Australia Trip Report ... Finally

I finally managed to upload some pictures from my trip to Australia. All the pictures are at the end.

My sister and I left Boston on Thursday, planning to spend the night in LA before heading to Wester Australia on Friday. When we finally landed in California (over one hour late) my sister Kara obviously forget her "makup" bag and we had to stop and reload her makeup supplies. When visiting the local pharmacy she also got "cash back," from the teller. From there we quickly took a cab to our hotel, showered/ changed and headed to Sunset Blvd to meet Ben and have a night on the town.

Once we arrived at one of the local watering holes, the shots were flowing followed by an endless supply of beers. When Kara went to hook us up with the next round of beers/ shots the bartender rips the corner of her newly acquired hundred dollar bill. After a few more moments tearing the bill she informs us, the bill is counterfiet!!! It is kind of funny that she gets the "fake hundo" when I deal with numerous hundred dollar bills on a regular basis and have never experienced a single counterfiet bill.

After stumbling back to our hotel at an unknown time, we quickly got some food and slept while mentally preparing for our lext leg of the journey, a 20+hr plane flight. Friday night, we loaded up on some sleeping pills and a few glasses of wine, to make the flight go by as quickly as possibly. I was almost instantly in zombie land, upon boarding the plane. When I finally awoke Kara tells me we are almost to Brisbine and that our flight sat on the LAX tarmac for a long time, and we were most likely to miss our connection to Perth . In Brisbine we get rerouted through Melbourne before finally landing in Perth about 8hrs later than we originally planned.

Once we arrived at Aly's crib, she took us out for some dinner in Freo, a small city close to her house. After a few hours of catching up it was time to head home and catch some shut eye. When waiting in the taxi que (australian taxi stands) Aly begins making small talk with this young attractive girl. I figured it was one of her friends, we decide to split a cab back to Murdock Campus. It turns out, Aly had never meet this person before, so we begin ridiculing the stranger with questions. After some prying it is finally revealed she works in the "sex industry." haha .. When arriving at our dropoff point, Aly handed the local hooker and few bucks (our share of the cab) and we headed home.

The next day, we headed to the beach...where I decided I didnt need any sunscreen...a clear mistake. I managed to turn myself into a nice violet color, that would linger for the next couple weeks. During the next couple of days we saw some of the sights in Perth and Freo and then at night we followed Aly's strict shedule of bars. Monday was half price pitchers, tuesday karoke, wednesday everyone went to campus bar, (you get the picture), alot of time for socializing when you are on the pass/ fail grading system.

When the week was finally over, I was left exhausted with alot of blurry memories!!!! A good trip, thanks for having us Aly!!

Me, Aly and Kara at the Murdock Campus Bar.

An assortment of Australian meats, including Kangkaroo


A dingo, one of the few animals you were not allowed to touch, that were kept behind an electric fence.
Surfs up dude. Kara and me, before we head into the frigid water for our selfing debut.

A refreshing beverage after a tough day surfing.

A roo and Kara


Some Koloa's


A bunch of Roo's lounging around in the petting park.


A peacock ?

Koloa's
hmm, there not bats, but very similar, as you can see


Birds
Not too sure what this guy is...but hes pretty ugly with some BIG ASS FEET

More of the batlike creatures
Entering the petting zoo


Our first Kangaroo sitting, this guy has seen better days.
Aly thinks its pretty amusing the way I eat a sandwich at the bus station.

A Fish Tale

Nothing too exciting happening, Im still in cali, planning on heading home soon. Games here have been great, and I have been running pretty hot as of late, so all in all Im glad I decided to stay out here for a little while. Still mostly playing 100-200, but have been having some luck in the 10-20 no limit as well. Heres a couple more hands...

the stackoff: Background, I sit in a 10-20nl game and post in the cuttoff, long story short, I bet the flop and the button calls and when I check the turn he makes a big bet and I fold...whatever he may have had it but it feels like I was robbed...moving on, I have ~10k in front of me, the guy on my left (same dude) has ~4k. I limp with 77 he limps, as well as 4 other people. The flop comes 79J rainbow, I bet 100, he makes it 350, I call. Turn is a 9, I check he bets 680, I call with the intent of betting any non jack river. The river is a 7, I put him all in for a little less than 3k, slightly more than the size of the pot. He think tanks it for a while, prolly about 2 minutes, finally calls, and mucks when he sees my hand...not sure what he had, some table talk ensued and the final conclusion was either 10-8 or J-9, I dont think J9 because he took waay to long to call on the river.

