Triumph & Disaster

Treat both of these imposter's as one and the same. The college football hero and the failed entrepreneur can be affected by similar falsehoods. One haunted by past perceived failures and the other held back by past alleged heroics. Our perception and recollection of past events, relationships and memories can impact on expected future outcomes. Choose your own adventure. We need to focus on the process and learn from our prior experiences without setting limits on our potential based on these past 'triumphs and disasters.'

What we perceive our reality to be now and what may happen in the future is a function of what we believe and the thoughts that dominate our minds eye now. It can be true that our self image is built upon some past experiences and experiments, but why do we let such past events be our crux?

I was told a story of a CEO who could not read or write. This was not in the 1930's. This CEO consoled in a single cab driver and not another person this private information only very recently. It has only been over the last 2 years, now at age 65, that he did learn to read and write. He had his assistants read memo's and type letters and reply to emails. I imagine he did this whilst looking busy at his desk with 'reading' glasses on his nose.

One of the most interesting people I met in the last week was the cab driver that told the story of this CEO to me whilst travelling from Sydney airport. He spoke vividly of how he still has dreams recollecting an earthquake in South Eastern New Zealand around 20 years ago that he had experienced. His parents main reason for moving to Christchurch after the first earthquake was because they believed or was told that Christchurch was an earthquake free zone. How things can shift.

He vividly described how initially there was little warning, only a tremor. Then 15 seconds later the World was shaking and there was no escape. Nowhere to hide and a sense of helplessness due to the inability to do anything and lack of control. There was nothing to do about the situation. He described the sound of an earthquake to be, 'like a freight train coming at you.' He later went on to say that he is going over to New Zealand to be with his family that has been affected by the recent earthquake in Christchurch.

I think we can feel like we are caught in an earthquake at times, trapped in our emotions and conscious thoughts of dramatic past events. We become prisoners of our self imposed beliefs and those imposed on us by others. We can believe that we are in an 'earthquake free zone' yet frequently tremors reappear or visions of such disasters reoccur. They then can become our reality. How things can remain.

Peking Duck Attracts Much Interest

After a month of solid volume, I shipped 6 figures in a live tournament in Adelaide. I lost two flips after doing a deal three handed. After the deal my AK lost to 10's and my AQ got re-shipped on by KJ and a King flopped. Heads up I had 20-30 bbs, but Octavian was too good and was a deserved champion. This backs up his 200k + score in the SCOOP and last years ANZPT final table 3rd place finish after getting it in with 96% equity. A special mention goes to Ian Parnell for a really well deserved run. He played exceptionally and I couldn't be happier for Ian.

By far this is my best tournament result. I was happy with my composure throughout the whole tournament. Having a lot of chips can put some people on a lesser known form of tilt. I stuck to my game plan and adjusted as necessary. I researched players the night before when tables where drawn. I tried to get a feel for how each person would react to the money jumps and if possible hands that they had played and had been reported in other live and online tournaments.

My preparation was excellent. I put in good volume over January. I won a satellite into the Aussie Millions 1st go. I played some high stakes 25-50 PLO in the Mahogany at Crown, felt comfortable but lost some. January was break even after winning a couple of mtt's online. I had to direct buy in through the Pokerstars client for Adelaide ANZPT and I stayed with friends who won packages which included Intercontinental accommodation.

Once I had the chip lead I stuck to a routine. I rested. I had breakfast by the pool and went for a massage before the start of each days play. I had never been so relaxed before a final table. I reviewed hands with my peers. I asked for advice going into the next day and integrated what was said into my view of how the game was being played. It was a big disadvantage having Octavian to my direct left on the final table, however the way the table was, we were both able to navigate without too many big clashes. I by no means played perfectly and was learning and adjusting as the tournament progressed.

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.