Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[bobby1]

Think she just won a seat to play devilfish this weekend tony. Rotty11 on dtd

That is the alias she used to use back in the days when I was at Sporting Bet. Jeez, I have some memories of that job, incredible.

They paid me fortunes, & sent me all over Europe to look after players in Tourneys. The top suit rung me one day "any chance you can go over to Monte Carlo for a few days, we will book you a suite in The Hermitage?".

Eh what? Just a bit.

I flew out the next morning, & I booked into The Hermitage, what a posh place that was.

It was the year that the "DTD Girls" were around, & Mr Zimbler was the PR chap, & he had a photographer there in Monte Carlo doing a photoshoot of all the girls.  I know "sex sells", but I don't much like that sort of stuff, it's about the only tacky thing DTD have ever done, imo.

At that time, DTD were sponsoring Dave Colclough, Carlo Citrone, Chubbs, & a bunch of others who I can't recall right now. Eventually, of course, that all ended, inevitably. 

Sporting Bet also stuck me in various Tourneys, I ran 2nd for £19,000 in a £500 Tourney they sponsored @ Gutshot, the "London Poker Masters". The winner was a guy who is now a blonde, "LPM Champ", John Curtis, also in the Final were Jim McShane & Willie Tann, with Flushy busting just shy of the Final Table. I ran embarrassingly hot, twice busting Aces with Kings, but got coolered Heads Up when we both flopped top pair.

I was, at the same time, trying to run a Blonde Live Update @ The Vic, & one of our Updaters let us down badly, an event which was won by Tony G, who I was quite close to at ther time.

What with this & that, I never went to bed for 3 days straight, & I was in bad shape physically by then. My Final was televised, too, & everyone said I looked & played shite. They were not wrong.

A weird thing went off. A kid called Rolf Woods, Norweigan chap, owed me a favour, & just before the Gutshot Event I bumped into him @ The Vic. He stuck £100 in my hand, "here, I'll buy 20% of your action, by way of thank you".

I was sponsored in, & did not want to sell any, but he kind of insisted, & I was in a mad rush, so I said "OK, thanks".

After the Final ended @ Gutshot, they never had enough cash on the premises to pay me out, so I took a kite instead. I get a cab back to The Vic to meet Jen Mason, & see the end of the Final there, & Rolf is waiting for me - "can I have my 20% now please?". I never had the cash on me, just the kite, & told him so, & he got a bit arsey with me, insisting I pay immediately.  Ho hum.

Later, Jen & I had dinner @ The Vic, & Tony G owed someone some cash apparently. Seeing me sat there with Jen, he tossed me a £25,000 chip, & said "can you pass that on to xx if you see him". Just like that. I never saw "x" for several months, so I had his £25,000 in my pocket all that time. Nice.

The Final that Tony G won was a £5,000 thing, big event back in those days, & he cashed for £260,000 I think, tidy money even now. Runner Up was a nice, good looking Norweigan kid who ran hot for a year or two, Sverre Sundbo, & in third place was Ed Moncado, who had blitzed a WSOP PL Event shortly before, but who soon fizzled out.  Dave Rudling & Vik Kanwar - "Desperate Dan" also finalled, as did Max Pescatori.

An Irish lad, a good pal @ one time, Peter Roche, was in it too, I liked him muchly, but he disappeared off my radar a few years later, but not before a bit of a to-do with a very peculiar poker site he was involved with - "All-In Poker" I think it was called. Long, long, story that, & it all got a bit messy, & awkward. I've not heard of Peter for some years, & I hope he is OK. Sometimes, situations arise, & pals find themselves on different sides of a fence.  Back then, of course, poker was booming, & sites were starting up left right & centre, all trying to find an angle.

Chubby Nowab cashed, too, as did one Achilleas Kalakkis.   

I'm rambling. As per.
 

