Mick McCool Poker Dog

Mentally Wrong

2012-10-27T00:58:00.000+01:00

Jesus its been a long day, I've driven many miles and played plenty of races in shitty weather with a wind that would cut the fuckin face off ya. I have just got in and settled down to write this quick snippet with a hot cuppa and Jackie Chan's Rush Hour on SKY, l must have watched that film 20 times, not because l overly love it but the same old shit is on Sky Movies day in day out, just as well l have a hooky box as it ain't worth 50p a month never mind £50.

My job is a funny old one, very much like playing poker you have to be in form, have a bit of luck on your side and your mental state has to be 100%. If these things are not right, your confidence goes and you are in the toilet swimming with shit starting to mount up on top of you with everything you do going South. Its pretty much happened to most of us, that is, people involved in a gambling activity and if you say it hasn't, your either a lying bastard, you've only been gambling for a few days or you are amongst the 0.05% of true professionals(bastards).

At the minute there are many transitions in my work as technology moves very quickly forward, unfortunately this is throwing many different probabilities into the mix and a few of my friends are struggling to find a path which they feel comfortable with. One friend in particular couldn't find his way to his local pub atm and l don't know what to say to him, he is a quirky fecker but his methods and work ethic are very competent compared to a lot of the people l work with, how do you fix that most important thing, HIS HEAD? (Please post some suggestions)

Talking about heads, mine is banging after that Artic wind today so I'm off to my scratcher, l didn't have a fucking hat today, l must have 20 little woolly hats and couldn't find one this morning, every year that happens..........

Follow me on Twiteererer for some decent bets and lays, good luck.

Derby Duds no more...

2012-10-23T03:08:00.000+01:00

Nobody likes the big bookies at the best of times, well not anyone who knows the time of day. They constantly talk absolute bullshit on the tele about these huge bets they have taken on certain races, lets be honest, these fucking wankers wouldn't know a decent bet if it slapped them in the face.

Last week l tried my hardest to get a few £100ew bets on a dog for the TV Trophy and after £100ew on the dog at 16/1 with the competition sponsors, the mighty Ladbrokes, they knocked it down to 12/1 NATIONWIDE. Lets be honest here Ladies and Gentlemen, you couldn't make that fucker up.....what a bunch of absolute cunts. In future when l do any dodgy business Ladbrokes will get my trade, of that they can be guaranteed, l will spend hours making sure l do plenty of small slips and if l see that wanker on the left he will be getting nutted!

Staying with bookies talking shit, every year we get a dog on the greyhound scene who gets another bullshit quote to win our most prestigious event, THE DERBY. This year it is given to Ballymac Eske, trained by my good friends, Barrie and Trev Draper. The two brothers are real veterans of the greyhound game and they're ain't anything them two haven't seen or done, earlier in the year they lost their dad Albert and if he was alive to see this great fawn machine run l have a fair idea what he would say. They have made that camel trek to Wimbledon many times over many years with many good dogs but l reckon they know this time that if this baby stays sound until early next year they have a massive chance and ultimately the 16/1 being offered by the cunts is justified. I always say each year that NO dog should have a 16/1 quote but this dog is a monster, please please let him stay sound. To their credit the Drapers are not wrapping the dog in cotton wool and it runs week in week out going for all the worthwhile stuff, luckily its next target is the Eclipse at Nottingham and if you get a chance, please try and get to Notts to watch this dog.

Ballymac Eske

SATURDAY SUPERSTARS.

2012-10-20T08:54:00.000+01:00

Set the alarm to get up early this morning for a race which didn't disappoint, "The Caulfield Cup". It was a brilliant race and last years Melbourne Cup Champ came from the clouds to get up and WIN his third race in Australia from 3 starts, there was big prices available once again for the French Star, not bad for a horse that cost 1500 euros. Surely a film will be on the cards when this Superstar heads for the paddock!

Well, we have our own Superstar running today and it has stayed dry overnight which will almost certainly improve the chance that we will see "The Tremendous Machine" go out with a performance that cements his history.Come on Frankel.

Keeping on the "Superstars" theme, l hear that Taylor's Sky has been put up for sale by auction, well 50% from what l can see. Apparently there are long standing difficulties between the husband and wife, she has put her half up but he won't sign up with a new partner in the dog and it must stay with Charlie Lister. That all sounds as though it is a massive cluster fuck and l reckon we might never see the Derby Champion run the same again. I bet Charlie is loving all this shit.

Good luck today, Saturday always brings lots of opportunities, I've put a few of mine below.

In form Sir Mark runs
Mutual Regard at Wolves.

1:45 Ascot   Opinion Poll

2:20 Ascot   Slade Power (nap)

2:00 Chelt.   Our Vinnie

7:20 Wolv.   Mutual Regard (nb)

Time to talk again....

2012-10-17T06:51:00.003+01:00

Well as the post suggests l thought l would start to blog again as l do like to ramble on about things and people still mail me wanting a blog post, weird bastards!

I don't play poker much these days, maybe an odd Saturday or Sunday in the comfort of my second hand armchair (just got it last week, my landlords mum was chucking it). Mainly its Pokerstars players who rob me these days and the beats are still as ridiculous as ever even though l play very few tournaments, however l like the odd game and the beats just dont bother me these days. I have been to a few live tournaments in the last 7/8 months, firstly in Star City when my good friend Colin McTaggart was TD at the launch of the Genting Tour which was very good and l seen a few faces and had a good laugh and then Edinburgh when l was racing. I believe the tour has gone from strength to strength and Genting are a big player on the live scene now which can only be good for English poker.

Work these days for me is confined to hospitality rooms on racecourses or in the stands at a tennis match, basically anything were you have an in running market on Betfair and you can get a phone signal. I've been at it for roughly three years now and have become quite experienced, its an enjoyable job and allows me to work when l want which hasn't been a lot recently as l have been sick as a dog.

Talking about dogs, l lost Buddy my old greyhound several months ago, not to natural causes unfortunately....... he was killed by Amy whilst hunting a fox, she ran into him after the fox done a clever turn in a paddock running under Buddy and she followed but wasn't able to avoid poor Buddy's rib cage. Amy survived but it was touch and go for a few weeks. As for Wallace my geriatric Lab, l gave up the ghost on that old bastard months ago, he's deaf, can't see much, takes him 20mins to walk 50 yards and has to be helped in lots of ways but he still eats and doesn't piss himself so l let him get on with it. I do stay as local as l can atm for work as l want to make sure that l am here for when he finally pops his clogs but l reckon he might outlast me!

That's enough for now, l will post plenty in the coming weeks, not about my Poker experiences as much as Horses and Dogs so l hope you enjoy and feel free to leave a comment. I will try to incorporate a few lays in regular posts on certain posts...

All the best.

Mick

Manchester, Coventry, Her Majesty’s pleasure and New Direction…..

2010-08-04T08:32:00.002+01:00

My God it seems so long ago that l went to Manchester for the GUKPT but l never forget much when it comes to trips away were l’ve had a good bit of craic. Firstly l have to thank the old Triad Crew of Bo, Hai and Long who took care of transport and Sushi whilst l was there, Bo was the only one playing the Main Event and l had bought a chunk of his action not knowing much about his style of play. I did know that as a Vietnamese Mank it was going to be a rough ride whatever and sure enough he sent me a text before the end of level two saying “ OUT, SICK”. Now, if l go out in Level 1 or 2 in a 15k, 1 hour structured LIVE tournament its going to have to be set over set, King high flush to an Ace flush or Kings to the old bullets. If l go out with 3 6 suited after calling a re-raise l want someone to come and shank me in the Casino toilets while l’m vomiting into the shit pan. By the way when he had sent me the text l had replied with “ul mate, it must have been bad”, really it should have read “ you useless Vietnamese Kunt”..

I made the dinner break without too many tough spots and Bo made up for his epic rick by paying for a great Sushi and l have to admit these lads are great craic as well as very streetwise. After the break l was moved table and had the pleasure of sitting opposite Paul Gardiner, one of the Northern Crew who you see regularly on the UK Circuit, a great bunch of lads. The reason l mention Paul though is because of the one thing that stood out for me in Manchester apart from my exit. Paul was in the small blind facing a raise from a guy who had literally just sat down at the table, Paul gave him the old Geordie stare and flatted and the BB made up the raise. I had been looking at Paul the whole time and was sure he had a monster, so l was not surprised when he called the continuation bet with an Ace on the flop (Ah, 2c, 7d), the turn brought a Jack and Paul checked called once again. When the river brought the 8h Paul checked once again and the guy bet again, Paul insta called and turned over Qd 4c looking at the bloke not realising that he had read the 4c as the Ac, obviously your man flips AK for the pot and the table erupts, it was one of the best moments l have had in poker, sometimes you don’t have to win money to have a priceless moment like that. Paul Gardiner, you are a corker my son and its always a pleasure to play with such a gentleman.

The Sushi in Manchester is great!

With having a bad run of cards and always grinding a bowl of Uncle Bens, l was amazed that l managed to navigate my way through the rest of Day One and creep into Day Two, my first ever consecutive Day Two in GUKPT’s. I was well chuffed even though l wasn’t amongst the big stacks. Actually l was thinking about this the other day whilst l was reading the Racing Post Poker page on the bog and thought to myself that l have never ever had a massive stack in anything l have played in 4 years, what the fuck is it like to have a stack at the end of a Day 1?

Day 2 was quite easy going, after l was gifted some chips by Andy Mosely early on, after this early set back he showed why he can play a bit by keeping his composure and rebuilding. I was happy to sit tight after this early double up as l had two of the busiest feckers on the circuit atm, Chris Brammer on my left and John Eames on my right, Chris had a monster stack as usual. Young Andy was still in action and this meant that spots were few and far between with the shit l was getting dealt. As we made it to the dinner break however, l was starting to get more confident of reaching the final table and l went to have grub in good form.

Kully was treating me to dinner as l had bought breakfast in town before we walked to the Casino. He had been on at me since we arrived in Manchester Piccadilly about this great kebab joint near the casino so l thought as it was the last day there l should oblige as l had forced him to eat Sushi for the last couple of days. Kirit Patel joined us as we jumped into a taxi for the 5 minute drive up the hill, when l seen the place l nearly told Kully to go fuck himself as it looked like one of them Takeaways which had been on Grime busters having just shut down after a Health Inspector had found two rats humping in the Deep Fat Fryer. l went in and it was clean enough so l decided to eat what was ordered by Kully, l was so wrong, the food was absolutely fantastic and l will be back there without a doubt when l go back to Manchester.

Well worth checking out!

We got back to the Casino just in time to take our seats and what l have to say about the next two hours is going to be short and sweet. With 16 left and a chance to get a good stack l re-raise Kirit’s 3 bet with and All In holding QQ and he calls with AK as l would probably do……….the Ace comes on the river and lm dusted. He is a nice fella Kirit, plays his poker in the Gutshot and l believe he told me over dinner that the Gutshot owner, Barry Martin had done him a deal for this GUKPT. He runs an interesting Web business which looks well worth a look!

Kirit Patel.

Its funny how things work out and after Kirit had knocked me out, Kully who l had spent most of the weekend with, went on to win the Main Event. Two great lads and well done to both of them. I have to give a mention to a young lad who is just starting out on his Live Poker career, Xander Arnold! I first met him on the final table of GUKPT Main Event Satellite in Bolton earlier this year were he performed miracles to win a seat, l then encountered him on a table in Manchester were me and Mike Ellis had a great bit of craic with him in the Main Event. He was extremely unlucky in Manchester at the end of Day 1 and he was visibly heartbroken, l know he will recover and hope he will get some breaks as he definitely has game, good luck kid!

Coventry GUKPT.
I love going to Coventry as l have mentioned many times before and this was no different. My good mate was back from work in Nigeria for a few months so l had him playing for us and James Atkin who always gives you a real run for your money. None of us cashed in the small field and Gino was the last man standing going out in 22nd. Once again l enjoyed my visit there with the place as immaculate as always. A wee thing l must mention which really stuck in my memory was the fact that Tikay from Blondepoker was there keeping tabs on a SkyPoker Qualifier who l was sat beside for a short time, seemed a nice lad. Everybody knows l’m not keen on Blonde and never will be, but this man who l have slated in the past came up to me and asked how my Black Labrador was and even remembered his name. He also done it with real sincerity in his voice and body language which meant an awful lot to me, l won’t forget that in a hurry. Thank you Tikay!

Wallace, 15 in October, looking great atm!

Her Majesty’s Pleasure. (A wee bit of porridge)
I can finally write this section now as it’s all over. I went to court in November last year for totting up 13pts as l’m sure many of you reading this blog are aware off. I had just had my licence back from a previous Disqualification were l had been caught driving whilst disqualified so l went to court and lost my licence for 12 months this time and at the same time l gave the Magistrates a wee bit of shit. I left the court at 11.40am and was caught driving a Hire car at 11.55am by two policewomen in a Traffic Car, they stopped me because l was on a mobile phone and l wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Thinking quick l didn’t tell them that l had just lost my licence as l would have been arrested straight away, l just gambled that it wouldn’t be on the system yet and it worked…….of course they gave me a producer and then consequently found out everything!

I ended up in court last month with TWENTY charges against me and was sure l was going down for 5 months, probably ending up with eight weeks. I done alot of research into good solicitors for this type of thing and l ended up with a great Solicitor from London. It cost a packet but he was top bollocks and got me off with £200 in fines and an extra 4 month ban, in the Court on the day he was just unreal, cutting the prosecution in bits. If you get into shit with Motoring Offences get yourself a good Solicitor, worth every penny.

A New Direction For Me.
I will do a bit more on my next blog entry which won’t be too long as l have lots more time on my hands these days. I have managed to QUIT the disease that is Online Poker, yes, l’m not joking. I have not touched it in 7 weeks now and although it was very hard to get through the cold turkey of Sunday’s especially, l am done for good now. It is a fucking disease, an addiction and no better than playing Roulette Machines in a bookies or Fruit Machines in an arcade. It has you glued to the PC for unhealthy amounts of time, it makes you moody, you eat unhealthy shit regularly, you hardly exercise, don’t spend time with people who matter to you and generally don’t have a LIFE. I am well rid of it!

A recent visit to lovely Perth.

