We are pleased to announce the launch of Mob Poker Trumps based on the original card game. The Trumps card games were conceived in 1977 and became incredibly popular until the craze began to fizzle out in the mid-1980s. Now a new version of the old favourite is born.

Since 1999 the game has been so successfully re-launched that five million packs are now sold annually in the UK – that’s one pack every six seconds.

Using regularly updated stats from the Hendon Mob Poker Database, Mob Poker Trumps offers players the chance to challenge their friends to a game live online or to play our computer AI. If you are playing another person you will be able to chat to them in the private chat window which will appear. We haven’t, unfortunately, taught the Mob computer AI to chat yet.

We currently have one deck in use, ‘World Poker Stars’, featuring 40 of the best known poker players from around the world. Each card has 6 different statistics for each player. The top five are all taken from the database and the sixth, ‘Tilt’, has an arbitrary figure from 0-100 allocated by the Mob. Popularity is the number of times that players profile has been viewed in the Mob Database in the last 7 days.

There are plans for more packs, Full Tilt Pros, Female Poker Players, and Late Night Poker Stars – in fact we are open to any sensible suggestions or requests. There are even plans in the pipeline for the WSOMPT (World Series of Online Mob Poker Trumps).

The card game is obviously just for fun but the chat window gives endless opportunities. In fact one well known Mobster is reported to have lost a six figure sum already!

The Mob Poker Trumps are also available in a PDF format as well so that you can download them and cut them out for those long transatlantic flights to the real WSOP in Vegas.

Beware it is VERY addictive…

Play Mob Poker Trumps

When I arrived at The Regency hotel for the fourth leg of the European Poker Tour I was lucky. If Simon Trumper, with his background in plumbing and drainage, had not been there to explain, in some detail, why there was no water in the building, I may have had to bother the rather flustered receptionist, who was already dealing with a selection of irate players. After convincing the lady that, rather than wait four hours for my room, I’d rather just check-in with no water I managed to commence my afternoon nap.

The company for dinner was better than the food, and Katherine, Keith, Jake, the brothers Boatman, Mr Big and The Champ were soon planning a couple of friendly monkey Sit n Gos before bed. Somehow though The Camel and Barnsey seemed to get lost on the way to the poker room which left us with Willie, Surinder and Greg Raymer instead. This may not have been the best example of good game selection.

It’s not really possible to overplay pocket queens when the structure allows only one move after ten minutes, so I have no problem with the thousand euro that went down to Kings and Aces. I did manage to split the second one of the three though and went to bed a small winner.

My first table for the EPT event were a friendly bunch. Although there were only ten Italians among the 400 players we had four of them in our own Little Venice. I never really count Robert Binelli as Italian though, as to me he’s a Vic player. He was having fun making blind limps and raises from under the gun and generally messing about. Another guy called William Thorson was also enjoying himself. He flopped sets for fun and, I guess if you know that you’re going to hit every draw, you might as well bet them. In between he played pretty well and got a load of chips. I was busy biding my time and becoming frustrated, while chatting to my twin Joe Beevers at the other end of the table. He was struggling to hit a flop too.

After an hour or so of watching I felt it was time to get involved and I played three key pots. The first of these was an important bluff against Luca Pagano which saw half of my stack go in and I followed by extracting a lot of chips from William in two interesting hands.

When they moved me to the table of Willie Tann, Padraig Parkinson and the quietened down Ade Bayo I had over 30k against the average of 15k. I asked my neighbour Marcus Golser whether he could remember the last time we played. I wanted to know if he’d forgotten me running over a table that he had previously been controlling during Mr Big’s Poker Million. He could. That helped me feel more comfortable shipping the lot in after he’d limp re-raised me in a blind skirmish. He passed and I went on to 45k.

In the next hour or so I played my best game. Poor old Steve Vladar was a victim of my constant stealing. When I finally had a hand after his initial raise I felt he must lose patience and call. He passed. I told him that he was a tough man to kill off, and that he played like a man with no food in the fridge. Padraig commented:

"He plays like a man with no fridge."

It was around now the hotel kindly opened the free bar for an hour to compensate for the lack of water. It was a nice touch, but not one that helped the 100 players left grafting away very much – particularly those without gall bladders.

When that table broke we only had 45 minutes of the day left. I was to share the blinds with Marcel Luske on a table of Mad Irishman and Lunatic Scandis (a normal table for this event) and I actually calculated what I’d have overnight if I played no more hands. 65k would put me in the top ten and leave me happy. Unfortunately a well planned move, that I still stand by despite the outcome, sent me to bed in 33rd spot with 44k.

By the second day I was nervous and slightly out of sorts. I hadn’t eaten a decent meal since getting to Dublin and the fact that I’d played well to get into position meant I was now putting pressure on myself to succeed.

A couple of big hands early got me a few chips, but now I was on a table of medium-short stacks who were very happy to constantly raise and re-raise all-in. I fell to 40k from 60k without playing a hand and saw the average climb to 70k. A well timed squeeze-play with blinds of 1000/2000 got me back to 60k and I started to get excited about winning. I actually got over-excited about winning. On the very next hand I overplayed AQ in such an amateurish way that I left the table feeling embarrassed. As I moved the chips over the line I recognized my mistake just a little too late to abort the operation.

When I was a kid I used to occasionally wonder whether, if I had a Tardis and could transport myself just three times in my life, this be one of the times. In my twenties I would sometimes think back to this. I’d be rushing to the races and think "yes" this would definitely be one of the times. In my room now I wanted to be transported home. I felt sad and alone and didn’t want to be here.

I did what any other sick poker professional would do and joined the cash game.

