blonde poker forum

Well, more an extension of Day One at the moment, I had to stop Posting last night, see explanation in the Day One Thread.

I've taken lots more nice pics too, see the Day One thread as to  why I can't load them right now.

That is one pricey internet cafe...I will try to fly out and meet you on your next port of call...Shall i bring the maids outfit ...or stick to the Sailors one..

x

So, back to yesterday's flight.

Sat next to me, across the aisle, was a cruise-bound Phil Taylor, who was World Darts Champion about 84 times. I've heard it said he is the world's greatest sportsman, which is clearly a nonsense, but he must be some special darts player, that's for sure.

In terms of dominating a sport for so long there is none equal to "The Power", he is awesome, nice bloke too!

Gl in the event tikay, when does it start?

No need to wear anything Maureen. Anything special, that is.

Back to the flight. In the row behind was World Heads-Up Champion Peter Gunnarson, with his partner, who is a stunningly beautiful looking lady of about 12 or 13. Maybe older, but it's hard to tell with some races. Peter & patner are Swedish nationals, but originate from, at a guess, Korea, or that part of the world.

Peter seems to have put a lot of weight on since I last saw him, especially around the face. He was on deck last night, with his young lady, they are clearly very much in love. I wish them both well.

ifm, yes, Phil was with his family, & was happily siigning autographs for all & sundry. I hjad my pen poised, but nobody asked me. There's a thing. Well they DID in the Mariott in Bormingham, mind you, some bugger set that up.

Flushy, the comp starts at midday today (in 3 hours), EVERYONE plays on Day One, I think there are about 300 runners. Chatted with Greg Amoils last night, it's a 10,000 chip, 60 minute clock jobbie. But it's scheduled for 5 days, can't see how it will last that long.

I'm torn between being "old tikay", grinding away, or new tikay, being all lairy. I guess it just depends how the table is, & whether it is a table suitable for misreads, so to speak.

gl fella, no i dont see how it will last for 5 days either.

And tell Greg i say hi, and not to get me to agree to anything when i am drunk and in vegas!

That swine.

Back to the flight.

Quite by chance, John Shipley & I spotted each other, wow, I really like John a lot. Modest, self-effacing,  extremely intelligent & "sharp", GREAT tournie player. John is "sapphire" on blonde, & I had a pop at him, he's been one of the leading culprits in Posting on blonde about that daft childrens programme, "Deal or no Deal". How can ANYONE with a brain cell watch a programme hosted by Noel Edmonds? Sheesh.....

John is a fearsome table opponent, ask Greg Junior Hill! In Junior's first big tourney, when he got 2nd at Walsall for 36 grand (can't find the pound sterling key) John asked me "whose that damn kid who keeps stealing? Next time he plays back at me, I'm gonna move in on him". And Junior asked me "who is that geezer that keeps giving me long staredowns, I'm gonna move all-in on him next time he plays back at me".

In the EPT at The Vic, in Season One, he & Thewy clashed. I had taken 50% of Thewy - this was before he was sponsored, & Thewy had blown everyone away for 2 days, been chip leader all the time. And when they got down to Ten, Thewy was still chip leader, & I am thinking, "whahoo, 50% of 170k coming my way, luverly......" but then he clashed with The Ship twice in 3 hands, & was OUT! John went on to win it, from another new name - Burnley John, & I think Robert Cooper - playing as Bob Cook - was 3rd or 4th.

John is probably Dave Colclough's best mate in poker. Dave tells me that John was a full time professional punter on the greyhounds before he took up poker. It was said that if John even mentioned a dog's name, it's price shortened, apparently John had a legendary reputation as a judge of racing greyhounds. Think he used to punt at Monmore - is that a Birmingham track?

OK, last flight story.

Had a right shock, did not know what to think. I saw John Gale wheeled through the Departure Lounge, directly onto the flight, in a wheelchair. What a shock. John is a good friend, & I have no idea why he was in the wheelchair. Maybe he's broke his leg or summat, I just dont know what to think. Could hardly chase after the wheelchair & ask him what the problem was......

I have yet to see him on the boat, but I guess I will bump into him today, & let you know the svore.

John is SUCH a nice bloke, you cannot imagine what a gent he is. I do hope it's nothing serious.

Usually a nice ploy to get extra leg room :D

Seriously tho, hope he is OK!!

