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• USA vs the World and the PokerNews Freeroll

  July 09, 2008

  With 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 half

  The 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 basket

  Following 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 folding

  The 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 blinds

  With 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

• 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

• 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

• 2 Days In and Haven't Stopped Yet!!

  June 09, 2008

  So its been 2 busy days so far of non-stop action for me (as well as the other Aussies here). It all started on Thursday when I awoke around 6am. Not being able to sleep I lied on the floor listening to Poker Road on my iPod. Half way through one of their shows it came to my attention that they broadcast live from the Rio at 11am.

  So there I am walking the 3km's from the hotel to the free shuttle service (yep I won't even pay 8 bucks for a cab, but will walk in the hot Nevada desert for half an hour to catch a free bus!!) to get to the Rio before their show begins. Once there I load up my laptop, chat to some mates, reply to emails, jump on PokerNetwork, while all the time listening to Gavin Smith, Joe Sebok and Ali Nejad chatting away for an hour or so.

  With no more Poker Road to listen to I head inside and find a spare bloggers table to continue on my laptop. As the clock ticks close to 2pm, Garry decides to put me to work early and help out with the $2,000 NLHE day 2 event. I meet two pretty cool blokes in Eric Ramsey and Tony Marquis. We all get along like a house on fire and finish the event late into the night. With the clock about to hit 2am, me, Slippers and Dane head to play the 2am Planet Hollywood tourney. However being an alternate I decide to play $1-2 instead.

  7 hands. Yep, thats how long I last. I make a play on the turn with and fold to a river bet on hand 1. Take a nice pot down with on hand 3, and on hand 7 I get stacked. Ok, so I make it $10 with and get called by a player in mp and from the bb. The flop comes down and I lead for $30, fold, raise all-in. I'm like whatever I only have $90 left, lets do it and chuck my remaining chips in. The bb roles for a set and I'm drawing dead on the turn.

  Wow, so I last 7 hands and am already down $150 - and to rub it in Slippers finished up $250, Christian up $200 and Dane up $360 odd. As we finish with some Pai Gow we all eventually make it back to the Excalibur by 7am with Dane starting in 5 hours and me starting in around 9 hours.

  Friday
  As I awake for work, I'm running a little late, so instead of being the tight ass I am I decide to catch a cab to the Rio to cover the $1,500 Limit Holdem event. Working with Garry for the first time, I really want to work not only well, but hard and efficiently. With the event running pretty smoothly and finishing late I head to the MGM to see the boys for a while. I enjoy a Starbucks (first time since leaving Las Vegas last year) while listening to their bad beats and then eventually head home for an early 4am bed time.

  Today I also caught up with Michael Guzzardi, Jimmy Burgoine and Celina who arrived from Melbourne; who are trying hard to get their money from the T6 promotions they won. Also bumped into Kirk Morrison; we got to catch up, chat about how things have been since we last were in contact and organised to met up once his WSOP campaign got running.

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  Read more: Poker Road, Eric Ramsey, Tony Marquis, Anthony Molinaro, Planet Hollywood, Michael Guzzardi, James Burgoine