Grosvenor Grand Prix
August 17, 2008
The time is coming for that fantastic value comp, that sees the qualifiers only comp, due to take place in October, qualifiers will be on Blue Sq or at your local Grosvenor. AND…… They are adding £25,000, woo hoo I hear you shout. A pot limit Hold’em deepstack comp with great added value!!! And yes the Final will take place at Walsall’s Grosvenor (remember them, they used to advertise online all the time, and hold decent tournies) And mainly the pioneers of all the added fees (reg fees, entry fees, both etc).
This competition will be no different, another pioneering charge is set to take place, some of you may have read the article that was written on here http://www.ukpokerinfo.co.uk/how-thick-do-they-think-poker-players-are-100/ If you remember the charge deducted from the prize pool was 10% but this was for a freezeout, the warning was that soon they will be deducting from rebuys. Well here you have it, the only way to qualify for this comp is to qualify, and they are all rebuy events, WITH NO REG FEE LOL but 5% of the total pool will be raked!!!!
The next warning is that soon this percentage will increase, and a hidden charge will take over in a cardroom near you. When questioned on the blonde poker forum here http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=36072.0 Jonathon Raab aka AlrightJack who is the mastermind behind all the great comps Grosvenor/Blue Sq put on stated, when questioned about the fee ”In the USA they often rake the prize pool and charge a fee, not to mention the almost obligatory dealer bonus. Lovely little comps though…”
Yes Jonathon, but if this is the way forward, then soon 30% will be taken from the pool and the dealers wedge will be kept back too.
I just hope that the players that read here are intelligent enough to know where this is leading….don’t let it happen guys and gals.
Running Bad
July 26, 2008
How on Earth do people deal with long term bad runs, for over 4 years I have run absolutely terrible with only a few very small wins, but luck is not my best friend. At the moment it is everything in life, I could deal with things if they were in groups of three as the fable says. But I seem to get my runs into double figures.
Going Back to the poker, I used to play (and have the bankroll for) £5/£10, before internet poker really kicked in. Early Ultimate Bet is where that money went …. approximately £50k (my divorce settlement), this was mainly because I had withdrawn from the world and was locking myself in my new rented appartment and was at peace with myself (in truth looking back, it was basically a depression). But it was a solution to my lack of interaction with the world and it was something (i thought) I was good at. I had been involved with poker for 15 years at the start of this and always held my own.
My Bankroll management isn’t that bad either, although sometimes I induldge in the luxury of playing live, which i prefer, but not part of my bankroll. I am actually down to playing 1c/2c on poker stars. I am not embarrased to say either. But it looks like even that may come to an end now. There are only so many times you can get quads beaten by quads, or lose a nut flush against a runner runner straight flush. I am not trying to tell you a bad beat, I just want to know what other people do in the same situation, everyone must run bad at some stage……..
I have taken breaks sometimes and riden the storm sometimes, nothing seems to work. Do I just admit to myself that I am not a good poker player (but i firmly believe I can hold my own, with just a smidge of luck) or is it that I must have squashed too many flies in my life and reaping the rewards now.
Do you believe in luck?
Can someone run as bad as me in life, without hitting any luck?
Oh for the record, I am alive, with no physical defects (apart from a growing stomach), food to eat and shelter…….I know I am luckier than hell of a lot of people, and am grateful for that. But everything i touch seems to just turn to stone and I am a bit sick of it to be fair.
My childhood was fantastic, my teenage years even better, travelled around the world in my twenties, but this fucking decade really does suck!!! Roll on 40……just hope i make it !
Nuts
July 25, 2008
OK back to Absolute and Ultimate Bet, what on earth is going on here? After all the controversy, scandals, investigation…… and the continuing accusations from insider sources, numbers are dwindling on these sites, and so they should. So what would be the solution to those dwindling numbers?