People say that Chris Moneymaker has done more for professional poker players than any one man. Tonight he did his bit for me. He sat in the game for ten hours and played virtually every pot. At first I sat and watched, enjoying the banter and the responses of the other players to our "star". In the end I couldn’t resist getting involved and we started playing a few pots, including one which had 8k in it and involved me flopping the nuts and him telling me "nice hand". It wasn’t so much the money though, it was just nice to have a bit of fun and play some crazy poker . The World Champion is a great guy, and he played aggressively and pretty well. He nearly got out of it on the trip too.

I consoled Willie on his 9th place finish, he looked tired and disappointed, and went back to play. We finished at 8am which gave me four hours sleep before checking out and heading home. By 7pm I was already losing six hundred quid in the Vic. I sat and prayed for a World Champion to walk in.

Neil Channing is sponsored to play Poker Tournaments by BetUK.com.

Backdoor-flush draws have little merit unless there are other draws available

A backdoor draw is one in which you need to hit a card on both the turn and river to improve your hand. For example, you hold the A 4 and the flop is Q 9 6. A club on the turn and the river would give you a flush. Backdoor draws are of little value by themselves, as you rarely are getting sufficient implied pot odds to draw solely on the merits of a backdoor draw; however, sometimes they add just enough value to your hand to draw when you have other outs, such as overcards or bottom pair and an overcard. I often hear people at the poker table say, "I had middle pair and a backdoor-flush draw." Backdoor-flush draws should rarely impact your strategy, yet I frequently hear players talking about them.

Let’s first look at why backdoor draws by themselves are weak. To make a backdoor-flush draw, you first need to hit your suit on the turn, which is 10/47, and then hit it again on the river, which is 9/46. Multiplying these together produces .042, or 4.2 percent, which is about 23-to-1. Those aren’t very good odds!

Also realize that backdoor draws require you to hit two cards, so you will often need to pay a bet on both the flop and the turn. Therefore, you need even better than 23-to-1 implied pot odds on the flop to justify calling when you include the cost of the turn bet.

Let’s look at this in more detail:

• Assume you are in a $1-$2 limit game and are faced with a $1 bet on the flop, which will close the betting.
• To complete your draw, you will most likely need to call a turn bet, also, so it is important to look at your implied pot odds.
• Since you will sometimes be folding on the turn, we can estimate your average risk. You will continue your draw about 20 percent of the time on the turn (10/47). Therefore, your average total investment is $1 + (0.20 × $2) = $1.40 (the actual investment is slightly higher, since you face the possibility of a raise on the turn).
• To justify this investment, you need a pot of approximately 23 × $1.4, which is $32. You should call on the flop only if you expect to win at least $32 (assuming that you have no other draws).

You would need to be in a capped pot preflop with several opponents to even have a chance of getting close to a pot that big. These types of pots are extremely rare, and even when they do occur, you will need to be closing the betting or you will run the risk of a raise behind you, given all that action. Realize that whatever limit you are playing, you can use the 32-to-1 implied pot odds that we calculated above as the basis for the number of small bets you need to win to make a backdoor-flush draw. If you were playing $10-$20, you would need an expected pot of $320. In $20-$40, you would need an expected pot of $640, and so forth. The math is shown here to demonstrate that backdoor-flush draws have little merit unless you have some other draws to add to them.

There are times when a backdoor-flush draw can turn a fold into a call, but it is also important to realize that there are two different types of backdoor-flush draws, one of which is more valuable than the other:

1. You hold two cards of the same suit in your hand and one hits the flop. For example, you hold the A 10 with a flop of K 7 3.
2. You hold one suit in your hand and two of the same suit hit the flop. For example, you hold the A 10 with a flop of K 7 3.

Note how the first is more valuable than the second. In the first scenario, your flush is concealed if you happen to hit it. In many cases, you’ll be able to get in a nice raise or reraise on the river.

There are several problems and risks with the second type of backdoor-flush draw, in which you hold only one card of the suit in your hand:

• The first problem is that there will be three cards of the same suit on the turn. If one of your opponents hits a flush, there could be some raising and/or reraising, making your draw to the river more expensive.
• If you do manage to hit your flush, there will be four cards of the same suit on the river. You are unlikely to get a lot of action unless you are up against a very weak opponent.
• Also realize that these types of draws have close to no value unless you are drawing to the nuts or close to it. I would place no value on a draw to the third-best flush when you hold only one card of the suit. Your draw is already 23-to-1 to complete, so you don’t want to hit it and lose. For example, you hold the Q 10 and the flop comes 6 3 2. Your backdoor draw to the Q is quite weak, given that anyone holding the A or K would beat you. Compare this to the first type of backdoor-flush draw, in which an opponent would need two cards matching the same suit to beat you.

Most players consider backdoor draws too frequently in their decision-making process. Hopefully, this column has shown some of the drawbacks. Even in those cases in which you are trying to justify a call, note that you won’t get a lot of value out of backdoor draws when you hold only one card of the backdoor-flush suit in your hand.

This week we’re publishing second excerpt from professional Dutch player and author Rolf Slotboom’s recently released book. Rolf is an expert limit hold’em and Omaha player. You can read first excerpt here.

Competition: We are giving away 5 copies of the book for free. All you have to do is predict in this forum thread the total number of goals which will be scored in the Premiership this Saturday. For a tie breaker, guess the time of the first goal. See forum thread for more information.

This is an edited excerpt from Rolf’s brand new “Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha” book, available at all the major (online) gambling book stores, including Amazon & Conjelco. For more information, check out Rolf’s own site www.rolfslotboom.com or the site of the publisher, www.dandbpoker.com.

Ace Speaks: The amount of the bet in pot-limit Omaha

In the first part of this article series, I described how you can and sometimes should vary the size of your bets because of the texture of the board. Today, I will how the size of your and your opponents’ stack can be of influence in finding the proper bet size.

