Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

I came across this today

It was news to me, this juxtaposition of greyhound/speedway track with football ground. Both have gone now...

Know which it is?

Click to see full-size image.

Cold Blow Lane (what a name) was, imo, the best football ground ever.  I only managed to go twice but it just oozed atmosphere and menacing both in a good and bad way.  Whenever I manage to go to football these days I always hope for an experience like one of the trips there but it just gets more and more sterile.  When I was a kid, from 14 through until I went to University, every Saturday I would get on the train at 655am from Barrow in Furness (where we moved for my dad's job) and go and watch Middlesbrough.  If it was a home game or in the North West my Dad would make the trip with me but if it was further afield I would go on my own.  Over those 4-5 years  I went to so many grounds and had so many adventures.  I loved so many of those old grounds but Millwall just had it all as an experience.  When I went to university I went to Goldsmiths and lived in New Cross but they had built the New Den by then and it was never the same for me although they can still make the place inhospitable.  Funnily enough when I got to uni football was largely replaced in my affections by greyhound racing although New Cross Stadium was long gone by then.  3 or 4 nights a week I would utilise my travelcard and go to the dogs.  Hackney was always my favourite but I spent a lot of time at The Stow, Wimbledon and Catford too.  Even Wembley.  I used to stand and marvel at Tony Morris and John Power standing there and taking what I thought were huge bets.  One night at the Stow I was stood watching Power and he had 10-11 about a dog I thought was a good thing.  A fella ran in and asked for £1100 to win a grand and as expected Power quickly rubbed out the 10-11.....what was less expected was his next price.....Evens!!!!  Sorry I know I am rambling but you do when you reminisce don't you......

Great stuff Stu, love it.

For the dogs, I loved Hackney on a Saturday morning, all the thieves, vagabonds & riff-raff woulf be there, & the wannabe gangsters.

Also on my dog rota were Hendon, Haringey, White City, & in later years, Slough, which I really liked, & Watford, the latter being at the football ground.

Seem to recall I'd do 112 x 10p Reverse Forecast Doubles, Traps 1 & 6 or whatever. Think that would be for an 8 race card?

[Karabiner]

What about that "bronco" loo-roll that we used to get at school.

It was like wiping your arse with grease-proof paper.

We used to call it John Wayne paper.  It was rough, tough and didn't take shit off anyone.

As I mentioned elsewhere a sheet of it folded over your comb made a really good kazoo, try that with andrex quilted 3-ply.

[scotty77]

Are you a cruise ship man, Tikay.  Or is it the engineering feat itself that interests you.

Was speaking to someone in Vegas who goes on poker cruises there 3/4 times a year and they sound pretty incred.  Doubt they'll have PLO8 tournies tho.

Also what happened to Australia....Aussie Millions one time?!  Gonna try and qualify for that so much this year!

[Sheriff Fatman]

Are you a cruise ship man, Tikay.  Or is it the engineering feat itself that interests you.

Was speaking to someone in Vegas who goes on poker cruises there 3/4 times a year and they sound pretty incred.  Doubt they'll have PLO8 tournies tho.

Also what happened to Australia....Aussie Millions one time?!  Gonna try and qualify for that so much this year!

There was an O8 H/L tournament on the one I went on with Card Player Cruises.

Really enjoyed it, and would do again in a heartbeat.

[tikay]

Are you a cruise ship man, Tikay.  Or is it the engineering feat itself that interests you.

Was speaking to someone in Vegas who goes on poker cruises there 3/4 times a year and they sound pretty incred.  Doubt they'll have PLO8 tournies tho.

Also what happened to Australia....Aussie Millions one time?!  Gonna try and qualify for that so much this year!

Just the Engineering side Ryan.

I can't relax enough to spend more than a day or two trapped on a Cruise, it'd do my head in.

I went on the Ladbrokes poker cruise in '04 or '05, & it was OK, but you are sort of trapped in a poker environment for 24/7, & there is no escape from poker talk. I can't really handle that. If I could play poker 24/7, thats not so bad, but in my leisure time I want to play it, not talk about it.  

For the same reason, I've never been to any of these poker holidays in St Kitts or whatever. I need a bit more balance, I just can't cope with 24/7 poker chat.  

