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Posts - June 2008

• Players Lounge, Taser and HORSE

  June 26, 2008

  Following the cash in the Caesars Palace mega-stack series I headed into work for the last 6 hours or so of my intended shift. Following that I was booked in for the PokerNews freeroll where the (as voted) top 6 reporters played off for a seat into the following day's WSOP $1,500 event. With me and Slippers quickly donking off our chips the remaining reporters got into a tasing war with Melissa's taser in the back alleys of the Amazon room.

  Soon after we headed to the newly found players lounge. This lounge was awesome, it contained a virtual golf game where you get to smack the ball into a screen, a heads-up machine, Nintendo wii, putting green, pool and some arcade games. Garry, Mel, Slippers, Zeeks and I stayed there until the wee hours playing props and drinking until everyone decided that at 6am it was probably time to leave. Being the sick degen that I am, and having to work at 12 I decided I would sleep on the couch and not waste time or money in getting home.

  

  Zeeks and Slippers playing heads-up

  With a full day of work under my belt after the night on the couch at the Rio I decided that on my day off I would venture out to the Premium Factory Outlets for a day of shopping. Seeing Slippers on the way to the taxi stand I somehow convinced to come along. With my purchase of a nice Polo sweat for my dad and my BOSE headphones me and Slippers were on our to the Venetian to play some poker.

  Sitting down on the $4-8 Omaha hi-lo game our stack fluctuated up and down several times before we colluded like Jozef Berec never could!! With Slippers in the small blind and myself in the big blind, we both checked preflop before slippers led for $4 on a flop of with -x-x, I decided to try and sneak some extra value in there so i raised the action up to $8 with and we got two callers. When the hit the turn Slippers led for $8 and i called followed by the two other players. When Slippers checked the on the river, i bet, and it was called round to slippers who 2-bet, followed by my 3-bet and we got both of the remaining players to call and we scooped the pot. SHIP IT CRUCIAL!!! Collusion at its FINEST!!!

  Following a good old Aussie BBQ at Slippers house followed by some jacuzzi and poker action I was rostered on to cover the 50k HORSE. With a long day us reporters scored some free WSOP mugs, as well as me personally scoring Phil Ivey's main event ticket stub with negative 200k in prop bets written on the back as well as Durrr's HORSE ticket stub. Maybe they can take the event out and it will be worth HEAPS on ebay!!!

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  Read more: Melissa Castello, Anthony Molinaro, Garry Gates, Zeeks Guza, Players Lounge, Premium Factory Outlets, BOSE, Venetian

• Event 22 at Caesars Palace - Part II

  June 24, 2008

  Coming back at 2pm for the final table we were met with a huge problem as Caesars hadn't taken into consideration the mass 700+ field for the following mega stack event. After the idea of an 11 handed final table being thrown into the garbage we finally got things going at around 3pm.

  With the payouts being very top heavy, everyone was aiming high:
  1st - $22,129
  2nd - $11,423
  3rd - $5,711
  4th - $4,997
  5th - $4,284
  6th - $3,570
  7th - $2,856
  8th - $2,142
  9th - $1,428
  10-12th - $857
  13-15th - $714
  16-18th - $571
  19-27th - $428
  28-36th - $286

  After losing the 11th player we were down to the final table and I re-drew for seat 1 having 120,00 in chips, meaning I was in the small blind for the first hand. With blinds at 5k-10k a middle position player made it 40k to go and was faced with a re-raise all-in for around 200k. Peeling my cards in the small I sweated in the small blind and went POW and shoved my stack in there. With the middle postion player calling and tabling and the re-raiser tabling I did the old 'one time' chant as the the dealer was ready to spread the board. When the board ran out I tripled up to 396,000 and was back in the game.

  Play slowed for a while before I knocked out 9th and 8th when I called there all-ins with vs and the board ran out , and vs on a board and was up to 680,000 as play reached seven-handed.

