Aussie Millions visit

I didn't end up getting to Crown for the start of the Aussie Millions Main Event as planned. We had a big night out the night before and spent Sunday drinking at the Riverland Cafe. After a game of buzz at my friend's place we had dinner and figured a quiet night in was the way to go.

So Monday I dropped in to check out the action. As I was heading down to the poker room I passed by Lee Nelson and Jeff Lisandro. I then ran in to some friends in the poker room and they gave me the lay of the land and told me stories about the players they had met and the games they had been in. Cat had her shirt by virtually every big name player at the event, I was just happy to see a few of them.

After wandering around in the main room for a little while I headed up to Studio 3 which was where the final table of the high rollers event was taking place as well as some feature tables from the Main Event. On the final table was of course the great Phil Ivey as well as Tony G and a few other name pros. On the outer tables were Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Annette Obrestad and the rather hot Leo Margets. Apparently I didn't notice Shane Warne, Dani Stern and Lucky Chewy on the outer tables.

Downstairs I eventually found Tony "Bond18" Dunst, Jay Rosenkrantz (2M2MM) as well as Jeff Fenech and Amanda De Cesare, winner of The Poker Star.

Here are some of the photos I took (excuse the quality, they are off my iphone and I didn't want to make it too obvious I was taking players pics):

Jay Rosenkrantz in the middle, Jeff Fenech front right corner

Tony "Bond18" Dunst in the jacket of course, surprisingly no tie

Lee Nelson

Jeff Lisandro and his trademark hat

Pass the Sugar

I finished reading Joe Hachem's "Pass the Sugar" autobiography last night. I'm happy to admit I'm a fan of Joe and what he's done for the Australian poker scene. I enjoyed The Poker Star and I enjoyed reading his book, its a good insight in to the man, where he came from and what happened to his life after winning the WSOP Main Event.

One of my favourite lines from the book comes from the co-author Peter Ralph. In the Afterword, he tells a story about how Joe explained the skill level in poker:

"Pete, if we played a hand now you could beat me, and you may even get lucky over fifteen minutes and if you got really lucky you might even be ahead after half an hour. However if we played for four hours I'd own your house, your car and all of your bank accounts"

LOL, typical Joe confidence ...

The Poker Star finale

I was at trivia on Wednesday night when the finale of The Poker Star was on One HD plus I hadn't watched episode 7 yet. As the day was winding down today I was doing some invoicing and decided to catch up on the show.

By far the funniest part of episode 7 was the challenge:


The look on Josh's face when Joe tells him he needs to go back across the plank is just priceless!

I was a little disappointed to see Ben go because I thought he deserved to get to the top 3. Unfortunately for him he choked, defending his big blind and then folding when he was just out-kicked. Anyone who's played a bit of poker would know that with the ace and an 8 already on the board it was most likely going to be a split-pot. That slip-up cost him his spot in the final week and I'm sure he's regretting it now.

The interview challenge was entertaining watching the players stumble under the pressure of the questions. Clearly Josh froze but the others didn't do too much better. It was great to see PokerStars Team Australia get added to the tournament to mix things up. Everyone knew Chris's suckout was coming in the first hand. Sure, Emad could have been raising light, but first hand of the tournament you'd imagine his range was jacks or better pairs or ace-queen, ace-king. Chris was racing at best, behind a lot of the time ... but went all-in with ace queen and took the risk of getting knocked out first hand.

I was a little surprised Amanda became the Poker Star. I thought Josh was the one most likely but I think he failed to show the charisma and personality that Joe was looking for. His reputation as The Robot cost him dearly. Chris was just too aggressive and even tho most of the tournaments were short-handed, he needed to pick better spots and be more patient.

Amanda did very well to make it to the final and obviously win the ultimate prize. She really struggled with some of the more fearful challenges but showed a lot of heart and courage to get through them. It'll now be interesting to see how she does in the big tournaments.

The Poker Star - Episode 6

I finally got a chance to catch episode 6 of The Poker Star tonight. This was aired last Wednesday night but I've been very this week.

This was probably one of the best episodes of the show so far. There are only 6 players left so its not so much about each individual giving their thoughts on what's happening so you get to see more of the action rather than player commentary. I also really enjoyed the "blinking eye" challenge. It was in the style of Survivor in that the players weren't expecting it, had had a long day, a few drinks and weren't physically or mentally prepared. Add to that the pure mind-numbing nature of it and it made for entertaining viewing, in my opinion.

Then again, I haven't stepped foot outside of my apartment for the last 48 hours, so maybe I can relate to their state of delirium.

Phil Ivey ... human

I was at trivia last night (we won for the first time!) and didn't get to watch The Poker Star on One HD. The show cops a lot of flack from regular online poker players on the forums ... but its poker so I watch regardless of how good or bad it is. While looking for episode 5 on YouTube I stumbled across the following:



Unbelievable that a pro, let alone possibly the greatest player in the world would make such a basic/rookie mistake like that. Not to mention making this type of mistake with 3 tables to go in the World Series of poker for 1/4 of your stack!

The Poker Star

Well, not too much to report from the PokerStars $50K, or at least nothing exciting for me anyway. I didn't realise but the tournament I had qualified was in fact a rebuy tournament and my first time in it the $10 rebuy didn't interest me too much when I had satellited in using FPP points.

