Day Two

So now I’ve got two days off and we are kept entertained by ‘Mad Marty’ Wilson and Katherine Hartree on a trip to Williamstown on the Tuesday. The day ends with a game of poker in a pub back in Melbourne, playing in their Pub Poker league and resulting in my first ever win in any live tournament. I keep the cash prize – spending the 25 AUD behind the bar on a round for several of the other players – but graciously give up the chance of a 21,000 mile round trip to return for the regional final ! On the Wednesday we take ourselves off for a day at the races (Sandown).

Thursday starts with a text message from my mate Richard (washman online) who is already at the casino and who won the same package as I, but was unfortunately knocked out on the Monday. Richard in fact was the main reason for me being in Australia as we had both won trips to Goa the year before and when he won his Aussie Millions package on Blue Square I was determined to match him the following week, and that is precisely what I did. The initial $55 qualifier I played on BSq was on the night England lost to Croatia so I had only 11 opponents, and one of those was sat out. There were a few more in the weekly final, but less than 40, so the odds were good and other than dropping to 1400 chips versus 70,000 when heads-up (solved by winning 6 all-ins on the trot) my slow and steady game got me through.

Sorry, that text message from Richard says I am drawn to start Day Two on a star-studded table but mentions no names. I arrive at the casino to discover those names include Thomas Bihl, Joe Hachem and the just about joint chip leaders Andy Black and Phil Ivey !

My 18,200 makes me the table short-stack and I have Mr Ivey (163,300) on my left and Mr Hachem (111,400) on my right. What am I thinking ? I’m thinking I should have studied their games more when I’ve had chance on the telly and that I am probably a fish out of water (in both senses of the word/phrase). But equally I want the experience of sitting down with these guys to last as long as possible so I am not going to do anything silly and bide my time hoping for some premium hands.

I truly believe I make day three because of who I get to play day two with. On a table with ‘lesser’ players and smaller stacks I’m guessing I’d have been out. Not long after play starts we are told that we will be moving upstairs onto the feature TV table at the end of the level – another reason to bide my time and add to the whole experience. My first and about only opportunity during that first level comes with QQ and I end up all-in pre-flop with Phil Ivey’s 99, no help to either on the board.

The TV table is a different world away from the main card room. It is cold but quickly the opposite when the lights are turned on, quiet until Andy Black tries to whip up some conversation (and doesn’t stop trying to do so but with limited success), and we are out of touch with any chip movements downstairs as there is no monitor to follow.

It was the first time I had ever played on a high-sided table (to accommodate the cameras) and I struggled at first to lift the cards so that I could see them ! The problem was I was lifting them so Joe Hachem could look if he wanted to and it needed some stern advice from Andy Black for me to shield them (necessary advice but embarrassing for me). Andy also voiced his concern at the end of that level regarding a bit of a routine I had going with my card guard before folding (wanting me to speed up) but the ‘routine’ was mainly in response to one fold I had made out of turn downstairs earlier that day and I didn’t want to repeat the mistake.

I played pretty solid during our two levels on TV and survived my only all-in with 88 versus Andy Black’s QQ when an 8 came on the flop. I don’t remember being involved in any serious pot with Joe Hachem and he was not happy to leave the table due to running spades giving Peter Ling’s 66 a flush to beat his trip 3’s (two on the flop).

My earlier Queens seemed to be one of a series of hands against which Phil Ivey lost, closing with him slow playing AA before the flop, but ending up all-in after the flop, by which time Gareth Teatum (from Doncaster) had flopped 2 pair with his 48os.

With Ivey and Hachem gone, Andy Black correctly predicted that we would be back downstairs for level four of the day (level ten in all). The only hand of note during that level was another all-in, but post flop this time, against Andy Black who had KK and I got lucky with A6d, two diamonds on the flop and another on the river.

Levels 11-12 were almost a repeat of 5-6 on day one except I went even more card dead apart from QQ once, but unfortunately on that occasion Andy Black refused to double me up for a third time – and said so ! It’s been a long day and I’m very much back in day one mode – happy not to get involved if I don’t have to and wanting just to come back and start again on day three.

At my peak on day two my chip stack was 60-70,000 but I end level 12 on 29,000. Of the 338 who started the day, 96 remain but now only four have fewer chips than me.

Not sure I believed it .......

....... but on 21st November I posted that I was "half-way to Oz" and on 23rd November I won the opportunity to go the whole way by winning the weekly Aussie Millions final on Blue Square !

So on 11th January I travelled to Melbourne to play in the Aussie Millions and what follows is my report leading up to and including Day One of the tournament :-

It’s a long way is Australia, especially if you haven’t been before like me (not that it gets any closer if you go a second time). 12 hours to Hong Kong followed by 9 hours to Melbourne, but I’ve always been good at doing nothing so doing nothing on a plane is no great hardship. With Cathay Pacific there are enough films to keep you awake if you wish but one player we met in Oz had flown with a cheaper airline without any video or music the whole way, which might have made the journey a little longer !

For 48 hours before we arrive the temperature in Melbourne had been 40 degrees but for most of our ten days it is a more manageable 23-25 degrees, although it doesn’t matter a great deal when you are in a casino from noon to midnight. I have not yet been to Vegas so the Crown Casino impresses as the largest I have ever been in. Downstairs finds the card room, adding to the lack of sunlight on this trip so it is a good thing that day one has three flights and everyone gets at least two days off.

Most of the players are given the choice of which flight to play but I am just given flight 1A, which actually I would have chosen anyway – the thinking, to be honest, being that I’ve got the rest of the week free if I don’t survive my day one ! As it turns out they continue to hold main event satellites whilst flights A & B take place and the numbers grow each day from 216 in 1A, up to 294 in 1B, ending with 338 playing 1C.

There are some big names playing 1A (according to pokernews), including Allen Cunningham, Andy’s Black and Bloch, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Jimmy Fricke, John Juanda, Marc Goodwin, Mark Teltscher, Mel Judah, Mike Sexton, Thomas Bihl and Tony G – and I don’t get to sit with any of them (not today anyway !)

Day One is mainly uneventful for me but when my one and only target is to survive to play day two it doesn’t need to be. My wife Helen has been given tickets for the Australian Open tennis so this is the only day when I log my chip count at each break because I send her my progress by text. 20,000 starting stack, 90 minute blinds starting with 50/100 - by the first break I am on 24,100 and I don’t remember how other than taking 100 from the sitting out BB on the very first hand (his stack was removed one hand later).

Early on I remember I was folding a lot of hands pre-flop which would have won, mostly to the benefit of one particular player, so on the second level I must have thought I should start playing and I end it down on 13,450. The only other professional tournament I have played was in Goa in March 2006 – the blinds there were 40 minutes and I lasted three hours (going out with black Aces v red Kings, diamond flush on the river) so surviving longer than that was at least a first target.

Level 3 was kinder, back up to 17,100. Level 4 kinder still as I was up to 27,800 at the dinner break – it was on this level that I took out the first of only two players that I would knock out during the whole tournament. The average at the dinner break was 29,861 and this is about the closest I ever get to it !

Not that I can remember specific hands from levels 1-4, but levels 5-6 see me play even fewer hands and I drop to 24,000 (average 35,800) on level 5 and then end the day on 18,200 (average 44,791). But I have reached my target of survival and if you’d offered me 18k at the start I’d have taken it.

Andy Black leads with 167,800 (45k more than second) and in 22nd on 64,600 is Alexander Kostritsyn, but more about him later. 96 players are still in, including 14 on less than me so I’m happy enough.