blonde poker forum

If you have any questions for Simon "Aces" Trumper, please post them here

OOOOO i have a couple.

Not sure if it's the sort of thing you're looking for but a guy played in a certain money added promotion on an online site ($100k guaranteed) with the username "S Trumper".
Was this he and if so does he normally use the chatbox as much?
Seeing as this chap came across as very arrogant and abnoxious i doubt it but if not how does he feel about people using his name on poker sites?

I asked Simon about this after, it wasn't him, unsurprisingly.

Hi all

The first name i ever used online was PATEK on Paradise , very rarely played , then it was CARTIER on Ladbrokes , PATEK on Pokerstars , these are all watch brands , on UK Betting i was ACES and on Party i was ISTABRAQ , on DTD i am strumper and this is the only site i have ever used my name .

I would prefer it if the player using my name wasn't arrogant and obnoxious when they play but hey all publicities good lol .

As Flushy said he rang to ask if it was me , by the way how did he/she do ?

All the best

ACES

In that particular one pretty well, made the money.

Hi Simon

As someone who won many tournaments at such an early stage in your poker career can you give us a list of do's and dont's you adhered to to help you during your formative years?

thanks

I remember reading your blog which detailed your "downswing" after your ealier successes


Please re-post it on here. It was a compelling read

Hi Simon,

At the Luton Xmas Cracker Main Event I saw you taking copious amounts of notes at the table using pen and paper. I'm guessing this was poker related and not a shopping list  ;)

Three questions on this:

1) Could you shed any light on what you were writing down (not specific info but was it tells/betting patterns etc) and also what you weren't writing down.

2) Any chance of giving us an example of a hand where this information helped you, perhaps where it made what would've been a tough decision a standard decision.

3) This was the first time I’ve seen you play live, is this note taking something you always do? If it's a sporadic occurrence do you find that your results differ when you do/don't take notes.

many thanks in advance for any reply.

There apparently is a Simon Trumper on Prima that is a rebuying machine in their $50 or $100 rebuy or whatever it is these days.

Yes. The one on Mansion is a nasty piece of work.
I was at a table when STrumper was engaged in conversation. He pretended to be Simon, talking about the club and
being pleasant, except for talking about winning LNP in '98! I thought he may be genuine until he took a beat
off the guy he had been talking to. He then went on a total rant saying he would `kill him' if he came near the club etc.
He went on to call him a `fnk c&^%' and that he shouldn't have to play with such retards.

I have always thought it strange to steal someones name and then act in a bad light on behalf of that person.  If you want to play under someone else's name, then respect should be given for the real person.  I once played against Spider-man and he was very well mannered while playing.

When i first started winning i had three things that today all new players have , i was confident (sometimes misplaced) far more aggressive than my opponents and fearless .

As i played at the higher levels and got quickly taught i wasn't as good as i thought i started to set certain rules for my play.

Two of the key ones were " study all players " and " focus "

Also " try not to go on tilt " " always try to learn something each time you play "

Cheers

ACES

The notes i was taking were for my blog/diary on my website www.simonacestrumper.com . I have approx 120 tournament diaries archived where you will find i pick key hands that i explain involving tells and strategies . Eventually my blog will be integrated to DTD and anytime i play i will do a report there . I did find that i missed a lot if i took too much time writing and it effected my focus so more recently if i do it i write a couple of notes in the breaks .

Thanks for the compliment i will post it here tonight .

ACES

Simon,

That piece is outstanding. Did you write it and then wonder if you should release it or was the piece a kind of release for you too?

In late 2003 Nic Sczeremeta editor of Poker Europa called to tell me players were asking where i had disappeared to and asked if i wanted to write an article on my reasons for stopping playing , i then wrote the following " Tournament Rollercoaster " article and yes it was a great relief to write how i felt about that period.

Partly as a result of this article being published i got my first sponsorship deal and that further raise in profile has helped lead me to be involved with Dusk Till Dawn . Once i started travelling again 3 months after it was published i found that no matter where i went someone had read it , i also had emails from players telling me reading it stopped them giving up jobs to play poker before they were ready which made it all worthwhile , for those of you that are reading it for the first time i hope you enjoy it and learn something from it .

The Tournament Poker Rollercaster (you have to know when to get off)

March 2001 to June 2003

First published in Poker Europa January 2004

Over the past few years Simon "Aces" Trumper has been one of the highest profile players in Europe and it seemed that all he had to do was turn up at a tournament to win. But for the past seven months he has become almost invisible. Without putting too fine a point on it he almost went broke. How and why did it happen? Here is his personal account.

I often hear players say that tournament poker on the "circuit" is not sustainable because of the overheads and they wonder what it costs. They are not far from the truth as far as my own case is concerned. I like to think that one of my strongest attributes is the ability to self analyse after each tournament and look for improvement. I wish now that in doing so I had known when to stop. All the signs were there to tell me enough is enough way before I dropped my last £15,000 in Vegas at last years WSOP.

If you want to see a true account of two years on the tournament circuit and learn from my mistakes - read on.

I started with a few results at the Vic in the festivals in 96, but it was 97 when I came 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th out of 6 events at the European championships that I became better known.

This then dramatically increased in 2000 when I won the second series of Late Night Poker but even by the end of 2000 I still didn't play the circuit.

I In March 2001 I went to Reading where I originally began playing back in 95 with players such as Bob Coombes, Sean Hayes,Graham Pound, Tony Chapman and Nourri who now plays the big game at the Vic.

I played in a £50 Pot Limit hold-em and split it with Mark Hall.

