Many of you would be aware that I started playing poker at a small pub just north of Adelaide and from that moment on I was hooked. I became one of those obsessed junkies getting to every pub game I could; sometimes playing two games a night travelling over 100KM to do so. Crazy right? Perhaps, but not necessarily. I know plenty of people that for any other hobby or pursuit they do exactly the same thing. If it is enjoyable and entertaining for you and you aren’t hurting anyone or breaking any laws then I give you a big thumbs up and say “Good on You!”. But ultimately, it became apparent that many of those on the pub poker ‘circuit’ weren’t playing purely for entertainment but because they saw an opportunity to earn the big dollars that these leagues advertise. I was one of these people. I remember one of my first pub games and the TD was talking about this ‘Dream Team’ leader board. I thought to myself “How Cool would that be… ?” though I doubted that I would ever be that good to even have a chance at securing a spot. But during my time playing Pub Poker I think I did come out ahead in the long run. This was only because I was lucky, yes lucky, enough to Final Table and cash at a few of their Finals. Obviously I now realise that at this point while I thought I was unstoppable and was heading for greatness I was really still quite a massive fish!

Around this time and with the establishment of the MITH Poker brand I was able to meet a lot of key people in the industry and through these relationships and the happenings around ‘Black Friday’ I was offered a staking deal. Now initially, this was a huge ego boost even though looking at my online success or lack thereof I was in for quite a few thousand dollars.  I was never worried about being down online as I saw this as a learning ground for my ‘epic’ live career that had netted me over $30K in the previous 12 months. But this is where the transition began and I want to explain what I have done to change from being a Grizzler to a Grinder!

Approximately a year ago, my new backer sent me $$’s online, I lost it… He sent me some more, I lost it… He sent me some more, I lost it… Then the mental game kicked in. Was I any good at all? I had all the resources I needed. I had the money, the online and software tools, the support and immediate access to the knowledge from my backer and his team. He sent me some more money and yep, you guessed it, I lost it. Soon enough I was really starting to panic and was down in the vicinity of $4K at an average $11 buy in (this on top of the $3K of my own money I had lost online over the year or two since I began playing). Something had to change.

My backer recognised that I needed more than what he was giving me. And in his team I wasn’t the only one in this position. So he did a deal for a few of us to get some coaching. With this coach I was no less than blown away and mentally exhausted at the end of every session. But just with physical exercise, with mental exercise – no pain no gain right? There was one key comment that I took from this coach though that has stuck with me to this day. When giving him a rundown of my current success i.e. my live pub poker scores he quickly retorted and said “I don’t give a S…T what you’ve done live until you are profitable online you are nothing!” I agree to this for the simple fact that online is largely about mathematics. Once you learn these then transferring those skills to live is easy. Going the other direction could cause a player some serious jetlag.

Once these sessions had been completed I wasn’t exactly sure what I had learnt, I knew I was a little confused and most importantly I realised just how much of a bad player I was. It goes to show even fish can win with what I had achieved to that point. I was then offered some more coaching from another friend of my backer and he took me through 45 Turbo SnG’s on PokerStars. We did several sessions and I put in some pretty decent volume. But at the end of the day, for my backer it came to the point where there wasn’t the value for his money to stake me purely playing $7 and $15 45 men. So he decided to give me a break.

Throughout my life I have been motivated by people telling me what I can’t do and the desire to prove them wrong. This is perhaps not the best driver for ones life I agree. However, having been dropped this gave me a quick kick up the rear! I almost instantly deposited $500 online and began playing my 45 men Turbo SnG’s along with mixing in some MTT’s. Immediately, just from what I had learnt with basic game structure I began to run deeper in these tournaments and after discussions with my backer we re joined given my willingness to play MTT’s again. Some may find this strange that I was dropped because I wasn’t willing to lose my backers money. But at the end of the day I treated his money as my money and I hated having to ask for more after I had lost it. It didn’t seem fair and I knew I still wasn’t a profitable player. But ultimately, he had the faith in me and because of this I cannot talk any more highly of him or respect him any more than I do.

Then I met another coach that I just clicked with. This is the most important thing that I believe happened for my poker to this point. This coach taught me from scratch how to play 180 men Turbo SnG’s. This coupled with MTT’s and my success began to come. My -$8K graph began to turn and with a few wins, an injection of confidence and heightened motivation I was for the first time of my online career truly in the black and haven’t looked back. Well not yet anyway.

