Sunday, November 14, 2010

METALLICA ----> Cebu

The majority of this blog post will be dedicated to one of the hoffest bands in the world, METALLICA. I've been a huge fan of theirs since about 2000, have every CD on my Itunes and have very fond memories seeing them live @ Big Day Out 2004; where they came on in the middle of a hectic storm complete with (Ride the) lightning! So understandably I was stoked when I got tickets earlier in the year, and got more and more keen as the date approached, fueled by trip reports from other people I know and coupled with the amazing reviews the shows were getting.

Thursday night rolls around and Casey, Wayne "Malleebull" Dever and I were off to Acer Arena. We sat through the lead up band 'Lamb of God' who were way too heavy for my taste - I ran bad as Fear Factory supported some of the earlier shows, would have been great to see them again. Anyway the stage is set up as a massive rectangle shape, and the whole of Acer Arena is filled with 360 degrees of fans. Then after all the waiting, the arena goes black, 'The Ecstasy of Gold' starts pumping through the speakers, and the crowd goes skitz. The setlist that they played was:

*That Was Just Your Life
*Cyanide
*Creeping Death
*Harvester Of Sorrow
*Fade To Black
*The Memory Remains
*No Remorse
*Sad But True
*No Leaf Clover
*Orion
*One
*Master Of Puppets
*Battery
*Nothing Else Matters
*Enter Sandman
Encore:
*Stone Cold Crazy
(Queen cover)
*Whiplash
*Seek & Destroy

All in all, you couldn't really ask for much more from a show, although I was a touch disappointed they didn't play my favourite song 'Blackened'. Highlights were definetely 'Orion' 'Sad but True' 'Master of Puppets' and 'Whiplash'. It was an Amazing show from an amazing band. The sick thing is they could play a completely different setlist and still leave the crown screaming for more.

Some vids:
Master of Puppets Live (should give you a fair idea of how the stage was set up)


Orion Live



One


In other news, I'm currently in Cebu with the one and only Wennie Shhhhteeel, took a mammoth flight to get here: 9.5 hrs Sydney ---> Hong Kong then 2.5hrs ---> Cebu. Had an awesome time at the players party which was held at the beach with a shitload of food and free beers which I very much indulged in. The following day I busted last level of Day 1, I never got much going all day being pretty card dead, then raise/called pocket Tens for 20ish bbs vs one of the more active players at the table, and lost a big flip to his AQ. Then bustoed shoving 14bbs in the CO with A5o with the Ace of Clubs, called by AJ flop T86ccc and brick out.

Yesterday all the boys decided they were going to stack off during the course of Day 2, and as a result they are all available to go paintballing this afternoon which should be hof. My future victims include Lolgate, Jackovich and Weygang - Rennie is being a cat and piking. TR to come.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Perspective...

So I had been struggling along at the online pokers, tilting over getting deep and not closing and generally in a pretty foul mood (4 month breakeven/downswing can do that to you!). Then for some stupid reason I decide to actually to do a couple of days real work as a removalist... My mate Dixon has already made a hof blog post describing it (keep in mind he did 5 hrs with me on Thursday, and I backed up with another 12 hours on Friday).

CROSS-Posted from http://thelifeofapone.blogspot.com/:
I woke up at 7 and walked to Watson's as we had arranged to do some work for this lady that lives behind the Big GSV. Watson warned me not to go out because the work we would be doing was strenuous, obv didn't listen.

Alright so we get to this ladies house with the plan of moving all her shit to another house, for $80 an hour all up. I'm still covered in spew, my mind is fucked and I walk into one of the biggest secs pits I have ever seen; it was seriously like something off A Current Affair, this lady (the craziest hoarder of all time) must have kept every belonging she had ever owned. There were boxes of shit everywhere, old newspapers, baskets of shells, the place was fucked. Not to mention that it stunk of cat shit and cigarettes. This first observation made me absolutely tilt, I couldn't believe what we were in for. To make matters worse the lady was completely tapped, like a proper head case. Talking so much random shit, pizzling my life and I was just being a bit of a cunt.

She believed that we could have the whole house moved in one day and I had to give her a not juuuuance because of the abundance of shit she had. To put things into perspective; it took us one truck load to clean out half an average sized living room, which was only filled with boxes and a few shelves and cupboards. I'm still blind and the first thing me and Watson grab is this big cupboard. Watson is walking up the ramp for the truck and he slips and I watch as a big ass cupboard is about to squash him, bang moves out of the way and is safe. Tapped lady is still pizzling our souls so I start to have a bit of fun.

