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.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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.
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.
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