With Celina back in Australia I was alone in Milwaukee with nothing but time on my hands and minimal interest in going out partying with my friends since I wouldn’t try to pick up. As a result I spent the vast majority of my time playing tournaments online and posting heavily in MTT strategy on 2+2. Thanks to the entire campus having wireless internet even when I was in class I often found a seat in the back row and fired up a few tables or zoned out posting online.

When December rolled around Celina and I discussed how we would find a place to live together. I was banned from Australia and she couldn’t come back to the US as the immigration department had removed her visa waiver program instead of trying to help us find a legal way to get her into the country (thanks cocksuckers!) As a result, we decided that we’d go live in an apartment Celina’s mother owned in Shanghai China while we worked through an Australian lawyer to get me back into the country. I left Milwaukee at the end of December 2006 and that was the last I saw of many of my long term friends and much of my family. I’ve had the chance to stop over for a couple very brief visits since, but unfortunately there was never enough time for everyone.

When I arrived Celina and her uncle and aunt picked me up from the airport and took us on a 90 minute drive out to the apartment. As it turns out the apartment was way out of the city, to the point that down the road was a farm. It was actually a pretty nice apartment, despite the building itself looking fairly shoddy. We were so far out that when I went outside people would freeze and just gawk at me as they hadn’t seen a white person that far out in years. People would often walk up curiously and say “Hello!” then sort of run off amused.

I didn’t speak a word of Chinese and knew nobody in the country except Celina and was unable to get around myself since I knew where nothing was. As a result most of my life was contained to the apartment grinding tournaments online and doing everything I could to learn tournament poker. About once a week we’d go into the center of the city and go to dinner or a movie or meet up with her family. The closest thing I ever had to a friend for those six months was Celina’s cousin who spoke rather broken English and I had nothing in common with. Living in China was a strange but educational and eye opening experience. Things were extremely cheap when you did the conversion to USD and when I went out I was able to live like a king. I remember I once took Celina to one of the best French restaurants in town on this park lake in one of the fanciest parts of town. We had numerous courses, beer, wine, dessert and the whole thing for two of us came to $50 USD and the food quality was as good as anywhere in the US. I remember one strange experience where at the Korean BBQ place we often went to I was given a choice between two sizes of bottle of beer; a regular or large. Celina asked what the price difference was and the response was “none.” I don’t get it to this day. People would stare at me everywhere and constantly, no matter how obvious it was. The people in Shanghai are pretty rude and competitive until they’re introduced to you, at which point they become excessively polite and nice. I remember when we went to renew my visa we had to take a government official with us in the car on the insistence of the Chinese who were trying to curb bribery in such situations.

Around January or February 2007 I became quite good friends with Adam Junglen online and because I had (and have) considerable respect for his game I asked him to coach me. He gave me a very reasonable hourly rate and we went to work on fixing my leaks and spent considerable time discussing strategy on Skype. Adam was really the one who imparted the fundamentals and advanced strategy of tournament poker to me, teaching me about things like stack sizes, position, and ranges on a depth that I’d never come close to previously perceiving. Around that time I final tabled my first Sunday major, the Full Tilt 300k (which has become the 750k.) I finished fourth for about $24,000, by far the largest online score of my life. Over the following months Adam and I spent a lot of time improving on my game and in May of 2007 I spoke to Timex online and told him that I was going to the WSOP and if he was interested in backing me my action was available. Because I knew little of backing at the time I was expecting that if he said yes it’d be for just a few events, but when he and Steve Paul-Ambrose agreed they told me they wanted me in as many events as possible. It’s obvious to me now why they insisted on that, but at the time I was pretty floored.

Also in May our lawyers informed us that the Australian government had approved Celina as my relationship sponsor to get me back into Australia and that after the WSOP I would have no problems reentering the country. We left Shanghai in late May to hang out with friends in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia for a little while, which I can tell you is a very cool city worth visiting. In early June I headed off to Vegas for the WSOP again, this time having to leave Celina behind because she wasn’t able to enter the country. When I got to Vegas Steve and Sirwatts got a hold of me and asked if they could crash in my hotel room for a night or two. It was my first time meeting anyone off of 2+2 (except for a very brief hello to Nath in 2006.)

The 2007 WSOP marked the first time I thought to write trip reports for each event after having seen numerous other posters put interesting ones up. They were never proof read or edited, but because I tried to mix in humor and goings on outside of the poker the trip reports wound up proving rather popular and essentially provided me the motivation to continue writing permanently. I really ought to go back and make sure I get all of them saved onto my tworags blog, as they still persist in the archives of 2+2. From a financial stand point though, the 2007 WSOP was a disaster. I lost Timex/Steve over $60,000 and only cashed four of the 30 events I played. I made one final table at the Bellagio during their Bellagio Cup preliminaries but near instantly lost a flip for most of my stack and busted in eighth not long after. Overall I ran pretty horrendous throughout the summer (as was chronicled in the trip reports) though it’s clear now that I also had massive leaks at the time.

Following the WSOP I went back to Australia without any visa problem. Celina had gotten us an apartment in St. Kilda, about 10 minutes outside the central business district, where I still live today. I started grinding heavily online with a roll that was hanging around ~$60,000. I began working six or seven days a week, roughly seven to 10 hours every day. I got post flop coaching from NoahSD and spent an enormous amount of time on Skype with Luckychewy and with their combined knowledge of cash play my game steadily improved. I started blogging consistently and as well as writing articles be they on strategy or satire on the poker world. Most of all though I just kept grinding my ass off.

In late 2008 Celina and I traveled to Macau after both winning our way into the tournament on Stars. Celina wound up running deep in the main event and finishing 24th and making enough of an impression that it jet started her sponsorship career with PokerStars. They first sponsored her into the APPT final in Sydney which we both attended and busted fairly early in.

The 2008 Aussie Millions came and went without any major result. I managed to go from first in chips with ten left in the $1000 rebuy to finishing tenth, and although most recall that as some sort of epic blow up it was the result of two hands; the first where I shoved over a SB raise in the BB with Q3s 20 BB’s effective and the BB spent a minute swearing and debating before calling with JJ, and then two orbits later shoving my last 20 BB’s over the same SB’s raise while in the BB holding TT and getting snapped by KK. By the end of the Aussie Millions I was comfortably over $100,000 USD in make up and had a reputation as a blow up artist in live tournaments.

I spent all of the first few months of 2008 grinding very heavily online and making a considerable amount of money as a result. In February of 2008 I cemented my idea for ‘Around the World in 90 Days’ after having kicked it around in my head for a while. I approached numerous poker sites and poker reporting sites with the idea, my first real interaction with the business side of the poker world. Full Tilt eventually responded that they were quite interested in the blog idea and after a phone meeting where I stated on the subject of payment “I let my agent Kyle do all the asshole negotiating for me” it was agreed upon that I would sell my blog to them for 90 days but with the conditions that I couldn’t write about drug use, other poker sites, or overt sexual content and that they had last say in editing.

