Holiday Bonus - Commerce, WPT Boot Camp - Bahamas, 5 Diamond - Bellagio

Holiday Bonus Tournament – Commerce

This was my first tournament since coming back from the islands. I had rather disappointing showings in both Turks and Aruba, so I was looking forward to playing again after taking a bit of a break.

This was a $2500 buy-in, which as we know isn’t a ton of money in the world of poker, but it was high time I got back to my auto-cashing ways.

It’s weird though. I hadn’t played a tournament in the states in a few months, and of all the places in the world, I had to pick The Commerce. Yes, it’s in Los Angeles, but I think there is more English being spoken at the casinos in Europe than there is at The Commerce.

I’m used to this though, as I’ve been playing in LA my whole life, but one thing has changed: people know who I am now. I have to say that I hate it. It’s really turned me off to live poker as of late. Sure, having fans is really great (yes, please keep reading my blog) but for some reason people think that because they’ve seen you on tv that they know you. Here is a list of things, even if they’ve seen me on TV, strangers are still not allowed to do:

• Ask me to borrow money
• Ask for my phone number
• Try to borrow cash
• Tell me I look fat on TV
• See if I’ll put you in a game
• Request a pair of my underwear
• Hit me up for a loan

Anyways.

I hovered around 20k for most of day one of this tournament. Eventually the blinds and antes got pretty high, and I doubled up the shortstack at my table. There’s this guy at another table playing like a complete maniac, and he’s totally crushing peoples’ souls. The guy can’t miss. I’m busy watching this guy’s antics and folding more cheese than a burrito chef. Before you know it – blam! I’m headed to day two. The only problem is…I’m dead last in chips.

Did I mention that I’ve live in LA my whole life? You would think because of this that I’d eventually learn two things: 1) Everything comes with cilantro. 2) Leaving my house two hours early isn’t enough time to travel the 22 miles to The Commerce.

There was some sort of nonsense happening on the 5 Freeway that day. Dead stopped traffic. In LA this could mean anything from a 55-car pileup to a bunch of interesting looking garbage on the shoulder. Regardless, I was the shortstack, and I would easily have blinded off within two rounds. Whether or not there was a breakdown on the freeway, there was certainly about to be one inside my car.

For once in my life it was lucky that I don’t know how to get anywhere in LA, and I was saved by my GPS. I got there and had only missed one hand. It was my big blind, unfortunately. But, believe it or not, I didn’t play a single hand until the next time the blinds came around. It was the lowest I had ever been in a tournament, but luckily I doubled up and managed to hang on until the money.

I stole here and there, and doubled up once or twice more as I got short, but I never really got my stack up very much. The crazy-ass from the day before was now at my table, and he was up to his old tricks. Luckily I was able to stay out of his way most of the day (he had aces 5 times). I did have one interesting hand, where I flopped a full house with 7-2 in the big blind, and quadrupled up, but I was so low, I still didn’t have anything to write home about.

I ended up finishing in 12th place, which was pretty ok by me. No, it’s not a win. But it was good to cash again. I have to give myself a little bit of credit, because I really didn’t get any cards this tournament. There weren’t any aces left after Mr. Maniac, I guess. By the way, Mr. Maniac’s real name is Maze Orillo, and he went on to win the tournament.

Other than cashing, the best part of this tournament was getting to play with my old friend, Roberto Durant on day two. I was in a pretty grumbly mood around all the negative energy of The Commerce. The people there are so angry. You’d think they’re playing for fingers and toes or something. Robert is a stellar player though, and a cash game specialist. Playing with him made things fun for me again, which is why it was so easy not to just ship it in with the first couple of hands I saw. Typically I’m pretty decent at working the short stack, but with someone like Robert at the table, it makes me want to stick around all that much more.

WPT Boot Camp - Bahamas

Next up…Bahamas!! Whoo!! Give it up for The Bahamas!! Right!? Who’s with me!? No? Me neither. I know. I’m a brat. I have to say that I like any country that has a “The” in front of it. Come on! How much better would things be if there were such places at “The Germany,” “The Japan,” and “The Iraq.” Anyways, I wasn’t too excited to go to The Bahamas. But, it was pretty much an offer I couldn’t refuse.

