Facebook and Mistaken Identity

Date: Fri, Feb 26, 2010 Professional

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

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

One thing I have found lately, and I discussed this with a poker chum yesterday, is even though I am very lucky to have interviewed some of the biggest names and my biggest heroes in poker, the best interviews for me have always been the lesser known guys and the underdogs. This week we interviewed Alan Lake, the guy that turned 500 FPPs into $140k in the Sunday Warm Up, much more refreshing an interview than usual blah blah bracelet blah. Its up there with Moormans Dad for the great poker stories youdon'talways hear about.

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

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The European Poker Awards

Date: Fri, Feb 19, 2010 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




















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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Meh 2010

Date: Wed, Jan 13, 2010 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

Date: Mon, Dec 28, 2009 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Poker Awards, G Casino and Teaching My Momma Poker

Date: Sat, Nov 21, 2009 Professional

Probably should have updated this weeks ago but sometimes when your job involves your writing thousands of words a month you can’t be bothered, but here goes:

Teaching My Momma Poker
My mother, who reads this blog (hi mumsy), has all of sudden (about 6 years after I did) took an interest in playing poker. Only the play money tables right now but I have been giving here some pointers. We have begun on the play money SNGs rather than the cash tables, because at least there is a smidgen of a chance of people folding in those things. It’s been quite fun, kind of reminded me of what it was like to start off in online poker and also reminded me of some of the important fundamentals of the game. She has a habit off getting very good very quick at new hobbies, so watch my joy and insanse jealousy when she starts winning more than I do (Which should probably take her about 7 weeks at the moment).

Sheffield G Casino
A few people asked me about updating when I know more about this so here it is. The new G Casino opens on December 9th at Queens Road (Which is awesome news for me as its about a mile and a half away). The venue looks pretty impressive and it will have a 100 seater poker room – thank god, no offence Napoleons but Sheffield really needs a good poker venue and we might just have it now. There is also a very good chance that a GUKPT Summer Series will take place there and this for me will be a clear the schedule festival, can’t wait. I am taking the missus to the VIP Launch Party next month (Not very thinly veiled brag there) to see what its all about.

Voluuuuuume
After years of being a low volume nit, I have finally stepped into the magical world of cascading tables online. I have gone from struggling with six tables to being pretty comfortable with twelves almost overnight. Not bragging or anything as most of my peers probably have been doing it for ages, that would be a bit like bragging about being on facebook in 2009, but there you go, rakeback FTW.

European Poker Awards
Quite exciting news (for me) now. Earlier this year I approached the organisers of the annual European Poker Awards and suggested a new category – Online Player of the Year. Most of their awards were heavily (almost exclusively in fact) weighted towards live tournament poker, which obviously is not the be all and end all of poker, and with online play in fact perhaps being the bread and butter of the poker industry now, I think it needs to be included in the awards. I put together a pretty detailed brief of how easy it would be to pick out the big online successes (OPR, Sharkscope, HighstakesDB, 2+2, P5s etc etc) of the year.

Not only did they go for it and online player of the year will now be part of the awards, they have asked me to be on the panel of judges. Which means an all expenses paid trip to Paris in February to attend the event (Only bugger is it clashes with the first UKIPT event in Manchester but this is way to big an honour to even worry about a big tournament I would most likely bust out of on day 1 in anyway.). Obviously I would prefer to be one of the guys winning a gong but this is the next best thing. It falls on Valentines weekend too, so I am taking the missus to Paris on Valentines day – couldn’t have worked out better really.

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Min Cash Monkey Off My Back

Date: Wed, Oct 21, 2009 Professional

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

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

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

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

I managed a min-cash in a side event the next day, which was a massive monkey off my back as I havent cashed in a ranking live event in nearly two years.AdmittedIhaven'tplayed much live poker in that time, especially this year, but it still was good to finally get a cash, even though it was a tiny one.I also get a pretty little Ireland flag on my Hendon Mob database (When it gets updated), which as we all know, is more important than actual money. I now need a USA flag and perhaps, just perhaps, an actual respectful sum of money too....no sod it, a USA flag please.

