Min Cash Monkey Off My Back

Its typical, whenever I actually go out and do things of interest, I don't update the blog. I was really bored to tears by poker during the WSOPE and as soon as it was over, I loved the game again. Its really ungrateful I suppose, having the cream of the poker world on your doorstep (almost) and not loving every moment of it.

But I have been having a decent time at the tables since and couldn't wait for the IPO in Dublin last weekend. What an event that was, with 1440 players and more than a third of the field coming from overseas, I would have expected chaos, but it was actually one of the most well organised events I have aver attended and lots of fun to boot.

During the main event I was a 'bounty' and had to wear a Sunderland T-shirt, which gave people a ticket into a freeroll on boylepoker. I ran like god during the first two levels and even bust another bounty myself, but after that I got my ass handed to me a bit and reraised off a lot of pots. I hung in there and was eliminated close to the end of the night (I didn't realise also at the time, but was also very near the money). The hand was slightly exaggerated on the Boyles blog, saying I 'couldnt fold AK in a three way pot' but what actually happened was that it was me and Mick McCloskey (he had JJ) in a very big pot and a third guy had gone all in but he only had about 5bbs and was just making the pot more juicy.

For some strange reason, a French woman begged me in broken English for my Sunderland top. Footy shirts bring out BO worse than any other garment and I had spent 10 hours under a hot light wearing this thing, why the hell she would want it I don't (and would rather not) know, but I let her have it anyway.

I managed a min-cash in a side event the next day, which was a massive monkey off my back as I havent cashed in a ranking live event in nearly two years. Admitted I haven't played much live poker in that time, especially this year, but it still was good to finally get a cash, even though it was a tiny one. I also get a pretty little Ireland flag on my Hendon Mob database (When it gets updated), which as we all know, is more important than actual money. I now need a USA flag and perhaps, just perhaps, an actual respectful sum of money too....no sod it, a USA flag please.

Probably going to try out the new 20Twenty weekend at DTD on Saturday, then going to see Eddie Izzard at the Arena on Sunday (Got a feeling he wont be funny any more). To people who follow this blog, the new G Casino will be replcaing the old grosvenor casino on Queens road, which is awesome for me because it means I can actually walk there (Plus its an easy walk into town and the train station for people outside sheffield). No idea when it opens, but soon apparantley.

Here is a pic of my dog to end the blog post:

Sports Pyschology Guy Part 2

Had a lot of interest from people about Jared Tendler the sports pyschologist, unfortunately with the WSOPE on I havent had time to go into depth about it on this blog, other than the articles I am writing for Pokernews (Parts one and two here). Once the WSOPE is over I plan on talking a lot about it, but until then here are the cliffnotes.

Had a really bad run over the last 12 months, so much so I haven't played that much this year or ventured out live. Genuinely considered stopping playing for good a few times and even went to that cold dark place of pondering whether poker was rigged or not. As a direct result, I started playing really timid and cagey, almost pre-empting bad luck and trying to get away with losing the minimum when I was holding monsters. I also was really lazy with working on my game away from the table.

Rather than all of a sudden giving me a new found confidence or ability, Jared has been working on making me understand why I do the negative things I do at the table, as well as giving me the tools to teach myself how to rectify them. A lot of my tilt issues it would appear are actually a direct result of being a poker journalist. I recall me old mucker Kevin Stevens once asking if being a poker journo has hindered my game at all and I said no, now I say yes. Years of interviewing players who bink a massive tournament had left me with a 'when is it gonna be my turn' mentality, and I reacted to the bad luck by surmising it was unfair, and it should be my time soon. Rather than actually working harder away from the table, I was just biding my time until I magically got lucky and won a big tournament. Also, because I am quite well known in UK poker circles, I was putting unrealistic pressure on myself to do well because I felt I had something to prove. What actually happened as a result was that I avoided situations where I was putting myself at risk, situations where I felt like I was being exposed as not as good a player as I actually wanted to be, and it actually took the gamble away from my game.

To get myself out of this rut, its all been about small incremental changes each and every session, rather than some big single gesture that would turn me into Phil Ivey. Jared has shown me how to effectively pick out which hands need further study, how to make small goals for each and every session as well as larger goals for the rest of my poker tenure.

Is it working? Yes. Naturally at first it went really well, by placebo to a great extent, but I had a really bad session a few weeks ago where I went on insane monkey tilt, probably worse than I have all year. That was actually a real blessing in disguise, because as bad as I played, I still played better than I had in the same spot a few months ago. Even though I was running awful, I was taking necessary calculated risks that I wouldn't have a few months ago. Since then I have been pretty fearless at the tables, and when I get outdrawn I barely react to it (I still do a little bit, but I don't throw the toys out the pram any more). What's more I am taking the time after every session to study key hands and seek out further learning.

