2010 and into the New Year

“Depp said, ‘Hey, man, I found this thing, this island!’
Brando said, ‘Well, what’s the elevation?
Do you have a water system there?
What about the electricity?’

I have had a pretty exciting year and want to wrap up what has gone down. I am looking forward to continuing to develop, mature and grow as a person in 2011. Electric is the feeling that most describes this year for me. There were certain moments when I felt an inaudible jolt of electricity fill a room and a clap of lightening strike down simultaneously at key moments on otherwise fine and sunny days. I feel I really lived this year.

A few live achievements I am most happy with, being a relative newcomer to live tournaments
ANZPT Sydney T. Hachem bounty event in Sydney 2nd place 12.6k, APPT Cebu deep stack 3rd place, APPT Cebu bounty 1st. Online stuff here http://www.pocketfives.com/profiles/onthemac/

I was able to go to Australia and New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) events in Canberra, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Queenstown and also Asia Pacific Poker Tour events in Cebu (The Philippines) and then Sydney this month for the grand final.

I moved into multi table tournaments online from just sit and go's online in 2009. I Made twice as much as last year online in half the time. I received coaching and developed a great network of friends and players from around Australia which I am greatly appreciative of and humbled by their knowledge and achievements.

I skipped the number 1 pennants in bowls and played the majority of the premier league season. I played masters (not old but majors winners) tournaments in Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour as well as a few other Sydney tournaments.

Next year I want to work on my deep cash game skills
Play all ANZPT and APPT main events
Graduate
Maintain fitness and health
Continue to balance work and life
Get a reliable phone with long battery life
Try some yoga, work on mental skills
Go to more live concerts
Get over Ikea
Continue to travel and make more money

Longer term I want to buy an island Branson style or Depp style.

Home Ground Advantage

A few weeks before the main event I qualified for the APPT Sydney which is a 6.3k buy in event through Pokerstars by winning a $530 freeze out. I was hesitant to try to enter the event because it is a pretty big buy in and obviously the quality of player and the amount of money spent to satellite in might be high as well. I won some hyper turbo's into the $530 sat and entered a tournament where there were 24 runners and it was winner takes all with a few places getting there money back.

The night before the main I won a 3x turbo for the same event and was super pumped and felt like I was free rolling for sats and the main. I also sold about 37.5% of my action which is re-rolled into my normal bankroll. I won a bit in cash games and was feeling more comfortable than before. 1st in the event was close to half a million and Jono Karamilakis won it. I finished about 60th after 300+ entered.

I was sitting 13th/60 when I got it in with top 2 pair A Q 10 flop Vs probably the guy I wanted to target but he happened to have the nuts and I didn't improve to a full house. I feel I played really strongly throughout the tournament. All my decisions were clear and well thought out. I made some variations versus different opponents that I was very happy with. I have a wide range of influences on my game and I listen to all sound advice and think through different lines that people put forward. My background is a mix of cash, tournament PLO and NLHE as well as specific bubble skills allow me to flex my game to certain unique situations. This one I feel was reasonably unavoidable.

A unique opportunity has come up in the past week. I have the opportunity to go to the Aussie Millions in January down in Melbourne. I am going to satellite online for ANZPT Adelaide but live sat for the 10k Aussie Millions with half my action taken by an investor. Marketing opportunities and investment money may be shot into me to really give me a clear line at having a six figure roll to make some decent in roads and become a player in bigger games that I only wish I could play now. I appreciate vision and hard work and am willing to put in the volume, sacrifice and consistent improvement to become better at what I do.

Many people don't really understand what poker players do. I guess at one level I shouldn't worry about what people perceive to be the practice, as surely we all have different approaches to the game. Many people do simply gamble and are degenerate in the process. Others are more methodical and work strategically, others take mathematical and psychological approaches to the game. Still others take a trial and error approach. Mostly the game is fun and it involves money and decisions. The way in which people accumulate chips in tournament poker varies and has a lot to do with their general or individual philosophy for winning. Tournament poker is about accumulating all the chips, cash games are about getting all the money, but how we do this? Well we all take different paths.

