Anyone Fancy A Dip By The Seaside?

My favourite subject - Dipping.

It has just occured to me that I have not blogged on my experience at Brighton.

Here's the summary.

Shit Town. Crap Dealers, Suspect Organisation. However in the positive column it is the home of some absolutely top class waitresses.

Now Brighton itself is in my opinion something of a shit hole. Lets face it both Chris Eubank and Jordan hail from this arse end of Sussex and claim to quite like it so this really is all the evidence needed.

The dealers at the Rendevous are limited in experience and despite being nice enough folk don't really seem to have the apptitude to complete the job efficiently.

Now the organisation - my main gripe. Firstly they added chips to the starting stacks on realising that there were fewer players than they had anticipated. Now whilst 4k instead of 3k may make for a greater amount of play it also made for fewer rebuys and thus a smaller prize pool. Now whilst some felt that it was beneficial others disagreed and even though those who I respect as both people and players like David Barnes and Steve Lennon were in favour I have to say that I simply don't care. In my opinion what is advertised is what should prevail. The only exceptions should be if no single player objects to the change or if it is a change deemed necessary by the Casino.

Furthermore I was questioned as to whether I thought some dipping had occured. I shall not name the inquiring party but I shall endorse his character. He is a thoroughly honest and decent chap (this rules out a few from Brighton - actually he's not from Brighton at all). Now I have to say that I did raise my eyebrows at the announced prize pool. In fact I did ask for a chip count from each table but my request was denied. Had I been good enough to make the final of the tournament I would have insisted (I would have probably been told to reduce the amount in play by 20% to allow for the chip race).

The waitresses were, as usual at the Brighton Rendevous, a magnificent sight to behold. So during breaks and upon tournament exit there was at least some aesthetically pleasing sights.

The End Of Hibernation

My hibernation has been almost total. With the exception of one trip to Luton last Sunday and a trip to the Vic last Thursday, I've pretty much swerved the casino and tournament scene. It's been a culmination of lethargy and hopefully in some small way a tribute to Salman Rushdie. It's also been a while since I last posted. I gave my password to my good friend Teflon for a guest posting and he changed the password to something more memorable. Unfortunately he forgot what this was and it took him some time to remember where he had written it down. Alas it was on his excel spreadsheet that details his sports betting losses on a day by day basis.

In addition I have been absolutely gripped with a book. It's a book I have wanted to read for sometime but availability is something of a problem. Amazon had it in stock at the end of February so I snapped it up. I have to say that this is undoubtedly the best £15 I have ever given Amazon (and I've given them a few quid), and it is perhaps the best £15 I have ever spent.

Whilst the Satanic Verses may be the most controversial book ever written (certainly of the last 30 years) the quality of the work is masterful and it is no surprise to me that it won the Whitbread Novel Award in 1988. I would urge anyone and everyone to read this book. Salman Rushdie is one of the great authors and it's an absolute tragedy that this book only received such acclaim for the wrong reasons.

I have just purchased Midnight's Children from Amazon as well, another Rushdie classic. I don't really know much about it other than it was published in 1981. It won the Booker Prize for Fiction, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction), an Arts Council Writers' Award and the English-Speaking Union Award, and in 1993 was judged to have been the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize for Fiction in the award's 25-year history. I'm so exited I got up early today (a very rare occurrence) to see if it had arrived yet.

PS. On the poker front I think I will go to Brighton tomorrow to play the £100 Omaha.