The guys who run the WPT Boot Camp invited me to come teach at their marquee event that goes on down there every year. Free trip. Free room. Free roll. The best part is: the winner of the free roll wins another free roll. Several, actually. That’s right. The winner of this freeroll wins their buy-ins for the ENTIRE NEXT WPT SEASON. If this is a camp, that makes this tournament the end-of-summer talent show, and that makes first prize for singing Bel Biv DeVoe’s “Poison” over a hundred thousand dollars - and the chance to win oh so much more.

The week started off with us pros having to address the entire camp. There were 20 of us. Here’s the premise “You’re backing someone in their first $10k event, and you only have five minutes to give them advice. Go.” I would have to say that this is a bit of nonsense. I’m not handing ten dimes over to someone who’s never played before (see my rules above). But, I went ahead and said what I thought “Play your game. Don’t be nervous. Don’t be afraid to gamble.” I imagine that some of these “campers” heads were spinning even before the end of day one, as some of the other advice they received was “Change your game. Play tight. Don’t be afraid to fold Kings prelfop.” I’m serious. Someone said that.

The rest of the week was fun enough. Most of the campers are just happy to be there. All you really do is deal out sit and go’s and tell them what to do. I feel a little guilty though, because poker is the most situational game ever. Nothing is right all the time. Nothing is wrong all the time. Unfortunately, for novices, people tend to teach in unconditional rules. It’s a little unfair, but I guess it’s the only way to start for people who are brand new to the game.

The free roll was pretty forgettable. Not a single pro made it to the final table. Some lucky camper is going to be putting his boot camp skills to work next year!

I didn’t play much while I was there, except for when Clonie had to go to the bathroom, I played her chips for her. Unfortunately for Kenna James she got dealt Aces, and while I would have liked to try to play them slow to get all of his money, I couldn’t do that with Clonie’s chips. Something about it seemed unethical. Unfortunately for Kenna, he couldn’t resist shipping them all in anyway. It was a nice feeling to have Clonie come back and have added a few bucks to her stack.

Doyle Brunson Five Diamond

I still don’t think I’ve recovered from this tournament yet. I look forward to this tournament all year. It’s a $15k event, as opposed to the usual $10k, so this means that you get more chips, and the prize pools are always huge. Over $2 million for first place seems like a good time to win my first major event. I was feeling really great about this tournament, I knew good things were going to happen here. It was my time.

I lasted four hours.

I managed to create the perfect storm of bad play and bad luck, and made it back to LA in time for the 11 o’clock news.

Here are some things that happened:

I flop middle set, and have top pair call me all the way down to make runner runner straight and I paid him off.

I move in with Queens when I’m short and get called by three people, and I’m eventually busted by the dude with pocket 3’s when he flops a set.

I can go on, but seriously. Here’s the formula:

I did something right, then I got a little unlucky, then I did something wrong. Lather, rinse, and repeat.


It’s 2008 now, and there is no time like the present. Here are my New Year’s resolutions that I gave to All-In Magazine…

1) Stop getting Kings shoved up my ass.
2) Breed and train a monkey to play poker in my place so railbirds will stop asking me for money.
3) Start using terms like 'nh' and 'gg' in real life. ROFL.
4) Find the horseshoe that fell out of Roland DeWolf's ass and stick it up my own.
5) Stop busting myself (especially with less than an hour to go before the end of the day).
6) Find out who at Activision is in charge of the CGI Kristy Gazes and put him in a sleeper hold.
7) Be the first woman to win an open WPT event.
8) Get my ex-husband Bill to change his name.

Alright. I’ve got to run. My plane to Australia leaves in a few days, and I’m trying to learn my lesson about LA traffic.

The Bike, Ladies Night and the islands...

Hola...

