tilted behaviour

I really enjoy playing home games, but it’s been real hard recently while living down in Geelong.

However, thanks to Brendo, we have got a regular Tuesday night game up to keep our home game shenanigans kicking on!

Last Tuesday after hitting the set of the Australian Poker Hero we played a 50c-$1 No Limit Holdem cash game. It was fairly short-handed with only Mat, James, Stefan, Joe and another Brendan coming along.

I ran my $50 into about $90 with no real hands of note except a huge bluff I pulled against Stefan holding K♦ 9♦. I opened to $2.50 and the whole table called – as was usual – to see a 10♣ 5♠ 3♦ flop fall and a bet of $4 follow from Stefan out of the big blind. I made it $8 to go and when it folded back to Stefan he made it $16 total. I really felt I was ahead in the hand and he was in fact bluffing me, or that he held something really weak like bottom pair. Consequently my only move was to push back and announced all in for an additional $42 and change.

Stefan sat in the tank for eternity before I started exchanging friendly banter before beginning to fire every bullet I held in my arsenal. Eventually he reluctantly folded bottom pair, I tabled my bluffed, and I then raked the pot in.

He is a solid player and I’m hoping that I can use that hand to my advantage next time I flop a set or something against him.

That night I finally won the Australian Poker Hero satellite that I had been playing two to three times a day everyday since they started. I’ve ran deep in so many of them, but I finally won one . . . the only problem was that it was under Brendo’s account – but if he does go the whole way I do have 20% of him.

I just can’t believe the run I’m having in those APH satellites as well as other ones I’ve been playing – just getting unlucky while still running deep etc for no result.

On a side note, I made my first online Royal Flush the other day while playing 200-400 Limit Holdem on PokerStars . . . sigh it was just for play money!

The game got up again the following week minus Joe but with the addition of Shayan and Tim.

I lost just under two buy-ins running terrible, but I guess I used all my good luck on one of the first hands against Tim. He opened to $2.50 from early position with K♠ K♥ and I made it $7.25 with A♠ J♠before he made it $13.50 to go. I really wanted to five-bet all in but had about $42 behind, so I think a call can be justified. The flop fell down K♦ Q♠ 9♠ and he fired out $15 before I moved all in for $35.

After deliberating for a few minutes we decided to run it twice, and on the first board saw it run out 10♣ and the 3♣ while on the second saw it fell 4♣ and 3♠ to see me win both.

I pretty much leaked that stack and got into some really crappy spots where I had to fold after being turned or rivered.

Oh well, the home game circuit is back, and I can’t wait to keep grinding away the live micro-limits!

After checking out the Crown Tournament Calendar last night, I noticed a tournament that sparked my interest . . . a $50 with $25 rebuys Pot Limit Omaha tournament.

Down the highway I went and registered for the tournament before heading upstairs with Peter Aristidou to kill some time before we started. A hot chocolate (me) and coffee (him) later and we took our seats both on the feature table and both directly next to each other – myself in seat six while Peter took seat seven.

I gambolled with one hand holding just one-pair against an obvious pair of Aces in the hole when I flopped a pair and multiple backdoor draws. I bricked out and the Aces held as I was forced to rebuy. In the next major hand I held A♦ K♥ J♣ 10♣ and got it all in against Peter’s Queen-Nine-x-x and another opponent’s K♦ 2♦-x-x on a flop of J♦ 10♣ 6♦. The turn blanked, but the river fell the K♠ to see Peter scoop the pot and me rebuy once again.

Once through the rebuy period I added-on to see me in for $150 as I made a prop bet with Steve Topakas. With twenty-six players remaining and Topakas holding a 24,000-chip stack, I bet him $50 that he wouldn’t finish in the top six, and after a few minutes of umming and ahhing he decided to go ahead with the bet.

A few hands after we resumed I busted when my J♦ 9♣ 8♣ 6♣ was unable to improve on a flop of 9♦ 8♣ 6♦ against two players holding a straight, and one with the nut flush draw.

(Topakas would end up finishing in 7th place . . . ship the $50!!!)

I drove over to Mat’s house and we ate some lunch before heading to watch Melbourne Victory versus Sydney FC in an A-League soccer match at Etihad Stadium with Brendan.

