tilted behaviour

Instead of detailing all the boring tidbits of what is going on on my day off, I thought I would share with you something that one of my fellow PokerNews peeps showed me the other day to send me into a fit of laughing hysteria on the media desk.

There is no need to explain it . . . just watch them!

Days off are a treasure during the WSOP, but since I had only worked two days I felt like I had to go out and do something instead of sleeping and relaxing in my hotel room at the Hard Rock.

DK picked me up in the afternoon and we swung by the PokerNews house to pick up Rich before heading Downtown to see how GG was doing in the one of the Binions Poker Classic events that I had bought a piece of (inclusive in a Vegas Summer Series combo on ChipMeUp).

Unfortunately by the time we arrived he had already busted out and consequently left us stranded Downtown. With DK and Rich virtually broke and unable to gamble I decided to stake them $100 with a 50% freeroll on any profits they made. We all sat down on a Bonus Texas Holdem table . . . bad idea . . . as Rich went busto quickly, while I dropped $50 as DK was the only one able to profit. I gave Rich $100 to play Craps but that too went back to the house as we went for a walk to find some cheaper gambling options.

Finding a $1 roulette table at the Las Vegas Club I proceeded to lose $200 in about five spins before we decided to call it a day and make our way home. First of all though we would have to validate parking at Fitzgeralds, but like most degenerates, standing around waiting near a Craps table was never a good option.

With my final $100 I gave it to Rich to play Craps and that soon slipped down to around $30 until some middle-aged lady here on a vacation got the dice and went on a mega roll to see us cruise up to around $550. She then set the point on a 10 and we had $48 on both the six and eight as well as $50 on the pass line and $100 behind – a total of nearly $250 on the table. But as all gambling stories end, she obviously crapped out with a seven just as we upped our bets to leave us with around $300, which soon turned into $200 before we finally ended the day – with my wallet $400 lighter.

We decided to pop into the Rio to hang out, and after dinner I decided to play some $1-3 No Limit Holdem as DK and Rich headed home.

Buying in for $300 I picked up a couple of small pots before doubling up a short-stack when my Ace-King couldn’t improve against her pocket fives. Not needing to top up as I still had a full stack I then was dealt A♦ 9♦ and limp-called a small raise to see an Ace-high flop fall. I checked, my opponent fired out $30 and I shoved on him as he only had $100 or so behind. He took about three minutes to call before tabling his Q♣ Q♦ and found a third Queen on the river.

“Sorry dude”

“Well then you’re obviously not sorry. No need to lie mate”

I put my earphones back in and pulled out a couple of $25 chips to top up to a full stack before going an hour or so of not being dealt much. I three-bet a few people here and there before being dealt K♣ Q♦ on the button and made it $16 to go after a limper. This guy who had just jammed the river with air the previous hand made the call from the small blind as did the spaz nut in the big blind to see a K♠ 6♦ 10♠ flop fall. It was checked to me and I fired out $32 and was called by just the small blind as the repeat 10♦ landed on the river. Following his play previously where he jammed the river after his opponent checked top two behind on the turn, I decided to check as well as the K♦ landed on the river. He surprisingly checked and with around $100 in his stack and about $110 in the pot I was put in a quandary of what to do. I wanted to get maximum value from his likely holding of Ace-Queen or Ace-Jack and decided to fire out $53. About two minutes went by before he called with his A♦ J♦ as I was gifted a nice pot.

I then made two-pair with 10♦ 9♦ but was counterfeited against Kings before I bricked a straight flush draw and a pair against the same guy and was forced to fold to his river shove.

Then this interesting hand came up where after one limp I raised the button to $15 with A♣ J♣ and found a call from a tight player in the small blind before the limper called. The flop fell down A♦ 6♥ 4♥ and the limper donked out $25 only to have me raise to $62. The small blind then check-raised all in for $202 as the limper immediately folded. This guy had been so tight and although it was only costing me $140 to win about $340, I eventually folded believing that I never am in good shape in this spot. A few of the hands he later played (tank calling with top-top etc) made me believe I made the right fold.

I was rivered a couple of times when my two-pair went down to some four-card straights and I eventually finished down for the session $236 to take my losses for the day to $636 . . . FWIW days off suck!

The chips are being riffled, the cameras are rolling and the prop bets have began . . . and so has the 2010 WSOP!

