4th Annual World Heads Up Championship, Barcelona
Report by Keith ‘Bendigo’ Sloan on Tuesday, 15 June 2004 at 11:22 am

Keith ‘Bendigo’ Sloan really needs no introduction. He has kindly agreed to say a few words from sunny Barcelona and he never usually needs an excuse to do that. Best known as Tournament Director and MC at Crown Casino Melbourne he is now working with the WHU team here in Spain…

I knew if I could just live long enough I would get my 15 minutes of fame. My "moment in the sun" arrived today when Barny invited me to pen a few lines for their PRIMA POKER DIARY.
Of course if the invitation came because he admired my poker game I would be chuffed, unfortunately the truth is it came for no other reason than Barny is involved in some big action here in Barcelona and it was his turn to write the Prima Report.

OK, lets talk a bit about playing poker 2004 style.

Apart from the huge growth in the number of players today the biggest change I have noticed is the playing style of the new players. I get to walk the floor during a lot of big tournaments and I get to see a lot of hands and some amazing plays that my poker brain just cannot comprehend.

When I first saw some of these plays I put them down as inexperienced players not knowing how to play certain hands in certain positions. I now know that my initial observation could not be further from the truth. These new "young guns" have looked at all the old pro´s and are finding ways to beat them.

When I was playing for a living we always had the "grinders" and I guess they will always be around. What we didn’t have was such a large number of players who don´t play just to survive and get the rent – these boys and girls are PLAYING TO WIN.

Anyone who plays a lot of poker tournaments would know the players who keep taking down the big money seem to have something special about their game, something you can´t buy or learn from reading a book. We all know who they are – names like Ram Vaswani, Marcel Luske, Dave Ulliot, etc. etc.
I don´t know what it is but I can recognise it when I see it and I am seeing more and more of it on the circuit today.

I have tried to find the reason and the only logical one I can come up with is the "new breed" are not under bankroll pressure. The overheads were always the killer and to cover hotel bills, travel costs and day-to-day living expenses meant needing to book regular wins. With the luxury of getting to play "no overhead" poker online at any hour of the day or night allows players to hold down a job (if such a thing is appealing to you) and not constantly put pressure on your bankroll for day-to-day living expenses. It also means having the luxury of taking a piece of your bankroll and travelling to a tournament to "take a shot" rather than just trying to grind your way into the money to cover the costs of the trip and then trying to get lucky once you made the final table.

The new breed don´t care about just "making the money" they want to win and we all know if you want to win a tournament you need chips when you get to the final table. So now we have all these young players building chips very early on in tournaments when so many of the older brigade are content to survive the next level and not wanting to take any real chances until they make the money.

I was always aware of player reputations and almost always knew how my opponents played but the new guys either don´t care or don´t know whom they are playing against. They just get in there and start putting pressure on from the 1st hand.
I have witnessed some super aggressive play here in Barcelona in the W.H.U.P.C. from the newbies and have spoken to some of the big guns who tell me just how hard it is to play against the new style of player. They are finding it very hard to read them and by the time they do have some sort of a read on their young opponent they have lost a few too many chips and now find themselves needing to "hit a hand" to get back into the match. This of course makes for a different style of poker, a style I find very exciting to watch. (The W.H.U.P.C. will air sometime in August 2004 on the Discovery T.V. family).

OK, this story didn´t go where it was intended – I wanted to tell you about some great hands played in some of the matches here in Barcelona but my word limit is up which is not all bad I guess as it might mean I get another invite from Barny next time it is his turn to write the Diary Report.
Cheers from Barcelona,
Keith "Bendigo" Sloan.

Helping to build the bridge between online and B&M Poker.

World Series of Poker, Las Vegas
$10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship
Report by Daniel Negreanu on Wednesday, 26 May 2004 at 5:07 pm

When I first started playing tournament poker my ultimate dream was to win the "big one". I always felt that if I worked hard enough I would eventually achieve that goal.
Well, times change. It is no longer a priority in my life and if it happens great, if not it’s really no big deal to me either way. Don’t get me wrong I love the tournament and hope it continues to thrive- I’m just being realistic. With so many great unknown players in the tournament now it makes it really tough to get there.
When I was eliminated on the first day it didn’t really bother me as much as it should I guess. I just couldn’t help but think, "Big deal? 2600 other people are going to get knocked out too and it’s not like I was really in the running at any point."

My goal the entire month was to win the Best All Around Player Award. I played in every tournament I could play, and with just one event remaining I think there are maybe two or three people that could catch me. That would be my most precious achievement if I am lucky enough to win that award.

