Long time no post eh? Laziness mainly, also my girlfriend has been pretty ill but I am pleased to say she is slowly on the mend and thankfully just in time for us to really enjoy Christmas (Thanks btw to those who gave get well messages) so I havent really played much in November, but we'll make up for that in December.
I've got more appearances on Sky Poker lined up and rather excitingly (for me) Im going to be dipping my toes and having a crack at poker podcasting. I love the 2+2 and Pokerroad podcasts and now a fully fledged UK poker radio station launches tommorow and it looks great, so I'll be making a few 'pilots' (thats a telly word that is) to see if I really do have the soothing voice that this gay turkish bloke said I once had at my old job. Radio probably suits me a tad more than TV, I have the face for it a bit more.
Three big tournaments coming up this week, Luton, DTD and the GCBPT - Ive been mulling over all three for ages and I have decided I am going to go the easy route and go to DTD. I have an other engagement that means Bristol was off the menu and the big value advantage of playing at DTD is that 70 odd GUKPT champions will be in Luton the same day.
It certainly would be nice to finish the year off by not making it a year I didnt cash in a live donkament.
Im a proper telly bloke me
Not that much Pokery stuff to report at the moment, my missus has been ill for over a week which has took up plenty of my time (because Im a good boyfriend) and I havent been playing that much. At this juncture I would like to thank Tracey 'Dingdell' Dell from the Blondepoker forum for some nutritional advice she has given us to get her better, which she did free of charge (its her field of work) and was much appreciated.
I did shoot back down to Feltham this week for another appearance on The Club for Sky Poker. It went pretty well, I was there for Pokernews talking about the WSOP main event results, you can see it tonight at 8.30pm and repeated a few times after. At one point I started talking and this voice came into my head "you dont know how you are going to finish this sentance" and somehow I managed to warble my way through whatever question it was, the rest went fine I think.
It was an odd day, it took me nearly four hours in the car to get there (Delays on the road + rush hour) and I was on the show almost as soon as I arrive, so I was there for less than half an hour before I was back on the road for another 3 and a half hour journey. It felt like being a delivery driver or something, which I dont mind as I like driving on the motorway and listening to music (Except when I managed to get on the road for Tim Westwoods slot).
I do really like getting my mug on TV, even if I hate watching it back and spend most of the show thinking to myself "my god you look awful". The fact that I feel comfortable getting make-up does make me feel like a big shot even if I do drive to and from the studio in my milk float of a granny wagon car.
So hopefully the missus will be better soon, I think she is slowly on the mend, and I can start playing a bit more (Although she might have saved me a nasty losing week for all I know).
I did shoot back down to Feltham this week for another appearance on The Club for Sky Poker. It went pretty well, I was there for Pokernews talking about the WSOP main event results, you can see it tonight at 8.30pm and repeated a few times after. At one point I started talking and this voice came into my head "you dont know how you are going to finish this sentance" and somehow I managed to warble my way through whatever question it was, the rest went fine I think.
It was an odd day, it took me nearly four hours in the car to get there (Delays on the road + rush hour) and I was on the show almost as soon as I arrive, so I was there for less than half an hour before I was back on the road for another 3 and a half hour journey. It felt like being a delivery driver or something, which I dont mind as I like driving on the motorway and listening to music (Except when I managed to get on the road for Tim Westwoods slot).
I do really like getting my mug on TV, even if I hate watching it back and spend most of the show thinking to myself "my god you look awful". The fact that I feel comfortable getting make-up does make me feel like a big shot even if I do drive to and from the studio in my milk float of a granny wagon car.
So hopefully the missus will be better soon, I think she is slowly on the mend, and I can start playing a bit more (Although she might have saved me a nasty losing week for all I know).
GCBPT Teeside, Credit Crunch and luck bastards losing their jobs.
Last week Gala Coral were kind enough to invite me along for a free seat in the Stockton on Tees leg of the GCBPT (Because I am a media type that gets stuff for free) and once again I donated away to a day 1 finish. The usual story really, I built up a big stack early (actually played some of my best poker for the first two levels) but never really got going after the first break.
