Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Got to say it.

Shouldn't come as any surprise. As the Champions in Europe against a Team who haven't won anything meaningful since Wenger.

Altogether now....

Pape Sarr....from the Halfway line...

As EssexPhil is clearly a Spurs fan, we really must congratulate Spurs on winning the European Conference Sherpa Van Trophy.

[tikay]

It's 0850 & I have a 10.10 Tee Time so no time this morning.

[celtic]

You’re going to give Booder another heart attack!

[booder]

You’re going to give Booder another heart attack!

Not bothered now mate.

[tikay]

So, the Mystery Man. That 'photo resonated in so many ways, & I'm reminded of something I wrote a few days ago....


Right time, right place


His name is Ian Oldershaw, usually known by his nick, "Belly". His star shone brightly for a while before he left the scene, though I'm talking 22/23 years ago, so not many will remember him, apart from Ralph & Tom, as he was a Gala Notts regular originally.

I was already running with Thewy, swapping 10% etc, & then Ian joined us as a threesome. Both were far better players than me & it was a little embarrassing that I was always on the right side of being paid by them both. I regularly said "lads, drop me out, it's unfair" but they were both great lads & insisted I stay as part of the three ball, & we travelled all over the UK & Europe & never had a cross word.

As an aside, Belly was partly responsible for me getting to know Tom (Red) better. Belly was in Brighton playing some Tourney, & Tom was there too. Belly sent me a text (yup, we used texts in those days) to say he was chilling in a break with TAPS & he was a great bloke. "TAPS?, I responded. "Yeah, Thick As Pigs Shit" he replied. And Tom is still in my 'phone contacts as TAPS. So I've got Belly to thank (thank?) for having to put up with Tom all these years, as after that we started to mix a lot more & became buddies.

Belly & I shared a few FT's, notably this one at Luton in 2004, 21 years ago...


https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=1759

A quick glance at that instantly tells you that business was done, & it was Ian that cut the deal. He was meticulous, and when talk of a deal started he got himself a pencil & paper & worked everything out meticulously.

The winner was Ronnie Debeaulox (pronounced "Bollocks" of course) who is still on the scene & I saw him regularly when I ventured south to Brighton with Next Door. "Debeaulox" is not his real name but he's always been known as that in poker. He looks a little older now, obv, and is a pretty big punter on the horses, regularly betting 4 figures. I went to Moscow for some poker jaunt with him, Pat Kelly (Celebrity Poker Big Cheese) & Ed Giddens, what an adventure that was, we won exactly $100,000 between us (it was a team event) & we were relieved of every cent in bizarre circumstances before we even left Moscow. And then I lost some more in the most bizarre & tragic circumstances you can ever imagine.  Back to Luton, anyway, & 9th was Tom Sambrook, who you may remember as "Dr Tom" from Poker Night Live.

TBC...

[tikay]

Anyway, prior to that Luton FT, Julian, Belly & I had gone across to Amsterdam for the Master Classics. At the time, the Master Classics was the biggest poker fessie in Europe, & by some way, maybe even bigger than the WSOP in some ways. We stayed at "The Owl", a little hotel opposite the Casino, we had a little box room with 3 beds. We were there for the week & we all had a thin time, only cash was Jules who was 9th in a €500 PLO for about €2.5k.

The finale & Main Event was the €3,000 "LIDO", & Jules won a satellite, so he was safely in. Belly played 2 sats, no good, & I could not play it as I had to get back home as I has a big contract on the go with Sainsbury's where I needed to be hands on. We were done for the night but decided to have a coffee before going back to the Hotel.

Belly was desperate to play the LIDO but was skinto, so Jules & I said we'd invest a bit, & Belly thought he may be able to round up an investor or two. He seemed dead keen, so Jules & I emptied our pockets - literally - & plonked it all on the table. I said "just leave me enough for the Taxi back to the Airport in the morning" & left him to sort it out. I had no idea how much of my money he took but it was everything I had, minus my taxi fare.

