Back on the podium



Plans for weeks have been not playing much live and hardly any online but had always had pecilled in the Coral Masters Edinburgh leg with Stumpy followed by the NPF Championship to defend my crown.

I play a few online sats to try and get in cheap but although I get a regular flow of sat wins into the $80 final on the cheap I simply cant get past the winning line in the final. Closest being is losing hups for a $1125 package. Get hups 3/1 dog but edge in front just before a break. Simply cant hit any flop after that and any decent hand I pick up the oppo folds and eventually he takes me out after I bluff into his full house made on the turn lolololol.
Eventually come Friday I simply cant be arsed to travel up more so by how Im feeling about actually playing poker and as such tell Stumpy in true Dragins Den style " Im out!" Missing the fun aspect and after chatting with Stumpy we decide to have a Friday night Dobba Corona neet and off we go to Aspers for their weekly 100 plus runner £20 F/O.

Place is absolutely rocking full and around 120 runners take their seats. My table consists of some regular young "pro" type lads who non stop talk the poker talk and I decide to deal due to seat one guy being totally useless. Keeps me focused and in non donk chip mode. I settle in and listen to the drone about various poker heroes etc etc and some classic replies from an elderly lady name of Joan who tells the young pros how lucky and bad one of their heroes is ( Jake Cody) which had me chuckling away inside more so at the way she delivered it.
Always low stacked but Im amazed at how quick the field is whittled down and its not long till theres only 30 odd left when I get table moved. Soon as I move I get a double up and even pick up extra chips when making up in the sb with 53 and making set of 3 s for decent pot. Get moved back to starting table and few orbits later get moved again with 3 tables left. The game is simply ship or fold now with most stacks very similar although you still find loads who wanna limp in and fold tyvm.
Make final table with about 12 bbs which is average enough and only really one more stack of any major significance.

1st few go reasonably quickly and I find some good spots to pick up decent pots un contested by shipping over raises to build up healthy stack. Pick up AQ in BB and guy who hadnt played a hand shoves in his last 5 bbs but my call see me not improve v his KK. Few orbits later with 2 limpers and I ship button AJ for Mr KK who is directly on my left now to snap call me off. Ffks I declare I must be miles behind but he flips over KQcc and I start having laff about it with him and start cuddling him taking the piss ( 8 bottles does that to ya!!!!) Flop comes A10J OMF FML ******
Turn JACK weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and Im back in game big style as my house takes him down. Yo yo up n down abit trying to take it down or at least get heads up with NPF er George Lawson as hes the only decent player left and only one I wanna really do any deal with but with 4 left and all much very level we eventually agree a level chop for over £400 each

Stumpy clears over £300 on PLO even though he lost 2 pots worth over £1k each to river and my lucky charm railer Mrs Stumpy drops me off home around 4.30 am zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Arsenal win gets me heads up in NPF footy knockout so maybe my run good juice is just starting to run in time nicely for next weekends NPF Championship

edit. Quick mention for Mark Trett of Full Trett Poker who took down the £200 side event at Edinburgh to go clear at top of tour money list and imo he should at least get a sponsership deal renewal on the basis of how well he has promoted Coral Poker and his tour results alone this year. Massive well done mate to a real quality lad who has a huge win deffo in him if given the chance in one of the bigger tournies

The Ups & Downs of Poker!!!



Alreet Stumpy here,


After a great run winning £3.5k from staking and $3k from 2 fts on full tilt I ran really bad for a few days so I was about to start a session when I thought hold on its 11.00am my lucky mtt on stars is about to start, problem was I had no money in stars got onto msn and swapped some $$$ from Knerrad he says good luck I think you will finish 5th!

I thought random thing to say but oh well he is a Radgie.I make the ft mainly by 3 betting the same villain 3 times and the 4th time hed had enough and called me with A9 good job I had AA.Theres 5 left when Im on button with 10 10 and I raise sb bigstack 3 bets and shorty on BB flats. I reship for 200k sb folds and BB tank calls after realising hes put a 1/3 of his stack in he has KJ and hits J on the rvr.Im out 2 hands later in 5th place for $880. Wow 5th well played Gypsy Rose Knerrad.


Then I have my once or twice a year cash blowup blowing $500 at rush poker and then $800 on PLO after running really bad in sngos. Keep saying its the last time I do this but this is really the last time lol.


