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.

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

Needing to only reach the final table to end the day it was always expected to be a quick one. With so many good players still in the field it was unfortunate to see Simon Watt, Yann Pauchon, Aaron Benton, Constantine Harach, Eric Assadourian, Dennis Huntly and Michael Pedley all fall short of making the final table both entertaining and highly skilled.

Seat 1: James Honeybone (57,100)
Seat 2: Richard Lancaster (107,000)
Seat 3: Alfred Saliba (129,800)
Seat 4: Soren Eriksen (129,400)
Seat 5: Mike King (33,600)
Seat 6: Michael Spilkin (210,400)
Seat 7: Joseph Allis (213,100)
Seat 8: Cole Swannack (161,600)
Seat 9: Andrew Middleditch (48,300)

As I was packing up, a few of the boys invited me out to dinner at the Japanese restaurant across the road – where funnily enough I had ordered take-away the previous two nights – and I gladly accepted.

Basically the dinner was in honour of Michael Spilkin who everyone thought was a lock to take the Main Event out. Eric Assadourian, Tony Hachem, Aaron Benton, Michael Pedley, David Borg and Shane Ogier were in attendance when I got there as we all ordered a couple of drinks.

That’s when the problems started.

Since everyone there is a poker player, they like things done their way and quickly. Unfortunately the lovely lady that was running the ship got a few of the orders wrong and consequently a few of the boys got upset.

Apart from that little dilemma the food was still fantastic, the company even better and the stories the icing on the cake. As the NZ$500 bill arrived I reached for my wallet so as to opt out for the credit card roulette the boys were going to do, but both David and Peds offered to cover me and Peds ended up putting up an additional credit card to cover me.

We chucked them all in my hat as I started to slowly pull one-by-one out. In the end it was down to Peds – well actually my card – and Michael, but when Michael’s card was the last one out the final tablist covered the bill much to the relief of Peds.

The boys were heading to a bar or a strip club, but I had some work to do and parted ways at the hotel.

I wrote my article and had a quick shower before decided that my crap run of cards couldn’t continue as I decided to try my luck on the felt again.

Once I finally got a seat there were two people that had over $1,500 on the table while the rest were a combination of drunk fish, tight old timers or complete noobs.

Wanting to take on the two big stacks I decided that the way I had been playing – which aligned to my online strategy – was doing no good here and consequently I decided to gamble it up. It was no more evident when after raising to $12 on the button (for value el oh el) with 6♣ 5♣ after five limpers, there was an all in from the small blind for $50, a raise to $150 from one of the limpers and an all in from another limper, I decided to ship my $150 into the middle.

The board ran out A♠ 3♣ 8♣ 9♥ 2♠ to see me brick out my monster draw. The small blind had Kings, the limp-re raiser had Kings too and the other limper had sevens. It didn’t bother me too much as I shelled out another $150, but would soon see that go too.

I chipped up to over $230 before opening to $12 with 10♣ 10♠ and found five callers to see a 3♠ 6♣ 7♣ flop and my bet of $45 only called by one of the big stacks who had been calling three streets with middle-pair and worse. The turn landed the K♠ and I checked only to be faced with a $100 bet. As stated previously, this guy had been pretty bad and consequently I decided to commit my last $175. He took his time before calling – now feeling that I was good – to see the 2♦ land on the river. I tabled my tens, but he slowrolled is 4♦ 5♦ for a flopped straight as I quickly vacated my seat.

Stuck in the hole quite a bit from this trip I decided that I would turn to my old favourite/nemesis/destructor of bankrolls in Baccarat.

I changed over the last of my money to see me sit down at the $25 squeeze table with $675 needing to turn that into over $1,400 to get even for the trip (including expenses etc).

There isn’t much to say about my Baccarat experience apart from the fact that I was lame enough to keep a scorecard. Maybe it was due to this, or the fact that I just flipped well to see me turn that $675 into $1,250 by betting in $25 and $50 units with just the occasional $75.

My Christchurch Casino profitable Baccarat experience

With my wallet more padded, and some relief that I was only down a marginal amount I called it a night vowing not to hit the poker tables again while in New Zealand!

It is a time for dealers, media and players to let their hair down and party hard on Crown’s wallet . . . and year after year that wallet gets pushed to the edge.

Driving up from Crown I met up with Heath as we made our way into Fusion and quickly grabbed a beer from one of the gorgeous waitresses. Surrounded by dealers we eventually found some common friends before the rest of the PokerNews clan rolled in along with some fellow poker buddies.

Basically the night revolved around lots of drinks, heaps of photos and conversations about poker before the bar-tab eventually ran out and people started shuffling elsewhere.

