Hey Guys!

It's been a while since I got around to blogging, mostly due to the fact that I just haven't had time. Things just haven't gone well for me in poker this year so it has really dawned on me how much effort I need to be putting into my game and also making up for some lost volume. I feel as though I have really failed as a blogger given all of the work I have started and not completed, but at this point in time my blog being up to date is the least of my worries. So let's jump to right now.

April is going to be a huge month for me. It is the start of a period that I don't intend on doing any traveling at all, therefore I will be focusing entirely on improving as a player and grinding like a bitch. I have already started to find some rhythm in terms of grinding/studying over the past week or so, now it is just a matter of maintaining it. My goal for the month is to play 1000 MTT's which is something that I haven't done before.

This downswing that I am on is really teaching me the harsh reality of MTT's. Variance will make you it's bitch. For a large portion of the downswing I have felt better than ever about my game, but now I am starting to realise that merely being confident in your game as it stands is way too complacent. I have reviewed my play constantly throughout the first 3 months of the year and never really been dis-satisfied in what I have seen. The same goes for having other people I really respect reviewing my game. This is not to say there are no mistakes, naturally there are, but anything that is a consistent leak I am yet to really find. While this gives me confidence, I have realised it is not enough on its own. I need to be striving to be better, not just make sure my game right now is going well. It is so easy to get caught up in critically analysing your game while you are downswinging and neglecting the importance of improving.

I also intend on opening up some coaching hours again. I have been working with two students only for the past few months and have probably even neglected them a little bit with my travelling and having no real routine. Now that I know that I will have a routine for the next few months, I am going to try to take on 5-10 hours of coaching per week. Coaching is something that I have always enjoyed. I love seeing people implement things and see noticeable improvements in their game and their results as well, it's always a cool feeling to know you've helped. For selfish reasons, it is also amazing for my game because I learn a lot while coaching people too. Quite often I get new insights from students, or just thinking about the concepts I am teaching will give me a nice refresher on things for my own game.

(If you are interested in coaching, my rate will be $120/hr. I am happy to discuss your particular situation and what I feel I can offer for your game, as well as field any questions you have. Email me: mjw006@hotmail.com. I would appreciate if only people serious about the coaching contact me)

If you guys missed it before, I did a detailed hand analysis of my day 1 at APPT Seoul. You can check it out here. I would love to hear any thoughts you guys have on any of these hands, or any questions. Just leave them in the comments section.

I have also started back in my role as host of the radio program 'Konvict Korner' on Quadjacks radio. I have a new co-host, my good friend Stevan 'random_chu' Chew, who is making it a whole lot more fun. You can check out our podcasts (http://quadjacks.com/category/konvictkorner/).

So that will be it for now. Hopefully we can get this ship sailing in the right direction! I hope you are all doing well!

Cheers,

Matt!

Follow me on Twitter @mjw006

Ok, so once again I have a blog I wrote on Microsoft Word that does not agree with poker.org blogging platform. I have been trying at length to get the blog posted on the site but cannot for the life of me get it to work.

You can read it here -> BLOG (http://www.husng.com/content/seoul-warning-tldr)

It is very long and I really want to get it up on this site, so I will keep trying and see how we go. Hopefully this is ok for now.

Hope you guys are all doing well!

Matt

UGH, UGH, UGH! $%&#%$%#&^*$@

^ How I feel right now... February was my worst month ever I think. I haven't really looked how it compares to WCOOP last year but it's going to be really close either way. I guess the main difference is that I feel I am a significantly better player now than I was then.

It's funny because I am so motivated right now to be on the grind. It's almost consumed me in the sense that every day I want to get up and grind my arse off for a long session. I feel so great about my game and how it has developed over the past month, yet my results are the worst they have ever been. For those reasons I am taking 3 days off from the grind. I guess there is always some element that you are ignorant to when you are downswinging and perhaps I just need to freshen up a little and get some clear perspective.

Even though it is frustrating as hell, it is just one of those periods where I am quite obviously running badly which makes me feel a lot better. That probably sounds dumb but when you are clearly getting coolered deep in tournaments or clearly losing spots where you get it in amazingly vs their range, you can't feel that bad about yourself (until you look at your account balance ). I'm sure if I keep working hard both on my own game and grinding the volume that it will eventually turn around.

