Deep Water
November 30, 2009
I’ve been watching the million dollar cash game III the past week or so and two things have been obvious, first of all when TV presenters pretend that poker players with hundreds of thousand of dollars in front of them actually care about who is declared the ‘winner’ of series III of there cash game, there talking complete and utter bollocks. And secondly sitting in a cash game where you’re out gunned and refusing to leave until all your money is gone through ego is the most heinous crime a poker player can commit.
The Full Tilt sponsored show has some of the best deep stacked cash game players in the world, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine and Tom Dwan. The rest of the table is made up of good tournament players completely out of there depth with stacks this deep against players of this calibre.
Phil Hellmuth to be fair would probable do well in most standard cash games but he looks frankly ridiculous in this company and his joined by a Chris Ferguson who might as well have been playing with his cards turned face up, Ivey stacked him for $250,000 when he swapped a small mistake of calling pre-flop $25,000 with a small pair for Fergusons huge mistake putting an additional $225,000 in the middle just with one pair (albeit aces!).
It really is a lesson of knowing your limit’s and has been food for thought and might even prevent me from jumping head first into a $5-$10 NLHE game online the next time I’m on full blown monkey tilt as frankly don’t want to look as silly as Hellmuth, ever.
Cascarino scores in final
November 30, 2009
Former footballer, Tony Cascarino laid to rest any notions of him being ‘just’ a celebrity poker player as he took down the GUKPT Grand Final at the Vic in London for almost £169,000 yesterday.
Ironically, it was the two final table short stacks that ended up battling it out for the title with Cascarino outdrawing Antoine Arnault in the end with his Ace-Deuce of hearts hitting a runner-runner flush after the players got it all in on a 10-J-8 flop with Arnault holding 10-9 of hearts. Arnault appears to be a most interesting character in that he’s a keen amateur whose day job is head of communications for Louis Vuitton! Given that he’s said to to be the son of one of the world’s richest men, Bernard Arnault, I suppose the pay drop might not hit him too badly!
This makes Cascarino the only other player from Julian Thew to hold multiple GUKPT main event titles and even more impressive is the fact that this is Tony’s third main event final table given that he finished sixth last year in this very event. Let’s just hope that this result further enhances the publicity being attracted by the UK poker scene at the moment and from what we’ve heard about Tony, this will be a well received win within poker. Congratulations to all involved in what’s been an exciting tour this year.
32 Red Freeroll – Tonight
November 29, 2009
Popular online card room 32 Red are setting up there customers for a Merry Christmas by giving away a rather Jolly $3,232 for anyone who can conquer the other Christmas free rollers looking for some super free cash.
The freeroll will take place on the site at 6pm tonight (29th) and is a No limit Texas hold’em tournament with no eligibility requirements. The tournament is password protected though please see below for details;
PASSWORD: 32nov09
32 Red will also we celebrating the GUKPT grand final appearance of sponsored pro Stu Rutter, although he busted out 9th this is another excellent performance from Rutter who also made last years final table.
GUKPT Grand Final – Final Table
November 29, 2009
The second day of the £3K buy-in GUKPT Grand Final from the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London started at 2pm today with two repeat appearances from last years finalists, Tony Cascarino and Stu Rutter. The chips counts for the final nine battling it out to pick up the
First prize of £168,800 are;
Romano Pizzo – 879,500
Albert Iversen – 589,500
Bambos Xanthos – 434,000
Philip Patrick – 407,000
Mike Hill – 371,000
Daniel Millar – 338,500
Stuart Rutter – 263,000
Tony Cascarino – 261,000
Antoine Arnault – 124,500
The final table a definite international fell to it with an Italian, a Cypriot, a Swede, a Frenchman, four Englishman and an Irishman (all be it with a South London accent) making up the lucky nine.
Full updates are available from here; with Stu Rutter the first to leave for 11K
Win a Place in the PARTYPOKER.COM Premier League
November 28, 2009
February of next year will see the most popular TV poker tournament move home, the PARTYPOKER.COM Premier League will be switching from the confines of a London TV studio to the home of poker, Las Vegas.
And for the first time PartyPoker will be offering the chance of a life time to customer of there popular online card room as for this years premier league they will be holding a Premier League play off where on lucky winner will be awarded the $100,000 buy-in a the chance to take their seat with the biggest names in the game in PartyPoker.com Premier League IV and play for over $1.5 million!
From the 7th December 2009 – 3rd January 2010 the sites Palladium lounge members will be playing for a share of more than $155,000, with the player earning the most points guaranteed a $9,000 Premier League play off package and everyone who finishes in the top 600 will be invited to play in the Premier League play off freeroll on the 10th January, where there are two more $9,000 packages and even more cash prizes up for grabs.
Getting Back up Again
November 28, 2009
The cliché states that losing is not being knocked down, but failing to get back up again. In poker you get knocked down a lot, every time a big pair fails to hold up, every down swing, every shot you take that goes off in your face, every single one of these is a soul crushing defeat and the truth is poker is full of defeats.
You can’t avoid any of these, they are a fact of ‘poker life’ and if you want a life in poker you will need to come to terms with the fact that poker can be a very unfair game. Certain personality types really struggle with the unilateral unfairness of poker, and I definitely have one of them. I can’t stop myself from titling, I’ve tried I really have, I’ve read many books on psychology, poker based or otherwise, I’ve tried aroma therapy, yoga, calming music and other hokey crap and nothing seems to help, some day’s I just can’t keep a fucking lid on things.
Understanding the fundamental mathematical concepts of poker should help, but it doesn’t. I know that getting the money in as a 3-1 favourite means I’m actually running hot when I win the whole pot as I’m getting more then the .75 of the pot that the maths dictate I’m entitled to collect. Still knowing all this doesn’t seem to help me, maybe nothing ever will, maybe my personality isn’t well suited to the game, it pretty clear that I take it all way too personally!
What I have learned to do though is put a cap on my loses and walk way until I’m ready to begin the bankroll rebuilding job that will be required after a monkey tilt session. I can’t stop myself getting knocked down and I can’t stop myself titling either but I can control the damage that’s done and I have learned to make sure that I have the resources to get back up again when the red mist has passed. As Mike McDermott said in Rounder’s, “Never forget the cardinal rule, always leave yourself outs” or maybe you prefer the advice of the mighty Chumbawamba “I get knocked down, But I get up again, You’re never gonna keep me down”.
