tilted behaviour

While playing the ladies event yesterday Elaine fell sick (insert pregnant rumours) and consequently couldn’t work her shift covering day two of Event 23: $2,500 Limit Holdem Six-Handed.

Replacing GeorgiaPeach will beeeeeeee thkcduckworth!

Well . . . that’s what the announcer should be saying . . . but alas it was no more then a schedule swap and exchange of emails to see me vacate the Hard Rock pool for the blogging desk.

Although we worked for twelve hours, Eric and I crushed the blog busting out post after post at an incredibly fast rate until we hit that 1am mark where everyone just wanted to past out. That includes the players too because once we hit the last three tables play slowed right up as we struggled to get anything decent to write about.

Play eventually finished just after 3am with twelve still remaining as a car load of us returned to the Hard Rock.

Greg, Mickey and I decided to pop into Mr. Lucky’s 24-7 to grab some pancakes as the degeneracy soon began.

Playing some Chinese Poker soon switched to me and Mickey doing a nine-card Omaha flop for the bill as my trips held up against his el oh el King-high. He soon discovered that my side of the bill was more than his and he flipped out . . . the result . . . we started high-carding for dollar bills as Greg soon joined in too.

It then became Razz flips before Mickey upped the ante and put all his change on the table so we could play a 2-7 Draw Lowball hand. Unfortunately for both he and Greg, I made a pat ten-seven perfect after we all were all-in predraw as I took Mickey for all the money he had in his wallet.

Unfortunately however this run good is the first I’ve experienced in the near three weeks I have been here in Las Vegas!

Not a single thing is going right. I’m losing every prop bet, getting two-outered in poker, crapping out and pai gowing to be down like something ridiculous. Here is the current tally of my run bad – well the stuff that my brain hasn’t blocked out as yet – and you will only see one profitable session!

$1-3 NLH at the Rio = $236
$1-2 NLH at the Hard Rock = $35
$2-4 Dealers Choice at the Hard Rock = $240
Prop Betting (Remko) = $10 (was -$180 about a week ago)
Prop Betting (F-Train) = $10
Prop Betting (Heath) = $10
Prop Betting (Donnie) = $50
Prop Betting (Ben) = $10
Craps (Hard Rock) = $700
Craps (Binions) = $100
Craps (Fitzgeralds) = $100
Roulette (Golden Gate) = $200
Bonus Texas Holdem (Hard Rock) = $150
Slots (Hard Rock) = $20
PokerStars Cash Games = $50
Full Tilt Poker Cash Games = $100
Betfair Sports Betting = $200

Hopefully Mickey has flicked the switch for me and things will turn round on all fronts!

Returning to the blogging desk I was fortunate to be on a championship event with Martin as we covered day two and the final table of Event 19: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship.

One of the things I really enjoy about working with Martin is that even though we don’t talk a whole lot during an event, we just work hard doing the best job we can pumping out as much stuff as possible. There is no nonsense with him and we just work well together as everything always runs smoothly. Throw in the fact that he is an English professor (I believe) and it always makes me more careful when posting hands and blogs, and also gives me the confidence in asking him any writing questions, as I know the answer is always going to be spot on.

Like most of the $10,000 buy-in events in the series, the field was spectacular with an incredible array of talented players making day two. Unfortunately we lost player after player until just ten remained including Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu and Andy Bloch.

Negreanu did manage to score his first cash of the series, but it also resulted in a final table bubble when he was unable to improve on his seven-wheel draw by catching a King.

The final table was highlighted by some slightly intoxicated Germans singing and chanting loudly for their countryman George Danzer. Supportive chants for Danzer and teasing ones directed at David Baker and Tom Dwan put everyone into bursts of laughter; especially the one “where is your bracelet Tom, where is your bracelet?”

The rowdy but highly entertaining crowd would vacate the final table arena when Danzer bowed out in third place before David Baker captured his first bracelet after entering heads-up play with a near five-to-one chip advantage.

After covering day three of Event 13: $1,000 No Limit Holdem yesterday I managed to somehow sneak another day off into my schedule.

With GG out of down and Donnie at work, I wasn’t able to head to their house to do my washing so consequently ventured across the road to the laundromat around lunchtime and put through two loads of washing. It only cost me $1.50 for each machine and $1.25 to use the dryers for just under half an hour, which – although I’ve never paid to do washing – seemed fairly cheap.