I have started a new venture in Sports Trading also which l can’t say a great deal about, it means l have a lot less time to play poker on a regular basis, not that there are many opportunities for the games l want to play. I am really enjoying what l am doing now and l hope it will continue for a long time, l love Horse racing and Dog Racing so this is my dream job!
I think my next Live Poker Event will be the London EPT and then the Belgium Poker Open which l absolutely loved last year.
More Soon………good luck all!

UKIPT Coventry, the importance of Village Poker and No thanks Rob!

2010-04-19T11:24:00.001+01:00

UKIPT Coventry

I had really been looking forward to this tourney as l like the lovely New Coventry G. Casino, its 35mins away and lots of friends from the Midlands poker scene would be there. Since l got banned from DTD and then with the loss of my license for a year before Christmas, l haven’t been playing in Birmingham at all, which l had made my new poker home. For those reading this blog that aren’t aware, Birmingham has the strongest Cash games outside of London and these are regular with a good base of players.

I decided to play the Thursday and had arranged a lift with Jimbo Atkin, we were going to pick up Trigg from Leicester Train Station after his last minute decision to go for his usual social. It was an interesting drive to the Ricoh with James, to say the least, lets just say l hope that's a real English license he has and not a Polish one he bought from Lincoln Market. We did arrive safely and for that l must thank the Baby Jesus!

Trigg, not looking his best and directly to my left on Day 1.

My Day One was an up and down fuck of a day, from the start when l was seated directly to the right of Trigg till 40 mins from the end of play when l went down to 9k after my QQ was outdrawn by 10 10. Even after all this l had felt comfortable and there was always plenty of spots, luckily with 30 mins left to play l was moved to a real nice table were l was able to get back in the game finishing the day with just below average chips. Unfortunately James and Trigg had not made it after getting a few difficult spots and bad beats, however l had a couple of percentages with a few fat stacks which is always nice.

I returned on the Saturday full of confidence and my starting table was good with only Dan Carter to trouble me, l got the better off him on this occasion but he’s still someone l don’t really want on my table especially when he has chips. I moved to a new table in the main poker room with a lovely stack, about 86k with the average being 62k, l didn’t know any of the players at the table which l was happy with. After about 25 mins Paul Bracken was moved to my left but was very low and then my exit hand happened shortly after. The blinds were 800-1600 and l find QQ UTG+1, l make it 4600 and l get 2 flatters and it gets round to the BB who is that Gilles Augustus (the eventual winner), he makes it 14,800 to go and l shove my remaining 69k, fold, fold and then he snaps my neck off with KK, goodnight McCool, get your fat ass out off Coventry. I don’t really think l done a whole lot wrong here as he had been a busy fucker the whole time l was at the table, but best of luck to the lad he used the 180k pot well and scooped the 48k prize money, bastard;-)

The Winner

The G Casino at Coventry was great as usual and the cash games were rampant from what l seen, l didn’t really get a chance to play in them. The tournament was run extremely well with most of the regular GUKPT team there, only bad thing l have to say was the fact that the dealers on Day One were an absolute load of shit and there is no way they should have been allowed to deal a monkey comp. One old geezer who dealt at almost every table, was about 75, had glasses like the bottoms of milk bottles and looked like Grosvenor had dug him up from the local graveyard the night before, fuck me l did feel sorry for the old kunt. I was told they were from an Agency, well if the owner of that Agency is reading this blog l would get yourself down to your local airfield mate, put a few hours in learning to fly a small commercial plane, round them dealers of yours up and fly the whole Agency towards Iceland my son! The only little complaint l have towards the casino was the toilets, Jesus Christ they were bad, it just so happened l had a dose of the shits while l was playing on the Thursday (probably that fucker Atkins driving) and the Saturday wasn’t much better. The toilets were either blocked, there was no toilet roll or they hadn’t been cleaned for the duration of the day, sort it out Coventry….

Village Poker

Three months ago l was at the local village shop near to were l live and l seen a poster which was advertising a poker evening, l phoned the number and decided l would go along as it would make for an interesting blog entry. Long Clawson is a small village outside Melton Mowbray were one of the dairies that makes Stilton Cheese is located. The population is about 900 l reckon and they have one pub, one very small shop, a little cafe, a very good Medical Centre and a great Village Hall. Now, the Village Hall is reasonably new and is built on land that was donated by a local farmer, the money to build it was loaned to the villagers by the Dairy. They hold regular events and money that is raised is paid back to the Dairy to pay off the loan, one of the regular events just happens to be a poker night which is organised by a guy called Johnny and his wife.

The famous Stilton Cheese

After a few phone calls with Johnny and his missus l turned up with a few things that they could raffle off, a card protector, Pokerstars Bag, Hat and stuff like that. I paid my tenner on the door, which they had offered to waive, this is made up of £3 for the poker and £7 for a free drink and a dinner in the break, believe me a few of the casino bosses should come and try this as it would show them up, tight wads that they are. One thing that really lit my eyes up was that Johnny had put posters all over the entrance and the main hall that had “Mick McCool – Professional Poker Player here tonight” printed on them, marvellous, no pressure!

After getting my free pint l quickly found enthusiastic people, both young and old coming up and asking me questions about poker in general. I knew a few of the people there so it wasn’t all that bad and l quickly relaxed into the evenings game. The tournament area was well organised and although the chips were not numbered they were workable after a few minutes. The dealers were just locals who had slightly more experience and that worked fine with everyone having a real good time. Fifty players started and by the dinner break we were down to 20 approx, the standard of play was very novice as you would expect. The meal was really good and during it they held a raffle for different prizes that were donated, it all added to the enjoyment of the night.

Johnny (drinking), Bill (Linda’s Husband) and Ivor.

When the dinner break was finished and we got back to the tables l managed to get lucky in a few spots and made the final table with below average. Eventually l got heads up against one of the guys who l knew before the evening, Alan Grummitt and although he had a 12 to 1 chip lead on me he was very inexperienced. Old Ivor who finished 3rd was a character and he was responsible for learning Alan how to play a two days before, so a good result for the master and pupil. It was a very enjoyable experience and l found it really relaxing and lots of fun playing with people who were just there to have a night out whilst playing a game of poker. Believe it or not l learned a lot from the whole experience, l don’t take any game as serious now and have a much more respect for weaker players. My problem used to be that l never ever remembered being a bad player, a bit like Learner Drivers l suppose!

I talked to lots of people that night and also the second time l went which was a month after, a few days before l went to Cannes. The mixed bag of people that l met playing there was unbelievable, you had 18 – 80yr olds and occupations such as a Blood Tissue Bank Director, an Office Manager, a Building Contractor, a Shop Owner and many more. l managed to speak to a few people to see what attracted them too poker as an evening out, here is what a they said:

Linda Seden – 64yrs old

Linda is retired and has been playing for about a year with her husband Bill who she has been married to for 44yrs, she has never played online and has been to Dusk Till Dawn a few times playing the beginners tournament, she finished 19th once at DTD which she is very proud off but she feels intimidated by the men at the tables there. She has joined the Pub League and plays once a week at the local in Long Clawson, the social side of the game is very important to her. She believes that there is a bit of skill involved but that it is more luck than anything!

Charlotte Flook – 18yrs old

Charlotte is a student and has been playing for about 6 months both online and live. Again she loves the social side of the game but believes that there is more skill involved than luck. Charlottes mother also plays!

Karen Dawn – 30yrs old

Karen has been playing a few months, she works at the local pub and really enjoys the social side of the game. She intends to learn more about the game and continue to play as much as possible. She enjoys knocking men out!

Karen, with Richard railing her.

Richard Bagshaw – 32yrs old

Richard has only been playing for about a month and he enjoys the game immensely, he also wants to get better as he enjoys the competitive side off the game.

This was only a few people who were there and l spoke to many more all of who loved the game, whether it be the competitive side of it or the social side off it. The amount of women that played in both Village games that l played accounted for around 40% of the attendance which l thought was amazing. None of them had travelled to any competitions but several of them had played at DTD as we live really close to it. The whole thing was really well organised by Johnny and his wife who both play, the Village Hall is a great Venue and the people were an absolute pleasure to sit down with. I really believe that this sort of poker along with pub poker is extremely important for Poker in this Country. Grass roots is the key to longevity and we should do everything possible to help and encourage it!

No Thanks Rob!

Well l would have thought with the General Election coming up all the best Spin Doctors would have been hard at work, trying to get the public on board for them vital votes. DTD’s version of Alistair Campbell has started his election campaign on Blondepoker, as usual l reckon he won’t have to say much to win their votes.

Rob has kindly mentioned me in his new blog and to be honest he talks a lot of truth but also there is a few inaccuracies. He mentions that l have tried to get back into DTD a few times recently and l have to admit now that this is definitely TRUE, except for the recently part. The dates that l tried were in and around early September 2009, it shouldn’t take the brains of an Archbishop to work out why l tried then, but just in case you don’t know the “English Poker Open” was taking place there a few weeks later. I had not tried before or after these dates!

Like myself Rob is a good blogger and many people will read his well written entries so he has no reason to lie! Rob says in reference to my blog “l don’t read it myself, but have been sent various links to Mick McCool's blog”, now come on Rob for fucks sake, that’s the biggest lie ever, l bet your on here more than me, come on man you can tell the truth, just send me an Anonymous PM with “yes” on it, l will know its you me oul cocker. I could say that about not reading his blog but it would be a bare faced lie as l can’t wait to get on Blonde and see what brain drain your feeding the sheep, its like getting up on Christmas morning to open my presents.

As for Rob’s kind invitation to start deleting my derogatory blog entries l will NEVER EVER be doing that, l have NO intention of ever walking through the doors of DTD whilst the current management are in charge. I also have NO intention of ringing up again for my ban to be lifted. I took a new direction in Poker recently which is to travel across the water when l go to decent sized events, DTD doesn’t really hold £1k+ events as they cater more for beginners and intermediate players. As for cash games, l don’t really want to sit in 50p - £1 games anymore, the bigger cash games are dead and buried in DTD, so once l get my licence back in a few months l will be off back to Birmingham twice a week. As l have said before, my business won’t be missed at DTD and as Rob said in his latest entry “I am sure the 500 people that have come through the doors of DTD today” tells its own story.

An Online Win

I had to put this in as l usually run like shit online.

UKIPT hits the best Casino in the Country, l get a Massive monkey off my back and he’s back at last!

2010-04-06T07:50:00.001+01:00

Less UK and Ireland!

For those who don’t know me that well, earlier this year l had decided to play very little in the UK or Ireland in the next year for different reasons, obviously Ireland is a simple one for me as l’m sick of being shafted by the Airlines, Hotel and the Tournament Organisers. The UK was for a completely different set of reasons, firstly my 14 yr old Labrador Wallace is on his way out with cancer and l want to be there when he either dies at home or if it has to be, l will be the last thing he sees if the Vet has to put him to sleep. When either of these happen l will not play live poker again for 6/7 months, that is as definite as Tyrone finding out that Kevin Webster is the father off Molly’s sprog on Coronation Street (l do love the soaps, sad bastard).

Old Wallace out in the snow last month with a Bull Terrier.

The second reason is down to the Law and my inability to drive slow without a mobile stuck to my ear and stop at red lights, l had put over 12 points on my Licence and they banned me for 12 months with a re-test before getting it back, marvellous.

Lastly, l have learnt lots in the past few years about protecting your bankroll and were best to utilise it. The cash games have died in England in the last 7 months, at the Bolton GUKPT they were dead and when l went to the UKIPT Manchester it was mostly small stakes with one good Hold Em game that l couldn’t get a seat into, after waiting for a few hours. When you get knocked out over here it can take ages to get back home, time off from the tables is mainly spent in the Hotel or going out for some grub with the lads. If you are abroad there is so much more to do and see, you can be home just as quick with the many Flight Paths that are now available and many bargains fares to be found online. Basically, playing in England with the same circuit players every week was killing me and l had to broaden my horizons before it broke my spirit and enthusiasm, now that l have done it a few times, l am never going back to the old ways.

GUKPT London

Well folks, last week l decided to travel down to the Vic. for their £1500 GUKPT Main Event, London for me is an hour and a half on the train. The beauty is the fact that it is a High Speed non stop service from Leicester to St Pancras and its only £39 return, 10 mins taxi ride and your in the Vic Reception. Talking about the Vic. Reception, what an absolute Cluster Fuck it is during these Festivals, one minute you are able to get upstairs in a jacket and then you come back from having a dinner break 4 hrs later and your told to put it in the Cloak room, 7 times l was stopped during the Festival and off course l complied without arguing ;-)

I had said to some Poker friends in January that it would take a massive effort to win the London, Walsall or Luton Leg of the GUKPT this year. There are a number of contributing factors for this in my opinion, the recession has dried up the recreational players and made the weaker players drop their levels dramatically in the past year. These three places have always had a strong base of experienced players who are all very competent and make very few mistakes and finally they get massive entries compared to other stops on the popular tour. So in other words l don’t know why the fuck l bothered going in the first place!

It all started on the Tuesday when talking to Adam Vinson on Facebook and he had told me he that he had finished second in one of the Side Events for a nice chunk, then he tells me some of the numbers for the Sides and my feet are getting really itchy now. I wasn’t really interested in the Sides but they usually a good indicator for the Main Event, just to be sure l phoned Mr GUKPT, Jonathon Rabb and he cemented my attendance.

I had rung Julian to see when he was going down and he told me he was driving on the Thursday morning at 9.30, so l decided to hitch a lift with him. He had just won an Online MTT for $14k on Stars the night before so l knew he was good for the Latte’s and maybe even a Bacon Roll if l played my cards right. We got there for 12ish, l registered for the Main and sat in a 2 – 5 HE game which was really big. I managed to double up fairly quickly with KK in the BB versus QQ which nearly covered my buy in and l sat there until 2.30pm when l took my seat.

My starting table was as expected, HARD, l had seasoned journeyman Adam Wilkinson, Pro Rumit Somaiya, Semi Pro Anthony Hardy, Pro James Sudworth, a Vic. Regular, a Scandie Pro and a real fit American bird, Jessica who could play a bit. Oops sorry, l forgot one, FLUSHY, old Dempsey and Makepiece had made an appearance on the Live Scene, God Bless him!

