I am back home in Melbourne and its great to be back, this is the best country in the world by far. Everything is easy here and lots of sport events, went to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground seats 95,000)today to watch a cricket game South Africa vs Australia its a 5 day test match. Cricket is like baseball except that it lasts 5 days and the fans get to have power naps during play 71,000 turned up and its only the first day I was able to stay focused for most fo the day and got away with having only 2 quick naps, defence was the order of day one. Also its summer time in Australia the temperature is about 35c or around 100 every day.

There will be some very decent poker events here as well over the next few weeks with the 2 biggest the $100k buy inn Speed Poker & the $10k buy inn Australian Millions. I will update my progress, I am due for a win again.

USA versus rest of the world. Team ‘Rest of the World’ have won. I have captained the team to victory. Its an amazing feeling to beat a US team that included Phil Ivey, and Jesus Ferguson, just to name a couple players. The World Team had Daniel Negreanu, playing for Canada, and Toto Leonidas of the Philippines getting the most points for the World squad, and coming 2nd. The final hand was Toto with two Kings, against Paul with Queen eight. Unfortunately, we lost when a Queen spiked on the river. Paul Durand was the Champion.

The World Team we dominated - we won 40-30. Its going to be a great tournament, its going to be on FOX Sports. The European players, just a little too much talent. And Australians were well represented with Emab getting five points for five US knockouts.

For myself, I picked up Aces on the first hand, and picked up a couple thousand. Later Amir Vahedi took me out, playing for Iran. Amir got a lot of points for the World Team. It was an interesting team with 2 Japanese players, one Chinese players, Four Australian players, probably ten players from the UK.

It was a great feeling to pick up this win.

So. Just an update on the World Team vs USA. Its been a fantastic day, and with 16 players left, the world team leads the US team 21 - 13. Its gonna be very interesting to see how it goes. We have 9 of the 16 remaining players left for the world team. It looks very likely that the world team is going to win. I’ve had SO much fun captaining the world team today, and a young Austrailian player, Emab won his heat, and has looked very good. He is very aggressive, more aggressive than me.

I’m looking forward to the World team dominating. I went out against Mike Matusow, I got a bit unlucky. Now, I’m just going to do my job, and get the team home.

I’m out….Flopped the nuts. K 10 9 on the flop, and I had Q J. I Went all in, against a set of Kings, and the river paired up. I Would’ve had a massive stack. Nothing you can do….that’s my game.

Next time, I’ll get em.

OK….here we are. Bellagio $15,000 WPT main event. 555 players turned up to pay out $15,000 each, with about $2.5 million to first, which will make it the third biggest payout of 2005, and its going to be very interesting. End of Level 1, and I am down to about 28,000…we started with 30,000. Nothing eventful so far….I picked up Kings at one point, and won a little. I’m playing a few other silly hands like six/deuce suited…that didn’t work out so well. But, I still had a pretty decent session in the first level.

I like my table. No real big players on there. I’m going to plug away really hard, we’re playing 5 levels today. Four more to go…and I just want to get through today. I don’t mind what chips I have at the end of the day…that’s going to take care of itself. I just want to get through today, and get very aggressive tomorrow. I’m playing my game, but I’m going to be careful.

I’m out. It’s OK. I had the big blind again. The chip leader raised 2,300 - I had 9,000 left. I picked up QJ suited. Great opportunity to make a move - there’s 4,000 in the middle. If I can pick it up without a flop, its great. Also, I could have the best hand against the chip leader. Unfortunately, he had Aces. I flopped a Queen, but couldn’t improve anymore, and I am out.
I had a great time, and I feel good. A good warm up before the main event.

That’s poker, baby.

The world champ has arrived at my table. What a feeling to be in this business, playing, and enjoying. Joesph Hachem has just arrived at my table, the current world champ. We’re from the same town, Melbourne, Australia. What a nice guy he is. He came to the table with about 40,000, but lost about 15, so he’s got about 25 left. Its going to be a lot of fun playing with him. Not many sports that you get to play with the world champion. I’ve done it a lot - I’ve managed to knock out Greg Raymer twice this year, so its been a pretty interesting time. That’s why poker is great - it’s a great hobby for people - you can come in, and play anyone.

Anyway, we are down to 95 players. At the end of level six, which was a pretty eventful level for me. I picked up J8 suited in my big blind, and decided to make a move against a button raise. I had about 7,000 left at that stage. Unfortunately, the button had AQ, and I was behind, She could have layed it down on my re-raise…but she didn’t. The flop came KJ5. K on the turn, and blank on the river, and I doubled up. Pretty lucky….its about 40/60. But those are the sort of moves I make.

So , I got up to about 14,000, and I got involved with David Plastik in a monster pot. There was a raise, and a call, and I had two tens. I put David on two 8’s, and it was amazing - he went all in with two 8’s. I had my two tens, and I was playing a huge pot that would have gotten me up to 30,000. Unfortunately, the 8 came on the river. I was pretty happy with my read. I took it pretty well. I still had 5,000 in chips.

After that I made a few moves with A J, and KQ, and no one called. I’m back up to 10,400. I’m having a lot of fun.

I have this feeling that I will do very well in this tournament. I don’t get this feeling very often, but I think I’ll make the final. I’m going to try very hard. I’m focused, and I’m going to play well. But, I tell you…to play with the world champ right now - it’s a great feeling.

Well, that was a very tough 2 hours, and were at the end of level 4. Unfortunately, I’m down to about 7,500…we started with 10,000 today. I was up to 23,000 early in that level, but I misplayed two 10s. I had two 10’s in the middle, and called an under the gun raise. The big blind re-raised another 2,500. With all the money in the pot, I called. The big blind held 2 Kings. The flop came 2 2 8. She bet 4,000. There was about 8,000 in the pot, so I felt I had to call. It was checked on the turn, which I was happy about…I figured I was beat. Still trying to catch a 10 there, I had a deep stack, with 15,000 behind it. The river came another blank. She only bet 3,000, which I called, even thought I didn’t want to.

That cost me about 10,000…then I just struggled on, and got through through that level. With antes & blind going up, I’m still confident to do pretty well….Its just matter of catching a few good situations, and I’ll be alright. 7,500 is still OK, with blinds at 150/300, and a 25 ante. Still a lot of play left.

This is the 5k update, and I’m up on the first break. With about 210 players remaining. They have a really big field for this, with about 250 people starting. This turns out to be a pretty big event, with first place paying $440,000, and second paying $250,000. I had a really good start, and I’m up to about 19,000.

There was one key hand, which got me the chips. I had a J9 of clubs, and was up against Q 10 of clubs. The flop was J 7 8, two clubs. I had top pair, and a straight draw, and a flush draw, against a bigger flush, and straight draw. It was about 50/50. It worked out OK, and I won the pot, and doubled up.

I haven’t done too much else. I’m playing a lot of hands. I really have a great feeling about this tournament, and I’m really focused. I’m just motivated today to win it. We’ll see what happens.