tilted behaviour

Today is definitely a bad day for poker.

I feel sorry for my many American friends that can’t dabble with an online grind, but most importantly I feel for the true grinders that make a living day-in-and-day-out on the virtual felt whose now sole line of income (for many) has been shut down indefinitely.

Although I’m normally knowledgeable on most poker topics, I honestly have to admit that I don’t have a great understanding on exactly what is going on. Consequently I’m not going to sit here and recycle extracts from articles that I’ve read over the past twenty-four hours, but instead provide a few links that have helped me get a grasp on how this effects everyone in the poker industry.

Interview with Remko Rinkema and Dave Behr (length 31:27)
Remko and Dave both work for PokerNews with Dave having many years experience as a lawyer in New York before making the transition to poker. With Remko providing the questions, Dave gives a good insight into the current problems facing the poker industry from both a poker journalist and legal background.

Pot Committed: The End of the (Poker) World as We Know It
This blog post was written by Kristin ‘Change100′ Bihr who is an ex-PokerNews blogger and one of the most respected journalists in the business. Change100 – as she is mostly known by – details her viewpoint on Black Friday from the side of a poker journalist and explains how her (and my) livelihood will be affected.

The final link that you should be hitting up relating to Black Friday is of course PokerNews.com. We are currently updating the website whenever new information is discovered, and already several different articles have been penned by our writers. PokerNews is without doubt the best place to keep updated on everything that is happening in relation to Black Friday.

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.

After jumping on day two of the Event 10: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship with F-Train, I finally would work my first full event with the Event 14: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball.

The corresponding event last year was a $2,500 buy-in and attracted a 147-player field with Phil Ivey beginning his magical run of six WSOP cashes, three final tables and two bracelets with victory for $96,367. Unfortunately Ivey, along with five-time lowball Bracelet holder Billy Baxter, and many others all hit the rail as only 67 managed to bag their chips with Nick Binger sitting on top coming into day two.

Probably the highlight of the day was having Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu approach me at the blogging desk to apologise for their tirades on Twitter at PokerNews as they didn’t really understand the whole issue of Harrah’s forcing us to import all players into our chip counts page meaning that it was impossible to keep all 3,000 NLH donkament players updated. They knew it wasn’t my – or any other blogger or field reporters – fault, but it was a Harrah’s issue . . . so consequently we hope things go a lot smoother now with some of the high-profile players.

Sigi Stockinger (25th), Jose-Luis Velador (24th), Tommy Hang (21st), Chris Viox (18th), JC Tran (15th), Erik Seidel (14th), Chris Bjorin (13th), Scott Seiver (12th), Bryan Micon (11th) and David ‘Chino’ Rheem (9th) were some of the incredibly talented players that had a crack at making the final table, but inevitably fell just shy as a final seven would be formed following the elimination of Daniel Nicewander on the bubble.

One of the enjoyable plays of the day I saw was when Sigi Stockinger opened to 1,800 from the cutoff only to have Dario Minieri three-bet from the small blind to 5,850. Stockinger made the call and both stood pat before Stockinger folded to Minieri’s roughly 9,000 all-in bet. Minieri tabled his A♠ A♥ A♦ 10♣ 4♠ to get a good laugh out of the table and me.

The final table was expected to be a long lasting affair with some high-class players looking to capture their first (well second for Mike Wattel) WSOP bracelet. However it was completely opposite as the action kicked up into full pace as we witnessed double ups, outdraws and eliminations until play was heads-up. Both Wattel and Yan Chen slowed things down until play was paused for dinner, only to return into three-bet city until Chen proved victorious!

The one thing I did enjoy about the event was that it furthered my desire to play single draw instead of triple draw 2-7 Lowball. I think that single draw is better for beginner players as it teaches you a little more about strategy then in triple draw where you basically just keep calling and calling and calling.

Sorry that this blog entry has been so boring, but there hasn’t been much going on since I’ve been so busy working.

However I would like to share a picture with you that one of the Dutch PokerNews guys named Remko shared with me the other day which made me el oh el . . . literally . . . because I burst out laughing on the media stage while everyone was dead quiet typing away on their computers.

The ‘Real’ Australia

With Mickey flying in from the east coast late last night, Greg, Mickey and I decided to all meet up for some lunch at the 24-hour dinner-type restaurant called Mr. Lucky’s 24-7.

Funnily enough we all ordered breakfast and spent the next hour or so catching up and sharing laughs before they both retired to their rooms for some quiet time as I prepared for the Brunson Beer Pong Invitational III!

I wasn’t actually playing, but we had a few representatives in with F-Train and Eric teamed up while GG and Kristy were also playing. Throw in Doyle and Todd Brunson, Erick Lindgren, Vanessa Rousso, Eli Elizra, lots of alcohol and pride on the line, and it was bound to be an interesting day.