With the night still fairly young – 2am – me and Alex decided that we would pay a visit to the Teak Room to cash in a $25 free play voucher that I had received in the mail. Alex had a smoke, and I couldn’t resist the lure of the Baccarat tables and decided to gamboooool it up for a little.

Maybe thirty minutes later and up $150 we headed down to the poker room to continue our sobering-up by taking a seat on the $0.50-1 PokerPro table. Alex ran hot, I got rivered seventeen times and took by beat-up negative $100 ass to the real felt of a $2-3 NLH table.

I never got anything going but still managed to profit $40 on the table which meant I finished up for the night before eventually feeling sober enough to drive home.

I sat down, got comfy and chucked my iPod on in preparation for the beginning of a solid few days of cash game grinding . . . but that wouldn’t last long. After a few limps, a raise to $20 and a call, I looked down at 10♦ 6♦. Now the re-raiser had been inclined to raise with garbage, but also was willing to fold and seemed scared of money. Consequently I saw this as a good spot to add about $46 to my $100 stack and decided to move all in from the big blind. The limpers folded, and after about three minutes of umming and ahhing, the raiser made the call. The preflop caller spent a further four minutes in the tank, eventually announcing his intention to gamble as he pushed his chips into the pot.

The board ran out Queen-high and after the preflop raiser turned over Queen-Jack offsuit, the pot was pushed and I rebought. Although the play seemed stupid, I didn’t mind it as it nearly worked. Either way, I slowly grinded my rebuy up to over $200 before hitting a few hiccups that included some busted draws and unlucky turns and rivers. Before too long my remaining $100-odd would be all in preflop against three players after committing most of my chips to a four-bet shove over a straddle and re-straddle.

I actually held the best hand with Ace-Jack, but even after flopping a pair, turning the nutflush draw and a gutshot to Broadway, I still managed to go down to the all powerful King-Jack offsuit! My third rebuy went fairly quickly when I was all in on the flop with two pair, only to get turned by an opponent who hit his three-outer to make a bigger two-pair.

Feeling like gambling, I decided to heat to play some Baccarat, but just like in the poker room, that wouldn’t go too well either as I quickly lost $450. I grabbed some dinner, had a rest, a little nap, surfed the net before returning to the poker room later on in the evening.

I took a seat on a $2-3 NLH table and found four $500-plus stacks, along with a $1700 one. The first hand I witnessed I saw the big stack grow to over $2400 after flopping top two-pair. After about an hour – with the table only six-handed – I had moved my stack to over $360 after taking a sizeable pot down with top-pair. I then was forced to top-up another $100 after having my two-pair flushed on and then getting involved in a big pot with a live straight draw.

Then holding K♠ 10♠ I lost a big pot against a donkey when on a board of K♥ J♥ 4♣ 10♥ J♠ he rolled over A♥ J♣. I topped up another $100 only to have that same donkey then flop a full house out of the small blind when I made the nut-flush on the turn and we got all the chips into the middle.

Left with only $106 there was a straddle to $6 and everyone called to me on the button – and being on tilt after the last hand – I made the call holding J♠ 4♠. The big blind then gave everyone option by making it $40, one call, another call, another call and another call, saw the action back on me. Knowing that my all in shove would be at least called by three of the players in the hand – as two had over $1000 in their stack while one had only $100 – I decided to ship it in.

I did indeed get three callers, and even though I was put through a sweat on the 8♠ 7♥ 6♦ A♠ 8♥ board, I was unable to outdraw the pocket tens, nines and a random holding, and consequently called it a night.

After a great night’s rest I returned to the poker room and sat down on a new $2-3 NLH table along with Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan.

Wonky had been helping me out a lot recently when I headed in to play as we have been discussing both live and online hands during our live sessions at Crown. He quickly chipped up and headed to a $2-5 NLH table while I just plodded along.

I was forced to lay a big hand or two down, and eventually had topped up to be in for $400. I was sitting on around $260 when I was dealt A♣ K♣ in the cutoff and made it $20 after three limpers. The player on the button who had seemed to be fairly solid made it $50 to go as the big blind – a relative donkey – made the call too. I was fairly certain that the button player held a pair like Jacks or Tens, and since I too had been solid, I decided to four-bet to $180 to rep Aces or Kings.

The button player then went into the tank for about four minutes. He cut down the amount to call, as well as asking me how much I had left (around $80) and whether or not I had it (nup). Eventually he announced he was all in as the big blind folded and I tossed in my last $80 or so. The board bricked out, and his Queens held up, but after reviewing the hand, I wasn’t at all fussed with the way I played it.

I decided to cut my stay in Melbourne short and drove back to Geelong for cricket training to see the week out at home before returning for the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series on Sunday.

With the annual Shane Warne Foundation Charity Tournament being held at Crown, only two $1-2 NLH tables were in operation once I arrived, and consequently I had to wait nearly ninety minutes to grab a seat. I spent my time waiting round having some lunch and catching up with some friends – mainly tournament supervisors Frank Bianco and Renee Howard.

