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Qualified Or Confused?

Date: Fri, Feb 25, 2011 Professional

I had an interesting conversation with Jesse May in Paris regarding the book (yes most blog posts are going to be about the book from here on in). He was really psyched to see it come out as he was a fan of Jared’s anyway and cut a really good interview with him last year.

I was talking about one of the barriers we will likely face is that some people will have a negative perception of a performance coach, because it’s still relatively new to poker. It’s understandable too, because a great deal of people that claim to be ‘mindset gurus (hate the word guru btw)’ have next to no genuine qualifications to back up what they do. Before I met Jared part of me wondered if what he did was total bullshit, but I was relieved to find out he actually had the qualifications to back his work up.

In most other sports, the sports psychology professionals are qualified up to the hilt but in the more obscure games they don’t need to be. So one of the key points we will be stressing in the marketing drive is that Jared is a qualified counselor, has a full counselling licence, a degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counselling psychology; as well as a thousands of hours work experience in counselling and sports performance.

Ok, I was pretty much showing off on his behalf because I really want people understand this point. I was hoping all that would impress Jesse, but was amazed that Jesse was shocked and impressed enough that Jared a degree full stop, let alone a Master’s degree and a license. It’s amazing, because Jesse is such a well-informed figure in poker I would expect him to expect Jared to have credentials, but his response made me realise how low expectation poker players are in this regard, and unfortunately, how gullible some of the less savvy ones could potentially be.

If this was a mainstream sport, someone without the qualifications Jared has wouldn’t even make the interview stage of starting their career, they would get laughed at – it would be like an acupuncturist applying for a job as a spinal surgeon. If I was paying good money and was at the top end of the game like most of Jared’s clients are, I would expect qualifications stronger than the ones you can get for $99 in an hour over the internet.

It’s probably because psychology is viewed as ‘mysterious’ in a lot of circles that people can be a bit dumbfounded by what is and what isn’t a legitimate qualification. There is a real stigma around talking about feelings and emotion, they are viewed as intangible by many, which is why someone can profess to having Jedi like powers and spout out a bunch of incongruous ‘qualifications’ when claiming to be a mental game coach in newer markets like poker.

I’m not picking on any individuals here, but there are some straight up frauds out there who work very hard to confuse people into thinking they are qualified and educated to a high level in psychology. I tell you that as someone who is 100% completely unqualified to counsel anyone, I am merely a poker journalist who has developed a really passionate interest in psychology and performance after working with Jared so closely for 18 month. Yet by default I am probably less damaging to give mental game advice from than a lot of these so called ‘mindset gurus’ put together (I’d still be a fraud, just less of one).

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European Poker Awards

Date: Wed, Feb 16, 2011 Professional

It was my second time in Paris for the European Poker Awards, hopefully I will get invited next year so I can say with some authenticity “Oh Paris yes its lovely, we go every year”. Last year we stayed for several days after the awards but this time round we went for just the weekend. It’s actually really nice not having that extra pressure of feeling we have to cram in a load of site seeing and instead concentrate on a couple of good nights out and relaxing.

This year a WPT event was on so that were significantly more poker people around and a lot more people I knew. Nothing confirms this more than the all too familiar occasion of Mad Marty Wilson appearing from nowhere, telling a quick story that actually lasts a lifetime then disappearing into the night. I’ve always told my girlfriend story after story of Marty’s and finally she got to meet him, I told her as he arrived in the Aviation Club “Your life is never going to be the same again, you can never un-meet Marty”.

He didn’t disappoint either, top form as always and up for an award no less. Gina loved every yarn he spun throughout the weekend and we shared a table with him, Jesse May, Simon Trumper and David Vamplew throughout the awards (The latter being a really nice kid, I have been explaining to Gina how the new breed of young British players currently crushing live poker are also very down to earth, she was really impressed because most of us would act like dicks with all that money).

