Finished the Australian Open chess wiht 6.5/11, which was reasonable. Could have been better, could have been worse. My final two rounds were quite a mix, with a great position in round 10 against Patrick Champion becoming a horrible loss thanks to a few shocking moves in an ending. Round 11 was quite the opposite, with a good attacking game against Richard Voon making up (somewhat) for the previous round, and a good way to finish the tournament.
As far as the tournament itself is concerned, it was a three-way tie between GM Zong-Yuan Zhao, IM George Xie & Moulthun Ly, with George getting the trophy on tie break (the illogical sum of opponent's ratings ... but what tie break system is really fair?). Vladimir Smirnov also picked up his third & final IM norm ... and with the 2400 rating requirement having been previously fulfilled, he should be an IM on the next FIDE list.
The Aussie Millions has been run & won as far as I'm concerned. I'm not as cashed-up as I was at this time last year, so decided to only play the 8-game event (of course this was 'helped' by the lack on non-NLHE events - no limit holdem, Manila, Omaha hi-lo or stud outside the 8 game) ... and I found myself on a pretty tough table. It was a good decision to play the tournament 6-handed, however when the table consist of Dave Morton, Leo Boxell, Oliver Gill, Matt Pearson, myself & an unknown player, there really aren't too many obvious places to get chips easily ... particularly when the unknown guy manages to run me down in the few pots I manage to play heads-up with him. I only managed to finish around 50th out of the 68 starters, which was disappointing. Of course with only NLHE events left on the schedule (apart from a $10k 8-game), I'm not going to play any more events ... NLHE isn't my best game & I'd rather play cash than have to deal with the swings of bigger buy-in events.
The series itself is being run well, as most Crown tournaments are, however the lack of non-NLHE events is disappointing from a personal level. Having said that, the use of the Studio 3 nightclub area for the TV tables/$100k challenge/televised cash game is excellent, although as you might expect, poker still lacks something as a spectator sport when you can't see the hole cards.
Also for those who bother to read the blog, I'll extend the deadline for the quiz ... and reveal results & winner in around a week ... needless to say the man behind the UnknownName3 blog is in front at the moment, though his total is definitely beatable.
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