blonde poker forum

Yes another Diary is going to be started, and yes to all the diary haters its going in "The Rail"!
I know most people have started their's on Jan 1st but i have been mulling over whether to do one or not as maybe i'm not as well known as some on here but hey ho.

I thought that with Cos never updating and Vinny now being loved up there was room for one more diary on blonde and hopefully it will be an interactive diary so feel free to comment on anything within.

So why start a Diary?
Well i would like to think I have had a fairly interesting life good and bad and have dug myself out of quite a few holes along the way and maybe some people will read bits of my life and relate it to their own. I also wanted to hold an open diary related to the property industry which I work in as a Manager of an Estate Agent in Essex and have done for 10 years now and am willing to answer any questions along the way or try to help out where I can whether that be advice or even putting people in touch with others in my industry that can help with house selling/buying, mortgages, insurance etc (not a spam) but if someones stuck i will try to help out.
Obviously i will also be updating my diary on my poker exploits which currently consist of playing the DTD300 probably 7months per year, Lutons Friday 100 on average once per month (when Vinny can be bothered to drag himself away from his new burd), maybe 2-3 Ukipts per year and my most recent adventure where having seen Pleno's staking thread  (BITB) i didnt really want staking but was happy to take some advice and have someone to work with on my online mtt game in exchange for a % share of my nett profit per month playing small stakes 10-40 euro tourneys.
This is prob my favourite bit of poker atm as i have never really enjoyed playing online till this year and so far it has gone really well but i am prepared to embrace the variance as last month i only managed a really small sample of 150mtts over a 20night period but considering i work and have a 5month old baby and wife to consider as well as my poker trips didnt think it was so bad!!!
Anyway thats long enough for my first post so feel free to flame away but also to post any questions or comments along the way as i go through my story.

Ps thx to Cambridge Alex for my title having sat with him and Stato in the cash game at DTD yesterday, personally i would have thought that with Stato being a "Countdown Champion" he would have come up with a title but alas it was the current "Monte Carlo" Champion who came up with the goods.

Wiiiiiiiii.

Def got potential to do really well, done ridicuously well in your short online career so far and def think tournaments are 100% for you.

Hope Edinburgh was fun and now you have time to put some serious grinding in. Speak soon!

Lots of old school degen stories pls.

Ah, so it's true. Thought you were levelling yesterday when you sat next to me.

Pleeeease! I told you yesterday how I feel about this kind of thing!

Gl with this, will be an avid reader.

We need to know about your alias, (A-K = Eso Kral in Lithuania?), & how the babby is coming along, what make it is, & it's name.

Then you may begin.

Should be an excellent read, Sir, you have always struck me as someone who writes with some eloquence.

(http://www.thesite.org/content/2/c4/07/16/diaries-more.gif) ftw, IMO

The Life of an Estate Agent is always interesting!!

Ok today i arrive back in the office having been off since Weds to go and play the side event on Thursday and Main event Friday at Edinburgh
[ ] went well as i finshed 25th in the side event and bust the main shipping my 12 bigs with  Aspades 5s from the C/o and the button wakes up to  Ad Qd  gg me so instead of staying up north i headed to DTD to try and get a seat in the Grand prix (will post on this later in PHA)

1st phone call of the morning is a buyer who offered full asking price (you have to worry when they do this in a recession) on saturday only to pull out today    gg £8000 fee for the office
2nd phone call is the next door neighbour of an empty property we have sold saying she saw a man in the property and as its supposed to be a vacant probate sale can i go and have a look  :o so having told one of my colleagues to stay by his phone in case there is someone there i venture down to this £450000 empty derilict house and enter immediately seeing a rucksack in the back room and as i call out for anyone in to come out hear footsteps upstairs FML, down the stairs comes a foreign 6ft2" vagrant with a laptop under his arm lol i say im gonna have to ask you to leaveand btw how did you get in to which he replies in an eastern european accent "through the window".
Luckily (for him) he quietly packs up his stuff and heads for the front door shutting it behind him leaving behind his claw hammer placed by his rucksack (lucky escape?)

Just an average day so far!!!

Ok will post from the start about me later on when im home just for you Tikka!

tl;dr

And please don't use that great story I told you about degeneracy and the Chinese mafia, in a pathetic attempt to pass it off as your own story.

Thanks.

@Poshboy   ok ok you win - nice I-pad though  ;)

Finally a proper diary  ;angel;

Chances of going busto by crimbo?

Please paragraph better in future posts. Kthnxbye

No danger of that on here you need to look at Alex or Cos's diaries for that type of degeneracy!

Sigh, get a roulette addiction imo.

Sold many houses in the last 45 mins?

As i said in my op i am currently an ESTATE AGENT we dont sell many houses in 45 days!  >:(

Where do you do housing stuff? Just in the UK?

Where do you think is a good place to invest atm?

Where you going to be living in 1/5/15 years?

I have a legit question. In January my tenants have been living in my house for a year. I currently employ a house manager who i pay 8% pcm to sort out all the stuff i can't be bothered with, who decides if I can up their rent up or not? are there many hoops to jump through?

Firstly i would try to neg the house manager down a bit and say you have been offered similar services for 5% which is fairly standard in my area and it is up to you at the end of the agreement to decide if you would like to up your rental.
The best thing to do would be to ring 2-3 different letting agents and tell them your a landlord and ask them what their most popular request for property is from prospective tenants if this is what you have   whoop whoop also get them round to value the property for rental and then if your under renting it when you resign your exisiting tenant tell them you need to up the rent a bit to cover costs etc etc. However what you need to remember is that if they call you bluff and say GTFO were leaving you may have asked them for an extra £50 per calendar month and if you dont have a tenant ready to move in two months of it empty is about a year of that extra nifty you were asking for so its a gamble.
I would say if your mortgage is fixed for a period of time and they are GOOD tenants this is worth more than the extra 50 minus 8% netting 46 but thats just my opinion and what we do with our tenants.

Hi DAVID   I never Level  :D

age ?..real name? did we sit same table Monte Carlo day one?

oh and good read so far looking forward to this..

oh and do you wanna buy a house in Leicester i wanna sell?

Hi,  we know each other and spoke this weekend at DTD when you binked your seat but didnt sit together at the monte carlo.
My real name is Richard Blacklock we spoke at the bar and i introduced myself to you when you had said it would be good for all blondes to say hi.
A house in Leicester yeah sounds good i can probs put that one on the credit card  :D

mate so sorry
i am so so bad with names and faces .....

.

which managing agent do u use??

hello rich

just a few Qs about property as i am trying to force my mum to rent our home out and buy another property


do you think its the best time to invest in property atm?

also which type of property (students, professionals, lower class, family etc etc) is the best to invest in considering you dont have a huge amount of capital atm 10k>? or is it better to save up for a better deposit?

if you had 30k to invest in property would you
get one ok house 180k( average price around lincoln for 4 bed house)
or two 90k houses

As I've mentioned before I bought a house with two people, it didn't go well and I moved out after a month and didn't want anything more to do with it, they continue to pay it however have missed multiple payments, I can't get off the mortgage as they would have to remortgage it and no bank would touch it, I also had problems as I foolisly had direct debits in my name which I cancelled but then just paid them all off so with all that my credit rating is smashed. Anyway, as you know I now grinds the poker and thus have no proof of income, so with all that said I'm pretty much fooked yeah :) How tough will it be for me to even rent a property do you think ? I know you can't run a business from a rented property but I assume there's obv a way around this as far as pokers concerned as obv some ppl must.

About time Rich. Bookmarked.

No problems bud

grinding tonight?

next time you see me slap me on my bal head and say its meee.....

Looking forward to the diary Richard.

On the property/ BTL front is it possible to leverage your money if you have no verifiable source of income?

i.e. Could you get 50% LTV (i.e stump up £80K cash deposit on a £160K property(ies) based on projected rent more than covering interest only mortgage, or do you need a "job" as well

Love the new diary and looking forward to this on a daily basis especially after meeting you the other week.

It may well just be me but I have trouble reading the text in blue, or red for that matter.

Work away...

Hey Raymondo,
Ok your situ will be like many poker players, in your case you need to get your credit report and make sure your repairing it to improve your credit rating. If its that bad and you cant get any credit at the moment even if you dont need it take some pre paid credit card which charges a small fee per year which they take monthly and it shows as a loan on your rating to improve your rating.
If you cant get off the mortgage and they have missed payments then this obv goes against you which is not good as lenders are very fickle at the moment so they cherry pick who to lend to and require healthy deposits. In terms of proof of income when your personal rating is repaired and you have a good deposit if you have a creative mortgage consultant they can normally help out, it may cost a few hundo in drinks but its worth it.
I know people who can afford the mortgage but cant prove it and have managed to get them houses they wanted but it is very deposit and credit score biased.
With rentals some agents are maybe more flexible than others so it may be worth while wading through them and finding out what they need to do before recommending you as a tenant plus if you know someone who has there own business and may be willing to say that you work for them just to get you started or if your buying with someone else you can put the property in their name but make sure before they exchange contracts on it you have a good DECLARATION OF TRUST lodged with a solicitor that outlines what your both putting into the property and what shares in the property you each own when it is to be sold to protect yourself.

How is the pokerz going now, you prefer this year or last year in terms of grinding?

Ty  snap

Hi M8,
No unfortunately my grind this week is   Weds Thurs Sunday as the OUTLAWS are over for 2 weeks from Slovakia so having disappeared to Edinburgh for 4days i need to do some normal life stuff first but if your around and fancy a chat or session whilst playing lmk.
I will send you a couple of hands to look through and will get round to the pokerstars thing 2moro  4sure!

Thanks Ralph it was good to meet you and put a face to an avatar as well, just for you i will keep this as normal.  :)

If your genuinely looking for a property and have this issue pls pm me your contact details, ie name and number and i will gladly get in contact or put you in touch with someone who can help and if it means collecting paperwork etc im at DTD once a month or hook up with other regs on here so something can always be sorted, but in answer to your question if its a buy to let most lenders want at least 125% on the mortgage payment as the rent so if the property qualifies this way then proof of income need not be an issue however the set up fees are really extortionate for buy to lets so it may be worth looking at other options.

Cheers Richard. Monies locked up until next May, looking at options for after then. I'll do a bit more research locally into rental incomes/property values. I'll probably bump into you at DtD in the meantime.

Ok before I go back thorugh how I started off playing poker and my general degeneracy in my twenties I will talk a bit about my life now.
For those who dont know me  My name is Richard Blacklock and i am 37 years old living in Leigh on Sea in Essex with my AMAZING wife Petra and our little baby boy Maxwell Andrew Blacklock and overall life is pretty good, we have our tough times as all do but i would like to think that were a pretty good team and have to be as all of Petra's family live back in Slovakia so its kinda us against the world.
I met Petra 5 1/2 years ago when she was a valet at the Westcliff casino in Southend where i had been playing for about 2years and i looked at her and thought she was unbelievably beautifull and we started chatting before after a couple of weeks i plucked up the courage to ask her out, only to be told that she was not allowed to date customers. Never one to give up at the first objection i eventually convinced her to come on a date and we just really clicked and depite her only really coming to England to learn the language and improve her life back home luckily for me our relationship grew and we got engaged a year and a half later and married a further 18months on but more of that later.
Petra left the casino 6months after we metand with a little help and a few nudges we managed to get her a job as a studio assistant at a local photographers working with a well respected photographer who trained her and within 2 years she was the main photographer for the company and imo is a great photographer with amazing vision and creativity.
As you will see i am immensely proud of her achievements over here and as a new mum and as you will see from photo's to come im definatley batting out of my league.

It'll be two years before I'm looking to do anything so hopefully can repair credit in the meantime plus the housing market might improve.

Poker is good thanks, as far as comparing this year to last, I was playing 45mans last year and making more money but longterm cash is much better and much more interesting.

Come on, hurry up with the pics of your 17 year old wife pls.

Well tvm after your amazing IT lesson earlier i cant seem to get any photos up so will need the boss to look at shrinking them so that they upload, which means Vinnyfish you will have to wait till tomorrow to see my 17 year old wife!

You want me to post some of my pics of Petra?

If your in them surely they will be to BIG to upload  ;)

Yeah, good point mate, I think I remember her mentioning BIG ;)

As you asked sir,  Eso Kral is actually Slovak for Ace King and it had a nice ring to it so i have used it ever since.
Baby Maxwell is coming on well tyvm and is now really building some character and getting bigger by the day but once i can upload some photos you will see the wee man.

Don't ever diss the GreekStein diaries.

Hurry up with the pics.

Dunno if I mentioned to you, but my dad is in property and I know how much dodgyness goes on amongst estate agents. One guy he uses makes an abs killing. Does the Kral bat straight down the line?

Beat me to it..  If you were using another estate agent (who was unaware you knew the score), what tricks would you be expecting him to pull?

An old friend of mine made a fortune out of dodgy deals.

Some of his family worked as estate agents, the rest worked as property developers.

It was mainly his family telling him that there was a bargain available and then forgetting to tell anyone else who might be interested.

They did it all back in the 90's so they're all millionaires now thanks to the property boom.

Mbn.

I'm using an estate agent to rent out my property for at least a yr whilst i go travelling with Cos. Anything is need to know/be aware of? Cheers.

I use Frankeys based in silver street. She is normally 10% but got a deal. Pretty fit as well which helps negotiations.

I would say that i have never knowingly ripped off a vendor by undervalueing a property but i have negotiated hard for buyers and have had buyers who have been very gratefull for Eso's negotiating skills  ;)
Oh and i would never buy from my own firm! You need to keep a good reputation so if i want to buy its always through other contacts i have built up.

I think they would be really trying to get your price down if not sold in 4 weeks but thats not bad advice if you really want to sell as you have a shelf life of 4-6weeks before your property starts to look stale, however not everyone can afford to reduce.
They would defo be looking to convince you a certain offer is the best they can get and thats if you decline it you may regret it in the future if the market turns worse.

Most agents are only underhand with probate properties or props with development potential where they buy themselves or sell to a client they know without the pproperty ever coming to the market and taking a healthy drink from said developer for finding the property.
Mainstream houses sell if they are on at the right price at the time.

This^ is how many independant agents made their money in fact having your own agencey was just a front for being a developer and probably is now if you can turn 4 properties a year you can make a lot of money in the right areas.

Ok i cant advocate on my diary that you commit mortgage fraud incase an INTERNET POLICEMAN is watching, however if you were buying a property on a normal mortgage and then suddenly lost your job and spoke to the lender and told them that you had no option but to move out and rent the property out i think they would probably be fine as long as you have adequate insurance or switch you to whatever their BTL rate will be. Or if you didnt really care then you could theoretically just buy the prop on a residential basis and then rent it out and hope they dont find out.

I grew up in Walsall but was never really academic at school as from my early teens i was a county footballer and was on schoolboy forms at Leeds United, infact i walked around the school with an air of "i dont need education as i will be a top footballer" and was quite disruptive so the school told me that as long as i didnt disrupt the other kids education i could have one week off per month to go and train with the youth's and reserves at Leeds which was amazing and i remember jumping on a train at 14 years of age and being told someone would meet me at the station and take me to my hotel.

Low and behold it was only Vinny Jones waiting at the station for me and taking me to training on a daily basis obv thats where he would leave and go into the first team dressing room whilst i went down the corridor with the youths but it was still great all the same, another time Chris Kamara (he had the biggest big toes i had ever seen!) was my taxi driver.

I was a goalkeeper and unfortunately since the age of 14 i have been the same 5ft 7 and 3/4" and in those days (1990) you could get away with being 6ft but on my 16th birthday i was told i would not be given a YTS contract and they were releasing me but they had circulated my details to other clubs and had arranged a trial with Kidderminster Harriers in the Vauxhall Conference who had a YTS scheme even in the 5th division as it were then, so off i went and snap accepted YTS contact offered plus my digs paid for and was happy to be living my dream for a while longer and they thought i may even grow as i was only 16!!

2 Years later i was still the same height and had nopt played for the first team but was reserve team captain and we pretty much smashed the league as we were against non pro teams and i got to play at some good grounds in the FA youth cup and i was released from full time but given a part time contract and started to realise that playing football was probably not going to be the career for me. So i stayed on part time for another 2 years and got paid for playing sunday football in the top league in Birmingham as well a soccer coaching at the local leisure centre and started to think of what to do next...

Thread is a fail without pics of petra.

this will be rectified later!

Are you a Chartered Surveyor?

No sorry Guy just a poor Estate Agent as you dont need any qualifications to do what i do.

Cheers for the info AK, They are pretty good tenants tbh but my house is in a proper decent location and i had a tonne of offers when i put it on the market. Will wait and see for now.

Keep up the good work.

Ok i need some help uploading photos to my diary, Vinny kindly talked me through how to add them but all the photos on my laptop are all 1.5mb plus so wont upload
Anyone know what to do???

surprised vinny hasn't asked this yet.....

top 5 players in luton pls.

1. Open photo in paint.

2. Click "SAVE AS"

3. In drop down menu where it says file type, choose JPEG

4. Slightly change the title so you have 2 copies of said photo on computer.

5. Upload the new, smaller file to http://www.imageshack.us

6. Copy link of uploaded photo to here.

Go here http://photobucket.com/ , upload whatever , click forum code (auto copies) paste here.

QFT

Other than that tho thread is awesome, TY Eso

WOW  Keys ITT it could have only got better if he was in on page 1 hey ho must have been sleeping

Hey claw, obv i dont play there that mcuh but it would be something like this

1 Claw
2 RU Holding
3 Holdy
4 Sicilian
5 British Gas
If yoou said top 50 my occasional dinner partner would get a listing..

Thx Sharples and Pokerfan will look into this tomorrow and finally get some pics up to please Vinny  :)

one of the nice guys in poker, sat with Rich at the dtd deepstack a couple of times and railed me on day 2 for a min cash, not been dtd much, work commitments, death in the family but got some property from it, will speak on advice on where i go in privvy next time i see you, playin Goliath for fun and charity, and playin Megastack flight 1 on Sat 20th Aug, glad ur Family is ok, Petra missing me on fb? Take care see ya soon.......... Top Lad

Megastack at Stoke.......... loads of oaties

Yeah feel free to grab me anytime for a chat m8   cu soon  and thx

Whilst working at the leisure centre it was probably where my Degen life started as for the first time since i was 16 i was earning more than 100 per week and like most it started with a win. Whilst playing football i had bet on the football and even though i was only 16-17 i looked older (in before "you still do") and had no problems getting served at clubs or in the bookies and had had some small wins, however on receipt of my first full months money from the leisure centre i decided i would go and join the "old stanley casino" in Walsall town centre only to be told i had to wait 48 hours before i could go in.

So 48 hours later back i went in my suit shirt and tie as im sure in the James Bond movies this is what you wear to get in only to forget that this is Walsall and people only wear suits for funerals weddings and more commonly court appearances, obviously the tie came off pretty sharpish and for those who know or remember the old casino it had a tiny bar at the top end then some poker tables and slots with a small area leading to gaming floor so i thought lets have a drink first and ordered a budweiser before casually trying to walk to the gaming area only to be told that no alcoholic drinks were allowed on the floor.

I finished my drink and ventured to the gaming floor watching all the games like a kid in a sweet shop not knowing what or how to play any of them but sure i would be sat playing in a short while, i bottled it at first and played Blackjack behind another player who seemed to know what he was doing and i went infront (easy game) before a seat came available on the last box sooff i went.

All of a sudden people were tutting at me and shaking their heads as i drew cards on 13/14/15/16 against the dealers 2/3/4/5 etc until an asian guy called Masood said look let me tell you how to play!!  Fairly quickly i recovered my losses and by kicking out time at 4am i was losing £30 having had a few drinks, a few spins on roulette and tipped the valets not bad i thought for a nights entertainment if only over the next 10 years it only cost me £30 for the same fun.....

popcorn is out.

I  returned the next night and i actually came out level after drinks etc and on my 3rd consecutive night bumped into a old schoolfriend whom we shall call Paul who was playing the Blackjack and we caught up over a few hours and each shoe seemed profitable and we ended the night to the "last 3 spins" playing £150 on 2 of the 3 dozens on roulette winning all 3spins and waiting in the queue i knew it had been a profitable night but was surprised to find that having walked in with £150 i was cashing up £2500 and i left with a smile on my face a wedge in my pocket and a knowing glance from the pit bosses and managers.

