blonde poker forum

Chompy is off tomorrow in pursuit of one of those bangle things in the WSOP, while I'm off next Tuesday to play the proper comps, the ones that reward you with hard cash and no unnecessary jewellery.

Updates and a few photos will appear over the next few weeks, hopefully along with all kinds of hilarious and fascinating tales.

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

gl man

come back with loadsa wonga

Wishing two of the nicest blokes in Luton all the luck and success in the world

best of luck chompy and celtic, win millions baby!!!!

Good luck guys, and thanks for doing the diary on blonde!

All the best for the trip, have fun and be lucky!!

good luck both!!

Is this the equivalent of Floppys blog? Chompy is Floppy and Celtic is the butler?

Have a great time both of you, looking forward to reading about good results  ;goodluck;

 ;goodluck; Guys

good luck boys ...c u there for real poker and a real diary... ;D

Flying out from Heathrow tomorrow morning, the cheapo way, with United and connecting through Denver. Not all of us can fit on the Virgin flight next Tuesday, enough Lutonians booked on there already, Captain Kirk up front, and Celtic and The Sicilian sharing a seat out the back.
Flying back direct, Vegas to London, is a no-go for me anyway as in my experience getting back to London early morning just causes jetlag. I always come back through Washington and catch up on sleep there before getting the 9.30 flight out of Dulles the next morning (there's a pleasing English-style breakfast shop which serves fry-up sandwiches next to gate whatever it is). That's the best way imo, gets into London at around 10.30pm and then you're back in the old routine.
The Sicilian (aka Dulux) sent me the Caesars schedule yesterday and it does look good, so I might mix in a couple of those, as well as Venetian deep-stacks, with the Rio stuff.
Definitely not shelling out for the two $5,000 NLHE WSOP events while I'm there, so will probably play Binion's on those days, same format as for the bigguns but at 10% of the cost.
The first intended port of call is the $2k at the Rio on Wednesday, all things going to plan with travel and sleep etc...

Have a safe journey mate & good luck.

C U NextTuesday ;)

good luck chompy

It's a game of skill don't you know...What time of the day is this anyway ffs? Crazy
At the moment I'm leaning towards easing in steadily/bottling it and playing the $300 at the Venetian instead of the WSOP on Wednesday.
There's nothing worse than a bad start imo, I was ready to come back four days in to my last visit before a long sleep and then winning two tournaments in one day, something I'll never do again (nap). 50-50 currently, will decide after the flight is done with.

Good luck to the pair of you.................oh Celtic BTW the NAS have requested loadsa norkage pics on this thread  ;)

gl boys, win all the money.

I am the only one with a camera LLevan so nothing doing until the 11th, but as you asked so nicely i suppose i will have to force myself and get you and the rest of NAS some piccies ;) Booked onto a flight with Rob Garfield & Kevin O'Leary and those of you that follow the GUKPT updates on Blonde will know how hard it is to get one of Rob Smiling, well, this will be my first challenge. I WON'T FAIL!!!!

Chompy has arrived and will be updating shortly....



sigh..... 5 more sleeps.

Made it relatively unscathed, about an hour after I was due to land, and managed to get a room upgrade (top floor, corner room with its own doorbell) so can't really complain. Daves Colton and Johnson had it a bit worse on their Virgin flight, which was delayed five hours. Seeing Dave C playing cash at the Venetian yesterday while not banging on relentlessly and Dave J not drinking beer at the table was a first.
Didn't make it to The Rio yesterday after spending most of the morning at the dentists (I now know it's easier to ask for a 'Dennis' than an 'Orthodonnis'). When I said I'd come through the flight relatively unscathed, what I meant was they'd double booked my legroom seat so I spent nine hours scrunching my bulky frame into about three inches of leg space. Just nodded off I had when the 150-year-old asian woman in front decided she'd slam her seat back into my knee at full speed. Oh and then I chipped my tooth on a miniature toblerone I'd half inched from the back of the plane. Karma imo.
I ended up playing a couple of smaller tournaments at the Venetian, the $300 in the afternoon and the $180 in the evening, and saw aces for the first time in over a month in the 8pm'er, which was nice. This tournament has been good to me the last couple of visits; I've chopped it five times, no more than three ways, from about 15 tries. A Tikay-like strike-rate.
Gym beckons ($25 at Caesars compared to the extortianate $40 at the Venetian) then off to the Rio for the $1,500 six-handed mullarkey. Played this last year and went out after 25 minutes with KK, all-in pre against  Ahrt 9h which duly flopped the nuts. Can't do much worse this time.

BREAKING NEWS

There are rumours going around that Evil Edna Adams will be joining the vegas trip. This is yet to be confirmed but if true, Vegas players won't know what's hit them!!!

This is confirmed...Edna is going... keep an eye on us

You guys spent long enough talking her into it. Is she flying with you?

she is indeed on our flight.

Fair play to her for coming imo. One of the nicest people in Luton.

 ;iagree; ;envious;

Have fun Boys n Girls!!

awesome, good luck lutonians!  ;envious;

Obv. good luck to all of you.

Give her my best please

One WSOP tournament played, one cash, which is pleasing enough, double your money time.
The starting stack of 3000 was down to 1000 within an hour, button had raised, I'd called in the SB with 88, flop came 4 5 6, turn 6, he had K6. That near enough killed me.
Then I got moved to a table with Harry Dimitriou and Eric (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=2024) Lynch (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=2024) (just signed up by ultimatepoker apparently). Built back up to 4000, hovered around that mark for about two hours, then started to open it up when the blinds hit 200-400.
Had picked up three hands in a row and was up to around 8000. UTG, a tight player, made it 1200, calling station to my right...called. I saw AA, the perfect chance to stick'em in and probably get a call. UTG duly folded QQ because he'd had QQ busted by 22 and by 10 J in an online tournament the night before. Hmm.
Was up to around 25,000 with 90 odd left, just below average. Shove donkey UTG limped, I had QQ in the SB, so put in a small raise. BB folded, UTG called.
Flop came Q 7 2, two diamonds, I checked, he stuck his 30,000 into a pot of around 5,000 and I called. He hit his flush on the turn and that was that. Ten and a half hours of play and then lost a 75-25 (roughly I think).
that pot would have put me up to around 55,000 with half an hour left on the day, and the chance to come back and try to make a real run at it. Ho hum.
Venetian $500 now, followed the the $2,500 at the Rio tomorrow...

Well done on the cash.

Are you getting excited that i will be there in less than 4 days now?

Keep it coming Celtic & Chomps, & thanks for doing the Diary for blonde. The more Diaries the better, imo.

When you boys coming home?

chompy there for a couple of weeks still. i'm not going out til tuesday.

edna and me confirmed...our nuptials to be announced

thank you for that. Celtic can be bridesmaid.

That makes about 200 Luton regulars on the Virgi (http://travis.bosscasinos.com/re.asp?name=POK&camp=REF5111_0&go=http%3a%2f%2fwww.virginpoker.com)n (http://travis.bosscasinos.com/re.asp?name=POK&camp=REF5111_0&go=http%3a%2f%2fwww.virginpoker.com) flight next Tuesday by my reckoning. The new arrivals will pretty much double the standard of play around these parts...
Yesterday was a short enough day pokerwise, with the rest of the time spent in the room. That was a new experience but I'm having to pace myself. If I'd gone out it would have been the usual mix of Newcastle Brown, merlot and Venetian night tournament/cash, which would have left me in no kind of shape for today's WSOP'er.
I didn't get to the Venetian $500 until a couple of hours in, but that worked out well enough. They only penalised me 1200 out of the 15000 starting stack (put in 100 per hand) and the blinds were only 100-200, 25 ante.
Celtic has still to realise I think how bad the players in these tournaments can be and yesterday's table was a cracker. I was in seat 1 and the opposite side (seats four through six) was like a poker version of the 12 days of Christmas, "three pairs of shades, two baseball caps and an iPod in seat six (turned on, volume ten)".
I didn't do a lot for the first hour and then got a fit of the girlie giggles. The guy to my left I'd played with briefly at the Rio the day before and he was enjoying seats 4-6 nearly as much as me.
The blinds were up to 300-600, my SB. Seat 3 limped for 600, then seat 4 pulled his shades down and said 'time please'. He sat there motionless for all of a minute before.........folding. That was it, gone.
The next hand wasn't quite so amusing. Seat 6, whose standard bet into pots of around 2000 had been 10000 at least twice before, raised to 1500. I called on the button with AJ. The blinds got out of the way.
The flop came  8s 9h Jd. He asked how much I'd got back. I said "10,000". It was one 5000 chip on top of five 1000 chips, so didn't take much working out. He asked the dealer to count it...
He then bet 10,000, just be way of a change. I called and he turned over  6h 7h. The turn was a 10, which was greeted with a 'Wooo yeah'. Lmfao

That is one benefit about the internet.......no effin whooping......great thread by the way......bring home the bacon

I don't want this to turn in to a bad beat whingefest - the taxi driver that picked me up from the Rio the other day said he was close to triple figures with them already - but here comes another one.
You'd expect a $2,500 WSOP tournament to be played out to a fair standard but my table had no notable names on it and a couple of them looked like they'd never played before. The big fella to my right asked me about an hour in whether this was hold'em poker we were playing. I thought he was joking but he wasn't.
The stack hadn't moved a lot from the opening 5000 at the first break, two hours in, after I'd gone up to around 7000 and back down again. Five hours in and, with around 500 of the 1300-odd players left, I'd got myself a start and was pretty much bang on average at 13000.
It was the first hand with the blinds at 200-400, 50 ante, I made it 1400 with AQ in mid-position. The calling station two to my left, shaking throughout like nothing I'd ever seen, called, as did the SB who'd been on a roll during the previous half hour or so.
Flop came  Ac Kc 6d, SB checked, I bet 2500, shakin stevens folded, SB thought for a few seconds, had a lingering look at what I'd got left, and then pushed all in. With 4000 of 13000 in I could have passed but not the way things had panned out. Funnily enough the last thing that went through my mind before I shoved them in was Avi Darvish's favourite saying 'if not now, when?'. He now owes me a tenner plus interest, plus $2500 imo.
Anyway, he turned over  Ks Ts. The  Td came on the river. Bye bye Chompy.
So now I've lost a 75-25 shot which would have put me in a good position in the $1500 the other day and an 80-20 which would have put me up to double the average going into the dinner break in the $2500. Why the feck is he making a move on that board anyway? Bad players getting lucky. Nice.
Otherwise, I can't get enough of this WSOP lark. Went to pick up my hefty winnings during the second break yesterday and was in the payout room with three others, Jen Harman, Chris Ferguson and Eli Elezra. Different world.

