tilted behaviour

Although feeling good about my game and wanting to play, I decided to step back and let Heath and Josh partake in the sixth installment of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series $550 Main Event.

With a fairly weak player pool and a decent structure that normally results in a $300,000-plus prizepool, it is easily one of the best small buy-in tournaments that one should play throughout the year. Happily returning to the blogging desk however after a near six-week hiatus from the Aussie Millions, it was very good to see 623 players take to the felt over the three day one flights with 524 of these being unique entrants – ie not firing multiple shells like many of the regulars that did!

Day 1a Coverage
Day 1b Coverage
Day 1c Coverage

It was extremely surprising to see how many people punted off their stacks with ease, and consequently it drove me crazy sitting there writing these hands up as 214 players managed to sneak through to a day two berth. Heath went busto, but Josh managed to make it through meaning that a very busy Landon would have to take his seat on the blogging desk on Sunday for day two.

Heath Chick, Peter Aristidou, Nobbi Tanaka, Sean Dunwoodie, Octavian Voegele, David Morton, Haibo Chu, Kristian Lunardi, Jacob Chen, Julian Cohen, Tom Wing, Shao Liu, Michael Spilkin, Sean Keeton, Chris Barratt, Tom Grigg, David Gorr

No major hands stood out, but there was an odd occurrence during one of the flights that got my heart pumping for a moment.

Crown Director of Poker Operations Jonno Pittock grabbed me and asked if I was hungry and wanted to get some lunch. I wasn’t and kindly responded with a no, but he responded with, “well do you want to join us anyway?”

Thinking I was in trouble I decided to head upstairs with him and Christian, but alas I wasn’t in trouble but was called in to discuss the upcoming State of Origin event at the Victorian Poker Championships in late July. With so many dilemmas regarding the State of Origin – such as team selections and tournament structure – Jonno and Christian just wanted to run past some ideas they had for it, and after exchanging some thoughts for a while I happily returned to the poker room after enjoying a glass of coke on Crown’s wallet.

With day two kicking off just after midday, action flew fast and furious as people decided that a day outdoors would be better then capturing a piece of the $311,500 prizepool and preferably the $75,000 first prize.

Day 2 Coverage

Event 6: $340 Six-Handed Champion Craig Matthew became the bubble boy when his dominated ace failed to improve or chop as a happy fifty-four players were all now guaranteed some hard-earned money. Everyone however seemed to forget about the hefty money available to those that could finish on the top as eliminations continued to roll out the door as Raemin Alexander (48th), Peter Aristidou (46th), Nali Kaselias (44th), Michael Bancroft (42nd), Chris Barratt (39th), Dale Chapman (38th), Ricky Gov (35th), George Cotaidis (34th), Peter Pratis (26th), Sean Keeton (25th) and David Zhao (15th) all fell short of the final table.

With the final table being set roughly around midnight, the one aspect powering me through the long day was the fact that a mate could be heading home as the champion as Josh was still in contention for the top prize. $71,100 was the difference between tenth and first, and it was no surprise to see the word deal thrown around a few times – especially from Josh’s rail as they knew how the pay jumps were so dramatic in relation to a young uni student’s bankroll!

Eventually a deal was made with the top four extremely happy at the result after it was chopped up via chips with each player receiving roughly around $40,000. Josh busted in third when he pushed his five-big blind stack with connecters and ran into the pocket jacks of eventual champion Tien Tran.

The heads up duel was a surprising one as Tran was sitting at roughly a five-to-one disadvantage against Anthony Yarranton, but with chips flying, a double with treys and then an even bigger double with a superior flopped pair, Tran was inevitably crowned the sixth Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series Champion!

Having not played a poker championship tournament for some time, it was great to finally hit the felt for two of the upcoming Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series events.