Cebu Tho

I had a great trip to the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) in Cebu, The Philippines. This is the place where my mum was born and we still have family there. I have been previously to Cebu but this time it was in the luxury of the 5 star Shangri-La resort. I was lucky enough to win a 5k package courtesy of Pokerstars.

When I arrived at the airport transfers were smooth and at the reception fresh mango juice was presented to me as I checked in. My room was great and had an amazing view of the ocean. There were a myriad of pools in the resort each with a bar and one even had a basketball hoop. There were a wide variety of eating options and plenty of vouchers given to us for discounts. The Pokerstars pack for this event was better than any I have received before with headphones, universal power convertors and the best branded clothing, hoody, hats and t-shirts.

The first event I played was the main and things were going smoothly until Andy Hin was moved to my table. There was a lot of action between players and then Danny Silk (SilkysNuts) on Pokerstars was moved to Andy's left, so a bit of a dynamic developed and we managed to get it in 3 way All-In-Pre-Flop with Andy having the best of it with the King-King in the small blind Vs my Ten-Ten on the button and Danny Silks' Ace and the Queen in the big blind. Needless to say he held and won a decent pot and went reasonably deep (finished 24th I believe).

So I moved on and got reasonably plastered at the welcome party on the white sand beach. Manila Light beer (the sponsors provided free beer all week) and red wine was provided as well as copious amounts of food including my favourite 'Lechon'. This fine food is otherwise known as spit roasted pig and it was delicious. We chilled on the beach and met some people from the Metro Card Club who were running the cash games. Fireworks went off as the pro's welcomed us to the event, Lyn Gilmartin from PokerNews brought upon me the unwelcome comparison to Van Marcus, sigh, or at least to me being his little brother. I drank some more and got snapped in some special snaps on the beach. Watto even made a surprise appearance courtesy of Rennie putting up the fundage to go, mbn. Was super happy and surprised to see him there!

The next day around midday I online registered for a live side event called the bounty event, we started with 5k stacks and I managed to go deep and felt super comfortable. It was a 469usd buy in with 51 runners, we got to the final table and top 7 were getting paid I managed to pick up some hands and ko some people. We got to four handed and another guy busted out and the big stack was drunk German (Mrs-Nurse) on Pokerstars and another tight but aggressive guy who I had played in cash games earlier. I had 15bbs and Mrs-Nurse had 25bbs and TAG guy had 20bigs, so we did an even chop and won about 4k usd which was credited direct into my account!

I then played some cash games and won a little. Then Ran my 20k pesos (469AUD approx.) into close to 80k over 2 days
then we are playing 100-200-400 (2-5-10) NL and I have 60k stack and agro local guy who is a prop player for the Metro card club in Manila opens the button with Q 3 offsuit to like 1800, I make it 5400 with black KK and he flats, I C-bet the Qc Jc 2d flop like 8800, he flats, and turn is an off-suit 7 and I continue with 21500 and he gets the rest in and binks an offsuit 3 on the river, gg pesos.

The night before this hand we went for dinner to Cowrie Cove, which was part of the resort and had seafood and amazing views. It was with all the reg's, we had a meeting about how to neg each other out more then flipped for the 1200usd bill, no jokes we are all nits, dinner included Mishella, Tollgate, Benton, Steel, Weygang, Jack-O-Vich, et.al. really was an all star line up! All the WAG's got us to stop talking about poker for about 5 mins then we proceeded to congratulate Rennie on his 5th birthday and Toll on his $100 win on some site called Party.

After dinner I went to my room and looked up fbook pics of Jackovich, then inspired dodged, ducked and weaved my way through a 250 strong $109 turbo line up to fail for 2nd and 3.7k after running teh 10 and the 10, into the Ace and the Ace, 30 bb's deep after pwning 3-4-5 handed.

