Had a good win at NLHE on Sunday with a little over $10k during a very nice session of around an hour and a half. Felt weird to be play 25-50 again after a while and it took me some time to find my feet but I sure as hell did run good but I aint complaining.

For anyone who has been following Project Pokerquest then it is a non starter. Most of the people failed to match the criteria that I was looking for and one of them has dropped out due to personal problems. This leaves just one person left who I am helping independently and it would be incorrect to call this PP because that was all about taking a series of players and trying to turn them into highstakes players.

I have many such dreams and projects like this and I sometimes wonder that keeping them in my head should be where they should stay and remain because they sure as hell dont work in theory.

I am really enjoying working with Cake Poker and the professionalism of the people there has really surprised me. You may have noticed a few new adverts today and also some of the parts of the site that are not working properly. We are in the process of transferring things across to the blog which should hopefully make the site better for the viewers and also for us.

So take care for now and see you all soon

The Dean is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at 2+2, Poker Pro, The Hendon Mob, WPT, Poker News, Part Time Poker and Blonde Poker.

The 1st of August represents a new month and it also represents something else that is also new……my sponsor. I am no longer sponsored by Pokerheaven and am now sponsored by Cake Poker. What this means is that the bankroll challenge has been put on hold again as regular readers will recall that I was going to try and do a “Chris Ferguson” although he started from nothing and I really dont think that I have the mental fortutude for that.

But anyway, things change quickly in my world and what may be happening one day isnt the next. But one of the great features of Cake Poker is that it allows players to change their screen name every week. Now I believe that this is a fantastic feature that should be promoted as much as possible.

I have championed the cause of being able to conceal your identity online in the past and especially now that we have so many people using tracking software. Dont get me wrong here, I use these items myself in various capacities and being that I coach people then players come to me with PT data that needs to be analysed so I must know how to operate it and interpret the data.

But maybe I am just old fashioned but I believe that poker should be a gladatorial contest and not down to who has the biggest hard drive or the best software or who can understand it the best. But I am very excited to be associated with a poker room like Cake Poker and am really looking forward to working with them.

I know that there are millions of players out there who either do not use tracking software or are put off by it or fear it……well Cake Poker is the answer. If you are one of those players who gets your edge by using such software, then I really feel that it is in your best interests to prove to yourself that you can beat the game without using it as well.

If there is one thing that is certain in the poker world and this is that things change and sometimes very quickly. There really is no telling just how effective tracking software will remain in the future and even if sites will continue to allow it. I never like putting all my eggs into one basket and I wouldnt like to depend on it too much……but thats just me.

The Dean is sponsored by Cake Poker and can also be seen at 2+2, The Hendon Mob, Part Time Poker, Blonde Poker, Poker Pro, WPT and Poker News

There are a few things that happen to you in life that make you feel really honoured and one such thing happened to be yesterday. I was invited to become a member of the world famous “Stox Poker” coaching team which is one of the greatest honours that has happened to me in poker since I started.

I dont rank achievements or money won because that is merely down to my own efforts and hard work but it really is a great honour when other people recognise you. But the tutors on that team are some of the best poker theoreticians in the world, people like Bryce Paradis, Collin Moshman, Nick Grudzien to name but a few.

It really is such an honour to be compared with these people and asked to join them. In the same way that I was asked to compile high limit theory for 2+2 a few weeks back which goes alongside theory from non other than David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth of all people……need I say more.

The bad news is that I had to turn the offer down for numerous reasons. The main one is that I have tried to make promotional videos before and they are a lot harder than what they look. Talking constantly for 30-40 minutes isnt easy or at least it wasnt for me. Plus my broad northern accent didnt sound too well either and was why I removed my videos from Youtube…..they just sounded so duff and I am not a fluid and snappy talker.

Presentation is everything with these things and I was really sorry to have to turn this down. Speaking of turning things down, this was not all that I was forced to turn down this week. The world famous Gamblers Book Shop in Las Vegas requested an interview with me about my new book on Roulette called “Killer Roulette”. This book is pretty explosive as it delves into the seedier side of the game and cheating and advantage play…..not to mention downright theft.