The first day of the Summer saw me on the floor covering Event 2: $50,000 Poker Players Championship (8 Game Mixed). Obviously the field was stacked with the likes of Ivey, Negreanu, Hellmuth and Brunson, but it was the unlikely starters that pondered us to ask how many of these players actually had a $5million bankroll – which would be the expected amount needed to play this event – to sit down and battle with some of the best in the world?

During the two days I spent on the floor I enjoyed some great banter between the players including this gem from Mike Matusow as players were discussing breaking things while playing online.

“Yeah I’ve thrown about five mouses [mice] though my wall . . . they don’t really count though as it was during the whole Ultimate Bet scandal when I was getting cheated out of millions”

Another interesting thing that I witnessed was a play made by Phil Ivey during a 2-7 Triple Draw (a game in which the low poker hand wins – straights and flushes count against your hand unlike in Razz and Aces are high) hand. Abe Mosseri raised in early position and Ivey made the call from the button holding 3-2-2-2-x. Mosseri drew two and Ivey drew one before standing pat after Mosseri called his bet. Mosseri again drew two but instantly folded to Ivey’s next bet.

The one thing that nearly every one of the 116 players were talking about was a Fantasy Poker draft that they had started where several players drafted and bought players for their team and insane prop betting followed. This follows closely to the PokerNews WSOP Fantasy competition that I have put into place amongst fellow workers and friends.

It’s a $100 buy-in and is split amongst two prizepools – one for most cashes and the other for most winnings – with each team being made up of ten players under ten different categories. Here is my team.

Female: Annette Obrestad
Previous WSOP ME Winner: Phil Hellmuth
USA nationality: JC Tran
Canadian nationality: Sorel Mizzi
European nationality: Bertrand Grospellier
Other nationality: Jeff Lisandro
Online: Andrew Lichtenberger
Full Tilt Poker sponsored: Phil Ivey
PokerStars sponsored: Daniel Negreanu
Other sponsored: Brandon Cantu

I really wanted to squeeze Alexander Kostritsyn, Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson and Nam Le in the team, but simply there wasn’t enough room!

One however I would gladly drop two players for is Kirk Morrison.

Kirk who? you may be asking, but he is the first friend that I made when I arrived in Las Vegas back in 2007. Having spent time in New Zealand with one of my mates that I was in Las Vegas with – who was also playing the Main Event – we soon got to know each other. He is an Aussie/Kiwi at heart with a love for a good beer and fondness for the word mate, and after a hot few months that included a second in the WPT Championship to Carlos Mortensen, five WSOP cashes including a final table and a deep run in the Main Event he just disappeared off the radar.

He turned down a PokerStars contract and probably has played no more than a dozen poker tournaments since his hot WSOP run of 2007 . . . but after the previous two days, I’m glad to say that he is back!

Spending some time with him yesterday as he slowly crept up the leaderboard to eventually sit on top, Kirk detailed that he is planning on playing a decent schedule of around twenty events.

Everyone out there reading Tilted Behaviour today, tomorrow or in seven weeks time when the WSOP is over . . . Kirk Morrison is going to have the hottest WSOP of anybody . . . and is going to kick it off with victory in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.

It’s that time again . . . time for the 2010 World Series of Poker!

In just a few minutes the first event of the Summer – Event 1: $500 Casino Employees No Limit Holdem – will kick off seven weeks of hotly anticipated poker action live from the Rio.

Not only is this my fourth WSOP, but also my third with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team.

The 2010 PokerNews Live Reporting Team for the WSOP

I will again be behind the computer under the moniker of thkcduckworth blogging away poker history as our boss likes to put it.

As expected I will be updating Tilted Behaviour as often as possible detailing my gambling degeneracy, poker chronicles and tales that aren’t suitable for the PokerNews blog.

So make sure to keep refreshing this page as I try and share my WSOP experiences with you.

With Mickey flying in from the east coast late last night, Greg, Mickey and I decided to all meet up for some lunch at the 24-hour dinner-type restaurant called Mr. Lucky’s 24-7.

Funnily enough we all ordered breakfast and spent the next hour or so catching up and sharing laughs before they both retired to their rooms for some quiet time as I prepared for the Brunson Beer Pong Invitational III!

I wasn’t actually playing, but we had a few representatives in with F-Train and Eric teamed up while GG and Kristy were also playing. Throw in Doyle and Todd Brunson, Erick Lindgren, Vanessa Rousso, Eli Elizra, lots of alcohol and pride on the line, and it was bound to be an interesting day.