Has he made me a better player? Not directly no, he doesnt even really play poker himself so the technical aspect is down to me. What he has done is about 95% cured me of a crippling risk aversion and victim mentality I have had for the last year. He has also shown me how to seek out and develop my learning of the game on my own. In a lot of ways I feel like I am starting from scratch again with poker (I havent gone busto btw lol) but I also feel like I am building towards something for the first time in a long time.

Drop me a line if you are interested in working with Jared, his website is HERE

Tony Blair Lookalikes

Went to the English Poker Open party last night in Nottingham, it was fun enough. The 'entertainment' for the night was a Tony Blair lookalike. Thats just what you need for a room full of poker players who probably venture out rarely and know very little about the real world, half of them not even from the UK - someone impersonating a former prime minister. The poor bloke died on his arse worse than any stand up I have ever seen, and I used to work in a comedy club.

It did get us wondering about the life and income of a celebrity impersonator. Colchester Kev and I agreed that he probably got at least a grand for the appearance, probably two grand. This was after all an event that (otherwise) pulled out all the stops and was put on for a lot of people with money. Whats more, it reminded me of hearing about what the rate the guy who played Blakey from on the buses charged for one hour back in 1997 - £5000. Now obviously Blakey was the real Blakey, but still, nice work if you can get it.

Edit: Found out - a neat grand for two hours. A David Brent lookalike gets about £1300 for the same time and a Borat lookalike gets £1700.

Probably serves me right for taking the mickey out of him, but on the way home I broke down about 8 miles from my house in Chesterfield. Thankfully plenty of my fellow motorists saw the opportunity to beep me and call me a wanker while I was stood in a laybay waiting for the AA. The clutch went on my car, which normally would be really gutting but I had a real sense of gratitude about the whole thing, as daft as that is. Because I was lucky I broke down near my house, on a hard shoulder, the AA guy came really quickly, I have never had any problems in nearly four years with this particular car and I live about 10 doors down from a clutch specialists. All in all, it could have been much worse. I was more gutted that my naughty little dog tore up his new cushion that cost £20 when I got back than this, which will probably cost me £300 minimum.

We'll wait and see what the garage says I suppose, I am hoping to get down to DTD again at least once while the EPO is on, so lets see if I am still optimistic when I get my quote.

Sports Psychology Guy

Anyone who has seen my feature on Pokernews will know that I have been working with a sports psychology expert lately. He is actually a very well respected figure in online poker,Jared Tendler, who is a Stoxpoker coach. We are working on a few worky things together and he is giving me a taste of his program, I must say its been an amazing experience so far. The article is here and its actually a few weeks behind and we are deep into the program. He wont make you a better player, but he will give you the tools to always play your best and learn to become a better player. When I met him my biggest issue was that I have had this victim mentality after year where I thought I ran worse than anyone in the world. A few weeks on and I dont feel like that (as much) any more and although I ran quite bad, I have realised that I am not as good a player as I thought I was and wasnt as unlucky as I thought either.

It sounds awful, to admit you are not as good a player as you thought, but it actually feels liberating. The world seemed small and progressing as a player seemed impossible a month or two ago, because I was so poorly equipped to handle the massive downswing I went on. Now it feels like I have something to work towards and I am processing information and learning at a much faster rate than I thought possible. The other day I had a sweat session with someone and probably had the most complex mathematical discussion I have ever had, and it all went in, whereas normally I would just agree and look for a spot to change the subject.

I'm not crushing or anything, in fact this is only just a winning year for me (Partially because I haven't played much at all, barely played live either) but what I am learning is basically, how to learn. Making small incremental changes each and every session and documenting everything, it makes a massive difference and with the exception of one particularly awful session, I havent tilted at all (Tilting for me, btw, is playing passive and defensive).

Whats more, I have been able to apply what he has been teaching me in my day to day life. I have become much better at managing my time overall, I have been really consistent with going to the gym and have even started to review my spending habits, which were getting out of control.

I know sports psychology seems a bit wishy washy to some, and many turn their noses up at in in poker circles, but its all really solid, commonsense stuff, small useful, incremental changes that all add up. I'm going to go on about it a whole lot more on this blog, but dont want to go ahead of myself on the pokernews articles I am writing.

Finally, this made me lol

GUKPT Sheffield & Industry Musings

Found out yesterday that Sheffield is getting a G Casino and also, it is being considered for a stop on next year’s Grosvenor UK Poker Tour. It doesn’t get much better than that for me really, Sheffield really needs a proper poker venue, no offence to Napoleons (I by that I mean I am about to offend it) but its bloody awful, feels like a working men’s club. You can have a 40 runner tournament at Naps and by the time you get to three tables everyone is talking about chopping, I nearly got chased out of there with burning sticks and pitch forks once for refusing to do a saver deal.

