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Browse by Tag - Donnie Peters

• GG Running Bad At The Golden Nugget

  July 08, 2009

  Well I busted the tourney and headed straight to the Rio while listening to 30 Seconds To Mars looped (really emo, self-hating, wanna slit your wrist stuff) with the volume booming so loudly my BOSE headphones were close to bursting!

  Once back at the Rio I moped round telling anyone I could my bad beat story, and after coping the frankly I don’t give a damn expression from GG he asked me if I wanted to head Downtown to be wing-man for Dave King. I choose to join the fight to get DK hooked up, and Donnie also joined us.

  We arrived at the Golden Nugget and walked through the carpark, pass the pool and then to the middle of the casino floor to hit a crossroad of what to do. Donnie wanted to play BlackJack, GG wanted to play Craps and I (obviously) wanted to play Baccarat. Since Donnie didn’t want to play craps, and either didn’t know how to play baccarat we all sat down at our own blackjack table.

  I have no idea why I even sat down at the table because it is definitely –EV for me as I have no clue on any strategy. Donnie and GG just told me what to do and I followed; eventually returning to even after an early down swing. I quit, Donnie continued to grind and GG got stacked.

  Over to Craps we went.

  Me and GG started our roll pretty well with us both banking some profit before meeting up with some friends as DK had messaged that he would have to ditch us because the girl wanted to ‘stay in’.

  We met up with Melissa (our camera girl) and her boyfriend Eddy at the roulette tables and I grinded a small profit before we threw $2 each on the number ten as Donnie quickly slammed down $75 on black.

  ”Number 10 for the PokerNews crew!”

  Bang! The ball bobbled into the ten and we all banked a nice win while we headed back to the Baccarat room so that I could grind the $10 shoe as GG went back to BlackJack. He won what he was losing all back . . . and then lost it all again while I pushed my profits up to the $200 mark. Donnie and GG decided it was time for some old fashioned poker and they sat down at an uncapped $1-2 No Limit Holdem table.

  

   

  Donnie and GG in action

  I railed them for a while before returning to Craps to take my profit up to $350 for the night as we rolled past 4am. Back to poker I returned to see GG playing like a complete nutter as Donnie grinded a steady profit. After GG pushed all in dark for around the 100 bb mark and won some and lost some he cashed out to head to craps. I sat with Donnie for a little bit more before heading to join GG.

  We stood near the craps table for nearly three minutes waiting before GG walked over to us.

  ”I’m done”
  “Ok, craps it is then”
  “No . . . I mean I’m done!”

  With GG dropping the last of what he had in just eight hands of Blackjack we made our way home just as the sun was starting to rise. I booked a $350 win, Donnie was even to up and GG . . . well GG advised me not to repeat how much he had dropped . . . so let’s just say it was between $5 and $5000 . . . I’ll let you be the judge!

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  Read more: Baccarat, BlackJack, Craps, David King, Donnie Peters, Eddy Sabat, Garry Gates, Golden Nugget, Melissa Castello, No Limit Holdem, Roulette

• Keep It Even Shoot!

  July 08, 2009

  With Donnie having the day off as well, we obviously sleep in way too long (standard on the days we get off now) and chill at the condo watching TV and surfing the net for a while. We finally pick the nightly $150 Harrah’s tourney as our choice and hail a cab to the strip.

  Once there we scoop out the Caesars Palace Forum Shops and then the Mirage before heading over to register for the tourney before grabbing a bite to eat at the food court just outside the hotel.

  We take our seats with mine being opposite a guy I played the Venetian Deep Stack with yesterday. I try and spark a conversation with him, but like most middle-class middle-aged and white Americans – he is a complete arse and waves me off like I fly to a dog that doesn’t give a shit!

  Starting with a 10,000-chip starting bank and a decent structure for this buy-in I fold my first hand, but then proceed to raise five of the next six and play both my rags out of the blinds:

  - raise to 150, re-raise to 450, call, check-fold fluffed flop

  - raise pre, bluff turn and get called by bottom pair

  - raise 150, four callers, check flop, call 500 on turn and then 2,000 on river on Jack-high and flush heavy board . . . of course its good when I get showed bottom pair

  - raise 150, six callers until big blind bumps it to 500, everyone calls, Ace-high board checked down, Kings are good

  - raise to 150, re-raise to 450, check-fold flop and he shows Queens

  I then chip up to 14,000 with tens again until I finally get knocked out. With blinds at 75-150 I open from late position to 400 and the big blind calls. He check-calls 525 on the flop and we both checked the on the turn before the landed. He led out for 1,200, I made it 3,500 and he shipped it for 6,000, I called and his was good . . . puzzled looks followed from me.

