Crown Poker

Today was the first of the larger buy-in events of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series 2 with 96 players entering Event #9 - $1,100 No Limit Holdem 6-Handed, creating a nice $96,000 prize pool. Some big names arrived in town, with Grant Levy and Jarrad Graham amongst the starters, which also included the likes of Michael Guzzardi, Tino Lechich, Billy Argyros, Andrew Demetriou, Billy Seri, Jimmy Siu, Nobbi Tanaka, Emad Tahtouh, Vincent Wan, Sam Youssef and Joe Hachem who was an early casualty.

In the end it was a battle between Antonis Kambouroglou and Jarred Graham who went heads up for the title. Graham captured another live title when his ace-king held up against Kambouroglou’s ace-queen, taking home $26,000 and the championship trophy.

Meanwhile the evening shift saw players partake in another mixed game, this time it was Event #10 - $340 Pot Limit Holdem/Omaha. Players started with 10,000 in chips and rotated between Omaha and Holdem during each of the 25 minute levels. The event didn’t wrap up until the early hours of the morning, with Crown local Steve Topakas cementing his place with victory in this event.  

Event #9 Results | Event #10 Results

Day 10 – Tuesday 17 March 2009

Today brought about two events with Event #11 - $1,100 Pot Limit Omaha with one optional rebuy and Event #12 - $550 Teams Event.

31 runners turned out for Event #11’s midday start with Tino Lechich, Jason Gray, Billy Argyros, Lee Nelson and Joe Hachem being just a few of the notables in this world-class field.

A prize pool of $58,000 brought about fast, intense play with a 10,000 Start Bank and one optional rebuy. Graeme Putt, James Obst and Sam Youssef all fell short of the final table. Jamie Pickering, Lee Nelson, Tom Di Pasquale and Grant Levy slipped into the money, with Julian Powell taking home the $22,500 first place prize.

The sun set to see 106 teams fill the Crown Poker Room for the $550 Teams Event, with a 15,000 Start Bank and a slow structure, play was suited for the tournament savvy teams of Trung Tran and Nobbi Tanaka, Danny Mountt and Bruno Portaro, Andrew Oataway and Martin Harvey, Sean Callender and Dennis Huntly and Stephen Topakas and James Potter to top things off. Antonio Casale, Andrew Jeffreys, Julius Colman and Tony Hachem all took part; but it was Bong Vonksykeo and Tuan Hoang taking the number one spot and the $15,105 first prize.

Event #11 Results | Event #12 Results

The Crown Poker Room was buzzing with the best of Australia’s poker talent present for Event #13 - $1,650 Joe Hachem Shorthanded Shootout, and 60 of the best took to the felt. Some tables started seven-handed while some got away with six-handed play as the top two from each table progressed through to round two.

While players enjoyed a generous 25,000 start bank, the 20 minute levels were always going to put pressure on the players to keep moving chips. Sam Khouiss had an early exit, quickly joined on the rail by Michael Guttman and Antonis Kambouroglou, as the action was thick and fast.

Jonathan Karamalikis emerged as an early chip leader, a position he held for most of the day, after eliminating Kambouroglou and the tournament’s name-sake Joe Hachem. Aleks Brkovic, Sam Korman, Ali Khalil, Lee Nelson and Billy Argyros progressed well and found their way into round two while young guns James Obst, Jarred Graham and Dean Nyberg were amongst the round one casualties. Grant Levy fell just short of round two after busting in unfortunate circumstances to Andrew Jeffreys.

18 players remained for Round Two action, with six to make the final table. Ali Khalil was amongst the first to fall, soon joined by Graeme Putt as his pocket queens were cracked by Andrew Jeffreys. Jeffreys continued to push the action and booked himself a final table seat alongside Chris Chronis.

A costly misread by Lee Nelson sent him crashing out of the tournament after he thought he’d turned the nut flush, only to discover his ace was a club and not a spade. Karamalikis was the benefactor as his pocket jacks scooped the pot to send him on his way to the final table. As Karamalikis continued to accumulate, Daniel Neilson fell to Manny Stavropolous as he claimed the other seat from the feature table.

Meanwhile Sam Korman was on a rush on his own table, claiming the scalps of Jamie Pickering, Billy Argyros and Emad Tahtouh. He found his way to the final table with a healthy chip stack as Bill Jordanou finished off Aleks Brkovic to book the last seat in the final.

