I wake up and after a quick shower, I put on my new jacket (which is the only warm thing I own) and walk over to Crown. It’s cold and rainy but i’m feeling good.

We start the $1100 6max tournament with 10,000 chips and 40 minute levels. I have solid Crown regular Leo Boxell to my left and four unknowns at the table. Unfortunately, only the guy to my right seems to be awful and he’s running quite card hot. I start off splashing around in small pots, climb to 11k and then drop to 8k without playing a notable hand. I get two streets from a set but put a lot of chips in and miss with a nut flush draw and two overs and then again with an open ended straight flush draw. Missing 15+ outs in back to back pots is not helpful. I flop middle set with JJ at 50/100 and get two streets of value postflop; firing pot sized bets on the flop and the turn. Villain folds his top pair to my pot sized bet on the river. I flop top pair and get run down when villain turns two pair to concede two streets of value back to a different opponent.

I eventually find myself involved in a fairly large pot with Kh Qh at the 50/100 level. I have a very loose-aggressive image and i’ve lost most of the pots i’ve been involved in as my opponents have been hitting flops hard.

CO (bad spewy fish) limps for 100, I raise to 375 on the BTN, SB folds, BB calls, CO calls. BB is a station who plays too many hands.

Flop: Kd 9d 3h

BB checks, CO checks, I bet 600, BB calls, CO folds

Turn: 6s

BB checks, I bet 1200, BB raises to 3400. What? This smells like a flush draw but villain is in his late 40s/early 50s so it could be a set. Would he really check a set twice? I’ve only 2barreled once out of about five hands so far and it was with a weak hand and that hand went to showdown so I think villain thinks i’m light. Old guys don’t checkraise draws on the turn though do they? It’s an $1100 6max event though and villain is relatively unknown… i’m almost certain AK isn’t in his range… could he be raising a weaker king for value and/or ‘information’? I’m not beating much but I can’t see any hand that villain could have which beats me other than a set, so after about a minute and a half I elect to call, leaving us with close to a pot sized bet behind.

River: 5d

All of the draws just got there and now I don’t beat anything anymore. Villain insta-shoves and I fold and curse myself for not checking behind on the turn against an old guy. I’m pretty sure I was going to go with the hand on the river if a diamond didn’t hit. Why am I trying to get three streets of value here? Sigh. So bad. I’m left with only about 4.5k after the hand and at 75/150 I find a few spots to raise AQ and 99 (at 30bb i’m still too deep to open shove) and each time I miss the board and am forced to checkfold or I miss the board, fire a cbet and my cbet is raised.

I’m down to about 2500 when I find Jh Jd and UTG makes it 450. I shove on the button and UTG looks sick. As he’s tanking, I decide I have him crushed enough that I want a call so I do my best to make it look like i’m on tilt and throw out some reverse tells. Villain eventually calls and tables JTo. He’s completely crushed and he misses the flop and is drawing dead by the turn. I’m back to 5k. I find AQ again, raise, get two callers and the flop is K98 with two spades. I don’t have any spades. I sigh and checkfold as the villains get it in with a set against a nut flush draw. Leo Boxell has the nut flush draw and is busted by the spewy fish to my right. At 100/200, I shove 99 over a raise and a call and get two folds then shove AQ over a raiser and get another fold. My stack is back to about 7,000 now and the antes kick in next level. I’ve also shoved preflop on 4 of the past 20 hands so my image has loosened back up after showing down the pocket jacks earlier. I find Ac Kc on the button and a young Asian guy with about 13k raises to 600. I insta-shove all of my chips except for a lone 25 chip as i’ve done this every shove since the start and I feel like he’s going to call me very light (as in AT+ KQ 88+ light)

He starts tanking so I do my best to look weak since i’m pretty sure he has AQ after thinking about it for so long. He asks me some questions, I do a Phil Laak impersonation and hide under my hoodie and eventually he announces all in. I call off my last 25 chips and villain tables… what looks like a queen. Ship it! Oh wait, that’s two queens. What the fuck? Epic slowroll. Fortunately, we’re flipping and i’m feeling like i’m pretty due to bink one of these AK vs QQ flips since this is my third in two days and i’m 0/2 so far. I stand up and point at the table and tell everyone that i’m going to bink an ace on the flop.

