Aussie Millions

Fox Sports Television will begin coverage of the 2008 Aussie Millions tournament next month. The Aussie Millions cash game with a $100,000 entry stack by each player will begin airing on Fox Sports Saturday March 23rd. Times will vary on different cable providers with all Fox Sports programming.

There will be four one hour episodes of the Big Cash Game at Aussie Millions. This year's cash game included: Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Tony G., Tom Dwan, Brian Townsend, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer and John Juanda. The Aussie Millions main event tournament will follow the four weeks of cash game coverage.

I like bizarre stories and I like bizarre poker stories even more. This one comes from the Seattle Post Intelligence newspaper and I first have to congratulate the reporter from Seattle who somehow got himself a gig going to Melbourne, Australia for the Aussie Millions tournament. While he was down there, he landed an interview with Annie Duke about how poker and child rearing are similar. You know just like all those other well reasoned poker analogies and metaphors: Investing and Poker; Dating and Poker; Global Warming and Poker; Embezzlement and Poker.

Here are some tasty excerpts:

Duke rarely goes all in with her kids. She says too many parents go all in by resorting to the ultimate punishment too quickly. 'If you don't stop biting your sister we are not going to Disneyland' is essentially going all in. You will either lose big or win big on the threat, and that means it is not usually a good move. The kid might be holding pocket aces or the hot-line number for Child Welfare.

Question: Honestly, what can you learn about parenting sitting across from a bunch of sleep deprived, loudly dressed men in ugly hats?

"One thing you learn is that you don't want your children to turn out like them."

Didn't Doyle say that about fifteen years ago?

Question: Are there any parallels to the check-raise in parenting?

"Check-raising is a way you let people know what you have. You certainly do this with your kid sometimes."

OK, I have no idea what that means but I think it is something like when my dad would look at me and say: 'Either do what I say or sleep somewhere else.'

Question: Do you take your kids into the casinos with you?

"No."

OK, so maybe getting the trip to Australia was not the best move this guy made. The few dollars to buy the book: "How Not to Ask Really Stupid Interview Questions" would have been a better career investment.

Annie did disclose she is writing two books right now. We can only hope she actually edits them this time around, as opposed to her previous ventures into the world of writing. Gee, maybe one of the books will be: What I Learned About Writing While Playing Poker. Chapter One: Not Everyone is a Poker Player or a Writer!