It soon became apparent that the player numbers would wildly exceed even the most ambitious estimates, which is testament to the great structure, the great mix of players attending and also the significant windfall available compared to the very reasonable (these days) entry fee of £430, not to mention the excellent customer services of the whole Genting team who really know how to look after their players and, do so much more than just the bare minimum required to justify a monthly pay packet, which is an unfortunate trait that some UK casino staff seem to get into.

An example of the effort the team make to accommodate player requirements is the very fact that with significantly more players than the Fox Poker Club could cater for, at short notice they successfully administered an additional venue at the beautiful Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair (if you want to be properly looked after as a customer rather than a number, this is the place to visit).

To successfully administer this involving the allocation of tables, provision of equipment and most importantly quality dealers was a big ask with such short notice and what great dividends it paid with 580 players turning up create a prize pool of £232,000 and a first prize of about £48,000 plus a £1600 seat to the Grand Final at Palm Beach later this year in December. This was eventually won by the honey monster that is Albert Sapiano, who, if it were a track race, would have had Usane Bolt trailing in his wake like a snail with a bad leg.

I was drawn to play at The Palm Beach and sat down quite hopeful that I would do well with the great structure that suits a solid plodder like me.
It did not work out well and I had several horrible spots where it seemed impossible not to lose chips having open straight and flush draws twice and both times my hand failed to improve beyond one that seemed optimal to fold on the river, as well as flopping two pair that got counterfeited on the river and then being offered a ticket to value town which I eagerly accepted.

It seemed I was destined not to do well and I only had a couple of promising looking spots. In one I had a player min raise I called with KK and two aggro players to my left, who seemed to feel obliged to squeeze and try to take advantage of any “spots” that appeared to develop to show some flair.
So I presented them with one but unfortunately they both actually just called which brought in the two players to the flop meaning I was sat there going to the flop against 5 players.

The flop was QcJc7s it was checked to me I bet 500 (into 2400) and every player folded which felt like losing the pot. Later on I was on the button with 77 and called a min raise going to the flop against 4 opponents, which I much preferred when set mining and we were too deep for me (given my age) to be three betting with small pairs, even on the button. I know i don’t 3 bet enough from any position and being too deep to justify doing it seems like a good way to remove any penis envy issues associated with playing “weak”.

Anyway the flop was As3s7s which was a nice flop for my hand (though would have been a lot nicer without 3 spades but this wasn’t the time to be greedy for perfect flops)

It was surprisingly checked around to me so I decided to check behind and hopefully catch someone if it bricked on the turn and with position I was going to have most information to help make a decision if it wasn’t a total brick (or juicy pair up).

In terms of my hand and particularly if an opponent had trapped a made flush on the flop the turn card was a lovely 3 clubs giving me a totally disguised full house and players with made hands or flairy players without hands would surely get active on the turn.

As it happened it was again checked to me so I bet a small amount hoping to look like I was taking a stab at the pot as it had been checked round twice (as would be my duty with any two cards) to induce action from players with a flush draw or from those with too much desire to not jump on apparent weakness, I received a single caller who check folded the river K.

So basically every apparently significantly good hand or spot I had resulted in virtually zero action if I won the pot or I simply lost the pot, never an ideal set of scenarios and unlikely to result in a +EV end result.

I next got involved in a significant pot when a player raised from early position who had twice, despite his apparent advancing years, previously raised pre-flop and then triple barrelled only to fold when called on the river, so this seemed a decent spot to potentially extract some value with my AQ in position and I called his raise.

The flop was a very promising QJ4 and, as expected, he bet and I called. I could have raised here but then he folds all worse hands and all air hands and whilst you could argue that I might raise to “find out where I am” that line, in my opinion, is more abused than a smooth lilywhite bottomed boy in a Central American prison.

The turn was a lovely A and he again, as expected, bet out again and again I called. The river was a horrible K, which I felt meant that AK was now winning as was any hand containing a Ten but given his potentially wide open raising range and also his propensity to fire as many bullets as the aforementioned inmates of the Central American prison, I fully expected him to bet regardless and I was not going to fold now just because a scare card had hit.

He bet an amount that was about one third of the pot and about 60% of my smallish stack and I called to hear those most beautiful of phrases when you have made what could be a losing call, “you got it”. I showed my AQ and he showed me a nice set of Jacks, which was a bit of a surprise.

I had about 3000 left (about 10 big blinds at the time) and decided that it would be a good idea (if not generally accepted as optimal poker strategy) to move all in blind every hand until I either doubled up or was knocked out, then I could re –enter as quick as a Central American prisoner.

