tilted behaviour

Arriving for day two, we always knew it was going to be action filled, but no one expected it to be this heavy of action!

APPT Macau Day 2 Level 8-10 Updates
APPT Macau Day 2 Level 11-14 Updates

Bust out after bust out kick-started the day as Tony Hachem, Eric Assadourian, Daren Yoon, Andrew Scott, Dinh Le, Aaron Benton, Raymond Wu, David Steicke, Michael Pedley and Julian Powell all biting the dust before the end of play.

160 players began the day, but only 44 would survive with just four eliminations needed until we hit the money . . . I guess we’ll be reserving that until tomorrow!

During the day we had all received word that there was a secret karaoke party occurring later that night, so after showering and changing into some fresh clothes we all made our way to the VIP night of singing, gambling and boozing!

We were not disappointed with the constant bottle service, the giant screen displaying the video clips to all the songs that were going to get destroyed by us and the large display of dice to keep the inner degen satisfied! Straight into the Vodka Redbull and then the gambling games where I firstly had to teach everyone the game of Bluff before we all decided to play for some money . . . a whopping HK$20!

Donnie and I ended up chopping the small but pride-earning prizepool as the girls left us three boys alone to run amok as we downed a few more drinks while talking shit.

GG grabbed the mic and started to tear it up as both he and Donnie seemed to know every word to every rap song they played. Unfortunately for GG the award for the coolest crooner of the night would go straight to Marcel Luske who’s presence was enough to see the award on a plane back to Holland.

We talked up the thoughts of heading to massage parlour after being advised on some nearby good ones by a few of the Australians that now call Macau home, but eventually those plans would be dismissed since Donnie was getting tired and GG might get yelled at if he was any later than he already was.

Consequently we called it a night and made our way back to the rooms as I decided to get a start on my packing in preparation for my trip back home tomorrow.

After a relatively early night last night, we were all back on the floor for day two action.

APPT Macau Day 1b Level 15-18 Updates
APPT Macau Day 1b Level 19-21 Updates

The highlight of the day was the fact that David Steicke was playing. Why? Because it is David Steicke!

Also in the field however were JC Tran, John ‘The Razor’ Phan, Neil Arce, Terrence Chan, Mike Kim, Andrew Scott and Eric Assadourian as Steicke finished near the top of the counts – second to be exact – behind Henrick Gwinner.

Unsually the APPT Player Party was scheduled for tonight instead of being at the start or the end of the tournament, but either way, that wasn’t stopping any of us from partying!

Heading up to the Grand Ballroom there was tables full of varying types of alcohol and a small buffet for all to enjoy as the music played on and on. With rumours of a cool show for everyone, it would be Jordan Sam – the world’s greatest Michael Jackson impersonator – doing his thing to a few tunes.

We thought it was pretty cool, and it actually felt like we were at a Michael Jackson concert, but in reality it didn’t seem like the rest of the crowd appreciated it.

As the night began to wind up we all found our way to the Lion’s Bar at the MGM where we managed to share a booth with some of my mates from back home that now live here in Macau.

The Grey Goose flowed, the dance moves were embarrassing but the view was amazing as we had lines of ladies looking down on us. Of course GG began the flirt-off as he would find a girl, give her the look, and she would be instantly hooked on this ‘whitey’ giving her the time of day!

Jordan Sam somehow made an appearance and rocked a few songs as the crowd went wild! Donnie got in on the flirting action as GG somehow managed to step it up (didn’t think it was possible) as I had my eye on this Filipino girl how seemed to be enjoying the night out bopping away to the music as we were doing too.

The night kicked past 3am and the question was where we were off to next. I made my up to the bar – and courtesy of a mad friend – somehow got introduced to the girl I had my eye on.

Her name was Cindy and she lived in Manila, but was studying dentistry off-campus at Brisbane (university?). She was young, petite and attractive, and consequently I bought her a drink as we all vacated the Lion’s Bar in preparation to head to D2.

“Don’t hang out with him, come hang with us. We’re going to D2″ a drunk GG kept saying to her as we walked out of the MGM to await for a taxi.

With no one (of the twenty or so people that we had been partying with) moving or doing anything, me and Cindy jumped in a cab and headed back to the Grand Lisboa for the night.

The Boys: Donnie, GG and myself enjoying a drink at the Lion’s Bar

Arriving at Hong Kong in the afternoon, I was held up at the airport for a couple of hours waiting for a direct fairy to Macau.

Once I managed to check into the Grand Lisboa I made my way up to one of the most pimped out rooms I’ve stayed in while on the job for PokerNews / PokerNetwork (although this was a PokerStars gig).

