POKER BETTING LIFESTYLE
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SECCIÓN
media partner
FEBRUary 2011
ANALYSIS
UK £1.00
STRATEGY
STAKING DISCIPLINE
the BIONIC BETTING BRAIN Sports betting to win
LET BATTLE RESUME Champions League Last 16
TREASURE ISLAND
THE PICK-UP ARTIST
The 2011 PCA
Neil Strauss Exclusive 000
GX FEBRUARY 2011
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FIRST UP 08 EDITORIAL 12 NEWS
SPORTS BETTING 16 FOOTBALL: LET BATTLE RESUME Champions League Last 16
20 FOOTBALL: FINNIGAN’S FOOTBALL PICKS Turning Bets Into Trades
22 INSIDE MAN The Bionic Betting Brain
COVER FEATURE
30 THE MASTER OF THE MARKETS Peter Webb Interview
34 RUGBY UNION: LET’S TALK ABOUT SIX RBS Six Nations
POKER
Champions League Last 16
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38 TREASURE ISLAND Something Special At The PCA
48 ANYTHING YOU CAN DO I CAN DO BETTER Stars Take On Tilt
50 GOOD THINGS COME TO GREATS WHO WAIT David Williams Exclusive Interview
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Peter Webb Interview
Six Nations Rugby
CONTENTS
38 54 BASSY KNOWS BEST Seb Saffari’s Take On Poker
56 ARCHIE SHARK The Ramblings of A Hapless Gambler
Treasure Island
58 RAILBIRDS FIND NEW NEST Online Poker As A Spectator Sport
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62 FROM A TO ZIMBLER AND BACK AGAIN Let The Good Times Roll
64 THE UKPPL SECOND COMING Season 2 Returns
66 WORLD POKER TOUR ZONE WPT Season IX Results And Schedule
Good Things Come To Greats Who Wait
LIFESTYLE 68 THE PICK-UP ARTIST
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Neil Strauss Exclusive Interview
72 THE FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINAL Huey Morgan Profiled
74 DRIVING IN THE FAST LANE The Pagani Zonda R
78 FIT FOR A KING Public Nightclub Review
80 GET YOUR BET ON February’s Best Bets
Pagani Zonda R
82 THE FOX’S DEN FIFA In A Fix
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Love Is In The Air
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hey say, amongst many other things, that romance is dead. Shot through the heart in today’s digital age; Facebook pulled the trigger and Twitter was the gun. A dozen red roses is replaced with a poke, a moonlit stroll is replaced with a tweet. And yet, with Valentine’s Day once again ready to squeeze its way into our thoughts, two tales stood out last month as I searched high and low for love stories of a bygone era.
The first was the case of 26-year-old Samantha Brooks, who was accused of posing as a man called Lee so she could bed two unsuspecting women. Amazing I know, that she chose the name Lee. More amazing still though, was that while one of her victims sussed her out over an eight month period, the other was unaware of Brooks’ gender for more than eight years. The physical contact she had with the two women was, for want of other words, akin to a sexual one way street, and now she’s facing charges of a crime I didn’t even know existed; sexual contact by fraud. Sticking to the sex but keeping the fraud cases separate, was 74-year-old Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who seems to be on a one-man-mission to keep politics filthy. His latest blunder came in the form of a Moroccan belly dancer - stage name Ruby Heartbreaker - who he allegedly paid to have sex with when she was 17 years old and under the legal age of prostitution. He is also accused of abusing his position as Prime Minister by informing cops, who had held the girl on suspicion of theft, that she was the daughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: a heinous lie if ever there was one. The accusations have put Berlusconi’s notorious ‘bunga bunga’ parties under even brighter media and legal spotlights, and the role of Nicole Minetti – the former dentist and showgirl with no political experience who happens to have fixed Berlusconi’s broken teeth, happens to be stunning and happens to now be a regional official in his party – in organising these sex gatherings, has come under ever greater scrutiny. Berlusconi of course, has denied everything. Yet with judges recently ruling that the immunity law he personally created for himself is unconstitutional, it seems the man who claims to have spent over 250 million euros on legal fees since coming to power is no longer sexually immune, and the party may soon be over. Although not before the Catholic Church had their say on the matter. Never one for keeping clear of a good old fashioned sex scandal, the Catholic Church was apparently ‘wounded’ and ‘shocked’ by Berlusconi’s actions, despite the fact there was not a single underage choir boy in sight. In light of all this it makes my own plans for Valentine’s Day seem mundane in comparison; there’s only so much one can get up to watching Fulham vs. Chelsea at Craven Cottage. May all your profits be large ones. Fred Palley