  I then eliminated 7th as well when I called his all-in from the small blind with and flopped a 7 against his and was now on 742,000 as we were down to players. With a break on the horizon one of the players (who held the queens earlier on) came over and chatted to me, "look, you and me are going to go heads up, lets just get these guys out of the way and go from there", agreeing with his view we headed to break with chip stacks at:
  1: Me - 870,000
  2: Semi-donkey - 380,00
  4: Fish - 165,000
  6: Good player - 560,000
  7: Unsure - 159,000
  8: Good player - 530,000

  As we moved to 5 players I had a stack of 801,000 with blinds at 20k-40k with a 5k ante, and when we reached three-handed play I was short on around 430,000. However I managed to double against the good player (lets call him James) who I was going to chop with.

  At a high point I moved up to around 1,131,000 in chips and had around half of the chips in play at one point, however it wouldn't last as I went on to do blow up like an Andy Block (WSOP Main Event 2005) or an Issac Haxton (2007 Pokerstars' Caribbean Poker Adventure). I called a 100k raise from the big blind with from 'James' who was in the small blind, and when the action was checked to me on the flop of I led for 200,000. Now the reason I led for so much was because during most of the final table play whenever I led for full pot I would always show down a really strong hand, however when I would bet around 2/3 pot I was normally semi-bluffing/c-betting. However he proceeded to move all-in for an additional 250,000, and with the amount in the pot I was forced to call and was up against , with a great sweat of the on the turn, the river failed to deliver as it dropped the .

  The next hand I was left with around 460,000 in change and James raised the button to 100k. As I looked down at I knew I was way ahead of his range from the button and 3-bet all-in for my whole stack. However when the big blind woke up with and proceeded to move in over the top I knew I was in trouble, and with James folding I was happy with my decision but not my fate as I couldn't out run the tight player in the 4-seat as the board ran out 6-high and I was eliminated in 3rd place out of 368 runners.

  3rd place netted me $5,711 for my $235 buy-in, but after being taxed for $1,640 (which is claimable once back home) and shipping 10% to Dane I will have netted around $3,400 in profit.

  Looking back at the tourney I was extremely please on how I played as I wasn't blessed with cards as I only saw Aces once, Kings twice, AK twice and my next best hands being 9's and 7's. My only mistake was with the as I should have checked back on the flop or 3-bet pre. However with 1 final table under my belt for a 6k collect, and our fellow housemate Michael Guzzardi shipping 90k for a 7th place finish in Event 34 - PLO with rebuys, us Aussie boys are ready to really hit the felt of Vegas.

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  Read more: Mega Stack Series, Michael Guzzardi

• Event 22 at Caesars Palace - Part I

  June 20, 2008

  So with a day off me and Dane decide to play a deep stack at Caesars Palace. Once Christian had arrived at work and we jumped into a cab to head over to Caesars me and Dane decided to swap 10% in each other - and after the way he had been running so far this trip; it was definately a worthy swap.

  Buying into event 22 of the 2008 Mega Stack Series it cost $225 plus an additional $10 in staff bonus we started out with 5,000 + 2,500 in chips. As I found my seat down the back of the poker room on table 62 I slowly settled into the groove while Dane doubled early with Aces vs. AK on a king-high flop - blessed. My first major hand came up when I checked in the big blind, following a button limp and a small blind completion. The flop ran out and I led for 250, with only the button calling. I checked both the and on the turn and river and was faced with a 300 bet from the button when the third spade fell. Pondering for a while there isn't alot that I beat, but decided it was more of an information gathering call and consequently got all the info I needed when he tabled for a flush and I was down to 7,500.

  A few hands later I was on the button and was dealt . With a loose player limping under-the-gun for 100, a call in middle postion from a tight player, I decided to bump it to 425 (as you do with Jack-4 yeah . . .) and was met with only one call from the tight player in middle position. She led for 700 on the flop of and going into the tank for a little while I bumped it to 2100. Now the reason behind this was that I believed that this was the only way I could win the pot as I certainly wasn't ahead, also with my raise over a tight players limp it represented strength. My raise to 2100 left me with enough chips behind to shut down if she called and the bet was big enough to push her off the hand. As she folded I announced I had an overpair with a flush draw and scooped the pot and moved back up to 8,700.

