Yorky Pud

Event #4 of the Grand Series of Poker (GSOP) and mini-GSOP saw the focus switch back to a No Limit Hold'em freezeout with buy-ins of $162 and $22 respectively. Would Team Betfair players continue to tear up the games as they had during the opening three events and could I achieve my goal of a four-figure score? The text below will reveal all.

GSOP Event #4: $150+$12 No Limit Hold'em Freeseout $125,000 Guaranteed

Event #4 switch back to a freezeout format which pleased me as I this is by far my strongest game and I was looking forward to another deep run in a GSOP event. Things didn't start as planned as I first ran into quads after I rivered two pair just three hands into proceedings!

Chill Evans opened to 60 from middle position and I smooth-called on the button with AcQc and it was heads-up to the 10h-6h-Ah flop. Villain bet 90 into 150 and I called. The turn was the 6s and villain bet 170 into 330 and again I called. The river was the Qh and villain checked to me and my spider sense was tingling and I checked behind to be shown 6d6c. Five minutes later I paid off a set of nines with my jacks on a board reading 9h-7c-3s-5h-8c but I still had 4,245 chips at the 15/30 level so not to worry.

Hardly anything happened at all until the 125/250/25a level apart from me slowly bleeding my stack away until I decided to GAMBOOOL in the big blind. The action folded to the pieleapulii in the small blind and he jammed his 8,828 chips in with what turned out to be JsTh. He's probably doing this with any two if he has half a brain and I decided to take the probable 40/60 or flip with my black fours. The flop came down 7c-7h-7d and my full house held and I now had 21 BB to play with.

My donkey ways lead me to double up again shortly afterwards when I put the tried and trusted technique of “if in doubt just shove” into practice. The action folded to me on the button and with my 14 big s I moved all in with red eights. 1Srslyfu was the big blind and he called off his 5,630 stack with As9c and when the board ran out Qh-8s-Jd-6c-5s I was up to 8,670.

I even managed to break through the 10,000 barrier but pocket tens once again let me down and sent me for an early batch. I found ThTs in the big blind with blinds 300/600/60a and when the hijack raised to 1,500 and the button called there was only one thing to do and that was move all-in for my 10,060 chips, which is exactly what I did. My move received absolutely no respect and both players called showing 8c8d and AdQd respectively, probably the best I could have hoped for when called in two spots I suppose. The board ran out 5c-3d-2h-6d.....Jd, fkjndsjknjlknjkxbkj! That was for just shy of 50,000 chips so instead of battlign it out FTW I had busted in 264/977. Oh well, that's poker as the annoying people say to others when they have just busted out of a tournament!

At least I didn't crash in burn in 143rd like Betfair player Rudocop just three spots shy of the money. Unlucky son. In total 24 of Team Betfair made it into the money places each picking up between $242.87 and $952.32 for their efforts, that last amount going to 586527 of Mexico for their 16th place finish. What am I saying, there was a bigger score than that because 69.com from the UK progressed to the final table where they eventually busted out in fourth place for a bumper pay day of $8,947.94! Not bad work if you can get it! Congrats to everyone who made it to the money and to 69.com better luck next time, but still a valiant effort!

Event #4 in numbers

Total entrants: 977
Total prize pool: $146,550
Total Team Betfair entrants: 184 (18.83% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 24
Total Team Betfair prize money: $18,731.87 (12.78% of prize pool)

Mini-GSOP Event #4: $20+$2 No Limit Hold'em $20,000 Guaranteed

Event #4 of the mini-GSOP saw a massive field of 1,350 player take to the virtual felt, all playing for second position behind yours truly and that would possibly have been true had pocket tens once again let me down. What used to be one of my favourite hands in Hold'em has rapidly slid down the slippery slide of hatred; you will see why shortly.

I treaded water right up to the 125/250/25a level until I found myself in the small blind with pocket eights facing a min-raise from the button. Guess what I did? That's correct, SHOVE! Button called with JhTs and when the five community cards ran out jack and ten-less I was back to around 20 big blinds, something that seems quite common lately!

The next level I opened to 650 from UTG with AcQh and after two players folded Dedulja22 moved all in for 5,537. I called and was behind to jacks but an ace on the flop and a queen on the river soon sorted that out!

My stack dwindled again and by the time the final hand took place I was down to 6,858 at the 250/500/50a level. The action passed around to hsulfstun in late position and he opened to a ridiculous 1,750, yeah really, and I moved in on him from the button with TdTd. He called with TcTs and we split the pot. Oh no we didn't, sorry if my brain tried to blank out the fact that the board ran out 8h-8c-Ac-Kc-4c gifting villain the flush! You have to love poker sometimes! It softens the blow a tad that hsulfstun is both a fellow Brit and Team Betfair player who then went on to cash in 167th place whilst I busted in 415/1,350 around 200 places short of the money.

My executioner was one of 49 Betfair players who cashed and this was one of our best tournaments for deep runs. We had 30 players reach the top 10% of the tournament and 11 of those made it through to the top 50 places. Give a big round of applause to tupoeelbo of Russia who was the final table's bubble boy and if you clapped for him then jump up and down and stamp your feet for the sixth place finisher humbug1969 who picked up $830.55.

But you need to save your biggest and best cheer for Alendel0n7 from Russia who fell just short of victory, eventually being eliminated in third place for a cool $2,054.76, pretty good going for an initial $22 outlay.

Mini Event #4 in numbers

Total entrants: 1,350
Total prize pool: $27,000
Total Team Betfair entrants: 216 (16% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 49
Total Team Betfair prize money: $5,743.81 (21.27% of prize pool)

So another three final table appearances by the Betfair heroes, at this rate next year's GSOP will be called the Betfair Series of Poker (BSOP)! Running totals for the series up to and including Event #4 are 142 cashes for $209,187.88 in the GSOP and 160 cashes for $14,899.01 in the mini-GSOP. Give yourselves a pat on the back!

