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Where did Andy Black go?
I used to love watching this bloke on the box, such a character, never hear of him now.
Just watched The Million dollar Deal on you tube, excellent.
Just watched The Million dollar Deal on you tube, excellent.
Comments
Its amazing his story I reckon with the Buddhism, and the Stu Unger connection.
Thanks Tony !
Kags
Edit I can see why they call your man mad Marty Wilson lol.
Liam Flood (rip)
Donnacha O' Dea
Padraig Parkinson
Terry Rodgers
Marty Smyth
Noel Furlong
And then I came upon this one,
Tony Cascarino - What the
All joking aside, there is some history in there. Safe bet to say you have met or played with them all tony ?
Kags
I'll reply to that in a bit, but before I do.....
We have never met, & I only know you from the tables, but I'm gonna bet you are not a "young gun".
It used to be the case - quite odd to think about now - that the world of poker revolved around Live Poker, & there were personalities galore, these guys were real "stars" & people followed them avidly. Devilfish would be a prime example. (He had no Online CV really).
As Online Poker started to take over - remember, it used to be far smaller than Live Poker (in fact it only began 15 or 16 years ago), that all changed, & the "heroes" (ugh @ that term in poker) became the Online nosebleed guys, Gus, Dwan, Ivey, Antonius, Cates, Galfond, Hastings/Hayes (depending what mood Hastings was in on any given day), Patrick Leonard, etc.
And broadly speaking, the Online generation really don't have too much interest in those "live" personalities from back in the day, they want to know the exploits of the Online generation, quite understandably. Its hard to write pen pictures of them though, as, by definition, they are largely faceless, & do their work behind closed doors rather than in the live arena, where we can watch them.
Anyway, pen pictures of those guys you mention may be of interest to the older chaps, & less so to the Online generation.
I'll send the thread to Mr Channing, too, as he knows all of them better than I do, & may have something to add. He certainly knows Marty Smyth rather well, & made a tidy few bob by buying 22% of his WSOP action a few years back.
As an aside, we have a legendary slow-roller in the PLO8 DYM's. It's hard to grasp what perverse pleasure they get from it. What mean, nasty people they must be in real life. Of course, they'd cry like a baby if it were done to them.
Anyway, here's the Donnacha hand. You could not make it up.
Liam Flood
I knew Liam very well indeed, & we shared many a happy table. Dry wit, very droll, but a much better player than many realised.
I used to play in Dublin a lot - The Merrion (now closed), Fitzwilliam etc, & Liam was in his element there.
One of the dealers at the Merrion was "Megs", who was later to marry Roy Brindley, & they have two children now. The Fitzwilliam, which is - or used to be - open 24/7 is, remarkably, a converted Church. The Merrion & Fitzwilliam are just 200 metres apart, so if we bust a comp at one, we'd pop round the corner & play the late comp at the other.
My respect for Liam Flood is because he did something for poker. Not many can say that. It's all very well saying what poker should do for us, but it needs people like Liam to do things to help make poker better. And Liam did.
He was 71 when he passed away last year.
That's dignity.
Donnacha O'Dea
I know him, but not as a friend, as he rarely spoke at the table, or off it for that matter, except to his close friends. As we saw from that You Tube Clip, he had a deep run - 5th I think - at the Irish Open this year. If I wanted an interview for a Live Update, or Sky Poker TV, he was always polite & obliging though. Fearless PLO player. And the PLO cash games at Merrion & The Fitz used to get seriously big.
Has a WSOP Bracelet, & his Son, Eoghan, is a vey tidy player indeed, though more of an online player.
Donnacha represented Ireland in the Olympic Games as a swimmer, & was supposedly the first man to swim 100 metres in under a minute.
Can't think of any other well known poker player who has represented their nation in the Olympic Games.
darren campbell?
Andy Black
Quite the character.
Has his ups & downs, & was under it a few years ago, & I steered well clear of him, as he was not in a happy place. This year in Vegas he was much more at one with the world, was warm & affable, & very chatty. Had smartened himself up, too, he looked a bit down & out the previous few years.
He has the biggest card-marker I've ever seen in regular use, it's a brass "pineapple", like you see on the end of a brass curtain rail.
I was tableside - with Jen Mason - doing a Live Update at the 2005 WSOP, when Andy had his biggest win, $1.75 milly, in the WSOP Main Event Final Table. (Hachem won it). In fact I fell asleep on the floor of the Press Room, as it went on for so long. They played to a finish in those days, & we were Updating for 18 hours straight. Well, Jen was.
Andy had been staked by the regulars at The Fitz, & when he came home, he got quite a hero's welcome, understandably.
