10,000th Post

[action man]

im not sure if the 10,000th post is long post worthy thesedays, but ill give it a tl;dr anyhow. I started posting on blonde in 2005 I believe. I had followed tikays hendon mob tourney reports which at the time left me with a warmth inside. I used to play the £10rb's in sheffield and read Poker Europa and scoured through the results to see who had won what and where. My heros back then were names like Keith hawkins (who has become a friend of mine, and he's one of the only people on the list who has lived up to my expectations at age 18) barney, ross, ram, joe, devilfish, ali mallu, laurence gosney, gareth the nugget jones. These reports tikay did lit something up in me to believe that playing in these events was attainable.

So I followed like a young sheep to blondepoker and absolutely loved it. It filled a void in my life and filled a slot of time, between waking up and grinding. Back in the 2005/6/7 days I just grinded on the old tribeca networks and was regurlarly battling with Paul foltyn, chris moorman, david gent, james dempsey and many others who still call poker their proffession.
Those days were great, although we didnt quite understand how soft the tourneys were back then. We assumed  we were just insanely good. Looking back on some of my old posts on blonde im a little embarrased at how naiive and how bad a player I was back then. Some posts I remember calling camel out for being a jammy sod when he got there in a standard pot when my case money was on the line. Calling pab out on a hand where I was the one who made the mistake in the hand etc. Thankfully pab, being the gentlemen he is, didnt hold a grudge and we became friends and talked on msn a lot, i also bonded with flushy and moorman, who im happy to say im still good friends with to this very day.

Blonde Poker has evolved from 2005-2014 in the same way poker has.
In 2005 on the forums, there were a lot more 'characters' and there would be at least one tear up a week for everyone to munch popcorn in and pick a side. Poker in 2005 was much the same. A lot of characters, most of which didnt make thier living through poker, showed up to the live events. Every tourney i played live back then was awesome. Forgive me if nostalgia overcomes fact here but every cardroom just seemed buzzing back then. Laughter, banter and general merriment seemed to accompany every festival back then. The Northern Lights, xmas cracker, january sales, midlands meltdown etc have all now been replaced mainly by GUKPT.

Nowadays on blonde their is less banter but more information, better hand analysis and id say the average age of posters must be significanltly less than it was back in 2005. In poker as on blonde the average age of player in live uk events is a lot younger and on the tables there is less chat about how fit the dealer is or what will win the derby this year, and more analysis of every hand, which must get tedius to people as it does myself.

Ive been playing poker now for 9 years and ive leart a lot during this time.
Ive earnt and spent a hell of a lot of money during this time and I don't think id change much of it. I was beyond prodigal in my twenties, I travelled around everywhere, went on lavish nights outs, various trips to vegas, trips away with my friends etc. While I appreciate the younger pro's prudence thesedays im afraid that they will neglect their best years and be too life nitty without actually having lots of fun and enjoying themselves.

The most important thing ive learnt in poker however, is that its a lot like other jobs. You must work hard to win. There are of course exceptions to the rule but poker evolves all the time and if you don't put the hours in you wont win. Evidence of this can be found with all the live type pro's who were prominent in the late 90s early 2000s vanishing off the face off the earth. (see what happened to thread) This isnt because 'the kids are too good' Its because the kids practice (play) more and are willing to learn. A lot of people from the live poker background are insanely stubborn and unwilling to think that their bad run is anything but bad luck. Online guys stuck in a rut will routeinely seek out answers by asking peers, training sites, evaluating hands theyve played etc. Online it is immensly important to know the regs if you play Mid stakes or High stakes MTT. Not knowing them negates so much skill edge you have if you are a sunday only mtt grinder. A hell of a lot of people in poker rest on their laurels and expect to just win when they show up.

A lot of so called pro's play 1/2 live tourneys a week. This to me is absurd and unless you are in the top 1% of players in every field you play, its almost impossible to sustain. Chris Moorman, regarded by lots of folk as the best MTT player in the world went on a 3000 mtt downswing at $100 ABI
so in live terms thats a tourney everyday for close to 9 years! and Chris's online expences were minimal.

If you want to play poker for a living, WORK HARD, if you don't then do something else because if you dont work hard then eventually you will go broke. With very few exceptions. This is not me getting on a highhorse because I grind probably too much, this is someone who has been very lazy for a lot of my career.

I don't post as much on blonde as I used to, partly because it is a distraction when im grinding, some of it is because the topics seldom arouse me post and a little because im a cynical sharp sod most of the time nowadays

Ive made a lot of friends through blonde and hope to make a lot more. Heres to another 10k posts.

[arbboy]

im not sure if the 10,000th post is long post worthy thesedays, but ill give it a tl;dr anyhow. I started posting on blonde in 2005 I believe. I had followed tikays hendon mob tourney reports which at the time left me with a warmth inside. I used to play the £10rb's in sheffield and read Poker Europa and scoured through the results to see who had won what and where. My heros back then were names like Keith hawkins (who has become a friend of mine, and he's one of the only people on the list who has lived up to my expectations at age 18) barney, ross, ram, joe, devilfish, ali mallu, laurence gosney, gareth the nugget jones. These reports tikay did lit something up in me to believe that playing in these events was attainable.