The following day I went to Luton to play another £50 Pot Limit, i worked out if I came top 3 I could afford to go to Vienna for the European WSOP Trial so that was my goal. I eventually split it with Steve Vladar.

The following Monday on the first day of the Trial I arrived in Vienna, four days later I flew home with the trophy and approx £30,000 and that's when it all started.

I began travelling to other events including Paris and Vegas to no avail, then back to Vienna in June where I won my second £1,000 No Limit event. On to Paris for a second spot in the £1,000 Grand Prix No Limit and I was now playing in a different country every month with at least one final.
 
This culminated with another £500 No Limit win in Paris and 2nd to the fantastic Hamish Shah in the fourth series of Late Night Poker.

So obviously having won about £140,000 I was now in great shape.
Or was I?

That year after all my expenses were taken out (including cash game losses!You should have seen the glee in the cash game players' eyes when I sat down) I was actually ahead only £20,000.

My business suffered and turnover dropped but I was still able to take a minimum wage and a small dividend. However I would have been better off not playing, concentrating on my company and just targeting selected events in this country to cut out the expenses. So of course in 2002 this is exactly what I did... Not.
 
Right first stop Melbourne Australia and the Aussie Million. No good.

Then I had a few results, split the £750 No Limit in Luton for £20,000 and won the 250 Euro Pot Limit Omaha in Vienna, came 4th in the $3000 No Limit at the WSOP, made both the No Limit finals at the European championships at the Vic and five more finals in Luton and Paris for a total of £120,000 without the smaller placings.

By 23rd September 2002 I was now £30,000 up.

I had gained tremendous experience at the highest level all over Europe and America, was making finals virtually every month and was completely self financed from winnings.
My best game is obviously No Limit with 18 finals in 18 months with a buy-in between E500 and E5000 so what could possibly go wrong?

Well here is what: I was spending a minimum £10,000 a month in flights, hotels, food, taxis and tournament entries so even £30,000 only gave me a three month cushion. But as I had only missed out on a result in two months of the last 18 for me it was unthinkable that what was about to happen could.

From 23 September to 15th December I went to Vienna, Baden, the Vic, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Walsall and Helsinki playing probably 30 events and only cashing in twice for E5000 .

I then played in the Poker Million and came second in my heat losing another £6,500.I ended the year £10,000 down.

Of course yet again my business had suffered and I had now stopped taking a wage. Something had to change.

At this time some players had come up to me saying that I had changed my style and was clearly under pressure.
Well the reason I had had such a drought was a few unforced errors of my own followed by 17 lost even money shots at crucial stages of events including AK against 55 in the Lido 3 tables out for a big pot against Johan Storakers who went on to come 2nd and QQ against AK of Isabelle from the Aviation in the 800 ENo Limit. Such beats as these are everyday occurrences in No Limit but 17 in a row hurts.

However I thought about what people had said and realised they were right. Although I had taken a lot of beats I knew I was not accumulating as many chips as I normally did so when I lost these pots I was being knocked out when previously I would have had enough chips left to make a recovery.

I decide to take a month off so in January apart from the Ashes heads up in Australia where I played and lost the deciding leg and the Aussie Million where I donated my chips to Ram througha bad call i didn't play. I was convinced this bad run couldn't continue and as I was "only" £15,000 down was prepared to continue hitting my credit cards until the wins started again. After all one decent result I told myself and this minor hiccup will soon be a memory. So off to Paris, Vienna, back to Paris then Luton and after scraping three finals winning only E5000 by the middle of April I was £35,000 down.

The thing is I figured I was playing well and that it was only the poker gods conspiring to challenge my sanity with beats like the Omaha in Vienna.

This was a key event. I had won it the year before and with eight players left and average chips I fancied my chances.
The chip leader raised and I looked down at AAKJ double suited and moved all. I was called by AQQ4 and naturally the queen was the first card on the flop. I was out and he went on to win the tournament. It's times like these when you have to decide: Do I stop now and take a break or what?
 
So I booked a flight to Vegas.
 
Yet again a little voice in my head said ok you're £35,000 down but you won £42,000 there last year so go for it - this is your last chance to get out of trouble.
I arrived five weeks before the main event with £5,000 intending to play one event the $2,000 No Limit and use the rest for super satellites.
I had pumped myself full of self belief that I could turn things round and I sat down to play the $2,000 very confident.

But now I know what happens when you're under pressure.

You play without feel and with fear.

And this is what happened. I had built up a good stack and a player two off the button made a standard raise. He had only been in two other pots with AK and KK so looking down to find QQ in the big blind I chose to call rather than raise as both times he had been raised before he moved all in.

The flop was 8 9 J and I made my second mistake and moved all in. He shrugged his shoulders, sighed, checked his cards and called flipping over Q-10 and I was out.
Not a good start.
 
The supers were very quiet at the beginning due to a $200 No Limit event being held every night but I decided I had no option but to play even if there was no seat just cash. My first try was uneventful then suddenly for the first time in eight months I hit form.
 
It was a Friday five days before I was booked to leave - three weeks before the big one. It was the afternoon super satellite - two tables and not enough for a seat. Down to three I'm chip leader and offered a proportional deal I take $2,300. That evening there's only enough for one table down to three again I'm chip leader and take $1,700.The following night there's one $10,000 seat, with three left I'm chip leader but can't afford to offer the others a deal. Then one of the players offers me $3,500 and the other guy $3,000 and takes the seat.

Now I am $6,825 up and I enter the Sunday evening super. This time there's a seat and $2,000. I get heads up with Casey Castle, we can't agree a deal so we save a $1,000 and play on. He raises and I move in with pocket 3's. He quickly calls showing QQ. Here comes the flop for a seat in the big one - 6 6 3. Lucky me. I'm in the main event but all is not well.
What I should have done is flown home and then back two weeks later. Instead I decide to stay and try and win some more supers which will earn me $10,000 a time.

