Trett Digest Volume 01

Date: Sun, Feb 13, 2011 Live Tournament

SUP Guys. Hope you all had a fantastic new year and are over the January blue’s now February has hit, which if you ask me is an exciting month for Newcastle poker and particularly NPF associates. Regular readers have probably gathered from the title change in this thread I’m no longer committing myself to doing monthly recap’s, all though a review once a month doesn’t sound like hard work I just can’t be bothered. I’m kind of losing motivation (guess it happens to all bloggers from time to time) but anyway whatever, I’ve replaced it with these digest volume’s which will still give you a scope of my recent exploits and planned shenanigans just not on a monthly basis.

I published my December recap on 30th which meant it missed out my NYE profanities, I couldn’t even remember it the following morning never mind a month on so I can’t recite anything. However I can link you to my good friend Gaz Walker’s blog, who has an account of the evening;

LINK COMING SOON

The week following NYE (January 7th) I was Tenerife bound to hit up some winter sun with my family and fellow FTP associates George, Steven, Paul, Kevin, and family friend Robert Flett. Below I’ve coupled cliff notes with photos to go someway towards a trip report;

- Staying at Vista Hermosa Villa, Los Cristianos
- Drinking (every night)
- Playa de las Americas (bars, clubs, strip joints)
- Poker (daily €10 private SNG)
- Restaurants (King of India, Overseas, Al Negra, etc.)
- 26C (clear skies)
- Quads (off road biking)
- Casino Playa de las Americas (500NL)
- Mini golf at “Treasure Island Adventure Golf”
- Go-Karting
- Booze cruise (Peter Pan boat)











I had a fantastic trip and has wet my appetite for more family holidays, so far with my family (as an adult) I’ve been to Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Majorca, and Tenerife. Next year there is talk of a January visit to Cancun, Mexico (which I think would be ace) but as things stand it’s only talk, if anything gets booked I’ll be sure to let you know. Finally one more thing before closing Tenerife, I spotted a couple of celebrities seeing Ricky Hatton in Dubliner bar and Paddy McGuinness in airport lounge.

Since getting back to the UK I haven’t been spending a great amount of time on the felt, in fact I could almost count on one hand how many tournaments I played throughout January. This is because I’ve been distracted by a young lady, if I can cast you back to my December recap and particularly boxing day where Andy “KQ4EVA” Blair elaborated over the NPF;

2 Idiots Abroad

Anyway I mentioned I met a girl on the Jet2 desk called Lydia and after giving her my number I lost my mobile the same day, FML. However when I was off to Tenerife I noticed she was again working the desk, so I explained I had lost that mobile and passed on my current mobile number. The upshot of that is since getting back from Tenerife I’ve been out on a few dates (which isn’t really what I’m accustomed to being Dan Trett) but whatever I’m having fun so just going with the flow. I actually have an interesting story which I figure you’ll all find funny;

Lydia is from Devon and only been in Newcastle like 10 months, so her best friend is a work colleague who is gay. On Sunday 6th February I bust out of the Aspers £50 F/O and decided to go for a few drinks with Lydia, I rang her and she was out with Dan (her gay best friend) at Switch down the gay scene of Newcastle. So I head down and when standing outside having a drink with Lydia, Dan, and Ryan (Dan’s boyfriend), Dave “Jimmy Chipmunk” Stephenson pulls up in his taxi and gives me a caught you type glance. I haven’t since cleared things up with Dave, but yeah if your reading mate it was just a misunderstanding, but very funny I do admit. ;-)

Just to put thing’s straight though to all you readers that I’m no loved up pussy, that Sunday evening after Lydia headed home resulted in me hitting up in town with Circus dealers SpoonDAWG, Trottski, and Sean (a school friend of mine and Mark’s girlfriends brother). Cliff notes from meeting the lads onwards;

- Pitcher & Piano “Double vodka redbulls” (21:00)
- Revolution “Double vodka redbulls” (23:00)
- Madame Koos “Double vodka redbulls and double Sambuca’s” (00:00)
- Blu Bambu “Double vodka redbulls” (03:00)
- Grosvenor “Double vodka redbulls and 50NL” (05:00)

Leaving the Grosvenor when the game broke at around 08:00, so yeah I’m still Dan “Fucking” Trett (as is my common nickname now over NPF). I’ve just realized I haven’t discussed any poker, guess I’ll quickly recap some of my recent tournaments;

- I open 90% of pots
- I’ve got the check/fold play boxed
- I’m a calling station particularly when dead vs. river value bets
- I love getting my chips in way behind
- My favourite position is OOP
- I berated people because they’re better than me
- I angle shoot everybody
- My friends deal self-dealt cash games to rig the deck in my favour
- I check back ace’s full on the river, villain might be C/R with quads
- I defend my BB and SB with ATC
- I’m the best in Newcastle at being felted first
- I Check AA out the BB vs. 9 limpers to trap
- I'm a master of the PF limp/call but prefer the limp/fold
- I'm a specialist at the Grosvenors new £1 satellites
- I once posted an ante
- I love hearing about everybody’s bad beats
- I heard a rumour about a level five, but yet to experience it

So yeah guess I’m saying I can’t be arsed to discuss poker, but from time to time (not very often mind) I will drop a little bit poker theory and strategy into my posts. Looking forward and as I mentioned at the start of this post there is plenty for people to look forward to in the near future;

Saturday 19th February: CGK Team Game “Grosvenor”
Saturday 26th February: NPF Football “North Shields”
Tuesday 15th March: Circus £100 NLH F/O “£10,000 Guaranteed”

I’m actually a captain in both the February event’s, see links to my teams;

TRETT MOTHER FOCKERS “CGK Team Game”
Where’s Wor Leader “NPF Football”

So yeah I have two great bunch of lads and I’m excited to do battle both across the felt and on the courts, of course in the usual NPF friendly but competitive style.

Thanks for reading guys, until next time.

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December 2010 Recap

Date: Wed, Dec 29, 2010 Live Tournament

Yo Guys. I've launched this two day's early because I'll likely be too busy at the start of January 2011 and flying to Tenerife on 7th, so not wanting FTP fans to miss out on our festive recap. This mean's shenanigans from New Year's Eve won't make it onto this recap, not to worry though as I'll touch on it at the beginning of my January 2011 recap. So before delving into this month’s exploits, I’ll quickly brush over where I left my November recap. Mark was deep in the newly launched Aspers Sunday (28th) afternoon tournament, he ended up finishing seventh for £305 after running AQ into John Kirsopp’s QQ. Then another final table on the closing day of the month (Tuesday 30th) over at Circus for their £2,000 guaranteed, however on the wrong end again as he bust in eighth for £80. Moving onto this month and Circus launched their new Friday night tournament with £500 added on the opening weekend of the month, both Mark and I played this unsuccessfully and bust relatively early. Then Sunday (5th) we played both the Aspers freezeout and Circus double chance (£194 total outlay) with no return, so a slow start to the festive month. Tuesday we headed back to Circus for their flagship monthly tournament, this time joined by George and no return on investment between us.


On Thursday 9th I got new Teamdobbs signing Andy ‘KQ4EVA’ Blair in the tank, when I launched this interview it proved to be the most popular FTP post to date. The feedback I got through FTP, NPF, facebook, and in person was nothing short of phenomenal, I guess it goes someway to showing how nice a guy Andy is but also how popular the FTP Interview series is with our followers. Check this out over;

Interview w/Andy Blair

The following Friday (10th) I abandoned the Circus weekly tournament to hit it up with the Walkers Sensation’s for their Christmas night out, these are all ace guy’s who as well as top players are all my good friends. Cliff notes;

- Lunch and pints at Brockwell Seam, Cramlington (12:00)
- Drinking games all day with Saturday Crew (12:00-20:00)
- Taxi to Osborne’s, Jesmond (20:00)
- Double vodka redbulls with Walkers Sensations (20:00)
- Taxi to Beyond, The Gate (22:00)
- Bar crawl with Walkers Sensations (no idea which bars) (23:00)
- 50NL at Aspers, The Gate (00:00)
- FYEO for some dances (alone, weirdo) (02:00)

The theme was Christmas jumpers, which will go someway to explaining why their all wearing those trendy knitted tops. Check out an ace review of the evening over NPF by Walkers Sensations affiliate Dave ‘FarmerDave’ Mount;

Sensations Xmas Night out Review (just to help Buzzzz remember)

It was the first of many of drunken Christmas nights out, all of which I’ll mention at some point in this recap. Back to our usual weekly schedule on Sunday (12th), Tuesday (14th), and Friday (17th) where we played all the added value and guarantee tournaments across Circus and Aspers, again nothing in return despite a couple of deep runs.

Note: FTP affiliate Dan Trett (as far as I know) is the only person to have played both the Aspers (£50 freezeout) and Circus (£20 +1 Rebuy) on Sundays for the three week’s they’ve both been running concurrently. A record closely followed by Mark Trett and Andy Blair, who with several other’s have played in both events two out of three time’s. Not really anything to be proud of but M’EH, show’s I’ve got going bust in the opening level’s boxed. Anyway this is a run that came to an end as of Sunday 19th, as you will go on to read it was FTP’s Christmas party which stopped me playing my regular Sunday schedule.

On a side note the Grosvenor launched their new schedule (effective as of 17th January 2011) on Monday 13th December, this got mixed reactions and was heavily debated over the NPF. I’m personally excited about all the added value tournament’s for next year (£2,500 per a week over Grosvenor alone), but also pessimistic about the longevity of the current tournament situation in Newcastle. With so many added value tournaments across all three Newcastle casino’s we like the rest of the Newcastle poker community will have to be selective over our weekly choices, it’s fine for those guys who are new to the game and are keen to play seven nights a week but the majority simply can’t be arsed. Our loyalty is with Circus so this will always be our first choice and when no tournaments there we’ll look to Aspers and Grosvenor, also in the foreseeable future with so much added value in Newcastle our trips to Teesside will be few and far between. It just doesn’t make sense to travel fifty miles down the road for a £1,000 added tournament, when their is a local one on our doorstep. Check out the new Grosvenor schedule posted over the NPF by CRM Phil ‘The Big Cheese’ Chambers;

17th January 2011 New Schedule Launch

Saturday 18th was the third Saturday of the month which meant Teesside were hosting their monthly £100 freezeout, this was part of our monthly schedule but as of late we haven’t been getting down for one reason or another. Again we didn’t go and I went out with friends whilst Mark was at his work’s Christmas party, like I said earlier in this recap it’s unlikely we’ll be travelling down Teesside as much with all the added value tournaments on our doorstep. Then Sunday (19th) it was my Grandma’s eightieth birthday and we (by we I mean, Mark, Steve, Mum, Uncle John, Auntie Alison, Cousin Andrew, & Myself) had all agreed to head up to Alnwick Gardens for a meal at the Treehouse restaurant, however it was like an episode of Fawlty Towers as honestly everything that could go wrong did. Cliff notes;

- On the road: Cramlington > Alnwick (12:30)
- Driving conditions worsen further North
- Arrive Treehouse, Alnwick Gardens (14:00)
- Power cut across most of Northumberland (14:30)
- Restaurant closes, all we get is some complementary drinks (15:00)
- On the road: Alnwick > Cramlington (15:15)
- Driving conditions horrific, police say avoid driving at all costs
- Jack-knifed lorry on A1, delays for several hours (16:00)
- Take country roads, barely visible due to cloud of snow (16:30)
- Arrive Snowy Owl, Cramlington (17:00)
- Three course meal, my Grandma got to see us all together (17:30)


All’s well that ends well I guess and least we finally got together to celebrate with my Grandma, this however did have a knock on effect to my evening plans. It was FTP’s Christmas poker party over at the Killingworth Arms, which was scheduled for 18:30 beginning with a Christmas dinner. I rang Paul to explain we were running late and we’d skip the Christmas dinner as we’d just ate, moving on to cliff notes for the evening;

- On the road: Snowy Owl > Killingworth Arms (19:15)
- £72 NLH freezeout: Cards in the air (19:30)
- Tournament break: Cheeseboard & Play Your Cards Right (22:00)
- Split the tournament four ways for £450 each (23:30)

It was an awesome evening with a bunch of cool additions including a bounty on every player’s head, these were envelopes containing various stuff like cash, bottles of booze, Killingworth Arms vouchers etc. Finally I closed the evening (early morning) by grinding the 100NL for a couple of hours before Paul closed up around 01:00, so yeah although a frustrating start to the day it all worked out well in the end. Then the week before Christmas I might as well camped in Circus as they had their annual tag team tournament (Monday), weekly £2,000 guaranteed (Tuesday), and the Christmas league final (Thursday) which all unfortunately ended in zero return on investment for me but M’EH whatever.