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

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

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Sports Pyschology Guy Part 2

Date: Wed, Sep 23, 2009 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tony Blair Lookalikes

Date: Tue, Sep 15, 2009 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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Sports Psychology Guy

Date: Sat, Sep 12, 2009 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

Finally, this made me lol

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GUKPT Sheffield & Industry Musings

Date: Sat, Sep 5, 2009 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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30

Date: Wed, Aug 26, 2009 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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What James Akenhead Could Do For UK Poker

Date: Thu, Jul 16, 2009 Professional

This is taken from a feature on UK Pokernews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Scam!!!

Date: Thu, Jul 9, 2009 Professional

I’ve always shied away from the title ‘Poker Journalist’ for lots of reasons. First off, I think of the word ‘journo’ that always to me signified the image if the ‘gutter press’. Second, a bit of poker snobbery here, but most poker journalists I know got into the game through journalism not the other way round, and I always had to make a point that I am a player first and foremost and the journalism side of things just kind of happened through my love of the game. Finally, although a lot of what I write is of interesting and entertaining subject matter to poker players – it’s hard to call it journalism – its more nicey nicey, tournament reports, marketing, strategy, jokey poker quips or otherwise very easy reading.

But I did write a piece the other day that made me feel a bit like a proper journalist. Not so much the feature itself which was pieced together from several sources over the net, but what went before it. I had seen on several forums concerns that a tournament called the UK Poker Championships was a complete scam. I rang them up ready to give them a Roger Cook style earbashing but they never answered their phone, I did the same by email but a week later no reply. I was a bit nervy putting this on Pokernews, simply because if they are in the latter group of people I suggested of a naive bunch of amateurs, I could be really pissing on their bonfire by accusing them of shenanigans on the biggest poker news website in the world, but a week on and no reply I think they have had adequate time to respond.

This is the item here. Basically it’s a £100 tournament that claims to have a £100,000 first prize despite very little other information being on offer and one of the shadiest websites I have seen. Imo I think it could well be a scam.

Here are the main concerns:

First of all, the numbers simply don't make sense. The website claims £100,000 first prize for a 750 runner £100 buy-in event, with another nine players getting paid. Where is the £25,000 overlay coming from and also, where is the money for the rest of the winning players? It doesn't specify whether rebuys are part of the event or not. The website doesn't use the word 'guarantee' at all with regards to the prize pool.

Secondly, only ten players from a possible 750 make the money, this smacks of inexperience of the industry as few players would ever turn up for such a top heavy payout structure.

Numbers are dropping for live events round the country and APAT, the GUKPT and the Brighton Rendezvous are all holding big festivals that clash with the event (APAT have almost 450 players guaranteed for their event)– where are these 750 players coming from?

There is no mention of the starting chip stack or structure online. When you go to the rules section it merely presents a very basic texas hold'em rules guide, rather than which set of tournament rules the event subscribes to.

The City of Manchester Stadium have confirmed that the event has provisionally reserved but nothing concrete has been signed yet. This event would also most likely clash with a Manchester City home game, which could cause a problem down the line.

The sponsors of the event are US telephone provider AT&T - how did this come around? Normally an online poker room would be the natural choice of sponsor, not a USA based phone company. Surely someone such as at&t would opt to sponsor someone such as the World Series of Poker rather than a debut £100 event in Manchester? The banner for at&t does not include a hyperlink to the at&t website, which is again odd.

You have to pay for the event with a credit/debit card after one of their representatives calls you. You have to register an interest online and then await a phone call, rather than being able to ring them directly to register. A number of people have been contacted by the call centre (And when they are the phone number is blocked) and been told that over 1000 people have registered an interest, yet the call staff have rang several players multiple times to request payment for the event from them.

One source said they were told that Circus Poker would be holding an online feeder with a live final at Manchester235. Stanley's Casino (Circus Poker) have confirmed they know nothing about this and Manchester235 is a Caesars Casino, it seems very unlikely that they would work in conjunction together.

Not much in the way of marketing has been done other than flyers outside casinos. No websites or magazines have been promoting the event, nor has any representatives appeared on the forums to promote or defend the tour.