Something quite ridic happened at the start of that final table Tony but shows what a top man Peter Roche is. It was being filmed by a company that did TV but clearly hadn't filmed poker before. They turned up late and the final was delayed, once they started playing Peter Roche said after a couple of hands 'I can see the cards of the guy sitting next to me, they are reflecting off the camera lense under the table'

They stopped playing and some arsey TV guy that seemed to be in charge stuck a load of black masking tape over the edges of the TV card boxes and also did some work on the cameras under the table.

When they began playing again Peter stopped them again and said 'I can still see this guys cards'. They asked around the table and nobody else said they could see the cards of the person next to them so the producer guy told Peter he would have to carry on playing as they was nothing he could do!!

So in a spot where Roche could see the cards of the guy to act after him thru a reflection under the table, and was told he had to carry on as there was nothing the TV crew could do, Peter actually refused to continue because it was unfair on the rest of the table.

I can think of a lot of people in that spot, playing for a qtr of a million that would have kept quiet.

I immediately put him on the list to play in Cardiff and asked him about that incident when we were there. He swore blind he would have refused to play in the final if they hadn't solved it, which in the end they did.

[jgcblack]

I'm saddened to say that I've resorted to coming over here to draw attention to both you and your readers that I'm adding culture and intrigue to my poker and life blog over in 'an ape and a notebook'!

See you later today bigman, I understand you'll be at DTD for the £500...?

[tikay]

LilDave starts to get out of it in Vegas, & wins a few 5 figure pots. Only $$$'s, though.

http://bit.ly/rMcodN

[tikay]

What time did you get up this morning?

Strange question, but Friday (the day you asked), 5am, today, (Saturday) 6am.

Weekdays 5am, weekends 6am, is my general habit.

Things to do........

[tikay]

Yes guess you could say he is sky pokers isildur1.... He seemed to be in all your weeks top twenty biggest pots. Must confess its the first time I have come across channel 865 but then you came on 404? In high definition and the difference in picture quality of the two channels was amazing.

(Referred to Plenners man, "Derp").

Not sure about that, but he's prety aggro, & although some say he overdoes it, his bet sizing showed some thought. One thing for sure, if you are at his Table, there will be action. It is gaurenteed.

[tikay]

Yes guess you could say he is sky pokers isildur1.... He seemed to be in all your weeks top twenty biggest pots. Must confess its the first time I have come across channel 865 but then you came on 404? In high definition and the difference in picture quality of the two channels was amazing.

What? You do not tune in to listen to my pearls of wisdom every night? GTFO my Diary!

Yes, I'm told the difference in picture quality when we simulcast on Sky Sports is incredible.

I always promised that if & when 865 goes HD, I will retire from the Channel, & I meant it, HD is brutal. Maybe the time is very soon.

[tikay]

What is a "storied franchise"? Franchise I understand, storied I do not.

Storied is a just an adjective meaning legendary.

Enjoyed the back in the day tales. More of those please.

It is amazing that I can get to my age & not know the meaning of words like that. Pretty dumb, really. Still, I'm trying to make up for lost time now, & it does not embarrass me to ask, or fess up to my ignorance. Never too late to learn, eh, & I don't have a shred or scintilla of ego.

"back in the day" stories. I could write one every day, from now until the day I die, I would never run out of them. I only have to see a Final Table from, say, 2004, 2005, whatever, & the memories come flooding back.

I LOVE writing tales - more on that, if time permits, after I have caught up on yesterday's Diary comments & questions. If not, tomorrow.

I just have to be a little careful about what I say. If I get too honest, it can cause aggro, & I don't want that. I wrote something a few weeks back aboit a chap I had not seen or spoken to in years, it was balanced & honest, but he got well out of bed with me, & it kicked off. 

I wrote about Peter Roche yesterday, & was scared it would get mis-interpreted. We were good mates, I liked him muchly, & I miss his Company, but business sort of caused a few problems in the relationship, drove a wedge between us. He was representing a Poker Site callked "All-In Poker", which was, in effect, a pyramid selling thing, & I strongly disapproved of it. So that caused a bit of a rift for a while. The Site collapsed - obviously - within months, & I often wonder if I should have just stayed schtum. I genuinely hope he is OK, fit & well.

