Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[bobby1]

Whilst I was chatting to Phil Quayle on Saturday, somehow or other we got to chatting about the Rheingold/Henry Zeisal story which had been mentioned in this diary earlier and I suddenly remembered the whole story.

One of my mother's greatest friends was a lady named Hazel Lyon who's husband Ronnie was some kind of property tycoon in the 1960's/'70's. She loved racing and lived near Ascot so it was only natural that she should at some point buy a horse. She had become friendly with quite a few trainers as a frequent race-goer and was eventually given the choice of two yearling colts. She picked the "prettiest" one which I think never won a race, and Henry Zeisal ended up with the other one who turned out to be, yes you guessed it, Rheingold.

Ralph, shall I tell him the Argentinian football bad beat?

Yes Phil as that was what triggered my memory, alas I was trying to remember what it was

Tony,

The Argie football bad beat.....

In 1978 Sheffield United sent a scout to Argentina to search for talented midfielders/attackers and the guy shortlisted two players that he recommended to the club. Both teams had indicated they would sell and mentioned fees for both players, the scout told the club that they wanted £250k for each player. The United board were stumped for cash(nowt new there) and offered just under 200k for each player and were told that their bids would be accepted.

During the negotiations for both players they realised that the wages and extras were going to be expensive so tried to bring down the transfer fees and add some bonus related fees instead, these were refused so the club decided that they could only afford one of the players. The more experienced player was called Alex Sabella and he had I think played for the team that won the top dividsion in Argentina, he was allegedly on the verge of a International call up and was a very skillfull midfielder which was just what United were looking for.

The other player was only 17 or 18 and played as a midfielder/forward so because of his age and the fact that Sabella was the more rounded player at the time Sheff Utd turned down the chance to sign Diego Maradona for under £200k and instead signed Alex Sabella for £200k instead.

Bad beat tastic!!

Sabella eventually left us for Leeds United for about £750k a few years later and was indeed a good player but just imagine the player rated as one of the best ever to have played the game trotting round Bramall Lane eh.

[kinboshi]

Sabella eventually left us for Leeds United for about £750k a few years later and was indeed a good player but just imagine the player rated as one of the best ever to have played the game trotting round Bramall Lane eh.

You mean Billy Sharp?

[tikay]

Days Inn Hotel, Luton, Tuesday.

Thanks for those stories, keep them coming please.

Blades = RunBadLagTards.

I was astonished by Karabiner's Ronie & Hazel Lyon story - I had extensive dealings with (one of....) Mr Lyon's property empires, & I'll reply more later about he & Hazel.

But I gotta go now, the Maid is banging on the door.

I'll be back Online when I get home, got lots to write up.

Where does the time go?

[tikay]

Derbyshire, Tuesday.

The Poker Gods have been unbelievably kind to me the last few days.

Cashes at Luton on Thursday & Friday came to about £1,500, (for £125 invested), & I nicked £996 in the DTD DC on Sunday Night, & another £1,138 at Luton last night.

But the oddest thing happened at Luton last night.

I'd just exited the Comp (Bubbled, no complaints, lost a race when it mattered) & was set to amble back to my Hotel for a relatively early night, at about 2am I guess.

As I wandered past the Cash Games, I was surprised to see that there was a DC game going, & suddenly I was wobbling....."fancy half-hour of DC tikay?" came the cry - they know value when they see it - & I resisted for all of 2 seconds.

I learn more each day at DC, but controlling Pot Sizes is this week's lesson, & the money I made at DTD on Sunday came from that in the main, apart, of course, from my usual outrageous luck.

Anyway, I take my seat, & they are all playing quite deep for a £3- £3 game, as it's been going a good few hours I imagine, so I pulled up £1k.

"Deal you in this hand tikay" they say, & as I'm BB, that's neat, & off we go.

And I pick up  .

It's limp all the way, Button Raised to £25 or whatever, & then we all Call right round. I'm not raising this pre with 6 behind me, by the way.

The flop is this.....

 

Well, as you can imagine, I'm liking this, & despite my "control Pot Sizes" Lesson of the Week, I Pot it. I think that's the right & indeed only play here.

Imagine my feelngs, then, when a Gent I don't know RE-POTS it......FFS, thats controlling pot sizes outa the window. I've had a few good (small) cashes lately, the Bankroll is just nice, I've just sat down for a quite hour with some nice mates, & suddenly it's all gone off, & I'm risking £1k on the very first hand! WTF.

Well, it has to go in, there's a side-pot between me & Re-Potter too, & the Pot is over £2k. I have about £250 left behind of my £1k pull-up, sheesh.

