A Quick Trip to Melbourne

It took me over 24 hours to get to Melbourne for the Aussie Millions but less than four hours to leave the tournament. Poker can be pretty frustrating at times.

After an exhausting flight, I was greeted by terrific service in Melbourne. The Aussie Millions staff had arranged for a car to pick me up at the airport and take me back to the hotel.

There really is nothing better to see after clearing customs than a driver with a sign that reads "Ms. Liz Lieu." It means I don't have to figure out anything in a different land, at least not yet.

I always prefer to play the first day of events with multiple starting days, and this was no exception. It gives me a chance to get some good rest after my Day 1 or head out early if I'm unfortunate enough to bust out.

For some reason, I felt very uncomfortable heading to the casino Monday.

I even sent my brother this message a few hours before the event: "I'll be playing the main event here in about 4 hrs, but I don't have a good feeling about this event.

It's just a gut feeling!! I still have to play it anyways though." I didn't feel bad physically, but I just had this strange feeling that things weren't going to go my way.

When I got to the tournament, it became clear that they were struggling with the number of players signed up. I took my seat in the 1s next to the dealer, and my back almost touched the railbirds there to see the Aussie Millions. There were only five players at our table once we got started.

It isn't that unusual to find empty chairs at the start of higher-buy-in events as more and more pros want to skip the hassles that accompany the start of a tournament. I rarely do that myself, always wanting to start splashing chips as soon as possible.

It didn't bother me a bit with the table being short-handed as I prefer playing short-handed games anyway. You are a lot more flexible to make moves in short-handed games, especially if you are an aggressive player. I didn't recognize any players at my starting table, all unknown faces.

I had a very strange hand early in the day that became an unfortunate incident. The blinds were still 50/100 when a new dealer came into the box, and I picked up aces on the button in the second hand that was dealt.

The player on my right in the 8s made it 275 to go, and I then announced a raise and threw a 500 chip out. He called, and the dealer then gave me back 50. I asked her why she was doing this, and she told me that because I had said "raise" and put out a large chip, that it was considered a min-raise.

The field at the Aussie Millions on Day 1a.

I've never heard that before, and Matt Savage came over. He ruled that the player had to put 50 additional chips into the pot. Strangely enough though, three other tournament officials came over and gave a different ruling.

They told the player he had the option of calling another 50 or taking his 175 and folding. The player said he would take his chips back and fold, and the dealer shoved the pot to me. A real bad beat to have this kind of incident happen when you pick up AA's on the button!

I never lose my cool during a tournament, but I was pretty upset. I was still very unsatisfied with the ruling and walked over to all the floor guys to express my thoughts about it.

I said I have never seen a player ever be able to take their chips back once the chips were already in the middle in a tournament before.

The floor then said, "The ruling was made that way because the dealer had admitted that she had said to the player in seat 8 that the raise was to 450."

Now I understand that nobody's perfect, everyone makes mistakes, even myself included but these kind of mistakes can really throw a player off their game and leave a bad taste in their mouth.

This hand wasn't the key hand of the tournament for me, but it is an occurrence that can happen in big-field events, especially early in a tournament.

I busted out in the next level, getting all of my chips into the middle on a board of Q♣ J♣ 9♦ A♠ with my A♣ Q♥. Unfortunately, I was up against K♥ 10♥, and the 3♠ on the river finished me off.

So it was a quick end to a long trip that I hoped would last a lot longer. Instead, I'm cutting my trip Down Under short, heading to Los Angeles a week earlier than I had planned.

Liz Lieu

Pro Poker Player- Poker Diva