Takin' it Down Under

Over the past seven years, I have traveled to a total of 25 different countries. Most of these trips have had something to do with poker in one way or the other, whether I was traveling for a poker tournament or was just traveling and happened to play some poker. I have been fortunate to visit places like Italy, France, and England, and have seen amazing places like India, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Of all the places I have visited, there is one that remains my absolute favorite – Australia.

I traveled to Melbourne, Australia, for the first time in 1999 for the second annual Australasian Poker Championship. At the time, this tournament was relatively unknown in the United States, but was becoming popular with the players in Australia. I traveled with a group of 12 other players that included Tom McEvoy and Adam Hayman.

The poker tournament was held in the poker room of the Crown Casino, which is located in what is called the Crown Entertainment Complex. This complex includes the Crown Towers, which is a five-star hotel, and an exceptional one, at that! I stayed in the Crown Towers, and I can honestly say that I would have been happy never leaving the hotel room, it was that nice. The entire complex is a reason in itself to visit Melbourne, but there is also a whole lot more.

While in Melbourne, I did more tourist stuff than I have done in any other country. Melbourne is a very cultural city, and I often found myself rushing to see something before I had to make it back for a tournament. I visited the Melbourne Zoo, the Rialto Towers, and Federation Square, and even rented a car and drove on the wrong side of the street! But the greatest thing about Australia is the people. There is not a nicer bunch anywhere in the whole world.

In case you hadn't noticed by now, I really liked Australia. And did I mention there was a poker tournament going on, also?

The 2004 Crown Australasian Poker Championship is slated to be bigger than ever. There will be tournaments ranging from $100 buy-ins to the main event, which will be the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship. They are expecting the main event prize pool to exceed $2 million! All of these amounts are, of course, in Australian dollars, so we Americans get a 50 percent discount (not really). The live games spread in Australia are for the most part the same as in the United States: hold'em, Omaha, and stud. The tournaments also include these same games, so there is no "new" form of poker that has to be learned to compete.

In 1999 I was lucky to not only make the money in the final event, but to have 30 percent of the eventual second-place finisher (Adam Hayman), so Australia and, more specifically, this tournament have been great to me.

Crown Casino personnel have made it easy to set up all arrangements for Americans wanting to go to Australia for the tournament. They are great at putting things together and helping you be a tourist. The best place to get information is at http://www.auspoker.com/. You can of course e-mail me with any questions, as well.

As a side note, during our trip to Australia in 1999, we were also able to travel to New Zealand. While we were there, Christchurch Casino, which is located in Christchurch, New Zealand, hosted the USA vs. The World poker tournament. This tournament was won by Adam Hayman from the United States, but what really made the trip enjoyable was watching my girlfriend, Deanna Giardina, knock Tom McEvoy out of the tournament. Tom was the first one out, and Deanna had never played poker prior to this trip!

Here's hoping to see many of you down under next year.

Editor's note: Michael O'Malley can usually be found playing online at partypoker.com as Rzitup. To learn more about him, go to www.rzitup.com.