As the 3 of us are all all-in, I do my usual Cash-Game thing, & lay my hand down, face-up, on the Table. There are a lot of reasons I do this, but I won't bore you with them, unless asked. The other two keep their hands concealed, as is their perfect right. I should add here, as it's maybe pertinent, but there was not a House-Dealer available, & so The Judge was Dealing.

Suddenly, Re-Potter says to me "fancy some business?". What? Eh? He wants to shag me? I mean, really, I did not understand him.

"Sorry fella, what do you mean?"

"Shall we take the last Bet Back, & just play for the rest?".

Well, I have never been involved in this sort of thing before, & assumed it was not permitted in a Licensed Venue, but of course, with a Private Dealer, maybe it's OK, but I'm unsure by now. But never mind Hand Values & Pot Equity & I gotta bloody monster & he must be on the flush draw here, my insinctive reaction was of the non-poker nature - .....

1) Is he asking because he cares about my financial Health? I think not.

2) He's had the chance to see my hand, I have not seen his, & I've exposed myself to a lop-sided one-sided offer now.

3) I don't much like being railroaded.

So, for all those non-poker reasons, I want to say "no".

Before I can, he NOW turns his hand over, & he has A-bit-bit-bit with the Nut Diamond draw. So Nut Flush & no re-draws.

I decline, he offers again, I'm a bit embarrassed now, sort of "please don't ask Mate, Dealer, just Deal" as I don't quite know how to handle this in a non-offensive way.

It goes on for a bit, I stand firm, "sorry Mate, let's just run it, what will be will be".

"But if a Diamond falls, you are dead"........

And I'm thinking, "yeah, true, & I'd rather not play £2k Pots very first hand, but you Re-Popped it, & here we are, up to our necks in it, & I fancy I'm quite a big favourite here. I MUST be, else you would not be asking" is my thought train. (I took myself at the time as about 65-35 fave, but I was actually bigger - 72-28).

So I declined, & the Turn & River are dealt.

It comes safe safe, no Diamond, no Pair-Up, & I gratefully push foward my two Kings, & guy next to me corrects me - I've rivered the nut straight - & I scoop Big. Re-Potter looks glum, & has a gentle chunter at me for a few hands, but he was fine later, & we ended up pretty cooey-wooey actually.

So all a bit odd, really, something new every day. But I don't think I like this "do you wanna do business?" post-flop thinking. It seems to me it can only lead to arguments & debates & falling-outs. I think once we put our money in, we have got to take our medicine, whatever it may be. And is it Legal, in a pukka Licensed Venue?

Bit relieved he missed though, I might have got some verbals if he'd done me.

OK, DTD awaits.

[Karabiner]

You run cooey-wooey...

[kinboshi]

but he was fine later, & we ended up pretty cooey-wooey actually.

You took him back to your hotel?

[boldie]

You run cooey-wooey...

lol

BTW TJ all this deal malarky, think it comes from HSP? People watching other re-run things and not bothering with side pots? It 's surely only done by those playing outside their bankroll?

[Simon Galloway]

I'm very much against doing business of this kind.  It leaves the door wide open for two players that 'have an accord' with each other to do this sort of thing ram-jam you for lots of money in a pot where you have 2nd nut high and 4th best low.  You get out of the way, kissing goodbye to a couple of hundred in the process.  If you want to play this pot, you have to play for the whole lot.  The others have the benefit of knowing that once you sweeten the pot, they have an option to play for a vastly reduced amount against each other, both with +EV from your donation. Clearly you can find yourself in a bad spot in that sort of a game.

So why do you table your hand Tony?

[celtic]

Derbyshire, Tuesday.

The Poker Gods have been unbelievably kind to me the last few days.

Cashes at Luton on Thursday & Friday came to about £1,500, (for £125 invested), & I nicked £996 in the DTD DC on Sunday Night, & another £1,138 at Luton last night.

But the oddest thing happened at Luton last night.

I'd just exited the Comp (Bubbled, no complaints, lost a race when it mattered) & was set to amble back to my Hotel for a relatively early night, at about 2am I guess.

As I wandered past the Cash Games, I was surprised to see that there was a DC game going, & suddenly I was wobbling....."fancy half-hour of DC tikay?" came the cry - they know value when they see it - & I resisted for all of 2 seconds.

I learn more each day at DC, but controlling Pot Sizes is this week's lesson, & the money I made at DTD on Sunday came from that in the main, apart, of course, from my usual outrageous luck.

