Good to see you're still about mate. Throwing in the big boy games in Barca because why not eh?

Just to add to Das's question -

Favourite Luton Player: John The Pen.

I used to really enjoy playing the Saturday 2pm £30er where he would kick off at someone to the point the floor had to come and have a word with him, bust after first break and have to sit in the corner all night while his daughter did her ladybollocks on the fruities. No idea if he's still with us because he always sounded like he was a stiff cough from snuffing it, but I always thought he was alright for a miserable old bugger.

Favourite Luton Moment:

There was some fella throwing money over the roulette on a table he had to himself. Word was he had shat off the better part of £20,000 before giving up. Probably hard to get out of at that point when it was £100 max on a number. The pit boss told him he could cool off in the restaurant and they'd bring him some food. 15 minutes later he is screaming bloody murder because they bought him a steak and chips, and he was a vegan. What a needle.

---

If you see Panos, tell him Harry says hello and let him know I'm in Liverpool now.

I got your PM, I'll give you a shout pal. I've got some wacky stories to tell you.

Heading to Vegas in December with my sister.

We got 7 nights in the Westgate in separate rooms and a direct flight on Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick for about £450 each. Couldn't really say no at that price.

Very much excited to be going back to Vegas after I had to miss out last year.

My sister is a vegetarian, who doesn't drink and thinks live poker is the most tedious thing in the world. Very much a sanitised trip but I'm sure I will be able to break out on my own for a night for a spot of degeneracy.

Any veggies got any decent places in Vegas she can stuff her face?

Chandra and Lalit will outlive us all. Chandra always used to tell me about his trips to Finland but would get bored of a conversation he started and give up mid sentence.

I don't half miss playing in Luton. I live in Liverpool now and the casinos here are basically bars with one £2 Blackjack table and video roulette.

Good luck in the 25/25. I would play one if I could but Grovesnor still won't give me my membership back after going on 3 years.

Shane aka Ugotnuts - met him at DTD nice lad think he was a reg at Luton - use to post on here often then just stopped.

Could very well still live in the Bedford area and be found around Luton G/Genting/Casino MK and on occasion, The Vic. I used to head down with him every now and then but I now live in Liverpool so I haven't seen him in a couple of years.

Remember The Daddy from my previous post?

Think he may have met a bitter end. Certainly fits his description.

Click to see full-size image.

image upload gif

Might be item dependant, I recently ordered something on Saturday afternoon and it was delivered by 11am Sunday

This is a good point actually.

My books usually show up next day. Generally any media like Xbox games or dvds show up quickly. Electronic parts take a while longer on prime.

I guess the rule is if it can be made in China, expect a wait because it's probably being dropshipped from Shenzen.

When you ordered did it show a little clock in the corner for guaranteed next day?

When I lived in Cornwall, many miles from a distribution centre I often had to order before 11am for next day on the weekend. One minute over used to lead to me getting my parcel midweek.

You know I can't bloody wait for this next night of the final.

This final table has rekindled me. Just people having a laugh and playing cards for loads of money.

I'm ordering a pizza and doing a night shift.

Kind words are always appreciated. Thank you very much.

Now here's the thing -

I would really like to submit something to a magazine or even an online reporting site and write about poker. Be it live reports on events or just my general antics being a low stakes tournament hellion.

Would anyone here have any idea how I would go about this?

I know a lot of you are connected  to the British poker mafia and I'm not after a free ride. Just somewhere to send a little something and see if they're interested in having me.

Anyone notice the hand Sinclair busted Ott was really hating his folding of the AJs  just so happens he would now be sitting pretty with 2nd biggest stack if he had donkey called with the 3rd heart on the river

Ott will forever have a case of the "If Only's" should he not win.

You know what they say though.

Casino MK is always an experience.

On paper it should be fun. It's a big casino attached to a shopping centre, should have plenty of passing traffic and if Aspers Stratford is anything to go by - they can sell you the illusion that you're anywhere but Milton Keynes for a couple of hours.

