Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Just picking up a few points on the debate about The Masters.

Racism. Yes, I very well remember that being the case, "blacks cannot play, they may only be caddies".  It stung then, as it stings in the memory now. What a thing, only a few decades ago, wow!

Racism, of course, was endemic in that part of America. I don't know how it sits now, but I hope it has improved immeasurably. A little part of me will never forgive Augusta National for that. The first ever black member of Augusta National was admitted only in 1990, 22 years ago.

They still have problems with sexism too, though that is not confined to Augusta, or even America, it is, arguably, worse in the UK.

By tradition almost, the Chairman of IBM, who are long-term sponsors ("partners" in the modern parlance) of The Masters, is always made very welcome at Augusta, gives a speech, sits on the Committee, & everything. The Chaiman of IBM as of now is a Chairwoman, so that went down well. Not. There was a terrible hoohah at the pre Masters Press Conference about it, & the press pretty much put Billy Payne (Augusta Chairman) in a coffin about it last week.

I dont believe the sexism issue @ Augusta National will go away any time soon, either.

Westwood. I'm no expert here, but I thought, for the most part, & with 1 or 2 exceptions, that he just ran bad on the greens, so many of them shaved the hole. Fo sho......if he had putted even half well, he would have been in with a far better chance of winning it. A SOTBO that.

New putting coach for him? Maybe so, but the best putting coach on the planet will not cure him of missing 14" tiddlers, as he did at least once last week. Surely, that was not technique, it was just carelessness?

A great, great, TV spectacle, for all its warts.

[Kev B]

Great read Tony. Joo's Mum watches just for the beautiful scenery around the course. Me and Joo never miss the big golf events, the Ryder Cup sees Joo taking the Friday off so as not to miss a shot. She's not a happy bunny this year as our good friends are getting married on the Friday. I have Sky but I love Peter Alliss and his marvellous humour so I tune in to BBC whenever they cover a golf event.

[tikay]

Masters really was amazing but I never left the Sky commentary once. Just muted it when Monty came on. Critchley and Ewan Murray ftw. Was Andrew Cotter on BBC? Quality.

Tempted to get the clubs out again now?

Re: Westwood's relatively huge number of putts. I know he was ranked third bottom of the weekend qualifiers but I can't see any relevance comparing his number of putts with those taken by Mickelson and Blubba. He hit far more greens and left mostly longer putts. He was still pretty terrible on the greens though.

Critchley & Murray, both excellent, personally, I did not much enjoy the surly demeanour of Mr Montgomerie.

For BBC2, Ken Brown has improved by leaps & bounds, these days he is quite cheery, & I thought his contribution to the tx was excellent.

Either way, BBC or Sky, how good that both covered it so tremendously well, amost blemish free imo.

[tikay]

Remember something you said about golf... "make it happen"

Well, along with Chompy, and any others that would like to, there will be some golf in Vegas this year. 

Your move - make it happen.

Absolutely, & I'm sorry I have not replied to your voicemail yet, I've been deluged with incoming stuff in the last few days, so I just sort of set them all aside & chilled for the weekend.

I was even thinking this morning how much I miss Golf, but I need nudging, prodding, nagging, & I'm pleased that some of you - yourslf, Chomps, Flushy, & especially Methuselah & others are keeping on my case about it. I'm scared if I start again I'll go all obsessed with it again, as I was originally, then that'd be gg to everything else.

PS - Not sure about golf in Vegas though - Vegas is poker poker poker for me! I try & keep poker in "balance" in my life, but the exception is Vegas, where I eat, sleep & breathe poker & the poker atmo.

[Simon Galloway]

You get up at silly o'clock - as do I - never a better time of day in Vegas for golf.  18 holes, back in time for brekkie, poker, afternoon nap and everything.  Usually the last 2 combined.

[Marky147]

I might pass you guys on your way out to golf then when I'm heading to bed

[hector62]

Without Sky my Masters viewing was limited to the BBC and I only watched the Sunday coverage. During that time I was subjected to watching Lee Westwood supposedly playing the 1st hole "Live" when 5 minutes previously I had seen on the net that he was already on the 2nd green.

Michael Vaughan ended his post round interview with Luke Donald with a very jolly " cheers mate", and then began his interview with Tiger Woods with " You have won this tournament 3 times before" only for Tiger to correct him and tell him it was actually 4 times.

But worse was yet to come as Peter Alliss mentioned that " tomorrow will be Seve Ballesteros's birthday". No mention at all that he had died last year and I got the impression that he had entirely forgotten about that.

I fear that very soon I will have to join the masses and subscribe to Sky. At least I will then get proper sports coverage and a poker channel!

[Simon Galloway]

I might pass you guys on your way out to golf then when I'm heading to bed

You will be in the bar with me 30 minutes previous....

[Marky147]

I might pass you guys on your way out to golf then when I'm heading to bed

You will be in the bar with me 30 minutes previous....

I'm sure that would make for an interesting round of golf!

[tikay]

Today, the monster £1 million UKIPT begins, at DTD, & I'm playing it - vicariously.

Work means I don't play so many Tourneys these days, & I'm shite anyway, but I still get my kicks from staking others when work gets in the way of burning my money by playing. I'm working this week, so UKIPT was never on my calendar, unfortunately.

