Keith "The Camel" Hawkins: In the Well

[doubleup]

What advice would you give to someone considering 3 betting your utg raise?

[TightEnd]

Hi Keith

1. Take us back to those early days at Reading. What grounding did it give you in poker? At what point did you decide you could branch out and play bigger buy-ins in different venues? At the time was this justified by your record or were you just hooked?

2. Do you still play better after a few beers?

3. Is it still Hold Em for you? Not Omaha or other variants? Why?

[I KNOW IT]

Are you still good friends with Jim Britton?

[The Camel]

Would you rather have $200 sent to your stars account or collect £100 in person to see my face?

I'd rather wait til I see the pain on your face as you hand me 5 crisp twenties.. and if I'm in a good mood I might even spend the oner on a nice bottle of bubbly.

You'll learn not to take me on at prop betting!

[The Camel]

What advice would you give to someone considering 3 betting your utg raise?

Don't do it.

I'm an absolute rock, and if I'm raising UTG I've got AA or KK.

Probably.

[Snatiramas]

What advice would you give to someone considering 3 betting your utg raise?

Don't do it.

I'm an absolute rock, and if I'm raising UTG I've got AA or KK.

Probably.

Now I know that to be slightly suspect in a hand that I had the privelige of seeing you play against Jennifer Harmen in the Bahamas........Sevens springs to mind.

Favorite live comp and why??
Is there anywhere you would not play??
You have the opportunity to invite three people round for dinner. Who and why??

[The Camel]

Hi Keith

1. Take us back to those early days at Reading. What grounding did it give you in poker? At what point did you decide you could branch out and play bigger buy-ins in different venues? At the time was this justified by your record or were you just hooked?

2. Do you still play better after a few beers?

3. Is it still Hold Em for you? Not Omaha or other variants? Why?

Hi Richard,

1. I would be mightily suprised if there has ever been a harder school at £5/£10 levels than those days. Regular players included: Bob Coombes, Tony Chapman, Simon Trumper, Simon Eastwood, Nouri, Neil Channing, Graham Pound and Mike Magee. Check out what these guys have won away from Reading. I sat in these games for a couple of years and just watched and learned. I tried to incorporate little things I admired from all these guys games and gradually moulded all I saw, plus a few tricks I devised into a game of all of my own. I started to hold my own, then even beat the game.. and I realised even then, if I could win at Reading I was good enough to win anywhere.

The game was totally different back then, and the style I adopted was pretty successful. I was wildly aggressive and almost seen as a maniac.. But, people were scared to play pots with me as they never knew which 2 cards I was going to turn over in a showdown and I got away with stuff I would never get away with nowadays.

I had a HUGE edge back then, especially before I became better known.


2. I have always played my best poker when inebriated. It takes away my inhibitions and I play more carefree poker. The best I ever played was in the first ever big tournament at the Bellagio (3k entry). On day 1 I must had drunk 30 budweisers. Nearing the end of day I was ordering two at a time because the waitresses were taking too long to come back to the table. And I was totally devastating the table, raisng virtually every hand and blasting players out of pots. It was great. I came back for day 2 and the reality of how much we were playing for had sunken in and I played like a wuss, hardly playing a pot and limping into 6th or 7th place.. very disppointing!

3. Virtually play nothing else apart from Holdem. Stud is a memory game and at my age, memory isn't my strongest point. Omaha is a game for rocks and I haven't got the patience for it. And I lose far too much playing Hilo anything to contemplate ever playing it again!!! Holdem is the perfect poker game imo. You can be successful by using a wide variety of tactics and it more a mind game than a card game. How can both tikay and Julian both be winning players? They play totally different games yet both win. That's part of the joy of the game.

[TightEnd]

one more then Keith


you play less on the UK circuit these days. Is this entirely due to Jake and your desire to be at home or is it a reflection of any views you may have on playing the circuit now compared to say 5 years ago?

as a supplementary, which events are you playing in Vegas and do you go there with a genuine positive expectation? 

[doubleup]

What advice would you give to someone considering 3 betting your utg raise?

Don't do it.

