So I'm writing this purely for my own benefit and I guess those that read it will be those that take time out themselves to check this blog rather than clicking on a FB / twitter link because they're bored..
After an incredibly productive day in taking third at the Southern Masters Paintball and settling for second at The George for a fiver short of first place; I took the time to reflect on the past few months. I made a passing comment to Rich along the lines of "I'm not quite sure where I've been going wrong recently.." then had one of those eureka moments where everything makes sense. Naturally, I figured this blog was the best place to get it off my chest.
I like to believe (and I'm sure I have critics on both sides) that I'm a pretty dab hand at giving advice across a wide variety of subjects; be it work, relationships, friendships, poker, paintball or those niggling life decisions that you need an external opinion on.. My problem with this..?
I've failed to take my own advice on more than one occasion. I've been in many situations recently in which i should've taken an objective view and discover the answers, but failed to do so and ultimately paid the price in one way or another.
Without being too specific; I've been far too content with being second best, a stop-gap or just a temporary fulfilment to people without really considering what's best for me in both the short and long term. I generally look to be the best I can be.. For someone else.
Selfless and egotistically satisfying? Maybe. But as it goes on; I've never really made it my priority to be honest with myself about what's best for me, and realistically, that's more important than anything else. I don't think it's wrong to "look out for number one" and infact, I think it's actually incredibly healthy.
When your expectations are high, you have to accept there will be several disappointments so you can really appreciate the penultimate taste of success. Besides; how can you determine what's truly the best thing for you if there aren't pitfalls on the way?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
It's an ancient Chinese proverb that I'm sure the large majority of those reading this will have heard; yet I've only just come to truly understand it.
So my parting advice to anyone that reads this, and indeed myself?
Live life for yourself. Share it with those that don't take you for granted; but truly appreciate how fortunate they are to have you.
Sunday 22 April 2012
Friday 6 April 2012
Tuesday 3 April 2012
The Post-Nottingham Report
I guess this is as close to a 'disclaimer' as you'll get. The first part of this blog will be very much focused on poker, so if you've got no interest in reading it, wait for the next installment. I was going to add it on the end, but time flies and a post-midnight blog with work in the morning isn't on the cards..
Nottingham - The Big Poker Weekender
So those of you reading this probably understand how the pub poker leagues work.. playing for points (and the money, obviously) each week to earn a place in the top two in order to qualify for a regional final. Placing in the top eight in that means you qualify for the National; the top 8 from that then get flown out to Vegas to play their final table out. It's a pretty sweet deal if you make it all the way at least.
Nathan managed to qualify for the National early on in the season, so obviously any excuse to have a tear-up in some random city is a good excuse. Ironically enough, the poker started on Friday night up town and was undoubtedly my best session to date.
Friday 23rd March - Where the fun begins.. Empire Casino & Fox Poker Club
I'm pretty lucky to have Nathan back me in cash games in town. Heading up with a paltry £20 in my wallet, we started the day at The Fox, playing a £30 bounty tournament. Against the odds, we somehow managed to all finish in the final 11 of 60 or so runners.. only to majestically fall short of the money in 11th (Rich), 10th (Rick) and 8th (Nathan). Pretty disappointing result but I took four bounties at a fiver each so it wasn't a tragic result; and pretty promising we all managed a deep run. Says a lot for how our game has come on since starting at the Ivory Lounge on a Tuesday night. We'll likely play more tourneys in future and hopefully be placing in the top 3.. there's a goal.
