tilted behaviour

Today is definitely a bad day for poker.

I feel sorry for my many American friends that can’t dabble with an online grind, but most importantly I feel for the true grinders that make a living day-in-and-day-out on the virtual felt whose now sole line of income (for many) has been shut down indefinitely.

Although I’m normally knowledgeable on most poker topics, I honestly have to admit that I don’t have a great understanding on exactly what is going on. Consequently I’m not going to sit here and recycle extracts from articles that I’ve read over the past twenty-four hours, but instead provide a few links that have helped me get a grasp on how this effects everyone in the poker industry.

Interview with Remko Rinkema and Dave Behr (length 31:27)
Remko and Dave both work for PokerNews with Dave having many years experience as a lawyer in New York before making the transition to poker. With Remko providing the questions, Dave gives a good insight into the current problems facing the poker industry from both a poker journalist and legal background.

Pot Committed: The End of the (Poker) World as We Know It
This blog post was written by Kristin ‘Change100′ Bihr who is an ex-PokerNews blogger and one of the most respected journalists in the business. Change100 – as she is mostly known by – details her viewpoint on Black Friday from the side of a poker journalist and explains how her (and my) livelihood will be affected.

The final link that you should be hitting up relating to Black Friday is of course PokerNews.com. We are currently updating the website whenever new information is discovered, and already several different articles have been penned by our writers. PokerNews is without doubt the best place to keep updated on everything that is happening in relation to Black Friday.

What a day!

That’s about the best way to describe the day I’ve experienced on my way to Florianopolis, Brazil!

Starting early this morning in Las Vegas off just a few hours sleep, I packed a few last things before GG dropped Donnie and I off at the airport just before 11am. We checked in, and grabbed some lunch before boarding our flight to Houston, Texas.

Having only a couple of hours, we didn’t get much time for anything, although Donnie managed to bust out an article for PokerNews while I charged my laptop and iTouch while waiting. Eventually once we were on the plane, we both gave a few of the games a work out before tucking into a Terriyaki Chicken and Rice dinner before we both hit the hay for several hours.

With about four hours or so remaining in the ten-hour trip to Rio de Janiero, I grumpily awoke and decided to stretch my legs out before flicking on some TV to try and force myself back to sleep. Eventually it worked, only to be woken up by breakfast, as we sat tight for the last hour of our flight as the sun began to shine through our windows.

Once we touched down in Rio de Janiero, the wait in the immigration line was an agonisingly long one as we both were in need of the little boys room. Fortunately no questions were asked and we proceeded through to pick up our bags – all while realising that our Visas would allow us a return for the 2014 World Cup!

Although our flight to our final destination of Florianopolis was slightly delayed, we still managed to arrive at our hotel – Costao do Santinho – after a fifty-minute cab ride from the airport.

The one thing that surprised us the most was how unbelievably cold it was! Not just Brazil or Las Vegas cold . . . but extremely cold . . . around the 5 degree mark as we both instantly made our ways to the room to have a hot shower and don some more weather-appropriate clothing.

With food and services free, we made our way down to the buffet located on the beach and tucked into a C+ lunch, before returning to our rooms; Donnie to grind online, while I hit the hay for my sixth nap of the journey.

Waking up to loud bangs on the door from Donnie at around 6:30pm, I forced myself out of bed to dress – this time with two jumpers on – before heading back to the beachfront to meet up with everyone else at the bar.

Donnie and I found a games room which housed some old video games and repair-needed table tennis tables before finding a warm room allocated for cards. We took a seat inside to warm up and played a few hands of Chinese before finding everyone at the bar.

Dinner was another buffet – this time thankfully located at another restaurant – and was rather enjoyable with freshly cooked-to-order pasta as well as pizza being delivered by-the-slice to your table by one of the waitresses. Although unsure on many of the choices on offer, we all still had a relatively enjoyable dinner before Lynn and Sarah started to organise the disaster.

