tilted behaviour

With Donnie having the day off as well, we obviously sleep in way too long (standard on the days we get off now) and chill at the condo watching TV and surfing the net for a while. We finally pick the nightly $150 Harrah’s tourney as our choice and hail a cab to the strip.

Once there we scoop out the Caesars Palace Forum Shops and then the Mirage before heading over to register for the tourney before grabbing a bite to eat at the food court just outside the hotel.

We take our seats with mine being opposite a guy I played the Venetian Deep Stack with yesterday. I try and spark a conversation with him, but like most middle-class middle-aged and white Americans – he is a complete arse and waves me off like I fly to a dog that doesn’t give a shit!

Starting with a 10,000-chip starting bank and a decent structure for this buy-in I fold my first hand, but then proceed to raise five of the next six and play both my rags out of the blinds:

- K♠ Q♠ – raise to 150, re-raise to 450, call, check-fold fluffed flop
- K♥ J♥ – raise pre, bluff turn and get called by bottom pair
- 10♠ 10♥ – raise 150, four callers, check flop, call 500 on turn and then 2,000 on river on Jack-high and flush heavy board . . . of course its good when I get showed bottom pair
- J♣ 10♣ – raise 150, six callers until big blind bumps it to 500, everyone calls, Ace-high board checked down, Kings are good
- A♦ Q♦ – raise to 150, re-raise to 450, check-fold flop and he shows Queens

I then chip up to 14,000 with tens again until I finally get knocked out. With blinds at 75-150 I open 5♠ 7♠ from late position to 400 and the big blind calls. He check-calls 525 on the A♥ 2♠ 10♥ flop and we both checked the 5♦ on the turn before the 5♣ landed. He led out for 1,200, I made it 3,500 and he shipped it for 6,000, I called and his 2♣ 4♠ was good . . . puzzled looks followed from me.

I ended up shipping it with 7♥ 3♣ from the button, and the big blinds Queen-high was too good.

There was an open seat on the $4-8 HORSE cash game and along I went to donk off while Donnie continued to grind it out.

Rich Ryan – the pocket fives intern – and some random German midget (not being rude; he actually was) called Toto started playing props on my up-cards and the Holdem and Omaha boards. Rich took red for $5 and any King for $20, while Toto took black and any Deuce for $20. Rich started off bad, blowing out to $80 before pulling it back to the $20 mark while I ran my $300 buy-in up to $380.

Rich and Toto both got seats in the game and my profit slowly was worked away as Rich’s prop bets extended back out to the $120 mark then the $200 mark, back to $125 then out to $355 before he cut his losses at $300.

Donnie ran terribly in the tourney finishing 14th and then took that run-bad and put it into place in the cash game when he lost his buy-in, after winning a handy $80 off Rich in What Lodden Thinks?.

I cashed out up $2 and we decided to head to Craps to see if Toto could continue his hot run and make us a fortune!

I call it . . . The Bridge

I played Craps properly for the first time the other night and really enjoyed it – regardless on how well I knew the rules!

I bought in for $200 and saw it work its way down to $70 then $30 before the other guys went busto. I decided to see if I could run it up, and after a few good rolls and calling out, “keep it even shoot,” I was back to more then even – a tidy $14 profit.

Being the complete degen gambler I am . . . there was no way I was pocketing that $14; instead it was Rich’s job to find one last bet for me.

“Bet Boxcars”
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s when the shooter rolls two sixes”
“Yeah, why not”

I threw the last $14 on the boxcars and its one in thirty-six chance for a thirty-to-one payday and the shooter picked up the dice. He shuffled them in his hand before flinging them up towards our end of the table. They bobbled round, avoiding chips and bets that littered the board heavy . . . six . . . six.

In an instant Rich went running off to the other end of the room and back in a complete state of shock that I had won on my first Boxcars bet, and like a dumbfounded noob I had no idea if I had won or what I had won!

