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.

The PartyPoker Big Game IV to Change TV Poker?

Taken from my UK Pokernews column

I am fortunate enough to be going to the 48 hour PartyPoker Big Game IV this month in London where amongst other things I will witness two lucky Pokernews qualifiers play in the event thanks to our $20,000 freeroll this Saturday. As excited as I was, I didn’t think much of the event right away just because I was familiar with it from the previous series on Channel 5, but recent news has made me start to think this could actually be one of the biggest events in TV poker for quite some time.

And I am not talking about the potential ‘unmasking’ of Isildur1, which in itself will be a pretty huge story in the history of online poker. Yesterday morning, when looking at the day’s news, I had to wade through a ton of ‘Isildur1 is actually.......’ stories yesterday, all of which were April Fools pranks and having once fallen for and reporting one about David Beckham playing in the World Series of Poker, my bullshit detector managed to save the day and spare my blushes.

But I actually think the bigger story could end up being some of the new additions to the format of the show. Most notably, to me, the inclusion of entrance and exit music which will be voted for by Pokernews readers. Matchroom Sport are responsible for some big innovations in TV sport and revitalising old formats, this inclusion reminds me of what they have done with Darts. You would never think a game like Darts could get such a legitimate ‘razzamatazz’ injection like it has, but Matchroom have pulled it off. Darts is now far from a pub game, it’s a night out, a spectacle and it has made stars out of its players.

Darts players are now ‘characters’ and this is a prevailing theme in the Matchroom legacy. Barry Hearn almost single handedly turned Snooker into a monster of UK sport in the 1980s by giving the players nicknames, characters and back stories and they did the same with Darts. They have also done something similar with the innovative Prizefighter format in Boxing, another sport that needed a push back in the right direction.

And you can see it happening now in poker. The PartyPoker Premier League is the best example of this to date, seeing the same players week in week out allows the audience to attribute personalities to them (As if the likes of Phil Hellmuth and Tony G needed any help) and gives people players to boo and cheer on. This new inclusion of entrance music and evictions adds a whole new dimension of audience participation, when previously our experience had almost been that of an intrusive voyeur.

Will it work? Possibly, possibly not, I haven’t decided yet but it’s a push in the right direction. There are players for whom it will fit perfectly – Fullflush, Tony G, Sammy George, Phil Hellmuth, Roland De Wolfe – the larger than life characters that should be walking round with their own theme music anyway. I cant see quiet men like Phil Ivey ever wanting to be part of anything like this and many poker purists will turn their nose up at it, but what serious poker players often forget is that it is exactly stuff like this that gets the new players interested in the game, depositing online, playing in the pubs and venturing into the casino.

Outside of the showbiz it will still be as fascinating and subtle a game as it always has been, thats the great thing about poker particularly when you present it right, it appeals on so many levels. Some people will drool when they see a 5 bet 400 bb deep pot between Isildur1 and FullFlush and others will be more than happy to see Tony G bust a player and tell them to get on their bike. I can’t say for certain that the introduction of evictions and entrance/exit music is going to prove a hit, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.

Poker Players are Flippant with Money

Taken from my column on UK Pokernews:

The armed robbery at EPT Berlin is probably the biggest story in poker I have had to work on since I became a poker journalist. Don’t get me wrong, from an industry point of view there have been lots of bigger stories within poker – the November Nine, Chris Moneymaker winning the Main Event, the UIGEA and the Superuser Scandal all spring to mind. But in terms of attracting mainstream media coverage worldwide I think this was the biggest during my time in the Industry.

The security of the event has come into question, as you would expect it to whenever something like this happens. I for one wasn’t there, so I will not speculate about how prepared or unprepared the Grand Hyatt Hotel and the EPT were for such an incident, I think my colleagues over at Pokernews.com are in a better position to do that. The one thing this did immediately make me think about, however, was how we poker players often treat large sums of money with quite reckless abandonment.

I am not trying to say anyone who played EPT Berlin was taking a massive risk in doing so, not at all. I just found myself explaining how live poker tournaments and buying in worked to a bunch of non poker playing friends who had caught the news. Although obviously biased by the weekends story, they were quite alarmed by how we often walk around with big sums of money in our pockets and also surprised that something like this didn’t happen much more often.