I don’t know if that had an effect on my focus in the final event or not, but I certainly didn’t play well. I knew full well that a patient strategy was the right way to go but for some reason I lacked the necessary patience. I was "supposed" to wait for my opponents to make mistakes, but instead I was the one who made the crucial errors by bluffing in spots where I know better.

I don’t "blame" my opponents at all. THEY made great calls against me, and in a nutshell on those hands totally outplayed me. I don’t buy the argument that they just didn’t know any better and couldn’t lay down a hand. The bottom line is "I" know better and "I" blew it. I take "full" responsibility for getting knocked out.

Failing to recognize that I knocked myself out would be a great fault in my poker thinking. If my opponents call me too often, I’m not supposed to risk my chips on a bluff against them. It’s that simple.

Well, whatever. I blew it. It wasn’t the first time and I can absolutely guarantee you that it won’t be the last! I will however take a lot of positive things with me from the whole experience. I will learn. I will improve. I will make less and less mistakes. Then maybe if I can also get extremely lucky, I may one day have a chance to win the elusive "World Championship of Poker." Of course, I won’t be holding my breath! 🙂

Daniel Negreanu
www.fullcontactpoker.com

World Series of Poker, Las Vegas
$10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship
Report by Tony Bloom on Tuesday, 25 May 2004 at 2:41 am

Racing Drivers know it, runners know it, so do jockeys. But how many poker players know it? And of those, how many poker players do it? The ability to change gears and more importantly the experience of knowing when to do it can make the difference between an otherwise good tournament player being a great one. Although applicable in cash games, it`s greatest importance is in tournaments – in particular a big No Limit Hold`em Event.

Like a lot of skills in poker books can explain how and why, but only feel and instinct at the table combined with experience can tell you when to change gears. Knowing your opposition`s style of play, knowing your opponents thoughts on your style of play, and even on a 3rd level knowing what your opponents feel you know of their style will enable you to change gears with impunity.

There are so many factors involved in deciding which gear you should be in, and when to move up or down. Most players will only really consider what the other players have been doing over the last 30 minutes or so. You can use this to change the other players` perceptions of the way you play to your advantage.But you must always consider your opponents plays from the moment they sit at the table and how their play may have changed and why. You must recollect as best you can their playing patterns from previous encounters on other days. You must consider the skill levels of each player to understand their ability to change gears and their ability to spot others changing gears. These people generally exist only at the higher echelons of the game.

A few days ago in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha, Chris Moneymaker raised on the button with KK76, I made a large re-raise and he went over the top for a small amount more. I called, and as I showed my AAxx he commented "I knew you had aces, but I don`t play short stacks well so I had to gamble".

Now that`s an honest enough comment. It`s been well documented that he played his large stack at last year`s big event with tremendous heart and aggression which gave him his victory. He needs a large stack to play to his strengths. I love a large stack and can play it as aggressive as most. However, to play tournaments well you must know how to manage a short stack. Unfortunately it`s a position you`re going to be in a lot of the time.

There a some top players, Phil Ivey being a good example, who always want to be ultra aggressive and be in top gear almost all the time in a tournament. They don`t want to be scrambling around with small chips after 2 hours. They either want to have a lot of chips, or be knocked out where they can play in a large profitable side game. Their rationale is their Expected Value (EV)
playing with a small stack is too small compared to their EV in a cash game. In my opinion for these great players this makes financial sense, even though it reduces their EV for the tournament. But this only applies to a handful of players, not the many hundreds who play this way.

PS Yes, Moneymaker rivered a straight against me to cripple my stack.
PPS Ram and Devilfish are two great exponents in the art of changing gears.

The two pictures below were taken by David Goudie (Crown
Photographer) during the Aussie Millions final. Check out Tony’s T-shirt and his little gold Lizards!

World Series of Poker, Las Vegas

When I saw my table for the $1500 shoot-out event, it was good news/bad news. Although headphones are allowed at the WSOP, I hadn’t brought mine. This was a shame as the table behind me included Mike "the mouth" Matusow, (for those of you who aren’t familiar with this fellow the person who named him intended no irony), who was conducting several high decibel conversations with people on various other tables. Late arrivals on that table included Marcel Luske and top international nipper Avner Levy, so concentrating on the nine players I was stuck with was hard.