So I followed like a young sheep to blondepoker and absolutely loved it. It filled a void in my life and filled a slot of time, between waking up and grinding. Back in the 2005/6/7 days I just grinded on the old tribeca networks and was regurlarly battling with Paul foltyn, chris moorman, david gent, james dempsey and many others who still call poker their proffession.
Those days were great, although we didnt quite understand how soft the tourneys were back then. We assumed  we were just insanely good. Looking back on some of my old posts on blonde im a little embarrased at how naiive and how bad a player I was back then. Some posts I remember calling camel out for being a jammy sod when he got there in a standard pot when my case money was on the line. Calling pab out on a hand where I was the one who made the mistake in the hand etc. Thankfully pab, being the gentlemen he is, didnt hold a grudge and we became friends and talked on msn a lot, i also bonded with flushy and moorman, who im happy to say im still good friends with to this very day.

Blonde Poker has evolved from 2005-2014 in the same way poker has.
In 2005 on the forums, there were a lot more 'characters' and there would be at least one tear up a week for everyone to munch popcorn in and pick a side. Poker in 2005 was much the same. A lot of characters, most of which didnt make thier living through poker, showed up to the live events. Every tourney i played live back then was awesome. Forgive me if nostalgia overcomes fact here but every cardroom just seemed buzzing back then. Laughter, banter and general merriment seemed to accompany every festival back then. The Northern Lights, xmas cracker, january sales, midlands meltdown etc have all now been replaced mainly by GUKPT.

Nowadays on blonde their is less banter but more information, better hand analysis and id say the average age of posters must be significanltly less than it was back in 2005. In poker as on blonde the average age of player in live uk events is a lot younger and on the tables there is less chat about how fit the dealer is or what will win the derby this year, and more analysis of every hand, which must get tedius to people as it does myself.

Ive been playing poker now for 9 years and ive leart a lot during this time.
Ive earnt and spent a hell of a lot of money during this time and I don't think id change much of it. I was beyond prodigal in my twenties, I travelled around everywhere, went on lavish nights outs, various trips to vegas, trips away with my friends etc. While I appreciate the younger pro's prudence thesedays im afraid that they will neglect their best years and be too life nitty without actually having lots of fun and enjoying themselves.

The most important thing ive learnt in poker however, is that its a lot like other jobs. You must work hard to win. There are of course exceptions to the rule but poker evolves all the time and if you don't put the hours in you wont win. Evidence of this can be found with all the live type pro's who were prominent in the late 90s early 2000s vanishing off the face off the earth. (see what happened to thread) This isnt because 'the kids are too good' Its because the kids practice (play) more and are willing to learn. A lot of people from the live poker background are insanely stubborn and unwilling to think that their bad run is anything but bad luck. Online guys stuck in a rut will routeinely seek out answers by asking peers, training sites, evaluating hands theyve played etc. Online it is immensly important to know the regs if you play Mid stakes or High stakes MTT. Not knowing them negates so much skill edge you have if you are a sunday only mtt grinder. A hell of a lot of people in poker rest on their laurels and expect to just win when they show up.

A lot of so called pro's play 1/2 live tourneys a week. This to me is absurd and unless you are in the top 1% of players in every field you play, its almost impossible to sustain. Chris Moorman, regarded by lots of folk as the best MTT player in the world went on a 3000 mtt downswing at $100 ABI
so in live terms thats a tourney everyday for close to 9 years! and Chris's online expences were minimal.

If you want to play poker for a living, WORK HARD, if you don't then do something else because if you dont work hard then eventually you will go broke. With very few exceptions. This is not me getting on a highhorse because I grind probably too much, this is someone who has been very lazy for a lot of my career.

I don't post as much on blonde as I used to, partly because it is a distraction when im grinding, some of it is because the topics seldom arouse me post and a little because im a cynical sharp sod most of the time nowadays

Ive made a lot of friends through blonde and hope to make a lot more. Heres to another 10k posts.

Congrats on 10000 post's Trigg.  True legend of the game both poker and punting.  Always a pleasure having a beer or two with you.

[action man]

thanks mark, catch you soon

[TightEnd]

Nice post, with some very shrewd observations

A survivor, mr Claimeeeeer, is what you are

[Karabiner]

Very nice post Rick.

I hope you were wearing your silver shorts whilst typing it.

[booder]

 


Confirmed legend.

[celtic]

Nice post Trigg.

Clever lad, despite looking otherwise 😀

[Marky147]

Great post, and who doesn't love a mooch down memory lane <3

[mulhuzz]

Very cool post.

[77dave]

Wasnt too long, please dont wait 10,000 more posts before your post another of these, maybe start a Trigg's corner.

enjoyed.

[nirvana]

People like Trigg are what made & make Blonde great I think.

One of the world's best, funny, great fashion sense and doesn't even talk down to us

[edgascoigne]

Proud the man is a Wednesdayite.

[aaron1867]

I remember the first time I met Trigg at the £20r at Naps, so many thoughts at that time.

- How bad is this guy at poker

- What an arrogant .....

- Who wears a brown leather jacket?

Now I think you're ok, just glad my horse didn't get lapped lol

[lucky_scrote]

Great post from a great chap. I wholeheartedly agree with almost everything you've said. I also wish I'd done a lot of things differently but turning back the clocks is just cheating.

[GreekStein]

Nice one Trigg on 10k posts.

Definitely one of the few guys in UK poker today (and maybe the youngest of those few) who fits in with the old and new school.