tilted behaviour

With the PokerNews Cup now upon us, this weekend was my last chance to play before we start working.

I packed my car full with shoes, hats, clothes and everything in between before driving up the highway to Geelong. My first stop was at my cousin’s house in Yarraville to pick up his spare key I was going to be staying there while working the PokerNews Cup.

Taking my seat in the freeroll I sat down with $325 worth of green 25-denomination chips just in case I felt like rebuying . . . thirteen times that is!

I chipped up quite quickly before losing a race and was forced to rebuy. Nothing happened for the next umpteenth hands until we hit the end of the rebuy period. I did a triple rebuy for $75 and saw my stack increase to just on 6,000 which was roughly average.

As the 206-player field was cut down to below 80 I began accumulating thanks to a player donating his chips with eights to my Queens. Now up to 14,000, and then 16,000, the imaginary heaven to land phone rang . . .

“Hi Tim, this is God again. How have you been mate? Enough of the small talk . . . I think it’s greedy of you wanting a second PokerNews Cup seat and consequently have decided to flick the doomswitch on you . . . talk soon mate!”

Sitting with double average chips at the 500-1000 level, an old Asian donk limped under the gun (with only 2,600 behind), as did some weak-tight lady from middle position, before I made it 4,000 from the button with Ace-Jack. The blinds passed but the rest of the old Asian donk’s chips went into the middle with King-Queen as the old lady folded. Queen on the flop and that was that . . . well until two hands later some random donk shipped it with Ace-Five and I re-shipped with Ace-Queen. Of course a five fell on the flop, and even though I turned a flush draw, I still lost and slipped to 6k.

I found a double with Aces against Kings before doubling up the big blind when I opened to 2,200 from the button with J♠ 10♠ and was forced to call an additional 3,000. He flopped an Ace and I was back to just over 6k. Next hand someone open shipped with A♥ 8♥ and I snapped with Kings; only to see me exit in 35th place when an Ace landed on the river.

I played some $2-3NLH once the Grand Final was wrapped up by the cats and profited $92 after being up $205 at one point.

Using the Phase Two ticket I had won on my last visit to Crown, I took to the felt with around 100 others. I turned middle set first hand to take a nice pot down until losing a big one holding A♠ 10♠. With three limpers for 100, I called before the player on my left made it 200. Everyone called to see a ten-high flop fall and the action checked round to the preflop raiser who made it 200 to go once again. Everyone folded to me and I made the call to peel one street just in case he actually had something better then top pair.

The turn landed another ten and I fired out 600. He tank-called to see an eight land on the river and an all-in bet follow from me once I saw that he only had 1,700 left. About two minutes went pass before he made the call – and after I tabled my top trips – he slammed down his rivered set of eights . . . WTF!?!?!?

I was unable to grab one of the nine seats up for grabs when I shoved 10bbs with Ace-Jack and got called by Ace-Queen.

With word of a home game, I decided to venture out to Kew as the night was still young.

The game was 25c-25c round of each, and after being down to $12 from my original $100 buy-in I eventually cashed out for $105 courtesy to a great Omaha Hi-Lo orbit.

2am read the clock, and time it was for bed as the game broke and I headed back to Yarraville for the night.

Waking up bright and early I headed to crown to play in the PokerNews Cup Event 1: $230 No Limit Holdem $75,000 Guarantee.

Even though I arrived forty minutes early there was a line that stretched at least sixty people long when I hit the back of it.

Once I was finally registered I took my seat in the 465-player field. With only a 4,000-chip starting bank and a fairly fast structure I decided that I was going to take a solid and tight approach until I could amass some kind of stack . . . only problem was that I wouldn’t even have a chance to get near a stack!

For the ninety minutes that I was in the tournament I only played two hands. I lost half my stack holding 9♥ 9♦ in the big blind when my lone opponent turn a gutshot wheel against me. Then during the 75-150 level I opened to 375 with A♠ Q♠ and was put all in by my opponent from the previous hand from out of the big blind. I tossed in my last 1,500, but made my way out of the tournament in 380th place when his pockets flopped a set.