Jane swung by in the late afternoon and we headed to Fashion Show Mall to both get a haircut before going on an adventure to find her some sparkly silver shoes to match her blue dress. Let me tell you . . . shopping with Jane is a long and tiring adventure (punishment?) that took nearly three hours until we hit that pot of gold and found those shoes!

Since she was heading to some club opening (the reason behind the shoes of course), I got dropped off back at the Hard Rock to join the PokerNews Cash Game for some degenerate limit holdem action!

Kristy, Parvis and a bunch of the Deuces Cracked guys were there along with a few randoms as we decided to reduce the game to just $2-4 Limit Holdem. Kristy and the Deuces Cracked guys had to leave early, but Chad and Ben soon joined us along with some noobs to juice the action up further.

Sitting with $400, we all began juicing the game up as I announced that I would cap it wherever possible if Parvis – ie my boss – raised or bet. The chips flew back and forth between everyone, but cracking his set of Aces with a gutshot straight made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside while he slumped back with a what the fuck do I have to do to catch a break look on his face as he was down something ridiculous like $300.

Parvis left around midnight while we decided to switch the game to Dealers Choice spreading Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, Pot Limit Omaha and 2-7 Draw Lowball.

I inherited Parvis’ run bad and saw my $400 stack slide all the way down to just $160, but at least I managed to enjoy a $100 massage with one of the Rio massage girls named Stef – which coincidently is one of the ones I think is the cutest over the past few years.

We ended the night around 3am and made our way to Mr. Lucky’s 24-7 to have a late-night snack before Ben and I dragged Chad along to the Craps table.

I went on a pretty good roll to be up around $80 and once I hit the point I upped all my bets . . . of course I instantly set another point and then crapped out before running out a $200 loss for the night on top of my poker loses and massage expenses!

After jumping on day two of the Event 10: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship with F-Train, I finally would work my first full event with the Event 14: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball.

The corresponding event last year was a $2,500 buy-in and attracted a 147-player field with Phil Ivey beginning his magical run of six WSOP cashes, three final tables and two bracelets with victory for $96,367. Unfortunately Ivey, along with five-time lowball Bracelet holder Billy Baxter, and many others all hit the rail as only 67 managed to bag their chips with Nick Binger sitting on top coming into day two.

Probably the highlight of the day was having Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu approach me at the blogging desk to apologise for their tirades on Twitter at PokerNews as they didn’t really understand the whole issue of Harrah’s forcing us to import all players into our chip counts page meaning that it was impossible to keep all 3,000 NLH donkament players updated. They knew it wasn’t my – or any other blogger or field reporters – fault, but it was a Harrah’s issue . . . so consequently we hope things go a lot smoother now with some of the high-profile players.

Sigi Stockinger (25th), Jose-Luis Velador (24th), Tommy Hang (21st), Chris Viox (18th), JC Tran (15th), Erik Seidel (14th), Chris Bjorin (13th), Scott Seiver (12th), Bryan Micon (11th) and David ‘Chino’ Rheem (9th) were some of the incredibly talented players that had a crack at making the final table, but inevitably fell just shy as a final seven would be formed following the elimination of Daniel Nicewander on the bubble.

One of the enjoyable plays of the day I saw was when Sigi Stockinger opened to 1,800 from the cutoff only to have Dario Minieri three-bet from the small blind to 5,850. Stockinger made the call and both stood pat before Stockinger folded to Minieri’s roughly 9,000 all-in bet. Minieri tabled his A♠ A♥ A♦ 10♣ 4♠ to get a good laugh out of the table and me.

The final table was expected to be a long lasting affair with some high-class players looking to capture their first (well second for Mike Wattel) WSOP bracelet. However it was completely opposite as the action kicked up into full pace as we witnessed double ups, outdraws and eliminations until play was heads-up. Both Wattel and Yan Chen slowed things down until play was paused for dinner, only to return into three-bet city until Chen proved victorious!

The one thing I did enjoy about the event was that it furthered my desire to play single draw instead of triple draw 2-7 Lowball. I think that single draw is better for beginner players as it teaches you a little more about strategy then in triple draw where you basically just keep calling and calling and calling.

Sorry that this blog entry has been so boring, but there hasn’t been much going on since I’ve been so busy working.