I was at work the next day coaching kids soccer on the astro turf at the leisure centre in Sutton Coldfield and could not wait to finish as i knew that the casino opened at 2pm and i finished my shift at 12noon having opened up the centre at 6am (lack of sleep ftw) so a quick workout and shower and off to Walsall we went only this time there was hardly anyone in except old boys drinking copius ammounts of free tea and coffee with their sandwich for lunch thrown in.

7 hours later and my recently loaned by the casino £2500 was down to £200 and i couldnt understand how the dealer could pull 21 so many times when last night they bust and despite covering half the wheel on roulette it always came in the opposite half so i took a break from the tables to go to the cash point and went back to reclaim my money alas it was not meant to be and at 8.30 i left the casino sweaty with a sick feeling in my stomach. If only then i learnt you cant beat the house games it would have saved me a lot of money and even more hurt to members of my family who had no idea how deep i would eventually get in..

Beginning to think petra doesn't actually exist.

look after your lack of help on the photo front i had to resort to others and hopefully there will be some images to please the masses 10 people who read this diary later

+1

great read tho so far

Excellent read so far Rich. Please use the occasional comma, though? The voice in my head is out of breath. :P

+1 really interesting.  

Thx for all the +feedback so far
@Zero,  which bit of i was a footballer, and didnt really try at school, did you not get,   ;D

I remember the Royal casino quite well, and was always down Wyndley (if that is the leisure centre you worked at?). Enjoying the diary!
Google Poker Refugees and get the Europe market lol.

TYTY  just grinding a few mtts at moment then need to try and work out this photo lark and then poss next installment tonight or morning.
Ps you were right about both locations Richard   ;applause;

great read, but starting to think this too

bit harsh including michelle in your otherwise comedy line up imo - she's actually pretty good and she's gonna take down the main event this weekend innit ;)

Still no photos but thats cos i finished playing to late to try and get them on but im not playing tonight so i promise there will be some up later.

Anyway over the next few weeks i carried on donating to the casino taking out £200 per time which was a decent amount of money in the early 90s and i was reloading when required, and i was slowly starting to get addicted with the buzz and not even the winning or losing actually mattering.

Work was ok i was now working in the refurbished Gym and was doing a qualification to be a personal trainer so i could set up my own business for all the rich Sutton Coldfield housewives with nothing to do during the day except me  ;) when i met the first possible future Mrs Eso who was an 18yr old blonde singer by the name of Sarah (all names changed obv) we starting going out and being 21 with my very own Citroen AX GT in white ofc i was quite a catch. She was a real looker and very talented and in the end was very unlucky not to make it big in the charts, Sarah didnt really know where i went 3-4nights per week and as it was early days probably didnt care but i was starting to become dodgy and had taken my first credit card and maxed it out and followed it up with another followed by a loan to pay off the credit cards ..... rinse repeat and i was never able to win like i had that first night. Yeah ofc i had wins but mostly losses and i was starting to spiral out of control.

One day at the casino the owner a big tall hulking guy called Phil asked me to go and have a chat in his office and i soon found out that he wanted a personal trainer, so we embarked on a 1year journey where i trained him 3hour long sessions per week at £20 per hour and then 4 days per week i gave him some business worth approx 500 per day so effectively i paid him to train but he showed me a different side of the business as he was so well known and due to the clientel that frequented the royal casino he could pretty much walk into most of the restaurants in town and eat and drink for free 7 days and nights per week which was obviously the catalyst to his weight problem.

One Friday afternoon i was already losing £200 and was sat at the bar when about 30 people suddenly sat by the bar at these kidney shaped tables and started to play a game that i didnt understand (in before " you still dont " thx Vinny) but my friend Paul was playing and he said to come and sit behind him and watch and he showed me his cards from time to time explaining what was going on and that next time i should play....

I know! The game was bridge?

Good diary keep it up.

So the following friday at about 4pm i arrived for the first of 2 games they held on a friday which was a £5 rebuy non dealer dealt and as a newbie i was told i didnt have to shuffle or deal the first time  phew.
Obviously i luckboxed my way to the last 16 players and then comically nearly folded a straight flush forgetting it beats the A flush despite having a hand chart on the wall directly infront of me until Paul nudged my as i held my cards looking like i was going to fold and sailed to the final table. Unfortunately there was no 1st win as i proceeded to spew off my big chip lead in a similar way to today, and was so easy to read obv if i bet i had it and when i checked i didnt and a tall Greek gent called Saeed taught me a lesson as he played every pot i was in and took all of my chips over that hour.

On the gambling side i was losing heavily and had now added horses and dogs to my addiction, but Sarah was still in tow and had no knowledge of my problems but my Dad had started to get wind and was wondering why people were phoning asking after me and why all of sudden i was receiving masses of letters that i just didnt open and stuck them in a draw "its nothing i would tell him" and claim it was all about the personal training business etc etc

The next course of events is something that im not to proud of and wont go into that much detail on but it was the closest that i have ever come to going to prison as when someone in the casino approached me and offered the chance to solve some of my money worries for no risk to me and by doing something that all his mates had we could get a couple of grand i took the chance and watched 2 hours later as he got carted off in a police car and i went back to the casino absolutely bricking it.

2 hours later when the casino announced over the tannoy "can Richard Blacklock please come to reception" i knew it was either the police or my Dad and wasnt to sure which one i hoped it would be, anyways it was the police after they had been to our family home and Dad had told them i could be found down the casino or Ladbrokes.  I dont remember the chaps name who got me involved but fair play to him as he didnt squeel and kept his side of the story but the next day interview i had to have at the police station was the most nerve racking thing i have ever been through especially when the first thin the copper said in the interview room was "Is there anything you would like to tell us before we start?".

Im pretty sure i went red and stumbled my way through the interview but was let out and to my knowledge the other chap served a bit of time and i was on the slippery slope a bit further...

Poker at the Stanley casino had some characters some of them still around today
Mickey Wernick - in these days even The Worm played the £5 rebuy
Ash "the cash" Pervais - i think he made an appearance on LNP
Paul Jackson - was always one of the better players there
Anon (state in america) - still the same today
Anon (Raul moat lookalike) - had a pony tail in those days and had some massive spin ups on the magic wheel turning 100 to 20k on a few occasions
also some other comical people
Maggie Fryer - always played 10/6 and if it was suited it was all going in obviously 10/6 at stanley became known as "the fryer" even today i think of it when dealt it.
Wallop - an old boy who when in a pot used to bang his fist on the table and shout "wallop" when he had a good hand - he was fairly exploitable
Kath P -  a big greek lady who used to bring a carrier bag of sweets to every comp and they would go round the tables one by one
I later found out that one of the pit bosses got sacked as it was common for them to come and grab a sweet from time to time but this gent inparticular used to grab a sweet but deposit 4-5 pony chips in the bag on each occasion that then were cashed and split up weekly in a secret rendezvous.
Micky P - had obviously won a big pot once requiring a 7 so in walsall when you called in a 7 you would "send me a micky p" dealer!
I started to really enjoy poker but was still losing eveywhere else and had already been bailed out once by my Dad who told me he would not do this again (more on this as we go on) when they intriduced a game that would change my world for unfortunately only 1month before some idiot with a big mouth lt on what was happening, the game was "Carribean Poker" the 5 card house poker game where the dealer only opens AK+ and you have to beat his hand...

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS!!
When your losing and find that you can make a steady stream of money at no risk why would you tell anyone? Well one day Paul said lets play Caribbean poker and i said why to which he replied " you will see!"
The Dealer dealt our hands and his own and after a few hands Paul leaned across to me and said have you seen it, obviously i had not so he told me to watch how the dealer dealt his own hand and to lean back slightly so i did and to my amazement we could actually see all the dealers whole cards as he turned the corners up as he dealt.

Happy Days so for 4 weeks we only ever played Caribbean when he dealt and won a good few thousand each not going for the big hits but taking a steady stream of money on a daily basis, it was just a case of being around on his shift and then staying for a few hands after he left whilst throwing in the odd loser as well every 10 hands or so.

Unfortunately Paul told someone else and this got back to the management and we were both pulled to one side and told we were barred from playing Caribbean when this dealer was on but it didnt matter as they had retrained his dealing skills now  :(  if only Paul could have kept quiet i would have been out of the hole for a few weeks.

I was losing heavily now and was earning around £15k per year from my personal training and gym job but was in debt to the tune of around 10k with the banks and my initial bail out from my Dad which was 12k a figure that was written in a little red book as we callled it, and i was to pay money off the red book as and when i had it or if anything happened to my Dad this would be accounted for to make things fair for my brother.

Credit was now becoming hard to come by as i had bounced payments so the bank and credit card company didnt wish to extend my credit line so i found out that the casino would let you cash 3 cheques per day with a bankers card and with a chq gtee limit of £100 this was a funding stream that if used correctly ie  start cashing on a Thursday i would have till Tuesday before the bank would put a stop to this line of credit...

absolute degen... keep going..

Well i was still doing chunks in all over the place but my relationship didnt suffer in fact we were getting on really well and Sarah had no idea that i was losing money as i was always the same person with a pound or 3k in my pocket. The personal training side was doing ok but i could not find enough clients to do 3 sessions per week and pay the ££ so iwas starting to think of alternatives as i had found i was enjoying selling the benefits to clients and getting them signed up more that i was training them so sales seemed like a good way of earning my money.

Gambling wise was terrible until one night when playing Roulette all my numbers started to come in, now i was a sucker for Tier with 8/11/30/36/23 my abs favs and if it came 16 it was probably a losing spin similarly if it came 28/29/7 or 0 section it was most likely a good winner also. This particular night all MY numbers were coming in and before long £200 became £1000 became £5000 and i stopped playing, i dont know why and you never know whether i would have carried on winning or done the lot but i cashed up and made my way out where Paul stopped me and asked if he could borrow a grand till he got paid at the end of that week. We were pretty tight so i was comfortable with this as through the ups and downs money had often changed hands.

Now there have been a few stories on here some recently where people have been nipped i learnt the hard way firstly through the hurt caused to my family most importantly my Dad who is no longer with us and i will come on to this later but also thorugh lending when i had and being promised money back only to never see it again so now im definately in the camp of never a lender nor a borrower be!

Obviously Paul never turned up or returned calls which i ended up finding really disappointing as whilst 1k is even today a lot of money in the scheme of things its not that much, whats more disappointing was the fact that it was when i needed the money and another batch of missed payments happened with the phone calls before i went back to my Dad again for help only this time it was a case of "once more and your out on your ear son".

My relationship was still going strong and we were starting to talk of engagement but i couldnt save money and was still frittering it away so when an opportunity came to go and stay in Southern California for 6 months coaching kids Soccer it was too good an opportunity to miss plus it would give me a chance to save some money for a ring and decide what path my career should take next, it was around this time that the Royal Casino was closing as they were going to knock it down as part of the towns redevelopment and the new Grosvenor Casino at Junction 10 was born.
Off to America we go....

This is a great read Rich and I can certainly relate to the degen stuff, been there/done that.

Awesome read so far mate, keep it up!

Keep going Rich, great read.

whos paul?

not The Ho

TY JK isnt it about time urs was upto date????

WORK UPDATE

Today is not a bad day in the office, obv im on my own hence posting loads on here but also sold a cute little bungalow that i put on the market 3weeks ago and then had a sale fall through but when i tied it up first time i had 2 offers so snap called the other lady and she had not found so resold it to her for a couple of grand less.
Then i have a 3rd viewing on a property tonight at 6.30 which must turn in to a sale tomorrow!!
Ship the commission  ;)

do i get a %?

yeah your on your standard eso tariff  ;)

I am reading this, thinking that you are writing most gamblers life's diaries lol

Epic

 Petra is inflatable imo.

really enjoying reading this

if say someone has errrrrr £100k to invest in a property with you is it possible you can turn it around making say a nice 5/10 % in the space of a certain period ! im asking because thae bank gives me £300 a month interest on it and i fell im wasting oppertunities to do something with it , suppose if im lead the right way and it worked you would get the commision and a nice back hander, sorry to be a bit nieve but what can you earn without the tax man getting his filthy paws on it ????

With that sort of lump you can easily get 9% with the right people, no need to go into the housing market.

Good stuff mate, never knew you had this dark side to you.

Now where are the fucking pics?

Depending on how long you are prepared to lock up your 100k and obv your credit history i would buy 3-4 flats in decent rentable areas and take some profit each month plus if you have bought correctly you can have an exit strategy to get out of the flats without paying cgt if you play it right. This is what i would do but would certainly be prepared to lock it up for like45 years with the market the way it is, or start with a small refurb make a bit move on to the next one rinse repeat over and over but declare the prop as your main residence all the time so as long as you have 6months or a creative accountant you minmise any taxes.
GL with your venture!

Petra on our wedding day!

Just so you know i was there!!

Our Little Family with Maxwell

Good read this.

Batting above average there :-) but did she clean your flat before you got married ?

Anyone know how i make the photos appear bigger??

go to www.imageshack.us upload photo, pick size you want, copy code and paste in thread.

Max's Christening, just so Vinny knows he exists as well!

What size do you recommend Rich and where do you copy the code to???
TIA

Hey Nirvana i think you need to a certain Scottish Celtic fans diary to find pics of Molly Maid  ;)
Oh and always bat at least 2-3scores higher than yourself imo

640x480 upload, no need to register then after you upload it will give you a load of codes, copy "forum" code, paste into a post here.

tyty

wow i am so shocked

good read (Y)

whattttttttttttalife

What was ur fav pit game?
Biggest spin up?

Best read ever, can relate to most of it. Kids who play poker these days will think it's written in foreign language

prefer yours  ;)

Thx Dave   out of interest whats your biggest spin up and on what?

2k in bf to 200k in 24 days playing PLO- less than 10k hands- went from 2-5 to 50-100 in no time- Jan 09 I think

Non poker- had a few 5 figure spinups- hit 32 quite big a couple times, went from having 0 in pocket to 10k at dogs by call in a bet in, then going 4 on bounce

All a while ago tho haha- spinning days are over

Wow what a diary, just read the lot from start to finish tonight and what a start to a diary  ;hattip;

Congrats on coming out the other side and doing so well for yourself sir

great read.

Echo what others say, riveting stuff

i think he peaked too early..

lol if only u knew!!

Thx all for feedback so far, its nice to hear as like others have said previously you never can tell when writing this stuff whether anyone is bothered or will read it.

The one thing that i have learnt over time is that "you should never regret the things you have done only the things you have not" and i am also a believer that all the things that happened to me good and bad have made me the person i am today!!

COMING TO AMERICA

Late spring of 1995 a year after the world cup in America was when i set off for Southern California to hook up with 4 english guys who had set up a soccer coaching company over there and various soccer coaches or school teachers went out for various lengths of time to work the soccer camps staying with the families and then after the Saturday morning "coach the dads" session travelling to a beach or driving across state for a weekend in Vegas all crashing in 1 or 2 rooms.

I left Sarah who was now on the verge of a record deal and my sole objective was to save enough money so that when i came back i could buy a decent engagement ring as back in the uk i couldnt save a bean, so off i left a tearfull Sarah and my Dad for 6 months thinking it would be a nice break and may just sort out this gambling problem i had.

California was amazing as a 22year old, great weather loads of spare time and fun filled weekend oh and the girls digged the english accent but i wasnt there to have fun  ;)    It was nice not to think about where to get some cash or what section of the wheel was coming up next etc etc and on our alternate weekend visits to Vegas i didnt do to much damage it was more fun than anything and the hardest decision i had to make was in my final 2 weeks there was being offered the job at a college coaching the girls under 19 soccer team   tough life hey, alas i declined and came back to get engaged with some money in my pocket and a great tan whilst knowing i didnt want to be in fitness but in sales pref in the fitness industry so this would be my next goal..

BACK IN THE UK
Well i got engaged, was still working at the Gym and was busy getting interviews with sports and fitness sales roles and life seemed to be rosy. Sarah was a great girl and if you heard her sing you just stopped and listened whilst turning heads wherever she went and her family loved me and were busy planning this big wedding as she was there little princess i suppose.

Whatever i tried i just could not get a sports company to give me a chance, getting to final interviews on my presentation and personality only to be told yeah your great but have no experience and all i could think was getting into a sales role so when a Brewery (i know hardly a fitness company) offered me the role of regional sales executive selling to the cash and carry businesses in the south of the country. I snap accepted and moved down to Gants Hill where my mum lived and drove up friday nights to spend back in the midlands before driving down first thing monday to start my week.

It was during these next 18months my problem resurfaced as i was on the road and was earning more money plus my credit had improved which meant credit card companies and the bank were happy to give me some play money!! Being in sales on the road once my calls for the day had been done the rest of the day was mine which for me meant leaving really early being at my first call by 8.30am finished all my calls by midday and thenback home sat in a bookies in or around Gants Hill punting away.

I must have dropped 20k in the first year in terms of loans c/cards salary and all this came at a time when i was trying to buy a flat down south in Hornchurch just by the station that was a reposession but fortunately managed to get it through pdq and Sarah moved in.
This meant i had to duck and dive a bit more as she was around and was getting wary of my mood swings and the mounting letters coming in daily.

I would have classed myself as a mug punter basically rocking up to a bookies and having 20-25 bets per day on whatever i fancied and the shops must have loved seeing me like most other punters in there, somedays i would change shops to spread the money around and it was on one of these occasions that i bumped into a character who was only betting dogs at Romford or Crayford and we got chatting. His phone rang every now and again and then up to the counter he went and occasionally he would say back trap 5 here or do 6 5 reversed and i started to win.

So Thursdays and Saturdays became a case of me meeting him and he told me he put bets on for a big punter who cant get on himself and i could follow his bets as long as he got on first ...

Will know both the putter oner and big punter- pm names pls

Anyone who has ever spent any time in a bookies will probably relate to this next bit as wherever they are the same characters are around
We had in our shop
PEN MAN - an interesting character who obviously didnt care much for the health of the horses as he always did reversed forecasts on the jumps and would stand by the television watching and if a horses was in front of his 2 or splitting them he would jab at the said animal with his parker pen praying for it to fall at the last and when it did obviously the pen had helped!!

THE SHOUTER - waits until the horse or dog he has selected is no more than 5yds from the winning line before shouting "Go on my son" or "Oi Oi call a copper"   you know the type

NEVER BACK A LOSER - probably bets 4 horses in the race and seems to have every winner and then proceeds to show you his winning slip, like i care when i had a £100 on the nag that came second!!

THE LEANER - this guy defies all the balance rules and you will find him directly infront of the telly if its a tight finish he starts to lean sideways until he is basically levitating like David Blaine

Im sure there are many more but these were the first ones that came to mind.

Anyway my dog man was coming up with the goods and on my visits back north i had got a contact at Perry Barr so we shared info and thoughts and landed some good touches and also had a few scams along the way more on the Romford ones later on but at Perry BArr we used to pay the Hare Driver £100 if we were going for a touch and when i say pay it meant we told him the dog we were gong with and he had a free £100 bet to control the speed of the Hare so that if we needed the dog to lead he made sure the hare was not too far infront  and vica versa, but we also had help from other trainers and if anyones ever been to Perry Barr they will know the 3rd bend is basically a car park corner so we would have a youth waiting with a carrier bag of rubbish and we would signal if our dog was not leading off the 2nd to throw it over so the race would be stopped and we got our monies back.
The problem was i just couldnt stop betting on anything else so was still losing overall and1 year later I had got bored of the farming type selling role and wanted to develop new business instead so had got a different job back in Birmingham and despite having some bad credit now was able to secure a non mainstream mortgage at a higher rate and we moved back up North... 

pm sent

Simply amazing!!

Unfortunately the internet has denied today's gamblers the privelege of meeting some of these incredible characters.

Great read mate.

thx m8

Was brilliant post always on betfair forums about betting shop characters- am sure someone could dig it out for us

http://www.smashiton.com/others/Betfair_Great_posts.htm

On right hand side- if someone could copy and paste the good ones

THE BIRD MAN

walks in bookies with best picks sorted in mind , talks to locals , and reads RP , changes all his picks , does his dough and three of his original picks romp home , says to all who will listen i don't believe my luck today , does ex the same next time in..

