Very cool. Yes, I have a background in poker. I used to play at Crown in Melbourne every day, if you know it. I was semi-pro for a while, I guess you could say, playing low stakes cash games $2/$3.
That's interesting that your nerves settled down once you were getting closer to winning even more. But I suppose at that stage, it was difficult for you to contemplate what winning a million dollars even meant.
Yup I know the Crown. They run the Aussie Millions tournament series every January. Lots of players like to go down, play in the series, then watch the Australian Open. I've somehow never made it out, but if there was one distant spot I'd go for a tournament it would be there.
There's decent money to be made at 2/3, but the rake is generally ridiculous. Still beats private games, but there is incentive to try and move up stakes quickly to avoid the rake traps.
I tended to have better success at the private games, where the rake was lower. There are pros at that level, but there are also egos, and drama queens, tilt addicts, super nits... And even the pros make bizarre mistakes which you wouldn't expect.
Melbourne is a great town. Next time an opportunity comes up, definitely take it, go to the restaurants, the theatres, the art galleries, the street art especially. It's amazing.
Now I live in Guadalajara, Mexico. I've been living here for a couple of years, but I still haven't checked out the casinos here
can't reply to other comment, reached maximum depth level already. but interesting that the private games have lower rake there. In America, lots of times when you play a private game it's uncapped rake. The players are usually much worse, but it's still hard for many people to overcome playing 5k pots where they sometimes take out hundreds of dollars. Small stakes in a casino is rough too since not many pots exceed the rake cap. The rake is just always too high :(
Geez. The thing is, Crown has a near monopoly on legal games in Melbourne. Even Sydney only has two casinos, last time I counted anyway. So the private games sorta have to compete against Crown, so they lower their rake.
When decentralised poker becomes a reality, rake might get very close to zero
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/etherpoker-raising-stakes-ethereum-1551331