 ;envious; ;envious;
And my problem with whingey bad beat stories is this.......

YOU ARE IN VEGAS and I am sitting on my sofa in good old Bricket Wood

fell off my chair reading this one, got to use that when i play next.

ul with the beats chompster, keep plugging away and incease the volume of tournies and eventually it will come.

Vegas Diaries, you gotta love em. Keep it up guys.

Well, the big day is almost here, and i gotta say, whilst i'm looking forward to it, part of me is feeling a bit nervous. Kirsty (Missceltic, new member on blonde) has been fantastic, ironed all my clothes for me, is out at the mo buying my suncream, and will pack for me when she returns. As a special treat for her i will let het cut my toe nails for me. It's the least she deserves to be honest ;) I'm gonna miss her a lot, and my daughter, but both are happy for me to go, in fact, my daughter seems very happy im going away :dontask: and has promised to look after Kirsty ( her step-mum)

I'm on the 10.45 flight to Vegas, the sicilian will be at mine for 6am and we will travel together to Gatwick, maybe Rob Garfield will join us if he can gt his bikini line done in time, Also on the flight is Kevin O'Leary, Evil Edna (Biggest pair of bollocks in Luton imo) and steve Kirk.

We have booked Las Vegas's premier chauffeur service to collect us from the airport (77Dave) tho Dulux was a late booker and may have to get a cab if Jim can only fit me, Rob & Kev in.

Well thats all for now. Next update. Vegas!!!!

I should be playing the $1500 shootout WSOP event at the moment but things conspired against it one way and another, so I got a taxi up there (top cricket chat with the Pakistani driver) and cashed out just in time.
Playing the $500 at the Venetian instead, can get some lunch, spout some nonsense on here and miss the first hour and a bit of that no worries (40-minute levels, 15,000 stack).
Yesterday was a long one in the Venetian $1000 event and another near thing. Just over 12 hours of poker and missed cashing by about ten spots.
I didn't get there until half an hour after the start, somewhat hung over after the first Newcastle-Merlot session of the trip the night before but felt ready for it.
The first person I saw going to the table was Paul (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=1469) Ephremsen (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=1469), a Luton occasional/borderline regular. He was already up to 25,000 and, at the first break, was on 33,000 compared to my 12,000. Even then he was insistant we swap 10%, although I wanted to give him 15% for 10%. Top man is Paul, one of those players you know is going to pay up his 10% no hassle.
At the dinner break I'd got up to around 80,000, about 30,000 above average while Paul was on 50,000. We both looked good to cash at one stage but then he ran AQ into AA and I picked up Q3 sixty-five hands in a row. We both went out in the mid 30s (240-odd players) with the top 19 paid. Would have been a good one to win, too, $65,000 to the winner. Paul seemed a bit pissed off having played 12 hours without reward but I'm always kind of happy with that, as long as I haven't put a foot wrong and not got unlucky (I actually made a couple of mistakes yesterday, which wasn't pleasing).
Saw some ridiculous stuff on my table. AA v AQ on an AQ6 flop, runner runner flush. Some miserable old guy was on the right end of it and he went on to crack AA with 77 to take a big chip lead.
I really didn't have to do a lot to get my chips. 2 4 in the SB, flop A 3 8, free turn 5, A on the river and Texan fella couldn't wait to get them all in with A9.
After that I was on the right end of an 'I think I'm probably behind but I'm all in' move. He was right too, as I had 99 on a 966 flop, turn was another 9. Blimey, quads. He had 10 10 UTG and had min raised my BB. Serves him right imo, fecking min raisers.
So that was 12 hours of poker, back to the hotel room for around 2am. I would have been set for the Rio with a decent night's kip but the construction site next to my room decided this morning was the time to move on from the shifting-stuff-around phase to the banging phase...at 6.30am.
Bollocks to that, I rung for a room change, which they were happy to do but they could only offer a standard room at a poker rate, not one in the tower in which I've always stayed. It's baffling that a Harrah's casino can't do better than that for someone planning to play eight or so WSOP events, so I'm off to the Venetian.
I'll get the poker rate over there no worries, and the rooms are good quality. Plus it's a good time to change the scenery a bit anyway, around a week in to the trip.
Finally, just noticed R.Prew chopped a tournament. All kind of weird and wonderful things are happening in the poker world...(well done Tighty)

Well today was the day for Celtic to leave for Las Vegas (just in case there is anybody out there he hasn't told!)

He made arrangements for the Sicilian to arrive at ours for 6am - Celtic still being in bed at this time....  The usual daily routine of attemting to wake him up commenced!

After strolling around, taking his time he was finally ready to leave (all he had to do was get washed & dressed as everything else had been done for him, yes including the cutting of toenails!!).  Arrived at Gatwick safely after a journey with Celtic moaning about the Sicilian's driving (Although now we know why the Sicilian's brakes are so worn out!)

Celtic then decided to have a whinge about the long queue to hand his suitcase in and obtain his boarding pass! Always something to moan about (especially as he doesn't do mornings, well other than his early morning finishes at Luton!)

The time came to say goodbye and I am not ashamed to admit that I did have a  :'(!  For some reason I think I am actually going to miss Celtic - the only positive is that I will now be able to use the computer until he returns as opposed to begging to check my e-mails every day.

Good luck Celtic, I'm missing you already.  Enjoy yourself though, you deserve this opportunity.

Good luck to everyone else in Vegas and here's hoping Edna will be keeping her eye on Celtic!!  :)

Welcome to blonde MissCeltic!

Cutting his toenails???? not a thought for before midday!

Just time for another diary entry before I check out of Caesars and move on to the Venetian. Can't say I'm too bothered about leaving and don't think I'll be staying here again in future. Besides which the Grand Lux Cafe at the Venetian is a class apart from the Augustus Cafe.
Monday's 6.30am bangfest was a late start it now seems, as last night's hammer-fuelled action started ar 3.45am. I got them to send me up a key for a room further down the corridor and got plenty of sleep in the end, but I do feel they should have tried to do more for someone who's stayed at the hotel before, was planning on being here for 19 nights, and playing in Harrah's flagship poker event. Whinge over.
Sunday's late finish meant I wasn't able to take advantage of the soiree that was being held in my honour at the Guy Salon Restaurant. No messing, get upgraded at Caesars and they stage a champagne and hors d'oeuvres soiree in YOUR honour. I hope the staff weren't too disappointed. Got this image of them all standing around, asking 'Where's Chompy?" Perhaps not.
Yesterday's $500 Venetian experience only lasted a few hours. Swapped 10% with a fellow Gutshot regular of the past, Jarvis, who was around average stack when I left. I quickly dropped from 15,000 to 8,000 before getting it back up to the starting stack. With the blinds up to 400-800 I was around the 12,000 mark and had already shoved them a few times on my new table.
I'd been talking to the guy to my left about Anthony, one of the card room supervisors, who's kind of like Beavis and Butthead rolled into one. "He always remembers me because of my name" he said, and then pulled out his ID card. His name was Michael Lee Hunt. That would appeal plenty to Anthony.
I knew what was coming on my exit hand, never been so sure of it in my life. The old bugger UTG raised it to 3000. Always be careful with old buggers putting in proper raises UTG in my experience, but I had no choice with KK three positions later.
I showed Mike Hunt my cards and told him I knew I was pretty much dead already and said the same to old bugger when he called. I wasn't too bothered about running kings into aces at that stage of that tournament, rather there than back at the Rio on the bubble or some such.
I'm thinking of writing a book when I get back home, something along the lines of 'A US player's guide to tournament poker'. Chapter 1 is pretty much already written in my head.
Chapter 1
Playing A7 or A8 suited in early position
Step 1. Raise 6x or 7x the BB.
Step 2. If an ace or two of your suit, arrives on the flop and your remaining chips total ten times or more what's already in the pot, go all in. If you have less than this amount, bet five times the pot as a 'feeler' bet.
I think this would sell well. Or maybe I'm just getting a bit frustrated.

