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USA vs the World and the PokerNews Freeroll
July 09, 2008With all of the day 1's from the 2008 WSOP Main Event being played there has been a planned break before the two day 2's are to begin. With reportable events on (because who cares about the Casino Employees event . . .) PokerNews planned a day out of fun for all their employees.
The day started nice and early at 1pm at the Las Vegas Indoor Soccer Centre where kick-off between the USA and the World in the inaugural PokerNews International Friendly began. With Garry captaining the USA team and Felipe (our photographer) captaining our World team, the fireworks soon began when USA captain Gates scored the first goal for the home team. It was quickly followed by USA-recruit Dustin Sitar when he scored soon after. Not only was he a non-PokerNews member (one was allowed per team) but he was also a successful poker player.
Scores were traded back and forth with the USA staying ahead at all times until half-time. We lost our star in Giovanni, and it would be left to me, Slippers, Thano, Felipe and some of the Dutch-PokerNews staff to gain the lead back. However this would be a really hard task as the USA team contained 4 semi-pro soccer players in Dustin, Garry (who has played indoor many times before this match), Don ( who played college soccer) and Neil.
Play during the first halfThe second half was all USA as the retained their lead until the final minute. With the scores at 11-9 in USA's favour, one of our dutch players put a ripper goal in to put us behind by 1, and with about 30 seconds to go, yours truly scored one to even the scores. As the USA players sunk to the ground, we lined up for peneltys, and being the shittest soccer player alive I sat back as the first reserve. As we shot first, the scores went 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4 until it was up to the captains. Felipe stepped up and shot deep into the top corner to put the scores to 5-4 and next it was up to Garry. As he lined up with all of the pressure on his shoulders he aimed to the far left, and as it hurled toward the back of the net it was saved by our goalie sending the World team to victory!!
Following the soccer match we played a game of bball and were joined by Christian, Dane and Guzz. With an intense match it was the USA's turn to take home the victory against the predominately Australian based world team.
Christian heading to the basketFollowing a quick trip home we would arrive back at the Rio for the PokerNews freeroll. Not before I left Guzzardi wanted a piece of the action and bought 10% of me for $10 - which I thought was a fair deal as the chance of cashing in a freeroll is always small when you're a great player like myself (ha ha ha) as there is so many banana plays occuring.
Slippers and Eric foldingThe freeroll began in the Amazon room at the same time the Casino employees event was being undertaken. Wearing my Nascar-inspired shirt with all the online poker company's logo's attached from Full Tilt to 888 to t6 and poker-affiliated company's such as PokerNews, Bluff, PokerRoad and WPA I sat down and played extremely tight until moving to my second table. I took down a few pots and built my stack to around 6000 (double starting) before again moving to my third table. Sitting with Don, Eric, Leon and some others time ticked away as we approached the starting time for the PokerStars party.
Me stealing some blindsWith only two tables remaining people really wanted to cash in this freeroll, but I was aiming high for the first prize of $2000. Having swapped 10% with Heath earlier, he was eventually eliminated and began to rail me hoping to make some money off me to cover his potential expenses later on. With Eric being the only one to pass on a deal with 13 remaining I limped to the final table of 10 in about 4th chip position. Deciding on a deal, we all took $500 and flipped for the remaining $300 - which I lost.
Getting changed out of my poker-shirt we were all on the way to enjoy what PokerStars could provide for not only their players and staff, but also their VIP's in us PokerNews guys.
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Read more: Thano Vasilakos, Neil Fray, Filipe Pacheco, Anthony Molinaro, Christian Vaughn, Dane Jensen, Donald Peters, Eric Ramsey, Garry Gates, Heath Chick, Michael Guzza
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Event 22 at Caesars Palace - Part I
June 20, 2008So 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 protectorWith 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 likeHaving 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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A Palm Tree and a Desperate Boy
June 19, 2008So 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
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Deuce to Seven and the Tank
June 12, 2008So 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 officeWaiting 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 TankWith 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
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That Winning Feeling . . . Eventually
June 09, 2008Today 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 tipsyOnce 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!!333 views, 0 comments
Read more: Anthony Molinaro, Zeeks Guza, Christian Vaughn, Dane Jensen, Excalibur, Venetian
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The Highs and Lows of Travelling - Part III
June 06, 2008With my arrival in San Francisco I checked my suitcase in and got my ticket. However with my bag being a massive 11 pounds over the 50lbs limit I was forced to take some gear out or fork out $US50 for the additional baggage.
As I sorted through what I could I thought, "fuck it!! Its on Qantas!!" and decided to ship them $50 and just be on my way to the gate. Through security and onto my gate, I sat listening to my first downloaded podcasts from the guys at PokerRoad. The stuff that they are producing is top notch! Not only is it informative, but its also enjoyable, funny and really really interesting.
We boarded the plane on time (2 in a row!!) and was on our way to Las Vegas; but like all the flights previously we encountered even more problems. With high winds, Las Vegas airport was closed and we had to circle for a while before heading to Ontario, California to re-fuel. Instead of a 90-minute journey to Las Vegas it ended up being a 5-hour trip before I landed at McLaren Airport in Las Vegas - not a moment too soon I might add!!
A trip to the hotel to visit Dane and Christian (they lost their luggage too), I was over to the Rio to get organised with PokerNews, before eventually making it back to the Excalibur Hotel a bit before midnight to catch some well needed shut-eye as work starts tomorrow.