Where to begin? I guess I'll start with "F U Joe
Sebok." Well, not really. Joe's a good kid and I
like him a lot, but he's pretty much responsible for
crushing my dreams at this year's Legends of Poker at
the Bike.
I went into this tournament feeling really good, as
the Bike is technically my "home turf." I couldn't
think of a better way to come off a lousy world series
by winning my first WPT title in my own backyard.
I was cruising along pretty good on day one, with
about 50,000 in chips. About three quarters of the
way through the day, I got moved to Joe's table, to
his right, is generally the case in poker when someone
busts you, he's the one person at the table who had me
covered. When the blinds were still as little as
200-400 I raised to 1,200 with pocket kings. For
those of you who've read my previous blogs, you'll
know I've had more kings shoved up my butt than Bobby
Fisher's last fifty opponents. Today was no
different.
Sebok reraises me to 4,500. Joe and I have become
pretty friendly as of late, and while nobody really
soft plays each other, I thought that following up
with another reraise to 13,500 would be enough to let
the kid know I had a hand. Nay.
"Seebs," as they call him, shoved in for the rest of
his 50k+ stack on me, and I was pretty sure I was
forced to call. If he had aces, he had aces. I
called. Turns out he only had one ace. Turns out one
was all he needed. And it turns out he only needed
one card to get there: the river. I later read on
Card Player that in the ever-growing poker slang Joe
gave to me what's known as a "Se-beat" (made famous by
Sebok for the number of bad beats he's taken over the
past few years) and on the river he actually
"Greensteined" me (catching an ace on the river, like
the title of Barry's book, to eliminate an opponent).
I'm now a part of poker slang history! Riveting.
My only wish was that Joe would take those chips and
win the damn thing! Unfortunately, his reverse
Se-beats only worked on poor old Kristy as he was bad
beat (again) to bubble the WPT TV final table (again)
in 7th place (again).

It was all good though, as I was going to have to
bring my ass through LA traffic once again and back to
the Bike that Friday for the invitation only WPT
Ladies Night!!! Owwwww!!!!! Ladies night! Two for
one drinks! No cover charge! Yeeeaaahhh!!!
Meeting in the ladies room!! Sorry, I turned into an actual lady for a second.
It was an honor to be invited to this year's Ladies Night. It was a tough
line-up, which featured Mimi Tran, Melissa "Red" Hayden", JJ Liu,
Pamela "Queen Kitty" Brunson and one of my toughest cash game poker foes, Linda Johnson.It was especially a treat because it was in LA
that my closest friends and family all got to be there and cheer me on.
I've had various friends and family members come watch
before, but never all at once, and oddly enough it was
the first time in my 16-year career that my mother had
ever come to watch my play poker. I guess that seems
odd to some people, but let me ask you this: How many
of your mothers come to your cublicles and watch you
type up TPS reports? None? Ok. So it's not so weird
then, is it?
I decided before play even started that I was going
just have fun. It's easy to say this, but it's a lot
more difficult to do it. Fortunately, JJ Liu made it
really easy on me by busting herself and doubling me
up on the first hand. I like to say it was on some
masterful play that I made, but she just went a little
crazy with top pair, when I had flopped a set, and
called off all her chips when I made a full house on
the river! I have to cut JJ some slack though,
because I think she gave birth literally 5 minutes before game time.

After that I played a little bit like a maniac. If
someone wanted to play, I was generally going to make
them play for most or all of their chips. I was like
one of those people who only watch poker on TV, so the
only move they know is "all-in." I shoved with some
pretty craptastic hands, and never got called, so
it'll be interesting to see what people laid down to
me on TV. I ended up losing one really big race to
Pam Brunson, but after battling my stack back up, I
won another big race against her, leaving my heads-up
with the seasoned vet: Linda Johnson. Good game to her.
During the break before the heads-up, I got some great
advice from my friend Amir Vahedi who was watching
from the rail. I won't say what the advice was, but
it involved the fact that I had a sizeable lead going
in. I was planning on utilizing this advice when on
something like the fourth hand Linda moved in on me.
I looked down and saw one king, then the other. I had
to look a second time, because I couldn't believe I
once again had kings in a spot like that. Of course,
I again had to call, but believe me, I was pretty
nervous. Would the Kings screw me again? Oh well.
Linda had Jacks, and this time the Kings held up. I
had a very calm, understated reaction for about the
first ten seconds. And then all of a sudden it hit
me. I had won, and most of the people I cared about
on this planet were there to see it. And I had won
with Kings no less! It was a very gratifying feeling.
Technically it is a World Poker Tour title, and while
I'm not going to stop until I win an open event, it's
a good start. Plus, the prize was a $25,000 seat to
the Championships in April. Sounds like a good one to
win.