Well Tokwiro Enterprises have come up with a solution, they have joined forces and merged with the new name of Cereus Poker Network. Fantastic for AP and UB, but for cereus?? I find it amusing that Ultimate and Absolute now want to be taken Cereus (do you see what i did there :)) And they now believe they will be challenging for third spot with iPoker and believe they can take on Full Tilt and Stars???? I also understand that they are not rebranding?
Surely 2 cheating sites wont get away with this, does anybody out there know if they already have other sites, as i am bit thick when it comes to online poker, and i have never heard of Cereus before, but apparently they have been working on it for 12 months now. Plenty of time for a new set of superusers i think 
On a side note, how the hell can Hellmuth and Duke still even want to be associated with this site? Oh yeah I forgot that Mr Hamilton was transferring them funds too lol.
Poker Apparel
July 24, 2008
I just wanted to see what the craic is with top pro’s and novices alike, by asking what is it with hoods, caps, sunglasses and ipods?
Now I know I play poker for different reasons to most (so I have been told?), I play for the social aspect and for fun. I am the sort of person that enjoys sitting outside a Parisian cafe, watching the world go by and trying to interpret body language. It is for this reason i pose the question, what is it with poker players that use tools to inhibit their senses?
The biggest culprit to me are ipods/mp3 players, something that stops you listening to other players and a bi product unable to hear the dealer. I understand that sometimes you have pain in the arse players who never shut up etc but surely you need your ears open for a number of other reasons? To me it is just downright rude!
The other major bugbare are sunglasses, poker is played indoors in usually poor lighted cardrooms, the usual excuse for wearing sunglasses is that the eyes give too much away so they want to cover them up. OK I get that, but the majority of players I have seen wearing them, say they are just a fashion accessory!! As a dealer I have seen all sorts of glasses being worn, from prescription sunglasses to snow goggles. The most amusing was a student in Birmingham Gala who was short sighted and thought mirrored sunglasses would be trendy. Seat 10 had a perfect view of every one of his hole cards, as he peeped over his mirrors and held them about 4 inches from his eyes????? I suppose i should have said something, but i think his mates told him after he was knocked out….serves him right, but he was very bewildered when seat 10 passed top boat to a min raise on the river, when he held quads lol
Baseball caps and hoodies I can deal with as i can still converse and see players, but still don’t understand, I know if I wore a baseball cap in the house, my mom used to clip me round the ear! Phil Laak and Phil Ivey have a lot to answer for
But the wierdest one is the new fashion, hoodies that zip all the way up with two eye holes! How can anyone take these plebs seriously!!!!
How thick do they think poker players are?
July 23, 2008
Grosvenors - first to introduce registration fees
Grosvenors- first to introduce entry fees
Grosvenors- first to combine the two (agreed was very closely followed by Gala)
But wait for this gem, Grosvenors are now trialing No registration fee, but an entry fee and 10% raking of total prizepool. Laugh my fucking arse off, because players will still play these comps, but let me give you an example of figures. It looks completely innocent as it is being trialled on freezeouts (for the moment) But Walsall have now got rid of their once Flagship competition the £300 monthly freezeout, and replaced it with a £200 Freezeout. No big deal I here you say, well the £200 is the first comp that introduces this 10% off the prizepool. Lets take 100 runners for simplicity.
With reg 10% fee
£200+£20 = £2000 entry fees and a £20,000 prizepool
With 10% Off prizepool
£200 = £2000 rake and an £18,000 prizepool
On paper looks like no difference, no effect to the pocket etc and can be advertised as no reg fee woo hoo!
But lets take a closer look, effectively you are paying £180 + £20 which is now an 11.11% registration fee making them an extra £200 per comp, but obviously, you as the player wont question this as you wont be paying any registration fee?????????????? WTF ???????????????
