I neither ran nor played well in the Nottingham Live event, busting after about five hours. Neil and I were left to fight it out over the eight-way £100 last-longer that Signor Channing won (obv.)
I brought nine players into the event on the condition that they would give half of any winnings to Cancer Research and come dressed in something that would amuse - they didn't disappoint. From panto dames to giant chickens to Elvis himself, it was a spectacular display of fancy dress. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the poker. Only the giant chicken managed to cluck his way to a whopping $200 payday - but he did the honourable thing and gave the whole lot to charity. I salute you sir from preventing a whitewash that would have left egg all over our faces. Egg. Chicken. What genius juxtaposition.
I spun the £1,000 'High-Roller' up, then straight down after calling off 50 big blinds preflop with 8-8 versus Jake Cody's button open-shove (lol) on the last hand of Day 1. He informed me that he wanted to chip up big or go home. He had K-Q. Say no more.
I had a mini-sweat when one gentleman at the table wanted odds on himself winning the tournament after losing two thirds of his stack with play that can only be described as 'unorthodox'. I gave him 50/1 on £100. He threw me the £100 cash and asked if I could pay the £5,000 in instalments if he won. He bluntly said, 'No - I didn't pay you your hundred in instalments.’ Fair play.
Edler and I went to Nando's and the chicken wasn't digesting very well at the thought that, the way I had been running the last month, this guy would go on an absolute heater and actually do the job. It was a relief to see neither man nor chips seated at the table on my return. Eb ran deep but unfortunately not deep enough, coming out with less than a monkey for his efforts. It was fun anti-railing Ben after offering all sorts of prizes to the rest of the table for administering bad beats or busting him before the bubble, and equally fun railing my friend Dave Buckland on the final table, who eventually finished fourth.
I decided to knock live tournaments on the head for a couple of weeks and try to brush up on my acting skills by booking into a two-week workshop at the Academy of Creative Training in Brighton where I trained for two years many moons ago. It was great fun to dip my toes back in and I'm going to try my best to get involved in some shows next year and maybe produce and/or direct a thing or two.
I popped back to DTD last weekend for a couple of nights as PokerStars were holding the UKIPT Champion of Champions tournament there. The first night, Stars were picking up the tab on the dinner and drinks - we literally emptied the restaurants supply of Jaegermeister, before adding other alcoholic concoctions into the mix.
I set about coaxing as many people as possible into a night on the town: Fintan Gavin was always coming; Joeri Zandvliet was 50-50, but his friends were certainly up for a party, and collectively we managed to convince him; Nick Abou-Risk was a tough nut to crack but he eventually folded under pressure (something he's apparently not used to doing) and also joined the fray; Gareth Walker was leading the way before we even mentioned the word 'Jaegerbomb' - he was great fun and a lovely guy. The only person that didn't budge was Richard Sinclair, who eventually won it, which may say something about getting a good night's sleep before a tournament.
To be fair, I feel I played as good as I could have; I managed not to go broke early on a 2-2-3 board with A-2 versus Nick's 3-3; my suspicions set in on the turn and I really should have folded the river, he's never bluffing in that spot, etc. - but hey. I got it in eventually with A-J of spades versus the K-Q of spades of Matthew McDerra and he rivered a king. That would have given me a third of the chips in play with four left, then who knows? The prize was entry and hotel to all UKIPT's next season... but of course I didn't need that anyway as I won the UKIPT leaderboard this year. 'Sik brag', etc.
This week I decided to stay in Brighton and give a few of the WSOP.com festival events a spin down at the Rendezvous. I made four finals and cashed in two events, first in the £100 turbo deepstack for £1,700 and second in the £100+100 for £2,000. I made a stupid mistake deep into the first day of the Main Event and busted in about 28th place, while Kevin Williams went on to come second. He was unlucky not to win after grinding back from a near 5:1 chip deficit and being two-outered in a hand that would have won him the tournament. I'm really disappointed in the error I made otherwise I'm sure I had a great shot at a really deep run. The late nights were catching up with me too and I wasn't on my best game either I don't think.
Of course, the inevitable has happened and the cold weather and general tilt-factor of the United Kingdom has once again got me perusing flights to places in possession of a sun. I'm going to spend Christmas and New Year in Thailand, heading up to the north for some jungle-trekking and then spending some time on the islands grinding it out online as always and training Muay Thai / detoxing to get prepared for a year playing as many live events as I possibly can. I'm going to try to add to the schedule at least one weekend in Macau in January. I haven't yet made up my mind about the Aussie Millions - I want to make sure I am feeling healthy and running well before I decide to commit to it.
I hope you all have a great Christmas and a fantastic New Year. I'll hold back on the New Year’s resolutions for now - it's too early for that! All I know is that I'm going to go full steam ahead into 2012, try to visit places I've never been before, and enjoy it to the max. After all, we should be making the most of life - if Nostradamus' claims are anything to go by, it could very well be our last year on Earth!