blonde poker forum

Hi

I've kept a diary on Sky for some time now. End of the season and they've just let me go on a free. I'm in good company. My team has let the amazingly good Jamie Ward leave this week. (Actually he's shit)

These days I play all my online poker on Sky, with the thrill a minute dyms as my main game. I've played nearly 10k dyms on there over the last 3 years and I'm proud to say that I'm still relatively sane. About 18 months ago I moved up to the £16.50 and £22 games as my regular stake with occasional £33's and £55's thrown in, if the line up is good.

I've had reasonably decent results although I've had a rubbish last 6 months of over a 1000 games where I've been close to breakeven. My roi has dropped to 7.8% but I guess that's still ok. Not too much time free to play mtts right now and I'm playing a fair bit of cash at nl30 and 50.

I've a lot to thank Sky for. I caught the tail end of the SPTs and played in 3 of them. From there I've made some really good poker friends. I notice a few Sky players post on here. Natalie (dinglebelle) Paul (lambert180) Kev (shipitgood)

It's a shame the SPTs aren't running right now but we do now have tournaments arranged by forum members. There was one at Newcastle last month and there's one arranged for Milton Keynes in June. They're only £50 buy in comps but the weekends are more about meeting up and having a few drinks, with a bit of poker thrown in as well. Good fun.

Live poker is my real love. Unlike most people these days it's where I started.
I was taken to Gala Notts by a good friend, Dave Wojcik, maybe 14 years ago and became addicted. A £20 pot limit rebuy was my first game. I remember Ali Ahmed dealing and Rob Creed and Orlando on my table. I wasn't very good but I did learn quickly.
When Dtd opened I was there 2/3 nights a week. I've been reading blonde for years and recognise many of the posters from DTD. I was always a bit quiet and was just one of those guys that people nodded to but didn't know their name.

I got married and now I'm a newish dad. My son, Harry, is now 15 months old and so live poker is rare these days. I do make the occasional trip into Derby to play on Sunday nights. Having never played poker drunk in my life, I have found myself more than a little tipsy at Derby Genting on a number of occasions. I feel pretty embarrassed about it. I average probably about 5 pints a week normally but it's amazing how much you can get through sitting at a table for 10 hours. Always regret it the next day. Being probably viewed as that tedious chatty drunk who thinks he's funny doesn't sit well with me.

I've loved reading blonde for a long time now. I thought the updates that Rich used to do absolutely brilliant. I've occasionally posted, mainly on the old blokes thread. In truth I've been a little intimidated by you all. Some amazing players on here. I'm a profitable player, but very average really. I'm certainly finding it harder these days. Also, I tend to ramble on about anything and on here there are a few people a lot smarter than me who already do that wonderfully well.

Nearly forgot to tell you my name. I share it with another poker player. The number of times the floor have tried to shift me from my seat and the rest of the table have sighed with relief and welcomed me when they've realised I'm on the right table! Hendon Mob have kindly given him my biggest win. To ensure that people know who he's talking about, Tikay kindly refers to me as Paul 'Not the poker player' Jackson.

If you'll have me, I'd like to post more on here. Just don't ask me about what went wrong with Derby! Still a bit sore on that one 😄

1st!

And I'm also a fellow Derby fan... For my sins

Good Luck with the diary

I'm from uttoxeter myself so have had my share of drunken poker, but tend to stick to dtd now.

Being from there also means the majority of my family, as derby fans, are still in disbelief... As a stoke fan I find it all pretty comical ;)

Good luck with the diary!

Welcome and good luck with the diary!

Subscribe!

Welcome! Look forward to this.

 :hello: :hello:

Hi Paul (NTPP)

You do know me from next door (Landlord of AL's Bar!).

I wish you well with your diary on here as I really did enjoy reading all your early stuff next door. I read a handful of diaries on here....Tikay's, Nat's, Jeeves and occasionally others like Larson's and lambo's.

Have you now finished your diary on Sky?

"Being probably viewed as that tedious chatty drunk who thinks he's funny doesn't sit well with me."

The above quote bemuses me slightly. You are a member of a team whose sole purpose (for the majority) is to do this exact thing at the unofficial live tours now. I honestly believe this is one of the main reasons that the SPT's were discontinued. I mean in general terms, not attributing that to your team ofc. I am hopefully being too much of a pessimist and hope these w/ends are a success out of respect to the people organising  them all. We will see.

Anyway.....hope to read more of your fascinating 'old' stories here.