Aspect 2: Varying the amount of the bet according to stack size

Your own stack size can be an important consideration in your decision to bet full pot or a lesser amount. In some of my articles on pot-limit poker I advocate having more chips on the table than any other player you figure to make money from, if you know how to handle a big stack. Pot-limit Omaha is a complicated game and playing a big stack makes it even more complicated; playing a large stack requires much more skill than playing a small or medium stack. Now, if for some reason you are playing a small (or medium) stack, then always betting full pot is far from automatic. Let’s say you’re in a $1,000 buy-in game, and you are in early position (possibly one of the blinds) with a $520 stack. You hold J T 7 7, there’s $180 in the pot and six players see the flop J♥ T 6. You figure your top two pair is probably good now, but there are many draws possible, making your hand very vulnerable. In fact, the only good cards on the turn for you are the jacks and tens that are left, as well as any deuce, three, four and five. Betting the pot here would be very unwise, because if any other card comes on the turn than the ones mentioned, you might have to give up the hand. (After all, with just one card to come, you don’t get the right odds to call a big bet in order to improve to a full or quads if you think the turn must have made someone a straight. And in that case, you would have wasted $180 – more than one thirds of your total stack – without even getting to the river.)

So, if you decide to bet at all against this flop, then betting $80 would seem like the right amount here, much better than the $180 pot bet. Against this board you can expect one, two or three callers, assuming that in fact your hand is good now. Now, if the turn is a blank then your $80 flop bet has put you in perfect position to defend your hand as well as possible by betting full pot. But if you had chosen to bet the pot on the flop and got the same callers as you did now, then you could not have defended your hand anymore after this same, good, turn card. There would be $720 in the pot already, so the $420 you had left would not be enough to make a small wraparound straight (or even an open-ender or some kind of combination hand) fold.

Now, let’s take another flop: K 7 2 and you’re in there with KKxx. There is $400 in the pot, four players and you are playing a $1200 stack. A common scenario would be this: you bet the pot, get one caller, the turn is the third spade and your opponent bets all-in (and you either fold, knowing you’re beat now or call, trying to improve on the river). If the before-the-flop betting suggests someone other than you might be in there with aces, you have to consider the possibility of him having the nut-flush draw as well, a hand that is not going to fold against this board no matter how much you bet. So, why not try to make some money with your set when your hand is still good, yet avoid getting broke with it? A $200 bet on the flop would seem reasonable here, especially taking into account the ill-coordinated nature of the flop. (In fact, betting one thirds to half the pot with top set against this board will give you credibility for the many times when you make the same kinds of bets against these ill-coordinated boards as a bluff.) This $200 would be the perfect amount to induce even bare aces to come along for the ride. Perfect for you, that is, as he will probably be drawing to just two outs while getting only 3-to-1 on his money. Also, you would not be giving a flush draw the proper price to call, knowing that the 7 is not even an out for your opponent(s). If the aces decide to play back at you (or if you think you are able to check-raise the before-the-flop raiser all-in), then by all means try to get all your money in on the flop with the nuts, top set. That would be the best possible situation of all, but you can’t always expect that to happen – and you definitely can’t expect that to happen if you come out with a bet that is too big for this ill-coordinated board.*

So, let’s say that indeed you bet half pot, $200. If this $200 bet of yours gets called and the turn is a spade – or, even worse, an ace – you can fold against a big bet and you would have “saved” the extra $200 then.** If there’s no danger on the turn, however, you can simply bet the pot if you think it’s time to protect your hand as much as possible, or bet a lesser amount if you want your opponent to call you rather than fold. (If you know what your opponent holds, you don’t have to fear a river bluff, meaning you could afford to give your opponents a much better price than just the 2-to-1 they get after a pot bet by you. So, you can bet less than the pot and then if a spade or ace comes up, you can safely fold, having “saved” some chips you would not have saved by betting full pot. Also, if by chance you make a full house on the river after your ‘small’ turn bet, tour opponent may even pay you off now that he has made aces up – so you still double up, despite having bet less than the pot on all streets.) Remember, if you bet $400 on the flop and get called, you don’t get the right odds in trying to make a full if you think the turn has made your opponent a flush. You will have to call $800 more for a total pot of $2800 and you would have only ten outs maximum.

All in all, I’m not suggesting you should always bet less than the pot when you’re playing a small stack. What I am suggesting is you take a close look at the board, at your (and your opponent’s) stack size, so you will then try to find the best strategy to a) maximize your winnings on the hand and b) minimize your losses.

* Quite frankly, in the situation where you have flopped three kings and you suspect the preflop raiser is in there with aces, this would be the perfect situation to go for a check-raise on the flop. Especially if the preflop raiser is not up against too many opponents, he will almost certainly take at least one big stab at the pot now that the board is so uncoordinated. But if you have made the last raise before the flop and thus a) it seems no one has aces, and b) no one will do the betting for you, then it is best to simply come out betting 30 to 50% of the pot rather than full pot. In fact, this is the exact same bet you would also make as a bluff to simply pick up the pot – so you also need to make these kinds of bets when you have flopped a really big hand. So, if you choose to bet at all, it is clear that the half-pot bet is quite superior to the full-pot bet that many players would make with their top set here.

** Having said that, there is obviously some chance that your opponent has called you with his flush draw only because you gave him a good price by betting just half pot – meaning he would have folded against a full pot bet. So, this means you now lose a pot that you would have won with the ‘normal’ big bet. This “giving your opponent the chance for a cheap outdraw” is one of the clear downsides to this play I suggest. Therefore, you should rarely make this type of bet against more coordinated boards, and / or against boards that have multiple drawing opportunities.

