I was hoping to have some photos from my weekend at the Loose Cannon Club, but poker players tend to keep themselves busy and there's been no sign of any... anywhere!
What was it?
Black Belt Poker is a new company and the brainchild of Pros Neil 'Bad Beat' Channing and Nik Persaud.
Essentially, BBP is going to be a skin on the iPoker network (same as Soxy's Uncover Poker) but they have created an ingenious sponsorship program, or 'grading' as they like to call it... hence the 'black belt' in the naming convention... you work through from white belt up to black belt and your level dictates what staking you get as a sponsored pro. The premise is a creative way to package up a rake deal, although blue belts and brown belts also get a monthly live tournament bankroll.
Above: Neil Channing
They also want BBP to become the facebook for poker players; an online community and social network for discussing poker theory and how to make a living from the game.
To help launch the company, they set-up the first BBP Boot Camp. £700 got you two days of poker workshop and entry into a live poker tournament to win a WSOP package worth £5000.
So what was it like? Awesome...
Neil managed to bring in Phil Laak as guest speaker but over the two days we had a number of pros talking through some high level concepts and I particularly enjoyed Neil's insights into being a live cash game player.
Phil would show one of his High Stakes Poker or Poker After Dark hands, against players such as Tom Dwan, Patrick Antonious and Doyle Brunson, and then talk through what he was thinking and why he did what he did, which was really interesting.
We would have a presentation or talk through a hand as a group, then sit down at a poker table with either Nik, Phil or Neil and actually play some hands, talking through how the hands were played and trying to work out what hands everyone had.
It was excellent and is the first workshop I have attended and I will definitely attend others in the future.
I would say about 25 people turned up but with all the pros and black belt poker people (everyone from the web designer to the software developer were there!) we had about 35 for the WSOP package tournament on the Saturday night. Usually, I would like a field that size for a £5000 first prize! Unfortunately, all the pros, including Phil Laak, Channing, Nik Persaud and Nick Wealthall also played, and made it clear they were playing to win... oh dear!
As an aside, since coming back from the boot camp, I've realised three or four of the other attendees are writers/editors for the major poker magazines, so if I was hoping for a weak field, I was sorely disappointed.
We started with 10,000 chips and 2o minute blinds and I became chip leader pretty early on when I picked-up Aces. I pretty much felted a guy who had flopped top pair.
I had an insane run, picking up hand after hand and even when people folded to me pre-flop, I would show at least Ace, Queen. I exploited my image and picked up some nice pots with bluffs quite a few times.
We started losing players and I was still leading in chips. I picked-up pocket 10s on the button and watched everyone fold round to me after the player under the gun raised it-up. I put him all-in and he snapped me off with pocket Queens. I was a bit gutted, as it dented my stack but I was still well ahead of the average chip stack, but no longer the chip leader.
Laak joined our table and I folded my big blind when he shoved all his chips in on the button. I had a weak Ace and thought about calling him considering the talk we had had earlier about playing position... I showed my Ace, and he kindly showed me his... I think he had my 2 beat!
That was the only hand I played against Laak at that table. He was moved on shortly after.
I hit the nut flush against the editor of Poker Player Magazine and dented his stack considerably, he had hit a King, holding Ace, King and I played my draw quite sneaky, betting before I hit and checking when I did. I was hoping for a re-raise when I bet on the river but he was too wise and reluctantly called.
We went down to two tables and people were starting to drop like flies as the blinds were so high. I was moved and had Channing to my immediate right, and Laak two spots to my left. I cursed my 'good' luck at that table draw!
Luckily for everyone, Neil and Phil were short stacked and it was fun watching them trying to bust each other. We had about half an hour of shoving pre-flop between the two and when they were called, they tended to get lucky... until a guy, who was a good guy and whom plays at the Dusk Til Dawn club regularly, bust them both and won both bounty prizes!
My chip stack had taken a battering and I needed to hit something or pick up some blinds if I was going to have a chance to win the thing. I made a move with 6, 7 suited and unfortunately for me, the big blind had picked-up pocket Queens. I hit trips on the flop and bust the unfortunate owner of the ladies. I was back in business and shortly after that filthy suck-out, I found myself on the final table against 8 other players.
Only three of the final 9 players (including myself) were not employees or linked to Black Belt Poker in some way. The strongest player by far, and to my immediate right, was pro Nick Wealthall.
He was also about 2nd in chips at the table and I was short stacked again, so was prepared to be raised pretty much regardless of what two cards he had in his hands.
I picked-up a few pots when I shoved pre-flop and was then doubled-up when the big blind (who was also chip leader by some way) called my Ace, Queen with Ace, 7.
We got down to 5 handed, and I was the last non black belt poker player left in the tournament. I picked some spots to pick up the blinds, which were considerable at that stage and then looked down to find pocket Jacks. I figured it was a good time to pick up some more blinds... and I was right, except that the big blind happened to have Queens...
So that was that, I was 5th in the big tournament and at about 3am on Sunday morning I found my way to my hotel and sulked for about 4 hours. To be fair, I was lucky to have made it to the final table anyway with my 6, 7 hitting trips but still, it's almost worse when you are 4 players away from winning a big one.
Snoopy went on to win, which is very cool, as he is a sound bloke and put the boot camp together. I also spent much of the camp hanging with his dad, who is a pretty good player himself and nice bloke... I actually bust Snoops Senior in the tournament with a dirty button raise that hit a straight... the shame!
Anyway, did I think it was good value? Absolutely. Would I go again? Definitely. Am I still steaming about the pocket fish hooks? What do you think?
jT
