The Best In The Business

[pleno1]

I used to be 18 playing with friends in their houses. It used to be a 0.5/0.10p game and I was really pretty bad. My friend had played in the casino one Wednesday in a freeroll that you could rebuy in for £5. I told my Dad I wouldn't be home for dinner because I had won a "raffle" into a poker game. I ended up losing pretty quickly and telling the table "I'm way out of my league here" when they asked me to rebuy. When the GUKPT came around I went down to watch and was in complete awe of everybody who was there. There was a 5/5 cash game that felt like a 100/200 cash game.

I worked really hard that year and by the time I was 19 I was starting to become more of a regular in the games, playing £30 freezeouts sometimes. I went to the Sunday tournament that was £20+£20+£20 and remembering I only had £40 so couldn't afford to buy in for the 3rd bullet. I final tabled but didn't cash, but I enjoyed it. I remember at this time I was really, really tight, I once looked at a Queen utg and folded without looking at the second card It was pinged him to play very tight UTG and I knew the button was special but didn't know why or how I could use its special powers.  When the GUKPT came around this year I went and watched again, a huge fanboy. I didn't know a single player, most people with like 30-60. There was a group of around 6-7 younger guys though and I remember Francis Creed was railing them, her boyfriend at the time Tony Phillips was dressed like Channing and used to play good. I stood next to her on the rail and after a few minutes saw the cut off open, this young kid with long dark hair 3bet him and I saw him peel his cards and saw A9o. I almost jumped over the rail, I really couldn't think why he'd ever do that with such a bad hand. The guy called, and folded to a cbet. That was my first ever AHA moment in poker. I found out who he was and he was a young kid who had a poker blog that was about playing 100nlhu online and online tournaments, he was called Jake Cody! His travelling partner was Tom MacDonald and they were instantly upgraded to numbet 1 heroes. I added both of them on facebook and would tell my friends about things they'd post etc. Jake then went on to win Deauville that year iirc and then the rest is history.

I worked hard for that next year again but was at University, this time when GUKPT came around I sold action for a £220 and a £330 side event, this was HUGE to me at the time. I remember getting to the last 2 tables and playing some pot against Jeraint Herzain? Where I defend his 3bet then stop and go'd when I knew he was trying to push me about. Things were starting to tick a little bit, but I hadn't accelerated enough or improved at the pace I wanted to.

Newcastle was then taking off the tour and even though I improved significantly in that time I wasn't at the stage where I could financially afford to travel around playing the live circuit. I moved to Gibraltar to work for PokerStrategy.com then lived in Spain/Hungary since.

Since then I have always followed the tour online, I like to watch the stream from time to time and often check the chip counts with interest.

When I realised I could play WPT next week and saw that Blackpool was this week it wasn't really a decision if I'm honest. Playing a GUKPT was weirdly as close to the bucket list as playing a WPT is, perhaps even higher!

I loved my entire experience at Blackpool, it was without doubt an incredibly soft tournament that I wouldn't feel bad about selling a 1.8 but the whole experience and atmosphere was great.

[pleno1]

What was the length of the delay for the stream? Did you really get texted 30 secs after the hand??? Or is it live with cards shown at the end of the hand only?

30 minutes! Sorry!

[celtic]

I used to be 18 playing with friends in their houses. It used to be a 0.5/0.10p game and I was really pretty bad. My friend had played in the casino one Wednesday in a freeroll that you could rebuy in for £5. I told my Dad I wouldn't be home for dinner because I had won a "raffle" into a poker game. I ended up losing pretty quickly and telling the table "I'm way out of my league here" when they asked me to rebuy. When the GUKPT came around I went down to watch and was in complete awe of everybody who was there. There was a 5/5 cash game that felt like a 100/200 cash game.

I worked really hard that year and by the time I was 19 I was starting to become more of a regular in the games, playing £30 freezeouts sometimes. I went to the Sunday tournament that was £20+£20+£20 and remembering I only had £40 so couldn't afford to buy in for the 3rd bullet. I final tabled but didn't cash, but I enjoyed it. I remember at this time I was really, really tight, I once looked at a Queen utg and folded without looking at the second card It was pinged him to play very tight UTG and I knew the button was special but didn't know why or how I could use its special powers.  When the GUKPT came around this year I went and watched again, a huge fanboy. I didn't know a single player, most people with like 30-60. There was a group of around 6-7 younger guys though and I remember Francis Creed was railing them, her boyfriend at the time Tony Phillips was dressed like Channing and used to play good. I stood next to her on the rail and after a few minutes saw the cut off open, this young kid with long dark hair 3bet him and I saw him peel his cards and saw A9o. I almost jumped over the rail, I really couldn't think why he'd ever do that with such a bad hand. The guy called, and folded to a cbet. That was my first ever AHA moment in poker. I found out who he was and he was a young kid who had a poker blog that was about playing 100nlhu online and online tournaments, he was called Jake Cody! His travelling partner was Tom MacDonald and they were instantly upgraded to numbet 1 heroes. I added both of them on facebook and would tell my friends about things they'd post etc. Jake then went on to win Deauville that year iirc and then the rest is history.