  I ended up shipping it with from the button, and the big blinds Queen-high was too good.

  * * * * * * * *

  There was an open seat on the $4-8 HORSE cash game and along I went to donk off while Donnie continued to grind it out.

  Rich Ryan – the pocket fives intern – and some random German midget (not being rude; he actually was) called Toto started playing props on my up-cards and the Holdem and Omaha boards. Rich took red for $5 and any King for $20, while Toto took black and any Deuce for $20. Rich started off bad, blowing out to $80 before pulling it back to the $20 mark while I ran my $300 buy-in up to $380.

  Rich and Toto both got seats in the game and my profit slowly was worked away as Rich’s prop bets extended back out to the $120 mark then the $200 mark, back to $125 then out to $355 before he cut his losses at $300.

  Donnie ran terribly in the tourney finishing 14th and then took that run-bad and put it into place in the cash game when he lost his buy-in, after winning a handy $80 off Rich in What Lodden Thinks?.

  I cashed out up $2 and we decided to head to Craps to see if Toto could continue his hot run and make us a fortune!

  

   

  I call it . . . The Bridge

  * * * * * * * *

  I played Craps properly for the first time the other night and really enjoyed it – regardless on how well I knew the rules!

  I bought in for $200 and saw it work its way down to $70 then $30 before the other guys went busto. I decided to see if I could run it up, and after a few good rolls and calling out, “keep it even shoot,” I was back to more then even – a tidy $14 profit.

  Being the complete degen gambler I am . . . there was no way I was pocketing that $14; instead it was Rich’s job to find one last bet for me.

  “Bet Boxcars”
  “What the hell is that?”
  “It’s when the shooter rolls two sixes”
  “Yeah, why not”

  I threw the last $14 on the boxcars and its one in thirty-six chance for a thirty-to-one payday and the shooter picked up the dice. He shuffled them in his hand before flinging them up towards our end of the table. They bobbled round, avoiding chips and bets that littered the board heavy . . . six . . . six.

  In an instant Rich went running off to the other end of the room and back in a complete state of shock that I had won on my first Boxcars bet, and like a dumbfounded noob I had no idea if I had won or what I had won!

  The dealer casually cut down a stack of green $25-denomination chips and handed most of them over to me to amount $420. I quickly cashed out $600 after placing one last bet (true degen style) and tipping the dealer to see me profit $400 for the night on craps and $250 overall.

  With Rich and Donnie having a cry about how good I run I bought them some 8am breakfast at Maccas before a nice long sleep in could occur with each of us not having to start until 5pm!

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  Read more: Craps, Donnie Peters, Harrahs, HORSE, McDonalds, No Limit Holdem, Rich Ryan

• Marc's Magic

  July 08, 2009

  So it’s the weekend in Vegas . . . but when you’re working with PokerNews . . . a weekend doesn’t exist!

  Off to the Rio at noon to take the reigns for the Event 28 - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em; however after the late night / early morning and stomach full of GreyGoose . . . I was a little worse for wear!

  There is no real point boring you with the details of the day, but once we were finished Donnie, Mat and me headed to SouthPoint to play some $2-4 Limit Holdem.

  We grinded away for a while before a very drunk Marc Hodge joined us and . . . how do you say it . . . spiced up the action!

  It was pretty much a game between us four with it being capped nearly every street on every hand. I ran the worst, but enjoyed the comic genius that is titled Marc’s Magic . . .

  I have two quad draws
  I’m getting crushed
  F**king nits!
  Drunk guy seat four
  I might be from Georgia, but we have calculators
  Duckworth, you know I run good and I’m an awesome poker player!

  

   

  
  Mat Pater and (a very drunk) Marc Hodge tearing up the $2-4 Limit Holdem table at SouthPoint

  * * * * * * * *

  Sunday saw me continue with the Event 28 - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em coverage, and just like the previous day there was nothing interesting about the tournament.

