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I wake up at 9:45am to get ready for the seminar which starts at 10:30. I wasn’t able to fall asleep until 4am like normal, so the wake up process is pretty painful. I throw on my casual suit and walk over to the casino after stopping off for a ‘Redbull’ at the corner convenience store.

Because two of our regular seminar contributors were unable to attend (Dennis Waterman and Tyson Streib) famous successful Australian live pro and worlds nicest guy Eric Assadourian was scouted by Lee to sub in and replace one of them. A lot of the additional content has fallen down to Lee and me over the course of the roughly 12 hour seminar.

We have about 25 attendees and I chug down my ‘Redbull’ plus a constant stream of water to keep myself alert. I got involved with the seminars after becoming friends with Lee Nelson and his having seen my online articles. We’ve created a nearly 200 page work book for it and it lasts the full day with a winner take all tournament at the end. Most of the players we get in there are beginner to intermediate (and a couple more advanced), and then there’s a number who are really sort of paying for interaction with Lee and Joe and don’t mind learning some poker along the way. I think a guy who attended the seminar said it best as I was taking a piss in a toilet stall
”Yea I went to this great poker seminar today, there was Lee Nelson and Joe Hachem and Eric Assadourian and…yea it was good mate.”

I function as the tournament director for the satellite where we give the winner an entry into the APPT main event and by the last couple of hours I’m really struggling with exhaustion. The seminar has brought in dealers from the NPL and all of them are male except for a young blonde girl who bears a resemblance to Eva Green in ‘Casino Royale’ including an insanely over the top dressed up look with low cut top. She basically brings the room to a stand still when she walks in and guys keep walking up to me and excitedly saying “What’s the deal with the blonde?!” I can not for the fucking life of me figure out what she was doing dealing cards like that and want to ask her “Do you always dress to deal like you fell out of a Bond movie?” Unfortunately at some point she walks off during break and never shows up again.

After the seminar Lee and Pen take me over to the Chinese restaurant to indulge in more of the Peking duck we had the previous night. After that I go down to the registration event and buy into tomorrows $2200 6 max tournament, which looks to be one of the best of the series. By the bar I run into (and obviously have to have a couple beers with) Dom, Gavin Griffen and his enchantingly intoxicated girlfriend Kristen. She tells me that Natalie Portman is a whore. I tell her that she is an angel and that I have a photo with her where my hand is actually making physical contact with the Natalie Portman and I will not tolerate such blasphemy. Kristen is a total fucking riot and Gavin Griffen is as good of combination of player/person as they come. When I get home I try to get to sleep at a normal hour but of course can’t dose off until nearly 4:30am. It’s okay though, as my alarm is set for noon so I should be alright.

I’m ripped awake by searing heat around 9am. It seems the air conditioning is not on in my room and it’s absolutely sauna hot. I walk out into the hall drenched in my own sweat and find Chris awake.
“Jesus man, my room is ridiculous fucking hot. How do I turn the AC on?”
”Sorry mate it seems there’s no vents that flow through the rooms. You’ll just have to leave the door open.”

I open the door and try to return to sleep. It’s too hot. I end up asking Stevo if I can sleep in his slightly better ventilated room while he grinds online. I go lie down and attempt to sleep for a half hour or so but of course fail. I can feel the exhaustion but my body simply won’t go into off mode. I crawl out and decide I’ll go try to get an 11am restaurant at the Thai restaurant and meet up with McLeod.

Naturally the Thai restaurant is closed on Monday’s so I wander over to the hotel lobby and wake McLeod’s ass up on the phone. He tells me he got a solid two hours sleep, his difficulties being worse than mine. I find Lee Nelson in the hotel lobby and hang out with him and Pokerstars blogger Ted for half an hour before McLeod finds his way down. At this point we’re running out of time so simply grab a sandwich before the event. My first live event in months and I’m going to do this shit on nine hours sleep over 48 hours.

I find my way to my table and sit down behind a stack of 8000 chips with the blinds at 25/50. I’ve got online player ‘Harris’ Pavlou on my direct right, but other than that I’m not overly familiar with anyone on the table. I’m involved in my very first hand:
Stacks: 8k, blinds 25/50. I hold JTo on the button.
Preflop: Two folds, I raise to 150, SB folds, BB calls.
Flop: T 2 5 rainbow
BB leads out for 200. He’s an older guy and I’m unfamiliar with his play. I call.
Turn: 8
BB leads 300, I call.
River: 2
The BB checks. I briefly consider value betting but figure there’s simply not that many hands he double leads and calls a river bet with that are worse. I check back and he tables an oddly played AJo.