But that appears to have clouded our judgement towards money in general. As Stuart Rutter put it brilliantly in his recent column, there have been so many times where poker players will have been incredibly vulnerable with large sums of money. Whether that’s waiting in line to pay into a big buy-in tournament, lending money to players you don’t truly know that well, playing self deal games or agreeing to buy a piece of someone in a tournament.Poker players live in a unique bubble, especially where money is concerned. Money is not treated like something we use to pay our bills, feed our kids and buy life’s little luxuries, it’s used as a way of keeping score, of determining whether we are winning or losing players. This attitude, although alien to people outside of poker, is correct in the context of the game, because over attachment to money will inhibit a players ability to make profitable decisions at the table.

I’m as guilty as anyone of being prepared to do poker transactions without much research, ones that I would never dream of doing in any other realm of life. I’ve bought percentages in people I have never met, swapped stars money for tilt with acquaintances I couldn’t really call proper friends and engaged in the daft prop bet or two. If a mutual acquaintance outside of poker asked to lend money from me I would say 100% no, but if a mutual poker acquaintance wanted $500 Stars for $500 Tilt, I would ask no further questions than their screen name and the city they are from (Thankfully I still say no all the time if a poker player ever asked to borrow money from me).

And I’ve been burned a few times too. I have been grimmed by horses I have staked without doing the appropriate research beforehand and I have done work for poker magazines that promised me riches but who never ever planned on paying me. I have also had several, one successful, attempts on my online poker accounts by key loggers wanting to joyride with my bankroll. As much as I love this game and this industry I have also seen more than its fair share of theft, scams, staking requests gone sour, fly by night poker companies not paying the bills and much worse.

Poker players have a flippant attitude towards money which is why I think that they are the ideal pray for armed robbers or fraudsters. Whether that means the EPT Berlin Robbery was destined to happen I have no idea, but if nothing else we should all use it as a lesson so that it doesn’t happen again. We need to start recognising that poker is a very vulnerable and largely unregulated industry, one which despite this vulnerability most of its participants walk around with such a carefree attitude towards money that would make you think they were in Fort Knox.

We need to start taking more responsibility for our own money, our personal and financial security and the integrity of the game. We need to be much more careful with our money, be much more scrutinous of whom we transact with and insist upon higher standards in the places we play poker. Ultimately the blame for this incident lies with the dangerous men who carried it out, but we can all take steps to make sure things like this it don’t happen again.

Facebook and Mistaken Identity

I have no idea why but Facebook have removed the UK Pokernews Fan Page, just before we hit 1000 members. I really liked that little page and I cannot see why they removed it, I have checked out Facebooks T&Cs and they actually encourage commercial pages like that and the only things they remove stuff for usually are personal attacks on individuals. The irony is I was actually about to purchase a little bit of their advertising package from them, which would surely have halted any plans to remove the page. I guess I am going to have to start it from scratch again, sigh.

A weird week in UK Poker. Two cases of mistaken identity, we had a Willie Tann impersonator on Facebook which gave everyone a bit of a chuckle, and a much more dumbfounding case of someone making false claims about FTOPS winner Jack Ellwood. I for one would have been livid and a bit nervous if someone had made the same claims about me and I interviewed Jack himself to get his views. I have read the 2+2 thread in its entirety and the OP is a Grade A bullshitter, so I am in the 'its someone trying to ladder on the payouts' school of thought on that one. 

One thing I have found lately, and I discussed this with a poker chum yesterday, is even though I am very lucky to have interviewed some of the biggest names and my biggest heroes in poker, the best interviews for me have always been the lesser known guys and the underdogs. This week we interviewed Alan Lake, the guy that turned 500 FPPs into $140k in the Sunday Warm Up, much more refreshing an interview than usual blah blah bracelet blah. Its up there with Moormans Dad for the great poker stories you don't always hear about.

