Laura Cornelius
Life on the Road
A German Victory in Prague (Again...)
I was really excited to touch down in Prague as I had heard only good things about this magical city. The Christmas markets were supposed to come alive with everyone sipping (or guzzling) on the mulled wine, live bands playing and children excited and dancing around the huge illuminated Christmas tree. I wasn’t wrong. Our first stop-off was the Christmas market and Town Hall Square which was so pretty and festive. I didn’t really want to leave as I could have finished off my Christmas shopping as well as soaking up the whole festive ambience, but we were under the pressure of time. Our next stop was Prague castle, which I had taken a glimpse of in the dark on the way from the airport, but was really unbelievable. This castle was supposed to be in the Guinness World Records for the largest ancient castle in the world. You can take a glimpse of it in our welcome video, but not only was it a beautiful castle, with breath-taking grounds and quaint little cafes and shops dotted all about it; but it had the most fantastic views of the city one could possibly get. The downside? It wasn’t snowing. It was magical and picturesque, but would have definitely looked like it was from a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale if the gods had decided to let it snow for us. Ah well, there’s always the poker. Here’s the tour-guide around the city!
So before we even started play on Day 1a, celebration was on the menu. First of all, it was PokerStars 10th Anniversary and to mark it, an event was taking place to try and crush 2009’s world record for the biggest online poker tournament. Czech player Martin Staszko had just been announced as a PokerStars Team Pro after his runner-up place at the World Series of Poker and was among the starting line-up in a special reserved room in the Hilton for the event. Team SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo announced the record had been broken, as confetti and balloons were let off and various Team Pros such as Martin Hruby, Pat Pezzin and Marcin Horecki got this tournament underway. We reached a total of 200,000 players in this $1 tournament and the first prize was $50,000. Not bad for a $1 entry and PokerStars were thrilled to once again hold the title to the biggest ever online tournament. Team Pro Dag Palovic was especially happy to make a min-cash for $4. We were sure he would remember that one! Here’s the video:
We knew EPT Prague would be a big field as we were mid-way through the Prague Poker festival and this EPT was always a popular stop-off. Day 1a saw 234 players take their seat, where as Day 1b, as always, was much busier with 488 to make a total field of 722, a prizepool of €3.5m and first prize of €775k. As the tournament progressed, a few of our Team Pros chipped up including Jude Ainsworth, Liv Boeree and Juan Manuel Pastor. Slovakian Team Pro Dag Palovic just about made the money, but was disappointed at his exit on Day 3. However Day 1b had brought us many smiles, as he had lost a prop bet with Czech Team Pro Martin Hruby and turned up for a day at the felt in drag! His alter-ego was called Pamela and we believe she may have been modeled on Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson. Not sure Pamela would have been totally happy with Dag’s attempt, but she definitely had some pretty gold shoes on her. Check out our interview with ‘Pammy’.
Unfortunately we lost Team Pro Juan Manuel Pastor early on Day 4, but he still took away €17k for his efforts. It was his first EPT since London where he came 4th, so his track record hadn’t been bad at all, what with a cash in Barcelona before that too. Jude Ainsworth had me on the edge of my seat all the way through Day 4. Every time he seemed to win a pot, not long after he would lose at least half of it, but the luck of the Irish was certainly with him that day, as he had two huge suck-outs, bringing him a 6 on the river both hands to win the pot, when he was near enough drawing dead. He made it to the 14th spot, busting just a few hands after the UK’s Chris Moorman, and taking a healthy €27k back to Ireland. There was nobody getting in Dutch chipleader, Patrick Renker’s way as he maintained his lead all of Day 4 and sat firmly in the driving seat with, at times, over a million chips clear of anyone else. However, the poker gods were to play a part in Renker’s fate, by near enough the last hand of the day, he shoved all-in with 2.9m with QQs against Martin Fingers AK and was cruelly eliminated in 9th place in the biggest pot of the tournament so far.