My table was good, as it had no "big name" players except An Tran, who got his aces cracked and departed early, and it consisted of players who didn’t seem to understand the structure of the tournament. The shoot-out means you have to win your table to move on, rather like a one-table satellite, but it has one-hour rounds, not at all like a OTS. Most people on my table thought going in every few hands seemed a good idea and we had early casualties. Around me I could see Joe Beevers’ table was still full (he seemed to be biding his time) and I was content to wait for a hand.

This gave me a chance to do a bit of people watching and listen in to the banter on the surrounding tables. The noise abatement society behind were involved in an interesting discussion over a side-bet that Mickey Applemans had struck with Mike the Mouth. Mike thinks this year’s main event will not be won by what he calls "a donkey" and Mickey, a legendary professional sports punter, has let Mike pick 100 players and have 2/1 odds that he gets the winner. Everyone that Mike has told about the bet thinks he’s made a rick and Mickey has let him press first with 200 and then with 250 players, still at 2/1. Personally, I’d love to be with Mickey. I reckon for 2/1 to be value, Mike would need at least 300 players. Mickey gets the rest of the field. With people talking of 2000+ runners he’ll be all right.

Warren Wooldridge was playing a one-table $500 nearby which suddenly kicked-off. A player had gone all-in 5-handed and as the other guy called, the dealer mucked his unprotected hand. The scream-up when he was told he was out of the sat with no refund could be heard at The Excalibur.

Unfortunately, my tournament ended in heads-up defeat and back on the rail I shared my moans with James Vogl who’d suffered the same fate. It’s no picnic being a world champ, Lucky Jim.

Sleep’s never been a high priority for me in Vegas and I swapped it for the Last Chance tourney at 10:45pm, where I finished 6th at 3.30 and headed off to bed.

Update from the Mob:
In the $2000 Hi-Lo Omaha yesterday both Ross and Barny put in a good show. Barny was chip leader at the dinner break and was second in chips going into the money(27 places paid). But, as can happen he took a couple of bad beats and missed a good chance to make his second final table of the series finishing 15th, his second – and the Mob’s seventh- cash of this World Series. Our next tournament is the $2000 PLH which is one of our favourite events…

World Series of Poker, Las Vegas
$1,000 No Limit Hold’em

Harry Demetriou’s guest diary…

I (Joe) have just left Binions having watched Ross and Ram both make the money in today’s $1000 No Limit Hold-em multiple re-buy event. There were 538 entrants with 534 re-buys and 262 add-ons and 54 get paid. So having played for 10 ½ hours and getting knocked out in 58th I was a little disappointed. Maybe Barny was better off getting his Aces busted (again) a few hours earlier.

If Daniel Negreanu had his way this would have been the biggest prize pool in WSOP history. He managed a magnificent 27 re-buys at $1,000 each and has to finish 8th or better to make a profit! Daniel is still there and going well as is Phil Ivey (14 rebuys!) and Howard Lederrer. Ram had about $40,000 in chips when I left, well above average, and Ross about $10,000. Of the other Brits Ian Dobson had a good stack and Dave ‘El Blondie’ Colclough had just doubled up so the chances of a good Brit showing or even a bracelet are very possible.

Harry Demetriou, one of the regular posters on the Mob forum, and, although a relative newcomer to tournament poker, someone that is already making his mark in big international events has written a diary for us that shares his experiences from the Bellagio events through to the WSOP. He is also responsible for next months ‘Pro Tip’ and although he is still moving up the curve he has a lot of valuable things to say.

Over to you Harry…(take a deep breath)…

Feeling flattered that The Mob should invite me to write this column I’ll give it my best shot and hope you find my thoughts and approaches to these type of tournaments of interest.

The main event the other week was the $25K buy in Bellagio event and this was followed on Friday 23rd April with the $2K buy in No Limit Tournament which kicked off the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Traditionally the opening event was a Limit Tournament but due to The Internet and TV coverage No Limit’s popularity has soared to such an extent that more and more of these events now take place so supply is trying to meet demand. To qualify this, in my first ever tournament in 2002 at the WSOP, there were 440 players in the $2K buy in no limit event whilst in 2003 they had approximately ten more players but this year 840 lined up. In the Bellagio $25K event last year had around 111 players whilst this year they had 343. Not only that but on the preceding Saturday they had a $1 million super satellite yielding 42 seats for The Bellagio event.

How long this can last I do not know but the bottom line is that there are serious amounts of money up for grabs and if you want to get your share you are going to have to work hard for it and adapt to the new players and conditions demanded by these large field events.