In the Transit Lounge at Port of Miami, I bumped into John Kabbaj & his jaw-droppingly beautiful wife. She's Russian, & could be Miss World.

So I'm thinking, life just gets better & better. Then I felt a tap on the shoulder, & it was James Browning, how, err, lovely. And the NEXT guy I saw was Phil Shaw, late of Poker Europa, now of Inside Edge.

Contrary to what peeps might think, I DO like James, but gawd almighty, he does go on a bit when at the table. He makes Ariston seem mute. And he puts his face right up close, there is no escaping. We did an Exit Interview with him at Southend last year, "just give us 30 seconds please James". 6 minutes later......Even Paul Parker goes quiet when James is at the table. But he is a lovely guy.

After boarding the boat yesterday, I headed off to the cafe, my luggage had not arrived yet, so time for a cuppa.

Not been sat there a minute, when I was joined by Jesse May & his wife, Mickey. Mickey is a professional photographer, & a lovely looking lady, very intelligent. Whereas as Jesse is just completely mad. He was wearing his bandana yesterday, which makes his hair stand up dead straight, sort of Bongo style. He - Jesse - is a sort of PR man for me, he was telling all the Ladbrokes top brass, "this is the man you want, he's great". And then he kissed me. Had to be a catch I guess. Nice kiss, mind.

I DID hear that suggested!

I just hope he is OK. He boarded, I assume, so can't be too bad.

has the drawn been done yet

Seeing your dress sense Tikay, have they hired you as the Cruise Comedian? or is it that they know you enjoy cruising ;)

Saw Fari Badmansour on deck this morning. Fari is one of THE greatest Omaha players in the world, with several WSOP Omaha Final Tables to his name. Think he originates from Iran, not 100% on that, but he is softly spoken, and THE most polite and well-mannered guy you could ever wish to meet. Lives in Birmingham, of all places.

So its safe to go back up to newcastle!

Wish James my best... and Jesse, i love the bandana!

Have a great time tikay!

And i completely agree with you about Fari, he came up to teesside/Newcastle last year and had a ball in the cash games. And cleaned up! He was at the blondebash sat in the cash game and suggested i sit down after i got knocked out... Him, the crazy chinese guy from walsall and jammer was'nt the bast place for me to put my money! Top guy!

Good luck

Meds - no, don't think they have done the draw yet.

I Know It - I refuse to bite.

Another face I saw last night was Bob Clarke, & he had the lovely Tracey with him. Tracey has had her long blonde hair cut MUCH shorter. She was wearing Bob's jacket, which I thought was odd, but after I got a "nice to see you hug" it transpired she had nothing on under it, her clean clothes were in her luggage which had not arrived yet. Long hug, that one.

You can tell you are in Holiday mode!! please give Fari my best wishes and tell him I will be working with Bonnie at Star City. THX

a thought has just crossed my mind, after i won a place on the cruise and had to cancel last minute, i should stilll get mine and my missuses welcome packs, can u ask luke to sort that out for me, cheers

Do tell Richard

He is VERY VERY good at all types of poker, proper nice fella too!
That cash game was interesting, i asked Chesney Jammer if he knew what he was doing in that game with Fari and mad Simon as i was a little concerned he might be a little over his head.
I had no idea if he was any good at the game himself but i know the other 2 very well.
Fari said afterwards that he was "a little up", dunno what that means!

Have a great time TK xx

he rinsed a few quid out of me.

Good Luck Tikay!

If you see Stefan Ball, one of the Slough Palace gang, could you wish him luck too?

Cheers

Paddyjim

Hi Tikay (and Paddyjim)

I didn't know Stefan was on the cruise!  Good luck to him, and of course our fearless newly-blonde(r) Updater In Chief... Just to let you all know that Tikay was busy getting his hair done for the occasion just prior to flying to Miami...can't do to have roots while on the seas.  It all sounds very exciting - good luck and I'll look forward to hearing about the action.

Well, thank you for all those kind words, & especially to Jen, who has exposed my secret - my hair is not naturally blonde, it's dyed. Damn that woman.

where are the photos tikay? are you in the event?  good luck if so

mad

Got LOTS of Pics & stories for you, but first let me update you on how I am doing. The Tourney began at about 1.30pm Local, it's 4.30pm Local now, & it's break time.

