Left eye:

Right eye:

Now my Optometrist explained what each part of the image is in great detail – unfortunately I’ve forgotten almost everything she said. The big blood vessels are veins, and the smaller ones are arteries. I think the bright dot is the cornea, I can’t remember what the black part is. Ten points for anyone who knows.

Eyes closed

On the way home from poker.

How could I resist? I wish I had a polaroid so I could have placed a copy in his pocket.

Eyes open

Tanya with her Nikon F3. She’s in India with my Canon 24-70 right now, looking forward to what she brings back.

Waterstones

Severin flew over to have some noodles.

And look at Graffiti. My film scanner has problems scanning dark photos, and I end up with things like this.

Eyes down

Jay Luck had another fancy dress Team Freezeout at The International.

I went as a banana, Kevin went as Buzz Lightyear, Nick went as a pimp and ginger Chris refused to wear his flashing police helmet. So Nick wore it. Kevin took second place for our team.

Nick and the hat.

Another scanner screw-up. I’m going to get this printed then scan the print.

Also in the news

We’re fast approaching the end of the financial year. This is when councils dig up the roads and spend as much money as possible. if they don’t spend it, they get less next year.

I wonder what his story is.

There’s something about shaving my head that makes me feel like I’m shrugging off the blandness of the working week, ready for the weekend, freedom and fun.

I’ve booked flights to NYC & Philly for mid-late June with Sean Mayer. Looking forward to seeing some friends across the pond again. And documenting the whole thing!

Geeky stuff: Voigtlander Bessa R2M; 35mm 1.7 Ultron; Kodak TRI-X 400 + 2.

We went to see Roger Hiorn’s ‘Seizure’ on its last day open.

It was set in a derelict mini council estate that is being torn down in 2009. You had to queue for Wellington boots before entering the installation.

Then you had to queue again to get in. All in all about an hour of queueing. ZzZzZz

I didn’t bother taking any pics inside but Tanya did so check out her blog when she puts them up. Worth the wait? Nope, but it was interesting. If they had drained a little water out of the floor it would not be necessary to wait longer than 5 minutes.

Poker

Last Sunday saw the second Gutshot.com forum members live tournament at The International. I only managed to make two photos. Maybe I was shy as it was the first time I had met 90% of the forum guys that turned up; I didn’t play the first live forum event.

‘The H-Train’ on the left, the ‘H-bomb’ Howard (aka pokersmith2) on the right. I think this is the only hand H-Train fodled all night. And I thought I was a maniac.

The Stinkers

The following day Jay Luck’s Christmas Cracker was held at the club. For this tournament, members formed teams of four; whoever won the tournament would share the prize money with his or her team, and second place team would get their money back. My team comprised Jazzy, JJ Hazan and Gutshot.com top dog Barry Martin, who you can see a few shots below wearing my mega-afro. The format was round of each (ROE) – NL Hold’em and Omaha. Our team was ‘The Stinkers’.

As it was fancy dress I decided to play in my Gorilla suit.

JJ went out early then I followed soon after, donking all my chips off in the Omaha rounds. Did I mention the tournament was fancy dress? Meet Jesus and the coconut.

Jazzy (standing) went out some time after I did, so all our hopes were pinned on our fearless leader and his raging afro. They don’t call him Barry ‘The Bully’ Martin for nothing. Maximum pressure at all times.

Barry battling with Steven Mahony in an Omaha round.

After numerous eliminations and sick outdraws we made it to the final table. Other teams at the table were ‘The Minh Dynasty’, ‘So Solid Crew’ (two players), ‘Double Trouble’ et al.

Down to the final three and Barry is still playing quite aggressively, with team tactician Jazzy over his shoulder. The Minh dynasty would soon be eliminated in third place.

Down to just Barry and Andy Achillea. Andy had doubled up in an Omaha hand and was now sitting on a healthy stack. At this point Barry only had 4,000 more chips than Andy so we agreed to split the prize money evenly across both teams. Now to play to the finish for bragging rights!

Jazzy and Barry talk tactics as Andy Achillea looks on.

Andy wanted to play small ball but Barry forced him to play big ball to take him out of his element. Pot-pot-pot-pot pre flop in Omaha and we’re all in!

Andy flopped a set of Jacks but Barry made a straight on the river to take it down for The Stinkers! Ship it!

Many thanks to Jay for organising the event. She rocks.