I fly out for APPT Seoul on Tuesday, a trip I am really looking forward to. I am kind of worried about the language barriers that I am likely to encounter on this trip, given that I have never really been anywhere that is reluctant to speak English. I am first and foremost really looking forward to the tournament, it is about time I booked a result live I think . But secondly, I am looking forward to experiencing the culture a little bit while I am there. I intend on staying a few days after the completion of the tournament to really take it in properly. I am not 100% sure whether I will be heading down to Busan (where I was born), or staying in and around Seoul, because I am so bad at being organised. Either way I am sure I will be able to see plenty.

The most exciting thing going on at the moment though is that the Rugby League season has started here in Australia! My team (Newcastle Knights) were involved in the season opener last night which I obviously attended, only to watch us lose in Golden Point Extra time ... Not to worry though, it's a long season, and it is only early days. Rugby League has always been my passion and I love this time of year with all the excitement about the season ahead. I am not going to ramble too much about it because this blog will never end. For those of you that don't know what Rugby League is; It is Australia's Premier Winter sport, check out some clips on youtube .

Last but not least, a big Gratz to my mate Random_chu for his 2nd place finish in the Big55 yesterday. He has had a rough time of late so nice to see him getting back on his feet!

I hope you are all doing well! Wish me luck in Seoul!!!

Matt

Follow me on Twitter @mjw006

Hey Guys!

Again, I am just going to do a very brief update of the current happenings instead of backdating to the Aussie Millions (which I still intend to do). The have had a couple people request the main event blog to me and it is about halfway done. I intended to work on it today since I had some free time but I can't open the file . I just had my computer upgraded a couple of days ago; I had a new 120GB SSD put in (up to 180Gb), upgraded to 12GB RAM, and a new video card added so that I can run a 3rd monitor, and consequently I need to work out how to access some files on the previous main HD. I'm a complete and utter computer noob so hopefully I will be able to get that sorted early next week.

In poker things aren't going overly well. In fact February has actually been a month of records for me. I have booked my biggest losing Sunday, biggest losing weekday, and biggest losing week... Not really the personal records I am after. With all of that said I feel very confident in my game right now. I have been working harder than ever, both grinding and studying, and consequently I feel my game has improved a ton through this month. I have had TMoney do some reviews for me and he is very happy with my game at the moment as well which also gives me a lot of confidence that it is mostly the variance train hurting me.

My life at the moment is really just revolving around grinding hard, grinding long sessions, and improving my game. It has certainly been tiring, probably even more so when I have been losing a lot. This has probably (definitely) lead to me neglecting some of my other obligations such as Konvict Korner Radio, making training videos, and somewhat coaching. I intend on getting back on top of all of this after APPT Seoul that I leave for in a bit over a week.

I have only just started thinking about Seoul in the last 48 hours or so. I have been notorious for doing things at the last minute and this was no different, booking my flights at the very last minute. I have decided to stay on for a few days after the tournament to experience the culture a little bit and hopefully learn a little bit about where I come from. (You can read more about that HERE.) If anyone has any experiences in Seoul, things to do, places to see etc etc, please don't hesitate to let me know! It is actually quite daunting going alone into a non-English speaking culture alone, but I am really starting to look forward to it. I guess there is a little anticipation and nervousness about the whole trip, and that's not even giving any thought to the poker tournament, haha.

On a positive note, I have been taking Madden to swimming lessons since he was about 18 months old. We did a whole semester towards the end of last year and he really wasn't in love with it. He hated the underwater pass he had to do and was erratic in his willingness to participate on a week to week basis. But this year we have been back for a couple of weeks and he is absolutely loving it! He is now 2 years old now, so perhaps a little more mature and has a better understanding of certain things, but nonetheless I'm extremely proud of how he is doing! My description to Nat last week after we completed the lesson was that "he made his last effort look like Eric the Eel" (That guy from Equitorial Guinea who they held a special event for at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, letting him win a 100m freestyle race). But basically that is the only thing I have been doing outside of grinding, haha, and I'm very happy that he is finally getting it/learning!!!

Up until Seoul it will just be business as usual. Grinding my arse off and continuing to work hard on my game right up until the 6th of March when I leave. Hopefully I will finally work out how to access the Aussie Millions blog and get that up very soon. I hope you guys are all doing great!

Matt

Follow me on twitter @mjw006

This is only going to be a very short entry, something I feel I am never doing these days. Usually I find myself with so much to say that I end up mashing the keyboard for 90 minutes and you guys end up with sore eyes after reading mjw's newest thesis.