F-Train and Eric busted first round while GG and his partner made it through to round two only to exit pretty quickly.

GG shoots . . . and scores!

GG and Donnie however started some $20 games and proceeded to make some handsome moolah as they dispatched of team after team – including smashing by Beer Pong cherry . . . but in my defence I did manage to sink six cups like a slanty-eyed white Kobe, however it was just my partner Rich that epically failed after declaring his Beer Pong super skills!

We all called it an early night again with meetings tomorrow before the WSOP kicks off on Friday with Event 2: $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship (8 Game Mixed) being my first event of the 2010 series.

Overnight Heath’s cold had developed really badly into a bad case of the flu . . . and maybe even the swine flu. Consequently it would be just F-Train, GG and me steering the ship today for Day 1b action!

It was fine not having Heath there, even if GG was busy most of the day doing some admin stuff with the video team, we still managed to plow through.

Kirsty and I decided to take a look around the nearby outdoor shopping strip called Xin Ma Lou in search for shoes or maybe some new clothing. There were a few shoes that I spotted, but will have to return tomorrow for a better look.

On the way home Kirsty decided she wanted to eat on the street and just down from the hotel we found Uncle Jimmy’s Noodle Shack. After seeing seven orders be made in about ten minutes, Kirsty just pointed to one man’s bowl and Uncle Jimmy started cooking away. Since I had already eaten, I wasn’t going anywhere near the food . . . or what turned out to be mixed vegies and CHICKEN FEET!

Kirsty happily chomped away tasting her first (and most likely last) dish of chicken fish. We toasted it off with a Tsing Tao and were on our way back to the hotel.

Uncle Jimmy’s Noodle Shack – the dish, the taste, the fellow diner

Once I returned to my hotel room I had the honours of writing my first piece for the PokerNews website; even if it was just a recap!

Check it out, click the thumbs up icon and give me your feedback.

PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Day 1B: Myhre and Nielsen Lead the Way.

After a good night’s sleep I made my way over to Galaxy Starworld to catch up with Heath, Kirsty and F-Train.

Once there, I grabbed some food and made use of the free water and soft drinks after barely having any liquids over the past 30 hours or so.

Then I got the phone call that I had prepared myself for, but had been dreaded for many weeks and months . . . it was my Mum calling to inform me of the bad news that my dog Goldie had passed away.

Goldie had been through lots since I got him for my tenth birthday – from knee reconstructions to hip replacements to blindness and a bad case of arthritis – but after all of that he still fought through.

When I returned home from Las Vegas he was getting worse. He couldn’t walk too far otherwise his back legs would give way and he would fall into a half sitting, half lying down position. Although this may sound cruel, I had began preparing myself mentally for the worse, and the fact that he had reached the expected life span of a Beagle didn’t help too much either.

While in Queensland and then at the Vic Champs, Goldie had a cyst removed from his right back leg, and when I was home for a few days he was a billion times better then he has been in years – no falling, no visible pain and no discomfort.

The night before I left, we sat watching TV together for a few hours before I had to drive to the airport – this would be the last time I ever saw him.

The night he passed, Goldie lapped up every bit of his favourite dinner – chicken and rice (unusual for a dog I know) before walking over to his favourite patch of lawn to lie down. With Dad cooking a barbeque, Mum was wondering where Goldie was as his usual routine saw him inside by now. Dad confirmed the bad news to Mum and then to me, and our family dog of thirteen years had moved onto a better place.

I will always love you Goldie.

R.I.P Goldie (October 23, 1995 – August 21, 2009)

Following a nice degen gambling session last night and a terrible ending to a potentially life-changing tournament, I was back at work covering Event 48 – $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-better (sigh to the split game aspect, but yeah to the pot limit part).

The field was fairly stacked and included Matthew Burgoine; one of the Tournament Director’s from back home and also one of the faces behind Australia’s first free poker training sites called Insane Poker Crew.

Day One was expected to be fairly slow, but I seemed to fill the blog with a fair few hands and few small colour pieces – and having some notables like Phil Hellmuth, Brandon Cantu, Perry Friedman, Noah Boeken, Lee Watkinson and Lee Markholt go through, it made it all a lot easier.

Day Two flew fairly quickly as it ended before the 3am cutoff, with Brandon Cantu a whopping chip leader with nearly a third of the chips in play (which he held since there were 25 remaining or so)!

F-Train joined me for the final table, and after two quick bustouts in the first 15 minutes we were thinking this could be a repeat of the APT Manila Final Table. However a few doubles here and quarters there and it was an hour later.

We lost another before Cantu’s stranglehold on the chip lead and his second bracelet was chopped up in a three-way all in pot. Watkinson, arguably one of the best tournament Omaha players in the world, started to use his years of experience to take the chip lead before we lost another.