Many castigate the on line players who qualify for these events claiming they are too loose, wild, inexperienced and unworthy of sitting down at the same table as seasoned real life pros but I for one do not agree. Personally I believe that the best online players are at least the equal of the best real life tournament players if not better because they represent a tiny subset of a huge larger global population. In the past the pool of tournament players may have been a few hundred but now you have an extra couple of thousand players from a global online group of tens if not hundreds of thousands. Not only that but these new kids (which many of them are) have been brought up on video games so to them poker is just another one of these games. Most frightening however is that due to the speed of internet poker sites and the ability of these players to play three or four tables at the same time they are able to make lightening quick decisions which in some ways may be our saving grace. When they get to a live game or tournament they find it so slow that they may get bored of playing. But that’s another story and perhaps we’ll leave the subject of online players to another day but for now let’s just say that just because there are some very bad internet players it doesn’t mean that they are all terrible and useless.

The point of all this is that you now have very large fields with very large prize pools which means that if you are going to succeed you have to adapt accordingly because you are going to encounter a diverse range of opponents from the solid professional to the complete and utter idiot.

It has been said many times that no limit poker is not about the cards but about people. To succeed you have to play the players as well as your cards. Time and time again people claim they didn’t get any cards and that they could never get in with a chance during a tournament but this applies to everyone and yet you will see the same faces time and time again going deep into tournaments and the prize money. Are these players lucky? Not at all, they simply get on with the job of utilizing whatever ammunition they have and turn bad cards into winning cards by selecting their weaker opponents or victims as their targets for collecting pots. In essence you need to be around long enough to give yourself a chance of getting good cards. TJ Cloutier said that No Limit is about mistakes and that you need to minimize your own and maximize your opponent’s mistakes and these are very prophetic words indeed.

However great a play you may make, absolutely nothing improves your equity more than your opponents making mistakes.

Poker is a game of imperfect or incomplete information and as such it is impossible to play perfectly. You can play the same cards against the same opponents in different ways on different days and all can be totally correct or incorrect.

In the Bellagio main event I got off to a good start. I had a pre conceived game plan but I soon found that because of a couple of very aggressive players at my table I had to revert to a tighter than hoped strategy. The structure was so slow that there was no real reason to play anything other than premium hands and to be honest without doing too much I managed to run my stack up from an initial 50K to 102K. The intention was to exploit opponents being too tight and do more than average stealing but I found very few real hands all day but as the day progressed it was easy to see who was playing very tight and who was playing too loose and I simply picked on the weaker opponents to get chips. Although I am not a fan of the Phil Helmuth book “Play Poker Like The Pros” one thing I do like is the way he encourages you to categorize players. Using your own definitions I would suggest you label players as Tight, Aggressive, Weak and/or Strong and once you have done this play accordingly. However don’t make the mistake of sticking rigidly to this. As play goes on key hands will develop that may cause these players to change from one type of player to another and if you are going to be successful you will have to notice these changes. You should also try to note which players are capable of putting in big bets on bluffs and or sub optimal cards and which are not. This is very important as depending on opponent’s bad beats and stack sizes it will affect their play. It will also help you in deciding whom you should try to stay away from and whom you should confront. The first level I spent developing my very tight image (something that cannot be said of me normally) and watching my opponents to see which thought AJ was a monster and those that would play poorer starting hands out of position. Having developed this image it was then a relatively easy process to steal in later levels when everyone would instantly fold whenever I came into a pot (albeit often with garbage) and when someone played back I would deliberate forever before appearing to reluctantly fold. An advantage of this too was that on later rounds there were bigger blinds and antes to steal. In essence then the approach was to develop and play on my perceived image because this is usually what will gain you your greatest advantage.

The second day I felt very ill and how I survived with 71K at the end of the day is beyond me. Ted Forrest (a great and underrated player in my opinion) came to my immediate right with a very large stack. He knows how to use his chips and was constantly raising every pot. This is his style when he has chips and he knows that everyone will get out of his way because they are scared of going broke. When you come across this type of player you have really only one course of action and that is to fight fire with fire. You simply have to play back and I did this four times in quick succession. Unfortunately for me the fifth time I decided to smooth call with an AQ suited and proceeded to hit top pair. Unfortunately he had raised with a 95 off suit and the flop came Q95 causing me to lose a significant number of chips. My saving grace however were running clubs and a possible gut shot straight which most likely saved me from losing more.