Monday saw me take part in the $340 No Limit Holdem Terminator where each elimination saw you receive a $100 bounty on top of the normal prizepool. Although I sold a small section of my action on ChipMeUp I happily swapped 5% with Tom and Josh while Heath opted to sit out the percentage swap since he only had a small part of action courtesy of selling out on ChipMeUp.

My strategy was to play fairly tight until antes came in because the structure was pretty decent and I really didn’t want to leak unnecessary chips which may cost me in potential bounties. With a 15,000-chip starting bank, it wouldn’t be until the 150-300 level where I saw my stack soar after winning a few decent pots before flopping a set of fours and getting someone to donate their whole stack with just top pair on the turn. Several hands later after a new player limped under-the-gun, I made it 1,025 from middle position with 7♥ 5♥ and was called by a player in late position as well as the limper. I fired out 1,375 on the 10♦ 8♥ 6♠ flop with the player behind smooth-calling before the limper made it 4,000 to go. Since we were all deep – roughly having 30,000 in chips each – I decided to make the call to try and win a massive multi-way pot if I could spike my straight or hit some kind of backdoor flush.

The player from late position made the call also as the 9♠ was delivered on the turn and the under-the-gun player led for 7,000. I thought for a while before sliding in my stack of 5,000 and 1,000-denomination chips to put both players all in. Surprisingly the smooth-caller from late position made the call as the turn aggressor folded to see my made straight up against a set of sixes. Fortunately the river bricked and I was now up to roughly 85,000 with two bounties under my sleeve.

A little while later I lost a three-way pot holding A♥ K♥ against jacks and sevens after I three-bet an open to roughly 4,000 and called off another 15,000 to see a pot of 50,000 in the middle (the player holding jacks was short). I flopped a flush draw but bricked my fifteen-outer to slip back to roughly 60,000. Quite tilted, I went for a walk to try and calm my mental state so I wouldn’t proceed to stack off, and on return I pretty much folded for a few levels not managing to catch any hands or find decent three-bet or squeeze spots.

With around two tables until the money, Joe Hachem moved to the table and we exchanged some friendly banter as we normally do – with this being only the second time we’ve played together since we met in 2007. As my stack dwindled, I opened 9♥ 8♥ only to have Hachem ship it on me. I Hollywooded for a little and folded before grabbing another bounty when my A♥ 8♥ held up against a weaker ace before eventually finding a double through Hachem when I open-jammed (after shipping the hand previously) from early position with Ace-King and being in great shape against his King-Queen. I flopped an ace, and that was that, as Hachem soon exited as we were about a table from the money.

I sat with a semi-decent stack of thirty big blinds, but with short-handed play and easily the best remaining players in the tournament on the table, I found it nearly impossible to accumulate. Whether I opened light, or three-bet, nothing seemed to work, and as we got to within a few spots from the money, my stack was somehow down to just over ten big blinds. It was just leaking chips in these pots, but with the bubble taking forever, the blinds had increased three times, but when I looked down at Ace-King in the big blind, I had no other option but to ship it all in over a Ben Savage under-the-gun open. He deliberated for ages before calling with nines only to see me spike trips to knock him out and receive another button; my fifth for the tournament after taking care of another short stack.

Eventually the bubble burst and when my jacks were unable to outdraw an opponent’s kings, I was out the door in 15th place (out of 156) for a $374 payday plus a further $500 in bounties. Josh managed to make the money also, but busted just prior to me as we decided that a 5am breakfast run to Maccas was exactly what was needed to cure our bust-out tilt!

Having spiked a cash in the Terminator, it made playing the $340 Eight Game Mixed a little more easier on the pocket as Heath and Tom were also part of the 59-player field.

Funnily enough both me and Tom drew the same table and it was a fairly uneventful few levels as a small amount of chips were just transferred around the six-handed table. Finally me and Tom tangled in a 2-7 Triple Draw pot when I caught a ten-perfect on the final draw after he stood pat with a jack. He bet, I check-called, and he went on tilt although he completely understood my reasoning for making the call apart from the ridiculous pot odds that I was getting after three of us exchanged chips on every street.

