tilted behaviour

After two tough days previously, it was great to be back to a normal eight hour day on the floor.

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

The night previously I was asked by Jai Kemp and Joel Dodds if they could be reported on under the name of Grant Levy. The reason behind it was that another Grant Levy – not the APPT Sydney Champion one – was the overnight chip leader in the ANZPT opening event before finishing third to create a wave of confusion amongst avid tournament followers. Consequently Jai and Joel thought it would be funny to take the piss on Grant, while also sending a pregnant wife into hysteria at the prospect of several Grant Levy’s in the chip counts.

Tim Horan, Ali Khalil and Dean Nyberg also jumped on the Grant Levy bandwagon and I assigned them all a number so as to distinguish them from one another. When writing up some of the hands that they were involved in, I attempt to portray an image of the person so that the ‘Grant Levy’ code could be broken.

Ali Khalil
Grant Levy5 opened to 400 from early position and was called by a player from the small blind.

Levy5 just shrugged his shoulders and collected the pot once his opponent folded.

Tim Horan
Twirling chips in one hand while staring blankly at the board, Levy6 took his allotted time before folding his hand.

Dean Nyberg
Grant Levy4 has had a fairly tough day so far.

Levy4 however – through some convincing – would like to give a shout out to his Mum back home who has bought countless of litres of Farmers Union Iced Coffee for him to keep him powering through those online sessions.

Joel Dodds
Grant Levy2 opened under the gun to 1,500 only to be shoved on from the button by an opponent for his last 21,500.

The board ran out 10♠ 6♣ 3♥ 5♣ Q♣to see Levy2′s Kings cracked to slip to 18,000 in chips.

All the Grant Levy’s ended up busting apart from Joel – who after the above mentioned hit – finished the day on over 48,000. The story of the day however would be the fact that Tony Hachem sat fifth in the counts to be in great shape at collecting his seventh cash from eight starts on the ANZPT.

Jonathan Karamalikis, Jai Kemp, Grant Levy, Stewart Scott, Yann Pauchon, Dan Sing, Andrew Meldrum, Van Marcus, Sally Snow, Jeff Lisandro, Ali Khalil, Tyron Krost, Jackie Glazier, Tony Hachem, Adam Monaghan

With the day wrapped up, me and Yann decided to head out to dinner somewhere, and after bumping into Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan and Adam Monaghan (who also bagged chips) we all decided to have a joint dinner somewhere around Darling Harbour.

Finding a quiet place where some other poker players had also taken a liking to we all ordered dinner and discussed everything poker.

Afterwards Yann met up some mates while the three of us headed to the poker room where Wonky and Adam decided to stake me in the $5-5 NLH game with an 80/20 deal in their favour. They shipped me two buy-ins – or $1,000 – and told me just one thing . . . WIN!

My first major hand came when I three-bet a hi-jack raise of $20 to $65 from the button holding A♠ 10♣. My continuation bet of $90 on the Q♣ J♣ 7♠ was met with a re-raise to $220 and I smacked myself in the head for betting a flop that nearly always hits his range before folding.

I topped up and about an hour later of holding King-rag, Queen-rag and the occasional weak Ace, I over-limped holding A♥ 3♥ to see a flop of 5♥ 4♥ 2♥ flop fall . . . yep that’s right . . . the STEEL WHEEL!

All seven players in the hand checked to see the 6♣ land on the turn and after three checks to me, I bet out $15 and was lucky to get a call from one of the fishy players on the table. The river fell the 7♠ and I was stuck in a spot of not really knowing what to deal. Eventually I decided with an overbet amounting to $150, and was lucky enough to get a call to see me push back to even.

On one of my final hands I raised to $35 after a limper holding Q♠ Q♣ and was called by an opponent on the button before the big blind tossed out a $100-denomination chip saying raise. The dealer however – although the player was in seat one – didn’t hear him and marked it as a call before dropping the 9♦ 7♠ 2♣ flop. The big blind fired out $100 and I opted with a raise to $275. The button passed and the big blind went into the tank muttering stuff to himself before folding his K♦ K♠ face up! I showed my Queens and the conversation afterwards revolved around the fact that because I was starring at the board so intently, he figured that I had flopped two pair. Phew!

I ended the night up only $49 after spewing some money to Ali Khalil and some other players on the table, and Wonky and Adam were kindly enough to let me keep the small profit instead of taking a cut as we ended our session at around 2am.

I made my down to the poker room a little after midday and took my seat on a $1-2 NLH table.