Firstly a penalty shootout between Joe Cada and Andre Akkari, before a USA vs Brazil soccer match!

Akkari easily won the shootout before Cada, along with his manager Dan and myself, formed Team USA, while Akkari, Gualter Salles and Marcello formed Team Brazil as our cameraman Will stood in as mutual goalie.

Although we had a perfectly adequate futsal stadium just below the real pitch, the lighting was fairly terrible, and consequently we decided to play a half-pitch style game of first-to-three with the temperature easily dropping below 0!

Team Brazil went ahead early 2-0 before I received a cross from Cada from the left-side to set me directly in front about two metres out. This shot has never been a strong point of mine – and although I made solid contact with the cross – it angled just to the right of the goal. A few minutes later I dribbled the ball to the right side of the goal and wound up with a big swing, but yet again, perfect connection and inaccuracy didn’t fair well as Will made a good save before Brazil went on to win 3-0!

It was actually quite fun to run round and play soccer in Brazil, although none of us were wearing the appropriate clothing or shoes, on a pitch that was soft and rain-ridden. Words and a few pictures probably really doesn’t do the night justice, so here is the PokerNews video for all of you to laugh at!

A few of the others went to the bar, while Donnie and I returned to the room to enjoy the over-worked heaters while he played online and I brought to you the randomness of what a day of travelling can bring you!

Waking up to catch the Netherlands vs Spain World Cup Final, I was partly sweating it because I laid a bet at the start of the World Cup for Spain to win.

With the game locked up at half time, I decided to head to the Strip so that I could get some of the pieces needed for the prank I was going to pull on my boss Matt at the freeroll later on in the day.

My plan was to get a t-shirt printed that read Matthew Parvis Direct To You In 20 Minutes 702-340-MATT – which turned out perfectly – while also getting a photoshopped photo of Matt printed off and stuck on some girls direct to you-esque cards (thanks to my buddy Carey who did the photoshopping for me).

On my return to the Hard Rock, I quickly raced upstairs to the room to shower and change before wondering down to the poker room to munch away on the nibbles that had been prepared for us. A total of thirty-two PokerNews employees were in attendance of the annual WSOP freeroll as I danced round for the first dozen or so hands attempting to get this prank sorted.

With plans of getting an extremely hot female to walk into the room, give Matt a huge kiss and then get him to sign the picture before she would take the t-shirt off and give it to him while also slipping him a room key, was difficult. For over ten minutes no one decent walked past until Kirsty managed to find someone willing to help us out.

The result . . . plenty of laughs, a red-faced Matt and pure satisfaction on my behalf!

Finally being able to return to the freeroll, there was cash prizes (minimum of $50) on offer, but the major prizes were the five iPad’s up for grabs. I managed to knock out Greg when in a limped pot against Mike I flopped bottom set of sevens against Greg’s top two and the board bricked out. I really started to get things going when we were down to the final two tables as I accumulated chips a lot easier through simple preflop raises since everyone was playing so tight for the iPad. Once we lost Sarah on the bubble, I had accumulated a top three chip stack as the final table was formed.

Seat 1: Ben Conoley (blogger)
Seat 2: Chad Holloway (blogger)
Seat 3: Matthew Parvis (da boss man)
Seat 4: Kristy Arnett (presenter)
Seat 5: Andrew Bogner (marketing director)
Seat 6: Adam ‘Snoopy’ Goulding (blogger and master of puns)
Seat 7: Tim Duckworth (blogger)
Seat 8: Elissa Harwood (blogger)
Seat 9: Alex Villegas (field reporter)
Seat 10: Adam Brown (cameraman)

The pros to this final table was the fact that Matt and Andrew were ineligible for the iPad which meant that we really needed to lose only three players, and since I didn’t want one, there was a good chance I could do a deal to get money instead.

