Laura Cornelius
Life on the Road
EPT Grand Final Travel Diary
Monaco: The second smallest country in the world (behind Vatican City) and a hub for the rich and famous. It is glitzy, full of glamour and very apt for the 2012 PokerStars and Monte Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final. Season 8 was about to come to an end and we were going to do it in style.
Having come straight from Berlin to Monaco, I was already fighting the fatigue, but to arrive in this Billionaire’s Playground, the sun shining, the sky blue and the Mediterranean glistening a beautiful turquoise, I woke up again. Taking a stroll around the famous Princess Grace Avenue and becoming lost on winding pieces of Grand Prix track, I was made fully aware how beautiful this tiny municipality was. It’s the only place I have been to where instead of getting woken up by a cleaning lady hoovering out in the corridor or banging on my door, I was woken instantaneously by the whirr of a Ferrari engine. Morning, noon and night, all I could hear was fast cars, sounds of laughter, champagne pouring and wads full of money being flashed about. This place wasn’t cheap, but having explored the streets for 2 days before the tournament got underway, I was learning how to economize in a place built for multi-millionaires.
Everywhere we walked, there were signs of the preparation for the Formula One Grand Prix taking place in just a few weeks time. I would have loved to have been in Monaco for this, but we knew having the EPT Grand Final and the F1 Grand Prix at the same time might have been a recipe for disaster in terms of the amount of people in this tiny country. We arrived in Monaco for the poker just the day after the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tennis took place as well, so I was hoping for a surprise soiree with Raphael Nadal who took it down (unsurprisingly) but it was not to be. I did however meet Djokovich’s economist in the pool doing some lengths at Le Meridien Beach Plaza, who was full of surprisingly interesting conversation and we swapped poker gossip for tennis chat, which pleased me no end.
Here is our sightseeing tour video for Monaco. Please note, obviously as I stated previously Ferraris are everywhere here, but when we are waiting for one to feature in our video, does it want to arrive? The answer is no, but waiting for it did help my tan to progress a lot:
The Grand Final began with the €100,000 Super High Roller event, which to me is an insane amount of money; I still can’t quite get my head around it. Nonetheless, there were still 38 entrants and a total of 45 registrations as players did have a choice to re-register if they lost all their chips at the beginning. This created a prizepool of €4,432,500 and it was just as good Justin Bonomo did decide to re-register when he bust out, because he went on to win the event for €1,640,000. Not bad for 3 days work.
The main event had already got underway by the time Justin had shone in the glory of taking down the Super High Roller title. Play moved pretty quickly through the first few days and we saw a total of 665 players take their seats, creating a prizepool of €6.65m and a first place prize of €1.35m. 5 Team PokerStars Pros made the money, including Max Martinez (Italy) for €15,000, Angel Guillen (Mexico) and Sandra Naujoks (Germany) for €20,000, and Richard Toth (Hungary) and Matthias De Meulder (Belgium) for €30,000. Yet 34th was to be the best place for our Team Pros. Justin Bonomo had also made the money, after not feeling completely satisfied by his win of €1,640,000 in the Super High Roller; he also cashed for €35,000 in 28th place. Yet, it was Mohsin Charania who eventually took the EPT Grand Final down. He was heads-up against French mademoiselle and well-known online player (known as SoMuchB online), Lucille Cailly, who was the only lady to have ever made a final table at the Grand Final. She played superbly with a huge amount of aggression, but Charania just had the edge in the action of a very fast-paced final table.
Now, because this was The Grand Final, things just didn’t end once the winner of the main event had been announced. There was still the €25,000 Hi-Roller, Tournament of Champions and the EPT Awards and party to contend with. (I told you we were going to go out with a bang!) To say Justin Bonomo was running-good was an understatement. He wins the Super Hi-Roller, cashes in the main and now suddenly becomes chipleader going into the final table of the €25,000 Hi Roller. He didn’t eventually win it, but he still made 4th place for another €266,000. Madness. We left it to Daniel Negreanu and Igor Kurganov to battle it out for the €1,080,000 first prize, yet it was Kurganov who eventually took this one down, though we could tell Daniel really wanted his first EPT title. There was always the party, which we of course saw him at partying away until the wee small hours of the morning. As I prepared for the EPT Awards and my final night in the Billionaire’s Playground, Christophe Benzimra was busy winning the Tournament of Champions (with EPT Loutraki Champ Zimnan Ziyard coming 2nd and EPT Deauville Champ Jake Cody in 3rd) netting themselves a huge amount of buy-ins for Season 9 on the EPT.
