tilted behaviour

Once Mike Ivin committed with his dummy straight to Angelo Hanataj’s second-nut straight, another ANZPT Champion was crowned.

This visit up to the Harbour City for the second ANZPT Sydney event was my first since the Star City redevelopments that saw the poker room relocated off the gaming floor,; and consequently here is my continued tournament recaps with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: ANZPT Sydney.

1 – Schedule: The ANZPT Main Event is always going to draw good numbers, but the key is to get players in town early for the preliminary events – and the case of this year’s ANZPT Sydney – Debra Rillo and Jason Wicks have done a great job at organising a fantastic schedule. From a deep-stacked Opening Event to a Semi Shootout and Six-Handed along with a Pot Limit Omaha, High Rollers, Heads-Up and Teams, there was an event for everyone in the near two week schedule with affordable buy-ins and good structures to match.

2 – Great Numbers: 446 players formed the $892,000 prizepool to see the ANZPT Sydney Main Event hold top spot in tournaments around Australia with a similar buy-in. With a slight hiatus from tournaments, it was no surprise that many made the trip to the Harbour City to compete as a warm up to the upcoming Melbourne Poker Championships and – more importantly – the 2010 World Series of Poker. If the ANZPT Sydney can retain this date for the next few years then it will no doubt see the numbers increase to a point where a $300,000 first prize is a reality.

3 – Cramped Up: With the recent move (well to me anyway) upstairs off the main gambling floor, the one thing that frustrated many has remained – the cramped nature of the tables. Now I understand that space is limited and that this is only a temporary move, but it is still very difficult to navigate in between tables while covering tournaments – but I suppose this isn’t a major problem for poker players as they are expected to stay seated for hours at a time. Maybe just a personal pet peeve then.

4 – Rail?: However the issue of no spectator railing is an issue that effects most players as spectators – whether wanted or not – can creep right up to the players. Unlike the previous poker pit where a rail existed surrounding the tables, one has not been implemented in the new room. More than just a few times the supervisors on duty had to ask players to take a step back as they sweated the big game, and if I was a Jarred Graham or Sam Youssef I think that that would bother me substantially.

5 – Food and Beverage Service: The waitresses that worked the poker room were the most gorgeous ones that have ever graced an Australasian casino in years! Some were local, some from Eastern Europe, but all provided great service whether it was prompt drink delivery or something to gaze aimlessly at. The addition of food service was also something lacking around the country, and although the range was fairly limited (a few variants of pizza and panini’s), having an option of a quick snack was great for those not wanting to leave the table.

6 – Where Can I Get Some Food?: Unfortunately pizza and sandwiches can get pretty boring after a while, and one of the problems I encountered while at Star City was the fact there was no place to get something quick. They had a fairly decent buffet and a great noodle place down on the gaming floor, but if I wanted to get something quick the only option seemed to be the overly-priced convenience store. I suppose having the luxury of the Crown Casino food court makes my standards a little harder to be reached, but I do think something along those lines is necessary if Star City want to compete with Crown.

7 – No Name Final Table: As we approached the money in the Main Event some great and interesting players were still alive to make a potentially exciting final table for us to watch / blog on. Unfortunately they all fell to the rail too short of our needs / wants / expectations as a final table full of no names was reached. Mike Ivin was the only real notable and has a long and impressive record but has been unable to continue his flourish since the poker boom. Although on the day it made for a very dull few hours, it does do one thing . . . and that is potentially encourage new players to hit the tournament scene as they may too have a chance of walking away with a slice of poker glory.

8 – Angelo Who?: Continuing on from the previous point, Angelo Hanataj would have evoked an Angelo who? response from most of the poker community – and maybe still – before his $219,432 win. However having an average Joe take down the top prize will definitely prompt more players to give tournament poker a go. The only question is whether or not Angelo will continue to play the tournament circuit or disappear into oblivion.

With that final hand dealt it means the end of my trip to Sydney and a return back home to the sleepy hollow that is Geelong.

I’m not quite sure what is next on the cards for me and Tilted Behaviour, but you and I will soon find out (or I already know and am keeping it a secret hehe)!

Not originally scheduled into the regular array of tournaments on the local poker calendar, the Big Game Poker Sydney Championships didn’t let anyone down!

Many people believe that it ticked off all the boxes in the continued development at Star City, and hopefully I can reinforce most of those points with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Sydney Championships.

1 – Sports Theatre and Halo Bar: Previously when you visited Star City, you could really tell that it hadn’t been designed by a local (American to be exact) due to its outdated and inappropriate fittings. As poker started to boom, the bar was the negative focal point for many locals and visitors as the atmosphere was nothing comparable to Crown or any casinos around the world.
Not only does the new bar offer a huge array of drinks and nibbles, but it also houses over 50 screens – including one mega screen – for all your sports and entertainment needs. It also features a spacious stadium style seating area with a surround sound system. Throw in the fact that it’s open 24 hours a day – the Sports Theatre and Halo Bar is an experience!