A decent poker film at last?
November 27, 2009
Although it’s a US production, it seems that a recently released DVD ‘Shark Out Of Water’ has managed to depict poker in something representing real life. The film is a short and so is only 18 minutes long but it has scooped a host of awards in the US and does appear to be well worth looking up. The film is reported to have a dark feel to it and the fact that the director is quoted as saying that he’s “sick of seeing a straight flushes beat four of a kind in poker movies” is a clear indication that’s it the sort of thing that true poker players may enjoy.
The film tells the tale of two young men struggling to come to terms with their addiction to the game in an honest, and quite brutal manner. Not only that, we also happen to have a cameo from one of the poker world’s self proclaimed superstars. Given his shy and retiring personality, we’re amazed that Phil Hellmuth agreed to appear in the production although we do think it’s a nice touch that he played the film’s director, Juan Riedinger, in a heads up match for his fee.
The film’s website http://www.sharkoutofwater.com/ gives a real flavour of what’s on offer and I must say that it does look an interesting watch. If it’s as good as the hype then it’s just a shame that they couldn’t have made a full length movie from it but, either way, I’ll certainly be putting it on my wish list for Santa!
The only place I’d like to be
November 27, 2009
I’ll try not to let this post get too emotional and over-personal but I’d like to start it off with a tribute.
Nesta Burton, thanks for everything you did for me and all the memories I’ll always have of you, I’ll never forget everything that you did to shape who I am today. Please don’t try to stop Grandad from enjoying himself up there if you would.
Nesta Burton was my Granny and she died yesterday, aged 89. I loved her very much and will miss her greatly. Unfortunately my Dad was on holiday and wasn’t aware that she’d gone, so as the most hard-hearted member of my family I had to ring my own Dad to tell him that his mother had passed away. As you can imagine, it was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do and one of the hardest things I ever will do.
Apologies for sharing my personal matters with anyone who reads this but for starters, it’s quite cathartic and secondly, something struck me last night about how important poker is to me, and more importantly how important the people I play with are. You see, after I’d gone through an afternoon as I did and had got off the phone to my Dad I had to stop myself from becoming upset, depressed, guilty, angry and all the other feelings that bereavement brings. I spent some time with my wife and daughter then at nine o’clock there was only one place I wanted to be, Hartford Social club for our weekly £20 freezeout! I thought it would be the perfect place to take my mind of what had happened and I was right.
I got picked up without question or complaint from one of the lads and settled in for our usual game and a few pints. Immediatley my mood lifted. I didn’t need to tell anyone what had happened as I just wanted a normal night without any extra attention or sympathy. Sometimes it takes something serious to make you realize just how you lucky you are in life, and this definitely was the case.
As I sat through the game, I relaxed and enjoyed just sitting, talking, playing poker and laughing. Several times during the night all I could hear was banter and laughter, not a bit of malice between anyone, just a group of people enjoying themselves. I genuinely couldn’t have been more comfortable anywhere in the world at that moment in time. The thing is that everyone who enjoys the game as I do should enjoy what they have, don’t let the bad beats get you down, if you’ve got a place to enjoy poker then you’ve already achieving the most +VE thing there is to take from the game. If you haven’t then please do try to find one. Sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time is not how the game is meant to be played.
So anyway, Irish Mick, Chris ‘Pokerdog’ Goward, Clarkey, Martin, Ostrich, Nick Peters, Tourist, Wilko, JT, Sam, Sully, Gary the Eagle, Gooner, Devilneck, Geoff, Lee and anyone I might have missed, thanks to you all for being people who I like to be around. I’m looking forward to taking your money next week!!
P.S. If you’re reading this Granny, don’t worry. Poker isn’t gambling really, ask for someone called Chip Reese and check with him if you want 
Gryko Takes Down GUKPT Heads Up Title
November 26, 2009
The GUKPT player of the year race took another step toward an incredible conclusion yesterday as Richard Gryko defeated Martin Silke in the final of the £5,000 event; taking home the prize of £20,000 at the GUKPT London.
Only a couple of weeks ago, Silke looked a clear favourite to take the player of the year accolade but this victory for Gryko, together with two wins in a week for Karl Mahrenholz means that it’s going to be a nail-biting finale at the Champion of Champions next week.
After Mahrenholz took down the £300 NLHE & £500 PLO events earlier in the week following a main event win only a month or so ago, he’s left himself 130 points behind the leaders having achieved 303 ranking points to date. Incredibly, just a half a point separates Gryko and Silke on 430 & 429.5 respectively as they look forward to the big one next week.
This looks as if it’s going to be a brilliant finale and there’ll be plenty of interest for what is one of the highlights of the UK poker calendar. We can’t wait!
Flip You For It – Part 3
November 26, 2009
Things started well for Cal, he built up an early lead over his opponent although with 32 million in play on each table a couple of million here or there was quite insignificant. Cal noticed his opponent looked uncomfortable in his own skin; he struggled to hide his emotions and was struggling to keep Cal from running over him, things were looking good.
Then on day two and three Alex began to acclimatise to the new conditions and things started to change for Cal, really change, and not in a good way but in a disastrous ‘can’t make a right call to save his life’ type way. All the doubt and uncertainty caused by the initial games with POTSHIPPER came flooding back, he was being valued to death and every time the boot was on the over foot his opponent was slipping the noose.
The game was slipping away from Cal, as they finished for the evening on day five he found himself down to just 3 million on one table and 2 million on the other, huge deficits to overcome. He slunk back to his bachelor pad to regroup as the whole poker world wrote him off, even 2+2 where Cal was regarded as a living God the vast majority where convinced that Alex was to be crowned the king of poker sometime the next day.
As Cal mournfully prepared for bed there was a knock at the door, he looked through the hi-tech camera and saw the unmistakable image of the 6 foot 8 inch Howard Lindeman standing at his door. “Howard?” Cal said with a perplexed expression etched across his face as he swung open the door, “Cal, my boy, aren’t you going to invite me in then?” said Howard motioning to be allowed to cross the threshold of Cal’s apartment, “Sure, please do” said a still confused Cal.