I played fairly tight early, took down some small pots and avoided some of the rebuy madness that was going on at the table. I virtually tripled up at one point with top pair king kicker on the flop managed to outrun top pair midkicker and flush draw in a raised pot. So I survived through until the end of the rebuy and add-on period and got to see that there was a first prize of over $10K up for grabs. Shortly after tho I had ace ten in the big blind and in a multiway unraised pot the flop came 10, 10, 6 ... hello!! It checked around to the button who bet smallish so I called and figured I'd lead out on the turn which I did, I got re-raised and hoped I was up against a worse ten, flush draw or bottom pair. Unfortunately the button had pocket 6's and I was needing help on the river but it didn't come and I was gone midfield.

Other than that tournament tho, my early morning good form continued as I got a 3rd in a $3 45 man, min-cashed a 180 and then won a $3 45 man, all in my first couple of games. From there tho I failed to cash in the next 11 games, bubbling 3 (frustratingly). Happy with the way I played tho and a profitable day overall.

As I mentioned, I missed Joe Hachem's The Poker Star last night but you have to love YouTube for having it on there already. I've just finished watching it and its great to see that the episodes are an hour long, unlike 2M2MM which is just 30 minutes and is drawing heat in the forums for being too short. The city of Melbourne and Crown Casino make a great back-drop for the show and its good to see Lee Nelson involved as well. Week 1 was very much a getting to know the contestants episode so we'll see how the show develops from here.

Good start to the day

I just got up an hour or two ago, didn't feel like breakfast as I ate a lot yesterday. I went to the gym in the afternoon, had a couple of sandwiches when I got home and then went to a friend's place to watch the AFL Grand Final, NRL Semi-Final and I was hoping to catch the first episode of Joe Hachem's The Poker Star but unfortunately that last one didn't happen. As soon as I walked in the door, the beers were cracked and the food started flowing and really didn't stop.

Anyway, I like playing poker on Sunday mornings because its the one chance I get to play in a number of the big MTT's. I late registered for one about 50 minutes late, normally I wouldn't but there was over 6000 players in it and it was only a $1 buy-in. Nothing exciting to report there, registered for another $1 buy in one and didn't do much better there either.

I've been wondering what to do with my FPP's and decided to play in a satellite to the nightly 50K guaranteed (normally an $11 buy-in). It was only 70FPP's and it was a turbo satellite which I really didn't take in to account in the early rounds. Thankfully I got some hands at the right time, picked a few other good spots and was right back in the game. There was 190'ish runners, 19 of which would qualify for the 50K. Being a turbo the blinds were high late and an ace high shove from the small blind held up and I was well in contention. The table was very tight unless they had a big hand so I was pleasantly surprised when everyone folded to my blind instead of making me taking a stand around the bubble. I used my time bank in the right spots to slow our table down and it worked well enough to get me through. The 50K starts in just over an hour so hopefully I can do something in that.

While playing that I also won a $1 45 man game. I was in a good position all the way through and despite being last in chips with about 4 to go, got some hands, took down some blinds and got out of the way when the big action started. I went in to heads-up facing a large deficit but took down a big hand or two to even the ledger. We then went back and forth for a while until he went card dead and got too passive. He was folding way too many hands when short-stacked and I was able to take advantage of it.

‘Face the Ace’ Poker Show

After I mentioned last month about the upcoming Australian poker show "The Poker Star", it seems NBC in the US have just announced a new show of their own. I think I prefer the format and the concept behind the Australian show, but more poker on TV, I'm certainly not going to complain.

Click on the title below to read the full story or click here to visit the official website.

NBC’s New ‘Face the Ace’ Poker Show Debuts in August | PokerNews.com

Adding to its roster of poker-themed shows, NBC has announced plans to air a new poker game show called “Face the Ace”. Hosted by 'The Sopranos' actor Steve Schirripa (below), the show will give contestants the opportunity to play no-limit hold’em against famous poker pros for a chance to win big prize money. “Face the Ace” will premiere on Saturday, August 1st at 9 pm ET, and will receive one more airing in primetime the following week, before moving to its regular timeslot on Saturday afternoons.

The theatrical premise will place contestants in front of four smoked-glass doors, each concealing an “Ace” in the form of a professional poker player. Once the contestant has chosen a door, he will play a heads-up match of no-limit hold’em against that poker pro. If he defeats the poker pro, he will then be given the choice to either walk away and keep the money he has won, or risk his winnings and choose another “Ace” to compete against for even more lucrative prize money. And if he wins that match, he will again be faced with the decision to either quit while he’s ahead, or put everything on the line to compete against a third pro – this time for a chance to win the tidy sum of $1 million. Full Tilt pros are expected to be the contestant’s opponents, with the new facetheace.com website prominently displaying a studious Phil Ivey.

The Poker Star

I came across an e-mail from PokerStars today about a new show coming to One HD called "The Poker Star". Being a big fan of shows live Survivor and The Apprentice a similar show about poker with Joe Hachem would be awesome (to be in, it probably won't rate well)!

I'm sure there will be a huge number of people auditioning but I'll definitely be playing in the freerolls trying to qualify for the tournament in Sydney.

To read more about the show, click on the title below.

One HD - The Poker Star - About the Show | Channel Ten

New to poker or been playing for while? It’s time to bring your poker face to the table as a new reality show is coming your way. The first series of The Poker Star launches soon, but the search for eleven contestants starts here.

It’s a journey beyond the table with World Series of Poker Champion, Joe Hachem where you will be challenged to see who really has what it takes to sky rocket to stardom as The Poker Star.

The winner will not only take home $100,000 in cash, but have a money can’t buy experience living as a poker pro – the right to participate in 4 multi-million dollar global tournaments, in places such as Monte Carlo and Las Vegas all sponsored by PokerStars.net and mentored by Joe Hachem.

There will be only ONE winner – The Poker Star.