Head over to the www.pokerstars.tv homepage to see the EPT Awards and Party, which show some of the winners for Player of the Year, Online Qualifier of the Year, Player’s Choice, Achievement of the Year and Country of the Year. No doubt about it, Season 8 and all its 13 stops had been a whirlwind of poker, travel and fun explorations, but we have even more hope and anticipation for Season 9 on the greatest poker tour of them all, the EPT.
EPT Berlin Travel Diary
I adore Berlin. It has such an edge of coolness about it I was so excited to return there for the penultimate EPT of the season. Having a good friend living there also helped me to enjoy the experience much more. Before the main event kicked off, I went out to celebrate my German friend’s birthday and get to know the Berlin way of life a little better than I had done before. It was a Sunday night and apparently the best night of the week to go out (that was a statement from a Berliner, so its pretty concrete.) We started in a Swiss restaurant called ‘Helvetia’ in Kreuzberg where we ate a cheese fondue. It was insanely tasty and cheap. In fact, I wasn’t really looking forward to it so much, I mean, how can a bit of bread and cheese be that great? But trust me, it was. I couldn’t stop dunking my bread into the hot runny cheese sauce. Just thinking about it now is making my mouth salivate, so really, if you come to Berlin, you must try and find Helvetia of you like cheese. The address is Mariannenstrasse 50, 10997 Berlin. Go. Go. Go! After stuffing ourselves silly, we went out for a few more drinks and the others carried on to a club a little later, but having day 1a the next day, I thought I better go with the sensible option and opt for an early night, well 2am.
The day before we had also gone out to explore the city and all its history. There was of course a lot of history and I always loved coming to look at some of the old pieces of the Berlin wall that were still visible for the world to see. We had never visited the TV tower before, so felt we should take in the whole experience and see Berlin from up in the clouds and from a 360o view. There’s no need for you to do the same though, as it’s all here for you to take a look in the welcome video!
We knew Berlin was going to be a huge field right before the Grand Final and we weren’t wrong. We played 10 levels on both day 1a and 1b, which was pretty unheard of. Yet, it meant our total field of 750 players had been reduced to 102 by the end of Day 2, so ultimately it was a good thing. Many Team PokerStars Pros had gathered at the felt to try and conquer EPT Berlin, but it was not to be. German Team Pro Jan Heitmann made it the furthest by coming 29th and taking home €17,500. It was such a pleasure to see Jan as well because he was such a great person and didn’t frequent all the tour stops. In fact, I think it had been a whole year since I had seen him at last EPT Berlin. He was willing to get involved and make my videos fun, including making a rather silly video, which showed off his piano talents a lot more than mine.
As we got closer to the final table, although no Team Pros remained, we did have the chance of a Double Crown Champion as former EPT Berlin Champion Kevin Macphee, EPT Copenhagen Champion Anton Wigg and EPT Snowfest Champion Vladimir Geshkenbein all still remained in the final 19 players. However this hope was also short-lived, as Macphee bust in 19th, Wigg in 14th and Geshkenbein in 10th, even though the Russian did have his lucky monkey looking after his chips and his token alcoholic beverage next to him.
However, the final table was still an exciting one, with Canadian Andrew Chen and Belgian Davidi Kitai being the two players with most notable performance history and indeed making it to heads-up. Kitai held the chiplead for most of the day though it did pass to Chen a few times once the players had reduced. It was not a particularly long heads-up battle either, which was great seeing as our video team had to leave Berlin at 5am to get to Monaco (with a 4 hour stopover in Dusseldorf – its not all glamour!!) Davidi Kitai had become the first ever Belgian EPT Champion and the Belgians were having a great run recently for sure. He spoke to Lynn and I after play and here is the interview he did with Lynn:
So onward bound to Monaco, with no break in between Berlin and The Grand Final. I had my bags packed full of food as I had heard it was a little pricey in this glamorous principality. I just hoped it didn’t all fall out on the flight and smother my dresses! Until next time, auf wiedersen!