I quickly gamboooled away $200 on a $2-3NLH table – gamble being just an understatement as I saw my original $200 soar to $300 before straddling and blind betting my way to the felt- before taking my seat in Event 2: $115 Deepstack PokerPro.

Everyone started with a 25,000-chip starting bank, and after triple-barrelling Andrew ‘Adgee’ Jeffreys with A♠ 10♠ on a Q♣ 8♣ 3♣ 5♣ K♠ board I was up to 33,000 after Adgee reluctantly folded a pair and I tabled my bluff.

Nothing really eventuated as both Adgee and I, along with Dennis Huntly, exchanged banter until Adgee fell and then Huntly.

I would eventually perish in 23rd place of the 90 starters when I shoved 61,000 at 3,000-6,000 with 10♣ 10♠ and ran into an opponent’s Q♦ Q♠. He flopped top set, I turned a flush draw, but made yet another early tournament exit.

Food . . . bed . . . then a long night of poker-based thinking ahead!

After spending a few days in Geelong I decided that it was time for a trip up the highway to Melbourne.

I wasn’t heading up for no reason as I had a basketball game at night, but with nothing on the cards for the night I decided that I would head up early so that I could dedicate the majority of the day to playing poker at Crown.

Arriving a few minutes before midday I registered for the PokerNews Cup Step 2 Sub Satellite which was a freeroll with optional $25 rebuys for a $250 Phase Two seat. I cashed in $100 at the cage giving myself five shells (including the initial free entry) at maximum to win a seat.

I splashed around a little in the rebuy period eventually having to donate $50 but when we went to break I opted not to add on as I had around 6k from the original 500-chip starting stack and 1,000-chip rebuys. Once play resumed I played fairly solid making one mistake holding nines, but eventually limped to the final table fairly short in chips.

Expecting the final table to fly courtesy of the typical fast Crown satellite structure, play hit a real stalemate with chips getting passed round and round. I slowly chipped up as we lost the first two players of the final table before another stalemate at seven players began. With only four seats and $40 on offer it was getting really frustrating grinding away, but once we were down to six and then five, play continued for about forty minutes before I convinced everyone to make a deal and throw in an additional $42 to make up a fifth seat.

Now that I had successfully won my third consecutive PokerNews Cup satellite I took my seat on a $1-2 NLH table after grabbing a quick bite to eat.

It was a pretty uneventful session as I turned my $100 into $244 when my A♦ 5♦ flopped two-pair against Ace-Queen.

I arrived at basketball early so that I could have a shoot around . . . and boy did it help!

Having not played a competitive game for near on eight months my first few shots were terrible until I started getting back into the groove that I use to experience for the Deakin Uni team as well as our highly successful (cough cough triple premiership cough cough) Mighty Ducks.

Playing with one of my old poker buddies in Aleks ‘Banana Thief’ Brkovic, he had formed a team based more on friendship then skill – and when we went down by ten points – it was even more obvious!

My passing was always my forte, and even though I managed some slick passes and assists here and there, I was still a little off, but hopefully as the season progresses my skills can creep up to the Jason Kidd / Jason Williams level.

As the clock tipped past 10pm I made my back into Crown to meet up with James for a catch up.

He cashed out a rack-plus from his $2-3 NLH table and we both made our way up to the food court to get a drink and some food before venturing outside to sit on the edge of the Yarra river. After discussing everything from whether or not I should move back to Melbourne to our friends and their assorted issues we eventually turned back inside so that I could hit the felt and he could make his way home.

I decided to jump on a $1-2 NLH table with two mates I bumped into earlier – Carey Ciuro and Loc Nguyen.

