The cardroom - a very nice cardroom, totally self-enclosed - was great, though in those days, people could smoke indoors, & our eyes used to stream from the smoke.
That Monthly £100 rebuy used to get as many as 130 runners. The structure, by present day standards, was horrific, 2,000 chips & a 30 minute clock, but it was what we were used to then, these days players have SUCH better Tournament structures.
Much of that was down to APAT, & I'm very proud of what we achieved in APAT for smaller buy-in players. I recently resigned my position as APAT Chairman, due to a commercial conflict of interest with their new partner, Matt Dale, who has helped them open an Online Cardroom, so because of my position with Sky, I felt it best that I resigned. Shame really, but for purposes of transparency it was the right thing to do. When my tenure here ends, I shall return to work with APAT, for sure.
The first time I ever played that £100 rebuy (I know, I'm boring folks now, but I blame you), arose because I had won two £10 or £20 Freezeouts in that Cardroom in Colyer Street Derby.
The mere thought of paying £100 to play a poker tournament blew me away. I mean, one hundred pounds!
I kept thinking, if my Dad were alive, he's think I'd lost the plot. He'd probably have given me a good hiding, too.
Anyway, I coughed up the £100, ran like Mo Farah, (I was a nit even then, but the tortoise very often beats the hare), & somehow luckboxed my way to the Final Table. I mean, this was like, "Wow"! to me then - there was about £4,000 to the winner, I could barely believe it was happening.
I still know 5 or 6 of the players from that first £100 Final, more on which shortly.
Anyway, 6 handed, a deal is proposed, "business". An offer of £900 each or whatever was made by a Sheffield lad named (xxx) who was as bent as a nine bob note, though of course I never knew that at the time. £900. NINE HUNDRED POUNDS. My eyes glazed over, imagine winning £900 in a Poker Tourney, never been so excited in my life!
I readily agreed, as did most others. Yum yum yum, £900.
And then, at that very moment, an almost life-changing thing happened.........
......there was a kid sat at the other end of the Final Table, I sort of knew him vaguely, but never knew his name, we'd shared Tables most of the Tourney though.
"Tony - it is Tony, right?" he says.
Yeah yeah.
"You are getting a really bad deal there mate".
I am?
"Sure you are. It's up to you, but if I were you, I'd ask for £1,300".
Why?
"Because your chip equity is MUCH better than £900. You'd be better to play on if you are only offered £900".
My chip WHAT? I mean, what is THAT for goodness sake?
Anyway, he looked a decent sort, he smiled easily, & made good eye-contact, & I sort of thought "he seems honest & straight, I'll do what he says".
So I refused the deal, we played on for a bit, & I eventually ended up getting £1,600. Top bloke that kid, eh?
So, Thewy & I became mates, & travelled Europe playing the poker. There was another lad too, Ian Oldershaw, "Belly" was his nick, & the 3 of us went everywhere together, & we all swapped 10% every Tourney.
I genuinely thought I was the best player of the trio. Amazing how we become deluded, eh?
Thewy started playing bigger Tourneys, & I started backing him, buying as much as 50% of him in big events.
He was well-lairy back then, with no gears, & he regularly amassed huge stacks then spewed them off just short of the Final. He made the Final of an EPT at The Vic as Chip Leader, & finished 9th, after John Duthie bust him in two consecutive hands. Both hands were identical - A-K v 10-10, Thewy had the A-K the first time, & Tens the next, & lost both flips. Ugh.
The three of us went to Amsterdam every year for the Master Classics. The big event was way too big for me, & anyway, I had to travel back home before it began, as I was still working at the time.
Thewy luckboxed a Super Satelite, so he was in the biggie.
Belly (Ian Oldershaw) was desperate to play the Biggie too, but had done all his dough in three Super Sats.
Anyway.....we sat in the cardroom cafe, supping cofee & chewing the cud, & Belly says "any chance you lads can buy a bit of my action, I'd love to play the Main?".
I can remember the scene as if it were yesterday, & Thewy will confirm it.
We all emptied our pockets of cash, & plonked the lot on the Table. "That's all we have Ian, but you are welcome to it".
After what seemed an age, of counting & re-counting the lolly, Ian says he has enough now, & will play the Main. Good lad.
We go back to our hotel, just across the road, it was a little B & B called "The Owl", with a lift the size of a phone box. The three of us were sharing one room, three single beds squeezed into a little box-room.
We all get into bed, & start swapping poker yarns, how could he call? sorta stuff.
I'm nodding off, & I am due to catch an early flight the next morning.