So lets step it up one more level, AFAIK it wont happen just yet but please wait as it will happen 10% OFF the prizepool of a rebuy comp
same scenario but a £20 rebuy with 100 players
£20 + £2 x 100 = £2200 before the rebuys start …….so £200 for the club
New way
£20 = £1800 prize pool £200 before rebuys start ……still £200 for the club
Lets add 3 rebuys per person
£80 a head + £2 reg fee would be your total spend = £82 prize pool £8000 …….old way
Or New way
£80 a head No reg fee total spend = £80 prize pool £7200 casino makes £800 (£600 extra!!)
FFS Guys and Girls don’t fall for it this time, vote with your feet!!
This is daylight robbery!! Even Dick Turpin wore a mask.
Beware the easy excuse.
July 23, 2008
Beware the easy excuse.
For some time now, I’ve been analysing my game in a way which I thought, most poker players do. I have since come to the realisation however, that they really don’t. Every time I lose a decent pot in a cash game, get knocked out of a tournament, whatever it is, I look to criticise myself first, and my opponent second. Obviously, there are spots where I’ve just been dry bummed by a monkey with a mouse at his disposal but, often, when I replay the hand from my opponent’s point of view I can usually defend their play, or at least see what I could have done to prevent the inevitable car crash that occurred.
I would guess that you’ve all read the chat abuse that you get from faceless moron’s online, and have probably overheard the whispering slander on the rail of a live game. What I’m trying to say, is don’t let that person be you. Suck it up and try and appreciate the lesson that you should have just learned. I’ll try and give you an example to show you what I mean.
I recently played in a local £10 tournament for a bit of fun after a day on the ale. Due to the incredible bender I had just taken part in, I was still compos mentus but was slightly more aggressive than usual. I must say though, it was working with dramatic effect and during the evening I picked up on a couple of things about my play that I hadn’t realised before. Anyway, to set the scene, I must say that usually I’m slightly positionally aware but in this game I was literally abusing the button. I had two or three players to my right who were continually limping in from any position between UTG and the CO. I therefore decided to continually make a decent raise pre flop and was taking the all dead money. I was occasionally getting a caller but would then always take down the pot on the flop with a decent C Bet. Now, I’m not saying that this is anything, clever, it’s actually, extremely basic strategy but after four or five of these situations I had a big chip lead due to the blind and stack sizes we were playing with and it happened yet again.
I get two limps to my right despite the fact that they probably had about 10 BB’s left each. I make it about 5/6BB’s to go with something like J5o, one calls for half his stack and the other folds. The flop comes K5x, he check’s I bet about 2/3 pot to take it down or have him call to hit and he painfully pushes for just a little more, forcing me to call I call knowing I’m behind with outs. He shows K6 off suit and I stand to lose about 15% of my stack tops. I turn the Jack and send my opponent to the rail moaning to his mates about how I got all these chips by being lucky. He had failed to notice that he should never have been in the pot in the first place, or at least shouldn’t have given me the opportunity to push him around. Yes I was lucky, but at least I knew what I was doing. He on the other hand, didn’t have the first clue where he was at any point during the hand.
So in summary, next time I suck out on you at the table there’s a reason for it remember!! In all seriousness though, rather than moan and abuse people next time you lose an important pot, I would suggest you look inwards, rather than outwards. Hopefully you’ll be surprised at what you find.
This Weekend
July 20, 2008
Well apart from the DTD festival, this weekend also saw the APAT Forum challenge and the live super satellite for the Ladbrokes Millions. Despite my previous post about the state of festivals I thought I would just post some numbers and a couple of results, as two events are still playing.