I announced this to the table so I might feel very slightly less guilty should I put an horrendous beat on some innocent opponent (innocent being one that had not participated in the testicle flicking I had received for the previous 4 hours). The first hand after my announcement a player did the arguably less than sensible move of limp folding to my shove (he possibly could have planned how he played his hand in a more profitable way) The next hand I do the same and as if to be rewarded for his “you got it” comment the same player woke up with Kings behind me. I actually had a decent hand as it turned out with JQ suited and the first card on the flop was a Q but my hand did not improve and we went to a break with me going to the cash desk to re-enter.

The first hand after the break with my fresh stack I am in the small blind and so sit out the hand. I look around the table and see two well stacked players to my immediate left, players both of whom look like they know very well what they are doing which suggested I might have a tricky seat.

The first hand dealt to me I had Aces and one player limps for 400 I make it 1100 in the cut off (hoping to get one caller out of position as the worst result) The good player to my left calls on the button, the other good player in the small blind also called (which was disappointing as it seemed a potentially good squeezing spot) and the initial limper also called.

It was not ideal to get 4 callers when holding Aces but at least I had position on two of them.

The flop was actually very decent under the circumstances being Qh9s3c and it was checked to me. I decided to check this relatively safe flop to hopefully extract value on the turn if the good player to my left checked behind, though I was hoping that he would be unable to resist the temptation to take a stab on the button and he duly obliged betting 1600. The player in the small blind called (which worried me a little as he may well play a set like this) the player between us folded and I elected to call as a sort of combo value extraction on later streets but also with a hint of concern as to a good player that calls a raise out of position and then just check calls a bet on this dry flop.

The turn was a perfect brick in 4h the small blind checked and I again checked hoping to get the good player on my left to bet again (hopefully as his only way to win the pot) and allowing me to see the reaction of the player in the small blind. He dutifully obliged betting about 6000 the player in the small blind was kind enough to fold leaving me happy to call again. I could have re-raised here but I figured he likely had TJ a Q of some sort (value betting against what he could easily perceive me to have a hand like TT or JJ) or more hopefully, and possibly, complete air and this was the continuation of my initial plan to catch him by using his own aggression against him.
The river was a very safe looking 7 (in view of the flop) and I decided to check again and let him bet.

I figured I had significantly under represented my hand and he could easily value bet many worse hands and of course any missed straight or air would have to bet in order to try and win the pot.

As the river card hit there was about 18000 in the pot and my stack was about that also, I checked and he moved all-in he actually had a stack of about 60k I think so it was only actually about one third of his remaining stack at risk.

Being as he was doing what I had tried to make him do, and indeed hoped he would do, I called fairly quickly and he showed me a set of nines.

I maybe should have got away and yes I could have made him fold all air hands and weaker hands by re-raising him, though obviously he would not have folded in this instance. You can get a better idea of the strength of an opponent’s hand (and improve your chance of getting paid then and later by certain players) by simply betting these hands regardless and I am not sure what the best overall strategy is, probably a combination of both subject to the opponent.

The one problem with my choice here is that when your opponent is doing exactly what you were trying to make them do it seems to make it much harder to reach the conclusion that you might be losing (on the occasions that you are).

If I play for another 25 years maybe I will work it out!!

If you would like the chance to play in any of these great tournaments you can enter satellites for as little as £2 on Poker Encore. There are many other satellites to cater for all pockets , many of which often have overlay in them.

I do plan to scribble down some retrospectively written blog posts complete with a ton of really cool pics but for now here’s a quick rundown of what I’ve been up to…

Exploring Phuket – Pretty much exhausted this place now as I lived there for 6 months, could write tons about the island. Here are a few things that I can remember doing…

Treking in National Parks and exploring different waterfalls.

Fishing in the freshwater lakes/ponds of Kathu

Checking out the various temples in Phuket, both the tourist ones and those off the beaten track

Various funny pissed up nights out in a nearby Club called Laguna or the degen capital Patong.

Boat trip to a couple of islands (Naka and Ko Rang) on the east of Phuket which most tourists won’t have been too

Exploring virtually all the different beaches on the island.

lol’ing around the Island on my scootay – love doing this

[ ] Playing loads of poker

I’ve also been busy exploring other parts of Thailand and celebrated Xmas and new yr on the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Phangan. Activities included getting well n truly battered in the Green Mango in Samui in Chaweng, chilling on the beach with beautifully pristine blue seas and just relaxing basically I went to Koh Phagan for New Years and had the best NYE of my life! I was amazed at how many people at were on the beach that night. The atmosphere was amazing, I was just buzzing off that tbh. Ended up spending most of my time with this really cool scouse bird partying it up all night until the next day. Also stayed in the worst dorm I’ve ever stayed at in Haad Rin which at the time was a bit gross but looking back it provides a good story and was kinda funny. I have a video of the place and will put it up another time.

