making the most of your day off

i did well on friday as i managed to cram lots into my day off. i experimented this week with staying up when i got home from work on thursday. i got a bit of tidying done and watched a bit of telly. i then had an afternoon nap before going to play pub poker. i came 2nd out of 30 which was ok (but i would've liked the prize money). when i got back, i was a bit drunk and tired so i managed to get an early night.

i managed to get up early on friday and i felt quite well rested, i went and joined the gym (i just need to make sure i go now). i then decided to go to borough market and have a look round as it was a nice day. i had possibly the best fish and chips i've ever had, really good batter, mmmmmmm. anyway, had a good look round, tasted some cheese, had a look at vinopolis (i think i might go wine tasting there in the future) i love borough market, it'll be nice to go down towards christmas time and get some treats.



after the market i had a walk by the river and went to have a look in the turbine hall at the new exibit. i'm not sure exactly what its supposed to be but i think it had something to do with immigration. there were lots of makeshift bunk beds with paperbacks in foreign languages (oh, and a big spider type creation complete with egg sac)

i finished my day with a game of poker as gary was supposed to be playing at the vic. i played in the £30 freezout but only lasted and hour and a half. i thought i played quite well but i got rivered with a pair of 9s and a pair of kings. if things had gone the other way i would've had a monster chip stack.

so, the end of the day, i went home a loser but cheered myself up when i got home by having a platter of parma ham and aged parmesan with a bottle of champagne whilst watching wanted on dvd.


a happy end to a good day

coming out from the shadows of the world series

so i went in to work on thursday expecting a night of dealing cash games and found out as i went in that i was going to deal the final table of the main event of the world series of poker europe (WSOPE). i wasn't sure whether to be happy or extremely nervous. i watched rob for an hour and then dealt for my first hour at 9pm. i was shitting myself as there was loads of cameras and people watching. my hands were clammy and i got the shakes a little bit. the actual dealing was fairly easy as all the players were playing very conservatively and Jack (the TD) was doing commentary and announcing everything i had to do. the thing that made it hard was the fact that i was so petrified of fucking up and i became paranoid that i would make a stupid mistake like forgetting to move the button.

anyway, during my first hour there was a couple of big hands and 2 players (including daniel negranu) were knocked out leaving only 3 in the tournament at 10.30pm. i thought it would be all over in another couple of hours but to my surprise it was 3am by the time we got down to the final 2 when some bloke that's also on the final table for the main event in vegas got knocked out.

so then there was 2 .... the final 2 were john juanda and stanislav alekhin. juanda was nice and chatty and is quite well known. the other guy was russian and reminded me a bit of ivan drago. rob really wanted to deal the final hand and i quite wanted him to to it as he was so keen but he dealt his hour and next it was my turn. i expected it to end during my stint but despite 2 called all-ins i couldn't finish it off. rob was up again next and he came close to ending it but stanislav hit trips on the turn. by this stage everyone was getting tired and wanted to get home, it was 6am which is just too late to be playing poker.

we came close to it all ending a few more times but it was ultimately 11am before John Juanda won the £860,000 first prize with quad 6s. i got to deal the final hand which i was quite happy about as it's a good story to tell down the pub

tired and fed up

Well I'm now officially fed up to the back teeth of poker. I've done nothing but deal the fucking game for 2 weeks. I've been working really long hours and I haven't been sleeping very well. It started oof as good fun but the novelty of famous players and TV camera's soon wears off and it's a long bloody grind. I've found most of the players to be amazingly arrogant and very flippant about the opportunity to play for such huge prize money (probably because they have their buy-in paid for them). I don't think it's any cooincidence that most of the big names went out of the main event today, perhaps the young internet pros are just hungrier. Anyway we're supposed to have a night out on Friday to thank us for our hard work. I'll have to get really pissed to make up for all the hardship I've gone through.

My only enjoyment recently has been James' wedding at the weekend. It was really nice to be invited, the food was great and I saw Pete for what must be the first time in about 8 years. Dobber and Tom were there as well and it was a right good do. The hotel cost £150 for 2 nights and was a bit shit. Surely staying in a hotel you should be able to get a pint past 11 o clock. The cost of the hotel was offset by the fact that I won 5o notes playing poker on the first night and the booze was free at the wedding.

Pete was best man and I think he did a good job of the speech although I think he was quite nervous. This wasn't helped by James' brother introducing him as the funniest man on the planet. Pete went even more pink than usual.

Anyway, back for more poker tomorrow. Roll on Thursday.

Omaha ha ha

first day of the omaha today, just glad that HORSE is over as it was doing my head in a bit. i thought i did ok but it was really hard work. Omaha is all about good maths so it's more of my forte really. it does take a lot of concentration as you need to keep track of how much is in the pot at all times. i've dealt to some quite glamorous tables in the last couple of days but i'd say the novelty of dealing to famous poker players has definitely worn off. got jame's wedding at the weekend which should be a welcome diversion as long as i don't fall asleep through exhaustion.

in the omaha jason mercier is chip leader and he is my current tip for the top

my kingdom for a H.O.R.S.E

Bloody hell I'm knackered, all these 14 hour shifts are doing me in. I've hardly had a break all day and been dealing a game that I've never really dealt before. Just to add to the pressure I've been dealing to the pro's including Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Patrick Antonius and others. I made the odd mistake but nothing catastrophic.

It was just so mentally draining. I finished at about 2.45am and went straight to Burger King to give me enough energy to get home.

I'd love to write about something other than poker but poker is my entire life at the moment. I dream of a time when that will not be the case (in about 2 weeks)

uneasy like Sunday morning

Just woken up after a solid 5 hours sleep. Today is the 3rd day of the poker and I'm already shattered. I'm not really a morning person so being out of bed at 10am is a bit alien to me. The poker is going quite well, the casino looks dead showbiz and I've dealt to a lot of the world's best players. I suppose it is quite exciting and i enjoy it when there's a big hand with people that I recognise. Today is the last day of the £1,500, Adam Junglen is chip leader with Daniel Negraneu in 2nd. It would have been nice to see one of the regulars from our casino do well but they're all out of it now. I wish i could enter as it would be good to pit your skills against the best but at the moment I'll have to make do with the £3 freezeout at the pub across the road.

Rovers won yesterday. 1-0 against Fulham so the start of the season hasn't been a complete dead loss.

Woken up with a headache

Man I feel like shit.

First day of the World Series of Poker today with the £1,500 hold em event. As it was my last night of freedom I drank a bit last night at pub poker across the road so now I have a stinking headache. In my infinite widom I started playing in a $10 rebuy tournament online at about 1am. I instantly started doing quite well so I couldn't go to bed and ended up still playing at 4am. I then managed to lose all my chips in 2 hands (pair of 10s vs pair of jacks) and go out 2 places before the prize money so my 3 hours of play was a complete waste of time.

I feel quite foolish because I should've got some sleep in preparation for 7 days of criminally long and early shifts.

Anyway, I'm Sam.
This is my blog.
I work at The Casino at the Empire. Dealing mainly poker but a bit of roulette and blackjack as well.

I'm mainly writing this because if I make a record of what I do then it might encourage me to do more interesting things, so I can write about them.

Going to go and have a bath now because I stink.

Love Sam