Gonna update shortly.. Just played WSOP Asia Pacific and flying to Berlin soon!

solid commentary touday man ul on busting early

Cool thread, just found it. Norway looked great fun! GL in future!

Thanks buddy

Cheers, appreciate it. Yeah it was fun for sure. Good luck to you too!

Ugh sorry everyone it's been a month since a proper update!
Gonna do one now, probably gonna be super long but hopefully worth the read

There's probably a good chance I'm gonna forget something important since it's been so long but I'll try to write about everything I can remember. I ended up going fairly deep in the $5,000 (AUD, which is almost the same as USD) 6-max at WSOP Asia-Pacific in Crown, Melbourne, finished 9th for $20K. First was $230 and a bracelet so that would have been nice, but pretty pleased with my result. I think there was pretty good value in the event for me but relatively speaking it was a really tough event. However table draw is absolutely everything and in the final 2 tables we were 4-handed on one table with myself, Brendon Rubie (Brendon1717/Brendoor etc), a good somewhat unknown Australian high stakes cash reg and Aaron Lim (just been crushing it lately, very good Australian high stakes reg who has been winning a tonne of tourneys etc, ended up winning this event). The other table were mostly just semi-regs/semi-fish, and it was 5-handed.

The main event went a bit worse, actually on day 2 I was chip leader with 530K chips at one point, starting at 30K. I was just crushing, running good, playing great and just running over most of the players etc. There was a really tough table with a bunch of sickos where I tightened up significantly, Benny Spindler, Joseph Cheong, Nam Le, some other good regs, but we broke after 30minutes. I had over 200BB in a really soft field, and ended up losing two huge pots back-to-back which dropped me down to 100K or so, and with that stack I just had to be somewhat tight and eventually ended up bubbling in 43rd with 40 paying. That sucked because the min-cash was $20k. I actually don't care too much about the min-cash or the fact I bubbled, just not final-tabling was really, really disappointing since at that point my odds of making it would probably be 1/3 or so. On the final table the 3 shortest stacks had less than 530K which is what I had early on day 2!! Was pretty brutal but I generally feel strongly about the idea of not thinking too much about things that have already happened, that we can't change. So losing a phone/wallet sucks for example, but once it's already gone being sad just puts you in an even worse situation.

I played with Hellmuth for a couple hours in the Main Event, I had the general impression he was just a bit of a tool but after playing with him and talking to him (friendly trash talk, etc) I can honestly say I really respect the guy and think he's really cool/fun etc. Yeah he does say somethings that are out of line, but I really like the guy. He did one hilarious play which was shoving 90 big blinds over a button min-raise and proudly showing AKo when the BTN folded, lol. I then asked him a few hands later to open-shove from UTG, and said I'd give him $20 if he did so lol, he's like "now these kids are making fun of me.."

We just talked about "internet kids", I asked him if he likes them and he said he does and he goes drinking with them! He also said he has two kids who don't play poker, and are unlikely to in the future. I also asked him silly fun questions like is your called "Phil Hellmuth Junior Junior" etc. Have to say a hilarious moment was at the start of the day, the dealer looked at our chip bags and asked Phil, "are you Phil"? The look on his face was so priceless, since he obviously takes great pride in his fame etc. Also at one point he leaned back on his chair and it broke so he just fell right over, feet/legs in the air! He's super tall so that was pretty funny too. But yeah overall a very classy guy, shook hands with everyone after busting.



Melbourne was great as always, had some nice meals around the area and just enjoyed the city. Hung out with the 888 boys a few times, really cool, nice and super humble people. Did some activities like wine tasting, cheese tasting and had a couple meals with them, and on the day of the final table for the main event I even joined in as a guest commentator for a couple hours for the live stream. That was my first time commentating for a live stream so it was a lot of fun and a nice experience.



Russel who final tabled the Main Event in Vegas in 2012 managed to final table this WSOP Main Event too so that was pretty impressive! Unfortunately couldn't win though, I even had a tiny swap..

Continued the journey to Berlin for EPT Berlin and I guess that has to be my fifth time to Berlin now. Was fun as always and I like the city, got to a see a few German friends I know fairly well so that was nice. Unfortunately I realised I really have any photos from there but here's a photo of a beer tower that a restaurant near Mainz offered. Not so into beer myself (yet) but I know a lot of people who have loved the beer offerings there.



I went to Wiesbaden to visit a close friend for the weekend after Berlin and taking a little time off poker was nice. Berlin went ok, overall was slightly below break even. Didn't play that much but final tabled a 1K Euro win the button tourney for 6K Euros, 6th place. The final table was fairly soft, one good player and the rest ranging from slightly bad to horrendous, busted after the good player made a pretty thin 3b/call for quite a lot of BB BvB with A7o, think it wasn't so good but I had shoved a few times without showdown so he probably thought I was lighter than I actually was.

blakkman08 already commented about this a couple posts up but I joined the PokerStars.tv EPT Berlin live stream commentary I think 5 times during the Main Event streaming, that was a loan of fun and a nice experience as well! I think I'm likely to do it during EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo in a few days too, although hopefully I will just win the main event and not do any commentary Joe Stapleton (who you guys may know from the big game etc if you don't watch the live streams) and James Hartigan were both very fun to work with and it's pretty obvious they do their jobs super well. A few times some other guests joined at the same time, for example in the photo is David Vamplew.



