Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[RichEO]

How many ends does a belt normally have?

No idea, never worn one. Gissa clue.

It didn't make any more sense on national telly.

Clue: It's like a piece of string.

[Robert HM]

Wear the bandanna too and you'll be fighting the women off with a stick.

their stick?

I assume their guide dogs will protect them.

[tikay]

Good post Tony.

I remember Leeds City centre being evacuated on a couple of occaisons while I was work. It was after the Manchester bombing and Leeds was the biggest city not to have been bombed there was a feeling that it was 'our turn' and many people were very scared.

I was in Belfast last year. I was taken for a tour by a friend and it was a real eyeopener It's still a deeply divided and troubled place. It's incredible that in places a 10 metre high wall is considered necessary to keep communities apart.

Much has been achieved over the past few years and hopefully progress will continue to be made, the process is far from over.



How many ends does a belt normally have?

Well you are a little younger than me Patrick, but I guess the Ireland troubles have been around for most of your life. For those of "our" age, it's been just awful, all those bombing campaigns, knee-cappings, innocent civilians killed, to live in fear of a knock on the door, as those in Belfast did, is an awful thing I imagine. How many newspaper headlines & TV Programmes have we seen about it? And now it's almost peace, barely a word in the Media. That period after the passing of a storm is so lovely, & we seem to be there, & I just think it's one of the most wonderful things I can remember in my whole life, that it's over at last.

I played some Poker in Belfast a few years back. The taxi from Belfast International (a dreadful Airport though not as bad as Luton), took us a short cut, over the hills & down a quiet country lane, & we (I think I was with Thewy) were shit-scared, we honestly thought we were gonna get shot or something.

After the Tourney, (Action Jack won it) Sean Murphy got his driver or "minder", (he was a big bugger, hard as nails) to take us back to the Airport, & so we asked if he minded giving us a bit of a tour of Belfast. It turned out he'd been "involved" in the troubles (to be fair, most were, not always by choice), and I cannot remember a more depressing afternoon. We went to that village where the kids, to get to school, had to march through an area occupied by the "other side", & they were harangued & shouted at, urine-filled balloons thrown at them, indeed eventually a bomb was lobbed amongst them. These were primary school kids. Most houses had a flag outside, some areas were actually "mixed" & apparently all of them got along. Very odd. We saw the Prison - OMG, it was just so forbiddiong & depressing, they should have demolished it, we went to Shankill Road, & it's famous Police Station & we saw the Army "Observation" Towers, oh so forbidding. All the shops were boarded up, young kids roamed the streets, there was litter everywhere. It was as if the area had been abandoned. I've neber been so pleased to get back home, but I'll never forget it, either.

OK, to lighten up, the Tourney was in Sean Murphy's place, was £1,000 to enter, & had a GUARANTEED first prize of £100,000. So the Prize Pool had a bit of a lop-sided look to it, as there were only 113 runners! ActionJack & me returned on Day Two as joint Billy Low Stacks, but he had position on me, & doubled up early, but I made the move next hand & busted out. Come the Final, AJ was Chip Leader! So he said before the Final began, "hey lads, £100k to the winner, £3k to 2nd etc, this is daft, let's re-structure it amongst ourselves". So they did, & it ended up about £30k to the winner, & Paul won it outright from Paddy McCloskey. Paul had his daughter with him that weekend too, very pretty indeed. Got her looks from her Mum, I guess.

We flew out from East Mids, & Mel Lofthouse asked if she could meet us at the other end & share a taxi, she was flying from Heathrow I think. OK we said, meet at the Coffee Bar in the Airport at 11am. We waited until after midday, no sign of her, so we rung her. "I'm at the coffee shop", says she. "So are we", said we. "Next to the Avis Car Rental Booth"? There was no Avis booth. She was at Belfast City Airport, we were at "International".......

We eventually got to our Hotel at 2pm I think, & the woman behind reception said we could not book in until 2.30, "thems the rules, them are". So I got all mardy & tetchy, but Thewy made me shut it. We sat in Reception & played on 'Stars via our Lappies, & Thewy played Heads Up & won $600 with some heap of crap. Nothing changes there, then.

[Miami Vic]

Regarding Tuesday night's Open...Nobody's mentioned your jacket. Why haven't you let your fans know you've been signed up as a redcoat?

[snoopy1239]

Who came up with that structure and why? 

[tikay]

Regarding Tuesday night's Open...Nobody's mentioned your jacket. Why haven't you let your fans know you've been signed up as a redcoat?

Hush you.  Err, Mr Boss, Sir.

