Finally got to play again!

gerire

So at last during a trip to Melbourne last weekend to watch the Irish get bullied of the International Rules Pitch in the Telstra Dome I got to play poker. Wow what can I say about the Crown casino, largest casino in southern hemisphere and all that, It took me 6 escalators, 3 direction enquiries and 15 minutes to even find the poker section on Thursday night for the casinos weekly $100 tournie. Which turned out to be 83 + 17 freeze out, whth ???? 1750 ????? starting chips at 25 50 20 minute levels so not very condusive to actually playing poker atall.

So the story goes I get quad 4's in the second hand of the tournie and see f'all action for the next few hours rarely keeping my stack above 5k, especially after a great rally to get it up there after a horrific call in the 4th hand of the evening. Wasn't too bad a tournie ended up 30th out of 220 bodies, really was blinded away towards the end. Tournie was won by an amazing story of a guy I was sitting beside who was down to a 25 chip in the 50 100 level and just managed to hit, and hit and hit.

So after the Ireland game I head back in, very drunk, at around 4am and stick my name down for the 1 2, $60 flat buy-in table with a few big stacks on it. Thinking I learnt from watching the crazy play on the 20 40 table that these guys are the same I move all in on my 2nd hand with top pair and walk into a made set. So another 60 is in order just to ruin the weekend but after a few hands I get a tight reputation, me never!, and make some good position plays on big tight stacks which brings me up to 150. Then a hand I sat cursing my self for and ruined the rest of the night.

AQs UTG raise to 10, called by a tight player who just took a bad beat to leave him with 20 after the call, so assume that that is coming in after the flop, and again called by the SB the loosest player at the table. Flop comes A xx. SB bets 35 and I whimp out knowing that the other player is putting in his 20 so at least I get to see and learn, oh yeah this is a cash table not a tournie, So turns out SB is playing A6 and takes it down easy, rest of table chastise me as they have all read me perfect and knew I had the best hand. So stick around for a while get up to 400 and walk away up 180 over the 2 nights. Bleh!!

BTW the cash table structure was it cost you $5 an hour to sit there + 5% rake of every 100 in the pots, a little steep I thought?

Marq

Good to hear you're back in the game Ger. That rake is very high, it's quite rare that a casino operates both a time-charge and a direct rake from the pot. The rake from the pot is bad enough.

5starpool

I used to go into the Crown a lot when in Melbourne, but that was 4 years ago before my poker days. Great place to get more drink at 3.30 after O'Briens in the shopping centre place (weird place for a pub, but great for women) closed. And then some food in KFC or somewhere that classy and home at about 6am in the morning. Ah, those were the days. Huge place, and mad cool. First time I noticed the phenomenon of inordinate amounts of chinese playing casino games.

Damn, why am I too old and responsible to pack it all in and go back again now.

kincsem

Happy days in the Crown.
I stayed with my sister at the top end of the CBD (central business district) for a few weeks in November 2003 (Melbourne Cup; Rugby World Cup). I was just a stroll about a mile down to the end of the CBD and satellites in the Crown for the big tournament the following January. I had no intention of playing in the big one if I won a satellite but I needed a poker fix. The players played hard but friendly.
Then a walk back home and into the pub across the road where all the neighbours met for a meal and a beer. And my half-pissed sister organised a bit of food for me and a few glasses. Of course "I nearly won the satellite".