Unlike the previous four years which saw me hit the gamble within a few hours, I just didn’t fell the urge this time as I opted to go shopping or get hungover instead.

And hungover I did, as last night completely destroyed me, and when I woke up this morning, I swore death had arrived! Mateusz and I grabbed some lunch before jumping on a Pai Gow table where I made some money before eventually falling back to even.

Mateusz returned to his beloved slots and I decided to hit the poker room to take a seat in their lone $1-3 NLH game for $300 which had six players before I joined. One of the first hands I saw was a 100bb pot with middle pair after he called the flop with a backdoor gutshot before turning second pair and calling a substantial check-raise which ended up being good on the river.

That very player a few hands later opened to $16 from early position and I made the call with 6♠ 6♣ from the cutoff as the big blind called too. The K♠ Q♠ 6♥ saw a c-bet of $16 before I popped it up to $42. The big blind passed, but the original raiser made the call before calling off his last $50 on the turn of the 8♣. The river landed the J♣ and I scooped the pot to move to $406.

I then won a smallish pot with King-Queen in a straddle pot when I flopped top pair and got one street of value. As Mateusz returned to signify the end of my session before we had to head to dinner, I opened Q♣ Q♥ to $12 and got three callers to see a Q♠ J♠ 9♥ flop fall. I continued for $22 which found one fold before the player on the button made it $72. The small blind passed, and with my opponent having $90-ish in his stack, I decided to put him all in because of two reasons – firstly I didn’t want to fold regardless of if he had it, and secondly because regardless of the turn (mostly) I was probably calling it off.

I shipped, he called, and the turn and river landed the A♠ and K♠ … YUK! He slammed down his J♣ 9♦ for bottom two pair as I was pushed the pot to move over $620 before eventually cashing out for $618 several hands later.

We headed out to Henderson to Donnie and GG’s house for a cookout with some of our mates including DK, Cory, Kristy and Andrew.

GG cooked a slamming BBQ which included hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks as we ate a bucket load of food out in the backyard before setting up around the fire to talk shit and play a jumbo group game of Lodden Thinks.

It would be five hours before we’d eventually decide to vacate the premises as Mateusz and I made our way to New York New York to catch up with some of my mates from Geelong; Davo and Frog.

As Frog put it in a text message to me … he was chasing skirt … but with Davo gambling away at a roulette table, we decided to join him before persuading him to the Craps table. I quickly lost $100 and we moved back to a different roulette table where both Davo and Mateusz lost some coin as I made a quick $100 before BlackJack was the next stop. Davo went busto as I made a small profit before moving to the Pai Gow tables to join Mateusz.

Once Davo joined us, some cocktails were ordered as we slowly saw our stacks swing up and down. Eventually we decided to call it quits as I finished up $100 for the table and for the session as we left Davo to break the bank on the BlackJack tables.

One of the biggest earthquakes in recorded history was just the beginning for Japan as it was soon followed by a huge tsunami that swept through the country washing away houses and towns before a nuclear power crisis put not only the country on edge, but the whole world. Japan is suffering and the death toll is rising, but the Japanese are a country that has strong-willed and brave people, but still need you to help them get back on their feet.

As I sat logged into my PokerStars account eyeing up the bankroll that I had steadily built after depositing late last year, I felt that although I may not be the richest man in the world, I could spare a few dollars for the Japan Relief. It’s actually quite tough deciding exactly how much to donate – too little and you seem like a cheapskate while too much has a drastic effect on your bankroll – consequently I decided to donate $100.

Now before you start laughing away and thinking I’m a cheapskate for only donating $100, let me ask, have you donated yet?

Well if you haven’t there are two easy ways to do it via PokerStars. Firstly you can transfer any amount you want to through an account transfer to Japan Fund, or you can register for dummy tournaments under the name Japan Earthquake Relief with buy-ins ranging from $1 up to $1,000. Another reason why it’s so great to make a small but very worthy donation via one of these methods is that PokerStars are matching all donations dollar for dollar! Hopefully Japan will soon be back on their feet, and if some luck can go my way on the MTT-grind, then I’ll surely donate a few more dollars to the cause.

