Trip Report: Aussie Millions
Tony Dunst
Upon winning my trip to Australia to play in the 10,000 dollar (AUS) Aussie million and 1,600 dollar speed poker world championship, I thought of nothing but for the two months leading up to it.
Finally the day had arrived as I boarded a bus from Madison to Chicago lasting about 3 hours, and upon entering O’Hare airport, having never traveled alone before (im only 20 mind you) glanced around and realized, “What the hell do I do now”? After asking a few airport personal what exactly it is im supposed to be doing here (boarding a plane you stupid kid?), I finally find where I’m supposed to go and sit around the airport waiting for my flight, barely able to keep a thought in my head. For the flight from Chicago to LA I have equipped myself with many pieces of reading material, and I settle on rereading The Biggest Game in Town. The book provides me enough entertainment almost all the way to LA where I get off starving for some decent food (I won’t eat airline food and everything I’ve brought is in protein bar form). Unfortunately the only food I can find in the terminal, as I don’t have time to go elsewhere, is fast food, so I give up and settle down to a nice dinner of protein bar, fries, water, and an oreo Mcflurry. Note to self, upon arriving in Australia get some damn decent food. The flight from LA to Sydney will take around 15 hours, with only one in flight movie, Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon. Early in the flight I manage to fall asleep for a couple hours, but wake up with lots of time to go. At this point the movie comes on and I injure my neck attempting to turn my head appropriately to watch, and then injure my brain when attempting to figure out what the Hollywood producer who gave the green light on this one was taking. Halfway through the film I have to stop watching due to the combination of these two pains and I again reject the horrible airline food, take a milk and eat another bar, mmmmm cookies and cream goodness. I take a sleeping pill (over the counter) and soon manager to drift away sleep, this time waking up with only an hour before arrival, BRILLIANT! I meet a guy on the plane behind me who is also coming for the same reasons, a 30ish looking guy named Fred who has been playing under a year, and I spend the rest of the flight talking to him about poker and the trip and what he has been reading leading up to this.
When we arrive in Sydney in the airport I meet Ari, a 25 year old who also won this trip and in preparation for it quit his job (perhaps there is no greater joy in life then quitting one’s job). Pair that with coming to Australia and he must be in ecstacy. On the 1 hour flight from Sydney to Melbourne I am seated next to Dustin, a 24 year old college drop out who plays professionally on the internet now. In Melbourne Dustin and Ari and I share a cab from the airport to the hotel, a half hour drive through a city that is truly breath taking. For those of you who haven’t spent over a day traveling in planes and airports I will say this, one day in those places feels like a week anywhere else and takes at least a year off your life.
When we arrive at the hotel/casino I finally realize just how enormous the Crown complex actually is. The complex holds one of the worlds largest casinos, 40 bars and restaurants, several night clubs, a mall full of luxury shopping, a movie cinema, laser tag, cigar bar, world class work out facilities (including tennis courts on top of the building that Venus and Serena Williams would play on in the morning for all to watch from their hotel room) and a number of other things I must be forgetting. The two hotels, the crown tower and crown promenade, are across the street and the promenade is connected by an enclosed ramp over the road. We set our stuff down in our rooms and hit the food court.
After eating we head down to the poker room where for the first time I am not looking over my shoulder for security as I am actually of age. Ari and Dustin are tired from the traveling and head up for sleep - not me baby I’m ready to play. I sit down at the 6/12 (Australian dollars are worth 76% of American) and get cracking. What surprises me most immediately are the people and their attitudes toward each other and me. When I told people that I was going to Australia they said “you’ll love it, they’re so laid back, no worries mate.” I had no idea how enormously correct this was, and yes I found out they do say mate a lot and they do say g’day and on occasion pair the two for a perfect g’day mate - and to think I thought that was all a stereotype. Within my first few hours in the poker room I’ve already made friends that will last through the trip and everyone is interested to hear where my accent is from. I play poker the rest of the night, go to a decent sit down restaurant then come back and play a PL hold’em satellite for tomorrows main event, get heads up, and sell my chips for 400, boo yah up 275 already, especially good seeing as I’d never played PL hold’em before in my life. Also at one point Marcel Luske was sitting at the computers set up for players and I went and talked to him for a bit, real nice guy though at times hard to understand due to the thickness of his accent. I call it a night shortly after and wake up the next day at 9am, NINE AM FOR A GAMBLER, not cool but I guess the jet lag will do that.
