WPT Malta Day3 at a glance...

Day 3 of WPT Malta kicked of on time, one really must say they been very organized and big thumps up to the team and Casino Portomaso, and also as always, GREAT buffet. Thx !

The blond aggressive Cecilia kept on to her lead with some ups and downs, and for sure entertained us, all day long! Holding 1 milj in chips and losing small potts and getting furious is kind of entertaining, especially if it happens all the time…and never did I think so many bad words could come out of the mouth from such tiny  person that also is wearing Hello Kitty headphones. Maybe good not all understood her rambling! Still, big respect girl, for doing it as well as you have and fingers crossed you go all the way, the foul language is just an awesome bonus. Thx.







And Christ man I got surprised when suddenly I hear a voice behind me calling out my name, and to my big surprise see someone I haven’t seen for several years, Roy Brindley. I met him in Ireland quite often when I used to go to the very green island (wazz up with me and islands? ) and play poker. It turns out he will be commentating the FT tomorrow so really look forward to that, together with our beloved ‘poker bratt’ and hopefully guest starring Tony G aswell. Lets hope it be a good old Irish craic afterwards; I for sure know the film team are good at that as well … craic you say? Well you know that Irish thing every one talk about but not know what it REALLY is.
I know what it is.
I will lead the way….
-Hey Boss- I might be late in on Monday, ok?

Of the 8 ppl left, MY money is on the French little guy, Tristan Clemencon,  I think he been playing very very well, ofc he is up for some big resistance and one force to be recon with is Matt Giannetti. Matt has a big date in November that he can’t be late for so let’s wrap it up people. Matt is one of the November 9 players heading back to Vegas for the last battle. There are also 2 swedes left on the table and i know one of them, it be a blast if he win I really would love that, but… ah well let’s see .... in poker anything can happen so buckle up and join the ride!

Again dear people.. do NOT mess with someone who stack his chips like this, and on top of that also look like an English football hooligan, you will end up in serious trouble, for sure! (Simon Trumper, a very nice guy)


 


Then again, if a mans stack looks like this, the chips might be jinxed and very hostile towards organized surrounding’s, but as most men have something naturaly build in them against order, these kind of chips are more friendly in the long run then the neat one, these one you can wake up beside without makeup, important. Really. i am serious. Neat one's... too much fuzz.




Ohh yes, almost forgott, today I actually had a mission, but it might been slipping through my hands, in fact, this is the case, Tony G owes me a coffee, and he is bloody 4 years late with it. Its soon 4 years since he promised me this coffee, and it been on my mind ever since. I travelled to Sidney to play the APPT Grand final 2007 and really looked forward to my coffee, however he never showed up so I got plain and simple dumped... Well.... I been thinking of this now for 4 years and in my opinion this coffe have upgraded itself to a drink or two, I just need to find him, and explain, am sure he will be understanding about it. Or? Come on.. 4 years? Seriously?

No am not mentaly disturbed, i just want MY coffee!

What? Chipcounts?

I already told you that i dont do that! But okey...one more time then:
Seat 1: Cecilia Prescaglini: 1.218,000
Seat 2: Filippo Bianchini: 188,000
Seat 3: Fabien Sartoris: 654,000
Seat 4: Matt Giannetti: 309,000
Seat 5: Mats Karlson: 452,000
Seat 6: Simon Trumper: 631,000
Seat 7: Tristan Clemencon: 2.215,000
Seat 8: Christofer Williamsson: 510,000

Hep hep
anna panna

WPT Malta Day2 at a glance....

Another day on the rock kicked off and ppl are seated to play day2 of WPT. It will be a long day for the players, as they won’t stop until reaching 27 players….and blinds today are 90 minutes so they are up for a long night. I passed by and stayed a few hrs and met up with new faces, old faces, pretty faces, famous faces and all other random faces.

