tilted behaviour

It was a surprisingly comfortable night in the car, and once up at around 11am I headed to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre for the second consecutive day to have a shower.

With the annual Shane Warne Foundation Charity Tournament being held at Crown, only two $1-2 NLH tables were in operation once I arrived, and consequently I had to wait nearly ninety minutes to grab a seat. I spent my time waiting round having some lunch and catching up with some friends – mainly tournament supervisors Frank Bianco and Renee Howard.

Once my seat was called I found myself seated next to fellow low-stakes grinder and mate Rob – who had been absent from the recent few weeks of home games as he has been opting to donk off at Crown!

It was yet another terrible session as I was in for $200 within the first hour before winning my first pot and then spent the next few hours doing absolutely nothing with the stack I had in front of me before eventually being in for $300. Rob was on tilt after donking his once $300-plus stack and left as James took a seat on my left (as seen playing poker below . . . maybe it ain’t his forte though).

We had both intended on playing the Aussie Millions Opening Event satellite, but due to my recent run bad I decided to just see what I could make of this third buy-in.

James busted from the satellite early and then proceeded to lose $200 in cash games as my stack had been cut to barely fifty big blinds. I decided to just see it out and try and run it up to $100 or get stacked before grabbing some food and maybe catching a movie before hitting the felt again later that night. With my last $23 I eventually got it in holding J♠ 6♠ after there was a raise to $10 and seven callers. The original raiser called the re-raise before the player on his immediate left pushed all in for over $150. Everyone folded, the original raiser called holding King-Queen to be in horrible shape against the re-raiser’s Kings. The board ran out with two Jacks on it, but when a nine-ball landed on the river to see the King-Queen make a straight I made my way to the rail as I waited for James.

James donked off another $100 and joined my upstairs in the food court to try and get off tilt. I cold drink and plate of rice later I was fine, but James wanted to hit the $5 blackjack tables.

Since I found it hilarious when he lost – as he was betting $5 a hand – I started cheering for the dealer to deal him 20 and himself 21 etc. Down $45, we left the blackjack table only to stumble across a $15 squeeze Baccarat table!

The only difference was that on ties you lost your bet, but if you made eight or nine with three cards you were paid out two-to-one. Following the trait of the last few hours, James dropped $200 after betting on the opposite to everyone else just so he could squeeze and then slowroll all of us slanty eyes.

He made his way downstairs while I remained trying to get unstuck. All I could manage however was a $50 profit after hitting nine in three cards on my last squeeze.

Returning downstairs I found James on a $2-3 NLH table, and once the seat on his immediate right freed up after a half hour of sweating him I decided to fill it.

Half an orbit would past until I was in the big blind and then proceeded to go on a mini-heater and win the next four pots. After James had straddled I flopped top pair holding King-Jack and found two streets of value, before check-calling three streets next hand holding King-Queen after flopping top pair on a straight and flushing board. The third hand saw my tens holding up against Ace-nine on a nine-high board, and my King-Queen managed to win another pot on the fourth hand after again flopping top pair.

Sitting with over $450 in front of me after my initial $200 buy-in, I decided to call it quits for the night after an orbit went by. This may have been a stupid decision but over the past few weeks every losing session has seen me profit on my first buy-in before getting stacked – and after the roller coaster of a week I have had I decided just to pocket the profits and return to Geelong.

All in all it was a huge week for me (sarcasm detector soaring) as I profited a whopping $90 after playing seven sessions over three days . . . sigh . . . what a waste of time . . . but least I didn’t lose!

A new week and another trip up the highway to play some cards!

Once I arrived at Crown at around lunchtime I sat down on a new $1-2 NLH table and gambled with my first $80 holding K♥ 10♥ against Aces, Kings and some random holdings on a board that ran out King-high.