There are of course plenty of other ways to donate to the Japan Relief, and one is through the online clothing company of Seventh.Ink Shirts and Apparel.

Seventh.Ink make some nifty t-shirts, and most recently they created a Japan Relief one that depicts a few parts of Japanese culture and is a good reminder of the little bit of assistance you provided by buying one of the t-shirts for just $24. When you order a t-shirt, you have the option to decide which charity your proceeds go to; American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

It seems as though there is only a limited supply of these t-shirts, and they don’t get shipped until April 14th, but either way, order one and wear it proudly to show your support to the Japan Relief!

2010 Review
Last years goals were split into three distinct sections – improving my poker, building this website and getting healthy. I believe that I did manage to improve my poker game somewhat as I successfully climbed up the cash game limits on PKR before moving over to PokerStars. I didn’t manage to play too much live, but when I did, it was with some mixed results – some small tournament success, but overall a steady downswing for the year. Tilted Behaviour is what received the least attention as it didn’t undergo any real notable change – albeit plenty of aspirations to do so! Finally the aspect of getting fit and healthy really didn’t kick into gear until after the WSOP when I accepted a junk food-free prop bet for $2,000. I successfully won the bet while also joining a local gym to help get me back into shape.

Here it is . . . 2011
So 2011 was brought in with the company of some great friends, and I hope that the best moments of last year are repeated this year over-and-over!

I would like the odd few that read this site be the first to know that this will be my final year working in the poker industry. I have enjoyed the last three-and-a-bit years throughly, but feel that I need to move onto something more financially rewarding and career fulfilling – which will please my folks as my degree may finally get some use.

There is no guarantee that I won’t be around at the 2012 Aussie Millions, but since I’ve been passed over for a few jobs, I really feel like there is no further upwards movement for me in this industry. And unless something does pop up over the next twelve months, or a manage to boom something poker wise, then it will be adios to poker and hello to a cubicle and suit!

Well enough of the please feel sorry for me sob stories as here are the goals I intend to achieve this year.

1. Get Fit and Healthy
2. Number 1 in Geelong (on Pocket Fives) achieved
3. Top 30 in Victoria (on Pocket Fives) achieved
4. Top 100 in Australia (on Pocket Fives) achieved
5. Four-Figure Online Score achieved
6. Five-Figure Online Score achieved
7. Final table a Major Tournament Live and Online achieved and achieved
8. Win a Tournament Live and Online achieved (twice) and achieved

So they’re all pretty basic, and very achievable, so hopefully in a year I would have achieved them all!

It all started when I headed up to Melbourne on Friday to catch up with some mates. We grabbed some dinner at the local pub while watching some of the Geelong vs Saints match before going bowling.

Mat and GG spotted James and I twenty pins where each game was worth $0.10 a pin, $0.25 a spare, $0.50 a strike and -$1 a first shot gutter ball. With the adjustment, I won by a few pins followed by GG and James while Mat bowled atrociously and owed us each around the $3 mark before the second game saw us readjust the handicap to give Mat ten pins while GG still spotted us twenty.

Mat bowled slightly better, while both James and I couldn’t replicate our 150-plus score of the previous game as GG really cleaned up by bowling out of his skin as the Saints proved victorious and I missed out on my total points bet by two kicks.

Our next stop was Mat’s house where we decided to play a game of Risk – well a few games of Risk – which, when played between some competitive poker players really brought about some intense strategy as the clock ticked into the wee hours of the night. Once the final game was wrapped up, we played a quick game of Bluff, before having to drive GG home – well to Lynn’s house anyway – as we finally got some sleep around the 4am mark.

Once Mat and I finally awoke around lunchtime, we made our way to Westfield to spend a few hours baby-sitting his sister.