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If you read yesterday's articles you will be aware that Team Betfair players have got off to an absolute flying start in the GSOP and mini-GSOP winning $148,461.68 and $7,257.26 respectively. After such an amazing start to proceedings surely the third event would be somewhat of a let down? Nope, not a chance. Betfair players continued to hoover up chips like they were the latest Dyson Vac! Want to know how they got on? Then keep reading.

GSOP Event #3: $100+$8 No Limit Holdem Rebuy $150,000 Guaranteed

Of the early events this was the one I was most apprehensive about because I could not realistically afford to rebuy, which in a rebuy tournament is quite detrimental to your chances of glory. My game plan was simple; play tight and solid and hope to find a spot to find some spots to double up.

The tournament looked like it was going to be a case of fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, shove, lose until something happened and I won a pot as a decent underdog. I had built my 2,500 starting stack to around 5,400 but lost a couple of pots in quick succession to drop me down to 3,395, and with blinds of 125/250/25a that is not ideal. Thankfully when I decided to open-shove from the small blind with Ks2s and the Jorizz in the big blind called with 10h10s the poker gods rewarded me by putting a king out on the turn to catapult me to 7,290 and give me some breathing room.

From here I could do no wrong and kept picking up chips until I won a massive pot that saw me soar amongst the chip leaders. Blinds were 150/300/30a and I opened from early position with KdKs, the action folded to the button who moved all in for 5,715. Not to worry because I am calling all day long. The then cho3535 in the small blind shoved for 6,569 and I am like WTF but obviously called anyway to be shown KcQc and AhQd respectively. A jack-high board won the hand for me and I was now armed with 21,259 chips! Oh yeah!

My stack peaked at around 39,000 and I was preparing myself for a five-figure score but then things started to go wrong and the blinds started to nip at my toes like overeager crabs and I needed to pick up chips again. I made loose call when the blinds had exploded to 1,250/2,500/250a when a player who had been moving all every hand shoved his 12,039 chips in and I called in the big blind getting just shy of 2:1. I turned over KsJh and lost to his Ad8c to leave me with 15,270. I doubled again three hands later, my three-bet shove with ace-jack being called by king-queen and hitting a jack, then came a massive hand that put me back in contention!

Finding KdKc UTG+1 I min-raised to 6,000, the next player raised to 25,000 leaving just 3,252 behind and the player next to him moved all-in for 39,980! I call, as does the initial raiser and they both turn over ace-queen! No ace, no ace no ace, came the pleas and there was no ace on the board by the river and I was now sat with 128,622 chips! Could the Pudding win a major? No, unfortunately not.

I lost 20 or so thousand chips before I made a move then went wrong. With blinds now 2,000/4,000/400a I opened to 8,000 from middle position with 6h6s. The cutoff, a  fellow Team Betfair player meredithp73 three-bet to 18,000. The action was back on me and I shoved for 85,047 but she snapped me off with AsKd. The 5h-4s-2c flop kept my heart pounding but the Ac turn meant I had to hit a three or six to stay alive. The river was the queen of diamonds and I bowed out in 50/600 for a career best score of $520.82. My executioner went on to finish in 16th place for $1,126.92, so congrats to him / her!

In total 19 Team Betfair players cashed in this event including snowpaw who narrowly missed out on a final table appearance. But one player who did make the final table form their home in Portugal was lorddogs33, who not only reached the final table but went the whole way and won the entire event for $28,934.30 and a $5,000 seat to the GSOP Grand Final! An amazing performance in such a difficult event and we wish lorddogs33 the very bets of luck in future GSOP events and the March 18 Grand Final.

Event #3 in numbers

Total entrants: 600
Total prize pool: $155,900
Total Team Betfair entrants: 102 (17.00% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 19
Total Team Betfair prize money: $41,994.33 (26.94% of prize pool)

Mini GSOP Event #3: $10+1 No Limit Hold'em Rebuy $30,000 Guaranteed

The mini-GSOP was only an $11 buy-in so even through my tight-fisted Yorkshireness (is that a word?) I was planning on rebuying if things did not go my way, but fortunately they did and I quickly found myself with 12,165 chips and was in pole position to go deep. I'd already chipped up to 8,015 when a big pot went my way when the hijack raised to 400 with blinds at 80/160 and the player to his left flat-called. I decided to set the price at 1,175 to play as I liked the look of my pocket tens but the initial raise liked their hand too because they came along for the ride. The 2h-4c-7s flop saw villain shove 2,335 into the 2,990 pot and I called to be shown AdJh. No drama on the turn or river and I was feeling good about my chances, that was until I donated my stack to clowde28pp, who then went on to finish in 61st place for $79.71.

In the hand the blinds were 125/250/25a and he raised to 650 in the hijack seat. I was on the button and three-bet to 1,525 with KsQs and he called. The flop came down 2d-9s-Qc and when villain checked I bet 2,675 into the 3,675 pot and villain called. Hmmmmm. The turn was the 5c and villain checked again. With just 6,330 chips left and the pot now 9,025 I moved all-in and villain instantly called and showed QhQd for top set and that was the end of me in a disappointing 735/1,261 and after the rebuy period.. Holy get it in with 0% equity Batman.

Thankfully 30 other Team Betfair players managed to make it into the money so the tournament wasn't a completely lost cause. Two hundred and 20 places were paid and juanhit of German finished in 220th to get the ball rolling. His fellow countryman Rand0mD0nk was the first Betfair player to crack the top 100p places whilst ggoba87 of Russia made it into the top 40.

