Troy Bilt push mower starts hard then dies

Hello,
I am having trouble starting my Troy Bilt push mower with a Honda GCV160 engine on it. It was working perfectly fine until one day I flipped it up so the deck was perpendicular to the ground to clean the blade. Once I put the mower back to its regular position the engine would no longer start correctly. Now when I pull the cord it will fire up, spit a bunch of smoke out of the exhaust and then slowly die. Once this happens a few times the mower will no longer start up till I let it sit for an extended period of time.

I have drained the gas and cleaned the carburetor but am still facing the same problems. Does anybody have any thoughts?

I tried to attach a video of the mower but my file size is too big so it wouldn't let me. I can send the video to anybody that would like to see it.

Something to check is the air filter. That rectangular air filter used on those engines is very sensitive to water, gas or oil contamination. If the filter gets wet it seems to clog permanently. So may changing the air filter.

Did you take the jets out of The carb and clean them?
Steve's small engine saloon has a very good detailed video on gcv160 carbs.
Called How To Clean Honda Style carbs.

Which way did you tip the mower, left , right or up.
I try very hard to get my customers to trip the handles then tip the mowers up from the front.
That way the oil can not get into the carb or muffler.
Even better, most mowers will stand upright on the rear catcher all by them selves & the ones that don't you pop an old battry on the handles to keep them up.
Better than average chance there is oil in the carb
Remove the drain bolt from the carb & turn the fuel on.
See if it comes out clean.

And as already mentioned if there is oil on the filter, replace it.
The honda ones ( blue or green paper ) are a finer mesh than the Briggs ones ( white paper ).
While this is good for protecting the engine , they clog very easily and choke off the engine.