Interesting Article

[The Camel]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2200795-mugs-and-millionaires-inside-the-murky-world-of-professional-football-gambling

[Karabiner]

Good article, is the author a relative?

[The Camel]

Good article, is the author a relative?

Nope, he used to be the cricket tipster in the Racing Post.

Very good he was.

Took the lucre offered by Zac Goldsmith to jump ship and write for The Sportsman.

But when that publication went arse over apex, he was left without an organ to write for.

Freelances now, think his stuff is good and he should be at the Post. But the Editor there is pretty vindictive I believe and people who leave rarely get a second chance.

[Marky147]

Good stuff, thanks for posting!

[arbboy]

Wow is it only eight years since that paper appeared and disappeared in what seemed like the same month.  Amazing what you could get finance for in 2006! No wonder the game was easy back then

[vegaslover]

Good article, got to the guy who bets £16m a year on Betfair and arbboy sprung to mind

[tikay]

Bad thread title Keith, "fascinating" not "interesting", it's great to read about these guys.

I know you are, or were, fairly close to Tony Bloom, do you know if Martin De Knijff is still involved with Tony?

Boring story follows....

[Tal]

Bad thread title Keith, "fascinating" not interesting, it's great to read about these guys.

I know you are, or were, fairly close to Tony Bloom, do you know if Martin De Knijff is still involved with Tony?

Boring story follows....

If it's how he got his nickname The Knife, I'm out.

[simonnatur]

Thanks for posting. I know your baby "Tips For Tikay" is in fairly rude health, but it wouldn't hurt for you to pop in and give us a tip from time to time. Pretty please...
(It doesn't even need to be a classic like the 49 ers / Kaepernick write up)

[horseplayer]

Good to see you posting Keith

hope all is good

[tikay]

In 2004, like so many of us at some stage of our poker journey, I was living the dream. I'd just retired, & was playing poker all over Europe & loving it, going to new places, playing poker, ain't life great?

Somehow, I got an invite to play a Tourney in Sweden, just outside Stockholm. OK, lets do it, so I accepted the invite, & off I toddled, booked a flight on SAS & away I went.

As I exit Customs at the Airport, to my surprise, there is a bloke stood there with one of those hand-written signs, it said "TONY TIKAY KENDALL".

What?

I go see him. "Hi Mr Kendall, come to give you a lift to the Club, will drop you off at your Hotel first. I'll buy you some dinner too, if you fancy it." (Dinner was a DISASTER, steamed bloody herrings ffs).

BOOM, I'm famous. 

The driver fella has a white wooly beany hat thing, but was well chatty, so we chit-chatted. Running out of things to say, I mention the big story at the time in Swedish poker, Martin De Knijff. He had just won the WPT thing for $3 milly, & finished 2nd in a WSOP for $300 thou. I was at the fanboy stage, as kids are these days with Dwan & Isildur, so Martin was a hero.

He looks at me a bit gone out. Then removes his hat thing, & the penny insta dropped. He WAS Martin De Knijff!

OOohhh, I'm nearly wetting myself.

Anyway, I'm there 4 days, & Martin can't do enough for me. Never paid for any food or drinks all trip, Martin paid for everything at his club (he owned it in partnership with someone), he treated me like a VIP, made a right fuss of me.

We talk some more, turns out he has a season ticket at Stamford Bridge, goes to all their games.

You travel to England every week to watch Chelsea?

"Yes yes, a mate of mine has a box, his name is Tony Bloom, you might know him"

"What? Yea, course I know Tony, shared tables with him all over the place. I wrote a piece about him for Cardplayer after he won a big jobbie at Aussie Millions earlier this year."

And so it goes on.

But then it got a bit awkward, as Martin told me his main living came from Sports Betting, he & Tony Bloom ran a syndicate. "Interested in some action, Tony?".

I had just quit betting a year or two earlier, not keen to go there again, but I was deffo interested.

So Martin gave me the spiel, the Syndicate lasted 3 months, after that they divvied the money up & started again.

Yea, I'm interested Martin, what sort of numbers we talking?

Well we generally say £100,000 min, but I can do you a deal for £30,000 if you are interested.

Err, weather's been nice.....

Just think, if I had any bollox, I could be rich & retired now.

[tikay]

Thanks for posting. I know your baby "Tips For Tikay" is in fairly rude health, but it wouldn't hurt for you to pop in and give us a tip from time to time. Pretty please...
(It doesn't even need to be a classic like the 49 ers / Kaepernick write up)

Amen to that.

It may save Keith an awkward reply, but I've tried to keep in touch with Keith under the radar. There is much about Fred these days that he does not really approve of, "Offers" & suchlike.

I'd LOVE him to return to Fred, it's his thread dammit, but I don't want to presssurise him. Little Bo Peep & all that.     

[tikay]

Quick PS on Martin - it appears he is a big "Bridge" player these days.

Be interested to know if he still has a contract with Mr Bloom.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_de_Knijff

[BigAdz]

Thanks for posting. I know your baby "Tips For Tikay" is in fairly rude health, but it wouldn't hurt for you to pop in and give us a tip from time to time. Pretty please...
(It doesn't even need to be a classic like the 49 ers / Kaepernick write up)

Amen to that.

It may save Keith an awkward reply, but I've tried to keep in touch with Keith under the radar. There is much about Fred these days that he does not really approve of, "Offers" & suchlike.

I'd LOVE him to return to Fred, it's his thread dammit, but I don't want to presssurise him. Little Bo Peep & all that.     

+1 to the request and the reasons for absence. Great to see Keith posting though, regardless.

[Tonibell]

... then two come along at once. http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/782041.html