Online Poker with Suffolk Punch

Allow me to rabbit on

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:16:00 +0000

I'm not quite sure how to start this post. It is the first time I have written on this blog for over a year; 12 months of hard work, a sticky mixture of enjoyment, disappointment, arduous hours, fun, excess... in fact everything you would expect from a journalist fish swimming in the very deep waters of PokerStars' day-to-day existence.

Let's rewind.

***

Over a year ago I resigned from a fairly cushy job at PartyGaming in order to take up the Head of Blogging position at Stars. It was, and still is, the shrewdest move I have ever made. PokerStars is the best at what it does in every sense of the word - by that I mean from a player's perspective, from an affiliate point of view, or (of great importance to me) as a member of staff.

It's no surprise, therefore, that since joining I have found myself working with the best people in the business. Fact. And it has afforded me a bizarre lifestyle of travel that, to be frank, I'm not sure any other job could provide. But I will put a little reality check in here (unusual for me, I know), it's bloody hard work and you need an understanding wife (which, thank goodness, I do).

Since I last wrote on here (I think in October 2008) I have been to:

Poland
Prague
The Bahamas
France
Denmark
Germany
Italy
Monaco
Las Vegas
Ukraine
Barcelona
London (maybe not that much of a thrill)
Poland again
Portugal
Prague again

Phew. That's a hefty schedule, but one I have undertaken with, as a British policemen may say, full due care and attention.

There's too many stories from that little lot to even begin about recounting here. Of course, many I would never even dream about disclosing.

But let's bring you up to date with a completely harmless and delightful anecdote from EPT Vilamoura a week or so ago....

The winner, Antonio Matias, is being interviewed by the assembled media in a round of what must be quite tedious interviews for him. He's just won more than €400,000, and while he's coping quite well with being asked the same questions time and time again (how's it feel like winning so much? Will you be back for many more live events? etc), it appears that his lovely wife is getting a little impatient.

Now, you can understand that she wants to take Mr Matias home for a 'celebration' - it's a life-changing pay day after all, but it seems Mrs Matias has another, more pressing engagement on her mind.

"We need to go now," she said. "I have a rabbit in the oven."

On board with PokerStars

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:46:00 +0000

I'm delighted to say I've taken up a new position with PokerStars, the place where I started my poker journey several years ago.

I will be Head of Blogging, running an ever-growing estate of brilliant blogs around the world. The main one will remain the .com version at pokerstarsblog.com.

We've got an outstanding team of writers, and our tournament coverage is second to none. Please do go and check it out.

Needless to say the Stars software is far superior to anything else, so please ignore the post below!

New PartyPoker table revealed

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:28:00 +0000

OK you lucky lot. As you may know I work at PartyPoker Towers, and so am close to the latest developments.

So here, reproduced faithfully, is the picture of our new table that I've just posted on our official blog.

Visit the PartyPoker Blog for more details of this exciting new table.

Anything to declare, Mr Glitter?

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:40:00 +0000

What if poker became an Olympic sport?

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:48:00 +0000

With the Olympics in full swing, I got to thinking that it would be fun if poker became a showpiece Olympic event. Mrs Punch laughed at me (not for the first time), saying all we do is sit on our @rses and as there is no physical or eye-to-ball activity, poker could not be defined as a sport.

Naturally I disagree. I used to be quite a good sportsman - I played cricket for my county at school (I appreciate it was only Suffolk), was once a decent football goalkeeper, and was pretty handy on the squash court - but as middle age has crept in, the closest I get to sporting action now is the occasional thrash around the golf course. There's lots of rabbits on my local course, and when I'm on the tee they all sit in the middle of the fairway where they know they are safe.

So I'm all for defining poker as a sport as it's something I'm good at (sort of) and it would be nice to be recognised as a decent sportsman again!

Imagine, then, that poker was introduced as a sport in time for the 2012 Olympics in London. What format should the event take? Who should represent your country? All questions that deserve some debate.

My feeling is there should be a series of MTTs covering different disciplines with the same players in each one. There should be a points scoring system, with all results added together to identify the winning country Team for Gold, Silver and Bronze, while individuals would be scored in the same way to identify their medal positions.

