Steve Holden

2011-12-31T17:19:00.000Z

Wishing everyone a very special New Year.

“May the poker gods always look down upon you favourably”

2011-12-24T20:24:00.001Z

'Twas thenight before Christmas and Santa's a wreck...
How to live in a world that's politically correct?
His workers no longer would answer to"Elves",
"Vertically Challenged" they werecalling themselves.
And work conditions at the North Pole,
Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul.
Four reindeer had vanished, without muchpropriety,
Released to the wilds by the Humane Society.
And Equal Employment had made it quite clear,
That Santa had better not use just reindeer.
So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid,
Were replaced with 4 pigs, and you know thatlooked stupid!
The runners had been removed from his sleigh;
The ruts were termed dangerous by the E.P.A.
And people had started to call for the cops,
When they heard sled noises on their roof-tops.
Second-hand smoke from his pipe...had his workersquite frightened.
His fur trimmed red suit was called"Unenlightened."
And to show you the strangeness of life's ebbs andflows,
Rudolf was suing for unauthorized use of his nose,
And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation,
Demanding millions in over-due compensation.
So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife,
Who suddenly said she'd enough of this life,
Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in awhiz,
Demanding from now on her title was Ms.
And as for the gifts, why, he'd ne'er had anotion,
That making a choice could cause so muchcommotion.
Nothing of leather, nothing of fur,
Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her.
Nothing that might be construed to pollute.
Nothing to aim. Nothing to shoot.
Nothing that clamoured or made lots of noise.
Nothing for just girls. Or just for the boys.
Nothing that claimed to be gender specific.
Nothing that's warlike or non-pacific.
No candy or sweets...they were bad for the tooth.
Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth.
And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden,
Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden.
For they raised the hackles of thosepsychological,
Who claimed the only good gift was one ecological.
No baseball, no football...someone could get hurt;
Besides, playing sports exposed kids to dirt.
Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passe;
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away.
So Santa just stood there, disheveled, perplexed;
He just could not figure out what to do next.
He tried to be merry, tried to be gay,
But you've got to be careful with that word today.
His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground;
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found.
Something special was needed, a gift that hemight,
Give to all without angering the left or theright.
A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision,
Each group of people, every religion;
Every ethnicity, every hue,
Everyone, everywhere...even you.
So here is that gift, it's price beyond worth...
"May you and your loved ones enjoy peace onEarth."

2011-11-29T16:37:00.001Z

MONACO GRAND PRIX 24TH-27TH MAY 2012

2012 MONACO GRAND PRIX. 24th – 27th May 2012

Tickets now available for one of the world's most exclusive races.

Enjoy the full Monaco Grand Prix experience from the luxury of our 33m yacht.
Watch all the practice and qualifying days and the Grand Prix from close to the action on board the yacht.
Whilst on board you are free to enjoy the buffet and all day bar.

To make your experience complete choose to either stay on board or stay in a 5 star hotel nearby. We have negotiated some excellent rates with the hotels.

VIP Luxury will look after you from the moment you arrive ensuring your Monaco Grand Prix experience is pure indulgence.

Weekend Passes
Sat 26th - Sunday 27th May
Price £2100 - €2400 per person
Inclusive of all day Buffet, all day open Bar and viewing the race very close to the action on board the luxury 33m yacht.

Live on board 5 night Passes
23rd - 27th May
Price £5300 - €6000 per person based on two people sharing.
Inclusive of Breakfast, all day Buffet, Gourmet Dinner and open Bar all day.
Viewing all practice days, qualifying and race day from on board the luxury 33m yacht.

Please note:
Live on board Passes do not include flights.
Weekend passes do not include accommodation or flights.

Typical Itinerary

Thursday 24th May
F1 practice sessions 1 and 2, Porsche Super Cup and GP2 practice sessions

Friday 25th May
Porsche Super Cup first qualifying session and GP2 first race

Saturday 26th May
Formula Renault 3.5 race, GP2 second race and F1 3rd practice session and qualifying session

Sunday 27th May
Driver parade
Race day
Porsche Super Cup race and F1 race

Any interested parties please contact me via pm or email (steveholden@connectfree.co.uk)
Tickets will go fast - so dont delay - enquire today.

14th July

2011-07-14T12:28:00.002+01:00

I think it’s fair to say that last nights cancellation was caused by the ineptitude of the staff at Ipoker – at least the swiftness in which it was cancelled by G.Casino/Blue Sq staff ensured that the game was cancelled there and then rather than the three hour debacle that happened last time.

Ipoker were given a mandate of varying chip stacks for certain players and they got all but one correct – the one that they got wrong resulted in Mulla having a 50k stack rather than a 5k stack.

gukpt Grosvenor UK Poker Tour are not teaming up with ukipt Pokerstars and would be a massive mistake to team up with another tour.

When the GUKPT kicked off in 2007 (we are now in season 5) it captured everyone’s imagination because of the TV coverage and because of that it was successful also the climate at the time meant that more people had more money in their pockets and there was also little choice for the regular poker player to choose from.

The tour was also run by Jon Raab, Mike Butlin and Jamie Reeve and these three were not only responsible for making the tour a success but also to build up the Blue Square brand. The on-line sats were a massive success and they had a hard core of regulars that were constantly battling it out on-line in the value added sats.

Nowadays, there is the Pokerstars tour UKIPT – predominantly full of Internet qualifiers but nevertheless a full tour with a full schedule. We are also blessed with having DTD in the UK who are constantly offering games with massive guarantee’s and a deepstack starting stack giving punters exactly what they want for their hard earned dollars as well as having many value added sat’s into their main events.

Genting,Circus and Encore are now getting in on the act and realizing there is still a gap in the market and run regular “Monthly Live Deepstack” and “value added” events up and down the country in their many casino’s

The GUKPT are the ones who give the most away at the moment in terms of monetary value £300k+ this year and this would be a massive hole if we were to lose this money. Dave Abrams, Nick Sharratt, Dena, Ian and Russell know that they are going to have to pull a rabbit out of a hat somewhere if the tour is ever going to be a success like it was in season 1 and I for 1 would hate to see the tour diminish.

The news from the underground is that Gala/Coral will resurface in 2012 as will a fully scheduled Circus/Stanley tour and DTD will no doubt have more games and guarantees to entice us to make the trip to Nottingham.

The GUKPT and the powers that be need to sit down with poker players and find out what we want… a Champion of champions event where you don’t have to win anything to qualify doesn’t exactly get me rushing out to play, sitting at home waiting for sats to start for seats into main events – that never get started cause there’s not enough runners. There’s plenty of players that play the tour and travel regularly to different venues and would be more than willing to sit down and give their views cause the one thing we all want is “more choice”

9th July

2011-07-09T11:13:00.001+01:00

Having bust out of last nights £165 side event that attracted a whopping 49 runners I decided to play the cash tables as their seemed to be some loose players on there with a whole heap of chips going begging.

Having been bashed up by lady luck the night before when twice getting it in – in good shape with AA and twice getting rivered for a total of around £500 I reckoned that lady luck owed me one. I sat down with £200 on this £1/£2 table and played like granite for around 6 hours finally getting back my loses from the previous evening and pocketing an extra £400 in the process.

Steve Vigor who is leading the ranking points at the moment extended his lead at the top by taking down the £200 side event and I also had the pleasure of his company on my starting table last night – I think that’s 6 comps out of 6 now where we have been drawn together. Well done to Steve on his win and I must be looking now at a win today/tomorrow in the main event to try and claw back some of the difference otherwise there’s about 8 of us sniffing around for 2nd spot in the league.

44 runners already reg’d at Southampton for the main event and possibly less numbers at Sheffield as has been the case all week.

Todays event starts at mid-day so I best get a move on…. GL to me and everyone else playing today.

8th July

2011-07-08T12:04:00.001+01:00

I find myself in rainy Southampton for this week’s leg of the GUKPT summer series tour.

There is also a festival-taking place at Sheffield simultaneously with the same buy-ins although on the face of it - it looks like we are getting better numbers down here.

I played the Sat on Wednesday night managing to bink one of the ten seats from a field of 52 runners while Sheffield managed just 36 runners.

Last nights tourney was a £220 F/O and it attracted 50 runners generating a £10k pot – whilst in Sheffield they managed just 43 runners --- this could have a lot to do with the fact that the stunning Dena is in Southampton whilst big Ian Bryan is running the show in the city of steel.

I crashed out of last nights comp after getting short stacked and 4 bet jamming into Steve Vigor who leads the field in the GUKPT rankings and looks in a good position to take down the final table of last nights event.

Off for a game of golf this afternoon before heading back to the casino for tonight’s £165 F/O which is a one day affair…

The main event also looks like having better numbers than Sheffield with 45 already brought in for the 2-day event starting on Saturday £550.

25th June

2011-06-25T09:54:00.001+01:00

£10,000 Guaranteed at Walsall today
5pm start time
£110 buy in
£3500 to the winner approx (based on 100 runners)

Road report from Bolton coming very soon....

9th June

2011-06-09T18:29:00.003+01:00

GUKPT Summer Series Bolton leg starts today with a £220 freeze out…

Lets hope that they get better numbers than the last series down in Brighton.

Fingers crossed.

12th May

2011-05-12T17:30:00.003+01:00

Some time since my last post so a need to catch up somewhat..

I didn’t do to well in the “live” events at the Walsall leg of the GUKPT but did manage to bag the 10% on-line game which bagged me a seat into the champion of champions on line final on the Wednesday night.

I was late starting on the Wednesday night as I had been playing golf with a few friends and must have missed the first 15 minutes or so but as soon as I logged into my account I could see that the game had been set up wrong as everyone had started with the same starting stack as opposed to differing stacks depending on how you qualified.

I tried to contact customer services and the girl I was speaking to had no idea, I eventually got bust out after losing 2 thirds of my stack with a full house into quads and some other random holding.

I played the Deepstack over at dtd and had a great weekend with another good deep run, finishing about 115/300 odd runners getting it in with AK v QQ of Pete Singleton’s and failing to improve.

So the house I been grafting on for the last three months is finished now and ready to go back on the market – A good investment at £137,775 for a 5/6 bedroomed house and a rent value of around £850 pcm follow this link…

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29947255.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=sharing&utm_campaign=buying

I’m down in Brighton now for the GUKPT summer series leg, came down yesterday and finished 12th in last nights 10 seater sat so yet another deep run.

This weeks events are

Today £220 D/C Freeze out 7.30pm

Tomorrow £165 Freeze out 7.30pm

Saturday £550 main event re-entry

Sunday £110 bounty

27th April

2011-04-27T09:16:00.001+01:00

Sometimes you have to admit to yourself that you’ve just played a particular hand like a total fucking donkey, and sometimes that particular hand can cost you your tournament, which is exactly what happened last night in the first level of play.

I’m in mid position with AQ suited when there’s a limper round to me at 25/50 so I raise to 300, call from the lad next to me and then the BB makes it 1k to go, limper folds, I call as does the lad next to me flop comes AT5, bb leads for 1600 so I flat behind him, lad next to me tank folds and I’m putting him on a big ace (AJ –A9 –AQ) turn card brings a 9 and puts two clubs out there now giving me the nut flush draw as well, bb leads for 3k, I’m not putting him on an ace and I have a massive holding at this point so elect to flat having 4500 left behind me that I know is hitting the felt on the river cause the bb is just not slowing down – and I know if I miss the flush draw I’m going to have a decision to make for my tournament life – no club on the river and the bb tank shoves – I figure he could be repping the ace and holding kings or queens having rr pre, I call and he flips AK, well played me….

Early night in the sack after giving myself a good talking to on the way home.

£165 PLO tonight at 6pm so a good chance to redeem myself.

Shares still available in other pro’s from www.thefirmpoker.com

26th April

2011-04-26T18:35:00.002+01:00

No good last night. I was up and down like some tarts knickers and finally found some momentum around level 3.

I got moved right at the end of level three at the break and had no information on any of my table mates. First hand after the break and close to 12k in front of me I’m holding TJ on a TJ5 flop with two diamonds and 4k in the middle, EP makes it 1k to go at 200/400 – call from old boy in MP so I jam for an extra 11200, folds to old boy who calls from his stack of 13k with a flush draw.. Well played old boy.

Tonight’s game is a £330 F/O 2 dayer that starts at 7.30pm

25th April

2011-04-25T09:00:00.002+01:00

Today sees the starts of this years GUKPT Walsall Festival. With a £110 freeze out starting at 7.30pm

I played the 10 seats guaranteed last night, £30 rebuy, 2k in chips, double add on – outlay £125 – finished 24th after cruising along quite nicely then running AK into AA for 75% of my stack and my final hand on my bb for 3k and the small limps to me – I jam for 9800 total with KQ suited and sb dwell calls from his 16k total with Jd7h flop comes down Kh 7c 2h turn 4h river 5h WPWPWP.

Just the one starting day for the main event this year which consists of two flights on Friday – 12 noon and 6pm

I have a strong feeling that the numbers will be down this week although I hope that with the two bank holidays and the lovely weather it gets the runners in.

All my shares are sold out now but you can still purchase shares in other “pro’s” fro www.thefirmpoker.com

21st April

2011-04-21T06:49:00.003+01:00

Been so busy of late trying to get the house back into shape - but now there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Bagged another seat for the DTD deepstacks last night - racking them up - thats 4 now I think, Well done to Pete Wigglesworth who also bagged one.

If your in Liverpool area and fany a game then check out this link for Poker in liverpool;
http://www.pokerinliverpool.com/

Enjoy the weather - surely it wont last?

18th April

2011-04-18T09:34:00.004+01:00

Still got a load of work to do on the house but finished most of the inside now, carpet fitters coming tomorrow.. Still knackered from the weekend at DTD and the disappointment in 24th spot but hey ho you cant win them all.. Vegas team game tonight and I'm lying 2nd in the league so I'm coming after your arse now Daddymuff and our team are in 4th spot and looking to improve on that. Golf game down at Cleobury Mortimer today and enjoying the sun before it's back to the slog. Already mowed the lawn this morning an done a few chores around the house so dont feel to guilty at taking a day out and chilling out, just hope that my golf is up to par!!! All my shares (The Firm) in this months GUKPT Walsall have sold out but you can still buy shares in our other pro's (Check them all out here);

2nd April

2011-04-02T10:24:00.001+01:00

DTD £300 Deepstack and I reckon that there will be at least a £10k overlay due to the fact that Blackbelt Poker Live is on in London with over 400 runners attending and the Stoke £100 F/O is on tomorrow at Circus Stoke so I estimate a field of around 233 runners will pitch up for the two-dayer in Nottingham.

I will alas be painting again today and tomorrow as I need to get the place ready for the carpet fitters who are due to come in next weekend – I’ve got 5 clear days in my diary then I’m due to play some golf on Thursday then spend a couple of days with my mate for his birthday and we got some treats lined up for him ;-)

Good luck where ever you decide to play this weekend.

29th March

2011-03-29T08:04:00.006+01:00

Booked a great days weather with the weather gods and find myself up in the Cheshire countryside retreat that is the Carden Hotel: one of Devere’s premier locations. The Nicholas course awaits and will be a good test of golf I am reliably informed by some old boy that’s been a member up here for the last 15 years “you will struggle to play to handicap even from the yellow tee’s” -“keep it up the middle and you’ll be ok” GTFO ))) Now the weather just has to hold off. Played the LVTC11 last night and after getting up to nearly 14k just after the add on I inform my team mates that I’ll be sitting out now till I make the points – 1 level later and I’m out after getting involved in two hands that I shouldn’t have….. full stop!!! With just one team member making the points crashing out around 50th position means we’ll all have to try harder on Thursday. Still got a shit load of painting to do and will have to concentrate on that this weekend instead of playing the dtd £300 deepstack which will be a good excuse to rest my “live” game till the Monte Carlo on the 14th April also at dtd. If your stuck for something to do this weekend then and your in the southern counties then why not check out the Black Belt Poker live event at the Vik.. full details on this link: http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/events/black-belt-london-live/ As of Mid-night last night there was just 35 tickets left for the main event so you’ll have to be in there quick.

27th March

2011-03-27T09:45:00.001+01:00

Perfect golf weather and I got a shit load of painting to do - ;-(

20th March

2011-03-20T13:00:00.002Z

Having gained an extra day off due to my early exit in the main event GUKPT I got to spend another day with my daughter and do the sightseeing stuff around London….The weather was a bonus and we decided on the South Bank and the Tate Modern, everyone else obv had the same idea as the place was absolutely packed.

With a free evening in hand as well I thought I would go to one of the other poker rooms in London as I didn’t fancy playing the Dealers Choice Rebuy comp at the GUKPT . Palm beach didn’t have any comps on.

Fox had a £38 F/O 10k stack and around 100 runners starting at 7pm I joined the club on-line and had to phone the club as I’ve brought NO photo id with me to London. Fox were great about it and said that it wouldn’t be a problem so long as I brought ID with me on any future visits.

I then found out that The International (The old Gutshot that I was a member of) had got a venue up nr Old Street and they had a £100 F/O on at 7pm with about 60/70 runners – I joined on line and again phoned the club at 5.15pm to explain that I had NO Id on me and was told NO problem. I looked at their restaurant menu on line and decided that I would make my way over there and have a nice meal before the 7pm start.

I make the journey from Lancaster Gate to Old Street and walk the short distance to the club. I arrive at 6.15 pm and explain to the lad on the desk that I had joined on line and spoken to someone ref my ID problem and he says “don’t know who you’ve spoken to as I been here all afternoon – don’t know why you were told it would be alright as you cant come in without ID unless you can get a member to sign you in – do you know any members inside?) – I said I haven’t got a clue who’s inside, I’ve made my way over to play a game that I was told it would be ok to play – “sorry he say’s – cant come in without ID) I even showed him my recent calls made in my phone to prove that I had phoned at 5.15pm but he just wasn’t bothered. WP The International

I make my way over to the Fox Club and immediately accepted as a member but advised that I must bring photo id on next visit, cant use my debit card – only cash and if I win above £500 then I’ll have to leave it on account till I provide ID – result – simples if only The International had done this. There’s a credit crunch on and the International are happy to turn away punters (who phone in advance) happy to buy a nice meal, bottle of wine, couple of drinks and a reg fee and poss some rake on cash – if they got that much cash then perhaps they should do some staff training so that they are all singing off the same hymn sheet.

103 runners make the field up at Fox and I recognise Joe (Card room manager – who used to be at DTD) who puts me in the right direction for everything going on down there – sounds like good times are ahead for the Fox Club and I will certainly be using the club on my next visit to London – crashed out around 1.30am in 8th spot when I jammed from the cut off with KQ suited and ran into pocket Jacks, King first card out followed by a red jack – A great venue in a great location with a good set of lads and ladies playing in there.

Todays comp at the Vik is a £300 F/O bounty – one day comp with a 10k starting stack and 25 minute clock starting at 5pm – Jeff Kimber still involved with the GUKPT main event final table although short stacked – I managed to bag two shares in Jeff early on via TheFirmPoker.com so I’m crossing my fingers that he takes it down now.

Villa lost to Wolves yesterday while Birmingham Shitty lost to Wigan – I’m fairly confident that
My prediction of Blues (Shitty), Wigan and West Ham will be the three teams to go down – The Villa board should also take on board how shit Houllier is, how crap his signings have been and we are going backwards from Martin O’Neil and Kevin McDonalds efforts – Get rid of him before he has all Villa fans crying in their onions.

18th March

2011-03-18T09:28:00.002Z

GUKPT MAIN EVENT DAY 1B (FRIDAY)
3 day event, 15k chips, 60 minute clock.

Had a great couple of days away from the felt.
So much going on today..