Ian was the "Team" Accountant, he kept score of all our swaps & stuff, & he'd been messing with pencil & paper for an hour or whatever.
I vaguely remember him telling me that he had done the maths, & the money I had given him amounted to 19.3% of his "action" in the Main Event. Jolly good. I think - not exactly sure - that Thewy had about 13%.
I fly home the next day & think no more about it, my job was a bit stressy & heavy, so I just got stuck in.
I get a phone-call from Thewy a few days later.
"Hey, Ian has made the Final".
He has?
Yeah
WOW!
There were no "Live Updates" or Final Table "streams" back then, so I had no way of knowing how he was getting on.
Eventually, I found a website called "Hendon Mob" who were doing a sort of Live Update, but it was NON-interactive, you could not Post anything, just read stuff.
I'll spare you the details, but Ian ended up 2nd, scooping €121,000. How much?!
It was, at the time, my biggest ever poker win, & I was not even there.....
Ian gave his job up, invested some of the money on the deposit for a beautiful cottage up in Wirksworth, Derby, oddly enough I had tried to buy the very same cottage 6 months earlier, but I could not afford it. Now I could, but Ian got there first, lol.
He became a Pro poker player, but bizarrely, he played cash, not Tourneys. He sucked at cash, but excelled at polker, & we half fell out over it, as I was insistent he should stick to Tourneys.
Then he did an ever dafter thing, he decided to play Omaha 5 nights a week at......The Vic. I mean, that was THE toughest cash game in the UK at the time.
It all went tiddly-poo of course, & Ian was not enjoying it, it actually depressed him, & he became poor company for a while. Eventually - & well before he had lost too much money - he went back to working, & he works for Derbyshire Council to this day.
I ended up sharing tables with him at DTD one night last year, I had not seen him for ages. Top, top, bloke.
You mentioned Big Dave Smith a few posts ago, too. Dave passed away recently, as you know.
We shared Finals galore, when I won the Spring Festival Main at Napoleon's Sheffield (2005 or thereabouts) he made the same Final, I flopped a set of eights & Dave could not get away from his pocket Kings, & I busted him.
He was a genuine "station" in those says, a pain to play against (& I mean that as a compliment) but at the time I felt his son, Kevin, was a far better player.
They ran a little building business at the time, & later, Dave was one of the first people to start selling "Mobility Scooters".
In his later years, Dave became a MUCH better player, (oddly, he became a better player after he adopted his trademark pork-pie hat, go figure THAT) ) & eventually was rewarded with winning the Brighton GUKPT, this would be, I dunno, around 2008. First prize was just over £100,000, & Dave hardly ever did "deals" at Final Tables as he was a tough negotiator, & used to get a bit shouty-wouty.
Anyway, he wins the lot, has the photos taken, presented with the comedy cheque, then trots off to the cash-desk to get paid out.
"Cheque OK Mr Smith?" says the girl.
"NO way, I want cash" says Dave.
So they paid him over £100,000 of cash, he stuck it in a Tesco carrier bag, & off he toddled, at 3 in the morning, to his car, which was parked in a side street two miles away. How he never got mugged I shall never know.
I just looked up that Master Classics Final Table that Ian Oldershaw casme second on.
Cashees included.....
Robin Keston. Still doing well to this day.
Micky Cook. His nick was "The Clock", rumour has it he used to be the guy that looked out for the cops during bank raids, hence he "clocked" people. Still around.
Robert Mizrachi
John Kabbaj, later to win a WSOP Bracelet.
C T "John" Law, still around now, finished 2nd in a WSOP a few years back, Newcastle lad.
Marcel Luske, 4th.
Devilfish, 3rd.
Johan Storakers, winner. He is still on the circuit to this day, & we later becme very good mates.
Another side-story to that Master Classics was that it gave me the idea that interactive Live Updates would be a good thing, & I was the first person to do them.
I employed Jen Mason & Adam "snoopy" Goulding to assist, which was how I came to be close pals with both of them. Sadly, Live Updates never made a penny, in fact they cost me an absolute bomb over many years. Good idea, that, Kendall. Not.