Carey was the first ever mate I made playing poker at Crown all those years back when we were both obnoxious kids, and since then we have tried to remain in contact, but only on occasion get to hang out while filling the void with meaningless online banter back and forth. He is one of only a handful of mates that I will willingly back into any cash game or tournament – well once he irons out the rust as he doesn’t hit the felt too much anymore.

Loc is also in a similar category as we met many years ago and began climbing the poker ladder from $1-2 to $2-3 to $2-5 NLH. Although he is busy with uni (still) he is a fun player to have on the table as he GAMBOOOOOLS like the best of them!

With Carey and Loc both being seated for some time, I took my seat to find myself under the gun.

Right there I knew the night wasn’t going to be profitable . . . just fun . . . as I straddled to juice some action up. I fluffed the flop and gave up, only to be stacked next hand by Carey when four players were all in on a 9♥ 8♥ 9♠ with Carey leading holding 9♣ 7♠, another player with 9♦ 4♠ and myself with 7♥ 6♥. Looking at a juicy $200-plus pot, my dreams of raking in all the chips were shattered when the turn and river ran out 4♥ and the 7♣ to see Carey take one step in my bad books.

I tossed a black $100-denomination chip to the dealer to get some change before slumping back into my chair to see my profits from earlier dinted very early in this late-night session.

An orbit went by before I ran my eight-high flush into a King-high one. I wasn’t stacked as I check-called a river bet when we both dinged a heart on the river to see me slip to around $30. I topped up and moved to Carey’s immediate right to continue chatting with both the boys.

Our conversation mainly revolved around Carey’s blog – Broken Lense – and the fact that my Tilted Behaviour link has disappeared from his ‘Please Visit’ blogroll. I quizzed him about what I had done to be removed (as a joke) and he informed me that I will be back on soon enough – for the record, of his seven links there, one doesn’t work and two haven’t been updated for two and three months!

Back to poker.

I then copped a sick beat after being dealt 10♥ 6♣ in the small blind. In a five-way hand the flop fell down 9♥ 8♠ 7♦ and I fired out $10 and was called by Loc and two drunk spastics. The turn fell the 7♥ and I lead out for $31, and after Loc folded (after I basically told him I flopped the second nuts) both the drunks called once again. The river landed the 4♦ and I pushed my last $46 into the middle and was called by only one of the drunks. I tabled my hand thinking that I was a lock to win the hand, but when he slowrolled his 7♣ 4♠ I dropped my jaw and re-bought once again.

Our table broke, but we still managed to find a table together on the other side of the Crown Poker Room before Loc went busto with top set against a rivered gutshot. Feeling stick courtesy of my continued downswing in the session, me and Carey came up with a game to keep us entertained.

Similar to the prop bet game Lodden Thinks where two people guess what a third party thinks an answer to a specific question is, this game had a few twists to it and still is yet to be named.

Basically we used a rotation of dealers – Alecia, Mandy and Lynn – and quizzed them on everything and anything for a $1 a question. Unlike Lodden Thinks where you basically set the line with one person taking overs and another unders, this involved multiple answer selections, single answers and the standard Lodden thinks answers.

What size bed do you sleep in? (single, double, queen, king)
Favourite item of clothing at the moment? (anything from leggings to jeans to jackets to scarfs)
Who is number 9 on your speed-dial? (unlimited)
Suburb you live in? (normally we choose three each)
How old your Dad is? (standard Lodden Thinks question of setting a line)
What faculty you belong to at University? (arts, business, social sciences)
Colour of your car? (blue, black, white, grey)
Where was your last holiday? (Japan, Hong Kong, USA)

I would assume you get the point now, and this game kept both Carey and I, along with the three dealers involved, as well as the table, amused for hours . . . and I mean hours as we asked every possible question under the sun!

During this time I got stacked again after being faced with a $10 bet on a 8♣ 8♠ Q♦ flop from yet another drunk kid (although celebrating his 20th birthday). I popped it up to $31 and he made the call to see the 8♦ land on the turn, and once he checked to me I put him all in. He made the call, and when the A♠ peeled off on the river he tabled his A♣ J♦ for a rivered bigger full house and a now comfortable $240 stack.