So anyway....

Poker has been quite a nasty endeavor for me of late. Besides the fact that I have had other things going on that have prevented me from grinding as much volume as I would like, when I have been grinding I just have not put up very good results. With that said, I am so motivated to be grinding right now and feel amazing about the way I am currently playing.

On Wednesday I put in the longest registration period I have ever done on a weekday (from 4:30am-3:00pm), and the result was my biggest losing weekday ever (-$6k), haha. I would never continue grinding if I felt I was playing poorly. The simple fact was that I felt really sharp so I kept going. It was very much the same story on my Sunday major grind (Monday) with very much the same result. In time you learn that results mean very little in the short term. It's just a matter of restarting up the engine and jumping back on board.

Yesterday I went on a little family trip to Taronga Zoo in Sydney. It was a nice change of pace and we had a fun day showing Madden all the animals. Today I am off to the cricket with Nat. She bought me tickets to the One-Day International between Australia and Sri Lanka for Christmas, so we are going to make good use of them!

As you might already be able to tell, I decided to not go to Adelaide for the Poker Zone Cup. I just didn't see it being worth my time after thinking about it, as well as the other huge factor of me being super motivated to grind online at the moment. I know that I have APPT Seoul coming up in 2.5 weeks, but I haven't really thought about that either. All my attention right now is on my online game and making sure I am playing well.

I will leave it at that for now. I feel like I have fallen so far behind on blogging that I am missing/cutting out so many happenings. I am half way through my Aussie Millions Main Event re-cap, so hopefully I will complete that/get it up early next week. I still haven't done my 2012 goals post, haha. I better stop listing the things that I have failed to post or this blog will end up really long.

I hope you are all doing great, both in life and at the tables!

Matt

Follow me on Twitter @mjw006

Hey guys!

This could be one of those really long waffly blog posts of mine that seem like they will never end, haha. In a nutshell, January was an insanely busy month for me and it will probably take me multiple blog posts to catch up to where I would like to be. For this blog I will be skipping the finer details of my Aussie Millions main event and saving that for a separate blog on its own. Instead I am going to jump around the place erratically and hopefully make some sense of the current happenings.

My first Aussie Millions trip was a ton of fun. One of the things I love most about travelling to live poker events is being able to meet new people. I have always been a really social person by nature, which is actually quite a contradiction to what I spend most of my time doing. So it’s always refreshing to see that people actually exist and are not just fictional characters that exist across the screen from you day in and day out.

Spending time in real life with people that you have gotten to know online is also always an interesting experience. Out of all of the people I have met in real life that I have considered myself to know well online, I have never met someone and been surprised by their character. There are obviously always subtle personality traits that can only exist in the real world, but that is what makes it interesting to me. The two people I spent most of my January with (Chuey and BB18) are really great guys. I started this spiel by saying that Aussie Millions was a ton of fun, and it was. Having a good time is not generally about what you are doing but who you are doing it with. We had a ton of funny moments on the trip and plenty of laughter (mostly at chu’s expense).

Poker wise it was not a great trip for any of us. I guess it wasn’t a horrible one for me given that I managed to eek out a min-cash in the Main Event, but overall I have ran really bad at poker for the month of January (Perhaps a counteraction of the fact that I ran insanely good in CCR). It is obviously never helpful that I really did not grind much volume at all in January. There was just so much going on live and it would be a waste to be in Melbourne and be not enjoying the wonderful January weather or any of the amazing restaurants we ate at. I would have liked to play more days of TCOOP but it just didn’t happen so there is not much I can do about it now.

By the end of January though, I was well and truly ready to get home and see my little family. It is the longest I have spent away and even though I had a great time, it was certainly hard to be away from home for so long.

Upon my arrival home I was informed that I was not successful in becoming Pokerstars Team Online for this year. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, yet relief was probably the overriding emotion when I found out. Obviously not relief that I didn’t get it (that would be dumb, haha), but relief that the sweat was over. There had been a lot of talk and anticipation over who would get the sponsorship throughout Aussie Millions, and just to know that there was no more tension in this regard was very relieving.
I was never a frontrunner for the sponsorship and never had my hopes up too far in regards to getting it. I felt that Jesse McKenzie was the clear frontrunner from the get-go and I am still very surprised that it was not him or Benn Skender that were announced as the new member. In fact, no one was been named as yet, so it will be really interesting to see who it is that will be representing Team Online Australia for 2012. Either way I am sure Stars will have good reasons to choose who they do and I’m sure the new Team member will do an outstanding job.