Up until leaving on the trip on May 1st 2008 I spent my entire life grinding and studying, except a week or so leading up to the trip which I took off to “Get high and play video games” as I stated in an interview on the upcoming trip. At this point I had grinded my roll online up to around $200,000. Celina and I left Melbourne for Venice on the 1st of May and spent a month in Europe playing tournaments across the continent. I came within 10 places of the money in all four major tournaments I played, finishing on the exact bubble in the last one, WPT Barcelona, which plunged me into around $140,000 in make up.

After Europe I made my way to Vegas for the WSOP and Bellagio Cup in very late May. I blanked out my first 10 events but then started making progress. I final tabled a $2,000 deep stacked event at the Bellagio and made a deal that gave me far above equity for a score of $24,000. Not long after I final tabled the $3,000 WSOP event and finished eighth for $54,000. Then as the WSOP was drawing to a close I wound up finally running good live and winning a $3,000 Bellagio Cup preliminary event for $193,000 though $25,000 was taken out to force me to play in the 2009 WPT Championship. The score came with a gold Bellagio bracelet which I gave to Celina and enough money to totally eradicate my make up.

The WSOP main event came and went without serious incident, and leading up to the Bellagio Cup main Sirwatts and I agreed to swap five percent, which was outside my staking arrangement with Timex as I was swapping five of the 40% that belongs to me in each tournament (though it is accurate that were I in make up and made a score for less than all my make up when I had swapped I would owe money out.) As most know, Mike ‘Sirwatts’ Watson went on to win the Bellagio Cup IV main event for $1.67 million USD, and I received over $83,000 as a result. Unfortunately there’s no epic stories from that night, we simply got a limo and went to get Korean BBQ at 3am then went to sleep because we had to wake up at 11am the next day to check out of our Vegas house.

After Vegas Celina and I went off to Macau for the Macau Poker Cup for what was the last stop on around the world trip before heading home to Melbourne. Celina got second there for her first five figure US score. By the end of the trip I had fallen considerably behind in the writing, as I realized juggling the responsibilities of playing, having a social life, managing a relationship, and trying to find the time to write several pages each night became too much to manage. When we arrived back in Melbourne I began playing online leading up to the Victorian Poker Championships and had written up through day 99 in the series. Throughout the trip I had heard whispers that Full Tilt was considering sponsoring me if I won anything during the writing of the blog. Before that could materialize I managed to shoot myself in the foot and ruin any chance of a deal.

During the FTOPS that came on previous to the Vic Champs I entered the first event, a $200 no limit hold’em event. The event caused my computer to freeze and crash and made Full Tilt unplayable for most of the day, costing me around $1000 in lost entries. I posted on 2+2 to find out if anyone else was having problems with the FTOPS and several replied that they were having the same problem, resulting in my raging in the thread at the incompetence of Full Tilt promoting a massive tournament series that their site couldn’t even support for all the players and that we should demand our money back in the tournaments that we got blinded out of. My superiors at Tilt saw the thread and asked me to please stop bashing them in it, which I did, but the damage to my business prospects with them was clearly done. At least a bunch of my 2+2’er friends got some money back after considerable back and forth with Full Tilt support.

After the Vic champs finished and leading up to the APPT event in Korea Kyle approached Full Tilt about the possibility of bringing me on as a red pro. They responded that they would be happy to have me continue writing for them but were not interested in my being a pro for them. At the same time Stars offered me a free seat to APPT Korea so Kyle sent Tilt off one last email saying that Stars had expressed interest in sponsoring me for the Korean event and that I’d be working with them if Tilt didn’t want to go the sponsorship route. Tilt’s response was close to a 180 of their previous one and they said they could see how I would fit in and they’d talk to higher ups and get back to me within a week. I discussed the situation with my contact over at Stars who advised me that it likely wouldn’t be smart to show up in Korea wearing a Stars patch while Tilt was considering sponsoring me. I was happy to sit that live tournament out considering how tired I was from all the travel, so Celina went off while I stayed home to grind and awaited Tilt’s response.

The grinding went well but the response never came. Even a month later Tilt had never sent any response, not even so much as a “Thanks but no thanks.” I took it as there way of saying ‘get fucked’ for having shot my mouth off. Around this time things started really falling apart with Celina, and when we went to New Zealand together in October we ran into numerous problems. New Zealand also marked the first poker seminar I took part in with Lee Nelson, Joe Hachem, Dennis Waterman, and Tyson Streib. Lee organized them and had asked me to partake in teaching after reading my strategy articles and the review I had done for his ‘Kill Everyone’ tournament strategy book.

When we returned from our trip things with Celina continued dissolving and my response was to spend even more time grinding, compounding the problem. When she left for APPT Philippines we discussed the idea of it being ‘a break’ and she left on uncertain terms. At home I began making plans for a massive prop bet against Stevo and whoever would take us on as a team of two to see who could do better by grinding enormous volume in November. On the second of November I spoke to Celina and she informed me she didn’t want to be a couple anymore. I asked the guys in the bet if they wouldn’t mind letting me out and since there was only three guys to check it with who were all friends, they agreed to let me out and do it some other time. I wasn’t devastated by the break up in the traditional spend all day crying and hiding inside my house sense, but I had completely lost my desire to grind.

I decided to take a vacation to Hawaii leading up to APPT Sydney and in mid November went up there to visit Lee Nelson’s son Cade who I’d met and really clicked with in New Zealand. We spent two weeks chasing girls on the beach and watching me get horrendously drunk at night and writhe around on his floor between stints of intense vomiting and demanding we go for Korean BBQ at 3am. By the end of all that I felt much better. At some point during my trip I messaged the guy who’d been my contact point at Tilt and told him good luck in everything he does in the future since it appears we won’t be working together anymore. He was confused as he’d thought I was going to continue writing for them, and when I explained the situation he told me he’d look into it though I’d assumed our dealings were over a long time ago. A few days later he got back to me that they were in fact not interested in any business regarding sponsorship as I’d expected, though it was certainly charming of them to inform me with such priority.

I left Hawaii for Sydney in early December where I did another seminar and played a couple of events between going out and hitting on anything that moved and pouring alcohol all over myself after bribing my way on stage.

Upon returning to Melbourne I took an easier approach to grinding and wound up taking many days off to enjoy the summer and immediately get back into the dating game. I spent most of my summer grilling and smoking pot with people on my porch and playing sport during the day. I met a girl I started seeing regularly and after the Aussie Millions was over heavily reduced the amount of time I went out partying. I made one final table in the Aussie Millions, the $1000 rebuys which I’d finished 10th in the previous year, and improved upon it by one in getting ninth this year after running KK into AA on the final table then losing 99 to 55 on a 876 flop the very next hand all after having shown up 30 minutes late thanks to some kind of freak accident.