RED NOSE DAY (hopefully – the deeper I get the more of this I get to miss)
GOLD CUP DAY (must get my selections on – not really a tipster so got nothing to share with you – but as a friend once said to me – Ignore A P McCoy at your peril)
EUROMILLIONS - $90 million up for grabs tonight – ONE TIME PLEASE
GUKPT London Victoria Leg 2 Main Event Day 1B – objective to make day 2 )))

These are the chip counts of 23 players remaining from yesterdays 88 starters;
David Rudling - 121,000

Jamie Roberts - 119,700
Marco Fratelli - 103,100
Chris Kyriacou - 101,900
Jeff Kimber - 101,300
Karl Mahrenholz - 81,900
Max Winberg - 71,500
Michael Piper - 63,000
Talal Shakerchi - 56,00
Naresh Avani - 50,500
Ben Jenkins - 49,700
Danny Rudd - 49,600
Keir Ratcliff - 39,800
Danny DBorin - 38,300
Jon Prested - 37,500
Chris O'Donnell - 36,500
Chris Jaromin - 36,000
Victor Ilyukhin - 33,800
Paul Mendes - 32,300
Chuck Clark - 27,00
Tony Fayad - 25,700
Ian Woodley - 25,100
David Harvey - 15,900

16th March 5pm

2011-03-16T17:09:00.001Z

VIK 09 (Tuesday) £250 SHORT HANDED FREEZE OUT
2 day event, 10k chips, 40 minute clock.
93 runners.

Went back for day 2 with just below the ave.

New table and I’m on the table with this twat I was sat with for a short while yesterday.
First hand and I’m utg+1 and find two black tens, I raise to 3600 from my 45,300 stack and folds to the bb (we are 5 handed) who then jams for 38000 total.. I ask him if he’ll show if I fold and he ignores me.. I ask if he’s got AJ and he ignores me – I then decide to make the call figuring that I’m ahead and I’ll take the race.. he then flips pocket 7s and accuses me of slowrollowing him, I ask him what he’s talking about and he said – ok – at least a nit roll.. I love it when idiots like this think you are calling for your tourney, you’ve taken less than a minute to call and want to accuse you of s/r – anyways a 7 on the flop and he’s scooping my chips.

I then get a double up with A6 v Ak catching a straight with the 6 and I get my stack nicely up to the 30k mark. I’m on the bb and there’s been a raise to 2700 (600/1200/100) and 4 callers round to me (6 handed) so with 15300 already in the middle I look down and find AK suited – I tank for a minute before moving all in, original raiser tanks for 3 minutes or so deciding that it was too much to call the extra 29700 then Mr knob head decides to look me up with two players to act behind him with 99. obv I get no assistance from the board and exit out in twelfth place.

Spending the rest of today and tomorrow with my daughter, pictures and a meal up the West End and having some time away from the felt before playing the main event on Friday fully recharged.

Last chance to get on board and snap up the last 5 remaining shares for the main event, each share costs £22 and is for 1% of any cash in the £1590 main event. Info at;
http://thefirmpoker.com/contact/buy-a-piece-of-steve

16th March

2011-03-16T11:43:00.001Z

VIK 09 (Tuesday) £250 SHORT HANDED FREEZE OUT (update)
2 day event, 10k chips, 40 minute clock.
93 runners.

My first table was quite uneventful to say the least.

Got moved to a new table (10 seat 1) after about 1½ hour’s when our table got bust. Didn’t know anyone on my new table although there seemed to be two players vying for table captain.

Kevin “love joy” O’Leary joined us just after the first break and we were both below the ave with our starting stack of around 10k ish.

Kevin gets bust out just before the 2nd break and I’m up to 16800 with the ave at 40400 – just after the break and I find JJ utg at 300/600 level and hump it up to 2300, table captain who’s now on tilt after a couple of spewy hands shoves over the top for around 18k total, I call his shove and he flips 66 and the jacks hold up – up to 34k and above ave for the first time in the competition.

I then get moved again and find myself on sunny and Joe Greshs table, - Joe gets a much needed double up and gets moved, while I go card dead picking up just one hand in 45 minutes.

With one level to go there are just 23 runners left from the 93 that started the evening and the ave is 40,400 whilst I’m nursing my stack of 36k – I pick up a couple of hands getting me up to 60k when I raise with JJ and again get shoved by 6’s with the same result as earlier.

With around 25 minutes left of the day I get moved again, Ben Vinson is on my new table but is short stacked so I try to avoid playing any pots with him in them. Ben exits with around ten minutes left.

Last hand of the night and I call a raise (button) to 2400 blinds 500/1000 from the bb with KsQs flop comes Qd7h7s and he leads for 2100 after I check to him, call - I check the King clubs on the turn, I again check call he’s bet of 2600 – 6 non flush on river and I again check – with the intention to check raise and he tanks for a minute or so and leads for 6200 – fearing the set or even a house I just elect to call and he flips Td7d for minimal damage really.

Blinds 600/1200/100 on our return with a seat redraw – 15 runners left with the ave at 62k whilst I’m still in the mix with 45k., pays down to 9 spots with £7k up top.

Fingers crossed for a much needed confidence booster.

In the meantime – there are just 5x1% shares left in me for the main event via The Firm Poker at just £22 for each share – I’m playing day 1B Friday so show some support and faith and get in there… http://thefirmpoker.com/contact/buy-a-piece-of-steve/

15th March

2011-03-15T10:38:00.001Z

VIK 08 (Monday) £200 re-entry: update.
2 day event. 7500k chips with a 40 minute clock.

I suffer a very early dent to my stack on the first orbit when this chap (button) who has played every hand of the 9 played so far raises it to 525 (25/50) with 7 limpers in the pot – I’ve got JdTd so figured I would peel the flop along with two others which came in the shape of Qd9h5d – checks all the way round and o/r makes is 1150 to go, folds to me so I elect to flat him, Kc for the turn, I check to the button knowing he will lead out and he bets out 2700 – he’s got 5900 left behind him so I figure to peel and jam and make it look like a steal if a non diamond comes, Qs on the river and I insta jam and get snapped off by pocket 9’s for the boat, chap next to me say’s “I folded a 9” FML

Sown to 1800 I manage to get a double up to 3800 and then get involved on the bb with QhTh, calling a raise to 350 from the button, flop comes AQ8, I check and button leads for 525, I flat and the board brings a 9, I check with the intention of check raising as I don’t believe he’s got an ace and even if he has I think I got outs, he leads for 1100 so I jam my remaining stack in to get called by AT, not as many outs as I thought I had and the board bricks by pairing the 8..WP ME.
Today’s event is the VIK 09 £250 short Handed F/O
2 day event, 10k chips and a 40 minute clock

The firm have 5 x 1% shares available in me for the main event £1590 at a cost of £22 each – my luck has to change sometime soon so get in there and snap these shares up.

http://thefirmpoker.com/services/stake-and-rail/
You can purchase for any coach of The Firm on this link as well.
This month Jeff Kimber is the guest Pro and you can also purchase a part of Jeff’s main event at £22 for 1%

Well done to Mark Brassington who took down the first leg of the Las Vegas Team Challenge 11 last night.

14th March

2011-03-14T10:23:00.001Z

VIK 06 (Sunday) £250 FREEZE OUT update
4pm start, 10000 chips and a 25 minute clock

I got off to a bad start when holding pocket kings and raising to 425 first level with 3 other limpers who all call to see the flop of Ad9d9h checks round to me so I bet out for 2100 into a pot of 1700, 1 caller (Mr Chaundry) brings a black 7 and he checks to me so I lead for 2500 and again he flats, 5d on the river and suddenly he wants to bet 1100, I flat him saying show me your flush fish to which he turns over KdTd

I struggle to build my stack back up over the next 3 hours and I eventually find a spot to get it all in pre with Ah7h for 4500 blinds 500/1000/100 and the bb who only just has me covered hums and arr’s for a minute or so and say’s I have to call, just hope that I’m live and flips K3o he catches a 3 on the turn and a king on the river just for good measure.

So I head to the cash desk and buy into event

VIK 07 (Sunday) £80 rebuy sat (10 seats guaranteed into main event)

I played just 3 hands in a little over two levels, these hands were:
In a 6 way limped pot 50/100, I’m on the button with 67 suited, flop comes 656 and checks round to me so I lead for 450, I get called by the bb and 1 other, turn is an 8 and bb checks, other then makes it 300, I hump it to 600, bb makes it 1800 with me only having 2100, other folds so I insta shove for an extra 300, bb flips 64 and has 2 outs for the win and of course the 4 comes on the river…rebuy £80

A short time later I then get a double up with AK v AJ all in pre and I’m back up to around 6200

I then pick up ACES UTG and raise to 525 at 75/150 level, David Lloyd then moves all in utg+2 and just has me covered – I say to him, “bad timing mate” he flips pocket jacks and the board comes 776T RIVER JACK.

I decide to get back to the hotel and play the Sunday Million but again crash out, first to a 4 outer then to a 3 outer with Ak v A9 all in pre.

When you run bad – you run bad – lets end this shit run…

Todays competition is the VIK 08 £200 re-entry: 2 day event. 7500k chips with a 40 minute clock.
There are also £50 f/o turbo sat’s tier one into a £250 F/O sup sat on Wednesday night.

13th March

2011-03-13T13:22:00.001Z

VIK 05 (Saturday) £150 TURBO FREEZE OUT update
7500 chips and a 15 minute clock

I knew I would have to get busy early on in this Turbo event but lady luck just wasn’t with me as twice I got it in good shape only to get outdrawn.

I had KK v 77 all in pre halfway through level 3 for a 7 to hit on the turn putting me down to 2100, I manage to get back up to 6500 only to get smashed up when again I got it in good, all in pre with AK v AJ and the board runs out JJ4xx

Todays competition is the VIK 06 £250 F/O 1 day event. 10k chips with a 25 minute clock.

12th March

2011-03-12T10:22:00.003Z

VIK 03 (Friday) £300 PL Omaha update:
10k chips, 1-day event, 25-minute clock throughout.

I get through the first 3 levels on table 1 with the likes of Jim Reid, Willy Tan and Dave Johnson.
Very few spots to have a go at with the table being hyper aggressive it soon became apparent that it didn’t pay to limp. I get moved to my new table around the start of level 5 with around 12k and pick up KcKhJcQc and pot it getting called by the bb flop comes 2h4c5h and bb checks so I lead for 2100 to get 3 bet to 5900 I fail to believe him and push him all in. the bb of course has the A3 for the flopped straight, I fail to miss my outs and am wounded.

With my stack now down to 2100 I then pick up QcQh6c7c and I call a raise to 525 flop comes 454 and o/r as good as puts me all in with AJQ6 to which I oblige, a 4 on the turn so just an ace to avoid on the river and I get my stack back up to 4950.

A few hands later and I limp into a pot utg with 2c3c4h7h flop comes down 456 checks round and an 8 on the turn so I lead for 1150, button puts me all in to which I call, he flips 4678 to which we’re chopping at the moment till the 6 fills him up on the river.

Spending the day with my daughter today and then playing the 7.30pm VIK 05 £150 NL TURBO F/O 1 day comp, 7500 chips and a 15-minute clock throughout… updates in the usual places later...forgot my phone last night..

The Firm are selling shares in me for the main event next week. There are just 5 shares of 1% available for the main event at a cost of £22 per share – buy-in £1500+£90 –You can pay via your Blue sq / G.Casinos account and have the winnings direct into your account; http://thefirmpoker.com/services/stake-and-rail/

Hoping that Bolton can do one over the Birmingham Shitty today – not that I hate Blues or anything like that…

Be lucky and have a good weekend

11th March

2011-03-11T10:55:00.002Z

VIK 02 (Thurs) £300 F/O NLH update;
10k starting stack and a 40-minute clock throughout
122 runners in the field with a pot of £36600 and just over 10 dimes for the winner.

My starting table was a little nippy to say the least. Stealing pot opportunities were few and far between by the end of the 2nd level I had donated about a 5th of my starting stack to various limped pots.

I then have a card rush for the next level picking aces up on my button twice, at the first break I was up to 19k – I decided that I’d now got some chips and was going to use my tight image at the table to do some stealing.

I steal a couple of pots for about 4-6k each and then pick up aces again on the button and get paid about 9k with an over shove from AJ from an early limper.

At the start of level 6 I get moved and carry 33700 chips to my new table with the ave at 14400 with just 85 runners left.. don’t really know anyone on the table so decide to lock up and gather some information.

By the end of level 7 and after having taken stock of the table dynamics I’ve increased my stack by a further 3k having only played and won 2 pots without showdown. In the last two levels we lost another 36 players and are now down to 49 runners.

I now decide that I’m going to get busy and start bossing the table around – I can see that people are starting to look at the board and calling spots would be difficult for them to make if I make it expensive enough. I start opening pots by raising 4x/5x having to lay a couple down to 3 bets but picking up approx 4 pots every orbit .

End of level 8 and I’m up to 51k and really dominating the table avoiding the two big stacks on there, halfway through level 9 and with my stack around 65k (peak) I’m on the sb 500/1000/100 Chinese lad makes it 5k to go, folds to me and I put him all in for 16500 with AcQc and he snap calls for his tourney with QhTh board comes AhTcKd5h7h to keep him alive and dent me to 47k

I then get moved when our table breaks 28 runners left and the ave at 44k – I lock up to try and get a read on people and in the process pass a couple of hands where I have opened – I’m down to 37k and open utg to with AK and get re-shoved on the button by this lad who just made the same move a few hands earlier with pocket tens – having his stack decimated from 110k to around 50k ish – he’s got me covered and time for me to make a decision for my tourney – I make the call and he flips pocket jacks but my outs do not arrive and I exit in 25th spot around 2.30am in the morning.

VIK 03 £300 PL OMAHA F/O tonight at 7.30 pm. 1 day event, 10k chips and a 25 minute clock all the way. I am a self confessed Hold’em player but am giving this a shot as it’s a freeze out. Have played a few games on-line just to brush up – good luck if you intend to play.

The Firm are selling shares in me for the main event next week. There are just 5 shares of 1% available for the main event at a cost of £22 per share – buy-in £1500+£90 – get in fast as these will go soon. You can pay via your Blue sq / G.Casinos account and have the winnings direct into your account; http://thefirmpoker.com/services/stake-and-rail/

10th March

2011-03-10T15:54:00.003Z

Having dropped off the face of the world since my last post due to doing some hard labour - I thought I would do an update…

I had a tenant do a moonlight and absolutely trashed the property she was living there with her 5 kids and 2 dogs but the damage done looked like she had been housing 15 kids and 10 dogs the house stunk of animals and they had left animal deposits on all the carpets – some people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids or animals – scumbags. Hence the hard labour and I had to allocate £10k from my stoke win to getting this place up to scratch.

I have sorted my team for the LVTC11 and look forward to kicking some arse in that, didn’t bother with the LVTC1 as too many other commitments but have decided to go all out for the win – see you on the felt.

Have sorted out backers for the season of GUKPT events and it’s my intention to play something like 62+ events at the remaining festivals. Because of the success that I had last year I had no shortage of backers for this years request and all shares got snapped up quite quickly.

The Firm Poker have an interest in me and will therefore be offering shares through the site for all the main events and summer series main events.

For the main event next week at the London Vik where the buy in is £1500 + £90 you can purchase 1% shares through The Firm at a cost of just £22 each (with 300 runners the estimated pot will be £450k and a first prize of over £135k).

The Firm Poker will have 10 shares up for grabs and will go on a first come - first served basis.

In the first instance go to http://thefirmpoker.com and register for an account, It’s free.

Once you’ve reg’d for an account you can then go to http://thefirmpoker.com/services/stake-and-rail/ scroll down and follow the instructions – shares can be brought using you G.casino’s or Blue Sq accounts.

If you haven’t got one of these accounts then you can open one through The Firm.

Any winnings will be paid directly into your on-line account immediately after the event.

Shares will also be available in TheFirms other coaches as well as guest pro’s – for the Vik leg 2 you are able to buy shares in Jeff Kimber also at £22 for a 1% share

There are many well-known Pro’s who have pledged to use The Firms facility of selling shares so watch this space.

The Firm will be doing updates for all the main events as well as players orbit counts and tweets through out the day.

A full list of The London Vik festival can be found here:
http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/en/Event-Details/2011-Leg-2-Grosvenor-Victoria-Casino-London/

I’m intending on playing everything except for events No 4 and 11 and I will be tweeting my updates each day so you can catch them on my blog, facebook, twitter and of course

http://thefirmpoker.com/live-updates/

The main events from this years GUKPT’s are also being covered by:
http://www.aworldofpoker.com/

http://www.thenutz.tv

20th Feb

2011-02-20T21:14:00.002Z

Marcus Bebb Jones.

Finally he is back on American soil..
Landed on Friday (18th) and finds himself in court on Tuesday (22nd) which I anticipate will be the first of many appearances.
He has a lot to do to prove to the american authorities that he is innocent.
Good luck buddy…..your going to need it - as it looks like the cards are stacked against you.

10th Feb

2011-02-10T21:45:00.001Z

So the Pokerstars UKIPT tour is in town, well Nottingham anyway.
I’m scheduled to play the side event on the Friday evening £100+£10
Main event on the Saturday, Day two Sunday and Final table hopefully.

I’ve been chilling out the last couple of days doing some work around the house and managed to get a game of golf in today so I could use the Christmas present I got myself (Skycaddie SXG) and see if I can start to chop 5 shots off my handicap of 16 by the end of the season.

John Deeley came over and although the weather had been a bit overcast all morning things had started looking up for our mid-day tee time.

Having agreed a friendly game £5 front/£5 back/£5-18 match play things started ok and we were level after 5 holes but the wheels then dropped off, on the 9th hole John took the front nine with a 4 hole lead.

10th hole and I’m 5 down in the match – I get a birdie on the 11th to go back to 4 down and we half the 12th after a massive 285yd drive from me. I then get my shit together and start playing proper golf winning the 13th, halve the 14th, win the 15th, halve the 16th and now I need the remaining two holes to force a draw, 17th and I drive like 270yds – take the hole and then I smash my drive up 18 leaving myself a nice short iron to the pin. Shaking hands on the 18th and not having to part with any cash as it looked like I was 315 for the worse at one point – the old dogs still got a fight in him….

Don’t know how I’ve gone for so long without the Skycaddie.seriously a must for any recreational player who wants to reduce their handicap.

My diet’s been going pretty shit and need to get back on that particular drive.

Good luck if your playing any of the weekend events at dtd and the Pokerstars festival.

8th Feb

2011-02-08T13:51:00.004Z

1st Feb
After being hopeful that Villa could at least bag a point up at Old Trafford – my hopes are dashed when that fat potato head Rooney slotted one home after just 50 seconds. United go 2 up before half time and the game looked over.

Bent, our new £24m signing looked stationary for long periods and of the 20 balls aimed at him he only managed to bring 2 of them down and when he did win a ball he immediately passed the ball back instead of turning and running at the united defence.

When he wasn’t involved in anything he was waiting for a bus on the half way line. Bent’s goal in the 58th minute was a simple slot in from a Stuart Downing cross who in my opinion was Villa’s man of the match - Bent seems to be a lazy git so we’ll have to wait and see on that one, while Carew who has gone to Stoke was firing and working on all cylinders.
United bagged another goal around 70 minutes and the game was over for the Villa.

2nd Feb
I’m asked to be the third player profile on the AWOP player profile page. I’m sent a questionnaire from Rick Gilby. I was very honoured to be asked and have my page alongside Jake Cody and Neil Rutter.

http://www.aworldofpoker.com/page.php?identity=player_profiles

4th Feb
Made my way over to Nottingham for the £50 1rebuy/add on at DTD although I didn’t really get going and was soon back in my hotel room trying to get a score or two on-line and managing a couple of min-cashes

5th Feb
I play the super sat at the dtd club at 1pm and don’t last long after the break – I go back to the hotel for an hour to watch some footy and then head back to the club for the 5pm start – I miss the start but am on the reserve list and I am soon seated. I make the first break but am eliminated soon after when I get called down on every street holding 9T suited and catching flush and straight draws on the 478 flop, I barrel every street eventually getting called on the river by A8.
I eventually crash out with Jacks v an overpair on a ten high flop.

