My Journey Down The Poker Road

My Interesting Journey

Like many of the 20 something year olds playing the sport now i began by watching WPT on SBS late saturday nights (yes i had no life). An avid fan of any type of stratergy game and or card game my interest for this thing called 'Texas Holdem' was always a road my life was going to take.

I'll take you back to the beginning because to completely understand my journey you need to understand who i am. I finished year 12 in 02 and decided to go to university, which turned out to be a fail but i still beleive having a pub in the middle of the campus and running a happy hour between 12.30pm and 1.30pm is detrimental to any young persons studies. I dropped out (deferred) after 3 semesters and got full time employment at coles in which i had worked as a casual since i was 15. I quickly moved up within the company and was soon a duty manager of one of the biggest coles in melbourne. Things dont always work out for us however, the politics within the company wasnt my strongest point and if you know me i do have a very opinionated personality and i dont mind telling you my opinion.

I moved into the fast moving consumer goods sales industry (i became a sales re for cadbury schweppes) which to this day i will say was one of the best jobs i have ever had, and i was good at it. That was untill i lost my licence and went back to working at coles. Which is where i began my poker journey.

My friends and i had tried playing a home game but well looking back im surprised i didnt get shanked. It was untill we saw a poster for 'Play Free Poker Here' on the wall at the local RSL. All the boys headed down that night and we never looked back, over the next 4 months we played 4-5 times a week travelling all over Melbourne for the next game. To my luck i found myself very good at the game and my natural ability to learn very quickly meant i had a slight edge over the fields.

I qualified for the state final and overcoming a field of about 300 i final tabled the event. When i busted off with nothing to show but a T-shirt and a hat the regional manager/owner of the region i played in asked me if i would like some part time work in the coming season. Done and Done.

6 months later and i had quit coles and was working full time along side the owner of the business as a very capable and fun Tournament Director. The owner decided to move back to Woolongong and left me incharge of 2 regions in Melbourne. I became one of the most experienced TD's for APL in Victoria and was justified by this by running state finals and even Emceeing the 2008 Tournament of Champions to over 1000 players.

However somwhere in that time i found time to play myself. Pokernews Cup 2007 was the time for me to shine. With living out of home and liking certain luxuries in life i didnt have that much to spend on poker however i found $230 to buy into event 3. So did 500 other players. A field of 501 players generating a nice 100k prizepool. I managed to lead the field over the first 3 hours of play and then went cold and fell to 3BB's, managed to double then triple up through at the time Melbourne Victory Goal Keeper Theoklatis. I then cruised on average stack untill we were down to 2 tables and got my money in way behind to AK and 1010 with my QJ looking marginal. That was untill the flop came QQ3 blank blank and i went to final table 4th in chips.

The final table had Eric Assadourian, Kiwi G and Sean Dunwoodie. I ran good all day outflopping AA with QQ and 99 with 44, i finally finished 2nd for 15k. I went out partied, bought a car and had a holiday all before the Aussie Millions. I came back from the gold coast just in time to play the Aussie Millions Teams Event with the owner of the business i was running. We played well together with me making all the chips and him not loosing any of them but that is what our stratergy was and it worked. I knocked out Lee Nelson, Jeff Madsen and chopped Jimmy Frickes knees off, slow rolled Brandon Adams and yelled to the rail with glee. I was in heaven, we made the final table and eventually finished 4th for 18k (9k each which was chopped up in the carpark because my partner was flying out the next morning) but my favorite part of that final table was when i pushed to a fricke raise with only for him to snap with AA, long story short i flushed him and the whole rail yelled with excitment but i could hear one in the crowd saying "how do you like that you fat f**k, you did it all last year and us aussies can give it back, welcome back you septic tank piece of s**t" frickes team finished fifth, justice.

The next 12 months were not fun, i lived a lifestyle above my means and i can crashing back to earth with debts pilling up. I put my head down and worked to get myself back on track but not through playing poker but through the poker industry. It was just over 12 months ago now when i first started working for PokerNews and PokerNetwork as a live reporter at crown during the championships while still working at APL. My ability to network and get along with anybody was a real drawcard to working with the live reporting team.

I learnt how to write and report on poker from the best including Heath Chick, Brendan Duffy, Tim Duckworth and Landon Blackhall. I made so many new friends and this would set me up for 2010. I met Rob Huxley during a APL state final in which he pwned 20 bucks off me on a stupid bet, we became good friends.LOL.

I resigned from the APL towards the end 2009 in search of something better and more challenging. I set up my own consulting business consulting for the poker industry. All-In-One Consulting got the contract for the very first live Full Tilt Poker Academy at the Aussie Millions in which i worked with 'The Voice' Paul Khoury, Chris Ferguson, Gus Hansen, Perry Friedman, Mark Vos and Billy Argyros. I had so much fun during the millions including living the baller lifestyle with many of the pros.

I now work indapendantly as a writter for sportal.com.au, i also write content for different affiliate websites and am helping to get the Poker Player Alliance Australia off the ground.

I am so blessed to be doing what i love and for the friends i have gained through the industry.

David Saab once asked me "oatesy how are you going to make money through poker?" i answered very quickly "never become a professional poker player" which he remarked "best answer i have ever heard"

I do like to play poker but i play purely as a social player and love playing the game as just that.

I thankyou for reading this and im sure its unlike anybody elses stories for my poker journey is not one of winning and losing but of just winning. I love the industry and hope to make an impact in some form or other upon the industry in which i love.

Good luck at the tables.

Andrew 'Oates' Oataway

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