as the $22 (1r1a) and $26 KO multi-entry – didn’t reap much success. Overall I broke even on PokerStars and lost on Full Tilt Poker, but on the other side of things I was happy and my commitment to sticking to the grind and getting into a rhythm.

Although my bankroll took a small hit, I feel that it puts me in good shape for the upcoming few weeks when Full Tilt Poker’s miniFTOPS kicks into gear with 45 events over two-weeks alongside the sixth installment of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series. Taking the weekend off, I’ll be hitting my straps again from Monday onwards with the opening of the miniFTOPS and the big fifth anniversary edition of the Sunday Millions. Shares are available on Chip Me Up for the Sunday Millions and two $55′s as well as the upcoming JHDSS $340 Eight-Game and $340 Terminator.

If I can snatch a big score online or at the JHDSS, I’m probably going to take a shot at the upcoming ANZPT Perth or head over to the Philippines for the Asian Poker Tour. Hopefully within a few weeks time I’m in a position to choose between the two … or even take a shot at both!

It has been nearly two months since the Aussie Millions, but tournament poker has returned to the Crown Poker Room with the fourth instalment of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series.

Tournament Director Mike Tarr borrowed a line out of The Hangover and called me a “one man wolfpack” as I was covering the event solo. This did mean that I wasn’t going to be able to churn out hand upon hand like I’m accustomed too, and what made it even worse was that both my Vodafone wireless stick couldn’t get reception and the Crown wi-fi wasn’t turned on. Consequently instead of blogging from the floor, I was out in the back office on a computer that seemed to be older than me!

Day 1a
Day 1b
Day 1c

The first three days of play were what you would have expected from a $550 Main Event Repechage with many noobs testing out their tournament skills in a combination with a few people willing to gamble as they had the option to buy-in each day if they busted the one previous.

Seventeen players took advantage / played bad / got unlucky and bought in on all three day ones. Michael ‘TheBigSiCkO’ Guzzardi, Yann Pauchon, Steve Topakas and Gregory Shillig were just a few of the notables to fire out three barrels and outlay the $1,650.

From the 784 starters only 259 remained with the top 72 getting to take a piece of the prizepool home with them.

Many notables were heading into day two with James ‘Jabba’ Broom the best placed being only one of the few having over 200,000 in chips while on an interesting note all three of the previous Champions still remained with Luke Santo, Daniel Botta and Amanda De Cesare looking to replicate their previous deep runs in this event.

Day 2

Day two was fairly standard with play lasting just over twelve hours as we played down to the final table.

The bubble lasted substantially longer than expected even with a few short stacks about – and once both Paul Birman and Lee Banh simultaneously bubbled – play quickened up as we blasted through elimination after elimination.

There was some very unusual play which was mostly due to amateur-dominated field, but still some local tournament veterans in Kel Beattie (64th), Mat Hawker (59th), Dave Lee (41st), Zane Ly (36th), Mark Furniss (30th), Danny Joukhadar (29th), Andrew Demetriou (24th), Sam Korman (20th) and Paul Taylor (16th) all managed to scrap into the money before the final table of ten was set.

Final Table

In my few years of working in the poker industry I’ve only experienced a handful of short final tables but many that have nearly seen me nodding off over my computer as they tick into the wee hours of the morning.

This Final Table however lasted just 150-minutes and less than 100-hands until Sam Welch was crowned Champion and $80,050 richer!

Six players hit the rail before we had even reached our first break while the remaining four sat fairly even with Esan Tabrizi holding the slight lead. Two more fell in quick succession to put play into heads-up with Tabrizi holding a slight advantage against Sam Welch who had been sitting high on the leaderboard since late on day two.

The heads-up duel was full of check-raises and blind steals, but after fifteen minutes and only a dozen hands it would be draw versus draw as Welch made the nut-straight holding 8♠ 7♠ against Tabrizi’s J♥ 9♥ for a flush draw. No heart fell on the river and Tabrizi exited in 2nd place as Welch was crowned the Main Event Champion!

