tilted behaviour

It was another early start today as I headed into Crown to play the 10am Phase One Satellite.

I busted relatively early when I three-bet all in from the big blind holding A♠ K♠ but ran into Kings. Bricked out, and the next hand I decided to commit by two bb stack with 7♦ 8♦ but bricked out against some rags.

I decided to play some $1-2 NLH to fill in the time and after about two hours my stack had moved from the original $80 buy-in to fluctuate around the $220 mark. I then proceeded to lose every hand for the next hour until I had slipped to around $120.

Then, after being dealt Q♦ 3♦ on the button I three-bet all in on a 7♦ 2♦ 3♠ flop and was met with a lone call from the original flop better. The turn landed a 3♣ and I leaned over to my mate Oatsy telling him that that was a good card for me. The river was a blank and as my opponent – who had been there since the night before – looked up at me I rolled over my three. He rolled over a seven, and both me and Oatsy looked at each other and just shook our heads knowing the outcome. I rolled my Queen and he rolled another seven to take the pot down.

I rebought and the following hand floated with bottom pair and eighteen backdoor draws. I turned trips, got it in, but again ran into top set and was forced to rebuy once again.

My third buy-in went nowhere and I decided to play the PokerNews Cup Super Satellite that I had some luck in the other day.

I took my seat in the forty-three player field and started donking early. I had $200 to have some fun with and use to get off tilt. After getting stacked three times I decided to switch it up by letting the dealer play one card and myself the other.

Good meant paint, mmmm meant sixish to ninish and a swift shake of the head meant terrible. If we both said good I moved all in, and if we both said mmmm I limped hoping we had a pair or a suited connecter.

I managed getting to the end of the rebuy period with around 5,000 in chips and after having a quick chat with Michael ‘TheBigSiCkO’ Guzzardi he decided to do my $150 triple add-on and consequently take 50% of my action – although the percentage was incorrect I didn’t mind too much as I was hoping his share on me might change my day’s luck.

From thirty left to about twenty or so I played very solid, picking my spots wisely but was still unable to accumulate due to the high blinds. I found a double when I pushed Q♥ 10♥ and doubled through against eights. I then knocked out a player with Kings against Queens as we broke into two tables. The first hand of the next table I re-shoved holding Aces and knocked another player out to have one of the top few chip counts – not that it meant too much due to the quick levels and high blinds.

Having position on Guzzardi didn’t mean too much as we were trying to stay out of each other’s way, and in the meantime I managed to double up the same player twice as Guzzardi dispatched of Lisa Walsh as we hit the final table.

With the four chip leaders sitting in the nine, ten, one and two seat, I drew seat three, but having Guzzardi in the two seat would hopefully help in discouraging people from stealing my blinds.

I was unable to catch a single thing on the final table, and with four seats up for grabs plus cash I was extremely focused on winning another seat. With blinds at 2,000-4,000 I pushed for my last 11,000 holding Ace-King and was snapped by the small blind with Jack-nine while the big blind threw in his last 2,000 holding Ace-four.

The flop of Jack-Ten-Nine saw be drawing to just four outs and on the verge of being eliminated, but when a repeat ten landed on the turn I added a further six outs, but alas, it was to no avail as the river landed another ten and I busted in sixth place – one short of the money and two from another seat.

BRAIN SPASM TIME

Holding my two hole cards I just kept shaking my head lamenting at yet another PokerNews Cup Main Event bubble and just clenched my fists together due to me being more pissed off then I can ever recall (poker sense that is)!

Not realising I had the cards still in my hand, I threw the mangled and destroyed cards down on the table and walked straight to the PokerNews desk, chucked my bag on the floor and went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face and cool off.

I returned to the desk, grabbed my keys from my bag, ignored everyone that tried to speak to me and made my way to the car to get changed as the Tony G Celebrity Bounty Event was just kicking off.

END BRAIN SPASM

Once I returned from my car I was directed to see Jonno regarding my little incident.

