tilted behaviour

I was expecting to be writing this blog post recapping my ANZPT preliminary results from the comfort of my hotel room in Adelaide . . . but unfortunately I’m about 711 kilometres away sitting at my desk at home.

Some of you may be wondering why I’m not in Adelaide . . . maybe it’s because I’m busto, or sick, or too lazy to drive / fly / walk to Adelaide after a semi-hectic Aussie Millions . . . but you would all be wrong!

David Galpin is the one to blame.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think David is a great bloke and tournament director, and I happily shared a few beers with him in a karaoke room once the inaugural ANZPT wrapped up last year, but he is the reason why I’m not in Adelaide.

It all started when he posted the structures to the full ANZPT Adelaide series in the PokerNetwork Forum. There were six events on the schedule that I was looking at playing with three of them being a lock. Event 1: Industry PLO Rebuy, Event 3: Industry NLH Freeze-Out and Event 6: NLH Bounty.

Before jet-setting to Adelaide I decided to just check that I qualified for Poker Industry by asking him in the thread . . .this was his response.

Hi Tim,

David Galpin

I obviously was a little annoyed by his response as I believe that I – without being egotistical – am in the top tier of the poker industry.

In their structure sheets these ‘Industry’ events have the following information.

This event is only available to employees of the Australasian Casino or Poker
Industry. Entrants will need to be ACTION cardholders and have proof of
employment and photographic identification

I quoted this in the same thread but David hasn’t replied.

It just totally baffles me what the ‘Poker Industry’ is and why people such as me don’t qualify. Either it is false advertising if it is meant for just casino employees or the two people that do qualify for ‘Poker Industry’ must be the two luckiest people I’ve never heard of!

Of course I’m disappointed that I’m not able to make it to Adelaide to play cards with some of my mates who deal at Crown, but there is nothing I can do about it until next year.

The fact that David is actually turning people down from an events that are likely to get no more than 50 people astounds me because isn’t one of his roles as a Tournament Director to get more people into the poker room playing tournaments and turning over rake in cash games . . . maybe things are truly upside down in Adelaide.

What also makes me laugh about the whole situation is that David personally contacted me the other week in reference to a piece I wrote on this very website a year ago; The Eight Points of Enlightenment: ANZPT Adelaide. He wanted some details that I probably shouldn’t discuss publicly about conducting the tournament and ways to improve it, but with knowledge that I manage a poker website (kind of) it surely just provides more grounds for ‘Poker Industry’.

Although detailing this situation and my feelings on the issue may seem inappropriate to some, I believe that it needed to be said and be public knowledge (and also takes a huge weight off my chest).

Edit: Congratulations to friends and fellow ex-PokerNews employees Dane Jensen and Shane Beckham for taking out events in Adelaide.

Dane started with a third-place finish in Event 1: Industry $70 Pot Limit Omaha with $40 rebuys for a $1,055 collect before capturing the Event 3: Industry $265 NLH Freeze-Out title for a $5,635 payday.

Shane managed to win the Event 2: Turbo Charity Rebuy event where, after a heavy contribution of the prizepool, he collected $480 for his efforts.

Great effort boys!

When Scott Kerr’s A♥ Q♣ remained in a dominating shape against Phillip Willcocks, we saw the final champion on the inaugural PokerStars.net ANZPT crowned.

It was fitting that the final duel was between an Australian and a Kiwi, and with that here is my continued tournament summary with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: ANZPT Queensland.

1 – Split Venue Tournament: The final stop on the ANZPT was structured a little different as it was run over two venues simultaneously; both Conrad Jupiters and Treasury on the Gold Coast and at Brisbane respectively. Although I had doubts, all in all it worked perfectly and let players from both regions have a chance at participating in the ANZPT. It will most likely be used again in the Queensland leg next season, but there is also word of it being used for a combination of Auckland, Christchurch etc when the tour hits New Zealand.

2 – Lack Of Tables: Another reason behind using two venues simultaneously was the lack of tables at Conrad Jupiters on the Gold Coast (since I was based there I can’t give a critique on the Brisbane leg), as it only had six official tables with another two installed recently for the tournament. This may have been sufficient for the tournament (just) but for the cash game action (especially on the weekend) it definitely wasn’t!

3 – Terrible Cash Games: Sitting down at the cash games, I found them terrible for several reasons. First of all some of their rulings were stupid – such as not being able to straddle and also not being able to bet dark . . . even when it’s your turn to act. The limits were pretty standard in the $1-2 and $2-5 NLH games, but it was the state of play that upset me the most. First of all, most of the players were horrendous, but it also appeared as they played in teams.
Not as in the shared bankroll kind of teams, but the way they played at each other – soft playing one another, telling each other what they had and looking at each other’s cards. For the Supervisors at Jupiters . . . keep an eye out for cheating instead of just yelling at me for straddling!

