tilted behaviour

Waking up early to pack up the condo brought many dilemmas . . . but the main one was that Eric’s little two-door struggled to fit all our stuff in.

What? Two guys gear couldn’t fit! Well in reality I only had two suitcases (one to leave here, and one to take to Lebanon), my laptop bag and a bag of shoes, but Eric had two computers, a desktop, a set of golf clubs, unpacked clothes and countless pairs of shoes and other crap.

However we eventually managed, and drove the car to GG’s house before catching a cab to the airport to board out DL 170 flight to Charles De Gaulle at 1:30pm via Salt Lake City.

I spent most of the flight sleeping, and consequently was pretty refreshed once we landed at Charles De Gaulle. We didn’t have much to bother doing anything, so we just waited for an hour or so before jumping on our ME 212 flight to Beirut at 1:40pm.

Once on board I threw my iPod on to try and fall asleep, but instead found this degen gambling game. Basically you start with $500 and once you turn it into $2,000 you are allowed to move on to the next casino, and once you parlay that into $5,000 you can move on to the next one.

Overall there were five casino’s, and after running hot firstly on Baccarat, then BlackJack and finally Video Poker I had turned my $500 into a whopping $2,150,000 . . . if only I could cash out!

We arrived and proceeded through customs fairly hassle free to be met by our driver Joe who took us to our hotel about an hour away. I fell asleep instantly as Eric made small talk before we settled into our room and I hit the hay.

My final weekend in Las Vegas was action packed full of watching TV, packing, eating, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, gambling, cleaning, more TV and more eating . . . yeah I know I’m boring!

Saturday started slowly with lots of cleaning, packing and watching WPT reruns. Eventually I fell asleep on the couch before awaking to a black night sky. I got dressed, ran upstairs to see Eric asleep, and heading to Del Taco to grab some food before walking over to SouthPoint to watch a late session of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Transformer’s was the first cartoon I ever watched, and even though I don’t have much recollection of the story lines from back in the late 80’s and 90’s, I still love the movies. I thought that this movie was just as good as the last one and maybe even better. The CGI of the Autobots and Decepticons battles were amazing and the story line kept you interested.

I got a phone call mid-movie and used it as a time to quickly run to the bathroom, and it was Eric informing me that he and Chris Boncek were heading to The M Casino. The movie finished and I raced home just before it started bucketing down with rain as we made our way further down Las Vegas Boulevard.

Once we walked into The M we were both amazed at how such an amazing hotel could be located nearly 30 minutes from the Strip. It was grand, and had a somewhat oriental theme to add to a Venetian-type alluring odour that circulated the floor.

We walked through a relatively quiet gaming floor for a Saturday night, and was just amazed at how stunning all the waitresses were. Young and gorgeous were just an understatement as we met with Boncek and made our way to the poker room to play some $4-8 Limit Holdem.

It was a weirdly structure game as the blinds were $1-2 and the opening raise was to $6 and the $10 with consequential streets following the usual betting limits. I was getting scolded over and over for not putting out the right amount of chips, but after a while it finally clicked when I scooped a huge pot holding Q♠ J♠. I two-bet preflop and it was pretty much called round. The flop fell 10♠ 7♠ 4♠ and it was capped by both Eric and me, along with some Asian-tard. The turn dropped the 4♦ and it was two-bet before the 7♥ was checked on the river.

Eric mucked his busted straight-flush draw with 5♠ 6♠ as the Asian-tard mucked a 10. From there on I played fairly tight hitting Jacks-full on the river to take down a big pot, and also taking a few small ones to finish up $58 for the night.

We were home by 3am and I played the PokerNetwork Vic Champs Mini-League eventually getting bored and busting fairly early after building a solid starting stack.

As Sunday rolled round, and only half my packing and cleaning done before departing to Lebanon, I knuckled down and took care of most of it before Marc and Catherine arrived to go gambling at SouthPoint with both me and Eric.

Those three grinded a loss on BlackJack before we went over to Pai Gow Poker where I chipped up $50 and Eric regained some of his profits before returning to the BlackJack table to lose them all!

We headed to one of the restaurants and enjoyed a quick Mexican fiesta before we parted ways to see Eric continue his packing while I watched Rounders before falling asleep to . . .