On the book front and its busy busy busy. Jared was unveiled as a new Performance Coach at DragtheBar this week and he has an exclusive series about how to get through the ultra marathon that is Supernova Elite on Pokerstars. Outside of my usual journalism work, I have been massively immersed in the psychology and poker performance content that he has developed and its starting to have a profound benefit, both on my overall poker game and my general approach to work. In a real life imitating art kind of moment, we have recently been working on the motivational issues section of the book and as a direct result, I have really learnt how to boost my motivation and I am finding I can work more productively for much longer. Hopefully we will add a 'how to be a right lucky sod and bink a big tournament' section somewhere along the line.

The European Poker Awards

So over the weekend me and the missus were in Paris for the European Poker Awards. Last year I noticed that an ‘Online Player of the Year’ award was missing from the previous 8 events and put together a (pretty impressive imo) proposal about why there should be one and how easy it would be to gather the information to judge it. They liked it so much they decided to do it and also asked me to be a judge, which meant an all expenses paid weekend for me and my girlfriend in Paris on Valentines weekend.

Paris is lovely and I was delighted to see that one National stereotype, that the French are rude, was scuppered. They all were lovely, very friendly, hospitable and fun, the service we received and treatment we got was superb. Like a tit I tried my hand at some of the lingo and got very overconfident when I remembered what ‘merci’ and ‘s’il vous plait’ meant, which led me into a DelBoy-esque binge of trying use as much French as possible and before I knew it, I was saying ‘Bonjour’ to say ‘thank you’, ‘good bye’ and ‘one beer and a white wine please’.

When we got round to the judging I found that I was pretty much the only person truly representative of online poker on the panel, as the awards previously had very much been a live poker centric affair. I will be honest and say that I was concerned that the rest of the panel would either not understand, not care or not appreciate the online poker element that I had introduced to the awards, but I was wrong. All in all I think the judging process was very logical, solid and 'my award' was treated with respect.

It was a blind vote, which meant we didn’t know until the awards ceremony who had won.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Vitaly Lunkin (Russia)
(Germany)
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Antoine Saout (France)
OUTSTANDING TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE
Jeff Lisandro (Italy/Australia)
INTERNET PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Patrick Antonius (Finland)
POKER STAFF PERSON OF THE YEAR
Edgar Stuchly (Austria)
ROB GARDNER AWARD FOR INNOVATION
Eddie Hearn and the Matchroom Sport Team (England)
LIFETIME ACHIEVMENT
Bruno Fitoussi (France)

I agreed with all the awards, in fact most of them were who I voted for. The only one I didnt vote for was Edgar Stunchly but it was very close and I almost did, but I went with Simon Trumper on that one. I am glad that Patrik Antonius won 'my award' and also very pleased that Eddie Hearn and Matchroom won their gong, because I was one of the guys that intially put their name forward as a potential nominee. Its nice when people agree with you.

There was a lot of huff on the forums that James Akenhead and JP Kelly were not even nominated for Player of the Year, when there is no doubt in previous years they would have probably won it. Its tough but I understand it, the nominees were decided just before James won the Poker Million (No idea why that is and that itself doesn't make much sense) and being as Antoine Saout made both the WSOP/WSOPE finals too and placed further in both, I understood why he would get the nod over James.

I think JP Kelly has more reason for complaint, bagging a WSOP and WSOPE bracelet. But compared to the other nominees he had cashed for decidely less and also Jeff Lisandro had won three that year, which is a (joint) WSOP record. Now there was a bit of heat over Jeff being considered European but he insists he was born in and considers himself Italian, therefore it stood. Apparantly he also cant speak that good Italian which made me think of this:




















The award ceremony was brilliant fun. We had Sandra Naujoks at our table (Very pretty, didn't seem very cheery, didnt say a word, bless her.) and thankfully she won her award otherwise I would have felt guilty for the rest of the night (Not that her mood seem to change that much after winning it). It was a very lavish affair and they were pouring Moet like it was tap water (Sounds like a brag but I would have killed for a John Smiths). And what poker night out would be complete without the Devilfish press ganging the band into letting him sing and make a proper twat of himself?

Great night though, and delightfully free of bad beat stories which meant, for the first time perhaps, my girlfriend got to go to a poker event without being bored shitless. I like to think I have had a big and positive influence on the European Poker Awards and I hope they invite me back next year.