Brilliant   we all know them

i love this diary.

I still sometimes rock up to the bookies just for these characters. They are a rare breed these days. My favourite is playing the roulette and catching someone railing, they always sharply look away as if they are'nt watching.

AM I TOO EARLY 29 Jul 00:12 MR.5P DOUBLES

A few years ago a big punter in the betting shop used to do footie and dog accas all short favs ,anyway he was waiting for the last dog in the bookies ,all waiting to cheer it on ,came to about 30000 ,of course the dog gets beat , then the old guy in the shop starts going mad screaming throwing his pen ,the big punter says nothing the old guy screams out I HAD 10P GOING ON THAT EFFING DOG.



This guy annoys me more than anything.

Its like you are writing my memoirs. Great Stuff!

Bringing back loads of memories, I remember when i was 15, lifting up the pillows on my nans couch, looking for coin, then going to the bookies and playing rapido, seeing some right characters as you mention. Not that bad now obv, but i have been at work since 9 and have already placed 3 bets..

Looking forward to when you say how you stopped. Could be some beneficial advice in there!

Keep it up.

he he, i remember a lot of those people, good times.

Would i Know you?

eso kral = paul mckenna?

(http://www.tvscoop.tv/paul-mckenna.jpg)

loooooooooooooool its only taken a year and a half of updates for someone to get me
Dont worry my friend "I can make you thin"  x

Didnt say I'd stopped did I?

You'll possibly know my face, i didn't go all the time but fairly regular, i'm not very sociable either so i tend not to stand out. You didn't mention Sammy 'the card rack', possibly the worst loser ever but always funny with it.

Oh yeah i remember him now along with Grainger who i think is still around!

correct order should be be me on top of claw75 then british gas obv.  how did holdorfold do at nottingham

Enjoying the diary fella, also was you at DeeTeeDee last saturday for the 12 o'clock flight of GP4..?

yeah that was me, why were you on my table?

Think i got moved to your table when there was around 40 odd left, was your exit hand 10's into chip leaders Kings?

Close 10's into AA  yeah it was pretty tez we had a bit of history and i should have folded as i still had 40k back and i never fold out worse  :(
You got a seat?

Yeh i managed to bink one pal, did you..? i was 2 seats to ya left and the guy in the middle i think was your friend.. You looked like brothers to be honest and i'm sure you mentioned that you use to share a flat together.. Soz if i got this totally wrong..

Rushed home from Golf to catch up on a  fantastic diary,  did not know u were in to Fitness, had two health clubs in 2001, u could have worked for me, sold now damm, one in Southern Ireland and One in Hinckley, we could have had so much fun, Memberships were good then and the extras that came with it!!!

Ahhhhhhh actually i had never met that guy before (Heston Blooming whasisface lookalike) he was good buds with the guy that bust me but we were all talking for quite a while so it looked that way.

GL 2moro though, unfortunately i played the weekend trying to bink one and Sunday night my AK couldnt defeat JQ when it got a bit shippy and i departed 3 tables out and i tried twice online both late night ones AA loses to KK and squeezed shipped AQ into a min raise and 3 cold callers behind and the last caller looked me up for 92% of his stack with 78o    ;grr;

GL though see you at the deepstack if your there!

Unlucky in not getting a seat and yeh we'll catch up at a deepstack..

haha i was gonna do that tonight!

Cba to look back and find where you said it but....

Earlier itt you said something along the lines of whether you win or lose it doesn't really effect you and you feel like you are the same person whether you have £1 or £3k in your pocket. Do you really believe that ? I'm not saying it's not the case, maybe it is, just it's something I say a lot myself but tbh I'm full of shit and just delude myself and although I've not gambled anywhere near the levels you have it does get a bit frustrating, mines more just simply wasting money more than gambling it away, although I'm guilty of that as well. I noticed you mentioned in a later post that "she was noticing my mood swings", I've never regretted anything I've done with regards to money but it does get me down a bit when I'm skint and can't afford to even do normal things when a short while ago I was burning money for fun, I find myself in this spot pretty regularly and although it doesn't bother me enough to make me change it definitely does have an effect on my mood, not permanently mind, just when I look at my bank balance  ;D

Raymondo,
First time around i think i used to let it affect me and after a losing day would be moody but after then i was the same person and kinda became immune to it, in fact later on winning or losing defo didnt matter it was actually easier to have lost the lot in your pocket as it was going to happen anyway.
Plus in my situation i was holding down a good job which partly enabled me to come out of the other side but my head was constantly immersed with figure so my game face and the way i ran my office needed to be constant, i think for you not letting it effect you must be good in a way as your chosen career means being able to distance yourself from the swings and ££ involved can only be a good thing imo.

ITS GRIM UP NORTH!

Back up in the midlands i had taken the job as Midlands sales manager for a corporate car rental brokerage and had set up a new office in Birmingham for them and myself and Sarah had moved to Tamworth to a 5year old house, the year we had owned the flat we had made 5k and in property terms that seemed like a fortune if only we had not kept that to rent out and still bought our little modern 2 bed as well.

I was still punting my brains away mainly horses and dogs and had lost my contact with the dog man and within 3 months had lost 10k and then Sarah found out from a few phone calls that had come in from banks etc. This time as Sarah knew my Dad was willing to help out but only on a basis that i sought some help and also that Sarah's parents were informed and everyone was put in the picture.

So on a Thursday night Dad, Sarah and myself went to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting where they were taken into one room with the families and i was with the gamblers, around the room we went people standing up or sitting saying their first name and then " I am a compulsive gambler and i have not had a bet for " anything from 6months up to 18years and then it was my turn. Always up for a laugh i started off by saying "Hi my names Richard and i am most likely a compulsive gambler and i have not had a bet since the 4.38 at Monmore" which was met with silence followed by stares and then questions about why i was there that day.

Obviously i was only there as i had to and if i was turning up on my own definately would not have gone, GA was not for me infact i found it very Cult like. Im sure it has worked for some, many infact but not me and I did everything i could to make it not work for example they teach the families to take all your money away from you and access to it and you have to be given money that needs to be accounted for with receipts for what you have spent and the change in your pocket should then tally with the £10 or £20 you started with.

I would syphon off pennies, pounds by getting receipts which then got spun up on sprts betting and because i was having to be selective became quite succesfull spinning up £5 to just under £2000 before one day Sarah went out in my car and found all the money tucked away at the bottom of the golf bag and back to scratch it was along with the embarrassment of turning up at my next GA meeting ( yes i was still going ) and having to tell them i had gambled so back to week one i went. At this rate i would never get my tie pin for getting to 1 year!!

I now had what i thought would be my dream job working in the fitness industry selling Gym equipment for a big American Firm and it may well have been good if i wasnt still trying to beat the bookies but the wedding plans were still coming along and Sarah's family were still happy to commit large amounts of money as they wanted Sarah's day to be special and we were 4 months from getting married when one day whilst in the bookies just around the corner from home i bumped into a gorgeous girl working behind the counter called Kelly...

Kelly was a brunette with a devilish streak in her and having met her once i didnt see her again for 3months when she was again working in the same bookies only this time Alan the manager came over to me and said that she had been looking out for me in other shops and all she knew was i had driven off the first time we met in a Red Golf Gti (company car).
I was only 4 weeks away from getting married but being impulsive all i knew was i wanted to take her out so a date was arranged and the next week we met up 40 miles away from where i lived and had a meal, unbeknown to me when picking her up 35 miles way from home and driving 5miles i had driven past one of our bridesmaids who had followed us and called Sarah who was now on her way over FML.

Anyway long story short on leaving the pub Sarah pulled up alongside the car and after telling her "its not what you think" and driving off it was pretty clear there would be no wedding!!

Within 3 months the property had been sold, i was renting a property in the east midlands and was then working for the bookies that Kelly worked for as a relief manager and was obviously going to end in disaster as this was in a time before the slip catcher system so i was always looking for an opportunity to have a bet which at the start was with competitors but then ended up with my own firm and again i was on a slippery slope.

The job lasted 2 years before Kelly and I drifted apart and I moved back down to Gants Hill, Ilford with a car and a few grand and i decided to let life take me where it would which was mainly William Hills across the roundabout and to Southend to play in this dungeon of a card room below sea level with the occasional forray to the midlands Jnc 10 or Luton to do the double header sat aft £10 rebuy and even after binking you could still get in the £10 pot limit rebuy but by now i had no access to credit as it was shot to pieces so was purely a cash person. I didnt do too much damage during this time as had to live within my means but had some memorable touches including my biggest ever placepot win which was £5k nearly landed a £12k touch the week after but had a banker in the last leg that was a field of 8 and was 9/4 fav with 3 rags in the field luckily for me i rang a friend and laid it for a place to win me £3k but i dont think i have ever been so disappointed winning £3k for a £40 outlay it felt like i lost £9k.

6 Months later i had run out of money and needed a job so started looking for sales roles but with a chequered CV nobody was interested as it just looked like i flitted around and changed jobs every 6months so the only sales roles available to me were in order of preference Estate Agent, Car Sales, Double glazing sales (nothing wrong with the other 2 obv) so i managed to secure a job working for a big corporate agent as a sles negotiator working in Ilford and the next chapter began...

This awesome.

Best tip received (price)
Best tip given
Most expensive meal you have paid for. (may include vinni)

More to follow.

WELL DONE WITH UR DIARY MATE..

good read, funny and str forward.

go onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...

 ;topman; ;topman;

TY Frankie  cant wait for yours  :)

@ Leatherman dont know if you saw but the guy who busted me in that satellite went on to win the whole thing he took the 30k   mbn

SELLING HOUSES FOR FUN

I started off with my new firm and really hit the ground running, although Ilford the area i worked itself was not great it was quite a cushy job and my manager Derek was a punter who played the occasional game of poker so we had many trips for pokerz and also to evening racing at lingfield etc.
Workwise was good and poker wise i was still travelling around to different venues mentioned before with quite a few cashes mainly at old Luton in their regular tourneys where i even managed a 3way chop in the afternoon tourney followed by an outright win in the evening tourney which was nice but i still couldnt walk past the magic wheel without playing and most profits were wiped out in a few spins.
One Saturday evening i decided to take a drive to the midlands to play the evening comp at Jnc 10 and as i walked in really early hoping to get some food i saw Paul on the roulette he had two racks of £25s in front of him so had caught the wheel really big, so as soon as he had a losing spin off we went for some food and he gave me the £1k he owed plus £500 on top and our gambling relationship was back on.

Now that i was in work my Dad really wanted me to start paying some money off the "Red Book" so the only way he knew he would get the money was to take control of my finances, which when your a gambler is difficult as your cash is your lifeblood. I wanted to try and make it work for my Dad so we had a joint account and i was paid an allowance per month and if i spunked that away on the first day i couldnt ask for more so i actually for the first time in years started to realise the value of money plus i was saving some money at the same time and was being selective as to what i punted on which meant i had more winners than losers.

Life stayed like this for just over a year and at work i was flying and had been promoted to Branch Valuer so now i got to put houses on the market as well as sell them which double my commission and i was being talked about as being the next branch manager when an office came free so life was fairly rosy and then i received a call from my brother to say my dad had been taken to hospital as he had been passing blood and was i able to come up.

Obviously i snap left work drove up to the midlands and within a short space of time it was established that Dad had not told us of the problem and he had found out that he had the dreaded "Big C" and needed an operation that should be straight forward and then would need to be monitored.

I also was back speaking to Kelly and we were talking of getting back together which would be hard as my life was down south now and she would never up sticks and move so we embarked on a doomed from the start medium distance relationship...

Poker Diary entry

Binked a seat last night for deepstack in 2 weeks in first sat played.
Now means i will play with 2 bullets as would have bought in anyways so gonna play for a stack on friday and reload sat if required!!

Gotta feeling gonna go deep this month so GL me and BITB

Yes pal i was on the rail standing next to his pal (hewston thingy) lookalike.. Chatted to him also about you and i mentioned that i belived the story about you two being flat mates and he laughed his ass off.. He also said that you was nice chap and a good player.. He was buzzing because he had 20% in Tom who was chip leader and a worthy winner imo.. The second chip leader who had around 700K less than Tom wouldn't shift and said he wanted 30K min.. So Tom who wanted to lock up the deal gave 2K off his winnings to lock it up, said the money was really important to him and he didn't want to risk getting bummed.. (fair play to him imo) Also it was good news for my pal who i was railing, not only was he a Golden Chip winner for 15K but because the chip leaders wanted to finish the deal they gave him 10K and he snapped accepted as he had 4 bigs left.. lol (mbn)
 So glad i turned down his offer of swapping 10%.. grrrr!!! lol

6 Months Later

Im now running an office within 18months which is virtually unheard of, still managing to live on a life float of £500 per month to include petrol and all gambling/poker, still with Kelly and am spending 3nights in Leicestershire and rest in Gants Hill and Dad seemed to be ok and the hospital are saying he needs a yearly check up but they think they caught it early so i was bound to press the self destruct button soon.

My credit had improved enough that i was able to buy a house in Coalville, Leicestershire and had actually saved up a 5% deposit to put down plus my legals and the bank lending me the money liked me enough to give me a good credit card which i accepted and loaded some money to Betfair and was backing and laying on days off but with no plan or pattern just whatever i fancied and the bug had started to get hold of me again.

The house went through and Kelly was happy, Dad was proud i was back on the ladder but i was keeping a secret about my finances as my credit card was maxed out but i could afford to up my allowance to pay it off when one day the nice ladies in the bank offered me a loan of £10k. Now i didnt need 10k or anything for that matter but i took them up on their kind offer of 5K with 3k going off the credit card and 2k into my bank account, all i remember was it was the friday before a bank holiday weekend and St Helens were playing Wigan on the monday so it was a 5/6 your choice kind of affair. IDK what the result was but my 1k stayed with the bookies and i lost the other 1k over the weekend so back to square 1 i was.

As soon as the bank opened on Tuesday i went straight in and told the girls some extra building work had shown up so i needed to top up the loan, now as i was showing £5k per month going in and they knew where i worked they credited my account and paid off the loan then topped up the difference to give me some more cash to the total of £10k so about £4.7k was added to my account. It didnt last long infact was probably done within a couple of weeks at the end i was trying to spin up some money on betfair and had layed and bet my way from £100 to 4k then put the whole lot on a basketball match late at night expecting to log in the next day and see another 10% added to my total but alas my 1/10 shot didnt win and i was bang in trouble but earning good money so knew i would get out of it as i always did.

The opportunity came when Kelly's grandparents decided they wanted to sell their home they had lived in since new in a sought after village and we placed our modern house up sale which sold in a week and as i was now a compulsive liar (these things go hand in hand when you have a gambling problem) i told Kelly we were putting down x deposit when in rality it was much less so i could pay off my debts and start again and yet again iwas free of debt, earning enough to cover my outgoings and do some work to the house and only i knew whilst all the time managing to hold down a really good job yet i knew it wouldnt be long before i had punted my way into trouble again...

Why are you not on facebook yet? Is it because you have no friends?

THE HOUSING BOOM BUT NOT FOR ME!!

I class myself as lucky in many ways but despite being an agent my timing is pretty rubbish as i missed the property boom due to punting my life away and then not having the ability to buy due to poor credit.

Kelly found out about the money owed on the house when a statement came through the door and it took a load of explaining and she was so pissed off due to the house needing loads of work that it started to put pressure on our relationship and i found at that time in my life i turned to the one thing i knew which was punting and was like Fck it cos when your in that casino/bookies/card room no-one really knows who is up against it or doing well and it was my release from all the pressure despite it heaping more pressure on in other areas.

To make it up to Kelly i took out a 2nd loan on the property so we could get the kitchen done/ buy her a car/ get a boob job (her not me) but i had lost the kitchen money before i had even stripped out the old one so i secretly took the worst piece of finance i have ever taken with the kitchen company and took the finance on an 8k kitchen (more later) but within 6months i was spending hardly anytime in the midlands as my relationship was crap so was paying for a house i never lived in and was driving up and down the motorway to play poker at Walsall as leaving work at 6pm i could get to their good comps by 9pm or Luton by 7.30 and was doing ok in poker then losing most of it before i got to the door and then driving back down south for work the next day. I was at my unhealthiest ever eating meals at 10pm plus the obligatory sandwich sweets redbull for the drive home coupled with 2hours sleep in the car park before shaving in the office and doing a full days work and as i was in my mid 20s could manage this for 4days on the trot then i would have 2 days to recover.
I was a mess!!!

When we eventually split up it was messy and by the time all the charges for early redemption had been applied to my accounts i was left with £456 having had 50k deposit 18months earlier plus i owed a loan credit card and this poxy 8k loan on the kitchen at an exorbitant rate which ended up costing me 20k to pay back in total so i hope the people living in my old home really enjoyed that kitchen and Kelly's new fella enjoyed the boobs as i never really got to use either of them!!  :(

My Dad had expected to see some of the cash from the sale of the house paid off the red book so was obv disappointed to find only £456 and it took some explaining but i was accomplished at this by now and i was earning £60k plus so promised to pay monthly but like most promises in those days they didnt mean a lot.

The only way i could get hold of money now was to win it or borrow it from non mainstream ways and it was at this stage in my journey where i think i was at my luckiest but it was more of a lucky to be alive...

You would try to poke me!  again

i had a small gambling habit when i was 20ish....

 but nothing like this.. i can relate to some of it ...but its a fantastic honest read ..please don't stop..

Best Diary I've ever read on here.

Amazing.

Rich, I'll say again that this is a great read - what is your motivation for getting this written down ? Just nosy :-)

Hey Glen,
Funny you should ask as over the weekend i was thinking wtf am i writing it all down for, then realised i actually wanted to start a diary to keep a track of a few things and give myself a challenge and instead of just writing Hi this is me off we go   blah blah blah thought it would be better to go from the start as either A) peeps on here can relate B) some maybe are in a hole now C) makes it a good start before i get really boring and become like george talking about bad beats or Pleno <3 talking about his dog!
There are a few things that i want to do in the diary once i get to the here and now so just wanted to get from AtoB first before starting at C if you know what i mean.
Thx for the compliment though  ;)

gfy you degenerate prick



















































<3 you really

WORK UPDATE
We didnt sell a house today but we didnt lose any either so all in all it wasnt a bad day!!
It was quite busy though so it felt really good in the office!!

Going to see the new planet of the apes film tonight and Petra's folks are looking after Maxwell so all is good.

See now my diary is like Pleno's  ;)

Next Degen update tomorrow!!!!

This. Fantastic read. Love the addition of punctuation.

More Please....

RUMBLESTRIPS AND REDBULL

So i'm now running an estate agency in Loughton for the same firm and due to the housing boom in early 2000's we are doing record sales but I'm potless with no hope of getting a mortgage again for the forseeable future and loans and credit cards coming out of my ears which are accruing charges left right and centre due to missed payments as when your gambling your life away like any drud addiction, the money to feed your habit is more important than life expenses.

My health was pretty rubbish for reasons previously stated and all i could think of was betting during the day and then leaving work to get to Walsall for the card comps and i would prior to the comp starting regularly lose 200-300 on the roulette before sitting in the comp and tilting off, playing again during the break and after having won or loss beofre setting off on the long drive down south.

Where i firstly class myself lucky to be alive is that on countless occasions despite having had 1-2 cans of Redbull my body was that tired that i would doze off at the wheel and it was only as the car would hit the rumble strips i would wake up just in time to steer away from the hard should and subsequent grass verge or the central reservation. In addition to this i would sometimes wake up right up the backside of a car or lorry infront of me having accelerated whilst asleep again waking in time before hitting them, this was scary but my addiction kept me doing it night after night.

By now i was immune to the phone calls or letters coming through the door daily and in most cases i never even opened them just put them in a drawer and burying my head in the sand, my Dad could never work out how i coped with the pressure of running a good business coupled with juggling finances and finding the time to drive and play poker and gamble but you just do.

I had some consistent results in the local comps but my mind was never on them as i was usually watching the numbers coming up on the magic wheel cursing and bemoaning my luck as it came up 8/11/29/7/0/36/36/30 and telling anyone on the table who would listen that my numbers were coming up and i was sat in this £30 f/out but no-one really cared, and i had now found a game slightly closer to home at the Westcliff Casino in Southend so was playing there as well...

