Hello Gang - Well the debate rages on over Freeze Out or Double Chance with my choice being Freeze Out. I would just like to say that if I remember things right, the last time numbers dropped and the format was changed from Double Chance to Freeze Out, the numbers went up immediately so I hope this change back to Double Chance doesn't come back to haunt. Would a mixture of both format's alternatively not suit better? There's another topic for debate! BigWiggy

Dudes, thanks for your feedback regarding our live and online tournaments in 2012. Firstly let me address the live tournaments. It appears that there is an equal split amongst the players as to which format they prefer, i.e. Freeze Out / Double Chance, but those that opted for the Freeze Out, would have no objection to a Double Chance event, as they could take their Double Chance from the start, in effect playing a Freeze Out. I have also received feedback that new players and the younger crew would take their chance at a £25 Double Chance as they could afford it. Therefore we shall adopt a £25 Double Chance format as of January 2012. With regards to the online tournaments, I wish them to be in keeping with our live events. Therefore I will make them a $7.50 Double Chance, which lowers the buy-in and will hopefully attract new players as it is more affordable. The scoring system will be the same that I used in our Vegas competition where a player is awarded points in relation to the position they finish. 50 points for 50th, 30 points for 30th, 10 points for 10th through to 4 points for 4th place. 3rd place will receive 0 points. 2nd place will receive MINUS 1 point and 1st place will receive MINUS 3 points. Any player that misses a game will get the maximum number of points in relation to the number of players PLUS 1 point. I will allow all players to drop their worst six scores of the year. Taking into consideration that a top two finish in any league tournament will result in a deduction from your total points score and that all players will collect points at every online tournament, then this makes for a much tighter and longer contested league. We have seen it time and time again in our Vegas tournaments that it always goes to the wire and that a breakaway leader always seems to get reeled in. I will also approach Black Belt Poker to see if they will add prizes to our league (I am thinking of seats to their Live Poker events) but they would expect to see an increase in our numbers. Therefore I am suggesting that every player gets at least one friend that plays online poker to sign-up to Black Belt Poker via one of the many links on this website. I hope you are all happy with the changes and look forward to an increase in the number of runners in 2012. Later Dudes.

For the live tourney's, I think the Double Chance will bring a lot more players in that can't really afford the full £50 up front! So I'm all for that! As for the online league, the lower buy-in would be better for most, as $15 isn't that expensive, but I have some queries about the points system! I think (if i remember correctly) Johno said the points system is gonna be "Vegas style," where you get points for where you place, (10 for 10th, 25 for 25th etc) and the lowest score wins, but that means people would have to play 18 minimum to have a chance to win! Chris 'Oddjob' Cowley via Facebook

As for the live tournaments, I like them how they are now, but also wouldn't mind the £25 Double Chance if it was going to keep the numbers up all year round and not just for the first few months again. As long as their well structured, I'm happy either way!! As for online, I think the new idea will work out better and keep alot more people intrested and coming back! Shane Grears on Facebook

I prefer Freeze Outs, but don't mind the Double Chance as I would also start with the full amount. If a Double Chance event fetches more players in.. all the better and online I think the $15 is a better idea also. Submitted via Facebook by Mark Atkinson.

Online Events - I believe that the new scoring format, allowing 5 dropped worst scores (from approx 24 across the whole season at 2 per month), added prizes from Black Belt Poker, and a reduced $15/$7.5 double chance would help attract more players. Great stuff. Live Events - I would probably just come along and buy-in for the full £50 and take 11k starting stack if you did go Double Chance. If you feel this will attract more players, then I'm all for it. Otherwise I'm happy with a 10k £50 freezeout format. Variance is a part of the game and sometimes your Aces will get cracked! Mark (VBlue)

Happy New Year to all at Northern Poker Stars; dealers, tournament directors, friends, and players. For anybody at all who would like to follow my STT grind in 2011, please follow my blog through this link - http://imapokerholic.blogspot.com/. My first blog details my aspirations for the year through live and online poker. I will be focusing on low-stakes STTs and possibly some local live tournaments, including how I go about making a killing at these levels throughout the year. Look out for features on online software and how I use it to adapt a long-term winning game. I will also be reviewing other training sources. If you're lucky, it may even prove to be an entertaining, informative, and witty jaunt, with me at the helm. Land ahoy! Captain VBlue.

We talked about it for months, and the Northern Poker Stars 2010 Championship finally got underway on Saturday, and quite predictably went on for two days, with the final table kicking off at 1.00pm on Sunday. I would first like to say my apologies to a few people, Gary Fowler who 3 hours in was deep in chips and I was clinging on with 11K, when he lost out with A,K suited to my pocket 8’s. Will "The Hulk" Macgillivray, who appears to continually run into me with monster hands and always ends up against an even bigger one. This time it was his full house against my quad 9’s (sorry Will), and finally Gary Hill who had played well all weekend to end up sandwiched between me and Tyson on the final table and getting dealt pocket J’s (AI preflop) against my pocket A’s (unlucky does not come close). There were other instances but those stuck in my head for some reason. I think a big thank you should go out to all the dealers, Dee, Anne, Shep, Lynda and especially Jules for dealing on the final table and for giving me pocket A’s just when I needed them, (I will never slag you off again for giving me nothing for 3 hours Jules). But I think a special thanks should go out to Johno, who looked knackered on Sunday after putting in two big days, dealing with all the problems and issues that such a tournament brings. Thanks big lad, it was a excellent weekend. I think one thing that this tournament has brought home to me is that you should either throttle back or not drink at all if you are playing poker which is exactly what I did and have done every time I cash at these events. It is just amazing it has taken nearly 2 years for that to sink in (but I can be a bit thick), so if you catch me at the table drunk again, throw me out the door. The exception to this rule is Tiger Tyson, who for some reason can get absolutely steaming and still hold his game together. I do not know anybody who can do this apart from him and it is an asset most of the time because your opponents think you are tilting. Well done Tiger, Gary, Chris, Neil and Sean for cashing and thanks for the crack. Oh and if Chris and Bucket think their threats of gang r@pe on Saturday night were going to throw me off my game, they were mistaken, I can do that quite well on my own ;-). The title comes home to West Cumbria this year along with the team title earlier on, let's bring on Vegas in a week and hope we all come back being able to quit our jobs!!! Chris ‘Two Hands’ Fairclough

My version of events for big Johno's 40th.... Well the day started terrible for me having had a couple of hours sleep from the previous night's poker. I managed to win the Railway Club league game for the 3rd week running and having done so decided to spend most of my £140 winnings on getting pissed and partying. Not the ideal preperation for a 4 hour or so drive down to Nottingham. I was still pissed when we got picked up at Penrith and the first thing on offer was a drink of whisky!! This just sent we over the edge. Having stopped of for breakfast at Stainmore, I walked out of the cafe and the wind decided to take my cap for a ride accross the A66. I was in no fit state to be attempting to cross two lanes of dual carriageway to retrieve it, so Matt Holliday braved the traffic to collect it for me. Cheers pal. After breakfast I've been told there where some horrible smells coming from underneath my seat. I think Bobrob had not cleaned the minibus from the previous night... Well thats what I'm saying anyway. To all on the bus may I apoligise for the smells haha. Having checked in to the hotel it was such a relief that the first room ready was for Ian "Boom BOOM" Arnold who was my room partner, so it was a quick 30-40 min power nap for me. Having arrived at DTD I was still feeling very delicate and I knew it was only a matter of time before I would be wrenching over the toilet. Johno must have been at the kind stage in his drunken roll as he paid me into the tournament "for all the hard work I've done" he said. I think he got most of it back though in whisky as a double was nearly £8 a pop. Having sat down to play poker, it was nice to see Will Wharton was on my table and he was keeping me good company having fallen out with some of the table over my slow rolling antics. I won't go into it too much but the dealer told me off and a couple of the players where clearly not happy, but Will and I were having a right chuckle over it. The first few levels seemed to last like days for me and at 5.30pm I finally managed to get all my beakfast out of me, by filling the toilet. There was carrots and peas in it, but I just don't know where they came from... Having freshend myself up, now I was in total command of my chip stack and was sitting ok having been dealt pocket rockets twice and getting paid both times on them. Will finally left my table which I was pleased about firstly because I was sick of him raising UTG every time on my BB and secondly I did not have the balls to steal his BB because I was wanting him to do well. Having played my way through 239 runners we were down to the last three tables and I was still feeling comfortable until the big Johno arrived at the table to rail me. Well he never railed me but he gave every player at my table abuse. He told one guy to take his shades off and pull his hood down cause he looked like a cxck. There was a coloured guy to my left and Johno had a go at his girlfriend telling her how much of a good XXXX he was. Lucky enough for him she could not speak the Queens. After Johno left the table to go back and concentrate and abuse everyone else in his OWN TOURNAMENT I had to apologise to the table for the big lads outburst. Now having got down to the last two tables, I found myself sat next to Will "The Hulk" Mac which was good. Chris Fairclough was on the other table and doing very well, but he was soon to blow-up and lose his big stack to the chip leader. Will and I were just plugging away, although he was slightly shorter in chips. Now down to the last 10, I really wanted to make the final table and repay Johno for paying me in with a big cash. With 20k in the pot from the blinds and antes, I was sat with roughly 150k when the late position moved all in for 130k, I looked down to see A,J and I thought for a few minutes which seemed like hours and finally said the words "CALL". To my delight he turned over 10,4. Well he went on to hit a 4 and crippled me. I could see Deano on the rail and some old blokes just shaking there heads in disgust. Well I felt a lot worse but managed to control myself and prepare for the next hand. Still spewing I was dealt 9,4 in sb. The blinds were 5/10k with a 1k ante. It folded round to the cut off who was thinking that I would push all in. I could see it in her eyes. She just called. I was only left wid 9k but I used an old Phil Hellmuth play to just call and see the flop giving me an option to get away from it, if needed. Will checked the bb. The folp came 9,4,10, my eyes lit up and I slid my remaining 9k into the middle. Will folded and the girl called turning over AA. Nothing else came and I was up to 40k. I won another all in and made the final table with 79k. The blinds where 6/12k and I knew that any pair or a decent hand and I would be shifting. Into the fifth hand on the final table, I was dealt A,7s and ended up going all in to be called by A,10. A flop of 10d,10c,3d, he hit a set and now I was on a flush draw. The turn Jd and river Jc giving him a full house. I walked away from the final table with my head held high to cash a nice £225. So it does pay to be rough at a start of a poker tourny. Having cashed I went over to see Johno who was getting a warning off the tournament director for acting out of turn. His chip stack was all over the place and he was being very abusive (in a nice way) to his table. Being the only sober one there, I decided to try and get him to focus and stop going all in out of turn. The dealer was well pissed off with him, but the rest of the players I think, loved to hate him. Johno went on to take this side event down and I still dont know how... I would like to give a mention to the lads on the cash tables also. They played them for hours on end and most of them took a battering in there wallets, but everyone had a really good time. Thanks for the invite Johno. We need to get more of this. So how about a return for your 39th next year? 1LAMCHOP1

I will start by saying I had a cracking time last weekend, the journey up/down, the people who came and the end result all added up to produce a memorable time. Originally I was supposed to be getting a lift down with Stu but as there was one place left on the bus Johno kindly offered it to me. This was a bit of a double edged sword as a bottle of whisky was produced, and as Deano pointed out, the majority was polished off by Johno within the hour. He soon started with the Ginger crack but as he was sat next to Deano, his attentions soon turned to Carlisle's Scrawny Kid. The next 3-4 hours were entertaining although I have to say Rob (our designated driver) deserves a medal for putting up with the ever more animated Johno, a bus full of pissed poker players (except Tweedie and Ron) and public indecency at several service stations on the way down (ask Johno about that one). By the time we reached DTD everybody was up for it and I think we were all placed on a table with at least one other player we knew. As we all had various levels of success the stories started to surface of take downs and bad beats but most predictably Johno going out early in the 7500 GTD (Thanks for that £50 Johno). This was no reflection of his skill more of a fact that he had downed enough booze to drop a rhino at this point (which later turned into an asset see Deano's blog). I left DTD at 12.30am after going out in 12th to sample the Nottingham nightlife and meet up with some old friends. All in all it was a great weekend with great company (well done Lammy and Will) and well worth the journey, although Jules can never have a go at me again for turning up pissed to a poker game. Chris Two Hands

What a weekend. After getting dragged into the front seats with Johno in the minibus at 8.30am I glanced up at the big lad starting on the whisky. Being the poilte man that I am, I joined him. Jesus, it warms the cockles of your heart does whiskey. After stopping at Stainmore at 10am for breakfast, it was the vodka that followed with fresh orange. Not to be out done, Johno started on the Jagermeister.... STRAIGHT!!! Not for me, thank you, but Arny had the pleasure in partnering him with that drink. Then came the bucks fizz, Pikey's choice of tipple and all this before we even got there. I had a great day playing poker in both tourneys. Seeing Matto stumbling back on his chair after collecting chips. Seeing Arny bang the table in the cash game, but the best was seein Johno at 3am after 16 hours of drink, bullying the final 5 players into chopping it. UNREAL!! I was in tears rolling around the floor in laughter. Journey on the way home on the Sunday was class. Getting at Johno (Right Said Fred) all the way home made it worthwhile. Thanks for the invite Johno. I made some good friends over the weekend. Big shout out to Will Mac who is the man in form at the moment and he is hitting it at the right time for the main event next month which will no doubt be another good day for NPS players. Deano 'Carlisle's No1' Lamonby

Being probably the most sober person (apart from Tweedie and Roy Cropper), I thought I would blog my version of the events of Johno's birthday. The day started well when upon getting on the bus, Johno polished off half a bottle of whiskey before we reached Kirby Stephen, then half a bottle of vodka by the next service station. The Johno / Deano double act was keeping the boys entertained. After Scotch Corner, the lads were wondering if the big fella would even make it to Dusk Til Dawn. After a quick freshen up at the hotel we decended on DTD and there was a nice pre-tourney atmosphere. My plan was to grind the first few levels until the break, playing little pots and avoiding trouble. I basically did that right up to the final table as the lads and lady, busted out one by one, leaving Chris, Lammy and yours truly in the money, fighting for the final table. The others had either entered the £30 tourney or hit the cash tables, when I hit the final table as the short stack and quadrupled up in the first four hands, including a very nice small blind AA hand then picked some nice spots until deal time. Meanwhile Johno had made the final table and was basically telling the other lads how the deal was going to go down and with a mixture of luck, aggression and the other players general fear, the deal was struck and Johno won despite being second in chips. I don't know how the other lads did in the cash but we walked away with around £2800 of total prizepool money from the tournaments and a good few stories to tell. Well played boys - Can't wait until we go on tour again. P.S. "Don't Make Me Angry, You Won't Like Me When I'm Angry!" THE HULK :-)

I will echo some of the comments made by Johno and add my own perspective on this. For those players who are a little more than just an occassional recreational player, possibly one of the most over-looked aspects when playing poker is 'game selection'. Not only is it important to choose a good game to sit down at, i.e. look for the fish, but with the competition in online poker it pays to look at which site you play on first of all. Look for sites who offer good sign-up bonuses. Answer: 888poker offers 100% match up to $400 initial deposit with 25% of that paid immeidately on deposit - that is $100 free for signing up. Just put $400 in, collect your $100 and withdraw the $400 if you need it for something else. It takes about 10-14 days to get your initial $400 paid back to you. Second, look for other free money. 888poker offer a whole week of freeeroll tournaments with one $500 gtd tourney (150-odd players per night) every night for new sign-ups and another one on the weekend - a $50k gtd tourney. This is the best freeroll offer for first depositors that I know of online. Then look for more free money and Johno has already pointed out the overlays in some of the weekly guaranteed tournaments. Then look for the fish and they do swim at 888poker. I have recently joined a forum with some v.good online players and one lad is clearing up on 888poker with several large 5 figure cashes. If Johno can win one of these guaranteed tourneys there is hope for all of us. Plus the added freeroll, exclusive to our members each month, is another great reason to get on here and play. Sure, the software does not match up to Pokerstars or FullTilt and there are less players online and less variation of games. But to build a bankroll at NLH there are few better places to do so than at 888poker. Get on it. Mark V

Undoubtedly, the answer to the above question should be, to win money! If you agree with this statement, then please consider the following. Northern Poker Stars are using Pacific Poker / 888poker (as it is now rebranded) for our online tournaments. There are numerous serious players among us, Jonny Gawith, Mark Atkinson, Bob Cloudsdale, Paul Lamonby, Dean Lamonby and myself that have noticed that this could possibly be the best site to win money on. 888poker is perhaps not as prestigious as PokerStars or Full Tilt, and hence does not attract the better online players nor as many of the world's pro's. It is generally speaking a soft site. It does not have the megabucks tournaments that some of its competitors host, but it has better value for money tournaments. I shall use for example, the $50k Gtd, which is held on a Sunday night. The entry fee is $75 + $5. I have entered this tournament on a couple of occasions, by winning some soft satellite events. The field has never been anywhere near full. I have studied this event over the past two months and 888poker are adding upwards of $12,000 to this event because it is under-subscribed. This happens week in, week out. Players, THIS IS FREE MONEY! A similar event on PokerStars or Full Tilt would be full if not over-subscribed. It would take a miracle to battle through the field to win one of these events on PokerStars or Full Tilt, especially when you consider that the field will be littered with pro's and sharks, whereas 888poker is littered with donks and chancers. My advice to you, is not to let this FREE CASH pass you by. Recently, I entered the $1500 Gtd on a Tuesday evening. $10 + $1 entry fee. 76 runners, so $740 of free cash. I took it down and won $450 for a total of $11. Rob Eilbeck played the same event on consecutive nights a couple of weeks earlier. He won both nights. $900 for a total stake of $22. 888poker also give Northern Poker Stars members, a freeroll every month worth $500. This is exclusive to our members and I restrict entry to those that have played any event that month. More free cash! What are you waiting for? If you can afford to let this opportunity pass you by, because you want to mix it with big fields and test yourself against pro's, then the reality is your ego means more to you than cold hard cash. If you are not already playing with Northern Poker Stars on 888poker, then download the software now via any link on this website. Fill in the Join Us form and take advantage of a soft site that is giving away money. For those of you that have already joined Pacific Poker or 888poker, and haven't played much on the site, then please consider what I have wrote. Under-subscribed fields + Poor players = FREE & EASY CASH. Later Dudes!

I would like to congratulate the new kid on the block aka CHUCKY Roberts. Chucky turned 18 last week and wanted to travel down to Blackpool for his first ever appearance in a poker tournament. Eight Carlisle players travelled down on Friday night with our spirits held in high regard. There was a field of 157 players and on his first ever live appearance, Chucky managed to cash for a delightful £1200. Chucky will be a player that I will be keeping an eye on at future NPS events, as the young buck is a talent for the future. Congratulations CHUCKY. Lammy.

Just wanted to thank Johno for lending me £30 to play the satellite to the £200 Northern Poker Stars Championship after I was knocked out yesterday. I now have my seat in what promises to be the biggest prizepool at any Northern Poker Stars event ever, infact the biggest poker prizepool ever seen in Cumbria. And I managed to get this for a mere £30 via the satellite. My day could have been even better if my friend Kev Smith had not finished on the bubble, as my cut from him would have sweetened the day even more. Looking forward to the next NPS event. Will Mac :-)

I think that there is an overriding lesson to be learnt from recent complaints about the 2k top-up. 1) At NPS, Johno, Paul, and I welcome constructive criticisim. Without your feedback and input it is much harder to give you what you want. 2) Johno has consistently demonstrated his flexibility and adaptability by acting upon feedback and constantly amending the live tournament offering to suit. 3) We predominantly run this poker club for the benefit of our members, which Johno has demonstrated consistently by offering the best value tournaments in Cumbria for the quality on offer. NPS have never look to increase their profits to the detriment of the players or the offering. I would therefore suggest, with immediate effect: 1) If you have feedback to provide then please do so. You can speak directly to Johno, Paul, or I. You can use the blog here or our facebook page where there is a discussion board, a Wall, etc. Send a private message if you prefer. 2) Think about your communication, what you want to say and what your suggestion for an alternative is. Re-read your comments before sending to ensure you are not just raging and that your message is clear and purposeful. 3) Think about your fellow NPS club members. We do not run this club for the 1, we run it for the many. We will never be able to please all of you all of the time, but be assured we work hard, putting in our personal time for little, or sometimes no financial gain, to continue to bring this fantastic club to our members. What may not suit you may suit many other players and you may just have to peacefully accept this on the odd occassion. I myself have things I would like to change but accept that this is from a selfish point of view and that the majority are better suited as things are in some cases. Be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem. For those who just want to sit around critcising without first researching the facts or voicing a constructive and correctly addressed comment to the club - 'stich and bitch' is available at a local venue ;) Cheers Mark.

Hi all. Confession time. It was my idea to have the extra 2K for a tenner. I got the idea from Vegas, where, if you enter a tournament in Planet Hollywood, you get 1500 chips for 50 dollars, but you can get another 4500 for 10 dollars which doesn't go to the prizepool but to the staff. Johno was telling me about the Kilimanjaro thing and needing to raise the money. I suggested that if people were getting a good return in chips (an extra 25% of 8K) for £70, instead of £60 then they would be happy to pay it, and if they didn't then that was their choice. What I didn't expect was all the grief that he would get. I'm sorry I mentioned it. I'm sorry that some people are so aggrieved. I'm sorry that people have such a short memory that they have forgotten when we paid a fortune for poker and got a small prizepool. I'm sorry that some people are never happy and are always bitching. I'm sorry that Ken is at the end of his tether trying to please you all. Most of all I'm sorry that we may be on the verge of losing our only LEGAL poker game when he says f*ck it and jacks it all in. I'll be donating my money directly. Regards, Bubbleboy Bob Cloudsdale

Found it a little strange to hear that Johno was dropping the 2K for an extra £10 (which was going to charity). This represents 2/3rds of our starting stack for 1/3rd of the buy-in. Granted the money isn't going to the prizepool, but I think we could all agree, it's going to a good cause. I know if someone offered an extra 10K at the Blackpool Deepstack for a £30 charity donation, we'd all be taking it. Anyway, I'm not whinging about the structure as I think it's as good as it's ever been and I also like the option to top up to 8K immediately (or at any point below during the first 90 mins as long as your level or below 3k). I was just a little suprised to learn that people had complained about this and even not turned up at tournaments because of it!? Anyway, for those of you who are going, I'll see you there on Sunday to try and remove Mr Potts from the top of that leaderboard. GL till then. Gaz Clucas

Let me start by saying what an enjoyable day out on Sunday. Poker days are brilliant at best of times, and when you are crowned champions it doesn't get any better. A very big thank you to Stuart Hoskin for putting team together and thank you to each and every player on my team. Well Done lads. Now to the rest of you, the set up and the running of Northern Poker Stars is fantastic and Johno, Lammy and all the girls, who do all the hard work, I Thank You. The pleasure and the crack with all the different people I meet could not be better. Just that little bit sweeter with the winnings in the pocket pmsl. Without these people running it i.e. Johno, Lammy, and the girls, Sunday's would be the same boring day as it had been for me for years. I take this opportunity to say all you who thought you were unbeatable, Team Marrows look forward to the challenge next year. Northern Poker Stars just gets bigger and better. Well Done. Amen. rebz1

Many thanks Johno for Sunday's game! About a fortnight ago, I received a phone call from Johno asking me if I was interested in playing in the Team Championships at Carlisle, as Stu Hoskin was a player down. I worked out that I would be off and agreed to it! It was of the unlimited rebuy format which I tend to have more luck at! My own game didn't really go well. The only decent cards all day were pocket Aces which won me a little but nothing major. I got my add-on at the break and was at about 14K, not a lot to try and be in with a shout of winning! After mainly getting my chips blinded down, I decided next decent cards would be an All-In! It never stood up so out I went probably about 45th place! Oh well, that's the afternoon wasted I thought. I had already seen Billy Morgan and Gary Fowler out. Oh well I will have a drink now that I'm finished playing, deciding it would put time in. Then before my eyes, my team mates started to bully the competition, especially the confident Carlisle & Whitehaven A team! Next thing it was final table. Moylesey notified me that if a player off the Jameaters team was knocked out then we would win. It happened! Even though I had a poor day, the team around me played the best poker, and duly picked up the points. Thanks to all the team for doing that, and a big thanks to Ken for ringing me for the chance to play. Without that phone call I was having a quiet afternoon in the house watching the footy, instead I had a great days poker, a good few pints, a nice little lift off winning and a trophy to fetch home, which I was informed, I had cuddled all the way home. It must have felt like when Stevie G had that 5th European cup in his bed, Johno!! Thanks again to everyone. Chris Neen

75 players made it to the £30/£30 double chance in Carlisle on Sunday 1st February. Another strong turnout. From watching some of the players myself, it seems that there is a good crowd of knowledgable players; some young guns with a more aggresive style and some older hands. I enjoyed working at the event, although it can be a thankless task dealing at times. I look forward to many more events at Carlisle. Congratulations go to Paul Lamonby for getting Carlisle off the ground so quickly and to this team of dealers, some of whom were working their first event. Whilst any comments directed towards me as dealer are water off a duck's back, I trust that the players show other dealers the courtesy and respect that you would expect to be shown yourselves. I doubt whether many players could do the job themselves!

