Summer

I got back from Auckland last week after the New Zealand Open for bowls. After 10 days of competition the NSWIS girls did exceptionally well with Sharon Renshaw winning the singles and Anne Johns Runner Up with Penny Landher in the pairs. I do a bit of coaching with Anne and Penny came up with the South Australian state side to Merrylands a few months ago so I was really behind all the girls to win.

In the pairs I played with Carl Healey and we were defeated in the quarter finals by 1 shot in a high quality game in tough conditions. Usually the standard slips with wind and rain but different types of shots were played and were very effective. On our return we received a very favourable letter from a bowler who we played in the qualifying at Blockhouse Bay. It was very humbling to receive such a reference. I feel we did what most Aussies do after a game of bowls but Andy and his pairs partner really appreciated our camaraderie during and after the game.

I played 15 hours of poker this week. As you can see from the graph it went well. I had a guy from my bowls club supporting me in the chat box when I reached final tables. On ya Clarkey:)

I went for a run this afternoon and noticed that the old Cables Waterski Park that Panthers own is now re-opened as Cables Wakeboarding Park! I will be spending some time their this Summer! This Summer I also want to get in some Muay Thia with Ash's Jabout crew.

Speaking of Ashton Cartwright he has a new website www.ashtoncartwright.com for all of you interested in playing poker. His website has all you need to assist you in learning to play. I particularly like his article on 'online vs live' poker. He is always posting up new items and keeps it fresh. I think he is coaching Penrith Panther Luke Lewis in poker. From what I know of Luke he is already a decent player (I split a $55 tournament with him at the old PokerDome) but as with all effective people he is looking to improve his game further.

November

I just got home from a fun night out. My cousin had her birthday and we had dinner and drinks which was interesting, with some funny stories told. It has been four years since we last caught up. She has been over in The Philippines and travelled through Europe a bit with her boyfriend Jason. Her name is now ‘Honey’ and that is what all her friends call her. I always knew her as Rachael and couldn’t quite get used to the name change yet. It was done for business purposes and before that it was Mia which apparently isn’t as catchy.

I have a trip to New Zealand coming up for the New Zealand Open in Auckland. I will be travelling with the NSW Institute of Sport and as with last year Carl Healey and Mat Miles will be coming on the men’s side. This will most likely be my last trip as a part of the NSWIS crew. I’m concentrating more on developing career and expanding poker/travel/academic time.

At Club Merrylands we missed out on the finals series. We lost to The Hills and competition leaders Raymond Terrace. I think we performed poorly. Against Raymond Terrace our team was under prepared and hung over? At The Hills we lost overall, I don’t know what to say, but I am pretty sure the team will play better next year. On the surface we made changes but I’m not sure they were the right ones. It is never an easy job and you have to do the best with the players you have in the positions they are picked in.

On Pokerstars I have been playing more PLO and PLO/LHE mixed games. I am trying to develop my game there and been making decent money. I still play tournaments. I am also on Cake Poker now as *shibby* and have made a good start. The games are really soft and the rake back is great. Stars has the consistent tournament volume due to a larger player pool (hundreds of thousands from around the world on together), where as Cake only has 3-10k people on at any one time.

I’m thinking of staking some people in live tournaments rather than playing them myself. They are so slow and the convenience of online play with the lower buy ins makes it a smarter choice to reduce the risk of ruin. I make a steady income online where as live poker tournament players where the buy-ins are between 2k and 40k are a recipe for ‘busto‘.

I have always preferred live cash games to live tournaments. My short handed cash game play has improved dramatically since my trip to Melbourne. I play short handed cash games (6 or fewer players) more frequently now. It is hard to get a game like that live. Live is mostly full ring (9 to 10 players). Generally only the better players are willing to play short handed cash games, so they rarely get off the ground live. The rake in a casino would be prohibitive also.

Magic Mojo Back

After coming back from Melbourne and settling back into some sort of routine I really feel great again. I've found a better balance with training, work, study and poker.

Our Premier League team has copped a bit of flack for constantly changing its roster.

After three tough loses on the road to Taren Point, Engadine and Warilla; we have now managed to win three games in a row. It is good to finally string some wins together in the Premier League. We flew to Wagga Wagga and had a pretty tight tussle with the Riverina Team. Then we had a double header this weekend starting on Friday night against Birrong, which we ran away with in the end.

On Sunday against Toongabbie it was a much closer game; we started well and finished well. Towards the middle of the game the Titans were in control but we managed to regain the momentum we built earlier by scoring on all rinks and over taking them on the master board. I think Toongabbie may wonder how they lost control of that game. It certainly seemed like we scored 20 shots in a row and were suddenly 10 in front with only 10 ends to play.

The last 3 wins puts us back in the top 6. We currently sit 5th and have quite a few home games up our sleeve. With the rule change back to retaining the mat, when scoring, the games overall have been much closer. There is also a strong trend for the home team to have a clear advantage.

I really feel we have a strong chance of figuring in the finals. We were evenly matched in both very tough away games against Engadine and Warilla. I would love to play them at home. Taren Point were dominant however, and I feel it would take something special to beat them in a final series game. We will be tested in the next few weeks and we need to consistently convert our opportunities at home and against teams that may be struggling internally.

I have had the time and opportunity this week to chill out and go to a couple of parties. I spent most of the week around the City and it was a great week where I had some quality time with people I care greatly for. Late night dessert was a highlight at a place where I had eaten breakfast earlier in the week. I did some shopping on Saturday, bought some clothes and booked some trips and paid entry fees for various tournaments.

One tournament I'm really looking forward too is the New Zealand Open in Auckland. This will probably be my last trip with the NSW Institute of Sport. I had a really good one on one with Cam Curtis (before he took on his new role with Roselands) where I decided that my focus on representative bowls would be reduced and move on towards other areas in life.

I learnt so much from my time at the Institute about life in general and I met some of the most amazing people from within the sport and also on the coaching and administration side. Some of these people greatly changed my life and through these exceptional people I was able to positively influence the direction of other young people in sport.