In fairness to some of the people who were in that book who were also non too happy to be in it despite me using aliases then I declined the interview as there would have been too many questions that I would either have had to answer wrongly on purpose or declined….which wouldnt be fair to them.

But despite me turning down both offers, I still have a nice feeling today.

The Dean can be seen at 2+2, The Hendon Mob, Part Time Poker, WPT, Blonde Poker, Poker Pro, Poker News

Last night felt pretty weird, I was actually sitting next to a friend of mine, well actually he isnt quite a friend…..more of a professional acquaintance and I was watching him play high-stakes poker. I wont go into the details about the site but this guy is good. What surprised me was the fact that his game mirrored my own which I found quite disconcerting to be honest.

But talk about fearless, he made a few moves that I wouldnt have made and got stacked a couple of times but he did end the evening up by $37,000 and its a long time since I have clocked that kind of session if at all. We actually met purely by chance when I visited Dusk Till Dawn for the first time in April. Well we have swapped phone numbers and really got to know each other really well over the past few weeks and we often call each other now to discuss poker and online tactics.

He went to LV for the series a few weeks back but couldnt play in the main event as he had family committments. But I always like to stay one step ahead of everyone else and if that means getting information from wherever then I will do it. When it comes to gambling then I am a survivor and self preservation runs very deeply through my MO or at least in a financial sense.

The bottom line is that you get the money as long as it doent stray into cheating of course which I would never do even though I probably know more than most when it comes to that area. But anyway, it is proving to be a nice successful relationship and long may it continue.

The Dean is sponsored by Pokerheaven and can also be seen at WPT, 2+2, Blonde Poker, Poker Pro, Part Time Poker, Poker News and The Hendon Mob

“I only play these because my son’s birthday is on the twenty fourth”

That was the excuse put to me for why the large round portly lady in the red blouse sitting to my immediate right had just player the 4c-2d and flopped the nut straight and cracked my pocket kings. That sure as hell did not make me feel any better and before I knew what was happening, my hand was reaching into my inside pocket to gather another twenty with the words….. “buy in”….coming sharply from my mouth in the direction of the card room supervisor.

I do not know why I bother myself with these bloody small £20 re-buy tournaments. They cram the players in and there were twelve on our table alone. What made it worse was that this was the fourth time that I had been outdrawn whilst holding a powerful hand. But the initial ninety minute re-buy period was like a free for all here but I must have been perhaps the only serious cash game player who was sitting in this god damn tournament. More on Poker In the Gutter 3

I had played poker numerous times in Nottingham but this private cash game at Steve Tangs place was something new to me. It would be a far cry to the rundown snooker club that was Dale Regan’s place that was for sure. I always hated motorway driving at night and especially on my own with no one to converse with to take away the monotonous repetition of the motorway lights and the darkness.

I knew that Steve Tang was a restaurant owner who ran a posh place somewhere on the edge of the town centre. I also knew of his connections as well and also some of the guys who would be likely playing in this game. I’d hoped that they would be playing sensible poker and not some strange Chinese version of something or other that nobody but them understood. More on Poker in the Gutter 2

Peering out through the taxi window into the dimply lit back streets, I was appalled at the sheer number of young girls that were prostituting themselves all for drugs. Is this modern England in the twenty first century? It really does not matter where in the world you are, city centre backstreets seem all alike. Dimly lit places full of whores, junkies, robbers and roaming gangs.

I was on my way to Merrill’s snooker club which was one of these twenty four hour joints on the outskirts. It was far from being plush and wasn’t exactly the type of place where you would take your son for a few frames. It was run by an Irishman called Dale Regan who had bought the place a couple of years earlier apparently in some dodgy deal or so rumour has it. More on Poker In The Gutter

Without a doubt some of the very best books that I have ever read about poker have not been poker books…….are you confused? Well most people would be when you phrase a statement in this way but allow me to explain. Poker is a micocosm of life itself and to be a good or a great poker player requires more than just loads and loads of theoretical knowledge.