Unfortunately, the whole of the 25/50 level for me is very card dead. We’re playing with 40 minute levels and it’s not until the blinds have gone up to 50/100 that I get involved again:
Stacks: ~8k, blinds 50/100. I hold AsQc in the SB.
Preflop: Fold, HJ raises to 200, CO calls, button folds, I call, BB folds.
Flop: 6c Qd 2d
I check, HJ bets 450, CO calls, I call.
Turn: Kh
I check, HJ checks, CO bets 1200. I fold.

Harris is playing fairly aggressive on my right and we haven’t played any serious pots in an hour when the next hand comes up:
Stacks: ~8k, blinds 50/100, I hold AhJc in the SB.
Preflop: Folds to Harris on the button, Harris raises to 300, I call, BB calls.
Flop: Kh 6d 2d
I check, BB checks, Harris thinks for a moment before firing 600. I think Harris is going to fire this flop a huge % because the BB is a very weak and straight forward player who calls too much pre but folds often post. I checkraise him to 1600, the BB folds, and Harris folds.

Again I go very card dead for the rest of the level and very little happens for me. On the plus side, I don’t really lose any chips either. It’s not until the blinds increase that I’m involved again, this time against the player who donked AJ into me on the flop and turn:
My stack: ~10k, MP2: ~6k, blinds 100/200, I hold 2d2c in the BB.
Preflop: MP2 raises to 600, folds to me in the BB, I call (not good online but fine live against weaker opponents in my opinion.)
Flop: Qh 9s 6h
I check, MP2 checks.
Turn: 7d
I check, MP2 checks.
River: 6c
I fire 400, MP2 thinks briefly and calls. I table my two pair and he mucks.

My table image stays very tight and a moderately straight forward player has raised my last five BB’s without resistance when the following hand comes up:
My stack: ~9600, button: ~15k, blinds 100/200 with 25 ante. I hold 3h2h in the BB.
Preflop: Folds to the button, button raises to 600, SB folds, I reraise to 1800 (again, super nity image here), button tanks for quite some time and calls.
Flop: Jc 9d 8d
I check with the intention of aborting quicker than a pregnant teenager on this disaster flop. He checks behind me.
Turn: 3d
Hello beautiful, let him have AQ. I check and he checks behind.
River: Th
Fuck AQ. I check again and he checks back.
“Any pair?” I ask.
“No, you?”
”The bottom one.”
I proudly table my 3h2h and he says “Aaah! I knew you were making a move on me! I should have shoved pre.”
Apparently my extremely robotic in hand behavior was no match for this guy, because I got my soul read.

An orbit or so later I raise A8cc on the HJ and the button shoves for 11 BB’s. It folds back to me and I call and get shown his QdJd. The board runs out 9 2 5 Q 3 rainbow and I ship him over 2225 of my chips.

At some point a young New Zealand player was moved to my direct left. He seems to be online and once he gets a hold of some chips he really begins opening it up and three bets me a couple of times. Unfortunately, because I’m so card dead I keep having to fold and overall I have a very nity image leading into the next hand.
My stack: ~11k, MP2: ~20k, I hold JcJd in the BB, blinds 100/200 with 25 ante.
Preflop: MP2 raises to 550, folds to me in the BB. I consider 3 betting but I haven’t made a single 3 bet on the table and I’ve been extremely nity overall. I’m really not sure I can get 55 BB’s in given that he’s technically UTG and my image. I decide to call (which feels very debatable.)
Flop: Q 5 7 rainbow
I check, MP2 bets 600, I call.
Turn: 7
I check, MP2 thinks for a while and bets 1400. I consider that since I’ve given up to him every time pre flop and very often on the flop after I tried continuation betting he may try another barrel on me light since I’ve shown little willingness to call down. I decide to call one more time (again, quite debatable.)
River: Q
I check and he bets 3000. I go into the tank for some time and try to rethink the whole hand. The end conclusion I come to is that every time this guy has turned over his hand after showing consistent or considerable strength he’s had the goods and he can’t expect my being tight resulting in my peeling the flop and turn without something that connects pretty well. After about as long as I think about any live hand I slide my hand towards the muck and feel kind of gross about the hand in general.

