Never one to turn down a trip up the highway to do something, I joined him and Mateusz at Crown to play the $10 rebuy which I had proved victorious several weeks earlier. Since we were the first ones to sign up, we all started on the same table as our late arrival mate Brendo found himself fortunately on a distant table.

As we started the tournament with $100 worth of rebuys in hand, I told Tom that if he moved all in, I would move all in dark – unfortunately this would have been a great time to shut up as whenever he did move all in it was always with premium as I was left to work some magic with a 4♣ 2♣ or some other junk. Inevitably as we reached the end of the rebuy period, I was in for the clean amount of $100 – the most out of us four as we headed upstairs to the roulette tables so Tom could get a gamble fix.

I had two $5 chips in my pocket and chucked them on the table with one of them on the 29/32 and 8/11 split. Dink! The ball dropped in the 29 and I was returning to the tournament with $90 in hand – just $10 short of my tournament buy-in LOL!

I wouldn’t last too long however as my Jacks lost to Q♣ J♣ and A♥ Q♠ when an Ace fell. And since we decided beforehand that instead of a money last longer we would do push-ups on the tournament floor, I was bound to busting out 30 right next to the feature table where I had been eliminated. Mateusz would follow soon after and do 20, while Brendo finished it off with 10. As for Tom, he managed to luckbox a fourth place as I was located on a $2-3 NLH table where I managed to double up after floating with A♠ 5♠ for a gutshot, backdoor flush draw and ace-high and spiking the wheel on the turn. I raised the turn and he called, and I shipped over his bet on the river with him calling with nines. MBN.

The following day Mateusz, Tom and I went down to the park to re-live our days of playing football. We had a kick, strained a few muscles and pulled out some freaky goals before retiring for another year with some lunch.

Mateusz was working, so Tom and I ventured into Crown to play the $60 Tuesday Turbo tourney where I had made the final table a few times previously. I doubled early with Ace-Jack against a banana’s King-Ten before moving tables where the beautiful Leyla was dealing away. We must have had some connection because I found a double with Queens against King-Jack and then knocked out two players with my Aces against their junk as I was moved to the feature table.

I grinded away for a while, made a three-bet shove with junk because I’m the boss and eventually made the final table sitting second in chips with around 20bbs. With only the top eight being paid, things didn’t start well as I back-to-back hands when I was forced to fold after opening an Ace and then losing a pot when the big blind defended with King-Four against my Eights.

Once we made the money however – a measly $80 – I waited patiently and picked my spots doubling with Ace-King and Ace-Ten against the same player before we were soon three-handed as I held nearly half the chips. Play see-sawed back-and-forth before I was soon heads-up and offered the guy a chop although I held a nearly two-to-one advantage. Yes I know it’s a terrible thing to do since I held such a lead, but it’s something I do in small tournaments regardless of the chip situation (well unless its a 17-to-1 advantage).

Leyla returned to deal to us, but it wouldn’t bring the same luck this time as I lost Ace-Queen to his 10-3 to give-up the lead. With the average stack now at 10bbs Leyla exposed the K♠ which would have matched up with my 6♠ – and being short I would have pushed from the button. Instead I received another six, and when my opponent called with Ace-Three, I flopped a set and he turned an ace but would see the pot pushed to me … thanks Leyla.

On the final hand I woke up with Jacks and instantly called his 5bb ship only to be shown his Queens. Leyla had my back again though as the board bricked out until she dropped a Jack on the river … weeeeeeee!

For the win, I pocketed $734 to continue an outstanding record at Crown in 2011. So far I’m 4/7 with three final tables and two wins – hopefully I can notch a big result soon in a major tourney, and if I can put in another request, I hope it’s in a few weeks at the WSOP!

With a fairly weak player pool and a decent structure that normally results in a $300,000-plus prizepool, it is easily one of the best small buy-in tournaments that one should play throughout the year. Happily returning to the blogging desk however after a near six-week hiatus from the Aussie Millions, it was very good to see 623 players take to the felt over the three day one flights with 524 of these being unique entrants – ie not firing multiple shells like many of the regulars that did!