Oh...as a Stoke fan too......good luck in the play offs! (please insert year when you get there)  ::) 8)

(PS.you can have a field day here with smilies)

Thanks for the welcome chaps

Poker so far this month has been fairly typical of the year to date. I played during the day last Friday and lost around £230. Played really badly in truth. 5 buy in losses are hardly rare but I was gifting people my money. Since then I've knuckled down a bit and am up around £70 and have about £50 to come so far in rakeback.

I know this is totally backwards and is really stupid after all these years but....I hate losing days. What could easily be a small loss can sometimes become a big one because I've continued to play when I'm not playing well.
While when I've won early in a session, I often just stop and collect the win. The other night I won 9 out of 11 dym and was nicely over a £100 up within an hour. This is clearly the time when I should carry on, when I'm playing and running well. But I stopped.
One day I'll sort that.

I feel that I'm slowly getting back into form with the dyms and I've been a bit smarter with game selection. Maybe it's arrogant but I normally just start the lobby for each game and don't mind who I play. Just recently I've been taking a bit more care and if I see 2/3 good regs already there then I've skipped that game.
.....
Just for clarification. Newcastle last month was the very 1st unofficial Sky event. It was a roaring succes. Everybody had a few drinks on the Friday night. There were no bitter people there, just a bunch of happy souls enjoying themselves. The Spts ended well before my present Sky 'team' was formed.
.....
The Friday night didn't start all that well for me. I ordered some food and nipped out for a smoke before it arrived. The lady I was with finished her fag and chucked it and then unusually for me, I did the same. I don't normally litter. As I walked back into the Gate I had a tap on my shoulder. Some council guy had seen me drop the fag and wanted to issue me a £75 fine. He asked if I had any id and for once I did. As I'm a dunce I gave him my details. If I'd been a bit quicker thinking, I could have just said "no id. My names Rex and I'm from Barnsley" not sure that they could have done anything then. What really annoyed me was that he kept telling me that I was on camera. Of course I was annoyed but I wasn't thinking of lamping him.

As you can imagine, my friends were very sympathetic and didn't take the piss at all! They already has enough to go on as Derby were much to my dismay losing at Wolves.

Good to see this Diary started, & for regular blondes, I'll do a little intro, as Paul keeps or kept a Diary Next Door.

Paul Jackson aka NTTP ("Not The Poker Player") writes a Diary with great balance, it usually comprises.....

A brief poker summary, nothing to make the eyes bleed though, no "so the flop came" stuff.

Discusses his golf, & golf handicap. (Rising). He plays at Derbyshire courses such as Horsley Lodge I believe.

Chats about his wife, Penny, & bonny lad, Harry, who is 18 months old. Quite a story with young Harry, who gave us all a monster scare early doors, but is fit & well now.

Discusses Derby County.

Gets grumpy from time to time. 


Pretty sure this will be a great Diary, just as several others from Next Door who have migrated across are - Natterley Bromley, Kev "shipitgood", Paul Lambert etc. 

Good luck Paul.

Paul has the dubious honour of playing a cash pot against me up in Newcastle a few years ago for, if my memory serves me correct, the fat end of £2,000. Which, for me, was huge.

I had 4 bet him I think, & he set me all-in. With Jacks. J-J. Against ME.

Total lack of respect. 

I saw mention in the OP of Rob Creed, back in the Gala Notts days., good Lord, who remembers him?

We called him "Big Rob", he was quite a big unit, but he was a real any two cards sort.

He was a Member here for a while, but I think the lads tugged his tail & bit, & he disappeared.

Can't quite recall what line of business he was in - may have been selling vans, or 'phones, or similar. Wheeler & dealer, anyway.

Anyone know what happened to him?

Rob Creed is Fran's dad!

Your physical description and your description of the way Rob plays make me think you are thinking about the wrong person Teeks.

Oh of course, my apologies, different chap entirely.

I was thinking of Big Rob who played at Gala now and then, but mainly Walsall, J10.

Bumped into Rob at the Alea 4/5/6 PLO thingy a few months ago. He was a on course bookie, think he works at Alea now?

You forgot to mention the burger and wedges you'd ordered before heading out for that fateful £75 cigarette. Said burger and wedges were pecked at whilst your naughty arse was being dealt with outside.

In my defence, I did ring you, and the lady in tow, to inform you of the waiting food, but alas there was no reply. I just hate to see food go cold, my stomach would never forgive me. I look forward to your food order at the next live event :)

All the best with this, and full credit to you for the highly original title.