It was agreed that my presence behind the computer as a member of the PokerNews Live Reporting Team wouldn’t be a good idea tonight, and he decided that I should have a night off before returning tomorrow.

I explained the situation to Heath, and although I was letting the team down there was nothing more I could do about out.

I decided that I would head to Geelong for a couple of days, but not before putting myself through some more satellite hell when I finished forth once again in the PokerNews Cup satellite on TonyG Poker.

Today I was dumped from behind the computer to be on the floor for the PokerNetwork Online Vs Live Invitational – Heads-Up Round.

The day wasn’t too exciting with the Online Team whipping the floor with the Live Team.

The top four spots would pay, and when four online guys in Rayan ‘rkrouk’ Nathan, Andrew ‘Adgee’ Jeffreys, Michael ‘TheBigSiCkO’ Guzzardi and Steve ’stevoL’ Leonard were the last standing they decided just to split the money but flip for the title.

When it became a flipament Adgee was never in doubt, and consequently he raised his eight-deuce off proudly to capture the title!

Bruno Portaro, Van Marcus, Steve Leonard, Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros, Sam Youssef, Tony Dunst, Andrew Jeffreys, Michael Guzzardi

I headed into Crown early today . . . well early for me as it was just after Midday . . . to take care of my poker urge.

I sat down on a $2-3NLH table with my $200 and turned it into $302 in about thirty minutes after making two-pair against two players. Peter Aristidou and George Cotaidis were cashing out and asked me join them for some lunch before they played the PokerNews Cup Super Satellite at 2pm.

The Super Satellite was a direct satellite into the PokerNews Cup Main Event with a buy-in of $70 with $50 rebuys. I sat down with $300 worth of $25-denomination chips just in case I felt like getting a bit crazy with the rebuys.

I was in for one rebuy before slowly chipping up nicely before being rivered in a huge pot by Karl Krautschneider when he made a flush against my top pair. Once the rebuy period had ended I decide to do a triple add-on for $150 to see my stack soar to around 9,000 from the original 1,000.

From then onwards I played fairly solid poker before being moved to the feature table with just twenty of the original forty-two players remaining. I then lost the majority of my chips to an old Asian guy when I turned the nut-straight in a raised pot and he turned a flush.

Both Peter and I made the final table along with the old Asian guy, Joe Cabret, cash game player Crazy John and a handful of weak players.

I offered an Insurance Swap with Peter whereby if one of us wins a seat then we pay the non-seat winner a sum – in this case $250. Peter turned it down, and we went straight into the final table with myself sitting fairly low on chips.

I lost a key flip with nines against King-Ten and was left with just one big blind. I waited several hands until finding sixes in early position and managed a near triple. Eventually as play hit six-handed we made a deal whereby the $1560 put away for forth was split $560 for fourth and $500 for fifth and sixth. Being the shortest of the players I was happy to agree, and getting the insurance for my efforts so far was better than a kick in the ass.

With nothing really to lose I started getting really aggressive shoving at any chance I could get to add to my stack. I built it up to around 30k with blinds at 3,000-6,000 as we lost the old Asian guy in fifth. I continued my aggression – especially pushing on Crazy John’s big blind – until the action was folded round to me in the small and I sweated a red Ace. I moved all in and Crazy John instantly called turning over fours. I peeked down to see another red Ace and was more than ecstatic at the possibility of locking up another seat for the Main Event.

Alas . . . not one, but both of the fours would land on the flop and turn to see me bubble for a seat yet again – but at least this time I would collect some money for my efforts.

With the PokerNews Cup now upon us, this weekend was my last chance to play before we start working.

I packed my car full with shoes, hats, clothes and everything in between before driving up the highway to Geelong. My first stop was at my cousin’s house in Yarraville to pick up his spare key I was going to be staying there while working the PokerNews Cup.

Taking my seat in the freeroll I sat down with $325 worth of green 25-denomination chips just in case I felt like rebuying . . . thirteen times that is!

