Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[GreekStein]

Talking of books my son gave me “Life’s a Gamble” by Roy Brindley for Xmas.
It’s a jaw dropping read of an addicted gambler who can be up one moment and then literally on the street and in the gutter the next.
In fact ‘cos it’s Friday I will pass it on to the first person that wants to have it. Just pm me your address.
epic?

Love to read this sir.

If I pm you my address please could you let me know costs of postage etc so I can at least pay you for that.

[AndrewT]

Watched this series recently - The Mayfair Set, an earlyish programme from the documentary maker Adam Curtis. All about how people like James Goldsmith and Tiny Rowland 'made' their money - you'd probably remember some of the deals of the time.

http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheMayfairSet

[celtic]

Chompy is totally missing the point on the charity night. It will be fun, is for a good cause and fancy dress is not compulsory.

Anyway, tikay, I have the commentator gig for the heads up between my new poker  hero China 'king of the slowrollz' Mug and carmel. What tips can you give me please?

If I can do it  i will do the final table too. You can be my assistant if you get there..

[Laxie]

Pretty sure Roy still drives the white Porsche.

[tikay]

Whoops, Lord Kimber is on thread.

He's sure to have a take on our Roy......

Awaited with interest.

[tikay]

Chompy is totally missing the point on the charity night. It will be fun, is for a good cause and fancy dress is not compulsory.

Anyway, tikay, I have the commentator gig for the heads up between my new poker  hero China 'king of the slowrollz' Mug and carmel. What tips can you give me please?

If I can do it  i will do the final table too. You can be my assistant if you get there..

You sure? I was so looking forward to this.

[JaffaCake]

Whoops, Lord Kimber is on thread.

He's sure to have a take on our Roy......

Awaited with interest.

Ha, feels rather set up for muck raking but I don't see much point in that. The first time I ever qualified for a 'live' tournement and never having played a live tournament before was on Ladbrokes in 2005 and Roy was sent to do the hosting for the first time. He was excellent at it and we hit it off straight away, the other two qualifiers had brought their wives n kids so we hung out all week and got into many scrapes that u couldn't repeat on a family forum. He was full of tips and advice on playing live for the first time and took me out with legends I'd only seen on late night poker in the evenings, barny, willie tann, kev o connell and devilfish, even tho tho the two of them never saw eye to eye.

We never got on so well once we became ‘teammates’ and were both sponsored by Ladbrokes, I think after just him being the face of Laddies another guy coming in, no matter who, was taking the spotlight away a bit, and as I played loads more online so the punters knew me, and was having more success in live comps I think he felt a bit looked over.

One thing we do have in common tho is how badly Ladbrokes eventually treated us, lots of underhand goings on, breaking of promises and going back on assurances. I never made too much of a fuss at the time, as I was ‘warned’ that burning bridges would be a bad idea. They went from having a team of 8 players from all over the world to just Skalie now I think, from touraments all over Sky with million dollar prizes to comps held on caravan sites and pubs.

I still find it a shame the state that site is in now compared to those days five years ago, when every European player was playing there every night and there were loads of great games. Now it’s like a ghost town, showing those making the decisions didn’t get everything right even if they thought they did. I’m sure the full stories will come out one day, tho I haven’t read Roy’s book, much as I’d like to.

One story that your post reminded me of was the William Hill grand prix he won on tv. He played so well in that, I think maybe it was one of those runners-up second chance things that inevitably seems to have a much stronger line-up that the final (think he went on to come second or third in the final). But in the semi he was at his best, pushing people around, bluffing every hand, leaving the others scratching their heads.

I saw him a week or so later and said how well he’d played, absolute class above. He said he’d heard a close friend had died just before the filming (or maybe he’d come straight from the funeral?) and had been on the whiskey all day. He woke up the next day knowing he’d been on tv but not even knowing whether he’d won or not. He was so drunk they abandoned the interview afterwards and told him he had to come back and do it the next week when he could speak properly.

[MrDickie]

Ok that's in the post for you Mr GreekStein. Hope you enjoy.

[MrDickie]

One story that your post reminded me of was the William Hill grand prix he won on tv. He played so well in that, I think maybe it was one of those runners-up second chance things that inevitably seems to have a much stronger line-up that the final (think he went on to come second or third in the final). But in the semi he was at his best, pushing people around, bluffing every hand, leaving the others scratching their heads.
[/quote]
I think this was just after he had done some live commentary for the first time with the hole cards shown. It all clicked into place once he realised what awful cards people were dealt most of the time.

[tikay]

Whoops, Lord Kimber is on thread.

He's sure to have a take on our Roy......

Awaited with interest.

Ha, feels rather set up for muck raking but I don't see much point in that. The first time I ever qualified for a 'live' tournement and never having played a live tournament before was on Ladbrokes in 2005 and Roy was sent to do the hosting for the first time. He was excellent at it and we hit it off straight away, the other two qualifiers had brought their wives n kids so we hung out all week and got into many scrapes that u couldn't repeat on a family forum. He was full of tips and advice on playing live for the first time and took me out with legends I'd only seen on late night poker in the evenings, barny, willie tann, kev o connell and devilfish, even tho tho the two of them never saw eye to eye.