I think this will be the easiest £200 I have ever made, and I have made some easy money in my time. I have also played with some talkers, the likes of Roberto Romanello, JJ Hasan and Andy Bradshaw, to name a few. None have fazed me, so playing against a scrawny kid from Carlisle should be a walk in the park. Anyway Deano bring some cash to play on the cash table with Chem and if you have any left by the time I win the £30 Double Chance, I will relieve you of it. See you Sunday. Joeboy

That counter proposal seems ok by me Dean. Just to clarify the terms, whoever finishes higher in the online leaderboard collects £1 per point difference from the other guy, but a MINIMUM of £30. This is the last offer - no modifications - do you accept? I hope so, it's always nice to have a "personal" duel to keep interest up. Cheers. Bob.

Bob Cloudsdale come on down. I must applaud you on your five minutes of fame there. Well done. I have sat up and took notice of your bet and I accept. But on one condition. Every point I finish above you, then you pay me £1 per point. You "Marras" are going to have to get used to there being a new kid on the block in this area, who has got the balls to back up his play. As for the team event, Johno and his gamblers (Joeboy, me and you are on!) want a side bet. I'm fine with that. The Carlisle Poker Maglems will show you that you can only gamble for so long before you come across poker players in the form of us Carlisle players. Form is temporary, class is permanent. Deano "The Poker God" Lamonby

Hello Fellow Poker Addicts, I would just like to wish all players, dealers, bar staff and poker directors, a happy Christmas and a profitable New Year. I would also like to thank Ken for all the work he does putting on the tournaments, as without him a lot of us guys would not get the enjoyment of playing LIVE poker anywhere else locally. With Fletch now having jumped ship it puts extra work onto Ken and it must be hard to do the tournament directors job, when really all you wanna do is sit down and play!! So from myself, and I am sure many others, thanks a lot Ken and please keep up the good work, not only for the "Cash For Kids" Appeal but also all us poker payers and I do include "All-In" within the title of poker players.. Hahahahha. See you all soon and I wish you all the second places behind ME that you can achieve!! Wiggy.

I would like to take this opportunity to offer my heartfelt best wishes to Dean and hope that he recovers from his mental breakdown quickly. It's always a shame to see someone so incapacitated that they actually become delusional. However I am not all heart and I think i will throw a gauntlet down whilst he is in his weakened state of mental faculty. I will say that not only will Mr Lamonby (Jnr) not win the online championship next year but I confidently predict that I will finish ahead of him. I will wager the £30 entry fee to the live event of next years presentation on this if he fancies taking up the sidebet? On another note, all the best to all NPS players and staff for Christmas and the New Year, and don't forget if anybody is still asking you what you want for Crimbo and your unsure, then tell them to buy you into a NPS event in the New Year. Bubbleboy

Deano, if you continue to use the title of "Carlisle's No.1", I will be contacting my solicitor and will proceed with legal action against you. This title is deservedly held by Chris Fairclough. After yesterday's performance by yourself, I think that you should consider using the title of "Carlisle's No-One!" As for picking up the trophy for Online Player of the Year, there is no need to do that Dude. I will get them delivered direct to my house. There is no need to go out of your way. Thanks anyway. I will let you hold it at the Presentation Day before I hand it over to the winner. I have left the Team Championship trophy at the Ukrainian Club until 7th February. If you contact Paul Bohaczewskyj, I am sure he will let you go to the club to marvel at the beauty of it, before I take it back to Whitehaven on the 7th February. Later Dude!

I would just like to say Well Done to everyone who played yesterday. I totally enjoyed the banter and have met some good lads from out West. I can only apologise for going out first. It was very erratic play by myself but these things happen in poker. I just have to take it on the chin and move on. I feel that I have let my friends down, my financial backers down, but most importantly my family who have stuck by me through my poker career. I will be aiming to put this right on the 17th Jan out West where I will be signing autographs and I predict that I will be on the final table and I will show them that Carlisle's No.1 will soon be West Cumbria's No.1 also. I predict that i will be picking up the trophy for the Online Player of the Year come December. Taking me out in any poker tournament is someone's highlight of the day, which show's just how good I am. So Good Luck all in trying to do so. Deano "Carlisle's No.1" Lamonby.

Congratulations Fletch on winning the online tournament title for 2009. Hopefully I give you a few nervous moments towards the end? However throughout the year the better player won the league. Once again congratulations and well played. Hope to see everyone playing again next year. Bri.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank NPS for buying me into the GUKPT Main Event in Blackpool, my reward for winning the annual loyalty award. NPS bought myself and ‘Tommo’ (winner of the GUKPT NPS satellite) into the event and unfortunately for us both (more for Tommo as I had position on him!!) we started the tournament seated next to each other on Table 2! Out of 287 players that’s similar odds to been dealt pocket Aces in my very first hand… which as luck would have it, lol, I found myself looking down at Aces… the very first hand!! Nowt like a settler when am rattling like I'm cold turkey… Anyway I was UTG so I cranked it up to 200 from 25/50 and the table folds, standard! At least I had won my first pot though and I was already starting to relax. The structure of the tournament was excellent, I thought it suited my game, 10K starting chips and long 60min blind levels meant you could afford to sit back and wait for premium hands. My poker was pretty standard throughout the whole day, with no real tough decisions and no real bad beats. I was involved in three races all day, two of which I won, KJ v 10's (W) 5's v A7 (L) K's v 10's (W). The first two were calls after button raises and being priced into call a short stack all-ins. The K's were 30min before the end of play, and I’d recently been seated on a table alongside John Kalmar (Skalie), 5th place WSOP Main Event finisher in 2006, Richard Wild (Wildrick – Ladbrokes professional and someone I have watched online for years) and a couple other pros whose names I have forgotten. I was down to 12K chips I had an UTG 2.5K raise in front of me. I was in mid position so decided the only way to play the K's was to Jam! Just as well as the fella to my left tanked for about 5mins before mucking what I found out later to be AQ, the UTG raiser called with 10's and my K's held up… Just as well AQ didn’t call as he’d have hit a wheel on the river!! Ended Day 1 on 26,300 chips, that was about chip average. Day 2 – I managed to positional raise my way up to 30K chips with uncontested pots in the first hour before I was suckered out by the river!! I played it all wrong so only have myself to blame! Action went a bit like this… A10 on the BB and I face a mid position raise from 1.2K to 3.2K which I flatted, flop come Ks10h7s, I check, and am faced with a 3.5K bet, I decide to make the call with the intention of either betting the flush or hoping I make a bigger made hand, I was putting laddo on AK or KQ. Turn comes a 10, so I now have trip 10's with the Ace kicker, I try to feign any improvement in my hand with a check, which hopefully implies I am on a flush draw which would suggest he would attempt to bet the turn to make the draw expensive given the last card to come, which I could have then reraised... to my surprise he checks and the river comes a 3rd spade to complete a possible flush a, considering laddos check on the turn I suddenly get a very sick feeling. So I check, and laddo puts a 10K bet into a 16K pot (how badly did I play that turn?!) So I tank for a bit and come to the conclusion that a pro would ~9/10 make the same kind of bet on the river even without the flush, as he must put me on some kind of hand, so I call and he flips 4s5s, my stacks decimated and I go out about 30mins later with 10's v Q's. The A10 hand still haunts me now, why didn’t I bet the turn?! 58th out of 290 runners finished 20 outside the min £2.5K pay out. Highlights of the event were sitting along side Mad Marty Wilson for most of the first day. His cracks were unbelievable! Tommo and I hardly stopped laughing after he joined us about an hour in. Tommo ended up at the bar with him for the rest of the night. Thanks again NPS!! Mike Farrer

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Johno on all the work he has been doing for the players of NPS of late. With the Team Championship already booking 7 teams and room for 3 more, Johno has recently announced the Individual Championship 2010. What an exciting and unprecedented event this will prove to be for the poker players of Cumbria and locality. 2 online satellites will be held in December at Pacific Poker - more added value from Johno. Now on to matters more personal. Fresh from taking apart the field of a new UK online site, including professional Neil Channing and a whole host of up and coming UK talent I will be making my long awaited return to the online games at NPS. I was unable to compete at Blue Square due to some unfortunate issues surrounding my account. More recently, the day job has kept from the new tournaments on Pacific Poker. Watch out players. Beware the Tournament Director. I look forward to this evening's game and will carry the sword for Kendal and salvage what is left of our town's poker graveyard.

After a quick look back through the blog updates from the later part of last night, Mike Farrer is through to Day Two. At 26,300 chips with blinds at 500/1,000/a75 Mike has an M (Chip Stack/SB+BB) of less than 20, so will have to be selective about picking his moves as play recommences at 2pm today. There is a strong field remaining including WSOP final tablist Jon 'Skalie' Kalmar and English Poker Open Winner David La Ronde,and fellow pros Michael McCool and Julian Thew to name only a few. Can Mike become the Vegas of the North Baby?

Sat on the same table at the GUKPT Main Event, Blackpool, with The Vegas Baby and Tommo, is none other than Mad Marty Wilson. He has promised Mike that he will blog the Northern Poker Stars website and will even run one of our tournaments for us! Later Dudes!!

Follow NPS's own Mike Farrer and Tony Tomlinson at http://blog.grosvenorukpokertour.com. A most unfortunate seat draw sees our boys sat next to each other at Table 2. No name players at the table; at least they are not names to me. Mark.

Good luck for the first event in Carlisle on Sunday. By the looks of things the numbers are going to be good. With the new format starting next month and the new pool of Carlisle players, I am sure both Carlisle and Whitehaven events will be back up to the 100 player mark. Keep up the good work and good luck to all GUK players this week.

http://boylepokerblog.com/

Following an online qualifier offered by one of the UK's newest poker sites, Ben Pooley of Lancaster qualified as one of four to attend the IPO in Dublin. He is currently checking out the opponents as his seat draw has been announced. I made contact with Ben via an online poker community and invited him to our last event in Kendal, of which he had kind words of praise. So, I think we are able to (sort of) call Ben one of our own, although he is not representing NPS at this event. I wish Ben the very best of luck and hope that all at NPS can get behind him. Chris Salmon, of Furness Poker, also joined us at our last event in Kendal and I believe that he is also at the tournament along with a few other players from their forum. Best of luck to Devilperch also. I will post a link, when I find one, for anyone who wants to follow the tournament progress.

Just a quick post to show my appreciation of an excellently run tournament on Sunday. The future of NPS in Carlisle looks to be secure in the very capable hands of Paul Lamonby. After all the talk of players conduct and the drop in numbers at previous events, it was great to see such a good turn out at the Haven Club. The new system appears to be working very well, with only one yellow card shown all day (in very good jest). I felt the tournament was played out in a great spirit with an equal amount of good humour and bad beats. Even the great ‘TT’ didn’t resort to full poker brat mode after running into a horrendous beat from Socks! I think it is plain to see that players are now taking the possibility of losing live poker very seriously and moderating there behaviour accordingly. This in my opinion can only serve us well as we try to cultivate poker players that can cut it at the highest levels. I hope this continues long into the future and we start seeing the return of many absentee’s. It would be great to see regular 60-70 player tournaments once again. Have to mention that yet again that the more talented (lucky) Steward brother took the spoils once again, leaving me to pillage the cash table as per the usual. Though in my defence I did lose two crucial races when 90% ahead! Congratulations little bro Grrrrrrrr.. Hope to catch you all at the tables soon. Ringo

Just been reading through some of the blogs that have been posted lately and to be honest I foud it quite disappointing reading. It seems like people have been taking these tournaments for granted and just an excuse for a p*ss-up and an argument. I totally agree with what's been posted by Moylesy, Ringo etc and had wondered why I hadn't seen the likes of Nan, Joan and Ann for a while. A lot has been said about losing the tournaments and more than likely NPS as a whole, but it's not just the players who turn up week after week for a game of poker and a laugh, there is also the other little thing called THE CHARITIES which these games support. Without the continued support of the likes of NPS these are going to suffer. Take the Children's Ward in West Cumberland Hospital for instance. They have helped one member of NPS when his baby was ill. They have also helped mine when he was born ill and they are always grateful for the donations. Now think about how you will feel if these tournaments end and in a few years time you find yourselves in the position where your child needs lifesaving treatment only to be told you can't due to government spending cuts, or your child can't go on that rugby/football tour because the club can't afford to take them. Can you see where this is going? Come on people it not just the players who are going to lose out, it's Cumbria as a whole! Kev The Fixer

Players, next year I am planning to make the online tournaments exactly the same format as the live tournaments. Same starting chips, same amount of rebuy chips, same blinds. Therefore with these tournaments being a "Double Chance" event, I would like your feedback on what the entry fee and rebuy fee should be? I don't want to price players out of these events, and I feel that if they were priced right, we would increase the number of players and hence the prizepool would increase. My suggestion is a $10 entry with a $10 rebuy. Please feel free to blog your suggestions. Later Dudes! P.S. Bob, I carry a shitty stick in the back of the van. I bet I could make a small fortune selling raffle tickets, with the winner handing out the thrashing... Hmmmm....

Hi, I personally reckon we can all let the odd "bluey" slip out under the wrong circumstances. However it is wrong. They don't allow it in Vegas, you get a polite reminder of the rules and usually feel a bit embarrased but make sure you don't do it again. If anyone is swearing, too often , "aggressively" (we all know the difference in letting one slip out and actually aiming it at somebody) or persistantly then they should get... 1) ONE warning only. 2) Any further offences should be 1/2 hour from tables (ten minutes is only 3 hands!!). 3) If they are still too stupid, too drunk or too ignorant to behave and they do it again then in my opinion it should be OFF!! Go to jail, do not pass go and do not collect any potential winnings. If I got my complete way it would also include a couple of whacks with a shitty stick and an "I'm A Numpty" sign around the neck, but I've always been a bit right wing so I appreciate that it may not include this "Stage 4" Cheers Bob

Whilst I have been away in San Francisco, I have given much consideration to the niggling problems that have crept in to the events, in particular, players that are obviously intoxicated when they arrive at the event and also the increased use of foul and abusive language. I am now going to clamp down on this in the following ways. Any player that turns up at the event in an intoxicated state, will be refused entry. This is also for your own good. It will save you money in the long run. I am going to introduce the card system as suggested by Kev Steward. Any player that uses foul language will be shown a yellow card in the first instance. This will be your warning. Any further violations will result in a red card which will indicate a 10 minute ban. If the player refuses to leave the table, then dealing will cease although the tournament clock will continue to run. After the 10 minute ban, any further violations will result in a straight red and further 10 minute bans from the table. Persistent offenders may be ejected from the event. Abusive or threatening behaviour towards a fellow player or a member of NPS staff will carry a penalty of a straight red card and a 10 minute ban. A secondary offender of this nature will result in the offender being ejected from the event. The card system will mean that the tournament director will not have to directly address the offender with a verbal warning and that will avoid conflict.

I am pleased to see other people complaining about the behaviour at the tables. I actually took a three month break away from the tournaments as I wasn't enjoying playing, as the drunkenness was spoiling it for me. Unfortunately due to commitments of people the tournaments dont start till 3pm which in my opinion is too late. I think something like 1pm would be better. The tournaments are known to go onto 10/11pm, which surely for people on first shift etc is far too late. By the time 3pm comes, people have been in the pubs since 11am or even earlier!! TT

Just thought that I would also add my opinion to the Blog, and hope the people that are creating the problems at NPS events, sit up and take notice. I agree wholeheartedly with Moylesy, the manner in which many of our members are conducting themselves at NPS events is getting ridiculous. I have been supporting poker in our area now for a long long time now. When my brother and I first began playing under the tutorage of Nana ‘BallBreaker’ Joan there used to be a big support of players from around the Bootle/Millom area. We have on many occasions escorted Joan, Nan Tyson, Mama Marshall and many others to NPS events so that they could enjoy professionally run poker tournaments in their local area. They used to thoroughly enjoy these events as did many of the players who got to meet and play with them (Many a hard-nut young rugby player found themselves being adopted by a matriarchal lady from Bootle). Unfortunately these players no longer enjoy coming to these events mainly due to the conduct of a minority of players. Conduct that has started to appear on a regular basis now. Drunken swearing, verbal abuse of fellow players & staff, threats of violence and players facing off in the car-park. I’m pretty sure that this is not the type of environment that any of us would wish our own mothers and grandmothers to be in. Please don’t get me wrong. At the end of the day I enjoy a few beers as much as any one, so I’m not suggesting in any way that we turn NPS into a ‘bridge club.’ I am suggesting however, that players decide what is important to them and act accordingly. If you want to continue the Saturday evening session, get absolutely hammered and fight amongst fellow drunks then there is a large selection of backstreet/dockside pubs that would be more than willing to accommodate you! I’m sure you could even find a fair few seedy illegal poker games going on to fuel the need for gambling between fights! If however you wish to enjoy a few beers and a professionally run poker tournament in a safe and comfortable environment, then feel free to continue supporting NPS events. When I first started playing poker in West Cumbria we used to regularly get fields of 60-70 players from all walks of life. Now we are struggling to get half that number and we no longer have the support of many enthusiastic players who feel intimidated by the atmosphere being created at the events. If you have no respect for yourselves then at least have the courtesy to give respect to your fellow players and the staff that are trying to make the whole experience as enjoyable, professional and relaxed as possible. You will all miss your poker if this opportunity is taken away from us. Frankly if I was Johno, I would have pulled the plug already! Last chance saloon players. It's up to us now! Ringo

Garry, I would like to thanks you for all the support, help and loyalty that you have shown me over the past year. It appears that you will shortly be rewarded by getting NPS events in a venue in Carlisle. I am really excited about this proposition. I can see the events in Carlisle attracting greater numbers of players than at any of our other venues. I am ultra-confident in the abilities of Paul Lamonby, to deliver the NPS product with professionalism and great enthusiasm. All we need now is the poker players of Carlisle to come along and experience the best live poker experience that you will receive outside of any casino. I am also looking for people from the Carlisle area, to train as dealers, at NPS events. No experience of poker is needed as full training will be given. The Future Of Poker Is In The Stars!

Thanks to Kev and Moylesy for their support for the staff at NPS and all that we do to provide you with THE BEST POKER TOURNAMENTS IN THE REGION. I need to now announce my frustrations at the total disrespect and abuse that is creeping into some of the events. Firstly players that are turning up drunk to the events. Please take the time to read the IMPORTANT INFORMATION on the page under the Live Charity Tournaments tab. It refers to expulsion from the tournament for foul or abusive language and also explains that excessive drinking will not be tolerated. With this in mind, I will consider refusing entry to an event for any player that turn up at the venue heavily under the influence of alcohol. My role is to run an effective tournament whilst safeguarding the players, and the staff. Any further instances of abuse aimed towards my staff, fellow players or myself will see the culprit receiving a lengthy ban from all Northern Stars Events. Secondly I need to address the players that are turning up late to events. This will not be tolerated in future. All events will start at the stated time and any player not in their seat by this time will lose the equivalent of the big blind from their chip stack every hand. Finally reserving of seats. I know that I ask for confirmation of attendance 48 hours before the event at the very latest, but the majority of players are following this to the letter. In future if the numbers are low 4 or 5 days in advance of the event, then I will not be prompting players with further text messages and phone calls, I will cancel the event. If I do not see a marked improvement in the above by the New Year, I will give serious consideration to terminating the NPS tournaments in West Cumbria and will put all of my efforts into Carlisle. Over the past 12 months I have introduced, a one rebuy system, longer blind levels, more starting chips, cash tables, improved prizepools. All of this is supported by Las Vegas Qualifiers, GUKPT Qualifiers, £100 Deep Stack Events, £30 Double Chance Events and Online Tournaments. I cannot give anymore. Now it is time to repay me with loyalty and respect.

Northern Poker Stars members in the Carlisle area got another boost from Johno yesterday with the news that NPS Tournaments will be up and running in the city possibly by as soon as November. This is a great opportunity for NPS to again widen it's exposure throughout the region and news that tournaments will be held in the Ukrainian Club in the city is a welcome boost for live players in the Carlisle area. We are all aware of the excellent work that has been achieved in the West of the region to set up and continue to run what can only be descibed as a very professional service for local players. This additional venue in an area of the region which requires more live tournaments is a very welcome boost. As a supporter of the tournaments in the West of the region, I hope that some of the regular tournament players at the Haven Club take the time to come over to Carlisle and support the tournaments in the city as they attempt to get established. The new tournament structure proposed by Johno will see an increase in the proportion of prize money being offered to players whilst maintaining the professionalism of the company by continuing to offer every table it's own dedicated dealer throught the tournament. With the introduction of the new structure I am sure that we will again see a rise in the number of player choosing to enter the charity tournaments all over the region. Moving on the the on-line side of things. I can only welcome the move to Pacific Poker. I can't begin to describe the connection problems I had with the Blue Square site and the frustration at trying to play on there. I would continually get logged on and set up at a table only to find myself getting disconnected just as quickly. I look forward to supporting the NPS fortnightly tournaments on that site and thank Johno for all his hard work and efforts to move the events to that site. Bluejays75

Fellow NPS Players. I agree with Moylesy's post, there is nothing wrong with having a drink on a Sunday, after a hard weeks graft and the banter is as much a part of the game and enjoyment as the poker, but at the end of the day respect must be shown not only to Ken, but also the dealers who are providing us with the opportunity to play live poker locally and who do not deserve to be abused or disrespected. Remember we have all walks of life playing including mothers and grandmothers, would we act like this in front of our own mothers? Suggestion for this is a card system similar to Blackpool pubs, it can add to the fun / banter but have the additional advantage of banning players who take it too far, yellow for minor offences such as persistant swearing or banter which is border line abusive, and a red card for obvious disrespect to NPS staff or fellow players banning players from the next tournament. Persistent red's gets a longer ban. What do you think? At the end of the day why abuse the people who are trying to provide us with a service that we want? Any disagreement amounst players should be taken out of the NPS environment and sorted out amongst ourselves. On to the suggested new format, I like the idea of a % of the rebuy's going back into the prize pool along with the dealers being paid separately. The charity will still benefit and we will have bigger prize pools for the players. Another suggestion I have put to NPS is a deep stack format say for £120 with £100 being the prize pool and the £20 going to the charity / dealers / NPS. Remember the deep stack at Blackpool for instance costs £110.50 but no money goes to charity and it costs us more to travel down. If we could get 50+ players we would have a game locally that would rival any casino. Again this can only happen if players support the idea and more importantly support the tournaments. See you all at the Vegas Qualifiers Kev Steward

Seen as no one has used this blog page for a while, I thought I would give my comments on the tournament on Sunday. Let me start by saying many thanks to Johno, Fletch, Julie and the lasses for the continuing to provide us with a local, cheap, live poker tournaments. Northern Poker Stars, was set up to provide us Cumbrian's, with the the chance of a legal game of poker, without having to travel to the likes of Blackpool/Newcastle etc, to a big casino, and we are the first of a kind in this county, as no licenses had been approved previously. To make the experience better, they have also provided us with casino standard equipment, and dealers, along with Vegas Qualifiers, GUKPT Qualifiers, £100 Deepstacks and even £5 Tournaments to try and keep the interest going. They have also provided us players cash tables, sit and go tables and online games. No where in the country, (outside of a casino), can offer you that legally. So the lack of respect shown to not only Johno, but dealers and other players, (especially on the cash table), was absolutely disgusting. Obviously most of it was down to the drink, and you can't stop people from drinking, and a bit of banter if fine, but after a while, it was getting out of hand. Now I for one know that Johno listens to every word/ piece of advice/criticism, and takes it on board, as he strives to make the experience a hell of a lot better for all of us, his friends. So cut the guy some slack, give him some respect, or I'm afraid to say guys, we are going to lose live poker in Cumbria, as I wouldn't take half the shit he does. Any other comments/criticisms to my post are welcome, and I'm sure they will all be posted. Moylesy.

