tilted behaviour

Late last night, Heath and I decided to play the $200 Teams Event at the Victorian Poker Championships, and consequently I made the boring drive up the highway to donk off.

I arrived early to take care of some things before Heath and I decided to grab a few drinks and some food at Lagerfield. We discussed work, poker and all of the above before being joined by Kirsty, Landon and a few of his mates.

Eventually we decided to make our way downstairs to tackle the gauntlet of the teams event, with me taking the first rotation. Unfortunately the 2,500 starting stack I had received was soon chopped into half as Heath took his seat and topped up another 2,500. I would lose us some chips, he would get us a double; that was the order for the night, which funnily enough was the opposite to the way it happened when we first played a teams event together back in 2008. Nothing went right for me, and inevitably it would be Heath that would bust us when he shoved over Aces with Ace-Jack – and although flopping a Jack – failed to improve to see us bust in about 60th place of the 214 starters.

However, I spent the majority of the night when not playing discussing the upcoming State of Origin, and how it should be fixed for 2011. Consequently, here are my suggestions for how the 2011 State of Origin at the Victorian Poker Championships should be conducted.

State of Origin Committee
Over the past few years, there has always been an issue with the exact formation of each side. Justification for an inclusion or exclusion is always the biggest talking point, followed by the selection of the captain.

To make the State of Origin a premier feature event on the local poker calendar, something has to be done to ensure that the teams selected are not only fair, but also a true justification of the best in the state.

Consequently I believe a Committee should be formed that will pick the squad through mutual decision by sorting through live and online tournament results both in Australia and overseas.

The next point is exactly who should be on the Committee? Well firstly, the members that form the Committee must be unbiased and impartial to the event, and have no chance of being selected themselves. They must also have a sound knowledge of the game, and possess an even greater knowledge of the Australian pool of poker players. I don’t believe that the Committee should be too large either as this will create even more difficulty when coming to a conclusion on final teams.

My vote for who should head up this Committee? Firstly – although I may be a little bias – I would cast a vote for myself. I have yet to meet anyone with a greater knowledge of players in the country, am also independent to the event, and am at nearly every tournament around the world that would influence the team selection; whether it be an Aussie Millions, APPT, ANZPT or WSOP.

My next vote would be for Jonno Pittock who has the influence in the event, as it is in his poker room where the event is run. Finally I believe that Tony Hachem should stay involved in the Committee by the pure fact that it is his creation, but by doing so, he would have to rule himself out of possible selection to remain fair.

Selection Criteria
Obviously the toughest part of the event, I believe I have come up with a simple solution that should please everyone.

First of all Captains will pretty much remain as they are from this year, as most of them are true figureheads in their states. However it is a question of how the seven other spots should be filled, that gets everyone scratching their heads. With a Committee in place, they organise a few hours where they can sit down and discuss the teams. With the State of Origin concept being pitting the best in the state against the best in other states, then that is simply what you do. Taking live results both at home and abroad, online rankings and past form from the period of the 2010 Victorian Poker Championships to before the 2011 Victorian Poker Championships, you should be able to pick the best team.

The Committee will firstly select the six players they believe are the best in the state over the past twelve months and then provide a further four alternates. This list is then handed to the Captain who must contact each of the six players to see if they are available. If not, the first alternate will take his/her place and so on until six available members have been chosen.

As for the final spot, well that will be the Captain’s Exemption. If the captain believes that a player who missed out on the team should have actually made it, then they can be called up for that final eighth spot. They believe that they are a great player for the format of the event or were unfairly passed over, but either way, they have a chance to influence the team in a possibly winning way.

Although New South Wales have persisted with it, I believe that satellite winners shouldn’t be allowed in the State of Origin. I have no major argument for it, apart from saying that the event should be the best of the best from each state, therefore meaning that a satellite winner – regardless of how well they ran in the satellite or in the State of Origin – wouldn’t be in the best otherwise they would have already been selected. The only way this concept would work is if every team decided to have one satellite winner, but in all honesty, I don’t think this would happen.

Event Format
The Shootout format is a perfect way to run the State of Origin, but some tinkering needs to be done so that when the final table starts, it isn’t already game, set, match for a particular side.

