tilted behaviour

I couldn’t really be bothered playing online today, but Donnie was back in his grinding shoes . . . and it paid dividends!

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 my 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.

It must seem like I’m the laziest PokerNews employee, but after just a few days on, I have another day off . . . and of course I headed to the Rio to play some cash!

I keep getting told how unbelievable soft the games are and how bad the players are, and yes what I have witnessed makes me wanna pitch a tent there, but I’m still yet to get any of it.

Sitting down at a $1-3 NLH table I post in the hi-jack and pick up A♦ K♦ and make it $11 with just one caller on my immediate left. The flop falls J♣ 10♠ 4♥ and I know that this most likely hit his range, but I still fire out $17 to force a fold from those hands I don’t have showdown value against. It doesn’t work as he calls and then successfully pushes me off with a $45 bet on a blank turn after I check.

I top up, and then get dealt 8♦ 8♠ under the gun and make it $12 and find three callers to see a 9♥ 2♥ 3♦ flop fall. The blinds check and I fire out $30 which is called by the button as the blinds fold before the A♠ is delivered on the turn. I felt that I could be up a just a flush draw, and even if I was beat by a nine, if I fired a strong bet to represent the Ace, then he may just fold. I led out for $65 and he instantly moved all in for over $400. Yikes! Ace-high flush draw it must be, and I mucked to slip down to $195 and topped up $75 to now be in for $400.

I squeezed K♠ J♠ to $28 after a straddle for $6 and four callers before being shoved into with King-Queen to run into my Aces to see my stack return to $357. I then made a terrible call with A♣ 6♣ on a 2♥ 4♠ 8♦ A♠ to be up against A♦ 8♠ as I slipped back down to $233.

I then bricked my 5♠ 3♠ on a 9♠ 8♣ 3♦ Q♠ board against Ace-Queen and an all in short stack’s Jack-Ten. Eventually GG came along and said he wanted to play somewhere else instead of the Rio, so I took my $171 off the table and we made our way to the Venetian.

GG had planned to meet Jonno Pittock there, and Jonno treated us to a nice dinner at Valentino’s even after getting three-outered for a $600 pot!

After dinner GG and I sat down on a $1-2 NLH table and I was quickly put on tilt when my K♣ 10♣ was run down on a 10♦ 7♥ 6♠ 2♥ 6♥ by J♥ 9♥ before I managed to flop two pair (after squeezing preflop) with Q♣ 6♣ and finding a little bit of value.

Bruno had been playing on a different table and soon joined us as I made it $6 under the gun (still tilting obviously) with Q♠ J♥ with GG calling before some banana made it $16 from the button. We both called and then check-called $15 on the Q♦ 4♥ 10♠ flop as the 9♦ landed on the turn and we again checked to the banana. He fired out $25, I called and GG made it $85 total as the banana moved all in for just $55. Although I think it’s technically a call here nearly every time, I opted to fold as GG tabled his K♠ J♠ to collect the pot and send the banana reaching into his wallet.

I then three-bet someone to $37 over his $12 raise with A♠ K♠ and then folded to his $50 donkbet on a Jack-high flop. He flashed his A♥ J♥ and I sarcastically said well played before topping up to now be in for $400.

Jonno then joined us on the table as I chopped Kings vs. Kings preflop in a five-bet all in pot before taking a nice pot off Jonno. Bruno opened to $6 and GG called before I three-bet them to $24 with Q♥ Q♦ for about the fifteenth time in the last few hours. Jonno called from the button as we went heads up to a Q♣ 8♦ 7♥ and I fired out $27 with Jonno check-calling as the A♠ landed on the turn. Because I had been barrelling a lot and showing my nine-high three-bets, I was hoping that Jonno might have hit the Ace, and if not, call super lightly. Therefore I only fired out $49 and he quickly called. The river landed the K♦ and unless he was floating with a gutshot, or slow-playing an overpair, it shouldn’t have changed anything. I had about $120 or so in my stack and really wanted to get paid off by the bottom of his range like 10-8 etc. Consequently I only made it $50 to go and he snapped me off with A♣ K♣ to see my stack soar into the positive . . . if only I knew he had that hand and I could have had an additional buy-in up my sleeve!

Quite a few orbits later once Donnie and Lynn had arrived from work, I opened K♦ 10♦ and was called in three spots to see a K♠ 7♥ 6♦ flop fall. I fired out $16 and Jonno raised it to $40. I really didn’t believe I had the best hand, but even if I did, the cards that fall on the turn that make it ugly for me to call a barrel far outweighs the good ones. Consequently I showed no fear (which if you’ve been reading Tilted Behaviour lately you will have noticed as I’m continuously unafraid to bluff and play big pots in comparison to my old game – something playing online has contributed to I believe) and made it $105 to go. Jonno thought for ages and mucked, as I flashed the 10♦ to try and tilt him.

