Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Cheers  Dan and TK they were both superb, got to love youtube

Yes, what a facility You Tube is, & all free to view. I spend countless hours viewing stuff. Oddly, despite my loathing of music in the wrong places, I use it mostly for music, & have an hour going through various music genres on You Tube most nights.

If you enjoyed that piece of footage, go to You Tube & type in "Look at Life", there are 10 or 15 from the 1950's, all very good. I put one on Red's Diary, too.

That bloody Dan Morgan will cost me hours of time today.

[tikay]

Covent Garden has changed a bit......

[pokerfan]

Yer man Hartigan and his sidekick Stapes put a good shift in commentating on the PCA final.
Went on for about 15 hours, I probably watched about 10 of them.

Good job guys.

[tikay]

Yer man Hartigan and his sidekick Stapes put a good shift in commentating on the PCA final.
Went on for about 15 hours, I probably watched about 10 of them.

Good job guys.

I can't speak highly enough of James, he is a total Pro at what he does.

I worked a lot with James, but never with Joe, although he is a colleague, & we bump into each other at the office & chat from time to time. As far as I am aware, Joe continues with us Next Door for the foreseeable future, & there are no signs yet that he is Wise minus Morecombe.

I've been away on location with this young chap for the last few days. Fun? Just a bit. Deffo more fun than Hartigan.


  

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

I don't know my arse from my elbow at the moment.

Life is packed to the very brim, & I'm not complaining, but I just can't fit everything into the available time. Something has to give soon, or my head will explode. Life is weird though, it usually finds a way to solve these problems.

I've just got back from a sort of 2 day Tour of Nottinghamshire, we filmed at 7 locations, mostly with a sporting connection. Good fun, but a lot of hanging about in the open, in wet & cold weather.

Stayed overrnight at a Holiday Inn, & they charged me £7.50 for wi-fi in the room. Which did not work. I had a bit of a mini-strop with the Manager, who was very condescending about it. He'll not do that again, as I won't ever return, but I'm sure they'll manage without me.  

I left the book I'm currently reading (or was....) in the room, too, complete with my super-duper rare Shoreham Airport leather bookmark. Bugger. Think that is the 7,945th time I've left a book in a (an?) Hotel room.  Suppose I could ring up & ask them to send it to me, but Mr Bloody Condescending might enjoy the experience, so sod that.

Once the Next Door stuff was finished, I went across to DTD, & had a 4 hour meet with Rob Yong & Simon Plumper, & Tighty came along, too. Quite a sight, Tighty & I both deftly balancing about 5 different hats.

[RED-DOG]

If you want to get ahead, get a hat.

[david3103]

I don't know my arse from my elbow at the moment.

Life is packed to the very brim, & I'm not complaining, but I just can't fit everything into the available time. Something has to give soon, or my head will explode. Life is weird though, it usually finds a way to solve these problems.

I've just got back from a sort of 2 day Tour of Nottinghamshire, we filmed at 7 locations, mostly with a sporting connection. Good fun, but a lot of hanging about in the open, in wet & cold weather.

Stayed overrnight at a Holiday Inn, & they charged me £7.50 for wi-fi in the room. Which did not work. I had a bit of a mini-strop with the Manager, who was very condescending about it. He'll not do that again, as I won't ever return, but I'm sure they'll manage without me.  

I left the book I'm currently reading (or was....) in the room, too, complete with my super-duper rare Shoreham Airport leather bookmark. Bugger. Think that is the 7,945th time I've left a book in a (an?) Hotel room.  Suppose I could ring up & ask them to send it to me, but Mr Bloody Condescending might enjoy the experience, so sod that.

Once the Next Door stuff was finished, I went across to DTD, & had a 4 hour meet with Rob Yong & Simon Plumper, & Tighty came along, too. Quite a sight, Tighty & I both deftly balancing about 5 different hats.

Hotels charging for wifi is one of those little irritating things in life. The cost to them is so minimal and the charge structure so loaded against overnight stayers.
An android phone and an all you can eat data package, or a dongle would avoid these issues..

As for your book, surely you know someone who lives in Nottingham?

[theprawnidentity]

I have to take the rare step of agreeing with david35434565234 here.  You should be able to plug your phone into your laptop and use the internet via that.  Pay as you go dongles are also extremely cheap and would avoid this issue.  I digress however.

