tilted behaviour

It had been a while since I ventured up to Melbourne, so it was good to journey up the highway to the city for some fun.

My friend Bec and I had discussed a night of ice skating a few weeks back, and with the day finally upon us, I was more than a little nervous. I arrived early planning to catch up with a mate, but when some things got in the way, we decided to postpone that and instead I ventured to the city to check out the water-damaged Crown Poker Room.

Things didn’t seem too bad in the room, and I decided to take a seat on a $2-3 NLH table to kill the time before I made my way to an icy death!

Coming in on the big blind as time was called I was dealt 7♣ 7♠ and after a few players had limped, a player with over $800 in the cutoff decided to make it $15 as he started putting his chips in a rack. Both the button and small blind called, as did I, before the limpers followed suit to see the pot sit at around $105. The flop fell down 7♦ K♥ 6♦ and I led out for $45 – actually thinking the pot was smaller – and everyone folded apart from the original raiser. The turn landed the Q♥ and I toyed with checking, but with over $200 in the pot, I thought there was a slight chance that I could get a call from hands that would check behind – such as flush draw or even Jacks or something – and consequently moved all in for my last $140. My opponent deliberated for about three minutes before stating he was folding a flush draw for me as I racked in the pot to move to just under $330.

Mis-reading the size of the pot on the flop I really would have liked to bet say $65 to take the pot to $235 and then my shove would be about half pot and most likely have been called – and with no diamond landing on the river – I would have more than doubled.

A few hands later I opened 5♣ 5♥ to $11 and found one caller before being raised by the small blind to $22. We both called and I folded the flop as one player flopped trips and the other turned the nut flush.

Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan walked in the room and I decided to sweat him for a while and discuss a few hands that we had been chatting about online that we had witnessed from a DeucesCracked training video. I must have brought him a little bit of luck as he chipped up nicely before it was time to hit the ice!

I picked up my mate Alex from the CBD and we made our way to IceHouse to meet up with Bec and her mates.

We grabbed our skates and made the nervous stumble to the ice rink as kids and adults whizzed round in a circle. Nervous as all hell, me and Alex slowly stepped on the ice holding the rail tightly as we attempted to make our way round the ring.

Although I use to roller-blade quite frequently when I was younger and have been skiing all my life, I was still just a little worried of face planting on the cold and hard surface.

Eventually though it all came back to me and it felt completely natural as I whizzed around the rink like a semi-pro zigzagging in-and-out of people as the DJ blasted 80’s hits through the sound system.

Alex on the other hand was S-T-RUGGLING! He could barely do a lap without clutching to a nearby rail and randomly he would fall over forcing both a simultaneous “you allright dude?” and “bwahahahaha” from me.

Unfortunately for Alex, one of his falls saw him land a little harder than the others and he bruised up his knee pretty bad and decided to take a break. I continued to skate round the rink flirting with landing on my ass as I tried to go as fast as I could before slowing down to take corners that were tougher than I expected.

With everyone about to call it a night after several hours on the ring I made my way back onto the ice after taking a quick break. I stood on the ice, took two steps forward and fell flat on my face . . . I honestly didn’t know you could feel that embarrassed!

I picked my sorry ass up and did a few more laps, before exiting IceHouse with everyone before me and Alex decided to stop off at Chappelli’s for a very-late midnight dinner.

Good food, interesting discussions revolving mostly around poker and a long ride back to Geelong to be in bed by 4am.

I only slept three hours thanks to a long – and profitable – night sports betting and watching the soccer, but now the time has come to wake up, freshen up and get ready to head to the second day of the Boxing Day Test!

With a carload full of mates from the cricket club, we made our way up the highway before parking the car at Crown and catching a tram to the MCG.

Finding an empty row three from the fence at cover / mid-wicket, we lathered on the sunscreen as the sun began to beat down while we slumped back into our chairs for the preparation for an exciting day of cricket.

However . . . we would be disappointed.

Six wickets fell and 258 runs were scored with the only real highlight of the day being a streaker that virtually made it across the whole MCG before a security guard tripped him up just fifteen metres shy of potential freedom.

And to make things worse . . . I barely got a tan!

Since I can remember I have been a complete sports nut, but the one thing I have never really explored is sports betting . . . well . . . until now!

While watching the third test between Australia and the West Indies, I decided to follow up on one of the ads that flashed up during play and logged on to Betfair.