I’ve also been on a superb 8 day trip to visit some of the Krabi Province including Phi Phi, Lanta, and Tonsai Village next to Railay. Phi Phi is a party place and we got pissed up a few times, chilled on the beach, checked out the viewpoint (incred) [lus I went on the best value for money boat trip I’ve ever been on. A longtail boat took us to various places with the most famous being Maya Bay. The snorkeling was probably amongst some of the best I’ve ever done as well.

After Phi Phi I visited Koh Lanta which was more relaxed but I had an equally good time. The sunsets here were unbelievably good. I hired a scootay for the day and blasted around the island which was cool and also done a small trek through the National Park here. Evenings usually involved chilling with a few beers and getting stoned off the Happy Shakes provided by our hotel. One night myself and Anil got proper messed up drinking Bang Lassai’s which is basically a milkshake with a shit load of Skunk in. That night was proper hilar

Once we’d recovered from Lanta we stayed in the funky little place called Tonsai Village, checking out the incredible nearby sites on Railay. Also done another amazing boat trip to Chicken and Tup Island as well as trying out some rock climbing which was pretty cool. It was a great little trip!

I forget that I also went on a short trip to Singapore and Kulua Lumpur. Singapore was decent, very impressive buildings, sooo modern and clean etc. I basically done a hop on hop off bus tour around the place and went on a night safari during my stay here. The trip to KL wasn’t that great as I’ve been there before and kinda done everything that that place has to offer. It is worth checking out for 3-4 days max thou imo if you haven’t been.

I’ve just spent the last 2 weeks in Cambodia which is one of the best countries I’ve ever been too and deffo the most interesting. I went to Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sikhouokville, Kratie and Banlung. I will write more about Cambodia soon. It’s hard to blog out here because the internet is poor and its almost imposs to upload pics of which I have many incredible snaps as well as stories to tell.

At the moment I just arrived in country Laos and I’m staying on the island of Don Det. The plan is to work my way up to to the capital Vientienne and then go back to Thailand to Ngong Khai and then Udon Thani to meet Cos and my Landlord Tony and his family to celebrate Song Kran on the 13th April. This lasts for 3 days and is basically I big water celebration which is like the same as Xmas and NY for us UK fish. After this I may go to Northern Thai and check out Chang Mai and Chang Rai etc or will most likely go back to Laos to finish exploring that country before hopping the border to Vietnam.

I might extend my trip beyond the end of April and go back to Cambodia for a bit before checking out Koh Chang in Thai and then flying home from Bangkok. There’s a small possibility I visit another country with India, Phillipines, Indonesia and China nearby. We’ll see, I fucking love travelling

Like I said I’ve got hundred of awesome pics and a few lol videos of the places I’ve been too which I will get up soon as well a few more detailed and carefully constructed blog posts, laters!

“I’ve been talking to this guy at Maxims in Birmingham. He wants to do business with us”

“Who does he work for” I asked

“Circus”

“Who? The circus?!”

Fast forward 6 months. The aforementioned UK bookmaker had been kicked off the Ipoker network that we were so keen to get onto and we were working in partnership with a company who would soon rebrand as Genting

That guy that Paul had met in Birmingham was this guy. Mr Gary Oakes.

Who would have had this name on the tip of their tongue if posed the question in the title of this blog? Then again, who of you would have answered Genting if asked who is the UK’s biggest gaming company?

Gary heads up the team in charge of poker for Genting and if you hadn’t already realised they are flexing their Malaysian muscles in a serious way in UK poker. Not only is he switched on to the UK poker market but he is always listening for people’s opinions and feedback on how to make their poker offering a cut above the rest. After the week that has seen the Launch of the new Genting Poker Series tour it is clear to see they mean business. You only had to look around the card room at Star City this weekend to see:

• Both Genting’s head of poker & head of live poker (exc London)
• 1 head tournament director with 2/3 assistants
• A team of 4 doing the tournament registrations
• 2 dedicated tournament bloggers
• A team of 3 doing videos updates
• Another team of 3 looking after the running of the live stream
• 2 dedicated commentators

This of course on top of their hand picked “best of class” dealers from across their estate who all received extra specialised training and it was no surprise to see the whole thing go off as smoothly as if this had been the 101^st leg they had ever done, not the 1^st.