4 – Bring On The Food: When you cover a tournament you are always needing a quick snack and drink here and there – and in the long run this can be a hefty expensive. However once arriving at Conrad Jupiters for the ANZPT we were handed a bunch of $5 and $10 vouchers that could be used at all the snack bars and restaurants around the casino.

5 – Celebration Party?: It was never expected that the ANZPT would be able to replicate a APT-type party, but you would expect something to dint the budget just slightly. Located at one of the hotel bars, it was populated by the Team PokerStars Pro’s, media and only a few players to make the party fairly small and quiet. Free alcohol and appetisers were supplied, but it was a little bit of a letdown regarding that it was really a party to celebrate a highly successful tour. Hopefully next time it will live up to the hype it should have received.

6 – Money On The Table : What I’ve always loved about the finale of a poker tournament is the intense heads-up battle and the money presentation. Crown, WSOP (excluding the Main Event) and the APPT etc never present money, but the ANZPT is heading in the opposite direction – well in Adelaide and Queensland that is.
Conrad Jupiters presented the $168,075 on a silver platter when Scott Kerr and Phillip Willcocks were heads-up . . . and it made it a whole lot more exciting! In the future bring out the trophy and the money for everyone to see!

7 – One For The Industry: Heath came close a few months earlier, and many before and since also have, but finally the poker industry has captured gold thanks to Scott Kerr. A dealer from Star City, it was great to see someone that spends most of his time on the other side of the felt snatch a victory on behalf of all the dealers and people in the casino and media industry. Well done Scott.

8 – The End Only Means The Start: With the inaugural season now wrapped up, it only means that season two is around the corner. With a potential of eight stops in 2010, we will all be returning to Adelaide from the 9-14th of February next year for the kick-off to a bigger and better ANZPT!

Now off to Melbourne for a packed schedule at the 2009 Victorian Poker Championships with the rest of the PokerNetwork crew!

Finally arriving at the ANZPT Queensland Main Event Final Table was something to look forward to a the table was stacked with some quality players!

Two super online players in Scott ‘Punty’ Smith and Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds, along with fellow Sydney-sider Danny Joukhadar, and once you add in the aggressive Kiwi in Phillip Willcocks – things were always going to be tough for the other four players.

Dodds soared to over 40% of the chips in play while Willcocks also climbed as Joukhadar slipped to the bottom of the pack.

Ex-White Sox pitcher Paul Gibson exited along with Joukhadar to see Dodds lock up third placing in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sponsorship Points race as good friend Smith exited.

Third would be as far as Dodds was reached when he was two-outered by Willcocks to see the first Kiwi / Australian heads up battle of the tour.

Willcocks took a seven-two-chip advantage into heads up play with Star City dealer Scott Kerr, and after a dominating battle mixed with some luck, skill and poise, Kerr would come out on top taking down the title as ANZPT Queensland Champion and $168,075 in prize money.

With Heath and Kirsty already returning to Melbourne to cover an event and Duffy retiring to bed, I headed upstairs and wrote a quick article for PokerNetwork before heading downstairs to get some food before making my way to the cash games.

I bought in for $200 on the $1-2 NLH table and was quickly town to $120 and forced to top up another $100 after missing every flush and straight draw that I flopped and have every pocket pair and preflop open totally fluff the flop.

Just like the previous night – these guys were again atrocious!

But of course I could get none of it.

I flopped bottom set in one hand on a Broadway flop and got one street of value on the river from an underpair (see what I mean), but otherwise nothing.

After slipping down to around $55 I straddled all in dark and got some action from a player with a pair of deuces. My seven-five was the nuts when a seven flopped, and after doing it again the next hand from the big blind I was up to over $110.

A few hands later I open-shipped dark from the button and my Q♣ 8♦ some how didn’t get there!

Off to bed and off to pack for my 8:30am flight tomorrow morning!

Day Three is here with both the Gold Coast and Brisbane fields merging at Conrad Jupiters on the Gold Coast to play down to the final table.

Duffy joined me down here to see the remaining forty players battle it out on their way to see one of them be crowned ANZPT Queensland Champion.

Lee Nelson, Stewart Scott and Tim ‘LuckyShades’ Horan would all find themselves on the rail, and following the unusual simultaneous tenth and ninth place eliminations, we found ourselves at a final table just eight hours into the day.