This brings us to the islands. I'm going to keep it
brief. For the first time in my life I was having a
shitty time in the islands and I basically busted
myself in both tournaments. Turks and Caicos came
first. I limped in a five way pot with 5s-3s.The BB priced us all in with a smallish raise.The flop came 7-7-6, and I decided that when the 4 hit
the turn, that I had the nuts. In retrospect there
were more hands than I thought that had me beat, but
for some reason I didn't put my opponent Mike "The
Grinder" Mizrachi on any of them. I had gotten Grinder
to get it all in bad against me just an hour before,
so I thought I could get him to do it again. Turns
out the low end of a straight on a paired board wasn't
the best hand. In my own defense, he had the absolute
last one I would have thought – pocket 4's. But his
full house had me drawing dead before the river. After
talking to none other than…Joe Sebok…I realized that
check calling there wouldn't have been such a bad
move, but that there was no reason to go broke with
it.

So I did what all good gamblers do, and overpaid to
take a flight to Aruba to play the next tournament.
It was a funny plane ride. This particular flight was
full of UB and Full Tilt pros, and a bunch of internet
nerds. I swear the internet nerds actually say "gg"
and "brb" to each other in normal, every day
conversation. jk.
Aruba was pretty much the same story. This time there
was some drunken dude at my table who was giving
away chips like he was a marketing rep for Frito-Lay.
Unfortunately, this superstar had been raising my blinds
all night, and finally when I had AQ in the big blind,
I decided I was going to get this clown to call off
with something worse. I was half right. He called
off. But it wasn't with something worse. This time I
was up against Kings.
A few moments later, I realized there was only five
minutes left to the day, and that there really was no
reason for me to lurch was Ace-Queen there. I was
pretty upset with myself, and so I went and lit a
bunch of shit on fire. Ok, that didn't happen. I
didn't get to have some fun while I was in Aruba
though: Phil Hellmuth paid me a thousand bucks to
swim across the pool with my clothes on, and a few
nights later there was some classic Phil at a party in
his suite where he practically listed off what each
item cost in the room (pictured below – notice how
Phil features the bottle – "Did I mention it's
CRISTAL!?").

I'm currently basking in my victory of defeating a massive field of
FIVE runners at the Ladies Night, and watching the stock market go crazy until
the Holiday bonus tourney main event at the Commerce to warm up for the fifteen dimer at Bellagio in December. Until
then you can catch me playing my table on
Full Tilt Poker (check my website for how to sign up).
Other than that, check out Barry Greenstien and Joe
Sebok's new website…http://www.pokerroad.com/ ....Good stuff, fellas...

Obviously I'm not terribly pleased with the last few
tournaments overall, but as always, there's a lesson
to be leaned. I especially feel as if in the islands,
I busted myself. I've got to stop doing that. But
I'm not letting that take away from the afterglow of
Ladies Night. A good friend of mine has taught me
that I need to "savor the mini-victory." While Ladies
Night wasn't a huge payday, my family was there to see
it, and that made it anything but mini.
Cheers!!

How I Spent The Last Three Months...By, Kristy Gazes

As you may or may not know, I typically crush at the World Series (I wish there were a font for sarcasm). But, I haven't written a blog in a while, so I guess I'll start from the last time we chatted. Come, gather round….

$25,000 WPT Championships

I was really looking forward to this event. I had 7 for 7 in cashes leading up to Bellagio. The first day was pretty mild. I ended up going into day two with about 85,000 chips (up from the starting stacks of 50,000). My stack dwindled throughout most of the day, and I was really proud of myself for hanging in there and building it back up to around 70. A lot of time though, in poker, the things that you're most proud of aren't terribly exciting. There was really only one interesting thing that happened that day, and unfortunately it was my bust-out.

