tilted behaviour

Looking at the schedule at the start of the series, one event that I was blogging caught my eye.

The $5,000 Ante Up For Africa Celebrity-Charity Poker Tournament!

Covering the event with F-Train, we were all about the colour in this event since the play (mainly due to the structure) was never going to be amazing.

Headlining the celebrities included Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Montel Williams and Evander Holyfield while some of the pros in the field included Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson as 84 players turned out to participate in this charity tournament.

One of the players that reached the final table – Alex Filatov – was asked by Phil Gordon when play was three-handed how much he was going to donate since it is expected that the full prizepool is donated back to the Ante Up for Africa charity.

Filatov replied with just 10% to get an awkward reaction from both Gordon and Shannon Elizabeth as well as many members of the media. The MC for the latter part of the event; Ali Nejad, then spiked a subtle sucker punch towards Filatov by announcing who the previous winners were and how much (100% for the record) they donated.

Luckily however, Filatov exited next as Gordon bested Elizabeth heads up to claim the $130,641 first prize, which thankfully went all back to the Ante Up for Africa charity just before we ticked into hour five of the tournament.

Although we had a slight delay in leaving the Rio courtesy of a false start to the Tournament of Champions, me and Greg eventually found our way back to the Hard Rock before stopping into Mr. Lucky’s for some dinner.

We caught up with Chad before Greg convinced us to head to Terrible’s Casino across the road so that we could degen it up.

Hitting the Blackjack table first, the dealer forced me into a Phil Hellmuth-esque explosion when she thought my waving of a hand for a stand was a hit, and busted me. The dealer rolled a 20 anyway, so hitting didn’t change anything, but that wasn’t the point as I was now officially tilted.

I quickly lost my last $50 – for the record I lost all ten hands I played – before heading over to the Craps table and plonking $200 down on the table.

I had never seen it before, but there was this fire bet where if you could hit five points in a row you would receive 150-1 on your bet, and six in a row meant 300-1. Either way it made the game so much more exciting as we sat on four (30-1) for ages as we just kept missing the point by a dimple here and there.

Randomly upping my bets, both Chad and another shooter started hitting some points and my numbers as I finally managed to hit some Craps run good and eventually turned my initial $200 into $850 as Chad also made a little money on the same table while Greg was playing bingo somewhere before we ventured home for the night.

Two days off felt great, but it’s also enjoyable to be back behind the computer for PokerNews after starting the WSOP on the floor as a reporter.

Unfortunately it also means that I will be enduring a seven-day stretch of work that includes four different events, two final tables and three different games!

Tuesday saw me work with Rich covering the Event 6: $5,000 No Limit Holdem Shootout. The 358-player field formed easily one of the toughest collection of starting tables that the World Series will witness this year, and consequently it was no surprise that the thirty six players that made it through to round two were of the highest calibre in the shootout format.

Just try and pick a winner out of James Akenhead, Dario Minieri, John Duthie, Chad Brown, Tom Dwan, Joseph Elpayaa, Christian Harder, Blair Hinkle, Eugene Katchalov, Faraz Jaka, Justin ‘Boosted J’ Smith, Chino Rheem, Max Pescatori and Chris Ferguson!

Another day and another event saw me tackle all the day one action of Event 8: $1,500 No Limit Holdem with one of our new bloggers Chad.

It was just the standard [i]donkament[/i] with over 2,000 players being eliminated from the starting 2,341, and if you read the coverage – which you should – you will realise that it has a very Jean-Robert Bellande and Phil Hellmuth feel to it.

How could it not really as these two guys are some of the most entertaining poker players to ever walk the hallways of the Rio. Hellmuth obviously sits in a class of his own with eleven bracelets and the ability to run his mouth in a way that attracts droves of people to sweat his every action three rows deep on the rail. Bellande – via his twitter account BrokeLivingJRB – details his crazy swings in poker and in life as he attempts to live the dream running up a million-dollar bankroll from nothing.

Late in the day Hellmuth got moved to Bellande’s table and that’s when fireworks between the two sparked continuously. They did both manage to survive the day to be placed in the top twenty, with this hand being one of the highlights.

courtesy of PokerNews
Bellande Playing Perfect, JRB Training School Soon To Open!
Jean-Robert Bellande opened to 3,000 from middle position and Phil Hellmuth made the call.