Jessica Dawley

The craic was great and l have to admit l really did enjoy this starting table, l found out a few interesting things on there about some of the lads. Rumit, who calls himself The Cube online and uses one as a card marker cannot even do a fuckin Rubik's Cube so if your reading this Rumit, the games up son. God Bless old Rumit though, he was sat beside Jessica for the first few levels and he was using all the tools from his oul Love Locker to try and get her number. Meanwhile you have Sudworth and Dempsey knocking back liquor as though they were in fucking Tombstone Saloon in 1872, playing Deuces are wild with Wild Bill Hickok. Then after four hours in and Rumits hard groundwork with Jessica, the Tombstone Twins waddle over to were she is now sat (next table) and get her number, it was great to watch and it made the day go much faster for me.

Just to let you know the strength of this event, l was moved for 35mins to one table before it was broke and l had Ram Vaswani to my left and Priyan de Mel to my right, thanks for that. I was moved back to the same table and as players were knocked out we got the very competent young James Williams, Micky Wernick, another solid Scandie, Andy Ward, Javed Abrahams and Priyan de Mel. Ok now, l’m being totally serious, are you taking the fuckin pisser here, l know l can play but so can all these guys and your game has to be mistake free and in top form, l witnessed some Top Class poker from that table and Priyan showed me why he is one of England’s Top Talents.

I had a steady climb all day to my Day 1 finishing stack of 74k, l got lucky once against some young Irish kid who played an absolute cracker and l mean that, this bloke who l don’t know really impressed me and l think we will be seeing more of him. I had been left short stacked after some old guy had called my A K raise with Q 3 and the flop came Q A 3, so l get AK in the BB and this Irish kid raises two from the cut off and l shove, he has KK and l spike an Ace on 4th street, unlucky mate. He then builds his stack up and finds KK against QQ were the guy hits a Queen, what a day at the office, but then we have all had them many times. Once l had bagged up with 38 left at around 1am l sat down in the Dealers game until 5am when l headed to the train station to go back home.

After a lovely relaxing day at home l caught the train down to London the next day for the 2pm start. I had a fairly easy day with no real tough decisions and no key hands, l did tussle with the Vietnamese guy who eventually took me out in the Final and he wanted me bad but l was sure he would have to get lucky to win back any chips he had donked off to me. I made the final with about 220k in chips which was below average but l felt there was plenty of play left and l would get opportunities against the Massive stacked Vietnamese geezer with my experience. Other Final finalists included Rumit who was massive Chip daddy, Neil Channing, Lawrence Houghton, Darren Annis, Vicky Coren, a good Canadian, a good American and the two Vietnamese lads.

The Final was going easy for me and l was feeling very comfortable when l somehow got all my chips in good with AJ against the J9 of the Vietnamese guy, the rest is history. I was sick for about an hour but l had finally got the GUKPT Final Table monkey off my back. I enjoyed the whole event, we had the Tombstone Twins doing their bit to sell The English Poker Experience to Jessica, the Staff in Reception trying to get the Jacket off my back every time l came in, Rumit “l couldn’t do a Rubik's Cube if l was locked up for as long as that mad kunt Bronson” Somaiya trying to unlock the lovely Jessica’s Cube.

Get a grip Rumit, the games up Son!

The staff from AWOP were there as usual doing a great job, my mate was even able to watch the Live Feed from Nigeria, unreal. The GUKPT Staff under Ian were great, slick and very well oiled nowadays as you would expect and finally as always you had the spine off the operation, Mr Rabb making the players feel comfortable and ensuring everything came together smoothly. Thanks to the other staff in the Vic also as l do always get looked after even if l do refuse to take my jacket off!

UKIPT arrives in Coventry this week.

What can l say about this new tour that hasn’t been said already, its just going to be huge and you need to play them. I will probably play the most of these as they are full of value, l won’t be playing the nearest one to me however as it is off course in DTD.

I can’t speak highly enough about Coventry as it is the real top bollocks when it comes to Casino’s in England. Its Las Vegas open style design is always immaculately presented and it has a hard working Management and staff who l know from Walsall Grosvenor. Since being taken over by Grosvenor they have made many changes which have made it an excellent Casino and Flagship for the Grosvenor Casino Group.

UKIPT Schedule

I noticed there is about 15 less Online Qualifiers for this on Stars, compared to Manchester, so l am certain it will be rammed, good luck if you decide to play it. If you have any queries just contact this guy below and he will sort you out or he will know someone who can.

He’s Back……….

You either love it or hate it, l’m firmly in the first camp. Ashes to Ashes returned to our screens this week past and it was great to see me oul mucker Gene Hunt back in the Quattro, he is a legend!

Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister)

Some of the one liners had me doubled over watching this first episode:

“ If you hitch that up anymore l will be able see what you had for breakfast” Gene Hunt to Alex Drake about her skirt!

“Theres only one thing for it, lets fire up the Quattro”Alex Drake to Gene.

“If you dress like a maths teacher again, l will paint your balls like Hazelnuts and inform the local squirrels that Winter has arrived” Gene to Ray.

“Hey Flid, get over here” Gene to Ray.

I suppose you have to see it to know what l’m going on about, its well worth watching if you get a chance.

The Quattro

Rob Yongs New Diary

A few people have mentioned this to me and l will have a real look when l get a chance, should be interesting as he does write a good Diary if his first Vegas one is anything to go by. Of course it wouldn’t matter if it was a load of tripe as certain Blondes will just lap it up or be spoon fed it by the shepards. I bet Blonde are very happy though, as its been dark days there with everything looking and sounding very repetitive. A new diary by Rob might be the tonic that Blondepoker needs, firstly he gets the word from Jesus to build it and they will come (DTD) and now Jesus has one last job for him, Rob got the word from above “ Lead my loyal Blonde Lambs out from under the rainy clouds Rob and into new pastures were they can shine alongside other Great Poker Forums once again after this you will be known as MOSES YONG.” God Bless Him!

Steady on Moses!

Well Done Colin and Caroline!

Finally a quick Well Done to Colin McTaggart on his Walsall GUKPT win, l was always told when first starting over here that if you can win in Walsall, you can win anywhere and l believe this. Walsall and the Birmingham area have some of the best players in the Country and many great players were in attendance. Colin and his missus, Caroline travel around playing all over and are both very good players, Caroline actually picked up $10k in the Women's TV Tournament a few weeks back. They are two lovely people and a great couple to know, Well Done!

I hope you gossip mongering stalking bastards enjoy this, but remember ffs this takes 5/6 hrs to do properly, if you don’t leave comments l will just stop doing them for the public. Even if you post a kunty comment l couldn’t give a fuck! Good Luck.

Blank Franc, a look back at the IPC and other shit l cant be bothered putting on the Title.

2010-04-01T03:55:00.001+01:00

Well l have to say that l’m pretty fucked off writing this first part of the entry as l had typed an interesting piece into my new fangled Blog Tool on my laptop, which l managed to smash when l tripped outside the house. Lets get on with it!

BLANK FRANC

Following on from my last post regarding the numbers that had turned up in Cannes, my fears for low numbers was quickly proved right when l walked into take my seat and there was only 78 listed on the board. It did get slightly better and l think we ended up with just over a 100, me being the only Irish representative, no English players were present either..

I have to admit now that l really enjoyed this event, the French are mostly ignorant bastards and to be fair it was mostly the same here, but one important thing stood out for me and that is that they seem to have grasped the etiquette side of things now.Tournaments are now being run with strict rules in place and French Dealers are telling players when they are out of line. It was good to see these things being enforced and it made me feel more comfortable as they told me what was happening at all times. That along with the fact that they seemed mostly friendly made it an enjoyable, well run tournament for me!

On the 9th of the Grand Duc!

I never cashed in the event and ended up finishing 27/28th, it was good when l busted as they all cheered at my table, glad to see me out of there. This is usual for the French l believe, but l don’t think that they do it with any real malice after l chatted to a few of them the following day. I am glad to say, l have changed my attitude towards the French after this trip, they are just mostly recreational players who really enjoy a game of poker and because of their culture they have a completely different approach to the game than us on this side of the water. It was a lovely place, expensive as fuck if you don’t know what your doing and were to go for the right price.

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One thing that surprised me was the poker rate for the hotel which we only found out when checking out, E61 a night was a real bargain and it was a great hotel with beautiful views of the Alps and Sea. We took a train from Cannes to Marseille which was very cheap and ran along the coast to the scenic town. There we were able to get an easy link to the airport were we flew back to Stanstead. Whilst waiting for the plane l met a French Bloke reading a poker magazine, he told me that he worked for PKR and lived in London. Seemed a good egg and he also told me some more about the French Poker scene, which he said is definitely on the up.

Outside Marseille Train Station.

I intend to learn some French this year so that l can interact with them at the table a wee bit better, they seem generally ok. By the way, before l finish on France, l got knocked out of the Million on Sunday by someone from Paris after he called my Re Re Raise with AJ off, l had QQ. After my French trip l was a little bit more restrained and simply said in the chat box, “Fuck off u FROG KUNT”………………………….

IRISH POKER CHAMPIONSHIPS

This is going to be very brief as l haven’t much good to say about Irish Poker atm. Ireland has got so expensive over the last few years that it is now not viable to travel there for a game. Like everyone else l love it there and lots of value still plays on the tables, but as soon as you pick up the mouse to book your flight you are getting ripped off. Flights are ridiculous, the taxis charge an arm and a leg, hotel staff should be wearing balaclavas and carry sawn off shotguns, tournament organisers should just wear a strap on 5 speed Black Mamba and do the players up the ass as they walk into the card room and if your thinking of playing cash games, good luck with that. There is good Guinness and great craic though!

The IPC Main was a grind for me but a comfortable one, l enjoyed the tournament immensely and you really do meet some great people at the tables in Ireland. I had sat beside Nicky Power when we were both very low in chips with 50 left and it wasn’t an easy table, but you could see why this guy is one of the best in Ireland, he is very comfortable at the table and picks his spots beautifully. I was moved to a new table and it was here that lots more opportunities presented themselves and l quickly climbed to 119k with 31 left (aver 92k). I was feeling really good and was sure l would have to get really unlucky to not make the Final, how true this was as the following hand took place. I was talking to this guy for about 2 hrs and all hands l had won at the table in his presence was with a legitimate hand. Folded around to me in the cut off I raised to 3900 (800-1600) with KK, this Vinny Cosgrove fella who is on the SB goes All In for 89k (aver. 94k). Off course l snap his neck off with the KK and he tables 67 diamonds, the FLOP comes 10s, Qh, 9d, then a 2c and the river brings an EIGHT. I will let you come to your own opinions over his push but he made the Final table so God Bless him, he was destined by a higher force than me. I got moved straight after this as the table was broke and l went out shortly after with 55 versus AK, a 5 coming on the Flop but he hit runner runner low cards to make a straight, marvellous!

James Atkin had played the Main Event for me and my mate Gino and was really unlucky to go out with a flopped straight versus a higher flopped straight. He came up from his hotel and asked me if he could play the E500 side event and l said “yes”, 20 mins later and James was back at the tables and sure enough the next day he had WON it for us. That is 2 out of 3 events that James has cashed in for us and he really is a very competent live poker player with lots of experience. Unfortunately he doesn’t get away much as he has a young family and concentrates on his Online game, something he succeeds at week in week out. I was disappointed for him slightly as he never received a Trophy for his 1st Live Ranking win, especially as it was a Pokerstars (Biggest Online site and all that )Sponsored event. Not many people ever win a Ranking Event and l think the least these tight arse fuckers could do is spend £75 on a simple momentum, it sometimes means as much as the money to people…. Well done James and here’s a trophy from me, l thought l would use this one as you or shitty Liverpool are not be likely to be lifting anything this big for a very long time;-)

FACEBOOK FRIENDS

Some people reading this entry will have been recently deleted from my Facebook Account. That is actually being very diplomatic of me, basically l have fucked a load of people off there as they really aren’t my idea of friends. Poker players who l see 4 – 5 times a year and who l sometimes wish all the best when they final or succeed in other things don’t give a rats arse what l’m up to, so l have deleted them. The other players like Eastgate, Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen and all them are all gone, l don’t need them spamming me with shit like voting for them and to introduce me to their new Website or stuff like that. The other people l’ve removed is serial spammers and people who only post poker shit about getting the lot, who gives a fuck. So if your gone off there, l’m sure you won’t be too disappointed, but l only want people l think are genuine, interact with me and who l like!

THE PADDYPOWER IRISH (RIPOFF) OPEN

Lots of people asking me if l’m going to the Irish Open this year and the answer is simply “NO”. This great tournament, which is steeped in lots of tradition and glory if your an Irish winner is the biggest joke of the year in terms of higher end tournaments. Its a shafting job from start to finish and good luck to whoever wins it as l reckon you have to finish 7th or 8th just to get yourself out off it. They would be better turning the running of this to Bruce Poker or JP as l’m sure we would see a better run and more reasonable situation than is in place at the minute. I learn’t last year that if you play things for the sake of playing them you will be finished in Poker very quickly, l like to go to somewhere that there is value in some form, either players or the set up!

300 Registration – are u sure?

GREENSIDE WONDER

We have lost some dogs to various things in the past several months but the hardest pill to swallow was the loss of “Greeny” last month to Cancer. I really loved this kennel character, he was 9 yrs old and could not leave the kennels for a home as he was a nutter who would kill any animal that moved apart from another greyhound. He was a very successful dog whilst racing and never owed us a penny, this picture below shows him beating Solid Money in the Heats of the 2005 English Greyhound Derby were he pulled off a massive touch.

Keith and l buried him in his back garden and we both cried our eyes out as we shovelled each bit of dirt into the hole. He was a great dog and a real character who will be terribly missed at the kennels. Rest In Peace Son!

I suppose l might as well..

2010-02-26T08:06:00.001Z

Now that l have this new software for making my entries alot easier to post l might as well make an effort. I arrived in Nice Airport yesterday at 3pm after a decent flight from Stansted, it was Easyjet and was reasonably cheap. The one thing that l hate though is the baggage prices with these fuckers, we only came with a 1 x Hold Bag, 2 x Hand Bags and 2 x Golf Bags and it cost us the guts of £100.