After looking round the site I found one cool niche – or what I assume to be a niche in the sports betting field because I haven’t bothered to look anywhere else – where you can actually bet on a result not occurring and bet during play.

Taking the example from above, you can back a result occurring such as Australia winning at 1.78. However if you want to bet on a result not occurring then you may lay money on a particular outcome such as Pakistan not winning at 5.60. The way you do it is by laying the amount you wish to win. Say you want to win $10, then you lay $10 on at 5.60, and if Pakistan do win then you have a liability of $56 (including your original $10 bet) to Betfair.

I don’t think it’s too complicated, and on the weekend I decide to deposit and make a few small bets to see me record a small but enjoyable profit after winning the majority of my bets placed over the cricket and six English Premier League matches.

Then today I received a Betfair package in the mail that included forms to verify your account if you want to deposit large sums of money or withdraw funds. Also included is a handy guide on everything you need to know to place a bet on the site and a personalised Betfair wallet card listing your Telephone Account Number, Username, BPAY payment information and important phone numbers to make placing a bet anytime extremely easy.

So if you want to bring some excitement to even the most dull sporting events – whether it’s a soccer match between two relegation bound clubs or even a draw-bound test match – then click the banner below or the one in the sidebar to begin some happy punting!

Growing up in Australian surrounded by Australian friends, there was never a doubt that footy code I would pick up as a little part-haired kid would of course be Aussie Rules Football . . . but times change!

Although I’m still – and always will be – a passionate Western Bulldogs supporter, recent times have seen me switch codes to soccer, or football depending where you live.

This is mainly due to my mates and fellow indoor teammates James and Mat who are huge soccer fanatics and Manchester United fans. Now having them sweat matches as they loyally support the Red Devils, made me get thinking that maybe I should support a team since I tend to follow the sport more regularly nowadays.

When I was younger I use to like Liverpool because Harry Kewell (since he was Australian and all) played for them, but due to him moving to Galatasaray at the same time my interest in the game began to increase, it doesn’t seem appropriate to support them.

There are a lot of players that I enjoying watching in the English Premier League, and picking a team was really difficult, but when Lucas Neill signed with Everton to join fellow Australian Tim Cahill, I found it completely appropriate to latch on and support Everton. Throw in the fact that their star player is Australian and also named Tim, and that my dad lived near their home ground when he was a kid and that their major sponsor is a Thailand beer company . . . did I really need any other reasons to support them?

I may only know a handful of players, and may even get some names wrong (thanks to James for the corrections), but I enjoy watching a team that I can now say I support and consequently can get passionate about.

However saying you support a team is one thing, but wearing their colours proud is another!

Consequently I jumped online the other day and had a look around the Everton Online Store. After spending the good part of half an hour looking at every item for sale, I decided to grab just two items.

Firstly a blue Everton Training Vest to slum around when the weather heats up or use for heading down to the beach or cricket training and secondly a black Everton Training Top to wear on a casual basis. Expecting them to arrive in another week or two, I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see a package on my desk containing two wonderful gifts!

Although they may not be the most highly sought after gear for Everton supporters, I feel that I’ll get the most wear out of these two items . . . and anyway . . . I’m still a noob supporter, because who knows what we’ll see in the future . . . maybe a personalised DUCKWORTH #10 will soon be on order!

It’s unusual for a poker player – or anyone in the poker industry – to have enough time up their sleeve to play sports . . . but it’s one thing that I’m slowly trying to curve.

I’ve mentioned the Alexander Thomson Cricket Club a few times on this site, and today I got a chance to play my first ever Twenty20 Cricket match!

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind season after explaining to the club that I want to play as low as possible – preferably fourths – due to commitment issues. I started with a victory in the thirds before being promoted to the seconds where I bowled extremely well and made 74 not out opening the batting the see us cruise to victory. The first two-dayer of the season saw me promoted to the firsts where I made 32 not out batting down the order, and after taking a catch, we notched up another victory.

However this week saw us prepare for the toughest battle of the season playing the GCA Twenty20 Champions from last season in South Barwon.

We never really stood a chance, but we still wanted to give it a red hot crack. Unfortunately, South Barwon were just too good on the day, and claimed a very easy five-wicket victory over us.

Back Row: Matt Brown, Lucas Benci, Luke Davidson, Mark Welsh, Cameron Forbes, David Kiss Front Row: Nathan Saunders, Jake Mundy, Sean Arnott (c), Simon Fragiotta, Tim Duckworth