I'm On My Way!
I first heard of this event through blondepoker.com. I must admit the idea of an all Women’s comp didn’t appeal to me at first, but then I saw the satellite not long before it started and who am I to turn down a comp and a chance to play with friends? The satellite was played in great spirit and lo and behold I won it! Now to find out about the actual details….
It turned out to be a full on TV tournament, under the table camera’s, screened on Challenge etc etc. Like most poker fans out there, I got a real education watching all the Late Night Poker shows on Channel 4 and dreamed one day I would be good enough to do what they were doing. So this was it, this was gonna turn into a reality, albeit it didn’t feel the same being part of an all female event but still I thought this was ground breaking stuff. A first for TV poker and I was gonna be in it! As the event was 4 weeks after I qualified, this gave me more than enough time to swirl my brain into a frenzy of activity and eventually, yes I will admit, I was scared! Not scared in my ability, but worried moves would go wrong, get picked apart. Lose my game because of TV cameras or just not make a move in fear the commentator would criticize me. I realised that all these anxieties were nothing to do with my game but only with the fact that I would feel under a microscope. Anyhow these thoughts would come and go but by the time the tournament came around I couldn’t wait to get into the lioness’s den (well Leyton Orients Poker Den anyway) and show what I was made of.
The morning of my heat I found out who my 5 other opponents were going to be. They were Oleysa Kabbaj, Leona (the erudite Kev O’Connell's partner), Claire, girlfriend of Luke Smith, Angela Griffin (ex Corrie, Holby City and Cutting It) and Clonie Gowan (WPT Ladies Night Out Winner 2003). A decent table I thought. It was hard to envisage who the other players would be and at what standard! I had met Leona before at Rob Yongs Home game 2 so knew she had game, Clonie I had seen play on telly of course, but the others – I was in the dark. If they didn’t know the game already then their husbands/boyfriends would have offered some words of advice. Me? Amongst many, I had Brian Wilson WSOP PLH World Champion as my favourite advisor. One snippet of advice was “talk all the time and make yourself heard.” Well it has sure worked for him!
The structure was fairly decent, with 100,000 starting chips, 30 minute clock and blinds starting at 1,000/2,000 there was enough play to mess about – a little. After arriving at the Poker Den, time was a little scarce so it went as follows “Hi Maria, can you fill out this questionnaire please? Can you sign the contract please? Can you go into make-up please? Can you come over for an interview please?” I’m not sure if interviews are my forte, I must have done about 4 of them and I can’t remember saying one interesting sentence in any of them. Oh well, I’m pretty sure some decent editing will be done and they can show the moment that I coughed! So as tense and wound up as a wet towel being wrung out, we were called into the studio.
It turned out to be a full on TV tournament, under the table camera’s, screened on Challenge etc etc. Like most poker fans out there, I got a real education watching all the Late Night Poker shows on Channel 4 and dreamed one day I would be good enough to do what they were doing. So this was it, this was gonna turn into a reality, albeit it didn’t feel the same being part of an all female event but still I thought this was ground breaking stuff. A first for TV poker and I was gonna be in it! As the event was 4 weeks after I qualified, this gave me more than enough time to swirl my brain into a frenzy of activity and eventually, yes I will admit, I was scared! Not scared in my ability, but worried moves would go wrong, get picked apart. Lose my game because of TV cameras or just not make a move in fear the commentator would criticize me. I realised that all these anxieties were nothing to do with my game but only with the fact that I would feel under a microscope. Anyhow these thoughts would come and go but by the time the tournament came around I couldn’t wait to get into the lioness’s den (well Leyton Orients Poker Den anyway) and show what I was made of.The morning of my heat I found out who my 5 other opponents were going to be. They were Oleysa Kabbaj, Leona (the erudite Kev O’Connell's partner), Claire, girlfriend of Luke Smith, Angela Griffin (ex Corrie, Holby City and Cutting It) and Clonie Gowan (WPT Ladies Night Out Winner 2003). A decent table I thought. It was hard to envisage who the other players would be and at what standard! I had met Leona before at Rob Yongs Home game 2 so knew she had game, Clonie I had seen play on telly of course, but the others – I was in the dark. If they didn’t know the game already then their husbands/boyfriends would have offered some words of advice. Me? Amongst many, I had Brian Wilson WSOP PLH World Champion as my favourite advisor. One snippet of advice was “talk all the time and make yourself heard.” Well it has sure worked for him!
The structure was fairly decent, with 100,000 starting chips, 30 minute clock and blinds starting at 1,000/2,000 there was enough play to mess about – a little. After arriving at the Poker Den, time was a little scarce so it went as follows “Hi Maria, can you fill out this questionnaire please? Can you sign the contract please? Can you go into make-up please? Can you come over for an interview please?” I’m not sure if interviews are my forte, I must have done about 4 of them and I can’t remember saying one interesting sentence in any of them. Oh well, I’m pretty sure some decent editing will be done and they can show the moment that I coughed! So as tense and wound up as a wet towel being wrung out, we were called into the studio.
Maria Demetriou
