My Poker Binge

[snoopy1239]

Thanks, guys, that's very king.

Regarding the Ladbrokes Challenge, it's still alive and kicking, but only just. I'm on around $250 and up to the second level ($10 STTs) but was unfortunately forced to send it on vacation temporarily when my workload increased and my computer died leading to me purchasing a non-poker friendly Mac. Now that I'm back from WSOP though, I will get back on the case and vow to fulfill the Challenge by the end of the year, hopefully sooner.

[snoopy1239]

Binge Day 2 – Gala Nottingham

It always warms my cockles when I take the monotonous journey up the M42 to Gala Notts. They’ve got the Stanley Circus up and running now, but I had my eyes firmly fixed on Maid Marian Way and nothing else. After spending every waking hour in the joint during my student years, it has been cemented in my heart, and every time I return I rejoice in the fun times I experienced there.

I’ve said it many times before, but Gala Notts truly is the most fun place to play. Perhaps due to the cardroom being segregated from the rest of the casino, the place is brimming with banter and personality that really gives the venue a character and buzz that so many places are lacking.

Unfortunately for DTD, this might prove problematic. People don’t like change, especially when they enjoy where they already play. DTD might offer better facilities, structures, and whatnot, but people become institutionalised, even in a cardroom. There is a real sense of community in there, and I fear many of them will be wary of disrupting that. I also suspect that some of the successful regulars will be doing their utmost to persuade punters to stay, if only to protect their income, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if management were asking regulars to assist in this way.

I first played a comp at the Gala on 13th Jun 2002. It was a £20 Pot Limit rebuy, as were most events around that time, none of these £10 rookie nights or £30 freezeouts to break you in. I was pretty lucky though as I had the full student loan to gamble with, and boy did I spend it. It wasn’t until 31 comps later when, on the 23rd Jan, I won my first comp for £1,580. It only just about got me back into the black, but at the time, I was over the moon to have won such a large amount ‘gambling’.

I can’t explain how much enjoyment I prised out of the Gala over the three years. I was a 3 days a week man and even brushed aside outings with friends to partake. I only lived 5 minutes away, so temptation didn’t have to journey far. There was something romantic about it all. Whilst all my friends were begrudgingly undertaking holiday jobs, I was busy playing poker, having the time of my life and prospering in the process.

Notts Gala wasn’t without its faults though. Management were never too interested in the cardroom and didn’t offer too much in the way of ‘treats’. There were a few cases of cheating too, which unnerved me, but I’m sure this has occurred in numerous venues nationwide. However, with a lack of dealers, it remains a worry.

You seem to encounter a lot of arguing at Gala Notts, no deal going by without the inevitable ‘who can yell louder’ contest. I even saw fists fly once, so blood can certainly boil at times. It’s a tense atmosphere for beginners, and you have to be pretty hard skinned to start your tournament life there. However, recent times have seen the introductions of lower stake freezeouts, which have helped immensely.

You should keep your wits about you outside. I used to run home if I’d won, as Lenton Road in front of the castle walls was a creepy and nerve tingling jaunt if you were heavy pocketed. I think I recall AdamM being attacked there. He’s a black belt, I think, but there were three of them so he was always struggling. I don’t think I’ve ever gone down on a Friday night without witnessing a drunken townie and his Chavvy Mrs screaming at each other outside, and that car park’s a bit daunting too, it’s like something out of Doom or the weird bits in Silent Hill, and I wasn’t overly surprised when my brother told me that he caught someone breaking into his car.

But back inside, the banter makes up for it all. Unlike my trip to Junction 10 the night prior, very little had changed, especially with the clientele. Of course, they’ve lost a few along the way, but the faces are still there. The first one I saw was Raj from Leicester. He’s best buds with Chippie, and you won’t meet two nicer guys. I remember Chippie’s first ever comp, he was on the booze and talking like that guy from the Micro Machines ad. I remember him trying to sell conservatories to the whole of the table, but I don’t think he had too much success. From that day on, he was a regular. Raj is a lot more laid back, but a top bloke all the same.

Venturing in, I ran into John, Rob (Fran’s pops), Javid, Ed 'The Kid', 'Bag of Bollox' Ali, Sean, Bookie Jim, Steve Read, Pete Linton, Nik Hicks. The list is endless, and I couldn’t believe how many people I knew. Even Ash was there playing Backgammon with Richie, just as they had been a couple of years back. It’s as if once they’ve lured you in, you can never leave, and I know how they feel!

Yes, the cardboard numbers in a bag have been replaced by a snazzy plasma screen and the grubby felts of yesteryear have been replaced by brand spanking new GBPT tables (although I had to laugh when I saw they were using the same old crappy chips), but everything else is like I’d never left. Even Benz is still there, although slightly less hairy and running around in the former shoes of DTD’s Rob (Nightfly).

