tilted behaviour

Reaching the final day of tournament as a blogger is a great feeling because you know that only nine eliminations stand between you at your computer and you at the bar!

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

Since the final table was located outside of the poker room it meant that we had no wifi and consequently had to resort to a shonky mobile internet connection which put us all in a bad mood from the start.

Losing Tri Nguyen on about the sixth hand helped ease our pain and Cale Maclean about half an hour later made it even better. We then witnessed some incredibly strange hands that gave us amateurs hope of one day being on an ANZPT final table!

Angelo Hanataj called off 606,000 at 12k-24k with just 5♣ 6♣ to double an opponent up before taking them all off him just a few hands later. However it was the way that Michael O’Grady virtually threw away the tournament that amazed me the most. Min-raising preflop and min-betting flops to miss value and then calling off chips when he didn’t have it saw O’Grady just slip from hand one to see him bow out in a disappointing but expected fourth place.

With the crazy Angelo holding a little over a two-to-one advantage over stalwart Mike Ivin it was expected that the heads-up affair would be a pretty short battle with Angelo continuing his ballsy aggression, however Ivin firstly slipped before clawing his way ahead only to have Angelo summon the ANZAC spirit and fight back to eventually take down the title and $219,432 first prize.

After rushing to the buffet to grab a quick and free bite I hit the poker room and sat on a $1-2 NLH table.

I gambled in a hand early when I opened 6♣ 3♣ to $10 over a limper only to get min-raised to $20. The limper called and I called to see a 9♣ 8♠ 2♣ flop fall. The re-raiser fired out $20, one fold, and I shipped for $100 and he insta-called tabling Ace-King, but thankfully I dinked the 10♣ on the river.

I flopped quad tens and won a small pot with a bet on the river, had Aces a couple of times, but otherwise it was a rather uneventful session which still saw me win over two buy-ins during several hours of play.

The only real highlight was having Jesse move to my table from his fairly dead $5-5 game so as to stay sane and have some fun with me.

That fun turned into some ridiculous prop betting where on each hand one of us would have either red or black, over or under 7 as the middle card on the flop and a pick of three consecutive numbers for a bonus. We eventually added Lodden Thinks type questions to the mix and stuff like what nationality the dealer was, what size bed they had at home, how old the Polish waitress was and how many people she lived with. Unfortunately for me Jesse ran super hot and whipped me for about $20 when we were only playing for a $1 a point!

With Jesse looking a little worse for wear he headed up to our room to get some sleep while I hit the bar with an already intoxicated Dale Marsland, Nik Lackovic and Danny McDonagh to grab a few beers (since they had been cut off at the poker room) before calling it a night as the sun was rising on the day I return home.

Not too many tournaments of this buy-in amount head to a day three without being at a final table already, but in the case of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event, at least we know the exact stopping point of the day . . . a final table!

Main Event Day 3 coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Main Event Day 3 coverage (PokerNews browser)

Supernova Elite player Tian Shou became the bubble boy as everyone was $3,568 richer before Michael Tran (52nd), Joel Dodds (48th), Lee Nelson (47th), Antonis Kambouroglou (43rd), Ricky Krosen (34th), Peter Aristidou (32nd) and Vincent Wan (31st) all fell short of the final table. Amazingly however it would be Tony Hachem’s seventh cash in the ANZPT when he was downed in 28nd place to see his year begin with one win, two final tables and three cashes.

Just over seven and a half hours of play saw us hit the final table with Mike Ivin being the only notable sitting in third chip position behind the previous day chip leader Michael O’Grady.

Chips, Bernard Gabriel, Peter Aristidou, Chips, Bradley Bower, Vincent Wan, Quoc Nguyen, Angelo Hanataj, Ka Ming Fang, Tony Hachem, Mike Ivin, Chips, Shannon Chapman

With a relatively early night ahead of us my plan was to watch an exciting night of English Premier League soccer. The game I was looking forward to was between West Ham United and Wigan Athletic who are both logged down the bottom of the table . . . the reason being . . . it was bound to be exciting.

The result . . . West Ham 3 (30, 45, 76) defeated Wigan 2 (3, 52) . . . a lot better than some of the other boring matches that were televised!

Day 2 was fairly unexciting when it came down to the Main Event.

Main Event Day 2 coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Main Event Day 2 coverage (PokerNews browser)

209 players started the day, but only 59 remained with only five eliminations needed until play hit the money with the highlight (lowlight?) being another Emad Tahtouh blow-up from chip leader to busto before the money.

While sitting just below the chip leader, I offered everyone on the media desk $1.05 that Emad wouldn’t cash because his luck in the ANZPT is completely opposite to Tony Hachem’s! Nearing the end of play Emad ran into a flopped set and then Peter Aristidou’s Aces to fall just short of the money.

Once the day was wrapped a few of us hit the Garden Buffet and scoffed down as much food as possible before parting ways.

After tidying up the event and writing an article for PokerNetwork I decided to head down to the poker room to play some cash.

I jumped on a $1-2 NLH table and quickly needed to top up an additional $25 before opening to $6 holding A♣ 5♣ and two callers from the blinds came along to see a J♠ 10♣ 6♠ flop fall.

We checked it round to see the 6♣ land and the big blind fire out $12. I called and the small blind folded as the 2♦ fell on the river. Thinking for a few moments, the big blind fired out $26, and after deliberating for a minute or so made the call basically just not believing him. I was spot on as he tabled his Q♥ 7♥ and I was up to around $140.