Some final words

The things I’ve discussed here are in fact common situations where the average player can make (or save) a lot of money. Just make sure that when you decide to sometimes bet less than the pot, you are not giving away information about the strength of your hand. If your opponents can figure out what you hold because of the amount you’ve bet, they can save money against you when they know you’ve got the goods, and raise you off your hand when they know you’re weak.

This is an edited excerpt from Rolf’s brand new “Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha” book, available at all the major (online) gambling book stores, including Amazon & Conjelco. For more information, check out Rolf’s own site www.rolfslotboom.com or the site of the publisher, www.dandbpoker.com.

This week we’re going to be running some excerpts from professional Dutch player and author Rolf Slotboom’s recently released book. Rolf is an expert limit hold’em and Omaha player.

This is an edited excerpt from Rolf’s brand new “Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha” book, available at all the major (online) gambling book stores, including Amazon & Conjelco. For more information, check out Rolf’s own site www.rolfslotboom.com or the site of the publisher, www.dandbpoker.com.

Ace Speaks: The amount of the bet in pot-limit Omaha

Some poker authors have stated that in pot-limit poker, you should not vary the size of your bets, but always bet the same amount (full pot). This way, your bet won’t give your opponents information regarding the strength of your hand. There are for instance players who bet full pot on the flop when they have some kind of made hand (set, top two pair), but make a smaller bet when they are on a draw. A good player will always know where he’s at when people play like this, and it will be only a matter of time until he gets the money. While it’s true that always betting the size of the pot is better than betting according to the strength of your hand (great hand / pot, good hand / half pot, mediocre hand / small bet), it is not the optimum strategy. There are a few situations where betting a smaller amount is sometimes better than betting full pot:

1. when you are playing a small or medium stack,
2. when there are no draws on the board, or
3. when you have bet the pot on the flop and then on the turn the board pairs.

In fact, there are a few (great) players who bet a smaller amount in other situations as well. For instance, Ray Zee’s frequent underbetting in big-bet poker has been discussed many times, and as we shall see in this book, I too rarely come out betting full pot. But because playing like this requires advanced theoretical thought processes and the ability to read your opponents perfectly, I won’t get into this just yet. I think that for quite a few players it is good to always bet the pot when they decide to bet at all, whether they’ve got some kind of made hand or a (premium) draw. This way, you:

• Don’t give away too much information about your hand
• Show your opponents you are serious about trying to win the pot, which will make them less apt to play back at you
• Are giving your opponents the worst odds in case they try to draw out on you.

Still, if you always bet full pot regardless of the circumstances, you will sometimes face the situation where you’ll only get called (or raised) when you’re clearly beat, and your betting action will have cost you a lot of money. Sometimes making a smaller bet will send the same message to your opponents (that you probably have the goods) as a full pot bet, and you will save money in the event your hand isn’t good.

In this two-part article series, I will analyze two reasons why you can or should sometimes vary the amount of your bet. In this first part, I analyze the texture of the board with regards to this betting size. In the second part, I will analyze both your and your opponents’ stack size.

Aspect 1: Varying the amount of the bet because of the texture of the board

When you have bet the pot on the flop and then the board pairs on the turn

Say the flop comes J84 rainbow. You bet the pot and get called in two places; now the board pairs on the turn. What do you do? A lot of weak players do this: they bet when they are full but check when they only have a draw, fearing someone else may have a full now. Some other players do this: they check when they are full and bet when they have nothing. Both plays are horrible – although the second is not as horrible as the first. The thing to do is to bet small (a bit less than half the pot) whether you have made your hand or not. If you bet with nothing and your opponents are on a draw as well, they are not going to call you and you have (semi-) bluffed them out of the pot at a relatively cheap price. If you do get called, you know you’re probably up against a full and you’re not going to put any more money into the pot. By always betting like this your opponents will fear your relatively small bet as much as a full pot bet. You might be able to steal an occasional pot by playing like this and if your (semi-) bluff doesn’t succeed because your opponent has filled up, well then it was relatively cheap. By betting full pot when the board has paired, the same hands as before are going to fold, but if you get called (and thus are beat) you’ve cost yourself a lot more money than necessary.

Playing against an ill-coordinated board

When the flop comes something like J96 with two of a suit, you know your opponents may have flopped some pretty powerful draws. But if the flop comes K83 or Q72 rainbow, there are no draws. If you bet a hand like top two pair or a small set (or maybe even a lesser hand) against this board, you’ll usually get called only when someone has you beat whether you have bet the pot or not. A lot of good players always bet one thirds to half the pot against flops like these, whether they have a set or not.* By playing like this they are able to steal quite a few pots without putting a lot of money at risk. And if they do get called (or raised) by an obviously big hand, they may be able to get away from their hand cheaply. So, the “half-pot” strategy against these types of boards gives them information at a cheap price, and helps them steal small pots at a cheap price – a very good combination. Only once the opposition becomes more knowledgeable, and only once you start running into players who use this type of thinking too, will this strategy lose a lot of its value.

* Don’t even think about checking a small set here. You’re not going to give free cards in this game; just bet small and pick up the pot but don’t try to get fancy by letting your opponents catch up. The only hand you could afford to check here is top set, because then the free card could make one of your opponents a very good but costly second-best hand. Even then, I usually prefer betting with a big hand over checking, for the simple reason that you want your opponents to know that you also bet your monsters aggressively in situations where slowplaying would have some merit.

Some final words

In the second part of this series, I will analyze the second aspect: Your and your opponents’ stack size as a reason to sometimes vary the size of your bets.

This is an edited excerpt from Rolf’s brand new “Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha” book, available at all the major (online) gambling book stores, including Amazon & Conjelco. For more information, check out Rolf’s own site www.rolfslotboom.com or the site of the publisher, www.dandbpoker.com.

