tilted behaviour

When Steve Topakas pushed all in holding just ten-high on a board reading J♥ A♣ 5♠ 2♠ 3♣with Tudor Kondevski making the call holding A♠ 7♠ we saw another champion crowned.

As the Melbourne Poker Championship wrap up for another year, here is my continued tournament summary with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Melbourne Poker Championships.

1 – Affordable: Having affordable side events is a must so as to attract the small-stakes tournament grinders such as myself. Similar to the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series, side events were on the very affordable side ranging from the $120 Morning Series to $175, $230 and $340. Basically being able to get a taste of tournament poker without breaking the bank is a must in any local championships series (in my opinion).

2 – Side Events Too Long: I’m not sure if the structure was too good or if the players had improved, but all the side events ran way into the early hours of the morning. With all events playing down till just one remained, maybe returning the next for the final table would have been a better option than the 5am finishes.

3 – Big Names Not In Attendance: The one thing that let the Melbourne Poker Championships down (if any) was the lack of attendance by some of the big names of Australian poker. Jay ‘Seabeast’ Kinade, Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds, Dean ‘dinhjo’ Nyberg and Jarred ‘FlopNutsOnYou’ Graham were just a few that played the ANZPT Feature Event only not to play the Main Event. A few other notables that didn’t partake in either included Michael Pedley, Joe Hachem and Jason Gray.
Now it is understandable that some would miss out due to the World Series of Poker kicking off on May 27th, but instead of having to choose maybe scheduling the Melbourne Champs a week earlier would open the door up for a few more players to make both trips.

4 – Secondary Feature Event: Over the past few years Jonno Pittock and Crown have always implemented a Feature Event into the championship that is separate to the Main Event; the 100k Challenge, State of Origin and now the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne. Having this $2,700 buy-in event attracted a great array of poker players and satellite winners from around the country.
I think this not only boosted the class of the Melbourne Poker Championships but also reinforced that poker is still going as strong as ever even through the tough economic conditions.

5 – Morning Series: The Morning Series is a series of four events during the first week where you gain points to play a qualifying freeroll for a seat into the Main Event. With a buy-in of only $120 and Holdem, Omaha Hi Lo, Mixed Stud and Crazy Pineapple on offer, everyone gets a chance at playing a wide variety of games.
The prizepools may be small but the players that turn out are there for some fun knowing that a four-figure collect is unlikely, but a few hours of fun and laughs is more probable!
(it also gains a bonus mention as I made the Mixed Stud final table!)

6 – Main Event Structure: The Main Event structure was different to anything I have seen before. Apart from it being a repechage; which helps boost the prizepool, the structure was different to anything I’ve seen before. Day one played nine 40-minute levels, while day two switched to 60-minute levels, and once at the final table they were extended again; this time to 75-minutes.
I thought this was interesting as I think it benefits the better player as the tournament goes on. As I previously said however, I think I would have preferred day one being extended so as to reduce the day two starting field – but when it comes to tournament structure . . . no one is ever happy!

7 – Mad Ass Huge Trophies: Crown always produce really nice trophies and for the Melbourne Poker Championships it was no exception! They stepped things up for this series by increasing the size of them – no joke, these things were absolutely massive and for the ANZPT feature event they even had two for the winner!

8 – Tudor Who?: Unlike previous Main Event’s that I have covered for PokerNetwork we always knew that the money would remain in the local poker industry. However with Tudor Kondevski capturing the $150,000 first prize we have no idea if he’ll use it to ‘stimulate’ the poker landscape like others before him or tuck it away in his home safe.

With another successful series on home turf, all the attention can be turned to the Mecca of poker tournaments with the World Series of Poker just a flight away.

So make sure to stay logged on to Tilted Behaviour as the updates are going to flow hard and fast with plenty of action from the Rio coming your way!

As most of you know, I won my seat to the 2009 Melbourne Poker Championships Main Event via a $50+5 satellite . . . and today is D-DAY!