I eventually ran my rebuy up to around $130 before opening to $6 with 9♣ 9♥ and after getting two callers, got a further two streets of value on a board of 10♦ 9♦ 6♣ 7♥ A♠ before Mat arrived after work and took a seat on my table. Just before we were due I was dealt 9♠ 8♠ and raised to $11 after two limpers. Both limpers called along with another player to see a flop of 9♦ 7♦ 10♣ fall. One limper fired out $15 and I made it $45 to go. Two calls later and the 6♠ on the turn saw me move all in with only one player making the call holding 4♦ 3♦. The river bricked out and I cashed out $271 as both Mat and I made our way to Brendo’s home game.

We were expecting thirteen-odd players, but as home games normally run, there were a few empty promises and just the normal group of guys turned up to fill the table.

I played terrible and was in for three buy-ins before managing to claw back a buy-in and some as the night wound up after playing five-handed for the last hour or so.

Mat was in the first week of his new 9-5 job, and even though he let me crash at his place in his bungalow, I was unable to access his shower and therefore had to think of an alternate mean of cleaning.

I jumped in my car and drove to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre in Albert Park to use the change rooms there. With RMIT holding their exams, it was completely packed with university students doing some last minute cramming before sitting down at a desk for a couple of hours. With both the basketball and badminton change rooms closed due to the exams, I made my way to the pool check-in and explained that I had been directed there – consequently avoided any admission fees!

Once clean and refreshed I made my way to Crown just before midday to hit the felt of a $1-2 NLH table.

Two hands stood out on my way to another losing session. Firstly after building my stack to around $185 I was dealt 9♥ 9♦, and was run down by A♣ 7♣ on a 5♣ 5♥ 2♣ 3♣ A♥ board.

Secondly I was dealt 10♠ 9♠ and opened to $6, and after finding two callers including the big blind, led out for $11 on a K♥ Q♣ 8♠ flop. One call, one fold and the J♦ fell on the turn followed by a $25 bet from me. Again my opponent made the call to see the 7♠ land on the river. I had a sick feeling (don’t laugh) that he may actually have Ace-Ten, but I really couldn’t miss any value and decided to bet $55. My opponent instantly moved all-in, and having only $25 behind, I made the call being sick to my stomach. Of course he rolled over A♥ 10♦ and I was forced to rebuy once again.

Down $200 I cut my losses and my way to our indoor soccer match in Doncaster where we triumphed once again in the first game of the season. With a scoreline of 17-10 of thereabouts I was only able to contribute a solitary goal from one attempt after spending most of my time in defence.

Even though James didn’t play, he joined us at Mat’s house where we spent some time recovering and playing this board game called Bluff.

Basically you start with a cup of five dice, roll the dice in the cup and reveal them in secret. The first player then bids on how many of a particular number have been rolled. For example if I said there were five three’s then there would have to be five three’s out of the fifteen dice in play. If a player thought I was bluffing, then would reveal all our dice. If they were correct I would lose one of my dice and we would continue playing. If they didn’t think I was bluffing they would up-the-bet by announcing five of a greater number or six of any number and so forth. The game is decided when your opponents have lost all their dice and you are determined the winner – of course there are a few more intricate rules but there is no need to explain them at this point in time.

We played until about 2am or so with James owning our Bluff souls! Mat hit the hay, James returned home and I ventured back to Crown for another session.

Once back at Crown I sat down at a $1-2 NLH table once again and pushed my $80 buy-in into $200. I basically grinded it up slowly before dropping a huge chunk of it before running a bluff. With a raise to $12 ahead of me and a few callers, I made the call holding A♠ 5♠ to see a flop of 7♦ 6♦ 3♠ fall and the original raiser fire out $20. Having $135 in my stack I made a raise to $55 as I firmly put this guy on Ace-King/Queen etc and felt that he would fold his two overcards – but if not I still had my guttaball as outs. After about three minutes in the tank he folded and I was back to $200.

Another orbit went by and I decided to cash out and take a break for a little while as I made my way upstairs to the smoking terrace where there was actually a nice breeze and no smokers to bother me.

I took my seat on another $1-2 NLH table with $80 and found it to be the most aggressive I had witnessed in a while. A player to my left would continuously open to $40 or $50 and continuation bet $50 to $100. When I arrived he had around $500 on him, and after about twenty minutes he had gifted it to everyone on the table apart from me. Then in a raised pot of $10 I held A♠ J♠ and check-raised all in against him on a J♥ 2♥ 2♦ board only to find him holding 6♣ 2♠.

