Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

I got 2nd in the Laddiies $250 freeze this afternoon, only 17 runners, but $1,275 is handy enough, especially as I was a total luckbox througout.

This comp plays incredibly slowly, I pretty much sit-out the first 3 or 4 levels, & this afternoon I was fielding the usual APAT questions, groan.

Suddenly, it was "FINAL" (no big deal, with only 17 starters & 3 paid) but now we can start playing proper poker, & I'm 9th of 10, about my normal position. I got distracted on the Forum agan, & suddenly we were 5-handed & I'm tail-end Charlie with 5,000, but Blinds are, wait for it, 150-300!

OK, time to be serious, & I played properly now - "properly" meaning I got hit by the deck, hit every flop,  & was soon Heads-Up & joint leader, we both had 26k or so. Shut the Forum down, I gotta concentrate now.

Pete Costa rang, & so did Jen, but I said I'd have to call them back, you know how crap I am at Heads Up, & I wanted to win this.

We actually to & froed for 55 minutes, (Blinds reached the massive 400-800, & there was 51k in play!), it went this way & then that, but all of a sudden it was all over. I don't think I did much wrong throughout, but sometimes hands just play themselves, & this was one of those.

We knew each others game inside out by now, so there was some weird play going off, we'd been through the R & RR stage, we'd been through the limp & limp stage, & we were going round the block again.

I explain that because otherwise it's hard to grasp how we could both see this flop in an unraised pot. First, the flop......

 

My holding was 

Pretty good, huh? Worthy of pushing or callling, eh? So I was delighted to get on. Until I saw his little beaut.

 

He pretty much had me locked up there, eh?

Thoroighly enjoyed it, & I'll not forget the exit hand in  hurry, & you really can't get uppity about losing that way. Went in behind, stayed behind.

[boldie]

ouch..that is a bad hand to run into. Still, as you said, 1200$ ain't bad at all

[tikay]

ouch..that is a bad hand to run into. Still, as you said, 1200$ ain't bad at all

Oh, I'm delighted, bugger shooting for the stars, little & often is all I want, & $1,200 is proper money to me. Amazing that two players can get in a Pot with those 2 hands unraised though! I usually come 3rd in Heads-Up encounters, so at least I'm going the right way.

[boldie]

ouch..that is a bad hand to run into. Still, as you said, 1200$ ain't bad at all

I usually come 3rd in Heads-Up encounters, so at least I'm going the right way.

that actually had me laughing out loud.

And 1200$ should be proper money to anyone who is even remotely normal

[Laxie]

Surely if he announced "Raise" then it's a raise, whatever he did with his chips, hands, etc. Was this not related to the TD?

Everything was related to the TD, but you know how daft it gets when the Floor is summoned, The Dealer,  Floor, player & 4 others all try to talk at the same time, progressively louder & louder, in such circumstances, clear communication is not easy.

Yogi, in his Blackpool days, used to make eveyone keep quiet, not speak until asked, & his Rulings were, as a result, usually spot on. Mr Kremser does the same, "ONE AT A TIME PLEASE" sorta thing.

Mistakes happen, it's not a problem, but that was not the point, which was that SS took the bad Ruling quietly & stoically.

Exact same thing happened to my husband when we played in Stoke last month.  He was shocked when they called it a string bet but didn't argue the dealer's ruling because hubby was considered an 'outsider' and didn't want to upset the apple cart.  I told him after that it wasn't his responsibility to sort the chips out.  Just call 'raise' and get em past the line...let the dealer do their job of sorting them.  He'll be delighted when he hears a proper pro was called for the same thing and that it wasn't just him. 

Well done on the Laddies comp!!!

[tikay]

Got lucky again this evening, won $700 in the $3 $6 Omaha (annnoyingly, I was $1,900 ahead at one stage but got greedy), and finished 6th in the $50+$50+$50 $10k Guaranteed for $756, to complete a good day online. So that's pulled back the £1k I done in the Luton Main Event, with a bit to spare, taking into account last night's Online profit. I play a lot of poker, & so I need to keep getting results, but I'm hanging in nicely so far. Them sponsored boys don't know how lucky they are, but they have the game, otherwise they would not be sponsored, so good luck to them, but the never-ending nagging finanxcial doubts for un-sponsored players are always there. I've survived so far, but it does not take long to go broke in this game if the Poker Gods get mardy. But this is (partly) what I retired to do, & I'm loving it.

I travel to London tomorrow, in preparation for an early start on Monday, meetings, WSOP-E Press Lunch & Poker Week filming, & will be staying at the Thistle, next to Victoria Station. How cool will that be, I can watch the trains from my Hotel window for hours?

I considered playing the £300 Freeze at Luton on Sunday night, but I'd be insanely jealous of the GUKPT boys. I've been reading the Updates all day, & it so hurts when you know you could still have been there but for a daft play.

If we finish filming in time on Monday - we are scheduled to shoot at 6pm - Compo & I will go to The Sportsman for their £250 Freeze. After that, it's Luton on Wednesday, for an APAT meet with Carmel (about the upcoming APAT Event) followed by their excellent Wednesday night £50 + £50 single rebuy affair, and on Thursday it's the £300 Freeze in Sheffield, and the £500 on Friday, and it's Leeds on Saturday for the GBPT, unless I Final in Friday's £500 at Sheffield, ( a two dayer) in which case I'll have a bit of a problem getting to Leeds.  An unlikely problem.