Partially due to this very chatty and very good Irish bloke that moved to my left after the break and became a real Burdon; outplaying me almost every hand. It didn’t help that the structure was faster than the games I am used to (no 75/150 or 150/300 levels, which are my favourites) and all of a sudden it found me short stacked and running jacks into kings. I do, however, think that a faster structure is needed for the GCBPT and not because of the lower skill element in these events. It is effectively only a two day event, so it does need the faster structure and also there are not that many pros in the field, so it’s unreasonable to expect the players to spend half the week there.
But I must say I do like the GCBPT very much, rightly dubbed the peoples poker tour. What makes them different to say the GUKPT is that most of the field is made up of regulars from that casino (which also makes it great value) rather than the same 200 players regardless of the venue. I think both tours are great btw, I think the GCBPT is the people’s tour and the GUKPT is the prestige tour.
To be honest, I’d just like to cash in either at the moment.
Cash games are going ok at the moment, particularly because the pound is so weak compared to the dollar, I’m glad to be doing my poker business in $ and wish I understood currency well enough to justify cashing some of my roll out (Hmmmmm, I might actually just because its Christmas) and enjoying the exchange rate.
I’m sooooooo jealous of my old workmates; the lucky bastards might be getting made redundant. I was toying with sticking around at my old Norwich Union job because redundancy might have happened, 18 months later it is for some of them. They get a month’s gross pay per year they have been there, I would have got about 14 grand for that, my mate is due to get about £40,000. Lucky bastards.
I’ve been doing some research about how the whole recession thingy might affect the online poker industry, after all this is the first time we have had ‘online gambling’ in a recession, and although gambling historically does well in those periods, some experts think that online poker won’t be as lucrative.
First of all, I don’t think the traffic will go down all that much. For every player that opts out because of the credit crunch there will be a new player in the Asian market to take their place. Not only that but we have things like PKR and Sky Poker bringing new people to the game (Plus the odd idiot trying to poker their way out of a debt).
One thing is for certain, I am not keeping all my bankroll in any one place, that’s just common sense. I’m trying to find out exactly what would happen if an online poker sites bank went bust, but at the moment the online poker rooms haven’t been all that helpful. Could you imagine if Pokerstars invested all their money in Icesave? Christ.
So I have my roll spread out in Neteller, a few poker rooms and I am thinking off sticking it in a savings account. I’d get a lot of interest as a direct result, but as I’m a spanner when it comes to these things I have no idea whether Id be better off not converting the dollars to pounds, or if I’d get shafted if I redeposited or not. One thing I am doing is sticking all my rakeback straight into a savings account, that’s a nice medium I think and I tend to get quite a bit a month (Especially since getting a deal from the Tetleyboy guys in the above banner) and previously I just used it to pad my roll.
The smaller poker rooms will suffer I think. Duplicate poker has already closed down blaming the credit crunch, but make no mistake, its closing down because it was a fucking stupid idea for a poker room and had way too much invested in it. The Crypto network could be on its way out and I hope they merge with Party as its being suggested. Places like Sky Poker and PKR I think are destined to become huge and I can actually forsee them getting bigger, as will iPoker, especially when William Hill merge with them.
I think the credit crunch will adversely affect live poker more than online. I can casinos and poker tours see numbers drop more than online poker rooms. The ‘experts’ are saying poker attracts less habitual gamblers and thus, will give the game up much easier in a recession, but as poker is just a mouseclick away and there are no overheads online, I can see it thriving even if lots of smaller rooms and related business suffer.
Partially due to this very chatty and very good Irish bloke that moved to my left after the break and became a real Burdon; outplaying me almost every hand. It didn’t help that the structure was faster than the games I am used to (no 75/150 or 150/300 levels, which are my favourites) and all of a sudden it found me short stacked and running jacks into kings. I do, however, think that a faster structure is needed for the GCBPT and not because of the lower skill element in these events. It is effectively only a two day event, so it does need the faster structure and also there are not that many pros in the field, so it’s unreasonable to expect the players to spend half the week there.
But I must say I do like the GCBPT very much, rightly dubbed the peoples poker tour. What makes them different to say the GUKPT is that most of the field is made up of regulars from that casino (which also makes it great value) rather than the same 200 players regardless of the venue. I think both tours are great btw, I think the GCBPT is the people’s tour and the GUKPT is the prestige tour.