We lost Adam and then Elissa to leave us with eight players as I began the negotiating. I managed to score $75 from the five eligible iPad players along with some of the leftover money which meant at least $375 plus between $100 or so on top. Once we all agreed, I went on a tear chipping up at ease before knocking out both Alex and Andrew in one hand. There is some background in this hand where Alex pushed me off a pot I was expecting to check down with him since we had Elissa all in. Chad then folded for his last chip in the small blind – while holding an Ace – because Andrew would be all in the next hand on the big blind and they were both involved in the last longer.

Consequently I attempted to double up Andrew by smooth-calling 4,000 only to have Alex move all in for 15,500. I told him that this was payback and called with the powerful 4♣ 2♥. Andrew tabled his 9-5 while Alex slowrolled us with his Kings. Justice prevailed as I dinged two fours on the flop to BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA his ass!

I then eliminated Parvis with Kings against Ace-King before dispatching of a short-stacked Snoopy as Ben and I went heads up with me holding a roughly 70,000 to 25,000 chip advantage with blinds at 2,000-4,000.

We probably played fifteen or so hands before he limped for 6,000 (after the blinds went up) and I checked my option with 4♣ 5♦. The flop fell down 4♠ 7♥ 8♣ and all the money went in with Ben well in the lead holding Queens. The turn blanked out, but the river landed the 4♥ to see me spike another set of trip fours; but this one being for the title of 2010 World Series of Poker PokerNews Freeroll Champion!

Congratulations to Tim Duckworth, Winner of Event 58: PokerNews Freeroll ($to be decided)!

Unfortunately the PokerNews team was unable to shell out for a diamond-encrusted gold bracelet, but the victory and some cash on the side eased the pain as we all ventured home and to our rooms upstairs to prepare for the PokerStars Player Party in just a few hours time!

Brett, Ben, Chad, Martin and I all split a cab to the Rio to look for some people as well as picking up Brett’s phone charger before we waltzed into the Palms just before the doors opened at 9pm.

While waiting in line, Ben and I decided to go on a Maccas run to grab some cheeseburgers as Brett called on us to bring him one to. Once we returned to the line, Martin, Chad and Brett were no where to be seen, and after a few phone calls, we discovered that they had decided to enter ahead of us!

Once inside, the beers flowed freely . . . but not for me . . . as I was sticking to water since I was starting to feel slightly better for the first time in a long time.

The newbies to the PokerNews team: Brett, Ben and Chad

Rich, Donnie, Remko, JonBon, Me and GG

Snoop Dogg’s support act Esthero came on at around 10pm or so, and she wasn’t that bad at keeping us entertained – even swigging a bottle of Jagermeister mid set to the cheers of everyone on the dance floor.

Since my plan was always to go home earlier then everyone else, I made my way back to the dance floor at around 11pm to wait patiently for Snoop Dogg with Ben and Brett. People slowly trickled onto the dance floor making it extremely squishy as I vowed to wait for Snoop just so that I could say I’d seen him perform from a few metres away – although I had no real interest in him or his music.

As the clock ticked past midnight, Brett was on about his sixteenth beer and decided that it was time to punch me in the face a couple of times. I didn’t even feel the urge to punch the kid back, since he was so wasted, and consequently just shrugged it off and continued to wait not so patiently for Snoop.

Finally at 12:30am Snoop came on and erupted the audience into cheers as the smell of weed that had been floating in the room for the past hour started to get stronger and stronger. Three songs into his set I pulled the pin and headed upstairs to say goodbye to the rest of the bunch before making my way back to the Hard Rock to get some rest.

Another day at the WSOP saw me covering Event 26: $2,500 No Limit Holdem Six Handed with Rich behind the computer and DK and Greg on the floor.

Jerry Yang soared up the leaderboard early on before the field started to catch up on him, but he is still around for day two and I – along with many others – are rooting for him to buck the trend and ship a second bracelet.

One of the other positives of the day was the fact that I managed to snap a few photos for the first time at any World Series that I’ve covered. I managed to grab a headshot of Jerry Yang for one of our break posts, but my favourite one is this one.