My experience with Hills Shire Sports stands out in my mind as a great experience for talented athletes in the area but also for my own understanding and personal development. I learnt so much from these kids and it really made me reflect on why I participate in sport and where my motivations, goals and achievements were driven from.

I set many goals for myself to achieve by the time I was 25. I have achieved most of them. Some of them were modest, others were outlandish. I did enjoy the journey. From New Years in New York to playing U25’s for Australia. I had academic, sporting, relationship and other goals. I am at a stage where I am reassessing all of these for the future. I feel I am in a better place now to judge what is appropriate for myself than when I was 17. The process is on going and I am sure that things will change as people come into my life. Now more than ever I am my own person and not so easily swayed by other peoples opinions as I once was.

Melbourne, NSW Open & Wollongong

I have had a nice little upswing both live and online. I spent about 4 days in Melbourne playing 2-3 NL and went up 12 buy ins on the 200 table. The games were exceptional and the timing was great with the Rugby League Grand Final on at the same time.

Online I went up 2k. I entered some tournaments where friends bought percentages of me. My gains have mainly been in cash games with most of my tournaments blanking out. Luckily, I have had people buying good percentages of me in tournaments. Overall in tournaments I lost very little due to staking and actually gained in some arrangements.

Crown is by far the best place to play cash games live in a casino in Australia. There are great restaurants and places to go out all around Southbank. Crown makes it easy. If I had the choice I wouldn't spend too much time in a casino but that is just where the poker games are hosted. I learnt at home reading books, playing online and with friends.

I stayed with friends at a place in Kew which wasn't too far from everything. We played a couple of home games. One home game was in Kew and another was with a mix of people in St. Kilda. Later that night I went down to Sandringham to meet a friend from bowls and catch up.

We hired a car and spent any down time watching Entourage, Family Guy and other movies like Watchmen on the big screen. Alex's place in Kew had wireless internet so we played online throughout the house.

I had to fly back to Sydney to play in the NSW Open at Taren Point on Wednesday. After getting ko'd in the fours I stayed at a friends place in Glebe. I met up with a friend at The Rocks and then a few different bowls friends in the city. I went to a chocolate house in The Rocks and then went out to George St and met up with the group at the Three Wise Monkeys.

The next morning I gave my friend a lift to the airport and drove down to Wollongong to meet up and crash at my mates hotel. We went for dinner at the Novotel. He is a state sales manager and he once recommended The Novotel on North Beach to me, to take out a girl for Valentine's Day dinner which went down well. Our dinner was great, we got to catch up and we went back and watched some TV and I accidentally registered a Pot Limit Hold'em cash game table on stars and about 5 hands in stacked someone for 400usd. Good Life.

The last 7 days have been exceptional and I don't expect this to happen all the time but it truly has been sweet. Having the money gave me the freedom to move around and do what I liked. I visited my Nan and Pop on the way back home from Wollongong which was fantastic. Nanna Mac told me a couple of stories from when she baby sat me which made me laugh and her snort:)

As a kid I liked things to be done properly and whenever she was getting tired she would try to skip a page in a book to get to sleep early. Not on my watch! 'Nanna', I would say, 'You missed a page, start again!'

She also recalled how I was certain that it was 'Banana's in Byjama's' because of course that made more sense than Banana's in Pyjama's! Stubborn as I was I went and got out Dad's big dictionary, well the A to K half, and carried it in my arms to Nan to look up 'Byjama'. I remember it being heavy (I think I was 5). Unfortunately, after making my Nan go through all of the 'B' section, she convinced me to go and get the other half and look under 'P' with her. I was astounded, 'It does start with a P!'

Thank you to all those family members and close ones who have been patient with me over the years. It seems I have been stubborn from a young age and have needed very wise and patient people to guide me:)

Tomorrow our club team is flying to Wagga for an important Premier League game. If the weather holds off tonight we have practice. We lost our last 3 games against tough opposition, but we still have some finals chance if we win on the road.

Hot & Cold

After the Inter-Zone carnival over the weekend, which is used by our state to select representative teams, I can’t say our team performed well overall. It seems when some people are very close to being given opportunities for State selection they go ahead and do some harmful things to their own chances and jeopardise other team mates prospects in the process.

Right now the Zone and State activities seem excessive in terms of time commitment. Some of the guys who represent at Australian level, I think, should be exempt from lower level Zone activities and be granted some time off Zone events. Why do players like Aron Sherriff and Wayne Turley really need to be there this weekend? What do they have to prove at State level?

I have a pretty good couple of weeks ahead. The City Master Singles is on and apparently there is betting (what event is there not at the moment) on it with Mat Pieterson installed as favourite. This is fair enough as he just won a car at Park Beach and is a former State Singles winner. I am not going in with any expectations. Sets play always brings out some surprise results. I just want to run good if I get into tie breakers and try to nail my first bowl. If I create some good heads and convert when I need to I will be happy.

On Friday we managed to start up a cash game after a poker tournament and in two hours I went up 12 buy ins in a crazy hot poker game. I was mainly dominating when we were all in but when I was in 50/50 situations I won all but one. Safe to say I was a favourite with my JJ Vs 77 Vs 34 off! The only hand I lost was with JJ Vs AK Vs Q5 suited for 50 big blinds. I also flopped a straight, and mainly played pretty tight in this game, bluffed a couple and showed for some image.

This week I hit some goals online and also made a bit of money in live poker as mentioned above. I am really making steady strides. When the Pokerstars ANZPT comes around I will enter some events, I am also looking at some EPT events where I can combine travel with some tournaments while in Europe. If I can get some reliable prepaid mobile broadband while I am there then that would be sweet also for online tournaments.

I had my mid semester exams last week and didn’t play poker for a week prior. It made me really keen this week to play and probably improved my uni marks and poker results this week. A good friend who is going over to Japan for a 6 month uni exchange has been doing very well in heads up sit and go’s online, every time a check he has made another thousand. His ROI is equivalent to mine over a shorter period but he is making more per unit/game/SNG. I am playing more games at a time (multi tabling) where as I am pretty sure he is mono-tabling. I am playing turbo tournaments exclusively where as I have noted he is mixing in non turbo tournaments which take longer on average. I guess we both just have to go with our strengths and find what is most profitable for our style of play. It really highlights that there are many forms of the game that can be specialised in.