I was pretty pleased with how the awards went, given most of the winners were the ones I voted for. Jake Cody I think thoroughly deserved both his awards, I can’t see past Liv Boeree in her category and it was hard not to vote for the biggest winner of the year in the online category. I think the WSOPE is the toughest event of the year (or was at least) so I thought James Bord deserved his award and Tony G for me was the biggest ‘personality’ of the year no doubt.

The best staff category was tough, as I had to choose between my old mucker Marty and Simon Trumper, the guy who runs the greatest poker venue in the world. Thankfully any inner conflict was taken out of my hands, because a very deserving Gerrard Retamero won that event.

I was also delighted to see Nic Szeremta win the lifetime achievement award. This I think was the first time a non poker player (He plays poker, just that’s not why he won) won this award which gives me some hope in 30 odd years time. Tony G reminded everyone that without Nic, we poker media types may not have jobs (He also gave me the biggest laugh of the night by saying “He didn’t make the money, but he had the heart”).

After that, not much to tell you other than it was a free bar and the biggest bonus of the weekend, no hangover the next day, which really is a rare occurrence when I’m paying so how I managed to survive the journey home I will never know.


Rookie of the Year – Jake Cody
Internet Player of the Year - Andreas Torbergsen
Outstanding tournament performance – James Bord
Europe’s Leading Lady – Liv Boeree
Poker staff person of the year - Gerard Serra Retamero ,TK Events
Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Personality of 2010 – Tony G
Player of the Year – Jake Cody
Lifetime achievement award - Nic Szeremeta

So Paris, valentines weekend, fancy awards do, free Moet all night – not a bad brag, but I have been brought right back down to earth as soon as I got to the UK. I’m now off to the dentist, I chipped my bloody tooth yesterday on a bloody liquorice torpedo last night and it hurts like hell.

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The Funniest Boxing Video on the Internet

Date: Thu, Feb 10, 2011 Professional

If there is one thing my late Father loved is when a young cocky British fighter would act incredibly brash then get put on his arse. There were only a handful of boxers who could showboat and enjoy OTT ring entrances because they were that damned good they could back it up in the ring - Ali, Eubank & Hamed all spring to mind. So when you got some 20 year old up and comer who had only had 4 fights carrying on like they were Ali, he always delighted when they came a cropper. I must say as much as I love supporting British boxers doing well, it rubbed off on me and I would wet myself too.

With that in mind, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the funniest thing I have seen in a long time, Dad would have loved it:

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The Week the UK Announced and Lost its Biggest Tournament

Date: Wed, Feb 9, 2011 Professional

In the space of a week the UK has managed to announce and lose the biggest tournament of the year.

Of course I mean biggest two different senses of the word. This weekDusk Till Dawn announced that their £50 Grand Prix was returning and hoping to break the 1,600 player mark– nearly double their previous UK record. Soon after it was announced that theWorld Series of Poker Europe would no longer be taking place in London, as it will be relocating to Cannes in France in October.

It was a real surprise the WSOPE was being ousted from London after three pretty big years there, which I think could only be considered a success. Not only that, but French poker is heavily taxed and regulated, whereas UK gambling is about as liberal as it you will find in Europe. At first it seemed to me to be a really bad decision and a bad advert for the WSOP who I thought were shunning a great host in favour of one whose government would take 4% of the prize pool.

But then I was reminded by a PokerNews blogger that poker is booming in France right now and that could see the field size double. Just last weekD4 Eventshosted theEuropean DeepStack Poker Championshipsin Dublin and the majority of the 737 field were French.

I must say, as great as it was I will be glad to see the back of the jam packed September to October London poker month. AnEnglish Poker Open, EPT London, WPTandWSOPEall in a month was just too much in my opinion and for me the reason why the WPT had such a low turnout relatively. The WSOPE was the glue that gelled them all together and hopefully the knock on effect will be that WPT London will become a much bigger event, held at a different time of year, so we get two big majors to look forward to on their own terms, rather than a saturated cluster of them.