For the first time this series we did not have a Team Betfair player on the final table, our best placed finisher was FoxRS of the Ukraine in 16th place. Onwards to the next tournament we go!

Mini Event #3 in numbers

Total entrants: 1,261
Total prize pool: $35,370
Total Team Betfair entrants: 197 (15.63% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM cashes: 30
Total Team Betfair prize money: $1,897.94 (3.37% of prize pool)

Another set of superb results from the boys and girls of Betfair Poker. In the GSOP Team Betfair have now cashed 118 times for total prize money of $190,456.01 whilst the mini GSOP gas seen 111 cashes and $9,155.20 in cashes! Keep it up everyone!

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The eighth edition of the Grand Series of Poker (GSOP) kicked off on Sunday 26 February and already Betfair Poker players are absolutely destroying the series and winning ridiculous sums of cash! Even this humble scribbler is in profit, what on Earth is happening?!

GSOP Event #1: $190+$10 No Limit Hold'em Deepstack $500,000 Guaranteed

The first GSOP VIII event started at 2000 CET on Feb. 26 with the $190+$10 No Limit Hold'em Deepstack event that carried a massive $500,000 guarantee on it. I almost missed the start as I was travelling back from EPT Copenhagen but  managed to get back home with mere minutes to spare. Even if I had missed the start it would not have been too bad because the structure was so amazing; 5,000 chips and 20-minute blinds.

The slow structure must have appealed to my donkish ways and I somehow managed to make it into the money places, eventually crashing in 370/2,419 for a more than welcome $282.20. The run could have possibly been even deeper but I made a bad push in the last hand where I three-bet jammed over an UTG raise for 15bb whilst holding AhJh and ran into AxKx but it was fun.

It was not only little old me representing Team Betfair who made it to the money, there were 75 of my fellow Betfair Poker players who cashed so a massive congratulations to you all! Special mentions have to go to fellow Brit harwell2 and Romania's FIREZUCU who both finished in the top 20 places (19 and 15 respectively) but an even bigger shoutout has to go to richard5174 who eventually busted out in fifth place for a score of $18,510.20.

But he was not the best placed Betfair Poker player, no, that honour went to mar1ach1 who almost took down the first event but fell just short in second place. The German lost heads-up to pasikko but I'm sure the $49,049.64 he picked up for second place will help numb the pain a little! It has been quite the couple of months for mar1ach1 as he also finsihed second in the Jan. 23 Champion Chip $200,000 guaranteed for $24,462! Congratulations!

Event # 1 in numbers

Total entrants: 2,419
Total prize pool: $500,000
Total Team Betfair entrants: 417 (17.24% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 76
Total Team Betfair prize money: $112,457.23 (22.49% of prize pool)

GSOP Event #2: $50+$4 No Limit Hold'em Turbo Unlimited Rebuys $75,000 Guaranteed

If it was up to me I would not speak about my performance in Event #2 because the tournament we terribly. As my Betfair account balance was looking extremely sorry for itself I was forced to play in a rebuy tournament with just a single bullet, a far from ideal scenario.

I had managed to build my stack up to 2,985 and was laughing in the face of those who had rebought but they were to have the last laugh. The blinds were 25/50 and I was under the gun with a beautiful pair of black aces, the best kind I'll have you know. I raise four times the big blind hoping for some nutcase to come over the top of my donkey raise and the ploy worked as Linbeo three-bet to 1,000. Mission accomplished; or so I thought. The big blind, Betfair player Slayerpl then moved all in for 3,000 in total and I obviously shipped in the rest of my stack and the cards were flipped over.

Me: AcAs
Slayerpl: QdJd
Linbeo: KdKc

I had around 67% which is all fine and dandy until the bloody flop came down 8s-7c-Ks. Yeah thanks for that. The turn and river were the 2c and 4c respectively and the 9,010 chip pot was shipped to Linbeo. It would not have hurt as much if he had put them to good use but he didn't even cash.

So my “Pud won a GSOP” brag attempt ended in me finishing a very disappointing 815/895 but it could have been so much better. God bless tournament poker.

But these articles aren't just about me they are about my fellow Team Betfair players too and 23 of you did me proud by making it into the money places. Giro_413 was the first to pick up some moolah, $229.20 to be exact and this amount started to gradually increase right up until j)sideris of Greece's 18th place finish that saw him scoop $898.72 for his efforts.

But again his performance was not the bets of Team Betfair because we had two players on the final table! The player who sounds like the seagulls from Finding Nemo, MYMMYMMYM, almost took down Event #2 but he busted out in third place for a bankroll boosting $11,399.92.

Usually this would be enough to get the non-existant but still lucrative title of Team Betfair Player of the Tournament that I have just this second made up but not in this event because jumpjump99 of Denmark finished in second place for a cool $15,923.69. He narrowly missed out on glory when he was defeated by the_pean heads-up. Can Team Betfair Players please stop finishing second! A massive congratulations to everyone who made it into the money places, especially our final table members.

Event #2 in numbers

Total entrants: 895
Total prize pool: $134,000
Total Team Betfair entrants: 173 (19.33% of total entrants)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 23
Total Team Betfair prize money: $36,004.45 (26.87% of total prize pool)

As you can see Team Betfair have been fast out of the blocks and have been tearing up the first couple of events. The running total so far is 590 entrants, 99 cashes and a massive $148,461.68 in prize money being won; that is 23.42% of the prize pools so far!

Keep up the good work boys and girls and hopefully we can write about more Team Betfair exploits in the coming days!

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A large number of the online poker festivals are aimed at mid-to-high stakes tournament specialists who can afford to throw a couple of thousand dollars at a fortnight's worth of events like it is nothing. But what about the little guy? What about those who live and breathe poker but for whatever reason they cannot afford to play in the big events. Surely they deserve some recognition too and the chance to win sacks full of cash. Step forward the mini-GSOP!