Proper ramble on way. I was reading the other day on another forum about a dealers choice hand at DTD. 2 of the players in the pot were guys who were playing £30 freezeouts with me back in the day. The pot also involved a very prominent forum member on here. they got it all in preflop for £11000! Now one of these players is a very successful businessman, so fair play. The other was just like me a few years ago. Someone just getting into poker. The big difference between us though was he was a gambler. Was he any better than me at the time? probably not. Is he now? undoubtably. How do players get to this stage? Obviously binking something big after satting in is the stress free option. More likely though, rather than turn over an ok profit at small stakes like me and staying there he moved up. I've always treated poker as a game to enjoy and hopefully make a few quid from. However, i do often wonder if i had had enough 'gamble' in me could i have done more? Not sure. Right now i can't even comprehend the idea of getting in £5000 in a cash game but it's all relative i guess. A friend of mine has starting playing recently on here 30p dym's. When i told him i lost a £550 pot a few days ago he said that he wouldn't be able to sleep for a month. Due to a decent year, while it obviously stung a bit, i could take it and i guess it's the same for the guy with 5000 in the middle, different bankrolls. We all have varying levels at which we are prepared to gamble i think. For some on here i see that they've deposited a certain amount and don't wish to redeposit again and stick strictly to their bankrolls. Others reload on a regular basis and 'take a shot'. I don't think there is a right or wrong, we are all just built differently. . Posted by Jac35
First thread I read on my new toy this morning
Great post.
I think it's quite a common 'problem' for poker players, getting 'stuck'.
Not as common or as worrying as the opposite end of the spectrum.
People taking shots and throwing money around all over trying to make it big and as a result, going broke every other month.
1 for Jared and Barry to tackle in their mental game bible, somewhere inbetween the 2 would be nice!
Nice work on the thread, Happy today, and gl in 2013!
I do realise it's mainly down to the wonderful stories that Tikay has shared with us that the thread has been quite popular. But it's nice to think i may have prompted him a little by reminding him of poker in his first few years.
I sometimes get a bit disheartened when there are no replies, which is over sensitive, and i worry that i have just written total drivel.
I have deleted a couple of posts because they just 'felt wrong' and i'm aware that it may sometimes come across that i'm bragging, i hope not. I have had a good year by my standards and just kind of update on how my night has gone etc.
When, as will happen, i do go on a losing run, don't worry, i will share all the gory details with you.
In Response to Re: Ramblings of an 'old' man : Lol, in all fairness i made what i thought was an educated guess with your name. How do you arrive at Phil? I'm Paul by the way, pleased to meet you. I share my surname with an extremely well known pro and i used to cringe at DTD when i was called to the 50/1 table. I asked Danny, the cash game manager, if he would call out for 'PJ' when a seat became available in future. Being a reasonable man he agreed. 5 minutes later at the top of his voice, 'PAUL JACKSON to the 50/1, that's PAUL JACKSON to the 50/1' Cheers Danny Posted by Jac35
Well this has all become a little bit confusing. Long story short, your Sky allias is Jac, so at first I imagined that was your name. Then I recently got tagged by someone on fb, saying they'd beat me in a memorable pot this year. I then added that individual, believing it was you and had a laugh on fb chat, still thinking it was you. Their name happens to be Phillip.
Anyway PAUL. It's a pleasure to meet you. To save a copious amount of confusion my name is indeed Patrick Walsh.
Thanks so much for all your nice comments. I do realise it's mainly down to the wonderful stories that Tikay has shared with us that the thread has been quite popular. But it's nice to think i may have prompted him a little by reminding him of poker in his first few years. I sometimes get a bit disheartened when there are no replies, which is over sensitive, and i worry that i have just written total drivel. I have deleted a couple of posts because they just 'felt wrong' and i'm aware that it may sometimes come across that i'm bragging, i hope not. I have had a good year by my standards and just kind of update on how my night has gone etc. When, as will happen, i do go on a losing run, don't worry, i will share all the gory details with you. Merry Christmas everyone on here Posted by Jac35
Please don't think this there are i am sure many more novice players that throughly enjoy reading this thread. Personally i don't feel i have anything of note to contribute to this thread except my encouragement to that you keep it going mr Jackson
Comments
That Sunday Night £100 rebuy was something else.
The cardroom - a very nice cardroom, totally self-enclosed - was great, though in those days, people could smoke indoors, & our eyes used to stream from the smoke.
That Monthly £100 rebuy used to get as many as 130 runners. The structure, by present day standards, was horrific, 2,000 chips & a 30 minute clock, but it was what we were used to then, these days players have SUCH better Tournament structures.
Much of that was down to APAT, & I'm very proud of what we achieved in APAT for smaller buy-in players. I recently resigned my position as APAT Chairman, due to a commercial conflict of interest with their new partner, Matt Dale, who has helped them open an Online Cardroom, so because of my position with Sky, I felt it best that I resigned. Shame really, but for purposes of transparency it was the right thing to do. When my tenure here ends, I shall return to work with APAT, for sure.
