I’d been working fairly late each night this week, but on my way home last night, I was passing my local pub and saw a poster advertising the Champions Poker League each Thursday at 8pm. I decided to investigate. Although you have to register in advance, to allow the organisers to have enough tables set up, I was allowed to play to help fill up the tables. Luckily, lots of regulars hadn’t turned up - probably because of the impending Easter break. It’s a freeroll with no cash prizes, but we had a last-longer side bet, with the pot split between 1st and 2nd places.

I didn’t know what to expect, really. It could have been totally chaotic, but it was actually rather good. The organiser is very enthusiastic and says that it’s getting better each week. The players who knew the rules helped the ones who were novices, and we had very few dealing cockups. There was no concept of dead buttons or blinds, though, so some people managed to dodge the rather high blinds, but I’m putting this down to unfamiliarity with the usual rules and didn’t force the issue. The top 4 at the end of the “season” (which seems to be arranged on calendar quarters) go forward to a casino-hosted regional final and from there to an annual national final. I think I shall offer to run a quick session on casino play when we get to the end for players who haven’t played in that environment, because people need to know about avoiding string betting, playing out of turn, minimum bet sizes, showing your cards to other players etc.

The event took around 2 and a half hours to play, with a break. There were 16 starters, and I actually managed to win the tournament - the first live event I’ve ever won! So I took home £45, although since I hadn’t had a chance to eat dinner before arriving and couldn’t really eat whilst playing, I was absolutely starving.

This festival seems to be so far in the future when I qualified for it back in January, but now it’s come and gone again and it seems to be over so very quickly.

I travelled up to Newcastle by train. Since I was booking so far in advance, I decided to go for first class (on the Peterborough to Newcastle leg) as it was only £30 each way. The standard class Cambridge to Peterborough return was £18 on its own! The train ride was fine and I arrived early at Newcastle too. Since my hotel was directly opposite the railway station, I decided to checkin at the Thistle and leave all my baggage in my room rather than keep it at the casino. The single room was just fine and only cost £62 a night, although I thought the breakfast was a bit steep at £12.95! Despite being cheaper than the Quality Hotel that I stayed in last year, this place was far superior - it was nicely decorated, clean, pleasant staff, a working lift, doors that locked properly etc. i.e. all the things you would expect of a hotel but that the Quality Hotel didn’t have (and thankfully, it’s closed down now)

I arrived at Aspers a quarter of an hour before the scheduled start - plenty of time, as it turned out as the start had been delayed half an hour anyway. So I decided that now was the time to phone up and cancel the reservation at the Holiday Inn - I’d kept it as a banker, just in case the Thistle had turned out to be rubbish, as I could hold the reservation until 4pm without cancellation penalty. Just before I did, though, Woody (seventhsense) asked me if I had a bed spare in my hotel room, as he needed a spare - great timing! So Woody took my room at the Holiday Inn (although this turned out to be more complicated than expected in the end, with payment difficulties due to staff cockups there).

The Main Event started well enough, and the dinner, which I got at the end of level 5, was nice. Everything was going just fine until the end of level 8, as I’d built my stack up to 28K and was going well. Then the cards stopped coming - I managed to last for 3 levels before finally going out around 70th place with a weak ace against a dominating ace.

The cards still didn’t come in the forum challenge, either. I managed to last out for 5th place without ever seeing a hand, so it was rather a disappointing day all told.

On the Sunday, I played in the Terminator side-event. A £30+3 buyin, with £10 being the head value. The cards still didnt’ come in this either. It started badly before a card was dealt, as we had 3000 chips to start on our table, and everybody else had had an extra thousand to start with 4K. We fixed this some hands into the tournament, though, so we didn’t get diddled in the end. By the first break, at the end of level 2, I was down to 1950. Then I lost the chip race for the 25s and 50s, so started level 3 with just 1900.