You liked 36 so much you bet it twice.. 29,7,30 also 3 of mine. need to get 20,14 and 22 involved though for the big bucks!

Many times the rumble strips have acted as my alarm clock, although i sometimes go over them when i am awake..

Great read. Keep up the good work.

LIFE CHANGING WINS!!!

As a gambler there are probably only a few occasions where you are in a position to win a life changing amount of money for a small outlay and i was in that position at Jnc 10 one night during a poker festival.

I think it was the final event of the festival probably a £100 side event whilst the main event final was gong on and i was sat to the left of Ram Vaswani in the days when "The Hendon Mob" were the only group of players to look up to, obv they had all the run good in those days and my AK was no match for AQ and as i got knocked out a Thai girl called Pham who used to date one of the players but was pretty degen herself called me over saying i needed to play roulette vs this dealer as he kept spinning the ball in the same section.

FML i was skint had no access to getting any money and had £140 in my pocket and needed to put petrol in the car, so wondering why no-one was on this table and checking out the numbers obv put my £100 down to receive 20 £5 chips to which i said "singles please".
The dealer replied "sorry its a five pound table" well this was going to have to work out quickly then.

I let the dealer spin a few times without placing a bet and yes he seemed to spin the same section 3-4 spins on the trot before moving to the other side of the wheel and as a frequent visitor realised he must be anew dealer due to the fact i didnt recognise his face. So off we went with my £100 being place on Tier section but £5 on numbers 1 & 6 just in case, BINK 16 FML as followers from the start will know 16 is the worst possible number for me infact i was lucky i even covered it and looking down it could have been game over but luckily for me i had a split with 13 so i was losing on the first spin but as Pham had said he stayed true to his tendancies and the next 3 spins sailed into Tier with the next spin giving me £5 s/up and £5 split and on we went.

After the 3rd spin i started to take chips off the table and put them in my pocket which i now realise in this instance was a BIG mistake but at the time putting 200-300-500 per spin in my pocket was the bigger objective and after the first spin of number 16 a small crowd had gathered around the table with players following me in.

I decided to carry on until my first losing spin and then would stop and this happened on the 20th spin which was 3 spins after they had taken this poor young kid off the wheel and replaced him with a pitboss, heading straight to the cash desk i had no idea how much money was in my pockets and just kept placing bundles of lovely pink £100 chips on the top until my pockets were empty bar my last £40  ;)

That £15'000 said the lady and the queue of people behind looked at me like i was Donald Trump (this was Walsall) remember so i cashed in and gave £200 to Pham as a thank you and £100 to an interesting fella called Con Cronin and went to sit in the 1-2 PLO...

That was the order of numbers coming up so 36 doubled always happy days as i was told always press the last number if you had money on it for the occasions when it doubles or triples wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

lol incred

Having no base up North it meant staying in hotels and on this occasion i was staying at the Posthouse hotel and having got back to my room at early o'clock and due to be in Loughton after the festival at 8.30 am it meant leaving at 5.30 to gtee it down the m6/m1 so when the alarm went off up i jumped checked my 2 x £5k sealed bags and 4 x £1k bags were still on the bedside table and got in the shower.

I think i got to about Coventry on the M1 before i thought F**k it and turned straight back round driving to Walsall Manor Hospital to phone my employers up (just in case they caller id'd me) and tell them that i had been admitted to hospital with some chest pains and they were keeping me in for a few days, they were concerned and said let them know when i would be back in and i was free for a few days and i drove back to the hotel checking in for another few days of degeneracy just spending money like it was going out of fashion, busting out of tourneys and sitting in dealers choice games playing games i didnt know or understand until 15k became 10k and my extra 4day holiday was over...

It turned out to be an interesting few days as sat in the omaha game one night, the legend Mickey Wernick was on his uppers and asked if he could borrow a couple of hundo as he had done his last bullet as i was holding i said yes but wanted to know when i would get it back as i had learnt that if i liked them i would lend once and get an agreed payback date if the money came back if they needed i would lend again and if not then even if i had the cash i wouldnt lend. Mickey said a week friday would be the return date and true to his word i received the money and having been on his uppers Mickey then preceeded to win the Sunday afternoon comp in Walsall headed down to Luton and won the evening comp there finally reaching his destination of the Vic where the festival was on and he won a side event early in the week followed by a chop or outright win in the main event (cant remember) either way it was a phenominal week and one which ended with him winning the european rankings on the way to many cashes that year.

I wasnt really interested in Poker then and still didnt play higher than £100 f/outs as was enticed by the other games around and having made my way down south and lied through my teeth about how the hospital had said i had just drunk too much redbull and was completely drained so my body had just shut down i then had a very fortunate escape with 10k in my pocket one that i have never repeated...

Always heard good things with regards to Mickey and lending/borrowing- been told he is very fair, and obviously he is old school punter- used to be bookie at dogs when John Shipley was the biggest punter there apparently

100% true.

He sometimes takes a while to find the money, but he has always paid in full, & when he's been overdue - quite often - he adds a sweeetener on top when the money eventually comes through. I must have lent him a good few bob down the years, but he repaid every single penny.

Something has always bothered me .... why did players always give Con money?

When Mickey is carrying he can be very generous........

NEVER RUN OUT OF PETROL

Having worked the day i had completely forgotten i needed petrol and having ebarked on the short journey down the m11 towards gants hill and 1/2 mile before i reached the speed camera that must earn London Borough of Redbridge hundreds of thousands per year my care ground to a halt oh and its raining.

So out i get and start to walk down the motorway knowing the closest garage is as you come off towards Gants Hill about 2miles away i see a red car pull in and wait for me.   Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii   as i approach the car i realise there are 4 guys sat in it and they say in broken english with a thick european tone "Do you want lift to garage" obv its pretty difficult to say no as im wet through in a suit with 10k in my pocket but all im thinking of is getting out of this in one piece so in i get.

Keeping conversation to minimum we get to the Esso garage and i purchase a green petrol can, fill it up and they are still waiting. It turns out they work on one of these car valeting places in an old garage but live in Walthamstow which is now completely in the wrong direction so i offer the fella driving £20 to say thanks for picking me up but i cant possibly take them out of their way to which he snap declines the money and says look get in we dont have anything else to do so jump in, obv i have to jump in and they take me upto the Loughton turn to turn around and drop me back to the car and wait to make sure my car starts even running down the grass verge to pick up the green petrol can i tossed down the side as i will never need it again and i make him take the £20 to have a drink before getting in my car locking it from the inside and going home feeling like an absolute Luckbox!!

The rest of my money didnt last long its funny how quickly you can spend it when you have it and when i had next ran out i took to borrowing from sources i would never recommend even my enemies (if i had any) to borrow from...

one more post today pls

He never did any harm to me, i saw his faults very early on and i would never lend him money but in life if i had a tenner and i could see someone else needed it more than me i would happily give it to them and this was one of those occasions.

But he is/was minted lol, I have never seen him borrow money but he was always given it? lol

I love Mickey to bits especially when he takes you to the side to tell you the stories about his Gold and Ruby ring that has been in and out of hock more times thanTikay says EPIC on Sky poker and shows you the newspaper article of when he was one of the first uk players to go to vegas!!  Legend

Just sat and read this from start to finish - absolute genius.  I'm a similar age and can relate to so many of the characters, stories, spin ups, coups - but whilst more than happy to share them over a few beers not sure I'd post them on a diary.  Keep it up mate, I am hooked.  Out of interest, did you get married here or Slovakia - my best mate married a Slovak, Gabi and I was best man and had the most amazing wedding in Bratislava in 2007, was brilliant.  My sSlovak now stretchs to Dobra Dobra - prob not how you spell it.

QUOTING BEFORE HE DELETES IT ^^^^   Vinny and Greeky must be jealous they dont get Dubai asking for more!!

Lol, he must have carried that newspaper for nigh 20 years.

He sometimes brings in an A4 manilla envelope, with all sorts of newspsaper cuttings in it. And he always tells the story of "the worst outdraw ever ever ever" in the 1991 WSOP, when the case 6 or whatever did him.

If there was one thing I could change about MW, it's his addiction to telling bad-beat stories, but there are worse faults to have. I have to bite my tongue when the youngsters serial mock him on the Updates, I think that's rather sad.

GREAT Diary Mr Slovakian A-K, loving it, keep it coming.

MONEY LENDING

Needing to fund my habit if i had no money i had no-one to turn to interms of banks or friends or family as they had all been nipped and knew they were lending money that would be used for the wrong reasons but i had through my job met and dealt with many property investors who didnt know my past and only knew me as Richard the Agent.

So i took a big gamble and turned to a Chinese investor who had recently bought a property through us that he had made some money on and i asked him if he knew anyone who would lend some money for a 2 month period obv i knew it would cost and bluffed that i was buying a property in the midlands and didnt want to miss out on it but was a few thousand short on the deposit.

He said he would lend me the money but the interest on what i borrowed was 20% per month so on the 5k i had to pay 1k at the end of the calendar month and if i didnt pay the balance at the end of the next month it was another 1k obv if i paid him 3k the balance was 3k and the inerest would be £600 next month and so on till the figure was clear. He also made it pretty clear that if i didnt pay someone would be knocking on the door and it wouldnt be him!!

The next day he turns up with 5k and im now indebted to him, I was earning good money and had winning days as well so it was a case of making sure i had the grand at the end of the month and topped it up and within 3 months i had cleared this off and had some spare capital so i knew he would lend again and over the next year or so if i was ever light or needed to find money quickly he was a good source to have and he knew i was never ever late with a payment until....  one day i was at the end of my money in the bank and there was probably 20 days left till payday plus Cheltenham was coming up and being a sucker for the big meetings borrowed the most i had ever lent off him which was 10k.

Now this figure is quite scary as that means finding 2k in interest per month plus a bit off the capital plus im paying rent my other debts inlcuding the kitchen loan still and my 20k bank loan but being commission paid i know 1month in advance what i will be paid but after that its down to getting deals through. The first month was fine as i had had a bumper month and managed to pay off 4k so the balance was 8k but the next month i just about scraped the 2k together knocking a couple of other payments instead as HSBC dont put you in the concrete that builds motorway bridges if you knock them.

But my commission for the following month was abysmal and knowing what i was going to earn that month meant it was going to be a very difficult phone call and subsequent visit for someone....

Lolz nearly Claypole, yeah we got married on May 9th 2009 and got married at the Cerveny Kamen (Red Rock) Castle just outside of Bratislava with 45 English people travelling over who spoke no Slovak obv and 50 Slovaks who spoke no English but more of that later in the diary as it was paid for courtesy of a season long football acca from the lovely Totesport even though they tried to welch out of the £9k payment for an £80 bet on a technicality..

Slovak weddings pwn ours hands down you start eating drinking and dancing at 3-4pm in afternoon and the ceremony finishes at 5-6am when the band stop playing and the bride and groom are always the last to leave!!

This really is an excellent read - well done! :)

Thx dont worry i get really boring in about 2 years when i lost 3 fingers for non payment and got a king charles cavalier (tri colour) obv  ;)

You gotta finish the story now haha

I haven't been this excited about a next installment since The Wire......

abso immense stuff, was hand in hand with you until your last entry, now you have massively knocked it up a few levels. Can't wait til the next part.

Eso Kral the Movie

Just re-read this cheeky 47 is in no way similar age  :D

Thx Tikay yeah forgot about the envelope

Just like women Dave keep em wanting more!!

Ewan Gabs got married in Castle, I was a typical male best man so don't know if it was that one - from memory it was fab, but did't feel like what we would call a castle.  We had the same, 45 Brits and we took over The Raddisson in the square - and all made it a week trip - it was incred.  You're right about the wedding - loads of little traditional things and Ewan had to put his foot dowen and limit gabs to two or three of them - I remember them smashing something and having to clean it up tohgether and some ridiculous ceromony with hats and shit at the end of the night - we were all battered and in absolute etitices and Gabs hasnt properly forgiven us to this day for videos we made with me commentating going "What the f*** is all this about and Ewan looks a cock in that hat".  Love Slovakia and - in a sweeping sterotypical judgement all Slovakians lol - great bunch of people from my experiences and fit as which helps

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Brings back memories
I will try and post the short version of my Wedding when we get to it in the diary but we had all the traditions and yes you break a plate and have to sweep it up to music whilst your wife holds the dustpan and your hoisted above heads on chairs wearing a farmers hat to symbolize bringing the food to the table and the wife wears a maids bonnet to show she will look after the home and kids and then you drink a shot of Slivovice (potent stuff)
Incred weddings i think we served 4 meals at ours which is pretty standard and you pre order the alcohol normally allowing 1 litre of wine per person and 1 litre spirits per person!!

Goood read. want moarrrr imo


Loughton ftw!

not been so intersted in a thread.....ever

more more and more.......please

Very much + 1

We should never  judge a book by it's cover.

Next up, Lucky's diary of being in the Bloods.

this is my fav clip of mickey, see how the pot size changes.  YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNIWl8sarNs

Just read this from the start (been on holiday) and I know it's been said by others but what a great read.

It was me with the Degan Santa comment BTW - I still remember that tip too :)

Looking forward to reading more.

Do you know anything about the American property market? I viewed a couple of properties over there last week and I'm very tempted.

Stuart

Gr8 find, Rick, that typifies Mickey when he has just taken a beat.

Loved the looks on the faces of Flushy & Graham Pound, *eyes glaze over, look for an escape*.......

Brilliant find, just dont tell George there is a thread where video'd bad beats can be posted!!

incred diary.

BoB

Next post tomorrow as today is day off work and just got back from taking Petra's folks to bus station at Victoria so they can go on the coach back to Slovakia.  24 Hours journey but they cant fly as one of them has a balance problem so bus it is, rather them than me.
Obv they all cry so gonna do some family stuff this aft and will post next few chapters during day tomorrow, footie tonight with the boys from office so always a good craic!!

We need the next installment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(http://images3.cpcache.com/product/127999323v7_480x480_Front.jpg)

Sick slowroll....

I opened it up thinking it would be another epic story, still at least something to look forward to tomorrow :D

The wait is killing me.. ;-)

ESCAPE TO THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION!!

During the month i knew i was not going to be able to pay the interest let alone any of the balance and had tried to spin up some money for the first 2 weeks of the month but to no avail.  To be honest i was absolutely bricking it as having spoken to other people about the lender i heard when people didnt pay he was a nasty character and i genuinely feared abouot having some bones broken, i seriously contemplated just running away and starting again and even took the time to buy a book on the french foreign legion as although i was currently out of shape i knew it wouldnt take long to get in shape to pass the physical and maybe a few years away would sort me out and save some money but i had one last option.

I turned up at Grosvenor Walsall for a mini festival and played the £200 event like a scared bunny it was my last money of the month and if i didnt come top 3 what i would be paid a week later would not be enough to pay the interest on the debt and when i busted i felt physically sick, so it was a choice of running or turning up on my dads doorstep for one last shot and if he said no i was going to disappear.

I knocked the door and as soon as my dad opened it, i know he knew why i would be there as it was a Sunday morning i had slept in my car and looked scruffy, unshaven and desperate.  "Hi Dad, thought i would pop in as was in a festival last night" was my opening gambit and we sat down to catch up as when i was gambling heavily i used to not ring him or ignore his phone calls so he knew pretty much that i was going to be sat here in trouble.

We chewed the cud for a while and after an hour i broke down and confessed that i was in trouble and feared for my health if he could not help me one last time, hoping that the thought of his son being hurt would tug the heart strings enough for him to help out. I was a pretty devious character in those days and although i knew this really hurt my dad and depsite the fact i knew his health was not amazing or his own financial circumstances all in needed was the knowledge i would get hold of the money.

"How much and to who do you owe?" he said to which i replied its a property investor and 12k now i only owed 8k plus the 1600 interest but being a complete idiot and not wanting to beat my problem a little surplus on top would give me a starting roll to try and spin up and he looked at me with a tear in his eye and said "I'm sorry son but i said to myself last time i wouldnt and im going to stick to my guns"...

Oh shit, this is amazing stuff!

Don't know if its the way ya write or just because i feel like i can really relate, but this is fantastic reading!

I have never actually read a book from start to finish but stuff like this makes me want to nip to Waterstones and pick up a thriller.

This pisses all over other diaries imo.

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Despite everything i said Dad was not going to lend the money to me and i left the house and apologised for letting him down and told him that i would have no option but to disappear but i would try and contact him as and when i could.  I got in the car and drove off and was about to get on the M6 to head south when my phone rang  and it was Dad asking me to go back to his house.

Now i am not proud of many of the things i did in my past and hurting my Dad the way i did for many years still does not sit right with me and later in my story i will talk about him in more detail as he was a truly great man, however all the things that i did then make me the person i am today and i dont regret my past as for example if i was 6ft 2 i would have 99% sure been a professional footballer and therefore would have shared the experiences i have in my life and therefore would not have met Petra and had the chance to have Maxwell.

Back at the house the red book was out again and Dad had added up the figures and it came to a good 20k of money that i had received and my brother had not although this would be reduced to 12k as my brother was getting married and Dad was giving him 8k towards it so my figure would come down accordingly.  Dad was working as a chauffeur for a cosmetic surgery company ferrying around mainly women from around the country to have boob jobs (nice life) and back after the op but didnt earn lots of money and his savings were tied up so he said he would take a loan out on my behalf and i had to pay double for the first few months to be ahead of the loan incase i then had a mishap, which obviously i agreed to and he then said that he wanted to meet the investor to tell them that on no occasion was i to ever be leant to again.

I was never going to let this happen so told him i would contact the guy and come back to him but thought he would only want to deal with me, 2 days later at midnight my Dad met me in the early hours of the morning on his way to pick up a patient form Southampton and he handed me the money in an envelope and said that if this ever happened again he would only have one son left.  I went back to my flat in Hornchurch a relieved man and met up with the investor the next day to pay him off and then went out and got smashed feeling so lucky to not have to run away and cause more hurt...

Gripping stuff Rich.

I have  known a fair few people who have got themselves in deep doodoo with Far-Eastern moneylenders and it's not funny at all. At one point there were around half a dozen of them who used to hang around in Gala Nottm. waiting for folk to go busto on the tables. It was so blatantly open that I was always amazed the management stood for it.

My diary is much better imo, just about to update it from yday KK<<<<<AA, AK<<<AA, AK<<<<KK, gripping stuff  ;whistle;

The honesty in this is truly amazing Rich. Thank you so much for sharing it.

Big +1 here :)up

Fascinating read Rich , keep it coming !

2 WEEKS LATER

I had won a few quid here and there on sports, and a few colleagues had invited me for a night out at Harlow dogs which was local to them and we rocked up on a Weds night for a meal and couple of drinks. Having been to the track 2 of the boys wanted to buy a greyhound or two that we could run at the track and hopefully have a few touches on, so on Friday night we went back and had dinner with a trainer called Tommy Wade who said he had a couple of cheap dogs that were for sale and would be perfect and he also said that some of his owners were not really gamblers so was happy to tip us the wink when these dogs were trying and we parted with £1500 between the 3 of us for 2 dogs that had not run before at the track.

Mick had already been to his kennels so i felt at ease with this and as he left Tommy told us to back his dog in the first as it was expected to win. I stuck £200 on at 6/4 and half my dogs investment was paid back as it led round the first and won by 4 lengths, it later transpired that Tommy was reknowned for winning the first race and they were usually shorties in the betting.

As it turned out one of the dogs was rubbish and the other one had trialled better and was due for its first run on a saturday night in the second lowest grade but Tommy expected it to win, the unfortunate thing about Harlow dogs in those days was they knew which punters backed which trainers dogs and you had to work it like a military operation to get a decent amount of money on so with 4 bookies betting plus one without the fav we all waited for the show but had been told the tissue was 5's.

It opened up at 5's as per the tissue and Tommy had told us that it had had a live kill that morning and was then locked in a dark kennel so would be raring to go when the traps opened and all we needed to do was lead at the first bend. All four of us waited and then in a synchronised fashion stepped forward first of all putting £400 on at 5's and then a further £300 including £100 for Tommy at 3's before it got scrubbed due to the bookies themselves trying to lay with the others.

