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.

February 4th: Our crowded taxi pulls up to the Qantas terminal at the Melbourne airport at 3:55pm. Our flight is at 4:30. As agreed upon I sprint out of the taxi without my luggage and run straight for the check in. There’s an airline representative standing at the entry to the line that sees my running and hurried expression then asks how she can help.
“Yes well my friends and I are on the 4:30 to Adelaide and I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the check in so I’ve come ahead of them. They’re right behind me.”
“Do you mean the 4:25 to Adelaide?”
“Yea, that. Is it too late to get on it? I’m terribly sorry about all this, there was surprisingly bad traffic on the way over but they’re right behind me and will be here any second.”
“Uhhh, I think we should be okay. Let’s go up to the counter and try to sort this out. Your friends will be here soon right?”
I glance over her shoulder and see them entering through the door about 50 meters away.
“Yea that’s them right there, we’ll be very quick.”

She approaches the woman at the counter and they discuss the possibility of being able to get our bags on the plane. The woman at the counter picks up her phone and makes a call to try and arrange everything. I alternate between apologizing to and thanking her profusely. Eventually we’re told that it’s not too late to get our bags on the plane but that we simply need to hurry up through security. We set our bags down, grab the boarding passes, and quickly move towards the security check point.

Timex, Watts, and I arrive at the terminal at last call. Naturally Stevo has disappeared for a smoke. We board without him and about five minutes later he finds his way onto the plane and takes his seat next to me. We occupy ourselves for the roughly hour long flight gambling on the over/under of what the other person thinks about random questions. When asked to approximate how many kangaroos there are in Australia Timex thinks it over then says he has his number. We eventually settle on the over/under being around 15 million, only to find Timex thinks it’s 75,000. We spend the rest of the flight making fun of him for it.

When we touch down in Adelaide we quickly make our way off to the plane and towards the baggage claim. And then we wait. And wait. And wait some more. Our bags don’t come. We walk over to the lost luggage center and I hand over the bag receipts. They take down our hotel information and tell us that the bags will be there by that evening.

We meet up with Alex, Kristian, and Joel Dodds at the baggage claim and those of us staying together take a cab over to our apartment. Our foursome includes me, Stevo, Joel, and Alex. We arrive at the apartments and are handed a key to a room on the 16th floor. When we enter the room we’re blown away. The apartment is two stories high with three separate large bedrooms and a cot in the downstairs living room. Both the upstairs and the downstairs have balconies, and the upstairs balcony is so big it has its own balcony. I take the upstairs room which essentially gives me an entire floor to myself. Joel intends to move his cot upstairs but never gets around to doing so, leaving me in solitude.

We make a run out to a convenience store to stock the house up with food and munchies, and then hang around the apartment for an hour or so waiting for a weed delivery. The delivery man comes over and whips an ounce of weed out of his bag. We give him $300 plus a $50 tip for the delivery then I make a poor attempt at a joke when I ask if he’d like to pose for a picture. He is not amused. Despite our having four people living in the apartment and God knows how many who will stop over I find the quantity we bought to be excessive, or as I put it to Stevo “What the fuck did we get a whole ounce for?! We’re here for four days.”
“Better safe than sorry.” The man has a point.

A few other players come over to join us and hang out then a few of us take the massive joint Alex has rolled outside and fire it up. The quality of Alex’s rolling is excellent and I let him know how proud I am of him. As always, when I get high I start babbling at them about “What a good fucking decision this was. We’re making lots of good decisions here boys.”

By the time we head for dinner half our party is blazed. We’ve heard that a special chef is in town from Tokyo at the Teppanyaki place in the Hyatt and that he has a kickass set menu. When we get there and have a look at the menu we realize that the talk of his chef has not been exaggerated and all eight of us order the set menu. The only problem is that it’s slow to get started and I’m absurdly fucking starving.