No five-handed deal could be settled on, and just like that we lost another, and then another to leave the Frenchman in an intense battle between Cantu and Watkinson. Cantu took the chip lead back before Watkinson said Au Revoir to the Frenchy and we were heads up!

Watkinson held a near three-to-one advantage on Cantu, and once that had slipped out to a six-to-one it seemed like déjà vu for Cantu after falling in second to Ray Foley in Event 39. However Cantu made a spirited comeback first doubling with a flopped set and then quartering Watkinson to snatch the chip lead and a two-to-one advantage.

Cantu would then end Watkinson’s tournament with trip fours to Watkinson’s mega-straight wrap to see the Cantu Can Do and walk away with his second bracelet and $228,867 in prizemoney.

Brandon Cantu with his second WSOP Bracelet, friends, railbirds and Grandfather that stood by his side for the whole final table (photo courtesy of http://www.pokerroad.com)

The TV crew tweaked, adjusted and prepared the set before Riza Santos finished her final table introductions with the players taking their seats in just under an hour after the expected 12pm start time.

We lost Kim Tae Hyung on the first hand, then Vesa Leikos on the second before Liz Lieu fell 15 minutes later when her 2♦ 2♠ were unable to improve against Steven Yea’s Q♥ Q♣. Yea continued to run-amok on the table and knocked out Ron Kluber and Susumu Toge over the next 40 minutes before. Cicurel Didier fell in fourth before Casey Kastle made it one better here in Manila finishing third following his fourth placing in Macau.

It took two hours to reach heads-up play with Yea holding the chip lead with 1,572,000 to Neil Arce’s 1,048,000 chips, and the local favourite Arce took control and claimed the chip lead to move to a two-to-one advantage.

With blinds only at 6,000-12,000 with a 2,000 ante, heads-up play between these two talented players were expected to last a while, but half an hour would be all that it took. Arce made it 100,000 to go from the button and Yea re-raised to 300,000 before Arce quickly moved all-in for around 1.7 million with Yea making the call. Arce looked in bad shape holding K♠ Q♠ against Yea’s A♦ K♥, but the board of 4♠ 6♣ 7♥ Q♥ 6♥ saw Arce crowned as the Asian Poker Tour Philippines champion for 2009!

“You run soooooooo good!” commented F-Train as we wrapped up the final table in under 3 hours, and combined with an American bill-filled envelope from Liz Lieu . . . he wasn’t wrong!

2009 Asian Poker Tour Philippines Champion Neil Arce

After bombing out of the PokerNetwork Online Championships event on PokerStars I wondered down to the poker room to see what action was going on. Adam Simon and Vincent Wan were seated at a 50-100 NLH game, so I decided to pull up a seat to sweat their action for a while.

Wonky went on a heater making a straight-flush against a local grinder and slowly grinded back to even as Adam floated for a while. After finishing second in the PokerNetwork tournament Heath Chick wondered down to see what our plans were, and with dinner time upon us we decided to make a move to Greenbelt 5.

After getting looked up and down by a group of Trannies that we saw at Embassy the other night we quickly rushed upstairs and settled on Mr. Rockefeller’s . . . again for me. Some steak and fish and were all back in a cab on the way to the Metro Card Club to play cash games until the wee hours of the morning.

We all managed to find seats together on a 25-50 NLH with the buy-in ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 pesos. Not having too much on me I bought in for 2,000 and we all slowly began to lag it up and lose our chips.

Being crowned champion no less than 6 hours previously Neil Arce came up to me and shook my hand, welcomed us to his club, and started general chit chat about the final table and the Metro. It was really good to see a local boy win the main event, and consequently show his appreciation to us (for who knows what reason) by approaching the four of us on several occasions to see if we wanted or needed anything.

Filipino Phil had the better of us playing some huge hands and having the best of Heath, while Adam and I just donked chips. On the other hand Wonky lagged it up due to the tightness of the table, and consequently we re-named the night Lagtarding Live With Wonky Wan! Wonky definitely won, and after being in for around 8,000, I managed to cash out up a buy-in while Heath and Adam didn’t have as much luck.

Filipino Phil

Before I left I made sure to say thanks to Neil and that I would be returning soon. His response, “You’re always welcome here!” as we all headed back to the hotel as I had to pack for my 8am flight in under 5 hours.

Once back at the hotel I packed my suitcase and had a quick sleep before heading to the airport on a 6am taxi. I didn’t have any change for him and we stood there in a stand-still for over five minutes before he just accepted his 100 pesos instead of the 150 he was charging me. An upgrade to business class made me feel a whole lot better after seeing the number of people at the gate.

A fairly sleep-deprived arrival into the Melbourne rain was fairly ironic as Victoria had been in a heatwave over the past week or so. I booked into a nearby hotel for the night, booked my flights for Adelaide, and tried to get some rest before jumping back in a plane to the City of Churches for the inaugural ANZPT.