Seems simple enough right? Well essentially it is if you have the right way of approaching it. I know a lot of people see my success even though I feel I am barely scratching the surface and assume it is easy to achieve. I can tell you wholeheartedly that there is a lot of work involved.

So this blog may finally be getting to its core point.  I speak to alot of people, many are good friends, many have witnessed the turn around in my game and they often ask me how I do (did) it. My answer is below:

Step 1. The Revelation

Recognise that you are not as good as you think you are. Believe me, I still need to remind myself of this from time to time. Be willing to listen to other peoples opinions about your game and take their criticism objectively. Make the decision that you want to commit to becoming a better player. Decide to become a Grinder… Not a Grizzler!

Step 2. Make Time

Time is a key issue. You need time to play to improve and be profitable. You will need to play thousands of hands, even thousands of games, 10 games a night isn’t going to cut it. Think of a professional golfer. They take the time to hit thousands of balls at the range every week. You need to do the same. Set a schedule where you won’t be interrupted and can play. Think about your life situation and make sure you can commit to it. There is no point saying “Yep gonna get in a decent 6 hour session here!” if in the middle of it you have to pick your kids up from school, drop the car off to be serviced, cook dinner or anything else that takes you away from the game. Essentially, have your life sorted each and every time you plan to play a session. From personal experience a life partner that understands your commitment to the game is crucial and I probably don’t tell her enough how much I appreciate her for it.

Step 3. Find your niche game

As you have read above my game is focused around SNG’s (180 men Turbos) and MTT’s. But you need to find your niche. Your niche is something that in the early to mid stages of your career pays for everything you do. For example, at this point in time my career profit on PokerStars is around $25K and my niche game has provided close to $9K of this. This is why I highlight the importance of finding a game that you can consistently do well at.  I know many players that started with SnG’s be they multi or single table that they still play today to keep their bank roll ticking over. These games provide stability to your bank roll. Choose a game you enjoy and want to learn and you will always be willing to play that you ultimately run profitable in and you can rely upon for mental and financial stability. Some may choose heads up, single table SnG’s, double or nothings. Personally, I find the 45 and 180 men useful as a game to improve your MTT end game strategy to better understand push fold. A lot of people can make the money in MTT’s but they can’t see the spots that allow them to get deep into the money. These games help with this along with stability to your roll. But don’t be fooled even with these games you will experience down swings.

Step 4. Spend money to make money

You need to understand that very few people spend $100 and make $1,000,000+. Sure we all hear the stories of people that have built a roll and never deposited. But let’s face it this is few and far between. You need to understand the math of making a profit. I again take the example of my 180 SnG’s. As per Sharkscope at the time of writing over a 3,440 game sample I run at an average Return On Investment (ROI) of 25%. This means that at an average $8 180 man buy in for me to make $5,000 profit I will need to play 1,875 games which would cost $15,000 thus returning $20,000. This is where you can see it is a volume game. I hear a lot of my friends complain (Grizzle) about a bad beat here and there and they don’t understand that in order to beat this pure and simple fact of variance how much they actually need to play (refers back to step 2) and how much it will actually cost them.

Further to the actual amount you will need to buy in for, the above assumes you would run at an avg ROI of 25%. How do you achieve this? You need to spend money once again. My best advice would be to spend it on a coach, not training sites, not poker books; a coach is where the best value is. I was lucky that some of my initial coaching was paid for, but ultimately I spent a significant amount of my own money on coaching in 180′s. And I still give up some of my profits for coaching today. There are a lot of ways to do this of course. Some coaches offer a ‘no profit – no fee’ and you can often find these in various forum coaches sections such as the one at PocketFives. Even if you are paying for it this doesn’t need to be expensive. While some of the best accessible Aussie coaches charge in excess of $300 per hour some solid ones charge as little as $25. As you have read I have already had several coaches through my career and as your game progress as will your relationship with your coache(s). You don’t need a $300 coach to master your niche game. However, I cannot stress how important it is to have a coach or someone better than you that you can discuss hands and situations with. This is not the only way but it certainly is the quickest way to learn.

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Is this it? Is this all you need to know? Of course not! This is just a few things that I have learnt from my experience that I have put to you to consider. If you really want to learn the game and be profitable at it they are the key things I suggest that will help you get there. If you are not doing this and complaining about not being profitable or bad beats then you are just a Grizzler and not a Grinder! And nobody likes a Grizzler – believe me, I’ve been there!