The mini-GSOP is running alongside GSOP VIII and everything is identical to its bigger brother except the entry fees are around 10% of the cost. Obviously this lowers the guaranteed prize pools but there is still plenty of money up for grabs, and Team Betfair have been grabbing it like it is going out of fashion, even I have got in on the act! Want to know more? The keep reading.

Mini GSOP Event # 1: $20+$2 No Limit Hold'em Deepstack $50,000 Guaranteed

Event #1 of the mini-GSOP kicked off at the exact same time as the $200 equivalent on Sunday 26 February at 2000 CET and amongst the gigantic field of 2,403 runners was your very own Yorkshire Pudding! A total of 420 places were paid ranging from $28 up to the prize I had my eyes on, the $7,843 for taking it down!

My tournament started well, with finding aces during the 15/30 level and managing to get someone to commit their entire stack. I opened to 90 with black aces from middle position and the player to my direct left three-bet to 240. The action folded back around to me and I made it 700 to play and he smooth called. The 5s-5c-7c flop was as safe as houses for me and I continued with a bet of 1,080 into the 1,445, villain shoved and I called off my remaining 3,130 chips to be shown QdQc. My bullets held and I was flying high.

I hovered around this chip stack for the next couple of hours before someone decided to go mental with a pair of deuces on a 3c-5s-5d flop in a three-bet pot when I was sat with QcQs. This put me to 19,200 and I sailed through into the money places! Weeeeee! But then, at around 0145 in the morning, just as I had done in the GSOP Event #1 I made a horrible shove that cost me my stack. The blinds were 600/1,200 with a 120 ante and the player UTG+1 opened to 2,575. Three players folded and I had the bright idea to move all-in for 21,857 chips with Qd9d. My plan would have worked but mr.5bet, his name not my nickname for him, called with AsKh and flopped trips. A silly play by me and it shows that you need to concentrate at all times in these tournaments.

My cash haul for that event was $33.42 for my 292nd place finish, but some of my fellow Team Betfair players completely crushed that, which makes me blowing my stack easier to take! I didn't know at the time but of the 2,403 entrants Team Betfair made up 321 of them, of whom 56 made it into the money places. The best placed of our heroes were - - MANG0 - - of Cyprus who finished in 35th place and was the first Team Betfair player to pick up more than $100. He was followed to the rail shortly afterwards by KPCHUK in 30th spot, both players being awarded $156.80 for their efforts. But the best placed Team Betfair player was ALEX-TAKER13 who reached the final table before busting out in eighth place for a score of $800.75, just one more place and he would have helped himself to a four-figure score.

It capped off a week of mixed emotions for KPCHUK who on Feb. 22 won an $11 buy-in tournament that had 324 runners for a cool $692 then he won a seat to GSOP #1 on the day of the tournament, only to bust out in 438th place with 420 places paid! Hopefully we will see more of his during the series.

Mini Event #1 in numbers

Total entrants: 2,403
Total prize pool: $50,000
Total Team Betfair entrants: 321 (13.36% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 56
Total Team Betfair prize money: $3,604.06 (7.21% of prize pool)

Mini GSOP Event #2: $5+$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Turbo with Unlimited rebuys $15,000 Guaranteed

Although I feel comfortable playing in rebuy tournaments I actually prefer freezeouts but that did not stop me diving into mini-GSOP Event #2. In order to play a rebuy tournament effectively you really need to have a few bullets in your gun and be able to rebuy if necessary but my Betfair account had the grand total of $1.04 in it so rebuying was out of the question. Not to worry, I'll just run like God instead and not need to rebuy. Oh how the Poker Gods mocked that idea.

My plan seemed to be working and I was cruising on almost 6,000 chips when the universe became aware that I had not rebought and they decided to punish me. With blinds now at 125/250/25a I saw huses raise to 875 from under the gun. The action folded to me in the cutoff holding KcKd and I three-bet to 3,250 leaving just 2,055 behind. I decided to do this because it looked so ridiculous that I though weaker hands would shove over the top of me; and I was correct because Barva moved all in from the small blind and when the initial raiser got out of the way I snapped Barva's grubby little hands off. He showed QcQs ad I was on course to pick up a 9,845 pot. That was until the flop came down 10h-Qh-Ts. LOL! The turn and river were the 2s and 9c respectively and I was left with just 1,070 chips.

What was left of my stack went in with Kd8h and tsonir called with AsQs, spiked an ace and it was goodnight Vienna. Not to worry though because the Team Betfair guys and gals were busy carving up the field like a Thanksgiving turkey!

Whilst my 759/1,083 was disappointing at least I did not feel like banging my head against a brick wall by bubbling the tournament. Event #2 paid out 180 places so spare a though for PapAmericano from Poland who busted out in 183rd position, talk about frustration.

One by one the players were eliminated, each of their exits increasing the prize money and Team Betfair players were amongst them. The first of our players to pick up more than $100 were nikotsios (18th) and Finland's drzeropoker (16th) who both won $105.84, but the best was yet to come because a Swede going by the alias lseedurrr1 went all the way and took down the entire tournament! That's right, they shipped the whole thing for $2,699.33! Boom! An absolutely amazing performance from lssdurrr1 who until this tournament had a biggest score on Betfair of $27, now they have almost 100 times that! Sick brag my friend, sick brag.

Mini Event #2 in numbers

Total entrants: 1,083
Total prize pool: $17,155
Total Team Betfair entrants: 159 (14.68% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 25
Total Team Betfair prize money: $3,653.20 (21.30% of prize pool)

Just like in the bigger GSOP Team Betfair are doing us proud. The running totals for the mini-GSOPs up to an including Event #2 are 480 entrants, 81 cashes and $7,257.26 in winnings! Keep it up everyone!

