Mood = EXCITED!!!!

Saturday April 25, 2009 (2 am)
ANZAC DAY

Hey kids. Have a couple cool things to talk about. First is I’m going to be doing a bit of traveling the next couple weeks. A couple days ago, Tom decided he wanted to head up to Brisbane for a long weekend, to check in with his superiors up there (his company, Sikorsky, has their “headquarters” up there). So since the hotel room is going to be footed by the company, I am going to tag along. I have already been looking up things to do in the Brissy area, they include, going to a koala sanctuary to “hug” a koala and maybe visiting a brewery. I also figure since I am spending the money (all of ~$120 USD) to fly up round-trip, I might as well stay for a bit and see what else is up that way since it’s not like I have to be back down here for any reason. I am thinking about headed down to the Gold Coast or up to the Sunshine Coast for a couple days and taking a surfing lesson(s). We shall see, I think we are going to get plane tickets on Monday, so I’ll have to figure out my plans this weekend. I have also been tossing around the idea of flying over to New Zealand for a week or so in May. Jetstar (a budget JetBlue type airline) has a sale on right now, for Sydney to Christchurch (on the South Island) for ~150 USD round trip, including taxes and fees.

The newest news is I will be headed back up to Sydney area next Saturday. So, I’ve been playing poker in Tuesday nights right, well every so often there are regional finals and tonight was the South Coast regional final. Technically I didn’t qualify, because I hadn’t played enough events to qualify, but both Tom and Dave did. So I thought I’d tag along while they played and just watch and lend my support. When we get there, Dave talks to the tournament director and not everyone who qualifies shows up to these things, so there’s space and I am more than welcome to play. So why not, I’m already here, I’d rather play then sit around and watch. There were like 130-some people there, so it’s not like I have any expectations, just wanted something to do. I’m playing pretty well, won the first 2 hands at my table. Make it to first break, doing pretty good. Tom gets out after 1st break (Dave was out in the first 5 minutes) and I’m still chugging along. I’m a pretty conservative player, only playing my hands when I have decent cards. I notice more and more people are dropping. Now, at the event, the top 15, not including those already qualified, qualify for the state final in Parramatta (a suburb of Sydney) the following weekend. I’m playing and I hear the director say there are 40 players left. I figure that’s pretty good, top 40 out of 130. Then another break, I’ve made it through. Play a bit more, down to 30 players, then 25, then 20 and I’m told I have qualified for the state final and I have to say right then if I want to play the next weekend, so I say yes, why not, when I going to be able to do this again? Then the announcement, we’ve hit 10 players, we’re down to the final table! Final table! I mean, I only really learned to play a month ago, and here I am making a final table at a regional final? What?! I have 2nd lowest number of chips starting the table and I was determined to finish at least 8th, because 8th and higher got a money prize. Well, I outlasted 4 people and ended up finishing 6th! I won $75 AUD (about $54 USD), not bad for a tournament I didn’t even pay or plan to enter! My final hand I was 2nd in line after big blind which was 30,000, I only had 26,000. I got dealt Ace/Queen of clubs so I had to go all-in. A girl at my table called. Then after the flop she went all in with her remaining chips and another older gentleman went all –in against her (he had been the small blind). She had an Ace/10 off-suite and had hit a 10 on the flop. Damn! I had the old man beat, but I had to hope for the queen on the turn or river and it didn’t come, so she took both of us out on the hand. If only no 10! Oh well, still pretty damn good for not even thinking I was going to play. And now I get to go to Parramatta next Saturday to play again. My hope is that I don’t embarrass myself. At any rate, it should be a pretty good time. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Today is Anzac day, a huge holiday here in Australia. It’s sort of like a Veteren’s Day type day. Servicemen march and commemorate members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. There are march’s, remembrance’s, games and gambling and a whole lot of drinking. Should be a fantastic time. I’ll make sure I take pictures, if I’m not too drunk, but I can’t make any promises about that. It's 2 am and I gotta get some sleep now!


Cheers!