blonde poker forum

First of all thanks to Tightend for organising a great event , then to Dave C and Mrs C and TK for providing the friendliest forum in poker.

What a huge success this first event was , less than a year ago Blonde started and i decided to post here as i could tell the cameraderie was genuine , to then see that transfer to a live event was testimony to all you Blondites out there .

I have taken a photo of the trophy which should be in the gallery on my site soon ( you can get there from the links section on the home page )

When i told TK i would come if i could it was dependant on UK Betting resigning me as it clashed with Paris , however no answer has been forthcoming and as i went to see my mum and sister the night before in Keighley , i then drove 160 miles down to Birmingham, my intention was to play fast and if knocked out spend a couple of hours meeting as many of you as possible.

So , i apologise for staying in the comp till the end and missing out on saying a 100 hellos , also if i hadn't sucked out against Traces AA (sorry ) none of the rest would have happened .

As i got moved tables and met a few of you i could see how much you were genuinely enjoying the evening and by the time we got to the final and Glen said he couldn't believe i was on his left in only his second live comp, it suddenly struck me that as i have been a pro travelling the world playing at the highest level i had forgotten why i fell in love with this game 10 years ago.

I started playing £10 comps in Reading and was a typical fish , however the reason i kept playing 3 nights a week was i really enjoyed the friendliness amongst the players and had a good night out win or lose, i also remember the first time i played at the Vic festival and was sat with some of the "Faces" and decided i wanted to learn to play to the best of my ability.

The Blonde Bash trophy now has pride of place on the top shelf of my cabinet and i am certain that the next event will have double the number this had and will be just as much fun , assuming i can make it i will come up earlier and try to meet more of you as without you guys there is no Blonde and i am proud to be one of you.

Thanks to you as well as the usual Focus , Discipline , Concentration etc that i need to have when i play, i now have Passion again .

All the best

ACES

Thanks Simon, we are proud that you are one of us.

It would have been nice if you had been able to network more, I know you really wanted to, but at least a lot of blondeites got to play on your tables, so it worked out just fine.

I know that Glenn was made up that he sat next to you, & you helped him with some poker tips.

 :goodpost:  and well played  :)up

One of the highlights of my night was sitting next to Simon and once everyone on the table had passed round to me in the small blind, I pushed and took his BB ... I was shaking like a leaf LOL

Well said Simon and it was a pleasure to meet you on Saturday.  I for one was proud to be there and proud of Glenn but he will not shut up about the comp and the fact that "Aces" Trumper knocked him out and i am sure that story will be retold a fair few times can tell you.

Yes...Thanks for that ..nice post. I must admit I too was hoping you would have had time to mingle a tad more .. I for one was hoping for a bit of one to one with you.. Poker tuition Simon, dont get scared..    Seriously,Thanks for attending..

Sorry to be lazy but I'm ill and tired so I'm just gonna repost my post from earlier:

Just wanna say well done to Simon Trumper.

I had the pleasure of Simon to my right for about an hour 3 tables out, raising every pot he could. He was Table Captain within 10 minutes of joining our table, made a fantastic pass versus Jo after 20 and was chip leader after 30.

He looked very focused and played excellently from what I saw.

Where else would you see a £30 comp with such a field?

Nice to meet you Aces.

When i saw that i was on the same table as yourself, i intended to try and watch you, and pick up some tips.
Hopefully i was able to do that, and it was a pleasure(!) to be knocked out of the tourney by yourself.

 :goodpost: ;applause; ;applause; ;applause; ;applause; :goodpost:

Lovely post Simon.

I have to admit when I realised you were on my table I wanted to move.  lol  This was only my 3rd ever live event and the thought of playing against a pro was more than I could handle.  Thank God you are human.  :)  Out of all the pro's I have met to date, you are most definitely one of the nicest.

My new claim to fame now is that I nearly knocked Ace's out of a comp.  lol

Hope to see you again soon.

Trace
xx

Aah, the magic of the   FA   Blonde comp. The pros playing against the rookies. I guess that was one of the great things about Saturday's comp.

Great post, Simon. I think I speak on behalf on everyone when I say thankyou for your attendance.

Please, please, please keep posting on Blonde. You're a most welcome addition to the site.

 :)up

Top post Simon and congrats on the win. It says so much about Blonde that players like yourself, Paul etc etc wanted to come and play. It meant a lot to everyone there and made a special weekend just that bit more special.

Simon, it was a pleasure to play with you. I've already said that your call with 85 on an all heart board of 10,5,3 against an obvious overpair the was the best value call I saw all night and you were a complete gent to us all, and the fact that there have been so many responses so quickly will tell you how well respected you are amongst us blondes.

(PS thanks for not stealing too many of my blinds)

pleasure being at the table with you aces... and it is'nt half difficult, i fancied my chances till you doubled up to chip leader!

Then i was best to not try and make you pass any hands!

Well played and see you at the tables...

Hi Simon

Great post, thankyou very much for the inspiration and for the record I am now hooked on poker.

It was amazing to watch you build up those chips before the final table from next to nothing you were certainly a deserved winner.

