tilted behaviour

Waking up well after midday, I sat around the PokerNews Mansion doing absolutely nothing before Heath and I decided to continue our table tennis battle from the other day.

Although he proved victorious 3-2 on the last occasion, I finally hit my straps on this one and crushed his soul fairly easy before both of us, along with Kirsty, decided to make our way to the Premium Factory Outlets for some retail therapy.

My plan was to buy a few pairs of shoes and a nice jacket, but failed miserably at the shoes while finding two half-decent jackets at Calvin Klein. I decided to hold off on the purchases until after the series as Heath was the only one to buy anything as we all returned home; and me to the Hard Rock.

With it being Chad’s last night in Las Vegas, we decided that we should go and hit the strip and do some gambling and drinking.

Our first stop was at Casino Royale to play some $3 Craps and drink some fruity margaritas. This was bad choice numero uno . . . not for the margaritas, but for the choice of playing Craps as we both lost; mine hitting the wallet a little heavier for three bills!

What!?! How could you lose $300 on $3 Craps you may be asking . . . well the reason is I was playing it more like $30 Craps than $3 and the fact that the luck of the dice wasn’t rolling our way didn’t help either. While Chad tried to run up his last few dollars, I found my way to a $1 Roulette table where I was betting at a minimum $60 a hand. Only buying in for $100, it lasted me a dozen spins or so before I punted it off and we made our way to O’Shaes to play the midnight $45 tournament.

It was a turbo structure with only a 2,000-starting bank, and after check-raising all in with top pair in the third level and getting snapped off with a flush draw, I was out before Chad when he spiked another club on the river. I dumped another $100 on Craps there, before Chad bite the dust and we made our way back to the Hard Rock.

Chad decided to call it a night as he had an early flight the next day, but I decided to kick on and play some $1-2 NLH in the poker room.

I chipped up quickly when a guy limp-shoved over my three-bet (raise to $7, then to $18) with deuces and I called off his $104 with Queens as the board blanked out.

A few orbits later I made it $7 to go with A♠ Q♠ and found three callers before firing out $16 on a A♦ 10♠ 2♥ flop. It was called round before the big blind led for $60 when the turn landed the 2♠ with only me calling before the 5♥ on the river went check, check. He tabled his Q♣ 10♦ and I collected the pot to move to $428 before chipping up to $486 after cracking Queens with King-Jack when I flopped two-pair.

The switch was then flicked as I proceeded to lose every hand thereafter. I was two-outered twice, and rivered three-times by the same guy in virtual back-to-back-to-back hands before losing my last $85 in a straddle pot with Queens against the straddler’s Aces to finish down a buy-in at the Hard Rock and $900 overall for the day!

I wish I had worked today!

Not able to hit the money yesterday, Day 4 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event was going to become the money day for the first time in WSOP history!

Stripped of both blogging and reporting duties, I was sentenced(?) to iPad duty which entailed me continuously updating chip counts of my area roughly on average every ten minutes.

Based in the blue section of the Amazon Room, we were blessed with the majority of the chip leaders along with some of the better known players which made my job a little difficult at the start until Mickey came over once the remainder of the Pavilion Room broke.

As we neared the bubble, all those memories of playing like a donk in 2007 came flushing back as I wish I had a chance to revoke my button shove and just fold for two more hands so that I could have been US$20,320 richer!

The only positive thing about my bubble bust (apart from what I personally learnt), is the fact that many players either go out in worse situations, or play their hand horrible.

For the 2010 Bubble Boy Tim McDonald after being faced with a raise to 10,000, he made it 30,000 (of his 67,500-chip stack) to go as his opponent made the call to see a A♣ A♠ 2♦. Check, all in for 37,500, snap call! McDonald tabled his Q♣ Q♠ and his opponent tabled A♥ 2♥ for a flopped full house. Two Queens needed, but only one fell, as McDonald bite the dust just shy of the $19,263 payday but with an added bonus of a seat into the 2011 Main Event!

Only 575 players made it through to a day five berth, with adopted Aussie Tony ‘Bond18′ Dunst leading the field with over 1.5 million in chips.

Bruno, Rich, Heath and I all had a day off tomorrow so we decided to play a home game at the PokerNews Mansion where they were all staying.

We were expecting to get a few others, but due to some (soft) reasons, it ended up being just the four of us as we played $0.25-0.25 NLH on the pool table.