Team GB? I'd like to have Neil Channing, Roland de Wolfe, Julian Thew, Julian Gardner and Praz Bansi if I could select a team of five, with Keith Hawkins, Joe Beevers, John Gale and Marc Goodwin as reserves. I'd volunteer as team "coach", which would involve little more than getting the beers in and ensuring they all turned up in time.

So there you have it: 100 metres sprints, marathons, bikes, sailing and... poker. The perfect package for 2012.

Hairy gymnasts at the Olympics

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:30:00 +0000

It's been a while since I mentioned hairy gymnasts. Regular readers will know what I'm on about - for the unaware please read up on my hairy gymnast history - but the number of people who have stumbled upon this blog after putting hairy gymnast in their search engine has turned from a trickle into a torrent in recent weeks.

The reason? I can only presume some folks with twisted minds have been watching the gymnastics at the The Olympics in China, and then decided their fetish for a hairy gymnast must be fulfilled immediately via the internet.

They must be very disappointed when they end up here!

If you want to support my quest for hairy gymnast Google domination, please mention and link me in a post.

A-7 kills of my hopes of a trip to Poland

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:17:00 +0000

Last month I ended up being one of Poker Trillion's top 20 rakers, the result of too many spare hours multi-tabling six-handed NL cash games. This in itself met with some success, plus I'm getting standard 30% rakeback.

But because July was a "rake race" month, the top 20 players were invited to play in a one-off private tourney last night, with the winner getting an all-inclusive package to play in the upcoming Olympic series in Poland.

I had played in the EPT in Warsaw before - you may recall my table of death story here - and really enjoyed the country, so the thought of returning for free was quite appealing.

But first I had to beat what I presumed to be 19 other decent players. All was going well - I soon doubled up and more than two hours in I was second in chips out of the remaining seven players.

(Incidentally, whoever set up the tournament at Poker Trillion forgot to include any breaks, so I had to run out to the loo at one point!).

We all know how quickly things can change, however. I had to lay down two steal raises from late position, which set me back a bit, then the killer blow - I ran my A-K into serial all-in man who had the mighty A-7. The inevitable seven came on the flop and I lost a large chunk of my chips, which went two hands later when I ran A-5 into.... A-K. Sigh.

So I missed out on the trip to Poland, as well as the second and third prizes ($300 and $200) thanks to the dreaded ace kicker curse, which works against you when you have the goods - then against you when you walk into the goods.

Still, it was good of the site to put the tournament on. But please remember to add in the breaks next time - I'll keep my fingers, and legs, crossed!

A friend of mine works for Poker Trillion, so I'm happy to play on the site. Naturally I would play on Party if I was allowed to!

Irish boys did us proud in Vegas

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:07:00 +0000

I've been back from Vegas for a week now, and my body clock has only just about caught up. I was there working for Party and reporting on all our qualifiers who made it through to the WSOP Main Event. I'm delighted to say two, James McManus and Stephen Kenna, both from Dublin, cashed big ($96,000 and $66,000) and were a credit to themselves and their country.

People think going to Vegas for two weeks must be quite a jolly - but the truth is you get one day off and work at least 13-hour days for the rest of the time. I got one dinner out when we took James and Stephen for a slap-up meal during the 90-minute dinner break on Day 5 of the Main Event.

Our PR Warren Lush, left, me, centre, and Stephen Kenna
It meant I got very little time for poker - probably just as well because the only NL cash session I played was a wash out when I ran my aces into a turned set and then when I finally got a set I was overtaken by a straight flush on the river!

I was staying at the MGM Grand. Having spent three weeks there last year I feel quite at home at the green giant and have never had any issues with the place. But you know you have been there too long when the lions in the enclosure in the middle of the casino no longer impress.

So Vegas is behind me now and it's back to the daily commute into London. It amazes me that I can fly for more than nine hours over 5,000 miles and arrive bang on time, but on my first day back in the UK the 70-mile journey home from London took over two hours because the bloody train broke down. This country never fails to amuse. Not.

I'll post more on this in a few days when I get more time, but I've finally found a site where I can consistently make money at the cash tables. Ideally I'd like to play at Party, obviously, but I'm not allowed to because I do work for them. But I reckon Poker Trillion comes pretty close to ticking all my boxes. Play the six-handed cash tables and you'll see what I mean! A friend of mine works there so I'm happy to give them a plug.