Vegas: 10th June 2008.

Fk me it's hot!!!!

Arrived safely, picked up by 77dave as promised. (cheers Jim & Nancy) driven to the hotel where after much begging in reception i relented and allowed dulux (the sicilian) to share a room with me. It's never good to see a 40 something crying in the middle of a busy hotel reception so i agreed just to save\him from further embarrasment!!

Dropped the suitcase in and went down to the poker room, where i met chompy, pokermuppet, joe grech & 77dave again. Also Luton regular dave johnson was there having just bust out of the ceasers comp.

Done all the registering bit then went for dinner at the cafe lux with Rob, Kev & dulux (cheers kev) and i'm now contemplating playing the evening comp at the venetian or save myself for tomorrow. Such tough choices we face in life eh?

Ok gotta go for now.

play the $180 comp or sleep? ;goodvevil;.......

sleeping is for wimps imo!!

120 runners or so, manage to luckbox my way to 4th ;D $1411, should have won it to be honest, i'm no great player but ffs this was a dreadful standard.

chompy suffered another bad beat... he will be on later no doubt to tell you all about it. Was obvious tho that he was gonna lose to the biggest fish on the table ;whistle; but he still managed a creditable 6th. Well done mate.

Pictures will def follow shortly of vegas and other attractions.

must go now to prepare for the afternoon deepstack.

Well done guys, great start Vinny!

Debbie does Dallas

but

Luton does Vegas

well done mate

Arrggghhh - have agreat time - not jealous AT ALL. l

A good opening effort from Celtic to finish fourth (still wide awake when I left at 4am, amazing stamina), although the good-looking guy he knocked out in seventh (not sixth) would have to feel aggrieved at having his aces cracked by the A10 of an inferior player. Had had way too much merlot by that point anyway and a stonking headache to go with it.
Fancy the final table of today's Venetian $300 will contain the same pair plus R.Garfield, K.O'Leary and D.Morris. That would be fun.
Early night will follow that, getting ready for the Rio tomorrow. Haven't played one there for the best part of a week now and itching to get back.

Yesterday was a bit of a blank all round. Not sure how many played the Venetian $300 but I'm guessing around 500 and, just by way of a change, I made the top 20% and had around the average when I ran KK into AA.
Myself, Evil Edna, Rob G, Kevin O'Leary, plus Celtic and The Sicilian (same table) were all within shouting distance of each other and I fancied somebody to go deep but the rest were all out within a couple of hours, as was Steve Kirk I believe.
I was hungover and just listening to the iPod most of the time, nothing to play with on a well above-average table by Vegas standards, and just sat there with around 8,000 of the opening 12,000 for the best part of three hours. I'll never be beaten for patience imo.
The blinds hit 400-800 (75), I pushed on the button with 89, the BB called with 78. That was one double up. Not long after, the most serious looking asian girl I've ever seen raised early with AJ, I pushed with AK. That was double up number two.
Then I moved table. Had worked my way up to around 45,000 and picked up KK in the SB, blinds 1000-2000. UTG made it 7,000, next door pushed for around 50,000 and I had no option. One more time, the key hand to put myself in position to go deep and...aaaah bollocks.
Don't know what became of the Luton mob in last night's $180 here, I retired early for a 12-hour sleep marathon and no sign of any of them as yet.
Off to the Rio now for the $2,000, here we go again...

Good luck Celtic in your competition tonight, you can do it I know u can. ;cheerleader;

We are both missing u lots so get the updates going!

xxxxx

Thank you, missing you both too xx


Right update time.

Since my opening night 4th i have played 4 tournies, probably too much but i dont know when or if i will be coming back to vegas so doing the sleep for 5 hours play for 15 crap. Started of with the $340 deepstack yesterday 12000 chips 40 minute clock, nice and steady, nothing silly etc. Lasted to level 3!!!. Played like a complete idiot, no excuses. Sat round the pool for an hour or so contemplating where i went wrong etc, decided on a better strategy i.e get an early night, have breakfast turn up feeling relaxed. In theory it was a great idea, in  reality it worked out like this, played the $180 evening comp, got knocked out fairly deep, played cash for 4 hours whilst struggling to stay awake, went to sleep at 5.30am, woke up at 12.15pm for a 12.00 start, ate chinese at the table, not totally sure what meat it was but my money was on alsation and rottweiller, and got knocked in Level 4!! was unlucky tho to be fair. check raised the table maniac & another player who aspired to be the table maniac all in with  9c 9d on a  Aspades   9s  6d flop, turn was  8d, river  2d, 1st guy gleefully turns over  Ac Js thinking he has it won whilst the maniac turns over  Ad Kd for the nuts!! hand plays itself to be fair given the the players involved so no complaints. Just got knocked out the evening $180 comp as well so  finally i hsve come back to my usual level after the euphoria of a 4th in the first comp.

Tomorrow i move onto ceasers for the first time, in fact it will be the first time out the venetian since i arrived, hopefully a change of venue will bring a change of luck and better standard of play from myself.

Chompy was doing ok in the $2k at the rio with average chips at the dinner break so good luck to him.

Early night for me if i can drown out the noise of the sicilian snoring ffs.

Loving this, guys, keep it a-coming, I'm as jealous as hell!

How long you there for? I'm hoping we can all hook up out there.

Following a phone call from Celtic this afternoon I can confirm that he managed to make it out of his pit at 7:30am this morning (A reason to celebrate  ;yippee; as this is a world record for Celtic who normally doesn't surface from his pit until at least after 12pm....)
Must be the heat going to his head.

Here's hoping that Caesars does bring you some new luck as my holiday depends on it!  (No pressure then!)

Good luck as always, I too am very very jealous....  Look forward to the next update.

P.s now you know what it feels like sharing a room with you!!xx

Still in the Rio $2,000 but not in the cash yet, they're only paying the top 99 and we have around 130 left.
My final table contained Neil Channing, Roberto Romanello (both now departed) and another English fella, David Gent, plus an American guy I recognised (think he went deep in the main event a few years ago) but couldn't put a name to.
Had to feel sorry for David Gent. He played fantastic stuff to get up to around 120,000, then had KK v QQ all in on a AKQ flop, only for the Aussie, who's now chip leader, to hit running diamonds for the flush. Next hand he was rivered by another decent stack and that was that. Poor guy looked devastated.
A chimp could have played the way I did yesterday (some would say etc etc). I had no decisions all day, never really had enough chips to make a move without committing myself and literally never saw those sort of hands. I just relied on sticking around and doubling up when the chances came around.
Went from 4000 to 2700 at the first break, was at 14000 at dinner and finished the day on 20700. No messing about when I return, not too bothered about making the lower cash positions, so it will be shove time.
Going to play the Caesers midday for an hour and a half first to get myself warmed up. If there is a weakness in my game, which strikes me as unlikely (rofl), it's that I sometimes need half an hour or so to get into the rhythm of things. Hopefully I'll get a table with some weak players (Celtic, The Sicilian) to get me going. Need another wake-up jobbie after some sleep-defying Scotchman rang this morning at some ungodly hour.
Been told by a respected diary reader to stop whinging on here and put in some more non-poker stuff but not sure how to go about this. The only non-poker stuff I've done the last couple of days is sleep and brush my teeth, carefully avoiding the luminous-white temporary filling.
If and when I get dumped out of the Rio extravaganza I'll probably take the afternoon/early evening off and have a wander up to the cinema to watch M.Knight Shamalamalamalam's first R-rated film.

Well, where to start is the question. I can only be happy with 22nd overall as I got lucky on day one, hitting a 5%er on the river and just scrambling my way up to 20,700, but this could easily have been my first WSOP final table. Still that's three cashes from five series events now and I can't complain at that.
The first hand I played yesterday was 88 in the BB to a button raise, I called and pushed the 23Q flop. He eventually called with 66 and that put me around 35,000.
By the dinner break I was up to around 70,000 and, not long after that, on around 140,000, with the average around 190,000. That was when I had my all-in moment with QQ v the A10 shove UTG, ace on the flop.
By this time, Dhlan (pronounced Dylan), arguably the biggest idiot on the planet, was starting to feel the effects of his brandy onslaught and was annoying everyone at the table. We'd have words soon after and, within another half hour, he'd be handed a ten-minute penalty for directing the 'F word' at the dealer. Apparently I now have a bullseye on my back for 'busting his balls' but I'll live (fingers crossed).
That defeat knocked me down to 11,000 with the blinds at 4000-8000 (500), so I pushed blind with 79. The big stack next door raised with A9 and I turned a seven. Lucky enough there.
The next hand was the one that triggered Dhlan into a frenzy. It was my BB so I was shoving any two cards with less than 30,000 back.
Cutoff, who was to Dhlan's left and had been taken under his wing, raised to 20,000. I shoved with Q5 and he, of course, called with 22. Dhlan couldn't believe it when I turned my hand over, jumped out of his chair and started shouting well-worn cliches. My exact words were 'Could you just be quiet for one minute'. Mistake...
Anyway the flop came 4 7 8 two hearts, I had the queen of hearts, and the turn was another 4. At that stage I was big favourite and rivered a 6 for the straight. This was too much for Dhlan, who was up and down the room shouting "Aah man, that's just f***ing sick, what the f*** that dude doing with queen f***ing five man?"
So, on to the hand that finished me. The same guy who'd shoved with A10 and beat me earlier shoved again for 139,000 (he had 88), I went all-in in mid position with 10 10 and the BB called with AQ.
The flop contained an 8 and that was it.
I was actually fine with it and walked out none too bothered but then it suddenly hit me when I was in the taxi back to the Venetian. I'd rather not experience that emotion again but something tells me I probably will.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY CELTIC!! :)

Hope your play/luck has improved a bit now. I have to say your updates haven't!  Not even 1 pic after begging me to take my camera with you....  I mean honestly anyone would think you were there just to play poker, eat & sleep...