I play golf at Horsley Lodge. As was mentioned above, my handicap is not what it once was. In fact, it's doubled in the last few years. Quite hard to do. Just gone up to 10 in the 1st medal of the season.
Need to sort it all out as I'm going to the Algarve for a week for my 40th.
I did do a bit of research and think I'm playing some nice courses. If anyone has played these then please tell me what you thought.

Vale de lobo (Ocean)
Vale de lobo (Royal)
Pennina
Palmares
There's one other but I can't remember it just now.
.....
Schoolboy error last night. Played one of the Vegas sats on Sky last night. The intention was just to take the cash. When I was pretty much locked I wandered over to the lobby for the next sat only to find out that you couldn't register yet.
Sky is a bit odd in that in order to take the cash rather than play then you have to register in advance. They then see that you're already regged and credit you the cash. And then you can just de-reg.

Has Horsley Lodge settled down now Paul? I played there when it first opened, which was only 10 or 12 years ago, I believe, & it was a bit immature as to trees & shrubbery.

Very pretty course though, in fact I went there recently for a spot of lunch, & sat outside, overlooking the course. Most pleasant, & I was feeling the urge to play again.

My problem is addiction - if I took up golf again, it would be goodbye to everything else. Right now, seems a reasonable option in some ways.

Anyway, might see you in Vegas, it seems. ;)

I'll be a little biased no doubt but I believe Horsley is the best course in Derbyshire these days.
You're absolutely right in that it was very open when the course first opened 25 years ago.i remember playing and not enjoying it. It's now matured and a lot of work is done each winter to improve the course further.

If you ever fancy a knock with a hacker, let me know

25 years ago? No, say it ain't so?

Crikey.

I drove to work past it every day, along that lovely country lane, taking the back lanes from Ilkeston to Heage. On summer evenings, after work, I'd swing by & play 18 holes. Cant believe it has been open that long. I seem to have lost the last 25 years somehow, they have flown past.

Thanks for the invite, though if I were to start again, I owe Ralph (Karabiner) first dibs, as he has always looked after me with golf. He plays at Wollaton Park, which is perfectly lovely, with deer & stuff.


(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ10FCTwmIUM2OfRcQ5lExP3ZfDj0wubisbU9PcxL_HvIWLWauN)



(http://images.hotels.uk.com/main/469/4690660.jpg)

Incidentally, on blonde, you can add your own (or google image) photos readily & easily, no approval is needed, they go up instantly.

Aren't old blokes interesting?

As, I assume, you don't know Paul, I'd guess he is mid-thirties, or, put another way, about half the age of Ralph.

He just sounds, writes & acts like an old bloke.

I was talking about me.

He was interesting

Ahh, I am pleased this diary has migrated across.

My favourite story of Paul "NTPP" Jackson stems from the very first time I met him and how he got his name.

SPT Birmingham, 8 June 2013.

As was common with the one-day SPTs, all the regs arrive with a good hour to spare to make sure there was time to catch up with old friends, meet new friends and generally soak up the atmosphere. There's a rumble of excitement mounting as the table draw hits the screens.  Gasps are heard as the "table of death" is allocated.  The Boy, Ryan Spittles, Andrew "1947" Garland, Paul "Solack" Garner and ... Paul Jackson. The Sky crew get their team setting up camp at the table.

As the players make their way to their seats, people are hovering around said Table of Death.  Players get there, shake hands and laugh at their less-than-fortunate draw.  One guy says "Jeez what a shite table I got".  Another says "yeah and Paul Jackson has to get here yet".

Suddenly, a quite, gentle chap pipes up at the table. 

"Erm, I am sorry to disappoint you all, but you've got the wrong player. I am Paul Jackson. A recreational player from Sky".

The table sighs in relief, making sure they explain to Paul "NTPP" Jackson that no offence was intended by said relief, and everyone settles down.

Fast forward a few hours and what do you know ... Paul "NTPP" Jackson is doing his press interviews with trophy in hand having shipped the lot.  Maybe now the players on his table were wishing they'd faced the player they were initially fearful of.

The story become folklore amongst Sky regs and Jac35 integrated himself firmly into the "regs" scene.

The Boy and have formed a solid friendship with Jac35 and are very very fond of him. He even came up to Burnley to visit us last season; we enjoyed a lovely lunch overloking the Lancashire countryside before spending the afternoon watching my beloved Burnley thrash his beloved Derby.

(https://www.skypoker.com/secure/ver1.0/Content/images/store/9/1/29dc33dd-bff2-4048-81b2-50672e9ac811.Medium.jpg)

We went up that season.  They did not  ;esochomp; ;yellowcard;

So welcome Paul "NTPP" Jackson.