I make my way back to the hotel and again fire up stars and laddys and open up Genting in order to keep me occupied while I got deep on starts and Ladbrokes. I min cash again on both sites but also manage to bag a seat into the Stoke £150 the following day around 2.30am for the princely sum of £15 in the graveyard freezeout on Genting.

6th Feb
So my plans of playing the £100 F/O 6 max game at DTD with £15k guaranteed are scuppered as I’ve won this seat into the £150 Stoke game with £4k added to the pot. – I leave my hotel in Nottingham getting to Stoke for around 12.30am for the 2pm start. A free Sunday roast and some spare time to nip over the road and get some shopping in.

My first table is pretty soft with no real threats on there, I suffer a couple of early dents and am soon down to 3.5k from my 10k stack after failing to get a couple of bluffs through. Our Table is first to break being table number 1 and my new table again is a pretty soft table with no dominating figures on there.

At the end of level 7 with around half of the 232 runners already dispatched I find myself on ave 15k chips and again just after the break I am moved again and find myself short stack on my new table so a good place to be if I’m looking for a double up. I am soon up to 30k and am moved again on to a new table. Mark McCluskey and Mick Ahearn were seated to my left.

My very first hand I open for 2400 blinds 500/1k with pocket aces, button pushes for 7.5k and then the sb jams over the top for around 19k – easy decision from my 30k holding and my pocket aces hold up v QQ and JQ and I’m up to 60k.

The game quickly degenerates into a crap shoot with the ave at 12bb’s with 30 odd people remaining and stays that way till we are final table – I have to get lucky on at least a couple of occasions after shoving and getting called but lady luck stayed with me and saw me through to final table. 10 left, 2.3m chips in play and I’m chip leader with 396k although the ave was at 235k and the blinds at 10k/20k/2k so very little play available although I figured if I could keep out of trouble till we were three handed then the game would open up a bit and we could perhaps start to play a bit of poker and I may have an edge.

Plenty of open shoves and calls and we are quickly down to 5 spots, play dry’s up a bit as the bb/ave ratio started to widen a little. I get heads up with Phil Rice a Liverpool lad I believe and knock back a deal with the payouts at £7k for 2nd and slightly over £13k for first, I imagined that the battle would continue for another ten minutes or so but after 40 minutes I stated to think it could go either way.

Phil was not as easy as I thought it was going to be, I had pocket aces twice, min raised and got no action from Phil, twice I open raised with pocket pairs, got re-raised and laid them down and Phil showed me bigger pairs.

Final hand saw me limp from the small blinds at 40/80k Phil raised an extra 175k and I flatted, flop comes down 959 check/check 7 on the turn and Phil leads for 150k, I tank and with the stacks almost level I decide that he doesn’t lead with a 9 and I think he may have A5 or similar, after tanking I decide to jam all in, when Phil goes into the tank I now feel safe that I’m ahead and I’m convinced his got the 5 or possibly holding a 7 I’m just hoping he aint got me kicked – he eventually calls and flips 78, he’s got 3x8’s he can hit to win, a 7 9 A K or Q for the chop – however a deuce on the river and we eventually shake hands after a quick count.

8th Feb
Looking forward to chilling out this week with the Pokerstars UKIPT festival at DTD this weekend fast approaching.

All is going well with http://www.thefirmpoker.com/ and if you haven’t registered for an account yet then do so – it’s free. You can also earn yourself free staking on a 50/50 basis and free coaching from myself or one of our other respected coach’s just by clearing part of your welcome bonus when you join one of our “many” preferred partners.

We’ll have a chat with you when you register for an account and once we know what games you like to play we can then recommend a room you will enjoy and also release your bonus quicker.
You may not want to open an account but like other aspects of our business module, thats fine - once we know what function or service you would like that we have to offer then we can bespoke it to your needs.

You are also able to buy shares of myself and/or any one of our other coach’s (Ben Jenkins, Ben Young, Dave Nicholson, Mark McCluskey, Adam Unwin and Daniel Morgan) for live play as well as many quest pro’s that we have got lined up for future events.

Jeff “JaffaCake” Kimber is our next guest pro for the GUKPT London Vik leg and you can buy 1% shares of Jeff for just £22 each (£1500+£90 buy-in).

Either open a G.Casino account through http://www.thefirmpoker.com/ or use your existing G.Casino/Blue Sq account (Where the form asks for your G.Casino username – put your G.Casino username. If you’ve got a Blue Sq account – then put your Blue Sq name followed by (Blue Sq) ie BigFish2011 (BlueSq).

If he cashes then your winnings will be paid directly into your G-casino/Blue Sq account - simples

We have lots of unique benefits at http://www.thefirmpoker.com/ so drop by and look us up.

1st Feb

2011-02-01T11:49:00.001Z

Thanks to Mad Marty I’ve managed to bag two tickets down on the halfway line at Old Trafford for tonight’s game.

Villa take on the Premier League Leaders in the theatre of dreams and I’ll be dreaming of 3 points heading Villa’s way and a continuation of our current form of 4 wins and a draw from our last 5 results while our away record gives us 2 wins and a draw from our last 3 games…

Come on you VILLA…….ONE TIME!!!!

29th Jan

2011-01-29T13:02:00.002Z

Heading back to G Casino Manchester for day 2 of this years first leg of the GUKPT 2011 tour.
The last three hours of yesterdays session seemed to last twice as long as the first 6 hours, I eventually bagged up a total of 33400 with the ave around 45k.

Updates will be on twitter, facebook and “TheFirm”

Fingers crossed I can make final table….ONE TIME!!!!!

28th Jan

2011-01-28T09:49:00.003Z

GUKPT Manchester is the first stop on this years 2011 biggest UK tour at the £1k buy in stakes.
I am playing today, Day 1B and it kicks off at mid-day so will have to get the magic carpet out that I just brought from Marrakech and fly there to get there for this stupid start time – I’m also informed that they start to ante alternate stacks from the off now so it’s not worth turning up too late as you could lose as much as 3k by turning up 3 levels late.

Follow my progress by clicking on the firm logo or going to www.thefirmpoker.com where there will be live updates and reporting throughout the tournament.

Why not register for an account while your there (that’s free) – we can recommend poker sites for you that will give you a maximum bonus for your preferred play and in turn, as you release your bonuses we (The Firm) will reward you with free coaching from various coaches each successful in a given area and you can even earn free staking into live events on a 50-50 basis just for clearing your bonus. Have a look at the site today, join up and put me down as your preferred coach.

www.thefirmpoker.com

24th Jan

2011-01-24T12:24:00.002Z

16th Jan – Sunday
Villa were playing Blues in a mid day kick off that meant it was going to be difficult for the Mad Turk to pick me up at 11.30am as pre arranged from Birmingham New Street – so I caught the 8am train south from Telford finally arriving at the Turks station for 11am. Our chauffeur (a mate of the Turk) drives to Luton in time for our 1.35pm flight.

We arrive at 5.15pm local time (same as uk) to the sound of the Ryan Air fanfare and we are quickly through the airport, a €15 euro taxi to the hotel and after paying local taxes of €30 when we check in we are in our room for 6pm. A quick meal in the local bistro and we’re back to play online for 8pm and just chill for the evening.

17th Jan – Monday
Day off today as the festival doesn’t start till tomorrow – We chill for most of the day and decide on a walk up town later that day to see the sights that Marrakech has to offer.
A big square awaits our arrival and it seems that half of the Marrakech population of 1.1m are in this square – I am offered “Hashish” around 20 times in the 2 hours that we were walking around the square and the crowded side streets – trying to avoid getting crushed by motorcyclists or pedestrians seemed to be the order of the day. Another meal at the bistro and back in time to play the satellites on dtd – the only sites I can load up are dtd, FT and Ladbrokes – cant get on Pokerstars or the Ipoker network due to restrictions – so if you are thinking of coming out here and want to play any of these sites then you will need to download some software that will hide your ip address – you can try this website; http://www.free-hideip.com/ this will enable you to log on from any country in the world to any site as if your at home in the UK as you are able to select the country that you want to “appear” from – Ideal if your going out to Vegas later in the year and want to play on Pokerstars!!!

18th Jan – Tuesday
The Marrakech Poker Open Festival starts today at the Es Saadi gardens resort and Casino with just 74 runners turning up to play the first €500 side event – we are informed by Nadia (Casino Management) that she thinks the numbers will be down because of the economic climate in France where 90% of the field is expected to come from. So first prize is €8651 after the casino have taken their cut and hardly worth the trip – but hey ho I’m here now so lets knuckle down and see what we can do.

I make it to the second break with below average chips and talk to the Mad Turk in the break who is going along nicely with around 40k, ave at 19k. just after the break and the Turk is leaving the card room after flopping two-pair with 45 suited against an early position raise, he gets it all in against this local “Kondah Abdelhadi” who flips KK with the turn and river bringing 8 8 – This guy has Turk covered just - unlucky Turk.

I start to feel quite ill at this point getting the sweats and shaking and know that I’m coming down with something – although I feel like going back to the room I manage to struggle on.

I then get moved around 40minutes later and I am seated next to the same bloke that just knocked the Turk out – I have got myself up to around 19k with the ave at 25k, this same guy limps utg on my big blind with the blinds at 300/600 the small makes up the difference and I look down to find two black jacks, I make it an extra 2900 to come along and utg calls obviously having me covered after getting lucky against the Turk, I put him on a mid-pair when he flats me and believe that he is set mining flop comes T88 so I lead out for 4100 leaving myself 12k and this guy flats me again, Ace on the turn and the look n his face tells me he doesn’t like the card so I lead for 5100 and he eventually min raises me back, I know he aint got an ace although he could have flopped a house with TT but why min raise me here if that’s the case, he knows I’m going to lead out on the river so he bet here didn’t make sense, after a two minute think I move all in and it’s another 1800 for him to call, he asks the dealer, counts it out, looks unhappy about the situation but has a mountain of chips – he eventually calls and flips KQ off – Queen on the river and I’m back to the hotel to tell the Turk my bad beat – Kondah went on to take 2nd spot.

19th Jan – Wednesday
Today is the first day of the €1500 50k stack and a 45 minute clock 3 day event but I’m just to ill to play – Turk plays while I stop in the room. I go through a period of around 48 hours where I have no sleep or no intake of any fluids or any foods just trying to get my head down without any success. Turk busts out with just 15 minutes left of the last level to go.

20th Jan – Thursday
Turks nephew Emrah joins us after getting a flight from Holland and has come for the weekend. Both myself and Turk play the €450 super satellite into the €2700 main event starting on 22nd. Very first hand I sit down and am on the BB and find JJ (again I thought) 25/50 and there’s a raise to 275 from mid position (6 handed) small calls so I make it 1150 from my 5k starting stack – mid position calls and the small folds, flops comes TT7, believing I’m good here I lead for 1275 and again he flats me, 4 on the turn but there is now 2 flush draws out there, I jam, he snaps and flips AA – WP me!!!!!

I exit the table and turk takes a place on my table, first hand and Turk is on the BB, there’s a raise to 250 (25/50) a re-raise to 1150 from the lad who had AA against me who is now on the small and Turks jams for 5k from the big, first raiser folds and then this guy gives Turk the table talk – Turk tells him he will show if he passes and he tells him that he is behind, “Pass” says the Turk – “I will show you” this guy eventually calls and flips AdJd and is in bad shape against Turks AcKc – Jack on the flop and the Brits (well 1 Brit and 1 Turk) have donated €900 into the prize pool for just two hands FML

21st Jan - Friday
Not feeling too good again but decide to play the €225 rebuy super satellite into the main event, I get it all in pre running 9s into AT and he catches a flush with his ten.

22nd Jan – Saturday
So the main event starts today but I have no enthusiasm or motivation to play after again failing to get much sleep, don’t know if it’s a bug I’ve picked up here or the remains of the cold that I had back home, either way I feel like shit and decide to chill beside the pool.

23rd Jan – Sunday
The Mad Turk and his Nephew Emrah leave for the UK today and I elect to stay on for a further three days and just chill out before going home to reality and the cold weather. I see turk and Emrah off on their horse drawn carriage and decide to play on dtd and Ladbrokes managing to bag the €5k guaranteed.

24th Jan – Monday

Still a bit queasy so managed to type this up and will spend the day in the shade today – the sats on dtd seem favourite tonight as well as some games on Ladbrokes, must sort out that ip blocker then I can get on the other sites I want to play: ; http://www.free-hideip.com/

Laters..

17th Jan

2011-01-17T11:01:00.002Z

Ever thought of having a coaching session?
Got a leak – need to fix
Whatever your requirement we have a solution
Check out our new site…
www.thefirmpoker.com

Free coaching sessions available also:
http://thefirmpoker.com/services/coaching/

16th Jan

2011-01-16T06:13:00.004Z

Marrakech, Morocco.

Lets hope that the locals are friendlier than the Tunisians.

Finally got rid of my cold that has been with me for ages.

Fingers crossed for a Villa victory in our mid-day kick off against the shitty.

Update on my diet to follow…. Soon.

13th Jan

2011-01-13T11:19:00.005Z

Houllier’s revolution at Aston Villa

Before his reign had even officially began, Houllier speaking in his first press conference since his appointment was announced, informed the media that his ongoing commitments to the French F.A. prevented him from signing his contract at Villa Park and was unaware as to when he would be able to do so.

The appointment of Houllier certainly surprised many people. The Frenchman had been out of management since leaving Lyon in 2007 and had not been a part of the English game since 2004

The first task facing Houllier was to appoint an assistant manager with who he would work alongside. Houllier approach Kevin MacDonald, the Scot declined. the offer. Next Houllier contacted old friend Phil Thompson who turned down the job. Third option was Gary McAllister who had management stints at Coventry City and Leeds United with neither position bringing much success. McAllister obviously jumped at the chance.

Robert Dunverne, who was part of the infamous French world cup 2010 coaching staff, was appointed as First team and fitness coach.

Steven Ireland was publicly criticized by Houllier for his poor performances in training, It was no surprise that Ireland’s agent confirmed that the player would be looking for pastures new in the January transfer window.

His first purchase as manager was the signing of 37-year-old free agent Robert Pires on a contract until the end of the season. Pires had not played in England for four years. Since then, Pires has publicly criticized Houllier for his lack of playing time and has suggested that Houllier currently possesses a divided camp of players with which he has only two games to save his job. For an individual who Houllier brought into the club himself to then publicly criticize the manager arouses many questions about the chemistry in the squad.

First team regular Richard Dunne was reported to have exchanged words with Gary McAllister over training methods, which coincided with the Irishman being dropped from the side. McAllister and Houllier played down the incident insisting that the decision to leave out Dunne and the likes of John Carew were purely down to footballing reasons. This is despite John Carew insisting that his inability to be considered for selection of late was due to an injury, this is an injury which the medical staff at Aston Villa is yet to confirm.

Houllier is faced with a dilemma. He has a squad of players who clearly are not all behind his methods.

Lyon midfielder John Makoun has been identified as a potential signing by Houllier though the Frenchman has stated that the price tag of £7 million may prove too high for the club.

Performances under Houllier have ranged from impressive to purely abysmal

Arguably some of the most woeful performances by a Villa team in the Premier League, the games at Liverpool and Manchester City cannot be described anything other than embarrassing. In particular the game at Anfield was against a side that had been struggling for form themselves and missing the likes of Steven Gerrard and Fernanado Torres. This was a team that was there for the taking. Instead Villa turned in an unacceptable performance

Villa slip into the bottom three for the first time since 2003…

Stop filling the squad with French “has-beens”

Premiership football is not what it used to be when you were successful at Anfield; it can be bad for your health. Go now Houllier and take your French imports with you and your sweaty sock McAllister.

Not looking forward to Sundays game with our arch rivals Birmingham Shitty - surely a "Must win" game for Hollier.

Accreditation to Raffles and footballblog.co.uk

11th Jan

2011-01-11T12:03:00.001Z

So many things to do before I go to Marrakech later this week.
Housework
Gardening
Ironing
Gym
Shopping
Was hoping to get a game of golf in as well
Today though I’m just chilling out and keeping warm.

10th Jan

2011-01-10T11:37:00.004Z

No point in crying over spilt milk!!! – that’s what they say aint it

Twice yesterday I got unlucky after getting my chips in the middle in a favourable position – twice I got desperately unlucky, twice it was considered to be fairly deep in the competition and twice the lucky fuckers went on to win fuck all after being in a good position, so whats new about all this and why am I chucking my toys out of the cot?

It wasn’t the first time that either of them got lucky against me before and went on to donk the chips off…History repeating itself

First situation was in the £150 + £18 Freezeout at DTD, £30,000 guaranteed and just 148 runners make up the field meaning almost £8000 in overlay for the 2nd time in two days with the main £300 event short of about the same amount.

I struggle for the first 3 hours or so but then get up to around average chips when I get moved tables and find myself on Willie Tan’s table, He is chipped up, I also recognise a couple of other players on the table – Immediately on my right in between me and Willie is a player called Daniel Morgan who I reckon is probably still too young to play Vegas and probably only ventured out of his bedroom about twelve months ago.

Daniel Morgan who I first came across at one of the UKIPT games has a habit of not giving up his small blind when it folds round to him, obviously trying to make up for his small posture on the chair he likes to make himself look bigger on the table with his aggressive play – so table notes in hand and Willie on my button when it’s my BB and I’m hopeful of a double up from either one of these players. – in the last hand before the break and I’m under the gun+1 and it’s Willie’s BB when I find 2 black kings at 400/800 level so I hump it up to 1950 hoping that Willie will come over the top – this fails and everyone folds giving me a total of 19100 at the break with 56 remaining out of the 148 starters.

2nd hand after the break and the blinds are 600/1200/100 and it folds round to Morgan who has me covered with around 25k and he decides to open jam for the whole lot – I look down and find AsKs and know this kid is making a move so I make the obligatory call – shit he says and flips 97off, we got a 40k pot with the ave at 25k and a good chance for me to make serious progression if I can take this hand down, king on flop with two hearts, heart on turn and heart on river and you guessed it a 7 high flush for boy wonder, Marvellous, I exit in 55th spot at around 6.30pm and so decide to put my foot down and see if I can make it home for the GUKPT sup sat at 8pm – Boy wonder went on to finish 28th so hardly put my chips to good use. NH WP

I get home in time for the £250+£22 sup sat for the main event GUKPT with 4 x £1070 seats guaranteed – just 14 runners make up the field so a good chance of getting a ticket – we start 7 handed and Jeff Kimber is on my starting table and in good position to steal my blinds, also on my table is a reg from Luton, not sure of his name but he plays under the username of Jaaaaaaack on blue sq, he reminded me once how he made a bad call with AQ after I had told him that I have AK and obv got lucky when we were deep, eliminating me and then failing to make the cash – well he’s on my right too, so again I’m in a good position to pick up some chips, just thirty minutes into the game and with the blinds at 20/40 and Jaaaaak raises to 120 utg to which I flat utg+1 with KQo as do 3 others, 5 to the flop of 29K rainbow and both the small and big check while Jaaaaak leads for 300, I raise it back to 600 and it folds to Jaaaaaaack who elects to flat call, Q on the turn and Jaaaaak decides to check he as he aint got a clue where he is in the hand with a straight and all other combinations out there now, I jam my remaining 1900 into the middle and he still calls with pocket aces, fair enough I say to myself, “he’s probably put me on AK” anyways Jaaaaak gets luuuuucky and catches a deuce to counterfeit my two pair, exiting me in 14th spot and put himself in a good position for a seat you would think – NO, Mr Jooooooker crashes out in 10th spot NH WP FML

I then decided to play the Sunday Million on Stars which was probably not a good decision as I was still steaming..... well played me $215-

Marrakech is my next live venture… good luck

9th Jan

2011-01-09T11:20:00.001Z

No updates after the first break from me mainly because I exited around the end of level 4 being eliminated 235th/306 (meaning an overlay of around £8,000

I’m on the small blind holding two black eights when there is a raise to 475 in the cut off +1, cut off calls as does the button, I hump it up to 2100, original raiser calls and the rest fold, flop comes J97 rainbow and I figure a good flop for me so I lead out 1125 and oppo makes it 2300 so I get it all in putting him on two over cards and sure enough he call the extra 5200 with AT turn is a 9 and the river is a J to counterfeit me. NH WP £336-

In the afternoon Super Satellite I spend a total of £65 and am going along quite nicely when I get moved tables and find myself on the same table as Vaidas Siriunas – I don’t play a hand for an orbit when I pick up pocket kings on the button, Vaidas raise’s in early position to 625 @ 150/300 level so I hump it up to 2250 from my 9k stack, Vaidas calls, flop comes 389 rainbow and I’m happy with the flop, Vaidas checks to me so I put in a weak bet of 1650 looking for him to come over the top, it works a treat and he makes it 3400 to go to which I insta shove for a total bet of 6750, knowing he’s been trapped Vaidas calls the extra 3350 and flips 6x7x the dealer then puts a 5 on the turn and a 5 on the river. GG NH £65-

Today at dtd there is a £150 +£18 F/O with £30k guaranteed and a 2pm start time. might just have a bash as this could be my last live game before Marrakech with the Mad Turk.