The more I think of it, the WSOPE probably should have changed venues every year, going to a different European country and letting the poker world get more stamps on their passports, kind of like the world cup.

In brighter news, Dusk Till Dawn showed they do not know the meaning of the word cant by hosting a 1,600 runner tournament later this year. Last year they broke the UK record of 900 and I think everyone was shocked at how much they raised the bar this time round.
Images from the Press Conference announcing the WSOPE is moving to France.

The key here is they are having 5 day 1s on the Monday-Friday before everyone reconvenes on the Saturday & Sunday. I’ve never heard of 5 day 1s before in a tournament and the question is can they average 320 players per day? The fact that you have to buy-in online will help in this regard because it will stop a huge influx of players arriving on the Friday and ignoring the other days.

Nobody is going to want to stick around in Nottingham for several days waiting for day 2, so you would imagine the Monday-Thursday crowd will be mostly driving there and back in one night. Nottingham being central and on the M1, I think there will be quite a large radius of people preparing to do that, maybe as far as London. Last time the event was also full of coach parties from local casinos, so I do think it’s possible they will hit 1600.

One thing is for certain, it will be the biggest UK attendance of all time, well past 1000, and the biggest first prize you will ever see for fifty nicker. I for one thing Dusk Till Dawn are going to do it.

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Its Good to See the MidStakes on TV

Date: Tue, Feb 1, 2011 Professional

It’s good to seePokerStars and Channel 4 teaming up to televise the PokerStars UK & Ireland Tour. I for one really enjoyed the first season of theGrosvenor UK Poker Tourwhen it was shown on Channel 4 and this seems like the closest thing we are going to get to that now.

Its good to see the mid stakes on terrestrial TV, because that's what poker is all about these days.

The thing I really enjoyed about the old GUKPT show was the fact that it wasn’t Phil Iveys and Daniel Negreanus. Yes there were some well-known UK pros, but the tour also showcased the everyday men and women that played these events. I really enjoyed the little segments where the non pros showed you around their hometowns and places of work. My favourite being the lateDave Smithshowing us around his mobility scooter business in Chesterfield.

Rather than showing you the lavish balla Vegas/Monte Carlo lifestyle the bigger shows did, the GUKPT showed the audience that they could really be a part of the action. It showed them “If they can get on TV playing poker, we can get on TV playing poker.” That’s more appealing that watching Phil Ivey hopping in a private jet or playing craps with Range Rover valued chips. As much as I admire someone like Phil Ivey, I can’t think of anyone more appealing to the British public in this regard than a gent like the aforementioned Dave Smith.

Sadly the show didn’t start a trend for TV poker. The GUKPT show understandably couldn’t maintain budget to continue broadcasting (It was always meant to be a one season thing to launch the tour I believe) and more recently TV poker has shifted much more towards the elite, invitational event.

Until now, the PokerStars UKIPT tour has already recaptured the ‘anyone can turn a small buy-in into a small fortune’ ideals of the poker boom and with their extensive budget can hopefully become a year in year out presence on the poker TV circuit too. There will of course be some more big names playing the tour now its televised but hopefully with a £500-£1000 buy-in we can see a few likeable Everyman type players winning big and reminding mainstream TV audiences that poker is a game where everyone can win regardless of age, sex, race, class or experience.

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I've written a book: The Mental Game of Poker

Date: Wed, Jan 19, 2011 Professional

Those of you who have been following my blog will be as relieved as I am to say, the book I’ve been working on is finished. For anyone that hasn’t been following, I’ve just wrote a book. Its took almost exactly a year (Not because we are slow, because we both did our other jobs all the way through - and because we are slow).

I guess the first thing to say is that it’s not really my book, it started off as someone else’s book and ultimately became a joint collaboration. About 18 months ago I met performance coach Jared Tendler who is the leading mental game coach in the poker industry. Jared has worked with hundreds of professional players and made many videos for Stoxpoker and DragtheBar. He is the only performance coach in poker who is from a genuine psychology background, with a Masters Degree in Psychology, thousands of hours of experience as a traditional therapist and previous work as a sports psychology expert in the golf industry.