With Donnie having no money since he had just bought into tomorrow’s $2,500, I decided to cash out a $116 winner and lend him some money to play since I was basically folding every hand to build crazy Carlos Mortensen-inspired chip sculptures.

Unfortunately that was a terrible idea as the game continued until deep into the morning as I tried to doze off on the chair next to Donnie as the Rounders-esque game continued until the bright daylight of Las Vegas pulled us out of the Venetian in time for three hours of sleep before my midday start!

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!

So as we all shared a lift up to our room’s we decided that tonight was the night for some pampering at the Grand Waldo Spa.

Thirty minutes later GG, Lynn, Craig and I met and made our way to a cab – Heath and Kirsty pulled out, while F-Train was uncontactable – and HK$80 and fifteen minutes later we were outside the Grand Waldo Spa.

With everyone apart from me being a noob we consequently had to spend ten minutes looking at the spa menu, even though I had informed them on exactly what to get. Finally we were able to get to our lockers to get changed and head into the spa and sauna area.

GG went and had a haircut and shave while me and Craig jumped in a shower before making our way to one of the sauna’s. We sweated it out for about fifteen minutes before having a shave ourselves and another quick shower before getting changed into these sailor-type pyjamas.

We joined Lynn upstairs in the communal area and headed straight to the buffet and tucked into some noodles, toast and chinese tea. At about 1am we decided that it was time for our Shanghai Oil Massage and made our way up a level and were all allocated separate rooms facing each other.

Everyone seemed nervous while I was just ready to get every bone, joint and muscle cracked, stretched and bent!

My massage was . . . eventful . . . as the lady I had at one point just stopped massaging my back and pulled out this pumice stone type of tool and began rubbing it on my back. It didn’t really hurt and felt like she was cleaning it, and once she finished that, and the remainder of the massage, my back felt really smooth.

However when I saw what it looked like in the mirror, and after showing the guys, we were more then a bit shocked. Basically it appeared as though where she was rubbing she had popped the blood vessels under the skin so that it looked like I had been cut up. It kind of looked cool like it was a tribal-style tattoo, but Lynn and GG thought I had been scarred for life!

We returned to the communal area and all took a seat in the recliners and watched an assortment of National Geographic, MTV and Fashion TV before enjoying a foot massage. Me and Craig enjoyed a few more cups of Chinese Tea while I decided to join Lynn with the pampering and get a manicure and pedicure as well.

4am ticked round and Lynn, GG and Craig decided enough was enough and made their way home, while I decided just to sleep in the recliner because . . . I could . . . no other real reason.

I woke up around 10am and headed to the buffet for a breakfast of toast, sausages and orange juice before heading downstairs to have a sauna.

For some reason however the sauna’s were off, and I couldn’t be bothered waiting round, so I just showered up and got dressed. I went to pay my bill and was shocked to see that it cost me all of AU$105!

Grand Waldo Spa Bill
Cover Charge – HK$188
Shanghai Oil Massage – HK $120
Foot Massage – HK$78
Manicure – HK$100
Pedicure – HK$100
Service Charge and Government Tax – HK$87.90
Total – HK$673.90 or roughly AU$105

A very cheap and relaxing night . . . and now off to cover the HK$88,800 High Rollers Event

Heath was still in bed and now GG began to develop something . . . going to be a fun Day 1c!
While the Main Event players were slogging it out, the ladies had their chance to be in the spotlight with a Ladies HK$1,500 No Limit Holdem tournament kicking off as the day began to wind down.

Kirsty Brew and Lynn Gilmartin in action

Playing her first tournament, Lynn managed to make it all the way to just two places from the final table – and she detailed it all on her PokerNews blog.

Kirsty however made the final table with a medium stack to make it two from three at making final tables in ladies events. Unfortunately she would be first to go when her over aggressive approach holding J♦ 9♦ was no match against Queens.

Unlike some other places around the world, the shops in Macau close around 10pm, and with tonight being the last night that we would finish early, Kirsty and I decided to make our way to Xin Ma Lou to shop away!

We had been there the night before, but neither of us purchased anything.

With eyes only searching for shoes, I found this pair of Gola’s for HK$400 or AU$70ish, and am so happy I bought them – with their bright red and ballaness gold . . . easily the best pair of shoes I’ve bought in years! Oh, they’re comfy too!

Today was the start of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event for 2009.