Importantly, we both table select and I think this is very important for our longer term profitability. I much prefer playing many tables as it reduces my volatility and enables me to consistently play well without being jilted by a couple of bad results on some tables. Another friend who 12 tables cash games worked out after his 3-4 hour session of play that he had played as many hands as someone who would sit live at a casino for 2 weeks 8 hours a day.

Premier League, Port and Mick Harry

After round one of the Bowls Bet Premier League season we are one win up. Last Friday nights game against the Mt. Lewis Lion’s was a real test and it was good to see that the Magic could keep its unbeaten run against the Lions over the last 6-7 years intact. The Lion’s recruited very well and it was a bit intimidating seeing them turn up with the like of Wilkie, Rice, Trezise, Jeffreys, Willis, Wilks and Co. I really believe that over the last few years it has been the overall strength of our team that has gotten us through. Very rarely did they hold shot before their top end played and our top end matched it against the Lion’s superstar skips and thirds.

Last week I drew one of the worst cards in the history of a pairs tournament. It was always going to be tough at Port Macquarie but with two cards left on the table I said to Shane Garvey ‘you go’, he said, ‘no you’, so I went forward and picked a card versus two World Champions Wayne Turley and Ali Forsyth and two Commonwealth/Asia Pacific champs Mark Casey and Shane Globits. Andrew Waddell was not surprised when Jesus Christ and Muhammad turned up to play the third game. Needless to say it was close and despite being up 8-0 the two staged a miracle comeback to win by a couple.

That was how our day went. First end against Turls and Ali, I trailed a jack into the ditch for 4, but from then on we were outplayed on a couple of key ends. Against Casey/Globits it was very close and probably our best game of the day. Plenty of spectators came to watch a pretty exciting finish. We were always 1-2 ahead or behind and on the last end we held shots but were down one in the game. We covered the re-spots and back wood one side of the rink. Casey trailed it into the ditch on the other side, top corner pocket, for game with his last bowl to win. There was no way I could make two. That game we played shots to knock in touchers 3ft out from the ditch onto the jack in the ditch and precise trails that swung the shot difference. Casey played an unbelievable shot on the 2nd last end going away from the clubhouse with his last bowl. I moved it for 2 in a well protected spot and he just came up with a bomb to clip the jack 3 feet sideways for 2 up, he misses we win simple as that.

Meanwhile always on the rink next to us, Garvey is playing two 80 year old champs and losing his first game and then two 18 year old champs from Dubbo and ended up qualifying for the second tier play-off. Congratulations to Ryan Bester and Andrew Todd from Cabramatta BC via Canada, Australia, New Zealand winning the Platinum for 12k, Alan Wares in the Gold tier, Nathan Rice and Brett Wilkie in the Silver. The structure and prize pool is unmatched in Australia and I hear it will be bigger and better in its second year.

From there on Saturday morning I played the Zone champion of champion final against Mick Harry. I really was on a high after winning literally hours before against the Lions and seemed a little slow to start. There was actually a crowd on the Friday night and Steve Glasson dressed up as ‘Larry the Lion’ entertaining it! So to turn up at Northmead the next day I was a little down compared to the night before. There was still huge motivation for me in many ways but I couldn’t pick myself up and play at the level Mick played.

Usually I pride myself on being able to increase my concentration levels or arousal or calm myself down etc. This game was very frustrating and was the first time in months I felt like I didn’t have control of the game. Mick played his last bowl well and when I won an end he nailed it with his first, very simple. This was even though the conditions were way different to the week before, still windy on top of the hill but half the pace, strange for Northmead. He consistently outdrew me early but towards the middle I definitely out-rated him on the draw but this was the time when he drew the absolute with his last. I tried extreme long and minimum but he stood up to the test. He is a deserved champion in not only the singles in our zone but also the pairs which he won with his brother. He also won all club championships at Toongabbie and is doing a great job as Secretary there. He is leading his team into the Premier League for the first time this year and I wish Mick and the Titans all the best.

It's Tricky

Trying to get the best out of yourself and your team can be hard work. I personally find motivation to be a tricky subject to approach. I will try though.

With so many events on the calendar how do we remain motivated to perform well throughout the year. Limiting the amount of commitments we have could be one thing we try. Focussing on key events is another.

In life and work people make things happen. To get the best results we all need to share common goals in a team or workplace. When we lose sight of the goal (or not even know what it is) this is when we lose track of the direction we are heading.

Wandering through life can be a very freeing experience. This is not without substance and can be a source of growth and discovery within oneself. However, when things need to be done or you have something special you personally want to achieve, then smart decisions and goals need to be set.

I have learnt that balance is key to enjoying the things we achieve and a catalyst for potential future growth. There are times when stepping back and realising what we have already made gains in can motivate us even more. Keeping good records helps to maintain steady progress and work out our strengths and weaknesses.

Good record keeping helps us to work out which future direction is most viable. Good records are not biased by the outcome. There are times when we can make all the right moves and fail. There are also times when amatuer mistakes or accidental actions can be rewarded. We need to give ourselves the best chance. Don't be sucked in by results-oriented decision making. Be honest and open with yourself and your team.

A good friend once said, “If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't make it right. Work through what you do with experts in your field. Take bits and pieces from the best in areas outside of your specialty. Don't be afraid to experiment and be different.

Magic Happenings

In the last couple of weeks since returning from Queensland quite a few things have happened. Firstly, as a part of the Merrylands Magic number 1 pennant team we travelled to Windang (South Coast near Wollongong) for the State number 1 Pennant Play-offs. Traditionally in bowls this is the big deal. The top 16 teams from around NSW play-off in 4 sections of 4 and progress to a knockout semi final and final.

Our team played very solidly throughout the initial section. We won all 3 games and won on all 3 rinks in 3 consecutive games. We entered the semi final against the favourites Cabramatta. It is widely known that they have 6 internationals and a solid group of Sydney based players in their team. We started well with one of our 3 rinks leading 11-1! Overall the score levelled and then they accelerated with explosive and accurate driving and pin point accurate sit and stay shots. They continued to grind us down and consistent draw bowling extended their lead.