To my big joy a gorgeous blond chick was chipleader when I arrived, a Italian chick that was sitting behind a pile of chips and a little teddy bear.  Always great fun when a female takes the lead, sadly its not so often they go all the way. This very fine sample of female beauty did very well and took down mini IPT in Nova Gorcia few weeks back , her name is Cecilia Pescaglini and am sure we see a lot more of her in future. Fingers crossed to you Cecilia, hope you go all the way. (with some imagination one can actually... no.. ehh hmmm.. she does have a top, its NOT allowed to play topless in Malta. Its a very chatolic country. We couldnt even get divorced until a few weeks ago.



Very close to her was Tony G and I think he passed her by now as I read the updates. I be extremely happy to se a heads up between Tony G and Phil Helmuth I think that would be the very best The organizers and Casino as well as all us spectators could possible hope for. They are behaving quite well, both of them, or well.. tony G made a girl cry and Phil Helmuth seriously tilted his neighbor player by saying he played stupid, but hey…  just another day at the office right?






There are a few job in the world I really would not like to have, massaging siting ppl I think have to be on that list. Seriously?






Its quite funny to see how ppl stack their chips, and I learned the hard way that someone who stacks his chips this neatly and proper, I don’t want to go up against, because they play mostly monster’s, probably because they don’t want to mess their stack up for small suited connector’s and such, I think that’s  a bit rude to the beautiful small suited connector’s anyway, but that’s me….. The feeling of taking a bit part of a stack like that and purposely stack them in odd color and uneven heights just completely random stuff… are a very special feeling, one can almost see how it hurts the player and how eager he is to make his stack justice again. Love it :)





And as a special treat i add this one aswell, its from the side event and the very respectable stack belongs to a friend, Fabian' The Beard man ' Mezanger representing chilipoker with, of course a chili.. spice it up baby!


So thanks for today and remember ppl, poker is not that hard, just toss em in and hope for the best, and spades beats everything!

C4Q

WPT Malta Day1 at a glance...

I sneaked down to Portomaso casino just after the players been to their dinner break and it was pretty quiet and sleepy and most action was all the busted ppl coming to tell me their bad beats.. ah well.. its ok.. this time it dont cost ya a cent but dont make it a habit!

A few old friends playing and its always good to see old friends! But god knows both Tony G and William Thorsson must have had a rough year, they lost a lot of weight. It’s not easy to be a pro player these days indeed. Respect.

Gorgeous Christine Sammut from Portomaso Casino along with legendary ( yea I know, am in the middle of  HIMYM, sorry) tournament director Matt Savages'sweet wife.




Josef Borg, Casino Portomaso surrounded by family members, his father plays some of the tournaments at Portomaso from time to time and often with respectable stack.



Erik Smith dont leave his table so often, but a man does what a man has to do when a gorgeous blond walks into the room, he is weak our dear Erik, but who can blame him? Not me. ;) 
 



And a bit later he doubled up with QQ against 77 and am very confident it was my 'scrubananas' as we like to call it, that did the trick!



And just like that, out of the blue, there he is, what the enitre room been waiting for,  with just a level of playing day1A left he entered and created the normal chaos that suround him: The poker brat! Phil Hellmuth, to honour the day is in an outfit that would make every gay fashion designer on earth envy him, black trousers, red jacket and pink (yes correct) cap. Accordingly to himself he rather be downstairs in the bar drinking Red Label (hmm me, i prefer the black label) so he made the pain fast and sharp like a doctors cut and was all in after just few hands.....


Federico Cipollini our brave contester opened up in mp with 1000 (blinds 150/300) Phil Hellmuth in sb says 3000 and got a call.

Flop is out and say Jh4c3h
Phil bet 4000 and Frederico calls.

Turn is 5c and Phil is all in.
Frederico gives the Brat some resepct and ad some Hollywood show but end up calling.

Phil holds: Ks7s
Federico holds: Ah6c
River is 9s and the poker bratt is gone..... for today.. for sure we see him reenter tomorrow.