I was chipped down early and was forced to top up so I was in for $100 before my first major hand was when I stacked Bruno. He was playing like a banana, and after a three-bet Heath’s 75c open with A♦ Q♠ to $3.25 and Bruno made it $8.50 or so, I shipped it in. Bruno made the call for his last $30 or so with Kings, but when a Queen fell on the flop and the river, he was tilted and forced to rebuy.

I stack Rich when I overbet shoved my 5♠ 3♠ on a 9♠ 8♠ 2♥ 5♦ after he checked. He snapped off his last $60 (into a pot of around $15) with K♠ J♠, and was unable to improve after running it twice.

Then there was this hand that upset Heath after I opened K♣ Q♣ to 75c and the table called around to see a Q♦ 4♥ 4♠ flop fall. Rich and Heath checked as I fired out a bet of $2.50 with Bruno folding before Rich made the call as Heath bumped it to around the $8 mark. I three-bet to $24 and Rich passed as Heath smooth-called. We both checked the repeat Queen on the turn before the river landed the 5♥ and he check-called a bet of $10.25 with 10♣ 4♣ before launching into a tilt tirade once Rich told him that he folded a Queen too.

Heath eventually finished off Rich before we both played heads until the darkness of night had been transformed into early morning sunlight as I profited $194 from the friendly home game before finding comfort on the couch for some sleep!

Departing the PokerStars party last night completely sober meant that for once I could make fun of my fellow hungover blogging partner!

And of all people, it was the normally sensible, recently married and over 30 Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick!

Not at all in the best shape courtesy of countless beers, he arrived with water and gatorade in hand hoping that he could make it through Day 3 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Both of us were located in the Pavilion Room and expected that we would lose all our tables by the end of the day. We did have a few of the big names and big stories such as virtual POTY Frank Kassela and fellow contender Dan Heimiller, along with Allen Cunningham and the always aggressive Alexander Kostritsyn.

However it was one chair that was empty that bemused us . . . the empty chair of Jack Ury.

Ury has been playing the Main Event for the last few years, but what is amazing is that he is 97 years old! Hailing from Terre Haute, Indiana, Ury has been playing poker since 1923, and the 2010 Main Event marks his first at reaching day three.

For this fact alone, and of course that he is a little older than the average player, it made us at PokerNews a little worried that Ury wasn’t in attendance. Eventually he and his 8,200-chip stack was blinded off but we were later informed that Ury was fine.

2,557 began the day, but only 1,203 would survive with James Carroll leading the charge, and for those wanting to see a fairytale Main Event, then it was the player ninth in chips that everyone was rooting for . . . Johnny F**king Chan!

Waking up to catch the Netherlands vs Spain World Cup Final, I was partly sweating it because I laid a bet at the start of the World Cup for Spain to win.

With the game locked up at half time, I decided to head to the Strip so that I could get some of the pieces needed for the prank I was going to pull on my boss Matt at the freeroll later on in the day.

My plan was to get a t-shirt printed that read Matthew Parvis Direct To You In 20 Minutes 702-340-MATT – which turned out perfectly – while also getting a photoshopped photo of Matt printed off and stuck on some girls direct to you-esque cards (thanks to my buddy Carey who did the photoshopping for me).

On my return to the Hard Rock, I quickly raced upstairs to the room to shower and change before wondering down to the poker room to munch away on the nibbles that had been prepared for us. A total of thirty-two PokerNews employees were in attendance of the annual WSOP freeroll as I danced round for the first dozen or so hands attempting to get this prank sorted.

With plans of getting an extremely hot female to walk into the room, give Matt a huge kiss and then get him to sign the picture before she would take the t-shirt off and give it to him while also slipping him a room key, was difficult. For over ten minutes no one decent walked past until Kirsty managed to find someone willing to help us out.

The result . . . plenty of laughs, a red-faced Matt and pure satisfaction on my behalf!

Finally being able to return to the freeroll, there was cash prizes (minimum of $50) on offer, but the major prizes were the five iPad’s up for grabs. I managed to knock out Greg when in a limped pot against Mike I flopped bottom set of sevens against Greg’s top two and the board bricked out. I really started to get things going when we were down to the final two tables as I accumulated chips a lot easier through simple preflop raises since everyone was playing so tight for the iPad. Once we lost Sarah on the bubble, I had accumulated a top three chip stack as the final table was formed.

