Happy Australia Day!

Good day mate! I really like the way Australians are. The way they talk, their positive (yet not fake) attitude, just the general atmosphere in Melbourne is something that keeps me coming back year after year.

our chef at Koko, a very nice Japanese restaurant at the Crown

I went 0 for 2 in the nightly $1k satellites to the Main Event, which isn't a surprise considering the ridiculous structure. The funniest thing about them though are the things that the other players say at the table. They try to use words they've read in a book or magazine like fold equity or bluff catcher but put them so out of context it's hilarious. I should have brought my headphones because I'm pretty sure I lost brain cells while listening to some of it.

The Main Event began terribly for me, I started losing chips right off the bat and after level 3 I was left with just 5k chips and blinds of 100/200/25. I was able to double up with AKs vs QTs and then chipped up to 20k. When I had around 24k I got it all in with AA vs AK on a 885K board, which catapulted my stack up to 50k. I was playing pretty loose but did not get played back at much so that allowed me to build up to 70k without much variance. That's where we ended the day, so I'm pretty optimistic going into Day 2 tomorrow.

Ramin, Sonja & Seb at the Wawrinka-Cilic match

Away from poker, we've been keeping very busy with the Australian Open. So far I've been there three times (Haas-Greul, Wawrinka-Cilic, Haas-Tsonga) and have had a blast. Obviously we've been hitting up some nice restaurants in the Crown. Nobu was a pleasant experience as always, Koko (photo above) was great and just last night we ate at Rockpool, which was my favorite meal yet. We've also been pretty active ourselves, playing tennis once and beach volleyball twice thusfar. Today we're off to St. Kilda beach to enjoy the beautiful weather and celebrate Australia Day. I'll post another update when I find some more time!

Schlaaannnndddd! Philbort, just a few days before his $250k cash at UB

Nasr was cold so he bought an authentic jacket from a ballboy for $100

our seats weren't the best but it was still a great match