Jared transformed some major mental game issues I had at the tables, curing me of a tilt issue I never thought would go away, and as a result we became good friends. So much so that he asked if I would edit his first book on the poker mental game. I was so fascinated by the subject after he had given me a glimpse into what he does that not only did I jump at the chance, I got so involved I ended up help him write it from start to finish.

I would like to point out at this juncture that although I may have had a small hand in helping Jared develop some of his theories, my own ability and insight as a poker player is NOWHERE to be seen in this book. Please do not be put off because my name is on the front, my role was merely to help Jared put his work across in a manner which the poker audience would understand. I essentially consider myself the exact sort of person who would buy this book, so it would seem I was the exact sort of person who could make sure poker players would get the message.

As a consumer I can tell you that there is nothing else like this book on the market. Most poker psychology books will simply say things like ‘don’t go on tilt’ or ‘play fearlessly’ without actually explaining how to do it and assuming the audience can just change mindset with the flick of a switch. Our book is all about understanding things like tilt, motivational issues, confidence and fear at the tables and how to not only resolve them, but to also use them to become a much better player. The tilt chapter alone is bigger than some books, all of which may sound hard going, but we have worked very hard condensing it in such a way that it’s easy to follow.

Which is why it took so long. The writing part of was no problem, the tough part was stopping. We had most of the words written down months ago and the last half of 2010 was mostly spent trimming things down and eliminating the stuff people didn’t really need to see.

Having a front row seat to the insight into the lifetime’s work of the top performance coach in the poker industry has been a dream, one which many would jump at. You would probably think that as a direct result it has helped my poker game to a level which most people could only dream of – not quite.

My game is light years better, of that I have no doubts, but it wasn’t exactly world class in the first place. The biggest impact this experience has had has been a big surprise. It has actually freed me from poker. I was one of those people who could not put poker down, when I wasn’t working I was playing, when I wasn’t playing I was talking or thinking about poker . Working with Jared has helped me realise that poker will be there tomorrow and had allowed me to have a long break from the game while we finished the book, which has also let me pursue other things.

It’s helped me concentrate on my work with PokerNews for a start, rather than you would think hinder it. I read more books now in a month than I would previously read in a year. I have lots of other hobbies now, when with poker I had 0. My relationships are better, my ability to learn has improved tenfold and I am my attention span, something I thought years of TV & poker had destroyed long ago, is significantly improved.

Perhaps the biggest positive impact, however, came during the worst period of my life ever. My dear Father passed away towards the end of 2010 unexpectedly and although it is something you probably can never get over completely, the mental skills we advocate in the book are transferrable to anything in life and have really helped me come to terms with my grief.

So to describe this experience as a journey is a bit of an understatement. I first went into this project thinking it would be fun, help my game and hopefully make me a bit of money. As it’s reaching its end its looking like all those things have happened and so much more. I have a new attitude to the game, Jared has become my best friend in poker and I have learned so many new skills I can’t begin to list them. (I also joke that I have become the second biggest authority on the poker mental game by accident).

If we don’t sell a single copy it will still have been worth it for me (But please still buy a copy).

The book is called The Mental Game of Poker: Proven Strategies for Improving Tilt Control, Confidence, Motivation Coping With Variance and More. (The Mental Game of Poker for short) I would like to remind you, that I my own poker skills are thankfully nowhere to be seen, hence my name rightly being much smaller on the front cover.

We still have lots of work to do, the book won’t be released until April. This week we are interviewing a bunch of Jared’s clients who will be putting their own experiences on his program into their own words into the back of the book, after that we have to do all the stuff you don’t even think about like footnotes, appendixes, inside sleeve design etc.

