He managed to finish 3rd/2,451 in the Full Tilt Poker $9,500 GTD Rush Rebuy. The buy-in was only $2.20 and he re-bought nine times, but walked away with $2,200 for his third place . . . nice run sir.

With Lynn heading to the gym and me and GG doing nothing, he happily(?) drove me to this place called Too Hotties to get my hair cut. As you walk in there were maybe six or seven hairdressers who were stunningly gorgeous and all young. There was a pool table, flatscreen TVs, massage chair, PS3 and XBox 360 all for the patrons or guests to enjoy.

“Do you guys want a drink?” asked the receptionist.

“I’ll grab a beer!” and extremely excited GG added.

As GG sipped on his Bud Light while getting a chair massage, a petite brunette named Lacey began on my hair. We exchanged normal haircut banter of work etc, and I found out that even though she is only 20-years old, she has never been out of the country! This shocked me, because at the same age I already had been to eight different countries with nearly twenty trips to Asia to holiday or visit family.

Ending the haircut with an awkward but enjoyable face massage, I was extremely pleased with the result, as nothing beats your personal hairdresser back home . . . and for $23 it felt like a bargain!

With GG and I a little hungry, we ventured next door to Firehouse Subs where I bought us some late lunch / early dinner before picking up Lynn on the way home.

We decided a few days ago that we were all going to play the Green Valley Ranch weekly $45 HORSE tournament, and tonight was the night for us to check-raise some senior citizens and have some fun!

Lynn didn’t really want to play due to her lack of knowledge in the games, but that still didn’t stop Donnie, GG, Jane and I donating our money as the $45 entry got us a 2,500 starting bank. Unfortunately the Tournament Director was a bit of an idiot – and although there were four tables in operation – they still managed to seat Donnie, me and GG in the one, two and three seats respectively on the same table. Throw in the fact that we were nine-handed and played each game for a fifteen minute level instead of eight hands, really underlined the quality we expected.

“So what order does the games go in?”

“What exactly is hi-lo . . . razz . . . or stud?”

These were just a handful of the comments that we heard in the first few minutes of the tournament as we all just gave each a look of Oh My GOD!

I chipped up pretty easily in the Holdem orbit, but then played a terrible Razz hand where my made 8-7 perfect was rivered by a guy after I bet every street in a mult-way pot. I managed to pick up some chips though, and finished the first break with 4,600.

With the blinds climbing every game, I tried to play tight in the stud games, but when we returned to Holdem I won about nine pots to get my stack up to 6,500 and then 11,000 by the Razz orbit.

Reaching the final table of eight with 11,200, I was sitting third in chips (chip leader had 33,500) with Stud being the game with an ante of 100 and betting limits of 500-1,000. My stack slipped a little as we lost just one player before I managed to win a hand in Stud Hi-Lo with two-pair against two lows; one of which was the losing hand of Donnie’s.

With only five people getting paid, once we lost seventh, we made a deal for the bubble boy and chuck in $10 each so that he would at least make some profit. Once he exited, I had 14,500 during the Omaha Hi-Lo orbit with blinds 500-1,000 and was sitting on the button.

The remaining four players then started talking deals of chopping the prizepool five-ways for $220 each. The player on my left only had 8,500 and Donnie 6,500 in the big blind, while the two players on my right had 25,000 and 18,000. I felt that I had a great enough skill edge to keep playing, and running ICM equities saw that I should earning a little more. I obviously was beaten into submission and took the deal as we made our way home.

Not having played online all day, I decided to load up a couple of tourneys on Full Tilt Poker to fill in some time before doing some work.

I busted a Rush tourney quite early, but was also playing a $3 PLO Six-Max Rebuy tournament. Although I was in for five rebuys, I had a better than average stack after the rebuy period was over with Donnie also still in. We ended up being seated on the same table for quite a while which was pretty funny as I held the chip lead with 45 players remaining of the starting 77. Once there were about 29 players left, I lost a couple of big pots here and there and slipped back to around fifth only to see Donnie exit when I guy – that I proceeded to berate afterwards – called off a pot raise preflop and then a pot-sized shove on the flop for 80% of his stack with just a straight draw for the wheel.

With only eight players cashing, I doubled a couple of short-stacks up when we were twelve-handed, and consequently had to grind the short-stack on the bubble. I then managed to find two massive double ups after flopping the nut full twice against two players and doubling in the first before eliminating the guy that busted Donnie in the second to take the chip lead into the final table with 40% of the chips in play.