---

I was actually only passing through for some shopping. Of which I did none but buy an overpriced steak and mushroom sandwich on some bread with a name I can't pronounce. Might have been called Foccacia, might as well have been called Gianluigi Buffon. I'm too indecisive, which makes my autopilot into the world's most bland poker room quite confusing.

Even more so that the only thing running was a £20 Turbo. 15,000 chips, self dealt because Casino MK apparently have 3 poker dealers and the rest of them have been moved to the pit remove people's money from them and tell them it's just bad luck.

So we have one dealer on the 25p cash game table sat on his tod because nobody is playing. One dealing a 1/1 cash game with 4 players and the other one doing the buyins. 25% rake, if you don't mind. Just demolish the poker room, put in some Da Vinci's Diamonds and be done with it. But I digress.

No sooner am I in my seat, I am set upon by who I will be calling 'Daddy'. Not in a fetish way, but because he didn't recognise me as a regular and decided to bring the questions to me as if he was a Chelsea Hooligan and I had just showed up in his pub like an undercover reporter. He reminded me of the character Pongo in the film Scum with Ray Winstone. Flanked by a couple of other regs who he seemed to have running about giving him cigarettes and coffee.

"Who was I?"
"How old am I?"
"Where am I from?"
"Do I play poker a lot?"

These weren't friendly getting to know your table mates questions, this was the Spanish Inquisition. And it caught me totally off guard. Well you know what they about that say don't you?

I kind of had him down as someone who tries to push around the kids who come in from the Uni accommodation around the corner. Doesn't like younger players, finds them too full of tricks, always raising his blinds and talking about this Gee Tee Oh. Must be a Korean footballer.

Told him I was 26, play in Luton a lot (or at least used to), mainly play PLO online. Thought that would satisfy his thirst for questioning me like a community support police officer who's caught a kid with half a bottle of Glen's Vodka and a small pouch of Amber Leaf in the park.

He just whips his phone out and starts showing me pictures of people.

"Play in Luton do ya? Know him do ya?" Endless carousel of Luton's finest, half I know and half I don't. The Daddy is growing more and more incensed by my apparently unbelievable backstory. It's 17 minutes on the quick train from Bedford to Luton. I've hardly told him I used to play in the Aviation Club in Paris.

Shows me a picture of Will Kassouf. Everyone knows Will Kassouf by now. Apparently my confirmation that "Yes, I have watched poker in the last 2 years and am aware of Will Kassouf" meant he had to try and call him. Couldn't get through though he said. (It didn't even ring).

---

Anyway POKER.

Run it up to about 28k without much struggle. Flop a set of , get it all in vs top pair and win.

Oh wait Daddy is back and he thinks I played my hand badly.

"Wouldn't have reraised that flop" - The guy had 7 bigs behind.

I was content to listen to his analysis because who knows he may just drop a nugget of wisdom. Nah he just wants to offer me out heads up. Flanked by his friend, the last comment I heard before I got moved was "You won't be no good against me...".

And people wonder why newer players are intimidated by live poker with people like this around. I mean I've played my share of comps and this doesn't really get under my skin, but this guy clearly plays these comps day in, day out with very limited success and just wants to have a pop at anyone new who comes around.

He left the tournament shortly after, I watched him put his jacket on and leave, no longer interested in sticking around for a heads up clash of the titans worthy of £14.95 on Box Office.

---

Because this affair was a Turbo, I spend the final table just jamming on everyone with impunity because there was a grand total of £140 up top and it was getting late. If I was going to min cash for £30, I'd still be out of pocket on the taxi home. As luck would have it, we chopped it and we took first place money. That's 4 for 4 in live comps this year. All with buyins lower than £40. Remember my post 18 months ago where I said we'd be millionaires? Still working on it.