The rest was a blur. Basically I played another 17 supers made 3 more finals but missed the seats. Also due to some help from some great players who knew my predicament I was put into the $5,000 and $3,000 No Limit hold'em events but to no avail.

The weekend before the main event I had told myself I was going to rest ready for Monday. But by now I had done my tank and borrowed a few thousand to try the one table satellites which I had previously done well in.

The last four supers always give the most seats so on Saturday afternoon my good intentions to take a break went out of the window and I sat down with 301 other players. After the rebuys had finished it was announced that we were playing for 15 seats. With 60 players left I was chip leader and dreaming of winning the $10,000, paying back my friend and being in great form for the big one. Sadly it wasn't to be. I finished a gut-wrenching 17th.You can't believe how much it would have meant to win at this time.

I tried to get over it Sunday but after five weeks in Vegas and the rollercoaster taking a steep drop I was never in shape to play my "A" game so for the first time in four attempts I failed to make the second day in the $10,000 Championship Event.

Yet again it was QQ in my big blind that cost me most of my chips. Under the gun raised, I flat called the flop was 5- 6- 7 and he milked my calls all the way to the river before flipping 8 9.

For the first time in two years I completely lost my focus and walked away from the table in a daze a few hands later.

To be honest I almost felt a sense of relief. I knew I was at the end of the road.

I had gone from £30,000 up to £50,000 down in eight months and I finally came to my senses. I flew home from Vegas and knew I had to make a lot of changes before I could play again.

I would like to be able to say that I got up the next day full of enthusiasm and started working again and sorting my life out. But it was not that simple.

When you have lived this almost surreal existence travelling all over the world, experiencing the wonderful highs for 18 months before finally hitting your personal wall and with it the despair of failure and financial difficulty it takes time to recover. I was depressed for three months with no energy and it wasn't until one day in August I woke up and thought: That's it. I'm sick of feeling sorry for myself. If I had listened to my friends this could have been prevented but the way I figured it with my record it was only a matter of time before I won another decent sized win.

Well I learnt the hard way. It doesn't matter what you've achieved before, if things start to go against you and you won't accept it and you won't believe your game is affected a small loss soon becomes a big loss. Fortunately I have always been able to earn a good living outside of poker so I am getting every thing back under control and enjoying it.

One thing I guarantee you I will be back.

ACES

A brilliant and honest article.

I'm glad my main poker income is from Cash games as I don't think I could keep sane with the variance swings in big buy-in tournaments. I'm sure there are lots of Pro players who went through the same nightmare and wouldn't admit it...

 ;iagree; :goodpost:

How good are your cash game skills compared to your tournament skills now Simon?   


good article by the way, very honest

Simon l don't know u personally mate and l'm sure you don't know me. I've played alot of tourneys were l have seen u but not played u yet.


I HAVE TO SAY MATE THIS ARTICLE IS FANTASTIC AND SHOULD BE PUBLISHED IN ALL CARDROOMS AND ON ALL INTERNET SITES SO THAT BEGINNERS AN OLD TIMERS CAN READ AND LEARN FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE. YOUR HONESTY AND MODEST COMMENTS ARE A CREDIT TO YOU SIR AND I CAN SEE WHY ROB YONG HAS MUCH FAITH IN YOU.

I have been very lucky lately, winning 4 good comps and climbing to 4th in the European Rankings. I was planning all sorts of things as l play full time now, but l can tell you now l have read your article twice and it has made me realise a few home truths and without doubt there will be no Vegas trip this year and  only one E.P.T. I have to sit down and think about things.

Thankyou very much Simon.

Look forward to meeting you.

Mick McCool

I read "rollercoaster" when it was first published. At that time I was just starting to take poker seriously, and although not yet playing full time. I was running good, and playing a lot of festivals.
The average cost of a festival week on the domestic circuit back then was perhaps only £3000 or so, and I couldn't imagine playing too many without getting into the money.

Then, one of the players I admired, a player who I had watched on LNP and who was partly responsible for my taking up the game in the first place, a player who, in my naive imagination had "made it" comes up with an article like this.

It was breathtaking in it's honesty and humility. I realised at once that this was not just another page filler, something something quickly written and just as quickly read and forgotten, it was straight from the heart, soul baring stuff that hit me like a smack in the chops from the cold wet kipper of reality.

It made me realise that it wouldn't take many blank weeks to decimate my bankroll, that if I wanted to stay in the game, I couldn't afford to chase the dream at all costs, it gave me the discipline to say to myself "I can't afford to play this, I'll give it a miss".

I've had a lot of lean spells since then, sometimes it seems like they will never end, but somehow I've always managed to keep enough in reserve to scrape through. If I had continued at the rate I was going, I might have played my rush and hit a few big wins, but more likely, I would have gone bust.

I hate it when theres an event that I really want to play ( i.e. all of them) but instead have to force myself to stay at home and grind it out online, but I would hate it even more if I went bust and couldn't play at all.

I re-read "Rollercoaster" every now and then, it should be mandatory reading for all new players.

Good luck to you and all at DTD, let's see if you can knock out another seminal poker article or two in the next few weeks.

I remember reading it the first ever time I played live. Turned up an hour early, and picked up a Poker Europa to browse at the bar.

It was a good read, but didn't stop me doing my bollocks that night.  :D

I read it to a while ago and reckon it should be mandatory reading for everyone who wants to turn pro. Especially in the age of internetpoker which gives you a chance to win money without having to pay anything for travel and hotel expenses I think it's vital.