Hi all. After my awesome time in Vegas it came as no shock when the Mrs declared that I am not going this year (even if I had won!!), something about the boy turning into a little git as soon as I departed. I was a bit gutted, but then again I got an agreement that I can go once he gets into school. So that will leave me at a bit of a loose end when the qualifiers start. I am basically offering my services as a proxy player for anyone who needs it. I will play for any player as long as they stump up three add-on's (not that I would intend to deliberately use them). I am not claiming to be a poker wizard, or promising to win events but I believe myself to be a solid player and I won't self-explode. If anyone needs it just give me a shout. Cheers, BubbleBoy (Bob).

For those of you that were not at the tournament on Sunday, I would like to once again, a) Thank Kevin for his years of loyalty at both the live and online games. It has been very enjoyable having you at the events and watching you come so close to winning, yet never have I seen a player so polite and unruffled when you get bust-out, and yes, it is usually by an inferior hand. b) Wish Kevin and his family all the luck in the world as he makes the terrible mistake of leaving behind, The Great British Weather, BBQ's, St.Bees Beach, The GB Rugby League Team and our fantastic England Cricket Team, to experience the much inferior lifestyle on offer in Australia.... U LUCKY B*****D! Seriously Dude, I for one will miss your presence and God knows how long it will take Brian Heywood to get over losing you. Kevin is having a leaving do around Workington on Saturday 1st August, and all are invited. Fancy dress is the order of the day, I have been told.

As most will know by now, I'm emigrating to Oz in 3 weeks time and played my last live NPS tourney today, which ended in it's usual style - big pocket pair being beat by smaller pocket pair improving on the board, lol. I would like to thank Johno and everyone involved with NPS for giving me the opportunity to meet and play against a great bunch of characters over the years. The standard of poker is a lot higher now than when I first started playing about 4-5 years ago, and the range of tournaments and prizes on offer now are awesome, with GUKPT and Vegas trips etc, and it can't be long before an NPS player lifts something from them. Anyhow I'm starting to ramble on a bit so I would just like to end by wishing good luck to all the players and continued success to NPS, and the next time I see you might be at the Aussie Millions, lol. Kev "The Fixer" McDowell

Sorry about the delay in the Vegas diary, but Sin City took its toll. The BubbleBoy, Big Al, Fletch & myself went to The Venetian for the daily Deepstack tournament. 18,500 starting chips, with low blinds on a 40min clock for $230. AMAZING! When we got there, we discovered that the price had been bumped up to $560. We all did not have that amount of cash with us, so we went to Caesars Palace to enter their daily Deepstack which was virtually the same as The Venetian. They too had increased the buy-in. Here is what is happening. During the WSOP, the major casino's are offering these Mega tournaments in the hope of attracting the worlds poker players. Venetian $560 for 18,500 chips, compared to WSOP $1500 for 4500 chips... The Venetian tournament attracted over 600 runners. I am not surprised. The winners of the Vegas 2010 competition will be given the choice of a WSOP entry or the chance to enter a few of these Mega tournaments at the likes of The Venetian and Caesars. I for one will be playing these next year, but then again, I have been lucky enough to play the WSOP.

Howard here... I guess it falls to me to give the non-gambler's verdict on this place - I don't think a couple of plays of bar top blackjack qualifies as gambling in this place... It's fantastic! Quite honestly I don't know how the rest of the guys find time to do any gambling as I am breathless from all the other stuff. You can find almost anything you want to do here, as well as almost as many things you definitely DON'T want to do (I'll leave that list to your imagination - but let's say the Dwarf Elvis Revue doesn't float my boat). It's just midday on Thursday and I am relaxing with a cold beer at the House Of Blues (staff very friendly, Gumbo smells nice but I am going with the Cajun Chicken Sandwich), having already ridden the roller coaster at New York, New York, photographed most of the incredible casinos and shopped for gifts. In the course of the week so far I have seen a Vegas show, relaxed by the pool, visited the amazing lights and lightshow of Fremont St, eaten some great food, including a fabulous Italian (Maggiano's), made use of the great hotel spa facilities, had a traditional barbers shave and shopped in some great arcades. Oh, and every night we have been out for drinks in some great bars and clubs till stupid o'clock in the morning. The rest of the boys are off playing competition poker today - they must be taking it seriously as I think they were back from the bars before sunrise. Last night - some of them even looked like they had had enough sleep to stand a chance. I am off later to do the Grand Canyon tour and Vegas Strip by night in a helicopter, before meeting the rest of the boys for a couple of quiet beers - followed by a lot of noisy ones! So just another average day in Vegas then. The non-gambler gives Vegas a big thumbs up - I just hope I have the stamina to get to the end of the week. Vodka Red Bull anyone? Cheers H

Well here we are three days in and the pace is starting to show. This city certainly knows how to chew you up and spit you out. The concept of time is a vague one at best but I seem to have worked it out. It is either daytime or nighttime, drink time or poker time, sleep time or playtime but they all seem to get a bit mixed up. Poor old Fletch is halucinating being dealt 7, 7 on the button. He only checked when the table checked to him. No action on the flop of K, 4, 2, and again he checks. Nothing of note on the turn and again Mr Fletcher checks. The river brings another 2 and a "villain" from mid-position bets out, pot sized. Our hero calls this paired board with an overcard to his 7, 7. Can't remember what the other guy had after the muck but this is when Fletch reveals the reason he was so passive. He didn't even see his 7, 7. He was convinced it was 6, 7. After some ribbing from Johno about how badly he had played the hand, Fletch remarked that he was sure that the players didn't have a 2 and therefore trips, to which Johno replied that he was in shock that Fletch knew what the other player had when he didn't even know his own hand. I managed to recover from a couple of days of bad beats and pulled back almost level for the week by staying sober and tackling the post midnight drunks in MGM and Planet Hollywood. For myself it is definitely a case of poker time or drink time, not both. Breaking News!!! Johno has been missing in action for 24 hours. Last seen on the stage of Cirque Du Soleil's Zumanity a sexual show at the world famous New York New York, being felt up by the performers!! Pictures to prove it. God this is tough!! Bubbleboy No More. Missing U .. My Arse!! Except U Jo X

It is 8:03am and I have just got in after a night on the tiles. Been awake since 3:00am the PREVIOUS day, so gone a full 29 hours without sleep. Yeaterday was my turn to excel at the cash tables. Fletch, BubbleBoy, Big Al and myself went to the afternoon tournament at The Golden Nugget. $60 buy-in with a $40 optional rebuy. No good for any of us and Fletch and I soon found ourselves on $1/$2 No limit Cash Tables. I sat at the table with £100, which had a maximum buy - in of $200. Looking round the table, my $100 was miniscule. There was in excess of $8000 on the table with a couple of stacks having almost half of this total amount. My 1st hand saw me flat call the BB and by the time it had got around the table, the pre-flop betting was in excess of $80. I folded my hand. The same thing happened the very next hand. I realised that this table was not going to be one on which I could get to see cards for anything less than most of my stack. The next hand saw me dealt Ace, Jack suited and I raised to $20. I got 2 callers (the 2 largest stacks) and the flop came Ace, Rag, Nine. One of the players adsked how much I had left and bet my remaining stack. I called as did the 3rd player. Turn card Nine, River card Rag. The aggressor then remarked that the turn card had destroyed my hand and showed A, 10. I had great pleasure in showing him my winning hand. I was up to almost $300. This did not go down too well and it was obvious that the big stack would not settle until he had taken all of my chips. I sent Fletch a text. he was on the other cash table and I told him that we were out of there. I might as well have been playing $10 / $20 for the amount that was going in the middle pre-flop and my stack could not justify that. As usual Paul wanted just one more hand and was bemused as to why I wanted to leave when I had in front of me three times my original stack. Paul's one more hand turned into about ten and I was down about $20 when I got dealt Big Slick. I raised pre-flop to $30 and was called by my nemisis. Flop came King, Rag, Rag with the Rag cards being Hearts. I bet $100 and was raised to $200.. Sorry but I was not believing this joker. I called and told him my remaining total as he was goading me about my small stack and what I had left. Turn card I was AI and the joker turned over 4, 2 Hearts! CLOWN... River card didnt make his flush and I was up to $520 after half an hour. By this time, Fletch had saw the light and came to my table with some cock and bull story about us having to be elsewhere. My nemisis remarked that I had his number.. For now... But he was going to get all of my chips with his remaining $3K+. I declined to agree, collected my winnings and left, much to his frustration. Ten minutes later and we are in Planet Hollywood on the cash tables. Pocket Aces are dealt and I raise with one caller. Flop comes 4, 4, 9. I bet $15 and my opponent raises to $45. No flush draw on the board and I am not believing that he has trips. Why would he want me out of the hand if he was holding trips??? No, wasn't having it so I called. Turn card brings another 4 and he goes AI. I didn't believe he had a 4 on the flop and now my suspicion was confirmed. he does not want me off the hand if he is holding quads. I insta-call and he turn Queens. What a shame! He is not impressed when I turn Aces and remarks that I should have folded when he represented trips.. Another joker! A couple of hours later and I cash out for a total profit of $815 on the day. Thank you to all those that donated to my drinking fund. Still missing you all... NOT... Later Dudes!

After a scare on the motorway, when our minibus driver decided to have a nap, whilst doing 70mph on the M6 and then being sat on the plane and having a 90min delay, so that the runway could be repaired, we have finally made it. The winners were treated to a stretch Hummer to take us from McCarren to our hotel. Bellagio is AWESOME.. Those of you that were here with us last year will know that and this years winners certainly do. On the poker front, things are going well... VERY WELL! The Blobster, Fletch and myself have been creaming the cash tables. Long may it last. It is now 5:30am and I cannot sleep. Had just over 4 hours in the past 3 days. Jetlag has kicked it, but who cares.. This is the life! Going back to the tables now. Will hopefully take advantage of some drunken Americans and relieve them of their Dollars. Check back for daily blogs. Later Dudes!

Just a few lines to say thank you. My trip to Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco etc etc was fantastic and very much appreciated by me. Without joining Northern Poker Stars I would not have been able to have gone so soon, so thank you to Johno, Paul, and all the dealer girls who help run this company. Meeting all the different lads and lasses has been great, all different characters in their own way, which probably makes it better lol. With a bit of hard work this club will go from strength to strength and Johno and Paul are heading in the right direction. Amen. See you guys soon. Mark Heavey.

Thanks Gatey for the link. I read the Blogs and got inspired. Your mate knows his stuff! I have now started a blog to track my own progress along with Mike's tracker spreadsheet (Thanks Mike). I included 21 rules specific to me, and my play, that I must stick to. These include known flaws I have in my game, as well as bankroll management issues. Hopefully this learning will improve results and bankroll management, but obviously I cant give these away as you will all beat me! I am now doing a similar thing to Bob, (thanks for the idea Bubbleboy) and have started the blog and the tracker from the 6th April with a $1100 bankroll on-line, spread out with $550 on Full Tilt and $550 on Nuts. I have set several goals for short and long term, mainly being GUK's and Vegas related with an Irish Open thrown in for next April. All tourny's will be included both live and on-line, including qualifiers. Thanks again Gatey, Bob and Mike. Setting goals and targets helps me get more focused and as Bob pointed out if you play at level's dictated by your bankroll you know you cant go bust and takes the pressure off. I believe the NPS blog is now being used as it should be for poker related ideas, help, tips and also passing on shortfalls and trying to help others from falling into, for instance, bad bankroll management traps, as I have in the past and I am sure most of you have. Kev

Hi All. Its been a good week at the tables, apart from the NPS game where my short stacked AI with A,J o/s was called by Bucket with Q,J o/s. Whey Hey I thought!! Flop came Ace rag rag. Double Whey Hey I thought. Then came runner runner Queens to kill me off (about 3 times in a thousand that will happen), so I wasn't very happy but as is said "Thats Poker!" With my bankroll management account, things have gone very well. In the few weeks that I have been playing I have turned $33 into $725!! I am very happy with the way things are going. I must admit I struggled through the $10 games, (between $200 and $400), I just seemed to bounce up and down between $300 and nearly $400 mark but then I got over $400 and started playing $20 SNG's. I found the level of play much worse than $10 games and I placed every game that I played. The best thing I am finding though, is the lack of pressure as I know my "roll" is never at risk. I can just make the correct plays (from reading my books and knowing the odds) at the right time, and in the long run the stats will even out. If I can keep thing up the target of $1500 by end of May should still be achievable. Then I will draw it out convert it to Greenbacks and blow the freakin lot in a drink-fuelled week in Mecca, probably ignoring all the rules that I used to build it!! TTFN Bubbleboy

After a weekend break, I decided to start to multi-table at the $5 SNGs - playing 3 x 9 man tables. Sitting on about $175, the aim is to get above $200 and then move onto $10 SNGs. Less than 2 days of playing later and I am down below my starting stack from last Monday! I record only 3 x 2nd places in 30 SNGs in total from Mon-Weds. What I need to work out is how multi-tabling affected my play and did I really play much worse than last week or had variance bitten me firmly on the ass. There are a number of questions that I am now pondering over. I have started to cut and paste hand histories to look back over and my stats for the game - flops seen and pre-flop hands won being 2 figures I am most interested in. What constitues a decent amount of flops to be seeing at the 9 man SNGs? What would consitute too loose or too tight? Anyway, I finish the week by arresting the slide a little and placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in my next 7 games. Figures for the week: $203.50 invested with returns of $76.50 for a loss of $127 and an ROI of -62%. Over 2 weeks I am down $17.75. Back to single tabling 9 man SNGs and possibly doubling up in the later stages with entry into a 45 man SNG, where the returns can boost my bankroll more quickly.

I thought I'd post links to the blog of a mate of mine. He now makes a good living (lots and lots of $$$) from poker and has blogged his progress from the start by playing low stakes SNG's approximately 2 years ago. I think it's a good read - it should provide good advice to those of you who are serious about making a go of it. Blog starts here (about 120 entries to this one): http://patonius2000.livejournal.com/?skip=120 and continues here (to the present day): http://www.leggopoker.com/blog.php?u=2525&blogtype=recent&page=8 Hope it's of interest to someone. Gatey

John - nice post Sir! It is always within our own choice as to how we behave. Our own integrity and our own values should not be cheapened because of external factors. Read books, don't read 'em. Play percentages, call flush draws when you're not getting the price, play like a lunatic or whatever you want. I know how I intend to go about playing, improving etc. I also know what is an appropriate amount of poker to be playing in relation to my lifestyle and certainly don't need any advice on how to live it. But thanks anyway ;) So, let's get back to the poker........cos I love it! And I am looking to get some serious results over the coming year or two. Starting by mastering the small stakes SNGs and then learning to multi-table succesfully. I know the variance can be brutal, even over 1,000 game stretches. I have heard that even those with a strong edge can run at best break-even over these periods. I have much to intake and am doing so on the 2+2 forum currently. I welcome any further discussion on this subject - see my first VBlue's Poker School of Science post. Thanks Bob for your reply thus far. Look out for my review of week two, coming up... VBlue

There appears to be a lot of debate at the moment on what constitutes bad play. How anyone can complain when they get called with 78 o/s against AK? Your short stacked, you need a caller, and you have all your chips in when you are a 63% favourite! Surely you can’t ask for more than that? Would it make you feel better if he had a pair and your odds are 50/50? Poker is all about taking advantage of the situations when you are getting favourable odds and getting out of situations when you are behind. No matter how good you think you are, lady luck will bite your arse regularly in this great game. All we can do is learn, adapt and improve so that we have the best chance possible. Knowing all the odds in any given situation may well give you a few percent advantage every game. As will recognising the moves that your opponents consistently make. Factor in some pretty obvious tells and betting patterns and knowing the value of starting hands in relation to table size and blind levels and you soon start to build up a considerable advantage. Books, magazine and forum’s can highlight many of these aspects, that we as players have possibly overlooked. I also believe, one of the biggest factors in improving our play is the ability to recognise weakness and predictability in our own games and being man enough to learn, adapt and progress! More importantly perhaps, is the need to change our attitudes in general. I have seen on many occasions at NPS events, people slating an opponent across the table for what they consider a bad call! Often when that person is not even involved in the hand! I have also seen temper tantrums and whinging that would put a 5 year old shame! This in my opinion has to stop… The whole point of the game is to get our chips in the middle with the best hand and hope to be called by a weaker hand! No matter what I think of an opponent at my table, I will always shake their hand and wish everyone the best of luck no matter how bad a play I thought it was! We all pay the same entry to take the same shot at glory. How we chose to take that chance is entirely at our own discretion and should not result in intimidation and name calling. Again only the opinion of a mediocre player trying to improve.. Johnny Ringo

I would just like to offer my version of events on the AK hand that Sean refers to. Sean was sat on the small blind and Ron to his left on the big blind, with quite a handsome stack. The table folds round to Sean who pushes AI for about 2K, (if I remember correctly), with blinds at 400/800. Ron had a brief think and called with his 78 o/s. It cost him 1200 to call, to win the 2800 in the middle. Hence pot odds of 2.5:1. Now, for a start, Sean could have been making the same move with any two cards after the table had so kindly folded around to him. Secondly, for those of us that have read a poker book or two, and I have to admit that I'm one that has, we would realise with pot odds of 2.5:1, we don't need much of a hand at all to make the call. Even if Sean shows me the AK, I'm still calling there, as I'm about a 37% dog to win the pot, making Sean a 63% favourite. 63/37 = 1.7, so the 2.5:1 pot odds are more than favourable in the long run. Maybe if more of us read a poker book or two we could have these sensible mathematical kind of debates about the game more often. Currently there are 2 of the top 4 best live players @ NPS, on current form, that I am aware of that read poker literature, although I still hear people at the events saying ''It's all down to the cards and bluffing''! Let them believe it. Gaz Cluc.

Regarding the standard of play at NPS events, I personally think it is 'normal', as in no different to anywhere else I have played poker at, eg online / Vegas / casinos. Like anywhere you get a wide range of different styles and as a 'good' player you have adjust your own game to suit. Granted there are players who choose to call off their chips with nothing better than a coin flip at best, but there are many more who play accordingly, i.e know not to go all-in preflop even with a 'premium' hand if there is a loose / drunk / beginner player still to act behind them. Possibly reading a few books would help some understand this simple concept. Mike Farrer

With regards to multi-tabling SNG's, my advice, if anyone is wanting to do it is to make sure you stagger the start times, so that they aren't all hitting the Bubble at the same time. Bri

TT has spoken so we all must listen. Don't bother trying to improve your game by reading articles or books it doesn't work. To use his own words, "what a load of sh*te". Sean if you have NEVER read anything about poker theory then fair play, as your results have spoken for themselves, but for us mere mortals, it does help to understand the theory behind the game. I suppose you will always be an enigma, moments of genius as you play, interspaced with moments of stupidity, usually when you open your mouth after you get beaten. If you bothered to look at the books you would realise just how often your AK will get beat by a random hand, and you may, just may stop whinging, but I doubt it. Don't bother slagging me off in response to this blog. I know you are a better player than me, but don't knock me (and millions of others worldwide) who need resources to learn better play. Maybe you should write your own book. " How to win at poker without reading any books." But of course anybody interested wouldn't buy it as that would mean reading one. TT, your a star, I look forward to your next little Gem of a rant. Bubbleboy.

Well what a week (and a bit). Firstly in the bankroll experiment, things turned round. I didn't panic when the losses were coming thick and fast and thankfully I didn't revert to type and "play bigger to win it all back". I stuck to my guns, I started to win the hands I was dominating and got a fair bite of the cherry with my races. This has been a quieter period due to work commitments and also the dreaded DIY required to prepare for a new kitchen, (cost is not coming out of my bankroll!!!!). Anyhow I digress, the fund has come back up by about $60 and is sitting over $300 again. Should have more time this week to get the hours in. A comment for Mark on his adventure. Mark you said in the email you sent to me that you were using Hannah's account. You also said you are planning to play FOUR tables!! I personally think this is a mistake in SNG's as the action can get frantic towards the end. You need to concentrate and you need to keep an eye on players and watch for their actions. I think this is very difficult with more than two tables in SNG's (because you play more hands towards the end). It is easier at Cash Games where the static blinds allow you to keep your starting requirements the same, (tight). Just another note, if you hope to make a living out of poker, then you missed the biggest aspect that is RAKEBACK RAKEBACK RAKEBACK!!!! You must bet a new account that qualifies for rakeback. I can email you a link that will get you 100% matched deposit bonus (up to $600) and 27% rakeback!! If you are going to play as much as you say then only a complete numpty would not go for rakeback. It will earn you hundreds of dollars a year at your stated level. I hope you don't mind me replying in open forum I thought it may be useful? I will reply to you personally with the other data you asked for once I get back online more. Cheers Bob

Interesting views on bankroll management and choice of game Bubbleboy/Vblue. Your advice and views on the game is appreciated. My personal views on the matter of playing serious profitable poker are that it is very important you find the specific type/format of poker you are best at, by this, I do not mean the actual game, i.e, PL, Omaha, Hold-Em, Razz, etc, as I only play No Limit Hold-Em, I mean the format of the game which best suits your style of play! I've played poker for 4 years now and have pretty much tried most types of No-Limit. I started on the small Cash Tables and Freerolls, then through $3 - $10 Freezeouts and Rebuy MTT's in the early years, progressing to $20-$50 Rebuys and $100 Freezeouts and the occasional big game Satellite, all with quite a lot of success. Since returning from Vegas in June 2008, I have started taking bankroll management more seriously, and am happy to say that I am in profit, both playing Live and Online in the months since. My preference is still MTT's but I like to ensure that all MTT buy-ins are bankrolled first via SNG profits. SNG games I play are the $10 6 seater Deepstack on Blue Square. I have a consistent ROI on this game of 30-40%. I haven't found a game I'm more suited to, so I'm pretty much in my niche with this one. Another favourite of mine is the 6 seater $10 & $20 Double-Up SNG's. Simply finish in the top 3 and you double your money. If you look at it like the flip of a coin which, as long as your game is suited to SNG play, is gonna fall your way more times than not, then in the long term your in the money. Granted this will not result in an annual salary Mark, but these do help to maintain/boost your bankroll if your like me and like to fund MTT play. My preferred MTT's are the $10 Rebuy 10k & 35k Gtd's on Blue Square, as well as the occassional $20-$50 Freezeout Deepstack. I've won the 10k twice and cashed many more times including a 9th in the 35k, all considerable cashes, and I'm pretty sure if I played up to 9hrs everyday and followed my formula of SNG profit pays for MTT games, then I could achieve a reasonable salary, but prefer my 9-5 at the minute though ;). See you at the tables, Mike Farrer.

How can reading a book on poker possibly help you play poker!?! What a load of sh**e! I've never read a book of poker in my life and can't possibly see what help it could give me. At the last tournament, I raise AI with AK (was quite short stacked) and I get a caller with 89 o/s and the player says, "Well I'm calling because I could hit a straight" I would like to know what book he reads!?! Now come on and let's be serious... The standard of poker at NPS is shocking and the rule of thumb is the worst hand pre-flop always wins. Enough said. TT

Read Marks blog today and as he asked for advise. Here is mine; Instead of trying to make a living from poker, spending hours on the computer, look for a job. Joeboys Advise Line.

You have The Bubbleboy Experiment and now I would like to invite you to VBlue's Poker School of Science. I, too, read the Chris Ferguson bankroll management article recently and, due to being currently out of full-time employment, am making a fairly serious effort to build a good income through online poker SNGs. I will also be following the rules of bankroll management and began playing last Monday with about $75 on FullTilt at the $5 SNGs. Mainly playing 9 man, but also some of the 45 man, with the odd random 18 or 27 man game too. I will be looking to match the 20% ROI I have read is achievable. ROI is simply 'profit/investment x 100' for SNGs. So, I should make $1 profit for every $5 SNG I play. Obviously, moving up the limits and starting to multi-table is a must to have a chance of making a liveable income. 4 tabling the $30 SNGs for 6 hours per day, 5 days per week should yield about a £17k per annum income. Week 1 has gone very well. 13 x 9 man SNGs, 3 2nd places and 3 wins makes a $109 dollar return for a $71.50 investment or an ROI of 52%. Add to that $107.75 return for $55 invested in other SNGs and 1 MTT and an ROI of 96%. Total profit for week = $90.25 or ROI of 71%. Any advice / thoughts / etc are very welcomed. Mark V.