On the third day of the main Bellagio event I was running over my table quickly when a couple of new players joined the table. I had gone from 71K to 300K very quickly (within three rounds or thirty hands) and was in great shape. One of the players was Howard Lederer who was relatively short stacked and quickly began to get involved. After a couple of hands the two players to my left immediately started making comments like…”this game was Ok until you, the number one player in the world joined in” which to me signalled instant defeat and submission. I could see the grin on Howard’s face and I had a hard time concealing my glee at hearing these defeatist comments. Poker is a psychological war and although all players and especially the Howard Lederer’s of this world command and deserve respect they too will make mistakes. I don’t care who it is I have personally witnessed every one of them make a major mistake at one time or the other so never let yourself get into this defeatist attitude because you can beat each and every one of them. These two types of player are unlikely to ever succeed as they immediately go into defensive mode permitting the better players to bully them out of pots. This then was probably one of the main reasons day three was so easy as they kept rolling out of my way.

But before you all think I’m singing my praises too much I have an embarrassing confession. I lost 250K on a hand and went broke by making a very fundamental mistake, one that was so bad that even a novice would have a hard time making it. In short I made an all in call against the only player at my table who could break me with a substandard hand and was promptly sent to the rail quite deservedly (of course I could have got lucky but I didn’t and in any event if I did would not have been able to justify my bad play. There can be no justification for my mistake as it was pure and simply a whopper of a mistake which was self inflicted but also in part brought on by my opponent. I had made two previous lay downs against this same player in the previous half hour and I was simply pushed over the edge. Unless this kind of ego error can be eradicated it is IMPOSSIBLE to become a great player and I can only assure you all that this problem has been very readily and rapidly addressed. In real terms I threw away around $100,000 worth of real cash equity and absolutely nobody in the poker world can afford to do that. There were 80 players left at the time and I was approximately average if making the correct lay down as I would have had around 185K left in chips.

So let that be a lesson to you all…DO NOT LET EGO get in the way. The point I guess I’m trying to make is that because of the structure of the main event and the large stack sizes there was absolutely no hurry to do anything and that you had plenty of time to do nothing but watch opponents and play premium cards. The other point is that because of the large numbers of players you have to watch your opponents and try and label them and the kind of player that they are. Once you have done this you can then make the appropriate adjustments in order to play against them optimally. You can also see that you should try and remember how you played previous hands against your opponents so that you can try and trick them into making a mistake at a future time.

Having busted out through playing Russian Roulette using a gun with a fully loaded chamber on the Wednesday I was not sure if I wanted to play the Friday $2K no limit event at The Horseshoe but I had to prove to myself that I could get over this nightmare and my preponderance to self destruct at critical times during tournaments. As they say there’s no cure like jumping straight back into the fire and action.

Friday came and there I was sitting down at my table at midday in this 840+ player event and my table had three more than half decent players including John Bonetti. I was already in defeatist mode thinking this was a bad beat but I made my mind up I was going to play well and do my best. The first thing to note was that because I was drawn downstairs it was likely that I was going to have my table broken pretty quickly. If you get a chance and can find out it is important to know when you are going to be broken up because if you are not going to be around long enough with the same opponents you can only play regulation poker i.e. you can’t set up people with early plays for benefits later on in the way you could at The Bellagio.

Another key feature of this tournament was the incredibly fast structure. After four levels half the field had gone and noticing this has a big impact on your strategy. Regardless of whether you get any cards you simply have to get busy and you cannot afford to wait to play only good cards. With such a large field you also have to pay close attention to your opponents because there will be a very diverse range of players with different abilities. If you get a chance to see a hand called on the river make sure you see it because it tells you a lot about how players play and what there starting requirements are. Too often you see the guy who called turn over the winning hand first so make sure you get all the information that you have paid for.

Using this knowledge by the end of level three or four I was probably chip leader with around 32K in chips but the constant moving and the ever increasing blinds and antes was always going to catch up with everyone but nonetheless I still managed to finish 50th and well into the money which paid down to 81st place. My stack size was very volatile due to the fast pace at which I needed to play but it’s far easier to play with chips than without them. They are a powerful weapon and you should use them when you have them because your opponents will fear you.

It was only $3600 in prize money but this was my fifth cash at the WSOP and this was only my third WSOP and probably my 15th or 16th tournament at The Horseshoe in total. In fact looking back I do not know how I ever got to a final table as I know much more now than I did then but one thing I know that I have always had is my fearless approach and I don’t mind getting it wrong because we will all get it wrong from time to time. Nonetheless this was a much needed confidence boost after a dismal third day at The Bellagio.

If you have ever played any of The Horseshoe WSOP events there is nothing on earth to describe the feeling and if you make a final table you feel like God and playing a $25K buy in event is very special indeed. It’s like a childhood dream where you grow up wanting to play with your sporting heroes but in this case you will definitely be taking on the best and worst in the world.