Easily the biggest highlight of the day was the encounters that I had with Daniel Negreanu that mainly occurred after the following hand.

courtesy of PokerNews
Oh Brother!
With around 14,500 in the pot and the flop reading 8♠ K♦ J♦ Daniel Negreanu was faced with a bet from his opponent in the small blind totalling 12,000.

Negreanu shuffled some chips, adjusted a few of his chip stacks before checking his cards once more only to announce he was all in and slide his 79,000-chip stack into the middle.

“Allright I call” stated Negreanu’s opponent for his 41,400 total.

Negreanu: 6♦ 5♦

Opponent: A♦ K♣

“I’m testing a theory . . . I haven’t made a flush all tournament!” added Negreanu as the dealer dealt the 7♥ on the turn to give Negreanu additional outs to make a straight.

The river landed the K♥ and immediately Negreanu stood up and began a Phil Hellmuth-esque tirade.

“No straights, no flushes, no nothing!”

“This is like the thirtieth in a row this World Series!”

With Negreanu’s table based on the rail and at least twenty people watching on, they all remained dead silent as he continued.

“Oh brother!”

“Never going to happen for me!”

“This is just unbelievable!”

Negreanu however is still alive with around 38,000 in chips.

Now I of course left out some of the stuff that he was saying due to the fact that I couldn’t write that fast, my memory was full and it may have been a little offensive, but I think you’ll still get the feel for the hand.

Both he and I had a discussion during a previous event about the quality of our (PokerNews) coverage of the series, and when we had finished, things seemed to be at a good point.

Returning from one of the breaks Daniel walked past our desk and we said hello before I asked him to get me a chip count for table three, seat three (about ten metres or so away) as a joke.

“1,700″ he stated after taking a few steps closer

“That’s all good, but now you gotta find out their names!” I laughed off as he ran to his chair.

Then after the above hand occurred I was walking past his table and he quickly jumped up and asked me if I saw what happened.

“Yeah I think I did you justice in the blog” I responded.

“Oh so it’s on PokerNews . . . I’ll have to check it out” he added before discussing more about his WSOP run bad.

Then a little later on in the evening we had this discussion.

“Did you not shave properly or something this morning?” he asked.

“Yeah pretty much, but also I get a Mr. Miyagi-type moustache”

I returned to write some hands and prepare for the end of the night before returning to the floor. As I walked towards him he quickly propped up out of his chair.

“You’re a fighter aren’t you? I can see it!”

“Nup. You look like a fighter and I’m sticking to it!”

It was a very odd day, but an extremely funny one thanks to Daniel.

Oh . . . and for the record . . . Chip Counting Challenge 1: Distance . . . Negreanu 0 / Duckworth 1!

After jumping on day two of the Event 10: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship with F-Train, I finally would work my first full event with the Event 14: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball.

The corresponding event last year was a $2,500 buy-in and attracted a 147-player field with Phil Ivey beginning his magical run of six WSOP cashes, three final tables and two bracelets with victory for $96,367. Unfortunately Ivey, along with five-time lowball Bracelet holder Billy Baxter, and many others all hit the rail as only 67 managed to bag their chips with Nick Binger sitting on top coming into day two.

Probably the highlight of the day was having Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu approach me at the blogging desk to apologise for their tirades on Twitter at PokerNews as they didn’t really understand the whole issue of Harrah’s forcing us to import all players into our chip counts page meaning that it was impossible to keep all 3,000 NLH donkament players updated. They knew it wasn’t my – or any other blogger or field reporters – fault, but it was a Harrah’s issue . . . so consequently we hope things go a lot smoother now with some of the high-profile players.