We get back to the room & all three of us are in bed, chatting shit as we did every night, & Belly has his little notepad out & is working out what's what. Don't think Jules had much, but of course the standard 10% swap was in place, though I was not in that as we had to play the event for the 10% swap to kick in. Apparently I had 19%, so that was sorted.

Next morning I headed off home to sort out the Sainsbury contract. It was pretty heavy, we were installing extra checkouts, so we "took possession" of the Store for the weekend & had to hand it back by 6am on the Monday. Most stressful thing ever, involved diamond saws cutting up terrazzo floors with all the dust that generated - in a food store. I was there for 48 hours without a break, never left the building, no sleep, nothing, & of course clean forgot all about poker.

On the Monday morning I'm heading home & Jules sends me a text, "Belly has made the FT!". I'd forgotten all about that, so that was a lovely surprise.

The FT included Johan Storakers (winner), a huge name at the time, Devilfish (3rd), & Marcel Luske (4th). 6th was "J T Law" aka John Law, one of the nicest men I've ever met in poker, think he ran 2nd in the WSOP Main one year. Sadly, he passed away some 10 years ago. 11th was John Kabbaj, & in 13th was Robin Keston who was a great player &, sadly, another who has now passed. 16th was Ed de Haas, a giant of a man who bore a striking resemblance to Andre the (wrestling) giant.


TBC

[tikay]

And Belly? 2nd for €121,770. Wow. A quick mental calculation told me I was in for almost 20% of that, so around €22,000, which was about £20k in sterling at the time.

https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=1597



I was around 53 years old at the time. Biggest lump sums I'd ever been given or received in my life were my annual bonuses from Mr Kirkland, sometimes £5k or even £10k,which I'd worked my socks off for, but £20k, & for nothing? Never been given/won/inherited or whatever anything like as much. I could not believe my luck, & I still think about it sometimes, though it was later to be eclipsed by even more absurd poker good fortune in swaps, stakes & the like.

It took a few weeks to sort the money out, Belly had to return to Amsterdam to open a Dutch bank account & then get the cash shipped home, but we had total trust & I knew the cash would be paid soon enough, & so it was, maybe 3 weeks later.      

In a way, it was the beginning of the end for Belly's poker career. He was super cautious with money, & used most of it to put towards a lovely little isolated cottage up near Matlock. He quit his job & decided to take up poker full time, but rather oddly he only played cash, not MTT's. It never went well, & he got more & more "down" about it. He never lost a penny, but he could not win much, and the pressure started to get to him, so he snap quit & went back to work, quite happily as far as I know.

I only ever saw him once since then, at DTD around 10 or 15 years ago. Think he actually got banned from DTD, though not for doing anything wrong, but something went off that he disagreed with, & he was a man of strong principles, so he would not back down & he got shown the red card.

I'd never have recognized him at Goliath, but I wish I'd been there when he was there & we'd re-acquainted. God bless Belly.

Right place, right time. And not for the last time by any chalk. I've run so good.

[tikay]

Before I waffle on about my wonderful day at Goliath on Monday, something else to get off my chest, & I fleetingly alluded to it earlier this week.

Tuesday was "The Lads" Annual Golf Day at Rushcliffe. Was well excited & although the first tee-time was not until Noon I arrived at around 09.45, the car park was near deserted & I parked up in the part which was completely empty & went off to sort my buggy so I could get loaded up & organized.

I returned a few minutes later to be confronted by a most odd sight, there was a car parked next to mine, boot wide open, golf bag already unloaded. And behind the car was an elderly lady, lying flat out on the ground, on her back, sort of starfish posture, arms & legs akimbo. Instantly thought what an odd pre-golf routine, yoga presumably.

On closer inspection, I soon realised she was unwell. Fuck. Looked closer, asked her if she was OK, which might just rank as the dumbest question ever. She said she had no idea what happened or how she got there, & it was clear now she had no idea what was what. She was on her back so I turned her onto her side, but on reflection, I've no idea why I did that.

