When I Was A Donk – Asher Conniff

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

Asher Conniff broke out on the poker scene in a big way back in early 2015 when he won the $560 buy-in $1 million guarantee event at the Borgata Spring Poker Open. A couple of weeks later, he had plans to go on vacation with his family, but instead he accidently registered for and won a satellite into the $15,000 buy-in WPT Championship.
With no choice but to play in the event or lose his buy-in, the Brooklyn native won the tournament, along with the $973,683 first-place prize. The 28 year old is now a regular on the tournament circuit and has amassed more than $1.6 million in earnings.
Here, Conniff recalls a hand where he punted a big stack deep in a tournament.
Well, I can confirm that I haven’t been playing perfect poker for all of my career, so I should have something I can share with your readers. I remember my first deep tournament run, in a tournament that mattered, at the 2012 Parx Casino Big Stax series.
It was the start of day 3 and there were about 20 players left from a huge field. There was something like six-figures for the winner and I had an above-average stack with 60 big blinds. It was one of the first hands of the day and this young kid, who is now a friend of mine, three-bet me after I opened with pocket fours from middle position.
I ended up having a bit of a senior moment, and for some reason, I was over it. I got it in my head that I wasn’t going to let this kid push me around. So, I moved all in and, of course, he snap called with pocket kings. Even though I could have coasted to the final table, I busted in 19th.
The money was good at the time, but all I could think about was the first-place money that I left out there just because I let one player get in my head. I got nervous and my normal brain function just stopped. I would never do something like that today, and I think that’s because of all of the experience I’ve accumulated over the years. ♠