With the annual Shane Warne Foundation Charity Tournament being held at Crown, only two $1-2 NLH tables were in operation once I arrived, and consequently I had to wait nearly ninety minutes to grab a seat. I spent my time waiting round having some lunch and catching up with some friends – mainly tournament supervisors Frank Bianco and Renee Howard.

Once my seat was called I found myself seated next to fellow low-stakes grinder and mate Rob – who had been absent from the recent few weeks of home games as he has been opting to donk off at Crown!

It was yet another terrible session as I was in for $200 within the first hour before winning my first pot and then spent the next few hours doing absolutely nothing with the stack I had in front of me before eventually being in for $300. Rob was on tilt after donking his once $300-plus stack and left as James took a seat on my left (as seen playing poker below . . . maybe it ain’t his forte though).

We had both intended on playing the Aussie Millions Opening Event satellite, but due to my recent run bad I decided to just see what I could make of this third buy-in.

James busted from the satellite early and then proceeded to lose $200 in cash games as my stack had been cut to barely fifty big blinds. I decided to just see it out and try and run it up to $100 or get stacked before grabbing some food and maybe catching a movie before hitting the felt again later that night. With my last $23 I eventually got it in holding J♠ 6♠ after there was a raise to $10 and seven callers. The original raiser called the re-raise before the player on his immediate left pushed all in for over $150. Everyone folded, the original raiser called holding King-Queen to be in horrible shape against the re-raiser’s Kings. The board ran out with two Jacks on it, but when a nine-ball landed on the river to see the King-Queen make a straight I made my way to the rail as I waited for James.

James donked off another $100 and joined my upstairs in the food court to try and get off tilt. I cold drink and plate of rice later I was fine, but James wanted to hit the $5 blackjack tables.

Since I found it hilarious when he lost – as he was betting $5 a hand – I started cheering for the dealer to deal him 20 and himself 21 etc. Down $45, we left the blackjack table only to stumble across a $15 squeeze Baccarat table!

The only difference was that on ties you lost your bet, but if you made eight or nine with three cards you were paid out two-to-one. Following the trait of the last few hours, James dropped $200 after betting on the opposite to everyone else just so he could squeeze and then slowroll all of us slanty eyes.

He made his way downstairs while I remained trying to get unstuck. All I could manage however was a $50 profit after hitting nine in three cards on my last squeeze.

Returning downstairs I found James on a $2-3 NLH table, and once the seat on his immediate right freed up after a half hour of sweating him I decided to fill it.

Half an orbit would past until I was in the big blind and then proceeded to go on a mini-heater and win the next four pots. After James had straddled I flopped top pair holding King-Jack and found two streets of value, before check-calling three streets next hand holding King-Queen after flopping top pair on a straight and flushing board. The third hand saw my tens holding up against Ace-nine on a nine-high board, and my King-Queen managed to win another pot on the fourth hand after again flopping top pair.

Sitting with over $450 in front of me after my initial $200 buy-in, I decided to call it quits for the night after an orbit went by. This may have been a stupid decision but over the past few weeks every losing session has seen me profit on my first buy-in before getting stacked – and after the roller coaster of a week I have had I decided just to pocket the profits and return to Geelong.

All in all it was a huge week for me (sarcasm detector soaring) as I profited a whopping $90 after playing seven sessions over three days . . . sigh . . . what a waste of time . . . but least I didn’t lose!

Down the highway I went and registered for the tournament before heading upstairs with Peter Aristidou to kill some time before we started. A hot chocolate (me) and coffee (him) later and we took our seats both on the feature table and both directly next to each other – myself in seat six while Peter took seat seven.

I gambolled with one hand holding just one-pair against an obvious pair of Aces in the hole when I flopped a pair and multiple backdoor draws. I bricked out and the Aces held as I was forced to rebuy. In the next major hand I held A♦ K♥ J♣ 10♣ and got it all in against Peter’s Queen-Nine-x-x and another opponent’s K♦ 2♦-x-x on a flop of J♦ 10♣ 6♦. The turn blanked, but the river fell the K♠ to see Peter scoop the pot and me rebuy once again.