We moved onto The Empire, host to £1/£2 cash games. Within an hour I'd cashed out for £740, returned Nathan's £300 stake plus 30% on top as our agreement stands; pretty profitable for someone that walked out of the house with £20. Given that I was about £300 better off I agreed to pay for dinner at Henry's in Covent Garden (the pasta's lush, I'd recommend it) and head back to The Fox for the 7pm tourney with Rich.. as always, we'd missed level 1 and turned up nearer 8pm.. who likes being on time anyway? We both managed to bust pretty soon after sitting down so inevitably the cash tables were calling for my profits. Not long into my session I'd spun up £100 to somewhere in region of £300 and was told of a £1/£1 Round of Each being played (round of Hold'Em, round of Omaha). After taking my seat it was pretty obvious the whole table preferred Omaha which was music to my ears. The clock ticked on, and the most eventful part of the night was just before midnight; the dealer was finishing dead on 12 and predicted we'd have 4-5 hands to play before the table broke, so offered us 4, 5 or 6 cards under standard Omaha rules. Everyone opted for 6, and it wasn't long before we saw why..
In the third hand, I picked up 8899TJ with two suits (hearts & spades) and pot raised to £12.. two of the remaining three players came along, seeing £36 in the pot before the flop. Flop comes 6h7cQh - giving me the open ended straight draw (wrap at the top end) and a pretty weak flush draw. The short stack on the table leads out for £36, which I pot raise expecting to get it in and have the guy behind me fold. He does the opposite and pot raises all-in; the short stack puts himself in and I can never fold for the extra. I'm pretty happy with a solid draw and no made hand.. the short-stack shows QQ2xxx for top set, the guy on my left AA66xx with two hearts for bottom set, an overpair and the nut flush draw. I'm not in awful shape but I hate the fact my heart draw is dead. The turn is a meaningless 3 and I scoop a ~£700 pot effectively breaking the table, sending my profit to £1,020 for the night and still in time for the last train home with Rich; who can only say "You're sick".
Saturday 24th - Pack the bags and get moving..
We pre-arranged a 9.30am start for the trip to Nottingham. I think we were all well aware that was probably not the best idea, but there was a tourney starting at 2pm, not to mention finding where we were supposed to be in the first place. I picked up Rich just before 10am, stopped off for some essential supplies (water & cigarettes no less) before heading to Nathan's and then starting the three hour drive up "North". The drive was pretty smooth, with a stop off in "My snuggly bed" somewhere in Milton Keynes and only the one traffic hold-up on the way. We arrived in Nottingham in good time, just to find our hotel was dead opposite Trent Bridge Stadium, on match day. Would've probably been easier to jump on the coach with all the Brighton & Hove fans but hey-ho! The hotel wasn't bad, at £25 a night we weren't expecting a miracle regardless and I'm sure Rich didn't really mind the camp-type-bed he ended up in. That's the downside to being last in; you get the worst bed. Golden rule.
Onto Dusk Til Dawn and the £50 deep stack..
Generally the rule in poker is; you get what you pay for. The higher buy-in tourneys are always of a better structure to allow for more depth in play, not to mention big guarantee prize pools. Traditionally, we'd all agreed to miss level one, but Rich & Nathan registered and squeezed in for the last ten minutes. Like a hero, I managed to be put on the first reserve so I missed level one.. entered level two and subsequently bust by level three. Running KK into AA is a pretty sick spot in a tourney and I genuinely contemplated getting away from it, but I think I would've been annoyed for the rest of the tourney if I had've folded and been wrong.
They allowed one rebuy which both Nath & I ended up taking (spiraling our entry cost to £118 each.. ouch) and I went on to last the longest out of the three, eventually busting in about level 12. I'm not unhappy with the way I played, picked my spots well and ended up busting in pretty standard fashion. Unfortunate, but that's poker, and there's always next time.
Saturday Night.. Are you lost?
So Rich and I thought we'd have a job getting Nathan out of the poker-room to come party on Saturday night, but turns out he was as up for it as we were; so let the mess begin. As I generally enjoy talking to anyone and everyone on a night out, I urged the boys to ask randoms where the best place to go on a Saturday night in Nottingham is. It came back pretty conclusively as Gatecrasher, so hey, that's where we headed. I could probably try and explain what happened on the night, but if I'm honest, I don't remember parts of it. A girl I hadn't even spoken to did make a point of calling me a "dirty southern bastard" though; quite an impressive read if you ask me! I guess the following picture kinda sums up the weekend pretty well..
