level?

do you fold QQ less than 100 bb deep? do you set mine with stacks that shallow? if you said no to both of those questions, then what do you have left?
once you get to 4, 5, 6 bets, unless stacks are really deep, its very common to raise small because stack sizes are smaller relative to the pot.

nothing but mad respect for this kid

Cheong played masterfully. One fatal misstep. It was like he thought he was invincible- he refused to lose a pot or get outplayed. When you're as talented as he is, you can say goodbye to the 14 million in the pot and take your 75 million or so and look for a better spot. Perhaps he was thinkin too much of putting ICM pressure on with Racener being so short, but he eventually had to consider the hands in this situation. But oh well, much easier being a spectator. Subiime is the man. Great showing.

Quite the difference- Cheong six bets shoves w/ Ace rag.
Duhamel tanks with Ace rag for 11 bb sb vs. bb.

He could have A7o?
Duhamel got exactly what he wanted. Cheong was pushing him around all night, Duhamel finally woke up with a hand and out played Choung for 90% of his stack.
The way Choung was controling the table he sould have known he would be played back at and he should have found a better spot.
Balls of steel but a blow up imo.

I can only imagine the hate if it were Joe Cada who had done the same with A7 last year.

I havent watched it but before I do why does everyone dislike Duhamel?

This. Cheong played so great and came so damn far, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I read about that hand. He could've taked it down so easily when he would've looked for a better spot. Also, Racener was dead money, so he should've taken him down first.

I mean I can understand the 4bet from him, at first it looked like a defend from Duhamel because he was pushing him around all the time already. But after the 5-bet it should've been a snapfold. Cheong was too much into winning every pot possible.

I really feel bad for cheong... but a player that goes out like he did after playing so beautifully only has himself to blame. Cheong was the class of that final table no doubt, I am hoping he will come back and play as well as he did in the future.

Cheong was and is a class act and someone who these children that play poker should look up to. Joseph Cheong.... you ARE a champion!

I dont think everyone dislikes him, but he continually sucked out his entire main event. he lucky stars were aligned for him this series for sure.

I see. And everyone is identifying with the fellows who gets it in good.

probably because 1) he was the massive chip leader and noone likes rooting for the favorite 2) he sucked out on matt affleck

3) He runned super lucky and like a god. He was almost dead already when it was around ITM, but got lucky a few times, and in the end he had some monster to monster confrontations where he had the better monster. And on top of that ofc. the matt affleck suckout.

Btw. if Candio would've been in Cheongs position, everyone (including me) would have obv. shouting and laughing about him beeing the greatest donk in history, and the final table will ever see. Now that one of the greatest players makes a bad move, and it was clearly one, they try to somehow legitimate it.

Almost every misplayed hand can be somehow legitimatet with proper argumentation. I just remember the Isildur Blowup in an EPT Event or what it was, where everyone tried to legitimate his blowup.

It was a misstep that costed him the tournament win, but I can't really blame him after playing a >14 hour session, you can't play 100% perfectly throughout the whole tourney.

Reverse the hands and this thread would be 20+ pages making from of Duhamel. Cheong made a stupid move and cost himself alot of money and probably a bracelet in the Main Event. Spin it anyway you want it was a dumb move, period. Biggest blowup
in Main Event history. I have no clue what Hellmuth said about it, I was asleep long before it happened but it probably wasn't enough. Any other tournament in the world but you brain fart that bad in the Main Event? Duhamel played it perfect, he let Cheong trap himself thinking he was bullet proof. Pull that hoodie up tight and slink out, you blew it big time.

I think he outsmarted himself. He pounded Duhamel for several hands in a row right before his blow up hand, and probably felt like he was invincible. It would be interesting to see what would have happened if Duhamel had of played back at him even a little more in the previous few hands hands. It might have altered Cheong's thinking completely and taken him out of god mode.

I'ved like Cheong from the start, and Duhamel is a really nice guy and a good player, but unless he gets a hand or suck out, contrary to Cheong, he will not rake in any chips

Big fan from what I've seen from the televised episodes + live final table. I don't fault him for the A7 hand, it's what got him that far in the tournament anyway, trusting his read.