Each of the 6 legs of the tour have a 100k guarantee. The 1st leg ended with a prize pool of almost £150,000. The structure used is truly the best possible for a 3 day tournament

Playing this event for 2 days I had chance to chat with lots of players. The field featured many local players. Most of whom had never played a GUKPT and couldn’t even tell you what the letters UKIP or T stand for. Genting is bringing a new group of players through onto the mainstream UK tournament scene and UK poker will be a better place for it. £400 seems a perfect level to pitch these at to attract the new blood that the UK tournament scene is crying out for in the wake of ever decreasing tournament field sizes

The Genting Poker Series is just another reminder of everything Genting are doing. Flicking through this Month’s Bluff Magazine, every other page was an advert from them showing off another set of great promotions be they at the newly acquired Fox Poker Club in London, the prestigious Palm Beach casino, the London Mint or any of their other poker friendly UK venues.

Anyone who was part of the Las Vegas giveaway promotion that we ran last year in association with Genting will know that it’s not just live poker that they have their eyes on. 10 packages to the WSOP added to regular network tournaments (exclusive to us and Genting) gave just a flavour of the money Genting have to share with their UK players. Sitting snuggly under the Genting poker umbrella, Poker Encore enjoy being able to share this with our players and look forward to even bigger and better things coming in the near future

Paul Jackson has made a lot of calls throughout his 40 year poker career (some would argue not as many as he has made folds) but the one he made to me that day in 2009 may just be his best yet.

If you want to be a part of the UK’s newest poker tour qualifiers and direct buyins are available on Poker Encore for each leg of the 2012 series now see here

If you’ve never made a deposit with us before – we will give you a free GPS satellite token when you do – see here

I’m not really a big zoo fan tbh, i like seeing weird and wonderful animals in their natural habitat or not at all. I think its quite cruel and i expected the zoo in somewhere like Thailand to be pretty dire but after checking out the website it seemed ok and thought it was worth a visit so suggested it to Henry and Cos and they were both quite keen. Most of the caged animals were kept in bad conditions with very little room and the aquarium was dire which is what id anticipated, it wasn’t very pleasant imo. However, the best thing about the zoo was the Monkey, Croc and Elephant shows. Although this itself is also pretty cruel i have to admit i did enjoy watching these, especially the Croc’s and Elephants.

After the Croc show the Croc handlers allowed me and Cos to climb in the enclosure and have our pics taken if we gave/bribed them with 500 Baht (a tenner). Don’t think they would allow this sort of thing in London Zoo? It was quite a strange experience, the croc was hard to grab, weighed a ton and it was a tiny bit scary as well!

I also got pics taken with a Orangutan, a Tiger and rode on the back of an Elephant. I do kinda regret having my pic taken with the Tiger because this looked like the cruelest of the lot. In one of the pics the Monkey is kissing one of my nips! Its the most action i’ve had in a while if i’m honest!

The day after the Zoo me and Henry went on a really good boat trip to Phi Phi Islands. That massive mincer Cos was supposed to come but he blew it out, sigh. Our first destination was Maya Bay and it took about an hr to get there by speed boat. The boat trip itself turned out to be really good fun with a about 20 Russians and 10 English peeps on board. It was pretty fast, really bumpy and we all had a good laugh. Maya Bay was incred but it was packed full of tourists. We chilled there for about 40 odd mins and went on a small jungle trek before snorkeling at Loh Samah Bay.

The snorkeling was amazing, i couldn’t believe how many different colorful fishays were surrounding me. Some people had thrown some bread into the water so i grabbed a slice and they were literally eating out of my hands. It was a incred experience.

After the snorkeling we done some sightseeing at Viking Cave and Monkey Beach before grabbing some munch at Tonsai Bay and then spending a good hour or so on the beautiful Khai Island

Khai Island was a pretty comedy experience as me and Henry were basically attacked by these really aggressive yellow fish. Henry was the first to get bit and i was like shut up you mug you’re not getting bit!! Then it was my turn to be attacked, it wasn’t painful just more of a shock really. No jokes we both got bit on 3-4 occasions, after that we couldn’t take anymore and got out, lol.

Both the zoo and the boat trip completed a really good couple of days although i think it had all been a bit too much for young Henry

I’ll write the next blog in a couple of days. It will include details of an awesome Cinema experience and another epic night out in Laguna!

A few days ago we went to the zoo here in Phuket. As soon as we entered, there was a bunch of cages, each with rabbits in them. The rabbits looked pretty poorly kept and I thought, oh dear, this is going to be a budget zoo and a short visit! I couldn’t have been more wrong. The enclosures were a bit small but unlike London zoo, it’s nice to not be charged 300 quid for an ice cream or a monkey for a picture with, erm, a monkey.