Keeping the Shootout format points system of:

1st – 60

2nd – 50

3rd – 40

4th – 30

5th – 20

6th – 10

7th – 0

8th – 0

Like normal, you play down until there is a winner as each team is allocated the appropriate points for where they finished on each table. Each set of 10 points earns your side 10,000 tournament chips, and when you return the following day for the final table, each state will sit down with the equivalent amount of tournament chips in relation to their accrued points (ie 240 points equates to 240,000 in chips) plus the day one starting stack of 20,000 (in case a team fails to accrue any points during the shootout). Consequently when the final table begins, everybody still has a realistic chance of winning the title.

Now for the next twist. The final table will begin with the Captain playing, but at four separate occasions they will be allowed to make four substitutions. Any team member can be subbed in, and team member can play multiple times, and the subs do not have to be used if the Captain wishes so.

Not only will this format make it a little more exciting, but will also mean that for both days of the State of Origin, there is not only a crowd smothering the rail, but also every team member in attendance as they all still have an equal chance of winning.

In all honesty, none, one or all of these ideas that I’ve come up with could be utilised in the 2011 State of Origin, but only time will tell.

So many people have already contributed thoughts and ideas in relation to selection, format etc, and some are good, and some are bad. Heck, I would love to see a Stanley Cup-esque trophy with the winning team and their members engraved on it created so that the pride of crushing your opposition is more rewarding!

We will have to wait quite a while until we hear changes to the State of Origin, but hopefully those with the power to do so, take in what others have had to say on the issue that is obviously very important in our small and close-knit poker community.

After what feels like a year – but in reality is actually four months – of being on the road . . . I am finally home!

Although I do love traveling the world covering poker tournaments, degening it up and hanging out with mates; there is nothing better than coming home to not only Australia, but my home town of Geelong for some much-needed rest.

Winter is one of my favourite times of the year, and spending the majority of it in the 40 degree-plus heat in Las Vegas, it is great being welcomed home by dark clouds and heavy rain.

Too bad I’ll be back on the blogging trail soon enough with the Victorian Poker Championships just around the corner!

The land of beautiful woman, gorgeous beaches and the beloved game of soccer was the next stop on my poker calendar as an Austrian hoisted the trophy and US$247,441 first prize when he bested a 364-player field courtesy of a two-pair over two-pair cooler last hand.

With Florianopolis being the fourth stop for season three of the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) – and my first – I am delighted to write my first tournament recap from South America with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: LAPT Florianopolis.

1 – Costao do Santinho Resort (Part I): Being able to cover tournaments in exotic occasions means that you are privy to five-star hotels and fantastic resorts. With this leg of the LAPT being located on the island of Florianopolis, the Costao do Santinho was the ideal resort for the tournament with its many villas and prime beach-side location. Although the resort was somewhere Brazilians would journey to to escape the city life, in comparison to some of the places that poker players have accustomed to, it doesn’t quite fit the bill. Each room was more like an apartment with a laundry and kitchen, and was pretty average in all departments – especially the heating – which was quite a disappointment.
One of the other problems we were having was terrible internet connection. Although it allowed us to connect momentarily, it would randomly just disconnect and not allow us to re-connect at any point during the night. This was a major problem for us when we either had to do work or play online; and who knows how the poker players staying at the resort would have felt – especially since it was mid-FTOPS!

2 – Costao do Santinho Resort (Part II): The rooms may have been average, but the one aspect of the resort that was really good was that it was all-inclusive. With two restaurants located on the beach front, we could freely make our way there for a buffet breakfast or dinner, and it was completely complimentary. The breakfast wasn’t flash hot, but the dinner was what we all looked forward to as they had an Italian restaurant where – along with the standard buffet – they had freshly made pizza and pasta for you to order and have delivered to your table. It definitely made our group dinners more enjoyable as we stuffed our faces without a care for the bill.

3 – Timing: One problem that is a good thing nowadays is that the poker calendar is packed with events nearly every week in locations around the world. Understandably, especially with a tour that is PokerStars-based, is that they don’t really want tour stops overlapping with each other so that they have the maximum chance of getting a bumper field size. Unfortunately in Florianopolis, the event not only coincided with Brazil winter, but also a week-long spell of the coldest weather to grace the area in seven years. Nearly every player and media member hadn’t quite prepared adequately for the cold, and many were sporting double and even triple layers as they made their way round the resort. With Brazil being all about beautiful woman and incredible beaches – or so many do believe – why not hold this event in summer or at least not mid-winter? Not only would it attract more players, but make everybody’s trip more enjoyable regardless of their result in the tournament.