Next up was Christmas eve and it’s tradition for me to hit it up in Cramlington village, so here goes with the cliff notes;

- Lunch and pints at Brockwell Seam, Cramlington (12:00)
- Drinking games all day with Saturday Crew (12:00-20:00)
- Taxi to Blagdon, Village (20:00)
- Here I met Dan Trotter, a dealer from Circus and an ace lad
- Blagdon: Double vodka redbulls and shots with Dan (20:00)
- Village Club: Double vodka redbulls and shots with Dan (22:00)
- San Lorenzo: Double vodka redbulls and shots with Dan (00:00)
- I was absolute wasted and lost Dan but found Michael Douglass
- Michael Douglass (AKA Dougy) is one of my best friends from school
- Phoenix: Double vodka redbulls and shots with Dougy (02:00)
- By now my bed is calling and I turn in (03:00)

So I’m sure you can all imagine I was hugely hung-over for Christmas day, but M’EH what’s new;

- Morning with my Mum and Steven (11:00)
- Visited my Grandma, Uncle, Auntie, and Cousin (12:00)
- Visited my Dad and Carol (14:00)
- Visit from Mark, Diane, Lauryn, and Zach (15:00)
- Christmas lunch with Mum and Steven (16:00)
- Evening watching Christmas TV with Mum (17:00-01:00)

So yeah Christmas day itself was fine I guess, not how Dan Trett usually spends Saturday’s but whatever. It was nice to see all the family and just relax, even if I was feeling a little under the weather. That brings us onto Boxing day which is always an ace day and this year was no different, as it’s a day I set aside for drinking and I was out with my Uncle Paul. Unfortunately due to other commitments their was only the two of us from the family this year, but nonetheless a smashing day. Cliff notes;

- Lunch and pints at Killingworth Arms (12:00)
- £50 NLH freezeout at Aspers: Cards in the air (16:00)
- Busto, so play some roulette/blackjack (17:30)
- Bar crawl round town, joined by Scotty Hocking (19:00)
- Binge drinking (double vodka red bull) & prop bets (odd man out) ensued
- Paul turns in, left with Scotty & I (23:00)
- Circus, decided we’ll go to Gibraltar to see Marc Mulhern (00:00)
- Taxied by Andy Blair AKA BlairDAWG at least on that night (01:00)
- Passport run: Circus > Scotty’s > Mine > Newcastle airport (03:00)
- DISASTER: No flights to Gibraltar (lack of planning I suspect)
- Deliberated about going somewhere else, but stay in UK (05:00)

Scotty Hocking

I guess everything didn’t go to plan but whatever still a smashing day/night, also on a final note regarding that night I would like to extend my thanks to Andy Blair who is simply a top man for putting up with our drunken profanities. Andy has actually posted a thread over the NPF, which details the shenanigans and is really funny. You can check it out here;

2 Idiots Abroad

For those of you not familiar with Odd Man Out (as briefly mentioned in the cliff notes), it was shown to me by Paul circa 2001 and it’s been very popular on family nights out ever since. I’ll explain below;

Odd Man Out
The game is played either heads up or three handed, all it requires is all players have a few notes of the same value. The rules of the game are simple, you randomly scrunch the note up in your hand and then communally open up the note revealing it’ serial number.
Heads Up
The winner is the player with the first odd number at the end of the note’s serial number, in the event of a tie with both players having an odd/even then the note is thrown into the pot and both players need to get another note (now the pot is doubled with the original stake and the rebuy). This process is continued until eventually there is an odd vs. even scenario, the player who holds an odd scoops pot.
Three Handed
The winner is the player who is the odd man out (so a little different in that it doesn’t have to be an odd number at the end of the note’s serial number to win). Again in the event of a tie, for example all three players have odd/even numbers then all the notes are thrown into the pot and all three players need to reload with another note. This process is continued until eventually there is an odd man out scenario, this can be one odd vs. two evens’ or vice versa.
Surrender
If a player either can’t or doesn’t want to rebuy, then they surrender all notes currently invested. If this happened during a heads up game, then the opponent would scoop the pot, however if this happened during a three handed game then they would revert to heads up rules until a winner was crowned.

I know FTP has enough degenerate drinking/gambling followers to make that explanation worthwhile, so to all enjoy and try not to play with fifty pound notes as it can have ridiculous swings (I know from experience, unfortunately).


So after the chaos of the festive season thing’s quietened down and I rested all Monday before taking back to the felt on Tuesday (28th) for Circus’ weekly £2,000 guaranteed. George, Kevin, and I were all in the field, and after running pretty well throughout the tournament I managed to split evenly for £360 each with my good friends Robert Richardson, Dave Stephenson, and Jack Allen.


This brings us to the present (Thursday 30th) and I'm currently just chilling out for a couple of day's away from the felt and the bar, kind of preparing for New Year's Eve tomorrow. I have no plans set in stone to see off 2010 but it's looking like I'll either hit it up at Daniel Trotter & Ian Robson's house party or head to Seahouses where a few of my boys have a cottage booked for the weekend. I was at the cottage last new year and it was fine I guess, but I'm in no hurry to rush back so the house party looking the more appealing offer for the minute. Whatever I get up to be sure to check out my January 2011 Recap, where I will for sure detail the evening with hopefully some photo's to accompany the description.


Looking forward to the opening month of 2011 and January look’s relatively busy, not including the weekly/monthly added value tournaments here is what’s happening;

Saturday 1st January: Circus £40 Double Chance “£500 Added”
Monday 3rd January: Mark Trett’s Birthday “32nd”
Friday 7th January: Tenerife Vacation “Dan, Steve, George, Paul, Kevin, Rob”
Saturday 8th January: SPT £100 Second Leg “Aspers”
Monday 17th January: Kevin Trett’s Birthday “44th”
Monday 17th January: Grosvenor Launch New Schedule “£2,500 Added”
Saturday 29th January: APAT UK Team Championship “Mark in Team NPF”

I’m really looking forward to hitting up some winter sun in the Canary Islands, we’ll be staying at Paul’s villa in Los Cristianos just a five minute walk from the vibrant nightlife of Playa de las Americas. I’ll look to mix the trip up with;

- Poker
- Sunbathing
- Drinking
- Girls (Optimistic)
- Restaurants
- Bars & Clubs
- Casino de Tenerife

Guess I’ll sign off for now by wishing all my friends and readers;

All the best for 2011

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Interview w/Andy Blair

Date: Thu, Dec 9, 2010 Live Tournament

Andy Blair (left) is a frequent NPF poster and a regular loitering around Newcastle casinos when not grinding online, as well as a genuine nice guy whom I personally always enjoy sitting with at the table.

I caught up with Andy and asked a number of interesting questions, some serious poker related and others comical. Welcome to FTP mate, I hope you enjoy your visit and all FTP readers enjoy going in the tank with December’s guest Andy “KQ4EVA” Blair.

DT “When and how did you get started playing poker? Did you have any inspirational poker players, books, moments, shows, etc that were instrumental for you?.”

AB “I actually played live bf online, which is unusual. I wandered into Aspers a bit pissed after work night out, sat at the £1/£2 cash with the minimum £50 sit-down. The table sharks were licking their lips no doubt, but I proceeded to smash every flop and I left about 3 hrs later about £450 to the good. EZ game or so I thought. Of course this was actually the start of my losers apprenticeship (thankfully now served) as I began playing more and more regularly. I diversified into tourneys, also began playing online and so on.

Inspirational players really at that time when I began playing there was no where near the amount of coverage and info on poker as their is now, So its not big name pros. Probably biggest influence was James Browning, Basically the guy was always a pleasure to sit with (still is), tourney or cash, but always took time to be pleasant, ask how things were, what u playing how u doing etc, and just snippets here and there, suggestion of something I should read and so forth. Effectively he alerted me (bit of self realisation too) to the fact I knew so little about the game. (I know at same time he was discussing things with me he was equally trying and very successfully at that to take my money). I also watched the guy interview Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari on the poker channel on sky, I never missed this show -Kara Scott a big draw too to be fair.

I have read a load of books and like all the standard tourney stuff from Harrington, Sklansky etc, but my favourite author is John Vorhaus, cos he really gets u thinking about the application of knowledge, not just passive reading. Equally love Treat your poker like a business by Dusty Smidt (not that I have one ounce of that mans determination to succeed).”

DT “Your screen name over NPF is KQ4EVA and your online alias is SNGKID, how did these come to fruition? Do you have any other nicknames?.”

AB “I dint really put much thought into screen names (wish I had, some ppls are really clever, mines a bit poor tbh) The KQ one on forum, just came out of a hand I like to play, I didn’t want the obv AA stuff and as mentioned above I used to listen to James browning who effectively said KQ rules in un-raised pots. Usually its a monster when it hits top pair cos AK and AQ hands have usually raised up. It also has more str8 potential and its the nut str8 whenever u make it.

I have been playing on SNGKID and KIDSNG for best part of this year and those names were pretty much cos I wanted a young image hence the kid, and i was playing mainly sngs at around time I set these up, I also have a young girl avatar over at tilt. Cos even though I know the ladies of the game are to be respected, I think in the male ego driven world of poker If even just the odd player thinks I am some inexperienced meek girly who can be outplayed then that’s gotta work to my favour. I cant be three betting them with air can I really?.”

DT “Which super power would you like to have and why?.”

AB “In a poker sense its not even a super power it would be the conviction to fold when I know I am beat. If you want a superpower then it would be the power to make even the most miserable bastard see the funny side of things, cos we gotta get some pleasure from life. I mean I tired to crack some funnies with Davey Knight the other week - brushwood, bad karma etc. Here I would have evoked my power, Davey and I giggling our tits off about me cracking his monster with 92, ah lets have a drink Andy, f**k you played that bad and still got me chips, ha ha , pls loosen my corset Andy my sides are splitting.”

DT “Poker, skill or luck?.”

AB “Wow poker is so much more than either or both of these combined. Many skilful players wont win in long run due to other defects in their makeup, but then you all know that. I think its a golf quote, but the harder I practice the luckier I get is worth applying to your poker. I quite enjoy hearing how Mark the shark or Ifriker Ali or whomever are so lucky yet ppl fail to see that these guys have plenty talent too. Give me skill, discipline and dedication (I don’t have them ,but please give me them) - luck is just what we like to use as a scapegoat for our failings most of the time. People just don’t get probability, If Something has a greater than 0% chance of happening then somewhere at some time it will happen - accepting its easier to write these words than it is to handle losing when we feel we should have won.”

DT “Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with, Stevie Sensation or Machine? Why?.”

AB “Don’t I get to choose to throw myself head first down the stairs rather than take the lift ? Sensh is a keyboard warrior who likes to be controversial and machine is just way too ready to post the first thing that pops into his head and then get defensive when he gets flamed. Stuck in the lift with pair of them machine 20 schemes a minute to get us rescued, Sensh calling him a tard, oh and me doing a Simmy in my head - " Fuck my life, fuck my life, fuck my life" If I had to choose then it would be Sensh, let machine get on with enjoying his family life and his dreams, Sensh has nothing to give up and I might even have him eating with a knife and fork by the time we are freed.”

DT “Favourite and worst Hold’em hands?.”

AB “Obv I love to look down at the bullets, but as you know I like KQ too, and I love small connectors of course. I kinda hate the hard to play hands. I really don’t like all the off-suit Ace rag hands for the obv reasons of not knowing if your good when u hit.”

DT “Where would you go if you had a time machine? Why?.”

AB “I much prefer live in the moment, but that’s not to say I might not go back in time and put right a few of my own life mistakes or those made by historical figures. No I have decided I don’t have the right to play god, so its in the moment. shit this is like quantum leap u can go and do so much good or be so selfish too. Maybe I could just go back a handful of years, when I was a rather dashing younger than now Dermot O’Leary look alike, put myself into a spot to meet the then Cheryl Tweedy and boom Mrs Blair, cos she nahs I am worth it.”

DT “Most favourite poker tournament you’ve ever played in? Why?.”

AB “Would have to say all the NPF events are pure brilliant to play in and be part of bf, during and of course the banter after the event too on the forum. I don’t have any super major scores to speak of, but have won considerably more money in online tourneys than any live event - but the live stuff is just different gravy for the whole poker experience. This years NPF champs as much for all the great comments, backing and plaudits I got, as well as the fact I think I played a pretty good tourney too.”

DT “What’s your funniest memory from high school/college life?.”

AB “Had to be a trick I played on my brother when we were younger - school age, but this wasn’t at school. We were probably 14 and 13 respectively at time and it was a hot summer day and me him and a bunch of our mates were out messing around on our bikes. We lived near a boating lake and as i said it was a scorcher and loads of ppl having picnics, lazing about etc. He wanted me to buy him a King cone from the iccy and I said i would if he did a dare, which was to ride full speed off the jetty into the lake in front of everyone shouting “jerronimo”. he took a bit of persuading and the usual - u sure u not gonna welsh (grim) me. nah mint choc chip if u do it. it was like a cross between jackass and you’ve been framed - as he does the full speed stunt screaming jerronimo to a disbelieving crowd with devastatingly funny full head over heels flip as he hits the raised edge of the jetty. Hilarious, and to top it all the iccy drives off just as he is dragging himself and bike from the lake. LOL don’t think they make king cones anymore, still owe him that to this day.”

DT “I know you’re a profitable small stakes player online across a number of poker variants, do you feel your edge is bigger in say an online $10 razz tournament compared to a live £50 NLH tournament?.”

AB “Not sure I have an edge in live £50 NLH live tourneys, so would have to say Razz online, where my results presently over a reasonable sample suggest I do have an edge. I don’t think I am dead money locally but at same time it wouldn’t take me very long to list a load of players who I rate certainly more highly than me. fatfish, Ifrikher Ali, mrmagoogle, buzz, Samj19, JGEEK, GazWalker, the whole Stumpy clan, the Trett Taliban, the Costa killers - and the list goes on. If you aren’t in the above your probably on page two of players who own my sole.”