Dotted around various points, there are several animals that you can interact with and have your picture taken. I took full advantage of this and got snaps with the tiger, made friends with an Orangutan and got an Elephant jumping for joy when he saw Poker Encore’s finest. Apparently he’s read my blogs for ages.

All these animals were incredibly obedient to the zoo staff, so placid and friendly. We went to see a monkey show and an elephant show, the latter being extremely good fun. I was really shocked at just what the elephants were trained to do. We also went to see the crocodile show which I was most impressed with. 2 completely nutty (and nutty looking) Thai blokes swiping their heads between the mouths of the crocs. At the end of the show, a few people were asking for pics standing next to the enclosure or maybe leaning over and touching the top of the croc’s tail. I decided that after all the banter I’d been getting about being afraid from Lizards, I wanted to have my pic taken too, but IN the enclosure. I paid the guy 400baht (8 quid) and just hoped my travel insurance covered me for jumping into crocodile enclosures, should something go wrong. It was a good buzz knowing that at any point the croc could turn round and make a snap for me and I’d have to make a getaway. I think he caught a glimpse of Des and Troy (my guns) as I was getting in and just decided to stay fairly still, not wanting the aggro.

It was a great day and I think I’ll be going again when friends come to visit.

Yesterday we had a less dangerous experience, going to the Thai cinema. They have a VIP option, whereby at 600baht a ticket (something that really does price the Thai’s out as it’s very expensive but only 12 quid to us) you are given a proper VIP treatment. About an hour before our showing we were sat in a VIP lounge which was very baller. Me, Amatay and Henry happened to be the only 3 people in at the time too. Over comes a complimentary cocktail for all of us and then out come trays of mini pizzas, sandwiches, fruit, danish pastries, prawn salads and chocolate brownies. ALL FREE! The last time I was offered a tray of fruit, thinking it was free it cost me 32 quid plus service in a strip club in London. FML.

After indulging ourselves, the waiter took our order for what drinks and popcorn we’d like in the screening room. We are shown to our seats, except we have an entire room to choose from as we are the only people in the late showing. The room is the same size as most standard screen rooms in the UK except, instead of like 300 seats across about 20 rows, there are 5 rows, with 8 seats in each. The chairs are electric and recline as much as you like until completely horizontal at the press of a button. We did have to wait about 39 seconds for the waiter to bring in our popcorn though, pretty inexcusable. He kind of made up for it by bringing us blankets and 2 of everything though.

The film was average but I barely even remembered I was supposed to be watching it!

gl at the tables.

After getting through the carnage, we went to Shooters Bar where i have been on two previous occasions to sink a few balls, drinks and smoke some Shishaaaaaa! I crushed the pair of them in three games of killer winning about 1200 Baht before donating 1.4k to Cos in two games. Henry ended up the big LOSER. Here’s a pic of me caught completely off guard with a beer and a Sheesh

After Shooters we went for a drink and a perv at Suzi Wong’s which is basically a Go Go Bar where the girls wear a piece of string between their legs and spank you with these black pieces of rubber tubing, its my kinda place! I got the Cos and Hen to sit with me right next to the dance floor so as to kop a good a eye full and receive a nice spanking. Here’s a snap of me with some geezer outside Suzi’s, he wasn’t lying

Once the girls had given me a good beating we moved onto to another somewhat more seedy Go Go Bar so as to give Henry his first experience of a Ping Pong/Magic Show. This one was a bit different to the show me and Cos had gone to a few weeks ago http://www.pokerencore.com/blogs/2011/11/so-whats-been-happening/ . As soon as we sat down we had about 6-7 girls swarm round us which is super standard and for the 2nd successive night out for a show in Patong i ended up with the uglier birds. Henry was sat with the hottest girl as well some bird with enorm mamongays (mbn) and Cos had some decent looking girl who seemed like she’d be prepared to do absolutely anything for a few hundo Baht (£5). I ‘had’ some young girl grinning at me with more gaps in her smile than teeth and another bird rubbing my tool with two nastay looking scars on her chops, marvo! The lady who performed most of the ‘tricks’ was the highlight for me, she’s was full of beans and being a bit of a milf man i quite fancied her tbh. She had a really good bounce and energy about her although the fact that she later popped a few live Terrapins out of her fanjita was a little off putting i guess Other classics tricks included the string and smoking stunts plus a couple of small white birds also appeared from places they really shouldn’t. That can’t be very hygienic i thought

Once the show had finished we left and took a wander down what is known as Soi Eric. We ended up sat at some bar with a bunch of really fun and kinda attractive girls playing some of the bar games like Connect 4. Me and Cos were chatting to a couple of nice girls and comfortably beating them at the game until some of the better bar girls wanted to challenge us for money. It was pretty obv the girls were trying to hustle us for money and i was too shrewd to play one of working girls but Cos being Cos wanted to challenge the grand master of Connect 4. When you play these girls at this game you either lose or at best you draw. Its pretty much the equivalent to me playing HU vrs Durrrr, and just like Dwan Costa stood no chance, GG mate.

