Heading to Alex’s apartment across the road from Crown, we rocked up to find a $1-2 NLH table going and another in the midst of being set up. With no free seats available, I decided to grind online for a while, and although I wanted to play some tournaments, I opted to mass-rego for sit-n-gos instead.

I’ve been tinkering with my SNG game recently and been playing a fair few of them to both build the bankroll and increase my frequent player points … SuperNova Elite is only 997,000 points away!

Playing predominately $11 SNGs (non-turbo), I’ve also dabbled in some $12 Turbo 45 and 180-mans as well as a few $16 Turbos. The session was fairly awful as I bubbled a couple of SNGs and took some pretty terrible beats, but I still managed to push out a $15 profit after playing the following SNGs.

$11 SNG 3/11 (one win, two thirds)
$16 SNG (turbo) 3/7 (two wins, one third)
$12 45-man (turbo) 1/3 (third)
$12 180-man (turbo) 0/3

Looking at these results (going 6/18 in regular SNGs and 1/6 in MT-SNGs), I felt that I probably should have converted more in the regular SNGs, and was unlucky not to win the 45-man when I lost two big flips three-handed.

I’ve been struggling in getting results in the MT-SNGs, but seem to be doing all right in the regular ones. This however was my first sole SNG-grind session since I’ve mainly been playing them to accompany my MTT grind, but I feel that I’ll probably do some of these grind sessions more regularly in the future.

As for the home game, I eventually got a seat on the super agro table and opted to buy-in for the minimum of $50. I limp-called it off with Ace-King against two other players and won with a superior ace-high before eventually cashing out $200 after winning another small pot with a shove over a three-bet and a few prop bets.

Just a few days previously she had received some terrible news that a family member passed away, and consequently I decided to pay her and her family a visit to express my condolences. I picked out an arrangement of white orchids, lilies and roses before driving around their block a few times trying to work out what exactly to say at a time like this (because honestly no one is good at these things, and there is only a handful of things that you can say!). Eventually I manned up, pulled over and knocked on their door before staying there for just over an hour catching up before making my way into the city.

I swung pass Alex’s house and picked him up to grab some dinner, but instead we decided to go play the Crown $60 Turbo tourney for shits and giggles.

Arriving just a few minutes before the tournament started, we registered then grabbed a quick snack before joining the tournament a little late. The $60 Turbo not only gives you twenty seconds to act on your hand, but the structure is rather fast too, meaning it’s more of a run hot / gamble up kind of tournament instead testing out your superior poker skills.

I won a small pot within in the first orbit to move above my starting stack of 1,500 before Alex’s table broke and he was moved to my direct right. He shoved one hand, then another before his third shove would find action from an under the gun limp-caller with A♠ 5♦ against his Jacks. An Ace dropped and Alex was of course upset at the level of play he was witnessing.

A few hands later I jokingly made the dealer aware that he was using his phone at the table, and after losing that hand and grabbing his phone for some comfort (?) he was pinged with a ten minute penalty. It wasn’t the ten minutes that were the major problem, or the fact he was about seven hands from the blinds, but the fact that he only had three big blinds left! Alex immediately stormed off saying that he was leaving blah blah blah. The ten minutes went by and I called and messaged him before he eventually made it back just in time to see the blinds go up only to bust to my K♣ 8♣ when I rivered an eight to crack his pocket fours.

I was still short – well not in comparison to the table – with around fifteen big blinds, and consequently Alex decided to stick around and wait till I busted so we could head out for dinner. Unfortunately for him I kept hanging around picking up a pot here and there – including a nice triple holding Kings vs Ace-Jack vs Sevens – to see just two tables remain from the original 88 starters.

Once that twenty was reduced to sixteen it became a game of who had balls and who didn’t. I of course did and started raising and raising and raising to put pressure on the players who were sitting tight in an effort to make the final table and min-cash. This one guy on my left folded A♥ Q♥ to my button shove with 7♠ 7♣ and then folded those same sevens when I shoved with A♣ 3♦. Although I was chipping up fairly well – I still barely had fifteen big blinds due to a pretty crapshoot-style structure – I decided to ask everyone if they were interested in chucking in $10 each for whoever was the bubble boy. Everyone agreed and about an orbit later the guy that continued to whimper at my button shoves hit the rail as the final table was formed as the clock hit 10pm.