DT “You found a genie in a lamp, three wishes?.”

AB “Here goes;
1) Bad beat stories and threads would be no more.
2) A room for Sensh and machine would appear and they would sort their shit, maybe even TD, Scott and Pads make friends.
3) A happy life for my kids and other family and friends, well actually lets just do world peace and happiness and I think that takes care of 1 and 2 also (gay post fully expected by Phlmc).”

DT “Most favourite variant of poker and why?.”

AB “I haven’t found a format I don’t liked and I keep trying. I enjoy horse, 7 game, 10 game mix a lot. I think it keeps u from getting bored and if your decent at a handful of the games and as long as your not terrible at the others then u have a head start. I will list the games I play in roughly the order I enjoy them (that’s not by profit btw) It can be a mood thing though and one thing I will say is I find huge field tourneys very frustrating I have to really be in mood for them or I am just making up numbers. So here’s my rough order of preference.

1) Stud H/L
2) Razz
3) NLHE
4) Stud High
5) 2-7 Triple Draw
6) Badugi
7) 5 card draw
8) Omaha H/L
9) PLO
10) 2-7 single draw
11) FLHE”

DT “Favourite movie?.”

AB “I loved The Shawshank Redemption, basically a classic. Rounder’s good for a poker enthusiast, and I also like Reservoir Dogs and that kind of stuff.”

DT “I understand your currently going through some training/tuition to improve your game, tell us a bit about that?. How do you think it‘s helped to date?.”

AB “I have done less than I would like with this but its a long term thing and the more time I find for this the more I will gain. Basically for a whole host of reasons I wanted to find a staking agreement which included coaching or alternatively pay to be coached. I ran a few small stakes on PTP all turning a profit plus stake returned to the backers, and actually making a 1k score for 1 backer from a $2.20 stake. I had to run some micros just to get someone to give me a shot. So basically got a little bit of a rep going and started to apply for not just individual tourney stakes, but full backing for mtt/sng etc to see what interest I could generate. I got a few messages and a few potential deals were taking shape. For those who don’t know u have someone offer a stake and set out the criteria they want you to meet, and u then apply, they review your application, check you out on sharkscope, OPR etc and come back to the ppl they want to give the stake to. Well I was partially interested in one offering, but the amount of coaching seemed limited and then another party from the site who had fantastic stats and a great rep on their came to me via pm and asked if we could start a skype convo and after playing and discussing my play for a while he offered me coaching and roll to play with for a 55/45 split his favour. Various other conditions and commitments from both sides.

Its going well in so much as I have shipped several lots of profit back to them (its a coaching group rather than an individual once I entered the setup), retaining my cut, and the full starting stake is intact and therefore I am not in any makeup. I have done some sweats and ghosts of their play and some HH review sessions, but less of this than I would like, lots of reasons. A shorter answer would be its early days, but positive from both sides so far.”

DT “What would you do with a billion pounds cash?.”

AB “All on black - one time.

Oh shit I have a birrion already, no need for all that roulette spin up, in which case of course I would go and sample some big live tourney action around the globe. Take care of all the family, friends. Buy and close down Sunderland AFC. Reinstate Hughton, ship him some dosh and make us the jigger.”

DT “You’re a degenerate high stakes blackjack player, what’s your thoughts on continually playing high stakes on a minus expected value house game?.”

AB “Erm -shhss - I have sounded so sensible up to now don’t u think. I reckon I am 80% normal guy and 20% degen (maybe I am kidding myself), but I don’t play expecting to win and not with money I cant afford to lose - aw how daft do I sound now. Lets just say I am working on playing less often. Its not something I recommend, in fact I am happy to discourage others in my periods of clarity on this matter. Its for fools.”

DT “What’s your affiliation with Teamdobbs? I know you have represented them on a couple of occasions in local team games, however your not recognised over their blog as an associate?.”

AB “I just made it to official status. Actually hope TD doesn’t mind me saying ALL this. But my affiliation as such started when I was looking to get involved in the team side of NPF and as a relatively light poster I didn’t have much of a rep. CGK put in a kind word, but TD didn’t really know me. So we agreed to meet at a local game soon and talk over the possibility of me playing for dobbas as a standin in the team game. We met at G when they first tried to kick off their £30,£20,£10 game. TD and I had a sit down chat bf the game and he told me a bit about the history of the team, the name, what it meant to him etc. I think for my part I blabbed about how I had been running, what I was winning etc. The game was about to begin and we broke off, he said well I don’t have a guaranteed place for u, so keep looking and GL. At time I kinda thought why ask me to have a chat about playing for the team, then tell me u don’t have a place, maybe felt a bit disheartened. Well I kept posting on forum various topics, played some NPF online games, had a few pm convos with TD, and he offers me a place to play the team game. To cut to the chase I realise now that whilst I was trying to tell him what a good poker player I was he was trying to suss out if I was actually a good person. Now u don’t tell someone your a good person u just have to demonstrate that by being yourself. Lesson for us all here in many ways. Official dobba and proud to say so. Thanks TD.”

DT “What would you most like for Christmas;

Mark “spoona999” Brewis’ Circus waistcoat?
Daniel “Full Tilit” Trett’s flip flops?
Dave “Jimmy Chipmunk” Stephenson’s Blueline taxi jacket?
Joe Peel’s Bentley motor?”

AB “Aint seen those flip flops since the snow, Is there no chance of a Mark Trett back to front cap like or the silver shades?.”

DT “What does Andy Blair like to do when not either gambling or working hard, do you have any interests, hobbies, activities you use to help you relax and chill out?.”

AB “I like a game of golf but don’t play well, I like to watch footy of course. I love to spend time with my kids, we go swimming, walking, camping, sledging more recently. Stuff like that. A pint or two with my dad or friends but not a big drinker these days.”

DT “How would you react if your transformed into Khadir “I call” Khoshawy?.”

AB “Wow that much improvement in one fell swoop. Pokers about characters, and he is certainly that.”

DT “What’s your dream NPF final table? Based on craic, ability, etc.”

AB “My dream would be to be at a final table without all the best players in Newcastle being their too, but I will have a go;

1) mrmagoogle: He simply crushes and always like some banter with him too.
2) fatfish: Doesn’t know an M from his arse, but Bulmer’s fuelled and he is unreadable and unstoppable.
3) SamJ19: I re-read a book by Tom McEvoy the other day and it was talking about the 4 bet invariably being aces - I nearly died laughing thinking specifically about Sam - A 4 bet might not even mean he has looked yet.
4) Nemesis: I have to have someone I can own, well at least in the speech play part of things, u can have the chips If I get the best of the verbal’s.
5) BOB THE GOD (GOB): Never a dull moment, great 1 liners, and tilts everyone into paying me off.
6) stumpy: Just pure class.
7) CGK: Doesn’t play often enough locally, top player and bloke.
8) knerrad: Solid player, good banter and someone needs to be drunker than fatfish
9) Dan or Mark Trett: Close match on playing ability and crack - maybe a tag team - u both cant make it one of u has to have had a CL blow up somewhere along the way
10) KQ4EVA: Self of course, well I can make up the numbers at least.”

DT “What does the close of 2010 and opening of 2011 hold for Andy Blair? Can we expect to see you frequenting the local Newcastle poker circuit?.”

AB “Some good local value popping up all over the place - so you’ll see me two/three times a week for the foreseeable. I want to bump up my online volume too. I qualified for Sky and might try and qualify for UKIPT in Newcastle too. I promised myself an away day too soon, so may well give DTD a whirl - not that i am good value for anything higher than a $6 sit n go. GL Me, and to you all.”

We here at FTP appreciate your time Andy, I’ve personally found doing this interview great and hope our followers find it equally enjoying. All at FTP would like to wish you continued success both on and off the felt, ladies and gentleman Andy Blair.

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November 2010 Recap

Date: Sat, Nov 27, 2010 Live Tournament

SUP Guys. Again a little premature but M'EH we had no success in the opening day of the month as Mark, Steve, and I all played the £50 freezeout over Aspers (Monday 1st), then we were all joined by George for the Circus £50 freezeout (Tuesday 2nd) who managed 12th place for £100.

Note: Gary (Aspers CRM) has discontinued the £500 added tournament on the 1st Monday of every month with immediate effect, this was met with mixed reactions around the tables and over the NPF. Personally I thought it was an astute move, I supported the tournament but never agreed with the reason’s (or at least the widely recognized reason’s, true or not) it was launched or it’s timing. To me it looks like Aspers and Circus are building a healthy relationship to benefit poker in Newcastle, looking to coexist spreading the value tournaments evenly across the month over both venues rather than competing for the same custom on the same dates (or within close proximity). Gary in association with Aspers has since launched a weekly £50 (+£5) freezeout with £1,000 added every Sunday afternoon (commencing 28th November), meanwhile Circus team have launched a weekly £30 (+£3) freezeout on Friday evenings this has been added to our FTP calendar.


Then the following weekend (Saturday 6th) was the most anticipated event in the Newcastle poker calendar, the most prestigious tournament of the year for all NPF affiliates I am of course talking about the 2010 NPF Championships. I was nursing a hangover after partying with friends the evening before, but M’EH nothing too serious and I was well excited. I was drawn a tough starting table (as I guess they all were) with NPFers xenocode, FarmerDave, BGR, omahaha, and GiMac amongst others all looking to take my chips. Cliff notes for the weekend;

Saturday 6th November
- Cards in the air (15:00)
- All you can eat dinner buffet in Circus restaurant (19:00)
- Dan & Mark bust level eight (22:00)


On Sunday I was in attendance alone, whilst Mark took his lovely wife Diana out to Morpeth for a meal to celebrate their sixth year wedding anniversary.

Sunday 7th November
- Bounty side event (15:30)
- Bust level three (16:30)
- Chicken baguette & fries (17:00)
- Railing main event (17:30)
- Circus weekly £2,000 guarantee (18:00)
- Main event trophy presentation (22:00)
- Split the £2,000 guarantee with Karen Newton for £580 each (03:00)

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FTP 1st Birthday

Date: Sat, Nov 6, 2010 Live Tournament

Hey Guys. It’s been over a year since I launched FTP on November 2nd 2009, so this is kind of a belated birthday post where I’ll take time to reflect on how far we’ve come in our opening year. Shortly after we launched FTP we followed it up with an official FTP facebook page, this was greatly received as our members list just grew and grew. We currently have north of 1,500 fans over facebook, if you have an active personal facebook account please support our group. Follow the widget below for our group;

On a sour note and I guess coins the philosophy ‘for every good there is an equal bad’ we have an almost dormant FTP twitter account which is a stark contrast to our popular ever updated FTP facebook group. The twitter account was launched to provide live in-running updates of our tournament schedule, however after tweeting our first tournament I found it very tedious and didn’t give it a second chance. This is disappointing as I have launched a ‘Live Tournament Updates’ section on FTP to work in association with our twitter account, so FTP fans without a twitter account can still closely follow our tournament progress via FTP. I don’t expect to run live updates for our usual light schedule, however I will make every effort to run updates via twitter for the more prestigious tournaments we enter during FTP’s second year.


The increase in traffic to FTP has meant when searching for ‘Full Trett Poker’ via Google we have an impressive 2,500+ hits, I hope we can continue to build on our popularity and hits in our second year.


Although Google offers us worldwide publicity we are acutely aware our regular loyal readers are locally based in Newcastle, for this reason FTP has it’s own thread over the NPF dedicated to our blog which I understand is one of the most popular threads within the NPF blogs section. See link below to the FTP unique NPF thread;

Full Trett Poker Blog

This boasts almost 250 replies and astonishingly nearly 10,000 views, it gives us great satisfaction knowing that our friends around the local Newcastle casinos are still enjoying FTP as much now as they did a year ago the day it was launched. In recognition of this support we share links with a host of very popular Newcastle bloggers including;

Teamdobbs (Team captained by Dave Collins)
Marc Mulhern
Ross Johnson

Amongst several others. Other notable achievements are our blog comments which if I remember correctly is somewhere near 250, albeit a lot of those are replies from both myself and Mark to fans comments but whatever still impressive. Although predominantly a poker related blog, anybody that knows me will know I find endless discussions about hands and theory to be boring. I don’t mind it in moderation but I took FTP in a more easy reading direction, involving our poker exploits and experiences both on and off the felt. This if you ask me proved pretty popular amongst our readers with;

Interviews (In The Tank With…)
Trip Reports (Travelling Misdemeanours)
Calendar

Three of our most popular sections, the first two neither talk in any detail about poker levels and the calendar is useful for both affiliates and fans to know which casino/card room we can be found loitering around. Recently I signed FTP up to http://www.pokerwonks.com/ in September 2010, this is a site for blogs containing poker content. It provides updated content from 100+ poker blogs globally, signing up gives FTP the perfect platform to expand our audience and build on our already impressive following.


One piece of advice I will pass onto fellow bloggers, not that I’m in a position to be lecturing after a year of blogging I’m still very much a novice but whatever. In order to maximise the longevity of your blog and to keep your enthusiasm it’s imperative your blog evolves with you, for example see a few changes I made over time to help keep my motivation;

Hands, Theory, & Levels: I started FTP hoping to discuss in detail some difficult spots but quickly realized this wasn’t the direction I wanted to take FTP, this evolved and I can say for sure if I tried to polarize FTP to strategy discussions I would have walked away from it a long time ago.

