Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Also at The Western tonight, & playing in the Private Tourney which James of Sky was hosting, was Neil Foulds, the snooker chappie.

I used to be a bit handy at snooker, & won little comps to play Neil & other visiting Pros from time to time, & I recall Neil beat me, conceding 49 (7 blacks) 104-53. The 4 points I got were because he went in-off......

I first met Neil through his Father, Geoff, at Fishers Snooker Club in Acton. Regulars there for their Friday Night Handicap Tourney included the truant schoolkid Jimmy White, his big mucker Tony Meo, (who sells watches in Covent Garden these days I am told), & an Irish Amateur, Patsy Fagan. I think Fishers Snooker Club was owned by a bookie by the name of Don (?) Slack, & I vividly recall, purely for her personality, his stunning & pleasantly heavy-topped daughter.

Neil seems to have aged 20 years since we last met, though I guess that was 30 years ago.

He hit the snooker heights in the mid-eighties, & was World No 3 at one stage I seem to recall. But his career was blighted by a medical ailment - a heart problem I believe - which required him to take Beta-Blockers to relax his muscles. This caused a bt of a hoohah - he only took them for a few weeks, & openly declared so, & why he took them, but the Red-Tops got hold of the story, (Snooker was the big thing at the time), twisted it, & accused him of "doing drugs". He never reallly recovered, & he retired early, after which he became a commentator for the Beeb & Sky. He told me tonight that he retired because he no longer had quite the game needed to stay at the top, & he preferred to retire rather than slide into mediocrity. We chatted about old mutual pals - Mike Hallett (still grinding it out I believe), Willie Thorne, Ray Reardon, Patsy Fagan, happy days.

He's quite a pal of Roy Brindley, too, & Neil owns a few Greyhounds I thnk. He does a bit of work for Ladbrokes these days.

He played the Private Sky Tourney with us tonight (he's a pal of Tim Peters), & has a good little game. Down to 4 handed, (only 3 paid) Tim moved all-in, Dr Tom Sambrook did the same, & Neil superbly passed Jacks, & I did the same with KQ suited. Tim had Aces, & Dr Tom had the same hand as me!

I really enjoyed his company, what a nice man.

[tikay]

Little Fish are Sweet......

14 of us played this little Tourney tonight, a £50 + one Rebuy or Add-on Affair.

Richard Orford, Tim Peters, Tom Sambrook represented the Sky Analysts, & the Bragging Rights were massive.

Richard was a tad unlucky, after shoving countless times, he eventualy got caught, and that left Tom Sambrook, Neil Foulds, Tim Peters, myself & a friend of James to battle for the money. By now it was crapshoot time, & only the luckboxes survived that, and auto-plays by Tim, Tom & me saw Lady Luck smile mainly on me, leaving me Heads Up & level on chips with James's pal. With everyone waiting for us to finish the game, it seemed to me that the proper etiquette was to offer an even chop of the remaining £1,040, & we did the Deal instantly for £500 each, leaving £40 for the Dealers. Very nice too, so even after sticking a couple of Bounties on James & Lord Orford, & paying my hotel bill, I was still £300 up. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Two hands stick in mind, both of them against little Jimmy The Manc, who some of you may recall Finalled in the blonde Bash at Cardiff, & was severely unlucky not to win in Cardiff, after the eventual Runner-Up Mel Lofthouse got seriously lucky against him. Jimmy is leaving Sky Poker (he's a Producer I think) in January & moving across to Soccer AM, & I wish him well, & will miss him muchly, he's a top, top bloke.

Anyway, he has a very ballsy & unconventional Compo-type game, & I got mixed up with him early doors tonight, after I'd raised it up with  , trying to pinch Tom Sambrook's Blinds.

The flop was.....

I Bet, Jimmy re-popped it, I put him on a complete bluff & moved in, he put me on a total bluff & called, showing the hopeless  . Hopeless, that is, until he turned his set, so bad it was almost comical. "Chips" I called.....

The Luck Pendulum swung the other way later, & we tangled again fatally in this self-player.

I was semi at-it with  , & Jimmy had decided to take me on with   . Battle of the Big Hands, like.

The flop was a mischievous corker,......

 

Bet, call.

The turn was an absolutely dream card for me, the sort of card you remember for ages.  ...........! How good was that?

Of course, alll the money was shovelled in in quick order, a blank Rivered, & that was that. What a lovely hand, & even though it was only a two-bit tourney, I'll remember that Turn Card for a while.

Lovely game, this poker.

[Royal Flush]

Whyis something such a big success in Brighton but cause for uproar in Luton?

More Luton people post on here.

I am guessing they complain in the casino to each other not just here.

People actually like it down here, we put up the money they add a WSOP package

[tikay]

FFS, it's 05.30 & I've not got to bed yet.

Up at 0700, jump a train to St Pancras, thence Northern Line to Colliers Wood, & record the Poker Week Revie of the Year with Compo, &, hopefully, done by mid-afternoon & then back home. I don't plan - under any circumstances - to play Luton on Wednesday night, too tired, though my car is parked up there.