Shortly after the Aussie Millions a group of us headed off to the very first ANZPT event in Adelaide where after a drama filled weekend I wound up finishing second when a disastrous club hit to fill the flush draw of my opponent for 95% of the chips in play. Again I had erased the make up I had worked up (this time more like $50,000) and upon returning to Melbourne returned to the online game.

Now I sit at my computer on the 1st of March after completing a day of grinding. My life mostly consists of working out and grinding for the moment, though that will all change when I go traveling again on April 11th on the trip that will be known as ‘Around the World in 150 Days’.

For some reason I’m off the charts motivated lately. I’ve gotten considerable organizational work done on the book and written a chapter and a half myself, I’m putting in nice volume grinding/making videos and I’m working out constantly. I thought I’d write up what my current living schedule looks like:

5:45am: Wake up, immediately urinate, register for all my tournaments; I will sit out the first half hour of two of them. Do not eat but drink a glass of water. Put on clothes and go either running in Albert Park or to the gym on my block. In the event I go to Albert Park I’ll spend five minutes stretching and roughly 30 minutes running. If I go to the gym I’ll spend five minutes on a warm up run, five minutes stretching then ~20 minutes working a boxing bag followed by ~25 minutes on a bike cranked up to eighth level of 10.

6:50am: Return home. Shower quickly and begin playing poker while in my towel, debate closing my blinds but decide they get what they pay for, spend the next hour grinding in the towel.

7:30am: Locate a protein bar, some fruits, cashews, and skim milk and devour them for breakfast.

8:00am: Attempt to locate clean underwear; sometimes succeed. Either way I’ve got pants on by 8:10 and I’m not free balling.

8:10am: Fire up ‘The Daily Show’ on comedycentral.com before I have too many tables up, feel nostalgic for college watching it.

9:15am: My last registered tournament goes off here most days, though in the case of Sunday and Monday (Australia that is) registration will go for considerably longer.

~12:00pm: Attempt to locate food. Often grill something or simply use fruits and nuts to hold myself over if I’m expecting an earlier finish to my day.

~1pm to 5pm: Finish grinding for the day. For most of the week I expect to finish around 2:30pm. Spend roughly 10 minutes getting out of conversations online then immediately go to the gym. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday I start with five minutes of a warm up run, five minutes of stretching, then roughly 45 minutes of fairly intense weight lifting followed by a 20 minute ride on the bike at level eight. On Thursday and Saturday it is either the run in the park work out or the boxing work out, depending on which I did not do that morning.

~4:00pm: Around this time most days I walk to Subway and purchase anywhere between six and 18 inches of Sub that contains bread, roasted chicken, lettuce, cucumber, capsicum and carrot. It has no sauce or salt and pepper, that’s for damn sure. I eat six inches of it on the street and people watch the insanity that is Carlisle street pass me by (last week I saw a guy slap a woman, slap a guy, then storm off; I believe it was some form of family incident, I was given the transvestites number there, I saw a bare-chested old man cross the street with a massive bottle of open booze he was swilling and it's home of the female barista who gives me the strangest attitude no matter how mundane what I say is and the old woman in the kitchen who demands 50% of my next poker score.)

~5:00pm: Attempt to find something social to do or work on the book. I either have friends over to hang out, get high, and play Madden or invite the girl I’m seeing over. The other day we went to Stevo_L’s new house to establish the new hang out place. It was Stevo’s 23rd birthday and the beds were moved into the $5,000,000 home he’s renting which contains the newly bought $4000 super grill, the mammoth $10,000 new TV, the brand new $7000 computer that Stevo selected by “Just maxing out everything I could get on it and said that’s what I’m buying.” It was not so much a birthday party as an announcement to the world of balladom. Congratulations on all your success Stevo, you coke addicted bastard (and not the powder kind.)

~7:00pm: Return home if I have been out; walking through the front entrance and waving hello to the Persian girl who works at the front then smugly assume she wants me. Smoke a small joint to help me sleep. Sometimes attempt to write a blog entry despite inebriation that will come off either highly self indulging/self deprecating depending on the sense of humor of the reader. Eat the dinner I’ve either left for myself in the fridge or fire up the grill outside and cook meat and mushrooms. Watch Arrested Development or a movie throughout dinner. At some point I will pause it, go to the bathroom, brush, floss, and mouthwash thoroughly then take a piss so I don’t wake up having to do it thanks to my useless fucking bladder. Turn the TV towards the bed and continue watching something until roughly 9:00pm.

9:00pm: Attempt to sleep.

9:00-10:30pm: Sometimes succeed.

I apologize for having gotten so lazy about finishing up this post. I wish I had a more appropriate excuse but no, I’ve just been a lazy fuck lately when it comes to writing. So without further delay, let’s get into it:

1. Aussie Millions $2200 AUD 6 max “preliminary” event. Start bank 10,000.
Villain is roughly 35 and Aussie. He's been on table about 15 minutes, not really aggro or really nity, but seems like a sort of random standard live player. Haven't seen him play post flop much, we haven't been involved yet. He's min raised numerous times pre flop before.

I've been fairly card dead since his arrival and haven't been very involved. I lost most of my stack in small medium pots leading up to that.

My stack: ~5500
CO: ~6000
Button: ~20,000
Blinds 75/150. I hold A T in the BB.

Preflop: Folds to the CO, CO raises to 300, button calls, SB folds, I call.

Flop: 5 A 5 (Pot 975)
I check, CO thinks breifly and checks, button bets 1000, I call, CO thinks a bit again and calls.

Turn: T (Pot 3975)
I check, CO shoves for 4800, button folds, I?

Results: I thought it over for quite a while and figured a lot of his range would be an ace with a good club and that it would be dumb to open jam a good flush and since he raised preflop I don’t think there were too many low clubs in his range. I made the call and he showed me KcQc and I felt like the dumb one. That’s how live players roll though. I posted the hand on 2+2 and although numerous players agreed with my read many others said we should fold, most of their logic being “It’s live.” That’s not bad logic in these spots.

2. Auckland high rollers event. It got 2 tables and was a buy in of roughly $6000 USD. Most players are good.

Villain in this hand is mid-high stakes online cash player Josh Egan. Not sure what his online name is. We haven't played before but we've chatted and we're both aware that the other is a good thinking player. We haven't been too involved yet as it's pretty early.

My stack: ~20,000
Josh: ~20,000
Blinds 100/200. I hold Q Q on an 8 handed table on the HJ.

Preflop: UTG calls, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, I raise to 1025, CO folds, button folds, SB folds, BB calls, UTG calls, MP2 calls.

Flop: 2 8 9 (Pot 4200)
Three checks to me, I bet 2600, folds back to Josh in the BB, Josh calls.

Turn: 6 (Pot 9400)
Josh leads 4500, hero?
If you continue what's your plan depending on the river?

