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Token of Appreciation (0 to somewhere nice with the aid of a few tokens). Pledge of Positivity.
Excellent start, thank you.
Someone commented to me a few nights ago that several new Diaries seem to have suddenly appeared, & I'm very pleased to see that. Not everyone enjoys the various diaries, but that's fine, as they don't have to read them.
I'm avoiding your Punta Cana hints? Correct.
It's not my place to reveal stuff until or unless I get the nod.But if you look around the forum, there are generally a few clues .......
Comments
I saw Mark "Prince Charles" Banin in Vegas earlier this month, his poker career has had something of a renaissance lately with a few tidy scores.
Michelle Orpe used to go through boyfriends at the rate of one a fortnight, but she eventually settled down & became a Mum. She does bits & bobs for DTD now. Heart of gold, no edge to her at all.
I'm still very close to Kara Scott, & we had some private time in Vegas this year, as we do every year. She is married to an Italian chap now, & lives in Italy, & her main gig these days is with ESPN for the WSOP. Smashing kid. She came across to Sky Poker after PNL, as did Michelle. In fact, my very first task when I went to work for Sky Poker in October 2006 was to recruit Presenters & Commentators, & Kara was top of my list. Soon, of course, she moved on up to Full Tilt, 'Stars, PP, ESPN & all sorts. I'm very proud of her. She used to do Martial Arts, surprisingly. Tough girl.
I could write a whole book about James Browning, a quite remarkable man, with some hidden depths & talents. He started off working in a circus of all things. Very accomplished backgammon player. At one point in time he was banned from every casino in the UK, due to his success at Blackjack - he was a self-confessed card-counter, & the casinos don't like that. He teamed up with Lynne Beaumonte 5 or 6 years back - she was a better player than him imo - but they split up recently. They used to run a private cash game in Swindon or somewhere equally dreadful. James has a strange habit of invading one's personal space - he stands REALLY close when he talks to anyone, right in their face. It makes me extremely uncomfortable, so I sort of back away, & he sort of follows me......I'm not even sure his name was originally James Browning, & I'm not sure it is James Browning now, either. That's another story. Don't think he's donw a proper days work in his life - which I state as a compliment - he just ducks & dives on Sports Betting, poker, a bit of this & a bit of that. An extraordinary man who has lived a thoroughly entertaining life full of an eclectic range of pleasures.
More on the others shortly.
Nick Wealthall - a very good looking, sharp-witted, clever & funny man - also came to Sky Poker, & there was, famously, an incident with pocket billiards & Helen Chamberlain on the Show one night. He later moved across to 'Stars, doing blogging, Live Updates & stuff, & is still there I believe.
Dr Tom (Tom Sambrook) was a little edgy with me, & after I made a comment about a hand he played & he got very cross with me one night on the Live Show. He was really severe with me, live on air, & it created a little tension. Later, he warmed to me & relationships thawed.
Lynsey Horn was better known originally as a Travel Reporter on radio, but she has done well for herself & presented all sorts of stuff, including on BT Sport. She married a fella in a band, "Toploader", think his name was Hipgrave, we had them both on the Sky Poker Show when we had that "green studio" in Feltham.
Casper Berry is a "motivational speaker" now, whatever that is. It was said that he had the gig of "Poker Advisor" on Casino Royale, which is a film I believe.
Matt Broughton came across to Sky Poker, too, & presented "The Club" for several years. Bright, erudite, witty man, though he & I were cast from different batches & we were never likely to marry each other. Think he is "The_Waster" on Twitter.
Other PNL Presenters/Analysts included.....
Malcolm "The Rock" Harwood. Malcolm was quite old, certainly too old for TV really. Can't be doing with old people on TV, way too boring, they should all be pensioned off when they reach 50. He'd been on Late Night Poker 5 or 6 years earlier in fact. Later, he became closely associated with a Northern based poker forum, AWOP. We had a bit of a tiff at The Broadway, where I had been doing Live Updates for years, & he somehow got the ear of a higher up & nicked the gig, so I had to sit out. Micky Wernick then asked my why I (blonde) was not doing the Live Update, & when I told him, he went straight to the owner & insisted I got the gig back. The owner liked to keep the right side of Micky as Micky usually owed the owner a few bob. Micky was like that, often had to borrow a few bob, but he was as good as gold & always paid the lot back, often with interest, eventually. Micky was not at all well the last time I saw him, hope he is OK.
Greg "Axeman" Winters, sheesh, he was a strange one. He got the bin tack from PNL after he went on their poker forum & said ladies had no place in poker, they were not bright enough. Well as they employed Kara, Michelle & Lynsey, that went down a treat, so he was on his bike.
Later, he wrote one of THE most bizarre letters I have seen in my entire life. He did not rate me, not at all, which was fine, no prob with that. But he wanted the Sky Poker gig, so he wrote to the Sky Poker Head of Recruitment (my boss at the time) & asked for the job. That's fine, too. What was not terribly bright was writing to the Head of Recruitment & telling him that the guy who hired me must be a nutjob, as I was the worst analyst ever born, or words to that effect. That's also fine, of course it is. But its not really very bright to write to the guy who recruited me to tell him he was a nutjob for hiring me if you expect & want the job, now is it?......
Anyway, he later turned up at GetMinted Poker TV, but that never lasted long.
Later, he joined blonde, abused everyone, said he hated the place, & got himself banned. Next day he set up a new alias, rinse repeat, banned again. That happened FOUR times. And I kinda think, look, if you hate the place that much, why keep signing up?
I saw him a few years later down in Brighton Rendezvous, but the convo was a bit strained. It always was with him at the poker table, he used to sit & do a crossword, & never say a word to a soul.
Of late, he's become a musician, has his own website, TheAxxeman.com, think he plays pubs & the like. A few of his music vids are on You Tube.
We get along much better now we don't see each other.
She is very suave & posh, always reminds me of Princess Anne.
Look her up on THM - a most impressive poker CV. She had 13 cashes in Vegas in 2014, including a quarter of a milly in the Monster Stack. In 2013, she had 4 wins at The Wynn, too. Quite a player.
She was in Vegas this summer, & played the WSOP Tag Team thing, in a team that included Peter Costa. Finished 109th I gather. So Pete Costas is featuring on 2 current threads now, this, & Grumpy Jac's. Quite a story with Pete, too, but I'll maybe stick that on Jac's thread, think I've intruded more than enough on this one now.
Anyway, the Token of Appreciation Diary is up & running now, good luck Mr POTO
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