After that, the cards turned back for me, and I built up to 11K, and on the final hand of level 6, picked up aces and raised 3K UTG, got two callers and the rest of the table left for their break. I shoved on a Kxx rainbow flop and got two callers and thought I was doomed to lose to two pair or a set. They checked the turn and one of them shoved the river, by which time I was certain I was losing. He turned over KQ for a pair of kings … and I tripled up! From there on in, I took more pots and made it to the money (10 paid). On the final table, I was one of the shorter stacks, but picked up kings second hand and got a customer (the eventually winner) and doubled up and then I just outlasted most of the rest, including another EMSer (Beth). When we got down to the last three, we did a deal, which turned up well for me, as it won me an extra £180! In the end, I shoved a flush draw and was called by aces who’d flopped a set. Not a great move in hindsight, but a nice prize of £400 + £50 for the 5 heads I collected made for my biggest ever live payday, beating the DTD team challenge winnings, and more than twice my previous largest individual cash.

I’m getting to like the rebuy qualifiers for the Virgin Festivals - I managed to qualify at the second attempt in one of the Thursday rebuy tournaments, which meant I could go ahead and book up hotels and trains to get to Newcastle for the start of April. By the time the prize bubble was approaching, I was in a fairly comfortable chip position and was able to just play tight without taking any risks.

I’ve managed to book rooms at both the Holiday Inn Express and the Thistle - I’ll cancel one of them closer to the time.

Following the conclusion of the W3C workshop, it was a race back to the station to get back to Cambridge for the company Christmas party! This was something of a stretch as it was further than I thought to get back, so I missed the last train for which my ticket was valid - so i had to pay a small supplement to travel on the rush hour train, although the company was paying for it anyway, and I saved them more by using my network card to get a discount in the first place. Having taken a taxi directly from the station to the college where our party was taking place, I turned up just as others were arriving from the office anyway, so I didn’t miss anything.

I was totally knackered by the time I got there, however, so once I’d made it to the small reception area where the drinks were being served, I just wanted to sit quietly in the corner for a bit. However, there were some worrying looking staff serving the drinks and dusting the room with feather dusters. In fact, they looked like they were on day release from some form of institution. And then it was announced that somebody had been murdered! Yes, it was a special murder mystery Christmas party, and all the misfits were actors playing a part.

The food was nice and the murder mystery was a little slow at time, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t totally worn out and able to concentrate on helping my team in its attempt to solve the crime.

It seemed like such a good idea to go to a W3C workshop on device API security - I was not expecting that I’d then have to write the position paper in order to get the invitation! This workshop, organised by the World Wide Web Consortium, ran for two days at Vodafone’s London offices on The Strand. It’s a lovely location, with a view out over the Thames with the Palace of Westminster and London Eye featuring on the skyline. It was interesting to meet people from other browser vendors and find out their views on the issues at hand, which I won’t bore people with here. I was staying at the Strand Palace Hotel, just 2 minutes walk away from the meeting. It was the smallest hotel room I remember ever staying in, but I think they were out of the type of room I’d paid for, because my room had a kettle and a flat screen LCD TV on the wall.

One of the benefits of a multi-day workshop is the opportunity to get out in the evening and actually see some of London - there wasn’t any formal evening function organised, so people could do whatever they wanted. As I wrote in an earlier blog entry, I’ve never visited London before, so really didn’t appreciate how closely together places are. I’ve never visited places like Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square or Regent Street before - except on a Monopoly board. Being December, the Christmas decorations are everywhere, and it was all very pretty. I decided to pop into the Empire at Leicester Square for a cheap dinner and to play in their £20+3 rebuy. The field was only 33, due to another event going on, but the only person I recognised was Sir Clive Sinclair. After being card dead for an hour and then not getting there after a shove on the last hand before the break, I actually made it to 6th for a £90 prize.

After that, I managed to get lots of lovely pictures of the lights and squares around central London, even though it was fairly cold, it was well worth walking around the places.

The EatMyStack Championships took place in early November, and featured our main event on the Saturday. I decided to stay the Friday & Saturday nights at the Holiday Inn, as usual, but travelled straight from work on the Friday evening. The trains from Cambridge up to Ely are very full in the rush hour … it was really packed, although fortunately I was getting off there to get the train across to Nottingham.

