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!
With a day off between the two previous day two’s and the upcoming day three there was a Dream Team Media freeroll held for anyone that worked in the media.
Marc Hodge, Mat Pater and I teamed up to form team Tilted Behaviour. We joined several PokerNews teams in a battle to be the longest lasting to win a seat into the $1,680 Dream Team Main Event in a few days time.
I busted early when I shoved Ace-Six with my short-stack and was snapped off by Ace-Nine. However both Marc and Mat would hold the fort down and see us take down the longest-lasting trophy and $1,680 freeroll!
* * * * * * * *
A few hours later we all combined once again to take part in the PokerNews Freeroll!
Everyone had a random bounty on their hand to go along with the prizepool, and before the cards were in the air, Garry and I revealed our t-shirts.
GG had both DK and Mel on his team with pictures of me and the words of Sometimes . . . me and my mates . . . we just like to grind, while Donnie, Eric and Mat were on my side with a picture of GG’s mug on it and the slogan of Who the f**k is Garry Gates?. Everyone’s t-shirt however had an alternative slogan on the back with mine saying Mate Ditcher, Mat’s saying Plzzz Mate and Eric and Donnie’s saying Pay Forgetter.
Our T-Shirt Battle
I was out of the freeroll fairly early when my Ace-King was outran by Marc’s Queen-Jack. The flop fan out King-Queen-Queen, but no improvement would fall on the turn and river and I handed over my bounty to Marc. However, I quickly grabbed it back so I could read what it would be . . . Tim Duckworth owes the holder of this card $20!
Unveiling my bounty
WTF! I had to pay my own bounty . . . firstly rival t-shirts and now I lose out in a freeroll . . . so ridiculous!
Melissa and F-Train went heads up in the freeroll and chopped the money, but Melissa would officially take it down as we now all prepared for one of the greatest party’s in the world . . . the PokerStars Player’s Party!
* * * * * * * *
With a few hours to kill before the party kicked off, a few of us grabbed some food at the Rio before making our way to the Palms at the Rain Nightclub.
We made the most of the open bar as Donnie and I ventured into the Hachem VIP area to mingle for a while. We paced the dancefloor bumping into a pro here, a media member there and a fellow colleague everywhere else before we waited round for Nelly to come on to the stage at midnight.
He performed a bunch of songs, and soon after we walked out the door to witness some degen gambling by nearly the whole PokerNews crew that remained – apart from the wiser and stronger Aussie boys!
Back to work tomorrow, but here is a rough video I put together of Nelly performing (note – the sound quality on this camera is fairly terrible, so I cut it out and just added some recorded tracks).
So I headed into the Rio with everyone so as to scam a ride to the Rumble Nowhere Near The Rio . . . and Garry willingly obliged!
During the drive over to Barry’s Boxing Center I was informed that I would be (after a very annoying yes and no battle over the past day or so) participating in the charity tournament at the Golden Nugget in the afternoon. However there was a more important thing at hand . . . female boxing!
The fight was a charity match between Melissa Castello and Liv Boeree, and after many hours in the gym, both girls were ready to battle it out.
Liv Boeree and Melissa Castello preparing to battle it out
Side bets were taken left, right and centre; with most of the money heading to Liv’s side due to the physical shape she was in and the fact that Melissa looked scared out of her gloves.
Three rounds took place with Liv clearly winning round one before Melissa took it right to her in round two. Round three was fairly even, and in the end it would be Liv awarded the title by a slim two-point decision.
Words can’t really describe the fight, so check out the video here . . . you won’t be disappointed!
* * * * * * * *
With the dust settled at Barry’s Boxing Centre we made our way to the Golden Nugget to represent PokerNews in the Howard and Suzie Lederer Celebrity Charity Tournament for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas.
Haley Hintze, Martin Harris, Jonno Boncek, GG and myself were representing thanks to some added funds from Tony G himself and with a few rebuys in our pockets action was always going to be . . . interesting!
GG and Jonno chipped up early as I was forced to rebuy early when my
9♣
9♠ was no good against
4♣
3♣ and
K♦
10♠. Forced to rebuy, I more than tripled up when my Kings held up, and once at the add-on period I was convinced by the other’s to top up my lowly stack.
After a while I was moved tables and encountered a double before GG joined me . . . and then the real action kicked off! David Singer moved to my right and I won a four way all in holding
Q♥
Q♦ vs
A♦
K♠,
A♠
Q♠ and
10♣10h
before finding another double holding Queens again.
Keith Sexton replaced David Singer as we all limped into the money. GG busted when he made a move dark over a button raise, and it was just left to me to carry the ship for PokerNews. We broke for dinner and fireworks with only twelve remaining and my short-stack looking very, very, very vulnerable!
However people around me would fall, and a double helped as well as I limped to the final table where I joined Howard Lederer and Dennis Phillips for the final nine as we played for the first prize of a $20,000 seat on Poker After Dark.
My goal now was to play tight and try and creep up the pay ladder as Apple MacBook Pro’s were up for grabs for the top spots. First hand I woke up with Aces under the gun and took the blinds and antes before a few players fell in the first orbit. Players continued to drop as I grinded my short-stack to four handed play and a guaranteed new laptop!