Over the course of dinner I seem to run into everyone. At a table nearby us are numerous representatives from the marketing and organization of Pokerstars having dinner with Tony Hachem. Then Lee Nelson comes in and chats to us at our table for about 15 minutes. Then Celina comes in with Brian Huang and they sit down to join us for dinner. Throughout all my conversations I take enormous precaution to seem normal but I have a sinking and paranoid feeling that all of them can tell how lit up I am. We’re drinking many beers throughout dinner though, so perhaps they’ll mistake me for drunk. However, the food at the restaurant exceeds all expectations and by the time we reach dessert God only knows how many times I’ve said what a good decision this was.

After dinner we walk back to the apartment and start up a Madden tournament on the Xbox360 that Stevo brought. Half way through the game I text the girl I’m seeing, who had been in Adelaide for a few days visiting before I had. I ask her how her trip was and she texts back that she’s still here and that I should come out. I bail out of the apartment around midnight and make my way over to a nearby club where I find her and about a dozen of my young poker playing friends. Julian decides to be the balla that he is and buys everyone’s entry’s fee because he’s cool like that. The club itself is massive, packed, and so loud you can barely hear people standing next to you screaming in your face. Someone starts demanding we do shots and despite my protestations that I have to play the next day I am peer pressured into numerous rounds. At some point in the night numerous members of our party start slipping each other pills and a white powder that likely isn’t Anthrax. The club is completely going off and there’s some kind of swimsuit competition on stage. Before things get out of hand I insist that I have to leave early because of the tournament and walk out with my girl and Ali Khalil. I’ve got my fingers crossed that Ali is the one that puts out for me tonight, but unfortunately he goes off in another direction. Shit, should’ve got him drunker.

When we get back to the apartment I find out from my roommates that our bags haven’t been delivered. My girl insists that she’ll wake up early and go shopping for me. I tell her not to worry about it and that I’ll just borrow a shirt from Alex. She insists that she wants to do something nice for me and that I’m not to argue with her about it. Fair enough then. We go to bed, get some exercise, and then chat for a while before I pass out exhausted somewhere between 3 and 4am.

February 5th: I’m stirred awake at 10am by my girl crawling out of bed and putting her clothes on. She asks me a few questions about what kind of shirt she should get and tells me she hasn’t slept at all. I tell her one more time that she shouldn’t worry about it but she quickly dismisses me and tells me to go back to sleep for the tournament. Some time around 11:30am she calls me with a question about what color to get and tells me to get out of bed since the tournament starts at 12:30. I grab a quick shower then sit down stairs with Stevo and Alex for a few minutes. Joel is mysteriously gone. They head out for breakfast while I wait around a few minutes for my clothes delivery. When she comes back to the room the supposed one shirt has turned into three dress shirts, a t-shirt, a pair of shorts, thongs, deodorant, and a razor. She wont’ let me pay her for the. I put on the t-shirt and the black dress shirt over it. She notices that it still has the packaging wrinkles on it and demands I take it off and give it to her so she can go back to her hotel and iron it. I tell her not to sweat it so much but she won’t back down and takes the shirt and runs off to her hotel, agreeing to meet me with it in a bit.

I grab a quick breakfast and make my way over to the poker room. I find my seating assignment, have a ‘Pokerstars’ patch put on my shirt since I bought in with W dollars, then receive an ironed shirt delivery. I throw it on, thank her for everything, tell her to get some sleep, and then take my seat and count down my 20,000 in chips. My starting table has a few familiar faces as well as a few local guys I’ve never seen before. Play gets underway on time at 12:30 and I start off by finding a number of good starting hands and getting involved quickly. I lose a few small pots before my first hand of relevance:
My stack: ~18,000, HJ: ~22,000, blinds 75/150, I hold As8s on the button.
Preflop: Folds to MP1, MP1 calls 150, folds to the HJ, HJ calls 150, CO folds, I raise to 750, folds back to MP1, MP1 calls, HJ calls.
Flop: 4s Kc 6s
MP1 checks, HJ checks, I bet 1300, MP1 folds, HJ calls.
Turn: 5s
HJ checks, I bet 2800, HJ calls.
River: Kh
The HJ leads out 3075. I think it over and raise to 8075. The HJ winces then throws a ‘5000’ chip into the pot. I table my ace high flush and he mucks his hand.