The first time I ever played that £100 rebuy (I know, I'm boring folks now, but I blame you), arose because I had won two £10 or £20 Freezeouts in that Cardroom in Colyer Street Derby.
The mere thought of paying £100 to play a poker tournament blew me away. I mean, one hundred pounds!
I kept thinking, if my Dad were alive, he's think I'd lost the plot. He'd probably have given me a good hiding, too.
Anyway, I coughed up the £100, ran like Mo Farah, (I was a nit even then, but the tortoise very often beats the hare), & somehow luckboxed my way to the Final Table. I mean, this was like, "Wow"! to me then - there was about £4,000 to the winner, I could barely believe it was happening.
I still know 5 or 6 of the players from that first £100 Final, more on which shortly.
Anyway, 6 handed, a deal is proposed, "business". An offer of £900 each or whatever was made by a Sheffield lad named (xxx) who was as bent as a nine bob note, though of course I never knew that at the time. £900. NINE HUNDRED POUNDS. My eyes glazed over, imagine winning £900 in a Poker Tourney, never been so excited in my life!
I readily agreed, as did most others. Yum yum yum, £900.
And then, at that very moment, an almost life-changing thing happened.........
......there was a kid sat at the other end of the Final Table, I sort of knew him vaguely, but never knew his name, we'd shared Tables most of the Tourney though.
"Tony - it is Tony, right?" he says.
Yeah yeah.
"You are getting a really bad deal there mate".
I am?
"Sure you are. It's up to you, but if I were you, I'd ask for £1,300".
Why?
"Because your chip equity is MUCH better than £900. You'd be better to play on if you are only offered £900".
My chip WHAT? I mean, what is THAT for goodness sake?
Anyway, he looked a decent sort, he smiled easily, & made good eye-contact, & I sort of thought "he seems honest & straight, I'll do what he says".
So I refused the deal, we played on for a bit, & I eventually ended up getting £1,600. Top bloke that kid, eh?
His name was Julian Thew.
So, Thewy & I became mates, & travelled Europe playing the poker. There was another lad too, Ian Oldershaw, "Belly" was his nick, & the 3 of us went everywhere together, & we all swapped 10% every Tourney.
I genuinely thought I was the best player of the trio. Amazing how we become deluded, eh?
Thewy started playing bigger Tourneys, & I started backing him, buying as much as 50% of him in big events.
He was well-lairy back then, with no gears, & he regularly amassed huge stacks then spewed them off just short of the Final. He made the Final of an EPT at The Vic as Chip Leader, & finished 9th, after John Duthie bust him in two consecutive hands. Both hands were identical - A-K v 10-10, Thewy had the A-K the first time, & Tens the next, & lost both flips. Ugh.
The three of us went to Amsterdam every year for the Master Classics. The big event was way too big for me, & anyway, I had to travel back home before it began, as I was still working at the time.
Thewy luckboxed a Super Satelite, so he was in the biggie.
Belly (Ian Oldershaw) was desperate to play the Biggie too, but had done all his dough in three Super Sats.
Anyway.....we sat in the cardroom cafe, supping cofee & chewing the cud, & Belly says "any chance you lads can buy a bit of my action, I'd love to play the Main?".
I can remember the scene as if it were yesterday, & Thewy will confirm it.
We all emptied our pockets of cash, & plonked the lot on the Table. "That's all we have Ian, but you are welcome to it".
After what seemed an age, of counting & re-counting the lolly, Ian says he has enough now, & will play the Main. Good lad.
We go back to our hotel, just across the road, it was a little B & B called "The Owl", with a lift the size of a phone box. The three of us were sharing one room, three single beds squeezed into a little box-room.
We all get into bed, & start swapping poker yarns, how could he call? sorta stuff.
I'm nodding off, & I am due to catch an early flight the next morning.
Ian was the "Team" Accountant, he kept score of all our swaps & stuff, & he'd been messing with pencil & paper for an hour or whatever.
I vaguely remember him telling me that he had done the maths, & the money I had given him amounted to 19.3% of his "action" in the Main Event. Jolly good. I think - not exactly sure - that Thewy had about 13%.
I fly home the next day & think no more about it, my job was a bit stressy & heavy, so I just got stuck in.
I get a phone-call from Thewy a few days later.
"Hey, Ian has made the Final".
He has?
Yeah
WOW!
There were no "Live Updates" or Final Table "streams" back then, so I had no way of knowing how he was getting on.
Eventually, I found a website called "Hendon Mob" who were doing a sort of Live Update, but it was NON-interactive, you could not Post anything, just read stuff.