Back to the ups and Mrs Stumpy did a 2 way chop in the £50 f/o at Circus for her biggest cash for £1100. There was an added prize of a £1300 package at the Palm Casino London and she had big cl headsup but lost 3 key hands K10 v 99 J10 v 56 33 v 88 aipf and missed out on the bonus prize. Good luck to Nemisis when he plays at the Palms.I also got to ft in this event finishing 8th my JJ no good v BGRs QQ for £170.


keep on smiling Stumpy

I was just "saying"



Had a thread up at the NPF regarding hates of both online and live poker which has been quite amusing and a wide range of contributions at this link top 3 hates in poker. Alot of well known ones are mentioned especially the one " I thought you had" and "its my fav hand" mmmmmmmmmmm onto Friday live.

As such I decide to venture out on Friday to play a little bit of live poker having not been in the scene of late. Take in the G £25 Double Chance Bounty game ( 1st ) to which attracts the huge field of 20 runners and I must say thank fuck for the Ipod as my starting table featured many people who totally tilt the arse off me especially a well known gay teacher!!!

I open 1st hand mid pos with 8s10s to a young student BB to which he calls. Flop of AKQ is checked to me and I fire a 1/2 pot cb to which he calls. Turn brings the Ace of spades giving me the flush draw and my gutshot is still there to which he tank calls my pot size bet. River is rag 4h and he once again checks to me and I put last chips from my 1st stack of 4500 into the pot. After an age tanking he looks at me and says " I think you have KK " Eventually he calls and flips over QJ. Nice hand sonny as I "tap the table" and shout for chips.
The table banter is tbh fkn unreal and tilting the life out of me so I turn up the volume of Ellie Goulding and try to get back into the game although I know Im going to struggle here. I start to get chips back mainly due to avoiding the mad maniac Chinese guy sat to my left who wants to ship his stack in every other hand with crap but seems to get there even though hes always behind. Eventually in level 3 of 75/150 playing about 10k the young student QJ guy opens utg for 600 and I look down at QQ. Lets go with this I decide and ship in my whole stack for Maniac Chinese guy to my left to snap call me and young student lad makes the fold of 10 10. Im up against Ac10d. Chinese guy tells me " Gambol Im tired and wanna go home" fuck me mate youve got mirrions of chips and are crushing every pot you enter ya daft twat.
Flop come down 7c8c9c lol giving him as many outs as he has chips and boom down comes the 3c on the turn to send me packing up my Ipod and heading over to Circus for there 9.00 game with late entry buy in.

Only 30 odd runners is this game but Im given a canny table sat to the left of Apokerlypse but opposite a drunken Rosib. Decide not to tune into my Ipod as yet as get into some canny convo and banter with Apokerlypse and tbh even Rosib was coming out with some funny stuff. Moving along steady and get to break with above avg stack to find the famous "ICall" has been moved into seat 10 on my left so happy days. He busts pretty early after making his flush which is rivered by a Rosib full house.
I make up from sb with Jh3h to a 5 way limped pot to see a Js9d3s flop and my lead bet is called in 2 spots. 8d turn and although I dont like this card I fire again to get a fold from guy on my left and an All In from Rosi. Im obv behind and fold to be shown JJ from her.............. nice button limp my dear. Ship a few times holding about 10 bbs getting me back in 12/14bbs area when Joe P opens utg with a min raise and I find JJ in the cut off. He asks me " How much is that Davey?" and I think it was about 12k " Yes I call cos its my fav hand" (probs 75% of his stack ) flipping the monsta known as K9 off. 9 on flop and standard Poker Stars 9 on the river sent me packing and off home.

Oh well its not just online where Im running shit................. roll on the NPF Champs when my run good juice will hopefull return

edit: Got asked by Dan Trett over at Full Trett poker to do an "In the tank" with him for their blog. Dan & Mark are 2 of the nicest lads you will meet in the poker scene and got loads of time for them as well as them being 2 massive contributors and supporters of the NPF. My pleasure Dan and the report is here Full Trett Poker

Different World



Well Im back from my jaunt across the globe to see my daughter in Dubai and thought Id do a write up of my trip as my poker activity and write ups are very limited these days.



She emigrated there with her boyfriend in April and this has been our 1st chance to get across and visit her. Me and the Mrs were picked up by them on arrival and after getting quickly through customs we were soon sitting on their balcony in their apartment 23 floors up looking over the Dubai Marina. Amazing site to be honest and the heat even in the early hours of the morning was very humid to say the least especially for the time of year it is.