The Hire Cars at Nice where quite cheap, for a Fiat piece of shit with a Lawnmower engine it was only £824 for 5 days. As you can imagine, me being a very diplomatic person and all that l told the bloke were he could stick it. Ten minutes later and after a quick scan on the old iPhone l found that you could get a nice sized car from Marseille Airport for £138 for 5 days. We are flying back from Marseille and had hoped to leave the car from Nice there when on the way home. In the meantime though we jumped in a taxi with an unusually nice Frenchman who charged us 90 euro to our Hotel, he spoke good English and was a golfer so plenty of good info was got for our stay.

Our Hotel in Mandelieu.

Finally l managed to play in the cash game here last night, l put in a 5 hour session which saw me win about 126 euro, l was disappointed with this as l had been up about 400 but was very unlucky in two spots.. The game was very very soft, numbers here are not very good from what l have seen but l’m hoping that picks up for the Main Event. Well that is it for now, only a short post which lm hoping to do more off whilst playing so that l don’t have to keep going back and writing about stuff that is not fresh in my head. Off to the Golf Course now for 18 holes!

p.s You have to win here as it is EXPENSIVE, really expensive and l will write a wee bit more about that later!

PRAGUE EPT and Blonde finally gets hitched!

2010-02-23T06:05:00.001Z

This was the week after Belgium and l was rushing about to get ready for my first visit to this former Communist Haven. As with most of you l had heard great things about the place in relation to different things, you know, the sites are lovely, the people are friendly, its very cheap, good food and the hookers are stunning, sorry mum!

Unlike most of its neighbours, the Czech Republic is not working with the Euro yet but you will find in the City Centre that most shops and restaurants will accept them, l think they are hoping to adopt the Euro by 2015. Their currency at the minute is the Czech Crown which was easy to get and usually the Casino’s /Hotel’s do a good solid rate. I will never change another penny in England again and that’s because every fucker over here rips the shit out of you on exchange rates. Not only that, if you pull a monkey note (500euros) out over here which you want to change, CSI Miami turns up with a fucking forensic team, it has to be sent off to make sure its not a forgery or been stolen, absolute bullshit.

Me and Stu with Becker.

As soon as we arrived in Prague Airport we met Stu Rutter who had been on the same flight, he caught a cab with us and within 25mins we were in the plush Hilton Prague. We booked in and then went to the card room which was in the huge Conference Centre on the ground floor of the Hotel. Lots of Brits and Irish where in attendance, while we were there l seen Pryian, Praz, JP, Julian Thew, Javed Abrahams, Lawerance Houghton, Richard Grace, Paul Foltyn, John Kabbaj and many more representing England. From Ireland l spotted Jude Ainsworth, Alan Cavangh, Tom Finneran and Larry Ryan. Credit were it is due, from this small group we had Pryian go out 9th and Larry Ryan finished 5th for a lovely E100k+ payday in the Main Event.

Fellow Irishman Larry Ryan.

The poker in Prague wasn’t great for me and Gino, with no cashes in the tournaments and two poor Cash sessions, the last one was particularly brutal as l was involved in a 4 way all in on a E7 - E14 Omaha table (7-14 because we are playing in Crowns). I had 3d, 4c, 5d, 5c and being in the BB l called the E56 raise with a nice hand if you can hit. The flop was beautiful As, 2d , 5h, naturally l checked behind the SB and the original raiser pots it, the next geezer pots it again and the Cut Off is All In. By this stage l’m nearly coming in my blue Y- fronts, the SB folds and lm All In and the other two Frenchmen follow me without hesitation. Now, l’m pretty sure my my trip 5’s are no good but at the same time the dealer can pair the 5 if he wants, lm feeling pretty good, the turn is the 9 of Spades and the river which fucks me is the 8 of Spades. The winner has a Jack high flush and his hand is 3s, 4s, 7h, Js and he is the Cut Off, no one had Aces! The pot had 235,000 crowns which works out about £7500 and would have been nice for the bottom line when returning home to sunny England.

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Prague is a real nice place to visit with loads to do, from the Hilton you can walk to the centre of town in about 10 minutes. There is a Casino every 75m in Prague which is unreal, l don't know how much business they all do as we never went into any of them, there was even one inside the Hilton. The restaurants are not brilliant value but the food is exceptional, one thing that l had the pleasure of trying there was Kobe beef, apparently the cows that this beef comes from are bred in Japan, have a daily massage and a ration of beer. To be honest l think the hype Gino had put on it being nice made me pick holes in it, consequently l didn’t think it was the hairy chest. I have had many better steaks including the ones we had in trampy Belgium the week before, overall it was very good though and l should really be thankful that l was eating steak as many people can’t. Two other things l will mention was firstly the fast food as l do like an old KFC now and again, as with Casinos you have a fast food joint every 100m and the value is great, you can basically eat as much as you like in KFC for about £4. If l was living there for any length of time l’d be in a wooden box! The other thing is the Thai massage places that are scattered everywhere, you can even go in whilst shopping and get your feet done. They are pure class and if you get a chance to try this or a full body which they do in the Hotel, try it.

Blondepoker and Dusk Till Dawn

Now unless you live in a cave in the Shetland Islands you will know l hate the both of these fuckin things and everything they stand for more than anything in Poker. People come on the blog and on Blonde shortly after my attacks saying various nice things like, l’m attention seeking, a useless wanker, a fat kunt, billy no mates and all sorts of other bullshit. I couldn’t really give a monkeys what these fuckers say as it has no effect on my life and how l live so ying yang mother fuckers. Before l talk about my main subject, l was speaking to alot of Norwegian's in Prague at the cash tables and they were telling me that their Championship of Poker was being held in Riga this year, main reason was prices at DTD were extortion and the other was location which didn’t surprise me really. I really like the Norwegians and have made plenty of friends there over the past 3 years so will be sad to not see them over here again even though it was making DTD money.

Ok, Blonde have finally buckled (failed as a business) and jumped into bed with DTD, their biggest SPAMMER. It was such a complete shock when l read about it, lol not really, them two were always destined to be together, walking off into the sunset. I don’t really hate all that frequent Blonde but most them bore the hole off me. Some of the exciting threads on there get me going, they really do, l have to rush for the bog usually for a good shit, as for some of the people on there, the tiny core of die hard Blondshites, don’t get me started. Playing the British Circuit as much as l have over the last 3 years, l have shared tables with a few, usually in the smaller buy in events and l have to say they talk a much better game on Blonde than they bring to the table. I remember when l used to go to DTD when it first started and the local Blondshites were all saying we will be there every night, that happened for about 3 months as you can imagine, God Bless ‘em they talk a good game.

How long before the cracks start to appear?

The good thing about these two coming together is that they bounce of each other in so many ways, Tikay has the sheep already programmed, even though the flock is much smaller nowadays as people realise its all bullshit. Then there is DTD who have Tikay firmly under the thumb, he laps their shit up without question. When Yong or Simon post a sad story on Blonde about how they are on the breadline and need to stick it up the punters again all the followers lap it up like it was the Elixir of Life and if it doesn’t go smoothly the Blonde forefathers help to gently usher it in. I recently watched a documentary on Discovery about an American Cult that all fucked off to South America, set up a jungle outpost and all committed suicide when there leader got them to drink Anti Freeze or something. God forbid DTD and the Blondshites do a lock in one night and start reading old posts from the “Vagueness and Vegas Aftermath threads” whilst Tikay and Rob Yong set fire to the building shouting “ we might all be wankers but we will be remembered in Poker eternity” ;-)

Belgium Poker Open.

2010-02-16T07:38:00.001Z

This was a last minute thing, l spotted it online whilst watching Emmerdale on a Wednesday night and after a quick phone call to Paul Jackson he was picking me up at 5.30am at mine the next morning. I had booked the Eurostar and linking train from Leicester and within an hour we were in St Pancreas ready to board our Eurostar train to Brussels. I don’t remember much about the trip as l was in a coma after a sleepless night sorting stuff out for the trip. I woke up as we pulled into Brussels and walked straight onto a train for Namur which is about 1 hr South from the capital. Hotels are not an easy thing to get during this festival as there are not many in the area and loads turn up, we got lucky as last years winner had just been knocked out and was leaving the Casino Hotel, after a few Euros had passed hands we had a roof and a bed, that was about it, believe me.

The Casino/Hotel.

Up close.

Namur, just South of Brussels.

This event wasn’t well organised if l’m been totally honest and you could see this straight away as you tried to register, it was a complete cluster fuck. Remember now, we were starting on Day 4 so these useless fuckers had 3 days of this crap to get their shit sorted, as for being from the UK we were totally fucked as they weren’t interested. After an hour of headache’s we finally got registered and went to our respective tables, the only other UK players l spotted where Nick Gibson, Surindar and JP Kelly who had played the day before.

This Event is an 8 day affair and me and Paul hadn’t really turned up with proper preparation for this marathon. I was seated next to Paul for about 4 hrs of our Day 1 and l’m glad l was because l was cream crackered, it was one of my hardest struggles ever but l eventually made Day 2 with low chips. With the extremely slow structure, the best l have ever seen l was glad to have chips. Paul had slightly more than me, Surindar had a bowl and Nick Gibson was chipped up.

Day 2 started slow for me but l managed to get up to 34k with the average 47k and then l made a terrible mistake against an absolute monkey that Paul had warned me about. I could have got away from the hand with the majority of my stack intact but AQ suited looks really pretty on a flop with four to a flush. With his JJ he shoves to my C bet and l call after a little think, of course l miss the Barn door off outs and make my way to the cash games as the Frenchie high fives his mates on the rail. Paul finishes Day 2 with a decent stack along with Nick, both Surindar and JP are out.

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Other various photos from Namur.

I played the 1k Side Event the next day as Paul was playing Day 3 of the Main Event. The standard wasn’t great but as always there where a a mixed bunch, l managed to make the final 12 from the 88 starters and l had average chips for Day 2. Meanwhile Paul had managed to make it through another day with a fighting stack, l think it was the endless supply of TEA l was bringing down to him. If l could say one decent thing about the Namur Casino it would have to be the tea, it was the bollocks, and the valet would always bring you a couple of little biscuit treats with it, a good old cuppa.

Me old Belgium China.

My Final 12 started at the same time as Paul was starting Day 4 and we were quickly down to 10, the Final was decent enough and when l knocked Rolf Slotboom out in 5th, l was pretty sure l would win it. Unfortunately it was not to be as l went out next after 3 very strange hands in succession, the 4th place finish was very disappointing but l did enjoy the event.

From a massive field of 817 runners which included 4 starting days and levels starting at 10 – 20 Paul managed to finish a very creditable 15th for just over 8k. His exit hand was a a bit of a shitter as the muppet who had AA against Paul’s 10 10 had been just pushing all in every other hand and when Paul raised with the 10’s, Gumpy found the goods. Paul thought hard before committing his chips and missed the miracle on the board, he played a cracker and he will be back with me next year.

Overall it is not a place l would visit to often, but for this event l would make an annual exception with plenty of pre-planning and a self catering Chalet outside the town for living accommodation. The people in the town seem very friendly and the supermarkets are much like ours, don’t buy shit from the Casino as its an expensive dump. There is not much too see around the place except the river and the Citadel which dominates the town Skyline, l will hopefully get a chance to go to this next time if the weather is warmer. The Steaks and general food in the Casino is very good, Cash Games run most of the day and are worth playing even though the rake is slightly high.

The River and the Citadel, the sights!

I will come back here next year but l will be better prepared and l definitely won’t be staying in the stinking Casino hotel, l have seen better greyhound kennels. Me and Paul flew back from Brussels Airport on an American flight (United Airlines) and believe it or not it cost £30 each booking it online the night before.

EPT Vilamoura.

2010-02-10T23:39:00.014Z

After playing the London EPT l had made up my mind to play a few more of these well structured and well run events. The extra chips are also a big bonus for someone to target these as well, lets face it, a victory in most English based events is not going to change your life dramatically unless your some old tramp of the street.

After watching that gypsy bastard Henry put them French Fuckers in the World Cup l headed to Vilamoura on the Thursday morning. Two of my Leicester mates were already there and Gino who was the one playing was into Day 2 of the Main Event, l had intended to play the Omaha, other sides and a wee bit of cash if the right game was available. I had 50% of Gino, so that was a sweat too, if he managed to stay in the main. I arrived at the Hilton Vilamoura around 1pm and l headed straight down the Casino to meet up with the boys, the weather was lovely and the Casino looked out into the sea which was sweet as a nut.

One of the pools at the Hilton.

I registered in the E1000 Omaha and sat down to play it at 7pm, after 2 hands l found Aces with good danglers and found myself in a 3 way all in with two Frenchies, one had Kings with shit and the other had the other two Aces with 2s and 7h. His exact hand was As, Ad, 2s, 7h and after the dealer put 3 spades on the Flop l was heading over to watch Gino in the Main Event, GREAT! On the bright side he was going well and had doubled up and seemed to be playing well amongst some good seasoned players. I always spot a player at these things who impresses me and the one who stood out for me in Vilamoura was Jeff Sarwer, an ex Chess player. This bloke was fearless, knew how to manipulate the table, played his position with ruthless aggression and had great table presence. I love watching good poker and this fella was a pleasure to watch, look out for him!

Hilton Lobby.

View from the Balcony.

I played the E2000 Hold em event the next day which had the usual mix of pro's and crows. I had a reasonably easy passage to the last 18 which then, as expected started too get much harder with good young players. Fellow Irishman John O'Shea and myself found ourselves on the same table and eventually when 7 handed John caught me in a hand which he set me up beautifully. I thought l was trapping him with 88 but he had flatted preflop with KK and the 6, 6 , J flop didn't help me much when trying to escape. I was left with 3 Bigs and through inexperience by the Russian to my right l was able to get back into the game and make the final table, albeit with lowest chips. The final was fairly uneventful and it was just basic experience that earned me a third place finish for just over 20k, l never had any chips to talk about and me and John had swapped 10% when l was very low so l was happy. The guy who won this event did play his Godzilla stack well and he has got a few tasty results recently, his name was Martin Kabrhel (picture), nice fella.