I chipped up quite quickly before losing a race and was forced to rebuy. Nothing happened for the next umpteenth hands until we hit the end of the rebuy period. I did a triple rebuy for $75 and saw my stack increase to just on 6,000 which was roughly average.

As the 206-player field was cut down to below 80 I began accumulating thanks to a player donating his chips with eights to my Queens. Now up to 14,000, and then 16,000, the imaginary heaven to land phone rang . . .

“Hi Tim, this is God again. How have you been mate? Enough of the small talk . . . I think it’s greedy of you wanting a second PokerNews Cup seat and consequently have decided to flick the doomswitch on you . . . talk soon mate!”

Sitting with double average chips at the 500-1000 level, an old Asian donk limped under the gun (with only 2,600 behind), as did some weak-tight lady from middle position, before I made it 4,000 from the button with Ace-Jack. The blinds passed but the rest of the old Asian donk’s chips went into the middle with King-Queen as the old lady folded. Queen on the flop and that was that . . . well until two hands later some random donk shipped it with Ace-Five and I re-shipped with Ace-Queen. Of course a five fell on the flop, and even though I turned a flush draw, I still lost and slipped to 6k.

I found a double with Aces against Kings before doubling up the big blind when I opened to 2,200 from the button with J♠ 10♠ and was forced to call an additional 3,000. He flopped an Ace and I was back to just over 6k. Next hand someone open shipped with A♥ 8♥ and I snapped with Kings; only to see me exit in 35th place when an Ace landed on the river.

I played some $2-3NLH once the Grand Final was wrapped up by the cats and profited $92 after being up $205 at one point.

Using the Phase Two ticket I had won on my last visit to Crown, I took to the felt with around 100 others. I turned middle set first hand to take a nice pot down until losing a big one holding A♠ 10♠. With three limpers for 100, I called before the player on my left made it 200. Everyone called to see a ten-high flop fall and the action checked round to the preflop raiser who made it 200 to go once again. Everyone folded to me and I made the call to peel one street just in case he actually had something better then top pair.

The turn landed another ten and I fired out 600. He tank-called to see an eight land on the river and an all-in bet follow from me once I saw that he only had 1,700 left. About two minutes went pass before he made the call – and after I tabled my top trips – he slammed down his rivered set of eights . . . WTF!?!?!?

I was unable to grab one of the nine seats up for grabs when I shoved 10bbs with Ace-Jack and got called by Ace-Queen.

With word of a home game, I decided to venture out to Kew as the night was still young.

The game was 25c-25c round of each, and after being down to $12 from my original $100 buy-in I eventually cashed out for $105 courtesy to a great Omaha Hi-Lo orbit.

2am read the clock, and time it was for bed as the game broke and I headed back to Yarraville for the night.

Waking up bright and early I headed to crown to play in the PokerNews Cup Event 1: $230 No Limit Holdem $75,000 Guarantee.

Even though I arrived forty minutes early there was a line that stretched at least sixty people long when I hit the back of it.

Once I was finally registered I took my seat in the 465-player field. With only a 4,000-chip starting bank and a fairly fast structure I decided that I was going to take a solid and tight approach until I could amass some kind of stack . . . only problem was that I wouldn’t even have a chance to get near a stack!

For the ninety minutes that I was in the tournament I only played two hands. I lost half my stack holding 9♥ 9♦ in the big blind when my lone opponent turn a gutshot wheel against me. Then during the 75-150 level I opened to 375 with A♠ Q♠ and was put all in by my opponent from the previous hand from out of the big blind. I tossed in my last 1,500, but made my way out of the tournament in 380th place when his pockets flopped a set.

I quickly gamboooled away $200 on a $2-3NLH table – gamble being just an understatement as I saw my original $200 soar to $300 before straddling and blind betting my way to the felt- before taking my seat in Event 2: $115 Deepstack PokerPro.

Everyone started with a 25,000-chip starting bank, and after triple-barrelling Andrew ‘Adgee’ Jeffreys with A♠ 10♠ on a Q♣ 8♣ 3♣ 5♣ K♠ board I was up to 33,000 after Adgee reluctantly folded a pair and I tabled my bluff.