Unfortunately after losing one, I played a massive pot holding K♥ K♠ 9♥ 4♦ against A♥ A♠ J♣ 8♠ after I raised, he potted, and I put him all in. The board ran out 6♥ 9♦ 9♣ Q♠ 10♠ to see the suck, re-suck cost me a chip stack of well over half the chips in play.

Not letting it deter me, I still continued to open fairly regularly to pick up the blinds while also making some sneaky check-raises in blind-on-blind battles with the virtual nuts. I still managed to lose some crucial pots to prevent me returning to my once powerful stack, and consequently when I reached heads-up play, I was nearly a three-to-one underdog in chips.

I managed to take a few dints out of his stack, but he pushed back a couple of times to see me slip back to a three-to-one underdog before this final hand occurred.

Seat 1: tRaMSt0p (90,516)
Seat 3: molchun17 (305,984)
tRaMSt0p posts the small blind of 5,000
molchun17 posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #1
Dealt to tRaMSt0p 8♥ J♥ 7♣ 7♥

tRaMSt0p raises to 22,500
molchun17 calls 12,500
*** FLOP *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠

molchun17 checks
tRaMSt0p checks
*** TURN *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠ 4♠

molchun17 bets 22,500
tRaMSt0p raises to 68,016, and is all in
molchun17 calls 45,516
tRaMSt0p shows 8♥ J♥ 7♣ 7♥

molchun17 shows 9♣ 7♠ 5♠ 4♥

*** RIVER *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠ 4♠ 9♥

tRaMSt0p shows a full house, Sevens full of Nines
molchun17 shows a full house, Nines full of Sevens
molchun17 wins the pot (181,032) with a full house, Nines full of Sevens

With the final hand occurring around 5:30am, I was fairly disappointed not to take it down and top off a good day, but will take the $159 for 2nd/77 players.

We returned to the Hard Rock to show Heath around before we headed to Fashion Show Mall so I could buy some shoes and the other two could grab some food.

A few days earlier (while shopping with Jane) I had spotted the sickest pair of Air Jordan Spizike‘s that were a must-have. Walking into Foot Locker the price had been slashed down to $130, and consequently, there were an insta-buy so I could kick it old-school like I was back in 1985 (when they originally came out).

We then walked over to the Aria to check it out, but after finding no real poker action to satisfy us, we jumped in a cab and made our way to the Venetian to play some $4-8 HORSE. Unfortunately the list was full, so we all sat down at a $1-2 NLH table where me and Heath quickly battled after I opened to $12 over a straddle with 9♥ 8♠ only to get four-bet by Heath to $27. I called, and we checked it down with a nine falling on the flop to best his Ace-King.

Several hands later after it limped round to me in the big blind, I made it $13 with K♦ Q♦ and found two callers to see a Q♣ 8♣ 4♣ fall. I fired out $32 and was called in one spot before a 2♠ landed on the turn. On the turn I was faced with a decision of whether or not to bet or check. I felt that if I fired out he was probably only calling with a draw or a weak hand, but raise a set or a baby flush and a hand stronger then mine (top-top etc). Consequently – being prepared to fold if he shoved, but barrel any non-club river – I led out for $60 and he took over two minutes before making the call.

Sigh . . . A♣ . . . what a ghay river! I deliberate just shipping for $130 as a bluff to get him fold a small flush or a stronger non-flush hand, but continuing with my turn play I decided to check only to have him insta-shove for $115. I tanked for days and folded, and he believed a folded a set and didn’t correct him.

“I had King-Queen with the King of clubs . . . probably should have folded the turn” he stated.

“Yes you should have” I replied bluntly.

A few hands later after this lady from Denmark made it $10 after a limper, I bumped it to $36 from the button with Q♦ 6♦. Heath shot me this dirty look before tank-folding Jacks (el oh el) as the lady mucked. I let Heath pick a card and he turned over the Queen and instantly believed I had Queens. The next hand after the same lady made it $8, I three-bet again to $27 from the cutoff with A♠ 8♥ and she called before check-folding for $32 on the J♠ 9♠ 6♥ flop.

Eventually all our seats came up at once and we headed to the $4-8 HORSE table but not before Heath managed a double. Heath sat down with his $500 or so, I sat down with my $386 (after being down $14 from the table previously) and Mickey sat down with about the same.

