Yesterday I played the first round of the 888 Poker Open in London. There are 6 players in each TV show, and on my table was the infamous Tony G, other pros Barny Boatman and Barry Hearn, and 2 internet qualifiers.
This was my first time on a tv table so that was exciting. Tony G and Barry Hearn liked to talk it up, so the table banter was great. I played fairly tight, but also didn't get a lot of good hands. But I powered through and managed to end up heads up with Tony G. Tony has a lot more chips than me and when I was all in with the best hand he managed to out draw me to win the heat. Tony played well, and if since it wasn't me that won it, I am glad it was him. Tony goes direct to the semi-final, but since I came second I get another chance to reach the finals which I play on Wednesday. Really looking forward to that. Another Aussie from Melbourne, Larry Papadinis came second in the next round so he also gets to join me in the second chance table.
I look forward to seeing it on TV. It will air on Sky in the UK in January, and then in Australia and other countries a little later. Jeff Fenech also player his first round yesterday, but didn't make it through. Better luck next time mate!.
It was a long day yesterday after launching my book at the MCG as well as the hologram exhibition at the National Sports Museum but I was pumped for the charity poker event last night raising money for my foundation. Garry Lyon did a stellar job of MC’ing the event whilst Joe and I hosted over 100 people who bought in for $1K each as well as numerous celebrities including Brenden Fevola, Fifi Box, Jeff Fenech, Gary Ablett Jnr and his girlfriend Lauren, Brodie Harper, Hughesy, Dermie, Dipper, Glen Robbins, Lleyton Hewitt and Rob Sitch.
We went through official proceedings first and 888 and Wild Turkey presented cheques for a total of more than $35,000 – not a bad start for the Foundation! After Brian McFadden opened the tournament with his Aussie version of ‘Shuffle Up and Deal’ it was on between celebrities as the players that knocked out the first two would win an Iphone bounty. It was bad luck for Hughesy and Dermie, they were the first two to go.
Fifi Box lasted until the last 16 and Jeannie Hachem was the last woman standing, the final table consisted of Joe and myself, alongside 6 super poker players including my brother Jason. I came third in the end, Joe was the first off the final table! I donated my winnings back to the foundation as did second place getter Julius Coleman. The winner Michael Christanthopoulos, who came third in the Aussie Millions last year collected the $25K winnings kindly donating $5K back to the foundation.
Overall we raised over $200K for the night which is awesome, that money will go to under privileged children through The Shane Warne Foundation.
Now I’m off to London for the 888 Poker Open which is a tournament specifically engineered for TV, three Aussies are joining me after they won online to come along and play. I’ll be back to prepare for the Aussie millions later in the month.
Last year we raised over $250K for The Shane Warne Foundation at the annual Shane Warne and Joe Hachem charity poker tournament at Crown Casino in Melbourne. If you love poker and helping kids you should come and join Joe and myself on Monday 27th October. Money raised goes to my foundation to assist seriously ill and underprivileged kids, and we’ll have a major prize of $25k for the winner too.
On each table there’ll be a celebrity from the sporting, poker and media arenas, so far we have locked in Dermott, Trev Marmalade, Bucks, Fifi Box, Bill Brownless, Glenn Robbins, Bridget McIntrye and Kevin Muscat - but there will be plenty more. It’s $1K buy in and $500 rebuys, you could get a table with all your mates and challenge our guest celebs! Part of the pool goes to charity and part is paid out as prizes. There will be some other prizes as well, donated by my sponsors like iPod touches, poker chip sets and more.
Joe and I will host the charity poker tournament from 5.30pm. If you need a quick lesson, Crown’s Learn to Play sessions will kick off then and the tournament will start at 7pm.
If you want to play you must register quickly at Crown Poker there are limited seats. Joe and I look forward to seeing you there.
Date: Monday 27 October 2008
Time: 5.30pm for 7.00 pm start
Venue: Crown Poker Room, Level B2, Crown Melbourne
Dress: Lounge Suit
Buy in: $1000
Yesterday was Day 1a of the World Series of Poker Europe in London. I took it easy on Friday night, getting plenty of rest so I was at my best going into this massive 10,000 GBP event. My mate Joe Hachem is staying at same hotel as me so we went to the event together at the Empire Casino in Leicester Square which is a really nice venue.
As soon as I sat down, there were 4 tv cameras in my face and microphones hanging everywhere. ESPN are broadcasting the WSOPE (to 350 millions homes they say) and my table was one of the tv tables at the start of the tournament! That was pretty exciting. A hand I am sure will make the tv show was when I had King-Ten. I moved all in a board (5 cards) that has 2 tens and 3 hearts to keep it simple (plus I don’t remember exactly what, haha). So with my King-Ten I had trip Tens, pretty good hand. But the other guy had Ace-King of hearts, which gave him a flush and he FOLDED it, haha! If he had called he would have beaten me. Looking forward to seeing that hand on TV.
My stack slowing dwindled after that, not being able to get a hand. Well I raised one hand from the button with pocket Aces, and a limper to my right was the only one that called. The flop came J-J-2 and the guy checked. I bet again, and he folded Ace-King face up. He should have raised me pre-flop so I could have got some more out of him!
I lasted well past the dinner break, but my elimination hand was crazy! Arrrhgg! The hand was against Farzad Bonyadi (so PokerNews told me!) who is a pro (I didn’t know him). The board at the turn was K-K-8-A. Farzad put me all in (for less than the pot size) and I called with my K-7. He showed K-J – doh- but, it’s a split pot if the river is an Ace, Eight, Queen and I win if it’s a Seven. But, river came a Jack and he made a full house to knock me out.
Oh well – next tournament is the 888 Poker Open – am looking forward to that. Will be a few Aussies there including Jeff Fenech and Tony G I think.
