PokerStars Game #16237379183: Tournament #82198404, $75+$7 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2025/03/25 - 10:00:01 (ET)
Table '82198404 1' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: s0stndrd (4800 in chips)
Seat 5: xPopsicleJrx (6285 in chips)
Seat 7: Canuck_BC (2415 in chips)
xPopsicleJrx: posts small blind 100
Canuck_BC: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to s0stndrd [7h 8s]
s0stndrd: calls 200
xPopsicleJrx: raises 345 to 545
Canuck_BC: folds
s0stndrd: calls 345
*** FLOP *** [9s Qs 7s]
xPopsicleJrx: bets 540
s0stndrd: calls 540
*** TURN *** [9s Qs 7s] [5s]
xPopsicleJrx: bets 550
s0stndrd: calls 550
*** RIVER *** [9s Qs 7s 5s] [6s]
xPopsicleJrx: bets 2050
s0stndrd: raises 1115 to 3165 and is all-in
xPopsicleJrx: calls 1115
*** SHOW DOWN ***
s0stndrd: shows [7h 8s] (a straight flush, Five to Nine)
xPopsicleJrx: shows [5c As] (a flush, Ace high)
s0stndrd collected 9800 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9800 | Rake 0
Board [9s Qs 7s 5s 6s]
Seat 3: s0stndrd (button) showed [7h 8s] and won (9800) with a straight flush, Five to Nine
Seat 5: xPopsicleJrx (small blind) showed [5c As] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 7: Canuck_BC (big blind) folded before Flop

Against villain who had been raising plenty, I decided to call with position and play some poker. I seriously thought I was ahead on turn and obviously on the river knew I was good. God bless one outter perfects.

PokerStars Game #16237394674: Tournament #82198404, $75+$7 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2025/03/25 - 10:01:09 (ET)
Table '82198404 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 3: s0stndrd (9800 in chips)
Seat 5: xPopsicleJrx (1485 in chips)
Seat 7: Canuck_BC (2215 in chips)
Canuck_BC: posts small blind 100
s0stndrd: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to s0stndrd [Qh 4s]
xPopsicleJrx: raises 1285 to 1485 and is all-in
Canuck_BC: folds
s0stndrd: calls 1285
*** FLOP *** [4d Qs 3s]
*** TURN *** [4d Qs 3s] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [4d Qs 3s Td] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
s0stndrd: shows [Qh 4s] (two pair, Queens and Fours)
xPopsicleJrx: shows [9s Tc] (two pair, Tens and Nines)
s0stndrd collected 3070 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3070 | Rake 0
Board [4d Qs 3s Td 9c]
Seat 3: s0stndrd (big blind) showed [Qh 4s] and won (3070) with two pair, Queens and Fours
Seat 5: xPopsicleJrx (button) showed [9s Tc] and lost with two pair, Tens and Nines
Seat 7: Canuck_BC (small blind) folded before Flop

Just to rub it in some - flop top two and villain makes runner runner two pair.

Say it with me: s0stndrd is a luckbox...

On the back of my Sunday Million win earlier in the month and being the first Australian to take down the big weekly Sunday tournament, PokerStars last night held a special $22 (ie one in 10 go through) Australians-only Sunday Million satellite with five seats added to the prize pool by PokerStars.

I can’t remember the last time I played an Australian-only tournament, but the event was certainly plenty of fun and held at a great time. Ty Lee Jones indeed! To the good folk at Stars: any chance of running this event regularly? I’m sure many Aussies really appreciated the chance to play a well-priced satellite at a Godly hour. And if you want to throw in extra packages again, I’m sure you wouldn’t get too many complaints from us Antipodeans…

Many thanks to everyone who shouted out to me during the event – whether it was for the score or my “Champagne Comedy” at the FT! Regrettably, the invite for anyone in South Perth to come around for beer was only good during the final table on March 2.

Lasted ‘til a little after the first break when I ran my AK from the BB into the CO’s KK when he raised and the SB flat called. Fairly standard and I justifiably didn’t hit a three outter. In the end, 21 seats were given out and there looked to be a few Perth players among the chip leaders including an amiable local lad by the name of “I am Christ” who took my abysmal jokes with good grace and reverence.

After taking a new approach to Stars’ WSOP Steps tournaments, I’m pleased to say that after starting with 10 Step Twos on Friday night, I managed to win my way through to a Step Six on Saturday night. Originally the plan was to play my Step Six on Monday along with the Sunday Mill but just as I finished my Step Five, I noticed that there was a Step Six with six players already registered out of the nine that are needed to get a game going so decided to just join that one.

