blonde poker forum

Roll up roll up - last chance to qualify for the english and ireland poker teams for the inaugural Grand Slam. Team Wales captained by el blondie himself....

this is your chance bucko, make your parents proud, your friends jealous and your partner interested: Represent your country at poker!  :D

get details on the event here:
http://www.paddypowerpoker.com/grandslam (http://www.paddypowerpoker.com/grandslam/)

online grand final is on at 10pm on 28th (feeder on 27th for $10)
it's a $99 freezeout. package includes €5,000 entry and hotel accom.

teams from england, northern ireland, rep of ireland, scotland, wales, france and sweden will compete for country and individual prizes.

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Unfortunately I can't enter, because although I hold the correct passport (well, see below...) and I am English by birth, I dont have an address in England. How lame!!!

So, by these rules you are not English by birth, but only by where you live!?!?!?!

And how the hell do you distinguish between an "Scottish" and an "English" passport (Or a Northern Ireland one for that matter) because they are all the same BRITISH passport...

     


    Why were we Scots not given an opportunity to qualify for our team?

  According to my information, the General Manager of an Edinburgh casino picked the team.

   This is, therefore, not a Scottish team, but an Edinburgh one.

  Is this sour grapes?  You bet it is.

Stu, don't bet around the bush.... name and shame.

The general manager of Gala Maybury, Edinburgh, picked the team as some sort of promotional exercise for gala. Pity, his team won't last five seconds.

hum seeing as i aint a member of the gala edinburgh looks like the pride of scotland wont be playing this year

Although the method for picking the team was somewhat brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. They're still Scottish and I for one am behind them all the way. Cmooooooooooooon you big bunch o' jessies! Ra ra ra and an aaayyyyaaaaaaarrrrrrrr to boot!

whit a waste of time for them competing, they be as well yanking down their breeks and bending over the table cos either way they are taking one for their country. I think I will abstain from following this tourney just because I am a bitter be bugger.

Hi Mikky- i'll see what i can do about this. We have strict guidelines in place to avoid a situation where people would try to qualify for countries that they are not from, but we never intended to exclude genuine players.


Hi Stu - can only apologise for the absence of online qualifiers for Scotland. Perhaps if we had more time to promote online qualification things would have been different. Liam Flood our tournament consultant selected the captains for each country and he's done a good job, i hear what you're saying though and i guess this isn't very democratic (in the poker sense of the word) and I appreciate this method will inevitably not be to everyones taste.

Since this is the grand slam's first year, we can promote the event, develop it's profile and hopefully next year we can offer the opportunity of online qualifiers for all countries.

paddypoker,

blonde could help with this, in any of several ways, & we are certainly willing to help. There are many Scots on blonde, & we's like to try & ensure their interests are safeguarded.

What a guy, it's such a task trying to keep poker players happy.

Good luck to everyone who's job this is.

Not an enviable task! We (paddypoker & myself) have exchanged 2 or 3 OPM's, & we will see if we can assist with this.

i just thought i could try and quailfy for england and then lose to scotland on purpose

now where are the quailfiers?

ah that's the great thing about forums, people can come together and discuss things and together we can find the optimum strategies for things, etc.

:D you'll have to put an english accent on for the cameras!

I'm no too fussed as it's a win-win situation for us jocks.

If we lose we can complain about the selection process being a joke up here and dismiss the result as immaterial.

If we win, ra ra ra, Scotland are the best :D

have you heard my accent? king english mate

easy to pull off

king english mate


OR Kings English even

LOL

Though Queens English surely?

LMAO What a muppet i am. is it really Queens English.

I been gone far too long  >:?

I think it's dependant on who is on the throne at the time.

Ah so it would be Bundles English since i just got off the throne

The point is tank that its a win win situation for Gala.  They have offered to pay for travel and accomodation (about £300) in return for wearing Gala merchnadise and six mugs from Edinburgh think thats a good deal, when other teams are trying for full sponsorship.

You are joking me? Is that all!? £300 lousy quid. Then again, those fish in Edinburgh would bite your hand off for a burger. Well, thats if they actually had teeth to eat with! Fnar fnar...

Glad theres no scotland qualifier, I wouldn't want any chance of facing off against my wife :D

Dave Colclough, why is there no wales qualifier? Afraid you might get one or two sheep playing alongside you? :D My granddad was welsh, and in footballing terms that would have qualified me to enter... then again, I'd need to find a woolly coat from somewhere if I won.

Seriously though, thanks tikay and pokerpaddy for taking the time to investigate this. :respect:

The Welsh Team in their infinite wisdom, went out & found themselves a proper Sponsor - Betfred I believe.

Why don't the Scottish Team do the same? Unless, of ourse, they already have, in the form of Gala. I have no problem with Gala, but I'd have to think that the Team have sold themselves short, if that is all they are getting.

The captain is a fool with no teeth, the fact that the team is filled with fish speaks volumes.

