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I wake up at 7:00am to Jarred knocking no my door. I had set my alarm for 7:10, even though the Titan $2500 starts at 7:00, but had asked Jarred to get me up earlier if he woke up. I grab a protein bar, go to the bathroom to throw some water on my face, and then saunter into the living room laptop in hand feeling surprisingly good for the six or so hours of sleep I got. I fire up the laptop and one table the tournament.

The tournament is a mostly card dead affair and a few hours in I open shove about 11 BB’s with 99 in EP, get reshoved by BustoSoon with 77, which quickly leads to a 7 on the flop which holds. It’s now a bit past 10am and I don’t feel particularly tired. Jarred is fast asleep on the couch after getting one outed early and going back to bed. Stevo walks into the living room and I speak to him quietly so as not to wake up Jarred
“Hey man, no Titanament for you huh?”
“Nah, slept right through it.”
“You know I feel pretty good. I think I’m going to go play the main event today. Feel up to it?”
“Yea I do. Jarred and I haven’t registered for this day though.”

Jarred slowly comes to life and we decide to go over to the casino for lunch and to get me bought in. I find Danny McDonnough at the registration booth and he lets me buy into the event using Stars money. I get some Thai food downstairs then hang out in the poker room socializing with people before the event. When I finally take my seat I wound up being sat directly across from my roommate Chris. We start with 20,000 in chips at 50/100 blinds and the table is mostly unknowns or vaguely familiar. My first major pot is against Chris and an overly loose local known as ‘Toothpick Tony’.
Effective stacks: 20,000. Blinds 50/100. I hold AsJs on the HJ.
Preflop: UTG limps, folds to me on the HJ, I raise to 400, folds to Chris in the SB, Chris calls, folds back to UTG, UTG calls.
Flop: A 6 6 rainbow
Chris checks, UTG checks, and I check behind. The thought process here is that the limper never has an A and is straight forward enough to snap fold the flop. There is a very small range of aces in Chris’s range and I think if I bet here I am getting two snap folds almost every time I’m ahead, and of course, never getting a better hand to fold.
Turn: J
Chris bets 700, UTG folds, I call. I decide to go with a river raise here because it will look so absurd he might call light and gives him one extra chance to fire an FPS bluff of some kind.
River: T
Chris bets 1200, I raise to 3500. Chris tanks for a long time and starts talking to me about how ridiculous my line is.
“If you have KQ I’m gonna kill you” he says as he mucks his hand. I think this is a very oddly played hand, but a considerable reason I took the line is because Chris and I know each other so well.

I try to see cheap flops while we’re 200 BB’s deep but for the most part my hands are too garbage. I’m not involved again until 100/200.
Effective stacks: ~20,000. Blinds 100/200. I hold KdJd in the BB. Button is a young and aggressive looking guy but hasn’t been too out of line yet or anything.
Preflop: Folds to the button, button raises to 600, SB folds, I call.
Flop: 2s Kc 7c
I check, button bets 800, I call.
Turn: 6h
I check, button checks.
River: 5c
Because the flush got there I don’t think I can value bet very well. I think I have a better chance of inducing bluffs for value and decide to check. The button bets 2000 and I quickly call. He turns over what appears to be nine high and I feel smart. Then I see that he has 98o for a straight and feel stupid.

For a very long time almost nothing happens. I am totally and utterly card dead and feeling calm and patient enough today that I don’t feel like forcing some kind of action. Eventually I decide to use my image in a decent spot pre flop to attack a fairly aggressive player on my right.
My stack: ~20,000. HJ: ~25,000. Blinds 150/300 with 25 ante. I hold 7c5c on the CO.
Preflop: Folds to the HJ, HJ raises to 825, I reraise to 2500, folds back to HJ, HJ tanks for quite a while, then calls.
Flop: 8s 5s 4h
HJ checks, I check behind intending to call a bet on numerous turns.
Turn: 9c
HJ checks, I bet 3500 for combination of value and protection. The HJ thinks for a while and calls. I’m starting to think I’m going to need a red six on the river.
River: 6d
It takes all my willpower to not blurt “BINK!” The HJ checks and I think over my bet for a little while then fire 5500. The HJ quickly calls and I announce “Straight” with a twinge of embarrassment. The HJ looks disgusted with himself and Chris starts laughing at me.
“Bet that’s not what you expected to hear Chris.”