Lady: "Make sure there are four bricks under each wheel of the truck"
Me: "Yep I have three here"
Lady: "NO FOUR!"
Me: "Easy..."

We unload that truck at her new house and I inform Watson that I'm only doing one more load cos this shit is fucked. Mini Moan has tagged along with us and he has a car and all I can think about is how pure it would be to just jump in his car and bail. Maccas run and I'm crumbling, finally sobering up and realising to the full extent just how messed I really was. Watson is driving this truck and at one stage bunny hops the shit out of it, it was as if we were on a roller coaster. Second run and I'm dead, I just can't do this anymore. We decide that we will find all the biggest shit we can and stack them in the truck so it looks like there is heaps of shit in there, we do that then go back to the house. Tapped lady is killing my soul and I drop something.

Lady: "Watch out!"
Me: "Fuck, beats"
Lady: "...yeah"

I do the best thing ever and claim that I just got called into work and we all pull the pin. Made $125 for only a few hours work and I still don't believe it was worth it, just so happy I never have to see this lady again.


Anyway to avoid future forays into the labour market I actually won money at poker today.. BINK! 3rd in 55/25k for $4.3k and won the late 5 quad for $2.9k. Also like to mention Kiel "Irish Lights" Cram's efforts in winning the $26/18k superstack for 5.5k and a 6th in $26/28k gtd for another $1.4k; obv I run good in staking! (in b4 mbn etc) So again, I find myself (almost) out and am super keen to keep up the good work.

TOTAL: -$2,194.78

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Some numbers, Melbourne

So I've arrived back in the gong after a week away in Melbourne; overall it was a great trip!

Thursday I was chauffeured into crown by the one and only Julian Cohen to play the $1,100 six max lead up event of the ANZPT. The tournament got off to a dream start, managed to stack someone in the first level when my JTs backdoored a flush after being openended on the flop, we got stacks in on the river, top two no good sorry chief... Then proceeded to rollercoaster up and down, the table being pretty decent apart from Michael Egan who was luckily on my right, playing a very solid aggressive game.
Got moved tables holding roughly 40k @ 200/400 and promptly lost three quarters of my stack; defended 95ss on the button, flop K95r, old guy leads like full pot (3kish) which essentially screams "I have AK or AA!" I pop it small and he snap jams then starts berating me when I flip up my hand. Lucky old fuck catches another King on the turn tho, and suddenly I am short and hating life the blinds moving up to 300/600. Jam my last 10k with 77 over a CO raise and a call from the big blind, and win a flip vs ATs then very next hand stack the same guys remaining chips with AQ > his AT all in pre. Stack kind of hovers all the way to 600/1200, I have about 30k when the next hand goes down. Middle aged live guy who is playing really well and fairly aggro opens MP to 3k and the BTN flats, I 3bet to $8,500 with AJcc and he time-bank shoves which I sigh-call off and manage to 3-out his AQo on JKx x x.
My 65kish stack gets moved again, I manage to win a few more pots to chip up to 80k roughly @ 800/1600, then... old guy opens CO to 5k, I 3bet to 13.5k with KK and he shoves for 100k with the old Ace ten off and flops an Ace to send me walking with 30odd left. Luckily this allowed me to go and have dinner with an all-star lineup; baza, dave & lisa, benn (risk2dupside), ben (bazooka87), RAWKS, moffo, and of course Wennie Shhhhteeeeeel. Dinner was hof, a Chinese banquet with course after course being delivered to the table, accompanied of course by a dickload of drinks. After which risk took us to some pretty amazing drinking holes, none of which I will ever be able to find again due to their out of the way nature.

Unfortunately the main event on Saturday was a non-event, my stack went from 20k to busto over a few hours, pretty much lost every pot I played, good times. I was able to play a Monday session in the hotel room with Dave, and "saved" it good and proper monoing the $27.50/30k from 200 out to come 3rd for $3.1k, after which we cabbed it out to the 'Cohen Life' house for a BBQ. Got very very wasted while playing Fifa '11, me and Andy Hin schooling all would-be challengers. Tuesday morning was breakfast with Brad, Moffo and Dave followed by a trip to the Airport. I should mention that over the course of Monday night, and Tuesday morning everything was paid for by the person who lost the 4-way scissors, paper, rock - gg plebs as I freerolled everything BINK! Skill game obv...

