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Neil Channing
Tying Things Up
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing cancels his stable in preperation for the launch of Black Belt Poker....
I'd always swapped pieces with people in tournaments. For a few years now I'd bought little slices of people's action. I liked to have an interest in the tournie when I could no longer win it myself, and could easily see that it was worth paying a premium for a share in a few of the better circuit regulars. If anyone I considered to be a top player swapped with me I was always enormously flattered, and when any of those people charged only a meagre premium I was even more keen to buy.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I started to back anyone full-time, so that all their tournament poker was funded by me. It started with one guy, and even RiverDave thought the whole idea was slightly crazy.
Within three months I started to back Sunny Chattha and James Akenhead and after a few months more my little "stable" of three went up to eight. I was happy to increase my exposure in tournaments and to decrease the variance. I also enjoyed picking...
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Dinner Time
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing gets back on the UK tournament trail after returning from the other side of the world....
Every year, after my long summer trip to Vegas, I return with jet-lag. Worse than that though, I suffer torpor, a sense of sluggishness, I'm sleepy, and the last thing I want to be doing is playing poker. For years I thought I could just play through it and I'd soon return to normal, but I've finally realised that it's potentially a very damaging and expensive state of mind. When I return now I take a break.
Having had a lovely trip to the other side of the world, a relaxing week on the other side of London might be in order. I set off for Three Mills Studios in Stratford to play in the European Open V.
I've had better weeks.
It was fun to win my heat, I played pretty well and then got super-lucky on the final hand. It was fun to spend fourteen hours chatting to Jesse one day, even if the commentary box is in a trailer which made people go outside to warm up. If the commentary days are all going to be like that one I'm going have...
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Heroes
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing talks Australian poker, tennis & racing before visiting the Asian Vegas....
I didn't fare to well in the heads-up tournament at the WSOP last year. They're having one at the Vic next month and I thought playing this one in Australia might be a nice warm-up. I can think of better ways to practice than by getting annihilated by some kid who didn't look old enough to be there. Canadian he was, not that I'd have known. He never said a word until he fist-pumped his way to 1-0 up in our best of three. Got quite chirpy then he did, played very well, very aggressive. I barely won a pot.
I consoled myself by having a nice sun-bathe. The temperature was thirty-eight degrees. I've no idea what that actually means, so I thought it ok to lie out in it. When stopping for a swim I ran into The Lizard and Lizard Jnr and we had a chat. He invited me to the tennis.
A moment or so later Harry showed up. I may not have seen Harry Findlay for eight years. I first met him about twenty years ago, (I was very young), and he was always a gambling hero of...
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Living Is Easy
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing recounts his Aussie Millions experience, living up to his bad beat nickname....
Generally I'm an enormous fan of poker bloggers. The reporters who follow the tour round from casino to casino giving updates on chipstacks and colourful reports on the day's activities are an integral part of the whole circus now. I try to be helpful with my chip counts, and to point out things I've noticed that might be interesting for them, and there are a few who I'm always really pleased to see. I do have a pet peeve though, and that's when the reporters start to add too many opinions on people's strategy, and generally comment on how they think the game should be played.
In the $1500 bounty tournament the PokerNews man was continously complaining about the amount of action on our shootout table. He didn't feel like the limping and seeing flops, as well as the small-ball poker through the streets, or the raise and take it (rather than raise, reraise, rereraise), was what ought to be happening at all. He also alluded several times to the fact that this was a worse...
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A Sick Man
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing blogs from down under as he becomes a bounty in Melbourne....
On the plane back from Galway it looked like they'd had plenty of snow in the areas around London. As I was walking back from the gymn on a recent Sunday morning, hands thrust into my pockets to avoid the cold, I congratulated myself. A couple of months of regular swimming, eating healthily and walking, had obviously convinced any passing germs that they weren't gonna get much joy here.This adonis was never going to be any sort of safe haven for the colds that people insist on calling man-flu. I'd be looking good, feeling fit, and ready-to-go for my long trip to Australia.
For the twelve hours of the first leg of the trip I coughed and sniffed. It couldn't have been very pleasant for my Premium Economy neighbours. Barny had wisely gone Upper to avoid any germs or ear-bashings I might have planned for him. We stopped-off for a shower in the Upper lounge at Hong Kong before I found a few new punters to infect on the ten-hour leg to Sydney.
I've never been to...
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Small Holding
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing fits some poker in over the festive period before gearing up for a mammoth session in Australia....
About seven years ago my sister came up with a crackpot scheme. My mother and father had been running a hotel in Bournemouth for many years and my sister, her husband and their three children had, for a few of those years joined the business as partners, with all of them living under one roof.
When the day came that my mum and dad decided they wished to retire and take it easy, there was a small problem. If they were to sell up my sister's family would not only be homeless but would also need a new way to earn a living.
Although she flirted with the idea of online poker, my sister's actual idea was even crazier. With no experience, and armed only with the internet to learn from, the whole of the Channing and Homa mob moved to Mullacott Farm in North Devon, where they look after forty sheep, some cows, pigs, ducks, alpacas and an enormous number of chickens on their thirty acres.
Having played very little poker throughout December, and with nothing...
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Nightswimming
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing is determined to take a break from poker while struggling to organise his post- Irish Open life....
One of the things I resolved to focus on in 2008 was to organise myself better. I was aware throughout last year that I was getting increasingly busy and that it was becoming difficult to focus on my primary activity: playing poker. I was distracted by poker training, writing articles, commentating, poker betting and the staking of players and all of these things seemed to encourage enormous amounts of extra phonecalls, meetings, emails and long conversations. I was able to figure out that by better structuring my time I could still do all these things, but if I let things drift it would become impossible.
Then came the Irish Open.
Just as I was about to commence the final Roland decided to point out to me that I couldn't possibly imagine the difference to my life between coming first and second. At the time I didn't really think too much about that statement, I was rather more interested in the first prize. Within a week I knew exactly what he...
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Master Of None
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing recalls the explosion of Hold 'Em and reviews his GUKPT week....
I'm often amused by the reaction I get from fellow players when I sit in a game that isn't hold-'em. For years we used to play pot-limit hold-'em in London and on the rare occasions that I would play no-limit, and the even rarer ones when I won, other players would often show surprise that I'd managed this tough adjustment.
I played pot-limit omaha in live cash games, at least four nights a week for the whole of 2002 and 2003, and just about kept the wolf from the door. While I may not have clocked up the number of hands as a Chufty or Ben Grundy, I think I have some rough understanding of the rules. I just smile and take the money on the rare occasions that I play the game now.
The reaction I got from people when I said I was playing the 7-card stud tournament during the recent Vic festival really made me chuckle. Don't they understand it's all just different types of poker and I'm a professional poker player? I'd decided to play the tournament to try and...
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Top Ranking
By Neil Channing
Neil Channing chases European Ranking points at the GUKPT while keeping busy at the Vic....
I just looked through my diary and counted. I have played twenty-one tournaments that carried European ranking points this year. From those tournaments I have managed five final tables and two other cashes. The five final tables have given me almost six thousand rankings points. Jason Mercier, who is currently top of the rankings, has probably played far less tournaments than even an old cash grinder like me. He has four final tables and has cashed for one million, eight hundred thousand euro.
Must be nice being him.
After I got back from Ireland I started to map out a campaign. There are over two thousand names on the list of European ranked players. I've never even finished in the top twenty. I don't think I've ever played as many as twenty tournaments before. I certainly don't remember winning the Irish Open before. It would seem a shame not to at least have a crack at finishing number one. I may need to get to 7500 points.
First up it...
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