Two orbits later and with a considerably more aggressive image I’m involved with the same player:
My stack: ~30,000. SB: ~13,000. Blinds 150/300 with 25 ante. I hold TsTh in the BB.
Preflop: Folds around to the SB, SB raises to 850, I reraise to 2700, the SB announces all in. I was planning on snap calling but when he slides his chips into the middle I realize he might have more yellow ‘5000’ chips than I thought (I’m sitting in seat 1 and him in seat 9.)
“That’s like 12 or 13 thousand right?”
“Yea about that.”
“Yep I call.”
“Good call. I thought you were making a move again.”
The SB tables his 55 and I’ve got him crushed for a major pot early.
Flop: T 7 4
Turn: 4
River: 6
I shake hands with the SB and he wanders off polite in his disappointment.

I play a few small pots but mostly am card dead and uninvolved. There is a young American from Vegas across the table and we’ve been chatting back and forth and getting to a lot of flops heads up but one of us always winds up giving up quickly. It’s not long until we’re involved again.
My stack: ~43,000. Button: ~33,000. BB: ~50,000. Blinds 200/400 with 25 ante. I hold TdTc in MP2.
Preflop: Folds to me in MP2, I raise to 1100, folds to the button, button calls, SB folds, BB calls.
Flop: Ah Qh Ts
BB checks, I bet 2800, button calls, BB folds.
Turn: 3d
I bet 6500 (should be a bit bigger, I often under bet a bit in live.) The button calls fairly quickly.
River: 5h
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! I check intending to fold on that incredibly awful card because I don’t think he’s value betting worse much at all. He thinks it over and bets 3000. God damn it. There’s like 24,000 out there, he can value bet two pair for that right? I grit my teeth and make the call. He tables Th7h and I think back to an article I wrote where I wrote that bets like that are always value bets begging to get called.

Only a few orbits later we’re involved yet again:
My stack: ~31,000. Button: ~50,000. Blinds 200/400 with a 25 ante. I hold 7c6c in MP2.
Preflop: Folds to me in MP2, I raise to 1100, folds to the button, button calls, SB folds, BB calls.
Flop: Ac Ah Qc
BB checks, I bet 2300, button calls, BB folds.
Turn: Jc
The card looks better than it is. I think there’s a considerable chance he has a full house or a flush better than mine and pot control seems pretty important here. I check and he fires 3800. I call.
River: Kc
Wow, I mean while it’s not the worst card ever, it’s certainly close. I check and he thinks for a while then checks behind with AQo. I turn over my cards are we both start laughing.

Not too long after I get moved to a new table with a few familiar faces but nobody I’m overly familiar with when it comes to playing style. There is a huge rail gathered around the rail, as there has been with almost every event here in Sydney. The interest they have on a spectator level has been pretty impressive in Sydney. A number of my early open raises on the table get three bet, including by the player I’m involved in my next major hand with.
My stack: ~21,600, SB: ~70,000, blinds 300/600 with 75 ante. I hold AcKc UTG.
Preflop: I raise to 1600, UTG+1 calls, folds around to the HJ, HJ reraises to 6500, it folds back to me, I calmly announce all in and push my chips into the middle, UTG+1 folds and HJ goes into the tank. He’s both talking to himself and talking to me and like always I stare straight at the felt and make almost zero movement. After much consideration he folds his hand and says he had tens.

As the day begins drawing to a close I turn up the aggression pre flop and gain a few chips taking pots pre including making a three bet with 87o vs a hijack raise. By the end of the day I’m sitting on 30,300 feeling pretty good about it considering the cards I was dealt.