Our team had very strong and vocal support. We never gave up and it was only in our supporters voices breaking that revealed any cracks in our resolve. As the game neared its end Cabramatta led by 25 and it was a very convincing win by our opponents, who did in fact, end up winning the overall championship. They defeated a very strong team form the Central Coast, Halekulani, in the final.

At the Club Merrylands I have had a very good year. I played with Paul Webb a 17 year old junior from our club in the Major Pairs championship. We won the final 22-7 after getting off to a handy 14-2 lead. The win probably lands me the overall points for bowler of the year which was extra motivation after winning the singles earlier in the year. In itself I am very proud and happy to be playing well within a strong club but I am mainly happy with my role within the club and the team. I feel very much a part of the players developing at our club and I can’t wait for the next few years as we have the makings of a very strong club throughout the grades.

I managed to play a home game of poker after the Major Pairs championship on Sunday. I won’t mention names of people or amounts without peoples permission so I will go ahead without too much detail. There was a fair bit of niggle in the game and it really got the juices flowing. I actually felt nervous due to adrenaline pumping as there was both money and pride riding on every hand. After playing for so long I really never have had that psychological/physiological response in a while. I feel it really made me play at another level.

Finding your optimal level of arousal (in terms of performance) is widely explored in sports psychology texts. I was surprised to find within myself an extra level through this nervousness, extra pressure and sudden challenge in what has otherwise been a pretty much straight forward game. Many times in this game I have been bored, tired or otherwise uninterested mainly due to the stakes and nature of play (mainly social), I think after playing many hands at once online (8-12 tables) it seemed very unstimulating.

Live games however have a whole other skills set besides basic bet sizing, position and history between players. Physical tells, cues and timing of elements greatly influence players decisions. Many people are aware of physical tells and more sophisticated players throw out reverse tells all the time. What can be difficult is when a player who is terrible over rates or under rates there hand and throws out every physical and verbal cue that contradict the actual strength of their hand.

There are some situations where you have to ask yourself is this guy just plain bad, terrible bad, no idea bad or genius. They could be a genius, who knows, who am I to judge? One such situation came up where a player (we will call him Nigel) raised in late position with pretty deep chips compared to the blinds. I re-raise with KQ suited on the button and he calls. The flop drops 3 88 with two clubs. He bets about half the pot I call. Turn is a 10 of clubs making my flush. He checks and in position I bet about 2/3rds the pot. He minimum raises me. I call. The river drops an ace that is not another club and he bets the rest of his chips which is about twice the amount that is in the total pot. Now just on basic betting this is scary, whenever people minimum raise the turn it is usually a huge hand but then to shove the river for twice the amount of the money in the middle I was just like, what!?

So whenever this happens you have to go with what you feel and the cues, tells and what ever interrogation skills you have. In online games I would fold this to most unknown players (really I don‘t play many cash games online, mainly live cash and online tournaments). It really looks like a full house with an over bet on the river to make it look like a bluff. If it is a bluff it is pretty good too. I probably wouldn’t bet so much on the river if I was bluffing.

So the guy is holding up his cards physically in both hands in front of his face so other people can see them. I find this usually means a huge hand or complete bluff. I say to him that I can see his cards in the mirror in the background (which I can’t really) to which he doesn’t even flinch (I think he is not that stupid, but it is always worth a try to get some reaction). I end up deciding that it is not worth it as he bet twice the amount in the pot and I continue to believe it is either a full house or nothing so I fold after some pressure from the table after most of them have seen his hand!

After I fold he shows me A10 for a rivered 2 pair on a paired board and 3 flush. Remember the board 8h8c3c 10cAd. I think I would have respected his play if he had been bluffing. I asked him if he thought on the river (when he put all of his chips in) that he had the best hand or was bluffing. He had real trouble answering. He really had a few ideas for example, ‘I thought you maybe had a single ace of clubs and you missed it on the river.’ If I really had missed as he had stated wouldn’t he have been better check calling and letting me bluff. In reality it is a very scary board. With a hand like his I would see it as a check calling hand on the river. I really am only calling his over bet on the river with a full house or rarely a nut flush.

Very soon after I am against the same guy and he raises in late position again. I am in the small blind with AQ off suit and re raise him in a 6 handed game. Earlier we were playing 9 handed but a few people left/lost money. He calls the re-raise along with someone who has limped who also has hundreds of big blinds in there stack. The flop drops Qc 3h5h, I bet about 80% of the pot as there are draws (flush and straight), these guys are limp calling 2-4 and 4-6 no doubt as well as pocket 3’s and 5’s. Any suited cards like Kh9h are always played as well. The first guy folds and Nigel calls after physically spreading/touching my chips and saying how much?

At this stage I will let you know now that he has K9 of hearts…so he has a flush draw. I think by betting such a high percentage of the pot he refrains from re-raising me and he just calls. So the turn comes out a Q of hearts giving him the flush and myself trips, now obviously if the board pairs on the river my full house beats his flush. This is very, very similar, almost identical situation to the hand that played out between us previously but in the exact reverse.

I cannot believe the irony in the situation as he then bets a tiny amount (20-25% of the pot) when I check my trips hoping to fill on the river. I call and the ace falls on the river not only giving me a full house but the best hand other than aces full on the river. This guy always re-raises large with aces ( I have seen him open fold KK pre flop to a 4th re-raise and the guy actually did have AA), and the way he has played it I am 99.9% certain he has a flush or smaller full house like 33 or 55 in his hand. I shove the river which is in the end an over bet like his bet earlier and he snap calls, does not even think about it and loses all of his chips. We play about one more hand where I make a straight and get paid and the game ends. The guy who I stack is still going on about it as we finish he and seems a bit drunk and aggressive. I go to shake his hand and he says we will talk outside. I was like yeah right! He gets a lift home and I wait then drive home.