Either way I feel good and after breakfast there’s only one place to go, to the poker room! “But Tony, aren’t you going to go see the city?” you say, hell no there’s gambling to be had! I again spend a lot of time playing 6/12 and 10/20, making friends and increasing my bankroll. I meet a charming southern couple named Yde and David who though middle aged had the mentality and attitude of somebody my age. That night I play in the rebuy satellite for the main event to try and win another seat and spend 600 dollars Australian doing it, and seeing as I only brought 4 or 5000 Australian, that’s not something I can afford often.
When it gets down to the final two tables I have a nice stack of 7000 with blinds 300/600 as I recall. I look down at QQ and utg limps, LIMPS!! How dare you?! I promptly make it 2400 hoping he’ll let it go, no luck tho as he calls. We see the flop heads up and it comes 7 high, bingo, he checks, I move all in, he sits back and thinks and thinks and then calls and turns over…. KJ of hearts with a 7 high board and no hearts, um okay? Naturally he hit his K on the turn and boom Im down to 2000 in chips. A few hands later I pick up an A6 and instead of letting the blinds eat half my stack push it, a man with 10000 moves all in over the top, there goes me I figure. BUT WAIT sports fan he’s only got QJO! 10000 on QJo!? Fair enough, however you guessed it off comes a jack on the river to send my ###### to the rail and 600 dollars poorer. Oh well, after that I pretty much call it an evening planning on trying again the next day. And what a day it turned out to be. In the afternoon getting back to the poker room one of the biggest names of poker has turned up, Scotty Nguyen himself, playing a SNG 3 handed now with a girl I know, drunk as hell and moving all in blind every hand. As I watch him standing behind her and laugh at his antics (he’s hitting on every woman in sight, telling them to go get dressed up for him he take her out baaaaaaaby) he sees me and promptly has the waiter bring me a triple shot of tequila…if you insist Scotty. After he busts out I go and introduce myself and thank him for the booze. He chats for a bit and seems like a real cool guy, if you can imagine that. Afterwards I get a friend to stake me online for that nights rebuy tourny which this time is 125 buy in with 100 dollar rebuys. With two tables left I’ve got a very good stack when they move a tall thin man on my immediate right who I eventually realize is Jesse Jones, a tough Vegas tournament professional who made the final table in last years main event.
A few hands later I look down at my BB and find 99, and when it’s folded to Jesse in the SB he makes it 3000 to go, (blinds 500/1000 and I have around 20000) I look him over then quickly make it 8000, take that big professional final table making man! Jesse sits back and mulls this and me over and naturally there’s only one thought in my mind “DON’T GO OVER THE TOP OF ME PLEASE JESSE!!!” After about 4 years Jesse folds and I get to breathe again.
Soon we are at the final table and I come in around 3rd in chips. A few hands in to the table in mid position I find TT, and I have about 50 or 60k with blinds being 5k/10k, so I do the only move possible, all in, but a man with 20k behind me wakes up with aces. Fair enough I still have enough to work here. A few hands later after paying the blinds im around 25k and on the button looking at QQ, when my friend Jesse (perhaps the nicest guy in poker) moves all in MP for 30k and I’m coming right after him. He shows me AJ, and I begin begging the dealer “please don’t 3 out me again!” For future reference, begging dealers for things does not work, ‘cause off came that A.
Luckily upstairs in a club was the first of three poker players parties thrown by party poker and the casino where I run into Scotty and his brother and David Plastik. Scotty ends up buying me a lot of beers and gives me his free drink card and I couldn’t be more thrilled than to be getting hammered with one of my idols. I run into Yde who says she’s hanging out with a bunch of young girls tonight and wants to show me around. Now at this point im so annoyed from the beat I don’t really care at first. However, upon introducing me to a stunning 20 year old Australian girl named Katie my interest is immediately regained. I spend the rest of the night hanging out with Katie and trying not to let on how drunk I’m getting as well as meeting a few more of the best in the business like Peter Costa and Harry Demetriu. I walk Katie back to her car and she says she’d like to hang out again sometime, excellent I guess I’m not so bad with women after all. At this point its 3am and I am quite intoxicated which naturally means…drunk 4/8 time! The speed tourny starts tomorrow but there’s two heats and I don’t play until 6pm, so why not. After a session where I win something like 8 dollars I stumble up to my room and pass out, wake up the following morning, and try to get a work out in before playing that night.