After that, well in fact, from this point on, comes to promotion of it. It’s funny, one of the other reasons I am so involved in the book is because I offer quite a lot in PR terms (I am pretty much a phone book for poker magazines, websites, journalists, affiliates and agents) yet I have been quite shy talking about the book up until this point. I think the reason for this is that I am very quick to let people know that this is not my book, that my own poker ability is not the catalyst for all this insight – I have seen so many so called experts, authors and coaches get exposed as frauds in this industry I want to be really careful not to try and come across as anything other than the translator for a very talented man’s work.

The website for the book is not live yet, but it links to Jared’s own website for the moment, but bookmark www.mentalgamepoker.com if you want to know more.

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Thoughts on the New GUKPT Schedule

Date: Tue, Jan 18, 2011 Professional

This week theGrosvenor UK Poker Tour announced their 2011 schedule, which featured a variety of new added value promotions, the removal of their end of year Champion of Champions event and most notably less legs of the tour. Last year the PokerStars UKIPT arrived on the scene and captured the attention of the UK market, no doubt leaving the GUKPT with a lot to think about, so how have they responded?

New Champion of Champions Tournaments
At first I didn’t like this, because I see the Champion of Champions event as a huge event on the UK calendar, but the last two years it hasn't quite lived up to that, it hasn't been as special as I made it in my head. So I don’t mind this now and could imagine there will be some value in the form of some of the bigger players might not even bother to play.

Wild card entries:
I love this idea, great extra value for those of us who have no chance of taking down a GUKPT event the proper way and will no doubt be very popular. The only criticism is that this innovation would have been way more exciting had the Champion of Champions event stuck to the original end of the year format.

Bumper GUKPT Leaderboard:
Another reason for the pros to stick with the tour, there seemed to be much more interest in the leader board last year than the Champions event, so a natural progression in my opinion.

Shoal Survivor:
Finally. One of the major criticisms of the tour was that it didn’t capture the online qualifier market as well as they could have. You only had to look at thePokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tourto see how important this is. There probably needs to be even more involvement with online qualifiers, but this is a step in the right direction.

Grosvenor Poker League & Sharky Giveaways:
Good to see £100,000 being on the table for the live poker regulars of the G Casinos and generally more of a shift to encourage live poker. The last few years the GUKPT main events have been incredibly tough and pro saturated, hopefully this will balance them a little and get more locals involved.

Less Legs:
Some people are pointing to this as a sign the tour is suffering at the hands of PokerStars and a saturated live poker market, I just think it makes sense. There are so many live events in the UK now, which is fantastic for the industry and players in general, and the GUKPT needed to reduce their schedule to make the events they do have special again.

All in all, the GUKPT seems to have had a major facelift and they are taking a risk by changing the format as much as they have, but it’s a necessary risk. Previously you could argue that the added value was very pro heavy, but this seems like a balanced mix of added value for professionals, live player and online qualifiers alike, which is exactly what they need to do if they want to try and reassert themselves asthepoker tour in the UK.

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PokerStars Home Games Vs Full Tilt Multi Entry Tournaments

Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011 Professional

It’s been a pretty big week for the landscape of online poker in my opinion, with both Stars and Tilt bringing out innovative new concepts, both of which we have pushed this week on PokerNews.

Full Tilt have brought out multi entry tournaments, where you can buy-in 4 times simultaneously to one tournament and effectively multi table it, ala some of the biggest cheating scandals in online poker. It’s all above board though, and when you get deep your players merge. It gives you a bigger shot at winning but a reduced ROI. It’s not a bad idea, they are doing it with a lot of their big tournaments and it will no doubt boost the prize pools no end.

Stars on the other hand have brought out Home Games. As the name suggests you can set up your own private clubs to play online cash games and tournaments, with an array of games and leader board standings. I set a tester one up last nightand although it was just standard NL cash like any other, it was fun. Being in a club seemed to make it much more sociable. I actually think long term there could be some really juicy, speakeasy type games going, invite only and all that.