I've shared many a table in smaller events with Andy, mainly at Merrion & The Fitz. When he was on his game, he was literally unplayable.
Incidentally - completely unrelated - but in those days, a regular at the Dublin rooms was Graham Thew, Julians brother, who had a £6,000 runner up score to Roy Brindley at the soul-less & bland Citywest one year.
Graham had as many kids as Julian, & I always had a dinner invite at Mum's house when in Dublin, which was Thewy's original hometown. Dinner with about 8 screaming kids, awesome.....Smashing kids though, all very polite.
Nadal, Ronaldo & Darren Cambell are good shouts, but they are famous for their athletic or football prowess rather than their poker abilities imo.
Padraig Parkinson
Crikey, a complete one of a kind. VERY funny, & very very bright indeed.
He used to get drunk a lot at the table, & he was a genuinely funny drunk, had us all in stiches.
We were in Barcelona one year, he was totally bladdered & said "all-in". He pushed his chips across the line, all the money from his pockets, his Passport, & a bottle of beer. Then he said "no, changed my mind, not the bottle of beer".
Traditionally, he quits drinking on January 1st every year until the WSOP.
Not sure about now, but he used to live in Paris, with his extremely pretty & demure wife or partner.
In the Ladbrokes days, he'd very often pop up in that daily afternoon $100 (?) jobbie we all played every day.
To share a table with Padraig when he is on form is one of the greatest things in poker. He's not a great respecter of the "we wear hoodies & we don't talk" crew though, he don't half get stuck into them. They never realise though, it's all so cleverly done.
Terry Rogers
I never met Terry. He's widely rumoured, along with Liam Flood, to be responsible for introducing NLH to these shores back in the 80's. (It used to be mainly stud). I'm not entirely sure if that is true, & of course once Online took over, it would have happened anyway.
Mr Channing may have more to add on Terry, he would have known him well, & both were bookmakers at one time.
Marty Smyth
Again, I don't know him well enough to write about him. I gather he likes a bet, mind, & is widely regarded as "shrewd".
Noel Furlong
An absolute gentleman, &, let's not forget, a WSOP main Event winner.
I don't even know his real Christian name, he got the nick "Noel" as he was born on Christmas Day, or so the story goes.
Very wealthy man, has business interests, carpets I think.
also did he not play basketball for them?
His Olympic flag carrying thing was for dual reasons - he is an MEP these days, & has wide Political interests, & he sponsored the Lithuanian Basketball Team.
I was a Business Partner of his in a website/forum/online card room for a brief & unhappy spell. It did not work out well. He sponsored a MTT on my site once too, & that also ended badly.
Having said all that, away from the tables, I like him very much.
I first met him in a Palace in St Petersburg. Strange but true. ("Taleon Club").
He has retired from poker these days, & his Political aide is the famous (ex) Party Poker scribe & publicist Warren Lush, aka "Lush the Gush". Warren did a lot to promote poker, & is a top top bloke.
Guoga is currently a major sponsor of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation. When the country's national team failed to directly qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey and had to apply for a wild-card entry, he paid a large share of the application fee of €500,000. The team was chosen for the tournament, and won the bronze medal with TONYBET printed on their jerseys.[22] He was the national basketball team's manager from 2010 until 2012 and served as the vice-president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation. He was also the main sponsor of BC Prienai, a professional basketball club.
In 2014, Guoga become the vice-president of the Lithuanian Rowing Federation.[23]
On yer bike, son.
Tony Cascarino
Not really Irish, he was born in Kent, but claimed Irish descent, via an adopted grand parent to play football for RoI.
Ran pretty well in poker to get so many sponsorship deals. Not saying he's not a decent poker player, but he got the deals because of his fame & prowess - & he was very good - at football.
Still has a weekly column in "The Game", which is The Times football supplement published every Monday. Best football reporting in the print media, "The Game", imo.
When he played for Millwall, alongside Teddy Sheringham, they were an awesome strike partnership. Teddy now lives the life of Riley. He's well loaded, & plays poker & golf all over the world as hobbies. What a life.
Poor old Teddy, into each life, a little rain must fall.
I wonder why he took that job?
You really need to get this book thing going next year, you must have one nearly written at this stage, with all the excellent posting you do on here and elsewhere. 2016 get on it.
And yeah I am a young gun, slightly rusted that's all.
I met Donnacha son Eoghan in the crown one time, spoke to him for 10 mins or so, unbelievable mild mannered lad, he just got knocked out of the Aussie Millions, he was so calm you would have thought it was the £5 mini bounty hunter.
He had that amazing run in wsop himself, cant recall the year, but a top class player aswell, stone mad into his tennis, holds his own at that too.
Thanks again TK
Kags