re:
www.thebritishpokerawards.com
So, Poker Awards. (Voted by the "public", not a panel).
1) Would you be proud, pleased, or in any way chuffed to get the most votes in any or all categories?
2) Or would you be in the Camel Camp, "Poker Awards are shite"?
3) A hybrid of both. Pretend to be cool & unfussed, but secretly be very proud.
I am NOT interested in all the usual "he/she should/should not be on the list" stuff or "he/she deserves it more than me". Not interested in that.
Just those questions, no swerving or ducking the issue.
And before you ask, I think you deserve to be recognized for your efforts & achievements.
Hey,
Thanks for posting, I didn't want to reply on my phone where the reply would look like I purposely tried to misspell every word, so hopefully that shows I am serious about the topic.
As far as your questions go:
1) Would you be proud, pleased, or in any way chuffed to get the most votes in any or all categories?
Absolutely, I think people voting for you is a huge thing. Poker is such an ego thing in a way that everybody thinks that everybody else is terrible and that they are better than they are, myself included probably, so for others to recognise you is a huge thing. I've really tried to be a lot less egotistical over the last few months and be more open minded about others, because somebody does one thing that I may deem to be terrible doesn't mean they are terrible at poker. Perhaps what is "terrible" now may be "standard" this time next year. I now ask myself WHY did he do what he did? Usually there will be a reason why somebody did it so it helps me now understand thought processes and perhaps put some of them into my own game too. It's pretty similar to football awards I think, being voted managers player of the year is good, but being voted players player of the year is definitely the best award you can get, so yes I would be extremely "chuffed" if i won any of these awards and even being recognised for any of them is a big honour.
2) Or would you be in the Camel Camp, "Poker Awards are shite"?
I'm not sure of the numbers of how many people vote for these stuff, but sure they could be "rigged" by people who have too much time for themselves. I saw a really complimentary tweet from Tom Hall today:
Tom Hall @Jabracada ·
3 hours ago
Been nominated 4 british poker awards, but tbh u should vote for deadman for the live stuff and pleno for the online:
http://thebritishpokerawards.com/ Getting stuff like this like I said to your first question, really means a lot and whilst the awards can be seen as potentially rigged etc I'm assuming they will be pretty fair. They also help with the popularisation of poker too imo. Lets say anybody won one of these awards and shared it with friends on facebook/twitter and for everybody who saw it told one other person then from word of mouth people will hear about awards like this and find it a lot more cool and interesting than just "ah have you heard patricks a degenerate right now" this is why I was so adamant about getting number 1 on pocket fives. I would grind 6 days a week, often 7 playing tournaments such as the 30cubed and other stuff just hoping to get those extra points, one of the main reasons why was so that I could show friends and family and get some understanding from them that I wasn't just rofling around in casinos trying to spin up money. A lot of people enquired into what online poker was from there and maybe half a dozen of them have actually started playing poker on an amateur level since, asking me questions about how to get started etc, I would happily spend all day and night helping them as they are friends showing an interest into my passion.
In a way its kind of taught me a little bit about dealing with other people too. Now whenever I meet somebody and they tell me they do x,y or z I'm not just like "oh cool, sounds good, next topic" I try to enquire and find our more about what they do, ask questions and follow up on stuff, people love talking about their passions and interests and I think its really interesting to just watch them fall head over heels about it infront of you. In the past I would often ask questions and not really listen to answers.
Anyway going off on a tangent here..
3) A hybrid of both. Pretend to be cool & unfussed, but secretly be very proud.
Looking at the categories now its nice to be involved in lists like this. All of the competition is very good and if I don't win anything then thats totally fine, I'm proud as you word it to be nominated but also unfussed if I win.
Readers' Choice: Best Online Player
Niall 'firaldo87' Farrell
Patrick 'pleno1' Leonard
Toby '810ofclubs' Lewis
Alex 'Kanu7' Millar
Chris 'moorman1' Moorman
Rick 'TheClaimeer' Trigg
Readers' Choice: Breakout Player of the Year
Simon Deadman
Tom Hall
Harry Law
Patrick Leonard
Oliver Price
Jack Salter
Readers' Choice: Performance of the Year
Victoria Coren Mitchell (EPT San Remo)
Simon Deadman (Hollywood Poker Open
Patrick Leonard (online MTT leaderboard)
Craig McCorkell (WSOP Main Event)
Chris Moorman (LA Poker Classic)
Personally I'm very proud of the year so far, I think the word breakout may be a bit too pretentious to use myself but looking back at the start of the year it definitely wasn't the direction that I wanted to take. I'm not necessarily proud of finalling the biggest Sunday Million (did i ever mention i lost aq vs..
) of all time or chopping the warm up or winning those tournaments on Sundays that I have, those things are not in my control, I can't choose when to win a flip or when not to win a flip, but what I'm most proud of is that I've studied as much poker and hand histories as anybody in the world this year and grinded as hard as anybody. I chose to sacrifice the finer things in life to really devote myself to something. It's given me a big confidence boost for other things in life as I'm definitely not the smartest poker player in England, the most natural mathematical player in England or the best psychological player in England but I've shown myself and hopefully other aspiring players that if you do try your hardest then you can achieve your goals.
Stand our winners for me in the awards btw are:
Dan Coleman (international player of the year)
Simon Deadman (best live player)
Both of them have been so consistent and whilst they will probably echo what I said previously about running good and the results being out of their hands they are both really professional people who have really dedicated themselves.
Obviously being as humble as you are you won't want me to mention it, but I think your blog has to be a winner too. It's stood over time now and in an industry that is popularised by young guys in hoodies speaking about GTO for it to have been so popular for so long without a doubt deserves all the recognition I expect it to get at the awards.
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