I scooped a huge pot in PLO-8 with A-K-K-7 against A-Q-Q-x on a K♥ 9♥ 4♠ A♥ 8♠ before GG and Kerry Stead joined the game.

I ran pretty awful for the whole night, including losing a live high two-pair and the nut-flush draw against two full houses in Seven Card Stud before bricking in Stud Hi/Lo with (6x)(5x) / (4x)(2x)(4x)(5x) / (6x) against Heath’s trip kings. I did mange to make a flush and a low the next hand against him however to win the majority of my chips back.

However one of the sickest hands was when my Razz board ran out (Ax)(10x) / (4x)(2x)(Jx)(Qx) / (Kx) to lose to someone that had J-8-8-8 face up on his board . . . so sick!

After a long session on the felt I spent the last hour playing every hand with a can’t be f**ked attitude as I eventually lost my last $100 or so and returned home after another unsuccessful session in Las Vegas!

Before testing my mixed game skills I decided that I should flaunt my media pass and attend the 10am DeucesCracked HORSE seminar . . . and boy was it worth it!

The attendance was poor with only Kerry Stead and I awakening from our slumber to make the trip to the Crown Promenade meeting rooms, but this basically meant that both him and I got tens of thousands of dollars worth of one-on-one poker tuition.

Joe Tall and Chuck ‘danzasmack’ Danielsson were the hosts, but Brian Roberts, DeathDonkey, Entity and a few others were there contributing. All in all I learnt a huge amount during the two hours with both my Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud Hi-Lo games reaping the most reward before making my way down to the poker room.

With a 10,000-chip starting bank and 30-minute levels, the structure was still fairly fast.

I took the blinds with eights before winning a sizable pot holding A♦ Q♦ in the big blind after four players saw a flop of A♣ Q♣ 5♠ in a single-raised pot. I checked, the raiser bet, two folds, I raised, he re-raised and I called to see the 8♦ land on the turn. I check-raised again, but he just called before the K♣ came on the river and we both checked. He flashed an Ace and mucked as the game switched to Omaha Hi-Lo.

I flopped the second-nut book holding A♠ Q♠ J♦ 2♦ and got a few streets of value against 10♦ 10♣-x-x on a A♦ Q♦ Q♣ 10♠ 6♠ board against Tim ‘TurnRiva’ Marsters to move to over 13,000.

I bricked out in Razz before my 10♦ 10♣ / 2♠- 10♠- 5♥- 4♦ / K♦ found seven streets of value against split Aces in Stud.

Once we were back in Holdem I played an awful hand holding top pair against two flushes before losing the first pot in Omaha Hi-Lo to drop to 8k before quickly mounting a comeback to move up to 11k and then 15k.

After returning from the first break I was moved to the feature table that included Graeme ‘Kiwi G’ Putt, Richard Holmes, Jan Suchanek and Eric Assadourian. Nothing exciting eventuated on that table before I was again moved to a table featuring Mel Judah, Steve Topakas and Rob ‘JacksonTens’ Campbell.

I then managed to eliminated Topakas during Omaha Hi-Lo when my A♣ J♣ J♠ 2♠ cracked his A♠ A♦ 10♦ 2♥ on a board that ran out K♣ 9♣ K♦ 6♣ J♥ after all the money went in on the turn.

My newly found chips would soon find a way to vacate my stack and find a home in other players when – during the last four hands of Stud – I was forced to bring-in every time. The final hand saw me begin with A♣ J♥ / 2♠ and when two players just called I caught another deuce as we all checked before I caught an Ace. Bet, I raise, all in, fold, I call and was up against a very well hidden rolled up Jacks and was never able to improve. The next hand saw me bring-in once again – this time in Stud Hi-Lo – and I open completed for my last 700.

I managed to make two-pair and a low draw against a bigger two-pair, but when my sixth and seventh streets bricked out, I hit the rail in 38th place out of the 91 starters.

I felt I played very well – and this was without a doubt courtesy of the DeucesCracked seminar – but was just plain unlucky when the structure quickened up.

A couple of cooler hands and I was out . . . pretty simple . . . but it happens.

Thanks once again to the guys that threw their support and moolah behind me.

I’ve always enjoyed playing mixed games, with seven card stud being the first I learned when I was in Las Vegas back in 2007. However the five games that make up HORSE take more than their fair share to learn before you can think of yourself as a skilled mixed game player, but over the past six months or so I have been playing my fair share of these games online.

