Crown Casino Melbourne Poker Room

Well, this trip's sucked.
The 5k HU event went poorly (to say the least). I won game 1 (best 2 of 3), and dropped 2 and 3. Pretty much summarizes the trip. I decided to skip the $2k 6max event (going on right now), and just relax.
I fly out on the 21st around 12:30pm (Australian time), and arrive in LA at 7:30am....on the 21st (lol @ time changes). I'm hangin out in LA for a day, then flying back to CLE on the 22nd.
When I get back home, I'll be pretty busy. I get the key to my new place on the 31st, and haven't bought any furniture yet - so I'll have to get that done. I also have a lot of work to do on the PokerVT. I need to finish up some instructional video's (Most notably is the Sunday Million win), as well as fly out to Vegas to do some work in the studio. The site is on schedule to go live this spring, and I'm very excited to be apart of it.
-Adam

Lots of funny anecdotes coming from Australia the last few days.
Guess I’ll start with my roommates antics. Jeff played the $100k buyin tournament here, and with 7 left, (5 paid), and a 1st place finish worth over $1.2mil he was holding the chiplead and playing great. Through an extremely unfortunate turn of events, Jeff ended up busting out in 7th, despite playing great, and not making any clear mistakes.
Well, I haven’t decided if it was a good thing or not, but I wasn’t in the room when he got back from the tournament area. I was hanging out with some friends and came back a few hours after reading that Jeff had went apeshit on the room. So, I walked in, noticed a hole in the wall, a cracked television, and Jeff trying to restore a painting that he’d knocked off the wall.


It’s difficult to justify these action’s, but Jeff’s more than willing to pay for the damages, and considering the circumstances, if there’d ever be a time to go berserk on a hotel room, it’d be after busting out of the biggest tournament/oppourtunity to date. Especially after being in such a commanding position.
Sorry Jeff
Tomorrow’s Day 1A of the Main Event, but I’m playing the 2nd flight. There’s 3 total, so assuming I make it through to Day 2, I’ll have a day off during Day 1C.
On a side note, apparently they’ve released the betting line for the Aussie Millions and I’m picked 8th to win overall, which is kind of cool (Note: There was a link to the sports betting site, but it was taken down once the tournament started. I was picked 125:1 to win). Obviously betting on a single player in a field of 900 - 1000 entrants is ridiculous. I just thought it was cool to be near the top of the line =)
Today I hung out with Paul Wasicka, his girlfriend, Amber, and friend Truman. We donked around a bit at 2/3NL, which was refreshing. Since the stakes were so low, I obviously wasn’t my usual “serious self” at the table, and just had a good time. It’d been a long time since I really played “just for fun” and it helped me remember why I play poker.
Anyways, supposedly Paul’s going to be writing a blog about the numerous, humerous, baffling rules they enforced while we were playing. It seemed like any kind of string bet or drink order was at the discretion of the dealer/waiter, which are constantly changing in the casino environment. Oh well, it should be a good read.
After donking around at 2/3NL (where I booked a $350 profit, so I’m only stuck like $4.7k now, lol), we headed to the Meat and Wine Co. It was just Paul, Amber and myself and as we headed to the bar, while our seating was being arranged, I noticed something….I knew every single person in the bar. I introduced Paul and Amber to a bunch of my friends and then we decided to join their party. There must’ve been 25+ people at the table when we were seated. Some people took some pictures, I’m sure they’ll surface and will be posted later.
The total bill was only $1,200 so we decided to flip for it. I suppose a better term would be, played credit card roulette for the bill. About 7-8 people decided to just pay for the bill and leave, but why pay and leave when you can gamble and get a free meal? I believe 12-13 of us tossed our credit cards in a hat, and we pulled a single card out at a time until the last card in the hat was the unfortunate “benefactor” of the $1,200 bill.
Sorry JCarver, but thanks for dinner.
That’s it for now,
Again, I’ll be playing Day 1B, and if I bust out, I’ll be playing the $5k heads up and $2k 6max NLH that are on later dates.