My room at the Grand Lisboa – includes massive rotatable Plasma, two bathroom TV’s and in-built sauna and jacuzzi . . . BALLA!!!

I had a shower and caught up with Eric who had already been round for the day, and although I wanted to go eat and hang out, he wanting to crash in the room for a while. Consequently I went and got some food and made my way to the poker table.

Sitting down in a HK$10-20 NLH game with HK$2,000 (which works out to be $300 and blinds at $1-3) I never managed to gather any momentum and finished down HK$200. I did feel that I played really well, but just didn’t get a chance to win many pots apart from the occasional three-bet pre or steal from the button after a gazillion limpers.

Donnie finally arrived, and we got a chance to catch up before we all decided to meet the following day so we could see the sights that Macau has to offer.

Donnie, Eric and I were joined by Elissa as we set on a hike around town.

Although I was trying to lead us to the Ruins of St. Pauls, I was basically winging it before – after an hour of walking – running into a hotel to grab a map and some directions.

Eventually we found the Guia Fortress and the Ruins of St. Pauls before finding Gloria and the other video guys filming some b-roll as we all made a return back to the hotel before deciding to take a dip in the pool.

After Donnie, GG and I talked crap for an hour or so in the pool we all jumped in the sauna before heading upstairs to get changed as the whole team made our way to the Venetian to get some grub.

We found an Italian restaurant and ate some great food while sharing PokerNews stories from the past few years before retiring for the night.

With my lone Team 888Poker member Pierre Aoukar unfortunately busting within the first twenty minutes of the today’s play, I was left with a whole day of nothing to do.

Consequently I strolled downstairs and walked around doing nothing for a while before making my way over to Heath’s place to write an article and chill for a while.

After writing a few 888Poker articles me and Heath suited up to play some tennis. The previous match saw Heath and Kirsty lose 2-6 to me, but this time it would be just the boys. I took a 4-1 lead at one point, only to go down in the first set 7-5 before losing the next one in even quicker fashion when it finished 6-3 in Heath’s favour.

We both had a shower and made our way over to a suite at the Crown Towers where Lynn was throwing GG a ‘leaving PokerNews party’ for all his friends and co-workers. When we arrived only a few guys were there eating dinner, and before too long, I was cutting down chips and dealing a home game!

It would never be a great idea running a sizeable game, so we chose a rotation of NLH and PLO with blinds at 5c-10c . . . big stakes ey!

I bought in for $10, while most people bought in for $20, $30 and even $50, and once Jonno, Mike and some random others strolled in, the game got out of control with pots of $50+ playing out in both the NLH and PLO orbits.

But like most home games / hotel party’s / going away party’s things started to get out of hand with drinks being spilt and ridiculous room service orders being placed.

Eventually security came knocking and we warned to shut-up or ship out! The food eventually came, and I took a step away and began cashing everyone out as I knew things wouldn’t last too much longer . . . and I was right as we were soon on our way home!

Thanks to Lynn for hosting a kick-ass night of fun and degeneracy!

Today marked the end of the third flight from Event 1 of the 2010 Aussie Millions!

Like previous years, the poker extravaganza that is the Aussie Millions kicked off with the $1,100 Opening Event that has seen record increases in attendance over the past few years; and 2010’s case was no exception!

A total of 1,143 entrants created the epic $1,143,000 prizepool thanks to a mixture of 919 unique entrants and 224 who repechaged.

When the dust settled on Day 1c, 193 players had made it through with many big-name local players, amateurs and international guests all having seats for action tomorrow.

As most of you know by now I was working the event on behalf of PokerNetwork and Bet 24/7, and if you want to catch the updates as I saw it, then click the links below.

Event 1 Day 1a
Event 1 Day 1b
Event 1 Day 1c

With work wrapped up around 9pm, I decided to join the PokerPro tables with Garry, Chris and Heath.

The tables were full so I decided to jump on the newly located $15 Squeeze Baccarat table that they had moved to sit nearby the PokerPro tables.

Buying in for $400 I slowly grinded up some profit before Brendon Rubie decided to join me for some degenerate gambling action. After explaining the rules he decided just to bet whatever I bet, but couldn’t really get a handle on the art that is squeezing!

At my high point I was up around $200, but left satisfied with $175 profit as Brendon had easily doubled his $100 buy-in before we both moved to the PokerPro tables.

Since Heath, Chris and Garry all had in excess of $300 – well apart from Heath who had around $200 – I decided to short-stack it to increase the fun factor and bought in for $20 on the $1-2 NLH PokerPro table that they were playing.