Seat 1: Paul Gibson – 352,000
Seat 2: Phillip Willcocks – 536,000
Seat 3: Scott ‘Punty’ Smith – 806,000
Seat 4: Scott Kerr – 532,000
Seat 5: Lee Fraser – 483,000
Seat 6: Shoshiro Karita – 239,000
Seat 7: Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds – 1,528,000
Seat 8: Danny Joukhadar – 431,000

With the early finish for the day we all returned to our room to get ready for the Player’s Party at the lobby bar.

It was pretty much the usual crew of PokerStars.net Pro’s and satellite winners along with the travelling tournament junkie contingent.

After a few beers and lots of snacks we headed back to the room to battle it out playing Chinese poker.

End result – I was losing eight points but high carded to break even!

The two flights on the Gold Coast merged today to see day two action get underway in the ANZPT Queensland Main Event.

Chris Levick fell early to see Tony Hachem crowned the ANZPT Points Champion before he too fell to the rail. Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick was unable to get much motoring today and exited to the rail courtesy of running tens in to Aces, soon to be followed by Emad Tahtouh as Scott ‘Punty’ Smith surged up the chip counts.

At the end of the day, Punty would lead the remaining 40, but still have to contend with Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds, Tim ‘LuckyShades’ Horan hot on his tail.

Andrew Meldrum, Techni-Colour Chips, Julian Cohen, Linda Tyler, Scott ‘Punty’ Smith, Graeme ‘Kiwi G Putt, Putt’s Chip Stack, Tim ‘LuckyShades’ Horan

Once the tournament was wrapped up for the night, I headed upstairs to watch the Ashes with Heath as Kirsty was meeting up with some girlfriends for a few drinks and a good night out.

As our room service arrived, I was sent a text message that my $1-2 NLH table was ready, and after polishing off my Chicken Parmigiana I headed downstairs.

It was weird taking my seat at the table, because I had played a live cash game since heading to Lebanon – nearly three weeks ago – a gap that is very rare for me!

I bought in for the minimum of $100, as I just wanted to have some fun and not donk off too much before heading back to Melbourne and then off to Macau. I check-called top-pair with K♠ 9♣ out of the small blind, and then when I tripped up on the turn, I check-called another pot-sized bet before being shown a King and weaker kicker on the river to take the pot down.

My biggest hand came up when I opened K♣ J♠ from early postion to $7 and was met with four callers. The flop fell down A♠ K♠ 5♠ and I fired $27 at the pot. The tight player on my left called, and I went into shutdown mode unless a King, Jack or spade fell as I had this guy on just an ace. Brick, brick and I mucked at the sight of his A♥ Q♦.

I reload another $100 and after a few orbits of boring nothingness I flat $10 with 6♥ 6♦, two callers before there is a min-raise to $20 and an all in for $25, I call the extra $15 and five of us see the flop of 4♣ 7♥ 8♦ land. I check-call $10 (WTF?) from the min-raiser and when the 5♠ lands on the turn I ship it in, only to have both the remaining active players muck. The all in player folds his Kings in disgust as I move back to $180.

My final hand see me call down a solid player with 5♥ 5♦ on a four over-card pot, and when I table my hand on the checked river he mucks his double barrel.

Up $11 and I head back to my room to play some HORSE with Heath.

Of all the pots we play, at least 94% of them are against each other and with an average of three-bets on each street! We also start up a sit-n-go, in which I dominate to third as he bows out in sixth.

2am rolls round, and I decide to call it a night as I’m up $30 from the sit-n-go and two 25c-50c HORSE tables and the Aussies are unfortunately in control of day one of the fourth test.

Another day behind the computer at the ANZPT Queensland Main Event and another day of tournament poker.

Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick was in the field today, and consequently, after missing out on a piece of his 100k collect in Melbourne, I bought a small 4% share for $100.

The field was fairly stacked with the likes of Lee Nelson, Graeme ‘Kiwi G’ Putt and Celina Lin playing, but rather than going through some of the ways the above mentioned players took down pots with Aces, I thought I’d share with you a hand I wrote that I found rather amusing.

(Not a bright day for the Tasmanian!)

It is quite obvious that the current players on Table 9 didn’t follow the ANZPT Melbourne coverage when Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick earned the moniker of Heath ‘No Set No Bet’ Chick.

Currently struggling on just above his starting stack, Chick recently opened to 800 and found one caller in Derek Cheung to see a flop of 7♣ 4♠ 6♠.

Chick fired out 1,250, only to have Cheung raise to 3,000 to prompt a near insta-fold from Chick.

With Chick’s previous range during his runner-up finish in Melbourne being a set plus, it can only be inferred that Cheung held 5♠ 8♠ . . . ballsy play from the Hong Kong native!

Heath, Kirsty and myself wondered down the road to find a place to eat, and after searching for a while we found a place where there was a $12 steak night special.