It’s been far too long between drinks and it’s been an eye opening experience for me since my last blog. At the end of the day I’ve come to the realisation that MITH Poker as a clothing label just isn’t going to be successful, short of me winning the WSOP Main Event which is unlikely to happen. Therefore, in recent weeks I’ve been thinking about what I should do with this resource that has been sitting stagnant for over half a year? Do I just shut it down and save the hosting fees?

After discussion with a few people and close internal investigation and consideration I have decided that at the end of the day selling and promoting poker clothing isn’t what I want to do. What I want to do is become a full time poker player. I have a love and a passion for the game coupled with what some may say is an unhealthy demand for knowledge of the game and all that surrounds it.

So as a way of therapy this site will become quite a simple frame work to blog and express my opinions and keep people updated on what is happening in my life. I am still fairly new to this and therefore, I am going to have to take some leads from some of the best poker bloggers in the world if I am to be successful.

So keep an eye out for the changes to the site happening over the next few months and I am sure I’ll be in touch again soon.

Matt “in the hat” Moate

Dear MITHsters,

Many of you have been following the Jacky Wang saga that was the decision by NPL’s TD to incorrectly declare this players hand dead in the NPL FTP 500II last weekend (see our previous blog). As most of you have seen I have been actively lobbying (through this blog, PNW forum, Facebook, media contacts and through direct contact with the company itself) for NPL to take responsibility for their incompetence in both the initial decision and the after effects.

Throughout the week, this lobbying resulted in me speaking with both NPL SA Management and Richard O’Neill from NPL Head Office. Although they wouldn’t discuss the situation in detail with me believing that it was inappropriate to do so, they did suggest that in their message posted that the matter had been ‘positively resolved’ and insinuated in conversations that Jacky had been adequately compensated yet would never confirm or deny this… Weird!

Today, we were all able to see perhaps the most important side of the story which was that from the victim himself; Jacky Wang on his blog. If you haven’t read it then perhaps take the time to do so as it is an interesting read. I personally think it is far too kind and almost relays a sense of defeat. Clearly, Jacky accepted a REFUND (note the difference between the word refund and compensation) from NPL at the time of the incident and in NPL’s eyes this is their ‘positive resolution’. I leave you to decide if you would feel this is appropriate compensation being chip leader with approximately 7% of chips in play and only approx 30 people away from possibly winning 250K in cash and prizes?

Clearly, Jacky’s post reflects the character and person that he is; a complete gentlemen. Yet, is there a sense of being whitewashed in his comments such as “It is not that I don’t want to fight for more, it’s just that there is not much more to fight for.” As he said in his post at the end of the day it was NPL’s decision to offer whatever they felt appropriate to resolve the matter. Was it a negotiation? Should you just be happy with whatever is offered? Does any offer constitute a ‘positive resolution’?

So as for NPL are concerned the matter is over with only this meagre refund offered. Talk about losing the minimum. GG WP NPL!

Jacky is a good mate and one of the main reasons that I took up this battle, not to gain personal or brand public notoriety as one NPL representative suggested during the week on my face book. Believe me, I could think of many other more enjoyable and simpler ways to achieve this if this was my intention. And I can assure you that it wouldn’t have mattered which league or operator that was involved in this incident I would have taken the same approach. But in the end, this situation doesn’t end with Jacky Wang. He is what I would consider to be a catalyst  for greater change and to make sure this doesn’t happen again to another player… to make sure it doesn’t happen to you or me.

In all the discussions, debates and deliberations that I have seen on this matter over the past week there has been little talk about why and how this could of happened in the first place and what is being done to resolve and ensure this doesn’t happen in the future. Sure, Richard from NPL has told me “it won’t happen again” yet couldn’t actually tell me why it wouldn’t. What was NPL doing to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

Now, throughout this matter I haven’t discussed much about NPL’s competitors. But I think NPL should actually take a close look at what their two main competitors are doing. I have played in the last two 888PL Grand Finals and also participated in the APLPT held at the end of last year. These ‘finals / major tournaments’ had significant prize pools and coincidentally were also held at Crown Poker Room. Now there’s an idea… I wonder what could be the benefit of this.