The Luton GUKPT sounds a corker, & it'd be good to see Rookie take it down. These GUKPT's are quite superb, & it's amazing how well the GUKPT Team have got them off to a fine art, despite it being there first Season. The Grand Final in London will be a bit special, & the Winner of the Luton APAT European Amateur Championship gets a seat in that. Very nice. The Luton APAT has sold out, & with 300 runners it'll be our biggest Event ever. It'll be a tough weekend for Des, Tighty & co, three very long days, (I get exempted from work on the grounds of age) but I fancy it's gonna be a bit special.

[tikay]

I still can't get over the Ladies World Open, & the blonde 1-2-3 - Bev Pace, Jen Mason & Maria Demetriou. How extraordinary! The structure was better than last year, with 21 hands per level, & the effect was that in just about evey heat, the best player won. Did the best player win the Final? I'm sitting on my fence for that one.......

Norman (Pace) is as proud as punch, Bev too I imagine, Jen is quite laid back about it, & Chili is wondering what might have been if....if....if. The beauty of Poker. I watched every hand of Chili's Heat, & it's fair to say, she never put a foot wrong in the entire Heat.

blondeite Matt Dale had a bit of a result, too, sponsoring three players - Lucy, Jen & Maria, & getting a 2nd & a 3rd, on top of two Heat Winners, so lots of television coverage for his money.

A very satisfactory outcome all round. If ever there was a doubt about the quality of Ladies only Poker, (as opposed to the correctness of staging single gender Events) viewers will soon see that these Ladies have incredible game. Genuinely, I believe there is no skill difference at all (at poker) between the genders. But we just don't have enough female players. I'm all for more women, me.

[tikay]

Tighty started a thread about a week ago "The no words are necessary Thread" it's called, & it's up to nearly 2,000 views already.

It may just be one of the best threads ever on blonde, & I hope it finds it's way into Best of blonde.

It's just 'photos, in the main, & the thread has been respected by pretty much all who have Posted on it.

Some of the pics are just so poignant, others moving, but there is a story behind almost every one. Instead of just "speed reading/viewing", as I usually do, I've been thinking about the story behind some of those pics.

Which pic do I remember most? Probably the Hiroshima one. And the starving African kid, with the vulture waiting behind. The next pic was two obese American kids stuffing their face in a McDonalds.......

The 9/11 one, that whole thing makes me so mad with the American Government & Politicians, what led to it, & what followed. And there's a bull having it's head severed - horrible - folllowed by pics of a hamburger and a juicy steak.

A beautiful bridge in Spain, the Holocaust Museum, a man jumping out of he World Trade Centre, a Buddhist Monk who set himself on fire, engulfed in flames, just sitting there, in the praying position.

Tom's snow-covered field, & THE most mazing shot of a lighthouse about to be egulfed by a giant wave, the 'keeper seemingly unaware & exposed.

And the nature & animall/bird/fish pics.

Top thread Tighty, I cant tell you how much pleasure it's gven me, it's like a flashback of my entire life.

If you've missed it, it's here.....

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=26256.0

[tikay]

I've been in an Hotel in London since early afternoon, plan was to get here & get to bed, I'm wrecked, & have a long day in prospect on Monday with Poker Week & the WSOP-E thing.

Like a numbskull, I had to enter the 2.30pm $250 Freeze, I love that comp, & followed up yesterdays 2nd with third for $1,000, well happy.

OK, off to bed then, but no, like a daft bugger, I enter the 572 runner $100,000k Guaranteed ($100 to enter, $50 to rebuy/add-on, spent $200) and that took over 6 hours before I exited on the Final Table Bubble (there's a thing) for $938. I while back, I'd have snuck into the Final for sure, but I'm opening up a bit now, & will even call with QQ. If I'm short, like.

So another $1,500 profit on the day, I'm enjoying some "form", but I'm still mad with myself for messing up in the Luton GUKPT.

I've not actuallly played well Online this week, just dodged bullets really & my races have mostly held up. Though I've played better in Omaha, & overall, I'm $6k up this week Online. And £1k down "Live", dammit.

Plenty of Live Poker in the coming week though, The Sportsman on Monday, Luton Wednesday (combined with an APAT Meeting for the Luton Event), Sheffield Thursday & Friday, & Leeds GBPT on Saturday. That's about £1,350, spread over 4 or 5 compos, & I''m hopeful I can cover costs. I much prefer to spend that amount over 5 comps than one big-boomer, & I'm much more confident of paying my way in these smaller affairs. Horses for courses.

I've only got one Sky Show this week, 2 the week after, but I've now got 7 in September, so I'm delghted with that. Playing or "working", it's all the same, I enjoy both & at least the work brings in a few bob. I'm a lucky shit, I know, I know.

Have a good week, all of you.

[bobby1]

I've been in an Hotel in London since early afternoon, plan was to get here & get to bed, I'm wrecked, & have a long day in prospect on Monday with Poker Week & the WSOP-E thing.