On his way out he got some standard trash talk from our loved Tony G and he was also told to stop crying like a baby, all in good old Tony G style , one gotta love it! Exact quote i think was ''"You are an absolute disgrace... Showing up here late and losing all your chips immediately..."

Chipcounts?? Naeee that boring stuff you gotta read somewhere else, tjung tjng!

/C4Q

Live tours in MALTA

Am a very blessed person. 

Even though it don’t feel like that all the time, especially not since started up online grinding again a few weeks ago, in fact it feels like am THE most unluckiest and cursed person ever. However, we all know its variance right? 

I am truly blessed living in Malta, because we got Casino Portomaso and they really do good in getting lot of good live tours here, just take a look at below schedule for what is confirmed right now!!

#  Poker Live Adventure- 16th & 18th September 2011 - Portomaso Casino (ITL)
#  WPT Malta - 20st to 24th September 2011 - Portomaso Casino
#  ChiliPoker Deepstack Open - 6th to 9th October 2011 - Portomaso Casino
#  Betpro Live Poker Tour - 27th to 30th October 2011 - Portomaso Casino (ITL)
#  Betpro - 30th November to 4th December 2011 - Portomaso Casino (ITL)
#  Poker Live Adventure - 10th to 11th December 2011 - Portomaso Casino (ITL)

And since last September i have been on these event's FT's with two months in between sooo.... lets see.. statistical seen then its time again in September :) GET IN... GIVE me spades!!

I surely hope the ''Catania boy band mafia'' stays home, its sooooo much harder to get on these FT when they are here! However its a bit funnier when they are here so... hmm difficult choice!

Maybe i can convince them to fold?
/Panna

Worldest biggest Bad beat jackpot!

This is a bad beat you would want to have for sure :) 

Earlier this morning, Wednesday (27th July) at 08:59 GMT , IPN (Boss Media)'s WORLD RECORD Bad Beat Jackpot Hit at €1,265,583.34 with the Bad Beat Jackpot winner receiving €442,954.

This is a NEW WORLD RECORD of $1,831,426, which supersedes the previous World Record of approximately $1.2 Million. On top of this the new Jackpot is now starting at over €250,000 ($360,000); and thus remaining as the largest current Bad Beat Jackpot in online Poker!

The Hand in question was quad Kings beaten by Quad Aces, on a €0.50/€1 No Limit Table. The other players (7 players) in the hand all received €31,639.57 each for participating in the hand

Board came:  A9K, K, A

They where all in pre flop AND even worse bad beat, one person at the table where sit out and gets nothing! My god! I guess he will regret that toilet visit for some time :) .. always keep a bucket at hand!

Congratulations to my friend KA that was on the table and got some pocket money and change for coming weekend!  Looking forward to the drinks: :)

hep hep

Knocked out of Emeraldbet tour on wrong ruling!

People, this is a true surreal story am about to tell, yes yes, get your popcorn ready folks. This story has very little to do with different rules or house rules,  because I can’t even in my wildest fantasy imagine anyone really having this rule, it’s just plain and simple a ruling that went wrong,  so wrong.  Am almost glad I was not there to witness it, since I probably would have trashed the place :) even if I was not in the hand.  I will never  understand players that don’t speak their mind when they know something is wrong, just because it has nothing to do with them, in my book that is not cool. 

And before anyone think am hanging out places and people you should all know I did send an email to the specific casino asking for their version and explanation, a friendly mail i must add, :)  and I reminded them 2 times, and given them plenty of time to answer, and they have not replied. I also asked them to deny or confirm if it was their own floor or if it was the organizers floor man who ruled. They have not answered any of this. And if anyone of you get the crazy idea thinking why the fu** should they answer this odd person, i let you know that i am a customer in this casino and i want to know their explanation before going there again, in fact  wanted to come and play the side events for this event, and i explained that in the email,  but not before having an explanation and then take my decision on to play or not. I believe thats nothing strange at all.