People read so many things about Dubai mainly the do and donts and some of the shall we say strange laws etc they have but when your there its not really noticeable and a lot is very much the same as home. Well I say that but its soon very apparent that you certainly get rewarded for working hard here and they take no crap from anyone that decides they want to make their own laws. The law is the law and over the time we spent there you see zero crap from drunks etc and people treat people with respect and in a virtually zero crime rate you always feel safe.
This was highlighted on one of our 1st days when my daughter and her boyfriend went into a local mall to do some free fall sky diving in a simulator and were asked to remove all jewellery. On coming out we were on our way to get a snack when my daughter noticed her diamond engagement ring and earrings were missing from the sun glass case she had put them in her handbag. We retraced our foot steps and there on the floor outside the Sky Dive place in the middle of a very busy mall were her earings and engagement ring just lying on the floor. On another occasion she left her mobile telephone lying on a table in a restaurant and when going back hours later it was still sitting there where she had left it. When you think of the present state our country is in and the recent campaigns going on about getting people back to work and making it not possible to receive more in benefits than actually when your working it makes you realise how different a place like Dubai is. If your of no use to the place then your not allowed in. The whole place is very much motivated by the desire to succeed and theres no place there for scroungers and those who think they are owed a living or should have everything given to them on a plate. The result is a totally different and more respectful place to live where people respect each other and what they achieve.



We shopped, lazed around in the apartment and by the pool, did a lot of eating and drinking which included a sail down the creek on a floating restaurant and grew my oversized belly somewhat and the highlight of the trip from a tourist point of view was our extravagant afternoon tea at the worlds only 7 star hotel The Burg Al Arab.





A truly amazing place where entry is only available by being a resident staying there or by booking a meal in one of their eateries. £15000 for 10 days was not the sort of place I stay at so instead we opted for “ Afternoon Tea” in the roof top restaurant. At 395 dirhams per head ( approx £75 ) its actually worth every penny and even more. Your pampered with attention from your arrival and all through about 3 hours of eating in pure luxury with views that take your breath away and design and modern architecture of the highest standard all around you.


Theres even a special whiskey served in that roof top bar for…………………. £3000 per shot!!!!!!
I even blagged them it was my birthday and was presented with a special chocolate cake treat featuring one candle and a special card!!



Anyway back to reality and the grey clouds and cold of the UK

Use your Initiative!!!!

Heres a story I recently received which made me sit up and admire the guys inititave yet made me chuckle away at his scam and the audacity he has shown



Outside England 's Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years,it's parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were for cars (£1.40),for buses (about £7).
Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn't show up; so the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked it to send them another parking agent.

The Council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the Zoo's own responsibility.

The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a City employee.

The City Council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the City payroll.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain or France or Italy ... is a man who'd apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own and then had simply begun to show up every day, commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about £560 per day -- for 25 years.

Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over 7 million pounds ... and no one even knows his name.



I think this is my favorite E-Mail ever!! until Im sent this boooooooooo!

Getting Closer



Alreet Stumpy here,

Getting closer to the online scoop. Finished 4th in the $10 superstack on full tilt $1429 then 8th in the 42k g $24 for $1393.Not complaining with 3k in 3 days also I deffo feel Im getting better and better in these mtts and feel I know where I stand in most spots now which makes it whole lot easier to get chips and preserve them.

Live Ive only played 3 times since last blog all in the circus £20 £20 dc games and Ive come 10th for £20 when I got no cards and dont know how I finished 10th tbh,then fin 7th for £80 after going to the ft with a healthy stack only to lose 1010 v aj aipf flop ajj 10 j sik and a early exit when I had ak v qq no help and out.

Sitngos ended making about $700 for the month after having 2 horror days but recovered well just got a keep grinding and squeezing the profit out which keeps you freerolling in the mtts.

Ive got 2 weeks hols coming starting this Wednesday so hopefully get a chance to play a load of mtts,heres hoping for loads more fts

Went to the knee specialist and hes going to do another anthroscopy op as they still havent found the cause for my knee pain hopefully this time it will work and I get fit enough to be able to return to the golf on the upside I will be off another 6-8 weeks recovering so loads more poker haha.

keep on smiling stumpy