Spending nearly more time in the car looking for a park then wondering the shops, once we finally made our way home we watched Fremantle dispatch of Mat’s beloved Hawks before we made our way to Crown to kill some time before we all headed out for some casual drinks.

This is where my weekend from hell started as I took a seat on a $1-2 NLH table and swiftly made one of those once-in-a-lifetime plays!

Posting in late position, there was a raise to $7 and a call, and I tossed in the additional $5 with 6♦ 7♦. The flop fell Q♣ 5♣ 4♠. The original raiser checked, which was followed by a bet of $15. I called, as did the original raiser before the turn landed the 4♥. Check, bet $20, I call and the original raiser decided to opt out as the 8♦ landed on the river. My lone opponent instantly moved all in and I snap-folded . . . errr what . . . yep I totally misread my hand because in my mind I was looking for only a three or a seven, and when it didn’t come on the river I was always folding. When I announced “I fold” and dropped my cards just in front of me I instantly recognised what I did, but since I had already announced a fold, I didn’t think it was ethical to make up some story while revealing my winning straight. Instead I just dropped my head into my hands, didn’t say a word, and painfully watched my opponent and his K♣ Q♦ rake in the pot.

Several hands later after a limp under the gun, I bumped it up to $11 with A♠ K♠ and was instantly shoved on by the limper for roughly $70. I called it off, and was quite puzzled when he tabled his J♦ 10♥. Although I flopped an Ace, he somehow rolled out a four-card flush to force me to top-up once again. Then just two hands later after two limps, I made it $14 to go with K♥ K♦. Both limpers called, and after the Q♥ 10♥ 8♣ flop landed, the same opponent who held the King-Queen earlier, jammed for $140. I shook my head in a what the hell is going on motion before making the call for my $110 or so. The other player folded, and when the 2♥ fell on the turn, followed by the 8♦ on the river, the appropriately named donkey slammed down his 8♠ 4♠ proudly and grabbed my chips before I could even table my hand or signify that I had lost.

Forced to rebuy once again to be in for $300, I eventually started to see some hands hold as I edged out just a negative $100 session while Mat cleaned up – of course through the donkey on three occasions – before we made our way to Public House to meet up with some of the boys for a friends going-away party. It was there that I had realised that I left a bunch of Crown chips in my pocket – and since I wasn’t planning on being back at Crown for quite a while – was out of pocket a few dollars.

The night of having a few casual drinks and watching some beautiful woman walk past was interrupted by GG and his call for help as he was stranded at some club in the city that wasn’t his thing. Mat and I were getting a little peckish and decide to venture to AC/DC lane to find him and save him for an hour or so. Unfortunately GG wasn’t to interested in deserting Lynn, so we jumped back in the car to make our way to China Bar. Just a block away, GG hailed on us again as Lynn was now all partied out and ready to vacate the club. We did a u-turn and picked them up before tucking into some much-needed food with one of my favourite persons in the world . . . a drunk Lynn Gilmartin!

Burping, spilling food on the table, her lap and into her tea, along with plenty of other stuff saw us enjoy a very entertaining meal before we were informed that the boys had vacated Public House in preference for Blue Bar on Chapel Street; and consequently, that’s where we headed. Unfortunately that was a bad idea as we stood outside being denied entry as the wind continued to hurl and the bouncers continued to be douches. A few minutes waiting for James was quickly trumped by the warmth of the car as we dropped GG and a now asleep Lynn back home.

Sunday was the true day of hell for me as it began with my car not starting.

Mat’s Dad kindly jump-started it for me as I made my way back to Geelong. Once at home, that is where I realised that I had left my laptop power cord at Mat’s place to leave me powerless on the eve of leaving for Sydney.

I then decided to play on PKR for a while and loaded up some 100NL tables where I swiftly lost Queens against Jacks, Ace-King against 88 and Kings against Ace-King. I did manage to stack top set of Aces when I flopped a flush with 2♦ 4♦ as I finish down around $50 or so.

