Oh My God We're Back Again

“OH MY GOD WE’RE BACK AGAIN” thundered out AJ McLean in Las Vegas 2018, without quite the same gusto as the mid 90s.

AJ looked first to his left and noticed Backstreet 2 having completely let himself go and was struggling with the latest costume change, before checking to his right and making sure somewhat emaciated Backstreet 3 was still functioning after his spells in rehab.

AJ looked forward a bit less certain “Brother Sisters everybody sing!”

Hello folks, just a random Vegas concert memory of mine, to announce Magical Mystery Poker Tour is also back after a 15 year hiatus. Yay! Since the last post, due to needing to concentrate my time on my career, my poker was largely restricted to home games, including a cracking 50th birthday game. Now at 51, I reckon I’ve only got about 10 years on the work treadmill left so I’ve started the last year or so to dip my toe in the water to check the live poker temperature with a view to taking up the hobby again before retirement and beyond. Nothing heavy, just an overseas trip or two a year to begin with, maybe a couple of domestic festivals. Maybe some small online tournament volume, let’s see.

With the IT expertise of Fluke (thanks Luke!), the blog has a new platform with a number of new features some of which incorporate some classic hands of yesteryear, but I’ll leave my faithful band of readers to explore.

Over the next month I’ll blog the recent trip to Malta WSOP including 3 cashes for me, and 1 each for my better half and my son who has now taken up the game. No big scores but very consistent going. I’ll also blog 2025 Galway trip which had only 1 cash, but was oddly more profitable despite my not playing as well as Malta, as the cash was a 2nd place. And I’ll also do a post on my 50th home game which was a blast and featured many treasured blog characters from the past.

My main concern when I started these trips was that the game would have passed me by after 15 years and I would be outclassed by a new deep and vibrant international field. That is not the case – while there was a 20% “elite” at the top of the field, I could still go toe to toe with them at least putting them under pressure, and there are still loads of gambler types in the bottom half of the field where chips can be harvested, whether they may be from Ireland, Malta or Italy. The game remains beatable, and while my vision is to be largely break even after expenses, I should at least aim to be in the frame for the odd big score if I put myself in enough good positions – more examples of that in later posts.

The main difference I’ve noticed, is concentration levels. The young guys can happily play 14 hours a day bright as a button. Unfortunately, the old man gets periods of fatigue, and I need to make sure I step away from the table to stretch the knees and back every hour or so to keep me alert. I confess in Malta I did emit a snore at one point while an Italian was taking an age over a river decision, in a hand I wasn’t involved in after 9 hours play. Fortunately my Russian buddy to my left woke me up with a swift jab to the ribs. I don’t think I made any mistakes due to fatigue, but I did have to skip the Malta WSOP Main Event due to a 14 hour game the day before. I will have to plan schedules to be a bit more forgiving in the future.

Back to the opening memory, the main thing that made me chuckle about the BackStreet reunion tour was the opening “reveal” as they were on podiums behind silhouettes. However the silhouettes were the 90s body shapes so when the podiums span around to reveal the modern day editions the cruelty of Father Time was clear to see. Happens to us all!

IF READERS WANT TO PARTY LET ME HEAR YOU YELL
COS WE GET IT GOIN ON AGAIN!