Whilst l was bringing the crust home for us in the Side Event, Gino was playing a blinder in the Main Event and was in the hunt with 28 left, 7th in chips l think. Now l like the rail as good as the next man, especially when there's a chance you could be going home with a tidy chunk, but the Side Events had a lot of dixies playing in them. I registered for the 1k Side Event which managed to attract 57 runners, but the event did not have as much value in it as l expected and we had the pleasure of Jason Mercier, Sorel Mizzi, BustoSoon off Stars, John O'Shea, Nick Levi and a host of young Scandies. I had Jason Mercier to my right for the majority of the tournament and l really enjoyed playing with him and the banter. I have to say, the guy is a gentleman and a Class player, he got down to the last 14 but went out to a horrible beat, his passion for the game is pleasure. I finished 4th for 5k which l was more than happy with.

Jeff Sarwer and Gino in the Main.

Gino played fantastic in the Main Event and managed to finish an extremely creditable 12th, l was gutted for him not making the final table but as he said to me afterwards, he was very tired. These 4/5 day tournaments do drain you if you are not prepared and mistakes can happen very quickly as you are all aware. He did make a mistake in his exit hand but don't we all, the important thing is that we learn from them. It was a great trip overall, the food on the Marina is excellent, whether you want Chinese or a simple Pizza. It is a truly beautiful place with plenty of golfing opportunities, l didn't see much of anything else to be truthful, it was pretty expensive for food and stuff but where isn't these days. One thing they do need to sort out though before l go back is the fucking paths and general walking surfaces, them jammy bastards don't get much rain so they have all these smooth walking areas outside hotels, cafes and the casino. So of course when the old Leicester Greenbacks arrive the monsoon season follows us, l'm trying to get to the taxi from the hotel or casino and its like a fat version of Christopher Dean off Dancing On Ice, not a pretty site. That was probably the only rain they get in a year so l doubt they will be doing non slip surfaces in a hurry.

The Marina.

Well folks l will do Belguim and the Irish Poker Championships next and put it up sooner than this one, l'm off to the UKIPT which l qualified for 4 times on Stars. I think me and the Trigg will be tangling with a few flips as we have arranged a trip to the greys, should be interesting. One last thing, as most of you know my old black Labrador gets worse by the week and l think l am going to take 10-12 months off, as l want to make sure l'm about when he dies, l don't want the last person he sees to be the dog sitter, l owe him that at least. Lots of people said that l wouldn't do it when l mentioned it to them but l think anyone who knows me well and understands how much the dogs mean to me will understand. Thanks for the birthday wishes and best of luck if you are playing soon.

The first of a few...... Blackpool.

2010-01-09T15:30:00.007Z

Okey dokey, this as the title suggests is going to be the first of a few posts catching up on the past few months. I would have had it up sooner but l needed a wee bit off time off after a shitty beat in Ireland at the Irish Poker Championships which l will mention later.

Ok, lets start with lovely Blackpool and the annual visit of the Glorious GUKPT. I enjoy my trips up there immensely as the poker is good and the people are fantastic craic. It always draws a great turnout and it deserves its place on the tour year in, year out. I started my trip on the train for this one as l have recently lost my license (more on that later), my good mucker Paul Marrow met me outside Runcorn station and we headed up the M6 for Blackpool. On the way up we decided to stop for a KFC in one of the roadside rip offs and who was there stuffing a Hot Wing down her Gregory Peck, that Rachel Adeji who had just been eliminated off X Factor. They where swarming round her like flies on shit, just goes to show you how powerful Tele is. As we continued on our way me and Paul only had one Poker related conversation and it was about sitting down in a deep stack event and having KK early doors whilst facing an All In reraise. I had said to Paul, "if l ever lay down KK pre flop in a game to an All In, l want someone to take me outside and beat me with bits of 2 x 4". As far as l am concerned if they have the goods, good luck to them! Anyway moving on, this conversation would come back to bite us as you will read.

We arrived at the casino for 2pm exactly and after a 5 min wait at the cash desk we where in our seats ready to go, Paul was on the table next to me down the bottom of the card room. Three hands after we had sat down Paul shouts me across as he flips KK in a All In coup, unfortunately his oppo flips AA and Paul misses. I rarely feel bad for a player getting knocked out, but l felt for Paul that day as he had being looking forward to the event so much. To his credit Paul took it as he normally does, with great credit to himself and he hung around, making a few quid on the busy cash tables. As for my Main Event, l played some great poker and made Day 2 very easy with a decent stack, my Day 2 was absolute shit with a few sick beats and then a run of cards that would test the best of us. My exit hand was AQ into AK with about 44 left........sigh. I enjoyed Blackpool once again and one thing that stands out was my game of Indoor Bowling with Trigg whilst we waited for Day 2 to kick off, lets just say l creamed him and if the 2012 GB Special Olympics track team need extra coaching look no further than the Trigg. This was my revenge for the Hotel Flip which he won, l don't think that Sheffield fucker has lost a flip in 4 years. Heres a picture of that champion of Online in action in his hotel, its not very often you see a true Professional in action but this must come close.....

Ok folks that's it for this one, l have finished them all and will put one up every 3/4 days, next one is about the Portugal EPT and the Belgium Poker Championships. Tonight l am off to a £10, Village Hall Poker game which l will be writing an article on, to be honest l didn't even know they played poker in the little village's so it should be interesting to see what level it is at in terms of organisation and player ability. Full Report to follow!

Just a wee quickie..

2009-11-30T01:35:00.006Z

I have had lots of emails asking me for a Blog Entry so l will oblige with a brief catch up. I will post a more detailed blog in several days time when I'm back at home and have more time.

Since my last post l have really tried to eliminate most of my losing ventures into online poker, cutting back massively on what l was playing 2 months ago. From two weeks time l will only be playing certain things during the week, at civilized times and for sensible periods of time. Basically l intend to become what l profess to be, a Professional Poker Player! Things have changed for me lately as l have realized that you must take an extremely hard line with yourself if you want to continue being successful and survive financially.

In the past few months l have been able to get away more and play as l have now retained the services of a great dog sitter, she is reliable, looks after the dogs well, feeds them well, walks them and loves them along with a nightly phone call to let me know how they are. Some people might think I'm a nutter, but l can't go away and play well when I'm worried about my dogs, especially the old boy, Wallace. Before this dog sitter l had some useless fuckers that where crap, 18 months worth and before that when l was putting the dogs in kennels l was constantly worried as every time. l had done it before and they looked like shit when l collected them, having lost loads of weight, the staff don't give a fuck as long as they are getting paid.

Well l have to finish now as l am off to Prague in few hours to play the EPT and hopefully some decent cash games, me and Paul Jackson just got back from Belgium yesterday morning which was very interesting. The week before that l was in Vilamoura for the EPT where l done quite well and had a great few hours playing with Jason Mercier (he was my bitch in a few hands) who is a real top bloke. Lots of pictures and stories to tell but you will have to wait a week or so. Also the week before that l was in Blackpool with my good friend Paul Marrow who was dressed for the occasion as always;-)

I have put a few pics up from my recent travels, l will put more in the next entry which will be more detailed. A few people have being asking if l'm going to Ireland to play the Stars/Irish Poker Championships next week and the answer is NO, the place is lovely and the people are the best, but it is a complete rip off. I have played a few qualifiers on Stars but only for the value and to kill boredom. For me Ireland is not a Poker destination atm as it is hard to beat the extra costs and come out with a profit, unfortunately this will eventually kill the game there. If someone fancies paying all my expenses and putting me into the Main Event however, l'm your man, £3200 should cover everything.

Me and Paul in Blackpool at the GUKPT.

One of the pools at the Hilton, Vilamoura.

Me, Jono and Mason outside the Casino.

View from our room in the hotel.

EPT Side Event.

Jason and Jono on our table in the 1k side event.

Namur, Belgium. Citadel in the background.

Paul's exit interview.

WCOOP, WSOPE, EPT and fucked by Matchroom.

2009-10-20T04:52:00.015+01:00

WCOOP

A lot has happened on the British Poker Scene in the last few weeks, but firstly l have to just cover how it went for me in the online extravaganza that is the WCOOP hosted by the best online site in my eyes, PokerStars!

I went close to cashing in alot of events but none offered big substantial reward except one where l finished very deep in Event 38 which was the $500 (1rb and add on) which Elky won. The pot where l went out is still horrific to talk about as it was definitely a bad call by me, aided by someone else's input. I have learned not to listen to anyone from now on especially in an event of this size, the pot would have been a Chip lead pot and would have meant a 5 figure payout at least. The nightmares are still frequent, believe me!

The Mixed Games Events where great and overall the WCOOP was fantastic, can't wait for the next one which I'm sure won't be far away!

WSOPE

Only played one of the WSOPE events this year and if l'm being honest l probably won't play any next year. Although they offer you the chance of a bracelet this side of the water, the negatives far out way the positives. As with last year the venue is shit, not an awful lot of value in terms of players and the chip allocation leaves much to be desired. I had a bit of craic on my starting table in the £1k Event as l had James Keys and Paul Bracken on there, two good lads and as usual Bracks is great for a laugh.

EPT London

Well what a fantastic Event this was and to move it to the Hilton Metropole is no doubt going to make it grow and grow. There are a few niggly disadvantages which could be tweaked for next year like maybe getting a food voucher for a start, giving out free water or maybe even free Wi Fi whilst in the Hotel. The events where run brilliantly by Thomas Kremser's outfit, but l suppose for 3% of the prize pool you would expect this to be the case. The Grosvenor team where also in attendance making sure payments and administration ran smooth, which it did from what l seen with Rabby, Graham and a few other managers from the Vic.

I only went to the Vic for a few cash sessions which where profitable, recently though l have lost the will to go there and play cash as they can't get a decent Dealers game going and Jeff is just an ignorant jobsworth. l often reckon the guy that looks after the toilets giving out paper towels could do a better job than Jeff.

The trip was not profitable overall but it wasn't a disaster as l managed to qualify for the Main Event, l lost most of my chips in that event when l had a Full House against a higher Full House of Eric Cajelass. I played all the Mixed Games Events and the HiLo, going close in the £500 Mixed Game with a ninth place finish. These EPT's are definitely worth attending and all my efforts will be focused on them from now on, the 30k chips in the Main is sick. Whilst at the EPT, l played with Men the Master in a cash game which was enjoyable and for the first time ever l tangled with Paul Zimbler in the 8 game mix which was a real pleasure, he had just recovered from his Heads Up Record Breaking effort at the WSOPE which must have took an amazing effort.

World Open

I have played this Television Event run by Matchroom Sports the past two years, as l have reported on the blog before. From a few months ago when l heard the Event was going to have a better structure with the addition of more chips and that the location was been moved to the Palm Beach, l was really looking forward to playing it. The numbers where being reduced to 48 players and the buy in was increased so l made sure l had contacted Matchroom reference reserving a seat. With rumours going around close to the WSOPE, l once again started contacting the person responsible and even seen him at a coffee shop in Leicester Square at the WSOPE and HE ASSURED ME SEATS WHERE BEING FREED UP for regular players. As you can probably work out now, l never got my seat for the World Open!

I don't mind a lot of things and yes I'm no Angel but l am right fucked off about what really happened here, this is a case where sponsors and big names took precedent over the everyday punters who have supported this Event in the past. I know for a fact that Matchroom have struggled in the past to fill events like this, but evidently this time has passed and they can now pick and choose who plays. One player they will never be seeing playing an Event that they host in the future is me, l couldn't give a fuck if l won the WSOP next year, l wouldn't give the two faced fuckers the skin of my shit. These Events normally sponsored by 888.COM and Partypoker don't offer fuck all anyway, why are they even called Sponsored Events when they don't add a penny to the prize pool. I am going to have a much closer look at these so called Sponsored Events in future Blog Entries.

Too Much Poker

All I've heard in the past few months is about how this new Government Levy is killing card rooms, so now the players are paying for this through increased Registration and monster Rake charges.Surely someone must be making money out of Poker because there is different events popping up every week and the British/Irish Calender is now becoming totally saturated with more and more new events being introduced in the coming months. Multiple events in Europe also mean there is no lack of opportunity every week to get your fix.

Personally l don't think this is helping poker's advancement in the UK one bit, firstly too many events means less players at each event, which then reflects in the size of the prize pool. Lots of Events are affected at the minute and l think this will continue to happen much more often over the next Year or so with reduced numbers turning up. Although 10% of the field will always get paid it might as well be 4%, as only the top four or five in that Event will make the trip worthwhile. An example of this at this weekends GUKPT:

Nick Slade travels from up North to the Thanet Leg where he finished 12th for £1300, his travel expenses must have been at least £120, food and drink for the trip £130 and a Hotel for around £250 and finally entry if he paid directly £1060. This makes the total expenditure £1560 and his 2 days graft means he is £260 down for the trip, was it worth it?

These GUKPT's need at least 300+ runners to make them worthwhile attending and this will happen less and less in the future if the current trend continues. Needless to say in these smaller fields more and more weaker players will continue to miss the money and dreams of that big score will whither away with their bankroll over a shorter period of time. Yes, new players will come and go but not enough to sustain the current saturated market. Very few people can make profit from playing live tournaments in England and although Ireland is a quick hop on a plane with lots more weaker players, it is not financially viable to travel there for poker anymore for numerous reasons. I don't know for certain how this will affect the future of tournament poker here but l reckon it won't be good!

Out and About

Big well done to Steve Holden who won the Liverpool leg of the Gala Tour, l was surprised at the low numbers even though there was lots on as events around that area are usually not lacking in numbers. It will be interesting to see how many Blackpool gets for it GUKPT in few weeks. I know Steve will be well chuffed with his result whatever the numbers as he gets a seat into the Gala Tour Winners final later this year!

As mentioned earlier, Paul Zimbler recently set a New World Record for non stop Heads Up Poker, mad bastard!

Amatay has just been to Dublin for the IPO, his next Blog entry will no doubt be worth reading!

Talking about GUKPT's, the WSOPE and the WCOOP, l have to give a big mention to Jeff Kimber who l often slate, but credit where credit is due he is having some year with 11 Cashes in Ranking Tournaments already. His record in Omaha this year is brilliant and l for one am jealous. Not content with the Live scene, Jeff has also done well in a few WCOOP events. I reckon Jeff is definitely one of the very very few players in England who makes tournament poker pay, good luck to him!