I turned to Carey just shaking my head at yet another beat and topped back up after only being left with $50. I found a double with top-pair against an underpair as the clock ticked pass 3am and both Carey and I were broken to yet another table.

Carey left at around 4:30am with profit that definitely did not reflect the softness of our three tables, and as 6am crept round I decided to make my way home with some money in hand as I took the long drive back down the highway to Geelong.

Yet another Champion has been crowned in the Crown Poker Room when Albert Amato’s 9♥ 7♥ held true against Kane Sherwell’s underpair.

The Victorian Poker Championships will always have a strong spot reserved in my heart as it was my launching ground for both a blogger (first gig with PokerNews) and player (11th in the Main Event), and consequently I’m proud to present my continued tournament summary with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Victorian Poker Championships.

1 – State of Origin Success: For the second year running the Victorian Poker Championships played host to the State of Origin. This year the ante was upped by adding both the Territories and New Zealand to the rooster, along with altering the structure and format to make it work and function better along with pleasing both player and railbird.
The one downside for many was firstly allowing New Zealand to participate as they aren’t an Australian state, and secondly seeing them victorious. Overall I think they should be allowed to be part of the State of Origin regardless that they may fly a different flag to us, and if anything is to be changed it should be the weighting of the points system so that a more strategic approach is needed in the first round of the shootout.

2 – Decrease In High Stakes Turnouts: It is understandable that our current economy may not be in the best state, but over the past few years poker has never really been effected too greatly. However, Crown ran two high stakes tournaments – a $10,200 High Stakes Holdem and a $250,000 Challenge – that really didn’t pull the numbers it had in the past.
With only 23 and 8 runners respectively, it was fairly poor to only get this turnout even with most of the poker community in town. I must admit that the cash game action was HUGE to say the least, and this could be the main reason behind the lack of numbers, but I guess we’ll never know.

3 – Bring On The Ladies: I personally think that the Ladies event should be a regular on the Australian tournament schedule. Not only is it an additional avenue to increase the poker playing community, but also reverses the normal trend of WAG on the rail, and now places the male as the silent observer watching on. (On a side note, check out the very interesting thread on PokerNetwork here about this very topic)

4 – Where Were The Mix Games?: The Victorian Poker Championships are supposed to by a championship series, but if that’s the case, where was the variety of events of different poker variants? Only three events were non-holdem ones, with only one of these being Crazy Pineapple to the other two Omaha ones. Gone was the marquee HORSE event that many poker enthusiasts love along with the split games of the Morning Series. Just like the WSOP, I think that any tournament schedule has to include a mixture of poker variants, and even if it can only accommodate for one, then sobeit. Bring back the HORSE and the Mixed Stud!

5 – Weak Final Table Line-Up?: Many may have looked at the final table and just spotted a chipped up Jason Gray and Chris Chronis along with a short-stacked Gary Benson surrounded by amateurs – and especially when you compare this table to last years that included Jay Kinkade, Tino Lechich, Sheldon, Minh Nguyen, Julian Powell, Harris Pavlou, Ben Delaney and Tim Horan. However this table was stronger than you may have imagined!
Dean McIver has been a regular on the tournament circuit for a number of years while Benson, Gray and Chronis’ records speak for themselves. Mick Nolton is a very talented player along with Julian Cohen who has began raking up results in the past 12 months, and when you add in the strongest amateur on the table – champion Albert Amato – you have a table full of talent . . . I guess we’ll have to see where they are all in 12 months because we know what last years final nine have achieved!