4 – Tournament Structure: Virtually all of the PokerStars.net tours following the same tournament structure of blind increases and timing, but one of the unusual aspects here in Florianopolis was the day two structure. The plan – as per the tournament guide – was that day two would see the field play down to a final 24 or as announced. At the start of play as 183 players sat down to battle it out, everyone in the tournament room knew there was no realistic chance of culling the field down to the magical three table mark. The problem is, the tournament staff decided to push for that number anyway instead of ending the night at realistic time. Consequently, with fourteen hours of play and over twelve levels, the final 36 were finally allowed to call it a night.
With only needing to make the final table of eight the following day, the day was obviously a short one, and if the tournament staff working the previous night decided to be realistic and look ahead, they would understand that they could have ended play early so that all days of the tournament were fairly even in length.

5 – Staff: Both the Costao do Santinho and LAPT staff were extremely friendly and helpful with anything that we needed. Whether it was solving internet issues, answering the most random of questions or just making life easier for us, they really did the best to make our lives easy during the stay. As mentioned in a previous blog, some of the media were idiots, but the majority of them were great; especially the ESPN Brazil and PokerStars Blog team, who often shared hands and information between the three of us.

6 – Language Barrier: Although the staff were great, we did have some language issues especially with the hotel staff. At times it was hard to communicate with them whether it be at the restaurant or generally around the resort, but we still did our best to manage. As for the tournament, we always knew that talking to players would be an issue, and at times they would go on a Spanish or Portuguese rant after we would ask their name, and all we could do was nod and smile. Occasionally people would approach Donnie and I with questions, but all we could do was say, “English. English” and they would either laugh and walk away, or speak to us in some form of the broken variety.

7 – Media Room: One of the great things the Costao do Santinho and LAPT staff did was implement a media room so that all media members that didn’t necessarily need to be on the tournament floor, had a separate room to do all their work. Not only did this reduce the clutter on the desks in the tournament room, but also meant that Donnie and I had a place to play online once the day was over, that was both warm, quiet and had a decent internet connection – all of course, in comparison to our rooms! At many tournaments you don’t often see a separate media room, but I think it is a must at some of these bigger tournaments where media is going to consist of more than just PokerNews.

8 – To Be, Or Not To Be Home Grown?: In these new tours, I like to see a local player take it down, because I always feel that it will help encourage the growth of the game in that area of the world. Especially with a place like South America, I truly felt that seeing a home grown champion would be the best thing for the LAPT. Although the numbers were on the low side, I still feel that poker is growing forward in the region, and that for a tour such as the LAPT, we have to start encouraging players that aren’t based in South or Central America to make the trip. Seeing Austrian Matthias Habernig capture the title will hopefully encourage other Europeans to satellite into the LAPT and make the long journey across the globe to potentially make their mark in South America!

With my first LAPT in the bag, it is time to journey back to Las Vegas momentarily before venturing back home.

Next stop . . . the Victorian Poker Championships in Melbourne!

The sun had finally decided to make a strong showing, and about time as we took to the final day of the PokerStars.net LAPT Florianopolis Main Event!

The Costao de Santinho, in conjunction with the LAPT and PokerStars, did a fantastic job of structurally organising the make-shift tournament room so that it felt both accommodating for the players and media, but also like a real poker room. On one side of the room was a huge stage that housed the feature table where filming had been taking place over the past couple of days, as well as throughout the duration of the Final Table.

Unfortunately for us media members, we weren’t allowed up on stage like many other tournaments, and although it didn’t bother some of the other media sites, it meant that our PokerNews coverage was going to be jeopardised in the way our followers had become accustomed to; such as quality photos and detailed hands. When you throw in the Spanish-speaking, but uber-yummy Eva Mendes lookalike Costa Rican announcer (who was actually one of our PokerNews’ reporters sister), we knew it was going to be a frustrating day.

We were told that all the important hands would be repeated in English, but when perfectionists such as Donnie and I are working, we like to put in as many hands as possible – but unfortunately it wasn’t to be on this occasion!

Four and a half hours would be all that Matthias Habernig needed to hoist the trophy high in the air as he became the first Austrian LAPT Champion. It was a fairly dull final table, but I wrote the full recap for PokerNews, and it can be found here; PokerStars.net LAPT Florianopolis Day 4: Habernig Rides Chip Lead to Victory.