Soon enough the final table was set and Martin Finger led the way for the most part of the day. He played aggressively and solidly, commanding the table with his chips and eventually took down all the chips from his heads-up competitor, Dutch amateur player and Master Classics Champion David Boyaciyan with another classic coin-flip. Yet again, a German online superstar had taken down another EPT. There’s been World Champion Pius Heinz, Swiss- German EPT Tallinn Champion Ronny Kaiser, EPT Barcelona Champion Martin Schleich, EPT London Champion Benny Spindler and now EPT Prague Champion Martin Finger. There was just one thing on my mind as the taxi drove off through the cobbled street in Prague towards the airport; when will this German invasion come to an end?
Barcelona: Pickpockets, Paella and Being 15!
So, we made it to Barcelona and to Day 4 of the Main Event. I wasn't sure we'd get there at one point, but after Days 1a and b, suddenly this huge tournament started flowing fluidly and now the end is nearly upon us. Barcelona is such a fantastic city, so vibrant and alive, I just wish I had a little longer to soak up the atmosphere and dance my socks off at a crazy all-night party, because I'm sure there's many of them lurking in dark mysterious corners all around the city.
So, although I have been to Spain numerous times in my life, I had only been to Barcelona once before. I was 15 on a school exchange with my friend, Lucy. The point of a school exchange is that you swap with someone in another school in another country and stay with their family, while they stay with yours. This would have been fine, but the family we stayed with, didn't have any children and were quite an elderly couple. They were extremely sweet, but I don't think they were expecting a pair of adolescent 15 year old girls who wanted to escape them and try and sneak into bars and clubs. Trust me, we did it at home and if the bouncer wouldn't let us in, we'd take 20 minutes, swap coats, change our hair and try again. It usually worked second time around.
This is Lucy and I, be it about 7 years after the event I'm talking about, but Facebook wasn't around back then!! We're still good friends now.
So, we tried sneaking out one night in Barcelona (this was back in 1997) to get found out by a teacher and given one hell of a telling off. The elderly couple lived just off Las Ramblas and as we were now resided to their constant babysitting, they took us everywhere with them. You might think they would have showed us round Gaudi's museums and taken us to the beach. But no, for some reason each day we had to go to the hospital to visit an elderly friend of theirs. Now the couple could not speak any English, and though Lucy and I were in Barcelona to help our Spanish, it didn't necessarily mean we were any good at it either, so most of our communication with the couple and their sickly friend was done in hand actions and mime. You could say it was a funny week. Not at the time mind. Lucy and I got so bored one night, locked away, having been force-fed paella that we nearly threw-up, we practiced make-up on each other and decided to try on every garment the other had brought in their suitcase. This included knickers and bras. We knew then we'd never forget that week, because we barely saw any of Barcelona except for that bedroom we got locked in!
This time around it has been different and I got to see pretty much all of Barcelona in one day! Here's that whistle-stop tour for you!
You'll notice in the video I make a particular reference to the pickpockets in Barcelona. If you're heading out here anytime soon, please do make note. I've heard three stories just today of people having their bags or belongings stolen. I'm not sure whether he'll mind me saying this but one of those people was Jake Cody. News got around fairly fast in the media room when we found out poor Jake had gone skinny dipping with some friends the other night, to get out of the water and find all of his clothes, money, phone and passport all gone from where he left them on the beach. That walk back to the hotel must have been a bit of a laugh, stark b*@!k naked. I think he's over it now anyway. Then our Dutch media friend had the same thing happen to him the following night, he was in swimming shorts mind, so his journey back to the hotel wasn't quite as embarrassing.
So the play is wrapping up here on Day 4 pretty early as it hasn't taken too long to play from 24 down to 8. The Final Table looms tomorrow, but for now, well of course, I'm off to the beach for a swim!
EPT Tallinn: Headstands and Backstoke
My last blog was all about getting back into the Blackjack, as I competed in The European Blackjack Open last month. Since then, I am back on the road on the EPT circuit and the first stop of Season 8 was Tallinn in Estonia, somewhere I had never been before, but had heard great things about. Only the week before I left for Estonia, some hometown friends of mine had told me they were staying in the Swissotel (where we stayed and also where the tournament takes place in Tallinn) on a stag do and had mentioned what a crazy but beautiful place it was and also how the hotel club sandwiches were some of the best they'd ever tasted (they don't get out much to be fair). At weekends, the place was inundated with stags from all over Europe (but predominantly the UK I felt), leaving their trails all over the old town, making the most of the best value for money beers available and found staggering around the place til 9am in the morning. Unfortunately for us, though I did have 2 party nights, our trip would be slightly tamer and containing a lot more poker!
