De-constructing the Year of the Brits

Taken from UK Pokernews

In 2009 three UK Players won World Series of Poker Bracelets and one made the final table of the main event. At the time we considered it a massive success and coined it the ‘Year of the Brit’, suggesting that this feat was an isolated incident in the history of the WSOP. 12 months on and we are calling 2010 the ‘Year of the Brit’ too, because the success of our boys in Vegas this summer has almost overwritten what we achieved in 2009 as well as proving any doubters wrong that British success was any sort of one off.

This year UK players snagged an amazing five World Series of Poker Bracelets in Vegas. Praz Bansi won his second bracelet by taking down Event Number #5: $1,500 No Limit for $515,501. Popular Blondepoker shareholder James Dempsey took down Event Number # 9: $1500 Pot Limit Hold'em a few days later for $197,470 and high stakes star Richard Ashby won #21: $1,500 Seven Card Stud for $140,467. GUKPT Grand Final Champ Mike Ellis made it four winning Event #30: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $581,851 and prolific tournament pro Steve Jelinek finished things off winning Event #41: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better for $245,871.

Richard Ashby

On top of the bracelets there were a stream of final table appearances and deep finishes. Richard Ashby and James Dempsey both followed up their bracelet wins with 2nd place finishes, Neil Channing, Michael Greco, Paul Kerr, Kevin Howe, the Devilfish, Julian Gardner and Paul Foltyn all made finals, Stuart Rutter managed two final tables and Sam Trickett boasted two final tables and four more cashes making him the biggest cash winner of the year with $693,387. Our best main event finisher was Redmond Lee who finished 21st for $317,161. In total there were five bracelets, three second places, 20 final tables, 275 cashes and $8,679,918 in winnings for UK players this year in Vegas (Including 13 scores worth over $100,000).

Not only was this the best year ever for the UK it was also the most successful bracelet haul ever seen by a non US nation, which unfortunately was matched by Canada almost as soon as it happened, but the honour still unlikely to be repeated any time soon. In fact the year of the Brit is by no means isolated to the WSOP, it’s been a great year thus far worldwide for UK players. Jake Cody took down EPT Deauville, James Mitchell won the Irish Open and Liv Boeree stunned the world winning EPT San Remo.

So what does one put this major achievement down to?

Variance

We may as well get this one out of the way. It would be unrealistic not to acknowledge the role variance may have played in bagging all those bracelets and final tables, because we sure as hell would be blaming it if it were the other way round. Yes the Brits could just have run hot but thankfully the structures are getting so deep these days that variance is arguably playing less of a part than a few years ago and we are seeing more and more ‘names’ taking down gold in the last few years.

Community

The UK circuit is booming, but it is also in a way very small. Everybody knows each other, everybody has played against each other and outside of trying to take each others chips, there is a real culture of support in the UK. Poker is fundamentally a solitary game but there are so many communities in the UK scene that are nurturing and supporting UK talent.

Whether its forums like Blondepoker and the Hendon Mob, community tours like the Sky Poker Tour and APAT, staking sites like BadBeat and BlackBelt Poker or just likeminded bands of brothers like the Hit Squad and theShrewdies – poker players in the UK come together and help each other. It’s much easier to learn the game with likeminded friends and that was evident with the support shown for UK players on the rails and the forums this year in Vegas.

Well Structured UK Tournaments

A few years ago you would have to be a high roller to enjoy a deep structured event, with everything else falling into the £5 rebuy crapshoot category. These days events with well-structured 10,000 stack events are becoming the standard for a very low price. APAT, the Coral British Masters Poker Tour, theGrosvenor UK Poker Tour, the Pokerstars UK & Ireland Poker Tour and the Dusk Till Dawn Monthly £300 Deepstack all host regular championship style structured events for between £75 and £1,000, with a huge host of other one off events doing the same. All of which means that the Brits don’t show up to Vegas any more with no clue on how to handle a deep stack.