The hand is played out during the Emeraldbet Tour at Casino Venezia, Malta this weekend. Main event buy in 640+60 euro. The hand/ruling is on day 1. (i didn't play this event, too few players)

Lets not to have too many opinions on the hand or how it’s played, bet sizes, position and all those stuff’s because in this case it’s not important but yea it’s a madness hand from start to end but the ruling of the hand is what is so shockingly horrible, scary wrong. 

Italian bets out on the flop that is: QQ4
Finnish player raises and Italian calls. 

On turn our Italian player shoves all in, and big brave Finland decides to call.  Please remember Italy is now ALL IN and covered. When Finland says call, Italy says:
– I’m beat. And throw his cards face down over the line.Finland shows 42, and Italy realizes he has still a shot to win the pot as he has 63 and need a 6 to win. So Italy says: I thought you had the nuts but I still got outs, am not folding!
Well he can NOT fold as he is all in! 

And here is where it really gets wicked, floor is called and rules the Italian’s hand DEAD and its dealt a river card, that of course, you probably already guessed, yes, is a 6.

One really has to wonder about the poker God’s ehh?

But this is so unbelievable wrong. A player that are all in and called can NOT get his hand killed, the dealer should instantly turn his card open even though player turn them face down. That is basic rules in tournament poker. Pot is given to Finland and Italy is knocked out, when in fact he would have doubled up and be good and well in the tour again.

1: Why was the hand not flipped face up by dealer?
2: Why is the hand declared dead by floor man?
3: Why if hand is dead, is there being dealt a river?

Anyone care to enlighten me?

Well.. not demand, but i think the pictures is sweet :)

Poker in Malta has really developed last 2 years, the dealers and floors we getting over here for international events are normally very good, and I can’t enough say how much I as a player enjoy playing under floors like, Rodolfo Zirio, Nicola Mazza, and Luca Vivaldi. Of course you all know my favorite is Christine Sammut, now working the floors of Portomaso Casino, but it’s getting a bit odd me giving her soo much credit all the time, her boyfriend, is starting to look evil on me, so lets leave her out :)

Anyway, I wanted a clarification on this from Casino Venezia as I can’t see how I ever can recommend anyone going there if this is the kind of unprofessional rulings one risk to face, but they have not answered me or to my knowledge done anything to compensate the Italian player. It is not the players job to know all the rules and be alert 100% of the time, this is why we have floors and dealers. So I guess, to sum it up, look very careful on what floor is in charge of the tournaments you decide to play, I for one would never again play under 1or 2 floors I have met during my years, I rather sit in the bar drinking espresso and zipping Sambuca!

-who am I kidding everyone knows am not ever zipping Sambucas, it has to go down in one fast movement!

Hep hep

C4Q

Ps: and i been waiting long time now to use this sweet photo of the angry kid, so thx in a weird way!

Raphael Toledo on fire!

October 2008 I moved to Malta, and I knew really few here, only a very sweet Swedish girl called Emma, that you guys now know, she been in many of my blogs. Working from home as I did then made me crave for company and it turned out me going to the casino for some poker action 3-4 nights a week. Pretty soon I realized that some players are friendlier then others, and some are more interested in developing their games then others, and some, well let’s just say am not necessarily eager to spend time with them outside the casino. There is a handful Maltese players i somehow fear more then others on a table, one is for an example, Jacques Balzan Demajo and another one is Raphael Toledo

 

And people, this is my blog, I write what I want and this post is about him because I simply think he deserves it and I like him – a lot! He is such a cool person and Rafael very fast became one of my absolute favorite among all the Maltese players, he is the kindest soul ever, rarely complain and whine over hands and play completely fearless. If he get a beat he takes it very good, and knows it’s just poker, it evens out in long run. He also, more important, has 5 dogs, that’s a big plus in my book. Others show me pictures of their kids, Rafael show me pictures of his dogs, right there I knew this is someone I will like. And people, when I say completely fearless, I really mean that, with Rafael one never know what to expect card wise. 