I am heading to Scotland in a couple of days to play in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship pro-am event (golf, of course) and am really looking forward to that. It’s at St Andrews. My game hasn’t been terrible - I was able to hold off from getting a beating from poker/golf pro Patrik Antonius in South Africa a few weeks ago.
On Thursday I’ll arrive in London for the WSOP Europe, the next biggest tournament after the Vegas WSOP with a buy-in of £10,000. The festival started last week for the leadup events and have some big numbers. My first day is this Saturday (27th Sept) for the Main Event at The Empire Casino at Leicester Square. I’m pumped to play in the tournament after doing really well in Vegas, making it to Day 3 over there was awesome (but disappointing at same time), I just hope I can do the same – if not more in London.
I’m starting to get used to the intensity, it is still a tough mind game and very draining but after a few long stints at the table I have found that I’m dealing with it much better. My aim is to do better than Vegas and South Africa, it would be great to make it to the money this time.
Before game day I’ll be playing in a VIP cricket match this Friday, it’ll be nice to have a few balls with the 888 crew and loosen up before I have to play on Saturday.
After London I’ll head home and spend some time with the kids before heading back in November for the 888 Poker Open, this is going to be a televised show where you can win to come with me and play, free rolls and qualifiers are online all the time with small fields to beat and make it to the tv show. Stay tuned to check out how I go this weekend.
I’m in South Africa at the moment, arrived last Monday night. I played in the Million Dollar Sun City Shuffle Up tournament at the Sun City Super bowl. Thursday was the first day of tournament play and there was a hectic re-buy period for about the first 4 hours. I’m not sure how many players started, but looked like a few hundred. My 888 team mate Jeff Fenech and I made it through Day 1 and I was in the top ten in chips with $95K, I think the chip leader had $102K.
Going into Day 2 which was yesterday, Jeff and I were pumped, being in the top ten chip stack gave me confidence and I started out playing well. Then all of a sudden I lost a couple of big hands and one which finally crippled me. I had a Queen-Jack of clubs so I raised and he called, a 9-clubs, Q-diamonds and 10-clubs came out on the flop this means I had a straight flush draw and a top pair - total monster of a hand I am always happy to get all my chips in here. I bet and he called then the turn card came, 5-diamonds, I bet again and he called the last card was a 2-spades, I bet again and he called, he showed a King-Queen to win the hand. So unlucky I didn't hit what I needed. I was almost knocked out with only $15K of chips left.
After that disappointing loss of hand, the table broke and a new table was formed. I didn’t play the first couple of hands and then I was on the big blind, the blinds were 8k/16k and I had a 6-7 of hearts. I got raised so I went all in with my remaining chips. Everyone else folded and the player had K-2, a King comes out on the flop and I’m out. Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I was disappointed that from coming from a top ten player with $95K of chips at the start of the day, I ended up around 110 when I was knocked out.
Jeff busted out about 4 hours before me, he was disappointed too and said it felt really intense today, there were a lot of re-buys. After nearly making it through 2 days of play, I was pretty mentally exhausted, we did learn a lot though and it was great to be back in South Africa.
My next poker tournament is the WSOP in Europe at the end of this month, I’ll also be playing a bit online. I’m heading back to Australia in the next day and then off to London around the 25th September. I’ll keep you updated on how I go in London, hopefully it will be one day better than my effort in South Africa.
Tomorrow, Jeff Fenech and I are going to South Africa to play in the Sun City Million Dollar poker tournament. Can't wait - is going to be a cracker. It is a USD$1.5 million prizepool guanteed with at least $650,000 for first. I will post an update or two from there.
After the Sun City tournament I am back in Oz a little while before going to London for the World Series of Poker Europe. Then back in London again for the 888.com Poker Open. You can join me for the Poker Open, click here for details.
I played the Crown Victorian Poker Championships Main Event on Friday. It was $2700 to enter, and I think there were about 150 players that started, but there was a second starting day on Saturday with over 200 players. Both myself and other 888 team mate Jeff Fenech started (and ended) on the first Day 1 (Friday).
It started at 12.30pm and I lasted close to 11pm so I think I did pretty well, although I wish I had made it into the second day. I did have a really lucky hand that saved my tournament life. I was all in with Jack-Ten against the other guy’s King-Ten. This means I am really dominated because he has a better kicker, and I need a miracle. The miracle came with two Jacks on the flop and I survived and doubled up. Besides this hand, I really think I played well and I did make some big folds, which is very important in poker – being able to fold big hands when you know or think you are beat.
Jeff was out a few hours before me. On his last hand he was all in with 9-8 on flop of A-7-6 for up and down straight draw but his opponent had A-A for the nut set. Turn and river didn’t bring him a Ten or Five so he was gone.
Both Jeff and I are going to play in South Africa for the Million Dollar Sun City Shuffle Up Tournament soon. You can see the details of that in the EVENTS tab. Am really looking forward to getting to South Africa’s great Sun City resort for this as it’s really a great place. Before that we have the online bounty tournament on August 31st.
The Crown Victorian Poker Championships started at Crown Casino in Melbourne today (2nd August) and are running to the 17th of August. My mate Joe Hachem suggested I play a few of the events, so I decided I would.
I'm playing the $340 terminator, the $1100 short handed, and the $2700 main event. You can see the details for them by clicking EVENTS in the menu at top of this page. Should be good fun - a bit more relaxing than the World Series of Poker.
Hoping to do well especially since still not over finishing close to the bubble at the WSOP last month.
In January 2009, the Aussie Millions takes place at Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia. You have the opportunity to join me there at the tournament where the winner receives $2,000,000, and join me at special private functions!
Qualifiers are running all the time online at 888 poker. So download now, and qualify to join me there!
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