Holidays ... busy, busy

Well with the school term almost at an end (YAY for holidays), I thought it might be time for a long-overdue blog update ... particularly with so much planned for the 'break'.

One aspect I am really finding difficult with teaching is finding the time (or should that be time AND motivation) to mark much of the work that students have done in my classes ... mostly becuase being an English/Humanities teacher means that a majority of the work is assignment-based ... which means LOTS of reading ... and often reading responses about the same topic, or that are very similar ... great if you need to sleep, but not so good if you need to do it as part of your job. Maybe I should teach maths ... there's essentially only 4 things to know (addition, subtraction, multiplication & division) & marking is mostly just a simple tick or cross ... so much quicker!

As for the holiday plans, there's poker, travel, chess, more travel & more poker ... oh, and possibly some marking too!

The first stop in the holidays is Sydney ... which means catching up with friends & poker. A mate of mine is having quite a bit of success with Omaha 'chip-chop' tournaments of late ... and he's no Omaha player, which could make them good games to play in! Add to that the horrible standard of play at Star City & it should be a good way to make some money in the break.

The next stop on the trip is Brisbane ... albeit most likely a brief stop. Having said that, it could be good to drop in to Treasury Casino for a few hours. If the standard of play is anything like the Gold Coast, then it makes Sydney players look like experts!! The Brisbane stop is mostly as a transit point for the next part of the travels during the break ...

Third stop ... Honiara, Solomon Islands! I'm playing in a chess tournament (yes, I still do that occasionally) & you can follow my progress on the Solomon Islands Invitational website. This is a tournament that my friend Gary Bekker organised & it seemed like a good opportunity to travel overseas, see a bit more of the world & play some chess. Not sure what services like internet access will be like over there, but I imagine at the very least there will be some photos & stories from the trip ...

Fourth stop ... Brisbane ... again. Yes, this time it really is just a transit stop, with my time in town (or at least the airport) being only a few hours.

Fifth stop ... Melbourne! That means PokerNews Cup! The chess tournament means that I'll miss out on a few events that I would otherwise have played (mostly the opening NLH event & the PLO event). However the one I am most disappointed about having to miss is the Live v Online Invitational! I was invited to be a part of the Live team as I was ranked in the top 30 in Pokernetwork's Leaderboard to play against Online players from Pocket 5s Rankings. The plan is to have teams of 16 playing against each other over 2 days. The first day is a 32-player heads-up tournament & the second day is a shootout tournament (4 tables of 8 with top 2 from each progressing to final table). Sounds like it could be fun ... and VERY tough!

As for the PokerNews Cup itself, the only event that I will definitely be playing in is the $550 6-max NLH event. Crown have FINALLY scheduled a major tournament to co-incide with the school holidays ... and of course its the one time I have to miss half of it (PLUS THEY HAVE NO HORSE TOURNEY!!). Other events that I might play in depending on time & money include the Tony G bounty event, the Main event, the Terminator event & possibly the teams event.

Wish me luck!!