A Relaxed Stance on Gambling

People don’t really talk about this that much but you only have to look at other nations to see how valuable it is. In the UK we have a relaxed attitude towards gambling overall, we don’t have to pay tax on winnings, poker is advertised and broadcast on terrestrial television and the stigma associated with it is getting smaller all the time. Contrast this with just about every other country who either tax the game heavily, monopolise online poker or even try and ban the game altogether and you realise how lucky we are as players. It’s very easy and appealing to be a professional poker player in the UK, which has no doubt helped flourishing poker players make their mark on the world stage.

The Best Rails in Poker

It’s quite sad that most Americans think, and report accordingly, that any Britain who has had a drink and is cheering someone is a football hooligan. The American poker press did not know what to make of the rowdy rails in Vegas, completely bemused by the drinking, singing and chanting, but everyone back home loved hearing about them. The most notable rails had to be for James Dempsey who won one bracelet and came 2nd for another. Singing songs such as ‘Hes a Doctor’, ‘Pot Limits Coming Home’ and ‘Saammy Give Us a Wave’ (To Sam Farha) they also had a few railers thrown out.

Of course the question is, does that sort of support actually help a poker player? You can see how it would in an athletic pursuit where might give a sportsman an extra 5 minutes of energy, but in a game where concentration is key surely it would be a distraction? It’s hard to say, but either way, the rails were the icing on the cake for this fantastic year.

James Dempsey

It was a real shame that this year, just like it was last year, hardly any of the mainstream British press caught onto this fantastic achievement by Brits abroad. Obviously the World Cup would get in the way of any other sporting news but after such a dismal performance by England in South Africa you would think that the media would be keen to latch onto any arena where the Brits are excelling. I’m not expecting the Sun or the BBC to all of a sudden show an interest, but maybe someone like Sky Sports who have always had their fingers in the poker pie, it would have been nice for some sort of acknowledgement on Sky Sports News or even just their website.

But the attention from the British poker media is only going to get bigger, with lots of expectation going into the World Series of Poker Europe, EPT London and WPT London in September. Expect the front covers of all the magazines to be adorned with the bracelet winners and no doubt all the big winners will be nominated for British Poker Awards later on this year. Now let’s see if we can bag a couple at the WSOPE and leapfrog Canada at the same time.

GUKPT Summer Series Final Table (Which was also the only table lol)

Generally speaking I am not a massive fan of deals or chops, usually if I am in the position to make a deal I'm pretty happy with what I have achieved already and what I would get for busting out next (Tournament poker really is a novelty for me more than anything). Last weekend I did miss out on a good deal, but what proceeded it reminded me why I don’t like doing them much.

It was the first big event at the G Casino in Sheffield, the £220 GUKPT Summer Series. I say big event, it should have been, but only 9 people turned up. Normally that would be an instant un-reg, but with a GUKPT Champion of Champions seat on offer in added value it actually made the event more enticing. A seat in one of the most prestigious UK tournaments of the year for no extra cost and all you need to do is win a sit and go.

So prior to the event starting 7 out of the 9 of us had agreed that we should take the prize money back, pay the £20 reg fees and play what would have been the best value £20 satellite to the Champions event. When you consider we got a free meal on top of the juice and this would have been an amazing coup.

Unfortunately two young lads didn’t want to deal, they came here to play and they seemed decent players, so as gutted as I was for missing out I had to respect their decision. It seemed that about 3 guys at the table had no respect for that decision and spent half the game berating them for refusing the deal.

I don’t know if its just a Sheffield thing, but this is why I hate local poker. There really seems to be a ridic culture of trying to sort a deal prematurely at Sheffield casinos. I have literally played in a tournament where two people busted and someone tried to arrange a saver, just about every local results listing I see involves a silly amount of savers and I remember once thinking I was going to get chased out of a venue for refusing a saver on the bubble.

I bust out pretty quickly, but for some reason rather than being disappointed I kind of felt good that I had sniffed out a good value game. Oh well, technically I made a GUKPT final table even if it was also the first and only table. 

Hopefully the upcoming Summer Series will be a low turn out (I am horrified to think such a thing because I love the GUKPT and I really should support poker in Sheffield, but I am also a bumhunter and like easy money).