I do want to take this opportunity to thank Rypac for his assistance over the past few months. I feel I was always well behind the other candidates in the running for team online, but never would have even been a blip on the Pokerstars radar had it not been for him. He basically managed me over the last few months, with his contacts and insight into the industry being absolutely priceless. He is a great guy and I am ever grateful for his help. Hopefully I can get back to making him some videos for husng.com now and stop being lazy.

There were certainly other people who contributed and helped me out through this period; Zack and Marco at Quadjacks, the numerous people who took the time to interview me/write articles, everyone who supported my promotions, those actively seeking me out on twitter for conversations, as well as the many well wishers along the way. Everyone deserves a huge thank you for believing in me and giving me some of their time. Last but not least, my family were very understanding of me taking extra time to work on certain projects. They are always patient with me in my endeavours, I love them very much and appreciate their understanding.

So anyways, it was a few days at home and back on a plane. This time I was off to my favourite place in the world; Queenstown, New Zealand. The trip has not really been poker related, instead it was all about helping the biggest life fish I know, OLD TIME GIN, to check-in to a penthouse with SkaiWalkurrr and Berndsen12. They are all only 21 and needed someone 25+ to be at the apartment. Sometimes my old age can come in handy I guess, haha.

It is pretty hard to not enjoy yourself in Queenstown, so it is probably no surprise that I had a really good time. I have known Gin for a while now and he is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. Skai and B12 are also both great guys and even though I wasn’t there for long, it was certainly a fun experience. The highlight was definitely Skai flooding the downstairs bathroom while forgetting he was running a bath. The chaos that ensued was just priceless.

Which brings me to where I am now. Sitting on a flight from Queenstown back to Sydney. It doesn’t end here though. I am home for about a week then off to Adelaide to play the $1k Poker Zone Cup, back home for two weeks or so, then off to Seoul for APPT. Half of the year will go by without me noticing I think, haha.

This has gotten really long now, so I will save the rest of my thoughts for my next blog, as well as one in there about my Aussie Millions Main Event. I hope you are all doing great so far in 2012!

Matt

Follow me on Twitter @mjw006

Well the failings are continuing here in Melbourne. It's a bit of a sad story at the moment in this household with all three of us bricking off almost everything. Benny had a nice run going in the $1k 6-max before taking a really good cold 4-bet spot and missing a 40/60 with 11 payers left. We are still having a fun time though, and we are still mostly eating courtesy of Chu, so the trip could be a lot more expensive than it has been. I did manage to lose the biggest CCR of the trip but had swapped 30% with Benny so it wasn't too bad in the end.

The $1k 6-max was an event I was really looking forward to but unfortunately didn't last very long for me. I grabbed a couple of hands from the event that I found interesting though.

Hand 1: Blinds 75/150, Me 7k, SB 14k, BB 10k.

I open AJcc UTG, SB was a kinda spewy live pro and he flats, BB was an Asian guy with tons of badges from Pokerstars room Macau and also flats.

Flop; Tc 8d 4h - (Pot = t900) SB leads t700, BB calls, I pause for about a minute and call with intentions of playing my equity turns and pair turns really fast.

Turn; The very perfect 9c - SB checks, BB bets t1750, I shove t6000, they both fold (BB let out a huge sigh then mucked).

I guess this is a spot where I could probably just fold on the flop and in a lot of cases it will probably be best. There are just so many cards that could improve my raw hand strength on the turn and with my stack size the way it was I felt I was going to be handed a really nice situation to cap the action on the turn. I can also rep really nutted hands on the turn when I play the hand this way and I peel equity. On top of this, I don't think that SB's range is strong at all and BB is not likely to have a strong made hand very often either (though more likely than SB imo). The negative considerations is that some of my equity/pair turns will directly improve the strength of both ranges, for example; A Jack on the turn improves my raw hand strength but will sometimes also dramatically improve both villains hand strength and in some cases leave me drawing dead. All in all it worked out ok, but in hindsight folding flop may be better.

Hand 2: Blinds 75/150, me 11k, UTG+1 4k, BB 20k.

UTG+1 was the Asian guy from hand one, he had also been shoved on in a hand just afterwards and seemed a little tilted. BB was a really good young Asian guy (definitely the best player at the table).