Day 1a Coverage
Day 1b Coverage
Day 1c Coverage

It was extremely surprising to see how many people punted off their stacks with ease, and consequently it drove me crazy sitting there writing these hands up as 214 players managed to sneak through to a day two berth. Heath went busto, but Josh managed to make it through meaning that a very busy Landon would have to take his seat on the blogging desk on Sunday for day two.

Heath Chick, Peter Aristidou, Nobbi Tanaka, Sean Dunwoodie, Octavian Voegele, David Morton, Haibo Chu, Kristian Lunardi, Jacob Chen, Julian Cohen, Tom Wing, Shao Liu, Michael Spilkin, Sean Keeton, Chris Barratt, Tom Grigg, David Gorr

No major hands stood out, but there was an odd occurrence during one of the flights that got my heart pumping for a moment.

Crown Director of Poker Operations Jonno Pittock grabbed me and asked if I was hungry and wanted to get some lunch. I wasn’t and kindly responded with a no, but he responded with, “well do you want to join us anyway?”

Thinking I was in trouble I decided to head upstairs with him and Christian, but alas I wasn’t in trouble but was called in to discuss the upcoming State of Origin event at the Victorian Poker Championships in late July. With so many dilemmas regarding the State of Origin – such as team selections and tournament structure – Jonno and Christian just wanted to run past some ideas they had for it, and after exchanging some thoughts for a while I happily returned to the poker room after enjoying a glass of coke on Crown’s wallet.

With day two kicking off just after midday, action flew fast and furious as people decided that a day outdoors would be better then capturing a piece of the $311,500 prizepool and preferably the $75,000 first prize.

Day 2 Coverage

Event 6: $340 Six-Handed Champion Craig Matthew became the bubble boy when his dominated ace failed to improve or chop as a happy fifty-four players were all now guaranteed some hard-earned money. Everyone however seemed to forget about the hefty money available to those that could finish on the top as eliminations continued to roll out the door as Raemin Alexander (48th), Peter Aristidou (46th), Nali Kaselias (44th), Michael Bancroft (42nd), Chris Barratt (39th), Dale Chapman (38th), Ricky Gov (35th), George Cotaidis (34th), Peter Pratis (26th), Sean Keeton (25th) and David Zhao (15th) all fell short of the final table.

With the final table being set roughly around midnight, the one aspect powering me through the long day was the fact that a mate could be heading home as the champion as Josh was still in contention for the top prize. $71,100 was the difference between tenth and first, and it was no surprise to see the word deal thrown around a few times – especially from Josh’s rail as they knew how the pay jumps were so dramatic in relation to a young uni student’s bankroll!

Eventually a deal was made with the top four extremely happy at the result after it was chopped up via chips with each player receiving roughly around $40,000. Josh busted in third when he pushed his five-big blind stack with connecters and ran into the pocket jacks of eventual champion Tien Tran.

The heads up duel was a surprising one as Tran was sitting at roughly a five-to-one disadvantage against Anthony Yarranton, but with chips flying, a double with treys and then an even bigger double with a superior flopped pair, Tran was inevitably crowned the sixth Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series Champion!

Monday saw me take part in the $340 No Limit Holdem Terminator where each elimination saw you receive a $100 bounty on top of the normal prizepool. Although I sold a small section of my action on ChipMeUp I happily swapped 5% with Tom and Josh while Heath opted to sit out the percentage swap since he only had a small part of action courtesy of selling out on ChipMeUp.

My strategy was to play fairly tight until antes came in because the structure was pretty decent and I really didn’t want to leak unnecessary chips which may cost me in potential bounties. With a 15,000-chip starting bank, it wouldn’t be until the 150-300 level where I saw my stack soar after winning a few decent pots before flopping a set of fours and getting someone to donate their whole stack with just top pair on the turn. Several hands later after a new player limped under-the-gun, I made it 1,025 from middle position with 7♥ 5♥ and was called by a player in late position as well as the limper. I fired out 1,375 on the 10♦ 8♥ 6♠ flop with the player behind smooth-calling before the limper made it 4,000 to go. Since we were all deep – roughly having 30,000 in chips each – I decided to make the call to try and win a massive multi-way pot if I could spike my straight or hit some kind of backdoor flush.