The dealer casually cut down a stack of green $25-denomination chips and handed most of them over to me to amount $420. I quickly cashed out $600 after placing one last bet (true degen style) and tipping the dealer to see me profit $400 for the night on craps and $250 overall.

With Rich and Donnie having a cry about how good I run I bought them some 8am breakfast at Maccas before a nice long sleep in could occur with each of us not having to start until 5pm!

Having a day off is always great while in Vegas; you can head to the outlets, catch up on some sleep or play a deep-stack tournament.

Being the poker degen that I am . . . I obviously decided to play a tournament!

The Venetian Hotel

I headed over to the Venetian to play the $330 No Limit Holdem event in their Deep Stack Extravaganza, and once I had coughed up an additional $10 for the staff bonus for an extra 2,000 chips I was at my seat and ready for a long slog of grinding.

We started with a 12,000-chip starting bank and a solid structure with 40-minute levels, and early on I took a small pot here and lost one there until I decided to run a bluff with Q♥ 6♥ out of the small blind.

It was folded to me and I bumped it to 250 with the big blind defending. I lead for 325 on the flop of K♥ K♦ 3♠, then 800 when the 9♠ fell on the turn and gave up on the J♣ on the river when I check-folded for 2,200. I finished the level on 11,475 after winning a nice multi-way pot with trips.

During the 75-150 level, I saw Aces twice, but both times got no action and headed into the next level above my starting stack. My first major hand came up when an early position player limped and it was folded round to me in the small blind – I called an additional 100 with K♣ 4♥ and the big blind checked his option.

The flop fell down K♦ K♥ 3♠ and I checked, as did the big blind to see the limper lead for 300. I called, the big blind passed, and when the 6♦ fell on the turn I checked again, only to be faced with a 500-chip bet. I felt that I wanted to get some additional value for my hand and decided to check-raise to 1,100. He called and when I checked the 10♣ on the river he led strongly for 2,200 – now this is where I should pull up and review my hand and realise that the only hand that bets there beats me. Yeah, I may beat a busted diamond draw or a stubborn pair of Jacks, but in the long run I’m always beat!

Of course I call and he shows me K♠ 10♥ and I’m left with 9,875 in chips before I slip to 5,600 the next hand after calling a guy on three streets with Ace-high. I play the last five of six hands in the level and chip up to 8,000 to finish on a somewhat high after two terrible hands.

Not too much happens in the next two levels apart from winning a sick race when I called an all in out of the small blind with 8♣ 8♠ to be up against A♥ 3♥. The board ran out J♥ 10♥ 10♦ 3♦ 8♦ and I was back to my starting stack.

I moved tables and after a few orbits I found a double when I opened to 1,000 from the cutoff with Q♥ Q♠ and the big blind shipped it with J♦ J♠. The board bricked out and I was up to 24,675. I pushed up to 36,000 when I took down a nice pot with A♠ K♠ in the 400-800-75 level. I flatted a raise of 2,000 preflop on the button and then we both checked the flop of 4♥ 9♥ 2♠, I led for 3,500 when the K♥ fell. My opponent check-called and then check-called 5,500 when the 4♠ landed on the river. He flashed his K♦ Q♦ and I gained some momentum.

However it would fade away just as quickly as it arrived when I pretty much folded every hand until we reached dinner break with my 16,700 stack looking very short heading into the 1,000-2,000-300 level.

View from front of Venetian during the dinner break

I pushed with 10♥ 8♥ to steal the blinds and antes, but things kept going south. In the next level of 1,200-2,400-300 I got my last chips into the middle in a multi-way pot holding 8♥ 7♣ up against 4♥ 4♠ and 5♠ 6♣ when the final board ran out 4♠ 6♥ 7♠ 3♣ 9♥.

Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III – $330 NLH Chip Stack Graph

Falling short of the money and the whopping $58,000 first prize, I was somewhat satisfied with my 112th placing from the 735 starters.

