October 12th

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

October 10th

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

October 9th

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
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
Marc Landrain - 7300
Tim Heath - 6200
Stacey Reilly – 5500

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 

October 8th 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.

Here’s a link with more information

Learn from the Pro's

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

October 7th

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
 

October 2nd

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:

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