In less than a week, I’ll be packing up and leaving balmy Santa Barbara for a 6 week stint in the oven of Las Vegas.

I’m really excited about it but I’ll definitely miss this awesome weather. I can’t wait to catch up with all my friends there and am very much looking forward to spending some time just hanging out and chatting poker with people again.

There has been a lot of talk about what people are expecting to be the ‘big stories’ at the World Series of Poker this summer. Short Stacked Shamus recently posted a great ‘WSOP Bloggers Roundtable’ which got a lot of the major reporters of the Vegas goings-on to weigh in on this topic.

Year of the woman

It’s a good read and it was no surprise that a lot of them remarked on watching those phenoms who’ve just reached legal age in the USA, although they’ve been playing poker for years. Personally, I hope that a now 21 year old Annette Obrestad has a great series and gets herself a bracelet.

That would actually fulfil another big prediction that people are making, which is that 2010 is the ‘year of the woman.’ There have been some great female results so far in 2010 and it would be interesting to see whether a female main event winner could really do for poker what Moneymaker did, all those years ago.

Difficult task for any woman to succeed at

Would a new section of the population become enthused by seeing someone they can relate to, taking home the biggest honour in the game? Would we see a surge in female numbers breathing fresh life into our beloved game?

It’s hard to predict what the response would be if we had a female Main Event winner and the proportional numbers male:female definitely make it a difficult task for any woman to succeed at. I’ll be one of the females putting my money where my mouth is in July. The great thing about the World Series Main Event is that it really could be any of us. Personally, I hope it’s me.

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At least it seems that way… earthquakes, volcanos – whatever next!?

I was due to leave England to return to the USA after a month in Europe, on the very day that volcanic ash first closed the airspace.

I was one of the immensely lucky people who had a flight that was due to leave just an hour before they closed the airport. If I hadn’t managed to make that flight, I would have been stuck in Heathrow hotel for a week waiting and hoping for a flight back home.

So I’m home again and it’s great to sleep in my own bed and see my dog. I might be biased but she is a brilliant dog and I’d missed her very much!

I’m also getting ready to head to Las Vegas very soon for the final table of the WPT Championships. It’s such a prestigious event with a really high buy in and I’m hoping that we get some really interesting personalities on the FT. I’ll be joining Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten there soon for all the hijinks!

It’s been a mad time here at Les Ambassadeurs in London for the Party Poker Big Game. The cash table is running for 48 hours straight and I’ve been hosting the 7pm to 7am sections for the TV coverage which will air later this year on UK TV before being sold internationally.

We’ve reached the halfway point through our second night and there are still two players who have been at the table from the very first hand. High stakes pro and favorite David ‘Viffer’ Peat and the well loved British pro Neil Channing.

Roland DeWolfe joined the table to a chorus of wolf howls

Things are getting a bit silly here between the sleep deprivation (poker players, fans and TV crew alike) and the sensory deprivation. Spending hour after hour in a casino, even one as lovely as Les Ambassadeurs (and damn, is it posh) is like being in another world. No idea what time it is, what day it is and what normal conversation consists of.

In the last few minutes, the players have finished eating some dinner (at 1am obviously) and rejoined the table. Roland DeWolfe joined the table to a chorus of wolf howls and I swear to you that one of the players borrowed a pencil off of the make up artist and drew a moustache on himself. I was too afraid to ask him why. Only time will tell.

Every 6 hours the players have to vote someone off of the table

It’s been a lot of fun working on this show and the eviction process has really mixed things up. Every 6 hours the players have to vote someone off of the table. People who have been sat there less than 3 hours are exempt, as is the most aggressive person and that has led to some serious action! This is certainly a new idea for a poker TV show but the players have embraced it, with all its agony and hilarity.

Who knows what might happen in my final 6 hours before the sun begins to creep above the London skyline and I stagger home from the casino to get some sleep!

I wish I could tell you a tale of a victorious day 1 that saw me crushing the field and bagging up a mountain of chips, but I’m afraid that’s just not the case.