“Can I get you a drink” asked Cal as the moved into the living room, “Sure a diet coke would be great” said Howard, as Cal was scuttling off towards the kitchen Howard shouted after him, “Can I borrow you’re computer for a minute?” and didn’t wait for a reply as he jumped on and started accessing various websites.
When Cal returned with Howard’s coke he looked over to see Howard casually sat at the personal computer Cal get permanently running and ready for action. Cal could see that the familiar FlushedOut poker client was open and running, but even from some distance he could tell something wasn’t quite right, he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what was wrong until he was much closer to the screen and then the penny dropped, he could see the other players hole cards. “What the fuck are you doing?” said Cal angrily as Howard turned and faced him, “Well I’d have thought that was rather obvious Cal, wouldn’t you?” Cal didn’t know what else to do so just continued to point at the screen angrily whilst he desperately searched for the right words.
“You fucking cheat, you absolute fucking bastard cheat, ” where the words Cal eventually deemed the most appropriate, Howard could tell that it was going to take a while before he could have a proper conversation, after a further few minutes of confused obscenities Cal began to calm down. “What are you doing Howard, this could end online poker for ever if this sort of thing got out” said Cal, Howard raised his palms upwards in a placatory manner and started to talk, “I needed to do it Cal” he said, “You needed it done as well, poker needed me to do it too” he continued, Cal just looked confused, “Do what?” he eventually mustered “Scam the players? How the fuck is that good for the game?” Cal asked pointedly.
Howard knew this was going to be the most difficult part of the plan, he had stripped the boy of all his confidence and now he had to rebuild him, he trusted enough though in his well honed ability to read people that he ad been correct in assessing Cal as the player he had been looking for, he knew it sounded twee but this boy was ‘Special’. “I never used it to cheat on anyone, I gave it to Alex, Potshipper or whatever you want to call him”, Cal sprang to his feet, “You fucker! You arranged for him to cheat me, you let him take it all from me; he left me with virtually nothing, why? What the fuck did I ever do to you? Well other than run a bluff or two on some shitty TV show? Why?”
Cal was almost incandescent with rage and Howard knew this was going to be a hard sell, “Jesus Cal, every super hero needs a nemesis, who did you have? Who would play you these days? A few slightly loopy billionaires, that’s all, no other player would come anywhere near you, everybody thought you where invincible, you needed an arch rival, so I created one for you” Howard stood back and waited for the inevitable explosion, “You fucking cheated me, you and that arsehole, and now your trying to tell me its for my own good, you’ve got a fucking nerve, I’m going to tell the fucking whole world what you did and make sure it ruins you and your bullshit site”
Howard had expected this reaction, in fact he had been counting on it, “No you’re not Cal” he enthused, “Because your going to take this information and you’re going to use it, your going to sit back down at the biggest table in poker history with the eyes of the world upon you and you’re going to come back from an enormous deficit, you’re going to achieve the impossible and surmount the insurmountable, this will transcend poker and immortalise you, you are about to become a legend”
Cal looked confused, “How?” he asked pointedly, “Have you paid off Alex? Is that it? You think you build a legend by cheating some more? You are fucking mental, and corrupt to the core!” Cal raged, Howard tried to cam him down, “Cal, Alex isn’t going to lay down for anybody, this is the biggest game in the world and he thinks he can’t be beaten, how ever his playing the greatest poker payer who ever lived, you” Cal looked unconvinced, “Howard how the fuck am I going to overturn a huge chip deficit against a guy who knows everything about my game through watching me play for weeks on end” he said now more crestfallen than angry as the conversation reminded him of his almost hopeless position in the biggest game in history, Howard looked at him incredulously, “Jesus Cal, you’re the best poker player in the world, A fucking DAPT”.
The pair continued arguing into the small hours, Howard wasn’t trying to justify his actions because, well how could he? Instead he chose to stick plainly to the facts, that is by whatever means Cal now had a chance to write his name not just into poker history but modern history, Cal eventually moved his train of thought from plans for recrimination and justice to finding some way back to stage the greatest come back in poker history.
Cal made some decisions overnight, as the smallest stack of the two the chip stack configuration was his prerogative, he decided to amalgamate his whole stack on one table, this was a gamble but he reasoned it was more likely he could stage one 10-1 comeback rather than two. Cal felt sure Alex would also move his stack to maintain his huge chip advantage rather than allow the playing field to be evened on. So at 3pm Cal sat with 5 million at the opposite end of the table to a man with 59 million who also just happened to know every single move he had in his book, Cal thought to himself that it was almost definitely time to start writing a new book.
The chips stacks fluctuated inconsequentially during the early skirmishes, Cal was clearly finding it a struggle though to turn the tide and this was beginning to reflect in his mood and his demeanour at the table as he struggled for confidence. Just when he was feeling at his most despondent, Cal looked down and saw two beautiful black aces staring back at him. Cal decided to flat call from the small blind and Alex made his standard opening raise, Cal had to think this through, What would his standard plays be in this situation? he might overbet, make it look like he was trying to end the hand now or alternatively on occasion he would make a teasing bet to entice his opponent into the hand. Cal was sure that Alex would be able to read either of these plays as strong, so he had to think, What had he never ever done in any of the dozens and dozens of times he had played aces against Alex online, and then it hit him Cal would never ever have just pushed his whole stack in his opponents face, Cal thought this would be a terrible waste of value, so that’s exactly what he did, read that you fucker he thought to himself as he angrily he shoved his chips over the line and into the pot, he noted to himself that this felt really bloody good.
Alex almost insta-called the shove he was so sure it was bullshit, but he just managed to restrain himself, he had to be sure of this decision he didn’t want to double up Cal easily, Alex started to re-examine the hand, he must be weak and looking to gamble it up he thought to himself, his definitely not super strong he’d never waste a real hand like this would he, they had planned thousand od hands togther and he had never played his big hands like this, yeah Cal must be desperate and looking for a spot to gamble his way back into the match, Alex was now sure, this was his shot AK looked likely to be good here thought Alex, “I call” he said and instantly regretted it when Cal flipped over the aces, with little fanfare a harmless board was dealt out and Cal doubled through.