I say around because mid multi-tabling, my connection died and all my tables closed. The reason why? GG had passed on details of how to download Jersey Shore episodes, and consequently my desktop caught a virus that shut everything down. Regardless of what I did, combined with the fix I downloaded to combat the virus, nothing managed to work.

Either way . . . from folding the effective nuts, getting plenty of hands cracked, leaving my charger in Melbourne and conducting a virus . . . it was definitely a weekend from hell!

I had to fill out an online application twice since the first one decided not to work, before Brett and I were finally free so as to enjoy his last day in Las Vegas. Venturing over to the Miracle Mile shops, we walked round there for an hour or so, not really finding anything until the very last store; Urban Outfitters.

I found about a dozen t-shirts that I instantly fell in love with, along with a couple of cool jackets, but decided to hold off until later in my trip before I leave. Mickey wanted to join us for dinner, and since we had around $120 in Hard Rock comps, we decided to eat at Johnny Smalls. Johnny Smalls is a really nice restaurant located at the back of the casino that serves tapas-styled food at a semi-reasonable price. With the three of us being joined mid-meal by Brett’s friend Jess, we ordered over twenty dishes while – since we’re all degenerates – playing nine-card Omaha flips as the bill totalled a little more than we expected.

With nearly every media member that was still in town heading to the Gold Coast for some midnight dollar bowling, the four of us made our way there.

As the beers began to flow freely, the cards came out once again as we played an intense hand on nine-card Omaha where Mickey flopped middle set, Elissa top and bottom set, Brett a straight flush draw and I a gutshot and nut-flush draw along with an overpair. I dinged an Ace on the turn to take the lead and leave everyone drawing dead apart from Brett who held the one-outer draw . . . of course it was delivered on the river as I spat chips and made a hasty exit from the bar to hit the bowling lanes.

Brett and I both valued ourselves as decent bowlers and decided to play 25 cents a pin, 50 cents a spare and $1 a strike, while also spotting Mickey fifteen pins to make the game even. Unfortunately for Brett and I, we bowled like complete dogs, and although we still beat Mickey, the fifteen pins we spotted him hurt our pockets. The next game I managed to convince both Mickey and Brett to spot me the fifteen pins. Mickey bowled roughly the same score of around 125, Brett bowled something in the 150s, while I bowled worse then an epileptic salmon and struggled to even pass 100 as I shipped the moolah to both of them!

I opted out of the last game as I decided that I wanted to bowl left-handed. Originally I tried to get a line off Brett at bowling over 75 pins, but he wouldn’t give it to me. He must have sniffed something as I came out and bowled a whopping 147 left-handed while he still managed a strong 170 and Mickey a standard 124 as we called it a night and headed back to the Hard Rock.

Brett and I decided to play some late-night cash as a send off to his Vegas trip as we both found ourselves on separate $1-2 NLH tables.

Brett scooped a huge pot just as his table broke to see cash out a rack and change as he called it a night as his flight left in a few hours, while I tried to stick it out to try and make some money. Finding myself all in preflop with Kings against an online kid’s Ace-Queen seemed good until an Ace found its way on the flop and I made my way up to the room to try and get some sleep before checking out tomorrow for Donnie and GG’s place.

With the game locked up at half time, I decided to head to the Strip so that I could get some of the pieces needed for the prank I was going to pull on my boss Matt at the freeroll later on in the day.

My plan was to get a t-shirt printed that read Matthew Parvis Direct To You In 20 Minutes 702-340-MATT – which turned out perfectly – while also getting a photoshopped photo of Matt printed off and stuck on some girls direct to you-esque cards (thanks to my buddy Carey who did the photoshopping for me).

On my return to the Hard Rock, I quickly raced upstairs to the room to shower and change before wondering down to the poker room to munch away on the nibbles that had been prepared for us. A total of thirty-two PokerNews employees were in attendance of the annual WSOP freeroll as I danced round for the first dozen or so hands attempting to get this prank sorted.

