Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Bongo]

Stephen Fry's answer

abso - bloody - lutely

Isn't this tmesis..? It would end in mt if you spelled it backwards... 

im still waiting for someone to name the 1 word in the english dictionary that begins MT.  no cheating allowed

*cough*...

Is the answer still tmesis?

No, it still doesn't begin with MT...

[Moskvich]

This is true, but I have a feeling the original question may be a, er, misread...

[tikay]

The Life was awesome. Green-Seal Service, SL Ratings for all the Horses, proper dog-cards. I was not much of a George Ennor fan, but I idolised & adored the writing of the Breeding Expert, in his weekly Breeding Column, Tony Morris. I believe he still writes, but he must be older than Karabiner now.

He alerted me to a Sire called High-Line, who threw wonderful stayers,

Ennor write a great piece in the Racing Post after the horse owned by a bunch of hacks (Ennor, Geoff Lester and a number of others ) won at Newmarket on Cesarawich Day. It pretty much summed up how I felt about my involvement with our horses from the same yard, who I also considered to be "mine" despite the fact there were lots of us that owned them.

David Elsworth loved High Line's offspring, but believed they were sometimes inclined to go a bit odd in the head as they got older - he trained plenty so he should know. Certainly Muse started to display some mulishness at the start as he got older he messed about before the start of the Chirstmas Hurdle that he won, and I will go to my grave believing he would have beaten Flakey Dove at Cheltenham if he hadn't whipped round at the start. And the trophy would have looked quite nice on my mantelpiece for the few days that would have been my turn.  

You had a Share in Muse? Nice one!

Many of High-Line's progeny did indeed go a but flakey with age & earn themslves the famous Timeform squiggle. (squiggle = rogue, not to be trusted). I am out of touch with the scene now, but I would think many of his line must have been sent hurdling.

Another oddity was that occasionally a miler on the flat would take to hurdling, & get 2 & a half, even 3 miles.

Personally, I preferred genuine hurdlers & chasers, those bred to jump, over Flat horses which moved across codes. There were a few though that were exceptional at both. Always Geldings though, rarely Entires......

[tikay]

One of these was parked outside DTD tonight, a black jobbie. Engine in the back, or "mid" I think. Car's don't do much for me, but it looks "fashionable", & I imagine a good few will be sold to those that like that sort of thing. It's an Audi R8, I suspected. (The badge on the back was the clue).

[tikay]

Compare that with this Ford Popular, my first ever car. Cost £70, & I paid a fortune - £10 per 3 months - for Third Party, Fire & Theft Insurance.

[tikay]

And this would outlast both.

[tikay]

I have no excuse or reason for Posting this - I just liked it. I found it by google-imaging "Interesting Lorries", as I'm sure many of you frequently do, too.

[tikay]

Fairground &/or Circus Lorries are always old, immaculate, & squeaky clean. I love them. This is a converted Foden, & they dominated Road Haulage in the sixties. OK, OK, I promise, no more lorries.

[tikay]

125 runners turned up for tonight's £300 Omaha, part of the Norweigan Championship Fessie. Starting chips were 3,000 + 3,000 (I'd have thought 10,000 more appropriate), but it seemed to play steady enough.

Johnny Lodden was 30th, Chris Bruce 25th, Dave Colclough 18th, Greek Jack 11th, & Rolf Woods Final-Table Bubbled.

Mick McCool probably goes into the Final as Chip Daddy, or nearly so, he had plenty. Dave Penly, on his DTD debut, & loving it, was in good shape most of the way, huge early, but was thin towards the end.

Here's the Final Table Line-Up. Note, these stats are all available, as of now (03.15 Wednesday morning) on the DTD website. Impressive.

Eirik Svanes

Rolf Galåsen

Daniel Hersvik

Fredrik Hovden

Michael Mccool

Stuart Mcdermott

David Penly

Steffan Kristoffersen

Kenneth Standli


By the way, Sverre Sundbo, who I mentioned on here yesterday I think, got 2nd in the Norweigan only £200 Fixed Limit on Monday.

[tikay]

I know there are those who resent me keep larging up DTD, but jeez, the place was absolutely humming tonight. A few bullet-points.......

125 played today's Omaha.

142 the £50 + £50 + £50 Hold 'Em tonight.

Sit 'N Go's, £100, right up to £1,000, were available all evening.

A £250 HORSE STT was running, seemed very popular.

7 extra Tables had been placed in what is normally the Bar Area - all were full, with Horse STT's, £100 SNG's, or £1-£2 Cash Games.

On the top level, Cash Games included £25-£50, £10-£20 & £5 £10 Omaha, £10 £20 & £25 £50 Hold -Em, £5 £5, £10 £10, & £25 £25, DC. Money was wagered like it was going out of fashion.

Alcohol was getting downed in blonde-Bash quantities.

The Restaurant/Marquee was working a treat.

Extra Dealers, Valets & Bar Staff were bought in.

There were 4 Table "attendants" for rebuys during the £50-er, all linked up by Comms devices, & lapel mikes.
 
The Tables had been re-clothed to reflect the Sponsor of the Norweigan Championships, expekt.com. expekt playing cards were in use, too.

The atmo was absolutely electric. The Norwayers are a terrific bunch, hell-bent on having fun. They are a little light on Table Etiquette, not surprising given Organised Poker is outlawed back home, but never offensive, they just wanna play some poker. No "daft play" either, from what I saw, the regular Notts Boys play a lot faster imo.

If Carlsberg ran Poker Fessies, they'd do it at DTD. Tournament Poker in the UK reached a new high tonight - the players were mollycoddled, looked after, & given whatever games they wanted. A new benchmark has been set. Attention to detail is all, & I'm absolutely convinced DTD is the best Cardroom in Europe by a mile, & I've been to most of them. Probably the best in the world, in fact, though there are many Venues I've yet to visit. And the tourneys started on time.