Sigi Stockinger (25th), Jose-Luis Velador (24th), Tommy Hang (21st), Chris Viox (18th), JC Tran (15th), Erik Seidel (14th), Chris Bjorin (13th), Scott Seiver (12th), Bryan Micon (11th) and David ‘Chino’ Rheem (9th) were some of the incredibly talented players that had a crack at making the final table, but inevitably fell just shy as a final seven would be formed following the elimination of Daniel Nicewander on the bubble.

One of the enjoyable plays of the day I saw was when Sigi Stockinger opened to 1,800 from the cutoff only to have Dario Minieri three-bet from the small blind to 5,850. Stockinger made the call and both stood pat before Stockinger folded to Minieri’s roughly 9,000 all-in bet. Minieri tabled his A♠ A♥ A♦ 10♣ 4♠ to get a good laugh out of the table and me.

The final table was expected to be a long lasting affair with some high-class players looking to capture their first (well second for Mike Wattel) WSOP bracelet. However it was completely opposite as the action kicked up into full pace as we witnessed double ups, outdraws and eliminations until play was heads-up. Both Wattel and Yan Chen slowed things down until play was paused for dinner, only to return into three-bet city until Chen proved victorious!

The one thing I did enjoy about the event was that it furthered my desire to play single draw instead of triple draw 2-7 Lowball. I think that single draw is better for beginner players as it teaches you a little more about strategy then in triple draw where you basically just keep calling and calling and calling.

Sorry that this blog entry has been so boring, but there hasn’t been much going on since I’ve been so busy working.

However I would like to share a picture with you that one of the Dutch PokerNews guys named Remko shared with me the other day which made me el oh el . . . literally . . . because I burst out laughing on the media stage while everyone was dead quiet typing away on their computers.

The ‘Real’ Australia

Two days off felt great, but it’s also enjoyable to be back behind the computer for PokerNews after starting the WSOP on the floor as a reporter.

Unfortunately it also means that I will be enduring a seven-day stretch of work that includes four different events, two final tables and three different games!

Tuesday saw me work with Rich covering the Event 6: $5,000 No Limit Holdem Shootout. The 358-player field formed easily one of the toughest collection of starting tables that the World Series will witness this year, and consequently it was no surprise that the thirty six players that made it through to round two were of the highest calibre in the shootout format.

Just try and pick a winner out of James Akenhead, Dario Minieri, John Duthie, Chad Brown, Tom Dwan, Joseph Elpayaa, Christian Harder, Blair Hinkle, Eugene Katchalov, Faraz Jaka, Justin ‘Boosted J’ Smith, Chino Rheem, Max Pescatori and Chris Ferguson!

Another day and another event saw me tackle all the day one action of Event 8: $1,500 No Limit Holdem with one of our new bloggers Chad.

It was just the standard [i]donkament[/i] with over 2,000 players being eliminated from the starting 2,341, and if you read the coverage – which you should – you will realise that it has a very Jean-Robert Bellande and Phil Hellmuth feel to it.

How could it not really as these two guys are some of the most entertaining poker players to ever walk the hallways of the Rio. Hellmuth obviously sits in a class of his own with eleven bracelets and the ability to run his mouth in a way that attracts droves of people to sweat his every action three rows deep on the rail. Bellande – via his twitter account BrokeLivingJRB – details his crazy swings in poker and in life as he attempts to live the dream running up a million-dollar bankroll from nothing.

Late in the day Hellmuth got moved to Bellande’s table and that’s when fireworks between the two sparked continuously. They did both manage to survive the day to be placed in the top twenty, with this hand being one of the highlights.

courtesy of PokerNews
Bellande Playing Perfect, JRB Training School Soon To Open!
Jean-Robert Bellande opened to 3,000 from middle position and Phil Hellmuth made the call.

On a flop of 9♦ Q♥ 9♣ Bellande fired out 5,000 and Hellmuth quickly made the call to see the 7♣ land on the turn and a check follow from Bellande.

“How much you have left?” asked Hellmuth.

Bellande sat there looking blankly at the board before parting his hands so that Hellmuth could view in full sight his chip stack.

