I have discovered that rather than nothing to do in Mildura, there is in fact poker, 6 nights a week of it in 6 different venues, 4/5 nights are free to join and 1 or 2 have a mere $10 buy in, all have cash prizes. I don't think I have mentioned this before so I will now, Australians are gambling crazy. Whereas in Britain most pubs or bars will have one gambling machine and a quiz machine, bars in Australia tend to have one or two rows of gambling machines. Those machines don't tend to interest me (unless it's one in the Masons Arms and Matt helps me win some money from it.) Yes the machines can be fun to put a couple of quid in one every now and again but it's not like you can make a night of those machines (and if you can please call Gamblers Anonymous.) Poker on the other hand is a great way to socialise and win money and thus I have taken an interest in this Australian past time and in the past two weeks I have played 6 or 7 times. I haven't won yet, in case you were wondering. These 6 or 7 games have opened my eyes to a new hobby and when I get home, poker nights shall be arranged, thus, below, I have posted the rules to Texas Hold'em Poker, for which all my friends and family should learn for my return. I will be taking your money, it beats getting a career.
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Preflop: Each person is dealt one card, starting with the person left of the dealer as with most card games. Then a second card. Both cards are face down. After everyone receives their pocket cards (the two cards face down just dealt), then betting occurs.
Betting: Once the cards have been dealt the betting begins. The person to the left dealer places down the blind (a predetermined amount that this person puts down regardless of the cards that have been dealt to them.) The person left of the single blind places down the double blind (which is double the blind.) The person left of the double blind starts the actual betting by matching or raising the bet, and so forth until the betting gets back to the double blind. The double blind is given the opportunity to re-raise and if not he checks and all bets are placed in the centre of the table. If a player does not want to bet then they fold and their cards are placed face down in the middle of the table.
Flop: The dealer burns one card (places it face down) and then turns over three cards in the middle of the table (called "the flop"). These are community cards that each player can use to create the best hand possible out of. Once again betting occurs, this time starting with the first player to the left of the dealer still remaining in the game.
Turn: The dealer burns one more card and then turns over another card making four community cards. This fourth card is called "the turn." Betting occurs again.
River: The dealer burns another card and turns over the fifth and last community card. This is called "the river" or "fifth street". Betting occurs for the last time.
Showdown: The remaining players in the hand show their cards, if there is only one person left then they do not need to show their cards. Each player uses his two cards, and the five community cards to create the best hand (5 cards total). A player can use any combination so even if one card from his pocket cards and four of the community cards creates the best hand, it is fine. When all five of the cards in the community make the best hand then the remaining players splits the pot. This is called "the board plays". Also note that in any time during the game a player can fold and get out of the hand. All bets will be lost at that point.
Rankings: Highest to Lowest (no suite is classed as being higher)
1. Royal Straight Flush - 5 cards all of the same suite, ten through Ace.
2. Straight Flush - 5 cards of the same suite ranked in succession
3. 4 of a Kind
4. Full House - 5 cards of which there are three of a kind and a pair
5. Flush - 5 cards of the same suite, if two or more flushes appear in the game, the person with the highest card wins
6. Straight - 5 cards of different suites ranked in succession
7. 3 of a Kind
8. 2 pair - The person with the highest pair wins should 2 pairs appear
9. 1 pair - The person with the highest pair wins should 2 pairs appear
10. High card
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Travelling Post 22 - As I left Sydney, stuff to (hopefully) make you jealous
On Tuesday 6th February at around 13:30 precisely 3 months and a couple or so hours after my plane landed in Sydney airport, I left Sydney on a Greyhound bus. My destination - the rest of Australia, or more exact Canberra for 2 nights and 2 days and then Mildura for some exciting fruit picking work. All that you know about but I wrote the start of this post before I arrived in Mildura and liked it, so didn't change it.
I do need to tell the story of how I got to Mildura, but I'm gonna jump around with the narrative and talk about my last weekend in Sydney. On Friday you all know I went to the cricket, I just wanted to point that out again (and we won the triangular series which is pretty fantastic), on Saturday all 6 of my housemates and I had a barbie in a local park. We tried to have it by the beach but it was too busy so we walked 2minutes further along the coast. What was great about it, apart from the company (I now have new readers so felt the need to compliment them in an effort to keep them reading), was that the BBQ was free - sadly though not the food. The local council provide free, electric BBQs to all and sunder to come along and use, I think that is a novel concept and use of public money, plus the picnic tables there have company so aren't so lonely as their British counterparts.