In the next ‘Pro Tip’, May 2004, Harry offers some very good advice following on from what he has said here.

by Vicky Coren on Tuesday, 23 March 2004 at 9:49 pm

I’ve just got back from Cardiff where the second series of Celebrity Poker Club was being filmed. Don’t ask who won, because of course the results are strictly embargoed until the show goes out on Challenge TV in the early summer. If anybody knows, please don’t post it on the forum and spoil the ending. (While you’re at it, don’t tell me how Sex And The City ended either. I still haven’t seen the last show – but I’m hoping that Carrie wins, after her queens stand up against Miranda’s AdKd.)

I think the new CPC is going to make great viewing – there were good people playing, lots of funny banter, and the standard of poker is much higher this time. It’s never going to be the WPT, but pretty much everybody in it this time is a regular player and has an idea what they’re doing. It’s an entertainment show rather than a sports show, and a lot of the fun comes from finding out whether familiar personalities play poker as you’d expect or whether they play against type.

For example, some famously underhand people have sneaked into this second series. Jailed stock trader Nic Leeson and Nasty Nick Bateman are playing, as is Major Charles Ingram (the man who was accused of cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) and his wife Diana. It’s pretty irresistible to see how they all fare in a game where deceit is actively encouraged. I couldn’t help expecting Major Charles to suddenly cough ‘Nut flush!’ while Diana was considering a difficult call.

The celebrity drug-smuggler Howard Marks, meanwhile, played EXACTLY as You’d expect from a lifetime dope-smoker. If you ever wonder what marijuana does to the short-term memory, just watch that guy playing a hand. He has to look back at his hole cards every six seconds.

Howard Marks also does everything five times slower than the normal human speed. There was one moment when he looked suddenly excited, but it was only an unfortunate misunderstanding when Matt Le Tissier shouted ‘Pot!’

The first heat was delayed because the dealers (lovely Thomas, Peter and Marina from the Concord) got fog-bound in Vienna. The players ended up sitting down to the game at midnight, and continued past 4 a.m. This was a bit of a problem for TV psychiatrist Dr. Raj Persaud who was due to address a conference of nurses at 9 a.m. back in London. ‘They’re not even normal nurses’, he moaned, ‘They’re wound-healers! It’s an incredibly difficult and dedicated branch of nursing. If they thought I’d been up all night smoking cigars and playing poker, they’d be rightly horrified.’

The ventriloquist Roger de Courcey was back to play again – and this time, to everybody’s delight, he brought Nookie the Bear into his post-match interview. It was hilarious but rather unsettling.

The relationship between man and bear is disturbingly close. When Roger explained how difficult it was to see the flop across such a big table, the bear went cross-eyed. When Roger said ‘I don’t think I played aggressively enough’, Nookie shouted ‘Too aggressive, more like!’ I genuinely think it was two sides of Roger’s brain fighting it out. My own mind has similar arguments with itself after tournaments – I think maybe I’ll invest in a puppet. That way, when I’m beating myself up for going all-in with two jacks against obvious aces, my bear can shout ‘You did nothing wrong! He could have had a pair of tens!’

Like I said, this is an entertainment show so I hope nobody’s going to get too snobbish about the standard of poker. That’s not the point of the exercise. The standard is perfectly fine (most viewers don’t understand sophisticated moves anyway) and the main point of it is fun. There’s also plenty of gripping needle – Phil Taylor and Eric Bristow are both playing, for example; and Steve Davis, Mark Williams and Willie Thorne line up against snooker promoter Barry Hearn – don’t tell me those people don’t have a very pointed agenda about who beats whom.

The good news is that because the players in this series are more experienced, they’re more relaxed at the table. There’s a lot more chat and laughter than happened last time. In one cute heat, athlete Darren Campbell and Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray appeared to fall in love over the baize. They were giggling like teenagers throughout the game, and when Darren survived an all-in coup Colin hugged him and cried ‘I’m so glad you’re still here!’. I considered trying that on Mike McGee when he was at my table in the Vic tournament on Saturday, but sadly I couldn’t get up the nerve.

British Open, London / £750 No Limit Hold’em

Yesterday I played my first event at the Vic having decided at the beginning of the year to concentrate on No Limit Holdem events. It was great to see all the usual faces and of course there are now a lot of new faces at every event. A minutes silence was held for Ramin Sai who sadly passed away 2 days ago, a surreal experience as I was upstairs at the time and there were 60 of us standing heads bowed as the pianist played music for the restaurant goers and the rest of the casino continued as if nothing was happening.