I would just like to say well done to Ken, Paul and NPS for getting the gaming license and being able to step up the poker service they provide in Cumbria, to new levels. I know this has taken a lot of hard work and I think it has come at just the right time. The Sit And Go's, GUKPT, Vegas tourney's and the Deepstacks will go down well and I am sure will build the numbers back up to new heights. Well done to you all. Regarding bankroll management, this is something I am not good at but I am getting better. My advice, set a target. Mine has always been live events such as a GUKPT buy-in. My current target is the Irish Open in April. Yours may be, say $1000. Pick a format you know you are good at. You will lose money as you discover your strengths, so play small stakes. I discovered that I can only play high stake >$100, Deepstack, Freezeouts with 9 / 10 seater tables, NLH, normal blind speed. I have proven to myself that I can't play cash, rebuys or small stake tournaments as people are too willing to gamble which does not suit my game and I lose interest very easily. I can play Sit And Go's, but again very specific, 6 or 10 player tables, normal speed, $50. That's it. I think if like me you can get bored then play no more than 2 tourney's at any time. Cash outs from tourney's can be few and far between especially if your having a awful run of bad beats, so I also think you need to keep the bankroll up by playing no more than 2 Sit And Go's per poker period. My Nuts bankroll has been known to fluctuate over $3000 in one poker period. Now my limit is $110 for Sit and Go's and $330 for Freezeouts which is < 10% of bankroll for tourney's and < 3% for Sit And Go's. The final and most important piece of advice, again I learnt the hard way after loosing over $3000 in one poker period! If your running bad, leave it and come back another day fresh. My main objective with the Sit And Go's is to maintain the current level of bankroll and support the tourneys, the bankroll builder is the tourney winnings. Don't play tired or when you don't really have the time. Again only my opinion, and other systems may well be better. If you fancy a go at some big live events, go on the ipoker network (Blue Square, Nuts ect) and look for guaranteed qualifiers. Be patent and you will find some under-subscribed. This is the case at the moment for the Irish Open. $300 entry 5 seats Guaranteed Freezeout (my format), each package is worth about $8000, so a $40,000 prize pool guaranteed. I played in one that had only 92 runners, 92x$300 = $27,600. In this case we had $12,400 between 92 of us for free. You still got to win mind, and I did not! See you all soon. Kev (Bootle's No2)

Just a quick update. It has been a mixed week. At the end of last week, I was just about to break the $200 barrier and be able to play in $10 dollar SNG games. This happened quickly and I then raced forwards. I won my first three games and placed second in the fourth. Whey Hey, I thought, I'll be through the $400 barrier and into $20 dollar games before I know it. Not so!! The wheels well and truly fell off. I can't win a race! I have lost nearly every situation where I have dominated an opponent. My bluffs have all been looked up. When I get AA, KK, AK's etc, it has always been in the BB and all have folded. It is as though every piece of variance has all gone south at the same time. My bankroll has took a battering and I am back down to $240. I am still able to play the $10 dollar games but I hope for a change in fortune this week. Just had another read of Phil Gordons, "Little Green Book" and hope to employ some of the tactics that I had forgotten. Here's hoping for a better week. TTFN Bubbleboy.

Well here we are at the end of the first week in which I have ever tried to stick to bankroll management, actually its just over a week, but I was a bit lazy in getting this typed up. In my last blog, I was saying about the 5% rule for single table SNG's and 2.5% for a cash game or a MTT. I have stuck to this religiously with my pokerroom account, but I must admit that my NPStars online game didn't count as it is on another site and I just wanted to play with the other members (yes you). I started the week with around $140 in my account and as my preferred game is SNG I could only enter the $5 games. Once I hit the $200 then $10 are allowed. It has been a quiet week poker wise, as other things have crept in, but I did manage to get a few games in. I raced up to about $190 and was looking forward to doubling the stakes to $10 and making cash even faster, but it wasn't to be. I played when a little tired and lost 5 games in a row. I will admit 3 were my fault, playing poor cards, in poor position and trying to blag it even though deep down I knew I was doomed. 2 others I was genuinely ahead and got sucked out on. The upshot is I took a hit to my bankroll, but I didn't go "on tilt" and try to play a bigger game in order to win it all back, (something I have done in the past!) I just stopped playing for the night and came back the next day. I have now reached $195 so hopefully this coming week will be spent playing at the $10 level. The good thing is I have never felt in danger of losing the lot. In the past I have been having a good run at $20 tables and then moved to $30, lost a few and stayed at $30 and before I knew it blew about $300 in a couple of days, got mad and deperate and played worse!! My bankroll is now safe, although small, it is growing and I have now set a mental target of $1500 before end May. I may not get there, but one thing for sure is I will have something!! TTFN BubbleBoy

Loving the profie on 'All-in'... What a fella. The first time I met him was my first ever tourney up at the Haven Club over a year ago. I hadn't played much poker before and I got this right d**khead on my table, whom I later found out was "All-In". I thought he was picking on me. Every hand that I raised, he was All-In. When I eventually called he turned over some awful hand and I took great pleasure in turning over my pocket Aces, only for him to hit a straight on the river and knock me out!! After a few more events I started dealing and came to realise that actually 'that d**khead' is a really nice bloke. I am well aware how annoying he can be but he doesn't take it too seriously and he provides free entertainment, especially when he has had a few pints! God Bless All-In! HaHa!! Jo x

A very informative read for those players who are playing online poker and looking to make a return. Cut and paste the link into your browser: http://www.pokerplayermagazine.co.uk/pokertips/skillsandstrategy/8478/what_are_the_most_profitable_forms_of_online_poker.html?CMP=NLC-Newsletters Mark VBlue

John - I will echo your advice, albeit I never really want to educate my opponents! Harrington on Hold 'Em is my poker bible. A better read for Tournament Hold 'Em than Super System, in my opinion. I also subscribe to two poker monthly magazines 'Poker Player' and 'Inside Poker'. I receive a monthly subscription to 'Bluff' magazine too, which I will be distributing for free, to my pub poker weekly players. Invaluable strategy in all of these publications. For the goose to keep on producing the golden eggs, we must make sure we look after the goose! That means joining poker forums for hand discussion, discussing poker with our fellow players in the pub/at events, reading poker strategy and, most importantly, putting in the playing hours. Mark VBlue

Now then Dudes, I understand completely the frustration of the Donk factor. I am sure we all have many examples of losing with the best hand by far.. Unfortunately that is the nature of the game.. If you consistently take a couple of 70/30 AI's per tournament, you are pretty sure to be leaving before the money long term!! Personally, online, I have adopted the Kev Steward method of dealing with them and risk the minimum amount of chips.. I used to play very aggressively pre- flop and re-raise with premium hands all the time, only to suffer at the hand of the donks who are basically going to call anything! Once you hit your hand with little invested in the pot, a true 'Donk' is still going to oblige by calling you down.. (Hard to put down AK when you know the other fella has called with garbage and hit and you have completely missed I know!) At the end of the day you want to be called when your ahead, and as long as you keep your investments to a minimum, you will end up turning a good profit long term.. Would also like to agree with the previous blog about bank roll management.. I only play tournaments online, and never invest more than 5% of my bankroll for any one event.. This ensures that a run of bad beats is not going to see me re-loading.. In addition I would like to recommend a poker tracker as part of your poker armoury.. Mike Farrer kindly provided me with an EXCEL tracker he uses, that allows me to optimise my investments.. After hundreds of tournaments I can plainly see the events, buy-ins and tournament structures that are best suited to my abilities.. ($10-$30 Freezeouts and $30-$50 MTT's Rebuy Qualifiers for the bigger events). 6 months in operation, over $6000 in profit and 5 out of 6 ECOOPS played means I'm really starting to enjoy my poker once again. This is from a self-confessed 'mediocre player' optimising his investments and giving himself the best possible edge over the opposition.. Good cash's at the Blackpool Freezeouts have shown that this strategy /management and patience also appears to work in live events.. Admittedly small profits for a lot of invested time ($4-$5 an hour) when I worked out profit / time invested.. By watching and learning the strategies and styles of players like Kev, Mike and 'TT' and carefully managing our bankroll and tournament selection, we can all improve and adapt our games. This also allows us to understand the strategies and plays when faced with these players we copy, that allows us to outplay them, should we clash in the heat of battle.. Having read this blog, I suspect all of those players will use that knowledge to out-manoeuvre me at our next event though.. LOL! (thats why they are the ones to beat after all). I have learned the hard way, to leave the Ego at home and be prepared to learn and adapt constantly. Give it a go. What have you got to lose? I spent an interesting hour at Mark & Linda's charity game with 'TT' explaining exactly how and why he plays hands the way he does.. Eye opening stuff and very shrewd tactic's for the standard of play at NPS, (results proven). I have also spent many hours watching and talking with Kev and Mike, both live and online, (two completely opposite styles of play) and learnt the plays they make in given situations.. Finally I would like to recommend the bible of poker as a learning guide.. Harrington On Hold' Em - Expert Strategy For No-Limit Tournaments. 2 volumes from one of the best players in the game.. Huge amounts of information and break downs of real hands, in real situations. A must for any serious Hold'Em tournament player.. Looking forward to the outcome of the gaming license for NPS as well.. Deepstack Freezeouts, GUKPT Qualifiers, Sit and Go's, Vegas Packages and decent Cash Games.. We may be seeing ourselves getting spoiled for choice shortly. I hope so! Hope to see you all the tables soon. Johnny Ringo.

Thanks for the post Bob. I will have a read of the articles that you have mentioned and also read some poker literature that I have at home. I will also stop screwing Nun's to see if I can get God back on my side, and hopefully my luck will change!?! I for one will be interested to see how you progress with your pokerroom.com Vegas quest. Could you add a blog each week to let us know how you are doing? Later Dudes!

Johno, firstly let me give you a big hug and tell you its all going to be OK! Now that the man love is out of the way, let's get down to the poker bit. I have playing poker online now for quite a few years, more than I probably want to admit. I have probably not played consistently enough, but regardless, have also probably not improved enough as a player as I perhaps could have. Despite this, I now believe that when I play low-level SNGs and MTTs that I am one of the best players at the tables and have the ability to win. I also take this to the pub games I run, although to be fair the standard here is not WSOP standard! So recently, I have been learning more and more about variance and how it can affect your game, despite you making the right moves. Now sure, losing a 5/3 situation often is going to happen, even losing the odd 4.5/1 overpair v underpair is going to happen (although I think I did mention a run of 18 times this happened to me online in a row)! Even the odd 3 outer on the river will hit against. I think that variance is a misunderstood factor - unless you have read and understood the swings that can be experienced (and I am not suggesting you have / haven't), but would suggest you bear it in mind. There are some good examples of the average returns players can expect at various levels online, looking at hours played, no. of tables played, stakes etc. I think this starts to show how variance will restrict the returns for even the most solid of players. A break is always good when poker is getting you down. I always find that after only a few days and getting back to a little poker reading, perhaps watching a game on TV, always soon stirs the loins for another game! My motto is this 'Live Right' a phrase I think I stole from Andy Holden 'The Big Deal'. The results will come... Mark VBlue

In response to Johno's blog about being unlucky, I feel I can comment a little. If you are a semi-decent poker player, you will suffer many more bad beats than a donk. You know when to spot thhe danger signs and get out of a hand, and so usually don't get AI with s*it hands, unless forced to by a low stack situation, donks don't. Therefore you will usually have the best hand and get whacked a lot by donk callers. The trouble with say aces vs 2 opponents is you will win about 60% of the time. In a cash game thats ok, but in a tournament it could quite easily mean your out. I read an article the other day on bank roll management, all about playing at the correct level for your cash, so that a bad beat (or run of them) cannot wipe your bankroll out. It says that the absolute maximum you should play is this. In a multi-table tournament 2.5% of your total bankroll. In a single table SNG 5% of total, and in cash games the table maximum should be only 2.5 % of your total cash!!! Man this is really low. But it says that if your ability is suitable for the tables you are playing then you should never have to reload, ever!! Because a run of bad beats cannot eat all that bankroll. You have enough cash for 20 SNG's before running out, if your not in the cash 40% of the time you are playing above you ability. So as an experiment I resurrected my old pokerroom.com account (had about 25 dollars in it from a year ago). I started playing the 1 dollar SNG's and I now have $140. I am going to follow the rules between now and the Vegas trip and see how high I can build it. If your interested in bankroll management then just google it. I found Chris "Jesus" Feguson's article posted on fulltilt.com tips section awesome. Give it a try, even though the bad beats will still hurt like a bi*ch, they wont clean you out. Remember the player as a donk and tackle him again (remember to tag him as a friend in online games and make a note of his habits, track him down in future games and nail him for his donkness). Cheers and TTFN Bubbleboy.

Dudes, if it wasn't for the upcoming trip to Vegas, then I would give seriously consideration to taking a long break from poker. I have seen tournament after tournament when the players complain about bad beats, but mine are constant and it is becoming unbearable. Where am I going wrong? I cannot remember the last time that I won when my chips were AI. Last Sunday I am AI with A,9 suited, low in chips, Joeboy has to call me from BB as it is only 1K extra and his 5,3 becomes a straight. The following night in the NPS Online Tournament, on the final table, the Blobster raises to 1200 (blinds 200/400), I re-raise to 3800 AI with pocket 8's and Blob calls with pocket 7's and spikes a 7 on the river. I go straight onto the 6K Guaranteed. Half an hour in and my starting stack has increased by 70%. I pick up pocket 8's UTG. I raise to 400 (blinds 100/200) and get 4 callers. Flop brings 5 Spades, 5 Clubs, 2 Hearts. BB puts in a pot size bet. I think that he doesn't have a 5. Why bet your trips on that board? I raise and it folds around to BB. He re-raises putting me AI. Still I do not believe him. I call and he turns Q, J o/s and spikes a Q. he then says that I am a Donk! £5 game @ Richmond on Thurs. Dealt AA on the button. I raise to 600 with 4 limpers in the pot (blinds are 50/100). I get re-raised by SB (a player who has quite a lot of experience), and a new player calls. I can't get my chips AI fast enough and both players call me. Scenario is this, I have raised to 600 and get re-raised to 1200 by SB, who gets called by a new player. I then go AI for another 2825, making it 3425 total. How many of you would still call? Both players call. SB has pocket 9's and the new player has K5 o/s. Flop comes 8,7,A. I am delighted... Trips... Turn card 6, River card 4... SICK! I have my rebuy and later on short stacked I get dealt A, 9 Hearts. I call a raise by a different new player and the flop brings Q Diamonds, 4 Hearts, 8 Hearts. the new player puts me AI and being low on chips I call, expecting a worse case scenario of him having a Q. Plenty of outs with any A and the obvious nut flush draw. He turns over J Spades 6 Diamonds and hits a J on the river (no it wasn't J Hearts!) WTF is going on? How can I suddenly become a bad player or am I just the unluckiest poker player at NPS? Do I need to take a sabbatical from poker? I am a man that loved the game and now it is leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. Any advice Dudes?

I would just like to say thanks for a very profitable night of poker at Richmond. This was my first win, and I hope to see u all for a rematch. Thanks to Johno & Paul for very good night. From being short stacked and then to go on to win was some sort of miracle. I guess lady luck was on my side. Alan Thwaites.

After another night of playing good solid poker, I find myself on the final table and slowly but surely find myself playing heads-up for the tournament victory. I continue to play good poker so I can get the chip lead and wait for the right move. I now have 60% of chips in play and get dealt pocket 6's. I go all-in and get the call with my opponent on K6 o/s. I think that's more than I could hope for, me dominating his 6 with only 1 overcard, a bit like the last Vegas tournament when I had AQ and opponent Q6! Well I think you know the outcome, yes he spikes a K! Another 2nd place finish. What a good turn out it was with loads of new faces. Some dubious poker being played, but at least Chunky went out on the bubble Johno hehe. TT

You are certainly hot under the collar this week TT!?! In defense of the previous WildCard winners; Jimmy Moore was unable to go to Vegas because of circumstances that don't concern anyone else other than himself and Mark Heavey only sold his Vegas package because it clashed with, very aptly, TT week! Jimmy Moore is a very avid poker player and has taken his seat at the GUKPT Manchester leg rather than sell the prize. He will be representing NPS at this prestigious event and we all wish him the very best of luck. Mark Heavey has been attending the TT races for over 30 years. He organises for a group of his friends to go to the TT and they stay at Mark's sisters house in Ramsey. Other people are reliant upon Mark for this trip. He was not to know when he entered the Vegas events that we would be going during TT week. Mark has also recently purchased a new motorbike which he intends to use on the tracks during TT week. This aside, he still put monies in the Vegas fund, which I am sure that he would have done even if he had known that the trip was to clash with TT week. For that, I am very grateful to Mark. Mark has used the monies that he obtained, when he sold his Vegas trip, to fund his holiday.... To Vegas and a tour across the U.S. Hope that the salt is not burning your wounds too much... Later Dudes!

This is my final idea! Well why don't the people who win the WildCard draw actually go to Vegas and enjoy their prize? It's rubbing salt in the wound for the other people in the draw, who actually want to go on the prize package. Maybe next year someone might win the WildCard who actually has a great interest in the game of poker and would love the opportunity to go. Surely the folk interested in the draw are in it to win it, but this obviously isn't the case and would rather take a cash reward from it. I suggest that the draw for the prize is exactly for that, and is non-refundable or negotiable. You either go or you don't. TT

The idea behind the WildCard draw was to give the players, with less poker experience and therefore less chance of winning a place through their limited poker skills, a good opportunity to still win the trip to Vegas. I will not be awarding extra Wildcard enteries to players that make the final table. The idea was to keep players involved in Vegas events, even though they were potentially well down in the points league. Widening the gulf between the better players, who are higher up in the league (and then giving them more chance of winning the WildCard) and the players that are lower down, will cause a mass exodus. Thanks for the ideas though TT. Keep them coming. Later Dudes!

This is another idea that I have, I think is quite a good one. If you get to a final table in the qualifiers, you automatically get another WildCard entry. If you win the single event, you get 2 WildCard enteries. Maybe if you win 3 events then have 2 bad ones, at least you know your WildCard draw odds are better. This may encourage participants to play all events, gaining more odds in the draw. That's an idea along the same lines as paying for all 5 events up-front to gain a better chance of winning the draw. TT

I realise there is a load of hype about the Vegas tournaments at the moment, everybody has their own ideas about what went wrong in their own attempts to qualify. Mine personally was getting Johno to proxy for me.. Useless he was!! (Only kidding big fella I was very grateful you played). But let's face it, one bad result doesn't kill you off, (look at Kev Steward last year). One format may be to go for blocks of points. Keep final table as it is now, 11-20 placed finishers, gets say 12? 21-30 placed finishers, get 15 etc etc. The mulligan could be a good idea, as in you use best 4 from 5 scores but ONLY if you play it. If you an miss event you get full points and they must be counted and you drop one of your other scores. On another note, my wife recently suffered an adverse reaction to the heat of the sun, on a holiday to Egypt, resulting in a momentary loss of her usual view of poker and gambling, (devils work she reckons). When i got the text from Johno with the results of Vegas 5 and the WildCard, I says "Aw shi7E, I haven't been lucky, maybe next year!!" And she says, "Well it's your 40th birthday this year, treat urself?" I was so shocked I actually said, "nah lass, its alreet, I don't want to pay to go". 2 seconds later I realise the sun must have got to me too, and I'm thinking, " Why the hell did u say no!! she just gave you the golden ticket". 5 minutes later, Johno was texted and I'm joining the trip. Can't wait!! See you all at the tables. Bubble Boy.

Guy's its easy to say that "I only stopped coming to the Vegas events because I had one bad result". What happens though if you have 2 bad results, in Vegas Parts One & Two? Are you not then going to be in the situation where you again lose interest in the series of events? I do think that the idea proposed by Sean is something to work on, but to use it in the events as it is, would be wrong. It wouldn't work. My main concern is that a player could simply not turn up to a tournament, in the knowledge that they could drop that event from his overall score. If everybody did this on one occasion, then it would be a 20% drop in the Vegas fund. I need to think about TT's idea and tweak it. My initial thought is a player can drop their worst score, but not if they have failed to attend the event. Another idea is to award a player a bonus score for playing in all 5 events. Nothing too severe. Perhaps a deduction of 10 points for remaining loyal to the series of events? Keep it coming please. Lets work together to enable NPS improve. Later Dudes!

I must say that the only time I will agree with Sean, (haha), is about the Vegas tournaments. It was due to 1 bad round that I lost interest in coming to the rest of the tournaments! Good Idea! Gaz Meag.

In reply to Sean's suggestion, I in principle agree that on one hand, it may benefit the tournaments in respect of population if a player can disregard a poor result. On the other hand, if a player feels that he / she does not need to attend, and either cannot find a proxy or will not pay for a proxy to represent him / her then the Vegas fund will suffer as result. This will put NPS in the situation that it has been placed in this year, where we have been "encouraged" to make-up the shortfall in the Vegas fund, so that the WildCard was "honoured". What we will do for Vegas 2010, is make the 1st place finisher and the WildCard, the 2 guaranteed places. If there are enough monies in the fund, we shall retort back to the finishing positions in the league, i.e. 2nd place, then 3rd, if monies allow, and so on. Any player that pays for all 5 events in advance and subsequently goes on to play all 5, will have 2 entries in the WildCard draw. This I feel will be a very attractive proposition and may help to stop the mass exodus after a poor tournament result. Later Dudes!

I would like to make a suggestion on how to run the Vegas tournaments next year. I think the tournaments should be run over either 5 or 6 legs, with your best 5 or 4 lowest scores to count towards your total at the end. A lot of tournaments, in all aspects of sport run this way as it allows for any mishaps or events that you cant attend. Plus it will encourage players to keep playing as they know that as they can drop a round they have done poorly in, and hopefully keep their hopes of winning alive. It will also take a bit of pressure off the organisers as people who rely on them to find a proxy player can simply just drop the round when they can not find a proxy. This idea I think will maintain the numbers throughout the full tournaments and not let them drop away towards the finishing post. Anyhow, thats my idea. What do you think? Sean 'TT'

Cheers Johno, Julie and all at NPS for the professionally run tournaments you held to win a once in a lifetime prize. It's a shame that some people dropped out during the events, although it did give the wildcard entries a better chance so maybe not that much of a shame ;) Maybe next time you run this you could make it a 7 Tournament event as this may encourage people to keep playing even if they do have a bad day and therefore more people maybe able to win the opportunity to go along with yourself as there shouldn't be as many people dropping out. Anyway just an idea. Keep up the good work and thanks again for the tourny's. Bri.

Nowhere within our county, or further, is there a poker club to be found that can rival the offering put together by Johno, Paul and all who work for and with Northern Poker Stars. To offer not 2 but 3 Las Vegas trip prizes - 1 of those being at least partially funded by Johno and Paul personally (due to the accumulated prize fund not sufficiently raising enough money) is quite simply the biggest prize in poker in our region. Players, my message to all involved with this fine poker club is this - please keep on supporting these events and please keep contributing to the growth of the club. But, please do so with R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Share your views - either in person or on this blog (add your name). After all, NPS exist because of its members and you all have a right to your say. Also, please do hold in mind that this club is run to offer the players the very best in tournaments, prizes, online games and the all-round poker experience. I, for one, want to offer my thanks to all; from the dealers and waitresses to Johno and Paul. I was a whisker away from an amazing prize and want to offer good luck and bon voyage to Allan, Blob and the wildcard winner in their exploits in Las Vegas. I hope to make some of the regular tournaments up on the West Coast throughout 2009 - so see you there! Mark 'The Dragon Slayer' Varela

Mike, I agree in principle with your idea, and thanks for the extra work load :-( No really, I don't mind in this instance, because I want more and more members of NPS to experience The Mecca Of Poker. I would love to have the company of more and more of you each year in Vegas. I have only one reservation and that is, I don't want the satellites to have a detrimental effect on the numbers for the Vegas Tournaments. Please send your comments in on this or any other subject. Later Dudes!

