https://www.pokernews.com/news/2026/06/former-ept-main-event-champion-andreas-hoivold-dies-at-53-51660.htm

One of the first players that stood out to me when I got in to poker. And then happened to work with him for a few months around 4 years ago. A few on here will know him quite well I would think.

RIP.

Cafe Rouge, Gatwick.

Must have been pre-Smartphones judging by my camera on the table.

There were 4 of us, at least 2 of whom were Luton regulars, embarrassed to say I've forgotten their names.

I do vividly recall there was a short fat bloke amongst them. Anyone care to guess his name?

Impressive, we went there because you wanted to watch the planes whilst you ate your breakfast.

Table for 4, you, me, Chinese Gav (pizzled) who is sadly no longer with us if you didn’t know 😢 and the short fat one was Deano (the Sicilian) who is sadly still with us.

The year was 2011, my last trip to Vegas. Don’t miss it either. Will probably return one day though.

I found this today.

Location and year?

[I was fully verified last year so no idea why I needed to do it again.]

He's a horribly abrasive & small-minded man who dislikes me, & the feeling is distinctly mutual. And I know it will soon kick off between us, despite my best intentions not to get involved in any bad blood at the table. He's the sort who can start an argument in an empty room & we have a lot of history.

Early doors & we play a small pot which is checked down, it's a chop & the Dealer splits the pot.

3 hands later he suddenly complains that the Dealer short-changed him by 100 chips. Imagine starting an argument over 100 chips....

I have no idea if he's right or wrong, nor does anyone else, but he's getting very agitated now. I cba with all this & toss him a 100 chip across the table with a bit of a cutting comment, "there you go sunshine, happy now?" sort of thing. He gives me the mother of all dead eyes & I know trouble is brewing...

But not a problem, as he tilts off his entire stack the very next hand with an inexplicably poor play & he's history. I just about resist the temptation to give him a send-off.

Love this
I hate having nonsense at the table in cash games, but in tournaments I find it entertaining especially when they tilt it off afterwards.
You’re still better than me in mtts , I’m 0/3 and -3100 so far.  
Was great to see you though, and you can’t escape me at WSOP as I’ll look up your table number to say hi .
Hopefully get time for proper catch up rather than 30 seconds at breaks !
Catch you Monday if not before I think - WSOP O8 mix deffo my favourite one of the trip

Hi Rob,

Yeah, see you Monday. I'm playing a $240 Big O at Orleans tonight, too small for you, 6pm kick off, next stop the WSOP Omaha Mix tomorrow.

I went across to WSOP @ Paris last night as I accidentally discovered that I needed to get "re-verified". What a faff. I was fully verified last year so no idea why I needed to do it again.

Walked into the Registration Room & there's 12 staff sat at computer stations assisting folks to get verified. They are open 22 hours per day, I guess 3 shifts, so imagine the cost of that.

My bloke was dead helpful, & knew what he was doing, & it still took 45 minutes. Had to give him everything except my Blood Type.

I really don't understand why we have to jump through so many hoops to play a WSOP event. We can walk into Venetian, Wynn, Bellagio, Aria, GN etc etc with a Rewards Card, pay in, & that's that, don't even need ID. What's so different about a WSOP event?

Meh.

And then I had to pay $25 to exit the Car Park. Luckily, it's only $20 Monday - Friday.

See you tomorrow. And hopefully the next day too....

PS - I bumped into the (self-styled) "PLO Professor" last night, Dear God, please don't be drawn on his table tomorrow. He's less humble than Trump.

They probably have to be wary of people trying to steal Jack Ury's record.

My first target is to be the new Eric Dalby except that he was famously grumpy. He must have been well into his 70's when he ran 3rd in a WSOP-E for £85,000, & he almost exclusively played Omaha variants. Not seen or heard of him in a very long time.

How are you & the family keeping?

I assume you have read Chompy's latest book, where you get a mention or two? I very much enjoyed it, although easily the best part was the Foreword.

Weirdly I read the foreword and it put me off the rest of the book...

