Team partypoker’s Joni Jouhkimainen reflects on a poker trip to Australia where he competed in at the Aussie Millions. How did the trip “Down Under” go for Joni?
Melbourne has slowly become one of my favourite cities in the world. It’s such a good combination of everything you could need. The Aussie Millions in January is a good excuse to leave -10c Helsinki and enjoy the sun. The trip to Melbourne every January isn’t a regular poker trip because I usually spend three-to-five weeks there and spend a lot of my time away from the poker tables too. This trip was good mix of poker, sun, tennis and having a good time with friends.
In terms of poker, the trip could have been better for me. This was first time I was officially representing Team partypoker and I was really excited to be doing so. Since poker tournaments outside of the European Union are taxable for Finns, I decided to only play to what I perceived to be the best value tournaments; I decided to play $10,600 Main Event and $2,500 pot-limit Omaha event.
The Main Event at the Aussie Millions is no doubt one of the best tournaments in the world. It regularly attracts 800 or more players, has lots of satellite qualifiers, long levels etc. For me it was quite painful and quick tournament.
Short and Sweet Down Under
On the very first level I found a nice spot for a double up, but ended up getting knocked out. The player under the gun raised to 550 while blinds were 100/200. I called from the big blind with pocket tens. Flop was A-T-5 with two diamonds. I checked, my opponent bet 750 and I made it 2,750 and was called. At this time I was quite happy with the situation even though the board was really draw heavy. Turn was the four of hearts so now there were two flush draws on board, diamonds and hearts. I decided to bet 5,000 and got called again. The river was the two of spades.
I felt that was a decent runout for me and I think I have the winning hand more than 90 percent of the time. I decided to go all in for my last 12,000 and got snap called. My opponent instantly showed 
of diamonds for backdoor straight!
It’s a long tournament where the bubble bursts late on Day 3 so I wasn’t that sad to bust after only two hours because the city offers so much to see, plus there are lot more tournaments I can play in the future. I ended up seeing many Australian Open tennis matches and was there to watch Roger Federer take down the title yet again.
Overall, Australia was a very good trip even though I had no luck in poker. I’m hoping for better at the many upcoming huge partypoker live stops, which you can learn all about at the My partypoker Live site or via the partypoker Live page.
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