It's a shame though, he could've crushed Duhamel and Racener had it played out differently.

Don't think Duhamel is getting enough credit, sure he had more than a fair share of winners where he should have been felted or at least crippled along the way. All of these huge MTTs require getting alot of luck to make it to the end.
Duhamel played great near the bubble, really taking advantage of those trying to squeek into the FT, and has mixed up his game and tightened up and got more patient at just the right times.
I came into this not really thinking much of Duhamel but I think he's got a great game, and although he doesn't seem too engaging to the others at the table, he's not being disrespectful, just seems very focused. Don't know what was said between him & Afleck when Afleck came back in to shake hands, but Afleck didn't have anything bad to say so I assume he showed some class there.
The whole FT (even a quieter Candio) was a very classy lineup and one of the best ever IMO.

I don't even see how this is bad. Duhamel got pushed around, maybe got tired of it and i am sure there are some hands that he might be 5-bet bluffing with. And considering he could be spazzing himself and getting it in with worst then A6o. And A6 has some blockers to AA and AK.

Really the best player at the table, shame it had to end it that way. I was so rooting for the Ace to spike.

Cheong did blow up, but i think i understand his line here.

When Duhamel 3 bet to 6.75, Cheong thought that Duhamel was trying to win it here, and would not want to risk a big stack confrontation since Racener as short as he was. When Duhamel was 5 bet small, he must have used the same logic, convinced himself that Duhamel was not pot committed, and would not risk his tournament at this point without a huge hand. Duhamel knew that Cheong was aggressive enough to try this, and his small 5 bet was the perfect size to lure Cheong into making this move.

Condiser what happens if Cheong makes a larger 4 bet???

Duhamel's 5 bet was min bet +1mil. Say Cheong 4 bets it to 18 mil. Then the min bet +1mil would be 31mil. Cheong could easily fold to a Duhamel raise, as he knows Duhamel is pot committed with +35% of his chips in the pot. He polarizes Duhamel's range, making him fold his bluffs, and pot commit himself with all his strong hands. Cheong can now get away from a shove and only have dropped his chip lead a little. Cheong 78mil, Duhamel 106mil, Racener 30mil. Still think Cheong can win from this spot, too bad he got all in and lost instead.

Good thought, it would've been a really large 4bet and it would've looked weird, but like you said, Duhamel needs to pot comit or fold in this spot then, so it would've been an easy fold for him.

But I think Cheong could even folded to his 3bet already, I mean he had enough chips and made several moves before within a short time, there's really no need to exaggerate, when there is Racener as dead money!

Yeah. Cada would definitely have sucked out though.

I think Cheong got a little too caught up in winning pots and was probably slightly tilted. I think this play was spewy because he knew that he had a postlop edge on everyone at the table, it was very obvious and that's probably why he refused to fold to 3bets (called a 3bet OOP with 64s for example). So I don't understand why he tried to make big plays pre flop, especially since duhamel has been reluctant to fold to.. anything.

I guess there are reasons to do this since it's a ridiculously strong move, but I don't think duhamel is folding anything he 5bets with, no matter how strong cheong's shove looks.

Some of you make it seem like Duhamel did nothing during the final table and Cheong was the only one who was active.

I've looked at the number of pots won, and I've counted 51 win for Cheong and 47 for Duhamel. Duhamel was also aggressive. They had won the same number of hands before hand #200. Then Cheong started winning more, but by hand #219 he was out... Maybe he should have slowed down and stopped trying to win every battle.

I think Cheong played great, but please... don't make it seem like he won everything without cards and everyone else just waited for hands.

Look I give the guy all the respect in the world for being a maniac and thinking he could get a fold there, but when you've been 3 and 4 betting all day when a guy finally 5 bets you for the first time in 13 hours you should probably not shove.

He could have played small ball poker and likely coasted at least into heads up and make 2.5 million more, just an awful move and certainly not +ev

he was way towards the top of his 4-bet range imo

The story is supposed to be Duhamel. He found the sequence with AA against Grinder. He found the sequence with QQ against Cheong. He didn't have any major loss of discipline that any of us can point to.

Cheong cracked. When his priority was supposed to be Racener, he lost his cool.