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)!

Reaching the final day of tournament as a blogger is a great feeling because you know that only nine eliminations stand between you at your computer and you at the bar!

Main Event Final Table coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Main Event Final Table coverage (PokerNews browser)

Since the final table was located outside of the poker room it meant that we had no wifi and consequently had to resort to a shonky mobile internet connection which put us all in a bad mood from the start.

Losing Tri Nguyen on about the sixth hand helped ease our pain and Cale Maclean about half an hour later made it even better. We then witnessed some incredibly strange hands that gave us amateurs hope of one day being on an ANZPT final table!

Angelo Hanataj called off 606,000 at 12k-24k with just 5♣ 6♣ to double an opponent up before taking them all off him just a few hands later. However it was the way that Michael O’Grady virtually threw away the tournament that amazed me the most. Min-raising preflop and min-betting flops to miss value and then calling off chips when he didn’t have it saw O’Grady just slip from hand one to see him bow out in a disappointing but expected fourth place.

With the crazy Angelo holding a little over a two-to-one advantage over stalwart Mike Ivin it was expected that the heads-up affair would be a pretty short battle with Angelo continuing his ballsy aggression, however Ivin firstly slipped before clawing his way ahead only to have Angelo summon the ANZAC spirit and fight back to eventually take down the title and $219,432 first prize.

After rushing to the buffet to grab a quick and free bite I hit the poker room and sat on a $1-2 NLH table.

I gambled in a hand early when I opened 6♣ 3♣ to $10 over a limper only to get min-raised to $20. The limper called and I called to see a 9♣ 8♠ 2♣ flop fall. The re-raiser fired out $20, one fold, and I shipped for $100 and he insta-called tabling Ace-King, but thankfully I dinked the 10♣ on the river.

I flopped quad tens and won a small pot with a bet on the river, had Aces a couple of times, but otherwise it was a rather uneventful session which still saw me win over two buy-ins during several hours of play.

The only real highlight was having Jesse move to my table from his fairly dead $5-5 game so as to stay sane and have some fun with me.

That fun turned into some ridiculous prop betting where on each hand one of us would have either red or black, over or under 7 as the middle card on the flop and a pick of three consecutive numbers for a bonus. We eventually added Lodden Thinks type questions to the mix and stuff like what nationality the dealer was, what size bed they had at home, how old the Polish waitress was and how many people she lived with. Unfortunately for me Jesse ran super hot and whipped me for about $20 when we were only playing for a $1 a point!

With Jesse looking a little worse for wear he headed up to our room to get some sleep while I hit the bar with an already intoxicated Dale Marsland, Nik Lackovic and Danny McDonagh to grab a few beers (since they had been cut off at the poker room) before calling it a night as the sun was rising on the day I return home.

Not too many tournaments of this buy-in amount head to a day three without being at a final table already, but in the case of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event, at least we know the exact stopping point of the day . . . a final table!

Main Event Day 3 coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Main Event Day 3 coverage (PokerNews browser)

Supernova Elite player Tian Shou became the bubble boy as everyone was $3,568 richer before Michael Tran (52nd), Joel Dodds (48th), Lee Nelson (47th), Antonis Kambouroglou (43rd), Ricky Krosen (34th), Peter Aristidou (32nd) and Vincent Wan (31st) all fell short of the final table. Amazingly however it would be Tony Hachem’s seventh cash in the ANZPT when he was downed in 28nd place to see his year begin with one win, two final tables and three cashes.

Just over seven and a half hours of play saw us hit the final table with Mike Ivin being the only notable sitting in third chip position behind the previous day chip leader Michael O’Grady.

Chips, Bernard Gabriel, Peter Aristidou, Chips, Bradley Bower, Vincent Wan, Quoc Nguyen, Angelo Hanataj, Ka Ming Fang, Tony Hachem, Mike Ivin, Chips, Shannon Chapman

With a relatively early night ahead of us my plan was to watch an exciting night of English Premier League soccer. The game I was looking forward to was between West Ham United and Wigan Athletic who are both logged down the bottom of the table . . . the reason being . . . it was bound to be exciting.

The result . . . West Ham 3 (30, 45, 76) defeated Wigan 2 (3, 52) . . . a lot better than some of the other boring matches that were televised!

Day 2 was fairly unexciting when it came down to the Main Event.

Main Event Day 2 coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Main Event Day 2 coverage (PokerNews browser)

209 players started the day, but only 59 remained with only five eliminations needed until play hit the money with the highlight (lowlight?) being another Emad Tahtouh blow-up from chip leader to busto before the money.

While sitting just below the chip leader, I offered everyone on the media desk $1.05 that Emad wouldn’t cash because his luck in the ANZPT is completely opposite to Tony Hachem’s! Nearing the end of play Emad ran into a flopped set and then Peter Aristidou’s Aces to fall just short of the money.

Once the day was wrapped a few of us hit the Garden Buffet and scoffed down as much food as possible before parting ways.

After tidying up the event and writing an article for PokerNetwork I decided to head down to the poker room to play some cash.

I jumped on a $1-2 NLH table and quickly needed to top up an additional $25 before opening to $6 holding A♣ 5♣ and two callers from the blinds came along to see a J♠ 10♣ 6♠ flop fall.

We checked it round to see the 6♣ land and the big blind fire out $12. I called and the small blind folded as the 2♦ fell on the river. Thinking for a few moments, the big blind fired out $26, and after deliberating for a minute or so made the call basically just not believing him. I was spot on as he tabled his Q♥ 7♥ and I was up to around $140.