Poker theory and the learning of it is only really part of the equation. Unless you are skilled in the application of theory and the adaptation of it then you will struggle when you first start out. But poker is not just about cards, only people who dont understand poker think this.

There are so many connections with other fields that it opens up a whole new area when you discover it. I have always been interested in Warfare on a sort of general knowledge level without fully understanding the true reality of war itself. I have recently begun re-reading after many years, the great classic “On War” by Carl Von Clausewitz.

The creator of the famous but often confused quote “War is the continuation of Politics by other means” except this is often misquoted as the actual word used is “policy” and not politics and this error was even made in the movie “Crimson Tide” by Gene Hackman as I recall.

But what a book!!!!!! Now after re-reading it after all these years and understanding poker like I do then it is obvious that poker and warfare share many characteristics far beyond the obvious ones. This has led me to invent my own quote which is “Poker is the continuation of Warfare by other means”. Not really riginal but in a way it is and I am proud of it.

Although before anyone goes rushing out to buy the book in the belief that it will win them money then dont count your chickens because it wont. It really needs a reader to already be at a high level of poker sophistication to be able to make the connection at all otherwise it will appear like a book on war and nothing else. It also needs a very high level of creative thinking to be able to make those connections and whilst this may seem that I am blowing my own trumpet, all I am merely doing is restating how much work I have put into my game and understanding of not just poker but of myself.

I have read books on the stock market, sports betting, trading, martial arts, Zen etc etc and found strong links with poker in all of these fields but yet warfare surpasses all of these and I have to repeat that at this time, I am engrossed in one hell of a book.

The Dean is sponsored by Pokerheaven and can be seen at 2+2, WPT, Hendon Mob, Poker News UK, Poker Pro, Blonde Poker, Part Time Poker

This weekend was an opportunity that was just too good to miss in my book. The Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale made me a good few bob I can tell you. Did I pick Harrington for the title…….you must be joking. With him complaining of a wrist injury prior to the tournament and having to call it a day half way through an 18 hole practice session just hours before the tournament started then I wouldnt have backed him with your money.

Did I back anyone at a very juicy each way price….no not that either. I was on Betfair all day Sunday trading on the leader and what a bonanza it was. It was pretty obvious once you saw the weather forecast for Sunday and the players who were bunching up behind Norman that the lead was going to change hands very frequently and laying the current leader was always going to be a very strong strategy given the pressure of the situation.

Thats the good thing about trading because you can lay a competitor to lose and they can go and win and you can still win money. I laid Harrington several times yesterday but I wasnt laying him to lose the Open……Just to lose the lead.

I laid Norman several times, Harrington several times and Poulter. But the closing holes were always going to be far easier and when Harrington went ahead with four holes to play, two of which were par fives and all of which were into the wind then that was the perferct time to back off and count my winnings.

I love trading because if you get the strategy right then it really is like shelling peas unlike poker which at times can be more like pulling teeth…..or in my case……having your teeth pulled.

What I hate about poker is the variance and this is why I love trading. But please dont think that it is easy, I dont mess with it unless I am very confident of making money and that isnt often.

The Dean is sponsored by Pokerheaven and can be seen at 2+2, WPT, Blonde Poker, Hendon Mob, Poker Pro, Part Time Poker, Poker News.

With the current poker boom in full swing and the number of players that are playing the game at an all time record high, tournament poker has never been so popular. With the World Poker Tour events being shown on our screens on a regular basis, not to mention a wide assortment of other tournaments, this interest is growing by the day and is reflected in the seemingly ever increasing size of the fields in some of these events.

For many, tournament poker is a new experience and some of these fields are so large that getting down to the final table and in particular the major money seats is quite an achievement these days. Despite what we see on television, it is common practice for players who get down to the final few places to agree some kind of a deal with the other players and this is in no way detrimental to the integrity of the game and is certainly not underhanded in any way. More on Deal or No Deal