Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[EssexPhil]

Quick story about Colin (ctbn). I miss the old hippo pictures

I once mistakenly called him "cbtn". To which he replied, in his splendid Scots accent:-

"It's easy to remember, Phil. It is Colin The Bastard N..."

[tikay]

Quick story about Colin (ctbn). I miss the old hippo pictures

I once mistakenly called him "cbtn". To which he replied, in his splendid Scots accent:-

"It's easy to remember, Phil. It is Colin The Bastard N..."

To be fair, he does bear a remarkable likeness to a hippopotamus.

As I'm sure you are aware, he & I are good mates & I love him to bits.

Away from his clown acting at the poker tables, he has a proper job with Network Rail or one of their CE contractors, he is a manager/supervisor for Permanent Way work - maintenance, upgrades, incidents etc.

Was due to retire this year but is going to work on for another 2 years. His health was bad 8 or 10 years ago but he seems fine now. Long may it last, he's a good man.

[Marky147]

Good to see Cosvaldo Ardiles making a return to the Internet Policeman streets

Even better to see things are going so well for you

As you're involved with dogs, I'm guessing you probably know Niall that runs 'Happy Doggo' over in Koh Samui, I have guessed?

I spend hours every week following along with his daily life since Max went over the rainbow bridge in the summer.

Absolutely wonderful to watch all the good he does, though there is a fair bit of bawling when some of them unfortunately pass away.

Great to see Cos posting.

I can relate to your post Marky, after we lost our Marbs I started to follow a turkish guy on YT called Walter Santi, named after his dog and first cat.

He's a big cat person and has about 18 indoor and outdoor cats, the outdoor are mainly strays who he looks after and they all get treated when needed and looked after. I think I'd love a house in the sun with fruit trees and cats.

It's definitely the highlight of my day following him as he feeds all the street dogs, and seeing all the dogs he's helping and I especially love the little 'retirement village' they have made at Happy Doggo land.

I'd love nothing more than the same, just a home full of dogs , though the retirement village would be more my speed nowadays, unless I had a walker

[Marky147]

Incidentally, for those who have not seen them, the Tiny Desk Concerts, all of which are on You Tube, really are very good & feature some great bands.

Sadly, I'm not sure they are making any more, as they were on USA NPR (National Public Radio) & Mr Trump withdrew all funding for PBS & NPR shortly after taking Office.

But, as far as I'm aware, they are all still on You Tube, so a quick search should soon find them.

Agreed, some fantastic finds on there.

Dua Lipa's was great

[Marky147]

Hello mate, I don't know Niall.

There used to be quite a few that came up on my facebook algo, Soi Dog Foundation, The Sound of Animals, Michael Chour, Bodhi Shelter Phuket etc.

Frankly, most of them have a screw loose, but in a great way. In a more selfless way than I could ever have. The one i support is Bodhi Shelter Phuket. Fantastic lady who gave up everything, literally a very plush life to spend it saving street dogs. I went a few times and helped and even a half day session knackered me. Dunno how she manages to do it all year round, non stop. It's a struggle for them physically, emotionally and financially.

Anyway great to see you pop in too! I hope you are well! There was a while we talked every day via Skype I think. I don't even know how many years since I even logged in. I'd have thought maybe close to 10. No clue what my login is.

What are you doing these days?

Sorry to hear about Max. My boys are getting old. One is so old I'm considering changing his name to Tikay.

Will you get another?

His instagram is fantastic, and 'Happy Doggo Land' feed well over a thousand dogs a day now across Koh Samui.

He has partnered up with quite a few other outfits across Thailand now, and with more Thai peoople involved they're getting some traction with the government to aid with sterilisations etc.

He started just feeding a few street dogs each day, and now it's a huge charitable organisation, he just lives with his 2 dogs and now that it has gotten so big he hates that he has to spend more time travelling around for meetings etc.

I get tired watching it, but can imagine it's much less manic than his old life as a city boy that drank far too much!

I was about a week ago years old when I found out Skype isn't even a thing anymore, so that's two of us... Last time I used it will have been about 10 years ago when I used to use it to call Vegas hotels to sort problems with bookings.

I'm still living the dream and have been promoted to chief driver since dad passed... I'm still in mortgages and just about keeping myselfy in takeaways and show tickets

He had the best run of the 3 we had, and just made it to 13, which is some going for a spaniel. Max was almost as old as Tikay at 91 in our years.

Probably not for the moment as mum still works part time, and I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on a younger one through the day. With Max it was ideal as he just slept all day and would only pop his head into the office for a treat

I imagine another will appear once she retires and is home all the time.