The player from late position made the call also as the 9♠ was delivered on the turn and the under-the-gun player led for 7,000. I thought for a while before sliding in my stack of 5,000 and 1,000-denomination chips to put both players all in. Surprisingly the smooth-caller from late position made the call as the turn aggressor folded to see my made straight up against a set of sixes. Fortunately the river bricked and I was now up to roughly 85,000 with two bounties under my sleeve.

A little while later I lost a three-way pot holding A♥ K♥ against jacks and sevens after I three-bet an open to roughly 4,000 and called off another 15,000 to see a pot of 50,000 in the middle (the player holding jacks was short). I flopped a flush draw but bricked my fifteen-outer to slip back to roughly 60,000. Quite tilted, I went for a walk to try and calm my mental state so I wouldn’t proceed to stack off, and on return I pretty much folded for a few levels not managing to catch any hands or find decent three-bet or squeeze spots.

With around two tables until the money, Joe Hachem moved to the table and we exchanged some friendly banter as we normally do – with this being only the second time we’ve played together since we met in 2007. As my stack dwindled, I opened 9♥ 8♥ only to have Hachem ship it on me. I Hollywooded for a little and folded before grabbing another bounty when my A♥ 8♥ held up against a weaker ace before eventually finding a double through Hachem when I open-jammed (after shipping the hand previously) from early position with Ace-King and being in great shape against his King-Queen. I flopped an ace, and that was that, as Hachem soon exited as we were about a table from the money.

I sat with a semi-decent stack of thirty big blinds, but with short-handed play and easily the best remaining players in the tournament on the table, I found it nearly impossible to accumulate. Whether I opened light, or three-bet, nothing seemed to work, and as we got to within a few spots from the money, my stack was somehow down to just over ten big blinds. It was just leaking chips in these pots, but with the bubble taking forever, the blinds had increased three times, but when I looked down at Ace-King in the big blind, I had no other option but to ship it all in over a Ben Savage under-the-gun open. He deliberated for ages before calling with nines only to see me spike trips to knock him out and receive another button; my fifth for the tournament after taking care of another short stack.

Eventually the bubble burst and when my jacks were unable to outdraw an opponent’s kings, I was out the door in 15th place (out of 156) for a $374 payday plus a further $500 in bounties. Josh managed to make the money also, but busted just prior to me as we decided that a 5am breakfast run to Maccas was exactly what was needed to cure our bust-out tilt!

Having spiked a cash in the Terminator, it made playing the $340 Eight Game Mixed a little more easier on the pocket as Heath and Tom were also part of the 59-player field.

Funnily enough both me and Tom drew the same table and it was a fairly uneventful few levels as a small amount of chips were just transferred around the six-handed table. Finally me and Tom tangled in a 2-7 Triple Draw pot when I caught a ten-perfect on the final draw after he stood pat with a jack. He bet, I check-called, and he went on tilt although he completely understood my reasoning for making the call apart from the ridiculous pot odds that I was getting after three of us exchanged chips on every street.

That table broke, and I moved to one that featured Dale Townsend, Peter Vratsidis and Ang Italiano. With some decent double average chips, I quickly increased my stack in the No Limit Holdem orbit. Dale opened, the guy between us called, and I three-bet Q♣ J♣. Both players folded and Dale stated he folded Ace-Queen. The next hand I opened Ace-King and won the blinds, the next hand I opened Queens before Peter three-bet his blinds, I four-bet and he folded as I showed my hand before winning the blinds the next with Ace-King again … talk about a heater!

That heater would kind of continue in the Pot Limit Orbit when I was dealt A♥ A♣ 6♠ 4♠ and Dale potted with K♦ T♠ 8♣ 4♥. I re-potted, and then Dale gave the lame speech that every donk gives when they fill like issuing a bad beat. Eventually he made the call as a 8♠ 6♦ 2♣ flop fell and I shipped in what remained of my stack. Dale obviously called, and when the river landed another eight, I got another speech as I exited in 22nd place.

Jackson Zheng and Mishel Anunu fell early before local players Cliff Lee and David Gorr, along with Michel Bouskila, would each suffer their ill-fate eliminations at the hands of Michael Egan. With a chance of going coast-to-coast, Martin Comer held onto the chip lead tightly before eventually releasing it only to bust fellow old-schooler Antonis Kambouoglou to hold over forty percent of the chips in play.