I've had a chat with the peeps from PaddyPower, & the situation seems to be this.

Liam Flood chose one player from each country to nominate/select the Team for that Country, with the caveat that each Team would have one online qualifier. So the situation with the Scotland Team appears to be done & dusted, & with the Grand Slam taking place at Star City (Birmingham) on January 9th, it's a bit late in the day to be changing it now.

The Online Qualifiers for the England & Northern Ireland Teams (TWO Teams....) are due to take place tonight, but only have a few Registered players right now - I think there are only 4 down to play for the England "Qualifier" tonight. So if you fancy a crack at playing for England, or Northern Ireland, then play the qualifier. It's a $100 Freezeout, & the winning package is valued at $6k I think, being the Entry Fee, plus travel & accommodation & a bit of spending money. You have to sign up to Paddy Power Poker to play it. Please note, blonde have NO commercial relationship whatsoever with Paddy Power.

But I may well play the Qualifier, if I can download the site & deposit the entry fee. I mean, fancy playing for England, & fnding myself Heads-Up against the Welsh Captain, one Monty Burns! Easy peasy.

I aggree with MikkyT, truth be told there would be a better mix found ( I cant believe I am gonna say it ) at the Riverboat, some players play both but if a team were to be picked I am shocked that the maybury was given the choice.

For future reference the best players can be found at the Cincinatti club.

For whatever reason Liam chose to approach the manager of the Gala Edinburgh and not a Scottish player.

I'm in this one. Hopefully  ;tk; will get some money lodged for extra value :)

Perhaps there was a bit of bribary involved, and that would explain the small sum the Socttish team are recieving in sponsorship? :D

Notice there are three qualifiers. NI,IRE and ENG. 25 have signed up for the Northern Ireland, only 6 a piece for the England and Ireland ones.

Just need to find a way to quickly transfer some money from virgin into paddypoker. But I don't think its possible... GRRRR

I'm mikkyT47 on paddypoker. Notice it is using the VC network, I quite like that software.

the 25 people are registered for Ireland, not Northern Ireland.

looks like NI and England will fill up though, only 9 needed in each for them to go ahead. a LOT of value for a 5K ticket!

Paddy Power is part of the Tribeca network, just like VC, not a skin of VC....if you get me  8)

Why no manx team????

We're an actual country after all.... whereas the scots and the welsh...

I could play there too, my gran is manx.

 :redcard:   

Any other blondites amongst the 10 registered players for the England team qualifier?

 I'm in !!

You are on my table, thought you were weak with the 22 but never pulled the trigger :(

I am nhfufish

 Good luck nhfufish !....we're certainly got good value! 8)

U2, it is a good overlay isn't it?  :D  ;sliegh;

The Welsh Qualifier was held at the Grosvenor Casino in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago.
Not sure if it was advertised though.....

Am i getting this right? Scotland has had no opportunity for an online qualifier to the team which has been handpicked by the 'captain'?. i cant believe it has happened if this is the case. dont they think they could attract scots? as people are indicating, there are plenty of good scottish players who dont abide in edinburgh. what nationality was the person who organised this? it makes me think that scotland have been an afterthought and not really that important. although we scots will give support to the team, its fair to say that there will be a certain bad smell left. it reminds me of when i was in a theatre group when i was a young teenager. the rich mans 2 daughters got the 2  lead parts in the play as he supplied all the costumes and props for the show. doesnt sit right with me

mad

I may be speaking out of turn here, but is this thread not classed as SPAM?

a few months ago, this would have been stamped out, is this not the case anymore?

It's spam-ish but welcome spam i'm sure considering it was giving the forum a heads up on 2 tourney's with a dozen players in each and an overlay of about $3,500 in each!

As for the Scotish and Welsh teams, there were no online qualifiers since Paddy Power Poker thought there wouldnt be the interest. If the english one can't even get a full table up to 10 minutes before the off it wouldn't be worth it. This is the first time the Grand Slam is being held and we're learning a lot as we go. Next year we can hopefully drum up enough interest for live and online qualifiers for all countries!

I work for PPP btw and I promise I won't spam the forum any further.

Let's hope this is exactly what it is, a learning experience.

If the online qualifiers were promoted better I'm sure you could have got at least 50 online players from all the nations keen to qualify.

Most first time players in cardrooms have no idea that implicit collusion/soft-playing their mates is cheating. Televised team poker competitions do nothing to help this. Team heads-up matches are all well and good but I think the organizers and producers have a responsibility to get the message across that poker is not usually a team game in your local cardroom.

We have a section specifically for peeps to post comps of interest and value comps so feel free to post as much as you like mate, it's really affiliate links that are considered spam.
We have a few online card room people who post their comps (blue square, virgin are 2) and they are most welcome, as are you.

p.s. i was on about the "internet poker" section.

Spam or no spam?