6 – Busy Time For Poker: It is always a difficult ask to plan not only a poker tournament but also a championship series ahead of time – and when tournaments are getting announced without too much preparation time – there will always be crossovers. Not only was the ANZPT Queensland (5th – 9th) finale on during the first week, the hugely popular FTOPS (5th – 16th) was also being run to consequently detract some of the online contingent competing over the two week schedule (2nd – 17th). Combine this with the Asian Poker Tour Macau (12th – 23rd) and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau (15th – 30th) and you have a very busy and expensive month of August!

7 – Main Event Structure: Jonno Pittock and his loyal staff always implement great structures for every tournament held at Crown – and in the case of the Victorian Poker Championships Main Event – it was no exception. For the first time at Crown since I started working for PokerNetwork/PokerNews day three saw more than a final table return to battle it out. This was not because of slow play or an overly huge field, but rather that the structure was just too good to see the field reduced to just one table by day two. Kudos Jonno and his staff!

8 – Money Is Going . . . Somewhere: I’m unsure of exactly where he lives, what he does, or what he plans to do with the money, but I think that Albert Amato will pop his head up around Australian tournaments in the future. Obviously there were crowd favourites going into the final table, but it was great to see a talented by short-stacked player battle hard (with some luck) to take down the $190,050 first prize.

Queensland then Melbourne and now Macau!

Tilted Behaviour is heading back to Viva Las Asia to tackle the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event and High Rollers . . . while also mixing in some partying, gambling and relaxing in one of my favourite destinations on the planet.

Stay tuned for who knows what may eventuate!

When Steve Topakas pushed all in holding just ten-high on a board reading J♥ A♣ 5♠ 2♠ 3♣with Tudor Kondevski making the call holding A♠ 7♠ we saw another champion crowned.

As the Melbourne Poker Championship wrap up for another year, here is my continued tournament summary with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Melbourne Poker Championships.

1 – Affordable: Having affordable side events is a must so as to attract the small-stakes tournament grinders such as myself. Similar to the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series, side events were on the very affordable side ranging from the $120 Morning Series to $175, $230 and $340. Basically being able to get a taste of tournament poker without breaking the bank is a must in any local championships series (in my opinion).

2 – Side Events Too Long: I’m not sure if the structure was too good or if the players had improved, but all the side events ran way into the early hours of the morning. With all events playing down till just one remained, maybe returning the next for the final table would have been a better option than the 5am finishes.

3 – Big Names Not In Attendance: The one thing that let the Melbourne Poker Championships down (if any) was the lack of attendance by some of the big names of Australian poker. Jay ‘Seabeast’ Kinade, Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds, Dean ‘dinhjo’ Nyberg and Jarred ‘FlopNutsOnYou’ Graham were just a few that played the ANZPT Feature Event only not to play the Main Event. A few other notables that didn’t partake in either included Michael Pedley, Joe Hachem and Jason Gray.
Now it is understandable that some would miss out due to the World Series of Poker kicking off on May 27th, but instead of having to choose maybe scheduling the Melbourne Champs a week earlier would open the door up for a few more players to make both trips.

4 – Secondary Feature Event: Over the past few years Jonno Pittock and Crown have always implemented a Feature Event into the championship that is separate to the Main Event; the 100k Challenge, State of Origin and now the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne. Having this $2,700 buy-in event attracted a great array of poker players and satellite winners from around the country.
I think this not only boosted the class of the Melbourne Poker Championships but also reinforced that poker is still going as strong as ever even through the tough economic conditions.

5 – Morning Series: The Morning Series is a series of four events during the first week where you gain points to play a qualifying freeroll for a seat into the Main Event. With a buy-in of only $120 and Holdem, Omaha Hi Lo, Mixed Stud and Crazy Pineapple on offer, everyone gets a chance at playing a wide variety of games.
The prizepools may be small but the players that turn out are there for some fun knowing that a four-figure collect is unlikely, but a few hours of fun and laughs is more probable!
(it also gains a bonus mention as I made the Mixed Stud final table!)