To be honest, I’d just like to cash in either at the moment.
Cash games are going ok at the moment, particularly because the pound is so weak compared to the dollar, I’m glad to be doing my poker business in $ and wish I understood currency well enough to justify cashing some of my roll out (Hmmmmm, I might actually just because its Christmas) and enjoying the exchange rate.
I’m sooooooo jealous of my old workmates; the lucky bastards might be getting made redundant. I was toying with sticking around at my old Norwich Union job because redundancy might have happened, 18 months later it is for some of them. They get a month’s gross pay per year they have been there, I would have got about 14 grand for that, my mate is due to get about £40,000. Lucky bastards.
I’ve been doing some research about how the whole recession thingy might affect the online poker industry, after all this is the first time we have had ‘online gambling’ in a recession, and although gambling historically does well in those periods, some experts think that online poker won’t be as lucrative.
First of all, I don’t think the traffic will go down all that much. For every player that opts out because of the credit crunch there will be a new player in the Asian market to take their place. Not only that but we have things like PKR and Sky Poker bringing new people to the game (Plus the odd idiot trying to poker their way out of a debt).
One thing is for certain, I am not keeping all my bankroll in any one place, that’s just common sense. I’m trying to find out exactly what would happen if an online poker sites bank went bust, but at the moment the online poker rooms haven’t been all that helpful. Could you imagine if Pokerstars invested all their money in Icesave? Christ.
So I have my roll spread out in Neteller, a few poker rooms and I am thinking off sticking it in a savings account. I’d get a lot of interest as a direct result, but as I’m a spanner when it comes to these things I have no idea whether Id be better off not converting the dollars to pounds, or if I’d get shafted if I redeposited or not. One thing I am doing is sticking all my rakeback straight into a savings account, that’s a nice medium I think and I tend to get quite a bit a month (Especially since getting a deal from the Tetleyboy guys in the above banner) and previously I just used it to pad my roll.
The smaller poker rooms will suffer I think. Duplicate poker has already closed down blaming the credit crunch, but make no mistake, its closing down because it was a fucking stupid idea for a poker room and had way too much invested in it. The Crypto network could be on its way out and I hope they merge with Party as its being suggested. Places like Sky Poker and PKR I think are destined to become huge and I can actually forsee them getting bigger, as will iPoker, especially when William Hill merge with them.
I think the credit crunch will adversely affect live poker more than online. I can casinos and poker tours see numbers drop more than online poker rooms. The ‘experts’ are saying poker attracts less habitual gamblers and thus, will give the game up much easier in a recession, but as poker is just a mouseclick away and there are no overheads online, I can see it thriving even if lots of smaller rooms and related business suffer.
The Poker Coach
There has been a really good response to an article I wrote for WPT Magazine this month about getting a poker coach. I actually wrote the feature months ago but I'm pleased to say I'm still with Stuart and we've become really good mates. I would advise anyone to either get a coach or at least, get some likeminded mates to discuss hands with because it makes an incredible difference to your game.
If nothing else, its a tremendous support system to have a coach when the times are hard, as well as a big reality check when you think you are running bad but are in fact making plenty of mistakes.
I've had a lot of people asking me to get in contact with Stu for them and I am sure he will reply to all the requests in due course, but I shall say on his behalf that he is in the middle of moving house right now and presumably has little to no internet access right now.
If nothing else, its a tremendous support system to have a coach when the times are hard, as well as a big reality check when you think you are running bad but are in fact making plenty of mistakes.
I've had a lot of people asking me to get in contact with Stu for them and I am sure he will reply to all the requests in due course, but I shall say on his behalf that he is in the middle of moving house right now and presumably has little to no internet access right now.
Man Flu
Its typical, just as I get a bit of a run going at the tables I get the dreaded man flu.
It sucks being ill when you dont have a normal job. No matter how ill I was at my old work, I always felt a small feeling of victory that I wasnt at work. Sure I would spend most of the day hovering over a toilet, but I also got to watch Jeremy Kyle when the other mugs were slaving away.