Undeterred, I woke up in the morning and thought what a life, looked up pics of intimad8r32 (under favourites) and thought I am going to nit up real hard and ship something today, registered for another side event called the 'deepstack' in Cebu's Pokerstars circus tent side eventaments (right by the crystal clear ocean) and proceeded to crush through that field too. I made a couple of bad plays Vs John Malkouf (Lugisjente) on Pokerstars but was fortunate enough to survive and got moved tables and doubled when I reshipped QJcc vs 1010 and won, then 3 bet a lot and got heaps of folds as we were down to 18 entrants, then I lost a couple of flips where I opened speculators to steal and made odds based calls and blanked, then jammed 67dd got a call from Connie Lau in the bb and out flopped her AK off. The final table bubble lasted forever as each player took 10 minutes to decide what to do with 910 suited with 13bbs and the deepstack turned into a hyper turbo with all FT members having less than 15 bigs.

I decided 7 get paid and I am gong to aggress on the bubble. I got a few folds then jammed 7 9 and got call by Greame 'Kiwi' Putt's QQ, which I managed to crack on a 9 8 5 flop, rivered the 6 and had like 30 bb's, every1 else had 15 or less so next hand I look at KQcc and jam it run into AK and loss to a Japanese girl. I still have chips and look at 44 and jam get called and win. We get 3 handed and I am surviving with 11-15bbs, I jam a2 spades on the button and get a call from kj off, flop is blank one spade, then turn is a spade giving her only 4 outs and an off suit K drops on the river, good game me, 3rd for 3.7k.

All in all it was a pretty amazing trip, not much more to say other than I will be back.

KQ Off

Recently I have been to Queenstown and finished 20th just short of the money. I tripled up 3rd hand of the tournament so it was a tournament where it is was fun to be me and I was able open up a bit and play plenty of pots and put peoples stack under pressure, Unfortunately for me I picked on the wrong person just shy of the money. Through the mid-stages I had a guy to my left who exploited how often I was opening but mostly I had my way.

Since Queenstown I went up to the Gold Coast for Queensland ANZPT where we stayed in a nice house with Carlo Graziano, Ash Cartwright, Brendon 'Brendooor' Rubie and Aaron Benton. While staying there I learnt a few things and put them to use in my game. I busted out at the end of day 1. I probably made a mistake early folding out QQ on the first level when a Euro guy check raised me all in on the turn, but I thought there may be better spots later as the ANZPT tournament structures are soooo good and some players are so so.

Next stop is Melbourne next week for the ANZPT. First of all I have to transfer a few things to my new place in Neutral Bay. It isn't at all expensive considering its location and size. It is next door to the Neutral Bay Club which has tennis courts and bowling greens. I am going to join up as a member. I want to do some bowls coaching and also get some coaching. I also want to put plenty of hours in online grinding MTT's during Spring/Summer. The place is really well located, 5 minutes from the City.

In bowls Premier League has started and the Merrylands Magic team have won 4/5. With only 10 games in the regular season this puts us in a good position. In bowls tournaments I have played in the master pairs with Neil Burkett where we just went down in the quarter finals by 1 shot. I also played in the Coffs Master pairs with Neil where we lost by 1 shot in the semi final. In the Lotto Cup triples I played with Zel Trbara and Dave Holt in which we finished 4th.

Today I finished 8th in separate 6 max tournaments on Pokerstars, one was a $77 and the other an $11 rebuy. The first had 350 entrants and the 2nd had 1000. I jammed A7 hearts with (12 bbs 4 handed) with 8 left and was called by my favourite bust/neg me out hand KQ off, I flopped an ace turned a flush draw and he still managed to hit his gut shot, first in that tournament was 5k. 8th was 6 hundo, he finished 2nd, I am not bitter.

This reminds me of a 1k tournament I played a few weeks ago at Star City. It was a part of the Sydney Champs and there were only 56 runners. They decided to pay the final table (last 6). I am sitting 5th of 8 and there are 4 of us with even stacks and we are split into 2 tables playing 4 handed. I have 23 bbs and I have Toothpick Tony to my right, this man is famous around these parts as he plays everything, and nothing particularly well. The guy even had a giant poster celebrating him up on the wall of the poker room in New South Wales' only casino, no it was a full flown banner when they first started promoting the ANZPT!

