“NEWS”: An angry Jennifer Tilly has trouble storming out of a rotating restaurant

TV is magic…kind of

This one’s a bit different as I’m blogging from Granada studios in Manchester

I’m here doing some ‘bread and butter’ work for Eammon on an ITV show called the feelgood factor. As I’m a lucky boy I’ve been doing this kind of thing for 4 years or so now and a lot of the novelty / excitement has gone

However I’ve been struck today by how different it is for people that aren’t used to it. I was watching the audience come in and was reminded of how exciting a TV studio can be if you haven’t been in one before…after all this is where magic is made! (sometimes anyway). The first time a line I’d written was read out on a studio show it gave me one of the bigger thrills i’ve had. (i can still remember the specific joke).

Of course it can all be a bit much if you’re not comfortable. One poor woman on this show got a bit phased. Bear in mind it’s about losing weight, she and her friends have been dieting for 8 weeks and she’s had a rehearsal just before the record. Eammon asks her ‘what’s the situation after 8 weeks with the team?’ – she stares at him and replies ‘what with our weight?…. and Eammon instantly replies ‘no with your holidays’. Very funny – man is a legend – fact! Sadly this won’t be making it to your screens!

I think it’s a bit sad how films and TV have been demystified by dvd extra documentaries, green room shots, behind the scenes stuff and so on

I’ve also realised that shows like this – shiny floor studio shows – are probably a dying thing. They’re expensive and need big audiences and those audiences are getting less and less as people watch content online and so on. I should enjoy the studio magic while it lasts!!

OMAHA …. LIVE!

Just played my first live Omaha tournament.

It was part of the current festival at the Vic. Played the £500 event – courtesy of Virgin poker; gawd bless their cotton socks (that they give out on long distance flights).

It was not only my first time playing live Omaha it was also my first time playing full ring. I didn’t have much of a game plan going in except to play very tight from the first 3 or 4 spots It was a weird line up – really spectrum of players; household names like Chufty, Dave Colclough, Surinder and then some players who were – to be nice about it – if not dead money then money on life support.
It’s definitely hard to adjust to the walking pace of full ring live from 4 tables of six max… actually I’d have loved to have had my lappy there to play a bit while the tourney plodded on.

I’d write about some hands but I didn’t have too many interesting spots. I got chips early when my Aces plus nut flush draw held up against a wrap – that was a nice spot for me.
As the tournament wore on I started to run out of cards and spots to steal.
A couple of losing confrontations with all in players and suddenly I was short stacked. Kudos to the Vic though the structure was great with very slow blinds and plenty of time to play. With about 40 players left I got lucky to have my KK75 suck out on Surinder’s AA1010 – hey you gotta have one right!

Nothing much to report until the hand I went out on. A mid position player limped and I potted it on the button with As5sKJ – the limper called. The flop is QT6 with one spade. Basically a great flop for me – I’ve got 13 straight outs all to the nut straight and back door spades so I’m at least 50/50 ish against anything he can have He checked, I bet and he quickly checked raised. Obviously he had a hand but this is one of those Omaha spots where the money was going in whatever. He had TT43 for a flopped set – his hand held up and I was out. By the way I hate his preflop play; I’m winning that pot the vast majority of the time but there you go. Think I finished 15th ish.

Anyway – good tournament, good experience and well run by the Vic. Thanks to Virgin poker – I’ve got one more of these to play before Vegas so I’ll up date you all!

Goal Reached!

I just reached my goal of turning 100k into 800k. It took me about 6 and a half months to do it which is very good. If some things had good results earlier this year at 50/100 and 100/200 I would have reach the goal even quicker. My PLO game is starting to really hit its stride. I am up 1/2 million this year in only about 65k hands running at 9bb/100. It feels great to have these results after so much frustration. The learning curve in these games is much larger than I initially thought. When I decided to learn a new form of poker I play on moving down to 1/2 and grinding all the way up. I know now that I think I am alot better at games before I am ready to sit and bankroll should not determine what games you sit in. This was the case with PLO and the reason why my results were so poor at 200/400.