But Ive been ropey for a few days now and its really hard to quantify what, if anything, I have lost from being inactive. I could have got some really good writing down and won a fortune at the tables, or I could have done sod all and blown half my roll in one session. Its hard to say and its boring being ill when you are your own boss.
I dont know why, but I think this is the funniest thing Ive seen in ages:
It sucks being ill when you dont have a normal job. No matter how ill I was at my old work, I always felt a small feeling of victory that I wasnt at work. Sure I would spend most of the day hovering over a toilet, but I also got to watch Jeremy Kyle when the other mugs were slaving away.
But Ive been ropey for a few days now and its really hard to quantify what, if anything, I have lost from being inactive. I could have got some really good writing down and won a fortune at the tables, or I could have done sod all and blown half my roll in one session. Its hard to say and its boring being ill when you are your own boss.
I dont know why, but I think this is the funniest thing Ive seen in ages:
The Club
Yesterday I was down in Feltham to record several interviews for the Club on Sky Poker. Neither of my previous two appearances on poker TV shows were that impressive; I appeared on the Open last year, stuttered when I was introduced because I had flopped a full house on my poker table and when I finally got my words together, soft core pornography journalist Grub Smith made fun of my hair (Typically hours after the show I came up with a great comeback – “oi, fuck off Grub Smith”- which I wish I had said at the time). My second appearance was playing on the PartyPoker European Open, which was short and sweet and I think I played ok, but being the 5th place finisher in a 6 table heat is never much to shout about.
It was Dan Lobb and Compo presenting this time round, rather than Dan and Matt Broughton, and it was nice meeting Compo for the first time properly and he seems a really top bloke. Dan Lobb is exactly the same off the camera as he is on the camera, except he is actually about 6ft 3, which surprised me. When I met him in the green room, the first thing he asked me was ‘do you have any gambling leaks?’ which I thought was an interesting, intrusive and innocent question all at the same time, I can only assume Broughton told him what the term ‘leak’ meant the week previous and he has been using it to death ever since.
Also in the green room was Rich Prew plugging this week’s APAT event and Theo Jorgensen, bracelet in hand, looking like the cat that got the cream.
I did three interviews in total, one ‘quick fire’ interview which was just me and Compo and will be aired one night on ‘the open’ in the next week and two interviews for the Club. I took a change of shirt for those two to give the illusion of time passing between shows, the magic of television eh? My first proper interview was all about the WSOPE and the shenanigans that have gone on over the last few weeks and the other was all about my main writing gig – Pokernews, and all the great stuff they’ve got going on at the moment.
I really enjoyed all three interviews and I’m looking forward to watching them all, hopefully I won’t look too much like a fat fucker because I’m a stone lighter than the last time I was on TV. I think I answered all my questions pretty knowledgably and I even managed to crack a few funnies here and there. I think the first one airs on Friday night and no idea when the other ones do, I’ve sky plussed the lot already.
It was Dan Lobb and Compo presenting this time round, rather than Dan and Matt Broughton, and it was nice meeting Compo for the first time properly and he seems a really top bloke. Dan Lobb is exactly the same off the camera as he is on the camera, except he is actually about 6ft 3, which surprised me. When I met him in the green room, the first thing he asked me was ‘do you have any gambling leaks?’ which I thought was an interesting, intrusive and innocent question all at the same time, I can only assume Broughton told him what the term ‘leak’ meant the week previous and he has been using it to death ever since.
Also in the green room was Rich Prew plugging this week’s APAT event and Theo Jorgensen, bracelet in hand, looking like the cat that got the cream.
I did three interviews in total, one ‘quick fire’ interview which was just me and Compo and will be aired one night on ‘the open’ in the next week and two interviews for the Club. I took a change of shirt for those two to give the illusion of time passing between shows, the magic of television eh? My first proper interview was all about the WSOPE and the shenanigans that have gone on over the last few weeks and the other was all about my main writing gig – Pokernews, and all the great stuff they’ve got going on at the moment.
I really enjoyed all three interviews and I’m looking forward to watching them all, hopefully I won’t look too much like a fat fucker because I’m a stone lighter than the last time I was on TV. I think I answered all my questions pretty knowledgably and I even managed to crack a few funnies here and there. I think the first one airs on Friday night and no idea when the other ones do, I’ve sky plussed the lot already.
