We all know of the tank, his posts (at a rate of about 25 new posts a day) mix common sense and sensible advice with blinding flashes of corruscating wit and dry humour. When I asked for new nominees for the BHOF his was the name that most people sent to me. Thank you to all of them.So why is the tank in the BHOF? Quite simply he is blonde’s SNG hero. The man himself would probably dispute this. I heard a short speech he gave at a P4C event in London after one of the achievements I am about to describe and he said merely
“It’s what I do”.
Perhaps he won’t appreciate the fuss I am about to make of him. Well let us forget his possible reaction for a moment and just look at two of his most notable achievements.
Firstly his 4000 SNGs in 4 Months thread. This is possibly blonde’s most popular thread ever, with at the time of writing 17824 views making it the most viewed thread in blonde’s short history. It can now be found in the “Best of Blonde” forum.
To recap on January 2nd of this year the tank posted his aim to achieve playing 4000 $55 SNGs in 4 months on PokerStars with the aim of achieving SuperNova status at that point and thus enabling him to receive in effect 28% rakeback. He probably didn’t know what he was starting as the thread grew and his efforts and “daily diary” type posts began to gain a following. The thread is littered with many many blondeites saying that they looked forward to the tank’s daily updates of his progress and urging him on.
On the thread we get emotional highs and lows and we all began to live and breathe the challenge with him. Others post their own statistics and it becomes a great resource for those regularly playing SNGs as to strategy and techniques.
To cut a long story short the tank succeeded in his task, achieving a very creditable ROI of 7.1% after rake at the end of the thread. If you haven’t looked in on the thread, I urge you to do so. Just give yourself a blank few hours before you start!
Towards the end of the challenge, as a form of celebration if you will, the tank began a separate task to complete 240 SNGs in 24 hours. He asked for sponsorship pledges for Poker4Charity and personally pledged various percentages of his winnings to P4C depending on the amount raised.
It was an otherwise routine Saturday in April when the tank began his challenge and both he and his many blondeite visitors in Glasgow update us on his progress throughout what must have been an exhausting 24 hours. Quite what his opponents in these usually quiet affairs on Stars must have thought when the tank’s pals posted the tournament numbers on the thread and hordes of railbirds descended into the chat box has never been recorded!
Towards the end of the thread, drama ensued. the tank sounds like a man who requires the rush of a challenge to beat. Not content with completing his original challenge he made it his mission to achieve a “comma” as a £1,000 to P4C became memorably known. At the time I remember a palpable tension on the thread as it became touch and go whether this would be received. It was, on his last batch of 10 SNGs at 2-3am on the Sunday morning.
the tank received sponsorship of over £700 from blondeites and others and donated 40% of his net winnings to P4C. Well done sir.
Now he’s a BHOF member yet it’s been a while without a challenge…….your legions of fans are growing impatient sir!