The tournament was a smaller field than usual, maybe due to it being the first stop on the tour and everyone still in tatters from The World Series, but Kevin Stani was there to try and keep hold of his title as well as Arnaud Mattern who had taken 3rd place the year previous. So throughout Days 1a and b, 298 players took their seats to fight it out for the €275,000 first place prize. In amongst them was the feisty Olympic Hockey Player, Fatima Moreira de Melo who has been doing really well on the EPT stops recently. During the poker playing we took a time-out so I could test her skills on the Archery Field , just because I knew she just couldn't be good at everything!!
As the field was slightly less than what we had been used to, and with all the FInnish players, we were seeing a particularly aggressive tournament; it meant the days were much shorter than we were used to. We were finishing at around 8pm every evening as opposed to 11pm, sometimes Midnight or later in some tournaments. So we were really able to take advantage of the long daylight hours in Tallinn. I can confidently say, some of the sunsets I saw in Tallinn were some of the most beautiful I had ever seen and the sun was not setting until at least 11pm each night! Our party had been pushed back until the evening of Day 3, so this evening we all got our best frocks on (including the poker players), to party it up at The Vabank Club in the heart of the old town. I had a few too many 'free drinks' as usual and think I spent the best part of an hour trying to convince Roberto Romanello to prop bet me €5000 to do something 'a bit mad'. This was because a few days previously, Praz Banzi and he had come up to Sarah Grant and I very excitedly and exclaimed, "We bet our mate to get in the water fountain in Tallinn and do a few rounds of back-stroke" And low and behold, they showed us the footage on their IPad of their friend getting into a small pond, about knee high water, and much to the amusement and shock of an elderly couple and tramp sitting on benches nearby, swinging his arms all over the place as he backstroked around the tiny pond. He was no Ian Thorpe, but he was paid the €5000 to get a bit wet, smelly and look like a wally, something I'd be well up for!! But back to the party and when Romanello said he'd prop bet me to do a headstand in the club, I tanked and tanked, but knowing I was going to be unsuccessful, given my intoxication and general uselessness at headstands, I offered a roly poly instead. Needless to say, I never got my €5000!
FInal Table Day loomed and before we knew it, it was over. It was aggressive all the way with predominantly Finnish Players making it over before it even got started. It was the Swiss Omaha Cash Online Prodigy, Ronnie Kaiser, who reigned in the glory though and kept his chiplead going for 2 days! He was very happy with his brand new EPT Champion Title and no doubt, we will see a lot more of him on the EPT Circuit during Season 8. Our next stop will be Barcelona next week, which I am very excited about. Barcelona is a fantastic city with great nightlife. I just hope I get to see a bit... I have been practicing my headstands afterall 
Its All About The BlackJack!
Well, it maybe Day 3 of the Main Event of the World Series in Vegas, but no one is taking the shine off me this week, as I competed in The European BlackJack Open at The Empire Casino in Leicester Square in London. I got invited a month previously to the event and thought it would be a fun event to take part in, not only because I love a gamble, being of the degenerate persuasion, but also because I didn't have to gamble my own money and could win €5000. Sounded perfick!
These days most of the time off I get goes to playing poker, but with the BlackJack open looming, I thought it would be a wise idea to sharpen up on my basic blackjack strategy and get down to the casino to have a practice. Yep, any excuse. I could have just stayed at home and dealt myself cards til the cows came home, but I wanted the real casino experience for practice. So, I took a hundred quid out to have a flutter with one rainy friday afternoon, brought my book I'd scribbled all my strategy in and idly bounced off to the blackjack table at The Empire. Now, most poker players think Blackjack, along with Roulette are silly games because the house always wins. I can understand this, but I still enjoy the heart palpitations when you double up and double up your chips because you're losing and suddenly the Ace and the Face comes home to Momma! I was already £300 up in my practice session, whilst consulting book mid hand before I then decided to go treat myself on some new dresses with my winnings. I was ready for the tournament.