[Chompy]

Incidentally, for those who have not seen them, the Tiny Desk Concerts, all of which are on You Tube, really are very good & feature some great bands.

Sadly, I'm not sure they are making any more, as they were on USA NPR (National Public Radio) & Mr Trump withdrew all funding for PBS & NPR shortly after taking Office.

But, as far as I'm aware, they are all still on You Tube, so a quick search should soon find them.

Agreed, some fantastic finds on there.

Dua Lipa's was great

This one too. So talented.

[tikay]

Incidentally, for those who have not seen them, the Tiny Desk Concerts, all of which are on You Tube, really are very good & feature some great bands.

Sadly, I'm not sure they are making any more, as they were on USA NPR (National Public Radio) & Mr Trump withdrew all funding for PBS & NPR shortly after taking Office.

But, as far as I'm aware, they are all still on You Tube, so a quick search should soon find them.

Agreed, some fantastic finds on there.

Dua Lipa's was great

This one too. So talented.

Nickel Creek?

And Marky went for Dua Lipa, whoever he is.

What IS the matter with you people? Ever tried proper music?

[tikay]

I must add though, great to see two real blonde hard-hitters who had not Posted in yonks in the Diary, Internet Policeman (Retired) Cos, & Lord Chompy.

Just need MANTIS now & my life is complete.

Post more lads, post more.  

[tikay]

Almost novel to discuss Poker on here these days, but scenes at DTD last weekend, whilst I was up in Scotland.

They have introduced a new weekend schedule, a £50,000 G'tee £125 on Saturday, & a £50,000 G'tee £250 on the Sunday, both one-dayers so inevitably a bit "sharp", though they did have a 20/25 minute clocks. And for reasons we can only guess at, they were "reg-free" if you regged before it started.

I had bumped into Rob last week & he was musing on whether it would hit the guarantees, which looked very ambitious for 1 dayers.

Well he need not have worried, the Saturday £125 got 662 (SIX HUNDRED & SIXTY TWO) entries. WTF? That must be some sort of DTD record for a 1 day affair.

And that's despite it being during Ramadan, which with the DTD demographic, means quite a few absentees.

Rather oddly, the £250 on the Sunday "only" made 268 entries. Which, compared to 662 for the £125, really seems to emphasise that there's a price-point sweet spot.

When the dust settled, the £125 went to Mark Habbershaw and the impressive Ben Shannon chopping it up for just north of £25,000...


1   MARK HABBERSHAW  £12,550

2   BENJAMIN SHANNON £12,550


In the £250, I believe it was a 5 way chop, with the winner being shown as the fella with the best name.



1   GHOLAMREZA MOHAMMADI MOGHADDAM  £9,600

2   ANONYMOUS £8,045

3   GEORGE HOLMES £7,975

4   ANDREW MAPP £7,690

5   KAI CHAN£6,500
 

[Mohican]

It being Ramadan should make no difference to numbers as gambling is Haram for followers  of the Muslim faith. However I live in the real world and suspect that it probably does. Ho hum, life goes on.

[Elliot]

Incidentally, for those who have not seen them, the Tiny Desk Concerts, all of which are on You Tube, really are very good & feature some great bands.

Sadly, I'm not sure they are making any more, as they were on USA NPR (National Public Radio) & Mr Trump withdrew all funding for PBS & NPR shortly after taking Office.

But, as far as I'm aware, they are all still on You Tube, so a quick search should soon find them.

Agreed, some fantastic finds on there.

Dua Lipa's was great

This one too. So talented.

Nickel Creek?

And Marky went for Dua Lipa, whoever he is.

What IS the matter with you people? Ever tried proper music?

Allow me to rescue this

[Marky147]

Nickel Creek?

And Marky went for Dua Lipa, whoever he is.

What IS the matter with you people? Ever tried proper music?

I was sceptical, but took my best friend to see her at Wembley for her birthday last summer, and it was fantastic.




Now I'm on Vegas sabbatical I've turned into a concert boy, and have a good set lined up for the middle half of the year.

Think I've got 8 or 9 in the next 6 months.

Glad I'm on electric now, and not paying for petrol anymore at these prices!

[AndrewT]

It being Ramadan should make no difference to numbers as gambling is Haram for followers  of the Muslim faith. However I live in the real world and suspect that it probably does. Ho hum, life goes on.

My first job after university was in one of the livelier William Hills in NW London - the clientele was full of characters.