Acronyms & Abbreviations: I originally started FTP using a number of short handed a acronyms and abbreviations to help me type quicker, this wasn’t welcomed very well by my readers and I got several requests to cut them out. I was reluctant to do this but gave power to the people and began writing excluding all acronyms and abbreviations, pretty quickly I was surprised that it actually wasn’t much slower and now much prefer FTP without (or at least very few) abbreviated text.

Labels & Sections: I’m always looking to add innovate exciting new sections to the blog, some in the past have proved popular and others not so much. For example our Interviews and Trip Reports section are both very well received but our Heads Up section although has potential never got going passed the initial CGK vs. MBK feature. But whether my new sections succeed or fail it’s the challenge that keeps me motivated, and in turn helps the longevity of FTP.


Finally I would like to say a huge thank you from all at FTP to every single one of our loyal fan base, we really do appreciate all your feedback (positive and negative) and continued support.

Here’s to FTP’s second year.

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Monthly Recaps

Date: Sun, Oct 31, 2010 Live Tournament

Below are links to our monthly recaps, beginning in July 2010 and working chronologically towards the present. These detail all FTP affiliates monthly exploits both on and off the felt, giving a brilliant insight into our day to day affairs.

July 2010 "FTP crowned Grosvenor world cup tag team champions"
August 2010 "Dan Trett leaves Cubs after 13 months service"
September 2010 "Gary Ramsay leaves Circus to join Aspers"
October 2010 "Marc Mulhern leaves Newcastle emigrating to Gibraltar"
November 2010 "Rob 'BSQ' Charlton crowned 2010 NPF champion"
December 2010 "Dan Trett's Christmas festivities"

Note: The smaller red italic text is just the highlight (or interesting story) of the month, for full monthly synopsis follow the links.

These are for all FTP followers to read at their leisure, we do hope you’ve had a pleasant visit so far here at FTP and enjoy your chosen monthly recap.

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October 2010 Recap

Date: Sun, Oct 31, 2010 Live Tournament

Hey Guys. Awesome opening weekend of the month so FTP affiliates Mark and Dan head to Chester-le-Street on Saturday 2nd October for our good friend Dawn Wills 40th birthday party, the drink was flowing and the banter was great with exceptional company. Here’s some photo’s courtesy of Alison McAree which are worth 1,000 words;


On the tail of that night our usual busy start to the month ensued with the Circus £2,000 guaranteed (Sunday 3rd), Aspers £500 added (Monday 4th), and finally the Circus £1,000 added (Tuesday 5th). A collective total outlay of £304 between Mark and I, fortunately I split the £2,000 guaranteed with the adorable Rachael Costa for £525 each which gave us a modest individual profit of £110 across the three events. Quick mention to both Jimmy of Circus and Gary of Aspers who did brilliantly to have two fantastic back to back tournaments with Circus generating 167 runners and Aspers 102, like I said over the NPF Gary’s transfer can only be good news for players. To my knowledge 167 entrants over at Circus is the biggest £50 event to have been held in Newcastle;


After a couple of rest days I was back out in Newcastle for a friends birthday on Friday 8th October, another unbelievably messy night but the upshot of this was I had a bouncing head for the £50 freezeout at Circus on Saturday afternoon. Their is normally £500 added to this tournament, however for a one off Jimmy had decided to add a £1,300 package which included;

£1,000 (+£80) The Big Game
£220 Travel & Accommodation

The event is to be held in The Palm Beach Casino down London and is scheduled for Monday 1st November, so in the event I’m successful in winning this seat I’d be travelling directly from my ‘NPF Blackpool Jolly’ to London. Which albeit is not the best preparation, but whatever guess I’ll be ok. Unfortunately I didn’t have this problem as I bust in level four before heading home for a Chinese takeaway and an early night, the following day (Sunday 10th October) I had the same fate as I again bust level four and was home pretty sharp.


I had my usual Tuesday evening visit to Circus for there evening tournament (this is an identical tournament to what they have on a Sunday but without the unrestricted guarantee, in order for Circus to guarantee the Tuesday game at £2,000 they require 50 players). They did manage to gather the 50 players in order to generate the £2,000 guarantee but neither Mark or I were in on the spoils as I bust in the twenties and Mark was the final table bubble in eleventh. I was back out a couple of days later on Thursday 14th for one of the Circus dealers birthday celebrations, I have a vague memory of this due to stupid amounts of vodka red bull so we’ll go with cliff notes;

- Vodka red bulls during happy hour at Osborne’s with Mark Brewis
- Spy bar with Circus dealers and friends
- More drinks in town “I actually have no idea which bar(s)”
- £30 (+£3) Circus Tournament

Then enjoyed some rest days before Saturday 16th which was the date for our friends Steve and Alison’s engagement night out, I headed out to meet Steve & Alison (AKA Mr. & Mrs. Fatfish) as well as Steve & Dawn (AKA Mr. & Mrs. CGK) and other friends at Pitcher and Piano on the Quayside. Another awesome drunken night with little to zero memory, cliff notes;

- Heinekens at Pitcher and Piano
- Tapas at La Tasca
- Vodka red bulls at Pitcher and Piano
- Blackjack and cocktails at Grosvenor

I would have accompanied this engagement recap with some ace photos but unfortunately Alison had her bag stolen in the Grosvenor at the end of the night, which had the camera in with all the photos.


Saturday 16th was also the third Saturday of the month which meant it was FTP’s monthly trip to Teesside for the £100 freezeout, however after I had said I was off out in town Mark decided not to travel alone so unfortunately no member of FTP was in the October field. As things stand neither of us have anything planned for Saturday 20th November, so we’ll both be looking to get back to business as usual and back down there for this fantastic value event.


Things went quite during the backend of the month whilst we reverted to our normal light weekly schedule over at Circus, however on Tuesday 26th I ended up having a random night out to send off Marc Mulhern who flew to Gibraltar on (Thursday 28th) for a career change as mentioned in my September recap. Marc, Scotty (Hocking) and I all played the weekly Circus tournament and as is likely given all our style we were bust before level four, however not looking to waste the evening we hit it up out in town on the treble vodka redbulls. Needless to say this evening turned very messy very quickly, I have vague recollection of the night which holds both sweet and sour memories but M’EH.

Anyway this monthly recap appears to be more focused on my nights out, so lets get back on track and discuss some poker (afterall it’s Full Trett Poker) which came in the form of the sixth and final leg of the CBMPT so both Mark and I travelled up to Edinburgh on Friday 29th October. I was actually scheduled to head north to Blackpool for Halloween weekend with a few of the NPF lads, but the trip never came to fruition so I made provisions to join Mark in Edinburgh. The schedule included an opening £200, a £500 main event, and a closing £100 and it was our intention to play both the opening and main together leaving scope for one of us to play the closing if the they other was still grinding day two of the main so as to be in the casino for the sweat and morale support. I was a little behind schedule leaving Newcastle, so I tried to get in touch with Mark in order to buy me into the opening event on Friday but he was having trouble with his phone network signal. I ended up arriving about 19:45 and missing the cut off for late registrations, I wasn’t too bothered though but in order to give me some incentive for the evening I bought 25% of Mark’s action. After having a quick bite to eat over at the buffet I wished Mark good luck and went to hit it up over at the 100NL, this was a rather fascinating table in that I was sat with five Newcastle (Whitley Bay to be exact) based poker players non of which I had ever met. They were all really nice guys and knew Tommy Dunwoodie quite well through their local snooker club, anyway just goes to show exactly how many poker players we actually have here in the North East.


I really enjoyed the craic on this table and it was made even better when I cashed out for £280 profit to sweat Mark win the £200 side event for £5,650, of which I got £1,410 for my 25%. By now it was like 5:00am so we headed back to our hotel looking to get some rest ahead of the main event the following day, staying at Edinburgh Capital Hotel which was about a 10 minute drive from the casino. We slept through until approximately 11:00am on Saturday 30th October, below are our cliff notes for the day;

- All you can eat breakfast buffet in hotel restaurant (11:00)
- Swim and sauna at hotel health and fitness club (11:45)
- Cards in the air (14:00)
- Dan bust level two (15:30)
- All you can eat lunch buffet in casino restaurant (16:00)
- Mark bust level three (16:30)
- On the road home to Newcastle (18:00)


So a relatively short stay but all the same a profitable and enjoyable weekend. That pretty much wraps things up for October (all though both Mark and I are playing the £2,000 guaranteed over Circus this afternoon but M’EH I‘ll cover that if anything exciting happens), and that’s followed by a busy start to November;

Monday 1st November: Aspers £50 (+£5) “£500 Added”
Tuesday 2nd November: Circus £50 (+£5) “£1,000 Added”
Saturday 6th November: £50 (+£5) NPF Championships 2010 “Circus”
Monday 8th November: CBMPT 2011 Sponsorship Play-Off “Mark”
Friday 12th November: £1000 (+£70) GUKPT “Mark back in Blackpool”
Saturday 13th November: Circus £50 (+£5) “£1,300 MTT package added”
Saturday 20th November: Gala, Teesside £100 (+£10) “£1,000 Added”

Note: The CBMPT 2011 Sponsorship Play-Off is assuming Tom Fielding doesn’t cash enough to over take Mark as the tours top money winner going into day two of the Edinburgh main event this afternoon, he has 35,500 so I’m sure Mark will be monitoring AWOP updates with interest today.

So yeah pretty hectic start to the month before a quite period in the backend of the month, especially for Mark who will clock some miles as he makes two trips to Blackpool within five days.

Thanks for visiting guys, good luck at the tables.

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Interview w/Dave Collins

Date: Sat, Oct 23, 2010 Live Tournament

Dave Collins (left) is one of two moderators (the other being his son Scott Collins) for my local forum the Newcastle Poker Forum (abbreviated as NPF in future reference during this interview).

Ahead of the NPF 2010 Championship I decided to catch up with the man behind the scenes and coincidentally the current NPF champion, after taking down the NPF 2009 Championship event. Welcome to FTP mate I’m pleased you agreed to this interview and I know for sure our readers will enjoy being in the tank with Octobers guest Dave Collins.

DT "When and how did you get started playing poker? Did you have any inspirational poker players, books, moments, shows, etc that were instrumental for you?."

DC "I first started playing poker after catching my 15 year old son online and asking what he was doing. Turns out he was actually playing poker. I soon downloaded WillHill and playing free money under the table name 'deeirun'. I soon got bored with this as being a gambler, the lure of winning money was too strong. A few Saturday afternoon freerolls later and initial success convinced me the road to riches had been invented and my first cash deposit was made. It took no time at all to be £200 down and then a £2 multi table tournament win gave me a + bankroll.
At the time, I was involved with a good friend of mine betting on football which we were very successful at losing. I thought I better not let him miss out on this chance and told him about this exciting game called poker I had been introduced to. He was soon online himself playing under the name of 'Monacokev' and within a very short period of time the wins started pouring in for both of us (Monacokev has since changed his name to the well known 'Azimut')."

DT "I understand you’re the leader of Teamdobbs, I have a few questions regarding this Newcastle based team. How was the name ‘Teamdobbs’ born? How and when was the group formed?."

DC "The name Teamdobbs was born so simple. I had branched out when I was brave enough into the world of live poker playing Friday nights mainly at the Grosvneor Casino in Newcastle where I met and became very close friends with a young lad called micky “Gyposdog” Chisholm. Each week at the Grosvenor the winner of the multi tournie was given a card marker which we named as " Dobbers " Banter began with us as to who had the most dobbers and from there we chose players who had the same sense of humour and who in our opinion were good lads cos as we all know the game is full of up their own arse wankers. The Grosvenor then on our request decided to have a " Team " event challenge and from their we selected 8 good lads ( not necessary the best 8 players ) who would form Teamdobbs. The crack this created was unreal as week after week we dominated tables with crack which no others could compete against.The prestige of being selected in Teamdobbs has now stuck with these players and the bond has remained. We now have a group of around 12 players."

DT "As mentioned in your introduction along with Scott you launched and now moderate the NPF, so I’d like to ask a few questions regarding this forum. What was your inspiration to create this community? What motivates you to keep providing exceptional NPF events for members to enjoy?."

DC "I was quite an active member on another poker forum when my son S2C suggested we start our own forum to promote local poker in the North East. I thought this was a great idea as basically the local scene was governed by the 3 Casino venues which seemed intent on cutting each others throats instead of working sensibly together. Players also lacked a lot of free information what was available and so S2C put the technical side of it together and I basically become the gob shite/front man for it and we set about promoting it. What really kick started it off and got it noticed was when we did live coverage of the GUKPT in Newcastle to follow and give the local players attention which paid off massive when local lad Ganesh Rao took down the title and that final table 3rd place finisher was no other than the now famous and WSOP Main Event Final Tabler James Akenhead.
A couple of team games played in Blackpool in AWOP & APAT events then really launched the forum into the poker scene and its simply grew and grew with the backbone of the forum based on people enjoying themselves and having good crack at games. Biggest thing that has came out of the forum is the amount of close friendships that have been formed and no matter what game you attend now in Newcastle you can go in knowing you will meet someone from the NPF and have someone to talk to instead of entering into sometimes intimidating surroundings."