What has been going on?  It feels like ages since I've been round these parts.  How are things in life?

It sounds like them others are keeping you busy.  Now I know I've got into trouble for enquiries of this nature before, but will be seeing you on the felt at the UK Poker Championships?  Or will be otherwise engaged doing a Jeff Stelling-esk update on the telly box?  Further, if you need any sketchy hand analysis from a borderline simpleton, to boost ratings and that, you know where I am!

[tikay]

I don't know my arse from my elbow at the moment.

Life is packed to the very brim, & I'm not complaining, but I just can't fit everything into the available time. Something has to give soon, or my head will explode. Life is weird though, it usually finds a way to solve these problems.

I've just got back from a sort of 2 day Tour of Nottinghamshire, we filmed at 7 locations, mostly with a sporting connection. Good fun, but a lot of hanging about in the open, in wet & cold weather.

Stayed overrnight at a Holiday Inn, & they charged me £7.50 for wi-fi in the room. Which did not work. I had a bit of a mini-strop with the Manager, who was very condescending about it. He'll not do that again, as I won't ever return, but I'm sure they'll manage without me. 

I left the book I'm currently reading (or was....) in the room, too, complete with my super-duper rare Shoreham Airport leather bookmark. Bugger. Think that is the 7,945th time I've left a book in a (an?) Hotel room.  Suppose I could ring up & ask them to send it to me, but Mr Bloody Condescending might enjoy the experience, so sod that.

Once the Next Door stuff was finished, I went across to DTD, & had a 4 hour meet with Rob Yong & Simon Plumper, & Tighty came along, too. Quite a sight, Tighty & I both deftly balancing about 5 different hats.

Hotels charging for wifi is one of those little irritating things in life. The cost to them is so minimal and the charge structure so loaded against overnight stayers.
An android phone and an all you can eat data package, or a dongle would avoid these issues..

As for your book, surely you know someone who lives in Nottingham?

Strangely enough, they were almost the exact words that Mr Bloody Condescending said to me. After I paid £7.50 for Wifi that did not work.......

Yes, I have both - a smartphone which I can tether to my lappie, & a dongle, but when I play up to 6 Tables, (6?!, ooh!) I prefer a more secure system. I had planned an online poker session, but not via dongle or tethering to my 'phone.

So it cost me a whole night's profit, which could be as much as, ooh, £20, maybe £30 quid. I'm outraged.

[tikay]

I have to take the rare step of agreeing with david35434565234 here.  You should be able to plug your phone into your laptop and use the internet via that.  Pay as you go dongles are also extremely cheap and would avoid this issue.  I digress however.

What has been going on?  It feels like ages since I've been round these parts.  How are things in life?

It sounds like them others are keeping you busy.  Now I know I've got into trouble for enquiries of this nature before, but will be seeing you on the felt at the UK Poker Championships?  Or will be otherwise engaged doing a Jeff Stelling-esk update on the telly box?  Further, if you need any sketchy hand analysis from a borderline simpleton, to boost ratings and that, you know where I am!

Just been incredibly busy, busier than I can ever recall.

Went away for a few days earlier this weerk, filming inserts for the UKPC show which will be aired on Sky Sports, starting in March. Went to Newark Air Museum, City Ground Notts, County Ground Notts, Trent Bridge, Langer Karting track, and a place called "Adrenelin Jungle", up near Sherwood Forest, where we did Archery. (Bows & arrows).  I was amazingly good, Olympic standard, the man said. 

After 2 days travelling around & filming bits & bobs, including this week's UKPC Video Update, I was more than ready to go home, but I had a Meeting scheduled with Rob Yong at DTD.

More.....

[Tal]

I hope your visits included Major Oak:



In Sherwood Forest and estimated to be around 800 years old. Arguably, that's slightly convenient, as it would put it back to the reign of King John. But it does look rather old.

[tikay]

So Rob arrives at around 4pm, Simon Plumper was already there, & Tighty polled up, & we sat down to chat about UKPC. Numpty was in the Meeting, too, but he just fell asleep, & farted a lot.

Rob is a very interesting character, you know. Obsessed with detail. Once the hugely successful GPS was done & dusted, he turned his attention to UKPC. In fact, he contacted me at 10pm on the night of the GPS Final (last Sunday?) to say "ok, that one is done, UKPC next, when we gonna meet again?"