On Saturday night Eleanor and I went to watch Michael Parkinson present the Sydney Symphony Orchestra play music from the movies. From the moment the SSO played the Parkinson theme tune as Parky entered the Concert Hall I knew I was going to enjoy myself. It was such a relaxed atmosphere even with the place packed, I didn't notice an empty seat. Parky was his usual charming self, except he did swear once which was all well and good he was talking about his first newspaper article in which he was given a byline and there was a miss print of the word electronic clock at the end, it was then he, albeit briefly, mentioned sex toys. I did crack up laughing but I was also disturbed. He told other stories about his father, and Dudley Moore, his love of cinema and the music of cinema but the star of the show was the Symphony. They were simply superb, and they were there as entertainers and knew it. By this I mean I was expecting a barrier between the Orchestra and the audience, I was expecting and uptight conductor that would create some sort of imaginary wall between us and them. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many musicians (and yes I know I am generalising) do have superiority complexes. Instead what we got was an overly friendly and smiley conductor, thoroughly enjoying his work, bouncing about in his podium and even getting some audience participation - we whistled when music from the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Great Escape was played.
Well I was gonna detail my trip to Canberra and how I came to Mildura but that can come later.
I do need to tell the story of how I got to Mildura, but I'm gonna jump around with the narrative and talk about my last weekend in Sydney. On Friday you all know I went to the cricket, I just wanted to point that out again (and we won the triangular series which is pretty fantastic), on Saturday all 6 of my housemates and I had a barbie in a local park. We tried to have it by the beach but it was too busy so we walked 2minutes further along the coast. What was great about it, apart from the company (I now have new readers so felt the need to compliment them in an effort to keep them reading), was that the BBQ was free - sadly though not the food. The local council provide free, electric BBQs to all and sunder to come along and use, I think that is a novel concept and use of public money, plus the picnic tables there have company so aren't so lonely as their British counterparts.
On Saturday night Eleanor and I went to watch Michael Parkinson present the Sydney Symphony Orchestra play music from the movies. From the moment the SSO played the Parkinson theme tune as Parky entered the Concert Hall I knew I was going to enjoy myself. It was such a relaxed atmosphere even with the place packed, I didn't notice an empty seat. Parky was his usual charming self, except he did swear once which was all well and good he was talking about his first newspaper article in which he was given a byline and there was a miss print of the word electronic clock at the end, it was then he, albeit briefly, mentioned sex toys. I did crack up laughing but I was also disturbed. He told other stories about his father, and Dudley Moore, his love of cinema and the music of cinema but the star of the show was the Symphony. They were simply superb, and they were there as entertainers and knew it. By this I mean I was expecting a barrier between the Orchestra and the audience, I was expecting and uptight conductor that would create some sort of imaginary wall between us and them. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many musicians (and yes I know I am generalising) do have superiority complexes. Instead what we got was an overly friendly and smiley conductor, thoroughly enjoying his work, bouncing about in his podium and even getting some audience participation - we whistled when music from the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Great Escape was played.
Well I was gonna detail my trip to Canberra and how I came to Mildura but that can come later.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Travelling Post 21 - "I'm living in a hole but it's ok for now" he says as he begins an awfully wordy & probably not very grammatically correct post
On Tuesday I left Sydney for Canberra, then on Thursday I left Canberra for an overnight 12 hour(!) coach ride to Mildura, North Victoria to the Riviera Hostel. (I shall blog about the rest of my time in Sydney and Canberra later, Mildura is small so I don't think there is going be much for me to blog about, although I could be wrong. There is also a pretty good story on how I came to be at Mildura and not somewhere else I may blog about that later to, or I may not) Let us firstly say that Mildura is a nice small, place right next to a river with a population of just 40,000, it is very different to Sydney and there isn't much to do here.
My accommodation is different to Mildura on one aspect, where it is small and there isn't much to do here other than poker games and BBQs, it isn't nice. When I arrived and saw my teeny tiny room for the first time, I wasn't overly excited about the prospect of staying and when I saw the kitchen, well it took me time to get over that one, let's just unless I eat out I won't be eating very healthily here, it's gonna take me a little while to get used to the kitchen.. I arrived at 9.30 in the morning and after a sleep and a shower I did slowly settle in but at one point I really did think what am I doing here, I want to go home.