Flop: 4s 4c 2d

Turn: 6c

Well hello there Mr. Flush Draw…

River: 9s

Sigh. I suck at flips. I wish everyone luck and head to the rail. Jonathan ‘xMonsterxDongX’ Karamaklis is moved into my seat and I pity the poor souls at my former table that are about to get crushed.

I find that i’ve lost my bank card and rush to the bank, arriving about 5 minutes before the branch closes to cancel my credit card and withdraw money for the HA rebuys event coming up.

The $240 HA event with $100 rebuys starts shortly after and i’m seated at a table with 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Stewart Scott and the most aggressive woman in poker, Miss Lisa Walsh (from my ANZPT Sydney table if you read the TR)

Stewart and I rebuy and everyone else decides to be a nitdonk instead and play a single stack.

Lisa starts off by open shoving or calling shoves on seven of the first ten hands and doubling up three times, twice through Stewart, despite being crushed twice. I find AK and open shove, Lisa calls with A2 and binks a deuce on the river to stack me. Some people are just blessed, she’s on the most massive life heater of all time (she tells me she’s up 50k in 5 days at 5/T/20 Straddle live and that’s on the back of finishing 2nd in ANZPT Sydney)

I double rebuy and Stewart raises to 150; he’s been gambling a lot too so I shove my 2k with AJ and he calls with QJ and I hold to move to 4k. During PLO, I flop top set and get it in against Lisa who has a 3 card wrap for 9 outs; I turn quads and she rivers one of her outs, but fortunately my quads manages to hold for a change. I pick up another nice pot with a second nut flush against Lisa and finish the rebuy period with 10.5k; I take a single add on (you can take up to three) and take 11.5k to the end of the rebuy period.

I chip up during PLO with either the nuts on the river or without showdowns nicely and nothing interesting happens at all until there are two tables left. This is about five hours of me not playing a single noteworthy hand or being all in at any stage in either game; I 3bet once in hold’em and win the unwanted pots in PLO and/or fire pot bets until the villains all fold when I hit flops and I have about 22k at 600/1200 which is slightly below the average with 18 left out of the field of 81. Top nine are getting paid. During PLO, I pot with Ah Jc 9h 6c and get repotted by a short stack; I call off and i’m up against Kd Kc 3d 5s; fortunately the flop is three hearts and I chip up to about 28k.

After that I raise pot over multiple limpers with QJTTds and AQJTds and get one caller each time; the flops are 632 with two of a diff suit and 543 with three of a diff suit and both times my seperate opponents lead pot into me and i’m forced to fold since I have absolute air. I’m down to about 20k when the game changes back to Hold’em with 15 left and the average stack is ~33k. Two players are away at my table so we’re 5 handed; I open shove BvB then raise to 3500 with 9d 8d on a nitty guy’s BB with SB away from the table (I can do this since BB is only shoving like AQ+ TT+ and i’m deep enough to raisefold live here) when i’m on the cutoff; sadly BTN elects to shove (he’s also tight but less so) and he only has about 10k so I have to call; he turns over 9s 9c and i’m pretty screwed; I brick out to drop to about 14k. I find Qs Ts UTG and shove since we’re still 5 handed and BB is away and two of the other guys are super nitty; one of the non-nitty guys calls with Kc Jh and we’re off to the races.

Flop: 667
Turn: 8
River: 7

I die a little bit inside since it’s the first time i’ve been all in called and covered since the end of the rebuy period and it’s my second deep run with essentially no showdowns only to finish just outside of the money; I wish Stewart luck (he’s awesome and we’ve been drinkin together) and head to the rail. I later find out Stewart went on to win the tournament. Good for him. Speaking of life heaters though… he was all in called and covered at LEAST eight times since I was at the table with him from beginning to end. Some people are blessed.

Day 8: I take a trip to Carlton for the first time to get dinner with James, Tim, Chris adn Michelle; we eat delicious Italian food, I have gnocchi with chicken and avocado and we get gelati for dessert; Chris decides to put in a session at Crown afterwards and the rest of us all head home. I’m taking Days 8 & 9 off poker so that i’m well rested for the Main Event. I’m playing really well this trip (with the exception of that one hand where I tried to bluff Sam Youssef) but my bankroll is taking a lot of punishment and if I don’t cash in the Main, i’m done with live poker for quite a long time and i’m also going to be done with playing professionally as soon as I can find a job I like. This is the final showdown, people.