Obviously table selection is something I need to work on as there was a pretty tough line up of hombres in the tournament – as my post-registration OPR’ing would reveal. Even better was my seat at the table to the left of Nordberg who was opening plenty of pots. Sigh. At least the slow structure – especially refreshing after weathering the turbo structure of the early Steps tournaments – meant that the need to pick up hands and +cEV spots wasn’t as pressing.

For those that don’t know, the Stars WSOP Steps program is a six-tiered tournament that players can join at any tier in the hope of winning a 12.5k Stars WSOP package. While it costs 2k to buy-in directly to a Step Six final, in theory a player could get to poker’s big dance for just a $6.50 investment to buy into a Step One and then winning their way through to the final. It’s a great idea and offers players with bankrolls of any size an opportunity to satellite their way into big events (Steps are also used in the LAPT, EPT and PCA events too) for a minimal outlay.

Anyhow, while most people have their eyes set on first prize, places two through to six pay out a cash prize ranging from $1500 for second and third through to $500 for sixth, so while that doesn’t look so hot compared to the $2k buy-in, for luckboxes (luckboxen anyone?) like me who make it to a Step Six through the feeder system, it provides an opportunity to turn a tidy profit. Anyhow, I end up busting to fourth after reraising Nordberg who’d been opening almost every pot with A5, only to collide head-on into his AJ. No surprises and tyvm mr s0stndrd, here’s 1k for your efforts. Lol ok gg etc etc repeat ad lib to fade.

And now for an obligatory “Look how bad I played this hand” post – early stages of 55k GTD running concurrently with today’s Sunday Million. Just broke previous table so no PT stats. Obviously I need Viagra for both my preflop and flop bets…

PokerStars Game #16197050391: Tournament #80995643, $50+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2025/03/23 - 17:41:25 (ET)
Table '80995643 166' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: theclown21 (1670 in chips)
Seat 2: Toreandre22 (3290 in chips)
Seat 3: Beund2 (3070 in chips)
Seat 4: VANish_604 (1475 in chips)
Seat 5: s0stndrd (2935 in chips)
Seat 6: HR_Dub (2620 in chips)
Seat 7: 666DAA (3070 in chips)
Seat 8: discobuch (6845 in chips)
Seat 9: 4Criminoles! (2025 in chips)
discobuch: posts small blind 25
4Criminoles!: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to s0stndrd [Qd Qh]
theclown21: folds
Toreandre22: raises 150 to 200
Beund2: calls 200
VANish_604: folds
s0stndrd: raises 500 to 700
HR_Dub: folds
666DAA: folds
discobuch: folds
4Criminoles!: folds
Toreandre22: calls 500
Beund2: calls 500
*** FLOP *** [Qs As Tc]
Toreandre22: bets 250
Beund2: calls 250
s0stndrd: raises 950 to 1200
Toreandre22: raises 1390 to 2590 and is all-in
Beund2: calls 2120 and is all-in
s0stndrd: calls 1035 and is all-in
s0stndrd said, "set v set cooler i think"
*** TURN *** [Qs As Tc] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [Qs As Tc 8h] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Toreandre22: shows [Ac Jh] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
Beund2: shows [7s 9s] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Beund2 collected 270 from side pot
s0stndrd: shows [Qd Qh] (three of a kind, Queens)
Beund2 collected 8880 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9150 Main pot 8880. Side pot 270. | Rake 0
Board [Qs As Tc 8h Jd]
Seat 1: theclown21 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Toreandre22 showed [Ac Jh] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 3: Beund2 showed [7s 9s] and won (9150) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 4: VANish_604 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: s0stndrd showed [Qd Qh] and lost with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 6: HR_Dub folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: 666DAA (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: discobuch (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: 4Criminoles! (big blind) folded before Flop

Still in Stars Sunday Mill and Second Chance plus UB 200k. Here we go again! insert web page name here

A bit of a nice surprise! Bring on Australian Stars Millions winner number #2!

Originally posted on my blog how a luckbox ran like God for 10 hours as "ty lee jones - the director's cut"

Or the story of ‘s0stndrd’ winning the March 2 edition of the Sunday Million.

I won’t be presumptuous enough to say that everyone wants to win the PokerStars Sunday Million, but I don’t think too many would question the prestige of the event, easily the biggest Sunday major tournament week-in and week-out. In fact, excluding special editions of the tournament, the 8000-strong field that anted up the $200+$15 buy-in for the March 2 PokerStars Sunday Million was the biggest on record, generating a prize pool slowly edging towards the almost unbelievable $2m mark.