Simon Trumper ‘Aces’

As the game commenced I sat down just as Joe limped in under the gun and everyone passed round to me on the button. I looked down to find pocket Kings and as the blinds were only 25 / 50 I decided to flat call, both blinds called and the flop was Q 5 6, everybody checked and I bet 200 which Joe flat called, the turn paired and we both checked. I was hoping to trap Joe for a bluff on the river by showing weakness on the turn. Joe checked the river and I bet 275 which he raised to 550; who’s trapping who? I now reluctantly called hoping to see Ace Queen but Joe had pocket Queens for a full house, well played mate, I’m glad I didn’t raise pre flop! The point of all this is 8 levels later with the blinds at 1000 / 2000 and an ante of 200 having survived 7 hours with below average chips I look down to find pocket Kings in first position. There is 4600 in blinds etc, this time I move all in for 8,200 and get called by Keith Hawkins on the button. The blinds pass and we’re heads up for a pot of 21,000. If I win this it will be the most I’ve had all night and the average at this time was 30,000. Keith turned over Queens and like the first hand earlier the first card on the flop was a Queen! I was really pleased with the way I played and know on another occasion the Kings will stand up and I will have a chance to win, this is what I love about poker, if you play well and survive to get lucky in the long run you will succeed, I tapped the table said well played and good luck and can’t wait for Saturday and the £1,250 main event; I just hope Joe and Keith are on your table, not mine.

Full Result
Wednesday, 17 March
£ 500 Pot Limit 7 Card Stud Freezeout

73 Entries / £ 36,500

1st N Kheradmand £13,680
2nd Mick Cook (England) £7,560
3rd Charalambos Xanthos (Cyprus) £4,680
4th S Randall £2,880
5th Ram Vaswani (Hendon) £1,800
6th Mike Magee (Ireland) £1,620
7th T Mann £1,440
8th P Evdokiou £1,260
9th Sonny Osman (England) £1,080
10th J Grech £500

Vienna Spring Poker Festival, Vienna
€200 Pot Limit Omaha
Report by Marcel Luske on Wednesday, 10 March 2004 at 3:33 pm

Marcel Luske, otherwise known as the Flying Dutchman, and one of the founders of the I.P.F. (International Poker Federation) has kindly agreed to share his thoughts on the current state of the poker world with us. He is currently playing at the Concord Card Casino in Vienna.

Marcel was ranked number one in Europe in 2001 and 2003 and has won many high profile poker tournaments worldwide.

"It is hard to explain but as a poker player you are looking for beautiful moments. It’s the challenge that spices up your soul. Funnily enough it is the bad beats that most of us talk about and not the joy that we have or we are supposed to have from meeting so many different kinds of people; all ages, all sizes in all different kinds of situations. This is just something for you to think about, if you like, whilst you play.

I have been thinking about this for a long time now and I often find myself day dreaming about it. Wouldn’t it be great if all poker players, in the environment that we exist, all had mutual respect for each other and acted that way. If we only all treated each other the way that we would like to be treated, wouldn’t that be great. I think that the key word is respect. Especially in our poker community life is give and take like winning and losing.

What makes my pokerworld and vision about it beautiful is to see the positive developments around us; television, sponsorships, advertisements. The business world realises that these are new markets and they are looking for material to show and things to get involved with, that means poker players – us!

It is great that the business world is willing to invest in us, sponsor and support us because by doing this they are showing that they believe in us and respect us. At this stage we all have a chance to show ourselves in our poker community, globally. Let’s grasp this opportunity that they are giving us and show them how great poker can be.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank all the poker players that I have played and am still playing with as well as all the ones who try to make the poker environment better especially the ones who are poker smart and business serious. "

Marcel

Ross made his second final of the week yesterday in the Euro 200 Pot Limit Omaha with first place going to fellow Brit Richard Gryko. Well done Richard.

Full Result Pot Limit Omaha
March 9, 2004 at 3:00 PM

Buy-In Euro 200 + 20 Prize
Pool Euro 40,200
Entries 62 + 79 rebuys

1 Richard Gryko (Great Britain) Euro 14,516
2 Jacky Zhang (China) Euro 7,256
3 Josef Wipfler (Austria) Euro 4,582
4 Mikka Puro (Finland) Euro 3,437
5 Ronging Gu (China) Euro 2,482
6 Mehrmand Davood (Germany) Euro 1,909
7 Ross Boatman (Hendon) Euro 1,527
8 Morten Sembach (Denmark) Euro 1,336
9 Ahyan Alsanczak (Turkey) Euro 1,145

Poker Million – The Masters II, Sky Sports
$10,000 Heats
Report by Mad Marty Wilson on Saturday, 14 February 2004 at 6:39 pm

A New Career.

