After a few days of torrential downpour, the sun is shining here again and I’m sitting outside listening to On The Rail (as you do) and I’m struck by the fact that the next time Nick and I podcast we may ACTUALLY be on the same continent, same country and in the same room. Miraculous! Obviously given the work that Nick and I do together, we really are great friends and so I’m looking forward to welcoming that pasty Englishman to my new neck of the woods here in sunny California.

Before that happens though, I’ve got the final table of the WPT Invitational to host in LA and then I’m up to Las Vegas to play the NBC Heads Up Championships. I have to make a confession here… I’m terrified by the HU portion. As Nick and I talked about in our last podcast, I’ve been working on my Heads Up game and I can report that it has not gotten better! I’m still frustrated as hell by the whole thing but as Nick has pointed out to me, I’ve never really had a big downswing before and it really will make me a better player.

When the results are coming in and everything seems easy, most people (me included) just don’t put the effort into analysing hands or working in a methodical way on their game. Dealing with the downside of things… well I’m certainly putting more work in. I can see where my game has improved and I’ve been going through hands with people I really respect and although I have some definite leaks, I can see the progress. Thats great and all…. but… yeah. Hopefully the results will follow.

God, it’s so hard not to be results oriented!!!!

I seem to have missed out November and December in my blogging and for that I’m very sorry! It’s been a crazy busy time with moving to the USA so that’s my excuse. How long can I use it for?

I’ve been out of the UK for a couple of months now and although I’m really happy with the southern California sunshine I definitely have withdrawal for the British shores. To keep my mind OFF of the moping I’ve been trying to stay occupied with work. While in the UK in September and October I was lucky enough to be asked to present the WSOPE for ESPN, then I hosted the PKR Heads Up Grand Slam followed by an awesome week working with Party Poker on their World Open V. Upon settling in the USA I played on Poker After Dark – the commentators edition and then hosted the new season of High Stakes Poker. I have a sneaking suspicion that people are going to be seeing rather a lot of me in the near future!

Poker After Dark is airing on NBC this week and truthfully, I’ve been petrified about watching it. I’m far more comfortable with my ‘hosting’ duties than I am having people watch me play poker. It’s not been too terrible so far although I can see glaring examples of where my nerves definitely affected my play. It’s funny, I really didn’t expect to feel so intimidated but sitting down at that famous table and seeing all the cameras…. definitely sweaty palms time.

Anyhow, things are cracking on and it looks like 2010 is going to be a busy one so I’m getting a bit of rest while I can. While much of the poker population is fighting lost baggage, food poisoning and poor weather (if all of the twittering is to be believed) I’m sitting in a cozy cabin in Tahoe getting my relax on.

Happy New Years Everyone!!

Hello All!

I’m blogging to you fresh from the final of the WSOPE!

I say fresh but of course I mean exhausted, riddled with cold and severely sleep deprived.

We didn’t have the 27 hour final table marathon that won John Juanda a bracelet last year but any final table that ends around 6am is worth a mention. I was there hosting and doing the sideline reporting for the ESPN coverage of the main event and it was a great experience. Thanks to everyone who came up and said hello and if I was distracted or rushing about too much to stop and say a proper hi back, apologies. It was the first time that I’d worked with ESPN, Harrah’s and the WSOP organisation and I was definitely nervous! The TV crew with Poker PROductions were awesome and a hell of a lot of fun to work with. Thankfully, it all went well and I think we’ve got a cracking series for TV.

It was an incredible field of players and some of the most exciting poker I’ve seen. I wish that there could have been a live webcast through the 6 days because honestly, it was brilliant to watch. The final table was a bit bitter sweet for me. Of course I’m meant to be impartial (and of course I am!) but when a friend is playing, it’s hard to maintain that. Eric Liu busted out on the final table bubble and I was gutted for him. He is a very talented poker player and I would have loved to see him on the FT. He also happens to be a truly lovely, likeable person. He’s one of the people that make me glad to be in poker because otherwise we never would have met. No doubt he’ll final table and win a big event soon.