Since I was there, it would have been rude not to play the regular £75+10 Friday night tournament. I would not normally play anything this expensive, but since it was our festival weekend, I decided to play. This went reasonably well, as I played my usual tight game. I was as surprised as anyone to actually make the final table! Thus I ordered my free coffee (everybody gets a free drink at the final table) and settled down, only to be eliminated shortly afterwards in 8th place (of 95 starters), and before my coffee had come. It was a shame, but it was a good start to my weekend, as I pocketed £214 for that!

The EMS championship event did not go so well, unfortunately. Although I got an early double-up taking Wolvo out with AA vs KK, it really didn’t improve from there and I was eliminated in 20th place (of 48). I always seem to have difficulty playing against other EMSers, both online and live. However, the benefits of going out relatively early were twofold: I was able to sit down and eat a proper dinner; I was able to enter the regular £50 Saturday night freezeout.

This tournament played out remarkably similarly to the Friday night tournament. Fortunately, or perhaps somewhat unfortunately, the result was the same: 8th place (of 112), but for £140 this time. Again, the coffee didn’t arrive before I was knocked out.

Half of the fun of these events is meeting up with all the other EMSers anyway, but to actually end up in profit (just) for the weekend, made it even better.

After the excitement of the first NFL game at Wembley last year, I decided I definitely wanted to go back this year. However, given the price differential, I decided to go for Club Wembley seats, rather than normal seat. It was only a few pounds more expensive, but it was worth it. A dedicated door to get in without all the queueing, room to sit down to eat and drink before the game, comfortable seats to sit in.

The game was much higher scoring than the rain-affected match the year before. It was obvious that most of the crowd were supporting New Orleans, as neutrals were encouraged to do as it was officially a Saints home game. Another fun day, and the departure was equally civilised.

I’ll definitely be signing up for the 2009 game, whoever is playing!

Despite having grown up in Kent, although technically the London Borough of Bromley, London is a place that I’ve never visited. Most other places I’ve been involve travelling through London, whether it be by train to Southampton, Cambridge, Oxford or to Gatwick or Heathrow to fly away to The North or other countries. It’s always been the case of getting in and getting out as quickly as possible - sic transit gloria Londinium, to be sure. I returned from the USA to Heathrow, home to Cambridge, then that weekend home for my birthday Cambridge to Bromley South, via London. Then home again. Then the following weekend, down to the Loose Cannon sports club, situated under the tracks of Cannon Street station, for the 4th Virgin Poker Festival. I stayed in a Premier Inn just south of the river from Tower Bridge, which, even with the assurances given by Lenny Henry on TV, was still expensive (£80 quid a night)- but then again, it was the middle of London, and although the room was small, it was clean and the all-you-can-eat breakfast good value for money with the amount I can eat!

The Loose Cannon club is probably the smallest card room I’ve been to, and it got really hot and stuffy as we played through the Saturday afternoon and evening. I also had the pleasure of being sat next to one of the giant speakers for almost all of the day - if you remember Peter West on top of the pavillion at the Oval, interviewing an umpire whilst sat right next to the loudspeaker which kept on having announcements made on it, with West eventually quipping that “we thought we might have trouble with that” - that was what it was like. I don’t really recall much of the day other than I survived and played as tight as usual, with one big hand early being a pair of kings that got called by queens and the kings held. OK, so there were some large slices of luck on day two - the 8-6 offsuit that rivered a flush to defeat a pair of tens, and the pair of fours that rivered a set to defeat the pair of eights - but I thought they were the right shoves at the time (and I got my chips in first!). Probably my dodgiest play was on the money bubble late on day 2. 21 players remaining, and I am short as is somebody else on my table, but he just has me covered. Somebody else bet more than either of us had. He thought for a long time and then called all-in. I had AK offsuit. After a long time, I ditched it on the basis that I thought at least one of the others probably had an ace and the other had a pair, so i was racing but with some of my cards already dead. In the money, I probably call this anyway, being so short - but on the bubble, I folded, leaving myself crippled but the other two did indeed turn over a pair and AK. The pair won, eliminating the other AK on the bubble, guaranteeing me a £220 minimum prize, and incidentally, winning HuckNall the EMS last-longer pot for ‘best EMS finish out of the money’. In the end I was eliminated 19th, but I’ll be looking to improve at the next festival in 2009.