They now have a "Power-Nap" Corner at Sky Feltham. Above it, there is a pic of me, mouth hanging open, slavver on chin, dead to the world. They'll be sorry one of these days, "tug the tail of the tiger" & all that.

We had another Poker Meeting yesterday, all the Technical guys & gals, all the Big Suits, & somehow I got invited too. Basically, wiithout talking out of school, the Producers, Presenters & Analysts are now being encouraged to widen their roles, to be a little more adventurous, allow the personalities to be developed, try different things. The Norman & Kara Intro on Monday was an example, & I thought it was just brilliant. I wanted to try something similar on Tuesday, & the Producer & I had a few ideas, but in the end we thought, well, we can't follow Norm, it was so good, so we left it for another day. I think it's wonderful the way the Team there are developing, there are more shows planned,  (the pilot has been made already for one of them), & there are a whole shed-load of new ideas to be incorporated in "The Open", stuff that's just guaranteed to be popular. The Sky Suits know exactly what they are doing. They launched quietly, established a Format, perfected it, delivered the players to the Cardroom in huge numbers, & now they are ready for Phase Two, to move forward & improve everything. They are also taslking about Plans for 2008, which says a lot for their belief in the future.

There are now 5 or 6 Producers on the Channel, & all of them have particular responsibilities, & they are young & enthusuiastic, & are like a sort of "ideas factory". I am fortunate, in that I get to see so many of these "ideas", to pass comment as it were, & help with contacts, & they are just so exciting, you are gonna be amazed at the breadth & variety of poker coverage they plan.

I really don't know how or why Sky first came to invite me to be part of the Team - I certainly never applied, (I've never applied for a job in my life) I just got an e-Mail, out of the blue. As I keep saying, I'm blessed. My next Show is on Friday, & I can't wait. But no plum jacket this time. I promise.

[tikay]

Who came up with that structure and why? 

Are you referring to the £100,000 Guaranteed Tourney in Belfast?

I don't know who devised it, Sean Murphy I imagine, but the Tourney was Ladbrokes "badged", & Roy Brindlwey & a few other red-shirted Laddies Boys were there.

It was £1,000 to enter, & so when only 113 turned up, they had themselves a problem, but they had to say £100,000 to the Winner, as that had been advertised. (Interesting to speculate what would have happened if less than 100 turned up.....)

So once the Final was ready to start, ActionJack made the proposal to re-structure the Prize Pool, & everyone agreed. He did himself out of £70,000 in the end, but he did the right thing, for the right reason, & it was appreciated by all.

[bobby1]

Good post Tony.

I remember Leeds City centre being evacuated on a couple of occaisons while I was work. It was after the Manchester bombing and Leeds was the biggest city not to have been bombed there was a feeling that it was 'our turn' and many people were very scared.

I was in Belfast last year. I was taken for a tour by a friend and it was a real eyeopener It's still a deeply divided and troubled place. It's incredible that in places a 10 metre high wall is considered necessary to keep communities apart.

Much has been achieved over the past few years and hopefully progress will continue to be made, the process is far from over.



How many ends does a belt normally have?

Well you are a little younger than me Patrick, but I guess the Ireland troubles have been around for most of your life. For those of "our" age, it's been just awful, all those bombing campaigns, knee-cappings, innocent civilians killed, to live in fear of a knock on the door, as those in Belfast did, is an awful thing I imagine. How many newspaper headlines & TV Programmes have we seen about it? And now it's almost peace, barely a word in the Media. That period after the passing of a storm is so lovely, & we seem to be there, & I just think it's one of the most wonderful things I can remember in my whole life, that it's over at last.

I played some Poker in Belfast a few years back. The taxi from Belfast International (a dreadful Airport though not as bad as Luton), took us a short cut, over the hills & down a quiet country lane, & we (I think I was with Thewy) were shit-scared, we honestly thought we were gonna get shot or something.

After the Tourney, (Action Jack won it) Sean Murphy got his driver or "minder", (he was a big bugger, hard as nails) to take us back to the Airport, & so we asked if he minded giving us a bit of a tour of Belfast. It turned out he'd been "involved" in the troubles (to be fair, most were, not always by choice), and I cannot remember a more depressing afternoon. We went to that village where the kids, to get to school, had to march through an area occupied by the "other side", & they were harangued & shouted at, urine-filled balloons thrown at them, indeed eventually a bomb was lobbed amongst them. These were primary school kids. Most houses had a flag outside, some areas were actually "mixed" & apparently all of them got along. Very odd. We saw the Prison - OMG, it was just so forbiddiong & depressing, they should have demolished it, we went to Shankill Road, & it's famous Police Station & we saw the Army "Observation" Towers, oh so forbidding. All the shops were boarded up, young kids roamed the streets, there was litter everywhere. It was as if the area had been abandoned. I've neber been so pleased to get back home, but I'll never forget it, either.