Once my seat was called I found myself seated next to fellow low-stakes grinder and mate Rob – who had been absent from the recent few weeks of home games as he has been opting to donk off at Crown!

It was yet another terrible session as I was in for $200 within the first hour before winning my first pot and then spent the next few hours doing absolutely nothing with the stack I had in front of me before eventually being in for $300. Rob was on tilt after donking his once $300-plus stack and left as James took a seat on my left (as seen playing poker below . . . maybe it ain’t his forte though).

We had both intended on playing the Aussie Millions Opening Event satellite, but due to my recent run bad I decided to just see what I could make of this third buy-in.

James busted from the satellite early and then proceeded to lose $200 in cash games as my stack had been cut to barely fifty big blinds. I decided to just see it out and try and run it up to $100 or get stacked before grabbing some food and maybe catching a movie before hitting the felt again later that night. With my last $23 I eventually got it in holding J♠ 6♠ after there was a raise to $10 and seven callers. The original raiser called the re-raise before the player on his immediate left pushed all in for over $150. Everyone folded, the original raiser called holding King-Queen to be in horrible shape against the re-raiser’s Kings. The board ran out with two Jacks on it, but when a nine-ball landed on the river to see the King-Queen make a straight I made my way to the rail as I waited for James.

James donked off another $100 and joined my upstairs in the food court to try and get off tilt. I cold drink and plate of rice later I was fine, but James wanted to hit the $5 blackjack tables.

Since I found it hilarious when he lost – as he was betting $5 a hand – I started cheering for the dealer to deal him 20 and himself 21 etc. Down $45, we left the blackjack table only to stumble across a $15 squeeze Baccarat table!

The only difference was that on ties you lost your bet, but if you made eight or nine with three cards you were paid out two-to-one. Following the trait of the last few hours, James dropped $200 after betting on the opposite to everyone else just so he could squeeze and then slowroll all of us slanty eyes.

He made his way downstairs while I remained trying to get unstuck. All I could manage however was a $50 profit after hitting nine in three cards on my last squeeze.

Returning downstairs I found James on a $2-3 NLH table, and once the seat on his immediate right freed up after a half hour of sweating him I decided to fill it.

Half an orbit would past until I was in the big blind and then proceeded to go on a mini-heater and win the next four pots. After James had straddled I flopped top pair holding King-Jack and found two streets of value, before check-calling three streets next hand holding King-Queen after flopping top pair on a straight and flushing board. The third hand saw my tens holding up against Ace-nine on a nine-high board, and my King-Queen managed to win another pot on the fourth hand after again flopping top pair.

Sitting with over $450 in front of me after my initial $200 buy-in, I decided to call it quits for the night after an orbit went by. This may have been a stupid decision but over the past few weeks every losing session has seen me profit on my first buy-in before getting stacked – and after the roller coaster of a week I have had I decided just to pocket the profits and return to Geelong.

All in all it was a huge week for me (sarcasm detector soaring) as I profited a whopping $90 after playing seven sessions over three days . . . sigh . . . what a waste of time . . . but least I didn’t lose!

Originally my plan was to chill all day and sleep at the Grand Waldo Spa, but when GG offered me his room as he had booked and paid an extra night, I jumped at the chance. I brought my bags up to his room, checked out and made my way to the Grand Lisboa.

Being stuck so much for the trip, I really had to make sure I didn’t lose today and when I sat down at a new HK10-20 NLH table with HK$2,000 – it was game on!

A few orbits in there was a raise to 60 by a eurodonk and a re-raise by an Asian lag to 120. I made the call from the small blind holding 9♣ 9♥, as did the eurodonk, to see a J♣ 9♦ 4♠ flop drop. I fired out 250 and both players called only to have me shove for nearly two times pot for 1,775 when the 6♠ landed on the turn. The eurodonk was the only caller, and when the river fell the 5♥ he mucked at the sight of my set, and just like that I was up to 4,880.

I then managed to stack a guy when I opened A♦ Q♥ from late position to 150 after a few limpers. Only the big blind called and after checking behind on the flop, I turned a Broadway straight and put my opponent all in after he donked out. His Jacks (or so he said) went flying into the muck when no repeater landed on the river to see me push to 6,100.

My K♥ Q♥ then outdrew a short-stacked A♣ Q♠ when all the money went in on the turn with the board reading K♣ Q♦ 4♣ Q♣ 2♠ to see me hit 6,700.

Then things began heading south as I slipped to around 5,000 until my A♠ A♣ managed to see me climb to over 7,200 when an opponent shoved on me pre with King-high.

But then I got the phone call.