The reason I came to Mildura was for work, the promise of a possible $80-100per day with little to spend my money on. Luckily it seems I have come up trumps on that, if not on decent accommodation, but I'm not fruit picking. Instead of fruit picking I am the Cart Man, it is my job to go along with the boss, who drives the tractor and his son and collect the buckets which the grape pickers fill. His son and I take it in turns between stacking the tubs up on the trailer and being the person passing the tubs to the stacker. We then take the tubs and lift and empty them out on to racks of chicken wire shelves where they dry out and begin their transformation from grape to, I believe, sultana. The hardest job is passing the buckets to the stacker as these are 20litre+ buckets packed full of grapes, all this lift with your legs stuff doesn't count when you are moving at speed so a lot of the weight is on my back. The trailer holds 82 buckets and today we did around 10 runs which meant I lifted around 410 buckets twice. The boss wants to get this up to 1500 buckets a day which will be possible but I am going to have to work so much harder. This is also a 7 day a week job for 3-4weeks oh and when it is hot it can be in the mid 40s and it is much harder than fruit picking and and I have to get up at 6am. At this moment if i stay still for too long my muscles get stiff and I'm not used to it. On the plus size it is invigorating and I can see that feeling lasting for maybe 3 days, we do get given free coffee and home baked cake and the father and son are a hoot. Dave, the son, works a 40hour job supervising a week at a juice factory and takes his holidays each year to do the harvest. His father is an Italian who has been living in Australia since he was 22 and has owned the vineyard for 40years who is a really nice bloke but is barely audible and swears a lot. The bickering between the two is something to make every son think twice about working with his dad.
There is one another advantage to this Cart Man work and that is the money, it pays hourly rather than being piece work and if I do enough hours I could earn $600-$700per week. I'm also now a driver so I don't have to pay for my transport which saves me $35per week that means with my main expenditure being $125 for this horrible accommodation, a bit for food, a small amount for alcohol and and some money for books, as there really isn't much else to do in Mildura, I might be able to save up to $1,000 in this 3-4week period, but my target before moving on is $1,500.
I thought I would give you this information for all you people jealous of me, whereas at present this job is OK, after a few days I can see myself really suffering with the work. Maybe what will happen is I'll get used to the accommodation and begin to hate the work.
My accommodation is different to Mildura on one aspect, where it is small and there isn't much to do here other than poker games and BBQs, it isn't nice. When I arrived and saw my teeny tiny room for the first time, I wasn't overly excited about the prospect of staying and when I saw the kitchen, well it took me time to get over that one, let's just unless I eat out I won't be eating very healthily here, it's gonna take me a little while to get used to the kitchen.. I arrived at 9.30 in the morning and after a sleep and a shower I did slowly settle in but at one point I really did think what am I doing here, I want to go home.
The reason I came to Mildura was for work, the promise of a possible $80-100per day with little to spend my money on. Luckily it seems I have come up trumps on that, if not on decent accommodation, but I'm not fruit picking. Instead of fruit picking I am the Cart Man, it is my job to go along with the boss, who drives the tractor and his son and collect the buckets which the grape pickers fill. His son and I take it in turns between stacking the tubs up on the trailer and being the person passing the tubs to the stacker. We then take the tubs and lift and empty them out on to racks of chicken wire shelves where they dry out and begin their transformation from grape to, I believe, sultana. The hardest job is passing the buckets to the stacker as these are 20litre+ buckets packed full of grapes, all this lift with your legs stuff doesn't count when you are moving at speed so a lot of the weight is on my back. The trailer holds 82 buckets and today we did around 10 runs which meant I lifted around 410 buckets twice. The boss wants to get this up to 1500 buckets a day which will be possible but I am going to have to work so much harder. This is also a 7 day a week job for 3-4weeks oh and when it is hot it can be in the mid 40s and it is much harder than fruit picking and and I have to get up at 6am. At this moment if i stay still for too long my muscles get stiff and I'm not used to it. On the plus size it is invigorating and I can see that feeling lasting for maybe 3 days, we do get given free coffee and home baked cake and the father and son are a hoot. Dave, the son, works a 40hour job supervising a week at a juice factory and takes his holidays each year to do the harvest. His father is an Italian who has been living in Australia since he was 22 and has owned the vineyard for 40years who is a really nice bloke but is barely audible and swears a lot. The bickering between the two is something to make every son think twice about working with his dad.
