Bayern Munich match report please Ralph.

To my naive eye, Zubamendi (sp?) and Rice are so good, but the real hidden gem has been Eze.

Quite a week eh? That other lot brushed aside 4-1 on Sunday, CL bogey team Bayern thrashed 3-1, and Chelsea this weekend.

Good times.

Think it's a great idea and should be replicated worldwide. And in two years time the age should be increased to 18, then 20 etc

I came by to see if anyone had noticed that Rachel Reeves has struck a cool 40% rakeback deal on all the online poker played in the UK.  I can't imagine that offering games to UK folk will be very profitable. That tikay scampered just in time.

The Social Media ban on youngsters in Australia? WONDERFUL idea in theory, although, sadly, unenforceable irl. The damage done by unrestricted access to social media to the lives of youngsters is incalculable imo, & anything that even attempts to to curb it gets my vote.  (Blame the parents, obv). Even as an oldie, my life improved no end when I quit Facebook 15 years ago & then, more recently, Twitter/X.  

40% tax on Online Poker? Yup, I escaped in the nick of time. It will, of course, drive the game onto black market sites, exactly as the draconian but well-intended "Safer Gambling", KYC & AML regulations already are for B&M poker. Won't do my old employer Flutter much good in the UK, although these days they are global, & the USA is where the growth is. Incidentally, for tax reasons, many of the UK-based SkyBet (part of Flutter) staff are already being relocated to Gib &/or Malta. So even if I were still working for Sky Poker I'd not still be working for them now...

Interestingly, I was only thinking a day or two ago how much B & M poker is thriving in  the UK despite the swathe of Regulatory stuff. Last week at DTD the WSOP-C Circus came to town, & the numbers of attendees & re-entries were eye-watering. For the Main last week the entries for the £1,500 Main totalled 845 (!), & for the sideys the numbers were equally spectacular all week.

The place is always busy though, the £50 chip-fest every Friday night gets close on 400 runners, & a standard midweek £50 affair gets 200+. same for the bigger comps at the weekend. Live poker really is booming. It's a similar story at the Grosvenor venues as far as I can tell too.  For B&M poker, the good times are here (subject to AML, KYC, RG etc), for Online, seems a bit mean to say it after it provided me with an 18 year "bonus" career, but I won't miss it.

Vern also wrote....



Can’t be any better place to play can there??


I love it there, I really so, it's run & managed superbly imo, & none of this UKGC-inspired stuff is there fault.

I also played a few times recently at Grosvenor Coventry (Ricoh Arena or whatever it's called these days) & that's superb too. Jim McShane (77dave on blonde) ruins the Grosvenor Poker UK Estate these days & has got it nailed. 

Could someone tell me what Sof & KYC are please? It sounds like musical direction and fried chicken.

SoF = Source of Funds. i.e., they want to see if your source of funds is legit. Bit awkward if you happen to be dealing drugs or whatever. An excess of cash transactions are a big red flag I gather.

KYC = Know Your Customer. Much the same thing really. "You are gambling, where's that money coming from?"

And there's also AML which = Anti Money Laundering. Again, amounts to much the same thing. But the UKGC are increasingly frowning upon big stake cash games, as they are perfect AML camouflage.

Will you be gracing the hallowed turf this week Tikay?


I'll be playing the "little" (£300) 4 card PLO today. I swerved the big PLO thing, it was way above my standard with the likes of Osman Mustanoglu (who won it), Keith Johnson, Fat Mitch, Stato etc. Them boys would skin me alive.

I'm not even sure I should play the £300 PLO, these days they play so fast & I get taken off my feet. I'll enjoy the experience though.

I did play the 6 Max (61/207) & the Seniors (29/155) so no cashes thus far. Absolutely delighted to see Thewy win the Seniors though, especially as I managed to double him up with 30 left (24 paid) when I ran smack into his K-K, which left me with just 4 or 5 BB's.  