Sigh! I rebought, but before I could take him on, he hadn’t gifted a further $200 to everyone and was on his way out the door. My rebuy would eventually be run up to over $300 after firstly turning top two in a multi-way pot and then rivering a straight and having an opponent bluff into me.

I decided to call it quits as the sun began to rise, and since I was in the city I decided to take residence in my car for the night . . . yes I am complete degen . . . and what made it worse that I did it last week and was even more prepared this week with a pillow, sleeping bag and some trackie pants to sleep in!

Today was a dark day in my short-lived poker career as I was officially dropped from the PokerNews team.

If you read this site on a regular basis, or know me in person, then you would be aware of the incident that occurred at Crown the other day during the PokerNews Cup. Consequently, with the head of the live-reporting team in town on holidays, we decided to have a meeting to discuss what was needed.

Organising to meet up with GG left butterfly’s in the pit of my stomach as I had no idea what the outcome was going to be, and after small talking for what seemed like an eternity, we the heart of the meeting.

After around twenty minutes of GG leading the talking and me sitting there stone-faced, it was decided that I wouldn’t be part of the PokerNews team anymore.

He did say that the door is still ajar if I am able to learn from my mistakes, work hard and prove to him that I can still be a worthy contributor, but with PokerNews being the only poker media in Australia, it is close to impossible to keep working as a poker journalist from out of Melbourne.

My working relationship with PokerNetwork is still in limbo as GG said that decision rests with Heath, Sean and Stephen, but I’m going to assume that due to the PokerNews / PokerNetwork relationship that I’ll also be dropped from local events.

So what now for thkcduckworth . . .

Obviously I want to stay in this field and still enjoy writing immensely, but it’s now just become a whole lot harder.

I’ll have to start exploring some options with other poker sites and use my network of contacts that I have built over the past two years to see what opportunities exist, but basically . . .

I really enjoy playing home games, but it’s been real hard recently while living down in Geelong.

However, thanks to Brendo, we have got a regular Tuesday night game up to keep our home game shenanigans kicking on!

Last Tuesday after hitting the set of the Australian Poker Hero we played a 50c-$1 No Limit Holdem cash game. It was fairly short-handed with only Mat, James, Stefan, Joe and another Brendan coming along.

I ran my $50 into about $90 with no real hands of note except a huge bluff I pulled against Stefan holding K♦ 9♦. I opened to $2.50 and the whole table called – as was usual – to see a 10♣ 5♠ 3♦ flop fall and a bet of $4 follow from Stefan out of the big blind. I made it $8 to go and when it folded back to Stefan he made it $16 total. I really felt I was ahead in the hand and he was in fact bluffing me, or that he held something really weak like bottom pair. Consequently my only move was to push back and announced all in for an additional $42 and change.

Stefan sat in the tank for eternity before I started exchanging friendly banter before beginning to fire every bullet I held in my arsenal. Eventually he reluctantly folded bottom pair, I tabled my bluffed, and I then raked the pot in.

He is a solid player and I’m hoping that I can use that hand to my advantage next time I flop a set or something against him.

That night I finally won the Australian Poker Hero satellite that I had been playing two to three times a day everyday since they started. I’ve ran deep in so many of them, but I finally won one . . . the only problem was that it was under Brendo’s account – but if he does go the whole way I do have 20% of him.

I just can’t believe the run I’m having in those APH satellites as well as other ones I’ve been playing – just getting unlucky while still running deep etc for no result.

On a side note, I made my first online Royal Flush the other day while playing 200-400 Limit Holdem on PokerStars . . . sigh it was just for play money!

The game got up again the following week minus Joe but with the addition of Shayan and Tim.