The winner of the DTD main event was officially, regular DTD player, Chris Bruce. I say officially as there was a controversial split DTD style (chip count) with Shahnawaz Randera. They recieved £16,700 and £16,300 respectively. The reason it was construed as controversial, was the fact that Shahnawaz Randera played like an absolute fish, risking his tournament life calling Marc Goodwin’s all-in on a 3 outer gutshot, and hitting. Many of his plays were very questionable, and the concensus was that Chris Bruce, on his “z” game could outplay him. I suppose there isn’t a substitute for playing a player with luck flowing through his veins constantly. So here is the full result for the ME
| PLACE | PLAYER | PRIZE |
| 1 | Christopher Bruce | £20,738 |
| 2 | Shahnawaz Randera | £12,443 |
| 3 | Andy Greekfish | £8,295 |
| 4 | Richard Berridge | £5,333 |
| 5 | Marc Goodwin | £4,148 |
| 6 | Jon Omara | £2,963 |
| 7 | Michael Mccool | £2,370 |
| 8 | Richard Stanley | £1,778 |
| 9 | Neil Giblin | £1,185 |
Here is the result for the similarly attended £200 DC Freezeout
| PLACE | PLAYER | PRIZE |
| 1 | Josh Gould | £5,320 |
| 2 | Thomas Nightingale | £3,192 |
| 3 | Anon | £2,128 |
| 4 | Jonathan Lundy | £1,368 |
| 5 | Waheed Ashraf | £1,064 |
| 6 | Andrea Gough | £760 |
| 7 | Gerald Morris | £608 |
| 8 | Michael Wernick | £456 |
| 9 | Luke Greaves | £304 |
Only 60 people have entered the Ladbrokes Satellite £100 rebuy, but some very noteable names, Waheed Ashraf (Wadey) won the seat, I wonder if he will shut up for television lol
Further North UKPL was involved in the battle of the forums at the Blue Sq/APAT forum tournament at the G casino in Blackpool. UKPL put up a spirited fight, despite only 2 members of the team scoring points, we came in the top 6 . Matt Boyd came out 26th and the last player out of day 1. Our other member finished a very creditable 5th for £700 …….. WELL DONE DALE LEIGHTON (BUNNY)!!
The winning team was eventually announced as Bristol and South West Meet up, and the last 2 players left are ( I say are as they are still playing heads up)
Mary Martin of Raise The River
and
Andy Bailey of the Gutshot Forum
As I am typing Mary Martin wins the event!!
Just an editors note: How did Gutshot get to play in an APAT competition after everything that has happened with them?
The State of Festivals
July 19, 2008
Now maybe it is just me, but having experienced a number of UK poker festivals, and witnessing the electric atmosphere one generates, it has come to my attention that something is amiss?
I was at Dusk Till Dawn for the start of the tournament, their main event £750 10k 60 min clock. Something was missing? The atmosphere was completely flat, apart from the single one hand flip over satellite 2 minutes before the off. Yes the field was/ is a quality field, but this was advertised everywhere and only managed to attract 79 runners after starting with 58. Is it just the anti-climax of the Vegas fallout or just simply 79 players cannot generate the atmosphere needed in a room that seats 400?
Well, the Norweigen Championships was the most electric I have seen ANY cardroom, yet this festival (held at the same place) is the dullest I have seen a main event. Have these kind of events had their time, are they too rich to hold as every week there is a main event somewhere, or simply Vegas has taken the wind out of a few sails. It is the Broadway festival next week, so will be interesting to see just what happens there.
At the same time as this main event, APAT are holding their forum team game of which 20 forums are taking part in the Blackpool “G”. Looking at footage and following updates, it seems that the atmosphere that is missing from DTD has been absorbed into this event! The future is team games, if you are not in one at the moment, join one now, they are the most fun people can have at a poker table. But back to DTD’s Festival, at the time of posting these are the chip counts
| PLAYER | TABLE | SEAT | CHIP COUNT |
| Andy Greekfish | 15 | 1 | 156100 |
| Christopher Bruce | 15 | 4 | 140200 |
| Richard Berridge | 15 | 5 | 136400 |
| Shahnawaz Randera | 15 | 8 | 128000 |
| Marc Goodwin | 15 | 2 | 114400 |
| Jon Omara | 15 | 3 | 57300 |
| Michael Mccool | 15 | 7 | 49300 |
And as it has been decided that the 3 day event will now be a 2 day event, expect a winner tonight!!