I think that pretty much wraps up the decent night out apart from one last comedy moment when a ladyboy approaches Hen and the Welsh fish decides to be funny and ask her/him how much it would be for ‘bum bum’. The ladybody replies 1000 baht (£20) so Hendonk decides to ask for a 50% discount to which she/he snap accepted! Henry looked horrified! Haha, only in Patong babay!!!

The confusion about team poker events arises from the fact that they are played in the same surroundings and seemingly identical conditions to normal poker events. However, the whole goal of the event, the overriding goal, is to win the prize for your team – not for just yourself. Your sole consideration is not gaining chips for yourself but ensuring the success of your team. Of course these 2 goals mostly overlap but not always.

The dynamics that these events create are some of the most fun and interesting you will find at a poker table. During the Las Vegas Team Challenge I, I found myself chip leader of the event with 2 tables to go. I was however the only remaining player of my team and as such could not win the main prize. There were 2 players either side of me from the same team, one was extremely short stacked and the other had above average chips. I enjoyed playing the one man kamikaze role trying to police the table, although probably not as much as the guy on my right did when I ran into his Kings with 11 players remaining and donated him more chips than he could stack.
I should probably balance this performance out with the note that in the Las Vegas Team Challenge II I was the 1st player eliminated from the live final after less than 15 minutes….

It’s fair to say not everyone grasps the concepts of successful team poker strategy. Take a look at this clip from the 2006 “Football and Poker Legends Cup” where Welsh poker pros Mr Burns and Fireman Sam sought the help of compatriot Neville Southall to overcome the might of the USA…

Whist Messers Colcough and Jones have probably vowed never to play team poker ever again, I would urge anyone who hasn’t tried it before to come and take part in the upcoming Las Vegas Team Challenge III on Poker Encore. Here’s what you need to know:

- Teams of 4
- A choice of 22 online events , of which you need to play at least 10 to qualify for the live final
- Live final at the Star City Casino Birmingham on 3rd-4th March 2012
- $48,000 1st team prize of a package to Las Vegas
- $12,000 2nd team prize of European tournament entries
- $6,000 prize to the best performing individual player

The 1st online event is on Monday 17th November, with team entries permitted until the 15th January 2012

Hope to see you there

Karl

The festival takes place on the full moon of the 12th Thai month each year. We went to see the festival at a big lake in Nai Harn and myself Cos and new addition to the house for 3 wks Henry had a good laugh. The place had a nice vibe and a really good feel factor about it. Here’s a few more photos and a short vid of me and Cos sharing a special moment together….

It might have been the following day or the day after Loi Krathong i’ve lost track but three of us went for a mince at a smaller beach in Nai Harn. Me and Henfish decided to hire some snorkeling gear and fins. I been lucky enough to snorkel at some amazing places like the Red Sea in Egypt and the Great Barrier Reef in Oz which was immense so i wasn’t expecting too much tbh. However, i was pleasantly surprised and me and Hen saw some cool marine life. Here’s a couple of pics of some of the fishays we saw out there that afternoon, (google images ftw). The big blue Starfish were my fave, pretty cool!

On one of Henry’s nights here the two of us both got a weee bit tipsay first at Chris’s Bar down the road and then at a nightclub called Laguna. When i say tipsay, i mean i was very happily drunkadee drunk drunk and Henry was all over the shop, completely outta control! Now my fans are not gonna like this bit but i’ve been given strict instructions by the Hen fish not to blog about this particular evening. All i will say is that is was a comedy night and that it [ ] didn’t involve any ladayboys.

