tilted behaviour

As the rain bucketed down, I made my way up a wet Geelong Highway to visit a friend in the south-eastern suburb of Aspendale.

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.

It has been nearly two months since the Aussie Millions, but tournament poker has returned to the Crown Poker Room with the fourth instalment of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series.

Tournament Director Mike Tarr borrowed a line out of The Hangover and called me a “one man wolfpack” as I was covering the event solo. This did mean that I wasn’t going to be able to churn out hand upon hand like I’m accustomed too, and what made it even worse was that both my Vodafone wireless stick couldn’t get reception and the Crown wi-fi wasn’t turned on. Consequently instead of blogging from the floor, I was out in the back office on a computer that seemed to be older than me!

Day 1a
Day 1b
Day 1c

The first three days of play were what you would have expected from a $550 Main Event Repechage with many noobs testing out their tournament skills in a combination with a few people willing to gamble as they had the option to buy-in each day if they busted the one previous.

Seventeen players took advantage / played bad / got unlucky and bought in on all three day ones. Michael ‘TheBigSiCkO’ Guzzardi, Yann Pauchon, Steve Topakas and Gregory Shillig were just a few of the notables to fire out three barrels and outlay the $1,650.

From the 784 starters only 259 remained with the top 72 getting to take a piece of the prizepool home with them.

Many notables were heading into day two with James ‘Jabba’ Broom the best placed being only one of the few having over 200,000 in chips while on an interesting note all three of the previous Champions still remained with Luke Santo, Daniel Botta and Amanda De Cesare looking to replicate their previous deep runs in this event.

Day 2

Day two was fairly standard with play lasting just over twelve hours as we played down to the final table.

The bubble lasted substantially longer than expected even with a few short stacks about – and once both Paul Birman and Lee Banh simultaneously bubbled – play quickened up as we blasted through elimination after elimination.

There was some very unusual play which was mostly due to amateur-dominated field, but still some local tournament veterans in Kel Beattie (64th), Mat Hawker (59th), Dave Lee (41st), Zane Ly (36th), Mark Furniss (30th), Danny Joukhadar (29th), Andrew Demetriou (24th), Sam Korman (20th) and Paul Taylor (16th) all managed to scrap into the money before the final table of ten was set.

Final Table

In my few years of working in the poker industry I’ve only experienced a handful of short final tables but many that have nearly seen me nodding off over my computer as they tick into the wee hours of the morning.

This Final Table however lasted just 150-minutes and less than 100-hands until Sam Welch was crowned Champion and $80,050 richer!

Six players hit the rail before we had even reached our first break while the remaining four sat fairly even with Esan Tabrizi holding the slight lead. Two more fell in quick succession to put play into heads-up with Tabrizi holding a slight advantage against Sam Welch who had been sitting high on the leaderboard since late on day two.

The heads-up duel was full of check-raises and blind steals, but after fifteen minutes and only a dozen hands it would be draw versus draw as Welch made the nut-straight holding 8♠ 7♠ against Tabrizi’s J♥ 9♥ for a flush draw. No heart fell on the river and Tabrizi exited in 2nd place as Welch was crowned the Main Event Champion!

With another Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series in the bag, it was time to rest up before heading to New Zealand in eight days time.

It had been well over three months, but I was finally on my way back to Melbourne for a home game to catch up with a bunch of my poker buddies.

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.

It had been a while since I ventured up to Melbourne, so it was good to journey up the highway to the city for some fun.

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.

I played at Crown a few nights ago.

The short story is that I played real terrible at the start to be in for three buy-ins on a $2-3 NLH table before kicking myself in the ass to play better and grind back to near even . . . only to donk it all off at about hour twelve of my session.

Following my live donk off and my downswing online, there was only one thing left to do.

. . . I grabbed the noose, hung it over the . . .

No. Just kidding.

Instead I made a few adjustments to my strategy and jumped back on the horse to continue to grind the $0.10-0.25c NLH tables.