After being hooked up with a swag of Full Tilt gear, I geared up, stuck some patches on my Tilted Behaviour jumper and made my way downstairs to tackle the felt. Once at my table, I was seated with a fellow online qualifier, as well as Eugene Poudel, Joe Cabret and ‘Carwash’ George Cotaidis along with fellow PokerNetworker’s Luke ‘Eddy’ Edwards and John ‘JCSydney’ Caridad (on my right and left respectively).

With a 20,000-chip starting bank and 40-minute levels and an expected 800-plus field I was always going to try and chip up and give myself the best chance of collecting a payout just that little bigger then Heath’s from the other day! However things didn’t get off to a good start when I made it 175 after a limper holding A♣ K♦. Joe Cabret bumped it to 475 from the small blind, and once the limper passed I made it 1,350 to go. Cabret then pushed it further to 3,750 total and I was put to a decision. My thinking was that if I six-bet to say 8,000 I can probably make Jacks and worst fold; however due to the Repechage nature of the tournament Cabret may gamble.

I eventually mucked and received a tap on the back (from myself) as Cabret later said he had Kings. Near the end of the level I missed a straight draw with two over’s in a raised pot and finished the first level with 17,425.

I opened the first pot of the 50-100 level with 5♣ 5♠ and folded on the flop, however next hand I was dealt 9♥ 9♣ and continued my typically laggy approach opening to 250. Cabret was my only caller on the button and when the 9♠ 3♠ 2♥ flop fell he called by 325-chip bet. When the 5♦ fell on the turn I didn’t give him too much credit for a straight, but knew he was capable of making a play if he sensed weakness. Consequently I lead out for around half pot to 600, and was near immediately raised to 2,600. I wanted to get as much money in the pot as possible from Cabret if he was bluffing, and unless I filled up I wasn’t planning on raising. I splashed the pot with my call and when the K♥ came on the river I quickly checked before Cabret made it 3,000 to go. I called and raked in the pot to push over 23,000 when Cabret tabled his losing K♦ Q♦.

I played Jacks out of the big blind really bad when an all diamond Ace-high flop fell, and let the preflop raiser take the pot holding a smaller pair with a straight-draw and position. In the next level I took down a nice pot when I flatted Cabret on the button with K♠ K♣ with Caridad also coming along from the small blind. The flop of K♦ Q♦ 9♣ was checked to me to see my bet of 1,100 only called by Caridad. I think I may have missed some (to a lot) of value here when we both checked the 3♥ on the turn to see the 5♠ land on the river. I was soft so I just called his 3,500-chip bet on the river to see him table A♦ 8♦ for a busted flush draw.

Now up to 30,000 I was dealt A♣ J♦ on the final hand before the break and opened to 500 finding two callers including ‘Carwash’ George Cotaidis. The flop fell down A♠ 8♠ J♥ and my 1,200 bet was called just by Cotaidis, and when the 6♥ fell on the turn he also called by 3,500-chip bet. The river landed the 3♠ and I checked, as did Cotaidis. Now thinking I was definitely good I rolled my cards only to be shocked to see Cotaidis table a set of eights as I slipped to 23,000.

The next level I barely played a hand until the final one when I limped behind three other limpers holding Q♥ 10♥ in the cutoff. Caridad bumped it up to 1,600, and once everyone passed, I made the call. The flop fell down A♦ 8♥ 9♦ and I checked to Caridad who fired for 3,000. Yeah yeah I understand all I have is a gutshot, but I really felt I was ahead in the hand and decided to call and float, while also planning on taking the pot away from him on the turn. I really didn’t like the K♣ on the turn and checked to Caridad who moved all in for around 9,000. I tanked for over four minutes debating to call with just Queen-high . . . and let me say for the record that I was not Hollywooding! Eventually I mucked after my kahuna’s shrunk up into my stomach . . . and they kept going when Caridad tabled J♦ 10♦ for just Jack-high (but with a massive combo-draw)!

Now down to 17,000 I missed my nut flush draw against a 10-high flush draw; however he rivered a pair to take the pot. On the final hand of the level I folded top pair when a player put me all in for tournament life, and after getting called time on me I folded for him to show me an over-pair of kings. During the 200-400 (25) level I stole a few blinds and ante’s to see me sneak my 12,000-chip stack into the 300-600 (50) level. Five hands in Cotaidis min-raised in middle position and was met with one call before Edwards made it 5,200 out of the small blind. I looked down at A♣ A♦ in the big blind, stacked my chips, checked them once more and slid my stack in. Cotaidis and the caller folded as Edwards stated, “I have to call” and tabled Q♠ Q♥. The flop of course brought a queen and I headed to the rail!