I go down and take a look at the first heat and realize what a circus speed poker is. First of all you’re playing 6 handed and you have 15 seconds to act in total: you get 5, the dealer calls time, then the clock girl behind the dealer (they went around and hired a bunch of attractive women to stand behind the tables with timers that they hit and count down to 10) starts counting you down. There are cameras everywhere, techno music going which is turned up to club levels during the five minute breaks. Each heat starts with 104 players and plays down to 18 who make the money and the TV round which is filmed in a curtained off area about 50 feet away. The 2nd day (which actually takes two days) is played like a single table tournament but you come in with the stack you ended day one with, either way you have to win your table to make the final table, not an easy task. At 6:30 my round begins and I sit down with 4000 in chips and blinds 25/50, blind levels 40 minutes.
In the first 40 minutes I promptly play like a total jackass and piss my stack down to 1200, and the last hand before the break raise a pot with AJo, get called in one spot and the flop comes 89J.
The guy bets 200, I go all in for 800 more and he calls on T9 but misses his straight, bingo back to 2400ish.
Now a little preface about my style of play - on the internet im pretty damn tight, which it requires. Fancy moves such as resteals and bluff checkraises often don’t work in tournaments since a person can afford to call you and, hey, if they lose they can just start another up right then and there. So going into this I wasn’t sure how to adjust to live. Turns out I just might have some instinct in this game.
After building my stack up to about even again I raise QJo from the button when folded to me. The SB who’s a large stack calls and we see a T93 flop. He checks to me, I fire 400, he makes it 1400, and I sit back a moment then declare “all in.” Wait a sec, I’m all in? SINCE WHEN DO I RERAISE ALL IN ON A DRAW!?!? As soon as the words come out of my mouth his face turns to disgust, he ponders then folds. Pheeeeew.
At this point Martin Comer is moved to my table, whose name I do not know at this juncture and I have zero respect for his play. At this point I refer to him as “Fat mobster looking man” and I think his play is garbage, later that week fat mobster looking man Martin Comer would win the 5000 dollar heads up tourny (beating Mike Sexton in the finals), make the final table of the main event, make the money in the speed event, make a number of other final tables, and win the best player award for the entire thing. At this point though I thought I had a read on him and I had little respect for his game, even though he came to the table with a mountain of chips. Soon after he lost a pot on a poor call he made and I leaned over to the guy next to me, a friend named Mike I’d made earlier in the week and said “watch the big guy down there, when he loses a pot he loses control, he’s gonna go down, maybe not to me but to somebody.” A few hands later I busted Mike when his 44 ran into my JJ on his short stack and I’m up to 7400.
About 3 hands after that with blinds 150/300 Martin Comer opens to 900 utg, and I look down and find my favorite hand….pocket aces. Many people here opt to call and set him up since they have position, or play it safe and raise 3-4 times the amount of his raise. But I knew the guy couldn’t control himself, so I moved the whole stack in, 6500 more. It folds back to Comer who looks visibly annoyed and talks himself right into a call with pocket tens, misses his ten, (another guy said he had them and folded after I moved in) and BOOM I have around 15000 and am among the chip leaders. Boy do I feel smart now, and boy was Martin cursing himself after that which I still laugh about as I write this, as I didn’t particularly like the guy.
For a couple hours after that my stack stays fairly stagnant, I get moved tables, and we get down to 30 players. At this point my table tightens up and with the 2nd largest stack at the table (the largest is REALLY tight) I start going ape shit on the blinds. J2s, raise, 72o, raise, Q7s, raise, nobody wanted to stop me and my stack is building and building.
One of my favorite hands, was with about 4 players left to the money in the SB I looked down at 74o and never thought twice, 2200 it is. The BB for once actually calls, some scared looking kid who foolishly claimed out loud how bad he wants to make TV. The flop comes 875 rainbow and I check to him, he fires 2000 and pop it up to 6000 which gets him to lay down the hand.
My stack is now hovering around 30000 and the table is all mine for the taking. By the time we get down to 18 I’m at 31,700 which is good for 7th of 36 remaining players and I am THRILLED to have made TV and the money in my first tournament of this size (the highest buy in tournament I played prior to this was the one to win the trip, 360 dollars which I satellited into.) Dustin, Ari and I go out for a late dinner and I can barely hold still and certainly can’t keep a smile off my face. It’s Friday, and the first 3 tables of semis are run the next day, but the last 3 aren’t run till Sunday and mine is 7pm Sunday, so this night I am free to drink until I can’t feel feelings anymore, which of course leads to a session of drunken 4/8.