We all ordered a steak and a beer . . . and they both went down perfectly!

With Cold Rock across the road, there was no way we could resist and walked home enjoying some ice-cream as the weather began to cool.

After four stops, we have finally reached the last stop of the inaugural PokerStars.net ANZPT with the Queensland Main Event kicking off today.

Duffy was based in Brisbane while I took up base at the Gold Coast where we were greeted with 62 entrants to take today’s day 1a field up to 116.

We had a fairly strong field mixed with tournament enthusiasts from around the country such as Eric Assadourian, Emad Tahtouh, Danny Joukhadar and locals Stewart Scott, Richard Holmes, Lisa Walsh and Jamie Pickering.

Quads, one-outers and Jack-high squeeze plays were the norm, but instead of running through a few hands of the day, I thought I would post some of my favourite photos from the day.

Emad Tahtouh, Jamie Pickering, The Buck, Conrad Jupiters Dealer, Chips and the Shoe, Richard Holmes, Stewart Scott, Andrew Hinrichsen

To check out the rest of the photos from the day (and upcoming days) check them out here.

So the inaugural ANZPT Adelaide event is now all wrapped up with Melbournian Karl Krautschneider taking home the $170,000 first prize after flushing out my mate Tony Dunst in second holding 7♣ 8♣.

However, I’m not going to bore you with a re-cap of each day and the overall tournament, but rather provide you with something new . . . The Eight Points of Enlightenment: ANZPT Adelaide.

1 – Great Food Service: The SkyCity Poker Zone had the best food service of any casino I’ve been to. Wedges, Roasts, Toasted Sandwiches, Nachos – you name it and they pretty much have. Also it’s fairly cheap ranging from $5 to $12 and gets delivered fairly quickly.

2 – Chip Difficulties: On day 1b they changed the colour of the 1,000-chips due to lack of numbers, and once both days merged they changed the others. Late on day 2 they also changed out all the 5,000-chips as they looked too similar to the 10,000-chips. This way not seem like a major issue, but combined with how out-dated they are it reflects badly on the city that gave birth to Australian poker.

3 – Affordable Side Events: Looking at the proposed Sydney schedule it seems this is going to be a regular feature in the preliminary events of ANZPT’s. It can be viewed as a negative aspect of the tournament but I think it can still generate decent prizepools, and with the economic slump, it helps in keeping the numbers up at an event that could really see Australian poker boom over the next few years.

4 – Cash Games and Rake: The cash games the SkyCity Poker Zone spread weren’t too flash with a $2-3NLH game at $60 to $180 buy-in which to me (and many others) seemed stupid, especially when you factor in the higher than average rake. There was never a high-stakes game (which would easily be filled) or mixed game and I only saw the occasional limit game spread.

5 – $50 Squeeze Baccarat: Being such a baccarat degen, finding out that SkyCity had $50 squeeze baccarat awoke my inner baccarat junkie that had been resting since pre-Aussie Millions. Although I barely squeezed, knowing that you could potential squeeze and call out “DINGA” and “CHOI” for such a cheap price was definitely a PLUS in my book!

6 – Dealer Errors: My pet hate about poker is dealer errors and blunders. Being able to count chips so easy it baffles me to see dealers count player all-ins incorrectly during the tournament – it’s like they’ve never dealt with this before!
Another thing that Adelaide dealers do terribly is when a player moves all-in they just feel their stack in their hand rather than cutting it down to be sure it amounts to twenty-chips. I saw on at least six occasions of dealers feeling for twenty-chips, leaving it for some time before a player would point out that it was incorrect. In all honesty – pretty poor training standards.

7 – Main Event Structure: To implement a successful tournament, and consequently a successful poker tour you need to have a main event structure that has minimal flaws; and in the case of the ANZPT, Tournament Director Danny McDonagh has achieved this. With great level increase the best innovation is the minimum 40-big blind to average stack guarantee once the final table is reached with the clock being wound back as far as necessary.

8 – The Money Isn’t Going Nowhere: With a final table stacked with pros and Australians it was great to see the majority of the prizepool remaining in the pockets of Australians. This will not only attract more players to take their seat in the tour, but may also bring about a new poker boom knowing that for $33 and three days work you can parlay that into over $170,000 and change!

So now that you have a better understanding of Adelaide and the ANZPT, there is no need for any further questions . . . I hope.

An APL event this weekend followed by a few weeks of rest down at my parent’s house before everything kicks off again with Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series, ANZPT Sydney, Melbourne Poker Championships and then back to the Mecca of poker tournaments . . . the 2009 WSOP!

The road for this poker journalist may be on a long desert-bound track, but I’ll do my best to fill you in on some interesting and quirky happenings in the industry. Stay tuned!