Results: I really felt like a lot of his range was draws and that if he had something big like a set or two pair he’d be checkraising the flop. I made the call on the turn unsure what my plan was on the river if it bricked off but intending to fold if it was a club. The river was a brick and Josh tanked for quite a while then checked. I checked behind and he showed AcJc.

3. Aussie Millions $1100 Turbo event prelim (okay technically post lim but w/e.) The blinds aren't turbo, it simply means players have 20 seconds to make their decision.

I'm at a fairly new table. On the first hand two players in MP limped for 150 to me on the button. I raised to 750 and when it folded back to the second limper he limp reraises to 3500 and i folded (we were about 7k effective.) He then showed 22. That's my only history with him, and the rest of the time at the table he's played fairly normal and accumulated well. He's a youngish guy, i'd guess mid 20's, and while I'm not sure I think he might be Euro, but I have no idea what kind.

The BB in this hand is a huge mega donk station that does a TON of calling. I would imagine the probable Euro is aware of this having played with him for a while. Giant station.

My stack: ~8k
CO: ~ 15k
BB: ~12k

Blinds 100/200. I hold T 9 on the button.

Preflop: Folds to MP1, MP1 limps for 200, folds to CO, CO limps, I limp on the button, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: K T 9 (Pot 1000)
Checks around to me, I bet 800, SB folds, BB calls, MP1 folds, CO quickly calls.

Turn: 3 (Pot 3400)
BB checks, CO checks, I bet 2100, BB calls, CO calls.

River: 7 (Pot 9700)
BB checks, CO leads 6500, hero?

Results: I folded the river as did the BB. Although very little makes sense in his value betting range, very little makes sense in his bluff range as well. I figured especially with his knowing what a huge donk the BB was he probably wasn’t going to try and bluff us both. We’ll never know. The consensus on 2+2 when I posted the hand was that the river fold is fine but I need to bet the turn bigger.

4. Sydney APPT Grand Final High rollers event, 15k AUD buy in (about 10k USD.) 37 entrants with 6 paying. We're quite a few hours into the action but the structure is very slow so we're all quite deep. I've recently moved tables and wound up on the right of Chad Brown. I've developed a pretty aggressive image since sitting down and have open raised many pots. No major history between us two, I think he might have folded to a C bet in one hand, maybe raised another in a different one.

My stack: ~73,000
Chad: ~50,000
Blinds: 250/500 with 50 ante. I hold 4 4 on the CO.

Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 1400, Chad calls, both blinds fold.

Flop: Q 4 2 (Pot 3950)
I bet 2000, Chad raises to 6000, Hero raises to 16000, Chad calls.

Turn: 6 (Pot 35,950)
Hero thinks briefly then shoves,

Prefer any other route of getting value here?
Results: When I posted the hand there was a debate between whether betting 16k or shoving the turn was better. Opinions seemed roughly split. Either way Chad folded on the turn.
5. APPT Grand Final High rollers event (15k AUD, bout 10k USD.)

Open raiser is Jarred Graham aka Try_an_Hit on 2+2
Button is online cash player Andrew Pantling. I'm told he wins at mid-high cash online over a large sample, and plays and speaks in a manner that suggests that to be accurate.

Jarred has been quite aggressive with open raises and I've been 3 betting him often. Andrew is also quite aggressive but one thing I've noticed is he tends to call reraises considerably more wide than tournament players, though the hands I've seen that in are nearly entirely in heads up pots.

My stack: ~36,000
Jarred: ~80,000
Andrew: ~90,000
Blinds 300/600 with 75 ante. I hold J J on the CO.

Preflop: Folds to Jarred on the HJ, Jarred raises to 1600, I reraise to 4600, Andrew thinks for a while then flat call, both blinds fold, Jarred folds.

Flop: 3 9 5 (Pot 12300)
Hero?

Results: I think this was the toughest spot of the five. When I got to the flop I really though the decision was between check/fold and check-raise all in. Check/call feels awkward to me particularly since I’ll have invested ball park 40% of my stack once we reach the turn. I don’t like bet/folding because he can show up with hearts that semi bluff and may sometimes have a under pair that winds up bluffing me out if he elects to shove the flop. What I really needed to think over was whether Andrew really flats too wide pre flop to the reraises. I decided from his play he probably was flatting a bit too wide and check shoved over his roughly 8k bet. He tanked for quite a while then made the call with 88 and I held to get back in the tournament.

I’ve essentially never experienced writer’s block before. Every article and blog entry I’ve ever written with the exception of ‘Around the World in 90 Days’ was something I did on my own time and on my own pace, and it always flowed out naturally and easily. Although I fell behind in the writing of the around the world blog that was not so much due to any writers block (as after all, I was simply recording what happened to me on a daily basis) but merely lacking the time to complete it. Things have been different lately though.

Since returning from Adelaide I’ve put in little actual volume playing. Last week I decided to start changing my sleep schedule around to play the late night/early morning Euro tournaments. Between the hours of 5pm and 5am Melbourne time there is very little in the way of online tournament action, and for the better part of the last week those are mostly he hours I’ve been up. I told myself I’d spend serious time writing the book during those hours, but for some reason every time I sit down and try to get to it I just wind up staring at my screen for a while, writing a few sentences, blanking out, then wasting time doing something else be it chatting online, reading, watching porn, watching comedy central, putting on a movie, or getting baked. I’ve even got a list of topics worked up and yet when I try to go to work on one, nothing comes out.

On the plus side, I have made considerable strides in the organization of the book and assigning topics to my coauthors. At this point I have about 20 guys who have signed on to contribute something, which takes a considerable load of the actual writing responsibility off my shoulders (though I obviously still need to do a ton myself.) After coming up with the list of topics I showed it to each of them and in many cases made a request or recommendation on what they’d write about, which most have agreed with me on.

Outside of that most of my life lately has been dominated by working out. It seems to be the one thing I have real motivation to do, and I’ve been doing it for about 90 minutes a day. In the case of today I showed up to the gym at 7:30pm, warmed up with a 5 minute run, then lifted weights for an hour, then hopped on a bike and went as fast as I could for 20 minutes until they kicked me out a little before 9pm. Now it’s 2:40am and I’m thinking about going for a run in the park before I start playing poker at 7am.

I also got around to sending in my application for the volunteer work in Kenya and talking to the flight agency about the around the world ticket. As it turns out I’ll only be able to do about three weeks in Africa as the schedule is pretty tight. Also, because of the way the ticket works I’ll be stopping off in London for a few days before I head down to Nairobi so if anyone in London wants to hang out in July and show me around that’d be cool. One very sweet part about all of this is that it turns out I’ll be able to fly business class for nearly all my flights and it will only cost about $7,000 USD for the whole thing (yes I know that sounds incorrect, I double checked too.) Now all I need to do is buy a new laptop and an extra battery for all those long flights and I’ll be good to go.