As for the comp, it was a £50er with two rebuys, which was pretty cool, but I wasn’t here for the comp per se, I was here to have a laugh and reminisce about some of the good times I used to enjoy there as young fresh-faced student. There was only one player at my table that I didn't recognise, and that said it all.

I plummeted out in unspectacular circumstances, but unlike many places, I hung around for a bit, ordered some food, watched the cash games and had a chat with various folk, one of whom was Jeff Hill, Junior’s dad. Greg’s a working man now, but his Dad’s still playing, and recently gave the World Series a shot for the first time, cashing in two events including the senior’s event which drew an incredible 1,800 runners.

It’s this aspect that I like, being able to exit the comp and have a chat with any number of people. There’s a real social aspect that keeps the Gala Notts ticking, and this is why I still love playing there more than anywhere else in the country. Win or lose, it's normally a hoot, and that's what it's about.

Dana sent me this still of the Simpsons. Apparently that's me on the left, fuchsia shoes an' all.

Click to see full-size image.

[Longy]

Binge Day 2 – Gala Nottingham

It always warms my cockles when I take the monotonous journey up the M42 to Gala Notts. They’ve got the Stanley Circus up and running now, but I had my eyes firmly fixed on Maid Marian Way and nothing else. After spending every waking hour in the joint during my student years, it has been cemented in my heart, and every time I return I rejoice in the fun times I experienced there.

I’ve said it many times before, but Gala Notts truly is the most fun place to play. Perhaps due to the cardroom being segregated from the rest of the casino, the place is brimming with banter and personality that really gives the venue a character and buzz that so many places are lacking.

Unfortunately for DTD, this might prove problematic. People don’t like change, especially when they enjoy where they already play. DTD might offer better facilities, structures, and whatnot, but people become institutionalised, even in a cardroom. There is a real sense of community in there, and I fear many of them will be wary of disrupting that. I also suspect that some of the successful regulars will be doing their utmost to persuade punters to stay, if only to protect their income, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if management were asking regulars to assist in this way.

I first played a comp at the Gala on 13th Jun 2002. It was a £20 Pot Limit rebuy, as were most events around that time, none of these £10 rookie nights or £30 freezeouts to break you in. I was pretty lucky though as I had the full student loan to gamble with, and boy did I spend it. It wasn’t until 31 comps later when, on the 23rd Jan, I won my first comp for £1,580. It only just about got me back into the black, but at the time, I was over the moon to have won such a large amount ‘gambling’.

I can’t explain how much enjoyment I prised out of the Gala over the three years. I was a 3 days a week man and even brushed aside outings with friends to partake. I only lived 5 minutes away, so temptation didn’t have to journey far. There was something romantic about it all. Whilst all my friends were begrudgingly undertaking holiday jobs, I was busy playing poker, having the time of my life and prospering in the process.

Notts Gala wasn’t without its faults though. Management were never too interested in the cardroom and didn’t offer too much in the way of ‘treats’. There were a few cases of cheating too, which unnerved me, but I’m sure this has occurred in numerous venues nationwide. However, with a lack of dealers, it remains a worry.

You seem to encounter a lot of arguing at Gala Notts, no deal going by without the inevitable ‘who can yell louder’ contest. I even saw fists fly once, so blood can certainly boil at times. It’s a tense atmosphere for beginners, and you have to be pretty hard skinned to start your tournament life there. However, recent times have seen the introductions of lower stake freezeouts, which have helped immensely.

You should keep your wits about you outside. I used to run home if I’d won, as Lenton Road in front of the castle walls was a creepy and nerve tingling jaunt if you were heavy pocketed. I think I recall AdamM being attacked there. He’s a black belt, I think, but there were three of them so he was always struggling. I don’t think I’ve ever gone down on a Friday night without witnessing a drunken townie and his Chavvy Mrs screaming at each other outside, and that car park’s a bit daunting too, it’s like something out of Doom or the weird bits in Silent Hill, and I wasn’t overly surprised when my brother told me that he caught someone breaking into his car.

But back inside, the banter makes up for it all. Unlike my trip to Junction 10 the night prior, very little had changed, especially with the clientele. Of course, they’ve lost a few along the way, but the faces are still there. The first one I saw was Raj from Leicester. He’s best buds with Chippie, and you won’t meet two nicer guys. I remember Chippie’s first ever comp, he was on the booze and talking like that guy from the Micro Machines ad. I remember him trying to sell conservatories to the whole of the table, but I don’t think he had too much success. From that day on, he was a regular. Raj is a lot more laid back, but a top bloke all the same.