It hurts, doesn’t it? You can’t believe what fell. All your dreams . . . dashed . . . Hopes down the fucking drain . . . Your fate, he is sitting right beside you . . . That Ace could not have helped you . . . I bet it all!

You’re right, Teddy . . . The Ace didn’t help me . . . I flopped the nut-straight!

This day was always coming, but its one that I really wanted to put off.

Both Mickey and Donnie were heading back to the East Coast and leaving me stuck in Las Vegas all alone (well, apart from everyone else that is still here)!

I woke up to find Donnie had already left early, but I was able to see Mickey off, knowing that it probably isn’t too long until I see him as he is planning on returning for the Aussie Millions again.

With it also being Mat’s last day, I thought it was a must for us to head out to the General Gamblers Store and Spinettis to potentially walk out with a shop of poker gear.

Mat bought a couple of books and a deck of cards while I picked up three books, with the aim of returning to Spinettis to purchase a range of small denomination chips for our micro-stakes muck-round home games, or even pick up a full tourney set.

Check-Raising The Devil (Mike Matusow), One Of A Kind (Stu Ungar), Power Hold’em Strategy (Daniel Negreanu)

We then left Mat at the airport to return to the cold and wet weather of Melbourne as I picked up a spare bag to carry all my purchases and accumulated swag home. I ran into the Nike outlet store and found a duffel bag that I would also take to Lebanon instead of my suitcase, and returned home to clean and watch TV all night.

Oh yeah, if you didn’t know . . . I’m heading to Lebanon on the 20th to cover the Lebanese Poker Championships alongside Eric . . . ship the hazard pay one time!

With the WSOP now wrapped up and mostly everyone still in here we all wanted to get together to hang out and see everyone off. . . however nothing had been planned (rolls eyes at GG) in comparison to the poker, BBQ and karaoke day from last year!

Once we were all up and ready, we made our way to GG’s to find everyone seated round his poker table like we were the ones holding them up.

Mat put the cards in the air and our 10-handed, 5,000-chip starting bank, $50 sit-n-go was kicking!

Mickey ran Queens into Aces and like a junior Phil Hellmuth, started ranting and raving at how bad he runs. People busted left, right and centre until I eventually perished in fourth place as F-Train finished third while Donnie couldn’t overcome the power of Marc Hodge heads-up.

With GG heading out on some prior obligations, we were left to fend for ourselves and decided that the best option was a friendly HORSE game; in which I took the dealing duties.

I made around $15 in tips before we called it a night.

After DK and myself finally arrived back at the condo following a little directionless driving, both me and Mat decided to join him in seeing the movie Bruno along with Melissa and Eddy.

Having no idea what the movie was about, we grabbed some popcorn and found some seats to find out that it was basically a Euro-version of Borat but with more male nudity . . . up close!

The movie was funny, but very disturbing at times and I only recommend it if you enjoyed Borat and prepared for a plenty of close up male nudity . . . I think you get the picture!

With only a small team on to cover the run down from 27 to 9, Donnie, Mat, Brendan and I decided to do some shopping at the Las Vegas Outlet Center just down the road.

Everyone picked up something here and there before we ventured to the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre at Planet Hollywood. I found a pair of new shoes and not much else as we decided that enough shopping was had for the day.

Straight over to Harrahs we went to join in the Wednesday night $4-8 HORSE game, while Brendan returned home as Eric joined us.

Donnie continued to run bad (or play bad . . . I’m not convinced he is playing bad as this is like the fourth session where he has lost in HORSE) while Mat went broke and hit the roulette table to recover his buy in and then some.

Eric finished down, while I only managed a profit of $90 after being close to $140 up at one point.

We departed early and joined the rest of the crew at RoadRunners to neck a few beers and play some pool.

Day Six and Seven of the WSOP Main Event is one where we see 185 hopefuls cut down to a final 27 that will see their life change with a turn of the card.

The stories develop, the transition from hometown amateur to poker star begins and player’s dreams are crushed – this year it is no exception.

Previous champions Joe Hachem and Peter Eastgate eventually fell along with Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Tom Schneider and JC Tran. However it would be Dennis Phillips’ run ending in 45th that nearly saw the St Louis trucker make history since Dan Harrington’s back-to-back final tables in 2003 and 2004.