Yesterday i briefly took Henfish for a wander round Chalong Temple. Its a pretty cool place and its something which i thought was worth exploring. When entering these temples you are supposed to take your footwear off before stepping inside. Upon entering the first temple i noticed some rather horrid looking big brown smudge on Henry’s right sock. What could that be i thought? I quickly forgot about the grotesque looking mark and just went about my business snapping away at the varies statues of monks and stuff in the temple. After leaving i slipped my flip flops back on and suddenly heard a shriek of horror from Henfish. The Welsh idiot then showed me what appeared to be a dead frog mangled up in his shoe! Ewwwwwww, that is sick mate. The fish had basically been wandering about with a dead frog in his shoe and the brown stains on his sock were the poor froggies guts! Henry must have put his foot in his shoe whilst Mr froggy was having a big of shut eye or something and crushed it to death. God knows how long that had been there? The other sick thing is that Henfish wears these really tight brand of trainers which are apparently a size too small! WTF, how did you not feel it mate? You are DISGUSTING!

What else to report? Errrrm, had a decent afternoon with disgusting Henry at Nai Harn beach yesterday, the waves were pretty big and powerful. We also briefly checked out a place called Cape Promthep. Oh yeh, i’ve got a bike as well now. It’s basically brand new and only 20 quid a week. Hopefully i don’t GG myself or the bike.

Obv all quiet on the poker front atm. Bit worrying tbh because i don’t know when i’m gonna have the opportunity to grind for even a solid 2-3 nights. I haven’t played one fooking hand in Nov! The thai time difference is such a massive ball ache for me out here. Obv I find it hard to grind in the UK but the first tourn of any significant importance to me out here is a 30r with has about 100 runners which starts at 10pm and even then then main tourns i usually grind don’t get going until 1am. Atm i think i have a one week gap between Henry leaving Thai and me and Cos having to leave the country to renew our visa’s. I might just try and sleep allll day and play allll night and try and book some wins during that wk. Its not ideal and it won’t be nice but i need to play! Me and Costa are hopefully gonna go on a 2wk ish trip for the visa run including Bali, Indonesia, Singapore and Kulua Lumpur and Pinang in Malaysia. That’s the plan atm anyways. After we get back my mate Ross will be here. He’s starting a year long round the world trip and he’s a non poker player so i will have to be entertaining him, it will be good thou. So it doesn’t look like i’ll be smashing the pocket five ranking anytime soon. I’m basically looking at doing a ton of grinding in Jan now, fook knows? Right, that’s all for now fish, laters!!

Oh, i almost forgot here’s a link to disgusting Henry’s blog. The Welsh fish has done a pretty good job of updating it since here’s been out here, check it… http://henrygriffiths.wordpress.com/

Its been good to have Henry here staying for a few weeks tbh. He’s a good lad and having a new face about the place has injected some more life into the house. He’s up for exploring the island and doing different stuff and hopefully he’s had a good time so far. Nice one fish!

As soon as we entered this place we had girls all over us, they obv thought I was incred attractive and weren’t remotely interest in the size of my wallet. One of the girls sitting on my lap looked about 14 yrs old tbh infact a lot of them seemed to be ridiculously young and I’m usually into the more mature looking birds. One of em grabbed my tool but nothing was going on down there, not even the slightest tinge of stirrage. I think she was still pretty impressed with my flaccid penis thou Tbf to me it is pretty hard to get an erection when you got Greekstein sat right next to ya looking at you with a huge smirk across his chops.

Our first drinks came to 800 Baht each which is like 16 quid! WTFFFF! They obv saw us coming! After that I think they were something like 200 Baht so I guess the 800 was kind of an entry fee? Lol, I dunno, who cares anyways, it was good fun. One thing that did massively piss me off to start with thou was all the girls basically begging for money and trying to squeeze as much out of you as possible. One of the waiter birds who had a fooking moustache was doing my nut! Another girl rocked up to me completely naked with a load of body paint which was pretty com. She gave me the paint and a brush and I didn’t really know what to do so i painted a smiley face on her right boob as you do. She obv snap charged me 200 Baht for the ‘pleasure’ cheers love!

After being swamped by girls for the first 20 mins the show started. The performers were a lot older than the other girls and were pulling out all sorts of tricks from under their errr ‘sleeve’ They started off with pulling endless amounts of string from there bits with flowers attached. One of them even pulled out a 20m length piece of string with about 30 needles attached, impressive tekkers! They had performances where the girls would pop ballons with a pea shooter inserted up there poonarns, errrm some of them could smoke using their other set of lips and of course they could pop ping pongs out of there bits with consumate ease. The show climaxed when one girls popped out a couple Frogs and Terrapins into a bowl of water! That’s magic folks! I know what you’re thinking, awww poor froggies, animal cruelty etc but I’m pretty sure I saw a smile on one of the frogs faces, wal! After that we got one of our drivers, Billy Wizz to take us home and Cos done his 10 lengths