So he opens his standard 4x and gets flatted by the chip leader who has been owning him in position with what I feel is well and truly is any two cards. I look down at AJ and think it is well ahead of both their ranges and I think if called I will even get called off by hands that I dominate. So anyway Toothpick (Tony K) Kambrialagiushorrendous looks down at his KQ off and says yeah this is the hand I am going to make a stand with. The other guy folds after Tony K calls, I cringe and hope I win this flip as I will be 2nd or 3rd in chips, 8th gets nothing, 6th gets 4k, 1st gets 20k....

You know the story, anyway I have been running bad the last week, and still have made money, just feel like I seriously should have made 10x more. Feel free to ask me any retarded questions.

QT!

Wednesday July 21
12:15pm ANZPT Queenstown No Limit Holdem Main Event Day 1A AUD$2,500 (2,250+250)

I qualified on Pokerstars through a 3x turbo rebuy the other day! I am so keen to go snowboarding. I have been to Christchurch, Auckland and been on a few road trips but never to Queenstown.

Looks like I will be able to play at Ballina Wintersun Singles which is on the 17th & 18th of July then off to Queenstown via Auckland for the 21st.

A Story of Seconds (Part1)

As I get ready for my final exams and a couple of bowls trips up to Ballina and Coffs Harbour it is my ‘so-close’ finishes that I reflect on more so than my victories. I try to learn the lessons of my defeats and draw positives from how I got to be in those finals situations in the first place.

Winning is important to me and I have won a few things in my time, but by far the most interesting story I can tell is of my second place finishes. Of course I desperately wanted to finish in first place. Sometimes this just does not happen as my opposition has an equal or some may say greater will to win on the day. It may be the rub of the green or the change of wind direction in the air, but in the end they were too good and played in a way that I could not match or overcome them.

Dac Cameron (former Bowls Co-ordinator and now Chairman of Ballina Bowling Club said to me over the phone yesterday, ‘It doesn’t matter, people still talk about that final and say how great it was’ in reference to my second place finish to Brian Baldwin (Queensland State Singles champion and Club Secretary of Musgrave Hill Bowling Club) in 2007.

In this particular final I got off to a flyer. I will link the newspaper article at the end. Aptly it is entitled ‘Brian Bowls Over Ballina’ it is a great article and it captures my lack of cognition that the final was 31 up rather than the previous 25 up format. I thought I had lost the game when Brian had got to 25, I shook his hand and said, ‘well played, too good’. He looked at me strangely as if I was having him on. Steve Glasson was marking and assured me it was indeed first to 31...Christmas had come early! I had a second chance!

Just as a background to the above, my manager at the time NSWIS coach Geoff Campbell had clearly told me at the start of the game it was 31 up (first to score 31 shots). At the beginning of the game I knew this but I had gotten into such a state of focus and flow that I forgot about the score and went on a rampage early amassing a ten shot lead (15-4). The game then got a bit epic as the green slowed and Brian toughened up, I played a few in-between shots and drives culminating in dropped shots, then it got to about 20-19 against. By this stage I was fighting hard to adjust my feel to that of a firm passing draw as bowls were not rolling on as they had earlier in the afternoon sunlight.

http://www.finda.com.au/features/2007/07/30/apn-brian-bowls-over/

Canberra Can Be Fun (Road Trip)

(cold, then warm, then cold, then hot), spontaneous adventures...race track somewhere...tailgating and breaking...Astra racing...

After the fight night last week I had my last class of uni for the semester. I have been on a few adventures since, mostly unexpected ones. I guess it all started when a girl from the night was able to get my details after I somewhat absentmindedly failed to get any of her details before leaving (slaps forehead). My life is crazy at the moment and I feel like some character in a play that is so ignorant and stupid sometimes but lucky in that things work out when really they shouldn't.

The ANZPT is in Canberra this weekend. It is a $2200 buy-in event and I am making use of my Step 6 ticket that I won on Pokerstars in January whilst down in Melbourne during the Aussie Millions for cash games. I sold 30% of my action in 10% bundles and I capped it at that with my buddies. I so greatly want to win over 100k in a single tournament now. At the start of the year my goal was to win 100k in poker and that is still very achievable.

I have one exam on the 24th of June. I then head to Coffs for bowls tournaments 4th-14th of July. I have an option to not play the pairs in Coffs with Neil so I can spend extra time in Germany. I have to get my dates together for Germany. Skype will be getting a workout.