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The UKIPT Galway Main Event came to a conclusion yesterday when Irishman Emmett Mullin did his best impression of a one-man wrecking ball and eliminated six of his eight opponents on the final table!

When the nine-handed final table got under way Hammil's name was not one that had been touted around as a potential winner. Although he had obviously reached the final table on merit his place there was being overshadowed by the fact Nick Abou Risk had a very realistic chance of becoming the first player to win three UKIPT titles and the fact Ronan Gilligan had lost heads-up in a UKIPT Main Event. The media were already preparing their best headlines but they had to be re-written as Mullin smashed his way through the remaining players on his way to a memorable victory.

Mullin's first victim was Joris Ruijs who found himself short-stacked an in the need to make some moves. He made one such move with Kh5h but did not count on Mullin waking up with As10h. An ace on the flop sealed Ruijs' fate and the final table lost a player.

Next to go was Richard Haile who headed to the rail just five minutes after Ruijs. Himself short of spare chips Haile moved all in with KsQs and nobody could fault him for it at all. Least of all Craig Burke who woke up with KhKc. No help from the board from Haile and eight became seven. These seven then became six with the untimely demise of Risk. Mullin opened with a standard raise then snap-called when Risk three-bet shoved all in for 605,000 chips. It turned out he had done this with KsJh and Mullin had made the call with AhJc. The board ran out Kd-Ad-5h-10c-4s and Risk's quest for an unprecedented third UKIPT title will have to wait until Notthingham in April.

Play slowed down after that spell of eliminations but 45-minutes after Risk had busted another flurry of activity saw the tournament become severely short stacked. First John Willoughby's AsQd lost out to the Ad7d of Aleksandras Rusinovas and then Rusinovas himself was eliminated when his Ac10c failed to outrun Mullin's AsQd.

Mullin turned executioner again to dispatch of Burke, his As7s snapping off the three-bet shove made with Ah3d. This left the tournament three-handed and the remaining three players headed off for an unscheduled break. When they returned it became public knowledge they had struck a deal that saw €14,900 taken from the eventual winner's purse with €10,000 of that going to second place and the last €4,900 to the third place finisher, who ended up being Joe Roberts who ran KsJs into Mullin's JcJh.

This left Mullin, whose previous largest cash was for €2,050, heads-up against Gilligan who had so publicly finished as runner-up to Max Silver in the 2010 UKIPT Dublin Main Event and then came third in the recent WPT Ireland Main Event. If only he knew lightening can and does sometimes strike twice. Initially it looked like Gilligan was on course to make amends for falling at the last hurdle, especially when Mullin committed his chips with bottom set on a 3s-2h-5h-6c flop when he held 4s3h for the flopped straight. However, the river was the 6s which improved Mullin to a full house and left Gilligan trailing by almost 2:1 in chips.

It was all over shortly afterwards when Gilligan min-raised on the button to 200,000 and Mullin made the call. A flop reading 6s-3d-2c saw Mullin check-raise Gilligan's 400,000 continuation bet to 950,000 then call a shove from him. Gilligan turned over 7s7c which were absolutely crushed by the 3s3h of Mullin that had made another set. The turn and river blanked off, busting Gilligan and crowning Mullin as the UKIPT Galway champion.

UKIPT Galway Main Event Final Table Results

1st: Emmett Mullin: €100,000
2nd: Ronan Gilligan: €73,650
3rd: Joe Roberts: €51,900
4th: Craig Burke: €30,750
5th: Aleksandras Rusinovas: €24,150
6th: John Willoughby: €19,400
7th: Nick Abou Risk: €14,700
8th: Richard Haile: €10,900
9th: Joris Ruijs: €7,800

The UK & Ireland Poker Tour Galway Main Event has reached the nine-handed final table and the eyes of the media are fixated on one man, despite the fact he is the second shortest stack when play resumes. That man is Nick Abou Risk.

Abou Risk is a regular on the UKIPT and has had some stellar results in the three seasons it has been running, including two outright wins. Back in 2010 Risk outlasted 401 runners in the UKIPT Edinburgh Main Event to get his hands on €50,000 in prize money then he followed that up with another win in December 2010's UKIPT Galway Main Event for a further €67,100. Now he has the chance for an unprecedented third UKIPT title when play resumes this afternoon.

Standing between Risk and that third UKIPT title are eight talented player who will be lead into battle by Ronan Gilligan whose 2,489,000 stack contains an extra 1,000,000 chips than any other player at the final table. Gilligan is a name that has graced these very pages before, not for his runner-up finish in the UKIPT Dublin Main Event back in 2010 but for his third place finish in the recent World Poker Tour Dublin Main Event that was won by Dave “Dubai” Shallow in January.

The final table of UKIPTs are usually played eight-handed but the penultimate day's play took more than 14 hours to complete so when Alan Gilmore was sent to the rail in tenth place during the early hours of the morning the decision was taken to pause the tournament and play down to a winner today instead, much to the delights of the players, the tournament staff and the various media outlets.

When play resumes at 1200 noon in Galway the players will sit down safe in the knowledge they have each locked up €7,800 in prize money but by the time play comes to an end and one player has in his possession each and every one of the 10,470,000 chips in play that player will be crowned champion and will have won a massive €114,900. Who will that be? Check in tomorrow to find that out!