On a flop of 9♦ Q♥ 9♣ Bellande fired out 5,000 and Hellmuth quickly made the call to see the 7♣ land on the turn and a check follow from Bellande.

“How much you have left?” asked Hellmuth.

Bellande sat there looking blankly at the board before parting his hands so that Hellmuth could view in full sight his chip stack.

“What’s the total?” Hellmuth asked the dealer as the dealer cut down Bellande’s stack to total 25,400.

“Small bets mean nothing” stated Hellmuth as he tossed in a 3,800-chip bet which Bellande called before both players checked the 2♦ on the river.

Bellande tabled his 8♠ 8♣ and Hellmuth asked, “what he have?”

Hellmuth nodded his head and flashed his 4♥ 4♠ before folding to slip to 54,000 as Bellande began to rake in the pot to climb back to 48,000.

“Your small bets mean nothing Phil” Bellande added.

“All those guys that watch poker VT are wasting their time. If they want to play perfect poker they should just put a camera behind me. I couldn’t of played that hand any better,” Bellande finished off much to the amusement of the rail and fellow table combatants.

My first final table of the series saw me return to Event 6: $5,000 No Limit Holdem Shootout with Rich.

The six remaining players – Joshua Tieman, Stuart Rutter, Brent Hanks, Neil Channing and Joseph Elpayaa – were all starting seventy-five big blinds deep with 1,500,000 in chips, but the final table amazingly lasted only four hours as Tieman crushed souls to be crowned the Event 6 Champion and $441,692 richer.

Since me and Rich were out early – for probably the only time this series – we wondered aimlessly round the room checking out some of the other events before heading to dinner with the PokerNews head honcho Matt.

We headed to McFadden’s and enjoyed a burger before I made my way back to the Hard Rock. I showered and watched some TV before deciding that it would be a good idea to go gamble and play some Craps.

Bad idea.

I quickly was up $200 or so on my roll as I kept rolling sixes and eights while hitting the occasional point. I eventually did crap out, and that started a bad roll from the whole table as that $200 profit was wiped and then the $300 I had in my wallet was wiped too.

The final result for the night . . . I have just five bucks in my wallet and an assortment of nickels, dimes and quarters on my bedside table . . . I love Vegas!

Days off are a treasure during the WSOP, but since I had only worked two days I felt like I had to go out and do something instead of sleeping and relaxing in my hotel room at the Hard Rock.

DK picked me up in the afternoon and we swung by the PokerNews house to pick up Rich before heading Downtown to see how GG was doing in the one of the Binions Poker Classic events that I had bought a piece of (inclusive in a Vegas Summer Series combo on ChipMeUp).

Unfortunately by the time we arrived he had already busted out and consequently left us stranded Downtown. With DK and Rich virtually broke and unable to gamble I decided to stake them $100 with a 50% freeroll on any profits they made. We all sat down on a Bonus Texas Holdem table . . . bad idea . . . as Rich went busto quickly, while I dropped $50 as DK was the only one able to profit. I gave Rich $100 to play Craps but that too went back to the house as we went for a walk to find some cheaper gambling options.

Finding a $1 roulette table at the Las Vegas Club I proceeded to lose $200 in about five spins before we decided to call it a day and make our way home. First of all though we would have to validate parking at Fitzgeralds, but like most degenerates, standing around waiting near a Craps table was never a good option.

With my final $100 I gave it to Rich to play Craps and that soon slipped down to around $30 until some middle-aged lady here on a vacation got the dice and went on a mega roll to see us cruise up to around $550. She then set the point on a 10 and we had $48 on both the six and eight as well as $50 on the pass line and $100 behind – a total of nearly $250 on the table. But as all gambling stories end, she obviously crapped out with a seven just as we upped our bets to leave us with around $300, which soon turned into $200 before we finally ended the day – with my wallet $400 lighter.

We decided to pop into the Rio to hang out, and after dinner I decided to play some $1-3 No Limit Holdem as DK and Rich headed home.