So far things have been solid with the adjustments I’ve made helping me tighten up my leaks. Although the profit hasn’t fallen in droves as yet, I’m hoping that their just around the corner.

I do have a question for the Tilted Behaviour readers out there.

Is it possible to be playing $5-10 NLH on PKR by the time the WSOP rolls around?

I say it is possible if I continue to put in some high volume and run a little better than I have over the past couple of weeks. I do think it is unlikely though as most of the higher games are played only six-handed, and currently I tend to stay away from short-handed play because my strategy is a little too weak (I believe).

But for arguments sakes, here are the increases in limits on PKR; $0.25-0.50 ($10-$50 min and max buy-ins), $0.50-1 ($20-$100), $1-2 ($40-$200), $2-4 ($80-$400), $3-6 ($120-$600) and $5-10 ($200-$1000).

I wasn’t expecting to play anymore live poker for the week, but I guess I was wrong.

Driving up on Friday afternoon, I headed to the airport to pick up my cousin and his girlfriend from the airport. It was part thank-you for letting me stay at their house, part another reason to play at Crown, and part I didn’t want them to shell out the money to grab a cab.

After unloading the car once back at theirs, I made my way to Crown and found a seat on a $2-3 NLH table.

I had chipped up to around $250 on a table that featured a bunch of weak passive players who really struggled post-flop when this hand came up. Everyone limped in, and I did so on the button with J♦ 9♣ to see a flop of Q♦ 5♣ 9♦ fall and a bet of $10 follow from one of the limpers. This player had turned over a few ‘unique’ hands where he had barrelled bottom-pair etc, so his bet didn’t seem overly strong to me. A first time player made the call, before I bumped it to $37. The flop aggressor called as did the noob before I dinged the 9♠ on the turn.

Very comfortable with where I now sat in the hand, it shocked me to see the aggressor fire out (after just calling on the flop) $25. The noob called and I thought for a little before making it $68 to go and was instantly snapped off before the noob passed.

The river landed the 6♥ and I was met with an instant announcement of a bet of $100 as my now lone opponent in the hand fumbled while cutting down the amount to call.

I sat in the tank for around three minutes trying to decipher the whole hand. I couldn’t factor him to have a better nine, but more likely held a busted draw or even just a Queen. Eventually I called and internally puked when he rolled over his 8♠ 7♥ for a rivered gutshot to leave me with just $40 and send me to my wallet to top up.

Reviewing the hand, I think I bet the turn way too small, but either way I managed to add a further $200 to my stack the next hand when my two-pair held up against two players top pair.

Eventually though I got my now favourite opponent back when I opened from late position holding A♣ 10♥ and was flatted by the button and my nemesis from the big blind. The flop fell down K♠ Q♥ J♠ and I was faced with a donked out $20 bet in which I just called as the button folded. The turn landed the 6♣ and he fired out $30 in which I just called. The river landed the ugly 9♣ and my nemesis fired out $25. I exchanged some friendly banter before splashing the pot with a bet of $140.

He immediately called, rolled over Q♦ J♥, and I scooped the pot to put my stack upwards of $650.

I decided to call the session to an end when I double a short-stack up with a weaker top-pair to eventually cash out up just under $200 for the session before Mat made his way to Crown and we decided to see the new movie Daybreakers . . . if you like Vampires or need an occasional startle in a dark room then go see it.

I headed into Crown at the early time of 10am to test my luck in the Saturday morning $25 rebuy donkament.

I tried to enjoy the rebuy period and was all in at least ten times with five of them being without looking at my cards. After the rebuy period was over, I had spent $100 and had just over a 3,000-chip stack courtesy of a late triple up holding 10♠ 10♣.

Once we returned after the break, the levels picked up and facing a short-stack’s all in, I pushed with 5♦ 5♥ and was called by the big stack’s K♥ Q♥. The short-stack held tens, and once a Queen flopped, it was over as I was bundled out in 45th of the 72 starters.