Thanks for reading,
Adam Junglen

Today I played my first event here in Melbourne, a $1,500 event - and it was quick and painless, which was just fine by me.
I ended up getting QQ vs my friend Carl's (colson10) AK AIPF for a around 9,500 at 50/100. EP opened for 300, Carl made it 900 from MP, I picked up QQ in the BB. I normally would've taken a bit more time, but there was a max of 20 seconds to act on your hand. I probably gave away my hand when they started counting down the clock briefly after I mentally counted down my stack to decide how I wanted to play my hand. I came to the conclusion shoving couldn't be bad, so I shoved, Carl made the call with AK and I lost the race.
No biggie, I'd much rather lose a race early in the tournament, than get semi-deep and bust out after several hours. The 20-second clock was annoying though.
Besides the tournament, I've hung out at an FTP party, and just spent some time with a lot of poker friends I haven't seen in a long time.
That's it for now, here's a pic from today's event.

I promised a tourney report and today had some interesting hands so it should make a decent one.
Rebuy period: I usually clown around a bit in live rebuy tournaments in the rebuy period. I kept my 4 $1K chips to rebuy with on the table, and then try to make a few "crazy" image plays. Most people in these tournaments aren't planning to really rebuy at all, maybe if they bust or something, so you can get away with a lot knowing you can always rebuy if something backfires. One of my favourites is to shove from the binds when a bunch of players limp with any two cards since they basically never have a hand to call. Then you show your rags and start setting up an image. So I did that a few times today which was ok. The best hand was when I limped 44 UTG and announced I was setting the trap. Mark Goodman raised my limp and he was the only guy who seemed to not be averse to gambling a little. The BB called his raise and he has nothing approximately always. I now sprung the trap and moved in, Goodman called with KTo and I won the race. From there people didn't fold when I bet, but I never had a hand so I lost the chips I had won. Double add-on and on to the real poker, I'm in for the "minimum", $4K.
Hand 1: I had won a small flip with 99 vs AJ but then lost some back as my bets still weren't getting much respect and I wasn't making pairs. with around 6600 I raise UTG with T9dd to 300 at 50/100. Probably a somewhat questionable raise but whatever. A late position player calls and the BB who is pretty bad calls. Flop TT5, I bet 650 and the BB calls. Turn 5, I bet 1250 hoping to induce a bluff shove and the BB calls. River 7, he checks again, I bet 2750, he moves me in for 1700 more, I obviously call and he has 66 for some reason.
Hand 2: I went on a bit of a rush from here but I can't really remember all the hands. I know i busted Mark Goodman when he called my position raise and checkraised all-in with a flush draw on the flop. He was short though so I had an easy call with top pair which held. I'm now up to about 22K.
Hand 3: I have a semi-active image but have mostly shown down good hands lately and I've never reraised anyone. It folds to a young Aussie guy in MP who raised to 600 at 100/200 a25. He's been pretty active and seems to know what he's doing, and he also has a pretty decent sized stack. I decide to make it 1850 in the CO with Q9o, but he calls. Not sure what he has here, could be trapping with a big hand, could have small pair or suited connector hoping to flop big and bust me, or maybe some random big cards he doesn't want to fold if he's worse than I think he is. Flop A87, he checks and I have to bet this flop as it he shouldn't usually like the ace. I bet 2750, he hums and haws about how unlucky it he is that an ace flopped and calls. The turn is an A, I obviously don't put any more money in. It checks down, and a key point in Australia is that the last aggressor always has to show their hand first. So I roll my Q9o so I can see his hand, and he the AA for quads. Anyways now my image obviously sucks, which is important for this hand.