People who know me well know that I'm kind of a brat about germs at the poker table. I had just gotten my area totally clean when the table got broken, and I was moved to another filthy, germ ridden table. Well this was just not going to work! So, I took out my trusty anti-bacterial hand wash, and I don't know if I inhaled too much of it or something, but I immediately had a vision (this isn't a joke).

I saw myself getting pocket Kings. I also saw myself going broke with them.

Well, wouldn't you know, I was dealt Kings on the very next hand, and wouldn't you know, I ran them directly up the ass of some other guy's Aces, cracking my 7 for 7 run.

I blame the germs.

Mirage Poker Shodown

Things got off to a great start at Mirage. I more than tripled my starting stack on day one of this event. There was interesting and gratifying hand, where I sucked out on a suck-out King (sorry, Kenna). I managed to get it all-in on an ace-high flop with Ace-Queen and was in rough shape up against Kenna James' A-K. I rolled a Queen on the turn, and it was lights out for Kenna, though if you want to see him talk about it, he had some choice words to say about me in a CardPlayer video from that day.

The next day, I couldn't even catch cards good enough to suck out with. I played patiently all day, and waited to get it in with the best of it. Once again, pocket Kings ended my day when I ran them into Jared Hamby's monster: pocket tens. Wait a second. Aren't pocket Kings supposed to beat pocket tens? Not on the internet, and not against the Waco Kid! Blam! Ten on the flop. He had to call though, I was pretty damn short. Oh well. Things were sure to be looking up at the World Series.

2007 World Series of Poker

I have played the World Series seriously since 2005. Here are my stats:

2005
0-18

2006
1-7

2007
1-10

This year's World Series was probably my most frustrating span of poker of all time! I thought things were going to be different this year, since I cashed in the second event I played. Turns out that would be the only one.

I played only three no-limit tournaments, one of which being the one I cashed in. I guess I should have played more, but I just can't handle fields of three thousand people (see above re: germs). Plus, there is so much bad fashion, I can barely stand it!

I'm just going to list out a bunch of complaints right now, and get them out of the way. More poker to come.

1) The Rio smells: This place used to be really cool. For like a week.
2) You don't get any chips: They doubled the starting stacks this year, and then they took out seventy five millions levels.
3) The floor decisions are, um, not good: Where do they find these guys? Is it like H&R Block where they get people off the street during tax season?
4) I have three words to describe the only immediate food option in the Amazon Room – the Poker Kitchen: Hi-dee-ous.
5) The dealers were pretty ok.

Although I did cash in the two figure range (low two figures), and it added up to more than I've made at the series in the last two years combined.

I'd have to say it was this: 70% of the time I ran bad, 20% of the time I played bad, and 10% of the time whoever I was playing with just simply ran good. I will say that out of ten events, I only picked up aces twice, and two of them were in razz.

The main event was the single most painful poker experience I've had since I worked as a prop at Pechanga playing $2-$4 when the air conditioning went out.

My table was full of the softest, weakest players I have ever seen in my entire life, and I couldn't beat a single one of them. I managed to get really short right before dinner, and managed to stay short until my eventual bust.
I was all-in over 15 times in the last few hours before I finally went out. There was just so much money out there to be stolen. The only problem was that the only times I ever got called – I got beat. I lost two big races near the end, and I don't know if anyone knows this or not, but you can't win the main event without winning a race or two.

I wouldn't have really minded so much, if it weren't for the fact that I had an ESPN camera on me the entire time. I don't really mind them catching the bust, but when you're having a frustrating day like I was, it's really hard to look hot and be witty. ;)

The one highlight of the series came when one of my biggest fans, and a good friend – Mark Heying came out to visit. Mark's only 15, but he's a fan of all of poker, and really brought a lot of fun to the series when I was able to introduce him to a lot of his biggest poker idols. Seeing him and how much fun he was having helped remind me to try to have a little fun with it too. Though, winning would have been nice.