Usually things like that do not happen in a game where immediate reverse karma happens. When it does it is so sweet. I was so pumped as I won that pot. It wasn’t the biggest or most difficult hand I have played but my adrenaline was pumping from the ‘verbalisation’ going on between hands. If he was paying attention he would have noticed my hand physically shaking and a crack in my voice as I said 'all in' on the river.

Ballina & Arriving at Bribie Island

We arrived yesterday at Bribie Island as part of an NSWIS team entered in the Queensland Open. I have some great pictures to post. We are right on the beach and the place we are staying in is modern and for sale at around a million. After my Ballina flight to Sydney, I woke up early to catch a flight from Sydney to Coolangatta. We hopped in a hire car and went for a roll up at Bribie Island Bowling Club and Pine Rivers BC for a practice session.

The Ballina Invitation singles event was amazing again. It is the third time I have been and this time I made it to the semi finals. There are 32 entrants (4 sections of 8) My first section included Rowan Brassey (25-17), Steve Halmia (25-24) and Brendan Egan (25-23). After a series of comebacks and close wins I managed to get through my section. In the quarter final I played against Kris Leitfeld and won 25-22. In the semi final I drew David Holt. He started well and kept a 5 shot lead until he got stuck on 20 where on 3 consecutive ends I converted with my last bowl. The crucial end came where I had last bowl and the score was 20-17 and I had 2 good seconds and just missed tight with good weight with my third. With my final bowl I could have ripped the bowl out for 2 or try to sit or trail with the same weight I used with my third bowl. I opted to use 2 metres of weight and as I delivered I instantly knew it was very close to the target. As it came down the breeze held my bowl onto the jack and I trialled it the 2 metres I required. The jack however caught on David’s back bowl, like an intercept pass, bounced forward 2 feet and my bowl continued passed another metre. This left me an incredible 4 down due to the forward rebound off David’s bowl. The next end David won a close measure and the game was over. David Holt went on to win the final comfortably. Holty raced out to a 22-3 lead against Mark Casey and went on to win the title.

Whilst at Ballina I met an acupuncturist Tony who is friends with Craig Teys. I stayed with the Teys’ whilst at Ballina and one night came to the club after the Calcutta (player auction) and met a few of the locals. I was introduced to Tony the next night and we started talking about when his treatments were best applied and how to best improve performance. Interestingly, Tony worked with race horses and greyhounds before humans. I ended up winning some money for him in the Calcutta by finishing in the top 8 and he offered to treat me for free before my 5pm flight out of Ballina at his clinic. I had never been to an acupuncturist before. I am interested in the holistic approach to treatment and he was very professional and very good at what he does.

Yesterday when we arrived at Bribie Island we spent some time at the beach. I went to take of my shirt and realised I had huge marks on my back, like tennis balls, from the suction caps placed over the needles throughout the acupuncture session. We found on the beach a carved out a lounge with tv, cup holders and foot rests in the sand.

Congratulations to Aaron Teys who today won the Junior State Singles. I flew down with his Dad to Sydney from Ballina and I know how much time and effort both boys put into their sport. Last time I met up with them was at the Dubbo Master Pairs where they invited me to stay with them next time I was in Ballina. Aaron is in all the junior events and if I had posted this blog last night I would have been right in predicting his victory in the singles. Good luck in the rest of the events.

I am sleeping so well. I had a glass of red wine with pasta last night and instantly fell asleep. Tonight we are cooking a barbecue at our accommodation. Everyone has settled in well and I am feeling the strongest and most confident I have ever felt leading into an event. Ballina was a great lead up and my preparation has been excellent.

Going to Coffs, Ballina and then the Gold Coast

Tomorrow morning I am driving upto Coffs Harbour with Mat and Alan. I will then being travelling on to Ballina for the Wintersun Singles and then onto Bribie Island for the Queensland Open.

I cashed out some poker funds and loaded up my debit Mastercard so this trip should be fun. Strangely, I had to book a one way flight from Ballina back to Sydney to catch a flight to the Gold Coast. It was just the way arrangements were made and the order in which entries were accepted that I have had to back track. We will be travelling as a team to the Queensland Open with the NSWIS.

I plan to be completly ready to play by Saturday. I will prepare at Coffs while the Park Beach singles is on. I seem to go deep there but really want to avenge my Ballina Singles runner up a couple of years ago. I really was not sure if I would go to Coffs but in the end I will be there but not playing. It will be strange to spectate but I really hope it will motivate me to perform well at Ballina and the Queensland Open. I should be peaking at Bribie Island, going for the win there.

Since my holidays started I have been back into training and focussing on getting ready for a series of tournaments along the East Coast. I played in a few zone events and went out pretty early but played fairly decently. I got my gym program renewed at the Institute of Sport and did well in testing today at Homebush. I feel really fresh and excited.

In poker I had a few ups and downs and near misses. I have built up 'W' dollars on Pokerstars (special events credit) to enter the Queensland ANZPT event. I could buy directly in or qualify in the satellites online. Last week I had my first really huge swing where I realised that I am stating to deal with reasonable sums of money. I reached some goals including playing 5k SNG's and 10k profit since Christmas.

My Uncle has traded on the stock market for a living for over 15 years and he set me the task at Christmas to reach 5k profit in poker online and to then see him. So I got to 10k and and I am going to use some money to develop my skills on the market. My Uncle and Aunt got pretty lucky recently and won a car in a raffle! They only bought one $50 ticket. It was a Mercedes!

At the start of July Alan, Mat and myself went of a bit of a road trip to Shelley Beach. The place that we stayed at was a six bedroom, four bathroom behemoth right on the golf course and near the water. I didn't even know what to expect of the place, as Alan had not been before to this place was a pleasent surprise. His neighbours rent it out and at this time of year it was empty. All we had to do was pay for cleaners to come in after.

We quickly entered into a series of bets on random items, activities and things. This all began when we were on a bowls trip to Adelaide last year and we bet on how long we thought a hotel staffer had been working at the same hotel. It was a lot of fun and has quickly built up to plays that lead us to asking random people questions about themselves to see who wins.