Alex wasn’t too deeply troubled by the early double up of his opponent, in fact it gave him great heart to see Cal making such a bad play, he incorrectly surmised that Cal’s confidence must be really shot if his started playing aces like that! “Too scared to play a flop with me hey Cal?” he sarcastically chirped, “Yep, how the mighty have fallen” came Cal’s sardonic reply.
Cal obviously had a problem, if he changed his game too much it would alert Alex to a fundamental shift in his strategy, but on the other hand if he continued to play the same he would get run over. No, Cal thought, what was required in this situation was a very slight alteration in stratagem, a slightly bigger bet here and maybe slightly less there, this would cause a slow and gradual change in the direction of the match. Cal recognised that he needed to slowly massage the chips from his opponents grasp instead of trying to force them out in a few dramatic hands.
And Cal was proven right, the shift in momentum was imperceptible at first, Cal won an extra bet here and saved one there, but slowly and emphatically those watching closely enough could see the direction of the match changing and Cal’s stack grew and grew and after six hours further play Alex looked over at his opponent and his once mighty chip lead was reduced to nothing or almost nothing, with so many chips on the table it was hard to tell but the stacks where as close to equal as really mattered. Alex just couldn’t understand why the game seemed to be slipping away from him, his opponent really did seem to be getting hit in the face with the deck, surely that could be the only possible explanation, couldn’t it?
Just when he needed time to regroup and take a break Alex looked down too find the bogey hand JJ, he inwardly sighed and made his standard open and wasn’t in the least bit surprised when his opponent called. Alex was happy to see a jack in the window but not so much when it was followed by three cards of the same suit, fucking nothings ever easy in this game is it, I’ve flopped top set but I still have to worry about the bastard flush he thought to himself as three spades stared back at him from the centre of the table.
Future Alex would remember looking back at the events of the next few minutes as if they had been recorded on fast forward, a bet followed by a raise, then a giant shove and the noise of chips clicking against each other as two giant piles of them found there way into the middle of the table, the ohh’s and arr’s as an expectant audience stretched to see what was happening and then gasp and shrieks and cheers as cards are turned on there backs, top set for Alex versus Cal’s flopped nut flush, the immovable object had met the irresistible force and there was nothing else that could happen other than get the chips in the middle.
At times like this, when everything’s in the middle and you need to hit something every poker player will tell you that you either feel it or you don’t, and Alex wasn’t feeling it at all. Which made it all the more shocking when the board paired on the river to give him a winning full house, the crowd erupted and surged forward it was utter bedlam, eventually the tournament director fought his way to the table and after some time he managed to make the all important count, after some minutes he was able to conclude that Alex had done it, he had Cal covered by the slimmest of margins.
The first person Alex sought out in the throng was Howard Lindeman, Howard had paid Alex a visit in the early hours of the morning and had convinced him that he was special and this was his destiny. Howard had explained the reason he and sent him the modified poker client was because poker needed a superstar and this was to be him, Alex ‘Potshipper’ Smythe. Howard had put him here in the spotlight and had made him the world champion
Cal was shell shocked, his dream crushed by the cruellest of rivers he thought it was impossible to feel any worse but then Lindeman was handed the microphone, “Well I’d like to thank both players for playing the game in such a great spirit, you’ve made the world of poker very proud and as the CEO of FlushedOut.Com I’d like to thank you both for the integrity and honesty you bring to the online poker world ” Howard allowed time for the crowd to show there appreciation to the two participants and for the applause to die down, “at time like this” he continued “it’s the truly special that make the final stretch for victory, and with out a fear of contradiction I think its safe to say that Alex ‘Potshipper’ Smythe is a very special poker talent” at this point the crowd erupted and Cal could barely contain his fury as the cheating bastard was crowned the champion of the world by a two faced manipulative cheating scumbag, Alex knew what had happened, Howard Lindeman had his feet firmly entrenched in both camps, this was one coin flip that Lindeman was going to ensure he was on the winning side of no matter which way the coin eventually decided to fall.
Just as Cal was contemplating blowing the lid of the whole affair he was approached from behind and somebody whispered in his hear in a very cultured English accent, “We need to talk Cal, I can help you make this right”, Cal swung round and stood face to face with Conrad Dumfrey, head of the world second largest poker room PokerCosmos.Com
Mobile Distraction
November 25, 2009
I was playing last week with the usual crowd of players and for some reason found myself getting irritated. Now this is not unusual, there are several aspects of poker which annoy me. Slow play, Hollywood dwell ups, nonsensical logic and ridiculous table talk to name but a few. The thing that stood out this week was that I was becoming irritated by someone whose company I usually enjoy.
The lad in question is an all round gent; polite, knowledgeable about poker and a good person to have on your table. The thing was that this week, for some reason, he had decided that it were far more important to spend a full hour or more messing about on his blackberry looking at facebook and replying to E-Mails. Now I must say that I have no issue with mobile use at the table, if I get a text I’ll reply. If someone calls me I’ll either answer to tell them I’ll call back or I’ll leave the table and take the call.
What was frustrating was that it just struck me as rude to sit at a poker table and disregard everyone else who is there. If you want to play poker and take e-mails then play online, don’t bother playing live. I could understand it if you’re someone who’s livelihood depends on the capacity to react immediately to enquiries over the interent at any time of the day but for 95% of people this isn’t the case.
Is it just me or is this a trend that is creeping into poker since the birth of the iphone? Am I right in finding it irritating or should I just accept that’s how it is? Personally it’s just a matter of etiquette. You don’t answer your mobile phone on the golf course, you don’t try and claim unfair points in squash, that type of thing. If you’re playing poker you should try to enjoy the company of your fellow competitors. That said; I don’t suppose it’s that much different from listening to an ipod whilst trying to mask your identity with sunglasses and a hoodie (both of which also annoy me by the way).
Anyway, maybe I’m a grumpy old man but if you are one of these types then have a think about it, personally I think it’s rude.