(PS see you next season  :'()

Cheers Nat

I'd forgotten all about that. Doubt that I'd ever have mentioned it.  Or posted any pics of me with trophies and UK poker legends.
Sadly I couldn't find the pic with the poker legend.
So this will have to do

Hey Paul,

Fantastic start to the diary, really enjoying it.

How's the family doing?

Ha, good luck trying to get that through, Tikay!

Fun day

Put an offer in on a house. It ticks every box for us and so hopefully it'll all work out.

Harry's playhouse arrived and I did the decent thing and looked after him while Penny put it together. I wouldn't have a clue. Struggle with changing fuses and stuff like that. If got a flat tire I'd be calling the AA out.

Bit of a turn up for the books. Shot 77 round Horsley

Played the Vegas sat, a £11 sat for the £55bh and 4 dyms.
Won the dyms and got into the £55. Took one head but bust in a massive pot flush over flush.
And.. Made the £350 final for the Vegas package.

I've never been to Vegas and so it would be a bit of a thrill if I could bink the last sat.

Pretty decent night. Good luck in the final Vegas qualifier!

Not so great day

Just walked out of the dentists.

I had an abscess last year and so required root canal and a crown.  A couple of other bits and bobs as well and gg £1500. Abscess hasn't cleared and so I went back last month. The root canal didn't work and I was referred to a specialist dentist in Dronfield.

Dropped Harry off at his Grandmas in Ashbourne and decided to take the scenic route past Chatsworth Hall. Great drive. Went into the surgery and found that my new dentist had a rather pleasingly great face. Then less great stuff started to happen.

Infection is big and I require root canal on 3 teeth. GG another £2040, plus I'll need a new crown as well at a later date.

Bank account has never been great but now it's much less than great. Mouth feels very not great.
Sulking

The offer on the house was accepted in principle. It's being kept on the market. So we need to sell as soon as possible.
Is there anything I can do here?

Hi Jac

We have met once before at DTD when Tikay introduced us at an SPT event and if you dont know I run a group of 3 estate agents for my MD in Essex.

Unless you are prepared to put down a non refundable deposit then the agent has just advised his client best practice as there are no guarantees you will sell or how quickly.

If you were however able/inclined to put down say a £3-£5k deposit on the basis it came off the market completely for a period of 8 weeks (they will probably offer 4-6) and if you pull out the vendor keeps the deposit but if you dont sell in time then you get your deposit back (it's lodged with the agent not vendor) which would give you a bit of breathing space.

You have to ask yourself the question

Are you likely to find similar if this sells prior to you selling?
How long has it been on the market?  The longer it's been on already the less likely someone will snaffle it up as it's already had market exposure
How sellable/correctly priced is your property (has yours been on long etc etc)

If you believe theirs will sell quickly and you believe yours will (ie both just come on the market) then if you really want it badly enough it's worth putting the deposit down.

GL what ever you decide to do and nice start to the diary.

"....Hi Jac

We have met once before at DTD when Tikay introduced us at an SPT event.....

Paul - you should remember this lad, really decent bloke.

He really knows his Estate Agent onions.


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Thanks a lot Richard.
Yes, i do remember meeting you at the SPT. Think you play on Sky a little as well?

 Your advice was exactly the kind of thing that I was thinking about,  but I wouldn't have known how to word it.
I believe that the house will go very quickly. We were the first viewer and it's in a small village that is quite sought after. We're pretty confident that our house will sell quickly. Similar properties in our area seem to be going within a few weeks.
I'll put your suggestion to the estate agent tomorrow and hopefully the vendor will go with it.

Not sure who would be unhappier with that photo ;)

Yeah I play a little on there.

Good luck with it then and you are correct they have nothing to lose and unless they are in a rush may give you 4 weeks.

There are some less scrupulous ways if this doesnt work but you would need to tell the agent that you can proceed without selling and will do a let to buy mortgage on your own and purchase independantly but  would need a broker to confirm that, then you have a few weeks to get sold but take the gamble by instructing survey,sols etc to make it look you are moving forward so it could cost you a couple of grand in survey fees and sols cost, but at least its off the market.

Obv if you dont sell in 4 weeks you front up but if you do then you run the sale in the background and tell them at week 6 you have sold and would prefer to tie in the deal and leave the agent to deal with the vendor but the downside is they pull out on you.