I Must Be Dreaming

The past month has exceeded my expectations in many ways. I work towards goals and opportunities and they become a reality. This month many amazing things have come to fruition and it is still surprising when they actually happen.

Jousting

I went to a Jabout fight night and it was stellar. They had Muay Thia and Shoot Boxing and both were great to watch. There were amazing athletes and warriors performing. The females fought with passion and heart and then the guys displayed raw power and tenacity that was astounding. We sat ringside and you could hear and almost feel the impact of the kicks and punches.

I decided to go straight home so that I could go and support the pennant teams early the next day. There were pretty amazing girls all around at the event, on our table and between the fight rounds. I am sure that all had a great time out tonight at the after party. I am staying focussed at the moment and working real hard in training physically and reading plenty of books to keep sharp mentally. It is hard to say but at times I am introverted and other times extroverted. I guess it just depends on what is important to me at the time.

Quick Update

Semi Finals of Port Macquarie Avum Singles $1500
Lost one pennant game to Wentworthville Leagues in season play-offs to miss out on state play-offs.
Cash games have been running and I am winning, lost biggest pot last night but still made profit for the session (2.7k pot, 3 way PLO all in, got rivered after having 35% equity and flopping top two, 50% to win on flop, 75% on turn). Up about 8k live and down $800 online in last 2 weeks.
Making plans for Coffs Harbour bowls tournaments, Park Beach Ford Open Singles and Coffs Master pairs with Niel Burkett.

The inches we need are all around us

Tony Hachem Bounty Event 5 ANZPT Sydney

Latest Score;
12.6k
2nd to
Michael Levy
273 runners

I played well early but nursed a medium stack through the middle stages of the tournament. I remained patient and when we got down to the last 60 I could have easily thrown away my chips but kept it together. A table change triggered an opportunity as I jammed and was not called almost 10 times. As the bubble burst I was the shortest stack with 11k after my A9 lost to KJ with 30 left.

My table changed and I jammed 4 times and was not called. The 5th all-in I had QQ and the guy folded pocket 10's (apparently/he said), the 6th all-in (re-ship) against the same guy I got it in with AK Vs AQ. Winning this put me upto 110k in chips. From then on with 18 left I ran hot and managed to reach the final table with over 200k in chips. More on the final table in the next post.

At the tournament I met Brad Bower 'Baza88'(Dubbo)and'Eee Tee'(Wellington) http://www.eeeteekid.com both online multi table tournament players that I really respect.

I have been doing very well in cash games before and after the tournament. The Omaha games have been getting big and No Limit is always pretty sweet. I want to go on a holiday soon to either the Philippines or Vegas. I did some shopping the other day and bought some new clothes and went for a massage. We are getting a new car replacing my brothers 69' Valiant and my Astra. Uni is almost over.

We are undefeated in our bowls competition. I was leaning towards a Taylor Bowls sponsorship but now with David Holt at Henselite I definitely think he is someone who looks after his players and whom I have had a long-standing bowls/business relationship with.

We have Mr Neil Burkett as our new club coach. He is well respected and played over 500 games for South Africa. He is probably the perfect person for the role.

At Club Merrylands we claw with our fingernails for that inch.

God Mode

Some people insist on calling it luck. People wait for change when they should actively be creating new avenues of possibility. Today I caught myself thinking negatively about a situation which could have cost me 30 more minutes on public transport over a 30 cent discrepency.

The cashier had run out of change and instead of worrying or fuming about the situation I quickly ran for the train as I felt waiting would cost me more than 30 cents. I was able to snap out of the mode I was in during the morning as I was hit by 3 or 4 instances where I had just missed or the timing wasn't right for buses, taxis and other plans for travel. I made the express train just in time.

I had realised or percieved that I was not flowing through life in my normal state. Some people call it God mode. You know these people in life for whom things seem to work out for. These people are not gifted something in life other than a positive attitude and a will to make it happen.

I see seemless transitions during my day as the norm not the exception. I was really challenged after a night on the tables where I would rate the result as avarage despite getting my money in as a 75% favourite 3 times and losing a few hundred. We can let past events in our life over shadow some future endeavours. I think we can shape the future by setting realistic goals for real life transformations.

