Mammoth post tournament Review, from the salubrious Bolton Summer Series+ odds and ends.


Firstoff a catchup. I didnt get my hands on a brownbelt, which was a little frustrating. Im a little cheesed as i really felt i was one of the stronger candidates, but i missed the last workshop which probably cost me. I wish the best of luck to the browns, who fully deserve what they got. Im not bitter. Having Channing ring me up at 3am to let me know i was the bubble boy was hardly ideal, i would have rather heard i was 16th or something. Marvellous. Well, i should give this some sort of appraisal. Was the grading worthwhile. To be completely frank, not for me. I am not going to blog on here about a bunch of issues i have with blackbelt, as i thought the original idea was immense and i genuinely think Neil and Nick had a pretty fair and player orientated site in their mind when they designed the site. What i was really concerned and disappointed about was the fact the goalposts were effectively moved once the grading was completed. I was elegible for a bluebelt after the grading, which means i get $1500 a month to spend on live tournament entries. These tournament entries would be split 50/50 on profit between the player and blackbelt and most importantly, would be 50/50 after rakeback. Brownbelts (what i was aiming for) get $4k a month in the uk and $20k in vegas. Now this all sounded fine and dandy at the time, but once the grading was completed, monthly raking figures became clearer and eventually we were told. In order to maintain bluebelt status, you would need to rake $4k a month. Now if you rake $4k a month, you can pretty easily get 35%+ rakeback on ipoker, which means you can play/spend that on what you like, do not have to go 50/50 on any profit AND dont have any makeup. Hmmmmmm. For brownbelts im not 100% certain but i believe the figure to be $8k. We were informed at the beginning of the grading that there would be other ways in which we could earn points, which would maintain our status, but it doesnt seem all that sweet. The points earned for the action taken do not appear to addup. My hourly rate at 200nl this year is nigh on exactly $60/hour. I write articles for insidepoker and pkr stacked because they pay me IN EXCESS of my hourly rate, plus i get satisfation from researching ideas and theory, which keeps me fresh. I dont do it for ego. So when the breakdown of points came in and i saw that an article i penned would be worth $400 OF RAKE i was kinda upset, i want to be a part of what should really be a new home for professional poker players, but i feel somewhere along the way its got a bit too greedy, which is a crying shame given the staff and framework. Lets hope they fix it.


Blondepoker: I have recently been speaking to senor Dempsey, and because we will probably doing some stuff in the coming couple of years, have agreed to mentor some of his cash game players at the lower limits. It should be fun, blondpoker is basically my home on uk forums and i would like to see his staking scheme end in success. I hope any students get on my wavelength pretty quickly, basically to make money from 6max you need to crush non-showdown profits, which will give you a game that is scaleable from 50nl to 1knl. Once the system is in place, its hard for you to not win.


Me, family, freinds etc. Well me and the missus are currently doing work on the house, which is going at a rate of knots (sp? does nautical knot change to not?). The steels went in last week after me and a mate dug the footings. The place is gonna look the bollocks when its finished but Suz is getting kinda stressed that its not done yet. All in good time, my love :P Family is well, cant help but feel i need to take my mum away for a few days, probably next summer, to try and say TY for being super supportive all the time and helping me out with the house no end. MY Dad would get a holiday, but only if he actually pulled his finger out once in a blue moon. GG South of France old man. On the Dog front, im afraid its still not happening. Dunno why, but my mate Tom is being so difficult with a certain border terrier breeders number and its fucking me right off. Hes just being lazy (runs the oxford shooting school) but the number of cats shitting in my new garden is doing my head in, which is why we need our cuddly litte terrier (translation cold hearted killer) to put the wind up them a bit. MY brother came back from Plymout uni last week, i came into his room and it literally stunk of cheese. Like someone had oven-baked stilton for a month. I naturally assumed it was his washing or something, till i looked on his desk at a supermarket carrier bag full of a type of skunk he assures me is actually called cheese. Little shitbag. I gave him a bollocking, but in truth i doubt there is a better way to fund your expenses at university whilst doing minimal work. wp.


Online: well, im still grinding, not been too busy of late but im putting that right now. Trying a new thing, where i aim to win everday. I dont set myself a target, or play when im tired, i just setout to win small every single day. So far its working, playing fresher with shorter sessions lets me get away with some funky stuff. Need to make some major money this year so wont be playing live much more this year, possibly only the DTD 1k events and the gukpt grand final. Vegas is well and truly off the cards, despite having seom very kind offers from Keith hawkins, Sida and Neil himself. I just dont feel like i can justify it this year. Well thats it, i was gonna write a tournament report, but thats gonna have to wait, ill do it later this week. Be sure to read it though, i robably played the best i ever have live and felt way more comfortable than i ever have done. tara.