With another Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series in the bag, it was time to rest up before heading to New Zealand in eight days time.

As I drove down the highway this morning, I felt refreshed and prepared to take to the felt for Event 12: $550 Main Event of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series.

Stationed right near the bar and toilets I knew my table would break early – and thankfully it would – as I had a few aggressive cash game players along with Sam Higgs, Chris Barrett and Ivan Sop. With a deep structure to the tournament due to its 20,000-chip starting bank and 45-minute levels, I normally accumulate some easy chips early on, but in this case it was very difficult.

During the first level with blinds at 25-50 I played seven hands; winning two and fluffing the remainder with A♦ 6♦, 4♥ 4♦, 9♠ 8♠, 6♦ 4♦ and A♥ K♠ to see me finish the level with a tad over 19,300.

A few hands into the next level our table broke and I was moved about four metres across the room to join a table of what seemed like no-names apart from Karsten Kobbing and Joseph Humunicki. Unfortunately for me, Karsten would pick off a bluff from by raising me on the river. In a limped pot I checked my option holding Q♣ 5♥ to see a 5♥ J♣ 10♠ flop fall and a bet of 300 follow from Karsten as both the blinds and another player checked to him. I decided to represent two-pair and made 1,000 to go; Karsten mulled over a decision for about thirty seconds before making the call. I fired 1,700 when the K♦ fell on the turn and when the river landed a 6♣ I fired for 2,400. Karsten asked for a count and made it 5,500 to go. I toyed with moving all in, but it would have only been an additional 10,000 or so, and he probably would have made the call – later on I talked to Karsten about what he had, and he told me he floated with a pair and a backdoor straight and spade draw and got lucky on the turn; so something like K♠ 10♠ is the most likely holding.

I headed to break with a measly 13,000, but was luckily enough to chip up straight away once play resumed. A player that I had played with many times on a cash game level entered the pot with 750-chip raise, and I defended my 100-chip small blind with 8♦ 8♠. The flop fell Q♦ 10♠ 8♣ and I check-called 1,100 before both of us checked the 2♣ on the turn. The river blanked, and I was pretty sure that he had nothing more than Ace-King or something of that nature where he didn’t hit the board. Consequently I toyed with checking to see if he would bluff, but instead fired out a small bet of 1,700. About a minute later he made the call, I tabled my set, and he mucked as I raked in the pot to move to over 17,000.

Seven hands later I was moved once again – this time fifteen metres and two tables away – to join Jim Mastorakos, Stewart Allen, Eugene Poudel, Jesse Smith and Mat Hawker. Early on I raised A♠ Q♣ to 1,100 after four players limped ahead of me with only one limper – an aggressive cash game player – making the call. I flopped top two-pair and led out for 2,100 hoping to get shoved on as he only had 10k-ish in his stack. Unfortunately he quickly folded and I was back to nearly 19,000.

However I would soon hit two road blocks after Stewart made it 525 to go from early position with only Mat making the call. I bumped it to 2,100 from the cutoff with A♥ K♥, and once Stewart was out of the way, Mat made the call to see a 10♥ 2♣ 6♠ flop fall. Mat led out for 1,500 and I felt that Mat had a pocket pair like Queens or Jacks and I decided to float him with two overs and backdoor hearts. I decided not to raise, as I’m fairly certain he would come along with me. The turn landed the 7♥ and once he checked, I quickly checked behind to see a free river. Unfortunately if landed the J♦ and when Mat fired out 3,000 I quickly mucked and he flashed me a set of rivered Jacks.

The following hand Mat opened to 550 and I made the call holding J♥ J♣, and Stewart joined us also to see a 9♥ 7♥ 5♦ flop land. Stewart checked, Mat bet out 1,100, I raised to 2,600 and Stewart pushed a stack of about 30,000 into the middle. Mat quickly folded to put me with a decision for my last 11,000. I think I only beat a hand like 8♥5h or something like that, but most likely he had two-pair or could even be doing that with something stronger like a set or a straight. It took me about three minutes, but I eventually folded as we jumped into the 100-200 with a 25 ante level. I finished the level with 11,000 and during the break Stewart told us both that he had flopped two-pair in the Jacks hand.