Hand 4: A young German player Daniel Zink makes it 550 in EP. I still have around 16K and he covers me, and I find T9dd in the SB. I figure with my new bad table image I should get some action if I flop big and call. The flop comes 875 two diamonds, and I lead 1150, intending to reraise all-in if he raises my bet. He just calls though and the tuen is the 8d completing my flush b ut pairing the board. I bet 2675 and he calls. The river is a 5. I really think he has a big pair that he's playing pot control with, and given my new bad image I just might get a river bet paid off. It seems very unlikely he has a fullhouse given he didn't raise the flop, and a bigger flush is only a little worrisome. I make a fairly big bet of 6425, and he thinks for a bit and moves me in for 4250 more. I think I thought for 3 minutes or so, though most of my energy was probably dedicated to being angry and hating my life more than figuring out what to do. I really didn't see how it made sense for him to have a big hand here unless he slowplayed a monster on the flop, which on such a draw heavy board should be less likely. Anyways eventually I just talked some sense into myself and realized that he probably played his hand poorly on some street, but it's impossible for him to be bluffing and this is an easy fold. So I folded angrily.
Hand 5: Steveol7 raises to 800 at 150/300 a 25 on my right. I move in with 66, the button shoves over the top and I outflip his AK to get back to 10Kish. OK maybe I have a chance again.
Hand 6: From here not much happened. I blinded down a bit, I tried to raise the blinds twice butgot reraised both times despite they were the only two times I put chips in the pot during the 200/400 level. I got into pushbot mode to stay afloat. Eventually I got moved tables with 7500 at 300/600 a75. A player who Bond had told me is rkruok from online shoved his very short stack on my BB. I found AQ and instacalled but lost to his T6o. I then beat JJ with KT0 the next hand though to get right back where I was. My bustout hand was when I shoved 66 in EP with around 7K at 300/600 a75. The BB called with 88 and that was that.
Tomorrow is a $1500 bounty tournament that has a kind of weird structure I need to check out. In other news, the Full Tilt plane from LAX got in today with all the Full Tilt pros and people who won seats to the main event on their site, as well as some others who hitched a ride, so pretty much everyone is here now. I crashed the Full Tilt party for a bit tonight with Leo and a couple others which was alright. I also had kangaroo for dinner tonight, and it was actually pretty good. Still haven't headbutted or boxed any kangaroos yet though. They're avoiding me imo.
Mike

After 20+ hours of either being in an airport, or in the air, I've finally made it to the Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia.
Several of my good friends have already put up some good results in the prelim's, including a chop in the $1k by Timex (I believe he won around $110k), and gobboboy won the $500 Stud/Stud8/Razz event for around $15k.
Congratulations to both.
At the moment I'm registered for the $1,500 event (tomorrow) and the $10k Main Event. There's a few other prelim's in between, I'll be sure to let you guys know if I play any of the other one's. I think I might get some cash sessions in as well.
That's about all I've got for now - it's great to be back in Melbourne.
-Adam Junglen

Hey, we're 4 events into the Aussie Millions now and I'm still having a blast. I haven't had too much success myself so far, but friends have already put up some good finishes. timex got 2nd in the opening $1K NL event after chopping for $90K. For some reason he thought it was a good idea to trade 10% with me for the entire series so that has me in good shape thus far. Also, Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke won Event 3, the mixed stud tournament, for $17K. gobbo finished 2nd in the main event here last year for $1 million AUD, so he was definitely very pleased to come back and win an event this year. I had my first cash in the $1K limit holdem event today. I was min-betting along pretty well, but then I got caught making a move on the bubble which cut into my stack. After that I went card dead, and finally made a stand with ATo in my BB. Unfortunately I ran into the CO raiser's 93s, and that was that. I finished 15th for $1230. So once the $1100 buy-in is accounted for and the $123 I owe timex for our 10% swap, I finished ahead $7 on the day. Then I drank a $9 Crown Lager from the mini-bar in our hotel room. Sigh.