The Coachman
July 17, 2008
My Pub Game
My Dad owns a pub, and Tuesday used to be the quietest day of the week. It’s a nice big pub with a lovely conservatory and every Tuesday there were about three people in there, it was a real shame. I have a fair bit to do with the running of the place and when we had to come up with some ideas, I only had one thing on my mind, POKER!!!!
So I get the go ahead, and manage to secure some excellent PokerHeaven cards from Paul Sandells. I get a load of tables and other paraphernalia from E-Bay, I purchase the tournament director online, mither Dik9 and Mr Mac to death about it and away we go. The first night, I held a tournament for all my friends from UKPokerLife. The support was amazing. Kev Stevens travelled to play from friggin Somerset!! Rich and Billyboy came up from Birmingham with the Poker Widow. Big Mac and Happy Meal brought along the Chorley massive and the Stoke players came in their tens!! Most of us had a great night, all of us got smashed, and the boost in takings more than paid for all the equipment so we’re free rolling from here on in, beautiful.
After a little initial interest and a couple of friendly games, with about 8-12 local players, things started to slide a bit.
By about the time the fourth week came around things didn’t look good. Being sat in a big empty pub with two new tables set up, all the chips, cards and seats laid out perfectly and, only three of us sat around the deserted poker table waiting for players to arrive who never really intended to show up, is not a pleasant place to be. You can see the couple of craggy regulars, and the fella and his Mrs having a quiet drink, just looking and whispering to each other “look at that prick, what he does he look like”. I should be used to people talking about me like this by now, but when it’s something I cared about, I was actually quite hurt (not that I showed it, being well ‘ard and everyfink)
Not to be dissuaded, I turned back to the place I can rely on, UKPokerLife. I made a conscious effort to text everyone who I knew locally at least twice a week, and the following week, we managed to fill a couple of tables. The weeks that followed, you could just feel the support building. Danno, Sleazy and Boydy came every single week with Sleaze’s flatmate Jason. The best couple in poker, Kev B and Jools, started to show their faces week in, week out with Matt L, and before I know it, I’ve got the man with the most misleading nickname I know, the Rage, coming weekly, with his lad Si, and occasionally his brother, the mighty Brasso. James W starts to show every week, with his wife Sam. Honk Cocklebags, Crewe Crazy and Jonah are there frequently and even Dik9, Andy D and Billyboy have shown their faces. Throw in excellent local support from Martin N, Chris ‘WTF is that T-Shirt’ Goward, Irish Mick, the mental midget Marje, Nick ‘Tenco’ peters, Matt ‘Segal’ Platt, PJ and the infamous Devil neck, and we’ve got a real poker game starting to roll here.
Tuesday nights are now my favourite night of the week by several thousand miles. The UKPL players are showing up in their numbers weekly and have the cheek to thank ME for putting on the game!! The local lads are enjoying it and the pub atmosphere is incomparable. The last few weeks have seen overflowing numbers in the poker, and as a consequence word has spread and the pub is packed to the rafters. Sitting back in a poker game, in my Dad’s packed pub, with the best people you could sit in a poker game with is something that I am privileged to be able to do.
Thank you to all of those that have made it possible. Thank you, thank you, and thank you.
Wrong Structure?
July 13, 2008
Well, let me first say that as a Tournament Director, how I judge what comps to put on with values and structures, is whether or not I would like to play the suggested tournament. Also I don’t think that the entry amount should make any difference, in my personal opinion, everyone should have the opportunity at playing a decent structured competition, regardless of bankroll, therefore £10 freezeouts should get the same treatment as £1000 freezeouts.
As a player I much prefer freezeouts to rebuys and anywhere that you will see my schedules will reflect that. The competition that my bankroll can sustain, is a mere £30 freezeout and this is my optimum competition, and therefore i feel I am a connoisseur of them.