2 –Good Choice Of Tournaments: With only a week available it was always going to be tough to organise firstly a schedule of events that satisfied everyone, but also that was schedule-sound. Starting with a Morning Series that featured two holdem events and an Omaha to a bigger buy-in Omaha as well as a bounty and deepstack event – the Sydney Championships catered for everyone. Throw in the Main and High Rollers Event, and everyone could get their taste of tournament poker from $150 to $5200.

3 – High Rollers Event: The only downside to the scheduling was that the High Rollers Event was run simultaneous to days two and three of the Main Event. This not only affected the numbers that forked up $5,200 but also depleted the quality of the field as many were either still in the Main Event or had returned home. Next time schedule the High Rollers beforehand so that a maximum number of entrants can be achieved.

4 – Connection? : As mentioned in a previous Eight Points of Enlightenment having internet problems always make life tough for a blogger. Normally at Star City we run off a fairly fast internal wireless system, but due to the ongoing refurbishments, the connection has been closed and left us somewhat stranded. We were able to use a wireless USB connection after it was expressed couriered to us, but this just created an unnecessary hassle during the whole tournament.

5 – Quick To Cash: One of the problems at most casinos in Australia (except for Crown) is that once a tournament table breaks the staff are normally very slow to set-up a cash game. Why is this a problem you may ask? Well rake is the bread and butter for any poker room, and in cash games you accrue the most. Star City however stepped things up for the Sydney Championships turning over tables quicker then I have witnessed in the past so that cash games were quickly running. It’s never a downside to have a full and busy poker room!

6 – Main Event Structure: With the Main Event only being a $1650 buy-in tournament, you wouldn’t expect that the structure would be fantastic. However Deb and Jason did a great job at structuring the tournament really well so that play was deep and slow, but finishing times on each day didn’t stretch into the wee hours of the morning. Playing ten levels on day one helped greatly, and combined with some of the jumps in the middle stages, the final table was reached at an appropriate hour. The final hand was dealt during level twenty-six of 40,000-80,000-5,000 which was fairly standard for a decent structured tournament, and hopefully in future Star City will follow the same structure for similar events.

7 – Strong Field: With the current poker calendar packed with events from around the country and the globe, it’s always hard finding not only time for an event like the Sydney Championships, but also to make sure that the turnout is strong. Fresh off the Vic Champs in Melbourne and APT and APPT in Macau, along with the upcoming PokerNews Cup; the Sydney Championships were always going to find it tough.
However the 324-player turnout was not only a great success, but the quality of the field that took the felt was extremely strong as well. Players like Jason Gray, Billy Argyros, Grant Levy, Graeme Putt, Joel Dodds and many of the country’s best players were part of the field that truly represented another great stop on the local tour.

8 – FlopNutsOnYou Flops Victory: There is no doubt that the best player to cash in the event managed to sneak away with victory at the Sydney Championships. Arguably Australia’s best young all-round player, Jarred ‘FlopNutsOnYou’ Graham looked at ease and in control for most of day two and the final table, and with this victory he added another notch on his poker belt.
Just to reinforce the last point, it was great to see a top player take down the event, and it’s a guarantee that the money isn’t going anywhere with Graham and his backer unlikely to stop playing anytime soon.

Next stop . . . PokerNews Cup!

An extra two hours sleep was great thanks to the late start of the Main Event Final Table and once 2pm came round the cards hit the air.

Unlike most final tables I covered, play was fairly loose with pots being contested multi-way and more than a single preflop raise needed to take down the hand. One of the chip leaders in Stephen Donlon was the first to exit after seeing his chip stack swing up and down over the three hours he was still in.

We lost two in quick succession before play returned to a somewhat normal state as the High Rollers Final Table began.

As the blinds and antes picked up in the Main Event, we were down to heads up play with Jarred ‘FlopNutsOnYou’ Graham holding a two-to-one chip advantage over Peter Zabow. Play wouldn’t last too much longer after Graham’s middle pair and straight draw improved to trips against Zabow’s top pair after all the money went in on the turn.

With an already impressive $310,000 in tournament earnings that include a High Rollers victory last December, a Six-Handed title in March and a High Stakes runner up finish in May, Graham added another $121,500 to a live record that matches any in the country over the last year.

Over in the High Rollers, a relative unknown in Tolly Sakellariou captured the $58,000 first prize after flushing out opponent George Moussa.

Once both tournaments were wrapped up both James and I hit the open bar for a quiet Corona or two.

Jarred and his entourage were also there enjoying more than their fair share of drinks, and as I finished my third drink I managed to convince them that a visit to the Craps table was needed – regardless of the fact that it was approaching 3am.