  As the third level drew to a close I raised to 500 from late postion with blinds at 100-200 with and was faced with a raise out of the small blind to 1000. Calling the min-raise, my opponent bet 2,000 on the flop of and I thought for a while before moving all-in for an additional 4,800 more. He folded his and I moved up to 11,000.

  My table broke and I moved to a knew table where my first impressions were that it was extremely limp happy. After limping I was going to 3-bet over a button raise with AQ but decided not to - and was pleased when the flop came down 4-high. Knowing I was at a limp happy table I decided I should try and open with a wider range of hands and woke up with in middle postion and bumped it to 1,000 with blinds at 200-400. I was met with four callers including two big stacks with a loose image in late postion and both the blinds. The flop fell and after the action being checked to me I through out a bet of 4,000 and was met with only one caller out of the big blind. We both checked the turn of the and when the river of the I was faced with a 4,000 chip decision. Looking at the hand, a better jack either raises me on the flop or checks the river due to the King dropping, a bare 5 raises the flop or bets the turn at least, and there is no real reason why a king would be in there. So with my checklist satisfied I call the 4,000 as the big blind tables and I take the pot down and move up to 23,200.

  Having a good size stack of 20k and being amongst the chip leaders on the table I still wanted to remain fairly tight and just wait for my chances to take peoples stacks. However this hand came up that made me double think myself (which I never do, or should do). With a limp in early postion from a player that is equal in chips to me and is very loose I decide to just call from the small blind with knowing that the big blind is short and may shove; now if she did I would call only if the ep player folded. With her checking I led for 2,100 on the flop of and was met with a call from the loose ep player. When the hit the turn I lead for another 2/3 pot bet of 4,500 but was met with an intant all-in raise for my tourament life (as it would have left me completely crippled). Pondering for ages, so many hands ran through my mind. This player couse easily have me beat with AQ or a set, but what was more likely (and more scary) was that a Q5 or Q4 was a distinct possibility. However I eventually made the call and he tabled and when the river bricked with the I jumped up to 41,700 in chips and was definately amongst the tournament chip leaders.

  A few hands later I made a raise under-the-gun to 2,100 with blinds at 400-800 with and was met with a call from the button and the big blind. The action was checked to the button on the flop of , all the while I stared intently at the button player in seat 1 trying to gather information. Watching him closely I noticed that his eyes were darting everywhere over the board, looking left to right quickly, and with that I realised that this guy hadn't connected with the board at all; a flush draw, up and down, anything but a made hand. Once the big blind folded I snapped his 5,500 bet and checked the on the turn to him. As he lined up 10k or so in chips I knew that whatever he bet I was moving all-in - thats how confident I was. Once he checked behind, I just pleaded for know Ace, Queen, Jack or 9. BANG the on the river, quick to check, he followed to and tabled and I took the pot down and moved up to 50,900 as we headed into our third break.

  Once the break was over I moved to one of the final tables and knew that I really had to get use to the table as we were second last to break. Second hand back I raised with from late position and was met with a re-raise all-in from the button for 2,700 more, with the action folding around to me I was priced in to call and was a long shot to out run his . However with our household being blessed of late the board ran out and I moved up to 58,000. Later on in the level with blinds at 800-1600, I called a 4,600 raise from the big blind with and check-raised all-in over a 8,000 bet on a board reading . With my opponent facing another 15k more he made a sick call with , but having a billion outs I hit one on the turn when the fell followed by the and consequently eliminated him and moved up to 89,000.