If your still playing in 3 years I will see you over the felt in Vegas @ WSOP  :)up

alll the best for 2006

Glenn

Great result Simon. Couldn't think of a greater end to the first blonde live comp to see you and Paul fighting over the trophy. OK I accept it would have been better if I had made it the three of us but you can't have everything. Don't forget you have to defend that title sometime in the future, we wouldn't want to think it was a flash in the pan.

Funny moment of the night, you calling an all in from someone holding 85(?) because you knew he was "at it", he spiked the 8 and you uttering the words "don't speak to me", you were happy enough a few minutes later when he tried it on again and you gave him the chance to spend the rest of the night at the bar.

Poor Chili. She SO wanted Glenn to take a bit of interest in Poker. Now she's a poker widow - he even reads Harrington in bed!

Seriously, Chili has been with me to a few Fessie Tourneys lately, & I hope Glenn comes along now, too. How lovely would that be?

That was thetank I think, Simon had asked him not to go all-in the previous round and he did, but the 2nd time he went with the 85 and Simon called with KJ - Damn how am I still remembering all this. :D

I though it was the tank, I was getting mixed up with so many new people. tx
good to meet you noflops

Nice post Simon.

I was one of the ones who unfortunately never got round to meeting you, but I was impressed that you and all the other pros took the comp so seriously, despite the prize.

It was inspiring to see so many 'faces' and also some real talent (I mean cards not just the girls honest :) ) among the other blondites in the tournament.  As I have said to so many others today, who I also did not get round to sharing a table or a drink with, I sincerely hope that there are many more events where we can ll get together and hopefully next time I can learn a thing or two from you guys.

Well played and great result.

You too Robert, you seemed to exactly what was going on with the HU comp and everything amidst the chaos. :D

Serene as a swan, looks calm above water but legs going ten to the dozen underneath.

Simon, thank you ever so much for coming along and congratulations. Seeing you play the tournament so hard really added something to the whole weekend

fantastic to see so many pros there. george harwood was a gent to chatting away before the comp watching the footie.

simon and paul fighting it out was very fitting, 2 great players and both great ambassadors of the game.

i know they both had there share of luck early in the tournament but its the sign of a great player how well they use those chips when theyve got them.

well done simon a blonde legend!

Malcolm Harwood mate

nice one aces,
hope you get the call your'e after...

 :goodpost:

It was a pleasure to sit next to you again - albeit a bit shorter than i would have liked but then i only have myself to blame for that and i do believe that now the score has been evened up to 1-1!

Nobody knows this but Simon is actually the primary reason why mystic monkey and all the "monkey boy" t-shirts came about.......

I'd had a particularly good year online during 2004, my first year of playing poker and so decided that i wanted to try my luck at a big live festival. I had played the occasional festival tourney at my local casino's salford and blackpool but usually just the lower buy-in events but nothing too spectacular, so in early october decided that the EPT festival at the Vic would be ideal. I withdrew enough money from my pokerstars account for spending, accomodation and to buy into the 4 holdem events (giving the wednesday omaha tourney a miss).

The week didnt get off to too bad a start, made it down to the final 4 tables of the £200 pot limit rebuy without having to rebuy or add on but was unfortunate when my KK walked into AA and i departed somewhere in the 30 somethings. On Tuesday it was the £750 freezeout and made it down to the final 3 tables and virtually on the bubble when getting involved with Lucy Rokach. She put in a small raise on the button when it was my big blind i looked down to see J-10 suited and called. The flop came J-2-10 which looked ok to me until all the chips ended up in the middle and she turned over pocket 2's. She had me outchipped by about 1000 points and so i was out in 21st - alas only the top 18 got paid. I later found out that Lucy went on to win the tourney and the first prize of £50k!

So by thursdays £300 freezout i was still feeling good about my game and during the early stages of the tournament was building up a nice stack. However we were sat at one of the tables near the downstairs bar area so unfortunately we were one of the first tables to be split which i was a bit disappointed about. My newly allocated seat was at an upstairs table so armed with about 3 racks full of chips of we go to my new table, my card tells me i was in seat 5 on table T. My heart sank as i arrived at my new table. In Seat 1 there was Paul Parker, in Seat 3 was Tony G, in seat 4 was Simon 'Aces' Trumper and in Seat 6 was Tony 'the lizard' Bloom. I stopped looking after Seat 6, i didn't want to know the rest of the table!!

I didnt want to give anything away so tried to stay as calm as possible when my insides felt as though they wanted to explode and so i sat quietly and began stacking my chips. Thankfully there was plenty of table banter from the other occupants of the table and so i could just ease myself in gently. Thankfully i managed to win a big pot early on when Tony G raised in early position and i look down to find QQ and just flat called, another player also called in late position and so we were 3 to the flop. It came down a rag rainbow flop and Tony G had come out and bet as i had expected. I announced all in but was disheartened to hear "call" immediately after from the player in late position. Tony G dwelled for a while then eventually announced "pass" and turned up his AK suited. I turned over my queens and my woes soon vanished when the other player turned up JJ, he didnt hit and i had a decent chip lead on the table.

