tilted behaviour

I’ve already touched on The Race To 10k, but I think it would be a better idea if I actually elaborate on exactly what it is.

The Race To 10k is a race between two PokerNews bloggers; Heath Chick (Tassie Devil) and myself (thkcduckworth), to see who can reach AUD$10,000 in tournament earnings the quickest.

Both being on the tournament trail as bloggers, it is good motivation to try and find some tournament success . . . in between . . . writing on others tournament success!

So here is what is at stake:
- First to $10,000 = $250
- Reaching a final table = $25
- Most earnings at major tournaments = $100

Conditions:
- Timeline is from 1/1/09 to 31/12/09
- If not successful, no $250 payment is made
- Final table payouts accrue, and are paid out at closing of bet regardless of outcome
- All live tournaments count
- Only $22+ online tournaments count
- Satellites and packages do not count
- Major tournaments account for major championships plus WSOP only
- Swaps do not count, but deals do
- Online final tables and results must be screenshot and posted here
- Final table bonus only counts if NLH with 50-plus entrants, or mixed with 30-plus entrants
- Any result in non-Australian currency is converted to AUD at time of collect

For all the major updates either check Tassie Devil Poker, Tilted Behaviour or Facebook: The Race To 10k.

After Heath collected US$600 in Manila at the APT Head Hunter event, I followed it with a 3rd in the SkyCity Championships PLO Event. Since then however Heath has piled on results (which can be viewed at Facebook: The Race To 10k) to take the current standings to:

thkcduckworth: $2,970
Tassie Devil: $2,092.08

*no final table bonuses achieved as yet

Even though I hold a lead; and maybe a slight edge in tournament poker, Heath has a great opportunity to surpass me and set his own lead as we approach the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series through his online grind.

With the JHDSS not starting till March 8th, there may even be a chance that he ends the race before I even take a second crack!

Stay tuned to Facebook: The Race To 10k, Tassie Devil Poker and Tilted Behaviour for all the action and updates!

So the inaugural ANZPT Adelaide event is now all wrapped up with Melbournian Karl Krautschneider taking home the $170,000 first prize after flushing out my mate Tony Dunst in second holding 7♣ 8♣.

However, I’m not going to bore you with a re-cap of each day and the overall tournament, but rather provide you with something new . . . The Eight Points of Enlightenment: ANZPT Adelaide.

1 – Great Food Service: The SkyCity Poker Zone had the best food service of any casino I’ve been to. Wedges, Roasts, Toasted Sandwiches, Nachos – you name it and they pretty much have. Also it’s fairly cheap ranging from $5 to $12 and gets delivered fairly quickly.

2 – Chip Difficulties: On day 1b they changed the colour of the 1,000-chips due to lack of numbers, and once both days merged they changed the others. Late on day 2 they also changed out all the 5,000-chips as they looked too similar to the 10,000-chips. This way not seem like a major issue, but combined with how out-dated they are it reflects badly on the city that gave birth to Australian poker.

3 – Affordable Side Events: Looking at the proposed Sydney schedule it seems this is going to be a regular feature in the preliminary events of ANZPT’s. It can be viewed as a negative aspect of the tournament but I think it can still generate decent prizepools, and with the economic slump, it helps in keeping the numbers up at an event that could really see Australian poker boom over the next few years.

4 – Cash Games and Rake: The cash games the SkyCity Poker Zone spread weren’t too flash with a $2-3NLH game at $60 to $180 buy-in which to me (and many others) seemed stupid, especially when you factor in the higher than average rake. There was never a high-stakes game (which would easily be filled) or mixed game and I only saw the occasional limit game spread.

5 – $50 Squeeze Baccarat: Being such a baccarat degen, finding out that SkyCity had $50 squeeze baccarat awoke my inner baccarat junkie that had been resting since pre-Aussie Millions. Although I barely squeezed, knowing that you could potential squeeze and call out “DINGA” and “CHOI” for such a cheap price was definitely a PLUS in my book!