Congratulations to Blob & Al on winning the Vegas packages! You are in for a great experience. If I wasn't getting hitched this year, I would have been there with you. Right chaps, now that the Vegas competition is over and done with, I was wondering what your thoughts are on the possibility of some additional Vegas satellites being held to send additional winners next year? I'm sure you will all agree the prize of a luxurious week in Vegas with all expenses paid, during the World Series Of Poker Championship, is a great opportunity for us? Without going into too much detail (I will leave that to Johno), my preference would be for a 20 seater, similar to the GUKPT format. I am keen to see what other players think? Mike Farrer

Thanks for everything you did in organising and running the Vegas competitions. It was great to be involved in it. Its not just the winning, it was the experience of it all. They were all run to your usual high standards. Thanks for everything. I would have loved to be one of the winners or been able to afford to pay my own way to come to Vegas with you all, but overall it was fantastic just to be part of it and have as much fun as I did. Who knows, maybe next year? Thanks again. Christian Neen

I agree with Guy. Good tournaments. Well run. Good banter. Hope that incident on final table yesterday doesn't fcuk it all up for everyone. Congratulations again to Blob, Alan and whoever got the WildCard... lol The Fixer :)

Hiya Johno. Thank you for the Vegas events. I had a good time, even though I didn't win. You run it very well. I used to work in casino's at both Leeds and Blackpool and you run your tournaments better than they are run in the casino's. You also give the personal touch as you know everyone. Thanks once again. Guy Woodburn.

Well here I sit with an ice pack tucked doon the front of my pants, after a savaging at the hands of "The Ballbreaker". I managed to scrape my way to the final table at the Haven Club yesterday with not much action to speak of. Lost my initial 3k to Jeff Cass's KK when I got QQ dealt, built back a bit and then had my favourite moment of the day when I busted Sean "TT" Forsyth. Of course our own poker brat berated my early position raise of 3xBB (1800) with Q J spades which folded round the table he called all-in for about 1200 and he showed Ace 4 off-suit. I spiked a Jack on the river and he was out. Now then boys and girls, here is a multiple choice question for you. Did he say, a) Well done Bob, I was short stacked and had no choice, nh. b) What an awful move. Man what were you doing, how the hell can you raise pre-flop, early position with QJ blah blah blah blah. I will answer next time. I hasten to add that the man who likes to critisise all out play was in this awful position because he re-raised with Ace rag against KK and had his butt kicked. (Re-raise Ace rag ok - Raise QJ not ok? mmmmm). Now what I would like to say is this. Sean your results speak for themselves, however you have got there with some lucky hits, as we all know is required and you will be much more respected as an individual if you learned the phrase "Nice hand mate, well done" and took losing as graciously as you whoop like a loon and yell "C'mon yes" when you suck out. As for my demise. First hand on final table, and I am short stacked as is Joan (sat on my right hand side). I am thinking I will push if it makes it to me - no chance, The Ballbreaker was in like a rat up a drainpipe, "All-in" she says. I look at my poor 6, 7 and think it's Joan these may be ok, but I fold and she shows a King. About half an hour later and we have both chipped up a bit. I have 30k and Joan has 21k. Blinds are 3K 1.5K with 300 ante, so getting a bit rich. I look and see Ace Jack and decide I am gonna fold untill Joan says, "All-in" and the devil on my shoulder persuades me, "Its Joan, she will be trying it on with the Gay Waiter again", and before I know it, I am saying, "Re-raise, all-in". She flips Ace King and I am toast!! I died 3 hands later with K, 3 Clubs. The two morals are; 1) Lose nicely or be known as a **** 2) Even the Ballbreaker plays good hands sometimes!! TTFN Peeps "Bubble Boy" Bob Cloudsdale.

We had another enjoyable day with the lads and lasses of NPS yesterday. Seeing some bad beats, and hearing some really bad jokes (thanks Wilma & 118). Tys got his customary 10 minutes in the sin-bin, but didn't spill a drink as the beaker has helped, but it took him time to realise he had to suck. Thanks to all the NPS staff and members and hope to see you all in the New Year. All the best, Joeboy.

2nd post of the day - with regards to the Vegas qualifiers: 1) All Vegas qualifier dates were posted in advance, giving people plenty of notice so they could decide whether to enter/tournaments they would need proxy players for. 2) Every player - in my opinion - should have really budgeted for £60 spend for each tournament. 2 rebuys and 1 add-on, bearing in mind some of the loose play pre-break would be about right. I personally have now only spent £120 across the first 3 tournaments. 3) Any player entering the tournament series would surely have been tempted by the possiblity of a Wildcard draw and therefore have looked to ensure entry at all 5 tournaments. Due to changing circumstances - I now cannot make the next tournament and will be looking for a proxy and a suitable deal for that player, (I will provide £60 to play with). 4) I understand that after 2 tournaments, some players would feel out of the running for the automatic qualification places. However, the Wildcard offers good odds. Let's say a total £250 spend to win a prize worth £2k+ - additional to the chance to win £ at each individual tournament. Please also remember that is only half of your £30 entry that goes towards the Vegas prizes. All rebuy money also goes into the Vegas fund - the only expense deducted from this is the dealers wages, nothing else. No money is recuperated by NPS for transportation costs or maintenance of our equipment. EVERY last penny, except for the girls wages, goes into the Vegas fund. Let me also advise that a huge risk is taken in the running of all our live events, as a profit can only be shown after all costs are covered and this is dependant entirely on rebuy money. Not enough rebuys = no profit or even a loss. Thanks for listening twice. Mark Varela.

Now fellas these blogs are all getting a bit heated and bitchy! I can understand everyone's point of view here... Johno does work hard to organise these events but it should be up to the players themselves to organise their own proxies and again it should be up to them how much money they give to those proxies. In my opinion that's not really got anything to do with anyone else. Also reading the other blogs, I feel that some people need to remember that not everyone takes their poker that seriously and some just play for the fun of it... I know the more serious players out there might find it annoying when you get chased out etc, but I can assume that you have done it in the past yourselves? After all it is just a game! Now play nice, this is the season of goodwill after all! See you soon. Joanne x

My personal opinion is if you can't find your own proxy and come to some prior agreement with that person regarding re-buy money then you should forfeit your place. I don't think NPS should be spending their time running about after us, as we are all grown ups and can look after ourselves. NPS offered this service so that the Vegas fund wouldn't be losing out and that the people who couldn't find a proxy would still be in with a chance for the Vegas prize. With all the grief they seem to be getting from some people, I bet they wish they hadn't of bothered. I understand that things crop up at the last minute as last year it happened to me and I forfeited my place in the Wildcard draw as I couldn't find my own proxy in time. If NPS do offer their help and all your willing to give your proxy is the original buy-in then you may as well just ask them to blind you out instead of letting someone else give up there Sunday afternoon, in the hope they can get you some extra points on the buy-in alone. Bri.

I do not want to cover any old ground already covered in previous blogs, rather to summarise my feelings and give an outside perspective: 1) There is no other poker club in this region that offers anything like that of the Northern Poker Stars expereince - I am sure I do not need to reiterate that offering. 2) Johno puts in an unbelievable amount of time and effort to ensure that Northern Poker Stars continues to offer the best possible prizes and poker games, both live and online. 3) Having now worked for Johno - I can assure you that often, the financial returns are in no way whatsoever measurable against the time and effort gone into the running of this club. Nobody, outside of those involved in the running of this club can really understand or know all the effort, hours, love and care that is put in by Johno, our dealers, Paul, our numerous collaborators and me - despite what they think they may know. 4) If Northern Poker Stars were only interested in taking your money - we could do so. Our offering would be of poor value but our profits would be high. We will never go down this route or I, for one, would no longer be involved as a TD. 5) We greatly appreciate the support of our members, whom without we simply would not exist at all. 6) I have felt the frustrations, to a lesser degree, of the efforts it takes to set up events and some of the other work that goes in to the running of this club. I question myself from time to time - "Is it worth it?" The answer is 'Yes' - for 2 reasons. I love being involved in the local poker scene and I strongly believe in the brand of Northern Poker Stars and its owner - Johno. 7) We also have a massive appreciation for everyone else who assists in the running of this poker club - from dealers, waitresses and all other connected parties - who know who they are. I am proud to be associated with Northern Poker Stars; the alternatives, certainly in my area, are simply poor imitations. Please continue to voice your opinion - but perhaps in the knowledge that all that most of you have to do is turn up and play, and possibly leave with one of a number of great prizes. Johno and I, and our other connected parties - hold full-time jobs and have very busy lives but continue to deal with all that is thrown at us, to offer you the best poker club in Cumbria and possibly further. I would like to finish on a very big thank you to Julie and the girls who worked at the last event - running this whilst Johno helped one of our members to try and stay in the running for Las Vegas qualification. Thanks all. I look forward to seeing you all again in West Cumbria/South Lakes. Mark Varela.

With reguard to Specsavers, I have now got my glasses and see your blog clearly now, but I think you took mine too much to heart. I think the majority of players do appreciate what you do and dont take the P, but such is life and you will, whatever you do get those who will take the P. My comment about "unlimited" rebuys was possibly a little harsh, but it got the point across that some players are on a budget and may not be able to afford to let a player, who they may not even know, blow away their hard earned cash. Joeboy XXX

Guys, for reasons beyond me, I cannot see how you can read into my blog and suggest that I am demanding unlimited rebuy's? I have stated that Bob gave me an open cheque book to represent him at Vegas 3. I only had the add-on, and that was because I was raped of 75% of my stack by a Loose Cannon with rag cards. If all I was concerned about was putting money into the Vegas fund, I would have heavily invested Bob's cash into the fund by playing poker like some of your peers. Therefore this proves that I am not asking players to plough unlimited rebuy's into the Vegas fund. We were also in the recession before the Vegas tournaments started. If a player could not realistically afford to play the series of events, then he / she should have opted out. A sensible person that could afford to play, should have budgeted for the five events accordingly? Now lets cover appreciation. I do appreciate you the players and I am very grateful for your support. I have proved this time and time again. I organised all the logistics for the players that came to Vegas in 2008, that were not part of the winning group. I booked everything for those players, and it was I that was responsible for payment of everyone's holiday. That group of players only had to turn up on the day of departure and everything was in place for them. About six months ago, I lent, Player A £100 at a tournament, and was told that I would get it back, when his friend came through with his money. To this day, I have still not received that money. I have lent several other players cash when they have turned up at the events, short of money, because they "didn't have time to get to the bank" etc, etc, etc. At Vegas 2, Player B told me that he couldn't afford to play. I lent him his entry fee and also gave him monies for rebuy's. Player B cashed that night and his winnings cover all 5 Vegas events. At the recent GUKPT tournament, I lent Player C and Player D £75 each so that they could play in the event as they were "a little skint", but they "really wanted to play". I did this to ensure that we had enough numbers to justify the event, but also because I like to think that my "customers" are also my friends. I told the 2 players that they could pay me back in the New Year. One of the players cashed that night and rather than paying me back there and then, asked me to extend the aforementioned courtesy! I have also given players lifts to events in Kendal and Haverigg and refused to take any money off them for fuel. If people think about what I do, then my appreciation of "customers" can never be brought into question. Gratitude and appreciation is a two-way thing, so why then, when I left the tournament on Sunday, to take my son home, did a group of players decide to try to hold a cash game, using my equipment in the venue that NPS had booked? You all know what my stance is on this.. I DO NOT ALLOW IT & the 1st time my back is turned, this group of players show their appreciation for me! Later Dudes!

Being the mediator I would like to add the following. I can see both sides of the story here. I agree with Joeboy to some extent, the poker players are Ken's / Paul's / Mark's (NPS) customers. I also agree that the amount of money committed to each tournament, be it Vegas or Charity is a decision made by the player. There is a recession on and some people may not be able to justify unlimited rebuy's, especially near Christmas. Buy-in's, rebuy's and add-on's can only be a decision made by the player who knows his or her limits. NPS should in deed be greatful of player participation regardless of budget as increasing numbers by keeping the customers, (players happy), has to be the overall goal. Asking people to commit more than they can afford or making people feel guilty about there choice of rebuy / add-on could alienate players who may chose to stop supporting events. On the other hand, I can also see Ken's frustration. He is trying to run a tournament, what can only be described as the ultimate poker prize, which I will vouch for. I know how much effort NPS and in particular Ken put's into the Vegas comps and we the customers really need to support him to ensure we continue to get this fantastic opportunity. NPS want to ensure that proxies have sufficient money to realistically represent their player, which again is only fair and the responsibility of the sponsor of the proxy. In addition, if the player commits to playing an event and does not turn up without good reason, he / she should be liable for the cost of the ticket. Finally I think maybe Ken has taken on too much due to his good nature. It is up to us the players (customers) to sort ourselves out with proxies, buying our tickets and turning up at events. All Ken (NPS) should need do, is organise the events, advertise, send out the invites and allocate seats. I am sure that the players Ken has to regularly chase up will soon click on and sort themselves out when they start missing events and slipping down the leader boards. Most of us are online and have access to the NPS site and receive the general text form NPS (Ken) so we have no excuse. As a final thought I think a very small minority of players actually want to give Ken / NPS the run around to chase them up for events, as they perhaps feel that an event is not complete without their attendance, as they are such high class players. You know who you are, get yourselves sorted and book your tickets in advance like the rest of us fish and Ken, stop chasing the prima donna up. They will soon start begging you for tickets when they get behind "All-In" on the leaderboard. I think the above is blunt but fair?? Kev Steward

Ian, think it's about time that you went and bought some glasses. Where in my blog does it mention that I think that proxy players should be given unlimited rebuy's? Please tell me, because I cannot find it? Did I not also state that I was given £30 and told that I could use more cash if needed by Bob, and I only had the add-on, no rebuys at all. What I am addressing is the players that expect a proxy, who in most cases, I sorted out for them, to turn up at the venue, at their own cost, (Tim came all the way from Kendal to play as a proxy), and represent that player, so that he / she, still has a chance of winning the Vegas comp or at least the Wildcard draw. The player then fails to give ANY monies to be used as a rebuy or add-on, or makes the token gesture of £10. Would you want to give up your afternoon and travel at your expense half way across the county under these circumstances. You have also made a mistake, by stating that the £30 goes into the Vegas fund. That is not the case. Half of the entry fee goes into the Vegas fund and the other half is paid out in the prize pool on the day! I draw your attention to Bob's blog. Read it and digest what he says. Do the maths, and look again at the rules of the Vegas tournament on the website? You are well wide of the mark in your comments. Ask yourself this, "Is it fair that some players are willing to put more money in the Vegas fund than others, such as Joan, Mike, Durk, Bob etc and still have only the same chance of winning the Wildcard draw than those players that are sending a proxy with little or no rebuy's to put into that fund?" I will be having a rethink on this for next year. Finally, just to comment on your obvious sarcasm, the Wildcard does not benefit me in anyway, it does in fact causes me a problem in that I will then have an odd number of players to accommodate in Vegas. I stated that 2 people share a room and there is no single occupancy allowed in the world class hotels. Remember also that the Wildcard is for you, the players, not me. I am going regardless of whether or not there are sufficient monies in the Vegas fund to justify the Wildcard. The more rebuy's, the more players that would win this prize. Yes, thank you to all of my customers, especially you Joeboy, now perhaps you want to look again at your blog and amend what you said. No apologies are necessary, I am becoming very thick skinned. Later Dudes!

Sorry mate but I have to disagree with you on this matter of people sending a proxy. I think that they are supporting the Vegas fund by sending a proxy in the first place, even if they don't give unlimited rebuy's they are still putting £30 into the pot, plus lets say £10 or £20 in rebuy or top ups. Please don't forget these are your customers and dont have to play poker, they may not live for the game as some do but play for entertainment or to put a Sunday afternoon in. I don't know how many turned up on Sunday but to me it didn't look a bad turnout. Julie & Shep looked busy enough to me with the rebuy's and I don't think there was too many who didn't top up at the break. Please remember also people just don't have the money or have other more important things to spend the cash on like family or mortgages, xmas etc. So a BIG thank you to all who turned up and contributed would be more appropriate? Thank you for your custom and please call again. Joeboy

Hi All, I can confirm that I am the 'loon' that was quite prepared to pay my proxy to play. Lets look at the clues here. I was asking somebody to give up about 6 hours of prime weekend time, to help me, not them, achieve a fantastic holiday of a lifetime and the chance not only to rub shoulders with but to actually sit down at the tables with the legends of poker. I thought it was quite fair that anybody willing to do this should be 'rewarded'. Hence I asked Johno to find me a proxy on the deal that he mentioned in his blog. He said, "I was being stupid & that people will play, if you provide them with the rebuy's etc." I couldn't believe it, I mean we all know the prizes at the Vegas comps are half what they should be- it is the big prize that matters. I just been on and Googled the package. I reckon it is worth £3K easily. I cannot believe that people expect NPS to provide £9K in prizes (3 winners and a Wildcard) from no rebuys!! Get real. I mean even at an average of 60 quid per event ( 30 entry, 2 rebuy's when u get unlucky and an add-on), it is still only £300 over 5 months - thats pot odds of 10 to 1!!! I mean each to their own, but how can you expect somebody to play for you and THEY pay the costs?? It's like saying come and work for me, 6 hours mate, and you may get paid if you play really well, and don't fall foul of some idiot loose cannon. Oh, by the way it will probably cost you about 30 quid - interested?? I think I know what I would have been saying. Cheers Bob

I've got to agree that Sunday is a bit short notice to give someone time to find a stand in for them. These tournaments are set out at least 5 months in advance, so surely people can organise something? Don't get me wrong, I know incidents can occur when people can't attend and I'm sure Johno can be sympathetic for the genuine reasons, but if Johno just said, "No, find your own player", then that looks like he doesn't care, when deep down he does, and the fact that he wants to give someone the opportunity (maybe not through their poker playing abilities) to go on a chance of a lifetime trip to Vegas, to play against the best in the world says it all. I personally think that only giving the £30 entry fee to a proxy player isn't enough to get the result that folk want, but also would a free for all, unlimited amount of rebuy money sway peoples mind to call with any 2 cards, and think what the hell? ( this might reflect on people's attitude towards the game and upset a lot of genuine players who are on a budget trying to win the big prize). I only hope folk appreciate what Ken does for them and hopefully this will spur folk on to make alternative arrangements in a reasonable time scale. TT.

Players, I try to help you as much as possible, but it is getting to a stage where my good nature is being exploited. I sent out a txt message last Tuesday reminding players that the next Vegas comp was on Sunday 7th December. I shouldn't need to do this as we have a perfectly good website that is updated regularly, that shows the tournament dates. I also said that I would help any player that required a proxy, by finding them one. This I did for most of you that couldn't attend. To address Mark's comment, very few of the players that I found proxies for even knew who they had and hence made no deal with them. Several players only paid the entry fee and gave no money for rebuy's or add-on's. If a person is helping you out by giving up his or her time, then at least show some appreciation? One guy came all the way from Kendal to play as a proxy and had no additional cash, only the entry fee provided. How would he have felt, if his pocket Aces were bust 1st hand by some loose cannon, calling with rag cards, and he was out of the tournament? I gave that guy £20 out of my own pocket! Another player provided his proxy, whom he knows well, with £10 on top of his entry fee. How far was that going to get him? I personally played for someone that was willing to provide entry fee, rebuy's, add-on, £30 if I made the top 20, £50 if I made the top 10 and half of any winnings! I refused the offer of the bonuses because he has done plenty of work for NPS, free of charge, but rather than allow him to give his money away, I played for him instead. Obviously this guy knows the worth of the prize that is up for grabs and I invite him to confirm the above? He will also confirm that I had no rebuy's and just the add-on, £10 plus the entry fee, £40 total. All of your rebuy's swell the Vegas fund and the more money in the fund, the more players that go to Vegas... How simple is that? Obviously some players don't understand the value of what is at stake and some players are hoping that other players put the lions share into the Vegas fund whilst they sit back and hopefully reap the rewards. Let me address Paul's comment about the Wildcard. I have not yet made my mind up about the Wildcard draw. The site clearly states, "In the event of enough monies in the Vegas fund, the third person winning the above prize package will be a Wildcard. This is any player that enters all 5 tournaments, regardless of where they finish. Hence loyalty to these series of events is being rewarded." If the tournament continues to lose players at the rate that it is and we have players that do not want to put money into the Vegas fund, then why should I be out of pocket? The ball once again is in your court.. Finally, you will have noticed that I have had my son around at the past couple of events. He stays with me every other weekend. I love my time with my son and wish that the events had fallen on my free weekend. This unfortunately is not the case at the moment, but I will address that soon. What I do find annoying is when players are phoning me, on a Sunday morning, to see if I can find them proxy players for the event that day, and I spend over 2 hours running around after adults, that should and could have organised the proxy players themselves at an earlier date. I know that I offered my help, but why leave it to the last minute, when I want to be spending quality time with my son. Start to have some consideration please? So taking the p**s.. Certain players are taking the p**s out of their proxy players. Certain players are taking the p**s out of their fellow players and certain players are taking the p**s out of my good nature. Christmas is a time for giving. If anyone wants any lessons in that, I will make you an appointment with my son, who can show you the way. Later Dudes!

I suppose it depends what you agree with your proxy. Personally if I sent one to play for me I would expect them to pay for add-on's or rebuys but also wouldn't expect to take any prize money off them if they won any. Mark Nicholson

Last nights Leaving For Las Vegas Part 3 Tournament was a hard fought contest, eventually won by Rob Eilbeck, (well done), who slow played his pocket AA’s against Allan Jackson. Unlucky Allan, but great points towards your challenge for a Vegas seat, (well done again). But on a serious note, because of the tournament being down by 10 players & 12 seats being played by proxy’s who had in some cases only being given £30 entrance fee, plus £10 for either a re-buy or a add on, (if anything at all), the Vegas fund was down by 30%. This is making the justification of the Wild Card draw very hard, but it will be honoured, even if it is at our expense. If we have proxy players entering the tournaments, we need them to have a chance to play poker and not just sit tight and get blinded out, give them a chance to win it. These players are doing you the favour by giving up there time, to play for you, to accrue points for you in the Vegas tournament and also to enable you to remain in the hunt for the Wild Card. We also have the added problem of the current exchange rate of the £ against the $, which is currently at least 30% down, although this could change before our trip. We are trying to give you the best poker tournaments; with the best rewards we can, so please support us. Anyway that is the end of my concerns and on to the online game tonight. Good luck everyone, see you there. Paul C (Fletch2309).

Why go to all the expense of a £500 program, when people can't be bothered to ring you now, so what makes you think that they would log on to reserve a seat? It would only be a handful who would use it. A fairer way to allocate seats would be a bag with marked chips. All you need is chips marked with a table number and a seat number. This would make the seating fairer. As it is now we are at your mercy as to whether or not you put us on a table with All-In Chambers. When paying for our entry, we get to pick out of a bag, a chip with your seat and table number on it. Another money saving idea from Jewboy.

I would like to congratulate Johno on another interesting, and surely controversial, player profile. Having ran two tournaments in Kendal, of which Sean has won both, let me assure you he is the man they want to beat here. And for good reason. I would like to also agree with some of Johno's sentiments. Sean is a poker player of some skill, no doubt. I personally hit a Q - Sean had put me all-in and I called with AQ vs AK - at the last Vegas qualifier, which believe me was all the more sweet against such a 'feared' opponent. The 'feared' opponent part is not a sentiment I share ;). I am aware of the 'bratittude' that has been mentioned and I am also aware of the dry wit that Sean exudes. Not as dry as my sandwiches though - eh? I look forward to seeing you down in Kendal / South Lakes again Sean and to playing against you in the remainder of the Vegas tournaments. Congratulations on your Player Of The Year 2008, much deserved I am sure. Mark Varela.

Yeah that sounds like a great idea. I would definitely use the online reserving facility. Think it will encourage people to book early as well incase they have a favourite table number / seat number. Bri

Great News. I recommended a software program to Macey months ago as I have never been happy with the way seats were allocated. I may have nothing to nag you about soon my little Toy Boy! The Ballbreaker.

Just to clear up some confusion over this. You will NOT be able to pay for your seats, only pre-book them. You will need to be a member of NPS and will have to log into the Members Area, to view a diagrammatic tournament table structure. If it is a 70 seater tournament, then there will be 7 tables with 10 seats around each table in positions 1 through to 10. Available seats at individual tables will be coloured green. Seats that have been reserved will be coloured red. You will NOT have any information about the player that has reserved each individual seat. Only I will have that available to me. Any player that reserves a seat and fails to turn up will be eligible for the cost of that seat. I will reserve the right to move players to a different table, if I suspect that the system has been abused, for example if I find 5 known friends on the same table. This facility allows you to pick your preferred table and preferred seating position. It allows you to reserve your seat at a given tournament, weeks in advance. It saves you having to contact me to reserve a seat or a trip to the venue to purchase a ticket. It guarantees you a place at the tournament and also shows you how many seats have been sold. I hope this fully explains how the Online Booking System would work? Any further questions, please send them in? Later Dudes!