I drew a seat at a table that definitely wasn’t terrible but did give me two British Pros to my left (including Jon Kalmar who is a friend and a lovely bloke but I don’t want him on my left, thanks) and soon added another in the form of Surinder Sunar.

Fancy play syndrome

I managed to make a nice few chips early on but did misplay a couple of hands. One where I lost too much after bluff raising a scare card on the river with a busted flush draw, only to find he’d backdoored a flush of his own. Another where I didn’t make enough chips with a good hand because of something I’m told is called ‘fancy play syndrome’. It didn’t prove fatal at the time but it didn’t help either.

Apparently I look scary when I bet

I was up and down like a yoyo all day today, winning lots of small pots (apparently I look scary when I bet) and losing a few key big ones. By the end, around 2am this morning the call went out for 3 more hands. Lucky me, I was in the blinds with 10bb (basically my starting stack) and when I shoved the flop with a straight draw, the flush draw called me and hit to send me to the rail.

Sad really. I love this tournament and really would love to get up in the morning and keep playing. But, such is life. Over 700 people started the day and I think it’ll be around 250 that go through to Day 2 tomorrow. I’m one of the fallen and I guess I’ll be going out to see the sights of Dublin when I wake up.

I’d rather be playing poker.

Once the Women’s World Open was finished, I headed to Brighton for some time off with my friends. I’ve really loved living in California but crossing into East Sussex definitely felt like coming home and it’s been a lovely week of catching up with people and running errands.

One of the less pleasant errands was visiting my dentist up in London. Not that he’s a bad person. On the contrary, Dr. Gill is a great guy. He’s a reconstructive ‘extreme makeover’ dentist and works with a lot of people who have serious dental issues. Now, I don’t really have serious dental issues but I do have a real problem with dentists.

We met by chance when he was a guest on a TV show I was working on and I’ve been a big fan ever since. I still cry like a baby every time I have to sit in that nasty white chair but I will happily commute from California to London to see him rather than get a new dentist! And he plays poker too. How about that!

I head off to Dublin very soon to play in the Irish Open and I’m really looking forward to it. I can’t expect to be so lucky as to go as deep as I did last year but damn it I’m hoping to go one better! Coming second there last year was the best I’ve ever done in my poker career and although my heads up game let me down in the crunch, I’m ready this time.

Sláinte!

After a great time in Toronto and a quick hop across the pond, I landed in London all fired up for the World Women’s Open. Actually, that’s a lie. I was a whingeing little cry-baby full of jet lag. I think ‘fired up’ sounds better though. After 4 hours of sleep (seriously, jet lag is just brilliant) I was off to the studio around 9am to work on the first heat for the WWO IV.

Jesse, am I making any sense at all?

I don’t actually remember much of the day – it all passed in a blur. I know that I commentated with Jesse May on the first heat and I definitely recall asking him a number of times throughout the day; “Jesse, am I making any sense at all or is it all just bollocks?” He was kind enough to say that it was ‘fine.’ I think we all know what that means though!

I actually played in heat two and that started around 6 or 7pm. By that point, I had this surreal feeling where my head seemed to have grown about 3 times it’s size and my eyes refused to focus. I played almost no hands in the first couple of levels and actually caught myself having a micro-nap during a hand.

Snoring on TV

Embarrassment at the thought of snoring on TV snapped me out of my reverie and I got down to the game at hand. I think, all in all, I played pretty well so I’m happy about that. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to give you details about my heat but … suffice to say that I was the presenter/commentator alongside Jesse again for the final table. Make of that what you will.

After falling asleep like a rock that night, I woke up feeling amazingly refreshed and normal the next day for the last heat and final table. I had a great time commentating with Jesse yesterday and I think I may have made just a tad more sense than the day before. I wouldn’t use the phrase ‘bag of old shite’ to describe it and I do recall using that exact phrase about my comments during heat 1!

I have a few days off now and then I’ll be heading to Ireland for the Irish Open. I’m really excited about that and can’t wait to see a bit of Dublin as well. Of course I’m hoping to hit the final table again like last year. It’s a long shot but lets see if I can make it two in a row.