I worked hard for that next year again but was at University, this time when GUKPT came around I sold action for a £220 and a £330 side event, this was HUGE to me at the time. I remember getting to the last 2 tables and playing some pot against Jeraint Herzain? Where I defend his 3bet then stop and go'd when I knew he was trying to push me about. Things were starting to tick a little bit, but I hadn't accelerated enough or improved at the pace I wanted to.

Newcastle was then taking off the tour and even though I improved significantly in that time I wasn't at the stage where I could financially afford to travel around playing the live circuit. I moved to Gibraltar to work for PokerStrategy.com then lived in Spain/Hungary since.

Since then I have always followed the tour online, I like to watch the stream from time to time and often check the chip counts with interest.

When I realised I could play WPT next week and saw that Blackpool was this week it wasn't really a decision if I'm honest. Playing a GUKPT was weirdly as close to the bucket list as playing a WPT is, perhaps even higher!

I loved my entire experience at Blackpool, it was without doubt an incredibly soft tournament that I wouldn't feel bad about selling a 1.8 but the whole experience and atmosphere was great.

Jesus! That's some answer. Wasn't expecting that. Good luck next week in nottingham.

[Eck]

I used to be 18 playing with friends in their houses. It used to be a 0.5/0.10p game and I was really pretty bad. My friend had played in the casino one Wednesday in a freeroll that you could rebuy in for £5. I told my Dad I wouldn't be home for dinner because I had won a "raffle" into a poker game. I ended up losing pretty quickly and telling the table "I'm way out of my league here" when they asked me to rebuy. When the GUKPT came around I went down to watch and was in complete awe of everybody who was there. There was a 5/5 cash game that felt like a 100/200 cash game.

I worked really hard that year and by the time I was 19 I was starting to become more of a regular in the games, playing £30 freezeouts sometimes. I went to the Sunday tournament that was £20+£20+£20 and remembering I only had £40 so couldn't afford to buy in for the 3rd bullet. I final tabled but didn't cash, but I enjoyed it. I remember at this time I was really, really tight, I once looked at a Queen utg and folded without looking at the second card It was pinged him to play very tight UTG and I knew the button was special but didn't know why or how I could use its special powers.  When the GUKPT came around this year I went and watched again, a huge fanboy. I didn't know a single player, most people with like 30-60. There was a group of around 6-7 younger guys though and I remember Francis Creed was railing them, her boyfriend at the time Tony Phillips was dressed like Channing and used to play good. I stood next to her on the rail and after a few minutes saw the cut off open, this young kid with long dark hair 3bet him and I saw him peel his cards and saw A9o. I almost jumped over the rail, I really couldn't think why he'd ever do that with such a bad hand. The guy called, and folded to a cbet. That was my first ever AHA moment in poker. I found out who he was and he was a young kid who had a poker blog that was about playing 100nlhu online and online tournaments, he was called Jake Cody! His travelling partner was Tom MacDonald and they were instantly upgraded to numbet 1 heroes. I added both of them on facebook and would tell my friends about things they'd post etc. Jake then went on to win Deauville that year iirc and then the rest is history.

I worked hard for that next year again but was at University, this time when GUKPT came around I sold action for a £220 and a £330 side event, this was HUGE to me at the time. I remember getting to the last 2 tables and playing some pot against Jeraint Herzain? Where I defend his 3bet then stop and go'd when I knew he was trying to push me about. Things were starting to tick a little bit, but I hadn't accelerated enough or improved at the pace I wanted to.

Newcastle was then taking off the tour and even though I improved significantly in that time I wasn't at the stage where I could financially afford to travel around playing the live circuit. I moved to Gibraltar to work for PokerStrategy.com then lived in Spain/Hungary since.

Since then I have always followed the tour online, I like to watch the stream from time to time and often check the chip counts with interest.

When I realised I could play WPT next week and saw that Blackpool was this week it wasn't really a decision if I'm honest. Playing a GUKPT was weirdly as close to the bucket list as playing a WPT is, perhaps even higher!

I loved my entire experience at Blackpool, it was without doubt an incredibly soft tournament that I wouldn't feel bad about selling a 1.8 but the whole experience and atmosphere was great.

Jesus! That's some answer. Wasn't expecting that. Good luck next week in nottingham.

And with the book deal 

[pleno1]

haha thanks Vinny i like it when people ask questions.

