Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

07.40, Friday 29th May

A very good morning.

I'm pleasantly surprised, shocked even, that there's at least a modicum of interest in some Diary Updates. You've only got yourselves to blame if I start waffling.

I need to go collect my Rental Car at 8am, once that's sorted I'll try & get started on here. I'll respond to Raaby too.

When I began the GRA I promised myself I'd update the Diary regularly, so I'd kind of like to right that failure. SO much has happened to me in the last 12 months, good & bad.

OK, off to collect my motor.

[tikay]

Oh, my planned schedule. As you can see, I get started today, 12.10 Local (8.10pm UK) at Venetian.



29th May, VENETIAN, $800 PLO8

30th May, SOUTH POINT, $240 PLO8

31st May, ORLEANS, $240 Big O

1st June, WSOP, $1,500 Omaha Mix

2nd June SOUTH POINT, $120 O8

3rd June VENETIAN, $1,100 Big O Bounty

4th June WSOP, $1,500 PLO8

5th June WSOP $1,500 Big O (Flight A)

 (6th June WSOP $1,500 Big O (Flight B if bust Flight A)

6th June SOUTH POINT $200 O8

7th June ORLEANS $240 PLO

9th June SOUTH POINT $120 O8

10th June MGM $250 O8

11th June MGM $250 Big O

12th June MGM $250 PLO8

13th June ORLEANS $240 Big O

14th June GOLDEN NUGGET $400 Big O/PLO

15th June WSOP $1,000 NLH Seniors

16th June GOLDEN NUGGET $500 O8

17th June ORLEANS $240 Big O

18th June ORLEANS $400 O8

19th June MGM $200 O8

[booder]

 

[doubleup]

gl tikay

[tikay]

Best of luck Tony, will be following your progress with interest, whether it be via your updates or on chip count lists and results sheets.

As for me, i’ve had another topsy turvy year. When I was last briefly active on here last year, i’d been writing for a site called Poker Pro, having published a bot farm expose story on there the previous year. I did quite a lot of reporting last year at live poker events and covered UK players’ progress in a regular report throughout the WSOP (from afar).

Since then i’ve set up my own site www.mttdb.com and together with one other co-founder we are running that and a poker news site called www.pokerindustrynews.com.

They are meant to be side projects but as I don’t have any significant paid gigs at the moment, apart from a spot of SEO writing for gambling.com, they’ve become my main focus, especially MTTDB, which is a live and online poker event planner and analytics site. It’s just 7 months old but has come a long way and we are quite proud of what we’re building. It’s not perfect, has glitches and some mistakes, but we’re aiming to curate the most comprehensive poker db with just two people, so it’s gonna happen like that until we either make a bit of cash or get some volunteers to help fill and check the accuracy of it all.

We have over 200 live festivals listed, 70 venues (mostly in USA) with daily schedules plus over a dozen online poker room mttt schedules. We also have results and player pages from key tours, but not a full data set. We’re not aiming to be the hendon mob, although there’s some overlap. Just launched a live events news feed so will be experimenting with some live event coverage on that, for the wsop and other events. Speaking of which (brag time) i’ve just won two seats into the Battle of Malta (i live here) Main Event from an accumulator milestone satellite. €70 into 2 x €600 seats. Will be playing on Friday afternoon.

Keen to hear feedback on the sites, good and bad.

As always seems to happen, I got diverted this morning by this & that so I'm a little short of time & these days I don't do "rush".

I did want to put up this link about Jonathan Raab, aka Alright Jack" though....



https://mttdb.com/authors/jonathan-raab/



I can't quite recall when I first met Raaby. He of course founded GUKPT which is still going strong, & it started in 2007. In Season 1 alone, winners included....

Praz Bansi

Jerome Bradpiece

Michael "Don't call me Bepe" Greco

Dave Colclough (RIP)

Dave Smith (RIP)

Maz Nawab

Dave Clark

Julian Thew

Mike Ellis.



Prior to that though I followed him all over Europe - London, Helsinki, Deauville, Monaco - for the Unusual Suspects promo.

