nicks bits

Apparently it takes a day for every time zone you travel through to recover from jet lag. Well I must have popped around the world a couple of times because this trip back from Vegas kicked my butt. I don’t think it helped I went straight to the UKIPT in Brighton and managed not to sleep for more than about  5 hours for 2 weeks but still….. Several times I’ve been up before 830 and that just wont do!!

Brighton was great – the Rendezvous is a great place to play and did the tour proud. It’s also a cool place to be generally although it’s many times cooler during the week than the weekend when the hordes from London descend.

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Final WSOP fantasy game standings….Kara 45pts / Matt 37 pts / Nick 17 pts

I suck. I’ve been let down. Kathy Liebert needs to have a serious word with herself frankly it’s the last time she lets me down…

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I’ve had a shocking month on the playing poker side of things. It involved a couple of weeks of barely winning a significant pot and then some time where variance kicked my arse. The last few days I’ve been playing well though and my PLO game is looking better so we’ll see. Still running horribly on the year making  small profit online when it should be a decent one; thank goodness for live tourneys…never thought I’d say that.

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Did you see Inception yet? It’s basically a very well done heist thriller covering up a story about the lead character’s love and loss and it demands to be seen it’s just so well done. Amazing Nolan isn’t lauded here – we’ve produced a Steve Spielberg equivalent and you barely see anything on him.

That’s all my bits for now…later skater

On The Rail Podcast #36 Released

Dear On The Rail Member,

For a limited time you’ll have exclusive access to the newest edition of the On The Rail podcast.

Nick and Matt look back on the World Series and the latest UKIPT. There’s also an interview with online super star Jude Ainsworth and Nick finds out what’s up Matt’s wizard’s sleeve as they talk magic the gathering.

You’ll need a password access it on the site, this month it’s : bennett

Click here to listen:

http://www.ontherail.co.uk/podcasts/on-the-rail/on-the-rail-36/

That’s it for this edition of the newsletter, as ever, lets us know what you think about the podcast by posting comments on the site.

Best,

Nick and the team @

www.ontherail.co.uk

On The Rail #36

Nick and Matt look back on the World Series and the latest UKIPT. There’s also an interview with online super star Jude Ainsworth and Nick finds out what’s up Matt’s wizard’s sleeve as they talk magic the gathering.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (58.2MB)

Main event tedium

I have to write a blog about my main event I guess. The sad fact is there isn’t much to write. I owe a huge thanks to Stars for putting me in but sadly I couldn’t return the favour with a long run.

On the plus side unlike my first year playing it I was super comfortable from the start which was nice – I don’t think I’ll encounter being phased in a big tournament again

The line of the day was from some wag who when it was announced the oldest player in the event at 90-something was in the field commented ‘can’t believe he took the risk and waited til day 1D’

My table was great – with one active player who was decent, one tag player who was good and the rest pretty horrible. I was able to chip up really easily and only lost chips when I made a big unnecessary bluff early on. Once out of my system it was plain sailing but without any big hands…

Until I busted in level 3 just before dinner. It was so so frustrating – the ante was about to come in and I felt like my table wouldn’t adjust properly at all and I’d make chips easily

I had 115 bbs at the start of the hand and pocket 7s on the button. Decent player opens, horrible player flats and I call. Flop is a-j-7 no suits a good flop for me reader…I have a set!! Good player checks, bad player bets I flat; we’re heads up. Turn is a 6 bringing a spade draw. Bad player bets I raise; he calls. River is a 4 clubs – he checks I move all in he tanks for 2 minutes …calls and shows a soul crushing set of jacks.

The funny thing about the hand is that obviously I think I’m ahead the whole time and I’m just trying to get his money in. On the river I have no clue what he was thinking about and it was a really shocking nit roll – I was so surprised when he turned his hand over. I mean I’m sitting there making all the weak signals praying for him to call (trust me my lips were curling under I was fidgeting and staring the works)

When he finally turned his hand over I didn’t take it well. I was fine about it one drink later just disappointed. In an interview a few days later pro Daivd Williams summed up the feeling of going out on a hand that was brainless in how much it played itself -  ‘its like the main event got taken from you’. We don’t play poker because we’re passive we play it because we like to influence action and I feel like I didn’t have much of a chance to do any of that.

Apparently the WSOP is still going on – as soon as those Jacks hit the felt I lost interest. … Next year….

On The Rail Podcast #35 Released

Dear On The Rail Member,

For a limited time you’ll have exclusive access to the newest edition of the On The Rail podcast.

Coming to you from the UK IPT Killarney Nick flies solo and finds his muse wandering among the hills and lakes of Western Ireland. There’s an interview with hot new thing Owen Robinson plus some tourney strategy to boot. Enjoy the craic and so forth.

You’ll need a password access it on the site, this month it’s : feck

Click here to listen:

http://www.ontherail.co.uk/podcasts/on-the-rail/on-the-rail-35/

Nick starts playing the main event of the WSOP today, so wish him all the luck you can find! He’ll be tweeting his progress at http://www.twitter.com/ontherailuk

That’s it for this edition of the newsletter, as ever, lets us know what you think about the podcast by posting comments on the site.

Best,

Nick and the team @

www.ontherail.co.uk

On The Rail #35

Coming to you from the UK IPT Killarney Nick flies solo and finds his muse wandering among the hills and lakes of Western Ireland. There’s an interview with hot new thing Owen Robinson plus some tourney strategy to boot. Enjoy the craic and so forth.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (34.6MB)

Christmas Eve

This time tomorrow I’ll be playing the main event of the World Series of Poker. As a poker fan and player it simply doesn’t get any better than this. The anticipation is amazing and every single player of the 7000+ feels the same thing that maybe just maybe it could be them this year.

I need to point out it’s thanks to the lovely people at pokerstars. I’m super super lucky to be put in to the event and I’ll try and do it justice. I have to be honest in future years if I don’t have a sponsor I’ll be spending money to play; it’s that much fun!

Last year I was so excited after a 15 year wait to play it and ridiculously the reality didn’t let me down. Day 2 when I quickly cashed out was disappointing but day 1 was unreal. The buzz in the room is unique in poker and I won’t try and do it justice by writing about it – you just have to do it once in your life some how some way. Suffice to say it’s the only time I’ve been nervous at a poker table – or at least for 15 years!

This year I’ll be excited but not nervous and I don’t think I’ll have any problem playing well from the start. The key to day 1 is table draw. The series is so random because the field is so huge – you can get 2 tough players to your left and have an impossible day or get a field of first time casual players and have lots of lovely free money to pick up…I’ll know how well I’m running from the line up just a few days into tomorrow!

Anyway I know how lucky I am and for one of the few times in life tomorrow there really won’t be anywhere else on earth I’d rather be.

There won’t be much sleep tonight!