I think there are some great advantages by doing this. NPL spruiked itself that the NPL FTP 500II gave their “players the chance to experience big time poker tournaments and so gain the necessary experience to compete at the highest level.” Now wouldn’t you think that by holding the tournament under Casino conditions and at a Casino would actually add to achieving this objective. I mean do they hold the Aussie Millions at the local pub?

Of course, the other outcome would be that the likely hood of such a poor decision being made again would be far less and obviously would be handled far more professionally. For example it would allow the player to see the rules and not be threatened with ejection completely from the tournament for requesting so as I believe was the situation in the Wang incident. It may also be in the best commercial interest of NPL to ensure that they don’t suffer a financial loss (as advised by Richard O’Neill in a phone call earlier this week) by independently running this tournament. I am sure the booking / registration / admin fee already deducted from tickets would surely be a sufficient rake for any Casino to manage the tournament on NPL’s behalf.

If NPL isn’t going to look at moving future major tournaments to a Casino then I would like to know what they plan to do to assure players that the TD won’t make similar bad decisions in the future. Are all of their tournament directors undergoing re training? I ask this as clearly it was advised that the TD that officiated over the Wang incident was/is one of their most qualified staff members. Therefore, if someone with such experience can make this error there must be others that are at far greater risk of doing the same. And really, should it matter the stakes at which these bad decisions are made? By no way am I suggesting that all NPL staff and TD’s perform inadequately. I am just saying that there is a potential of more bad decisions to occure and perhaps across the board there should be some form of accredited training program available for TD’s for the good of the whole industry. And if all TD’s worked under the same rule book which is easily available from the Tournament Directors Association / FIDPA then it might make it a little more unified for officials and players.

All this said… Have I made all too much of this? Should I have even bothered? At the end of the day I am sure that NPL would agree that they are offering poker as a product for entertainment to whoever wants to offer it at their venue. Are they about running it as a truly professional poker league or is it just run for a bit of fun and we should just expect and roll with these situations? If so, I guess Jacky got exactly what he expected – a couple of days of entertainment! He even got his ticket refunded! MBN!

Hello MITHSter’s,

It’s been a while since our last blog update and so much has happened in this time. I wanted to write about Black Friday and everything else going on… But in the end I thought that this issue was being appropriately covered. Don’t get me wrong, I am an active online player and I don’t want to lose the ability to play online. But in the end it is my opinion that until we get an equivalent of a Poker Players Alliance (PPA) like the USA; Aussie Players won’t be heard by those making the decisions. The only bodies that will be heard will be the various organised Religious and Anti Gambling lobby. I leave you to ponder if you would be willing to pay a fee to be a member of an Australian PPA that fights for your rights as a poker player!! From my understanding most say “no”. Therefore, there isn’t much else we can do I suspect. I will reserve this topic for a future blog. However, a PPA could have some further merit for consideration based on my below thoughts.

So, why am I blogging today you may ask? Well the reason is that recently I began playing with a group of players each supporting each other in various ways be it financially, through coaching or just general support and discussion. As part of this one of the players in the group being Jacky Wang kindly offered to support MITH and wear our patches at live events. He proudly represented MITH at the recent APLPT at Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast and most recently he was keen to make a deep run in the NPL FTP 500 in Sydney.

Who said something about a deep run? Well that’s what Jacky was headed for. He was well into day 2 of the NPL FTP 500 in a good spot when he received possibly the worse ruling I’ve ever seen or heard of being handed down in a pot which would have given him the chip lead in the tournament. As originally posted on AshtonCartwright.com, Jacky was well ahead with 77 vs AT on a K766 board when he planned to put his opponent all in. He asked his opponent how many chips he had, who responded by advising Jacky he had 50K. Jacky made the bet of 50K chips which is when his opponent announced “call” while also physically pushing all of his stack into the middle. Jacky assuming it was an All In situation then tabled his cards at which point his opponent then advised that he had 2.5K chips over the 50K bet and therefore suggested Jacky’s hand be mucked (on some angle shooting grounds)… The Tournament Director was called over and ruled in the favour of the villain and declared Jacky’s hand dead awarding the pot to the villain. No other penalty was applied to Jacky. Soon after this crippling decision Jacky was eliminated from the tournament.

