Thursday saw me back on the London train, missed the 16.04 but still reached the hotel for 19.00. Thewy had booked us a twin room at the ultra luxurious Cumberland Hotel, (£130 - £65 each - not bad!) a mere 50 yards from The Sportsman. He should be a travel agent.The Sportsman - my debut visit - is located some 50 yards from Marble Arch, down a cul-de-sac off Oxford Street. Cars parked bumper-to-bumper - top of the range Lexus, Beemer’s, Bentley’s. The place smells of money!
The Card-Room is downstairs, very nice too. Nice free Buffet for all the players. Faces everywhere; Willie, Joe Grech, Ian Woodley, J P Kelly, Monty Burns, Thewy, Paul King, Dave Lloyd, Irish Denis O'Mahoney, Tom Sambrook, Jim Reid, Mr and Mrs Bambos, James Vogl, Jac Arama. Mr and Mrs Paul Alterman were there too - Mrs Alterman looked just fabulous. Probably lost 4 stone or more, had her hair done very different, she looked quite wonderful. Paul's a good player, had a nice result in Vegas a month or so back.
In the £500, which I played, Paul Alterman got all-in with A-K of clubs, against A-K of diamonds. The board came diamond-club-diamond-club...... diamond! I shared a table with Paul Alterman, Tom Sambrook (who I work with on my PNL Debut next Wednesday), Jim Reid, and James Vogl. I've warmed to James, not that he'd be bothered one way or another.
I played OK, had chips all night. I won one nice hand with T-T, when blinds were 300-600, and some guy moved all-in for 11k, first to speak, with A-5! And I busted Steve Bovis, after I made it 1,300 with 9-9, and he went all-in for 7k - it screamed A-K, and as it was a fast clock, I decided to call. Yup, A-K it was, and he missed. But the wheels came off and the clock caught up with me, and I was forced to chuck my last 8k in with 6-6, and got looked up - all-in to him, virtually - by A-7! Night all....
There was an ‘oriental’ female dealer, stunningly pretty, who had a tattoo on her finger where a wedding ring would usually be. I thought it said ‘oodooV’, but in fact it said ‘Voodoo’...... I was later told that ‘she’ was a man. I think not, and that's not a misread.
Early night, then, or cash? Unusually, Thewy was playing cash, so cash it was. Bad mistake. I won nearly £2k in the Notts Gala Tourney earlier in the week, so that would be the majority of my entry for Sunday's £2,500 Main Event. But I did most of it in the cash, in typical Omaha style. £600 went when I flopped top set and Mateyboy rivered runner-runner aces, but I did the lot in a weird pot with Bambos. Holding double-suited A-A-Q-Q I got him heads-up with a series of raises and re-raises pre-flop, and I thought I liked the A-Q-3 rainbow flop. I mean, top two sets, on a Rainbow flop, ain't too bad, and certainly, I can't, and don’t wanna, pass for what I've got left. But the wily Bambos was gambling with his K-J-T-x and hit. Ouch, that HURT. And that's the Main Event on Sunday out of the window, damn. I decided there and then to withdraw from the £200 rebuy, that could end up costing a grand, so that's that.So Thewy and I wandered back to The Cumberland and lay in bed chatting a while before sleep intervened.
I had a meeting next morning in Bond Street at 11am, so up at 10am, and whilst making myself a bedroom cuppa, Thewy asked for coffee. "Real stuff," he insisted. "I got Nescafe, what's wrong with that?" I asked. Nope, he wanted real Kenco, where you have to use a plunger and coffee pot. "Plunge it nicely, nice and steady, milk please. Make sure it's fresh not homogenized, half a sugar". FFS, Thewy. If that's what being married is like, I'll stay single.
Hopped a tube to Bond Street, met Jon Sullivan (he of UPL) and Monty Burns arrived 20 minutes later. We found a little pizza place, and a while later, Charles Butler, the Chief Financial Officer for Bowmans joined us. Charles is a sharp guy, impressed me greatly. We spent 2 hours working through issues with the blonde CardRoom, and made good progress. It's fascinating to sit the ‘other side’ of an online cardroom debate. Those that shout and holler at every opportunity really ought to see the issues from the other side, it really is quite a complex thing. But the numbers so far are amazingly, and surprisingly, good. Long may it last. Dave and I have invested a fortune in blonde, in time and money, and I've pretty much written it off, but it'd be nice to get at least some of it back. We resolved quite a few things, and finished at around 2.30pm.