So which one is better? There’s only one way to find out…..


Not really, Stars come out of this the winner by miles in my opinion. The difference is the multi entry tournaments really only appeals to the high stakes pros and serious players, whereas Home Games is all about fun, which is the lifeblood of the recreational player. With so many 24 tabling short stacker regs these days we need a fun injection at the tables, and no doubt these nickel and dime recreational players will dip their toes in the big boys real money tables soon enough, so everyone’s a winner . Well done stars (In fairness they are both good ideas)

And well done me and Jared, we are about a day away from completing the book, more on that later.

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PokerNews Up for 2 IGB Awards

Date: Mon, Jan 10, 2011 Professional

Ok, I wont even begin to claim I understand how big or small a deal this is, but PokerNews and PokerAffiliateWorld (part of the PokerNews family) are both up for awards at the IGB awards this month in London. I will be going down to hopefully watch our CEO pick up a gong, no idea whether we have a shot or not but I assume there is some free drink and entertainment. I have always fancied being at one of those big round booze filled tables you see at the comedy awards and I guess this is as close as that gets. I think a fight started at one of these things a few years ago so I will make sure I warm up my dukes just in case the guys at PokerListings get a bit shirty.

All the nominees here

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10th Annual European Poker Awards Announced - Brits Dominate the Nominations

Date: Tue, Jan 4, 2011 Professional

I'm a judge again at the European Poker Awards so I wont share my opinions really, but win lose or draw what a great year for the Brits, just think of all the players who were left out, namely the 5 Vegas bracelet winner for starters. The awards take place in Paris next month, another chance for me to dust off the old suit and look like a big shot in front of the missus.

Player of the Year:
Nominations:

Theo Jorgensen (Denmark)
Jake Cody (England)
Sam Trickett (England)
Vladimir Schemelev (Russia)


Poker staff person of the year:
Nominations:

Marty Wilson of Matchroom Sport (England)
Simon Trumper, Dusk Till Dawn (England)
Thomas Kremser, TK Events (Austria)
Gerard Serra Retamero ,TK Events (Spain)
Kirsty Thompson, president of the UKIPT ( England)

Internet Player of the Year:
Nominations:

Chris Moorman (England)
Patrik Antonius (Finland)
Mickey Petersen (Denmark)
Ilsidur (n/a)
Andreas Torbergsen (Norway)

Outstanding tournament performance:
Nominations:

James Bord (England)
Jake Cody (England)
Fillipo Candio (Italy)
Liv Boeree (England)
Tobias Rinkemeier (Germany)
David Vamplew (Scotland)

Europe’s Leading Lady:
Nominations:

Liv Boeree (England)
Annette Obrestadt (Norway)

Rookie of the Year: For the most promising newcomer.
Nominations:

Jake Cody (England)
David Vamplew (Scotland)
Toby Lewis (England)
Julian Herold (Germany)
Fernando Brito (Portugal)

*Lifetime achievement award:

* The Lifetime Achievement Award is decided entirely by the votes of the nomination panel and will be announced at the presentation ceremony in Paris.

Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Personality of 2010:
Nominations:

Jesse May (Denmark/USA)
Tony Guoga (Lithuania)
Anthony Holden (England)

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2010 In Review

Date: Thu, Dec 30, 2010 Professional

Anyone who reads this blog or knows me will probably understand that I cannot wait to get shut of 2010 as soon as humanly possible. My Dad passed away just two months ago and, with it being so close to Xmas, there has been a huge sense of ‘just get Christmas out of the way’ amongst the family.

I won’t spend too long musing over what it’s like to lose a parent, because almost all of us are going to go through it twice in our lives, but rest assured its awful. Even though I was bigger than him, fitter than him and probably earned more money than him, still at the age of 31 I always felt ‘looked after’ or protected by Dad. Now that’s gone you all of a sudden do feel thrust into adulthood and on your own. I guess the one positive that has come from it all as it has made me reevaluate certain things in life and been a very maturing, character building experience – I’m trying to be a bit more like the great friend and provider Dad was every day.