chop pot ? 100-200 with a super fish in the game...superfish limps, couple others limp I limp with 77, flop 743, checked to me I bet, superfish calls, turn 5, superfish checks and calls, river 6, we both check, I show my hand, he mucks...about 2 hrs later, super fish is now on my left, its folded to me in sb, I raise with kq, he calls, flop 447 i bet he calls, turn A, i check(superfish doesnt bluff and doesnt fold) he checks, river 7, check check, I show my hand and he mucks...ahh life is goood

Home Away From Home

On my return from Australia I had planned a one night visit at the Commerce Casino in California. After arriving here and realizing how much I like live poker and how poorly I have been doing online, I decided to change my return flight to Boston and spend a little time in LA playing some poker.

I have been playing mostly 100-200, with a little 60-120 and 10-20 nl mixed in, when the 100 game is not going.

Heres a couple interesting hands, these hands are great because they could have NEVER taken place online!!!

100-200 limit holdem, the game is great with plenty of action. UTG raises, and gets called in 4 spots, including the small blind who is a Commerce regular ( I am not involved in this hand). Anyway the flop comes 8-10-J, the SB leads into the field, the preflop raiser raises and it gets called in a couple spots before the SB can reraise and everyone calls. Four or five players to the turn, which is a small unimportant card. The SB bets and is called by the preflop raiser and one of the weaker players in the game. The river pairs the ten, making a final boar of J-10-10-8-x. The SB bets out, the preflop raiser folds and the fishy player raises. The SB agonizes and hems and haws (basically whinning), shows there hand Q9, for the floped straight. Asks the fish if they want to chop, the fish doesnt say anything. Some more time/ whining goes on, before the SB asks if the fish wants to chop the pot (there is about 5k in this pot). Finally the fish says "fine you want to chop, lets chop." Immediatly the SB calls and drags the whole pot with no chopping !!! The floor is called and chaos breaks out. After some yelling and arguing, the floor rules "there is No Chopping." (Although chopping is not allowed by the floor, in California there is more chopping and giving back chips then anyplace I ever played. And it may not be allowed by the floor, but it is a very very very common practice) Mingha, I think this is one of the lowest moves I have actually ever seen in all my days playing live poker.

10-20 NL, again I am not involved in this hand. There is a player in the game who is very aggressive and is firing 3 street bluffs without a problem. He has lost his stack a couple times and rebought. Now several players limp in for 20, and when it gets to this guy in the BB he raises to 120, and is only called by this pretty clueless player in the game. The flop comes K67, the BB bets and the fish calls. The turn is a Q and the BB counts his total cash remaining (he has no more chips) and he has 1700. He bets 800 the other player whines (seems pretty common in live poker I guess) and says something allong the lines of "I know you dont have a King." After saying this, he calls. As soon as he calls the BB bets his remaining 900 dark, before the river car is dealt. The river is a 9, for a final board of KQ967. The fish instantly calls and proudly tables 89...everyone looks puzzled, and the overaggressive player mucks his hand, unable to beat the pair of nines. The fish later said he thought he made the straight...doh.

I will post a full Aussi "trip report" when I get back home and am able to upload all of my pictures to my desktop.

The Land Down Under

With the current meltdown of online poker I can not think of a better time to go on vacation. I am heading to Australia over the next couple days (pretty crazy that its ~24hrs from Boston to Perth). My sister Aly has been studying abroad since August, and with finals just around the corner I better get there before she gets "too busy."

Tomorrow morning my sister Kara and I are heading to LA for the night before we leave Friday for "the land down under."


Once we finally arrive in Australia we still will have another five hour flight to get to the west coast of the continent (faarrrr Australia as I like to call it). Couldn't she just go to school in close Australia ????


After flying and flying and flying we will finally arrive on Sunday morning Australia time (whatever that means), and according to Aly, "everyone goes to the beach on Sundays."


After spending a long day cliff jumping I hope she is able to hook us up with some roo's!

She claims to have tried some cooked kangaroo and loves it. hmmmm.. Cant wait for some medium rare roooo !!!
UPDATE

No one seems to be really sure about anything and the state of online poker. Here is the best link that I have found that has everysite's public response to this new bill and how they plan on interpreting it.

link