Here I am playing some Blackjack at Caesers Palace in Vegas, champagne close by.
So, though I have played a lot of Blackjack in casinos in the past, I had never played a Blackjack tournament, against the dealer and against the other players. There were 15 of us starting with 1000 chips, 3 heats with 5 people, 10 hands of Blackjack in each heat and the player accumulating the most chips at the end of each heat, along with 2 runners up from any other heat would go through to the final table of 5. I didn't really have a clue in terms of strategy against the others players, but I used my common sense to work out if the chipleader was betting big, I better bet small and vice versa to make the most chips. Every player at my table put all their chips in the 10th hand and we all watched the dealer go bust. I was left with 1950 chips, but 3rd on the table, so felt a little deflated that I hadn't made it through. We watched the final heat after ours and as the crew totted up the scores, I stood gobsmacked as I got told I had just made it through as the second highest runner up and would be at the final table. Time for a drink. Back to the table and in just a few hands, 3 players had been eliminated, I hit a blackjack when the dealer hit 21 and a lot of the players had their chips in the middle and bust out. Suddenly I could win this. It was down to me and a fella called Anthony from Wolverhampton, who didn't say very much, maybe because he didn't have many teeth, I'm not sure, but all my chips were in on the 10th hand and if I could win the hand, I could win the tournament but if I drew with the dealer, or lost, Anthony would take it down. I was on 19, a strong hand, especially when the dealer had pulled out a 6 and a 10. I was sure the dealer would bust, any card but a 3, 4 or 5 would take me to the 5000€ prize. The dealer's hands went into slow motion. The card flipped over. It was a club. It was a 3. Nooooooooooo! Not a 3, a push hand did not help me. Anthony had more chips and the huge cardboard cheque came flying in his direction. Luckily we had had a little deal before we all got to final table, so I had made a something out of the day, but it was Anthony who was the one who was to be laughing all the way back to Wolverhampton with his big, cardboard cheque. He got a bottle of Veuve Cliq as well to then exclaim he didn't like champagne. Ungrateful so and so!
The day was however a great success, and we then carried on with some more fluttering on the tables which saw me win a little more poundage, a fantastic meal and some karaoke. For those of you British folk, you can catch the European Blackjack Open televised on Sky 166 in August, though I apologize now for telling you the end of the story. Part of me loved every minute of it and is contemplating moving solidly over from Poker to Blackjack, but then again, no one remembers second place, so maybe I should train up a bit more and get ready to enroll in 2012 WSOP!
Sin City Calling
So, I left you on a bit of a Cliffhanger Eastenders stylie last time. You'll have to go back and recap if you can't remember, but I was rabitting on about my travels through The States and had just touched down in Sin City after meeting some crazy Aussies who had invited me and my 2 friends to their shot-gun wedding. This was back in 2008 and to the present quickly as I have just got back from Turkey where I have been on holiday the last week. Weather was fantastic, food was even better (lots of meat for you like-minded carnivores out there) There were, however, maybe just a few too many British people and those of the predicament to embarrass us other Brits by shouting out how they want their 'Ham, Egg and Chips' cooked whilst singing karaoke particularly badly. I also went fishing, caught a fish (my fella didn't), beat him on numerous occasions at draughts and failed at a 4-2 pool attempt (he is on the pool team at the pub though come on!)
And no, I'm not competitive at all ha (this is a joke!!) Anyway, that was last week's antics in a nutshell. Now, back to the bright lights of Vegas.