As the traps opened he flew out and it was all over at the first bend and i think Tommy had to explain on the improved time from the trials as it had won by to far to be normal improvement, but as a gambling kennel this was just a formality and we used some of the winnings to purchase another dog from a car park in Romford...

Mick had bumped into a fella who was about to be sent down and owned a few dogs that ran at Romford and needed to sell them so we purchased our most expensive dog (not that much in dog terms) who was called Moat Buddy for around £1800 now Moat was a massive dog who needed to lead or he lost interest, i cant remember the exact weight but i think he was 32kilos and dwarfed most greyhounds and had won a weak A1 (top grade) race at Romford but was prob A2 class realistically.

You cant hide a dogs previous form but Buddy was useless at Harlow and for any that know the track its cambered on the bends and dogs that have never run there before tend to just run off at the bends so as Buddy was a bang leader we were pretty disappointed with his times.

From being top grade at Romford he opened up in A7 at Harlow and was 4/7 on his debut at those prices we never had a bean on and although he should have pissed it he ran off at the bend got knocked over and finished last, he didnt win a race till we switched him to another trainer who trained at Catford and despite being told he had slightly split his webbing we found out he was down to run and he won his last race at 10/1 for us before after one more run i think we retired him due to injury.

I became immersed in the dogs at Harlow and got the videos for all the meetings along with the advance cards to really study up as you could always find one or two that looked to be good things, but although i was winning at Harlow i was still losing elsewhere and it didnt take long before i was back on the phone to the money lender to bring me some ££££

Due to the fact i was a good payer and had a good job if i needed money it was nice to know that having made a call normally within 2 hours a car would turn up and i would just be handed some money and i never thought at that time about the paying back bit so i collected my 5k from the window of the car and said i would see him at the end of the month...

Tremendous  ;hattip;

 ;tightend; ;applause; gripping read rich!

I need the day to go fast today can't wait to get home to read this .......

Omg I am in the q at screwfix reading this it's amazing read ......balls my order just came thru

It's ok there a que at burger van.....
Hello my name is lee and I'm addicted to this thread

Absolutely!

Keep it coming 

SOMETIMES IM A LUCKBOX

A few months passed and i was making my payments to my dad and and servicing the debt to the investor when we had a really bad month and again i knew i would struggle to meet my ends meet so was trying to work out what to knock as i owed 3.5k to the investor needed to pay £600 to my dad plus all my other debts (yes i was still paying for the kitchen in my old house that i hadnt owned for 2years) but even though i had little or no free money i would still gamble and i remember it was a day off as usual i was up early and had got the racing post to read through and been to the gym and was sat in my local William Hills putting on a few placepots to try and win a few quid.

PLACEPOTS FTW
The meeting was Goodwood not a big meeting but i had done a couple of straight line bets and a perm (for those that dont know a place pot is where you need to get a horse placed in the first six races at the meeting and if there are 4 runners you need the winner, 5/6/7 runners first 2places, 8-15 runners your horse in the first 3 and 16 runners as long as its a handicap first 4 places. There is a pool of money created from the bettors and at the end the money left is divided into this figure minus the tote deduction giving a dividend to the £) and by the 4th race it was going to pay fairly well and i was running to a line of £8 with 2 bankers in the last 2 races and my perm had doubled up twice with 3runners in the 5th race and 2 in the last.

It was likely to pay good as the favourites were not placed and when i sailed through the 5th race with my banker which was in the perm also i walked up to Ladbrokes as they can show you on the screen how much is running onto the horses in the next race so you can work out what it will pay to pretty much the £.  Going into the last race i really wanted the banker horse to come in as that meant i scooped both bits of the bet but i need'nt have worried as they both came in the first 3 and i sat quietly in my chair working out how much was on each horse taking out the deduction to find that i would be collecting just under £6750 for an outlay of £38.

Obviously the bookies didnt hold that amount of money and offered a cheque which i snap refused and i waited till the next day to collect the cash before driving straight round to the investors to pay the 3.5k plus 20% interest telling myself this would be the last time i would put myself in that position again...

It's just scary to read this, absolutely brutal. Gripping read though.

Rich, what do you think of these moneylenders/loansharks?

And the millions of companies you see advertising with higher interest rates than your loanshark?

Old Rich
(http://www.bitterwallet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/loanshark.jpg)

There's one I know of now who's in big big trouble from these guys. Obv it's his fault he fucked up so consistently (degens gonna degen) but he's now in so deep that all his avenues for making payments/getting out are dried up it's very worrying that something real bad will happen to him or his loved ones. It's come close already.

Well people who go to them for money do know the consequences of non payment but at the same time the people lending probs dont want someone who wont be able to pay therefore a long long stay in hospital is not good for them.
Its mostly gonna be degens who borrow of them though as why pay 20% monthly??

In 20 years time if Maxwell said he was gonna be a moneylender would you be ok with it?

20% per month is actually very good for instant access to cash.

An arranged overdraft with Halifax costs £1 per day "to make it easy for our customers".

Doesn't take a genius to work out that that's bloody expensive if you slip over by a few quid by mistake.

If you mean he is the one doing the lending then i would say yes as i know some business people who sometimes need to lay their hands on good amounts of money and although it may cost them if its not for degen reasons then it makes sense to do it.
Obv i wouldnt be happy to find out he was a leg breaker but thats not gonna happen cos as soon as he can hold a mouse he starts to work with Pleno  ;)

do you want him to be a footballer?

COMING OF AGE

By now i was approaching the age of 30 and had probably for the first time in 10 years realised i had nothing to show for my life except a trail of destruction and hurt but i was still gambling when i had a day off and playing poker around either Southend, Walsall or Luton with the occasional visit to Brighton for a side event at a festival but the game at Southend was where i played mostly and they had a £20 rebuy every Weds and Sunday that i played in.

The card room itself was downstairs with no air con and small round tables like they used to have at Old Luton unless you made the final table in which case you sat on a dealer dealt table, it used to be a good mix of people in there and there were always 60-70 runners so a good pot was built with most players going there happy to pull up £100+ and sometimes you would see the real degens with £240 worth of buyins and the last 3 hands used to be carnage.

Not long after i started playing there they moved the room to the smaller side of the casino ( they hold 2 of the 3 licences granted for Southend and presumably are keeping the one active just incase any real development and a marina are put in on the front itself, whereby they will open a 3rd casino in the town) which was a bigger room with no air con that in the winter is freezing cold and in the summer boiling hot.  The games were ok and due to the fact that in a long while i didnt have a g/f or significant other i would venture down and play the comp plus the house games before, during the break and after busting the comp and in the early days i made the odd final but normally had blinded away to get there and then bust out in 6-9th place for a small profit.

I had started to read books like the Harrington books but you could never really apply them to our game as the comps were never really deep enough so like today many local donkaments became shove fests and you need to win 4-5 60/40's or vica versa from 20 players down to make a f/t.

The cash game consisted of the same 5-6 players waiting for value and at that time the winners in the game were Rob Huntley, John Gale (not the famous one), Ian turner and Paul Siddle who the old boys saw as an internet player but he was IMO the best player of them all. I never really played cash with them as in those days i felt out of my league and also was just a tournament donkey and one day whilst playing the comp i laid eyes on someone who would change my life forever!!!

Petra was a valet at the casino fetching drinks for the players and when i first saw her i thought she was stunning and had that sexy eastern european accent as she asked you what you wanted, loads of players used to try and chat her up or ask her out and she always said the same thing "sorry im not allowed to date customers". I just carried on and was now playing pretty much exclusively at Southend with a bit of Luton and was on one of the worst runs i had been through in tournaments and because i was trying to be disciplined had started a diary to check what i won and lost on during the year.

I was about to have a break from poker as on the 16th feb i had played 25 tournaments and out of the 25 had gone deep in 20 of which i had lost in 14 of them to 2 outers on the turn or river (in before anyone says im sounding like george) when with 10 days to go till payday and with £250 to last till then i decided to give it one last shot at the £20 rebuy.....

I would be more than happy for him to be a footballer but i think i would guide him that he needs an education as well, cos there are no gtees even when you get signed only 1/10-15 kids that are yts (in my day) or academy students probs ever make it and when you dont you struggle to replace that buzz.

I have to be careful what I say here, but remember the murders of the family of 4 in Northampton? The image of the suspect involved is quite familiar to me from my days at China Palace, never gambled himself and had a completely different name. The casino itself was run by Triads but not on the face of it, our GM was paid off by them and if ever the head triad wanted a private meeting he just used to click his fingers and the GM would offer him his office. Casino's should never allow money lenders, but there is/was a dark side to them that no one would see.

I remember the China Palace well and fortunately for me i was always on my own dime in there. Nice food though!!

+1 on the food

Back in the early 90's there used to be an old chinese chap called Alwyn (spelling?) who took a shine to me at China Palace and always insisted on me joining him for dinner which the casino used to comp for him and after a while they extended the offer of food to me. This all came to an abrupt end when they banned me for turning my last £15 into just shy of £10k. This really peed me off as I'd done circa £150k in 2 years there.

Rich I think we were introduced briefly at DtD a couple of months back but I'm surprised I never knew you before as Walsall used to be one of my haunts.

Brilliant thread this by the way.

+1 on the food

Back in the early 90's there used to be an old chinese chap called Alwyn (spelling?) who took a shine to me at China Palace and always insisted on me joining him for dinner which the casino used to comp for him and after a while they extended the offer of food to me. This all came to an abrupt end when they banned me for turning my last £15 into just shy of £10k. This really peed me off as I'd done circa £150k in 2 years there.Rich I think we were introduced briefly at DtD a couple of months back but I'm surprised I never knew you before as Walsall used to be one of my haunts.

Brilliant thread this by the way.
[/quote]
Sounds like you should start a diary!!

Sounds like you should start a diary!!
[/quote]

I could never write as well as you plus I was never that much of a degen. It was all my own money, just didn't know the value of it.

diary is amazing. 

There were a couple of people from that era around ten years ago who died in mysterious road-accidents after having disagreements or differences of opinion with that group. Mr Kau who was a regular in all of the Nottm. Gala tourneys and cash-games for one. Of course it might well have been mere coincidence.

Definitely one of the most thought provoking threads I have read on any forum!!

When i first played with you in a tourney you 4 bet jammed 89 of hearts then u got looked up by ak

as you lost you mumbled to me i know how to fold ak

would you ever ak in that spot? or in a tourney

one more "episode" before i have to leave to play apat....please

I thought the only time we played together was day 2 when i was shortie and having raise folded twice had to raise call it off against R.Hortons AQ but i get there otr, then you raise utg with AKhh and i overjam AA and you say "i'm never folding this against you having seen your 89"  rotflmfao

Edit as writing this i remember now    yeah it was like level 8 or something and i was chipped up but had not been on table long, i think that was more of a fml as your correct i never put AK down in that spot with the pot laying 2-1 infact it was a terra bad push tbh looking back.

You turned to me and said "Do you play on the internet"

Lol. Going toe to toe with the Ho.
Great read Richard. Super stuff and gripping. Did you ever take a kicking coz most of the lenders threaten family as it's hard for you to make a payment from a hospital bed. Threatening a degen  gamble has very little effect but put the kids and wife in the mix it's suprising how often they magic up some money.

Hi Herbie, nice to see you back m8.  Your correct in your assumption but i never did and was never really in a relationship and didnt have kids till 5months ago, and since i have been with Petra have calmed down a bit.

You in Notts next weekend?

Please come say hello to me next weekend at deepstack names and faces and all that

£100 TO £10'000 IN 11 LOCAL TOURNAMENTS

So i sat in the £20 rebuy on a weds night and things seemed to change as approaching the FT i had plenty of chips and was pushing the bubble in fact i didnt want the bubble to burst as i was accumulating and skated into the final table as CL, let the shorties knock each other out and then 4 handed with the blinds pretty high and now only being a losing flip from being shortie so we dealt and took £1200 each and called it a night.  I went back for what was beginners night £5r on Thursday and bust out then final tabled the next 9 tournaments in a row and in 7 of them either won it outright or dealt for figures i was happy with.

My views on F/T deals are im happy to do them if i think its correct for me at the time if not play on.  As we stand today despite only making 1 FT in the DTD300 i dont think i would deal unless as a shortie i was offered an obscene deal, so when im on the ft next week please remind me of this!!!  ;)

Not being a person who liked to keep money in banks at the time due to only being able to withdraw £300 at a time i resorted to keeping it in bundles of £1000 and putting it in socks, underwear infact anywhere around the flat so i could draw on it if required.  Work was ok but i didnt really enjoy the office i worked in as had moved office to Chadwell Heath and it was a horrible area due to the fact you couldnt have confidence in buyers so we would sell each house to 2-3 different parties and then hope 1 was able to get a mortgage offer and the deal through.

Due to the fact i was holding some cash all of a sudden i was putting £500 doubles on the football and winning and my roll was growing and as i approached the start of March i had approx 15k in the flat when after final tabling another donkament whilst cashing in at the cash desk and counting out my money Petra was stood by the side of me waiting to cash her tips for the night and said "Are you Rich?".....

Will do defo, remember on page 2-4 you said and i quote "come and slap me bald heeeeeeeed and say its meeeeeeeeeeee"  ;)

Absolutely amazing read mate. Keep up the good work! Ill come say hi if I ever see you at DTD

Yeah cool we met at Gala Notts when you were dealing that mad omaha game and i was stood behind Mitch and Cos knocking it in every hand.

Mitch knocked it in, I won.

Just wanted to say it because it'll probably be the only time ever it happens that way round.

^^ can confirm in live pokerz scandal  greekstein did win and Mitch knocked in his own and Cos's £££

Oh yeah forgot about that night lol. Probably my funniest moment ever dealing.

Cos facing a £200 pot bet on a random flop. Stares at me for around 30 seconds before I tell him that its on him. "I know, Im getting a read". 15 seconds later he looks me dead in the eyes, says "I think your bluffing, I call".

I laughed pretty damn hard lol

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoImizvsj5w
 
.

Cos is a legend, it will be such a shame if he is not at his own leaving bash weekend imo!

Just make a Cos , Guy Fawkes style and get a pic in every boozer with the fittest birds in there.

fyp

Bury my mum Thursday and Catharines birthday Saturday but am still thinking I could play Friday night, but even that's a bit doubtful honestly.  Really enjoyed reading this during the ban. Ty very much

Your welcome m8, be good to see you but sounds like you have a lot on next weekend. Been there myself m8 as you will see if you keep reading......

Hi Rich, been following this epic, Remebered last night where u got Eso Kral from whilst playing the side event at Cov last night, got it in 6 x and held up on each occasion, day 2 today and chip Daddy, mbn, Jason, thoughts are with you next week pal.

Ty flush. Good luck today. Anyone know where the blogs are for Goliath and apat. Can't find anything in live events

http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/en/Prizes/LiveEventBlog/

Simon Deadman leading

GOGOGOGOGO Simon.

APAT do their own,http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?board=15.0 .    day 1b here http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=9502.0;topicseen.

This ^^^  it used to be more fun waiting for the Deadman Spew though!!

Defo better watching him crush and get chips!

Whenever a good looking bird asks me this question I always find that "yes" is the best line to get me where I want to be.

nh

Enthralling read mate. just read the whole lot in one go and feel a little.bit sick every time u tell a tale.

Few questions....

What advice would.you.give to a first.time buyer whos self employed for 1 year?

Any.ways around getting a mortgage?

Thx   how did day2 go?

pm sent Girgles

Forward to me one time?

waiting!

ARE YOU RICH?

"Well by name yes" i replied and Petra said "What like Richie Rich?", (see told you it would get like Pleno's diary) and off we went. For the next few weeks we exchanged pleasantries whenever i was playing there and when there all i could think of was 'How can someone so beautiful look so miserable?
One night whilst sat in a cash game another person involved in property passed me a property magazine they had been working on so i could give them some feedback and when Petra came over for drinks she asked if she could have a read whilst on her break.
"Only if you put your number in it for me" and when i got home that night i checked and checked but she hadnt  :(

1 week later and after a few more conversations i plucked up the courage to ask her out and i got macked off with the same line i had heard before "sorry i am not allowed to date customers", now working in sales you should never give up at the first objection which is what 80% of sales people do as if you try to overcome the objection and ask again 80% of customers give up!!
So when she came over later and no-one was listening i said i know she couldnt date customers but if she could would she come out with me to which she replied yes and it was now just a case of how i would convince her to.

I wont go into the lengths that it took as even my hero Pleno will disown me but 1 week later we went out on a date and carried on seeing each other whenever we could, anyone who has ever dated a casino or the like employee will now they obv work till ealry hours so when you have a mainstream job you get a few hours here and there.

In the early days i was still playing poker every night and gambling on sports horses you name it and in true gambler fashion you kinda resent spending money that in your eyes is the fuel on normal life stuff like food and clothes but i found a balance.  It was quite hard when playing poker to listen to the comments  as she was working but i soon learnt to bite my tongue as no-one in the card room knew we were dating and we wanted to keep it that way for now but it was difficult all the same.
Probably the worst i heard was when one of the young guys there who played snooker at a very high level and only drank milk asked for a glass and when Petra bought over the glass a player who was pretty low life  said "oh i will have a glass of milk then please if your producing" and as her english was not 100% she never got the joke and a few mins later brings over a glass.
That night after we met up i explained what  he had said and Petra said if she had know she would have accidently tripped as she got to the table and spilt it all over him, whilst the comments were hard i soon learnt to say nothing and remember it was me who was going home with her at 4.30 when she finshed...

I reckon a few people will be using the "if you could, would you" line at DTD over the next coming weeks.

Definatley been in this position mate. Was dating a dealer from one of the casinos not long back. Definately had to hold back on more than a few occasions

How big was he??

Youve lost me XD. Am I slow?

Yes.

ITS EASY TO SPEND MONEY!!

Well when your batting out of your league and your out to impress you need some new threads ( even Alex bought some new jeans after winning the Monte Carlo) and its amazing how quickly money goes when your having fun and 15k rapidly became 10k which became 5k and hovered around that figure for a while.

My brother was about to get married to a girl he had been with for 8 years and 3weeks before the wedding it was my Dads 60th birthday and he wanted us all to get together for a meal, we dont have a massive family - Mum and Dad split up when we were 12 and they didnt speak much at all as after 1 hour together on Christmas day you could see why they had split up. My Mum is Maltese and half of her brothers and sisters (8 total) live in England and the other half still in Malta but this was on my Dads side where there is only one other set of relatives (my Dads cousin and her family) who would be there for this meal.

Petra and i had been dating (courting for you Tikay) for about 2months and she was pretty nervous although she had no reason to be as they most definately approved and everything went well with my Dad pulling me to one side telling me she was a keeper and he was glad i was starting to get back on my own 2 feet.

My brother and I didnt really get on at the time as due to the fact he lived in the midlands and i had left home at 16 and only been back for probs 6months total was around to see the pain I had caused my Dad over the years and with Dad suffered from 2 heart attacks and having had triple heart bypass along with the more recent bladder cancer i could understand his dislike of me but he had still asked me to be his best man and I am sure he would say I did a great job on the day which went really well with again Petra being a real hit amongst family and friends.

After 4months Petra's rent on a shared house was up and i could leave my place when i wanted and we agreed although it was early to move in together in Southend and see how we got on with no pressure and if it didnt work it was only a lttle flat by the sea at £425 pcm so wouldnt cost a lot to get out of it and in we moved.

I was still gambling nearly within my means and had been banned from the Westcliff Casino as we told them we were moving in together and they looked through the traffic book to see i only really played poker there so there was no value letting me carry on playing there nad i had resorted to "The Rendezvous" casino down the road and Luton again but i was on rocky terms with my Dad as he wanted me to up my payments on the book due to the fact he had now retired and wanted to build up his nest egg.  I cant remember how it happened but one day we got to a point where we agreed that we would not be speaking again ( obv it was a money discussion) and i remember thinking ok i really need to stand on my own 2 feet and prove to my Dad that i could do this without having to lean on him and although we were both really hurt by this I actually believe without this happening I would have carried on down the rocky road...

I think Craig wants to know what HIS name was you were dating so he can make sure he wasnt being 2timed!!