[SuuPRlim]

Pads today is a very good day to organise those £ for you if you tell me what you wanna do

Best to text me Adam has my #

[VBlue]

Shame to have missed this, even just for railing opportunity now I am located to Blackpool.  Must plan to get there next year a day get in the game somehow. Would love to sit at a table with you. Sort of.

[ZZZZZZZROPE]

maybe speak to a wealth manager like Barclays Welath etc. I used to regualrly arrange 20k+ in gbp euro etc to be picked up for clients in the london branch, no questions asked

[bagel]

early days chip leader in million , fun to watch gl

[pleno1]

WPT Nottingham Highroller

I was really looking forward to this tournament, I feel very comfortable playing in most fields and it has a structure that suits my game. Starting table (7 handed) had 2 noticeable marks. I played the very first hand vs him in the tournament where i open KsQs and bet twice on KT4J2 and check river and he has AQ. I played very tight for 2 orbits or so with Tom "hitthehole" Middleton running the table over abit and 3betting a lot against the weaker players. Steve Warbutton then made it 800 utg at 300bb. 2 people called then Tom made it 4500, Slyvain Loosli started tanking in the SB and I felt it was a great spot to 4bet because Tom probably wouldnt make it so big with a value hand as they had to fold a lot. Slyvain folds and then I look down a 2 beautiful AA and tank for a longish time before decided 12900 was best because it probably forces Tom to jam anything for value that he squeezed like JJ/QQ/KK and I didnt want to make it 9400 and he has to just flat call AK and he will obviously whiff a lot of flops and just sigh fold. He jammed pretty quickly with KK and we increased our stack to around 80k.

I felt like I had a good feel about the table, I picked up some good spots and passed up some spots. One spot I was lost in was where it was opened and called 3 way and I called the SB with 44. The flop was and we all checked to Slyvain who bet. I called and the others folded. The turn was the 4 and I checked with the intention of calling but he checked back. The river was a 7 and I decided to check and he bet 1/2 pot, I was really lost, but eventually just decided to fold. Felt very close.

The first hand after the break (apologies 2nd, I was late coming back by a couple of minutes) Slyvain opened the button to 1200. I decided to have a depolarised 3betting range and 3bet KQhh to 3000, he 4bet to 8100 and I called. I gave up post flop on A33J.

I was enjoying Steve Warbuttons company, we were speaking alot. I then opened two black kings UTG to 1900, he 3bet me to 4100 from UTG1, I 4bet, he jammed AQ and unfortunately we lose on the K.......JxT board. This was for 150k and probably chip lead (although ofc irrelevant) so I felt pretty tilted about it if I'm honest :/

I won some chips back and then opened 6 handed to 2200 with A9cc from the hijac, Jack Salter jammed the button for 17bbs, I think I dominate enough here that I called, probably bottom of my range but still a call imo, and lost to queens.

Again I chipped up again from pre flop/post flop non showdowns, no super significant pots, just good spots to cold 4bet, c/raise, c/call down etc

The next mark moved to our table and he seemed like he really wanted to punt. He opened to 3500 at 1800bb (last level of the day) it was very close but I defended J6ss. The flop was 6c8h6d (oioioioioioioi) I checked and he insta jammed 3x pot.  I said call and then angrily shouted fuck off. I turned over j6 and he threw his cards so fast/hard at the dealer they literally fell off the table, he then walked out the building, i obviously jinx it and tell the table theres a low of sweat cards. Obviously it runs out 86697 and he wins lol. ;( ;( ; (

Again was pretty tilted but kept composed and won some pots including a 3bet pot where i 3bet/cbet, checked AK on t24xx and won vs him. He was short now and with less than an orbit left i raised and he jammed 13bbs, it was a very easy call with AT but he had AK and we lost that one.

We ended the day with 62k with the average probably around 80. Feel very happy with every single decision/hand I played in the entire day which is a very rare thing for me. We go back tomorrow a little battered, a little bruised, but with no sense of entitlement, we gonna grind hard, make good decisions and hopefully get it in with the best hand and hold.

For those with a %, this of course means I will miss day 1a of the main event, I will refund with markup ofc and will play day1b on Wednesday.

[youthnkzR]

gl bud

[action man]

ill be down at the club about 4pm collecting pieces mate so bring cash monies

[pleno1]

WPT Nottingham High Roller

2nd for £61,500, very happy with the whole day, extremely tired now though, going to try and get a good sleep before tomorrows tournament.

[GreekStein]

2nd? fucking 2nd?

Bet you wish you'd stayed home and played online now.

USELESS.

P.s congrats!

[VBlue]

Can't help but think when you read about top tournament players going long stretches bricking everything due to variance, that they are just not trying hard enough.