For some reason most people who play poker for recreational purposes think that once you turn pro you have to/ can afford to play EPT/WPT and WSOP events or even every single festival week.
This is simply not the case and a sure fire way to going bust in my humble opinion.

This article made it very clear to me that if I was lucky I might be able to pay for one EPT event a year out of my own bankroll (unless I play an online qualifier which would also pay for flights and all that)  and the rest of the money would have to be made by playing Live tournaments that are close to where I live but mainly by playing online.

This is a fantastic article that should focus anyone and make everyone realise that there are limits as to what you can do.

I've often thought that playing the live circuit without either sponsorship or a regular income or fortune independent from poker is crazy. The expenses are just so high that they are guaranteed to wipe out any edge that a great player will have. Even then, natural variance can come and bite you in the arse.

We've all heard stories about name players - 'So-and-so is broke', 'He'd be nothing without his backers'. Players would put on acts of bravado, giving big shows of spending money to give the impression 'there's plenty more where that came from', despite them being close to the felt. All the while they'd have the fake safety net of knowing 'my luck will turn', 'the big win is just round the corner'.

For Simon to have actually written this article was revelatory. It was akin to a Hollywood actor coming out as being gay. Being broke is the the big secret hiding in many pro players' closets. It can damage reputations just as much as being gay hurts big name actors.

Simon is the Ian McKellen de nos jours.

Wow,did he also mention he was gay in the article, that makes him twice as honest. I thought he kept that one secret, Well done Aces fro really coming out of the closet. I'll always be a great fan.

rotflmfao

One of the best articles ever written on the poker scene and at the time I know Simon got a mixed response as players wern't supposed to admit they ever lost. Not long after reading this I got a chance to write some articles and have always done my best to be totally honest in everything I write. I read almost every article simon wrote when I first started playing and this isn't the only good one- maybe some of the others could be reproduced on blonde? Maybe have a seperate section for them.

LOL  rotflmfao

wow Simon You are the Real Deal, I always wondered why you always listen to George Michaels "Freedom" before you play a tournament

What's wrong with that?

Nothing Man live and let thats what i say

Could be worse eh snoops?
"oh what an atmosphere, i love a party with a happy atmosphere!" :D

My cash game is always improving , now i am not going to play many live tournaments i have decided to spend more time playing online , i know there will be a learning curve but i have the bankroll for the level i want to play at and the discipline to play good hands in position . When i use to play cash live i got bored and played for fun , online i usually play 3/4 tables and i enjoy it , i also do very well in STT .

Cheers

ACES

thanks.  good luck

just read this for the 1st time Simon

certainly an eye opener

great stuff

Watched PNL last night and the news was you are now confirmed as a regular on there. Congratz I always found you very interesting and an honest presenter on the show.

How do you find watching people play poker and do you enjoy it on PNL?

hiya simon

ive been having a good on the poker within the last 8 months reaching loads of final tables.
i have a game plan and play really tight but when i get to the final table i dont seem to have another gear
as i said im winning money by being on the final tables etc but i really should be winning loads more!!

any advice plz

cheers
deano

Hi

I will be continuing at PNL at least until Dusk Till Dawn opens , i enjoy the show as it has a niche market , i would like to work on the Sky show as well , i will be on PNL 14th April.


No matter what you play , whether it is STT or MTT as the field depletes you should change gear and play more aggressive as most players tend to tighten up when they are in sight of 1st place especially if like you you have built up an image as a tight player , now is the time to use this to your advantage.

Look out for Simon on Sky Poker quite soon, & I shall be back on PNL from April, my first date is April 9th I think.

I haven't seen you for a while tikay,  I watch PNL mostly and wondered where you had disappeared to .

Simon - glad you reposted the article. Wish I had read it a few months earlier.

I go on hot and cold streaks but still lucky enough to be ahead of the game due to a big win within 5 months of starting. However I recently realised how much money I was burning on Sunday MTT entries and have now changed my approach to MTT b4 I throw most of my bankroll back to the game.

I have learnt to be more disciplined by playing satellites to qualify and not buy in to the large online MTT's like I did most of last year. Your run of 17 losing coinflips is truly shocking - out of interest where you the one pushing or calling in these 50/50 situations??

Thanks Greg

Hey simon, Brilliant article....Can i nick it ???? :D to show others i mean ????

Simon,
Had a good night at Brighton last night and on the whole found the players good fun, with a few exceptions.
I wondered what your view is on handling players that bet without looking at their hands. Do you see this as a good opportunity to double up, or a situation to be wary off?

Great to see you in Leeds last night mate. All the best.

Hi Simon, why was the Grovesnor Moortown taken off the list of visits???

People were looking forward to it, the cardroom manager even said this...




dealem
B&M Cardroom Staff
Newbie

 Offline

Posts: 20


    Re: Moortown Masters £50 Freezeout, 10,000 chips to start
« Reply #38 on: Today at 11:24:24 am »   

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Acid,
£50 freezeout isnt tomorrow.Its on Friday May 25th.
Dont know what happened with DTD?? was looking forward to it. Was even going to see if we could put a bounty on Simons head.  I have sent him an email and hopefully he will be able to find another night to come over!
Maybe he got cold feet after ChipRich won at BB....lol Well done by the way!!

Aces, I hear you're coming up to Bristol on May 28th to visit one of our dire casinos! Are you still going to attend after all the hassle DTD have got from Stanley's casino? (The Triangle is owned by Stanley's).