  Following that hand an interesting character moved to the table who placed a somewhat daunting card protector on the table. Being greeted with, "excuse me, but have you won a bracelet?", I peered up from under my sky blue full tilt cap, and sat up straight adjusting my un-ironed white shirt, replied with, "sorry mate, I think you have me confused with someone else" and went straight back to my music and the task at hand; shipping the tourney. With Dane recently eliminated after he made a move from the small blind I sat tight for a while not seeing any hands under I stared down at under-the-gun and made it 4,000 to go. Getting four callers I bet 12,000 on a flop of and they all folded as I stacked my chips to 96,600.

  

  Interesting card protector

  With a wierd payout structure of the top 36 players getting paid, and table re-draws every 10 players lost from 40 onwards we re-drew with only four players needing to be eliminated before we all made the first money payout of $286. As we re-drew I landed a table with a ton of chips, but still remained seconde in chips with 105,800. Learning alot since bubbling the WSOP main event last year I stepped up and played 12 of the 15 hand-for-hands on the bubble trying to accumulate chips knowing that everyone was playing fairly tight just to register a cash. My stack went up and down as I raised hands ranging from , , , and , but eventually the bubble burst with me stuck on 113,500.

  

  Stack on the bubble - very Vos like

  Having a nice stack with 30 players remaining I sat on around 150k and by 22 players were left it had slowly dwindled down to 120k. However I stepped it up a few gears and moved up to 204,000 with 19 remaining and a guarentee payout of $428. Then an interesting hand came up; with the under-the-gun moving all-in he was met with a call from the the big stack in middle position and I sweated 10's in the big blind. Flat calling and checking it down on the 9-high board, my hand was good and we lost another player. My only issue though is whether or not I should have re-raised pre or not . . .

  With a final table to be drawn at 10 we were stuck on 11 players for nearly a full two levels before the 2am deadline came to a halt. With the only option to bag our chips and come back the next day, I was sitting bottom range with now only 138,000 in chips.

  Once our chips were bagged, I met up with Slippers and the others as they played some cash games at Caesars. I made the dreaded phone call to Garry that I had a final table the next day and would be late for work. After he ok'd it, we headed home so I could get some rest for a potential $23,000 pay day the next day.

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  Read more: Christian Vaughn, Dane Jensen, Caesars Palace, Mega Stack Series

• A Palm Tree and a Desperate Boy

  June 19, 2008

  So yesterday I had to cover the 7-card stud championship with Don, Eric, Joe and some of the other reporters. With a very strong field, it was a pro-heavy field that finished the day with a long way until they would reach the money.

  As the day wound up, computers were bagged and pens were capped, Garry headed over and invited us all out to this place for some drinks. With only the Venetian on the cards for me and Joe we decided to join everyone else to steam off a little and neck a few cold ones along with Christian, Chris and Donald.

  As we approached Tommy Rocker's we found out that it wasn't just a bar, but it was 'Tommy Rocker's Mojave Beach - a rock 'n' roll topless bar'! Once through the doors and past the 11 people crowding the bar we all took a booth for ourselves. As the first round of drinks came out, out came the deck of cards and we were all doing omaha flips.

  Once Eric was stuck $200 to Garry doing $50 double flop omaha flips, I taught everyone how me and Shane do the 9-card omaha flips - discard 2 preflop, 2 on the flop and 1 on the turn. With everyone loving the idea that got going until the real action started to occur.

  With a strip pole in front of us, and a reporter desperate for some extra cash we dared Joe 'Alf' Schepis to get up on stage, dance for 2 songs with his feet leaving the ground every 10 seconds for longer then 2 seconds or so; and if he could get a girl up there with him we would chuck in an extra $20 on top of the $85 he was already getting. However the boss didn't like the idea of a guy 'stripping' for the crowd as it might scare his 11 customers off. So we came up with another idea.

  In the corner near the stripper stage there was a palm tree; for 80 bucks all Joe had to do was pretend to hump the tree for 2 songs and he would get paid. As he humped and grinded the tree for a the first 20 seconds of the next song a shout of, "WHAT THE HELL!!" came from the bar and Joe immediately deserted the tree. "You know I was thinking. I gotta do that for like 8 more minutes. Fuck that!! That ain't worth 80 bucks" said Joe as he sat back down to finish off his Budd light.