I actually had to text Sean to ask what Craig meant LOL. In my defence, Sean dated her too lol

Pic of petra needed that's bigger than 0.5cm by 0.5cm. Kthx

Mugs

FYP

Both pics will do.

together preferably ;)

Pic of Petra's single fit friend, who likes men with a penis that's not larger than 0.5cm x 0.5cm. Thanks.

Lol

cashed but not as big as i wanted had 300k utg shoves with Snowmen for 120k i snap with qq in bb (mbn) turned straight on me, shove ak walk into kk, built back up then shove 100k 10 4 on button and walk into qq. cashed and trebled cash on cash tables.

and i know what Petra looks likes, easily bribed!!!

Going to Wimbledon dogs tonight. I am a complete newb. What do you suggest i do to try and maximise my chances of doing well. Any beginner tips? Aside from the obvious of leave it alone!

a good aftershave, new threads, good manners and no corny chat up lines.......u'll do fine :D

Hey Eso, just thought I'd echo all the others and say thanks for making the effort to share all this, a seriously riveting read.

*Jugs

Fair

Wp

Sorry if its to late Ant but i would just play forecasts and tricasts prob £6 per race and get drunk  a couple of returns and you have a free night  GL ;)

Thx Greg, will put next chapter up tomorrow and some photos for the rest tomorrow night..

Sound advice.

Lost 80 pounds. Not the end of the world but wish I saw your advice sooner! 25/1 shot won the big race tonight, had loads of people going mental here with a cheeky punt on that!

Very good and honest blog. Keep it coming!

The following conversation took place over dinner last night in Malta*

Greg: Started reading that Eso Kral diary today

Vinny: Yeah? What you think?

Greg: It's shit

Vinny: Yeah, I know, I agree

Greg: Can I post it's shit?

Vinny: NO!!

Greg: Why?

Vinny: Cause he will stop taking me out for dinner. Post summit like ' Hi mate, just started reading, and it's awesome' other wise he will know that we have been discussing it, and he will get the hump.

Greg: Sigh, OK Vinny. Another beer?

Vinny: Yeah, cheers.

















* Some of the above conversation may or may not be true ;)

ffs i never logged on last night
logged on before work expecting at least 3 more entries .....shit diary now.

Look we both know i only started this diary so that whilst you were in Malta people would start reading mine and when you decide to come back they can revert back to yours "the second best diary behing Alex's"

THE NEXT 2 YEARS

As i have been brutally honest about my past i see no reason to stop now as one of the topics i will go through in a short while has touched a few on here recently.

The next 2 years i kept myself to myself and unfortunately for the degen story lovers i didnt get myself in any holes mainly down to the fact that in my time with Petra she had told me about how hard life was in Slovakia and how until she had come to England she had never even had a Mcdonalds.  Petra had made things very clear from the off that she didnt want to be a with a gambler and to have to worry about money and as i was seriously batting out of my league she seemed to change my way of thinking and i started to learn the value of money, yes i was having a punt but nothing that put my normal life at risk but despite the fact i was paying off my debts which at the height of my addiction i had unsecured debts of circa £60'000 all down to gambling!!

It took me 3 1/2 years to pay them all off and i only got one reduction of £1500 on one of them when i settled early after a football win but i did it and now i wanted to try a re-establish contact with my Dad, however he was having none of it and flatly refused any contact despite my brother and one other relative saying they thought it would be good for us. By this time Petra and myself had got engaged and for 6months i tried to contact him by writing even sending him an invite to our Slovak wedding but all i got told was he is not interested and i received a letter saying he would not be attending our wedding.

Then a month later, out of the blue i received a phone call from Dad saying he would like to meet me for lunch if i fancied a drive up so off i went. I dont know why but i had a feeling my Dad had chosen this moment to bring me back into his life for a reason that was soon to be revealed...

Thank feck that this has taken a more positive turn. Keep the updates coming mate.

Think your timing might be off Boldie... I'm guessing there are more negatives to come shortly before some positives....

Yeah, suppose so....hope they won't all be self inflicted again though...I almost wince every time I open this diary, but simply have to read it.

MY DAD

He was a really generous person to family and friends with not just monetry things but the most important comodity of all "Time" and he was liked by all.  Initially he was an engineer working for Rolls Royce on aircraft engines before working his way up to MD of a big organisation until after a couple of heart attacks and a triple heart bypass he found himself like many "Too Old" for companies to look at him so he started taking downward steps and working towards his retirement.

He was a very frugal man and most of all wanted his two sons to benefit from his hard work like he had his father but wanted us to appreciate it and not waste it which if timings were a year or so different would have been the case.

We met up for a pub lunch on a sunday afternoon in July and considering how we left each other the previous conversation it was very relaxed, we chatted about Petra and how the wedding plans were coming along and how i was and if i was still gambling and i didnt lie i told him that i did but it didnt consume my life as before and that meeting Petra had changed me and my life.

Dad told me he was no longer working and had taken full retirement but had helped them out on the odd occasion where they had no drivers to ferry around twenty something girls who had just moved to a C or D cup but the main reason was he didnt feel well and that despite phone calls and a few visits to the consultant they saw no reason in his bloods to investigate further a pain that had started in Dads hamstring. His consultant had prescribed him some physio in the form of massage which was due to start the next week but i think deep down my Dad knew things were changing within him and this was the real reason we were speaking again.

2 weeks later we were now talking on the phone and had arranged for Petra to come up to the Midlands to see my Dad again as he had only met her on two occasions which were his 60th and my brothers wedding and neither of them did he get the chance to really engage in conversation with her.  Dad had now had 3 sets of massage but the pain in his leg had got worse in fact it was now a dull ache and the physio had told him he should already be seeing improvements and as this was not the case she referred him back to the consultant and said it was impossible for his pain to be muscular which is what Dad had said all along.

After the meeting with Petra he told me that i was very lucky and thanked her for getting me on the straight and narrow but despite our last visit being only a couple of weeks previous it took him a good minute to get in and  out of the car and he was in discomfort although he tried not to show it.

Another trip to the consultants was required...

Might be true but dont worry i think this helps me writing it down and there are more than a few who will relate to the next updates.

PAYING FOR THE HONEYMOON COURTESY OF TOTESPORT!!

On or just before my Dad and I started to rebuild our relationship was the start of the 2007/8 football season and for the previous 3 years i had some small success placing season long match bets putting 4 or 5 in a line and doing some acca's and had showed a profit on each occasion. This year i had bought the Racing Post as i do each day and looked through the gazzillion pages on the upcoming footie season marking out a few bets to have and was prepared to lay out about 600-700 on different acca's to give me a bit of interest for the season, i also found that this meant i didnt get to involved week to week as if you had a chance to scoop at christmas time you had an interest and didnt need to bet week to week.

This year i had 3 bets running 2 small lines totalling around £1300 return with Hills and a Totesport bet place in Chadwell Heath that was an £80 match bet acca on 7 teams to finish higher than others with the then return on an "any to come" basis split each way onto MK Dons to win league 2 at 9/1 paying a 1/4odds 4places.

Going into the last 6 weeks of the season it was neck and neck on the bottom part of the bet between MK Dons and Peterborough and out of the 7 match bets 5 were safe, 1 was mathematically safe but needed to stay out of administration and the last part of the bet was  Bury to finish above Macclesfield and with a few games to go it was pretty tight iirc Bury were at home v Macc about 4 games before the end and if they lost Macc would have gone above but it was 2-2 i think and then Bury pulled away and MK Dons carried on winning so it had only cost me a couple of hundred in laying off on miracle results and i knew i was collecting  ;D

It worked out on the match bet i had just over £1400 to come back meaning i had £700 each way onto MK at 9/1  happy days i thought a £9275 return for £80 however my mood change when i went to collect on the first Sunday after the season had finished.
I proudly handed over my slip and waited as the cashier put it through the machine and said "£1460 to come back on that one but you will have to wait for my manager to come back" to which i replied i think you need to check it again as its closer to 10 grand mate!!

30mins later and im sat there drinking a coffee and in spite have not laid out a penny in bets for the day even though i wanted to!! ** I actually think its all a conspiracy when you go to collect more than a grand in shops and they tell you that you need to wait for the safe to open as when i ran a betting shop i used to hide the money behind the counter and if we ever got turned over i would have told them they got away with the lot and then took the money myself, maybe its just me but i think they secretly want you to have a few punts whilst you wait in the hope you do a few hundo back ** rant over

When the manager came back in he sat down and said that when the season finished he checked the bet and rang his security dept who told him that the bottom part of the bet was void as they dont do "any to come" bets and the only part they could pay was the top part.  I really needed that money and was tempted to say give me the £1400 then i though F**k it and snap declined saying can i have the dept number so i can raise it with them, i then photo'd all their rule boards in the shop and spent an hour writing down the diff sections and went away to investigate further.

I found the rule they were claiming voided the bottom part but from memory it said "any to come bets are not accepted on ante post events and if taken in error will be settled on the SP" so i decided to give them one more chance on the phone before i put it in writing to them. The person on the phone was useless but gave me the name of the top person and i wrote to everyone i could at Totesport quoting their own rules and the main arguement on my bet was that this bet was placed on the Friday night before the football season started so if they could prove that the price had changed from then till 3pm that next day i would take that price otherwise i wanted paying in full within 7 days or i would approach Ibas and the Racing post.

3 days later i received a phone call from the head of customer services saying i could come and collect my cheque that day to which i told them i wanted cash and would give them a 3 hours to collect it.

Normally when i have a big win i defo tip the cashiers but on this occasion i didnt give them a penny just walked out with my cash and went straight to the travel agents to book our Safari in Tanzania followed by a two week beach break in Zanzibar  ;)

Awesome, wp :)

Cole south posted sick pics from safari in Tanzania and beach holiday in Zanzibar- looked amazing

BAD NEWS!

The consulatant according to my Dad was useless and still would not refer him for more tests and it was only when Dad's doctor sent a letter saying that further investigation was required and if he was not reffered by the consultant he would take it further himself that a date was finally given for a Scan to be done.

On arrival at the hospital it got worse and they said that Dads notes had been lost and therefore they could not conduct the appt and would contact him with an alternative date. Now no-one can prove what would have happened and but at worst he would have had a bit longer for some treatment as when finally 3months after approaching his consultant telling him he felt things were changing within him and following a thourough investigation my Dad was told the news that he knew and i think had known from when he first tried to reestablish our relationship that the Cancer from his bladder had come back and spread through the wall of his bladder to his bloodstream so it was now secondary cancer attacking his body and the best prognosis they could give would be 6 months with some chemo and 3-4 without.

The news was given to us at the start of November which meant that eveyone knew it would be Dad's last Christmas with us and meant that despite us rebuilding our relationship he would not be able or possibly even be around to be at our wedding the next May.
Dad was a strong man and took his illness with great dignity and as an organised person had within 2-3 weeks got his house in order with a box of all investments paperwork and bank accounts to be handed to his choice of solicitor when he passed and he was adamant that because he had too much money ( 20k of isa's and bonds and £19k in the bank) meaning he didnt get any help with care unpaid that he would limit his own care as he knew if he had nothing himself it would all be free, so why should he be penalised for being frugal.

Christmas was terrible and anyone who has seen someone go through the end of this terrible disease will know, you lose appetite even someone cooking can make you nauseous and the drugs mount up but have to be taken at certain times so even if you were able to sleep you had to be awake in 2 hours time. He didnt want to watch the telly as his view was whats the point in watching the news when nothing affected him.  It was a tough time but he never complained once and instructed us that he would be disappointed if we even thought about cancelling the wedding even if he left us a week before.

Towards the end he needed more care than he was accepting nad i was 150miles away so only got up on days off and weekends and my brother was there most nights and we looked at some respite care, but Dad didnt want to pay £500 per week until we convinced him to try it for 2weeks and if he didnt like it we would bring him back home.  One of the reasons he didnt want to leave home was that he had 2 old cats which he had inherited from my failed relationship with Sarah the singer and although they went outside they were never far away from my Dad and one of his dying wishes was one of the hardes things i have ever had to do!!!

The day he was carried out of his house to be taken to the care home for  2 weeks of respite care, was the day when i knew he actually gave up as you could just see it in his face.... :(

Was fantastic and could thoroughly recommend it, we safari'd for 7days and stayed at La Gemma Dell Est in Zanzibar
After i get to the wedding part will post some photos and a video, and for Cos/Vinnys info there will be no lots of Petra Bikini shots  ;)

Gripping stuff.

You know how to story tell and I think you are one of the writers of eastenders with the amount of cliff hanger endings you do! :)

Yeah been planning to go for a while now

I am sure Dubai style is a massive step above what we experienced  ;)

Thx Ant, maybe i missed my vocation in life   :)

Great read Richard. It's rapidly become my favourite thread.

I'll always remember one of my dads last jokes.

He was been wheeled into the back of an ambulance when one of the ambulance women was trying to cheer him up by suggesting his heart problems had been caused by too much wine, women and song.

As quick as a flash and whilst clearly distressed, he said "OK, I'll give up singing."

Thx Alan but im disappointed its only rapidly becoming your favourite  ;grr;

See you at DTD this weekend?

Its there already Richard.

Yes, hope to be at DTD too.

do u still get cravings to play on the wheel of doom?

also do u still play pit games? even for small stakes

Whats the most ridic/strange thing youve had a bet on?

a lump in my throat reading this  brings alot when i lost my gran..

this diary is incred.

My dad went along a  very similar path to yours Rich although he was considerably older.

Like your dad he preferred to stay at home in familiar surroundings rather than go into an old folks' home and I used to visit him for an hour or so a couple of times a day to make sure he was okay and to fix him something to eat at teatime although it got more and more difficult to tempt him as his appetite waned.

I remember when he first got hospitalized by our GP after he had fallen over and was put in a temporary ward whilst being assessed. He had no appetite due to as yet undiagnosed cancer and was in a bed for a few days opposite some old boy who devoured every morsel of every meal put in front of him which drove him almost to distraction.

I always have a study and punt on Eurovision Song contest but away from that its mainly mainstream, i have never bet on a pie eating contest  ;)

TYTY obv my viewing numbers will drop as were only a few pages from today and then i will have to talk about drving to work along the seafront or the like!!

yeah i knew a few people would be touched m8, absolutely tez disease but i shall keep my thoughts to myself on whether or not they really want to find a cure!

That must have been tough for your Dad, my dad towards the end only wanted a few mouthfulls of fastfood so that he never had to endure the cooking smells that put him off and then could have a bit to eat.

2 WEEKS RESPITE

Dad settled in well into the home on the first day and had his own room even managing to eat a bit of his dinner and i left telling him i would be up to see him on Thursday (my day off) and gave him a big hug. He was always a portly fellow and looked a cross between Reg Holdsworth and Alec Gilroy from Coronation Street so seeing the weight fall off him was really hard, over the next few days i spoke to him on the phone and a few friends visited him but he was losing strength and they started to up his morphine which was given intravenously.

By thursday he was pretty much out of it but woke for a few mins whilst my brother and myself were there and the look in his eyes told you he was ready, he told us that his wish was for the cats to be put down and to be cremated and scattered with him and we agreed which was upsetting as whilst the cats were old they still were ok but these were my Dads wishes and wanted him to feel ok.

I left in tears and wondered if he would still make it through to my next visit on Sunday. Sunday came and the care home had told me he was not really awake much now and again they had increased his pain relief, i had driven up from down south and sat with him for a few hours drip feeding him via a swab some water and just watching him. His breathing was now eratic and he didnt open his eyes until i left when i whispered in his ear to wait until i could come back with Petra the following Thursday and i will never forget how he opened his eyes and nodded and i broke down as i hugged him and told him i was sorry for the hurt i had caused him over the years he just smiled and gave me a kiss.

Leaving the home i wasnt sure if i would see him again and i cried most of the way down the M1, i stopped at Luton G for the sunday late afternoon comp and donked out in a few hands as after starting the comp i regretted it and drove home knowing that the next visit up north would most likely be even worse....

Ok cant finish the rest today as it brings back so many emotions and im currently sat at work so need to tie up a deal or two before leaving at 2pm to get to DTD  :)

Firing 2 bullets if required this month

GL to me obv and all other blondes playing!

F'ing hell, tears in my eyes reading that.

Great read this Richard.  :)

....and pretending I'm yawning in the office. Not a good look.

You really put your feelings down well on this diary and your openness and honesty are really appreciated.

Wanted to say something but can't find the right words as this is still raw to me. Great stuff and I probably agreewith your views on finding a cure (although we may be wrong)

i also want to say something but i am so bad at putting my feelings into words......

Bloody hell Rich, instead of Playing poker at Stoke this weekend i might bin it and come to dtd to give u a hug.

brings back memories when my dad passed away :'(

This....dad had two secondary tumours found in his face yesterday, hearing going, sight going - it's just horrible to watch. I've cried slot last few days, but smiled too. I hope his radiotherapy today has eased the pain and he can get his sight back tonsay goodbye properly. Reading you're diary is tough at moment, but equally I love it as it's a bit of a release - and see the similarities....I played a $3k schedule and bricked tonight!

Keep it coming....a great read and so honest.

My Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer in Feb 2008- ended up getting diagnosed with secondary brain cancer whilst in hospital having a blood transfusion in Nov 2009- he was given days to live but managed to regain consciousness and was talking, eating ok- we managed to get him home and he eventually died Xmas eve 2009 in the lounge- watching him deteriorate and die literally in front of my eyes, to the extent of seeing his last agonizing breath, with my mum devastated and feeling totally helpless,was the worst experience of my life and something I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy

I didnt know Dave, so many people affected by it.  I feel grateful to have had 18 months and lots of good times since dad was diagnosed. Were hijacking Richs thread, butnthink I told you story of why I had 5% of you in high roller last year - completely down to the old man. Do a win for him Sunday....and you of course. Talk soon.

Yeah it's crazy how similar the stories are- think Flushy told me the bit about your old man and how you was showing him how blonde and %s work- great story all round

Will try my best mate. Take care, all the best your end- pokers only work, life far more important

Cheers, yeah told Flushy pissed in XS lol - I'm off again now in floods so going to get some sleep before hopefully seeing him tommorow. I busted high roller sat at end of shit schedule....on the plus side my 74 yo mum had her first final table in a $0.25 45 manner at the same time as we watched the tennis lololol.

Poker is only work, butnhope you getbsome scores next few weeks.

Thoughts with Claypole and anyone else going through a similar experience either patients or fAmily

I'll have to follow that Eso Kral

He asks me to check his coupon

£25 accumulator on 7 matches today to have more than 2 goals

I tick them off one by one

£2218 in the bag!


(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-YjHOfaXFTPg/TmJOt7ccVKI/AAAAAAAATUQ/Rmqm7gvEEz8/s512/IMG_8768.JPG)

WAL, congrats.

class

Sick tekkers!

Teach Me...

Our hero about to ship the 100f at DTD.

3handed atm, 5k ftw to add to his spoils from earlier...

GOGOGOGO, nice day.

Wp today mate

Nice result Rich x2

You da man.

Thx Claypole  thoughts with you and family mate, all you can do is be there for him!!

DTD REPORT   so far.....

Ok i drive up friday aft leaving Leigh on Sea at 2.30pm and eventually reach dtd @ 7.15 what a rubbish journey M1 was already blocked so took M11/A1M route and a plane decides to crash on a field.

Great starting table but i think i made a mistake and took the fact i was prepared to fire 2 bulletts and peeled really loosely in and oop but had a couple of good spots and then i get moved just as i was on a roll. So we start again and i pick up 66 getting flatted by the button i lead the flop and c/r the turn and still dont get it through and give up which leaves me shortish.

Eventually i raise the C/o with  Tc 8c (how can i lose?) and get flatted by a nice lady otb and the bb we flop 235cc and i lead call it off and am in tez shape against the bb with  Ac Kc no red 8 or 10 and it's off to a satellite to see if i can get in cheaply for Sat.  Im sat on Georges table and reg in level6 with 25bigs, hand before the break i find AA and raise after 4 limpers and win the pot.

