tilted behaviour

Walking into the Casino Du Liban you are greeted by a grand stairwell that takes you up to the La Salle Des Ambassadeurs where the tournament is held.

Once inside the Salle Des Ambassadeurs it appears more like a theatre-styled room with tables and chairs for the patrons rather than a place to hold a poker tournament. However both the stage and an area below it were decked out with over twenty tables for the upcoming 2009 Lebanese Poker Championships!

Arriving for Day One of the Lebanese Poker Championships both me and Eric were always concerned for both a suitable place to work from and a strong internet connection.

We were assigned a desk right next to one of the tables which meant for easy access to the floor, but the internet was a major issue. The wireless connection was horrendously slow and it would take minutes to load a post or chip counts, and consequently forced us to back up everything after experiencing some drop outs. Photos were never a chance, and we decided to postpone them until we returned to the hotel.

Chris Karagulleyan, Raymond Rahme, Nenad Medic and Joe Hachem were our only spotted notables until we were handed a seating draw and shown some of the ‘big names’ in Lebanon poker.

With our chip counts page looking decent and our blog filling out nicely after we expected only a handful of posts, we slaved through the day watching some interesting poker, but the highlight was easily the feast they put on at dinner.

Two identical buffets were set up along with two tables full of breads, dips, cheese, desert, fruit and salads to accompany the many meats on offer. Me and Eric tucked into the feast during the one hour dinner break as we were greeted with constant service by the many waiters willing to top up our drinks and take our plates.

The day finished just after 2am, and as soon as the last post had been entered, our driver Joe was outside and taking us back to the hotel for another night.

I slept pretty well, and after rolling over to see the bedside clock read 7am I decided to get up anyway and head to the pool.

Wondering down to the lobby I eventually find the door to the outside pool area where I’m greeted by bright sunshine and absolutely no one.

I scope out the view and snap a few photos before disturbing the perfectly still water. I walk and paddle round for a little before exiting and returning to my room to prepare for breakfast with Eric.

The Regency Palace pool and views into the Mediterranean Sea

We call our driver Joe to come pick us up after breakfast and we were on our way to Downtown and a shopping centre.

It was Beirut’s number one place to shop, but in comparison to some of the places in Australia and the USA, it was fairly small but satisfied the needs of an average shopper. Eric grabbed a Starbucks as we made our way to the Casino Du Liban to see what was outlined for tomorrow.

As we walked up to the registration desk we were greeted by the most gorgeous woman we had both seen in a long time. She had her dark wavy hair tied up, and along with her dark features and sexy broken-english accent we both were absolutely mesmerised . . . and this was all before she smiled to lure us in further with her pearly whites and all-round stunning looks.

(Note – even through all my reminders, Eric was unable to snap a photo of her, so sorry about the let down)

She gave us our invites to the Launching Party later that night, and after Eric’s failed attempts to invite her, we were on our way back home to get some rest.

We drove to the EddeSands Resort at around 9pm and after being greeted and welcomed into the party we were amazed at the party they were putting on.

Basically EddeSands is a beach resort that has numerous pools, cabanas and lounge areas where anyone can attend and just relax and enjoy themselves under the great Lebanon weather.

Based around a large pool, there was a buffet on one side and over 50 tables on the other. At one end of the pool was a poker table and stage set up for some of the later festivities.

Eric, Joe and myself sat down and grabbed a few drinks as the crowd of gorgeous woman and balding old men walked in to fill the tables around us, and once all the introductions and welcomes were done we all hit the buffet.

An assortment of meats, dips, breads, sides, salads and pretty much anything you could think of was spread out, along with a dessert tray to satisfy any sweet tooth, and after a few plates and a few more drinks were more than full as the fireworks hit the air.

Both me and Eric had decided that a late-night dip in the hotel pool was a must after the temperature seemed to climb as the night continued . . . and it was worth it as we swam until the wee hours of 3am before turning it in for the night.

Waking up early to pack up the condo brought many dilemmas . . . but the main one was that Eric’s little two-door struggled to fit all our stuff in.

What? Two guys gear couldn’t fit! Well in reality I only had two suitcases (one to leave here, and one to take to Lebanon), my laptop bag and a bag of shoes, but Eric had two computers, a desktop, a set of golf clubs, unpacked clothes and countless pairs of shoes and other crap.

However we eventually managed, and drove the car to GG’s house before catching a cab to the airport to board out DL 170 flight to Charles De Gaulle at 1:30pm via Salt Lake City.

I spent most of the flight sleeping, and consequently was pretty refreshed once we landed at Charles De Gaulle. We didn’t have much to bother doing anything, so we just waited for an hour or so before jumping on our ME 212 flight to Beirut at 1:40pm.