That table broke, and I moved to one that featured Dale Townsend, Peter Vratsidis and Ang Italiano. With some decent double average chips, I quickly increased my stack in the No Limit Holdem orbit. Dale opened, the guy between us called, and I three-bet Q♣ J♣. Both players folded and Dale stated he folded Ace-Queen. The next hand I opened Ace-King and won the blinds, the next hand I opened Queens before Peter three-bet his blinds, I four-bet and he folded as I showed my hand before winning the blinds the next with Ace-King again … talk about a heater!

That heater would kind of continue in the Pot Limit Orbit when I was dealt A♥ A♣ 6♠ 4♠ and Dale potted with K♦ T♠ 8♣ 4♥. I re-potted, and then Dale gave the lame speech that every donk gives when they fill like issuing a bad beat. Eventually he made the call as a 8♠ 6♦ 2♣ flop fell and I shipped in what remained of my stack. Dale obviously called, and when the river landed another eight, I got another speech as I exited in 22nd place.

Late last night, Heath and I decided to play the $200 Teams Event at the Victorian Poker Championships, and consequently I made the boring drive up the highway to donk off.

I arrived early to take care of some things before Heath and I decided to grab a few drinks and some food at Lagerfield. We discussed work, poker and all of the above before being joined by Kirsty, Landon and a few of his mates.

Eventually we decided to make our way downstairs to tackle the gauntlet of the teams event, with me taking the first rotation. Unfortunately the 2,500 starting stack I had received was soon chopped into half as Heath took his seat and topped up another 2,500. I would lose us some chips, he would get us a double; that was the order for the night, which funnily enough was the opposite to the way it happened when we first played a teams event together back in 2008. Nothing went right for me, and inevitably it would be Heath that would bust us when he shoved over Aces with Ace-Jack – and although flopping a Jack – failed to improve to see us bust in about 60th place of the 214 starters.

However, I spent the majority of the night when not playing discussing the upcoming State of Origin, and how it should be fixed for 2011. Consequently, here are my suggestions for how the 2011 State of Origin at the Victorian Poker Championships should be conducted.

State of Origin Committee
Over the past few years, there has always been an issue with the exact formation of each side. Justification for an inclusion or exclusion is always the biggest talking point, followed by the selection of the captain.

To make the State of Origin a premier feature event on the local poker calendar, something has to be done to ensure that the teams selected are not only fair, but also a true justification of the best in the state.

Consequently I believe a Committee should be formed that will pick the squad through mutual decision by sorting through live and online tournament results both in Australia and overseas.

The next point is exactly who should be on the Committee? Well firstly, the members that form the Committee must be unbiased and impartial to the event, and have no chance of being selected themselves. They must also have a sound knowledge of the game, and possess an even greater knowledge of the Australian pool of poker players. I don’t believe that the Committee should be too large either as this will create even more difficulty when coming to a conclusion on final teams.

My vote for who should head up this Committee? Firstly – although I may be a little bias – I would cast a vote for myself. I have yet to meet anyone with a greater knowledge of players in the country, am also independent to the event, and am at nearly every tournament around the world that would influence the team selection; whether it be an Aussie Millions, APPT, ANZPT or WSOP.

My next vote would be for Jonno Pittock who has the influence in the event, as it is in his poker room where the event is run. Finally I believe that Tony Hachem should stay involved in the Committee by the pure fact that it is his creation, but by doing so, he would have to rule himself out of possible selection to remain fair.

Selection Criteria
Obviously the toughest part of the event, I believe I have come up with a simple solution that should please everyone.

First of all Captains will pretty much remain as they are from this year, as most of them are true figureheads in their states. However it is a question of how the seven other spots should be filled, that gets everyone scratching their heads. With a Committee in place, they organise a few hours where they can sit down and discuss the teams. With the State of Origin concept being pitting the best in the state against the best in other states, then that is simply what you do. Taking live results both at home and abroad, online rankings and past form from the period of the 2010 Victorian Poker Championships to before the 2011 Victorian Poker Championships, you should be able to pick the best team.