Don't forget, I've "worked" in Poker one way & another for 10 years now, so its coals to Newcastle.

Guess its an age thing. Right now, I'm aching to go to the Scottish Highlands, just poodle around, admiring the views & solitude. Heaven.

[Jac]

Have you ever been to Durness when in the Highlands?
We spent our honeymoon in Sutherland and had a couple of nights in Durness. A wonderful place,
Smoo Cave, a wonderful beach, a charming 9 hole golf course are amongst its delights.
The Mackay Clan pretty much ran the place centuries ago and still they're everywhere. Lucy Mackay runs the grocery store and manages the golf course, Mr Mackay has the local garage and so on.
Near enough 24 hour daylight in the height of summer.
A lot of the villagers use the post bus to get to Inverness, quite a journey.
Cape Wrath is well worth a visit,  an adventure just getting there.

[Tal]

I don't play at Walsall very often. This is probably my fourth ever time.

I just had a quiet word with a lady for saying what she passed while two people were all in and a third guy was deliberating in a pretty sizeable pot.

Her response?

"Dow be saft!"

Don't hear that phrase anywhere else.

I've never been anywhere where there is so much swearing. Everyone swears. Everyone. All the time. Sentences are 35% longer purely because of profanity. The Fword acts like the chain on a charm bracelet, keeping the important bits of the sentence intact.

One side of my family is from this way, so I'm fluent in the dialect, but it never ceases to amaze me how much language there is in this particular card room.

It's the really innocuous stuff as well. You know, where you can't fkin remember the kin yknow word yam afta?

Nowt so queer as folk, as they say.

[Tal]

Just suggested to my table and then to the TD that we should have a 50p Fbomb swearbox to boost the prizepool. Guy nearly fainted.

[tikay]

Have you ever been to Durness when in the Highlands?
We spent our honeymoon in Sutherland and had a couple of nights in Durness. A wonderful place,
Smoo Cave, a wonderful beach, a charming 9 hole golf course are amongst its delights.
The Mackay Clan pretty much ran the place centuries ago and still they're everywhere. Lucy Mackay runs the grocery store and manages the golf course, Mr Mackay has the local garage and so on.
Near enough 24 hour daylight in the height of summer.
A lot of the villagers use the post bus to get to Inverness, quite a journey.
Cape Wrath is well worth a visit,  an adventure just getting there.

You lucky man.

No, never been even remotely that far up, nearest would be Skye, & it must be a goodly long trek even from there.

It has always been an ambition to travel the entire coast of Scotland, (such as the roads permit), heading up the west, across the top, then down the East coast. You've whetted my appetite again now. I really must do it.

At my age, it makes no sense to be messing about on a poker forum, I should be out there, getting those life boxes ticked. 

Glad to hear your planned delivery is nicely on track. Any preference for gender? Mum-to-be coping ok? 

[tikay]

I don't play at Walsall very often. This is probably my fourth ever time.

I just had a quiet word with a lady for saying what she passed while two people were all in and a third guy was deliberating in a pretty sizeable pot.

Her response?

"Dow be saft!"

Don't hear that phrase anywhere else.

I've never been anywhere where there is so much swearing. Everyone swears. Everyone. All the time. Sentences are 35% longer purely because of profanity. The Fword acts like the chain on a charm bracelet, keeping the important bits of the sentence intact.

One side of my family is from this way, so I'm fluent in the dialect, but it never ceases to amaze me how much language there is in this particular card room.

It's the really innocuous stuff as well. You know, where you can't fkin remember the kin yknow word yam afta?

Nowt so queer as folk, as they say.

I have some great memories of G Walsall, it was part of my poker beginning, & I spent a ton of time there, & got to know all the regulars.

Can't say I particularly recall the language being worse there than any other Room, though of course the younger lads like to swear, not because it emphasises a point, but it's like a badge of maturity. (To them). I tend to think that swearing comes across MUCH worse in writing. Its a constant battle on blonde, trying to keep tone & language reasonable. There are things which are fine to say, not to much to write. With very few exceptions, blonde is pretty good in that respect these days, just the handful of usual suspects.