February 6th: I’m stirred awake at 11:30am by the alarm on my cell phone. I feel fairly good considering the events of last night. The airlines had delivered our baggage yesterday, so after a shower I throw on a suit and make my way to the same café for a small morning breakfast. It turns out Stevo left yesterday nearly immediately after busting and Alex and Joel already slipped out, so I have breakfast alone and debate whether I too should go home after inevitably busting my short stack.

When I get to the poker room I find my seat at a table that’s line up includes both roommates Alex and Joel as well as Tony Hachem. In the early goings I raise 88 in late position and Joel calls out of the BB. The flop comes 248 with a flush draw and when he checks I continuation bet. He folds and I tell him “As if Joel Dodds would ever do anything on that flop but check fold…or maybe I just had top set.” The first hour of play is uneventful and card dead for me and it’s not until the second hour that I get involved in a major pot:
My stack: ~19,000, MP2: ~100k, blinds 800/1600 with 200 ante. I hold 7c7h on the CO.
Preflop: Folds to MP2, MP2 raises to 4000, HJ folds, I move all in for 19,200, folds back to MP2. MP2 is a young guy from Canada named Elliot who got third in the Aussie Millions and after running the math makes the call and tables QsTs.
Flop: Kh 7s 9s
The door card is the 7s only to reveal the next two cards giving him an enormous amount of outs. I roll my eyes at what appears to be the deck taunting me.
Turn: 4d
Really? Could I fade this?
River: 6h
Wow, that I was not expecting. I stack up my new chips and start chatting to Elliot who seems like a really cool and down to earth guy.

A few orbits later the blinds have gone up to 1000/2000 and I call a 14k shove from Ben Delaney with A6o in the BB and he tables 55. The board runs out A 5 3 Q 4 and I’m knocked back to about 28,000. A few hands later I shove my stack over a raiser and take it down preflop, then get involved in a larger pot:
My stack: ~35,000, MP1: ~120,000, blinds 1000/2000 with 300 ante. I hold AcKd UTG+1.
Preflop: UTG calls 2000, I raise to 8000, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls, three folds, the SB calls, BB calls, UTG calls. Jesus can’t somebody just shove for me?
Flop: Kc 6c 4h
Fair enough. SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, and I decide to do something unusual and check as well (I wouldn’t do this without the Ac.) MP1 bets 15,000, it folds back to me and I move all in for 26,000 total. MP1 thinks it over then makes the call and tables AdTd. Um, what?
Turn: Kh
River: 6c
Suddenly I’ve gone from one of the short stacks to one of the larger ones on the table, as I nearly tripled up in that hand.

Just a few hands later I find AK again on the button and the HJ open shoves for 12,000. I make the call and he tables A2 which promptly flops a 2 that holds up, putting me back around 78,000.

An orbit or so later a new player is moved to the table on the direct left of Tony Hachem. As the player sets his chips down he’s dealt his cards and puts his hand on them while standing up. At this moment Tony Hachem raises to 4500 and the player being moved looks at his cards while standing up and then raises it to 20,000 while in the process of sitting down but technically not in his seat yet. This sets off Tony who starts demanding that the other players hand be called dead because he was not in his seat. There is moderate argument between him and the dealer before the floor is called over. The moved player, Tony, and the dealer all explain their sides of what happened in what order. Tony’s description of events involve considerable colorful language. The tournament director thinks things over then rules that the hand is still live because the player was being moved.
“That’s fucking ridiculous!!” fumes Tony.
“EVERY FUCKING TIME IN THIS CASINO! THESE FUCKING DEALERS HAVE NO CLUE, LAST YEAR THE DEALER TOLD A PLAYER TO CALL MY BET AND YET AGAIN THIS YEAR THEY FUCK UP AND HE’S JUST TRYING TO COVER HIS ASS!”
The dealer remains quiet and motionless, unsure how to react to the verbal bombardment.
“TONY! LANGUAGE!” reprimands the tournament director.
“FUCKING RIDICULOUS!” he repeats. “I don’t agree with the ruling, bring over Danny McDonough!”
Danny quickly hurries over to the table and yet again the events of the hand are rehashed. Throughout the telling the player who has reraised Tony tells him that he’s happy to show him his cards after the hand. Tony tells him it’s not his fault and continues to assign blame to the dealer. Danny considers the story and tells Tony that he is not the tournament director for this tournament and therefore the tournament directors ruling on the situation is the one that stands. Tony remains sitting arms crossed in his chair swearing and leaving his cards in front of him, in play. God knows how long the whole saga has taken at this point. Eventually Elliot, who is seating two seats to Tony’s left, pipes up and says “Okay, I’ve got to call the clock here.”
“OH WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GETTING INVOLVED FOR!?” explodes Tony.
“You’re not even in the hand mate! Shut up before I put one on your chin and knock you back to Canada!” he threatens.
Tony is, by my guess, 5’9” and 160 pounds in his early thirties. Elliot appears to be around 6’5” and an athletic looking 225 and 21 years old. He’s a giant fucking dude. Elliot keeps his cool though, and tells Tony something like “I need to play poker here man.”

Tony remains motionless in his chair fuming for another moment or so. The clock has been officially called and after counting down most of his seconds Tony angrily mucks his hand. The player who reraised him shows him 88. Just a couple hands later Tony is given further cause for infuriation:
My stack: ~85,000, Tony Hachem: ~75,000, blinds 1000/2000 with a 300 ante. I hold K8o in the BB.
Preflop: Folds to Tony in MP1, Tony calls for 2000, MP2 folds, the HJ calls, folds to the SB, SB completes, I check in the BB
Flop: Kd Kc 8h
Ding ding ding! The SB checks and because there’s no flush draw and live players give up too easily I decide to check as well. Tony bets 4000, the HJ calls, SB folds, I call. I’m not sure about my flop line here, but I feel like if I lead or checkraise I’ll get snap folds much too often, and considering Tony is fuming from the ruling he just got I want to give him as many opportunities to bluff as possible.
Turn: 3d
Everyone checks.
River: Jd
I bet 14,000, Tony quickly calls, the HJ folds. Tony instantly turns over his Ad7d and I show him my full house and compliment him on not getting stacked. After the hand he decides to take a walk and is absent from the table for a round or so.

After things settle down my friend Dave Ewing gets moved to the table, who was one of the guys around the girl I’m seeing last night. I ask him how she was for the rest of the night and he tells me they had to order her food to keep her from raging and ranting at them and that she kept them up for hours. I apologize to him several times and thank him for looking out for her. Then I ask if he tried to reason with her, which he assures me he and many others did.
“Man, how bad is it that the girl I’m seeing gets super pissed and ends it with me and you’re the one who winds up losing sleep and consoling her for hours while I get stoned with my friends and play video games?” We both crack up at the absurdity.