Consequently, with the help of some ChipMeUp backers, I took my seat in Event 4: $550 Mixed Event which plays the five games of HORSE plus No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha.

On my table I had Rob ‘JacksonTens’ Campbell, Ash Gupta and Abel Cabrera along with some players that I knew were solid. My strategy was to try and accumulate most of chips in the two holdem orbits, stay clear of big pots in Omaha and play solid in the stud games.

I added about 2,000 to my starting 20,000-chip bank in the limit holdem orbit before getting scooped in the limit Omaha orbit when my opponent caught running cards to crack my low and weak high hand. During the first orbits of the stud games there were no major hands until we hit NLH where I took a down a nice pot to make up for the chips that I had leaked during a fairly card dead stud and stud-eight orbits when I was dealt Q♣ Q♦ under the gun and opened with a raise to 750 (blinds 150-300) and after finding two callers, took down the pot with a 1,325-bet on a ten-high flop. I three-bet Abel twice with King-Queen and once we switched to PLO I had played half of the eight hands dealt and won three of them before deciding to sit out due to the aggressive nature of our table.

We hit limit holdem once again – and just like during the NLH orbit – I played half the hands only losing Ace-King to Aces before picking up a nice pot with 8♥ 6♥ on a J♦ 3♥ 7♥ J♥ 3♦ board. My next major hand came during the Stud orbit when my A♦ 4♠ / 10♦ 6♥ A♣ A♠ / 4♣ outdrew Ash’s nut-flush on sixth street to take me back to over 25,000 in chips. The table broke and I moved to be seated with Marwan Nassif, Joe Cabret, Vic Thornton and Trung Tran before being joined by Michael ‘TheBigSiCkO’ Guzzardi and Abel Cabrera once Marwan was eliminated.

I chipped up to over 32,000 when I value-bet eights and fives against a fish in Stud before going against my initial strategy of not playing PLO. With blinds at 600-1200, Guzzardi raised the button to 2,400 with 9♣ 9♦ 7♦ 6♠ and I called from the small blind with A♦ 2♦ J♣ 10♣ along with Abel defending his big blind with Q♣ Q♠ 6♣ 3♣. The flop fell down Q♦ 9♠ 6♦ and I fired out a pot bet of 7,200 before Abel announced re-pot. Guzzardi pushed his 45,000-chip stack into the pot, and after thinking for a little bit I decided to gamble and pushed my 40,000-chip stack into the middle with Abel soon to follow. Unfortunately for me, the turn landed the 10♠ and river the 5♣ to see Abel pushed a 120,000-chip pot with the next best sitting on around 80,000.

Although I put my tournament on the line with a draw, I felt that it was a decent spot to do it in, especially with the fact that it was PLO. Winning that pot would have seen me hold the chip lead, and if I continued to employ my solid strategy, I would have been a near lock to make the final table and take a crack at the $9,000 first prize.

Finishing 18th/43 was a little disappointing, but I thought I played extremely well throughout the twelve-hours of tournament poker.

The Victorian Poker Championships will always have a strong spot reserved in my heart as it was my launching ground for both a blogger (first gig with PokerNews) and player (11th in the Main Event), and consequently I’m proud to present my continued tournament summary with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Victorian Poker Championships.

1 – State of Origin Success: For the second year running the Victorian Poker Championships played host to the State of Origin. This year the ante was upped by adding both the Territories and New Zealand to the rooster, along with altering the structure and format to make it work and function better along with pleasing both player and railbird.
The one downside for many was firstly allowing New Zealand to participate as they aren’t an Australian state, and secondly seeing them victorious. Overall I think they should be allowed to be part of the State of Origin regardless that they may fly a different flag to us, and if anything is to be changed it should be the weighting of the points system so that a more strategic approach is needed in the first round of the shootout.

2 – Decrease In High Stakes Turnouts: It is understandable that our current economy may not be in the best state, but over the past few years poker has never really been effected too greatly. However, Crown ran two high stakes tournaments – a $10,200 High Stakes Holdem and a $250,000 Challenge – that really didn’t pull the numbers it had in the past.
With only 23 and 8 runners respectively, it was fairly poor to only get this turnout even with most of the poker community in town. I must admit that the cash game action was HUGE to say the least, and this could be the main reason behind the lack of numbers, but I guess we’ll never know.