I was hoping to see more from Matt Hawrilenko (Hoss TBF) at the final but he was short stacked coming in and just didn’t get the cards or situations. I watched some of his play in the earlier stages and was a bit in awe of his skills. He was also articulate and friendly in the interviews which goes a very long way in my book. People generally do their best with the interviews and give the press a bit of respect and leeway but every once in a while I meet a poker player who seems to think he is above the media and tries to make himself look more intelligent by trying to make the interviewer look stupid. Not naming names here but it’s just not cool.

It looked as though Jason Mercier would take it down and I would have cheered my lungs out for him as again, he’s a really likeable person PLUS being a huge poker talent. And of course, with Praz Bansi and James Akenhead up there as well, representing for the UK – it was very disappointing to not see one of them with the bracelet. Aside from Daniel, the rest of the players were ones that I didn’t know that well but between them, they had heaps of experience and results and all seemed very pleasant.

The heads up came between Barry Shulman (CEO of Cardplayer) and Daniel Negreanu. Daniel played so well and after losing a hand with AA to a flush draw on the flop, he put in literally hours of grinding his way back to even. I was so impressed by his ‘never say die’ attitude. He had a big crowd pulling for him and the final decisive hand which lost him almost all of his chips, yet again, will be damn exciting TV.

As the cards fell, you could hear the groans of disappointment, the hopeful gasps, the jubilent cheers which rocked the building and then the shocked disbelief as the final card fell against him. Pretty exciting stuff and so disappointing for Daniel not to get this result. He was a real superstar all week. His disappointment was palpable.

Big congratulations to Barry Shulman who won the Main Event bracelet. What a family! He wins the WSOPE main event bracelet and his son Jeff is still in contention in the November 9. Incredible! Funnily enough, Barry pointed out that he came to the final bang on average chips and in 4th place – exactly like his son in Las Vegas. Who knows if they might just do the family double this year!

It’s been an amazing couple of years working for PokerStars with the EPT. It feels quite strange to know that season 6 is underway and yet I’m not at my post. After two great years with some amazing people, I made the decision to step away from the job that I had so much fun with,  when it became clear that I just couldn’t commit to making all the stops this year.

I think I travelled to 14 countries with PokerStars, either as their TV presenter or a poker player – generally twice each country and for about a week each time. It was a real whirlwind and although I’m enjoying being at home now and not missing my friends’ birthdays and special occasions, I will certainly miss the amazing people I worked with. Thankfully, poker is a small world and no doubt I’ll catch up with people at various poker events.

A huge amount of poker is about to be played in London this month and next, not to mention the English Open up in Nottingham so it makes sense that poker players from all over the world are flocking here. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in to some of it myself soon!

Well here it is, August 2009 and my list of many many many things to do before the end of the summer is nowhere even near cracked! Getting back from the WSOP always makes it hard for me to focus on things in ‘real life’ – you know, like work and taxes and overdue library books. So instead of settling in and cracking on with the mountain of paperwork, I decided to spend 5 days camping in a field with my friends at a music festival. I’m convinced I made the right decision there. What probably wasn’t such a great choice was turning around to come back to the States not even 2 weeks after I finally managed to drag myself to the UK. So here I am, and the sun is shining and there are far more fun things to do than work…… I think I may go and play poker!

Nick and I spent last night at the cash tables at the Wynn with some very interesting players who normally would play a lot higher but decided to have a bit of fun and hang out with us. Lee Jones also showed up and played some hands with us and when I left Nick to it at about 3 or 4 am he was bossing his PLO table around (of course). I was playing NLHE and booked my first losing session for the trip after nearly falling asleep at the table before calling it quits. 

When I first sat down there was this unbelievably annoying guy sat just to my right. He was constantly berating players for doing things wrong and asking why they called, why they raised, why they checked – every single little thing came under his scrutiny. You sometimes get these players who feel the need to prove to the world how ‘good’ they are at poker by teaching everyone at the table. I believe I may have called him a wanker…. 

Oh, and Happy Canada Day everyone  

Hi guys, 

I’ve been really bad about keeping my blog updated but Vegas seems to have that effect on me. It’s like a black hole where productive work just disappears. I’ve been playing a fair amount of poker but have been keeping it mostly to the cash tables since my first event at the WSOP. I’ve been traveling back and forth to California and so have missed out on the other NLHE events but I’ll be playing the Main Event in a week and a half. 