The Committee will firstly select the six players they believe are the best in the state over the past twelve months and then provide a further four alternates. This list is then handed to the Captain who must contact each of the six players to see if they are available. If not, the first alternate will take his/her place and so on until six available members have been chosen.

As for the final spot, well that will be the Captain’s Exemption. If the captain believes that a player who missed out on the team should have actually made it, then they can be called up for that final eighth spot. They believe that they are a great player for the format of the event or were unfairly passed over, but either way, they have a chance to influence the team in a possibly winning way.

Although New South Wales have persisted with it, I believe that satellite winners shouldn’t be allowed in the State of Origin. I have no major argument for it, apart from saying that the event should be the best of the best from each state, therefore meaning that a satellite winner – regardless of how well they ran in the satellite or in the State of Origin – wouldn’t be in the best otherwise they would have already been selected. The only way this concept would work is if every team decided to have one satellite winner, but in all honesty, I don’t think this would happen.

Event Format
The Shootout format is a perfect way to run the State of Origin, but some tinkering needs to be done so that when the final table starts, it isn’t already game, set, match for a particular side.

Keeping the Shootout format points system of:

1st – 60

2nd – 50

3rd – 40

4th – 30

5th – 20

6th – 10

7th – 0

8th – 0

Like normal, you play down until there is a winner as each team is allocated the appropriate points for where they finished on each table. Each set of 10 points earns your side 10,000 tournament chips, and when you return the following day for the final table, each state will sit down with the equivalent amount of tournament chips in relation to their accrued points (ie 240 points equates to 240,000 in chips) plus the day one starting stack of 20,000 (in case a team fails to accrue any points during the shootout). Consequently when the final table begins, everybody still has a realistic chance of winning the title.

Now for the next twist. The final table will begin with the Captain playing, but at four separate occasions they will be allowed to make four substitutions. Any team member can be subbed in, and team member can play multiple times, and the subs do not have to be used if the Captain wishes so.

Not only will this format make it a little more exciting, but will also mean that for both days of the State of Origin, there is not only a crowd smothering the rail, but also every team member in attendance as they all still have an equal chance of winning.

In all honesty, none, one or all of these ideas that I’ve come up with could be utilised in the 2011 State of Origin, but only time will tell.

So many people have already contributed thoughts and ideas in relation to selection, format etc, and some are good, and some are bad. Heck, I would love to see a Stanley Cup-esque trophy with the winning team and their members engraved on it created so that the pride of crushing your opposition is more rewarding!

We will have to wait quite a while until we hear changes to the State of Origin, but hopefully those with the power to do so, take in what others have had to say on the issue that is obviously very important in our small and close-knit poker community.

Waking up well after midday, I sat around the PokerNews Mansion doing absolutely nothing before Heath and I decided to continue our table tennis battle from the other day.

Although he proved victorious 3-2 on the last occasion, I finally hit my straps on this one and crushed his soul fairly easy before both of us, along with Kirsty, decided to make our way to the Premium Factory Outlets for some retail therapy.

My plan was to buy a few pairs of shoes and a nice jacket, but failed miserably at the shoes while finding two half-decent jackets at Calvin Klein. I decided to hold off on the purchases until after the series as Heath was the only one to buy anything as we all returned home; and me to the Hard Rock.

With it being Chad’s last night in Las Vegas, we decided that we should go and hit the strip and do some gambling and drinking.

Our first stop was at Casino Royale to play some $3 Craps and drink some fruity margaritas. This was bad choice numero uno . . . not for the margaritas, but for the choice of playing Craps as we both lost; mine hitting the wallet a little heavier for three bills!

