Australia Digest Volume 13

As I write this I'm sitting in the International Business Lounge in Sydney Airport, enjoying an early morning flute of  Moët & Chandon champagne waiting for my Delta flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. I've been confirmed in the BusinessElite cabin, so I'll enjoy the ultimate in dining excellence and in-flight comfort and amenities. This will go someway towards helping endure the marathon fourteen hour flight ahead of me. Needless to say life is pretty good right now and I'm stoked to see my boys and party hard in Las Vegas.

Last weekend I was invited around my managers apartment for a boys night in, there was five of us around all having a few drinks and some nice food including Scott, Julien, Peter and Geoff. He has a beautiful apartment just outside the city centre in a really nice area, this was a nice change which I enjoyed and will for sure go again to any of his future gatherings.

On Sunday 14th April I kept on pressing the tourists button as I headed over to Cuckatoo Island, this is a heritage-listed island in the middle of the beautiful Sydney Harbour. It only took a few minutes on the Ferry from Circular Quay and it is the largest and most impressive island in Sydney Harbour. I enjoyed a couple of signature cocktails at The Island Bar, before heading to a great picnic and BBQ area where I had some lunch. Then watched the sun go down over Sydney Harbour from the Camber Wharf on the Southern Apron. I had a magnificent day and fortunately it was a really nice day to boot too.

This last week I've only played one game of poker, when I took my seat in the $200 Monday Night Turbo. Things were going well as I had 24,000 when the average was 11,000 then I took a high variance line with AA for maximum profit which went wrong. Aggressive chip leader brought it in for 2,800 at 600/1,200 from HJ and I 3BET to 5,200 from the BTN. He took a flop which was 258r (one club) and he check/raised my 3,100 CBET to 8,000. I almost always shove at this point and if he has a set then cest la vie. But I was pretty certain he was on air and wanted to give him more rope. The nine of clubs hit the turn and he moved all in, I immediately called and he turned over a ATc for a turned flush draw which completed on the river. I'm pretty sure if my hand holds here and with 50,000 in a turbo I can put my opponents under a lot of pressure and expected to final table.

Tuesday I woke up pretty bored and restless, so decided to Google "Things to do in Sydney through the day" and after searching through a lot of things I'd already done. I found a Jet Flight Simulator in Alexandria, which is a small drive from Sydney. So off I went and gave it a go, regular readers will know I flew an actual aeroplane at Las Vegas in March last year. So I mean of course it wasn't comparable, but I mean whatever it was still pretty enjoyable.

Then the following day on Wednesday 17th April I had Natalie and David Hodgson visiting Sydney. This was the first time I had met these guys and it was arranged by Dave Collins, who is the father of Natalie and knew we would be in Sydney together. Despite being violently ill for the most of the day, I was determine to make and effort to meet these guys. I'm really pleased I did as we had an excellent night together. We went to Kuanaville and Tokio Hotel Cocktail Lounge over at Darling Harbour for a few drinks and cocktails. Then had a late BBQ supper at a Korean restaurant which was very nice too. I got on really well with both of them and I'm really pleased to have met them. So thanks to Dave for having the foresight to put us in touch in advance.

I'll close things out now as I'm getting ready to board for the USA. Stay tuned for my Las Vegas trip report in a week or so and hopefully I'll be reporting some success in the Venetian deep stack festival. But win, lose or draw I'll have a brilliant time out there and will come back to Australia with some funny and entertaining stories.

God Bless America