His surname is .Riivers. and he plays on pokerstars

It's been an interesting week. On tuesday morning we headed up to Birmingham for the UKSPC. I drove up with Jeal, and we followed Joe and Panda. After some controversial lane changes we arrived at the Travelodge. Dave somehow managed to bust the tourn before we arrived, so we spent most of the day in the bowling alley and pool hall. I met up with Nathan and we went through our usual ritual of playing pool for far too many hours while catching up before realising that we are both shit and shamefully retiring. Dinner was a highly disappointing and overpriced chinese buffet, although the fact that Dave lost a bowling prop bet and had to eat his entire dinner with just a knife made it almost worthwhile. We then played the £40 freezeout that night and I managed to go out in a blaze of glory reraising all-in on the river with Jack high for no apparent reason, against a calling station, who was committed to call me with any pair, and somehow I got called. I also had 25% of Dave's action who final tabled but sadly didn't cash. I played cash for a while and lost a £200 pot with Bristol all-in on a 568 flop vs K7 when it came J turn and K river but I only finished £70 down.

Wednesday was an enjoyable day. It started with myself, Ben, Jeal, Dave and Joe going for breakfast while everyone else went to play the tourn. We spoofed twice for half the bill each time. Dave lost the first, and Ben the second. Immediately on spoof-tilt Ben suggests we spoof for drinks and who has to order it. Obviously he loses and heads to the counter. After ordering he throws his money at the waiter, who simply laughs with the rest of us as he knew what was going on. We headed through town and had a quick look at the Bull Ring which is a huge shopping mall in the centre of Birmingham. There were so many superb shops that we decided to come back the following day and have a proper look around when we had more time.

That night I played £1/£2 cash for a few hours. I sat with £200 and cashed out £600. I left the table mainly because two absolute idiots sat down on my table next to me. They were more annoying than that dream where you invent something that makes millions of pounds and then you wake up and can't remember what you invented, so you try and go back to sleep only now you're dreaming about eating a giant marshmallow and when you wake up your pillow has disappeared. Don't you just hate that? Anyway, I digress. Turns out one of them was the guy that organised the event, what a shame that he was a complete twat. Everyone was knocked out on day 1b with no-one surviving for day 2 so I guess it was inevitable that we all got absolutely smashed at the bar. It seemed like a good idea at the time to order ridiculous amounts of Long Island ice teas while playing drinking games and talking to random strangers at the bar. Needless to say, by 3am they wouldn't serve us any more, despite our best efforts including trying to buy a round for £100 which luckily wasn't successful.

I did feel that the UKSPC had lost some of its charm since I used to play in it at St. Andrews Student Union. I remember it being a huge room full of student poker players, talking, drinking, playing low stakes cash, moaning about bad beats etc. everyone basically played what they wanted to from 5p/10p upwards, with £1/£2 being the highest game. This meant that everyone could play after going out the tourney. This year, being in a casino meant the lowest stakes cash was £1/£2 so no students were playing cash. Once they were eliminated people were just sitting in the lounge bored with nothing to do, as they couldn't afford cash games or house games. The casino cared more about keeping their punters happy, so used their dealers for house games not the proposed sng's poeple were trying to start given that they weren't allowed to self deal. Obviously it is understandable for them to use dealers to please their regular punters, that is how they pay their bills, but I hope next year it is back in a private room where everyone can enjoy the few days. The only advantage with it in a casino is that it is dealer dealt but I'm sure most people would rather it was self-dealt and in a more student friendly environment where they could play what they wanted to.

Thursday morning came around and I still had nowhere to stay that night so I had a quick look online and found a decent looking hotel in Coventry, that was only £28 a night for a double room. It had free parking and free wifi, and a steam room so Jeal, Woody and Wakes quickly jumped on board as well. Pretty standard as they are all steaming messes. We spent all day shopping in Brum, largely at the Bull Ring. I found an awesome D&G lightweight black leather jacket for the summer that I was going to buy until I saw the price tag of £755. Chortle chortle. There was plenty of spoofing all day starting with breakfast which Jeal and Wakes went halves on. Jez had to eat five tomatoes in a minute, Woody had to wear pink woolen mittens all day and Wakes had to go up then down the wrong escalators. We also spoofed for taxis throughout the day with an incredible effort by Joe. Four times we spoofed eight handed for taxis, Joe lost three of them but beat me heads-up in the fourth. Three 8ths and a 7th was a superb effort though to be fair.

We arrived in Coventry at about 9pm thursday, had a meal in the restaurant then went to de-steam in the steam room which was thoroughly lapped up. I got a good nights sleep and headed to the G Casino for 2pm for day 1b of the UKIPT Coventry. The casino is amazing, it is by far the best casino I have been to in the UK. It has numerous bars and restaurants, a big Poker Room and plenty of tables. Vicky Coren managed to go out within ten minutes somehow but I guess she isn't bothered anymore about the buyins as she is the face of Pokerstars UK these days.

It was a gruelling day as I struggled to maintain a decent stack. I lost a 30k pot with J4cc on a Jh2c5c flop when I couldn't improve vs QQ. This left me short but I got back into it doubling up twice with the best hand and holding. I hit a straight flush draw on the flop and called the all-in of a 10k stack who had a set. I hit my draw and got up to around 35k. I finally had some momentum and was around 45k at my highest. In level 7 I think I got AA which was the first premium hand I'd had all tourn and we were heads up going to the flop. It came 9 high and I lost about 15k to 99. Then I folded QQ preflop having put 5k in already and so I had about 20k come the 4th break, slightly below average.

My final hand I shoved with Q5o in the BB after the cutoff had raised to 1800 at 300/600/75, the button had called as had the SB. There was about 8k in the pot already and I shoved for 14k hoping to win it. I had no reason to think anyone was particularly strong as they were all active players who were likely to be playing a wide range. The raiser passed, the button called with AQss, the SB passed. It was a shame I was dominated and couldn't hit. I played for around 10 hours of day 1b finishing about 80th of the 180 that started. I never really had the run of the cards apart from in short spells, with AA costing me when I finally had a decent stack, but it was an excellent tournament that I enjoyed playing and I hope I can play another soon.

Jeal Wakes and Woody came down to the casino late afternoon to play the £100 side event. I had 10% of Wakes who managed to chop it four handed for £2,000 each so he earnt me a saver. He played very well in the late stages and deserved a chop. We drove home on Saturday and watched the national round Jeal's house when we arrived back in sunny Norwich. Overall on the trip I was basically even including expenses, which I was happy with as I had an excellent time and had played in a big tournament.

On sunday we had a BBQ round Jeal's house, then played some tourns online. I lost a flip deep in the $150k gtd. on FT, and bubbled the sunday million. I went deep in the $22 Double Deuce on FT but finished 60th of 11,000 for $200 after going out on a pretty sick and unnecessary 4-bet shove. It was a good shove in the long run as I knew the re-raiser was weak but I annoyingly walked into QQ from someone else and it was an unnecessary move given the situation. I could have waited and hoped for a cooler in my favour or a better spot to steal. This week it will be all about the PLO cash on VC, as I try to grind out some profit and a nice VIP bonus. To quote one of my favourite professional bums, "I better get the games in!"

Rich x