Venturing in, I ran into John, Rob (Fran’s pops), Javid, Ed 'The Kid', 'Bag of Bollox' Ali, Sean, Bookie Jim, Steve Read, Pete Linton, Nik Hicks. The list is endless, and I couldn’t believe how many people I knew. Even Ash was there playing Backgammon with Richie, just as they had been a couple of years back. It’s as if once they’ve lured you in, you can never leave, and I know how they feel!

Yes, the cardboard numbers in a bag have been replaced by a snazzy plasma screen and the grubby felts of yesteryear have been replaced by brand spanking new GBPT tables (although I had to laugh when I saw they were using the same old crappy chips), but everything else is like I’d never left. Even Benz is still there, although slightly less hairy and running around in the former shoes of DTD’s Rob (Nightfly).

As for the comp, it was a £50er with two rebuys, which was pretty cool, but I wasn’t here for the comp per se, I was here to have a laugh and reminisce about some of the good times I used to enjoy there as young fresh-faced student. There was only one player at my table that I didn't recognise, and that said it all.

I plummeted out in unspectacular circumstances, but unlike many places, I hung around for a bit, ordered some food, watched the cash games and had a chat with various folk, one of whom was Jeff Hill, Junior’s dad. Greg’s a working man now, but his Dad’s still playing, and recently gave the World Series a shot for the first time, cashing in two events including the senior’s event which drew an incredible 1,800 runners.

It’s this aspect that I like, being able to exit the comp and have a chat with any number of people. There’s a real social aspect that keeps the Gala Notts ticking, and this is why I still love playing there more than anywhere else in the country. Win or lose, it's normally a hoot, and that's what it's about.

Dana sent me this still of the Simpsons. Apparently that's me on the left, fuchsia shoes an' all.

Click to see full-size image.

Great read snoops, i can relate to alot what you have said there regarding notts gala.

[danafish]

I made one of Jen too.

Click to see full-size image.

[littlemissC]

fantastic read snoops,just sorry i wasent there to..

[snoopy1239]

Binge Day 3 – Broadway Birmingham

My third consecutive day of poker and different venues each time, I felt in fine fettle heading into the Broadway £20 rebuy, and not too fazed by my sudden onslaught of pokermania after 7 months on the bench.

From my standpoint, the £20 rebuy fest is a much underrated tournament and one that is wrongly categorised as a mere crapshoot. Poker is all about adapting to various situations, including the tournament type. There’s admittedly a lot of variance in small rebuy comps, but if you play them correctly, you’ll come out a winner in the end. The likes of Julian Thew, Ash Abdullah and even tikay are proof of this, the £20er their bread and butter back when I were a tax-dodging student in Nottingham.

It seems to me that there is a market for written teachings on these smaller comps, especially when so many people play them. It’s not just a ‘lottery’, there’s an arsenal of skills required: how to gamble during the rebuy period, when you should take the add on and when you shouldn’t, not tilting and going crazy on rebuys, when to push, which blinds to attack, striking a deal – the list is a lot more extensive than people think, and if they were to stretch their mentality beyond the self-soothing bingo theory, they’d eventually begin to prosper.

One of the reasons why a £20 rebuy can be profitable is the laxity of the field. A large contingent fall into two simple categories: gamblers and tilters; when the two mix in bad beat bedlam on a boozy “It’s the end of the week so I’ll let myself go” Friday night, you’re destined for a huge ‘high value’ pot. The Broadway in particular benefits from this combo, 120 degenerates somehow producing a 9.5k prizepool and mammoth £3,680 first prize. Yum!

Amongst the rabble were a few tough players: Ben Callinan, Steve Jelinek, Wayne Fitzpatrick, Darshan Sami, Marcus Bebb-Jones, Des Jonas off the top of my head, but even some of them deem this small fry and gamble like there’s no tomorrow. Frankie Knight was present as always. A tight, solid, old school player, you know where you are with Frankie, but he must have a few moves in him as he frequently cashes. He’s known as Mr Vegas to many and has been a prominent figure in the Midlands for decades. If you ever need a Vegas contact, then Frankie’s your man. He told me that he managed to swindle a luxury room at the Horseshoe for just $28 per night, so he obviously knows who to speak to.

The Broadway remains one of my favourite casinos. Good service, prompt starts, friendly staff, dealer dealt tables, swift waitress service, great facilities and a sensored flush in the loos, it really is the bee’s knees, and Raj is most accommodating whenever I play. Apparently they have the second safest car park in the country, just behind one in Derby who I believe will soon be sending muggers over to Brum to ensure they hold onto that top spot.

The free halftime dinner is a nice touch. Chicken, rice and chips seems to be the norm, but it fills a gap. It’s a long pause though, 30 minutes they give you. As a born cynic, I expect it’s so they can prise the most out of the roulette wheel, and why shouldn’t they, people don’t have to play the house games, and they are the crux of the business after all.

