Has Dusk to Dawn Saved the ISPT?

The Nottingham Casion and Poker Room, Dusk to Dawn recently stepped in to pick up the pieces still alive from the original plan for the ISPT. 

I was lucky enough to speak to Simon Trumper, the Director of Poker at D2D, when I was work at the EPT in London. He's going to be the Tournament Director for the event, and we discussed several of the concerns I had seen, and had myself about the original event. 

 You can read more about this meeting over on the site that pays my wages right now.

My conclusions however, I'll put here:

D2D has pulled what was a great idea, with absolutely bloody awful execution, from out of the crapper, and they are doing a rather decent job of applying a shine to it. While I don't think this event will be the success it probably would have been if D2D had been involved from day 1, or will reach the levels it should have done when originally promoted back in 2011. I can see D2D making a loss of the event, but that event will be run well,  maintain it's promises and guarantees, provide a great experience for the players, and be a great advert for the quality and expertise of Simon, his team, and all the guys at D2D.

Jump on in if you get the chance, hell that's why I'm writing this blog. I'm getting a freeroll to try and win a ticket!

1,000 International Stadiums Poker Tour Seats Guaranteed

The International Stadiums Poker Tour is your chance to say you played at Wembley. €1 million is guaranteed to the winner. Day ones start live and online from May 11th and day two takes place at the iconic home of English football, Wembley Stadium, between May 31st and June 5th.

You can qualify for free at Dusk Till Dawn Poker, where 1,000 €300 Day One seats will be guaranteed in satellites between May 6th and May 24th.

To win your seat, all you have to do is:

1. Visit the International Stadiums Poker Tour Schedule Page for details on qualifying.

2. Register an account at Dusk Till Dawn Poker, where you will be automatically credited with a €2 satellite token.

3. If you win a €300 day one seat you can use it online or live in one of 10 day ones being held. You can win multiple tickets as this is a re-entry event.

Good luck and see you at Wembley!

The WBCOOP is here, and maybe a $5000 Prize?

So, here we are, Pokerstars are taking time out from ruling the world of online poker to run a series of events dedicated to the people who grease the wheels of the online poker world. That is, people like me who take the time to write about poker for either very little money, or just for the love of it, and by that I mean Poker Bloggers.

I for one am very happy about this, and it seems to have given me a warm fuzzy feeling inside, and that is nothing to do with the chance to win $5000. Ok, that's a lie, but it's not all about the dollar signs. Its also about the events I get to play, and the possibilities of what I could do with any winnings or prize money.

I'm currently between serious jobs, playing a little poker and writing about it to cover my rent, not always successfully, and having $5000 would let me try and make something like a poker media career.

The ability to travel to some of season 3s UKIPTs with Media Accreditation, and interview some of the elite players in European Poker on a freelance basis would give me the freedom to ask questions you might not normally see in a poker interview. We are so used to seeing the same questions turn up interview after interview, some of us can answer for the poker player before the interviewer has finished. Not that I think the Poker Media is doing a bad job, but as poker is a niche past time, interviews have to be accessible to the casual viewer. Thing is, for the more hardcore viewer, these interviews can be very generic, and actually turn us off from following the mainstream poker media.

I'd love to ask a professional player some more off the wall questions including some of the downsides to playing poker for a living. Things like the odd hours, the live pro living out of a suitcase, the fact that a day's profits can hang on the turn of a card and how that impacts their mental state, and the reliance on poor internet connections. Mainly I want to ask why and how they really don't care, because the life they are leading right now is exactly where they want to be.

Over the last few years I've been making trips to poker events, I've met a lot of poker players, some of whom are famous, but a lot more who are grinding hard, trying to get that one big breakthrough that might propel them to the next level in the industry. The goal for most of these players is to wear a patch, for a poker site to trust their image, to trust them to be an ambassador for their brand.

However, even the players just starting on this journey, along with the players who have been walking this path for years, are generally (with the exception of those lamenting Bad Beat Stories) happy, lively, party animals. You haven't really lived until you have gone drinking with a group of poker players. The feeling of camaraderie you get from something as "basic" as a game played with 52 cards, knowing that Lady Luck has a larger than usual impact on your collective lives, is immense.