Now here’s the reason for the title. Whilst at DTD today I noticed that the £30 freezeout had the same structure as every other structure there, but only 3000 chips and a 24 minute clock……why?
The severeness of the structure was reflected by the speed of entries getting knocked out. The competition started with 56 runners, yet 3 levels in the field was cut down to 22 players????? WTF?? Surely the poker players paradise can come up with something better than a coinflip comp?
Lord Lucan
July 12, 2008
Not exactly poker news, but for a while there has been something or someone missing from Bearwood, that is heavily into his Heavy Metal, and goes by the name of Metal Dave!! Now those new to UKPokerlife or even the new ukpokerinfo will not know who the hell I am talking about. Well let me tell you all what a decent nice bloke Metal Dave is. For some reason he had disappeared off the face off the earth, until now ladies and gentleman. Whilst dealing poker at Bearwood a text came through from Metal Dave himself to watch The Lottery program on BBC 1.
As normal everyone was too engrossed in the poker to remember, but in the main room the television was on, when Metal Dave was spotted!!
Looking good from his break of poker, he only went on to win the competition, and now will be jetting off to Tokyo!
Well I know it’s not poker related but everyone at Bearwood and UKPI, and UKPL wishes him\well and hopes he makes an appearance back on the scene when he gets back.
Nice one MD!!
Sorry to keep harping on
July 8, 2008
I may be bias, but at the moment there is nothing to compete with Dusk Till Dawn, and the innovative festivals they come up with. OK The Norweigen Open was a hired event by expekt.com and the Virgin Festival, is of course Virgins baby. But Dusk till Dawn have a few aces up their sleeve too.
July is the month for their mini fextival, followed by another 321 weekend at the start of August, but the jewel in the crown (in my opinion) is the August Bank Holiday Deepstack festival. This baby comprises of
Event 1:
Thursday 21st 3pm A £100 scalp comp, which I feel is the best one I have seen. £75 goes towards the prize pool and £25 for each scalp (the aggressors will love this baby
7.30pm a £50 Satellite to the main event 3000pts 24 min clock
Friday 22nd 3pm The Main Event a £500 15,000pts 60 min clock (day 1)
Saturday 23rd 3pm Main Event Day 2
7.30pm A £300 10,000pts 45 min clock 2 dayer
Sunday 24th 3pm Main Event day 3
3pm Final of £300
4pm £100 Double chance freezeout 4000+4000 NLHE 24min clock
7.30pm £200 PLO 7500pts 30 min clock
Monday 25th 3pm Final of Main Event
4pm £75 Freezout 6000pts 30 min clock
WOWAWEEZA!!!! Love it!!!!
Cock-o-meter
July 6, 2008
I have come to the conclusion, that the bigger the buy-in (in the UK anyway) the pettier the player. Any event over £100 always seems to attract a few knobs, and the higher entry fee, the bigger the knobs and the amount of them! Sometimes I really feel that it would be more civilised, looking after 150 pre school brats. Give me grass roots £30 Freezeouts any day of the week. Anyway Rant Over
So today is Dusk Till Dawn’s 321 weekend, the £300 attracted 119 runners, the £200 got a poor show imo of 41 runners, but the biggest disappointment was the £100 Freezeout with only 51 entries. A few of the regulars are away in Vegas, but despite that I feel that 51 is an extremely poor show, however it could be affected by the great comp down the road in Stoke at the Circus, which is also a £100 Freezeout, but a double chance. Still it’s 3000pts more than DTD on the same clock, and to cap their comp off they ADD £1000 EXTRA to the prize pool. Personally for me it’s a no brainer, and don’t understand why these events always have to clash? The 321 and Stoke Circus’s £100′er always clash on the first weekend of the month………….it would be sensible IMO to either change the schedule or change the date that DTD hold the 321. (I am not saying the 321 is a bad comp either, it’s just once a month, the Circus £100′er beats the competition hands down.)
