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Audley Harrison & Stalked By BT

Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 Professional

It’s amazing how naked one feels when you have some recent technological innovation you didn’t even use two years ago taken away from you. I moved house two weeks ago (Very nice new place, very expensive move) and amongst a catalogue of errors from furniture suppliers I also went two weeks without internet, due to a string of errors from BT.

I had a pre paid dongle which kept me going, but I had the shakes throughout because I missed….YouTube, Twitter and TheOnion. Oh, and it was stopping me working too, but mainly TheOnion.

The funniest thing about the whole affair was that once it was fixed, I log onto twitter to find that BT have found me and tweeted me to see how it went. What a unique rubdown, they don’t seem to have a decent infrastructure for resolving customer problems but they do have budget to stalk their customers on twitter.

The dog is now fine and allowed off the lead since his op, back to his normal self minus two huge swingy sacks.

This month, as soon as I hang up my journo gloves, I got a rare poker & boxing scoop in one which forced me back into the game for one more time. Eddie Hearn contacted me to say he only wanted to tell the story of how the WSOP helped create the potential Audley Harrison vs David Haye title fight and he was giving it to me because we have had some really good chats about boxing in the last year.

I must say, Audleys poker story has really conflicted me. Because I really admire the fact that he has bagged two big live MTT results but purposely stayed under the radar about it, when 99% of celebrities would shout from the rooftops and sign a deal with PokerStars for getting a min cash on the Sky Poker Tour.

However there is the other side of me who has thoroughly enjoyed booing him for the last 10 years. He has been the dullest fighter to watch I have ever seen and I am always routing for the other guy, until now, part of me wants to cheer him on because he plays poker. I also tend to go for the underdog too. The one thing I will say is that pre interview with Eddie, I still wanted to see the fight happen, it’s a decent clash of styles and a potentially big fight from a fight/British public point of view.

Anyway, welcome back the Onion


Fat Kid Successfully Avoids Ridicule By Swimming With Shirt On

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The Mutts Nutts

Date: Thu, Aug 12, 2010 Professional

Although I loved my time as a full time poker journalist, one thing I was looking forward to by taking this marketing role would be that I would no longer have to interview 20 year olds who have been playing for a year and managed to turn a microstakes bankroll into millions.

So one of my first assignments is going to be to interview a 20 year old who have been playing for a few years and managed to turn a microstakes bankroll into millions.

I mentioned that poker journalism and marketing are closely intertwined and this is a good example of it. One of the best ways of marketing something is to create something people would want to read anyway, which is why I have opted to do a series of interviews with successful online players that also promote some of our brands. So coming up over the next few weeks will be a series of interviews which include people like Dusty Schmidt, Bodo Sbrznesy and hopefully man of the moment URNOTINDANGER2.

Also coming up next week you can see my first crack at viral marketing, sort of. I produced a short video of me signing up to one of PokerNews’ biggest promotions, which is one where you can get a $50 bonus on PartyPoker without having to deposit. People are naturally suspicious when you are offered free money for nothing, which is why I produced the video to show it was legit. CardRunners quality it aint, and you will see me stutter, errrr, mumble, extended pause and whoops my way through the whole thing. That’s kind of the point though, idiots guide in every aspect.

Elsewhere unfortunately I had to take Charlie in to get the snip yesterday. He is such a gentle dog I didn’t want to do it ever, but the few times he has seen a dog in season he has gone nuts. This week we met a stray dog in season and he chased her out of the park and over a mile away onto a main road, running in front of several cars along the way and narrowly missing being hit. I know because I ran the whole way and was quite impressed with how I kept up with him, though I looked a horrific red faced sweaty site as I did, screaming ‘stop that dog’ all the way.

He rarely even goes more than 40 yards away from me no matter how much fun is having on our walks, so for him to run away like that and put himself in harm’s way was a real eye opener. He seems OK post-op, very whiney but up to his usual silly antics.

This is him btw:


Finally we move house (again, sigh) this weekend to a nice new bigger place, which once again is one road away from the last place. I have lived in 4 places in the last 5 years and all of them have been in the same postcode and all of them one road away from the last. At least if the dog does another runner we have a first place to look for him while he searches for his balls.

This week I am loving the Onion btw:


Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

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I'm a Marketing Tosser Now

Date: Fri, Aug 6, 2010 Professional

Big changes afoot, well, big for me, to an outsider looking in I would wager it doesn’t look like a single thing has changed. I have had a big career shift away from the murky world of poker journalism and into the murky world of poker….marketing.

Huge difference right?