F-Train and Eric busted first round while GG and his partner made it through to round two only to exit pretty quickly.

GG shoots . . . and scores!

GG and Donnie however started some $20 games and proceeded to make some handsome moolah as they dispatched of team after team – including smashing by Beer Pong cherry . . . but in my defence I did manage to sink six cups like a slanty-eyed white Kobe, however it was just my partner Rich that epically failed after declaring his Beer Pong super skills!

We all called it an early night again with meetings tomorrow before the WSOP kicks off on Friday with Event 2: $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship (8 Game Mixed) being my first event of the 2010 series.

Following such a long sleep I awoke fresh and early with a whole day ahead of me.

I went and checked out the pool before decided to head to the Strip in search for a prepaid phone as well as checking out if anything had changed over the past twelve months.

Since it was only 9am and the sun wasn’t beating down hard I decided to walk the combined three miles up to Planet Hollywood and then down the Strip to Fashion Show Mall where I happened to stumble upon a free wifi connection. I obviously spent the next hour on Facebook reading up on all that’s been happening over the past two days I’ve been without internet access.

All Facebook’d out I found a mobile store where they tried to sell me a prepaid phone with just $10 credit for $100 . . . plzzz mate I told them and headed to the food court to grab some Subway – which amazingly – is half the price it is back home.

I made my way across the road to a Walgreens and bought some essentials as well as a $35 prepaid phone that featured $30 of credit and 300 minutes before returning to the Hard Rock.

Greg Lewis – who I worked the 2008 WSOP with – had just checked in and we caught up before Dave King came over to pick us up for a BBQ at GG’s house.

The boys were cooking after losing a bet so I decided to play some cash on PokerStars (with a little bit of success) before twelve of us enjoyed a great BBQ while watching Phoenix own souls as the USA soccer team lose to a country that isn’t even in the World Cup this year!

Being all poker degenerates we decided to play a cheap $10 sit-n-go that soon turned into a twelve-handed turbo then a $10 rebuy!

Once Kristy wrapped it up, we all turned in for the night with a long day of Beer Pong planned for tomorrow.

“Your flight has been delayed”

Easily the last thing you want to hear after a nine-hour plane ride from Asia, no sleep and a sixteen-hour flight to the USA ahead of you.

“I can’t give you an aisle seat either sir. The flight is full”

Probably the second last thing you want to hear, but on a positive note I would be in Las Vegas today even if it was with a two-hour delay.

Since it was five hours until my flight, I did what most people would do in such a situation . . . play online at McDonalds! I soon got bored of that and decided to head through immigration where I found my gate and had an hour or so sleep on the ground before finally moving to a row of seats.

”Final boarding call for Qantas flight . . .”

I found my seat near the back of the plane next to a fairly large-sized couple who made it tough for me to get comfortable even after being switched to an aisle seat.

I managed to sleep about ten hours – although of not much quality – and touched down in Los Angeles feeling rather fresh as I made my way to another terminal to catch my connecting flight via American Airlines. I perused the shops, read the newspaper and grabbed a bite to eat before boarding the vessel that would carry me the last 280 miles of my long journey.

The snowy mountains and 65-degree temperature that Las Vegas greeted me with was quickly saddened after arriving at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and being delivered another piece of bad news of my room not being available for another hour or so.

Eventually after getting into my room that overlooked the stunning pool, I unpacked and was ready to hit the strip . . .

. . . but then jetlag somehow swooped in and tucked me into bed for fourteen-hours! And it was only 4:30pm!

There wasn’t too much gambling or kicking back in saunas, but pretty girls, great company and many drinks were favoured while Victorino Torres fought his way through a 342-player field to become the next champion of Macau when his 8♣ 7♣ for a flopped straight held true against Chong Cheong’s straight draw.

With Macau being the second stop for season four on the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), it is still highly prestigious, and therefore be setting the precedent for the upcoming five-stop season, and consequently, we’ll kick it off with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: APPT Macau.

1 – Accommodation: When traveling around the world covering tournaments there is always a budget that you are trying to sneak under so that you can make some money on the top. Both the PokerStars and PokerNews media members had no idea how, but were very willing to accept, the hell we lucked it out with fantastic rooms at the Grand Lisboa. I mentioned earlier that the rooms we had been allocated were incredibly balla, but really it’s so hard to imagine without actually being there! Poker journalists and tournament reporters will take any freebie we can get our hands on, and when the APPT and PokerStars put us up at a place like the Grand Lisboa, then the whole working week becomes a freeroll.

