Prose from a Poshboy

[tonytats]

Nice to hear from you Alex
Vbol in London

[tikay]

Many congrats, Alex, on winning a £1,000 Sky Poker UKPC seat last night on Sky Poker.

For those who missed the TV coverage (almost everyone, I would assume......) Alex was rampant, & had twice as many chips as the player in 2nd place at one stage.

It was a joy to watch, too, as he made stunning play after stunning play, & hero calls galore.

His hands featured on TV included these 3, back to back....

His A-A v K-K

His A-A v random poo.

His Q-Q v random poo.

Awesome.  

[tikay]

Quick reminder to Alex.

On Tuesday's Show on Ch 861, the Guest will be one Andrew Hulme, aka "stato".

I would like to think the Show will receive some interesting e-Mails for Andy.

skyopen@bskyb.com

[AlunB]

I genuinely fear for the tone of this diary is Alex is going to move to a 1 bed flat in East London and play poker in Aspers all week. Welcome to London, where everyone is a ****

[cambridgealex]

LOL. There was no stunning plays and hero calls. Just a lot of premium hands and holding up. Story of my career really.

It was a nice result anyway, nothing much else to write home about yesterday. Drove to Alea at 2am and managed to waste no time at all being in for £1500 in a lively £1/1 game! Booked a nice win by 5am though

Been running so golden this week in the cash games, even for me, some exceptional stuff. Except when Tikay's railing me, that is.

Got another week of cash grinding before the big UKPC next week. Feeling good!

[tikay]

LOL. There was no stunning plays and hero calls. Just a lot of premium hands and holding up. Story of my career really.

It was a nice result anyway, nothing much else to write home about yesterday. Drove to Alea at 2am and managed to waste no time at all being in for £1500 in a lively £1/1 game! Booked a nice win by 5am though

Been running so golden this week in the cash games, even for me, some exceptional stuff. Except when Tikay's railing me, that is.
Got another week of cash grinding before the big UKPC next week. Feeling good!

I don't play NLH Cash Alex, but I SO wanted to sit in that game on Saturday night, it looked pleasant & amiable, everyone friendly, & I was gagging to play it. I know I'd have set fire to £500 though, & so I sensibly bottled it. It was close though.

You, Lord Gas, Chinese Frankie, it just seemed so much fun.

Its games like that - with a nice gentle atmo - that attract "value" players like me.

If it had been all snarly aggo, & straddles galore, I'd not have wanted to sit in. Straddles are so off-putting to lesser players, they scare us away from the game. We know we are gonna lose our £500, but at least let us lose it slowly.

Joshing aside, was delighted to see you qualify for UKPC.  

[shipitgood]

Location Location Location

https://apply.zodiakmedia.com/Location.aspx

I know a while back you said you were looking at getting a place, is it London you will be looking at? Or else where where your £ will go a lot further? A loooot further.

[cambridgealex]

Been a while since I updated but that's mainly because I've been busy playing cash games 8-12 hours every day for 12 days straight.  They've been really fun games, with all the usual characters. Alea £1/1 games with Ali, Jimmy, Flanagan, Paulo and all the boys. And £1/2/4 games with seriously tough lineups - Mitch, Stato, Giblin, Thigh and Keith. It's been a blast.

Victoria started working a couple of days ago and has put in a 15hr and a 13hr shifts dealing. So both working hard trying to earn some money to pay for this ridiculous London rent! Sometimes it's unavoidable that she gets put on my table but as soon as the floor spot it and can do anything about it they take her off to avoid any awkward spots.

I've been staying with Keith in his lovely house in West Bridgeford. He has a 6month "puppy" who's strong enough to bowl you over when he greets you. I don't really "do" dogs. Except dogs like Victoria's family's dog:

Click to see full-size image.

So this has been a bit out of my comfort zone. It's quite friendly really though.

Outside of poker I've been having a couple of Russian lessons with a family friend which has been useful - if only to demonstrate the extent of the absolute mammoth task ahead of me!

We had a DTD Go Karting trip the other day which Skalie organised. Was really fun. 18 of us did qualifying and that split us into two groups for a final race. We'd all put a tenner in and the top 3 of both races got some dough back. Really good laugh. I'll leave you to guess which race was the fastest qualifiers and which was the slowest...

Click to see full-size image.

I'm playing the main event in a couple of hours, think this'll be a great chance for a big score with the re-entry policy. The buzz about the club this weekend has been fantastic. Let's gooooo

[cambridgealex]

Struggling to think of a more enjoyable period of poker in my life.

Every day has been so good. The past two weeks or so have had everything positive live poker has to offer in spades.

The Hiroller had the excitement of a big buyin event, the rewards of patient short stack grinding followed by a lucky spin up. The sweat of a huge £10k bubble. The relief when it burst yet sympathy for its victim. The sting of a bad beat to bust but the feeling of a job well done even so.

The cash games have had the challenge of a tough line up. The adrenaline of a shot in a big game. The gamble of playing 6 card omaha, that rush when there's 7 people to the flop for £100 each just hoping to flop the joint. Flying by the seat of your pants when you get it in good but having to fade the world. Playing with new faces, old faces (tikay). Being in games where you feel everyone just loves the game in the purest sense. Catching up with people you rarely see. Branching cultures over a chat at the table, a gamble over a hand or a beer at the beer.

The main event had that buzz of a million pound prizepool, a packed room, the chance to be a champion. The awkwardness of getting in a flip vs one of your best mates and busting him. The thrill of a crazy bluff and the relief when it gets through. The satisfaction of bagging up a big stack and then the anticipation waiting for day two.

The release of having a few drinks at the bar afterwards. The hangover the next day...

Let's hope I can end this story with a few more positive hyperbole after taking down the main!

[Marky147]

LTD

Good luck tomorrow mate!

[stato_1]

Nice post

[rfgqqabc]

What's this bagging up thing?

[TightEnd]

you top right in today's Sun?

[cambridgealex]

you top right in today's Sun?

Well if it's not me then there's a bloody good looking chap who looks just like me out there!

I can't quite make out what's written there though lol. Hopefully it's not too cringe.

[cambridgealex]

So alas the UKPC comes to an end. My day two in the main event got off to a great start, running well, good table and things going my way, chipping up to 650k when the average was 250. Looking like a lock to cash and in good shape for a deep run.

Then in the same manner that these chips were accumulated, they were then de-cumulated with running badly, bad table and things not going my way. I then found myself very short stacked (6bbs!) on the bubble having to stall and all sorts to try and make the money!

I was on the feature table with Rastafish, Chinese Frankie, Tom Hall, Steve Watts and Tamar which was really fun, even without chips - I was enjoying the company and the sweat of the bubble. I've never pure bubbled a decent live comp before and mentioned this a few times. It wouldn't have been too bad anyway, but managed to fade it but bust straight after.

Flicked in the £500 turbo day1 of the 8max yesterday and managed to luckbox a stack in that, and a great table draw around the bubble full of short stacks, so chipped up to 1.5m when the next biggest stack on my table was 400k at blinds 12/24k. Came into the final 2/9 and it went pretty slowly, lost 4 or 5 all-ins as 45-55% and could only get 3rd, but still a decent result.

Absolutely exhausted now (well not now, I slept for 12 hours) but just generally from playing at least 8 hours of poker every day for the last 21 days with no days off, probably about 200 hours in total, I'm very much up for a break.

It's a good job too, because a break will kind of be enforced by my moving to London, that happens on Wednesday.

Next stops, Manchester GUKPT and Malta IPT/EPT. #lovethegame