Wormster texted me tonight asking me to bring "one of your silly Christmassy jumpers". NeverEnds.

[tikay]

Whyis something such a big success in Brighton but cause for uproar in Luton?

More Luton people post on here.

I am guessing they complain in the casino to each other not just here.

People actually like it down here, we put up the money they add a WSOP package

Excellent - so you at least know what you are getting!

[Royal Flush]

Whyis something such a big success in Brighton but cause for uproar in Luton?

More Luton people post on here.

I am guessing they complain in the casino to each other not just here.

People actually like it down here, we put up the money they add a WSOP package

Excellent - so you at least know what you are getting!

Well in the past the winner got a meal in the restaurant.....people still enjoyed the idea of putting money in a pot to be dished out at the end of the league.

I guess Grov do charge a lot more juice and have freezeouts so it does make the game harder to beat.

[77dave]

FFS, it's 05.30 & I've not got to bed yet.

Up at 0700, jump a train to St Pancras, thence Northern Line to Colliers Wood, & record the Poker Week Revie of the Year with Compo, &, hopefully, done by mid-afternoon & then back home. I don't plan - under any circumstances - to play Luton on Wednesday night, too tired, though my car is parked up there.

Wormster texted me tonight asking me to bring "one of your silly Christmassy jumpers". NeverEnds.

Ill put your name on the cash list at about midnight tonight then

[tikay]

I think the way that we handle Bad Beats at the Poker Table reflects how we handle adversity in life. Some moan & groan, some sulk, some are rude, others throw a wobbly, whilst some just shrug their shoulders, as if to say, well, that's how it is, next case.

Some Players, after a Beat, run round every table, telling their mates (who really don't give a toss), "you hear what happened to me - I Raised, the flop came x x x, guess what the idiot called me with?".....(yawn....) Others just get up, & wander away, another comp, another day. These are the peeps who you just know can handle a bit of wind in their face, in life as in poker. These are the guys I admire.

This happened to a good friend of mine a few days ago. It's a 4k starting stack £50 One Rebuy or 1 add-on affair, & it's the very first hand.

He limps in early Position with 

He finds someone behind him pushing all-in, accompanied by some "don't be limping on my table" type speech-play. Fair enough. Our Hero calls, reluctantly, & is pleasantly surprised to find Matey Boy with the dominated 

9-4 man then 4 flushes it, & to rub salt into the wounds, he does it with the 9.

Chips!

Now, before a single orbit has taken place, our Hero finds AA on the Button, with Blinds at 25-50. 4 limpers, he Raises, 4 callers, gulp.

The flop was 6-7-8. Not nice.

There's a Bet, call, call, call, & our man says, with refreshing honesty, "I pushed, for want of something better to do!"

The dreaded call comes, with 10-8 - top pair, gutshot straight.

And once again, a pesky 9 was the undoing of our man.

He got up, "night all" & toddled off, never harumphed or moaned, a little head-shaking maybe, "these things happen" sorta thing. A good pal of his, Dingdell, was on the same table, & they tried not to catch each others eye, the pair of beats was so bad, Tracey was trying not to laugh, & so was our Man.

The Comp began at 8.30, & he was back home by 9.

He's a Big Man, that Tighty, & you just have to admire such phlegmatic fortitude.

[boldie]

It is indeed the mark of a true gent if he takes his wins and losses very well. I don't like moaners at the table, I don't like people berating "bad" play by someone else (even worse if you're not even involved in the hand) and I don't like whooping when people win (or standing up and acting like a prat simply because it's the WSOP FT and you want some "telly time" and a Stars sponsorship).. I tip my hat off to anyone who can win and lose well, those are ussually the people you can trust in life as well.

[byronkincaid]

rerally don't give a toss

[77dave]

I sometimes find it hard to deal with bad winners    lots more banging of tables and shouting when they hit a miracle river.

Or even as i saw last night when someone got lucky on the river to chop a h/l pot  but complains that he doesnt scoop

[hans47]

Here is a question for you tikay! Have been working in mill hill your way on hammer lane and out the back of the house we are working on you can see a statue of a nun or virgin mary? on the building what is that building if you know it? Just curious and you seem to know?

[tikay]

Here is a question for you tikay! Have been working in mill hill your way on hammer lane and out the back of the house we are working on you can see a statue of a nun or virgin mary? on the building what is that building if you know it? Just curious and you seem to know?

"your way"? I've never frequented Mill Hill I'm pleased to say, although the 667 trolleybus used to sometimes terminate at Mill Hill Broadway. I believe Mill Hill is mentioned in the Domesday Book, so the Statue could be anyone, I guess. Sorry I can't help.

[ifm]

Someone once said

show me a good loser and i'll show you a loser

[TightEnd]

Someone once said

show me a good loser and i'll show you a loser

marvellous pmsl