After London, my ever patient sponsors BetUK.com suddenly rediscovered the idea that I might actually one day win one of these tournaments and decided to send me to Baden. I’d been to Austria before, to the Concorde Card Club on some wasteland outside of Vienna, but this was a different kettle of fish entirely.

Baden is a small spa town about 30 minutes drive from Vienna and it’s quite posh. After locating the excellent Pension Elfy and making the short hike to the casino, (the more adjacent hotels were all full of Pokerstars people), I was starting to like it here. The casino looks fantastic; it’s on three floors with marble staircases and high ceilings all over the place. The staff who sorted out my tournament registration were polite and helpful and for about 300 Euro I was given a VIP pass entitling me to as much food and drink from the continually refreshed buffet as I could manage in one week.

The tournament had attracted 330 players and 30 of the 165 that played Day 1A were left. I swerved the cash games and got some sleep ready for Day 1B.

From what I can remember about "o" level geography, the nearer you get to Siberia the colder it is. I was somewhat surprised, therefore, to find that a nice breakfast could be spent at 11am in October sitting outside and basking in the sunshine while eating croissants; must be the one hour time difference.

My first table was pretty interesting for a big event in that it contained virtually no big tournament winners. There was an interesting blend of strong and aggressive types, total calling stations and complete head-cases. I was planning to try and blend in with all three which I think I managed well, my stack going from 10k-12k-4k-10k-4k-10k before we reached the third level.

I played an AJ pretty well I thought with blinds at 75/150 on a board of A72…A…3. The pot was over 10k and the other fella got it all with A7. I put the money I’d saved in on the next hand with an AQ against Vic regular Mike Ellis‘ 10,10. Having had Mike on my table four times in the WSOP and on two occasions during the London EPT he’s beginning to become as familiar to me as JJ Liu. He’s just as good as she is at the 50/50s too.

After a suitable period of sulking, skulking and eating I headed for the cash games. The basic choice is NLH played 10/10 or 10/20 and full of lunatic Scandinavians, Germans and Russians or PLO played from 10/10 to 50/100 and full of lunatic Scandinavians being preyed on by dangerous Brits. I went for the hold ’em.

While harking back to "o" level geography I’m reminded of the day that Mr Dobbin left us drawing an ox-bow lake while he went for a sneaky fag that resulted in a fire in the store cupboard. He loved a cigarette that man. He’d have been pleased with the cash games here. Smoking is practically compulsory at the tables and if you could find an omaha game with less than three enormous La-Di’s going you’d done well.

The 10/20 game was a bit too lively for me with preflop raises of 300 being called in two spots on most hands I dribbled a few Euro waiting for a hand before trudging back to The Elfy.

Another gorgeous sun drenched morning was spent waiting for the waitress to bring us a tea and an orange juice before the noon 2000 Euro comp. (for the service, if you’re imagining the Vic, think Beverley not Sandra).

Today’s tournament was a well structured 2 day event. Unfortunately for me it ended around the same time of day as the Main Event had when my Kings seemed to connect with a flop of 10,J,Q but then refused to connect any more.

One valuable piece of advice I can teach any aspiring professionals out there is to learn from your mistakes. Today I moved comfortably down to the 10/10 NLH which was at least four times smaller than the previous day’s game. I played about five times better and salvaged a bit from the wreckage.

Another valuable piece of advice I can give out, while I’m at it, is that if you are a wealthy owner of a Poker Website and you get busted out of a big tournament and head off to the roulette with four grand while totally pissed, you may want to stop when you get over 600k. It was amazing to watch just how many "friends" turned up to watch the geezer betting 30-50k per spin. I knew things weren’t going so well when the crowd was reduced from around 80 to just three funkers. The last couple of spins were witnessed by a very meagre crowd although I can report that Willie loyally remained to comfort the poor bloke right until the end.

With no tournament fun to look forward to on Wednesday Barny, the Champ and myself went for a quick scout round the town. It’s fairly touristy with many tremendous gift shops and a collection of members of the Aryan race direct from central casting. We had a bit of a look at the bathes which I wish I’d have had a swim in, nearly bought some lovely goat’s milk hand cream and then had a nice sunbathe in the park.

All that set me up for a reasonably successful last night in the cash. I stopped a little early only because it was so bloody slow. It’s lucky there’s a rake and not a time charge (5% with a cap) as the game was brought to a grinding halt by the slightest thing. The quality of dealers was a bit mixed also with some who were definitely not the full Schilling.

Over a final breakfast I reflected on another poor excursion tournament wise, but rather than have regrets I was already looking forward to Dublin.

Neil Channing plays poker tournaments for BetUK.com but, thanks to George Bush, not so much for BetUSA.com.

Hendon Football Club was formed in 1908. Over the years, the club has enjoyed some great times – domestic and European Amateur Cup wins, League Championships and County Cups galore. Perhaps the club’s greatest exploit was back in 1974 when Hendon went to St James’ Park and met – and matched – Newcastle United in the FA Cup.

Newcastle won the replay and went on to reach the final that year. Hendon, having lost the replay, went back to the Isthmian League and embarked on a long, slow journey towards non-league mediocrity.

Fast forward to 2006 and while the club’s centenary season is only a couple of years away, the odds are that Hendon Football Club will not be around to celebrate it. The club’s current owners are in the process of divesting itself of its football interests. The owners’ only significant football asset is the lease on the Claremont Road ground. Plans are in place for the lease to be sold back to Barnet Council and for the ground to be redeveloped for housing.

This would leave the club ownerless and groundless. But the future, while bleak, is far from hopeless.

In February 2006, a small group of supporters formed the Hendon Football Club Supporters Trust. The Supporters Trust’s mandate is to do everything within its power to ensure the continuation of Hendon Football Club playing at the highest level of football consistent with its financial position.