One day two of them got into a massive row about something or other.

One of them said to the other 'You shouldn't even be in here - you're a Muslim'

To which the Muslim replied 'You shouldn't be in here either - how that judge only gave you a suspended sentence for throwing that traffic warden through that shop window I'll never know'

[MANTIS01]

I was having a clear out of old clothes yesterday. Right at the back of the closet, crumpled on the floor, was a tracksuit top made by a company called View From. I think the British Olympic team wore this brand in the early noughties. It was a top I sometimes played poker in. I smiled because I remember it being associated with a personal top ten poker moment. Probably 8th or 9th but memorable, nonetheless. More about that in a moment.

In the late 90’s I was aware of a very small and well-hidden aspect of my character. It had manifested itself just a couple of times in real life, usually when in conflict with my bosses. It was like when David Banner stubbed his toe and got the eyes…but without the anger. I would be prepared to lose my job, my house, everything I owned; but I wasn’t going to lose that argument. My head would just go PING! and this serene, stubborn, fearless asshole would emerge. It served no constructive purpose, I couldn’t conjure it up at will, but strangely, I absolutely loved that feeling. Lol.

One day I played my first game of live poker and from the opening hand my head went PING! Every time I played after that my head just went PING! automatically. It was brilliant. Early on I read about a million books and considered strategy deeply. I thought it was all mostly bullshit though. I still believe character, people skills and natural attributes get you a long way across the winning line in no limit. I can only talk about the level I played at of course.

I liked it best when there were big personalities trying to dominate the table with speech play. My head pinged like crazy, because that guy was getting a new arsehole ripped for himself soon. I played a tournament in some moody backstreet casino in Morocco once, all shady locals, bristling atmosphere. Absolutely loved it. You’ve got to remember here that I’m a General Manager of golf clubs, sensible and affable. Yet PING! I’m feeling like I’m going to rip a lot of new Moroccan assholes before this night is done. Winning money was proper good fun in poker but nothing beat that asshole ripping feeling.

I brought my poker mentality onto Blonde a lot of the time, maybe I was using it as a training ground. Wanted to keep the PING! fully functional. To be fair there were no shortage of candidates, because this was the new era of the wizards. A big part of my poker strategy was that I needed to control the emotion and get opponents to react to my action. Blonde was perfect because there were ample super confident, bedroom dwelling wizardy types who perhaps were not so adept at emotional intelligence. No harm done, just bants really. Oh and I am always conscious of the commercial aspects of things so because I took something from Blond I wanted to give back viewing figures. So I needed the likes of Greekstein like my Benn needed his Eubank. Or thinking about it, maybe I'm Eubank.
 
Incidentally, I did think the most entirely inherently unintelligent thing in the whole history of poker was when the wizards destroyed their own game by belittling all the feel players and the newbies, but meh, everything has it's day. Truth is I don’t know the true character of anybody using Blonde, probably all solid gold guys, nothing personal.

Anyway, back to this View From tracksuit top.

I could never really have been busto during my playing days because I had a good job, owned a house and car. Always had a decent salary at the end of the month. However, my wife went to spend a few days with her mum in Norwich and I took the opportunity to embark upon a 48hr drug-fuelled poker bender. Lost about £10k, maybe a little more. Don’t get me wrong, totally brilliant weekend, but I was left with about £3.42 ready cash to my name. And it was still two days until my salary dropped. When my wife arrived home the fridge was empty and I hadn’t done the shopping. This was on account of I hadn’t really fancied eating since she left. I always do the shopping and always doing the cooking so no problem I say and skip out the door to the local Tesco.

A few steps up the road and with my mind full of pasta orientated dishes of the sub £4 variety it starts to rain. I mean I’m feeling a little low at this point with the cold and rain, mother of hangovers and loose change rattling in my pocket. Turned back, went in the house and grabbed that track top from the closet. Halfway back to Tesco I put my hands in the pockets and THUD! My right hand hits a brick. I grab whatever it is and pull it out. It was a huge block of crisp and rather lovely £50 notes, around £3.5k worth. What a flip flop of emotions and such crazy times with poker. Anyway, burst back through the door with bags of shopping. Here you go honey, got you a choice of sirloin or lobster and a lovely bottle of Chateau nerf de pap. Abs lol!

I sometimes still play poker, mainly to see if I still have the PING! I played the Goliath in 2024 and never had it once, felt emotional, like something had died. I played it again last year and suddenly PING! it was there for the whole first day. So who knows, this time next year Rodders!

[RED-DOG]

Fabulous post.