In general I was happy with how I did, although sometimes I spoke a bit too fast or mumbled a bit. The problem is as someone who thinks about the game a lot at a reasonably high level, and has done a lot of coaching, there's always so much that I'm thinking of that I want to say and sometimes there just isn't enough time! Especially since it's broadcast to a fairly general poker audience which includes a lot of recreational type players.

Next up I finally made the decision to actually go to Monte Carlo, the series is super expensive/huge (and the expenses like food etc are pretty ridiculous) so I wasn't so sure, but in the last week or so I decided I was feeling very good to play more live poker, and the SNE discount for the package is really, really good value. I had to go somewhere for about a week before Monte Carlo and just randomly picked Amsterdam. It's not too far from either Germany of Monte Carlo so it made sense! Had a lot of good friends really love their time there. I was a bit sick, and had to grind 30K VPP in 2 day to not lose SNE so I didn't get that much of a chance to go out, but it's a really nice city and a lot to do there. I will definitely go back in the near future, probably with some friends though since it's a place that's probably way more enjoyable with friends.



The roads are pretty confusing/hectic, people on bikes EVERYWHERE, trams, cars etc all coming at you from every direction lol. Can't really tell in this photo but this is near the center of the city.



Visited the legendary twoplustwo troll QuadChrazs/Mecastyles and BPPlatform in Rotterdam, near Amsterdam for the last day before I left and they were both really nice fun guys, really smart about poker (and in general) too. Here's a photo I secretly took (I think it was secret) of Quadz grinding, and one of us all together at the station right before I went back to Amsterdam.




Made it to Monte Carlo, Monaco yesterday and loving the place so far. The hotel is super ridiculously expensive (I had to book two extra nights outside of the package) but really crazy nice and luxurious too. I feel so ridiculously out of place amongst a bunch of older rich millionaire+ but it's always fun to experience some luxury occasionally as a kid :P There's great sauna/beach/pools etc all around and the room is really nice, the view for this room is like this (I took this with iPhone panorama):



On Sunday I get an upgraded sea view room as SNE so hopefully that will be even better!

Really looking forward to playing some live tournaments and hopefully getting a deep run in something, a huge main event (10,600 Euros) and a LOT of side events of various buy-ins so gl us

When you leave updates this far behind you end up with a wall of text, I did my best to summarise to keep it shorter. Next up is likely Vancouver in Canada for a few weeks to live with bigbluffzinc for a bit, but there's also a chance I'll just go home if I'm burnt out.

I lost a bit playing SNGs to make VPPS for last month but online has generally continued to go well this year, mostly in cash games. Was playing a ridiculous number of tables and pretty high ABI for the SNGs and didn't run so well, lost maybe $6k I guess. Another attempt at NL1K went really badly, -$8K or so which sucks. I think I need another couple attempts before I can "break through" although at the moment the fact that I play whilst tilted, as well as when the line ups are really tough (no fish and a lot of the best regs) doesn't help at all either. I definitely did run bad too though. Probably gonna stay away from there for a bit, pretty happy with the money and results at 200 and 500 anyway.

Not hard to guess where the 2 downswings during NL1K are!


Gonna post one ridiculous hand. I almost never get out of focus this much but for some reason during this hand I literally just had my mind COMPLETELY somewhere else, I was just clicking buttons. I opened pre cause there were at least 3 fish behind, usually wouldn't open UTG with this. On the flop and turn the sizings are pretty lol bad, I guess calling pre vs. a fish is standard to his sizing and shoving river for obvious value is standard too though. On the river I literally had no idea what happened but was like hmmm.. value shove time.. Looked back on the hand after and kinda loled at myself.. Just kind of a funny/stupid hand since I get there and get paid..

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $5(BB) Replayer
SB ($424)
BB ($503)
Hero ($500)
UTG+1 ($1,085)
CO ($595)
BTN ($533)

Dealt to Hero 7 9

Hero raises to $10, fold, fold, BTN raises to $30, fold, fold, Hero calls $20

FLOP ($67.50) 2 2 T

Hero checks, BTN bets $40, Hero raises to $92.09, BTN calls $52.09

TURN ($251) 2 2 T A

Hero bets $89.59, BTN calls $89.59

RIVER ($430) 2 2 T A Q

Hero bets $288 (AI), BTN calls $288

BTN shows 8 T
(Pre 61%, Flop 93.5%, Turn 81.8%)

Hero shows 7 9
(Pre 39%, Flop 6.5%, Turn 18.2%)

Hero wins $1,004


I decided I'm almost definitely going to make a website or proper blog in the near future too, so I'll post when that happens! Just a lot easier for me to post a blog, and start doing some promotion as well, list coaching when I become ready to do it again etc too.