Nothing really eventuated as both Adgee and I, along with Dennis Huntly, exchanged banter until Adgee fell and then Huntly.

I would eventually perish in 23rd place of the 90 starters when I shoved 61,000 at 3,000-6,000 with 10♣ 10♠ and ran into an opponent’s Q♦ Q♠. He flopped top set, I turned a flush draw, but made yet another early tournament exit.

Food . . . bed . . . then a long night of poker-based thinking ahead!

After spending a few days in Geelong I decided that it was time for a trip up the highway to Melbourne.

I wasn’t heading up for no reason as I had a basketball game at night, but with nothing on the cards for the night I decided that I would head up early so that I could dedicate the majority of the day to playing poker at Crown.

Arriving a few minutes before midday I registered for the PokerNews Cup Step 2 Sub Satellite which was a freeroll with optional $25 rebuys for a $250 Phase Two seat. I cashed in $100 at the cage giving myself five shells (including the initial free entry) at maximum to win a seat.

I splashed around a little in the rebuy period eventually having to donate $50 but when we went to break I opted not to add on as I had around 6k from the original 500-chip starting stack and 1,000-chip rebuys. Once play resumed I played fairly solid making one mistake holding nines, but eventually limped to the final table fairly short in chips.

Expecting the final table to fly courtesy of the typical fast Crown satellite structure, play hit a real stalemate with chips getting passed round and round. I slowly chipped up as we lost the first two players of the final table before another stalemate at seven players began. With only four seats and $40 on offer it was getting really frustrating grinding away, but once we were down to six and then five, play continued for about forty minutes before I convinced everyone to make a deal and throw in an additional $42 to make up a fifth seat.

Now that I had successfully won my third consecutive PokerNews Cup satellite I took my seat on a $1-2 NLH table after grabbing a quick bite to eat.

It was a pretty uneventful session as I turned my $100 into $244 when my A♦ 5♦ flopped two-pair against Ace-Queen.

I arrived at basketball early so that I could have a shoot around . . . and boy did it help!

Having not played a competitive game for near on eight months my first few shots were terrible until I started getting back into the groove that I use to experience for the Deakin Uni team as well as our highly successful (cough cough triple premiership cough cough) Mighty Ducks.

Playing with one of my old poker buddies in Aleks ‘Banana Thief’ Brkovic, he had formed a team based more on friendship then skill – and when we went down by ten points – it was even more obvious!

My passing was always my forte, and even though I managed some slick passes and assists here and there, I was still a little off, but hopefully as the season progresses my skills can creep up to the Jason Kidd / Jason Williams level.

As the clock tipped past 10pm I made my back into Crown to meet up with James for a catch up.

He cashed out a rack-plus from his $2-3 NLH table and we both made our way up to the food court to get a drink and some food before venturing outside to sit on the edge of the Yarra river. After discussing everything from whether or not I should move back to Melbourne to our friends and their assorted issues we eventually turned back inside so that I could hit the felt and he could make his way home.

I decided to jump on a $1-2 NLH table with two mates I bumped into earlier – Carey Ciuro and Loc Nguyen.

Carey was the first ever mate I made playing poker at Crown all those years back when we were both obnoxious kids, and since then we have tried to remain in contact, but only on occasion get to hang out while filling the void with meaningless online banter back and forth. He is one of only a handful of mates that I will willingly back into any cash game or tournament – well once he irons out the rust as he doesn’t hit the felt too much anymore.

Loc is also in a similar category as we met many years ago and began climbing the poker ladder from $1-2 to $2-3 to $2-5 NLH. Although he is busy with uni (still) he is a fun player to have on the table as he GAMBOOOOOLS like the best of them!

With Carey and Loc both being seated for some time, I took my seat to find myself under the gun.