  With Garry being up a billion in prop bets and flips for the night he shouted a lap dance for Joe with the 'stripper' - thats if you can call her that - no idea how to dance, pregnancy marks that represented 3 kids and not the best looking shiela either! With everything said and done, we were out of there after 3 rounds of drinks, some food, enough laughs to last us the rest of the trip and all it cost was $96 - and thanks to Garry; on him.

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  Read more: Christian Vaughn, Eric Ramsey, Garry Gates, Joe Schepis, Chris Boncek, Donald Peters

• D-E-G-E-N-E-R-A-T-E Gambling

  June 18, 2008

  Its been a few days since my last post, but my most recent expedition while here in Las Vegas was a night following a long day at the Rio. Dane, Lily (Van Marcus's missus) and I decided to head downtown to Binion's to play some poker. Once there Dane and Lily headed to the craps tables while I headed straight to the famous Binion's poker room.

  With no room on the $1-2 NLH game, I put my name on the list and decided to play $2-4 limit holdem. With no idea how much to buy in for I asked for $200; with a puzzled look from the chip runner I gave him 3 $100 bills instead. As I sat down with 2 stacks of red $5 chips and 5 stacks of blue $1 chips, I had my nearest opponent outchipped by $100 and most of the table covered by $150 to $200. That puzzled look given to me by the chip runner was not in relation for buying in short, but for buying in for too much; oh well.

  As I started to recieve cards, people started cracking jokes about my 7 stacks of red and blue chips. With chat revolving around Australia, why I'm here, the WSOP and many other things, I slowly started to chat to get to know the player on my right.

  Her name was Michelle, and she was a 32 year old bartender of Spanish decent who had been in Vegas since she was 18. We got along like a house on fire with her having a wierd obsession with my accent and how I pronounce words like 'player' and the like. As our Corono's were delivered and our shots of Crown I took down my first pot with top top, and it wasn't the last as I played really tight and solid and grinded up a slow profit of around $50 by the end of the hour.

  With Michelle taking down a nice pot and having to run to the bathroom after our 3rd shot of Crown and subsequential Corona I decided to stack her chips into a nice little design - the first (and hopefully not my last) of my trip so far.

  

  Michelle's chip stack at Binion's

  Finally her brother was upset as we were having way too much fun and consequentially decided to drag her out and leave me to defend against the now short-handed table as we approached 3am. Over the next 30 minutes I went on to drop $200 to pretty much the same guy; it was unbelievable - everytime I had AK to his AQ it would be a queen-high board, or I would have Jacks against his 8's and he would river a set. Over and over again this happened.

  On super tilt and looking to rebuild so I was at least even I headed over to the $1-2 game to join Dane and Lily; who after a few drinks and a nice little profit from craps had finally decided to hit the felt. An hour into the NLH game, i had built from $100 to around $200 without ever getting a major hand. At that point we reached 4-handed play and decided to switch it up to $1-2 PLO. With everything going smoothly; back to even, and play reaching 3-handed, we all decided to do $10 omaha flips.

  16 flips!! Yep thats right, I lost 16 flips in a row to both Lily and Dane and my whole stack bar $100!! Starting at $10 it got uped to $15 and then $20 and finally a few $50 ones where I would flop a straight and lose to runner runner flush or book!! Tilting to the max I headed to the $1 roulette tables to try and grind my back to even. With 20 minutes I eventually ran my remaining $100 back up to $300 and was somewhat square and on my way back to the Nugget for a now stressless night's rest.

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  Read more: Lily Bui, Dane Jensen, Binions

• Moral Dilemma

  June 14, 2008

  So yesterday I covered Event 24 - $2,500 PLH/PLO with Eric, Tony and some other guys. After a long day we all headed back to the hotel to plonk out and get some well earned sleep. However, I hadn't eaten that much and was really craving some food; so after showering and cleaning up a little I decided to head down town to find some food.