Not really, well, kind of. Poker media is so heavily reliant on advertising from online poker sites I would say that the journalism and the marketing sides of things are very closely intertwined. If you don't believe me, you try and write something critical of an online poker room/sponsored pro for a publication with an advertising deal with the same room.Anyway that’s a discussion for another day really.

I have been wanting to get into marketing for a while now, I always thought I could do a good job of it and in fairness I have been doing it for a while and just not getting paid for it. The last two years I have helped so many people promote their brands as ‘favours for mates’ and I often get people asking me for advice on things like advertising/sponsorship/getting editorial in magazines etc. When I say ‘mates’ I don’t just mean people down the pub I actually mean sponsored players, online poker rooms, live card rooms, TV companies and publishers (Who are also mates who happen to have those jobs).

My main role will be for the entire PokerNews network and will be primarily coming up with new ways of pushing their exclusive promos. This is not difficult, in that we have bigger and better promos than anyone else (See, I’m doing it already). Ironically the first thing I do after casting off a career as a writer is a shit load of writing. I would never stop writing altogether, I love it, but from now on anything non marketing-y I write will be out of pure enjoyment. Hopefully It will mean I update this blog more often now I won’t feel as knackered from writing 4000 words a day.

The great thing about this opportunity is I will learn so much from such a big company like PokerNews, which is great for the book I am writing with Jared Tendler (Yep, that’s still happening, nearly done, I promise). Always very nice to have more than one thing going on at a time.

As for my baby, the UK Pokernews site, not sure what the plan is. I love it very much and it certainly won’t disappear, I am still updating it at the moment but that won’t be forever, your guess is as good as mine but it will continue without me.

Some other stuff I will be getting up to will be playing freerolls. No I’m not busto, it’s just that as part of my job will be to push our freerolls I want to understand them from a player perspective. I have already qualified for a 10k and a 5k freeroll on Winner Poker and it will be interesting to see how quickly I get bored. It’s sad, but I cant envisage enjoying playing that low.

Normally by now I would get excited about the footy season started tomorrow but unfortunately Wednesday have been relegated and the World Cup was so bad in every way, not just for England, that I kind of detest football players. No doubt the Owls will have a solid win tomorrow lulling me into a false sense of hope for the season.

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De-constructing the Year of the Brits

Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010 Professional

Taken from UK Pokernews


In 2009 three UK Players won World Series of Poker Bracelets and one made the final table of the main event. At the time we considered it a massive success and coined it the‘Year of the Brit’, suggesting that this feat was an isolated incident in the history of the WSOP. 12 months on and we are calling 2010 the ‘Year of the Brit’ too, because the success of our boys in Vegas this summer has almost overwritten what we achieved in 2009 as well as proving any doubters wrong that British success was any sort of one off.
This year UK players snagged an amazing five World Series of Poker Bracelets in Vegas.Praz Bansiwon his second bracelet by taking down Event Number #5: $1,500 No Limit for $515,501. Popular Blondepoker shareholderJames Dempseytook down Event Number # 9: $1500 Pot Limit Hold'em a few days later for $197,470 and high stakes starRichard Ashbywon #21: $1,500 Seven Card Stud for $140,467. GUKPT Grand Final ChampMike Ellismade it four winning Event #30: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $581,851 and prolific tournament proSteve Jelinekfinished things off winning Event #41: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better for $245,871.
Richard Ashby
Richard Ashby
On top of the bracelets there were a stream of final table appearances and deep finishes. Richard Ashby and James Dempsey both followed up their bracelet wins with 2nd place finishes,Neil Channing, Michael Greco, Paul Kerr, Kevin Howe, the Devilfish, Julian GardnerandPaul Foltynall made finals,Stuart Ruttermanaged two final tables andSam Trickettboasted two final tables and four more cashes making him the biggest cash winner of the year with $693,387. Our best main event finisher wasRedmond Leewho finished 21st for $317,161. In total there were five bracelets, three second places, 20 final tables, 275 cashes and $8,679,918 in winnings for UK players this year in Vegas (Including 13 scores worth over $100,000).
Not only was this the best year ever for the UK it was also the most successful bracelet haul ever seen by a non US nation, which unfortunately was matched by Canada almost as soon as it happened, but the honour still unlikely to be repeated any time soon. In fact the year of the Brit is by no means isolated to the WSOP, it’s been a great year thus far worldwide for UK players.Jake Codytook down EPT Deauville,James Mitchellwon the Irish Open andLiv Boereestunned the world winning EPT San Remo.


So what does one put this major achievement down to?