Below is a list of the runners remaining in the £300 main event along with their chip counts –
Be nice to see Micky “The Legend” Wernick with a substantial cash – and a massive good luck to so many other people that I know – I hope the poker gods run with you today.

Player Chip Count
Nathan Lee 167800
Richard Sheils 162800
Steven Brennan 158500
Michelle Bennett 139900
Nicolas Mclellan 105000
Paul Bampton 102000
Chris Gavriel 99800
Michael Vassiliou 90000
Sarfraz Ali 87500
Mark Mckinney 74400
Kevin Spencer 74100
Mohammed Ifzail 74100
Barry Neville 73200
Anonymous 68700
David Sutherland 68400
Paul Williamson 67500
Ramazanali Abbassi 65500
Simeon Anderson 61300
Alistair Carins 59200
Stuart Brownson 58300
Adham Harker 57300
Garry Underwood 55900
Michael Wernick 55600
Mark Wagstaff 52800
Mazhar Latif 52100
Luke Davies 50400
Neil Lawrie 48500
Dave Buckland 47300
Mohsain Harjuda Nik 45700
Karen Docherty 45500
Richard Whiteley 44000
Dennis Troake 41500
David Johnson 40800
John Bousfield 40200
Weswell Ellis 40100
Mohammad Faisal Khan 40100
Paul Zimbler 39000
Alex Goulder 37100
Christos Kyprianou 34400
Akshay Reddy 33200
James Moult 32000
Matthew Sheils 29500
Dennis Page 29300
Harvey Butters 29200
Jonothon Butters29100
Robin Fisher 29100
Adrian Reynolds 24600
Chris Cooper 20100
James Morris 18600
Rory Andrews 16300
Steven Chennells14200
Osman Erdal 14100

Villa played well enough against the blades yesterday to ensure that the French twat keeps his job for another week at least – Hodgeson gets the sack and Dalglish gets the nod—you heard it here first, ages ago.

8th Jan

2011-01-08T10:38:00.001Z

Over 100,000 visitors to my blog since I started and it’s all down to you lot out there, so thank you for reading and please keep coming back.

Villa travel over to Sheffield today to take on the mighty Sheffield Utd in the FA Cup
Currently 21st in the champions division this should on paper be an away win for the Villa even given our shit position at the moment – surely, if we lose this match then Gerard Houllier should leave the club straight away, Villa – with just 3 wins from the 16 games that the French twat has been in charge could do no worse by bringing Kevin MacDonald back in from the youth team and giving him the position on a full time basis.

It’s well known that the villa board want a “yes” man and although KM would be reluctant to play that role, it’s a role he would take cause running a club the size of Villa is still a sought after job – the good thing about KM is that he has worked with the youth squad now for about ten years and he knows everyone at the club and has the respect of many, Randy Lerner could do a lot worse as he has done with this has been that we got in charge at the moment.

If losing today means that Houllier walks the plank, then…COME ON YOU BLADES.

I went to DTD last night and played the £5k guaranteed £50 with 1 rebuy / add on 5k/5k 89 entries make the field up and although I am felted within the first 10 minutes I make the rebuy, I then run a monster AK into TJ and this puts me down to 1700 and it’s only 8.20pm.. I work the short stack well but never get above average, I eventually bust out in 27th spot at around 11.45pm when I pushed with KsQs and ran into aces in the BB

£15 rebuy sat at 1pm at DTD today with 10 seats guaranteed into the £300 event. This sat has 3x20 minute levels and then the clock drops to 16 minutes – so a great chance to get in on the cheap. The main event starts at 5pm and has a £100k guaranteed. Blonde are no longer covering this event from a reporting point of view so it will be interesting to see what effect this has on the comp – I know a lot of people used to follow the updates so it will be interesting to see if anyone else will be doing it.

I will be tweeting my chip counts every orbit if I get the chance.

7th Jan

2011-01-07T10:33:00.001Z

Another Christmas scene as I pull my bedroom curtains back and see all the fresh snow.

Today I make my way over to Nottingham’s DTD for the weekends £300 Deepstack with £100k guaranteed and a first prize of around £30k. I’m expecting in excess of 300 runners and not much of an overlay, if any at all.

Given the shit weather we been having recently I decided on booking a hotel for the weekend which will give me a chance to chill out tonight and play the £50 with 1 rebuy allowed, also tomorrow (Saturday) at 1pm they are running a live super sat into the £300 main with 10 seats guaranteed – 16 minute blinds, so a good chance to get a seat for the February deepstack as I already have a seat for this months deepstack having won three seats on-line, receiving the funds for two seats back into my account (obv brag post).

Staying in a hotel with gym facilities so I got no reason for not putting in a run on the treadmill or a good swim and sauna.

Best get my ski’s on ;-)

6th Jan

2011-01-06T11:59:00.002Z

UK’s Fattest Bastard – not quite -but….

This is the result of playing poker for the last three years….

3 stone gained from sitting at the felt or the virtual felt, eating far too much and doing far too little exercise.

My goal is to get down to 12’6 by April 30th and then maintain that weight.

I plan to do this by following a rigid eating pattern, cutting out a lot (not all) fatty foods – eating smaller portions, eating more veg and fruit.

I intend to have a better sleeping pattern and only playing the on-line games that I want to play rather than playing for the sake of playing.

I am also starting a new exercise regime that will consist of gym workout, swimming, golf, running and boxercise.

Today I am going for my first course of treatment of Colonic hydrotherapy as so many people have voiced their merits for this service that I’m willing to give anything a go once.

I will try to show my progression every two-weeks

4th Jan

2011-01-04T01:34:00.004Z

Dave Smith R.I.P

Dave, diagnosed with Mesothelioma back in December 2008, was given 9 months at the time by his doctors –has finally lost his fight against this illness.

I've never sat with a more genuine, good-natured, well-mannered gentleman at the felt – his presence will be missed by so many.

One of Dave’s last interviews was when he chatted to Jeff from The Poker Tour Radio Station back in May 2009 – you can listen to the full interview on this link:

http://www.pokertourradio.com/?p=2561

This is an Interview that Dave done not long after winning the Brighton GUKPT;
http://www.pokerverdict.com/poker-players/uk/dave-smith/

I will miss you big man…….

3rd Jan

2011-01-03T11:45:00.005Z

"Chelsea were that bad that even Heskey (donkey on two legs) got on the score sheet."

Villa bag an injury time goal that was good enough to share the spoils against a Chelsea side that on the day were lucky to get anything out of the game – Villa should have and could have took all three points if it had not been for the shit refereeing of Lee Mason.

A total of 9 yellow cards (7 for Villa and 2 for Chelsea) suggested that this was a dirty game, the only thing that was dirty though was the language from some Villa fans towards Houllier – demanding that he quits before he drags the lions down to the Championship.

Word of warning for Houllier though: “One swallow doesn’t make a summer” – Chelsea were shit on the day and made us look good. You obviously aint going to quit so you’ll need to do some wand waving in the January transfer window.

I’m hoping that Wolves, West Brom and of course the Villa can avoid relegation and my three picks to go down will be Wigan, West Ham and hopefully Birmingham Shitty.

2nd Jan

2011-01-02T09:54:00.002Z

So my New year has started and I find myself willing the Baggies (West Brom) on against Man Utd but realized that this is fruitless when Peter Odemwingie missed a penalty to take the lead – not long after the Manc’s had made it 2-1 in their favour. Man U had taken the lead from a header from Rooney (Potato head) and James Morrison levelled the scores at 1-1 with a blast from 20+ yards.

So after watching the match, I settle down to watch Dr Who - but soon realized after about 2 minutes with Bernard Cribbins playing Wilfred that I’d seen this last Christmas or was it the Christmas before – anyways, I was chilling out before making my annual new years day journey to Grosvenor’s Walsall J10 Casino, recently modified – upgraded to a G Casino.

The competition is a £200 + £20 Freezeout wirh a £20k Guaranteed, I’m number 70 on my ticket with around 15 minutes left to officially buy in and typical of Walsall we don’t actually get under way till around 5.35pm – The new card room has 10 tables in there with all the monitors but unfortunately for me I’m outside on table 11 seat 4 squashed between Mr Scotney and Mick Corrigan.

We’re only 7 handed so I ask the dealer to balance the table as I really cant get in to the table – and considering I’ve paid a £20 reg fee I expect a dealer and a seat – the dealer just looks at me and say’s that he cant cause other people might be joining the table soon –

Three times I ask him and three times he looks at me like I just got out of Dr Who’s phone box – don’t tilt I whisper to myself so I make some comment about reminding myself that although its now a “g” I am after all still down at Walsall and why should I expect any difference to last year or the year before. also on my table are Tex and Big Gaz and on the table next to me is Mad Turk and Amir.

I get off to a good start getting up to 21k from a 10k starting stack without having to go to showdown although I was probably ahead in all three big hands I was involved in. Our table then gets joined by Tim Slater, who joins us with around 13k halfway through level 3. He was moaning that he didn’t particularly want to get moved as he was on Anthony Kennedy’s (AK47) table and he was spewing.

Limp in middle position so I limp into a pot on the button with Th6h and the small makes up and the BB (Tim) checks his option, flop comes Qh9hJd checks round to me so I bet out 450 into a 600 pot and the BB makes it 1700 to which I call, turn is the 7h, Tim checks to me so I lead for 1550 and Tim pops it to 3800 – I figure he’s got the straight so I put him all in and he eventually calls with a King High flush – drawing dead I find myself down to 6500 with 15 minutes left of level three, I tell myself I can get back up to my starting stack and to keep composed.

Two hands later and I raise in late position with AQ to 525 (75/150 level) Tim (sb) calls as does the BB (Paul Jackson’s son) flop comes down a Q high 4x 7x rainbow board, bb leads out for to which I just flat – not certain if he’s flopped 2 pair I elect to call his 1125 bet, T on the turn and it checks round, I then hit my ace on the river and BB now lumps it all in, another 6200 leaving myself with 350 if I’m wrong, I’m not putting him on the straight KJ but I also know he’s capable of bluffing this spot – I call and he flips pocket fours, all in blind on the next hand and I exit just before the first break after being in a good position.
I start the new year off feeling like a tit, lets hope that’s not a sign of things to come for 2011.

Villa play away at Chelsea today so I’ll not be expecting any points from that match and I hope that it’s not too long before we see the back of Gerard Houllier, He’s had more than enough matches now and proved that he cant motivate the players that we got so perhaps he should go now and Kevin McDonald come back – but get rid of the Frenchman as he’s proved he no longer process’s the skills required for the job, if he stays there then we will end up in the relegation zone and that’s for sure.

DTD deepstack my next “live” with a £100k guaranteed prize pool.

Good luck fish ><(((((0> . . . .

1st Jan

2011-01-01T13:54:00.001Z

Happy New Year

Hope it's as lucky for you as I'd like it to be for me...

happy fishing ><(((((0> . . .

13th December

2010-12-13T14:25:00.001Z

After making final table in the Brighton Marina Christmas Cracker main event I am gutted as I have James (Flushy) Dempsey immediately to my left hand side and he has a mountain of chips compared to my 60k.

I knew that picking my spots was going to be tough with James to my left – mountain of chips and open raising 70% of most pots.

I eliminate the first two players and get a healthy stack in front of me – play then tightens back up for around 40 minutes.

We then lose another player after I button raise and am forced to call for another 9 x bb with my small ace and I surprised to see that I’m ahead v KQ – I stay ahead and we are down to 6th spot – a savour is asked for but as we are already paying 15% of this small field I knock back the idea as does Flushy, who is 2nd lowest in chips at this point.

Flushy then eliminates the bubble and first hand we have a three way all in – we lose another player – then Flushy exits in 4th spot and almost straight away 3rd spot is broken when he limps in with aces’s on the button, I make up the small with 45o and the big checks – 567 flop – check/check pot sized bet so I call and the bb folds – 5 on the turn, I check and button jams – I insta call with the trips while he flips ace’s and has two outs that fail to appear.

Heads up and I lose a massive pot 2nd hand in when I’m holding two black 8’s after a raise/re-raise/4 bet pre flop call – I get check raised on the flop to which I call but I have to bail out after a 4th heart hits 4th street and he leads out with a big bet.

Even in chips – we chop the money leaving some money for the staff and both of us having a reasonable pay day – 4 hands later and I am on the small with pocket 4’s, I limp to the bb and he raises to 40k, I’ve announced all in before he’s even put the 40k in – he thinks momentarily and then makes the call with AdKd – I have him just covered and I am given one hell of a sweat—board comes Qd 8d Qs Th and my oppo is drawing to something like 22 cards on the river – a brick comes on the river amazingly and I can now get on the road for my 4 hour journey home.

The Rendezvous are holding their January sales festival at the end of January – they really need to do something with their numbers for the journey to be worth the trip – The card room staff and management are trying their best – they just need some vision from the powers that be to put some guarantee’s on and get the punters back in there and fast – good luck to them cause without doubt The Rendezvous is one of the nicest casino’s in the UK

Satellites on line tonight and tomorrow night for the Monte Carlo event on Friday at DTD, £1090 buy in with a £200,000 pot guaranteed – Sat’s are 30 euro rebuy’s with 5 seats guaranteed. Wednesday and Thursday nights there are two live sats at the club that are £50 rebuy’s with 10 seats guaranteed each night…This is going to be the the one to win with a potential £65,000 first prize – need to step my game up

Good luck ….

12th December

2010-12-12T04:20:00.002Z

After having had a good weekend at Coventry I decided to make the trip down to the Brighton Rendezvous Casino down at the Brighton marina for the Christmas Cracker festival.

So after a good chill out on Monday and Tuesday on Wednesday I make the 4 half hour trek down the M40/M25/M23 and check in at my usual hotel

Wednesday 8th night is a £150 + £15 PLO event – not being much of an Omaha player I know that I got a strong hand when the flop comes down KTT with me holding KKAQ a jack on the turn and even though it’s pot limit I manage to get it all in v a hand holding TJQK – I figure I must be an enormous favourite till my oppo hits a TEN on the river….Ho Hum I chuck a further £85 at a sup sat into the main event but am out shortly after the first break

Thursday 9th is the £150+£15 (5k) with one add on or rebuy (10k) for another £150 so effectively a £315 15k freezeout, I make the first break with ave chips and the second break with ave – however first hand of the 6th level and I raise in early position and the button moves all in, I call for 60% of my stack and I’ve run into pocket tens but fail to improve – I then get it all in 3 hands later with pocket tens into pocket 7’s and a 7 on the turn seals my fate.

Friday 10th night is a £200 + £20 Freeze out one day event – I’m doing ok and make the first break with above ave chips – first hand back after and I’m in the cut off with KcTc so I raise to 875 with the blinds at 150/300 – BB makes it 1850 to go – I’m not putting him on a big made hand so elect to call as I’m in position, flop comes down Ten high with 2 clubs, bb checks to me so I lead for 4k from my 18k remaining and he check raises me all in – I tank for a short while and figure I still got outs even if he’s got ace’s and I elect to call – he’s holding AT and I fail to improve

Saturday 11th I’m actually thinking about withdrawing because of the crap turnout for the festival – but decide to stay and see if I can get a result in the £550 main event – just 35 runners turn up for the main event creating a pot of £17500 – 15k starting stack and a 1 hour clock.
At the first break I’m just above ave with around 19k and just 2 exits
At the 2nd break I’m on 35k with the ave at 24k but we’re down to 22 runners
3rd break and I’m on 60k with the ave at 32k and 16 runners left
With it paying down to 5th spot the card room manager tells us that it will be the last two levels of the day and play has really slowed down.
End of day one and we’ve got just 12 runners left, average chips is 43k and I think I’m a slight chip leader on 108k, James (Flushy) Dempsey is still in the mix and along with Jim Wood is my biggest threat.

Sunday 12th Play starts later today at 3pm with a first prize of £7000 for the winner…

Fingers crossed…. lets lick that rock...

6th December

2010-12-06T16:07:00.003Z

After playing all last week in Coventry, final tabling in the first event £200 F/O and chopping it up for £2000 each 4 handed, picking up a further 16 points in the GUKPT league, meant I had to cash again in the remaining events if I wanted to leap frog Andrew purser, Leon Bui and Neil Channing.

In the £300 F/O on the Thursday night I got unlucky after calling in late position with 3c4c with Dave Colclough and 1 other in pot flop comes 56A Dave leads out, folds round and I flat, 7 on the turn with 2 clubs on board and I’m made up, Dave leads, worried that he’s got a bigger flush draw I min raise back, Dave 3 bets and I 4 bet shove, Dave reluctantly makes the call and flips pocket 5’s for the flopped set but a shed full of outs…5 on the river and I’m not getting any points tonight.

Friday night and it’s the £150 F/O and again I’m on DC’s table. I get shortstacked quite early after calling a raise with three different pairs and missing every time, I eventually make some aggressive play with AQ shoving on the turn with two over cards and a massive flush draw losing to a flopped 2 pair.

With the result fro the Wednesday night it guarantees me 6th place spot in the GUKPT rankings bagging me £1500 in the process

I arrive in Coventry slightly late for the 2pm start in the Champion of Champions main event but have only lost a few chips from my 25k starting stack, end level 4 and I’m down to 23k being on a fairly nitty table, 40k end level 8, end of day one and I’m on 56k and in the middle of the field of the returning 25 players from the 153 starters.

I have a 120 mile round journey from the casino to my home and back although the 8 hours that I had at home I didn’t manage any sleep, weather it was something that I had eaten or just my flu bug coming back I just couldn’t sleep or hold anything down, I actually thought at one point around 9.30 in the morning that I might not go back for day 2 – A trip to Tesco’s for some remedies and although not fighting fit – strong enough to sit at the table push, push, push..

I didn’t get the chance, I was completely card dead for an eternity managing to steal just two sets of blinds before sneaking into the money, just as the bubble burst I asked for a new deck as I was on the button – very first hand and I find AJ clubs in the hole to which I shove my short stack and the BB Debbie Masson found the snowmen in the hole and I commented that I had two-overs and tbh with the bubble gone I was pushing anyway – I got my call and a very much needed double up when I flopped a jack, I was to return the favour to Debbie at least a couple of times over the next few hours.

I then got a double up off Jeff Kimber with K7 against his JQ this hand put me up to 130k and I didn’t really look back from here, I was card dead for around the first hour or so on the final table and eventually pushed my stack of 15BB all in pre into Ali Mallu’s bb when I had A5 suited and Ali woke up with AJ – a 5 on the flop and I’m up to 600k

Zak Miller is running the show and what a great job he does – Phil the Tower and he’s team from awop are there covering the event and I’m getting so many messages of good luck coming from loads of people and this in turn spurns you on that you want to go as deep as you can to impress the viewing public. I also had over 120 text messages to me over a 4 hour period wishing me well although I didn’t get most of these till it was over as the phone was on silent so I could focus on the game in hand.