DT "What’s your thoughts on the recent Sam James staking controversy over the NPF? For example how do you think it compares/differs to the Steve Gibson revelation?."

DC "We have laid down guidelines at the NPF regarding staking people but the difference between the NPF and other forums where people seek staking is the vast majority of people know each other and can easily make contact should there be any major disputes arise. All Ill say on the subject is that many many players play beyond their bankroll chasing the "big win" as they think it will solve all their aspirations. I dont believe in that as I know many of the younger players especially at the NPF where it would actually cause them more problems than they really understand. Players should simply play within their means and anyone getting staked and not playing that game should have the decency to immediately refund that money or have very good reasons why if unable to and to keep anyone involved up to date with whats happening."

DT "Following on from this I know along with Peter Newton your quite a regular and successful might I add backer, what’s your thoughts on staking in poker? Do you only invest if you see it as highly likely you’ll get an ROI or are you more motivated to give individuals a chance to play an event they otherwise wouldn’t have been bankrolled to play?."

DC "I look for many things tbh but mainly good value. Im deffo prepared to give local players an opportunity but I also would never stake anyone I didnt like."

DT "The annual NPF championships is imminent (Saturday 6th November) and last year this prestigious event was won by none other than your good self, so I’d like to cast your mind back last year and discuss this achievement. Did you find it difficult to fix so that a Teamdobbs affiliate won it two years running? In who’s favour do you intend on fixing it in this year? J/K. Seriously awesome achievement mate, was their any pivotal pots/spots which were instrumental in your victory? How does winning the NPF championships compare to your other poker achievements?."

DC "Well obvoiusly one of the Dobbas will do the honour of keeping the Champion within the camp and I reckon Stumpy, Jimmy Chipmunk or Cardguard Kid will do it. Obviously going to be very difficult for Cardguard to compere and play but if superstition has it then the Smoggie League winners have ran the same way of the NPF Champions. 1: Xenocode 2: Myself 3; Cardguard.
To win the NPF Championship meant so much to me obviously but I also know how much this game means to so many local players so was delighted I was able to take it down last year. 2 huge turning points were The renowned "Faetzy" hand when raising with Ace 10 to run into AQ & AK behind me but cudnt fold due to my stack size and value of pot even knowing Im miles behind. I get lucky making my straight and was back in the game then. I then win a huge pot late in the day with AA being shipped on by KJdd of Scotty Hockings and although he flops the world I hold and go into day 2 as chip leader which to be honest I never really looked like losing. Nice when it runs like that. I obviously hold that win as one of my best achievements for many reasons people outside of the North east may fail to truely understand."

DT "I understand away from the felt you’re the owner of DC Handrails & Ironworks Parts Ltd. and interested to know how you chose that career path? Have you always aspired to be your own boss?."

DC "lol Im a typical Leo and tbh dont like people telling me what to do but I like it the other way around. Was in steel fabrication work until I took the bull by the horns and branched out on my own in a subsidary type of buisness offering a particular service to companies like I used to work for. I did this very successfully for nearly 15 years but became bored and needed a bigger challenge so once I got the right guy to replace me on that side of the business I was doing I formed what is now known as DC Handrails & Ironwork Parts which supplies all kinds of items to fabrication and Engineering Companies. Got in at the right time tbh and particularly in the North East where we were the only people doing what we did. The business grew rapidly and is still growing with new direction coming from Scott who has joined the company and provides us with all his modern technology skills and is moving the company along alot of new paths."

DT "Activities and interests away from the poker table?."

DC "Its amazing how much time the NPF actually takes up my time but I do like travelling and hope to do alot more now Scott is established within the business. My business and family takes up alot of my time but Im also normally busy doing stuff around the house."

DT "Most favourite holiday destination?."

DC "Done alot of travelling tbh and love the Far East where they really know how to look after you properly. As a family we actually like Dominican Republic for a place to relax and chill out and I did really enjoy St Kitts Closer to home we all love Mallorca and could easily spend all summer there if other stuff allowed me. We looked to buy some property there a few years ago but property prices are far too exaggerated there and remain like that still."

DT "I know you’ve regularly got your ipod on whilst at the felt, what sort of music do you listen to whilst playing? Does it differ from music you listen to when away from the felt?."

DC "Omg I could get crucified for this. I listen to all sorts of stuff tbh ranging from up to date stuff to 70 s & 80s classics. Do like R&B with artistes like Ne Yo and lately Ive been hammering Ellie Goulding & Alicia Keys on the old ipod."

DT "Circus, Grosvenor, Aspers?"

DC "Twat of a question!!! They all have something going for them tbh from a personal point of view. G allways has a soft spot for me as its where I played alot of my poker when starting out playing live and met so so many great people there. Still my fav place for the craic and most relaxing place to play. Circus has grown on me although I only probs play there once a week if Im lucky. Cant but be impressed with how they operate and how theve turned that cardroom around and how much effort they put into the local poker scene. Have alot of time for JimmyB there who is one of the nicest and most genuine guys Ive met in the gambling industry.
Aspers have location and most luxury cardroom in the area and be interesting to see how Gary ( Ex Circus) drives their cardroom. Huge scoop for them getting the UKIPT from Poker Stars next year. Massive massive game that for the local area although Ill probably be gutted by missing it as its the same time as my annual WSOP visit to Las Vegas."

DT "I know you frequent Las Vegas regular mainly for the WSOP Seniors World Championships, in addition I know you have had deep runs in 2009 and 2010 finishing 97th and 168th respectively vs. 2,500+ player fields. Do you find the prestige of playing a WSOP event far outweighs playing a CBMPT or GUKPT for example? And how does it compare to playing NPF affiliate tournaments (Championships, Birthday game, Team challenge) for atmosphere, crack, and all round banter?."

DC "Anyone that plays poker and gets the opportunity should aim to play a WSOP Event. All about life experiences and alot of poker revolves around experience. Can never really compare how NPF do their events in comparrison to the others you gave as they simply have totally different approaches for obvious reasons. Its always nice when we get very positive and thanks for our games especially when players tell you thats the best game theve ever played in. Never under estimate the input there from Cardguard as his contribution is deffo unique to what he gives us. Dont play many of them but find GUKPT deffo tougher games than the CBMPT ones."

DT "Most favourite card room in the world to play and why?."

DC "Caesars Place but only during WSOP time as its always been very quiet outside of series time when Ive been but on last years visit I did love playing the new Aria Cardroom, Quality all around from the service to the tables to the valets.
Best tournament Ive played this year was In Mallorca for the 6th leg of the Spanish Poker Open. Deffo will play it next year and the cardroom and setting at The Mallorca Grand Casino was simply awesome."

DT "What part of poker do you dislike and why?."

DC "I really get frustrated by how so many players make the game over complicated and get all aggressive with others when they lose and in most cases its their own faults and theve played badly or not fully understood the situation and look to blame others.
I also get really annoyed at very arrogant players especially the younger element who seem to think by winning a game of poker makes them a better person. They should learn some life skills 1st and then poker 2nd. Alot of them that try to "live the dream" often end up skint and in alot of debt. They must remember that theres a hell of alot more losing players than winning players, they always seem to forget this."

DT "I understand you’ve been on a Caribbean poker cruise, how does playing on one of these luxury ships compare to playing in a brick and mortar casino? I’ve been really interested in going on a poker cruise for some considerable time but never put any wheels in motion? Do you have any companies to recommend booking any future endeavours through? Any advice appreciated."

DC "Loved the one I went on but had some quality company as well mind!!!! The ships they use are awesome and unreal tbh and I understand Ladbrokes have a very good one sailing in January. Cant be arsed to try and qualify online tbh as it doesnt interest me but theres always some packages get sold off at reasonable prices so Id keep an eye out for those nearer the time."

DT “What does the close of 2010 and opening of 2011 hold for Dave Collins? Plans for NPF? Plans for Teamdobbs?.”

DC "Some big plans & changes at work with the introduction of a new network system and alot of new products to market. Weve also invested alot of money in some new stainless steel products and hope to grow our new brand into the UK marketplace and safeguard position there. Business wise 2010 was very tough and I dont expect anything to change that much in 2011 as Im expecting a very very tough year again when you take everything into consideration regarding the economic climate we all face. Pokerwise I still need to ship one of the majors but need to cut out some bad mistakes Ive made when in a position to do.
I leave alot of the new plans and directions of the NPF to Scott and am there to promote and support him in whatever direction he steers it. Simple thing about the NPF is enjoy it as thats what its there for. Sometimes a few arseholes can try and spoil it for the majority but we will never allow that to happen and its only then that those type realise what they miss. Far too many quality people on the NPF and they will always out weigh the ************."

Thank you so much for your time Dave, I’ve really enjoyed bringing FTP fans in the tank with Dave Collins and hope you all enjoyed his views and opinions of life at and away from the felt.

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Interviews

Date: Sat, Oct 16, 2010 Live Tournament

Daniel Trett "FTP Moderator"
Simon Cameron "Simmy3k"
Paul Gardener "Swampy"
Jack Ellwood "jackellwood"
Tom Middleton "hitthehole"
Dave Collins "NPF Moderator"
Andy Blair "KQ4EVA"

Please enjoy these brilliant interviews that detail everything from their introduction into poker and culminating in their plans for the future. Furthermore if you would like to see anybody in particular "In The Tank" then please don't hesitate to contact FTP and we will explore the possibilty.

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Las Vegas 2010 Trip Report

Date: Sat, Oct 16, 2010 Live Tournament

SUP Guys. When I launched FTP in November 2009 I began publishing trip reports of my annual Las Vegas misdemeanours beginning in 2005, I intended to do these chronologically but because I went into great detail I only managed to make the first three live up to 2007. Here I’m reporting on my most recent 2010 trip so I’ve missed three trips once in 2008 and twice in 2009, however I am committed to writing them up they just may take several months or even years. Anybody who has read previous trip reports will agree they make enjoyable reading and a must for any first time (or regular for that matter) visitors to the bright lights, so leave it with me guys and I will for sure get on it when I have the time. See links to my previous reports below;

Las Vegas 2005 Trip Report

Las Vegas 2006 Trip Report

Las Vegas 2007 Trip Report

This trip was originally planned to be with my brother and fellow FTP contributor Mark but he had problems getting time away from his employer, it had already been postponed twice from January to July then July to September. So when Mark said of further delays I decided I was going to head out alone and agreed to go with him next year, when he shouldn’t be as busy at the office.


I flew out on Friday 17th September which was a good time for me, as I had several friends in town who I could hook up with upon arrival;

Rob Richardson (Known for approximately five years from being a regular poker player around local Newcastle casinos.)
Paul Ridgway & Co (Met this guy over at Hooters during my 2009 trip, absolute diamond geezer from Crewe and great friends for good measure.)
Henry Lau & Co (Met during my 2006 trip downtown at Golden Nugget, ladies man and man about town whom I always have a brilliant night out with.)

All these are first class guys who I have a mountain of time for, I couldn’t think of a better weekend to be in town with all these friendly faces around.


With this being a late booking I had to endure a nightmare 24 hour journey;

Newcastle > Amsterdam > New York > Las Vegas

I really don’t mind travelling as I keep myself busy downing endless amounts of booze or pop some sleeping tablets, both these I find help with making a speedy recovery from jet lag upon arriving at your destination. So I was at peace with the travelling I had ahead although it was far from ideal, anyway for a worthwhile cause I’m sure you’ll all agree.


I arrived on time approximately 21:00 Friday evening, I grabbed my luggage and jumped straight in a taxi to check in to the Wynn for four nights (I was actually in town eight nights but I‘ll get to that later). Quick synopsis of Wynn where I had a resort room and their really isn’t any room for complaints, I’ve read on website their commonly mistaken for stylish Manhattan, London, and Rome apartments and you can tell why;

- 640sq feet with wall-wall and floor-ceiling windows
- Panoramic Las Vegas Boulevard view
- Separate seating and dining area
- Flat screen LCD high-definition television
- Remote for curtains, lights, and television
- In room massage, manicure, pedicure, and hair styling available
- Impeccable room service menu
- Huge bath and wall mirror in bathroom
- Amongst many others


It was quite possibly the most elegant hotel I’ve ever stayed in, but when travelling alone I really only need a bed and a shower. Basically because it’s a little far North I found having to taxi to centre strip to see Rob (or South strip to see Tosh & Co) inconvenient and for that reasons if alone next time I would try to stay more central, but if with your partner then this is possibly the best option for a romantic stay in Las Vegas.

Anyway I didn’t hang around as I quickly showered and ironed my clothes, before taxing down to the all new Aria, City Centre to meet Rob who had been playing the evening $100 (+$25) tournament. I’m still undecided on how the eight billion dollar mega resort looks on Las Vegas Boulevard, I’ve heard mix reviews from both locals and tourists so I’m going to sit on the fence for the time being before giving my opinion of that place. He had recently bust from the tournament and I told him I had friends in town over at Hooters, so we should hit it up over their and take advantage of their $1.50 bottles of Budweiser’s which we did.


