Firstly, the new job is going brilliantly, I couldn't be happier. The last few years have been a grind, but it's definitely paid off. A combination of more sensible hours, less pressure and having an actual team to work with has completely lightened my mood. Following on from the last blog, we ended up moving to the new office and it's excellent.
You might of seen it when travelling up the M4, one of the towers at Chiswick roundabout with the 'Missions Logo'. That's us! (well, on the second floor, on those 4 tables). Much more relaxing, comfortable, accessible, productive, just great. For me anyway. Couple of the guys now have to travel through London, which is always a nightmare.
For me I decided not to move into London straight away. I instead moved into a new house closer to the M4 in Reading, in a new development called 'Kennet Island', a stones throw for Madjeski Stadium. While some rough areas are only a 5 min drive away, being in a new build is super surreal! I got the master room (ensuite) for £475 all inclusive. Find that in London! Oh, the house has a bar too:
And our local is the luscious new Hilton Hotel, where we get 20% discount for being residents of Kennet Island. MBN2BME!!
London Live was a great success. We sold the event out at 400 runners, then sold it out again at 414. Throughout the whole thing I really wanted to play, but was doing my first stint a live blogger. Not something I'd really want to do again, I was fucking EXHAUSTED after the first day. I mean I was completely dehydrated. Luckily for me I had a half shift on day 1B and the Sunday I covered the 3 tables of High Roller event. Much easier! It was fun to watch some great players splashing chips around in a bit of a crapshoot. 3 tables went to 1 in a few hours and the FT didn't last long as it was chopped 5 ways! Thanks to all who attended. Hard to believe a handful of guys organised such a successful event, making live poker clubs/promoters jealous the world over! (smug alert).
For those who still haven't looked at Black Belt Poker properly, what are you waiting for! The first level after depositing, Orange Belt, has recently been revamped. There are now 4 exclusive Orange Belt Freerolls, awarding Merchandise, season tickets to our League, Academy Tickets and free stakes in our Black or Brown Belts. Incredible value! Oh, and if you work up to Black Belt, you can $10,000 a month to play the circuit. Pretty sick too.
With the more sensible hours I'm now leading, I've been able to play quite a bit of poker. Still nothing like the olden days (I would play live 4/5 days a week and grind 4+ hours a day online), but at least once or twice a week. To put that im perspective, I think I've played more this year than 2009/10 put together. Most of my sessions have been playing cash at either KC in Swindon or the Western. Results have been good, winning 7 our of my last 10 sessions. I have played a few fun tournaments though!
Black Belt sponsored a charity event called Villas 4 Vets, a charity set up and run by 2 Afghanistan soldiers. Sadly the turnout wasn't great, so I ended up going along to play. We were 7 handed and amongst the lineup was Black Belt Poker's Nik Persaud and UK superstar Toby Lewis! Toby had position on me and it was the first time I'd played against one of these young guns. Of course it was a turbo SnG, so I couldn't experience it too much, but what I was able to do was call down a little lighter than normal, confident he would C-Bet he double barrel a fish like me. I ended up getting heads up with one of the young war heroes and ended it there, giving him the prizes. Very humbling meeting this guy, 5 years younger than me, already done so much more.
I also went to play the £50 Deepstack at KC and ended up chopping it heads up! I played probably the best poker I've played in a tournament, playing a super duper aggressive LAG style and confidently so, winning so many uncontested pots. Ah, to remember the days of being a poor student, when I'd literally fold my way into the money, 1st place or go home now baby! There was however an 'incident'. A quiet, grumpyish older guy was sat at the table. I'd played him at cash before and he is basically a huge station, but nice enough. We even had a chat about his the work he does earlier in the evening.
As I said, I'd been playing super laggy. We were down to the FT bubble and playing 5 handed. With nearly 1/3 the chips at the table, I raised the button with 4c2c. He shoved from the BB, something he'd done a few times over my opening raise. I asked for a mandatory count just so I didn't look too weak, but found out I was getting 2/1 on a call. In a gambling mood, and with tons of chips (losing pot wouldn't make a difference), this was more than decent enough to call! I flipped my cards and he looked at me in total disgust. He only had QJo.
The window card was a 4, then a Q, then a 2! another 4 on the turn finished the hand and without thinking about it I put my hand over and said 'unlucky mate' (very genuinely). Noticing he didn't shake it I looked up and he called me a 'fucking prick' !!! I was super shocked, asking 'did you just call me a prick?' and he was like yeah, what you gonna do about it? He walked round the table and looked like he was gonna smack me. People quickly intervened and he left. I was in total shock, I don't even think I would of retaliated (the Uxbridge boys were there to back me up!), we're there for a friendly game, why be like that? Spoiled it a little bit, but taking it down for £64o made up for it. Obligatory pic of me stacking the chips (forward tower ftw):
I had a fun night at the Western a few weeks back too. I was playing (and busting) the evening tournament and saw that Sammy 'any two' George had come in. I went to get some chips for the cash game and heard Sammy shout 'find someone to play me heads up!'. I didn't even think about it before he added '...for £50!'. Go on then.
It was fun. He was quite animated, but also humble. Heck, you'd have to be to go from playing millions dollar pots with Tom Dwan to stressing over a £12 call against me! We played two £50 Freezeouts, I won the first, he won the second, after calling my 99 3-bet with 73ss and flopping quad 3's :).
I also won one of the Black Belt Poker league games, it was great fun! I'm not playing the rest of the games so the top spots are wide open. Winners get a % share in either Neil Channing, Sam Razavi or Richard Ashby in the WSOP ME, amazing prize. Here's my write up with a few interesting stories involving Jamie Gold and Paris Hilton:
http://blackbeltpoker.com/articles/read/League-IX-Chris-Edwards
I went to my best mates engagement party, the first one to 'grow up'. For years people have been telling me you reach 'that age' when all your mates start getting hitched. It's quite scary! Anyway, at the reception I saw the pub had a selection of Cigars, so I bought one and really enjoyed it. I've since read some reviews and bought a few to try, my favourite definitely being the Nub Cameroon. Just 4 inches long, but still takes nearly an hour to smoke and lovely smooth creamy flavours. Expensive at £10 a stick though! Have to limit myself to one a week.
Delicious.
Anna is still in the Philippines and I'm missing her like crazy. She's applied for a new student visa and will be here for some time, which is amazing. We're now waiting to see if she gets it approved. Horrible waiting game. I watched one of those immigration programs on Sky last night and they were letting loads of mugs in, she's always been very compliant, so why wouldn't they? I'm going to be crushed if she doesn't get it granted. Will be lots to think about. Here's a pic of here enjoying her homeland and looking beautiful as always:
TV wise I've been watching lots of UFC and getting back into the X Files. I was SUPER pumped for the Machida vs Couture fight and it didn't disappoint. Best knockout ever? Maybe. I've also been enjoying the Van Damme documentary. He seems like a very genuine guy with a very serious illness. My father had Bi Polar and it's not easy to cope with.
Music wise there's been lots of new bits but I'm honestly written out now so I'll just leave you with one of my favourite songs of the moment. Thanks for reading as always and send me a Facebook PM or email (chris@blackbeltpoker.com) if any questions.
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