Winning a Triple Crown is a feat in itself. Winning a Triple Crown in 24 hours shall now be coined a “Big Huni.” PocketFiver Chris Big Huni Hunichen captured a coveted title by taking down three $10,000 or higher prize pool tournaments across three different online poker sites within the same seven day period. He started the accolade off in a big way, winning the $55 rebuy on PokerStars for $17,000. The same night, he earned a victory in another rebuy tournament, the $30 installment on Full Tilt Poker, for $7,700. The very next day, he captured a win in a $30 rebuy on UltimateBet for $2,900 and, more importantly, a Triple Crown title. So what does it take to win a Big Huni?In February, Hunichen took down the $300 buy-in $90,000 Guaranteed on Full Tilt for $40,000. In April, he final tabled the Sunday Warm-Up for $10,000 and followed those impressive performances up with a 24 hour Triple Crown. Hunichen told PocketFives.com, “It was pretty a good day. I had been on a bit of a downswing, so the 24 hour Triple Crown really helped out and brought a lot of confidence back.” On the second day of his Triple Crown quest, Hunichen also managed to win the $50 rebuy on Full Tilt Poker for another $6,000 and finish second in the $120 buy-in Sniper $40,000 Guaranteed on Ultimate Bet for $6,100.
We asked Hunichen to evaluate the tournaments that qualified for the new avatar in his profile. He explained, “The $50 rebuy on Stars was definitely the most challenging. It was a big field with tough players. The $30 rebuy on Full Tilt is a difficult tournament to win because of the field size and level of competition. The $30 rebuy on Ultimate Bet is super soft and I think is probably one of the easiest tournaments on any of the major sites.” In the first 19 days of May, Hunichen has piled up $74,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings.
As you can probably tell from reading this article, Hunichen is at home in rebuy tournaments. Besides just pushing with any two cards and then rebuying if the end result doesn’t work out, Hunichen explained his success, “By shoving mediocre hands, people start thinking that you are a bad player. When I pick up a big hand, I just shove it in and people will call me because they’ve seen me do it with eight and nine high. It’s a profitable strategy, but you have to be able to manage your bankroll.” He added that fellow PocketFiver Matt mattg1983 Graham, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder and former Triple Crown winner, currently backs him.Rebuy tournaments will become but a distant memory at the 2009 WSOP, which kicks off in just a few days from the Rio in fabulous Las Vegas. Like other PocketFivers we’ve talked to, Hunichen believes the ability to buy a bracelet is a bit overstated: “I think it gives an advantage to those with a bankroll big enough to just keep dumping buy-ins, but at the same time, I don't think it’s much of an edge. If players are not rolled properly to have eight buy-ins, they should not be in the tournament in the first place.” Michael worldsgrtest Banducci was among those who took down rebuy events during the 2008 WSOP. Mike Matusow, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Layne Flack, and Maxwell Greenwood won other rebuy events.
Hunichen started playing poker during his freshman year of college, competing on PartyPoker and PokerRoom (the latter of which has since transferred its players to bwin). He had been playing professionally for about four months before latching onto Graham and Carter ckingusc King (pictured at right), who began backing him. Hunichen recalled, “I discussed hand histories and talked strategy with them a lot. They really helped me develop into a better player. I still have blowups from time to time, but that comes with the territory.” In February, he logged his two largest scores at the time, which quickly propelled him into the poker spotlight.With Graham and King, Hunichen had access to two of the most heralded online poker players in the game. King told PocketFives.com, “I think he's a great player who works really hard on his game and puts in excellent volume. His success and Triple Crown are no surprise.” On Graham, who defeated “Survivor: China” castaway Jean-Robert Bellande in a $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em Shootout during last year’s WSOP, Hunichen remarked, “He is a very disciplined player and has helped me fix a lot of leaks. He has already helped me in so many ways and I look forward to continuing to improve my game and win a bunch of money.”
Check out the full list of PocketFives.com Triple Crown winners.