EPT Campione Travel Diary
I had been to Lake Como once a few years back and was absolutely mesmerized by it, so to find out Campione was close by and a similar setting to Como (perched on the shore of Lake Lugano) excited me very much. It really did not disappoint either. I met Mantyvdas, my Lithuanian cameraman at the airport in Milan and from there we took an hour cab to Campione, through winding roads and picturesque scenery. One moment we were in Italy and then the next, we found ourselves in Switzerland. I was confused at first with what country we were actually in and what language we should speak, but after a little investigation work, it became clear Campione, although in Switzerland was an Italian territory and was definitely much more Italian than Swiss. Thank god, I thought as my preference for Italian food was way higher than Swiss. Yep, I’m always thinking about food. A view of the lake:
I woke early the next morning as the sun streamed through the curtains. As I pulled them back I stood in awe of the beautiful view of Lake Lugano from my window. It was absolutely breathtaking and I couldn’t wait to get out and explore. A little more investigation work down the line and I discovered that actually 68% of the lake was in Switzerland, while the remainder in Italy. That could only express the immensity of this stretch of water. Little sailing boats glided peacefully along and a few older people were spotted out walking their canine pooches, though it was surprisingly quiet out and about. It was such a tranquil setting though, quiet and peaceful was just as it should have been. Luckily we took our video camera:
It was decided that EPT Campione would have 2pm starts, instead of our usual 12pm, which suited me down to the ground (and more than likely the players as they are never of the variety to rise early!) I had brought my tennis racket with me as I had just started to pick up the hobby from years back, so one morning it was great to get out and play before the tournament started and the clay courts were literally right next to the lake. I had never played with such beautiful scenery next to me. Needless to say I didn’t win, but I picked up some great tan! The weather was sublime every day and I do bring a little golden glimmer back to London town. One tip I must offer though, if you are thinking of making it out to Campione in the future, try not to ever get a taxi, they are the most expensive taxis probably in the world! There is a little bus that goes back and forth from Capione to Lake Lugano which costs a few euros and it is much more economical!
As always many Team PokerStars Pros joined us for this Italian leg of the tour, the majority taking part of Day 1b. As we were approaching the end of Season 8 too the race for points for EPT Player of the Year was also hotting up, with just a few hundred points separating Czech player Ondrej Vinklarek and the notorious welshman Roberto Romanello. I took to the tournament floor to find out who our pros thought should be EPT Player of the Year and the majority said Steve O'Dwyer who is currently in 3rd place, but we'll have to wait until the end of Season 8 to find out who wins.
By Day 4, no Team PokerStars Pros remained, Liv Boeree having made it the furthest with a 51st place finish and cash for €9,000. Yet still we had an interesting field of players with a lot of playing experience including the likes of Fabrice Soulier, Per Linde and David Vamplew. We had all just escaped our hangovers by this time too as the EPT Players party was on the evening of Day 2 and on a boat. Yes! A boat! This is the view of the casino once the boat set sail (or turned the engine on).
As the final table emerged it became clear we had a great line up with a lot of experience and all players from different countries, which was interesting really seeing as 42% of the field were Italian. The final table was no breeze and 4 handed play seemed to last a lifetime as the big stack went to the short stack and then kept doubling up. It was not until 4am that the end was nigh and Jannick Wrang became the third consecutive Dane to win an EPT. Mickey Petersen took down EPT Copenhagen; Frederik Jensen had Madrid under his belt and now Wrang had Campione in the bag. He was extremely happy to have beaten American pro Olivier Busquet heads-up, for Busquet had the reputation as one of the best heads-up players in the world. Wrang had also qualified online on pokerstars.com in a €109 rebuy satellite, claiming his €640,000 first place win had initially only cost him €309. Not a bad profit! Here is Jannick Wrang shortly after winning:
Just around 2 weeks back at home in London, time to un-pack the bags, put the washing on, catch up with some car-crash telly, see my friends and then its back on the road to Berlin for a 3 week trip covering back to back EPTs for the end of the season. Bring. It. On.
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 
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!!
