I was lucky enough to spend the first couple of months of this year travelling- mainly in Australia, before returning to start my 2018 poker schedule in London.
I really enjoyed the Australian lifestyle; the people chilled & friendly, great weather, beautiful nature & lots of outdoor activities (including vineyards;). I got to see Kangaroos and Koalas up close and fell in love with amazing Aussie coffee you can get everywhere.
Seriously, nearly every retail outlet or a restaurant has a mini indoor coffee bar where you can sit down and enjoy delicious drinks or take them away.
After a couple of fun & profitable tournament in Sydney at the Star City I headed to play the Aussie Millions in Melbourne.
It is a fantastic city which ended up being my favourite Aussie stop; diverse, arty and modern with lots of amazing dining options. Aussie Millions itself reminded me a bit of WSOP Vegas – big numbers, well organised event, relaxed rules (you can bring your drinks & food to the poker room) and great atmosphere!
And although poker didn’t go to plan for me (busted the main on day 2 with QQ<10,10 😦 ) I really enjoyed Aussie Millions and my time in Melbourne exploring the city with John, Dara & Mireille.
Travelling back by the way of Japan for 10 days I was back in London for the first Unibet Open stop of 2018 sleeping off some jetlag and adjusting to the weather.
This event was great fun as always, lots of familiar faces in the Vic and from the Unibet Community also. It was lovely seeing everyone and catching up with friends.
Photo credit – Elena Vareiko
The ladies event was especially popular with 52 entries and the new #QueenRules format led to a super entertaining tournament and decent prize pool. A huge thank you goes to very talented photographer Elena Vareiko who captured all the best moments & poker faces from this fun event HERE 🙂
I’m happy to say that there will be a ladies event on all the Unibet Open and Unibet UK Tour stops this year!
Congratulations to both Brynn Kvinlaug on winning the #QueenRules event for £1,400 + the beautiful trophy and the Norwegian Andreas Wiborg on topping the field of 349 entries in the main to pick up the first prize of £56,807!
I also managed to chop the Unibet Open £150 NLH turbo side event for a profitable start to the Unibet Poker live journey of 2018 😉
Thank you for my awesome & loyal rail who stayed till the very end, which was 4am! ❤
Next up was Dublin for the Irish Open; sadly my quest for an Irish flag was unsuccessful but I had loads of fun and helped by the fact I was kindly hosted by my fellow Unibet Ambassador Dara and his lovely wife Mireille and treated to tasty daily breakfast, prosecco and great company!
The highlights of the trip for me were railing friend Sameer Sing to back to back 6th place finish in the Irish Open main event, a fun interview with beautiful Laura Cornelius and meeting Irish rising female poker star Louise Butler for the first time 🙂
Here is the latest Chip Race episode including a fun interview with Sameer + Maria Konnikova + Jack Sinclair:
With only a couple of days to relax, before I knew it I was heading down to Brighton for the Unibet UK Poker Tour opening leg.
Anyone who read my Brighton blog last year knows that I have a fond affection for the place, having lived, worked and studied here in my time. I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere in the Rendezvous where the casino was hosted as usual a strong local turnout added to the fun.
The sun was shining on my arrival at the lovely Malmaison overlooking the Marina. The hotel also had a tasty restaurant attached, a nice way to refuel on the tournament dinner break.
Photo credit – Tambet Kask
The £220 buy-in Main Event was hugely popular, smashing its previous record from last year.
Congrats to Paul Romain for taking down the event for £13,000! It was a long final table and heads up battle to get this hands on the first prize and the trophy! Really nice guy, great player and a very deserved winner.
Sunday also saw the renewal of the ladies event. This time with a record 40 entries in total and as usual the prosecco was flowing on the friendly tables as familiar foes battled away!
It’s great to see the ladies event growing, with members of the online Ladies at Unibet Poker community especially well represented at the tables. Congrats to all the players who cashed but especially Erica Saunters and Ann Henson who made back to back final tables in the same event finishing 3rd & 2nd respectively. Whats extra impressive is that last time they came 1st & 2nd.
When my sister and I unfortunately bust we jumped into the Sunday night turbo event which was hilarious, even more so when my husband and I ended up on the final table.
I settled for 4th place in the end and a mini profit for the day before hitting the bar with the tour regulars and Unibet family to celebrate yet another successful event.
After a distinct lack of sleep I jumped on a flight to Lithuania excited to spend Easter with all the family and feed my addiction to cold beetroot soup!
The great ladies of poker around the world will be keeping me busy as they are crushing the live scene so far in 2018 and I love sharing their successes with all the ladies group on Facebook. I’ll be busy keeping up with posts all year if this continues- I for one are hoping it does!
This leads to a nice segue into the Queen Rules initiative launched in March this year on International Woman’s Day. This essentially means in selected special events, the queen ranks higher than the king in poker hands.
Congrats to Nataly at Unibet for a successful launch of the initiative which we’ll be renewing in the ladies event over in Malta in May.
I’m already excited about heading out to the sunny isle for the next leg of the Unibet Open and bonus DSO starting on the 16th May.
Look forward to seeing some of you there, or at the tables in the weeks before. Daiva x
Baltic Blonde Poker 
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