I lost just under two buy-ins running terrible, but I guess I used all my good luck on one of the first hands against Tim. He opened to $2.50 from early position with K♠ K♥ and I made it $7.25 with A♠ J♠before he made it $13.50 to go. I really wanted to five-bet all in but had about $42 behind, so I think a call can be justified. The flop fell down K♦ Q♠ 9♠ and he fired out $15 before I moved all in for $35.

After deliberating for a few minutes we decided to run it twice, and on the first board saw it run out 10♣ and the 3♣ while on the second saw it fell 4♣ and 3♠ to see me win both.

I pretty much leaked that stack and got into some really crappy spots where I had to fold after being turned or rivered.

Oh well, the home game circuit is back, and I can’t wait to keep grinding away the live micro-limits!

A few days ago I was asked to write a piece for the PokerNews magazine about the Australian Poker Hero TV series; and today was the day that I held an all-access backstage pass!

I arrived at Crown at around 8:30am and grabbed some breakfast and a drink to wake myself up before meeting up with Stephen Doig (who has recently taken the reigns of the magazine and other PokerNetwork related work) and Dan Nitschke who was our point of contact and Head of Marketing and Sponsorship for the APL.

He showed us around the set which was located in Studio 3 (the old Heat nightclub) before I bumped into two old mates in Paul Khoury and Mark Vos. I don’t see either of them much anymore, but when I do, it’s always guaranteed that jokes, insults and an all-round hilarious time will be had!

I spent the better part of two hours taking notes and watching how the set was constructed while the six contestants, along with Paul and Mark, prepared themselves for their moment in the spotlight.

As the first of two episodes for the day began shooting I made my way to the Outside Broadcast Van where Paul and Mark recorded their commentary and an infinite number of cables and screens were held. Being in the van for the episode was an . . . interesting experience . . . to say the least as Paul and Mark provided commentary gold mixed with a few mistakes and off-air insults to the players such as “George you muppet” and “what was he thinking?”

The show finished filming both episodes at about 5pm and I left having enough information for the magazine piece I needed to write.

Hopefully you all grab the next issue of the PokerNews Magazine to check it out, and make sure to leave any comments you have here, but for the meantime, here are some of the photos I snapped throughout the day.

On the set of the Australian Poker Hero

I didn’t blog about it, but the other day during the PokerNews Cup I busted my whole Full Tilt Poker account.

It wasn’t that much – just a few hundred dollars that had been owed to me a while back – that I had been using to play cash games and the occasional sit-n-go. However the night I went busto it was like a DOOMSWITCH had been flicked.

I was completely bored and decided to open up a Matrix tourney (four sit-n-go’s at once with points being allocated on finishing place on each table with a piece of the prizepool being paid out to the top three finishers) and proceeded to bust on all four on the first hand. It was just unbelievable – I wasn’t just shipping any old hand, but was actually dealt hands; Ace-King on one, Queens on another, straight and flush draw on another and two pair on the final one. GG Matrix!

Not really on tilt, but just surprised, I attempted to sit down at a HORSE or 7-game ring game but nothing was running. Instead I found a $2-4 HORSE heads-up table with a guy sitting down with just $60, and consequently decided to join him . . . BAD MOVE!

I proceeded to lose every pot against him. In Holdem I would have him dominated Ace-Queen to Queen Jack on a Queen-high flop, but somehow a Jack would fall everytime! I would brick every nut low draw in Omaha Hi-Lo, and all my high hands would be run down somehow. In Razz I would have an six-five and he would hit a runner-runner six-four to scoop, and this continued in the Stud orbits too.

After donating somewhere near $150 to him, I just headed to a No Limit Holdem table and proceeded to move all in every hand hoping to get lucky and double, or just bust my account and end the night . . . result . . . busted account!

Consequently with no desire to deposit on Full Tilt I’ve just been playing the Australian Poker Hero freerolls until recently discovering the FTP’s tournaments and sit-n-go’s.

With seats into the $750k Guaranteed being given away for as little as 40 FTP, I decided that it would be a good test to see if I could not only win one of these FTP satellites but also cash in the tournament to start rebuilding my bankroll.