Got 5th in today's session in $55 turbo rushament on FTP for 1.5k which pretty much saved it. Results below... (cue drumroll..) Really looking forward to getting that number back into a positive... *fingers crossed*

RESULTS:
Today: -$306.04
Melbourne Trip: +$10,447.02

OVERALL: $-$6,964.76

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

September recap, HELLLLLLLLLLO OCTOBER!!!

Been putting off making this post for a while, mostly due to the fact there has literally been nothing to report on the poker front... September contained lots of small ups and downs, I think I finished something like -3k overall from roughly 30k worth of buyins over 700odd MTTs. I got pretty frustrated with it at times for obvious reasons, tournaments are fucking gay when you don't win at them.

Luckily, life has been pretty fucking sweet lately in other areas (apart from the massive beats of losing both our grand final and Collingwood winning the AFL grand final replay..) Me and the footy boys had two massive three day benders, one after the grand final loss on Saturday into Silly Sunday into Mad Monday, followed a couple of weeks later by a very loose excursion to the Gold Coast for footy trip. In fact, I am still recovering almost two weeks later from the Gold Coast trip - mbn to get the flu.

Finally, I have managed to start October with a bang! Casey and I went up to Star City on the public holiday monday to play the $550 deepstack which I promptly busted out of TT < QT (hof raise/call from MP for 20ish bbs) Jumped on the 200-500 table and doubled up quickly to 1k, then moved that to play the 500-2k game for the first time. Doubled with QQ, made it $80 from the CO, get 4 callers, flop 743r and check shove on the button who made it very clear he was going to bet if checked to who promptly SNAP calls with 99 (COOLER_BRO) Kept winning pots here and there got up to a high of about 4k then lost a largish pot 3betting QQ and got it in on the turn for 1k on T942hh and lost to T9o. Still finished up 2.5k which was very nice as I flew down to Melbourne on Tuesday.

I've stayed with the Hugh & Julian Cohen, Tollgate and Weygang for a couple of days then checking into Crown today (love winning packages!!) Anyway so hanging/grinding with the boys has been very fun & profitable; I shipped a ANZPT seat on the Tuesday night which = $2.5k in $T then got up early to grind Wednesday morning with the non-so dedicated grinders joining me later in the morning. Anyway they say a picture tells a thousand words so..



All up managed to book about a 10k profit online since ive been down here, hopefully the upswing continues for the $1,100 6-max today and the ANZPT Melbourne main event this weekend! I'll update the total when I get home, but I'm proud to report it should be looking a lot more healthy! (or a lot less sick)

Monday, August 30, 2010

Breakeven week... GRAND FINAL THO!

Had a pretty decent day today which put a positive spin on what has been another pretty ordinary (but at least breakeven) week. I really felt like I played well today and ive been able to control my buyins however I still get involved in the occasional 109, I guess I cant resist trying to clear this downswing all in one hit! Cashed in a bunch of stuff today (21% ITM, $38 ABI, 38 MTTs) including some stuff id love to win one day; $55 daily 90k on stars, $55 40k, $20 1r1a... Although I did manage this:

Dear ragenut,

You finished the tournament in 2nd place. A USD 2,490.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


in the $55 500 cap. Top 3 finishes have been hard to come by lately, and hopefully I'll be able to emulate this soon in something a bit bigger! Looking back, I've had a couple of really deep runs go not as far as I would have liked in bigger shit, got a 21st in $109/125k gtd and 160th in the millball last monday, as well as bubbling for a 2nd ANZPT melbourne package on Friday night. I guess I just have to keep plugging away and hope something eventuates. Also the total doesn't include the two ANZPT packages i've won (shipped a Melbourne one last week sometime) so I guess things aren't quite as bad as they look. Ill def be playing the Sydney Champs ME ($1650) so hopefully I'll get my live rungood on!