One particular series I got crushed where we asked a girl if she still lived at home. We also made a bet about who had bought her the braclet she was wearing. I bet on her or her parents purchasing it (as it looked rather expensive) but her friend had bought it for her and I lost. Nice friend. We have got to meet so many people doing this, and mostly people arn't purturbed by our prying. The more random the better.

By the time we got around to bowls bets I had lost at golf (giving Mat a 15 shot start over 9 holes). Mat grew up on a golf course and it came down to the last hole. Mat rebounded off the club house on a short par 3 and still ended up 10ft from the hole. He sunk the putt for birdie and sunk my chances of even tying.

By the time we had made it back to the house it was dark. On the way home we had procured a Monopoly board from K-Mart after being inspired by the McDonald's promotion on at the moment. I was obviously very determined to make back some of the money ($200) and a pair of Lee jeans that had been won from me when we started up the game of my life.

I was extremely focussed and everything flowed. I seemed to land on the right spots and set up pretty early with some properties. I made some good deals and had a corner plus the railways monopolised...Eventually Alan made a huge play loaded up the dice and landed up on my land busting him! I finally won a bet!

The house was equipped with a darts set and a foosball in the garage. We did not spend as much time as we would of liked. There is a definite return trip in line. We went out to a few clubs and we all had a great time. I think Mat has spent a considerable amount of time travelling between Sydney and the Central Coast in the last few weeks...

Exams Over

After a pretty busy week of bowls I had my last exam today. I kept writing until the end which is usually a good sign. I fit some study in during the last week. I also played about 200 sit and go's online & played in three bowls events.

At Warilla I was pretty much was outplayed on the indoor. In the PBA singles Geoff McGillvray beat me a couple of times, one of which was close and went to a tie breaker. Jeremy Henry & Geoff again beat myself and David Holt. Both played awesome.

On the weekend we completed our Zone 10 play off which we managed to win through. It wasn't without a struggle as we lost our second game to Rosehill. It all came down to who ever won between Toongabbie and Merrylands and luckily our team fired on the Sunday morning. We got off to a good start and at one stage Zel Trbara's rink and Andrew Waddell's rink were both on 20 shots whilst Toonie were stuck on 2 or 3 a piece. Peter Stockham's rink led against Mick Harry most of the way but it was pretty close. In the end we won all three and we are now off to Warilla for the State play offs.

I am officially on holidays now, but still have a NSW Institute of Sport camp coming up and a bowls tournament tomorrow at Club Merrylands.

In poker I played in a couple of home games. In Pyrmont there was a Star City dealers game which was fun to play in. I had to wait a while to get on and a mate decided to just go to Star City to play. Since the dealers at the casino can not play poker at the casino they just create there own game! The guy whose place it was dealt, provided food and drink, and only took a small commission/rake.

They've got Private Lawns & Public Parks

I think we are very fortunate in Australia to have access to an amazing array of public sporting facilities for next to nothing. Our lifestlye is complimented by virtually free access to sporting and cultural facilities throughout all of our cities and regional centres.

There are thousands of Bowling Clubs all over Australia and you only need to be a member of one Club to access them all. The ABS listed sports with the highest frequency rates (attended six or more times) and the top two sports were lawn bowls (57.6% of attendees) and netball (41.9%).

In other countries access is quite limited or scarce and therefore much more expensive. In New Zealand the club houses are cosy and friendly. In Hong Kong the clubs are private and squashed in. Australia seems much more open. The wide landscapes and the bright sunshine are sometimes tested by the harsh winds and bursts of rain. I really enjoy travelling around and making use of the diverse facilities and competing in the great tournaments that are available.

This weekend we have our Zone 10 playoff. The four teams from our Holroyd area are Club Merrylands, Wentworthville Leagues, Rosehill & Toongabbie. We have a strange system that is not as equitable as the first past the post system. After 9 rounds of regular competition the top four teams now play a sectional playoff to decide who goes to the state championships. One good weekend and the winning team goes through.

Tomorrow the NSW Professional Bowls Association (PBA) state qualifing event begins at Warilla on the indoor. This now goes for 2 days with four seperate singles events. Everything seems to be trimmed down now. Instead of a pairs events they will be just combining singles events winners to go over to the UK. There also may be a reduction in money provided for flights, accomodation and spending due to some sponsorship losses.

The event will still feature a great line up and the nominated players so far are; Gerard Beath, Ray Pearce, Steve McGuiness, David Holt, Geffory McGilvary, Shaun Parnis, Bernie Melvile, Jesse McKenzie, Jesse Noronha, John Aldersley, Steve Glasson, Gary Pearson, Charles Phillips, Lindsay McIntyre, Paul Guilfoyle, Alan Fawcett, Carl Healey, Jeremy Henry & Wayne Toomey. Pretty solid.

Did Kidwell bluff me?

I have had a very interesting week in poker. I put in a lot of volume this week mainly due to the weather. Throughout out the week the weather has been wet and I haven't been on the bowling green.

This morning our Club Championship pairs has been called off as the greens have been closed at Club Merrylands due to the rain again. I played about 20 hours of live poker and 15 hours online this week.

Online, I have almost cracked 3000, 18 man Sit & Go's at the $6.50 buy in level. I have been mixing in $16 18 mans and plan to step upto playing 8-12 tables of purely $16 18 mans on Pokerstars very soon. I am averaging an 11% return and you can check my progress on http://www.sharkscope.com/. In the last week I am up about 400 usd.

Live, I played mostly NL Holdem but I finished the week trying my hand at Pot Limit Omaha and got PLOwned but have a new view on live PLO. Firstly, with the NL at Star City. I mostly play 200NL and my friend Rhys was on the tables. I sat at the other table as it looked like there were reasonable players on the table which Rhys sat.

I sat folding for the first 20 mins when i picked up JJ and with the blinds being at 5-5 we start with only 40 big blinds. I raised to 25 and the small blind minimum raised me to 50, the big blind called (which I thought was odd) and I moved in for just under 200. The small blind called with A K and strangely the under the gun limper also called with K 10 of diamonds. This was a pretty good result considering. The board ran out all low and I tripled up.