Those buy-in’s went fairly quickly – and from what I can remember – Kings vs Ace-King (all in on turn, river Ace) and against Chris as we shoved dark, my K♦ Q♣ went down to his 9♠ 5♣ when the board ran out A♦ Q♦ 6♦ 5♠ 5♥.

Consequently I decided to take it seriously after dropping a quick $100, and bought in for the full $100 amount. I quickly chipped up to $150 when I made two-pair and then just slowly took down pots every orbit to hit a high-point of $320 before making a move on Chris.

He made it $7 under the gun with 3♠ 4♠ and I three-bet to $23 with A♣ 9♠. The button called and so did Chris to see a 3♦ 5♥ 3♣ flop land. I bet out $25, the button moved all in for less, and Chris gave me this big talk before making it $75. Obviously he cashed out after that hand with around $500 as me and Heath were soon joined by Elaine once Garry and Brendon had left.

Elaine nitted it up and only lost pots to me when I would three-bet and then continuation bet with 7-3 off etc.

The night finished around 2am with all of us enjoying some play time outside of work!

Today was a dark day in my short-lived poker career as I was officially dropped from the PokerNews team.

If you read this site on a regular basis, or know me in person, then you would be aware of the incident that occurred at Crown the other day during the PokerNews Cup. Consequently, with the head of the live-reporting team in town on holidays, we decided to have a meeting to discuss what was needed.

Organising to meet up with GG left butterfly’s in the pit of my stomach as I had no idea what the outcome was going to be, and after small talking for what seemed like an eternity, we the heart of the meeting.

After around twenty minutes of GG leading the talking and me sitting there stone-faced, it was decided that I wouldn’t be part of the PokerNews team anymore.

He did say that the door is still ajar if I am able to learn from my mistakes, work hard and prove to him that I can still be a worthy contributor, but with PokerNews being the only poker media in Australia, it is close to impossible to keep working as a poker journalist from out of Melbourne.

My working relationship with PokerNetwork is still in limbo as GG said that decision rests with Heath, Sean and Stephen, but I’m going to assume that due to the PokerNews / PokerNetwork relationship that I’ll also be dropped from local events.

So what now for thkcduckworth . . .

Obviously I want to stay in this field and still enjoy writing immensely, but it’s now just become a whole lot harder.

I’ll have to start exploring some options with other poker sites and use my network of contacts that I have built over the past two years to see what opportunities exist, but basically . . .

After five days behind the computer we have finally reached the final day with the APPT Macau High Rollers Event playing down to just one.

The final table for the Main Event was being played over on the purpose built stage in the middle of the Grand Lisboa gaming floor while our final four tables and 25 players were battling it out in the normal tournament area.

GG was back to help out and we were down to three tables of eight and then two tables soon after. The next seven players fell relatively fast with friend Michael Marvanek unfortunately falling in tenth as the unofficial final table was created.

However it would take nearly three hours until we lost the bubble – and yet again it was another friend – with Jonathan ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’ Karamalikis having his Kings cracked by a two-outer.

Seat 1: Grant ‘grunter’ Levy – 1,428,000
Seat 2: Gap Young Kim – 760,000
Seat 3: Vladimir Geshkenbein – 678,000
Seat 4: Danny Huynh – 432,000
Seat 5: Neil Arce – 1,153,000
Seat 6: In Wook Choi – 490,000
Seat 7: Nicolas Wong – 224,000
Seat 8: Johnny Chan – 518,000

The final eight took an hour long dinner break only to lose Nicolas Wong, Gap Young Kim and In Wook Choi in quick succession once play recommenced before taking a break to move to the purpose built stage since the Main Event had just been wrapped up by Dermot Blain.

The remainder of the tournament ran out pretty standard – Grant Levy finished in fifth and Filipino Neil Arce fell in third to put everyone’s hopes on Johnny Chan being victorious. However that wish wouldn’t be granted as the kid with only $10 and four maxed-out credit cards to his name – Vladimir Geshkenbein – became the High Rollers Champion for 2009.

Heath, Kirsty and F-Train were already at the hotel along with Craig and Lynn, and with GG heading to WPT Cyprus tomorrow I retired to the hotel to complete my second article for the PokerNews website.

Like I said previously, check it out, click the thumbs up icon and give me your feedback.

PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Day 4: Dermot Blain Wins the Main Event .

Today saw two events run simultaneously with the Main Event on one side of the Grand Lisboa poker room while the HK$88,800 High Rollers Event occupied the other side.

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!