As soon as I found out about this I was hot to trot and spoke to several people in the industry who all agreed that this was a terrible, disgusting and abhorrent decision. And upon further investigation it even contravened the tournament operators (National Poker Leagues) own rule #27 whereby the hand would be played and any penalties for opening cards while action was pending would be enforced at the completion of the hand.

So what now? Jacky, being the gentleman that he is has kept, unlike me, relatively quiet about the situation. But should he? This decision could have resulted in a life changing result for him. We can only hope that NPL, the sponsors and other stake holders in the event realise the damage that this has already done and could potentially do not only to their brand but the whole pub poker industry in general. If this can happen to Jacky then this can also happen to YOU as a player.

While I am sure Jacky, given his dedication and willingness to learn the game will have many more opportunities in the future for great success, it is still a devastating position to find oneself in. For those that are NPL regulars I would urge you to raise this issue with your local NPL representative and make them aware of your feelings towards this situation, be they positive or negative. As discussed earlier, we have no overriding body to mediate these issues and therefore, it is up to us as individuals to look after our fellow players to ensure our game remains fair and equitable for all.

Obviously, there are two sides to every story and for good order sake I have had several phone conversations with NPL South Australia Management (given that I am based here in SA and know them the best) over the past few days. They have suggested that after discussions with their head office they have been informed that “Jacky had already been warned / penalised twice previously” for similar infractions and that the incident “isn’t as bad as it has been made out to be”. Sounds rather nonchalant if you ask me… I asked if NPL plan to make an official public announcement on the matter and at this stage it appears not to be forthcoming. I have since checked with Jacky regarding any previous warnings or penalties and he vehemently denies such allegations. I would be keen to hear from any players at the event that can verify the pervious warnings / penalties handed to Jacky during the event, even though this doesn’t change the fact that the ruling was incorrect. I would also welcome contact (info@mithpoker.com.au) from any other ranking NPL representative who may be able to clarify or advise a positive outcome on this matter, not only for Jacky but for all of our piece of mind the next time we step into an NPL venue!

Feel free to post on our Facebook Wall or e-mail Richard O’Neil at NPL directly (richard@npl.com.au) any comments you have in relation to this situation so we can demonstrate to NPL our concerns with this matter and they can consider their response (which still at the time of writing this blog some days after the event hasn’t been made – maybe we don’t deserve a response?). In the end I leave it with you, the playing public, to consider and make comment on and to vote with your membership cards for the sake of our game… Where’s your next game?

Well it’s been a seriously long time without an update and so much has been going on. Poker is everywhere and can be all consuming… I remember my brief career showing Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and remember the late nights bathing dogs, early starts and long drives to shows. I remember the social aspect, the bitchiness between exhibitors, the clicks, the losses and the wins… In all honesty, how different is the poker world?

Well, besides the non bathing of dogs (only to de tilt!) I think it can be pretty similar. I haven’t been a part of many other ‘sporting clubs’ during my life but certainly I can see the similarities between dog shows and poker. I still have a Cavalier (Dizzy – AKA Aust Champion Coloora Sweet But Sassy) who is now living with us in retirement. She now is the one, along with my partner Katharine who has to put up with my “Are you serious?” and other expletives as I grind away online of an evening.

But in the wider poker world, perhaps more in the live arena you see and hear very similar situations / conversations. I’ve been known to fall into the same trap. But I am starting to realise that in order to get the most out of your poker community and poker experience it’s best to go with the flow… Sit back and see where the journey takes you. There’s no need to get involved in the petty side angst.

An example of this was the recent 888PL Grand Final held at Crown Poker Room earlier this month. We had a great time, working with our competitors at Mistress Poker and Pokergear.com.au. While none of us sold mountains of apparel, mainly due to short breaks and positioning it was a great exercise to work together for our mutual success. We look forward to future opportunities to work together. All three brands offer very different approaches to Poker Apparel and we can across these brands satisfy the desires of any poker player…

Our joint longest lasting at this event where players bought apparel to have a chance at this comp saw Tony (one chip) Bickle win himself a Melbourne Champs seat and also finish a respectable 6th place.

It was also a great weekend to meet all the new league players, especially those rowdy Queenslanders! What a rail on the final table.

Myself personally qualified for the GF through the weekly $5 low stakes satellite on 888.com and had a very bad read on a player that turned a higher flush and I was out. I put him on an Ace with two on the board. I also played and donated at a number of side tournaments throughout the weekend. It took some convincing, well three hands, sitting down with my MITH clothing on at the 7 card stud hi/lo / NLHE tournament to let them know I had no idea what I was doing in the stud rounds. But it was a great experience to finally play this live.

