I'm back from the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia. I got down there last Saturday not sure if I was playing on Sunday or Monday in the $10k(Australian) which is about $8300 USD. Thankfully, I drew the Monday starting day so I had Sunday to adjust to the time change and relax. In the afternoon Sunday I was playing some turbo SNG's and happened to chat with online tournament master Tmay420 and asked him what table he was at the following day in Australia. As luck would have it, he was at my starting table, along with another player in the same SNG, Jeff Madsen (who was seated to my direct left). Online player Ocrowe was also at the table. The rest of the players were pretty straightforward and tight.
The second hand of the tournament, I opened to 300 with AsKs (we started with 20,000 in chips) and was re-raised by a local to 900. I called, and the flop came down AK8. I checked, the local bet 2,000 and I called. The turn was a ten and I checked again and the player bet 5,000 and I called. Only two hands into the tournament its so hard to get a read here. I have a very strong hand, and I have no idea how this guy plays. I still think he could easily have the same hand as me here or even AQ. The river was a jack, and now just a queen made a straight. I checked, the player bet all in, and I folded. He later said that he had a set of aces, but he never showed. So after two hands I'm down to 12,000 but it didn't really bother me, with 90 minute levels, I felt like I had a great chance to come back.
I began to play a lot of hands because most of our table was quite tight. Madsen liked to call me and had position but I held my own against him. One big hand we played was when I raised with 99 and the flop came T87. I bet the flop and Madsen called after a little bit of thought. The turn was another 8 and I thought this was a pretty good card to bet since it would put a lot of pressure on him if he had a ten or a draw. He quickly called, and his call lead me to believe that he had a hand like tens full. When the 6 rolled off on the river, and I had roughly the size of the pot left in my stack, I really had no idea what I should do. I felt like I still might be beat so I ended up checking, which ended up being a huge mistake. Jeff checked behind with QQ and I missed the opportunity to bet about 4 or 5k there on the end and have him look me up. Our table broke and I had about my starting stack.
At my new table I recognized no one, and that was just fine with me. We were still at the 100/2o0/25 level and I opened a lot of pots at my new table with not much resistance. On one hand, the SB limped, and I made it 700 in the BB with JTo. He quickly called, and the flop was J63 two hearts. He bet out 2000 (?) into the pot and I decided to call. The turn was another heart and he bet out 3000 and I decided to call. The river was a 7 and he checked, and he showed 79 and my hand was good. That got me to about 28k -
During the next level an active cutoff made it 900 and the SB and I both called (I had Tc7c). The flop was all clubs and everyone checked. The turn was a blank and the SB bet 500, I made it 3000, the cutoff folded, and the SB made it 10300 total with about 9500 behind. I thought for a bit before moving him in for the rest of his stack, he shrugged and called with 8c9c (drawing dead) and suddenly I had 50k. The player that replaced him was an interesting story. He had quite a few chips, but wasn't playing many pots at all and he seemed pretty inexperienced. Finally, he opened for 1500 at the 200/400/50 level and I called utg+1 with 88. The flop was a wonderful K83 rainbow and he bet out 3000. I decided that there was no way this guy was going to fold KQ or better so I raised to 8000. He thought a while and folded.