Variance

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

Community

The UK circuit is booming, but it is also in a way very small. Everybody knows each other, everybody has played against each other and outside of trying to take each others chips, there is a real culture of support in the UK. Poker is fundamentally a solitary game but there are so many communities in the UK scene that are nurturing and supporting UK talent.
Whether its forums likeBlondepokerand theHendon Mob, community tours like theSky Poker TourandAPAT, staking sites likeBadBeatandBlackBelt Pokeror just likeminded bands of brothers like theHit Squadand theShrewdies– poker players in the UK come together and help each other. It’s much easier to learn the game with likeminded friends and that was evident with the support shown for UK players on the rails and the forums this year in Vegas.

Well Structured UK Tournaments

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

A Relaxed Stance on Gambling

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

The Best Rails in Poker

It’s quite sad that most Americans think, and report accordingly, that any Britain who has had a drink and is cheering someone is a football hooligan. The American poker press did not know what to make of the rowdy rails in Vegas, completely bemused by the drinking, singing and chanting, but everyone back home loved hearing about them. The most notable rails had to be for James Dempsey who won one bracelet and came 2nd for another. Singing songs such as ‘Hes a Doctor’, ‘Pot Limits Coming Home’ and ‘Saammy Give Us a Wave’ (To Sam Farha) they also had a few railers thrown out.
Of course the question is, does that sort of support actually help a poker player? You can see how it would in an athletic pursuit where might give a sportsman an extra 5 minutes of energy, but in a game where concentration is key surely it would be a distraction? It’s hard to say, but either way, the rails were the icing on the cake for this fantastic year.
James Dempsey
James Dempsey
It was a real shame that this year, just like it was last year, hardly any of the mainstream British press caught onto this fantastic achievement by Brits abroad. Obviously the World Cup would get in the way of any other sporting news but after such a dismal performance by England in South Africa you would think that the media would be keen to latch onto any arena where the Brits are excelling. I’m not expecting the Sun or the BBC to all of a sudden show an interest, but maybe someone likeSky Sportswho have always had their fingers in the poker pie, it would have been nice for some sort of acknowledgement on Sky Sports News or even just their website.
But the attention from the British poker media is only going to get bigger, with lots of expectation going into the World Series of Poker Europe, EPT London and WPT London in September. Expect the front covers of all the magazines to be adorned with the bracelet winners and no doubt all the big winners will be nominated forBritish Poker Awardslater on this year. Now let’s see if we can bag a couple at the WSOPE and leapfrog Canada at the same time.

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

Date: Tue, Jul 13, 2010 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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Blatch Scam and British Masters Final

Date: Tue, Jun 22, 2010 Professional

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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Year of the Brits Part 2

Date: Tue, Jun 8, 2010 Professional

Taken from my UK Pokernews Column

Reporting on, playing on and being friends with people on the UK circuit, I must say I am quite indifferent to people winning large sums of money. I’ve got friends who have won pretty big amounts in UK events and for the most part my biggest reaction is “Good, I can bag an easy interview then”. Occasionally I will be particularly pleased for an achievement by a player on the UK circuit and now and then I will be a bit jealous, but 99 times out of 100 its just business as usual for me.
Apart from when it’s theWorld Series of Poker.
It is probably the fact that I am about to explode with excitement that the World Cup starts this weekend that I am reminded of this fact, but I turn into a massive fan boy during the WSOP and am genuinely delighted for every bracelet, final table and even min cash UK players manage in Vegas. I’m not alone; there is something about the WSOP that makes every player in the UK genuinely excited by the success of other UK player, in a game where for the most part we are only ever really bothered by our own fortunes.