Over the ensuing months, the Trust’s Board have focussed their energies on growing Trust membership numbers, raising funds, ensuring the future of the club and raising the profile of the club and its current plight.

The Trust now has nearly 300 paid-up members, many of whom are making monthly donations to the Trust. Fundraising ideas to date include a monthly lottery – with almost 100 members so far, sponsored walks, runs and a skyjump, a wrestling night, a race night. A Supporters Trust eBay shop has raised over £1000 in less than 6 months. Many more events and initiatives are planned.

Discussions continue between the Trust Board and the club’s owners and the Trust Board is hopeful that the Trust will be in a position to take control of the club in the near future. The Trust has been established on a democratic basis and the intention is to make Hendon Football Club a “fans’ club” with every member enjoying an equal stake in the club.

The Trust Board wants to strengthen links between the football club and the local community. Hendon Football Club can be strong again and can gain its position as a focal point in the community.

But an awful lot of hard work is going to be needed to make all of that happen. And that’s where we hope you might help.

The Hendon Mob is a Corporate Member of the Trust and we will be supporting the Trust and the club wherever and however we can. Hendon Football Club is important to us and to the local community and we would love it if you would support the Trust too. After all, anyone who watches their football team – at whatever level – knows how much their team means to them and how they would feel if the future of their club’s future was threatened.

It doesn’t need to cost you much to support the Trust. For just £10 a year, you can become a member of the Trust and help secure the future of what was once the most successful amateur football club in the country. Any offers of additional financial help would, of course, be greatly appreciated by the Trust Board.

If you would like to find out more about the club and its history, take a look at www.hendonfc.net.

For more information on the Supporters Trust and what it is trying to achieve, take a look at www.hfctrust.co.uk. You’ll find details of how to join the Trust here too.

If you’ve got any questions or suggestions, you can drop the Trust a line at [email protected].

Look out also for more features on Hendon Football Club on The Hendon Mob website and in our newsletter.

The Hendon Mob and Hendon Football Club can be a marriage made in Hendon. With your help, we can enjoy the club’s 100^th anniversary and look forward to a more secure future.

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Read second part of the interview with Roy Houghton, founder of Loose Cannon Club – a members only poker club in the centre of the city. You can also read first part of the interview.

There is still a lot of confusion over the legality of running poker games in the UK. With the Gutshot case still going through the courts….

Oh I pray they win their case! Can you imagine the money we’d make down here if they won their case?

So you’re completely confident that you’re not going to have any problems with the law?

I know we’re not. I can show you letters from the Gaming Commission, I can show you letters from the City of London police, I can show you letters from the City of London licensing officials. Funnily enough, we do not come under the Gaming Commission’s authority in any way, shape or form, which quite amazed me. We’ve done our research, employed the best legal advice and will run the club as per licence. The only thing I did not like is that we must charge membership on a quarterly basis, but at the end of the day, when the club is up and running and players realise the value, it won’t be a problem.

What sort of people are you trying to attract to the club?

We are looking for a large percentage of the people to come from the City of London. I know lots of people now, in fact I did a tournament a couple of weeks ago for one of the finance houses, it was only a 50-player tournament, but every one of these boys wanted the details [about the Loose Cannon]. I knew two of them, they were regular poker players and I got chatting to them and when I told them they said it was 5 minutes from their offices. And you know, this was a 50-player tournament. My sister-in-law’s son, Jimmy, works in the finance market. He said, “Roy, every single guy in the office plays poker online, every one. The day you open they’ll all be down”. We are hoping for a large percentage of city players. I don’t want, no disrespect to Joe, I don’t want the hard nosed poker players down here I really don’t, although I’ll probably get them because they know a good deal when they’re getting one.

We will be open to all players and I will do my best to make sure there is plenty of variety and the magic value, and of course my charming welcome.

Do you not expect people from the Vic to come down?

The Vic is The Vic, Loose Cannon will be Loose Cannon. Of course we will get Vic players and eventually they will get to see some of ours too. But then I worked for years at the Vic and I know them all. I can’t really sling them out, as such, but what I can do, as I said to you, is do everything I can to keep Joe who’s a pro from Roger, who works in the city, from playing at the same table. No disrespect to Joe but that’s going to be my job here, I mean I can’t hold their hands, I can see 5/10 10/20 limit hold’em being played here. The other good thing about limit hold’em is it’s very easy to teach them the other games. I say to the boys look, why don’t you play Omaha? Then you teach them hi/lo split and within 6 months you get a whole nucleus of people who can play all these games. You’ll never get that if you’re playing pot limit or no limit. Saying that there will be plenty of pot limit and no limit games available.

The quarterly charge is going to be £125?

Yes.

Do you think people will realise that represents very good value compared to paying rake on pots at Gutshot or paying table charges.

I think the intelligent ones who play poker regularly will realise that if you can get fifty gallons of petrol for the price of one, then that is value. If you play one hour of cash play at £10 or 4 hours on a £25 game at £12 then that is the question answered. The same goes for tournaments.

But these regular players aren’t really the sorts of people you are wanting to attract?

The city traders, to them, £125 is peanuts. We may even have to put it up. No-one’s ever done this before, we’re in unknown territory. Let me put it this way, if we charge £500 a year and end up within 3 months with 2000 members and we’ve got 450 players in here every night and people can’t get a game, we must be undercharging, so now we have to up it a bit just to balance it out, and if we still get 450 players here a night we’ve gotta up it a bit more until it finds its own level. If you play live poker once a fortnight you will be money in.

But players don’t actually realise that do they? £1, £2, £3 coming out of the pot it different from handing over £125.

