Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

can you reply to pm when you have a chance please

I reply to all PM's, Patrick, but there's a bit of a backlog at the moment.

And yes, of course, but it takes a great deal of searching to locate that single Thread you requested, as it was over a year ago, I believe. You never mentioned the reason you needed it, was it something specific you needed? If you have a single question about it, I may be able to answer it more quickly.

While you are on, is new blonde Member GTW84 a pal of yours?

lol @ anyone asking tikay to dig out an old thread   post on the forum - someone will find it within a minute.

I know, oh the irony!

It'll take me years to find it, & I have the same search facilitry as anyone else!

I must say, I've had a "most interesting" day, one day and another. If only I could show you some of todays messages, on Twitter, FB, etc. From the sublime to the truly ridiculous.

One Gent wants a right favour, no prob, I'll try. He's written to me chasing me today. 9 times.

[tikay]

Is Stowell's your favourite box of wine?

A dear friend of my late mother used to swear by it.

Wine? You jest. I expect I'm being whooshed.

But if I did like wine, then yes, Stowells was a lovely trade name, off-licences galore, (they call them "beer-off" up North) very much of the age, & I'm sure I'd trust it.

Now explain the uestion, please.....

PS - LOVING "Members Only", the Paul Raymond book, proper page-turner, keeps me up for hours at night. I'll have finished it by tomorrow.

Check out your wiki' page that was linked a short while back.

Groan. I dread to look.

[DaveShoelace]

Of all the 'names' you have interviewd in the last few years. Who was your favourite? And why? And least favourite?

bump

Ive been thinking about this a lot today, I probably have interviewed most of the names in the last few years, but struggling to find many that I really enjoyed. Probably the best interviews I have done have been with non names with interesting back stories.

[tikay]

Of all the 'names' you have interviewd in the last few years. Who was your favourite? And why? And least favourite?

bump

Ive been thinking about this a lot today, I probably have interviewed most of the names in the last few years, but struggling to find many that I really enjoyed. Probably the best interviews I have done have been with non names with interesting back stories.

Me too, it's been at the back of my mind all day, & my list is nearly complete.

I may Post it up after my PTP has finished. No good just posting the names, though, it needs the reason, too.

[DaveShoelace]

There have been loads of people I will have forgot, but these are the ones that stick out:

Exactly as you expect them to be:
Hellmuth – nice, but managed to refer to himself as the greatest before I even asked him anything.
Devilfish
Patrik Antonius
Gus Hansen – very nice guy btw
Channing – he once rang me up, talked for 20 minutes, I didn’t say a word, he said bye, that was the interview

Surprisingly fun
Ian Frazer – really expected him to be a cock, but hell of a nice guy
Roy Brindley – never been a fan of his as a player/commentator, but loved his book and we talked for hours, mainly about dogs.
Andy Black – oddest interview ever. First of all he was a really good bloke, made me lots of tea and let me finish off his biscuits. We spent hours talking about Buddhism and the meaning of life. I left his house feeling enlightened and then about 6 minutes later I said to myself “hang on, every single thing he said just then was total bullshit”.
Moormans Dad – my favourite interview of all time, a fascinating story, a great insight from an outsider looking in at the game of poker and amazing to ask a highly successful pros Dad questions about being the father of a highly successful pro.

Surprisingly difficult
Tony G – I must keep catching him on off days because he is a hell of a nice guy just to chat to in fact he is probably one of the kindest poker people I know, but its always been a case of pulling teeth and long uncomfortable silences when I interview him. Maybe its because I know him and he is technically my boss, so he probably drops the act.

Top blokes
Thewy, Jake Cody, JP Kelly & Stuart Rutter – same reason, the nicest blokes in poker, very humble despite a shit ton of success
Phil Galfond – really nice, fascinating to talk to, very humble considering his success, shit hot player obv.

Tosspots
Ziigmund - honestly cant remember why, but he spat his dummy out proper about something really trivial, did a right diva strop, last person I expected to act that way

My all time fave interview was Moormans Dad, my all time fave big name was probably Phil Galfond, Ziigmund was the worst.

[pleno1]

can somebody post the ipokr/blonde thread pls. kthxbai

[pokerfan]

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=45532.0

[Claw75]

i meant 7 minutes

[pokerfan]

i meant 7 minutes

Was within a minute of reading his post if that counts.

[KarmaDope]

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=45532.0

Just read this again to remind me how bad Aqua/iPoker were and a couple of questions from this...