Dave and I still had stuff to go through, non-cardroom stuff, and as we'd monopolised the pizza shop for so long, we hopped the tube back to Marble Arch and reconvened in The Sportsman. No sooner had we arrived than Dave got nabbed, so it was half an hour before we got started. Meanwhile, Thewy had sat down in a Main Event single table satellite and ended up chopping it with Jeff Rogers. Thewy is blessed, blessed I tell ya. Eventually, Dave and I worked through our agenda, including date and location for bB3, plans for Barcelona (it's proposed that a bunch of us, including Mr Cool, Monty and myself stay at a Golf Course - that'd be nice!). I shall not play the WHU, for obvious reasons. We also discussed WSOP plans, both for Dave, and blonde. The blonde Live Update situation for WSOP is not easy to decide or resolve. A 2 week Main Event would mentally wreck any 2 peeps, and I'm wondering how best to handle it.Dave then disappeared to sort his hotel, and moments later, Tony G arrived, so I had half an hour with him. He was telling me that, at The Bellagio, ‘shirt deals’ were starting - starting! - at $50,000. I assume that was for the final. Some peeps have more money than sense, that's just ridiculous, though good luck to the guys who got some of it.
Roland de Wolfe then called, we are trying to set up a nice 425 Interview with him, and he's up for it, but getting our diaries to coincide isn't easy. And I agreed to do an ‘in-depth’ interview for 425 with J P Kelly, who impresses me more and more every day (He simply walked the £500 the night before). We agreed to ‘do him’ at Luton, but he selfishly made himself unavailable by winning that too. The man's amazingly good.
Thewy then persuaded me to then play the last single table satellite for The Sportsman Main Event, 10 of us at £250 was planned, but we were one short, so we agreed winner takes all, and the winner has to make up £250. Players included Thewy (again!), Jeff Rogers (who'd split the first one with Thewy), Dave Lloyd, Jim Reid, Denis O'Mahoney, etc. Short stack from early on, I somehow hung in there until we were 3 handed, when a strange hand went down between Dave Lloyd and me. I was short stack of 3 (there's a thing) when I found Q-Q, and needing chips badly, I decided to play it slow. If I could double up, I would be chip daddy with 3 left. So I played it ‘backwards’, limping preflop, and tickle betting the J-T-T flop. Dave called, and was I relieved to see the turn - a Q! I tickle bet again, and left with about 4k left. Dave dwelt for an absolute age, and I was silently cursing that I'd bet too soon, but eventually he set me in, and I doubled up. It was a horror-board for him, there was a straight and a flush possibility there, and he had the straight. Lucky tikay! Jim Reid, railing, complimented me on the way I played it, and that meant a lot to me. Truth is, when you get ‘cute’ you either look a fool or a genius, but it's all down to the Poker Gods and the dealer, and it just fell right for me - and badly for Dave - this time.
Heads-Up now, and Paul King kindly suggested that I offer a 50-50 Chop with Mateyboy, and he'd buy the other half of me, but I just fancied going for it.We were about level, and it swung to and fro for a good while, but my opponent kept moving all-in every hand, and the blinds were big relative to our stacks. I worded him to try and play flops, and he bit - he made a small raise next hand, now I used his trick, and moved all-in on him with 8-8! He passed, and that was the crucial pot, as I had a decent chip lead now. I resolved if he moved all-in again, I'd take my chance, and sure enough he did. I had 9-T, he had K-3, and I hit the ten and a straight. Bingo bango bongo, I'd won a £2,500 Heads-Up match, and a seat for the Main Event. Delighted!
It was 6.30pm now, almost 24 hours since I'd arrived in London, and as I'd withdrawn from the £200, I had just one task left.
Sporting Odds, whom I still work for, and thoroughly enjoy so…‘behind the scenes’, were holding a ‘High-Rollers’ comp at Palm Beach Casino, and Ben Walton had asked me to pop across if I could and do a little networking and schmoozing. So a quick cab-ride to Palm Beach, and I hooked up with the 10 strong Sporting Odds party for the evening. Good guys, and good fun, and one gent even asked if he could have his photo taken with me. What?!
I made my departure in time to catch the 22.25 back to Derby, and got home about 1am, but not before being stopped by the police on the drive from Derby railway station to home. But that's another story....
Two hours catching up on PM's - 15 of them - and forum posts, (I'd been offline for 36 hours and it soon overwhelms me if I am offline) and eventually to bed.
Another busy and fun-filled 24 hours or so. I'm not sure I can keep this pace up, but it's better to go out fighting than be blinded away, eh?