Follow me @missoraclepoker for twitter if you're interested btw

FINALLY!! Nice update bro, pretty cool pics and sweet graph also, update moar GL

gimme gimme MORE gimme MORE gimme gimme MORE

looked like a fun time

Lol just had a +3K session, easy game

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $2(BB) Replayer
SB ($107)
BB ($160)
UTG ($183)
UTG+1 ($298)
CO ($206)
Hero ($214)

Dealt to Hero K K

UTG calls $2, fold, fold, Hero raises to $9, fold, fold, UTG raises to $16, Hero raises to $40, UTG calls $24

FLOP ($83) Q 9 9

UTG bets $143 (AI), Hero calls $143

TURN ($370) Q 9 9 Q

RIVER ($370) Q 9 9 Q 4

Hero shows K K
(Pre 84%, Flop 83.8%, Turn 90.9%)

UTG shows T J
(Pre 16%, Flop 16.2%, Turn 9.1%)

Hero wins $367

Thx for the donation

Might well be the best thread in PGnC now. Great update man keep them up! Make sure to post if/when u re up for commentary might be a fanboi and join in

Gl in all the donkaments u ll play! And moar pictures of Monaco!

Nice updates and pics!

Is there anywhere I can watch the stream now?

Thanks guys! Don't think you can watch the stream now unfortunately. I will probably twitter in advance or at least when I'm about to join, if it happens again don't think I will post in the thread just for that though

great update, keep crushing man

Cool thread dude!

Just wanted to say thanks for making those two 180 man series on deucescracked.. They were extremely helpful for my BR building challenge I have undertaken this year... I was number 1 in volume up until I started playing MTT's a couple months ago.. Most likely number 1 for 2.50 profit as well, definitely couldn't have done it without you.. Still play heaps of 8s, 3r, and 15s to supplement my schedule..

Obviously you are now on to much bigger better things so best of luck moving forward in your poker journey!

Yeah definitely not jealous...

Appreciate it, thanks Hope you're doing well

Hey really appreciate that, you're welcome and I'm glad it helped you. Just keep grinding and working on your game and I'm sure you will continue to progress.



Haven't really had anything too worthwhile to update today so far, played a tiny bit of cash today but sat out, was playing 5/10 Euro with no max buy-in, so pretty huge game. Table was pretty tough for a live table, 5 regs (who I probably have an edge against all of) and 3 fish.. So I sat out, likely will play some later though. Might also just play 2/5 which is usually more like 7 fish one reg lol.

Main event of EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final tomorrow!!

Lol, pretty sure the other guy and I both had more fun than the money in the pot involved in the pot is worth.

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $5(BB) Replayer
SB ($403)
BB ($269)
UTG ($594)
UTG+1 ($1,353)
Hero ($559)
BTN ($1,011)

Dealt to Hero 2 2

fold, fold, Hero raises to $10, fold, fold, BB calls $5

FLOP ($22.50) 9 2 8

BB bets $15, Hero raises to $30, BB raises to $45, Hero raises to $60, BB raises to $75, Hero raises to $90, BB raises to $105, Hero raises to $120, BB raises to $135, Hero raises to $150, BB raises to $165, Hero raises to $180, BB raises to $195, Hero raises to $210, BB raises to $225, Hero raises to $240, BB raises to $255, Hero raises to $270, BB calls $4.66 (AI)

TURN ($541) 9 2 8 5

RIVER ($541) 9 2 8 5 K

BB shows 8 9
(Pre 50%, Flop 16.8%, Turn 9.1%)

Hero shows 2 2
(Pre 50%, Flop 83.2%, Turn 90.9%)

Hero wins $539

Pics of the sea view suite?

Awesome thread !!

View:


Inside (there's a pretty nice bathroom too which you can't see the inside of):

ok i deffo want SNE too just to gat that view for free :OOOOO

gl tomorrow

Awesome room man and nice thread btw, glglgl!!

Another good update bro. Started following you on twitter this week and defo recommend. Keep crushing.

Looking forward to hearing you on the EPT cash game stream

Really enjoying the updates. One of the best threads on 2+2. Thanks!

**** man nice pics....seeing how much you travel motivates me to improve my game. I want icelandic adventures with random strangers

Haha they do a good job in making it attractive to pay $181818.18 in rake for the year..

Thanks, gl to you too

Appreciate it, thanks

Hope it was up to standard, wasn't on for very long and not that much interesting action was there during my hour or so on the stream =S

Thanks a lot, appreciate it. You're welcome obv!

Haha yeah it sure is random, travelling is a huge perk of poker for sure (and just general flexibility).

Gonna update properly shortly, been pretty busy with the grind in the last few days.