Hello, ashmadden

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:21:00 +0000

He asked, he got......

sale pending: lol
sale pending: nice comeback
SuffolkPunch: yes, you are a genius
ashmadden: ty
ashmadden: write about it in your blog suffolk
SuffolkPunch: ok
ashmadden: mention me in your blog!!
sale pending: lol very nice
ashmadden: pleeeeaaasse!

Vegas can't come quick enough

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:53:00 +0000

I was forced to stay in London last night owing to the farce that is Britain's railway system, and ended up at the Empire in Leicester Square playing a £1/£2 cash game (as you do).

Had spent a couple of hours moving my £150 starting stack to about £350, had a solid read on the whole table (apart from one new arrival) and all was well with the world. Then....

Six limpers, I'm on the button and find K-K.

Hoorah! I raise it up to £12, and get two callers. One is the new arrival, and the other is a lunatic who has been overplaying everything to the river.

Flop 4-7-J rainbow.

Hoorah! New arrival is first to act and bets about half the pot, and lunatic moves all in for about £100 total. I'm pretty sure I'm way ahead of the loon and want to isolate so move all in (new arrival has about £250).

New arrival insta-calls. Oops.

He turns over 7-7 for the set. Damn. Lunatic turns over 8-8 for, er, nothing, so at least I was right about him. There's about £700 in the pot about to go to new arrival's sweaty little hands.

But wait, the turn comes...... K

Hoorah! Whoop, etc I've now got the set over set. Justice, maybe, although I felt a bit for the new arrival. He was an "impoverished" student after all.

Just as I think about how this £700 pot will change my life (ok, something of an exaggeration), the river is turned over...... 7

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHH. The lentil-eating, no doubt left-wing, probably benefit-sponging student hits his miracle one-outer for quads.

Fk my life!

I walked out soon after about £50 down on the session. Curses.

Better news - I'm off to Vegas in a couple of weeks to work at the WSOP Main Event. I'll be blogging about the exploits of our PartyPoker players. It will be my fourth year in Nevada and the place just gets better and better.

What with the chaos on the railways, sicko beats at the Empire and the British weather, I can't wait.

Listen to my radio station!

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:27:00 +0000

So I was a bit bored and decided to launch my own internet radio station.

Scooter Radio is perfect to help you pass the time at the internet poker tables.

Listen here for free!

The title may give you a clue as to the musical taste of the station.

Shark attack in the Mediterranean

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:21:00 +0000

When chief Brody, the I-told-you-so policeman in Jaws, said "you're going to need a bigger boat", the MSC Poesia would have done nicely. The floating hotel, with an amazing 1,000 staff on board, could withstand any finned attack, but I did not account for the sharks on board for the PartyPoker Million VI cruise.

I basically got chewed up on the cash tables during the week, and went to bed at night lamenting "you're going to need a bigger bankroll". I certainly did not play badly, and I was ahead most times the money went in: K-K caught up by two pair, A-A tripped up by Q-Q, set ran into rivered over-set etc. It was just a nasty run, but that's what this game is about and I'll no doubt benefit from the other side of the coin soon. Thankfully for the past 12 months I have employed sensible bankroll management and can soak up the downswing.

Because I was working on the cruise - reporting on the tournament for our PartyPoker Blog - I could not devote enough time to making my losses back, so there are some folks out there still with some of my money. As they're our players, I am very happy for them!

We sailed from Venice to Bari, in southern Italy, across to Greece, then two stops in Turkey before turning around for Dubrovnik in Croatia and back to Venice for a tortuous 12-hour journey home to Blighty.

In between, the tournament was played out and won by Germany's Alexander Jung, who pocketed about $350,000 for his week's work - not a bad return!

The tournament was a great success, being nicely structured and run expertly by Matt Savage and his team. Having a makeshift card room set up in a beautiful room on the seventh deck, with views of the sea rolling by is sublime.

My reporting duties were not helped by a rubbish and expensive internet connection, which meant I had to watch every hand then disappear in tournament breaks and at the end of the day to my cabin to write up and file as it was the only place I could get a connection. It meant my days were far longer than they should have been.

Internet and cash game woes were put into perspective during the stop off in Dubrovnik. To think this place was at war just 15 years ago is an eye-opener, and you can still see the scars as bullet holes mark nearly every building in the walled city.

