3 December 2008

APPT Sydney “road to millions” Blog Part 1 – Welcome to Sydney.
A fair part of National’s election campaign centered around keeping kiwis in New Zealand. With record numbers of New Zealanders high-tailing it across the ditch, Labour was to blame. Within 30 seconds of stepping into the Sydney sun I had a fair idea of why people come to OZ. It’s December and it’s 30 degrees! It’s probably hasn’t rained since I was last here in July. The whole plane was full of kiwi looters, looking to come over register for the dole and catch some rays. Little did Australian customs know that seats 31J and 31K were here to steal a little more than a sun tan. Dan Sing and I have come to the Lucky Country to bring home 1 million dollars Australian and to win New Zealand some more silver-ware to go with The Rugby League World Cup. (Thank you Jesus) Dan Sing placed 4th in the SKYCITY Auckland Festival of Poker and is in good form so I was thinking he’d be a great travel partner for this event. We’re only 20 hours into the trip & my liver is already hating him. Luckily for me somewhere in the last 20 sun and tequila filled hours I won a $160 Satellite to the $675 Sat tonight. 1 for 1, this really is the lucky country! My arch nemesis the great Robert Wang came in a distant 2nd – a trend I’m hoping will continue until Monday. With brings me to my next section…

Things I’ve learned from better poker players than me:

Robert Wang:

We were down to 3 handed I’m big stack and he and our mutual opponent were short. First and Second got tickets. I picked up Ajs and raised from the button. Robert folded pocket 9s! With little blind pressure he knew that a race at best was not conducive to winning a ticket. Sure enough, two hands later our Australian host pushed and was eliminated. A New Zealand 1-2… Pick your spots and be prepared to fold hands you’re pretty sure are ahead if it’ll help you get that ticket.

Love Brooke

12 October 2008

In the hotel room here at the SKYCITY Grand Hotel celebrating a 4th place that should have and could have been a win for Dan Sing in the Main Event. Dan came 2nd in Tuesday’s celebrity tournament and put in a fantastic performance on Day 3 of the main event. In his final hand Dan turned Broadway, laid a great semi in trap that had his opponent push all in with Two pair (JT) (not a great move with a board that has KQ to a straight and AJ AT to top two!) Dan called and the cheers went up. The poker gods had other ideas though, big stack hit his 4 outer on the river…

Thanks for such a great week, to all the people that came, saw, played, enjoyed the SKYCITY Festival of Poker. We hoped it would be good, but who could have seen it being this good?

I will update this when I’m really really drunk later tonight…
BHS

10 October 2008 – The Main Event

After a fantastic session yesterday I can honestly say I’ve never been so confident coming into a tournament. I got a good sleep and woke up refreshed and ready to play some cards. The first 5 or so hours went to plan, the odd move, keeping the pots small, under control and avoiding any unnecessary confrontations. I had Andrew Scott to my left, an established Australian Pro who came 2nd in the Macau High Roller, we wrestled a little, good times…

By the time Singaporean pro Bryan Huang sat down on my right I’d worked my way to around $17,000, $5,000 or so above average. A few hands in Bryan, who loves to be the aggressor raised from the button, I joked about a steal, knowing full well he was capable of it in an unraised pot, he raised to $900, I looked at my cards to see QQ, I faked a semi-tank, then re-raised, hoping he’d pin it as a re-steal, he did stuffing… Now I had to tank for real, Aces? NO, Kings? NO, Ace King? May be, but I was pretty sure after talking to him a little he had an under pair, 99, TT, or JJ, I call and to my surprise he rolls over 66! Nice, a chance for me to take the chip lead on Day 2…

The board comes {3-Hearts} {2-Hearts} {7-Diamonds}… All good, then the 6 of Diamonds slaps the turn… I get up, shake his hand as an 8 rivers.  I’ve got to say I felt a hell of a lot better about it than you’d think. My days play had been good and poker is full of 2 outer stories. I’m sure I’ll be busting someone out someday after an equally bad play. Bryan Huang’s now 2nd in chips, let’s hope he puts them to good use!

I’ll still be floating around the PokerZone over the next two days, There’s a corner I go to cry in… Come up and watch as some of the best in the world battle it out for almost a million dollars!
BHS

9 October 2008

Thanks for stopping by… With all the porn on the internet these days, you choosing to read my diary makes you a good person. But a good person that makes bad decisions. Perhaps you got here by mistake after a poor choice of “google key words” next time you’ll rethink it before you search bust brooke and poke r… Anyway you’re here, the good news is I’m naked in my hotel room, so it’s kinda erotic anyway.