Right there I knew the night wasn’t going to be profitable . . . just fun . . . as I straddled to juice some action up. I fluffed the flop and gave up, only to be stacked next hand by Carey when four players were all in on a 9♥ 8♥ 9♠ with Carey leading holding 9♣ 7♠, another player with 9♦ 4♠ and myself with 7♥ 6♥. Looking at a juicy $200-plus pot, my dreams of raking in all the chips were shattered when the turn and river ran out 4♥ and the 7♣ to see Carey take one step in my bad books.

I tossed a black $100-denomination chip to the dealer to get some change before slumping back into my chair to see my profits from earlier dinted very early in this late-night session.

An orbit went by before I ran my eight-high flush into a King-high one. I wasn’t stacked as I check-called a river bet when we both dinged a heart on the river to see me slip to around $30. I topped up and moved to Carey’s immediate right to continue chatting with both the boys.

Our conversation mainly revolved around Carey’s blog – Broken Lense – and the fact that my Tilted Behaviour link has disappeared from his ‘Please Visit’ blogroll. I quizzed him about what I had done to be removed (as a joke) and he informed me that I will be back on soon enough – for the record, of his seven links there, one doesn’t work and two haven’t been updated for two and three months!

Back to poker.

I then copped a sick beat after being dealt 10♥ 6♣ in the small blind. In a five-way hand the flop fell down 9♥ 8♠ 7♦ and I fired out $10 and was called by Loc and two drunk spastics. The turn fell the 7♥ and I lead out for $31, and after Loc folded (after I basically told him I flopped the second nuts) both the drunks called once again. The river landed the 4♦ and I pushed my last $46 into the middle and was called by only one of the drunks. I tabled my hand thinking that I was a lock to win the hand, but when he slowrolled his 7♣ 4♠ I dropped my jaw and re-bought once again.

Our table broke, but we still managed to find a table together on the other side of the Crown Poker Room before Loc went busto with top set against a rivered gutshot. Feeling stick courtesy of my continued downswing in the session, me and Carey came up with a game to keep us entertained.

Similar to the prop bet game Lodden Thinks where two people guess what a third party thinks an answer to a specific question is, this game had a few twists to it and still is yet to be named.

Basically we used a rotation of dealers – Alecia, Mandy and Lynn – and quizzed them on everything and anything for a $1 a question. Unlike Lodden Thinks where you basically set the line with one person taking overs and another unders, this involved multiple answer selections, single answers and the standard Lodden thinks answers.

What size bed do you sleep in? (single, double, queen, king)
Favourite item of clothing at the moment? (anything from leggings to jeans to jackets to scarfs)
Who is number 9 on your speed-dial? (unlimited)
Suburb you live in? (normally we choose three each)
How old your Dad is? (standard Lodden Thinks question of setting a line)
What faculty you belong to at University? (arts, business, social sciences)
Colour of your car? (blue, black, white, grey)
Where was your last holiday? (Japan, Hong Kong, USA)

I would assume you get the point now, and this game kept both Carey and I, along with the three dealers involved, as well as the table, amused for hours . . . and I mean hours as we asked every possible question under the sun!

During this time I got stacked again after being faced with a $10 bet on a 8♣ 8♠ Q♦ flop from yet another drunk kid (although celebrating his 20th birthday). I popped it up to $31 and he made the call to see the 8♦ land on the turn, and once he checked to me I put him all in. He made the call, and when the A♠ peeled off on the river he tabled his A♣ J♦ for a rivered bigger full house and a now comfortable $240 stack.

I turned to Carey just shaking my head at yet another beat and topped back up after only being left with $50. I found a double with top-pair against an underpair as the clock ticked pass 3am and both Carey and I were broken to yet another table.

Carey left at around 4:30am with profit that definitely did not reflect the softness of our three tables, and as 6am crept round I decided to make my way home with some money in hand as I took the long drive back down the highway to Geelong.

I was forwarded this link from a friend Tania . . . and if you had any thoughts on the 2009 AFL All Australian Team then you have to check this video out!

It definitely every nail on the head!