3 – Bring On The Ladies: I personally think that the Ladies event should be a regular on the Australian tournament schedule. Not only is it an additional avenue to increase the poker playing community, but also reverses the normal trend of WAG on the rail, and now places the male as the silent observer watching on. (On a side note, check out the very interesting thread on PokerNetwork here about this very topic)

4 – Where Were The Mix Games?: The Victorian Poker Championships are supposed to by a championship series, but if that’s the case, where was the variety of events of different poker variants? Only three events were non-holdem ones, with only one of these being Crazy Pineapple to the other two Omaha ones. Gone was the marquee HORSE event that many poker enthusiasts love along with the split games of the Morning Series. Just like the WSOP, I think that any tournament schedule has to include a mixture of poker variants, and even if it can only accommodate for one, then sobeit. Bring back the HORSE and the Mixed Stud!

5 – Weak Final Table Line-Up?: Many may have looked at the final table and just spotted a chipped up Jason Gray and Chris Chronis along with a short-stacked Gary Benson surrounded by amateurs – and especially when you compare this table to last years that included Jay Kinkade, Tino Lechich, Sheldon, Minh Nguyen, Julian Powell, Harris Pavlou, Ben Delaney and Tim Horan. However this table was stronger than you may have imagined!
Dean McIver has been a regular on the tournament circuit for a number of years while Benson, Gray and Chronis’ records speak for themselves. Mick Nolton is a very talented player along with Julian Cohen who has began raking up results in the past 12 months, and when you add in the strongest amateur on the table – champion Albert Amato – you have a table full of talent . . . I guess we’ll have to see where they are all in 12 months because we know what last years final nine have achieved!

6 – Busy Time For Poker: It is always a difficult ask to plan not only a poker tournament but also a championship series ahead of time – and when tournaments are getting announced without too much preparation time – there will always be crossovers. Not only was the ANZPT Queensland (5th – 9th) finale on during the first week, the hugely popular FTOPS (5th – 16th) was also being run to consequently detract some of the online contingent competing over the two week schedule (2nd – 17th). Combine this with the Asian Poker Tour Macau (12th – 23rd) and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau (15th – 30th) and you have a very busy and expensive month of August!

7 – Main Event Structure: Jonno Pittock and his loyal staff always implement great structures for every tournament held at Crown – and in the case of the Victorian Poker Championships Main Event – it was no exception. For the first time at Crown since I started working for PokerNetwork/PokerNews day three saw more than a final table return to battle it out. This was not because of slow play or an overly huge field, but rather that the structure was just too good to see the field reduced to just one table by day two. Kudos Jonno and his staff!

8 – Money Is Going . . . Somewhere: I’m unsure of exactly where he lives, what he does, or what he plans to do with the money, but I think that Albert Amato will pop his head up around Australian tournaments in the future. Obviously there were crowd favourites going into the final table, but it was great to see a talented by short-stacked player battle hard (with some luck) to take down the $190,050 first prize.

Queensland then Melbourne and now Macau!

Tilted Behaviour is heading back to Viva Las Asia to tackle the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event and High Rollers . . . while also mixing in some partying, gambling and relaxing in one of my favourite destinations on the planet.

Stay tuned for who knows what may eventuate!

Once we were all up and ready, we made our way to GG’s to find everyone seated round his poker table like we were the ones holding them up.

Mat put the cards in the air and our 10-handed, 5,000-chip starting bank, $50 sit-n-go was kicking!

Mickey ran Queens into Aces and like a junior Phil Hellmuth, started ranting and raving at how bad he runs. People busted left, right and centre until I eventually perished in fourth place as F-Train finished third while Donnie couldn’t overcome the power of Marc Hodge heads-up.

With GG heading out on some prior obligations, we were left to fend for ourselves and decided that the best option was a friendly HORSE game; in which I took the dealing duties.

I made around $15 in tips before we called it a night.

After DK and myself finally arrived back at the condo following a little directionless driving, both me and Mat decided to join him in seeing the movie Bruno along with Melissa and Eddy.

Having no idea what the movie was about, we grabbed some popcorn and found some seats to find out that it was basically a Euro-version of Borat but with more male nudity . . . up close!

The movie was funny, but very disturbing at times and I only recommend it if you enjoyed Borat and prepared for a plenty of close up male nudity . . . I think you get the picture!

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.

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!