Well, the simple answer is, when you can play live poker but what’s on offer is so far from what you want, you should avoid it. In this article I cover… Why after a year+ without playing live, just how bad Grosvenor’s tournament options have to be that I don’t want to play them. Why competition between casino chains/cardrooms, is so important. A shout out to Rob Yong for making the right decision about DTD. A brief background on me I’ve not done a poker post for a while so for those that don’t know. I’m 61 years old and sat down at a poker table for the first time…
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Brandon Sheils: UK’s Rising Poker Star
I got to chat with Brandon Sheils one of the UK’s brightest up and coming poker stars. He talks about how he started playing poker initially with his Mom, Dad and older brother Richard. The interview will certainly give you an insight into his love of the game, how he approaches it and his plans to master it. He also explains the way he plans to tackle this years World Poker Series in Las Vegas. Sound Quality We recorded the interview stood outside the Genting Casino at Resorts World on 11th May 2019. We were both there to play Day 2 of the GPS main event. (Very thin brag on…
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Genting GPS Main Event: Resorts World Super Satellite
The video below contains some of my random thoughts about the satellite etc. Below the video you’ll find a short review of the venue as well. Review of the cardroom As a review for the benefit of anyone who has never been there to play poker the cardroom is excellent. Really very well run by Rich Wootten and his team. Lots of good supervisors (and plenty of them) the room has the best standard of dealing in the West Midlands currently. If you go further afield than the West Midlands then you’ll certainly find it on a par with DTD for organisation and general stands of professionalism. Tournament Schedule There…
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Hill Street Blues
There has been a lot of discussion in the Midlands lately about the demise of the Grosvenor Hill Street’s (H St) card room, so I’ve decided to write a post about it. Jon Baker (ex-cardroom manager) is nobody’s fool and he saw the writing on the wall with some of the changes head office were inflicting on him and the cardroom. We were all sad to see Jon leave but seriously can we blame him? The hours that cardroom staff work are not ideal for a someone with a young family, and the cardroom was under real pressure not just from its own head office but also from Resorts World…
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Card Cheat Gets Life Ban From Every G Casino.
Scandal at the G Coventry this week when news breaks of a well known regular getting a life ban from every G Casino in the country. How long he’d been doing it for I don’t think anyone really knows but the first person to question it was an APAT member during the recent APAT weekend (March 26th). Apparently the APATer who’d made an early exit from the main event played the normal Saturday night £15 comp in the evening. Self Deal Tournament This is a self deal tourney and the cheat was spotted by the APAT member rigging the deck prior to dealing. At the time the cardroom supervisor (CS)…
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Live Tournament Poker, enough for one day.
Over a month ago I won a 5 euro satellite, which got me a seat to the Super 50 Deepstack at DTD. However as the date clashed with the England World Cup game they cancelled it and entered me for the one dated 17th July instead. The Super 50 is a great idea and has been successful for DTD. It offers the chance to small buy in, recreational, players to get the feel of playing a bigger event for a relatively small amount. At just £50+6 most casual players can afford/justify playing an event like this once a month. On the 15th July I posted about how well the new…
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Hard Earned Free Money
At my age I don’t like to play two nights running, and I’m playing the Super 50 Deepstack at DTD which starts Sat 17th at 3.00pm, so I decided not to play Friday evening like normal. Therefore opted to go to the G Cov yesterday (Thurs) as I wanted to play the cash game there. Arrived after the tourney been running an hour but no cash games had started. I planned to just wait for the cash to start however the tourney was “FREE” to enter, so I sat in. The comp was a £1,000 guaranteed Free-roll with unlimited re buys and an add on for the first 2 x…
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WSOP 2010 Standing On The Virtual Rail
Been following various pokernews updates with interest this summer. Very pleased to see so many UK players doing really well in this years W.S.O.P. Some of the players I’ve never even met, but like most people I’ve been thrilled to see them do well. Praz Bansi, James Dempsey, Richard Ashby, are 3 I’ve never met. From interviews I’ve seen with many top US players it’s clear that Praz has earned their respect and is clearly now one of the best tournament players in the world right now. James “Flushy” Dempsey post’s on the Blonde Poker Forum but I won’t hold that against him. Of this years successful UK players the…
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G Casino Coventry, £50 Deepstack, £5,000 Guaranteed
The G Casino group having taken over the Isle Casino inside the Ricoh football stadium (Coventry) a while ago, is finally starting to show the improvement that I was hoping for. The casino has always looked brilliant and is the best casino in the UK for comfort, decor, facilities etc. However in my younger days I pulled this girl who looked stunning but she was about as exciting as a bundle of wet washing. Looking good just isn’t enough! (Though I perhaps wouldn’t be so fussy at my age now.) Although the G immediately organised a summer festival when they took over the Ilse and added it to their schedule…
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Reasons why I hate online poker #1
Just got knocked out of an APAT online qualifier. No problem it happens, a lot! But what annoyed me is someone typed in “LOL” when I busted. I’m not a violent man and have never been one for fisty cuffs and at my age and state of fitness I’d be unwise to start now. But trust me in that moment I could cheerfully have killed whoever it was. Obviously that sort of thing rarely happens live as you need a bit more nerve to give a rub down like that at a live event. So reasons I hate online poker #1 is pip squeaks get a lot braver in the…
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Aussie Millions 2007
I’ve been playing poker many years and for the large part I could question whether or not I could have done something more constructive with my free time. However this really was the trip of a lifetime and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Satellite success! I won my seat via Party Poker. They were running $200 + $15 “finals” each Sunday throughout Dec 2006 and I was lucky enough to win a seat into the Sunday final via a $3 re-buy satellite. My spend on the satellite was $9. (entry, immediate re-buy and add on) I had a real sweat winning my seat for the $215 final…
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The Early Days
Warning: This post is 13,500 words long. Cliff Notes: I’ve been a gambling in general and playing poker in particular for a very long time. Age 11 I think it was age 11, (1970) but my mother thinks it actually happened at an even earlier age than that. I don’t remember it at all, but when I was very young maybe 3 or 4 years old my mom’s brother (Uncle Les) came to stay with us for about 4 weeks. Apparently he had a pack of cards and one day to entertain me whilst mom was cooking, he sat me at the dining room table with him whilst he was…