On Saturday in bowls after being 15-1 down against our round 5 opponents we managed to claw back to a 20-19 lead with 8 ends to play. We continued on our winning way extending the length of the ends and our lead to win by 15 shots on our rink. Our whole team is hoping to win as many rinks as possible throughout the Pennant season.

We found a way to win. We changed our strategy. We never lost our focus, we believed in ourselves and the team. I think by having a team working together and believeing in one another it pushes us all individually to work harder. We really didn't want to let the team down and we were pretty confident of an overall victory. This enabled us to take tactical risks which payed off. We scored 33 shots to our opponents 2 over the last 10 ends.

Pennant Update

After our first round win against Northmead we were promptly advised by the Sydney North West Zone 10 organisation that we would be stripped of our 6 points and that they would be given to Northmead. This was due to an error in player transfer form processing.

Needless to say we are undefeated after 4 rounds and are sitting close to the top of the table despite losing our first round points. We have only lost one rink in 4 games and our side has pulled together and knows the job we have to do.

When You Want Something You Have Never Had You Must Do What You Have Never Done

This idea struck me as a way to instigate change. I think we need to learn the lessons from our past and move forward. I generally believe that if you are successful in one area, some of the skills in your first area of success are transferable to future projects. New specialised learning and mentoring from experts in the new field is also required. There are just some things you can not teach yourself!

"Hearts a Mess" Goyte

Pick apart
The pieces of your heart
And let me peer inside
Let me in
Where only your thoughts have been
Let me occupy your mind
As you do mine

You have lost
(Too much love)
To fear, doubt and distrust
(It’s not enough)
You just threw away the key
(To your heart)

You don’t get burned
(’Cause nothing gets through)
It makes it easier
(Easier on you)
But that much more difficult for me
To make you see…

Love ain’t fair
So there you are
My love

Your heart’s a mess
You won’t admit to it
It makes no sense
But I’m desperate to connect
And you, you can’t live like this

Your heart’s a mess
You won’t admit to it
It makes no sense
But I’m desperate to connect
And you, you can’t live like this

Your heart’s a mess
You won’t admit to it
It makes no sense
But I’m desperate to connect
And you, you can’t live like this

Love ain’t safe
You won’t get hurt if you stay chaste
So you can wait
But I don’t wanna waste my love

Non Poker Ramblings (ok there is still some poker)

I am pretty bored with my writing about poker. I have other interesting things that go on in my life too:) I think I may start rambling on about other fun and interesting topics. Let's see how many poker references follow.

The bowls pennant season has started and I am skipping a rink. We had a convincing round one win against Northmead. We have pretty cool new pennant shirts as well (great material and styling).
We were all very happy with our 6-0 victory. I feel like I have been waiting so long for this opportunity and it has finally arrived. It is great to be a part of this team. I put down approxiamately 500 bowls in preparation this week. They were delivered in 4 quality sessions with team mates. We practiced and drilled hard and had one person setting up game scenarios and calling shots. It really gave me the confidence to call tough shots in the game that I had seen my third nail dozens of times in training and vice versa.

It was like all our birthday's had come at once!

It seems like all my mates birthday's are happening at once. This means many big nights out. One particular night we went out to Manly on Valentine's weekend. Our accomodation was less than stellar, as the demand for accomodation that weekend was high, but we all managed and didn't really spend too much time in our room anyway. The birthday boy was so sick he had to be driven home immediately after a game of bowls in the morning and I had to get the ferry and train home!

We meet some pretty cool people on our night out. There were the horse trainers and the CSU CSI people. I mostly just chilled whilst everyone got right on it! We had some good food and the drinks kept flowing! It is my birthday soon, and everyone seems to be doing pretty well so I am expecting some pretty awesome presents from all!

One of our teammates has booked next weekend for Manly again and I might as well book it for the following weekend as well! Manly or Darling Harbour...I think we might go out in the city for my birthday instead of Manly for a change. It will be easier for poker friends to join in on the celebrations. I don't want those guys
to miss out. We have all worked really hard together to improve our games and any gains I make are in no small part due to our collaboration through discussions, calculations and hand history revisions. I don't think you can discount the generally aura awesomeness transfer either! It seems like when someone goes well it spurs everyone on.

