tilted behaviour

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