Squid's In: In the Well with Sam Grafton

[LonOhRay]

How much influence has Noonan had on your table banter and one liners?

Current favourite place to play live cash in London?

[The Squid]

IN..

1. Five people (Alive or Dead) you would share Table at your Favourite Restaurant. and Why..
2. Last time you cried and why.
3. Favourite Football Team and why.
4. What honours did you get when you left School/Uni.
5. Favourite European City and you guessed it Why.

PS. Have you ever bought Celtic Dinner?

1. You defo need someone funny like Oscar Wilde or maybe Evelyn Waugh, Shakespeare obv, maybe Noam Chomsky him and Waugh wouldn't get along I suppose, Karl Marx, maybe Rimbaud? Oh Slavoj Zizek. Or Susan Sontag. She's probably to serious.

So Wilde,Shakespeare, Marx, Rimbaud, Zizek

2. I watch 'Truly, Madly, Deeply' maybe once a year and cry my eyes out. End of 'Land and Freedom' also makes me cry.

3. Arsenal fan since watching 1987 League Cup Final. Littlewoods Cup as it was. Probably would have been a Liverpool fan if they'd won. God bless you Charlie Nicholas!

4. Got really good GCSEs, then went off the rails a bit at Alevels but blagged three A's and a C. Got a 2:1 at Sheffield Uni in English Lit, then Nottingham Uni got a distinction for my Masters in Crit Theory. Hence my love for Zizek!

5. Favourite city in Europe is probably Einburgh. Had so many amazing summers there during the festival. Always seems magical and romantic.

Don't know who Celtic is so prob not.

[Tal]

Excellent.

*cracks knuckles*

1. What's your first choice play in Charades?
2. Please post a YouTube clip of or describe your favourite all-time advert.
3. Favourite episode of The Simpsons?
4. Who's the first person you go to for a second opinion about a hand you've played?
5. I saw you reference Martin Amis on the Sky cash game and get some blank expressions. Is he an inspiration? Do you consider yourself a rebel? Do you consider him a rebel?

Will likely have more but that's enough for now.

[The Camel]

What were the reasons behind the four bet?

[Tal]

You're a sodding gooner?

[The Squid]

Favourite UK live poker stop? (not just for venue but also for city/clubs/bars/restaurants etc)

Whats the most common mistakes you see from MTT'ers?

Do you favour less tables and more reads or as many tables as you can click on?

Do you see yourself still grinding MTTs regularly in the next 2-5 years?

Best player you know that nobody has heard of?

Favourite stop is Manchester because I always feel I'm gonna do well there. I need to make Genting Sheffield Leg at some point tho because I really love an excuse to visit my old stomping ground.

There's loads of mistakes. Ummm. Ok firstly people don't adjust to the table enough. Like if there's tough players on there left they don't tighten up enough and if there's bad players on they're right they don't open up enough and start flatting really wide. Basically they just have a range of hands they're comfortable playing regardless of the table.

Another would be just paying people off in spots that there opponent is never bluffing. They think cos they flatted, or didn't raise flop, or whatever that they are 'under-repped' or there range is capped so they have to pay off. In fact either there against an opponent who is only mediocre and can never exploit them, or against someone extremely good who knows what they have and knows they ain't folding.

An additional leak ttournament players tend to have is just switch of there brains a lot hen they flop a big hand they just want to 'go with it' because this requires the least amount of thinking. Like they flop the nut flush draw so they just raise get it in or whatever. They don't think about the optimal way of extracting value with there hand. Say they have QTcc on KQ3cc they seem terrified that if they don't get it in on the flop then they may have to fold there hand ona later street or make some tough decisions. So they just go for the easiest option, regardless of whether this is best.

[kinboshi]

Which halls were you in at Sheffield?

[pleno1]

favourite places to eat and drink in shef? was there for 4 years.

[The Squid]

Favourite UK live poker stop? (not just for venue but also for city/clubs/bars/restaurants etc)

Whats the most common mistakes you see from MTT'ers?

Do you favour less tables and more reads or as many tables as you can click on?

Do you see yourself still grinding MTTs regularly in the next 2-5 years?

Best player you know that nobody has heard of?

I try and play as many tables as I can. You definitely need to think of your hourly and these means volume! As edges get smaller tho high stakes players may have to reduce tales at least slightly.

Yh. I do think I'm gonna be in the game for the long run. The only way you can even think about getting out is a huge live tourney score and it's hard to play enough of them to realise your expectation. That said when I was 27/28 the idea I might get into poker was laughable so I'm aware goals can change fast and I like to think I'm open to that.

Best player no-ones heard of: Rhys Jones. Frequently refered to as 'a player' or 'the big blind' or 'player A' in Pokernews reports.

Seems like there are a few UK online guys who could end up being really good.  Aggro Santos, Benjizzle, Bit2Easy all seem to play a great deal of volume and play creatively.

[The Squid]

Which halls were you in at Sheffield?

Sorby Halls R.I.P.

[The Squid]

What's the weirdest situation you've ever found yourself in?
The most balla thing you've ever done / bought?
Do you prefer online or live poker?
You're entering a team competition, you have to pick 3 other English players, who do you pick and why?
Is it true that your 3 betting range is the lightest element on the periodic table?

Hmmm. Not sure about weirdest I'll give it some thought.

Only balla thing I do is eat out at good restaurants like daily. Also like here in Vegas when I run out of clothes I just buy more rather than wash anything. Like say last night we're out for Pabs and I'm wearing a crap football shirt so after dinner I just went with Jake and Trigg to All Saints and bought a t-shirt and a leather jacket. Costs me a round just cos I've runout of nice clothes, this kinda thing is pretty common.

When I play live I think I prefer online, when I play online I think I prefer live.

Three players is too gross! Depends whether you want it for live or online. Maybe Jake, Moorman, Brammer. Oooof! That's brutal because there's so many that are just sick good. Craig, Toby, Firaldo, Pez all could claim to be top three right now. In fact would prob bump Jake for Pez then we would have a nit free team. Jake could join up with Craig and Toby and they old talk about all the great folds they've made on the break.

[kinboshi]

Which halls were you in at Sheffield?

Sorby Halls R.I.P.

I was in Endcliffe Vale Flats, but met a very nice girl who was at Sorby

[The Squid]

Is it true that your 3 betting range is the lightest element on the periodic table?

LOL

[The Squid]

Going back to the start, I believe you did a Masters and then are quoted as saying you needed "intellectual stimulation"

Why, at that point, poker?

Does it still give you that challenge of 3-4 years ago?

If you'd gone down a different route after academics, what would your career be?

Yeah I think what I said was that when I left Uni and returned to Leamington there wasn't really anything to replace all the talking and debating I done both with thesps in the theatre community and the lefties on my Masters Course. Poker was that intellectual outlet.

Still challenges me massively. Mixed games, PLO I'm only at the beginning of my journey and MTTs move so fast that you have to (or at least I have to) work hard to stay close to the top.

Think probably another career would have been either some sort of support work. I've worked a lot with adults with learning disabilities and in schools with kids with behavioural issues. Or it would have been political campaigning. I essentially started playing for a living to support an internship I did with the World Development Movement, which campaigned on environmental and trade issues. Definitely something I was interested in working on in a more formal setting.

[The Squid]

If you had to be the back-end of a pantomime horse, which poker player would you most like to be the front-end?

Needs to be someone with good personal hygiene so rules 80% of poker players out.