We proceeded to play for a while before Simon lost a big pot which crippled him and about 1 round later he was in the small blind on my big blind. Everyone passed round to him and so he just announced all in, however the raise was only about double what my blind was so i had to call. He had a slightly better hand but i outdrew him and after a few handshakes he departed. I eventually got down to the final 3 tables again but was crippled when my AK was called by someone holding 22 and hitting a third 2. next hand i was virtually all in on the big blind and Joe Beevers and Rumit Somaiya ganged up on the button and small blind to eliminate me in about 25th place - again just short of the 18 that got paid.

A few weeks after the festival i was trawling through some poker websites when i came across a site which had diary entries from Simon about his escapades in the EPT festival and so decided to give it a read. During his report on the £300 he mentions everyone by name - Tony G made this move, Tony Bloom took this pot etc etc then came. "....and a new player came and sat on my left with a large stack of chips". Throughout the rest of the report i was referred to as either "the player to my left" or "the chip leader of the table". Obviously i realized that Simon had no idea who i was and it was then that i decided that my next aim in poker was to become a "recognised" player.

This i could have done in one of two ways, plan (A) begin playing a lot more festivals and live events and hopefully make a few final tables and wins. However having just seen a documentry featuring 5 poker players, one of whom was Simon where he proceeded to discribe how even though he had won the European order of Merit the previous year and despite winning several event throughout the year he was struggling to show a profit. I think the documentry ended with him playing a festival in Australia where he had to cash in one of the events to finish the year in the black. With my limited bankroll and inability to be able to take too much time off work this wasnt going to be very likely and so i had to come up with plan (B). A plan that would work out cheaper for the time being!!

I decided that i was going to continue building up my bankroll online, pay off all my debts and secure another form of income then maybe i could take the professional play more seriously and give it a better shot - but how to make sure that i would never be known as just "a new player on my left" again. I was due to travel to the Bahamas for the Pokerstars WPT event and so decided that i would use some of my FPP points and buy some Pokerstars shirts. BigArmo had always greeted me on pokerstars with something along the lines of "eh up monkey boy" due to my avatar and so the monkey boy was born (Yogi-bear did pull me to one side advising me that if i was going to pick my own nickname it might be better to come up with one that people wont laugh at) but then being a charlton athletic fan i've always liked to be different!!

So i had t-shirts embroidered with the matt674 under the pokerstars logo and the name on the back. I scoured everywhere for some kind of monkey card protector i could use and in the end found mystic monkey, a silver crystal figurine. The t-shirt was a success whilst over at the Atlantis - Pokerstars didnt have the same brainwave of giving everyone their own name badge like we had at the blonde bash, i ended up meeting lots of people i had played against on pokerstars in cyberspace. They also worked again when winning a satellite into the main event at the WSOP as i managed to meet several more people just by having them approach me after seeing my name on the shirt. Mystic monkey also proved to be a success as when playing in a tournament in Binions during the night of the final table of the main event i had an american at our table ask me "were you playing the tourney in The Orleans last night? I recognise the monkey card protector".

So thank you Simon for helping creating what lies before everyone as i write this - all i have to do now is actually try and get the name "monkey boy" recognised for the right reasons - WINNING LIVE POKER TOURNAMENTS!!

right back to work, this took a bit longer to type than my alloted 1 hour lunch so i need to look busy for a bit  :D

 :goodpost: :goodpost:

Interesting story matt. And i know realise who the bloke with the card protector was in an STT i played. That little monkey card protector was cool and cough lucky cough..

Congrats on the bash win Aces! Would have loved the chance to play on your table and pick up a few tricks

Thats why he's called mystic monkey - he told me the Ace was coming to enable my AJ to beat your QQ :)  Sometimes (ok, most times) we get our wires crossed though and the ESP message gets scrambled!! :D

Was a pleasure to lose to the monkey (and u) ;)

Nice to see you again Aces,

I had the pleasure of meeting Simon many years ago in The Rainbow. I was a brag player back then and could hardly play poker to save my life!

I believe that a lot of the influx of new poker players comes from not just the internet game, but from the Late Night Poker tv series of a few years ago. So, to my way of thinking, it is more the characters like Simon, DC, Barny and Ross, Joe Beevers, Ram, Dave D-Fish etc. who have filled the cardrooms of the world with a more cerebral type of player, rather than faceless internet geeks who throw everything at nothing and hope for the best. Poker roullette, I think Mr Jackson calls it.

Simon is a fearsome competitor and it is to his (and Pauls) great credit that they take a £30 tourney so seriously. If Aces stared down my chip stack once, he must have done it 50 times! I was bold enough to ask him of his intentions and he was sporting enough to tell me of his modus operandi. "I am just establishing whether I will get an automatic call from you", he said.

Playing poker means knowing exactly where your opponents are as well as yourself.

Thanks again for the game and well played.

Mike

True class Aces, true class

regards  Onenote

Well it was a pleasure to watch these two poker players heads up, but when I first saw Aces and Action Jack i thought I know these two from somewhere

Wake up skippy they are in the poker mags every month lol