The final game of my road trip, and following the advice from the Fan Assistance lady, I had planned my day so as to arrive at Yankee Stadium between 3.30pm and 4pm, and I arrived at 3.45 to find about 100-200 people in front of me in the crowd at gate 2. It was far more of a crowd than a queue. Anyway, we’d settled in for our long wait, but the time passed quickly enough and despite it being another hot day, that side of the stadium is in shade in the afternoon, so thankfully, we weren’t in the sun whilst standing there.

I made it into the first batch of people to get in and went straight to Monument Park. This time, I got in - and I could have probably arrived half an hour later, but this was a final opportunity so I didn’t want to let it slip. I had seen the retired numbers before when I visited in April 2006 as part of a business trip (I stayed a couple of days in New York on my return trip to the UK when in New York state on business), but failed to go around the corner to see the actual monuments. I now have photographs of all the monument as I walked around all the different plaques. It is beautifully kept, as you would expect. Americans really seem to like Busy Lizzies - you find them everywhere, including decorating Monument Park.

After departing the park, I took my time in getting to my seat up in row G, Tier Reserved 20. Despite being just a few rows further down than my seat yesterday, this felt much lower down and closer to the field, and I didn’t feel at all ill looking down. There turned out to be an empty seat next to me, which was nice. Again, there were quite a few empty seats belonging to season ticket holders who presumably hadn’t tried or hadn’t been able to resell the tickets on StubHub for extortionate amounts.

Derek Jeter went hitless today, unfortunately, so I didn’t see him break Lou Gehrig’s record - undoubtedly the one hit he needs will come some time in the next 6 games, but I won’t be there to see it. I did see more home runs though, and although the White Sox kept it close, the Yankees prevailed with Mariano Rivera getting another save to take him to 2nd place on his own on the all-time saves list.

It was a beautiful evening, warm without being hot and sticky, a gentle warm breeze and a full moon brilliant in the skies beyond centre field. I took so many photos today, that my camera’s battery was on the point of running out. I also took the opportunity to buy some merchandise commemorating the event, so I now have a “final game” Yankees cap, with the date of the final game on it plus a nice metal pin and a game programme (the September version of the fans’ magazine, which although it was $7, is quite thick and full of information).

I can’t believe that that’s it and that I’ve now seen 16 games, plus a refund for the Mets game that was postponed (which I saw as part of the single-admission double-header the day after), plus a pending refund from the Orioles for the rainout there.

The Empire State Building is a money-making machine. I felt fleeced by the time I came out with extra money for this, for that, for the other. I went for the NY Skytour show combined with the 86th floor observation deck (they wanted yet another $15 to go up to the 106th floor - something they don’t tell you until you get to the 86th floor!). The Sky Tour wasn’t worth it, in my opinion - it was some advertising for New York, plus a ride on their flying tour in the theatre. You couldn’t really see anything of the sights on the ride, and it shook so violently for no apparent reason. However, it did get you past the 1 hour queue to get up to the 80th floor, so I suppose it was worth it in the end. From the 80th floor you proceed up to the 86th floor. I got a good deal here - I had purchased the audio tour (for just $18 extra!) but was told to pick up the handset on the 80th floor; on the 80th floor the lady said I should have had it on the 2nd floor, but to go around to the exit elevator and see if they had any there. When I got lost, a janitor helped me and led me through the cordoned off middle part to the exit, obtained the player for me, and then led to back to the 80-86 elevator but right at the front of the queue and told the attendant I should go in the next batch because I’d had a “broken” audio tour player! Good man! The audio tour was quite extensive as far as pointing out all the sights in the city and was worth having.

I didn’t see any evidence of Dalek invasion or Dalekanium struts on the building, although it was rather suspicious how much of the 80th and 86th floor interiors were boarded up for renovation!
The views from the observation deck are spectacular, and I took a lot of photos and some video from the top. It was fairly crowded at the top, but as long as you were patient, you got to the front in all the different locations. Upon returning to the 2nd floor, I purchased the photos of me, taken before going up, for just another $25. Actually, upon reflection, I shouldn’t have, because they are rubbish - not nearly as good as the Duck Tour ones, which are worth the $20.

A quick lunch and then onto the B train to 161st Street and Yankee Stadium.