I get heads up with Luke Fields and have a commanding 2/1 chip lead, I get so many big hands early on and cant temp Luke to shove with my weak bets when I’m holding the absolute nuts, The chip advantage changes hands a couple of times and with the chips almost level albeit 60k from a 1.6 million in play we catch a typical race Luke with QQ and me with AK – all in pre and we are now flipping for the Title of Champion of Champions – I have never yelled so much under my breath AKAKAKAKAKAKAK but nothing comes and Luke picks up the title along with a purse of £44,000 while I go into the runners up enclosure and bag just over £30000 for 2nd spot – My backers from early on in the season will be happy with their 7 fold return on investment – although I am gutted at not bagging the Title and maximum money.

The G Casino Coventry is a fantastic venue and managed superbly by Paul Davies and Quentin who both used to run the Walsall Casino – They also have a good card room manager in Ruben who does his best to accommodate the players needs.

This was the final event in this years GUKPT tour and the full schedule for next year should be out soon and the changes that will take place – certain pro’s have slagged it off and said that it wont survive and will be dead within 12 months because of the Pokerstars tour – I for one think that it will be around for a long time to come as well as the APAT tour, Gala Tour and of course the deepstack’s at DTD so long as they all get marketed properly and effectively.

For all the messages of support that I received over the weekend via, AWOP, Facebook and the Nutz TV – thank you, they mean the world to me.

Villa to hopefully spank Liverpool tonight….

19th November

2010-11-19T10:18:00.001Z

11th November (Thursday)
Villa managed a last grasp win over the mighty Blackpool even though Ian Holloway had made 10 changes and now may face FA action for fielding an inferior side, PMSL – are the FA for real – this inferior side almost pulled off a magnificent win.
I played the £100 side event at the G Blackpool – getting down to the last 30 or so busting out with JJ v AJ with an ace on the turn, win this hand and I’m up there with the chip leaders…

12th November (Friday)
Once again I play the £100 side event and again I get deep – Blackpool is fast becoming an unlucky venue for me

13th November (Saturday)
£300 side event and I start off really shit – going down to the felt in the very first level when I try and push a bluff through after betting out on every street getting called by third pair and a flushing and straighting board I manage to gain some composure and chips and build my stack back up to join the chip leaders by midnight. I eventually bust out around 24th and just short of the money after I push with top two pair on the flop with my oppo drawing 4 to the flush.

14th November (Sunday)
£100 Bounty side event and although I got off to a really slow start, things look up for me after the first break. I am soon one of the chip leaders and getting a nice collection of £25 chips for the scalps that I manage to take out – I bust out around 25th after two insane hands with two welsh lads – I wont relive the hands as they may just tilt me up – I can only imagine that my quip about them having wool on the end of their knobs some half hour earlier set the mad aggression play that I received later on.

Dave Johnson went on to win the Main event and springboard himself well ahead of Ali Mallu in the rankings – He also took down the 10% game on the Monday night and I think this will seal his win of the league as I think it will require at least 1 or even 2 wins at the London Vik by his closest rivals next week.

15th November (Monday)
Got home from Blackpool and just had a chill out really, failed to play either of the two games I wanted to play on DTD as I tried to reg as a let reg but the system wasn’t letting me.

16th November (Tuesday)
Had my lawn mower back from repair so thought I would give the lawns one last blast, managed to get the front cut but that was about it, the drive belt got twisted on the blade and so has to go back – but at least the front garden looks half decent.

17th November (Wednesday)
I make my way down to London – after having to find a bed and breakfast as my normal place is full. I find some cheap digs in Paddington (The Glendale Hyde Park Hotel) at £50 per night and although “Trip adviser” comments would make anyone want to avoid this place like a plague, I decide to give it a whirl and to be honest – at £50 a night – it’s acceptable really.

I get over to the Vik and pre reg for tonight’s £300 super sat (10 seats guaranteed into the £2500 main event) and the £300 Freeze out two day event that starts tomorrow. I meet up with Claire and have dinner at the Spaghetti Bowl in Marble Arch before she gets the bus home and I make my way back to the Vik for the 7.30 start. We eventually get underway for 8pm and already we have passed the overlay and we eventually make nearly 13 seats. Just after the first break I make my exit after walking/stumbling into quads.

18th November (Thursday)
After spending the day cooped up in the hotel even though I had good intentions of having a good walk around London, I make my way to the Casino stopping at some Chinese for a meal along the way. I get to the Casino for the 7.45 start time and am unlucky enough to see the lad that had quads v me on the same table. A few hands on and he loses a decent chunk of his stack when he bets the river 2500 and gets called by his oppo and inst mucks. Very next hand and I’m on the button and it his bb, 2 limpers round to me so I hump it to 1100 with pocket tens, he makes it 3k from his stack of 6800 – I figure that his on tilt so elect to call after it folds round to me, 8 high flop and he checks to me, he leads for 1100 so I put him all in and of course he flips Kings and they hold up, I get back up to 6500 and on my bb I find TT again, same lad has min raised utg+1 and has 2 callers, I make it 1100 and he flats, others fold, flop comes JJ8, I lead for 1100 he again flats, 9on the turn and I’m up and down drawing with 2nd pair, I check, he checks, a complete blank on the river and I check as doe he, I think I’m in good shape and flip my tens whilst he flips aces. Very next hand and on my sb I find pocket queens, raise to 225 with 2 callers round to me so I hump it to 1275 leaving myself 2400 behind, first raiser puts me all in – I snap and he flips AK, flop comes AK6 and I exit the table.

19th November (Friday)
I get the train at around 11.30 this morning for the journey back to Shropshire; I am playing Star City at the weekend in the Players Championship and hoping to capture the trophy pictured at the top. This is going to be a 400 runner capacity event although at the moment there are only 220 runners reg’d for this event, Genting are adding £10,000 to the prize money, 10k starting stack and a nice clock should be a good game.

Have a good weekend..

Good luck fish ><(((((O>. . . .

10th November

2010-11-10T19:20:00.003Z

6th November (Saturday)
After getting a reasonably easy starting table at dtd for the deepstack - which by the way had 459 runners and a massive £137,700 in the pot for a £300 entry fee – truly amazing, WELL DONE DUSK TILL DAWN.. I do half my stack early on when I 3bet in middle position with TJ spades, o/r calls, flop comes 8sAs9d check/550/call 9c on turn and he check/1125/call, red 6 on river and he again checks, I bet the pot of 4200 and he calls and flips queens. I get back up to 4800 at the start of level 6 when I am on the small blind 200/400 when it folds to the button who makes it 1200 to go, sitting with 4800 total and AQ I have only 1 move and shove over the top hoping that it’s a button steal or a mid pair, I get snapped off and the flop comes down AKA and I’m saying nice hand before the turn card comes.

7th November (Sunday)
I make the journey over to Circus Stoke for their £150 F/O £4000 added event and again a fantastic 291 runners making a pot of over £47000 – another mention for Rick “the luckbox” Gilby (that’s 2 in a month) who comes onto our table as a shortstack around 4500 and gets an instant double up, MBN.

I upset one of the locals who seemed to be raising the button or cut off at every opportunity – I had already negotiated with the BB that if it folded to me on the small I was going to jam the lot in “blind” – he said that if that was the case, he would call me blind. Blinds were around 400/800/100 and I’m sitting with 6700 folds to cut off and he cant help himself and leads for 2400, folds to me, I take a look and I have 4c6c I declare that this is as good a hand as any and shove my remaining stack of 6300 into the middle – folds to serial raiser, who tanks and eventually calls and says that I’m probably ahead, I say I’ll be surprised if I’m ahead, he flips A3o and I of course hit my 4 on the flop, he’s hand fails to improve and he’s left with just 4k while I’m up to the nose bleed height of 14k. This lad then loses it at the table saying “what sort of standard of play is that in a £150 comp” “how can you call with 46?” – I remind him politely that I didn’t call, I shoved and he called with a shitty A3 when he in fact had loads of fold equity – sometimes it’s pointless trying to educate some people.

I get moved to my final table just after this and although I got my stack up to 28k it was never enough, with around 60 people left I find myself on the button when the blinds are 1500/3000 and I’ve got 21500 – bloke on my right limps for 3000 from a 24k stack (he’s been doing this quite a bit) with 10200 now in the middle I look down and find A7 suited so push my entire stack in the middle, bb tank/folds bloke next to me calls effectively for his tournament with K9o - King on flop and I ask if he was pot committed – Durrrrrrrr

I get home just in time to reg for the Sunday Million on Pokerstars although I wish I hadn’t as I’m out within two hours and still smarting from my exit hand at Stoke.

8th November (Monday)
I’ve qualified for the £165 rebuy on Blue Sq for a £4000 seat into the Grand final at the Vik later this month, I get an early double up with pocket Jacks v Ts and stay out of trouble till the add on’s – I’m sitting with 6k at the add on stage and elect not to add on as there’s a couple of loose players on the table that I can pick on and chip up – It works and I am soon 2nd in chips with around 13k with the ave at 7k, I then get involved in a hand with this twat (glade..) who raise’s at the 100/200 level to 600 he has 6800 and my notes tell me that he’s a bit of a donk so I’m on the cut off with AA and I hump it up to 3000 basically committing him to shoving or folding – anyways, he elects to call and the flop comes down Jh xh xh and he instantly jam’s the est of his 3800 into the middle, I don’t have the Ah but I don’t figure him for having flopped the nut flush as why push, I call and he has KhJc, the turn pairs up with a non heart and of course the river delivers a heart, Glade went on to win a package and I hope that if I do get to play this game I’m on his table. I later got AK into A7 and I then got it in bad when I pushed with jacks into queens.

A big shout goes out for Mark English, who after qualifying for the sponsored Gala British Masters Final Table through the on-line league went on to win first prize of £10,000 sponsorship for next year, Well done mate and I hope you have as much success as last years winner Mark Trett.

10th November
I’ve made my way back up to Blackpool as tonight there is a £150 Freeze out sat into the main event with 1 seat for every 7.7 runners, If I get a seat then happy days, if not then I will stay and play the side events.. £100 F/O on Thursday (tomorrow) £100 F/O on Friday, £300 F/O on Saturday and on Sunday there is a £100 bounty competition

Villa play Blackpool tonight at Villa Park and I’m hoping for a 4-2 win to the lions.

6th November

2010-11-06T14:09:00.003Z

Quick blog update as I got told off last night when I checked into my hotel in Blackpool (The Berkswell) for not keeping the blog updated.

31st October
Villa had a dismal draw against the arch enemy (Birmingham Shitty) who we again face down at St Andrews later in November in the league cup and I expect a better result there given that Emile “Donkey” Heskey is out injured to at least the New Year.

I played the £100 side event at the Edinburgh leg of the British masters and crashed out early enough to get back to the hotel and play the Sunday million on stars, getting deep but not deep enough to cash… Highlights of the £100 side event was getting bashed to fuck by this old dear who must have been Mrs Doubtfire’s double and the worst thing about it was that she was/is such a terrible player – the low point of the game was when this lad in a red hoody “Noob” reported me and Danny Herron for texting each other “in between hands” – we had a table warning and after the break they tried to split us up but this was sorted out by me allowing “Big John” to have a look at the contents of the texts and he assured the rest of the table that we deffo wasn’t colluding. Noob bust out shortly after the break when trying to force a shortstack to pass by bluffing away on a 5678 board he thought he was putting this lad all in but infact the lad had a 5k chip at the bottom of his 500 chips and in fact had noob covered – worse to come for noob who had a flush draw and two overs was that the old boy had pocket 4s, ho hum – perhaps he should change his name to “knob” after all.

Hopefully, after having a chat with Mark O’Donnell I am confident that the tour will go ahead next year – I just hope that we hear something confirmed sooner rather tan later as Pokerstars have already launched their dates for next year while G Casinos (GUKPT) have provisionally got all their dates and festivals sorted and will be confirming it to the public soon. Dusk till Dawn will obviously be watching both of these closely and will be filling up the rest of the free weekends with £300 deep stacks and possibly a new monthly event also slotting in the diary somewhere.

1st November.
I get my flight back to Brum and am seated next to this lad called Joe originally from Sutton Coldfield but now living in Edinburgh, I tell him that I’m a poker player from Ironbridge and he cracks up as his brother Paul lives in Ironbridge and is getting into poker – Small world…
Get back home for around 1pm with the flight being on time and decide to make the most of the nice sunny day and get 9 holes of golf in although with the low sun and all the leaves on the course I decided it was very probably going to be one of the last knocks I get in this year.

2nd November
Michelle’s birthday and I get to spend the whole afternoon with her having a right good chill out in the Great Hay Country Club Leisure Centre, we seemed to have the pool, sauna and steam rooms all to ourselves. I have an on-line final in the evening for the league play off for the Coral final sponsored table taking place on Monday 8th November at the AWOP HQ in Blackpool which also coincides with the £200 side event at the Blackpool GUKPT.

I lasted just 4 hands busting out having played just two hands against James Gray “jambo” after I flop top two pair on a 789 flop which gets worse for me when the 10 comes on the river and James leads out, I pay him off and he has JK for the straight, two hands later and I three bet a three way limped pot to gat called again by jambo who checks the flop to me, I got top pair and pot bet the flop hoping to loose both callers but jambo shoves over the top on this flush drawing board, mark English folds and I make the call for my tourney to find that I’m drawing dead when he flips his pocket 4’s for the flopped set. Mark English went on to win the final and will therefore be playing in the grand final play off that consists of the following players:
Dave Harris: CBMPT Bristol champion
Ross Johnson: CBMPT Leeds champion
Mark McCluskey: CBMPT Liverpool champion
Lam Trinh: CBMPT Nottingham champion
Dom Mahoney: CBMPT Teesside champion
Jonny Denton: CBMPT Edinburgh champion
Mark Trett: tour top money winner
Mark English: Online league champion

The final stage of the CBMPT will be the end of season play-off*. This will take place at 20:00 on the November 8, 2010 and can be watched live on thenutz.tv

Friday 5th November
I make my way up to Blackpool for the GUKPT main event super satellite, 10 seats guaranteed and it just about makes the guarantee – although I’m not certain as I’m out first hand after the break when I limp m/p with KT clubs 200/400 and get raised by the button to 1000 flop comes down Q high with 2 clubs on board, I check and the button bets 1000 (8000), I tank and decide that I’ll try and take it down here and push my remaining 7k over the line, button thinks but eventually calls flipping TT which holds up and it’s an early night back at the hotel, I manage to cash on Blue Sq and cover my ex’s for the day.

6th November
Early start for me as I’m heading over to Nottingham DTD from Blackpool, Teresa and Phill look after me as usual and after a hearty breakfast I’m on my way. The roads are clear and I make it to Nottingham for around 12.30 that gives me time to knock up this quick post. £300 deep stack today with £100k guaranteed although I’m not really expecting there to be an overlay – the new satellite schedule on line has seen a phenomenal amount of runners just lately with the last two on-line sats both giving out in excess of 18 seats each.

I’ve already bagged a seat at tomorrow’s £4k added event at Circus Casino Stoke for the princely sum of just £15 so I don’t intend to be hanging around today – with a first prize of around £32k I intend to get chipped up and put the pressure on or go home and get some sleep. Good luck if you are playing today.

If you are going to Blackpool for the GUKPT and haven’t got a hotel booked yet then try these two links, both within a two minute walk of the Casino, free parking and VFM – get in there fish….

Berkswell Hotel

Marsden Hotel

31st October

2010-10-31T12:10:00.002Z

HAPPY HALLOWEEN…………….

Villa playing Blues today and I am hopeful (expectant rather) of all three points staying at Villa park. Thanks to Rick Gilby for helping me out and enabling me to watch the match live and in the comfort of my hotel room – cant believe the match aint being screened live on SKY or ESPN However:

I played the main event yesterday, losing half my stack early on when Stephen Hogg pushes me off a hand on a AK7 flop after I had rr his early raise with QQ, he checks the flop to me, I bet, he calls, rag turn – he checks, I bet he tanks and reraised me for 70% of my stack, I folded.

Down to 5800 and holding AQ suited on the small when it folds round to the button (100/200) and he makes it 500, I flat call and the bb (7300) makes it 2500, button tanks/folds and I elect to call putting the bb on a small pair, Q 9 7 flop, I check and the bb makes it 2000, I shove and the bb huffs and then calls flipping KK, I tap the table and say nice hand, get up to leave the table and an ACE from space hits the turn and I’m up to just under 13k

I build my stack up to around 27k with the ave at 13500 when I take a hit of 12k with KK v AK when I fail to believe that this lad has an ace on a AA8 flop after I had 3 bet his small raise pre flop.. down to 14k, still above ave.

I then get involved with Carl (mumbles (not so much of a) rock) Williams who limps utg as does 1 other (100/200) so I three bet to 675, Carl calls. Flop comes 584 Carl checks, I bet 675, Carl makes it 1450 I reraised to 4450, Carl calls, Turn card ACE, Carl checks, I bet 4k leaving myself 4875, Carl calls, 10 on the river and Carl again checks so I push my remaining chips over the line, Carl tanks for three minutes and calls hoping that third pair is good when he flips 89 – I mucked my 96 of spades into the muck and to add insult to injury he asks to see them, Well played Carl.

Today is the £100 side event that kicks off at 2pm with a 7500 stack and a half hour clock through out. Over 100 runners expected for this encounter.

Good luck to all the players going back today for the final stages of the £500 main event – players to watch for will be Ash Hussain (always dangerous and probably the most experienced of all the remaining players) Aaron Barry (Proficient Grinder)
Tom Fielding (2nd in the money list and needs a top 3 finish) Dom Mahoney (just proficient), Judith Edwards (overdue a big score) Jim O’Connell (previous Scotland winner).

Remaining players and chip counts:

Carl Williams.......137,900

Dom Mahoney....91,900

Xiaoming Gu.........91,100

Barry Burns...........89,000

Aaron Barry...........78,600

Ash Hussain......76,900

Shaun Bennett....71,600

George Devine.......62,300

Chris Roberts......59,900

Judi Edwards.........47,600

Peter Grice........46,900

Rasmus Johannsen...42,300

Neil Norouzi.......37,800

Lewis Fowler.......36,700

Tom Feilding......35,500

Rob Gillon.............35,200

Jonny Denton.........31,300

Jim O'Conelll.......29,400

Andrew Miller.........18,900

Paul Barker...........16,000

Mark Wilson.......15,900

Good luck all and Happy Halloween!!!!

30th October

2010-10-30T11:34:00.001+01:00

Another deep run in the £200 side event saw me crash out in 14th spot with it paying down to 12.
I crashed out with 55 v Mark Trett (who I’m lead to believe went on to win) who was holding J9 and raised the button after it had folded to him – well done buddy.

I had all my luck in the early stages with some massive holdings and flops coming my way.

My first table consisted of the recent EPT LONDON winner David Vamplew – who was victorious in his heads up battle with the legendry John Juanda, getting lucky a couple of times and bagging £900,000 in the process – So I wandered why was he playing a £200 side event in Edinburgh – apart from him being a local lad and he probably brought his mates in then I cant see any other reason why he would play.

I played a couple of hands with David without getting to showdown and eventually forced his exit when he raised early position to get three bet from me, he jams and I call with pocket Queens and he flips AK and declares “I’m good at these flips” Q44 flop and his luck ran out.

Today is the Main event £550 2 day event and looks like the number could be as high as 140+ so a great final turnout for the last Coral event of the year – fingers crossed that it’s not the final Coral event ever.

Good luck fish . ><((((((O>…

29th October

2010-10-29T11:20:00.002+01:00

BRITISH MASTERS POKER TOUR 2010 EDINBURGH.

Got to the Casino nice and early so I could get something to eat. The bar menu was very limited while the menu in the restaurant, although offering el la carte dining – failed to tempt me – where is the menu that’s available in all other gala casino’s that I’ve been to? I settle for the Chicken Caesar Salad from the bar.

