Aussie Millions - Chelsea M report

My Name is Mark Segal (aka Chelsea M) – I’m a 40 year old single guy (any offers? – ladies only please!) from London UK. I started playing poker around 18 months ago and Betfair was, and still is my chosen site. It took me around 6 months to upgrade my status from “fish” to average player and then another 6 months to graduate to good.

I won my qualifier to the Aussie Millions on Betfair in November and decided to head over to Melbourne a week or so early to climatise (and to get a cheap upgrade) – I’m a big guy so 24 hours flying and 6’3 don’t go very well together. Leaving early would also give me plenty of time to chill and get to know Melbourne before the Main Event.

A short taxi ride from the airport brought me to the magnificent Crown Towers. What an impressive complex. The main casino was huge, of true “Vegas proportions”, with a sea of slot machines and lights. It took a whole 10 minutes to walk from one side of the main casino to the other! The 24/7 Poker room was located in its own area under the main Casino and again was in a huge area with a bar, snack area, and around 30 tables. Having got a flavour of what to expect come Day 1, I retired to my room and prepared to battle the jetlag (which put up a good fight, lasting 7 days!).

Before the rest of Team betfair arrived, I mixed up the days with a combination of working (I own some internet businesses), playing a little cash on the 5/10 tables ( I made about 5k on them during my time there) and just general chilling in the sun.

The Betfair crew (Estelle and Glyn) arrived around the 9th and were available for all of us should we need anything. I have to say that the ladies are a credit to Betfair and the organisation was excellent from start to finish. A few of us met in the bar on the 10th and I struck up an immediate friendship with Bifta and Gizzmo – fantastic guys.

We had the Betfair players party at the top of the Eureka Tower a few days later where we met staff from Betfair’s Australian office and the rest of the players, all really nice people – it was a great night - loads of seafood (which I’m allergic to) and Champagne, which I’m not. Credit to Betfair, they really pulled out all the stops.

Now down to business, the poker… The Main Event was a few days away and Gizzmo didn’t have a seat in the Main Event. I figured they must be holding satellites and as we’d become good friends with Gizzmo, I figured it would be a good warm up for me to play, so we played a satellite and I managed to win a seat for him into the Main Event. (Unfortunately though he had a major suck-out in the “Big one” and went out early).

The Main Event was split into 3 days and I elected to play day 3. I figured it would be a good idea to see what the averages were after the first two days so I knew what I was aiming at. We started with 20,000 chips and I played tight, didn’t get many hands and ended my day on 35,000, slightly below the average. At the end of day 1a,1b and 1c, roughly 330 of the original 780 starters remained. I had a great start to day 2 doubling up in the 3rd hour with a set against AK. This put me around the average with 250 left and I managed to build on this to go just above the average with 190 left. I started believing that with one more double up or a fair run of cards, anything could happen. I was playing good poker and felt relaxed.

To cut a very long story short I then went card dead for 4 levels. Every time I tried to steal I was getting re-raised and the couple of times I had anything to play I hit a flop and got rivered. It was all going wrong. The blinds were something like 1500/3000 if I remember correctly, with antes as well. Anyway, they were putting my dwindling stack under severe pressure. There were 130 left and top 80 paid so I knew I needed a double up to get through the bubble.

I was now well below the average (90,000) and me and my 45,000 chips were moved to another table. Second hand in we were told that this would be the last hand before the dinner break and that the whole table would be moving up to the “River Room” which was the TV table. On just my third hand at this new table UTG raised, the button flat called and I looked down at my cards on the BB and saw AJ suited, probably the best cards Id seen for a long while. The flop came down J33 – I immediately bet, the gun folded and the button flat called (he had a lot of chips) – the turn came 10 of my suit so I had top pair, top kicker and nuts draw. There was around 25k in the pot so I pushed all in. Instant call by 33 on the button. I got up stunned. I didn’t know where to look, where to go. I’d been on the edge for 4 hours and somehow still felt like I wasn’t ready accept the situation, but my tournament was very over.

I walked out into the fresh air, I was still dazed, very much in shock – bifta and gizzmo followed me out and talked me back into the real world. This is when you know you’ve made a friend, and these guys lifted me up big time. Having pulled myself back together I managed to support Team Betfair’s Philly who did fantastically well to finish 60th and of course our star Gattaca (finished 22nd overall).

A few days later Bifta talked me into not giving up poker and I ended up playing the Team Event with him. There were around 100 teams and we were in excellent shape with 22 left. Of course we went out while I was playing my session (cursed). I hit a set on the flop, my opponent bet and I pushed him all in. He hit a flush on the river. This would have put us top 3 and with 9 paying, into the money. I was probably more gutted about this than the Main Event to be honest.

So Australia carries bitter-sweet memories for me. I actually decided to give up poker after going out of the Team Event, but it doesn’t work that way does it? I guess we eventually deal with our disappointments and move on. But I met some great people and made some lovely new friends. It’s amazing how you suddenly meet all of these people - I shared drinks and food with RobH, DaveB, Annette O, Peter H, Isabelle F, Philly and his wife and Estelle to name but a few. Betfair were terrific, the Aussie Millions and the Crown complex were terrific. I wish all of you who fancy an adventure the best of luck in qualifying for an offline event with Betfair, its well worth it. God Bless