Why You Should Definitely Visit Australia for Poker and Sightseeing
When I was in my early teens, my dad brought home a kit of the Perth Glory football team from Australia. One of my great uncles had lived there for more than 20 years and moved back to Germany for his retirement years while my dad visited Down Under several times on his own. The purple shirt is buried somewhere under the tons of new clothes bought in the one and a half decades since and doesn’t quite fit anymore.
It was pretty much also back then that the dream was born for me to check out this intriguing place with my own eyes and I was fortunate enough to actually get paid to do so thanks to my job in poker live reporting. The first visit has been nearly six years ago by now and the time has flown by so fast.
After successfully completing a test run at the European Poker Tour San Remo Event in 2014, I joined the PokerNews team for their annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) summer camp in Las Vegas. As fresh meat I had to cover most of the low budget buy-in mass fields that attracted thousands of players. You’d basically walk through an entire room filled with poker tables, chips splashing around and chatter coming from each corner while trying to find any interesting hand to report on.
A look back on the 2014 WSOP APAC
Fast forward a few months and I was offered to work at the 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific (APAC) for some three weeks of poker. I was told to bring my camera and also do some pictures during the festival while writing updates from each event. The recollection of the entire trip all but escapes me but it took more than a full day to reach Melbourne.
I gazed left and right while dragging the luggage behind me on the way from the Southern Cross Station to the accommodation, and it was obvious to all locals that a new first-time visitor had arrived. There was a meeting scheduled for the next day as the WSOP officials and the higher ups at the Crown Casino gave us our briefing for what to expect in the weeks to come.
“This is Christian, he will take care of all our pictures.”
There it was, the jump into ice-cold water, without any warning sign prior. Whether or not I had been successful at hiding my initial panic remains a mystery to me until now. Don’t get me wrong, I was in the possession of professional camera equipment and two decent lenses back then already but had very little experience at a venue entirely new to me.
The team at Crown was absolutely fantastic right from the start and we were even given access to the huge staff canteen that had a big variety of food at all times. This was unlike any other tournament I had covered in the years prior and this kind of hospitality was totally normal for them. I ended up working three weeks straight without any day off and didn’t mind it at all but only later realized that not taking any additional days for sightseeing were a grave mistake.
Back then it was the battle between the mixed game specialists George Danzer and Brandon Shack-Harris for the WSOP Player of the Year honors. Danzer won two gold bracelets in Las Vegas and Shack-Harris earned one with two runner-up finishes. They would both cash three times in Melbourne and Danzer won a third bracelet to lock up the race in his favor.
I was fortunate enough getting to know a lot of local poker players from Australia and seven of the eleven titles remained on home soil. What I noticed right away was the fact that the Australian poker players were by far more relaxed and enjoyed the experience at the tables more vividly than players at any other location I had visited.
Poker in Australia is simply different
As Sam Higgs, one of the local champions back in 2014, would later point out in a quick chat during the 2020 Aussie Millions, the Aussies “don’t take poker as serious and want to have fun, like to chat and make sure that visitors from abroad have a great time.”
They are still fierce competitors and plenty of young and promising players have emerged throughout the last few years such as Michael Addamo, Kahle Burns, Jeff Rossiter, Jonathan Karamalikis, Alex Lynskey and Aaron Lim to name just a few.
In general, you would be hard-pressed to find a table entirely filled with players wearing hoodies, sunglasses and headphones without engaging in any table chat. That’s simply not the Aussie way of poker, there is always some kind of banter flowing around the tournament area and the rail can get quite rowdy in a good and positive way.
One of those visitors that had a great time in 2014 was Scott Davies, an American poker pro that traveled most of the year to find interesting competitions to take part in. I met him the first time in Madrid and Las Vegas earlier that year. While I snapped a picture of him with the trademark smile on the face and the hat on at Crown, he jokingly said the following.
“I am just here for the pictures.”
Little did we both know that a few days later, he was the one posing for the winner shots in the WSOP APAC A$10,000 Main Event after coming out on top of a field of 329 entries. Ever since when we meet, that joke is brought up at least once and brings back sweet memories.