So I went a bit silly on UKIPT, & set out to buy one whole entry, but in pieces of others, & it worked out pretty well in the end. Or it will if any of them cash.

My action is as follows....

cf - 10%

Eso Kral - 10% (plus the same in a £110 sidey).

Red - 25%

leethefish - 10%

Methuselah - 25%

AdamM, 10%

ACE2M 10%

On top of that, I have some private (off-forum) stakes in 4 different players, amounting to another 45% in total. Overspent, then.

ACE2M, sadly, has had to withdraw, so that cash comes back into the returns column.
 
Quite how I missed buying a piece of Camel I don't know - his thread coincided with my absence from blonde because of business pressure elsewhere, bugger, but I wish him well, too. He has also sold action in the High Roller.

I've also been asked overnight to sell on part of one of my stakes, & I've asked the player if he minds - I don't think he will - so I might have got some cash back before it starts.

Quite important that, because, in accounting terms, when I buy action, I write down (write off) the investment to zero immediately. Any return then goes in the profit column, to balance against the loss column. So, I have a good few % back already. A weird way of looking at it, & probably wrong, but I like to do it in a businesslike fashion as to the accounting.

All "my" players play on Days 1b & 1c, though I'm not sure what day the horse shit sandwich will be on the menu.

Good luck to all of them. Please.

In a few days time, I'll either look very smart, or like one of these.....

[tikay]

Great read Tony. Joo's Mum watches just for the beautiful scenery around the course. Me and Joo never miss the big golf events, the Ryder Cup sees Joo taking the Friday off so as not to miss a shot. She's not a happy bunny this year as our good friends are getting married on the Friday. I have Sky but I love Peter Alliss and his marvellous humour so I tune in to BBC whenever they cover a golf event.

Thanks Kev. Yes, the beauty of Augusta National is quite something, what a contrast to the UK links courses, though they are a different kind of beauty - & course - altogether.

Unfortunately, or not, I don't watch a single shot of the Ryder Cup these days, or the Solheim, I dislike them quite strongly in fact. It's just about the only time in golf that spectators become so parochial, & I just don't think cheering the oppos bad shots works with golf. It is a huge commercial success of course, & I'm doing my King Canute impression again, but each to their own.

[RED-DOG]

I'm playing day 1b Tone.

When I went back to DTD on Sunday to play my 5bb on day 2 of the 100k GTD, I went out on the first hand that I played.

However....

Instead of going straight home, I stayed and played the satellite for the £1 million UKIPT and somehow, I managed to bink a seat.

So. that being the case, if it's OK by you, and if none of the other diners object, I would like to buy one slice of that shit sandwich back.  

[tikay]

Without Sky my Masters viewing was limited to the BBC and I only watched the Sunday coverage. During that time I was subjected to watching Lee Westwood supposedly playing the 1st hole "Live" when 5 minutes previously I had seen on the net that he was already on the 2nd green.

Michael Vaughan ended his post round interview with Luke Donald with a very jolly " cheers mate", and then began his interview with Tiger Woods with " You have won this tournament 3 times before" only for Tiger to correct him and tell him it was actually 4 times.

But worse was yet to come as Peter Alliss mentioned that " tomorrow will be Seve Ballesteros's birthday". No mention at all that he had died last year and I got the impression that he had entirely forgotten about that.

I fear that very soon I will have to join the masses and subscribe to Sky. At least I will then get proper sports coverage and a poker channel!

Yes, Michael Vaughan was one of those experiments which, I think, failed to come off. But its good that they try out different people, I think.

The BBC tried Gary Lineker on golf for a while, & that never went so well, but one that worked incredibly well (Radio, not TV though) imo was Chris Evans, who really did a terrific job the last 2 or 3 years, showing great enthusiasm, knowledge, & a nice touch of humour, too. He has been the success story of these experiments, to my mind, & what people like Chris Evans do well is take golf to a whole new audience, which has to be a good thing, I believe.

I actually don't mind the TV channels trying these new faces, to be honest, some work, some don't, but everyone has to start somewhere. We are doing it next door, too, with several "unexpected" new faces, including Scotty77, Redmond, & Jen Mason. Its worked an absolute treat, too, we could not be more pleased with them. I'm looking over my shoulder, too, but then I always do. Insecurity is the greatest motivator ever.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

I'm playing day 1b Tone.

When I went back to DTD on Sunday to play my 5bb on day 2 of the 100k GTD, I went out on the first hand that I played.

However....

Instead of going straight home, I stayed and played the satellite for the £1 million UKIPT and somehow, I managed to bink a seat.

So. that being the case, if it's OK by you, and if none of the other diners object, I would like to buy one slice of that shit sandwich back. 

You binked a seat? Wow, well done!

I blame Matt Russell for making you go back, those maths he did saying your chips were worth whatever made my eyes bleed. He was right though, just this once.

If I read you correctly, you want to buy back some of the 25% I currently have - is that correct? If so, yes, of course - how much do you want back?

Next up, we can begin negotiations on price......I'm gonna get Matt Russell to be my broker. God help you.

[rex008]

Next up, we can begin negotiations on price......I'm gonna get Matt Russell to be my broker. God help you.

 

Can we have side bets on who's going to come out ahead in these negotiations please?