Sporting Odds Paradise League

Well this was my first attempt at playing on Paradise since Sporting Odds moved their software there.

First impressions are good, the cards like me over there.

I played in their Paradise Poker League. This month it was played over 7 legs on a Monday and Wednesday. This was because the Boss Champions League is still running this month. Next month it will be played on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday on Paradise.

This month's was best 3 counting scores, next month will be best 5.

On my last game I finished 6th which took me up from 12th to 10th in the league, thus doubling my money.

How I went out: All-in with K 10 called by AA and JJ.

I had a nice hand earlier on when I trebled up. Went all-in with AJc and was called by the big stack and another small stack was already all-in. They had AA and 33 respectivly. I got a flush on the river

Poker League Table
Champions League Top 20 - Final
Position Nickname Points
1st Teazz 185
2nd joelegod 182
3rd FeralBeast 155
4th Telepee 152
5th TrevW 145
6th bennydoc69 144
7th rivrd 141
8th big joo 134
9th roscoPL 127
10th DANDAN23 126
11th welchy28 122
12th kejarast 120
13th PhilossifyPL 116
14th 145Robster 105
15th tel16 104
16th M-D-K 99
17th Adetrick 98
18th fivepenny 92
19th __Spacer__ 90
19th bennyboy101 90

Cincinnati's

Well last night was my second visit to cincinnati's. This time it was a £10 buy-in with 3 £5 re-buys and a add on for the first hour.

We were there with Graeme (Morlspin) who was taking Ed to the Rangers/Celtic game today after he won tickets for the game on Celtic Poker. Luckily we had managed to change the tickets for Rangers end tickets as Ed is a Rangers fan.

There was only 16 people in the tourney, I'm not sure if it's because the club has been having Xmas special things on up until then so maybe some people were staying away. Anyway 16 was a great amount for me. It was all very relaxed and everyone was great. I just love the poker community, they are wonderful people.

I was sitting next to Graeme who had a great start, building his stack up quite quickly. I had a few good hands where I beat a guy called Craig every time. He had good hands too but I had hands like 33, getting 3 on the flop and hitting FH's too. I then became his nemisis and he would always say that if I was in the hand he was going to lose and if I wasn't then he would win. Respect is a cool thing.

At one point Graeme got me to put down AK suited when he had AJo.

One hand I remember was pocket pairs 7's and there was an A on the flop, I bet like I had it and won the pot, turned out I got someone to fold an A, bad kicker.

I never had a huge amount of chips at any time, Ed was up to 16,000 at one point early on but I was only ever around 7,000. I took the add-on at the break. I think most of us did.

On the final table I had Craig, my new friend on my right and the massive chip leader to my left. I built up my chips well at one point when I hit a straight on the river against AA.

Then I had a few all-ins with the chip leader that kept me alive. He was bored and wanted to play cash so he was calling what seemed to be everything.

Eventually there was a hand where one guy was all-in and I called with KK, big stack raised and I called. Flop brought an Ace and I bet like I had it, big stack raised it and I folded. He had the ace but I was still in, unfortunately with only 3,000 chips left. There was 4 of us left with 3 making the money. I was short stack.

Graeme suggested to big stack that he could strike a deal and then he could be off playing cash, he thought that was a great idea and if he got £100 the rest of us could get £78 each. He agreed and of course the rest of us jumped at it, so at 1.15am I left with £78 in my pocket.

Loving this poker melarky.

Walsall, weekend of a WAG

Photos here but they don't work for me, do on other people's comps though. Must be my firewall.
http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?c=3oxbo47h.36orbc5p&x=0&y=-mr3jc0

The players:
Ed - hubby and poker player.
Steph - Ed's best pal and poker player.
Susan - Steph's WAG
Me - Ed's WAG

Fri 24th Nov
Weekend started with a run to the first train station by Steph's brother and his son (who screamed the whole way there), Ed looked a wee bit frazzled by the time we got there. Robbie the wee sole in question turned out to be ill and threw up everywhere when he got home.

Train to Glasgow, Susan had the biggest, pinkest, heaviest case i have ever seen. She still managed to forget a pair of jeans! Hernias all round for the blokes getting it on and off the trains.

The trip from Glasgow to Birmingham was whiled away by the consumption of lots of lager. This, added to the fact that both the guys were slightly hyper and loud led to strained relationships by the time we arrived at the Village Hotel in Walsall. So much so that I thought that Ed and Stef were going to be bunking together over the weekend! I wonder if Posh and Cheryl Tweedie have the same problems?

We met Scott and Evie (another Sporting Odds PL qualifier and his WAG) as we arrived at reception, they had flown down from Aberdeen. After freshening up Ed and I met them in the bar while Steph and Susan went for dinner.

Stupidly I moved from the drinking of lager to the drinking of vodka. A couple of hours later and I'm being escorted to my room plastered by similarly plastered Ed. We had only taken one room key so i was swiftly dumped in the dark as Ed headed back to the bar. I then had to get changed for my bed with one foot in the door to see what i was doing. (the lights go out when you remove the key!!!) Would have been quite some sight for anyone passing :-)

Sat 25th Nov
Up bright and early for breakfast, feeling okay only because I had been up at about 6am taking lots of painkillers.