UTG+1 Minraises, I call J8hh, BB calls. This is a spot where there is some tilt equity from the opener, but I don't expect to play this hand heads up at all. All of the stacks behind me are deeper and therefore I don't anticipate playing this hand with only 27bb's effective.

Flop; Qx Th 2x - (Pot = t900) BB checks, UTG+1 checks, I bet t625. I make this bet because I think that UTG+1 is often checking to check/fold or check/raise and get it in, BB's range is really wide and will be check/folding a lot, and this flop hits my perceived range pretty well. BB calls and the UTG+1 folds.

Turn; Again a very nice 5h - BB checks, I now have a gutshot and a flush draw and elect to barrel this turn with intentions of going big on most rivers. The turn looks pretty harmless and shouldn't really affect either of us much at all, however, firing both turn and river should see him surrendering on the river a lot. BB calls.

River; 2x - BB checks, I load up t2850 and fire away. I feel like such a retard for firing this card. The only part of his range he will fold at this stage will be sometimes Tx and missed draws, he will never fold Qx at this stage. I feel like a retard for firing river but I guess we live and we learn. Sometimes you have a plan and need to actually evaluate the board and what has and hasn't changed before just going through with things.

I have bricked everything else that I have played in the meantime, including every online session I have played here. Fortunately enough, I scraped through a really rough day one of the main event with a very sad looking 25 BB's. I ran really bad all day on day one and actually felt really great about how I played so I am hopeful that day two will start off much smoother and continue that way for me ... I did have the pleasure of playing with Patrik Antonius on day one (was actualyl a bit of a beat to have him at my table), but I am going to save everything I have to say about the main event for a seperate blog.

Day two of the main is tomorrow so wish me luck! I hope you are all doing well!

Matt

Follow me on Twitter @mjw006

We are now 6 days into Aussie Millions 2012 and it has certainly been a fun experience so far. I have only played the two events so far (the $1.1k Repecharge Opening event and the $1.1k shootout). I have also taken every opportunity to get some online grinding done since being in Melbourne, which has formed a really unsuccessful start to the year for me online. On the upside, a lot of fun has been had so far with my room mates for the series; Random_chu and Bennybunny18.

The opening event went relatively smoothly for me through Day One, even though I had some average table draws. My starting table had Alek Givotovsky to my right, Pat Woodley (Biologist) to my direct left, and Tom Middleton (hitthehole) 3 to my left. Not a great starting table but an early double through with AA>KK was certainly a good way to start the series (vs Dylan 'Whiterabbito' Honeyman). My second table was slightly better but not amazing with James Dempsey to my right and Jack Ellwood to my direct left.

Fortunately I managed to maneuver my way through the day without a lot of trouble, and with an above average stack. There weren't really any interesting hands to note throughout the course of day one. Most of the chips I accumulated came from having the initiative as the preflop raiser and taking down pots on the flop or turn, with another portion coming from calling short stack allins and running good in small showdown pots. Certainly an uneventful day.

Day two didn't bring any more luck in the table draw with Octavian Voegele and Jay 'Seabeast' Kinkade located to my direct left. This was pretty intimidating to me to be honest, because I know just how good Seabeast is. He is certainly one of the top MTT'ers in the world and if I was asked at the start of the day to name one player in the field to not have to my left, it would have been him and it wouldn't have been close. As it turned out, I was fortunate enough to not really get involved with him.

In the end I couldn't muster a run as I lost my crucial pots when they arose. Firstly I had to raise/call utg vs utg+1 (Octavian) with AQ into his JJ and lost a flip, then just into the money I re-shoved 15bb's or so with 88 vs a utg open and lost vs AK. The structure was moving quite quickly at this point in time, so there was no real time for messing about and stack depths certainly didn't allow too much room for any intricate plays. I ended up busting in 74th for a mincash.

My shootout table was a pretty fun one, with 3-4 obvious online guys (I knew nine of them though) to my right, and some average fish to my left. Given that the goal in a shootout is to win all of the chips on your table to progress, I certainly took a more aggressive approach to this one, and given my position on the table it worked well for me.