Seat 1: Ben Conoley (blogger)
Seat 2: Chad Holloway (blogger)
Seat 3: Matthew Parvis (da boss man)
Seat 4: Kristy Arnett (presenter)
Seat 5: Andrew Bogner (marketing director)
Seat 6: Adam ‘Snoopy’ Goulding (blogger and master of puns)
Seat 7: Tim Duckworth (blogger)
Seat 8: Elissa Harwood (blogger)
Seat 9: Alex Villegas (field reporter)
Seat 10: Adam Brown (cameraman)

The pros to this final table was the fact that Matt and Andrew were ineligible for the iPad which meant that we really needed to lose only three players, and since I didn’t want one, there was a good chance I could do a deal to get money instead.

We lost Adam and then Elissa to leave us with eight players as I began the negotiating. I managed to score $75 from the five eligible iPad players along with some of the leftover money which meant at least $375 plus between $100 or so on top. Once we all agreed, I went on a tear chipping up at ease before knocking out both Alex and Andrew in one hand. There is some background in this hand where Alex pushed me off a pot I was expecting to check down with him since we had Elissa all in. Chad then folded for his last chip in the small blind – while holding an Ace – because Andrew would be all in the next hand on the big blind and they were both involved in the last longer.

Consequently I attempted to double up Andrew by smooth-calling 4,000 only to have Alex move all in for 15,500. I told him that this was payback and called with the powerful 4♣ 2♥. Andrew tabled his 9-5 while Alex slowrolled us with his Kings. Justice prevailed as I dinged two fours on the flop to BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA his ass!

I then eliminated Parvis with Kings against Ace-King before dispatching of a short-stacked Snoopy as Ben and I went heads up with me holding a roughly 70,000 to 25,000 chip advantage with blinds at 2,000-4,000.

We probably played fifteen or so hands before he limped for 6,000 (after the blinds went up) and I checked my option with 4♣ 5♦. The flop fell down 4♠ 7♥ 8♣ and all the money went in with Ben well in the lead holding Queens. The turn blanked out, but the river landed the 4♥ to see me spike another set of trip fours; but this one being for the title of 2010 World Series of Poker PokerNews Freeroll Champion!

Congratulations to Tim Duckworth, Winner of Event 58: PokerNews Freeroll ($to be decided)!

Unfortunately the PokerNews team was unable to shell out for a diamond-encrusted gold bracelet, but the victory and some cash on the side eased the pain as we all ventured home and to our rooms upstairs to prepare for the PokerStars Player Party in just a few hours time!

Brett, Ben, Chad, Martin and I all split a cab to the Rio to look for some people as well as picking up Brett’s phone charger before we waltzed into the Palms just before the doors opened at 9pm.

While waiting in line, Ben and I decided to go on a Maccas run to grab some cheeseburgers as Brett called on us to bring him one to. Once we returned to the line, Martin, Chad and Brett were no where to be seen, and after a few phone calls, we discovered that they had decided to enter ahead of us!

Once inside, the beers flowed freely . . . but not for me . . . as I was sticking to water since I was starting to feel slightly better for the first time in a long time.

The newbies to the PokerNews team: Brett, Ben and Chad

Rich, Donnie, Remko, JonBon, Me and GG

Snoop Dogg’s support act Esthero came on at around 10pm or so, and she wasn’t that bad at keeping us entertained – even swigging a bottle of Jagermeister mid set to the cheers of everyone on the dance floor.

Since my plan was always to go home earlier then everyone else, I made my way back to the dance floor at around 11pm to wait patiently for Snoop Dogg with Ben and Brett. People slowly trickled onto the dance floor making it extremely squishy as I vowed to wait for Snoop just so that I could say I’d seen him perform from a few metres away – although I had no real interest in him or his music.

As the clock ticked past midnight, Brett was on about his sixteenth beer and decided that it was time to punch me in the face a couple of times. I didn’t even feel the urge to punch the kid back, since he was so wasted, and consequently just shrugged it off and continued to wait not so patiently for Snoop.

Finally at 12:30am Snoop came on and erupted the audience into cheers as the smell of weed that had been floating in the room for the past hour started to get stronger and stronger. Three songs into his set I pulled the pin and headed upstairs to say goodbye to the rest of the bunch before making my way back to the Hard Rock to get some rest.

Having a day off, I managed to get a nice sleep in before deciding to wake up and find a suitable lunch option.

Not wanting to head to far from the hotel room to eat, I decided to head across the road to grab a sandwich from Capriotti’s.