As you can see from the chip stack graph, it was those middle stages (again) where I couldn’t accumulate to become a force in the latter levels. If I am to get some results under my belt, I really have to start improving this area of game – as it’s definitely my weakness / leak at the moment!

So it’s the weekend in Vegas . . . but when you’re working with PokerNews . . . a weekend doesn’t exist!

Off to the Rio at noon to take the reigns for the Event 28 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em; however after the late night / early morning and stomach full of GreyGoose . . . I was a little worse for wear!

There is no real point boring you with the details of the day, but once we were finished Donnie, Mat and me headed to SouthPoint to play some $2-4 Limit Holdem.

We grinded away for a while before a very drunk Marc Hodge joined us and . . . how do you say it . . . spiced up the action!

It was pretty much a game between us four with it being capped nearly every street on every hand. I ran the worst, but enjoyed the comic genius that is titled Marc’s Magic . . .

I have two quad draws
I’m getting crushed
F**king nits!
Drunk guy seat four
I might be from Georgia, but we have calculators
Duckworth, you know I run good and I’m an awesome poker player!

Mat Pater and (a very drunk) Marc Hodge tearing up the $2-4 Limit Holdem table at SouthPoint

Sunday saw me continue with the Event 28 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em coverage, and just like the previous day there was nothing interesting about the tournament.

No Phil Hellmuth-esque players ran deep, and the tourney wrapped up at 3am with three tables left.

The next day flew pretty quick as we played down to the final table and then to see Mike Eise take down the $639,331 first prize along with the coveted gold bracelet. Here is one of the interesting and colourful hands that took place.

care of PokerNews
Jason Potter Eliminated in 4th Place ($185,444)
Jason Potter shipped it all in from the button for just on a million and Jeff Chang made the call from the big blind.

Potter: Q♠ 10♠ Chang: 10♣ 10♦

With Potter needing to catch a Queen to stay alive or a combination of a flush or straight, the crowd and Potter would erupt seeing the Q♣ as the window.

Like an online glitch, the dealer spread the flop but one card remained hidden. With it reading Q♣- 4♠ the dealer would finally un-stick the two cards and out popped the 10♥.

Jason Potter eliminated in 4th place

Similar to the magnitude of a fireworks display on New Years Eve; the crowd erupted with an ear-splitting and deafening display of claps and stomps that the secondary feature table surely couldn’t handle!

With thunderous noise echoing throughout the stage the A♠ on the turn made it more interesting as it gave Potter additional flush outs to go with the two remaining Queens that could save his tournament life.

The dealer burned and turned a black . . . 7♣ and Potter would be forced to leave the rowdy stage on his way to collecting $185,444 for his 4th place finish.

Both me and Donnie had days off today and once we were finally up we decided to head to the Strip.

We grabbed a cab and headed to the Rio to rail a few of Donnie’s mates before deciding to play the Caesars Palace 7pm $150 Second Chance tournament. For a total cost of $150 plus a $10 add on we received a 6,000 starting bank with a rather fast structure.

Once there and registered Donnie wondered off and I sat down to watch the remainder of the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Detroit Red Wings (2-1 in game seven and 4-3 overall) on one of the many big screens that surrounded the poker room.

However once the game was over I decided to wonder round to look for Donnie, and realised that we were actually late to the tourney and it had just crept into the second level.

I sat down for the first hand of the 50-100 level with my 5,850 stack and didn’t really play a hand until I flopped two-pair from the big blind to take the pot down. Then on one of the last hands of the level I called a raise of 250 on the button with 3♣ 3♠ and managed to take the pot down by leading out for 525 into four players on the turn with the board reading K♣ Q♠ Q♣ 5♣.

Ran card dead through the 50-100 level and moved tables midway to find myself on a table full of banana’s. The blinds went up to 200-400 and on the first hand I was dealt A♠ K♥ under the gun and opened to 1,000. It was folded round to some dude who pushed all in, folded back to me and I called for my tournament life to be in great shape against his A♣ J♥.

