Tony Kendall
Saturday, 25 October 2014
More wise words from Tikay.
Liam Flood
The sad passing of Liam has been well documented, here and elsewhere, so I can’t add much – except one observation which shows what a class act Liam was.
Keith “The Camel” Hawkins started a thread on 2+2 to mourn Liam’s death. There was not a single dissenter. Not one. Every single reply was respectful to Liam.
That was on 2+2. Not one disser on 2+2? Says it all, the true test of greatness.
If anyone can escape censure on 2+2, they need to be a proper gentleman.
Liam was that gentleman.
APAT? Nah, it’ll never lastWhen the Amateur Poker Association and Tour (APAT) began, no poker organisation ever got more grief from the poker forums. It’ll never last, they said. It’s a con and a rip off, they said. The poker forums absolutely massacred APAT.
Eight years on, it goes from strength to strength, and no other poker outfit has been responsible for bringing recreationals the grown-up poker experience.
Their very first Live tourney was at The Broadway in Birmingham. Since then they’ve not only visited almost every cardroom in the UK, but they’ve ventured as far afield as Prague, Belgium, and Las Vegas.
APAT are good for poker, they are. Don’t ever forget, recreational poker players are – by a country mile – the most important part of the poker pyramid. No recreationals, no poker.
Bet you can’t name them?Talking of poker Tours, the good old GUKPT is now in Season 8 after starting life in 2007 – in Bolton, of all paces. Don’t get me wrong, Bolton is fine – up to a point – but it’s hardly a poker hotspot.
Since then, year after year, and despite being somewhat predictable, the GUKPT has done its thing all around the UK. It is, in many way, the Tour of Tours, the grand-daddy of all UK poker tours.
Everyone who is anyone has played a GUKPT, bar none.
Now here’s the thing – I bet you cannot name the two biggest money winners on the GUKPT since it began. No checking, no googling, just try and think who they might be.
Wrong and wrong.
It is Mike Ellis and Tony Cascarino.
Who’d have thunk those two would top the list? Come on Toby, Jake and Co, pull your finger out.
Mike Ellis in particular is the king of getting it quietly, and many forget he has a WSOP bangle on his CV. Proper gent, too.
But WHY?What is it about poker that makes us love it and loathe it so much?
No matter how we got on last night, win or lose, we can’t wait to start today’s session.
But why? What is the real hook?
To win lots of lovely money? I don’t think so, unless we are Patrick Leonard or Danny Deluded, because few of us do.
Is it the pain? Plenty of that, maybe we are all masochists at heart? Don’t think so, I don’t like pain. Pain hurts, dammit.
The thrill of the chase, as with humpy-pumpy? Well the journey is generally better than the destination, so no, don’t think so.
Could it be… I mean, I know it sounds silly, buy maybe, just maybe, deep in our sub-conscious, we all recognize that poker is FUN?
And yes, it is seriously anti-cool to admit it, or be caught smiling whilst on the job. The poker job, I mean.
But something lures us back time and time again, it has a magnet that we can’t resist.
So why don’t we admit it, and give poker a shot in the arm? Guess it’s not cool.
Well I don’t care. I play small-ball, I play every day, and I love it to bits. Come on guys, big the game up. Poker needs you, you need poker.
It’s a great game, and yet nobody wants to admit it.
Why's that?
The elder statesman (or woman) of UK and Irish Poker?I suppose it may have been dear Liam, bless his soul, but it’s Situation Vacant right now.
Who else could represent poker with some gravitas and aplomb?
Queen Vicky? Too young, too handsome, too busy with TV quizzes, Observer articles, that comedian of a husband and suchlike.
Neil Channing? Talks a lot of sense, but way too busy with Betting Emporium.
Joe Beevers? See Neil Channing. Good shout though, squeaky clean, former The Hendon Mob ledge, not got an enemy in poker, speaks well, and sharp as a tack. Too soon, maybe.
Padraig? Not sure he’d accept that nomination, he’s anti-establishment at heart.
Rob Yong? Too busy setting ludicrously high guarantees at Dusk Till Dawn.
Devilfish maybe? Not quite, no.
So who, then?
There must be someone out there, and if there is not, things must have come to a pretty bad pass.
Go on, nominate someone. Bet you’ll struggle, but then we’ll all say, “why yes, of COURSE!” I can’t for the life of me think who it might be though.
If only Danny Negreanu was from these shores, eh?
King for a DayI’d make winter last 11 months. Winter means more online poker traffic, more fun, and less feeling bad that we should be outside, mowing the lawn.
No Limit poker is banned, and Pot Limit becomes the only type available. Can you even begin to imagine how that would change poker for the better?
A new poker site is started called Trolls.com, where the pesky trolls can troll each other 24/7. Awesome, a win win for everyone.
PLO and PLO8 becomes mainstream, and we get to look for super-wraps and the like. BOOMIO AND SCOOPIO!
Anyone who uses the poker terms, “sick, so so sick”, “joke”, or “I crushed” gets slapped round the chops for lack of imagination. Surely we can all use a thesaurus?