I would use the paying facility online for seats for future tournaments, but not sure I would be keen on people choosing their own seats as I prefer the random factor of who you'll be sitting with as it improves my game sitting with different people each time. Bri

Just a quick line to thank, firstly Johno and his team at Northern Poker Stars for putting on the event at the Falcon Club. After we have added everything up we raised a total of £720 for the Young Disabled Unit at West Cumberland Hospital. Thanks also to Falcon Club, Margaret Donaldson and special thanks to Julie Dyer for donating her wages for the day, and Martin Young who donated some of his winnings, there were various others who gave donations throughout the day, we thank them all. Well done Paul for winning and "Tattie" in being runner-up, as well as providing the "entertainment". Well done Jenny for getting to final table, and (this is getting tough to write), Linda for a brilliant 3rd. She followed this up by being 2nd in the Kings Head bearpit the following evening. Finally thanks to all you players for supporting the event and making it an enjoyable day. Mark Winder.

Sean, I am totally for this, but this will cost me in the region of £500. If you read my blog, dated 1st October 2008, I asked the players if they would use such a facility. I am only willing to outlay the cost, if it will be used. I have had two replies to that blog, including the one that you posted today! I shall shortly be using a new software program at the tournaments that randomly allocates seats to players as well as running the blind structures etc. Not what you are asking for, but unless I get feedback, then I am not willing to throw £500 away. Later Dudes!

What happened to the idea of reserving your seat online? i.e. choosing what table you would like to be seated at etc. I know it came up in discussion previously. Thanks 'TT'

Congratulations to 'BadBeat'. It is nice to see one of the long standing supporters of our fine poker club will be representing us and himself at a GUKPT event. Well done Stu. South Lakes players take note. This is the sort of opportunity that we would be only to happy to offer in our area. We need to see if we can fill the £30 charity tournaments before I start to think about introducing the bigger buy-in events. Do any of you think you could make a name for yourself on the Grovesnor UK Poker Tour. A friend of a friend - namely Zak Ford - took 2nd place in Blackpool for £75k, taking his 2008 winning's up to £250k. It could be you... No responses yet to what we can do for our players in the South Lakes or responses as to why there is little take up for advance tickets for our charity poker tournaments. Come on guys, let me hear you please. Cheers Mark Varela

So players - especially those local to South Lakes. An event has been cancelled as ticket sales have not been sufficient in the days running up to the event to allow me to stage the tournament. I must have ticket sales of 30+ players, 7 days prior to the event to be confident that the event will go ahead. I have staff to arrange and Johno and Paul bring the van with the equipment all the way from Egremont (a 3 hour round trip). They will not make this journey and NPS will not incur staff costs on the possibility that players might turn up. If this continues, Northern Poker Stars will explore other areas in the region to host our events. Support our events or lose us! No other poker clubs offer the quality and variety of live and online poker events: - £50 entry live qualifiers for GUKPT events (£1,060 prize) - Leaving for Las Vegas (a fabulous 7 night holiday in the Mecca of Poker, Las Vegas - with a very special bonus prize on arrival) - live, professionally run, poker tournaments - raising funds for needy local causes (croupiers, waitress service and professional casino standard equipment used) - exclusive online tournaments - freerolls, with the winner going to play in a GUKPT event - ...and lots more ways to win prizes There is some competition in Kendal currently, but these events are offering a pale shadow of the Northern Poker Stars offering. Accept no cheap imitiations! So players - tell me, what do you want? Contribute to the shaping of our poker club - as those players in West Cumbria have done already. Northern Poker Stars listen to our players - and take action. We have amended the tournament format from a 90 minute unlimited rebuy period to 1 rebuy/add-on only and tightened up the blind structure (ensuring less of a lottery and more poker played). We changed the rebuy from 3000 chips to 5000 chips (better chance to win for those that purchase the rebuy/add-on). We changed the shuffle to ensure more hands per hour are dealt. We train our dealers, we host the best live and online events, we supply only the best equipment and we pay out unrivalled prize funds in our region. Most of all, we care about offering the best and we work very hard to provide it. We are not in this to make our millions (believe me - our hourly rate is well below the national minimum wage - cockle picking probably pays better). We do it because we 'love it' and because we have pride in Northern Poker Stars, but we will not put in all this effort for nothing. If you do not want live poker events in your area we will pack up and move on. The forum is open for your comments.... Please mark all blog replies as 'NPS - South Lakes Future'. Many thanks Mark Varela, Tournament Director - South Lakes.

Thanks Jo, After a lot of thought I have got to agree with you that I am more handsome than Ken and its all natural. I don't spend ££££'s on moisturisers and manicures like he does... this is 100% man The second point about being a better poker player than him didn't take too much thinking about, becouse everyone plays better poker than him... Just joking Dude. As promised Jo I will stand you a pint (Thanks Mam). Joeboy.

Now Marshy, no wonder your lovelife is complicated when you covet married men and date Welsh blokes. Is your fondness for Joeboy the real reason that you are leaving the county? Should have gone to Specsavers! Later Dudes!

Johno, stop picking on Tweedie your just jealous that he is more handsome than you and a better poker player :) Jo xx

LOL. C U all on Sunday XXX Joeboy

Sorry, JewBoy, I mean Joeboy. I haven't had time to put your blog on the site until now. Been busy. I do have another job, as well as running NPS and finding the time to do both can be difficult, especially when prats don't inform you of their tablename when they are playing the NPS online tournaments. Sorry about the mistake with the JewBoy thing, I now know that Mr Ian Tweedie is indeed JoeBoy... Catch you on Sunday Handsome! Later Dudes!

What happened to the reply I sent you? The one refering to me as a Jew? I didn't think you would have the balls to put it on. You can give it but can't you take it ? JOEBOY

Reference the spelling of the username, sorry Shrek but there has been no mistake in the spelling, I may be tight but am not a Jewboy. Joeboy

Joeboy, I didn't realise that you are a comedian. I mean you look peculiar, but I have never noticed before just how funny you are! With reference to the "hooter", I am wondering... Have u spelt your table name incorrectly? Should it not be JewBoy? Later Dudes!

I find it a bit hard to swallow that Mark's sandwiches didn't sell well and that may have been his problem, others may have found them hard to swallow as well. Joeboy.

Just so people who play in South Lakes are aware, the same goes for the removal of the buffet. Having said that - at the last event I provided the opportunity to buy home-made sandwiches at a very reasonable price. I put in about 4 hours work, with the help of Hannah, and ended up just about breaking even as most players simply turned their noses up - including you Sean. So, as is always the case with NPS, we do try and provide everything we can for the players, but I will not be repeating the sandwich selling service again - as I am sure none of you would like to put in all that effort just to break even. Therefore, Kendal RUFC will not provide food and as it is Sunday you will be hard pushed to find anywhere open closeby within the alloted half-hour break - unless you drive to McDonalds or the petrol station which is open. Sorry about this, but if more people had bought sandwiches first time around then that service would have proved a viable option. Anyway - eating is cheating! Mark.

Just to explain the situation with the buffet. I am in total agreement with Sean that it is a long time to go without any food, but the reason that I had to do away with the buffet is this. When the players wanted to go from the unlimited £10 rebuy's to one £30 rebuy it was obvious that it was going to have a detrimental effect on both the income for NPS but also the amount raised for the charity at each individual event. I was not willing to allow the charity at the event to suffer by providing the players with a free buffet at the event and then hand over an amount of funds raised that barely covered the food. In an ideal world, the charity would be associated with the venue and I would at least feel happy that bar takings would go some way to pay for the buffet, but as you all know, this is not the case at a lot of the events. I did inform the players of this. However, this Sunday the lady that runs the restaurant at the Falcon Club, Margaret Donaldson, will provide the players with FREE sausage and chips at the break. This is her contribution to the charity. Thank you Margaret.) Therefore for the charity to benefit from this, I have asked Mark and Linda Winder to provide some collection buckets and any player that wishes to donate any loose change that they have, then please feel free to put it in the buckets when you get your FREE sausage and chips. This will boost the charity fund and everyone will be happy. Later Dudes!

I think the break times argument does reflect on the individual as said, some like to have a cigarette (or 2 maybe) and some just want to get on with it. Personally I think the breaks feel a lot longer now as we don't seem to be getting a buffet etc. It's a long time to go without any food 8 hours, I'm almost certain folk use the break now to go grab something from a local takeaway or shop. I always make sure I have something substantial to eat now before I set off for poker. The ante is a excellent idea I think and look forward to playing it, I suppose the down side to this is that the lower denomination chips are going to be in play for a lot longer now to make sure people have chips to pay the ante. I remember last year a player was left with 200 chips with 9 players left on the final table, by the time he had to put in his compulsory blind he was in the money position, 5th I think. TT

Players, this coming Sunday, 24th November 2008 @ the Falcon Club, I will introduce running ante's into the live tournaments for the 1st time ever. They will be brought in at the start of Level 9 which is 3 and a half hours into the tournament. The blinds at this level are 800 / 1600 and the ante will be 100. The next level will have blinds at 1000 / 2000 and the ante will be 200. All levels following Level 9, the ante will be exactly 10% of the big blind. I have considered doing this for a while now, and the indications that the players feel that the tournaments are running for longer than previously, has given me the green light to do this. I also feel that this will provide players with valuable experience of running ante's before venturing into major tournaments. Good Luck to you all for this Sunday. Later Dudes!

I am in total agreement that an ante be introduced as per the pro circuit, which if you are wanting to enter into the higher level you need to be used too. If we are going to play for seats at the GUKPT then we need to be playing to the same format. The breaks in my opinion are too long, but as I am a non-smoker I do realise this may be necessary to keep, especially as Tyson needs a few puffs to calm his nerves. Joeboy.

A running ante sounds like a fine idea to me. Although I'm not fussed personally what time a tournament runs on until, if I'm still in the hunt. I can understand others, including Ken, the staff and the venues may be. Antes will undoubtedly shorten the running time of the comps, which will be even more useful if the fields at events continue to grow as we all hope. A running ante will also better prepare those players who are attending other events accross the country. I know the first time I played an anted tournament it certainly surprised me how much quicker my stack diminished when I didn't get a hand for a round or two - even though the ante is usually only a fraction of the BB!! I think everyone will learn something from this and it should improve tournament stategy even further. Just pleased to hear the levels won't be getting any shorter . . . . Gaz Clucas

In future would all bloggers please add your name to your blog. This could even be your online table name if you are of the shy variety. This will at least give your blog some credibility with myself, before I publish it. Firstly it shows me that it is not a malicious entry from a person that is not a member of our club and secondly it gives me an indication of how much experience of NPS the blogger has. A new member might not understand the way things are run and for what reason. Now answers... I can't believe that players want to decrease the length of blinds and cut the break times as well as do away with the 1st blind level. How much was I pestered to give you all these things? I am totally bewildered. Let me take one at a time. Length of blinds. These will remain as they are because they suit the majority of players. I do however have a solution which has already been mentioned in Ringo's blog, but I will address that in a minute. The length of breaks. These also are not being changed. At the 1st break, I have a lot of admin to do, charity donations to compile, presentation cheque to adorn and staff wages to pay. I would like 5 minutes to myself too, so this lengthy break is needed. I am to keep the 10 minute break approximately every 190 minutes, as a relief break on the girls that have stood dealing cards at the table whilst the players are sat down. They need to take some strain off their back and legs and may also wish to use the toilets. The 1st blind level, 25/50 will also remain, as this is the norm at major events. It is a way for players to feel their way into a tournament, in particular new players, without risking too many chips. Sunday start times will remain at 3pm. If I bring it forward to 2pm, I lose all potential players that are on first shift as well as backshift workers and hence a downturn in your prize pool. There are several players that are constantly late for a 3pm start and they don't work shifts, so what chance do I have of getting them there for 2pm? Therefore the solution is this.. I have already discussed this with several players before the new format came into force. I stated that if the tournaments took a lot longer to complete, then I would introduce Ante's. Personally I agree that the reason the tournaments are slightly longer is because the standard of play has increased. I will wait for some more feedback from the players before deciding where to go with the Ante's, but my stance will be that they will be in force at all tournaments, regardless of which day of the week that they are played and they will be introduced at an earlier stage than the final table. My preference would be 3 hours after the tournament start. I await your replies.. Add your name please? Later Dudes!

I have to disagree with the Anonymous suggestions to shorten blinds levels, and do away with the first blind level. To only have 3k starting chips with blinds starting at 50/100 would mean only startng with 30 big blinds, which takes alot of the skill out of the game which we've been lobbying for for so long. Also the new blinds levels have made the standard of play at the tournaments noticeably higher in my opinion. I think (hope) that most people would agree that we don't want these tournaments to turn into a crap shoot??? I think the tournaments are superb as they are and would be hugely dissapointed if anything changed at this moment. An alternative suggestion would be to bring the start time forward an hour to 2PM on a Sunday afternoon, although I don't know how that fits in with Ken's busy schedule? Gaz Clucas

The Game on Friday evening took just over 7 hours to complete. If this was played on a Sunday afternoon, as per the norm, it would have finished at 10p.m. I believe this to be a perfectly reasonable time to complete. Instead of reducing the amount of blinds and going back to the pre-break "all-in" routine, may I suggest that we do as most of the major tournaments do and introduce ante’s. These could be at the discretion of the tournament director and in the case of the evening competitions, be introduced immediately after the re-buy break to ensure a finish at a reasonable time. In the case of the Sunday tournaments antes could if needed, be introduced at the final table or even the final 2 tables at the discretion of the tournament director. This is how it is done at every professional tournament I have played. On the subject of pre-booking, I fail to see what the issue is.. I have kids myself and don’t know for sure if I can make certain events.. If I book a ticket I pay for it regardless of whether I can make it or not.. It is only fair on the charity involved. If I find I am free unexpectedly to play an event then I feel it perfectly reasonable to pay over the odds if I wish to have a seat. I would also like to add my own opinion on the standard of play at NPS events in reply to Mr/Mrs Anonymous.. This year has seen the introduction of a new format of play similar to that of the professional circuit and I believe this is reflecting in the standard of play. If you look at the leaderboard you can see that without exception everyone in the top 5 or 6 players have all played and experienced the highest standard of poker in the UK. What you are currently seeing is the cream of Cumbrian poker starting to rise to the top. These players have used the experience of playing major events and the knowledge of their fellow players from last year to take their games to a new level. This in my opinion has improved the standard of play immeasurably. The only people that I have heard complain so far (that included myself) have failed to realise and adapt their game accordingly. I have now come to realise that, like many other players from last year (No.1 included) my game had become predictable and very readable (ABC) and the better players where starting to pick up on this. I have heard mentioned complaints also about the novice players that support our events which I find even harder to believe. Yes it does hurt if you get sucked out on 6-1 draw but I don’t hear these same people complaining the other 5 times when they double up off an inexperienced player! So come on guys and girls, do as I have done and take a good look at your own game before criticising that of others! If we wish to now compete with the best we need to adapt and look beyond ABC poker because quite frankly we are at a standard where ABC is no where near good enough! (When did you ever hear a pro say to Gus Hansen “what sort of an idiot calls with a 7-9 off suit?) Again only my opinion :-) Johnny (not very Anonymous) Ringo.

Just an idea about the structure of the game we are playing at the moment. Friday was a fantastic event but it did go on a little late! Just a suggestion really to see what everyone thinks? How about getting rid of the first blind level, to me it seems like a bit of a waste of time and following conversations with other players, I think some people are in agreement. Also another suggestion is shortening the blind levels and/or shortening the break? If the amount of players turning up at events carries on increasing then the time it takes to get to final table will take longer and will be going on really late on a Sunday night. These are all just ideas anyone agree? Anonymous.

I would just like to post a general blog regarding the apparent negative downturn in some of the blogs posted. I am the first to admit when I am wrong and looking at the reply's to my HeadHunter / Sweep idea's, I agree that the HeadHunter is a good idea for newbies to recoup some of their entry and a Sweep would be a bit pointless, unless run amongst groups of friends as a side-sweep. It was just an idea and on reflection I was wrong. This is what the blog is for and listening to other peoples comments has made me change my mind. I would also like to say I appreciate all the work the dealers do and think they do a great job of not only dealing but also with controlling the tables and keeping us in order. The new dealing method was intended only to help the newer dealers settle in and was not intended to disrespect any of the experienced dealers and the great job they do. Finally I think some people may have forgotten just how much of a risk Ken and indeed Mark have taken to provide us with regular professional tournaments locally. I regularly travel to Blackpool to play tournaments as I love my poker and this is not cheap, its costs me about £50 a time for petrol, digs etc before I enter my tournament, so I am very greatful for the service NPS provides locally. All NPS ask us to do is that we pre-book our tickets and turn up and pay for them. I don't think this is too much to ask is it? Finally another idea, rather than rant about things we don't agree with, come up with an alternative. I actually understand that sometimes people don't know that they can come until late. I have done this myself. Things change unexpectedly and we sometimes don't have any control over this. For instance shift workers and people with kids etc. How about anybody who books late, pays £30 and will get on a table on first booked / first served basis but when all pre-booked tables / dealers are full the remainder self-deal until enough players are out to provide a pre-booked dealer to all tables? If not enough late entries are available to fill a self-deal table, then they would be alternates and would fill up tables as players go out, up to the end of the rebuy period? Again, only an idea if players are not happy with paying the £40. I know Ken well and the £40 late fee is not a money making scheme to rip any of us off. It is intended as a deterrent to allowing late entry and ensuring he has the dealers and tables required to provide a professional service to the pre-booked poker players. Hope to see good turn out Sunday for a very good cause. Kev Steward.

There you go, I have published your blog, but it's a pity that you haven't got the courage to inform everyone of who you are? I am sure that they will thank you for your comments. Obviously you seem to think that this is some fly-by night organisation and you can treat it with contempt. I am running a business where you as a player can sit down at a casino standard table, be dealt by a croupier, the best quality cards and can use the finest quality chips that money can buy. The tickets and posters are not some cheap, shoddy quality rubbish. The vehicle which I use has to be taxed, insured, fueled and maintained. The extra £10 that you paid is a penalty to stop players thinking "F**k It, I will just turn up on the day and get a seat, BUT STILL EXPECT THE SAME HIGH STANDARDS OF EQUIPMENT AND SERVICE!" You will find that a lot of events, penalise people that turn up on the day. (Your extra £10 went towards the running costs of the business. Did you get up off your backside to even go to the bar?) Or did someone get your drinks for you? What you fail to comprehend is this.. At every tournament, there is a percentage of people that do not have a rebuy. Those players, do not contribute a single penny to the running costs of NPS. Do not contribute a single penny to the staff wages and do not contribute a single penny to the charity.. Yet still expect a seat for £30 at the last minute... How would you like to be employed by someone that phones you and gives you 2 hours notice to be at work? Think of the girls instead of yourself!?! If you want someone to deal your cards, if you want to play NPS events, the only organisation that gives you the high standard of events in the area, then show some respect? If you decide to reply to this blog, consider that the fantastic website that we use costs money and whilst you are on the website, look at all of the player rewards that come out of my pocket!!!!! "Your fooked off???" Ditto...

Another good night at the Whitehaven Golf Club last night thanks to Johno, Paul and the girls. It is a real pitty that people are not showing up after reserving tickets and maybe the idea of paying upfront isn't a bad idea but self-deal, come on, who wants that? I'm sure I don't and I don't think many of the NPS members will either, so come on lads and lasses sort yourselves out if you book, have the decency to turn up or cancel in the 48 hour window ? I have been playing with NPS and Cumbrian Poker for over a year now and still can't get my head around why certain players can't understand poker is not about going in with the best hand, it is coming out the other end with it and why, when they are beaten can't they take it on the chin, smile and shake the other persons hand. Leave the slagging chat to the 10c / 20c tables? JOEBOY.

I personally only got a baby-sitter at the last minute so had to pay £40 to go to the cost of the extra dealer etc, so I can't see why you are out of pocket! I'm sure as you say, I'm not the only person to pay £40, so if thats the case what exactly is the extra £10 for? All tables are capable of carrying 10 players so with 47 players, why were there 6 tables running? The more people per table, means the better value for money you are getting and seeing more hands making your chips last longer. I would say if you are losing money like you say, then surely why continue being out of pocket? PS I don't expect you to show this blog, and I'm fooked off about the standard or lack of it on the tables. No doubt you will be on my back about this, rant over! Anonymous.

Players, last night 47 players attended Whitehaven Golf Club for the live charity tournament. There were a few players that reserved tickets that did not turn up and there were a few players that phoned me on the day of the event to see if they could get a seat for £30. This is just not happening anymore. They then said that they might turn up. I had to accommodate over 50 players and so at the last minute, I called in another dealer. This is not fair on the girl in question. To make matters worse only 47 players turned up, so she was not needed after all. I could have run with 5 dealers. I was therefore out of pocket for that girls wages. I will not tolerate this again. This is the 2nd week running that this has happened. Any player that reserves a seat and fails to show, still owes for that seat and does not come to another event until the seat that you reserved is paid for. You know who you are. The other options open to me are these; I stop reserving seats and therefore you will have to buy your ticket in advance from the venue or from myself. I make the events self-deal with the exception of the final table. This also applies to venues that are reserving seats for their members. Any member of that venue that fails to show at an event that has reserved their seats through the venue, then I shall hold the venue responsible for the price of that seat. Rob Eilbeck, Chris Glen and Joan Lawley always pay me for their seat in advance. Come on players.. Play the game. Stop messing me about and stop messing the girls about. Later Dudes!

:-) Nice to see that someone still has a sense of humour.. Later Dudes!

When somebody says sweep I think of Grand National Day and pulling the name of some old nag, priced at 150-1 out of a hat and hoping it will win instead of being carted off to the glue factory!! So we could in fact do it that way. You pull the name of a player out of a hat and if that player wins you get the money. If not all players names are "sold" then it could be the highest finisher that wins? It would be like Grand National Day all over again. Can you imagine it "Woo Hoo! I got Sean Forsyth in the Sweep." - you gotta admit he would be a good bet. Some other poor sod would be saying "Bugger, I got All-in Chambers. Give me another!!" I'm not actually putting this forward as an idea. I am just passing boring time at work. Bob

The Sweep idea where everyone pays £5, is the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard. If I was to beat everyone then surely I would have won the tournament, and therefore got a great pay day as it is? Or am I missing the point here? I can just imagine trying to convince someone to buy into the Sweep who has never played before at a NPS tournament. "Yeah you pay an extra £5 and you have to beat everyone to get some reward back" "What everyone?" "So I could knock out 10 people who all paid a fiver and then finish on the bubble and I get nothing back?" "Yeah, thats right, you need to win the tournament to win the sweep." "Why don't they just make it a £35 buy-in then?" "??????STUMPED??????" HeadHunter encourages people to play by giving them something back if they knock someone out regardless if they cash or not. As for Sean's comments... It was a fiver more than you have won if you didn't purchase a HeadHunter, so why complain? Instead tell people about it so that they know you can win money without having to finish in the cash places and it will encourage more people to join NPS and play and therefore more cash in the prize fund for you to win. Anonymous.

Sean, your blog highlights exactly what I don't want to happen. The rich get richer... HeadHunter was brought in to give something back to everyone and hopefully attract new players. It wasn't brought in to give more money to the best players, otherwise the novices wouldn't want to participate in it? What you are forgetting guys is that we are governed by the guidelines of the Gambling Commission and I am sorry to inform you that the "Sweep" is something they will not condone. Therefore it is not going to happen. Sean, what then are your views on my extra workload and the occasions where I have been out of pocket because of the dishonesty of certain individuals? I also suggest that players that wish to see larger prize pools, bring along new players? Everyone knows someone that is into poker and has not yet experienced a Northern Poker Stars tournament. Get them involved and your prize pool will increase.. Later Dudes!

Hey to all fellow Poker Stars from the North. I have not blogged for a little while now, but I wanted to let you all know about my croupiers/dealers in Kendal. Firstly, thanks to all the players at the last event for thier patience with 2 brand new staff - I know play was slow. Unfortunately, I got these girls in at the last mintue and had very little time with them. They had not played poker at all and had little idea what was going on at the table - they had 1 short session on how to deal prior to the tournament. This has now changed. Both girls have picked up the dealing method, to a very quick standard. I demand a maximum deal time of 30 secs (20 secs is the target) and they have both come up to scratch in 2 short weeks. I train them every 2 weeks on the game and the subtelties of betting / split pots / kickers and many more rules. They now also play a game after our training and are improving their understanding of the game at a good rate - so much so, that they are asking to play at future tournaments! And I am sure they will soon be able to compete - on their days off, of course! The girls have been practising in their own time (unpaid) and despite being paid a great rate by us at NPS, I am hugely impressed with their dedication and commitment. It is not easy recruiting when I can only offer 1 days work every 6 weeks currently. It is also quite daunting for girls who have no knowledge of poker to learn the game and deal with a room full of players. I am 100% behind the girls I have working for me in South Lakes and I know that you will all be impressed with the huge improvement at the next S. Lakes event - 30th November at Kendal RUFC. Thanks to all - Mark V.