Meeting Jared Tendler & Dusty Schmidt in person, finally

But I cannot honestly say that 2010 was a totally horrendous year, far from it, in fact it was shaping up to be one of the best years ever until 2 months ago. Work has gone really well, PokerNews is going from strength to strength and I predict big things for the company in 2011. The book is also (nearly) finished and how that is received in 2011 is something I am really looking forward to.

Poker playing itself went well and interesting. It was a nice winning year, but I probably played 20% or less of the volume than the previous year. This all goes back to my last blog post where I detail that working with performance coach Jared Tendler has actually freed me from needing to play poker every day, so I only play for fun now. Live Poker went particularly well, I only think I played 8 live tournaments in 2010 and managed to turn that into 4 final tables (Two IPO side events, the British Masters Poker Tour Leeds and a UKIPT side event), the highest finish being a 3rd place. I’d be a fool to claim I didn’t run perhaps quite a bit above expectation, but I think the fact I only play rarely for fun now has made me pretty fearless at the tables when I do.

British Masters Leeds Final Table, it was on telly, well web telly

Me with the Online Player of the Year award at the European Poker Awards, I didn't win it, I introduced it to the awards

I got the opportunity to do some really interesting things and travel some great places in 2010. I was a judge at the European Poker Awards in Paris which was one of my career highlights so far, especially getting to look like a big shot in front of the Missus in Paris on Valentines weekend. In London I worked with the guys at Matchroom Sport on the PartyPoker Big Game V show and at the same time finally met Jared in person, which was awesome, especially after he got stuck here an extra week due to Volcanic ash. I also got a rare chance to interview a Heavyweight title contender and the fight in Manchester……shame it turned out to be Audley Harrison and the worst fight in British Boxing history (I still have to admit he was a really nice guy though). I had a fun a profitable time in Ireland for the IPO, I got to meet the PokerNews crew in Lithuania and best of all discovered Portoroz in Slovenia.

Portorose in Slovenia with the missus and chums

The latter was so special that I proposed to Gina, my girlfriend, there and she said yes. In fact that was probably the best day of my life, so I guess looking back 2010 was the year I had the best and worst day of my life – in that respect it was probably a big chapter in the film or book of my life if nothing else.

So was it really my worst year ever?

Yes. My Dad was a bloody fantastic guy and the world is a much worse place now he is no longer in it. Getting past the New Year’s Eve countdown and reigning in 2011 is not going to all of a sudden make everything better, but I cannot wait to get it done nonetheless. Thankfully there were plenty of positives in 2010 and plenty to look forward to in 2011, so it’s not all doom and gloom but hurry up 2010, you can finish now.

My Dad and my Dog, the two best blokes in the world

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Book Nearly Done, Glad I'm Not a Pro Player, Merry Xmas

Date: Fri, Dec 24, 2010 Professional

Well The Mental Game of Poker is nearly done, we are having a ‘cram week’ the first week of January to tie up the loose ends. Its took slightly longer than the original plan of April this year to finish it off, but in fairness Jared and I both maintained full time jobs instead of lightening the load for a short while, so in the respect and given that it’s a pretty involved book, it’s probably a success timing wise.

Spending 12 months essentially shadowing a sports psychologist who works with poker players has been amazing. I think most players would jump at the chance to do this, I certainly did, because the positive impact on one’s game was a shoe in. It was for me, Jared has cured me of several crippling poker leaks for which I am very grateful. But the biggest thing he has done for me was a huge surprise, he has freed me from poker.

I was the sort of player who couldn’t put poker down, I had to play most days, not for mega sick sessions, an hour a day was fine, but I had to play. Right now I have played one serious session in about 4 months and I couldn’t be happier about it. Poker will be there tomorrow and working with Jared has helped me go off in different directions. I think it’s helped my job at PokerNews which I am really loving right now and I am also reading a shit load.