With plans of getting an extremely hot female to walk into the room, give Matt a huge kiss and then get him to sign the picture before she would take the t-shirt off and give it to him while also slipping him a room key, was difficult. For over ten minutes no one decent walked past until Kirsty managed to find someone willing to help us out.

The result . . . plenty of laughs, a red-faced Matt and pure satisfaction on my behalf!

Finally being able to return to the freeroll, there was cash prizes (minimum of $50) on offer, but the major prizes were the five iPad’s up for grabs. I managed to knock out Greg when in a limped pot against Mike I flopped bottom set of sevens against Greg’s top two and the board bricked out. I really started to get things going when we were down to the final two tables as I accumulated chips a lot easier through simple preflop raises since everyone was playing so tight for the iPad. Once we lost Sarah on the bubble, I had accumulated a top three chip stack as the final table was formed.

Seat 1: Ben Conoley (blogger)
Seat 2: Chad Holloway (blogger)
Seat 3: Matthew Parvis (da boss man)
Seat 4: Kristy Arnett (presenter)
Seat 5: Andrew Bogner (marketing director)
Seat 6: Adam ‘Snoopy’ Goulding (blogger and master of puns)
Seat 7: Tim Duckworth (blogger)
Seat 8: Elissa Harwood (blogger)
Seat 9: Alex Villegas (field reporter)
Seat 10: Adam Brown (cameraman)

The pros to this final table was the fact that Matt and Andrew were ineligible for the iPad which meant that we really needed to lose only three players, and since I didn’t want one, there was a good chance I could do a deal to get money instead.

We lost Adam and then Elissa to leave us with eight players as I began the negotiating. I managed to score $75 from the five eligible iPad players along with some of the leftover money which meant at least $375 plus between $100 or so on top. Once we all agreed, I went on a tear chipping up at ease before knocking out both Alex and Andrew in one hand. There is some background in this hand where Alex pushed me off a pot I was expecting to check down with him since we had Elissa all in. Chad then folded for his last chip in the small blind – while holding an Ace – because Andrew would be all in the next hand on the big blind and they were both involved in the last longer.

Consequently I attempted to double up Andrew by smooth-calling 4,000 only to have Alex move all in for 15,500. I told him that this was payback and called with the powerful 4♣ 2♥. Andrew tabled his 9-5 while Alex slowrolled us with his Kings. Justice prevailed as I dinged two fours on the flop to BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA his ass!

I then eliminated Parvis with Kings against Ace-King before dispatching of a short-stacked Snoopy as Ben and I went heads up with me holding a roughly 70,000 to 25,000 chip advantage with blinds at 2,000-4,000.

We probably played fifteen or so hands before he limped for 6,000 (after the blinds went up) and I checked my option with 4♣ 5♦. The flop fell down 4♠ 7♥ 8♣ and all the money went in with Ben well in the lead holding Queens. The turn blanked out, but the river landed the 4♥ to see me spike another set of trip fours; but this one being for the title of 2010 World Series of Poker PokerNews Freeroll Champion!

Congratulations to Tim Duckworth, Winner of Event 58: PokerNews Freeroll ($to be decided)!

Unfortunately the PokerNews team was unable to shell out for a diamond-encrusted gold bracelet, but the victory and some cash on the side eased the pain as we all ventured home and to our rooms upstairs to prepare for the PokerStars Player Party in just a few hours time!

Brett, Ben, Chad, Martin and I all split a cab to the Rio to look for some people as well as picking up Brett’s phone charger before we waltzed into the Palms just before the doors opened at 9pm.

While waiting in line, Ben and I decided to go on a Maccas run to grab some cheeseburgers as Brett called on us to bring him one to. Once we returned to the line, Martin, Chad and Brett were no where to be seen, and after a few phone calls, we discovered that they had decided to enter ahead of us!

Once inside, the beers flowed freely . . . but not for me . . . as I was sticking to water since I was starting to feel slightly better for the first time in a long time.