We are meeting all the Sporting Odds team at 1pm in the lobby so by 11am there is plenty time for a few lagers for the boys, wee half pint for myself. Rest of Sporting Odds team turn up and introductions all round. Ed and Steph have met Joe Legge (poker manager) before and his girlfriend Sarah. There is Tony Tikay Kendall who they have met before too. He is Sporting Odds resident professional. Then there is Dan Ainsworth who works for Sporting Odds doing lots of counting, programming, technical stuff. He had bought himself into the tourney but was wearing the SpOdds team shirt.

Sarah is armed with camera (oh no, if you've seen the previous ones on SpOdds of Steph and Ed), we head off to the Boathouse in Sutton Coldfield which is in the middle of no-where. Lovely place. More beers for the Scots boys at lunch. I'm was sitting across from Tikay who is hilarious, he takes great offence to any vegetable that arrives on his plate. He even let out an involuntary cry when his dessert arrived, until he decided it looked quite erotic and wobbily, then it was ok!!!!

Back to the hotel to get ready for the tourney. Meet Scott's brother and his wife. Time for some more beer for the blokes again! We meet up in the lobby again to go over to the Grosvenor. We meet another Sporting Odds team member who wasn't at the lunch, Mark Blandford and his WAG Pat. He is the founder of Sporting Bet and he has been at the races where his horse was running. It didn't do very well in the wet.

There is a taxi and Tikay is also taking people over, for some reason Tikay ends up with a car full of ladies, he is such a charmer. We leave before the taxi yet the taxi arrives before us. Irate husbands at the door waiting for our arrival. LOL

We meet Lucy Rokach at the casino, our final team member, she won the £250 competition the night before so seems to be in fine form. The tables are announced and Ed is at Lucy's table. (OH NO!) The players head off and the rest of us start the drinking. Joe does a fantastic job all evening running back and forth checking if everyone is okay, got drinks, doing well etc. Sarah takes lots of pictures and us WAG's harrass Joe about getting a ring for his lovely girlfriend.

Steph makes periodic visits to our table giving us a run down on how he is gubbing Ash Hussein, very amusing.A friend from PL, Brian and his wife Diane arrive and join us in the drinking.First SpOdds player out is Scott, then Steph. When Ed goes out it's to Lucy, as detailed in the post below. Time for serious drinking now.

Diane goes off to play roulette and Ed keeps telling me I should give it a go but I'm not interested. Eventually at about 3am I cave and take £20 off to the roulette. Diane shows me what to do as I haven't a clue. I proceed to lose the lot. I have 50p chips and there are some crazy Welsh guys at the table with £10, £50 and £100 chips. At one point one of them puts his chips down on my 50p chip, he then picks them up and says WTF is this! I say that's my fucking 50p chip. He puts one of his chips on my forehead and asks for a number, then add 4 subtract etc till i have a number and we put our bets on that. Loses of course, never like that in the films is it? Think he lost £10k that night. Pished as a fart.

Head back to the hotel at about 4am, Tikay driving. I'm ready to keep partying but Ed is holding the wall up so off to bed.

Sun 26th Nov
Up early again for breakfast and an early lunch, Susan goes off to buy a pair of jeans. Lunch this time is Pier 39, Sutton Coldfield. Apparently when Joe Googled where to eat in Walsall, Burger King came top of the list.
This time I'm sitting next to Mark at the table and I am well impressed to find out he is one of the people with a warrant out for him in America. I told him that was cool and he laughed. He was a lovely man, as was his wife Pat. At the casino the 3 Scots are out but Mark, Dan, Tikay and Lucy are still in. Tikay just missed the money, Dan finished 18th, Mark finished 14th and Lucy who was chip leader walked away with the most money when a deal was struck with the last 5, officially she finished 3rd.

More PL friends came along to meet everyone. Sam, Andy and Big Andy. We had a great time with them too. It's great meeting these people you talk to everyday but have never seen before, other than in photos on the forum.

I loved watching the play towards the end. When it gets near the bubble everyone gets quite aggressive and personal with each other, I would not like that if i was playing but once they are in the money everyone relaxes and they are all joking with each other. By 11pm Ed was almost dead with drink, rolling eyes the lot. He was down annoying the tournament director who was the double of Antnee who won Big Brother last year! He had to put barriers up to keep Ed away from the tables. When Ed passed the barrier and tucked into the player's buffet I knew it was time to leave. Again does Posh have this problem with Becks?

Andy and Sam go home earlier. Sam is recovering from an op and it's great that she made it over to see us.
We go to say goodbye to Tikay and he offers to take us back to the hotel, what a gentleman he is. He tells me I'm cool so he's okay by me. We leave poor Big Andy there as his taxi won't be for another hour but Ed is seriously ill and needs his bed.

On the way into the hotel there is a huge girl in a yellow chair throwing up into a bucket, lovely. Susan, who is training to be a nurse is worried about her and she tells me the next morning that she did eventually go to hospital.

Mon 27th Nov
Home, much quieter journey back in the train this time. I read a WPT mag I bought in the station and sleep a wee bit. The boys have a few beers. When we reach Glasgow there is a lot of people waiting to catch the train to Kilmarnock so when it's platform is announced I'm throwing small children out of my way to get a seat! I succeed.

All in all - What a weekend.