Thankfully I still love the game, the industry and the people. I haven’t completely fell out of love with poker, merely having a hiatus from playing. The one thing this whole experience has opened my eyes to is how much I would hate to be a professional poker player now, the games are so much tougher and I fear for a lot of guys the wrong end of 30 who might have nowhere good to turn if poker went south for them.

The one thing I think ALL pro poker players should actively have is other interests and other ways to make money. The game is so vulnerable in a regulatory sense and a good player can become a bad player so quickly if they don’t work on their game, the game could leave a lot of people in the wilderness. Thankfully poker does open lots of doors and most of the people who make a crust from it are usually very intelligent.

Anyway, enough doom and gloom. I am off to the annual Christmas Eve jolly with the lads, I am not looking forward to Christmas Day at all as anyone who follows the blog will understand this year, but the Christmas Eve Bomber is always my favourite part of the festive period.

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Stuff I Found Funny This Week

Date: Fri, Dec 10, 2010 Professional








Chinese Gossip Blogger Fights For Freedom To Post Celebrity Up-Skirt Photos

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Grief & Audley

Date: Wed, Nov 17, 2010 Professional

I was dreading the funeral, as it got closer I would have done anything to magically have woken up the day after, but now it’s happened it was actually a kind of nice day. Obviously it was a tough day, not something I plan on going through again, but it was also a great celebration of his life.

The funeral was pretty much a full house, as was our home afterwards. This made a difference, it was nice that so many people were there because of my Dad, rather than necessarily showing their support to us, because it affirmed to me what I’ve always thought of the guy, which is that he was just a really nice fun bloke to be around who will be sorely missed. Not only did a lot of his friends turn up, a lot of mine did too, again not because they were showing their support to me (which was nice) but because my Dad really was just one of the guys when my friends were around and everyone loved the youth club that was the Carter family home when I was a teenager.

It’s probably premature to spout advice about dealing with grief given I’m less than three weeks into it myself, but I think I am handling things well and this is what I’ve learnt about it so far:

Talk about them – I know people who think the best thing to do is avoid the subject but talking about Dad regularly, good things and bad, has really helped me get my head round whats been going on. It feels like you are keeping the memory more alive.

Go through every stage of the grieving process – I actually thought I would try and avoid things like seeing his body, arranging the funeral etc, but again doing these things have helped, they’ve been unpleasant, but they have helped me come to terms with things.

Do – I’ve been working, which has been a great distraction. I’ve been doing my best to sort out his estate and run errands for mum, which has helped me feel like I am being useful. I went out on Saturday and I’ve been going to the gym. It doesn’t numb the pain completely, but it does get you out of the limbo of sitting around doing nothing.

A long way to go yet, perhaps the worst is yet to come, but the whole thing has made me realise how lucky I am to have what I still have in life – great job, great fiancée, great family, great friends, great dog.

On to cheerier stuff and I went to Haye vs Harrison over the weekend and what a joke that was. I did actually enjoy myself because I was with some good mates and we had a laugh, in fact we had a real laugh on the way back at just how bad it was and the chants of 'Your shit and you know you are' will always make me giggle.

It was such a shame because the atmosphere in the MEN was amazing. The crowd were going nuts when Frank Bruno & Lennox Lewis got in the ring together and it really felt like a special night was brewing.

Then Audley came out to a weak ass Phil Collins tune and I knew the writing was on the wall. Don’t get me wrong, I never expected a great fight, I was going for a laugh with my mates more than anything, but it was even worse than I could have feared. I’ve actually seen a pretty interesting video which suggests the fight may have been a fix, I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Booing Audley in real life was so much fun, Dad would have been proud. I can only imagine the chat for his table on Full Tilt will be gold.

Things at PokerNews are going great and I am getting involved in some pretty exciting stuff right now, more of that to follow I guess.

Finally this made me lol

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