Sydney FC defeated Melbourne Victory 3-0

After just 19-minutes Sydney had the game locked at 3-0 and it was funny watching the die-hard Victory fans either sit there sulking and abusing their players or up and leave.

Once the game was wrapped up we made our way to Crown as had a few hours to kill before heading to a friend’s going away party.

We opted to play some 50c-$1 PokerPro and all bought in for the minimum of $20. The PokerPro tables at Crown have recently undergone a software upgrade, and on our table you could live straddle and rabbit hunt – the rabbit hunt was obviously rigged, but we did take advantage of the straddle option throughout the night.

Mat couldn’t win a pot, Brendo played like an idiot and was lucky to have any money in the end, while I was able to turn my $20 into $120.75 as we had a drink and exited the Poker Room.

The reason we were heading to Platform One was to celebrate Kim Ayles’ going away party as she was leaving Crown to teach English in Nepal for a few months.

We grabbed a few drinks while catching up with James and Rob and had a huge night having some fun with Kim and some other friends we knew from Crown in a venue that we would probably never normally visit.

After an enjoyable night’s sleep I left my cousins house in nearby Yarraville ready to tackle the $2,200 PokerNews Cup Main Event.

Playing day 1b, I took my seat on table 30 to find Petar Vujic two to my left, Michael Zowie in the ten seat and the old Asian guy that bad beat in the satellite a few days earlier on my immediate left. No one of note was on my table, but the few that I had recognised weren’t strong players from previous occasions we had met on the felt.

With a 20,000-chip starting bank and 25-50 blinds that stretched for an hour there was never going to be too much action during the first level. I finished the level with just under 18,000 after losing a few pots via continuation bets and a making a bad float with a weak pair.

I then played a hand terribly in the next level when I opened to 350 over a limper holding K♣ K♠, only to be raised to 950. The original limper called and I decided to call behind as a trap knowing that the limper was a terrible player and the raiser was an aggressive donkey (maybe this is why I should have four-bet). The flop fell down Ace-high and was checked round to see a brick land on the turn. The limper check-called holding Ace-Queen and I check-folded when the raiser fired at the turn holding Jacks.

Now down to just under 16,000 I managed to scoop a multi-way pot when I was dealt A♣ 3♣ in the small blind. I raise to 300 from a player in the middle position saw six players see a 3♠ Q♠ 3♦ flop and a bet of 600 follow from me. Only one player would make the caller to see the 2♥ fall on the turn and a bet of 1,050 follow. Again my opponent made the call and when the A♠ landed on the river I was sure to get paid off so I made a smallish bet of 1,750 into a pot of 5,100 hoping to be raised if he had made a flush or maybe make a weak call with an Ace or Queen. Neither would occur as he quickly mucked his hand as I moved back to over 18,000 in chips.

Three hands later I called a raise of 300 holding K♠ Q♠ to see a K♥ Q♠ 4♥ with four players. After it was checked to me I fired out 800 only to be min-raised to 1,600 by my nemesis – the old Asian guy. I was the only player to make the call, and when the K♣ landed on the turn, I checked to be faced with a 7,000-chip bet. I moved all in, the old Asian guy made the call holding K♦ 5♦, and when the river blanked, he headed out the door as I shipped the justice to move to 34,000 in chips.

Another three hands later I opened from early position to 250 holding 9♦ 8♦ and was met with five callers to see a 7♦ 6♥ 2♦ flop fall and a bet of 1,300 follow from the big blind. I bumped it to 4,500 and when the remaining players folded, the big blind moved all in for around 12,000. I called and wasn’t in the worse shape against the big blind’s 7♥ 6♦. I dinged the 3♦ on the turn and the 10♥ on the river to see me soar to 53,000 in chips – from 15,000 to 53,000 in just seven hands!

It wouldn’t be until late in the 100-200 level that I next faced a dilemma after opening the pot with J♣ J♠ to 450 and being met with one call before the often tight Vujic made it 1,500 to go. Another well-known nit in Zowie made the call as it folded back round to me. With the majority of the times my Jacks being dominated or in a race, I decided to just call to see a flop of 6♦ 4♣ 8♠ fall. I checked, as did the other three players to see the 3♥ land on the turn. I definitely should have lead here, but again checked to see the random in the hand fire out 10,000. Vujic and Zowie folded as I sat in the tank pondering whether or not my Jacks were good here. Nothing just seemed to make sense as this random old Greek guy had fired 10,000 into a pot of 6,300 leaving himself just 5,500 behind. After about five minutes in the tank I put him all in as he obliged making the call for his tournament life with 5♣ 5♦. The 7♠ on the river nearly made me barf on the table as I slumped down to just under 32,000 after nearly having a formidable 350bb stack!

