tilted behaviour

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!

Having an early flight at 7:15am from Melbourne was never going to be fun, but to make sure I slept on the flight to Hong Kong, I decided to stay up all night before driving to the airport from Geelong.

I left just before 5am armed with two Redbull’s as I began the drive up the dark and foggy highway.

I dropped my car off at Jetport Parking and headed to the airport to check-in and catch up with Lynn. It was a pretty uneventful flight as we touched down at around 9am and made out way to the International gate.

Here is where the problem starts.

A few days earlier we had received a text explaining that the flight would be delayed by a few hours, but once at the terminal we were informed that the flight had been cancelled.

After speaking to a Viva Macau Representative on the phone we were told to wait round till 11:30am when someone would be able to help us out. Lynn and I grabbed some food, checked out Duty Free and joined a few other Aussie’s sitting around until we were able to seek help.

The basic jist of the situation was that the flight was cancelled due to bad weather and that if we booked a flight on Virgin Atlantic, Viva Macau would refund the cost of the replaced flight.

Along with a bunch of Australian’s that had slowly trickled in from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, we all made our way to the Virgin Atlantic office to book a flight that left in a little over two hours.

After over an hour of waiting, Lynn and I finally got our seats, took our bags back downstairs to check-in and rushed to our gate along with the remainder of the Aussie entourage.

Since we were last to check-in, all our seats were scattered and I wound up sitting next to a some random Asian guy.

The flight was delayed by around an hour due to maintenance issues – it might have been longer, but I was asleep the whole time . . . well until we took off anyway!

Once we were in the air, I didn’t get one wink of sleep and was forced to watch TV the whole time – first of all the movies I Love You, Man and Ghosts of a Girlfriends Past before hitting some comedy sitcoms for the last part of the journey.

After collecting our bags we organised two mini-buses to house all eleven of us as we made our way to the ferry terminal a little past 1am.

We caught the 1:30am ferry, and in a little under an hour we were in Macau. Lynn headed to the Sofitel while me and Van headed to the Grand Waldo where he was kind enough to let me crash with him in the Versace decked out Presidential Suite.

He went out with Troy and Kevin for a massage, while I ordered some food, played a game of pool and had a hot shower before hitting the hay.

Grand Waldo Presidential Suite

With the WSOP now wrapped up and mostly everyone still in here we all wanted to get together to hang out and see everyone off. . . however nothing had been planned (rolls eyes at GG) in comparison to the poker, BBQ and karaoke day from last year!

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!