As the temperature lingered around the 110-degree mark I eventually made my way to the Capriotti’s door, and before I could even reach for the handle it slowly opened. I reached for it to hold it open for whoever was leaving the store, and to my amazement it was none other than Daisy Marie.

Daisy who? Well Daisy Marie is the first person that I have seen face-to-face in Las Vegas over the past few years to make me absolutely star-struck! For those of you playing at home and wondering if it actually was her or maybe a Latino of similar resemblance . . . well as she brushed past me to leave the store with my eyes fixed on hers, she broke the eye-to-eye contact and turned to walk away revealing her cherub-inspired back tattoo.

Not really hungry courtesy of the weakness in my knees, I looked up at the menu, before quickly doubling back to see if she was still there or just a mirage due to my sickness that I’ve encountered over the past week or so . . . no mirage but just Daisy as I ordered a rather now-boring sandwich.

With lunch taken care of and some TV watched, I caught up with Chad as we decided to head to the Strip to take a look around. Once there we wondered into a few shops and casinos before making a last-minute decision to see Predators.

There was no Arnie, but still plenty of carnage as Brett continuously bugged me with texts during the movie trying to organise a game back at the Hard Rock. Of course both me and Chad obliged as we grabbed a taxi immediately after the last extraterrestrial life was killed off by Royce and Isabelle (the main stars obviously).

Once back at the Hard Rock we organised a $50+10 sit-n-go with a 4,000-chip starting bank (it was going to be 1,500, but through my pure awesome negotiating powers, we convinced them otherwise). Greg, Mickey, Brett, Chad and I were joined by three randoms, but the sit-n-go was a bit of a blur – I still think due to Daisy Marie – and this is how Brett detailed my play:

“I three-bet you three times and you folded like a fucking nit!”

Brett was pretty much right as I opened A♣ 4♣ and he three-bet Ace-King before I three-bet him with Q♥ 8♥ and he four-bet jammed me. The final hand saw me call all in from the big blind with K♦ 3♦ to dominate Chad’s 10♠ 3♠ in the small blind. But since it was Chad – and he runs really really really good – I spike my King and he flushed me on the river to send me out the door and to the cash games as Greg bubbled in third and Brett proved victorious for a nice $260 payday.

On my first I squeezed to $17 with 10♣ 9♣ in the cutoff over a straddle and a couple of calls as four of us saw a 8♣ 5♠ 3♦ flop. The straddler led out for $10 and I made it $47 to force him and the others to fold as I kicked off my start to the $1-2 NLH table.

An orbit later I Hard Rock straddled the button to $4 as the straddler from the previous hand made it $10 to go with both me and the big blind calling. The flop fell down A♠ 2♦ 3♠ and the raiser led out for $20 as I made it $48 to go with 4♠ 5♥. The big blind folded as we went heads up to the turn of the 7♥ with my opponent donking out for $60. I put him all in for his last $100 and he painfully mucked after about a minute of deliberating as I climbed to $393.

I then lost Queens to 9♥ 5♥ on a 9♦ 8♥ 7♥ 6♦ 8♣ board to slip to $278 before playing one of the worst hands of my life!

After a straddle to $4 and two calls, I made it $22 to go holding K♠ 10♠. The blinds, straddler and the callers all called to see a Q♥ J♦ 3♠ flop fall. One of the callers fired out $65 and I called as the 8♣ landed on the turn and he fired out $70. I made another bad call as the K♦ landed on the river and I called $75 to see him reveal A♦ Q♦ as I scooped the pot to move to $556 before ending the night up $341 in the cash game and $281 overall.

Feeling slightly better (not sure how), I was ready to tackle Day 2a of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event!

With such high numbers on the latter of the two day ones, the WSOP staff had deciding to merge both Day 1a and 1c together so that both day two fields would possess relatively the same numbers. Consequently it would be 2,412 players returning to battle out another eight hours of tournament poker.

Only 1,200 players would survive the day, but it would be an interesting situation that occurred with Matt Savage that would be the highlight of my day.

Savage Doubles and Receives Penalty
Matt Savage is one of – if not the – most well known Tournament Directors in the world having worked for many different companies; including the World Series of Poker.

“Well at least I doubled” Savage added before beginning his orbit hiatus from the table.

Today was also the day that PokerNews implemented the use of the iPad for updating player’s counts.

