5 years a PokerStar

I've been looking forward this milestone for some time, it always seemed so far away. On the 10th January 2009 I took a big step forward in both my professional and personal life by moving to London having accepted an offer to work for PokerStars.

Up until this point my life had always been fairly contained within the small boundaries of Stoke-on-Trent, it had everything I thought I needed at that point. I had all my family & friends there, I had easy access to plenty of live Poker both locally and a stone's throw away and I was within easy access of most places worth visiting in the country.

I thought life was good but I was deeply lacking satisfaction, particularly in my profession. From the period of early 2005-2009 I worked for bet365, a highly successful online gaming company and tried my hand at lots of roles there. Unfortunately nothing clicked for me there, I didn't really fit into the culture, I largely disliked most days I worked there and felt I could never reach my goals there. After all, I started working there as a bi-product of my then new found interest in Poker, but bet365 weren't a Poker company, in fact they were far from it. They are a world-class sportsbook with limited Casino/Poker success and the fact that they lean on a Network means they'll never be more.

I knew I couldn't find a niche for myself in a Poker capacity, so I made plans to move on. At the time I hadn't necessarily expected it to be PokerStars, but I was very fortunate that the ideal role based on my experience and skill-set emerged just as I needed it. The move was on...

Moving to London was frightening. I had to find accommodation fast and as a result had little opportunity to view properties or find a flat-mate. I ended living in a beautiful part of North-West London in a lovely but highly expensive flat but with an absolutely maniacal female. It was a tough 1st 6 months.. at times I wondered if I could stick it out. I'd made few friends in London, both at work and in my personal life and I often trudged around London looking for things to do on a limited budget.

Poker was unsuccessful as I had such limited funds and I basically spent 6 months going to the cinema each Friday night and wondered if I'd done the right thing by moving. Luckily for me, a life-line was at hand. My boss at the time (and now good friend) Chris Straghalis made me aware of a departmental re-shuffle that required me to relocate to the Isle of Man to be with the rest of my team.

Initially I was skeptical, I'd visited the Island a few times and found it to be very pleasant but was much different from anywhere I'd previously lived. That said the opportunity to live closer to work on a much more budget friendly arrangement was too good to turn down. I initially told Chris I didn't want to go but he twisted my arm and I glad he did. I soon started to look forward to a new move and found myself a delightful apartment just 5 mins walk from the office (I'm still there now) and never looked back.

It was nice to get back into my own digs, I started looking forward going to work each day and really enjoyed the environment I was in when I got home. I'm very lucky to have made some truly great friends on the island and in a few months time I look forward to hopefully making a successful application for Manx residency, having completed 5 years here.

It's very much home now... I do miss Stoke and I hope i'll return there in some capacity eventually but I don't pine for short term trips back anymore, my home is on the island and it has all I need. I work for the best company in the world and to this day I'm very grateful for the opportunities afforded to me by PokerStars and to Chris for helping facilitate such a massive difference in my life, I'll always be very grateful to him for that.

Moving forward... I've just received a lovely Mulberry leather wallet as a milestone gift for my 5 years service and the company has very generously given me a £750 travel voucher (Vegas, yo!) to accompany the wallet. I don't know what the future holds.. there is still a piece of me that itches to play more Poker, to get back online and somewhat pick up the game that I left behind years ago and go more serious.

When you join PokerStars you are somewhat leaving the serious online game behind, you won't be an online Poker Pro, but you will be a 'Poker Professional'. Whatever happens, I'm grateful for what I've experienced so far with the company and I'm sure that won't change whenever the time comes to part. It's not happening anytime soon, I'm sure.

Here's to another big adventure!

Reflection on the year

A little late given that we're nearly 2 weeks into the year, however I've been conflicted whether to even write this piece. 2013 was a very odd year, a period in which I lost touch with my expectations and even limitations.

Cutting to the chase, it was a losing year. That's fine, every player good or bad will experience this at some point and I was somewhat expecting this, in fact I'm surprised it hadn't happened before now. The good news is that the loss over all is very small (<£1000) so in the grand scheme of things it's absolutely nothing and I can happily live with that aspect... the bottom line isn't a problem.

However there is a bigger problem, a problem that has been niggling away at me for the last 18 months or so. The problem is confidence. Confidence is a massive part of Poker and the ability to trust in your gut instinct and your experience despite of what the results reflect is vital part of any serious player's game.

For me, this used to be one of the strongest parts of my game but unfortunately it's become of my weakest. The sheer amount of doubt in my mind when I come up across standard situations, or beats or disappointments is making me question very simple parts of my game. The reason for this I believe is due to the lack of games I get to play currently.