It has happened with other business matters too - Poker Trillion (Mr Pyrah & Mr Akilleas, cost blonde £7,000), TonyG when he was at Titan Poker, (that one cost me $5,000, but we are on good terms now), then there was that site that James Browning was a partner in, Poka Poka was it? It never lasted long, & was never going to, but that caused some stresses in a friendship with James, though I'm pleased to say, we are cool now.  blondepoker owned 5% of "Poka-Poka" I think, as the business model was to sell %'s to the "faces" & Sites in poker, to promote awareness. I would imagine 30 or 40 other people & Sites also owned 5% of that Site, too.

Jeez, don't get me started.

[smashedagain]

The reason I asked was because I had been reading about Mrs Thatcher only needing 3 or 4 hours sleep a night and we were up chatting the night before till quite late. I think my last post was 4.28am and the kids had me up at 6.30am. I feel fine with only a couple of hours sleep and fine after 7 or 8 hours sleep. If I get 4 or 5 hours tho I just feel terrible and can't function properly. Working as hard as you do, I just knew that you would not be one to stay in bed in the mornings.

You do know that there are hundreds of damm channels on sky and my favs are in the 520's with all the discovery stuff although the 600's dominate in our house because that's we're the kids stuff is.  After the 600's I thought it was just shopping channels, pay per view and porn all of which I don't have much use for

[tikay]

Back in my banking days, to 'kite a cheque' was the act of writing a cheque when the funds to cover it weren't in the bank. Often, multiple cheques would be written, each bigger than the last, with cash deposited to the account from each to cover the next that might be presented. Used by many as a form of payday loan when the supermarkets used to allow you to pay by cheque and get cashback on a Thursday with no prospect of the cheque hitting your account for payment before the following Tuesday...

To call a cheque a 'kite' seems to imply that it is likely to be returned with the dreaded 'Refer to Drawer' stamp. Or worse, 'Refer to Drawer, Do Not Re-Present'

But the gambling and poker world have had their own argot for ages - it was only comparatively recently that I finally got clear in my mind the difference between a Pony and a Monkey. (one you ride, the other you sit in front of a typewriter)

Thanks for that, David.

1) I was surprised that someone as erudite as Tighty never knew what a "kite" was.

2) Until you Posted, I was starting to wonder where the expression arose. You answered that, & maybe I have always misunderstood the expression - to me, it was simply short for "cheque", & did not imply any wrongdoing.

Having said that, your explanation fits, "flying a kite" is usually deemed to mean doing something a bit iffy. An expression I use a fair bit is "that kite won't fly", meaning that a deal, story, proposal, whatever, is tosh, or wrong.

So I guess you have nailed the meaning - thanks.

[tikay]

The reason I asked was because I had been reading about Mrs Thatcher only needing 3 or 4 hours sleep a night and we were up chatting the night before till quite late. I think my last post was 4.28am and the kids had me up at 6.30am. I feel fine with only a couple of hours sleep and fine after 7 or 8 hours sleep. If I get 4 or 5 hours tho I just feel terrible and can't function properly. Working as hard as you do, I just knew that you would not be one to stay in bed in the mornings.

You do know that there are hundreds of damm channels on sky and my favs are in the 520's with all the discovery stuff although the 600's dominate in our house because that's we're the kids stuff is.  After the 600's I thought it was just shopping channels, pay per view and porn all of which I don't have much use for

My last Post was at around 3am, & I was up again @ 5am, I think.

It catches up on me, always, & I get ratty & tetchy - I've even been known to get grumpy & obdurate - but the only answer is to get to bed earlier, which I did last night (10pm), getting up later than 5am or 6am is never an option, it's just a lifetime habit. It's a treat, actually, before I retired, I got up @ 4am every day, & even  now, 7 or 8 years on, getting up @ 5am seems like a treat, or a lie-in, to me. The early mornings are my favourite time to work, I love it.