Outside of poker Melbourne has been a lot of fun. I've been hanging out with all the other online players that are already here a lot. We usually just end up going for dinner, having some drinks, and then end up back at Tony's place for Wii, chinese poker, more drinks, etc.... Tomorrow is the $1K rebuy, which should be a great tournament. It's the biggest effective buy-in preliminary event that I plan to play. Playing rebuy tournaments live is always a lot of fun because you get to do crazy stuff and laugh at the silly live nits who don't even rebuy off the start. Also, I'm 2/2 lifetime in cashing $1K rebuys, so I have a record to maintain. I haven't really given any tournament reports yet, but I'll get around to doing more of those at some point. The last thing anyone wants is to listen to me try to give limit holdem strategy, considering I was a losing 5/10 player on Party before I switched to mostly tournaments. It doesn't really matter though, because everywhere you go people are just awful at limit holdem. Keep in mind that limit holdem was the main game played in most casinos before the poker boom, so you'd think at least some of the old time players might be decent. Again, you would be wrong. Almost everyone has so many glaring fundamental leaks that it's ridiculous. Anyways, going to get some rest and hopefully put in a good showing in the rebuy tomorrow. Peace,
Mike

So I've arrived in Melbourne for the Aussie Millions. Today was the first event, a $1K NL event with 537 players. I just busted out after losing a flip, but I'll talk about that in a bit. The trip down here took much longer than any other I've been on. I believe it was around 22 hours in the air and close to 30 hours total. Despite not feeling well for most of the trip I managed to sleep a bit and arrive in relatively good shape. However, in the future I won't be booking any 14 hour flights with United, they just don't offer very much in terms of TV/movies and I can't sleep 14 hours straight on a plane. My bags arrived with no problems, however I was still missing a lot of stuff because Air Canada had lost my bag on my flight from St. John's to Toronto earlier in the week, and failed to deliver it before I left for Australia. So while I did have all my shorts and sandals that don't play so well in the several feet of snow in Newfoundland, I was rather low on some essentials such as socks and underwear. This meant the first order of business once getting checked into the hotel and cleaned up a bit would have to be Australian shopping spree.
Timex's bags did not arrive in Melbourne unfortunately, so after a brief delay for that we got a cab to Crowne Plaza Hotel where we are staying for the duration of the trip. Unfortunately the Crown Casino was sold out when I got around to booking, but the Plaza is still a very nice hotel just across the street, and our room is quite acceptable, though I'm told the rooms over at the Crown are incredible. As luck would have it, I was able to get a hold of Tony aka Bond18, another online player/friend/TwoRags blogger who lives in Melbourne now, and he and his girlfriend Celina were already planning to do some shopping that afternoon. A quick cab ride later and I met up with them. We ran around Melbourne all afternoon/evening for various errands such as food, shopping, and Crown Lager. I bought a bunch of clothes, though I may actually need more before the end of the trip. Between the travel, heat, beer, and my stomach not feeling so well, I was exhausted by 8:00, when we met some other poker players for more asian food. The following story is completely irrelevant, but was so bizarre I feel have to share it.
I decide to just order a coke since I've got no appetite, and they give me a glass with some ice to pour it in. As I said I'm completely exhausted and basically just trying to make it through the meal so I can get a ride back to the hotel. So I pour the coke into the glass, and as I'm putting the can down I hear the sound of ice and coke spilling out all over the table and feel coke dripping down onto my shorts. As exhausted as I am it takes a moment for me to process what is happening, and I am particularly confused because I am fairly certain I did not knock over the glass, nor can I remember hearing the sound of it smashing against the table. Finally I react to stand up and move out of the way of the spill, and as I do I notice that the glass has split right in half directly down the middle. As far as I can tell this seems like something that should basically be physically impossible, but all I can really muster as a reaction is to stare with a blank look of bewilderment on my face and point at it. In the end everyone has a good laugh, at my reaction as much as what happened, and I got another Coke and glass which did not explode.