Buying in for $300 I picked up a couple of small pots before doubling up a short-stack when my Ace-King couldn’t improve against her pocket fives. Not needing to top up as I still had a full stack I then was dealt A♦ 9♦ and limp-called a small raise to see an Ace-high flop fall. I checked, my opponent fired out $30 and I shoved on him as he only had $100 or so behind. He took about three minutes to call before tabling his Q♣ Q♦ and found a third Queen on the river.

“Sorry dude”

“Well then you’re obviously not sorry. No need to lie mate”

I put my earphones back in and pulled out a couple of $25 chips to top up to a full stack before going an hour or so of not being dealt much. I three-bet a few people here and there before being dealt K♣ Q♦ on the button and made it $16 to go after a limper. This guy who had just jammed the river with air the previous hand made the call from the small blind as did the spaz nut in the big blind to see a K♠ 6♦ 10♠ flop fall. It was checked to me and I fired out $32 and was called by just the small blind as the repeat 10♦ landed on the river. Following his play previously where he jammed the river after his opponent checked top two behind on the turn, I decided to check as well as the K♦ landed on the river. He surprisingly checked and with around $100 in his stack and about $110 in the pot I was put in a quandary of what to do. I wanted to get maximum value from his likely holding of Ace-Queen or Ace-Jack and decided to fire out $53. About two minutes went by before he called with his A♦ J♦ as I was gifted a nice pot.

I then made two-pair with 10♦ 9♦ but was counterfeited against Kings before I bricked a straight flush draw and a pair against the same guy and was forced to fold to his river shove.

Then this interesting hand came up where after one limp I raised the button to $15 with A♣ J♣ and found a call from a tight player in the small blind before the limper called. The flop fell down A♦ 6♥ 4♥ and the limper donked out $25 only to have me raise to $62. The small blind then check-raised all in for $202 as the limper immediately folded. This guy had been so tight and although it was only costing me $140 to win about $340, I eventually folded believing that I never am in good shape in this spot. A few of the hands he later played (tank calling with top-top etc) made me believe I made the right fold.

I was rivered a couple of times when my two-pair went down to some four-card straights and I eventually finished down for the session $236 to take my losses for the day to $636 . . . FWIW days off suck!

An extra two hours sleep was great thanks to the late start of the Main Event Final Table and once 2pm came round the cards hit the air.

Unlike most final tables I covered, play was fairly loose with pots being contested multi-way and more than a single preflop raise needed to take down the hand. One of the chip leaders in Stephen Donlon was the first to exit after seeing his chip stack swing up and down over the three hours he was still in.

We lost two in quick succession before play returned to a somewhat normal state as the High Rollers Final Table began.

As the blinds and antes picked up in the Main Event, we were down to heads up play with Jarred ‘FlopNutsOnYou’ Graham holding a two-to-one chip advantage over Peter Zabow. Play wouldn’t last too much longer after Graham’s middle pair and straight draw improved to trips against Zabow’s top pair after all the money went in on the turn.

With an already impressive $310,000 in tournament earnings that include a High Rollers victory last December, a Six-Handed title in March and a High Stakes runner up finish in May, Graham added another $121,500 to a live record that matches any in the country over the last year.

Over in the High Rollers, a relative unknown in Tolly Sakellariou captured the $58,000 first prize after flushing out opponent George Moussa.

Once both tournaments were wrapped up both James and I hit the open bar for a quiet Corona or two.

Jarred and his entourage were also there enjoying more than their fair share of drinks, and as I finished my third drink I managed to convince them that a visit to the Craps table was needed – regardless of the fact that it was approaching 3am.

In total there were seven of us degens that hit the Craps table with both Jarred and Daniel Neilson struggling to keep the dice on the table while Monica Nguyen went on a few hot rolls to see us all pocket a profit.

However Jarred and Daniel wouldn’t last too long as they were eventually kicked out by the many security guards that were watching us closely. The remainder of us continued rolling away with Monica being the biggest winner of the group, while I managed to pocket $200 profit.

After everyone had dispersed for the evening I caught up with James and Romy as we went for a stroll looking for somewhere to eat – but at 4am we were unable to find anything and decided to just turn it in for the night to get some rest before returning home tomorrow.

A beautiful Sunday in Las Vegas and it was time to hit the shops with Mat.