The newbies to the PokerNews team: Brett, Ben and Chad

Rich, Donnie, Remko, JonBon, Me and GG

Snoop Dogg’s support act Esthero came on at around 10pm or so, and she wasn’t that bad at keeping us entertained – even swigging a bottle of Jagermeister mid set to the cheers of everyone on the dance floor.

Since my plan was always to go home earlier then everyone else, I made my way back to the dance floor at around 11pm to wait patiently for Snoop Dogg with Ben and Brett. People slowly trickled onto the dance floor making it extremely squishy as I vowed to wait for Snoop just so that I could say I’d seen him perform from a few metres away – although I had no real interest in him or his music.

As the clock ticked past midnight, Brett was on about his sixteenth beer and decided that it was time to punch me in the face a couple of times. I didn’t even feel the urge to punch the kid back, since he was so wasted, and consequently just shrugged it off and continued to wait not so patiently for Snoop.

Finally at 12:30am Snoop came on and erupted the audience into cheers as the smell of weed that had been floating in the room for the past hour started to get stronger and stronger. Three songs into his set I pulled the pin and headed upstairs to say goodbye to the rest of the bunch before making my way back to the Hard Rock to get some rest.

With such high numbers on the latter of the two day ones, the WSOP staff had deciding to merge both Day 1a and 1c together so that both day two fields would possess relatively the same numbers. Consequently it would be 2,412 players returning to battle out another eight hours of tournament poker.

Only 1,200 players would survive the day, but it would be an interesting situation that occurred with Matt Savage that would be the highlight of my day.

Savage Doubles and Receives Penalty
Matt Savage is one of – if not the – most well known Tournament Directors in the world having worked for many different companies; including the World Series of Poker.

“Well at least I doubled” Savage added before beginning his orbit hiatus from the table.

Today was also the day that PokerNews implemented the use of the iPad for updating player’s counts.

I managed to use it over the duration of the last level, and managed to update my whole section every ten minutes or so with relative ease. Where we will really see the benefit is most likely on days four an beyond, but so far everything about them have been on a positive note!

Cough medicine, throat lozenges, mouth wash . . . I’ve tried about everything, but yet my health still slides downhill . . . but I’m a trooper, and work isn’t getting in the way of the World Series!

2,314 players took to the felt for Day 1c of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event which was a considerable 618 player increase from last year. 1,645 players managed to survive with Johnny Chan sitting second in chips as I was let go early to try and recover from whatever the hell I had.

Day 1d of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event was one that fell short of last years numbers by only managing to get 2,391 entrants in comparison to the 2,809 that registered for the 2009 sell out.

Starting the day in the blue section like normal, I was coughing up a storm mixed with blood and other disgusting things, and on several occasions left the Amazon Room and opened one of the doors leading to the outside car park to cough and unleash whatever was in my throat.

About a minute before play started, I quickly bolted from my chair, pushed through the Amazon Room doors and then swung one of the outside-leading doors open in readiness to hurl.

Unfortunately this was the exact time Phil Ivey had decided to enter the arena, and slowly walked up the stairs before detouring to the door I was still holding open.

“Thank you” he stated as I just nodded my head in acceptance before shutting the door and letting my many coughs and spits out.

It was purely Phil Ivey Watch 2010 for me and fellow Amazon Blue blogging partner Donnie Peters, but one of the best hands – well it wasn’t really a hand at all – didn’t involve Ivey.

Where Is My Seat?
Currently there is a player walking round the blue section of the Amazon room.

Unfortunately for the lost player – or as we discovered Stanley Quinn – he is a little confused at the difference between the one and six seats, as well as his proximity to Mr. Phil Ivey (since he is on the opposite end of the blue section to him).

1,713 players managed to bag and tag their chips, and still be in the running to take home part of the whooping $68,798,600 prizepool; well if you’re one of the lucky 747 anyway.

The goal however for the remaining 5,143 players heading into day two is the $8,944,138 first prize on offer!