The website is very basic, contains no tournament structure information and does not include any terms & conditions. The listed phone number does not appear to work when called.

So hopefully the organisers won’t come and find me and take my kneecaps from me. Their silence speaks volumes and I doubt we will hear from them again.

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SPUKT, Pokernews and SNGs

Date: Wed, Jun 24, 2009 Professional

Bah! I'm sick of starting blog posts with the line 'long time no post'.

First off, had a cracking time in Nottingham for the SPUKT grand final. Sky Poker were as hospitable as ever, good bunch they are. Thankfully I got more than one hand in this time, actually making it till late in the evening. I got my stack up to 22,000 which sadly is about the biggest I have had a chip stack in a year, it comes to something when your girlfriend doesn't believe you when you call and say you are still in the comp at 9pm.

Lots of players went expecting it to be a walk in the park, that they could just stampede over the sky poker players, I said to everyone from the start they were wrong. Big respect to Neil Blatchly for staking 14 players into the event, I would have done the same if I had a spare £2400 lying around, but this was not shooting fish in a barrel. Yes we saw some bad plays, overplaying of one pair hands etc but all the sky lot took it really seriously.

Still they must have been bad if I nearly made it to day 2.

One fortunate hand did come up early on in the day, a young player who I am pretty certain was playing one of his first live games was making a point of betting every street when checked to irrespective of the information in front of him. I decided way before the hand in question I was going to slow play any top pair or better hand against him, and soon after flopped bottom two pair, with 8-9 on a K89 rainbow board.

Check-call, check-call and by the river we now have a nasty looking K89JT board with three hearts and I’m stuck with the problem of not being able to bet this board, because I will never get called by a hand I beat (Though I could make an argument for turning my hand into a bluff, I really didn’t want to bluff at all in this event) so I check. He reaches for the biggest pile of chips, relative to the pot, I’ve ever seen. It looked like about 4,000 for a 1200 pot. There is no way I can call this, even though it’s blatantly obvious he has nothing.

Luckily for me, in an attempt I am sure to make his hand look big, he places the chips over the line one at a time, chequers style. The dealer tells him he has made a string bet and only the first chip counts, a tiny 100 chip, and I snap call like a wuss, relieved that I get away with a showdown when I know inside I should probably have tried to get a ruling that would have maximised the times I am ahead. I was, he had nothing, but I never would have called him even though I knew I was good

Pokernews is going well. I'm getting a lot more original content on the site one way or another. I, in particular, was very pleased that James Atkin agreed to do a column. He is a really nice kid who I think endeared a lot of people to him when he missed out on a blue belt in the BlackBelt grading and has done well since. Really good writer too and his 'crazy high volume challenges' are exactly what we want on UK Pokernews.

Loads of interviews lately too, I'm trying for two a week at least even though I hate doing them, I am turning them more into a 'quick chat' for that very reason. We had the SPUKT winner Robbie O'Brien who seems a really sensible lad for a 19 year old with an extra 17k in his skyrocket. We also had Jude Ainsworth who is winning everything at the moment.

I interviewed Ian Frazer this morning and was really surprised what a nice humble bloke he was. I think he probably has one of those table images, such is his style of play and the format he plays, I assumed he was a bit of a git but nothing could be further from the truth. Neil Channing will also be on the site tomorrow, he can talk for England that bloke, but thankfully its entertaining enough, even though my ice cream melted while he was rabbiting on.

What else? Well I didnt expect to see this


SNGs are going pretty crap after a great start to the month. Having gone over the hh its very clear whats been going wrong. I have run really really bad heads up, which means I have something like 50 2nd places and 13 firsts for the month (In 6 max games). Now obviously getting the 2nd places is waaaaay better than bubbling, but its a bit frustrating getting outdrawn heads up so often because the difference between 1st and 2nd is worth a few grand to me, I would have been up a couple of grand this last two weeks, instead Im down a few hundred.

Hey ho. Gotta go, dog is tearing up my house.

PS. Terminator Salvation - very average.

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