So the free to enter (£2 reg fee) eventually kicked off around 15 minutes late and had a total of 99 runners in the field by the time the alternates had ceased.

A 2k starting stack and you could have a total of 3 rebuys at £20 for 4k at any time regardless of stack size – the intention was to play tight/aggressive and get in for £22 if I could.

Just the one face on the table that I recognised (John Angus) and I’m seated in table4 seat5, very first hand I raise up with AJ suited to 225 and pick up 2 callers, I lead out on a Jack high flop retaining one caller at 475 however I lose this caller when I lead for 625 on the 7 turn.

Very next hand I make it 225 UTG with QQ, raised to 625 from seat 8 and then seat 1 decides to jam his 2k over the line, having them both covered I push my stack in followed by seat 8 who also turns over pocket jacks while seat 1 has AQ and I’m in good shape till the flop comes J4J

“Chips”

Towards the end of level one, I have JJ getting it all in pre v 99 and AQ with the flop coming down A3A

“Chips”

Start of level 3 I’m up to around 6k and am on the bb with JJ, seat 8 makes it 450 with a call from the button, I make it 1150 and seat 8 calls, button folds, a 9 high flop with two hearts so I decide to lead for 425, he makes it 1150 so I jam the lot in and he snaps me off with QQ

“CHIPS”

So I’ve now had all my chips and I haven’t played that badly but the reality is that I could be out before the break and in for £60 – things were not looking good, by the time the break came 25 minutes later I’m sat with above ave chips of 14800.

This however was about as good as it got, shortly after the break I get high carded into the dealer chair and I thought “why not” at least I’ll play less hands. Play less hands I certainly did – for about 2 hours I defended my bb just the once and saw my stack go the wrong side of 9k with the blinds at 800/1600, a clear field round to me in the cut off so decide to push getting looked up by the sb with A5, my KT was live but needing to hit which it failed to do so. I exited around 45th.

The play up here is fairly soft but saying that if you only raise 2.5 – 3.5 x bb then you will get the callers as they are reluctant to give up their blinds – Scottish Salmon is well and truly fresh up here and in abundance – but tangle with it at your peril.

Today is the £200 side event with a half hour clock throughout, 7500 starting stack, I reckon there will be around 75 runners tonight with around £15k in the pot, gets a bit crap shooty late on which dictates aggressive play in the middle stages.

Playing today should be James Gray, Tom Fielding, Danny Herron, Loopy, Mark McClusky, Aaron Barry, Mark English, Richard Hale, Eddie Lundon and some of the Teeside fish who get to Edinburgh early – and tomorrow looks like we could have over 120 runners as there are already 80 odd registered.

Good luck to everyone playing today…..

28th October 6pm

2010-10-28T18:08:00.002+01:00

After checking in on-line and deciding to decline the seats offered to me at a cost of £6.99 each way, I am auto seated in seat 5b however with 122 seats on board this twin propeller Q400 Dash 8 plane but only 20 odd passengers it was basically a sit where you want journey.

A 55 minute flight from Birmingham to Edinburgh and one of the smoothest take off & landing that I’ve ever experienced, straight into arrivals, bus station immediately outside and a £2.50 bus to the casino, within six minutes the bus stops almost right outside the B&B which is just a two minute walk from the casino.

Looking forward to the few days ahead, my live form seems to be holding up at the moment and I’ve been making good reads when I’ve needed to and tried to eliminate getting my chips in behind – unless short obviously.

I will be tweeting from time to time tonight and my tweets go straight to my face book page as well, if you haven’t got facebook or don’t use it the you will see my tweets on my blog or you can follow me on twitter by clicking this link:

http://twitter.com/#!/steveholdenpoke

Good luck to anyone else playing tonight.

28th October

2010-10-28T08:40:00.002+01:00

This week sees the final festival in this year’s Coral British Masters Tour 2010.

Edinburgh (Maybury Casino) is the location and who will be crowned king of the castle?

Will this be the last British Masters?

Will there be a good turnout?

So many questions…..

Tonight there is a “Free” to enter sat with 5 seats guaranteed (3x£20 rebuys allowed)

Friday £200 side event (1 day event)

Saturday £500 Main event (2 day comp)

Sunday £100 side event (1 dayer)

Updates on Twitter, AWOP and televised on the Nutz Tv

23rd October

2010-10-23T04:39:00.002+01:00

With all the best wishes being offered to me on Facebook it was always going to be hard to get away from the fact that it was my birthday yesterday.

A warm big thank you for all the messages that I did receive – thank you all very much.

After spending the afternoon with my daughter and grand daughter, I’m invited out for a birthday meal at the Indian curry house behind Walsall Casino (Cinnamon Gardens) which always get a 10 out of 10 for Ambiance, food, quality and service.

My intention all week was to play the Club championships at Walsall on Saturday £200 F/O then mid day Thursday I got a text from dtd ref £100 F/O on Saturday with £30k guaranteed – so now I was spoilt for choice, I elected to play the £5 rebuy sat at Walsall Friday night into Saturdays £200 game, the sat had 5 seats guaranteed and eventually made 7 seats, I had planned to chuck £25 at this but ended up tilting £45 into the pot by the time we got to the add on.

Walsall is undergoing a major refurb to upgrade it to a G Casino and are ploughing somewhere in the region of £2.5 million into the place – after spending that sort of money they will need to get Zak back in there full time and get the old place back kicking with the numbers and the events that they were getting 18 months ago.

Walsall was without doubt the poker hub for the uk and being centrally placed used to get complete festivals sold out well in advance, Midlands Meltdown, Midlands Masters, Grand Prix, GUKPT – these players are still out there, they just need hooking back in – somehow.

2.00am and I manage to bag a seat into the game later and the good thing is that if I bust out early then I’ve still got till 5.15 to get over to dtd, I somehow suspect that Walsall will have no more than 25 runners tomorrow given that dtd are offering such fantastic value.

Twitter updates to follow during the day from Walsall and worst-case dtd as well ;-)

Wayne Rooney – what a waste of space, at least all the old tarts of Manchester will be pleased that he’s still there for another 5 years.

Villa to bag 3 points away to Sunderland later today – have a good weekend

18th October

2010-10-18T10:44:00.003+01:00

DTD £50 DEEPSTACK, 322 RUNNERS £15k GUARANTEED – 3rd (£1,650) after my A9 was no match for A2 all in pre, window card is a 2 – first time all day that my tourney was at risk

;-( - felted at the end of level 3 so a good come back. – Looking forward to the £100k guaranteed on 6th November.. Televised as well and already qualified – Bring it on ))))

Live form good at the moment - just wish I was playing more.........

Edingburgh is my next venture at the end of October.....

Some exciting news about a new venture to be announced soon.... Watch this space

26th September

2010-09-26T06:23:00.002+01:00

December 2007 I first started playing at Dusk Till Dawn, bubbling final table on at least 3 occasions since my first visit – but I finally laid all my demons to rest last night.

Having sat’d into this mid month £200 deepstack for the princely sum of 22 euros I arrive at the club slightly late due to traffic and I’m glad to see that there was no overlay – 73 runners making the field up and the guarantee exceeded by £600 giving a nice pot of £15600 to play for, I take my seat on table 13 seat 4.

I go down to the felt early 2nd level (2400) from my 10k stack when I put a bluff in on the river only to get called by an ace with a shit kicker, exactly the hand I put him on, whilst I was holding 2nd pair. I claw my way back into the game and after a couple of shoves I’m up to a nosebleed of 4700 when I’m on the BB 100/200 level when there’s a limp utg then a min raise to 400 from utg+1 3 more callers round to me so I pop the extra 200 into the middle with 57o flop comes 466 so I check as does utg then utg+1 makes it 600 fold to me so I flat him and hit the 3 on the turn for the straight, I check to him and he leads for 1500 so I give it the dwell and shove for an extra 2k to which he snaps me off with KK whilst being dead and buried.

I don’t really look back from this spot and my only out draw comes when we are 5 handed and on the bubble for final table, we’ve just had a BB moved into our table at level 13 - 2k/4k/400 and I bet it to 12000 from utg with AT suited, folds to the BB who I’ve got no history with, a Polish bloke I think (Aryah Herskovic), he tanks, gives it the Hollywood then shoves for 48k ish – I count my stack out and I’ve just got him covered but only just, I contemplate that we’re on the bubble and I decide that he’s body demeanour doesn’t want a call – I eventually push my chips over the line and he flips AJ “prick” I say to myself, I then say to the dealer “Don’t keep me waiting buddy” and he duly delivers TTKAJ

I make final table with 90k when the ave is at 85k top prize is £5390 whilst 9th picks up £300- Also on Final table was Andy Johnson, Thomas Jones, Gazza Phillips, John Lundy, A Patel, Pat Kelley, John Exley and Nick Smith, I finally get heads up with Andy Johnson around 1.50am we’re fairly even in chips so we decide to take £4k each leaving £620 to play for, we play small ball for around 40 minutes when I finally take it down on a 33625 board, shoving on the river with K3 whilst Andy was holding 56 for two pair, eventually calling me hoping that I was making a move.

I finally shook that monkey well and truly off my back making final table and eventually taking it down, not the biggest prize that I’ve ever won but one of the most important because I really
Have high esteem for dtd and it was no surprise winning poker room of the year but I was getting fed up with my poor record over there

Villa to smash Wolves up at dinnertime today – and that would make it a great weekend ;-)

23rd September

2010-09-23T09:32:00.001+01:00

Liverpool’s Roy Hodgson…

Don’t you just love him!!!!

Northampton Rock and Roll into the 4th Round

Villa bash Blackburn after going behind

Baggies beat Man City

Newcastle turn Chelsea over at the Bridge

Brentford did the office work and bashed Everton

4th round draw on Saturday

20th September

2010-09-20T12:13:00.003+01:00

Well thank fuck that the Pope's gone home.

I imagine that Ricky will dominate the headlines now - again

16th September

2010-09-16T22:51:00.001+01:00

Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club wins Best UK Cardroom!

A fantastic result for Europe’s Premier Poker Venue Dusk Till Dawn, as they walked away from The British Poker Awards this week with the title of Best UK Cardroom.

Since opening its doors in November 2007 as the UK’s first licensed Poker Club, Dusk Till Dawn has had a phenomenal effect on the UK Poker Scene. Three years on, the club continues to shine above its competition, consistently delivering on all elements that contribute to provide its players with a world class poker experience. It came as no surprise when the winning Cardroom was announced at the First British Poker Awards this week in London.

Simon Trumper, commented on the club's win:

The management and all the staff at Dusk Till Dawn are thrilled with winning the award for the best poker venue in the UK and would like to thank the organisers of the British Poker Awards for giving us the opportunity.

So much hard work and passion goes into the club it is really appreciated when the players take the time to acknowledge it and vote for us, we will try to maintain the standards and repeat next year.

Other awards on the night, as voted by the public were as follows: Best Cash Player: Neil Channing

Best Tournament Player: James Akenhead

Best Online Player: Chris Moorman

Best International Player: Phil Ivey

Best Poker League: The Nuts Poker League

Best UK Card room: Dusk Till Dawn

Best Contribution to Poker: Vicky Coren

Best UK Poker Forum: The Hendon Mob

Best New Player: Sam Trickett

Best All Round Player: Richard Ashby

Player of The Year: Praz bansi

9th September

2010-09-09T10:41:00.002+01:00

So Gerard Houllier is named as the next Villa manager, given his pedigree I think – given time and money he could do a good job at Villa Park, the next 4 years will tell. Filling O’Neil’s shoes will be no small task and anything less than 6th spot in the league in any season would be seen as failure.

Phil Thompson has knocked back the chance to work as his understudy as he says that Houllier is too much of a work master. Houllier would expect his No2 to work just as hard – Kevin MacDonald also ex-Liverpool would be the ideal No2 and knows the youth and reserve teams inside out, the ideal candidate for Gerard to keep by his side.

Although upset at seeing O’Neil leave I think Houllier is possibly the best of a bad bunch available at the moment and I can only think that Everton and Birmingham Shitty fans will be the ones taking the piss but to be quite honest – who the fuck are Everton and Birmingham Who???

Cappello announces that he will be standing down after the 2012 qualifiers – ideal timing to announce O’Neil as the next England manager…

Decided against playing Teeside to sort some personal issues out but good luck to anyone making the trip up there…. WHAY AYE LADS, TAKE IT DOWN….

3rd September

2010-09-03T09:36:00.001+01:00

Martin O’Neil will be the next England manager sooner than you may think and Kevin MacDonald to be named next Villa manager within the next ten days.

Should England fail to get a credible result against Bulgaria tonight and then Switzerland next Tuesday then I reckon that Cappello will feel the full wrath of hurricane Earl – and not before time in my opinion, Cappello aint got a fucking clue and should be packed off back to Milan. Why we (England) ever employed this geezer still baffles me but there again, English football at the highest office bears similarities with coffee meetings on the Edgware Road with the Pakistan Cricket team – Somebody somewhere got a nice payoff for Cappello to get the job!!!

DTD deepstack on this weekend – although I don’t think there will be much of an overlay.

Lissie - Stairway to Heaven.flv

2010-09-02T22:00:00.000+01:00

Quality song, watch it before the BBC ban it.

31st August

2010-08-31T12:55:00.002+01:00

Aston Villa Manager Latest: David Moyes & Sven Goran Eriksson Favourites To Succeed Martin O'Neill With Bookmakers

The bookies have cut the Everton manager's odds considerably while the Swede remains a contender according to latest prices...

Everton manager David Moyes is a serious contender for the vacant Aston Villa post after bookmakers slashed his odds considerably.

The Toffees boss was trading at 40/1 (41.0) over the weekend but a flurry of bets on Monday has seen his odds move to 9/2 (5.50) in the race to replace Martin O'Neill. He is trading as short as 3/1 (4.0) with some bookmakers.

Moyes would fit the bill as Aston Villa have stated they are seeking a manager with Premier League experience. The former Celtic player has been in charge at Goodison Park since 2002 and finished in the top four in 2004-05.

Things haven't begun quite as well this season with Everton languishing in the bottom three registering just a single point after three games.

Former favourite Bob Bradley is now out of the running after signing a contract extension with the USA. Temporary boss Kevin Macdonald is still attracting some support at 3/1 (4.0) but his case hasn't been helped by Villa's early elimination from Europe and the 6-0 thrashing by Newcastle United.

New Fulham manager Mark Hughes remains in contention with some bookmakers quoting odds as short as 5/1 (6.0) on 'Sparky' leaving Craven Cottage barely a month after succeeding Roy Hodgson.

Unemployed Sven Goran Eriksson is the bookies' joint favourite with Macdonald (at the time of writing) with one bookmaker pricing the Swede at 3/1 (4.0) to take up his first club managerial position since leaving Manchester City in 2008. However, it is understood that the club have ruled out the former England manager and his short price is mainly due to his current availability.

Other contenders include former Aston Villa defender Gareth Southgate, who is valued at 10/1 (11.0) with some bookmakers. Ex-Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier is valued at 9/1 (10.0).

Wildcard Diego Maradona is a long shot at 100/1 (101.0) to move to the Premier League.

Aston Villa are intending to appoint a new manager after the international break.

A statement from the club said: "We have thoroughly researched potential candidates and have reached out to a variety of contacts we have within the game for advice and guidance.

"Two of the traits we believe are of crucial importance are that candidates have experience of managing in the Premier League and a strategy for building on the existing strengths in our current squad."

Aston Villa Manager Odds - Best Price on Oddschecker

Sven Goran Eriksson - 9/2 (5.50)
Kevin Macdonald - 5/1 (4.0)
David Moyes - 6/1 (7.0)
Mark Hughes - 16/1 (17.0)
Alan Curbishley - 20/1 (21.0)
Gerard Houllier - 22/1 (23.0)
Gareth Southgate - 22/1 (23.0)
Jurgen Klinsmann - 25/1 (26.0)
Ottmar Hizfeld - 25/1 (26.0)
Diego Maradona - 100/1 (101.0)

Put your money on Kevin MacDonald - thats my opinion....

30th August

2010-08-30T01:16:00.001+01:00

GUKPT Main Event.
London Victoria
134 runners
Bust 22nd

Sometimes just sometimes this game pisses you right off, sometimes it’s the constant stream of outdraws that make you wander why the fuck you bother at all.

4 times last night I got out drawn by the same player all within one crucial hour, three of them coming on the river, two of them he taps the table and says nice hand to me after he’s outdrawn me – now I can normally take rub downs and just turn a deaf ear to them and try not to let them put me off my game or get me tilted up – and last night was no exception.

However – the final time I get out drawn, again by the same player QQ v AT with me hitting my queen on the river to give him the straight to the ace, he again taps the table and says “nice hand” followed by “I really didn’t want to win that hand” . W.T.F - this was a 75k pot with the ave at 65k and left me with 3k. I say “you didn’t want to win the hand – biggest load of bullshit I ever heard” “No seriously is the reply” FFS

I’m all in blind on the small blind as I am fucking steaming at this point, folds all the way to the bb who has to call me blind effectively and he flips T7 and I turn my blind hand over and again I massively ahead KT, flop delivers a 7 and that’s the way I run at the moment.

I fucking hate losing…Esp after running so deep, outdraw after outdraws after outdraw but I also accept that you got to win the flips when your in the deep end….

But I do hate it when someone tries to make a cunt of you, NH WP. I’d rather them just scoop the chips and shut the fuck up rather than coming out with bollocks or apologies.

.As for me, well my dummy went well and truly out the fucking pram.

With Ali Mallu taking down the £300 event at Manchester and Neil Channing still left in the Vik main event I’m getting pushed further away in the GUKPT leaderboard.

Villa fucked Everton but that was scant consolation for me really. Kevin MacDonald to get the job full time – fingers crossed.

29th August

2010-08-29T09:37:00.001+01:00

This is the last GUKPT summer series week of festivals and Manchester and the London Vik are the venues for these bank holiday activities.

Having spent a week over in West Wales with my daughter and granddaughter I was hoping that I had come back all refreshed.

Having already qualified for the main event at the Vik today (Sunday) I made my way down by train yesterday, Having spent the day with my other daughter who lives in London I get to the Vik for the end of the first level of the £150 + £15 freeze out super sat.

70 runners make up the field with the pot bring £30 light of 13 seats, I play quite solid poker getting very short at one point 5200 with the blinds at 500/1000 and I jam it in with TJo and run into kings, QJ84T and I get a much needed double up, I’m then coasting along in a good position with ave chips when at 1000/2000/200 level and on the bubble there is a raise to 5400 utg, I look down and find KK we are 8 handed and with 10k already in the middle I elect to take it down and shove my entire 27k into the middle, surprisingly the sb wakes up and also goes all-in having me well covered, initial raiser folds AK, sb has AA and there is no miracle king in the deck for me. Close but not close enough – although happy with my game.

Main event starts at 2pm today and is a 12k stack with a 45 minute clock throughout. This is a two day event, it would be nice to make day 2 and even nicer to make day 2 as chip leader….

Villa face Everton at 4pm at Villa Park and we are desperate for the win, I for one would like to see Kevin MacDonald get the full time job of Villa manager but for that to happen we are going to need a very convincing win over the toffees today. Kevin has been with the reserves for over ten years now and knows the youth set up inside out – but if you watch this interview with him from the BBC it’s quite clear he’s uncertain if he wants the job full time – ffs Kevin – give your head a wobble mate and put some direction in your life.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/8933010.stm

20th August

2010-08-20T00:30:00.001+01:00

Exclusive Manchester United Poker Tournament

Win a once in a lifetime match day package

Red Hot Poker is delighted to present an exclusive Manchester United Football Poker Tournament, where you could win one of 6 fabulous, ‘money can’t buy’ executive match day packages.

The 6 lucky winners will be whisked away to Old Trafford for the Manchester United Vs Liverpool game on September 19th and treated to the ultimate match day package – hosted by one of the biggest personalities on the UK poker scene; Mad Marty Wilson.