Hi Tim, it’s me . . . the guy behind your run bad so far this trip . . . oh good you remember, well you’ve been running well this session, but I have some unfortunate news . . . I’m going to have to flick the switch. Sorry buddy, maybe another time.

So the flick got switched and I proceeded to miss five flopped nut flush draws, six nut straight draws and about five missed sets.

I didn’t get stacked or anything, but saw my stack leak to 4,265 and courtesy of some new found tilt, I cashed out and grabbed a bite to eat.

With the sun well buried I went for a walk outside and ventured over to the Wynn to see what all the fuss was about. Their poker room was the absolute nizzles, and after chatting with Marvs for ten minutes or so I decided to head back to the hotel to pick up my camera.

I took a walk from the Sofitel back down to the Grand Lisboa snapping photos here and there before deciding to play some Baccarat.

An old time Asian gambler went on a hot streak and after originally being stuck I managed to grind out a HK$1,000 profit after wussing out on the size of my bets on the last few wins.

Cashed out and down like HK$16,000 for the trip after gambling run-bad and general expenses, I was quickly back in my hotel room to pack my belongings before returning home.

Macau at Night – Sofitel Macau, Grand Lisboa and Papa’s Snack Shach

The full strength side from Day 1a and 2 was unfortunately cut to pieces with my blogging partner GG being left bed-ridden after coughing up more than a lung the previous night and morning after visiting the Grand Waldo Spa.

Left to fend for my own, I tackled the stellar field with no doubt that I would ship the blogaments crucial one time and prove once again that I am the NIZZLES (Heath’s nickname for me . . . I don’t brag that obviously)!

The tables were understandably stacked, but unfortunately for many poker enthusiasts out there we lost the greatest High Roller champion to ever grace the felt within two hands when David Steicke bluffed on the river into Masa Kagawa’s flopped set.

I went to turn in my resignation letter right there, because it was obvious that something was rigged, but with no one to hand it to, I went straight back to the computer.

Players kept trickling in as registration was open for the first three hours – and it was kind of ironic that players that busted from the Main Event would find themselves in the High Rollers, only to bust from that as well – Andrew Scott, Van Marcus, Theo Tran, Dan Schreiber and Stanley Hou.

Before the High Rollers Event started, during dinner and after the event wrapped up I found some time to play Baccarat!

Yet another mistake for the trip as I went on to lose HK$6,900 to continue my Macau run-bad something I must have picked up at the airport . . . my advice – purchase the new anti-run-bad face mask from all good resellers!

Today we all checked into the Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16, but before I did, I decided to have a shower in the six-headed master bedroom shower.

Once I finished, Van returned to the room on a serious case of tilt! After losing in the cash games, he dumped a shit load on Baccarat and consequently loaded up four PLO tables on Full Tilt.

After getting changed I walked over to sweat him, but he asked me to leave as he doesn’t like people sweating him when he plays really high – obviously due to the fact that he was a little tilted.

A few minutes went by before he called me back into his room to check out a hand. Van held 10♠ 8♠ 8♥ 2♥ on a flop of 8♦ 5♠ 2♠ and got his whole stack in against TREX313 or Urindanger (can’t remember) with him drawing to just one out holding red Kings.

Van vacated his chair and started pacing the room waiting for the outcome.

”Tell me what happens Timmy . . . one time hold up!”

As I sat staring at the screen, the cards lagged before it went brick brick to see Van ship the 100k pot to be unstuck for the day . . . and have me in awe!

I checked into room 1135 at the Sofitel and everyone, minus Lynn and Craig as they were doing some preliminary filming, all met in my room to discuss what our plans were. With happy hour being free for GG, Heath and Kirsty due to their booking, we decided to head upstairs to chat about the hot topic at the moment – the transformations at PokerNews.

Basically we came to an agreement that I would be taking over next year, but I thought it would be better if I sat at the bottom of the hierarchy, and basically turned it down.

GG, Heath and I decided we needed to scratch our gambling itch and found a three card Baccarat game where it plays the same as normal, but instead you receive three cards and there is no draw. Also there is no tie, with the high card winning, and everyone that plays a box gets a hand.

I sat out (wisely) as GG and Heath lost HK$1,000 each before heading to a real Baccarat table.

GG began an epic battle with an old Asian guy by betting the opposite to whatever he would. GG started on a losing streak before betting player and squeezing out a natural eight and slamming it down. The Asian guy slowly squeezed out his cards before looking up at GG and saying, “bye bye” and rolling over natural nine.

It would be an understatement to say that GG was mad!

Eventually GG would be in for HK$6,000 on this HK$100 table, but after finding some run-good he would break even and retire to the room along with Heath. I quickly lost my HK$3,000 in a matter of three hands and joined Heath for an intense heads-up match . . . at least I won that!