My starting table had two notables, Daniel Larssson, two seats to my left, & Mad Marty Wilson, to my immediate right.

I can think of NO player in the world whom I'd LESS like sat two seats to my left, than Mr Larsson, he is fearless, & a very strong player indeed. We are playing a 1 hour clock, with 10,000 starting chips, & my table will break second, so I decide not to get involved with Daniel.

Marty is a different kettle of fish entirelly, he has a habit of moving all-in early doors, & I resolve to call him if he starts that malarky with me.

I felt very nervous for some reason, & decided to watch what happened for a few orbits.

I will Post this in bite size chunks, as although the internet connection is good - 100% as long as the ship moves in a straight line - when the ship changes course, the connection has to be reset.

Mad, the photos? Give me a little time, I have lots of interesting pics for you guys, I will put them up as soon as time permits. Still in the comp? Me? Of COURSE!

Looking forward to them all. Good luck Tikay.

bloody well better be!

Just go tell the bloke driving the ship not to turn any corners..seems easy enough to me

So, the comp begins. A very subdued Devilfish is on the table next to me, most unusually quiet.

I am sitting out for a few orbits, but on hand 2, I pick up  8h 8c.

4 limpers at 25-50, & I decide to kill this .

I make it 400 to go, an overbet, but it will settle me down to take this.

They all pass, good as gold, until it gets to Mad Marty, who promptly moves ALL-IN!

Well! I had resolved to play him strong, so lets firstly think what hand he has. Gotta be AK, I know Marty's game, not too much subtlety to it.

So it's a call then.

I give it a lengthy dwell, say a little prayer, and PASS. Brave boy, me.......

Pah!

He shows the inevitable AK, the entire room collapsed in laughter, "Mad Marty all-in second hand"...... "See tikay, don't mess with me, I'm dangerous"..... Yup Marty, you sure are......

Should I have passed, if I put him on AK? Of course. Imo......"Better situation" awaits.

tikay

youll never know

Tikay , you are doing a grand job, but the fact you are now updating, does that mean the inevitable? If not Good Luck and nice reporting whilst playing.

So that's one of my two resolutions out the door.

We are only 6 handed, 4 no-shows on my table, but Larsson is not yielding an inch, so I leave him alone. With 4 empty seats, there are always blinds to be had, & Daniel is  taking most of them.

Then I pick up  Aspades Kh, make it 200 to go, Larsson makes it 1,000, I make it 2,500, he calls. Flop is all rags, I'm in a hole here. I check, he bets it, I pass, he shows QQ. Ayya!

So that's BOTH my promises broken. Dammit.

Early days mate....Plenty of play to come..Good Luck... :)up

4 no shows on 1 table ! how many people all together did not turn up up ?

Now we get 2 more players, & "lowball" -  Eric Dolby? - who won it last year, is one of them. He's very "school-masterish", & is soon telling the dealer how to count the pots, he refuses to show his hand fiirst at showdown, "it's the other guy to show first".......There is a 30 second stand-off, then he reluctantly turns his losing hand over.

He is in seat 6, we are 8 handed, so we are a bit spread out, but he wants the seating positions re-aligned. "You should be exactly HERE he says to seat 5, marking an imaginery line on the felt. We all shuffle back & forth, till Eric says "that's OK, you can carry on". Thanks Eric.

We end level 2, & I've barely taken a pot, & have dribbled down to 8,500.

I see a flop with  Qs Jd, flop comes  Kh Tc  3h, I bet the draw, a french Gent re-pops it. Strewth....... I call, check the  4s turn, he checks too, hmm.....
 
River is  Td, now I HAVE to bet to win this, & I make it 650. It's tough for him to call without a huge King, & I could have the Ten.

He dwells for maybe 3 minutes, then calls, ayya. He had K-9. Good Call.

p3Ercy - we were almost the last table to be drawn, I am not sure how many no-shows there were, but maybe too many seats were allocated. All the other tables had 10 players. But lots of players were most unwell with sea-sickness this morning, inclulding John Shipley, who looked awful. The sea was VERY rough last night.

So, I'm not doing too good, & at last the table breaks, & I think thanks goodness, maybe I can get moving now, I'm down to 6,800.

I sit down at my new table, look around, only know one guy, Kevin O'Connell.

My first hand on this table? Ac  Kc, lovely!
 
Blinds are 75-150, 2 liimpers, I make it 800.