I managed to use it over the duration of the last level, and managed to update my whole section every ten minutes or so with relative ease. Where we will really see the benefit is most likely on days four an beyond, but so far everything about them have been on a positive note!

For most of the series I have been under the weather with what I’ve dubbed an ‘air-conditioning cold’, but over the last few days it has increasing getting worse.

Cough medicine, throat lozenges, mouth wash . . . I’ve tried about everything, but yet my health still slides downhill . . . but I’m a trooper, and work isn’t getting in the way of the World Series!

2,314 players took to the felt for Day 1c of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event which was a considerable 618 player increase from last year. 1,645 players managed to survive with Johnny Chan sitting second in chips as I was let go early to try and recover from whatever the hell I had.

Day 1d of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event was one that fell short of last years numbers by only managing to get 2,391 entrants in comparison to the 2,809 that registered for the 2009 sell out.

Starting the day in the blue section like normal, I was coughing up a storm mixed with blood and other disgusting things, and on several occasions left the Amazon Room and opened one of the doors leading to the outside car park to cough and unleash whatever was in my throat.

About a minute before play started, I quickly bolted from my chair, pushed through the Amazon Room doors and then swung one of the outside-leading doors open in readiness to hurl.

Unfortunately this was the exact time Phil Ivey had decided to enter the arena, and slowly walked up the stairs before detouring to the door I was still holding open.

“Thank you” he stated as I just nodded my head in acceptance before shutting the door and letting my many coughs and spits out.

It was purely Phil Ivey Watch 2010 for me and fellow Amazon Blue blogging partner Donnie Peters, but one of the best hands – well it wasn’t really a hand at all – didn’t involve Ivey.

Where Is My Seat?
Currently there is a player walking round the blue section of the Amazon room.

Unfortunately for the lost player – or as we discovered Stanley Quinn – he is a little confused at the difference between the one and six seats, as well as his proximity to Mr. Phil Ivey (since he is on the opposite end of the blue section to him).

1,713 players managed to bag and tag their chips, and still be in the running to take home part of the whooping $68,798,600 prizepool; well if you’re one of the lucky 747 anyway.

The goal however for the remaining 5,143 players heading into day two is the $8,944,138 first prize on offer!

By now you should understand that a day off from the World Series means time for cash games!

I slept in till late before grabbing some food and heading over to the Rio for some $1-3 NLH action.

Buying in for $300, one of my first hands saw me open K♦ Q♣ for $14 over a limper before checking down a dry board until the river brought the fourth club and I fired $20 at the pot. One player called with sevens while the other folded as I chipped up to $356 early.

A few orbits later I called $8 from the big blind with 10♦ 4♦ as six of us saw a Q♦ 9♠ 4♣ flop and the preflop raiser from the cutoff made it $20 to go. I called on a pure float, along with three others as the 8♦ landed on the turn. I checked, an ep player checked and then the cutoff led out for $65. The preflop raiser agonisingly mucked as the decision was now on me. It was $65 to win a pot of around $180 meaning I was getting three-to-one. I was 100% certain he had Jack-Ten, and was 90% confident he would call my shove on the river if I dinged my diamond or caught a Jack for a chop. Having $272 in my stack, I made the call as the ep player folded before the dealer dropped the 6♦ on the river and I shoved for $207. I was immediately snapped off and raked in the pot taking me to $650 . . . but my question is whether or not my turn play is justifiable in relation to pot odds mixed with implied odds?

I then leaked away $70 when my A♦ K♦ missed, my two pair was flushed on and I was forced to fold Queens to a bluff. I then managed to grab it all back several orbits later when I raised to $13 with Q♠ J♠ and found two callers as a 10♥ 5♠ A♥ flop fell and one player donked out $15 at the pot. He was fairly tight, but had $300 or so behind, so I floated him as the other caller folded. The turn landed the K♣ and my opponent fired out $20 – and praying that he had a set – I bumped it to $55. He unfortunately folded as I returned to over $650.

I opened A♣ 9♣ to $11 and was called by the guy that doubled me up early as a A♠ Q♦ 6♥ flop fell. He checked out of the blinds, and I decided to check behind to get some value out of weaker hands. The 8♠ landed on the turn and my $11 bet was check-called before the 2♥ fell on the river and my $20 bet was again check-called as I scooped the pot to climb to $718.

One of the last pots I won saw me call a guy down with sevens to take me to $740 before eventually cashing out $747 for $422 profit for the session before returning to the Hard Rock with the PokerNews guys.