Australian Open & Aussie Millions

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.

Sydney & some updates ...

I'm in Sydney at the moment, spending some time with the family over Christmas. I'm sure I'll catch up with many of my Sydney friends while in town as well.
I've also got a few things happening over the next month ... two chess tournaments - one in Melbourne (the Canterbury Summer Swiss) & one in Sydney (the Australian Open) ... a poker homegame (let me know if you're interested in attending) ... as well as the Aussie Millions!
As far as the chess stuff goes, I would like to do some sort of blogging/podcast type thing around it. I suspect this may involve setting up another blog, though it might also end up here, but either way I'll let you know.
As for the 'you' ... there's been 8 downloads of the latest episode, which only went up about a week ago, so I suppose that means there's at least 8 people who read the blog & listen to the podcast (or perhaps fewer readers/listeners who have trouble downloading & need to download multiple times ... but I'll go with the optimistic numbers!) ... one would almost call it a following, although I think such terms should be reserved for times when you run out of fingers when counting.
As for the Deuces Cracked 50,000 hand challenge, I'm currently around 11,500 hands in and down about $40. I've been going in the right direction lately playing micro-NLHE, which has seen something of a recovery from my earlier efforts with Rush poker & limit holdem, where I ran horribly. At the moment, I think the leaders in the challenge are up around $300, so I'm not entirely out of the running yet, although the graph needs to keep heading in the right direction.
I'm sure I'll also be playing some poker while in Sydney & I'll let you know how it goes.
If I don't get around to updating beforehand ... have a great festive season!

Episode 6 Now Online

Episode 6 of the Donkcast is now available for download

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SVCWON4Z

The episode features a summary of my time in America, WSOP wrap-up, a look at the 2011 Aussie Millions schedule, strategy on using tells in live poker & a sick TV hand involving Daniel Negreanu & David Williams. Oh, and a new intro, featuring highlights from the intherview with Danzasmack ... taken completely out of context to give listeners an idea of what is to come!

Feedback & comments are definitely appreciated, either here or at thedonkcast@hotmail.com