Small blind smooth callls, uh-oh, game on.

I sneak a glance at Mr SB. He has maybe 25k to 30k, more tellingly, he has a LOT of small denom chips. So he's clearly been a busy boy. I put him in the lairy & loose category. Play him strong tikay, I tell myself.

This is our flop.

 Ahrt Jc 3s

Glory be!

But what's this, he bets out, makes it 3k, a huge overbet, with bugger all to protect against? He surely cannot be drawing to the wheel or Broadway? Two pair? Surely he would check-raise me?

Jeez, decisions decisions. Well, only two - it can only be Pass, or move-in. And he's Pot committed now. I just CANNOT call here, its do or die.

Pass? I've hit my flop, I'm in need of chips, but I'm not happy.
 
I decide to push, & before my chips are in the middle, he has called. Oh dear........

I turn over my  Ac Kc, he shows, of COURSE,  Aspades Ad

I am SO disappointed, especially for my backers. But with the chips I had left, I just ain't good enough to get off this hand, & that's all there is to it. He's played his AA nicely, I've walked into his trap, & that's that. Bugger.

I guess worse things happen at sea.

Ouch, unlucky tikay.

So I guess I will have to post lots of stories & pics now, I only got 8 days left on this boat......I am in the $200 & both $500's, so there it is.

OK, stories & pics will start now.

Unlucky Tikay....

...Now get outside in the sun and enjoy the holiday.

Hi Tikay

If you see Bob say hello for me

Cheers

ACES

Unlucky Tikay ..... ouch

UL Tikay, you were trapped in that hand. Nothing you can do fella. Folding there would be incorrect IMO.

Dont worry about the backers man, if you do that you can never play right. Go enjoy yourself!

I need to vacate this computer now, give me some tiime guys, I'll be back.

Bad luck Old Bean, so you got the AK curse too.

I know that feeling, I've not been able to win with AK nor defeat it for weeks now  ;reallyamsorry;

Thanks Karabiner.

Well, I went in 8 miles behind, and after the flop. he was so far ahead he was out of sight. Hard to bear, but can't complain, best hand won. If an A or K does not drop, I can survive. If if if.......

OK, got lots of pics for you, but struggling with the hardware right now. My Lappie is dead until we get near land & the Vodafone Card works, the internet cafe has no facility for me to download the pics, (just a keyboard and screen accessible), & the Ladbrokes Wi-Fi is overloaded, & my lappie cannot be configured to access that. Everybody from the Host has been incredibly helpful, but I think the pics are gonna have to wait until I find some way to upload them.

I'll go & see how the comp is going, & get back to you later.

You can't do anything when the case ace drops.

Feel for you Tikay..But naff all you can do about that flop..Just enjoy the trip..

Looking forward to the pictures.

ul young man,
that's the way it goes,
i should put your feet up & get some sun
x

Unlucky mate!

Which event was this?

I'm impressed... you lasted past level2 was that? Flop is a no brainer!

unucky old man, now get some sun!

I had daniel larsson on my table in the wsop main event, he is at it from word go... tho i enjoyed tangling with him! Till he was knocked out by lady nemesis, with a 2 outer!

cost me the bracelet lol

Enjoy tikay, looking forward to the pic and updates!

Tikay - can you find out, preferably, from the Ladbrokes poker stafff, what alias Mad Marty registered under - he plays on Ladrokes under The Major - however , was never entered for any of the cruise tournaments .. Many thanks in advance

unlucky TK.........Hey i  would have been out too in that situation as well, and within 5 mins i would be sipping a latte thinking to myself right lets spot some of those little ickle Dolphin's. you lucky bugger..................or was it unlucky ??.



Cupcake.

Thanks Guys.

The Boss - will try.

Red - it was The Main Event, sadly. Hurts to even type it. I chatted with Bob Coombes last night (& passed on Aces message) & he thought, withoit being critical, maybe I coulda got off the hand, & I think he's right. But I just ain't good enough to put that bugger down, , & the "softly softly" days have gone for me. Get the money in, & what will be wil be.

Julian says "unlucky Son". Son? Gotta love that boy.

Miss you all.

xx

Unlucky Tikay.
Is Leilani Dowding over there? I saw her at the Ladbrokes poker million party and she has done some promoting of the Cruise so thought they might have her on board.
If she is sign her up on Blonde please?

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