Tao of Poker

Drunk Poker at the Aussie Millions

By Pauly
Melbourne, Australia

I turned down a trip to the Rhino.

I got off work early and played some 2/3 NL with Change100. I was up $350 and cashed out after two hours after picking off two bluffs from a crazy Asian and an old mad Greek man.

I headed to the Vegas bar in the poker room and was drank with a couple of young Aussie pros, Emad Tahtouh and Jethro Horowitz. Jethro was buying me drinks and at some point, they made the command decision to head to the Rhino. Change100 was interested and we almost joined them. However, I got sidetracked thanks to Gavin Smith.

Gavin Smith, his fiancee Cindy, Hux, Paul Wasicka, Matt Savage, and Andy from ESPN/Fox were playing in a private 2/3 NL game with a $200 buy in. In true Gavin Smith fashion, he was three sheets to the wind (well, more like forty-three sheets) after getting smashed at the Full Tilt party. I wandered by and there was an open seat. They encouraged me to sit in. I had four $25 chips in my pocket and decided to sit down. I ended up staying for a couple of hours and got felted by Gavin Smith... twice.

Gavin Smith is kinda like AlCantHang in the fact that he's a walking party. He's always having a good time no matter where he goes. He was among the many FullTilt pros who arrived in Melbourne earlier today. Some of the pros headed down to the poker room to check out the action. I had spotted Jen Harman and Marco Traniello wandering around, along with Nordberg, Toto Leonidas, and Clonie Gowen (who was also shitfaced and wandered up to Gobboboy to tell him that she though Howard Lederer was an asshole for calling him a freak and a weirdo).

Gavin Smith wanted to play drunken 1/2 NL. The Crown only spreads that limit on the PokerPro tables. The lowest NL they spread at an actual table was 2/3. So Gaz ended up pulling some strings to get the private game going, which happened to be at a table on the rail. Gaz had spewed off at least a grand in the game (possibly more), all of which ended up at Gavin's fiancee's end of the table. When I sat down, she had over 3K sitting in front of her. This was at a 200 max buy-in table too. Gaz had quit and I took his place.

Seat 1: Matt Savage
Seat 2: Paul Wasicka
Seat 3: Hux
Seat 4: Pauly
Seat 5: Cindy aka Gavin's fiance
Seat 6: Gavin Smith
Seat 7: Andy

There were spectators on the rail several deep checking out the action. Gavin was super drunk and talking smack. At one point his fiancee caught a runner-runner flush against Paul Wasicka who had turned trips.

"Nice!" Gavin shouted. "Way to get some of that $4 million!"

Gavin was alluding to Wasicka's score at the 2006 WSOP main event when he took second to Jamie Gold. In reality, Wasicka took down $6.1 million, which is probably more than Gold ended up getting after he had to give Crispin Leyser a cut.

The game was super loose. If one person limped, it was a family pot. If one person raised $20, it was a family pot. The chips flew around the table and Gavin and Wasicka must have rebought a dozen times combined during the time I was there. They were having fun and everyone on the rail was eating it up.

The first time I got felted was when I opened shoved for $90 with 7-7. Gavin called with A-9 and rivered an Ace. Bastard.

Gavin was ribbing me pretty good, but kept shouting out my blog's URL to the railbirds.

"That's the best poker writer in the world right there!" he slurred. "He's totally ugly but he's the best damn writer in poker. Go to taopoker.com and see for yourself!"

At one point, Hux knocked over Wasicka's beer and it spilled all over his lap. Not to be outdone, Gavin knocked over simultaneously his drink (a rum and coke) and his fiancee's flute of champange. The glass flew off the table and nearly hit Change100 on the rail. She stepped out of the way at the last second as the table got soaked in booze.

I had a $200 rebuy when Jonno decided to deal a couple of hands. He used to be a dealer back in the day before he became one of the directors of tournament operations. He got in the box and he was my good luck charm because I tripled up in a three-way pot against Hux and Paul Wasicka. I turned two pair with J-10 against Hux's flopped smaller two pair and Wasicka's open-ended straight draw. My hand held up and I tripled up.

Sadly, I spewed off those chips to Gavin a couple of orbits later. My K-J lost to his Q-9 on a board of Q-J-7.

So I pretty much lost all of my profit from earlier in the evening, but I felt it was better spent at the tables that pissing it away in the VIP room at the Rhino. I've saved enough strippers in my life, so it was better to donate to astronomical Gavin Smith's bar tab.

So now, it's past 2am. I'm pissed drunk and have to go to work in a few hours. Last time I checked, the game was still running despite the fact that Gavin and Wasicka have to get up early to play golf in the morning.


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