I dropped around 3,000 to Jonathan ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’ Karamalikis when I check-raised him out of the small blind with middle pair and then barrelled the turn before we both checked the river and he turned over nut top pair. I took them all back off him with profit a short while later when my 10♣ 10♠ held true against his 10♦ 8♦ after he double barrelled the 9♣ 6♣ 4♥ A♣ 5♥ board.

During the 150-300 with 25 ante level I made a terrible read with top pair against an overpair when he barrelled every street as I slipped to 17,000. The next hand I ran a bluff before being put to a test for all my chips on the turn and eventually folded a straight and flush-draw to leave me with a demoralising 9,000 in chips. During the next 200-400 with 50 ante level I didn’t play a single hand to eventually dribble down to just 3,600 as we broke for dinner.

On return, there was never going to be much waiting as I shipped first hand holding K♣ 7♠ and doubled through Zowie’s A♥ 10♦ before being eliminated six hands later when my 6♣ 6♥ were unable to outdraw an opponent’s 10♠ 10♦.

PokerNews Cup Main Event Chip Stack Graph

I was extremely disappointed with the way I had played the Main Event.

After watching a few online training videos the night previously I was hoping to take the stuff that I had learned and apply them to see me end the day with a solid amount of chips. After building a stack earlier, I made a few poor decisions – along with a bad beat or two – to see me just leak chips until my eventual derailing and elimination.

Potentially looking at a 100,000-chip stack by day’s end, exiting just after dinner made me feel more than a little annoyed!

From here on, I just need to play . . . better . . . and maybe use some additional tools like online training videos to improve parts of my game as well as learn a few more things to add to my poker arsenal.

With a deep-stack series coming up in November, I must get a big score during it, while also winning several Aussie Millions Main Event seats to boost the bankroll.

On a side note, congratulations to James Bernard who finished in 24th place for a $6,000 collect . . . and since we did a swap when we won our seat together – he also earned me $600!!!

After spending a few days in Geelong I decided that it was time for a trip up the highway to Melbourne.

I wasn’t heading up for no reason as I had a basketball game at night, but with nothing on the cards for the night I decided that I would head up early so that I could dedicate the majority of the day to playing poker at Crown.

Arriving a few minutes before midday I registered for the PokerNews Cup Step 2 Sub Satellite which was a freeroll with optional $25 rebuys for a $250 Phase Two seat. I cashed in $100 at the cage giving myself five shells (including the initial free entry) at maximum to win a seat.

I splashed around a little in the rebuy period eventually having to donate $50 but when we went to break I opted not to add on as I had around 6k from the original 500-chip starting stack and 1,000-chip rebuys. Once play resumed I played fairly solid making one mistake holding nines, but eventually limped to the final table fairly short in chips.

Expecting the final table to fly courtesy of the typical fast Crown satellite structure, play hit a real stalemate with chips getting passed round and round. I slowly chipped up as we lost the first two players of the final table before another stalemate at seven players began. With only four seats and $40 on offer it was getting really frustrating grinding away, but once we were down to six and then five, play continued for about forty minutes before I convinced everyone to make a deal and throw in an additional $42 to make up a fifth seat.

Now that I had successfully won my third consecutive PokerNews Cup satellite I took my seat on a $1-2 NLH table after grabbing a quick bite to eat.

It was a pretty uneventful session as I turned my $100 into $244 when my A♦ 5♦ flopped two-pair against Ace-Queen.

I arrived at basketball early so that I could have a shoot around . . . and boy did it help!

Having not played a competitive game for near on eight months my first few shots were terrible until I started getting back into the groove that I use to experience for the Deakin Uni team as well as our highly successful (cough cough triple premiership cough cough) Mighty Ducks.

Playing with one of my old poker buddies in Aleks ‘Banana Thief’ Brkovic, he had formed a team based more on friendship then skill – and when we went down by ten points – it was even more obvious!

My passing was always my forte, and even though I managed some slick passes and assists here and there, I was still a little off, but hopefully as the season progresses my skills can creep up to the Jason Kidd / Jason Williams level.

