tilted behaviour

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.

After waking up early this morning I headed into town for a walk to grab a drink and have a look at some of the souvenir stores before making my way to the casino for Day 2 action.

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!

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

I caught up on some sleep this morning and was up around 10am contemplating what I may consume for breakfast.

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.

I managed only a couple of hours of sleep last night before having to wake up nice and early to make my way to the airport.

Heath and Kirsty were arriving into town to prepare for their upcoming weekend wedding and consequently needed my car to get round. I was happy to lend it to him and as I arrived at the airport we did a straight stop as they took the keys and I made my way to check-in.

After I made my way through immigration I stopped by Duty Free and pondered buying a DSLR since we wouldn’t have one for New Zealand and the fact that I would definitely be putting it to use. I was looking at the Nikon D3000 ($899), Canon EOS1000d ($999) and the Canon EOS450d ($1,199) which all came with twin lenses as well as the fact that the salesman was willing to take some more off the price.

I tried contacting some of my in-the-know photography friends before boarding, but was unable to get hold of them and consequently decided against buying one.

The three-hour plane ride was spent with me mostly wriggling round in my seat trying to get comfortable while occasionally nodding off. We experienced some heavy turbulence over the last few minutes of the flight, but still managed to land safely in Christchurch as the driver greeted me a little on the late side that dropped me off at the Millennium hotel in town. Unfortunately my hotel reservations had been stuffed up and they had moved me over to their sister hotel called the Copthorne Durham which was located just across the road from the casino.

Once there I was checking in and was told that they had upgraded me to a suite. I grabbed my key and headed to my room.

Walking in my first reaction was, “this ain’t no f**king suite” as I looked into a normal room featuring two double beds and a standard bathroom. That was until I opened the door next to the bathroom and found a huge master bedroom featuring a king-size bed. I settled in and had a hot shower before deciding to make my way to the casino.

The casino was probably smaller than the whole Crown Poker Room combined!

Nine poker tables, a dozen or so table games but plenty of slots were spread room a fairly un-organised and confusing floor, but I headed straight to the cash game registration to see what was on offer.

$1-2 NLH (buy-in $75-$200), $1-2 NLH/PLO ($100-$200), $5-5 NLH ($200-$500) and $5-5 NLH/PLO ($200-$500) seemed to be the major games on offer with a few interest lists for 3-Card Manila and satellites.

With a tournament running it seemed like I wouldn’t get on a table for a little while and decided to sit on a $5 Blackjack table with $100 – which with the exchange rate worked out to be like $80 or so.

I played for around an hour and won a total of six hands. I wasn’t hitting on 20 or standing on 5, I was just playing basic sound strategy but getting owned by the dealer. For some reason however I managed to increase my bets at the right amount and finished only down $50 bored as all hell. Over to the Baccarat table I went and after losing $25, then winning $25, then losing $50 I went and grabbed a steak before my cash game opened up.

Yann decided to take half my action in the $1-2 NLH game as I sat down on a new table with $150 (weird set buy-in amounts of $80 – $150).

Without going through all the boring details of my session, I was extremely card dead but still managed to profit $90 (well really only $45) on a table full of fish who had no real idea what they were doing. The only upside was sitting on the right of a cute Asian girl called Mina. Although her boyfriend was sitting at the other end of the table – and paid her no attention at all – we spent the whole session chatting, and after she went busto, we decided to play one card each in a hope to get out of the run of cold cards that I was having. It didn’t work and I cashed out at around 3am after paying Yann his share of the stake.

I made my way back to the hotel and called it a night with a plan of getting out and exploring Christchurch the following day.

But in the meantime, check out this video that makes me el oh el about New Zealand . . . gotta feeling I’ll be watching it countless of times while here!