Hello guys and girls,

for all the new ones, please do not ‘hendonmob’ me – I am still a rookie. Presenting and blogging is my major, but poker is my true love so with a little luck, I will be presenting myself to the final table tomorrow.

I know it will sound like an absolute cliche but Party Poker is completely treating me like a diva since I got to London. Receiving a call two weeks ago from them asking me to present Women’s World Open was like a dream come true – I became one of the big girls – presenting on real TV!

All the good things come in twins

As we say it in Croatia – all the good things come in twins, my luck did not stop there – I also got staked to play the same event.  3k buy in, get to hang out with some of the finest poker ladies, exchange experiences and tips and, my favorite, catching up with Kara Scott.

Haven’t seen her since Vegas last year when I railed her during the WSOP. Times change, now I might play her at the same table, which is a bit scary. She was teaching me how to play over the past few months when she had time, gave me tons of tips and I am so nervous thinking that all of this will be shown on TV and potentially the teacher could be playing the student.

It’s not easy, last tournament I played was the one in Prague – I cashed using my uberskills – smiles. Guys were folding blind to me and doing everything they could to keep me at the table. I seriously doubt that will happen tomorrow. Also, Annette Obrestad, who busted earlier, will be doing the commentary for my heat…Talk about pressure!

Party Poker also decided to change the structure this year – three heats with deeper stacks – 200k, blinds going up every 30 minutes and $72,000 to fight for – final table will be 6 handed (top two players from each heat make it further) and there is not much time for juggling, big decisions will be made under stress. I wonder how that will go.

Here are the ladies from the three heats – heat 1 sent Caroline Renaut and Helen Firth to the final table. Aisling Collins unfortunately did not get any connecting hands and didn’t manage to go for her back to back win.

See all the pictures from Women’s World Open Day 1 here.

Women’s World Open IV Heats

Heat 1 – Tue 23rd March AM

• Pro Lynne Beaumont
• Pro Laurence Grondin
• Pro Helen Firth
• Pro Annette Obrestad
• Pro Claire Renaut
• Pro Aisling Collins (Winner of Women’s World Open III)
• Pro Karen Frank
• Qualifier Hanh Nguyen

Heat 2 – Tue 23rd March PM

• Pro Jackie Meecham
• Pro Eliza Burnett
• Pro Tina Abery
• Pro Kelly Jackson
• Pro Natasha Ellis
• Pro Maria Demetriou
• Pro Caroline Cove
• Pro Kara Scott

Heat 3 – Wed 24th March AM

• Pro Christiane Klecz
• Pro Pippa Flanders
• Pro Soraya Homam
• Pro Michelle Bricknell
• Pro Kim Wooka
• Pro Cheryl Routledge
• Pro Tatjana Pasalic
• Pro Lise Vigezzi

Well, keep ur fingers crossed and don’t be too harsh!

After a crazy journey yesterday, I finally arrived in Toronto at the hotel JUST in time to sit down at the Party Poker VIP game as a bounty.

My day started day before around 8am when I headed out to the airport. I left myself plenty of time (I’m a bit compulsive that way) and thank goodness I did as once I arrived at the airport I realised that trying to pass myself off as a British man wouldn’t work.

Our passports had gotten mixed up

Somehow during my friend Nick’s visit from the UK, our passports had gotten mixed up and so when I handed what I thought was mine over to him, I just got a very strange look back from the check in girl.

Once the mad dash to bring me my real passport was finished, the airlines told all of us waiting to board that the heavy fog sitting over Santa Barbara meant that it was really likely that no air travel would be happening. It’s also Spring Break in the USA right now and so planes heading EVERYWHERE are full for days so if I missed a connection then I really would be stuck.

They wouldn’t let me check in

The fog miraculously lifted about an hour late and after a mad run through LAX to get to the international terminal to make my connection, I found out that my flight to Toronto had already closed and they wouldn’t let me check in. Ugh. I’m not embarrassed to say that I begged the lady to reconsider, explained how important it was and somehow she decided to call the plane and see if they could make an exception.

The travel gods were smiling and I managed to run straight to the plane after being rushed through security. There was one minor hitch when the security man x-raying my carry-on bag thought I was carrying brass knuckles with me. It was a large brass necklace…. do I LOOK like the kind of person to carry brass knuckles?? Apparently I do.