I have limited memory of the night from here onwards due to several vodka red bulls and various shots, however I’ll give brief cliff notes coupled with photo’s;

- $1.50 Budweiser’s at Pete & Shorty’s over at Hooters
- Vodka red bulls at Garden Bar over at Flamingo
- Cocktails at Bills whilst playing 100NL
- Tequila touchdowns (Mixed shot of Tequila & Mandarin Vodka) whilst playing $1 blackjack at Binions
- Cocktails over at Golden Nugget whilst playing 200NL


If I remember correctly Rob turned in around 3:00am after the Garden Bar before Tosh, Moz, and I hit it up downtown at Fremont Street. After all night of drinking, gambling, and partying it was around 11:00am and me in typical Dan Trett degeneracy style decided rather than head to bed I’d grind the $300 (+$30) Venetian deepstack with Rob. After getting some caffeine tablets and being very kindly treat to my lunch over at Panda Express by Rob I was just about ready to face the felt, all though I clearly wasn’t that’s what I was telling myself.


I actually got off to quite a good start and had like close to 40,000 (from my 12,000 starting stack) by end of level three, then I ran into a couple of cold spots;

T8h vs. AKh all in by the turn when the board read three hearts
KK vs. AA I still had an above average stack when I ran cowboys in bullets pre-flop

This sent me not only to the rail but to bed as I wished Rob good luck and taxied down to the Wynn around 15:00 after almost forty hours (including flights) drinking and on the go. Around six or seven hours later and I woke up after a nice rest but far from my best, I was very hung-over but managed to freshen myself up and head down to Venetian to sweat my 20% of Rob in the $300 (+$30) who I briefly spoke with and I understood he was nearing the final table;


I grinded the 200NL for a couple of hours making a modest $130 and Rob cashed in sixth place for just shy of $2,000 which gave me a tidy $380 so I was still in profit from the tournament, thanks for the equity swap mate as I’m sure you were acutely aware I wasn’t good value in the tournament giving my condition but M‘EH Vegas baby. Anyway afterwards it was around midnight and before leaving both Rob and I had discussed possibly eating over at Hash House A Go Go over at Imperial Palace, so after a quick discussion we decided to head over their and hopefully catch them for a late dinner before closing.


Note: This is a particularly nice restaurant but don’t go without a big appetite, the portions aren’t for the faint hearted.

We both opted for a chicken sandwich served with fries and a special homemade sauce, it was absolutely delicious and I would for sure recommend it if in town. I was obviously hung-over and as such didn’t really have a big appetite but still managed to get a fair way through it, see below the sandwich itself;


I picked up the modest bill of around $30 bucks before we decided to go our separate ways and call it a night, I know I had not long been up but I was really ill and felt another couple of hours in bed would do the trick. I slept for maybe another three hours to around 4:00am before heading down MGM Grand to meet up with Tosh & Co who were planning on watching the Man Utd vs. Liverpool game, after a couple of drinks in sports book there I recommended we head to Crown & Anchor (English pub I’m familiar with) for a good vibrant atmosphere during the game. They all agree and we head off in a taxi, it’s on east Tropicana avenue so a little far to walk from the boulevard.


The next few hours were drowned with Budweiser’s so again I’ll go with cliff notes;

- Budweiser’s at Crown & Anchor whilst watching Man Utd vs. Liverpool
- All you can eat breakfast buffet at Mad Onion in Hooters "very disappointing"
- Cocktails at Mandalay Bay whilst playing 200NL

This was before they decided to turn in around 16:00, I wasn't really tired after only being on the go twelve hours but just thought M’EH and decided to take a rest anyway and head to my room. I charged some service to my room which included;

- Philly Cheesesteak Baguette
- Banoffee Pie
- Large Pepsi


Then decided to enjoy my early dinner with some adult entertainment. I dropped off around twenty minutes after eating, it wasn’t till I got a text off Rob (approximately 19:00) who say’s he was going to play over at Caesars Palace that I decided to head back out. So after a quick shower and change I jump in a taxi bound for Caesars Palace and register late for the evening $150 freezeout, their’s approximately 40 runners giving a generous $1,850 up top. I make the final table with an average stack and ran really well winning QQ vs. AK vs. K8 all in pre-flop for a 150,000 chip stack and then started to apply some relentless aggression to the short stacks, this pay’s dividends as I get heads up with a 2:1 chip lead before agreeing to split first and second place prize money slightly in my favour as I take $1,700 to his $1,500. I was pretty pleased with the result, more so I could repay Rob his 20% equity after my previous epic fail over at Venetian.

Rob is still in grinding the 22:00 $80 tournament and I decided to head off to catch up with Tosh & Co over Hooters, it’s like maybe 3:00am now and I’ve been on the Budweiser’s whilst playing tournament so up for a little bit of partying. After I eventually knock Tosh out of bed (sorry dude but I have a no sleep rule in Las Vegas) we decided to head out, joined by Mark Sowerby;

- Cocktails at Bills whilst playing 100NL
- Sambuca’s and playing $3 blackjack at Las Vegas Club "Fremont Street"
- Breakfast at Wynn buffet
- Cocktails at Wynn whilst playing 500NL


By this time it’s like 15:00 (Monday afternoon) and both Tosh & Mark have headed back to Hooters, I’m still with Wayne but not for much longer as I decided to head up to my room and retire to bed. I sleep the majority of the afternoon before ringing Rob early evening to find out his plans, he explains he’s eating at Grand Lux Café, Venetian before heading over to Caesars for the $150 evening tournament. I’ve eaten at the Grand Lux Café before and it’s really good, I quickly freshen myself up before getting taxi to join him.


Monday evenings shenanigans in cliff notes;

- Dinner at Grand Lux Café “Courtesy of Rob”
- Evening $150 tournament at Caesars Palace “Bust on penultimate table”
- Clubbing at Tryst, Wynn “With Henry Lau & Co”

By now it’s like 4:00am Tuesday morning and I had already packed my suitcase and checked out of the Wynn, before heading down to Hooters to spend my last half an hour with Tosh and the boys playing some 200NL before heading to McCarran airport. I realize moments before leaving for the airport that I don’t have my passport, this is obviously an inconvenience as I’m chartered to fly out for 7:00am.


I head to the airport as normal and explain my situation to an absolute charming young lady named Monette who was Delta’s special services representative, she was extremely helpful and managed to change my flight to Saturday 25th September for a small surcharge. This would mean I would have a 25 hour layover whilst connecting in Paris, but M’EH I’d cross that bridge when I came to it and most importantly it meant I had some time to either find my passport or contact the British embassy to get some replacement travel documents. I headed back to Hooters to dump my suitcase in Tosh’s room, this was their last night and they were cool for me to stay the night but I’d have to find some new accommodation as of Wednesday 22nd September. I couldn’t be arsed to start searching for my passport immediately so just the made most of the situation and spent the day with Tosh & Co;

- Morning: Sunbathing by Hooters swimming pool
- Afternoon (early): Lunch at Snacks, Bellagio
- Afternoon (late): $300 (+$30) Bellagio tournament
- Early Evening (early): 200NL at Bellagio
- Late Evening (late): 200NL at Hooters

The late evening 200NL session ended up with Tosh and myself doing a 12 hour graveyard shift on the Budweiser’s and vodka red bulls from like 22:00pm through to 10:00am Wednesday morning, moments before Tosh checked out and headed to the airport.


Now giving that I’ve just done back to back graveyard shifts and not slept since waking up 19:00 Monday evening (approximately forty hours), my main concern was checking into a budget motel and getting some sleep. Fortunately the first place I came to was America’s Best Value Inn on Tropicana avenue (next door to Hooters), they gave me a reasonable rate for a three night stay (Wednesday - Friday).


I check in by approximately 11:00am and head straight to my room to catch up on some much needed sleep, around 10 hours later after a good sleep and taking advantage of the complimentary internet access I decided to head out around 21:00 (Wednesday evening). I retraced my steps from Monday evening/Tuesday morning and see if I can find my passport, unlikely as it may seem the first place I checked was Tryst, Wynn where I vaguely remember using it as ID for entry. I felt like I had found the jackpot as it had been handed in behind the bar and after a couple of security questions, showing them my Mr. Trett confirmation of my stay at the Wynn, comparing my likeness to the photo they handed it over. This was a big relief as I could now enjoy my extended stay, rather than spend my time chasing up the British embassy which I’m sure you can imagine would have been a right pain in the arse.


After this I headed back to north boulevard, cliff notes below;

- Dinner at south beach café over at Tropicana “Chicken sandwich, crisps, and pepsi”
- Cocktails at Excalibur whilst playing 200NL
- $1.50 Budweiser’s at Pete & Sharky’s over at Hooters
- Buffalo wings and fries at Hooters


By now it was around 10:00am Thursday morning and I was pretty well served after a graveyard shift from like 2:00am over at Pete & Sharky’s, but still with some energy I decided to head to America’s Best Value Inn and change into my vest and shorts before heading to the swimming pool. I’m only approximately 5 minutes walk from Hooters, so rather than use my swimming pool I head to Hooters which has more of an atmosphere with a bar, music, and pretty girls to admire. Cliff notes of Thursday;

- Morning: Sunbathing by Hooters swimming pool
- Afternoon (early): $100 (+$20) Wynn Tournament
- Afternoon (late): Lunch whilst playing at Wynn "BLT Baguette & Crisps"
- Evening (early): 500NL at Wynn

This took me to around 21:00 and been going since 21:00 the day before, so twenty four straight hours was enough for me to hear my bed calling so I took a taxi back to America’s Best Value Inn. I slept like a baby until around 9:00am Friday morning, cliff notes;

- Morning: Sunbathing by Hooters swimming pool
- Morning (late): Round table buffet over at Excalibur
- Afternoon: Sunbathing by Hooters swimming pool
- Evening (early): $100 (+$25) Aria Tournament
- Evening (late): 200NL at Aria, City Centre

I pulled another graveyard cash shift over Aria as I knew I had my flight home at 7:00am Saturday morning, I left the table around 4:30am to give me just enough time to pack and head to McCarran airport just in time for my flight. I again went to Delta’s special services kiosk and was dealt with by the same charming young lady Monette, I paid the small surcharge before making my way through to departures. My route home was;

Las Vegas > New York > Paris > Newcastle


With the inconvenience of staying over at Paris for twenty five hours, although I’ve never been to Paris so I would make most of my time there. Cliff notes of my time spent in Paris;

- Morning (early): Checked into ibis Accor hotel and got freshened up
- Morning (late): French breakfast buffet “very disappointing”
- Afternoon: Sightseeing “Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, etc”
- Evening (early): Dinner at Pomme de Pain
- Evening (late): 200NL at Aviation Club de Paris


Another graveyard shift and I left the tables in just enough time to taxi back to my hotel and grab my suitcase before heading to Charles de Gaulle airport for my short flight to Newcastle. That just about brings my most recent trip report to a conclusion guys, sorry for the majority of it being cliff notes but I’m really lacking motivation at the minute and couldn’t bring myself to go into as much detail as in previous trip reports. I am however still looking to launch my 2008 and both my 2009 trips eventually, but I guess patience’s will have to be a virtue.

Thanks for reading guys

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September 2010 Recap

Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 Live Tournament

Yo Guys. FTP associates Daniel and Mark had their usual busy start to the month;

Sunday 5th October: Circus £20 (+£2) +1 Rebuy “£2,000 Guaranteed”
Monday 6th October: Aspers £50 (+£5) “£500 Added”
Tuesday 7th October: Circus £50 (+£5) “£500 Added”

Sunday is pencilled into our weekly schedule and the two £500 added tournaments are monthly affairs which we frequent for the value, unfortunately we don’t cash between us and take a few days off before the CBMPT visit’s Teesside.


The opening event is a £200 freezeout on Friday 10th which I travel down to play alone, Mark opts to miss this to ensure he remains fresh for the main event the following day. I bust around level four after losing a flip for an average stack (77 vs. AKo), before losing another £100 over at the 100NL twice losing big pots holding AK. So a relatively early night meant I was also well rested ready for the £500 main event on Saturday 11th, a familiar face in almost every seat meant this would be an awesome tournament. It didn’t disappoint as at one point I was on a table with the following characters;

1) Myself
2) Unknown
3) Khadir “I call” Khoshawy
4) Rizgar “Borat” Qadir
5) Lee Danaher
6) Dave Collins
7) Mark Trett
8) Craig Newton
9) Ross Johnson

All with the exception of Lee and the two seat were regular Newcastle players, we all joked how it resembled a Circus £20 +1 Rebuy tournament on a Sunday.


I bust on the final level of day one after being comfortable throughout the day I began to struggle to keep my head above water after dropping to half chip average, eventually shoving suited connectors into AQo in an attempted to gather some fire power to bring back for day two. Mark put in yet another first class performance and managed to finish 2nd for £10,010, beating to 1st by none other than Dom Mahoney the guy he beat heads up in this exact tournament the previous year. Bitter sweet I guess for Mark but once the dust settled he was absolutely delighted with what can only be described as a quite remarkable achievement, I understand he has done a tournament synopsis but is having teething problems with his laptop so stay tuned for that all.


The following Friday (17th) I was flying to Las Vegas for my annual visit, I won’t go into any details as I’m in the process of writing my Las Vegas 2010 Trip Report which should be live by the middle of next week. I had a fantastic trip though as usual with a minor incident involving my passport, all will be revealed and I’m sure you’ll find the trip report very interesting and funny.