Not long after our conversation she comes downstairs with Julian to say goodbye to Dave before they head back to Melbourne. She’s wearing enormous sunglasses that block out half her face and when I try to walk over to talk to her she runs off. Fuck.

Between all the drama real poker is going on however, and soon I’m involved with my roommate Alex in a large pot:
My stack: ~130,000, Alex: ~140,000, blinds 1500/3000 with 500 ante. I hold 5h9d on the CO.
Preflop: Folds around to me on the CO, with such high antes and fairly nity players in the blinds I’m looking to open a huge range, which the 59o I look down at seems to be included in. I raise to 7500 and Alex on the button thinks briefly then calls. Both blinds fold.
Flop: Qd 5s 3s
I fire out 9000 and Alex calls. At this point I intend to shut down as I think Alex is willing to call down considerable aggression from me pretty wide and in the event he’s calling with ace high thinking it’s good I’ll beat him at showdown.
Turn: 5d
Fuck shutting down. I consider my bet size then fire out 22,000. Alex thinks briefly then calls.
River: Js
At first glance the spade looks like a scare card, but I’m 99% sure Alex can’t have spades here because he’d raise me on either the flop or turn, unless perhaps he has specifically KsQs and was giving me a chance to spew. Otherwise I’m certain I have the best hand, I just need to figure out how much to value bet. I think it over then line up a couple of large stacks and slide in a bet of 40,000. Alex thinks for a very long time before finally announcing call. I table my hand and for a brief second Alex thinks he’s picked off a bluff before he see’s the 5 and recoils in disgust. With that pot I become one of the chip leaders of the tournament.

An orbit later I’m involved again, this time with the strange player who had the AdTd in the AK hand where I tripled up:
My stack: ~210k, HJ: ~42,000, blinds 1500/3000 with a 500 ante. I hold Ks9c in MP2.
Preflop: Folds around to me, I raise to 7500, folds to the HJ, the HJ calls, everyone else folds.
Flop: Kh 6c 7s
I check, the HJ bets 10,000, I call.
Turn: 9d
I check, the HJ moves all in and I instantly call. He shows KQo and stands up and starts to walk away, but a player at the table tells him to stick around just in case.
River: Qd
The table goes nuts after having called the card and I quietly slide out the necessary chips into the pot.

Not long after that pot I’m moved tables and find myself on the direct right of Celina. When I sit down I immediately start cracking jokes about her short stack and asking her why she’s such a nit (I had 15% of her in the tournament.) A few minutes later I’m eating my words:
My stack: ~185k, Celina: ~37,500, blinds 2000/4000 with a 500 ante. I hold As4c on the HJ.
Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 10,500, Celina moves all in for 37,500, it folds back to me, I make the call and she tables ATo.
“God please let me suck you out, so epic.”
Flop: Q 9 3
Celina is standing up wide eyed with anticipation. I’m sitting in my seat counting out 37,500 in chips and trying to think of something clever to say if I hit a 4.
Turn: 6
River: 3
Celina cheers with excitement and naturally starts needling me. I should’ve thought of something clever to say if I didn’t hit the 4.

For the rest of the 2000/4000 level I’m pretty card dead so I hang out chatting to Celina about the events of the previous night and how they’ve panned out since. I tell her that that my icy disposition might make me infuriating to date it’s damn useful when you can play a tournament without a thought in your head about your current social shit storm. Then I open raise the 3000/6000 blinds with 22 to 15,000 and she shoves for 35,000 total over the top of me. When it folds back I obviously make the call and she tables KK which holds up by flopping a boat.

Around this time we’re fast approaching the bubble of 18 players. There’s an older woman on my right who is clearly pretty clueless about the game. Not clueless in the sense that I’m trying to insult her, but clueless in the sense that she may or may not be aware of the rules of the game. I say this because on day one she was involved in a large pot with my friend Ali Khalil where he moved all in on the river with a set of twos and it took her several minutes to call with the absolute nut straight. While on the table with her I asked her whether she knew she was slowrolling in the hand and our exchange was something like
“I just wanted to think it over, I’m not an all in player you know? Besides he didn’t know what he was doing, he went all in with nothing!”
“Um, didn’t he have a set?”
“He had two’s! He had nothing, I’d never go all in with two’s!”
“I see.”
At that moment another player on the table who witnessed the hand spoke up and confirmed that Ali indeed did have a set of two’s.
“Yea what’s he going all in with two’s for?” she asked.

However, while on the table with her today I did witness her shove her eight BB stack over a limper with KTo, which was fairly surprising. Having witnessed this hand made my decision in the one we got involved in much easier:
My stack: ~100k, lady: ~120k, blinds 4000/8000 with a 1000 ante. I hold AsJs in the SB.
Preflop: Folds to the lady on the button, she open raises to 40,000. I think briefly about her bet size, then decide that after seeing her KT and the fact that she is so clueless this must be a shove, especially since she’ll fold a ton of pairs because she doesn’t want to risk bubbling. I move all in for a bit under 100,000 and the BB folds. The lady goes into the tank, thinks it over, spends nearly two minutes contemplating, and then makes the call with AKo. Charming.
Flop: J T 6
The door card is the jack of diamonds. I don’t react because I make a point never to react at these things, but Christ does it feel good on the inside. Now I just need it to hold.
Turn: 2
One time dealer?
River: 6
I give the smallest of fist pumps and a nod to Timex and Watts who are on the rail watching. After all the times things have gone horribly wrong for me on live tournament bubbles, getting a suck out in my favor feels incredibly good. I almost certainly have a huge shit eating grin on my face.

A short while later the bubble breaks and we enter the money with my having about 20 BB’s. We redraw for tables and I wind up on one with Dave Ewing, Celina, Deano Nyberg and James ‘Jabba’ Broom. During the early stages I am very card dead and my stack starts dwindling. It’s not until the blinds have gone up two levels that I’m involved in a major pot again:
My stack: ~155k, Celina: ~400k, blinds 6000/12000 with 1000 ante. I hold QJo on the HJ six handed.
Preflop: UTG folds, I move all in for 155k, folds to Celina in the SB, Celina moves in over the top, BB folds, and Celina tables ATo.
Flop: 2 Q 7
Sweet!
Turn: 3
River: 2


After that I hit an incredible rush of hands. I find AK and KK God knows how many times plus a slew of good hands to open raise with. My stack soars to close to the chip lead of the tournament and absolutely everything is going my way. Between all the big hands to three bet with I also sneak one in with 52o against Celina when she open raises after winning a big hand because I’m aware that it’s very risky for her to pull a huge light four bet especially considering the sponsorship factor in that she needs a proper result to put on her résumé. However, between all my raising and three betting I do find myself in one interesting three way spot.

