$1,000,000 poker championship

[LeftyHoges]

Starting with a 4:30am wake-up tomorrow morning I will be making my way north to Sydney (apprx 750 miles / 1250 kilometres).

Why you ask?

To play in Australia's first free entry poker tournament with a prize pool of a cool $1,000,000.
While free entry is not exactly true (players have to win their way in through tough and exclusive satellites) there are a few costs involved like flights and accomodation.

1st prize is $300,000 in cash.

Apprx 200-250 entrants and even placing 80th is good enough for $1,000. I'll be huntin em down...

Keep your fingers crossed for me to bring home at least some cash so I can Ho a little more freely...

Also, as I will be away from the computer for 5 days, please keep the posting to a minimum as it already takes me 2/3rds of a day to read the posts from a normal weekend.

[EnglishGolfer]

I'm jealous!

I'd go with the Howard Lederer approach, start of very slow playing only premium hands while the idiots get knocked out. My one and only actual sit down tournament (I usually do online only) lasted from 7pm til 5:30am. My wife was obviously pleased to see me rolling in just as the birds wake up.

Be patient. Remember the poker saying "if after an hour of playing you haven't found the weak player at the table, it's you"

[Pa Jayhawk]

Say hi Joseph Hachem for me. He'll say "Oh, I remember him, he was the one watching the World Series of Poker on TV in Pennsylvania"

Have a good time and good luck, have to let us know how it pans out.

[JEFF4i]

Good luck man!

Remember, don't lose any money by playing stupid or guessing wrong!

Best poker advice I've ever heard.

[LeftyHoges]

237 starters, busted out in 98th place.

My pocket 9's full house got reamed by Pocket A's full house. Had a stack of around 27,000 in chips before the hand, I got my nines on the big blind ($2000) and pocket A's beside me on the small ($1,000). Lost around 21,000 to cripple me.

Went all in and stole some blinds later to move up to $5,800. Was due for 3,000 blinds so had to find an all-in moment. Picked up Ace-King and pushed all in. Another two blokes followed. One had ace-king aswell. D'OH!!!!! The other had pocket tens and shit fell on the board for them to hold.

30 minutes later they were into the cash....

VERY DISAPPOINTING!

On the plus side I literally brushed shoulders with The Great Dane, Gus Hansen. Pretty cool.

[Eracer]

Originally Posted by LeftyHoges

237 starters, busted out in 98th place.

My pocket 9's full house got reamed by Pocket A's full house. Had a stack of around 27,000 in chips before the hand, I got my nines on the big blind ($2000) and pocket A's beside me on the small ($1,000). Lost around 21,000 to cripple me.

Went all in and stole some blinds later to move up to $5,800. Was due for 3,000 blinds so had to find an all-in moment. Picked up Ace-King and pushed all in. Another two blokes followed. One had ace-king aswell. D'OH!!!!! The other had pocket tens and shit fell on the board for them to hold.

30 minutes later they were into the cash....

VERY DISAPPOINTING!

On the plus side I literally brushed shoulders with The Great Dane, Gus Hansen. Pretty cool.

Not a bad showing. Being successful at poker is about learning to lose. You didn't spend a ton of money, and probably picked up some good info for the future.

I think the biggest problem with tourneys like this is that you don't know your opponents. You haven't played with them enough to know their "tells". And unless you're really good at reading people, you're at a disadvantage compared to the people who enter a lot of the games together.

[LeftyHoges]

Originally Posted by Eracer

I think the biggest problem with tourneys like this is that you don't know your opponents. You haven't played with them enough to know their "tells". And unless you're really good at reading people, you're at a disadvantage compared to the people who enter a lot of the games together.

Spot on, Starting stacks were 10,000 and dropped down to 6,500 before I had the other players 'pegged'. Got the stack up to 27,000 and then moved to a different table. Had our table not been broken I reckon I could've played there all day without taking too much of a hit.

Luck of the draw I suppose (or "rub of the green" )