The Treasury (May 4-6)

Coming back from my sailing trip I received another refusal from couchsurfing. So I booked some more nights at the YHA where I met three English guys from Cambridge. They were pretty funny and easy going. One of them was interested in learning how to solve a Rubics Cube and so I sat down with him and explained the algorythms to him. They stayed in Brisbane and went to another theme park on the Gold Cost each day. Not sure why they didnt book a dorm down there.

Steward is still in that YHA and this time I got to take a picture of him. He is a real germ.

Steward

Having seen a Casino (called The Treasury) on my trips around town I was finally dressed properly enough to enter. It was a rainy day and so I wore long pants and no sandals. Still I had to get rid of my backpack and so I had to put it in a special locker that costed me $5 for 5 hours. Actually didnt intend to spend that much time in the casino but I decided to have a go anyway. The gaming area is hughe compared to the casinos I have visited so far in Germany and Austria. I guess you could easily fit all the tables and slotmachines from Salzburg at least 10 times into the casino here.

After some time I have also found the poker area where there was a 1/2 and a 2/5 cashgame running. Looking at the shorter waiting list I decided to play 1/2 but you still needed to wait for about an hour. You give the gentleman at the poker reception your mobile phone number and then you have 5 minutes to claim your seat once you receive a text message informing you of an open seat. While I waited for my seat I strolled around the table room and decided to donate $20 to the state of queensland by losing eight consecutive bets in roulette. "Nice start" I said to myself but "maybe today it is more of a slot machine day". I figured I had another 30 minutes to kill and so I wanted to play as low as possible. Having found the 1c machines I inserted $10 and gave it a shot. For some strange reason I won $18 and this was the first time since 1993 (yep, that number is correct, double checked it ;-) that I won anything in slots.

Meanwhile I got texted and so I claimed my seat at the poker table. I played rather tight and thought I should have a look at how things roll Down under first.

After a raise to 6 BB and 3 coldcallers I decided to play my 33 and hit a set on the flop. Initial raiser bet $30 into a $60 pot and was called immediately by some random coldcaller. I popped it to $100 but didnt find any customer. After raking $10 of MY pot the dealer pushed a nice profit of round about $100 towards me. I stayed for another 30 minutes but didnt get any hands to play. Then after some time I overlimped QTs and my top pair got min-checkraised to $20 on the flop. Me and the guy checked it down to the river and he flashed a better queen.

So my profit was down to $80 and thats when I decided to quit. Was quite a nice experience and I am already looking forward to Crowns in Melburn (thats were the Aussie Millions take place every year).

Apart from that I have received now my third refusal from couchsurfing. Not sure what I am doing wrong, I really would like to make this experience.

Also I have received my tax file number and from now on I am eligible to work here in Australia.

Cliffnotes:

Pic of Steward

Casino in Brisbane

TFN arrived