tilted behaviour

Late last night, Heath and I decided to play the $200 Teams Event at the Victorian Poker Championships, and consequently I made the boring drive up the highway to donk off.

I arrived early to take care of some things before Heath and I decided to grab a few drinks and some food at Lagerfield. We discussed work, poker and all of the above before being joined by Kirsty, Landon and a few of his mates.

Eventually we decided to make our way downstairs to tackle the gauntlet of the teams event, with me taking the first rotation. Unfortunately the 2,500 starting stack I had received was soon chopped into half as Heath took his seat and topped up another 2,500. I would lose us some chips, he would get us a double; that was the order for the night, which funnily enough was the opposite to the way it happened when we first played a teams event together back in 2008. Nothing went right for me, and inevitably it would be Heath that would bust us when he shoved over Aces with Ace-Jack – and although flopping a Jack – failed to improve to see us bust in about 60th place of the 214 starters.

However, I spent the majority of the night when not playing discussing the upcoming State of Origin, and how it should be fixed for 2011. Consequently, here are my suggestions for how the 2011 State of Origin at the Victorian Poker Championships should be conducted.

State of Origin Committee
Over the past few years, there has always been an issue with the exact formation of each side. Justification for an inclusion or exclusion is always the biggest talking point, followed by the selection of the captain.

To make the State of Origin a premier feature event on the local poker calendar, something has to be done to ensure that the teams selected are not only fair, but also a true justification of the best in the state.

Consequently I believe a Committee should be formed that will pick the squad through mutual decision by sorting through live and online tournament results both in Australia and overseas.

The next point is exactly who should be on the Committee? Well firstly, the members that form the Committee must be unbiased and impartial to the event, and have no chance of being selected themselves. They must also have a sound knowledge of the game, and possess an even greater knowledge of the Australian pool of poker players. I don’t believe that the Committee should be too large either as this will create even more difficulty when coming to a conclusion on final teams.

My vote for who should head up this Committee? Firstly – although I may be a little bias – I would cast a vote for myself. I have yet to meet anyone with a greater knowledge of players in the country, am also independent to the event, and am at nearly every tournament around the world that would influence the team selection; whether it be an Aussie Millions, APPT, ANZPT or WSOP.

My next vote would be for Jonno Pittock who has the influence in the event, as it is in his poker room where the event is run. Finally I believe that Tony Hachem should stay involved in the Committee by the pure fact that it is his creation, but by doing so, he would have to rule himself out of possible selection to remain fair.

Selection Criteria
Obviously the toughest part of the event, I believe I have come up with a simple solution that should please everyone.

First of all Captains will pretty much remain as they are from this year, as most of them are true figureheads in their states. However it is a question of how the seven other spots should be filled, that gets everyone scratching their heads. With a Committee in place, they organise a few hours where they can sit down and discuss the teams. With the State of Origin concept being pitting the best in the state against the best in other states, then that is simply what you do. Taking live results both at home and abroad, online rankings and past form from the period of the 2010 Victorian Poker Championships to before the 2011 Victorian Poker Championships, you should be able to pick the best team.

The Committee will firstly select the six players they believe are the best in the state over the past twelve months and then provide a further four alternates. This list is then handed to the Captain who must contact each of the six players to see if they are available. If not, the first alternate will take his/her place and so on until six available members have been chosen.

As for the final spot, well that will be the Captain’s Exemption. If the captain believes that a player who missed out on the team should have actually made it, then they can be called up for that final eighth spot. They believe that they are a great player for the format of the event or were unfairly passed over, but either way, they have a chance to influence the team in a possibly winning way.

Although New South Wales have persisted with it, I believe that satellite winners shouldn’t be allowed in the State of Origin. I have no major argument for it, apart from saying that the event should be the best of the best from each state, therefore meaning that a satellite winner – regardless of how well they ran in the satellite or in the State of Origin – wouldn’t be in the best otherwise they would have already been selected. The only way this concept would work is if every team decided to have one satellite winner, but in all honesty, I don’t think this would happen.

