The Beat With Neil Channing
Monday, 10 November 2014
Awards, blogs and trouble on the UKIPT.
Gong Show
The British Poker Awards have been established since 2010 and it's always fun to see who is nominated before meeting up on the night with your fellow nominees, hopefully receiving a nice trophy without having to sit around in Luton for four days. I've been lucky enough to win a trophy every time, but not since the first year have I won anything to do with actually playing poker.
Maybe I'll be worthy of a Best Online Player or Performance of the Year nomination next year. Having picked up the award for Best Blogger in 2011 and retained it in 2012, I felt pretty lucky to get the hat trick and win Best Blogger again last year as I hadn't managed to write one for at least eighteen months. This year, I'll be hoping to win the award for Best Social Media User.
(Ed - you can vote at TheBritishPokerAwards.com
Back to BlogHalf the reason I don't write too many blogs these days is that I don't have my own site to put them on. When Black Belt Poker was running, I always had an extra reason to update everyone on my poker and gambling exploits. I've been thinking about a sports gambling blog for Betting Emporium, but what I really want to do is get www.neilchanning.com up and running.
A few years ago, I battled to stop someone stealing that domain from me. I hadn't kept my eye on the ball and they used a nice picture of me to direct people towards a friendly game of online blackjack with some roulette thrown in. Apparently, if you are a famous sportsman, (I like to think of myself as an athlete), people cannot simply take the domain with your name and if you'd like it they have to give it to you. Sadly, since I've had it back, all it has achieved is to send people to Black Belt - a site I now plan to take down. The domain will soon lead you to some nice poker articles that used to be on Black Belt and my old blogs. I then plan to start writing some new ones to update you on the the last two years.
Social Media JunkieI think one reason that people write fewer poker blogs these days is social media. It's definitely easier to bung a few thoughts into a Facebook status, and if you are doing that regularly, then it's hard to come up with new material for a blog. Some players are clearly obliged to write a regular blog as part of their sponsorship deal and tend to a predictable round-up of which tournaments they've played, how card dead they got and which flips they lost. They're nearly as bad as the ones that talk endlessly about how many hands they've played online this month. I've always felt that a blog should be themed, and in the last year, there have been various subjects where social media has not been enough of a platform. I'll be expanding on some of those issues soon.
Obviously, I used to push Black Belt via Facebook. It would have been crazy not to, with 90% of my Facebook friends playing poker and Black Belt needing new customers, I didn't fancy paying for advertising. I'd suggest to people that they play on the site and they would write back and ask me question after question. I would spend at least one day every week answering them; I did that for six years.
Twitter is so much more fun. I get annoyed by people that don't get Twitter. I don't really follow anyone who tweets what they had for breakfast or that they are just popping to the gym but in general, I think people have "grown into" Twitter a bit now. I'm totally addicted to it, but my followers will know that I'm not a big tweeter, I'm a big re-tweeter. I find it easier to express my opinions by re-tweeting things I find interesting, and people are less likely to get into a time-sapping argument that way.
I wish everyone who is having a crack at taking my blogging title at the British Poker Awards the best of luck; my favourite would be Dale Philip, who writes really well about what it's like to be a poker pro and he was also treated pretty badly this year. On the Best Social Media User award, it might just come down to who has the most followers. That may mean Vicky Coren will blow us all out of the water, but I'd be very proud to win it.
At Home in the Poker RoomOne thing that surprised me when I was looking through the past winners of the various British Poker Awards was that, in three years of there being a Best Live Card Room category, the Dusk til Dawn club has won it every time. Now, I'm a massive fan of DTD and I think Rob, Nick, Simon and the team are doing a brilliant job and have been great for UK poker generally, but I hope Rob Yong isn't upset that I'm not voting for him this year. Speaking as someone who used to virtually live at the place widely recognised as the headquarters of UK poker, it is a startling omission from the winners' circle.
I'm talking, of course, about The Poker Room, the new venue above the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London... so that's 'The Vic' to you and me.
The other day, I saw that there were twenty different games running at 11.30pm, ranging from £1/£1 up to £25/£50 PLO with a big limit mixed game and a tournament thrown in. These guys have been at it for half a century, and you might say it's easy for them to be the biggest as they are in central London but I'd point to the massive competition they've had to bat away from various places that have attempted to muscle in on their players as proof they are still packing in the punters like nowhere else.
It's easy to take The Poker Room for granted as it is the venue has always been there. I like that. I love it that wherever you are in the world and whatever time of the day or night it is, you know that they'll have a game running and that if you fancy popping in, you'll see some friendly faces.
I'm voting for the Vic and I hope you do too.
No Added JuiceI read an excellent forum post from Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins the other day, who explained how we were all mad to play the UKIPT and allow Pokerstars to take a 10% fee and a 3% rake from the prize pool. I'll admit; I was mesmerised by the chance to win a massive prize for a smallish amount and went to play. I won't be playing again.
For a start, I didn't enjoy being pushed from pillar to post, joining five different queues in order to get all the paperwork to register. I was told at one stage that a 'Stars Live card, which is basically a loyalty card, was a legal requirement. I tend to avoid Tesco but if I didn't, I'd hate to worry about being booted out for having no Clubcard.
When I finally got to my table, I was immediately told to take my coffee off the table during the eight seconds it was there while I removed my coat and handed over various pieces of paperwork. Picking up my coffee involved placing my phone on the rail, which caused me to be snapped at again. Apparently, if you place your phone on the charger that protrudes from the table, you'll find it far harder to cheat than you would if it was three inches to the right. I'd have thought putting all the people who queued up together on the same late-reg tables would be more of a worry in terms of cheating, but what do I know?
I felt like we were back at school and it hindered the atmosphere, which was already suffering as we had four lovely guys from Spain who had all travelled together and couldn't get their head round the idea of only English being spoken at the table. If they hadn't all been put on the same table, maybe it wouldn't have been such an issue.
I spoke recently about the hidden costs of tournaments and how they can damage the whole poker economy. The Connaught Rooms is not a casino, so some told me that I should have known what to expect before I went. I voted with my feet last year and didn't play any of the events apart from the Main Event, hoping that things would have been more organised now they've had time to get used to it. Overall, Pokerstars take enough money from the rake on online satellites, booking hotels early at a discount to then charge for them as part of a package as well as fees from casinos for bringing in large groups of gamblers without a need to take any extra juice.
I've decided only to play when the juice is reasonable from now on, so I'll be concentrating on the GUKPT, the WSOP and the excellent Sky Poker UKPC in the future.