  As I paced Freemont street looking for anything to eat, mind you it was 3am in the morning, the only thing I could come across was Maccas. So as I sat down and chomped down a sausage and egg mcmuffin, a hash brown and a minute maid orange juice I slowly started to notice the abundance of not so fortunate people, or 'bums' strolling round Freemont st.

  Departing Maccas I was greeted by a guy looking for change. Feeling pretty happy I decided to empty my pocket to him which consisted of about 84 cents. As I walked away I thought to myself, "the next time someone like him asks me for money I'm going to ask him what he wants it for". I'm not sure if its a moral dilemma I have, but I don't really want to be giving a bum money if they're going to use it for drugs, booze or flusy women.

  Not longer then 10 seconds later another guy aproaches me. "Hey man, you got like 80 cents? If you give me a dollar I can give you change". Responding with, "Sorry mate, I just gave my change to that guy", I thought about what he might want it for and asked him "What do you want it for buddy?". Responding with "I just wanna get some food", I opened my wallet and handed him a dollar bill.

  Once back at the Nugget I made my bed which consisted of a lilo covered with a doona cover and a small pillow, followed with another doona on top. The result . . . the best sleep I've had since arriving in Vegas! Was it karma in helping those two guys out, or was it a deserved good sleep . . . ??

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  Read more: Eric Ramsey, Tony Marquis, Maccas

• Deuce to Seven and the Tank

  June 12, 2008

  So over the last 2 days I have been covering Event 18 - $5,000 No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw with Rebuys. With the strongest field ever assembled (in my view) and a starting stack of 10,000 with blinds starting at 100-200 with a 50 ante we thought the game would be very slow for most of the day.

  However when Phil Ivey had already dumped close to $100,000 by the end of the rebuy period, we had second thoughts on how the remaining day of play would end up. With Mike Matusow and Tom 'Durrr' Dwan in the lead for the start of day 2, everyone was pulling for Tony G as a potential PokerNews bonus could be on the cards if he ship shipped the 500k first prize.

  As the close of play came to end, Erik Lindgren crippled chip leader Durrr down to a big blind when he stood pat with a perfect 10 against Durrr's pat 10-7. With a final table made up of Mike Matusow, Barry Greenstein, Jeff Lisandro, Tony G, Tom Schneider, David Benyamine and Erik Lindgren; it was anyone's bracelet.

  With the day over and my first day off tomorrow, it was still going to be all hands on deck as we had to move from the Excalibur to the Golden Nugget for a few days before finally moving in to our house. Once me and Dane arrived back at the hotel, we headed straight to the felt. Dane finished stuck a buy-in but I cashed out up $400 in an hour or so of play. Feeling good, but still wanting to gamble, I first headed to 4-card poker where I lost $100 - allright still up a $100, not that bad. Then I went to roulette where I lost another $100 - allright I'm even, not that great. THEN I went spastic; I ended up losing another $400 on 4-card poker. First I was betting small amounts like $5-10 on each box ($20-40 a hand) then I just let loose and plonked down $100 a hand until I went broke. Feeling like the biggest degen in the world both me and Dane headed upstairs to get some shut-eye before our early 11am start the next day.

  With the night before's antics behind me we headed out to the airport to pick up the car Christian wanted to rent for a few days. Waiting for him to fill in the doco's we realised that we had free wireless. BANG!! Just like that our computers were out and me and slippers were playing heads up against each other. I lost to Slippers 2-1 but beat Dane 2-0, not a bad result while we waited, and then we got another surprise.

  

  Playing heads up at the car rental office

  Waiting so long for the car to come down, they decided to upgrade us and put us in a Dodge Ram; probably the biggest god-damn pick-up truck I've ever seen. After climbing into the truck we were on our way to check in to the Golden Nugget and jump in the Tank for a swim.