Europa

I didn't manage to get over this Summer. I still really want to go to Europe. Etihad have some great return tickets to Germany. The airfare is less than 2k return, I have plans to travel there in May. Ship me my club incentive payments please. I'd like to
not have to take out any money from my poker bankroll as it is building steadily.

Melbourne Aussie Millions Trip

It is great to play cash games during any big buy in tournament series. The Aussie Millions at Crown was no different, thousands of people from around the World came down under to be a part of the action. We only decided to go down to Melbourne a few days prior.

The Monday before our trip Ryan McKay 'iChipd' on Pokerstars came 8th out of 8885 entrants in the Sunday Millions for around 20k USD. This is certainly a great effort and a big start to the year. He is one of the members of our newly formed 'Team MTG' which is mostly made up of former Magic the Gathering players who have morphed into highly profitable Multi Table Grinders online. For more information see www.ashtoncartwright.com.

After Ryan's win I suggested we go down and play cash games and tournaments. He was definitely keen and I had one bowls trip to go enter before leaving. I travelled to Raymond Terrace in Newcastle to play in an NSWIS team for the weekend. We managed to finish in 1st place for 1k each. That afternoon we got back to Sydney and I didn't waste any time flying out that night with Ryan to Melbourne.

We have great group of friends in Melbourne. They are mostly poker players but a few are into various sports. We had some great nights out and I was a bit more balanced in my approach this time around and only played poker every second day. Last trip I made fantastic money. This trip I was up modestly live and breakeven online except for a step 6 ticket which I won which is worth a live tournament buy in of 2100USD. I will probably offer people percentages of this and play the ANZPT in Sydney again.

There were 2 big pots that went against me, one I played badly and won the minimum (actually there were a few) and some where I feel I adjusted badly to live play. Playing live is mostly more passive, I feel I needed to play more aggresively with my high potential hands; I like the way I played this one despite losing the pot in a 3 way all in on the flop.

... (
... (
Villian 1 ($515) AcAs
Hero (MP) ($965) Kh9h
Villian 2 ($550) Jc10s
CO ($1461)
Button ($650)
SB (
BB (

It was full ring 2-5NL but I can't remember all of the exact stack amounts, I just remember thinking these guys are playing terribly post flop I need to play any two cards (haha)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Kh 9h

1 fold, 1 limp, 1 limp, Hero calls, 1 call, Button calls $5, SB calls, BB checks,

Flop: ($50) Jh, 9c, 5h (2 players, 1 all-in)

Villian 1 bets $50, Hero makes it $150, Villian 2 raises to $550 (All-in)

Villian 1 tanks and says he is worried about me and calls $515 (All-in)

Hero calls $550

Turn: ($1635) 6c (3 players all-in)

River: ($1635) 2s (3 players all-in)

Villian 1 had limped in with black Aces and wins the pot.

and Villian 2 had J10 off suit

So aces held and I had great equity in the pot. If I was up against a set and the nut flush draw then it would have been horrible but I had basically ruled out the nut flush draw. I really thought the guy behind me was stronger than J10, it seems to me to be really a terrible move. The call by aces well, if you are going to limp pre flop hoping to re-raise but everyone calls and then there is significant flop action...I would suggest folding.

The guy with aces was a top guy and did actually think for a bit before calling his stack off. I have a have a hand for the next entry that I play poorly where he is sitting in the same position and he makes the same bet in the flop where I have a set.

Against 2 hands (J-10 and K-9) his hand is a dog, most likely 30% as he was here but more than likely less than 20%. It is like dry aces in Omaha.

My hand was just under 50% to win and slightly less if someone had a re-draw to a full house with a set. 50% to triple up, all day.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 112538

Raymond Terrace

There is a fours tournament in Raymond Terrace this weekend. I will be playing in an NSWIS team with Dave Ferguson, Carl Healey, Jesse Noronha and myself. It should be a good bowls tournament.