Heading to a $2-3 NLH table I played for nearly five hours getting up $50, then losing $100, getting up $50, then losing $100. Eventually I decided that it wasn’t going to be a good day and walked out (thankfully) up $50 and made my way back home.

With the Aussie Millions over, it now leaves me more time to play, and consequently I decided to stay down in Melbourne for a few extra days to hit the felt.

By the time I had fully recovered from the copious amount of alcohol I had drunk the previous night I eventually found my way into the Crown Poker Room and on a $2-3 NLH table.

It was fairly uneventful as I grinded away for over two hours for $39 in profit before being convinced by friend / ex-PokerNews colleague / Crown’s best dealer / (potentially) Crown’s best tournament director Anthony ‘Slippers’ Molinaro to play the $65 Melbourne Championships.

Just like a typical Crown Step One satellite the structure was fairly fast and I just played a solid game to see the starting 17 quickly chomped down to just a final table. From then on I picked up the aggression and slowly accumulated a stack to see me capture one of the $250 Step Two seats.

I jumped back on a $2-3 NLH table, but started to get a little tired and decided to take my $11 profit and head home for the night.

Heading in early to play the $50 plus single $25 rebuy tournament at 10am I was surprised to see a further 54 players also get out of bed early to make the trip down to Crown.

I chipped up to around 4k from my 1,500 starting stack when I virtually doubled without a showdown holding Kings and took a few pots down on the flop in a raised pot. Just before the first break I opened 425 with blinds at 100-200 holding A♦ J♦ and was flatted by someone a few seats along before the big blind moved all in for 725. I decided to ship it all in and was quickly snapped off after being trapped with Aces.

Left with around 1,000 it was folded right round when I was in the big blind before I kept shoving from the small blind thereafter as the blinds kicked up to 200-400. Unfortunately my 10♥ 9♥ from middle position ran into the Ace-Queen and Ace-King of the blinds and I was out in 32nd place.

While waiting for a cash game I got in touch with Heath and we decided that we would have a hit of tennis or play online from his apartment across the road.

Kirsty needed to head into the city, so we decided to join her as we lugged round the CBD in the sweltering hot Melbourne sun.

Returning to their apartment I eventually convinced Heath to play the nightly $60 Turbo tournament at Crown and we made our way down to the poker room to find fellow PokerNetwork / PokerNews blogger Landon Blackhall and his dad also participating in the donkament.

Heath busted in about three hands while I grinded away before the blinds picked up and I shoved 8 bb’s with pocket fives only to run into Aces to bust out in 70th/98 place.

With Heath tying a noose somewhere, I sat down on a $1-2 NLH table but over the course of two hours ran into Aces, set into overset and a few other disgusting hands to finish down $200 and on my way out the door.

My final session for the first half of the week saw me venture into the poker room in the afternoon.

Sitting down at a $2-3 NLH table full of regular mid-week players, I was fairly card dead before getting involved in the wrong side of a pot to force myself to top-up an additional $150.

It would be a very wise decision because I few hands later I called a $15 raise from out of the big blind with A♦ 8♦ to see a flop of 7♦ 5♦ 4♦ flop fall with a pot of $90 in the middle. I checked, the player in middle position bet out $25 and only the original raiser called before I check-raised to $65. The flop aggressor moved all in, the original raiser folded and I called.

He rolled over his Q♦ 9♦ and that was that as I cashed out $467 after another orbit to register just over $115 in profit for the session before heading to Heath and Kirsty’s to play some tennis.

We played a best of three round robin series, and after nearly pulling a hammy when chasing down one of my drop shots, Heath never stood a chance against either Kirsty or me.

Heath didn’t any of his four matches, while Kirsty went 2-2 and me 4-0 before we called it a night as I made my way back to Geelong.

I made my down to the poker room a little after midday and took my seat on a $1-2 NLH table.