A few orbits later I flopped a set of fours and check-raised the flop before getting my opponent to call off his stack on the turn with just Ace-high to see me chip up to $240 and leave at time.

Just like yesterday I was expecting it to be another tough and gruelling day with the completion of both the Tony Hachem Feature and High Rollers Events as well as the commencement of the Main Event.

Main Event Day 1a coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Main Event Day 1a coverage (PokerNews browser)

I think the $2,200 buy-in amount is perfect for this kind of tour, and consequently it was no surprise to see 164 players take to the felt for Day 1a action. One thing that wasn’t surprising was the rapid rate of players hitting the rail within in the first level due to a combination of coolers, willingness to gamble and the fact that $2,200 isn’t that much too some people.

Only 71 players snuck through to Day 2, but what stood out to me was the fact that players called off their chips so lightly. Todor Kondevski got his stack in the middle in the first level with a straight and flush draw on the turn against the nuts and of course dinged it on the river. Nik Lackovic flopped a set and managed to get an opponent to call off his chips with just a gutshot which spiked on the turn.

Zane Ly, Octavian Voegel, Rennie Carnevale, Brendan Edmonds, David Borg, Scott Smith, Michael Tran, Todor Kondevski, Antonis Kambouroglou, Simon Watt, Donna Ciric, Bradley Bower, Graeme Putt

However the priority for the day was always going to be the two final tables commencing later in the day.

Tony Hachem Feature Event Final Table coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Tony Hachem Feature Event Final Table coverage (PokerNews browser)

High Rollers Event Final Table coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / High Rollers Event Final Table coverage (PokerNews browser)

The Tony Hachem Feature Event final table was set to begin at 4:00pm but the remaining contestants were under the impression it didn’t resume till 6:00pm and consequently it was delayed.

The first few eliminations fell fairly quickly as I juggled all three events at once before the remaining players settled into some sort of rhythm. My mate Jesse McKenzie was still on the final table and wasn’t in the healthiest chip position but changed gears in effort to pick up some chips making some good moves and taking calculated risks.

Eventually Jesse managed to reach heads-up play with a three-to-one disadvantage, and after deal negotiations fell through, he clawed into the lead. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be his day as he fell in second place for a nice $12,648 collect to pad the bankroll nicely as Michael Levy walked home with the goods.

Over in the High Rollers Event it was the xMONSTERxDONGx show as Jonathan Karamalikis owned the table from the get go!

When the final six were on the agonisingly long bubble, Karamalikis pounded with relentless aggression to pick up blind-after-blind and ante-after-ante to hold half the chips in play. Michael Guttman became the unfortunate bubble boy and a quick trail of eliminations followed him to see Grant Levy enter heads-up play at a six-to-one disadvantage.

Levy scrapped a double, but Karamalikis would swiftly end the deal to add another title to his impressive poker CV that boasts over $400,000 in live earnings alone!

I spent the majority of yesterday catching up on some much needed rest, but I did manage about thirty minutes of poker that resulted in a loss of a buy-in when flopped trips were no good and the nut-flush draw bricked.

The main reason I spent the majority of the day and night in the room was because today was going to be a long one with two events needing my one-man-wolf pack coverage!

Tony Hachem Feature Event Day 1 coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / Tony Hachem Feature Event Day 1 coverage (PokerNews browser)

High Rollers Event Day 1 coverage (PokerNetwork browser) / High Rollers Event Day 1 coverage (PokerNews browser)

The $330 Tony Hachem Feature Event saw 273 entrants take to the felt with every table featuring a $300 bounty. My coverage tailored off slightly as the High Rollers got underway, but the day finished with a final table being formed with my mate Jesse McKenzie sitting fifth in chips as play wrapped up around 2am.

Josh Cunningham, Chips, Sam Capra, Andrew Jeffreys, Jim Ghobrial, Nik Lackovic, Aaron Benton, Liam O’Rourke, Yann Pauchon, Tony Hachem, Michael Spilkin, Jymmi Briggs, Chips, Trung Tran

Twenty-nine of some of the country’s best players handed over $10,200 to take part in the ANZPT Sydney High Rollers Event.

Jeff Lisandro, Lee Nelson, Grant Levy, Van Marcus, Peter Aristidou, Jason Gray, Tyron Krost, Jay ‘SEABEAST’ Kinkade, Jonathan ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’ Karamalikis and Jarred ‘FlopNutsOnYou’ Graham were just a few of those taking part as the cards hit the air at the delayed time of around 7:00pm.

Aleks Lackovic and Lisandro both copped bad beats to see their stack dwindled down to just a few thousand, but Lee Nelson would still fall before them. The highlight of the long night however was this conversation between Van Marcus, Emanuel Seal and Jarred Graham after Marcus gave some chips to Seal.

“You’re a nice guy anyway Curly . . . you can go buy another Lamborghini” stated Marcus as Seal just nodded in an agreeing fashion.

Marcus paused for a moment before saying, “can you get sick of blowjobs?”

It got to around 2am and I decided to call it a night since two full tables remained with plans to play through until just eight remained. Throw in the fact I had been there for nearly fifteen hours and was due back at midday, it made sense to take an inconvenient (for those following at home) break to get some rest.

Jay Kinkade, Antonis Kambouroglou, Peter Aristidou, Tyron Krost, Jeff Lisandro, Grant Levy’s chip stack, Grant Levy, Van Marcus, Matthew Kirk, Jonathan Karamalikis, Emanuel Seal

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!

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.