As the clock tipped past 10pm I made my back into Crown to meet up with James for a catch up.

He cashed out a rack-plus from his $2-3 NLH table and we both made our way up to the food court to get a drink and some food before venturing outside to sit on the edge of the Yarra river. After discussing everything from whether or not I should move back to Melbourne to our friends and their assorted issues we eventually turned back inside so that I could hit the felt and he could make his way home.

I decided to jump on a $1-2 NLH table with two mates I bumped into earlier – Carey Ciuro and Loc Nguyen.

Carey was the first ever mate I made playing poker at Crown all those years back when we were both obnoxious kids, and since then we have tried to remain in contact, but only on occasion get to hang out while filling the void with meaningless online banter back and forth. He is one of only a handful of mates that I will willingly back into any cash game or tournament – well once he irons out the rust as he doesn’t hit the felt too much anymore.

Loc is also in a similar category as we met many years ago and began climbing the poker ladder from $1-2 to $2-3 to $2-5 NLH. Although he is busy with uni (still) he is a fun player to have on the table as he GAMBOOOOOLS like the best of them!

With Carey and Loc both being seated for some time, I took my seat to find myself under the gun.

Right there I knew the night wasn’t going to be profitable . . . just fun . . . as I straddled to juice some action up. I fluffed the flop and gave up, only to be stacked next hand by Carey when four players were all in on a 9♥ 8♥ 9♠ with Carey leading holding 9♣ 7♠, another player with 9♦ 4♠ and myself with 7♥ 6♥. Looking at a juicy $200-plus pot, my dreams of raking in all the chips were shattered when the turn and river ran out 4♥ and the 7♣ to see Carey take one step in my bad books.

I tossed a black $100-denomination chip to the dealer to get some change before slumping back into my chair to see my profits from earlier dinted very early in this late-night session.

An orbit went by before I ran my eight-high flush into a King-high one. I wasn’t stacked as I check-called a river bet when we both dinged a heart on the river to see me slip to around $30. I topped up and moved to Carey’s immediate right to continue chatting with both the boys.

Our conversation mainly revolved around Carey’s blog – Broken Lense – and the fact that my Tilted Behaviour link has disappeared from his ‘Please Visit’ blogroll. I quizzed him about what I had done to be removed (as a joke) and he informed me that I will be back on soon enough – for the record, of his seven links there, one doesn’t work and two haven’t been updated for two and three months!

Back to poker.

I then copped a sick beat after being dealt 10♥ 6♣ in the small blind. In a five-way hand the flop fell down 9♥ 8♠ 7♦ and I fired out $10 and was called by Loc and two drunk spastics. The turn fell the 7♥ and I lead out for $31, and after Loc folded (after I basically told him I flopped the second nuts) both the drunks called once again. The river landed the 4♦ and I pushed my last $46 into the middle and was called by only one of the drunks. I tabled my hand thinking that I was a lock to win the hand, but when he slowrolled his 7♣ 4♠ I dropped my jaw and re-bought once again.

Our table broke, but we still managed to find a table together on the other side of the Crown Poker Room before Loc went busto with top set against a rivered gutshot. Feeling stick courtesy of my continued downswing in the session, me and Carey came up with a game to keep us entertained.

Similar to the prop bet game Lodden Thinks where two people guess what a third party thinks an answer to a specific question is, this game had a few twists to it and still is yet to be named.

Basically we used a rotation of dealers – Alecia, Mandy and Lynn – and quizzed them on everything and anything for a $1 a question. Unlike Lodden Thinks where you basically set the line with one person taking overs and another unders, this involved multiple answer selections, single answers and the standard Lodden thinks answers.

What size bed do you sleep in? (single, double, queen, king)
Favourite item of clothing at the moment? (anything from leggings to jeans to jackets to scarfs)
Who is number 9 on your speed-dial? (unlimited)
Suburb you live in? (normally we choose three each)
How old your Dad is? (standard Lodden Thinks question of setting a line)
What faculty you belong to at University? (arts, business, social sciences)
Colour of your car? (blue, black, white, grey)
Where was your last holiday? (Japan, Hong Kong, USA)

I would assume you get the point now, and this game kept both Carey and I, along with the three dealers involved, as well as the table, amused for hours . . . and I mean hours as we asked every possible question under the sun!