Event Format
The Shootout format is a perfect way to run the State of Origin, but some tinkering needs to be done so that when the final table starts, it isn’t already game, set, match for a particular side.

Keeping the Shootout format points system of:

1st – 60

2nd – 50

3rd – 40

4th – 30

5th – 20

6th – 10

7th – 0

8th – 0

Like normal, you play down until there is a winner as each team is allocated the appropriate points for where they finished on each table. Each set of 10 points earns your side 10,000 tournament chips, and when you return the following day for the final table, each state will sit down with the equivalent amount of tournament chips in relation to their accrued points (ie 240 points equates to 240,000 in chips) plus the day one starting stack of 20,000 (in case a team fails to accrue any points during the shootout). Consequently when the final table begins, everybody still has a realistic chance of winning the title.

Now for the next twist. The final table will begin with the Captain playing, but at four separate occasions they will be allowed to make four substitutions. Any team member can be subbed in, and team member can play multiple times, and the subs do not have to be used if the Captain wishes so.

Not only will this format make it a little more exciting, but will also mean that for both days of the State of Origin, there is not only a crowd smothering the rail, but also every team member in attendance as they all still have an equal chance of winning.

In all honesty, none, one or all of these ideas that I’ve come up with could be utilised in the 2011 State of Origin, but only time will tell.

So many people have already contributed thoughts and ideas in relation to selection, format etc, and some are good, and some are bad. Heck, I would love to see a Stanley Cup-esque trophy with the winning team and their members engraved on it created so that the pride of crushing your opposition is more rewarding!

We will have to wait quite a while until we hear changes to the State of Origin, but hopefully those with the power to do so, take in what others have had to say on the issue that is obviously very important in our small and close-knit poker community.

I couldn’t really be bothered playing online today, but Donnie was back in his grinding shoes . . . and it paid dividends!

He managed to finish 3rd/2,451 in the Full Tilt Poker $9,500 GTD Rush Rebuy. The buy-in was only $2.20 and he re-bought nine times, but walked away with $2,200 for his third place . . . nice run sir.

With Lynn heading to the gym and me and GG doing nothing, he happily(?) drove me to this place called Too Hotties to get my hair cut. As you walk in there were maybe six or seven hairdressers who were stunningly gorgeous and all young. There was a pool table, flatscreen TVs, massage chair, PS3 and XBox 360 all for the patrons or guests to enjoy.

“Do you guys want a drink?” asked the receptionist.

“I’ll grab a beer!” and extremely excited GG added.

As GG sipped on his Bud Light while getting a chair massage, a petite brunette named Lacey began on my hair. We exchanged normal haircut banter of work etc, and I found out that even though she is only 20-years old, she has never been out of the country! This shocked me, because at the same age I already had been to eight different countries with nearly twenty trips to Asia to holiday or visit family.

Ending the haircut with an awkward but enjoyable face massage, I was extremely pleased with the result, as nothing beats your personal hairdresser back home . . . and for $23 it felt like a bargain!

With GG and I a little hungry, we ventured next door to Firehouse Subs where I bought us some late lunch / early dinner before picking up Lynn on the way home.

We decided a few days ago that we were all going to play the Green Valley Ranch weekly $45 HORSE tournament, and tonight was the night for us to check-raise some senior citizens and have some fun!

Lynn didn’t really want to play due to her lack of knowledge in the games, but that still didn’t stop Donnie, GG, Jane and I donating our money as the $45 entry got us a 2,500 starting bank. Unfortunately the Tournament Director was a bit of an idiot – and although there were four tables in operation – they still managed to seat Donnie, me and GG in the one, two and three seats respectively on the same table. Throw in the fact that we were nine-handed and played each game for a fifteen minute level instead of eight hands, really underlined the quality we expected.

“So what order does the games go in?”