Thought I'd put in a long session last night to try and put a dint in the dentists bill. Unfortunately it went the other way. It was coming i guess. After the bad start to the month I've ran pretty well and had turned round being down £230 on the 1st May to being £400+ up.
Right towards the end of the evening I'd got a lot back but then had a cold one. Flopped a set and he turned a better one for a £160 pot.
There's one reg on there who just gets me every time. He's far better than me.
Also noticed a 'red dog' on one of my tables sitting with £200 at 50nl. Don't know if it's the blonde one or not.

Hopefully we'll get some good news on the house today.

Could do with it. Didn't get to bed until 3.30. Feel awesome right now 😄

 :hello:  What's your alias on Sky?


BTW - have you tried a firm called Dentists Abroad? They saved me a small fortune.

Hi Tom
I'm Jac35 on Sky.

Just had a look at Dentists Abroad. I wish I'd have found them earlier.

I managed to get my dental work done in their Harley st consulting rooms rather than fly to Budapest. They did an excellent job for about half what they wanted to charge me in my local high st.

Hey Paul.  Very happy to see your diary on here and looking forward to reading/posting as much as possible.

Not sure whether I prefer your DYM grinding stories or your dentist visit stories...there's only one way to find out...

For Paul's benefit, I ought to come clean, & confess that was the wrong photo.

And here is THE weirdest thing, Paul.

If you want to see what Eso-Kral really looks like, just type "tiddlearse" into google images. He is in the very first photo.

That's just so weird.


(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qbW1CbmX0GM/UwSwG_jyqPI/AAAAAAAAO_c/MvVGgo0xxkY/w400-h597-no/DSC04890.JPG)

I think it's more that you are the same height roughly as Karl Moaningsolz as I am actually standing up in this photo!

Well unfortunately the vendor didn't go with the suggestion. Hopefully it'll still work out though. Our house is on the market and we have a number of viewings this weekend. Banned from golfing as I need to clean. Probably for the best. Was awful on Tuesday night and so another 0.1 was very likely.

Poker has gone well and I've recovered the losses from the other night and won a bit on top. I really am the stupidest. I messed up the other day with the Vegas sat which  was careless. Last night I did it again. Saw there were only 15 left and 7 seats and so late regged. I was thinking I was playing for the cash this time as I had a seat already. Wrong sat! No seat. Got lucky on the bubble when it was me or him, the rest were locked, so another sat to look forward too on Saturday

Went for a Mexican last night, very good

Looked in on the forum when I was playing yesterday.
Sky seems a really happy place right now!

Felt a bit old yesterday when I heard "Lucky Man" by The Verve on the radio and they said it was from 1997. Surely their best track?

Felt older still when I heard "Groovy Train" by The Farm in 1991.First band I went to see. It was at the magnificent Assembly Rooms in Derby.

Then realised that I am just old when I thought back to what it was that I last went to see.
Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre.

(It's possible that I've not yet worked out how to put up YouTube clips 😄)

Its a flip between Sonnet and Lucky Man for the best Verve song. Who knew a place like Wigan could produce such a quality band?!

Some of Ashcroft's solo stuff is really good as well. Just a shame he was shit when he played at centre half for City a few years ago, and was soon farmed out to Fiorentina....

Uploading You Tube Videos......

First, press REPLY as if you were starting a new Post, this brings up the white, empty, text box.

Above the card graphics, there are a series of icons.

The first one on the left, on the second row, is "YOU TUBE"

Click that, & you will get 2 sets of "YOU TUBE" each within a bracket.

Separate the brackets so there is a space between the 2 sets.

C & P the You Tube URL into that space.

Then emove the dead spaces between the brackets.

Oh, & finally, if the URL contains an "s" here.....

https

Then DELETE that "s".

And the job's a good 'un.


YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULTtWUZhD9c

Oh, one more thing.

We have very sophisticated Forum Software which filters out crap music & automatically replaces it with real music. As in, no Verve shite, please, & Robbie is a God. 

Wonders will never cease. I played well at golf last night. Like hit the ball in the air and everything!

I noticed a while ago that Greg Hill is on here. This may surprise some people, although I don't know why, Greg was my first poker hero. I hadn't been playing that long and was addicted to poker on television. One night I saw a bloke I recognised playing, I think, the William Hill Grand Prix. It was Greg. I recall he played a big pot with Ram Vaswani. Think it was around 2005.

Next time he was on my table at Gala I was quite excited. I was playing with a guy who had been on the tele. I was too intimidated to talk to him back then but last year we played in a couple of comps at Dtd together and chatted a bit. I really liked him at first but then discovered that he was a +2 handicapper. I think he said it was at Hollinwell too. Not exactly an easy course.