OK, to lighten up, the Tourney was in Sean Murphy's place, was £1,000 to enter, & had a GUARANTEED first prize of £100,000. So the Prize Pool had a bit of a lop-sided look to it, as there were only 113 runners! ActionJack & me returned on Day Two as joint Billy Low Stacks, but he had position on me, & doubled up early, but I made the move next hand & busted out. Come the Final, AJ was Chip Leader! So he said before the Final began, "hey lads, £100k to the winner, £3k to 2nd etc, this is daft, let's re-structure it amongst ourselves". So they did, & it ended up about £30k to the winner, & Paul won it outright from Paddy McCloskey. Paul had his daughter with him that weekend too, very pretty indeed. Got her looks from her Mum, I guess.

We flew out from East Mids, & Mel Lofthouse asked if she could meet us at the other end & share a taxi, she was flying from Heathrow I think. OK we said, meet at the Coffee Bar in the Airport at 11am. We waited until after midday, no sign of her, so we rung her. "I'm at the coffee shop", says she. "So are we", said we. "Next to the Avis Car Rental Booth"? There was no Avis booth. She was at Belfast City Airport, we were at "International".......

We eventually got to our Hotel at 2pm I think, & the woman behind reception said we could not book in until 2.30, "thems the rules, them are". So I got all mardy & tetchy, but Thewy made me shut it. We sat in Reception & played on 'Stars via our Lappies, & Thewy played Heads Up & won $600 with some heap of crap. Nothing changes there, then.

I went to Belfast on a stag do a couple of years ago(its easy to get to from Leeds) and had an experience a little like yours Tony, late one night and very drunk about 5 of us decided to walk back to the hotel, prob was we were kinda guessing the way and soon found ourselves in an area of the town that had masked gunmen painted on walls,memorials to men that had fought also painted on houses and coloured flag stones on the pavement to indicate which side of town we were in.

Now I have to admit I didn't know the full history of the troubles but was reassured we were on the 'right' side of town but the real scary thing was we were on the 'right' side of town and were still all very scared.

please excuse my ignorance if that is in any way rude.

[tikay]

I've been under the weather for a day or two, just tired I think. I actually fell asleep at my PC on Monday night - whilst playing $5 $10 Omaha Cash! Woke up with a start & it was 10pm, went to bed, (not been to bed that early in years) got 8 hours kip, felt great next morning & was up at 6am & did 4 hours work on e-Mails before heading to Feltham for the Show.

Dog-rough again today, but it did not stop me going down to Luton for their £50 single rebuy affair, a lovely little comp, great value. Got there on time, & was mortified to find that they'd put the start back to 8.30. If only these folks, who I like & admire a lot, would learn the value of communicating with their players.

So I ended up paying Koo-Kan (sp?) with a bunch led by Jim McShane & Brian Glover, & this was my debut at the game. Beginners luck kicked in, & I won, though having 4 jokers dealt to me helped a tad. I reckon they owed me £973 collectively, but they reneged on the grounds that it was a "practice game". Pfft.

The less said about the Tourney the better. Remarkably, I was involved in a set over set flop which turned into quads affair, & I was on the wrong end again - almost an exact replica of what happened to me in the same Tourney last week. But I was always behind tonight, soon to get even behinder, then even further behinderer, my 55 v JJ on a flop of 5-J-x, Turn J.

So back up the M1, & in 20 minutes of $3-$6 Omaha, I'm $600 ahead. I think I could do very well if I stayed Online, but Live play really floats my boat.

[tikay]

Good post Tony.

I remember Leeds City centre being evacuated on a couple of occaisons while I was work. It was after the Manchester bombing and Leeds was the biggest city not to have been bombed there was a feeling that it was 'our turn' and many people were very scared.

I was in Belfast last year. I was taken for a tour by a friend and it was a real eyeopener It's still a deeply divided and troubled place. It's incredible that in places a 10 metre high wall is considered necessary to keep communities apart.

Much has been achieved over the past few years and hopefully progress will continue to be made, the process is far from over.



How many ends does a belt normally have?

Well you are a little younger than me Patrick, but I guess the Ireland troubles have been around for most of your life. For those of "our" age, it's been just awful, all those bombing campaigns, knee-cappings, innocent civilians killed, to live in fear of a knock on the door, as those in Belfast did, is an awful thing I imagine. How many newspaper headlines & TV Programmes have we seen about it? And now it's almost peace, barely a word in the Media. That period after the passing of a storm is so lovely, & we seem to be there, & I just think it's one of the most wonderful things I can remember in my whole life, that it's over at last.