If you are going to boycott the casino, then how about coming to a Bristol Poker Meetup home game instead? I run the 2nd largest (after London) poker home game group in the UK.. Check it here:
http://poker.meetup.com/321/

Alternatively, how about travelling up to lovely Bristol a night earlier, and joining a home game as well as playing the casino game?...

Anyway, let me know.. If you decide to not play Stanley's, I can easily organise a 60 seater game to take it's place, held in a local sports club (their license allows poker to be played there).

Cheers Matt "God of Poker ;)" Dale

hi simon, quick question where are the blog entries from the grass routes tour plz?, i carnt find them id love to read about how you find the conditions the atmosphear etc etc i like to see you play the rebuy fest events and see how you deal with that situation

stu

Sure , but please use link to my site

.
During the rebuy period i am willing to gamble with these players with any A or face cards or pair .


Cheers Matt , i am delighted with the reception i have been getting on tour



I have reorganised my visit for 25th May , hope to see you there .


I would have tried to get there the night before but i am already booked for Cornwall , now the dated have been up a week it is too late to change them , also regardless of Stanleys objecting it would be petty to leave there's or Galas card rooms out of my tour .


All diaries appear on my blog at www.simonacestrumper.com and also on the home page of www.dtdpoker.com .

simon when your on your tour can you please ask the casino and card room mangers if they accomadate wheelchair users and if they dont can you ask whet they are going to do in the future towards this end

good luck u on friday Simon, hopefully i can sit at your table for a different styled player (with more experience) to watch and learn from

hiya simon

i have been playing on ladbrokes now for about 5 years now and have had a very good
time winning some good tourneys etc on there as im a mtt player

i have just started playing cash tables on there and seem to be doing very well
i have been up for the last 5 months and my winnings have been going towards
me playing in the big tourneys!!!

i was wondering is it worth me trying out for the traders program or shall i just continue what im doing???

as i said im doing well myself bit with a bit of mentoring i think i could become a much better player

cheers m8
deano

Simon, why did u instant call when Acid pushed on friday utg when u had 22 ?? why not wait for a better position or try and chip away at some others instead of putting tournament on the line with 22 allin pre

Well done , contact pjackson@dtdpoker.com for details .


I was one to his left , he was in first position and i intended to make the same play with any two cards on the next hand as i couldn't afford to pay the blinds and have enough to raise in the next round , when he raised i was now getting better value to call with especially if the blinds passed and i was against one hand for a coinflip which is exactly what happened . It's not only mathematically the right play but also correct tournament strategy . He had AK , would you not want to be all in getting better than even money ?

ACES

Hey Aces, good to see you in Bristol on Monday night. Enjoyed busting you ;)

I went on to win the tourney (we chopped £600 each and played for the remainding £280).

Congrats to your better half for final tabling too. Great game all round, and all those I spoke to had a good time. Casino management were very happy with the turnout too, and are talking about trying to arrange a regular "play a pro" evening now lol.

ok thanks, just wanted to know what was going thru ur mind :)

I am going to keep a Vegas diary so here goes.

For the last 3 years i have been fortunate to be sponsored at the WSOP usually residing in Bellagio for 6 weeks and playing up to 10 events , this year with my DTD commitments i could not leave during June , eventually i decided to come out this week and win my way into the main event through Supers as i had done in my pre sponsored days .

Thanks to Rob , Nick and Simon taking a piece i am playing anyway but will still play a couple of mega supers on Thursday .

I drove down from Notts on Saturday and stayed in Surrey , the following morning i drove to Gatwick , 8 miles out on the M23 i hit gridlock , i made a few moves and managed to get through ! When i was a mile away i was stunned to find the motorway completely clear except the inside lane , it was as if there were imaginairy cones filtering to the slip road .

Anyway i get to the airport to find the cause is a police checkpoint and concrete barriers preventing drop offs .

I had already checked in online and printed my boarding pass and security was no worse than usual so i was through in 30 minutes , the flight was delayed 45 minutes but then took off on time , after 9 hours 44 minutes i arrived .

I had eaten , watched Charlottes Web , a book i read countless times as a kid then popped a sleeping pill and woke up 30 minutes before landing , several players were on the flight as well as Phil Taylor and Eric Bristow who is coming for a darts tournament but said he would be delighted to come to Dusk Till Dawn when we open .

Customs was painless , i declared i had over $10,000 and filled out the required form .I booked into my hotel which is right next door to the Rio , Mathilde is in France so i just need a bed , i have been pleasantly surprised , the rooms are a decent size , bed very comfortable and shower superb .

After 3 hours relaxing i went to change my £ , this was more difficult than i expected and i only managed $5000 with Neil Channing , even though he told me how soft the satellites were i resisted the temptation and after a quick look round went back to the Gold Coast , it was 12.30am and  i thought i would try a little No Limit game , the only choice was $1 $2 , my first hand was AA and i won $117 , by 1am i was in bed.

I woke at 8 but managed to get back to sleep to be woken by my 11am alarm , after breakfast and checking emails i played the Hunt The Pros event on DTD , i then remembered Jon Shoreman had come 4th last night in the Razz event , a quick call found he was playing cash and could change the rest of my £ , so off to the Rio then i bought in for day 1b , i asked how many there were and was told 1932 , the least popular day being day one , apparently if you dont specify a day they put you in day 1 and it still only had 400 + runners .

There are now 4 day 1s , i chose 1b as i want to see what the avaerage chip count is for day 2 , also days 1a and 1b play on the 10th and my flight is currently booked for the 11th , hopefully for the first time i will have to change it.

As i was leaving the last seat was called for a $1000 STS , i was feeling fresh enough so took it .