6 – Dealer Errors: My pet hate about poker is dealer errors and blunders. Being able to count chips so easy it baffles me to see dealers count player all-ins incorrectly during the tournament – it’s like they’ve never dealt with this before!
Another thing that Adelaide dealers do terribly is when a player moves all-in they just feel their stack in their hand rather than cutting it down to be sure it amounts to twenty-chips. I saw on at least six occasions of dealers feeling for twenty-chips, leaving it for some time before a player would point out that it was incorrect. In all honesty – pretty poor training standards.

7 – Main Event Structure: To implement a successful tournament, and consequently a successful poker tour you need to have a main event structure that has minimal flaws; and in the case of the ANZPT, Tournament Director Danny McDonagh has achieved this. With great level increase the best innovation is the minimum 40-big blind to average stack guarantee once the final table is reached with the clock being wound back as far as necessary.

8 – The Money Isn’t Going Nowhere: With a final table stacked with pros and Australians it was great to see the majority of the prizepool remaining in the pockets of Australians. This will not only attract more players to take their seat in the tour, but may also bring about a new poker boom knowing that for $33 and three days work you can parlay that into over $170,000 and change!

So now that you have a better understanding of Adelaide and the ANZPT, there is no need for any further questions . . . I hope.

An APL event this weekend followed by a few weeks of rest down at my parent’s house before everything kicks off again with Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series, ANZPT Sydney, Melbourne Poker Championships and then back to the Mecca of poker tournaments . . . the 2009 WSOP!

The road for this poker journalist may be on a long desert-bound track, but I’ll do my best to fill you in on some interesting and quirky happenings in the industry. Stay tuned!

Another early start and I was off to the airport to head to Adelaide for the ANZPT. After meeting up with Kirsty at our gate, we were soon joined by Tony Hachem and on our way to the city of Churches via Qantas.

Once on land, we all split a cab to the Hyatt Regency and checked into our rooms before Tony informed me of the $450 Pot Limit Omaha SkyCity Adelaide Championships event that was on in less than 20 minutes. Off we went to register and before we knew it we were getting dealt four cards.

With 30 minute levels and a 4,000 starting bank I started off playing tight until around level three where I loosened up (for no real reason mind you). Faced with four limpers ahead of me I potted to 750 holding A♣ A♦ 4♦ 7♣ and found four callers including Matt, a crown HD in the big blind, who open-jammed on a flop of J♦ 8♦ 5♣. Steve Topakas threw in his last thousand and with the action back on me I gambled and slid the last of my 3,000 in.

With Matt tabling J♣ J♠ Q♦ 9♦ and Steve some rubbish, Eric Assadourian stood up and stated to me, “Watch . . . you’ll win this!” and like a lightning bolt the A♠ fell on the turn and 8♣ on the river. Raking in the pot to send me up to around 13,000 Eric offered a swap of 5% even though he had nearly twice as many chips as me. Similar to how quick that Ace fell, I agreed . . . Me – Omaha donk, Eric – Three Omaha titles . . . pretty fair IMO.

weeeeeeee final table here we come!

I grinded away for a while before doubling up with a turned full-house and then against Crown supervisor ‘Dutchy’. I potted under-the-gun with A♠ 8♠ 8♣ 6♣ and found three callers including Dutchy. He open-shipped on a flop of J♦ 7♣ 5♣, and after 60 seconds or so of looking at my stack and the 25 players that lay ahead of me before a winner would be crowned I pushed all in with Dutchy calling an additional few thousand. I was in absolutely terrible shape against his A♣ A♦ 4♣ 2♥ but would find bingo on the river seeing the 8♦ landing to see me double into a great position as we approached the final table.

Tony got moved to my right and we had some fun until I offered a deal of taking $400 off first and slapping it to the eleventh place bubble boy. With all in agreement we slowly but surely made the final table where action was quick and fast losing three players before the first level was complete. Tony would fall in fifth place but a swap of 5% with each other kept him interested until a very interesting hand came up.

ANZPT Adelaide Pot Limit Omaha final table

With blinds at 2,000 – 4,000 the chip leader limped in under the gun and Raemin ‘The Moose’ Alexander potted to 16,000 from the small blind; leaving himself 15,000 or so behind. I look down at A♣ K♣ K♦ J♦ and am put to a real decision. Now I think that 70% of the time here I’m up against aces and I’m pretty sure that the limper might even have some of my outs. Even though I have a strong hand and sit second in chips with around 60,000, I eventually muck my hand.