The emotional scars cut deeper, of course, and the remembrance room, dedicated to the hundreds of young "Dubrovnik Defenders" who died at the hands of the invading Serbs in the years after 1991, is a must visit. Pictures of the young men who died adorn the walls, and it brings modern warfare home. No more black and white images of World War Two, this was up-to-date horror on the very streets I was treading.

I managed about four hours in Dubrovnik - I'll deffo be back under my own steam at some point - the longest I spent off the boat. I only lasted an hour in Istanbul before becoming peed off with the street hawkers.

Back on board and our party of players, family, friends and staff made up about 400 of the ship's total passengers. The rest seemed to be elderly French people on holiday. You've got to love the French pensioners and their interesting interpretation of queuing.

I started the week in an inside cabin - not ideal, especially as I was having to spend so much time in it writing - but then after two days was relieved to be moved to an outside cabin, with large port hole. Alas! My dreams of beautiful, relaxing views were dashed when I realised I was next to a huge lifeboat!

I eventually got home late on Saturday night, absolutely knackered, to be honest. It had been a great trip, however, and a superb tournament to report on. All I need to do now is try and fix myself up for Vegas.

Good luck at the tables, folks. And remember, it is safe to swim in the sea: Shark attacks are rare.

Hello, sailor: I'm going cruising

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Ahoy, me hearties. I'm setting sail for the PartyPoker Million VI cruise, where 165 or so players will be fighting it out for more than $1.2 million.

Sadly I won't be playing. Instead I'll be working, writing up stuff for the PartyPoker Blog and hosting our star online players who won their seats in a variety of qualifiers.

I'm really looking forward to it, to be honest. I hate the winter and the wind, rain and dark days and am desperate for some sun. And while I'll be holed up in the ship's card room for most of each day, there will be time for some essential R&R.

We seat sail from Venice on Saturday and tour the Med, stopping off at Dubrovnik in Croatia, Izmir and Istanbul in Turkey, Olympia in Greece and Bari in Italy, before heading home the following Saturday. Phew!

It'll be hard work but a bit of a blast. If you know anyone playing, let me know and I'll try and give them a plug.

Stay tuned: subscribe to my blog here.

Online poker not doomed

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:58:00 +0000

Those of you who enjoyed the iconic TV program Dad's Army will be familiar with the character Private Frazer. It is the dour Scotsman, you will recall, who repeats pessimistically "We're doomed" at every opportunity as the clowns of the Home Guard, armed with no more than pitchforks and Dolly's cucumber sandwiches, prepare to defend England from the might of the German war machine. God help us if Adolf had actually decided to pop over.

Modern life is full of Frazers; those who are not happy unless they are moaning about something or, more likely, everything. To be honest, most of them pass me by because I'm a happy little fish.

But if there's one thing that gets up my nose (and I don't do drugs) it's the Frazers of the poker world. "We're doomed. The poker boom is over. Player numbers will fall, games will get tougher, money will drop, it's the end. We're doomed, doomed I tell ya."

Poppycock!

Player numbers online have never been greater and show no sign of stagnating; prize pools for online tournaments are increasing rapidly; the number of fishy players willing to donk off their chips shows no sign of falling; games are not getting harder; and online events like the European Poker Tour continue to rocket in popularity.

OK, I'll declare an interest - I work in the online poker business - but any outsider with half a brain would agree with me. The UIGEA bill in the US was a blow, yes, forcing some sites to withdraw back across the pond, but what it has done is focus attention on new possibilities.

While some operators remain to exploit the monies in the US, so others have cast their nets elsewhere, moving eastwards throughout Europe, for example, to introduce new players to the game. Sites have also made games more attractive and been more innovative in offering existing and new players value for money like never before.

No one has even scratched the surface of Asia and the Pacific region yet (Oz and New Zealand aide), while Africa remains largely untapped. South America will also grow in importance.

So, in the words Corporal Jones, left, another Dad's Army character: "Don't panic." You'll be able to enjoy your favourite online poker games for years to come.

Your thoughts?

Stay tuned: subscribe to my blog here.

Be proud, be English, be eating fish

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:53:00 +0000

Happy St George's Day. That is all.

Bogies, Norwich, poker and a chainsaw

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:59:00 +0000

I sat on the train this morning opposite a bloke who picked his nose and ate it for about 25 mins. Next to him was a fella wearing a Norwich City scarf - now that really was disgusting.