  No Phil Hellmuth-esque players ran deep, and the tourney wrapped up at 3am with three tables left.

  The next day flew pretty quick as we played down to the final table and then to see Mike Eise take down the $639,331 first prize along with the coveted gold bracelet. Here is one of the interesting and colourful hands that took place.

  * * * * * * * *

  care of PokerNews
  Jason Potter Eliminated in 4th Place ($185,444)
  Jason Potter shipped it all in from the button for just on a million and Jeff Chang made the call from the big blind.

  Potter:
  Chang:

  With Potter needing to catch a Queen to stay alive or a combination of a flush or straight, the crowd and Potter would erupt seeing the as the window.

  Like an online glitch, the dealer spread the flop but one card remained hidden. With it reading - the dealer would finally un-stick the two cards and out popped the .

  

   

  
  Jason Potter eliminated in 4th place

  Similar to the magnitude of a fireworks display on New Years Eve; the crowd erupted with an ear-splitting and deafening display of claps and stomps that the secondary feature table surely couldn't handle!

  With thunderous noise echoing throughout the stage the on the turn made it more interesting as it gave Potter additional flush outs to go with the two remaining Queens that could save his tournament life.

  The dealer burned and turned a black . . . and Potter would be forced to leave the rowdy stage on his way to collecting $185,444 for his 4th place finish.

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  Read more: Donnie Peters, Jason Potter, Limit Holdem, Marc Hodge, Mat Pater, SouthPoint

• Another Busted Tournament And Some Hard Rocking

  July 08, 2009

  Both me and Donnie had days off today and once we were finally up we decided to head to the Strip.

  We grabbed a cab and headed to the Rio to rail a few of Donnie’s mates before deciding to play the Caesars Palace 7pm $150 Second Chance tournament. For a total cost of $150 plus a $10 add on we received a 6,000 starting bank with a rather fast structure.

  Once there and registered Donnie wondered off and I sat down to watch the remainder of the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Detroit Red Wings (2-1 in game seven and 4-3 overall) on one of the many big screens that surrounded the poker room.

  However once the game was over I decided to wonder round to look for Donnie, and realised that we were actually late to the tourney and it had just crept into the second level.

  I sat down for the first hand of the 50-100 level with my 5,850 stack and didn’t really play a hand until I flopped two-pair from the big blind to take the pot down. Then on one of the last hands of the level I called a raise of 250 on the button with and managed to take the pot down by leading out for 525 into four players on the turn with the board reading .

  Ran card dead through the 50-100 level and moved tables midway to find myself on a table full of banana’s. The blinds went up to 200-400 and on the first hand I was dealt under the gun and opened to 1,000. It was folded round to some dude who pushed all in, folded back to me and I called for my tournament life to be in great shape against his .

  In continuance of my 80/20 and 70/30 exits in the past who knows how many tourneys the board (of course) ran out to see me bust in 90th-odd place out of the 150 starters.

  Donnie busted shortly after when he lost a race holding Ace-King against a pair of deuces and we were off to Body English at Hard Rock for a PokerNews funded Friday night on the town . . . via a trip home to get changed.

  * * * * * * * *

  Once all dolled up and ready to paint the town red with grabbed our third cab for the day and made paths to Hard Rock.

  Once there we found our table to find Lynn, Garry and a handful of others laying into the table full of GreyGoose vodka. We filled our drinks and the night started to get interesting. Meh to the usual drib-drabs of describing the night, so here are a few samplers . . .

  

   

  
  Body English at Hard Rock . . . everyone partying hard!

  Once the night slowly died down Eric, Donnie and me played some Blackjack before Neil Fray joined us for some Craps action. I broke even and then ventured to Mr. Lucky's 24-7 restaurant for some needed recovery breakfast with the boys and tucked into a cheeseburger before we return home . . . again in the brightness of the Vegas morning sun.

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  Read more: Body English, Caesars Palace, Donnie Peters, Eric Ramsey, Hard Rock, Neil Fray, No Limit Holdem

• Late Start Equals Late Night Profits

  July 08, 2009

  Ding Dong . . . Ding Dong . . . f**king hell Mat, just go answer the damn door so you can get a lift to work . . . it’s been like three hours and I’m already up

  Well that’s what I was thinking before I rolled over in my uber-comfy bed to see the alarm clock on the bedside table . . . 7:38pm . . . WTF!