Every time I step into a poker event, whether I'm playing, researching something I'm writing, or just meeting up with friends, I get a chill down my spine, and I feel like I do when I walk into my house and into the arms of a loved one. I short, I feel home. Yes that's hackneyed as hell, but it's still the truth, and has more than little impact on my preferred career.

The obvious goal for me is to get a staff gig with a large poker media outlet, but I'm not naive enough to believe the chances are particularly good in this financial climate, but anything that brings me closer to this goal is fine by me, and my Bank Manager will be a very happy man!

All I can do is take my chances where I can, and continue to write about the game and community I love, and hope Lady Luck favours me more away from the tables than she does at them!

If you want to follow more of my poker ramblings and opinions, all my published articles and blogs are posted on my twitter account @Hippy1980, and I do my best to retweet or tweet any major poker news stories as they happen.

New Quadjacks Blog Posted

Go here to read:

Blog

I'd love to be a guest blogger on the final day of EPT London because...

....I love Poker. I'm only a micro donk, but I eat, sleep, and occasionally get shafted by poker (you know what I mean, when your bullets get cracked by a Russian holding 74 offsuit. That's poker shafting you).

Last year, David Vamplew won his 1st major event at EPT London, he's since gone on to great things. He won the UKIPT Champion of Champions, Came 3rd in WPT Venice, 8th at EPT Copenhagen, 4th in the WSOP $1500 6-Max NLHE and won the €1000 side event at Tallinn this year, not to mention numerous other cashes including the Main Event at this year's WSOP.

I want to be at EPT London to see who wins this year, and may become the next breakout star from the Poker scene. Obviously, I have a bias, I'd like it to be one of the new breed of UK Players. Maybe one of these guys?

Max Silver:

Max Came to people's notice through the UKIPT last year, coming 6th in Edinburgh, and winning the Dublin Leg. He also managed to win the £1500 side event at last year's EPT London, and has recently been on a roll, going deep in the WPT in Paris, and coming 4th in the UKIPT in Dublin. Max has proved his chops, now may be time for him to explode onto the worldwide scene.

Samad (Sam) Razavi:

Sam has been on the edge of the worldwide poker scene for a while, and to top it all, comes from my home town (I think I may have actually played a few tournies with the man). Sam has been a regular casher at the UKIPT events this year (he also tops the UKIPT points board) winning UKIPT Cork, and has had success further afield at the Aussie Millions (6th), Some Vegas deep stacks, and cashing at the EPT in Barcalona this August.





Nick Abou Risk:

While Nick is technically not from the UK (he is from canadia-land) he has been part of the UK and Ireland poker scene for a while. He was the 1st person to win 2 UKIPT titles (Edinburgh Season 1 and Galway Season 2). He also has no shame (and now no hair as well): Video

Andrew Ferguson:

While Andrew hasn't had many live cashes, his game is solid, and the cashes he has are pretty impressive. A deep cash into this years Main Event at the WSOP, a 2nd place at last years EPT Barcalona €1000 side event, and 2 other WSOP cashes in the past few years.

Andrew is long overdue a big event win, and maybe this EPT season will bring him one?

So as you can see, I love poker, I love poker players, I love the game. I may have a bias to the UK poker scene, but it's producing the best new players in the world right now in my opinion.

So, can I come? Please?

I've decided to post a personal blog...

....for a couple of reasons. One is, I need a personal blog to enter the odd competition (I'm talking about you here Pokerstars, look at all the effort I'm going to!) and the other reason is, not everything I want to talk about is Poker related. While the forum I have at Quadjacks is great, I don't think the guys would want me writing about how I fell about certain political issues, or my issues running my business, or how I feel wearing ladies underwear. (Damn, how'd that slip out? where's the delete key?)

So, if you want my cutting blogs on the status of the Poker World, please go to Quadjacks and if you're lucky, I might even be on the show talking life, the universe and everything (42) with Marco, Zac and Srsly.

If, however, you want to read what's going on in my twisted mind, or value my political opinions, or just fancy a laugh reading my competition entries, this is the place for you.

Up next: my 1st competition entry