From a bankroll management point of view, this tournament was well out of my price range. Being a $50NL player and regular in the $11 rebuys, the amount in my account on Sunday night Perth-time (about t-minus eight hours to the Sunday Million kick off) was all but screaming at me not to play the Millions, especially as my efforts to satellite in through double-shootouts, $39 satellites and rebuys all proved fruitless.

But while money talks, the decision ultimately resides with the man. And when the man considered all the factors including running bad (QQ never holding up vs AKs, the standard two-outters on the river and a very memorable flopped king-high flush losing to a runner-runner straight flush that the other person didn’t even see until the dealer pushed the chips his way) and the following day being a public holiday and one of the rare opportunities said man could play the Sunday majors, what to do became obvious. Get the credit card out and transfer enough funds to play the Million, with a little surplus to also give the Sunday Hundred Grand a crack too.

In preparation for an almost perverse 5.30am wake-up (on a public holiday of all days!) and not to mention pre-empting a spate of Future Music after-parties once the crowds had left Wellington Square and returned to the ‘burbs, I got an early night, looking forward to a morning playing poker on-line.

When I had registered for the event, there was somewhere in the area of 4000 runners. By close to 6.30am Perth time, the starting field had done a pretty handy soufflé impersonation, doubling in size to more than 8000 runners – a phenomenal figure and comparable to WSOP Main Event numbers. Coupled with 10k starting stacks and a slow’ish structure, this was going to be no done-by-lunchtime walk in the park.

While I had previously satellited into the Millions with a previous account (I have since lost log-in and ‘misplaced’ my bankroll), this was the first Sunday Millions I had bought in to directly. I figured that I had been running so badly with flips and rivers that I was probably due for a change of fortune soon and tackled my first table with a sense of optimism.

It took less than a couple of orbits to realise that my first table was the starting table from hell. Button raising and c-betting the flop? No-one was having it – and that’s if your opening raise wasn’t being re-popped in multiple spots. My tourney campaign looked close to being over before it had the chance to begin when my opponent called my five-bet shove pre-flop with pocket kings at the first blind level of 50/100. Amazingly, he didn’t have the dreaded aces but the other two cowboys in the deck so chop-chop we went with split blinds all we had to show for what happened.

A few levels later, I once again got it in pre-flop with KK vs an aggressive player’s AKs, though it would be no split pot this time. My hand held up and I found myself with 20k+ in chips and a little breathing room. Later, trip aces on the turn that turned to quads by the river helped amass a 30k+ stack and surprisingly, ‘s0stndrd’ was among the early chip leaders. Not that that meant much with 7,500 players still in the hunt for the 200k first prize.

Breaking the tournament into one-hour chunks, I slowly chipped up and continued picking up momentum with some timely assistance from the deck and dealer. Soon, the field was on the money bubble and amazingly, I wasn’t in the danger zone and could take advantage of shorter stacks trying to desperately cling on until the bubble burst. Then just like that, unlucky number 1315 fell and everyone had cashed including one relieved luckbox from South Perth, Western Australia. I had at least turned a profit on my buy-in (incidentally, and not that it means much, I’ve since discovered a friend of mine who I rate as an excellent tournament player has played the Millions 50-odd times without cashing). Everything from now on would be cream.

As the tournament was progressing, I was (ironically) using an old pay slip to keep track of the various pay bracket cut-offs. While I agree that you need to play to win, you can’t win without gradually moving up the pay scale. While it does happen occasionally, it’s rare for a single chip leader to dominate an entire tournament from start to finish. As the various bubbles kept bursting, I continued to keep my head above water and slowly, my pay packet for the day grew, level by level.

As is the norm, I kept my close poker (and indeed, life) mates Aaron and Ash up to date with my progress. By just after lunchtime, I got a phone call from Ash who had had dim sum on Leach Highway and was on the way home. “Do you mind if I drop past?” Does Gen Y care about the slow death of the English language? Of course not! Not only did a knock on the door herald Ash’s arrival, so too did pocket kings in late position. The signs looked good.

Ignoring the fact that by about 1pm, all I had eaten the entire day was a leftover chocolate croissant from the day over, it probably wasn’t clever thinking to start opening beers, but when there’s Knappsteins and Pepperjacks to be drunk, my rubber arm doesn’t need much twisting. The brews were going down far too easily and helped me relax (and not to mention get a little excited and talk it up a little bit after one smarmy comment too many in the chat window) as the tournament went on.

By the time I was guaranteed a four-figure payday, Aaron, Lys (who are getting married today, congratulations guys!) and their daughter Caitlyn had also made their way over and soon, there was a small crowd gathered around my widescreen Dell lappy. Finally approaching the final few tables, I made an essential double-up when I open-shoved with AQo in LP only to run into JJ. A king-high flop was no good, but then 10 on the turn gave me some additional gut shut outs (okay, hit your set now JJ). The queen on the river was massive and the study room of our little South Perth apartment erupted in celebration. Then a few hands later, flopping a third queen with pocket queens versus aces and suddenly, your favourite poker player’s favourite poker player was back in the game.