My stack: ~500k, Jabba: ~400k, blinds 6000/12000 with a 1000 ante. I hold Td9d on the button.
Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 30,000, Celina calls in the SB, Jabba calls in the BB.
Flop: Kh Qc 4h
Everyone checks.
Turn: Th
Everyone checks.
River: 4d
Celina checks, Jabba thinks for a while then bets 85,000. I go into the tank for quite a while and start considering the hand. I know that Jabba defends incredibly wide in the BB, especially if there’s a SB call. I also have seen him use smaller bets for value and larger bets as bluffs. Additionally, I don’t think there’s a ton of hands in his value betting range that play like this. If he had AJ he would have certainly 3 bet pre. If he had hearts he would likely have bet the turn, if not led the flop. Same with a king, though I think sometimes he’d play a weak king like this. I also think there’s a good chance in a hand played this passively on the final table bubble he’d consider taking a shot fairly often on the river. I decide to make the call and Celina folds. Jabba tables 42o and I feel stupid while I muck my hand.

After that things continue to fall my way and I take down a ton of pots pre flop and on the flop. When the 10th place player is eliminated I find myself with 635,000 in chips which I’m fairly sure is good for the chip lead (it wasn’t, I was in second.)

After we finish bagging up the chips I give Ben Delaney a call and ask him where they’re going out to for his birthday. We have to be back at 12:30pm for the start of the final table and it’s currently almost 1am, so while I can’t have a huge night I’d like to at least stop by and buy the birthday boy a beer.

As I’m walking out of the casino with Timex and Watts I send the girl I’m seeing a text message that reads “So I’ve made the final table with the chip lead and it would be really cool to talk to you and clear my head beforehand. Otherwise I’ll see you around Melbourne.” A few minutes later she calls me and we discuss last night. She apologizes for having had too much too drink and overreacting. I apologize for bailing out so quick and for the rather complicated situation. The only problem is that I’ve got my sweet talking voice on (you know, that voice you use to talk to the woman in your life that you pretend around your guy friends doesn’t exist) but Watts and Timex are standing right next to me and Watts gives me a look that communicates inaudibly “You are such a pussy Bond.” By the end of the conversation everything is cool and is often the case with women she’s gone from hot, to ice cold, to flaming hot within 24 hours.

When we arrive at the bar the 10 minute walk in the Adelaide heat has us sticking to our clothes. Apparently it was 45 Celsius today and things certainly haven’t cooled down too much by the night. The bar is mostly deserted so I tell everyone they should just come over to mine to drink and smoke on the balcony’s balcony. We all agree to meet up there and I head back while I message a croupier friend to come over as well.

As it turns out the group decides to stay out at another bar and I don’t join them because I need to be up in the morning. A few others come over as well as my croupier friend, who whips out one of his own joints which he rolled up with what has become the semi legendary ‘super weed’. He’s told me several times what the super weed is a blend of, but against all odds I’ve managed to forget it. We fire it up and sit out on the downstairs balcony discussing the various random and interesting shit we always do when we hang out. Eventually the group decides we should roll up another and it occurs to me that “This should, no not should, MUST be smoked on the balcony’s balcony!” By the time we light it up we all agree that smoking on the balcony’s balcony was a “Damn good decision. We’re making some good decisions here boys, in a day filled with good decisions!”

February 7th: Though some would think that with the pressure of a considerable final table looming in the horizon I would have trouble sleeping the super weed I smoked last night put me into a sufficient THC induced coma. I feel quite good upon waking up and after my shower throw on the second suit I brought with me and head down to the same café again.

I make it to the casino a solid 15 minutes early to prevent any possible repea lateness fiasco, though considering it’s only a three block walk I can’t imagine what could possibly go so wrong. Then again I said the same about my 10 minute drive the day of the Aussie Millions final table when I left over a half hour early. When I arrive I find out I am in fact not quite the chip leader, a position which is held by Karl Krautschneider who has 662,000. I’ve drawn a mediocre seat with Deano on my direct left and Celina three on my left, though I at least have position on Jabba. Cards get in the air at 12:30 after brief introductions, and I set my mind to the task of winning the very first ANZPT event.

My position on Jabba becomes irrelevant when he is eliminated on the first hand in a flip against Melbourne player Bruno Portaro. Just a few hands later Bruno and I are involved in my first pot at the table:
My stack: ~635k, Bruno: ~1m, blinds 6000/12000 with a 1000 ante, I hold 5c5d on the button.
Preflop: Bruno raises UTG to 32,000, folds to me on the button, I call, both blinds fold.
Flop: A T 5 rainbow
Bruno checks, I bet 45,000, Bruno calls.
Turn: J, full rainbow.
Bruno checks, I bet 115k, Bruno check min raises to 230k and I think things over briefly. Considering the texture and that Bruno has check min raised me I don’t see any reason why not to shove right now, especially since a Q or K could kill my action on the river and he’s representing a huge hand with his line. I move all in and Bruno goes into the tank for a very long time. He’s talking to himself and to me but I remain silent and stare straight at the table. After a very long consideration he flashes an ace and folds, and with that pot I take over the clear chip lead.

An orbit later I’m involved again:
My stack: ~900k, button: ~225k, blinds 6000/12000 with 1000 ante. I hold 7c7d on the HJ.
Preflop: Folds around to me, I raise to 32,000, CO folds, button moves all in for 225k, both blinds fold, I think it over and call. The button shows QJo and we’re off to the races.
Flop: 3 Q J
Shit.
Turn: 4
River: 9
I count out the chips and slide them his way.

The next few orbits see a very fast drop off of players. Bruno loses a huge pot to Karl when he hits a miracle queen on the river after getting it all in on a K94 flop with QQ against Bruno’s AK for a ton of chips. I continue to take jabs at more small pots, but it’s not long until I’m involved in a larger one with local player Julius Coleman:
My stack: ~750k, Julius: ~600k, blinds 8000/16000 with 2000 ante. I hold Ah2c in the BB.
Preflop: Folds around to Julius in the SB, Julius raises to 40,000, I call.
Flop: A 6 3 rainbow
Julius bets 55,000, I call.
Turn: J
Julius bets 110k, I call.
River: J
Julius thinks for quite a while and checks, I check behind. Julius shows 6s7s and I take down the pot.

Things continue to go poorly for Julius after the hand and his stack dwindles. Meanwhile, Deano wins a flip over Celina to knock her out in seventh place without her getting much of a chance to get involved at the final table. Soon three of us are involved in a considerable pot:
My stack: ~900k, Deano: ~900k, Julius: ~200k, blinds 8000/16000 with 2000 ante. I hold JsJc UTG at a 6 handed table.
Preflop: I raise to 40,000, Deano calls, folds around to Julius in the BB, Julius calls.
Flop: J 5 4 rainbow
Julius moves all in for 160k and I think for a little while before calling, hoping Deano gets involved too. Deano quickly folds and when Julius tables his QJo and see’s my JJ he knows he’s just about finished.
Turn: K
River: X
I shake Julius’s hand and tell him good game. Just a few hands later Deano winds up busting to Karl in a very big pot where the ace of diamonds is on a paired three diamond board and Deano has the queen high flush against Karl’s king high one. On a strictly equity level, I was happy to see the hand go down as it did, which is a compliment to Deano.