Since moving to the Isle of Man, I've all but retired from playing Online. Not being able to play on Stars or Tilt has pretty much rendered my interest in online Poker as completely dormant. I'll occasionally get online to play a few satellites but that's the extend of my interest. Live Poker has also suffered through the lack of selection available, I can't hop in a car and go to DtD or another non-distant road trip, I simply must make major travel to play.

We do have a local tournament here once a week, however the structures are poor and a lack of results in these also have affected my confidence. So when you wait only several times a year to play and then subsequently perform badly, it very much has confounded the problem for me. Recent trips to Dublin and Las Vegas have seen me come up short, not significantly but the prospect of losing in games I'm used to great success in is very frustrating.

As the lack of results prolong this has then even affected my desire to play, even when a world class Poker event landed on my doorstep. That's right, finally the Isle of Man welcomed a big time event onto our shores in the form of the inaugural UKIPT - Isle of Man, a beautiful event with affordable high-level Poker tournaments.

It's fair to say that I was excited by the prospect of playing in a big tournament series and not having to stay in a hotel or travel afar, however when the time came I was far from enthusiastic. I'd put aside a roll to play 4 or 5 events, deliberately skipping the main-event as it was pricey and I was out of practice. However I only got around to playing 2 events before I started to fear that I'd simply be wasting the remainder of my bankroll and decided to not play any further events.

I wasn't enjoying the experience when I should have been revelling in it and for the first time in my life I have to admit I'd become 'scared money'. Yep, I said it... the prospect of losing money rather than the excitement of winning money had completely overcome me. So for the sake of my sanity I sat out whilst my friends and colleagues revelled in the glory of deep runs and playing against PokerStars sponsored pros and playing for significant 5-figure prizes.

I'm glad I did it. I think I'd be sitting here a couple of grand lighter and feeling very sorry for myself, whereas I'm actually quite optimistic for 2014. Im eyeing up The Irish Open, Stoke GPS, another UKIPT on the island and at some point a Vegas trip to get back on the ball. I'll keep my expectations realistic as I'm rusty and in poor form, but my Poker theory is as good as ever. I just need a bit of run good and a little motivation to set things right.

Fingers crossed I can get back to winning ways and make 2014 a big year in Poker for me, it's been a while but I'm ready to grind again...

M.

4 years at Stars & a little old school Poker game

Yesterday was a pretty cool landmark for, 4 years working for the greatest Poker entity in the world. I'm sure I've bored everyone to death speaking of my admiration for PokerStars in general, however despite the repetitiveness of my claims they are all completely justified.

PokerStars is a great place to work and you get significantly more out of it if you are a Poker enthusiast. Feeling part of the company's tremendous success is rewarding in it's own right but Stars certainly reward their staff well financially also. I couldn't be happier to work for anyone else and I'm looking forward to dragging you all kicking and screaming into my 5th year with the company.

That said, there is one eternal drawback to working for Stars, which is.... not being able to play on PokerStars! So when the chance presents itself, I like to try and remedy that situation with a little game as and when they present themselves.

Last saw the local Isle of Man casino hold a £10 rebuy.. anyone who knows me will realise this was irresistible to someone who originally cut their proverbial teeth playing £10 rebuy games back in 2004. I was excited to the say the least and couldn't wait to delve back into what I hoped would be a throwback of sorts to the good old days!

The set up was simple enough, 2000 chips, 15min levels and rebuys for 1hr with the clock extending to 20mins after the rebuys to allow a bit of room for maneuver. I used to consider myself a very tight-fisted £10 rebuy player, I could make £30 go a long way. That when was I was broke-ass! Now I'm not so broke-ass I went a little bit crazy in the pursuit of eternal happiness (or some chips).

I'm all in on the first hand with AKs versus Joan's baby-suited rags (same suit!) and she hit and I didn't, 1 down! I continued to dis-regard sense and chase value and threw away my 2000 chips time and time again in multi-way pots with some less than premium junk. Saying that, the amount of time that 10-high was good pre-flop made me question whether I was doing the right thing or not! Ultimately I flopped the best hand almost every time and was quashed by the river. I won one pot in £70's worth of buy-ins and ended up with nothing by the end.

I begrudgingly took the £10 add-on for 4k and took a stab. I doubled up on the first hand when some very strange older dude called off his whole stack after limping in for 300 with 10,9 suited and my AQ held. Up to about 9k and a bit to play with. I get moved and the blinds go through me a couple of times and I'm hovering around the 7k mark and find what I thought was a good spot to shove following a few 400 limps. I jam my 5,4s expecting universal and unconditional surrender. However a chap who looked like Danny Zuko from Grease in his leather jacket and greased back hair, decide he'd rather not let go of A10 for 50% of his chips :-/

I bump 2 pair and he's royally pissed off with me. I'm up to 14k and find a great spot to get a real stack together in the very next hand, couple of limps for 400 again, 7k stack jams, I tank up on AQ and decide this guy is bad enough to do this with far worse and he tables A8 and I'm feeling tremendous. The 8 on the flop was less tremendous however and Danny Zuko is cheering on his comrade in arms. Not one to keep my mouth shut I calmly inquire 'what is your problem, buddy?' and he sinks back into his leathers.