Unfortunately we are unable to get a present to you as you are so many miles away!!  So Holly & I had agreed to send you a pic (unfortunately it was too big and I can't attach it!)  so I've tried to send it to your e-mail instead.) If you can call that a present?!

Anyway as we celebrated Fathers Day with you last weekend you can't be too greedy!

Happy Fathers Day to all other Blondes.

Look forward to some more updates.  Love from us both.xxx

 

I played like an idiot in yesterday's $1,500 WSOP'er, no complaints, so have decided to take today off, no poker at all. Not that there's a lot of the day left, I didn't wake up until 3pm.
Just hit the Grand Lux Cafe for a bowl of cheesy pasta and was given a table two away from Celtic, who's feeling rough after his fried egg sandwich/three beers (steady on!) last night. Fried egg sandwich? You can take the man out of Scotchland but you can't take the Scotchland out of the man.
He got a result in the Venetian evening tournament, though, picking up $2,000 in the chop.
Me old mucker Dominic (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=1510) Kay (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=1510) was also at the final table and was massive chip leader when the chop was agreed, so picked up $3,500. Well done to both. Don't know whether Dom managed his obligatory table argument with random Yank but I'll assume he did until informed otherwise.
Back to yesterday's Rio experience, I soon dropped from 3000 to 850, but managed to get up to 7000 before playing AK in pathetic style against an Aussie girl, Sarah, who I'd played with in the six-handed. Enough said about that. Will be back there this week for four or five more cracks though.
Cinema now, then will check out this much-touted Indian restaurant at the Rio before taking in Penn & Teller at the same venue.
Hope they've finally changed their show. Saw them three years ago and know they were still doing the same routine last October. Should probably check before I head over there but probably won't.

No obligatory aruments with any yanks for Dom last night. Decided to have one with a Canadian instead!!!!

Moved on to Ceasers Palace on friday, $340 freezeout, 600 odd runners $50k 1st prize. Hmmm that would be nice. So would have been lasting until the dinner break. Unfortunately i managed neither. Called a raise from Mark McCluskey GKUPT circuit regular i believe, nice guy but this was at least his 4th attempt at nicking my blinds so i decided i will see a flop and push. I happened to flop a flush draw, perfect, so pushed and he called me with top pair. Obv no flush came and that was that. So hung around for the nightly $150, played it very loose and managed to make it to level 2. Was doing things like better blind utg (which the dealer told me i wasn't allowed to do!! Really? OK I'll take it back then. She replied no, you cant take it back!! No, what i meant is I'll take it back then bet once all the cards are dealt. No you cant take it back she insisted. OK so i can bet blind then? No sir, you cant. FFS!!!! Don't try and do anything like this in Vegas when you get a dealer that is on her 1st day. Anyway she called the floor and thankfully they realised what i was doing and told her to carry on with the deal as per normal. Moved on from there to play cash at the venetian, Ended up about $150 down so decided that was enough for the day. Two strange situations happened during the day, the first one at ceasers in the deepstack comp. I'm holding  Ac 5c on a flop of  Ahrt 3d 2s 3c when the preflop raiser moves all in for 30k into a 7k pot. Nice bet sir. I have 10k and think he doest actually have an ace but hes trying to push me off cos he thinks i don't have one. So I'm siting there for no more than 30 seconds when the player is seat 10 calls for a clock!!! What? Is this right? Thoughts please!!!

The second incident was at the venetian where on a board of 10 4 4 3 2 i call a shove all in from drunk American guy. he says good call and throws his cards face up towards the dealer who then mucks thems and gets them ready to put in the shuffle machine. Then someone points out that the guy had thrown in 6 5 for the straight, to which the dealer says yeah that's right,  he had the straight. Why then did the dealer muck them? Anyway the floor was called (again) and the ruling was that if the dealer saw it and a player saw it then the pot should go the winning player!!! I didn't see what the cards where, but don't doubt that he had 6 5. Thoughts please?

Played ceasers again, on saturday, went deep but nowhere near good enough to make any impact so another tourney, another blank.  Not sure these aer the comps to play if u want to make money due to the volume of runners and potential minefields u have to get through but will keep plugging in.

took a leisurely stroll back to the Venetian, met a luton regular on the way and also a drunk celtic fan that wanted to cuddle me ffs!!!! Met chompy at the Venetian who was playing the $180, was set for any early night when he advised me that i could still enter the tourney even tho it was about to enter level 4. Great i thought, after all it was at least an hour and a half since i last played!!!! Anyway, cut a long story short (I'm starting to feel like Tikay ffs) i suggested a chop with 5 left. $3500 for Dominic Kay and $2000 for the rest of us. Job done, everyone's a winner and chompy can afford to eat today ;)

Just a final note, Dominic, who finished 5 or 6th in the wsope ME,  came up to me and introduced himself to me last night ((the power of blonde!!) We had a drink at the bar afterwards and a good laugh. Top bloke IMO. Other than he thinks Alex Martin is a decent player!!! WTF is all that about??????

 Great updates guys!....keep them coming.  ;goodluck;

 

We all have our flaws! ;)

Great updates guys, celtic, did you not throw ur pint ovet the twat when he said "good call" whilst holding an obviously winning hand. I really dont get that whole episode.

Oh and also.


Come to Luton again m3, i need some money and could use a % swap ;)

Will be at Luton in 2 weeks time for the £250

Penn & Teller absolutely top class as always. I've played with Penn's missus a few times in the Venetian night tournament, she knocks around with Andy Bloch and one or two others. Me and Dom played a final table with Mr Bloch in said tournament last October, which was pretty surreal in a $180. Yes yes, I'm sure you want to know, he finished seventh, I chopped it...
The curry house at the Rio is piss poor and The Happening was awful. How did M.Night manage to draw such a terrible performance from Mark Wahlberg, who's normally so good? Looks like Mr Shamalam is gone at the game after his last two offerings.
I didn't touch poker all day yesterday as planned but hung around the Venetian room for an hour or so. K.O'Leary had final table chips from a long way out, organised in OCD towers, and I assume he'd have gone very close. Far too good not to with that sort of stack.
Off to the Rio now for the $2,500 six handed. Now sort of wishing I'd skipped Saturday's $1500 and played yesterday's $3000 instead. Less than 1000 players for that one, which is far more managable with a 6,000 starting stack.
Looking forward to it today, as long as I don't have Dylan on my table. Please God...

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=26742.msg542707#msg542707 coulda saved ya the trip ;)

For the fifth time in five WSOP'ers I got myself a start, this time in the six-handed. It was far from the easiest table, with me stuck between Mark Vos, with whom I was very impressed (despite an Aussie at the Venetian last night referring to him as 'a cock who struts around The Crown like he owns the place') and a seriously good internet kid.
About two hours in Mr Vos and internet dude had around 25,000 and I was on 15,000. At the dinner break I'd peaked at around 25,000 and closed with 18,000. At that stage only 205 of the starting 970 remained, with 108 getting paid.
Unfortunately it didn't get any better on my new table. The blinds were up to 500-1000 (100) and beardy bloke (Manny something or other) UTG raised my BB for about the fifth time, up to 3,000. I had 15,000, looked down at QQ, stuck'em in and he called in a nanosecond with KK. Ho hum.
Back there again in half an hour for the $1,500 NLHE. Don't want to tempt fate but I'd be amazed if I didn't have an early blow out before much longer...
Now been here for exactly two weeks and, much as I love this place, I'm feeling a bit like I've hit the Vegas wall. Will see what happens today but thinking I might pull back my flight to Thursday from Sunday, that way I'll be back for the final day of Royal Ascot and a lovely weekend of Betfair IR action.
It's a case of whether I can regroup and get myself up for another three WSOPs, Wednesday through Friday. Might just toss a coin on this one.
Also, just checked out the Monday night Luton result, 1. James McBride, 2. Uncle Dick Lynch. Some things never change.

A quick word of sympathy for Miss Celtic...ur hairier half snores as bad as me and his trainers are a bio hazard..and if it wasnt for me getting him up in the morning he would never make any tourneys....and he was worried about sharing with me..

I expect my reward for gallantry to be in the post   ;sleep;

Try having that for 6 years, day in, day out.  Having to wake him up every morning for work is much harder I'm sure than waking him up for poker!!  At least you don't have to get his clothes ready too as I did that for him before he left.

I've heard he still hasn't replaced the laces in his trainers?  Has no-one realised yet that it is because he doesn't know how to tie them?  I normally have to do that as well!!