A dominant performance by Karamalikis today saw him jump to an early chip lead and he never looked back. He eliminated all five final table opponents and won himself a nice $32,400 first place prize.

Event #13 Results

It was an action packed Day 1A for the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series Main Event with almost a quarter of the 330 players eliminated before the end of level four! There were plenty of big names who took part today with a lot of casualties from the group of Australia’s elite. The man that this is all about, Joe Hachem, and his brother Tony, were eliminated, along with Grant Levy, Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros, Emad Tahtouh, and online sensations James Obst and Michael Guzzardi.

Not all pros bowed out though. Online players Dean Nyberg and Jarred Graham lasted throughout the day as did Australian sporting icon Shane Warne.

The main event wasn’t the only event on today, with Event #14 - $2,700 High Stakes Holdem. After 88 of the nation’s best players roughed the grueling 15 hours of poker, it was Monica Nguyen from Sydney who was crowned champion, earning herself a $64,000 pay day.

Event #14 Results

Day 13 – Friday 20 March 2009

Day 1B of the Main Event saw a huge field with 375 starters, which when combined with flight 1A, pushed the total unique entrants to over 700. 

The notable players were out in force highlighted by young guns Jonathan Karamalikis, Ben Delaney, Tim Horan, Trung Tran, Raemin Alexander, Tim Duckworth and the newest JHDSS title winner, poker vixen Monica Nguyen.

In the end it was Peter Longmore who claimed the unofficial end of day chip lead as around 160 players survived to make it through to Day 2 action on Sunday.

Day 14 – Saturday 21 March 2009

Today was Main Event Day 1 Repechage for all the players that busted out on day 1A and 1B.

Day 1C was a day played with caution, unlike the loose aggressive play witnessed in the first two Day 1’s. The 193 players who stepped up to the plate for a second attempt were reluctant to bust again. 75 players such as Dennis Huntly, Bill Jordanou, Tim Horan, Graeme Putt, Monica Nguyen and tournament name sake Joe Hachem all weaved their way through the field to join the rest of the field for Day 2.

Day 15 – Sunday 22 March 2009

The official entry number for the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series 2 Main Event sits at 898, with 343 players making it through to Day 2.

Eliminations were slow early on with everyone eyeing the final table but in the end only ten players would get there. They will be headed by chip leader Daniel Botta who is sitting on 3,165,000. 

There were a lot of big name players who made it through to day two and most of them were humbled throughout the day. Internet pros Jonathan Karamalikis, Ben Delaney and Michael Guzzardi were early casualties while fellow online players Dean Nyberg and Jason Graham lasted long enough to make it to the cash, they didn’t last long enough to make the coveted final table that they were so desperately looking for. Lee Nelson busted out shy of the bubble, with Shane Warne, Tony Hachem, his brother Joe, and Graeme Putt all falling short of the final ten.

The Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series has been run and won for another year. The Main Event saw 898 entrants in the field which generated a total prize pool of $449,000. The final table saw ten players battle it out for the first prize of a cool $100,000.

It didn’t take long for the action to get underway on the final table. John Lombardo was active early, taking out the first causality Mark Bruin in 10th place with $5,000. Chris Christofi was next to go in 9th place after running his pocket nines into David St. Eloi’s pocket queens.

It was Daniel Botta who knocked Jakson Laughton in 8th place for $9,000 when the board fell his way with trip queens. It was David St Eloi who wasn’t afraid to try his hand, but that soon came to an end at the hands of Daniel Botta who made a full house eliminating St. Eloi in 7th place collecting $12,000.

Greg Shillig played a consistent game throughout the Main Event but his luck ran out after the board did him no justice giving Higgs a running straight and ending Shillig’s run in 4th place with a bad beat story and $30,000. Ronnie Shabtay was the next to go in 3rd place with $45,000, after his pocket fives were between by Daniel Botta’s trip sevens.

Botta continued his aggressive play while in heads up with Sam Higgs, eventually stealing the title to become the winner of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series 2 taking home the trophy and $100,000 for his impressive play. Higgs collected $64,000 for a fine runner up finish.

Main Event Results

Links:

Week One Wrap-Up | Photo Gallery | PokerNetwork Live Reporting