I'm back to where I started and the blinds will soon be going up so I'm looking for another spot. I try to UTG to steal with 7,4s... probably a mistake as I know Danny Zuko wants my blood at this point, just turns out that he picks up a hand this time and makes the call for my stack with 99, I don't even get a sweat and that's the night over.

On the whole, it was a very fun game.. even Danny Zuko didn't dampen my spirits, but he might be my new Lester on IOM in terms of bloodrivals! 'll be looking forward to the next one in 2 weeks time whereby I hope I can exercise a little more sense and perhaps even win me some monies...

Wynning - Life in the big time (WSOP 2013)

Alas, Caesars Entertainment have officially announced the dates for the World Series of Poker beginning on May 29th 2013 and set to run through to approximately 17th July. These announcements always get me in the mood to book my Vegas action and this time was no exception.

I've been carefully trawling the internet looking for any advanced deals and was actually pondering missing the WSOP this year to save money. Then I found a remarkable deal with Expedia, 10 nights + return flights with British Airways, staying at the Wynn in mid-June for an amazing £1280 per person!

I've seen a package deal this cheap for a location such as the Wynn. I reviewed the prices booking direct via the Wynn and it was something close to $4000 just for a standard room, so this Expedia deal really is something and it will be a new Vegas experience for me staying in such luxury (as opposed to Flamingo/Bally's) and being out there with my girlfriend.

It goes without saying that I'll be playing Poker, but probably considerably less than usual. This is perhaps a good thing as 2012 was a terrible year of playing and the first losing year I've had since I began playing.

I'm hoping with some renewed vigor and a fresh perspective on the Vegas vacation that this will turn out to be a trip to remember.

Roll on WSOP 2013!

The return of Full Tilt Poker

6th November 2012, an enormous day for the online poker game, even the game in general! Full Tilt is back online and it goes without saying, we all thought this may never happen. The atmosphere at the IOM offices has been buzzing and I cannot tell you the sheer amount of relief we all felt when Real Money switched on at midday on November 6th.

Things have seemingly just picked up where they left off, pre Black Friday with the addition of some new promotions, a new rakeback scheme and shedding the deadwood of a bunch of red pro's that no one gave a shit about. I must admit that I was tinged with a tiny bit of sadness upon watching the masses donking off the money they'd waited 18 months to get hold of. I literally took FTP for granted when I was able to play there before PokerStars took over. I was too busy being annoyed that I couldn't play on PokerStars (my site of choice) to actually enjoy the excellent viable alternative that FTP had to offer.

Oh well, you live and learn. The moral of the story is to appreciate what is available to you now, you never know when circumstance may take it away from you!

For all those folks worried about FTP's dark past, it really couldn't be in safer hands than it is now under the control of the Rational Group. It's a squeaky clean company and does everything by the book. Get your donk on and enjoy the new Full Tilt Poker!

Irish Winter Fest

So it's that time of the year again, another trip to Dublin beckoneth and a long weekend of Pokers awaited myself and a bunch of other PokerStars staff. The Irish Winter Festival by Paddy Power is an excellent tournament series that often provides good value and generates a decent atmosphere, albeit smaller in every sense than the Easter equivalent - The Irish Open.

I'd travelled over a couple of days in advance to have some quality time with my better half prior to the event and actually enjoyed playing the tourist for a change, rather than just making it a 100% Poker orientated trip. I even caught Skyfall over there, which was an interesting experience watching a Brit hero amongst Irish folks!

What preceded the Poker however tailed off, as my girlfriend became very ill (presumed food-poisoning) by the Friday evening. Naturally this put a dampener on things and I was quite burdened when playing my Saturday 6-Max event knowing that she was suffering upstairs on her own, however she insisted that I went as I could do nothing to help her.

The 6-Max was a €150 event and got a decent turnout (150 approx). Starting with 10k stacks, I was up to 40k in seemingly no time at all as I got the better of some blind v blind 3-bet/4-bet shenanigans with the guy on my immediate left and also got someone to stack off for a full stack with AK on a K ,10, 6, 9, 9 board vs my 66. Sadly this deteriorated not so long after as I risked chips calling some chunky all-ins when I had the best of it and also lost a decent amount of my stack in the following hand on a bluff. An older English chap to my right was very busy, raising lots of hands so I felt he was exploitable and I 3-bet him pre with K10, he calls. Flop is 6, 7, 4, with a club flush draw he checks and I bet, he smoothes and the turn brings an offsuit 9. He checks and I check back to him this time, the turn brings a 5 of clubs which is a good danger card to use as a lot of draws got there. I try and represent that I lead the flop with a draw and checked the turn to get there and bet 3/4 pot and our man goes into the tank and eventually calls with just a 6, for 3rd pair!

