Hey everyone, hope you've having a festive time over the holidays. Since I was in Los Angeles, I've been to Barcelona, Ireland, UK, Prague, and then back to the UK again. It was my first time to Barcelona and wow, what a city.
The hotel Arts (where the tourney is held) is probably the best hotel I've ever stayed in, and the architecture of the city is unbelievable. On a day off a group of us went and visited the Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral designed by Gaudi.
It really is the most breathtaking thing I've ever seen - if you visit it, go when the sun is low in the sky as the stained glass lights it up on the inside, not that my photo really does it justice:
Poker wise, Barcelona was mildly torturous. I made it to day 2 with 30k, which although short was a playable 25bbs. Things were looking up as I chipped up to 40k fairly quickly, and then I picked up AK into aces. Standard, yes, except for I was dished out the worst slowroll imaginable. After we got the chips in (my opponent was the EPT Vilamoura season 6 winner, Antonio Matias), I immediately flipped up my AK and he looked at it and sighed. Sweet, I thought, he has AQ. However, he refused to turn over his hand, saying "I wait for the cameras." The table responded, "no, you can reveal your hand immediately." But no, he waited, a full tick-tocking three minutes for the camera crew to come over and assemble themselves until the dealer finally forced him to reveal. Which he did one card at a time. Whilst smiling. Ace...... Ace. You like? No, sir, I do not like.
Why do people think it's ok to slowroll with the nuts in a heads up pot where your opponent is all in? I can perhaps understand that there can be some edge gained from slow-rolling when calling a river bet with the nuts, where your opponent is still going to be left at the table and getting them so tilted that they can potentially steam off the rest of their chips to you in a later hand, but to do it when they are all-in pre and extremely unlikely to survive? Hmm.
Anyway, onto Galway, Ireland, which was the very first stop of the brand new season of the PokerStars UKIPT. Despite the snow piling up high on the runways of the UK, an impressive 266 runners still battled their way to the event making it a big success. As the event was televised I got to flex the old TV hosting muscles alongside my friend and co-host Nick Wealthall which has got me hungry to do more presenting again! We also did a fun photoshoot on a diving board over Galway bay in -2 degree weather, surrounded by crazy Irish swimmers who apparently like to take weekly dips in the freezing water. Below is a photos courtesy of PokerStars and Mickey May.
The next tour stop is in Nottingham on Feb 11th where there will be a £200,000 guarantee.