Alex and his mate David decided to vacate the rail to find some action for themselves as they ventured up to the Craps table as we kicked off with my stack in about fourth or fifth position. A full orbit went by before I played my first hand when I shipped it all in from the big blind after an all in and a call holding Ace-King to be up against Ace-Ten and Sevens. I dinged a King on the flop and tripled up nicely to sit in second place with only seven players left. Soon enough we were three-handed with some old guy holding the slight chip lead over me and long-time Crown player Andrey.

Three handed play astoundingly went for about forty minutes as we all exchanged chips from our average ten big blind stacks. With blinds at 3,000-6,000 I shoved the small blind for around 31,000 holding the powerful 4♣ 2♠ and was snapped off by Andrey’s A♦ K♦. I bricked out and picked up $615 for my third place as Andrey went on to be bad beat for second and see the $1,025 first prize head in the direction of the old man.

Me and Alex had swapped 25% so I shipped his share of $136 before I dropped him and David off in the city to grab dinner. Originally planning on playing some cash instead of the tournament, the win was good enough for the day, and I decided to make my way back home a little happier then when I ventured up early in the afternoon.

I began Saturday with a trip into town to watch a few hours of my cricket club’s Grand Final (which we eventually lost) before making my way up the highway to Crown. I said hello to some friends I hadn’t seen in ages before making heading to Mat’s house to help set up the home game.

Mat has a bungalow out the back of his house, and now that it has been cleared out, we set up a table in there in preparation for the night.

We had a full table of nine players as we sat down around 8:30pm to play some 25c-50c NLH. I chipped up to around $90 in the first hour before hitting a very cold run of cards for the next several hours. I was pushed out of a few pots to slip back to around $65 before opening with a raise to $1.50 from under the gun with 8♥ 5♥. It was called round to Oatsy on the button who made it $6.50 to go with about $70 behind him. I called, as did three others, to see a flop of A♥ J♠ 8♣ fall and action check round to Oatsy who continued with a very small bet of $7.50. Now I had to decipher what exactly he had.

I had bluffed him on a few occasions and knew that he was capable of folding a hand to me as he is more than solid when it comes to cash games. Also he had been stealing a few pots to accumulate some chips after losing a buy-in early. In this spot there is a good chance that he flopped huge like Aces, Jacks or Ace-Jack or flopped well with Ace-King or Ace-Queen. However I believed his range was more skewed to weaker and more marginal holdings like weak Aces or underpairs and decided that I could successfully win the pot by running an educated bluff.

Now he was never going to fold one of those huge hands, so my bluff would have to see him fold out the top of his perceived slightly weaker range; basically Ace-Ten and worse. One of the players in the hand – Alex – was throwing a huge stare-down at Oatsy like he wanted to get funky with some sort of Ace or Jack so that made me consider a bluff even more.

Taking stack sizes into consideration, I took my time before check-raising to $22 so that if he called it would take the pot to $77.25 and both of us having just on $50 behind (to be honest I really wish I had more so that my turn ship looked more powerful . . . but oh well). Alex took his time before folding before Oatsy spent a minute summing up the situation before calling.

Knowing that he either had it or not, I was looking for a blank on the turn that didn’t improve his middle-tier range so that my shove would force a fold. Now of course if he called I was probably drawing dead!

The turn landed the 2♠ and I moved all in only to be quickly called by Oatsy. I tossed my cards into the muck and announced, “your set is good mate” before he rolled over Jacks. We didn’t even deal a river and I was forced to rebuy another $50 as everyone on the table just looked shocked at what had just gone down.

Money pretty much passed round in circles all night, and I eventually finished even after rivering two-pair with Ace-Ten against Ace-Queen as we called it a night at around 4:30am.

After crashing at Alex’s for the night, I was up earlier then I wished as I was on my way to catch up with a friend at Chadstone for lunch and a movie.

Bec wanted to grab some Yum Cha which I was happy to oblige with although I found it oddly strange not to be eating Yum Cha in Chinatown where I’m use to. Afterwards we decided to summon our inner-child and decided to watch the newly released How To Train Your Dragon in 3D.

Toothless and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Getting use to the 3D glasses took longer than I expected but they definitely worked in some parts of the movie, otherwise it was probably no different to watching it in the normal 2D format. All-in-all I definitely recommend seeing it as it does have an interesting storyline and was pretty funny even if you aren’t a child.

Bec made her way home to prepare for her new job starting tomorrow while I made my way to Crown to play in Event 8: $200 No Limit Holdem / Pot Limit Omaha Teams Event with Alex.