So overall, a great weekend, with some great people. It is truly a great weekend and I have to pass out a massive congrats to Carmine De Sciscio for finishing 2nd. Carmine and I have had our battles on the felt over the years and to see him earn the cash was truly an enjoyable experience. Think what he might have achieved if he had some MITH apparel for the run good And again, it was great to work together with 888PL, Mistress and Pokergear and be  a part of such a successful event.

So over to the virtual felt I have to admit that I play a number of sites. I have accounts with Pokerstars, Fulltilt, Feltstars, 888.com and Blackbelt poker. But my recent advance has been with a new room on the Everleaf network called Raiseandfold.  I’ve found this site to be a great area to build your roll through Micro Stakes cash and various Tournaments. The best part though is getting 40% rake back paid up every Tuesday. TJ, the room manager also takes a very personal approach to his players. We have recently launched a RnF Pro Series personalised shirt also. TJ is even putting 5 of these up for grabs just by depositing $50 this month… Only a few days left. These are limited edition shirts and personalised with your name / online name (up to 13 characters). This is another example of working together to provide a better experience for the poker playing public and we are proud to work with RnF and any other poker room that wants to offer exclusive MITH Apparel to their players.

Further on, the pub poker scene appears that it will be expanding in the next few days with the introduction of WSOP Australia. Very little is known about this new league but there appears to be some decent prizes on offer including WSOP ME seats. So we’ll all need to keep a close eye out on Facebook and similar to find out more. It will be interesting to see what affect this new league has on the dynamics of the pub poker industry!

My final words?… Poker is a lifestyle choice… Make the most of it… Forget the pettiness, wanting to break your opponents / competitors… Just build yourself and success will follow!

Many of you will have seen the recent news regarding the arrest of David Saab and Robert Remeeus during the Aussie Millions as featured here by Pokernews Daily.com.

The team at MITH Poker and the other members of The SAAB Squad were shocked and are still in a state of disbelief at this news. This particularly hit hard at MITH Poker and the remaining members of The SAAB Squad given the recent success and interest generated at Aussie Millions and after only just recently entering into an agreement for MITH to supply the Squad’s apparel. Significant time and effort was put in to create the look of the Squad and MITH Poker was over the moon with the opportunity and response.

It appears that it will be a few months until we hear more news regarding the fate of David and Robert. In the meantime the show must go on and therefore, we thought we would at least share some of our experiences of the recent visit to the Aussie Millions before this story broke.

I arrived in Melbourne on late Friday and I was on my way to Crown. I had been to Crown on a few occasions but still wasn’t sure what to expect. What would the biggest poker tournament in the southern hemisphere be like? Well all I can say was over the 3 days I was there I was absolutely blown away by the professionalism of Crown, standards of play I witnessed, levels of games being played, by all the people I met and the support MITH received.

I was lucky enough on the Friday night to attend the players welcome party that had a number of the top international professionals in attendance. It was quite an experience. Everywhere you turned there was someone I wanted to meet. I felt like a small child in a candy store. I was pleased to meet Tony G, Joe and Tony Hachem, Chris Ferguson, James Akenhead and many more. We were even able to take some photos with them that we will add to our Facebook group soon.

Following on from that on the Saturday I delved into my pockets and placed $200 down on a $2/$3 cash table. I was taking a true grind approach and had successfully built my stack up to $600. I was lucky with a couple of hands that got me there including a limp call pre, check call flop and check raise turn with 5 high getting my opponent to begrudgingly fold in one hand and got all my chips in on the flop with the second nut flush draw that hit the turn. My opponent flashed QQ’s…