I sat down, got comfy and chucked my iPod on in preparation for the beginning of a solid few days of cash game grinding . . . but that wouldn’t last long. After a few limps, a raise to $20 and a call, I looked down at 10♦ 6♦. Now the re-raiser had been inclined to raise with garbage, but also was willing to fold and seemed scared of money. Consequently I saw this as a good spot to add about $46 to my $100 stack and decided to move all in from the big blind. The limpers folded, and after about three minutes of umming and ahhing, the raiser made the call. The preflop caller spent a further four minutes in the tank, eventually announcing his intention to gamble as he pushed his chips into the pot.

The board ran out Queen-high and after the preflop raiser turned over Queen-Jack offsuit, the pot was pushed and I rebought. Although the play seemed stupid, I didn’t mind it as it nearly worked. Either way, I slowly grinded my rebuy up to over $200 before hitting a few hiccups that included some busted draws and unlucky turns and rivers. Before too long my remaining $100-odd would be all in preflop against three players after committing most of my chips to a four-bet shove over a straddle and re-straddle.

I actually held the best hand with Ace-Jack, but even after flopping a pair, turning the nutflush draw and a gutshot to Broadway, I still managed to go down to the all powerful King-Jack offsuit! My third rebuy went fairly quickly when I was all in on the flop with two pair, only to get turned by an opponent who hit his three-outer to make a bigger two-pair.

Feeling like gambling, I decided to heat to play some Baccarat, but just like in the poker room, that wouldn’t go too well either as I quickly lost $450. I grabbed some dinner, had a rest, a little nap, surfed the net before returning to the poker room later on in the evening.

I took a seat on a $2-3 NLH table and found four $500-plus stacks, along with a $1700 one. The first hand I witnessed I saw the big stack grow to over $2400 after flopping top two-pair. After about an hour – with the table only six-handed – I had moved my stack to over $360 after taking a sizeable pot down with top-pair. I then was forced to top-up another $100 after having my two-pair flushed on and then getting involved in a big pot with a live straight draw.

Then holding K♠ 10♠ I lost a big pot against a donkey when on a board of K♥ J♥ 4♣ 10♥ J♠ he rolled over A♥ J♣. I topped up another $100 only to have that same donkey then flop a full house out of the small blind when I made the nut-flush on the turn and we got all the chips into the middle.

Left with only $106 there was a straddle to $6 and everyone called to me on the button – and being on tilt after the last hand – I made the call holding J♠ 4♠. The big blind then gave everyone option by making it $40, one call, another call, another call and another call, saw the action back on me. Knowing that my all in shove would be at least called by three of the players in the hand – as two had over $1000 in their stack while one had only $100 – I decided to ship it in.

I did indeed get three callers, and even though I was put through a sweat on the 8♠ 7♥ 6♦ A♠ 8♥ board, I was unable to outdraw the pocket tens, nines and a random holding, and consequently called it a night.

After a great night’s rest I returned to the poker room and sat down on a new $2-3 NLH table along with Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan.

Wonky had been helping me out a lot recently when I headed in to play as we have been discussing both live and online hands during our live sessions at Crown. He quickly chipped up and headed to a $2-5 NLH table while I just plodded along.

I was forced to lay a big hand or two down, and eventually had topped up to be in for $400. I was sitting on around $260 when I was dealt A♣ K♣ in the cutoff and made it $20 after three limpers. The player on the button who had seemed to be fairly solid made it $50 to go as the big blind – a relative donkey – made the call too. I was fairly certain that the button player held a pair like Jacks or Tens, and since I too had been solid, I decided to four-bet to $180 to rep Aces or Kings.

The button player then went into the tank for about four minutes. He cut down the amount to call, as well as asking me how much I had left (around $80) and whether or not I had it (nup). Eventually he announced he was all in as the big blind folded and I tossed in my last $80 or so. The board bricked out, and his Queens held up, but after reviewing the hand, I wasn’t at all fussed with the way I played it.

I decided to cut my stay in Melbourne short and drove back to Geelong for cricket training to see the week out at home before returning for the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series on Sunday.

The TV crew tweaked, adjusted and prepared the set before Riza Santos finished her final table introductions with the players taking their seats in just under an hour after the expected 12pm start time.

We lost Kim Tae Hyung on the first hand, then Vesa Leikos on the second before Liz Lieu fell 15 minutes later when her 2♦ 2♠ were unable to improve against Steven Yea’s Q♥ Q♣. Yea continued to run-amok on the table and knocked out Ron Kluber and Susumu Toge over the next 40 minutes before. Cicurel Didier fell in fourth before Casey Kastle made it one better here in Manila finishing third following his fourth placing in Macau.

It took two hours to reach heads-up play with Yea holding the chip lead with 1,572,000 to Neil Arce’s 1,048,000 chips, and the local favourite Arce took control and claimed the chip lead to move to a two-to-one advantage.