However I would like to share a picture with you that one of the Dutch PokerNews guys named Remko shared with me the other day which made me el oh el . . . literally . . . because I burst out laughing on the media stage while everyone was dead quiet typing away on their computers.

The ‘Real’ Australia

Two days off felt great, but it’s also enjoyable to be back behind the computer for PokerNews after starting the WSOP on the floor as a reporter.

Unfortunately it also means that I will be enduring a seven-day stretch of work that includes four different events, two final tables and three different games!

Tuesday saw me work with Rich covering the Event 6: $5,000 No Limit Holdem Shootout. The 358-player field formed easily one of the toughest collection of starting tables that the World Series will witness this year, and consequently it was no surprise that the thirty six players that made it through to round two were of the highest calibre in the shootout format.

Just try and pick a winner out of James Akenhead, Dario Minieri, John Duthie, Chad Brown, Tom Dwan, Joseph Elpayaa, Christian Harder, Blair Hinkle, Eugene Katchalov, Faraz Jaka, Justin ‘Boosted J’ Smith, Chino Rheem, Max Pescatori and Chris Ferguson!

Another day and another event saw me tackle all the day one action of Event 8: $1,500 No Limit Holdem with one of our new bloggers Chad.

It was just the standard [i]donkament[/i] with over 2,000 players being eliminated from the starting 2,341, and if you read the coverage – which you should – you will realise that it has a very Jean-Robert Bellande and Phil Hellmuth feel to it.

How could it not really as these two guys are some of the most entertaining poker players to ever walk the hallways of the Rio. Hellmuth obviously sits in a class of his own with eleven bracelets and the ability to run his mouth in a way that attracts droves of people to sweat his every action three rows deep on the rail. Bellande – via his twitter account BrokeLivingJRB – details his crazy swings in poker and in life as he attempts to live the dream running up a million-dollar bankroll from nothing.

Late in the day Hellmuth got moved to Bellande’s table and that’s when fireworks between the two sparked continuously. They did both manage to survive the day to be placed in the top twenty, with this hand being one of the highlights.

courtesy of PokerNews
Bellande Playing Perfect, JRB Training School Soon To Open!
Jean-Robert Bellande opened to 3,000 from middle position and Phil Hellmuth made the call.

On a flop of 9♦ Q♥ 9♣ Bellande fired out 5,000 and Hellmuth quickly made the call to see the 7♣ land on the turn and a check follow from Bellande.

“How much you have left?” asked Hellmuth.

Bellande sat there looking blankly at the board before parting his hands so that Hellmuth could view in full sight his chip stack.

“What’s the total?” Hellmuth asked the dealer as the dealer cut down Bellande’s stack to total 25,400.

“Small bets mean nothing” stated Hellmuth as he tossed in a 3,800-chip bet which Bellande called before both players checked the 2♦ on the river.

Bellande tabled his 8♠ 8♣ and Hellmuth asked, “what he have?”

Hellmuth nodded his head and flashed his 4♥ 4♠ before folding to slip to 54,000 as Bellande began to rake in the pot to climb back to 48,000.

“Your small bets mean nothing Phil” Bellande added.

“All those guys that watch poker VT are wasting their time. If they want to play perfect poker they should just put a camera behind me. I couldn’t of played that hand any better,” Bellande finished off much to the amusement of the rail and fellow table combatants.

My first final table of the series saw me return to Event 6: $5,000 No Limit Holdem Shootout with Rich.

The six remaining players – Joshua Tieman, Stuart Rutter, Brent Hanks, Neil Channing and Joseph Elpayaa – were all starting seventy-five big blinds deep with 1,500,000 in chips, but the final table amazingly lasted only four hours as Tieman crushed souls to be crowned the Event 6 Champion and $441,692 richer.

Since me and Rich were out early – for probably the only time this series – we wondered aimlessly round the room checking out some of the other events before heading to dinner with the PokerNews head honcho Matt.

We headed to McFadden’s and enjoyed a burger before I made my way back to the Hard Rock. I showered and watched some TV before deciding that it would be a good idea to go gamble and play some Craps.

Bad idea.

I quickly was up $200 or so on my roll as I kept rolling sixes and eights while hitting the occasional point. I eventually did crap out, and that started a bad roll from the whole table as that $200 profit was wiped and then the $300 I had in my wallet was wiped too.

The final result for the night . . . I have just five bucks in my wallet and an assortment of nickels, dimes and quarters on my bedside table . . . I love Vegas!