I originally planned on running a freeroll of some kind only to realise that I’m a little low on the cashola since my exit from PokerNews, and instead decided on launching a new development for the website.

My old photo gallery was pretty hard to navigate round and took its time in uploading pictures. I looked round for a new plugin and decided to update and use the NextGEN Gallery for storing and displaying my photos from around the felt and around the world.

So head over to Tilted Behaviour’s new photo gallery and let me know what you think because I can see the improvement and hopefully you can too!

With a new one rather pricey, I have decided to sit tight on making a rash purchase, but when I stumbled across the website Bid Rivals, I thought I might be able to grab a bargain!

Wrong.

Flicking over the numerous pages on ongoing auctions I found a Canon EOS 50D with lens available, and began some research on the camera. With a retail price of around $2,500, the chance to grab this high-quality camera locked my attention to the site, and how exactly it works.

Basically each product listed on the site is placed in an auction-type sale where people can bid on the product, and if you are the person with the highest bid when the time expires then it’s all yours. However, when the timer is in the last 15 seconds, if someone else places a higher bid then the timer re-sets another 15 seconds and so forth. Each bid raises the price of the product by only 2 cents, but each bid costs the bidder 80 cents . . . that’s obviously the catch.

They also have a function called a Bid Agent where you can list the maximum amount of bids and price you are willing to spend on the auction, and even if you are not online, the Bid Agent will bid for you once the timer ticks down to 4 seconds if you aren’t the highest bidder.

Now getting back to the camera in question.

Previous auctions of the $2,500 Canon EOS 50D had sold for just over $100 and I therefore bought a bundle of bids to hope I could grab a bargain when everyone else had spent too much.

Waking up this morning I logged on to the site to find the camera at just over $105 with five Bid Agent’s battling it out against each other. There of course was no point bidding now as I would be just wasting my valuable collection of bids and therefore decided to just monitor the auction very closely. My plan was to wait until there were only two bidders’ left and then switch all my attention to the auction knowing that each bid was costing the Bid Agent’s 80 cents a click, and that no one in their right mind would be putting aside 3,000-odd bids for this camera.

I waited and waited and waited until it was time to go to cricket training and decided to set my Bid Agent up with the current price at around $135.

After running around rolling the arm over and hitting some balls round the nets I expected that there would be a message on my screen basically

“Congratulations! You out-smarted all the other Bid Agents and are now the proud owner of a bargain fully sick $2,500 camera for just the price of $145.12!”

Once again. Wrong.

The auction was unbelievable still going with new bidder’s clicking away 80 cents at a time!

Once the auction was finally over – 43 hours and 14 minutes after it started – and lintonfarm was the proud owner of a new Canon EOS 50D DSLR camera after wagering 1,554 bids for a final price of $242.80, I decided to take a closer look at the whole auction.

242.80 / 0.02 = 12,140 bids x 0.80 = $9,712 + $242.80 = $9,954.80 – $2,500 = $7,454.80 profit for Bid Rivals

No doubt Bid Rivals made a killing of us fools . . . but what makes it worse is that the same Canon EOS 50D sold for $18.40 and $110.08 over the next two days!

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

We lost players quickly as we reached the final ten with Kane Sherwell holding a commanding lead alongside Jason Gray, Morry Edelstein and Chris Chronis.

After losing Dean McIver on one of the first hands, Sherwell would river both Edelstein and Gary Benson to the rail. Gray continued to accumulate chips, but some bad luck, lost races and unfortunate rivers saw him endure a roller-coaster of a ride.

Matt Rolfe found a three-outer to stay alive against Chronis as Mick Nolton chopped a double on the river as Chronis exited in 7th thanks to a bricked straight and flush draw. Nolton followed in the same fashion to Sherwell’s King-high as Cohen again clipped Gray with a rivered straight to his two-pair.

Albert Amato followed his one-outer earlier against Gray with a three-outer against Sherwell while Rolfe ran flush into flush to hit the rail in 5th. Cohen went next when he made the wrong read / move against Sherwell’s top-pair to see the first-time tournament player hold a near two-to-one advantage over both his opponents.