The Stinkers (minus JJ who had to leave early)

Geeky stuff: Voigtlander Bessa R2M; 35mm 1.7 Ultron; Kodak TRI-X 400 +. Colour photos by Jay Luck

The dealers and directors have a meeting to discuss the day ahead.

Poker chip pr0n

WE HAVE MORE CAKE!

Not much going on here in the AM so I’m loitering in the media room…. no one has touched the cakes yet. I’m not going to take a stab at them first! I’ll wait for the WSOP guys to get here, I know they’ll chomp immediately.

Also, they haven’t got the bloody ice cream out in the ice cream place yet. LIFE IS SO DEPRESSING

Annette_15 has just walked in to the media room. I hope she isn’t here to take her cakes. :(

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all-in energy drink for keeping me awake and ready for action. We have a whole fridge full of them and I’m all over that fridge like white on rice.

Playing today:

Devilfish

Mike Matusow

Howard, also a former Gutshot regular

Erica Shoenberg

Michael Greco

Sandra Noujaks

Hit Squad’s James Akenhead

Howard Lederer

We have Laak

We have Tilly!

Hellmuth

Hit Squad’s Praz Bansi

Jeromme Bradpiece

2007 WSOPE Main event champion Annette_15

Blinds are 50-100.

Howard Lederer is out: overpair vs set. He and Matusow made a bet on the Ryder cup but Howard tells me “neither of them seem to know much about Golf”.

David Williams and Richard Gryko are at the same table. David is getting a massage from one of the Ibiza Angels.

I’ve noticed David discreetly eyeballing Gryko a few times… probably because Gryko is taking pots down with K-4 offsuit.

Pimp my watch

Devilfish is blinged out – take a look at his watch.

Linda Lee has been tearing up her table.

Over and out

Blinds 100-200. two limpers, Annette limps in late position. SB calls, BB checks.

Flop: . Eveyone checks.

Turn:

Everyone checks to Annette who shoves for 3,075.

After some deliberation, both the SB & BB call. Everyone else folds.

River:

Check, check. Annette shows for a pair of sevens and a busted flush draw.

BB shows and it’s goodnight Annette_15.

On a flop of , Michael Greco is all-in again. This time he has chicken skewers.

Hit Squad’s Praz Bansi is up against the bet.

He folds. Greco shows a . Bansi shows a .

Not a happy chappy

Blinds 200-400, 50 ante.

James Akenhead needs chips.

Phil Laak chip stack update

Back to James Akenhead’s table. UTG+1 raises to 1,550. James moves in from middle position.

‘arghhhh’

He finds out how much more it is

And folds.

After the 2 hour dinner break Blinds are 300-600 with a 75 ante.

Andy black makes a straight in the first hand after the break for a nice pot.

Akenhead’s table

UTG makes it 1,500 to go. Two-time WSOP 2008 bracelet winner John Phan calls.

Flop:

UTG checks. Phan bets 4,000. UTG folds. John Phan is one to keep an eye on..

Phan is UTG and raises to 1,600. 3 callers. No respect!
Flop: . All check.

Turn:

Check, big stack bet 2,550, fold, fold, last player folds face-up. Another nice pot for Phan.

Table Laak / Williams / Black

Laak raises UTG, to be re-raised by a short stack in middle position. Laak calls.

Laak:

Short stack:

Community cards come and Laak sends another one home. He admits he was just raising to steal and now his secret is out!

John Phan has been blind and ante- stealing in my absence; the green chips are 25 each.

Ruling!

Andy Black and Phil Laak are in heads-up action.

The board is . Check check.

River:

Andy immediately bets 3,000.

Laak grabs 9,300 in chips, drops 3,000 down then the other 6,300. Between drops, Black quickly tables his pocket Jacks. Arguments ensue and the dealer calls the floor.

Laak demonstrates how he put the chips in. “I didn’t go back, they were in my hand”

The floor rules Laak has to call only. Laak tables and grabs the pot he has won.

Akenhead vs Phan

Akenhead appears to be getting the better of Phan at the moment.
On a board of , Phan faces a 6,000 bet from Akenhead.

Phan folds. Note he has lost all his 1,000 denomination chips (yellow).

Play has ended for the day 1B of the £1,500 NHL freezeout. James Akenhead is now sitting on a nice stack of chips. Phan was eliminated while I was in the media room, as was David Williams. Andy black went out 10 mins before the end of play.

Day 2.

Geeky stuff: Canon EOS 20D, 24-70 f2.8L lens.