Back in town.

William H. Bonney: Hey, Peppin. I see you got Charley Crawford down there with you.
Peppin: Yeah.
[Bonney goes to the window and shoots Charley Crawford]
William H. Bonney: Hey, Peppin. Charley Crawford's not with you anymore.

"Young Guns"

Well I am finally back from the business trip to the Gold Coast. It wasn't too bad in the end, as the MC was supposed to be Jean Kitson, an Australian female comedian. She wasn't funny 20 years ago when she was on TV, and I'm sure she won't be funny now. For some reason, she cancelled and Tim Ferguson took over the duties. Tim Ferguson was once part of a comedy trio called the "Doug Anthony All Stars", and they were fantastic. I've met two of the three of them now, and he was really funny. Which is great, because the rest of the conference was very dry material. As far as "networking" goes, here's a tip. If you are not the owner or the CEO of your company, people generally don't want to talk to you. I had this one guy from a company that is trying to get some contra deal going with ours, and he peppered me with questions non-stop along the lines of "Who owns your company? Where is the general manager, what is his name? What does he look like? Where is his name in the program?". I told him the owners name was Phil Helmuth, try and find him. Can you tell where my mind was?

And so Iggy wins the MMPBT, after the restart. Let me be the first one to congrat...SHENANIGANS! I CALL SHENANIGANS! Get officer Barbrady over here immediately! This is shenanigans I say, and justice must be served! I haven't seen a full write up of positions and bounty winners as yet, so I have no idea who won my booby prize. If the winner or anybody else who knows contact details for the last place getter could email them to me, I will get onto it right away.

Obviously I haven't been playing poker for a while now, being out of town and all. I did check to make sure the casino on the Gold Coast didn't have poker. I now firmly believe that only one casino in Australia has poker other than Caribbean Stud - which as we all know is crap. I keep hearing people say about this poker boom that is going on, and some even claiming poker has jumped the shark already, but where the hell is this poker boom in Australia? Where is it I ask you? I wish I had some capital and knew the laws concerning opening a poker room, because you could make a killing out here. If only hey?

Got another offer to play a live game this Saturday night, but Serena's parents are coming to Sydney for the weekend. Should be great fun trying to get out of going out for tea on Saturday night to play poker. I'd say my chances are slim to none. Damn, this is the second time I have to say no, I don't know if I will get asked a third time.

I guess the good news about not being able to play much poker for two weeks now is that I haven't lost any of my winnings. That is a very pessimistic way of expressing an optimistic view, if that makes any sense at all.

So the Olympics have come and gone for another four years. Australia won 17 Gold medals, our best result ever. Not bad for a country that dedicates $170 million dollars of tax payers money into sport. I mean, I love my sport, but really what return on investment do we get for our $170 million? Sure, 400 odd athletes get a trip to Athens, and maybe 20 or so of them will get endorsement deals. It's weird though isn't it? Maybe we should create an incentive scheme and only reward the successful athletes. Get a gold medal? Congratulations, you trip is free. Silver medal, you have to pay 33% of the costs for you trip, and bronze you have to pay 66%. If you win nothing, then pay up! We need a return on investment and if you can not deliver, then you should have to pay for the privlidge for representing our great country. Oh, but you "gave it your best try" did you? Well this is the Olympics baby, not the school running carnival.

Ah, I miss poker. Damn do I need to get back into the free roll action. Crazy pre-flop all-ins, bluffing every second hand, telling everyone else why the should have folded instead of wining the hand - I think I miss the atmosphere the most.

Got to see "Hellboy" finally, and it was worth the ticket price. A good comic book movie, is not a bit predictable. The critics were right when they say the movie does have heart. I'd recommend it, but it wasn't anything mind-blowingly brilliant. Hope to see "Bourne Supremacy" this week.

That will have to do for now, congrats to everyone who was in the money for the MMPBT, and to Iggy for taking out the prize. I am enjoying reading all the write ups for the tournament, and it is interesting reading all the different perspectives from the same tournament. It sounded like fun, and I hope one day I can join in, country permitting.