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Hey guys. This is the first time I’ve written a blog. My name is Mitch Caton AKA Mitch-O. I live on the Gold Coast and this is my poker story.
It all started on New Year’s Eve 2006 when I was at a mates place (James) in Burleigh getting ready to bring in the New Year. We were all drinking and chilling, listening to music when James said "Hey Mitch, let’s play poker” I looked at him and said "I wouldn’t have a clue how to play but why not, I will give it a try" So we sat down at the table and I had no idea what I was doing. James was sitting next to me, teaching me how to play. I ended up winning the all the chips at the table and I was then hooked. It was getting close to midnight so we all went outside for the the New Year’s count down and the fireworks.
Three days later I get a phone call from James asking me if I would like to play poker at the Palm Beach Surf Club. First thing I asked was is it free? He said yeah we play here every week. It’s called APL and it’s free to join. So I went and signed up with APL and it ended up being a regular thing to head to the surf club and have dinner before playing some poker on a Wednesday night.
I didn’t do to well for the first few weeks but I still had fun and it was a good way to break up the working week. Then one night the tournament director, Shane Bourke, said to me that there was other games on during the week. He gave me a list of where they were and I went on a few other nights of the week and got a good result so I wanted to go again and improve. Then I just kept on going each night of the week and on weekends. At the moment I’ve played over 1200 live tournaments in the past 3 years.
I got the hang of the game really quick and ended being the region leader 3 times in a row. I almost made it 4 in row but finished 2nd and then backed that up with another region win the season after that. I finished 22nd out of 50,000 active players on the APL Player Of The Year leader board and I'm currently sitting 15th for this financial year. Yes I know these are all results from freeroll poker but it isn’t easy playing against new players and players that think K 6 is a great hand.
Whatever hobbies or sport I’ve been into I have always put in 110% to do my best at it or to help out. I constantly give up my own time to help promote APL and poker in general around Australia which ended up giving the APL supporter of the year award for 2009. I do my best to promote the game and people might say behind my back that I’m a suck up but I do it not because I want something for it but because I enjoy doing it.
I’ve played just about all of the APL main events, all QLD State Finals, some Pro Opens and other APL special events. At the start of this year I said to myself that it s time to make a difference to my poker world and it’s kind of started alright.
I am now a member of the Shodown Couture Regional Team. Shodown make poker influenced lifestyle Garments. You can check them out at www.shodowncouture.com. My next step is to start playing at bit more online poker and qualify for the bigger tournaments such as ANZPT/APPT, JHDS, Victoria Champs and Pokernews Cup just to name a few and hopefully in the next 2-3 years I will be playing in the WSOP main event.
Mitch "Mitch-O" Caton