The next day is really a blank in my memory, entirely uneventful and I think I played poker most of it and walked around the city some. Come Sunday I woke up feeling good and ready to play. I waited around patiently till 6, when they said they wanted to start early since the party poker party was that night. The line up at my table was as follows: the chip leader to my immediate right was a 20 year old Swede named Michael with 36,0400, I had 31,700, on my left a 23 year old american with about 20k exactly, on his left a Norwegian who looked in his late 30’s with about 10,000, after him a 18 year old american with again almost 20k exactly, and finally a mid 30s looking american with about 10k exactly as well. Considering the stacks and position I liked my chances. While the first days sped up version of poker felt totally naturally, the semi round was not the case at all. As soon as you got your cards the dealer announced “Time on 3!” and you had 10 seconds to think/act with these little red lights coming down at you from the table, plus the cameras, audience, and stakes of it all certainly threw me off.
So we got underway and me and Michael pretty much took control of the table, and since I got to see what he did first I simply avoided him. 10 minutes or so in I looked down at KK and made a raise, the BB who was the 35 year old with about 10,000 went all in and I called him in a flash. He turns over AK of clubs and off we went, me begging the dealer again not to put an A up there, and what did I say about begging dealers? You got it, off came that A to which I looked at the camera and responded with “god damn it!” I didn’t catch up and went down to 20,000.
Things are quiet for maybe 20 minutes with me trying to steal and having about an equal amount of success and failure, my stack staying around steady. Suddenly I look down and find my old treacherous friends, pocket kings and the same guy that beat me opens this time for 1200 (blinds 2/4) and I make it 4000 to go, to which he replies “all in” and I quickly call again, and guess what he has, AK of clubs to my exact same kings. “Not again dealer pleeeeeeeeeease don’t do it again I can’t bear another …” and while a scary flush draw came off nothing got there and BINGO I’ve got 40,000 and the chip lead. I guess I’ll be sending pocket kings a thank you note.
A few hands later I bust that player with my KQ of clubs verse his AJ (he had like 3000 left before the hand). After that I raise from the button with Q8 of diamonds and the Norwegian raises me, but only 3000 more on top of my 2200 raise, meaning since he’s got something like 9k left he priced me right in. The flop comes Q high, he moves all in which I assumed he’d do on ANY flop and I call in a flash. He’s got JT and has an open ended straight draw, misses and another one bites the dust.
The remaining four players are all 23 or younger and I’ve got a nice chip lead. The order of the next few hands evades me but its not terribly important. I believe what happened next is that Michael in the SB raises me and I looked down at JJ and made it 7000 all day or on top to which he replied with “all in” Now if I’d had time to think this all over, I would of realized this was the first time all day Michael has gone all in preflop, and he knows the only time I’m shooting back over the top of people is with hands but instead I have no time to factor all this in, say something stupid on camera like “it just feels wrong”, call, he turns over KK, I lose and suddenly I realize what it was that felt so wrong. My god, what a fool I can be.
This hand puts Michael and me around even, perhaps with him with a small edge. A few hands later I have KQo in the SB and raise the BB for the 4th straight time, and for the 3rd time out of 4 he comes over the top, but he only has 5000 more to come over the top with, meaning its about 2 to 1 exactly for me to call, which I do, and beat his A3o. On camera I thought I was an idiot but when I did the math later I realized I wasn’t nearly as wrong as I thought.
So now down to 3 with me and Michael about even and the 18 year old had a big disadvantage. I played one cool hand with Michael at this point, raising a T3 of diamonds from the button and he called in the BB. The flop came AK2 with a diamond, a good bluff board but could also have hit him. He checks to me and I fired out a pot sized bet which he quickly called, uh oh. The turn came K of diamonds and we both checked. The river came a 5 of hearts, I now have T high, Michael checks and before I could even think the words came out of my mouth ?im all in?. A thought occurred to me at that moment, which was something along the lines of “JESUS TONY WHAT THE ##### DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!? SINCE WHEN DO YOU PULL THAT ######!?” However, Michael folded what he later told me was an ace for two pair and I felt pretty smart.
A few hands later a hand develops between the kid and Michael. The board is QQ366 and after betting the flop and checking the turn the kid fires out 5000 on the river, Michael calls him instantly, turns over K9 and seems to know the pot is already his before the kid turns over J3. To my knowledge the kid had not made any bluffs like these the whole table so far, so for Michael to call him that quick and be that sure I was terrified to end up heads up with him, which a bit later after he busted the kid was exactly what happened.