Today’s been nothing short of a revelation.  I spent the whole day with Lee Nelson, Tyson Streib, Joe Hachem, Tony Dunst, and Dennis Waterman in the Learn from the Pros seminar. It’s changed my perspective on poker in a single day. I was hoping to gain a few key points, maybe improve on my game a little. Instead, every 10 minuets they’d bring something so brilliant that it can’t help but change my game. As for the $750 entry fee, Mike King was in there with me, he said and I agree, just one of the key points was worth that! The 12 hours were jammed packed with info, charts and one-on-one training from some of the best in the business. I sound like an infomercial but it was that good! You need to find out when they’re doing it next…

It all gets put to the test tomorrow… Day one for me, my Robert Wang side bet looks pretty good, all I have to do is last till day 2 and I’m up $1000. Robert busted out set over set today, sad as he was one of New Zealand’s big hopes to do well. Still in are:

• Nathanael Seet – 75500
• Jeffrey Dunbar – 70600
• Andrew Pantling – 62800
• Wang Che Jung – 56100
• Michael Mariakis – 52900
• Yasuki Shino – 47400
• Luke Stanford – 46500
• Karl-Oskar Fösker – 45700
• Jamie Wilson – 44800
• Peter Aristidou – 43000
• Jim Zhou – 42500
• Assadour Assadourian – 41900
• Soren Eriksen – 39900
• Mark Oosterveld – 39100
• Eric Mutrie – 38100
• Glenn Gibbs – 37200
• Teresa Nousiainen – 36900
• Andrew Meldrum – 36300
• David Bradford – 35000
• Naeem Amiry – 34700
• Swee Guan Song – 34000
• Guobing Yu – 33500
• Penny Parker – 30900
• Simon Davis – 29100
• Thomas Macdonald – 28700
• Tony Hachem – 27700
• Marien Gast – 23300
• Marc Landrain – 7300
• Tim Heath – 6200
• Stacey Reilly – 5500     Martin Islamaj – 22900
• Song Meng Zhou – 22700
• Ed Scandlyn – 22500
• Kevin Clark – 22500
• David Falealili – 20000
• Celina Lin – 19100
• Mathew Wall – 18900
• Sean Dunwoodie – 18900
• Stephen Smith – 18900
• Wai Kwan Yuen – 18600
• Elizabeth Harris – 18500
• Chantelle Nash – 18300
• Alex Bond – 18000
• Tayne Derriman – 17100
• Barry Clayton – 16300
• Dave Hohen – 16300
• Sam Muir – 15800
• Dan Sing – 15500
• James Anderson – 15400
• Samuel Cavanagh – 12700
• Colin Lovelock – 12600
• Leo Boxell – 12300
• Wei Zhao – 11800
• Marc Wittkopf – 11700
• Fred Madon – 11600
• Alexander Fitzgerald – 11200
• Ned Stone – 10900
• Ted Everard – 10500
• Thomas Mclaughlin – 7700

I don’t know who all the pros are so I’ve just bolded the one’s who’s names sound pro to me…Mathew Wall may well be the best poker player in the field but he has to do something about his name. Not poker pro at all. I’ve italicised the names of people who will need to change their name before getting any real respect on poker blog sites.
See you on the table tomorrow!
BHS

8 October 2008 – 6.49am

Wow, what a night. The celebrity invitational was stunning. My head is hangover town, turns out I’m the mayor. But it was well worth it. The evening kicked off with my beautiful (many would say far too beautiful for me) fiancée strolling into the Poker Zone in a million dollar dress. 200 $5000 chips skillfully crafted into the most expensive frock this country – or in fact this side of the world – has ever seen.

Then wave after wave of Celebutants arrived all with their eye on the prize. And with over $15,000 in cash and prizes they were focused. Some of big surprises of the evening turned out to be the newest poker players who used their limited poker knowledge with ruthless precision. I always find those who learn the key fundamentals, position and strong betting first THEN card strength and the frills of poker after do well. Neil Waka and Rebecca Nicholson (Dancing With The Stars) were perfect examples.

Neil was amazing! A pure and natural poker player. Fearless and intimidating. The ^%$*@ took me out. He called an all in raise (All Black Steve Devine’s) I pushed over the top for 80% of his stack, I told him and the rest of the tables I had Aces, promised to show, he said he didn’t care and called. He shoed KJ suited, Steve showed QJ off and I turned over two black aces. I lost. He rivered the straight. All and all 80 celebs and media entered and many stayed and enjoyed SkyCity’s hospitality watching on as League legend Dean Lonergan took out the top spot. Thanks so so much to everyone who came up… it’d be hard to imagine the event going any better. Of course me winning would have been nice, it was after all my #&%@*ing birthday!

I’m thinking Wednesday will be a day to reset and start getting ready for the business end of the event. Tomorrow is Lee Nelson and Joe Hachem’s seminar. They’ve brought out a number of amazing pros to coach advanced internet and live tournament play and I can’t wait. One of the coaches, Dennis Waterman, took out the Festival’s first major event the SkyCity Hold’em Champs and $23 thousand dollars for first. Not a bad way to spend your first day in New Zealand.