6 – Main Event Structure: The Main Event structure was different to anything I have seen before. Apart from it being a repechage; which helps boost the prizepool, the structure was different to anything I’ve seen before. Day one played nine 40-minute levels, while day two switched to 60-minute levels, and once at the final table they were extended again; this time to 75-minutes.
I thought this was interesting as I think it benefits the better player as the tournament goes on. As I previously said however, I think I would have preferred day one being extended so as to reduce the day two starting field – but when it comes to tournament structure . . . no one is ever happy!

7 – Mad Ass Huge Trophies: Crown always produce really nice trophies and for the Melbourne Poker Championships it was no exception! They stepped things up for this series by increasing the size of them – no joke, these things were absolutely massive and for the ANZPT feature event they even had two for the winner!

8 – Tudor Who?: Unlike previous Main Event’s that I have covered for PokerNetwork we always knew that the money would remain in the local poker industry. However with Tudor Kondevski capturing the $150,000 first prize we have no idea if he’ll use it to ‘stimulate’ the poker landscape like others before him or tuck it away in his home safe.

With another successful series on home turf, all the attention can be turned to the Mecca of poker tournaments with the World Series of Poker just a flight away.

So make sure to stay logged on to Tilted Behaviour as the updates are going to flow hard and fast with plenty of action from the Rio coming your way!

The Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series is all wrapped up after Daniel Botta took care of Sam Higgs to capture the $100,000 first prize with the beautiful 5♥ 2♥ all in on the flop against Higgs’ A♠ K♣ with the final board running out 7♦ 5♣ 10♣ 4♥ 3♠.

In a continuation from my re-cap of the ANZPT Adelaide here is the The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series.

1 – Affordable: Following the Aussie Millions where events start at that four-figure mark, and Main Event’s around the country that fluctuate around that $3,000 mark; its good to have a Championship series that is truly affordable for the tournament junkie. With most buy-ins at the $230, $340 and $550 mark, players can take their shot at being crowned a Champion without it hurting the wallet too deeply.

2 – Tournament Structures (part one): The structures for these tournaments were excellent! The deep starting stacks and slow levels provided incredible value for money – and there can be no arguments; all you have to do is look at the vast improvements from last years structures. As for the buy-in amounts, you couldn’t ask anymore from the Jonno and the Crown staff as they catered for those that are looking to play some deep-stack tournament poker.

3 – Tournament Structures (part two): At some points the structures were too good with finishing times stretching into breakfast where pancakes were the order of the day instead of check-raises and open limping (which is definitely not smart at any point). This does support the argument for players and their need for adequate structures with maximum play – but on occasions this can be negative.

4 – PokerPro Problems: Most may be unaware of the persistent problems Crown have experienced with the PokerPro machines, and most recently it effected Event #5: $165 Poker Pro. With problems all tournament long, by the time they reached the final table they had no choice but to vacate the machines and play the tournament on actual felt. This totally changed the game as the time it took to get through hands doubled, and with the turbo-like structure the final table played faster then most on it would have liked.
If Crown wish to continue running Championship tournaments on the PokerPro machines – and I believe they should – then they really need to take a look at rectifying the existing problems.

5 – Lack of Chips: This really wasn’t a problem, but more of a funny scenario come flight two and three of the Main Event. With 17,960,000 chips in play, the majority of them were bagged during flight one meaning that the following two flights were left with physically less chips. Therefore the 25,000-denomination chips were out early so as to make sure that flight three had enough to play with – on a side note it was funny seeing people with two or three 25,000-chips and nothing else when trying to post a 1,600 big blind (me inclusive)!

6 – Repechage Main Event: Personally I’m not a fan of a repechage because it changes the way the game is played; but poker-wise I think it’s great. To allow people to rebuy if they bust on the first two days means that the prizepool will always be boosted, and be of excellent value to those that don’t repechage and those that do (as it gives them a second chance).
However only playing eight levels during the first two flights means that the numbers that returned for flight three were lower then they could have been. By playing ten levels and an extra 90 minutes means that day two will on average be shorter and that more people will bust and therefore repechage into flight three – consequently a greater prizepool with more money on offer.