Once through the rebuy period I added-on to see me in for $150 as I made a prop bet with Steve Topakas. With twenty-six players remaining and Topakas holding a 24,000-chip stack, I bet him $50 that he wouldn’t finish in the top six, and after a few minutes of umming and ahhing he decided to go ahead with the bet.

A few hands after we resumed I busted when my J♦ 9♣ 8♣ 6♣ was unable to improve on a flop of 9♦ 8♣ 6♦ against two players holding a straight, and one with the nut flush draw.

(Topakas would end up finishing in 7th place . . . ship the $50!!!)

I drove over to Mat’s house and we ate some lunch before heading to watch Melbourne Victory versus Sydney FC in an A-League soccer match at Etihad Stadium with Brendan.

Sydney FC defeated Melbourne Victory 3-0

After just 19-minutes Sydney had the game locked at 3-0 and it was funny watching the die-hard Victory fans either sit there sulking and abusing their players or up and leave.

Once the game was wrapped up we made our way to Crown as had a few hours to kill before heading to a friend’s going away party.

We opted to play some 50c-$1 PokerPro and all bought in for the minimum of $20. The PokerPro tables at Crown have recently undergone a software upgrade, and on our table you could live straddle and rabbit hunt – the rabbit hunt was obviously rigged, but we did take advantage of the straddle option throughout the night.

Mat couldn’t win a pot, Brendo played like an idiot and was lucky to have any money in the end, while I was able to turn my $20 into $120.75 as we had a drink and exited the Poker Room.

The reason we were heading to Platform One was to celebrate Kim Ayles’ going away party as she was leaving Crown to teach English in Nepal for a few months.

We grabbed a few drinks while catching up with James and Rob and had a huge night having some fun with Kim and some other friends we knew from Crown in a venue that we would probably never normally visit.

Well that’s what I was thinking before I rolled over in my uber-comfy bed to see the alarm clock on the bedside table . . . 7:38pm . . . WTF!

I had slept in way past what I’d expected, and now my day off had been turned into a night off. I knocked on Donnie and Eric’s door (which is just outside ours), “you just get up . . . you gotta be kidding me” quipped Donnie as he headed back up the stairs shaking his head and laughing. Still adjusting to the brightness of light I slowly stumbled up the stairs behind him to see him cooking dinner as I sat down on his couch to discuss our plans.

We had decided on heading to Caesars Palace to play some $1-3 No Limit Holdem as we have been told that it’s a fairly soft game. We grabbed a taxi and forty bucks later, following a traffic standstill on Flamingo Road, we were there.

They opened a new table in under three minutes time as we seemed to attract a bevy of people – obviously I had my I AM A FISH neon sign flashing on my back!

I took down my first pot when I check-called each street against an Asian LAG and old-man NIT with A♣ J♦ on an Ace-high straight and flushing board to see my stack climb over the $250 mark. An orbit or so later I called $15 out of the small blind with A♥ Q♥ against the LAG who had already started making moves, bluffing and raising with garbage.

The flop fell down Q♦ 9♥ 4♠ and I check-called $35 to see the A♠ fall on the turn and another check from me. Facing a bet of $55, I moved all in for $165 more, and following about ninty-seconds of deliberation the LAG folded.

The hand became an avenue of discussion between me and Donnie, with his argument being a call on the turn and either a donk lead on the river or gamble with a check. Personally I wished I tanked on the turn and did the old ‘I guess I’m all in’ show like I have a draw. Either way it was a good session for the both of us, as I cashed out $403 and, courtesy of a quad bonus, Donnie cashed out up $250 – not a bad two-hours I say!

After exchanging some texts with my two Melbournian’s in James and Rob that had just arrived in town, we both decided to head over to Imperial Palace to catch up.

We tucked into some Subway before heading to the Rio around 1am to check out what was going on.

The Ladies World Championship (in which I’m doing the final table tomorrow) was down to the last two tables while the Omaha Hi-Lo World Championships was on the money bubble. We showed the WSOP noobs round before Donnie settled into a $10-20 Limit Holdem game as James and Rob headed to the other side of the Rio to play some $1-3 No Limit Holdem.

I sweated them for a while, before returning to sweat Donnie and his continuance in running bad at the Rio. 3am came round which meant our ride was ready, and after a quick visit to the petrol station for some snacks and of course petrol, I was at home and on the computer writing this blog!

Bring on the Ladies tomorrow!