We started to talk hands and discussed poker back then and I really sensed he wanted to be, still fearless of course but perhaps a bit more, to put it nicely, organized fearless :)  

And now am so so happy to say he found his place and form and going better and better! He is a very good cash game player but its not until recently he been going very strong on tournaments too and during Peoples Poker Tour last week he took two satellite tickets (!) and busted just before the money in the main event on a very very unlucky hand where board double paired and made his 2 opponents splitt the pott with K high instead of the pair Rafael was holding. He recharged his energy and came back day after, signed up for a side event and spitted it 6 ways, well done!
I played that sideevent too, so did around 130 hungry Italians, and some of them really good respected  players indeed, so super well done to Rafael. I busted just before the money, but stayed around to the end and saw Rafael very patiently play very well and use his position to take down several nice pots; he was quite card dead but still managed to get a good chop of the price pot and put the Maltese flag on the finaltable!

This weekend it was the Emeraldbet tour at Casino Venezia and with a quite deepstacked tourney it was set for many hrs play, and am so proud Rafael kept his patient all the way and ended heads up, and here I got even more impressed as they played heads up for nearly 4 hrs, and I think they would continued even longer if Casino didn’t announce they have to close 04.00 so they have to be ready in 30 min! (yea weird I know) I was railing over live feed and its actually very very interesting how much more signs, tells and body language one realize about players watching careful as an outsider not focused on playing oneself. Maybe the security railing us behind casinos closed door is genius in tells? Perhaps. One never know!

They started the finaltable 16.00 and finished 04.00, that’s a long day in the office folks! It makes me extra happy Rafael made it all way to heads up due to this. He maintained his stack all the way and one point heads up he was holding around 70 % of the chips but as well all know, all it takes is a few hands that don’t go as planned and in the end Rafael finished second.

Still, this is a very good result for the Maltese poker community, and am very glad it was this particular player who claimed the second price! First position in Emeraldbet tour went to Ivan Barczi, who has a few prior results on Hendonmob and also did show a very strong game all trough the finaltable. Well done to him!

And to sum it up, lots of RESPECT to Rafael from me, and i sincerely mean this. He has really developed his game, he is always eager to listen to opinions, always ask others for how would you played this hand. If more players did that, it would just be so much more interesting to listen to everyone's bad beat stories!

And he is funny :), in a phone call in one of the breaks on Emeraldbets Finaltable, he ask me: Anna i got so much more chips then them now, is it ok to start playing small suited connectors? Haha and the way he said it really made me smile and i know he said it ironic to me as i always keep telling him that folding is a big key to the success in tournament poker, and one need to have a great calm mind and tell one self, am not bored, am NOT bored and as a cash game player that sometimes is not so fun to hear! But I really put my hands up, because he mastered these feelings and now really playing a very solid tournament game. Cant wait to get some big events over here again so he can show those espresso drinking, flat handbags nice smelling gorgeous looking  young boys, yeaaaa THE Italians, (that we all love of course), show them some kick ass Maltese Toledo poker!

Hep hep my darlings out there!
Do well, do good, have fun and remember, play all your spades, its really not harder than that!

C4Q

Thanks to www.pokerjam.it for the live blog during the event and the pictures. 

Hot in bed tonight i must admitt!

Sometimes it sucks living alone, like now when i am desperate for someone to put cream on my back because the sun was a tiny bit to harsh on me today,  yea yea i did use sunblock mum, but its freaking hard to get it on your back, really, try and you see. Also sucks living alone when i wake up thirsty middle of night and have to go out to the kitchen MYSELF to get a bottle of water....or take my dog out when am really really really tired, then i could do with a man.

And why is it that the small 200 ml glasbottles of Perrier taste sooo sooo much better then the big ones, or the plastic ones, or ANY other water for that mater?
It really puzzles me.