Youngster Josh Barrett was gifted the lead by Comer – and nearly half the chips in play – before the remainder of his stack was shipped to him as shot-stack ninja Karib Karib was unable to pull another miracle from his hat as he exited in third to leave online guns Barrett and Egan to battle it out.

With Barrett holding a slight four-to-three advantage, he pushed that out even further with some aggressive early heads up play before Egan managed to fight back and then double when his pocket nines held true. Barrett slid further behind – eventually down to a near six-to-one deficit – only to double and then chip up to snatch the lead back. Barrett however would return to that deficit when his dominated ace failed to improve, and just several hands later would see his tournament come to an end against Egan’s favourite 10♦ 7♠.

Besting a small, but high calibre field, Michael ‘ITSOVER9000′ Egan displayed a mix of aggression, patience and determination to capture the $160,700 first prize, large coveted trophy and title of 2010 Victorian Poker Championships Main Event Champion!

Antonis Kambouroglou, Michael Egan, Karib Karib, Dane Jensen, Michel Bouskila, Mishel Anunu, Trophy, Josh Barrett, Martin Comer, Jackson Zheng, Michael Egan, Josh Barrett, Chips, Cliff Lee, Josh Barrett, Chips, David Gorr

James Obst, Julian Cohen, Jonathan Karamalikis, Steve Topakas, Benn Skender, Jarred Graham, BIlly Argyros and Joe Hachem were just a handful of the talented players that succumbed to the rail over the course of the day. Jason Mann earned the unwanted title of bubble boy after being bumped to the rail in a three-way mash.

The remaining twenty-seven was one of the strongest ever to run this deep in a Main Event, but Mitchell Carle (27th), Chris Evans (26th), Peter Peeters (23rd), Trung Tran (21st), Ricky Kroesen (18th), Andrew Demetriou (17th), Sean Keeton (16th), John Dalessandri (14th) and Grant Levy (12th) would all exit to the rail as the final table was formed.

Final Table Line-Up (average stack 672,500)
Seat 1: Michael Egan (1,036,000 in chips)
Seat 2: David Gorr (176,000)
Seat 3: Karib Karib (174,000)
Seat 4: Mishel Anunu (202,000)
Seat 5: Cliff Lee (291,000)
Seat 6: Jackson Zheng (476,000)
Seat 7: Antonis ‘Toothpick Tony’ Kambouroglou (1,220,000)
Seat 8: Michel Bouskila (908,000)
Seat 9: Josh ‘jbrhythm’ Barrett (919,000)
Seat 10: Martin Comer (1,335,000)

Martin Comer again led the charge amongst fellow old-school tournament veterans that included David Gorr and Antonis Kambouroglou. while young guns Jackson Zheng, Michael Egan and Josh Barrett, along with local tournament stalwarts Karib Karib and Cliff Lee all stood within grasp of the $160,700 first prize and title of Victorian Poker Champion for 2010!

Martin Kozlov, Grant Levy, Sean Keeton, Nathan Goodall, Karib Karib, Dave Lee, Mark Blechman, Jason Mann, Joe Hachem, Benn Skender, Jarred Graham, Mitchell Carle, Jackson Zheng, Mishel Anunu, Nali Kaselias

269 players anted up $2,700 to take to the felt at lunchtime looking to emulate the feats of past Champions Albert Amato (2009) and Jay Kinkade (2008) of navigating through a highly skilled and talented field. Although the numbers were down on previous years, many of Australia’s best players made the trip down to Melbourne as tournament stalwarts Gary Benson, Sam Khouiss, Leo Boxell and Tino Lechich, online phenoms Brendon Rubie, Michael Guzzardi, Dean Nyberg and Joel Dodds, and local favourites Peter Aristidou, Amanda De Cesare and Tony Hachem all took to the felt.

Unfortunately the above mentioned, along with previous Champions Amato and Kinkade, 2010 Aussie Millions Champion Tyron Krost, WSOP Bracelet holder Simon Watt and resident PokerNetwork blogger Heath ‘Tassie Devil’ Chick all became casualties.

Only 97 players survived with Martin Comer leading the charge with 252,200 in chips. Snapping closely at his heels was David Gorr (192,300), Antonis Kambouroglou (185,000), Jim Giannoukos (179,200), Jarred Graham (175,600) and Michael Egan (168,500) as everyone still held an equal chance of capturing the $160,700 first prize and coveted trophy.