Which I then lost to Sunny Mistri playing Heads Up PLO while drunk. And had to fork out £30 for the taxi.

Ce'st La Vie.

I wonder if The Daddy is reading this? Probably, seeing as he seems keep mugshots of half of Bedfordshire's poker scene. Take a tip from that Pink Floyd song, and leave those kids alone.


 

Pretty accurate.

I haven't played 10nl Zoom myself in forever (not because I've moved up and am any good now, just play PLO now), but I've watched my sister play and your 100bb AIPF hands are almost exclusively AA/KK with the odd AKs and QQ mixed in.

Quite curious to pull her PT4 database up and just have a more indepth look at it myself now.

SPOILER BELOW FOR THOSE CATCHING UP TOMORROW

-----------------------------------













Awful hand for Hesp.

Blumstien opens to 2.3 with   
Hesp defends BB with 

Flop A57.

Check / Check

Turn T

Blumstein bets ~3m.
Hesp raise to 7m.
Blumstien raise to 17m.
Hesp All in for 73m effective.

All she wrote.

Left with 23m. Clock striking midnight on the Cinderella Story, I think he just punts it now.

Absolutely loving John Hesp.

Such a fun final table with him there, even a couple of them are on the beer while playing.

I hope he does it and ushers in a new era where people can actually have a laugh at a poker table instead of being sat there silently looking like they've just smelt a fart.

You never get used to the heat do you?

You always think once you step off the plane and into the sun after travelling for what feels like days, you'd be fine. You've done it loads, you know what to expect and everything is air conditioned anyway.

It still hits you in the face with the power of a thousand suns, Like you've personally slighted Helios himself. Within a minute your lips feel like day old battered cod. Another minute and you feel like you're in Raiders of the Lost Ark when that chaps face melts off his skull. Find a cab, get ripped off, check in and get straight down to business.

Casinos, poker, same old summer.

It's been hot this past week, and Luton airport really is the dream.

----

No Vegas this year, and if truth be told I can't say I'm too upset. I was due to go with my now ex-girlfriend on June the 12th, but that went sour faster than lemons in milk so I never went. She did though, paid her own money to go without me. Odd thing to do that when you've never gambled in your life, nor travelled outside of the family holiday to Tenerife but so it goes.

Could have easily jumped on the plane in hindsight, but then I didn't feel up to telling everyone at the airport why she was missing and I didn't need the reminder. A bit like being stood up in a restaurant and the staff discreetly wheel over the desert trolley while you're all forlorn sipping your half carafe of wine recommended by a sommelier to go with your dinner for one. They've got some crooner singing on in the background Brylcreemed so thoroughly it's returning your glances through it's sheen. He sings "Lonely This Christmas". It's the 14th of May.

---

I don't half miss poker mind. I've played two live comps since November. Both bowl as you like, one win and one 4th. Nothing like triumph in a tournament that gets more re-entries than total runners.

Online has been good though. Cruising around the shadows of the PLO8 tables at 2am like a split pot George Michael on Hamspted Heath, searching for a dalliance with a young man who plays for both high and low. Oooh Matron.

---

In my time away from the felt and being dumped again, I trained to become a wrestler. Why? I have always had a childlike fascination with it from back in the late 90s when it was all the rage, and it seemed like a steal for £150 of 8 weeks intensive coaching in a disused railway tunnel in Brixton.

Didn't see that one coming did you. It's mad how popular it is in England again, so much so that people don't think I'm a total melt for paying actual pound notes to learn it. I'll be dishing out the piledrivers in my spandex in your local Genting property soon.

---

Should be off to Bulgaria within a week, for more encounters in the 2/2-5/5 DC games in the Royale Palms Casino so I can finally get to update this again.

The dulcet tones of the Lucky Lady's Charms machine on repeat in my brain. Some people listen to whale song to send them to sleep, I just need someone to hit 3 pink orbs and let it sing out.

Play it Sam...