We never got on so well once we became ‘teammates’ and were both sponsored by Ladbrokes, I think after just him being the face of Laddies another guy coming in, no matter who, was taking the spotlight away a bit, and as I played loads more online so the punters knew me, and was having more success in live comps I think he felt a bit looked over.

One thing we do have in common tho is how badly Ladbrokes eventually treated us, lots of underhand goings on, breaking of promises and going back on assurances. I never made too much of a fuss at the time, as I was ‘warned’ that burning bridges would be a bad idea. They went from having a team of 8 players from all over the world to just Skalie now I think, from touraments all over Sky with million dollar prizes to comps held on caravan sites and pubs.

I still find it a shame the state that site is in now compared to those days five years ago, when every European player was playing there every night and there were loads of great games. Now it’s like a ghost town, showing those making the decisions didn’t get everything right even if they thought they did. I’m sure the full stories will come out one day, tho I haven’t read Roy’s book, much as I’d like to.

One story that your post reminded me of was the William Hill grand prix he won on tv. He played so well in that, I think maybe it was one of those runners-up second chance things that inevitably seems to have a much stronger line-up that the final (think he went on to come second or third in the final). But in the semi he was at his best, pushing people around, bluffing every hand, leaving the others scratching their heads.

I saw him a week or so later and said how well he’d played, absolute class above. He said he’d heard a close friend had died just before the filming (or maybe he’d come straight from the funeral?) and had been on the whiskey all day. He woke up the next day knowing he’d been on tv but not even knowing whether he’d won or not. He was so drunk they abandoned the interview afterwards and told him he had to come back and do it the next week when he could speak properly.

A perfctly balanced Post, Jeff, thanks.

No, absolutely not, I was not setting up some muck-raising, quite the opposite, I was keen to hear your line, as I know you were "Team Mates".

Human psychology perfectly explains the chemistry that developed between you both, & you explain it perfectly. So rare to see such balance.

You summed it up really - he was not always as good as gold, but not bad either, & all I can say is that he never did me wrong, not once.

The sad demise of Laddies (poker) is exactly that, who'd have thought? It was, for a while, THE place to play, with lovely software & terrific Tourneys. How often did you win "The Daddy", ditto Red-Dog? Real prestige in that, in those days, & tidy money, too.

I used to play an $8k Guaranteed jobbie on Laddies, $220 price tag, every afternoon at 2.30pm, & the field was well hot, & it covered it guarantee every day. Suddenly, they halved the g'tee, & the Tourney was dead within weeks.

It should be said that Ladbrokes plc is going along very nicely, very nicely indeed - it is only the poker room, a very small part of the whole, which is doing badly. I'd be astonished if they do not offload it, as it's damaging a good brand.

The odd thing is that at the time, everyone slated the Online Room, just as they slated Tribeca when it was in it's heyday. After Tribeca closed, it was all "bring back Tribeca".  How soon before we all bemoan the passing of Ladbrokes poker?

The Laddies Poker Cruise was a HUGE thing, too, it used to sell-out 6 months in advance. Interesting memories.

[tikay]

One story that your post reminded me of was the William Hill grand prix he won on tv. He played so well in that, I think maybe it was one of those runners-up second chance things that inevitably seems to have a much stronger line-up that the final (think he went on to come second or third in the final). But in the semi he was at his best, pushing people around, bluffing every hand, leaving the others scratching their heads.

I think this was just after he had done some live commentary for the first time with the hole cards shown. It all clicked into place once he realised what awful cards people were dealt most of the time.
[/quote]

Lol. The kidz absolutely slaughtered him for his commentary, but it was always thus, it's easy when you don't have to do it!

[DaveShoelace]

I'm not a big fan of Roy the poker player but his book is amazing, brutally honest, its the sort of thing most of us would read with a dropped jaw from start to finish, yet Greekstein would use as a guide for how to live ones life.

[tikay]

I'm not a big fan of Roy the poker player but his book is amazing, brutally honest, its the sort of thing most of us would read with a dropped jaw from start to finish, yet Greekstein would use as a guide for how to live ones life.

Deffo that. Rare to see such honesty.

You read Mr Ulliott's tome? Just asking, like.

[DaveShoelace]

I'm not a big fan of Roy the poker player but his book is amazing, brutally honest, its the sort of thing most of us would read with a dropped jaw from start to finish, yet Greekstein would use as a guide for how to live ones life.

Deffo that. Rare to see such honesty.

You read Mr Ulliott's tome? Just asking, like.

I havent actually, I spoke to him about it at a media thingy when he launched it and that was enough to put me off. My assumption would be that it would be pretty one sided and like one of those films that glorify gangsters n that, am I wrong?

[DaveShoelace]

Regarding the demise of Ladbrokes, nothing quite summed that up for me more than the poaching of Peter Eastgate by PokerStars when he made the final table. They had a shed load of WSOP qualifiers that year, the atmosphere was great as Ladbrokes hospitality always is, but the following year their effort was considerably reduced for Vegas, there was a real sense of you cant compete with the big guns so why bother.