Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Nice Paulo.

Click to see full-size image.

Nasty Paulo.

Click to see full-size image.

[kinboshi]

It's a shame Italy isn't as concerned about overt displays of fascist support as the Greeks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21822165

[rfgqqabc]

It is not a question of if, he has a Mussolini tattoo. He never denied claims before it became a problem. Should it be a problem? Probably not, I don't particularly care whether he feels the monster raving loony party are what the world need but if it is his own private view then it shouldn't matter.

[TightEnd]

You have to be a subscriber, but its a very good article

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/clubs/sunderland/article3729432.ece

[DaveShoelace]

What was it like doing the Grand National stuff on the telly box last night Teeks? Did it make you feel like a real telly person?

[horseplayer]

agree 100% tony

the excellent book written by marcotti explains his views a lot better than the media have attempted to

[MANTIS01]

I think even David Miliband would agree there's no such thing as bad publicity. These last couple of days the media has been awash with Sunderland AFC and considering the prem league is primarily an entertainment business where your brand is worth multi millions I think Ellis Short will be quietly satisfied with the appointment. It's a crazy gamble but in a good way and if he goes on to save Sunderland it will be great showbiz next season, especially if Jose Mourinho returns to the league.

David Miliband resigning his post has vexed me for a couple of reasons. Firstly bringing the political views of individuals into sport is a murky business. I know the media are doing this but meh it's the media and they're just trying to grab a headline. I think Miliband is trying to grab a headline too and agree his motivation for resigning is political. I wonder what that says about the man he is and the "leader" he could be. If you accept the responsibility of being part of a team (and I would suggest everybody connected with Sunderland AFC is "the team") then flouncing off when your team is desperately fighting for survival is rather self-centred imo. Waiting until the end of the season before deciding what to do would be putting the team first, but Miliband has put himself first. He cannot stomach working with a football coach for the good of Sunderland and he cannot stomach working with his brother for the good of the Labour Party.

I think Di Canio is by far the better man and hope he succeeds at Sunderland. Everybody does and says dumb things from time to time, I mean didn't Prince Harry wear a Nazi fancy dress costume? Di Canio is massively self-indulgent but Miliband outshines even him in that department imo.

[horseplayer]

what personally i found more disturbing was the news sunderland have paid milliband over a million pounds for 15 months "work"

exactly what for i have no idea

[tikay]

what personally i found more disturbing was the news sunderland have paid milliband over a million pounds for 15 months "work"

exactly what for i have no idea

That was his "when the going get tough" fee. You know, the team is in danger of relegation, so let us all pull together.

Actually, & less rudely......to be fair to Mr Milliband, you can see why he felt the need to jump ship. It does not matter what a prominent Politician does, it will go under the misroscope. He just jumped before it got hot.

[Supernova]

For the record.....

Staking Interest.

Ralph 5%

Aaron 5%

Doobs, amount to be agreed.

Fat Welsh Bloke 5%.

Reserved by PM (Liverpool fan...) 2.5%.

sharplea, 2%

I'm going to reserve 1% for Irene (TRIP5) too, as she had some the other night, & has not been paid her return from last year yet, as she asked me to look after it for her.

Thanks all, really appreciate it.

Oooh, Vegas...............

Morning Mr Kendall. I appear to be on the correct diary now...could I please make a small investment of 1% in your next Vegas Trip please? If so could you please pm your details as it seems a long time to me since the first one you may have changed them & I have probably lost them in any case.

I am well thank you for asking, not 100% yet but getting there & healthier and happier than I have been in a fair while, all is cool.

[RED-DOG]

For the record.....

Staking Interest.

Ralph 5%

Aaron 5%

Doobs, amount to be agreed.

Fat Welsh Bloke 5%.

Reserved by PM (Liverpool fan...) 2.5%.

sharplea, 2%

I'm going to reserve 1% for Irene (TRIP5) too, as she had some the other night, & has not been paid her return from last year yet, as she asked me to look after it for her.

Thanks all, really appreciate it.

Oooh, Vegas...............