Trophy, Final Table, The Crowd, Rudy Blondeau, Miguel Velasco, Chips, Matthias Habernig, Dayan Vardanega, Matthias Habernig, Robson Vinicious Kozan

With only twenty-eight eliminations needed until we reached a final table, Day 3 of the PokerStars.net LAPT Florianopolis Main Event was always going to be short and sweet for the penultimate day of a tournament.

After a 20-minute delay to proceedings, there was a flurry of eliminations as Matthias Habernig captured the lead to be back in a similar position to the one he was in for the majority of the first two days. The action really started to get interesting when there was only sixteen remaining as players began to see how serious the event was, and consequently began taking an eternity to act on each decision. After moving all in, they would stand up and start to pray, before eventually collecting the pot and flashing whatever they risked their tournament life with. It was unbelievable the amount of times they would show their cards – virtually every hand!

Inevitably after six levels of play and nearly thirty eliminations, the final table would be set with Habernig amassing a stack amounting to nearly half the chips in play and four-times the amount of his closest rival.

Jorge Pereira, Alessandra Correa Dos Santos, Miguel Velasco, Jorge Arias, Matthias Habernig, Paulo Rink, Engelberth Steve Varela Moreno, Marco Caicedo Jaramillo, Matthias Habernig, Richard Gui, Andre Sa, Homero Ribeiro, Rudy Blondeau

Returning for Day 2 action of the PokerStars.net LAPT Florianopolis Main Event, we were always going to be in for a long day with the 183 returning players expected to play down to just 24!

The prizepool was announced with R$1,624,200 – or approximately US$923,892 – being spread amongst the final forty-eight players with whoever could sit atop after four days of poker earning R$435,000 or US$247,441.

Action was fast and furious in the early going as players continuously made their way to the rail as only 54 players managed to make it to the dinner break. On return, one table only featured one player, and although he could only pick up a few rounds of blinds and antes, it underlined the laid-back nature of Brazilians. We quickly found ourselves on the bubble with the short-stacked Wallacy Marcal attracting all the attention with his diminishing, and barely two big-blind stack. Marcal doubled, then tripled, before sneaking into the money when Alexandre Fracari’s Jacks were outdrawn on the flop.

A few more eliminations fell before play was paused for the night after twelve levels with Canadian Rudy Blondeau leading the final thirty-six; all ensured a guaranteed US$4,619 payday.

For the first time in nearly I year I had the job of writing the PokerNews wrap on the website; PokerStars.net LAPT Florianopolis Day 2: Blondeau in Control.

Mario Masciotro, Cinthia Escobar, Matthias Habernig, Wallacy Marcal, Claudio Baptista, Felipe Ramos, Andre Luiz Scaff, Chips, Veronica Dabul, Rudy Blondeau, Carolina Costa, Leo Fernandez, Angel Guillen, Dan Frank, Guillermo Montero, Rodrigo Sirichuk

It is always fun working a tournament in a place where you have never been, but with that tingling excitement of being somewhere new comes plenty of obstacles to stand in your way.

Walking into the Costao do Santinho, and the subsequent ballroom where the tournament was being housed, the first concern Donnie and I had was where to sit. With two long desks next to each other, we decided to take the one closer to the action to allow easy access to the floor, however this prime location would be ruined . . . but more on that later.

After some internet issues were resolved and the opening posts were written, I went for a stroll around the hotel. I found a lobby-esque store and purchased some gum and mints to satisfy our fondness for fresh breath. On return to the desk I found two Brazilian media guys seated within a few centimetres of my laptop. Why would I be annoyed at this? Well instead of basically sitting in my lap there were five other seats vacant on the opposite side of the desk, but instead had chosen to cramp up the right hand corner.

Obviously annoyed, I shot a look at Donnie which blatantly read if these guys don’t move I’m probably going to punch them in the face! Regardless of the amount of times I tripped on their bags, or slide their computer over when they weren’t there or even plonked the camera in between us, they never budged.

Oh well, we had a tournament to cover with the inaugural PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour Florianopolis Main Event kicking off!

One of the major issues that became apparent once the cards hit the air was the language barrier. We spoke English while the majority of the field spoke Spanish or Portuguese and about half a dozen English words. But like the professionals we are, we battled through as the 364-starting field was reduced to just 183.