Runners & Writers Editor Fred Palley fred@gxglobalmedia.com Art Director Isabel Ferrer Magnusson Contributors Nathan Chilcott Steve Ward Peter Sharkey Paul Zimbler Alex Hammond Jamie Mallon Matt Finnigan Kevin Angel Neil White Jordan Clark Tom Oxtoby Nick Pryce David Tubbs Web Editor Michael Gales michaelg@gxglobalmedia.com Sports Pictures Press Association Web Developer John Davison Carlos Pérez Business Development Alex Soro alex@gxglobalmedia.com Marketing Manager Andrew Capel andrew@gxglobalmedia.com Online Marketing Albert Vellvé albert@gxglobalmedia.com Printer Printerman Distribution GOLD KEY MEDIA ISSN 2042-342X
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NEWS Llorente Scores £250,000 Goal
W
hoever said there’s no such thing as a fast buck in gambling needs to be dragged out of the wiseman’s armchair he’s sitting in, dunked in a bath of cold water and slapped round the face with a cluster of carrots. Or something along those lines. And that’s because as one mystery Berkshirebased punter showed last month, the road to riches is always open. Having placed just £2.50 on a nine-team accumulator at his local Ladbrokes, the man sat back and watched with delight as all nine games came off to land him the biggest ever payout from a multiple bet in the firm’s history; an astonishing £272,529,60. The punter had plenty of players to thank for his win as he successfully predicted that Blackburn would beat Liverpool in what proved to be Roy Hodgson’s last game in charge
of the Reds, Wolves would triumph over an out-of-form Chelsea side at Molineux and that Wigan would sneak an away draw at Bolton. Joe Hart’s posts during Manchester City’s 0-0 draw at the Emirates also played their part in proceedings as the punter’s prediction of a stalemate in that game came to fruition. But it was Athletico Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente who was owed the greatest debt of gratitude as he fired in an 85th minute equaliser at the Nou Camp to scrape a 2-2 draw against Barcelona, and ensure the quarter of a million pound payout. Ladbrokes spokesman Alex Donahue paid tribute the mystery man on his win and his newfound riches: “We’d like to congratulate our customer for pulling off what is one of the hardest feats in betting. We expect champagne glasses to be popping and a glass raised to Fernando Llorente, the man who secured him our biggest football win of all time.”
No More Bad Beats
L
osing internet connection, accidentally clicking on fold instead of raise and spilling fizzy drinks all over the keyboard are just a handful of frustrations that online poker players are faced with. Yet most irritating of all is the scenario that sees us lure in an opponent after playing a hand to perfection, only to see him hit a one-outer on the river and snatch our well-deserved winnings from right under our noses. And if it hasn’t happened to us, then just as frustrating is having to listen other poker players tell us how it happened to them. Well that could all soon be a thing of the past with the launch of a new online poker room, No Bad Beats Poker, which will shield players from suffering hideous bad beats at the tables. The concept of No Bad Beats Poker will see the
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PKR Gets Tough
site work out the equity percentage each player has in a hand, and if a player loses an all-in hand with an equity percentage higher than the Bad Beat Cut-off percentage he will win his money back. A No Bad Beats Poker spokesman said: “We aim to eliminate bad beats in poker – which studies have shown are the greatest frustration of poker players today. No Bad Beats Poker is the perfect solution for any poker player tired of losing monster pots and getting knocked out of poker tournaments due to bad beats in all-in situations.” While it is not yet clear how a player’s tournament chips will be refunded if on the wrong end of a bad beat, the patent-pending site was set to launch in Beta in late January. Yet if the luck it is hoping to eliminate from the game is anything to go by, it is set to be a major hit.
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ollowing Jordan’s tabloid revelations that she made a mistake in marrying cage fighter Alex ‘Reidernator’ Reid, online poker site PKR have ensured it won’t be all doom and gloom for the man with the most uninspiring nickname in professional sport after forming a partnership with The British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA). The deal will see PKR become BAMMA’s official gaming partner and means the site’s branding will adorn the rings at all fights in the 2011 season. More importantly for the ‘Reidernator’ though, who punters can back at 4/7 with William Hill to have split up with Jordan by midnight on Valentine’s Day, is the news that BAMMA branding will in return work its way onto the PKR felts. PKR have also announced plans for the ‘PKR Social’; a series of live events for members of its 4million-strong community throughout the UK and Europe. The first of these will be held in Manchester on February 26th and will see 100 players see some of BAMMA’s top fighters in action at the MEN Arena. Social number two will take place on March 25th and 26th at the Fox Poker Club in London. The event will include a wide range of poker tournaments with the return of Sit and Go Madness and will conclude on the Saturday with a 150-runner $100 buy-in tournament.
