Boot Camp ahoy!

Sky's Poker Boot Camp is next weekend, 8-9 March, and sounds excellent. Tickets are £250 but I'm going to put some effort into the qualifying freerolls in the next couple of days.





One of tonight's guests on the Open is John McCririck. John often goes to Vegas and he's played with the likes of Doyle Brunson and Dave Ulliott.

I'm out of the Open already... in 511th. I had 99 and the flop came 278. I bet, lillady called. 4th street was a 9 so I went all-in. Guess what she had? I think I was unlucky; what do you think??

28th

Guests on the Open tonight were poker insiders Paul Cheung and Nick van der Weyer.

The final tablists were Shanemus, Chip 10-10, Parks, Flying High, Clinically and Gemma Mac. The game lasted longer than usual, and it was only at 11.45 that Flying High was crowned champion, winning £1287.

I came 28th on the 28th. I started card-lucky, winning 4 of the first 7 hands, but was whittled away to 1700 chips before QQ helped me triple up. Just before the break I had my first lucky break. I pushed with KQ and ran into AA (T9 came along for the ride) but a ten-high straight came on the board. After the break, my tens held up against fives but I was made to sweat: a five came on the flop and a ten on the river! Another lucky break - my AQ hitting an ace on the river - left me with 56,000 chips but then I blanked 14 hands in a row and was out. Chip 10-10 was sitting on my table, and while I was sitting on my hands he was busy stealing the blinds.

Music night

Last night it was Ben Thingy from Curiosity KTC, tonight it's Rick Parfitt jr. and this Scottish gentleman:

Sportsnight

Tonight's guests are Martyn Bernard and John Regis. Johnny Two Chests was a great runner and it's good to see him still looking fine and dandy at his advanced age. :-)

That's Tikay with Chris aka Rizla who won the special Boxing Day event. In addition to £1000, Chris won a poker table and chipset, and a Poker night at his home in Dagenham with Tikay as the dealer. Not bad, eh. I was wondering what went on, so it was interesting to see this feature on tonight's show.

Congratulations to Barney Senior for coming first and winning £3000. The other final tablers were: Beef Two, Lastogo, Trucker, Little Paul and Yates.

btw, Joobs says Boo!

Comedy night

Hattie Hayridge and Mike McClean are tonight's guests on the Open. (Mike's out already.)

Meanwhile I've had a slight altercation with la3. He raised with KJ, I raised allin with AQ, he called. And lost. Having doubled me up he was steaming, and reraised me allin with K3. I had AJ, I called. And lost. Back to square one.

And now I'm out. Got switched tables and lost a race with C_Drifting.

Watch online or on Sky channel 846.

"Thank God for body brushing"

? That's what Michelle Orpe said at this moment:

:-)

Tonight's final table: Scoobs, Logas, Bonesey, SaggT, Knocker and Jaron. Well done to Jaron for taking down the £1287 first prize.

And congratulations too to strip-poker supremo Jon Young, who came 50th, a great performance for a studio guest. I came 30th, continuing my recent improvement. I only had 8,000 chips at the break, but I succeeded in building my stack by being a bit less impatient than one or two other people on the table.

Ouch

Wednesday nights have gone back to normal on Sky Poker: there's an Open again at 9 pm, and the WSOP satellite is now at 9.30. I entered both, crashed out of the Open, and was doing well in the satellite until I raised all-in from the SB with K9. The BB called... with K9. And caught a flush. Ouch.

I have upped my game a bit. The night before, I played one of my best ever hours of online tourney play, going into the break with 25,000 chips. Unfortunately, soon afterwards I tried to raise with 44 against AA and lost quite a few, but I still came 14th out of 670. Not bad.

Jeff Kimber wins in Walsall

The Walsall leg of the GUKPT is over, and Jeff is a worthy winner. There was an interesting incident in a hand between D Buttar and Graham Clarkson yesterday.

Meanwhile, my resolution to work on my tourney game after my outs at Walsall, well, it's come to nowt so far. Luckily I've been well in profit on my last six cash tables, so I'm :-)

Live Action!

Over to the Grosvenor to play in the £100 freezeout. It's day 1b of the main event, so there were some well-known faces in the room, among them Carlo Citrone, Neil Channing, Marc Goodwin, Tony Cascarino, Jen Mason and poker giant Ed Giddins, who I spotted towering over everyone else in the dinner queue.