The under the gun limper flashes his hand which contained the K♠ and Alexander proves to me I made a great fold by showing A♠ A♦ K♦ 3♠. Whether or not this fold is correct or not four-handed, it made me a further $800 when a player was knocked out a few hands later.

Tim Duckworth eliminated in third place for $2,970 (just taking a dig at how I write bust-out captions for PokerNews and PokerNetwork)

I would go on to finish 3rd for $2,970 before paying out my swaps with Tony and Eric to see me record my first Pot Limit Omaha tournament cash as well as my first cash for 2009. Feeling good about tournament poker it also puts me in the lead of, The Race to 10k; a competition between me and Heath ‘Tassie Devil’ Chick to see who can reach AUD$10,000 in tournament cashes. There may only be $100 on the line, but pride stands between the both of us.

Current Standings
thkcduckworth – $2,970
Tassie Devil – $896.60

The TV crew tweaked, adjusted and prepared the set before Riza Santos finished her final table introductions with the players taking their seats in just under an hour after the expected 12pm start time.

We lost Kim Tae Hyung on the first hand, then Vesa Leikos on the second before Liz Lieu fell 15 minutes later when her 2♦ 2♠ were unable to improve against Steven Yea’s Q♥ Q♣. Yea continued to run-amok on the table and knocked out Ron Kluber and Susumu Toge over the next 40 minutes before. Cicurel Didier fell in fourth before Casey Kastle made it one better here in Manila finishing third following his fourth placing in Macau.

It took two hours to reach heads-up play with Yea holding the chip lead with 1,572,000 to Neil Arce’s 1,048,000 chips, and the local favourite Arce took control and claimed the chip lead to move to a two-to-one advantage.

With blinds only at 6,000-12,000 with a 2,000 ante, heads-up play between these two talented players were expected to last a while, but half an hour would be all that it took. Arce made it 100,000 to go from the button and Yea re-raised to 300,000 before Arce quickly moved all-in for around 1.7 million with Yea making the call. Arce looked in bad shape holding K♠ Q♠ against Yea’s A♦ K♥, but the board of 4♠ 6♣ 7♥ Q♥ 6♥ saw Arce crowned as the Asian Poker Tour Philippines champion for 2009!

“You run soooooooo good!” commented F-Train as we wrapped up the final table in under 3 hours, and combined with an American bill-filled envelope from Liz Lieu . . . he wasn’t wrong!

2009 Asian Poker Tour Philippines Champion Neil Arce

After bombing out of the PokerNetwork Online Championships event on PokerStars I wondered down to the poker room to see what action was going on. Adam Simon and Vincent Wan were seated at a 50-100 NLH game, so I decided to pull up a seat to sweat their action for a while.

Wonky went on a heater making a straight-flush against a local grinder and slowly grinded back to even as Adam floated for a while. After finishing second in the PokerNetwork tournament Heath Chick wondered down to see what our plans were, and with dinner time upon us we decided to make a move to Greenbelt 5.

After getting looked up and down by a group of Trannies that we saw at Embassy the other night we quickly rushed upstairs and settled on Mr. Rockefeller’s . . . again for me. Some steak and fish and were all back in a cab on the way to the Metro Card Club to play cash games until the wee hours of the morning.

We all managed to find seats together on a 25-50 NLH with the buy-in ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 pesos. Not having too much on me I bought in for 2,000 and we all slowly began to lag it up and lose our chips.

Being crowned champion no less than 6 hours previously Neil Arce came up to me and shook my hand, welcomed us to his club, and started general chit chat about the final table and the Metro. It was really good to see a local boy win the main event, and consequently show his appreciation to us (for who knows what reason) by approaching the four of us on several occasions to see if we wanted or needed anything.

Filipino Phil had the better of us playing some huge hands and having the best of Heath, while Adam and I just donked chips. On the other hand Wonky lagged it up due to the tightness of the table, and consequently we re-named the night Lagtarding Live With Wonky Wan! Wonky definitely won, and after being in for around 8,000, I managed to cash out up a buy-in while Heath and Adam didn’t have as much luck.