Continuing on the footy theme, the Brownlow was on tonight and (unfortunately) Gary Ablett won.

Just like everyone else (this statistic may not be correct) I also put some money on who would take Charlie home for 2009.

With Ablett being favourite at something ridiculous like $1.75 there was no point putting money on him. Instead I took some bets that would make me the most money, and were realistic . . . however they ended up being just a waste of money.

Gary Ablett 27-28 Votes @ $5.50 . . . . . . . . 30 votes
Gary Ablett 25-26 Votes @ $6.00 . . . . . . . . 30 votes
Nick Dal Santo 15-16 Votes @ $7.50 . . . . . . . . 17 votes
Adam Goodes 0-14 Votes @ $4.75 . . . . . . . . 17 votes
Dane Swan 19-20 Votes @ $7.50 . . . . . . . . umpires forgot what he looked liked
Matthew Boyd To Poll In Most Games @ $18.00 . . . . . . . . daylight

I thought my bet on Boyd could be likely since we won so many games and he was easily the best player for the year – therefore I thought he would feature well. I looked at the form guides for the other three players and predicted where I thought they may have finished.

Didn’t lose my life savings in those six bets, but will have to find a way to win them back soon!

With no poker tournaments to cover, why wouldn’t I want to play one myself for a change!

I headed down to Melbourne to play a home game with the usual crew, and for something different we decided on playing a $5 rebuy tournament with unlimited rebuys at the end of the rebuy period – so if you wanted to plonk down $50 you could get ten rebuys!

We started with the game with eight of us and $5 would get you a 1,000-chip starting bank. The whole aim was to be able to have more fun shoving all in for the same amount (we . . . well I . . . was estimating a $50 spend) that it would have cost for a normal freezeout.

I chipped up crazy during the rebuy period after getting stacked on the third hand, and decided not to add to my gazillion chips after the first three levels – therefore seeing me only in for $10 while a few others hit the $50 mark.

In the end I ended up coming third and shipping a min-cash of $40 when I opened Ace-King before open-shipping the flop and running into trip nines.

With only four of us remaining at Mat’s house, we watched some of last year’s Aussie Millions highlights before decided that a prop bet was in order.

We headed to McDonald’s where Mat would have to down a Big Mac, Fillet-O-Fish and 6 Nuggets while Brendan would have to finish 4 Cheeseburgers and a Sundae. The quickest would win $20 and have their meal paid for . . . check out the video to see who prevailed!

The next night we decided that some free pub poker degeneracy was needed and made our way to one of PokerNetwork co-workers APL venues which he runs.

Oatsy is a great character and always makes the night fun.

Like normal I lasted the longest until my Ace-Queen was one-outered and then my suited connecters failed to flop and we left the venue in search of something else to do.

We decided that a visit to the 24-hour KMart was the best option and opted with that before heading to Princes to play some table tennis.

It was never in doubt that I would be crowned the single and doubles Champion as I pawned Brendo, Mat and Stefan with ease. I then continued my dominance in a heads-up game of Risk with Mat before turning it in for the night.

After barely having a chance to settle in back home I received an email from Sean Callander requesting me to be on the new PokerNetwork Hour later that night.

Although unsure at first, I thought it would be a good idea to make an appearance on behalf of the PokerNews / PokerNetwork team, and consequently accepted knowing it would only be fifteen minutes of embarrassment!

The show kicked off at midnight, and about ten minutes in I received a phone call from SEN before being put on hold until I was needed.

I then spent the next five minutes discussing the Sydney Championships with hosts James Potter and Andrew Jeffreys before ending my short-lived radio career . . . well for another day hopefully.

Not having listened to the interview yet, I most likely stuttered, mumbled and ummed my way to sounded absolutely terrible, but if you feel up to it, you can download the whole show by clicking the link below.

PokerNetwork Hour – 16/9/09

Let me know your thoughts on a scale of one-to-ten on how much I sucked, or alternatively throw us some ideas that my improve the show in the future.