Since being back in the UK I’ve played once over at Circus on Tuesday 28th September, no luck there either as I bust shortly after the break with 1010 vs. JJ. Looking forward to October and although back to my usual light poker schedule, I have some ace nights out and weekends ahead;

Dawn Wills 40th Birthday Party “Saturday 2nd October”
Steve & Alison’s Engagement Night Out “Saturday 16th October”
NPF Blackpool Jolly “Friday 29th October - Sunday 31st October”

Finally I’d like to close by congratulating a few friends on successful months;

Gary Ramsay - The former Circus card room manager has left to assume the same role over at Aspers, Gary is a very enthusiastic guy who will grab this opportunity with both hands. Congratulations and good luck, here’s to some awesome tournaments imminent over Aspers.

Marc Mulhern - My very good friend has had a career change and is bound for Gibraltar, working for PokerStrategy.com in what capacity I’m not entirely sure. Although I’m going to miss the unbelievably messy nights out, I can’t help but wish this young lad the best of luck in his new appointment. Awaiting my invite to Gibraltar ;-)

Jack Ellwood - March ‘In The Tank With…’ guest Jack notched up yet another top score after finishing fifth in the WCOOP main event for $509,976.25, taking his annual tournament earnings to somewhere north of one million this year. Absolute phenomenal 2010 for this guy, take a bow sir.

Dom Mahoney - After his second place finish in the Teesside 2009 event, he went one further this year and won the Teesside CBMPT main event for £14,000. Dom is a Teesside local and a really nice guy, although I would have loved to seen Mark go back to back at Teesside it’s still good to see one of the nice guys in poker take it down.

That’s about a wrap up as I’m rushing out to hit it up on the vodka red bulls with an old school friend in town, it’s fresher’s week so should be awesome. Anybody out and about in town give me a call if you want the night to get messy, first one’s on me.

Cheerio Folks

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Interview w/Tom Middleton

Date: Sat, Sep 4, 2010 Live Tournament

Tom Middleton (left) known online across PokerStars and FullTiltPoker as hitthehole, under this alias Tom has had a number of five figure scores with his biggest coming in July 2008 when he won the FullTiltPoker $1K Monday for $97,750.

Although one of the most successful live and online tournament players in the UK he’s genuinely humble amongst all his success and a first class guy to have a drink with whilst at or away from the tables. He’s always happy to share his thoughts if asked and all his advice is invaluable, I genuinely have the utmost respect for this guy as a poker player and as a friend. Finally welcome to FTP mate I’m pleased you agreed and hope our readers enjoy reading this brilliant interview as much as I enjoyed being in the tank with Tom Middleton.

DT "When and how did you get started playing poker? Did you have any inspirational poker players, books, moments, shows, etc that were instrumental for you turning professional?."

TM "I started playing poker at school during dinner times and was pretty hooked from then on. I don’t think you really turn pro at poker but I guess I gave up on uni around summer 07 when I started playing on full tilt poker and grinding the 45 mans. At that point I didn’t really know many poker players and Dickie Jones had been grinding on ftp for a while and he was a real help in getting started with online poker."

DT "I understand you’re an affiliate of poker group the Shrewdies, I have a few questions regarding these guys. How was the name ‘Shrewdies’ born? How and when did the group come to fruition? Who are the other Shrewdie associates? Does Shrewdies have a captain or are you’s all equal amongst the team? Has anybody left/joined since it’s launching or all original members? Do you’s all swap equity with each other if entering the same tournament?."

TM "Lol, the shrewdies thing started probably sometime in 08 when we started calling one of my mates Rich Hare (chiprich) shrewdie, mainly because of how un-shrewd he was and his love of trying to land 1st goal scorers. Then a few of my friends wanted to start a thread/blog on blonde about our planned trip to Vegas for the WSOP that summer and someone decided to call it the shrewdies on tour. It’s not really a team or anything just the name of the thread but we're all good friends and often do % swap in live tourneys etc."

DT “NPF, AWOP, Blonde?.”

TM "NPF"

DT "You have a reputation as being one of (if not) the biggest degenerate in the UK poker community, are these accusations true? Could you give us an example of your degeneracy and how you have been labelled with this image?"

TM "Lol, not really sure how I’ve got that title I can definitely think of a few people who beat me too it! I guess it’s probably something to do with me playing almost every day. In fact I think before this summer id played poker at some point every Sunday bar maybe 1 or 2 for the last 2 years."

DT “Poker, Golf, Football, Girls?.”

TM "I’m supposed to say girls but I guess this answers the last question when I say poker lol."

DT "I assume your online alias ‘hitthehole’ was born through your love of Golf, I’m interested to know about your golfing exploits. What’s your handicap? If you don’t know what do you shoot approximately? Who is the biggest golf hustler out of your golfing associates?."

TM "I use to play golf quite a lot when I was younger I was never really any good but got my handicap down to about 17. I usually play to within 6-7 shots of my handicap but like most high handicap golfers I’m very inconsistent. I can’t really think of anyone who could be described as the biggest hustler since we never play for meaningful amounts. But I guess I’d probably give that award to rookieitb who by the last day of a golfing holiday we went on he somehow managed to get himself a 54 handicap."

DT "Are you freeing up your schedule to head north to Newcastle and hit it up with the NPF boys for the NPF Championships? I understand it’s sometime in October but no date has been confirmed yet. First one’s on me ;-)."

TM "How can I turn down a free drink!"

For those not familiar I first met Tom whilst we were studying in Newcastle circa 2004, however much of our time was spent loitering the then three casinos Stanleys, Grosvenor, and Bannatynes and not revising which I guess would have been an optimal way to spend it. This leads me onto my next question;

DT "Had you decided by university you were going to take poker seriously or was it still very much a recreational hobby whilst you studied for your ideal profession? What course’s were you studying at university? Would you ever consider going back to university to study and do something other than playing poker for a living? Or is it just too much fun playing poker full time? It’s my belief that after you crushed our £10 NLH SNG sessions that this gave you the confidence and bankroll to become the player you are today, is this an accurate assessment?."

TM "When I first went to uni I was already hooked on poker and won occasionally but definitely wasn’t a long term winner. The idea of pissing about playing poker rather than studying definitely appealed to me more but I wasn’t really on a position to completely quit all education and solely play poker. I'd like to think I could go to back uni and then go on to have successful career doing something more normal but in reality I’m kind of lazy and for the foreseeable future I think my best option will likely be to continue with what I’m doing."

DT “Who do you consider the best all round poker player in the world and why?.”

TM "I don’t think anyone could argue it isn’t Phil Ivey when you look at his tournament and cash game results."

DT "What’s the most extravagant way you’ve spent your winnings from poker? Do you consider yourself to be balla and spend cash like your printing it or more reserved with your bank account?."

TM "My car is probably the most extravagant thing I’ve bought. I definitely burn though money than your average person in the street but compared to some of my poker friends I’m a life nit."

DT "What’s your thoughts on the recent Neil Blatchly controversy that had the whole poker community talking? For example how do you think it compares/differs from the current Marc Wright revelation?."

TM "When I first cam across Neil he seemed like just a normal guy who played poker definitely not some high stakes sports bettor/ gambler. Then some time during 09 there started being posts and references to Neil winning the lot on tennis and other sports. I mean if you see some random kid come on a poker forum and making out to be making massive bets and getting the lot you usually just ignore them and assume they are making it up to try impress or w/e. But when a lot of people who know Neil in real life almost backing up his stories you assume it’s true. Then when he starts his trading thread people see he’s winning there and also with his image of the successful gambler people are keen to get involved. I didn’t have any £s invested but I know a few friends who did so I was pleased and surprised that they all got paid back as soon as they did.

The Marc Wright incident isn’t really news. When I first met marc at a GUKPT in January 09 he was outgoing and a good laugh. He asked to do swaps online but messed me around a bit and had also ended up owing some of my friends so I avoided financial dealings with him after that. Then one week he reappeared getting a chop in the Sunday million, the people he owed got paid back and he seemed to have sorted himself out. I wasnt really suprised to hear new storys of him owing people money. It was amazing though at how many different people he owed and from all over the world.

I guess both of the situations show how with the right image it’s easy to con poker players."

DT "I understand you’re a big Leeds United fan, so I’ll briefly focus on football. What’s your expectations for Leeds in the current campaign? Favourite current Leeds player? All time favourite Leeds player/legend? Any sick football bets either in the past or for this year?."

TM "Ye I support Leeds, I’m a bit of a glory support though and only really go a couple of times a year now they aren’t in the premiership, Hopefully this season we avoid any relegatin battles then next season we can be looking to get back in the premiership. One of my favourite players when i was younger was Tony Yeboah mainly becaose of those 2 goals he scored. The only football bet I've got on is a $500 fantasy football league but I’m lying 13th/14 at the moment so it’s not looking good."

DT "You’ve been out hitting it up over Las Vegas with the Shrewdies for the WSOP during the last couple (maybe few I’m not sure) years, so lets talk about that place and series for a bit dude. How does playing WSOP $1K compare to playing a GUKPT £1K main event?. I read in a poker magazine that James Dempsey was very blasé about winning his first WSOP bracelet referencing tournament poker as all about the money and the bracelet being insignificant, does your view on WSOP bracelets mirror that of James’? It was reported that during James’ final table that the rail was so loud that Mike Matusow complained to the tournament director, were you involved in the drunken profanities that prompted Mike’s complaint?. Finally do you have any degenerate/balla stories of drunken nights out while in the bright lights?."

TM "GUKPTs are way tougher than your average WSOP $1k. I mean it’s not like sitting down at tough table in the 100r where there might not be any spots but in the last year or so with the field sizes drastically decreasing in GUKPTSs the concentration of good players makes it likely that you'll get drawn on a table with 3-4 good players. The WSOP $1ks are incredible value, you can easily get drawn on a table where most of table are drawing dead. I'd say the standard in a WSOP $1k is similar to that of a UKIPT. I'd definitely value winning a bracelet over winning some random tourney. Not only does it give you the opportunity to get a lucrative sponsorship deal (like James has with ftp now) but also recognition of achieving something in poker.

The day of the final was one of the best ever. It started at about 12 with danskemann ordering jaegerbombs and by time we got to heads up we were a little rowdy lol. There's definitely been a few big nights out in Vegas, you usually realise when you've had an expensive night when they give you a complimentary limo to get home lol."

DT "What does the close of 2010 and opening of 2011 hold for Tom Middleton? Can we expect to see you following the UK circuit or looking more at concentrating on the online grind?."

TM "Well next few weeks I’m going to be playing big sessions everyday with the WCOOP being on and all the extra traffic that brings. Then I’m going to London for the EPT at the end of the month and PCA at the begining of 2011. I'm also looking forward to my Late night poker heat being shown. Not sure when it will be on but I went to film it last week so hopefully not too long. I had Devilfish, Feldman, Colclough, Barny Boatman and Mike Binger in my heat so I was feeling quietly confident about getting a result but the structure was quite fast and no antes meant playing tight for most of the tourney the correct strategy. Unfortunately I didn’t really pick up any cards and busted out in 4th. I plan on playing a few of the bigger UKIPTs and GUKPTs over the next 12 months. When it’s a 100 runner field in Walsall or a £500 when hotels cost £800 in Edinburgh ill probably give them a miss."

I’ve really enjoyed bringing FTP fans this interview and hope you’ve all enjoyed the insight into both one of poker’s sickest degenerates and nicest guys. All here at FTP would like to wish Tom continued success both at and away from the felt.

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August 2010 Recap

Date: Sun, Aug 29, 2010 Live Tournament

SUP Guys. This is a little premature but M’EH, I only have a couple more weekly tournaments over Circus so thought I might as well get this live sooner rather than later. A very busy start to the month seen FTP affiliates Daniel and Mark play four live tournaments across three days (event details mentioned in previous post), fortunately Mark split the Aspers £50 for £1,065 giving us a collective ROI of just shy of 200% in the small sample.


Things slowed down a little after this and we reverted to our lighter schedule of the Sunday/Tuesday tournaments over at Circus, these along with Friday nights down the Grosvenor are the best value weekly tournaments available in Newcastle. No success to report as both Mark and I seem to be making regular deep runs but not quite finishing the job, always seeming to bust somewhere on the penultimate table but cest la vie. Were running below our expected value in these events, they average between 40-60 runners and a very small % of the already small field have a sound understanding of tournament poker. I’m aware of the variance swings however feel like my approach to these tournaments has been a little nonchalant, this has maybe subconsciously lead to a lack of effort as I just expect my experience to carry me through. Evidently it hasn’t and I’ve found myself on the rail whilst others players who aren’t necessarily better or worse than me grind out results, their simply more focused and thus getting rewarded for their effort. So in conclusion a little more concentration required, I’ll report back next month on how that has gone.


Away from the felt I’ve had a few ace nights out with old school friends, friends visiting from out the area, and the Circus crew Spoona, Dan, and Ian (unfortunately not Celia) out and about town, all of which usually conclude with me being a nuisance over one of the three casino’s but all in good merry spirit of course.


Saturday 14th April seen Circus launch their new £50 tournament, this was intended to mirror their old £75 event in terms of structure with a view that the reduction in buy in would attract more runners. I was nursing a hangover after being out with friends on the Friday but soldiered on to show my support to Circus, first off I hit it up over ‘The Living Room’ for a late lunch with Scotty Hocking, Steve Gibson, and Neil Harvey who I’m friends through the local poker circuit and NPF.


