Tao of Pauly

Cake for Breakfast

By Pauly
Melbourne, Australia

If you wanna a random celebrity sighting in Melbourne, just head on down to the Crown Casino.

I just ran into Jen Tilly in the poker room. She had a casino host with her and I cut through a crowd of people and nearly smashed into her. I assume she's down under to play poker in the Aussie Millions. Of course, Michael Vartan is still here. He's been hanging out occasionally in media row. He liked the stuff that Nicky wrote about him in the coverage for poker news. And yes, Amanda and Nicky are still swooning whenever he walks by.

There's a rumor that Pam Anderson will be in town too to play. Someone asked me if Shannon Elizabeth will be here. She attended the event last year, but no word on whether she'll show up. Of course, she briefly dated an Aussie poker pro, so I have some interesting stories and dirt about her... that I'll save for a book someday.

Schecky said that he saw Andy Roddick here. Of course, the tennis pros are in town for the Australian Open and a lot of them are staying in one of the two hotels here. Last year, I saw Roger Federer and rode in an elevator with Maria Sharapova.

My buddy Brandon Schaefer is in town to play in some events. He's being staked by an 18-year old internet pro from Canada. Too bad that we can't do some traveling this time around since he has to get back to the States for a wedding.

My Amsterdam roommate, Johnny Mushrooms, is here. We hung out one night and got smashed. He's been playing a lot of the tournaments and I'm pulling for him and Brandon do go deep and make at least one final table each. And if they win... maybe they'll throw a victory party at the Spearmint Rhino down the street.


I bought a piece of chocolate caramel cake for breakfast. Because I can. Australia is similar to Texas in that everything is "big" including the dessert portions. The slice cost $7 but it's really two slices of cake. Yummy. Delicious. Orgasmic.

I also found some decent iced tea in a bottle. Nestea Lemon Flavoured... is what it's called. It's not quite like American iced tea, but it will do. It cost me #3.90 for the 500ml bottle. What a rip off, but I was jonesin'.

Most of the Aussie I know dig American culture include entertainment (music, books, movies, TV), sports (NBA + NFL, and even MLB), and especially politics. The buzz in Australia is about Obama. Everyone's been asking me if that's going to be our new President. Bush isn't the most popular guy in the world and they are hoping we can get a change in the White House and help improve our faltering image overseas. I thought it was interesting that the average Aussie knows more about our political process than most Americans. What a shame.

Anyway, my slice of cake is almost done (I crushed it in Daddy's vernacular) and I slayed the iced tea. I drank 80% in one gulp. Time for me to shower, then write for a bit. It's just after 12pm and I don't have to be at work until 3:30pm or so. If I can get my shit done, I might head downstairs and play cash games before my shift begins. That's what I did yesterday. I played for about a hour or so and won $170 before I split.

Heck, maybe I should just quit right now and play poker for a living?