Anyway, I digress. I played a few hours of pokes over the weekend - managed to get up about $250, then blew $100 on the very last hand when I made my flush on the river, which unfortunately also filled up some fish's boat. Ah well!

Roll is currently about $1,600, and PKR is still my profitable hunting ground, although I've picked up again recently on Stars. So from the $3 I started this Bankroll Challenge with, I'm going along nicely.

I have not talked about Sports Betting much on this blog - probably because I hardly ever do it. But I've decided to grow a little roll on Betfair after depositing and doubling up on the Grand National. I paid the £20 back in the bank, and left the £20 profit to try and work up. I'm allowing myself only 10% roll max bets, so that's £2 only - well, £3 now as I'm up to £30. BOSH!

Trouble is, the football season will be over soon, and as I know fek all about cricket I'm not sure what I'll be betting on in the summer!

Away from the monies, I bought myself a chainsaw the other week - and spent this weekend cutting down a dead apple tree in the garden. Amazingly I still have two legs and arms.

Stay tuned: subscribe to my blog here

Ooonee Hundred and Eeeiiigghhhhtttyyyy

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:14:00 +0000

Ahah! The old head (and it is extremely hungover today - plus it's a year older: yes, it's my biiirthday) is in all sorts of trouble. At my age I should be tucked up in bed by 10pm with a good book, but my numbnuts brain decided instead to take me on one of its mad nights.

So, at 7pm I pitched up at the Cafe Royal in London, near Piccadilly, for a dinner of booze, with a slice of beef, topped off with trophy darts. Yes, I went to a top darts night with Phil "The Power" Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, james Wade and John Part. My god, it is compulsory at these things to get completely bolloxed, then shout inanely when one of the geezers throws his darty thing in a treble twenty.

What a laugh! I manged to persuade three work colleagues (PartyPoker was a sponsor of the event) that we would have a player each, winner takes all. They did not twig why I gave myself Phil Taylor, who obviously went on to win ahahahahaha! More monies to me!

Anyway, at the end of night, one of my colleagues decided it would be a good idea to go to the Empire casino in Leicester Square. I'd not been before, and I was well impressed.

There were only two cash tables running (£1/£2 blinds) and I settled down, eventually leaving at about 4am this morning I think. There is £250 in my wallet, but to be honest I haven't the faintest idea what I started with, so no idea if I am up! Idiot!

But I do know that when I left the casino I felt it was too late to go to the hotel I had carefully booked days earlier - and instead went straight to the office for the traditional kip on the sofa for an hour or so. Good idea at the time but I now feel like poo.

But anyway, I have broken my darts night virginity. What a great laugh...

Simon, you require 45 cups of tea. Gaaaaamme and the first leg. Simon, it's you to throw up first.

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Gay old time at PKR - but poker back on track

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:49:00 +0000

I always have a bit of a nightmare when I try and make an avatar look like myself. On the kids' Nintendo Wii I am a dead ringer for an 80-year-old Japanese grandma with constipation (though to be fair the little blighters did that on purpose), and now I have taken on a distinctly camp appearance on the PKR poker site.

I'm not entirely sure how it happened: I used to appear quite macho on PKR, with a gruff Londoner "what you looking at" accent. Now, though, I look like George Michael's boyfriend (albeit with a bit-of-rough voice). I think it's because I changed my shoes, and the software took a new snapshot of me when I wasn't prepared, hence the gay pose you see above.

I looks like I'm enjoying listening to YMCA on my iPod.

But I can put the limp-wristed jibes to one side as, and this is the point of this post, I've started playing on PKR again and realised that the fish are there in ever-growing numbers. Having deposited $300 of my Bankroll Challenge roll - I'm now up to $1,250 from my starting point of just $3 - I've swiftly made that up to $580. And that's just by playing on the .25c/0.50c six-handed tables in a few sessions.

They are a limp-fest, so you can see many flops cheaply, and when you do hit a little gem, you get paid off handsomely. And if you have a monster pre-flop, and are pretty sure you've stayed ahead post-flop, then you are quids in.

Here's an example:
I'm dealt A-A, re-raise a raiser and end up with two callers. Flop comes K-A-K. Hoorah! I check, get a bet so call along with the other player. Turn is another A - quad aces! But now I fancy anyone I had hooked in with trip kings is going to slow down, putting me on the full house. Oh no! It's a raise, re-raise, re-re-raise, all-in call fest. Surely this poor sod must have K-K for inferior quads? No, he had K-3 off suit. Ahahahahaha! That was a nice $80 pot.