Once on board I threw my iPod on to try and fall asleep, but instead found this degen gambling game. Basically you start with $500 and once you turn it into $2,000 you are allowed to move on to the next casino, and once you parlay that into $5,000 you can move on to the next one.

Overall there were five casino’s, and after running hot firstly on Baccarat, then BlackJack and finally Video Poker I had turned my $500 into a whopping $2,150,000 . . . if only I could cash out!

We arrived and proceeded through customs fairly hassle free to be met by our driver Joe who took us to our hotel about an hour away. I fell asleep instantly as Eric made small talk before we settled into our room and I hit the hay.

My final weekend in Las Vegas was action packed full of watching TV, packing, eating, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, gambling, cleaning, more TV and more eating . . . yeah I know I’m boring!

Saturday started slowly with lots of cleaning, packing and watching WPT reruns. Eventually I fell asleep on the couch before awaking to a black night sky. I got dressed, ran upstairs to see Eric asleep, and heading to Del Taco to grab some food before walking over to SouthPoint to watch a late session of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Transformer’s was the first cartoon I ever watched, and even though I don’t have much recollection of the story lines from back in the late 80’s and 90’s, I still love the movies. I thought that this movie was just as good as the last one and maybe even better. The CGI of the Autobots and Decepticons battles were amazing and the story line kept you interested.

I got a phone call mid-movie and used it as a time to quickly run to the bathroom, and it was Eric informing me that he and Chris Boncek were heading to The M Casino. The movie finished and I raced home just before it started bucketing down with rain as we made our way further down Las Vegas Boulevard.

Once we walked into The M we were both amazed at how such an amazing hotel could be located nearly 30 minutes from the Strip. It was grand, and had a somewhat oriental theme to add to a Venetian-type alluring odour that circulated the floor.

We walked through a relatively quiet gaming floor for a Saturday night, and was just amazed at how stunning all the waitresses were. Young and gorgeous were just an understatement as we met with Boncek and made our way to the poker room to play some $4-8 Limit Holdem.

It was a weirdly structure game as the blinds were $1-2 and the opening raise was to $6 and the $10 with consequential streets following the usual betting limits. I was getting scolded over and over for not putting out the right amount of chips, but after a while it finally clicked when I scooped a huge pot holding Q♠ J♠. I two-bet preflop and it was pretty much called round. The flop fell 10♠ 7♠ 4♠ and it was capped by both Eric and me, along with some Asian-tard. The turn dropped the 4♦ and it was two-bet before the 7♥ was checked on the river.

Eric mucked his busted straight-flush draw with 5♠ 6♠ as the Asian-tard mucked a 10. From there on I played fairly tight hitting Jacks-full on the river to take down a big pot, and also taking a few small ones to finish up $58 for the night.

We were home by 3am and I played the PokerNetwork Vic Champs Mini-League eventually getting bored and busting fairly early after building a solid starting stack.

As Sunday rolled round, and only half my packing and cleaning done before departing to Lebanon, I knuckled down and took care of most of it before Marc and Catherine arrived to go gambling at SouthPoint with both me and Eric.

Those three grinded a loss on BlackJack before we went over to Pai Gow Poker where I chipped up $50 and Eric regained some of his profits before returning to the BlackJack table to lose them all!

We headed to one of the restaurants and enjoyed a quick Mexican fiesta before we parted ways to see Eric continue his packing while I watched Rounders before falling asleep to . . .

It hurts, doesn’t it? You can’t believe what fell. All your dreams . . . dashed . . . Hopes down the fucking drain . . . Your fate, he is sitting right beside you . . . That Ace could not have helped you . . . I bet it all!

You’re right, Teddy . . . The Ace didn’t help me . . . I flopped the nut-straight!

This day was always coming, but its one that I really wanted to put off.

Both Mickey and Donnie were heading back to the East Coast and leaving me stuck in Las Vegas all alone (well, apart from everyone else that is still here)!

I woke up to find Donnie had already left early, but I was able to see Mickey off, knowing that it probably isn’t too long until I see him as he is planning on returning for the Aussie Millions again.

With it also being Mat’s last day, I thought it was a must for us to head out to the General Gamblers Store and Spinettis to potentially walk out with a shop of poker gear.

Mat bought a couple of books and a deck of cards while I picked up three books, with the aim of returning to Spinettis to purchase a range of small denomination chips for our micro-stakes muck-round home games, or even pick up a full tourney set.

Check-Raising The Devil (Mike Matusow), One Of A Kind (Stu Ungar), Power Hold’em Strategy (Daniel Negreanu)

We then left Mat at the airport to return to the cold and wet weather of Melbourne as I picked up a spare bag to carry all my purchases and accumulated swag home. I ran into the Nike outlet store and found a duffel bag that I would also take to Lebanon instead of my suitcase, and returned home to clean and watch TV all night.