“What’s the total?” Hellmuth asked the dealer as the dealer cut down Bellande’s stack to total 25,400.

“Small bets mean nothing” stated Hellmuth as he tossed in a 3,800-chip bet which Bellande called before both players checked the 2♦ on the river.

Bellande tabled his 8♠ 8♣ and Hellmuth asked, “what he have?”

Hellmuth nodded his head and flashed his 4♥ 4♠ before folding to slip to 54,000 as Bellande began to rake in the pot to climb back to 48,000.

“Your small bets mean nothing Phil” Bellande added.

“All those guys that watch poker VT are wasting their time. If they want to play perfect poker they should just put a camera behind me. I couldn’t of played that hand any better,” Bellande finished off much to the amusement of the rail and fellow table combatants.

My first final table of the series saw me return to Event 6: $5,000 No Limit Holdem Shootout with Rich.

The six remaining players – Joshua Tieman, Stuart Rutter, Brent Hanks, Neil Channing and Joseph Elpayaa – were all starting seventy-five big blinds deep with 1,500,000 in chips, but the final table amazingly lasted only four hours as Tieman crushed souls to be crowned the Event 6 Champion and $441,692 richer.

Since me and Rich were out early – for probably the only time this series – we wondered aimlessly round the room checking out some of the other events before heading to dinner with the PokerNews head honcho Matt.

We headed to McFadden’s and enjoyed a burger before I made my way back to the Hard Rock. I showered and watched some TV before deciding that it would be a good idea to go gamble and play some Craps.

Bad idea.

I quickly was up $200 or so on my roll as I kept rolling sixes and eights while hitting the occasional point. I eventually did crap out, and that started a bad roll from the whole table as that $200 profit was wiped and then the $300 I had in my wallet was wiped too.

The final result for the night . . . I have just five bucks in my wallet and an assortment of nickels, dimes and quarters on my bedside table . . . I love Vegas!

It’s that time again . . . time for the 2010 World Series of Poker!

In just a few minutes the first event of the Summer – Event 1: $500 Casino Employees No Limit Holdem – will kick off seven weeks of hotly anticipated poker action live from the Rio.

Not only is this my fourth WSOP, but also my third with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team.

The 2010 PokerNews Live Reporting Team for the WSOP

I will again be behind the computer under the moniker of thkcduckworth blogging away poker history as our boss likes to put it.

As expected I will be updating Tilted Behaviour as often as possible detailing my gambling degeneracy, poker chronicles and tales that aren’t suitable for the PokerNews blog.

So make sure to keep refreshing this page as I try and share my WSOP experiences with you.

Today was a dark day in my short-lived poker career as I was officially dropped from the PokerNews team.

If you read this site on a regular basis, or know me in person, then you would be aware of the incident that occurred at Crown the other day during the PokerNews Cup. Consequently, with the head of the live-reporting team in town on holidays, we decided to have a meeting to discuss what was needed.

Organising to meet up with GG left butterfly’s in the pit of my stomach as I had no idea what the outcome was going to be, and after small talking for what seemed like an eternity, we the heart of the meeting.

After around twenty minutes of GG leading the talking and me sitting there stone-faced, it was decided that I wouldn’t be part of the PokerNews team anymore.

He did say that the door is still ajar if I am able to learn from my mistakes, work hard and prove to him that I can still be a worthy contributor, but with PokerNews being the only poker media in Australia, it is close to impossible to keep working as a poker journalist from out of Melbourne.

My working relationship with PokerNetwork is still in limbo as GG said that decision rests with Heath, Sean and Stephen, but I’m going to assume that due to the PokerNews / PokerNetwork relationship that I’ll also be dropped from local events.

So what now for thkcduckworth . . .

Obviously I want to stay in this field and still enjoy writing immensely, but it’s now just become a whole lot harder.

I’ll have to start exploring some options with other poker sites and use my network of contacts that I have built over the past two years to see what opportunities exist, but basically . . .