After dinner I got dropped back at the hotel. My final errand of the day went smoothly fortunately. Instead of wiring money down, I was able to arrange to trade online money for Australian cash here with an Australian pro named Gary Benson at a reasonable rate. He has a cashout service for Aussie players on Pokerstars, but during tournaments here he also trades cash for online $$ for foreign players coming into town. I must say it's sure is a lot more convenient than dealing with a bank. Just send the transfer online, meet him down in the poker room to pick up the cash, and you're already over there to register for the tournament the next day. No annoying paper work and waiting periods like with banks. Anyways so far I love Melbourne. The people seem friendly, the accent is pretty cool, the women are gorgeous, the weather is beautiful, and what I've seen of the city so far is great, though I think I've mostly been in the nicer parts. What an awesome place to come lose $30K.
Oh yeah tournament report. I got my money in as a 2:1 dog twice and won, then got in as a coinflip twice and lost. I also made one rather awful fold preflop which I'm kinda pissed with myself about, but whatever. So I guess I'm not going to get around to that tournament report after all. If that's all you were looking for and I tricked you into reading all this then good, at least someone got through all my ramblings.
Mike

Well I was finishing up a session at like 3am when I busted in the midnight tourneys I wasn't sure when my flight out of Albany was but I knew my LA flight was at 11:30 west coast so I assumed my albany flight was afternoonish. Anyways I find out my flights at 7am I'm quite pissed since my layovers are 3 hours in chicago and 8 hours in LA. So anyways I start rushing around to get ready finish up packing get done around 5 and then check UB and see a great thing phil hellmuth sitting at a 10/25 hu table. I immediately sit as he's pretty awful at cash games and donated a lot to me and others at 25/50 6max the other day. Anyways I stack him for 1k he reloads 500 wins a flop for like 2k pot and then runs like god. I played some hands realllly badly but still had a large edge vs him. We were like 6500 deep and I got stacked with 99 vs A8 on an A83r89 board no fds ever. He did a line he has taken with lots of marginal hands and when I c/shoved river he doesn't fold any ace because he sucksss so bad. Anyways I lost like 5 buyins and he quit me at 6. I was intending to skip my flight and have him pay for my later flights with less layovers. So I get to airport at like 6:20 theres redic long lines I get worried Im going to miss my flight as I get there a guy says anyone on the 7am flight I say me he tosses my bag and I rush to get through security. I make my flight takes a while till we take off though was like 45min before boarding and leaving.
I get to chicago go to the gate for my flight and sit down play some 2/4 hu vs broberts who asked me to play him a few tables for practice for both of us. I tilted bad because I get airport tilt easily and shouldn't play there. ALso at 2/4 I can't take it serious and did a lot of hero moves. Anyways it gets like to almost noon central time I am wondering why it's not showing up on the gate my flight #. I go back to the TV screens recheck and see it still says 12:20 gate B12 or whatever. I get my boarding pass out and see it says 11:40 boarding time. I check the flight #s and they are different. I am really confused as thats the only LA flight on the screen. I stand there for a few minutes studying it and notice I was reading the line of videos for arrivals. Sigh I look for my flight and see its taken off so that means it prob left already. I get a hold of my aunt who also serves as a great travel agent for me. She says to goto the other gates of the later flights and try to get on with my large layover in LA I can make it in time. I try to get to the gate for the 2pm flight it's in a diff terminal I take a guess on going left or right and I go right endcs up being the wrong way. I am walking back to where I was and notice I pass the gate for the 3pm LA. I go talk to the attendant and she is like yah looks fine to get you on 1 of these flights. Then she toys with the computer for 5 minutes then goes uh oh looks like both flights are full. She then says well why not goto gate B20 I was at B18 and board your first flight I go wtf. She says it says they haven't left yet. Note its close to 12:25 now and it was removed from the screens 30min ago. Anyways we have another long wait after departing and I get to LAX
Get to lax have to get my bags and recheck them Ive had no battery that would charge or powercord for the past 2 weeks since prague. I had bought my sisters from her so I would have one. But good ole me in a rush left the powercord at the house. So I find a store get something that works and I end up sitting in the terminal for a while waiting for thayer and whoever else may be on my flight. The 14 hour flight was much easier then Ie expected arrive at sydney myself and thayer run into sirwatts whose on the same flight now with us to melbourne. That was a quick and easy flight, we get our luggage and get to our hotel which is really nice the towers are awesome here and I have gobbo to thank since he's such a big deal here get gets the hookup for everything.