So we had arrived at The Luxor with just 2 hours before we were supposed to meet our bride and bridegroom to be. It was all chaotic trying to check-in and find our room. I had never been inside somewhere so huge as some of the hotels and casinos in Vegas. Its like each establishment is its very own world. We had opted for the huge pyramid of Egypt, with Sphinx and all. We got in, rushed through trying to make ourselves look pretty whilst all being equally dumbstruck by the lights of the Boulevard and the permanent ching-ching of all the machines in the vicinity. We rushed through the humid heat to Planet Hollywood where our new friendly couple poured a few bottles of champers down our gobs before getting shoved into a stretch limo. They obviously shoved a few bottles down their own gobs too as were clearly very nervous about their impending lifetime of together-forever-ness. We were on a bit of a drive by the looks of things and suddenly the limo pulled up to a little white story-tale chapel. I really was in the movies at this point as Elvis came swaggering out armed with gui-tar and welcomed us into the chapel.
Was this real? It was like something from The Hangover, not that it had come out by this point of course. The funniest part of the marriage was definitely the vows as Elvis spoke only as Elvis. "Craig, do you promise not to treat Lil like a Hound Dog? Don't Step on her blue suede shoes and do not leave her at the Heartbreak Hotel?" " I promise not to treat her like a Hound Dog......" Yes you can full-well imagine the capers. I don't think I could stop laughing, at one point I did think "Oh its so romantic", and my laughing turned to a slight weep, but then it was back to laughing again. This was just the start of the evening too.
From the Wedding Chapel, we then left for Caesar's Palace. We left the love birds to it whilst we went for a little flutter. $42 up ching ching!
But they soon called us back to play up with them. They had even saved us some of their yummy wedding dinner of lobster in some doggy bags. Clearly being very refined ladies we tucked in there and then...
However it wasn't long before some sub-plot of The Hangover began to start getting recited once more as Lisa, my lovely friend (who's just celebrated her 30th birthday - Happy Birthday and the girl in the middle of the eating pic!!) started to feel a little strange. Her hand started to blow-up, yes, she hadn't realised she had an allergic reaction to the lobster we had eaten. Anyone seen Hitch with Will Smith?? So in amongst the wedding night craziness, Lisa was running around the casino shouting 'Help - I've got anaphalactic shock, Help!' I had no idea whatsoever where I was at this time, but she did eventually find the right medication and she does live to tell the tale. I found myself in LAX nightclub stumbling around meeting some new crazy friends, I'm pretty sure at one point I walked into some sort of S&M party in the club and then got pounced on by our new bride as she gave me a huge smacker on the lips. I wondered where her new husband had vanished as I was sure that's what she was supposed to be doing with him. Maybe he was watching from elsewhere?! The club emptied out, I was, as always, the last person to get removed from the premises (I make this my trademark wherever I may go) and at around 6am I retired to a bar and to pump a huge amount of notes, which I couldn't really see, into a blackjack machine sat on the bar. Stand, hit, oh its all the same really. Needless to say my $42 winnings earlier plus a few hundred more was vamoosh straight into thin air. Love ya Vegas!
Chill Time
So, its been a little while since my last post and my return from EPT Madrid Grand Final. The reason, I have been totally getting my chill on. Over three weeks on the road from EPT San Remo to EPT Grand Final and though it was tons of fun, it was so totally knackering (For all you Non Brits, knackering means tiring.)
So I got home to London and I slept a lot. I have actually played a whole lot of poker too. You may think being surrounded by it constantly whilst working would put me off it, but its just the opposite as whilst I am away I do not have anytime to play it and couldn't wait to get stuck into a few games once I returned home. Obviously the World Series is about to start in Vegas too, so I gave a few online Satellites a whirl in the hope of being reunited with my PokerNews buddies in Vegas. To no avail unfortunately, I need to invest in a little more bankroll, as playing the $1.10 sats in the hope of winning 4 or 5 steps is slightly ridiculous, but, wow wouldn't it have made a great story if I had actually had made Vegas on it!?
So I cannot help but feel slightly jealous of pretty much the whole poker crew in the world except for me being in Vegas right now. I have only been to Vegas once before back in 2008 where 4 days of utter madness did feel like a surreal dream. So thats exactly what I am going to tell you about now. I've talked about my travels very briefly before, but red warning lights should be flashing now, i really am not as prim and proper as maybe I first seem! Travelling independently a lot really does open the mind!
With a few new friends we made in San Francisco haha!