For your chance to win simply play in the Manchester United Poker tournament at redhotpoker.com on Sunday 5th September at 19.30pm. The game is No Limit Hold Em Rebuy and buy in is only 10euros

Full details can be found on www.redhotpoker.com, under promotions.

The unbelievable match day package includes
· Tickets to the Manchester United Vs Liverpool game.
· Overnight hotel accommodation
· Welcome reception with complimentary glass of Champagne and canapés
· 3 course meal with complimentary bar
· Post match complimentary bar (open for 1 hour)
· Hot and cold savoury snacks
· Discount merchandise voucher and match day programme
· Meet a United legend
· All hosted by Mad Marty Wilson

Winners will be invited to play in an exclusive 6 player single table tournament – scheduled to be played on the night before the match.
The cards will be dealt by Katharine Hartree and hosted and directed by Mad Marty Wilson.

For your chance to win this unbelievable prize go to www.redhotpoker.com

14th August

2010-08-14T12:13:00.001+01:00

Villa start this seasons campaign with the Hammers visiting Villa Park, whilst we are Managerless and also uncertain about two of our star players. – Not knowing who’s going to be the future boss and I hope to fuck it aint Erikson – O’Neil leaving has ripped the heart out of Villa Park by leaving but he has always been a man of principle – How do you replace the best once the best has gone? I see nothing more than a top half finish from the Villa this season given our current dilemma.

Good luck to Blackpool for the season ahead.

13th August (Friday)

I went down to the Donnington Sports and social club in Telford as CASINUT were holding a poker night. Peter Atwell and Lynda Woolley who run the company are responsible for setting up and marketing their company within the Telford and surrounding area.

They encourage new and upcoming poker players to come out into a live venue at the £5 - £25 tournament level, learn the game along with the rules and etiquettes – a few of the players that have started at this level have now moved onto live casino games and have infact taken a some of them down.

Peter and Lynda have quite a list of future venues if you do live within the Shropshire borders go and check them out, check out their website and give them a call – anyway, last nights game was a monthly £25 D/C/F/O 2 x 5000 chips and started at 7pm – I’d been promising for sometime to put in an appearance and didn’t think that I would go to this event as my diary was telling me that I would be in Luton playing the £1000 main event of the GUKPT – however, when your running bad and all that, I drove back from Luton after Thursday night’s £110 side event..(exit details to follow)

So I had a shit load of stuff to do on Friday but promised that I would try and get over there and help promote local poker – I get over there for just before 8pm and there’s 2 full tables and we’re about half way through the 2nd level – I take my seat and am immediately on the BB with a limp in mid position, folds to me and I find 23o so hump it to 225 (50/100 level) with the limper tank folding so I show the massive holding that I had and this would ensure action all night.

I lose half my stack chasing a flush draw and three betting a river bet hoping to push these novices around but when they are holding 2nd pair with a weak kicker your always going to be up against it. I then find pocket aces on my next bb with a limper and the small in the mix, I make it an extra 375 (525) to go at the 75/150 level and the limper starts thinking about it, I tell him “don’t call – as you’ll price the small in – I only want to steal whats in the middle”, he calls as does the small, flop comes TTQ, small checks so I jam my remaining 1800 into the 1575 pot, I get an instant call and the small folds, I’m up against TJ and fail to improve.

I then take my 2nd load of chips when I lose about 1500 chips laying down AT on a AJ6 flop after I raised pre, got flatted and then got reraised on the flop, I give the lad (Lester) a little bit of banter as I know I’m behind but am reluctant to get bluffed in the kindergarten – I show my AT holding and he flashes he’s AJ for the flopped 2 pair – down to the felt and likely to be the last on in first one out I decide to tighten up – FML, anyways on my next BB with the blinds at 100/200 level I call a raise and a call to 800 with Qh9d flop comes Kh9h6h, check/check/1k – small calls the 1k and I’m thinking that one of them has the ace of hearts and one of them may have the king – I reckon I’m probably good at this point but want to try and take it down, I’m happy to get heads up with the ace if I’m ahead with the pair, I shove for my remaining 3800, first lad who had been a rock all night folded and the small tank called eventually flipping over the bare ace of hearts, blank black 7 on the turn but the heart on the river destroys me, breaks my heart and sends me to the rail, NH GG WP

I stay and deal for a further hour getting a call from Mad Marty in the process who always sounds so cheerful telling me about a promotion to do with the Man U v Liverpool game (details to follow).

These nights are excellent value for money if you are new to poker and are a good experience as well as being a fun night out – get in touch with Pete and Lynda and find out when they are in your area. click this link for contact details:

12th August.
Made my way down to Luton for the £100 F/O side event that attracted around 100 runners, 7500 starting stack and a 25-minute clock. I’m up to around 11k quite quickly catching cards and hitting flops makes the game so easy. Start of level 2 and I’m in the hijack with pocket jacks, been a raise to 250 from serial raiser (blinds 50/100) so I make it 750 and get flatted, flop comes 743 (two hearts) and the raiser bets out for 550, I flat not wanting to see a heart on the turn and trying to control the pot and a 3c hits the turn and he leads out for 850 – I almost reraised here but elected to flat and call the river bet regardless, a 5 hit the river and he leads out for 2000 and I eventually make the call and he turns over pocket 4s for the turned boat.

Very next hand and the same player makes it 350 to go fro UTG, I insta re-raise to 850 from late position while the small blind makes it 2850, UTG folds and the action is with me, I think to myself that the small thinks I’m on tilt and making a move, he’s probably got a hand like TT or JJ and if I cant push him off then I don’t mind the race, I shove over the top for around 8k total and get looked up instantly, KK and I’m in bad shape, flop comes TJ7 with a 9 on the turn giving me an extra 4 outs which fail to come and it’s an early exit for me.

Got a busy schedule ahead now for the next few weeks, getting my house ready to rent out some rooms and just general jobs that I need to catch up on as well as going on holiday with Michelle and Crystal. I think that my next live outing could be the main event at the London Victoria GUKPT summer series £750 F/O on the 29th August (bank holiday weekend) also giving me a chance to spend some time with Claire while I’m down in London.

Have a good weekend and be lucky…….

11th August

2010-08-11T03:41:00.001+01:00

A massive shout and a well done to the Mad Turk (Yucel Eminoglu) who just finished 4th (16 bags) from 1,106 runners in the FTOPS (Full Tilt Of Poker Series) event 17, $200 buy in PL round of each.

Last nights DTD 30 euro freezeout into their next monthly deepstack. This was a mammoth come back after my AK ran into AK in the first level and got bust by a flush putting me down to just 480 chips from the 3k starting stack and putting me 31st of 31 runners. 2 and a half hours later I manage to bag one of the four guaranteed seats.

9th August
Made my way down to Luton to play the £200 F/O

I’m up and down like a prostitutes knickers for the first 3 levels or so and get moved tables just before the break – getting moved onto the table that included Joe Gresh, Paul Newman, Paul King and Kevin “Lovejoy” O’Leary.

On looking round the table there was three or four players on ave chips and this lad in seat 3 who probably had double what everyone else had, whilst I was there before the break he raised 3 times and took the pots down uncontested.

First hand back after the break and I’m on the BB for 200 and this lad in seat 3 makes it 500 to go, folds to me in seat 7 so I call the extra 300 as is my option with 9To, board comes 9 high x x rainbow and I fire out for 650, seat three tanks and raises to 3750 with around 11k behind him and having my break stack of 10k well covered – I figure he’s got fuck all and tank shove to which I get a snap call and he flips over aces, a few outs that don’t come and I’m off to the TV lounge.

All the news about Martin O’Neil having resigned from Villa with immediate effect, what was looking like a promising season ahead for the Villa now looks like a top half of the table could be our target – I’m pissed off that he’s gone.

It was the best thing that Deadly Doug Ellis ever done in his time at the Villa, He was without doubt “one” of the top 4 British Managers in the country – Alex (Mutd) Harry Redknapp, and Moyles from Everton being the other three,

He was the best Villa manager since Ron Saunders IMO and he was the future manager to bring the glory days back to Villa Park.

He’s gone and our dreams are gone now for at least a couple of seasons.

How / who do you replace him with – O’Neil had great faith in bringing the kids through – this was probably due to having fuck all to spend but he done a great job regardless.

Randy Lerner now has to choose the next Villa manager – who would I like to see? Well he’s a pundit on sky sports, an ex Villa player, a sweaty sock and someone that speaks he’s mind – George Graham – so he’s got no chance now that I’ve Bokked him.

P.S I hope Martin O'Neil gets a new job soon and takes that tosser Heskey with him....

9th August

2010-08-09T09:05:00.001+01:00

Crashed out about 3am when I was watching/railing Paul King in the Sunday Million on stars – one of those where I’d taken a couple of pain killers and had a glass of cider as well and was drifting off in zombified state. Paul eventually crashed out 317th / 8200 runners, well done mate.

I crashed out just after the second break, I took a massive hit with Qs into AK then I got it all in with AQ v 5s – such is life.

I also got deep in the DTD 5 seats guaranteed for the GUKPT down at Luton this week, 24 runners and a massive overlay, again pocket Queens was my downfall in my exit hand v AK

;-( DOH, finished 8th for sweet FA.

Andriena Nutt (dreeniee) who came 2nd not so long back in the DTD deepstack finished a creditable 5th this month, shouldn’t be too long before she has a major score. Well done to Dan Phillips (Kinboshi) who won the main event after a 4 way chop.

Luton on this week and I’ll be trying to get down there to play some of the side events – although not really certain which if any I’ll play as I’ve got so much stuff to sort out up here.

8th August

2010-08-08T16:13:00.002+01:00

Mad Turks Son – Umit Eminoglu…

The new season is almost here and as of yet we aint got any new signings, Emile Heskey could be off to Bristol City but O’Neil has denied this rumour, Please please please let him go – pay them to take him off our books if you have to but get rid of the fooker.

David Bevan > Walsall / Free, Jack Dyer > Burton Albion / Free, Stephen O Halloran > Cov City / free, whilst Wilfred Bouma, Marlon Harewood and Andy Marshall have all been released from their contracts, I’ve always rated Marlon Harewood a stronger more aggressive player than Heskey….

It looks like James Milner will be a Man City player by the end of next week with Stephen Ireland (Midfielder) joining Villa in a deal worth around £25 million. Luke Young looks like he is Anfield bound after being left out of the latest touring squad.

On the plus side the “Youth” team which is where Villa have aspired now for several seasons looks as strong as ever. Bryan Jones the Academy Director and Kenny Swain head coach of the Under 16s are chuffed to bits on having 6 teenage villa stars given the chance to impress the England coaches after being called up for the national trials.

The Mad Turks son Umit Eminoglu (pictured) a villa youth team player and also a Turkish International gets a glowing recognition in this news report that can be found on this link.

I think that Umit in Turkish stands for “hope” – We all hope that Umit can make it through the youth training and break into the first team – just like Gabby and Nathan Delfouneso (striker) one to watch out for this year, I reckon Nathan will be one of the main strikers for England in the next world cup finals in four years time.

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/FootballNewsDetail/0,,10265~2108375,00.html

The team reached the FA Youth Cup Final last season, beaten by Chelsea in the final – good times ahead at Villa park if we can keep hold of these aspiring youngsters.

7th August

2010-08-07T08:49:00.002+01:00

Dusk till Dawn Deepstack weekend beckons and having qualified earlier in July I will be giving this a blast whilst down the road at Luton, leg 6 of the GUKPT gets under way with a £150 F.O

Dtd have a £60k guarantee, and with 74 runners already registered this will easily make the guarantee, I reckon somewhere around 260 runners will make the trip over to Nottingham for the 3pm start.

3rd August

2010-08-03T07:50:00.001+01:00

Having made my way over to Stanley Casino in Stoke for the 4th Anniversary on Sunday – a £150 F/O 10k stack with £4k added to the prize fund and a 30 minute clock through out. I’d heard through the grapevine that the Casino were having 32 tables on standby with 32 dealers – having played the same event last year I wasn’t expecting a “sell out” and that’s exactly what happened….

I got there for around 1.50pm for the 2pm start – car park was rammed and I had to park round the back nr the fire exits. I get to the registration desk after saying “hi” to a few people and to my surprise I’m 60th on the alternate list with 320 runners being seated – shit

I sit down talking to Garry Chatterton catching up on his Vegas exploits, Garry is 18th on the alternate list – we are joined in conversation by Ian Bryan former card room manager of Bolton G Casino, but nowadays he is seen as the lynchpin along with Zak Miller & the lovely Dena Hassan running the GUKPT festivals.

Most people are aware that Jon Raab has now joined forces with Pokerstars to build their image in the European market. Ian & co now have the unenviable task of picking up where Jon left off and trying to improve on it for next year and the following years to come.

A thankless task you might think especially in the current economic climate – but listening to Ian who is quite passionate about making it work – I was also interested in the fact that he was willing to listen to what I thought about stuff as well as asking me my opinion on several points.

I like the fact that he is keen on getting a “National dealer school” where all the GUKPT dealers will be nationally trained to at least the standard set by DTD.

I did mention that several players had already commented that with Jon leaving to take up the position at Pokerstars that the GUKPT wouldn’t survive and that Pokerstars would swallow up the GUKPT. Ian is absolutely resigned to making it work and not only keeping the tour going but improving on it if he can and getting the levels back to the first year of the GUKPT – He knows he has a battle ahead of him but I wish Ian, Zak and Dena well and I’m pleased that the tour will be for next year at the very least

Anyways… Garry got in with 30 seconds left on the clock and I had to accept that I had made a massive mistake by not booking in – in advance, I certainly will do for next year, well done Stanley Casino’s A Fantastic Turnout and a Fantastic effort by yourselves….10 out of 10
It then took me 45 minutes to get off the car park after being boxed in by several vehicles.

A massive shout for
Andy Wright who took the Stanley event down for £13k (great achievement mate) and
Ted Eames 4th for £5k

I get home and I play the Sunday Million on Pokerstars and get chipped up early, but alas I crash out about midway through the 8200 runners when my pocket 10s are no match for my oppo’s cowboys all in pre….

Some other results from the weekend worthy of note are:

Pokerstars Italian Poker Tour – Venice Leg
Toby Lewis 7th for 25k euros

Gala / Coral British Masters Poker tour
Lam Trinh - winner
Tom Fielding – 2nd (3rd final table on the tour this year)
Aarun Bernard 3rd
Dave Maudlin 4th
Julian Davies 5th
Mike Moore 6th
Danny Herron 7th

31st July

2010-07-31T14:10:00.001+01:00

Paul King goes back into day 2 of the Pokerstars Italian Poker Tour in Venice with just under ave chips.

Paul qualified for this event through the Pokerstars FPP scheme and it cost him the princely sum of 100 player points and is looking at a potential 235,000 euros to the winner with 72 getting paid and just under 1 million euros in the pot: thee following is extracted from the Pokerstars blog where you can follow live updates for Paul and any other players taking part…

OK, so here on Team PokerStars Blog we are known to get a little excited by all things poker. So when we described earlier this week how the PokerStars Italian Poker Tour had become one of the most important events in the European poker calendar, some may have chortled and put it down to our boyish enthusiasm. Aha! We were right! Read on...
Yesterday, day 1B of IPT Venice saw 278 players clocking in. Added to day 1A's field, that makes a total entry of 505 players.
And that, my friends, is a record turnout for the Italian Poker Tour. Enthusiam FTW!
The bumper field at the Ca' Noghera casino means the event is looking at a bulging €979,000 prize pool, of which €235,000 will go to the winner. Nice. In total, 72 players will be paid.
But that's a way off yet. First we need to get today's day 2 out of the way. Yesterday saw Sam El Sayed from Switzerland finish as Day 1B chip leader with 139,100 chips, followed by Italian PokerStars qualifier Muhamet Perati with 136,000. The average stack is 47,931.
Among those through to today's play is Team PokerStars Pro Salvatore Bonavena and Friend of PokerStars Alberto Russo. We first met Bonavena at EPT Prague in Season 5. He won it, but it was the way he played and went about his business that made him a firm favorite of ours.
So much so that we now call him affectionately 'Sal Bon'. He seems to like it, but not as much as he likes fancy hats and colorful attire. Only the Italians can get away with pink tops, in my opinion.

Day 2 action will be along shortly, and you can follow it over on our sister Italian blog. Please keep our blogger Matteo Viola company. He'll start waving his arms about and talking at a million miles an hour if you don't.

For live updates click here:

30th July

2010-07-30T10:45:00.003+01:00

Last nights “Freeroll” at Nottingham attracted 74 runners and Gala / Coral guaranteed 6 x £550 seats for the people who did make it to the venue. I’m in for £65 total after being forced to rebuy and add on at the break after I decide to gamble with 2nd pair, two overcards and 4 to the flush – I miss and my oppo wins a nice 12k stack just before the break. I bust out around 16th, being shortstacked on the BB, the sb limps 1500/3000 so I shove with KJ for 18k and the sb thinks and then calls me, he only just has me covered and flips A3 and he’s ace holds up ;-(

I had very fond memories of Nottingham Gala as it was the scene of probably my best ever results, 2 back to back victories in three nights at the first ever Gala Great British Poker Tour (May 2007) taking down both the £200 side event and the £500 MAIN EVENT that I was only able to get into by taking down the side event as the main had sold out and the side event had a seat into the main.

I was also there two years ago (June 2008) as defending champion and was really impressed with the casino and the card room given that DTD had opened just down the road, The staff and the management went out of their way to make you feel welcome and you could sense that although there was this dinosaur (DTD) just 3 miles away, Gala Notts was doing their best to retain what customers they could..

Unfortunately – I think things have changed.

I arrived with Andrea last night in plenty of time for the 9pm start – getting there around 8.20.
We went and checked in for the game and was impressed that there was already 50 registered so took our place on the list.

We then decided to get a drink from the bar – after standing at the bar that was unattended for around 5 minutes we eventually got served to a cappuccino and a peroni and lime, she had to phone through to the kitchen for a spoon for the coffee and she then told me that there was a charge of 35p for a dash of lime!!!

At 8.35pm I ordered a Brandy snap desert of the desert menu, which consisted of brandy snap basket, ice cream and summer fruit, £3.95 and was well looking forward to it. The staff weren’t too rushed off their feet as the bar seemed extremely quiet, about ten to 9 and the barman shouts “brandy basket” I go to the bar and say yes that’s me – he then says I’ll go do it now!!!?
We get called through to the card room for the start of our game and my desert turns up around 5 minutes after the start, the barman gives me the desert and tells me I can eat it at the table, even though people have got mugs of coffee on the tables.

On sitting down at table 2 seat 3, I am greeted by this chappie in the dealer seat who informs me that I have to give him £3 to deal, realizing this was self deal, I enquired are we not dealing on the button – he says, well if you don’t give me £3 like everyone else then you can deal on the button when its your turn but everyone else has paid – not wanting to feel like an outcast or upset the natives I part with my £3.

The next 4 hours were the worst 4 hours I have ever spent in any card room in the world – There was around 12 ladies in the 74 starters and there was absolutely NO control an that card room – the constant steam of fucking and blinding was worse than being at a football match where at least they stop the cursing at half time – this was pure bad management. Swearing, sly racist comments, rule infringements, bad atmosphere and the lack of staff doing anything about it, if it had kicked off with the punters then I think they would have just let them get on with it – I am surprised so many females turned up to play in such an intimidating atmosphere.

There is no way that this casino is going to tempt punters away from DTD whilst they allow what was going on in the card room – I will find it very hard to justify going back there again and would never consider it if I was in female company.

I’m sure the festival will be a success as they have their own travelling dealers and floor staff in the shape of “Big John” from Edinburgh who certainly wont be standing for any shit from anyone, although I think the numbers will be down as there are other value added tournaments on this weekend at Walsall (Saturday, 5pm start, £10k guaranteed, £100F/O 10k stack half hour clock) and at Stoke on Sunday at the circus casino for their 4th anniversary they are having a £150 F/O and adding £4k to the pot, this will attract at least 200 runners and will be a half hour clock with a 10k starting stack – free breakfast between 11-30 and 1.30 and the game starts at 2pm.

