Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[bobby1]

It must have been in late 1967. A jumps meeting at Newbury, and the race train back to Paddington from Newbury ran nicely on time, arriving early into Paddington Station, easing to a halt nice & gently.

As was the custom back in the day, the driver would lean over the cab of the diesel loco, surveying from his lofty perch the passengers rushing towards the barrier, tickets in hand. This was not general curiosity, this was when the driver earned his tips, as the occasional passenger would thrust a half crown, or even a 10 shilling note, into the driver's dirty hand, "nice smooth journey, my man", or "10 minutes early, here, have a drink". The driver was not "released" from duty until the train emptied, anyway, & from Paddington, he had to travel back "light" (empty, without the coaches) to the depot, at Old Oak Common, so he'd try & collect a few tips whilst killing time.

On this occasion, as the driver leaned & waited, ready to thrust out his hand if eye-contact was made, a posh looking young bloke, trilby hat at a raffish angle, came up to the driver, & instead of proferring a tip in the money sense, this time it was a tip for a horse.

The driver backed the horse, & there began the story.

The tip was for the 1968 Lincolnshire handicap, 4 or 5 months later.

The name of the horse was "Frankincense", which landed a mighty gamble at all prices down from 66/1, winning a shade cosily under Greville Starkey.

The driver of the train was my Dad, Jimmy Kendall.

The dapper young chap who gave Dad the tip was Barry Hills, who, from the proceeds of that gamble, opened a racing stable, & went on to have a glorious career, saddling over 3,000 winners, & who retired recently, & sadly, in ill-health.

Dad went on to be a daily punter for the rest of his life, never a day passed without he'd do his "yankee". He'd back any Barry Hills trained horse "blind", ditto anything ridden by George Duffield.

In later years, when Dad became unwell, I would take his bets, promising to back them for him, but instead, I would "stand them" without telling him.  Soon, I was standing bets for half the estate we lived on. I stood all of Dad's bets for the last 4 or 5 years of his life.

Imagine the mixed emotions you endure if you "stand" bets from your Dad, who you love? Truth is, I was soon taking bets from loads of people, so I could always afford the luxury of hoping Dad's bet would win. Sadly, he rarely did. Like so many, he had no idea really, but, you know, that "bug" bites, & we cannot help ourselves.

By now, of course, I had the bug myself, & soon it bit me, too, & I became a daily punter. If you include poker, I think I have probably had a gamble 9 days in 10 for over 45 years now, though I had not bet for a decade or more prior to yesterday, as poker ticks all my gaming boxes. Now, I don't play so much poker.......

A lovely story Tony, how did the laying go long term?

[Royal Flush]

I didn't forget to bid....if people are selling shares I will decide to buy or not to buy, I am not going to be bidding up the price. I hope the experiment fails as I would hate to lose the action of more players who look to do the same

[skolsuper]

I didn't forget to bid....if people are selling shares I will decide to buy or not to buy, I am not going to be bidding up the price. I hope the experiment fails as I would hate to lose the action of more players who look to do the same

If you don't want to pay more than 1.2 then just bid 1.2, you don't have to boycott it. Personally I really hope this catches on so we can see how the market adjusts for things like field size, structure and varying skill edge (basically I just want to see if I can get the highest prices )

[kinboshi]

Maybe you need a 'Buy it now price' as well as the auction?

[outragous76]

Maybe you need a 'Buy it now price' as well as the auction?

caps his price thou

[kinboshi]

Maybe you need a 'Buy it now price' as well as the auction?

caps his price thou

Maybe a 'Buy It Now' price is only available for percentages over a certain amount.  Yes, it'd potentially limit his return, but it could be set above the line he thinks he could/should sell at.

[skolsuper]

Maybe you need a 'Buy it now price' as well as the auction?

Don't think it needs anything, is working fine as it is.

[Dubai]

seems fun but pointless for selling anything big as you know anyway

[skolsuper]

seems fun but pointless for selling anything big as you know anyway

Disagree, I think it's perfectly scalable tbh, although it might take people missing out on a bargain to get the balance right in the end. Am going to do it with some bigger tournaments/percentages in the near future.

[Dubai]

Well the only reason you would do it is if you thought you would sell higher than normal, but dont think theres enough big buyers on blonde for 10ks to mess around with auctions- for 1ks think its smart of you for sure to do it

[skolsuper]

Well the only reason you would do it is if you thought you would sell higher than normal, but dont think theres enough big buyers on blonde for 10ks to mess around with auctions- for 1ks think its smart of you for sure to do it

I think people are reading way too much into the 'auction' part of it. What's to "mess around with"? Potential buyers just need to read the thread, make a value judgement as to what represents a good price, then ship me a pm. We make these judgements all the time when we open staking threads, I know flushy does it, for example the facebook thread where lildave was selling WSOP action at 1.4 and flushy replied with "Will take 25 @1.25 if this doesn't sell". It takes no more effort than any other thread, with the possible exception of yourself and flushy having to type a price alongside the word "rest". I think people are getting way too focused on trying to find an edge in there somewhere, like I have no idea what tikay's on about with his bidding partners and whatnot, but there's no way to influence the outcome without coordinating with all the other buyers on blonde, and even then if you do succeed in knocking the price down a few pips, there's nothing to stop an outsider with more than 10 posts coming in and getting a bargain.

I think once the novelty has worn off there will probably be something that sells super cheap, which will win over the more skeptical punters and after that a price equlibrium will be reached.

[Karabiner]

I'm not a huge buyer of pieces but I do sometimes if I both like and trust both the player and his/her game.

I would never enter into some kind of auction though, that would put me off as I want to know where I stand from the start.

Nothing wrong with it and I can see where Stu is coming from but just not for me.

[smashedagain]

i love it and think keys is innovative and a breath of fresh air.

who is stu tho?

[Karabiner]

i love it and think keys is innovative and a breath of fresh air.

who is stu tho?

My bad, thought is was the Rutter but whatever...

[pleno1]

Hey Tikay