So I had been living out in Australia previous to this story for the past year and had embarked in a fantastic trip on my way back to the UK having travelled all over Australia, New Zealand, a week in Fiji and then some good girlfriends had to come over to meet me in San Francisco to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway to L.A, then down to San Diego and to our final port of call, Las Vegas, before the long flight back to Blighty. This is us girls on the road...
It was utter carnage and I'm sure more of the stories from my travels will emerge as this blog continues (like the time I nearly got murdered on a backstreet in SF) but for now, this is about Vegas. I had been sitting at a late night burger bar on Sunset Boulevard in L.A after 2am with my friend, trying to find somewhere else to hang out. We were slightly bemused by the fact everything shut at 2am and were not ready for bed just yet. 2 strangers walked past us at who we shouted out to. They were drunk too and Australian by the sound of it. They came to sit with us and shared some stories. They were both completely barking mad and we loved them for it. He was a rocker and lead singer in a band with dyed black hair and she was his partner in crime. Lil and Craig were their names and within a few hours of chatting in the burger bar we were new found friends for life. Lil and Craig explained they were getting married in Vegas in 4 days time and us girls simply had to be their bridesmaids.
So 4 days went by and after many arguments, bickering and getting completely lost in the car many a time, we found ourselves in Sin City. The first time you ever go to Las Vegas really is so surreal. We've seen it many times in movies and probably know what we should be expecting, but nothing ever hits us like the first time we actually breathe it all in. We had arrived at our hotel The Luxor and had an hour or two before we had to be at this last minute shot-gun wedding with our crazy new Australian friends. We knew we were about to embark upon a crazy 4 days. You'll have to wait until my next blog to find out why!
Magic in Madrid
So, indeedio from San Remo it was onwards-bound to our next stop of Madrid, Spain. Only thing, we couldn't get a direct flight, oh no, that would be far too simple. From San Remo, we flew to Nice, to fly back to London City for a 4 hour stopover and then to Madrid. Obviously, living in London I really didn't want to spend 4 hours just sat waiting at the airport, so decided I was going to be really romantic and find my boyfriend and see him for perhaps 20 minutes before shooting back to the airport. Well, 20 minutes turned into about 7 minutes as he rushed out of work to find me, I went all a bit clumsy, bleated out some nonsense about what had happened in the last 7 days and then watched him wander off back to his office. Not even anytime for nooky, which deeply tormented me. It was like something from a movie. What made matters even worse, the sun was shining so brightly and the sun never shines in London! Oh well, at least there will be sangria on the other side (that's what I'm talkin' about!) So we boarded our final flight of the day to Madrid and eventually, a few wines down the road, landed and got to the hotel around midnight. It had been an excruciatingly long day, but the next day was free for us to spend how we wished, so being of the 'Night Owl' persona, there was not a way in the world I was letting this Wednesday night out of my grasp. Everyone on the flight I was with was tired and just wanted bed, so I got thinking, I was so eager to get out and see Madrid that night we arrived I would have gone out on my own, but it just so happened I found some of the card dealers from the EPT and it was one of their birthdays, BOOM! It was great to get out and really experience the nightlife of Madrid and one of the guys I was with was originally from Madrid, so all the better that he knew where to take us. There was drinking, drinking, dancing and then a bit more drinking as we left Pacha (yep the club - not quite Ibiza standards but fun nonetheless due to the copious bottles of vodka we had necked) and I must have fallen into my bed around 7am, though I really have no idea... and that was my first night in Madrid. There, of course have been many more since.
A stonking hangover was unfortunately present the first time I met Sarah Grant. I had pre-warned her of this and it perhaps made me a tad more endearing to her, well, I hoped so. I was excited that Sarah had come over from Vegas to help me out with the videos at the Grand Final. Double Trouble, and that's exactly what we have been up until now. We wanted to both get involved in the welcome video to Madrid so were keen to think of something completely stupid we could do in it. A Love Story. Perfect! Here it is....
So we're into Day 3 now at The Grand Final and I finally feel like I am becoming part of this world slowly as poker players from around the world are recognizing me more and actually coming up to speak with me, and I to them, which is great. I still am desperate to play some poker and though in a world where I am surrounded with it, its never possible for me to play. So I look forward to getting back to London in a few days and hitting up The International where I usually play. Its been near enough 3 weeks on the road now and while it has been an amazing time, I have no clean underwear left, so it really is time for Home Sweet Home!!