NEWS UB Shakeup: Hellmuth and Duke Out, Friedman In
F
ollowing the high profile departures of Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke, UB.com have surprisingly snapped up online pro Prahlad Friedman to join their roster of pros. The move has come as a major shock to the poker community given that Friedman lost millions of dollars in the 2007 Ultimate Bet cheating scandal. The Los Angeles born Friedman won a World Series of Poker bracelet back in 2003 when he triumphed in a $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event for a $109,400 payday, and also won the WPT Legends of Poker in 2009 for over $1,000,000. Yet since signing with UB he has faced a backlash from the community with Daniel Negreanu leading the charge. The PokerStars supremo tweeted: “So disappointed in @prahladfriedman signing with the devil who stole millions from him. He was so ‘anti sellout’ then did the
unthinkable.” Friedman has also been criticised for going back on his promises that he would never sign with a poker site. He told Poker Player in October 2009: “I guarantee you’ll never see me with a poker site or casino logo,” before going on to add, “I don’t know what they’re doing behind the scenes and who they’re screwing over. The only logo I’d ever wear is some completely green cause, or some charity of No War shirt.” Friedman will now wear the non-green logo of UB.com now that he’s joined the likes of Tiffany Michelle, Mario Ho, Eric Baldwin and Joe Sebok on the site. After claiming he was extremely well treated by UB after the superuser cheating scandal, Friedman answered his critics with an explanation for his decision to join an online poker site: “I had a change of heart. It was all because of friends and family. They all convinced me that I could do greater good by signing and having more exposure and influence. We live in a society where the
people who are the most well known have the greatest influence. I feel this could get me out there a little more. There’s also a charity component to my deal.”
Weather Kills Fish
A
way from the devastating flash floods in Australia and Brazil, the weather was in the news again last month as former Weather Lottery CEO Keith Milhench was arrested along with another former employee for fraud. Milhench and Amie Pickersgill-Smith were jointly charged by Nottinghamshire police with seven counts of fraud and four charges of theft against the company for £80,000 following an investigation by the UK Gambling Commission. The arrests related to spurious jackpot payments to lottery winners over a two-year period from
April 2008 to April 2010. Milhench resigned from his position as CEO in September 2010 citing ill-health with rumours about his fresh faced sun tan and newfound skills on the golf course unconfirmed. The Weather Lottery runs a number of online gaming services to football clubs and their supporters and has signed partnerships with Sheffield Wednesday and Rangers amongst others. Away from fraud charges and jail time but on a fitting note, the Weather Lottery has bought Dave DevilFish Ulliot’s online poker site, Devil Fish Poker Ltd, from Devilfish Gaming. The
company has paid £330,000 in cash and shares for DFP, who requested its shares be suspended in September last year after reporting an operating loss of £106,331 in the year ending 30 June 2010. Dave Ulliot has won just short of $6million in official tournament winnings in an illustrious poker career that has seen him win one WSOP bracelet, finish second more times than any other player and win the inaugural Late Night Poker. His autobiography, ‘Devilfish: The Life And Times Of A Poker Legend’ was released last summer.
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NEWS Taylor Joins Hall Of Fame
Buzz For In-Play Betting
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sk the casual punter about inplay betting and they’ll probably be able to quote hard man Ray Winstone and his suggestions for them to bet in-play, ‘naaaaaaaah’ (which means ‘now’), and not much else. Yet with the news that Buzz Sports are set to launch a brand new in-play betting product, ZonePlay, all that could change. The concept of ZonePlay means punters will be able to bet on a ‘zone-by-zone basis’ for each passage of play with a new market opening up every 60 seconds. The market in a football match gives punters the chance to bet on the next incident; choosing between a free kick, corner, goal or an off target shot. The market would open during a break in play, allowing the punter to place his bet, before being suspended until the outcome is clear.
The technology used means ZonePlay can take up to 10,000 bets per second and alongside football, punters will be able to bet on rugby union, darts, cricket, NFL, basketball, baseball and tennis in the coming months. Zoneplay CEO Ted Robinson: “We want ZonePlay to revolutionise the way the casual punter bets on sport during a game. By enabling fans to have a vested interest on every twist and turn, rather than just the end result, ZonePlay bridges the gap between sports betting and entertainment in a way that has not been done before.” The betting platform is currently available on its website buzzsports.com and on mobiles as iPhone and Android apps – and could soon be snapped up by other bookmakers and available on their sites. Ray Winstone would be proud.