Nottingham - The Big Poker Weekender
So those of you reading this probably understand how the pub poker leagues work.. playing for points (and the money, obviously) each week to earn a place in the top two in order to qualify for a regional final. Placing in the top eight in that means you qualify for the National; the top 8 from that then get flown out to Vegas to play their final table out. It's a pretty sweet deal if you make it all the way at least.
Nathan managed to qualify for the National early on in the season, so obviously any excuse to have a tear-up in some random city is a good excuse. Ironically enough, the poker started on Friday night up town and was undoubtedly my best session to date.
Friday 23rd March - Where the fun begins.. Empire Casino & Fox Poker Club
I'm pretty lucky to have Nathan back me in cash games in town. Heading up with a paltry £20 in my wallet, we started the day at The Fox, playing a £30 bounty tournament. Against the odds, we somehow managed to all finish in the final 11 of 60 or so runners.. only to majestically fall short of the money in 11th (Rich), 10th (Rick) and 8th (Nathan). Pretty disappointing result but I took four bounties at a fiver each so it wasn't a tragic result; and pretty promising we all managed a deep run. Says a lot for how our game has come on since starting at the Ivory Lounge on a Tuesday night. We'll likely play more tourneys in future and hopefully be placing in the top 3.. there's a goal.
We moved onto The Empire, host to £1/£2 cash games. Within an hour I'd cashed out for £740, returned Nathan's £300 stake plus 30% on top as our agreement stands; pretty profitable for someone that walked out of the house with £20. Given that I was about £300 better off I agreed to pay for dinner at Henry's in Covent Garden (the pasta's lush, I'd recommend it) and head back to The Fox for the 7pm tourney with Rich.. as always, we'd missed level 1 and turned up nearer 8pm.. who likes being on time anyway? We both managed to bust pretty soon after sitting down so inevitably the cash tables were calling for my profits. Not long into my session I'd spun up £100 to somewhere in region of £300 and was told of a £1/£1 Round of Each being played (round of Hold'Em, round of Omaha). After taking my seat it was pretty obvious the whole table preferred Omaha which was music to my ears. The clock ticked on, and the most eventful part of the night was just before midnight; the dealer was finishing dead on 12 and predicted we'd have 4-5 hands to play before the table broke, so offered us 4, 5 or 6 cards under standard Omaha rules. Everyone opted for 6, and it wasn't long before we saw why..
In the third hand, I picked up 8899TJ with two suits (hearts & spades) and pot raised to £12.. two of the remaining three players came along, seeing £36 in the pot before the flop. Flop comes 6h7cQh - giving me the open ended straight draw (wrap at the top end) and a pretty weak flush draw. The short stack on the table leads out for £36, which I pot raise expecting to get it in and have the guy behind me fold. He does the opposite and pot raises all-in; the short stack puts himself in and I can never fold for the extra. I'm pretty happy with a solid draw and no made hand.. the short-stack shows QQ2xxx for top set, the guy on my left AA66xx with two hearts for bottom set, an overpair and the nut flush draw. I'm not in awful shape but I hate the fact my heart draw is dead. The turn is a meaningless 3 and I scoop a ~£700 pot effectively breaking the table, sending my profit to £1,020 for the night and still in time for the last train home with Rich; who can only say "You're sick".
Saturday 24th - Pack the bags and get moving..
We pre-arranged a 9.30am start for the trip to Nottingham. I think we were all well aware that was probably not the best idea, but there was a tourney starting at 2pm, not to mention finding where we were supposed to be in the first place. I picked up Rich just before 10am, stopped off for some essential supplies (water & cigarettes no less) before heading to Nathan's and then starting the three hour drive up "North". The drive was pretty smooth, with a stop off in "My snuggly bed" somewhere in Milton Keynes and only the one traffic hold-up on the way. We arrived in Nottingham in good time, just to find our hotel was dead opposite Trent Bridge Stadium, on match day. Would've probably been easier to jump on the coach with all the Brighton & Hove fans but hey-ho! The hotel wasn't bad, at £25 a night we weren't expecting a miracle regardless and I'm sure Rich didn't really mind the camp-type-bed he ended up in. That's the downside to being last in; you get the worst bed. Golden rule.