What!?! How could you lose $300 on $3 Craps you may be asking . . . well the reason is I was playing it more like $30 Craps than $3 and the fact that the luck of the dice wasn’t rolling our way didn’t help either. While Chad tried to run up his last few dollars, I found my way to a $1 Roulette table where I was betting at a minimum $60 a hand. Only buying in for $100, it lasted me a dozen spins or so before I punted it off and we made our way to O’Shaes to play the midnight $45 tournament.

It was a turbo structure with only a 2,000-starting bank, and after check-raising all in with top pair in the third level and getting snapped off with a flush draw, I was out before Chad when he spiked another club on the river. I dumped another $100 on Craps there, before Chad bite the dust and we made our way back to the Hard Rock.

Chad decided to call it a night as he had an early flight the next day, but I decided to kick on and play some $1-2 NLH in the poker room.

I chipped up quickly when a guy limp-shoved over my three-bet (raise to $7, then to $18) with deuces and I called off his $104 with Queens as the board blanked out.

A few orbits later I made it $7 to go with A♠ Q♠ and found three callers before firing out $16 on a A♦ 10♠ 2♥ flop. It was called round before the big blind led for $60 when the turn landed the 2♠ with only me calling before the 5♥ on the river went check, check. He tabled his Q♣ 10♦ and I collected the pot to move to $428 before chipping up to $486 after cracking Queens with King-Jack when I flopped two-pair.

The switch was then flicked as I proceeded to lose every hand thereafter. I was two-outered twice, and rivered three-times by the same guy in virtual back-to-back-to-back hands before losing my last $85 in a straddle pot with Queens against the straddler’s Aces to finish down a buy-in at the Hard Rock and $900 overall for the day!

I wish I had worked today!

Not able to hit the money yesterday, Day 4 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event was going to become the money day for the first time in WSOP history!

Stripped of both blogging and reporting duties, I was sentenced(?) to iPad duty which entailed me continuously updating chip counts of my area roughly on average every ten minutes.

Based in the blue section of the Amazon Room, we were blessed with the majority of the chip leaders along with some of the better known players which made my job a little difficult at the start until Mickey came over once the remainder of the Pavilion Room broke.

As we neared the bubble, all those memories of playing like a donk in 2007 came flushing back as I wish I had a chance to revoke my button shove and just fold for two more hands so that I could have been US$20,320 richer!

The only positive thing about my bubble bust (apart from what I personally learnt), is the fact that many players either go out in worse situations, or play their hand horrible.

For the 2010 Bubble Boy Tim McDonald after being faced with a raise to 10,000, he made it 30,000 (of his 67,500-chip stack) to go as his opponent made the call to see a A♣ A♠ 2♦. Check, all in for 37,500, snap call! McDonald tabled his Q♣ Q♠ and his opponent tabled A♥ 2♥ for a flopped full house. Two Queens needed, but only one fell, as McDonald bite the dust just shy of the $19,263 payday but with an added bonus of a seat into the 2011 Main Event!

Only 575 players made it through to a day five berth, with adopted Aussie Tony ‘Bond18′ Dunst leading the field with over 1.5 million in chips.

Bruno, Rich, Heath and I all had a day off tomorrow so we decided to play a home game at the PokerNews Mansion where they were all staying.

We were expecting to get a few others, but due to some (soft) reasons, it ended up being just the four of us as we played $0.25-0.25 NLH on the pool table.

I was chipped down early and was forced to top up so I was in for $100 before my first major hand was when I stacked Bruno. He was playing like a banana, and after a three-bet Heath’s 75c open with A♦ Q♠ to $3.25 and Bruno made it $8.50 or so, I shipped it in. Bruno made the call for his last $30 or so with Kings, but when a Queen fell on the flop and the river, he was tilted and forced to rebuy.

I stack Rich when I overbet shoved my 5♠ 3♠ on a 9♠ 8♠ 2♥ 5♦ after he checked. He snapped off his last $60 (into a pot of around $15) with K♠ J♠, and was unable to improve after running it twice.