Anyway, I take my seat, & they are all playing quite deep for a £3- £3 game, as it's been going a good few hours I imagine, so I pulled up £1k.

"Deal you in this hand tikay" they say, & as I'm BB, that's neat, & off we go.

And I pick up  .

It's limp all the way, Button Raised to £25 or whatever, & then we all Call right round. I'm not raising this pre with 6 behind me, by the way.

The flop is this.....

 

Well, as you can imagine, I'm liking this, & despite my "control Pot Sizes" Lesson of the Week, I Pot it. I think that's the right & indeed only play here.

Imagine my feelngs, then, when a Gent I don't know RE-POTS it......FFS, thats controlling pot sizes outa the window. I've had a few good (small) cashes lately, the Bankroll is just nice, I've just sat down for a quite hour with some nice mates, & suddenly it's all gone off, & I'm risking £1k on the very first hand! WTF.

Well, it has to go in, there's a side-pot between me & Re-Potter too, & the Pot is over £2k. I have about £250 left behind of my £1k pull-up, sheesh.

As the 3 of us are all all-in, I do my usual Cash-Game thing, & lay my hand down, face-up, on the Table. There are a lot of reasons I do this, but I won't bore you with them, unless asked. The other two keep their hands concealed, as is their perfect right. I should add here, as it's maybe pertinent, but there was not a House-Dealer available, & so The Judge was Dealing.

Suddenly, Re-Potter says to me "fancy some business?". What? Eh? He wants to shag me? I mean, really, I did not understand him.

"Sorry fella, what do you mean?"

"Shall we take the last Bet Back, & just play for the rest?".

Well, I have never been involved in this sort of thing before, & assumed it was not permitted in a Licensed Venue, but of course, with a Private Dealer, maybe it's OK, but I'm unsure by now. But never mind Hand Values & Pot Equity & I gotta bloody monster & he must be on the flush draw here, my insinctive reaction was of the non-poker nature - .....

1) Is he asking because he cares about my financial Health? I think not.

2) He's had the chance to see my hand, I have not seen his, & I've exposed myself to a lop-sided one-sided offer now.

3) I don't much like being railroaded.

So, for all those non-poker reasons, I want to say "no".

Before I can, he NOW turns his hand over, & he has A-bit-bit-bit with the Nut Diamond draw. So Nut Flush & no re-draws.

I decline, he offers again, I'm a bit embarrassed now, sort of "please don't ask Mate, Dealer, just Deal" as I don't quite know how to handle this in a non-offensive way.

It goes on for a bit, I stand firm, "sorry Mate, let's just run it, what will be will be".

"But if a Diamond falls, you are dead"........

And I'm thinking, "yeah, true, & I'd rather not play £2k Pots very first hand, but you Re-Popped it, & here we are, up to our necks in it, & I fancy I'm quite a big favourite here. I MUST be, else you would not be asking" is my thought train. (I took myself at the time as about 65-35 fave, but I was actually bigger - 72-28).

So I declined, & the Turn & River are dealt.

It comes safe safe, no Diamond, no Pair-Up, & I gratefully push foward my two Kings, & guy next to me corrects me - I've rivered the nut straight - & I scoop Big. Re-Potter looks glum, & has a gentle chunter at me for a few hands, but he was fine later, & we ended up pretty cooey-wooey actually.

So all a bit odd, really, something new every day. But I don't think I like this "do you wanna do business?" post-flop thinking. It seems to me it can only lead to arguments & debates & falling-outs. I think once we put our money in, we have got to take our medicine, whatever it may be. And is it Legal, in a pukka Licensed Venue?

Bit relieved he missed though, I might have got some verbals if he'd done me.

OK, DTD awaits.

Is this why he tables his hand? So he doesnt do a compo and fold the nuts?

[hans47]

You sure he didn't mistaken you for a rent boy when you said cooey wooey?

[tikay]

Derbyshire, Wednesday.

I'll return to "that" hand at Luton shortly, but first......

[tikay]

I was quite sure that......

"Capello calls for Role Model as he turns to captain Ferdinand"

......would win the award for jaw-dropping Quote of the Week.

But then I saw this - on blonde & THM - after our friends at Genting Stanley Cancelled one of the two scheduled Day One's at Stanley Circus, Nottingham, this week, due to lack of Entries. If you enjoy irony, this is a corker.

We initially felt that the attraction of being able to visit Dusk Till Dawn would appeal to poker players and would boost the numbers at Nottingham.

Did they REALLY say that?

Wow, that has to be the PR Purler of the Year.