Or do i like them better because when i snap the cork and drink it i feel like drinking some hex potion from age of time that will make me invisible or have very long hair, because this little bottle is so cute reminding me of some cartoon i must have seen way back and stored in my mind where they boil something over fire and pour into tiny tiny green Perrier ish look alike bottles? Yea could be, i dont know, yea most likely. OMG, ghaaaa... sometimes i even scare myself!!
If i start talking to myself can you ever so kindly let me know ?

                    

Am up late, again , sorry boss,  but it was worth it, I been up railing a dear friend who been heads up for 4 hrs in a live tour that had live feed and tomorrow i will make a really nice blog dedicated only to him! Also followed the play down to FT in IPT Campione where i knew a few ppl going deep, and sadly it couldn't be Catania area who take 3 in a row, Francesco Tropea that been doing so well busted just before FT,  these young boys from Catania: Francesco, Walter, Nicolaj ect, are coming strong!  What are they feeding them over there in Catania, small Perrier bottles with winning  potion????

Luuuve and peace!  

C4Q


Anyone living close who can come and put cream on my back, MR BEARD man, you not that far off are you .. yea yea nice try AnnaPanna :)
( i said it myself so no you dont have to say it AlexAndy )

Walter Treccarichi wins PPT Malta 2011... with Spades :)

We just finished off yet another great big Italian influenced tourney here in Malta, Peoples Poker Tour. I was told, instructed, urged, yelled, ordered, and so on and on, by ALL my Italian friends that this is one NOT to miss, most of the players have qualified for a very small amount online and is to be considered low standard. Well.. in all fairness I saw a lot of the players I respect and played with before here so not so sure of this, but yes ofc saw many players that also seemed to be needing a tiny bit more strategic talks :) ( I try to avoid the D word as you all know that sometimes we all are donks ..myself included )

I did not play this tour, I found the buy in of 1650 Euro too high for a little fish like me and also why play when you already know who is going to win!! Seemed like a stupid idea all together to challenge faith like that so I skipped this one.

Yea yea, sometimes one just know,  and I knew it already during GOLDBET's Poker Live Adventure, weekend prior, and I told him…. then during the satellite play day before PPT I got even more sure.  If there would been some live betting on this I would with NO hesitation bet money on it. And I was right, and am very sure me rubbing my spade tattoo so it’s almost faded helped him a lot, in fact I think it be impossible without it :)… at one point I rubbed too much and his opponent almost got a spade flush against him but luckily I realized my mistake and stopped in time. It was a bit confusing as I played the sideevent and only could rail his allin’s via the Italian speaker, so I misunderstood the hand, sorry for the scary moment there Wally, won’t happen again. 

Am so very happy that Walter Treccarichi won PPT Malta 2011, not only is he a very good player, I like his play style a lot, we been on several tables together. But also, he is such a nice sweet person, always smile and behave excellent at the table as well as of it. Also, he always respects my 3-4 bets, for that alone he is well worth taking any tour down, as in all fairness my 3-4 bet can mean anything at all haha! I always called him my mascot, but am not sure I can use him for that anymore as he clearly deserve a far better nickname. Wally the champ!

They tell me it’s A6 of clubs he won with, but I really can only see spades, I guess they did some kind of mistake, but that’s ok, as long as we know how it really was!*

Lots love and happiness to you all out there, and to all my friends playing the IPT Campione, i wish you best of luck, i be following the forums for updates! Especially extra good wishes to Eros Nastasi who i really hope make a back to back !

C4Q

*photo from Walters Facebook, edit by me. If anyone are in doubt of the joke, he did win with A6 of clubs :)

Cinnabon cravings!

Yesterday i was strolling around the Tigne Point center here in Malta, and i must say i got impressed. (yea I know it’s been here over a year, but I been busy :) )

Most impressed over the smell of new baked that followed us around.. ghaaaaaa…

How could one NOT buy???