An exceptional turn out seen 80 runners take to the felt and generate a £4,500 (including £500 added) prize pool, unfortunately neither Mark or I managed to cash and it was eventually split four ways by our friends Nathan Hope, Brian Ridley, Dominic Davidson, and I believe Jason Elliott but not confirmed. Always nice to see friends get some nice results, so keep up the good work guys. The following weekend Mark was back on the road heading north to Edinburgh for the PokerStars UKIPT £500 main event, I’m sure Mark will be publishing a trip report so watch out for that as he goes over his thoughts and finding a cooler when he runs KK into Dave Maudlin’s AA for a double average stack.


During the same weekend (Saturday 21st) I played the monthly Teesside £100 freezeout, although I lasted longer than my usual 20 minutes I still couldn’t get out of first gear as I lost a race with 77 vs. AKd for an average stack at 150/300. That weekend our luck (well Mark’s) changed in the weekly Circus tournaments as he went back to back splitting on Sunday and Tuesday for £500 and £275 respectively, so it was nice to finally see some return on investment after a baron spell. The Sunday (22nd) tournament was a great laugh as I sweated the final table with Jamie Giles, it was packed with names including Gaz Walker, John Stamatelopoulos, Dave Stephenson, Emma Fullerton, and of course Mark. The dealing was alternated between Ian Robson and Celia Liu so whilst on the rail me and Jamie got the atmosphere going with several chants including “LiuDAWG” in reference to Celia, “FullDOZER” in reference to Emma, and chanting “Jonny Greek, Jonny Greek” when it was John’s turn to act. It was a lot of fun and to make it a little sweeter both Mark and Gaz chopped heads up, I was waiting on Mark (obviously) and Jamie hanging around for Gaz.


The final weekend of August so the Grosvenor host ‘The G Cup’ where I found myself in the unenviable position of being without a team, despite being a proud loyal member of the Cubs since it’s launch last year. Without going into any detail our former captain Patrick retired from the NPF and the team was also retired by proxy, I disagreed with how situations developed and openly discussed this with Dave over the NPF. I ended up contacting Patrick via facebook to discuss the Cubs future and he appeared to walk away from the Cubs in the same casual manner he did the NPF, asking me to take over as captain whilst he pursued other interests. It was never my intentions to captain a team but felt I owed it to myself and the remaining team members to take it on at least temporarily for the imminent ‘G Cup’. I then began to put some provisions in place to get a team together, I found it very frustrating trying to contact people which proved my initial non interest in captaining a team and the duties that come with this responsibility. Anyway to cut a long story short, I couldn’t gather enough interest so handed the responsibility over to Chris Waugh who also struggled to generate the players. This left us both without a team until captain of the Ninja’s (Ian Bertram) kindly asked us to join his team as he had a couple of drop outs, so in the end I represented the Ninja’s for this one off event in my Cubs attire. Ian likely quickly regret offering me a slot as I was ridiculously hung-over after hitting it up in town the night before till like 6:00am, so I made a brief appearance before busting out after 20 minutes.


Prior to ‘The G Cup’ I was still undecided as to how I was going to go forward in regards to the Cubs, I have since decided I’m not cut out for captaincy (as demonstrated by passing the duties over to Chris) and will step down from the position whilst withdrawing myself from selection should any other Cub affiliates look to undertake the role. I would like to close the subject by wishing Patrick and the rest of the Cubs all the best in their future endeavours, both on and off the felt.


Finally next month is exciting with the CBMPT visiting Teesside for it’s fifth leg on Friday 10th, which has a bunch of Newcastle/Teesside characters in the field and is always good fun. I’ll be playing the full schedule which includes;

Date: Friday 10th September
Casino: Gala, Teesside
Buy In: £200 (+£20) NLH
Time: 18:00
Starting Chips: 7,500
Clock: 30 Minute

Date: Saturday 11th September
Casino: Gala, Teesside
Buy In: £500 (+£50) NLH Main Event
Time: 14:00
Starting Chips: 10,000
Clock: 60 Minute

Date: Friday 10th September
Casino: Gala, Teesside
Buy In: £100 (+£10) NLH
Time: 17:00
Starting Chips: 7,500
Clock: 30 Minute

However if I make day two of the main event I‘ll have to drop the closing £100 event. Then the weekend following the CBMPT I’m hitting it up in Las Vegas with Rob Richardson and a few cockney boys (maybe Alex Joblin and Dominic Davidson too but I need to speak with them to see if they still plan on flying out) I met out their last year, staying over at the luxury resort and casino Wynn which is a little out the way down the south end of the boulevard but with;

AAA five diamond
Mobil five star
Forbes five star
Michelin five star


Making it one of the finest hotels in the world, I’m cool with the little extra travel to get into centre strip. Inbetween the drunken nights of debauchery, glamour, glitz, and gaudiness my tournament poker schedule is;

Date: Saturday 18th September
Casino: Venetian
Buy In: $300 (+$40)
Time: 12:00
Starting Chips: 12,000
Clock: 40 Minutes

Date: Sunday 19th September
Casino: Aria, City Centre
Buy In: $150 (+$25)
Time: 13:00
Starting Chips: 10,000
Clock: 30 Minutes

Date: Monday 20th September
Casino: Bellagio
Buy In: $300 (+$30)
Time: 14:00
Starting Chips: 10,000
Clock: 35 Minutes

If I find the time (or can be arsed) whilst not either hitting it up at the bars, clubs, strippers or playing tournament poker I’ll be grinding the 200NL, 300NL, and 500NL over at Bellagio and Wynn so I shouldn’t be hard to find if your in town, so well excited about my seventh trip to the bright lights. Then things go quite in the tail-end of September, where I’ll look to relax and go back to my lighter schedule. So stay tuned guys for next month as I’ll look to do a trip report to detail my Las Vegas endeavours as well as bringing back our ‘In The Tank’ section with a guest I think you’ll all find very interesting.

Hope your all keeping and running well guys, bye for now.

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July 2010 Recap

Date: Fri, Jul 30, 2010 Live Tournament

Hey Guys. I mentioned in my latest entry ‘Grosvenor Club Championships’ I’ll not be looking to update FTP with summarizes of our monthly scheduled tournaments, due to lack of motivation. I will however look to substitute those with monthly recaps where I’ll brush over all events played, and any novelty event’s will still be summarized as per usual.

All though this is my July recap I’ll briefly go over June’s exploits, as my very busy poker summer began. I played eight events across three festivals, this is a product of them being local and thus little travelling. I can say with confidence that I would be a long term winner in all eight events, despite the increased buy in the fields are still littered with soft spots. The reality is one month of live tournaments is such a small sample size, all things said/considered I’m completely satisfied with how things went. I cashed in three of the eight events, which I would have snap accepted if offered ahead of the busy month. Tournament poker is as such you need to make very deep runs to cover your buy-in, fortunately all my cashes were top end with one final table and two splits. In total I invested £1,805 in buy-ins and found £2,600 in cashes, as a result I was in profit by £795 which although nothing fantastic showing a +ROI is always better than losing and coupled with my side action whilst at all these events I made approximately £2,000 during June. In a nutshell I personally feel I’ve ran below expectation over June’s small sample, if all festivals continue returning year on year I hope to have a much higher ROI.

Moving onto July and the first fortnight of poker events/exploits can be found in our ‘Live Events’ section, detailing five events;

Gala £50 (+£5) +1 Rebuy “Unplaced”
World Cup Tag Team “Winners”
Circus £50 (+£5) NLH F/O w/£500 Added “Unplaced”
Grosvenor Club Championship “Unplaced”
Liverpool CBMPT Trip Report “Unplaced”

The weekend after Grosvenor Club Championships commencing Friday 16th July, I decided to head over to support the £10+R over Grosvenor. I had arranged to collect Mark from an evening wedding reception over Tyneside around 22:00 and take him home to Stakeford, this would interrupt my time on the felt but wouldn’t be too detrimental if I could spin up early. However after Mark text me asking to delay collection until 23:00 I kind of couldn’t really win the tournament without accumulating north of 15,000 chips before leaving at 22:45, which considering I had even managed to spin up a tenth of that I decided not to bother rebuying are seven failed bullets. Fortunately I recouped some of the damage over Aspers 50NL, before heading over to collect Mark and turning in myself a little after midnight.

Gala £100 (+£10) NLH F/O w/£1,000 Added
The following day (Saturday 17th July) both Mark and I were down Teesside for the monthly £100 freezeout, this was again well attended with 76 runners generating £8,600 including the added £1,000. I’m certain I’m cursed down Teesside as I have zero luck, several times I’ve been bust before end of level one;

TJs vs. Xenophon Constantinou QQ: 50/100 “18,000” (I open 250 from middle position with TJs, this is folded around to Xenophon in the SB who 3BETs to 1,250. I sense he’s pretty strong but happy to peel in position, it’s marginal considering the over 3BET but I’m cool with it. The flop comes AxKss giving me a flush draw, gutshot, and Qs for the royal draw, after Xenophon checks I bet 1,500 which after some deliberation he calls. An off suit queen hit’s the turn and I’ve found the nuts, after it’s checked to me I bet 3,000 (50% of my remaining stack) and Xenophon check raises me all in. I of course make the call and looking to dodge the board pairing on the river, this unfortunately doesn’t happen as a king hit’s the river to fill Xenophon up.)

Oh well another sharp exit, the most frustrating thing about busting in Teesside is car sharing with Mark means I can’t just head home. Anyway I quickly explain my exit hand to Mark before heading over to Showcase Cinema (I was bust too early so their was no cash games) next door to watch Inception, I’ll give a brief review below;

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the ability to enter people’s subconscious thoughts, this allows Dom to access information otherwise unavailable. He’s lost coveted things through delving too deep with his ability, but is offered a second chance to right his wrongs. Dom Cobb and his team off specialists are assigned to plant an idea in a targets subconscious, in essence creating an dream rather than stealing once which many believe to be impossible.


I guess I haven’t described it brilliantly but it’s kind of difficult in a brief synopsis given the detail the movie goes in to, but it’s well worth seeing and special effects are phenomenal. So I was back over Gala for approximately 22:00 and caught up with Mark who was on a fifteen minute break, after a quick chat and wishing him good luck I wished him good luck and sat at the 100NL. More cold decks as I miss another royal draw;

QJh vs. 35h vs. AKo: £0.50/£1.00 “£350” (I raise £12 from middle position behind a £2 straddle and one caller, this gets called in two spots behind and the big blind. £52.50 in PF before the flop falls AxKhh giving me nut flush draw and gutshot, after it’s checked to me I bet £30 which get’s shoved on by short stack for £51. The BTN smooth calls which of course has alarm bells ringing but I’m never folding with two draws to the nuts, anyway after the big blind gets out the way I call the extra £21. Side pot is now £205.50 and both me and BTN are playing like £75 behind, the king of hearts on the turn gives me the flush but also pairs the board and if you ask me the BTN has kind of played AK face up. Anyway I of course can’t fold so check/call all in to see I’m drawing dead to the ten of hearts for a royal flush, no miracle and I bust my first buy in.)

Rather than auto reload I’m feeling a little hungry so head over Pizza Hut for a sixteen inch cheese stuffed crust pepperoni for supper, after this it’s almost midnight and I’m beginning to feel Mark is good for decent return so back in the casino and name back on the 100NL list.


I sit down for a little while longer before I notice the final table is short handed so cash out and go sweat the action, and for all my bad luck in Teesside it’s compensated in how well Mark run’s, after navigating the 70+ strong field he eventually agreed an even three way split for £1,960 each. Our good friend Sam Akkary was also part of the three way split, so congratulations to those two and keep up the good work guys.

Other than that things have been pretty quite on the poker front during the tail-end of July here at FTP, the following weekend (Friday 23rd July) I hit it up in town with a bunch of the NPF crew for Neil Harvey’s 20th which was good crack from what I can remember. Both Mark and I have played a bunch of the Sunday/Tuesday Circus £20 +1 rebuy with zero success of late, but still hold a very good ROI in this game so looking to get over as much as possible. Anyway moving forward and tomorrow there is a £250 (+£25) NLH F/O ‘Yorkshire Cup’ in Grosvenor, Leeds which I think I’m playing but don’t know for sure yet. Mark is in Nottingham playing the third leg of the CBMPT and the ‘Yorkshire Cup’ didn’t really get met with much interest when posted over NPF so guess I’m bordering on giving it a miss, can’t really be arsed to twiddle my thumbs around Leeds alone if I’m felted early. Assuming I don’t go I’ll be hitting it up with some old school friends tomorrow for an all day Saturday session drinking which is always a great laugh, albeit a little damaging to the pockets but M’EH. Then a busy start to August as Newcastle is playing host to four great events of which I’ll be playing all;

Sunday 1st August (Afternoon): Circus £30 (+£3) Heads Up Tournament
Sunday 1st August (Evening): Circus £20 +1 Rebuy "£2,000 Guaranteed"
Monday 2nd August: Aspers £50 (+£5) NLH F/O “£500 Added”
Tuesday 3rd August: Circus £50 (+£5) NLH F/O “£500 Added”

Then of course the rest of my monthly schedule as well as ‘The G Cup’ towards the end of the month on Saturday 28th August which being a team game will be great crack.

That’s all folks

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