Irish Puppy Derby

One of Keith's dogs managed to win this last week in an absolutely brilliant race which meant the 30k Euro and the Perpetual Trophy came back to Melton Mowbray. What a prospect for next years English/Irish Derby he is, you can watch the race here, Tully is in Trap 3.

Cheap Shirts and Slow Rolls.

2009-09-14T01:46:00.014+01:00

Uttoxeter Races

Had an invite to the races with Betdaq earlier this week, the day didn't start well as l had been playing online most of the night and the struggle out of bed at twenty past twelve wasn't an ideal start. Now as alot of you know l'm not into trousers, shirts and shit like that, so when l looked in the wardrobe for some gear it was no surprise to find it all shoved in a corner folded up, fuck.

I hitched a lift to town where Greenwoods (suit shop) is the only decent clothes shop and l got a few bits and peices, its amazing how many deals there is for clothes at the minute, the trousers where £29.99, but for £35 you could get two pairs. The deal on the shirts was just as good with one for £19.99 or three for £30, happy days. One thing that was a bit of a shock for me was the fact that l had to get trousers with a waist size off 41in, for fucks sake its finally hit me, as well as a tight fucker, l'm a rite fat bastard, a wee bit more about that later on. I arrived at the Racecourse with 10 minutes before the 2.20 (first race) which had McCoy on the Hot Favourite. Before l arrived at the gate l had already done a chunk, as my esteemed guests for the day, Neil Blatchly and Kev Smith had put me on a cart donkey at Doncaster which l reckon was pulling stone out of a quarry in Hull the week before.

I was met at the gate with a big smile from Betdaq's rep. Tom Sloanes, a mackem in a suit, Jesus what next. This guy was great and a credit to Betdaq and he insured that me and the lads had a day to remember! Getting back to the first race and McCoy, as l was walking up the stairs to our box which was in the top tier of the Grandstand, l laid McCoy as l was on Tilt after the Doncaster donkey. l arrived at the Betdaq box which was the best on the course for views of the course, but the first view l found when l looked out was Blatch, Kev and my other guest Ken shouting McCoy across the line, Irish fucker he is. I don't how much Blatchly had on that winner but he showed me a ticket later in the day for a 7/2 winner which he had a bag on, old golden balls. The box was great and we had lovely food served by our personal host with free drinks all day, later in the day l judged the Best Turned Out in the ring and presented the prize to the Race Winner. I got out off it for the day with a 6/1 winner called Celtic Boy and overall it was a fantastic day which l thourghly enjoyed. My thanks to Betdaq, Tom, Russell, Andy, the other bloke who's name l've forgot and Uttoxeter Racecourse who made it a memorable day.

Spivver's World Open Satallite.

After the racing l travelled to Bridgenorth with Neil to play this Satallite for the $10K World Open. First time l've been even though l have been invited many other times, It was good craic for the most part and the majority of the lads are a great bunch. Mad Marty was there in fine form, Paul Jackson, Karl Marhenholz, Gez Bailey, Paul Grummit and a few of the Brummy regulars. I love playing with the Brummies as they are great craic and always very gracious when knocked out, but one bloke, Graham who l think was the Pub Landlord was a disgrace with his constant slow play, idiotic gibbering and slow rolls. I wont be rushing back anytime soon, that said, Spivver ran it all very well and its a cracking pub.

Irish Greyhound Derby 2009

Well Larky didn't make the final but did run on Saturday night in the Consolation Final finishing second. As alot of you will know now College Causeway won the Derby in exquisite style coming from 10 lenghts off the pace to pick Gingers Dog up on the line. After watching it 4 or 5 times this was a simply breath-taking run and l would rip my arm from the socket to watch him run against Westmead Hawk at Shelbourne's 550. At least l can say one off the greatest of all time stayed here at the kennels!

On a sad note l must give a mention to Ben"RookieITB"Turnstill's dog who broke his hock at Oxford the same night and was unfortunately put to sleep. I had the pleasure of meeting "Rodney" when Ben brought him to Luton Grosvenor one night. He was a lovely dog from a good litter and l know he will be sorely missed by Ben's family, RIP Rodney.

International Main Event

Played this last week and wish l hadn't bothered, very small field, more rules than an EPT Main Event in Colditz during the War without the bling. I was going well but fell foul to Nathan Lee who tried to make a move on the turn when l was holding Trips, he had a Straight Draw and hit on the river. Thank fuck as l couldn't wait to get out of the place, another place l won't be rushing back to. It amazes me sometimes, do the people who run these joints not realise the monstrous competition there is to get Poker Players through the doors, from the time you walk into the place, the experience should be a memorable one for the right reasons. My last memory of my time there was getting into a mini cab who they kindly called for me, so recommended by the Club, this bloke had a State of the Art SatNav and still ended up getting lost going to the Vic, the cab was stinking and he charged me the same as a Black Cab.

Blog - A - Lot

Amatay is a Blogger star at the best of times and recent posts haven't disappointed although l wouldn't be directing my mother there for any poker advice. The fact that his knob is stinking in his latest post adds a wee bit of spice!

When I'm coaching Online, which is once every three years or when people are really desparate, l always harp onto players about the importance of Mental Stability and Focus whilst playing. I know for a fact that this is a significantly weak part of my game when playing online and sometimes live. I will be reading Barry Carter's articles with interest as he talks with psychology expert, Jared Tendler.

Well known Irish player Dara"Doke"O'Kearney travelled to Dusk Till Dawn for their recent Dusty Bin weekend with Mick McCloskey and Liam Flood. I don't think he was all that impressed if I'm being honest, check his blog to see what he said.

The winner of the Dusty Bin event, James Keys is selling percentages for the Euro Championships, so give him a bell if you want a piece of this Ex Blackbelter.

Golf mad Steve Holden is getting a Blog facelift and is starting to pick up a few cashes after a lean spell, long may it continue.

The like able James Atkin hasn't updated this week as his newly born baby has finally arrived. Best of luck to him and his family, he deserves all the luck he gets as he is a lovely fella and I'm sure the entry telling us all about the new arrival will be worth waiting for.

Blonde favourite and recent FTOPS winner Richard Kellett is back and selling a few chunks for the upcoming live comps in London, he says the Blog will be updated regularly and when he gets to London he will be doing it daily, should be interesting if this talented young player has matured and learn't from his mistakes in the past. I keep saying it, Poker is a small community!

WCOOP

So far it has been bad but not really expensive as l have Satellited into most stuff, my best result so far has come in the $200r/b 2-7 Single Draw where l finished 31st after l made a bad call with a decent 8 low, he had a perfect 7. I got $1600 for the kitty, but was disappointed.

Next entry l'm going to talk about a system of Weight Loss l might be trying, it is my last option before l use a nail gun to staple my gut or l have a buttock removed. For now though l am off to sleep where l will be dreaming of winning a WCOOP event, because l have no chance of doing it in real life as l suck shit online. Nighty Night....

Very big night in Ireland.

2009-09-05T03:39:00.006+01:00

Well my good friends, tonight is a massive night for my good mucker, Keith. Slip the Lark will walk into the centre of the immaculate Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium in Dublin to limber up for an attempt at an almost impossible task, trying to reach a consecutive Irish Greyhound Derby Final. This is something that very few dogs have achieved and it would surely stamp his name in the history books, the dog definitely deserves it after last years heartbreak and words can't explain how Keith would feel about a second year in the Final. Good luck to all runners tonight, especially Larky! Click here to see him finish second last year, painful.

The Irishman

When l was a young lad, a great Uncle from America would come and stay regularly and tell us many stories from the States. One particular tale that always stood out for me was about his boss when he worked on the docks after arriving from our little village all them years before, the boss man was called Danny Greene and even though he never spoke with an Irish accent, his family roots where never in question. He would always wear green stuff, his car was green and he even wrote his subs for the workers in green ink. Uncle Patsy talked very fondly of how this big beast of a man looked out for the Irish!

At the time he was about, the Mafia was trying to take over all the various rackets and control the Union's but Greene stood up to them and after numerous bomb attempts on his life they finally got him outside his dentists. Greene killed a few Mafia hitmen before he went though and his story is remarkable, he is even credited with bringing the Mafia family in Cleveland to its knees and making them a laughing stock in the criminal underworld at that time.

The reason l mentioned this story is that my Great Uncle would always sing a song about Danny Greene and his courage, although he was a mobster Greene died potless as he always looked after the local Irish Community. I was mumbling the song a few months ago on the Golf Course with some friends and one of them says that they seen Vinnie Jones was making a film about some bloke called Danny Greene. As soon as l got back to the house l started GOOGLING and sure enough a film about Danny Greene, played by Ray Stevenson will hit the big screen later this year. It is called "The Irishman" and it has a few big names, l really hope they do a decent job as this is a great story about a real hard bastard who stood up to a bunch of bad fuckers.

Cardiff GUKPT

Very poor numbers this year and l can understand fully as there is a massive saturation of events at the minute, both here and Europe. The WCOOP doesn't help either, but after speaking to Raaby yesterday he was as upbeat as ever and l think he has every reason to be as they did still get a brave few for the Main Event. Jonathon did tell me that Cardiff is likely to be a Summer Series Event next Season and he was very excited about Grosvenor's recent additions in Coventry and Sheffield. This GUKPT will never die as long as Jonathon and his team are behind it, there is real passion to improve every year which is great for the customers. Unfortunately l didn't bother this year as l am a rite lazy bastard and couldn't be bothered with the 3hr drive. I will train it to London tomorrow however to give the International Main Event a crack.

WCOOP

I started tonight as l was banjaxed last night, l am concentrating on the Mixed Games and will post my results as and when l get any, so don't be holding your breath. Crap in the Omaha earlier but I am still in the $200 rebuy 2-7 Single Draw as l write this with 70 left, so l might get of to a good start.

Old Dogs and a Great Room!

2009-08-28T19:39:00.010+01:00

The Poker Show.

By the power of Gay Skull, old Mick McCool found his way onto the Internet air waves the other night, when l was invited to voice a few comments on The Poker Show. I didn't really know what to expect as l'm all too aware that Jesse, Matt and Padraig can hold their own when the banter starts winging its way in and out off the studio. At the start of the interview all my chat strategy and plans of not sticking my hoof in my big gob went down the pan, as l was forced to talk about my exclusion from Dusk Till Dawn, again! After a few minutes blubbering about DTD and Casino Juice, l had a bit of a handbag session about Channing's Audio Biography the other night and then finished with a wee bit about one of Europe's Leading Poker Theorists and writers, The Dean;-) You can listen to my full interview here!

The New Coventry "G" Casino.

What can l say about this joint except "WOW, this place is the dogs bollocks". I had heard about it when it was under different management, but there was never a reason to visit for poker so Thursday was my first visit. To say l was impressed by the layout would be an understatement, the place is like a Vegas Style Casino with the space to match.

The staff l encountered during the night where a mixed bunch with some work needed to bring them up to scratch if they are to host a GUKPT. The food was nice but was brought out a little cold and there is a limited selection on the menu after 10pm because of the kitchen being closed!

I have to give a mention to the card room which is great, tables are fantastic and there are plenty of screens about. Zak (Reg. GUKPT Tourney Director)was running the £200 last night which meant it was run as slick as ever and the dealers weren't too bad. If you have a spare £330 get your ass down there today as the 10,000 chips and 45mins clock makes for a very appealing event hosted by this excellent establishment.

One thing that did grip my shit was an incident that happened after the Tournament had bagged up the chips for the remaining 12 players. The Card Room director who was left in charge, came to a cash table l was on to settle a protest regarding pot totals. This guy talked a good solution but he was totally incompetent, after 15 mins and no sign of the situation being resolved, we might as well have gone to Coventry City Centre, grabbed an old dirty tramp, washed and shaved 'em, stuck a pin stripe on him and l'm positive he could have handled the situation better. This bloke needs moving to washing dishes in the back or sending on a comprehensive training programme in Cardroom/People Management!

I have no doubt that once Grosvenor Group have complete control of this Casino it will go from strength to strength and become a monster cardroom. Quentin, the Manager, who l remember from Walsall knows what time of day it is and l expect he will easily bring this place to the top of the tree in Midland Casino's!

The Old Dog still has it!

Whilst playing the £200, l was moved to a table with Martin Silke and Micky Wernick sat to my left. I had to mention this hand as it was a corker and it proves the Old Dog Wernick still has a few weapons left working in the oul arsenal.

Martin in the Small Blind raised Micky in the Big Blind to 800 (blinds 150/300), Flop Qh, Jh, 4c, Check to Micky who bets 1k, Martin Calls. Turn brings the As, Martin leads out with 2k and Micky pauses for a few seconds and calls. The River runs out the 10s and Martin puts Micky ALL IN with a stack of Blacks(1k's), Micky has 8k left(Average 12,300). I'm not going to start slobbering on and on, but as alot of you will know many other factors are involved in a hand. l'm sure he won't mind me saying, Micky, like many others is struggling at the minute with the cards treating him badly, so any result is significant for survival. Also he had just ordered a meal which was coming and we are down to 40 players with a break looming! Micky thinks about it for ages and he then says to Martin "l think you have none of that and l can only beat a bluff", those immortal words! After a few more minutes Micky says "fuck it, l call" and he flips a pair of Red Sixes and Martin says "good call Micky" with a cheeky grin. It was great poker by both players and it shows that Micky has still got the guns............................but he was still playing in the cash game with me a few hours later the old dog!

He's real good...

2009-08-24T23:38:00.024+01:00

The Irish Greyhound Derby

A few guys wanted me to give a mention on my thoughts for the Derby this year which has reached the Quarters. I have a few interests as l do every year and everything was looking very rosy until Saturday Night, not during the racing, but the bloody draw after for this weeks Quarter Finals. Obviously l have backed Larky (Slip The Lark) and he stands to make me as much as last year if he wins the final, that scenario is heavily dependant on Saturday night as he has a stinking draw in 3 with an equally fast trapper on his outside and pace to the bend on his inside. He ran like a champion the other night and after last years disappointment he deserves it this year, a great animal with a massive heart.

Slip the Lark

Apart from Larky l have to go for St Louis Spirit, this dog is awesome and you can forgive him for his last run after a bad bump at the first, on Saturday the race is set up for him with expected trouble between Larky and Giovanni. Causeway is one of the fastest dogs l have had the pleasure to ever watch but l just think he loses his consistency in these long comps and his lack of early pace in this particular Derby doesn't help his chances.

