Easily the last thing you want to hear after a nine-hour plane ride from Asia, no sleep and a sixteen-hour flight to the USA ahead of you.

“I can’t give you an aisle seat either sir. The flight is full”

Probably the second last thing you want to hear, but on a positive note I would be in Las Vegas today even if it was with a two-hour delay.

Since it was five hours until my flight, I did what most people would do in such a situation . . . play online at McDonalds! I soon got bored of that and decided to head through immigration where I found my gate and had an hour or so sleep on the ground before finally moving to a row of seats.

”Final boarding call for Qantas flight . . .”

I found my seat near the back of the plane next to a fairly large-sized couple who made it tough for me to get comfortable even after being switched to an aisle seat.

I managed to sleep about ten hours – although of not much quality – and touched down in Los Angeles feeling rather fresh as I made my way to another terminal to catch my connecting flight via American Airlines. I perused the shops, read the newspaper and grabbed a bite to eat before boarding the vessel that would carry me the last 280 miles of my long journey.

The snowy mountains and 65-degree temperature that Las Vegas greeted me with was quickly saddened after arriving at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and being delivered another piece of bad news of my room not being available for another hour or so.

Eventually after getting into my room that overlooked the stunning pool, I unpacked and was ready to hit the strip . . .

. . . but then jetlag somehow swooped in and tucked me into bed for fourteen-hours! And it was only 4:30pm!

Once I managed to check into the Grand Lisboa I made my way up to one of the most pimped out rooms I’ve stayed in while on the job for PokerNews / PokerNetwork (although this was a PokerStars gig).

My room at the Grand Lisboa – includes massive rotatable Plasma, two bathroom TV’s and in-built sauna and jacuzzi . . . BALLA!!!

I had a shower and caught up with Eric who had already been round for the day, and although I wanted to go eat and hang out, he wanting to crash in the room for a while. Consequently I went and got some food and made my way to the poker table.

Sitting down in a HK$10-20 NLH game with HK$2,000 (which works out to be $300 and blinds at $1-3) I never managed to gather any momentum and finished down HK$200. I did feel that I played really well, but just didn’t get a chance to win many pots apart from the occasional three-bet pre or steal from the button after a gazillion limpers.

Donnie finally arrived, and we got a chance to catch up before we all decided to meet the following day so we could see the sights that Macau has to offer.

Donnie, Eric and I were joined by Elissa as we set on a hike around town.

Although I was trying to lead us to the Ruins of St. Pauls, I was basically winging it before – after an hour of walking – running into a hotel to grab a map and some directions.

Eventually we found the Guia Fortress and the Ruins of St. Pauls before finding Gloria and the other video guys filming some b-roll as we all made a return back to the hotel before deciding to take a dip in the pool.

After Donnie, GG and I talked crap for an hour or so in the pool we all jumped in the sauna before heading upstairs to get changed as the whole team made our way to the Venetian to get some grub.

We found an Italian restaurant and ate some great food while sharing PokerNews stories from the past few years before retiring for the night.

It’s time for Macau!

PokerStars has asked me to be part of the blogging team for highly anticipated Macau leg of the Asian Pacific Poker Tour – and since Macau is one of my favourite poker related destinations – how could I turn the offer down.

I suppose the best thing about Macau is catching up with my PokerNews buddies Donnie, Eric and GG (since they do occasionally read Tilted Behaviour, I better keep 75% of my audience happy) but in reality it’s really a battle between apples, oranges and pears!

Gambling (and in particular Baccarat)?

Night-life?

Cheap Massages (and in particular the PG rating of the Grand Waldo Spa)?

I enjoy playing poker in Macau although I haven’t had too much success in the past two visits, but am hoping that I can have some luck this time round. My first year there I got hooked on Baccarat and made somewhere around the HK$12,000 mark in profit. Last year wasn’t too good, but this time round I hope it all changes although I doubt that I will play too much Baccarat or other table games.

Oh the Macau night-life . . . one minute it is fantastic and the next it has you waking up feeling worse than ever before! There is no doubt that at some point during the trip that I will visit the D2 nightclub where so many great memories have been etched – from David Saab’s antics last year to PokerNews reporter David King falling asleep in the male toilets to gorgeous girls hanging off your every incomprehensible word since you’re white (or half) and logically have lots of money!

The Grand Waldo Spa is the first thing I want to cross off my list once I get there. Have a spa, sauna, massage and a full relax all for chump change. Only problem is that I just saw this on their website, “For improving Grand Waldo Spa facility, with effect from 01 February 2010, the Grand Waldo Spa will be under renovation and closed. The exact re-open date will be announced later” . . . three letters is enough . . . FML! I guess another spa will have to be found.

Hopefully you guys will stay locked on to Tilted Behaviour as I detail my Macau adventures while mixing it with a little work in the uncharted waters of the PokerStars blog.

Better get cracking as I only have three hours until I zip up the highway!

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 problem when you’re on the road is that food can get expensive as you tend to eat out for every meal. Consequently I went to the corner store and bought some supplies – and as you can see – I enjoyed a very standard breakfast in a rather unusual make-shift bowl.

After knocking back two cups of Nutri-Grain and some apple juice before a long hot shower, I decided to take a walk into what I believed to be was the city – or Cathedral Square as it would become known to me.

I stumbled round checking out the market stalls and the goods that they were offering while enjoying the half-dozen or so buskers that were spotted round the square singing their way for a few bucks. I then came across a giant chess square about three metres squared that featured red and black pieces about two-feet high. I took a seat amongst the few onlookers as a game played out.

It seemed as though this one old Asian man with frail chicken legs and a crooked smile was the guy to beat as he continually crushed anyone that challenged him. Then at this one point his opponent asked an onlooker for some advice only to receive the biggest broken-english tirade that Tony G or Phil Hellmuth would be proud of from the old man.

The old Asian man ended up winning anyway, and instead of staying on to take on the next challenger he sulked off over to the bench and brought out his own chess set to play one of his friends.

I’ve never been a huge chess player, but I couldn’t believe who enthralled I was in these matches and when I realised I had been sitting there for nearly three hours I decided to make my way back to the hotel and then the casino to get in on some action.

Finding a seat on a new $1-2 NLH table it was funny to find Mina also taking a seat on my left, only this time to be joined by one of her friends to her left.

Early on I kicked over the $200 mark when I three-bet a $12 open to $43 with Ace-King and we checked down a rather wet board with my Ace-high being the best hand. I squeezed Ace-Queen on the button after seventeen callers a couple of times but always bricked the flop and was forced to throw it away. I then made a $40 river call holding Jacks in a raised pot on a final board of Ace-King-4-4-2 and was good when my opponent mucked without showing.

For the first time of the trip I was dealt Aces and called a player’s preflop shove but ran into his monstrous 5♥ 6♠ as he made a straight on me. My bad luck continued when I flopped the nut-straight holding K♣ Q♣ but some banana spiked his flush on the turn after calling half his stack on the flop.

The table then became short-handed and as a consequence my Q♣ 2♣ looked like the nuts when the small blind raised to $6 and I made the call to see a Q♠ 8♣ 5♥ flop and another $6 bet follow. I called with a plan to raise the turn, and when a $10 bet followed the 2♠, I made it $35 to go. The small blind then moved all in and I made the call for my $106 total as he rolled over his A♠ 8♠. The river blanked out and I was back to even and called it a night with the Main Event set to kick off at lunchtime tomorrow.