Over at UK Pokernews we have had a makeover and its looking pretty snazzy if I don’t mind saying so. Lots of fancy cool boxes, video stuff and twittery stuff. I am also about to suggest a little prop bet with my CEO that I can get 1000 facebook fan members to our Facebook Page by the end of August, so join it if you haven't already. 

Blatch Scam and British Masters Final

What a crazy couple of weeks it has been poker wise, an upper followed by a real downer. 

British Masters Final Table

I really should chirp more about these things after having such a baron period in live poker last year, but I made my second live final table in a row last weekend. After the UKIPT side event I went to Leeds for the British Masters Poker Tour main event. It was a tale of two weekends, everything that happened to me on the table turned to gold and everything I did away from it turned to shit.

I have never driven to Leeds before but I know how bad it is in the City centre to drive around. This was proven to me when I arrived 1 hour early and Sat Nav telling me I was 3 minutes away. 1 hour later I had had enough of getting sent the wrong way for the final 3 minutes and decided to park my car and get a taxi the rest of the way (Turns out I pretty much drove past the place 6 times anyway). I also had to pay a taxi driver to let me follow him to my hotel at the end of the night, I was that tilted with the combination of the Leeds one way system and a suspect Sat Nav.

I didn’t sleep a wink at the hotel, I’m a bad sleeper at the best of times and the combination of 10 hours play and two hours watching England draw with the Yanks was enough to ensure I wouldn’t relax at all in the hotel. I was rough as a dog the next day and pretty ill (Reckon I ate something dodgy) but then I discovered the joys of Lucozade Alert Plus, a little concentrated burst of caffeine in a bottle. Wow, I have drunk redbull before and once took Pro Plus when I was doing exams, but this was the most effective energy drink I have ever had. Not only was I not tired anymore, I reckon I could have run home from Leeds. 7 hours it lasted, which was long enough for me to play and drive home. I probably wont have one again, I cant imagine they are good for you.

I also had toothache, my phone broke, I forgot to pack half the things I needed and a bunch of other FML moments throughout the weekend.

Onto the actual game and day 1 was a dream for me, I ran like god. I would love to say I played well but I think a trained monkey could have got to day 2 with the cards I had. I actually went card dead a bit towards the end of day 1 which meant I went back with an average stack, and then day 2 wasn’t much better, but I cant complain because I ran so well for the first day it would seem ungrateful. The final table didn’t go particularly well, it wasn’t a fishy final but for the most part it was very straightforward, you could raise and take it most of the time, unfortunately all the times someone seemed to have a reraising hand would be when I was at it.

7th for £1,380 was fine, but I really wanted to win it and for that matter, I just didn’t want to stop playing. The banter at the final and over the 2 days was great, we had all played each other quite a lot by the time the final rolled round and there were a lot of good natured in-jokes abound. The eventual winner, Ross Johnson, was a top bloke and we had played each other from the start of day 1 and got in some funny hands together. I think he probably deserved to win it too, he had a good solid aggressive game which I think was right for that level of competition.

I certainly will play a few more legs of the British Masters Poker Tour because the structure was very good and the atmosphere was just fun. I love the other tours and events we have but sometimes you find yourself stuck at tables full of dousches taking themselves too seriously, it was nice to be playing a tournament that was a lot more relaxed while still having something meaningful to win.

Blatch

Christ, what do you say about this? If you haven't seen it already, check out the car crash that is the Neil Blatchly staking thread on Blondepoker. To summarise it briefly, a very well respected and well liked member of the Blonde forum that many of us know on the circuit has been conning a bunch of us for about a year, taking a total of between £120,000 off us in a sports trading staking scams.

It really reads like a stereotypical soap opera conman storyline, on reflection we all look really naïve for ever trusting him but believe me, he was very convincing on and off the forum. The guy we thought was a 'balla' is actually someone who was broke, close to bankrupt, claiming jobseekers allowance and stealing from us to fund his lifestyle. I wont even bother going any further on the facts than that because it is such a complicated, scary, sociopathic string of twists and lies I would never do it justice, deffo worth reading the thread if you ever have the time to cycle through over 140 pages.