Just to top things off at Gala Nottingham, on leaving I went to get my car park ticket authenticated and I was told that there was a £4 charge…..

Have a good weekend.

29th July

2010-07-29T13:19:00.002+01:00

Live Satellite Schedule for Coral British Masters tour @Nottingham GALA
· Thursday 29th at 9pm, reg will open at 8pm (TONIGHT)
FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY… FREE ENTRY…FREE ENTRY…

· Free entry + £5 fee gets you 2k in chips
· 2 optional rebuys of £20 each gets you 3k each rebuy
· 5000 for the add on for £20
· FIVE x (£550) seats gtd

27th July

2010-07-27T13:41:00.001+01:00

06/03/1919 - 27/07/1975
R.I.P
Love & miss you mom x

25th July

2010-07-25T08:18:00.001+01:00

Sad news to see that Alex “Hurricane” Higgins lost his battle with throat cancer at the age of just 61. Steve Davies once described Higgins as “the only true genius snooker ever had” High praise indeed. Having grown up with the likes of Steve Davies, Dennis Taylor, and Alex, then it’s easy to see why today’s snooker players just cant pull in the TV crowds the way they used to.

The main event in Dundee finally attracted 41 runners by the end of the alternate level.
I unfortunately didn’t last that long after 2 crucial hands that killed me off.

I had KK in late position first level, Jiggy player UTG raises to 175, call utg+2 so I raise it up to 725 and both players tag along, flop comes 9 5 J rainbow, both players check to me so I bet out for 1225 and Jiggy comes along with me, 7 on the turn and still no flush draw, jiggy checks so I bet out for 1850 Jiggy calls – 4 on the river and now jiggy leads out for 2450 to which I flat and he flips 97 for the turned two pair.

I get it back up to around 7k but then loose another hand when I have AJ clubs and I three bet a raise and a call pre flop, Qx 6c 4c, both check so I bet the pot of 825, both come along, blank on the turn 2d and again they both check so I bet 1250, one caller – a blank Td on the river and again he checks to me – I bet 2250 from my remaining 3800 and he snap calls me with AQ

Half hour later and I bust out – so decide to go to the Gala Dundee and play their £20 12k
deepstack freezeout.

I registered then went to get a bite to eat in town, who should, I bump in to
but Mick Fletcher, “what brings you up here Mick” I enquire as I hadn’t seem him all week at the GUKPT, “just come up today to play the main event but got caught in traffic and missed the cut off by half hour” I know Mick lives in Blackpool so that’s around 270 miles --- bit of a bad beat UL Mick

I get back to the Gala for the start of their deepstack, I sit all patient for around half an hour when I am on the BB with pocket kings, raise utg to 700 (blinds at 100/200) and he gets 4 callers, 3k in the pot when it gets round to me so I hump it up to 3500 to get rid of the rag aces, utg calls me so I figure he must have a big pair or AK flop comes Th Jh 4h – I know I got the K of hearts without the need to look as they were both red, I check and he checks behind me, 6s on the turn and I lead out for 2500 leaving myself 6k and he flats me, 4d on the river and I lead out for 4k thinking I am massive – he flat calls me and shows 74 off, I have never laughed so much at the poker table – I asked if 74o was the Dundee Hammer or something and he just looked at me with a blank expression…

Have decided to head down and play the bounty competition in Sheffield on my way back to the Midlands as I wont have so far to travel home after I get bust out.

I’ve really enjoyed my few days up here in Scotland and particularly Broughty Ferry, such a beautiful place and would have no hesitation to stay here again and at the Abertay guest house that is owned by Catherine and Karl, very reasonably priced with massive freshly cooked breakfasts and large rooms. You can follow this link to their website…..

http://www.abertay-guesthouse.co.uk/

24th July

2010-07-24T11:07:00.001+01:00

Made my way over to Carnoustie yesterday for the Seniors Open Golf Championship (day2).

Was breezy till about 3pm but then the clouds and the wind went and left us with sunny blue skies and temperatures of around 22, barely little wind and some names and faces from years gone by, but they can still hit a ball.

The live leaderboard can be found on this link:

I followed the group of Bernhard Langer, Tom Watson and David Frost – Langer is without doubt one of the slowest players on the seniors circuit and if he was playing poker you’d be calling the clock on him every hand – teeing off at 1.50pm I followed this match as far as I could to the green of the 15th when I decided to head back for last nights £150 side event.

Got to the casino for around 7.15pm when I was turned away for wearing knee length canvass shorts, even though when I phoned in the week to see if there was any dress code I was told that there wasn’t, a quick 10 mile return journey to the hotel and I’m back at the casino having lost the first level of play.

It has to be said that there’s not a lot going on up in Scotland in general and therefore they seem to be watching a lot of Scandinavian poker and are obviously getting their identities mixed up with their north sea rivals – be prepared to get 4 bet by 73off.

45 runners make the field up in this £150 (1 day) event and I’m up and down for most of the night deciding I was going to mix it up with 2 players who seemed a bit game. I finally bust out just after midnight with just 16 players left, I raised up with pocket 5s from early position and got shoved by the bb for around 9k total, blinds at 600/1200 – I call and he flips QK and binks a Q.

A few hands later and I shove over the top of an early position raise to 4k with JQ suited for 13800 total, player tanks for a while and eventually makes the call leaving himself with just 2k if he loses the call and he flips AK. J on the flop followed by an ace seals my fate and its another early night for me.

Today is the £300 main event that should attract about 60 runners according to the locals, Scandi play will no doubt be the order of the day and you know what they say “if you cant beat them”…

This is a 2 day event and not sure on the patient game today or the smash and grab… be lucky..

23rd July

2010-07-23T10:54:00.002+01:00

25 players eventually get to the felt, half hour later than scheduled for last nights £200 F/O
4 spots paid and a 7.5k starting stack ensured that there would be loads of play.

It was determined that play would cease at 2am or the last 4 players whichever came first – was a good job that there wasn’t many more runners as I bust out at 02.11am and there was still 8 players remaining – so 4 more will have to come back today and leave with sweet FA.

Good luck to the remaining players left in that comp for today.

I managed a good 15 miles walk yesterday heading east and I soon found myself walking across the links of Monifieth Golf Club and heading towards Carnoustie Golf Club.

The Seniors Open 2010 is taking place this week with many well-known professionals taking part, just a ten minute drive away so I’m heading over there today and will follow Bernhard Langer in his quest to win his first senior title tied for 1st place on 4- after the first days play.

Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson, Craig Stadler, Barry Lane, Sam Torrence and Ian Woosnam to name just a few of the “old timers” taking part

£25 for a day ticket with free grandstand seating and decent weather forecasted looks like the ideal way to spend the day.

£150 F/O tonight and the word is that they could get as many as 40 runners!!! wow

22nd July

2010-07-22T09:04:00.003+01:00

Arrived at the casino for the sup sat and they had delayed the start from 7.30pm till 8.30pm in order to get some more runners and try and make the guarantee (40 runners needed) just 24 runners turn up to play the £30 sup sat so NO guarantee – eventually makes 4 seats into the £300 main event and £200 cash for 5th.

The casino is a brand new purpose built casino and comes under the "G Casino's" chain - It is vast in size, plenty of room inside, bright, airy and comfortable as casino's go - why cant they get Walsall to look like this?

In for £60 and above ave 12k at the first break.

I play pocket kings badly when I raise it up after a raise from early position (holding 9.5k), flop comes 7J5 two clubs, I get check raised on the flop so decide to push for the rest of his stack and in case he’s flushing and he snaps me off with 7 5 off.

I manage to hit the sack just before mid-night and find myself down for breakfast at 7.30.

I’m staying in an area known as Broughty Ferry to the east of Dundee and was previously known in days gone by as the richest square mile in Europe.

Rain is holding off at the moment so seems like a good excuse to go for a walk. Monifieth championship golf course at one end of town with Broughty Castle at the other end.

£220 freeze out, 7.30pm start and a two day comp assuming enough runners.

21st July

2010-07-21T09:49:00.002+01:00

Managed to get 9 holes in last night after the rain eased off, played with Edward who’s game is coming on, I give him two shots per hole at the moment and I’m only just squeezing that win – wont be long before I reduce the amount of shots that he gets.

A nice 3 course meal cooked by yours truly followed by a walk through the woods and an early night, well almost early 11.50pm.

A quick nine holes this morning followed by a few jobs around the house and a quick post before I head off north on a 370 mile journey for the next leg of the GUKPT Summer Series Tour in Dundee, Sheffield is on as well and is likely to be busier so have decided on the smaller field as I feel I have an edge and also a chance to take my clubs up there and maybe even play St Andrews – but possibly not “The Old Course” but one of the other three championship courses that you are allowed on.

A quick shave and shower and off I go.

Be lucky……

20th July

2010-07-20T10:30:00.000+01:00

DTD monthly deepstack 12euro sat…..
In for a total cost of 24 euros…
Been playing for almost 4 hours…..
6 left… 5 seats … worth £330 each……
3rd in chips …. No need to get involved….
Serial raiser… he’s also the chip leader shoves “all in” for 80k
Blinds are 2500/5000….
I’ve got fuck all in the pot….but 45k in front of me…
I decide to call with …. Wait for it……….
……………….. A T suited………….
WHAT…………….
Ace fooking Ten…….
Serial raiser has KJ
Good call you might think,
Was it fook,
I had sweet FA in the pot apart from my running ante:
Flop comes with a T and a J on it and it’s good night from me…
I can not believe what a total prick I was…..

Been for a round of golf this morning and It was obviously still on my mind….
Laters….

19th July

2010-07-19T11:33:00.001+01:00

Was up and out on the golf course for 7am this morning after watching the Open yesterday and seeing South African, Louis Oosthuizen win - it got me all inspired, it must have worked as I shot -3 off an 18 handicap.

Got some jobs to do this week before I head off to play the GUKPT summer series events that are taking place in Sheffield and Dundee – although I might just sneak another round of golf in somewhere between now and then.

Looking forward to the Summer Series – Bring it on ;-)

18th July

2010-07-18T14:49:00.002+01:00

Got to dtd for the super 50 hoping for a small turnout and they have their biggest turnout of the year for this tournament with 257 runners, a £50 buy in creating a pot of £12850

I was going along quite nicely, bulling the table as much as I could until along came Pete Linton, fortunately for me though he was sat immediately to my right – unfortunately for me no sooner had he turned up that I went completely card dead.

He was on my table for around two hours and in that time I think I won two small pots, whilst he was getting gifted chips like they were going out of fashion.

Blinds at 600/1200/100ra and Pete is utg and makes he’s standard raise to 3200 I find KcTc in the hole and decide to push my remaining 14k into the middle, folds to Pete who tanks for a short while but then calls me with AT – I think it would have been the same out come if I just call pre as a T comes on the window of the flop.

That’s twice in a row that Mr Linton as spanked me out of DTD having me dominated both times (I don’t actually mind playing hands with Pete as I know he’ll have a gamble with me with medium range hands if he’s got enough chips) and I’m having trouble remembering the last time I cashed there – DTD is without doubt one of the best card room venues on the UK scene, but sometimes I just feel negative before I even get there – I need a major cash there soon or I might just get fed up of going over there.

17th July

2010-07-17T01:41:00.002+01:00

Satellited into this game for just £4 and had to do a £30 rebuy quite early on when my KK was no match for 88 – at the first break I was sat with about 4k which was just above ave but with 2500 chips for the £30 add on I was able to get my stack up.

I was concerned that the dongle would fook up again like it has the last three nights running, no such fears though, a strong healthy signal and some luck when I pushed on the sb with J5 and ran into queens catching a straight on the river and never really looking back from there.

Just after midnight I bagged another £1k package for the GUKPT summer series and will elect to play the main event down at the Victoria at the end of August.

Super 50 at DTD today.

Be lucky……

16th July

2010-07-16T13:47:00.003+01:00

Heskey retires from International football….

I wish he’d retire from club football

Useless Fooker

14th July

2010-07-14T08:13:00.001+01:00

3 Wireless routers….

I’ve lost that many games / sessions on line by using the above that I’ve lost count of how many £100’s it’s actually cost me.

The routers are great when the weather is dry but as soon as the rain comes and the router is totally useless as the slightest bit of rain seems to drag the signal down..

Time to get a phone line installed………………….

13th July

2010-07-13T09:49:00.002+01:00

Blatchly: MBSFN to have honourable parents…

The word is that Neil Blatchleys, Mother and Father have raised several thousand pounds (undisclosed sources say that it’s close to 100k) and have paid back all the people (well at least those that have come forward) that were scammed during Blatchgate.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=48454.0

It’s still uncertain if criminal charges are going to be brought against him or whether anyone will pursue civil charges given that all have been paid back.

I bet his parents are really proud of him – NOT

Managed to bag a seat for next months DTD deepstack last night for the princely sum of 24 euros.

12th July

2010-07-12T15:30:00.001+01:00

Well Done to Mark McCluskey who took down the Liverpool leg of the Gala/Coral British Masters Tour 2010, bagging £9500 and a seat into the play off final at the end of the year where he could potentially win another £10k worth of sponsorship for next year – Nice One Mate.

I played the Club Championships at the G Casino Coventry on Saturday, busting out 12th from just 18 runners when my flopped set was no match for the rivered flush.

Got chipped up quite early in last nights Sunday Million on stars having almost 40k at the first break, but busted out just before the 2nd break when my KK was no match for the AA of the big blind on a queen high flop.

10th July

2010-07-10T01:16:00.003+01:00

Managed to bag a seat last night for the Summer Series GUKPT leg 4b Sheffield/Dundee in two weeks time. Having Satellited into last nights £50 rebuy for just £4 and having an add/on for £30 represents good value given that the package won is £1k.

Even though Gala Liverpool main event is on today I have decided that I’m travelling over to Coventry G casino for the GUKPT club championships £200 F/O with a 10k starting stack and a 40 minute clock, a one day event, great weather and football on tv will ensure a shit turnout, DTD is on and obv Gala Liverpool (I reckon 40 max) but a good chance to close the gap on Ali Mallu in the GUKPT leaderboard rankings.

My live form of late has been pretty dire, getting it in whist in good shape only to get stuffed on the river – these down swings are just a part of the flow of the game and although they hurt and continue to hurt you have to learn to play through them – or give up, and I aint ready to give up just yet.

I played 4 hands at DTD last week, donating almost 8k of my starting stack to Dave Penley (Riverdave) on a T46 flop with two clubs, I’m holding KKc and check call him all the way after he reraised my bet on the turn, he flips 66 for the flopped set and puts me down to 3.2k (that was my second hand 20 minutes in – my first hand was 1 minute in UTG+1 I find AA – just 4 players at the table so I make it 225, all fold. My final sb + bb resulted in to outdraws on the river to send me back to the car after just 10 minutes of the 2nd level to reflect on what could have been.

Good luck to all the Brits out in vegas going back for day 2 of the main event.

Have a good weekend and be lucky…… unless your on my table!!!!

28th June

2010-06-28T08:47:00.001+01:00

O H - S H I T

Having bust out of the £550 main event at Walsall about halfway through the proceedings on Saturday I decide to give the Sunday Million on Pokerstars a blast but don’t know why I bothered… 6800 runners, I get down to about 1350 and then get shafted like only Pokerstars shaft you… utter bullshit… a bit like that football match over in South Africa.

We need to sort the following out before we can even start to dream about winning a football competition on the World stage:

Foreign Manager
Overpaid Manager
National Stadium
Five Foreigners / per game / Premier League rule
Shorter season

Cappello has to go and we have to have a British manager, in the likes of Martin O’Neil, Stuart Pearce, Big Alex or Harry Redknapp – Then we may have a chance at the European Championships in two years.

Game of golf beckons…. laters

26th June

2010-06-26T12:18:00.002+01:00

Just 21 runners grace the felt of the £100 rebuy PL Omaha event at Walsall last night creating a pot of £3600, Omaha is not really my game of preference however decided to give it a blast.

I get lucky in a hand that’s been raised pre flop by Micky Wernick and we both get it all in on the turn, me: AKQ2 Micky: AAxx Board comes AK5 3 4

I make final table, hardly difficult given that’s theres just 21 runners and only 18 runners turned up to play the £50 sat for the main event.

I get short stacked when I raise up with KKTJ and am forced to call an all in and a call, board blanks out 78685 all in shows 66 for the house while the call flashes AA, short stacked I depart final table in 9th place

Today is the £500 main event and my original estimate was for no more than 65 runners, I now doubt if it can make the 50 mark.

Weather looking good for the weekend, and there’s a football match taking place tomorrow… be lucky.

25th June

2010-06-25T12:09:00.005+01:00

A massive well done to fellow Midlander Steve Jelinek who took down event number 41 of the WSOP and bagging $245k in the process. Phil Helmuth was also on this final table but finished 7th – Steve’s braclet brings the Brit Haul to 5 now……

Cards seem to be running against me very badly at the moment and I just have to play through this run, I had KK utg last night and raised 175 (25/50) and picked up 6 callers round to the BB, flop comes KAQ, checks to me so I bet 1125 picked up 2 callers, 8 on the turn, checks to me so I bet out for 1600, still 2 callers, Ace on the river and suddenly Andy Pardoe leads out for 2500 – leaving me with 1k if I make the call, I’ve got Anthony Kennady (AK47) behind me and I know one of them has just filled up with a bigger house (AK/AQ), I lay it down, AK47 folds and Andy P flashes AQ for the rivered hand.

I get caught in a set over set when I have pocket 9’s on a Q76 flop, calling AK47 all the way on the 3 turn and the 9 river (resisting the urge to re-shove here) he flips pocket Q’s

I finally get my bowl of rice in with A8 suited but fail to improve v AQ
-----------
Well I said yesterday that I would be surprised if more than 45 people turned up for the £200 event and I wasn’t far out went 43 runners paid to get some chips on the felt.

Tonights £110 + 1 rebuy or add on PL Omaha that kicks off at 6pm will attract no more than 25 runners whilst tomorrows £550 main event is going to struggle to get above 65 runners, figures for the week so far are:

Monday £30 Rebuy sat 41 runners
Tuesday £100 F/O 56 runners
Wednesday £150 F/O 63 runners
Thursday £200 F/O 43 runners

24th June

2010-06-24T12:14:00.002+01:00

£150 F/O WALSALL S/S

I’m sat to the right of Andy Wright and Ali Mallu, after a couple of orbits with no hands I decide to open raise with K2clubs and pick up six callers round to the bb, flop comes 2s3c7c, bb leads for 225, I make it 725 and the BB puts an extra 1k on top leaving himself 3250 behind, I call and the bb insta shoves in the dark, the 3s comes on the turn and I now got a decision to make – I ask him if he’s flushing? I get a read that he is – I then tell him that I’m flushing as well and that I got two pair – I eventually make the call and he flips 45clubs making him a 4/1 dog – the 6 clubs (the only club I didn’t want to see) arrives on the river to give him the straight flush.

Down to 2100 I get it all in with 88 on the bb and pick up 2 callers and get bust by KJ

Todays event is the £200 F/O that is a two day event although with numbers being what they are ten I doubt if there will be over 45 runner tonight.

Monday £30 Rebuy sat 41 runners
Tuesday £100 F/O 56 runners
Wednesday £150 F/O 63 runners

----------------------------------------------
Marcus Bebb-Jones left it to the eleventh hour to appeal his extradition to the USA

Click the link to see the US news item

23rd June

2010-06-23T09:32:00.002+01:00

England dumped out of the World Cup 2010 and are looking for a new manager – shit , perhaps I should post this after the match today rather than beforehand, Naaaaaaaaaaa – I’ll let it ride – Cappello is shit, England are shit and the FA are shit.

£150 F/O at Walsall tonight, just 56 runners last night so an excellent chance to bag a C of C seat with small fields expected this week.