Australian poker. The weather, wildlife and wraparound sunglasses proved far too much of a distraction for John Tabatabai at his first ever Aussie Millions.
I’ve often been told that the Aussie Millions is one of the best events on the poker calendar. And given that Britain in January is cold and wet – while Melbourne is a lovely 30C most days – I thought it only natural to find out how good it is for myself.
Badbeatpoker.com and Betfairpoker.com jointly sponsored me for the $10,000 Aussie Millions main event and put me up in Crown Towers, a glamorous hotel that every year in January plays host to the aristocrats of the poker world and the royalty of the tennis world.
The tournament schedule was pretty good and the main event ended up attracting a field of 780 runners, with the top 80 finishing in the money and the winner set to bag AU$1,650,000. I wasn’t too sure of my plans originally, but seeing as first prize would mean I could break even on the year, I thought it would be a good idea to try and win!
My starting table was about as good as they come, with only one fellow UK player who could actually play cards. Unfortunately, as seems to frequently be the case these days, the goonies kept getting the better of me.
In one hand all hell broke loose when lead goonie, who hadn’t played a hand in more than two hours and had only shown down J-J and K-K, decided to cold-call a raise in the small blind for a third of his stack with J♦-Q♦, and then checked the flopped nuts to me three times. For once I checked behind him on every street and he’d didn’t get a chip more. But I then managed to muff off three-quarters of my stack when baby goonie ‘slowplayed’ his bottom pair down to the river and called his whole tournament life on it correctly. Brilliant call or terrible call? I’m not sure he knew himself.
Despite the frustrations I managed to finish day one with 88,000 – double the average chip stack.
Fashion victim
In preparation for day two I thought it would be a good idea to try to look cool, like all those ‘professionals’ who wear sunglasses indoors. So on my way to the cardroom I popped into a sunglasses shop, under the rationale that if I asked for the best pair of sunglasses they had it would be a dead cert that I would look cool and do well.
Of course, the pair of shades that I got not only cost me half my wallet but also half my stack on the third hand of the day! I miscounted how many chips a player had and four-bet him all-in when he had Q-Q! After that I tried to grind my stack
back up but, unfortunately, lost two critical coinflips and, before I knew it, I was out.
At least my exit meant I could escape into the sunlight and spend a few days at the Australian Open watching the tennis, which was an amazing experience for any sports fan.
I’d also heard good things about the local zoos and animal sanctuaries. Well, if you’re thinking about going, let me save you some time, because the cute koala bears and bouncy kangaroos are ALL SLEEPING! ALL THE TIME! TILT!
Despite getting scammed by the indigenous wildlife the Aussie Millions was great, the location was unreal and the Crown Towers Hotel was magnificent. Mark it down on next year’s calendar as one tournament you must try to qualify for.
John was speaking to Poker Player, the World’s biggest and best poker magazine app which you can download for FREE here
