Hi Again,

In the last article I promised to let you know how the 2004 schedule was going for me. So we will take a week off for the poker lessons, and give you some more opportunity to break even in the 50c/$1 game. (No, you can't move up to 50/100 game yet. And stop playing that off-suit A6 after a raise. You know it keeps getting you into trouble!)

It's been a tough life since giving up my 80 hrs a week as an IT Consultant. I really miss getting up at 6:45, working till 9, endless meetings, long weekends, and those important deadlines. This particularly weighed heavy on my mind at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, I couldn't go mad on New Years Eve, as I had a flight to catch on New Years Day. Well 3 actually. Birmingham to Dubai to Singapore to Melbourne. As I say it's a tough life!!

When I eventually arrived at Melbourne, I settled into bed about 3am Australian time for some much needed sleep. Only to be woken up by the phone 3 hours later. Channel 11 breakfast TV wanted me to do a live interview, errr, in 45 minutes time!! I’m not joking. So dragging myself out of bed and down to the riverside, I got asked some pretty banal questions via a satellite hook up, by an absolute babe who I couldn't see. As it happens the interview lasted about 2 mins before the Aussie Deus himself, walked out at the SCG to inspect the pitch for his final test me. Surprisingly, Channel 11 abruptly cut off from me and Bendigo Sloan, and went straight over to watch some geezer called Waugh poke about in the dirt. There's no accounting for taste.

However I did squeeze my way through to a couple of Final Tables, which stopped the trip from becoming a complete financial disaster. Again I played too many hands (the greatest poker mistake of them all) in the Omaha final and crashed out into the consolation prize money. I did a little better in the PLH but unfortunately didn't get the rub of the green and had to settle for fourth. However three weeks without a podium finish doesn't put food on the table.

The trip was worthwhile for one reason alone though: the aussies themselves. JasGrey, The Croc, Bendigo , and the Kouiss brothers, were all great fun. The best nickname I've ever come across, Dog Meat George. And yes, they do call him that. The biggest personality of them all though, has to be Mick Stanton: the greatest plethora of chat up lines you will ever hear uttered by a 56 year old anywhere in the world. Every two hours or so, he would bring along a couple of sheila's, and introduce them to the world's best poker players. The rumour was, that Crown had to install a revolving door in his room to reduce the door banging and save the hinges.