It’s been a fair while since I last put my virtual pen to paper and wrote a blog. So long that there’s far too much to talk about to cover it all in one blog before you all fall asleep. Instead I’m going to focus on the present. Now that the new site is all up and running, I’m hoping to be able to travel to a few more events wearing my shiny new Poker Encore badge. My 1st stop this week was at The Palm Beach Casino in London...

For anyone who doesn’t know already, Poker Encore has been set up in partnership with Genting. The UK’s largest gaming company, whose name until now has been relatively unknown, is now beginning to flex its muscle in the UK Poker market, meaning our partnership could not have come at a better time.

“The Palm Beach Big Game” is a monthly £1,000 event held in one of Genting’s flag ship casinos, the Palm Beach, in London’s Mayfair. Whilst in reality the Palm Beach casino has hosted regular £1k events for a while, this event is now being promoted significantly online, and the mixture of online qualifiers with the local rich gambling fraternity has created a rather tasty little event for anyone looking to earn themselves a bit of pocket money…

Speaking of online qualifiers – I managed to bag my seat on Poker Encore for a grand total of £30. Last Monday we set up a £10 1R1A satellite, and with only 12 runners contributing £250 in buyins a juicy £800 overlay was on offer. If I no one wants to win my own money, I may as well win it back myself ;o) So off to the Palm Beach with dreams of turning £30 into £30k I went…

This month’s event attracted around 80 runners. The plan is to get this to 100-120 by the 1^st couple of months of next year. With a 10k starting stack, and every level you could think of (with antes), this tournament has about as good a structure as a 1 day event could ever have. My start table had a nice sprinkling of value, along with a couple of faces who I recognised from a few years ago, when we used to play the weekly events at the Sportsman casino. Even Kouresh showed his face…I reminded him that I’d followed his advice of “not giving up the day job my friend” and updated him on the progress of my window cleaning round…

I played pretty solid for the most part, apart from an early hiccup where I somehow misread my Q9o for AA and was promptly greeted by a 4bet shove. Next hand I made the nut flush and got value from top pair to get back over my starting stack. From there I didn’t really get too out of line as the levels went on and I didn’t make too many hands. Fortunately most of the players in the event don’t realise how patient you might or might not be playing, and so somehow I was able to get a full double up in a multiway limped pot with my T4o in the BB on a 8TT4 board. I played my hand fast on the turn when the sb lead into the field. My raise didn’t deter him too much as he had set me all in before the last person had even folded. A8 was going to struggle to get there.

I just had time to flop top set vs an overpair before the table broke and I was moved inside the main poker room. It was nice to see my good friend JP Kelly who I hadn’t shared a table with in a while, but even better to see the other players at the table, who between them had healthy stacks and not too much of a plan on how to use them for the best. I was set in by KT on a J73 flop in a 3bet pot by someone who victory slammed their bluff so hard one of his cards flew off the table lol. That was my 1^st hand at the table and was a nice introduction. Fortunately for me I was about to go on a card rush. AK/AQ/JJ/KK and KK again all within a short space of time. Unfortunately for me, apart from picking up the blinds twice, the rest of the hands took care of my stack.

My exit hand saw me call a shove with KK to find myself up against A7. I commented on the 778 flop that I thought the last flop card was going to be another 7, and at least I was still drawing live. Turn 7. Me and my big mouth…

Apart from the tournament, my highlight of the day came outside during the break. I was standing chatting to messieurs Bansi, Akenhead and Kelly when someone came up asking if they could have a picture. With more bracelets in that group that Tiffanys, knowing my place I quickly offered to take the picture but media whore Bansi beat me to it. I’m looking forward to seeing a picture crop up on Facebook any minute now with “JP” “James” and “some random tall bloke” tagged…

Not everyone’s bankroll can take a £1,080 shot every month, and so at Poker Encore we’ve set up a whole range of satellites to give everyone a chance of playing this event. Every day at 7pm we have a freeroll qualifier with 1 seat guaranteed and another 1 added. It’s completely free to enter, but any one willing to spend £1 gets a tonne of extra chips for a rebuy, meaning your edge against the majority in the field is massive. These feed into a weekly £27.50 final (again with seats guaranteed) and this into a month end £150 buy in satellite. Take a look under the “Free Live Event Satellites” tab in our lobby.

All levels have an overlay, so whether your bankroll allows you to spend £0 or £1,000 there’s really no reason I shouldn’t be meeting you at the Palm Beach In January to take your shot at £30,000. Not bad for a day’s work…