I spend the next day playing golf with Andy McLeod, StevoL, Chris, Punty, Jarred and Strongplay (Joel Dodds.) I make $100 off McLeod giving him massive odds on medium length chips and puts. Together I think we lose in the area of 40 balls. I blame the clubs.

The next day is the official sloshed shootout. Nine of us get together and drink beer, smoke joints, then head over to laser tag in the mall by the harbor. A youth wasted on Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 has well prepared me for this day, though I am less plastered when playing those games. Between each game we head out to the bar and down beers and Jagerbombs. After the laser tag we go bowling and I end up making around $200 and get screwed out of $50 after Chris intentionally throws the ball when it’s my turn and massively gutters it, which comes back to bite me when I tie Jarred for our $50 bet with the spread. Chris can go fuck himself.

Afterwards we go over to some fancy ass club called ‘Ivey’. We meet a few other guys there but they won’t let one in because the previous night he told the owner to “Go fuck yourself” so we leave him behind and go into the bar. Mark Vos can’t resist throwing pillows at a couple that’s making out on one of the couches, even after the guy warns him that if he does it a third time it won’t end well. Eventually we all end up on the dance floor and the only girl in the group is an American chick. We end up grinding hardcore all over the dance floor, something basically unheard of in Australian clubs which causes the only other American chick in the joint to bee line it straight for us and start grinding all over the girl we’re with. Everyone is drunk and making an ass of themselves on the dance floor, and it’s fucking awesome.

After that we somehow end up at a shady ass strip club in ‘Kings Cross’ and I realize it’s time to get my ass home before things get further out of hand. Besides, I always want my eight hours of sleep.

I wake up the next morning feeling refreshed having gotten what is much more sleep than I’ve been getting most of the trip. I walk over to the casino for day two of the tournament and find ‘Monster_Dong’ and ‘Delaney_Kid’ outside at a café. They tell me they got evicted from the hotel at 6am for jumping balconies. I tell him I bet it was Mark’s idea. He tells me it was.

When I get into the poker room I find out I’ve been seated at the feature table. They aren’t filming the event with hole cams, but they have set up a little stage area and the action on that table is being broad cast throughout the room. On my direct right I find Chris Moneymaker, the man who ignited the poker world. I’ve always wanted a chance to talk to Chris. We start chatting about brief stuff and I introduce myself
“Hey man, I’m Tony.”
“I’m Chris.”
“Good to meet you, and thanks for the poker boom.”
“Heh, thanks dude, you know I really had all you other guys at heart when I did that too.”
“Oh for sure. Totally selfless act.”
“Yep, I was doing it for the people and the game.”

Chris is quite talkative at the table and a very approachable guy. Just about everyone on the table wants to talk to him and he responds to them all warmly. At one point while we’re playing he leans over to me, points at a large poster of himself along the wall and says sarcastically
“You know they put that guy up there because he’s so damn handsome, not cause of his poker looks.”
“Oh for sure, complete stunner, I’m getting distracted” I quip.

A few rounds into the table I get involved in my first hand that wasn’t my just taking the blinds preflop.
My stack: 28,000. Button: ~32,000. Blinds 400/800 with 100 ante. I hold AcKc UTG.
Preflop: I raise to 2100, UTG+1 calls, folds to the button, button reraises to 8900, folds back to me, I calmly announce all in and slide my stack into the middle. UTG+1 thinks for a while and folds, then button goes into the tank.
“Aaaaagh. Do you have a couple rockets down there Tony?”
…
“God. Oh man. I really feel like you have aces.”
He continues to think for a bit.
“I just can’t fold this though. I call.”
I expect to see QQ but instead get shown a rather surprising KK. The guy is really nice about it and clearly no slowroll was meant at all, he is simply very nervous.
Flop: T 5 6
Turn: 5
River: J

I shake his hand and wish him luck, then shake the hand of many other players on the table. I walk off and run into Steve Williams who deals over at Crown. He quickly buys me a beer. Things could be worse.