I don’t expect to see my money back, more than anything I do not want to deal with him any more. I was very uneasy about writing the story up on Pokernews because it was quite close to home and also, if he is in fact someone with mental issues, I would hate for the publicity to send him over the top and he harm himself. However the eyes of all the online gambling world in the UK are on this and I couldn’t ignore it as a story, I actually think it would have been irresponsible not to  post the story as a warning to others and finally he does need to be exposed for this, unlike a lot of very angry people on the forums I don’t want to see him get his head kicked in, but he does need to be made an example of either in court and/or at least a shunning from the gambling community.

One thing that has probably come of this is I will probably never stake anyone again. I never really won a great deal staking but it’s a fun sweat while it lasts and you never know one day it might culminate in a big win. But after this I am not sure how I can ever trust a poker player fully again after this. Blatch was such a shock, he would have been in my list of least likely grimmers, so it has really damaged my view on this for a long time.

Edit: Daleroxxu sums up the story quite well in his excellent Blog here. 

Oh well, sod him. On to other things, the GUKPT is coming to Sheffield, twice, next month and I am pretty excited about that, although unlikely to put up a staking thread for it now :). 

Year of the Brits Part 2

Taken from my UK Pokernews Column

Reporting on, playing on and being friends with people on the UK circuit, I must say I am quite indifferent to people winning large sums of money. I’ve got friends who have won pretty big amounts in UK events and for the most part my biggest reaction is “Good, I can bag an easy interview then”. Occasionally I will be particularly pleased for an achievement by a player on the UK circuit and now and then I will be a bit jealous, but 99 times out of 100 its just business as usual for me.

Apart from when it’s the World Series of Poker.

It is probably the fact that I am about to explode with excitement that the World Cup starts this weekend that I am reminded of this fact, but I turn into a massive fan boy during the WSOP and am genuinely delighted for every bracelet, final table and even min cash UK players manage in Vegas. I’m not alone; there is something about the WSOP that makes every player in the UK genuinely excited by the success of other UK player, in a game where for the most part we are only ever really bothered by our own fortunes.

Poker is a very solitary game and no matter how happy you are for the players you like, you’d rather it was you. That changes when it’s the WSOP, it reminds me of supporting your local football team or your National team abroad – there is a really strong “It’s us against the World” feeling amongst UK players right now, or indeed “It’s us against the Yanks”, a victory for one is a victory for all of us. UK poker has been on a high since last year’s WSOP and British players have been taking down WSOPE, EPT, Irish Opens, Sunday Millions and more since.We could not have had two better players start the frenzy off than Praz Bansi and James Dempsey. Both very talented players and very popular figures in the UK. Praz for his previous success and HitSquad connections has been a real flag bearer for UK Poker. Dempsey has an iconic status on the popular Blondepoker forum and on the UK circuit. Every UK forum is going nuts, player’s facebook walls are getting hammered and every card room back home is talking about it. The rail at Dempsey’s final table resembled the banter we will see in every pub up and down the UK this Saturday for the England vs USA match and the excitement is reaching fever pitch in Vegas.

Will it continue? I am inclined to say yes. I think realistically matching 3 bracelets will be a fantastic result but there is no reason why we can’t beat it. The United Kingdom is a fantastic place to play and more importantly develop as a poker player, we have a lot going for us which is probably why we are doing so well out in Vegas.

We have some of the best poker communities around, whether it’s Blonde, theHendon Mob, AWorldofPoker, Sky Poker, BlackBelt Poker or APAT – all of which have a strong spirit of supporting and helping their players develop.

The UK is also somewhere where players can enjoy well structured, deep stack poker without breaking the bank. Dusk Till Dawn, APAT, the British Masters Poker Tour, the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, the Pokerstars UK & Ireland Poker Tour, PKR Live, Black Belt Poker Live, the Sky Poker Tour Final and not to mention the plethora of affordable deep stack events over in Ireland. Just about every weekend players can locate a deep stack event in the UK for £1000 or less, which is probably why we are doing well in well structured events in Vegas right now.