I hang around the low 30 thousands for a little while playing numerous small pots before my table is broke and I’m moved to a seat with Tony Hachem on my direct left, Sam Youssef on my right, and Grand Levy one more to the right. I continue to win small pots and witness Grant pull off a sick bluff when his early position raise is 3 bet and he makes a smallish four bet. The flop comes QTx and he fires out again and the other player folds KK face up. Grant shows Kd3d and I start going on and on about what a sicko he is. Grant and I have found ourselves at each others table for the last four tournaments we’ve played in Australia and every time it leads to a lot of laughs and some very interesting hands. Today is no different, as we’re soon involved in a large pot:
My stack: ~38,000, Grant: ~35,000, Blinds 100/200 with 25 ante. I hold TdTc UTG+1.
Preflop: Sam Youssef calls UTG for 200, I raise to 800, folds around to Grant in the BB, Grant raises to 2200, Sam folds, I call.
Flop: Jd 8s 5d
Grant bets 3200, I call.
Turn: 6c
Grant checks, I check.
River: As
Grant thinks it over then bets 4600. I think it over for quite a while. Even though Grant is a little crazy and likes playing strange hands with me, I feel like he knows that’s a great card for him to bluff and that he expects me to expect him to bluff it. I also think his bet size really looks like it’s for value so after a moment of thought I fold my hand.
“Did you have tens?” he asks.
“Something like that.”

The very next hand I’m involved again:
My stack: ~33,000, MP1: ~17,000, blinds 100/200 with a 25 ante, I hold AQo UTG.
Preflop: I raise to 600, two folds, MP1 calls, everyone else folds.
Flop: Th 7c 2s
I bet 900, MP1 calls.
Turn: 6h
I check with the intention of folding. Then MP1 fires out 1200 and from watching him play I really felt like his bet was an information/weak/value bet that would fold to further action. I check raise to 3600 and he thinks briefly then folds. I think this is a good play to use on people who use these weak bets so long as they are not a high level thinking player because they’ll realize that your line represents basically nothing.

An orbit later I’m involved with the same player:
My stack: ~33,000, MP1: ~10,000, blinds 150/300 with a 25 ante. I hold 7c7d UTG.
Preflop: I raise to 800, two folds, MP1 calls, folds to Grant in the BB, Grant calls.
Flop: Qh 7h 3s
Grant checks, I bet 1600, MP1 calls. Grant gives me a fairly long stare down, seems to think about making a raise, then elects to fold. Damn.
Turn: 5c
I bet 2600, MP1 shoves, I call. He tables 33 and recoils in disgust when I turn over my better set.
River: 2x

The set over set pot seems like a good omen as I continue to hit hands and get small value from people. It seems like almost every hand I open raise I hit top pair or better, and normally the opponent check calls one street then check folds on the turn, never putting me in a difficult spot.

By the second to last level of the day I’ve built my stack to nearly 70,000, making me the chip leader on the table. Everything is going my way when I get involved in my next significant pot:
My stack: ~66,000, button: ~22,500, CO: ~35,000, blinds 400/800 with a 100 ante. I hold AKo in MP2.
Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 2100, folds to the CO, the CO calls, the button raises to 5100, both blinds fold. The button is a very tight player but he’s attended one of the seminars I do and knows how aggressive I am. I’m not sure if he’s capable of pulling any kind of light squeeze, in fact I’m fairly sure he’s not, but I do think he may 3 bet fold TT, maybe even JJ. Then again, his raise size is very suspicious. In the end I decide to slide my entire stack into the middle and the CO quickly folds. The button snap calls and tables AA (since this hand I’ve talked to numerous good players about it and we’ve discussed that in a spot like this flat calling preflop given the price is not that bad, even though we’d never do something like that online.)
Flop: 2h 7d Th
Turn: Jc
River: 2c

After that pot I find myself slowly but consistently moving in the opposite direction as I start losing every pot I enter. By the next time an interesting hand comes up I’ve slipped all the way back to the mid thirties.
My stack: ~35,000, SB: ~10,500, blinds 500/1000 with a 100 ante. I hold 8h9h in MP1.
Preflop: Folds to me in MP1, I raise to 2500, folds to the SB, the SB shoves for 10,700, the BB folds. The SB has been pretty aggressive with open shoving and I don’t think he has a super tight live shoving range or anything so I make the call. He shows A4o and we’re off to the races.
Flop: Qc Jc 2d
Turn: 7h
River: Ad
I slide over 10,700 and find myself knocked all the way to near start bank.