No reward for you as I'm still waiting for mine.....  Although perhaps my reward was 10 days on my own and you having the pleasure! ;cupcake;

Yeah, and he never takes that Celtic shirt off, despite having a suitcase full of clothes. Wearing the same football shirt day in day out, not for me imo...
Another result for the Scotchman last night, finishing 11th in the Venetian deepstack and again showing fine stamina and stickability. Don't know how he does it and I wouldn't be surprised to see him turn up for the 75 quidder at Luton on Friday night if he gets back in time, never seen anyone chomp at the bit for poker for so many days on the spin.
I didn't need to toss a coin in the end to decide whether to stay until Sunday or leave tomorrow, the wall that was hit on Tuesday shows no sign of following its Berlin buddy, so I'm now leaving tomorrow.
Again yesterday I got a start in the Rio $1500'er. The table was very weak and I played pretty much every hand during the first level, turning 3000 into 6000.
Then a quality Asian player turned up, while the first player knocked out was replaced by one Chris Ferguson, which made things a bit tougher.
Things then fell apart. You can only really take two or three early hits in these things before you're gone and I then took three in the space of about ten minutes.
First I raised on the button with KQ, short stack in the BB called and proceeded to push on a  Qd Th 7d board with  Td Jd. The  6d came on the river.
Then I raised with  9d 9s, called by a guy who'd only played one or two hands, flop came  Jh Qh Kc, so I just gave up on it. He had AJ.
It was then down to Jesus to knock me out. All I'll say is I got a touch unlucky with  9d 9c on a  9s 6s 3h flop. He had  Ad Js. The next two cards were  Aspades Ts. Enough said.
That seemed like a good point to end this year's WSOP experience, one that I've really enjoyed and can have no complaints about. I played six, lasted at least four hours in five of them and cashed twice, once getting unlucky not to get to the final table.
All in all it was a most pleasing trip and I'll definitely be back next year, although for no more than a two-week stint. My hat goes off to anyone that can play the entire series, it takes some doing.

thank you for your updates,a very enjoyable read

 ;hattip;

 :)up

What they all said

Hiya guys. Just to let you know chomps i 'somewhat' chopped the 180 on the wednesday. So i owe you a couple of hundred bucks. Boy i love that tournie. Nice to have met u too celtic, enjoyed the blog guys and look forward to seeing you on the circuit later in the year. Got my own blog too, link below,  if you want to have a laugh-its not exactly shakespeare!

Dom

http://domspokernews.blogspot.com/

Took a walk up to the Bellagio with Rob Garfield as other than two comps in Ceasers i hadn't left the Venetian!!!. It was surreal, walked up to the bar & Freddie Deeb was buying himself a whisky & ice. Whilst i left Rob to buy the drinks for us i wandered around the card room and sat there was Patrick Antonius, Phil Ivey, Clonie Gowen & Barry Greenstein casually playing a small cash game ;) In Bobby's room was Eli Elezra and David Benyamoune and some random donators. A very strange experience to see people in person that i had previously only seen on TV.


Since my last update i played 3 further tournies and a satelite. Firstly the satelite. A 10 handed affair for $130, top two get 'lammers' for $500 and $70 cash. 1500 chips & a 15 minute clock, great fun too with some truly awful players. 2nd hand, a guy who i had played with earlier in the day, who took great offence to anyway re-raising him or attacking his blind, so much so that he would call someone's all in blind even if it was for half his stack!!!! anyway with the blinds at 25-50 he makes it 125 to go, i look down in SB at KK so decided, with my knowledge of how he reacts to re-raises, to push for 1450 more. He says if i have u covered i call. He counts out his chips and sure enough he has 1500. so he makes the call leaving himself 25 chips and turns over  Jh 8s. I somehow manage to outdraw his monster and he seemed genuinely aggreived that he lost the hand ffs!!!! Nothing else of note until we get 6 handed. The blinds are 75-150 and i'm in the BB. UTG bets 700 of his 750 stack, 2nd to act makes it 1700 (he has 5000) 3rd to act pushes for 2600. I haven't looked at my hand yet but i'm praying for 7d 2h so i have no decision to make. 4th to act folds as does 5th. So it's down to me to act. i look at my first card and it's the Ahrt. Feck i thought, lets hope it a deuce to go with it!!, look at the next one...   Ad Jesus, better look at these again just in case. and sure enough they were both red aces. for a split second i did consider folding, then came to my senses, who would fold AA in this situation?, even if they were gonna be played 4 ways. So i was brave and decided to re-raise the moody chinese guy who had originally re-raised the utg raiser, who insta-called. Anyway on their backs times and it was Q 10 (utg was making a move.... talk about timing!!) v AK V KK V AA. AA stood up and wiped out 3 players. Live poker is so rigged IMO ;)

Next up was the $540 deepstack tourney, 15000 chips, 40 minute clock and just 250 runners. Managed to luckbox my way to 11th for a $1500 score. Not the biggest amount of money but was more pleased by my ability to grind it out from about 60 out. In the last 4 hours of this comp i had AQ twice, once outdrawing AK and the other time i had to fold pre-flop. A final table would have been nice with 1st prize of $34k but it wasn't to be sadly.

The next day i played the $540 deepstack with the intention of gathereing a lot of chips or getting knocked out as i was leaving on the thursday. I would have happily changed my flight if i knew if in with a shot of coming back for the final the next day. Arrived fashionably late, and played my first hand, with the blinds at 50-100 i raised to 400 on the button with  Jd Th and the BB called. The flop was  Ahrt Kd Qs Nice i thought. The BB checked and i bet 600 trying to make it look like a c-bet that had missed, he re-raised to 2000, i gave it a massive hollywood and flat called. the turn was  4c again he checked so i bet 1200, to which he made it 6000!!!! At this point it was obvious all his chips were coming in so i put the rest of my stack in and he called and flipped over  Kc Kh. He had trapped me, or so he had thought. No my friend i have trapped you. Well at least that's what i thought!!! I turned over my 10 J and he was nearly sick, but don't despair, this is live poker, its fixed and the  4d duly arrived to house him up and i was on my way ffs.

The night time tourney was a bit of a wash out too unfortunately, got it all in with AK which was instantly called by mid-position man for half his stack with  6c 6d and two hours of trying to build a playable stack was wiped out in 30 seconds. And that was it!! No more poker in Vegas. :'( :'( :'(

It was midnight and too early for bed so me, Rob & the sicilian took a walk up to the Bellagio so the sicilian could see it. unfortunately for him there was no big names for him to see. Only Mark Telscher but no sign of his equally if not more talented sister ::) so we got into a cab and headed for our first trip to the Rio. For those of you that have never been then all i can say is WOW!!!! We watched the closing stages of day 1 of the $1500 Omaha re-buy, still in were Eric Seidel, Layne Flack, Marc Goodwin & Barney Boatman amongst others. We then went to have a look at the other rooms were they hold the satelites etc sat there was Mick McCool. I like Mick and had a chat with him and i'm glad he seems to hopefully be recovering from his recent illness problems. Fingers crossed he makes a full recovery. Also spotted in the Rio were the Hit Squad, Joe Hachem & half of Tikays's great friends Hinge & Bracket.

So that was that, time to go back to the Venetian for the last time. 10 days of poker, poker & more poker brought to an end. Its been a great 10 days. I've met some great people over the last ten days, Dominic Kay, who  has a great game and will do well in poker, will definitely meet up with him again. Tom Middleton sp? and his mate Boz? from Leeds, Adam Vinson, only met him on the last day but seemed a nice guy, Kim Phuc (CrazyKamikazeePhucker) on ipoker who has gone from $2 sit n go's 2 years ago to having a $100k bankroll. ECOOP omaha champ last time round. Have known him for a couple of years but finally got to meet in him in Vegas!!!! Thanks to Rob & Kevin O'Leary for their advise before & during the trip, and thanks to the sicilian for putting up with my trainers and waking me up in time for the early midday starts!!!!

And a big thank you to the person that made it all possible!!!! It has certainly given me a taste to go back and thats what i will be working towards from now on.

Thanks for reading.

An excellent closing entry from Celtic and what a top-class Vegas visit that was. Looks like another trip is provisionally being pencilled in for October, if not next February, for another Venetian deep-stack festival.
The place was full of Brits, French and Germans, more than I can ever remember, while the Yanks present seemed to have more money than poker prowess. Can't think of a better time to go for anyone who's pondering a trip. The exchange rate will never be better and the Venetian is impossible to beat for value for money, especially incoporating the poker rate.

I loved reading this - thanks guys. Looking forward to the next one  ;D

excellent read bhoys! enjoyed it all the way. 

I need to get myself to Vegas :)

Ok folks. We're doing it all again!!! Chompy is off tomorrow & I follow out on thursday. A few other lutonians going on wednesday and will be concentrating on the venetian deepstacks.

We will be updating our progress (or lack of it in some cases) on here as we know how much you enjoyed it last time and we wouldn't want to disappoint you all. Photo's will appear this time, any requests then feel free to ask and i'll see what i can do.

Good luck us!!!!

good luck - have fun!