For the whole of the 150/300 level I’m card dead and the New Zealand guy starts 3 betting me quite a lot with great effectiveness. It’s not until 200/400 that I get involved again:
My stack: ~6000, HJ: ~7500, I hold AdKh on the CO, blinds 200/400 with 50 ante.
Preflop: MP2 folds, HJ open shoves 7500 (he’s like 55 years old and has been doing this quite a lot, just how many people have read the DJK glorious shove thread is getting disturbing) I reshove, the rest fold. He shows JTo.
Flop: Q 5 A
Turn: J
River: 6

I stay quiet for most of the round but when the blinds go up to 300/600 Australian regular Andrew Scott gets moved on my direct right. It folds to him on the button and he shoves for 6k and I reshove A7o out of the SB. The BB folds and he tables A4o which loses to me when the board runs out A 7 2 9 T.

The very next hand we are four handed and the CO folds. I peek down at 8To and raise to 1500 as I’m stacking up my chips. The New Zealander in the SB 3 bets me for like the sixth time or something to 4500. The BB folds and I announce all in fairly quickly and casually, for 21.5k. He thinks briefly and folds.

Again I go card dead for a very long time and can’t make anything happen. I’m not really getting out of line because the New Zealand guy keeps 3 betting me and a couple of other guys on the table are huge stations. It’s not until the next level that I’m involved again:
My stack: ~21k, button: ~30k, blinds 400/800. I hold Jh8h in the BB.
Preflop: Folds to the button, button raises to 2200, SB folds, I call (he’s raising a ton of buttons, I’ve got tight image that I’ll use to check shove a number of flops on.)
Flop: Td Kh Tc
I check, button checks back.
Turn: 9h
I bet 2700, button calls.
River: 5h
I think briefly then fire 5500, button thinks it over for quite some time and reluctantly calls. I table my flush and take the pot for a stack that’s easily my high point for the day.

I try to open things up a little bit but the New Zealand player on my left continues to pummel me over and over. When the blinds are 500/1000 and with my giving him a walk in the last two blind verse blind confrontations we play a hand together:
My stack: ~31k, BB: ~45k, blinds 500/1000 with 100. I hold Q5o in the SB.
Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 3000 (this looks weird, but basically he seemed stack size aware and knew he couldn’t 3 bet me here light without being close to committed and also the history of two walks) and for the first time in a long time he flat calls.
Flop: A T 2 rainbow
I fire out 4000 and he thinks briefly and raises to 9000. For some reason I just think with our history there is absolutely no way he raises this flop like this to get me in, especially this texture. It’s the perfect flop for an aggressive guy like him to mess with me on and I think if he had a decent ace he’d 3 bet pre to get it in and if he had a weak one he’d flat call the flop. I move all in and he only thinks for a few seconds before folding. At that moment the tournament director comes over to tell us we’re moving.
“Well, as long we’re moving” I say, then table my hand.
“Yea, you were in front.”
”Yea, I thought that might be in the case. Good luck on the other table dude, thanks for making my life hell all day, you played really well.”
“Thanks.”

I find my way over to a new table and the tournament is down to 24 players with 12 paying. My new table has the chip leader sitting on nearly 100,000. I’m second in chips at the new table and the rest of players are unknown to me.

I play one small pot where I accidentally value town myself on the river against the chip leader in a very passively played pot. A few orbits later we get involved again:
My stack: ~31k, SB: ~100k, blinds 500/1000 with 100 ante. I hold AcQc in MP2.
Preflop: I raise to 2500, folds to SB, SB raises to 7000, BB folds, I move all in, SB quickly calls with AA. Shit.
Flop: Q 6 2 rainbow
Turn: 3
River: 4
I shake half the tables hand and wish them luck.

Despite being incredibly sleep deprived I feel pretty happy with the way I played in the tournament and even though I was card dead pretty much all day I never just made boredom raises. After I bust out some friends and I walk over to the ‘Subway’ in the casino and I’m so mentally exhausted I attempt to grab through the plastic case to buy a cookie thinking I can somehow unlatch it. The thing has no latch and is only accessible from the cashier’s side. Chris looks at me like I’m a fucking maniac and asks what I’m doing. I’m really not sure.