~ Poker Player "Aussie" Sarah Bilney ~

edition of Bluff Australasia). I hope this doesn’t detract too much from your reading enjoyment, and will do my
best to be a better blogger from now on…

European Poker Tour, Barcelona, September 2006
Barcelona is one of my favourite cities. Sprawled between low-lying hills and the sea, it seems to have it all:
magnificent architecture, impressive museums, great beaches, terrific food, and a vibrant nightlife. I
especially love the wide, tree-lined Ramblas boulevard, always bustling with people, and famous for its
markets, buskers and con-artists. The adjacent old city is another favourite, and I’ve spent many happy
hours wandering the narrow winding streets of the Gothic quarter, and sampling tapas and wine in the bars
that seem to be everywhere.

Barcelona also happens to be host to one of the biggest poker tournaments on the European circuit, the
European Poker Tour’s Barcelona Open, which takes place each September in the imposingly named Gran
Casino de Barcelona. After a month-long break from poker following the World Series I was keen to get back
into the action, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I booked my trip and travelled north.

On arrival at my hotel I was slightly disconcerted to be presented with a full page list of security precautions
for my stay in Barcelona ~ it seems that petty crime is rife and tourists need to be especially careful. I
scanned the list and my eye was caught by an item halfway down, which warned against “participating in
card games which you will see on the streets, in which it appears that you can easily win money.”

Despite this sage advice, I headed straight to the casino to do just that.

I arrived to find the card room packed with poker players jostling for a seat in the main event satellite, which I
learned was massively oversubscribed with nearly 200 alternates. I quickly discovered why: the main event
itself, which was capped at 480 players, had sold out a week beforehand, and the only seats left were those
that would be awarded in the satellite. With many players having travelled long distances to play the event
and facing disappointment (not least fellow Aussie Emad Tahtouh), a gruelling battle for the last few places
was guaranteed. The most desperate players looked for scalpers willing to sell their tickets, with offers of up
to €7,000 rumoured for the €5,000 entry fee.

Fortunately I’d managed to reserve my own seat in advance, and two
days later I took my place with the other privileged not-so-few to try
my luck. I was relieved to find none of the big-name players who’d
entered the event at my starting table ~ the likes of Phil Ivey, Gus
Hansen, Joe Hachem, Andy Black, Jeff Lisandro, Mike Matusow, and
Noah Boeken were safely applying their poker skills elsewhere.
However the mostly Scandinavian players I faced instead ~ and who
in fact made up the overwhelming majority of the field ~ were hardly
an easy lineup. Their uniformly hyper-aggressive style put most of
the table on the back foot, and kept us there.

The player who caused me the most grief was the young guy sitting
two to my left, who turned out to be 2004 Barcelona Open champion
Alexander Stevic. Stevic’s aggressive game saw him quickly
accumulate a sizable chip stack without showing a hand, including
through a couple of clashes with me. The first pot was small, when I
had to fold pocket kings to Stevic’s bet on an ace flop. But the
second pot hurt rather more ~ having check-raised with pocket tens

on a 5-6-9 board, I made a tough laydown when Stevic re-raised and put me to a decision for all my chips. In
retrospect I think I was probably winning, but then again he could have had just about anything. Besides, I
figured, it was still early in the tournament, and there would be better opportunities.

Sadly that turned out not to be the case. Despite picking up several small pots here and there, I found few
playable hands and ended up missing most of the flops I saw. By the 4th level I was reduced to half my chip
stack with the blinds starting to bite.

And then I finally hit a monster ~ or so I thought. I had Q-Js on the button and called a small raise along with
2 other players, to see a flop of A-J-J. Most of my meagre stack was already in the middle before the guy with
the full house (A-J!) accounted for the rest. And that was that.

I tried my hand at the two small tournaments which followed but these were also non-events for me ~ I
couldn’t get my A-10 to beat A-J, nor my kings to improve against aces ~ so I finally resigned myself to the
cash games. Quickly tiring of seeing huge all-in re-raises by players with third pair or worse, I moved from
no-limit holdem to the big limit games. It had been a while since I played limit and I’d forgotten how much I
liked it, especially when I finally managed to turn a profit.

In between games I spent some very enjoyable hours in the
bar with poker friends from Melbourne, London and the US,
and kept an eye on the Aussie contingent in the main event.
While Joe Hachem was eliminated late on the first day, Jeff
Lisandro managed to outlast most of the field to make the final
table, eventually finishing an impressive 6th. And of course I
also found some time to enjoy the delights of Barcelona.