Milkybar kid up $7.8 million
November 25, 2009
Ben ‘Milkybarkid’ Grundy is one of those UK poker faces that everybody knows but probably doesn’t get the respect he deserves. Whilst other UK players seem to grab headlines and sponsorship deals thanks to some decent PR and the odd TV appearance, Ben has been doing what poker players should be doing; winning serious money. Today’s blog (http://milkybarkids.blogspot.com/) reveals his lifetime graph of results and some interesting aspects to the way he views his results.
Amazingly this huge profit margin has come exclusively in the notoriously swingy PLO, but Ben seems to have a serious edge in this game and has the results to back it up. What’s more astounding is the way in which Ben has seen the last year as a failure despite his continued succeses and the blog entry has a decidedly negative feel to it.
All i can say is that I wish I was that bad at PLO!!
Blonde Bashed (By I-Poker)
November 24, 2009
Popular UK forum Blondepoker.Com has this week been informed by the network provider of their poker room skin, i-poker/Aqua that they have been given three months notice of termination of contract.
The main reason that the i-poker network has served Blonde with notice is because a change in the terms and conditions of the contract between has caused the poker skin to become untenable. Last year the network proposed a change in contract betweens the skins which would result in the skins receiving an additional 2.5% rake but in return they would accept liability for the charge backs that up until this time the network had been paying directly to the credit card companies for fraudulent card use.
Unbeknownst to Blonde these charges are extremely high because of the significant volume of fraud online gambling and poker attract. The debts seemed ot be piling up with out Blonde knowing and then things came to a head when i-poker/Aqua refused to allow one of the Blonde players to withdraw his money because it would throw the figures regarding the site profitability even further out of balance and result in even more fines!
The whole situation is very long and complex, a thread is developing over on the Blonde forum here.
‘Any Two’ just won’t do.
November 23, 2009
Following on from last week’s series on the Tom Dwan heads up challenge here in the UK the final matchup on Thursday was somewhat more one-sided than the previous two encounters with Tom ‘Durrr’ Dwan taking Sammy ‘Any Two’ George for $750,000 in less than the allottted 500 hands.
It was true that after some of his live cash performances on UK telelvision in recent times a few critics had predicted a tough day at the office for the brave Englishman but few would have envisaged quite such a one-sided affair. In fairness, even Dwan admitted that George could have done little to stop him given the way the cards fell but either way; being $750k lighter must have felt somewhat tough for Sammy come Friday morning.
Dwan took the lead from the off after his aces held against George’s AK in a cooler hand. He then pushed George off two pair, bluffing $400k into a $130k pot on the river holding nothing but a completely missed 7-2 on a paired board. The fact that the two had a $10k 7-2 prop bet during the match obviously had something to do with this ultra-aggressive move and George commented afterward that he almost made the call with Dwan himself saying that he’d have laid down George’s two-pair hand in the same spot. This seemed to be the pivotal hand in the game and Dwan continued to dominate thereafter with the help of some good play and good situations before George had to admit defeat shortly before the 500 hand limit was reached.
Barry Hearns of Matchroom Sport said there are plans for a repeat performance next year, and whilst we commiserate Sammy for his losses and support his willingness to take on the challenge; let’s just hope that UK poker can take one back from Mr Dwan next year. That is unless Isildur1 leaves him too short for the buy-in by then
Flip You For It – Part 2
November 23, 2009
Alex was sat on one side of the world and Cal the other, one was losing and the other was raking in all the money. Alex was playing high stakes cash, he had stopped using the modified client some time ago, frankly having access to every move of the games elite players had quickly made the special client obsolete, he just no longer needed to see there hole cards as he now knew the significance of every deviation of there play and the meaning of almost every single bet, he knew their games better than they did.
Cal on the other hand was sat playing low stakes cash games on a competitors site under an assumed identity, his confidence which he assumed was at rock bottom found a previously unbeknownst level to slip to when the former high stakes legend reloaded for the tenth time today at the .05/.10 cent table he had been playing, Jesus, he thought to himself, I’m just clueless.
Although the two players where currently inhabiting vastly different ends of the online poker spectrum, they both received a knock on the door at the exact same moment, and just as Howard Lindeman had planned they both found a courier waiting on there doorstep with a gold envelope addressed to them,
Dear Cal,
We at FlushedOut.Com are so very grateful to have you’re continued patronage and wish to show our gratitude for your custom in a fitting manner. In light of the current interest the high stakes games have generated and as a way of saying thank you to our high stakes community we are planning to run a money added tournament.
Sixteen invitations have been sent to the best cash game players in the world, they have been invited to register for a special 2 million dollar buy in event. These sixteen players will be randomly drawn and will sit down at a cash table with 2 million dollars of there own money in front of them. A second table will then be opened and full tilt will deposit 2 million dollar onto the table for both players, yes that’s correct we are adding 32 million dollars to the prize pool!
Each player will play until they have the full 8 million on the table and then they will be randomly drawn against another successful opponent, when all but two players have been eliminated we will reconvene in Las Vegas for a live televised heads-up winner takes all 64 million dollar showdown, I ask you, are you the 64 million dollar man?
Yours in Friendship
Howard J. Lindeman
Alex smiled, he knew he was destined to win $64,000,000 and become the new world champion. On the other side of the world Cal frantically checked his FlushedOut.Com and was not sure to be happy or worried when he discovered there was barely enough left to cover the buy-in, could he really say no to this kind of value? The poker player in him reminded him this was his emergency rebuild money, the gambler in him screamed at the added 32 million dollars and the chance to be crowned world champion, who do you think won?
In the end not one of the players invited to join the tournament refused the invitation, the 32 million added to the prize pool just proved far too juicy a bone for the high stakes gambling fraternity. One week later Cal ‘Dummmm’ Mikkelsen faced off against Danny ‘Cocksmoker’ Hoàng in the first round of the worlds biggest ever poker tournament, Cal had his entire bankroll on the table and hundreds of thousand of railbirds watching, so no pressure there then.
Danny Hoàng was a fearless and successful poker player, he played almost exclusively live tournaments and cash games and he had originated from Vietnam. Danny had picked up the unfortunate ‘Cocksmoker’ nickname due to his tendency to thank vanquished foes for giving him his chips or as he so colourfully put it ‘Smoking his cock’ in his heavy Vietnamese twang.
