On TV !!!1!1!!

OK, so apparently I was on TV ... last night. Doh. I was kind of expecting that Matchroom would say something like "World Poker Open starts on Channel 5 this week" on their website, but if they did, I missed it.

Fear not though ! Thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can still check it out (if you're in the UK). First of all go to Channel 5 Demand :

http://demand.five.tv/Home.aspx

Click "Join myFive" on the right hand side and fill in usual name & Email address. Caveat emptor, but I can confirm that they haven't sent me any spam in the half hour I've been registered. Once you've done that :

Click "Browse what's on Demand Five"
Click ""PartyPoker.com World Poker Open IV" (or any other of the fine programmes on display if you prefer)
Click "Episode 2"
Watch programme
Give programme 5-star rating along with comment such as "That Andy Ward is awesome, he should have his own show".

Or after registering, you may well be able to click here directly :

http://demand.five.tv/Episode.aspx?episodeBaseName=C5141090002

Enjoy !

Getting It Quietly

So the WSOP is on hiatus till November, and the suits must be gnashing their teeth that none of Hellmuth, Matusow or Tiffany Michelle managed to make the final. Michelle was quite an interesting case IMO. Without wanting to draw too many conclusions from news updates that tend to be of doubtful accuracy at the best of times, it seemed to me that she was getting a little bit too full of herself on the last day or two ; calling the clock on people, asking someone "it's not that hard is it buddy ?" while they're thinking [1], and so on. Would she have done all that on Day One ? I'm sure there were a lot of people around her making those cartoon cash-register eyes when they realised what would happen if she made the final, and no doubt that contributed to her, er, controversial decision to take Ultimate Bet's money without bothering to inform Pokernews, who were both her employers and the people who bought her into the event in the first place.

In a vague comparison to the other Tiffany from a few years ago, I suspect that she forgot how she accumulated all the chips in the first place - blind aggression, although it seemed mostly post-flop in this case - and suddenly decided that she could play poker. With predictable results. Much to the disappointment of Effel, Pollack & co who were gushing about how great it would be if she went deep during the event itself. Er, excuse me Jack, but aren't you meant to be the fucking referee ? It reminds me of the time Gabby Logan asked the Cup Final ref who he wanted to win. He, of course, just gave her a look to indicate exactly what a fucking moron he thought she was, while if the ref had been Jack Effel no doubt he would have started on about how great it would be for global merchandising if United could pull it off again Gabby.

Anyway, that was all a sideline. There was a post on 2+2 about Raptor's blog after he got donked out of the event by Brandon Cantu. Here's the original blog post. I can kind of see both sides of the but you're really rich anyway/but that's how he felt and why hide it sort of arguments, but what really struck me was a post Raptor (or someone speaking on his behalf, can't quite remember) made saying how desperate he was to win a bracelet and how upset he was that he wouldn't for another year, and I just thought, why ? Raptor's won 7 figures online and he's extremely well respected among people who know. I wouldn't think any more of him just because he binked (I'm really starting to hate that word) a bracelet, and I don't think any less of him because he hasn't, to date. So why should I chase one myself ? It's all bollocks, and when you've got so many people selling the myth that it's all that matters, you can miss this sometimes. So play the WSOP if you really want to, and/or if you think you'll make more money there than elsewhere, but if not, then leave them to it. Which is more likely to be my plan next year.

[1] Sadly, as someone pointed out on 2+2, he didn't shoot back with "that's not what you said last night".