Welcome To The Club, Again
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ix weeks off and a six figure sum looks to have done wonders for Mayfair’s Colony Club as the exclusive restaurant and casino recently reopened its doors to punters. Gone are the cordoned off gaming tables and in comes an open plan gaming floor and brand new cocktail bar. It’s not all change at the Mayfair venue though, with the famous Japanese food theatre that is the Teppanyaki bar having stuck to the mantra of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’ No change here means three courses of beef tataki, sashimi, sushi and black cod will still yield ample change
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from two fifty pound notes, leaving us with more to splash out on the gaming tables. There are over 20 of them in all with baccarat, three card poker and Caribbean stud the alternatives to blackjack and American roulette, while a private gaming room is open for more intimate rolls of the dice.
D
espite falling short at the 2011 World Championships at the Alley Pally when he was beaten by Mark Webster at the quarter final stage, the awards kept coming for Phil Taylor last month as the greatest darts player the world has ever seen was inducted into the PDC Hall of Fame The man widely believed to have fingers made of magic dust became the 11th person to join the exclusive club after being honoured by his peers at the annual PDC Awards Dinner at The Dorchester in London. Taylor’s contribution to darts during the last two decades was recognised by all in attendance as the 15-time world champion joined darting legends Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Dennis Priestly as well as commentary kings Sid Waddell and Dave Lanning amongst others in the Hall of Fame. Taylor also bagged the Player of the Year title after winning his 15th World Championship, his 11th World Match Play and his 5th Premier League crown in the calendar year. The awards came after a visibly delighted Taylor was voted runnerup in the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Awards in December. This month sees the return of the PDC Premier League Darts with Taylor and new world champion Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis set to take to the oche on the opening night. Taylor is still the bookies’ favourite to win the League at 13/8 while Lewis and world championship runner-up Gary Anderson are both available at 11/2.
NEWS Behind Every Successful Bond...Is A Great Bond Girl
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he techies will purr over the gadgets, the adrenalin junkies will yearn for the stunts. The rest of us meanwhile, are just in it for the sex. With filming on the 23rd instalment of Britain’s most notorious parttime spy and full-time lady killer set to commence later this year, the question on everyone’s lips is this: who will be playing the new Bond girl? Sky Bet have already opened a book on the market and have installed Slumdog Millionaire star and all round sex bomb Frieda Pinto as the 3/1 favourite to land the leading female role. The older yet equally delicious Italian Monica Belucci is second favourite at 4/1 to face seduction by Bond and so too is Olga Kurylenko; the Ukrainian who stole our hearts as Camille in Quantum Of Solace. The film, which is set to be released on 9th November 2012, will see Daniel Craig return as James Bond with Sam Mendes directing proceedings. Craig’s new girlfriend Rachael Weisz has also been touted as a possible Bond girl and is 8/1 to make it an on and off-screen romance with Her Majesty’s finest. While the saying ‘behind every successful man is a great woman’ may well be true, the one guarantee James Bond will bring us is that behind every Bond woman, is a man checking out her ass.
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NEWS
It’s Official: Football Is Better Than Sex
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NEWS
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night out with the missus or a night in with Gary and the boys on the Match of the Day sofa? Not much of a choice really, the football wins every time. But instead of copping flak for being the only ‘man she knows’ who picks football over her, worry ye not as Bettor.com have some relationship saving statistics for football fans across the land. After polling over 3,000 sports fans on the topic, the new social betting exchange can reveal that 22% of men would dump their girlfriend rather than sacrifice their football team. (That the figures aren’t higher can only be explained by some girlfriends possibly being present while their other half was questioned). Lasses in Liverpool are the most likely to get the chop with 31% of Liverpool and Everton fans
more likely to seek partners new than forgo their Saturday afternoon visits to the Meccas of Anfield and Goodison Park respectively. London ladies are also in danger of being given the boot if they give their fella the ultimate ultimatum, as 30% of those questioned revealed football was the number one love of their life. The Premier League have sensibly reacted swiftly to this by switching Fulham’s clash with Chelsea to what was once considered the most romantic night of the year; February 14th. It’s not all doom and gloom for partners of football mad men however, as a whopping 93% of men from Coventry said they’d pick their partner over their team. And who can blame them. So the next time you get an earful for picking football over shopping, you know where to send her.
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