In continuance of my 80/20 and 70/30 exits in the past who knows how many tourneys the board (of course) ran out J♦ J♠ 7♠ Q♥ 5♣ to see me bust in 90th-odd place out of the 150 starters.

Donnie busted shortly after when he lost a race holding Ace-King against a pair of deuces and we were off to Body English at Hard Rock for a PokerNews funded Friday night on the town . . . via a trip home to get changed.

Once all dolled up and ready to paint the town red with grabbed our third cab for the day and made paths to Hard Rock.

Once there we found our table to find Lynn, Garry and a handful of others laying into the table full of GreyGoose vodka. We filled our drinks and the night started to get interesting. Meh to the usual drib-drabs of describing the night, so here are a few samplers . . .

Body English at Hard Rock . . . everyone partying hard!

Once the night slowly died down Eric, Donnie and me played some Blackjack before Neil Fray joined us for some Craps action. I broke even and then ventured to Mr. Lucky’s 24-7 restaurant for some needed recovery breakfast with the boys and tucked into a cheeseburger before we return home . . . again in the brightness of the Vegas morning sun.

Yesterday saw me tackle the final table of Event 17 – $1,000 Ladies World Championship, and in a nutshell . . . a youthful Lisa Hamilton took home the gold, while favourite Lisa Parsons copped a runner-runner book against her flopped set to see her head to the rail in 7th.

Ladies World Champion Lisa Hamilton

The next day I lined up with our new blogger in Tom Bostic to tackle day two of Event 20 – $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em.

The field was stacked with some mid-range pros like Mark Seif, Joe Sebok and David Chicotsky, but there was also a few of the bigger names such as Kathy Liebert, Roland De Wolfe, Mike Sexton and eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel.

My favourite from the start of the day was always Seidel and watching the respect he earned from his fellow players was astounding! The perception is that Seidel is a fairly tight player – and this may be true; but there is no doubt that he uses this image to his advantage.

We called it a night before the 3am cutoff (nizzle rule of WSOP – will explain in the future) and headed home to get some rest for the final table, but not before making notes of the standard of play during the tournament. Even though it was a Pot Limit tournament, there is no need to bet pot (seven times small blind) every hand and on every street – I think that was the main reason why the tournament flew so quickly as many players didn’t realise that a pot bet both pre and on further streets is so much.

With a final table that indeed include Seidel, me and Tom slugged it out doing our best as the Tournament Director / announcer did a terrible job at broadcasting the action to both us and the crowd. We did our best to provide quality coverage, but in the end only you can be the judge – Live Coverage from Event 20 Final Table.

Seidel ended up falling in seventh while UK’s John-Paul Kelly took home the gold bracelet and $194,434 in prizemoney.

With a finish to the day before the dinner break I headed to the poker room and met up with a friend from Melbourne who had made his way out to grind some cash games and see the states.

Since James’ table was full I sat down at a $1-2 Pot Limit Omaha game and grinded a $50 loss before moving to his table. I ran really terrible running into a set and stacking off and then making a play that didn’t quite work. In the end I was down $500 and called it a night by grabbing some food and returning back to the Amazon room to catch a lift with the guys.

Once home, Eric, Donnie and myself decided to head to SouthPoint to play some $2-4 Limit Holdem. Once there though, there was only a $1-2 No Limit Holdem game open and both Donnie and Eric took up the empty seats while I waited out.

Around 20 minutes later one freed up and the second hand in I raised an under the gun limp next to speak holding 6♥ 3♥ to $8. Eric called along with four others to see a flop of A♠ A♦ 4♦ fall. I lead out for $12 and Eric made it $24 as it folded round to me. I thought he was weak, and I wanted to send the message to him not to play in my pots, so I consequently made it $58 to go. Eric folded and I showed my hand to the amazement of the table.