UKIPT Galway Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Emmett Mullin: 1,003,000
Seat 2: Nick Abou Risk: 647,000
Seat 3: Richard Haile: 652,000
Seat 4: Craig Burke: 1,283,000
Seat 5: Joe Roberts: 1,103,000
Seat 6: John Willoughby: 1,382,000
Seat 7: Aleksandras Rusinovas: 1,003,000
Seat 8: Joris Ruijs: 440,000
Seat 9: Ronan Gilligan: 2,489,000

Hello there ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls Yorkshire Pudding here writing to you from the seventh floor of the Radisson Blu hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark. I'm in a really good mood today despite the fact I have just burned my tongue, as I always do without fail, on a cup of hot chocolate. It's a good job it tastes gorgeous!

I'm typing this blog entry out from Copenhagen because I am out here covering the EPT Copenhagen (funnily enough) Main Event for PokerNews. Although I have been reporting on the European legs of the World Poker Tour, this is the first European Poker Tour event I have covered since Tallinn back in August last year and I am really looking forward to it. I've not seen the other bloggers since last August so it will be good to have a catch up and a laugh like we usually do.

My journey into Denmark was relatively void of stress, which is surprising when you consider I flew in on the abomination that is easyJet. I bought my train tickets with my personal bank account rather than my business account so I have some extra paperwork to do when I get back on home soil and I had to use my business account to pay for my customary breakfast at Manchester Airport because the same personal card that worked a hour previously suddenly was not working any more! That aside I arrived on Danish soil 20-minutes earlier than anticipated, spent of those spare minutes locating a cash machine that my personal account worked in and got to my hotel without feeling like the world was going to end.

Part of the reason for the lack of stress is the fact I've not had a drink of alcohol for four days and am getting back to my usual self. I sound like a right alchy don't I? On the flight over I read scores of pages from the Control Your Drinking by Allen Carr and at least half a dozen light bulbs were ignited inside my head. They were joined by another two or three as I read some more pages whilst lounging in a bath that I had made far too hot to be too comfortable and I am really starting to see the broader picture when it comes to alcohol. Don't worry, I'm not going to start to become all anti-alcohol and ram it down your throat because that is not me even to the slightest degree, much like I am not anti-smoking despite being a former smoker. But, and here's the but, I highly recommend anyone who drinks alcohol to read the book. If you have a Kindle or Kindle reading software it is only £3.64 or some ridiculous figure and it is very interesting indeed and will probably open your eyes once you get past the first few chapters which seem to be going nowhere fast.

I know a few of you were visitors to my non-Betfair personal blog but I have closed it down. The blogging software is still there but I am going to just keep the domain name with it being my own name. Things on there were not going in the direction that I had planned and to be honest I don't want potential employers searching for me and finding my silliness and complete randomness! That said I am going to use these very pages for more personal stuff and hopefully some it will be entertaining for you fish! I'm also planning on launching a video game review site but with my own strange way with words which should be fun to write and read.

On the poker front I have probably played a further 400-500 hands since I last updated this little piece of the internet but nothing really to write home about to be honest. The internet here in the Danish hotel is pretty quick and stable so once I have written a few things for tomorrow I am going to try and play for a couple of hours and make some moolah. It should be interesting to see how the session goes not that I feel in a much more positive place, maybe I'll suck even more, hopefully not. I'm almost certainly going to play some short handed cash games and get back into the swing of playing post-flop because the turbo 180-man games I had been playing elsewhere require a completely different mind and skill set in order to succeed in them. I may mix some tournaments in so that I am sharp for the upcoming GSOP but we will see as I am meant to be going for a late dinner with Lee Davy once his Welsh ass lands in Bacon Land.

Over the next week I will try to give regular updates into the life of a tournament blogger, hopefully there will be plenty of fun and laughter along the way.

At some point in their life every man will reach a point where they are essentially at a crossroads, where they have to make a decision or a number of decisions in order to carry on down the path they want to head down. I, ladies and gentleman, have reached that point, those crossroads and it could be by biggest challenge yet.

Today I downloaded a book to my trusty Kindle (great little gadget that) by Allen Carr called “How To Control Your Drinking.” Carr wrote a number of best selling books, all of them self-help, with the most famous being The EasyWay To Stop Smoking that he wrote after quitting a hundred-a-day smoking habit that spanned 33 years. Ironically he died of lung cancer in November 2006.

A friend of mine, Lee Davy, has already read this particular book so I already know there is a little twist in there that will inform me that you cannot control your drinking, you simply have to stop. This to me, like many others, is a completely alien concept and something I have struggled and am struggling to get my head around and judging by the number of “WTF” type responses to a tweet I sent about it this morning so are many of my friends.

This may sound sad but alcohol has always been and is a significant part of my life. My parents drink, though not heavily, I have worked in the pub and club trade for a number of years, lived in a pub for a couple of years and have always been around parties and people going out drinking so I guess you could say drinking and alcohol is in my blood, so to speak.

The problem is I am quite a greedy person and have one of those mentalities where it is all or nothing. I have little self-control when it comes to a large number of things. When I started smoking I smoked like a chimney and whenever I took drugs I was popping pills and sticking powders up my nose like they were going out of fashion. But one thing I always said was once the bad times outweigh the good then it is time to call it a day. I feel that time may have come for my drinking days.

I stopped smoking the day or two day's after my sister's wedding and have been clean in that respect for around 18 months. I quit the evil herb simply because I wanted to. It is expensive, smells awful and I don't want my kids to grow up and become smokers so it seemed logical to quit and quit I and the Mrs did. Taking drugs suffered the same fate too. To cut a long story short they were causing me all sorts of mental problems which were spilling into everyday life and I had to quit. That was more than four years ago.

So why am I almost certainly going to quit drinking? There are a number of reasons and I plan to go through them all so get comfortable, make a cuppa and settle down!