In the next 2orbits i pick up Aces once, Kings twice and AK once and win some nice pots and am chipped up to 33k, George looks at me and says sit back as 30ish probs wins a seat but there are still 25 to get knocked out, also on the table was Leatherman (top fella) and after a short while i get moved and then lose when KK cant hold for 50% of my stack vs 55 this leaves me with 12bigs and 12-15 out of the seats but my table is really passive and people are flatting left right and centre.

George now comes to the table and sits direct to my right and 1st time were in the blinds it goes limp utg and utg+1 goerge makes up and i shove with  5d 7d both limpers fold and George says "I knew you would do that so now i will have to look at my cards"  >:( and knowing me when he spies the  Aspades (best in the deck) knows this is most likely good and calls, oh yeah he even has a 7 to go with it FML and i dont do a get there so go back to the hotel as despite being up here for the weekend i have to get up at 5.30am and leave at 6am to take care of a bit of business in Southend, pick up some bits for Petra as were away in Wales for the week next week and then pick up my new company car (nothing flash but its new and free) and then i drive back up to Notts for Day1b

Day1b

Again the journey is rubbbbbbash and i leave Notts at 6.30am do my stuff down south and drive back to Dtd leaving at 12.30 reaching Notts at 3.15, i have place 1 bet on the footie as most will know  :)    (this is all i play on the footie really and spend 25-50 per week on the same bet and land about 8 per year) but im determined not to check the scores till the first break and then at 4.30 and full time so i can concentrate on the pokerz.

My table looks good as i sit down and sort myself out a voice says "Are you Richard? i mean Eso Kral?" i reply yes and realise its Geordie Neil so we shake hands and he says "Your famous now are'nt you?" and obv the whole table now start looking at me thinking  do we know him/ has he binked anything????

Play solid and get down to 13k really quickly then penultimate hand before the break i find AA utg+2 and we have a bit of elevation getting 2 callers and we flop AJ8hh i lead 1/2 pot and they both fold, very next hand and break is called (no one ever wants to play the last hand) so i raise 33utg to 375 at 75/150 and it folds to bb who dwells and raises to 875 so i peel with the intention of no set no bet and flop A23sss bb leads 1100 i flat obv funking for no spade   turn is  5h he checks and i check it back and the river is  2c he checks again and i bet 2800 he snap calls me with  Ks Kh and i see the break with 23k

Level 4 is no good as at 4.30pm i check my bet and i need one gols in 2 matches and decide i will stick to my guns and not check till 4.55 at which point i check and find Notts county have scored to go 2-1 up and its all down to the Burton-Plymouth match
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii   they might not have been paid this month but they tried till the last minute and a 90+1 goal means my £25 returns £2200ish so i decide to have a bit of fun with tighty and give him the slip telling him i cant get internet access on my phone can he please check the scores.

5 mins later he comes back and says "if they are all in, will you sponsor the blonde October update for the deepstack" and those who know me know i always throw in 20-30 as i love the updates even though  i dont read them till sunday or monday and i say yes as its good Karma!!!

I immediately weigh Tighty in with £200 as come October i might have degenned it away  ;) and were back to the game.  Level 5 i raise/fold to all ins twice and then hero a nice tight guy to my right with a lovely facial tell with 77 on a board of 10 6 2 calling the c bet, check check the K turn and calling the 3/4 pot bet on the 8 river and were back to over 20k.

I find AA at 150/300 and make it 700utg+2 and get 3 callers and flop and lovely K83 rainbow and i think not even Paul Grummit can have 2 pair here so lead for 1300 only Paul calls otb we see a turn of  Td and i exercise some pot control  an dgive him the chance to bluff as he often will and call his 1300 bet on the  2h river i bet 280 and he pays me off with a K and we have 28k coming to the end of level 6

Wp me, ultimate ninja selling technique

Live Updates of poker events, sponsored by Southend Degenerate Ltd

Coming soon to a poker forum near you

My exit hand is good/bad whichever way you want to look at it

My image is pretty tight i have not shown down any weak holding so when it folds to me in the C/o i raise  Kh 5h and get flatted by an agro kid otb who is chipped up but has commented on the fact he likes my raise sizing.

Flop is  Ts Qs 2h and i lead for 1/2pot and he flats which i expect him to do with anything and nothing, the turn is Aspades which i think is a really good card for me to rep so i bet again leaving myself a nearly pot sized bluff for the river if i dont catch a red jack. Secretly i actually want to see a spade (foolish thought) as i decide i am betting the river regardless and when the  7s rolls off i put in my 3rd barrell and he snaps me off with  Qc Ks  :( and says as i muck "Did you have AJ?" obv i say say "yes nice catch" and walk away thinking FML he puts me onthe Ace and i'm funking for a spade that gives him the nuts when if its a non spade i get it through.

So off to the INCREDIBLE 100 we go and i join late level 4 and 30ish bigs, it does not go well when AK loses to AQ and then with 5mins left of last level of late reg 2 really bad players limp, a good player applies the limpers tax and gets flatted otb now i look down at  5c 7c and make a loose peel but i know the 2 limpers are defo calling and i see a floptastic  4c 6c Qd i ship first to act and the o/r calls with  Ac Kc and i dont do a get there. So i go to the toilet and when i come out there are 30 seconds left of the last level and im walking to the door thinking nah lets go back to the hotel and get some sleep and come back tomoz for the £150.

Obv being the Degen i am i think nah if i buy in now with 20 seconds left im obv gonna do a bink...

WAL - congrats on a great day.....nine team roll ups for the degen win

And of course thanks for you're lovely comments - trying to keep the thread up beat and degen focused so didnt mean to ignore  :)

So i re-enter and go outside thinking i fill find my table when i get back.
After the break i return to find my stack at 9500 ish which i question and they tell me i was BB last hand before the break so were already under it  >:(

Im pretty comfortable playing short stacked so push some spots and dont really remember too many hands cos i just have a feeling whatever happens im gonna do a win, on each break i use the same urinal and same wash hand basin and dryer (superstitions ftw) and when we get 3 tables out i just under average but got a beautifull shoving stack which im using.

I get moved to Chilli's table (bow chicka bow wow  ;D ) and were chatting away and i have never seen such a card rack in my life, does this girl ever not have Aces??

As we approach the bubble im in a bit of danger till i over ship my 20bb stack over 2 seperate raises and get them both through and Cambridge (Monte Carlo Champion) Alex comes over and offers me £100 for 10% of my action meaning i would have to finish 5th for him to lose a tenner and 4the to make £40 i decline although it was a nice compliment and we go about our business.

With 12 players left a player i have played with a bit this weekend raises and i shove with  Aspades Td and he calls with  Ahrt 4h and hits his flush leaving me with 9000 and in the s/b next hand at blinds of 4000/8000.  Annoying guy now shoves utg and i call blind with 50% of my stack in and he proudly flips 77 but he cant hold against my 57o as i flop the straight now i know from this point 1bb im defo gonna do a win i open ship  9d 3d next hand and 3bigs and get it thorugh then i ship  Kd 3d and annoying guy calls 99%off his stack with QJ and i hold now were back to 80k.

I make the final table with 180k and watch the shorties get knocked out the ladder a couple of spots before getting busy again and after some good calls and good holds were 3 handed at 4am with Mr Mcloskey and an unknown but nice kid, i get to 50% of chips in play at 1point then try to 4bet bluff v bb with 6high and have to fold depsite getting massive odds to call but still having 290k back and i decide its better for me to be happy shipping this stack when i want!!

At 15k/30k Mark makes it 63k otb and i shove all in with QJ and he dwell calls with A9 hit the J on the flop and he hits a 9 so were not safe till i turn the str8 and back in the game, 2 hands later i raise/call the button with A9 and lose to his Q10 so i back shipping again and win 5pots in a row at 15/30 and 20/40 to get back to 550k when we agree to do a 3way chop for £3300 each  ;)

So so far we have had a £5500 return on the weekend, but its not over yet.......

 

Im writing this from the tourist information centre in Notts and as i have had a great weekend and am on an up i will not post the next real chapter until some time next week.

Petra myself and Maxwell are going to Wales tomorrow for the week on a sun £9.50 holiday   Value ftw and were going to a place that when i was a kid growing up in the midlands my Dad used to take us to in mid Wales as it was the closest beaches in times before everyone went abroad so might not get chance to post much.

Really looking forward to it thought to see how things have changed since i was a kid.

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments on this diary and face to face at DTD its really nice to hear people enjoy the diary, there are some really good Blondes out there.

Be lucky everyone and now going to read the update as apparently tighty came up trumps for me on Friday night and then gonna final table my second tourney this weekend at DTD..............

NP maybe see you Luton soon for a meal with Celtic?

 ;whistle;

really nice to meet you properly yesterday mate and well done on the BinkBink's good weekend ...so far and gl today mate

 ;applause; ;tightend; ;applause; rotflmfao ;tightend; ;applause; rotflmfao ;danafish;

Yes for sure - not sure when back in London, but Ill speak to Vinny this week and we'll get a date in

yeah you to mate, see you soon.

Back home now! Ok no bink todaybut had fun and had a great table draw as i was sat to the left of Tikay  ;) i will update you on his play next time im on here.
As i said im away for a week now in Wales but will try to get on and update if i can and then im back up to DTD next weekend for the Sky Poker thingy.

Thx to Alex for the rail on Sat night and very wp Bobalike in the deepstack.

 ;dingdell; ;dingdell; boys gonna be boys  ;topofclass;  glad to be of service I suppose.

After Richard alerted me to the possible merits of reading his diary :) I did so when I got home about 3.30am & read away for 2 hours until I couldnt control my eyes any longer. 

TYTYTYTYTYTYTY It is amazingly honest and I, like so many others can relate to so much of it - either from my life or my utterly degen father's life (might get him to read this).  It does go to show how we shouldn't put people in boxes when we meet them, its great when they surprise the crap out of you :)

So so sorry about your dad, I don't do talking on the phone hardly ever - but I rang mine tonight. Cheers luv x

Well if your reading this and posting you obv didnt grind your shortstack further than mine  :(   glad you enjoyed the read, keep upto date but next time you will need the tissues handy me thinks unless your hard as nails.
See you next weekend...

nah I don't have your Jackson 5 skills lol.  Had a great weekend though, great talking with you & I hope you learned some lessons from me on how to play a bubble situation skillfully :)

Unless your coming to Cyprus with me at the weekend, then I'll see you in a month.

Maria you're tez

Oiii you want some lessons too?  Don't be jealous now sweety.

Sounds like a nice idea  ;D  qouted as not sure on the other diaries the boys have been invited to Cyprus for a week with Chilli!!!
Mrs Eso says not poss though so mid Wales it is  ;)

Great read!

Well after a 6hour drive and 2 stops for Maxwell and Bentley (our dog) we get to Wales and its pissing it down :-(  it is just like when me and my brother were kids as were staying in a park by the sea so hopefully the weather might improve if not i might have to degen the weekend winnings away at the arcade ;-)

Hi Rich where you staying, I spent a lot of time in Mid Wales as kid, practically grew up there hunting and fishing with my dad.

Hi Andy  were staying just outside of Aberystwyth but will be going to Tywyn and Aberdovey where my Dad used to take us during the course of the week, nice and chilled :-)  vwp the weekend m8 next time top 3!

Cheers mate, I'll just have to try harder.

We spent most of our time at a place called Llanbedr which is inbetween Barmouth and Harlech.

Have a great break.

Ok lets get this diary back on track...

Had a great 4 days in wales, apart from the weather it was nice and relaxed and to spend time with Petra and Maxwell as normally when i go to work they are just waking up and when i get in Maxwell is about to have a bath and go sleep plus travelling to Notts once or twice a month for the live pokers takes even more time away from the family.

Had 1 bet all week which was to late a dog on betfair i thought was too short on Sky but it won  >:(, then on friday we leave at 9.30 am and on first service break for Max i read the paper to find a horse i tipped a while ago running at 4.10pm with 2 more stops needed i know i will be back around 3.45 subject to traffic and on getting near home i stop to place a £20 ew plus £20 win on sirius prospect at 18/1 and a further £20 e/w at sp and get home just in time to see it win well
oioi oioi ship the £1210 total return and i then have 2hours at home before leaving to get to Luton for a drink with Celtic and to play the £100 fo on the way to DTD for the Sky Poker event today.

Starting table is ok till Alex MFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFkin Martin sits 3 to my right and i was going to sit quietly until Vinny introduces us which means were probs gonna have a cock waving contest, i win the first one to set up my table image 5betting  4d 5d against tight Dave and watching him laydown AK after some terrible speach play that anyone else would have snap shoved allin obv i show.

Then i do a massive get there after the break raising the c/o with  8d 9c  flopping  Jc Kd 8c  cbet which is called  turn 2c i check and villain bets allin i stare at him he looks uncomfortable as you do when you have KJ for top 2 i call it off as its only 30% of my stack and hit my flush   yeah yeah im a fish on a heater!!!!

Then have a really interesting hand with Alex and if i had met him the week before i would have slow rolled him to the max but i had only met him 1hr previous.

I raise UTG with  2d 2h to 450 at 1/200   Alex flats and the bb makes it 975, i dwell 4bet to 2350 hoping Alex folds but he flats and the bb gets out of the way.
flop is  Qc 4c 3s and i cbet 2950 which Alex flats and in rolls the  2c  i keep the lead raising to 4500 which he flats again and i house up on the  4s now i know Alex due to the past hour or so wont give me any credit for much so i check and after a short while he sets me in, I snap which Vinny says i should have dwell called the clock on myself before showing one 2 which would have been good.

After getting the CL on the FT when i hold JJ v AK i then lose 2 races v shorties and lose 6handed in a massive pot when the gin card comes on the turn and i only min cash.

Ok going to DTD now so GL me and all other Blondes playing and i will carry on with my story on Monday to catch us upto date before i have to start thinking of ideas to keep my readership up  ;)

Given any thought to that great idea for your diary, I gave you last night?

sick rubz!!

haha, nice to meet you, just finished grinding :) You will be pleased to know i lost that bet with Adam and duly done in £700 with him recording his first ever luton g victory. fml. You are a very good poker player and an exceptional spewtard, will def be reading this fully later today and in the future.

Sky Poker Tour Grand Final

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Weekend Trip Report

Didnt book a win in the poker as in the main event peaked a 22k then at 2/400 made the correct long term play vs Paul Jackson even though this time i was good (will probs post on pha) and ended up getting my 12 bigs in first with 88 and getting called by another shortie behind with AJ and Barry Carter insta reshipping with KK  gg me.

Played the Super 50 a bit loose and couldnt find a fold with Kings when should have folded the turn v an agro eastern european player to find he had trips, then drove to Luton for the £50 deepstack and finshed 17/67 when it got shooty at 600/1200 100 i took a shot against sicilian calling off my 18500 with AQ to his mid pos shove and he had AK.

Booked a small win on the footie to break even the weekend inc poker and travel so not all bad, and also met Simon Galloway at Luton and The Lad @ Nottingham  top fellas imo

Now going to get back on track with the main diary...

March 18th 2009

I received a phone call at 11.30am from the Care Home and they said i should come up north as they felt my Dad was in the final stages so i called Petra and we headed up to Walsall meeting my brother at the home.  Dad was now morphined up to the hilt and had not spoken or opened his eyes since the Sunday when i left him, his breathing was eratic and 2-3 times that afternoon it looked as if he stopped breathing before going again.

We stayed till 9pm that night when the Nurses told us to go as we were staying 1 mile away at my brothers and they would call us if there was any change, it was really distressing and i dont think anything can set you up for seeing a loved one at deaths door.
Needless to say i didnt sleep much weds night as i was expecting the phone to ring and did not want to miss the call so at 9am when there was no call we headed back to the home to find Dad in the same condition as yesterday, the nurses told us that today would be the day.

They left us alone and its amazing how they can pinpoint the date when a sufferer will pass away, i guess its experience of seeing it so many times.  I will never forget the peacefullness in the room which consisted of Dad, Iain (my brother) Petra and myself and at about 11.45 Iain went to get us all a coffee.

I have not spoken about my brother much in the thread as for a large period of my life due to my degen tendancies we didnt get on but he is a top guy really and is very superstitious and on the day Dad was diagnosed as being terminal had seen a single magpie and on 3 other occasions after this date had again seen single magpies when bad things had happened, now im not that much of a believer of this kind of thing but he is and has since had a big wrap around tattoo of my Dad's resting place and 2 magpies on the lower half of one of his legs.

When he came back with the coffee he told us that as he walked back to the room he saw a magpie in a window and he had docked his cap to him and said "morning mr magpie where is your wife" as you do!!!

sick read.
really sick

Not long after he came back Dad's breathing really seemed to be struggling and Petra was sat at the end of the room with my Brother and myself either side of the bed each holding onto one of his hands.  I had heard of the Death Rattle but obviously never really experienced it and as Dad breathed in and out there was a distinct hollow rattle as if his body was empty.

Just after midday with us still holding his hands he stopped breathing and my brother and i looked at each other and started to cry, then 20 seconds later he started to breathe again alas this was only to last another minute or so as then he stopped again and now we were holding his hands and Iain and I had linked our spare hands together so we were like a triangle as Dad took his last breath and then stopped.  :'(

We all broke down and i suddenly had this massive feeling of guilt come over me and in tears i apologised to my brother for all the hurt i had caused whilst we shared a brotherly hug in the knowledge Dad was no longer in any pain.

Its was 5 minutes before we notified the Nurses and they came to do whatever it is they do before leaving us with him for another hour where we just sat in silence, Its quite wierd as no-one ever tells you what you need to do next but somehow it all falls into place and after paying a visit to the doctor who had pushed for my Dad to be seen again and again where he informed us that he would stand up against what he felt was negligence on the hospital and consultants behalf we went home to Dads knowing although Dad was gone we now had instructions from him as to the next step which was the cats...

Thx Lil Dave will introduce myself to you next time your at DTD

Was good to meet you Richard over the weekend,top guy, top Diary...sigh at you not calling Paul in that hand ! would of saved me knocking him out ;ashamed;

THE CATS

As i had mentioned earlier from one of my Gambling related failed relationships i got my Dad to inherit the two cats  Finley and Sooty (brother and sister)  Finley was a really Fat old girl but sooty was a bit helthier and still quite slinky but Dads instructions were that due to their age and the fact they didnt react well to strangers he wanted them to be euthanised and cremated with him and we did not want to go against his wishes so we made a phone call to the vets and they were booked to come out on the Friday.

This experience was almost as hard as being with my Dad on the 19th as i had had these Cats since they were a few weeks old and holding them whilst the Vets put them to sleep left me in tears again but this was for Dad now and thats all that mattered.
They were taken away to be cremated with there ashes being returned in time to go in with my Dad and for them to be scattered together at the same resting place at Bretby Crematorium where Dad's parents were scattered.

The funeral was organised and took pace 4 weeks before our wedding and it was an amazing turn out with people spanning 50 years of his life turning up all telling us what a great man he was but we decided to wait until his Birthday on the 20th april before scattering Dad in a private manner with just us and a couple of family members present, i also due to the distance form Essex to Bretby asked my brother if he minded having a few of his ashes scattered at a nice place by a tree on the seafront where i could visit and i drive past the tree every day on the way to work sometimes stopping off for a few mins for a silent chat. It feels sometimes like I just want/need the reassurance he is at peace with his and my own life now if that makes any sense?

So with only a few weeks to the wedding and arranging for 40+ people to travel to Slovakia all we needed now was an Airline firm to go bust....

Loool much better for your career to knock the boss out  ;)

yes please do. Hopefully going to be up this friday actually

sry wont be around till deepstack weekend now, gl this weekend though!

Wondered what you had in that exit hand vs JT . KK is hard to fold as he was very Loose. I tried to bluff you with Q7 when you had AA oin that KK88K board earlier :)

Hi Simon, srry didnt say hello i was going to if i made the next break as i knew it was you from the updates.  Yeah he played so many hands and i felt due to his activeness he was prepared to 3barrel even his flush draws.  Hey ho   will defo say hi in person next time i see you  GLGL

Yeah fantastic idea thx Celtic i will definately be doing it once i am upto date

Your amazing Vinny and thx for the offer of half the money as it was your idea!!!