The Future

The thing I'm starting to realize about poker is that for every tournament, there is really only one player who walks out satisfied. And even then, you only keep that satisfaction for only as long it takes for you to bust from the next one. Sadly, the nature of poker is ultimately disappointing. You can't win 'em all. And for most people – you won't win any. That's why my ultimate recommendation can really only be what I said above: have fun. Play part time. Read books. See movies. Maybe even get some sun once in a while. Fulfillment is easily attained in other areas in your life. Play poker for fun. Fun is easy. Winning is hard.

Commerce World poke Tour 10K, NBC Heads Up Championship & Jimmy Choo...

Poker tournaments are tough. I have been playing No Limit Hold Em tourneys for a few years now and have found it less satisfying than when I was grinding for a living in the cash games for the last 15 years. You can play to the best of your ability in a tournament and walk into a landmine or a donk and never recover. One shot and you’re gone. In the cash games your skill was more important than the luck factor so I have been reassessing my playing strategy and looks like I have found a formula that works for me – play fewer tournaments. Less has really been more as of late.

So I was off to my old stomping grounds in LA – Commerce Casino. It really meant a lot to me to make the money here in my hometown and to also continue my crazy run making it 6 for 6!
As tournaments go I pushed all in with a good Ace when we were down to 16 players but it was not good enough against K 10 as my opponent rivered a King. I feel a played good on the first 3 days but played a couple of hands weak late on day four. I’m very aware of the errors I have been making when I get deep and hope to keep improving with every one I play. Congrats to Eric Hershler for taking it down! Pretty impressive for you first go mate! I should have bet that A 10 dammit!!

Headed off to Vegas for the NBC Heads Up Championship at Caesar’s Palace. This was an elite field and I could not believe my draw which was done at the pairing party at Pure nightclub. Out of 3 females in my bracket only a few females I drew my good friend Clonie Gowen for my first match! Even though we did not want to play each other we played hard and I was able to get the cards and went on to the 2nd round where I was up against Isabelle “ No Mercy” Mercier! Fancy that, facing 2 women in a row. Since we all did not want to really play each other we made it a bit of fun out of it with a prop bet that had the loser had to buy the winner a pair of Jimmy Choo’s so I got to add 2 more pairs of Jimmy’s to my sick collection. Thanks to Christopher and the ladies at Jimmy Choo at the Forum Shops for the superstar treatment!

Scott Fischman was my next opponent and kept up the side bet tradition. Scott was not into women’s shoes however his lap dance t-shirt gave me the idea to have a side bet for lap dances. Scott played very strong against me but I was able to get hands at the right time and moved to the final 8. Chad Brown, the best poker playing actor I know, was my next and unfortunately last opponent. I sort of knocked out myself on this match. I was exhausted, frankly. I misread the board in a pot and never quite recovered from the error mentally. This is what happens when I play too many days in a row. Congrats to Chad and Paul Wasicka for taking it down.
I was pleased overall with the event and looking forward to wearing my new Jimmy’s to Scores in the future. Mori and Kathy know how to run world class events and their production teams are always professional and it was such a pleasure and honor to be invited to this event. Thanks to Pam, Marni, Dennis, Liz, Clonie,Emad,Ralph,Katie L. for the support! Thanks also to Stephanie and Yin Lee from Caesars spa for making me into a girl! Props to Shannon Elizabeth for playing like a champ and to fellow Full Tilter JJ Liu for her 2nd place finish at Bay 101! Girl Power!! So that’s 7 for 7 baby!

So after some thought, I’ll be taking the next 6 weeks off poker to get healthy and take care of my other interests. See you all at the Bellagio in April for the 25K World Poker Tour Championships where I plan to make it 8 for 8! Eye of the Tiger Baby!!!

Crystal Park Casino- 10K Heads Up Championship

5 for 5 baby!

My friend Yosh Nakano rang me over the weekend and invited to play this event at Crystal Park Casino. I wasn't really planning on playing any poker until the 10K Commerce event but decided to play at the last minute. I love playing heads up in cash games but this was my first HU tourney.
I won my first and second matches in less then 10 minutes each. Short but sweet. My third match was against cutie pie and killer player Bill Elder. I slow played AA and got burned on the river....I hope Bill wins it, that boy can play. Thanks to all the dealers and floor at Crystal Park
Casino and to my sista Pam...love you!!