From personal experience, I have found that HeadHunter chips are a waste of time. May I also say that on my last two tournament victories, I have only cashed in 2 HeadHunter chips both times, my own and obviously the runner-ups chip. The idea of Kev's is a good one, as the Sweep would mean I would have won a lot more cash than just the £5 I have won from the HeadHunter chips each time. Also I got on the final table this week with just one HeadHunter chip. Maybe this says something about my game play, I don't know... TT

As a dealer myself I have to agree with the comments below... Give the lasses a break, it's really intimidating standing there in front of all you players at the tourney's. We don't need the grief that some players give us about the hands we deal etc. I personally enjoy a bit of banter at the table but there is no need for nastiness :) The more you complain, the more nervous the girls get, which doesn't help us at all!! It would be a shame for you to scare the dealers off and have to deal for yourselves wouldn't it!? Joanne xx

I agree totally that we, the players should have patience when it comes to the dealers, as the only other option is that the tournaments will turn into a self-deal tournament as none of the girls will want to come back and deal for us, if all we do is complain about how slow they are, and believe me if I have to deal then you will all know what a slow hand per hour rate really is, and that's when I'm sober :) The girls do a fantastic job and we were all novices at something one time or another (Saying that our lass says she wishes I was sometimes still slow but I dunno what she's on about there). Anonymous.

I have given lots of consideration to the HeadHunter debate and here is my decision. The players asked for me to introduce the HeadHunter, as a way of rewarding players that don't make the money in the tournaments, by enabling them to recoup some of their outlay. I therefore gave you the HeadHunter. I take nothing from this, although it does increase my workload. Now it seems that some people are unhappy with it. My view is this. I would much rather a new, novice player comes to a Northern Poker Stars event and has the opportunity to walk away having recouped some of their money. This will encourage them to come back. Having a Sweep, where the cream will undoubtedly rise to the top, with the more experienced player being the victor, will not encourage new players, but will only alienate them and after having blown £65 they will decide that they are out of their depth and cannot afford to play in Northern Poker Stars events. The only way that we are going to get larger prize pools is to encourage new players to come to our tournaments, and the HeadHunter will go some way to achieving this. With reference to Paul's remark about there being no money left in the pot, here is what happened. On Sunday, somebody either helped themselves to 4 HeadHunter chips and cashed them in or helped themselves to £20 from the fund when I wasn't looking. Therefore Paul lost out. He is a partner in Northern Poker Stars and decided that rather than Chris Glen being out of pocket, then he would take the hit instead. This is the second time that this has happened. I make nothing from the HeadHunter and to be honest, it has cost me money to set-up, (the price of the HeadHunter chips and the stickers that adorn them), and I will not tolerate dishonesty at my events nor will I be out of pocket. If there are any further instances of this occurring then I will have no option but to scrap the HeadHunter... "Don't lose your head." Later Dudes!

Two blogs from me tonight on different subjects, and I am posting them in this fashion so that hopefully they can be given the serious consideration that is required. Firstly the dealers .. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kev for his suggestion, that will make life far easier for the new girls when they are dealing. This was proved at Lowca, when Linda, who came along at the last minute, dealt in a very professional manner and was speedy too. Thanks Linda, what a find you are gonna be. Your idea is being implemented in South Lakes too Kev. I had already spoken to Mark about the need for the dealers to produce a greater rate of hands per hour. With regards to Mark Varela, I am so impressed with his work ethic, his dedication and his drive and I know that he will make South Lakes as popular as it can be whilst offering the same high standards that we have in West Cumbria. Some of the girls that dealt at Kendal at the last tournament were novice dealers. Yes they were slow, BUT have patience. I have to be patient with the players when they leave it to the last minute to get tickets for events. The girls have to be patient with me when I don't know how many dealers that I require for a tournament because some players leave it to the last minute to get their tickets. The dealers have to show a great deal of patience when drunken players are using foul and abusive language at the events. The dealers have to show patience when they are being blamed for the cards that the players are getting. Let's be fair here and give them a chance? I am told that the girls at Kendal are practising and are improving and that, as their employer is good enough for me! Can I just point out to players that once a month, I hold a £5 rebuy tournament and I invite all of my dealers to play in that, along with you, the players. This is to further their knowledge of the game. I pay for the dealers to play in that as well as paying Julie to train new dealers. This comes out of my own pocket. Obviously this is not cheap and there are no complaints from the players when they are taking cheap chips off novice players, at my expense. Please be aware that I am doing everything that I can to improve your tournaments, so a little "patience" would go a long way. Later Dudes!

Personally I don't play HeadHunter. That's because I feel that I am not an aggressive enough player to win them and when I have bought them in the past I have never knocked anyone out!! I do think they are a good idea though and should stay as they are. It seems a bit over the top having a sweep stake for a £5... If people don't want to play HeadHunter, they are unlikely to pay into a sweep stake. If people want to enter a sweep stake, I feel it should be up to them to organise that between themselves. We should also remember that the HeadHunter was brought in as a request from the players and that all the monies that go into the HeadHunter pot goes straight back out again to the players... No money towards the charity or the business, so we should be grateful really that Ken includes it in the game. It is for the benefit of the players alone and is extra work for him! Just my opinion. :) Anonymous.

I agree with Bubble Boy on how the dealing went yesterday, which speeded up the rate of hands per hour and made it alot easier for the dealers too. However we have a different opinion with regards to the HeadHunter comments. We had alot of new young players at Lowca, which was a first tournament for many of them, who probably didn't budget for the extra £5 and thus didn't purchase a HeadHunter chip. On the other hand the one's that did had a chance of re-couping some of their initial stake with the HeadHunter. For every £5 they won, or for every chip, this was giving them some of their enterance fee back and would surely encourage them to come again, rather than losing £65 to more experienced players. I think that to acheive bigger prize pools, we need to get more players at the events and surely the way to do this is to avoid taking money off less experienced players? Personally I ended up with £20 of HeadHunter chips which reduced my stake to £45 or would have done if there was any money left in the HeadHunter pot, (I got nothing back for the HeadHunter Chips). Kevin's idea on an event sweep is a good idea that could be set up by the players themselves as a side pot? Fletch

New dealing method… I was pleased to see the new dealing method went really well for the newer dealers at Lowca, increasing the hands per hour and making a very enjoyable game with less pressure on the dealers. I think transferring this to the South Lakes events will also make for a more enjoyable game and increase hands per hour until the newer dealers get confidence. This method is used in ‘G’ casino’s as the norm, including the GUK’s so it does not make the events any less professional, and dealers could choose there dealing method depending on experience perhaps for future events. HeadHunter… Ever the diplomat I will come right out with it! I don’t think the HeadHunter is working as not enough people buy one. I must admit I don’t get one anymore as I always seem to knock out the people without a HeadHunter and then get knocked out by one who does have one! I think HeadHunter only works if everyone buys one and I think it is tailing off a bit (my opinion). The suggestion, NPS Sweep… I think if we are all honest (as all poker players are, ‘I had pocket aces’), then we the players, want to play for as big a prize pool as possible. I also think that a good crack, professional tournament, the order of merit and increasing prize pools all add up to increased numbers and hence a further increased prize pool, charity donation and sufficient expenses to keep NPS going. How about instead of a £5 HeadHunter, we have a £5 NPS Event Sweep. The Bootle crew do this at most events putting £5 in for the best finisher and I have heard several other people having a side sweep amongst friends at events. The NPS Sweep could run as follows… Normal event prize pool structure as defined by Ken, determined by number of runners. Anyone who enters the NPS Event Sweep gets there ticket signed as "NPS Sweep" by either Julie or Ken on ticket pick up for £5. No need for a sweep chip as your ticket is individual to that event (ticket must be retained). The best finisher who entered the sweep takes the pot (not necessarily first place). Only those players who entered the sweep and have had their ticket signed as "Sweep" are eligible for the NPS Event Sweep, so no-one loses out. Believe me, if for example at Whitehaven Golf Club we get 70 runners and the winner did not enter the sweep he / she will miss out on a prize pool boost of up to £350. Next time they would get a sweep entry! Another example, if we had run the NPS Event Sweep at Lowca with 46 runners then Chris would have taken home £580 + £230 (£810) had he entered the sweep. If he did not he would be kicking himself. I believe most, if not all players would enter and I think this with increased numbers by taking the prize pool to new heights without costing a lot to individual players and this would attract further players I suspect. What do you think? Bubble Boy (Bootles No. 2)

Following on from Mark's post on the homepage regarding the facebook group I have set up. I would just like to stress to you all that if we all subscribe to the group, it will act as a nice laal marketing tool for our poker tournies. Johno and Mark will be able to send bulk invites to a wider group alot easier than sending a text! For those not aware of what www.facebook.com is.. its basically a social networking site (thats takes 2mins to join) on which you can add and accept new friends, if you want, you can find friends you haven't seen for years on there. Regardless of what ends you use the site for, the important thing in respect of NPS, is that we can all join the NPS group. I personally think, (well know!) there are a lot of good poker players out there who are either not aware of the cumbrian poker scene or disillusioned as to what to expect, i.e. format and price etc. By joining the group we are helping to advertise NPS!.. Also another benefit is, say for e.g someone joins the group who has a 100 friends then (simply) invites all their friends to join the NPS group... imgaine the catchment of interested poker playes in Cumbria that would become aware of NPS in the long run!! I can understand if you think facebook is S**T, but if you join for one reason, let it be for the benefit of NPS. Get amongst it Dudes. Mike Farrer

Many congratulations to Ron for his excellent cash on Saturday at the Blackpool Monthly Deepstack.. Big Kev had a bad day at the office, with his usual solid game running into monster hands every time he played and was soon out on his arse.. Small consolation being a decent 7th place cash in the £50 re-buy later that evening.. Myself I started off like a train turning my 15k starting stack into 40k by the dinner break only to have pocket Aces and pocket Kings cracked shortly afterwards.. A long period of dead cards ensued and finally my race was run when the blinds began to hurt and my pocket 8's failed to stand up against KQ with lady luck rubbing it in with a KQQ flop.. It should be noted that Ron was down to almost 5k of his starting stack at the dinner break and comfortably one of the shortest stacks remaining.. A remarkable come back then followed with his usual mixture of tight play and very aggresive betting when catching any part of a flop.. Superbly done Ron, you did us proud.. A real shame that the tournament could not be completed as I'm sure Ron would have been confident of becoming the 1st member of NPS to win a major event.. Next time fella.. Maybe you can use those winnings to try your game against the very best in Europe when the GUKPT returns to Blackpool in a few weeks time.. All in all a fantastic day out.. Catch you all Sunday at Vegas Part 2. Johnny Ringo.

Ian's adventure at the GCBPT Teesside leg is over. 103 players sat down to contest Day 1a and our man made a strong start. At the first break, he was up to 25K from his starting stack of 10K. At this stage he was sitting in about 7th place overall. Some bad luck after the break saw his pocket 9's and pocket 10's busted, both times by his opponent spiking a Q. You have never had much luck with the ladies! Ian eventually went out at 20:47hrs involved in a 3way race with the chips all-in pre-flop. His AK was up against pocket 9's and pocket A's and although he hit a K on the river, it was Goodnight Vienna, out in 49th place. Ian tells me that he enjoyed himself and thought that he played well, so you can't ask for anymore than that. Good Effort Ian. The Tiger as you will expect was his usual happy-go-lucky self. He had the field scratching their heads in disbelief and bemusement.... and he wasn't even playing poker. Later Dudes!

Well done to Sean for Sunday's win in Kendal... I don't know how you came back with your short stack. You were one of the first to get the rebuy before the break. Good poker but also a lot of luck I think, especially busting AA when hitting the straight with your 44!! Poor Johno getting knocked out on AK... Deadly hand but the best hand pre-flop did win... Sorry Boss!! Good luck to Tweedie and Tys (my future husband)... Keep off the beer and the 'magic' cigarettes!! Looking forward to the Vegas comp next week, watch out for the Bootle Crew especially Nanna Joan aka 'The Ball Breaker', she is due a win!! Jo x

Players, The Pride Of Kells, Tiger Tyson & his sidekick Ian Tweedie are off to Stockton tomorrow to enter the Teesside GCBPT Festival. Ian has bankrolled himself into the Main Event, whist The Tiger will be bewildering them on the satellite tables. I wish both men THE BEST OF LUCK! They will be wearing their Northern Poker Stars clothing with pride and I'm sure they will give it their all to uphold the honour of our poker club. Ian, who I think is a closet cross-dresser will be wearing a very nice orange polo shirt as we couldn't get hold of the peach one that he wanted. He tells me that he wanted to stand out from the crowd. U already do Mate, that nose is unique. Tiger the Oldest Chav In Cumbria will be wearing his black hoody. Will be wearing his black hoody. Will be wearing his black hoody. Will be wearing his black hoody. Will be wearing his black hoody, or at least I hope he will after telling Paul and myself that "several times" on the way to Kendal last Sunday. Talking about Paul Christian, has anyone else noticed that he looks like Dennis Waterman (I could be so good for you... Sorry Terry, I mean Paul). Don't forget to switch your mobile phone off Ian and go easy on the kaleidoscope cigarettes Tiger.. Later Dudes!

After my tournament victory on Thursday night, I was in high spirits for my return journey to the South Lakes poker scene. After securing the win on my last trip to Kendal, I was determined to retain my crown and keep the boys from West Cumbria in good stead. The day strated poor and after only an hour I had been busted 5 times by trips up against my 2 pairs. After having had my rebuy I found myself with big slick, so I raise and get a caller. The flop comes AQ7, I check and the other guy puts a considerable bet in, so I re-raise in which he returns with an all-in manoeuvre. More or less now pot committed I call and to my horror he shows his pocket QQ. Gutted and I'm left with 375 chips from the 5000 rebuy at 16:30hrs. Not to be down hearted I soldier on and find myself slowly but surely building my stack back up. Before I know it the final table beckons and eventually find myself sitting on it with an average stack of chips. The very first hand brings some action with Johno all-in with AK, he gets a caller with JJ, the flop comes and Johno hits his K but the guy also hits a J!! The turn card comes and its a K! Trips Johno's KK up, but unfortunately brings the full house for his opposition. Unlucky mate. The only two showdown Johno lost all day, pocket K and trip K.. The chips now are all one sided and the Kendal boys seem to have the upper hand over the West Cumbrian brigade. While observing I start to pick up on the Kendal boys game and start my brutal counter attack. Now down to the last 5 I get bit of luck and on the button I'm dealt pocket 44, I raise all-in and get a caller (with less chips). He turns over AA. The flop comes 235, then the turn, and on the river up pops a nice little 6, I take the pot with my ill gotten straight. Nice. After that I battle on with my relentless barrage of aggressive play and soon find myself heads up for the victory. What turn out to be the final hand comes and I'm dealt 66, I push all-in and get a call with the dead man's hand A8 Hearts. The pair holds up and for the 2nd time in as many visits to Kendal I take the victory. Job done. TT.

Players, I am delighted to see that together we can address any problems and reach a satisfactory solution for all parties concerned. I too am fully in support of the suggestion proposed by Kev Steward. So to recap, Entry Fee £30 for 3000 starting chips. £5 Optional HeadHunter. 1 Optional Rebuy or 1 Add-On after the 90 minute Rebuy period has ended, if no Rebuy has been taken. Rebuy / Add-On cost £30 for 5000 chips. This will be run as a pilot scheme this Sunday at Ibis Sports And Social Club, Kendal (Sorry Mark!). If all goes well, it is here to stay. Kev, you got your extra chips in the end!?! Good Luck To Everyone For Sunday. Kendal, take no notice of Ringo. It's ME that you need to fear! Later Dudes!

I agree with Kev's idea to increase the rebuy / add-on! I also think there needs to be an added incentive for those of us who can't see the value in forking out £30 for what would only be a small proportion of their current chip stack. An extra 4/5k would be a much more persuasive amount, and I am sure that there would be a much greater takeup. Lets all remember that we are not only playing poker at these events... We are helping raise money for very important charities. Cheers, Mike Farrer.

Having spoke to a few of our regular players at work today, our opinion is totally in agreement with Kev. With only one option of a rebuy or add-on it would make sense that the additional purchase, which is essentially our charitable donation, should be as attractive as possible to us the players. With 5000 chips available for your £30 rebuy/add-on I'm sure that everyone however large a stack would take this option.. Not only would this ensure the supported charity received maximum revenue, it would also ensure a decent standard of play after the break and allow Ken and his team to continue providing the professional service that we have come to expect.. As memebers of NPS, it is only by discussing these things and expressing our opinions to Ken and his team that changes can be made. If we as players want the opportunity to play at the best standard possible in a professional environment then we all have to stand up and make our opinions heard.. So come on guys and girls, discuss it with your fellow players and voice your opinions, and use this website to help make the changes that we as players would like to see.. Its all for our benefit when all is said and done! Just like to add an additional challenge to Mark and the Kendal crew who came a pillaging at the 1st Vegas comp.. Big Kev, Cluc's and Ringo will be going all out to return the favour on Sunday.. You have been warned! :-) Yours In Poker... Johnny Ringo

Looking at average chips and the blind level after the break, even with the new format and blind structure, some people including myself think we could do with more chips to play rather than coin flip with all-ins. I think for the blind levels we need an average / an option, to get around 8000 chips after the break which would mean 4000 start and 4000 rebuy / add-on. I fully understand that this is not possible because it would reduce the rebuys, charity money further during the 90 min rebuy / add-on period, so here is my suggestion. Online I play the Nuts $50k tourny. You buy in and get 1500 chips. The add-on is 2000 chips because of the increase in blind levels relative. This adds up to 33% increase. My suggestion is start with your 3000 chips and make the rebuy / add-on more attractive at possibly 4000 (33% increase) even better 5000 (60%). This will give more play after the break and make a rebuy and especially an add-on more attractive. If your sat with say 9000 at the break you may well not have a 3000 rebuy, but a 5000 rebuy would make more sense. If you have a bad beat (different play beat!), early on, a 5000 rebuy would keep you very much in the game. I think this would up the rebuy % rate and give us the extra chips we need to be able to play rather than coin flip with all-ins after the break. Thats if we make the break! Kev Steward

Sorry Johno forgot to put my name on my last post. I agree that 1000 chips won't make much of a difference, but my idea was that if you hadn't rebought you would then have 2 options. A rebuy as normal for £30 and get 3000 chips. I'm sure anyone short-stacked would do this. Or also offer a token 1000 chips rebuy for £10 to everyone which I'm fairly sure once word got around of the current predicament, the majority of regulars would pay regardless of their chipstack if they knew it meant the difference between having the current setup or a sub-standard one. I personally think it would work amongst your regulars, and I have spoken to a couple of people about it today and they also agree. I don't think there is any solution, but this is honestly the best one I can think of. Only other thing I can think of is the players giving the dealers a fiver before start of play, but again your relying on the regulars pushing it. I know I haven't been a regular, but I'm willing to push it even though I know you cant do it officially. Cheers Mark "Pickle" Nicholson.

Thanks Pickle for your input and suggestions. Its relieving to see that the players know that they are the only people that can help themselves. The unfortunate situation that Mark faces in the South Lakes, is that venues are reluctant to host these events, as they are new and they are unsure how they will profit from holding a charity poker event where 50 players will be drinking at the venue for up to 8 hours??? It makes me wonder... Hence as a sweetener, all events in the South Lakes for the next 12 months will have waitress service provided and paid for by NPS. Once we get to a stage where the venues trust NPS and are banging on Mark's door to get a tournament date, then I will bring in what I have introduced in West Cumbria, where the venue meets half of the cost of the waitress service, or provide their own. I would not relish a situation where players have to leave their seats to go for their own drinks, as I feel that this is a backward step from the complete poker experience that NPS offers and also under the now enforced guidelines, any player not sat at the table when dealing commences, has their hand folded. Thanks again and if you can bring along a Swedish Female Hockey Team, then I will pay for your tournament seat... Later Dudes!

The simple solution to allow the new improved format to get off the ground, increasing the charitable donation and indeed allowing Ken / Mark to cover reasonable costs including dealers, is to get the numbers up, North and South side! We all need to support NPS by turning up at events and bringing along friends, newbies and maybe a Swedish female hockey team?? At the end of the day the improved format, dealers, drink service is for us the players, so play and support or we lose it, simple. If we increase, from say an average of 40 to 80 per event we double the charity donation and costs are met and we keep our dealers and a good day out, not to mention increasing our prize pool and making the events even more attractive. Remember the rebuy / add on is the players choice, as long as we keep up say 66% average rebuy rate getting the numbers up will address any shortfalls and players can sleep easy in their beds if they get a big stack and dont feel a rebuy is needed, and you should not need to feel guilty if you dont need one through good play. Also a suggestion for NPS, only select venues both North and South side that will provide a drinks to table service free. The venues will be getting plenty of money behind the bar to cover these costs. If this is not possible make us get off our ar*es and get our own drinks! I would rather have a dealer than someone going to the bar for me. Good luck to all for Sunday and hope your second! Anonymous

Players, just to address some of the suggestions that have been made both at the tournament on Sunday, and via the blog on the website. NUMBER 1 "3000 starting chips isn't really enough, could we not have 5000 or 10,000?" In relation to the previous format played in the regions live games. the players now have 1000 extra chips and longer blind levels, so the chips should be more value for money. We have just had a tournament that had 3000 starting chips, and one third of the field did not rebuy, so ask yourself how many more players would have failed to rebuy or add-on if they had more initial starting chips? NUMBER 2 "I didn't rebuy because I didn't think that it was value for money. I used to get 2000 chips for a £10 rebuy." That is true, but your blinds were increasing in shorter time periods and therefore you got less value for your chips than you are getting now. Can I remind the player, who made this comment that at a recent tournament he had 8 £10 rebuys and therefore spent far more than he will be able to under the new format. NUMBER 3 "Maybe we should invoke a charity clause that suggests anyone cashing on final table that still has their re-buy chip should donate that £30 would be buy-in to the cause???" I don't see this working as there will be very few, if any players at the final table that haven't already had their rebuy/add-on. Take last weekends result for example, all the players at the final table had either a rebuy or add-on. Secondly, I do not expect to be making a charity donation to say for arguments sake, some one from McMillan Nurses at 22:00 hrs. Thirdly, most of the staff will have already gone home and will have expected to be paid before they leave the venue. NUMBER 4 "Only solution I can think of, is to perhaps allow a token £10 add-on of 1000 chips as well as keeping the current structure?" This wont work as a player at the break with say for example 1000 chips, will see no point in gaining an additional 1000 chips, as they will almost certainly be up against other players with at least 3 times as many chips. To conclude, please be aware that the players have contributed to this situation and therefore must be understanding if I am forced to streamline the tournaments. The players wanted a 1 rebuy format. The players wanted a larger starting stack of chips and the players wanted longer blind levels. I have given you what you wanted, and it is here to stay. "All that glitters is not gold!" I am not going back to the old format, but I will look to cut my operating costs if the events do not generate enough revenue to run them at their current fantastically high standard. To go back to Sunday, how am I repaid by giving you, the players, what you wanted? I am repaid by an unknown individual paying for his rebuy or add-on with counterfeit money.. THANK YOU! "You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time." John Lydgate. Later Dudes!

