I was having a clear out of old clothes yesterday. Right at the back of the closet, crumpled on the floor, was a tracksuit top made by a company called View From. I think the British Olympic team wore this brand in the early noughties. It was a top I sometimes played poker in. I smiled because I remember it being associated with a personal top ten poker moment. Probably 8th or 9th but memorable, nonetheless. More about that in a moment.
In the late 90’s I was aware of a very small and well-hidden aspect of my character. It had manifested itself just a couple of times in real life, usually when in conflict with my bosses. It was like when David Banner stubbed his toe and got the eyes…but without the anger. I would be prepared to lose my job, my house, everything I owned; but I wasn’t going to lose that argument. My head would just go PING! and this serene, stubborn, fearless asshole would emerge. It served no constructive purpose, I couldn’t conjure it up at will, but strangely, I absolutely loved that feeling. Lol.
One day I played my first game of live poker and from the opening hand my head went PING! Every time I played after that my head just went PING! automatically. It was brilliant. Early on I read about a million books and considered strategy deeply. I thought it was all mostly bullshit though. I still believe character, people skills and natural attributes get you a long way across the winning line in no limit. I can only talk about the level I played at of course.
I liked it best when there were big personalities trying to dominate the table with speech play. My head pinged like crazy, because that guy was getting a new arsehole ripped for himself soon. I played a tournament in some moody backstreet casino in Morocco once, all shady locals, bristling atmosphere. Absolutely loved it. You’ve got to remember here that I’m a General Manager of golf clubs, sensible and affable. Yet PING! I’m feeling like I’m going to rip a lot of new Moroccan assholes before this night is done. Winning money was proper good fun in poker but nothing beat that asshole ripping feeling.
I brought my poker mentality onto Blonde a lot of the time, maybe I was using it as a training ground. Wanted to keep the PING! fully functional. To be fair there were no shortage of candidates, because this was the new era of the wizards. A big part of my poker strategy was that I needed to control the emotion and get opponents to react to my action. Blonde was perfect because there were ample super confident, bedroom dwelling wizardy types who perhaps were not so adept at emotional intelligence. No harm done, just bants really. Oh and I am always conscious of the commercial aspects of things so because I took something from Blond I wanted to give back viewing figures. So I needed the likes of Greekstein like my Benn needed his Eubank. Or thinking about it, maybe I'm Eubank.
Incidentally, I did think the most entirely inherently unintelligent thing in the whole history of poker was when the wizards destroyed their own game by belittling all the feel players and the newbies, but meh, everything has it's day. Truth is I don’t know the true character of anybody using Blonde, probably all solid gold guys, nothing personal.
Anyway, back to this View From tracksuit top.
I could never really have been busto during my playing days because I had a good job, owned a house and car. Always had a decent salary at the end of the month. However, my wife went to spend a few days with her mum in Norwich and I took the opportunity to embark upon a 48hr drug-fuelled poker bender. Lost about £10k, maybe a little more. Don’t get me wrong, totally brilliant weekend, but I was left with about £3.42 ready cash to my name. And it was still two days until my salary dropped. When my wife arrived home the fridge was empty and I hadn’t done the shopping. This was on account of I hadn’t really fancied eating since she left. I always do the shopping and always doing the cooking so no problem I say and skip out the door to the local Tesco.
A few steps up the road and with my mind full of pasta orientated dishes of the sub £4 variety it starts to rain. I mean I’m feeling a little low at this point with the cold and rain, mother of hangovers and loose change rattling in my pocket. Turned back, went in the house and grabbed that track top from the closet. Halfway back to Tesco I put my hands in the pockets and THUD! My right hand hits a brick. I grab whatever it is and pull it out. It was a huge block of crisp and rather lovely £50 notes, around £3.5k worth. What a flip flop of emotions and such crazy times with poker. Anyway, burst back through the door with bags of shopping. Here you go honey, got you a choice of sirloin or lobster and a lovely bottle of Chateau nerf de pap. Abs lol!
I sometimes still play poker, mainly to see if I still have the PING! I played the Goliath in 2024 and never had it once, felt emotional, like something had died. I played it again last year and suddenly PING! it was there for the whole first day. So who knows, this time next year Rodders!
In the late 90’s I was aware of a very small and well-hidden aspect of my character. It had manifested itself just a couple of times in real life, usually when in conflict with my bosses. It was like when David Banner stubbed his toe and got the eyes…but without the anger. I would be prepared to lose my job, my house, everything I owned; but I wasn’t going to lose that argument. My head would just go PING! and this serene, stubborn, fearless asshole would emerge. It served no constructive purpose, I couldn’t conjure it up at will, but strangely, I absolutely loved that feeling. Lol.