But my most memorable hand that I played in this session was when I had JJ in middle position. UTG +1 opened for $12 and I flatted. I flatted for two reasons, I wanted to keep any possible 3 bet or 4 bet reasonable and also I don’t want to give away the strength of my hand. Suffice to say there is one caller behind me and the small blind calls and the big blind folds. The flop reveals J64 rainbow and the initial thought that runs through my head is “How do I get paid?”. But that worry is soon gone when the small blind leads the flop for $20 and the initial raiser flats. With around $600 in front of me and $91 in the pot already I raised it up to $100. The guy behind me then goes into the tank and eventually announces “all in” for $480. The small blind mutters some expletives and folds as does the initial raiser. I say “I have to call I have top set”. I push my chips into the middle and table my JJ. My opponent slumps in his chair for a split second until the dealer reveals a 7 on the turn at which point he proudly tables his 53o for the straight. I am not lucky enough to have the board repeat on the river with a 5 dropping. I don’t play a lot of cash and while this may not seem to be huge for some this was actually the biggest cash pot I’d played to that point. I think the pro’s call it variance. I hand my chips over with the obligatory “Nice Hand”…

On Sunday I was pleased to watch some of the Day 1 Flight A main event and see some quality poker before playing teams event with Brett Daphne; a regular at Crown. We were doing okay, though I thought the 20 minute blinds restricted the amount of hands played per level. In any case we were able to reach $15K from the $6K start stack and then had some close hands that eventually ended our tournament at the 150/300 level. These events are great fun and we look forward to our next team’s event at the ANZPT Adelaide series at SkyCity Poker Zone.

Overall, the response from those that we met at the Aussie Millions was great for MITH Poker. Everyone was interested in the shirts, what MITH Poker is and we made some great contacts that we hope we can work with in the future. I look forward to receiving everyone’s ongoing support and offer my support to all those affected by the news surrounding David and Rob.

This is a very quick post given that it’s 1:17am and I still haven’t packed for my quick visit to Crown for the Aussie Millions. But the reason is still important. As you know, we are the official apparel supplier for The SAAB Squad and you now have the opportunity to own your own limited edition shirt that will help support the team through their campaign across the globe…

Click here and check out the shirt! No FPP’s required Just quality apparel for the discerning poker player. Currently only male version available but ladies we will soon also have it available in our 3/4 Length Sleeve option!

Thanks for your support and for those that are at Aussie Millions already I look forward to seeing you tomorrow… Or should I say, later today!

Well it’s that time of year and MITH Poker has taken some giant leaps in the past few weeks. We’re delighted to have recently reached agreement with David Saab and The SAAB Squad who have begun their Assault on Aussie Millions and we are the official apparel supplier to this awesome bunch of Aussie players. The SAAB Squad have already began their assault on the Aussie Millions with over AUD 90K profit in the first few days from cash and various satellite seats. Follow the teams progress currently on their Facebook Fan Page linked earlier and later we will be running a monthly blog right here for them on MITH Poker. From Aussie Millions to EPT to the WSOP you’ll be kept up to date with their progress!

We’re also pleased to have Mark Segal from the UK down here and he’s out there with his MITH patches on show. Mark bubbled the cash in event 1, finished 3rd in event 2 and as I write this he’s heading for another cash in the PLO Event 3.

We’re also happy to have Jake The Moose agreeing to wear our apparel during his Aussie Millions campaign… I sat next to Jake for the most part of Day 1 of Adelaide Champs Main Event last year at SkyCity Poker Zone and he was one of the most enjoyable players I had the experience to play with over that event. It’s a true pleasure to have him on board for this series.

But back to The SAAB Squad, the response we’ve had on the shirts that David has been wearing around the place has been phenomenal. That’s great to see… but we have one small favor to ask… Can anyone approaching David at Aussie Millions be conscious of his broken arm… People keep tugging on it… PAINFUL!

Based on the interest of the shirt, The SAAB Squad ‘Pro Series’ shirt will be available shortly… I will be at Crown Poker Room on the 21st – 23rd January and I will have the first of these shirts on my back… We will then soon have them available at our shopping cart… There may even be some special offer / promotion attached to it. So keep visiting our competitions page to make sure you don’t miss that opportunity!

We’re again happy to have our friends at Pro Poker Patches supply The SAAB Squad patches. We hope these will be available within the week also. So keep your eyes out for those.

We are also pleased to announce that we have come up with a rake back deal with Raise and Fold poker room. I’ve played it a bit and while they are building their Australian player base through their affiliation with the recently launched No Limit Australia group,  the site is still small. However, they do offer some decent micro stakes tournaments and the cash tables can be quite profitable.  Sign up today by clicking here and receive 40% rake back…

See you all down at Crown and hope we can get some great results from all of the MITH Poker supporters. Feel free to post your success at AM or any other event on our Facebook group wall and a photo of yourself in your MITH apparel to go with your post would be even better! You may even make our next You Tube video!