I'm an absolute rock, and if I'm raising UTG I've got AA or KK.

Probably.

Ha I was rather thinking "entirely ignore me and look to your left in case someone acting behind has a monster"

[The Camel]

What advice would you give to someone considering 3 betting your utg raise?

Don't do it.

I'm an absolute rock, and if I'm raising UTG I've got AA or KK.

Probably.

Now I know that to be slightly suspect in a hand that I had the privelige of seeing you play against Jennifer Harmen in the Bahamas........Sevens springs to mind.

Favorite live comp and why??
Is there anywhere you would not play??
You have the opportunity to invite three people round for dinner. Who and why??

I had QQ in that hand with Jennifer. She reraised me so much preflop (almost an overbet if I recall correctly) I certainly didn't think she had AA and almost certainly not KK. So i shipped it in. She had the boots .

The other questions I will need some time to think about.. I'm going out for a few hours and I'll mull them over!

[redsimon]

Hi Keith,

Non poker questions if thats OK.

Are QPR worth a punt for Championship title 08/09?

What's your opinion of the new owners of Rangers? Good for the game or just dabblers who could get bored easily?

Who's the most loyal R's fan you or Andy ward?

Good luck in Vegas...

[bobby1]

Hi Keith, thanks for doing this.

A a sports bettor what areas do you specialise in and do you bet racing aswell, in the Betfair age do you think the edge that experienced punters have is taken away with the markets being far more readable to everyone than say 5 years ago?


Do you stake players or have regular swaps when you do play live?

What do you consider to be the most common mistakes that cash players make in tourneys and visa versa?

If you were offered a 6 month affair with a page three model that had a QPR fetish in bed or a 6 month 10% of Thewwy which would you choose?

thanks and gl in Vegas

[The Camel]

Are you still good friends with Jim Britton?

Ahhh my old mate the Bandit.

Whatever became of him? Did the men in white coats finally catch him?

[77dave]

Hi Keith,

What are your 5 best Vegas tips.

[The Camel]

What advice would you give to someone considering 3 betting your utg raise?

Don't do it.

I'm an absolute rock, and if I'm raising UTG I've got AA or KK.

Probably.

Now I know that to be slightly suspect in a hand that I had the privelige of seeing you play against Jennifer Harmen in the Bahamas........Sevens springs to mind.

Favorite live comp and why??
Is there anywhere you would not play??
You have the opportunity to invite three people round for dinner. Who and why??

Favourite Live comp: Honourable mentions for Monte Carlo and the Vic but top of my list is definitely Amsterdam. Added money in the main event, plentiful comps for food and drink for the players and the only place you aren't too upset when you get knocked out of a tournament.. the extra curricula activity in Amsterdam is better than the poker!!!

Where I would not play: I don't like private games much. They rely on credit and I have seen alot of peeps get in far too deep. Plus the rake is often outrageous. As for casinos/cardrooms I don't like Vienna's concord  card club much.. Horrible place, plus I have never seen a visitor get a ruling in his favour when up against a local. I don't like the casino at Barcelona very much either. The rake is bordering on criminal and you never hear anything in the poker press about safety. I know of 4 players who have been mugged outside the casino. Why aren't potential players told? Well, the reason must be that the casino is very liberal in its treatment of poker journalists. The journo's realise if they write something negative about the casino, they will probably be shut off from getting freebies in the future. It stinks.

Three people for dinner:

So hard to decide this.. I had to have a poker dinner party and a non poker party..

Poker: Asher Derei - My poker mentor. He took me under his wing when I first started travelling to European tournaments and taught me so much I couldn't hope to ever repay him. A free dinner is the least I could do!

Carl McElvey - An old time road gambler from Texas. Not as well known as brunson or Johnny Moss but every bit as good a player. More amazing stories from the olddays, would keep us entertained all evening.

Alan Vinson - The funniest man on the European poker circuit bar none.


Non poker: Stephen Fry - funny and intelligent. A British institution

Tony Benn - Always admired him. Conviction politians like him give me faith in politics.

Keira Knightley - Simply devine.