It was another early start today as I headed into Crown to play the 10am Phase One Satellite.

I busted relatively early when I three-bet all in from the big blind holding A♠ K♠ but ran into Kings. Bricked out, and the next hand I decided to commit by two bb stack with 7♦ 8♦ but bricked out against some rags.

I decided to play some $1-2 NLH to fill in the time and after about two hours my stack had moved from the original $80 buy-in to fluctuate around the $220 mark. I then proceeded to lose every hand for the next hour until I had slipped to around $120.

Then, after being dealt Q♦ 3♦ on the button I three-bet all in on a 7♦ 2♦ 3♠ flop and was met with a lone call from the original flop better. The turn landed a 3♣ and I leaned over to my mate Oatsy telling him that that was a good card for me. The river was a blank and as my opponent – who had been there since the night before – looked up at me I rolled over my three. He rolled over a seven, and both me and Oatsy looked at each other and just shook our heads knowing the outcome. I rolled my Queen and he rolled another seven to take the pot down.

I rebought and the following hand floated with bottom pair and eighteen backdoor draws. I turned trips, got it in, but again ran into top set and was forced to rebuy once again.

My third buy-in went nowhere and I decided to play the PokerNews Cup Super Satellite that I had some luck in the other day.

I took my seat in the forty-three player field and started donking early. I had $200 to have some fun with and use to get off tilt. After getting stacked three times I decided to switch it up by letting the dealer play one card and myself the other.

Good meant paint, mmmm meant sixish to ninish and a swift shake of the head meant terrible. If we both said good I moved all in, and if we both said mmmm I limped hoping we had a pair or a suited connecter.

I managed getting to the end of the rebuy period with around 5,000 in chips and after having a quick chat with Michael ‘TheBigSiCkO’ Guzzardi he decided to do my $150 triple add-on and consequently take 50% of my action – although the percentage was incorrect I didn’t mind too much as I was hoping his share on me might change my day’s luck.

From thirty left to about twenty or so I played very solid, picking my spots wisely but was still unable to accumulate due to the high blinds. I found a double when I pushed Q♥ 10♥ and doubled through against eights. I then knocked out a player with Kings against Queens as we broke into two tables. The first hand of the next table I re-shoved holding Aces and knocked another player out to have one of the top few chip counts – not that it meant too much due to the quick levels and high blinds.

Having position on Guzzardi didn’t mean too much as we were trying to stay out of each other’s way, and in the meantime I managed to double up the same player twice as Guzzardi dispatched of Lisa Walsh as we hit the final table.

With the four chip leaders sitting in the nine, ten, one and two seat, I drew seat three, but having Guzzardi in the two seat would hopefully help in discouraging people from stealing my blinds.

I was unable to catch a single thing on the final table, and with four seats up for grabs plus cash I was extremely focused on winning another seat. With blinds at 2,000-4,000 I pushed for my last 11,000 holding Ace-King and was snapped by the small blind with Jack-nine while the big blind threw in his last 2,000 holding Ace-four.

The flop of Jack-Ten-Nine saw be drawing to just four outs and on the verge of being eliminated, but when a repeat ten landed on the turn I added a further six outs, but alas, it was to no avail as the river landed another ten and I busted in sixth place – one short of the money and two from another seat.

BRAIN SPASM TIME

Holding my two hole cards I just kept shaking my head lamenting at yet another PokerNews Cup Main Event bubble and just clenched my fists together due to me being more pissed off then I can ever recall (poker sense that is)!

Not realising I had the cards still in my hand, I threw the mangled and destroyed cards down on the table and walked straight to the PokerNews desk, chucked my bag on the floor and went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face and cool off.

I returned to the desk, grabbed my keys from my bag, ignored everyone that tried to speak to me and made my way to the car to get changed as the Tony G Celebrity Bounty Event was just kicking off.

END BRAIN SPASM

Once I returned from my car I was directed to see Jonno regarding my little incident.

It was agreed that my presence behind the computer as a member of the PokerNews Live Reporting Team wouldn’t be a good idea tonight, and he decided that I should have a night off before returning tomorrow.

I explained the situation to Heath, and although I was letting the team down there was nothing more I could do about out.

I decided that I would head to Geelong for a couple of days, but not before putting myself through some more satellite hell when I finished forth once again in the PokerNews Cup satellite on TonyG Poker.