The remaining players made a deal, and soon after, Gray exited after losing a race holding Ace-King to Sherwell’s snowmen as he took a five-to-three lead into heads-up play.

That lead increased to over a seven-to-two lead before Amato started to claw his way back into the game after doubling with a pair and straight-draw to Sherwell’s straight-draw and two over’s. Sherwell continued to slip before Amato doubled well into the lead with his two-pair against Sherwell’s middle-pair.

Eventually Sherwell would commit his chips drawing dead to just two outs against Amato’s two-pair and flush-draw. No help came on the river and Albert Amato was crowned our 2009 Victorian Poker Champion!

Julian Cohen, Champion Albert Amato, Matt Rolfe, PokerNews Camera-Man Thomas Kinsman, Jason Gray, Kane Sherwell, Dean McIver, The Trophy

With us wrapping up just after midnight and noticing Mat, Joe and Brendo on a $1-2 NLH table . . . there was no way I could resist!

I profited close to $240 for the night, but it was my mega slowroll that was the toast of the night.

Mat straddled to some retarded amount and the whole table called around to me in the small blind with K♠ 3♠. I called, as did the big blind to see a flop of K♣ 3♦ 3♣ land.

I checked and Mat pushed all in for $15 and found two callers before I also made the call as the big blind passed.

The turn landed the Q♦ and I checked to the donkey who bet out $27 odd. This youngish lady called before I moved all in for a little more on top. Both called and the river of the 8♣ was checked.

The donkey turned over Q♣ J♠, only to be bested by the lady’s K♦ 4♦.

I angled my cards towards the muck to signal that I couldn’t beat either of the hands, and Mat slowly sweated out his 9♣ 4♣ for a flush. He slammed it down and stood up with his hands in the air celebrating his new-found chips. I slowly pushed my cards towards the muck before rolling them over once Mat had returned to the table to BOOM him with a slowroll!

Off to Geelong tomorrow for a couple of days before returning to Asian Vegas . . . Macau!

Heath and I walked down thinking that we were early, but the start team had been brought forward by fifteen minutes to throw both us and quite a number of players off.

140 players started the day, and all hope was reaching that magic number of ten for the final table – however it was never going to be likely, and when we ended with fifteen at around 3am, we were more than happy with that number!

Jason Gray dominated in a day where the amateurs rode their luck to the top, but along with Chris Chronis and Gary Benson, the old-timers would always be a chance.

Trung ‘DYnaSTyZz’ Tran, Jason Gray, Bill Jordanou, Chips, PokerNetwork Reporter, Xiao Cui, Chips, Daniel Kochan

I slept in till only 2p, and thanks to the $1,000 food and beverage allowance that we had, both me and Kirsty tucked into some room service for lunch before I headed down to the Poker Room.

Having no internet in the room, and not wanting to pay the $25 or whatever it was, I set up at the back and got to answering emails and doing random odds and ends on my laptop before deciding to hit the cash games.

With no $1-2 NLH tables open, I hit a newly opened $2-3 NLH with my $200 that I was assuming was going to be gifted out to the table.

A few hands in I opened to $11 with 2♦ 6♦ to $11 and found a few callers to see a A♦ J♦ 3♣ flop and a continuation bet of $23 follow. After telling my opponent his Jack was no good, he was stubborn enough to make the call leaving himself $60-odd behind. The 2♠ fell on the turn and I fired out $45, only to have him move all in with A♠ 8♠. I made the call dinged the river with the 9♦ to see me climb to just over $300.

Only played one major hand when I flopped two-pair out of the small blind in a raised pot holding A♦ 10♦. I played the hand terribly from the turn onwards, and when I improved to a full house on the river I raked in a pot to put me over $440.

I cashed out soon after with a $215 profit in my pocket, and called it a day.

Pretty boring day, but here are some of the photos I took yesterday during the dinner break of some chip stacks. I’m trying to get into photography in a bag way at the moment (kinda obvious yeah?) and looking to maybe even purchase some gear of my own . . . feedback would be well appreciated!

With only 23 players fronting up the ten dimes, dinner break also brought the final table which meant it was going to be a lot easier for me.