A handful of PokerStars.net Team Pros bite the dust including Andre Akkari, Alexandre Gomes, Christian de Leon, Gualter Salles, Humberto Brenes, reigning World Champion Joe Cada and two-time back-to-back LAPT Champion Jose Ignacio Barbero. However, it would be Austrian Matthias Habernig that would lead the field that still included Felipe Ramos, Angel Guillen, Brandon Demes and Veronica Dabul.

As for Donnie and I . . . the end of the night would see us grab some dinner and tackle a bout of online tournaments and cash games!

Starting table, Matthias Habernig, Maridu Mayrinck, Angel Guillen, Leo Fernandez, Joe Cada, Dan Frank, Felipe Ramos, Jose Barbero, Andre Akkari, Chips

What a day!

That’s about the best way to describe the day I’ve experienced on my way to Florianopolis, Brazil!

Starting early this morning in Las Vegas off just a few hours sleep, I packed a few last things before GG dropped Donnie and I off at the airport just before 11am. We checked in, and grabbed some lunch before boarding our flight to Houston, Texas.

Having only a couple of hours, we didn’t get much time for anything, although Donnie managed to bust out an article for PokerNews while I charged my laptop and iTouch while waiting. Eventually once we were on the plane, we both gave a few of the games a work out before tucking into a Terriyaki Chicken and Rice dinner before we both hit the hay for several hours.

With about four hours or so remaining in the ten-hour trip to Rio de Janiero, I grumpily awoke and decided to stretch my legs out before flicking on some TV to try and force myself back to sleep. Eventually it worked, only to be woken up by breakfast, as we sat tight for the last hour of our flight as the sun began to shine through our windows.

Once we touched down in Rio de Janiero, the wait in the immigration line was an agonisingly long one as we both were in need of the little boys room. Fortunately no questions were asked and we proceeded through to pick up our bags – all while realising that our Visas would allow us a return for the 2014 World Cup!

Although our flight to our final destination of Florianopolis was slightly delayed, we still managed to arrive at our hotel – Costao do Santinho – after a fifty-minute cab ride from the airport.

The one thing that surprised us the most was how unbelievably cold it was! Not just Brazil or Las Vegas cold . . . but extremely cold . . . around the 5 degree mark as we both instantly made our ways to the room to have a hot shower and don some more weather-appropriate clothing.

With food and services free, we made our way down to the buffet located on the beach and tucked into a C+ lunch, before returning to our rooms; Donnie to grind online, while I hit the hay for my sixth nap of the journey.

Waking up to loud bangs on the door from Donnie at around 6:30pm, I forced myself out of bed to dress – this time with two jumpers on – before heading back to the beachfront to meet up with everyone else at the bar.

Donnie and I found a games room which housed some old video games and repair-needed table tennis tables before finding a warm room allocated for cards. We took a seat inside to warm up and played a few hands of Chinese before finding everyone at the bar.

Dinner was another buffet – this time thankfully located at another restaurant – and was rather enjoyable with freshly cooked-to-order pasta as well as pizza being delivered by-the-slice to your table by one of the waitresses. Although unsure on many of the choices on offer, we all still had a relatively enjoyable dinner before Lynn and Sarah started to organise the disaster.

Firstly a penalty shootout between Joe Cada and Andre Akkari, before a USA vs Brazil soccer match!

Akkari easily won the shootout before Cada, along with his manager Dan and myself, formed Team USA, while Akkari, Gualter Salles and Marcello formed Team Brazil as our cameraman Will stood in as mutual goalie.

Although we had a perfectly adequate futsal stadium just below the real pitch, the lighting was fairly terrible, and consequently we decided to play a half-pitch style game of first-to-three with the temperature easily dropping below 0!

Team Brazil went ahead early 2-0 before I received a cross from Cada from the left-side to set me directly in front about two metres out. This shot has never been a strong point of mine – and although I made solid contact with the cross – it angled just to the right of the goal. A few minutes later I dribbled the ball to the right side of the goal and wound up with a big swing, but yet again, perfect connection and inaccuracy didn’t fair well as Will made a good save before Brazil went on to win 3-0!

It was actually quite fun to run round and play soccer in Brazil, although none of us were wearing the appropriate clothing or shoes, on a pitch that was soft and rain-ridden. Words and a few pictures probably really doesn’t do the night justice, so here is the PokerNews video for all of you to laugh at!

A few of the others went to the bar, while Donnie and I returned to the room to enjoy the over-worked heaters while he played online and I brought to you the randomness of what a day of travelling can bring you!