“What exactly is hi-lo . . . razz . . . or stud?”

These were just a handful of the comments that we heard in the first few minutes of the tournament as we all just gave each a look of Oh My GOD!

I chipped up pretty easily in the Holdem orbit, but then played a terrible Razz hand where my made 8-7 perfect was rivered by a guy after I bet every street in a mult-way pot. I managed to pick up some chips though, and finished the first break with 4,600.

With the blinds climbing every game, I tried to play tight in the stud games, but when we returned to Holdem I won about nine pots to get my stack up to 6,500 and then 11,000 by the Razz orbit.

Reaching the final table of eight with 11,200, I was sitting third in chips (chip leader had 33,500) with Stud being the game with an ante of 100 and betting limits of 500-1,000. My stack slipped a little as we lost just one player before I managed to win a hand in Stud Hi-Lo with two-pair against two lows; one of which was the losing hand of Donnie’s.

With only five people getting paid, once we lost seventh, we made a deal for the bubble boy and chuck in $10 each so that he would at least make some profit. Once he exited, I had 14,500 during the Omaha Hi-Lo orbit with blinds 500-1,000 and was sitting on the button.

The remaining four players then started talking deals of chopping the prizepool five-ways for $220 each. The player on my left only had 8,500 and Donnie 6,500 in the big blind, while the two players on my right had 25,000 and 18,000. I felt that I had a great enough skill edge to keep playing, and running ICM equities saw that I should earning a little more. I obviously was beaten into submission and took the deal as we made our way home.

Not having played online all day, I decided to load up a couple of tourneys on Full Tilt Poker to fill in some time before doing some work.

I busted a Rush tourney quite early, but was also playing a $3 PLO Six-Max Rebuy tournament. Although I was in for five rebuys, I had a better than average stack after the rebuy period was over with Donnie also still in. We ended up being seated on the same table for quite a while which was pretty funny as I held the chip lead with 45 players remaining of the starting 77. Once there were about 29 players left, I lost a couple of big pots here and there and slipped back to around fifth only to see Donnie exit when I guy – that I proceeded to berate afterwards – called off a pot raise preflop and then a pot-sized shove on the flop for 80% of his stack with just a straight draw for the wheel.

With only eight players cashing, I doubled a couple of short-stacks up when we were twelve-handed, and consequently had to grind the short-stack on the bubble. I then managed to find two massive double ups after flopping the nut full twice against two players and doubling in the first before eliminating the guy that busted Donnie in the second to take the chip lead into the final table with 40% of the chips in play.

Unfortunately after losing one, I played a massive pot holding K♥ K♠ 9♥ 4♦ against A♥ A♠ J♣ 8♠ after I raised, he potted, and I put him all in. The board ran out 6♥ 9♦ 9♣ Q♠ 10♠ to see the suck, re-suck cost me a chip stack of well over half the chips in play.

Not letting it deter me, I still continued to open fairly regularly to pick up the blinds while also making some sneaky check-raises in blind-on-blind battles with the virtual nuts. I still managed to lose some crucial pots to prevent me returning to my once powerful stack, and consequently when I reached heads-up play, I was nearly a three-to-one underdog in chips.

I managed to take a few dints out of his stack, but he pushed back a couple of times to see my slip back to a three-to-one underdog before this final hand occurred.

Seat 1: tRaMSt0p (90,516)
Seat 3: molchun17 (305,984)
tRaMSt0p posts the small blind of 5,000
molchun17 posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #1
Dealt to tRaMSt0p 8♥ J♥ 7♣ 7♥

tRaMSt0p raises to 22,500
molchun17 calls 12,500
*** FLOP *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠

molchun17 checks
tRaMSt0p checks
*** TURN *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠ 4♠

molchun17 bets 22,500
tRaMSt0p raises to 68,016, and is all in
molchun17 calls 45,516
tRaMSt0p shows 8♥ J♥ 7♣ 7♥

molchun17 shows 9♣ 7♠ 5♠ 4♥

*** RIVER *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠ 4♠ 9♥

tRaMSt0p shows a full house, Sevens full of Nines
molchun17 shows a full house, Nines full of Sevens
molchun17 wins the pot (181,032) with a full house, Nines full of Sevens

With the final hand occurring around 5:30am, I was fairly disappointed not to take it down and top off a good day, but will take the $159 for 2nd/77 players.