Here's a brief intro to the Lutonian folk going on this trip...
Jim McBride - Very solid, quality player who's rarely been dry in recent times but is on a barren run at the moment. Fancy him to do well.
Mel Fowler (aka Swerve) - Hot and cold but, like his Circus Circus room buddy (nice choice of location, lol) comes here cold. If he starts well the results will come, if not he could lose interest and switch to blackjack imo.
Keith Miller (aka Megladon, aka Megadong) - Watch out Vegas, here comes Mega! Ever heard 600 players simultaneously asking 'You still in Keith'? Well, get ready.
Vints Calenti (aka Celtic) - Hooped shirt packed and ready for action. Action being sit down, fold aces, queens, queens again, stand up, smoke fag, retire to room.
Dominic Ricepierse (aka rice'n'peas) - the unknown quantity to some extent. Played with him a few times at the western and at the G and seems above average to me. Sharing a room with Megadong.
Me - Totally out of love with the game for some weeks now, so taken a break from live poker, and now ready to go again. Awful player but due a run of luck imo. If I see MDD or anyone that looks like him, I'm playing roulette instead.
Also present - Kevin O'Leary

Chezger fly out on Thurs as well (also Friday & Saturday - we don't do travel arrangements very well)

GL out there, plenty of photos will be good.

Best of luck lads enjoy it glglglgl

im flyin out on weds 12th...any of u lot still there ?

Good luck guys..have had jealousy organ removed in order to make this post..would be with u but have promised kids Disney first.. God what was i thinking ?

Good luck guys. Win loads.

What was that line in the Life of Brian

you lucky, lucky........

the last word escapes me.
Have a great time guys

So envious.......

Enjoy. And LOTS of pictures, please.

The flight was less eventful than last time, no teeth chipped by toberones or knees crushed by 110-year-old asian women.
I wasn't sure how flying in on election day would alter things but it looked bad when the queue to get through passport check was about 1000-long. Saw a queue jumper get nabbed and shunted to the back of the line but, as always with the Yanks, they had it under control and everyone was through within an hour.
I probably wouldn't go through Washington again. It means two flights of seven hours and five hours and the second one is a killer. Probably best to go through Denver or San Francisco and keep the second one as a shorty imo.
The worst thing that happened was finding out Mama Mia! was the in-flight movie from Washington.
Didn't think it would be my sort of thing and it wasn't. I remember seeing it advertised at Huntingdon Cineworld during the great film drought of September as follows:
Deluxe screen: Mama Mia! (singalong): 3.00pm 6.00pm 9.00pm
Most of the stars were just there for a singalong too imo. Julie Walters sings Mrs Overall, Pierce Brosnan talks along and Colin Firth does Hugh Grant doing karaoke.
I just don't get musicals. Always liked that line about Moulin Rouge. "I went to see Moulin Rouge the other night but some idiot ruined it for us all by shouting the whole way through. It was Ewan McGragor."
Ready for action now, $300 Venetian at midday. They've been getting around 350 runners apparently, which is about right. The $1,000 on Sunday only got 75 but that still compared favourably to Caesars' $500 the same afternoon, which only got 80.
Time to run like MDD...

gl guys, when u bk?

chompy there til the 13th i think, ive booked til the 15th. When u going rooks?

Give that man an O Level.  He's finally got it :)

:(

17th mate. Nevermind.

Always seen Chompy more as an "A" level type.

Lol, could be..

gl guys, literally green w envy. take it down!

(not sure what "it" is but just do)

LOL. Not sure how out loud I just laughed, as I'm ipod-ed up in the Venetian business centre, but at least two turned away from their VDU in my direction.

It's easy to forget just how bad the standard is over here. We're not talking Seb-bad, or even The Sicilian-bad, this is tragic stuff.
No joy in the $330 yesterday, lasted around four hours, never much above starting stack. Didn't do a lot wrong but didn't do anything earth shattering either, not quite there at the moment but it will come (hopefully).
Anyway, about half an hour in, a big beardy dude came in to my right having just bought in. He didn't do a lot for a while, then the blinds hit 100-200 and he starting going for it a bit.
In two hands he managed this.
Raise to 625 on the button, BB called, 1350 in the middle. Flop jack high. BB checks, beardy bets 3000, BB calls. Turn nothing exciting. BB checks, beardy puts BB all in, BB calls. Beardy KK, BB JJ.
Beardy now down to 4600. Folded round to him. He goes all in, yep, that's 4600 into 300. BB calls with JJ. Beardy reveals his stunning 77 and duly turns the set.
Just LEARN HOW TO BET PROPERLY FFS.
Another one that stuck in the memory from later went like this.
Blinds 300-600, big stack min raises. BB re-min raises. BS re-min raises. BB calls. Flop comes ace high three spades. BB checks, BS goes all in, BB with about 10000 back calls. BS has 55 with a spade. BB has A5.
Turn is a spade. BB goes ballistic and I mean ballistic. LMFAO.
Otherwise they've completely ballsed up the evening tournament at the Venetian. It was speedy enough before, when it was $180 buy in, 30-min levels. Now they'vre made it $120 buy-in, 20-min levels. No interest in that nonsense, so have just been hunting around for alternatives.
Tonight it will have to be Caesars, where they at least still have 30min levels.
Tomorrow will be here, $200 with 30min levels (should have this every night).
Saturday Binion's, which looks a good one. Always try to get there for at least one tournament each trip.
Bellagio $500 apparently only got 18 runners yesterday, which ain't much cop.
The Luton foursome arrived yesterday and, after fillet mignon x 4 at the Grand Lux (good choice), hit the satellite table. Crazy scenes imo, take it easy first night. Mega looked shattered (unusually) and didn't last long (not unusually).
Celtic and Mrs Celtic arrive later.
Gym now, that six pack didn't create itself you know.

Tell Celtic that pictures of hooped jerseys in vegas will go down well with (most) of the Blonde Scots. We can send them to Fergus to seethe at later...

lmao

We're not talking Seb-bad, or even The Sicilian-bad

Just to be mentioned in the same breath as the great one.................

Get back to your shakes'n'water please

LOL Cashaments imo.
Five Lutoners started yesterday's $340 and first out was...Keith. Desperate scenes, all in with KK v QQ on an AKQ flop, queen on the river. Next out was Jim McBride after three hours or so.
Myself, Mel and Rice'n'peas all got to the final 50 or so but they went before the money was reached. I went out 24th for a handsome return of $469. Marvellous.
I got knocked out by a 'whooper'. What a nob. All in on a 555 flop, me A9, him 10 10. 10 on the turn and he was out of his seat, fist pumping and giving it the full Dylan Bircheff. If only that other five had come on the river.
It was roller coaster stuff from early. Lost a 40,000 pot with the blinds at 100-200 against yet another Vegas A8 genius, all in on a  4c 6c 8c, him with  Ac 8h, me with  Qc Qs. Queens are a pain in the arse at the moment.
Two hands later I trebled up with  Qs Jd on a  Th 9s 8h flop, against  7s Jc and  8s 8c.
Then had KK two hands running, firstly doubling up someone with 66, then trebling up v A9 and AQ.
The most amazing thing happened on the table next door about an hour in. Three players all in on the flop, set over set over set. Bottom set then hit quads on the river. Fix imo.
Strongly fancy a big result for a Lutoner today, with Celtic making six of us playing the $540. Hooped-shirt boy was still going strong when I pulled the plug just after midnight last night. I really don't understand that kind of energy.
Bought a $150 five-day gym pass yesterday to help force myself back down there this morning. I must admit I don't find it as easy as in my regular gym back in carrot-cruncher territory, where watching the soft porn channel MTV Dance helps relieve the boredom but it has to be done. That weight has to go and there's no point even trying the S.Galloway/Snat/Tighty shakes gig, I know I couldn't do it.
Gym, final table and fillet mignon ftw.

Keep this Diary going boys, it's a great read.

[ ] A good start!!

Arrived safely, wish i'd got lost on the way to the cardroom tho. American players really are dumb when playing poker and i'll never understand why they always seem to get lucky. Anyway, played the $120 donkament on arrival and was doing nicely on about 21k, blinds 600-1200, G.I. Doe makes it 3500 from MP, i shove with AK from the small blinds and his remaining 15k is in the middle before mine. oops!!! He turns over AJ, sees my hand and says oh i thought u might have that!!! Safe flop of K 8 2 didn't prepare me for the J turn or the J river but it was all worth it to see him celebrate like he had won the world series! Got the rest of my chips in 2 hands later with AK and the SB made a brave call with AA ;). Played a bit of 1/2 cash followed by an unsuccessful sat and headed to bed.

Played todays $550 deepstack, too many shocking things to report, other than i just bubbled :'( I blame the prof clump lookalike that thought it would be good to isolate with 66 when the shortstack (less than a blind) went all in UTG with 99. he managed to get AK & 10 10 to fold!!  Nae mind, early days yet and will try again tomorrow. One of the big stacks wouldn't do a deal for the bubble as he wanted to be able to pressure the small stacks, then never played a hand for an hour. I hope he gets syphilis. But i'm not bitter obv.

I hope he gets syphilis

Sounds like internet player chatbox response IMO

wots the exchange rate like over there?

Celtic very unlucky yesterday, more moronic shove monkeys killing him. 103,000 at the dinner, which was double average, but then small blind shoved 40,000 with the blinds at 1000-2000, Celtic AK in the BB. Hard not to call imo. SB turns over 44 and, as usual, that kind of donkeyness gets rewarded.
Back to today's $500, on break, came to check out the Posh score and then realised the game was put back to Sunday. FFS.

moch the same as it is over here?

bump. whats happening.