We take a break for heads up chip count, his 79,000 to my 49,000 and I’m not feeling too good about this at all. At this point Michael proposes a deal to me, whichever of us goes on to final table he gives 15% to guy who doesn’t make it, and that sounded just fine to me the way he was playing. Well our heads up match lasted 3 hands.
The first two were done preflop, the 3rd I raised T4 of diamonds PF and he called. The flop came KJT with two diamonds and he checked, I launched 4 or 5000 and he pushed the whole stack in over the top. To me that reeked of semi bluff with a Q since he wanted me out, and even if he had a pair I had 14 outs, so I decided to take my chances and gamble. Michael actually had QJo and hit the straight on the turn and a non diamond on the river gave me no help, I lose, he wins, my life is over.
I go have an interview where I joke nonstop with some British guy who’s apparently a big celebrity over the pond and he tells me “you have a great attitude.”? Thanks pal, I have a great attitude and 4000 bucks Australian for my finish plus 15% of what Michael gets and I look like an ass on TV for doubling him up with JJ. I go upstairs to the party poker party and everyone wants to know what happened, so I tell the story more times than dollars I won from it. The party has free champagne and I’m not feeling my best so one thing led to another which led to me drinking an awful lot. Mike Sexton is at the party and I decide to run my final hand by him, to which he replies “I think its very hard to get away from a pair and a flush draw on the flop” and I feel a little better. Ari and Dustin manage to talk me into going out and we head off to a bar where I become very introverted and self loathing standing around, but then they come up with a brilliant idea, lets go to a strip club! That’ll make you feel better! At first I just wanna go home but they talk me into it and off we go to the spearmint rhino, stumbling down the street. Now mind you im a 20 year old from Wisconsin, my strip club experiences are limited to one time I was snuck into a crappy south side of Milwaukee club when I was so drunk I couldn’t see straight. So in we go and I get started on the beers and Ari buys me a lap dance, which as a lap dance virgin felt awful awkward to tell the truth. Coming out of the backroom I notice there’s 3 young women seated in the front row watching the strippers, quite attractive as well and I go sit next to one who sees me and starts up a conversation. I’m fairly drunk at this point and while the memory of what I said evades me it must of been the right things because soon this girl (Paige) is sitting on my lap telling me the reason she’s here is cause she’s bisexual. So naturally I suggest we get a dance, I let her pick out the girl and off we go to the backroom, me and a stripper and a bisexual, though nothing TERRIBLY scandalous happened. The more I talked to paige that night the more I realized she was not the kind I’d care to hang out with on any regular basis, as she offered to get Dustin and Ari ecstacy if they wanted it, so when she gave me her number and begged me to call I smiled and said “of course” and never saw her again.
We of course returned to the casino for some 4/8 drunken action, and I got my 4000 in chips which I could barely hold on to and set them on the table as I swayed back and forth, that’s right, I brought 4000 to a 4/8 table. Ari scolded me to put those away and after 20 minutes I realized I’d better leave before I pass out at the table and stumbled up to my room laughing at the insanity of it all.
I woke up the next day and called Katie who said we should double date with her friend Angie and her American guy Kyle who was helping to run the speed event which sounded just fine to me. That day I hung around the poker room and watched Michael go on to win the speed event and 100,000, then with a smile on his face bigger than when he won handed 15,000 to me as I drooled at the sight of it. I took the 3 pink 5000 dollar chips to the cashier and said “can you write me a check?” Now as you know about casinos they like to know who’s doing what, and so for some 20 year old kid to waltz up out of nowhere with 15,000 in hand and say “gimme a check”, well that didn’t sit too well. The manager demanded to know where I was playing, I explained to him and he explained to me that he can’t write a check for that, so it’d have to be cash. The cashier then pulls out 15,000 Australian, more money than I’d ever seen/held in my life and me and the boys went up to my room and took pictures of me throwing the money in the air and swimming in it on the bed. Those pictures are now up on my wall and make me laugh every time I see them. I slept like a baby that night with the main event being the next day, and for me the pressure was off.