Exactly one orbit into the fifth level the player under the gun opened to 1,100 with blinds at 150-300(25) and after Eugene called, I shipped my additional 9,000 into the pot from the small blind holding A♠ A♥. The original raiser folded and as Eugene deliberated, he said, “I think I’m ahead Tim . . . I call” and flipped over pocket Tens. However, in continuation of the way I’ve been running recently, a ten-ball landed on the flop. I turned a gutshot to the wheel, but alas I was out the door and back on the highway home!

Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series – Main Event Chip Stack Graph

Apart from the bluff I ran against Karsten, I don’t think I did too much wrong, but it just caps off a terrible weak of bad luck and close calls.

Consequently I’ve decided to take some time off playing poker until 2010 – that includes cash games, tournaments, live, online, home games, play money, everything!

Hopefully you guys will stay loyal to Tilted Behaviour as I continue to take a few minutes of your life every time I make a normally useless post!

I was hoping that today would be a long day of poker as I was playing two events . . . and boy was I right!

Arriving at Crown for the midday Event 6: $125 No Limit Holdem, I took my seat in the main side of the tournament floor grouped with some real obvious amateur players – and with a 10,000-chip starting bank and 20-minute levels – I was hoping to exploit this.

Early on I raised to 325 holding A♣ Q♠ after three players limped in for 50. One limper plus the big blind came along, and on a A♠ 10♠ 2♠ flop the big blind checked and the limper fired out 500. I made it 1,375 to prompt a fold from the big blind and a call from the limper. I really was unsure where I sat in the hand after he called the raise; maybe he had two pair or possibly Ace-King, and when he checked the 9♦ on the turn I checked behind. The river fell a repeating deuce, and I totally missed value here when he rolled over A♦ J♠.

Now up to 12,000, that would soon rocket to 20,000 after playing a fairly sizeable pot with Aces against Ace-Queen and King-Queen on a Queen-high board. I then moved up to 24,000 after eliminating a player holding A♥ Q♥ after all the money went in preflop against his 10♠ 8♠.

I went fairly card-dead and was unable to squeeze or do anything due to the limp and stack-off happy players on the table until I found a double with Ace-King against Ace-Jack with 120 players remaining. ‘Carwash’ George Cotaidis was moved to my table, and thankfully it livened things up as I had someone to exchange friendly banter with while the cards remained . . . dead!

As the structure jumps speed up, I found myself with just eight big blinds, and pushed after finding J♥ J♣ under the gun. Carwash made the call next to speak with A♦ Q♠, and when the A♥ landed on the flop I was eliminated from the tournament in 78th/257 place.

I only had an hour break before the next tournament began and decided to grab some dinner before taking my seat in Event 8: $340 No Limit Holdem Terminator.

Every player had a $100 bounty on their hand, but with a 15,000-chip starting bank and 30-minute levels you would think it would be hard to accumulate terminator buttons in the early going . . . however the action was quick and fast.

My starting table featured Vic Champs Champion Albert Amato, The Poker Star contestant Sally Snow and Steve Topakas. So right off the bat I had something to look at (Sally obviously . . . and not Steve LOL), and people to talk too.

The play early on was terribly! Players opening to 8x and getting six callers etc. Both Albert and I just looked at each other shaking our heads. I just tried to remain tight and solid early due to the loose nature of the table, but managed to chip up to 16,900 when I called a preflop raise with A♥ 8♥ and check-raised an Ace-high flop in a multi-way pot.

It wouldn’t be until the sixth level until I found a hand after a player limped for 400 and I made it 1,500 with Q♦ Q♠. A player that had been playing very loose and seeing a lot of flops then made it 5,000 from the button to put the action back on me. I only 12,700 left in my stack and was unsure of where I sat in the hand, but felt that I was ahead most of the time. I decided to ship it in, but when he rolled over Kings, I was sick to my stomach . . . well until a Queen-ball landed on the flop . . . bad play, but a bit of luck doesn’t hurt!