So, Wednesday we hooked up. The Meet went on for 5 hours in total, & we went through every line, every structure, start times, every Tourney, the whole works.

I left DTD @ around 10pm, & got home at 1am. 3 hours sleep, & I was in the office by 5am Thursday, ready to confirm everything back to Rob, but he'd already sent it all to me. The man never sleeps.

Then I needed to agree it all with the suits at my end, more e-Mails back & forth. Think I sent 47 e-Mails yesterday about UKPC.

Anyway, we got there, everything is now finalised, so off we jolly well go.......

We projected the numbers for the Main Event, & so far, we are miles ahead of forecast, think we have 150 qualified on either Next Door, or DTD.  If we project the committed Promos & Satellite schedule forward, that takes us over 300. Genting are going to run Live Super Sats in 8 of their venues, too, so that is on top of the 300. Rob & Simon suggested that "walk-ins" usually account for 40% of the field, so we are in good shape so far.

I've really enjoyed the whole process. It began, unbelivably, in around September or October of 2012, some 16 months ago. Think it'll be my last Big Project, but I'm determined I do everything I can to make it a success. I'm sure someone will disagree with a minor detail, & start a thread saying the whole thing is a joke. Such are poker people.

Will I grace the UKPC felt?

Doubt it, I have plenty to do, & I'll be stressed to death. We will have 2 female Presenters up there, Anna Fowler, & Laura Cornelius, but I'll be the "other half" for all the pieces to camera I gather. The Show for Sky Sports (6 episodes) is taking up a lot more time than I would ideally wish, we had another Meeting yesterday to decide on which commentators etc to use. Some interesting names are in the mixing pot. James Hartigan would have been just perfect, but he has moved on now, so that complicates it a bit. 

Simon is twisting my arm to play the Omaha, & I must say, I'd really love to. But I'm not sure I could relax & enjoy it, whilst other UKPC matters need addressing. For me, poker is a relaxation, I am happiest when playing, all my cares & woes seem to slip away. Can't ever recall getting angry, or cross (the kids call it tilt I believe) whilst playing poker, I just love the whole experience. I do get cross when I get flamed, of course, or have to read absolute joke type threads, but I guess it goes with the territory. I generally try to answer them, of course, scrupulously politely, but I don't ever reply if folks are rude, or are not presenting the facts in a fair & balanced manner. Sod that, I just let them stew in their own. Do as thy will be done.

Anyway........after we ended the UKPC Meet, we then turned our attention to blonde.

More........

[theprawnidentity]

MOARRRR

[tikay]

I hope your visits included Major Oak:



In Sherwood Forest and estimated to be around 800 years old. Arguably, that's slightly convenient, as it would put it back to the reign of King John. But it does look rather old.

We were in the scraggy end of Nottinghamshire, Bilsthorpe way, which used to be mining territory, so no, we never saw Major Oak,or even Major Major Major Major, or Dobbs.

What a thing that tree is! I don't like to see those props under it, I'd prefer nature to take it's course, but I guess if a limb fell & killed some poor sod, the Forestry Commission would get proper sued. 

I'm fascinated by trees, I think it was Tom that taught me their beauty. They come in all different shapes & sizes, but always for a reason - they have to adapt to their environment.

Down where we were, on the periphery of Sherwood Forest I suppose, it is all pine trees. They are extraordinary trees, pines, their trunks are perfectly straight, & barely taper, all the way up. They are almost ready made telegraph poles in fact.  They rarely blow down in gales, despite being shallow-rooted, as they only have branches & leaves at the very top, so offer very little wind resistance. Apparently, the sheer height & straight trunks of pine trees is because they are all trying to be taller than their neighbours, so they can capture the sunlight, which is their energy & lifeblood. Sounds a crazy theory, but I believe it to be true.

These photos are not from Sherwood, but they make the point.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

If you want to get ahead, get a hat.

If you want to get a headache, get several hats.

I'm pretty sure Tom is losing the plot, incidentally, he sent me a text this morning.

"Hi Tone, remind me of the surnames of those 2 famous poker players, Jake ? & Toby?"

I just replied "Hellmuth" & he said "ahh yes, of course" & thanked me.