He sat down first to play the NLH orbit while I was due to play the PLO one. We got off to a slow start with not much action from either game before I chipped up on the last hand of my orbit when I raised from the button over a few limpers holding 8♣ 7♣ 7♠ 5♥ and took the pot down with a continuation bet on the 10♠ 3♠ 3♣ board.

During my next PLO orbit I was dealt Aces twice and picked up the blinds with an under the gun raise and then limped in from the cutoff before taking it down on the flop. However – just like the previous orbit – I won a substantial pot on the final hand of the level when after a limp I raised holding Q♥ J♣ J♠ 9♠. The big blind called as did the limper before a flop of 10♣ 7♣ 2♠ fell. The limper fired out for pot and I felt like he had complete air and decided to make the call as the big blind passed. We both checked the 6♠ on the turn before I was faced with another pot-sized bet when the river landed the Q♦. I tanked for about a minute before making the call to be shown a pair of sixes and three cards forming the rest of his air.

Unfortunately for us things would fall apart in the next PLO orbit when the most aggressive player on the table flopped top set of sevens on me and I was forced to fold to his check-raise. A few hands later I called one of his light raises from the button with A♠ K♠ 6h 5♥. Dean Francis – a solid PLO regular player – also called from the big blind and fired out pot on a fairly dry board with an overpair and flush draw as I folded and Alex subbed in.

We wouldn’t last too many more hands when after facing a limp for 1,200 from the hi-jack, Alex jammed for over 7,000 from the cutoff holding Q♦ 9♦. His opponent took his time before calling, only to table a dominating A♣ 9♥. We turned a gutshot but blanked as we hit the rail in about 40th place from the original 118 starters.

Although it wasn’t a greatly successful poker trip up to Melbourne, it was great to catch up with everyone and am looking forward to getting back there next weekend.

My friend Bec and I had discussed a night of ice skating a few weeks back, and with the day finally upon us, I was more than a little nervous. I arrived early planning to catch up with a mate, but when some things got in the way, we decided to postpone that and instead I ventured to the city to check out the water-damaged Crown Poker Room.

Things didn’t seem too bad in the room, and I decided to take a seat on a $2-3 NLH table to kill the time before I made my way to an icy death!

Coming in on the big blind as time was called I was dealt 7♣ 7♠ and after a few players had limped, a player with over $800 in the cutoff decided to make it $15 as he started putting his chips in a rack. Both the button and small blind called, as did I, before the limpers followed suit to see the pot sit at around $105. The flop fell down 7♦ K♥ 6♦ and I led out for $45 – actually thinking the pot was smaller – and everyone folded apart from the original raiser. The turn landed the Q♥ and I toyed with checking, but with over $200 in the pot, I thought there was a slight chance that I could get a call from hands that would check behind – such as flush draw or even Jacks or something – and consequently moved all in for my last $140. My opponent deliberated for about three minutes before stating he was folding a flush draw for me as I racked in the pot to move to just under $330.

Mis-reading the size of the pot on the flop I really would have liked to bet say $65 to take the pot to $235 and then my shove would be about half pot and most likely have been called – and with no diamond landing on the river – I would have more than doubled.

A few hands later I opened 5♣ 5♥ to $11 and found one caller before being raised by the small blind to $22. We both called and I folded the flop as one player flopped trips and the other turned the nut flush.

Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan walked in the room and I decided to sweat him for a while and discuss a few hands that we had been chatting about online that we had witnessed from a DeucesCracked training video. I must have brought him a little bit of luck as he chipped up nicely before it was time to hit the ice!

I picked up my mate Alex from the CBD and we made our way to IceHouse to meet up with Bec and her mates.

We grabbed our skates and made the nervous stumble to the ice rink as kids and adults whizzed round in a circle. Nervous as all hell, me and Alex slowly stepped on the ice holding the rail tightly as we attempted to make our way round the ring.

Although I use to roller-blade quite frequently when I was younger and have been skiing all my life, I was still just a little worried of face planting on the cold and hard surface.

Eventually though it all came back to me and it felt completely natural as I whizzed around the rink like a semi-pro zigzagging in-and-out of people as the DJ blasted 80’s hits through the sound system.

Alex on the other hand was S-T-RUGGLING! He could barely do a lap without clutching to a nearby rail and randomly he would fall over forcing both a simultaneous “you allright dude?” and “bwahahahaha” from me.

