I interrupt the irregularly scheduled Aussie Millions cliff notes of Dawn Summers to bring you this PSA.

Most male poker players in Australia are hot. Looking around the room at the Star City Casino in Sydney I realized I was not surrounded by the overweight, smelly, obnoxious slobs I sometimes encounter in AC. These guys were fit and hot. Even the drinks were served by good looking men. And all that eye candy had accents to boot.

At the Crown Casino in Melbourne it was more of a mixed bag probably due to the Aussie Millions draw - but still lots of cute guys. In fact, a cute guy sat down next to me at a $2/$3 table - I looked at him from the corner of my eye and ohmigod it was Paul Wasicka. Slumming at my table!

He was really nice and I wanted to tell him that I’m a big fan but thought it was inappropriate at the table. I did, however, tell him while waiting for luggage at LAX. He blushed.

So, with the addition of Paul Wasicka, I have a “five” list similar to Dr. Pauly - no, I have not peed next to these pros, but here’s the five pros that I’ve played live poker with:

1. Paul Wasicka
2. Michael Mizrachi
3. Evelyn Ng
4. Phil Hellmuth
5. Antonio Esfandiari

Thanks Full Tilt!

I figure there is no need to rehash everything about this trip when Dawn Summers is doing a fantastic job. So for the rest of my AM trip reports I will be providing the Dawn cliff notes (apologies to Bayne for appropriating his creativity).

_______________

Flights - sleepytime for DS, hell for Mad. Stinky for both.

Sydney :

Luna Park - screaming

Harbor - pretty

Breakfast - spilled coffee

Loose animals terrify DS

The Rocks - has rocks but not as many rocks as DS expected.

Not The Rocks but some rocks in Sydney Harbor

Poker

________________

Dawn forgot to mention - while we were waiting to reboard the plane in Auckland, there was a grey-haired, balding bearded guy with a little girl playing with her barbie carryon. I told Dawn that it was David Sklansky with his latest girlfriend/protege. Here’s the proof:

Looking back at the photo I realize it can’t be his latest protege, she doesn’t look anything like a stripper.

I promised AlCantHang that I would provide bacon photos from the trip. Here’s my first full brekkie that I enjoyed at the Blackbird Cafe in the Cockle Bay Wharf.

Dawn Summers and I spent my birthday (thanks Dawn!) at the Australian Open. The first match we saw that day was between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) and Sam Warburg (USA). Tsonga won that day - it was a mediocre match and I didn’t notice anything extraordinary about Tsonga except for his powerful first serve. However, he then stormed his way to the finals, taking out #2 seed Rafael Nadal (ESP) in the semi finals.

It seems like my internal clock hasn’t adjusted yet to being back in NY so I was up to watch the men’s final at 3:30am (EST). It was a good match with crowd-favorite Tsonga taking the first set. Djokovic (SRB) took the next two sets and then won the match in a tiebreaker in the fourth set. Congratulations to Djokovic for his first Grand Slam title.

Now if only my sleep schedule could get back on track.

December
I was in Maryland for the holidays when I got the email from AlCantHang about the available seats on the Full Tilt jet to Australia. I immediately wrote to him - “hell yeah, I want to go” or something like that. I sent an email to Miami Don telling him “let’s go crazy and run off to Australia.” We had been chatting sporadically since the Winter Gathering and I thought it might be fun to run away with an almost complete stranger. He said he already had beach plans with the Asshat Frat Crew - Buddy Dank, ScottMc, Hoy and cracknaces. I asked him to take lots of photos - you’ve seen this one, but boy oh boy, you should see the rest!

I didn’t hear back from Al so I figured the seats were already taken.

January
In the middle of the week before the flight to Australia Al asked me if I still wanted to go. I had pretty much pushed the thought of going out of my mind, instead thinking of a February trip to Vegas. I mentioned the offer to Tammy and she insisted I had to go. Thus started a frenzy of activity - booking a flight to LA, hotel accommodations in Sydney, info on things to do, places to see, digging warm weather clothes out of boxes. I rushed home knowing that my passport expired in 08 and thinking it may be January. Luckily it expires JUN 08 and not JAN 08. All was good. Until I realized the Al and Riggstad weren’t going, that Dawn Summers and I were taking their seats. Damn! I was so looking forward to drinking with Al down under.

Up next - NY to LA, LA to Auckland, Auckland to Melbourne, Melbourne to Sydney. In other words, hell at 35,000 ft.

No time to write up anything about my Australia trip - but check out these two blogs for more details (besides, anything Dawn Summers writes will be a million (an Aussie Million to be exact) times better than what I’ll eventually write):

Clareified
I Had Outs

I have put my photos up on flickr so you can look at them for now.

Damn it is so cold in Brooklyn!

I’m dreaming of the warm, sunny weather left behind in Australia…

Thanks again to Al and Full Tilt Poker for making this trip possible. More to follow…and yes, there are bacon photos!

Frauke is going on a tour, and then coming back home to see all your smiling faces. The band is excited to play the Mercury Lounge for the first time and would be pleased as punch if you joined them. Plus, they are playing with the Jones Street Boys (9pm) which is always an extra special treat.

Frauke @ The Mercury Lounge
217 E. Houston St. (corner of Ave. A & Houston)
8pm
$8

http://www.mercuryloungenyc.com/
http://www.fraukehatesyou.com/
http://www.thejonesstreetboys.com/

My old man sent me this link today. It is, well, awesomely cute! The dog must have a real “thing” doing windows.
http://www.roberthein.dk/screenclean.swf

Heave away, haul away…

I’m not a fanatical follower of horoscopes but at the beginning of each month I read what is in store for me for that month. I promptly forget what days are my “love days” or on which day I should ask for that raise. My December horoscope hinted that 2008 was going to be a phenomenal year for me, the luckiest year for my sign. And that December 21st through the end of January would be the luckiest of the lucky. I decided that I would make all of December and all of 2008 lucky for me.

At the beginning of December I joined about 125 poker bloggers for some good times in Las Vegas. I played in the WPBT Winter Gathering Tournament and although I didn’t win, I got lucky and won some great bounties from players that I busted out of the tournament. The first bounty I received was from Garth. He had seen a photo of me from one of the Crackhouse games and seemed to be taken with the hat I was wearing. It became a bit of a running joke among some poker bloggers. I was very excited to meet Garth so he could see the hat in person, however, when I ended his tournament run, I was a bit sad but I got this great bounty from him:

a replacement hat, and oh so appropriate for my upcoming trip to Australia. Thanks Garth!

The second bounty I won was from storyteller Johnny Hughes. I had read several of Johnny’s wonderful Texas poker tales awhile ago on the 2+2 Forum. He is sending me a copy of his book, Texas Poker Wisdom and needless to say, I’m really looking forward to reading it.

As for 2008 being lucky for me, Al has offered me one of the seats on the FullTilt jet to Australia! I’ve always wanted to go and this is perfect timing for me with work. I’m joining Dawn, California April and her friend on this jaunt down under. I’m hoping we’ll get a chance to have a drink with Pauly and Change100 although I know they’ll be busy with work. And of course we’ll be rooting for jeciimd to represent the bloggers and take down the Aussie Millions!

Right now I’m feeling like the luckiest person in the world!