2 – Tournament Structure: Danny McDonagh has always created fantastic structures for any event that he is running, and the APPT one is no exception. WIth just seven levels on each of the three day ones, it means that players get maximum play without feeling run-down after a long day on the felt. Easily a three-day event, having the tournament spread over four days proves to the players that are willing to make the journey to Macau, that they’re interests are at the most importance.

3 – Where Is Everyone?: Last year the APPT increased the buy-in from HK$25,000 to HK$40,000 and there was always an expected decline in numbers. However it was enough to decrease from the prizepool as there was nearly a US$90,000 increase in first place prizemoney. This year however the numbers slid once again from the 429 that turned out last August down to the 342 that took to the felt over the past few days. Yes our poker economy might not be at it’s most vibrant right now, but I think it is the next point that lead to the disappointing numbers for 2010.

4 – It’s To Squishy!: No I’m not talking about the distance between tables and players but the fact that the season four stop for Macau was moved three months from it’s usual late-Winter time slot. I have nothing against moving the tournament, but whoever decided to do this really didn’t take a close look at the schedule of tournaments around the Australasian area. A few weeks previous we had the New Zealand Poker Championships, followed immediately by ANZPT Sydney only to have Macau and then the Melbourne Poker Championships. For those mid-tier players that want to reduce as many traveling expenses as possible, having to choose between New Zealand, Sydney, Macau and Melbourne, then they’re are likely to choose to Sydney and Melbourne due not only to the location but also the prizepools on offer and the schedule of events available. Let’s not forget about the WSOP Main Event where most online players will be looking to spend hours trying to satellite in ahead of one of the stops on the APPT!

5 – Media Considerations: I wrote about this in the last Eight Points of Enlightenment I did for Macau, but the staff at the Grand Lisboa do a great job in making us feel comfortable while we work. Whether it is PokerStars player packs or HK$50 and HK$100 meal vouchers, they do their best to make us feel at home. The only issue that we had – as we did last year – was where we were located. Although moving across the tournament floor, we were still jammed up against a wall that had people going to the toilet at one end, tables where the action was on one side and the buy-in desk and storage areas at the other end. The Grand Lisboa isn’t the most spacious poker room I’ve worked in, but some space reserved out the back away from all the smokers and railbirds would have made our life a lot easier.

6 – Poker Fans Welcome!: The one thing I have never seen around the world – well kind of apart from the WSOP – is the fact the Grand Lisboa sold PokerStars clothing, gear and accessories. From jackets, hoodies and hats to chip sets, card protectors and previous season DVDs, the Grand Lisboa merchandise store had nearly everything a poker crazed fan would love to own. None of the gear was dirt cheap, but it wasn’t going to cost you a buy-in on the tables either as nearly everyone – including us media freeloaders – walked away with one piece of gear for ourselves or friends back home. Hint to all poker tournaments . . . sell awesome gear for the players and they’ll keep coming back for more!

7 – Party Time: For the last two years the Asian Poker Tour (APT) has set the trend in partying while in Macau, but PokerStars finally stepped up this year delivering a better-than-average player party on day 1c. Although it was randomly in the middle of the tournament – instead of being at the start or end – it meant that virtually everyone could attend. Unlike the APT where there are fantastically gorgeous girls in lingerie splashing round in a bath full of bubbles, PokerStars Macau delivered with a buffet, a spacious set up in the ballroom and huge variety and supply of alcohol along with a Michael Jackson impersonator that no one really appreciated (well apart from myself and a few others!). They are still learning the trade of throwing a party, but PokerStars Macau and the Grand Lisboa are definitely on the rise in my party power rating!

8 – The Money Is Staying Closish: Victorino Torres may not be a local, but he is only a hop, step and a jump away in the Northern Mariana Islands. It could have easily been different with players from New Zealand, Norway, Costa Rica, United Kingdom and the USA all on the final table. Keeping the money predominately local is a must in some of these developing poker areas so that new players that live in and around the area can be develop an interest in the game, so that in the long run, the small Australasian poker community can continue to grow.

With APPT Macau all wrapped up, it’s time to head over to Las Vegas for the Mecca of poker tournaments . . . the 2010 World Series of Poker!

Make sure to stay tuned to Tilted Behaviour for all my updates along the way!