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Down Under |
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Hi Again,
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In the last article I
promised to let you know how the 2004
schedule was going for me. So we will take a
week off for the poker lessons, and give you
some more opportunity to break even in the
50c/$1 game. (No, you can't move up to
50/100 game yet. And stop playing that
off-suit A6 after a raise. You know it keeps
getting you into trouble!)
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It's been a tough life
since giving up my 80 hrs a week as an IT
Consultant. I really miss getting up at
6:45, working till 9, endless meetings, long
weekends, and those important deadlines.
This particularly weighed heavy on my mind
at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately,
I couldn't go mad on New Years Eve, as I had
a flight to catch on New Years Day. Well 3
actually. Birmingham to Dubai to Singapore
to Melbourne. As I say it's a tough life!!
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When I eventually
arrived at Melbourne, I settled into bed
about 3am Australian time for some much
needed sleep. Only to be woken up by the
phone 3 hours later. Channel 11 breakfast TV
wanted me to do a live interview, errr, in
45 minutes time!! I’m not joking. So
dragging myself out of bed and down to the
riverside, I got asked some pretty banal
questions via a satellite hook up, by an
absolute babe who I couldn't see. As it
happens the interview lasted about 2 mins
before the Aussie Deus himself, walked out
at the SCG to inspect the pitch for his
final test me. Surprisingly, Channel 11
abruptly cut off from me and Bendigo Sloan,
and went straight over to watch some geezer
called Waugh poke about in the dirt. There's
no accounting for taste.
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In Australia, my poker season
started less successfully then I would
have liked. One lowlight was losing a
heap of chips in one Omaha tournie, to
Howard 'the baseball bat' Plant from
Blackpool , Lancs of all places. My
excuse was that I just had to get to
the toilet fast. Food poisoning at
it's finest kept me on the floor of my
Crown bathroom suite for the next day
or so. |
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However I did squeeze my
way through to a couple of Final Tables,
which stopped the trip from becoming a
complete financial disaster. Again I played
too many hands (the greatest poker mistake
of them all) in the Omaha final and crashed
out into the consolation prize money. I did
a little better in the PLH but unfortunately
didn't get the rub of the green and had to
settle for fourth. However three weeks
without a podium finish doesn't put food on
the table.
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The trip was worthwhile
for one reason alone though: the aussies
themselves. JasGrey, The Croc, Bendigo , and
the Kouiss brothers, were all great fun. The
best nickname I've ever come across, Dog
Meat George. And yes, they do call him that.
The biggest personality of them all though,
has to be Mick Stanton: the greatest
plethora of chat up lines you will ever hear
uttered by a 56 year old anywhere in the
world. Every two hours or so, he would bring
along a couple of sheila's, and introduce
them to the world's best poker players. The
rumour was, that Crown had to install a
revolving door in his room to reduce the
door banging and save the hinges.
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