Just kidding, I haven't read it yet as chompy wants to present me with a copy in person. I have seen bits of it, brings back a lot of good memories that helped me through a tough time. Even Chompy was ok back then.

We are all ok here thanks, I do get back to the UK about 6 times a year but not really up your way, or Tom's so you can both relax. But I suspect you'll come to Malta soon anyway for some mixed games tournaments so you can buy me a coffee then.

Just a coffee? It used to be Dinner. To be fair Chompy told me you are hard-dieting & have lost a ton of weight. WP.

Mixed Games in Malta? - keep me informed please, it's certainly tempting.

 

[Where is sovietsong anyway?]

Thailand is fantastic, very cheap and lots of smiley people. I could easily live there.

You've been to Thailand Tom? pray do tell as sovietsong would say

Sorry for the late reply Cos.

I've been to Thailand twice, it's quite a long and, (to me at least) rather profound story.
I don't seem to have the capacity for writing that I used to have and I can't be arsed to sit down for a couple of hours producing several pages of tl;dr waffle.

I will probably put something on my diary. Eventually....

Where is sovietsong anyway?

Leeds, has a dog and a daughter. We are bff's on insta, think he blocked Cos if I'm honest. Which is understandable.

[I was fully verified last year so no idea why I needed to do it again.]

He's a horribly abrasive & small-minded man who dislikes me, & the feeling is distinctly mutual. And I know it will soon kick off between us, despite my best intentions not to get involved in any bad blood at the table. He's the sort who can start an argument in an empty room & we have a lot of history.

Early doors & we play a small pot which is checked down, it's a chop & the Dealer splits the pot.

3 hands later he suddenly complains that the Dealer short-changed him by 100 chips. Imagine starting an argument over 100 chips....

I have no idea if he's right or wrong, nor does anyone else, but he's getting very agitated now. I cba with all this & toss him a 100 chip across the table with a bit of a cutting comment, "there you go sunshine, happy now?" sort of thing. He gives me the mother of all dead eyes & I know trouble is brewing...

But not a problem, as he tilts off his entire stack the very next hand with an inexplicably poor play & he's history. I just about resist the temptation to give him a send-off.

Love this
I hate having nonsense at the table in cash games, but in tournaments I find it entertaining especially when they tilt it off afterwards.
You’re still better than me in mtts , I’m 0/3 and -3100 so far.  
Was great to see you though, and you can’t escape me at WSOP as I’ll look up your table number to say hi .
Hopefully get time for proper catch up rather than 30 seconds at breaks !
Catch you Monday if not before I think - WSOP O8 mix deffo my favourite one of the trip

Hi Rob,

Yeah, see you Monday. I'm playing a $240 Big O at Orleans tonight, too small for you, 6pm kick off, next stop the WSOP Omaha Mix tomorrow.

I went across to WSOP @ Paris last night as I accidentally discovered that I needed to get "re-verified". What a faff. I was fully verified last year so no idea why I needed to do it again.

Walked into the Registration Room & there's 12 staff sat at computer stations assisting folks to get verified. They are open 22 hours per day, I guess 3 shifts, so imagine the cost of that.

My bloke was dead helpful, & knew what he was doing, & it still took 45 minutes. Had to give him everything except my Blood Type.

I really don't understand why we have to jump through so many hoops to play a WSOP event. We can walk into Venetian, Wynn, Bellagio, Aria, GN etc etc with a Rewards Card, pay in, & that's that, don't even need ID. What's so different about a WSOP event?

Meh.

And then I had to pay $25 to exit the Car Park. Luckily, it's only $20 Monday - Friday.

See you tomorrow. And hopefully the next day too....

PS - I bumped into the (self-styled) "PLO Professor" last night, Dear God, please don't be drawn on his table tomorrow. He's less humble than Trump.

They probably have to be wary of people trying to steal Jack Ury's record.

My first target is to be the new Eric Dalby except that he was famously grumpy. He must have been well into his 70's when he ran 3rd in a WSOP-E for £85,000, & he almost exclusively played Omaha variants. Not seen or heard of him in a very long time.