I won't play the NLH "Main", I'm out of my depth at the £1,500 NLH buy-in level, but I may play a sidey or two on Sunday &/or Monday. Can't play at DTD tomorrow as I've been invited to play the £240 SPT Manchester as a "Guest", with 2 bullets, so that's a gift horse I can't really miss.

Yes yes, I know, I'm truly blessed.

GL in whatever you play, & do come say Hi if you see me.

"One of the questions on the form was ‘have you ever gambled more money than you were able to afford’ I mean I assume everyone lied answering that one!"


Well yes, & there were several questions along the same lines. If a single person answered all the questions truthfully I'd be shocked.

It's box-ticking, isn't it? The Venue has to be able to say to the UKGC "yes, we took every precaution". And if they do that, the box is ticked.

You can't even play the Slots or (machine) Roulette or Blackjack unless you have passed all the tests. Before you put money in them, you have to give your fingerprint on a little pad, or scan a QR Code. That way they can keep an eye on your losses, & if they exceed whatever amount, then you get sent to the Naughty Room to do the Sof & KYC interrogation.

Not DTD's fault, we must stress. It's bad for them, it's bad for the players.

Just seems like all it will achieve is drive players to unlicensed games.

Anyway, it does not bother me, you just gotta go with it imo.

..and on a humorous note, the £2 £2 6 Card PLO game at DTD plays quite chunky, especially when straddled to £5 & then potted, but when the game starts everyone can only sit with the £250 Max.

So quite often they ALL go ALL-IN first hand, so they have a stack to play with.

Responsible Gambling, see?

Quick hint Vern - ARRIVE EARLY.

Assuming you are already signed up, &, more importantly, FULLY VERIFIED on the WSOP+App, you still have to face the problems posed by "Safer Gambling Week".

This involves a (mandatory) questionnaire with the questions pre-entered into an i-Pad.

It's not difficult, but there's only 5 or 6 i-pads & so quite a queue builds up.

Questions are basic stuff, Name, DOB, Postcode, have you ever had a gambling problem, what your job or profession is, income band, so on & so forth.

In addition, if you spend in excess of £1,000 in cash games (I'm unsure if this applies to Tournaments but I'm told it does) then you have to do a SoF & KYC check, which basically requires you to explain your source of income, & supply 3 months of Bank Statements.

None of this is DTD's fault, it'll all part of a wider UKGC purge. I gather they have already forced a Casino in Leeds to close. It's all box-ticking of course, but that's where we are at.

Incidentally, to sit in a cash game at DTD now the MAXIMUM sit-down is £250, & then £250 increments. And once you get to £1,000, then the SoF & KYC checks have to be negotiated.

If I was to bring the clubs to Nottingham next week, would anyone fancy a round on Sunday morning? Happy to go out early, as planning on making day 2 at 3pm!

I don't play golf at weekends, only Monday to Friday. Weekends are poker. 

Life remains challenging.

There are some good deals on with flights at the moment - I've booked today to go in June 26 to play the WSOP super seniors and Virgin were almost giving the flights away. 

Unforunately you're barred fom the Super Seniors.

You're obviously way too young.

Such a smoothie.

Interesting post Phil, thanks.

I would have thought it'd be jolly hard to (further) damage Mr Trump's "reputation". In effect, he has no reputation to damage, does he?

Incidentally, I gather that the piece was never broadcast or on Social Media in the USA, only the UK.

 

It's all very quiet on here. Do you expect you will play much Winter golf?

Yes, but I'll cut it down to 5 rounds a week.

Ooh, very nice, good luck Kev.

The thread made me think of long-serving sports men & women.

James Milner, now 39 years old, has played nearly 900 games.

In Darts, Phil Taylor was World Champ 16 (?) times?

In snooker, Ronnie has been near unbeatable for a quarter of a century, when not having one of his funny turns.

Those old enough (Ralph, Boo etc) will recall David Bryant in crown-green bowls, he won national championships over a 35 year timespan.

There was a Lady cyclist back in the day, Beryl Burton, some of her records were faster than the equivalent Men's records, she was dominant for a vey long time.

Any others?