On my table in seat 1 was Rob Sherwood , first hand i raised with 45s and got one caller in seat 3 , flop was 3 6 8 , he bet 300 , i called , turn was a J he bet 400 and i called , river was a 2 , he went all in ! I called and he had 77 , best start ever , i now had 10,000 chips , blind 25 50 .( the guy who lost also had a $500 last longer with seat 2 ! )

The next hand i lost 2100 ! I had raised with 22 with one caller , flop was J T T , we both checked , turn was an A , i led for what i thought was 300 and got reraised , i am colour blind and hadnt seperated the chips from the first pot , the 100's and 1000's look almost identical to me and i thought i was throwing in 3 x 100 but it was 2 x 1000 and 1 x 100 DOH ! I played my button then got up and went and ate and drank two red bulls to make sure i was focused .

Eventually we were down to 3 , i was joint chip leader with 18,000 offered 3000 guaranteed , play for 2000 , heads up my opponent had 43,000 to 7,000 , blinds 400 800 , by the end of 1000 2000 i was slight chip leader and at 2000 4000 we agreed to chop , so first STS and a profit of $3000 , i resisted the temptation to play another as Mad Marty has invited me to the Voodoo Lounge for his sponsors party .

I had gone to see him in the Ladbrokes lounge , they asked me to leave when a press conference started as i had my DTD shirt on , fair enough . Mel Judah and Jac Arama and Steve Davis were there , i got to play Steve at pool and missed the last ball trying a fine cut to leave me on the black , Steve had 6 balls left and proceeded to clear , he suggested best of 3 and we had just started when i had to leave , maybe next time , i enjoyed playing one of my sporting heroes .

The Amazon room at the Rio is too commercialised , covered in banners hanging form the ceiling , the old charm and magic of Binions is gone forever. Tomorrow i am getting some sun , then i may play another $1000 STS or the 9pm $500 Mega Super Satellite , i'll let you know .

ACES

Excellent read Simon, thank you...

The vegas diaries are hard to beat!!!

nice write up Simon..best of luck to you!

Good luck Simon in Vegas

Just think 7 Series

Cheers


John

After posting yesterdays diary and channel hopping i left for the Rio to meet Marty ,saw Padraig and Kevin at the bar( Kevin on diet coke still , 1 day to go ) the party had started at 6pm and up to 9 you could get in with a pass , i arrived at 9.30 just as Steve Davis and a few others were leaving so i missed that , i wont be late for the DTD party !

Off i went to the Amazon room , but i didn't fancy playing so went to the bar and had a drink with John Shipley , one beer and a baileys and i was ready for an early night so i walked back to my hotel , once there i somehow missed the lifts and sat down in a 4-8 limit game , it was very lively , i called a raise with 88 four way , flop was A 5 8 , i led out hoping for a reraise but two callers , turn was the last 8 , i bet again and got one caller who also paid my river bet , i then find i have won a bonus $50 for hitting quads with both hole cards . With 5 callers to a FP raise i also called with AJ , 7 took the capped flop of 7 9 T , this was capped again and the 8 i needed came on the turn , 5 remained for the river which paired the 8 , i thought i was done but split it with the preflop raiser who had JJ , so one round and $197 profit .

In bed by 1 i decided to watch Hot Fuzz while reading the new Card Player and Bluff magazines , they held my attention more than the movie though it was occasionally funny , at 3.30 i went to sleep waking at 7.30 , thinking this was a jetlag routine i tried to get back to sleep but couldnt due to an air conditioning plant on the roof next door , finally i asked for a room change which they could do but not until 11 , after watching TV till 9.30 i finally got 2 hours more sleep , got up packed and changed room .

After lunch i checked my mail then went to the pool , i have a video interview with Poker Listings at 7pm at the Palms then will go to the Rio for the 9pm $500 Super Satellite , i intend to play as many as possible for next two days then take the 6th off prior to my day one .

ACES

Simon, these Super Sats, are these for the main event or have you bought in (or already qualified??)?? Or are for they for something completely different?

he said he bought in for Day 1b....

I have entered already , playing day 1b , table 26 , seat 4 .

These Mega Supers are to try to win $10,000 , if i win a seat i show my entry and get 20 x 500 tournament lammers , these can be used for STS and sold for cash to players buying in to both satellites and main event , in previous years you paid for the STS at the table but this year they have dedicated cashiers windows so you see winners going up and down the queues all day selling their lammers .

I played the $500 SS last night , having missed my BB i called a 175 raise in the SB saying i wanted to win the 50 back , i had 46s , flop was 3 5 7 , i check raised to 800 and my opponent pushed for the whole 3000 , he had QQ .

This great start allowed me to see a few flops early on and i peaked at 7000 on a A A 2 2 9 board , i had AT and slow played to river reraising the SB who called with his 2 !

There were 400+ runners so 20 seats , down to 200 i lost a key pot with JJ , i had limped in FP then called a 1400 raise , flop was nasty A K Q and i folded to the all in , then later when down to 2700 with blinds 200 400 and a 50 ante one player had limped , i had 99 in late position and moved in , all folded to the limper who called , pot was 6450 over average , he had AK , flop was 2 4 Q 3 K .

I tried a $500 STS but never got started lasting to level 5 when shortstacked i called with AJ v JJ , i bought in to todays 1pm $1000 Mega Super and came back to the hotel .

For the next two days there are 8 Super Satellites , at 10am and 4pm there are $550 same as last night and at 1pm and 9pm they are $1060 , i plan to play both the $1000 today .

As the numbers are low at the moment it has been delared that you can buy in to the main event up to end of level 1 on day 1d , also for the first time they are running a Turbo Mega Satellite at 8am on day 1d , it costs $1060 same as the events i play today but instead of 5000 and a 30 minute clock you get 3000 and a 15 minute clock , also it is a much faster structure , i wonder how many last minute players will take a chance , would be a hell of a story if one of these won it !