We caught a lift with Eric into the Rio and took a cab straight downtown to the Premium Factory Outlets. Once there we hit every store from Adidas to Nike to Polo Ralph Lauren to FCUK.

I picked up two US$39 Polo Ralph Lauren polo tops for Mum and Dad, while picking up a pair of FCUK patterned shorts, Adidas Samba’s and some cool glasses for myself before heading to lunch. After Mat ticked off a few items on his shopping list we ventured over to Fremont Street so that he could taste the Downtown experience first hand!

We walked round scoping a few of the casinos before taking a seat on a Pai Gow table at the Golden Nugget to fill in time before watching the Fremont Street light show after the sun went down.

Mat eventually called it quits to play a $65 tournament while I continued to grind Pai Gow. Two young ladies took up seats to my left while two Cougars took the empty ones on my right.

One Cougar left while the rest of us started to chat and get to know each other while winning a few hands here and there. Eventually one of the younger ladies had to return to her family while I decided to make way with my $130 profit for the long session.

However both Shay and the remaining Cougar wouldn’t let me leave as I was bringing them ‘good luck’ . . . consequently it would be three hours later before I actually left the table and a further $50-odd had been added to my profit tally thanks to a few bonuses I had picked up from both the girls.

Mat and I checked out the light show before I donked off $100 at Binion’s on a $1 roulette table in four spins before returning to the Golden Nugget and a $10 Craps table.

11 minutes later, following a hot roll, I had pocketed $205 profit and we were off home after a great day Downtown.

Well I busted the tourney and headed straight to the Rio while listening to 30 Seconds To Mars looped (really emo, self-hating, wanna slit your wrist stuff) with the volume booming so loudly my BOSE headphones were close to bursting!

Once back at the Rio I moped round telling anyone I could my bad beat story, and after coping the frankly I don’t give a damn expression from GG he asked me if I wanted to head Downtown to be wing-man for Dave King. I choose to join the fight to get DK hooked up, and Donnie also joined us.

We arrived at the Golden Nugget and walked through the carpark, pass the pool and then to the middle of the casino floor to hit a crossroad of what to do. Donnie wanted to play BlackJack, GG wanted to play Craps and I (obviously) wanted to play Baccarat. Since Donnie didn’t want to play craps, and either didn’t know how to play baccarat we all sat down at our own blackjack table.

I have no idea why I even sat down at the table because it is definitely –EV for me as I have no clue on any strategy. Donnie and GG just told me what to do and I followed; eventually returning to even after an early down swing. I quit, Donnie continued to grind and GG got stacked.

Over to Craps we went.

Me and GG started our roll pretty well with us both banking some profit before meeting up with some friends as DK had messaged that he would have to ditch us because the girl wanted to ‘stay in’.

We met up with Melissa (our camera girl) and her boyfriend Eddy at the roulette tables and I grinded a small profit before we threw $2 each on the number ten as Donnie quickly slammed down $75 on black.

”Number 10 for the PokerNews crew!”

Bang! The ball bobbled into the ten and we all banked a nice win while we headed back to the Baccarat room so that I could grind the $10 shoe as GG went back to BlackJack. He won what he was losing all back . . . and then lost it all again while I pushed my profits up to the $200 mark. Donnie and GG decided it was time for some old fashioned poker and they sat down at an uncapped $1-2 No Limit Holdem table.

Donnie and GG in action

I railed them for a while before returning to Craps to take my profit up to $350 for the night as we rolled past 4am. Back to poker I returned to see GG playing like a complete nutter as Donnie grinded a steady profit. After GG pushed all in dark for around the 100 bb mark and won some and lost some he cashed out to head to craps. I sat with Donnie for a little bit more before heading to join GG.

We stood near the craps table for nearly three minutes waiting before GG walked over to us.

”I’m done”
“Ok, craps it is then”
“No . . . I mean I’m done!”

With GG dropping the last of what he had in just eight hands of Blackjack we made our way home just as the sun was starting to rise. I booked a $350 win, Donnie was even to up and GG . . . well GG advised me not to repeat how much he had dropped . . . so let’s just say it was between $5 and $5000 . . . I’ll let you be the judge!