I was quite taken aback by the call but congratulated him on it, I didn't think for a second that he was donking off, but that he simply managed to decipher my deception. That said, it was still a very tough call for about 50% of his stack. This amongst many other hands I've played in live tournaments this year has made me realise that my residual table image to strangers is that of someone who is 'messing around' and I seem to get looked up often. This is something I definitely need to keep in mind of in my future play, as it will result in me getting paid handsomely when I have any hand with showdown value whatsoever, however it will make bluffing perhaps more difficult.

I never recovered with this setback, I was down to around 20K at this point and managed to grind down to 2 tables without getting any hands of significance before shoving J8 on an SB steal into AA and that was all she wrote. I then rested up until the following day's PLO €200 event, the tournament that I final tabled yet bubbled last year and something I'd regard as my strongest event. I was very excited to play this, however upon registered for the tournament 15mins before it started I was very annoyed that only FOUR people had registered, yes FOUR! Speaking with the tournament director about this issue he determined that the event would be cancelled if they got less than 16 runners and postponed the starting time until 90mins after. I was given the option to withdraw my registration with 15 people on the board at the cut-off time and begrudgingly continued.. I wish I had not. I doubled up from 10k to 20k in very quick time but then gone decimated by incredible donkey play, and was out quite early. I was thoroughly annoyed by the whole thing. How does a serious festival only get that many runners for an event this good? The answer was putting the €300 NL starting only 2 hours before the PLO, which was the secondary event for the whole series, it practically destroyed the PLO. I won't be playing this next year unless the scheduling is changed.

My final event was the €100 NL and this is comparable to smaller casino events in structure, by this time I was rather not in the mood to play. I'd just said goodbye to my girlfriend the night before but by this point had fallen quite sick, myself. I'd also had some aggro from a knuckle-dragger at the bar the previous evening who decided to take issue with me for no apparent reason which even after getting my head down still had me tilted. I crashed out of this event in fairly unceremonious style after earning every pot I'd won in 2.5 hours with no or little hands and finally when I get a good one got crushed by some donkey fooling around with junk.

The whole event for me for a disaster and I didn't enjoy myself (in the Poker sense) the entire time. I've decided that the experiment to go 100% tournament as opposed to cash games was an error, as only the main event holds enough value to warrant the effort required. In future I will try to qualify online for these events and if I'm not successful, I will probably not even go. I've come to realise that even with the impending excitement of looking forward to this event in advance, by the time it comes around I'm often unmotivated/disinterested. The same thing happened in Vegas this summer, the chore of playing for such extended periods doesn't really appeal... that is unless you're in it for the big one.

Ciao for now.

M

Nice guys don't finish last

This is a some what over due blog, by about a week or so. Just a few days ago, the news the Poker community at large had been waiting for was confirmed... PokerStars had purchased the assets of Full Tilt Poker and were to restore the balances of the non-US player base, whilst paying the US DOJ renumernations to cover the balances of those players affected from the USA.

It goes without saying, that as an employee of PokerStars, this news was eagerly awaited and overly-expected for sometime, however that did not take anything away from the sheer excitement when the news broke officially.

I can't begin to tell you how happy and proud I was that day and will continue to be, at being part of such a great company. I can only assure people, that I'm not blowing the corporate trumpet for the sake of it, I truly admire the people who run PokerStars. Don't get me wrong, we are not a charity, we want to make money... a TONNE of money.. but we do so by being fair, honest and offering the best product that we continue to refine at the demand and requirements of our players.

We're lucky to have wealthy, highly knowledgable and passionate people at the helm of PokerStars and it goes without saying, the company has managed to find a solution that both suits the needs of the business and provides a lifeline to the Poker community.

After the industry's reputation has been better black and blue with scandal after scandal, it's wonderful that we have something truly great to celebrate. It's going to lead to an exciting new era in online Poker, with 2 brands owned by the same entity competitively trying to deliver the best product to the players. We have a potential re-entering into the US market to look forward to and many Millions back in the Poker economy.

It's good to see that a company that does almost everything right, getting a big reward for their efforts and players being treated as they deserve.

Raise a hand to PokerStars, I know I will be tomorrow... we're having a champagne reception at the IOM office to welcome FTP... our new friend to the PokerStars family!

Ciao ciao!