Melbourne Poker Championships – Main Event Chip Stack Graph

Overall I was fairly happy with the way I played. I got unlucky in the end, but that’s just poker for you, and it didn’t bother me too much.

I think that keeping a live hand history, although time consuming, is still a benefit and aid to improving my game as I have an avenue of review. I can see which levels I may be leaking chips and which I need to pick things up. Hopefully one day it may be a several day hand history that includes a final table, a tournament win and a nice WSOP bracelet.

Make sure to keep checking Tilted Behaviour as we wrap up the Melbourne Championships with the conclusion of the Main Event as well as my Eight Steps of Enlightenment and near-daily recaps from the 2009 World Series of Poker!

The Melbourne Poker Championships have been around since 2007 with Haibo Chu taking down the title only to be followed by James ‘Jabba’ Broom last year.

However with the Main Event still a few days away we have just wrapped up one of the feature events, and new addition to the schedule with the $2,700 PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne Main Event.

With Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick qualifying online it would be just me undertaking the blogging duties when this star-studded field sat down; which included the likes of online whiz kids CNT_CRUSHER, xMONSTERxDONGx, Adgee and Seabeast as well as live specialists Steve Topakas, Gary Benson, Emad Tahtouh, Eric Assadourian and Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros.

However all the above would fall by day one’s end with Chick leading the charge along with Tino Lechich, Peter Aristidou. Sam Youssef and Jarred Graham all trailing closely.

Day two flew pretty quickly with Heath continuing his hot run good streak while forming an image of set-plus only as the final table would up as the following:
Seat 1: Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick (283,000)
Seat 2: Rodney Burles (168,000)
Seat 3: Sam Khouiss (354,000)
Seat 4: Chris Levick (969,000)
Seat 5: Jie Gao (517,000)
Seat 6: Ben Savage (682,000)
Seat 7: Gregory Shillig (190,000)
Seat 8: Peter Aristidou (432,000)
Seat 9: Kristian Lunardi (713,000)

My heart should have obviously been behind Heath, but it was so hard to really pick someone I wanted to win. I’ve been friends with Kristian for a few years now, and we’ve played countless of home games together. Peter Aristidou was one of the first Crown regular’s I became friends with, and due to some personal circumstances I really wanted him to take it down too. Throw Chris Levick and Ben Savage into that mix and it leaves one of Australia’s most loved / hate (depends how you see him) players in Sam Khouiss.

Khouiss is loud, arrogant, always portrays the image of a broke degenerate, but is a character worth paying too watch. All in all it was Khouiss for the win followed by an Aristidou, Chick, Lunardi chop in second . . . well in the perfect world anyway!

The final table went fairly smoothly apart from having to blog and assist the six-handed event as our other blogger had fallen ill; along with taking photos it was always going to be tough for a while!

The rail filled up with everyone’s cheer squad increasing as hands continued to play out. Heath’s fiancée Kirsty flew down to lend her support and was a bucket full of nerves as she sweated him over his left shoulder, while Hux came down to pen Heath’s new nick name . . . Heath ‘no-set-no-bet’ Chick!

Players kept falling while both Heath and Chris slowly accumulated, and it was fitting to see them both make heads-up play. Heath started at a seven-to-two underdog and slipped further behind until he spiked a three-outer for a double up and then made a flush with 9♣ 7♣ all in preflop against the Ace-Queen of Chris.

With Chris getting visibly frustrated it all came to and end when his A♥ J♥ out flopped Heath’s Q♥ Q♣ to take down the title and $158,050 first prize as Heath was left to ponder how close he came.
Still, his $103,550 payday should make him feel a little better, but I guess the lesson learnt here is that no PokerNews employee should ever play Queens when at the crossroads of a very important poker highway!

Congratulations to Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick for capturing second and taking the cake as the better tournament player . . . for now!