With Donnie having the day off as well, we obviously sleep in way too long (standard on the days we get off now) and chill at the condo watching TV and surfing the net for a while. We finally pick the nightly $150 Harrah’s tourney as our choice and hail a cab to the strip.

Once there we scoop out the Caesars Palace Forum Shops and then the Mirage before heading over to register for the tourney before grabbing a bite to eat at the food court just outside the hotel.

We take our seats with mine being opposite a guy I played the Venetian Deep Stack with yesterday. I try and spark a conversation with him, but like most middle-class middle-aged and white Americans – he is a complete arse and waves me off like I fly to a dog that doesn’t give a shit!

Starting with a 10,000-chip starting bank and a decent structure for this buy-in I fold my first hand, but then proceed to raise five of the next six and play both my rags out of the blinds:

- K♠ Q♠ – raise to 150, re-raise to 450, call, check-fold fluffed flop
- K♥ J♥ – raise pre, bluff turn and get called by bottom pair
- 10♠ 10♥ – raise 150, four callers, check flop, call 500 on turn and then 2,000 on river on Jack-high and flush heavy board . . . of course its good when I get showed bottom pair
- J♣ 10♣ – raise 150, six callers until big blind bumps it to 500, everyone calls, Ace-high board checked down, Kings are good
- A♦ Q♦ – raise to 150, re-raise to 450, check-fold flop and he shows Queens

I then chip up to 14,000 with tens again until I finally get knocked out. With blinds at 75-150 I open 5♠ 7♠ from late position to 400 and the big blind calls. He check-calls 525 on the A♥ 2♠ 10♥ flop and we both checked the 5♦ on the turn before the 5♣ landed. He led out for 1,200, I made it 3,500 and he shipped it for 6,000, I called and his 2♣ 4♠ was good . . . puzzled looks followed from me.

I ended up shipping it with 7♥ 3♣ from the button, and the big blinds Queen-high was too good.

There was an open seat on the $4-8 HORSE cash game and along I went to donk off while Donnie continued to grind it out.

Rich Ryan – the pocket fives intern – and some random German midget (not being rude; he actually was) called Toto started playing props on my up-cards and the Holdem and Omaha boards. Rich took red for $5 and any King for $20, while Toto took black and any Deuce for $20. Rich started off bad, blowing out to $80 before pulling it back to the $20 mark while I ran my $300 buy-in up to $380.

Rich and Toto both got seats in the game and my profit slowly was worked away as Rich’s prop bets extended back out to the $120 mark then the $200 mark, back to $125 then out to $355 before he cut his losses at $300.

Donnie ran terribly in the tourney finishing 14th and then took that run-bad and put it into place in the cash game when he lost his buy-in, after winning a handy $80 off Rich in What Lodden Thinks?.

I cashed out up $2 and we decided to head to Craps to see if Toto could continue his hot run and make us a fortune!

I call it . . . The Bridge

I played Craps properly for the first time the other night and really enjoyed it – regardless on how well I knew the rules!

I bought in for $200 and saw it work its way down to $70 then $30 before the other guys went busto. I decided to see if I could run it up, and after a few good rolls and calling out, “keep it even shoot,” I was back to more then even – a tidy $14 profit.

Being the complete degen gambler I am . . . there was no way I was pocketing that $14; instead it was Rich’s job to find one last bet for me.

“Bet Boxcars”
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s when the shooter rolls two sixes”
“Yeah, why not”

I threw the last $14 on the boxcars and its one in thirty-six chance for a thirty-to-one payday and the shooter picked up the dice. He shuffled them in his hand before flinging them up towards our end of the table. They bobbled round, avoiding chips and bets that littered the board heavy . . . six . . . six.

In an instant Rich went running off to the other end of the room and back in a complete state of shock that I had won on my first Boxcars bet, and like a dumbfounded noob I had no idea if I had won or what I had won!

The dealer casually cut down a stack of green $25-denomination chips and handed most of them over to me to amount $420. I quickly cashed out $600 after placing one last bet (true degen style) and tipping the dealer to see me profit $400 for the night on craps and $250 overall.

With Rich and Donnie having a cry about how good I run I bought them some 8am breakfast at Maccas before a nice long sleep in could occur with each of us not having to start until 5pm!