Soon after Kidwell from the South Sydney Rabbitohs joins the table and shows some game. We play a multiway pot where I limp after 2 others with 45 clubs. All together we have 8 people in the pot and I begin to wonder if any one else has clubs when this flop comes out. 8c 9c 6c should be a good flop for me right, unless someone has a higher flush and I am dead.

An active player who limped before me bets $40 into a $40 pot, I think about it and would usually raise here but with so many after me and a couple of players behind me with deep stacks $800-900 and myself with close to $750 I elect to call and see a turn and see the action proceeding me to give an indication of where my small flush is at. Many players bet or raise to see where they are at. I think that in deep stacked cash games sometimes you can let others do the betting for you. If I only had 200 in front of me with 5-5 blinds I would definitely be raising and getting it in on the flop. This is mainly due to any turn or river card being a club equalling my hand dead or any set or straight without a club giving me no action. I also rarely would be playing 4c 5c mid position with only 40bb.

Back to the action, a fiery North Korean guy flat calls for 40 on the all club flop. This probably indicates an Ace of clubs. Now on the button Kidwell puts in a substantial raise to 200. It folds around to UTG limper and he thinks and thinks then folds. I wonder whether he had a set, 2 pair, I think a set calls but he folds. Action is back to me and with all the information and deep stacks decide to fold. It isn't an easy decision but a) I didn't want to be dead for my whole stack b) North Korean behind me who is tight c) I am out of position and feel that Kidwell will fire another bullet on the turn. I basically put him on J 10 or QJ of clubs. A made nut flush (A high) would just call or build a pot in Kidwell's spot. His bet is either a super sick bluff or a mid range flush.

After the hand Kidwell takes down, I get to talking. North Korean says, 'Of course I had the A of Clubs what do you think I had!?'. I find this guy gets really irritated by little things and I may use it to test him later. The guy to my right says he has the K of Clubs. This makes me feel like I made the right decision when Kidwell says, 'I wanted to make the Ace of clubs pay' which translated means I had the King high flush (which I think is not true) as the player to my right said he had the K. All this makes me feel like a made the right fold as Kidwell is telling a half truth i.e. he did not have the nuts or k-high but probably did have a q- high or jack high flush.

Later, In a multi way limped pot I hold 7h 8h on the button and the flop comes 7 7 9. An early position and straight forward weak tight player bets half the pot and I raise. Turn k, player lifts his cards to show Kidwell and Kidwell gives a stunned/bemused look to me. I take this as the guy has nothing or a monster. Guy bets the turn about half pot again. Ok, I call thinking that this guy is going to bet the river again and I have him crushed or he has me crushed. On the river he bets again, I think about raising but just call $100 on the river total pot about 450 now. He flips K 7 for a full house and I am glad I didn't get it in there. I was very close to but was put off by a few things.

Towards the end of the night I am 5 buy ins up and am ready to leave. A top pair any kicker guy tries to bluff a guy who is sitting there with quad aces by betting 350 into a 150 pot on the river. Two days later I run into the same guy and decide to play a medium strength hand agressively.

Mid position raises to $15 and there are 6 callers and I call in the bb with 66. The quad bluffer is on the button and the flop comes 9 5 4 with a diamond flush draw. Before the hand a fun/solid Scottish guy tells me not to give away his game by saying that he is limping with a small pair to try and flop a set. When the flop comes I saw wow, nice flop for a small pair. My end of the table hears this, the other end doesn't. Checks around to the button who is the guy who I know likes to steal/bluff quads. I check raise for my 200 and Scottish guy folds his flush and two over cards J 10 diamonds and the guy on the button calls with his flush draw. I double and move to a 100NL table where a guy guy greets me with his foul odour. I decided to move to this table as a Chinese guy called Kenny has 800 in front of him and he loves to give me his money.

I am seriously 10 from 10 against this guy and he knows it. Kenny raises $7 UTG and gets 6 callers. I have 4s 4c in the cut off and flop comes out 2 3 5 spades. I flop a straight flush draw and a pair. Kenny checks as does everyone, I bet $30 into $35 and Kenny calls, sweet:) I love playing pots with Kenny! Turn is a K of diamonds and he is capable of calling with over cards. I put him on something like AK with one spade so obviously this card could put him in front. Kenny checks, I decide to check to trap and take my free card because if he has the K of spades and the Ace drops I have the nuts (straight flush) and also the K could have him in front anyway. The river is an Ace (non spade) still however a brilliant card as Kenny bets $35 and I move in for $135 with my straight and he calls. Kenny mucks.

Again with comb over Kenny, I raise 10 UTG and Kenny calls in the SB, BB decides to do me a favour and raise to 25 (thank you), I re-raise, Kenny moves in with AQ diamonds and BB decides to fold after raising. My Kings hold up and I am on a 12 and 0 run with Kenny. He decides to take a meal break and says he can never get me, he is nice about it and I ask if he is coming back to which he doesn't answer.

Kenny returns, same night. Kenny limps, tight guy raises to $7, I sense some weakness and raise on button to $24. Kenny is all for limp calling large raises and the tight straight forward raiser calls (he rarely traps so calling means he doesn't have a monster). They both check the flop which is 4 9 9 with two hearts. In this hand I happen to have 8 4 off. I bet 40 and Kenny calls (have I mentioned how I love Kenny?) K-man has about 70 behind and once again he checks the turn. The turn is a 3 non heart, which is great as I think Kenny has a flush draw. I move in for $70, he calls, I ask if he has a 4 he says, 'no, I have a flush and 2 overs KQ hearts.' River comes a black 8, and I reflect upon how badly he played this hand. If he check raised my flop bet with his strong hand, I would have had to of folded with my weak 4. I am continuation betting frequently as well.

Tip for Kenny, play stronger, raise instead of limping, stop limping and then calling and play more in position against weak players. He complains how he never gets there and against me he is unlucky. I empathise with the K-man re-itterating how strong KQ of hearts is on that flop. He tops up and decides to sit right next to me.

My last sentence has so much potential. However, it was getting late and the table breaks. I decide to take my $500 and rest up.