After doing some household tasks during the day, Donnie decided that it would be a good idea to play The Orleans $75 nightly tournament.

We picked up his friend Bob from around the corner, before making our way to the Strip to pick up Jane from work. Once at The Orleans we registered for the tournament and grabbed a quick bite to eat before settling into one of the best nightly tournaments in Las Vegas.

The levels lasted twenty minutes for the first three levels before switching to thirty minutes thereafter and we all began with a 7,500-chip starting bank as around 68 runners entered the tournament. They also allowed you to repechage – or re-enter – over the duration of the first three levels . . . something that Jane took advantage of!

My first major hand came when I opened to 375 at the 75-150 level with 9♥ 9♠ from middle position and was called by the player on the button as a 9♦ J♣ 4♥ flop fell. I fired out 475, and the button called, before calling 1,175 when the turn landed the Q♣ as we both checked the K♠ on the river. I scooped the pot to move to 9,925 after he tabled his inferior 8♠ 8♣ before reaching the first hour break with just over 9,000.

With blinds at 150-300 and now a 25-ante, there was two limps ahead of me, and I decided to do the same from the button with 5♠ 4♠ as both the blinds completed to see a five-handed flop of 9♠ 8♠ 5♦. The under the gun limper led out for 700, and after one fold, I bumped it to 1,850. The blinds passed, and he tank-folded to see me climb to 11,175.

My table broke, and on my first hand in the big blind I squeezed to 1,700 over a limp for 400 and a complete from the small blind with Kings, but got no action as I moved to around 12,700. Then with blinds at 300-600 I opened to 1,500 from under the gun with 9♦ 9♥ and was called by the button and big blind to see a K♠ K♥ 6♠ flop fall. I really wanted to fire out a bet, but checked instead, as the button fired out an overbet of 7,000. The big blind folded, and after some deliberation, I did too while slipping to 8,700.

Just as the end of the level was nearing I felt that I need to try and pick up some chips. With two limps for 600 in front of me, I made it 2,300 to go from the cutoff with Q♥ 10♥ and was called by just the original limper as a J♥ 3♠ 4♥ flop fell. He checked, and I shoved for 6,000 and some change as he instantly called tabling his 3♥ 3♣. The turn landed the 7♣, and river the Q♣ to see me exit in 32nd place or so to join both Jane and Bob on the rail.

Donnie was on a complete roller-coaster of a tournament, but still held a comfortable chip stack as we sweated his potentially deep run . . . well we did all have 5% in each other . . . so that was a little of an incentive too!

After walking around The Orleans for a while, I decided to take a seat on a $2-4 Limit Holdem table to kill time while Donnie hopefully shipped the $1,590 first prize.

Buying in just for $200, I raised the first five hands – all with premium holdings of course – but was unable to make any hands as my stack somehow slid down to $120 within the first few orbits. Finding the powerful K♦ 2♦, I rivered flush after it was capped on the flop and the turn in a five-handed flop to see my stack soar to $220.

My Aces were then cracked by Ten-Nine before my A♠ 8♠ lost to Ace-Six on a 6♠ 6♦ 4♠ 9♣ A♥ before it was then my turn to crack Aces with 5♦ 3♦ when my straight draw improved into a flush. I then three-bet pre, capped the flop and turn before exchanging two bets on the river with 4♦ 3♦ on a 8♦ 6♥ 4♥ 3♠ 3♥ board before making a discipline fold on the river with Ace-King against Aces-up and a set. My final hand saw me flop Broadway with K♣ Q♣ and hold as I collected a mighty $10 profit as Donnie collected $385 for his 4th place before we all ventured home.