I played some Poker in Belfast a few years back. The taxi from Belfast International (a dreadful Airport though not as bad as Luton), took us a short cut, over the hills & down a quiet country lane, & we (I think I was with Thewy) were shit-scared, we honestly thought we were gonna get shot or something.

After the Tourney, (Action Jack won it) Sean Murphy got his driver or "minder", (he was a big bugger, hard as nails) to take us back to the Airport, & so we asked if he minded giving us a bit of a tour of Belfast. It turned out he'd been "involved" in the troubles (to be fair, most were, not always by choice), and I cannot remember a more depressing afternoon. We went to that village where the kids, to get to school, had to march through an area occupied by the "other side", & they were harangued & shouted at, urine-filled balloons thrown at them, indeed eventually a bomb was lobbed amongst them. These were primary school kids. Most houses had a flag outside, some areas were actually "mixed" & apparently all of them got along. Very odd. We saw the Prison - OMG, it was just so forbiddiong & depressing, they should have demolished it, we went to Shankill Road, & it's famous Police Station & we saw the Army "Observation" Towers, oh so forbidding. All the shops were boarded up, young kids roamed the streets, there was litter everywhere. It was as if the area had been abandoned. I've neber been so pleased to get back home, but I'll never forget it, either.

OK, to lighten up, the Tourney was in Sean Murphy's place, was £1,000 to enter, & had a GUARANTEED first prize of £100,000. So the Prize Pool had a bit of a lop-sided look to it, as there were only 113 runners! ActionJack & me returned on Day Two as joint Billy Low Stacks, but he had position on me, & doubled up early, but I made the move next hand & busted out. Come the Final, AJ was Chip Leader! So he said before the Final began, "hey lads, £100k to the winner, £3k to 2nd etc, this is daft, let's re-structure it amongst ourselves". So they did, & it ended up about £30k to the winner, & Paul won it outright from Paddy McCloskey. Paul had his daughter with him that weekend too, very pretty indeed. Got her looks from her Mum, I guess.

We flew out from East Mids, & Mel Lofthouse asked if she could meet us at the other end & share a taxi, she was flying from Heathrow I think. OK we said, meet at the Coffee Bar in the Airport at 11am. We waited until after midday, no sign of her, so we rung her. "I'm at the coffee shop", says she. "So are we", said we. "Next to the Avis Car Rental Booth"? There was no Avis booth. She was at Belfast City Airport, we were at "International".......

We eventually got to our Hotel at 2pm I think, & the woman behind reception said we could not book in until 2.30, "thems the rules, them are". So I got all mardy & tetchy, but Thewy made me shut it. We sat in Reception & played on 'Stars via our Lappies, & Thewy played Heads Up & won $600 with some heap of crap. Nothing changes there, then.

I went to Belfast on a stag do a couple of years ago(its easy to get to from Leeds) and had an experience a little like yours Tony, late one night and very drunk about 5 of us decided to walk back to the hotel, prob was we were kinda guessing the way and soon found ourselves in an area of the town that had masked gunmen painted on walls,memorials to men that had fought also painted on houses and coloured flag stones on the pavement to indicate which side of town we were in.

Now I have to admit I didn't know the full history of the troubles but was reassured we were on the 'right' side of town but the real scary thing was we were on the 'right' side of town and were still all very scared.

please excuse my ignorance if that is in any way rude.

I am with you there Phil, I'm sorry to say I don't know who is who out there, & what each faction repersents. But the scary thing is the sort of "implied threat" in the air all the time. I could never live there, & it makes me think of the poor folks who live in Baghdad, for example, never knowing when a bomb will go off.

[tikay]

Today is (was) the Centenary of the Scouting Movement, started by Baden-Powell. (Baden-Powell also being cockney rhyming slang for "towel").

There are currently 28 million Scouts (+ 10 million Girl Guides), 10 million in the USA alone, & Scouting takes place in over 150 Countries. Over the years, I imagine over 300 million kids must have been Scouts at one time. If only 5% came out better kids, that's some testament to B-P.

I will be forever grateful to the Boy Scouts, it meant so much to me as a kid. We had a Uniform, which meant we were all the same. For one, like me, who was inferior & subservient, this was my escape, & I loved being "equal". We met weekly, & I counted the days down, Church Parade, once a month, was the highlight, marching down the High Street with other Scout Troops & The Girls Brigade. Once I was selected to be the Flag-bearer, what a day in my life that was. OK, mock all you like, but to a down-trodden, shy, backward, dumb, kid, it meant everything to me, today's equivelant for a youngster would be as a Premiership Football Team Mascot, going onto the pitch with John Terry or whoever.