Your thoughts on p2p transfers? We had a mini-discussion on it and I was kinda hoping you'd reply to it in some form. Also, would be interesting to hear the whole story on the options that were offered to blonde after the Cardroom died...

ETA: Do people think the SAS will ever return?

[pleno1]

PM 1 answered.

PM 2 is abit more businessy so reply whenever and hopefully we can come up with something

[EvilPie]

ETA: Do people think the SAS will ever return?

Whilst blonde don't have their own cardroom absolutely no chance whatsoever.

[TightEnd]

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=45532.0

Just read this again to remind me how bad Aqua/iPoker were and a couple of questions from this...

Your thoughts on p2p transfers? We had a mini-discussion on it and I was kinda hoping you'd reply to it in some form. Also, would be interesting to hear the whole story on the options that were offered to blonde after the Cardroom died...

ETA: Do people think the SAS will ever return?

SAS, No. Not unless we had a card-room. Having a card-room is very unlikely...partly set up cost related, partly what the resources required to manage a skin on an ongoing basis would cost. Its just me left.

I spent Nov/Dec 2009 investigating six live options. Worked night and day on it

From opening a skin on another network, through super-affiliate deals and through to sale of blonde. Can't mention any names as I signed Non Disclousre agreements with various parties. Almost all the sale options fell through as the majority of the card-room player database had accounts with those who cannot be named already, so the acquisition opportunity from sign ups was limited, though the community opportunity was attractive in one particular case it was difficult to make the financials work. Hence we went down the affiliate route, and may have done anyway even if other options presented themselves

Commercially, blonde is yet to recover from the effects caused by the levying of fines and then dismissal by IPoker both in monetary terms and in terms of loss of people. It took us to the brink.  blonde is stable now, no debt and not at risk as such, but without the ability to really push commercially.

[The Camel]

There have been loads of people I will have forgot, but these are the ones that stick out:

Exactly as you expect them to be:
Hellmuth – nice, but managed to refer to himself as the greatest before I even asked him anything.
Devilfish
Patrik Antonius
Gus Hansen – very nice guy btw
Channing – he once rang me up, talked for 20 minutes, I didn’t say a word, he said bye, that was the interview

Surprisingly fun
Ian Frazer – really expected him to be a cock, but hell of a nice guy
Roy Brindley – never been a fan of his as a player/commentator, but loved his book and we talked for hours, mainly about dogs.
Andy Black – oddest interview ever. First of all he was a really good bloke, made me lots of tea and let me finish off his biscuits. We spent hours talking about Buddhism and the meaning of life. I left his house feeling enlightened and then about 6 minutes later I said to myself “hang on, every single thing he said just then was total bullshit”.
Moormans Dad – my favourite interview of all time, a fascinating story, a great insight from an outsider looking in at the game of poker and amazing to ask a highly successful pros Dad questions about being the father of a highly successful pro.

Surprisingly difficult
Tony G – I must keep catching him on off days because he is a hell of a nice guy just to chat to in fact he is probably one of the kindest poker people I know, but its always been a case of pulling teeth and long uncomfortable silences when I interview him. Maybe its because I know him and he is technically my boss, so he probably drops the act.

Top blokes
Thewy, Jake Cody, JP Kelly & Stuart Rutter – same reason, the nicest blokes in poker, very humble despite a shit ton of success
Phil Galfond – really nice, fascinating to talk to, very humble considering his success, shit hot player obv.

Tosspots
Ziigmund - honestly cant remember why, but he spat his dummy out proper about something really trivial, did a right diva strop, last person I expected to act that way

My all time fave interview was Moormans Dad, my all time fave big name was probably Phil Galfond, Ziigmund was the worst.

I sat to the left of Gus handsen for about 5 hours on day 3 or 4 of the wsop main event a couple of years ago (barg post obv)

He had about three times the average and played some absolutely devastating poker.

Because I was on his left (and was pretty healthy in chips myself) I could sit back and enjoy the grandstand view of at all.

Anyways.. a couple of days later I was on a break and munching a pizza when Gus spots me and sits down next to me and asks how I'm doing in the tournament.

He then proceeds to give me a complete run down of the way I played, what he considered my strengths and weaknesses and where he thought I should change my strategy.

I then asked him how he he was doing.. "Busted out 5 mintes ago"

Pretty effing awesome imo.

[Tonji]

I Believe I Can Fly (14 Airplane Cockpits)
360-degree spherical panoramas.

http://blog.360cities.net/airplane-cockpits/