After numerous final tables in both the freerolls and FTP satellites, I eventually reaped some reward when I finished runner-up in a 50 FTP satellite, before winning a 40 FTP SupTurbo Satellite to see me win a seat into the $250,000 GTD in a week where first prize is at least US$26,250.

Hopefully I can turn just 40FTP into some nice and welcomed MOOLAH after besting an 1135-player field in the 300-starting bank super turbo!

After checking out the Crown Tournament Calendar last night, I noticed a tournament that sparked my interest . . . a $50 with $25 rebuys Pot Limit Omaha tournament.

Down the highway I went and registered for the tournament before heading upstairs with Peter Aristidou to kill some time before we started. A hot chocolate (me) and coffee (him) later and we took our seats both on the feature table and both directly next to each other – myself in seat six while Peter took seat seven.

I gambolled with one hand holding just one-pair against an obvious pair of Aces in the hole when I flopped a pair and multiple backdoor draws. I bricked out and the Aces held as I was forced to rebuy. In the next major hand I held A♦ K♥ J♣ 10♣ and got it all in against Peter’s Queen-Nine-x-x and another opponent’s K♦ 2♦-x-x on a flop of J♦ 10♣ 6♦. The turn blanked, but the river fell the K♠ to see Peter scoop the pot and me rebuy once again.

Once through the rebuy period I added-on to see me in for $150 as I made a prop bet with Steve Topakas. With twenty-six players remaining and Topakas holding a 24,000-chip stack, I bet him $50 that he wouldn’t finish in the top six, and after a few minutes of umming and ahhing he decided to go ahead with the bet.

A few hands after we resumed I busted when my J♦ 9♣ 8♣ 6♣ was unable to improve on a flop of 9♦ 8♣ 6♦ against two players holding a straight, and one with the nut flush draw.

(Topakas would end up finishing in 7th place . . . ship the $50!!!)

I drove over to Mat’s house and we ate some lunch before heading to watch Melbourne Victory versus Sydney FC in an A-League soccer match at Etihad Stadium with Brendan.

Sydney FC defeated Melbourne Victory 3-0

After just 19-minutes Sydney had the game locked at 3-0 and it was funny watching the die-hard Victory fans either sit there sulking and abusing their players or up and leave.

Once the game was wrapped up we made our way to Crown as had a few hours to kill before heading to a friend’s going away party.

We opted to play some 50c-$1 PokerPro and all bought in for the minimum of $20. The PokerPro tables at Crown have recently undergone a software upgrade, and on our table you could live straddle and rabbit hunt – the rabbit hunt was obviously rigged, but we did take advantage of the straddle option throughout the night.

Mat couldn’t win a pot, Brendo played like an idiot and was lucky to have any money in the end, while I was able to turn my $20 into $120.75 as we had a drink and exited the Poker Room.

The reason we were heading to Platform One was to celebrate Kim Ayles’ going away party as she was leaving Crown to teach English in Nepal for a few months.

We grabbed a few drinks while catching up with James and Rob and had a huge night having some fun with Kim and some other friends we knew from Crown in a venue that we would probably never normally visit.

When I started taking tournaments more seriously one of the many things I added to my game was the implementation of a card protector.

When I played the WSOP Main Event in 2007 I signed up to the World Poker Association, and in return received a spade-shaped card protector. I began using this for every tournament I played until returning to Las Vegas this year.

I replaced my WPA card protector with a PokerNews one so as to be a good team member and try to spread PokerNews whether I was playing a tournament in Las Vegas or back home.

Recently however it was brought to my attention that the PokerNews card protector hasn’t been too good to me (no real results to speak of) and that I should replace it . . . now of course there is an argument that it’s not about the card protector but the player behind the cards . . . but sometimes poker players can be a little superstitious!

Consequently I decided to dump my PokerNews card protector and replaced it with . . .

Optimus Prime . . . leader of the Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron!

I grew up watching Transformers religiously, and now with a successful movie series, my love has returned. Hopefully Optimus can bring me some luck on the felt since Megatron has been silenced (for now) and protect my cards from being rivered, two-outered and outdrawn.