While in Spain I was reminded that something I always enjoy
about playing poker in different places are the little differences
that you pick up ~ idiosyncratic ways of doing things that only
the locals follow. In Spain it’s how they flop the cards: not left to
right, like everywhere else, but from right to left. It took some
getting used to, but it wasn’t nearly as disconcerting as the
rule that you still post your blinds in ring games even when you’
re away from the table ~ so if you’re planning a visit, beware!

And if you’re thinking of playing the Open next year, be
prepared for something even bigger. I’d plan to book ahead.

manage a modest win) on home turf. With no joy at the Aussie Millions so far, I’m hoping it’s third time lucky.

Returning to play at the Crown always stirs memories of my early poker experiences. The first time I ventured
into a real card room was back in late 2000, when I travelled to Melbourne with my (now) husband Michael, a
long-time poker player from Louisiana who was keen to check out the action in the Las Vegas Room. Eyeing
the big game, and figuring we’d both have more fun if I played some poker too, he gave me a five minute
rundown of the rules of Texas Holdem and steered me towards the $4-$8 limit game. I nervously took my
seat at the all-male table, fumbling with my chips and wishing I’d never agreed to such a foolish idea.
Looking around, I saw a mix of pity and hungry anticipation on people’s faces at the sight of my defenceless
chips ~ and then I immediately picked up quads! I never looked back, and had turned a tidy profit by the end
of the night’s play.

I followed my implausible first-time win with another, and then another, and decided maybe there was
something in this poker caper after all. So it was that a couple of years later I found myself agreeing to join
Michael at the Aussie Millions to witness my first real poker tournament. I had no intention of actually playing
~ tournaments seemed like far too much effort for highly uncertain rewards ~ preferring instead to stick to the
cash games, which usually provided a pretty good return for what was then a very modest bankroll.

It wasn’t long though before my interest in tournaments grew, and I soon tried my hand at a couple of small
buy-in no-limit events. With the fearlessness of the no-limit novice, I remember cutting a swathe through the
hapless players who tried to bluff me, and being completely outplayed by others who could read me like a
book. I was way out of my depth, and resolved not to waste any more time with tournaments when we
returned to the Aussie Millions the following year.

Michael, however, had other ideas. Deciding that I just needed more experience, he promptly entered me
into the main event! I was terrified ~ but there was no backing out. I fortified myself with mirrored sunglasses
in the hopes of masking my fear, re-read Super System, and put my best foot forward. While the event was a
bit of a blur (panic will tend to do that) I do remember not being too happy to find the lady who’d won the
previous day’s tournament seated to my left. And when top UK pro Lucy Rokach raised me ~ which she did
an awful lot of the time ~ I wilted under the pressure. My stack dwindled until I finally took a stand, in a hand
against a young guy in a silly hat who re-raised me thinking I would fold when I was clearly pot-committed,
and then made a runner-runner flush with his no-pair, 5-high hand.

My first big buy-in tournament, ending in the first real bad beat I can remember. Ah, memories.

Looking back then, I can trace many of my formative poker experiences to the Crown’s Las Vegas Room,
and it’s for this reason that I will always have a soft spot for it. Since that time though, poker has gone from
being a very occasional diversion from my busy working life, to something much more important. I now play
regularly in major international tournaments, and have managed to win some serious money in the last
couple of years ~ enough to give me confidence that I’m now doing something right.

But as luck would have it, I don’t play nearly as often in Australia these days, and I’ve never managed to win
so much as a dollar in an Australian event. My most concerted effort so far was at the 2006 Aussie Millions,
when I decided to give it my all and play as many events as I could. With a field including the likes of Phil Ivey,
John Juanda, Lee Nelson, Joe Hachem, and Daniel Negreanu, my chances of actually winning an event
were always going to be slim, but between some fairly sketchy play and a bit of bad luck, I failed to cash even
once. I swallowed my disappointment and promised myself I’d do better next time.

And now that time has come again, and I’m all set to be there for the duration ~ thirteen days and thirteen
events, doing my best to add some Aussie dollars to my bankroll. With some 700 players expected for the
main event alone, and a newly expanded room to accommodate them, this year’s Aussie Millions promises
to be bigger and better than ever. It will also be tougher, with (among others) the Full Tilt team heading down
en masse. I will need plenty of luck.

But even if the cards don’t go my way, I’ll be struggling not to enjoy the Millions. Between Melbourne in
summer, the comforts of Crown Towers, and all the poker a girl could wish for ~ who could possibly
complain?