The Poker Show

Back on the Air earlier tonight, l thought l would tune in to the last 40 mins of the The Poker Show. I have listened to one of the first shows broadcast with Luke Schartz and l thought it was quite good as there was no holds barred and it was well presented. The little bit l listened to last night wasn't as good and if l'm being honest l fucked it off before they finished shortly after 11pm.

I'm usually quite interested to listen how the other half (top of the food chain) operate in Poker, i.e Mr Channing and his adventures. Unfortunately l didn't remember early enough so l didn't listen to the first part of the show and an apparently good interview with Jeff Shulman, the part l did listen to had Neil telling us how good HE was at betting on sports he didn't know about, how HE was going to mentor Sammy George whilst playing him 10k Heads Up's every week(or twice a week if he wants) until he plays Durr in his challenge, how HE won the Irish Open, how HE was on the Poker Nations Cup winning team, how HE won £160k on bets at these tele. poker events, how HE knocked someone out of the WSOP 3 years ago, how HE won £34k on Basketball and the last one l can remember was how HE thought most people playing the Television Events where idiots who didn't play as good as HE did. Now l don't really think Neil is a liar and most of these things are probably very true but for fucks sake do we have to listen to him drone on about it every time he opens his North and South. Tonight he was relentless and apparently he thought he was coming down with Swine Flu, by Jesus what the fuck would he have been like if he was feeling the joys of Spring.

The only good thing for me on the show tonight was a few minutes with Padraig Parkinson who always makes me laugh with his banter and oul Jesse who you can't fail to like, he always has a fair opinion of things. I will most certainly listen again, as l suggest other people should do, as they do try to talk about lots of relevant Poker stuff, but if Neil is on as a presenter l will give it a miss as he bores the tits off me.

I must give the Poker Shows glorious sponsor a mention before l move on, Boylepoker/Sports do a great job when it comes to sponsoring things, but if l was them l would stick to that and not bother taking bets on things. Take it from me these fuckers would be hard pushed laying you a score on a dog, l have first hand experience at trying to get a hefty lump on something on three occasions. They are a shit bookmakers, like all the big high street bookies over here. I know people mention this all the time but it winds me up when they advertise bullshit about the bets they will take. Channing mentioned that his friend and ex flat mate Paul Spillane, who works for Boyles, rung him up about prices for Durr and Sammy George and Durr was likely to be 1/4 (1.25). God Bless him, Jesse May then said that Boyles might find themselves getting hit with a few bets at 1/4, you hit the nail on the head Jesse, it will be a few bets and it wont be for much either. Try and get a monkey on, it would be a laugh......

Internet Poker

Well l've been playing alot more Online recently as l haven't got a car at the minute, the dog isn't good and l'm a lazy bastard. I'm slowly coming to terms with it and l finally realise that l will never be a good online player, yes, l will get the odd score for a few thousand and win the odd session of Holdem or Omaha but l will go bust if l continue. My only way of getting back my losses in Tournaments now, are to hit a final table in a WCOOP Event or just bankroll a good young Online player. On the cash side, my mates Bull Mastiff could probably put in a longer session than me, l seem to win consistently but only if l play short stints, play a long session and l play shit. I'm a live cash/tournament player and that's it, l suppose l should be thankful l'm that, as most people who play can't mix the two successfully. As for my shit Online game its finished, l will play the odd comp every week but no where as near as frequent as l have been recently. One final thing l must say however, is about Full Tilt, what a terrible site that is for outrageous hand scenarios in Mixed Games, if that is a random hand generator behind them hands l will fly to Helmand Province in Afghanastan and try and sign them Taliban fuckers up to Full Tilt with a $600 deposit bonus and l will even see if l can throw in a healthy bit ofRake Back (maybe the Rakeback is a bit too far).

Late Night Poker

The oul Late Night Poker is back this week, not on the television, but in the Cardiff studios. I love the people who reminisce saying they grew up watching Late Night Poker and that was there inspiration for getting into Poker, get a grip of yourselves u silly bastards, l would suggest it was primarily other reasons, as a matter of fact l haven't seen an interview yet where someone didn't watch it as a sprog. Well prepare for the shock of your life blog readers, l never watched one show, l never even heard of it until l started playing in early 2006. I have had a quick butchers at a few archive shows online and l have to say that some of the poker wasn't the best, but then l would think they had the same structure problems that these TV events have nowadays!

There are some fantastic players playing this event this year and now Full Tilt has taken over sponsorship we should have a great event on our screens at the end of the year. Actually thinking about it, l wonder if Neil Channing is playing this event, oh sorry l just remembered HE is, l believe he mentioned it on The Poker Show earlier.

The reason l mentioned Late Night Poker was because one of our own fantastic players from Notts. is playing and he rung me to offer me a percentage. Now, l have backed Sam on many occasions, but backing him for a TV crapshoot was never going to be a huge selling point for me. I did listen to his pitch as l will always do but his proposition quickly lost its appeal when he named his heat, Robert Williamson, Annette 15, Channing and Ashby. Sam is a player on form as l know first hand after chopping a British Poker Tour Event with him last week, him eventually taking first, then the Main Event the next day which he finalled also! These TV tournaments are a completely different kettle of fish as everyone knows and with all these names especially Channing who reckons he's a master at this format, Sam is going to have to get lucky. Any player who wins will have to get lucky as everyone at the table knows how to play, that's my opinion!

Casino Juice

The old Maltese Falcon, Joe Grech, was on the phone to me yesterday. I was surprised when Joe said l should stick something on my blog about something that's happening in London at the minute. I didn't even know Joe was a follower but l said l would stick a wee bit on for him. The news from London is that in the Sportsman and the Palm Beach they hold a £200 and a £100 rebuy tournament respectively every week, NO juice is taken from the players on registration or during the comp., instead they take it from the Winners/Prize fund as they do in the WSOP. Joe is wondering why this couldn't happen Nationwide in every comp and personally l think hes on to something here, it works well in lots of aspects. I would be interested in hearing from someone who is better qualified to answer why this doesn't happen here. Anything that keeps money in players pockets who consistently lose, has to be good for the game. Please post a comment on this subject if you can spare a few minutes!

That's it for now stalkerellos, will post at the end of the week during the Summer Series. I will do a Blog Round Up, Gossip, a piece on the Broadway Festival that happened earlier this year with loads of photos and an interesting last longer with November Niner, Jimbo Akenhead. Also l am going to tell you a story that is very close to my heart, which l found out 5 months ago was being made into a Movie, it should be a cracker if they tell the whole story of this real life hard bastard who stood up to the Mafia.....

September and October will be Credit Crunchers..

2009-08-21T07:42:00.015+01:00

One thing l have to get out of the way before l start this blog entry is the result of some emails l have had in the last few months regarding a bloke who posts on my favourite forum, Blonde! He calls himself Greekstein, his real name is Constantine Paparestis and apparently this guy knows me so well, he has called me a WANKER, Mc BAG and an ATTENTION SEEKER. His friendship with me apparently blossomed when l posted my remarks and opinions about Dusk Till Dawn early last year. Indeed my good friend has written over 30 comments regarding me, someone from the Blonde Forum took the time to send me a screenshot of all of these in an email.

I don't know what l have done to cause this hate Mr Paparestis, if l have offended you in someway l do offer an apology. Usually my reply or response would not be like this, but that's me in the past, life is far too short. My 14 year old Labrador is lying here in front of me as l write this and each day l watch as life ebbs away from him, he still senses though, when I'm angry and he definitely knows when I'm happy. For the time being l intend to be happy and enjoy life with him and my Greyhounds, as l know all to well that when Wallace dies l will struggle to be a nice person and a long period of sadness will follow for me.

I have tried not to argue with folk for along time now, l keep myself to myself at most events nowadays and generally try to be a good genuine person. I have been a twat in the past, lent money from people and not paid when agreed, done alot of degenerative gambling on the tables, things that I'm really ashamed off, but l have learned that the circle of Professionals is very small and you can quickly become a topic for most pre-comp. conversations, none of them good. Nowadays l don't lend, l won't play an event if l haven't got the buy in available and l even try to stake alot of young players and friends who have fallen by the wayside. This change has come about through my very successful transition to Cash Games, l say "very" because l very rarely have a losing session, even Holdem Cash is now a profitable game for me, as many will know me from the Dealers Choice and Omaha games at most festivals. It was always a struggle when l was a full time tournament player and l played the tables, my attitude towards people was often dictated by how l was doing at the time, which was often shit, hence l was a wanker.

POKER GOSSIP

Well l suppose the big news is that Fran and Tony Philips are expecting a baby poker pro, hopefully it will be a healthy wee critter. I might even try and get a crazy futures bet on with Billy Hills that the offspring wins a Bracelet before its 21st birthday.

Sam Trickett, one of Nottingham's best is about to leave Robin Hood country for the juicy cash games in London, shacking up with Nik Persaud with making money in mind. Not really a great advertisement for Dusk Till Dawn, as l remember when it opened all these people on forums saying they might move closer to DTD for good poker.

Talking about the good poker at Dusk Till Dawn, massive amount of runners once again this month for their 3-2-1 weekend, not so good for their ordinary £75 freeze out on a Friday weekday though, might be the £11 juice lads!

That Poker in the Park was on last week and they had a Jamie Gold hosted charity tournament after one of the days. Tickets where supposed to be a monkey but ended up shifting at a cut price £250 as they couldn't get the numbers. I don't know what to make of this as l thought they could have scrambled up 50 big names in the Capital. Anyway what great value the 50 players must have had with some of the great prizes donated by the various sites. I hope the Charity made a few quid.

Online Gumbo

I haven't seen much online to go on about, l did see that T.K, Karabiner and Red Dog from Blonde are taking Simon Trumper to Duxford for a day out, have to admit l do love that place!

Interesting thread on Blonde about the fantastic value comp. at the Alea in Notts on a Tuesday where they have been adding a £1000 WSOPE seat to the kitty. I have to admit after finishing 8th in it on Tuesday, it was run terribly, a trainee dealer (young girl) with a Supervisor (another young girl)watching over her back was awful. I don't think the girl supervising knew much, but the trainee was shocking, no initiative and by the end of the night, she had not improved. There where many things wrong with the way the tournament was run in the latter stages and l hope they have learned from the other night. Half the staff looked as though they couldn't be bothered!

On AWOP, l was saddened to learn that Gerry Doughty had passed away after his long struggle with illness. I know the boys on the site put alot of effort into raising a few quid for Gerry and he will be missed on the Blackpool Poker scene. It shows just how quickly life can change!

Blog - A - Lots

On the Blog front, you gotta love James Atkin's Blog, he bores the fucking life out of me, but you feel as though you have to read it once you start. This guy is relentless in his quest to conquer the Online side of poker and he makes good sense of it. Have a look if you get a chance!

I was glad to read that Amatay doesn't have to worry about been caught danger wanking anymore as he has got his wireless sorted.

Blackpool's own online whizz, Clarkatroid is going all out this month so he can have a FREE WCOOP, 100% committed to the cause he will be pissing in bottles.

On the Irish Blog front, my oul mucker Nicky Power has turned into a bloody golfer, well probably for the best!

Well I'm going to wrap it up there stalkers, lts fucking drained me this post. Just a quick few words on what a jackpot few month's British poker players have in store, GUKPT Cardiff kicks off in a week or so, a Paradise Poker added money event at the International, the WSOPE and the European Poker Championships with an EPT at the end of it. The cash games in the Vic are going to be monstrous and if you weren't skint already, you will be after this lot if you don't hit the target by early October. If you run good in the next few month's it will be a very Merry Christmas. I've still got loads of pictures and articles on the last 5 months which l will get to soon.

PEACE MR PAPARESTIS

It is coming, l promise......

2009-08-17T05:02:00.009+01:00

I do apologise my good friends, general surfers and online stalkers for the non delivery of my latest post. This is mostly due to someone who is working on my blog to try and beef it up for me, it is taking slightly longer to finish than l was told because he is doing it on his time off. Hopefully it will happen this week and if not, l will just post on this format.

I have loadsa shit to get through, boring poker crap like the WSOP, which l thought was quiet good for the Brits, not so good for the Irish. We have James in the final nine, jammy wee bastard and what about me oul mucker JabbaCake nearly nicking a bracelet in the Omaha, fair kop. Mickey Greco once again proved he can play poker with a 250k payday and a deep run in the Main Event, he must surely be respected as one of our better tournament players now! Talking about Grecs and Vegas, you have his good friend Neil Channing (cough, cough) and his new BlackBelt Crew idea, where players pay for their own tournaments through rake and then give BlackBelt back 50% of any winnings, personally an old bit of binder twine would do me Neil. I wonder what odds Mr Channing would have offered me on Grecs making more profit than all his Jackie Chans during the WSOP?

On my own side of things in Poker l can't complain, much more a cash player now than tournaments and if l'm honest l will be sticking to the Midlands poker scene for the foreseeable future. I did venture down to London for the Unibet thing and came back dying with Swine Flu after a good night in the DC game. Luton was next for the GUKPT, this was a great trip with one off the best DC games l've been involved in. I witnessed the most unbelievable hand of Padooki between Chandra and Richard Wheatley where a £6k pot winged its way to Richard after him changing up 3 cards on the last change. I won't start travelling around again until my Black Labrador dies and l will then take 3 months off from everything, Sports and Poker. The only break l'm likely to take from this routine is to watch James in November as l didn't get away this Summer. Wallace, my black Lab. is great at the minute but he is very old (14) and has tumors all over, the vets don't think he has long left but by jesus he is a fighter. Dusk Till Dawn would not let me come in for the 1k Event when there was an overlay, Nick Whitten did say that there was a chance in the future though. Ex DTD employee and new co-owner of TGF Poker, Paul Jackson, has started to regenerate the Birmingham Cash games with a Tuesday game at Walsall and then Friday and Saturday at the lovely Broadway, seats are much sought after and the games are really good. He is also starting a Dealers Choice game soon which will be on a Thursday, l'm sure this will be rammed so contact Paul for a seat if your interested. I'll be there, so plenty of value!