  I had slept in way past what I’d expected, and now my day off had been turned into a night off. I knocked on Donnie and Eric’s door (which is just outside ours), “you just get up . . . you gotta be kidding me” quipped Donnie as he headed back up the stairs shaking his head and laughing. Still adjusting to the brightness of light I slowly stumbled up the stairs behind him to see him cooking dinner as I sat down on his couch to discuss our plans.

  * * * * * * * *

  We had decided on heading to Caesars Palace to play some $1-3 No Limit Holdem as we have been told that it’s a fairly soft game. We grabbed a taxi and forty bucks later, following a traffic standstill on Flamingo Road, we were there.

  They opened a new table in under three minutes time as we seemed to attract a bevy of people – obviously I had my I AM A FISH neon sign flashing on my back!

  I took down my first pot when I check-called each street against an Asian LAG and old-man NIT with on an Ace-high straight and flushing board to see my stack climb over the $250 mark. An orbit or so later I called $15 out of the small blind with against the LAG who had already started making moves, bluffing and raising with garbage.

  The flop fell down and I check-called $35 to see the fall on the turn and another check from me. Facing a bet of $55, I moved all in for $165 more, and following about ninty-seconds of deliberation the LAG folded.

  The hand became an avenue of discussion between me and Donnie, with his argument being a call on the turn and either a donk lead on the river or gamble with a check. Personally I wished I tanked on the turn and did the old ‘I guess I’m all in’ show like I have a draw. Either way it was a good session for the both of us, as I cashed out $403 and, courtesy of a quad bonus, Donnie cashed out up $250 – not a bad two-hours I say!

  * * * * * * * *

  After exchanging some texts with my two Melbournian’s in James and Rob that had just arrived in town, we both decided to head over to Imperial Palace to catch up.

  We tucked into some Subway before heading to the Rio around 1am to check out what was going on.

  The Ladies World Championship (in which I’m doing the final table tomorrow) was down to the last two tables while the Omaha Hi-Lo World Championships was on the money bubble. We showed the WSOP noobs round before Donnie settled into a $10-20 Limit Holdem game as James and Rob headed to the other side of the Rio to play some $1-3 No Limit Holdem.

  I sweated them for a while, before returning to sweat Donnie and his continuance in running bad at the Rio. 3am came round which meant our ride was ready, and after a quick visit to the petrol station for some snacks and of course petrol, I was at home and on the computer writing this blog!

  Bring on the Ladies tomorrow!

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  Read more: Caesars Palace, Donnie Peters, Imperial Palace, James Bernard, Mat Pater, No Limit Holdem, Rio, Rob Remeeus

• Luck Be A Lady (Not) Tonight

  July 08, 2009

  I’m not sure if it was for a scarcity of resources, the willingness to punish a poor young soul or the fact that a test of skills was needed by Garry (GG) had scheduled me on Event 17 - $1,000 Ladies World Championship . . . with him.

  I arrived before GG, but my chance of writing the tournament preview was snatched away – obviously he didn’t trust my creative juices! Either way we had 1,060 ladies take to the felt from the humble grandmother to the college girl to the experienced pro.

  It all started smoothly as we lost ladies left, right and centre; with the pros being early casualties in Tiffany Michelle, Kirsty Gazes, Marsha Waggoner, Maya Gellar, Mandy Baker and Liv Boeree.

  

   

  
  A windswept Liv

  GG would spend most of the day running round taking care of PokerNews business leaving me in charge to carry out the blogging duties – which of course didn’t change anything for me, but seemed to worry GG slightly.

  However, by days end it had seemed that GG’s trust factor had increased from 6% to a whopping 8.5%, and he left early. As the chips were bagged we saw Tamara Tibbles on top with Maria Ho and Erica Schoenberg holding the fort down for the pros.

  

   

  
  Erica Schoenberg

  Even with the early finish I still had to wait around for Eric to finish and once it rolled round to 3am we all made our way back home . . . and for me and Donnie . . . straight to SouthPoint!

