Fat Chance for ‘Romford Slim’?

The Poker Million – The Masters tournament is rocking along, and there have been some surprising results. Anybody who backed one of the current finalists before the off is happy indeed, as they have mostly comprised the long shot list from Ladbrokes opening prices. One table satellites are tricky, and a good run of cards remains the best weapon. All players are starting the final with the same number of chips, and I’ll take anybody blind at 20-1. If you missed a heat or want to reassess form, Sky Sports will be re-airing all six heats in a week-long run-up to the final, I believe every night in the same time slot around eleven p.m.
It looked like Steve Davis improved as the television show went on. I think he managed to learn about three years worth of no limit Hold’em in two hours of play. Davis may have hit the flops when he needed them, but he was also never behind when the betting was done with cards to come. Who’s to say Steve Davis isn’t launching a new career? The man feeds himself on pressure, rubbing his hands and clapping with glee before chortling “Let’s go!” and sticking it all in with the Ace-queen.

One great line left on the cutting room floor. After Sam Torrance got mangled with his flush, patted down with his ace-queen, and booted out ignominiously with his pocket threes, you could understand if he was a bit rattled. He stuttered from his chair and had almost reached stage exit when he turned around to the remaining five players. “Nine o’clock tomorrow morning, boys,” he said. “First tee.”
The Million is building, and the last two shows are good action. Two parts of the Hendon Mob are on display this Friday with “Twelve Teamer” Erik Semel, Barry Hearn, Carlo Citrone, and a blonde in a black suit masquerading as the smash serving tennis player David Colclough.
I really liked what Noel Furlong said after getting knocked out of the tournament due to an ill-timed bluff that had gone horribly wrong. He said, “If there had been any weakness, he would have folded. But there was no weakness.” No, there was no weakness. Teddy Tuil was sitting with two queens in the pocket and two sixes on board. It was farthest thing from weakness I’ve ever seen. But it sure sounded good coming from a former world champion.
I was pretty much thinking the same thing last night online in Bugsy’s cardroom, when I came over the top of Barny Boatman’s Ace-king all-in with the Q-3 and was called by Barny before he even had time to type in, “You blooming idiot.” If there was any weakness, I thought, maybe he would have folded. But there was no weakness.

We’re Here… The Hendon Mob card room is finally open, and it’s early days. Tournaments are the order of the day, lots of one table no limit Hold’em tournaments that bear a lot of similarities to the Poker Million Heats. You can’t make any mistakes, you need a little luck, and it takes a miracle to beat Ram. All the mobsters are playing under their own names at the site, legendary bluffster John Duthie stopped in for a $5 comp, TheTruth Davey Neweth is making all kinds of trouble, and we’ve been having a ball in the evenings European time.
There’s at least some people there to make money, between Barny betting last longer drinks with pretty girls from Hampstead. I’ve been thrashed consistently by Abercrombie and Fitch, and he never shows me his hand. It’s actually quite fun to play with those guys. I’m going to enjoy bragging about how I beat Ram Vaswani out of a pot after he wins the World Series of Poker Championship. Now I just have to do it.