Whoever said Paris on Valentines Weekend was romantic has clearly never been, because it was freezing all weekend and actually pretty unpleasant to walk around for that reason. An otherwise great weekend was ruined by one of the worst meals of my life on our final night. We saw what looked like a quaint, romantic little place that looked very French and decided to end the weekend there. It was very cosy and intimate inside and we ordered something off the menu, no idea what as it was all in French, and the second we ordered everything changed. The room went dark, lights started flashing and music started pumping, somehow this cute little Restaurant had suddenly become a karaoke bar.

So we had to sit eating what I can only describe as 'French Poo on a Plate' in a pumping nightspot, as we listened to the French butcher some Stevie Wonder classics in their native tongue. Our meal looked like it had been prepared at Little Chef, tasted much worse and cost me €75 for the pleasure. I had hoped that the extortionate bill would be my parting memory but unfortunately a week later and I am still making a mad dash to the toilet every 20 minutes, I have been ill for a week.

Its a shame that we have essentially four great days and that meal will always be the thing we remember, but hopefully next year we can erase that memory.

Other than that, just been very busy with work and finding no time to play. The book is very hard work but its worth it, I think I have luckboxed my way into a classic there. Its probably better to refer to it as a Poker Performance book than a Poker Psychology book, either way I can safely say there is nothing out there like it on the market and I hope we can get it finished before the WSOP.

Over at Pokernews we have loads going on. We have just finished a very successful week as the presenting sponsor of the PartyPoker Premier League and its very exciting to think that our branding will be all over Channel 4 in a few months time when that's broadcast. We also have a few new UK poker partners about to be announced and this week had a cracking interview with Julian Thew, amongst others.

OK gotta go, all my mates are having babies and the latest one popped out today.

Meh 2010

It’s actually been a pants start to 2010, nothing awful has happened just lots of tiny nuggets of bad luck. We went to see that Avatar film but the battery went on my car en route just as the snow started belting down, meaning we missed the film and had to buy a new battery from the AA man. Then the car got stuck in the snow while my girlfriend was on her way to work, had to abandon it and we had to go and rescue it later on, just as we had a problem with our plumbing and had to get a plumber here on the most disrupted snow day in years. Also had my annual slip on the snow this morning, thankfully nobody was around to see it, I will be braving the rest of the ice this year using my Dad’s tried and tested method of socks over the shoes.

Also started the year running very badly at the tables, but because it’s just the start of a whole 12 months that hardly seems worth mentioning.

Finally saw Avatar and it was worth the wait, though perhaps not the £120 it cost me in total.

Some good chirps though, UK Pokernews has been nominated for an APAT award for Best Media Provider. You can vote for us here by joining their forum and voting for us (Also vote for Blonde in the best forums category). Very nice just to be nominated, though I think the Nutz.tv will win because they have a community following, Pokernews are more of a service like the BBC website, while the Nutz.tv are more of an interactive fun thing like facebook or someink. Both very good at what they do, both very different animals though.

The book has started coming along well, after a lot of planning we are finally into the ‘writing words’ aspect of it. It looks like it’s going to be tough but rewarding, Jared is learning and developing as a writer from my influence (Put your own joke here) and I am learning his material more and more, which is obviously going to benefit me as a player. Lots of other things are getting in the way, such is life, but hopefully we will have a more than finished product ready way in advance of the World Series of Poker this year.

Personal Trainers, Writing Books and Other Stuff People Make Big Claims About at New Years

I for one have totally and utterly checked out for 2009, I did about 8 days ago in fairness but the whole Xmas thing got in the way of me updating things blogwise. I probably wont even bother playing again until 2010 brings that familiar surge of motivation that being the first day of a new year provides.

I havent mentioned this yet, but I am now because I do not want people to think this was spurred on by a post Xmas stint of guilt, but in November I started using a personal trainer at the gym. I have regularly gone to the gym for about 10 years now, but the last three I have turned up, coasted, done the bare minimum and done very little to progress that. In fact its quite scary to remind myself that I have been working hard to MAINTAIN my current hefty frame, so god knows what would happen if I had given up completely.