ACES

Great read Simon,any news on the expected number of runners in the main event?

Should be interesting... hope its not too huge a field 9000 runers would be ok.

As of today , Wednesday afternoon there is 2800 , i think there will be 6000 by day 1a but at least 1500 more by day 1d end of level 1 which is the cut off point .

I just played the 1pm $1000 Mega Super , 43 seats , started with 5000 , no hands till AKo in FP , limped in and saw flop 4 way , Q 8 6 , all checked , 3 on turn and i bet out with one caller , river made a straight and club flush , with bare A i bet pot , he called with an 8 lol .

Next hand i played was again AK all in v AK , flop was three diamonds and i was freerolling but missed  , twice i had JJ on the button but both flops were A Q x and A A A , lost 2400 .

At this point the event was halted as there had been a power cut in the main room shutting down the computers and also our air conditioning in the marquee , we had to bag up our chips and move to the Amazon room , this took 45 minutes . When we restarted i had to make some marginal calls , one with K8s paid off but then with blinds 200 400 and a 50 ante i didnt have enough to raise and get away from a reraise so with A6 in the cut off and the SB passing i moved in , unfortunately Billy the Croc woke up with AK in the BB .

So back here , going to have an hour by the pool , shower and go for dinner ready to play the 9pm $1000 .

Whatever happens tomorrow i will focus on STS until i have to get ready for the DTD party then day off Friday .

Feeling relaxed and confident .

ACES

Good updates, gl in the ME...

Big improvement on last Mega Super but still finished 120 of 334 , 32 seats .

As i arrived at 9pm the 1pm $1000 was just finishing .

I survived to level 7 and the only pair i had was 22 !

I have been raising most pots i enter and with TJo i made it 350 , there was one caller and a raise to 1100 from a player who then had 1050 left , i called , flop was K 8 7 , i check called his all in hoping to have live cards and worse case the gutshot , he had AA , turn was a 9 !

Then i got moved , i won one hand with 73s then after a limp of 200 and a raise to 900 which the SB called , i also called with 94s as i saw the limper pick up 700 to call , flop was T 9 4 , SB moved in for 4300 , i called , and the preflop raiser mucked his JJ , SB had T6s !

After the first 90 minutes i had 17,000 and was cruising to a seat , average required would be around 50,000 .

The next 3 levels the best hand i saw was KJ and i literally blinded and anted away to 8000 , but average was only 11,900 and we were down to 120 from 334 with 32 seats .

On the third hand of the 500 1000 with 100 antes there was one limper , i went all in for 7700 and got a caller , pot was 18,800 while average was still 11,900 , i had AK v JJ , flop was 8 T 2 9 with three clubs giving me two overs and the nut flush draw but the river paired the 2 and i was out .

I went to watch a bit of the $1500 shoot out limit final , Ram was chip leader with 6 left .

It is 3.30am , i am going to sleep until 12 them back to the Rio to just play $525 and $1030 STS till 6.30 when i will call it a day and come back to get ready for the DTD party at the Playboy Villa at the Palms .

Friday i will not go anywhere the Rio , just relax and get a good nights sleep ready for day 1 on Saturday .

So far my discipline has been spot on and i am fully in sync so expect to give it 100% , after being knocked out 3 years in a row on day one i'm due a bit of form and the $10,000 event would be perfect timing !

ACES

Good updates Simon. Must admit I am in two minds how to play the first day - aggressively with aim of doubling/tripling stack by end of day 1 or just playing TAG like.
Will there be any more satellites on Saturday or Sunday for the main event? May try my luck and play one rather than paying in my stars money.

Greg

I heard today they will be running 4 satellites a day until the turbo on Monday at 8am .

When i left tonight at 3am there was a long queue of players buying in for the supers and the main event , also i counted 20 STS .

Today i played two $1030 STS , the first i was card dead for 4 levels then made a move all in with A8 and got called by A9 but caught an 8 , then finally QQ v AJ , this gave me 17,000 chips , the SS had 9000 and chip leader 24,000 , i was offered $3000 saver , the chip leader came 3rd getting $4000 and i lost heads uo for the extra $1000 .

Again the air conditioning had broken in the marquis so all 1pm Mega SS players were moved into the main room , this caused the 4pm $500 to be delayed 2 hours and also there was a celebrity charity event with Mat Damon , Ben Affleck and Adam Sandler , the crowd was 10 deep , you couldn't see a thing . All STS were postponed until 9pm.

I went back and prepared for the DTD party at the Playboy suite , this was very successfuly run and attended by circa 250 players with free bar , food and approx 12 bunny girls , i swapped 2% with 3 players for the main event .

The suite had fantastic views , was split level and very modern apart from the shagtastic Austin Powers revolving circular bed, there was a good atmosphere and i recognised several players from St Kitts , as more people arrived i gave out several DTD shirts to our players but by 10pm it was getting very hot so i left .

Later i went back to the Rio for one last STS , i only saw one playable hand in 4 levels TT which won the blinds , finally at 500 1000 i pushed with 78s as the next hand i would be in FP v the big chip leader likely to call with anything , i had 4000 and average was 8,300 , one caller had 77 and that was it .

I have played 3 SS spending $2500 with no results , however on the STS i have played 4 and cashed in 3 so i am up overall .

Today i am having a day off , sunbathing , shopping and going to see the Titanic exhibition , i plan to be in bed by 1 - 2 am and up by 10.30am to prepare for day 1 .