Todays Gossip
July 5, 2008
The Live Pub Poker League, will be hosting the next National Finals in Cleethorpes, strangely enough not in a casino (so I don’t know how they will be playing legally?). Player s have been playing in their local pubs and clubs to qualify for this all year, and is said to be the fastest growing pub league in the north west.
Full Tilt have announced their major online poker series, the week after Poker Stars announced theirs, dates for the FTOPS will be announced soon on this thread, but at the moment all i know is that it will be held throughout August.
The APAT team event is all ready to do battle against the forums, with individuals and teams getting their own market on Betfair.
Dusk till Dawn have announced a deepstack festival to run over the August Bank Holiday, again I will post details of this event very soon, if not later today. (But let me just say the schedule looks fantastic!!)
Main Event Starts
July 4, 2008
The Flagship WSOP event, event no 54 $10,000 NLHE World Championship, started yesterday. Dat 1a saw over 1200 entries trying to battle their way to a decent chip size, in preperation for day 2. There were some notible exits in the first 3 levels, including: Dave Ulliot, Steve Sung, Erica Schoenberg, Alan Smurfit, Chris Moorman, Josh Arieh, Juha Helppi, Roland de Wolfe, Gavin Smith, Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond, Dan Harrington, Freddy Deeb, John Gale and David Benyamine amongst others.
With over 7000 entries expected the bookies favourite is Mr Phil Ivey on an amazingly poor odds of 22/1
Julian Gardner is favourite to be the top British player @ 18-1
Gus Hanson is favourite to be the top European player
With so many Pro’s having short odds, the bookmakers are still expected to make a loss if a “name” final tables???
Personally I get a feeling that the the Final table will be all amateurs, and I am hoping that Julian “Yo-Yo” Thew gets extremely deep.
,
Isle of Capri Struggling
July 2, 2008
Just trying to work out a few figures, The Isle price (as oppossed to the Oil price) has dropped amazingly over the last 12 months. July 07 the share price was $23.50 now it has reached danger point at $4.45, giving them a net value of £70,000,000. Bare in mind they have 14 casinos in the US, 1 in the Bahamas and 4 in the UK and the total cost of the Ricoh Complex was £36,000,000. It appears they are in a whole heap of shit.
It was reported in May that the Isle of Capri in Coventry was up for sale, blaming their losses on location. To be honest I can’t see anyone having any interest in the property (as a casino), add that to astronimcal 10 year lease they took out at time of purchase, and the demise of the whole gaming industry at the moment, outlook does not look bright.
Ladbrokes Tops Charts
June 30, 2008
Ladbrokes, hit the weekly topspot in the amount of hits for the week ending the 14th June in the UK, I don’t know why I am bothering writing this, as I know for certain it’s not the most popular poker room in the UK. But it seems a lot of websites are reporting this fact, but ommiting to say why it made it to the topspot???
The reason, it got there IMO is the fact that the week ending 14th June was going to be Ladbrokes billionth hand and new look website. The WSOP freeroll, and the satellites to the WSOP. Not the fact that the software is the best, or the players are the softest, and every other reason why players decide to play sites. NOPE it could be to do with the $300,000 package for the billionth hand, that swelled the numbers up to a crazy amount of players, and a $14,000 package freeroll to the WSOP. Maybe I am being a bit tough, as used to like the site years ago, but the figures are not neccessarily what they seem at first.
I have yet to try the new look 3D or the flash version so can’t really comment, but when i do I will be reporting back.
Commentary and Fatigue
June 29, 2008
OK let me start by saying this WSOP I haven’t been paying particular attention, for a number of reasons. Although the fields may be bigger than last year, somehow the Buzz has gone for me? Harrahs is just a piss taking machine IMO.
However due to an interest in one particular local player, I tuned in to watch bwins coverage of event 46 ($5000 NLHE 6 handed) and was totally hooked. (Before I start moaning, can I just say how refreshing it was to see non pro’s, non sponsored, no nonsense poker.