The first and possibly most important is how I feel when I DON'T drink. As readers of this blog you know that I often travel around Europe on the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour as a live blogger. Although I love the job you are forced to work long hours and it is one of the worst jobs in the world when you are tired and hungover. On recent tours I have had spells of three or four days where I have not had a single drink and I have felt like a completely new man. I have ideas for articles and projects coming out of my ears, I managed to plough through work like nobody's business and I feel much more creative. Usually I go and spoil it all and get wasted on at least one night and feel like death but although there is the feeling of wanting to cut my own head off and put it in the freezer there is also a feeling of guilt when I feel rough, and the overwhelming feeling that I have let myself down. It's not a nice feeling.

Then there's the fact I have no self control. I was speaking to the Mrs about it this morning in that I cannot remember a time when I bought a bottle of wine and had just the one glass, it always ends up being the entire bottle. Or like last night when I went for a curry with friends and had a couple of pints I finished up going to Asda and buying some cider despite the fact I didn't need it, or really want it for that matter, and knew I'd feel crap this morning (I did BTW) but I still did it. It's like there is another Yorkshire Pudding inside me who comes out to play when he's been in contact with alcohol and he's a bit of a controlling knob head to be honest.

Let's keep this going. Another reason is I want to be a better dad to my kids and partner to the Mrs. Waking up feeling rubbish, tired and not at all refreshed whilst you have young kids around the house is a recipe for disaster. I know I am sometimes snappy and not nearly as patient as I should be or even motivated to be a parent. It's not t he kids fault. Likewise being a better partner for the Mrs. She's stopped drinking because she's a bit nuts (!!) so it's not fair that I'm drinking in front of her and it's not fair when I do drink and stay up until the early hours on the Xbox or I'm snappy with her. I can honestly say that hand on heart, and this almost certainly goes for ex-girlfriends too, that the only time I have ever had an argument with the Mrs is when one or both of us have been drinking or the day after when feeling sorry for ourselves.

Then there is the health aspects to it all. For the past few weeks I've been suffering from some strange dizzy spells that I am going to the doctor's about but I tested my blood pressure with my dad's monitor and it was high enough for me to worry about. I'm 30-years old not 60 so want to drop some weight and get my blood pressure down and sooner rather than later. Stopping the booze seems like a good place to start.

I'm sat here not thinking that this makes me sound like a raging alcoholic and although I do not think that is the case I guess I do have a problem with alcohol and it's not the case that I have two hands and just one mouth! I can't limit myself once I have been drinking, I don't like the person I am when I have been drinking and I still have many aspirations and goals in both poker and writing that I will only ever achieve if I have a clear head and what better way to have a clear head than to rid it of something that causes me severe cloudiness.

It's going to be a difficult challenge, I know that, and I still haven't a clue how I am going to do it. In fact I am quite anxious about the whole affair, but I know that after a week or two I am going to be a completely different person, a happier person and that will shine through on those around me. Wish me luck!

Seeing how this is a poker blog I better mention something about the horrible game! I've hardly played this month because I have been catching up with work and the like but I have managed to fit in four tournaments, each with 2k+ runners, and got nowhere near the money and played a session of 1,231 hands and lost 1.5BI and that's about it really. I'm not sure if I'll get to play next week either because I am flying to Copenhagen on Sunday for ET Copenhagen which will take up most of my time and I'm not sure of the legality of online poker there.

Until next time good luck at the tables and stay away from the bar!

Whenever you sit down at the virtual felt on Betfair Poker or at the actual felt in your local casino you should be doing everything in your power to play hands with players that are weaker than you. Whilst this sounds ridiculously obvious, you would be surprised at how often players fail to capitalise on the fishes that frequent their tables.

The reason for wanting to play as many hands with weak players is simple, they make more mistakes that good players and as David Sklansky informed us in The Theory of Poker every time an opponent makes a mistake we actually win, even if we do not pick money or chips up in the actual hand. Therefore, every single time a weak player enters the pot you should be licking your lips with anticipation and thinking of ways to play a pot with him.

Your main problem will be the fact other solid players will recognise your target's fishy tendencies and will also be looking to exploit him so you could find yourself trying to share the fish and unless you are Jesus Christ who did miracles with fish and loaves there isn't going to be enough fish to go around. This is where isolation plays come into their own.

An isolation play is exactly what it sounds like, a raise that is designed to get you heads-up with a weak player and usually done with a less than premium hand. The reason you can make the move with a non-premium hand is you will have the power of position on your side coupled with the fact your weak opponent will also be playing weak hands, almost certainly much weaker than those you are isolating with.

So what hands should you be isolating with? Like most questions in poker this is answered with “it depends.” A lot of your value will come from your opponent going too far with second best hands so observe them like a hawk and see what they are entering pots with. If he is limp-calling with hands such as Jc6c and Ts7s then it makes perfect sense, in these examples, to isolate with better jacks such as J9, JT, KJ, QJ or tens such as T9, JT, QT, KT, AT because if we do pair the jack or ten our little fishy friend is likely to stack off or at the very least pay off a couple of streets of value to us.

These hands that regularly dominate our opponent can be added to our range of hands we would raise with anyway because against a weak player we would be raising or three-betting all of our premium hands, most of our pairs and probably a large percentage of our suited connectors too, depending on whether the fish is passive or aggressive. Just don't get carried away and start isolating with (using our Jc6c player as an example) Js4d and such because it takes away one way that we can win the hand and extract the most value.

Your position at the table should also have a major bearing on your range of isolating hands as we know that the value of our hands is magnified when we have position on our opponents, especially weak ones. If we are on the button we can isolate with a much wider range than we could if we were UTG+1 because the chances of being re-isolated drop significantly. When we have position we control the hand and reading our opponents because much easier to do indeed. That is not to say you should not try to isolate weak players when you are out of position against better players. Think if you were in a six-handed game with three good players to your left but two fishes in the blinds, here you can raise a wider range under the gun because the better players are likely to fold because a raise from UTG is likely to be perceived as strong, but the weak players in the blinds will likely call and you will no essentially have the button against them in a raised pot, a fantastic position to be in.