I sat down, got comfy and chucked my iPod on in preparation for the beginning of a solid few days of cash game grinding . . . but that wouldn’t last long. After a few limps, a raise to $20 and a call, I looked down at 10♦ 6♦. Now the re-raiser had been inclined to raise with garbage, but also was willing to fold and seemed scared of money. Consequently I saw this as a good spot to add about $46 to my $100 stack and decided to move all in from the big blind. The limpers folded, and after about three minutes of umming and ahhing, the raiser made the call. The preflop caller spent a further four minutes in the tank, eventually announcing his intention to gamble as he pushed his chips into the pot.

The board ran out Queen-high and after the preflop raiser turned over Queen-Jack offsuit, the pot was pushed and I rebought. Although the play seemed stupid, I didn’t mind it as it nearly worked. Either way, I slowly grinded my rebuy up to over $200 before hitting a few hiccups that included some busted draws and unlucky turns and rivers. Before too long my remaining $100-odd would be all in preflop against three players after committing most of my chips to a four-bet shove over a straddle and re-straddle.

I actually held the best hand with Ace-Jack, but even after flopping a pair, turning the nutflush draw and a gutshot to Broadway, I still managed to go down to the all powerful King-Jack offsuit! My third rebuy went fairly quickly when I was all in on the flop with two pair, only to get turned by an opponent who hit his three-outer to make a bigger two-pair.

Feeling like gambling, I decided to heat to play some Baccarat, but just like in the poker room, that wouldn’t go too well either as I quickly lost $450. I grabbed some dinner, had a rest, a little nap, surfed the net before returning to the poker room later on in the evening.

I took a seat on a $2-3 NLH table and found four $500-plus stacks, along with a $1700 one. The first hand I witnessed I saw the big stack grow to over $2400 after flopping top two-pair. After about an hour – with the table only six-handed – I had moved my stack to over $360 after taking a sizeable pot down with top-pair. I then was forced to top-up another $100 after having my two-pair flushed on and then getting involved in a big pot with a live straight draw.

Then holding K♠ 10♠ I lost a big pot against a donkey when on a board of K♥ J♥ 4♣ 10♥ J♠ he rolled over A♥ J♣. I topped up another $100 only to have that same donkey then flop a full house out of the small blind when I made the nut-flush on the turn and we got all the chips into the middle.

Left with only $106 there was a straddle to $6 and everyone called to me on the button – and being on tilt after the last hand – I made the call holding J♠ 4♠. The big blind then gave everyone option by making it $40, one call, another call, another call and another call, saw the action back on me. Knowing that my all in shove would be at least called by three of the players in the hand – as two had over $1000 in their stack while one had only $100 – I decided to ship it in.

I did indeed get three callers, and even though I was put through a sweat on the 8♠ 7♥ 6♦ A♠ 8♥ board, I was unable to outdraw the pocket tens, nines and a random holding, and consequently called it a night.

After a great night’s rest I returned to the poker room and sat down on a new $2-3 NLH table along with Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan.

Wonky had been helping me out a lot recently when I headed in to play as we have been discussing both live and online hands during our live sessions at Crown. He quickly chipped up and headed to a $2-5 NLH table while I just plodded along.

I was forced to lay a big hand or two down, and eventually had topped up to be in for $400. I was sitting on around $260 when I was dealt A♣ K♣ in the cutoff and made it $20 after three limpers. The player on the button who had seemed to be fairly solid made it $50 to go as the big blind – a relative donkey – made the call too. I was fairly certain that the button player held a pair like Jacks or Tens, and since I too had been solid, I decided to four-bet to $180 to rep Aces or Kings.

The button player then went into the tank for about four minutes. He cut down the amount to call, as well as asking me how much I had left (around $80) and whether or not I had it (nup). Eventually he announced he was all in as the big blind folded and I tossed in my last $80 or so. The board bricked out, and his Queens held up, but after reviewing the hand, I wasn’t at all fussed with the way I played it.

I decided to cut my stay in Melbourne short and drove back to Geelong for cricket training to see the week out at home before returning for the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series on Sunday.