How are you & the family keeping?

I assume you have read Chompy's latest book, where you get a mention or two? I very much enjoyed it, although easily the best part was the Foreword.

Weirdly I read the foreword and it put me off the rest of the book...

Just kidding, I haven't read it yet as chompy wants to present me with a copy in person. I have seen bits of it, brings back a lot of good memories that helped me through a tough time. Even Chompy was ok back then.

We are all ok here thanks, I do get back to the UK about 6 times a year but not really up your way, or Tom's so you can both relax. But I suspect you'll come to Malta soon anyway for some mixed games tournaments so you can buy me a coffee then.

[I was fully verified last year so no idea why I needed to do it again.]

He's a horribly abrasive & small-minded man who dislikes me, & the feeling is distinctly mutual. And I know it will soon kick off between us, despite my best intentions not to get involved in any bad blood at the table. He's the sort who can start an argument in an empty room & we have a lot of history.

Early doors & we play a small pot which is checked down, it's a chop & the Dealer splits the pot.

3 hands later he suddenly complains that the Dealer short-changed him by 100 chips. Imagine starting an argument over 100 chips....

I have no idea if he's right or wrong, nor does anyone else, but he's getting very agitated now. I cba with all this & toss him a 100 chip across the table with a bit of a cutting comment, "there you go sunshine, happy now?" sort of thing. He gives me the mother of all dead eyes & I know trouble is brewing...

But not a problem, as he tilts off his entire stack the very next hand with an inexplicably poor play & he's history. I just about resist the temptation to give him a send-off.

Love this
I hate having nonsense at the table in cash games, but in tournaments I find it entertaining especially when they tilt it off afterwards.
You’re still better than me in mtts , I’m 0/3 and -3100 so far.  
Was great to see you though, and you can’t escape me at WSOP as I’ll look up your table number to say hi .
Hopefully get time for proper catch up rather than 30 seconds at breaks !
Catch you Monday if not before I think - WSOP O8 mix deffo my favourite one of the trip

Hi Rob,

Yeah, see you Monday. I'm playing a $240 Big O at Orleans tonight, too small for you, 6pm kick off, next stop the WSOP Omaha Mix tomorrow.

I went across to WSOP @ Paris last night as I accidentally discovered that I needed to get "re-verified". What a faff. I was fully verified last year so no idea why I needed to do it again.

Walked into the Registration Room & there's 12 staff sat at computer stations assisting folks to get verified. They are open 22 hours per day, I guess 3 shifts, so imagine the cost of that.

My bloke was dead helpful, & knew what he was doing, & it still took 45 minutes. Had to give him everything except my Blood Type.

I really don't understand why we have to jump through so many hoops to play a WSOP event. We can walk into Venetian, Wynn, Bellagio, Aria, GN etc etc with a Rewards Card, pay in, & that's that, don't even need ID. What's so different about a WSOP event?

Meh.

And then I had to pay $25 to exit the Car Park. Luckily, it's only $20 Monday - Friday.

See you tomorrow. And hopefully the next day too....

PS - I bumped into the (self-styled) "PLO Professor" last night, Dear God, please don't be drawn on his table tomorrow. He's less humble than Trump.

They probably have to be wary of people trying to steal Jack Ury's record.

https://x.com/grosvenorpoker/status/2053635480818716808?s=46

Not sure why I felt that this was the right place to post this, but here you go.

Probably deserves her own thread.

Sad news, met a few times and was very nice.

RIP.

Hi mate,

Nice update.

So happy to read about you travelling 40 hours to see England get pumped. I love a feelgood story.

Post more.

Love

Vince x

I will do.

Chompy got a reply from his text saying it's going fine and he is getting a bit better every day.

Has anyone seen or heard of Nirvana lately?

Glenn had heart surgery then suffered a stroke about a year ago. He was undergoing rehab last time I spoke to him which was in November. I have messaged him a few days back, but not heard anything back yet. Will let you know when I do.

Speedy recovery Tom 

A modern day Tikay.

Congrats.

Mantis has gone soft.