Unfortunately for Alex, one of his falls saw him land a little harder than the others and he bruised up his knee pretty bad and decided to take a break. I continued to skate round the rink flirting with landing on my ass as I tried to go as fast as I could before slowing down to take corners that were tougher than I expected.

With everyone about to call it a night after several hours on the ring I made my way back onto the ice after taking a quick break. I stood on the ice, took two steps forward and fell flat on my face . . . I honestly didn’t know you could feel that embarrassed!

I picked my sorry ass up and did a few more laps, before exiting IceHouse with everyone before me and Alex decided to stop off at Chappelli’s for a very-late midnight dinner.

Good food, interesting discussions revolving mostly around poker and a long ride back to Geelong to be in bed by 4am.

It is a time for dealers, media and players to let their hair down and party hard on Crown’s wallet . . . and year after year that wallet gets pushed to the edge.

Driving up from Crown I met up with Heath as we made our way into Fusion and quickly grabbed a beer from one of the gorgeous waitresses. Surrounded by dealers we eventually found some common friends before the rest of the PokerNews clan rolled in along with some fellow poker buddies.

Basically the night revolved around lots of drinks, heaps of photos and conversations about poker before the bar-tab eventually ran out and people started shuffling elsewhere.

With the night still fairly young – 2am – me and Alex decided that we would pay a visit to the Teak Room to cash in a $25 free play voucher that I had received in the mail. Alex had a smoke, and I couldn’t resist the lure of the Baccarat tables and decided to gamboooool it up for a little.

Maybe thirty minutes later and up $150 we headed down to the poker room to continue our sobering-up by taking a seat on the $0.50-1 PokerPro table. Alex ran hot, I got rivered seventeen times and took by beat-up negative $100 ass to the real felt of a $2-3 NLH table.

I never got anything going but still managed to profit $40 on the table which meant I finished up for the night before eventually feeling sober enough to drive home.

However, thanks to Brendo, we have got a regular Tuesday night game up to keep our home game shenanigans kicking on!

Last Tuesday after hitting the set of the Australian Poker Hero we played a 50c-$1 No Limit Holdem cash game. It was fairly short-handed with only Mat, James, Stefan, Joe and another Brendan coming along.

I ran my $50 into about $90 with no real hands of note except a huge bluff I pulled against Stefan holding K♦ 9♦. I opened to $2.50 and the whole table called – as was usual – to see a 10♣ 5♠ 3♦ flop fall and a bet of $4 follow from Stefan out of the big blind. I made it $8 to go and when it folded back to Stefan he made it $16 total. I really felt I was ahead in the hand and he was in fact bluffing me, or that he held something really weak like bottom pair. Consequently my only move was to push back and announced all in for an additional $42 and change.

Stefan sat in the tank for eternity before I started exchanging friendly banter before beginning to fire every bullet I held in my arsenal. Eventually he reluctantly folded bottom pair, I tabled my bluffed, and I then raked the pot in.

He is a solid player and I’m hoping that I can use that hand to my advantage next time I flop a set or something against him.

That night I finally won the Australian Poker Hero satellite that I had been playing two to three times a day everyday since they started. I’ve ran deep in so many of them, but I finally won one . . . the only problem was that it was under Brendo’s account – but if he does go the whole way I do have 20% of him.

I just can’t believe the run I’m having in those APH satellites as well as other ones I’ve been playing – just getting unlucky while still running deep etc for no result.

On a side note, I made my first online Royal Flush the other day while playing 200-400 Limit Holdem on PokerStars . . . sigh it was just for play money!

The game got up again the following week minus Joe but with the addition of Shayan and Tim.

I lost just under two buy-ins running terrible, but I guess I used all my good luck on one of the first hands against Tim. He opened to $2.50 from early position with K♠ K♥ and I made it $7.25 with A♠ J♠before he made it $13.50 to go. I really wanted to five-bet all in but had about $42 behind, so I think a call can be justified. The flop fell down K♦ Q♠ 9♠ and he fired out $15 before I moved all in for $35.

After deliberating for a few minutes we decided to run it twice, and on the first board saw it run out 10♣ and the 3♣ while on the second saw it fell 4♣ and 3♠ to see me win both.

I pretty much leaked that stack and got into some really crappy spots where I had to fold after being turned or rivered.

Oh well, the home game circuit is back, and I can’t wait to keep grinding away the live micro-limits!