I wish I could lie in, & learn to relax more, but I just can't, I have to be at it all the time, I can't even sit still & watch TV, except very rarely, I need to do something else at the same time.

In that respect, Scotland @ Christmas was awesome. No internet or phones meant I was forced to switch off. It was the best holiday I have ever had, not even close.

[tikay]

Watched the 1st episode of Jeremy Paxman's Empire last night. Not made my mind up yet about it. Did you catch it.

Its on Iplayer

No, I missed it, Jim, but I heard a tease about it on the wireless, & it sounded superb. Mr Paxman does not mince his words, but he has that rare quality of being able to say controversial or painful stuff without being rude. Just like a typical poker player then, eh?

[tikay]

Planes! That reminds me

I watched a documentary during one of my insomnia bouts recently. It was one where the pilot got sucked out of a broken cockpit window. One of his colleagues grabbed his legs, but he was doubled backwards hanging out of the plane front window at 30,000. His collegue kept hold of him all the while during the emergency, despite the fact they believed he was dead.

The Co-pilot landed at Southampton airport (being talked down), and everyone got out safely.

Then when they peeled the captain off the front of the plane, he was still alive!!!!! It was unreal. Well worth a watch if you can find on line.

Proper miracle!

Imagine what the poor fella was thinking, his life hanging on by a thread for all that time?

By the bye, Guy, was it you that asked a few weeks ago on here about restoration work on my house, after the great flood?

I was reminded of it yesterday - painfully. If so, nudge me, & I will reply.

If you did not, as you were.....

[tikay]

   Concorde has moved to give access to the West pen hangar which has been refurbished,the roof has been raised to accept the A380.It hasn't been repainted as far as I know maybe just washed,I heard it's in a bit of a state internally as it was filled with BA highlife magazine's for ballast and mold has taken over,pretty sad really.
   The one in Manchester is in much better nick and was recently powered up,we have a few guys at work who go up in there spare time and maintain it.Given half a chance and a bit of money they would have it taxing about,but to get it flying again would cost multi dollars and the I doubt the CAA would ever give it it's certificate of airworthiness again.

   Runways?I have no idea,I guess its all about weather conditions and evenly spreading out landings/takeoffs for the local residents.I'am not a real spotter I just hit areoplanes with a hammer for a living.

Thanks David.

Rather geekily - maybe only Guy will appreciate this - but I have followed the tale of fitting the A380's into the existing hangers with some excitement & interest, it's quite a thing.

Did you know (well, yes, you did, but others may not) that BA's main 747 Hanger @ Heathrow is a "Listed Building"?!

That the 747 "only" needs 24 metres to allow a 747 to fit in, but the A380 needs 28 metres? That is equivelant to a NINE storey office block!

The sheer scale of a 747 or A380 means that we never realise quite how big those beauties are.

Even now, I often stand as close to the take-off runway as I can, & I still can barely believe those things get off the ground. Those engines have power we can barely comprehend. The latest RR Trent engines deliver, what, 100,000lbs of thrust? A meaningless number to me, but they must be pretty neat.

PS - That perimeter fence @ Heathrow between the Perimeter Road & "Airside" is SUCH a pain - why does it have that "solid" central section which makes viewing, & taking photographs, so damn awkward?

Here's the Hanger Extension story.....

http://www.planetalkinglive.com/2011/11/24/british-airways-modify-heathrow-hangar-to-fit-new-a380-aircraft/

[tikay]

In the mechanical world, is there a better sound, or noise, than a 747 or A380 about to tke off, when they "power-up" the engines?

If there is, I want to hear it.

LOVE these things.

[tikay]

Oh no, here I am discussing aeroplanes, & Flushy is ITT.......

Stand by for take off.