Not long after we finish the second level and find ourselves having dropped five players in the first two hours of play, despite the fact that they wound it back a level to make the average stack roughly 40 BB’s. Shortly after we come back we lose another player and it’s down to three handed between myself, Karl, and a guy named Daniel from Canberra who is playing quite aggressively. We play a pot where he mentions to me afterwards that he really should’ve bet his top pair on the turn in order to protect, a piece of information that soon becomes relevant:
My stack: ~1.3m, Daniel: ~800k, blinds 10,000/20,000 with 2000 ante. I hold 45o in the SB.
Preflop: Button folds, I raise to 60,000, Daniel calls.
Flop: Ac 4c 6d
I bet 80,000, Daniel calls.
Turn: 6h
I check, Daniel checks.
River: Js
I check, Daniel bets 130,000. On one hand his bet looks like pure value, on the other every draw missed and after our previous conversation I really think if he had an ace he’d have bet it. I think he either has a missed draw or a six that was slow playing on the turn. I make the call and it turns out I’m half right, he has A6. I wince and slide him a bunch of chips.

After that Daniel pounds me over and over on my left. I can’t seem to find anything close to a proper starting hand, and every time I open Daniel seems to have a three bet ready for me or he flat calls and raises my flop bet. Karl is a fairly passive player who rarely bluffs and is difficult to make fold, so without hands it’s very hard to get value out of him. My stack has been decimated by the time I’m involved in another major pot:
My stack: ~750k, Daniel: ~1.2m, blinds 10,000/20,000 with 2000 ante. I hold Ks8s in the SB.
Preflop: Button folds, I raise to 60,000, Daniel calls.
Turn: Jc 2s 9s
I think over my bet size and lead 60,000 so in case Daniel makes a decent sized raise I’ll have room to shove with fold equity. Daniel makes a raise to 160k, which is smaller than expected but my play is still clear against someone as aggressive as him. I announce all in and Daniel calls instantly and tables J8o. Wow, owned.
Turn: Js
I don’t react, I still have quite a few outs to dodge.
River: 6c

I let out a long breath and let the dealer count out my chips. My stack is half as big as Karl’s now, while Daniel is substantially shorter by comparison. Just a few hands later Daniel and I are involved again:
My stack: 1.3m, Daniel: ~500k, blinds 12,000/24,000 with a 3000 ante. I hold AcQc on the button.
Preflop: I raise to 60,000, Daniel shoves from the SB for 500k, Karl folds, I instantly call and Daniel tables KcJc. Ace on the flop one time?
Flop: 5d 2c 3c
That’s not bad either.
Turn: 8h
River: 4c
I shake Daniel’s hand and tell him “Very well played.” He gave me an enormous amount of trouble on my left and I’m happy to see him go and be heads up with Karl. Karl seems to be a fairly inexperienced player and going into heads up we’re close to 100 BB’s effective. My plan is to try and take jabs at him and win small pots until he makes a mistake in a big one. I told Timex and Watts last night “I don’t know guys, I just got a feeling about this one, I’m gonna fucking win it” and right now I’ve never been more confident. The casino staff brings out the trophy and sets the cash on the table in bundles of Australian hundred dollar bills. It all looks very good and since giving away my Bellagio bracelet I don’t have any physical representation of my poker accomplishments. A trophy would do fine, though unfortunately it’s not one of those big cup like trophies that you could drink out of, which will be the first thing I do if I ever win such a trophy.

Head’s up starts very slow, and as expected most of the pots are quite small with me taking several jabs at them. I’m raising or calling 100% of buttons and mostly folding to his aggression post flop because he doesn’t seem particularly adept at getting value from his hands and I’ve only seen him bluff once so far in the tournament after playing with him for several hours. By the time our first large pot comes up we are nearly even in chips:
My stack: ~1.9m, Karl: ~2.2m, blinds 12,000/24,000 with 3000 ante. I hold K8o in the BB.
Preflop: Karl completes the SB, I check in the BB.
Flop: 2s 4c Ks
I check, Karl checks.
Turn: 5c
I bet 50,000, Karl calls.
River: 8c
I bet 100,000, Karl calls. I table my top two pair like the nuts I know it is and Karl shows me 67o for a straight. Whoa, didn’t see that coming.

Around this time I turn around and notice that the rail has become pretty big. Most chairs are full and there are a number of people standing up watching. Timex, Watts, and Elliot are sitting in the front row following along intently. I decide to have some fun.
“JESUS CHRIST! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THREE DOING!? WHY ARE YOU NOT DRUNK YET, YOU CALL YOURSELVES RAILTARDS!? THIS IS AMATEUR HOUR, WHERE IS THE WAITRESS?!”
I turn to a guy I don’t know sitting next to them, point at them and yell “THE FUCK!?” The guy I’m talking to raises the beer he’s drinking and says “Ya don’t gotta tell me mate.” It’s unclear whether most people witnessing this can tell whether I’m joking.

When we return to play things continue as before. I keep playing small pots with Karl and taking down considerably more than my share but mostly folding when he shows aggression unless I have a decent hand, which I am finding nearly zero of. It takes quite a while to get involved in another major pot:
My stack: ~1.9m, Karl: ~2.2m, blinds 12,000/24,000 with 3000 ante. I hold Kd2d in the BB.
Preflop: Karl raises to 60,000, I call. It’s not standard but I think deep stacked against someone who gives up much too easy post flop it’s a +EV call.
Flop: Kc 2s 4c
I check, Karl bets 60,000, I raise to 200,000, Karl announces all in and I call instantly expecting to see a worse king. Karl tables 9c8c and with the way he’s been hitting at this final table I’m pretty apprehensive about this.
Turn: 3d
Sweet. Okay, just one more card from essentially having the whole tournament in the bag. If I can dodge this club I’ll have the sounds cool but is essentially irrelevant title of winning the first ever event on a poker tour.
River: 7c
I wince slightly then quickly compose myself. Karl sits motionless, stunned and unsure what to say or how to react. I shake his hand, tell him “Congrats on your win” then walk over the rail and straight to the bar. As I’m waiting in line David Steike and Andrew Scott intercept me and offer to buy me a drink.
“We were watching, sorry about that. I can tell you need one” says David.
“Here, have this too” he says, then whips out a Davidoff cigar. “I just had a baby.”
“Oh, congratulations, and on your 100k win at the Aussie Millions, I don’t think we’ve spoke since. What can’t you do?”

I sit at a table discussing tournament poker with them and how you can’t let things like getting rivered for a tournament bother you if you’re going to play them for a living, that it’s “All cool.” I wonder if I sound convincing.