A few orbits later I flopped a set of fours and check-raised the flop before getting my opponent to call off his stack on the turn with just Ace-high to see me chip up to $240 and leave at time.

Just like yesterday I was expecting it to be another tough and gruelling day with the completion of both the Tony Hachem Feature and High Rollers Events as well as the commencement of the Main Event.

Main Event Day 1a coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Main Event Day 1a coverage (PokerNews browser)

I think the $2,200 buy-in amount is perfect for this kind of tour, and consequently it was no surprise to see 164 players take to the felt for Day 1a action. One thing that wasn’t surprising was the rapid rate of players hitting the rail within in the first level due to a combination of coolers, willingness to gamble and the fact that $2,200 isn’t that much too some people.

Only 71 players snuck through to Day 2, but what stood out to me was the fact that players called off their chips so lightly. Todor Kondevski got his stack in the middle in the first level with a straight and flush draw on the turn against the nuts and of course dinged it on the river. Nik Lackovic flopped a set and managed to get an opponent to call off his chips with just a gutshot which spiked on the turn.

Zane Ly, Octavian Voegel, Rennie Carnevale, Brendan Edmonds, David Borg, Scott Smith, Michael Tran, Todor Kondevski, Antonis Kambouroglou, Simon Watt, Donna Ciric, Bradley Bower, Graeme Putt

However the priority for the day was always going to be the two final tables commencing later in the day.

Tony Hachem Feature Event Final Table coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Tony Hachem Feature Event Final Table coverage (PokerNews browser)

High Rollers Event Final Table coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / High Rollers Event Final Table coverage (PokerNews browser)

The Tony Hachem Feature Event final table was set to begin at 4:00pm but the remaining contestants were under the impression it didn’t resume till 6:00pm and consequently it was delayed.

The first few eliminations fell fairly quickly as I juggled all three events at once before the remaining players settled into some sort of rhythm. My mate Jesse McKenzie was still on the final table and wasn’t in the healthiest chip position but changed gears in effort to pick up some chips making some good moves and taking calculated risks.

Eventually Jesse managed to reach heads-up play with a three-to-one disadvantage, and after deal negotiations fell through, he clawed into the lead. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be his day as he fell in second place for a nice $12,648 collect to pad the bankroll nicely as Michael Levy walked home with the goods.

Over in the High Rollers Event it was the xMONSTERxDONGx show as Jonathan Karamalikis owned the table from the get go!

When the final six were on the agonisingly long bubble, Karamalikis pounded with relentless aggression to pick up blind-after-blind and ante-after-ante to hold half the chips in play. Michael Guttman became the unfortunate bubble boy and a quick trail of eliminations followed him to see Grant Levy enter heads-up play at a six-to-one disadvantage.

Levy scrapped a double, but Karamalikis would swiftly end the deal to add another title to his impressive poker CV that boasts over $400,000 in live earnings alone!

I spent the majority of yesterday catching up on some much needed rest, but I did manage about thirty minutes of poker that resulted in a loss of a buy-in when flopped trips were no good and the nut-flush draw bricked.

The main reason I spent the majority of the day and night in the room was because today was going to be a long one with two events needing my one-man-wolf pack coverage!

Tony Hachem Feature Event Day 1 coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Tony Hachem Feature Event Day 1 coverage (PokerNews browser)

High Rollers Event Day 1 coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / High Rollers Event Day 1 coverage (PokerNews browser)

The $330 Tony Hachem Feature Event saw 273 entrants take to the felt with every table featuring a $300 bounty. My coverage tailored off slightly as the High Rollers got underway, but the day finished with a final table being formed with my mate Jesse McKenzie sitting fifth in chips as play wrapped up around 2am.

Josh Cunningham, Chips, Sam Capra, Andrew Jeffreys, Jim Ghobrial, Nik Lackovic, Aaron Benton, Liam O’Rourke, Yann Pauchon, Tony Hachem, Michael Spilkin, Jymmi Briggs, Chips, Trung Tran

Twenty-nine of some of the country’s best players handed over $10,200 to take part in the ANZPT Sydney High Rollers Event.

Jeff Lisandro, Lee Nelson, Grant Levy, Van Marcus, Peter Aristidou, Jason Gray, Tyron Krost, Jay ‘SEABEAST’ Kinkade, Jonathan ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’ Karamalikis and Jarred ‘FlopNutsOnYou’ Graham were just a few of those taking part as the cards hit the air at the delayed time of around 7:00pm.

Aleks Lackovic and Lisandro both copped bad beats to see their stack dwindled down to just a few thousand, but Lee Nelson would still fall before them. The highlight of the long night however was this conversation between Van Marcus, Emanuel Seal and Jarred Graham after Marcus gave some chips to Seal.

“You’re a nice guy anyway Curly . . . you can go buy another Lamborghini” stated Marcus as Seal just nodded in an agreeing fashion.

Marcus paused for a moment before saying, “can you get sick of blowjobs?”

It got to around 2am and I decided to call it a night since two full tables remained with plans to play through until just eight remained. Throw in the fact I had been there for nearly fifteen hours and was due back at midday, it made sense to take an inconvenient (for those following at home) break to get some rest.

Jay Kinkade, Antonis Kambouroglou, Peter Aristidou, Tyron Krost, Jeff Lisandro, Grant Levy’s chip stack, Grant Levy, Van Marcus, Matthew Kirk, Jonathan Karamalikis, Emanuel Seal

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!