And there are loads of funnies like that. Some of the play is terrible. I'm not normally one for abusing bad players in chat (you want to keep them at the table, obviously) but sometimes I get too wound up. One PKR player kept raising by daft amounts on the .25/50c tables and forcing folds etc. He thought he was so clever, and I was just itching to pick up some hands. Meanwhile his stack went from $30 to $70.

Eventually I took a whopper off him leaving him with $25 or so. I had to make a sarcastic comment along the line of "Won't be long now" or some such - and next hand busted him with the nutlings! I had to laugh, but I guess you must have been there!

Anyway, as I mentioned the Bankroll Challenge continues its merry journey. I'm now comfortably rolled for .25/.50 but I suppose I should start thinking about moving up to .50/$1 no limit and buying in at about $60 to see if I can build quicker.

Also, it looks like someone, out of the blue, has set up a real money account from one of my old PokerStars links, so I'm due $75 from that. Thanks!

Starting challenge roll: $3
Current challenge roll: $1,250

PS: Congrats to that fishay Amatay for his outrageous April Fool on his blog. I fell for it for all of ten minutes.

PPS: The trains have been running better most nights this week. Apart from the night it broke down before even leaving Liverpool Street. Oh, and apart from the two days when it rained and water dripped down the INSIDE of the windows onto me. Marvelous.

Stay tuned: subscribe to my blog here

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:20:00 +0000

THE GOOD:
Always cheers me up: this beauty was in an 18-man sit and go on Blonde Poker (iPoker). Didn't really get paid off hugely, but managed to finish up in the money.

THE BAD:
My bankroll has gone south by a few hundred dollars. I can't think I have played poorly, so am bravely putting this down to variance!

THE UGLY:
Can you believe that after the New Year rail farce, when overunning engineering works meant no-one could get to work, that the f*ckwits in charge have done it again? Yup, turned up at the station after the Easter break today to find they have not finished work at Shenfield, and no trains were running into Liverpool Street from Ipswich.

Believe me, these idiots could not organise a p*ss up in a brewery.

Stay tuned: subscribe to my blog here

Through $1,000 in Bankroll Challenge (chirp)

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:33:00 +0000

Woohoo! I was totting up the monies in my various poker accounts and realised I have now gone through $1,000.

Having started my Bankroll Challenge with just the $3 sitting redundant in my PokerStars account, I have spun it up to $1,218 across various sites. But I have to take $200 off that having deposited fresh money into Blonde Poker to play in some cash games with other members of the forum.

So, strictly speaking, the Challenge roll stands at $1,018 which I am really pleased with considering I started with just about enough to buy a coffee.

The discipline needed to be successful in challenges like this has, I believe, improved my cash game greatly - and that is now starting to show at the .25c/.50c tables, which I am now properly rolled for.

I picked up about $350 this weekend alone. Pity I don't have time to play more anymore :-(

Anyway, here's where the money is at the moment:

Blonde Poker (iPoker): $375
Love the cash tables here - play a nice tight aggressive game and you will win. The MTTs are very loose but I really don't have the time to play them. Blonde also has a decent loyalty scheme.

Poker Trillion (Boss): $314
This is a new site run by a pal of mine (Andy Pyrah). It's on the Boss network, which means the cash tables are looser than a whore's draws. I stuck about $200 in there last Thursday and that's already nicely up. I'll also get a rake deal on here. For bigger players, check out their rake/live event buy-in deals. Well worth it.

Dusk Till Dawn (Crypto):$286
I don't like the cash games on Crypto as it's my belief they are full of decent grinders. So I put money in here to play the six-seater thunder sit and goes. Also, I thought I was getting rake back - but you have to earn so many point a month to qualify for it, and playing $10 sit and goes will not get me there. I may, as a result, put most of this into Blonde or Poker Trillion.

Poker Room (ongame): $110
I keep a bit in here to play limit hold'em. Dunno why as I hate limit, but this is where I'll do it as the game is tame.

PokerStars: $43
Where is all started, but moved money away as realistically the cash games are harder here. Will keep a bit back for sentimental reasons only.