When the day finishes up a bit less than half an hour later I find myself with 27,100. Considering I had over 30,000 since the second level the end to the day is a bit disappointing, but considering the quality of the structure I’m not overly worried about it.

When I walk off the table I meet up with the girl I’m seeing and a few mutual friends who’ve been hanging around the poker room drinking for most of the day. The small group becomes a large one as more and more players finish bagging up their chips and join us by the bar. We wind up doing a few rounds at the bar and by the time we head out to a club most of my company is very smashed.

By the time we arrive at the bar our group has swelled to over a dozen and I’m doing my best to refuse the idea of getting drunk. When I step into the bathroom I get a call from Celina. She tells me she’s in the hospital with severe internal pains and wondering if I don’t mind coming to wait with her in the emergency room because she’s scared. I tell her that I’ll come over and wait with her for a while then hang up and attempt to mentally pursue for the inevitable shit storm this is about to cause.

I go over and tell my girl about the situation. She immediately gets really pissed off at me. I attempt to explain that I’ll be back in a little while and that I’m just going to make sure a scared girl in the hospital is okay and that Celina and I are just friends. She is disinterested in my arguments and tells me to “Just go” then starts giving me the cold shoulder. I grab Julian and explain the situation to him and ask him to take care of the girl. I ask him what he would do in the same situation and he agrees that he would go to but that it’s an incredibly fucked up spot.
“Thanks man. Just take care of her for me okay? Man, I am so fucked.”

I quickly walk out of the bar and grab a taxi over to the hospital. When I arrive I can’t seem to figure out the entrance and when I try to buzz the door to the ER nobody answers. Eventually some woman who works there comes over to get in herself and lets me through as well. I find my way to the ER Celina is waiting at and after a few short seconds of asking her how she feels my girl calls my cell phone, which is getting about one bar of reception in the hospital. She’s yelling and nonsensical on the phone, telling me that she doesn’t want to see me anymore and that I should just go back to Celina. I attempt to explain that I’m not interested in Celina and that I’m only there to make sure she’s okay. She’s too upset to be reasoned with and continues yelling at me in the phone. About this time the doctor comes in and tries to talk to Celina while I’m practically yelling into my cell phone, no doubt making me look like a colossal jackass. Eventually the reception cuts out mid call and I’m standing there stupefied for a moment before the phone rings again.
“DID YOU JUST HANG UP ON ME?!”
“No, I didn’t hang up at all! The reception in here is terrible, I can barely hear you as is.”
“FINE! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! DON’T EVER CALL ME AGAIN! I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU ANYMORE!!”
*click*
The phone goes dead and I snap it shut with a loud sigh. The doctor looks at me with contempt and I start apologizing though I can’t make what I’m apologizing for into a tangible sentence. I settle with “I am so sorry about…all that. Sorry.”

At some point the doctor asks me to step outside into the waiting room while she conducts some tests. I slink into a chair and sit there silently staring at my phone. There is no reading material in the waiting room.

About 20 minutes later Celina comes out and has a seat with me. We chat about how she’s feeling and the events of my evening. She apologizes for having created any drama and I tell her that it’s okay and that she was right to have called me, that even though we’re not a couple I still care about her health and safety. She asks what happened on the phone and I do my best to explain without swearing too much. I end up swearing a lot. We sit around waiting for the doctor, who comes out and tells her there is no immediate threat to her health and that she’ll give her a pain killer to deal with any continuing discomfort.