Poker is a very solitary game and no matter how happy you are for the players you like, you’d rather it was you. That changes when it’s the WSOP, it reminds me of supporting your local football team or your National team abroad – there is a really strong “It’s us against the World” feeling amongst UK players right now, or indeed “It’s us against the Yanks”, a victory for one is a victory for all of us. UK poker has been on a high since last year’s WSOP and British players have been taking down WSOPE, EPT, Irish Opens, Sunday Millions and more since.We could not have had two better players start the frenzy off thanPraz BansiandJames Dempsey. Both very talented players and very popular figures in the UK. Praz for his previous success and HitSquad connections has been a real flag bearer for UK Poker. Dempsey has an iconic status on the popular Blondepoker forum and on the UK circuit. Every UK forum is going nuts, player’s facebook walls are getting hammered and every card room back home is talking about it. The rail at Dempsey’s final table resembled the banter we will see in every pub up and down the UK this Saturday for the England vs USA match and the excitement is reaching fever pitch in Vegas.
Will it continue? I am inclined to say yes. I think realistically matching 3 bracelets will be a fantastic result but there is no reason why we can’t beat it. The United Kingdom is a fantastic place to play and more importantly develop as a poker player, we have a lot going for us which is probably why we are doing so well out in Vegas.
We have some of the best poker communities around, whether it’sBlonde,theHendon Mob, AWorldofPoker, Sky Poker, BlackBelt PokerorAPAT– all of which have a strong spirit of supporting and helping their players develop.
The UK is also somewhere where players can enjoy well structured, deep stack poker without breaking the bank.Dusk Till Dawn, APAT, the British Masters Poker Tour, the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, the Pokerstars UK & Ireland Poker Tour, PKR Live, Black Belt Poker Live, the Sky Poker Tour Finaland not to mention the plethora of affordable deep stack events over in Ireland. Just about every weekend players can locate a deep stack event in the UK for £1000 or less, which is probably why we are doing well in well structured events in Vegas right now.
There are loads of other things to mention of note, the fact the age limit is 18 not 21, the fact we don’t have to pay tax on winnings, the fact we have poker on TV every week (The Matchroom Shootout tournaments no doubt helpedNeil Channing and Stuart Rutter go deep in the $5000 Shootout Event) and the fact that we have G Casinos, Gala Casinos and more in every moderately sized City. All of which has really helped encouraged people to play poker in the UK.
The more I think of it, how can we not bag another bracelet at the minimum by the time the main event comes around? We are behind the times in Stud events generally but keep an eye on all the Omaha Events and the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em because I think we will see some serious contenders in those fields, plus the $25,000 Six Max might be one to watch.
If I had to choose between railing a UK player at a big final table and watching England play a world cup match, England would get my vote and it isn’t even close. But other than that it’s a great time to be a railbird and I apologise to my missus in advance for how little she will see me this month as between World Cup matches I will be cheering on our boys and girls in Las Vegas while watching thePokernews Live Updates.

Now let’s have another one please Lads.

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Mini Final Table, Bookaments and WSOP Live Updates

Date: Wed, Jun 2, 2010 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Belated, Half Arsed and Rushed Big Game Report

Date: Tue, May 11, 2010 Professional

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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Big Week Ahead At The Big Game

Date: Fri, Apr 9, 2010 Professional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The PartyPoker Big Game IV to Change TV Poker?

Date: Thu, Apr 1, 2010 Professional


Taken from my UK Pokernews column
I am fortunate enough to be going to the 48 hourPartyPoker Big Game IVthis month in London where amongst other things I will witnesstwo lucky Pokernews qualifiersplay in the event thanks to our $20,000 freeroll this Saturday. As excited as I was, I didn’t think much of the event right away just because I was familiar with it from the previous series on Channel 5, but recent news has made me start to think this could actually be one of the biggest events in TV poker for quite some time.
And I am not talking about the potential ‘unmasking’ ofIsildur1, which in itself will be a pretty huge story in the history of online poker. Yesterday morning, when looking at the day’s news, I had to wade through a ton of ‘Isildur1 is actually.......’ stories yesterday, all of which were April Fools pranks and having once fallen for and reporting one about David Beckham playing in the World Series of Poker, my bullshit detector managed to save the day and spare my blushes.
But I actually think the bigger story could end up being some of the new additions to the format of the show. Most notably, to me, the inclusion of entrance and exit music which will be voted for by Pokernews readers.Matchroom Sportare responsible for some big innovations in TV sport and revitalising old formats, this inclusion reminds me of what they have done with Darts. You would never think a game like Darts could get such a legitimate ‘razzamatazz’ injection like it has, but Matchroom have pulled it off. Darts is now far from a pub game, it’s a night out, a spectacle and it has made stars out of its players.
Darts players are now ‘characters’ and this is a prevailing theme in the Matchroom legacy. Barry Hearn almost single handedly turned Snooker into a monster of UK sport in the 1980s by giving the players nicknames, characters and back stories and they did the same with Darts. They have also done something similar with the innovative Prizefighter format in Boxing, another sport that needed a push back in the right direction.
And you can see it happening now in poker. The PartyPoker Premier League is the best example of this to date, seeing the same players week in week out allows the audience to attribute personalities to them (As if the likes of Phil Hellmuth and Tony G needed any help) and gives people players to boo and cheer on. This new inclusion of entrance music and evictions adds a whole new dimension of audience participation, when previously our experience had almost been that of an intrusive voyeur.
Will it work? Possibly, possibly not, I haven’t decided yet but it’s a push in the right direction. There are players for whom it will fit perfectly –Fullflush, Tony G, Sammy George, Phil Hellmuth, Roland De Wolfe– the larger than life characters that should be walking round with their own theme music anyway. I cant see quiet men like Phil Ivey ever wanting to be part of anything like this and many poker purists will turn their nose up at it, but what serious poker players often forget is that it is exactly stuff like this that gets the new players interested in the game, depositing online, playing in the pubs and venturing into the casino.
Outside of the showbiz it will still be as fascinating and subtle a game as it always has been, thats the great thing about poker particularly when you present it right, it appeals on so many levels. Some people will drool when they see a 5 bet 400 bb deep pot between Isildur1 and FullFlush and others will be more than happy to see Tony G bust a player and tell them to get on their bike. I can’t say for certain that the introduction of evictions and entrance/exit music is going to prove a hit, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.