Ultimate Bet: $90
Don't know why on earth I deposited $100 of the roll here. I hate the place and will be taking it out again very soon, possibly investing into Poker Trillion.

TOTAL ROLL: $1,018 ($200 extra was deposited in Blonde)
Starting Roll: $3

Stay tuned: subscribe to my blog here

No more train bad beats?

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:00 +0000

Regular readers will know of my love-hate relationship with the railways. Actually, it's more hate-hate. Since beginning my commuting hell into London on One Railway I feel like I've been dumped on more times than a public toilet in Piccadilly Circus. Yuk.

Today, I was in for a surprise: One Railway had disappeared. The trains were still there, of course, but they were now being run by National Express, which has taken over the franchise from this morning.

All good, but I always thought National Express ran buses, which are considerably slower than trains, and as we pulled out of Ipswich I had horror thoughts of trundling towards the City at 45mph, stopping off at every street corner along the way so Mrs Miggins could get off with her shopping.

Not so! We arrived in Liverpool Street bang on time at 8.36 - the first time that's happened for an absolute age! I'm sure the big-wigs at National Express pulled out all the stops to ensure their first day was not a PR disaster, but even so, it was very welcome.

Problem is, they now have to repeat that trick for me twice a day. And clean the smelly trains, and add extra carriages, and improve service, and......

For previous train bad beats, see:

Where are the trains?

and...

Strains, Trains and Automobiles.

All aboard!

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London at 3am is shockingly sh@te

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:26:00 +0000

The purpose of a title is, generally speaking, to give either a hint of what is to follow, or to sum up boldly the contents of a piece of prose. I think this one falls into the latter category.

I had been looking forward to playing at the Sportsman casino off Oxford Street for a week or so. Having not played live for yonks, the chance to do so with friends while consuming a generous amount of hops and barley was very appealing. We used to do this every month or two, sitting down to two or three £50 sit and go's followed by a little cash if time allowed. Even the huge juice for hiring a table and dealer would not put us off.

Last night started well enough - I cashed in the first SNG - but then I got muppeted on the second. I won't dwell on bad beats, but suffice to say I raised under the gun with K-K only to be called by the bloke next to me holding J-9. You can guess what happened. The chap in question works for 888, so I can forgive his questionable poker (I think).

It all went t+ts up in the cash game afterwards. It was only £1/£1 and we bought in for £100. Soon it turned into a monster pot fest, with straddles, re-straddles and even the odd re-re-straddle to keep the action going. It was on one of these hands that I pushed on a K-high flop with Q-7 figuring I could take the pot down. James Hipwell (aka the former Daily Mirror City Slicker) put down his J-J, which was nice of him, but The People newspaper's Scott Piecha decided to call me with his Q-J. WTF? He's hit nothing on the flop and called an all in with Q-high.

Obviously it held up, but his monumental rub down to me in front of the table did not go down too well. I left soon after when my A-7 lost to Scott's A-8.

Earlier in the day I had booked a room at the Royal Scot Travelodge near King's Cross. So I hopped into a cab at what was now about 2am. The first tosser of a cab driver took me to the wrong Travelodge, and when I eventually got to the right one in another cab, I was in for a shock.

"Hello, I have a room booked in the name of Young."
"No you don't."
"Er, yes I do - here's my copy of the reservation."
"I'm afraid you no longer have a room. We will put you in a taxi to go to another Travelodge."
"No you won't"
"Yes we will. You obviously did not read out terms and conditions. It says we can move your hotel."

I've stayed at Travelodges in London dozens, if not hundreds, of times over the years and this has not happened to me once before. Why would I want to move hotels at 3am? Especially as I'd booked this one because it was quite close to my office for an early morning start.

I refused to move and stormed out, uttering the odd swear word at the idiot behind reception.

"There's no need to swear at me, Mr Young."
"Oh yes there is, you &*^%£%£ idiot."

Anyway, storming out at 3am into the freezing night of central London was not the best of ideas. I eventually found a black cab and asked him to take me to my office. Unfortunately I could not see the night watchman, so was stuck freezing my wotsits off in King William Street.... in a foul mood.

I walked a while, and a while longer, over London Bridge, around Borough market, London Bridge station and Southwark Cathedral (or outside of it - no entry at night, I guess God was asleep). An hour or so later I trudged back to the office where thankfully security were on hand to let me in. I then managed to kip for a few hours on the sofa. Freezing.