First night here Randall, Thayer, gobbo, mlagoo, and myself went to bonds appt to hangout play video games and some crazy cardgames. A bunch of other 2+2ers show up it was a fun night. We head out a pretty late and all get up for the 1k. I had a really good table draw the 2nd best player at table was on my right and nitty I abused him early with some light 3bets and showing he just then went into a shell once I got my 4k starting stack upto 11k and he had 10k to my right early. The other half way decent player at the table had like reporters bugging him every 5minutes for interviews and like a photographer over him at all times. We get friendly hes a cool guy from LA says he plays ftp didn't recognize his name and he didn't recognize mine. I have been recongized more for being tedsfishfry then shaundeeb it's weird. That I am like hey Im shaundeeb when meeting people they have no clue. Then I say tedsfishfry and their like I know you etc. Anyways one guy at my table is telling me how the LA guy is some well known actor. I'm really bad with faces and names so whatever end up finding he's micheal barton. He def impressed me for being a semi famous actor type who def had some concepts of poker down but didn't know how to switch from a tag gear. But in this style tourney and field I expect him to go deep in something. The field was amazingly soft i never got put in a tough spot from anyone and never felt as if I couldn't do whatever I wanted when I wanted to do it. Anyways I card rack for a bit to get my chips guy opens 6x utg with 80bbs I have KK in the bb I make it 17x he calls flops 984 r I bet 24x he raises to 50x I shove he tanks and calls with 10s. Bust a shortstack with 10s vs his 9s flop a set of 3s vs aces on a 832 flop. Really getting chips handed to me.
I have my 4k starting stack up to like 20k and I watch this hand go down. New guy limps in MP1 button makes it 3x behind for 1200 folded to mike who has 3500 and he shoves first limper calls with 10k more behind the 3xer folds and mike has KK other guyt has A2s one awful call. He sucks out obv and has like 19k now. I make a note Im going to own him since hes 2 to my right. The very next hand he limps again I find JJ and raise to 1525 at 200/400 folded back to him he calls flops AK7r he checks I check behind turn Jx he bets 2k I make it 5525 he calls rivers a 4x he checks I bet like 8475 he c/r allin for like 1k more I snap he shows A4o as I instatable my set get upto 40k now when avg is about 13k. Our table breaks soon after and I move to a new table where I get 0 hands. I played 1 semibig pot at 300/600 gut open shoves for 5200 or something in HJ I notice he didn't look he blew a stack doing a realllly bad squeeze vs a tight asain and has shown how tired he is and wants to go. I have 55 and call. He tables 59o and rivers a 9. We go on dinner break I have like 35k going into 400/800. I get a few spots to raise any2 otb because sb is redic tight and bb calls a lot and will c/fold postflop but the 2 times I do that first time BB shoves for 30 bbs and shows 88 and next time I do it sb shoves for 35x effective bb tanks and says he folded 10s sb is pissed cuz he had a bigger pair then 10s. Anyways I then raise J10o in MP and guy shoves for 8bbs I call and lose to AQ on the k9x7x board dunno how I bricked.
I fold for like 2-3 orbits getting 0 hands then folded to sb firt hand they went upto 600/1200 button same guy from 95o folds to him with 8k he shoves I am pretty sure its any2 for him find JJ get happy try to induce the BB to shove over and I flat for half my stack really obv for everyone good but the BB wasn't. Anyways button ends up having kings I am running so bad still haven't won 1 pot since dinner break. Folded to me next hand otb I have Q4o and shove bb calls with A3o Q103KA board and he yells about how theres justice etc in poker. Whatever got like 75th 50 paid played really well got redic unlucky late. I felt like randall playing nitty all day and going 10 hours of live poker with nothing to show. But the players were awful and the weather is great here. Structures amazing too. Dealers are really hit or miss some really good some awful not many ok.