Tyron Krost, Chips, Joe Hachem, Jonathan Karamalikis, Benn Skender, Ricky Kroesen, Tony Hachem, Tom Grigg, Gary Benson, Chips, Heath Chick, Martin Comer

The reason I find these high roller-esque event great is because the field that assembles is always going to be made up of some of the best players in town. Unfortunately only twenty-four players took their seat, and once I arrived for the night shift, only eleven remained.

That number was cut down by two once Gary Benson and Aleks Brkovic busted to leave us at a final table of nine.

Final Table Line-Up
Seat 1: Billy Jordanou (56,000 in chips)
Seat 2: Grant Levy (77,000)
Seat 3: Vesko Zmukic (37,000)
Seat 4: Aaron Benton (94,000)
Seat 5: Ali Ghezelbash (14,000)
Seat 6: Shane Warne (55,000)
Seat 7: Jonathan Karamalikis (42,000)
Seat 8: Pierre Aoukar (18,000)
Seat 9: James Obst (65,000)

Ali Ghezelbash, Billy Jordanou and Vesko Zmukic exited early as Jeff Fenech and the rest of the 888Poker peeps arrived to sweat Shane Warne as Pierre Aoukar made his way out the door in sixth to leave the remaining five players in the money.

Grant Levy exited in fifth when his K♦ Q♦ went down to Jonathan Karamalikis’ A♣ K♥, before Warne captured the lead after winning a race against Karamalikis’ treys. Karamalikis however would find lightening on the river just a few hands later when he rivered a two-outer holding 8♠ 8♣ against Warne’s 10♥ 10♠. Karamalikis swiftly dispatched of Aaron Benton in third before Warne would finally see his deep run end in third for a $40,000 as two South Australians; Karamalikis and James Obst entered heads up play with not much splitting the two online guns.

Obst chipped away, eventually capturing the lead and extending it before being crippled by Karamalikis’ Q♣ J♥ against his A♥ 3♠ when a Queen spiked on the turn. Obst doubled, then doubled again, and then doubled one last time before his K♣ 6♣ couldn’t overcome Karamalikis’ A♣ 9♣ to fall shy of his maiden live tournament victory.

For Karamalikis, this is his fourth live tournament victory, and third in Melbourne following his recent Aussie Millions Bounty Event and ANZPT Sydney High Rollers victories. Earning himself another $100,000 payday, sees Karamalikis’ career winnings climb well over the half a million mark – yet again justifying his recent appointment of a Full Tilt Poker Red Pro and stature of one of the best players in Australia.

Taking my seat I found David Steicke to my left and Daniel Neilson and Dean Francis at the opposite end of the table. I lost a few pots early before making a six-five in Razz to chip back over my starting stack before taking a nice pot of Steicke when he folded sixth street with my board showing (A-2)-3-7-K-4, before making Aces-up in Stud against Francis’ lesser two-pair to climb to 13,000. Steicke would win round two when my (8-8)-9-2-7-6-(8) was run down by his (6-6)-A-5-8-9-(7) as I made the first break with 12,925.

I would then find a virtual double once the No Limit Holdem orbit came around. With a limp of 200, Francis made it 625 to go and found one caller before I bumped it to 1,750 with 10♦ 10♥. The blinds, limper and Francis folded before the smooth-caller shipped it, and I made the call to be up against 9♠ 9♥ as I moved to 20,625 in chips.

Our table broke, and I found myself seated on the direct right of Kerry Stead – before donking off some chips to him in 2-7 Triple Draw. My revenge of Stead would be better as I delivered his knockout blow in Stud after he found himself short. But that sweet feeling of having chips would soon turn sour as I had an opponent all in for a pot worth in-excess of 15,000 with (K-9)-K trailing my (A-K)-A. He found deuces on both sixth and seventh street to see me return to my starting stack of 10,000.

As the structure crept up on us, I was forced to ship nine-big blinds with J♠ 10♠ from the button and was isolated by the small blind with A♣ 10♣. The flop fell 9♠ 8♥ 4♠, but even with that many outs, I obviously bricked out to bust in 26th of 48 players.