On a small desk we were expected to sit four bloggers, a photographer, camera-man and TV girl . . . no chance. Instead, Craig and Lynn were sent to another room to prep for interviews etc, and with a field of over 100 expected, I decided to work as a reporter for the day.

Arguably the greatest player of the modern era – David Steicke – was in the field, and consequently no one stood a chance, even Johnny F**KING Chan who bowed out on the way to Steicke amassing a count to sit second in chips behind Brandon Demes.

Lynn produced an interesting video with Celina Lin about the difference between English and Mandarin on the poker level. Also if you look close, a pop up in the background!

Another day in Macau and another glorious sleep in!

Today we all checked into the Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16, but before I did, I decided to have a shower in the six-headed master bedroom shower.

Once I finished, Van returned to the room on a serious case of tilt! After losing in the cash games, he dumped a shit load on Baccarat and consequently loaded up four PLO tables on Full Tilt.

After getting changed I walked over to sweat him, but he asked me to leave as he doesn’t like people sweating him when he plays really high – obviously due to the fact that he was a little tilted.

A few minutes went by before he called me back into his room to check out a hand. Van held 10♠ 8♠ 8♥ 2♥ on a flop of 8♦ 5♠ 2♠ and got his whole stack in against TREX313 or Urindanger (can’t remember) with him drawing to just one out holding red Kings.

Van vacated his chair and started pacing the room waiting for the outcome.

”Tell me what happens Timmy . . . one time hold up!”

As I sat staring at the screen, the cards lagged before it went brick brick to see Van ship the 100k pot to be unstuck for the day . . . and have me in awe!

I checked into room 1135 at the Sofitel and everyone, minus Lynn and Craig as they were doing some preliminary filming, all met in my room to discuss what our plans were. With happy hour being free for GG, Heath and Kirsty due to their booking, we decided to head upstairs to chat about the hot topic at the moment – the transformations at PokerNews.

Basically we came to an agreement that I would be taking over next year, but I thought it would be better if I sat at the bottom of the hierarchy, and basically turned it down.

GG, Heath and I decided we needed to scratch our gambling itch and found a three card Baccarat game where it plays the same as normal, but instead you receive three cards and there is no draw. Also there is no tie, with the high card winning, and everyone that plays a box gets a hand.

I sat out (wisely) as GG and Heath lost HK$1,000 each before heading to a real Baccarat table.

GG began an epic battle with an old Asian guy by betting the opposite to whatever he would. GG started on a losing streak before betting player and squeezing out a natural eight and slamming it down. The Asian guy slowly squeezed out his cards before looking up at GG and saying, “bye bye” and rolling over natural nine.

It would be an understatement to say that GG was mad!

Eventually GG would be in for HK$6,000 on this HK$100 table, but after finding some run-good he would break even and retire to the room along with Heath. I quickly lost my HK$3,000 in a matter of three hands and joined Heath for an intense heads-up match . . . at least I won that!

I choose to stay away from poker today and instead hit the Galaxy Starworld Baccarat tables.

The lowest limits I found were HK$300, and consequently bought in for HK$3,000. It was a pretty standard session, no big runs, just grinded a profit of HK$2,000 out before heading upstairs to catch up with everyone.

Both Lynn and GG arrived already dressed for the APT Party, but being just a tad early, combined with the fact that the Main event hadn’t reached the final table yet, lead them to occupy themselves for a while

Once the final nine was set, Heath, Kirsty and I headed back to their hotel to get changed before we made our way to the highly anticipated Asian Poker Tour Invite Only Private Party!

We found Lynn and GG chilling at the hotel’s whisky bar, and once they sipped down the last of their drinks and polished off the last few satay sticks, we were all heading upstairs.

Greeted by plenty of gorgeous woman, poker players and most importantly and open bar, we were most surprised by the two Baccarat tables that had replaced the bed from last year since the Presidential Suite had now been transformed into a junket room.

JC Tran, John Juanda and many others occupied the two tables, while the majority of the crowd sipped on a Corona and ogled the beautiful models . . . along with Melyssa Grace and Marie Kim providing everyone with a great photo and drool opportunity.

As the night slowed up, GG somehow cracked the shits (must have been the fact that the models above were starting to put clothes on) and left. We didn’t care, and headed to D2 to continue the party without him.

Lynn best summed up the way we were all feeling about him.

“We don’t need him to have fun . . . he’s just a sook!”

Once we worked our way to the dancefloor, we bumped into the rest of the Australian contingent and partied with them a little before heading upstairs to find David Saab and Jeffrey Haas hailing us over to join them in their private booth.

Test-tube and chocolate shots along with Johnnie Black and Heineken were on Saaby, and following a few drinks and a dance, we vacated D2 for the night . . . well early morning!