Dear MITHsters,

Well it’s been a long time coming and some glitches along the way but tonight we will be finding out who the winner of our poker table will be. Unfortunately, while we wanted people to vote for the winner so this was a prize people could win ‘off the felt’ there was too many possible multiple votes received for a number of the entrants that we end at this result.

Possibly we didn’t set up the system right or didn’t make it clear enough on the rules being 1 person 1 vote. This left us with two options to decide the winner. One option was to go to the suppliers of the table and ask them to pick a winner. However, we thought that to remove any possible thoughts of favoritism and possible back lash that we let those that made an effort fight it out on the virtual felt

As such, we negotiated with the various entrants and put $5.50 into each of their Pokerstars account and established a private tournament where they could play off for the table. So the date is set, tonight (16th December) at 7pm AEST you can rail the game by searching out Tournament # 340170368. Given that this is a buy in event the winners will also receive some cash for their efforts… just a small added bonus from the team here at MITH.

We wish all of the entrants the best of luck and we look forward to sending the table to the ultimate winner…

Moving forward from that we’ve had several requests to offer some online games having set up this online tournament for the table. We’re looking into it and the best way to structure it. We’ll be in touch on that soon.

In the new year we look forward to our next promotion and getting the details to everyone.

Since our last blog we’ve again had some good representation for MITH about the place. Several people were keen to wear  their MITH gear out and about at both the APL Poker Tour and the following week at the Joe Hachem Deepstack Series 5 at Crown Poker Room. I myself was overjoyed with a 6th place finish in the APL Poker Tour and it was great to see Chris Whiting make a deepish run just missing the cash at the JHDSS Main Event.

We were also really impressed and excited to see the amount of people that shared our MITH You Tube videos on their Facebook profile. All of you should have received your free MITH Patch by now and be wearing it out and about. Thanks to Pro Poker Patches for doing us a great deal on these quality patches. The feedback we have received has been fantastic.

Recently, on our shopping cart we’ve also added some ‘Kit Me Out’ Deals at only $120 for both men’s and ladies which saves you over 20% and gives you everything you need to hit the tables with confidence and flair!

Following on we now regret to inform our members that we are no longer being represented by Yann Pauchon. We wish Yann the very best in his future endeavors but felt that it was best to part company given his commitments with various other business opportunities.

Lastly, with the festive season upon us we hope that all of you have a wonderful and safe time with your family celebrating Xmas and New Years.

May the MITH be with you on and off the felt…

Seasons Greetings!

Matt Moate

Hello MITHsters!

Well it’s been a while coming but we’re finally there. We’re very excited to be launching the MITH Poker Website and giving you all the opportunity to see what we’ve been up to these past few months. A lot of hard work has gone into our initial pages and we look forward to adding to both our range of apparel along with further building the website.

We’ve also been out and about. You can find some photos from our supporters in our “MITH  Poker Out and About” album on our Facebook group, along with a video on You Tube.

We’ve had some good representation on the felt with some results from members including picking up APL Poker Tour Tickets, Final Tabling at the 888PL Grand Final, Sky City Adelaide Ladies Tournament Win, Adelaide Champs Final Tabling in Teams Event and quite a few wins from members on the various pub league circuits.

While it’s been a long time promised, our photo comp is well underway and we’ve recieved some great entries already. We’re closing entries on Sunday 28th November 2010 (Midnight EST) so you still have time to get your MITH apparel and submit your photo. But be QUICK, as for those that have promptly fired their entry in voting has already begun. So head to our competitions page and make sure you cast a vote for your favourite photo. But wait there’s more!… Just for voting you’ll also go into the draw to win 50% off your next MITH purchase. Voting is open until the 5th December 2010 (Midnight EST) and only one vote per member is allowed. So choose wisely!

We’ve also had Yann Pauchon, Aussie based Poker Pro and MITH ambassador, in and out of Adelaide helping us out while working on other committments he has on and off the felt. Yann continues to be a great supporter of MITH and we look forward to working with him further. He is in a great position having recently signed with FeltStars as a sponsored pro and is battling it out on the Pokernetwork leaderboard for player of the year. I am sure Yann will update us all on his happenings through his blog!

So it’s here, have a browse and let us know what you think. This site is here for you and we want it to be something that you regularly come back to… How can we make it better? What do you want?