There are loads of other things to mention of note, the fact the age limit is 18 not 21, the fact we don’t have to pay tax on winnings, the fact we have poker on TV every week (The Matchroom Shootout tournaments no doubt helped Neil Channing and Stuart Rutter go deep in the $5000 Shootout Event) and the fact that we have G Casinos, Gala Casinos and more in every moderately sized City. All of which has really helped encouraged people to play poker in the UK.

The more I think of it, how can we not bag another bracelet at the minimum by the time the main event comes around? We are behind the times in Stud events generally but keep an eye on all the Omaha Events and the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em because I think we will see some serious contenders in those fields, plus the $25,000 Six Max might be one to watch.

If I had to choose between railing a UK player at a big final table and watching England play a world cup match, England would get my vote and it isn’t even close. But other than that it’s a great time to be a railbird and I apologise to my missus in advance for how little she will see me this month as between World Cup matches I will be cheering on our boys and girls in Las Vegas while watching the Pokernews Live Updates.

Now let’s have another one please Lads.

Mini Final Table, Bookaments and WSOP Live Updates

I suck at updating this blog, particularly when I have something worthwhile to write.

Actually made a final table at Dusk Till Dawn in the UKIPT Bounty event on the Sunday, which I probably should have made more of as its been a long time since I played live and even longer since I made a final table. Came 4^th in the end and shared a final with DTD owner Rob Yong, which was a pleasure. Even though he could wipe his arse with the first prize (He is a multi millionaire in case ya didn’t know) he was incredibly competitive, which is probably why he is so successful.

The book is nearing the end....I hope. This is probably why I haven’t been blogging lately, using up my daily word writing allowance on the book. I actually found myself in an interesting spot last month when I was interviewing Stuart Rutter for Pokernews. First of all, it was a fascinating interview because Stuart is a nice guy, a great player and speaks so enthusiastically about the game.

But after having spent 5 months working on a book about the psychology of poker, cowritten with the leading mental game coach in poker, I actually found myself probing Stu quite deeply about of his own mental game and doing my best Frasier impression in the process. I have learnt so much about the psychology of poker players in the last 4 months I just started probing in a way that I don’t think another journalist ever would. Asking the deeper reasons why he thinks its so important to win a tournament, how will he react if he doesn't win a bracelet this year and if he still wets the bed as an adult (Maybe not the last one) It’s not really relevant in the interview as I just stuck to writing up the usual GUKPT/WSOP gubbins, but whether Stu noticed it I don’t know because we went off on so many tangents including about 20 minutes on the mighty Owls and their League 1 prospects next season.

When I say poker psychology, just to reiterate I am not talking about how to put a player on tilt or give off false information. I’m talking about why we tilt, what motivates us, how to learn poker skill, how we handle variance, how to play in the zone consistently, how to increase the number of tables or hours you play, how to prepare before a session, how to warm down after a session etc. Jared’s material is so revolutionary (For poker) I think it will change the way a lot of players think about the mental game and I am really lucky that behind him, I probably know more than anyone else about his material. 

To give you an idea what I am talking about, most poker books will have maybe one section on the subject of Tilt, maybe a handful of pages. This book will have bigger sections each on 8 different types of tilt, plus further equally big sections on how to deal with it, cure it forever and how to use it to your advantage. The biggest problem we have is going to be condensing it enough so we don’t overload the readers with it all.

Anyway spamming over, now to spam what’s happening on Pokernews. The WSOP is underway and we have live updates a plenty all month, plus a ton of freerolls throughout (Including two freerolls to the Spanish Poker Tour). I don’t think the UK can replicate the massive year we had last year, but deffo think we can bag a bracelet in one of the more prestigious events, maybe two. 

Belated, Half Arsed and Rushed Big Game Report

Rather embarrassingly I have a really interesting and hectic time at the PartyPoker Big Game last month and don’t write a word about it. It was partially because Jared and Dusty got stranded in the UK for an extra week which put things back writing wise, followed by a really nasty week of food poisoning my end. The cliffnotes of the last few weeks were:

Meeting Jared was fantastic and we picked up exactly where we left off online. Although from different parts of the world doing different jobs, we clearly have a very similar sense of humour and general outlook on life and we had a blast. I also got to introduce Jared to Mad Marty Wilson which was one hell of a night, what was supposed to be a quick drink at 9pm went on till 4am as Marty told us his entire back catalogue of stories. We also spent the night with Robert Williamson III who was a really nice guy, exactly like he is on TV in fact.