He then went on one of the biggest rushes I have ever seen. I'm going to try and remember and describe the hands because they are hilarious. Really tight passive SB open limps for 600. Maniac makes it 5500 in the BB, SB then goes all in for 18k with AQ. BB calls with 87 and wins. Tight player opens for 2000 in the cutoff, maniac makes it 8700 total, CO jams, mainac calls. JhTx for maniac TT for CO, flop is all hearts but maniac somehow misses. Active player opens for 1600 at 300/600, maniac makes it 3200, BB jams for 180000 total, maniac calls with KJs and beats AK. Maniac open limps, I limp behind, SB folds, BB checks. Flop is 543, BB bets out (BB is same guy that had the tens last hand), maniac instantly raises, I fold, BB goes all in for some huge amount, maniac insta calls with AA and beats the BB's 65o. Last level of the day 400/800. Maniac opens for 5800 UTG, new player cold calls with about 50k behind. Flop is ten high, maniac instantly goes all in, cold caller folds, maniac shows a set of tens (and wonders aloud whether he could have 'milked' him for more money). Player opens for 2500, new tight player makes it 10000 leaving himself 10000 or so, maniac is in the BB and declares all in. First player folds, tight player has AA, I folded T5, maniac has TT and wins vs AA. Maniac open limps on the button, I complete in the SB, BB makes it 5000 more, maniac instantly goes all in, both fold, maniac shows AA. Somehow the maniac gets it in with 66 vs KK, and after the 589 flop, we know its all over, maniac gets there on the river. At one point, he opened for 3800 UTG and I had KK UTG+1, I decided to go all in because he had never folded to a re-raise... so it was like 42,000 to him and he thought forever before folding QJs... man, what a bad beat that fold was for me. So then Gus Hansen comes to the table, whom I've never played with. But I know he likes to gamble, and has an award winning head. He played a fairly hilarious ten minute hand with the maniac, where Gus opened for 2200, got cold called, then the maniac made it 5300, Gus thought forever before making it 10k more, then the maniac thought forever before making it 20k more. Gus then thought forever X 2 before folding.
So I finished day 1 with 50k and awoke to find the ugly table draw that had Patrick Antonius (who's name in Finnish means I'm Better Than You at Everything) who only had 315k after day 1. I solicited some advice from some of my poker pro friends, one of which said don't play pots with him. So when he opened under the gun and got cold called in one spot obviously I had to call with KTs on the button. The flop came KT5 two hearts and it was checked to me and I bet 7k. Then, Patrick makes it 23k. The other guy folds so obviously I go all in and Patrick calls with Ah5h. Normally, I would feel good about my chances here, but as my buddy Carl looks on and starts laughing at the inevitable bad beat that is about to occur, the 6h rolls off on the river and I'm out. I felt a lot better though, after viewing this video where Patrick bemoans his bad luck from the day before. We all feel really sorry for you losing all those pots with the best hand, Patrick.
So after I busted out, Carl and I started having a few beers, then Brandon busted out to some asshat. So the three of us met up with some Australian dude from Newcastle that is a member of 2+2. We went out to some place called St. Kilda, which in Australian means "Beach of the flies".
A couple of days later, Carl, Brandon and I headed to the Australian Open tennis matches, where I won a $400 AUS betting on this guy to win a 5th set against the dimmunitive Belgian-who-we-thought-was-German-at-the-time. It was very exciting and I won. Obviously, I felt sorry so when we headed over to the next match I began accepting bets from Carl and Brandon over the Haas vs Serbian-Bum-Who-I-Thought-Was-Good. We had a lot of action on this match, and on the first point of the match the Serb went to return a Haas' serve and let go of his racquet. Normally, I would say this isn't a good sign, but I stuck with my horse. Little did I know this guy was the Phil Hellmuth of tennis, he tilted like some guy who took 10 consecutive 2 outers on the river and folded like a cheap suit.
After that is a bit of a blur, we went back to the hotel, had a bunch of cocktails and Carl and I tried to convince Gavin and Jeff to play 2/3 NL with us. They declined, citing the excuse that they were too cool for us. Carl quickly began to stretch the rules of the Crown Casino. During one of his usual episodes where the dealer dealt him out three times an orbit, he didn't think that being cutoff really meant that he couldn't drink anymore, so when he tried to get someone else to give him a drink, 6 big guys in dark suits escorted him out of the casino. All in all, I was happy to have the pest on my left out of the poker game, but my flight was taking off in a few hours so I had to get some rest.
Next up, Borgata in Atlantic City for the 5k and 10k buy-ins.