Another early start for the Melbourne Poker Championships Morning Series $120 Crazy Pineapple event . . . which is my favourite and best mixed game.

Continuing on from yesterdays enjoyable last longer bet I tried to eclipse the ten players that forked over the $20, and was successful in grabbing 12 at $20 and 3 late entrants at $25 for a pool of $315. 48 runners started with the top five being paid, but my aim was to make the final table due to the points on offer for the Main Event freeroll the following day.

However it wouldn’t be my day as I busted in 13th place losing a race, but on the positive the last longer was chopped again with me pocketing $70 of it.

Afterwards Mat Pater and I headed to the Blood Bank to donate blood. However combining my intense fear of needles with countless stories which revolved around a javelin getting shoved in my arm, my heart was beating a little faster than normal, and consequently I was unable to donate blood.

Disappointed I sat aside as Mat completed his donation before we took a drive into Hawthorn for my haircut before returning to Crown where I managed to take a quick $75 off the $1-2 NLH tables.

With mat out for our indoor soccer match due to a case of prescribed ‘softness’ we struggled against an extremely good side, falling 8-1 even through my constant delivery of A-class through-balls and passes!

An early 8am wake-up was all that I needed following my 4am sleep time, but getting my chance to play the Melbourne Poker Championships Morning Series Mixed Stud event would hopefully be worth it.

However it wasn’t smooth sailing leaving my cousin’s house at about 8:30am. There was a ten-car pile-up on the West Gate and a few other accidents on the off ramps and Bolte Bridge . . . the outcome . . . over an hour to drive about five kilometres to the Crown Poker Room.

30 runners took to the $120 Mixed Stud tournament where the games played would be Razz, Stud and Stud Hi-Lo. As the tournament kicked off I tried to organise a last longer, and managed to grab ten players at $20 while a few others organised a mammoth $200 last longer four-ways.

Play was pretty standard for a stud tournament as we didn’t see a bust out for the first few levels, but once we got down to the last sixteen or so, things started to speed up. Our table was fairly chipped up as play moved onto the final table bubble with it eventually busting after about nine hands. The last longer was chopped with me and Abel Cabrera taking $40 each and Brian Hull (having us out-chipped by plenty) taking $120

I doubled first hand of the final table when I was dealt A-2-5 against A-3-5 in Razz and made the nuts on fifth-street. Even though I had to bring in the next four hands in a row I managed to avoid bubbling the money and eventually finished in 5th place for $270 plus the $40 last longer for my second tourney collect for the year from about ten starts.

I killed time sweating a few mates in a Main Event satellite before taking part in the $230 No Limit Holdem Bounty Event.

Starting with a 5,000-chip starting bank, the structure was fairly fast to account for the 280 runners and I chipped down quite early folding top-pair and a busted straight-draw on the river to an obvious value bet. By the end of the 25-50 level I was only left with 3,025 after bluffing off some more chips with K♠ 9♠.

My stack see-sawed in the next level chipping up with A♣ K♦ and check-raising all in with A♦ Q♥ on a ten-high board, only to drop back down to 3,000 at the end of the level.

During the 75-150 level I didn’t see a premium hand, or an opportunity to take a pot down, and on the first hand of the 100-200 level my tournament came to an early end. Looking down at K♦ Q♦ in late position I made it 500 to go before getting min-raised by the player that I check-raised bluffed with my Ace-Queen a few levels earlier. Having only 3,000 in my stack I decided that I’m going to play the hand out and try to take it off her at some point.

The flop fell down A♦ Q♣ 5♣ and I checked the action to her. She feigned at her chips before checking behind also which led me to believe that she either flopped top set of Aces or held Kings – meaning I can only beat one hand knowing that if I shove the turn she will fold Kings, while double-fist-pump-snap calling with the alternative. The turn landed the Q♠ and again I checked to her, which was immediately followed with a check behind.

Sweet I thought! She doesn’t have Aces at all, but rather Kings – and I was pretty confident with this read, and knew that the pot was mine unless a King fell on the river. Boom! The K♥ landed smack on the river and I just sunk into my chair. Knowing that I’m dead bearing the 1% I had read her wrongly I had no idea what to do. I couldn’t afford to miss value, but I really wanted to trust my read.