As the rain bucketed down, I made my way up a wet Geelong Highway to visit a friend in the south-eastern suburb of Aspendale.

Just a few days previously she had received some terrible news that a family member passed away, and consequently I decided to pay her and her family a visit to express my condolences. I picked out an arrangement of white orchids, lilies and roses before driving around their block a few times trying to work out what exactly to say at a time like this (because honestly no one is good at these things, and there is only a handful of things that you can say!). Eventually I manned up, pulled over and knocked on their door before staying there for just over an hour catching up before making my way into the city.

I swung pass Alex’s house and picked him up to grab some dinner, but instead we decided to go play the Crown $60 Turbo tourney for shits and giggles.

Arriving just a few minutes before the tournament started, we registered then grabbed a quick snack before joining the tournament a little late. The $60 Turbo not only gives you twenty seconds to act on your hand, but the structure is rather fast too, meaning it’s more of a run hot / gamble up kind of tournament instead testing out your superior poker skills.

I won a small pot within in the first orbit to move above my starting stack of 1,500 before Alex’s table broke and he was moved to my direct right. He shoved one hand, then another before his third shove would find action from an under the gun limp-caller with A♠ 5♦ against his Jacks. An Ace dropped and Alex was of course upset at the level of play he was witnessing.

A few hands later I jokingly made the dealer aware that he was using his phone at the table, and after losing that hand and grabbing his phone for some comfort (?) he was pinged with a ten minute penalty. It wasn’t the ten minutes that were the major problem, or the fact he was about seven hands from the blinds, but the fact that he only had three big blinds left! Alex immediately stormed off saying that he was leaving blah blah blah. The ten minutes went by and I called and messaged him before he eventually made it back just in time to see the blinds go up only to bust to my K♣ 8♣ when I rivered an eight to crack his pocket fours.

I was still short – well not in comparison to the table – with around fifteen big blinds, and consequently Alex decided to stick around and wait till I busted so we could head out for dinner. Unfortunately for him I kept hanging around picking up a pot here and there – including a nice triple holding Kings vs Ace-Jack vs Sevens – to see just two tables remain from the original 88 starters.

Once that twenty was reduced to sixteen it became a game of who had balls and who didn’t. I of course did and started raising and raising and raising to put pressure on the players who were sitting tight in an effort to make the final table and min-cash. This one guy on my left folded A♥ Q♥ to my button shove with 7♠ 7♣ and then folded those same sevens when I shoved with A♣ 3♦. Although I was chipping up fairly well – I still barely had fifteen big blinds due to a pretty crapshoot-style structure – I decided to ask everyone if they were interested in chucking in $10 each for whoever was the bubble boy. Everyone agreed and about an orbit later the guy that continued to whimper at my button shoves hit the rail as the final table was formed as the clock hit 10pm.

Alex and his mate David decided to vacate the rail to find some action for themselves as they ventured up to the Craps table as we kicked off with my stack in about fourth or fifth position. A full orbit went by before I played my first hand when I shipped it all in from the big blind after an all in and a call holding Ace-King to be up against Ace-Ten and Sevens. I dinged a King on the flop and tripled up nicely to sit in second place with only seven players left. Soon enough we were three-handed with some old guy holding the slight chip lead over me and long-time Crown player Andrey.

Three handed play astoundingly went for about forty minutes as we all exchanged chips from our average ten big blind stacks. With blinds at 3,000-6,000 I shoved the small blind for around 31,000 holding the powerful 4♣ 2♠ and was snapped off by Andrey’s A♦ K♦. I bricked out and picked up $615 for my third place as Andrey went on to be bad beat for second and see the $1,025 first prize head in the direction of the old man.

Me and Alex had swapped 25% so I shipped his share of $136 before I dropped him and David off in the city to grab dinner. Originally planning on playing some cash instead of the tournament, the win was good enough for the day, and I decided to make my way back home a little happier then when I ventured up early in the afternoon.