I decided that I no longer liked him after that

Bit of a milestone for me tonight. Played my 10000th dym on Sky. And lost it  No problem though, I played 8 games alongside the £77 Vegas sat and won 6. Gets me back to just over $10k profit for them.

The month has gone pretty well for me so far, I know my level these days. I'm never going to be a big winner at poker but if I can just continue to average £700+ a month I'm happy. On course for May. Up £333 at Dyms, £140 at cash and I've around £160 in rakeback to come for the month up to now. I've also got the £350 Vegas sat next week to look forward too. I've bokked myself in advance by sorting with work that I can go should I make it.

Went pub after poker and maybe a little drunk.
Put the world to rights. We've now sorted

Pietersen and England
Farage and Ukip
Derbys back 4. We're going to sell Hendrick to Villa and nick Shackell back from Burnley and grab Trippier whilst we're there.
Agreed that the Blackburn team of 1994/95 should never have been good enough to win the league
Agreed that Fat John should be barred on account of his body odour

Bed

You can go off someone you know...

Trippier will be playing in the premier league next year

hopefully for us. i know lcfc are interested

one of burnley's few premier elague quality players

A product of our youth system. Manchester City, ruining football since 2008 :)

Was good to see a few of them on show at Turf Moor yesterday; Trippier, Mee and Whelan. Guessing Ireland was injured.

The Bromley's might not wanna hear this, but I'd like to see Ings at City. I fear we'll lose both Jovetic and Dzeko this summer so will need some striking reinforcements. A young English forward on a free would be lovely, and he couldn't help but improve further being surrounded by players like Aguero and Silva. Not sure if he'd be happy to swap playing every week to more of a squad player role though.

Totally disagree with that to be honest.
Ings is good but wouldn't get a game at City. We really need good young English players playing every week. I think it would be a Jack Rodwell/ Scott Sinclair situation where he would play less than 10 games next season and stagnate.
He's going to leave Burnley for sure but I think a much better option for him would be to go to teams like Southampton and Swansea.

Yes, but the concern is he goes to someone like Southampton, bangs in 40 goals over the next 2 seasons and we end up paying £25m for him in 2017 ;)

I think he'd get more game time than you imagine, if Dzeko and Jovetic leave (which looks highly likely). Though granted he wouldn't play every week, esp as we sometimes play 1 up top, but not many do at City. He's a slightly different prospect to Sinclair/Rodwell, Ings is much more raw in terms of talent and I think he'd benefit massively from training/playing alongside Aguero and Bony. I would actually like to see him go abroad, I don't think enough young English players branch out like that. Even just a couple of years on the continent could do his game the world of good.

I'm biased, but I have to defend our record with English signings because I think it's a tiresome media viewpoint that we ruin careers. I can't defend Sinclair, that was baffling! Rodwell would be a first teamer at City if he could've stayed fit, though this was always the risk with him. Adam Johnson would have had much more game time if he was less of a playboy in the clubs and bars of Manchester. If Richards wasn't made of glass that would've been nice :) But Barry and Lescott played pivotal roles for us for numerous years, Milner has done very well (and unfortunately looks like leaving cos City won't give him the 4 year deal he craves, sort it out City!!!!!!!!!!!), Hart is a mainstay of the first XI. Really can't blame our owners for snubbing signing someone like Barkley because Everton quote you more than what you paid for Silva and Toure combined.

Jason Wilcox (remember him?!) and Vieira are working wonders with our youth set up, we have highly successful teams down there that should start filtering the finest through to the first team squad in coming years.

Right, I've rambled enough, now off to watch us get beat by Swansea!   

you protest too much

i have seen manchester city u21s twice live this year and the squad that played both games had nine non english players in it

next you'll be saying that the middle eastern millions at the club are a net positive benefit to the english game. which would be complete nonsense. all it does is distort wage scales, make it less likely that english players break through and play in european compeititons and remove compeititveness in the league

of course your side would be playing at rotherham, huddersfield and bristol next season without them, as you were before them

*SOBS*

Ha, I can't argue about being plucked from footballing obscurity (ahead of Aresenal, Newcastle and Everton if you believe what you read). We certainly won the football lottery. Depends how far you want to dig. Vieira's U21 team is very much a melting pot of nationalities, whereas Wilcox lead a team mostly comprised of Manchester locals to a final. At one point he fielded a team that included 10 Manchester lads.

We can be accused of many things, but removing competitiveness from the league?! You do remember the 'Sky 4' that dominated English football for numerous seasons? Thankfully (IMO) that cartel was broken.