I've had three phonecalls today, for work once I get back, which has been fantastic. Two of them un-poker related and I shall probably divulge more if and when I take them on. However one was a call to do some commentary over a poker game with Mr Blackbelt Poker, Neil Channing. I have no idea what the game is, but said I would be delighted to be the 'colour' in this equation. I was perhaps more excited by the fact its a job I can do in my tracksuit bottoms and no makeup. Sod it I might even wear my pyjamas just for the sake of it! So I'll be sure to bring you more details on that one and probably the faux-pas falling out of my mouth on the job!
So, back to the grindstone here in Madrid, just two more full days to go and I have no idea who will be taking home the 1st prize of €1.5m but I wish it were me! I'm off to find some horribly greasy food right now which is simply the only answer to the amount of caphirinas I drank with some new Dutch friends last night! In the meantime, here is Sarah and I again, being silly little sausages!
Pizza, Pasta, Poker, SHOES...
So, we touched down for the EPT in San Remo just 4 days ago and to be fair, I've probably only put on about 8kg so far. Yep, the food is simply amazing here. Unfortunatley I had some pretty bad luck the day before I left London, with my flat getting broken into and my laptop and some of my valuables stolen. Highly annoying and costly but luckily I don't dwell on these misdemeanors too much and just get on with it all. Some of my friends say its my own fault living in a part of London (Brixton) that is not well-known for its safer streets, but I love the vibe there. So with no laptop and no credit or debit cards I found myself having to borrow a fair wad of cash from friends to keep me going straight through the 3 weeks I would be away (from San Remo the PokerNews crew heads straight on to Madrid for Grand Final) I'm only 4 days in and my careful spending has bought me a new laptop, 2 pairs of shoes and a dress. Whoops. Its fair to say I'm not even that much of a shopper, but the shops here in Italy are simply to die for. I have to think of different ways to walk back to the hotel from Il Casino di San Remo just so I don't buy any more shoes!
San Remo truly is a beautiful and quaint city, with cobbled streets, authentic, amazing restaurants and scenery to die for. Some of the camera crew and I took a trek up to the top of the city to check out the views; it nearly killed me walking up all the steps with mopeds whizzing past every few moments, but was definitely worth it!
Its the first time I've been to San Remo for an EPT, but I was actually here about 6 years ago, so it brought back some really fond memories. I've spent a lot of my life travelling, either for work or aimlessly searching for excitement in the form of new cities to explore and people to make friends with. It was a theatre tour for kids I was performing in back in 2006 when I first explored San Remo and took hold of its splendour. Never did I know 6 years later I would be back here again! Sad to say, but when I saw the McDonalds in Piazza Colombo, I got a bit too excited 'Oh this is the McDonalds where Nicola and I would sneak out from rehearsals and get our tea!' Got to stick to my tea-drinking roots huh!?
The week so far has been full of fun, food and drink. Obviously whenever we visit a country, we want to experience the culture as fully as possible, so that's why Gloria Balding and I went out to 'research' the best Italian liquors here in San Remo. Not quite sure how its possible for me to pull so many facial expressions within 7 minutes, but hey, taste some grappa, then you'll know!
Today has also been a big day in the media room, well for the handful of Brits here, as it Royal Wedding Day. Being British myself, I of course felt the need to make a video about the wedding and various poker players opinions to it. Its unanimous, they really don't care! To be honest, I wasn't all that bothered about it, until I got here this morning and we started playing the live stream on the computer. Mad Harper had a Union Jack hat and flag draped round her and the pride rubbed off on me as before we both knew it we were sat there watching Kate walk the aisle with her father, both of us with tears in our eyes!! Dear oh dear, I hear you cry, well don't worry, we are over it now and in full swing with Day 2 at EPT San Remo. Carter Philips has just taken over the chiplead with 360,000 chips (for those that needed a poker hit quick after all that Royal Wedding chat). However, for those with just a teensy piece of sentimentality in their bones, here's the royal wedding video!
