Great thread.

Reminds me that there's more to life than poker.

pyjamas. Nobody

You could do better than that.
I can't see the field being too strong with the big boys mostly in Amsterdam.

The professional thing doesn't mean quality. It just means I don't have a job.
I certainly won't be getting one as a dealer any time soon.
Congrats on the 2nd last night.

Bah! Call yourself a professional? You bummed that guys cards, not once, but twice last night!!! And after he had thrown in a raise of 500 Still, I was more than happy to let them be given back since I was holding za nuts.

keep us in touch how the road to stardom progresses....

It's more the fortune than the fame i'm aspiring to but thanks

Rod Paradise told me last night I should put a brief wee introduction post up here.
Sounded like a fair plan so here goes..

I'm Thomas, I'm 23. Been playing poker for 3 years, 6 months professionaly. Trying to break into the live game at the mo. Have done 2 festivals so far, cashed in a couple at the Gutshot (not too fancy 7th and 8th) but washed out in Brighton. I'll do Glasgow next week, would be rude not to as I live there. Probably Blackpool the week after if I feel like it.

Highlight of poker career so far was probably on Wednesday night winning a 6 man £500 freezeout at Cincci's. Hadn't previously had any live experience of playing heads-up for serious money and was happy with the way I handled myself.

Lowlight, after cashing in the gutshot having my name listed on poker websites as, Thomas Stott(England). Carefully worded e-mails were sent and I think they're now mostly the more accurate Thomas Stott(Scotland).

Hoping to get in the top 500 soon, after that will probably set my sights higher. At the moment I'm concentrating on improving my PL omaha cash game. It's getting on ok, won 700 at it last night after dropping 1000 in a disastrous NLHE game that got me re-thinking my "I don't fold KK pre-flop" policy. It was quite embarrasing as it was only a £20 buy-in game so I didn't bother taking more than a grand with me. Yet I had to make a walk of shame back to my flat to re-load.

Its a great way to play for a new starter, and can be rewarding when you consistently manage to bring in prizes. But in reality, its big wins we need. i

Wot, like slipping into 8th place in a festival event
Only messin'

The K9, fine.

The AQs calling 1000 re-raise, I think is justified. You've chips to spare and there ain't no real prizes for 4th place in the satellite. It's because of the latter reason that the guy who moved over the top may very well have held a variety of hands that you were dominating. Sometimes if they move in mega quick you can get away from it.

Where I would have differed is in playing the 8's. I'm laying them down to the re-raise( even though it's a satellite ) I can forget about the 450 and still have a nice sized stack. A stack that can allow me to pick my spots and not be forced to go all-in with medium aces in a few hands time.

You say you "put him" on AK or AQ. All he has done here is gone over the top with his stack of just over 2000. In an online tournament I fail to see how you could put him on anything here with any degree of confidence large enough to influence your descicion.
Most players at this stage might make that move with big pairs, big suited connectors, big slick etc. The truth of it is that you don't really know which one it is and any read that you attempt to make will perhaps just be you trying to in some way justify calling as you have the itch to gamble. (calling with 8's here is gambling imho)
This might not be the case, (and I certainly don't mean any offence) all I know is that it was, with me, a mistake I'd make all the time. Looking for an excuse to call which I could justify to myself that wasn't really there.
Some would argue that calling is ok and they may have a point, if anything, it's a borderline play. What would the rock have done?

I like the call on the flop. So long as it is followed by a big bet on the turn when a blank hits. (which it was, so happy days).

If a scare card hits the turn, such as any card over a 9, then you can slow down/get away from the hand. The all-in player gives you some degree of protection from being bet off the best hand if a 9, K or A falls.

i remember the early zx81's!!
turn them upside down and the keys fell out!!

So it wouldn't work on the moon, but that wasn't that big a problem back then.

One of my favorite games was the old Football Manager on the spectrum, it was brilliant to find an XL version recently - you can play it at work & it looks like you're working on a really intricate spreadsheet 

Yes, but can you still press break on the keyboard to get into the basic programming and add about 6 zeros to your starting cash.

Was Valhalla the one where you went to hell when you died, lost all your stuff and had to wander about a hell for 20 minutes picking it up if you wanted it back?

Anyone else remember playing Valhalla on the CBM64 way back when?

I never knew what the hell was going on, either.

My worst run was losing 200BB in 2 days playing 15/30 at Party
Switched back to tournaments and have been there ever since.

20 buyins!!

You never had a bad run?

When I was building my roll/working my way up the limits I played one at a time and found 20 to be plenty. (excuse the rhyme)
Yes I had bad runs, when I dropped to 10 or so I'd move back down a limit for a bit. Nowadays I keep around 40 buy-ins in the online roll as moving down online isn't something I plan to have to do. Breaking into the live game now having fun trying to build that roll.

20 buyins!!

You never had a bad runi

How about 20% of the first place prize in both the Brum and Cincci tournaments to be played for in a heads up match between the two winners on a mutually agreed upon date for the cash and the title of supreme championy. The travelling player having their expenses taken from the pot and re-inbursed. Might become a naional pride thing if locals win both events.

If someone wins them the Brum and the Cincci then it'll be a bit of a non-event but the chances of that are small.