Oh I know I’ve been the other side of the fence. I’ve done it all, I’ve had the 5% rake before the game with no cap, I’ve had tables charges at the Vic and the Barracuda and at Russell Square and I’ve had the 5% rake with a £10 cap. Now it doesn’t seem a lot but you know the worst part… you start a game 10 handed at 9 o’clock at night, the rake’s peanuts. £45 an hour, nobody’s winning, nobody’s losing the game’s granite. Now it loses a couple of people and you get to midnight and it’s down to 7 and you’re taking a £100 an hour. 2 in the morning and you might be down to 6 players and they’re all losing. The rake now goes up to £160 or £170 an hour and there’s only six players playing, all trying to get their money back. They haven’t got a prayer. Not the slightest chance.

You already have four festivals for the club planned, four a year. Do you have any more details?

Haven’t worked them out yet but we have a strong ally in Victor Chandler, I said I want to do four major poker festivals a year, they won’t be longer than 7 days. That’s not to say we might not run mini festivals, 3 or 4 days, but we want to 4 week long ones with maybe a £1000 NL Hold’em double chance Freeezeout or even a £3000, I understand they have a £1000 Freeezeout down the Ritz and they’re getting 28-30 players every week. I will have a full schedule up in the next couple of weeks.

For the opening night you are going to be running a ‘two-tier’ event where players can buy in for either £50 or £100. Can you give us any more details?

It was just an idea, I did it some years back at the Barracuda for a couple of weeks and it went down reasonably well with the players but it was a huge amount of admin so I knocked it on the head but the players quite liked it. It’s either a £50 or £100 buy-in for the Freeezeout. You get the same amount of chips of course. Say we get 100 players and 60 pay £50 and 40 pay £100. The £50 players can win £5000 can’t they, that’s all there is in the pool. There is another 40x£50 over, which is another 2 grand. That’s paid out to all the players who paid the extra and made the money.

What happens if none of the players who paid extra made the money?

I don’t think that would happen but if it did all the £100 players would get their money back. If only one of them made the money they would get the whole £2000.

When are you opening, and how do we get in?

Hopefully the 9th October, more likely the 23rd. If you want to come down, just go to the web site www.loosecannonpoker.com and register your email and I will send you a Founder Membership Registration, you will be able to come and try out the club for a period of time at no charge. Before I get a roasting the website is very, very temporary and there will be a class site up in the next couple of weeks. The interest shown so far has been amazing, especially from the city, we are on their doorstep and hopefully we will generate a new breed of player. I have got a little Ace up my sleeve, we will be running a Grand Prix event at the end of October or first week in November, £50 freezeout with £5,000 added prize money from our friends at Victor Chandler.

If you’ve been keeping up to speed with the poker scene in London you’ll have heard Roy Houghton, for many years heavily involved with the game in and around the capital, is soon to be opening the Loose Cannon Club – a members only club in the centre of the city. We paid Roy a visit to find out some more details.

First off – The Loose Cannon Club – where did the name come from?

My wife thought of it. We were thinking about what to name it and I thought of three arches, she said, “It’s under Cannon Street, why don’t you call it the Loose Cannon?” Loose Cannon Sports Bar. She does come out with the odd gem. The club is now officially know as ‘Loose Cannon Sports Bar and VC Players Lounge’.

How many players can you cater for?

The fire officer has given us permission to have up to 450 people in on a night. We can comfortably seat 250 tournament players.

What sort of cash games will you be spreading, and will they be dealer dealt?

A lot of city employees are asking about limit hold’em, we’ll be spreading that along with no limit, pot limit, dealers choice, hi/lo, Omaha… Let me tell you a long time ago I had a beginners’ night Friday night, and I started pushing a 2/4 Limit Game, got it going. Much to my amazement I used to get 3 tables on a Friday night, 2/4, then it suddenly leapt up to 3/6. Now I had that game, even the day we closed, Christmas 2002, when they closed that game was still going, every Friday night. Sometimes other nights, I think I used to have a £10 tournament on a Tuesday night, I’d have a couple of games on a Tuesday night, 3/6. When I first opened the card room at Russell Square, the guy that was the manager, Paul Blunt had had a very active card room in Nottingham so he was really pro-poker. I said I’m going to try a beginners’ night. He said “no, it’ll never work” but I said I’m going try it. For the first two or three weeks it was a disaster there was hardly anybody there, because you know, we’d just opened, we didn’t have one poker player as a member. I was gradually building it up. This would be… 1997.

Before the boom…

Oh yeah. Eventually I started getting it going and once it took off, I found the beginners’ nights, these £5 beginners’ nights just went through the roof. I only, I think, if I used the hard gaming area, had a maximum of 8 tables down there. I was having rows every Friday night now, you know Rob would come down with his mates “Sorry Rob, full up” “Oh you are joking! We’ve come all the way from Dartford, put us in” And I was thinking oh I can’t be doing with this, I know what I’ll do I’ll stick it up to a tenner, have ten pound tournaments. It made no difference, I was still having rows. The point I’m making is that from those five-pound and ten-pound tournaments I was getting two or three games of 3/6 hold’em every week, never failed.