This had recently brought him some particularly bad publicity when during a televised tournament he was broadcast saying “Man aces no good brother, I have the flush, you smoke my cock real good brother, real good, thank you brother”, it transpired that the player in question had been bought into the tournament following a charity drive by the ‘Make a dream come true foundation’ and was a war veteran who was suffering from terminal cancer, America was not happy with Danny Hoàng.
Three weeks previously Cal would have considered a first round match-up with the ‘Cocksmoker’, a renowned loser in the online game, a veritable walk into the quarter finals, but just now with is confidence at an all time low he was struggling. When the match started he quickly found himself down a ½ million on each of the table, things where looking bleak. But then a miracle happened, Cal got dealt pocket kings, he three bet Danny and the flop came king high, all the money went in and Danny’s aces where cracked as the turn and river blanked.
Danny now made the mistake of splitting his remaining chips across both tables, this gave Cal a chip advantage in both games and with the pressure now off, Cal really started to find his rhythm, and Danny ‘Cocksmoker’ Hoàng soon learned that Cal ‘Dummmm’ Mikkelsen on his game and in the groove, with chips at his disposal was an almost unstoppable force of nature.
Across the globe Alex ‘POTSHIPPER’ Smythe was having problems of his own; he was finding it very hard making the game against Johnny ‘The Gent’ Mattheson look like a genuine struggle. Jesus this guy was a big, passive, dinosaur, Still Alex had to swallow his pride and pay him off a couple of times so as not too give the game up, it almost caused Alex physical pain to gift chips to a guy playing his big hands so transparently. Alex found it hard to not believe this guy was in the poker hall of fame and he smiled when he considered that with the 64 million he was about to win he could open a ‘Hall of retards’ right next door to the hall of fame and then have this guy as the inaugural inductee.
The poker world was transfixed for the following weeks as the games raged across the internet, traffic on FlushedOut.Com tripled and the latest fluctuations in the matches where now even being reported in the general media, poker truly was going mainstream. The latest happening became almost impossible to avoid and write ups where included in the morning papers and even reports on the early evening news bulletins began to spring up.
The supposedly random draw kept the two players everyone wanted to see face off apart and Alex and Cal weaved an inexplicable path towards both each other and eventually the dream final table. When the semi finals finally concluded the final heads-up battle was scheduled for December the 3rd and would take place in a specially constructed TV studio at the Bellagio, the home of live high stakes poker.
Alex flew out a week early to acclimatise and immediately found himself in a the eye of the storm, the media spotlight had been no where near as bright in the UK where poker was much more of a minority preoccupation, here in Vegas though he was revered as a superstar and although he had presumed this was something he had wanted, when it came too him he wasn’t so sure, he hadn’t realised how debilitating it could be and was suffering from the lack of privacy and freedom of movement this kind of celebrity engendered.
Even Cal who was used to this sort of treatment was still a little taken back by the size of the media maelstrom that had been whipped up by the sheer size of the stackes. This was way beyond the normal centralised poker media attention, this was more widespread, more ragged more bizarre and altogether less controlled, this was a proper full on media tornado.
Eventually though Lindeman and his team completed the final arrangements and everything was set, not being online multi-tabling would be impossible but they had set up two replica tables and would swap from table to table every two hours. Two dealers were to be used with a deck always ready to go, this was as close to the speed of online poker as possible and the non-stop action ensure the media rights where snapped up quickly and had been sold for a rather large and as yet unspecified sum, Lindeman though ensured that everyone knew that new records had been set and every where you looked around the studio the FlushedOut.Com logo has been strategically positioned.
The end of Inside Poker
November 22, 2009
I received a rather sad letter yesterday. Now it’s not as sad as some of the rather nasty red warning letters I’ve had in the past but it still spoilt my day a little.
I don’t know if I’m making a trendy poker player ‘faux pas’ here but the fact is that I’ve subscribed to InsidePoker for the last year or so. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wait by the letterbox when my monthly mag is due and I take the strategy advice with a pinch of salt but it makes perfect bathroom reading if you ask me. Nothing too taxing, keeps you up to date with what’s going on in the world of poker and there are a couple of decent freerolls thrown in for good measure.
But after this month, InsidePoker is to be no more. The letter from the Magazine’s publisher, Dennis Publishing Ltd, simply states that as of the December issue due at the end of this month, the magazine will cease to be (cue Monty Python dead parrot joke).
If you have a subscription but haven’t received this letter then don’t worry, the letter also states that the remaining subscription will be converted to a PokerPlayer subscription, or you can contact customer services on 0844 844 0054 by 16/12/09 to arrange a full refund of any monies owing to you.
So it’s not really the end-of-the-world earth shattering news but it’s still a shame to see the end of an old poker friend of mine. Hopefully PokerPlayer will be an improvement on my current subscription but if not I suppose I’ll have to renew my twelve month deal with ‘Skinny and Wriggly’ 
High Stakes Carnage – Largest Ever Online Pot
November 22, 2009
The insane action that has been habitually occurring on the full tilt high stakes cash tables, hit new levels over night. Isildur1 whose emergence as a high stakes force has been largely behind the recent surge in nose bleed action took an absolute pounding from Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey and is rumoured to have lost close to four million US dollars overnight which included the largest ever online pot, a record which has changed thirteen times in the past week as the action seems to have been constantly on the boil.
The full hand is posted below, as you can see all the money went in on the flop with the hand equities almost dead even with Antonius flopped straight and overpair holding a 54.6% chance of winning to isilidur1 wrap around straight with a 45.4% chance of scooping the pot.
No one can fault Isildur1’s ambition and self confidence, putting 5 million in play across five tables playing Antonius and Ivey, two fearsome and well rolled players isn’t the act of a man who lacks faith in his abilities! It will be interesting to see if he can come back from this, because although most of the his recent loses are just drop backs from previous winnings, mostly against Durrrr, a loss like this is surely going to knock anyone’s confidence.
Slowplay or not Slowplay?
November 21, 2009
That is the question.