Most of the walk home is occupied by Celina lecturing me on my recent life decisions and my continuing icy exterior. I’ve found that having this kind of temperament and emotional disposition to be increasingly uncomfortable for people in personal relationships, particularly women, who pick up on it close to immediately and find it concerning that I never seem to ‘care’ about much of anything. I suppose after playing enough poker the emotional insulation you build up creeps into your personality and you stop seeing the point in getting worked up or upset over much of anything. The problem is that people interpret you’re being so non reactionary to mean that you don’t give a fuck about your relationship with them at all, that they are incapable of affecting you. On the exterior level, they’re mostly right.

I say goodbye to Celina outside of her hotel and tell her to feel better. I walk the few blocks back to my apartment, take the elevator up, struggle with the impossible lock like I always do, then enter our living room which is full of numerous friends to whom I immediately start raving at jokingly
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT I HAVE HAD THE WORST FUCKING NIGHT! FOR GODS SAKE SOMEBODY ROLL UP A JOINT RIGHT THIS MINUTE AND PUT SOME FUCKING THC IN MY BRAIN!” I burst into laughter and yell at them “WHY IS THERE NO THC IN MY BRAIN!?!”

As Alex rolls up another one of his trademark excellent joints I regale them in the story of my evening. When he finishes a few of us step outside and I take way more hits than is appropriate joint hitting etiquette. When we come back inside I start shit talking and issuing Madden challenges. Jarred accepts and I spend most of the game giggling my ass off. Half way through the game I have a memory flash to the peanut M&M’s I’ve left in the fridge with milk.
“HOLY SHIT!” I yell, then leap up from the couch and sprint to the fridge. I rip out the candy and my carton of milk. I devour the chocolate feverishly then start drinking from the carton which I justify to my roommates by stating “I’m drinking this shit from the carton cause that’s how I roll.” Nobody seems to care as it seems Australians don’t drink milk.

As a result of having played so much recent live poker I’ve found myself in quite a few interesting spots against a vast array of players. I’ll post those five hands here and people can think about what they’d do, then in the next entry I’ll post the results.

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 Ad Th in the BB.

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

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

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

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

Turn: 6h (Pot 9400)
Josh leads 4500, hero?

If you continue what's your plan depending on the river?

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 Ts 9s 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: Ks Td 9c (Pot 1000)
Checks around to me, I bet 800, SB folds, BB calls, MP1 folds, CO quickly calls.

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

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

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 4d 4h on the CO.

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

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

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

Prefer any other route of getting value here?

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 Jd Jh 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: 3h 9s 5h (Pot 12300)
Hero?

Now that the Aussie Millions are over it’s time to look forward to what’s upcoming in my life over the year 2009, and it’s shaping up to be interesting.

My plan over the next two months is to play a very high amount of online poker. I’ll be going to Adelaide for the first event of the ANZPT from February 4-8 and after that my entire focus is on getting up early, putting in volume, and then writing and working out at night. I’ve only got about two months to finish the book, so I’m going to need to develop a Dostoyevsky like writing style. In total, I’ve had confirmations from about a dozen guys interested in being coauthors, and I’ll need to figure out what I’d like to direct them to write about and how to incorporate it into the material.

I’m thinking my schedule through February and March will look something like waking up about 9am, getting a quick run in, then grinding for about 8-9 hours, then going to the gym and finally retiring for the evening to work on the book for a few hours. I imagine my social life will take a hit, but that’s alright since I’ll be very social for the five months following that and I’m a little tired of going out after the Aussie Millions and everything.

After that, inexplicably, it appears I’ll be traveling a full circumference of the world in a short period of time again. I know when I finished last year I wrote that I didn’t want to go around the world again any time soon, but things have fallen into a sort of place where it seems to line up too well not to, plus I’ve got the opportunity to do some really interesting stuff. The planned itinerary for the moment looks like:

Early April: Leave Melbourne for Hawaii. I’ll be stopping off for a few days to visit Cade and Kari as well as cut down the flight time to the US, not to mention making an ass of myself in our favorite 24 hour Korean place. It’s possible previous to this portion that I’ll be stopping off in Thailand, but that’s currently uncertain and right now the plan is Hawaii.