Of course the airline did lose my baggage

Of course the airline did lose my baggage so when I arrived in Toronto it was an hour of wrangling and filling in forms before the dash to the hotel absolutely STARVING and with no clean clothes or even a hairbrush.

Still, it was a really fun night once I got here and always fantastic to catch up with Mike Sexton and the Party Poker crew. I met some really nice people who play on the site and tonight we’re off to a hockey game here so that’ll be fun.  I’m also playing a bounty tournament on Party Poker as well at midnight east coast time, so long on!

Now I’m off to buy some clothes, just in case my bags don’t show up… Wish me better luck for my journey to the UK tomorrow!!

Day 2: Toronto/Montreal hockey game

Last night was a great time as I headed to the Toronto/Montreal hockey game here in TO with Mike Sexton and a huge gang of Party Poker players.

Being from Western Canada, I didn’t have a favourite team but it’s always great to see the home town players win and the atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic when exactly that happened.

Party were kind enough to put us all in a suite right behind the net so we had a great view of all the action and were able to stuff ourselves with hotdogs and pizza to our heart’s content. They even had some very lovely cheerleaders come in to say hello (a bit hit with the guys) and managed to get Carlton the Leafs mascot to visit (a huge hit with the girls)!

I played my first bounty event on Party Poker

I played my first bounty event on Party Poker last night once we’d gotten back to the hotel from the hockey game and with a $500 bounty on my head in a $5+1 tournament I really didn’t expect to last long!

KingKlassic got me when I was all in preflop with QQ against A10 and K8. For a bounty that big, I expected to be called by any two cards my absolutely everyone! It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to playing more on the site while I’m back in the UK.

I’m heading to the airport soon and can’t wait to land back in the UK!

The past week has been a really great chance to relax and catch up with my friend Nick Wealthall who has been visiting us here in Southern California from the UK. Funnily enough, I’m actually heading back to England before he is as there is a lot going on back there.

World Women’s & Irish Open

Party Poker have asked me to play in the World Women’s Open for them and then I’ll be off to Ireland to play the Irish Open before heading back to the UK to work on the Big Game. All in all, I’ll be away from home for nearly a month so I’m really going to have to perfect my ability to pack light!

Party VIP and a bounty

The first thing I’ll be doing though is paying a visit to Canada. I’m attending a Party Poker VIP event which means a dinner, some poker and even a hockey game in Toronto and believe me when I say that I’m stoked about the whole thing.

I think we’re even going to manage to fit in a bounty tournament for me on Party Poker on the 20th of March so keep an eye out for that.

The NBC Heads Up tournament was a pretty amazing experience. Not to give anything away (although the results have been posted pretty much everywhere online already), but it didn’t last quite as long as I would have liked it to!

It was a real honour to be invited to be part of the 64 poker players taking part. The night before the tournament started we had a big red carpet and a drawing party at Pure in Caesars Palace to set the brackets.

My nerve failed me in the live environment

I drew the hearts bracket and my first opponent was Dennis Phillips. He’s a really lovely man and he does a lot of work lobbying to have poker recognised as a skill game and thus have appropriate legislation in the USA so we definitely didn’t run out of conversation!

He also knows a thing or two about heads up poker. Our game had little swings back and forth throughout but generally it was pretty standard heads up play – both playing around 80-90% of our buttons and always with a raise and a fair number of three bet pots. I do think that there were a couple of pots where my nerve failed me in the live environment and I didn’t pull the trigger on the river which lost me a few chips here and there.

It’ll be just what the doctor ordered

Ultimately though, the money went into the middle preflop in a very standard way… I won’t say anything else as the TV company may use a clip from it and I’d hate to ruin it!

Once I was done in Vegas, I headed back home to get some rest and catch up on paperwork. I seem to spend a lot of my time away so there are always a million things to catch up on when I arrive home. I have a friend coming to visit from England in a few days and can’t wait. It’ll be my first real visit from a UK friend and as I’ve been a bit homesick, it’ll be just what the doctor ordered.