I've had alot of messages and stuff from friends back home asking me if l'm coming to play in various tournaments across the water. The answer is the same to everyone, NO, there are two reasons for this. Firstly, Ireland is no longer a value place to travel, its expensive as fuck and the exchange rate is disgusting. Next there are never any Dealers Choice Cash games, although the Omaha and Holdem games are great value, the tournament organisers suck the life out off them with their over inflated rake rates. They should not bother with suits and stuff from now on, l would suggest Balaclavas and AK 47's!

Well, that's enough banter for now, l was only going to do a paragraph. I will do a full blog soon when things will hopefully be revamped on the overall look. There will be a few bits of additional stuff added too, like a forum watch column where l will be discussing some of the useless shit that these forum leeches post. Also a GOSSIP part too, with some good shit each week. Try and leave a comment you lazy bastards. Good Luck folks, speak soon!

BLOG, BLOG, BLOG......

2009-07-29T10:19:00.004+01:00

Jesus Christ people stopping sending me emails, l will do a blog today or tomorrow to update!

Now, leave me alone you blood suckers, youv'e sucked the BlogLife out off me;-)

Deepstack, TV stress and London Poker Circuit.

2009-03-06T23:36:00.016Z

European Deep Stack

Firstly lets finish of the Deepstack report which l never bothered doing, l returned on Day 2 with a decent stack but made a few mistakes early on and had a bad suck out by a Frenchie who was on a tilt mission after getting his QQ cracked by an Irish lad with small suited connectors. I eventually moved to a table which had last years champion, Dara O'Kearney, Padraig Parkinson and a very good young Irish player, Lorcan Fox. I knew Lorcan as we had been looking for a Chinese in town at 5am that morning before going back to the Hotel with a pasta lunchbox at 6am, probably not the best of preparation for the second day of a medium sized event. My exit hand was a raise from Padraig UTG and l pushed All In for a bowl of rice with AK clubs, Dara was sat behind me with QQ and the rest is history, l was out in 44th. Dara is a real gentleman and a great reader of the game, l was glad my chips went to him and he cashed in this event for a second year, well done sir! The winner of the Main Event was Francis McCormack(pictured) who l had the pleasure of playing with in the Broadway Main Event a few weeks ago, which l will tell you a bit more about in the next entry. Paul Jackson and l had done a 20% deal when we went back on Day 2 and he managed to grind into the low 30's while being card dead, he's getting better!

Both of us ended up playing a 1/2 Omaha Cash game after our bust outs and Jesus Christ it was a Cash game. Every pot was 350+ before a flop was dealt and the two Fagan brothers where not sitting on the fence. Poor old Mick McCloskey done his bollocks when he decided the bare Ace was good on a Flop of three hearts, Paul Jackson checked it to him holding the flopped Straight Flush, then he found Paul Fagan behind Mick raising it up with a smaller flush, lovely! This was a great event and the guys that ran it where excellent, no problems whatsoever. I must give the many young French players a mention as l feel they deserve it, many French players attended this event and l was amazed at how good the young guys where. They are without doubt getting better and better and are not a weak nation of players anymore.This is the first event in my calender for next year, no way you should miss this event!

This is a video of my flight back from Dublin, l had changed my flight and paid £50 to do so. My bag was the only one in the hold and as you can see the plane was packed at 0730.

Partypoker European Open

These feckin TV tournaments are doing my nut but l still believe they are full of value. I would recommend that anyone reading this should try to qualify for upcoming tournaments either online or in Bridgnorth (see Steve Holden's Blog), there you can sat. in for as little as £35. The hotel you stay at in Waltham Abbey is top class, however there was a hitch with the swimming pool this time. I went to the pool at 8.00am in the morning of the event and the guy said " you have to use the little pool sir, the big pool is shut", l had been looking forward to this for a few days and then a session in the Steam Room. I asked him why and he said "someone had deposited", l replied confused, like the good clean innocent Irish man l am "deposited what mucker?". He leaned over the counter and said in a real thick cockney accent "someones had a big shite in the pool yesterday mate". That put an end to that one and l ended up with a steam room visit instead!

We arrived at the Mill Street studios at 9.30am and started the usual preparations of make-up, interviews and paperwork. I brought Amy, my little greyhound bitch and she was running around the Green room most of the morning getting loads of treats and hugs. My heat was full of seasoned players Donnacha O'Dea, Achillies Kalackais, David Rudling, Tim Flanders and Dixie Dean who had all played in this format before so everything went very smooth. I won't spoil it too much as it will be on television soon but l thought l played well enough and David Rudling got very lucky against me to knock me out 4th. Marc Goodwin was commentating on the heat and l don;t really know what he has said through the heat yet. I did disagree with a few comments l heard from him when l got back to the Green room however, regarding who he thought where the best players in the heat but l will wait till it air's on TV before making a final shout.

Everyone watching the Heads Up action, even my Greyhound.

Donnachca having a wee bit of grub.

The Interview team.

The brain's of the operation.

Spivver and Beiju.

Make Up lady.

Amy on patrol of the Green Room.

The Green Room.

This tramp just wandered in from the street.

I really enjoyed the event and can't wait for the next one, l have to give Roberto and Dale Hoy a mention as their paths took seriously different directions. Dale was heads up in his heat with Neil Channing when he took a terrible beat to be eliminated, he ended up in the Turbo heat with Roberto where once again he ended up Heads Up. This time it was Roberto with A 3 against Dale's KK who done the damage, luckily Dale and Roberto done a wee bit of business. I felt really bad for Dale as his disappointment was soul destroying but l'm sure he will bounce back in the next one. No one would begrudge Roberto the win as hes a top bloke and was in need of a draw.

A very unlucky Dale Hoy.

Me and David Rudling after l raised his BB again!

The Welsh Champion.

Dusk Till Dawn

My answer came the other day from Nick Whitten, "NO". That is it, end of story, l will not be allowed back into DTD while the current management are in charge. It is a bit of a shitter when you think l am 10 mins away but thats life, l will never apologise for what l said as it was all true. We have a good Dealers Choice game in Alea which l go to when l can but to be honest there is that much on in England at the moment that we are spoiled for choice. Jonathon Rabb is also pushing DC in the Vic which takes me an hour and twenty to get to and this will definitely get better with Rabby behind it. DTD's £300 weekend's are taking off and they will continue to get decent numbers from the Northern catchment area but there are going to be a few different groups competing for their players during their bigger events!

London Poker Circuit

One of the groups competing for DTD's prospective bigger players is the upcoming London Poker Circuit, a monthly Festival held in some of London's exclusive hotels. The Main Event is identical to the GUKPT Main Events in terms of Buy In and structure and Paul Bracken has told me that the winner gets a very exclusive Trophy for the win. The group behind it are very enthusiastic and l have no doubt it will work, all events will be broadcast live on the growing NutzTv operated by the great updater's at A World Of Poker. Poker rates are available at all of the Hotels and all information relating to the tour can be seen on their website here. I will be in London for the launch party which should be good craic and l will let you know more after.

Next Blog Entry

In my next entry l will cover the fantastic Broadway Festival. Leave a comment you feckers!

EUROPEAN DEEPSTACK CHAMPIONSHIPS - End of Day1

2009-02-07T05:45:00.013Z

It is late and l'm about to jump into my bed after an exhausting day. In the bigger picture of things l probably could not have been on a worse table, Paul Jackson, Rob Taylor, Michael Greco, Myself and very good young player, Keir Radcliff. Most other tables had a mixed bag of two pro's at most and weak/inexperienced players, every chip on our table was fought for with every bit of the arsenal you could muster. It could have ended so very different as chips went from one end of the table to the other, l often thought to myself what the three French players where thinking of these constant steals, re-steals, re-raises, massive bluffs and some right old shit that was shown to claim the chips.

Everyone know Paul Jackson can play poker and l think l probably seen the best call l have seen Live, tonight. Keir had been loose aggressive all day and he was pain the ass for Paul and l, as he was on our immediate right. He played great poker and when in a pot with him, you had to very cautious of him taking control of the decision making. He had 170k in Level 8 and he started to tilt slightly when things where not going his way, but to his credit he kept forcing the pace. Level 11 was a key level for Paul and l as we both won decent pots of him, this was when Keir really wobbled as you will see. I am in the SB (500/1000 ante 100) and Michael Greco raises in mid position to 3k, Keir in the cut off calls and Paul on the button calls, l fold and the BB folds. The FLOP comes 9c 6d 4s, Michael checks, Keir bets 5k and Paul calls, Grecs folds AK. The TURN brings the Kc and Keir bets 10k, Paul calls and the RIVER brings the As, Keir pauses for a few seconds and puts Paul to a decision for all his chips with a 17k bet. At this point Paul looks dejected and starts muttering to himself, he thinks for about 10 minutes and calls for his whole tournament with a pair of 7's, Keir cannot believe it and sure enough the 7's are good. I thought both players played great poker here and it was unlucky there had to be a loser, good poker!

Keir kept harping on and on about that hand and kept saying that he needed a double up and as fate would have it, he was in the BB in the last hand of the night when it folded all the way around to a French gentleman on the button and this happened:

Although Keir ended the day with a short stack, l feel he will be very dangerous on whatever table he ends up tomorrow. A real good little player who will improve massively with more Live tournament experience.

Padraig in fine form as usual.

Vesty and Donal.

Peach of a threesome, Stu Rutter, Noel Furlong and Nick Slade.

Flipper in fine fettle, he was telling me that Nicky Power and him where lying in bed in the CityWest yesterday morning betting on the property values on Relocation, Relocation........only in Ireland!

Mick Fletcher

Nicky Power in the last level, ready for a beer.

End of the night for Mr Jackson.

Paul and Skalie.

Lasts Years Champion - Dara.

ALL THE END OF DAY CHIP COUNTS:

Vannak Tok 272300

Jon Kalmar 248800

Guy Johnson 242300

Francis Jeannin 182800

Dermot Blain 172100

James McManus 171200

Thiery Goue 1682001

Willie Russell 161700

Kevin Fitzpatrick 1515001

Kieran Walsh 150000

Scott Gray 149600

Gary Clarke 146800

Jay Renehan 141500

Chris Dowling 138000

Sean Gregory 135700

Brian Nolan 135300

Jason Tompkins 133200

John Eames 131100

David Stokes 129400

Peter Dragar 123600

Olivier Jouve 120100

Stuart Rutter 113200

Alexander Besse 108200

Olivier Daenincks 103700

David Glynn 99100

Thomas Middleton 95600

Antoine Saout 95400

Frank Callaghan 95000

Ciaran Burke 94100

Troy Prendergast 92800

Mick McCool 92800

Antoine Rousseau 89600

Stephen Ferrissey 89400

Jerome Isler 87900

Julien Legros 87600

Paul Jackson 84700

Yoann Van Daele 84500

Fabrice Vreux 84000

Vinnie McEroy 83700

Pat Jackson 83400

Benjamin Gallen 78900

Lorcan Fox 77800

Sean Kilroy 73900

Brian Palmer 73500

Manuel Bevand 71900

Sebastian Decamps 71400

Gerlando Cacciatore 70300

Mathieu Jaunay 69700

Daniel Pauly 66700

Alan Kelleher 64600

Tristan Clemencon 63700

Francis McCormack 62200

Surinder Sunar 61900

Jean-Phillippe Rodrigues 60800

David Gallagher 60000

Nicky Power 59400

William Martin 56400

Steve Basri 56400

Chris Cooke 56400

Paul Smallwood 54500

Michael Greco 50900

Ken O'Mahony 50200

Laurent LeFranco 48100

Aurelien Guiglini 48000

Keir Ratcliff 46400

Padraig Parkinson 45000

Hubert Attali 44800

Rumain Carca 44700

Rob Taylor 44100

Donal Norton 43000

Martin Silke 41900

Rein Zijda 41200

Stephen Barrett 41100

John Weafer 40700

Dara O'Kearney 39900

Oz Osbourne 39700

Sean Greaves 37100

Darren McGuinness 35300

Ken Corkery 34100

David Zenou 33800

Adrian O'Donoghue 32500

Michaela Kalmar 31100

Laurent Eyquard 29800

Andrew Grimason 27900

Benjamin Barros 27500

Pierre Lenoir 26700

Sean McLean 26200

Bertrand Fisch 25300

arco Della Tommasina 23800

Jim Fennell 21600

Ken Powell 19600

Yoann Desangin 19200

Giuseppe Zarbo 12900

Gordan Cowan 12600

John Clancy 12200

Noel Furlong 11700

Tadhg O'Mahony 9000

EUROPEAN DEEPSTACK POKER CHAMPIONSHIPS DAY 1

2009-02-06T17:34:00.007Z

Well, l've arrived for this much acclaimed event. After hearing so much about last years event l had to give it a spin. To be honest yesterday l didn't think my chances of getting here where to promising with the recent snow and after effects of ice causing many problems. I had also read Blonde where a few of the lads travelling where delayed for as much as 7 hours. I will keep the posts short with basic chip counts. The one notable thing l have seen in practice is the escorting of chips by members of staff when a player changes tables, Integrity seems to be at a premium.

The Red Cow is sold out as there is a wedding on and l have to say first impressions are good, we are in the events hall with free wireless and l've had a nice bit of chow with Paul Jackson. The turnout is good for what the weather has done to the transport network in the last week. We started with 153 runners and already in the 4th level we have lost 5 players, two of which, where in the first level. I actually seen one at my table when all the chips went in on the flop, English player Keir Radcliff re-raising ALL IN on a 6d 7s 10d board. He was holding 6h 7c and the Irish fella that called him had Ad 7d, he bricked out and was sent home before the 35th minute.

The Big Boss, Mike Lacy.

The tournament area.

Here we go then, some pictures and Chip Counts:

Keir Ratcliff - 150k (one of the leaders)

Gary Clarke -40k

Paul Smallwood - 115,000

Rob Taylor - 55k / Michael Greco - 59k

Fran Egan - 40k

Dewi - 26k

Jon Kalmar - 48k

Mick McCloskey - 47k / Thomas Middleton (right) 63k

Paul Jackson - 37k

Other Notable Counts are:

Nick Slade - 55k

Flipper - 44k

Donal Norton - 54k

Stu Rutter - 48k

Nicky Power - 37k

Will Martin 52k

Roy Brindley - 48k

Scott Gray - 35k