Morning Mr Kendall. I appear to be on the correct diary now...could I please make a small investment of 1% in your next Vegas Trip please? If so could you please pm your details as it seems a long time to me since the first one you may have changed them & I have probably lost them in any case.

I am well thank you for asking, not 100% yet but getting there & healthier and happier than I have been in a fair while, all is cool.

The correct diary?

[tikay]

What was it like doing the Grand National stuff on the telly box last night Teeks? Did it make you feel like a real telly person?

Jeez, what a great question!

Nah, nothing makes me feel like "a telly person", though you'd be amazed at the power of TV. When I did SPT London a week or two ago, a score or more folks wanted their photo taken with me. I know, I know......

We are what we are, but get on TV a bit, & you attract a whole band of lovers & haters. Actually, not many, lovers.

I LOVED being asked to do it. I also did the Grand National Preview, & next Tuesday, I'm doing The Masters Golf Preview. They have plenty of Analysts & Presenters they could have asked, so all things considered - especially my age - it was a real boost to my self-confidence for me to be asked. Fancy, old dogs learning new tricks!

I messed up a bit - how the hell do you pronounce the names of some of those horses - Utopie des Bordes for example? Trust me to even try, but I did. Ugh.

The dynamic was interesting though. Would savvy punters really take a blind bit of notice? No, obviously not. And it did not matter, they were not the target market. Good punters, savvy winning sorts, are no good to a bookie. Newbies please, acquisition acquisition acquisition.

We were aiming for poker players who do not currently bet, or have no current interest in Horse Racing. So it was no good just having three Racing Experts talkling in HorseRacing speak, newbies eyes would glaze over.

So I had to explain that the Grand National is a Handicap, not a Championship Race. And what is a handicap? How do they adjust the weights for each horse/rider, (lead weights), how much a pound of weight = in lengths, how an Apprentice can save up to 7lbs (& thus gain extra advantage), set against the downside of an Apprentice = not so good as a seasoned Pro in most cases. Incredible as it may seem, 60% of casual punters don't know the difference (or care) between a handicap race & a W-F-A or whatever, or why a filly-mare receives weight, or why younger horses (2 y-o's )don't usually (there are rare exceptions) race against older ones.

Red Rum was NOT the best horse when it won the GN first time, it was getting 23lbs from Crisp, so it was the best horse at the weights, but it WAS the best horse when it won it for the last time, da de da. I chose to use Red Rum as the example, because it is "everyone language", we all know & have heard of Red Rum. Common denom.  I had no script, it was all ad-lib, but I'd obviously done some research. Not enough sadly, I had a bad day yesterday in so many ways, & my time ran away with me.

Then we got into the vagaries of racehorse breeding speak, Studs cover mares, it is called a visit, & why good flat horses are entires, & jumpers are geldings.  

Honestly, it was like someone had granted me a wish, would you like to talk about a something you really enjoy for 2 hours?

Kid in a sweetshop stuff.  

I even sneaked an airport question in - what has the Grand National & Gatwick got in common? Ha!

Did the usual stuff, too, you know, the difference between cement & concrete, that sort of thing. Everyone needs to know that. Nobody else does that on a poker show, so its unique. No, it is.

Social-media was interesting this morning, nobody said it was "ok", they all think it was great, or bloody awful. And the latter don't hold back, it gets very personal & rude. But swings & roundabouts, bit of sugar, bit of spice. Very weird to be pulled apart in public by complete strangers who have never met me, or tried to do the job, or understand the Gaming Industry. Very nice when complete strangers say nice things. Apparently, we can't have one without the other, unless we are a demi-God like Stapes.

The punchline, the self rub-down, the deprecatory line ought to be that the channel viewing figures are plunging. But they are soaring, which is hard to understand.

I've been doing TV for nearly 10 years now, & I still get that buzz before a live TV Show. But it may be soon time to step aside, you can't expect poker players to be interested in the views of an OAP, nobody much enjoys watching old people on telly, & I am determined to walk before I am pushed, so it may be imminent.