Right, what else has been going on, errrrm. Oh I got my first haircut out here a while back. It wasn’t too bad really, she done an ok job. It was better than I’d anticipated anyways plus she threw in this brutal head massage for free and it only cost 150 Baht which is like 3 quid, valooooo. I’ve spent a few nice evenings bantering with some of the locals and our landlord at a nearby bar watching footy and stuff which has been cool. Me and Greeky have also spent a few nice relaxing afternoons at Nai Harn and Kata beach. On one of our trips to the beach we both got ourselves a massage and I took a bunch of cheekay pics of Cos whilst he was getting his. They had me in stitches at the time, I was cracking up. Cos really didn’t want me taking any photos but I was there just lol’ing and snapping away whilst his hairay Greek arse was hanging out for all to see. This is deffo my fave everrrr pic of Cos, look at that dirtay grin on his little boat face, priceless…

The girl doing my massage also pulled my swim shorts half way down my bum cheeks, at one point I thought she was gonna stick her finger up my bum. I was like easy there love, there are other people on this beach you know plus I don’t really want one of your digits inserted into my rectum thanks.

Not sure what to report on the poker front atm. All I know is that I’ve got pretty much the same sized life roll (maybe abit more) than when I first arrived here two months ago so its not too bad. Obv volume levels have been diabolically bad which is super standard. One of my biggest wins came courtsey of Marc Wright who cashed for $72k a couple of Sundays ago and I had 5% which was quite a toastay little result, wiiii.

Oh, I had a horrible 2-3 days of run bad when I blipped out in some restaurant about a week ago and then spent the next 45 hrs in bed sick. Not sure what happened really. Just had zero energy, bad guts, headaches and just felt really weak. At one point i was sitting on the shitter with the worst ever stomach cramps sweating profusely with my head spinning lol. I was sooo hot and tired I couldn’t move so I laid down on the bathroom floor on the cool tiles to chill myself and I feel asleep, I was fooked, haha. Feeling good now thou.

Gym been going well, don’t think I’ve done this amount of exercise since I was a kid. Cos has helped motivate me a lot tbh, cheers m8. I’ve even convinced myself that my moobs have vamooshed and that I’ve grown some muscles, but theres still plenty of work to do before i ready to compete at next years Mr Universe.

Done our first visa run the other day which went smoothly and got an extension to stay here for another 30 days. After that we have to leave the country and are planning on a 10 day/2 wk trip. We might fly to Singapore for a couple of days then trek up through Malaysia stopping off in Kuala Lumpur and then getting our visas sorted in Penang, we need to make a decision. Also looking into a 2/3 wk trip of island hopping around the country which is something I really want to do. Places like Ko Lanta, Ko Samui, Krabi ,Phi Phi etc. We got our first visitor coming to stay on Tuesday called Henry, a poker bum who Cos knows from online which neither of us have met previously. Will be good thou and nice to have a new face about the place, hopefully he’ll bring some run good. After that it’s the visa run and then one of my buddy’s will be here to visit. Hopefully fun times ahead, laters!

I somehow had a good month in October, making just over $10k in total profit. It doesn’t feel like a good month because that figure should be a significant amount more if I’d curbed those bad sessions and focused a bit more in them. Still happy with the month and will try to better it in November.

Today was pretty toasty. We got up and drove to a Dim Sum place in a non touristy area that our landlord showed us when we first arrived. I think we ordered around about 30 dishes in total give or take a few. The bill came to a grand total of a tenner.

We then hit the gym followed by the beach. When I’d finished drinking the contents of my coconut (once again this isn’t innuendo for Amatay’s ladyboy activities) I went for a massage. For 8 English pounds you get an hour full body massage on the beachfront. I lay on my front and the first thing that happened was my shorts got pulled down over my bum. I was a bit taken aback by this as I wasn’t expecting it. It was pretty embarrassing as people regularly walk past but I just buried my head in the pillow and let her ‘crack’ on. I did know however, that Nitatay, who’d been without any ladyboys for almost the entire morning would come over. I don’t know what excited him more, the fact he could take a pic of my arse or whether he thought getting slipped a digit may be part of the massage process and he wanted to see if he could sign up. The evening finished with a typical meal at a restaurant, few laps of the pool and then bed. Toasty.

Should just add a quick welcome to team Encore as James ‘LJamesL’ Williams joins the ranks. The first time I met him we carved up Nottingham’s 300f. He’s also one of the prettiest men I’ve ever seen, he could fill up all the months in an Encore 2012 Calendar.

gl at the tables,

Cos