One interesting hand early on; I open MP to t300 at 75/150 with 85dd, the SB (a young aggressive guy wearing a hoodie) flats, and the BB (an older guy who hadn’t played any pots I don’t think) flats as well. Flop comes 3x4x6d, checks to me and I bet t475 (into t900), called in both spots. Turn is the 2x and I think for a while and decide to bet small (t925 iirc) and hope they continue to peel with whatever it is they have (Pairs/gutters/straight/sets?). I find it very unlikely that either of them at this stage peels 75s from the blinds but they can definitely have a 5x hand (A5/K5s/55), and at the same time I don’t think they will expect me to have a 5 very often. They both call. The River brings an 8x and it once again checks to me. At this stage I am pretty sure one of them at least has a 5, and find it very unlikely I will get a 3rd street of value out of a one pair/two pair/set, so I elect to overbet in an attempt to scare the potential 5x off a chop since the pot is so big now. It seems to work as the young guy thinks and mucks, and the older guy tanks, sighs, and mucks.

Perhaps I missed some value in this hand vs 2-pairs and sets, and maybe I am being far too ambitious to think 5x folded here, but at the time it seemed feasible to me.

There was another hand where I MR button and SB (clearly the fish of the table) flats. I had been super active and I had seen him defend J2o from the blinds before. Flop comes Q24r and I cbet 2BB’s and he crams 60BB’s in my face. I LOL at him and obviously fold. The older American gentleman to my right then proceeds to tell me “we call that the check/shove”, before spewing numerous poker jargon at me, followed by me putting my headphones on…

Yep, loving live poker!

On the upside I have mostly been eating for free so far on the trip.Given that we CCR every single meal, it has been nice to run really hotin that. Unfortunately for him, Chuey has ran absurdly bad and ispaying for everything, much to the delight of Benny and I.It couldn't happen to a better person either because he loves any excuse to whine... Very funny times...

I also finally shipped my seat to the Main Event on Monday morning so it is nice to be confirmed starting in that one!

Hope you are all doing well and will hopefully have some more interesting hands next time!

Matt

Follow me on twitter @mjw006

Well as the title suggests, it is Aussie Millions time here in Australia and I’m really excited to jump into the series and hopefully book some results. This will be the first time that I have participated in an actual series of events, and my first trip to Melbourne for the Aussie Millions. This obviously has a lot to do with the fact that I have only been playing mtt’s for about 9 months. I’m trying to prepare myself mentally in the couple of days leading up to event one, while at the same time containing a lot of the nervous energy I have.

The nervous energy has probably come from not having a fantastic start to the year online. I basically bricked out everything for a week straight, which has be an expensive endeavour.
Best to look forward though...

I have an apartment in Docklands booked with a couple of mates; Random_chu and Bennybunny18 for the series, and it should be a really good time being constantly trolled by Chuballs. I plan on playing nine events at this stage, as well as satellites to the Main Event. My schedule looks like this:

- 13th January, Event 1: $1100 Repecharge
- 17th January, Event 3: $1100 Shootout
- 19th January, Event 5: $1100 6-max
- 21st January, Event 7: $1650 Bounties
- 23rd January, Event 11: $550 NLHE
- 24thJanuary, Event 14: $550 NLHE
- 25th January, Event 15: $550 NLHE
- 26th January, Event 17: $550 NLHE
- 28th January, Event 22: $550 Cubed/Turbo

I am really hoping that I can win a satellite to the $10.6k Main Event, in which case I will not be playing the $550’s. It is one of my main goals heading to Melbourne to be able to play the main event, so hopefully I can play well in the sats and run well at the right times.

As some of you will be aware, I don’t have the most flattering live tournament record. However, I feel that I have plenty of reasons to be optimistic going into this series. In the past there is no way I could be considered a specialist in mtt’s, let alone live mtt’s, but I feel my mtt game has now developed to a point where I would most certainly consider it my main game. While there is still tons of room for improvement in my game, I feel really good about where my game is at, and thus feel very confident heading to Melbourne.

At the end of the day, this is a small sample size. Nine tournaments is not a lot to bank on, nor is it the end of the world if I brick. I just want to make sure that I play my absolute best for every minute of every tournament that I play.

As this is my first real series as an mtt’er I am certainly still getting to know the community and the people floating around within it. So if you are around Melbourne, make sure you come and say hi if you see me. I will make sure I get a couple of blogs out to discuss key hands throughout the series, and will be tweeting as I go @mjw006.

This wouldn't be my blog without a bit of a brag in here..