During this time I got stacked again after being faced with a $10 bet on a 8♣ 8♠ Q♦ flop from yet another drunk kid (although celebrating his 20th birthday). I popped it up to $31 and he made the call to see the 8♦ land on the turn, and once he checked to me I put him all in. He made the call, and when the A♠ peeled off on the river he tabled his A♣ J♦ for a rivered bigger full house and a now comfortable $240 stack.

I turned to Carey just shaking my head at yet another beat and topped back up after only being left with $50. I found a double with top-pair against an underpair as the clock ticked pass 3am and both Carey and I were broken to yet another table.

Carey left at around 4:30am with profit that definitely did not reflect the softness of our three tables, and as 6am crept round I decided to make my way home with some money in hand as I took the long drive back down the highway to Geelong.

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.

191 players turned out for Day 1b action of the Big game Poker Sydney Championships.

Today saw a greater majority of locals playing including Grant ‘grunter’ Levy, Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds, Saidal Wardak, Jai Kemp and many more . . . but when the chips were bagged many (such as the above mentioned) wouldn’t survive.

Grant ‘grunter’ Levy moving all in . . . and then all out

One of mates Callum Ford finished the day as chip leader of the remaining 67 players as play ended for the night.

As we were packing up for the night, Michael ‘pokerlife’ Tran came over and forced us to join him on a cash table for a few hours.

We all locked up seats on a new $1-2 NLH table as Michael went to grab some chips from the cage for all of us. As I was heading to the table Ali Khalil grabbed me and asked me what I was doing. After informing him of my plan to play some cash, he tossed me a $100-denomination chip and said he was buying my action with a 50/50 split of profit with all losses on Ali.

I sat down on the left of both James and Michael as we ordered a few drinks to get the night off and running.

I stacked a guy when I three-bet all in from the small blind over Michael’s weak cutoff raise holding Ace-King. The drunk player in the big blind shipped it all in with King-Jack, and when the board the bricked out I was up about $50 on my $100 buy-in.

After an hour or so of play I was sitting on $190 and when my Kings held up against two players I was up to $390 and decided to call it a night to take care of some of the backend PokerNetwork stuff.

James returned a little later a few buy-ins down in combination with a profit (well, really a loss) share with Michael as we both hit the hay while watching a combination of sport and reality TV.

Both James and I made our way downstairs to the poker room at around 11am for the Big Game Poker Sydney Championships Main Event.

We had to organise our press passes and where we would set up before Day 1a action would be kicking off.

It was a fairly standard day with the original 133 players being cut down to 36 with under twenty minutes remaining on the clock during the final level of play. Sheldon finished on top of the leaderboard while Joel Del Duca, Antonis ‘Toothpick Tony’ Kambouroglou, Tim ‘LuckyShades’ Horan and Monica Nguyen all hit the rail.

Once I typed my final word we headed upstairs to watch some TV before starting one of the most epic Facebook spam’s of all time . . .

James and I shared a mutual friend in a young boy named Mateusz Pater, and we decided at precisely 2:47am that we were going to have some fun at his expense. I wrote a comment on his wall, and along with another PokerNews / PokerNetwork employee Andrew Oataway, we began a back and forth conversation that would end at 4am.

Apologies Matty . . . but after you decided to delete the post, we really felt that our comedic genius needed to be available to the world so that they could chuckle along with our early morning antics!

It had been a little more than a week, and I was back on the road for the Big Game Poker Sydney Championships up at Star City.

I caught a flight from Avalon airport and was at the hotel in two hours. James and I were sharing a room at Star City, and from first inspection, it wasn’t at all shabby.

Once James arrived we met up with our point of contact Scott Colvin before heading out to grab some dinner with one of James’ friends Romy.

We hit a beer garden in the city, and after downing a chicken parma, another one of James’ friends, Sam, arrived and we were straight into the prop bets.

Sam had to finish a 500ml beer mixed with hot chocolate in under 25 seconds to win $100 off James, and after finishing it off comfortably James would be down a $100 . . . but it wouldn’t be too long until he attempted to win it back by trying to eat five cheeseburgers in 35 seconds at a McDonald’s up the road.

After barely finishing one in the allotted time, James emptied his wallet to Sam once again as we called it quits for the night.