Pocket Queens:

[DingleBelle]

A wonderful read, thanks Natterley.

I had not previously realised thst you are a kept woman.

PS - Had dinner @ Wynn last night, now I look forward to brekkie there with Adam. Feel free to join us.

Ha! I wish I was a kept woman!!!  Perhaps you can have a word in the Boy's shell like.  I'd quite like to give up this work lark (the dream!)

Glad you enjoyed the Wynn.  My fav hotel.  Breakfast is immense.  Every type of breakfast from every US State and every country in the World.  Pancakes.  Syrup. 

[shipitgood]

Hey

Good seeing you at the tables this week:)

Can't believe how long that 1st satelite took tonight haha

All the best for vegas, have a great time, and win em all!

[DingleBelle]

Hey

Good seeing you at the tables this week:)

Can't believe how long that 1st satelite took tonight haha

All the best for vegas, have a great time, and win em all!

And you.

I lost the will to live after that satellite.  Snooze-fest! 

B

[DingleBelle]

"You need three things to win; discipline, hard work and (before everything maybe) commitment. No-one will make it without those three." Haile Gebreselassie

Every poker player has at least one thing in common; they all have an opinion on what it takes to be a successful poker player.  Those opinions are as vast as they are varied.  Ask a table of players for their number one 'success factor' and you will almost certainly hear the words bankroll management, tilt control and discipline.  The one you perhaps hear less of is study.

I have been playing poker now for 5 years, but spent the first two of that at university and law school, meaning that my early play was fragmented and lacking in discipline.  I perhaps consider myself as having played 'seriously' (as serious as a recreational player can get) for about three years now, but it is only in the last 18 months that my game has turned a corner. The reason for this, I believe, is a commitment to learn how to improve my game.

2013 was a frustrating year.  Results were far and few between and I suffered big downswings. I also tilted my head off and lost all focus.  That, coupled with my black cloud, gave me an opportunity to move away from the tables and study.  I committed to spending a significant amount of time reading, watching tutorials, analysing hands and watching play.  I even spent nights loading the tables of players who I considered to be strong and watched their tournament progress.

Gradually, my technical knowledge improved and so did my game.  I returned to the tables, focused and saw the results coming in.  And for the first time ever, my online game caught up with my live game (I do consider myself a live player more than an online player).

I started the year making my debut at The Vic and binked a nice little final table (as well as a bronze medal).  I followed that up very shortly with a top 30 finish in the G 25-25 series. 

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Next up was the UKPC, and the chance to catch up with this wonderful fella (who, despite his meanness and bullying, I do adore). 

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I won't even pretend that I played at all well and it was a disappointing performance in the end. I am pleased that I didn't let this knockback affect my new found run-good though and I managed to learn from some mistakes and push on.  More cashes followed.

The highlight was, without a doubt, the EPT Grand Final in Monaco, where I competed in the Ladies Event (I am, as you know, a huge fan of ladies events).



It was a small, but tough field; Kitty Kuo, Hana Šoljan, Annette, Obrestad, Ana Marquez, Celine Bastian and Liv Boeree were all gunning for the trophy. 

I ran into Queen Victoria of Coren-Mitchell (plus hubby) in the hotel lobby and managed to have a quick chat about her recent EPT double-whammy.  Such a wonderful woman.  She must have a left me in a bit of a tizz as I then managed to literally bump into two other players; both Phil Ivey and Jonathan Duhamel nearly headed for a date with the floor as a result of my clumsiness!  Stay classy Bromley.

Despite a terrible start (I was down to 10 bigs and AI for my tournament life twice within the first three hours), I managed to FT and ended up with a bronze medal podium finish.  Given that only five cashed, I was very pleased.  Sure, the trophy would have been awesome, but I really believe that will come soon.

Naturally, it's now time for Vegas and the Boy and I are hitting Sin City tomorrow.  We have a full 11 day schedule to play, plus a few 'days off'.  I feel great and am confident of a profitable series. We have events lined up at the Wynn, Aria, Venetian and PH as well as the Rio and I cannot wait.

The next post will come to you live from Vegas.

Until the next time.

B

[Tal]

Subscribed.

Am just tapping out, shortly to fly the return journey. Vegas is currently full of 21 year olds wearing nothing but tiny bikini tops and fluorescent tutus (...and the girls look even worse baddumtsh). They all seem to make it home ok, despite the logistics. If they held the EDC in England, I can only imagine the results would be much, much worse.

Have a great time.

[DingleBelle]

Good morning comrades. Live from Sin City.

I write my first post in a desperate bid to stay awake. It is 9.30pm on Sunday evening, however my body clock is telling me that's it's 5.30am on Monday morning. So I've almost been up 24 hours. The Boy was this giddy when we left Manchester ...



... He is now fast asleep!

The flight across here was very pleasant indeed. We managed to get upper deck seats, with lovely food ...



... and the world's smallest Fab lolly!