  * * * * * * * *

  We both strolled in like we owned the place . . . not cause we thought we were King-Dick but because we were going to buy in deep on the $2-4 Limit Holdem table so as to look all balla-like.

  I wussed out however and only bought in for $200 while Donnie manned-up and bought in for $300; but that didn’t stop us from covering the table together with the average stack sitting at around $60.

  First hand in the blinds we went to war against each other with my Queens running second best to his Aces and then some of the players started to realise that they were probably a long shot to grind out a profit (plus the fact that it was 4am) and decided to leave.

  Seven players, then six, then four, which included two kids from Ireland – one really hot 20-something and her boyfriend (sigh). Both on the drunk-side they kept things interesting for a while before they had to vacate as well. They didn’t leave us empty-handed as Sarah gave us her phone number as she was a bartender at Tryst Nightclub at the Wynn, and told us to contact her if we ever wanted to be put on the door list . . . ship it!

  With only me and Donnie remaining there was no chance we were going to turn down the opportunity to own in each other’s souls heads-up and proceeded to battle it out. I was winning a few big bets until we were joined by a late 20-something/early 30-something who bought in for just $20. Of course I proceeded to dumb chips to him, and then he would hand then to Donnie – however the circle never completed!

  Running terribly was an understatement, and come 9am I was down $100 and we called it a night . . . errr morning . . . either way we started our journey out the casino until I decided to donate my last $100 on the Baccarat and Roulette tables.

  Home before 10am and down $200 . . . GG Southpoint

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  Read more: Donnie Peters, Garry Gates, Limit Holdem, SouthPoint

• Welcome To Las Vegas

  July 08, 2009

  So we finished another successful tournament in Melbourne, and after a quick bite to eat I took the boring drive to Geelong to pack my bag for Las Vegas and the 2009 World Series of Poker.

  My Godparents drove me to the Gull Bus (a bus service from Geelong to the airport) as Dad had an appointment. He ended up arriving to do the old father-son goodbye of “Be safe son . . . yeah yeah Dad” and straight to sleep I went once the bus took off.

  I arrived at Tullamarine Airport and sat around listening until tunes before Heath and Kirsty arrived. Kirsty headed back to Tassie while me and Heath boarded our first flight to Sydney before making our way to Los Angeles.

  * * * * * * * *

  We flew the new Virgin Australia airlines; and since it was our first time on the new carrier our expectations were low.

  However we were blown away by the service in general – good food, awesome in-flight entertainment and fairly comfortable seats (for economy). I managed to find this poker game and crushed a ten-player sit-n-go making quad deuces and a straight flush while Heath lost thousands on the blackjack game.

  I pretty much slept the whole flight to put me in sync for the states, while Heath struggled most of the way. We touched down in Los Angeles and sat round a little before our flight to Las Vegas.

  Chris Boncek was supposed to pick us up, but after around 25-minutes we thought that they may have forgot about us Aussie boys. I quick call to our boss Garry Gates and we were told Boncek was on the way. 10-minutes later we were in his car and off to the grocery store to pick up some supplies before settling in for the night.

  * * * * * * * *

  While Heath had to work, I had the day off, but I still ventured into the Rio to catch up with the guys and do some other things.

  I took to the cash games playing some $1-3 No Limit Holdem, and after about an hour I profited $107 and made my way back to the Amazon room before me and GG decided to play the 11pm $200 nightly.

  Donnie and Heath bought $50 each of both me and GG and we took our seats in the tournament which had a ridiculous structure and only a 3,000-chip starting bank.

  I eliminated a guy early holding on a board against his Ace-King. A few hands later I opened and was met with five callers. The flop fell down Queen-high with two diamonds and the big blind open-shoved for 4x pot with a flush draw – I called and he got there – aarrghh!

  My stack slowly dwindled down to nothing when the blinds went up to 200-400 with a 50 ante and after a raise to 800, raise to 1,200, raise to 3,750 all in, I shipped my 3,275 stack holding and both the retarded min-raises folded.

  Of course when the board ran out the other all in player tabled and I was out in 80th place of the 136 starters with GG to follow shortly after.

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  Read more: Chris Boncek, Donnie Peters, Garry Games, Heath Chick, Kirsty Brew, No Limit Holdem, Virgin Australia