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Poker Players are Flippant with Money

Date: Thu, Mar 11, 2010 Professional


Taken from my column on UK Pokernews:
EPT Berlin
Thearmed robbery at EPT Berlinis probably the biggest story in poker I have had to work on since I became a poker journalist. Don’t get me wrong, from an industry point of view there have been lots of bigger stories within poker – the November Nine, Chris Moneymaker winning the Main Event, the UIGEA and the Superuser Scandal all spring to mind. But in terms of attracting mainstream media coverage worldwide I think this was the biggest during my time in the Industry.
The security of the event has come into question, as you would expect it to whenever something like this happens. I for one wasn’t there, so I will not speculate about how prepared or unprepared the Grand Hyatt Hotel and the EPT were for such an incident, I think my colleagues over atPokernews.comare in a better position to do that. The one thing this did immediately make me think about, however, was how we poker players often treat large sums of money with quite reckless abandonment.
I am not trying to say anyone who played EPT Berlin was taking a massive risk in doing so, not at all. I just found myself explaining how live poker tournaments and buying in worked to a bunch of non poker playing friends who had caught the news. Although obviously biased by the weekends story, they were quite alarmed by how we often walk around with big sums of money in our pockets and also surprised that something like this didn’t happen much more often.

But that appears to have clouded our judgement towards money in general. AsStuart Rutter put it brilliantly in his recent column,there have been so many times where poker players will have been incredibly vulnerable with large sums of money. Whether that’s waiting in line to pay into a big buy-in tournament, lending money to players you don’t truly know that well, playing self deal games or agreeing to buy a piece of someone in a tournament.Poker players live in a unique bubble, especially where money is concerned. Money is not treated like something we use to pay our bills, feed our kids and buy life’s little luxuries, it’s used as a way of keeping score, of determining whether we are winning or losing players. This attitude, although alien to people outside of poker, is correct in the context of the game, because over attachment to money will inhibit a players ability to make profitable decisions at the table.
I’m as guilty as anyone of being prepared to do poker transactions without much research, ones that I would never dream of doing in any other realm of life. I’ve bought percentages in people I have never met, swapped stars money for tilt with acquaintances I couldn’t really call proper friends and engaged in the daft prop bet or two. If a mutual acquaintance outside of poker asked to lend money from me I would say 100% no, but if a mutual poker acquaintance wanted $500 Stars for $500 Tilt, I would ask no further questions than their screen name and the city they are from (Thankfully I still say no all the time if a poker player ever asked to borrow money from me).
And I’ve been burned a few times too. I have been grimmed by horses I have staked without doing the appropriate research beforehand and I have done work for poker magazines that promised me riches but who never ever planned on paying me. I have also had several, one successful, attempts on my online poker accounts by key loggers wanting to joyride with my bankroll. As much as I love this game and this industry I have also seen more than its fair share of theft, scams, staking requests gone sour, fly by night poker companies not paying the bills and much worse.
Poker players have a flippant attitude towards money which is why I think that they are the ideal pray for armed robbers or fraudsters. Whether that means the EPT Berlin Robbery was destined to happen I have no idea, but if nothing else we should all use it as a lesson so that it doesn’t happen again. We need to start recognising that poker is a very vulnerable and largely unregulated industry, one which despite this vulnerability most of its participants walk around with such a carefree attitude towards money that would make you think they were in Fort Knox.
We need to start taking more responsibility for our own money, our personal and financial security and the integrity of the game. We need to be much more careful with our money, be much more scrutinous of whom we transact with and insist upon higher standards in the places we play poker. Ultimately the blame for this incident lies with the dangerous men who carried it out, but we can all take steps to make sure things like this it don’t happen again.

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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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