The good news is that I've actually already won my first tournament. Yes, so it may have been on the games console on the flight. And yes, the computer software may have been programmed heavily in favour of the player, but hey a win's a win!  



We've now moved into what will be our home for the next week. A lovely suite in the Wynn.



We intend to spend some time round the pool tomorrow morning, getting a bit of sun and getting the day jobs out if our minds.
Then it's off to the Rio for 2pm for one or two Daily Deepstacks! I will let us settle in and get some poker under our belts before I return to the fold with some news. Until such time, stay cool you crazy cats.

Until next time ....

B

[DingleBelle]

Morning One ... And despite jetlag leaving us wide awake at 5am, we managed to hang fire until 8am before we got up!

The Wynn is just a wonderful hotel. This is now our third visit, and I can't help but keep coming back!

The hotel rooms are all suites and very luxurious ...

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There's always somewhere picturesque to eat some lunch ...



And the pool is just awesome...



Spending a few hours catching some rays before we hit the Rio to rail a certain Ryan Spittles and get our first game in. The Boy just 'accidentally' ordered his first bucket of Coors. This day could go one way or the other ...

B

[tikay]

Great to see you this evening, Natalie......


http://bit.ly/TlkyDy

[tikay]

This is disgraceful.


http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=34057.960

[DingleBelle]

Good morning comrades.

It's now Thursday morning and the start of day 4 (and a half) of our trip.

The poker so far has been generally positive. We got out of the blocks straight away and headed over to the Rio to get involved. And generally cause some mischief ...

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Before hitting the cage to part with the bankroll, we railed young Spittles on his FT. Another excellent performance and a very worthy cash. I have a lot of time for Ryan. A real inspiration to the poker world and a lot of people could take a lead from his example. From a personal perspective, he has been incredibly generous with his time over the years I have known him and always been on hand to offer advice. That man has a huge result coming soon, I do not doubt it.

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We've played four tournaments and I have i) run deep in two, ii) bubbled the cash in a third and then iii) finally cashed in the fourth. Wasn't a heavy cash, but it's nice it get another flag under the belt so early on 🇺🇸.

The Boy is currently drawing a blank and facing a 4-0 score line in the last-longest!  He's not sulking. Much.

We've also managed to have a little time off to have some fun. Being a) children and b) as competitive as we are, we decided it hit the Adventuredome for some good old theme park fun. Candy floss and root beer in one hand, ride-as-much-as-you-like wristbands in the other.

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Rather alarmingly, it transpired that I wasn't tall enough to ride some of the rides. Christ, I know I'm short but still ...





I did tweet this point earlier on in the evening, but made the worst typo I could have done by saying that I wasn't "talk enough" to ride the rides. Cue, abuse!!  

The side betting at the Adventuredome got a little heated. We challenged each other at laser quest, basketball, hook-a-duck and Donkey Derby. The Boy was outraged when he realised that his camel wasn't moving, despite getting the ball in a few blue holes.  Yes, of course the woman was letting the 6 year old child win. Of course the Boy argued. And of course I ran away disowning him ...

Tomorrow sees the vast majority of us playing the WSOP Monster Stack, which will field unprecedented numbers. We discussed this with young Tikay at the Rio this evening (NB: I may have given him some new material. There may be some abuse following from the young troll) and he suspects we will get around 7,000 runners.  The queue for the cage was insane and we queued for over an hour to get in Flight A

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Young Cambridge Alex was last spotted towards the back of the queue looking broken! He had just had another strong performance at the Venetian and whilst I'm sure he was disappointed not to have gone further, it's another example of some of the class players we have in the UK. Alex is another man who I have a lot of time for. I hope you managed to get in there and get some sleep Sir.

The next post will hopefully be in a couple of days time with some great news on the Brit bracelet front!

Until next time

B

[celtic]

Really enjoy this diary. I do read it, but haven't posted.

What you said about Ryan is spot on. I remember him when he was less shit at poker than he is now, and he's still the same annoying tosser he was back then  just kidding, he's a great guy, always happy to be conned into buying me a nandos, and always happy to give advice when asked. A lot of people could learn a thing or two from him. Don't tell him I said all this tho, wouldn't want him thinking I like him or anything.

Glglglgl for the rest if your trip, and keep the updates coming.

[Marky147]

Same as Vincent, I've really enjoyed reading this diary, and have just never gotten around to posting.

You write incredibly well, and I very much enjoyed following your article on the Burnley season tickets situation as well.

Best of luck for the rest of the trip!

[DingleBelle]

^^ Thanks very much guys. Very kind of you to say ^^

[Tal]

Anybody else read this as a very expensive cocktail menu?



I'm fairly sure in Vegas you can pay that kind of money for something called 'The Inverter'. Discretion assured, and all that. Tikay Marky most likely to confirm.

[DingleBelle]

Ha!! How very true.

They probably knicked it from outside XS whilst every other man and his dog were at EDC.