Then – like most tournaments of late – I decided that peddling an eight big blind stack would be great fun, and proceeded to peddle for about three hours. Paul Rochford and Nobbi Tanaka were both moved to my table with a substantial chip stack each and played with ruthless aggression. With forty-odd players remaining a player in early position shoved all in holding Ace-Queen and I made the call from the big blind with Ace-King. We both flopped an Ace and I raked in the pot only to leave him with a single 500-denomination chip as I chipped up to 52,500 – of course someone else would take his $100 bounty with some junk hand two hands later.

An orbit later I looked down at A♦ A♠ under the gun and made it 7,500 to go with blinds at 1500-3000. Albert was the only caller, and when the 2♠ 3♥ 5♠ flop fell I thought for a little before pushing out a bet of 9,500. Albert called, and when the 6♦ landed on the turn I paused for around thirty seconds before checking. Albert pushed all in, and I quickly called to be ahead of his 10♠ 10♦. The river blanked and I had soared to 106,500 in chips.

However once we were just a table away from the money, play really began to stall. Nobbi played super aggressive and three-bet anytime I opened lightly. With just twenty-five players remaining play stalled for about ninety-minutes, and that was also timed with a dead run of cards. Now with just twenty-two players remaining – and just two spots off the money – the fellow short-stack on the table pushed all in. I had 8,000 committed in the big blind and only 30,000 or so behind and decided to make the call holding 6♦ 6♠ knowing that I would be unable to limp to the money. Unfortunately he rolled over Jacks and I was unable to catch my two-outer like earlier and exited the tournament in 22nd/213 players at the ripe old time of about 5am in the morning – all just to bubble and receive no terminator buttons!

With a Twenty20 Cricket match that day, I decided to drive back to Geelong to get some rest in my own bed.

I believe that the evolution of a poker player reaches an end when they are highly skilled at all forms of the game – cash, tournament, holdem, stud games and mixed limits – and today I’m hopefully taking a step to proving to many that I am well down that road.

I’ve always enjoyed playing mixed games, with seven card stud being the first I learned when I was in Las Vegas back in 2007. However the five games that make up HORSE take more than their fair share to learn before you can think of yourself as a skilled mixed game player, but over the past six months or so I have been playing my fair share of these games online.

Consequently, with the help of some ChipMeUp backers, I took my seat in Event 4: $550 Mixed Event which plays the five games of HORSE plus No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha.

On my table I had Rob ‘JacksonTens’ Campbell, Ash Gupta and Abel Cabrera along with some players that I knew were solid. My strategy was to try and accumulate most of chips in the two holdem orbits, stay clear of big pots in Omaha and play solid in the stud games.

I added about 2,000 to my starting 20,000-chip bank in the limit holdem orbit before getting scooped in the limit Omaha orbit when my opponent caught running cards to crack my low and weak high hand. During the first orbits of the stud games there were no major hands until we hit NLH where I took a down a nice pot to make up for the chips that I had leaked during a fairly card dead stud and stud-eight orbits when I was dealt Q♣ Q♦ under the gun and opened with a raise to 750 (blinds 150-300) and after finding two callers, took down the pot with a 1,325-bet on a ten-high flop. I three-bet Abel twice with King-Queen and once we switched to PLO I had played half of the eight hands dealt and won three of them before deciding to sit out due to the aggressive nature of our table.

We hit limit holdem once again – and just like during the NLH orbit – I played half the hands only losing Ace-King to Aces before picking up a nice pot with 8♥ 6♥ on a J♦ 3♥ 7♥ J♥ 3♦ board. My next major hand came during the Stud orbit when my A♦ 4♠ / 10♦ 6♥ A♣ A♠ / 4♣ outdrew Ash’s nut-flush on sixth street to take me back to over 25,000 in chips. The table broke and I moved to be seated with Marwan Nassif, Joe Cabret, Vic Thornton and Trung Tran before being joined by Michael ‘TheBigSiCkO’ Guzzardi and Abel Cabrera once Marwan was eliminated.