  For people that don't know, the Tank is the newly refurbished pool at the Golden Nugget equipped with a shark tank, a 3-level water slide and blackjack by the pool. As we swam, jacuzzied up, and slid down the 30-feet high waterslide for most of the arvo while necking back Corona's in a can, it all finally came to an end around 8pm when we decided that it was time to head out to enjoy Downtown and have some dinner.

  

  The Tank

  With Guzzardi still in the $5,000 NLH event, it was just the usual suspects plus Tom 'the camera guy' and another blogger Don. After chowing down some dinner at Binions we were on to the table games. Everyone hanged round the craps tables while I headed to roulette. I ship shipped $125 at the Golden Gate playing $1 roulette and then another $50 at Binions - it was somewhat satisfying after my donk off from the other night at the Excalibur. With Guzzardi out of the 5k with 6mins on the clock remaining and Matusow shipping the 2-7, it capped off a good few days.

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  Read more: Donald Peters, Tom Kinsman, Anthony Molinaro, Dane Jensen, Michael Guzzardi, Christian Vaughn, Golden Nugget, The Tank

• Things To Do In Vegas - Part I

  June 11, 2008

  So I've compiled a list of things that I want to do/buy/achieve while I'm here for the WSOP in Las Vegas. So in no particular order:

  - Buy some BOSE headphones
  - Buy new poker bag
  - Cash in a tournament
  - Make 3k+ (inclusive of poker and work)
  - Visit the Gamblers General Store
  - Play at the Bellagio
  - Win the PokerNews reporter freeroll

  I'm sure I'm going to add to the list - so this can be part I.

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  Read more: BOSE, Gamblers General Store, Bellagio

• Dinner, Security and Hi-Lo

  June 10, 2008

  Being Sunday over here I headed into the Rio at 5pm with Dane as we both had to cover the Limit Omaha 8 (or Hi-Lo) event. It started pretty slow, but eventually things got going with a few Aussies bagging their chips for day 2 including Billy "the Croc" Argyos; who I happened to lose a $20 side bet with. I took the overs on 200 players remaining at the end of the day in the 550 field and he took the unders; the result, a final count of 188.

  During the dinner break, I grabbed a cheeseburger and fries and went to sit down in the dinner tent. Not more then two bites into my burger I was joined by PokerStars pro Victor Ramdin who joined me for dinner. We discussed all things poker and gambling, Crown Casino, the Australian economy and of course cricket (since he is of Indian decent). All in all it was interesting having dinner with him as I was unsure of whether or not to talk to him since the dinner break was only short. However with his great personality it was easy chatting with him, and consequently enjoyed an interesting dinner break.

  After we met up with Garry to have our daily meeting I sat up my computer in the far corner under the 'Player of the Year' hanging pictures. Only several minutes in to replying to emails etc, a few of the guys set up a sit-n-go on one of the empty tables. I decided to join them to play a HORSE sit-n-go.

  After getting stacked in stud hi-lo, we were approaching our second holdem round before security came in to escort us out. We were happy to oblige, but they wouldn't even let us clean the mess up that we left. With arguing not really helping, or going anywhere, we just put up with it and left.

  I headed back to the computer and took full advantage of the free internet. Not leaving until 6am, the whole Rio was empty; all 165 tables or so, apart from the few cash games still going, were empty of the cards, the chips and the players that have filled them for the past few weeks. Tomorrow - Event 18 - $5,000 No Limit Deuce-Seven Lowball with rebuys . . . ship ship.
  

  

  An empty Amazon room at the Rio
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  Read more: Rio, Victor Ramdin

• That Winning Feeling . . . Eventually

  June 09, 2008

  Today I was covering the $5,000 NLH Shootout Event with Zeeks and Slippers. Covering 2 tables each, Slippers was done in an hour while it took me and Zeeks 3 and 5 hours respectively to finish off. Once done, and being early, me and Slippers decided it was a night to go and do something.