Oh yeah, if you didn’t know . . . I’m heading to Lebanon on the 20th to cover the Lebanese Poker Championships alongside Eric . . . ship the hazard pay one time!

With only a small team on to cover the run down from 27 to 9, Donnie, Mat, Brendan and I decided to do some shopping at the Las Vegas Outlet Center just down the road.

Everyone picked up something here and there before we ventured to the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre at Planet Hollywood. I found a pair of new shoes and not much else as we decided that enough shopping was had for the day.

Straight over to Harrahs we went to join in the Wednesday night $4-8 HORSE game, while Brendan returned home as Eric joined us.

Donnie continued to run bad (or play bad . . . I’m not convinced he is playing bad as this is like the fourth session where he has lost in HORSE) while Mat went broke and hit the roulette table to recover his buy in and then some.

Eric finished down, while I only managed a profit of $90 after being close to $140 up at one point.

We departed early and joined the rest of the crew at RoadRunners to neck a few beers and play some pool.

With a day off between the two previous day two’s and the upcoming day three there was a Dream Team Media freeroll held for anyone that worked in the media.

Marc Hodge, Mat Pater and I teamed up to form team Tilted Behaviour. We joined several PokerNews teams in a battle to be the longest lasting to win a seat into the $1,680 Dream Team Main Event in a few days time.

I busted early when I shoved Ace-Six with my short-stack and was snapped off by Ace-Nine. However both Marc and Mat would hold the fort down and see us take down the longest-lasting trophy and $1,680 freeroll!

A few hours later we all combined once again to take part in the PokerNews Freeroll!

Everyone had a random bounty on their hand to go along with the prizepool, and before the cards were in the air, Garry and I revealed our t-shirts.

GG had both DK and Mel on his team with pictures of me and the words of Sometimes . . . me and my mates . . . we just like to grind, while Donnie, Eric and Mat were on my side with a picture of GG’s mug on it and the slogan of Who the f**k is Garry Gates?. Everyone’s t-shirt however had an alternative slogan on the back with mine saying Mate Ditcher, Mat’s saying Plzzz Mate and Eric and Donnie’s saying Pay Forgetter.

Our T-Shirt Battle

I was out of the freeroll fairly early when my Ace-King was outran by Marc’s Queen-Jack. The flop fan out King-Queen-Queen, but no improvement would fall on the turn and river and I handed over my bounty to Marc. However, I quickly grabbed it back so I could read what it would be . . . Tim Duckworth owes the holder of this card $20!

Unveiling my bounty

WTF! I had to pay my own bounty . . . firstly rival t-shirts and now I lose out in a freeroll . . . so ridiculous!

Melissa and F-Train went heads up in the freeroll and chopped the money, but Melissa would officially take it down as we now all prepared for one of the greatest party’s in the world . . . the PokerStars Player’s Party!

With a few hours to kill before the party kicked off, a few of us grabbed some food at the Rio before making our way to the Palms at the Rain Nightclub.

We made the most of the open bar as Donnie and I ventured into the Hachem VIP area to mingle for a while. We paced the dancefloor bumping into a pro here, a media member there and a fellow colleague everywhere else before we waited round for Nelly to come on to the stage at midnight.

He performed a bunch of songs, and soon after we walked out the door to witness some degen gambling by nearly the whole PokerNews crew that remained – apart from the wiser and stronger Aussie boys!

Back to work tomorrow, but here is a rough video I put together of Nelly performing (note – the sound quality on this camera is fairly terrible, so I cut it out and just added some recorded tracks).

With another day off before the Main Event kicks off we decided to venture to the Las Vegas Outlet Center located just down the road from our condo.

Donnie, Eric, Mat and I arrived at lunchtime, and four stores in, Donnie and Eric had both picked up a couple of pairs of shoes each. We all picked up a few things here and there before heading to Fashion Show Mall to continue our shopping adventure.

We didn’t find too much and headed over to the Venetian to catch up with some mates, but instead found a $6-12 HORSE game. Donnie, Mat and I sat down to play in the one, two and three seats, and were soon joined by Rich after he finished work.

Me and Donnie had decided to chop profits 50/50 and after I turned my $300 into just over $470 Donnie walked away a little less unstuck as I really only pocketed $13 profit after a really enjoyable 30-minute massage.

There were many interesting and fun hands, but one in particular I want to share with you.

During the Stud Hi/Lo orbit I completed, and found one caller, before betting fourth, was raised on fifth, check called sixth, and checked down seventh with my board reading:

“I missed” commented my opponent, “just a pair of sixes” he continued.

I quickly looked back at his board to see that my Queen might play, and consequently was shipped the pot when he tabled his hand of:

It was a truly sick hand to see a pair of sixes scoop in Stud Hi/Lo!

Main Event starts tomorrow!