My next big hand came when I raised a straddle with K♦ 5♦ and got a few callers. I checked (plan was to check-raise) the flop of A♦ 2♦ 5♠ and it was checked round to see the Q♦ fall on the turn. I bet, some dude pushed all in, I called and I made him reach into his wallet. I grinded to around $400 and was racking up to leave with Donnie (after Eric had left after running like God) as he was down a few buy-ins and was dealt the old A♣ A♦ on my last hand.

I was going to fold as I never play a hand when I’m about to leave . . . this time however I opted with a oversize raise to $15 over the limper and went to the flop four-handed. We checked the Q♣ 10♠ 5♠ flop to see me bet out $30 on the 2♣ on the turn. The big blind check-called and then lead for $45 when the river landed the 5♣; I called and he tabled A♥ Q♠ for top-top. I raked up my chips to be up $315 after tipping the two dealers and the room manager.

We left SouthPoint to the blaring 7am Vegas sunlight to retire for the evening / morning with plans on hitting the strip once we awoke.

Ding Dong . . . Ding Dong . . . f**king hell Mat, just go answer the damn door so you can get a lift to work . . . it’s been like three hours and I’m already up

Well that’s what I was thinking before I rolled over in my uber-comfy bed to see the alarm clock on the bedside table . . . 7:38pm . . . WTF!

I had slept in way past what I’d expected, and now my day off had been turned into a night off. I knocked on Donnie and Eric’s door (which is just outside ours), “you just get up . . . you gotta be kidding me” quipped Donnie as he headed back up the stairs shaking his head and laughing. Still adjusting to the brightness of light I slowly stumbled up the stairs behind him to see him cooking dinner as I sat down on his couch to discuss our plans.

We had decided on heading to Caesars Palace to play some $1-3 No Limit Holdem as we have been told that it’s a fairly soft game. We grabbed a taxi and forty bucks later, following a traffic standstill on Flamingo Road, we were there.

They opened a new table in under three minutes time as we seemed to attract a bevy of people – obviously I had my I AM A FISH neon sign flashing on my back!

I took down my first pot when I check-called each street against an Asian LAG and old-man NIT with A♣ J♦ on an Ace-high straight and flushing board to see my stack climb over the $250 mark. An orbit or so later I called $15 out of the small blind with A♥ Q♥ against the LAG who had already started making moves, bluffing and raising with garbage.

The flop fell down Q♦ 9♥ 4♠ and I check-called $35 to see the A♠ fall on the turn and another check from me. Facing a bet of $55, I moved all in for $165 more, and following about ninty-seconds of deliberation the LAG folded.

The hand became an avenue of discussion between me and Donnie, with his argument being a call on the turn and either a donk lead on the river or gamble with a check. Personally I wished I tanked on the turn and did the old ‘I guess I’m all in’ show like I have a draw. Either way it was a good session for the both of us, as I cashed out $403 and, courtesy of a quad bonus, Donnie cashed out up $250 – not a bad two-hours I say!

After exchanging some texts with my two Melbournian’s in James and Rob that had just arrived in town, we both decided to head over to Imperial Palace to catch up.

We tucked into some Subway before heading to the Rio around 1am to check out what was going on.

The Ladies World Championship (in which I’m doing the final table tomorrow) was down to the last two tables while the Omaha Hi-Lo World Championships was on the money bubble. We showed the WSOP noobs round before Donnie settled into a $10-20 Limit Holdem game as James and Rob headed to the other side of the Rio to play some $1-3 No Limit Holdem.

I sweated them for a while, before returning to sweat Donnie and his continuance in running bad at the Rio. 3am came round which meant our ride was ready, and after a quick visit to the petrol station for some snacks and of course petrol, I was at home and on the computer writing this blog!

Bring on the Ladies tomorrow!