Over the past couple of weeks I have broken my way into the Worldwide Top 10 on Pocket Fives World Rankings. It is actually a really cool and satisfying feeling to be listed in the top ten mtt'ers, even if I don't feel close to the caliber of player as those around me. Regardless of how I feel personally, it is a really nice achievement and makes me feel special. I believe I am only the 3rd Australian player to break into the worldwide top ten, so that makes it even more special for me to join the other two guys who are both people I have unbelievable respect for (Andy McLEOD and Baza88).

Last but not least, I did an interview with Christian Vaughan, the Aussie Millions Tournament Director, last night for Konvict Korner. The whole program seems to be going well and I am really enjoying my role as host of a radio program. You can check it out here if you want to listen in to the podcast (http://www.quadjacks.com/category/konvictkorner/)

I hope you are all doing well, and if you are heading to Melbourne yourself I wish you all the best!

Matt

Follow me on Twitter @mjw006

Unfortunately 2011 didn't end in the manner I would have liked, and as much as I hate to start my blogging for 2012 on a bit of a downer, I feel it is something too close to my heart to pass over.

At around 3pm on New Years Eve I got the call that my Grandfather ('Ga' as he was more affectionately know) had lost his battle with cancer. Family, friends, and myself have all been so lucky to have him in our lives for as long as we have, as we were told he wouldn't make Christmas 2011. In his own stubborn fashion, he was here for Christmas, and we all appreciated that fact immensely.

He was an extremely strong willed, proud man. This can be evidenced by the fact that he spent 90 years on this earth and lived through some times that we will hopefully never experience. As a Grandfather he has been a huge influence on both my life, and myself as a person. I have so many fond memories of him and they will remain with me for the rest of my time (which will very unlikely be 90 years). It's hard to truly appreciate living for 90 years, but it was always fascinating for me to listen to his stories of what life was like through World Wars and the Great Depression. These stories will stay with me forever.

Knowing that his time was coming to an end was something that we had time to come to grips with over the past year. I'm appreciative of this time because it allowed us all to make sure we saw him regularly and had our chances to say a proper goodbye every time we left, knowing it could be the last time.

My parents and Aunties have been looking after him for the past 6 months and they have shown great character throughout that time. It can't have been easy for them to sacrifice a lot of their own time and comfort to make sure he had everything he needed day and night, but that is what family is all about. I'm so glad my family they are the way they are and seeing the sacrifices made only makes me appreciate them more and ensures that I stay grounded in my own values as a human being. They did an amazing job, and without them we most certainly wouldn't have had the amount of time we did with Ga.

RIP Ga, you will forever remain in our hearts and memories.

It didn't end there. On the 2nd day of 2012 I got a call that my Pop had also passed away (My dad's dad). This is a little different scenario for me because my father had a falling out with Pop and consequently lost touch over time. This has nothing to do with me as an adult, and I only have fond memories of my Pop. I don't want to go too far into this one, but it is certainly something that is in my heart and mind, so I put it in here.

RIP Pop, I really wish it wasn't the way it was.

OK, that section was probably the toughest blog I've ever written.

Other than this, my start to the year has been super busy. My mind has been full of emotions, but life must carry on. I have only managed to play 2 sessions. One good and one bad. I had a decent Sunday session (5th in $109 2x turbo on Stars for $5.9k and 3rd in the Ongame $100cubed for $10.7k), and my other session was completely bricked out for the most part. All in all, not a bad start to the year.

I have spent a lot of my other time watching the cricket. I headed down to the SCG for Day 2 of the Sydney Test and besides having a great time catching up with some good mates, it was an amazing and history making day of cricket. Watching Ponting score his first Century in 2 years, as well as Clarke scoring over 200 runs in a day was just amazing. I guess it has been a frustrating couple of years as a dedicated lover of Australian cricket. I have grown up in an era where Australia has dominated the cricket world, so the past few years of never really being truly on top has been frustrating to watch at times. The first few days of this Test has seen some extremely dominating cricket played by our National team, and I have loved every minute of it.

Last but not least, I am really trying to prepare myself and get in the right headspace for Aussie Millions. I am leaving in about a week and I am really looking forward to the Series and hoping to play really well and hopefully have some success. It should be a lot of fun, but would be made a lot more fun if I can bink something off.

Anyways, that is all I have for now. I apologise for starting off the year with a bit of a dampener of a blog, but I believe in blogging both my current thoughts and emotions and the passing of my Grandfathers is certainly at the forefront at the moment.

I plan on doing a 2012 Goals blog very shortly. I hope you have all started the year well!!! GL to you all in 2012, I hope it is a prosperous one!

Matt

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