Dusty Schmidt – spoke to him a few times before and thought he was an ok guy, but with all the haters he has on 2+2 I was still expecting a bit of a knob, I was wrong. Dusty is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and really laid back, I have no idea why he gets so much heat on the poker forums. It was also fascinating to hear him talk poker, he did a full 24 hours in the commentary booth and I feel like I learned a lot from some of our chats. Even though his time playing the Big Game was probably a huge disappointment, I think he will be one of the memorable points of the show because his commentary was brilliant. 

The funny and scary part of the week for me was opening up my Betfair account to see £354,000 sitting in front of me. One of the high stakes players at the game used my laptop to check their emails and logged into Betfair and forgot to log out. I am pleased to say I didn’t touch the money or even consider it, but it took me 20 minutes to press log out, I was hypnotised by the money.  Me and the missus are trying to buy a house right now, I could have chip dumped us a really nice one and had some change left over.


Not mentioning the name of the player because he is a sponsored pro and I don't wanna make me look like a twonk in the public eye, especially as he was kind enough to loan me £350,000. 

Finally everything is back to normal and we are in the final furlong for the book. I will be updating the blog much more now because obviously I will have something to promote very soon. Amazingly this week will be my first live pokerz of 2010 at the UKIPT at Dusk Till Dawn. I was all set to play the main event but didn’t realise it’s my 5 year anniversary this weekend, so will be playing all the sides instead.

So there you go, probably had the most interesting month work wise in a few years and I’ve said nothing about it. I’m ashamed to call myself a writer..

Big Week Ahead At The Big Game

I have my biggest week of the year so far, job wise, starting tomorrow. I don't believe in fate or destiny or any of that sort of stuff, but as coinkidinks go this was impressive. Pokernews have a big involvement with the 48 Hour PartyPoker Big Game in London this week and I am going down to be the man on the floor this week. We are sponsoring a portion of the event and I will be there trying to get a few scoops (Big one obviously being Isildur1 and if he shows).

I mentioned in the last post that I think this event will be a big landmark in the TV poker legacy and I mean it, so I am very excited to be part of it and uber excited that Pokernews branding will be all over it when it comes on Channel 5 later on this year. Its kept me busy and the one downer is that its a week I wont be working on my book with Jared Tendler.

However, by sheer coincidence, his most well known client Dusty Schmidt is coming over for the event and Jared is coming with him. Ok it isnt coincidence that much, I put Jared in touch with Jesse May who in turn put Dusty in contact with him, but its still very odd. Despite being very good friends for 8 months and having grinded a book out with him for the last 4, I have never met Jared in person until tomorrow.

The internet is a weird thing, I have several friends via poker that I would vouch for, lend money to etc whom I have never (or rarely) met in person. Things like skype, facebook and MSN allow us to skip the whole chore of actually going somewhere to see someone in real life. I'm really looking forward to it though, hopefully the start of many real life meetings.

I swear to god I could be a poker agent. In the one week Jared and Dusty are here I have arranged them two magazine interviews, two TV interviews and Jared is a guest speaker at the Bluff Europe Academy. I remember Julian Thew said to me recently "why do I need an agent if I know the person to speak to?" and he was on to something, as for the most part it was just a case of ringing and emailing people I know. Probably shouldnt under sell it like that, just in case anyone wants to pay me to do it in the future.

So I really hope I can either be the first person to report a sighting of or announce the identity of Isildur1. Its TV pokers first cliffhanger and its not only a step in the direction of Darts, its a step towards the WWE - no complaints here because I am afraid Wrestling is a guilty pleasure of mine. We will be doing semi-live-twitter-esque updates on Pokernews HERE as well as interviews and reports at pokernews.com from Sunday.

But tonight I am off to see Sean Lock with the missus, he is my current favourite comedian and after the disappointment that was Eddie Izzard, I need to have my faith in stand up comedy restored.