A plush new G casino, presumably near the M1, will be fantastic and a GUKPT here next year will be the easiest weeks work for me of the year. My guess, for anyone who knows Sheffield, is that it will be somewhere near the Cineworld/Don Valley Stadium/Meadowhall are rather than the city centre. Its on the tramlines, its near loads of other entertainments, its near Rotherham and its near the M1 – seems ideal. I heard someone say it will be in Totley, which is a really odd place as its a quiet residential area which isn’t that easy to get too. Both are a five minute drive for me so I don’t really care.

Speaking of work, it’s about to get a whole lot busier. Starting at the English Poker Open in just over a week, then onto the WSOPE and the EPT. This should be my biggest month of the year as a journalist, with the poker world on my doorstep (Well it’s a two hour train ride followed by 4 stops on the tube, but in world terms) and I am planning on working my ass off. Since we got the dog, my workrate has plummeted and my expenditure has skyrocketed, but this is a good chance to get back on track.

Main reason that my workrate has plummeted has been a combination of lazyness, breaking myself in for my new role at Pokernews and also the dog taking up my time. Thankfully he is starting to become a really well behaved little mutt that respects me when I am working, so that is less of an issue. Another reason, perhaps, is that I am really seeing the poker media industry decline at the moment, recession and all that. Not the overall poker industry, that’s still thriving, but magazines and websites are feeling the pinch.

Thankfully for me, Pokernews seem to be one of the few places that’s getting bigger (At least that’s my impression, I am not sure about the high up inner workings of the place) but lots of other places are really struggling. It seems it takes longer to get paid for work (Pokernews pay me usually within a week, so discount them), it’s the nature of the job but sometimes magazines can be 6 months before they pay you. The original incarnation of WPT magazine is no more (The one you see in the shops these days is a new publisher), Flush magazine have gone under and it won’t surprise me to see another few bite the dust before times get better. A year ago I used to be inundated with work offers from random sources that I had to knock back because I didn’t have the time, that doesn’t happen much anymore and I feel very lucky that I have a regular income from one of the more solid players in the industry.

Is it worse than what other industries are facing in the recession? Probably not. There are also plenty of silver linings on the clouds at the moment. If and when the US market is allowed to open its doors to the rest of the online poker world, thats fantastic news for all. Magazines will see advertising revenues boost, affiliate websites will see more CPAs/MGRs, smaller poker rooms will see traffic increase, bigger poker rooms will see more new yank players signing up and we could well have another mini-boom. I think (and have written) that PKR would become huge in that scenario, because I think the yanks would go crazy for its 3D graphics and being able to call people a loser via emoticon over the interweb.

Anyhoo, I digress, here is a pic of me and the missus battling the evil empire aboard a rebel spaceship:

30

So over the weekend I turned 30 after many years of denying it would ever happen. I’m sure everyone goes through some sort of attempt to better themselves when they turn 30 and I was no different. As soon as I rid myself of the hangover I found myself in the gym before 7am in the morning followed immediately by going out and purchasing a new wardrobe (Of clothes, not an actual wardrobe). This was certainly in part in an attempt to make myself feel and look younger, but also to get myself out of my current fashion faux pas.

You see I have had all manner of styles thus far in my three decades, when I was a teenager I had long hair and the grunge look, at college I had a rather embarrassing Oasis mop that on reflection looked like a ‘hair helmet’, in my early twenties I was actually pretty well turned out during my ‘clubbing’ years, but unfortunately the poker years (25+) have seen my decline into the look of ‘darts player’. Working from home not only piled on a few pounds for me, it also saw me give up on my appearance a bit and alas, free poker hoodies and t-shirts have occupied a lot of hanger space on my side of the wardrobe (Getting accidently sent 500 Winamax t-shirts earlier this year didn’t help either).

But no more, I now want to look a bit like someone you would actually want to meet/do business with/not cross the street when you see me coming. I have even started shaving every day rather than letting it grow through the week and having one big shave when I next scheduled to meet people.

I am actually quite content being 30, I have been telling people I am 30 for a while now, which is a good way of easing into it. I migrated from Radio 1 to Absolute Radio earlier this year, which I think demonstrates how I have lost touch with da yoof, and I never looked back. Much happier to listen to mid 90s rock than have to listen to some idiots butcher an old classic by putting a rapper in the middle of it (Have you seen that head, shoulder, knees and toes song?) – Christ I’m old.