Broadway is far from perfect though, and is likely to be surpassed by DTD who look set to raise the bar even further. The £8 sessions on the cash tables sting, dealers seem to work long, unsociable hours for little reward and there’s a guy in the bogs who I simply refuse to tip. There’s no way I’m paying anyone for the privilege of relieving myself and I detest that awkward moment when he holds out a hand towel and I say, “It’s okay, mate, I’ll use the hand drier… (because I’m too stingy to tip).” I’m battling through the guilt though and standing my ground, I just hope that he doesn’t think I have a hand drier fetish.

Whatever you make of the above, if you’re part of AdamM’s crusade, I’d advise you to tred carefully. Yep, you guessed it… “Move the shortsack!” Whatever the poll says, I’m with Adam on this one, moving the shortstack seems a little harsh. You end up having a seat of death, especially if they move from the button to the big blind. Plus the same guy can keep jumping from one table to the next without even paying a blind. Surely taking the big blind is the fairest, but cynical hat on again,  I guess the Broadway aren’t too fussed about fairness and just want it done and dusted.

As for the comp, I played well with very little and predominantly yo-yoed before finally stumbling upon the following hand. With two tables left and the shorties taking it in turns to push all-in to stay alive, Steve Jelinek limped from the small blind and I checked the big with 4-2. K-3-5 Flop, check check, Ace Turn, he bet, I called. Rag River, he bet, I raised all-in, he called quicker than a sheep in RobertHM’s garden and proudly revealed Pocket Kings. Hehe. This gave me some chips for the final where I eliminated two players at once with Aces to give me double anyone else’s stack.

With 4 left and just 20 minutes on the clock I was offered a deal: they get £1,500 each and I take £2,300. I’m not a massive fan of deals, but I was getting £500 more than second, so accepted knowing how easy it would be for me to have my stack sliced in half.

I’ve won lots of rebuy events for similar figures before, but this one was particularly important to me. Earlier on in the night, someone commented that I was bottom of the barrel now that Jen was winning, which hurt a little. In fact, I hear that quite a lot at the moment, so I was pleased to prove to myself that I could actually play a bit too. It’s one thing others thinking you’re a donkey, it’s another when you start to believe it yourself.

[ifm]

move the shortstack?
I;m guessing thats a joke because that has never been the case there.
The comps at the broadway i'd rate as the toughest 20 quid rebuys anywhere, the players in them are not newbies, mostly seasoned pros!
A great result Snopp, just try to emulate it in the monday comp....

[danafish]

Well I think you're a very clever beagle. Treats for you!

[LeKnave]

This thread delivers.

WD on the result in b'ham. shipship.

[sharky_uk]

Good write up of the Broadway Friday night £20 re-buy and well played on taking the lion's share. I agree that it's is a great tournament. I simply can't understand the approach taken by many. Players taking 20 re-buys is not uncommon. Surely if you have £400 to spend on a poker tournament there are better options than a 110 runner £20 re-buy where you will need to make the top 4 to show a profit! This leads to fantastic value for players with a tight approach during the re-buy period. You would think that if you didn't play a hand for 30 minutes and then come in with a 4*BB raise you would get some respect but oh no, 4 callers would not be uncommon in this situation.

I played there on Friday and managed to make the final table. A deal was done guaranteeing everyone £500. I went out in 8th but was happy with £500.

[dik9]

Whats with the shortstack move Snoops? when did that change....tell me it's not so!!

[snoopy1239]

Whats with the shortstack move Snoops? when did that change....tell me it's not so!!

I'm afraid so, they announced the new rule on that very day. I can only guess that the motive is to get the comps finished quicker.

[CrestOfaWave]

Just read the whole post Adam.

Good stuff.

Remember you don't need to prove yourself to anybody and only you can let others get you down.
I've been on a personal mission to take down a big Sunday event online and realise I may be chasing it a while
before I repeat it again. The first time I did it I was nowhere as good or knowledgable a player as now but my fearless
allin pushes against mid stacks was the reason I took that event down. Now I protect my stack and play much more
cautiously when deep in a tournament - there is something to be said for throwing the stack around like an axe in later stages of tournaments.

Looking forward to more news on your binge sessions. Hope to see you later in the year at Blackpool, London WSOPE or grand final.

Greg

[tikay]

Whats with the shortstack move Snoops? when did that change....tell me it's not so!!

I'm afraid so, they announced the new rule on that very day. I can only guess that the motive is to get the comps finished quicker.

I assume this was after Raj left? I cannot imagine Raj would ever do such a thing, & I know he's off to get himself Married, maybe never to return. He was excellent, imo.

[Graham C]

Great post Snoopy