I’m not sure if it was for a scarcity of resources, the willingness to punish a poor young soul or the fact that a test of skills was needed by Garry (GG) had scheduled me on Event 17 – $1,000 Ladies World Championship . . . with him.

I arrived before GG, but my chance of writing the tournament preview was snatched away – obviously he didn’t trust my creative juices! Either way we had 1,060 ladies take to the felt from the humble grandmother to the college girl to the experienced pro.

It all started smoothly as we lost ladies left, right and centre; with the pros being early casualties in Tiffany Michelle, Kirsty Gazes, Marsha Waggoner, Maya Gellar, Mandy Baker and Liv Boeree.

A windswept Liv

GG would spend most of the day running round taking care of PokerNews business leaving me in charge to carry out the blogging duties – which of course didn’t change anything for me, but seemed to worry GG slightly.

However, by days end it had seemed that GG’s trust factor had increased from 6% to a whopping 8.5%, and he left early. As the chips were bagged we saw Tamara Tibbles on top with Maria Ho and Erica Schoenberg holding the fort down for the pros.

Erica Schoenberg

Even with the early finish I still had to wait around for Eric to finish and once it rolled round to 3am we all made our way back home . . . and for me and Donnie . . . straight to SouthPoint!

We both strolled in like we owned the place . . . not cause we thought we were King-Dick but because we were going to buy in deep on the $2-4 Limit Holdem table so as to look all balla-like.

I wussed out however and only bought in for $200 while Donnie manned-up and bought in for $300; but that didn’t stop us from covering the table together with the average stack sitting at around $60.

First hand in the blinds we went to war against each other with my Queens running second best to his Aces and then some of the players started to realise that they were probably a long shot to grind out a profit (plus the fact that it was 4am) and decided to leave.

Seven players, then six, then four, which included two kids from Ireland – one really hot 20-something and her boyfriend (sigh). Both on the drunk-side they kept things interesting for a while before they had to vacate as well. They didn’t leave us empty-handed as Sarah gave us her phone number as she was a bartender at Tryst Nightclub at the Wynn, and told us to contact her if we ever wanted to be put on the door list . . . ship it!

With only me and Donnie remaining there was no chance we were going to turn down the opportunity to own in each other’s souls heads-up and proceeded to battle it out. I was winning a few big bets until we were joined by a late 20-something/early 30-something who bought in for just $20. Of course I proceeded to dumb chips to him, and then he would hand then to Donnie – however the circle never completed!

Running terribly was an understatement, and come 9am I was down $100 and we called it a night . . . errr morning . . . either way we started our journey out the casino until I decided to donate my last $100 on the Baccarat and Roulette tables.

Home before 10am and down $200 . . . GG Southpoint

“Can you handle it?”
“Handle what? The Stud event . . . plzzz mate!”
“I’m giving you an opportunity, so don’t stuff it up”
“Plzzz mate . . . it will be too easy”

So Garry gave me the opportunity to blog my first WSOP event and Event 16 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud would be my inaugural one.

A stellar field of 359 emptied $1,500 from their wallets to take their shot at double betting, trapping with wired pairs and taking their turn at bringing in – and the notables turned out in force! Jeff Lisandro, John Juanda, Jason Mercier, Andy Bloch and even the old-school brigade of Archie Karas, Mike Caro and David Sklansky.

Many of the big names would fall to see only 97 make it through with David Levi topping the ranks along with Lisandro, Mercier, Juanda, Thor Hansen and Dutch Boyd.

Crushing tournaments for a living . . . the Jason Mercier story

As you can tell . . . today was on the tad boring side, but I did enjoy blogging my first WSOP event, and hope that Garry takes some time out of his busy schedule to sift through it for some feedback.

It was also Mat’s first day, and he seemed to handle it fairly easy. Once he gets a better understanding of the mixed games and the notables it will all come much easier for him.

Off to the Ladies World Championship tomorrow . . . weeeeeeeee!!!