I didn’t even realise limit hold’em had ever been spread in the UK to be honest

Well no, no, this is what I argued. I’ve been saying it, well Joe will tell you, for the last 12 or 15 years now, I know it won’t appeal to that lot [experienced UK players] “boys look I’m not talking about you because you’ve been born and raised on the pot limit and no limit game”. When you get limit cash games, not limit tournaments, people can enjoy them though. If you have a really good run of cards, say at a 3/6 game, you might go home winning £200. But if you’ve had a bad run, what you gonna lose £60, £80? I’ll tell you a little story here. When I first opened the Lindhurst club in St. John’s Wood back in ’89, again, you try and build the club up… One Saturday afternoon I’ve got 4 players, they’ve come in 2 o’clock Saturday afternoon. “Do you want to start 4 handed?” “No, we’ll wait until another player comes in”. An hour went by, 3 o’clock, what’s going on? I said look, why don’t you play a little limit game? “Ah no leave it out” “Just to kill time.” I’m desperate to keep them there, I don’t want them to go. “Ah no, don’t worry about it”. In the end they played a 4/8 limit game. Now it lasted, probably lasted about one and a quarter hours. Couple of players walk in and now we’ve got a game. One of the guys said to me “no more limit games”. I asked why? He said, “I’ve done £480 playing that game.” Later on I was chatting to him and asked him “Did you really do all that money?” “Well a bet’s only 8 quid” I said “Mate, the odds don’t change, whether it’s limit or pot limit! The odds don’t change!” Limit poker… I know you can’t bet people out of a pot but the odds do not change.

What about tournaments? Will there be a regular schedule or are you going to be hosting just special events?

We will have tournaments but you know to be honest with you I think because of the fact that we’re charging a membership fee, probably within a fairly short space of time, most of the games here are going to be cash games. We will run four major festivals a year, which I hope will provide serious value. It’s a new room and I have got to establish what is right for the players.

So having said that there will be a healthy tournament schedule, but I keep seeing those full card rooms in Vegas playing mainly cash games.

Tournaments are very very popular though; you’ll get people down to play tournaments then move on to cash games after.

I’m more interested in freeze outs than rebuy tournaments, £50, £100, and £250. The problem that I’ve got with the £250 Freeezeout or anything over £100 is that I’ve got to supply dealers for all tables. The players are going to have to understand that if they want dealers for all tables for what we’re charging them as a membership fee they’re going to have to pay £20/25 for a buffet and we’ll hope that they use their loaves. Obviously I will provide dealers that’s why I want to train up some staff, part timers, people who have a normal job but they want to work on a Friday for a tournament…. you know, get them to a good enough standard so that they can deal.

They’re going to be coming down and working for tips, yes?

Yes they will be to be fair.

Dealers make a pretty decent wage just off tips though at places like Gutshot

I know that the top boys down at Gutshot easily can make a very good wage. I worked down there and I know what their tips will be. Let me put it this way, when I left Gutshot, John needed another manager. He asked every one of the dealers. They all went “No chance! What do I want to be a manager for? I’m earning more money than you are!” They never actually said that to him, they didn’t wanna rub John’s nose in it but they were, so what did they want to be a manager for?

So are you planning on having a regular tournament schedule?

Yeah I will do but basically until Christmas there will be what we call a registration period. I do realise that when you open up a club from scratch there’s no point in me opening 7 nights a week. I’m going to get diluted. One thing I don’t want is for just 20 players to come down each night. The outgoing company have got a lot of corporate events booked between now and Christmas, which is good revenue for us, very good revenue. So I can’t give the poker players consistency until Christmas, something that poker players like. If I say to them well look we’re open 7 days a week, except for, I think we’ve got 26 events booked between now and Christmas. Well that’s a month written off from the poker players’ point of view. So it’s no good for me to say we’re open Monday Tuesday closed Wednesday open Thursday closed Friday this week then we’re open Monday Wednesday Friday Saturday next week. It’s a nightmare. So what I’m going to propose to do is, as we’ve got no events on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays, is just open on Monday and Tuesday evenings. We’re not charging. The poker players who come down here will not be paying a membership fee however to try and do this for a long period of time is going to be suicidal. So depending on the reaction it may be a fairly short period of time, could be two weeks, could be three weeks, before I say “Right, now we’re open Sunday, Monday, Tuesday” But what we want now until December 31st is £40.

People will still have to be members to come down here though; they still have the 48-hour waiting period?

That’s the curious thing about it, in the club constitution, which is all quite legal, we are allowed to take guests. For one night only, but if you wanted to join, you’d come down, fill out an application form and you can play that night funnily enough, as a guest. Only that one night, and it’s totally within the law. You can’t come in the following night, then the night after that, provided you come in the same time you came in the first night you’re now a member, so it’s only one night you miss actually

Handy

Yeah it is. And it’s very handy for people who are on Joe’s side, there are a couple of lads who live quite a way away from London. If they know that they can come, obviously we’ll have a computer there that logs all your visitors. Now if Bill Bloggs from the Hendon Mob website lives 50 miles away comes in we say alright you can play as a guest because you live 50/60 miles away but if suddenly it’s on the computer that his name’s down that week, there and there and there, hold on a minute, you’ve gotta join.

Ok, important question now, what does the beer cost?

It’s a standard price. I mean I know that we’ve had it on the websites it’s going to be £5 a bottle. “Tom – how much does a bottle of Budweiser cost here? “£3, but the prices aren’t really fixed yet.” Our aim is to provide value, no prices are fixed yet but I guarantee there will be no complaints on that one.

Catman is posting information on our forum about the club. I guess he’s involved in its promotion. Are you planning any erotic events a la the Paddy Power Strip Poker tournament?

No we’ve got no erotic events at all! Despite what Catman may say we are running a 100% legal operation there will be no adult entertainment here, I must stress that please! No pole dancing, no topless waitresses, nothing! Catman is a Consultant to the club, he has a great knowledge of poker and he has been behind some very powerful brands as well as running clubs for most of his life. We are pleased to have him working for us, even if he did suggest Poles on the poker tables.

You had a lot of success at Russell square, and you were manager of the Gutshot for, what, 17 months? Why did you leave?

16 months… well, let’s just I was having differences of opinion. I hadn’t been well and wasn’t in the right frame of mind to work there. I had also seen this place and was looking to start up my own club.

Read second part of this interview