The first hand I watched, was Richard Lyndaker’s double up with trip 9’s against Tom Lutz’s Aces, after winning this hand he seemed to lock up as the table fought it out. Within the hour we were heads up.
COMMENTARY
Heres where it all went a bit Pete Tong! Ok to start with the action was a bit slow, but the farce of a commentary team (Steve Dannennman and Howard David) tried the usual fill-in chat. What a load of croc!!
First topic they entered into was the Main Event Final being delayed for 4 months. The first thing opposers say is “what happens if someone dies in the waiting period?” (Fair enough question) but the solutions by these 2 moronic, experienced poker players were nothing more than speculative gobbledegook.
1st Solution by the less experienced Howard “Maybe a member of their family can take their place”
Solution from Steve “Maybe there could be a television competition, whereby the main prize could be to take the empty seat”………….. What the hell?
I had already spoken to Charlie Ciresi (The Main Tournament Director of the WSOP) about this, and he was anti the delay to start with, but is now fully in favour of (I am still sceptical BTW). My first question was exactly the same as everyone elses “So Charlie, what happens if someone dies, whilst waiting the 4 months?”, he replied by stating the odds of that are so huge, but then gave me the answer I already knew. The players chips will remain at the table and will be anti’d out.
Anyway back to the commentary, luckily Jeffery Pollack (WSOP Commissionaire), must have been watching the coverage, because he came into the studio to rectify the stupid commentators suggestions.
Next gripe is the constant advertisement of new book coming out later this year, also the website of SD, which he kept on stating to email him if we didn’t like the commentary (Email sent btw)
Next Gripe is about 80% of everything they said was completely wrong, corrected by the other (or producer) then a discussion covering own back
Next Gripe is all of this was going on whilst major hands are in play, interupted by the other commentator asking “did he call then?” and getting all excited, when if he had been paying any attention whatsoever he would have heard the words ” I fold” this went on all night.
Next Gripe is the complete disregard of the actual game, and saying things like “Just Call, and lets get this over now” and “Can’t we increase the blinds to $500,000 $1 million until we get a winner” and “this is getting really boring now, wake me up when it’s over”
Next Gripe is self opinionization, ” I would have won this six times over, if i was playing”
Next Gripe is the calling of cards by the commentators, who the fuck are they, just glad they don’t have anything to do with actually running a competition.
FATIGUE
I would just like to say, how personally i found this the best final i have ever watched, despite the clowns in the back chatting their bollox.
I found it intregueing to watch a loose passive, against a semi aggressive player, and watch them go through ALL the emotions, elations dissappointment, tiredness, losing concentration, picking themselves up and tilt. 200+ hands of normal (no bullshit) poker.
Joe Commisso should have had it in the bag early doors after playing exceptional aggressive poker, but lost a hand that he was 60% favourite to win and losing a 7 to 1 chip lead and his confidence. After it seemed that Richard Lyndaker, had simply given up.
Joes posture was very uncomfortable, and seemed to be aggetated by having to lean over to get his chips into the pot and collect them. The 18″ rail wasn’t doing the short arse any favours either. Richard however perked up and was sitting bolt upright. For some reason though Richard was not being very aggressive at all, and picked strange moments to min raise, just to get reraised by Joe, then pass. The strangest thing to me however was the questionable calls by Joe when Richard eventually changed gears.
13 Called All-ins, 10 of which the bad hand won, six hours of changing styles of poker made for a great spectacle, yes maybe a little tedious for some, but if i can get a copy of this event would be a great training tool for anyone who wanted to raise their end game, as every emotion was covered, including insanity.
But Congratulations To Both 22 year old Richard Lyndaker who will now be able to buy his house, and to the winner Joe Commisso who can now emigrate to Australia.
On a side note, I was actually routing for Lyndaker as somehow Commisso reminded me of Jamie Gold (which is annoying) even to the point of having an annoying twat spectating behind him advising him!!