It is with great interest that I follow this debate over the coming weeks and perhaps months, and of course with a personal vested interest as Tournament Director here in Kendal. In West Cumbria, you have had the benefit of several years experience of the growth of live poker into the format that is now Northern Pokerstars. Kendal is new to this whole experience; local live poker tournaments. I personally played at a tournament up at Kells Club and, whilst I had a great day out and was impressed by the organisation and quality of the event - I left with my friend bemoaning the unlimited rebuy format. I did not want to spend £100 to have a chance of winning on the day and had budgeted £50 (1 rebuy and 1 add-on). I ended up spending £40 and going out first hand after the break. As a player - the 1 rebuy or 1 add-on format is the structure that I would prefer. It removes the 'crap shoot', as other players have already picked up on. I want to play a decent level of poker, where there is a good opportunity for good play to win the day. To remind players, if Northern Poker Stars do not see the level of rebuys required to cover their costs and allow a charitable donation to be made then, as Johno has stated, there will be an impact on what Northern Poker Stars can offer their players. I look at it this way; your £30 (an optional rebuy/add-on) goes towards the following: First and most importantly the generous donation to support local charities, including sports clubs, hospices and more.. Paying for the Northern Poker Stars live tournament experience; the only poker event in your area delivering this offering. Access to all of our live tournaments, including the 'standard format' £30 buy-in charity tournaments, GUKPT qualifiers, and qualifiers to win an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas. . Other associated costs (transport, staff, equipment etc). Access to our website and exclusive online tournaments at Blue Square Poker, including freeroll qualifiers for the GUKPT. Be under no illusion - Northern Poker Stars are not 'pocketing' the £30 rebuy moneys and walking away from the event to count their millions! We are also constantly updating our offering to suit all our members: Headhunter at our live tournaments. Raffles to win free seats to future events. Free draw on our website every month to win a free seat to a future event. Loyalty award - most loyal player online and live goes to Blackpool GUKPT (£1,060 buy-in) paid for by NPS. Player of the Year awards, and more to come..... It is only with the support of our valued members that we can continue to offer this club with all of its benefits. Please continue to support us and we will continue to offer you the very best poker club in the region. Extra thanks to those of you travelling from W.Cumbria to Kendal on Sunday. See you there. Mark Varela

Just like to add my pennies worth fellas! Love the new format.. Suits my style of play no end. I am pretty sure that no serious player amongst us could have enjoyed throwing re-buy after re-buy at the table hoping to have a decent hand stand up! It’s a very tough position to balance a professional structured tournament that will appeal to the complete novice and the regular player alike. Maybe we should invoke a charity clause that suggests anyone cashing on final table that still has their re-buy chip should donate that £30 would be buy-in to the cause??? As for the waitress’s, with all due respect, NPS does all the hard work for the various clubs/charities and raises on average £300/400 a pop, plus a large take at the bar for the charity involved. Surely it is not unreasonable to expect them to provide a couple of volunteers to serve drinks. At the end of the day, if we want to go back to playing (illegally), in seedy back-street pubs, self-dealing, playing the same old faces, then lets keep on moaning and criticising. If on the other hand we want to take poker to another level in Cumbria and mix it with the very best, then lets get behind NPS. Not just by supporting the tournaments but by having our say and helping to make the changes that takes our game to another level. Again just my opinion. Ringo

Its a bit of a double edged sword if you ask me. On one hand I don't think anyone (or not many) would sooner deal themselves or indeed not want to contribute to the chosen charity. However if you`ve built up a big enough stack before the break then I can certainly see why people dont want to pay a extra £30. Only solution I can think of, is to perhaps allow a token £10 add-on of 1000 chips as well as keeping the current structure. Therefore offering players 3 different options but still only a max spend of £65. Surely the vast majority would chip a tenner in, if it meant not having to deal and get your own drinks etc. Mark "Pickle" Nicholson

Thanks for your comments Gary. Yes, it is true that one third of the field did not rebuy on Sunday, hence those players made no charitable donations and did not contribute anything towards my staff. That I can live with because all rebuys/charitable donations are at the discretion of the players. Please read the rules on the Live Charity Tournaments page. What I do find annoying is that certain players, did not want to rebuy, though they were not pleased when I would not allow them to use the Northern Poker Stars equipment for a cash table, on which they would have spent far more money playing at, than the cost of the charitable donation. I again ask players to read the rules for Live Charity Tournaments. Cash tables are illegal and Northern Poker Stars will not allow any to take place in the venue being used by us to raise funds for charity. We will certainly not put ourselves at risk of any action from any authority by allowing individuals to use any of our equipment. DO NOT ASK FOR CASH TABLES! Now, a quick lesson in business. For any business to survive, it must exceed in revenue more than its operating costs. I have given you the players everything that you have asked for. The one rebuy format. More starting chips. Longer blind levels. Unfortunately it may result in creating a situation where my operating costs are not being covered by the revenue. I WILL NOT BE GOING BACK TO THE OLD FORMAT OF £10 REBUY'S. I have made a conscious decision that whilst raising funds for charity, I am going to limit the amount of money an individual can spend at the event. I am not willing to be party to someone spending an excessive amount of money whilst I am trying to raise much needed funds for charities and good causes. It may mean however that I need to reassess my operating costs. To me the easiest solution is to make the tournaments self-deal and to stop providing waitress service which really is only to benefit the players and the venue, not Northern Poker Stars. This is not a route that I want to go down, but it is, in reality, a strong possibility to ensure the survival of Northern Poker Stars. Please feel free to air your views on this or any other subject. Later Dudes!

Big fan of the new format Johno. I just hope we can keep up the money for charity! It doesn't matter how many chips you've got at the break, you can always use the extra 3K. So come on men, get your hands in your pockets, and keep the money up for the good causes, and give youself a better chance of winning in the process. For 14 people not to have a rebuy on Sunday was a bit of poor show, that was a third of the whole field who didn't contribute a penny towards the charity or the dealers, or the waitresses that went to the bar and brought you your drinks! Lets hope it's a bit of an improvement next time out for everyones sake. Live poker in Cumbria is hard to come by, let alone with the standard of equipment and staff provided by NPS. We don't want to go down to self-deal tables, do we? Or worse still lose the most civilised live poker tournaments in the region. It would be a real shame, especially in light of how much everybody seemed to enjoy the new format, and the improved level of play that went with it. Gaz Clucas

I am fully in agreement with what Ian said above. Although I haven't played too many comps, I definitely prefer this format. I also see you won your £20 off Tiger Tyse, although he can't have been at his best by the time he went out LOL. Looking forward to the next Vegas comp already and not gonna mention my KK getting busted by 88. Mark "Pickle" Nicholson.

Thanks Johno for such a great day (even if I went out on AA). Hope the new format was a success. I think most people preferred it, with the exception of Mr Chambers, AKA ALL-IN. Hope all the tournaments are as successful as this one and that the numbers grow to what they were when I first started playing. Good Luck Mate, you deserve it for all the effort that you have put in. Ian Tweedie XXX

Yes, it is absolutely true, I did re-raise Gary with 7-4 off.. Gary, by his own admittance is a very aggressive player. The other players at the table did not know this.. With my reputation as a very tight player, I took a calculated risk and re-raised from my big blind strongly.. Gary could have only called or gone all-in with a massive hand.. Had he done so, I would have been made to look a fool.. As it happens he made the only play open to him and folded a very marginal hand and everyone thought I made a truly great play.. Calculated risk opposite to what is expected and a very fine line between idiocy and genius, is what makes this great game so challenging and why we love it so much.. Many a time, have made a play that did make me look a complete idiot and had everyone at the table scratching there heads wondering why? Thats poker.. I am sure Gary will use the knowledge of that play next time we meet, to ensure that he gets the upper hand and gets those chips back! That is why as a club, we are taking the standard of poker to a level where our members can play and be successful at the highest level of the game.. In my opinion, this can only be a good thing for the game of poker in Cumbria! Next time it will be the Rockets Gary! :)

John re-raised with 7 4? Oh, I can't wait to throw that back in his face next time he gives us a lecture about playing crap hands!! Jo

Can you just remind your brother not to re-raise me next time I raise his big blind with 7 4? Cheers. Gary Clucas.

Fantastic First Vegas Competition And Well Done To Ken And All Involved. Just like to add my take on the whole bad beat and fair play issue. Everybody plays poker differently. 2 experienced players may play the same 2 cards, in the same position, in totally different ways. Good or bad play is a judgment made by good or bad players. What are you doing in this pot with 4, 5 suited may be the cry? Ask Gus Hanson. Re-raising a continuation bet when you have hit nothing, is again, either brilliant play in the right situation or could be deemed as shocking play when called. Being able to fold Ace Queen on an Ace, 2, 6 rainbow flop with 25% of your stack committed, when you know deep down that the early limper has Ace King, is the sign of a truly good player. I learned this at the Bolton GUK. I knew I was beat and called an all-in. I went out on the £1750 bubble, but I will never forget the lesson, that is trust your instinct and fold when you know your behind. At the same GUK at Bolton I saw Sunny (Surinder Sunar), a truly good player (in my opinion), fold trip 2's on a 2 4 8 rainbow flop. His pot sized bet was re-raised, and he stated "You've got trip 8's then!" and folded. There is not a set method to consistently doing well in live poker. It's a series of judgments and decisions which makes it the fascinating game it is. The key to a good player is one that learns every time and can adjust to every situation, and to every player. "I got no cards at all", is just an excuse. Your not playing the cards, your playing the player. The ability to add a bit of flair when card dead is as much a sign of a good player as getting maximum value out of pocket aces, without running the risk of getting them cracked. Robotic A to B poker may be traditionally good play, but believe me you will not go deep in a 2 - 3 day GUK when card dead with this method. Adding a bit of flair will help to keep you at chip average, which means in some people's eyes playing poorly. At the end of the day consistent good results over a period of time does indicate a consistent good player, but the ability to change your game and add flair is just as important to survive when the inevitable card dead period comes. Enjoy your game, allow others to enjoy their game. Make allowances for different play and always shake hands and leave the table with friends on it rather than enemies. There is always next time! This is only my opinion, and is not necessarily right! Cheers, Kev Steward

As stated by Mark, I quote "A win does not make a good player. A consistent level of good poker play does." Never a true word. TT

Thanks to Johno, the Northern Poker Stars staff, the venue, and, of course, all the players for what was an excellent event on Sunday 5th October. This was the largest live event I have played in, having been grounded in online poker, home games and smaller local pub tournaments. Whilst, one win, does not make me an expert, I have had a decent grounding in online poker and regularly read about poker strategy. This has helped my game no end. I will give you all a few of the 'secrets of my success' - Opportunities came my way at the right time, cards held up for me and I had a little luck go my way too. What I am trying to say is, and in contribution to the comments about 'bad beats', that, quite simply, these are the factors you need to win a tournament. I am sure some people played great poker on Sunday and still went out early. A win does not make a good player. A consistent level of good poker play does. If someone goes out early it does not make them a bad player. Just ask the Kendal lads at the George and Dragon, where I have failed to cash for probably the last 2 or 3 months. Some figure me for a poor player who has poor results. Others will know me a little better and give me a bit of credit for my play and have seen me have some good results. Poker is a lifelong war not a battle for one hand or one tournament. I will happily go out first every pub game between now and next June, but if I play my game and am happy with my own performance then that is all that matters to me because I know results will come my way. A comment I read many years ago said something about 'living right'. You can only play the game to the best of your ability, you can never beat the odds - occasionally you will lose to runner-runner or, the over-pair will suck out to the under-pair about 1 in 5 times. I recorded a run of 18 times in a row in SNGs online, where my over-pair was cracked by an under-pair. So, 'Live Right' and in the long-run you will be a winning poker player. Hope to see you in Kendal on Sunday 19th October. Cheers. Mark Varela

Here is a little gem that may come our way if there is a need!! How about the ability to pre-book your event seats online?? We all know that it is possible to book almost anything online these days, and the same could be true of your seats for northernpokerstars.co.uk tournament seats. The guy that does the workings behind the site could include this functionality, but obviously at a cost. It might be nice to see how many places are booked, and if you have a lucky seat number then it could be reserved. Of course the question of collusion comes to mind, but the Big Man already tells me that he will be watching for it and reserves the right to move a player, if a pattern is forming or if there is any sign of skullduggery. I quite like the idea, but then again I admit to being a bit of a "Techie". What do you guys think? Is there a market for it? Bob

I doubt he will be cringing. He will still be talking about it next week at Workington :) Its ok though, I found his dummy on the floor and will be giving him it back on Sunday! Anonymous.

I enjoyed the 1st Vegas tournament, although I had a few Kamikaze pilots on my table so when I tried a bit of stealing, when I was card dry, (all day), it became impossible. I liked the banter, and when I crashed out 63rd, I had a walk about. It was great to see everyone was enjoying the game, although I saw one moment that took a bit of the shine off the day, when ** took a bad beat. He spat the dummy big time. I am sure he is cringing now? I would be. I am so looking forward to the next game! Hopefully my luck will change, and I will get my fair share of hands!! Gaz Meag.

Firstly I would like to say well done to Johno and Jules for Sunday. It was a fantastic first event. I agree with the above. Its a real shame when some of these people, turn up thinking they are the best players, and complain about every hand that their opposition play (you know who you are!!). Poker is a game of skill, but as we all know, everyone needs a bit of luck every now and again. It hurts to get 'rivered' but it happens. To be a decent player, you got to expect it sometimes. Can I also just add that some players at these events should maybe have more respect for their fellow players and for the dealers? There is no need to act like a spoilt child when you get beat! :) Anonymous.

Very Well said Bob. We all started off in this great game as newbies and sometimes we do seem to forget this.. I have suffered more than my fair share of bad beats this past few years as most will testify.. A wry smile and good bit of banter later usually see's me still miffed but never abusive.. bad beats, string betting, playing out of turn and betting into dead pots are all part of the games learning curve (I'm sure we have all at some point been guilty of the above?). If the best hands stood up and only brilliant good play was rewarded then ** would win every tournament!!! Great to see such a fantastic turn out again this year for the 1st Vegas comp. Many congratulations to Mark and the Kendal crew for such an excellent showing (I told you those boys were good!). On a final note, a humble apology to the poor lad I sucked out on before the break.. All-in with my 66 against his QQ.. flop comes 665. Not a proper bad beat, as Bob will tell you, but "Man that gotta hurt!" Hope to see you all at Vegas Part 2? Johnny "Cumbria's No.36" Ringo!

Hi All, So what is your view on bad beats? Indeed what is a bad beat? In my view it isn't losing a hand that is 80/20 or 70/30 pre-flop. A bad beat is when you end up all-in on the river and the villain has one or two outs and hits it, ON THE RIVER!!! If you get your chips in with, lets for arguments sake, say KK and you get called by say JJ and the Jacks win, well its tough but it's not a real bad beat, its gonna happen one in five!! If you played Russian roulette with one bullet in the gun would you expect to never die?? Its a real shame when a very small minority of players seem to think that the best hand pre-flop MUST win after the river, and when it doesn't they get quite abusive, for a prolonged period of time. Come on guys we all hate havng the better starting hand beaten, but can any of us say we haven't pushed all-in to find ourselves dominated and we hit lucky? Would we want to get prolonged abuse for it? I reckon not. So lets get on with this fantastic game that is Texas Holdem. Lets play to win but lets have fun, make friends, welcome "newbies" and forgive them when they make a really bad call and bust us out. WE ALL WERE NEWBIES ONCE!! If the word gets around that our club is a place for serious players only, with new players not made to feel welcome, then it will die out within months!! Does anyone else have views on this subject?? Cheers Bob

Players.. After a slow start.. Nothing unusual there.. The response to the Vegas tournaments has been fantastic. We have players from all over the region coming along on Sunday. Barrow, Kendal & Carlisle will be represented. In the words of Mr Paul Seath, "DELIGHTED!" Obviously the more that play, the more money in the Vegas fund, the more that go. Please be there early on Sunday & finally Good Luck To Each & Everyone Of You. My only hope is that I have a winner that doesn't snore like a rhinoserous and that person will be sharing with me in Vegas. Not like you, Cumbria's No. 2, Blackpool's No. 9, & Aberdeen's No.1, Lee "Blob" Houghton. I have never heard so much noise out of a man so small. Anyway Janice wont let you go. Remember you are No 2 rooster in your house. Later Dudes!

Good to see the life of poker growing in the West and South of Cumbria. See you all on Sunday. Good Luck To All. Could we maybe have a little wip round for St Bees R.N.L.I as I'm sure the late Chris Fry would approve. Sean 'TT' Forsyth

Nice to see a bit of friendly banter starting up on Northen Poker Stars! Just like to add that I had the privelege of playing in the 1st jointly run tournament at Kendal and was seriously impressed with the standard of play down there! Not only was the venue at Netherfield CC one of the best I have played but the standard of play was arguably the best I have encountered yet at a local standard. Us old school Northerners, had better sharpen up our games if we wish to compete with the young talented players coming through the ranks at Kendal (you have been warned). I would reccommend that everyone try to make at least one event at Kendal this year to appreciate how far poker in Cumbria has developed over the past few years. This in part has to be put down to the thankless hard work and dedication of Ken, Mark, Jules and all of the Northern Poker Stars team. How many other local poker games can boast its members playing in the WSOP, The GUKPT and the Great British Poker Tour? I firmly believe that it is only a matter of time before we have have a Northern Poker Stars winner at a major world event (hopefully me)! Starting off with Vegas qualifiers this Sunday I believe that we are about to enter a new era of poker in Cumbria and I for one will be trying my damnest to be a part of that journey. Best of luck for Sunday Ken, I hope to see you at the final table along with the Kendal boys and keep up the good work fella and lets hope you get the support you deserve! Johnny Ringo (Kev's Ugly Brother)

Nice to see that the site is starting to get used by the players. This is, after all, a members club and obviously I want you all to feel part of it. Thanks for all your best wishes and compliments about the site. That though is down to the work of one genius in particular, Cy Glaister. He has made all this possible for you and although there is still a little work to be done, I am sure that you can all appreciate his work. Anyone wanting a website built, then the proof is in the pudding... I wouldn't look anywhere else. Once again thanks to Bubble Boy Bob for all his contributions. I will get you those pints I owe you, if Jo lets you out of the house long enough for you to drink a few! I must also mention Adam Ross @ www.asdesigncumbria.com who has worked like a Trojan (don't worry Cy, not that kind of Trojan) for me this week. Wait and see the new tables which he has put the logo's on, the chip stickers which he sorted for me and the croupier uniform logo printing. He will be supplying Northern Poker Stars clothing which you can have personalised. I will have a few samples for sale at each tournament, but I recommend that you order clothing from his online shop.... Thanks Over!! As was mentioned by Bob, I cannot really do anymore for the players. I have given blood, sweat, tears and a lot of my own poker bankroll, hence no GUKPT for me this year and beans on toast for the past month. I now believe that my staff and I can provide you with the Ultimate Poker Experience. The rest is up to you, the players. I cannot provide larger prize pools, that depends upon the number of players attending, so it lies in your hands. Please make life easier for me by purchasing tickets for events early. This isn't much to ask in return for all my hardwork? We will be following casino guidelines at all events from the start of play in future. This will mean that Ian Tweedie will have the knowledge to ignore his mobile phone whilst sat at the table in the GUKPT. Therefore his pocket Kings wont get folded and he will pick up that large pot and go deeper into the tourny. Anyone that doesn't know or understand these guidelines, don't worry, I will get you a printout and put them on the site. Finally Kev, U should know by now... I am the youngest, most handsome of all poker players and I'm not from Kendal.. Keep the banter going please. It will make my victory at the Ibis on 19th October much sweeter. Later Dudes!

Its good to see the site up and active!! Lots of work still to do but Rome wasnt built in a day. I am looking forward to the new format and feel of poker in Cumbria, I think the limited re-buy will help the more conservative player like myself and be bad news for those that play poker a bit like a game of bingo. I would just like to say, lets all get behind the Johno, look into you email contacts list and EVERYBODY send the website address to EVERYBODY you know that has the remotest interest in poker. Lets build the fields up again and get knocking on the door of 100 seat tourneys!! Bigger fields equals bigger payouts (not that me being the ORIGINAL Bubble Boy knows much about that, keep off my nickname Kev!!). Looking forward to Sunday and the start of the Vegas games. See Ya All Soon. Bob Cloudsdale

Well done mate fantastic site and great format. I wish you all the best for your new venture, I am sure both the Northsiders and those Southern Monkeys will support you, I for sure will. I like the new tourney structure but you know I like the freeze out rather than the rebuy and this is the next best thing. Looking forward to taking up the challenge of the Kendal elite. Request to all, Please support Ken on this new venture as our nearest decent game of Poker will be the 'G' Casino at Blackpool if we don't. Ken has always ran a tight ship and you can rest assured that Northern Poker Star events will be run professionally. The Vegas qualifiers and in deed the Vegas trip were run like a military operation last year and this is all credit to Ken. I would like to see as many people as possible at this years Vegas qualifiers, including maybe even some of the Kendal lads? (Do you have cars down there yet?) I can say first hand that the prize package is a once in a lifetime experience and I will be trying very hard again this year! The standard of Poker on the Northside is very much on the up and from what I have heard the Kendal lot are younger, better looking and can play a bit! My news, 15th out of 380 at Blackpool GUKPT last year, lasted 1 hour in the World Series (Courtesy of Ken's Vegas qualifiers), Came 19th out of 175 at Bolton GUKPT this year (Bubble Boy) and will be playing Blackpool GUKPT in November and maybe Great British Poker Tour in Teesside next month. Thanks again and looking forward to meeting the Kendal lot, only joking about the Southern Monkeys and not having cars yet, although I'm not sure if you still eat your own young down there! Kev Steward.

Since early 2008 it has been my pleasure to have met Johno and to now become a part of NorthernPokerStars. As Kendal get ready to host their first NPS event, following an earlier event in August, I thought it a good opportunity to give a little insight into the local scene and the local 'Dragons', a name which I will go on to explain. I have now run a successful poker night for the last 12 months every Tuesday from 8pm at The George & Dragon in Kendal, where we have built from a few guys and girls to anywhere between 15-25 per week. It is at this 'feeder' event, where players have had a chance to hone their skills and sharpen their senses ready to take on the wider Kendal poker community at the NPS events. Kendal and the surrounding villages have one or two other established poker nights, with a number of pubs also taking part in national poker leagues. The George & Dragon game has developed, with a higher level of poker now being played, and we now run a standard format within the gaming commission laws, allowing a maximum prize of £100 on the night with a maximum £5 entry fee. We continue to bring new players to this night and really focus on this being a fun evening with good banter and a chance to win a little money. It is a fairly relaxed, whilst being a good competitve poker tournament. As we approach the coming NPS event at IBIS in Kendal on the 19th October I hope to see many of you Dragons there. Please come and join us on our Tuesday nights and enjoy being part of a fast-growing poker community through NorthernPokerStars. It would be great to see a Dragon win our opening tournament. Johno and I have already had a brief discussion of a challenge next year between the South Lakes NPS members and the West Cumbrian Marras. Perhaps the Dragons and our other Kendal NPS members might just come up there and give you a roasting! I will sign off with a now famous adage that my fellow Dragons will know well, coined by our landlord Paul Litte: 'Never chase the straight' Mark (VBlue) Varela Tournament Host Northern Poker Stars - Kendal

The new website is slick!!! I feel that we are very lucky to be seeing such a large amount of time and revenue coming to the Northern poker scene. Well done Johno!! The quality of the site undoubtedly reflects the ethos of the business you are striving to develop, showing that no one else is undertaking this class of events in this area. The branching out to the Kendal area and employment of the new tournament director in South Lakes is going to further raise the game, by bringing new players who are eager to experience the structured game format, with the perks of waitress service, dealers and a fantastic prize pool. Now with the opportunity to play in a fantastic range of events, Cumbria, I am sure will be producing some very accomplished players, Vegas here we come!!! Anonymous.

Members, the blog area is now open. Please feel free to start using this facility. Tell me what you think of the website, the new tournament format, the player rewards etc. I would like to hear from all players that have any news, poker related or just general that I could display on the homepage. Email this to me and I will get it added to the Northern Poker Stars news area. I am inviting players to join us by clicking on the link at the top of the homepage and filling in your details. I will then respond by sending you the required information for you to gain access to the members area. I am thinking of putting an online booking system on the members area, where MEMBERS can prebook seats at tournaments. You will be able to select your table and seat. The only thing that you will not be able to do is pay for your tournament place in advance. This as you can appreciate will cost a considerable amount of money, and I am only willing to outlay this if you, the members will use it. Can I have feedback on this please? At the moment very few members are replying to my text messages about tournaments, so perhaps this will spur you on to book your seats early? Finally I hope you enjoy the website. I am so excited everytime I log on. This has taken a lot of putting together. I know how many hours that I have sat in front of the computer drafting content and coming up with ideas of what I want on the site, where I want it and how I want it to work. For every hour that I have been doing this, one man has spent countless more, I am sure. Many Thanks Cy. Your work is immaculate and very eye-catching. You are a consummate professional. I would also like to thank "Bubble Boy" Bob Cloudsdale for all the work that you cannot see. Advice, help with ideas for the logos, databases, membership forms and Vegas stationary. I owe you a few beers, as do the members. Your hard work will reap rewards for them too. Later Dudes!