One day I played my first game of live poker and from the opening hand my head went PING! Every time I played after that my head just went PING! automatically. It was brilliant. Early on I read about a million books and considered strategy deeply. I thought it was all mostly bullshit though. I still believe character, people skills and natural attributes get you a long way across the winning line in no limit. I can only talk about the level I played at of course.
I liked it best when there were big personalities trying to dominate the table with speech play. My head pinged like crazy, because that guy was getting a new arsehole ripped for himself soon. I played a tournament in some moody backstreet casino in Morocco once, all shady locals, bristling atmosphere. Absolutely loved it. You’ve got to remember here that I’m a General Manager of golf clubs, sensible and affable. Yet PING! I’m feeling like I’m going to rip a lot of new Moroccan assholes before this night is done. Winning money was proper good fun in poker but nothing beat that asshole ripping feeling.
I brought my poker mentality onto Blonde a lot of the time, maybe I was using it as a training ground. Wanted to keep the PING! fully functional. To be fair there were no shortage of candidates, because this was the new era of the wizards. A big part of my poker strategy was that I needed to control the emotion and get opponents to react to my action. Blonde was perfect because there were ample super confident, bedroom dwelling wizardy types who perhaps were not so adept at emotional intelligence. No harm done, just bants really. Oh and I am always conscious of the commercial aspects of things so because I took something from Blond I wanted to give back viewing figures. So I needed the likes of Greekstein like my Benn needed his Eubank. Or thinking about it, maybe I'm Eubank.
Incidentally, I did think the most entirely inherently unintelligent thing in the whole history of poker was when the wizards destroyed their own game by belittling all the feel players and the newbies, but meh, everything has it's day. Truth is I don’t know the true character of anybody using Blonde, probably all solid gold guys, nothing personal.
Anyway, back to this View From tracksuit top.
I could never really have been busto during my playing days because I had a good job, owned a house and car. Always had a decent salary at the end of the month. However, my wife went to spend a few days with her mum in Norwich and I took the opportunity to embark upon a 48hr drug-fuelled poker bender. Lost about £10k, maybe a little more. Don’t get me wrong, totally brilliant weekend, but I was left with about £3.42 ready cash to my name. And it was still two days until my salary dropped. When my wife arrived home the fridge was empty and I hadn’t done the shopping. This was on account of I hadn’t really fancied eating since she left. I always do the shopping and always doing the cooking so no problem I say and skip out the door to the local Tesco.
A few steps up the road and with my mind full of pasta orientated dishes of the sub £4 variety it starts to rain. I mean I’m feeling a little low at this point with the cold and rain, mother of hangovers and loose change rattling in my pocket. Turned back, went in the house and grabbed that track top from the closet. Halfway back to Tesco I put my hands in the pockets and THUD! My right hand hits a brick. I grab whatever it is and pull it out. It was a huge block of crisp and rather lovely £50 notes, around £3.5k worth. What a flip flop of emotions and such crazy times with poker. Anyway, burst back through the door with bags of shopping. Here you go honey, got you a choice of sirloin or lobster and a lovely bottle of Chateau nerf de pap. Abs lol!
I sometimes still play poker, mainly to see if I still have the PING! I played the Goliath in 2024 and never had it once, felt emotional, like something had died. I played it again last year and suddenly PING! it was there for the whole first day. So who knows, this time next year Rodders!
Well worth the wait.
Really enjoyed the PING thing at poker tables.
I'm the EXACT opposite. I had many decades of Management jobs where the nasty problems all landed on my desk & all I yearned for was a peaceful existence. And now I am retired I have that, & I don't want any bad blood, arguments, personal feuds, nothing, I just want to cruise along in calm waters. I don't want ANY aggro at my poker table.
When I play poker my priorities are...
1) Enjoy myself. The result does not matter, I just want to have some fun in the company of gamblers.
2) In MTT's, run deep, last third ideally, where every decision is crucial.
3) Min cash & get myself another Hendon, but going home empty-handed does not bother me one iota.
4) Anything beyond that is all bonus.
5) I do get a thrill from cashing though.
When I exit, no matter how, I've forgotten all about it by the time I stand up. Bad beats, idgaf.
So many poker players only enjoy it when they win. Pros, fair enough, but it makes no sense for recreationals. And 99% of us are recs.
It's a bit like football fans who may have travelled a few hundred miles to watch their team but then walk out if they go 2 down after 20 minutes. Where's the sense in only enjoying something if you win? In MTT's even the best players only cash 1 time in 3 or 4.
Meh.