Onto Dusk Til Dawn and the £50 deep stack..
Generally the rule in poker is; you get what you pay for. The higher buy-in tourneys are always of a better structure to allow for more depth in play, not to mention big guarantee prize pools. Traditionally, we'd all agreed to miss level one, but Rich & Nathan registered and squeezed in for the last ten minutes. Like a hero, I managed to be put on the first reserve so I missed level one.. entered level two and subsequently bust by level three. Running KK into AA is a pretty sick spot in a tourney and I genuinely contemplated getting away from it, but I think I would've been annoyed for the rest of the tourney if I had've folded and been wrong.
They allowed one rebuy which both Nath & I ended up taking (spiraling our entry cost to £118 each.. ouch) and I went on to last the longest out of the three, eventually busting in about level 12. I'm not unhappy with the way I played, picked my spots well and ended up busting in pretty standard fashion. Unfortunate, but that's poker, and there's always next time.
Saturday Night.. Are you lost?
So Rich and I thought we'd have a job getting Nathan out of the poker-room to come party on Saturday night, but turns out he was as up for it as we were; so let the mess begin. As I generally enjoy talking to anyone and everyone on a night out, I urged the boys to ask randoms where the best place to go on a Saturday night in Nottingham is. It came back pretty conclusively as Gatecrasher, so hey, that's where we headed. I could probably try and explain what happened on the night, but if I'm honest, I don't remember parts of it. A girl I hadn't even spoken to did make a point of calling me a "dirty southern bastard" though; quite an impressive read if you ask me! I guess the following picture kinda sums up the weekend pretty well..
In some respects; I guess we were..
Sunday, Monday and beyond..
So the whole point of Nottingham in the first place was for Nathan to play this tournament that pub poker players up and down the country were to turn up for. The annoying thing was, it started at midday but we had to be there for 10am.. That means this designated driver had to haul his arse out of bed on four hours sleep to drive back to the poker room. On arrival we were told of the free fry-up on offer (amazing how that makes you feel so much better right?), not to mention Lauren Pope made an appearance for the sake of promoting RedTooth and letting people have a picture with her for £5 a time. Quite frankly, I wasn't looking my best on very little sleep and sweating alcohol so I decided to go without. Besides; breakfast was more important.
The tournament started at 12:30 and Nathan managed to last an impressive.. 7 minutes? There or thereabouts. Our only saving grace was that as tables began to free up from the tournament, the cash tables started running. Little did we know, but this would be the beginning of our 13 hour stint at the tables, save the 20 minute break for Nando's courtesy of Rich's £25 profit at the time. I think by the end of Sunday we all pretty much broke even, but hey, it kept us entertained until 4am.. The club closed, so we took the decision to find a 24 hour McDonald's with great success. Even got to see a fight kick off whilst enjoying our breakfast; definitely haven't experienced that in Bexleyheath.
Having not paid any attention whatsoever to the check-out times and suchlike; we were pretty lucky to leave around 10am; and despite little sleep, too much poker and a modesty profit by the end of the weekend; I still found time to squeeze in a JD & coke at the Wrong Un. All in all? One of my most memorable weekends in recent times; most definitely this year. We're all planning on finding more suitable tournaments around the country; not to mention building bankrolls to support playing them at the same time. Besides; the UKIPT has £1million guaranteed prizepools with around £200k to first; who wouldn't want the same shot?
You'll have to wait til next time for some insight into the deeper, more personal revelations. Look forward to it; won't be long :)
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