Walsall used to have THE biggest scheduled monthly poker Tourney....it was £100 (!), & folks flocked from far & wide, it really was quite a thing. Then they started messing with the structures, Guarantees & buy-in, & it died, almost overnight. Internet poker was still in its infancy then, so even the Satellites would attract huge fields.

They had the biggest & best Poker Ferstivals (remember them?), too.

Midlands Meltdown, Grosvenor Grand Prix, all sorts. A whole week of varying buy ins & formats, & we'd spend the whole week there, & play the lot. Blackpool, The Vic, & Luton did them too, we'd trot from one to the other, back to back.

The Live poker landscape has changed beyond recognition. DTD take the responsibility for much of that, they just changed everything.

It was such a shock when DTD opened, & Tournaments started on time. The average delay at Walsall was 45 minutes, at Luton & The Vic, more like an hour. In those days, if you were not in your seat when the FIRST HAND was dealt, that was it, you could not play. Did not matter if you had entered a week earlier, or held a Satellite ticket - you HAD to be in your seat when it began.

So we'd all sit down on time, then after 30 minutes someone would complain, "when will we get started?" And they'd say, "Player X is stuck in traffic, so we have to wait for him". Always the same player, too....

So 100 folks would take the trouible & make the effort to arrive on time, & one guy would be late......so 100 players had to wait for the chap who could not organise himself. How utterly ridiculous.

Now we have Late Entry & all sorts. Fantastic.

Obviously, ALL Live poker players are useless, I've read that on every poker forum I've ever visited. Except that 95% of "Live" players are predominantly Online players, too. Go figure THAT logic!

Anyway......how did you get on?

[theprawnidentity]

Just suggested to my table and then to the TD that we should have a 50p Fbomb swearbox to boost the prizepool. Guy nearly fainted.

I remember organising a swear box for charity when I worked on site.  Costs ranged from £0.10 for a bugger, to £1 for a C-bomb.  Think an F-Bomb was £0.50.  One of the chargehands came in from site and racked up £17 in under a minute.  

[X] Mad tekkers.

[tikay]

Just suggested to my table and then to the TD that we should have a 50p Fbomb swearbox to boost the prizepool. Guy nearly fainted.

I remember organising a swear box for charity when I worked on site.  Costs ranged from £0.10 for a bugger, to £1 for a C-bomb.  Think an F-Bomb was £0.50.  One of the chargehands came in from site and racked up £17 in under a minute.  

[X] Mad tekkers.

One year, 2005 I think, the WSOP introduced the "F-Bomb" rule, I thought it was terrific. Until I got a 1 orbit penalty for swearing......was the most fun table ever, all the regular Yanks v Brits comedic ball-busting. Yankee lad scores a direct hit on me, boom, table erupts with laughter, "fuck my luck" I say. FLOOR! I was walking before the card came out of his pocket. Thems the rules, & all that.....

[tikay]

Played a Main Event Satellite at Walsall one night, we are on the sat bubble, 5 seats, 6 of us left.

We were all a bit short, & I button shoved my entire 6 Bigs on Red-Dog.

And he called me with........A-9.

HE called ME. With A-9.

I never forgave him, & that was the day I realised he had no idea how to play.

One of THE most ridiculous calls I've ever seen. What was he thinking?

[RED-DOG]

I never swear in writing.

[Tal]

How did I get on?

I nearly won. Well, if you take out the top half of the field, I won. They apparently don't pay out that far down at Walsall. Lol live pokerments and all that.

Some people apparently won't fold aces pre, even to a four bet from me. Incredible. They just see the two cards in front of them and don't pay a moment's consideration as to what I might have. Amateurs.

Yes, I remember festivals. They were the pinnacle for me back when I started. I used to look up to those £100/£200 players with admiration while I was playing the £20 rebuys.

Then the Broadway did a £1,000 main event with a guarantee of £100,000. Suffice it to say, it didn't go the way the organisers planned and that's the last we saw of the Broadway festivals. Shame, really, but entirely reasonable. They know their market at Broadway and it is low buy in freezouts with plenty of starting chips, with lots of cash games available. The Cardroom Manager (you doubtless remember him as being a very fast dealer - could suck out on you before you realised you were ahead) has done a grand job there.