ACES

best of luck to you for the ME..may the good run of the DtD guys this year contnue.

Kept my discipline and had a relaxing day , didnt get up until 1pm , had lunch then went shopping , first to the Fashion Mall then back to Caesars , next to CVS , Fusion razors and most other toiletries are much cheaper over here .Then i had to buy a new case as my one wont fit the things i have bought and one of Mathildes girlfriends has sent some bits here , got a 36" x 22" soft collapsable for just $20 !

Where i was on the strip is a nightmare for Taxis so walked to the Polo Towers , they had no taxis and told me i was looking at up to a 30 minute wait , instead the bell boy gave me a lift on a golf buggy to Planet Hollywood .

Once back my intention was to freshen up then go to the Titanic exhibition , however by the time i had checked mails , surfed the forums and channel hopped it was too late .

It is now 11pm , i will be playing in approx 13 hours , i am going to get a bite to eat , have a couple of beers then early to bed .

I am really looking forward to playing and couldn't be in better shape .

Will i make day 2 ?

ACES

Goodluck for day 2 sure wıth your attuıde your do well x

Thanks , i had the right attitude but couldn't make a big laydown , what would you have done ?


I was ready and focused , had a table where i knew no one .

On my left was an internet pro , my right an $8 qualifier playing live for the second time named Nathan from Wales .

My first hand was QQ in the SB , won with a raise .

My second hand was 77 , one caller , flop 8 3 3 , called my flop bet but folded on turn.

Then in the SB i called in a 6 way pot with 86o , flop was J 7 4 with two spades , both blinds checked then there was a bet of 200 and two callers , i called for the middle pin but the BB raised to 1000 , all folded to me , i assumed he had 2 pair and called intending to bluff if a spade fell , turn was a spade and i bet 1200 , he callled , river was another spade , my cards were red , i bet 2500 , while he was thinking and counting out the call , Nolan Dalla announced a previous WSOP champion was playing , i released my cards and very relaxed clapped along with the rest of the field , on seeing this the BB released his hand .

The last hand i played was TT where i called on the button to trap a loose aggressive player , the BB raised and the LA called as did i , flop was 8 5 3 two hearts , the raiser bet 700 and the LA reraised to 2000 , i folded and ended the first level with 22,725 .

On the second hand of the 100 200 level Nathan raised to 600 , i reraised to 2100 and he called , flop was J 9 3 , he checked and i bet 2500 into the 4500 pot , he reraised to 5000 , i would normally have alarm bells going off at a min raise but as i discounted AA or KK and 99 , i put him on an unlikely AJ or TT that was raising what they thought was a continuation bet from AK or he had QQ , i called . Turn was another J , he now bet 5000 , this was a great bet as he could represent the AJ or feel his QQ were still good and not want to give a free card and if he had 99 or JJ disguise his hand , i called intending if an A or Q came i was done with the hand for any bet , the river was a K , he now bet 7000 , i had 9150 left and was holding KK , i looked at him and could see how nervous he was , obviously i could discount QQ with the K on the river so was he value betting with AJs or did he have 99 all along both of which i now beat or was it the one hand that i couldn't beat JJ .

There were several reporters watching to see what i was going to do , i counted out the 7000 and said i am calling , i just have to decide whether to reraise my last 2150 , in the end i called saying if he has made quads good luck to him , i flipped over my KK and he showed his JJ !

I managed not to lose my composure and built back up to 3800 but the next level 200 400 started to eat into my stack , i went all in with KJ from FP to be called by the same hand for a split , then the next round Nathan limped for 400 in early position i raised all in 1025 , one player called as did Nathan and they checked the flop down , 6 5 3 T 3 , Nathan had AQo which with over 40,000 chips should have been raising with preflop , i had AQs for what would have been a split and the third player had KTs and took the pot.

It took me a day to feel like writing this , i was so fresh and focused i was naturally disappointed.

I now feel ok and the Venetian has been running $1000 events with a $2500 event tomorrow . I have had the day off and have entered the event with my winning from last weeks STS . We get 15,000 chips , starting 25 50 and an hour clock , i will do my best .

ACES

Obviously the K on the end kills you, like you say, with quads good luck to him, just not your day, plenty of profit to be made in the smaller tourneys tho eh! :)up

Well after the disappointment of yet another first day knockout at the WSOP i am back to winning ways lol .

Yes i managed to win the Hunt The Pros tourney on DTD on Monday , and i was heads up against none other than John "skalie" Kalmar who did a little better than me in Vegas finishing 5th for $1,250,000 !! What a gent John is to join our £25 event , hopefully he will be back for more.

For those of you who haven't played in one yet , every Monday at 8.30 the Hunt The Pros event takes place , there are 2 £100 bounties and at least 10 professional players as well as most of the DTD crew . The banter in the chat boxes make it a fun event to play and it is getting more popular every week.

This week apart from John we had Mike Magee , Garry Bush , Mark Goodwin , Keith " the camel " Hawkins , Barry Neville , Steve Jelinek , Richard Ashby , Lucy Rokach and Iwan jones amongst others including 2 celebrities , the jockey Tony Culhane and boy band singer Brian Mcfadden. The DTD crew were Paul Jackson , Nick Whiten , Rob Yong , Dave Colclough , Michael Greco , Simon Nowab and Kevin O'connell .

In total there were 48 players at least a third of which were well known pros , so if you fancy your chances at winning one of the £100 bounties or as top finishing non pro a DTD goodie bag hope to see you next Monday when i will be going for the double.

All the best

ACES

Hi Simon.

Will you be playing any EPT's this year or other major events such as the Master Classics in Amsterdam?

snoops