Filipino Phil

Before I left I made sure to say thanks to Neil and that I would be returning soon. His response, “You’re always welcome here!” as we all headed back to the hotel as I had to pack for my 8am flight in under 5 hours.

Once back at the hotel I packed my suitcase and had a quick sleep before heading to the airport on a 6am taxi. I didn’t have any change for him and we stood there in a stand-still for over five minutes before he just accepted his 100 pesos instead of the 150 he was charging me. An upgrade to business class made me feel a whole lot better after seeing the number of people at the gate.

A fairly sleep-deprived arrival into the Melbourne rain was fairly ironic as Victoria had been in a heatwave over the past week or so. I booked into a nearby hotel for the night, booked my flights for Adelaide, and tried to get some rest before jumping back in a plane to the City of Churches for the inaugural ANZPT.

On one hand I can count the amount of times I’ve drunk myself to the point of sickness . . . and last night I added another. I only had around 4 Corona’s but the vodka to red bull ratio in each glass Nik Lackovic and Andrew Scott were pouring definitely outweighed what is normally expected in a standard mix!

Waking up feeling absolutely terrible I slowly made my way down to the Grand Ballroom to set up my computer in preparation for day 2 of the Main Event. F-Train, looking surprisingly fresh, looked up at me with that look of, “You look dreadful” . . . and boy did I feel it!

I stumbled round the floor as play began catching up with some of the Aussie boys from the night before. I approached Nik and stated to him, “I hate you” after he was the main culprit when it came to the quadruple-strength vodka mixes at Myama only several hours earlier. It took me a few hours to get back to a normal working level, and a bottle of Gatorade and a banana delivered by Heath definitely helped.

Bubble Boy Nik Lackovic

Play was quick as we hit the money with Nik Lackovic bubbling, and once the dinner break was upon us we ventured up to the FHM Player’s Party to enjoy a few free drinks and nibbles. In comparison to the Macau player party, this one was definitely at the other end of the scale being fairly lame apart from the open bar and being able to stare at Riza Santos in a beautiful red dress.

F-Train and I returned to tournament floor to see another Aussie fall on the bubble with Michael Pedley falling one place short of a repeat Asian Poker Tour final table when Pedley’s A♦ 2♦ was unable to stay ahead against Neil Arce’s K♠ J♥ when a King fell on the flop.

Michael Pedley enjoying day 1b play with Liz Lieu

With the final table being formed before midnight I headed back up to the party to snack on some food and enjoy a non-alcoholic beverage before persuading Heath and Damian Oborne to come down and play some cards.

We sat down on a new 50-100 table with a couple of guys down from England and Heath found a double early while Damo lost a couple of buy-ins. Another English guy sat down fresh off a 300,000-plus peso win on a higher-limit table and wanted to have some fun with his mates. He bought in for 20,000 pesos everytime and chipped up the table – especially Damo who benefited by chipping over and over through him.

It wasn’t a good session for me getting my Aces cracked all in on the flop against a straight draw. Then I slow-played queens terribly and was cracked by 10♥ 6♥ with all the money going in on a board of 6♦ 6♠ 9♠. Now in for 15,000 pesos I slowly grinded until the table broke to four-handed. With heath fairly drunk and tired he couldn’t leave because of his love for short-handed play. Soon play was down to three-handed between a visibly tired Heath, a very-awake me, and some German dude.

After half an hour of play the German finally realised that we were slowly grinding his money away and decided to leave. So now it was what the both of us wanted . . . a heads up battle!

We played at least 100 hands with me having a definite edge over Heath who was falling asleep as the clock ticked past 6am. After slowly grinding back some of the money I had lost in the full ring the final hand came down where I rivered trips on a four-flush board with 10♥ 8♣ against his K♥ K♦. As he saw me table my trips he stood up and went straight to the cashier to cash out to return to bed.

If you’re wondering if I feel bad for taking advantage of Heath . . . nah, not really, because he probably has the edge most days . . . so it’s only fair!