My PT is a power lifter called Ian Thistlewood and lifting weights is something I have always avoided/done the bare minimum. A month with this guy and I absolutely love it, the big difference maker has been the changes he has made to my technique, which was terrible before. Now I feel stronger, fitter and although I haven’t changed weight much my body shape is changing noticeably (Or at least the missus has been kind enough to pretend it has) and the biggest motivator is that I am already paid up for another bunch of sessions so I am locked into it. I even went as far as going to the gym during Xmas at my girlfriends parents town (The mighty Kings Lynn) - although running a marathon wouldn’t have changed the mince pie injection I have put my body through this last week.

The other big news which is very exciting (for me) in 2010 is I am working on a book. Jared Tendler (Referred to here as the sports psychology guy) is bringing out the book version of the groundbreaking mental game coaching he provides and I am helping him out with it. I will be very quick to point out that the content is NOT from my poker brain, it is 100% from the mind of Jared, who is a counselling therapist who works with poker players and athletes, I am just going to be helping edit it, doing a lot of the housekeeping work, marketing and helping to provide a poker players voice (Jared doesn’t play poker but he has been working with them for years). Jareds content is rock solid, as is his programme which many high stakes regulars swear by and I am really lucky to be on the ground floor with it all.

There are many many poker psychology books out there, but as far as I know Jared is the first person to write one who is actually a psychology professional and his work is from years of working with poker players and sports professionals. The book is based on genuine concepts in psychology and from field experience from a professional, rather than just observations from experienced players. Its nothing to do with metagame, sould reading, outhinking players, its not about putting people on tilt and its not about any of that 'visualise the ball going in the back of the net' crap that a lot of people associate with sports psychology. The book is all about getting to the route of all the things that stop you playing your very best all the time, about how to increase the number of tables you play, how long you can play, changing your attitude to things like money, winning, losing and how to teach yourself to be a much better learner and studier of the game. I can only draw on my own personal experiences with the guy and say that in just a few months he has cured a crippling risk aversion I developed, helped my increase from 4 tables to 12 and I am playing better overall to boot, turned what was set to be a huge losing year into a (small) winning year and changed my attitude to studying poker away from the table.

I'm obviously not (yet) the best example of his work, someone like Dusty Schmidt who has won $1 million each year the three years he has been working with him, but the changes he has made to my game and my life (I wouldn’t be going to a personal trainer if it wasn’t for him) have been massive. We hope to have the book out by May and I am taking a break from a few things to put my all into it. I wont be stopping playing or Pokernews in the interim, but I will be taking a break from magazine work for a while and also sleeping less to get this book looking great. If anyone wants to know any more about Jareds services then by all means drop me a line.

A lot of people who read the blog have asked me a couple of times about the G Casino in Sheffield, well I went to the VIP launch night earlier this month and have come back with mixed feelings. First of all, the 'VIP' night was a bit lol because we walked in to see an old lady eating the pastry off sausage rolls and put the meat back on the buffet, which felt almost like being at the playboy mansion. That said, the venue looks good and the card room is big. Unfortunately the tourneys are self deal, which I think is pretty awful for a G Casino, but I have been assured this is just a temp measure. I will probably play the cash games there this week and festivals, but I doubt I will be a reg for the time being.

Plans for 2010? Well the book is the big one, hopefully that will be out in May and then I will be going to Vegas with the missus in June/July for her birthday and to promote the book (And play poker and watch the World Cup). Nothing has changed with Pokernews and I am planning for that to be bigger and better next year. I also am looking forward to being a judge at the European Poker Awards in Feb and hopefully do a decent enough job for that to be an annual gig. Playing wise, no major goals, I have a financial goal (Not telling) and I am tempted to say I want to make it onto a sharkscope leader board in 2010. Not that many live events I consider a 'must attend' however I will almost certainly play the European Deepstacks, the DTD leg of the UKIPT and all the Sheffield based GUKPTs - thats probably about it really.

Other than that I plan on getting a weight lifting goal set up from my personal trainer and plan on teaching the dog the trick where you balance a biscuit on his nose.