So does being 30 mean I am taking stock of my life, suddenly wanting to do something outrageous and question everything I am doing right now? Not quite, but a few things are changing. I love my job, it really is the best job in the world, but I am going to try my hand at branching out a little. I really want to get into the marketing/PR (I forget which is which) side of things, I think that would be ideal for me and I assume there is more money in it. Almost always I look at press releases and promotions and think about how I would have done them differently, plus somehow just about everyone I know in poker has come to me asking for advice/contacts of a marketing nature so maybe I have been around the industry long enough to give it a go. Pokernews is still the priority, especially with the WSOPE round the corner, but watch this space on that one.

There are also some pretty huge changes to what I am doing as a player but I will have to leave you in suspense over that one (Not that exciting, just cant quite reveal just yet)

I shall leave you with my two fave youtube clips of the moment

What James Akenhead Could Do For UK Poker

This is taken from a feature on UK Pokernews

I personally don't know James Akenhead, but I do know a few of his HitSquad buddies and if he is anything like them he must be a decent chap. Generally speaking I hate it when anybody who isn't me guarantees themselves at least 1 million dollars with the prospect of many many more, but when I switched on my PC on Thursday morning to look at the Pokernews Live Updates from the Main Event, I instantly did a double fist pump in celebration when I saw Akenhead's name on the November Nine list (Followed by a 'nice' when I saw he would be joined by Phil Ivey).

Why was I so pleased at the news that someone I don't know has reached the promise land of poker?

Because this could be one of the best things to happen to poker in the UK in years.

Whatever you think about the concept of the WSOP Final Table delay, there is no doubt that it is the best thing since sliced bread for the nine players who are being forced to wait for 4 months. The endorsement deals alone are worth millions and I wager a few players will make more money away from the table than they do come November when the cards are in the air. Akenhead, who all but looks like he will be a fully fledged Full Tilt Poker Pro by the time the final comes around will almost certainly be set for life no matter where he comes on the day.

The Hit Squad (The plucky young group of players he belongs to which include Sunny & Charles Chattha, Praz Bansi and Karl Mahrenholz) are one of the most successful and likeable bunch of lads out there. With bracelets, GUKPT titles and more final tables than you can shake a stick at between them, they are very likely to become big household names and will be great ambassadors for the game. I'm expecting to see more sponsorship deals being signed, as well as the Hendon Mob being given a run for their money in the top UK poker group stakes.

But what we really want to see is UK poker getting recognition in the mainstream press and now could be the time. This was the best year ever for the UK at the WSOP with JP Kelly, John Kabbaj and Roland De Wolfe all winning bracelets (The latter of course taking down the poker triple crown in the process) and now with one of our own at the final table of the big one, now is a great time for the national press, the BBC, Sky Sports, Richard & Judy and more mainstream outlets getting behind poker in a big way.

Akenhead himself seems an ideal candidate to widen the appeal of poker to the masses. A young intelligent guy, he seems wise beyond his years with a level head on his shoulders. He was already being tipped for great things by his peers and those that have played with him consider him to be something of a genius 'Stu Unger' type of player.

It sucks that he goes back to Vegas with the short stack, but this might actually really help the UK public get behind him. Its well documented that the British love an underdog (in fact, the less likely they are to win the better usually) – not to compare Akenhead with Eddie the Eagle Edwards because he is just a few double ups from being a real contender for the title, but the odds stacked against him will really endear him to a lot of casual spectators in the UK.

It helps too that Phil Ivey, the Tiger Woods of poker, is sat at the same table, making the task seem even more impossible for James. This also guarantees that anyone with even a passing interest in poker worldwide will be watching this final table, which means that Akenhead will be watched on the most view poker final table in history.

The presence of both Ivey and Akenhead at the table will certainly help the 'skill vs luck' debate that poker is always linked with. Phil Ivey is regarded by almost everybody in the poker community as the greatest player of all time, and here he is with two bracelets and the main event final table to boast in 2009 alone. Akenhead was at the top of just about every UK players top 5 list to do big things at this series, especially after coming so close to a bracelet last year, and here we were all vindicated when he made the final table of the biggest event in poker.

UK poker really needs a shot in the arm right now, especially after the issues Dusk Till Dawn are facing and the ludicrous live poker revenue tax that all legal poker venues in UK are subject to. If James Akenhead can catapult himself into the public eye and become the poster boy of UK poker, it might just be start of a second poker boom in the UK that will benefit all of us.

Even if he busts out on the very first hand, James Akenhead should be monumentally proud of what he has achieved at the World Series this year and we might all owe him a pint if he can do anything to get poker out there to the masses in the UK. We have thoroughly enjoyed following him the main event here at UK Pokernews and are even more excited to see what the next 4 months will bring for James and the rest of the HitSquad.

Now just imagine if he actually went and won it............