I bumped into your successor, Matthew Pitt the other week, he was covering the Party Poker thing at Aspers Stratford, saw Jesse & Kara, Lush the Gush too.

Good people, good times, good stuff.  

Your turn now. How are you enjoying being with Poker Stategy? Is it stretching you? Hope so, jobs MUST stretch us to our limit if we are on the Up Escalator. How is Editiion 2 of the Book doing?

[tikay]

For the record.....

Staking Interest.

Ralph 5%

Aaron 5%

Doobs, amount to be agreed.

Fat Welsh Bloke 5%.

Reserved by PM (Liverpool fan...) 2.5%.

sharplea, 2%

I'm going to reserve 1% for Irene (TRIP5) too, as she had some the other night, & has not been paid her return from last year yet, as she asked me to look after it for her.

Thanks all, really appreciate it.

Oooh, Vegas...............

Morning Mr Kendall. I appear to be on the correct diary now...could I please make a small investment of 1% in your next Vegas Trip please? If so could you please pm your details as it seems a long time to me since the first one you may have changed them & I have probably lost them in any case.

I am well thank you for asking, not 100% yet but getting there & healthier and happier than I have been in a fair while, all is cool.

The correct diary?

You heard the lady, so in yer eye Plumpy.

[doubleup]

I think Di Canio is by far the better man and hope he succeeds at Sunderland. Everybody does and says dumb things from time to time,

I wasn't quite sure what "facist" meant in the Di Canio context, so I went to Wikipedia of course and was rather relieved that it is indeed a somewhat ill defined term.  However, if DiCanio's affiliation is the Italian, Mussolini version, it means this:

The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value.

It should be obvious that anyone on the "outside" is therefore going to have an unpleasant time from the state.  I think it is reasonable that someone (Milliband) who presumably believes in tolerance and inclusivity would find it difficult to be tolerant and inclusive of such views in a workplace environment.

[DaveShoelace]

I love it at PokerStrategy actually. For a few reasons, which I was gonna blog about one day but here will do.

First of all, they are the only company I have been involved with where the priority is the ecology/community of poker. Everyone else is 'how can we get more sign ups' but believe me, when you have meetings with these guys it really is all about 'whats good for the players, how can we encourage people to play poker more in general, what can we do for the customers'. I know the insta-reaction to an affiliate site by most people is to assume we are all money grabbing, but although obviously that's important, I have never once been in a meeting or shared an email where there has been any direct impetus to make money. Do a good job, the money will follow.

The other great thing about working there is most of the full time staff are incredibly talented and I have learned so much from them. Dominik Kofert, the founder, is probably the most intelligent person I've ever met. It pains me to say it but even working with Pleno1 is a joy. If he doesn't jack the career in to play full time, I think he is really going places in the industry. Sometimes he is a victim of his own enthusiasm, as I think is clear in his blog, but he does have some genius ideas and knows the market really well for a young un. We have this brilliant internal forum at PS.com where some really high end discussions go on, which I am pretty certain industry people would pay to see.

Probably the biggest challenge of the job (Other than all the usual challenges for an affiliate/training site) is the fact that everything I write is translated into 17 languages. In fact the English language version of my work tends to be the least viewed (Im a mega star in Russia and Germany). So you have to write your stuff with translations in mind, and also the process of getting it translated 17 times is actually more time consuming than writing the stuff itself.

With regards to stretching to the limit. Its a bit like a game of No Limit Hold'em, lots of periods of slow and steady followed by moments if sheer panic and non stop action. I can't remember the last time I worked like a 10-12 hour day, but its rare I have an entire weekend off.

Book 2 was much easier second time around, because there were so many mistakes we were able to sidestep. Early presales have been positive, and the next part is the fun part for me, the marketing. I get offered a lot of 'marketing/consulting' work which I mostly turn down (You would not believe whom I had to turn down recently, big player in the industry) but once my book commitments are out of the way I might do a bit more of that because I fancy I have a bit of 'hustle' where that is concerned.

That includes a trip down to Osterley this month for a long overdue visit next door. Oh, and of course a couple of days of scripting amazon reviews........