When Soren Eriksen’s 7♦ 7♣ held up in a race against Cole Swannack, the Dane became the first New Zealand Poker Championships back-to-back Champion.

Since my trip across the Tasman was my first on the road since September of last year, there is no better way to end my trip then the next instalment of The Eight Points of Enlightenment: New Zealand Poker Championships.

1 – Schedule: There are some doubters, but I believe that the New Zealand Poker Championships schedule had a great mix of events with well structured tournaments and adequate buy-in amounts. No Limit Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha, Bounty, Manila and Ladies events all accompanied the Main Event and the buy-ins ranged from $220 to $1,100 which gave the average player and tournament veteran a chance to test out their skill. For the next running of the Championship, I believe that a rebuy tournament may be the next step forward around the $100 – $200 mark.

2 – Not Much To Do: When you travel interstate or overseas for a poker tournament there normally needs to be an external poker lure to seal the deal. Unfortunately in Christchurch there just isn’t much to do! The town square is nice, and the gondola ride seems cute, but unless you want to drive out of town for a couple of hours, it’s really just the casino or the hotel. Obviously you can’t do much about the town itself, but scheduling the event during a week where the town is holding a festival etc would probably be the best option.

3 – Cash Games: Nowadays cash game structures and limits are fairly similar in most casinos around Australia and the world, but at Christchurch Casino there were some differences that I thought were good. Firstly their smallest game – $1 – 2 NLH – had a max buy-in of $150 which is very uncommon (in Australia that is), but also a great relief as it made the game 50% deeper than usual. The poker room also offered a $1 – 2 NLH and PLO rotation which again is very rare at such low limits – and although I didn’t see it get up – it was great to have that as an option on their lists.

4 – Tournament Numbers: Although the cash games were kicking early into the morning the numbers in the tournaments were on the low side; no more evident in the 79 that only participated in the Main Event. I spent considerable time talking with poker manager Warren Wyllie about how the numbers could be increased so that the NZPC becomes a major stop on the Australasian poker circuit – and although this may take a few years – it definitely has the potential.

5 – Service and Player Treatment: I have only witnessed one other place in the world that treats their players better than they do at Christchurch Casino; and that was at the Casino Du Liban in Lebanon. At the first break of every tournament a feast of food was provided next to the bar for all players to snack on. The food was edible, enjoyable and always went down well with the players as it made them feel just a little bit special due to the A+ treatment. Drinks service was also great with plenty of waiters servicing the poker tables in operation with all basic drinks being free and orders being retrieved very quickly since the bar was located right next to the poker tables.

6 – Tournament Location: The closeness to the bar did have some positives, but the negatives of having the nine or so poker tables on the gaming floor by far outweighed these. Surrounded by two rows of pokies, the bar, blackjack and rapid roulette tables meant that the players were often crowded by railbirds and other gamblers as well as the noise level being a little on the high side. Obviously it is unlikely that the poker room can find another location in such a small casino, but surely for a major tournament like this a row of pokies could be moved, and the area for the tables be structured slightly different.

7 – Tournament Chips: The one thing that I found disappointing about the tournament was the quality of tournament chips that they were using. They were virtually the same ones you can buy at a Kmart or online apart from gold logos stamped in the centre on both sides. With thousands of dollars on the line, it would be extremely easy for someone to counterfeit the chips or even just use ones without the logos and sneak them into the tournament. Without doubt the first thing that needs to be looked into for 2011.

8 – Soren Just Too Good!: In the modern era of poker it is extremely rare to see back-to-back Champions, and although David Borg came close last year, Soren Eriksen managed to lay claim to the title as he hoisted the trophy once again. Personally I don’t think that this negatively affects the tournament having a repeat winner, but the staff behind the NZPC should try and use it positively in promotion of the 2011 event so that Soren will have some stiff competition to battle.

