This site has been quiet for the last couple of months. Actually it’s been even quieter than that. Silent you might say, or whisper.

I’m embarrassed and sorry for the radio silence. I wanted to write excitedly in November about going deep in the Masterclassics. Halfway through day two I was one of the chip leaders, I was flying and had convinced myself I was playing really well. I had $$$ signs in my eyes but then.....

This was the start of my “anti-rush” with around 70,000 chips (starting with 12k and average of 35k). I barely won a hand for the rest of the tournament. I struggled into Day 3, then struggled into the money. All the spots I chose to try and break free of my card dead shackles backfired. It was no fun at all. I tried to play like a lion but every time I roared it came out as a bleat. I made the money therefore in two of the three tournaments we played in Amsterdam but “min-cashed” in both. In the other I lost with AA vs KT and QQ vs JJ - both huge pots. It’s a good job my room was only on the first floor!

Then in December we were in Vegas for the $15,000 World Poker Tour event. 350 top quality runners. My first table saw me sandwiched between Josh Arieh and Antonio Esfandiari which I can only describe as a learning experience. Of course my AK ran into KK on a K high flop against a guy who was playing every hand....f****** marvellous!

That was standard, as the internet eggheads would say. But much harder to take was the Coach’s similar plight to mine in Amsterdam. One of the chip leaders half way through day two he went totally card dead and ran into cooler after cooler (a cooler is a hand that plays itself when you are second best). He scraped into Day 3 with low chips but more sub-zero conditions were to follow. After he’d made a fantastic call with a pair of threes against two overcards to an all-in push after the flop only to see the Ace arrive on the river, his AK failed to beat AQ (again!). He went AWOL for a couple of hours and I was concerned. Fortunately he resurfaced and we went for a blow-off on the craps table and the high stakes roulette!!

After two more near-misses I’ve struggled to raise the motivation to put finger to keyboard to tell anyone who might be listening quite how SHITE I feel about the whole thing. Near misses are becoming increasingly hard to take.

Anyhow, Christmas with the family and New Year in Sydney have recharged the optimism batteries and I’m raring to go again. In two weeks time we’ll be in Melbourne for the Aussie Millions, one of the Majors. I’ve just read Gus Hansen’s book “Every Hand Revealed”, undoubtedly THE best poker book I have ever read. It’s all about how he won the Aussie Millions in 2007. If Gus can do it, should be a stroll in the park for me :)

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