Mid April: Arrive in Las Vegas to play in the WPT championship. I likely won’t arrive in time to play the full list of preliminaries though I will be there for some. I’ve already got my seat as a result of the WPT preliminary event I won at the Bellagio Cup IV this summer, which I’m unable to sell or transfer, hence the necessity of this Vegas trip. Were it up to me I’d just take the 25k cash for the seat, but unfortunately I’m locked in. The only other alternative was to defer another year, but considering the quality of the management decisions at the WPT God knows if they’ll even be around in another year.

Late April: Leave Las Vegas to go to Wisconsin and properly visit home for the first time in years. There are friends and family I haven’t seen in Wisconsin for between two and six years, and this will likely be my last time to catch up with them properly for another few. I’ve got cousins who are teens now that I remember as tiny children, and friends that I haven’t caught up with since high school who I’d still love to see. Hopefully most of them will be receptive and as cool as I remember, though I imagine a lot has changed. As far as most people in Wisconsin know one day four years ago I said I was going to Australia and would be back in six months then was never seen again.

Late May: Leave Wisconsin for Las Vegas to play in the WSOP and Bellagio Cup V. It appears I’ll be getting a house with my “fellow” Australians, and possibly Sirwatts as well. I had a great time with all the guys I roomed with last year, but this is just sort of the way things have wound up this time. I imagine I’ll be doing a shit ton of volume again this year, and hopefully that can lead to similar or better results than last year. I have a feeling I won’t be able to swap as well though.

Mid July: At the end of the WSOP I’ll be leaving Vegas to go visit for New York City for a few days. I’ve never been there and have several friends in the city, and it seems like a cool place to stop off in order to reduce the travel time to my next destination.

Mid July: Leave New York for Kenya. I’ve decided to volunteer in an orphanage there for roughly five weeks. I’ve always rejected the idea that “poker players contribute nothing/are a drain to society” but I still can’t escape the idea that I really haven’t done much with my life other than play cards. I’ve lived on three continents so far and this seems like a great way to have an interesting experience living on a fourth, plus do something that would feel a bit more rewarding than doing math problems on my computer home alone.

Late August: Leave Kenya and stop over in Dubai for a few days. I know a couple people there and it seems like an interesting place to stop off, especially since it will cut down the flight time to my next destination. From the pictures I’ve seen and stories I’ve heard about Dubai it’s one of those places everyone should see once before they die. They’re building a skyscraper that will be nearly double the height of the world’s next tallest building. That’s fucking absurd.

Late August or early September: Leave Dubai for Macau for the Pokerstars APPT Macau. They haven’t announced dates for this yet but it was around this time last year and I’m told is likely to be around the same date. If for some reason it’s not I’ll pick some other tournament in Asia around the same time to go to and simply hang around Kenya and Dubai for a few extra weeks if it’s more down the line than I thought.

Early September: This seems like the most likely return time to Melbourne. I won’t know for certain for some time when the exact date will be, but around this time looks probable. I imagine I’ll want to take it easy for a while after that.

So there it is, five months of non stop travel, about 150 days in total with a full circumference of the world. And of course, I’ll be writing the whole thing. I won’t be approaching any companies attempting to sell it this time because creative control is important to me and I know for certain the blog will contain things most poker sites don’t want to endorse, such as degeneracy (not by me), sex, drug use, stereotype jokes, and the occasional rant about why such and such name player is a huge douchebag.

If some site out there wants to talk to me about buying it I’m open minded, but don’t waste your time if you want even the slightest creative control. The only things I’d be willing to have edited are grammar and spelling and any cutting of the content will not be tolerated. I don’t care how much money I’m offered when it comes to that issue, I will not edit it. I write because I enjoy it, not to take a paycheck.

Edit: Just remembered I really need to stop by Fresno too. I'll work that in either before or after the WSOP. See all my friends at Kyle's casino soon.