It began in a room overlooking Trafalgar Square, directly under where Sir Clive Sinclair lived. Sir Clive was a big poker fan & joined us for the evening but snap fell asleep. I was never quite sure why the millionaire but awful poker player Sir Clive was so popular amongst pokerists.

The Unusual Suspects line-up was....



Seat 1   James Dempsey

Seat 2   Joe Grech

Seat 3  J P Kelly

Seat 4   Burnley John

Seat 5   Stuart Nash

Seat 6   Simon Nowab

Seat 7   At It Bradley

Seat 8   Micky Wernick (RIP)

Seat 9   Jen Mason




A few there I've not heard of in years. Mickey, of course, sadly passed away a few years ago.

At-It-Bradley went on to bigger & better things, he's a big cheese in some Business these days, DraftKings I think?



https://bg.linkedin.com/in/ian-bradley-466a7054

[tikay]

My first MTT , that $800 thing at Venetian, starts in 90 minutes so I better get sorted & drive across & reg.

I did wet my toes in a Limit O8 Cash Game at The Orleans last night, but it all got a bit too exciting for me & I quit after about an hour. (Photo to follow)

[tikay]

Rarely see Limit in the UK  but its alive and well in Vegas, long wait lists last night.

[tikay]

.

[tikay]

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[Kev B]

Oh, my planned schedule. As you can see, I get started today, 12.10 Local (8.10pm UK) at Venetian.



29th May, VENETIAN, $800 PLO8

30th May, SOUTH POINT, $240 PLO8

31st May, ORLEANS, $240 Big O

1st June, WSOP, $1,500 Omaha Mix

2nd June SOUTH POINT, $120 O8

3rd June VENETIAN, $1,100 Big O Bounty

4th June WSOP, $1,500 PLO8

5th June WSOP $1,500 Big O (Flight A)

 (6th June WSOP $1,500 Big O (Flight B if bust Flight A)

6th June SOUTH POINT $200 O8

7th June ORLEANS $240 PLO

9th June SOUTH POINT $120 O8

10th June MGM $250 O8

11th June MGM $250 Big O

12th June MGM $250 PLO8

13th June ORLEANS $240 Big O

14th June GOLDEN NUGGET $400 Big O/PLO

15th June WSOP $1,000 NLH Seniors

16th June GOLDEN NUGGET $500 O8

17th June ORLEANS $240 Big O

18th June ORLEANS $400 O8

19th June MGM $200 O8

Some schedule there Tikay. VBOL.

[bookiebasher]

Test photo...

 

My editing skills are in line with your parking ability.

Best of luck , run good and try to park between the white lines .

[Knottikay]

Looking forward to your updates again this year Tikay. After breaking my Vegas virginity last year, I will only have your exploits to read about this year. SIGH. VBOL Sir and enjoy 

[tikay]

Here are my first two articles related to the 2026 WSOP

https://pokerindustrynews.com/poker-news/live-poker/uk-players-heading-to-the-2026-world-series-of-poker/

https://pokerindustrynews.com/poker-news/live-poker/participation-drop-for-opening-bracelet-events-at-the-2026-wsop/

Morning JR.

Enjoyed both those articles.

I have said nothing on S-M about POTUS with good reason, as I travel to the USA frequently these days, but I think Mr Boatman has a point & I think visitor numbers generally to the USA will be down. If DJT keeps insulting everyone & making dire threats, folks will be reluctant to travel. 

Meanwhile, did you see that Caesars Entertainment agreed to a takeover yesterday by a business that owns, amongst other things, Golden Nugget? (Fertitta Entertainment).

Caesars have been selling off arms & legs of their business for some years now in an attempt to service their debt, but eventually it's caught up with them. Think the price was $5.7 billion, plus assuming responsibility for $12 billion of debt.

[tikay]

Looking forward to your updates again this year Tikay. After breaking my Vegas virginity last year, I will only have your exploits to read about this year. SIGH. VBOL Sir and enjoy 

Morning Alan.

TYVM.

Hope you & the lad are well, & plan to watch Arsenal this evening.

[tikay]

Test photo...

 

My editing skills are in line with your parking ability.

Best of luck , run good and try to park between the white lines .

Looks perfect parking to me.