In total there were seven of us degens that hit the Craps table with both Jarred and Daniel Neilson struggling to keep the dice on the table while Monica Nguyen went on a few hot rolls to see us all pocket a profit.

However Jarred and Daniel wouldn’t last too long as they were eventually kicked out by the many security guards that were watching us closely. The remainder of us continued rolling away with Monica being the biggest winner of the group, while I managed to pocket $200 profit.

After everyone had dispersed for the evening I caught up with James and Romy as we went for a stroll looking for somewhere to eat – but at 4am we were unable to find anything and decided to just turn it in for the night to get some rest before returning home tomorrow.

The start of the weekend in Sydney only meant one thing . . . well two really as we were covering both Day 2 of the Main Event and Day 1 of the High Rollers Event.

Beginning the day with just the Main Event, we saw 103 players hit the felt with action being fast-paced over the first level. We lost many of the notables such as Eric Assadourian, Patrick Fletcher, Bill Jordanou and Daniel Neilson before Andrew Meldrum became the unfortunate bubble boy as the High Rollers Event began.

Only 29 players were able to fork out $5,200 for the PokerNews Magazine branded High Rollers Event with play finishing at a final table of eight after seven hours of play while the Main Event wrapped up a couple of hours prior thanks to some power poker.

191 players turned out for Day 1b action of the Big game Poker Sydney Championships.

Today saw a greater majority of locals playing including Grant ‘grunter’ Levy, Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds, Saidal Wardak, Jai Kemp and many more . . . but when the chips were bagged many (such as the above mentioned) wouldn’t survive.

Grant ‘grunter’ Levy moving all in . . . and then all out

One of mates Callum Ford finished the day as chip leader of the remaining 67 players as play ended for the night.

As we were packing up for the night, Michael ‘pokerlife’ Tran came over and forced us to join him on a cash table for a few hours.

We all locked up seats on a new $1-2 NLH table as Michael went to grab some chips from the cage for all of us. As I was heading to the table Ali Khalil grabbed me and asked me what I was doing. After informing him of my plan to play some cash, he tossed me a $100-denomination chip and said he was buying my action with a 50/50 split of profit with all losses on Ali.

I sat down on the left of both James and Michael as we ordered a few drinks to get the night off and running.

I stacked a guy when I three-bet all in from the small blind over Michael’s weak cutoff raise holding Ace-King. The drunk player in the big blind shipped it all in with King-Jack, and when the board the bricked out I was up about $50 on my $100 buy-in.

After an hour or so of play I was sitting on $190 and when my Kings held up against two players I was up to $390 and decided to call it a night to take care of some of the backend PokerNetwork stuff.

James returned a little later a few buy-ins down in combination with a profit (well, really a loss) share with Michael as we both hit the hay while watching a combination of sport and reality TV.

Both James and I made our way downstairs to the poker room at around 11am for the Big Game Poker Sydney Championships Main Event.

We had to organise our press passes and where we would set up before Day 1a action would be kicking off.

It was a fairly standard day with the original 133 players being cut down to 36 with under twenty minutes remaining on the clock during the final level of play. Sheldon finished on top of the leaderboard while Joel Del Duca, Antonis ‘Toothpick Tony’ Kambouroglou, Tim ‘LuckyShades’ Horan and Monica Nguyen all hit the rail.

Once I typed my final word we headed upstairs to watch some TV before starting one of the most epic Facebook spam’s of all time . . .

James and I shared a mutual friend in a young boy named Mateusz Pater, and we decided at precisely 2:47am that we were going to have some fun at his expense. I wrote a comment on his wall, and along with another PokerNews / PokerNetwork employee Andrew Oataway, we began a back and forth conversation that would end at 4am.

Apologies Matty . . . but after you decided to delete the post, we really felt that our comedic genius needed to be available to the world so that they could chuckle along with our early morning antics!

It had been a little more than a week, and I was back on the road for the Big Game Poker Sydney Championships up at Star City.

I caught a flight from Avalon airport and was at the hotel in two hours. James and I were sharing a room at Star City, and from first inspection, it wasn’t at all shabby.

Once James arrived we met up with our point of contact Scott Colvin before heading out to grab some dinner with one of James’ friends Romy.

We hit a beer garden in the city, and after downing a chicken parma, another one of James’ friends, Sam, arrived and we were straight into the prop bets.

Sam had to finish a 500ml beer mixed with hot chocolate in under 25 seconds to win $100 off James, and after finishing it off comfortably James would be down a $100 . . . but it wouldn’t be too long until he attempted to win it back by trying to eat five cheeseburgers in 35 seconds at a McDonald’s up the road.

After barely finishing one in the allotted time, James emptied his wallet to Sam once again as we called it quits for the night.