Haha   obv i would have rather have won and saved you £700 but you can afford it.
Thx for the compliments or maybe you just levelled me again!  ;)

Just read the lot - really good story and very well written! I think we've only played together once but I seem to remember you raise/calling off 20bbs with 89s and getting there vs TT :P

Not gunna be at DTD till the december monte carlo but i'll definitely come and say hi

Yeah that sounds like me  ;)  we did sit together one other time at DTD with Willie Tann sat between us.
See you at the Monte Carlo    GLGL till then

edit just remembered that was the time and realised you had the TT  ;D

Not cried much since my mums funeral but that just bought a lot of emotion back.

That waiting moment for them to stop breathing is the worst. There was 8 of us in the room totally clueless. We all looked blankly at one another and my auntie Carol said "that's it. I'll go get a nurse." As soon as she left the room my mum started breathing again. After 15 mins more silence I looked round the room at all the people with tears in their eyes. I could not bare the silence so just says "cheer up you lot. We all feel pretty bad right now but how bad do you think Carol is feeling trying to kill mum off early?". That broke some tension and my mum passed away a couple of minutes later.

This is great stuff rich

Hi Jason, i knew this would touch a nerve with you especially being so close to your Mum and i think most people will agree that the first anniversaries   ie first birthday/ first mother or fathers day/ first year from actually passing away are the toughest to get through.
Hope you and the family are ok m8 and i look forward to seeing you at the deepstack!!

Amazing stuff Rich. I just sat there with tears in my eyes. Really appreciate the honestly in this, it cant be easy digging up these kinds of things.

Yea very emotional. Will be back on the poker soon. Now the oldest has started school and the twins nursery my wife ain't having the "I'm a full time stay at home dad" any longer. And as she is my 50 % manager she has been telling me that my hendonmob ain't getting any flags if I don't play lol

brilliantly honest story great reading...

brings back memories of when we lost my gran,

 i spent most of the night at the hospice went home to shower had a sleep came back  and missed her passing by five Min's i was heartbroken...still am.

i wish i could write like you ..you tell an amazing story ...please don't stop.

Thx JK, TBH it probs makes it easier and its nice to hear +feedback from everyone.

Just working on something now to keep my readers happy when im upto date and then there is no degen activity left

keep em peeled  ::)

Yeah i heard THM had to lay off a member of staff who used to update your flags weekly, they said they will re-advertise the position once you venture out again  ;)

Dont worry there is no stopping yet, one of the things i was happy about was that i was able to be there with my Dad when he went so i truly understand where your coming from mate.

TIKAY UPDATE

I forgot to mention this in the past week but Tikay reminded me this weekend i needed to post this...

If anyone is sat at a table with Grandad in the next 6months fear not he will definately have it if he is betting or as he would say "back raising" as last weekend in the £150 at DTD being sat immediately to the left of the big man in the space of 2 hours i saw

1) Tikay do his yearly bluff and show against a young hoodie

2) 1 x Hero call with bottom pair

3) A value bet, well i think Tikay thought it was a value bet but it was really turning his hand into a bluff

4) Finally when he got moved from our table not only did our table cheer but his new table cheered him over knowing not only was the value there but he had chips too..

Shush.

I gave Chinese Frankie a little lesson yesterday in how to play poo-poo on an A-K-9 flop, too. Frankie said "OK, show us the 3", so I did. Never showed him the 2, though, that woulda been a step too far.

Hope you enjoyed the Sky Poker event, thanks for coming along.

You may not be surprised to know that I have no idea what either of those things are......though if I recall the hand correctly, it was a bit of a Masterclass in how to mangle the nuts.....

Really enjoyed it thanks, it was well run and also i spoke to few familiar faces from my neck of the woods and the social interaction from all your players is a massive part of your tour
WD.

Nice to meet you also, Richard.  Although I somehow feel that I am now unable to use the word 'degen' ever again...

Lol thx for the compliment/level   will pm you when i get a chance later this week.

THE RUN UP TO THE WEDDING!

Dad had always stated that the wedding must go on and with 45 family and friends having let us organise flights and accomodation for them we still had a few bits and pieces left to sort out. We had initially booked everyone to fly from Luton to Bratislava as some were travelling from the midlands and some from down south so it was the best airport to get everyone to so that the coach we had organised could pick everyone up and give them a tour of Bratislava on the friday before taking them to the hotel for a pre wedding meal and then the main event on the Saturday.

So to receive an e-mail saying that our chosen airline of Sky Europe had gone into receivership was a real pain, we frantically looked at the Ryanair flights and rebooked everyone on there with slightly different flying times and also flying from and back into Stanstead then had to write to all the guests to confirm the change which also meant us swallowing the cost of the flights at £70 per head for now in the hope of getting the money back.

Due to my history it should be obv to all that i dont have a credit card and Petra has a low limit card we got her to build a history to enable our property business to start which i shall come onto later so it was booked on a Visa debit card and you dont get the same benefits as with a visa credit card, and despite filling in the e-forms and being promissed a payment before the wedding nothing was appearing. First they lost the form, second they said it needed doing again, third we were told our payment had been processed but i knew they were fobbing us off so when i checked out moneysavingexpert.com i fell across an article called Visa Chargeback where your local bank will not have heard of this or will pretend they have not and refer you to a different dept who will endeavour to delve secretly back into the other parties bank account and reclaim the money. This was now our last hope as the travel insurance does not cover it on a group basis.

MY BROTHER AND I!!

With Dad having gone and only Iain living in the midlands i was really concious of him being distanced from us and also as he lived closer to the solicitor having to deal with the whole probate side of things and i think my Dad in his last few months was concerned that we could end up just sending each other Birthday and Christmas cards and that would be that, I am sure he also thought as soon as i got my hands on my share of the inheritance it would be gone within 6 months and who knows he may have been right.

But i had now got a greater sense of values and being stable in my position within the agency was determined to prove Dad wrong on both points, so having sniffed out a couple of property deals i convinced Iain that unless he had some greater plan for the money we should really invest it into property and should not sell Dads place but start to build ourselves a nice portfolio with a minimum 5 year plan.  He agreed and we secured our first 2 properties both were repossesions one flat in Essex for £88k and a detached house for £153k  plus we had to give the family of the previous owner £12k cash as this property was really a distressed sale whereby the Lady we were dealing with was the mum and her Son had decided to commit suicide on the day we went to repossess the house with the bailiff, I had got to know her really well and the bank involved didnt want any publicity about us turning up and finding him there so had just instructed us to sell the property.

When an investor i had put the family in touch with failed to get the money we stepped in in the knowledge this house was worth £235k even in 2009 and it took us 1 month of full work to refurbish the house doing everything except the kitchen units which were fine and the double glazing which would do for now, infact the day we started work we had a tenant lined up who is still there to this day and just signed for another 2 years :)

I knew getting my brother involved in the property game would be good for our relationship and also mean that i could prove everyone wrong about spunking my inheritance....

An hour and a half later and the sequel to the above not yet posted?...FFS, hurry up man, I need to know what happened next.

Lolz  srry for the slow roll but its what the readers want how am i gonna get to 100k reads if all i put is  buy properties- market crashes- lose pots of money- win lottery- end thread  ;)

lol, fair enough...I'll just sit back and relax myself by reading Boshi's diary.

Lol - no need to read, now we know the ending.

If i won the Lottery Lucky do you think i would turn up at Luton on a Sunday   ;)

WEDDINGS AND PROPERTIES!!

The 3 weeks run up to the wedding went as smooth as you can hope for considering we were getting married abroad and organisng most bits from the Uk it all went well, we travelled a week before the date itself and were staying a week after the guests had gone to have a mini honeymoon in the High Tatras Mountains at a spa resort before coming back to England for 6 weeks then leaving for the Safari Honeymoon.

We were also now involved in the purchase of 4 properties in total, the 2 all ready mentioned and then a house for us and a property in the Midlands my brother had found that looked cheap a would be a good renter. None of the properties could go in my name due to my past so they were all in the wifes maiden name or my brothers name so in reality the worst possible thing that could have happened would be for Petra to run off with my brother, obv this has not happened and we subsequently put declarations of trust in place for all properties to protect all involved.

Running around in Slovakia a week before the wedding was fun, I dont and still dont speak much Slovak and Petra's family speak no English but apart from us collecting the cake and seeing it slide off the tray going around a corner on the way to the castle where the reception was held there was no stress.

The wedding was always going to be emotional as there was all our families there and not only my dad had passed away that year but Petra's Grandma in the January but they were toasted in the speeches and remembered during the day and would have enjoyed looking down on the overall event which was bathed in sunlight and enjoyed by all.

I will post a few photos and try to upload the shortened version of the wedding DVD for those that have not seen an Eastern European wedding before with some of the traditions that we dont have over here, infact English weddings are very boring in comparison and will then carry on with my tale...

careful. you may go the way of the previous owners son.

great read!

Is there any decent literature out and about for 1st time home buyers?

Not really but feel free to ask anything itt or PM me if you would like anything directly, i will always try to help anyone out.

Feel free to post all video's that petra may be in.:)

Lol the one with you cant be there as cant get widescreen on here!!
PS start trolling updating your own diary   :-*

i was really close to my gran to the point where i spoke at the funeral,
 held it together all day got home and sobbed like a baby.

Yeah we both spoke at the funeral to, one of the toughest things i have had to do and being in sales i dont mind standing up and speaking in front of people.
Its good to cry sometimes!!!

Over the next 48 hours i am going to endeavour to put up some photo's and the mini dvd as discussed, today though had a day off and spent it with Petra and Max which was nice as it was a great day perfect for walking by the sea.

Need to put some volume in online till the end of the month but the £150 6max at DTD on Sat is drawing me in just need to get a pass out from Petra  ;)

On the betting front had a loser y/day >:( when Lille couldnt hold from 2-0 up

Today i have had a max bet on horse i have been waiting to come out since it's last run  im on at 2/1 best odd gtd on Ducal in the 8.40 Kempton as i missed 9/4 but there are some n/r now so would have been in for a rule4 if i put on earlier.

GL to all Blondes playing in the deepstack tourney in Birmingham and also tomy bud Karl Snow of Bankroll supply think this could suit him and hope he gets a deep run.

Ps

Next week there is the start of a degen challenge itt that is hopefully going to bring in some £££££


thx Vinny for the idea   ;)

Wiiiiiiii Finally!!!
Remember ya mentioning something about this a while back...

[ ] Went well but cant complain as been running good lately

Let me chuck some dolla in.... ;-)
Just know ya going to smash it..

Well its gonna be self explanatory mate so please feel free to follow, hope its gonna give me/you anyone else a sweat....

I going to follow i think your going to smash it and I have no idea what it is !!! Tell us sooooooooon

I also have no idea lee what he's got planned, he said i'd have to wait.. (slow roll i guess) but he is a legend so i'm looking forward to it..  ;tightend;

His degen challenge has the potential to provide the greatest/sickest sweat ever seen on blonde.

Looking forward to it a lot.

I dont care what it is i'm in

+1

Well as you can see still no photos but thats due to my laziness tbh, can someone please post itt or pm me how to put a dvd clip on?

Last week i mentioned winning a grand on a horse called Sirius Prospect (defo a horse to follow next season) and 3 runs ago when it won at Windsor over 5f it beat a horse called Sluggsy Morant who then came out and won at Goodwood. Sirius Prospect then won the race last week 2 grades higher so the form has a solid look to it.   I like Sluggsy Morant today and have had a very nice each way bet on at 8/1 plus a saver on Perfect Pastime (2nd last time to Sluggsy) at average odds of 27/1 on B/F.

Gonna leave work early today and drive up to DTD for the £150 six max and then sunday evening will defo put up some photos get the diary up to date and then reveal a degen sweat for peeps to follow.

GL anyone i know left in the deepstack today   esp Golden Goulder!!!

only way i know for a dvd clip would be to upload it 1st on youtube, then attach the clip

Ffs slowroll

Sick slowroll.

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/202/blonde1e.jpg/](http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3663/blonde1e.jpg)]

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Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii   finally worked it out  here we go!!

Good to meet you yesterday, even if it was a little bit brief. I'll get you a beer next time you're in Nottingham.

(http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/626/blonde2h.jpg)]

Petra, myself,my Mum and Brother (http://[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/9/blonde2h.jpg/)

You to Kin,   see you at Deepstack?

Wow. Petra's a lot older than I expected.

Can you introduce me to your Mum pls?

Quite possibly.

(PS, you've landed on your feet with Petra - ;hattip;)

Lolz,  run better next year!! x

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/blonde5.jpg/](http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/993/blonde5.jpg)]

March 23rd 2011, the second best day of my life!! (http://[/url)

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Simply Petra!

(http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/9278/blonde6d.jpg)]

Uploaded with [URL=http://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us (http://[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/64/blonde6d.jpg/)[/url

1 Month Old!

awwwwwww!

Great pics Rich.

(http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4226/maxandbentley.jpg)]

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Max and Bentley

(http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/9128/waleslastweek.jpg)]

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Wales 2 Weeks ago!

Enough Photos for now, will try the dvd next!! GL me

Had a pretty rubbish weekend punting wise, trying something on the footie that broke even but i think will show a profit and could be good. Both horses i fancied ran like drains and today did a Liverpool/ Man Utd double then when Liverpool went 3 down stuck a healthy single on Man Utd and have placed all my winnings on Dallas -2.5pts to beat San Francisco in the American Football as all the shrewdies are on!!

Pokerwise i drove up to DTD on Saturday night for the £150 six max leaving Southend at 4.15 and arriving at just before 7 late regging i get a seat in pos to Tommy Kuggelstadt but spewed half my stack with AK AK and AQ but rebuilt to 13k, folded to some heat and then with rising blinds found myself at 6k needing a double up which came when my 66 held vs A10. Unfortunately 3 hands later at 3/600 and just about to go 4/800 and a stack of 13k i shove over a raise to 1500 utg and a flat from Herbie with  8s 8d the O/R folds and Jason calls with AQo and rivers the Queen and back down the M1 we went.

Good comp though probs needs something to back it up on Sunday Aft (ie earlier than 8pm comp) so that more southern based players might give it a spin..

Come on the cowboys..

Tomorrow i reveal the Eso challenge!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fantastic pics Rich.

Petra is so beautiful and Maxwell is quite a cutie but where did he get that dirty laugh from?

Thx, I think all his best attributes are from Petra!  ;)

Even his impressive balls?

Yeah these Slovak Broads m8   mahoooooooooooooooosive  ;)

Found a live stream and stayed up to watch this, Had £200 on Man Utd putting the lot on Dallas -2.5on B/F which they managed to win in OT so its now been a profitable weekend.  ;)

Jelly.

WP us mortals were all  on -3 and knocked it in :(

Mbn

i cant see the pics. tilt.

FYP   x

yeah i read thread after the match and realised only on B/F was it 2.5 but odds were 1.79 

As i said i am trying something out for pennies on the football atm and this was the first weekend, i cant reveal yet what im doing but i actually had a 1265/1 winner and yet broke even but was only a few results away from scooping 25x my stake.  Think this will defo show a good profit over the season and will probs post here once i have fine tuned it!!

Workwise is really tough atm, in our area people just are not buying and its like pulling teeth trying to get them to even commit to a viewing!  >:(

ESO'S CHALLENGE   £40 to £100k MINIMUM

Ok i have spoken to a few people on here about what i am going to try and do, its got a bit of degen in there and over a period of time is not going to hurt me plus could provide quite a big sweat!!

Basically i remember earlier this year a guy started with an £8000 bet and punted his way to circa £400k iirc eventually losing on his 26th bet when he put the lot (less £80k for his wedding) on Djokovic to beat Fedderer in the French open Semi final and had stated if this won he was going to stop and buy a house, obv he lost and has not been heard of since.

I am not going to do it with 1 bullet but am going to start at £40 and give myself 100 goes ( ie £4000) at trying to get approx 20-25 correct in a row, i dont know whether i will get there and if i dont it does not matter too much as i reckon it will take approx a year to do the roll in.  I am going to do most of it on Betfair and will photo the screen and post itt once i am matched so there is no aftertiming!

There will be some caveats I am putting in and they are   A) I will only pull out money if say i have had 50 pops (£2000) and i am up to 6k on a bet i may withdraw my 2k so i still have 100 bullets and the next bet would be 4k.  B) If the roll drops to 2k i may change to a reduced stake of £20 starting bet and still have 100 pops at it.

I will mostly be playing at odds on and on mainstream events and will not be betting everyday just on events i fancy, but if anyone wants to post itt the odd tip please feel free.  Some people i have spoken to have said can they give me say £400 and do it on a smaller level to win 10k but after Blatchgate i have no interest in this, please dont take it personally just open up a betfair account and do it that way!

I dont know if its gonna be possible but i will have a bloody good try at it and am sure we will have a few good sweats along the way, some have said will i really have 70k on an event after say 20 winners but i am determined to break 100k so yes i will and whilst i am aware the higher i go it may be difficult to get the whole lot on i will find a way and have already thought of this but will obv post on this when i need to.

Will let you know when the first selection is and if i my next post will let you know what i am going to do with the winnings  ;)

GL anyone who joins in!!

WHEN I WIN THE WORLD!

When and if i scoop somewhere between 20-25 bets time half of the monies is going to Petra to squirrel away for a rather tasty extension and loft conversion for "Chez Eso" and to start her off a little business we have been thinking of, the other half is gong to be usedon a couple of years of Poker where basically i am going to take some shots at events i would not ordinarrily buy direct into.

I have not yet been to Vegas and played Poker as when i lived in California for 6months was not interested in the game so this would defo form part of the events!

Look out later this week for the first selection!

Good luck with this Rich, having recently scooped £400 on a £10 x 6 team accu I might join you on your journey.

y u no play online? :P

Good Luck Rich.

Quite possibly going to be the worst bankroll management excercise in history but would love to see you hit the £100k.

"it's got a bit of degen in there" <<< ROFL

Sorry Boss been busy with life stuff this past couple of weeks, will be on this week if you fancy a session and will be shipping your % tomoz to usual x

Cool Cool  its gonna be really boring at the start till 10 winners in, but you gotta get from A to B

TYTY obv this is not my life roll or poker roll and i reckon it will take me at least a year to knock it in so i look at it as an investment of entertainment at £80 per week, with a chance to win big and will most likely be the majority of my betting!  :)

This is genius....I'd like to get involved, and may mirror your challenge - although as a recovering degen was trying to work out when my leg goes and I bottle it - you going to use this thread or diversify the Eso brand and put a separate challenge one up on Betting board? Think it would be fun if a few of us gave a go and see who did best - obv without hijacking your idea. Never ever going to be £80 a week unless you run real bad fwiw

Simples- start 2 challenges and only bottle it on the 1.
:)

Yeah i think the roll will likely last 1 1/2 years so £80 p week was worst case in which case   meh

I will open another thread on Betting Tips and Sports Discussion and link it to this once i post my first selection or people interested are welcome to use this thread.

After our chat at dtd been wanting to post ...

But said I wouldn't until you had.

I am  going to join you but at the £400 not 4k ...to rich for me rich.

But I am going to have to wait till November  to join you ....as I said taking the family away in October.

Really hope you you do well in this I only wanted you to take my money cos I think I will bottle it if I get dem 15/20 up.
But understand after blatch

Also pm sent

Run better Rich!

Doesn't this just fall over when there isn't enough liquidity in the betfair markets.  Either that or you end up skewing the market so much with your £50k bet that the odds you take are bound to be terrible?

Largely accurate, though not quite perfectly so. Essentially as the bet size grows you become increasingly limited in the choice of markets you can 'efficiently' bet into. Short priced Premier League teams, heavy favourites in the tennis etc. will be fine, though anything rather more niche and as Doobs says you will be heavily eroding your EV.

All of which said, the very best of luck to you Eso Kral. A truly absorbing diary.

gl Rich, had a good run on footy but tennis is the game to edge ur way on betfair.

Totally

dont fall asleep b4 u trade out rotflmfao

Hi Doobs,  Yeah in the later stages i need to be ultra selective in terms of markets or i need to do it in shops only and approach a chain say from day one and tell them i'm prepared to knock in 4k and if i make it obv they get all the publicity so therefore loads of people wanting to try it and in no time they get the 100k back!!

TYTY

TY Ed i agree and have already thought that televised events will be the way to go in the later stages but if when i get there will worry about it then  ;)