Down to 10 players spread across two tables of five, the final table bubble was excruciating. Eventually, a short stack’s 99 ran into my JJ and the nine-person final table had been set. The prospect of a five-figure payout suddenly became very real. Obligatory shout-outs were broadcast via the chatbox and then it was back to business.

A few eliminations (and the five-figure score locked up!) later, I got very lucky to luckbox a mountain of chips when I rivered a full-house with 88 against a loose opponent that flopped trip aces with A2 on an A-x-A flop.

Once the field had been whittled down to three, I once again found myself as the short stack. Fortunately while playing the role of table bully,vm1124 shoved on my big blind when I was dealt pocket kings and I again enjoyed a much-needed double up. Then when vm1124’s once-upon-a-time dominated 8-3o out-flopped DrunkPPlaya’s 8-9o, I found myself heads-up – albeit with a significant chip deficit – for 200k and title of Sunday Mills champ.

After winning a big pot with Qc-8c that turned a flush and bridged the gap between our chip stacks, I proposed a chop. While chip count dictated a 145k/135k chop (with 30k in the middle for the winner) vm1124 wanted 5k more making it 150/130. As it was my first time at the dance, nerves got the better of me and I took the –EV deal (which has been the topic of plenty of forum chat) but was still stoked to be able to pay off my mortgage before the age of 29.

I then ran like Tamsyn Lewis heads-up and on hand 15, went with my gut feeling that Ad-5d was ahead of my opponent’s four-bet all-in range on the button and called his shove. The hunch proved correct and while I had to sweat some additional outs after flopping a five, Lee Jones managed to come good at the best possible time and in a frenzy of yelling, “Hold! Hold!” and “one time!”, my friends and I celebrated a never-to-be-forgotten victory with punching, hugging, screaming and shouting.

Funnily: a few months ago in one of my greatest New Years Eves ever, Ash, Aaron and I - together with our respective partners - were drinking Champagne in a spa and celebrating life. During the festivities, I toasted one of us making a big five-figure (yeah, we’re ballers for real) this year. I wasn’t sure who was going to come through with the goods (and if any one of us would) but felt that we had paid our dues and something big was on the horizon. But even with this flicker of hope inside of me, if someone had predicted that someone I knew – let alone me personally – was going to outlast 8000 others in a Sunday Mills, I would have been more than just a little skeptical.

Following a lot of celebrating and a pounding headache come Tuesday morning, afternoon and evening, I discovered that I was the first Australian to take out the Mills which was surprising as I thought one of the Card Academy guys might have done it or perhaps Adelaide sensation Andy Macleod has already notched up a big Mills win, but after checking with various reputable sources, it looked like I was indeed the first. And my timing couldn’t have been better (unlike my deal negotiating) with 8000 runners ensuring a healthy payday.

Even more amusing, this was the first tournament I’ve ever actually won, or at least a tournament with more than 15 people.

My feet are still floating a few inches off the ground. No matter what happens to me poker-wise from here, I like to think I’ll be forever remembered as the first Australian to take home the Sunday Mills on Stars. As I said to my friends, I don’t think it gets bigger than this in terms of on-line achievements. I sincerely wish everyone all the best with achieving their poker dreams and hope that more Aussies start taking down big events online soon.

Last night after reading up about a few different rooms, decide to extend the s0stndrd "empire" into UB-ville and after downloading and depositing some money, bought into a $5 tourney to get the feel of the software.

Nice interface (looking down to see life size kings is kind of cool) but still not quite as good as Stars imho. I quickly busted in the tourney and decided to play a $5r to the 200k GTD on Sunday. After taking four rebuys and an add-on and not picking up too many hands, I woke up with Q Q behind a shove and a reshove and hurt my hand clicking call as fast as possible. No surprises vs 10-10 and 2-2 and suddenly I have a stack. Everything goes pretty smooth from there and I eventually take down a seat - nice start!

If anyone was playing with me, I was apologise at not being very talkative: I wasn't trying to snub anyone, it's just that I had no idea where the chat button was!

Now to try and figure out how UB works with PT and PAHUD...

Last night we also celebrated being mortgage-free with dinner at a local Japanese and a bottle of '99 Pol Roger Rose (see Polaroid above) captured above in the-soon-to-be-defunct Polaroid format. Both the wine and food were excellent and memorable ways to mark a magical day!