7 – Half Million Dollar Prizepool: Well nearly – it was $449,000, but for a $550 buy-in event it was unbelievable to get such a huge prizepool. I assured a few young Adelaide boys that a $100,000 first prize would be reached, and even through they had heavy doubts it was still achieved! The prizepool may have appeared a little skewed, but on closer inspection it was pretty industry standard – however the only change that should have been made was changing the payouts from 81 to 72 as to represent the 705 unique players that took their seat.

8 – The Money Isn’t Going Nowhere (again): Just like in Adelaide, the money is staying firmly in Australia, and most importantly in Victoria following local Daniel Botta’s victory in under three hours on day three. Hopefully this will drag more amateur and pub poker players into the Crown Poker Room knowing that for just $550 and three days work – they can be $100,000 richer too!

I hope now that it is clear why so many people enjoy the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series and will hopefully venture back down to Melbourne in 2010 for the best value deep stack tournaments on this side of the world.

With the dilemma that is the 2009 WSOP and whether or not Tilted Behaviour will be there the current issue at hand; it will be only a matter of weeks before we’re back at it with the ANZPT Sydney (23rd April to May 1st) and then the Melbourne Poker Championships (17th May to 1st June).

The road ahead for this poker journalist is definitely going to be interesting, so make sure to stay tuned over the upcoming weeks for your poker fix!

I’ve made many friends since I strolled into the Crown Poker Room all those years ago. Some of them have vanished, some ties have dwindled, but some have kicked on even through the turbulent times; and in this case it is no exception.

Meeting Johnny all those years ago on a $2-3 NLH table started a friendship that grew everytime we sat down to play cards. He was there for me when I won my WSOP seat, and now I hope to be there when he wins the Aussie Millions. However this is not just a tale of some cash-game donk taking a shot at big-time tournament poker; this is a story for a true romantic of the game – someone that likes to hear a story behind a story.

care of PokerNews
Solomons’ Golden Ticket
Johnny Solomons might not be a big name in the poker world, but he does have an interesting story.

A regular cash game grinder at Crown Casino, he got his hands on a general $250 Phase Two Aussie Millions ticket from a guy who couldn’t use it. Saving a few bucks, and thinking what the hell, he bought it off him and headed home after a good day on the felt.

Johnny Solomons found his golden ticket

Arriving home, his seven-month old Staffy puppy was whipping her tail and barking loudly after being in the house all day. Being close to dusk he thought a nice stroll down to the beach via the river would do the both of them some good. The gentle stroll turned into a beach wrestle to burn some energy before returning home, only to find that the Phase Two ticket that sat in his hoodie pocket had now vanished.

Annoyed, angered and pretty much a little peeved-off, Solomons decided to drive back to the beach to search; but alas nothing came of it. On the bike he went to retrace his every footstep, and again nothing came of it. Nightfall approached and a dropped head followed as Solomons returned home along the beaten path by the river. With his eyes still darting back and forth, his focus was thrown to a tiny folded blue-bordered piece of paper only meters off the track and from the slow-twisting river.

Solomons had found it, but that wasn’t the end of it. He ventured to Crown Casino to parlay that Phase Two ticket into an $1,100 Phase Three ticket before sneaking past the bubble to claim his 2009 Aussie Millions seat in today’s flight.

Will his “golden ticket” reap him the gold and riches of the Aussie Millions? Can this near-lost piece of paper be his road to AU$2,000,000? Sitting with 40,000 chips as we head into the fourth level, we can only wait and see . . .

Johnny ended the day with a little over 21,000 in chips, but will it this be the last we hear of him? Or will his story be heard in under a weeks time across the news headlines? If so, maybe there is a poker God up there that occasionally looks down on us every once in a while . . .