So that's 5 for 5 in tourneys.....how sweet it is!

Stopped by Commerce and hopped into the 200-400 stud/8...what a juicy game....may have to break my poker sabatical to play that game a few more times .....yum yum!!

Congrats to Johnny World for smokin' them at The Borgata and to Liz Lieu for her win at the LAPC!! Girl power!!

See you at the Commerce.....

Aussie Millions final table

Australia used to be my little secret .....beautiful city, well run poker tournament and a holiday/ work trip combined. Well the the secret is out as the Aussie Millions is now one of the biggest poker tourneys in the world. I remember coming here a few years ago and the poker room was small and the main event only had 150 entrants. This year,Full Tilt Poker alone brought 150 players and the event attracted a total of 750 players. This truly is a great tournament to play in and the field as strong as anywhere in the world.
I made it to the final table after playing on 2 TV tables which included players JJ "black widow " Lu and WSOP/WPT champ & great guy Joe Hachem. I started the final in 4th chip position with a clear game plan. I decided to play rather snug for a bit and look for a decent spot to double up. Unfortunately for me, I got broke with the ole' AQ of hearts when it failed to improve against Mr. Hansen's pair of nines. I feel good overall with the way I played, making only a few minor mistakes.

It was a tough final table which included Gus "The Great Dane"Hansen, 19 year old phenom Jimmy "goboboy" Fricke, Canadian pro Marc Karum, Aussie Julius Colmon, German Pro Hans Vogl and Irishman Andy Black.

In the end I had a great poker trip earning over 220K for the final plus 65K for the PLO event. It also made 4 cashes in 4 events in 3 countries! Mama Mia!
I had a good time in Aussie and would like to thank my sweat team from down under. Thanks to Sherry (your the best!!), John Caldwell,Helen & Jack for the bling,Allon,Sal,Ralph,Zac,Roxy and Rosie. All the staff, floor and dealers at The Crown poker room especially Steve,Nick,Danny,Brett and Danny M. Also thanks to Photographers Chris Newton and Dave Goudie.
I've found that the less poker I play, the better I seem to do so I'm gonna stick my plan this year of playing 1 or 2 events a month...Why spoil a good thing?
Next stop for poker: Commerce Casino 10K.....See you there

Aussie Millions - 3K PLO, 10K NL & playing with Mark Philippoussis

PLO – Played the PLO tournament – my first one ever!
To my surprise many other full time pro players had little or limited experience in this type of tournament. Small field but the $3000 buy in with rebuy’s made the prize pool very healthy. Made a star-studded final table with WSOP bracelet winner Mark Vos, one of the cutest boys in Aussie, Irish sensation Andy Black, WPA founder Jesse Jones ,Aussie tournament pro Van Marcus ,local legend Ralph “Da Man” Burd , last years champ Steve Hegyi and last but not least WPT finalist and super fly guy Kevin O’ Donnell.
When we got to 7 we chopped it up for 65K each with Andy receiving 100K being the chip leader at the time. Had a great time and enjoyed the fun and gamesmanship at the table. Australia is really unique in that the players are all friendly here, hopefully time doesn’t change that.


Off to the main event, after my day off at the spa. Worked hard early and was a clear chip leader early in the day, getting to $45k by the end of level 1. Had my share of luck which everyone needs and finished the day strongly on $130,000 in chips. Today is a day off with day 1 flight 2 being played out now



Also had fun playing this event, was seated next to tennis great Mark Philippoussis for a few levels. He was a great guy and mentioned to me after winning a decent sized pot that he felt more nervous during the hand then stepping onto the court at Wimbledon in front of 15,000 crazy fans.




Enjoying my day off here in beautiful Melbourne and looking forward to tomorrow action.

The best place to catch all the action at the Aussie Millions is either on pokerwire.com or pokernews.com
Ta