Dave and Carl will be fresh from a training camp in New Zealand preparing for the upcoming Trans Tasman. I'm sure we will go well. Geoff Campbell will be our team coach/ manager/ chef/ driver/ pilot & relationship expert.

If Only

After a pretty good start to December in online poker I decided to go pretty hard over Christmas. I figured the play over Christmas would be easier with an influx of recreational holiday players. Over a 10 day period I went on a massive heater on Pokerstars and made about 3k basically in $10-$50 buy ins.

Around this time I went for the 2nd time to Star City's new poker room. In the first hour I went up 4 buy ins. I would basically just have it and everyone would bet into me, for example the first hand with my friend sitting next to me.

I have A5 diamonds on the button with several limpers 40 big blind game. Flop is A 2 5 rainbow, top two pair not too bad. Big blind bets 25 into 30, I call, turn is a 10, he bets 70, I call in position, and I am basically getting it in on the the river but he basically beats me into the pot when the ace comes on the river for another 100 which I call and win.

A few hands later I flop the nuts with 76 suited hearts on a 543 board with two diamonds. It is pretty obvious the guy has a 10's > AK suited hand as he had been pretty inactive and raised it up pre, he watched the flop keenly and was pretty pleased with the low flop. I felt he had a 10-JJ type hand. Also if someone has a set I want to get it in or a diamond flush draw with over cards. I lead into the pot for 40, he quickly makes it 200, I roll over my hand, he says he is dead so another buy in.

Next I have k6 of diamonds on the button I flop a straight draw 543 flop with one diamond, call a flop bet with 3 others. The turn brings a diamond so I have the second nut flush with a straight draw. The river brings my flush in with the A of diamonds, so it is backdoor, the nuts, in position and I have a guy still betting into me, I didn't say I wan't blessed. Another buyin.

This is about where my run ends, really wish I went home after this as I have a series of near misses and breakeven for hours.

If I played incorrectly I would have made 7k on the 2-500 table. For example; We start playing 6 handed instead of the usual 9 handed. I love 6 handed Vs less guys as I get to play more hands in position and just more hands in general compared to full ring 9 handed.

One guy at our table had just won the tournament that night for 10k and was now playing cash and down about 3k. Another guy was calling everything including re-raises, out of no where, with anything, out of position, so even with just these two at the table it was great. The tournament player was over playing hands and getting it in pre with ak on a non aggressive 6 handed table for 100 big blinds.

One particular hand he squeezed me out of a huge win, I was a bit annoyed with his over play as it winds up costing me at least 1200 by making me fold when he re-opens the betting to a re-raise by Aces on the button. The solid button guy re-raises the 'any two' early position raiser. Normally with QQ I would re-raise this here but with both of us sitting on 1200 I don't want to be getting it in pre, I feel he is decently strong, he hasn't gotten out of line and I am out of position Vs probably the other strongest player at the table. He does have a weakness however, in that he overplays Aces and Kings for 300 bb's as we will see later.

However in this hand where I flat 40 in the sb, the big blind re raise to 140 with AK, button makes it 500, I fold my QQ and AK calls. Flop comes Q 3 5, blank blank, Aces win. I would have surely stacked aces here with my QQ...especially since a similar situation comes up within 30 minutes.

I have 66 in the small blind. UTG raises, Any two guy calls, tight solid button guy, star of previous example raises to 100, now I have 1200 in stack still so 12 to 1 to set mine, not quite enough considering the following.

Two guys behind me including under the gun raiser who is the tournament guy. He is in for 6 buy ins. He doesn't like to slow down and could completely re-raise the pot again. Also 20-1 is better or 5% of my stack to set mine. I am out of position.

However, tournament guy instead of re-raising, just guy flat calls 100 and so does the any two guy. There is just under 400 in the pot when the flop comes out (first card 6 xx) at this point I am a bit annoyed as I made the right decision but wished that I played like a crazy person who doesn't like money, because I would have been raking it in. So the action goes check, check, and the button bets 500! 500 into 400, over pair anyone, not folding ever anyone, I get the noose ready for the second time in an hour...One of the supervisors watching the table saw my QQ hand and my 66 hand, he should have comp'd me a room to do David Carridine.