Now I'm washed, changed and ready for the day ahead - and I'm looking forward in particular to speaking with Travelodge.

No more of life's bad beats, I hope.

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Where do I go from here?

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:08:00 +0000

I don't mind admitting I'm at a bit of a loss over my game at the moment. The Bankroll Challenge went from $3 to over $500, then back to $400 or so quite soon after and back up again.

I know I have a game - hell I proved it in numerous tournaments: I've won various live £50 freezouts for several thousand pound finishes apiece and loads of equivalent online scores; I'm a winning live and online sit and go player; and I am well and truly up on live and online cash games. The last was a bit of small stakes fun. I was, however, shit-faced.

In summary, I'm up, and have been each of the three years I've been playing. But I'm not happy. I just don't know where to take my game now.

I love playing, and maybe that should be enough, but I am increasingly frustrated. When I play, I expect to win, but the stakes are such that, when I do win, it is not exactly life-changing.

Either I need to move up the levels drastically, or I accept that I am a winning recreational player. Surely there's more to it?

Answers on a postcard, please (or comment).

Vegas entertainment - Johnny Vegas, that is

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:29:00 +0000

Went to the PartyPoker.com Premier League party last night, which was graced by the great and the good of the game who are taking part in the contest. Phil Hellmuth - all 12 feet of him - was there along with fellow US star Annie Duke. There, too, was Devilfish (how old WAS that girl he was with?), Roland de Wolfe, Vicky Coren, Tony G and Marcel Luske, among others.

But there was one other surprise guest - the comedian Johnny Vegas. I took the Mrs down to London for the bash at the posh Montague Hotel just next to the British Museum. We checked in mid afternoon, and while she went off to see some of the sights, I did what any self-respecting bloke would do - stayed in the room to watch Gillette Soccer Saturday (bloody Ipswich blew their home record)!

Anyway, when she got back we went to the bar for food, whereupon we discovered a rather pickled Johnny Vegas. He's a mate of Warren Lush, who works with me at Party. He can stick them away, that Mr Vegas, and he went on putting more and more away as the night wore on.

When the party itself kicked off, he decided to be our doorman, and sat behind the welcome desk giving out PartyPoker press packs. He's a lovely bloke, but I would recommend he gives his liver a holiday.

I managed to have a few beers and then took Mrs Y to The Vic to show her around. I have not been there since the poker room has expanded to take over the whole second floor - very nice, too. While there I bumped into Neil Channing, who seemed to be growing a very nice stack at a no limit cash table. He was kind enough to ask how my Bankroll Challenge was going. Well, I confess to having had a bit of an accident and we're stuck down on $400 at the moment having gone up to $500.

The big gossip of the evening was the young lady befriended by Devilfish. She looked no more than 18 - what does she see in him? Apart from pound signs, obviously. They made a lovely looking pair as they came down for breakfast this morning! As I said, the place was very posh and some of the guests did not quite know how to take Mr Fish, complete with D&G designer sunglasses, knuckle dusters and clothing more suitable for a 17-year-old hip-hop gangster!

My Tip for the PartyPoker.com Premier League? Tony G. You read it here first....

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RIP Beamish, 1992-2008

sjy1967@aol.com (Simon Young) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:24:00 +0000

Allow me to indulge myself in paying my respects to Beamish, our beloved cat who I sadly had to have put down last night at the grand old age of 16. He was a lovely and loyal friend who never wandered far and always had a splendid temperament.

In fact the only thing that he loved more than Family Young was his food. He was a bit of a greedy bugger - which in part accounted for his size - a rather bouncy 7KG of pure moggy. In the past six months, however, he went downhill, losing a third of his body weight. A few weeks ago he developed a limp and in the past few days he has been unable to walk.

He was clearly in incredible pain and, as he was beginning to lose his marbles as well, it seemed the kindest thing was to put him out of his misery.

Now I'm normally a stiff-upper-lip sort of chap, but I don't mind admitting there was a tear in my eye - and my 13-year-old daughter was in floods of tears - as we took him to the vet last night. His passing was peaceful and, I suspect, a relief.

So farewell, Beamish. Having me name you after a beer clearly did not hold you back in life (as it did his brother, Boddington, who met an untimely end as a kitten) and you will be remembered with great affection.

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