One thing to keep your eye out for when you are isolating weak players and have solid, thinking players that have position on you because they could make the powerful play of re-isolating you. If a weak player enters the pot and you isolate him your thinking opponents could make a play and come over the top of your own raise because they know you could be making this move with a less than premium hand. The only way to combat this, if it starts to happen frequently, is to come over the top of their re-isolating raise much lighter than you usually would.

I am writing this blog entry sat on an acid green ergonomic plastic chair at the far end of Marco Polo airport in Venice, around me are scores of people all panicking about missing their flights despite the fact, like me, they have turned up to catch it two hours before the baggage drop opens.

Just a two tables away from me is a young couple who appear to be in the advance stages of foreplay, possibly in preparation to join the exclusive "Mile High Club," I just want to drop my suitcase off and start my journey home. I'll be stopping off at Schipol airport in Amsterdam where I have a 90-minute layover before boarding another iron bird to Manchester, then a train to Dewsbury and finally a taxi home.

You see for the past week I have been confined to the four walls of the Casino Di Venezia, the oldest operating casino in the entire world I'll have you know, reporting live on the World Poker Tour Venice Grand Prix Main Event. Here I watched a Russian guy by the name of Rinat Bogdanov essentially fold his way to €229,800, which actually winds me up. During the 11-hour final table I was able to see the holecards and let's just say when the WPT production get around to editing the footage for the TV show they are going to have plenty of gaps to fill. Boring does not even come close to describing the drivel I had to watch and watch on a 30-minute delay.

The highly sexed couple have left, probably to purchase some condoms or have a knee-trembler in the toilets.

The tournament as a whole was, I thought, great with some real characters in it. Of those who entertained me during my 12-hour stints it was Marcel Bjerkmann who kept me smiling the most. Bjerkmann is known as p3rc4 online and is basically a complete nutcase in all senses of the word. Not only did he have one of the massage girls rubbing his back and stretching him all over the place like a budget WWE show the entire time he was sat at the felt, literally, he played like a total lunatic and it was really fun to watch. He did get a little out of hand at one point and the tournament directors were having a hard time not giving him a penalty per round but I think secretly they were disappointed to see him bust out in 12th.

Another player who impressed me was the American Jason Wheeler. I've seen Wheeler on a number of the stops I have covered for various outlets but I have never had the chance to speak to him, but during the dinner break of Day 3 or Day 4 a conversation started naturally and it was refreshing to see how down to Earth he is and how he seems to really have his head screwed on. After our half hour chat I was hoping he would go all the way or at least make it to the final table but he was the unfortunate soul who burst the final table bubble when his ace-queen couldn't hit against pocket jacks.

What Is Venice Like?

So what is Venice like I can hear you ask. Well I honestly do not know because I hardly saw any of it due to the long hours in the casino and the fact I had a lot of other work to do whilst staying on the historical floating city. I've not even taken the lens cap off my camera, I literally have no snaps of Venice at all on my phone except two of the TV screen in the tournament area that is showing the payouts and they will be deleted by the time I board my plan in around two hour's time.

What I can tell you is that I will be coming back again at some point and doing the whole touristy thing with the Mrs that is for certain. I have never been anywhere like it ever, it really is unique. Walking home late at night and sometimes in the early hours of the morning I never felt threatened or as if there was any danger. The streets void of card and roads for that matter were not the home to gangs of youngsters who are prepared to beat you to within an inch of your life just to steal a cigarette instead they were almost empty, quite, with my only company on the journey back to my hotel being one of my colleagues or the occasional person heading home themselves wrapped up like they were in Siberia.

I described it to a work mate that it felt like I was on some sort of movie set, like it wasn't real to some degree, but beautiful nonetheless. Many of the buildings look derelict from the outside, plaster has eroded, paint has peeled off exposing bare bricks but inside the buildings burst into life and are so full of character. I'm really disappointed that I didn't have the chance to go into some of the churches and iconic buildings of the city but like I said a paragraph ago I will certainly be heading back to Venezia sooner rather than later.

The highlight of the trip was not actually anything to do with Venice but a man from Bradford, West Yorkshire. Anyone who is into magic will have heard of the name Dynamo, well he was hired by the WPT to perform at a private party. I've watched with amazement his tricks on TV but always thought there was some camera trickery involved but when you see him in real life, stood there inches away from you it really is something else. He's a very talented man indeed.

EPT Copenhagen

What's next for Pudding then? Well I am back on the road in little over a week's time because I have been asked to cover European Poker Tour Copenhagen for PokerNews. I've never been to any of the Scandinavian countries before except for passing through bother Copenhagen and Gothenberg airports so I must admit I am quite looking forward to jetting off there but not so much at the prospect of flying EasyJet for the first time. I think I fly on Sunday but if I am entirely honest I cannot remember, my brain turned to mush by the 19-20 hour days I have been awake for this past week.

It's hardly surprising then that this post here contains no poker exploits from yours truly because I have not played a single hand all week but hopefully I'll able to play a few tournaments over the next seven days to make up for that. I won't be playing tonight though because there is a bottle of wine with my name all over it! This is the first European tour I have done that hasn't seen me pissed up at some point and feeling like I want to cut my head off the following day and I must admit I feel better for it but tonight I want to chill out, get some claret down my neck and have a massive sleep in my memory foam sporting bed.

I think I'll leave it there because I'm touching cloth at the moment, the turtle's head is appearing whatever you want to call it, maybe just I need the toilet would be suffice but I'm not one for the mincing my words am I.

Until next time, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables.