tilted behaviour

A few days ago I was asked to write a piece for the PokerNews magazine about the Australian Poker Hero TV series; and today was the day that I held an all-access backstage pass!

I arrived at Crown at around 8:30am and grabbed some breakfast and a drink to wake myself up before meeting up with Stephen Doig (who has recently taken the reigns of the magazine and other PokerNetwork related work) and Dan Nitschke who was our point of contact and Head of Marketing and Sponsorship for the APL.

He showed us around the set which was located in Studio 3 (the old Heat nightclub) before I bumped into two old mates in Paul Khoury and Mark Vos. I don’t see either of them much anymore, but when I do, it’s always guaranteed that jokes, insults and an all-round hilarious time will be had!

I spent the better part of two hours taking notes and watching how the set was constructed while the six contestants, along with Paul and Mark, prepared themselves for their moment in the spotlight.

As the first of two episodes for the day began shooting I made my way to the Outside Broadcast Van where Paul and Mark recorded their commentary and an infinite number of cables and screens were held. Being in the van for the episode was an . . . interesting experience . . . to say the least as Paul and Mark provided commentary gold mixed with a few mistakes and off-air insults to the players such as “George you muppet” and “what was he thinking?”

The show finished filming both episodes at about 5pm and I left having enough information for the magazine piece I needed to write.

Hopefully you all grab the next issue of the PokerNews Magazine to check it out, and make sure to leave any comments you have here, but for the meantime, here are some of the photos I snapped throughout the day.

On the set of the Australian Poker Hero

When I started taking tournaments more seriously one of the many things I added to my game was the implementation of a card protector.

When I played the WSOP Main Event in 2007 I signed up to the World Poker Association, and in return received a spade-shaped card protector. I began using this for every tournament I played until returning to Las Vegas this year.

I replaced my WPA card protector with a PokerNews one so as to be a good team member and try to spread PokerNews whether I was playing a tournament in Las Vegas or back home.

Recently however it was brought to my attention that the PokerNews card protector hasn’t been too good to me (no real results to speak of) and that I should replace it . . . now of course there is an argument that it’s not about the card protector but the player behind the cards . . . but sometimes poker players can be a little superstitious!

Consequently I decided to dump my PokerNews card protector and replaced it with . . .

Optimus Prime . . . leader of the Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron!

I grew up watching Transformers religiously, and now with a successful movie series, my love has returned. Hopefully Optimus can bring me some luck on the felt since Megatron has been silenced (for now) and protect my cards from being rivered, two-outered and outdrawn.

After five days behind the computer we have finally reached the final day with the APPT Macau High Rollers Event playing down to just one.

The final table for the Main Event was being played over on the purpose built stage in the middle of the Grand Lisboa gaming floor while our final four tables and 25 players were battling it out in the normal tournament area.

GG was back to help out and we were down to three tables of eight and then two tables soon after. The next seven players fell relatively fast with friend Michael Marvanek unfortunately falling in tenth as the unofficial final table was created.

However it would take nearly three hours until we lost the bubble – and yet again it was another friend – with Jonathan ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’ Karamalikis having his Kings cracked by a two-outer.

Seat 1: Grant ‘grunter’ Levy – 1,428,000
Seat 2: Gap Young Kim – 760,000
Seat 3: Vladimir Geshkenbein – 678,000
Seat 4: Danny Huynh – 432,000
Seat 5: Neil Arce – 1,153,000
Seat 6: In Wook Choi – 490,000
Seat 7: Nicolas Wong – 224,000
Seat 8: Johnny Chan – 518,000

The final eight took an hour long dinner break only to lose Nicolas Wong, Gap Young Kim and In Wook Choi in quick succession once play recommenced before taking a break to move to the purpose built stage since the Main Event had just been wrapped up by Dermot Blain.

The remainder of the tournament ran out pretty standard – Grant Levy finished in fifth and Filipino Neil Arce fell in third to put everyone’s hopes on Johnny Chan being victorious. However that wish wouldn’t be granted as the kid with only $10 and four maxed-out credit cards to his name – Vladimir Geshkenbein – became the High Rollers Champion for 2009.

Heath, Kirsty and F-Train were already at the hotel along with Craig and Lynn, and with GG heading to WPT Cyprus tomorrow I retired to the hotel to complete my second article for the PokerNews website.

Like I said previously, check it out, click the thumbs up icon and give me your feedback.

PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Day 4: Dermot Blain Wins the Main Event .

After three days in the on the pine Heath returned to see a full strength team hit the track for Day 2 action!

We were always moving; grabbing hands, chip counts, asking players names, blogging – just basically non-stop for every minute of every level.

With Heath’s pent up energy due to his Swine Flu we had a little bit of a competition of who could blog the most hands, but after a few levels we totally forgot about it. Instead we came up with a challenge to be incorporated during a preliminary event in the future.

Basically it will be a Blogger’s Scavenger Hunt with a supplied task list that has to be completely ticked off before a winner can be crowned. The list will be fairly be fairly complicated with a range of different levels of tasks from the basics of all in preflop, flop, turn and river double ups, colour pieces, promotional posts, bluffs etc, and also some really random ones like (insert random notable) double up, colour piece etc.

Most likely we’ll both chuck $50 on it, as it should continue our great competitive spirit.

Now back to the actual tournament I’m covering, and I’ve decided to include one of the sickest hands I’ve ever witnessed . . . and yes I may have coloured it up a little, but it needed the extra bit of drama!

care of PokerNews
David Paananen Is Our Bubble Boy!
With the action folding round to Preetinder Bhayana in the small blind, he made it 17,500 to go and David Paananen defended his big blind.

The flop fell down 3♣ 10♦ 8♣ and Bhayana slid out a bet amounting to 25,500. Paananen sat there for a little before re-raising to 77,000 total as the rail begin to close in on the table.

Bhayana sat there riffling ten yellow 5,000-denomination chips as Tournament Director Danny McDonagh came over to announce the action to the remaining players and onlookers.

Another two minutes went by before Bhayana announced all in.

“You go all in? I call” announced Paananen as he flipped his 3♥ 3♦ for a flopped bottom set of treys.

Bhayana shook his head, stood up, and sheepishly rolled over his A♥ 5♣ for just Ace-high but also a backdoor straight and flush-draw.

“Two of clubs would be a great sweat card” commented one of the twenty or so players that had totally surrounded the table.

The dealer burned and turned a black two on the turn, but it would be the 2♠ to see Paananen needing to fade one of the four remaining fours in the deck to stay alive.

As the rail pressed even harder against the backs of the table eight chairs, the 4♥ would land on the river to the screams and sighs of the remaining 48 players.

Paananen stood there in shock before making his way to the exit, but not before launching a half-drunk water bottle at an unsuspecting camera girl.

Bhayana on the other hand could barely keep a smile off his face as he raked in a huge place to soar to 498,000 in chips.

(thanks to Kirsty for capturing the moment of me asking him his name . . . and sorry about the water bottle)

Overnight Heath’s cold had developed really badly into a bad case of the flu . . . and maybe even the swine flu. Consequently it would be just F-Train, GG and me steering the ship today for Day 1b action!

It was fine not having Heath there, even if GG was busy most of the day doing some admin stuff with the video team, we still managed to plow through.

Kirsty and I decided to take a look around the nearby outdoor shopping strip called Xin Ma Lou in search for shoes or maybe some new clothing. There were a few shoes that I spotted, but will have to return tomorrow for a better look.

On the way home Kirsty decided she wanted to eat on the street and just down from the hotel we found Uncle Jimmy’s Noodle Shack. After seeing seven orders be made in about ten minutes, Kirsty just pointed to one man’s bowl and Uncle Jimmy started cooking away. Since I had already eaten, I wasn’t going anywhere near the food . . . or what turned out to be mixed vegies and CHICKEN FEET!

Kirsty happily chomped away tasting her first (and most likely last) dish of chicken fish. We toasted it off with a Tsing Tao and were on our way back to the hotel.

Uncle Jimmy’s Noodle Shack – the dish, the taste, the fellow diner

Once I returned to my hotel room I had the honours of writing my first piece for the PokerNews website; even if it was just a recap!

Check it out, click the thumbs up icon and give me your feedback.

PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Day 1B: Myhre and Nielsen Lead the Way.

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!

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!

After many weeks toiling away from behind our computers the PokerNews team has finally released the PokerNews Australasia magazine!

Targeted at the Australian and Asia Pacific poker community this bi-monthly magazine is free to the public and won’t rival Bluff Australia, but more run in partnership in feeding the poker fanatics with much needed Australian and world poker news, player profiles and interviews, product reviews, poker strategy articles and more.

The April/May issue featuring Shane Warne on the cover includes many interesting articles ranging from information on the upcoming ANZPT Sydney, Melbourne Poker Championships and WSOP, as well as the recent Aussie Millions and ANZPT Adelaide.

Being part of the team I contributed three articles to this issue – however one was pulled back until the next issue as it couldn’t fit in the current issue due to its four-page length. My first piece is the Melbourne Champs Form Guide (pg. 46-7) which is a list of the top thirteen players and the reasoning behind their form as we head into the Melbourne Poker Championships from the 17th of May to the 1st June.

My second piece; Celina Lin . . . Not Just Your Average Poker Player (pg. 60-3), is a feature piece with one of my friends and now PokerStars sponsored player. Even though I did an interview with her that went for over two hours and had more then enough information to write the article over and over it still took me ages to put the piece together. Just getting everything to flow was the hard part, but once I did it just flew out and voila you have the greatest four pages in the magazine (ok, so I’m biased . . . so what . . . but there is some truth to it . . . just read it yourself!)

For the June/July issue I have several articles that I’m already starting to pen.

I have the piece on Australian poker and its ensuing five interviews that was moved from the first issue, plus an interview with EPT hostess and poker player Kara Scott. I’m also going to do a form guide for the Victorian Poker Championships, and with the permission from Crown hopefully a nice humorous and colourful piece with Crown Poker Supervisor Frank Bianco.

It’s a really informative and enjoyable read so make sure you go out and grab your copy today!

EPT Hostess and Poker Player Kara Scott