I chipped up to over 32,000 when I value-bet eights and fives against a fish in Stud before going against my initial strategy of not playing PLO. With blinds at 600-1200, Guzzardi raised the button to 2,400 with 9♣ 9♦ 7♦ 6♠ and I called from the small blind with A♦ 2♦ J♣ 10♣ along with Abel defending his big blind with Q♣ Q♠ 6♣ 3♣. The flop fell down Q♦ 9♠ 6♦ and I fired out a pot bet of 7,200 before Abel announced re-pot. Guzzardi pushed his 45,000-chip stack into the pot, and after thinking for a little bit I decided to gamble and pushed my 40,000-chip stack into the middle with Abel soon to follow. Unfortunately for me, the turn landed the 10♠ and river the 5♣ to see Abel pushed a 120,000-chip pot with the next best sitting on around 80,000.

Although I put my tournament on the line with a draw, I felt that it was a decent spot to do it in, especially with the fact that it was PLO. Winning that pot would have seen me hold the chip lead, and if I continued to employ my solid strategy, I would have been a near lock to make the final table and take a crack at the $9,000 first prize.

Finishing 18th/43 was a little disappointing, but I thought I played extremely well throughout the twelve-hours of tournament poker.

After seeing my ChipMeUp shares sell out in less than two hours, I was looking forward to the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series, and putting up some big results.

Recently I had been running horrible in cash games – $1-2 and $2-3 NLH at Crown and differing limits on different sites online – but I always have faith in my tournament game not letting outside influences effect the way I play.

With a big Sunday of poker on the cards, I made my way to Crown early and picked up my ticked for Event 1: $230 No Limit Holdem. The field was capped at 500, and with a 15,000-chip starting bank and 25-minute levels it was no surprise!

My eleven-handed table looked fairly tame with only Paul Rochford a player to note. I chipped up 2,000 in the first level holding J♥ 10♠ against K♠ Q♠ on a final board of K♦ J♦ 10♣ 8♣ 4♠ and then with 5♦ 2♦ on a 5♣ 10♦ 4♠ K♦ 2♣ against the same player. I dropped around 3,400 in the next level after three-betting pre with tens and being forced to fold a paint heavy flop, then missing with a few opens before running a small bluff with a pair and a straight-draw against top-pair and a gutshot.

During the 100-200 level I played a weird hand with Paul when I called his 600-chip raise with 7♥ 7♦. We, along with another player, checked the Q♦ K♠ K♥ flop before Paul led for 1,600 when the K♦ fell on the turn. I’ve played with Paul heaps and decided to make the call knowing that I’m ahead in this spot at least 50% of the time. However, when he fired hard when the river blanked, I eventually gave up my hand slipping to 9,000 in the process.

I found some action with Queens and chipped back to over 12,000 before playing easily the most retarded hand ever recorded in poker history! I opened to 1,600 from under the gun with 3♣ 3♥ during the 300-600-50 level and found a caller in the big stack from late position. I planned to check-raise the 6♠ 5♥ 2♠ flop, but when he checked behind I decided to give up when the A♦ landed on the turn. Faced with a 2,000-chip bet, I made the call for some reason before open shoving 5,625 when the 3♠ came on the river. My opponent folded and I was back to over 14,000, but when reviewed, played every street as wrong as anyone could!

With around 300 of the 500 starters remaining in the field, the level made a big jump from 400-800-75 to 600-1200-100 – and having 11,500 at that change – it really hurts. On the first hand of the new level I shoved my short stack from the cutoff to pick up the blinds and antes before shoving one too many times a few hands later with A♦ 2♦ and running into Queens.

I busted a disappointing 280th/500, but alas, there are another four events over the week, so hopefully I can find that big result.

On a side note: Congratulations to my mate Nobbi Tanaka who ended up taking out this event and its $20,000 first prize. Great result for Nobbi who has been having a great run online recently after being picked up by the Insane Poker Crew stable.