A few more days here in San Remo to see our brand new EPT Winner crowned and then its straight off to Madrid. I've never been to Madrid before, but I love tapas almost as much as pizza, so it can't be all bad. Here's hoping I get thrown in front of a bull with a red cloth at some point in the middle of the Grand Final too!
Life as a PokerNews Hostess!
So this is my first blog as a brand new PokerNews girl. Although I say new, I feel I'm getting well into the zone now after covering EPT Snowfest, EPT Berlin and The Big Game Live. Its surprising how daunting the whole scenario was at first for me; the hours I spent trying to memorise poker player's faces and say totally unpronouncable Scandinavian names, watching hours on end of PokerNews Videos thinking 'But... I'm never gonna be as good as Gloria or Lynn'. Though the lead up was indeed tough and nerve-racking to a certain extent, I hope to be en-route to mastering my own technique of making videos fun and educational at the same time.
EPT Snowfest was such a great place to start; fun in the beautiful snowy alps with mornings free to ski, snowboard or just take a jacuzzi at the hotel, which I have to say suited me down to the ground! Here's the very first video I made for PokerNews:
As the players began to trickle in throughout Days 1a and 1b, I listened, I observed and I took note of Gloria Balding, aka The Master. By Day 3, I felt so much more confident with my videos and I felt it was easy to see this in my style. I still cannot believe how lucky I am to have been given my dream job, combining poker, presenting and travelling. Lynn Gilmartin sure was right with her philosphy in her initials, Life really is Good. To top the event off in Austria I decided to organise a group trip paragliding, we went off the morning of the Final Table day, which proved absolutely hilarious, exhilirating and beautiful. And to end the day, young Russian Vladimir Geshkenbein took the EPT Snowfest title. If you want to take a look at the whole week for me in a recap, here's the video!
Just last week, I was asked rather spontaneously to cover The Big Game Live up at the Dusk Til Dawn Casino in Nottingham, UK. We were all rather perplexed to the whole event, as a 48 Hour Cash Game, being live-streamed for the first ever time at www.pokernews.com it was something completely new and innovative, so of course we were nervous, but also very excited. I was even a little star-struck at first as there were some really big names playing this event including Jennifer Tilly, my boss Tony G, Devilfish and David 'Viffer' Peat. As soon as I got there, the atmosphere was buzzing and I knew instantaneously it was going to be one hell of a weekend. The first day I stayed up 24 hours and didn't get to bed until 9.30am, which some of you may think crazy, but it was Jen Tilly and Sam Trickett who kept playing for 30 hours and Luke 'FullFlush' Schwartz who endured for almost 40 hours. Definitely endurance is one characteristic needed in this poker world! I waited up for one reason and one reason only, just so I could see Tony G ride into the casino on his bike! I was indeed nervous to meet Tony G at first, but as I had been introduced to his 'dolls' prior to actually meeting him, I felt a little at ease and was pleasantly surprised when I finally met him by his very dry humour and comical outlook on life!
The Big Game Live ended being a hugely successful event, with thousands of viewers logging onto PokerNews to check out the live stream and vote off the players whether or not they seem to be keeping hold of their chips. There was one hand in the tournament in particular that was so exciting to watch. I won't give it away too much, but just take a look at the look on Martins Adeniya's face and it says it all.
After this hand, Tony G just seemed to sky rocket and ended up unanimously the Event's clear winner as he made a profit of almost £150k. An amount I am still finding it hard to get to grips with after around 20 hours of work. Some of the others weren't quite so lucky, but I'm sure as Arnie said, they will be back.
After the success of the live streaming and interactivity of viewers at The Big Game Live, I really feel this is something we will see a lot more of at poker events in the future. The future is changing and evolving in terms of this technology and it really is something to embrace with open arms. I also made a video about the 'Behind the Scenes' which shows just how clever all this emerging new technology is, so take a look!
And now for me, its pack my bags time again. This time I'm bringing lots of elasticated-waist dresses. Why you may ask? Its EPT San Remo! Pizza and Poker time in Italy and I cannot wait!!
