Running Like Obama

The last time I made a blog post, two months ago, I wrote about the recent passing of my Dad. In the days and weeks after I was incredibly grateful and moved by the ton of condolences I received on here, Twitter and Facebook. I’d just like to thank each and every one that contacted me – even if it was just a quick message – because thoughts like these are incredibly helpful during the grieving process. So thank you.

Since then life has got back to normal, as it usually does. To start with we went to the south of France (Aix-et-Provence) for the wedding of one of Hattie’s friends. It was in such an amazing setting that I’m not sure these pictures fully do it justice.

An oasis of calm as the ceilidh storm surrounds me. 

The front of the Bastide where the wedding took place. 

Being in France, the food was typically amazing. There was all sorts of food madness happening, with chefs at individual BBQs creating mini steaks, foie gras, prawns and tons more before we moved onto the formal dinner. Obviously this was awesome too. And then came the dessert buffet – at which point there was a strong possibility Hattie was going to collapse from happiness. Smoothies, profiteroles, crème brulee, ice cream, crepe suzette…= FAT ROSS. 

There was also a free bar obviously and the combination of beer, champagne, wine and a spirit that the barman couldn’t even identify led to a painful day after. Hats, two of her friends and I then spent a week in a house near Nice which was pretty cool too – the highlight being a day trip to St Tropez, where I one day wish to own a super yacht and drive round the harbour honking my horn.

Hattie discovering the dessert buffet. 

Speaking of super yachts (it’s seamless), poker is going exceptionally well this month. I’m playing pretty good but my God I’m running well too. Literally winning every flip. Always having Aces when they have Kings. It’s a beautiful thing. I know there’s a small chance that putting this news down on paper will magically reverse the process but let’s hope not. As of the 19^th I’m up about $10k in online cash games so far and even won a little live tournament last week for £4,000. This good run simply reminds me of just how large a part variance can play in poker. As I wrote in the blog I went on a 3-4 month losing/break-even stretch recently too. I’d certainly say I’m playing a little better right now but I’m still effectively the same player, yet my results are radically different. Despite being a pretty experienced player now variance still has the ability to shock and confuse me – I’m pretty sure many players new to the game will have no idea of what is about to hit them one day…

Results so far this month.

The tournament I won was cool. It was a little £220 Heads-Up side event at the recent Unibet Open in London. Basically a series of mid-paced HU sit-and-gos we played a mini league of five matches each – it had 44 runners – then a semi and a final. I won all 8 games in a row. It definitely helped that I’ve played a lot of HU online, mainly when trying to start 6-max games, and I felt pretty comfortable throughout. Walking through Stratford waiting for a cab with £4k bulging out of my pocket wasn’t the ideal ending to the night but I got away with it. I also played UKIPT Newcastle a few weeks before and was doing pretty good until I ran Kings into Aces four hours into Day Two. I’m not complaining though. As usual, a fantastically run tournament and I’m looking forward to the next one in Bristol.

I’ve been reading about Mitt Romney’s ginormous amount of idiocy with huge glee and delight too. After doing American Studies at uni (and even before that) I’ve had a huge fascination with America and an interest in its politics. While he’s not done a perfect job I really think that Obama needs to get elected for a second term or the world will be in trouble. Every day that goes by with Romney making another major fuck-up only reinforces this. This year I’m more invested than usual because I stuck £1,000 on Obama to win the election on Betfair. I wouldn’t usually bet that much but the price they were offering – 1.53 – was just hugely inflated. He’s now down to 1.36 and for the first time ever in my betting life I feel like I’m beating the game. Now, Barack just needs to avoid any gay dwarf sex scandals and we should be OK…

STAY AWAY FROM BARACK!!!

Finally, I’ve decided that it is time to leave Black Belt Poker as a sponsored pro. Neil Channing, Snoopy and everyone at the site have been fantastic in the year I have been associated with them and it’s purely a personal decision. I was just finding that with my journalism commitments (PokerPlayer magazine FTW!) and usual large amount of online grinding I was getting quite stressed retaining my Blue Belt status, and that this was impacting on my general level of play all round. It’s been a huge privilege to wear their badge, get invited to some unique events such as a charity tournament at The Ritz and meet great guys like Jamie Burland and Kevin Williams along the way. While unfortunately I didn’t get any results under the BBP banner it’s been a great experience and I’d hugely recommend it to any other pro player looking to play more live tournaments.

Here are some final thoughts which I will leave you with without any justification at all. Just believe me.

-Barrafina is the best restaurant in London. GO.
-The Imposter documentary was excellent.
-Hattie’s BBC3 documentary Tourettes: Let Me Entertain You has been airing this month. Catch up with it on iPlayer, it’s fantastic.
-Anderson Silva vs Stephan Bonnar is ridiculous but also very fun.
-Baskin Robbins sucks.
-Don’t eat a key lime pie, home-made white chocolate mousse and a series of croissants in the days before playing squash. It won’t end well.

Good luck at the tables everyone!