Lederer would fall next and with two friends holding 80% of the chips I was bound to bust in third. However both players suffered a brain glitch when Stephen John Bartlett shoved from the small blind with deuces and was snapped off by King-Jack. The board bricked out and I was heads up with 150,000 to 750,000 at the 10,000-20,000 (3,000) level.
I stepped away from the table and took a few deep breath’s knowing that I had reached another poker crossroad after the 2007 WSOP Main Event, 2007 Vic Champs, 2008 Aussie Millions and a deep stack both this and last year . . . and it was squarely on me to pick which road I took.
I limp-raised here and check-raised here to keep myself steady before seeing a potential double snapped away when my
9♣
9♠ chopped against
6♥
6♣ when the board ran out Broadway.
The crowd had really gathered by now, and I knew I had Stephen if I got some chips, as he seemed to struggle against me. I called him down real lightly in one spot to take the pot, and he just looked at his rail with an expression of man this is going to be tough.
With blinds now at 15,000-30,000 (3,000) I looked down at
A♦
5♥ and tried the old limp-to-trap plan and just called from the button. Immediately he slid a stack of 10,000-denomination chips into the pot and I insta-snap shoved for my last 220,000. He sighed and called and turned over
Q♠
10♦.
The board ran out
10♥
8♥
4♥
Q♣
8♦ and I collected my new Apple MacBook Pro and other goodies as Stephen won a $20,000 seat on Poker After Dark.
* * * * * * * *
I kindly shook his hand, along with saying many thanks to Suzie and Howard for coordinating a great event, and quietly vacated the room.
I had about five people come up to me and say that I played so well heads-up (and I felt I smashed this guy in all honesty) and that I was unlucky to not take down the tournament.
Nothing can really describe how I was feeling apart from the word dejection coming to mind a lot. Yeah, the WSOP bubble hurt, and so did the Vic Champs final table bubble but coming second here is so far the worst beat I’ve copped in terms of poker!
Just imagine the exposure I could have got when I sat down with Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Patrik Antonius, Mike Matusow and Erick Lindgren (well that’s who I had in mind anyway!). Not only for Tilted Behaviour, but also for PokerNews, PokerNetwork and most importantly myself as both a poker player and journalist!
The last two days I have been covering the last donkament for the series with 2,818 players taking to the felt for Event 54 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em.
To be honest . . . it ran like every other donkament so far this WSOP with a few pros making the money while many exited early. The one point of note was that Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen registered his 65th WSOP cash to edge closer to Phil Hellmuth’s impressive 74-cash record.
Tomorrow . . . another day off . . . and the event we’ve all been waiting for . . . The Rumble Nowhere Near The Rio between Melissa Castello and Liv Boeree!
Liv Boeree and Melissa Castello squaring off at the weigh-in
(photo courtesy of Gene Bromberg)
Well I busted the tourney and headed straight to the Rio while listening to 30 Seconds To Mars looped (really emo, self-hating, wanna slit your wrist stuff) with the volume booming so loudly my BOSE headphones were close to bursting!
Once back at the Rio I moped round telling anyone I could my bad beat story, and after coping the frankly I don’t give a damn expression from GG he asked me if I wanted to head Downtown to be wing-man for Dave King. I choose to join the fight to get DK hooked up, and Donnie also joined us.
We arrived at the Golden Nugget and walked through the carpark, pass the pool and then to the middle of the casino floor to hit a crossroad of what to do. Donnie wanted to play BlackJack, GG wanted to play Craps and I (obviously) wanted to play Baccarat. Since Donnie didn’t want to play craps, and either didn’t know how to play baccarat we all sat down at our own blackjack table.
I have no idea why I even sat down at the table because it is definitely –EV for me as I have no clue on any strategy. Donnie and GG just told me what to do and I followed; eventually returning to even after an early down swing. I quit, Donnie continued to grind and GG got stacked.
Over to Craps we went.
Me and GG started our roll pretty well with us both banking some profit before meeting up with some friends as DK had messaged that he would have to ditch us because the girl wanted to ‘stay in’.
We met up with Melissa (our camera girl) and her boyfriend Eddy at the roulette tables and I grinded a small profit before we threw $2 each on the number ten as Donnie quickly slammed down $75 on black.
”Number 10 for the PokerNews crew!”
Bang! The ball bobbled into the ten and we all banked a nice win while we headed back to the Baccarat room so that I could grind the $10 shoe as GG went back to BlackJack. He won what he was losing all back . . . and then lost it all again while I pushed my profits up to the $200 mark. Donnie and GG decided it was time for some old fashioned poker and they sat down at an uncapped $1-2 No Limit Holdem table.
Donnie and GG in action
I railed them for a while before returning to Craps to take my profit up to $350 for the night as we rolled past 4am. Back to poker I returned to see GG playing like a complete nutter as Donnie grinded a steady profit. After GG pushed all in dark for around the 100 bb mark and won some and lost some he cashed out to head to craps. I sat with Donnie for a little bit more before heading to join GG.
We stood near the craps table for nearly three minutes waiting before GG walked over to us.
”I’m done”
“Ok, craps it is then”
“No . . . I mean I’m done!”
With GG dropping the last of what he had in just eight hands of Blackjack we made our way home just as the sun was starting to rise. I booked a $350 win, Donnie was even to up and GG . . . well GG advised me not to repeat how much he had dropped . . . so let’s just say it was between $5 and $5000 . . . I’ll let you be the judge!