WE thought about this one carefully - we did NOT consider it was spam, it was genuine information, of interest to the Poker Community, so that's just fine.

The initial Post DID include an Affiliate Link, and that was NOT acceptable, so we removed it, & wrote to the OP. My PM was in the "educate, don't berate" mode, & I ended up chatting with the OP on the 'phone at length yesterday, & we are cool.

This emerged during the conversations......

He apologized for the Affiliate Link, I genuinly believed him when he said he ummed & arred before including it, & was quite happy that we removed it.

He put the Post up "a little late" in truth. There had been insufficient interest in the Event, & the OP (who reprersented Paddy Power) admitted they had left thngs a little late on this occassion, & that it was a lesson they had learned, & would not repeat for future renewals of the Event. For my part, I said that blonde do not much appreciate "corporate spams" from first-time Posters, we prefer info dissemination to come from established Posters, rather than peeps merely seeking to achieve their own ends, never to be seen on blonde again. It was an amicable & most constructive conversation, & we ended up discussing advertising rates for our main Site. Between us, bridges were built.

Selection of the Teams? I hope I'm not letting too many cats out of the bag here, but I see no harm in honesty. It was Liam Flood's responsibility to select a Captain for each Team, & the Captain's job to select that Nation's Team. So Liam selected whoever as the Scottish Captain, & it was THAT person's responsibility, from there on in, to select the Team. So THAT bone of contention lies with the Scottish Captain. Dave Colclough was selected as the Welsh Captain, & I know he worked hard to find the BEST Welsh Team he could. (Difficult, as there are only 2 players in Wales......).

Should the Post have been in "Internet Poker" or "Live Poker"? Well, it was about Internet Qualifiers for a Live Event, so I'd not argue either way, that's a no-win situation!

So there you have it.

For the avoidance of doubt, blonde have no commercial affiliation with Paddy Power Poker whatsoever.

Was the Scottish captain not the manager of the Gala Maybury? If so, how did Mr. Flood expect him to pick a team? I think us non capital-residing jocks have still a bone to pick with Liam Flood.

I'm not saying they couldn't have picked some of the team from the Maybury cardroom, but to make it a true Scottish team perhaps online qualifiers being offered aswell would have been good. Is that not the whole point of this anyway, to promote their poker site, it all sounds terribly mis-managed.

Yes I beleve the Captain of the Scottish Team was the Manager of Gala Maybury, so feel free to PM Mr Flood - he'a a blondeite - with your concerns.

I appreciate your concerns.

We had looked at a team event where a member from each team would compete with others in separate STTs, but it has been decided to go with a standard MTT this time around. There are large individual prizes which should discourage collusion enough and we have been assured that top tournament direction, along with a good understanding between team captains as to what is acceptable, should take collusion out of the equation.

We are dealing with the format in a responsible manner and I assure you that collusion will not be tolerated as a part of this team event. The format will reward the teams with the best individual performances, contributing to the overall winning team.

Thanks for the nice welcome guys and I look forward to enjoying and contributing to the forum in a personal capacity in the coming year.

Karlh.

   Luckyblind and myself came 4th and 5th :(......it was great value with so few runners....and I for one, enjoyed the chance to qualify, and was pleased it had been  mentioned on Blonde.

Even more so because Bessie (the other "player" in Wales) couldnt play as it will be lambing season when the games are scheduled..........

All the best Bessie, here's to you giving birth to another flock of lovely lambs  :cheers:

Rumour has it though that Robert already has first "bagesy" when it comes to picking which lambs coats are to be made into jumpers................

Is the event to be televised? If so, my concern is that it should be made clear to viewers that poker is not a team game.

Tank, I Aggree with what you are saying, however let it go, There is bugger all can be done about it now and all we can do is wait for next year. I for one think though that an event like this can be run between poker clubs in the four nations to next year. who knows but lets not dwell on what has been done and done badly.

I'd made my point, was simply making another one. Not about what's done but about what is to come.
You'll be glad to know I'm done now though.

good stuff, now you are off the horse can I have a go?

or 1 player from each of the 5 casino card rooms in scotland then we could have had a team with 2 from glasgow 1 from edinburgh 1 from dundee 1 from aberdeen and the 6th player being an internet quailfier infact a team that represents scotland and not just 1 small part of scotland

Don't you start or it's the research lab for you

(http://www.pimpboard.com/images/smilies/shakin.gif)

Where did I put that cold thermometer

Where did I put that speculum and hose?

You must stop bringing your work home.

However if you find them, I'll hold the ape down and you do the business.

 :o

Nothing like the threat of a lubricated hose to silence folks.

With friends like that, who needs enemas.

groan

i'm sorry i didnt realize the items in Dingdell's post were implements of torture to monkeys!!

I thought it was her reminder list of things to pack for her upcoming trip to Atlantis for the WPT-PCA event!!!  :D

No no no - speculum and hose was the way i paid for the trip..........enough said!