Yesterday I went to the cricket game at manuka oval to watch the PM’s XI vs NZ one day match. My cousins and I had tickets to the (undercover) Bradman stand, which was great because it was close to 40 degrees. NZ batted first and scored 270-ish, I spent my time between the Bradman stand in the nice shade, and walking out to visit my workmates who were sweltering in the cheap seats.

During the second innings both Kevin Rudd and Allan Border were sitting within a few metres of me which was cool. My workmates couldnt stand the heat, and I saw them from the other side of the ground get up and leave midway through the second innings. I didnt blame them. It was a good day despite the heat, all the helpful canteens around the ground were selling extremely small bottles of water for $3 each. Hmmmm.

Anyway the PM’s XI had a good mix of old and young players, captained by Justin Langer. A young Canberra bowler called Behrendorff was very impressive and bowled 8 overs for 21. Hopefully he will play for NSW. Despite losing a couple of early wickets, the PM’s XI won the game pretty easily by 6 wickets with about 2 overs to spare.

After my Melbourne trip, Andy and I drove back up to Canberra on the 2nd of Jan. We spent the next couple of days doing the usual, playing poker/fifa. There was alot of things we meant to look at regarding poker theory, but didnt get around to much of it. We did do a bit of hand review which was good, and had a visit from Joey (punish15 on stars).

We also had an interesting experience where I thought it would be a good idea to scan us both into the gym after hours using my ID. Unforuntaly the ACT protective service security guys didnt agree and kicked us out before we got a chance to get into a workout.

Andy went home on the 7th, and since then I have been back at work and grinding on both Ongame and FTP depending on the time of day. Have run way below expectation on FTP, but im getting a feel for the software and am enjoying playing there. I decided I would cut down my tables from around 16 to 8 or 9 to let me think more and play better. I feel like this will give me more room for improvement too. Its been a reasonable month so far and I have been playing 400nl with more confidence than I have ever done before.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I lost my username/password and it took me a fortnight to figure out how to get it back.

On boxing day I headed down to Melbourne to stay at Andy’s and go to the cricket. The first 2 days of the cricket were great, but the 3rd day was possibly the worst day ever, we arrived with South Africa at around 8/250 and we had hoped to pick up a few wickets and then get to watch Australia bat. We even made a couple of bets  on how many the openers would make. Unforunately it didnt work out as we planned, and we watched south africa get to 450 (or so) before losing their last 2 wickets. At the end of the day we were pretty sick of cricket and didnt attend the last 2 days.

Apart from the cricket we spent most of the time playing poker and  fifa 09, and going to the gym. Also Andy hosted a poker tournament for his 23rd birthday on the 30th which was great, and then we attended his mate Gordon’s new years eve pool party the next night which was fantastic. It was great to sit in the pool/spa drinking for most of the night. If anyone has seen my sunglasses and beach towel I left there let me know.