Poker is great, Poker sucks
My non poker playing activities are going tremendously well at the moment and at the same time, poker itself is going awful. I’ve had maybe my worse month of the year, my 2nd losing month of the year (although thankfully rakeback and bonuses made it a break even month technically, so I’ve only really had one losing month in 2009) and my luck has been awful. It’s the big pots I’ve been losing, the aces, the kings and the set type hands and the smaller pots have been fine. My Sklansky graph is a joke once again and like a div I just started backing up my database which will take all day so I can’t post it.
But as much as I blame bad luck (and I do believe the majority of my losers were coolers) my coach has been looking over my hands and pointing out plenty of mistakes I’ve made as well. So I’m taking a couple of weeks off and will be spending most of next week studying hand histories and discussing as much strategy with my coach and anyone who will listen. I’m way too tilted to play at the moment and everything else is going so well I may as well throw myself into that.
I’m loving my work for Pokernews at the moment and getting more involved with some of the behind the scenes stuff, for example I’m trying to shed a few last pounds for my appearance on Sky Pokers ‘The Club’ next week where I will be talking about Pokernews. I’m also doing a bit of writing for the newly launched www.pokerchanneleurope.com where I’ve been reunited with my old mate Paul Sandells. The website looks really swish and there will be loads of video content on there soon.
As you can see from the big purple banner at the top of the page, I’ve kind of unwittingly been promoting the tetleyboy-affiliates for a few weeks now so I ended up putting a banner up for them. Basically I got the best loyalty deal I’ve ever seen through them, I got chatting with the guy involved and was so impressed with his service and his personalised approach, I ended up sending a few players his way. If you want to know more send me an email and I can get you a special rate.
Unrelated to the Tetleyboy thing, I can also get you a great deal at VC Poker (Again, send me an email) which has one of the best loyalty systems available on the iPoker and send me an email for more. They’ve just announced the second Prague Poker Palooza on November 24th and I was gutted to miss the last one. I love Prague and it makes so much sense to have a poker tournament there, I’m hoping to get my ass over there very soon.
So yeah, its times like this I consider myself really lucky that I’ve got my fingers in a lot of pies. If I just logged on, played poker and logged off again each day, times like this would be brutal, but it’s nice I can have a break from playing and still make plenty of money and get plenty of opportunities from poker.
But as much as I blame bad luck (and I do believe the majority of my losers were coolers) my coach has been looking over my hands and pointing out plenty of mistakes I’ve made as well. So I’m taking a couple of weeks off and will be spending most of next week studying hand histories and discussing as much strategy with my coach and anyone who will listen. I’m way too tilted to play at the moment and everything else is going so well I may as well throw myself into that.
I’m loving my work for Pokernews at the moment and getting more involved with some of the behind the scenes stuff, for example I’m trying to shed a few last pounds for my appearance on Sky Pokers ‘The Club’ next week where I will be talking about Pokernews. I’m also doing a bit of writing for the newly launched www.pokerchanneleurope.com where I’ve been reunited with my old mate Paul Sandells. The website looks really swish and there will be loads of video content on there soon.
As you can see from the big purple banner at the top of the page, I’ve kind of unwittingly been promoting the tetleyboy-affiliates for a few weeks now so I ended up putting a banner up for them. Basically I got the best loyalty deal I’ve ever seen through them, I got chatting with the guy involved and was so impressed with his service and his personalised approach, I ended up sending a few players his way. If you want to know more send me an email and I can get you a special rate.
Unrelated to the Tetleyboy thing, I can also get you a great deal at VC Poker (Again, send me an email) which has one of the best loyalty systems available on the iPoker and send me an email for more. They’ve just announced the second Prague Poker Palooza on November 24th and I was gutted to miss the last one. I love Prague and it makes so much sense to have a poker tournament there, I’m hoping to get my ass over there very soon.
So yeah, its times like this I consider myself really lucky that I’ve got my fingers in a lot of pies. If I just logged on, played poker and logged off again each day, times like this would be brutal, but it’s nice I can have a break from playing and still make plenty of money and get plenty of opportunities from poker.
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