And Maria Demetriou is there working for Blonde Poker. The atmosphere is great - literally. Even though I don't smoke I never really minded very much that pubs, etc. were smoky, but when the casino is packed like it is tonight, it's much better that smoking's no longer allowed.


Although I enjoyed my evening, I wish I'd lasted a bit longer in the tournament. I called most of my remaining chips with a straight when the other guy had caught a flush on the river. My head was telling me to fold, but I thunk and thunk and my heart overrruled.

Five minutes

Last week went well - five good cash table profits in a row, but this week has been all in the negative till just now. It was a new £1 table; I was in for £77, another guy for £100, one for £50, plus three low-rollers. My first hand I get dealt pocket tens and raise to £5 on the BB. Low-rollers call. Low flop, I bet £20 and they're all-in. Turn and river are ace and jack but I still take the pot, so what on earth did those guys have?

Couple of hands later I have K9s and I try bluffing the £50 guy out of the pot. Doesn't work; costs me £17. Interesting psychology here. Very next hand I have AJ and I limp. J-high flop, I limp again. Next card gives a straight possibilities (57J8), I bet, he raises, I go all-in, he dwells up (good sign) and calls. River is a third club, but again, whatever he had, I won the pot. Stack up to £160 in five minutes flat and I've single-handedly emptied the table! Good for the ego...

Speaking of which, I stayed up last night to watch the Poker Den show on 5. In case you don't know, it's highlights from an all-star 24-hour non-stop £50 cash game. The main reason I watch is Tony G. I love the guy. In the first few hours he managed to turn £10,000 into £100,000...

GUKPT in town

Today is the first day of the Walsall leg of the Grosvenor Poker Tour, and I went over this afternoon for a £50 (with rebuys) satellite into the main event. I played siht, but I was happy with my last hand. I was shortstacked in the SB with 6-8 clubs and there was lots of limping so I went all-in. One guy called with K-9 spades and I overtook him on the flop only to lose to a flush on the river.

I'm going to try and get over there again for a £100 freezeout tourney later in the week.

Ullo John, Gotta new table?

Sky are continuing to shake up the schedules. Nowadays the Thursday Open starts an hour earlier (at 8) - and I did remember this week! - and last night was the first in a new series of WSOP satellites. I was a bit dubious at first - I'm not a big fan of satellites, but it's great value: £17 buyin with 50 guaranteed entries to the final in a couple of months' time. Whether I'd be allowed to go to Vegas for two weeks is another matter...

One of tonight's studio guests is John Tabatabai, something of a hero since his second place at the WSOPE. I was following the final table on the Web - I can't remember who was running it, but there was a brilliant live blog. And John has to count himself very unlucky not to have won. Annette Obrestad, the much-hyped Nordic teen sensation, got extremely lucky at least three times in the last hour, including right at the end.

I've survived longer than John tonight - he was all-in with pocket tens and the caller caught the ace. But it's great that he and Luke Trotman and other players come on the show.

A million aces

...for me in tonight's Open. At least, that's what it's seemed like. My hands since 10 pm have been AQ, T2, AQ, AT, AK, A7, AJ, Q8, 63, A7, A2, K3, 54, AQ, 76, 84, AT, A8, Q8...

In the end I came 45th, and my tally of aces was that out of 95 hands, 23 had an ace in them.

Have you been Rokached?

Last night's £30,000 Primo event attracted Lucy Rokach to the celebrity pew, and it was quite funny to discover how single-minded she is. Her mantra is "Get chips! Stick your chips in! Get chips!"

I remember Lucy from Late Night Poker--she came third in the sixth series--but I don't remember her being quite so gung-ho. To be fair, that was a real table, so that's a different game from playing tourneys online.

LNP was what turned me on to poker. I got back from Hungary in 2002 just in time to catch the last couple of series, and then watched the reruns and then along came the WPT... One of the guys at Presentable once told me that LNP wouldn't be coming back, but the new series has just started!

65th tonight in the Open. Grinding most of the time, got some great luck (rivering a straight, rivering top pair, backdooring a flush) before the luck turned... LuvAndy, who'd finally got some chips by playing really tight, raised me with 23. I had K8, so fancied my chances till the 3 on the river!



It's now 12 days that I've survived with almost zero in my SP account. In that time I've finished six times in the money in the Open. After tonight's cash my balance is £22.74! How much longer can I hold out before I have to go and get my credit card??