Edit...might be controversial but we, as a club, owe nothing to the English national team.

Just finished up for the night. Played some mtts for once and ran pretty well.
Played 3 and cashed in them all
5/306 in the £11b/h for £94.86 + £18.23 in heads
3/67 in the £55b/h for £201 + £157.02 in heads
26/289 in the £10 mini roller for £22.83

Won a few dyms along the way and so a good night.

It made up a little for the golf earlier. I played my old course at Mickleover. Was horrific. Once went round there in 66. Probably went out in around 66 today. Stupid game.

Hi Paul - good luck in the £3,200 Viva Las Vegas Final tonight.

Be great if you could bink a Vegas package.

Big +1 from me.

He also smashed the Mayhem freeroll yesterday, so much so that I had to turn my phone off cos the stream of '11 bounties', '12', '13' etc texts got pretty tedious.

It turns out AA doesn't fare well against hands like Q8, J9 and various other junk :)

Thanks Tikay
Looking forward to it. Some very good players in it though and so I'm realistic about my chances 

😄 You missed the "17 heads" text then?
A fantastic promotion from Sky. 7 freerolls a week for a month. Each week the player who knocks the most people out gets a Vegas package. They then pay out a long way down as well.
I've not really had the chance to play it all week but had time last night. Considering the leader up to yesterday had 19 heads I thought i'd go for broke.
Told Penny that is just be playing for 5 minutes and then we could watch a bit of Better Call Saul.
Things went well and Mrs J had gone to bed by the time I was knocked out. Once I'd got myself in such a strong position I made the mistake of trying to play properly (well properly for me anyhow)
I don't know how many heads the leaders got last night but it's definitely going to be worth having a bash at it over the weekend.
....
It's been a good month by my standards
Played 199 Dyms for a £518 profit and 31 mtts for a £515 profit. Tiny amount up at cash. Between £200/300 in rakeback to come as well.
It'd really be the icing on the cake if I could get to Vegas through either of the two routes available this weekend.
...
Played the £50 bh again the other night. Was playing pretty solidly and had just got in to the money, was about 4/9. I then totally blew up over 5 minutes. Can't remember the last time I chucked away a good position as badly as that. Twice I tried to get folds from a player who my note on says "never ever bluff him". Played just about every hand for that 5 minutes before my inevitable bust out.
Stupid boy

Keep it going in the sat good sir. Good to see the diary here.

All the best from the short one from next door!

Unlucky tonight Paul, but at least you pocketed £320.

Thanks Matt and Tikay

I messed up on the final table really. Froze a bit I guess. Just allowed myself to get too low. I was thinking how much i'd hate it if i'd shoved with something shite and been snapped.
For a while it seemed like there still might be a collision between players. It didn't happen and then once they'd stopped playing and a call was just about automatic, I kept seeing 74 etc :)

Guess i'm never going to Vegas. Obviously I would have loved to get the package but at the same time i'd have felt uncomfortable leaving Penny with Harry on her own. It would have been very difficult for her with her condition and so maybe it's for the best.

At least the £320 means I can afford anaesthetic next week at the dentists now

Yes, that was, realistically, possible, but once they saw you slip beneath 10 Bigs, they all - wisely & correctly imo - avoided confrontation, taking the view, I guess, that Option 1 was to see if you bust.

Cruel game at times, but that's the beauty of it I suppose. At least you can see the positives, what with Penny & Harry etc.

Next time.

PS - Don't know if you have Sky Sports, but the Bromley's are Tuesday's guests, which should be fun, they are a genuinely lovely couple. Especially Adam.

I scoured google images to find a nice photo of Natalie, & this was the best one.



(https://nataliebromley.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/6769_137740087436_2482795_n1.jpg)

I'm genuinely scared about Tuesday's show. I can only really play PLO at cash and am RUBBISH at NLH cash. And Tikay is gonna troll me like mad. And I don't know what to wear bah blah blah.

That pic was the opening game of the promotion season 1! We got really beat.

Anyway, more importantly VUL Paul. Adam and I were out last night but we signed on at about 2am to see the scores. We nearly puked when we saw. Bad things sometimes happen to great people.

You will get to Vegas one day. Never give up on a dream.

Don't be daft, you'll be fine, & I'll spare you the jibes on this occasion.

What to wear? I dare you to wear a Burnley shirt.