[tikay]

Played the inaugral £50 rebuy at DTD last night (2 rebuys max), & a lovely atmo there - just about all the old Gala Notts & Naps Sheffield regulars were present, (& by old, I include Karabiner) quite took me back to my early days in poker, & good to see them all.

Quality field, too, including Thewy (who looked well sexy in his cool dude scarf), Chili, Steve Holden, (some game him), DTD-specialist Marcus Bebb-Jones, Irish Open Hero Pete Linton, ActionJack, Bazza Neville, Greg "Junior" Hill & his Grandad Geoff, Karabiner, Chunky Mick, Slo-Mo, Sam Trickett, LittleMissC, Kim Costa, plus all the regular DTD Faces.

We tend to take it for granted now, but as usual, the Recepton Staff make eye-contact & smile, & the Comp started smack on time, & the breaks ran for the advertised duration - to the second, & the Dealing quality was top-rate. All easy stuff, & free, but very few Venues manage it.

It played in true Notts Style - lightning fast, despite a very playable structure - so it was something of a bullet-dodging exercise.

We were but half an hour in when I limped UTG with AQ suited (Clubs)  - no point Raising here, we'd get 7 callers, but the C-R is primed.

It's gone Limp x 3, & a stern young lad, bedecked in the full Argos Poker Gear of Shades, Hat, & Non-Speak, Non-Smile, shoves all-in for 8k! Well, I gave it some thought, & with 2 rebuys in reserve, decided to go for it, & he Tabled K-J of Hearts. The flop of T-T-Q (two hearts) had me groaning, & of course, just when I wanted to avoid hitting two Pair, the A rivered. Chips! My man then gave the Table an almighty Bang, followed by the old double fist-pump & triple hand-clap, marvellous. It's called these days, apparently, "playing with passion", though I think I'd describe it somewhat differently.

JJ (twice), QQ & KK followed, all got turned over, but in get-offable circumstances. The QQ was done by K-8 of all things. I ran JJ into flat-called Queens, the Flop came A high, he checked, I C-Bet, he moved in, he must have had some read on me, pft!

I found Sevens on the Button, & I'd been pinching a few Pots from here, so the BB's Call was no surprise. It all went a bit daft on the 5-6-8 flop, & he Check-Raised me all-In. OK, Call, & he Tabled.....7-7, same hand!

Death came suddenly, with about 30 left. I was sat behind Ali Bag-of-Bollox & he Raised it yet again, so I shoved with Tens, I have him on a poor Ace. But when THREE players behind me all moved in too, we knew the Score. Surprisingly, I was against A-K, A-Q, so far, so good, as I was sure Ali had Passed an Ace - but next man had the Goods, K-K, & that was that.

There seemed to be lots of niggling going on all night, inter-player, all rather juvenile. Time of month, maybe, or old Gala Notts habits perhaps, but it's a shame some folks see poker as an excuse to argue with each other all night over matters of little import, & practice post-exit rubdowns. Hen-pecked at home I suppose, poker is their chance of having some power.

After my outrageoius good fortune the previous 2 nights at Dealers Choice, (Luton & DTD) the Poker Gods decided, reasonably enough, to even things up a little, & I did more than enough, nearly £2k. Shocking luck which, in turn led to several really bad decisions, & that can only end in tears.

I'm off to DTD shortly for the Omaha, & I think I'll give the DC a miss tonight, as I have to be in London by Midday tomorrow, & doing the Show tomorrow Night. And when I'm tired, I get niggly & feisty. Can't have that, now can we.

Working Thursday night, probably the Luton £75 Freeze on Friday night - Compo has a Pass - Blackpool on Saturday (looking forward to that), & the DTD £100 on Sunday, then straight down to London (overnight, to swerve the Monday traffic) for the Monday Show.

[wormster]

my good friend dave has just jetted over from the states to play in the nottingham festival - to say his less than pleased with the lack of numbers & the poor quality of the dealers ("12 hands in 48 minutes" is the quote) is an understatement! I've urged him to check out DTD. I hope he get the chance

[Karabiner]

I played in the first event of this Nottingham "festival" the £100 NLH Freezeout if it's the same one.

The tourney was scheduled to start at 7pm, eventually got going at around 7.20pm and at around 8pm I tried to order some food.

"Sorry sir, we're not serving food as there's a buffet at 9.15pm" I was told.

"But I want to order something now and pay for it" was my riposte, and I asked to speak to a manager.

"No sir we are not serving any food on the gaming/poker floor as there's a buffet later at 9.15pm." was the management's response.

i.e. You eat when we tell you to and not before or after was the message. Come again ? I doubt it.