Earlier that night I attended a Co-Op Programs Alumni meeting at UWS Parramatta. The event was a networking and information night. The topic was graduate employment. The speaker was Ben Reeves who is the Chief Executive of the Australian Association of Graduate Emplyers Ltd.

The talk was interesting and I got to meet up with some amazing people. Ania Aquino from ABS-CBN (Filipino news channel) who conducted an news item about my ANZPT Sydney adventures was there as well as Kathryn Collins who works at Deloitte. Kathryn went to London for her Co Op international program at the same time as I went to The Philippines to do my marketing project for World Scouts. I also met a guy from junior bowls who is now an engineer.

We played an ice breaker game that helped us to meet new people (not that I need such a game). Amro Said helped to dress Kathryn for our mock job interview. I felt he did a great job of explaning how 'check-out' chick Kathryn solved a difficult situation during Christmas eve when her cash register went on the blink. It is a shame however that he did not demonstrate his/her skills by backing up his performance by singing a Christmas carol.

Back to bowls. I recently went out to Dubbo for the Master Pairs with Ian McRae from Valentine BC. He has a great place up in Newcastle on the lake which he is renovating. He has been so kind as to let me stay when I have played for Valentine in the XXXX Challenge competition. His lovely partner Gai is his greatest supporter. I see Ian and Gai all over the state at various bowls tournaments and will hopefully catch up with them at Park Beach, Coffs Harbour for the Ford Open Singles tournament. Last year I was defeated in the Quarter Finals by Steve Glasson who went on to play local hero John Bain in the final and win the title.

Recently the Port Singles was completed and Shannon Gittoes won the title. This is the first time in a few years I have missed this event due to study commitments. David Holt gave it a shake as did Rocky Stone and I am looking forward to the Master Pairs tournament at Westport Bowling Club. I will be leading it up for Andrew Waddell our club coach at Club Merrylands who is in the final of the Major Pairs at the Club. Huge 66k prize pool, one time Ducky:)

At the Dubbo Master pairs I ended up playing against Bruce Anderson (bowler from Westport) in the afternoon bowls game, he convinced me to stay and play the APL $10 rebuy poker tournament. I have to thank Bruce for his entertaining company on the greens and on the poker table. I ended up winning the tournament for $700. When we got to the final 4 I decided not to chop as I had the chip lead and play in these high blind situations so often. Good decision. I met the sponsored APL guy there Bazza88 who I had recognised online as there are very few players from Dubbo. Super nice guy and great player.

Interestingly this week, I played on SNG tables online with Bazza88. I mostly see him playing tournaments online. I met him whilst in Dubbo for the Prestige Pairs Bowls tournament. I pushed in the small blind with J10 and he called in BB with aces. On another table 5 mins later he pushed with J10 and I had aces!!! We happened to register for $16 18 man SNG's on mutiple tables simultaneously. I would prefer not to play on tables that he plays. Table selection is an important element of profitability in the long run.

Cheers,
The Mac

Zone 10 Junior Bowls Academy

The last Sunday of every month Zone 10 hold a training day for Junior bowlers in our Zone. Yesterday morning I headed to Rydalmere Central to coach. We had 14 juniors and we paired up and ran through some drills using our new training aids. Next camp I will take some pics.

Anne Jones is the head coach with myself, Dennis Harmer and other Zone 10 members lending there expertise. We have a video guy, and several other coaches who are keen to be involved. It is a great day where the kids from all the different zones get together and run through some of the drills and activities we do at State and National level.

I try to incorporate much of what we do at the NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) camps into the Zone 10 Academy. We do some distraction training and get the juniors into good pre shot routines so they can re-focus when distracted. We also get the juniors communicating with each other contructively within the drills and throughout the sessions.

Last week I had a 3 day training camp at NSWIS with a few new faces and new staff members. The weather was a bit crazy but we were able to get through the drills, fitness testing and even played some poker in the athletes lounge during a break:)

ANZPT Event 1

I went to Star City to play some cash games and realised that Event 1 of the ANZPT was running and there were no cash games on. I met with a few friends and decided to enter it as a good warm up for the Main Event next week. I qualified online for the Sydney ANZPT event a month ago.

Third hand into the tournament I picked up KK, I thought that the young Asian guy to my right had folded and made it 200. Simultanously though he limped for 50. The dealer corrected me and made me only call. So we see a flop with the blinds completing with trash and my KK up against 3 other hands. Flop A J 10, checks to me, I make it 150. The small blind check raises me and i'm not sure whether he noticed the dealer making me only limp in. The big blind calls and i am out. However, at show down the monkey had check raised me with j7 and the bb had called with a gut shot q8. I figured this was strange and hoped that the whold field of 400 played in this wierd fashion.

My table got broken up and I moved to a table where I doubled up early from 5k to 10k. Utg raised 3x btn called I was in Sb 89dd and bb completed. Flop 9h9c7c, I checked, he c-bet 700, i made it 2200, he moved in, snap call, he had qq.

I then lost 5k in bllind Vs blind. sb completes, i check 8s2c off. Flop 3h4h8c. He checks, i bet 500 into 600, he min raises me. At this point I have been sus of this guy chasing draws beyond odds and think my tp bvb is strong, likely best but decide to flat and assess turn, turn 5s. He leads 1200, I call. River qc he bets 1500 i call pretty quickly thinking he may have missed flush, he turns over 34 (flopped bottom 2 pair). I think I should have raised his limp.

I Got lucky once to split a pot when I was low. 4.5 bb everyone folds, I ship 96 off on btn, bb turns 99 oh dear. Elliot says i folded 69, great! I call for 785. Flop comes A 10 10, turn K, river A!!! chop it up:)Then moved in 4-5 times, no callers to get back to 10k. I then won a nice 5k pot on level 9 blind Vs blind with 56.

We finished for day 1 and I had 15k, the chip leader 98k and only 89 remaining. Top 40 to be paid. I drove into Star City at midday Friday hoping I would double early and not have to leave within 30 mins of arriving. 4 hands in I did get in a race with my 99 Vs Ak and lost.