I don’t get why some people take so long over every poker decision they make. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take your time over important decisions. If you ask me, one of the major, major flaws in most player’s games is the rush to make a decision without taking the time to consider all the releveant factors. If you take a minute to think about it there are usually about twenty or so you should consider at any one time so when facing an important decision I will often take several minutes myself.
No, what I’m talking about here are those players who feel the need to take at least 20-30 seconds on every single move they make, with up to two minutes on anything tricky and five minutes on something serious. You’ll usually find that they look so intense and pained that if you didn’t know they were playing poker you’d think they had arse grapes the size of your foot. It’s not so much the amount of time they take (although that in itself is irritating). What’s irritating is that you know what’s going to happen before they make their decision yet they continue to do the same thing time after time after time. The number of times I’ve seen the same player make an obvious bluff on the flop then spend five minutes deliberating before folding on the turn after a decent bet. As soon as they get called on the flop you know exactly what’s coming yet you have to sit through the whole charade on numerous occasions and they don’t seem to realise that everyone at the table knows what’s happening.
Let’s take an example. You’re sat on the button, the cut off limps. What do you do? Now depending on the circumstances I could argue a case for a fold call or raise with pretty much any two cards, but even still it’s not exactly a tough spot to be in. What I can’t do is grasp the notion why anyone would spend two minutes of their life sighing, talking to them self and rubbing their forehead before giving the limper a full stare down and mucking their cards muttering something about having ‘a bad feeling about this one’. Let’s take another. You’re facing a pot sized bet on the turn holding nothing but a gutshot on a flushing board. It’s an instant fold,why the need to try and make everyone think you’ve just made the laydown of the century?
The bottom line of this is that if you’re one of those players who takes their time to think situations through properly then that’s fine, I don’t blame you. If you’re one of those that takes their time on every single decision because you think other players are impressed by it then I have one piece of advice. FOR F*CKS SAKE STOP IT. We all know what you’re doing and the only thing you’re achieving is to make yourself look stupid and irritate everyone at your table.
God I’m getting miserable
Flip You For It – Part 1
November 21, 2009
Howard Lindeman was sat in his enormous and luxurious office and from behind his humongous desk he was happily observing a bank of oversized wall mounted flat screen monitors which are at the present moment displaying the millions of blinking and flashing pixels that represent the high stakes cash tables of his website and the obscene amount of action currently being played out across them. As the games unfold before him Lindeman is a man completely content with the world, a master of creation if you will, as he watches his master plan being playing out across the cyber felt.
Suddenly Lindeman’s look of total contentment disappears as the screens he is watching start to stall and lag, he mutters aloud “I’ll have to call those idiots in Tech, see what they can do” inwardly though he knows there won’t be anything they can do without upgrading the hardware, after all there where thousands upon thousands of poker fans across the globe soaking up the crazy action that had now been raging across the site almost nonstop for the past nine days.
He thought to himself that the next time he was planning an evil, secret scheme designed to take over the poker world he should get his technical architects involved, it occurred to him though that once informed of his diabolical plan and their part had been played out he would probably have to kill said technicians, and that would be a real nuisance as good technical people where so hard to bloody find down here in Costa Rica!
In his palatial penthouse flat located in the apartment block commonly referred to as ‘Balla Towers’ largely due to the vast number of poker players who have set up home in the palatial block to primarily take advantage of its proximity to the Vegas Strip, Cal “Dummmm” Mikkelsen squirmed in his seat again as yet another monster pot was being electronically dragged by his latest nemesis, the eponymously titled ‘POTSHIPPER’.
Cal was beginning to worry, really worry, downswings and losing runs are nothing new to him but this, well it felt different, this felt terminal, the damage was now over nine million dollars and climbing steadily and he was fast approaching the point he would have to quit the high stakes games he had dominated for so long and start rebuilding. “MUTHFUCKA” he shouted to himself and then jumped to his feet and started pacing around his living room as yet another monster pot made its electronic journey to his opponents stack.
Cal just couldn’t shake the feeling that this was more than a down swing, this battle with POTSHIPPER has been going on for nine day’s and nights now and at times he felt like he was up against a standard strong high stakes player, just like so many he had destroyed before. But at other times, well it was like he was playing a super man, a soul reader, he said aloud, “Your losing it Cal, get a grip, you’ll start wearing tin foil hats and be joining the scientologists before too long”.
Cal tried hard to block out this disturbing train of thought but try as he might his own subconscious was conspiring against him, It wasn’t so much that there had been many suspicious calls or particularly strange plays, in fact it was just the opposite, it just seemed that every time Cal had a very strong hand and POTSHIPPER had an even stronger hand his opponent had without fail made the very maximum, and when roles where reversed it was exactly the opposite, he still got paid on his big hands but it just seemed to be the very minimum, every single time, without fail.
Maybe he’d put a call into the sites CEO and majority share holder, Howard, Cal knew he was lucky enough that as a sponsored pro he had the kind of access others only dreamed of, he was also sure that if there was anything suspicious about the games, Howard Lindeman a man of infinite resource would be sure to find it, and anyway at the very least it would put his mind at ease so he could concentrate on winning back some of his money from this arsehole.
Across the other side of the world Alex ‘POTSHIPPER’ Smythe closed down the special poker client that he had received two weeks previous and which was largely responsible for the current super high stakes carnage on FlushedOut.Com, which until last week had been the worlds second largest poker site but was now number one and by some considerable margin too.
Alex knew exactly why he had been selected by Lindeman for this particular ‘project’; he had exactly the right profile to pull something like this off. Only two weeks previously he had been grinding away at the high stakes taking the occasional shots at the nose bleed limits frequented by the online super stars. As confident as Alex was in his own abilities he still had to admit that on each of his little trips to the deepest end of the poker shark pool he had felt somewhat out of depth.
In fact Alex was starting to doubt his ability to crack the very highest levels of the game when out of the blue he received a phone call from Howard Lindeman who Alex presumed he must have made quite an impression upon when they had played together during one of Alex’s rare foreign poker trips to play in the FlushedOut.Com sponsored, South African Super Millions tournament.
