Behind The Scenes At The Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series

Well the dust has settled, the chips have been put back away, the war is over and the battle has been won.
 
The battle in question of course is the 2009 Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series. The winner of said battle was of course Daniel Botta who walked away from Monday’s final table a very cool $100,000 richer and as always you were kept up to date with every minute of the action by the PokerNetwork Live Reporting Team.
 
But what happened when the cards were put away for the night? Poker of course is a professional sport so like all other professional sportsmen did players go back to their respective hotel rooms in order to get a good night’s sleep and a nutritious breakfast in before they went back to work? Or did the players try to prove that poker players were a far superior being to every other type of sporting athlete in the country by showing that the poker player’s body can survive on no sleep, copious amounts of alcohol and a diet existing solely of cheeseburgers and kebabs?
 
When I was asked to write a behind the scenes view of the JHDSS I jumped at the opportunity, now however, as I get halfway down the page I am a little more hesitant. How on earth can you write a gossip column about a poker tournament without turning the Federal Police onto each party involved? I mean come on guys, this isn’t Year 9, it isn’t two kids sneaking around the back of the toilet block to pash (although that did happen) and it isn’t the cool kids smuggling illegal liquid into the camp site to get everyone completely hammered (although that did happen too). These are adults doing adult type things and even though, yes I can tell you that Monica Nguyen did definitely destroy my laptop by pouring beer all over it and while yes I can tell you that Jonathan “xMONSTERxDONGx” Karamalikis is an excellent photographer especially after slurping down 13 wet pussies (the drink- don’t get too excited) that is the only piece of news I would be able to tell you about either one of these two people, that is it.
 
There were plenty of other amazing things that I saw when I was there; I would have to include Ali “Peppermint Hippo” Khalil and his unique ability to make $100 notes disappear at strip clubs and other such classy establishments in Melbourne.
 
Grant “Grunter” Levy may not have enjoyed his actual tournament play; however he showed that to be a professional poker player you don’t have to actually be good at poker, you just need to take sports bets against delusional Bulldogs fans and take as much prop betting action as you can off people from Western Australia. The frustrating thing about this one is that Levy made more money in one afternoon of prop betting than I would make by writing an article like this one 100 times... way to pick the right career Joey!
 
There were nights out at trendy Melbourne Clubs... places like “Eve” and “The Vatican” I am sure that there are heaps of stories from these places but I can’t really tell you because well... If you were going to a trendy night club like that would you invite me?
 
A final piece of interest that I found over the week was that of fellow PokerNetwork reporter Tim “The Duck” Duckworth. It has been clearly documented by all, including Duckworth himself that he cannot play poker, not even a little bit, but this has never seemed to bother him and I found out why for the first time on this trip. Duckworth is probably the best $1 a point Chinese Poker grinder I have ever seen. I was into him for as much as $6 at one point. The guy has an innate ability to draw the best 13 cards in the deck. I know that it may seem farfetched to you however but if you look at our sister site chinesepokernetwork.com you will see that Duckworth is the real deal.
 
This has been JoeyDel at the 2009 Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series for www.PokerNetwork.com. Stay tuned for more wacky adventures both on and off the casino floor when we bring you all of the action live from the Sydney ANZPT in just a few weeks time.