Nick has just arrived in Vegas and its so good to have him here. We just hit the Rio for a quick walk around and then dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking the fountains. Ahhh, just like old times. I’m looking forward to railing him in the Main Event so I’m hoping we don’t end up playing the same day 1. I’m thinking Day 1a for me looks best so far…. 

As a complete opposite to last year I’ve taken zero photos in Vegas so I’ll have to remedy that and get some posted up here.

Well it is when you hit a 4 card flush to knock out two players….

I’ve been playing in my first 2009 WSOP event, the 1500, and am going into Day 2 today in a few hours on WAY too little sleep. I had a good table for a lot of the day but it got much MUCH harder after the dinner break. Bad timing as I also got sleepier and less focussed and really missed a lot of opportunities. Today is a new day though and all that, so onwards and upwards! I’ve got over 80k which puts me in the top 20% I think so I’m in good shape and hopefully I’ll get a good table draw.

I had quite a few good players at the table at the end of yesterday but knocked out two of them with the above mentioned hand. It was seriously sick but the way it went down was pretty standard. Right after that, I had an incredible run of cards and it must have seemed like I was raising and re-raising every hand. And then I lost a biiiiig pot. An agressive guy raised in early position and I re-raised with pocket 10s. He thought for a while and called. The flop was K4x and he checked. I bet him all in (it was an overbet of the pot but I wasn’t bet folding based on his stack size) and he insta-called with pocket 44s. Doh!

I really tightened up (way WAY too much) after that and once the bubble burst I headed back to the hotel for some sleep.

It’s great being at the WSOP again and damn, I hope I continue to run so good.

Ain’t it great? Seriously. This weather is making it really hard to think about leaving the UK for nearly the entire summer. I’m off to Vegas on Sunday for the World Series and although I’m really looking forward to it, I’m conscious that I’ll be leaving all my friends in Brighton behind to enjoy the seaside without me. I’ve really loved having a chance to catch up with people over the past month since the EPT finished up. I’m struck again how anti-social this job can be when we spend so much time away. So many birthday parties missed, always the last to hear the big news. Thankfully, I have really good friends who cut me some slack for being away so much.

I’ve been watching the goings on in Vegas from home this past week; following all the various status updates, blog entries and twitterings. We’re only one week into the Series and I’m seeing from my removed vantage point in the UK just how much people are struggling with the atmosphere there already. Working at the WSOP is incredibly hard work – very long hours doing an often thankless task, sometimes surrounded by very objectionable people. The journalists and bloggers see EVERYTHING and it can be soul-destroying to watch players being disgusting with dealers or just acting like nasty specimens. It’s not the majority but there is a very loud minority of people who give poker a very bad name. Vegas can be a really lonely place and hearing people’s stories about their Vegas-burnout makes me feel very lucky to have good people to be with when I’m there.

All that being said, I am really looking forward to getting there and seeing my friends from the poker circuit. I’m staying with a girlfriend who very kindly is letting me crash at her apartment for the first few days while I kick the jet lag and get ready to play. I’ve still not decided how many events I’ll play as I want to see how I feel when I get there but I can’t wait to head to the Rio. I’ve got so many amazing memories from last summer in Vegas and can’t wait to make some more this year.

So I’m wondering why on earth people actually tell flat out lies on poker forums. Is it to just goad people who they wouldn’t otherwise ever be able to speak to, into responding? In the last month or two, there have been a couple of strange threads on 2+2 which I guess isn’t all that surprising. The first one made me howl with laughter as it referred to Nick and I as ‘regulars’ at the cash games in the Treasure Island in Vegas. Lol. It accused us of colluding in a game that the OP had sat in. It was so ridiculous (we don’t live/play in Vegas – duh) that it was actually kind of funny.

The lastest thread just went up and again, it accuses me of dodgy dealings at the poker table. This time, it’s supposed to go back a few years (er, I only learned how to play poker a few years ago) to a tournament here in Brighton for £100 where apparently I not only cheated but nearly started a fight with the OP through my ‘canadian cronies’ Lol. Like there’s a whole crowd of us Canadians here in Brighton, a Canadian (or Canadien) massive who terrorize the local casinos. Ummmm, sure.

But apparently if you reply in the threads then you really do just allow people to chat shit even more so I can’t. So I’m complaining here instead. Bah.