My plan for the next day was as follows, I thought the main events play lasted 8 hours from 12-8, and Katie said her and Angie and Kyle would be coming around 7:30 or 8, so I figured play all day, kick some ass, and go out and have a great night. When I got to the room I was told no, in fact we play 12 hours. I am going to look like such an idiot if I have chips left. If this trip taught me one thing and had one recurring motif, it was simply that I am a total idiot. But the cards were in the air and I’d have to worry about it later, so here was my first crack in my life at one million dollars, even if it was in Australian currency it’s pretty damn close.
The structure for this tournament is normal save one aspect, you can either start with 5000 and take the other 5000 any time in first 4 hours including if you go out, or just start with 10k. My plan was to start with 5000 but only for about 30 minutes when I had a feel for my table.
Well about 10 minutes in 3 have limped in front of me (blinds 25/50) and I look down at 53 of hearts, and in deep stack poker in position I’ll play it any day so I tossed in my 50. The flop came down K86 with two hearts, eureka! Its checked to me and I figure its free card play time, and fire out 200, and get called in two spots, one by the blind one by an utg limper. The turn comes a beautiful offsuit 4, giving me an enormous draw. They check to me again and I check right on back, which brings down the most perfect card in the deck, a black 2. No way in hell they can put me on a straight. The utg limper fires out 600, I make it 1600, the blind folds, and utg goes all in, I call in a flash and he turns over KK for trip kings and my straight drags. BOO YAH up to 10000 just like that, I cash in my 5000 chip card and when the Russian guy whose kings got beat starts cursing his luck I announce to the table “it was suited!”
Twenty minutes later I look down at 55 and limp again, and in comes the Russian guy who makes it 150, and for 100 more im seeing the flop, which comes A65 all hearts. I toss out a bet a little more than the pot and Russian guy calls. Turn comes 7 and I toss out 1000 or 1500 and he calls again. River comes perfect again, and I mean really perfect cause it’s the case 5. I fire out 2000, he goes into the tank, and calls with AK with the K of hearts (no flush) and curses his luck again. Im up to around 17,000, leader at the table and I’ve got a smile a mile wide, everything going according to plan.
For about 2 or 3 hours after that I do very little, I have no pocket pairs over 7’s, and the only AK and AQ I pick up I have to fold preflop due to HEAVY action. One hand of interest, I saw 3 players go all in pre flop, then turn over aces, kings, and aces again. Kings did not hit his king.
With blinds 100/200 and 25 ante I’m around 16,000 and 2 off button look down at T9s and decide to steal. Unfortunately the button, a 18 or 19 year old Swedish kid, calls. At this point I decide if I don’t hit a flop im done with the hand completely. He’s been playing mostly solid, so I don’t think shooting at him out of position will work. Well the flop comes down 68Q with a spade, giving me a nice little hidden draw. I check to him and he bets 1000 which I call in an instant trying to set him off so he’ll check the turn. The turn comes down a red T, giving me 13 outs if he’s one pair and the best hand if he’s only AK or AJ. I check again and he bets 4000, hmm that’s an odd bet, it kinda feels like…..he wants me to go away. Wants me to go away!? Well then I’ll do the opposite, and all in I go, and call he does in about half a second and turns over pocket kings and I miss my card and he’s got 1000 more chips than me and I’m out, just like that.
Wow, I thought I’d be kind of mad, but really I wasn’t angry about how I played the hand, and I think MANY players would lay down just one pair there for 11,000ish more and I got a date tonight with a beautiful woman, and im already up about 15,000 American on this trip so who cares? To be honest going into the trip I thought I’d kick and scream and cry when I went out of the main event, but I didn’t feel angry at all. That night I had an awesome time and came back in time to watch the main event finish up for that night, with a number of my friends still in. The rest of the trip was very non poker related, I ended up spending most of my time with Katie and actually prolonging my stay to the point where I got back 14 hours before classes started so I could enjoy it all without having to worry about gambling some more and right now I’m paying for it, up at 5am having woke up at midnight completely messed from the jet lag. In all when I look back at it I won a trip to Australia at 20 years old for 39 dollars where I came home up 15,000 American, made TV, met a beautiful woman, made a million friends, so if you ask me “well have you got any regrets?”, I’d answer, sure there’s little stuff like calling with those jacks, but really, I wouldn’t change a thing for the world and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
Note: Jamil Dia went on to win the Aussie Million, I jumped him later in the parking lot and have been wearing the bracelet ever since. Kidding.
Note: The speed poker tournament I made the money in will be appearing on TV in 3 to 6 months. Watch for the 20 year old Tony Dunst with the enormous aviator glasses blow it all and attempt to keep from crying on camera.