Over 30 seconds went by before I moved all-in for my last 1,900. My opponent checked her cards once again and slid her stack into the middle to immediately evoke an insta-muck from me – no joke!

She tabled her K♣ K♠ and I tapped the table as I reached back into the muck and quickly flashed my under-book as I left the table and tournament bowing out in 251st place and made my way to an early night.

I drove up to Melbourne on Tuesday in preparation to play the Morning Series Mixed Stud and Bounty Event the following day.

Not having much planned I headed up just after lunchtime and drove into Crown and took a seat on a $1-2 NLH table. I didn’t really get much going and decided to buy-in to the Melbourne Poker Championships $175 Pot Limit Omaha event before bumping into good mate and fellow poker player Martin Harvey.

We both tucked into some dinner and then took part into the tourney which ran as a second chance format. I donked my first 2,000-chip starting bank when I gambled with a draw against two other players flopped sets – quad Aces on the turn saw me utilise my second chance.

I grinded away for a while before sweating A♥ 10♦ 5♥ 5♦ in the small blind and threw in the chips to make the call to see the flop with six other players. The flop of 9♥ 5♠ 2♥ saw me put all but 125 of my chips into the pot finding a double up from a player holding 9-2.

Play steadied for a while as a took down a few small pots before moving tables with around 8k to be seated alongside Michael ‘TheSharkBoy’ Palti, Paul Taylor, Michael Zowie and a handful of high-stakes notables. Nothing went right on that table and I slipped to around 5k before being moved to the feature table to only see me bust with A♣ J♣ 5♠ 8♠ against A♠ 3♥ 4♣ J♥ when all the money went in on a flop of A♥ 2♠ 5♦. The board bricked out and I exited the tournament in 62nd place of the 150 starters.

With my tournament coming to an early end, and no real plans, a bunch of us decided to head to Princes Entertainment Centre to play some pool.

We rustled up six of us and decided to play a round robin nine-ball competition with Mat taking out Gold. As we started the second round, a bunch of our friends arrived with only Kim joining in. After coming fourth in the previous round I managed to make it to the Gold medal match against Kim, but lost 2-0 in about 20 minutes – she basically crushed my soul!

Finishing the night with a kick of the footy at 3am over Dandenong Road the Mixed Stud tournament would only be a few hours away.

This is all . . .

Well . . . to elaborate, it seems that I’m returning to Las Vegas for the 2009 WSOP as part of the PokerNews Live Reporting team.

It will be my third consecutive year heading over to the USA for the World Series of Poker, and my second as part of the PokerNews team. However there was a massive chance that we wouldn’t be there due to the increased cost for the official rights – but after many hours of contract talks Tony G signed on the dotted line and voila . . . my flights have been booked.

It will only be Heath Chick, Tommy Kinsman and myself that will be heading over from Australia with Heath and I arriving fashionably late, while Tommy jets off early.

The Melbourne Poker Championships will be taking place from the 17th of May to the 1st June in the Crown Poker Room with both Heath and myself providing exclusive live coverage at
PokerNetwork. With the WSOP kicking off on the 27th of May it seems as though we’ll miss the first week – but at least we have a valid excuse!

Flying out on Australia’s new airline VAustralia in the afternoon of Tuesday the 2nd of June we should arrive on the same day, but just in a different timezone and with serious jetlag. Heath is going to fly out early once the WSOP is wrapped up but I’m planning on staying an extra three days so that when I arrive back in Melbourne I can catch a connecting flight to Queenstown, New Zealand for the next stop on the ANZPT.

Like I mentioned earlier the Melbourne Poker Championships will be underway in a few days, and due to the value in tournaments in Las Vegas I’m consequently going to play a limited schedule of events to keep my bankroll in check (well hopefully it gets boosted quite significantly).

My plan is to play two of the Morning Series events; $120 Mixed Stud and $120 Crazy Pineapple along with the $230 Bounty Event and the $1,100 Main Event after winning a seat online at Full Tilt Poker.

Wish me luck, and I’ll keep you all updated about my progress through the Melbourne Champs and then in Las Vegas!