Poker Articles

By Lenny | Published Sep 28 2006, 01:29 PM
HB HITMAN has a long-running rivalry with his good friend Bigriskky, so when Bigriskky completed 2/3 of the Triple Crown a couple weeks ago, HB knew he had to get cracking or fall behind. He has recently expanded his play to a number of new sites in search of good Multi-table tournaments, so it was a natural expansion to start shooting for the crown.

Lenny: What were the three tournaments you won last week?

HB HITMAN: I won the Wednesday Full Tilt $163 for 8k, the Monday Pokerroom $108 for 5.2k, and the Party Super Monday for 28,889.

Lenny: When did you start to think you could complete the Triple Crown?

HB HITMAN: Honestly, after I won the tournament on Full Tilt I started to think it was achievable. I have never done well there before, so that was a big boost for me. I took a couple days off and then entered a lot of tourneys on Sunday without much success. I decided to put in a full day on Monday and see if I could get the 2nd leg out of the way. The pokerroom $108 was the first tourney I entered.

I was really excited to win on Pokerroom because it is another site that is new to me.  After the win on PR I was pretty sure I could pull off the Triple Crown because I still could count a win on party poker, which is by far my favorite site. Plus they have so many 10k+ tourneys.  I got some chips early in the Super, which usually enables me to go deep. I started thinking I had a shot to win it when we got down to about 30 and I had a good stack. I told one of my friends that it would be sick to win the TC by taking down the super. Obviously he agreed and pretty much railed me for the last 3 hours of the tourney.

When we got down to 3 players I was in 3rd and the chip leader offered a chip count
chop but I wasn't really interested. He was trying to get 29k when we were three handed. The second place guy wanted to do the deal but I told the chip leader. "You have a chip edge, talent-wise you are behind." That might be the single greatest thing I've ever said to anyone in the chat box. So I nixed the deal because I definitely wanted to take a shot at first and the TC. The second hand after we called off the chop I reraised the chip leader all in with AJ and he called me with KJ. Ace high held up and now I was chip leader. Two hands later he was knocked out by the other player and that’s when I decided to chop with the chip advantage. I received 28,889 and the Triple Crown was complete!

Lenny: Some people have been saying the Triple Crown is too easy, what do you think?

HB HITMAN: Well, I disagree. It is not easy maneuvering through a field of anywhere from 200 - 1000 players. You have to dodge a lot of traps and bad beats and certainly you have to get lucky once or twice. On top of that you have to do it 3 times in a week! I really enjoyed going for the Triple Crown. It definitely motivated me to play my best and I am stoked to be getting some recognition from some of the top ranked players out there.

Lenny: Do you play full time?

HB HITMAN: I have been playing full time since April and have been doing really well.
I've had more success than I could have imagined.  I got my start playing single tables on Party Poker and was very happy pulling in a few hundred a week while attending Central Washington University. I majored in Public Relations and I like to say I minored in Poker. Certainly right now poker is my passion. My hope is that down the road I am able to use the income from poker to open a bar/restaurant. I love watching sports and hanging
out with people, what better place to do that than in your own bar? And yes, drinks will be discounted for all Pocketfivers!

Lenny: Congrats, sir. I look forward to when you can pour me a beer across your very own bar.

HB HITMAN is a talented young player and I am sure that he loves the fact that he beat his buddy Bigriskky to the Triple Crown. Now he just has to win a WSOP bracelet!



HB HITMAN at the World Series.