There is one another advantage to this Cart Man work and that is the money, it pays hourly rather than being piece work and if I do enough hours I could earn $600-$700per week. I'm also now a driver so I don't have to pay for my transport which saves me $35per week that means with my main expenditure being $125 for this horrible accommodation, a bit for food, a small amount for alcohol and and some money for books, as there really isn't much else to do in Mildura, I might be able to save up to $1,000 in this 3-4week period, but my target before moving on is $1,500.
I thought I would give you this information for all you people jealous of me, whereas at present this job is OK, after a few days I can see myself really suffering with the work. Maybe what will happen is I'll get used to the accommodation and begin to hate the work.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Travelling Post 20 - 3 months in and I finally watched the Cricket
Friday the 2nd February was an important day for two reasons, firstly it marked the moment I have been away from home for three months; secondly, and arguably more important, England finally beat Australia in a convincing win at the Sydney Cricket Ground - oh yeah and I was there to watch it. Oh look, there I go making people jealous again. If you wish to be made more jealous continue reading and look at the pictures from the night on bebo http://rhino-rob.bebo.com
Pete, an IEP staff member, is a gold member of the SCG, or rather his Dad is and we borrowed their passes and snuck in to the members area of the ground, and it was amazing, I would have paid for this, you know if I needed to. The atmosphere was so relaxed and friendly for the first innings. During the second innings the atmosphere and excitement jumped up a notch from the word go as Plunkett bowled a Golden Duck and Australia struggled to even reach 200.
What I find quite amazing about cricket is that other events taking place off the pitch excite the fans almost as much as the match itself. When various members of the audience started making beer chains (long chains of empty plastic cups) and were promptly stopped by stewards the crowd cheered almost as loudly as when Plunkett bowled his aforementioned golden duck. Then there are those crowd members on the other end of the spectrum, those who do crossword puzzles. Having never seen any other sport at any other stadium I can't comment on whether this crossword behaviour goes on elsewhere, but i can't imagine any gentlemen leaning over to the guy in front 'What's another word for...' at a Manchester United game. In addition to that, you have those ticket holders who come in after work when England had already batted or because they heard England were actually doing well and so drove down to watch the rest of the match. In last night's rugby (England triumphs again) would there really be fans coming in after half time depending on the score, i don't think so. Bill Bryson isn't a fan of Cricket, but this travel writer-wannabe certainly is, the nuances that I describe above make Cricket unique amongst sports and so appealing.
Above, England up to bat first, below Australia get their turn.
Below, I bought some Aussie sprinkle-coloured donuts. For those who think I'm a traitor for eating them, they had ran out of The red and blue English coloured sprinkles and I got a discount on the ones I did buy.
Pete, an IEP staff member, is a gold member of the SCG, or rather his Dad is and we borrowed their passes and snuck in to the members area of the ground, and it was amazing, I would have paid for this, you know if I needed to. The atmosphere was so relaxed and friendly for the first innings. During the second innings the atmosphere and excitement jumped up a notch from the word go as Plunkett bowled a Golden Duck and Australia struggled to even reach 200.
What I find quite amazing about cricket is that other events taking place off the pitch excite the fans almost as much as the match itself. When various members of the audience started making beer chains (long chains of empty plastic cups) and were promptly stopped by stewards the crowd cheered almost as loudly as when Plunkett bowled his aforementioned golden duck. Then there are those crowd members on the other end of the spectrum, those who do crossword puzzles. Having never seen any other sport at any other stadium I can't comment on whether this crossword behaviour goes on elsewhere, but i can't imagine any gentlemen leaning over to the guy in front 'What's another word for...' at a Manchester United game. In addition to that, you have those ticket holders who come in after work when England had already batted or because they heard England were actually doing well and so drove down to watch the rest of the match. In last night's rugby (England triumphs again) would there really be fans coming in after half time depending on the score, i don't think so. Bill Bryson isn't a fan of Cricket, but this travel writer-wannabe certainly is, the nuances that I describe above make Cricket unique amongst sports and so appealing.
Above, England up to bat first, below Australia get their turn.
Below, I bought some Aussie sprinkle-coloured donuts. For those who think I'm a traitor for eating them, they had ran out of The red and blue English coloured sprinkles and I got a discount on the ones I did buy.
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