With blinds only at 6,000-12,000 with a 2,000 ante, heads-up play between these two talented players were expected to last a while, but half an hour would be all that it took. Arce made it 100,000 to go from the button and Yea re-raised to 300,000 before Arce quickly moved all-in for around 1.7 million with Yea making the call. Arce looked in bad shape holding K♠ Q♠ against Yea’s A♦ K♥, but the board of 4♠ 6♣ 7♥ Q♥ 6♥ saw Arce crowned as the Asian Poker Tour Philippines champion for 2009!

“You run soooooooo good!” commented F-Train as we wrapped up the final table in under 3 hours, and combined with an American bill-filled envelope from Liz Lieu . . . he wasn’t wrong!

2009 Asian Poker Tour Philippines Champion Neil Arce

After bombing out of the PokerNetwork Online Championships event on PokerStars I wondered down to the poker room to see what action was going on. Adam Simon and Vincent Wan were seated at a 50-100 NLH game, so I decided to pull up a seat to sweat their action for a while.

Wonky went on a heater making a straight-flush against a local grinder and slowly grinded back to even as Adam floated for a while. After finishing second in the PokerNetwork tournament Heath Chick wondered down to see what our plans were, and with dinner time upon us we decided to make a move to Greenbelt 5.

After getting looked up and down by a group of Trannies that we saw at Embassy the other night we quickly rushed upstairs and settled on Mr. Rockefeller’s . . . again for me. Some steak and fish and were all back in a cab on the way to the Metro Card Club to play cash games until the wee hours of the morning.

We all managed to find seats together on a 25-50 NLH with the buy-in ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 pesos. Not having too much on me I bought in for 2,000 and we all slowly began to lag it up and lose our chips.

Being crowned champion no less than 6 hours previously Neil Arce came up to me and shook my hand, welcomed us to his club, and started general chit chat about the final table and the Metro. It was really good to see a local boy win the main event, and consequently show his appreciation to us (for who knows what reason) by approaching the four of us on several occasions to see if we wanted or needed anything.

Filipino Phil had the better of us playing some huge hands and having the best of Heath, while Adam and I just donked chips. On the other hand Wonky lagged it up due to the tightness of the table, and consequently we re-named the night Lagtarding Live With Wonky Wan! Wonky definitely won, and after being in for around 8,000, I managed to cash out up a buy-in while Heath and Adam didn’t have as much luck.

Filipino Phil

Before I left I made sure to say thanks to Neil and that I would be returning soon. His response, “You’re always welcome here!” as we all headed back to the hotel as I had to pack for my 8am flight in under 5 hours.

Once back at the hotel I packed my suitcase and had a quick sleep before heading to the airport on a 6am taxi. I didn’t have any change for him and we stood there in a stand-still for over five minutes before he just accepted his 100 pesos instead of the 150 he was charging me. An upgrade to business class made me feel a whole lot better after seeing the number of people at the gate.

A fairly sleep-deprived arrival into the Melbourne rain was fairly ironic as Victoria had been in a heatwave over the past week or so. I booked into a nearby hotel for the night, booked my flights for Adelaide, and tried to get some rest before jumping back in a plane to the City of Churches for the inaugural ANZPT.

Wanting to catch breakfast again I headed downstairs just in time and was escorted to a table. I left my table to get some apple juice only to return to my table where a older couple had taken up my seats. The waiter quickly moved me and I put down my drink to get a plate of food. However, yet again my new table was filled with a middle-aged woman tucking into some fruit.

“Allright, this is ridiculous . . . please get me a table where I can sit down!” I told the waiter and he escorted me down to the end of the restaurant where I was seated by myself with barely a sole around me. After quickly downing my first plate of food I ventured back for some cereal and fruit only to see the beautiful Riza Santos strolling round the buffet.

Already in love with how gorgeous she is, seeing her out of her normal black figure-hugging dresses and in tracksuit pants, thongs and a boring old t-shirt easily pushed her to the number one spot.

I return to my table with a bowl of cereal in hand only to see Riza seated on the table next to me with what I assume was her mother. Like a star-struck teenager I sat there slowly chomping on my cornflakes with, “OMG, OMG, OMG” going through my head over and over. I tried to keep my cool and act as casual as possible while returning with a bowl of fruit. I finished my meal and headed upstairs with the “OMG, OMG, OMG” still whizzing through my head.

Riza Santos

Heath, F-Train and I caught up in the lobby before heading to the shops across the road. We bought some groceries and returned to the hotel where they ventured back to the room while I took to the felt.

I only played for an hour or so on the same table as Adam Simon and across from Wonky. I bought in for 5,000 pesos which equates to around AUD$200 with blinds at 50-100. I doubled early when I opened to 300 from under the gun with K♥ K♦ and was met with five callers round to the small blind who raised to 1,300. I thought about pushing my remaining 4,700 into the middle, but I felt that he wasn’t strong and wouldn’t call an all in.