"Bob-a-Job Week" was an Annual affair. Do a good deed for someone, & they gave you a "bob", or shilling (5p), which went to Scout Funds. The Mottos were "Be Prepared" & "Do a good deed every day". That'd cause some sniggers & smirks today, but I can think of worse.

They taught us good morals, ethics, & a practical approach to life. We went on Scout Camp once a year, the highlight of my life at the time, as I was away from my dreadful home life, could stay up late, & most of all, I could play with other kids, a novelty for me. We travelled to Camp in the back of a Fruit & Veg lorry - "F Meyers & Co"! - which was just tremendously exciting. Today, some mamby-pamby wet would say it was against Health & Safety Regs for kids to travel on the back of an open lorry, but any kid would adore it. I'd come back & my Step-Mum would find that I'd not even opened the bar of soap she'd sent me away with, whack! but so what.

The only dislike I had was the Scouts close ties with the Church. I eventually got banned by the Church for some misdemeanour, some prank I think, but the forced church-going eventually turned me 100% against ever gong to Church again.

Many kids today are not seen in a good light, & in some cases rightly so. But there are zilions of good kids, many of whom become good adults. Baden-Powell has been responsible for getting many of them onto the right path. ScoutMasters are known as (or were) "Skip", but Baden-Powell enjoyed the title of "World Chief Scout". I think that was about right, & would have been all he ever wished for.

[RED-DOG]

We have a Scoutmaster in our village ("Our village", Hark at me) He was telling me that political red-tape, health and safety, social services etc etc have made most of the traditional scout persuits impossible. What a shame.

[tikay]

We had another Poker Meeting yesterday, all the Technical guys & gals, all the Big Suits, & somehow I got invited too. Basically, wiithout talking out of school, the Producers, Presenters & Analysts are now being encouraged to widen their roles, to be a little more adventurous, allow the personalities to be developed, try different things. The Norman & Kara Intro on Monday was an example, & I thought it was just brilliant. I wanted to try something similar on Tuesday, & the Producer & I had a few ideas, but in the end we thought, well, we can't follow Norm, it was so good, so we left it for another day. I think it's wonderful the way the Team there are developing, there are more shows planned,  (the pilot has been made already for one of them), & there are a whole shed-load of new ideas to be incorporated in "The Open", stuff that's just guaranteed to be popular. The Sky Suits know exactly what they are doing. They launched quietly, established a Format, perfected it, delivered the players to the Cardroom in huge numbers, & now they are ready for Phase Two, to move forward & improve everything. They are also taslking about Plans for 2008, which says a lot for their belief in the future.

There are now 5 or 6 Producers on the Channel, & all of them have particular responsibilities, & they are young & enthusuiastic, & are like a sort of "ideas factory". I am fortunate, in that I get to see so many of these "ideas", to pass comment as it were, & help with contacts, & they are just so exciting, you are gonna be amazed at the breadth & variety of poker coverage they plan.

Interesting stuff - are league tables likely to be on the drawing board (Open V1 and V2 ).  Look forward to seeing the new developments.

I've been under the weather for a day or two.

Crikey, you're the 2nd person I have spoken to this week that seems to have caught my lurgies virtually - do you need some of my anitbiotics lol.  Hope you are feeling better soon.

M/x

League Tables Michelle? Well I can't really talk out of school, but you'll not be disappointed.

I'm not unwell, just a bit tired.

Writing is profitable for me, I get bored playing Online, so whilst I'm playing Online Omaha, I can write, that stops me playing daft hands. An hour ago, I reported that I was $600 ahead, it's $1,200 now, just nut-peddling. If anyone ever saw my Omaha Stats - flops seen etc, they'd have a field day, but it works for me.

[RED-DOG]

When we were kids no one gave a toss what you did or how dangerous it was, except, for some strange reason, two on a bike. That seemed to be the mother of all sins, I was pulled for it loads of times. I even got my bike confiscated once.

[tikay]

When we were kids no one gave a toss what you did or how dangerous it was, except, for some strange reason, two on a bike. That seemed to be the mother of all sins, I was pulled for it loads of times. I even got my bike confiscated once.

Sadly, kids are wrapped n cotton-wool these days. Kids NEED a few bumps & bruises, coughs & colds, a bit of bullying even, some wind in theoir face now & then, it prepares them for the real world, teaches them about danger, & pain. But I've never been a parent, so I guess I am not qualified to comment. Oops, I just did........