There is barely enough time to pack my bag and enjoy the crisp and cold air of Christchurch before heading to Sydney for the upcoming ANZPT, so stay tuned to Tilted Behaviour for all you need to know!

With the final table upon us I made my way to Christchurch Casino a little earlier to make sure everything was set up fine.

Final Table coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Final Table coverage (PokerNews browser)

Since the numbers were substantially down on the previous years, only a NZ$180,000 prizepool had been generated but NZ$60,000 of it was reserved for whoever could best the 72-player field.

Amazingly the reigning Champion in Soren Eriksen had also made the final table, and feeling at home, he kicked off proceedings playing very aggressive. Comedian Mike King exited first courtesy of a bad beat as one-time chip leader Alfred Saliba fell next, but in the end it would be a battle between Eriksen, Cole Swannack and Michael Spilkin as the three swapped chips back and forth.

Even with some poker heavyweights in his corner, Spilkin fell in third when he committed with middle-pair against Eriksen’s top pair to put play into a heads up battle with Eriksen holding a two-to-one advantage.

Only a few hands into heads up play and it would be Eriksen’s 7♦ 7♣ holding in a race against Swannack’s A♦ Q♣ to see the Swede go back-to-back!

Champion Soren Eriksen

With the final table all wrapped up, but a 6am flight awaiting me the next day, there wasn’t too much I could do tonight.

I returned to the room to have a shower before heading to the bar across from the casino to catch up with some of the boys. I ordered some pizza and enjoyed some good company for a while before making my back to my room to be greeted by this!

Since I had been upgraded to a suite and had two additional beds in what I used as the lounge room, it had become the dumping ground of all my crap. Consequently I spent a good hour sorting through all the junk and packing my bag before heading over to the casino with my remaining $40 in chips.

With a couple of EPL games on I decided to kill my time by sitting on the Baccarat tables and placing the occasional bet while trying to stay up until my 4am airport pick up.

Although I got some odd looks, I managed to stay awake and profit $90 from my sporadic bets before making my way to the airport in a joint courtesy van with Leo and Bev Boxell.

I checked in, grabbed a drink, caught up with Yann and boarded my flight back to Australia hitting the hay as soon as the wheels left the tarmac.

The New Zealand Poker Championships Main Event was expecting to draw a 100-plus field, but when only 72-players turned out for both the combined day ones, everyone was a little disappointed.

Day 1a coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Day 1a coverage (PokerNews browser)
(there were some problems with the PokerNetwork layout, so I decided to include both reporting views)

2007 Champion Eric Assadourian, 2009 Aussie Millions Champion Stewart Scott, 2009 APPT Auckland and Sydney Champions Simon Watt and Aaron Benton, SKYCITY Auckland Champion James Honeybone and the most experienced player in the field, Graeme ‘Kiwi G’ Putt, all amongst the 35-player day 1a field.

The play was fairly standard for a small tournament as players jostled for position, but it was an interesting conversation I had with Eric Assadourian and a few of the players in the tournament that was most interesting.

Basically Eric stated that at the end of the day the most successful poker player is the one who has won the most money. Eric – and a few others – would prefer to win $1 million straight up and nothing else instead of grinding a multitude of events to amount to that same $1 million – which I would prefer. Thoughts?

Day 1b coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Day 1b coverage (PokerNews browser)

A slightly larger field – albeit by two – that included previous Champions Soren Eriksen and David Borg along with last year’s High Rollers Champion Dennis Huntly and tournament veterans Leo Boxell, Michael Pedley, Tony Hachem and Martin Cardno.

It was a fairly mundane day of poker apart from the 2008 Champion and 2009 Runner-Up David Borg doing something unusual. After doubling on one of the first few hands with Aces, the second last hand saw Borg push all in dark and win the blinds and antes after showing 7♠ 3♥. Then on the final hand he did so again but this time got felted at the hand of Cole Swannack’s Kings.