Seat 1: Sam Khouiss – 103,000
Seat 2: Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros – 14,000
Seat 3: Julius Colman – 48,000
Seat 4: Daniel Neilson – 56,500
Seat 5: Van Marcus – 44,500
Seat 6: Ben Invelito – 70,000
Seat 7: Stewart Scott – 31,000
Seat 8: Warwick Mirzikinian – 72,000
Seat 9: Tino Lechich – 22,500

Only the top five spots would pay, but instead of discussing how the tournament played out, I’d rather tell you about the controversy that surrounded the ending to the tournament.

With play three-handed between Van Marcus, Julius Colman and Sam Khouiss, the tournament was paused as the boys did a chip chop to see Khouiss take most of the cash as he was chip leader.

The tournament however would continue to play on to see who would be deemed the official champion.

Khouiss only cared about the money (since he had no more than 20% of his action) while Marcus and Colman obviously wanted the title, while all three players wanted to get out of there as it was kicking into hour twelve.

Marcus then was left crippled after doubling up Colman, and once it was obvious that Marcus was a near lock to fall next with just three big blinds, Colman and Khouiss agreed that whoever eliminated Marcus would be crowned champion.

Only a few hands later Marcus would head to the rail courtesy of a flopped set of trips by Colman, and with that, Khouiss shook Colman’s hand and went to cash out his winnings as I was left dumbfounded at what had just happened.

Tournament Director Matthew Burgoine and I sat there stunned trying to figure out how to wrap the event up online so as not to effect the integrity of both Crown and PokerNetwork . . . let me just say it was harder then you’d imagine!

Sam Khouiss, Chips, Van Marcus, Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros, Julius Colman, The Trophy, Daniel Neilson, Sam Khouiss on a good day

Only 57 players took the felt, but it was an all-star field that featured some of the old-timers along with a mix of young online and live specialists.

I blogged this event very similar to how we ran the Day One’s back at the WSO; which meant no chip counts page and just a highly colourful and informative blog.

Just after 11pm we hit our final table following the elimination of Jim Sachinidis, but still needed two more eliminations until we hit the money.

Jay ‘SEABEAST’ Kinkade fell in 9th, followed by Michael Guttman as we hit the money just before 1am and a little over 12 hours into the tournament!

Fellow PokerNetwork Forum frequenter Con ‘tsapy’ Tsapkounis fell in a double bustout in 6th along with Robert Wang in 7th thanks to James Sherrill. Brian Hull fell next as the four remaining players made an even chop as play ticked past 2am.

Greg Cook was next to go as Van ‘Sirens’ Marcus eyed off a win to take him to over US$1,000,000 in tournament earnings, and once Sam Youssef exited in 3rd it looked likely.

With the clock reading a few ticks past 3am, Marcus looked in control with an overwhelming advantage of 622,000 to James Sherrill’s 193,000 in chips.

However nothing happens that easy!

Marcus would have Sherrill all in on a flop of Q♠ 6♣ 4♠ holding Q♦ J♦ 9♦ 6♠ against Sherrill’s A♥ A♠ 9♠ 7♥. However running sevens would see Sherrill double through to hold a five-to-three advantage.

Thanks to Marcus’ expertise and countless hours on both the virtual and green felt, he would slowly claw his way back into the lead before getting Sherrwill to commit all his chips on a K♣ 4♣ 3♠ with just A♠ 9♦ 7♠3c to be in bad shape against Marcus’ J♣ J♥ 3♥ 3♦. The turn would ding for Sherrill dropping the 2♥, and after the blank 9♥ landed on the river, Marcus was left facing a three-to-one disadvantage.

After a long and exhausting 16 hours of play (blogger inclusive!) Marcus would push his chips into the middle on the turn drawing dead with an under-full to Sherrill’s flopped fours-full to see Sherwill crowned champion and Marcus heading out the door pissed off – to say the least!

Van Marcus, Jim Sachinidis, Leo Boxell, Con ‘tsapy’ Tsapkounis, George Mamacas playing iGolf, Jamie Pickering, Chips, Champion James Sherrill, Jay ‘SEABEAST’ Kinkade, Van Marcus