If you haven’t stopped by the Poker Zone come say hi today. Most of the pros have arrived and I’m sure they’ll be only to happy to take a photo and / or take you on at the tables. Some of the celebs are probably still up there going for gold. Just one more note. If you and I are playing this week and I tell you I have aces. Fold. Please…
BHS

7 October 2008

Well what a crazy few days to kick off The Festival of Poker! Saturday and Sunday were amazing and a testament to how strong poker is in New Zealand. The Aotearoa Poker Champs attracted over 200 entries, as did the $80 satellite on Sunday, all 18 tables brimming with poker play and Alternates on the rail waiting to get into the fray. Plenty of Wellingtonians made the journey north, several of them winning their way into the main event. I played the $330 Satellite… Flopped a set of jacks, knew when the big blind came over the top of me he had Queen 9 and had flopped the straight, but was to deep to put it down, all I could hope for was the board to pair. What can I say. Jesus hates me.

I can’t even blame his hatred for my $1100 SkyCity Champs play. Let’s just say I put down kings with 75% of my stack committed and the Gumby showed Queens… The board showed two jacks… long AND boring story… I’m getting the Celeb event ready for tonight and just got a call from the Kiwis, Benji Marshall, David Kidwell and Nathan Cayless want to play tonight… How can you say no to that! See you tonight at the tables… When we say HOME OF NEW ZEALAND POKER we don’t mean where it was born… We mean where it lives!
BHS

2 October 2008

Hello all, and welcome to my diary… Many of you will have tuned in to hear details about my sex life, ala “The Red Shoe Diaries”. Or about my years hiding in an attic like in The Diary of Anne Frank. This is however a POKER DIARY. Luckily poker is every bit is exciting as sex or hiding in an attic, and only a little less exciting than sex IN an attic.

When Ejaaz Dean told me SkyCity was planning on throwing a million dollar tournament six months ago I, like many thought it was going to be hard, near impossible. But their hard work has paid off and now the SkyCity Festival of Poker is like a runaway train. Try to stop it. I dare you. (Not an actual dare, anyone trying to stop it will be removed from the premises). Early on we began talking about a celebrity invite tournament and the last few weeks have been spent assembling a plethora of luminaries to play poker this Tuesday (the 7th) at the Festival. The Celebs include:

• Amber Peebles
• Bridget O’Sullivan
• Brooke Howard-Smith
• Chang Huang
• Che Ness
• Craig Parker
• Daniel Braid
• David Fane
• Evern Tuimavave
• Jeanette Thomas
• Joe Cotton
• Joe Lonnie
• Karl Steven
• Lance O’Sullivan
• Leighton Cardno
• Mario Gaoa
• Nick Dwyer
• Oscar Keightly
• Otis Frizzell
• Phil Bostwick
• Rebecca Nicolson
• Shimpal Lelisi
• Siobhan Marshall
• Steve Devine
• Tammy Davis
• Will Wallace
• Dan Sing
• Ivan Vicelich
• Mike King
• Jon Austin
• Dave Gibson
• Ali Williams
• Vicky Lee
• AJ Whetton
• Jessie Gurunathan
• Demetrius Savelio
• Lee Nelson
• Eric Assadourian
• Grant Levy

That’s a lot and there are more to come in the next few days. Some are great poker players, Mike King finished 2nd at last years South Island Champs and won New Zealand’s Aussie Millions qualifier, Dave Gibson from Elemeno P is one of the greatest poker players alive. Others like Outrageous Fortunes’ Siobhan Marshall (Pascalle) have been reading up and practicing like crazy with the hopes of winning the invitational and progressing through to the main event. Come watch all the action on Tuesday the 7th from 6pm!

This is a photo of Siobhan Marshall after playing at La Vida Poker’s Wednesday night game… I took it on my Nokia N95… Word…

As for my poker, it’s all been a bit surreal lately. The last few weeks have been hectic trying to get a new bar designed. Still I’ll be coming into the main event fresh and focused. I’ve played the last two nationals with mid field finishes at both, but I’m hoping that the CRAP load of poker I’ve played and reading I’ve done since then will have sorted me for what is the biggest game I’ve played so far… I have a $1000 side bet with Robert Wang. That should motivate me!!!

Best tip I’ve come across lately:

Over Playing Ace King early in a big stack tournament.

Far too many people, pros estimate 70% of a big field are willing to go broke with this hand… But I think Ace-King is a very difficult hand to play in the early levels of big buy-in tournaments, when the stacks are deep compared to the blinds. Top pair top kicker is a good hand, but it’s likely if you’re feeling resistance it’s the 2nd best hand. What are you hoping you’re up against? How many players are going to be willing to go broke with KQ or KJ? It’s more likely you’ve run into two pair, a set or worse. Even worse, people who are willing to re-re-raise or call a re-raise with AK pre-flop and commit themselves are more than likely to be running into AA or KK, welcome to railtown hot pants, you’ve just been voted mayor. For mine, AK is a small ball hand early in the piece… A hand that does well in a stress free environment but folds like Michael Campbell under pressure.
BHS