Apart from the bust outs, bad beats and amateur-to-star stories that I could talk about, I’d rather share with you the final instalment of a series of PokerNews videos that are based on the development of the history of the WSOP over the past 40 years.

They are easily the greatest poker videos ever produced and a worth the minutes they cut out of your life – I guarantee it!

After Marc, Mat and myself were the longest lasting PokerNews team in the Media Dream Team, the day finally came round to see us take to the felt in the $1,680 Dream Team Poker Main Event!

Playing on behalf of PokerNews, and for only 30% of ourselves, we were still more than willing to enjoy the day off work to battle it out with the 122 teams and 366 individuals that donned a Dream Team jersey.

I saw my starting 10,000-chip starting bank slip early over the first level until I managed a double holding K♣ Q♥ after I opened to 475 and was met with two callers in the 100-200 level. The flop fell down K♦ 8♥ 3♦ and I lead out for 800 and was met with one call before my 1,000-chip bet was called when the K♥ landed on the turn. The river fell 3♠ and I tried to feign weakness as best as possible before throwing out my remaining 5,000-chip. My opponent sat in the tank as I hit under my PokerNews cap, before he eventually called holding 8-7.

Now up to 14,000, I fluffed a few times after opening, but eventually clawed my way back to 20,900 after opening with Q♠ 10♥ to 750 at 150-300 and found two callers. I lead out for 1,100 on the 3♦ J♠ 8♠ board before my opponent made it 3,300 to go. I really felt that he had a Jack or at worse a pair of nines etc or even a flush draw – consequently I took my time before re-raising all in for a further 11,600 on top. He tanked and tanked before eventually folding A♥ J♥ face up . . . oh yeah, ship the gutter-ball!

I had this annoying player on my left that kept owning my soul and when she opened to 1,200 at 200-400 from under the gun, and I looked down at Aces in the big blind I knew it was a chance to send her packing. I flatted, and check-raised all in on the ten-high board to see her stack shipped towards mine as I moved to over 33,000.

I moved tables, and folded for three full orbits before calling a button all in shove with A♠ 3♠ to be ahead of Q♥ J♣. I flopped a flush draw, and my Ace-high held to climb back to 35,000 after slipping to 28,000 in chips. I then chipped up to 40,500 when my 7-4 in the small blind flopped trips and got two streets of value. As we were about to hit another break, I eliminated a PokerRoad intern (right) when he open-shoved 7-4 and I made the call from the small blind with Aces. I held, but doubled the small blind up next hand when my Nines were outdrawn by his Ace-10 as I headed to break with 38,500 in chips.

I then ran my Kings into Aces and was left crippled with 15,800 before moving tables as we hit the 1,000-2,000-200 level. I stole a few times before doubling with Sevens against Ace-King. With 69 left, and the top 36 individuals being paid, I headed to dinner with 27,000 in chips.

I devoured a sandwich before returning only to bust soon after when my A♠ K♦ was outflopped by the big stack’s A♥ 6♣ when the board ran out 6♠ 5♥ 2♠ 4♦ 10♦ to see me exit in 57th place.

Our team ended up finishing in 60th place, which wasn’t a bad result after Marc was bad-beat twice and Mat was card dead until elimination.

On a side note – congratulations to Pauly and his team Tao of Pokerati for capturing the team title, and to Kenna James for taking out the individual title!

Tao of Pokerati and Kenna James

A little over two weeks ago I wrote a blog about Phil Ivey’s spare hat that he had left idle on the poker table during a tournament.

Well . . . I got it!!!

Basically one of my friends Joy (who works for ESPN and Full Tilt) was walking past my blogging desk wearing a black Full Tilt hat backwards.

”You look stupid”
“Yeah I know, but it’s not mine . . . it’s Phil Ivey’s”
(jaw drops)
“How did you get that?”
“Well I had a gray one on, and he wanted to switch it up, so he took this one off and put the gray one on . . . do you want it?”
(jaw drops further)
“Yes please!”

Joy handed it to me as she continued to stroll through the tournament area. Unlike what I expected, it was slightly worn out on the inside with the brim bent in an irregular shape.

I now have a genuine memorabilia piece of Phil Ivey and am going to treasure it!

His . . . Now Mine . . . His New One