Alex wasn’t aware but Lindeman had known plenty about Alex long before there one and only meeting, in truth Lindeman being drawn in the seat to Alex’s left had not been a coincidence at all. In fact Lindeman knew all the high stakes poker players on his site and had been on the look out for a player with the right profile for some time now, he needed someone on the verge of moving into the nose bleed stakes games with exceptionally good statistics in the area of extracting value, this he knew would make a sudden burst of success at the very highest stakes believable.
Lindeman was a man of powerful intellect, a graduate of America’s finest technical university and fiercely driven he had established himself as a hugely successful entrepreneur by the time he was in his late thirties. But even Lindeman with all his mental agility had trouble disguising the huge number of questions he needed answering to have a chance of correctly gauging the young man to his rights level of ambition and more importantly the direction of his moral compass, after a long day at the tables though he had the information he needed, the boy was hungry for success, very hungry.
A few months later with the help of FlushedOut.Com’s operations manager who just happened to also be one of Lindeman’s oldest and most trusted friends and a very expensive and very corrupt contract programmer, a unique version of the sites poker client was developed that enabled the user to see both sets of hole cards, after testing this was sent to Alex from Lindeman’s FlushedOut.Com email address with a note that simply said, ‘Where in this together, be smart – Your friend, Howard J. Lindeman’. The follow up phone call was just to make sure the client was working, nothing else was to be discussed, ever.
As he logged off for the night Alex realised just how drained he was, playing a believable game of poker when you can see both sets of hole cards was thoroughly exhausting, just keeping the appearance of being on the level whilst having all available information and the ability to play perfect poker was very draining, mind you the millions of dollars pouring into his online account more than made up for a day or two of mental exhaustion!
Howard Lindeman was sat in his companies Monday morning review, present as always are all of the companies senior managers and they are busy reviewing the weekends figures and issues, Howard fought hard to prevent his obvious boredom showing and was only faintly amused at the spectacle of each head of department trying there very best to take credit for the huge upswing in the positive figures experienced since the POTSHIPPER games had started in such earnest.
Lucy Montage stood up and started to present her departments strategy for managing the current upswing in the company’s fortunes, Lucy was possibly the most successful marketing manager Lindeman had ever employed but he hated her with a passion. Lucy seemed to think everything and everyone was beneath her, Lindeman was aware she envied and loathed him in equal measure, and although her thoroughly polished veneer did its best to hide it she was deferring to him through gritted teeth and would stab in him the back as soon as the right opportunity presented itself.
“Howard” Lucy screeched at the top of her voice, which was a long way up, “I beseech you to grasp this opportunity that has presented itself” she continued, “Around the world people are calling these poker matches the true world championships of poker”, Howard couldn’t help but notice that Lucy seemed to physically spit the word ‘poker’ out, it was as if she was trying to get this filthy adjective as far from her mouth as quickly as possible, Howard thought it must be hard for someone who hated poker to the extent Lucy clearly did to spend long days working for the worlds largest poker room, this thought made him smile for probably the first time today.
Lucy continued for some time to come, she was presenting a grandiose plan to hold a new world championship of poker, online to start and live to finish with of course FlushedOut.Com being the venue. Through out his star marketing managers presentation, Howard let her take the plaudits for this masterful idea, although of course this was all part of his grand plan he wanted it to appear as if she was a firmly the helm, on occasion though he did have to push the project in certain directions and pull it in others, but overall the team had no doubt whose plan it was, Lucy’s, all the better thought Howard, he wanted his finger prints as far from the gun as possible.
Eventually Howard extracted himself from the meeting and was happy to leave the minutiae of the plan to his hoard of minions. He reached his desk just in time to pick up a call on his special private line reserved for high rollers and business partners. It was the online superstar himself Cal ‘Dummmm’ Mikkelsen, “Cal my boy, how are you doing” Howard said trying hard to maintain the paternal tone he always took with his stable of young superstar players. Cal briskly outlined his concerns and Howard worked hard to allay his fears, he didn’t feel the slightest compunction about lying to his young ward, after all the little bastard had made a fool out of him several times on national TV, and bluffing was certainly a big part of both players game.
Marcus Bebb-Jones Extradited
November 20, 2009
Well the news broke a couple of days ago across the local and international news tabloids and websites that Marcus Bebb-Jones has now been extradited back to America to face the American justice system. The main alleged offence itself is first degree murder of his wife at the time Sabrina Bebb-Jones who went missing in September 1997. The extradition was signed on July 15th 2008 but New Scotland Yard had waited till this Wednesday to follow it through.
GJSentinal quotes
Bebb-Jones is charged with first-degree murder and other counts in the slaying of 31-year-old Sabrina Bebb-Jones. A woman staying in Grand Junction at the Hotel Melrose, which the Bebb-Joneses owned at the time, reported Sabrina missing in September 1997. That triggered a flurry of events, including Marcus Bebb-Jones attempting suicide in a Las Vegas hotel room days after Sabrina was reported missing.
Sabrina’s skull was found near Douglas Pass in Garfield County in 2004. The cause of her death remains unknown.
In 2006 it was splattered across the poker forums that the police were searching for Marcus Bebb-Jones as a link was posted up explaining the circumstances. I am not even going to try and use my own words to explain what has allegedly happened, you can read for yourselves Grand Junction Sentinel’s version here
This isn’t a post to glorify Marcus, indeed if he is guilty he needs to face the consequences of his actions. This would not be of any concern to us as a poker community if he wasn’t such a prevalent player in the UK, but this is just my opinion as someone who knows him (not well, but well enough to voice an opinion). I can say from conversations and his persona at a poker table that he comes across as mild mannered, pleasant chap who acts very gentlemanly. I pride myself on my judgement of character and have always seen him as a good egg. Although poker is all about hiding and disguising emotions, to actually carry that through life for 12 years, whilst knowing that he was under investigation is a major fete, that maybe I just cannot understand or comprehend.
He must have known this day was coming, and as he had already tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head, 12 years on his mind whilst living with his son must have took it’s toll mentally, but he seemed to me as a cool thinking, calm, compus mentus individual.
I really hope the American Justice System gives him a fair trial, and if he is guilty, he gets what he deserves. I will then admit to being foxed.
Innocent Until Proved Guilty.