I watched the 2005 ME replay tonight since the Heat game got pushed back an hour. So Steve & Joey get heads up, the infamous 37o vs A3 hand. Hachem leads out for 2 million on the turn, Dannenman says 3 more. Hachem says 'Stop', puts his hand up in front of Dannenman, says's he's all in, and gives a VERY obvious nod to Steve. Steve calls quickly after. They both laugh it off like they just played a solid $5 HU SNG online or something. Good game boys, 3 million dollar call with a pair of aces, 3 kicker on a straight flop......

The head nob Hachem gives is pretty flagrant in my opinion, pretty much telling Steve he has it & it's time to dump. Maybe I'm wrong & Hachem was trying to tell him he had the cards & Steve was just too dumb to fold. isuck123 made a post that he has personal knowledge that there was NO deal. Maybe there wasn't, but whatever the case, this was not 2 people playing like there was 3 million dollars on the line. See Tex Barch if you want to know what a stone faced player would have done in that situation. Sure they were tired, exhausted & ready to be done, but when there is 300 lbs. of $100 bills on a table next to you, I'm sure it feels pretty real.

references:

There was NO DEAL between Hachem and Dannenmann:PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE
by isuck123 on 11/16/2005 16:26
http://www.pocketfives.com/DA900ECB-...9EB9CF547.aspx

Anyone think Hachem / Dannenman made a deal at the final table?
by iGotYourNutz on 11/16/2005 13:29
http://www.pocketfives.com/AAAF35F2-...AE2367BDA.aspx

There was no deal.
That is, of course, unless Dannenman lied to both me and more importantly, to his atTORNEY

hachem went to the ausy supreme court to try and not pay taxes on the 7.5 mill....and they ruled in his favor saying that he was a recreational player at the time and that he didnt have to pay any taxes on it.....kinda insinuates that there was no deal, other wise hed be getting fucked it he only won 5 mill and had to pay taxes on the whole 7.5......and danneman totally thought his hand was the nuts............

Or maybe he made the deal in private with danneman and they split the non taxed money.

You never know if they made a deal. And yes..it is very possible he lied to his lawyer...

this has been mumbled about for a while, bmac didnt just come up with it today.
i have no more info than anyone else here, but something didnt seem right to me about how this thing ended.

I don't know more about it than anyone else, but even if there was a deal I doubt it would include them giving someone the win like you suggest. By Hachem getting the win I would assume he has made atleast 2x as much in endorsments, so if your saying Daneman gave him the win, then he better gotten a hell of a deal from Hachem, i. e. more than 1st place money.

bmac, now you're sounding like 2GunsUp and his completely moronic 9/11 conspiracy theories.

ya he def agreed to pay taxes on 7.5 before he had any idea that hewould have to pay taxes...oh and they probly made the deal like 13months after the fact right;...hahahha get a fucking clue.....u dontmake a deal and then hope u dont have to pay taxes on an extra 2mil....cmon get some common sense...obv no deal in effect..."oh theyprobly split the extra oney after they didnt have to pay the taxes" ihope ur not this ignorant, if so, please please please find me at thetables...ohhhhh please!!!!!!!!! nice try nathan

All of your evidence is, at best, circumstantial.

And then you accuse Dannenman of money laundering. Good one.

I don't think there was a deal made at all. If there was, there would be no reason not to announce it. Hachem had no idea that he was gonna get off tax free in Australia, so if he made a deal, he might as well have made it public so that if he did get taxed huge - 47%, he'd save himself almost 750k. I know that being the champion and all that has it's advantages, and nobody wants any soft play, but for 3.4 a million, I think he'd come right out and say it. Moneymaker was the first to come out and say he offered Farha a deal, and Farha was the 2nd.

isuck mentioned he knew something that most others don't know. Obviously, if his firm is serving Dannenman, he does know a lot - but the part where Steve said to Joe, "you're a better play lets get it over with" isn't any sort of secret. Dannenman did an article on ESPN about why he didn't quit his day job after taking home 1.2 mil (half of 4.5, after taxes) and that he told Joe that he was a better player and would RESPECT the bracelet more. He even said lets get it over with in 5 hands.

Obviously, Dannenman would have liked to win, but he didn't mind losing either. He says in the article that his only regret was not raising more PF. When Joe CR'd him, then moved in on the turn, he said he actually figured Joe for 2 pair, but figured he still had outs and it was his best chance to double up. As for the whole head nodd and all that, there was the exact similiar scenario but reversed earlier in the tournament. Hachem held AK of diamonds, Steve pocket 9's, and the board came 9105 with 2 diamonds, and Steve put Hachem all-in, and basically told him to fold his hand.

On top of all that, I had a buddy who was at the final table, had been there all day, called me the minute the Matusow hand happened. He said after Barch got knocked out, they brought the money and the bracelet onto the table, Dannenman talked to his possie for a minute, Hachem to his, when they were about ready to deal the cards, they shook hands at the middle of the table, (this is where Dannenman must have said lets get it over in 5 hands), and they finished the tournament. There was no bathroom break or anything like that, and they spent maybe 1 min talking to eachother. If you were gonna make a deal with that much money at stake, I think you'd need more than a minute to consider everything.

Finally, why would Hachem make a deal? He had a huge chip lead, the momentum, and more plain desire than Dannenman. I think Dannenman was honestly just really happy to be where he was, as he could have been knocked out in much earlier position at the FT against Steve Black.

Hachem is a player who had enough skills to play for a living, and now a bankroll. Dannenman is a good player, but probably couldn't do it for a living. The best player won, it was what everyone expected, just because it didn't go 100 hands and another 3 hours, doesn't mean anything at all, except it was time.

Is it possible that Poker stars paid off Dannenman so they could say a player from their site won?

Hachem bought in with his own money, and only got the stars deal after he won, much like danneman probably would have. For all those that think Danneman was a far inferior player I couldn't disagree with you more. I thought they had very similar styles, just vastly differant personalities. I think you guys are buying into Danneman's "awww shucks I'm just happy to be here and have no clue what I'm doing" routine a little too much.

i am not really sure what to think, i really think that a deal was probably not made, just b/c i dont know if hachem would deal with a guy like dannenman. that being said that last hand never seemed right to me and when i saw it yesterday i was kinda suspicious, then i came on here and saw these posts. either way it doesnt really matter cuz none of us will really ever know the truth.

you guys are all saying 'NO DEAL" and then going on to say that Dannemann conceded victory. THAT IS A DEAL,. DO YOU GUYS NOT GET THAT??!!!?!?!