[tikay]

I played Sunday's £100-er at DTD, 109 runners I believe.

My starting Table included Pete Costa, Nick Hicks, & a bunch of hot locals.

I never got going, but danced as best as I can with no material to work with, eventually exiting about 28th I think.

It's often said the Notts Boys play fast & loose. Three examples.....

Level 1, 25-50, Raised to 300, Call, Call, Call, Re-Raised to 1,500 by clearly-got Aces man, Called in one spot by.....A-J! The J-J-T Flop was so cruel, & proof of the luck factor in poker.

Level 2, Raised to 450, Called, Re-Raised to 1,200 by always-shown-a-proper-hand Rockity-Rock. Burglar Kev calls. Flop 9-9-2, Rockity-Rock moves in,. Burglar Kev insta-calls. Rockity-Rock had Aces, Burglar Kev called all-in on the flop withA-J....... 

Level 8, I check-raise all-in for 8k with K-J on a K-T-8 flop, & get insta-called all-in by K-3. The 3 Rivers, & my man says "unlucky tikay, you gotta win your coin-flips in these things.....

I blame myself really - part of dodging bullets in these things is being careful who you square up to. Of course, I wanted that call badly, but it's stunning to see.

[tikay]

I've got a 2 day backlog of PM's I have yet to reply to, my apologies. I'll be back up to speed within 24 hours. So much going off right now, there should be more days in the hour.

I planned to rest tonight, but could not resist a visit to the DTD Fessie, & I'm glad I did. I won't be back there until Monday, sadly, due to diary squeeze.

I head South tomorrow (Wednesday), en route to London, & stop off at Luton for their Wednesday nightter. I've not played there for a fortnight or more, & I miss the place, the locals are such a great bunch.

Thursday is proper work, almost. A big meeting at Feltham from 1pm to 3pm, then a Pilot Show Recording until 5pm, followed by shooting a Promo at 6pm, & finally, the Five-O Sky Poker Sky Sports simulcast in the evening, which I was lucky enough to pick up as a "spare". Right time, right place, & oodles of luck goes a long way.

Friday it's almost rinse, repeat. Another Pilot Show in the afternoon - Sky Poker have a whole bunch of new Shows in the pipeline - then another Promo shoot, then the Show in the Evening.

Saturday brings the challenge of getting to Edinburgh for the APAT Scottish, at Gala Maybury - probably 'plane from Heathrow, or Train from Kings Cross if there's one early enough. The latter would mean I could work on the journey, as they have Wi-Fi. Then back home on Monday, hopefully in time for the Monday night 3-2-1 Finale, the £100 Freezeout.

Now I gotta get my head round how many shirts, socks & knickers to pack. I'm just hopelessly dis-organised with these things, I just want to hedonise non-stop.

[tikay]

Tonight's £50-£50-£50-er at DTD had 142 runners.

Included Thewy, Chili, & Peter The Bandit Evans, looking splendidly sauve, not seen him for ages. Kim Costa, Pete Costa, Steve Holden, Mel Lofthouse, Henning Gradstad, plus all the Norwayers.

The Norwayers did not exactly mob me, but most of them seemed to recognise me, to my amazement, & I was curious how. It seems they watch the Internet Stream of Sky Poker out there. It's the long dark nights.....

I sat next to one Viking who said he'd sat next to me in a Comp in Vegas, at The Venetian, last year. "Do you remermber?" said he, "of course I do" I fibbed. Another had played with me at the Blue Club, in Bergen, Norway, & yet another at Martin de Knijff's Stockholm Club. These guys must have geeky memories, or maybe I have two heads or something. I can't pretend it's not nice though, but I can't put my finger on "why?".

My opening Table was pretty passive. I spotted immediately the class act, he just oozed quality, he riffled chips for Norway. You gotta be able to spot the good players. He never got chance to prove it to everyone else, (though I knew, obviously, I can spot 'em a mile off), as he bust out inside 10 minutes, calling an all-in with K-high.

I never had a single hand all night - bar my exit affair - but I ducked & dived & messed about to great effect, & soon trebled up to 8k from the starting 2,500. Too many, too soon, & as per, I bluffed almost all of them off, on one occasion being called on the end by third pair. I really must have a huge tell, & I'm never never never going to bluff again.

Post first break, I moved again, another lovely Table. I had plenty of chips again by now, but failed to find spots, situations or hands, & gradually slipped back into the pack. My biggest pot was won with K-high, when two of us chased the same flush, & both missed.

I blufffed off another wedge with Q-J on a 7-8-9-2-3 flushing board with Q-J, betting Turn & River, & getting quite splendidly called by fives - a great call.

With about 30 left, I got into a spot with  , my first "proper hand" of the night. Matey was dominating me with  , but I had to push on this teasing flop, & his hand was unpassable.....

 

I missed, but no regrets. As long as you don't get fixated by cashing in every Tourney, or get your head screwed up by beats & the "why does it happen to poor me?" mentality, poker is one of the most relaxing & pleasurable pastimes there is. It's such a shame that some folks get their head messed up by it. Losing is good for the soul, if not the bank balance.

OK, bed, pack, haircut, then off on my travels & travails. I am starting to wish I were a little younger.

[tikay]

I chatted with Lord Linton tonight briefly, & have decided, from here on in, he will be known as  Lord Linton of Lenton, not just plain Lord Linton.

LLOL sounds so much better, & somehow apt. You'll know when you've been LLOL-ed.

[77dave]

Just seen this pic of the worlds largest ship