Next I alert her mates in the Clubhouse, (because I need help as I don't know what to do) and at the same time I dial 999.

They answer immediately and they ask me a ton of questions, & I'm starting to get flustered, as I can't easily answer them - does she have dilated pupils, is she breathing shallow? How the hell do I know, I'm not mobile enough to bend right down to see, & anyway my eyes are bad. Luckily, at this moment, Tom arrives & I beckon him over quickly & he soon has things under control, getting a "pillow" for her head & helping make her more comfy & helping me answer the questions.

The Ambulance lady says "we'll have an ambulance there in 45 minutes", but by now the lady is not looking at all well. I move away so she can't hear me & say "sooner if poss please, I'm not sure we've got that long".

Meanwhile, her mates are all here now & there's not much more Tom & I can do. She's covered up with a foil blanket, pillow under her head, but fading fast.

BOOM, the ambulance arrives inside 10 minutes, & within less than a minute, the crew are giving her CPR, pumping away like mad. Time for me to depart. I take a quick look back, & they've stripped her to the waist & attached some device round her chest with a strap & are still pumping. Welled up a bit to see this elderly lady half naked with with all her dignity gone.  

Sadly but inevitably, there's no happy ending here. In a spooky twist though, bookiebasher - who also arrived on the scene - was with his Sister the next day who mentioned that a friend of hers, "Miriam", 87 years old, had died of a heart attack at Rushcliffe Golf Club the day before.  

We are conditioned to feel sad when anyone dies, especially the family. But 87 years old, & still, I later learn, golfing twice a week, well we all have to go some time, & if I could choose a way & age to make my exit, it'd be a job to beat that.

RIP Miriam.

[tikay]

So yes, the Ambulance arrived in super quick time, with 2 paramedics, well done East Midlands Ambulance Service.

5 minutes later a second ambulance arrived, another 2 paramedics. By now the Lady is in the back of the ambulance, & the 2 new paramedics get in the back with the original two, & the patient.

Then a police car arrives, two police officers.

Next comes a third ambulance, a sort of Estate Car with just one lady paramedic. She gets in too.

Finally, a 2nd police car, another two officers.

So we now have 3 ambulances & 2 police cars, & a total of 9 people, plus the patient, in the back of the ambulance, plus of course Miriam. Must be like a Tardis in there.   

All of which begs the question, how (in)efficient are the NHS? A very elderly lady falls ill, nobody else is involved, & we need 3 ambulances & 2 police cars? Don't they communicate with each other, "OK guys, I've got this one covered"?

When we see an accident on the Motorway, it always seems like there are fleets of police cars, ambulances & fire engines, & I can't help think they are fearfully badly organised & over-react to everything. If you get burgled though, GL getting the Police round within 24 hours.

[RED-DOG]

Nice update Tony.

You're a great  diarrhoea.

[Kev B]

RIP Miriam. Also wow 87 and getting 2 rounds in a week.

[Enut]

Great updates Tikay but very sad to hear about Miriam.

It looks like you couldn't have done much more. You got her into the recovery position as she was still conscious and breathing when you found her, called the ambulance immediately and then rushed them to her when she started deteriorating. When they got to her they started CPR and would probably have shocked her a number of times to try and get a steady heart beat. Sadly at 87 her heart was probably too weak and she was beyond saving. Probably a better way to go than to slowly deteriorate over months/years imo.

If anyone reads this and doesn't know how to do CPR just google it and learn it, it's not rocket science and it could save someone's life, unusually for Tikay it was someone he didn't know, usually if you need to do it it will be a loved one, better to know what to do than to stand there and feel helpless.     

[typhoon13]

Dads been cashing again at DTD

12/127 a fine effort, well done

[RED-DOG]

Soon it's only going to be newsworthy if he doesn't cash.

[Enut]

One day soon he's going to hit a heater when he's cashed and then there will no stopping him.