I've seen you in worse, tbh.

ur not that old ;)

You and Adam were great on the show. It was never in doubt

I received a phone call from Sky the other day. It started something like

"Hi Paul, you finished 6th in the Vegas final on Saturday. Unlucky"

I thought "Great! Cheers, I'm even getting rundowns from Sky now"

However, he then went on to say that one of the 5 who got the package couldn't go, and would I as the 6th place finisher like the package instead?

Bit overwhelmed by it. I asked for a few hours to make sure that I could go and after checking with work etc, I accepted.
Penny, although in truth, not overjoyed by it, was brilliant. She said that it was something that I just couldn't turn down. Penny has MS and so a week on her own with a 16 month old baby will be quite tough. Fortunately, the Grandmas are wonderful and they've said that they will be there whenever she needs them.

The package is for the little one drop and 7 nights at the Palazzo. My accounts also being credited with £1k to cover the flights? So, yesterday I booked with Thomas Cook from Manchester and in a months time I'm off to Vegas.
Never thought I'd be saying that 😄

...

Any advice on anything regarding Vegas that a dunce like me might not be aware of would be greatly received

Nice turn of fortune, congratulations, and have a great time in Vegas!

Couldnt happen to a better bloke. Properly pleased for you, sir.

Massively jealous, mind...

well done we all like good news

Great news mate. Enjoy!

Well I've been back a week from
Vegas. Had an amazing time. Crammed in as much as I could and I'm desperate to get back again some day. I played some cash at the Venetian and  just the Little One for one Drop. I made Day 2 with 30 bigs and I thought I'd share It with you. It's obviously very small time relatively but was a fantastic experience for a low stakes player like myself

I had played the 4pm flight on Day 1, a pretty big mistake in hindsight. Didn't get back to the hotel until 6am. I only slept for about 4 hours and so felt pretty rubbish when we left for the Rio.

Got to my table and things were instantly noticeable as different from the previous day. Very serious. Very first hand and some pleb with the sunglasses, headphones and many pimples look, got arsey with the player who won the hand. Another guy made a comment to which "knob" as I'd already christened him in my mind, told him to shut his mouth and then followed it by "I got me a table of dipshits"
Ilene the dealer who seemed very nice and competent to me was getting grief every hand about nothing at all. I got a 3bet shove through and then the table broke.
Was very happy about this

I couldn't really play much poker as I was so short stacked. I managed to get a few shoves through and then was moved to table Carlos Mortensen. Plus there was a Jonny Chan impersonator on there as well.
He was exactly as I'd always thought he was, a really nice guy. He also had a stack and was playing pretty much every hand.

We'd started the day with over a 1000 left but the numbers were dropping incredibly quickly. Utg who was only playing 10bigs raised and I looked down at Kings and shoved. He's gotta call right? Nope, he passed. Mortensen raised and I looked down at Kings and shoved. He's got a monster stack and it's a 10bigs shove from me. He's gotta call right? Nope, he flashes an Ace and mucks. Although I hadn't got the calls my stack had increased into a bit of a safer position. I had around 16bigs about 30 off the money. Nice guy on my left who I'd played day one with had folded 99% of his hands. It's folded round to me in the small and I shove. He finds Ace Jack and calls. Oops. A few hands later and we go on the break.

I chat with Neil and Tikay. I've got 16k and we're going back at 1200/2400 and 400 ante. I'm also in the bb first hand back. The screen is showing that we're 23 off the money. Can I fold to the money? Neil doesn't think so and I tend to agree. We go back and it's actually 20 from the cash.

I fold in the blind and look at the screen. We lost 5 first hand. This could be close. It's not exactly my normal strategy but I couldn't care one bit. This was likely to be my one and only WSOP event ever and it would mean everything to me to cash. The money obviously would be nice but just cashing was the main thing on my mind. It would be heart breaking to get so close and miss out,

I fold the small blind. Another couple of players have gone. I have around 12 hands before I'm blinded out. Tikay and Sam are railing me. Tikay tells me Deadman has just knocked out 2 players in one hand. I've always loved Simon :)

We're maybe 4 hands from my bb and the TD tells the dealers to stand up at the end of the hand they're dealing. Bubble time. 469 left and 468 paid.

It seems to go on forever. They start to break a table near me. Surely that means someone has gone yeah? A few more minutes pass and then...
"Congratulation everyone, you're all in the money"

Was quite happy

Carlos raises and I try and bully him by shoving. He's not scared unfortunately and calls the extra 200 chips or so. He wins.
It was kind of a perfect end for me. It took an ex World Champion to knock me out!

Nice write up Jac and glad u got the cash and enjoyed the experience!