In other more important news the mighty UNI BULLDOGS have managed to secure a grand final berth in both grades this Saturday! I kicked three goals in our semi the weekend before last, and went down the weekend just gone and got shitfaced on the sidelines watching first grade get up followed by the SCAFL preso night. Anyway regardless of outcome this weekend is going to be fucking massive, and im going to be super fired up for the game... So hopefully will see all you shit cunts there ;)

RESULTS:
Today: +$1529.51
OVERALL: -$19,795.75

Friday, August 20, 2010

A long overdue update and some hard decisions

I daresay the main reason for the lack of updates recently has been due to the somewhat vicious and unrelenting downswing I have been suffering.. I havent been in a great frame of mind (especially immediately after losing sessions)

Basically online it has been -15k almost straight down since ive been back from New Zealand, however I guess I should be somewhat grateful that I was lucky enough to bink live (including some swaps from the GC ty Rawks n Aycee). If not for that binkage I would be in a lot more trouble, although on the flip side I may have been a bit nittier in regards to bankroll management.

Regardless of how good/bad/ugly I have been running, I've had to make some serious financial decisions and come up with a solution to get me and this challenge (lol 100k) back on track. I have had to dissolve the small stable I had going to free up some online $$$ and I will have to be pretty nitty with it - really dont wanna bust it! I guess I'm going to work with another 400 or so buyins and try and play an ABI of $30-$40 (feel free to berate me if you catch me playing anything 109+) and hopefully we will see some results!

Anyway enough of the serious poker shit, more importantly we have footy semi finals tomorrow playing for a spot in the grand final. Should be loose night especially if we get up in both grades, my liver needs prepping for the barrage of pain that I will be inflicting on it with (hopefully) premiership celebrations followed by footy trip.

Reports back from the gold coast indicate that Rennie "smokebomb" Carnivale set a record for the worlds shortest trip to a poker tournament, was in and outta Jupiters within 24 hours! Had a great time myself, although one hand late on day 2 pretty much cost me a stack which I probably woulda rode in for at least a mincash; I spaz reshoved wayyyy too many bbs (its fucking hard counting live chips).

Pretty much spent the rest of the time up there either at the beach or on the piss/dinner etc, highlights included a all-star touch football game obv we had to explain the finer rules of the game to the Melburnites but end result was the superior athletic prowess of Wattage, Tollgate, Milf, Jules and Neilson prevailing easily over the spuds Rickwaa, Moffo, Jackovich, Weygang and Sammy.

Also met up with an old acquaintance of ours, Marty from the Cabbage Tree Hotel who now resides in the Gold Coast, someone who James Dixon would remember very well: http://thelifeofapone.blogspot.com/2010/05/me-and-woodleys-night-of-shame.html

Here is a quote aptly summarising the events of that said night: "...I am standing behind the bouncer, being a pest, dancing behind him and mocking him. Supposedly he turns around and says to me calmly "Would you like a slap to the face", to which I replied with "Yes please". BANG this bouncer backhands the shit out of me and i hit the deck." yeah wp dixon u fish.

PS forgot to mention I managed to win a seat to the next leg of the ANZPT tour in Melbourne in early October. Aiming to be robusto online again by then, but really who knows. Sure would be nice to bink another big score tho!

RESULTS:
Overall: -$19,334.65

Friday, August 6, 2010

Great week lol

Thank god I slept in today. Played every day this week bar today, managed to sleep through my 4:45am alarm (standard start time FWIW) and didn't wake up til midday lol. If the trend had continued, it would have been another losing session... This week took the downswing to well over 5 figures, fun times!

Totally bricked a smaller session Tuesday, scraped a 3rd in an 11 FO on Wednesday for 2k ish and bubbled the $50 sniper on UB another fantastic 10th place finish! FTOPS (no Dixon this does not stand for Full Tilt on Poker Stars) started on Thursday so I felt obligated to play another session and bricked hardcore again.

Trying hard to stay positive, I'm still in fine shape to keep grinding away a $40-$50 ABI and I know there are guys out there on bigger downswings than me (hi dere Risk!) and hopefully It'll go my way soon enough.

In other news, my red card last week means I am suspended for this week, and as a result I am playing the NPL500 this weekend with the one and only Wennie Shhhteel. For those who dont know, this $2,200 event should be choc a bloc with your standard pub poker players, I dunno what out ROI's will be but I estimate something like 500% looooooooooooooooooooooool. Then Tuesday I head up to the Goldy for more liveament action!

RESULTS:
Tuesday: -$1,174.43
Wednesday: -$543.20
Thursday: -$1,141.49

OVERALL: -$11,476.92