Then there was this hand that upset Heath after I opened K♣ Q♣ to 75c and the table called around to see a Q♦ 4♥ 4♠ flop fall. Rich and Heath checked as I fired out a bet of $2.50 with Bruno folding before Rich made the call as Heath bumped it to around the $8 mark. I three-bet to $24 and Rich passed as Heath smooth-called. We both checked the repeat Queen on the turn before the river landed the 5♥ and he check-called a bet of $10.25 with 10♣ 4♣ before launching into a tilt tirade once Rich told him that he folded a Queen too.

Heath eventually finished off Rich before we both played heads until the darkness of night had been transformed into early morning sunlight as I profited $194 from the friendly home game before finding comfort on the couch for some sleep!

After having to come in to the Rio for our first official group meeting since the WSOP started, Heath, Mickey and I decided to maximise our rare day off.

We returned to the Hard Rock to show Heath around before we headed to Fashion Show Mall so I could buy some shoes and the other two could grab some food.

A few days earlier (while shopping with Jane) I had spotted the sickest pair of Air Jordan Spizike‘s that were a must-have. Walking into Foot Locker the price had been slashed down to $130, and consequently, there were an insta-buy so I could kick it old-school like I was back in 1985 (when they originally came out).

We then walked over to the Aria to check it out, but after finding no real poker action to satisfy us, we jumped in a cab and made our way to the Venetian to play some $4-8 HORSE. Unfortunately the list was full, so we all sat down at a $1-2 NLH table where me and Heath quickly battled after I opened to $12 over a straddle with 9♥ 8♠ only to get four-bet by Heath to $27. I called, and we checked it down with a nine falling on the flop to best his Ace-King.

Several hands later after it limped round to me in the big blind, I made it $13 with K♦ Q♦ and found two callers to see a Q♣ 8♣ 4♣ fall. I fired out $32 and was called in one spot before a 2♠ landed on the turn. On the turn I was faced with a decision of whether or not to bet or check. I felt that if I fired out he was probably only calling with a draw or a weak hand, but raise a set or a baby flush and a hand stronger then mine (top-top etc). Consequently – being prepared to fold if he shoved, but barrel any non-club river – I led out for $60 and he took over two minutes before making the call.

Sigh . . . A♣ . . . what a ghay river! I deliberate just shipping for $130 as a bluff to get him fold a small flush or a stronger non-flush hand, but continuing with my turn play I decided to check only to have him insta-shove for $115. I tanked for days and folded, and he believed a folded a set and didn’t correct him.

“I had King-Queen with the King of clubs . . . probably should have folded the turn” he stated.

“Yes you should have” I replied bluntly.

A few hands later after this lady from Denmark made it $10 after a limper, I bumped it to $36 from the button with Q♦ 6♦. Heath shot me this dirty look before tank-folding Jacks (el oh el) as the lady mucked. I let Heath pick a card and he turned over the Queen and instantly believed I had Queens. The next hand after the same lady made it $8, I three-bet again to $27 from the cutoff with A♠ 8♥ and she called before check-folding for $32 on the J♠ 9♠ 6♥ flop.

Eventually all our seats came up at once and we headed to the $4-8 HORSE table but not before Heath managed a double. Heath sat down with his $500 or so, I sat down with my $386 (after being down $14 from the table previously) and Mickey sat down with about the same.

I scooped a huge pot in PLO-8 with A-K-K-7 against A-Q-Q-x on a K♥ 9♥ 4♠ A♥ 8♠ before GG and Kerry Stead joined the game.

I ran pretty awful for the whole night, including losing a live high two-pair and the nut-flush draw against two full houses in Seven Card Stud before bricking in Stud Hi/Lo with (6x)(5x) / (4x)(2x)(4x)(5x) / (6x) against Heath’s trip kings. I did mange to make a flush and a low the next hand against him however to win the majority of my chips back.