Like a numbskull, I had to enter the 2.30pm $250 Freeze, I love that comp, & followed up yesterdays 2nd with third for $1,000, well happy.

OK, off to bed then, but no, like a daft bugger, I enter the 572 runner $100,000k Guaranteed ($100 to enter, $50 to rebuy/add-on, spent $200) and that took over 6 hours before I exited on the Final Table Bubble (there's a thing) for $938. I while back, I'd have snuck into the Final for sure, but I'm opening up a bit now, & will even call with QQ. If I'm short, like.

So another $1,500 profit on the day, I'm enjoying some "form", but I'm still mad with myself for messing up in the Luton GUKPT.

I've not actuallly played well Online this week, just dodged bullets really & my races have mostly held up. Though I've played better in Omaha, & overall, I'm $6k up this week Online. And £1k down "Live", dammit.

Plenty of Live Poker in the coming week though, The Sportsman on Monday, Luton Wednesday (combined with an APAT Meeting for the Luton Event), Sheffield Thursday & Friday, & Leeds GBPT on Saturday. That's about £1,350, spread over 4 or 5 compos, & I''m hopeful I can cover costs. I much prefer to spend that amount over 5 comps than one big-boomer, & I'm much more confident of paying my way in these smaller affairs. Horses for courses.

I've only got one Sky Show this week, 2 the week after, but I've now got 7 in September, so I'm delghted with that. Playing or "working", it's all the same, I enjoy both & at least the work brings in a few bob. I'm a lucky shit, I know, I know.

Have a good week, all of you.

good luck mate

[Mango99]

Great diary tikay. I've not seen it before (didn't know it existed until the ladies event in London). I've only read the last 3 pages or so, so will read from the start tomorrow (anything to avoid some proper work! )

[NoflopsHomer]

Great diary tikay. I've not seen it before (didn't know it existed until the ladies event in London). I've only read the last 3 pages or so, so will read from the start tomorrow (anything to avoid some proper work! )

You do things other than drink?

[boldie]

nice bit of form TK...very nice.

and a top read as usual.

[tikay]

So, to the WSOP-E "Lunch", at the new Empire Casino in Leicester Square yesterday.

First off, a big thanks to the Harrahs, LCI, WSOP-E & Betfair peeps, who looked after us a treat.

Harrah's Big Suits were out in force, all the way from the US of A, & we had half an hour of the usual stuff.

The main PR "speech", well, you know how these things are, & I don't mean to be rude, but assuming we all have some semblance of the ability to think & read, it's all rather academic, the speech bit. "Gush gush gush, da de da de da, bla bla bla".

That took half an hour, but the message was loud & clear, "we mean business, this is gonna be big, we are here for 5 years minimum, the Big Boomer Americans are signing up in droves, & we expect 700+ runners for the Main Event". Very nice too, & good luck to them all.

Then it was din-dins - for 40 of us! - & it was really rather fine, though perhaps a bit upmarket for my unrefined palate. We began with butterscotch soup (!), which had a sort of green mound of foam in the middle. This, I was reliably informed by my Culinary Expert for the day, Shelley Rubenstein, was "foamed peas". Foamed peas! What would my Dad have said?

Main course was a sort of pile, with mashed potatoes at the bottom, then a lump of lovely fish on top, then some more fish balanced on top of that. Nice, too.

Afters - sorry, sweet - was some sort of moussey stuff, & iced chocolatey stuff, 2 raspebbries, & 3 pieces (not 4) of popcorn. On a glass breadboard.

Then to the Poker Freeroll, whahoo! 1,000 chips, & 15 minute blinds. Not really a grinders paradise, so I put on my Thewy Hat & was soon up to 3,000. Then down to 300, Then up to 15,000.

I had a Last-Longer with Compo - money in the bank, that - but Neil Channing got luclky with KK to suck out on my 99.

It was soon "Final", & I found myself sandwiched between Thomas "Buzzer" Bihl & Bengt Sonnert, the two Betfair Pros. Easy peasy.

Steve "wormster" Meehan had the temerity to try & outdraw me when he called my all-in with Q-8, but fortunately, my 7-3 held up. It was that sort of game.

I ended up 5th, I think, & won a $375 seat in a Betfair Satellite for a WSOP-E seat. I believe Shelly Rubenstein won it, & she sure played well.

A few faces there, including Neil "Bad Beat" Channing who gave us (Poker Week) a nice Interview, Shelley, Adam O'Connell, Rick Dacey, APAT Online Hero bloke, Compo, and a lot of betfair, Harrahs, & LCI Suits, including Colin Hunt.

I did some filming for Sky Poker, too, including one piece where they asked me to "pretend to walk down the stairs"......Not easy, this TV lark, you know.

[booder]

A few faces there, including Neil "Bad Beat" Channing who gave us (Poker Week) a nice Interview, Shelley, Adam O'Connell, Rick Dacey, APAT Online Hero bloke, Compo, and a lot of betfair, Harrahs, & LCI Suits, including Colin Hunt.

THE COLIN HUNT

Click to see full-size image.