  

  Slippers a little tipsy

  Once back at the hotel we got changed and headed firstly downstairs to the Excalibur poker room with Dane to play some $2-4 limit holdem. With Christian staying in the room to listen to the Dogs vs. Saints match (go dogs ship ship) we all downed our fair share of Corona's before netting a small loss. We decided it would be fun to walk from the Excalibur all the way to the Venetian to meet up with Jimmy and Celina - about an hour later, semi-drunk and with 5 more kilometres under our belt we arrived at the Venetian. Feeling like playing Slippers and Dane hit some $4-8 limit while I decided to avenge my feelings of being a donkey and have another crack at $1-2 NLH.

  Buying in for $200 I had a hell of a fun time chatting with the yanks on the table, running over to Dane and Slippers to see their monster stack of $1 chips and eventually cashing out for $347. However I did have some interesting hands that I'm going to share with you. Firstly, I live straddle to $4, re-straddle by the guy I've been having fun with all night to $6. It gets called round where I bump it to $8 and its called round again. I bet $5 dark on a flop of , it goes call, call, call, raise to $15. Being forced to look I'm about to sweat my cards before I'm convinced to call dark - so being the gullable Aussie I am I do as I'm told. Going heads up to the turn I again bet $5 dark and am raised to $20 when the lands. I decide to sweat one card, and once I peel the I call while announcing, "I have a potential flush and straight draw". As I check the turn, my opponent leads for $30 this time. I decide to table my and sweat my other whole card with the rest of the table.

  Aarrgh the gets sweated. Sick!! Now I know I'm beat, but I have to call him. So I reluctantly throw the $30 in and he rolls for a book. Darn it!!!!

  So I slowly start to rebuild before this hand comes up. Facing a raise in middle position of $6 and 4 callers in front of me I call with out of the big blind. The flop comes down ; preflop aggressor checks, bet of $10, call, I call, and preflop agressor calls. Everyone checks the on the turn. However when the lands on the river I check for pot control, however this time the preflop aggressor leads for a heavy bet of $30. With everyone folding to me I go into the tank. Now if we break the hand down there are only a few hands that beat me that are in her range. We have A5 or a suited connector 5 like or a set of kings or sevens. Now I can't put her on an ace, because she would c-bet the flop and definately not float. So really, I'm only beat by a set or A5, so I've got the 3rd nuts in the hand and reluctantly call and table my hand. She rolls for a turned book.

  So sick! God damn 1-outer!! Ah, it only cost me $36 so it ain't that bad. I try and explain the hand to everyone, and after reacting like total donkeys they finally understand what I'm on about and understand that I'm not just some drunk tourist that has pet kangaroos and carry's big knives round the bush.

  After that hand I slowly start rebuilding again and then get a hand where I'm still so confused about. Calling a straddle with and with 4 callers after me. I bet $11 into the flop of and get 2 callers. The turn is the and I check raise a bet and call of $15 to $40. The girl (which had the set of 7's) tanks forever; first she gives me respect, and then she doesn't, and the she does again. After about 4 minutes, she folds, along with the other player, and announces that she folded a straight. I quickly mucked and thought how do I not gain a call there with my click back? It's still puzzling me!

  Anyway one of my final hands for the night was when I limp called a $15 raise from the tightest player on the table. The flop came down , and I check the action over to her where she quickly leads for $35. Thinking for a while I come to the conclusion she has AK, 30% of me however says she has Jacks or something so therefore I have a 6-outer. I reason that I'm ahead and slide a stack of reds in to put her all-in, and with that she insta-calls.

  "You got me, you got me" I announce sheepishly rolling my . When the and came on the turn and river I thought "man I just blew my profit with that hand!", but when she didn't roll her cards I again announced, "yeah you got me" and she responded with "nah, you got me" in her quiet east-coast accent. SHIP SHIP!! Up $347 and on my way home with Dane for the night. Its now only another $20 or so before I'm completely unstuck for my week here!!

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  Read more: Anthony Molinaro, Zeeks Guza, Christian Vaughn, Dane Jensen, Excalibur, Venetian