It's been kind of like June for me so far, playing really well and consistently going deep but not cashing, or not to any great extent.
So far it's been non-stop poker and nothing else for five days. Went out after around six hours on Friday after losing a race (six Lutoners started, first one out was...Keith) and the same thing yesterday, although this time I made it through the dinner break and lasted another...two hands.
Only had 18,000 with 30secs left to dinner with the average at 53,000. Any two and they were going in.
UTG made it 4,100, in they went with 57, he called with AJ, flop came 5 5 10, all aboard, woo woo. Staggered they were, staggered. A couple of WTF comments and 'wow dude you sure like to gamble'. LOL. It was pleasing to do it against one of the new breed of OTT Hollywooders too.
First hand back was 99. Raise, 6,000, young guy next door all in for 30,000, call. He has A10, er well played, so on so on.
That knocked me down to around 12,000 and this was when the fun and games started. In they went with 9 10, folded round to the blinds.
BB asks how the dealer how much, dealer replies "12,300". He's not keen but reluctantly says "OK, I call". I turn my cards over. Now the small blind, a German guy I think, pipes up and says that he still has cards. These had been hidden behind his chips.
He stands up, looks at my cards, thinks to himself, 'hmm the BB didn't want to call' and goes all in for 50,000 odd. The big blind folds. Germany turns over KJ.
Now before the dealer does any more, I'm informed that, if I win the hand, I'll be getting a ten-minute penalty for exposing my cards. Roffle.
I miss. Germany punches the air. Nice. He was gone within another half an hour. Good.
Stil, alll that meant I was just in time for the $120 donkeyfest. Won the first hand, doubled up on the second hand, flopping top set (7's) v KQ (nice hand) and then...bubbled.
With three tables left, myself, Celtic and Rice'n'peas were all going well, but they both went around 15th, Celtic getting knocked out by a young French guy who went on to make himself look a right tit at the start of the final table.
First he put around 80,000 of his 120,000 chips in his pocket while moving seats. The rule is that these chips are then no longer in play but he was cut some slack and just fined one round of blinds and antes. That was fair enough imo and you'd think he'd have been happy.
But then everyone wanted to pay the bubble their entry fee back bar him. Cock. He changed his mind. Then everyone agreed to a five-minute break bar him. "Non, ten". Cock. He also 'whooped' a couple of times after winning big pots. 'Whooping' should incur an automatic ten-minute penalty.
One rule they are really tight on here at the moment is not talking about your hand heads up. I've pushed it to the limits a couple of times now but haven't yet been given a penalty. Whether I can make it through another five days without picking one up remains to be seen though.
On the subject of penalties I nearly got another guy one yesterday. Had been chatting to the bloke to my right about the WSOP final table and whether it was possible to get tickets. I've got a t-shirt I'm desperate to try out on TV.
Anyway, he knows Dennis Phillips, who'd been given a load of tickets. I asked any chance of finding out if he's got any left and he called him during the hand before it was due to be his BB.
He was still on the phone when the cards were dealt and the dealer, a jobsworth, called for the floor before telling the BB he'd broken the rule.
I said it was my fault he was on the phone and he let it go. He did. Otherwise BB would have got a penalty for doing me a favour. That can't be right.
PS, no tickets FFS.
PPS, three days in and no sign of a Celtic shirt. Backers of that particular 100-1 shot can go collect their winnings.

Nowt to report really, played like a complete tit in the $500 deepstack. totally my fault, went deep in the evening comp and made a horrible call after being put all in on the river. Had too many chips comitted to fold top pair 4 kicker :D. Played a bit of 1/2 cash and again made a nice profit. Moving on to the $1000 deepstack today. Good luck me!!!

ps football shirt latest just in. Peterborough 3 Celtic 0.... i have a feeling its gonna be 4-0 soon..... me and chompy will be off to the rio at some point soon.. we have a very important message for those guys that have made it to the final table............................................

Please dont make the reports too long or detailed...

ok then i wont...

just got knocked out the 1k deepstack. 88 no good on a 875 flop after Mr german called pre-flop raise with 64 :D :D turn k river j no help.

$330 deepstack tomorrow. i'm gonna win it imo.

Beware the power of the 6, 4....

As regards the whooping. I find a well placed put down on the lines of "sir, you have a lot of class......you just disguise it well" tends to work for me. Obviously should be used sparingly and only when not involved in the pot.

Serial whoopers should just be smacked in the gob though.....

Enjoying the diary muchly

how many runners are the 550 and 330 tournys gettin guys ?

Field sizes are down from the summer but still plenty big enough. Yesterday's $340 somewhere around 350 I think. Sunday's $1,000 got just over 100. The $550s have been getting around 200.
Last night's evening tournament got 129. Now, let me see, who won it...blatent brag coming...oh yes, me.
It was chopped of course, five ways, yours truly with 410,000 chips, Jim McBride second with around 320,000. The Luton boys are back!
I arrived half an hour late and ended up on the same table as Celtic and Kevin O'Leary. KO'L won comedy moment of the night award for this...
An older player at the table, short stacked, said he could instead have been shooting craps and having a cigar. KO'L "Or shooting cigars and having a crap." That got me.
Drunk way too much. Those tumblers of merlot must be half a bottle a pop. Oops.
Nobody lasted long in yesterday's $300 and not a great deal else to report. Finally spent some time in the room and tried a film. Mirrors. Crap. No Chompy stars out of ten for that pile of pap.
Switched over to ESPN2 and caught a few WSOP ME shows, from the final 27 down to the final nine. Joe Bishop is what poker should be all about, apart from the slowroll with ace king for which he was roundly booed by the rest of the table.
Tiffany Michelle is what poker is NOT all about. She just came across as an utter bitch imo. Apparently a former beauty pageanter. Who'd have guessed?
Another $340 now, then either the evening tournament or off to see this poker show they've got on here, The Real Deal. Got free tickets if I want them but nobody seemed able to explain what the show is or how it works.
They say you don't need to know how to play poker in order to enjoy it, so it should be ideal for Celtic.
PS, still no Celtic shirt on display. WTF?
PPS, childish play of the night. Blinds 50-100, I raise to 250 UTG with 23 off. Celtic re-raises to 900 with 69 off. Honestly...

so, going back a couple of days, me and chompy paid a visit to the rio for the final table of the ME. We felt it was best to warn the finalist that whilst they have done well so far, they should always remember one thing.............

 rotflmfao rotflmfao rotflmfao

following on from the set v straight flop in the 1k, i got over it and played the $330 deepstack the next day. Managed to get up to 21k from starting 12k in the first level. Everyone seem to want to call a raise pre-flop and fold on the flop. It was great. My favourite was the guy who folded AK face up on a board of A, K, J, 10, 2. I felt bad showing him 9 3 but he asked so i obliged..... anyway, karma took over and in the 2nd level i called a raise of 400 from a tight player with 88, another lady called and flop came 8 7 5. hmmm that looks familiar. Mr tight bets 1k, miss lady makes it 2.5k, so i make it 19k. Mr tight fold (JJ) very quickly and miss lady, who has 12k @ 50-100 says, this a bad call but but i call. She has 9 10 and the rest is history. Later when down to 10 bb managed to shove j7 into 4 limpers just to pick up the blinds & antes but Mateyboy 1 had 425 in the pot so was commited to call with jq and 3 people to act after him as was 78 which i can understand a bit more. Anyway that was that. $120 evening comp was good fun while i lasted which wasn't for long really. All night cash game was good, playing 1/2. won a nice pot finding KK on the button, re-raising to $50 then getting the utg raiser to re-shove for $283 more. Felt a bit better about my hand after the BB exposed AJ by mistake & The guy to my right exposed AK what seemed like in frustration at the utg shove. Board blanked for once and i was off to bed. ready to be up in 4 hours for the next comp. $330 on tusday was a waste of time. Managed to get it all in on the ace high flop with AK v AQ and the river signalled the end of another competion without success's. Just got back from the evening $120 crapshoot which i bubbled!!! Ran 22 in to QQ. So, a few more comps to try and do something productive, $330 tomorrow, Thursday & Friday then back home. Would be nice to be able to post something positive before then... if not, then so be it. Had a great time, Kirsty is out here with me and is having a great time, went & done some of the tourist things, madame Tussuad's, gondola rides, looking at dolphins etc. Was nice to get out the poker room. I have seen her for about 15 hours since we arrived and she seems to be loving it. She's off to the grand canyon tomorrow (on her own) she's a better man than me!!! Good luck with that!!! Thats all for now, gonna try & post a few more pics if i can.

ps well done chompy on winning the evening comp on monday, i knew if he wore that peterborough shirt for long enough it would be lucky for him.

football shirt count.... peterborough 6 celtic 1. wp chompy.

Ooh this needs some love.

NOW THATS FUCKING FUNNY  !!!   i ACTUALLY LAUGHED OUT LOUD...

p.s.  Glad you boys have finally realised but there was no need to tell everyone..

This is it, my final day and I'm determined to go out and do something non poker tonight.
That said I'll doubtless sit down in the $120 at 7pm after busting out of the $330, which I'll be playing aggressively, and will go from there.
I need another cash of some description to break even this time but fingers crossed it will come somewhere. Might even play a bit of cash to see if I can push into plus figures. Will be wearing my new lucky t-shirt for sure.