However one of the sickest hands was when my Razz board ran out (Ax)(10x) / (4x)(2x)(Jx)(Qx) / (Kx) to lose to someone that had J-8-8-8 face up on his board . . . so sick!

After a long session on the felt I spent the last hour playing every hand with a can’t be f**ked attitude as I eventually lost my last $100 or so and returned home after another unsuccessful session in Las Vegas!

I managed only a couple of hours of sleep last night before having to wake up nice and early to make my way to the airport.

Heath and Kirsty were arriving into town to prepare for their upcoming weekend wedding and consequently needed my car to get round. I was happy to lend it to him and as I arrived at the airport we did a straight stop as they took the keys and I made my way to check-in.

After I made my way through immigration I stopped by Duty Free and pondered buying a DSLR since we wouldn’t have one for New Zealand and the fact that I would definitely be putting it to use. I was looking at the Nikon D3000 ($899), Canon EOS1000d ($999) and the Canon EOS450d ($1,199) which all came with twin lenses as well as the fact that the salesman was willing to take some more off the price.

I tried contacting some of my in-the-know photography friends before boarding, but was unable to get hold of them and consequently decided against buying one.

The three-hour plane ride was spent with me mostly wriggling round in my seat trying to get comfortable while occasionally nodding off. We experienced some heavy turbulence over the last few minutes of the flight, but still managed to land safely in Christchurch as the driver greeted me a little on the late side that dropped me off at the Millennium hotel in town. Unfortunately my hotel reservations had been stuffed up and they had moved me over to their sister hotel called the Copthorne Durham which was located just across the road from the casino.

Once there I was checking in and was told that they had upgraded me to a suite. I grabbed my key and headed to my room.

Walking in my first reaction was, “this ain’t no f**king suite” as I looked into a normal room featuring two double beds and a standard bathroom. That was until I opened the door next to the bathroom and found a huge master bedroom featuring a king-size bed. I settled in and had a hot shower before deciding to make my way to the casino.

The casino was probably smaller than the whole Crown Poker Room combined!

Nine poker tables, a dozen or so table games but plenty of slots were spread room a fairly un-organised and confusing floor, but I headed straight to the cash game registration to see what was on offer.

$1-2 NLH (buy-in $75-$200), $1-2 NLH/PLO ($100-$200), $5-5 NLH ($200-$500) and $5-5 NLH/PLO ($200-$500) seemed to be the major games on offer with a few interest lists for 3-Card Manila and satellites.

With a tournament running it seemed like I wouldn’t get on a table for a little while and decided to sit on a $5 Blackjack table with $100 – which with the exchange rate worked out to be like $80 or so.

I played for around an hour and won a total of six hands. I wasn’t hitting on 20 or standing on 5, I was just playing basic sound strategy but getting owned by the dealer. For some reason however I managed to increase my bets at the right amount and finished only down $50 bored as all hell. Over to the Baccarat table I went and after losing $25, then winning $25, then losing $50 I went and grabbed a steak before my cash game opened up.

Yann decided to take half my action in the $1-2 NLH game as I sat down on a new table with $150 (weird set buy-in amounts of $80 – $150).

Without going through all the boring details of my session, I was extremely card dead but still managed to profit $90 (well really only $45) on a table full of fish who had no real idea what they were doing. The only upside was sitting on the right of a cute Asian girl called Mina. Although her boyfriend was sitting at the other end of the table – and paid her no attention at all – we spent the whole session chatting, and after she went busto, we decided to play one card each in a hope to get out of the run of cold cards that I was having. It didn’t work and I cashed out at around 3am after paying Yann his share of the stake.

I made my way back to the hotel and called it a night with a plan of getting out and exploring Christchurch the following day.

But in the meantime, check out this video that makes me el oh el about New Zealand . . . gotta feeling I’ll be watching it countless of times while here!

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.