So I flatted, and so did some Skandi player from the cutoff to see a flop of 7♦ 3♦ 2♣ fall down. The small blind immediately moved all in, and once I called the Skandi got out of the way to see my Kings up against his 8♣ 8♦. The board bricked out and I found a double and finished the session with around 12,000 pesos as I went upstairs to prepare for the Opening Ceremony and Welcome Party.

The Opening Ceremony and Welcome Party was more like a friendly get together with an open bar and cute APT models strolling round, which lasted no longer than 45 minutes. Once the ribbon was cut and the speeches were spoken Heath, Damon and Hux headed to dinner as they had the Head Hunter event to play while a few of us decided to head out on the town.

David Saab, Bryan Huang, Ivan Tan, Raymond Wu, Gabby Barredo, F-Train, Myself, Andrew Scott and ‘friend’ Joy all squashed into Saab’s LandCruiser and drove for around 30 minutes until we arrived at this Japanese restaurant that Saab kept raving about it. Bottles of Saki flowed, and so did the food until we dropped off Bryan, Ivan and Raymond at a KTV place before the rest of us headed to a club called Embassy.

Cheap drinks, cute girls, and a mix-mash of music were the highlights, but an over-filled dance floor saw Saab and Gabby leave early before the rest of us partied with some of the APT people before Joy took us to the Wensha Spa for some relaxation.

We stripped down in our change rooms, showered up and headed through a few rooms until we reached our own rooms to enjoy a massage. An hour later (I think) I put my robe back on after enjoying a somewhat painful massage before heading back to the change rooms as the clock ticked past 4am. F-Train and I waited in the reception for Andrew and Joy for over 30 minutes before deciding to catch a cab after they were no shows.

. . . and just for good measure

Riza Santos

I wander down to breakfast feeling utterly refreshed after the previous night’s massage and sleep on an ultra-comfy king-size bed and take my seat at the back of the restaurant. Some apple juice, bacon, eggs and hash browns start me off before a bowl of fruit and slice of toast finish me before I see Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan and his mate Adam Simon stroll in.

They take up a seat next to me as they munch down on breakfast before we discuss poker, travels and all things Manila before I head back to room to shower-up and get ready for my meeting with Asian Poker Tour representative Angelica Hael. We discuss the events to be covered; which included the Celebrity Charity Challenge later that evening, while enjoying the beautiful weather in the hotel courtyard before departing ways.

Straight over to Saab’s condo I go where we plan to head into town to go and grab a haircut and shave . . . it’s supposed to be an event in itself . . . or so I’ve been told! I arrive to see him play no more than 50 hands on PokerStars, lagging it up before making enough money on the two $2-4 NLH tables to cover the massages from the previous night and have some change leftover. Saab downs a bowl of Pho and we head downstairs to see his new driver Sammy bring the car round as we make our way to Greenbelt 5; a shopping centre in downtown Makati.

We both stumble into Bruno’s Barbers where we are guided to our chairs that resemble furniture direct from a classic American barber shop of the 1950’s. After negotiating back and forth with the Filipino employees we both come to an agreement that we want everything . . . haircut, shave, manicure, pedicure and even a massage.

Bruno’s Barbers

A quick trim (that in all honestly didn’t really change anything) was quickly followed by a lathering of my face with shaving oil before my barber brought out a fresh blade to tackle my splotching asian-facial hair. Ehnum started on my pedicure as my barber began to slowly shave away my remaining facial hair. However Ehnum methods, however good, were starting to make me twitch due to the ticklish nature of my feet, and having a fresh blade on my face really started to freak me out.

With the pedicure out of the way, Ehnum moved to my hands to conduct a manicure, while my barber wrapped things up and finished with a massage. Once everything was completed I headed for a walk round the shopping centre before returning to meet with Saab, who’s ‘experience’ went a little longer. We ventured to grab some lunch at Mr. Rockefeller’s where we enjoyed some salmon and baby back ribs before getting dropped back at the hotel prior to working the Celebrity Charity Challenge.

After collecting my things I headed down to reception to see if Heath or Dave had checked in yet, knowing that F-Train (Dave’s blogging name) had to cover the event with me and that Heath had the camera. Unsuccessful in being able to locate them or their arrival time I tackled the event on my own not having a clue who any of the participants were apart from Priscilla Mereilles; the 2004 Miss Earth.

Priscilla Mereilles

The event ran fairly smoothly, even without a clear idea of who everyone was. F-Train finally made his way down and took a bunch of photos for me while I tried to fill the blog with hands and colour from the tournament. The Playgirls took out the tournament after running on a super heater on the final table, and once everything was wrapped up I journeyed upstairs to hit the hay knowing nothing was planned for tomorrow.

Riza Santos and The Playgirls