With GG out of down and Donnie at work, I wasn’t able to head to their house to do my washing so consequently ventured across the road to the laundromat around lunchtime and put through two loads of washing. It only cost me $1.50 for each machine and $1.25 to use the dryers for just under half an hour, which – although I’ve never paid to do washing – seemed fairly cheap.

Jane swung by in the late afternoon and we headed to Fashion Show Mall to both get a haircut before going on an adventure to find her some sparkly silver shoes to match her blue dress. Let me tell you . . . shopping with Jane is a long and tiring adventure (punishment?) that took nearly three hours until we hit that pot of gold and found those shoes!

Since she was heading to some club opening (the reason behind the shoes of course), I got dropped off back at the Hard Rock to join the PokerNews Cash Game for some degenerate limit holdem action!

Kristy, Parvis and a bunch of the Deuces Cracked guys were there along with a few randoms as we decided to reduce the game to just $2-4 Limit Holdem. Kristy and the Deuces Cracked guys had to leave early, but Chad and Ben soon joined us along with some noobs to juice the action up further.

Sitting with $400, we all began juicing the game up as I announced that I would cap it wherever possible if Parvis – ie my boss – raised or bet. The chips flew back and forth between everyone, but cracking his set of Aces with a gutshot straight made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside while he slumped back with a what the fuck do I have to do to catch a break look on his face as he was down something ridiculous like $300.

Parvis left around midnight while we decided to switch the game to Dealers Choice spreading Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, Pot Limit Omaha and 2-7 Draw Lowball.

I inherited Parvis’ run bad and saw my $400 stack slide all the way down to just $160, but at least I managed to enjoy a $100 massage with one of the Rio massage girls named Stef – which coincidently is one of the ones I think is the cutest over the past few years.

We ended the night around 3am and made our way to Mr. Lucky’s 24-7 to have a late-night snack before Ben and I dragged Chad along to the Craps table.

I went on a pretty good roll to be up around $80 and once I hit the point I upped all my bets . . . of course I instantly set another point and then crapped out before running out a $200 loss for the night on top of my poker loses and massage expenses!

Before testing my mixed game skills I decided that I should flaunt my media pass and attend the 10am DeucesCracked HORSE seminar . . . and boy was it worth it!

The attendance was poor with only Kerry Stead and I awakening from our slumber to make the trip to the Crown Promenade meeting rooms, but this basically meant that both him and I got tens of thousands of dollars worth of one-on-one poker tuition.

Joe Tall and Chuck ‘danzasmack’ Danielsson were the hosts, but Brian Roberts, DeathDonkey, Entity and a few others were there contributing. All in all I learnt a huge amount during the two hours with both my Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud Hi-Lo games reaping the most reward before making my way down to the poker room.

With a 10,000-chip starting bank and 30-minute levels, the structure was still fairly fast.

I took the blinds with eights before winning a sizable pot holding A♦ Q♦ in the big blind after four players saw a flop of A♣ Q♣ 5♠ in a single-raised pot. I checked, the raiser bet, two folds, I raised, he re-raised and I called to see the 8♦ land on the turn. I check-raised again, but he just called before the K♣ came on the river and we both checked. He flashed an Ace and mucked as the game switched to Omaha Hi-Lo.

I flopped the second-nut book holding A♠ Q♠ J♦ 2♦ and got a few streets of value against 10♦ 10♣-x-x on a A♦ Q♦ Q♣ 10♠ 6♠ board against Tim ‘TurnRiva’ Marsters to move to over 13,000.

I bricked out in Razz before my 10♦ 10♣ / 2♠- 10♠- 5♥- 4♦ / K♦ found seven streets of value against split Aces in Stud.

Once we were back in Holdem I played an awful hand holding top pair against two flushes before losing the first pot in Omaha Hi-Lo to drop to 8k before quickly mounting a comeback to move up to 11k and then 15k.

After returning from the first break I was moved to the feature table that included Graeme ‘Kiwi G’ Putt, Richard Holmes, Jan Suchanek and Eric Assadourian. Nothing exciting eventuated on that table before I was again moved to a table featuring Mel Judah, Steve Topakas and Rob ‘JacksonTens’ Campbell.

I then managed to eliminated Topakas during Omaha Hi-Lo when my A♣ J♣ J♠ 2♠ cracked his A♠ A♦ 10♦ 2♥ on a board that ran out K♣ 9♣ K♦ 6♣ J♥ after all the money went in on the turn.

My newly found chips would soon find a way to vacate my stack and find a home in other players when – during the last four hands of Stud – I was forced to bring-in every time. The final hand saw me begin with A♣ J♥ / 2♠ and when two players just called I caught another deuce as we all checked before I caught an Ace. Bet, I raise, all in, fold, I call and was up against a very well hidden rolled up Jacks and was never able to improve. The next hand saw me bring-in once again – this time in Stud Hi-Lo – and I open completed for my last 700.

I managed to make two-pair and a low draw against a bigger two-pair, but when my sixth and seventh streets bricked out, I hit the rail in 38th place out of the 91 starters.

I felt I played very well – and this was without a doubt courtesy of the DeucesCracked seminar – but was just plain unlucky when the structure quickened up.

A couple of cooler hands and I was out . . . pretty simple . . . but it happens.

Thanks once again to the guys that threw their support and moolah behind me.