Poker Blog Round-Up 12th January

Hugo Martin of www.pokerverdict.com with a round-up of what’s going on in the poker Blogosphere…

The Bluescouse saga continues with “our kid” going into the dangerous territory of dipping into his life savings. As usual there is a rather convoluted account of his recent ups and downs, involving money that was owed to him by family, and money that he is waiting for from his ISA, and how he lost X amount in one game, and then won Y amount in another. In other words, all classic degenerate gambler speak.

What’s interesting is looking at all the various comments that have been left. In his own post Scouse has said he is “often unable to put a lot of the suggestions into practice due to my unwillingness to play lower tables and treat bankroll management with the respect it deserves”, yet there are still many observers trying to give him advice.

Obviously everybody means well, but a lot of it comes off as patronising, especially the players who suggest they watch him play. Presumably, this is so they can then critique Scouse’s play. I know all the advice is good, especially all the stuff about not getting into debt through borrowing, but I would love it if Scouse just told them all to sod off.

Ok, things are getting out of hand here. Change100 at PokerWorks has put up a link to a video of Team FullTilt arriving at Melbourne airport for the Aussie Millions. If you want to see Phil Ivey, Jesus Ferguson, Howard Lederer et al being greeted by Crown Casino limo drivers this is the video for you. Clonie Gowan appears to have dyed her hair black and I can safely say that it’s not a good look. Anyway, the point is, has the poker culture really come to this? Videos of players walking through an airport? The highlight has got to be Ivey and Huck Seed exchanging a “cool” handshake. I guess it is just meant to be a bit of fun, but never has such a non-event been made to seem so important. Change100 actually describes this clip as “awesome”. Only on the internet, I suppose. 

Also at PokerWorks is Grubby’s blog which is most entertaining. Grubby is a self confessed slot addict and all-round low limit sicko. Of all the blogs around, Grubby’s probably has the most gambling content, and all the better for it too. A recent post finds him wanting to go to Vegas for a Porn convention at the Venetian; unfortunately the only flight available is $500 which he doesn’t have. He works out a tortuous withdrawal and bonus option at some gambling site and then proceeds to document his attempts to turn $200 into $500 for us. It doesn’t sound that hard does it? But as is always the way in gambling when you really need to win it’s impossible.

“I launched blackjack, which has a $200 max bet. Bet $100, won. Bet $150, won. Already halfway there. This ticket to Vegas looks like it’ll be a cinch. Bet $150, lost. Bet $100, lost. Back down to the initial $200 bonus. Bet $100, won. Bet $150, lost. Bet $150, lost. Damn blackjack,” he writes.

There’s also an interesting visit to the theatre (yes, you read that right) where it seems that an attractive young woman comes on to our Grubby, but he bottles it. It could only happen to a poker blogger. Check out Grubby’s archive for other fun tales of gambling and drinking.

At the risk of this becoming one long advert for PokerWorks it’s also worth checking out another blog it hosts, called Table Tango. This is by Linda Geenen who is a dealer at the Bellagio and her archive features some great stories about dealing the high stakes games there. Her most recent entry has a load of photos from Howard and Suzie Lederer’s New Year’s Eve party in Vegas. Brandi Hawbaker is also featured among this rogue’s gallery; I wonder if she managed to find a new backer at this party or just more offers of "huggles"?

Tony G is back blogging again and there’s some great stuff from the Aussie Millions. He writes about getting knocked out of the 3k PLO with rebuys event and in the previous entry he gives a preview of a 250k cash game that he is on the list for. The game will start when the FullTilt Team shows up as well as various high rollers from Singapore.

“The action will heat up like white hot lava in the core of a volcanic eruption,” G writes.

Love him or loathe him you have to admit that G has a way with words.

Finally, I just want to give a big shout out to Andy Ward who is absolutely flying in Tunica at the moment. Having already had a five-way chop in the $500 stud event Andy, at the time of writing, has made the final of the $500 No Limit Hold’Em. According to his most recent entry he is second chip leader so has a real chance to win the $80,000 first place prized money. Good luck Andy and I look forward to reading the next entry detailing how you got all the spinach.

Hugo Martin aka ‘Chimney Sweep’ is a blogger and writer for www.pokerverdict.com, a site for the European online poker community. The site features an online tournament search engine, player blogs and online poker news.