I fell like I am playing amazing PLO right now and my results are showing it. I think back to where I was and what I thought about a year or two ago about PLO and how I approach the game now, the difference is amazing. I had some really mediocre results in the big PLO games and it was primarily do to leaks I had in my game. I am very excited now about getting back to playing 200/400 and maybe even 500/1000 if that is whats running. I know there are big swings so initially I won’t play above 200/400 unless there are some really good games.

Last year was a tough year for poker. I didn’t have nearly as good results as the prevous two years and was struggling with my game as I was playing much less NLH. I think (fingers crossed) this year is going to be as successful as previous. I am on track at least .

I also have played some NLH since I started my challenge. The records are on my old computer but I ran at about 6.5bb/100 over 30k hands or so. That always feels good keep in touch with the games as they are constantly changing. I feel really current and in tune with my opponents in both the big bet games. I also really looking forward to my next video which won’t be me 4 tabling NLH 6 max, but rather me dissecting a few hands and doing some combinatoric analysis. It should be really helpful for you guys.

I don’t do much personal stuff in my blog, but I wanted to share my top 3 80’s songs.

1) Todo – Africa
2) Dramarama – Anything, Anything
3) Boy Meets Girl – Waiting for a Star to Fall

These aren’t trendy 80s songs from ah-ha or bon jovi, but these three are amazing songs. I have a few more if you guys want to know them!

Check Out Brian’s Online Training Site – CardRunners

The second bi-ennual tri annual On The Rail tournament took place tonight on Virgin and a fun time was had by all!

Even me. And I sucked.

I think at one point I won the blinds…that was pretty exciting. The rest of the time I was handily pushed around by a whole variety of people who saw the great big bullseye on my back in the form of the bounty I was carrying.

All the moves I tried to make early failed. A theme which was continued after the early bits (I can’t call it middle that would be an exaggeration). By the end I was down to 9 big blinds. I decided I was shoving with anything decent. The problem with having a bounty is you’re not getting many bets through!

A couple of spots out of the blinds I found A diamonds 4 diamonds and the money was going in!
Of course I was getting called in a big way – with a Newcastle seat on my head. I think after the board had run out I was beaten about 14 different ways!!!! I finished 42 out of 53…there I’ve said it; impressive huh! Still it was all about giving a bit back …which I did in laughs to those playing and railing!

Of course the worst thing about the entire debacle was that Kara won our last longer! Couldn’t help noticing how quickly she went out after that … almost as if it was her only aim!

The tournament went great – thanks to Virgin and well done to seses, HectorMcG for claiming the bounties from Kara and me. Well done to the cashing players – black28, Wils14, MrCrown1, bozponty, Farse, KAZIPOP, HectorMcG (again!), teaulc1, EMS_rico3 and especially well done to overall winner joyjoy.

Look forward to seeing the seat winners and as many of the rest of you as possible in Newcastle.

We’ll definitely do more tournaments and look at the possibility of an On The Rail league in future.

I’m off to relearn this no limit holdem mullarkey….

On The Rail Tourney – 8pm tonight!

The JFK assassination….the moon landings…the Berlin wall collapsing….Obama’s inauration….are all important historical events.

Why not think about them all as you play the 2nd bi-semi-annual On The Rail tournament.

It’s tonight and it’s at 8pm and you can knock out Kara Scott (unless I get there first) and win a seat to the Newcastle poker festival ….what more do you want from a Tuesday? It’s on Virgin – if you haven’t got an account go get one and I’ll see you there for a couple of hours of inappropriate table talk.

A nice month

I am having a very nice month winning 125k in PLO and being up 9 bb/100. Unfortunatly I lost 44k in a very short 100/200 NLH session putting me at -35k for NLH on the month. I have been playing some NLH with good results winning at 6.5bb/100 over my last 30k hands, mostly at 25/50. Not a bad start being up 90k less than 1/2 way through the month.

