+London Calling
I just downloaded the Clash last week so was thinking I should use “London Calling” when I got here in England. Completely silly, I know. But you have to admit that it is a great album!
Anyway, here I am in England. Once again traveling without Joe…the bastard! How dare he get such a great job! I am not as lonely this time though because I have been busy playing the Premier League every day. Plus, Glen, my manager, is here with me so I have company.
We arrived Saturday morning and as soon as I got here I made poor Glen go to the gym with me for an hour and a half workout. I am a sick puppy and it must really suck to travel with me and just want to go to bed after a long flight! After the workout I had to do my pre-interview for The Premier League (you can track my progress at www.pokernews.com) and then attend the opening night party.
The next day I was jet lagged so I didn’t work out and just headed straight to play my morning heat. My first heat had Tony G, Devilfish, Phil Hellmuth, Marcel Luske and Juha Hellpi in it. I managed to finish second to Tony G. to score 5 points, which I was very happy with. After the heat Glen and I went out to dinner to Hummous Bros, which is the place Joe and I ate everyday when we were here in September. Cheap and yummy!
The next morning Glen and I got up early (6:45 am!) to go running around Regents Park. Just because I am in London doesn’t mean I can ignore my marathon training. It is three miles around the perimeter of the park and Glen and I ran three loops. Poor Glen never really runs more than 3 miles so the 9 mile run was tough on him. But I have to give him credit, he did the whole thign without complaining and kept pace with me, very impressive for a non-runner! We finished in an 8:40 pace which is the fastest pace I have run so far. Not surprising since I was running completely flat and am used to running the extreme hills where I live.
After my run I played my second heat with Devilfish, Phil, Alex Kravchenko, Eddy Scharf, and Tony G. With 5 players left I got all my money in for half the chips in play with KQ vs Scharf’s JT on a QT9 board. I was a 2 to 1 favorite but an 8 hit the river so I only scored 1 point. Bleh. I would have gotten all my chips in with Eddy’s hand as well (he checked raised me) so that’s just poker.
After I finished the heat, Glen and I met up with some of the Ultimatebet guys and Liv Boeree, a talented young player who just signed with Absolute Poker, to have dinner at the Dorchester Hotel. The Dorchester is very posh and the restaurant there has a Michelin Star. Very foo foo! I prefer my food to be simpler and, frankly, healthier but the company was lovely.
Right at the beginning of the meal, the maitre d’ asked Phil to remove his baseball cap. Phil refused and they had to throw him out of the hotel! I kid you not. He refused to take his Phil Hellmuth branded cap off and they tossed him! It was very funny! And the rest of the meal ended up having much less conversation about Phil because of it!
So this morning, I got up and went to the gym again to do an hour of cardio and then 45 minutes of weights. After working out I played my third heat against Marcel, Devilfish, Vicki Coren, Tony G and Alex K. I managed to win but only after winning some very lucky hands where I was a pretty good underdog. Yesterday I lost iwth the big favorite. Today I won with the big dogs! Whatever…lol. I am very happy witth the way I am playing and I have chalked up 15 points which puts me in 3rd place right now (good enough so far for the final!). I hope I can sustain it and secure my place a the final table.
Tomorrow morning I will be working out early again before my morning heat in The Premier League. The in the afternoon I am going to run Regents Park again and then head to dinner with Andrew Woods who runs the GPSTS (http://gpsts.org/)
I’ll keep you up to date on how The Premier League ends up!