New Blog: The Writer

My writing itch is back with a vengeance; I've some extremely exciting articles on the horizon.

To begin though I really want to talk about the changes at PokerIdol. OnGame as a network has continued to flourish recently, if we look at the current graph:

And compare it to the last one I published just over a month ago we can see the bigger numbers are nicely evening out. Fishies here to stay! So onto PokerIdol. As you might of seen, we did the 'soft' launch of the new site. In the coming weeks we'll be launching 6 exclusive leaderboards giving everyone a chance to win something:

So now it's not just the grinders who get rewarded from the site (but of course the Experience and Activity leaderboards are perfect for you) but everyone! My favourite is the Guts leaderboard which rewards the biggest gambler. I'll probably win that one at some point.

Tons of cool stuff coming up in December including:

• 6 Exclusive Leaderboards with over $15,000 in prizes

• $14,000 in Freerolls, including 2 GSOP Live Bucharest Pages

• $19,000 of packages added to three GSOP Bucharest satellites

• Daily Xmas Present Giveaway throughout December

• Form a team and you and two friends could be jetting of to Vegas

So if you have some time off over Christmas and are looking for someone where play, look no further than PokerIdol. As always if you're interested to talk about a site please drop me an email (chris@pokeridol.com).

Have had one game of poker since my last blog, I went to play the £30 Freezeout at my local Maxims, my first ever real poker venue. Hard to believe it was 5 years ago I stepped in there with a work colleague to experience something bigger than our home game. I remember as soon as I entered the casino this was where I belonged, going back to the music studio just wasn't the same.

There used to be a dedicated poker room but this has been replaced with 24 hour slots, with the poker tabels now taking up the space of unused roulette tables. No problems though as the venue is quiet during the week. Structure was quick and standard of play was bad, but also the standard of opponent. I must admit with my recent forays into slightly bigger events, I've gotten used to a more professional attitude. Here was the loud, boisterous, drunken idiots I used to play with week in week out.

Still, I managed a 4th for a few squid but really didn't enjoy myself. Perhaps I'm becoming more of a poker snob, but the drunken know it alls really tilt me these days. So that's a 1st, 7th and 4th in my last 3 tournaments. My next is tomorrow night at the Full House, so hoping my run continues! Playing the absolute best poker I've ever played right now, just wish I had time to play more.

Spent a couple of days in London last week as Daniel, the PokerIdol Marketing Manager, came over for some meetings. Was great seeing him again as it's been a few months and me, him and Nigel did a little travelling round London, hitting the Empire, International and G Casino Leceister Square. Also met up with the Ukash guys again, great lads!

So back to the writing. I've been having more and more fun writing my blog recently and have been thinking of other things to write. After being in the Empire last week it bought back a lot of memories as my time as an agent. I think I could write three really exciting articles about those times. Some previews being: crashing Paris Hiltons boat party in Cannes with Jamie Gold, getting drunk with Layne Flack and Scotty Nguyen and battling Harrahs restrictions at the WSOPE final table. Who'd want to read about that?

I'm also trying to arrange a couple of interviews which will give the inside word on the recent big games in Macau plus some insight into playing Dwan, Isildur and others online. I know I'd want to read about those things!

Other life stuff is going well at the moment, mainly spending a decent amount of time with Anna which really helps balance things. She's definitely one of the best things to happen to me in a long time (ahhhh I hear you say). We recently went out with some friends to a local restaurant called Giraffe which was pretty crap. Usual chain restaurant which cost about £40 per head. At the Empire we had a cracking three course meal with one of the best stakes I've had in a while for just £15, so the standard has definitely been set high. Here is us just before we went out:

How beautiful is she? We also went to see 'Due Date' which had some funny moments, but was pretty much as I expected; a ridiculously manufactured comedy.

Watched 'Restrepo' last night which was a bit of a letdown really, I know they risk being killed but I wish the cameramen got into the action more! There's a Dutch Afghanistan documentary coming out soon, so look forward to seeing that as it's supposed to be pretty brutal.

Sad news that Leslie Neilson died, I always loved his films especially the Naked Gun series, always able to crack me up.

Tonight am off to play Bingo at one of those large chain venues for my Nan's birthday! Wondering whether to wear a PokerIdol patch hehe, but would probably get kicked out. Other than that just more work grind.

Will leave you with some beautiful music and thanks again for reading.