The Forgotten Lucky Joe Hachem Hand

I’m watching the Joe Hachem narroration of the 2005 final table on ESPN right now.  I always like the narroratives as it gives you a great look into what the player was thinking in each hand.  I think Hachem is a strong player, but he really makes himself look bad talking about one hand.  I had forgotten about it until I watched it today.  In the hand in question, Hachem calls the blind with Qd7d.  He says that he had made his mind up at this point that if Aaron Kantner makes a move on him, he’s pushing.  Kanter does in fact raise and Hachem moves all-in which Kanter calls with pocket 9s.

Hachem had this description:  “When he calls and I see pocket 9s I feel sick because I think it’s not a good call in my opinion.  I played like I had something… unless he had a great read on me.”

Ok first of all, Hachem wasn’t that short stacked at the time.  Like Dannenmann said, he had enough chips left to wait.  So why get crazy at the WSOP final table and act blindly?  Second of all, this is Aaron Kantner.  I give him credit for advancing deep into the tournament but from what I’ve seen on tv, he looked like he was riding one hell of a hot streak.  He out-drew and out-rivered a ton of people to make it as long as he did.  That’s an tell-tell sign you’re not playing good poker if you’re constantly behind.  So if you think the happy go lucky Aaron Kantner is going to lay down pocket 9s 4 handed, you’re delusional.  Third, pocket 9s is a strong hand in this situtation.  Sixth best hand in poker with four players in the game.  Kantner did exactly what he should have done.  He raised and then he protected his investment by calling Hachem’s all-in.  Hachem had nothing and was lucky to catch the Q (as he admitted).

I really don’t like when poker players start slanting everything.  Hachem is very good, but here he just made a very poor play and got lucky.  You need a ton of luck to win the mammoth of all tourneys so I’m not begrudging him for bad beating someone.  I’m just saying don’t try to put the onus on someone else because you made a horrible play.  Hachem is complaining that Kantner called him when he should be mad at himself for risking a WSOP championship on Q7 suited.