Firstly, congratulations to The Mob for their fantastic deal with Prima, best of luck to you all.
Well Poker Million-The MastersII, as we are to refer to it, is underway pitting celebs, newcommers and poker pros against each other. Last year’s field has been doubled due to the 36 qualifiers who have entered. So, with a further 6 celebs the pressure is on the 30 pros. However, we all know Jimmy White likes a double!

Whilst I can’t give any results(as if you didn’t know them) I can report on the most exciting event it has led to. I now have my first job in 23 years, "spotting". Great I get to wander around eyeing up talent for Sky? No. I go behind the scenes working with the director telling him where the action will be. Hence the reply to Padraig on the Hendon Mob forum. So after a week I am still in employment, a record for me, with a promise of work on the rest of the programmes.This maybe particularly usefull info to all the pallet, roadcone and railway sleeper owners in the Midlands. You are safe ’till the last episode is filmed and however long my wages last.

I’m also considering a career in poker tuition. Having arrived a day early tournament director Liam Flood asked me to coach a couple of the celebs for their heat. An impromptu tourney and several beers later friends were made and some poker moves were divulged. I’ll tell who the two celebs were after its aired.

Best of luck to all the entrants, may the best man/woman win.

Mad Marty.

The Prima Poker Tour 2004
by The Mob on Friday, 30 January 2004 at 2:43 pm

The Prima Poker Tour 2004 – A Million Dollars in Entry Fees to 14 poker festivals in 7 countries, making this the largest Global tour in Poker History.

Curacao, January 30, 2004 – PrimaPoker.com has set a new record with the largest terrestrial sponsorship in the history of poker by backing the world famous Hendon Mob on their second global escapade. The Mob will challenge the world’s best poker players as they compete in 14 of the most prestigious poker festivals across 7 countries over the next 12 months.

PrimaPoker.com is continuing the biggest ever sponsorship in the poker world after The Mob outperformed all expectations in the inaugural Prima Poker Tour, with 49 money finishes, 11 tournament trophies, and around $500,000US in total prize money. “The partnership with The Hendon Mob has been extremely good not just for PrimaPoker.com, but for the sport as a whole. The synergy between online and offline poker has given the sport more exposure than ever before, bringing new audiences into play both online and in the terrestrial card rooms”, said Tamar Yaniv of PrimaPoker.com.

The Prima Poker World Tour 2004 sponsorship marks a new beginning for the sport, quickly becoming favourite late night TV viewing in both the UK and the US. Millions of viewers in America and Europe are adding The Hendon Mob and other big name poker stars to their “celebrity wish to meet lists”.

The Prima Poker Tour 2004 will take The Hendon Mob to Las Vegas, Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Vienna, Dublin and London. The Tour will include the World Series of Poker, where it is odds-on that at least one of the four members of The Hendon Mob wins a WSOP bracelet. The prize money for the World Series of Poker’s main event tops $10,000,000.

“We are delighted that PrimaPoker.com are continuing to put their faith in us and we intend to continue as we started last year; breaking records and making friends all over the planet. PrimaPoker.com are set to be the biggest poker network in the world and we aim to be the biggest winners on the tournament circuit”, said Barny Boatman of The Hendon Mob.

Joining The Hendon Mob on the Prima Poker Tour will be some of the best online players on the PrimaPoker.com Network. Satellites will be run on the PrimaPoker.com network for many of the Prima Poker Tour tournaments, with the winning players joining The Mob at the exclusive festivals around the world.

For Information:
Jodie Thind
Lyceum Media
+44 (0) 207 828 6988
[email protected]

Background:
The Prima Poker Tour 2004 is taking The Hendon Mob on an unprecedented global tour to play in over 88 tournaments, in 14 festivals and 7 countries. The Tour represents the first major sponsorship in online poker, elevating its status by introducing it to the media and the general public as a mainstream sport.

PrimaPoker.com is the premiere online poker network, creating a synergy between online and offline poker, sending the most players to the biggest tournaments in the world. PrimaPoker.com sends the best players from the network to compete in tournaments all around the globe, qualifying them through a series of online satellites held through the family of card rooms found at www.primapoker.com.

Images available at http://www.primapoker.com/media_library.php.