And now the end is near, plane to Washington in a couple of hours. Already looking forward to the bacon and sausage sandwich at the Pot Belly Sandwich Factory in the morning.
It's been a pleasing enough trip, although it was pure poker and nothing else. I never even left the Venetian until last night, which meant eight nights in one spot.
I'd reckon I averaged 10 hours' table time a day, often went deep but only managed two cashes, one minor cash in a deepstack plus the night tournament win. That night tournament has been good to me the last 12 months or so.
So what's been learned from the trip? Celtic runs bad over here, Jim needs to adapt his game for the deepstacks if he's to have another go at them. Keith got unlucky several times but never really threatened to cash (cashless trip to Vegas is henceforth known as 'doing a Sicilian').
Kevin O'Leary is a top man. When I bought in for the $1000 the other day there was some confusion about how much to enter but I was told definitely $1060, not $1070. This was without the staff bonus and extra 2500 chips though.
Anthony, one of the cardroom managers, rang KO'L at 1.30am when he was in bed. KO'L came down to pay the extra $10. Above and beyond imo.
I'll probably be back for another ten dayer in Febraury if they're running the deepstack again, but already thinking ahead to the WSOP next summer (all things being equal).
Some can stay in a hotel for a month but I'm thinking an apartment plus a couple of rooms, one at the Venetian and one at the Rio, split three ways is the future. Need a bit of drudge occasionally, as in shopping, getting petrol, tidying up the house, so on. Got a couple of ideas for sharers but it's a long way off.
PS, Celtic, check your PM...

Nice one lads. Have a safe trip back.

My turn monday :)  Cant wait!

Will you be penning a diary Rookie? Would you like to borrow my t-shirt?

I dunno about a diary tbh. I don't think there would be much interest, although I plan to take a million comedy pics!

ROFL, your tshirts were brilliant. I wouldn't want to overuse them! haha.

You could not be more wrong!

LOL.. Because you would know what its like to write an interesting and successful diary! Pah..

Managed to maintain my 100% record of not cashing in the deepstacks.... AJ on a AJ4 flop got me, guy had pockets 4's. it wasnt going to be any other way for me on that flop. Last chance for me tomorrow in the $500, Need to get a big enough stack to justify coming back for day 2 on saturday & changing my flight. If not then i consider this a disappointing trip poker wise obviously, but glad i came and will hopefully come back in the summer. We'll see!! Played a some cash 1/2 NL and again had a winning session, went along along to a new show they're doing at the venetian call the real deal.. bit strange, 2 pro's, 1 famous american comedian, a dolly bird co-host that is totally not required and an audience of whooping americans / canadians. Almost everyone wins a prize and six 'lucky' audience members get to play a turbo sng along with the pro's, which today were daniel negranu & jennifer harman. If you get the time to go, then do it, but you will only probably do it once IMO. I can't really believe the celebrity status the poker players get over here. Oh and don't buy tickets... they're giving them away in the cardroom about 2 hours before it starts.

Finished the show and after dinner went to caesers palace & onto the stratosphere to do some shopping and sight-seeing with kirsty. Thats another two hours we spent together. Must be nearly 20 in total for the trip. She'll be beginning to think i like her!!! Escorted her back to the hotel reception, made my excuses and headed for the poker room. No evening tourney at the venetian tonight  so it was back to 1/2 cash. Nothing spectacular for the 1st couple of hours, up $150 or so, then 4 friends from miami turn up and all buy in for the max. I pass on a midnight dinner invitation from Kevin and stay in the cash game to see what happens. Miami boy number is getting bored and has been wiped out for his first $300, re-loads for 2 more and says, right, who wants to do a 7 2 prop bet?.... half the table agree and if anyone can win a pot with 7 2 they get $5 per man..... $10 from the guy who it turns out later is his brother. 20 minutes later, the guy who initiates the bet raises to $11 early position. Not something new, he has been open raising most pots from all over the table. It folds round to me on the button and i make it $35 with err 7 2, hoping he fecks off and i collect the bet from the table. Shit! he calls. No prob, i have position, i'll bluff him off it on the flop. Flop comes  Qs 7s 7h ;D He checks & i bet $50, he calls, hmmm, turn  Kd. He has been very fond of 10 J and if thats what he has, or a flush draw then i obv dont want him to get there on the end. I ask him how much he has left ($183) so i put him all in. He calls after a short while with AQ and the river is a harmless 6. i turn over the 7 2 and he is lets say shell shocked. As is the rest of the table and the game broke almost immediately. $500+ pot that should never have happened, but obv glad it did!!

Chompy has gone now, tho i did hear a rumour that his peterborugh shirt had made it's own way to the card room, after all it's spent 80 hours minimum in there ;) Safe journey for him.

$muszles$ arrived yesterday and was straight in the deepstack today, finished about 50th i believe and was doing ok on a cash table when i seen him around midnight.

Final tourney report tomorrow, lets hope its something positive.

Get it done imo. Breaks up the day and something bar poker to engage the brain.
You will NOT believe how bad the standard is in the £340 deepstacks if you're planning on playing them. Here's one final exit report from my last $340...
Nobody at the table wanted to play a hand so I raised at least 70% of the time, most of the time picking up blinds. Come the first break I was up from 12,500 to around 20,000.
Midway through the 100-200(25) level I was on 25,000, with the only other big stack on my table to my left. He'd shoved with KK and been called with AQ; the way these guys usually get chips, wait for a hand, stick'em in and hope someone else has a hand against you, ie, A8, KQ, KJ sooted etc.
So I had  Ahrt Kh UTG and made it 700. Guy next to me called, everyone else passed, just for a change.
Flop came  Qh Th 3s, I bet 1,600, he made it 4,000. I went all in. He called in a second with AQ. No 'hmm, I wonder if he has kings or aces', just 'I've got top pair top kicker, I'm a complete donkey, I call for another 20,000 odd.'
Anyway, good trip, small loss, nothing to worry about. Good to be back, might play the Western £200 on Tuesday. Plus Palm Beach have rejigged their schedule, so a wander up there beckons.
Otherwise, lashing of gym and Betfair ftw. Need to ship a stone in the next month and a bit. No way I'm being beaten on the multi-dimensional weight-loss front.
PS, Four different Posh shirts were worn during the making of this diary.
PPS, Good report Celtic but no mention of Miss pkr.com from the satellite table the other night a shocking omission.

Sigh, back home & missing vegas already. Finished up on friday with the $550 deepstack. 15k and managed to last just short of 3 levels. 18k in front of me i call a raise of 800 with K9hh, not a normal call but was playing most flops with position trying to accumulate chips as was due to fly back saturday and wanted to have a big stack if i was to change my flight. Anyway flop came 6h 7d 8h. he bets 500!!, i move all in for 17k and he insta calls witk AK no hearts ;tightend; Blank Blank and gone. played some more 1-2 cash for a couple of hours then moved on to the evening $120 crapshoot, 7.5k start stack, 20 minute blinds, great fun but a complete shove fest once the blinds get to 300-600. Spent the first 4 levels trying to get knocked out but somehow managed to still have 5k at the break, opening table was like a bad home game. 7 players minimum seeing a flop, 6 seeing the turn and generally 3 people at showdown. 1st hand after the break i call an 1100 raise with  3h 5s, flop was  7h Jc 9h. Rosanne's husband checks so i shove for 3kish and he calls with 77. oops!!! anyway runner runner hearts and im back up to 11k, next hand i raise with A10 and get called by 4 people, i bet 2700 on a JQ4 flop and manage to shake one of them off. turn is the K ;yippee; so i move all in and get one caller who turns over AK. thats me on 27k!!! Then i managed to outdraw AJ on a 992 flop witk KK and im up over 50k!!! Get moved off that table and increase to about 65k just nicking the blinds and antes. Then get moved again and manage to do half my stack with AQ on a QJ7 flop. i played the hand horribly and got what i deserved imo. Very next hand, same guy raises to 4k and i shove for 30k ish with AQ, he's capable of laying a lot of hands down here, unlike the small blind who puts his last 20k in with A 10 and hits the 10ffs!!!! Straight to a break and ive done 50k in 2 hands. Managed to get it back up to 20k then call a shortish all in with 77 he has 88 and some smart arse says he had a 7. Thanks for that, somehow the case 7 hits the river and im back in it again. then utg skandie from stockholm shoves for 18k. i had been ribbing him all night that the swedes were mad etc. Everyone folds round to me in the BB and i say to him, i have 7 high, which is probably in front so i call. He laughs and says... good call and turns over 5 3 LMAO. He hits the 5 everyone laughs and we move on!!! Back short again i shove with 10 J get called by A2 who bangs the table on a 9 8 2 flop thinking he had won, he also banged the 3 turn and Q river still thinking he had won. I felt it was only fair to point out that a straight beats a pair in poker!!! Managed to get to the final table shortstacked, 1st hand there's an early pos raise, then a shove all in and i find KK on the button. They hold v 66 & 77 and im up to 140k from 48k. With 6 left we agree to $1500 each and play for the remaining $1100, i eventually go out 3/135 to finish on a sort of high. Outlasting Pam & Todd Brunson who were playing it for some reason.

So a great time, but ultimately dissapointed with the poker results if i'm totally honest.

PS  [ ] Chompy really did have 4 peterborough tops

LOL, nice bet sir. 17,000 into a pot of 2,500? Ten days in Vegas and you start playing like one of them?
Often see pros and celebs in that evening Venetian tournament.
PS, [X] Five Posh shirts were packed but only four worn.

yeah yeah i know, was a good opportunity for a double up IMO.