39 players are heading into Day 2, but until then, it’s time to play some cash!

I sat down on a $1-2 NLH table but was unable to get anything going with my first buy. I topped up an additional $50, but when that was depleted to around $100, I decided not to top-up once again and try to gamble it instead. However when I check-raised all in with a flush draw and over card, I was forced to rebuy when it bricked out.

Buying in for my second $150 I was extremely card dead for the next few hours and was about to leave until four drunk players sat down. Two of them had never played, and I thought no time was better than the present to remain on the table although the clock was ticking up to the 2am mark.

Unfortunately for me I was unable to get any of their alcohol-induced chips as some local regular got them all . . . well until about 4am when I called a bet on a 4♣ 2♠ 9♣ flop with 5♥ 3♥ to see the A♠ fall on the turn. We got it all in with him drawing dead holding just an Ace as I finished only down $40 for the night

It has been nearly two months since the Aussie Millions, but tournament poker has returned to the Crown Poker Room with the fourth instalment of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series.

Tournament Director Mike Tarr borrowed a line out of The Hangover and called me a “one man wolfpack” as I was covering the event solo. This did mean that I wasn’t going to be able to churn out hand upon hand like I’m accustomed too, and what made it even worse was that both my Vodafone wireless stick couldn’t get reception and the Crown wi-fi wasn’t turned on. Consequently instead of blogging from the floor, I was out in the back office on a computer that seemed to be older than me!

Day 1a
Day 1b
Day 1c

The first three days of play were what you would have expected from a $550 Main Event Repechage with many noobs testing out their tournament skills in a combination with a few people willing to gamble as they had the option to buy-in each day if they busted the one previous.

Seventeen players took advantage / played bad / got unlucky and bought in on all three day ones. Michael ‘TheBigSiCkO’ Guzzardi, Yann Pauchon, Steve Topakas and Gregory Shillig were just a few of the notables to fire out three barrels and outlay the $1,650.

From the 784 starters only 259 remained with the top 72 getting to take a piece of the prizepool home with them.

Many notables were heading into day two with James ‘Jabba’ Broom the best placed being only one of the few having over 200,000 in chips while on an interesting note all three of the previous Champions still remained with Luke Santo, Daniel Botta and Amanda De Cesare looking to replicate their previous deep runs in this event.

Day 2

Day two was fairly standard with play lasting just over twelve hours as we played down to the final table.

The bubble lasted substantially longer than expected even with a few short stacks about – and once both Paul Birman and Lee Banh simultaneously bubbled – play quickened up as we blasted through elimination after elimination.

There was some very unusual play which was mostly due to amateur-dominated field, but still some local tournament veterans in Kel Beattie (64th), Mat Hawker (59th), Dave Lee (41st), Zane Ly (36th), Mark Furniss (30th), Danny Joukhadar (29th), Andrew Demetriou (24th), Sam Korman (20th) and Paul Taylor (16th) all managed to scrap into the money before the final table of ten was set.

Final Table

In my few years of working in the poker industry I’ve only experienced a handful of short final tables but many that have nearly seen me nodding off over my computer as they tick into the wee hours of the morning.

This Final Table however lasted just 150-minutes and less than 100-hands until Sam Welch was crowned Champion and $80,050 richer!

Six players hit the rail before we had even reached our first break while the remaining four sat fairly even with Esan Tabrizi holding the slight lead. Two more fell in quick succession to put play into heads-up with Tabrizi holding a slight advantage against Sam Welch who had been sitting high on the leaderboard since late on day two.

The heads-up duel was full of check-raises and blind steals, but after fifteen minutes and only a dozen hands it would be draw versus draw as Welch made the nut-straight holding 8♠ 7♠ against Tabrizi’s J♥ 9♥ for a flush draw. No heart fell on the river and Tabrizi exited in 2nd place as Welch was crowned the Main Event Champion!

With another Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series in the bag, it was time to rest up before heading to New Zealand in eight days time.