I'll spare you the details, but Ian ended up 2nd, scooping €121,000. How much?!
It was, at the time, my biggest ever poker win, & I was not even there.....
Ian gave his job up, invested some of the money on the deposit for a beautiful cottage up in Wirksworth, Derby, oddly enough I had tried to buy the very same cottage 6 months earlier, but I could not afford it. Now I could, but Ian got there first, lol.
He became a Pro poker player, but bizarrely, he played cash, not Tourneys. He sucked at cash, but excelled at polker, & we half fell out over it, as I was insistent he should stick to Tourneys.
Then he did an ever dafter thing, he decided to play Omaha 5 nights a week at......The Vic. I mean, that was THE toughest cash game in the UK at the time.
It all went tiddly-poo of course, & Ian was not enjoying it, it actually depressed him, & he became poor company for a while. Eventually - & well before he had lost too much money - he went back to working, & he works for Derbyshire Council to this day.
I ended up sharing tables with him at DTD one night last year, I had not seen him for ages. Top, top, bloke.
You mentioned Big Dave Smith a few posts ago, too. Dave passed away recently, as you know.
We shared Finals galore, when I won the Spring Festival Main at Napoleon's Sheffield (2005 or thereabouts) he made the same Final, I flopped a set of eights & Dave could not get away from his pocket Kings, & I busted him.
He was a genuine "station" in those says, a pain to play against (& I mean that as a compliment) but at the time I felt his son, Kevin, was a far better player.
They ran a little building business at the time, & later, Dave was one of the first people to start selling "Mobility Scooters".
In his later years, Dave became a MUCH better player, (oddly, he became a better player after he adopted his trademark pork-pie hat, go figure THAT) ) & eventually was rewarded with winning the Brighton GUKPT, this would be, I dunno, around 2008. First prize was just over £100,000, & Dave hardly ever did "deals" at Final Tables as he was a tough negotiator, & used to get a bit shouty-wouty.
Anyway, he wins the lot, has the photos taken, presented with the comedy cheque, then trots off to the cash-desk to get paid out.
"Cheque OK Mr Smith?" says the girl.
"NO way, I want cash" says Dave.
So they paid him over £100,000 of cash, he stuck it in a Tesco carrier bag, & off he toddled, at 3 in the morning, to his car, which was parked in a side street two miles away. How he never got mugged I shall never know.
Happy days.
I just looked up that Master Classics Final Table that Ian Oldershaw casme second on.
Cashees included.....
Robin Keston. Still doing well to this day.
Micky Cook. His nick was "The Clock", rumour has it he used to be the guy that looked out for the cops during bank raids, hence he "clocked" people. Still around.
Robert Mizrachi
John Kabbaj, later to win a WSOP Bracelet.
C T "John" Law, still around now, finished 2nd in a WSOP a few years back, Newcastle lad.
Marcel Luske, 4th.
Devilfish, 3rd.
Johan Storakers, winner. He is still on the circuit to this day, & we later becme very good mates.
Another side-story to that Master Classics was that it gave me the idea that interactive Live Updates would be a good thing, & I was the first person to do them.
I employed Jen Mason & Adam "snoopy" Goulding to assist, which was how I came to be close pals with both of them. Sadly, Live Updates never made a penny, in fact they cost me an absolute bomb over many years. Good idea, that, Kendall. Not.
I'm done with my old man reminiscing, sorry.
Merry christmas all.
People taking shots and throwing money around all over trying to make it big and as a result, going broke every other month.
I do realise it's mainly down to the wonderful stories that Tikay has shared with us that the thread has been quite popular. But it's nice to think i may have prompted him a little by reminding him of poker in his first few years.
I sometimes get a bit disheartened when there are no replies, which is over sensitive, and i worry that i have just written total drivel.
I have deleted a couple of posts because they just 'felt wrong' and i'm aware that it may sometimes come across that i'm bragging, i hope not. I have had a good year by my standards and just kind of update on how my night has gone etc.
When, as will happen, i do go on a losing run, don't worry, i will share all the gory details with you.
Merry Christmas everyone on here
How do you arrive at Phil?
I'm Paul by the way, pleased to meet you.
I share my surname with an extremely well known pro and i used to cringe at DTD when i was called to the 50/1 table.
I asked Danny, the cash game manager, if he would call out for 'PJ' when a seat became available in future.
Being a reasonable man he agreed.
5 minutes later at the top of his voice, 'PAUL JACKSON to the 50/1, that's PAUL JACKSON to the 50/1'
Cheers Danny