Many other poker pros that make their way to Melbourne for the flagship event of the venue, the Aussie Millions which usually takes place in January, always end up praising the staff, city and atmosphere everywhere. They’d take a day off to watch matches of the ongoing Australian Open or enjoy the excellent food options.
Something else has to be pointed out for sure: The hot chocolate with a marshmallow on top is sensational. On a more serious note, the entire staff at the Crown Casino is simply fabulous, super friendly and have a unique way to interact with local customers and take care of all visitors in applaudable fashion.
And it is not just like that in the casino but also everywhere outside. To be fair, I have only scratched on the surface of places to visit and been to Melbourne and Sydney more than half a dozen times combined since. Whenever I am covering events or go for sightseeing, I can be quite serious but in Australia I cannot not smile, the location kind of brings out the best in me.
There was that one time after going back up to my room on the elevator and a complete stranger I had never seen before casually dropped “hey how are you doing? Have a great day mate!” before heading out on his floor.
Amazing landscape and unique wildlife
Both Melbourne and Sydney offer a lot of opportunities for sightseeing and I also took a few day trips to visit places such as the Blue Mountains, the Great Ocean Road, the Twelve Apostles, the Great Otway National Park, and Sanctuaries where you can see the fascinating and unique local wildlife. Both zoos are worth a half-day trip and the same applies for the sea life aquariums.
Right next to the Great Ocean Road I even spotted a koala munching on some Eucalyptus trees and managed some decent shots with my Canon 5d Mark III while it was being surrounded by dozens of other wild animals, all wielding their smartphones. Those same trees also hosted a bunch of parrots who even stayed on the shoulders and arms of the kids to pose for pictures with the tourists.
Two recommended spots you should check out in Sydney
A special mention belongs to the Wild Life Sydney Zoo: It is a wildlife park in the Darling Harbour precinct, just a short walk away from the central business district and right next to the various ferry stops. My spirit animal currently lives in there: Davey the local quokka. Usually you can only find this small wallaby-like marsupial on Rottnest Island near Perth on the other side of the continent.
Quokkas have become a tourist attraction as people want to snap a selfie with them as they always have that hilarious smile on the face, which seemingly makes them the happiest animal on the planet. Unfortunately that is just a myth as it’s their way of cooling down in the heat. Word on the street is that Davey can be quite feisty around people and I managed to get a few snaps of him in action with that trademark grin.
Not far from Darling Harbour is also the Chinese Garden of Friendship and you should definitely invest the entrance fee of six Aussie Dollars per adult to check out this little paradise. Words and pictures don’t really describe how relaxing this idyllic place is. Quite obviously, a trip with the ferry below Sydney Harbour Bridge and along the Opera house are mandatory as well for tourists from near and far.
A little paradise in Melbourne called St Kilda
I was fortunate enough to visit Melbourne for the Aussie Millions in January 2020 once more and spent another two and a half days in St Kilda when all was wrapped up. It’s a very relaxed area of the city with lovely small coffee shops, a vibrant shopping street and delicious ice cream. If you want to escape from the stress of the CBD, just take a tram to enjoy the fresh ocean breeze and embrace the scenery in the parks.
As I was writing this article, I glanced at the dancing Shiva which I picked up in a store called “Chakra” on Acland Street and it brought a smile to my face. I found some gifts for family and friends in there and it is a constant reminder about the ongoing creation, upkeep and destruction of the world.
The Esplanade is just a short walk away and you can see bikers, rollerbladers and kite surfers near the beach most of the time. A walk down the St Kilda Pier will provide a nice view towards the distant city centre and there was one more very welcome surprise waiting for me on a cloudy day in late January.
After learning more about the history of the pavilion which has served as a kiosk on the pier, I noticed a handful of people whispering while pointing between the rocks of the bay. Sure enough, there were several penguins chilling out in the late afternoon and the scenic spot is known as St Kilda Breakwater.
Hopefully the next trip to one of my “happy places” is possible again very soon and perhaps, I can even cross another nearby country off my must visit list as New Zealand is only a short flight away. There’s so much more to Australia that I wish to explore, too.