After this result I am up to just under 750k online. I should hopefull reach 800k online by the end of this month and accomplish my challenge. I will also be playing 200/400 a bit when the games are really good. I may also play some 500/1k as well if games are great. Though for that I may sell action, something I have never done. So we will see.

I have also been doing really well at 50/100 and feel very confident when I play there and having great results there this month. Unfortunatly I am down about 90k at 100/200 this month, and haven’t felt to confident when playing PLO, tho I have been while playing NLH. Here are some hands from the past few days.

Here I run KK into AA against skier_5. I don’t think I can fold, but I did talk with some people about the hand who felt it was a very easy call. I think its really close.

http://weaktight.com/885841

A three way allin where I hold KK double suited and have the best hand.

http://weaktight.com/885845

This is a really interesting hand. I don’t know what I think about my river play.

http://weaktight.com/885847

Here I get trapped by Boosted. In all seriousness tho I really misplayed this hand on multiple streets.

http://weaktight.com/885849

Check Out Brian’s Online Training Site – CardRunners

Rich and Nick Podcast – Show 2

Rich and Nick discuss the following burning topics:

• pygmy_goat
• Their new producer, Andrea (not pictured)
• Nick’s highlight of 2009 so far
• Transformers: The Movie
• How Rich struggles on the computer game ‘Piglet’s Big Adventure’
• Renting your wedding guests
• The world’s worst fire-fighters
• How every person on the planet is completely incompetent
• Arresting farmyard animals (pictured) and the implications
• The need for the Oscars
• TV weather forecasts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (31.1MB)

Still Hot…

In some ways 2009 has not been my favourite year; in poker terms I hope it never ever ends.

I’ve been running ridiculously good online. Obviously my Omaha game has improved a lot over the last six months and playing better has combined with being…you know…”hot”.

i’ve moved up (or I’m in the process of moving up) to $1/2 so I’ll keep you informed of  how that goes – I’ll post some hands here next time

lots on the horizon playing wise as well. Next Tuesday is the second On The Rail tournament on Virgin – I expect to see you all there! There’s seats for the Virgin festival in Newcastle on 4th April up for grabs; will be really good fun so I hope lots of you qualify one way or another

Finally I’m playing my first live Omaha tournament as part of the Vic festival on 22nd. It’s a 500 buy in and i can’t wait to see the level and type of play. I’m expecting some very very good players playing an old school style and some real properly horrible play as well….i’ll let you know what I find!

Evil phone companies

So I’m off to Dortmund for the antepenultimate EPT for season 5. I’m on the coach to Heathrow (yes, this is how I roll) and am reveling in the miracle of mobile broadband. I know, I know – where have I been for the last couple of years? But I’ve only just gotten myself around to buying one of these mobile dongle things and I’m like a kid at Christmas.

I’ve been having some trouble setting up broadband in my new place. When I say ’some trouble’ I mean it’s been a hideous nightmare and BT are evil bastards who seem to delight in making things harder than they need to be. Nearly two weeks on, I’ve finally managed to get them to set up a home phone line but now it appears that they’ve assigned me a number which is still attached to someone else. So no broadband for me. And they won’t fix it. Seriously, they Simply. Won’t. Fix. It.

So I’ve got one of these fancy dongle things and am waiting them out. Its a war of attrition and I’m sure they’ll win but by god, I’ll put up a good fight.

EPT Dortmund has started and I’m on my way there now to eat schnitzel and talk to poker players. Not a bad job, really. And with any luck the hotel I’m in will have wifi which will be a step up from the connection situation at home.

Otherwise, the settling into the new place is going well. Wealthall came over for a Sunday Roast on the weekend and gave his approval to the spare room (his new weekend getaway) and as a rather random sidebar; I’ve started doing Salsa classes with my friend Rachel. We weren’t sure what to expect but we had a hell of a good time. Soon I’m sure I’ll be good enough to challenge Nick to a dance-off. I can but dream….

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