Fame At Last

We live just by the blue neon light in the middle of the pic, click on the pic to get a better idea

The celebrity spotting fest continues unabated. 5 Of us were decamping to 7-11 on Sunday night after dinner and the tennis to stock up on munchies before a ‘night-in’. I’m standing looking at the chocolates when Lily Allen pops in with a young gentleman and receives bemused looks from the Swan and I. We of course were the only 2 to spot her being on top of modern culture as we are. I like Lily’s stuff and I liked her attitude on Sunday, she was hammered. Her mates were also a little worse for wear but also polite and friendly. We all exchanged a few words, wished each other adieu then our lot shook our collective heads thinking things couldn’t get anymore surreal.



Lily's so funny, we like Lily.

We had of course been out to dinner to watch the Men’s Final and though I’m sad its over at least I can’t do my money on it anymore. Federer was fantastic and was true to his word after our fleeting conversation with him in a Melbourne lift, I hope Willie backed him.

The gambling story that I mentioned previously has broken out all over the poker forums. I happened to be in the company of the Swan and one Willie Tann when it all came to light and they’re both wiser men than I so I know where they stand and who am I to disagree. The best advice I could give to any aspiring gambler, don’t play golf for 50 grand per hole with one of the worlds best gamblers.

Australia day came and went last Friday and about 12 of us decided to celebrate in traditional style, a barbecue before getting absolutely smashed on a combination of beer and wine (still no spirits or cigarettes!, hurrah!) Superlise has fitted in well and has proved her value by sinking a bottle of vodka before we reached the pub and still staying out later than me, she’s gonna be an interesting travelling companion.

Ok so no backpack travelling yet but the long hard travelling road is ahead, best first to enjoy the comforts of Melbourne and what comforts they are. Its no wonder this little lady is always voted either no.1 or no.2 (Toronto has the title at the mo.) as the most desirable city on the planet to live in. There are so many things I could say about the place, if she were a woman she would be Angelina Jolie, the current Angelina, that’s how super it is here. I love it here and would live here 6 months of the year quite easily I think, all I need to do is work out how!
The travelling will begin in earnest from the 12th, we have flights booked to Sydney and will kick on from there. Things have quietened down considerably now that the Swan has kicked onto Malaysia and Action Dave has returned to messing with the professionals heads on full tilt.

The flat we are renting is uber-cool, I got so lucky in renting It.. I put up an Advert on a local website desperate for accommodation and only received one reply. It was from a man named Warren who said he had a flat to let in Melbourne but wanted 2 weeks in advance and a deposit. We met had a chat, shook hands and he gave me the keys.
It’s a great place and it is situated right bang smack in the middle of the plushest part of the city. We are next to the Hyatt hotel, Gucci, Versace and Tiffany’s, I kid you not, the Paris suburb it is called. I couldn’t have picked a better spot and all for about 14 quid each per night, magic.

I am going to attempt to host a dinner party this week, Amanda and Action man will be our first and most welcomed guest’s. I have begun the shopping for a lavish feast, spending today’s morning hours in the markets today putting together a meal full of local produce and by Jove I think I’ve cracked it., if you live in Melbourne and are reading this you are of course cordially invited.
We had a little soirée on Saturday evening when a few of us grabbed a takeaway from the bottle shop after dinner and retired to spillanetowers to learn how to play Chinese poker. Our teacher was one Rafi Amit from Israel who also won the Omaha 10k rebuy at the 2005 wsop and then nearly defended it last year. To make things a little more interesting he has a photographic memory and has made a few quid out of cards. Perhaps then not the best time to suggest we have a game for money, thank goodness the other 2 players covered my losses to him.

Met up with an old mate of mine this week, Nathan, him of ‘Star Player at Stan James Footy Team’. We met out in Gib and it was great to see him again. He’s a sports nut and he has organized taking us to the second leg of the major semi final between Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United, 0-0 after the 1st leg, 60,000 capacity at the Telstra dome, bring it on;
“give me an M give me an E…etc” Word of advise though you don’t want to get start singing this legendary footie song if you support Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Poker has been going well, its fun to be the big fish in a little pond. I’m playing a 2-3 game & a 2-5 no limit hold em game and showing the locals a move or two. There still at the stage of saying I’m lucky and ‘an idiot’, hopefully no one will cotton to quick.
Poker has been in my head a bit this week. I got put forwarded to a job in the online poker industry recently that I think is in the top 5 of jobs in poker. I’m actually flattered to have been put forward for it, I’m sure I’m no where near qualified enough but you got to be in it to win it so keep collective fingers crossed.



"Your not bad son, but while im around you'l always be second best"

And finally fame at last; finally the Spillanester is in his rightful place, a clip on you tube of him being spanked by the daddy of the game; that is poker.

after the first 5 minutes you see us in action. I did write about this hand somewhere before, somewhere on the stanspokerblog but to re-iterate.

I give it the moody dwell up because I was trying to extend the length of time my great sponsor’s www.stanspoker.com had on the screen. Bizarrely the logos were all blanked out so it just looks like a double chinned idiot making a bad call.

I had played with the great one for about 2 days and we had played a few decent pots together which made my decision easier, I thought he was making a steal and feared only A-K; we both had low stacks; my thinking was:

With J-J or less (making me evens) he makes this move and I’m happy to call, it’s near the money and you need 2 get a stack around this stage if your gonna win this thing.

Q-Q K-K A-A he doesn’t want to lose anyone so will not move all in and I smell a rat.

A-K; I’m fucked.

A-Q, A-J, A-10 and being Phil possibly a lot less hands I’m in good shape.

That’s what happened in my head anyway and I was pleased with the way I played in the whole tournament. It was nice to pits one wits against the best and I did good. But for the inevitable bad beat just before the end of play

(Bad Beat Story Alert: when my Aces got cracked by a pair of 8’s all in before the flop)

I would have been chip leader after day one, I lost the hand about 20 minutes before the end of play and I was bang in the zone.
Fair play to Kenna James who gave Stans a good spray up, the 75 million US viewers didn’t see the name but they heard the name, we rewarded him months later at the 2006 WSOP by bombarding him with stress balls, (www.stanspokerblog.blogspot.com)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqSpRO80QeE

Double Chin Alert: Please Remember The Camera Adds 38 pounds, thanks