Paul the psychic octopus, destroys The Magical Tipster, as Spain wins the World Cup 2010 in fine style.

Paul the psychic pupol lived up to his billing as the star of the World Cup 2010 when his prediction came true and Spain won the World Cup.  This gave him a monster seven straight winning results and included the massive result when Slovakia beat Germany – its country of residence and a massive outsider of a result.

Paul the octopus outdone the famed statistical geek The Magical Tipster in a one sided affair. The Magical Tipster did give Japan being a surprise qualifier and also that Holland would have a good run. But when it came to overall performance, the magnificent mollusca proved unstoppable.

This is big news because The Magical Tipster has had some big wins such as France not wining 2002 World Cup and Greece winning the 2004 European Cup, which they did at amazing prices! Spain did not win its first game, but defied a 100% record to win the World Cup. No team has ever won the World Cup without winning its first game!

They defied the stats that no European team has won outside Europe. They also defied the stat that said most winners had won a previous World Cup. The fact that Spain were the best footballing side is beside the point according to The Magical Tipster, defying massive statistical facts is unprecedented.

Is this the changing of the guard for the tipsters of big events? Surely getting beaten by a half starved cephalopod is beyond the pale? It is going to be the mother of all recovery to get the mantle back as the greatest tipster the world has ever seen.

The Magical Tipster has a steep uphill to climb because this pupol is so far ahead of the game Paul can safely be retired and will always be the creature that won the World Cup 2010 with its predictions.

Some have said that Germany lost the psychological battle when its own creature put the hex on Germany by choosing Spain over Germany. Some have even said that the person who put the mussel in the boxes, put the juiciest mussel in the box the handler wanted to win. The Magical tipster is certainly using the last one as an excuse.

While the debate continues, here is The Who singing about a momentous changing of the guard with an unlikely new champion dethroning a old but lengthy champion – Pinball Wizard.

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The only way Lampard 'goal' could not count

Here is the pokerknave.com official analysis on why England could not win:

1. John Terry destabilized the the team with his attempted coup.

2. Rooney should have been dropped to the bench.

3. The press were determined to upset the players with all the WAG nonsense.

4. Capello didn’t complete his homework on Germany.

5. Too many crucial injuries at the back.

6. For too many years England play one half good the other half bad. Consistency is needed.

7. The players are not hungry enough.

8. The goalkeeper question keeps on coming up.

9. Lack of firepower up front.

10. Midfield incompetence and had light weight skills compared to other nations.

11. Players are definately over-rated and unwilling to play for each other.

12. If Lampards goal stood it would have been different, however, I am not sure if the result would not have remained the same.

The first real opposition in the World Cup and we were undone like a tin of sardines. Comprehensive and completely. This is worrying on many fronts. We were supposed to have world class players in our side and unless Rooney was carrying a big injury then all of them did not come up to scratch. In fact our best player in the tournament might well have been David James who used to have the nickname Calamity James!

All four matches were awful and for English reporters crying out for goal line technology may be doing the sport great dis-service since the line for using technology may have no bounds. Would it be used for off side decisions? What about controversial fouls? All these incidences can change a game and once goal line technology is introduced it can ruin the game as well as improve it.

In my view we need to keep the game as it is because not every team and association can afford goal line technology and this will make the game different and longer and we do not want to end up as NFL Superbowl et al, with hours and hours of stop start game, with loads of adverts in between and some ropey dopey half time entertainment. Nothing wrong with NFL but it is not the game we want football to be like.

Ours is a very simple game that can be played by anyone around the world without too much overly expensive equipment. The NFL is not transferable because it is all about minute details and other nerdy stuff as well as the actual game.

Now that I have put the world to right with my post match analysis, I will continue watching the World Cup 2010 although I am now in the red with my betting which is due to some overly optimistic bets because I got bored. Not a great advert for consistency I know but I could not help myself and at the time it sounded like a good idea,

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Jeff Papola

Student Jeff Papola wins Event 32, the $5,000 six-handed no-limit hold ‘em. He cashed out when he came second the previous week in Event 26 and then he decided to have a go at Event 32.

He beat perennial poker player Men Nguyen after 4 hours and now finds himself in the position where he has to decide whethter he wants to continue being a student or go for the glory of full time poker player.

Another young player ripping up the WSOP 2010, is there any room for the oldies…

Event 32: six-handed no-limit hold ‘em
Buy-in: $5,000
Entries: 568
Prize pool: $2,669,600
Players in the money: 54

1. Jeffrey Papola ($667,433)
2. Men Nguyen ($412,746)
3. Mark Radoja ($262,902)
4. Bruno Launais ($173,123)
5. Orlando Delacruz ($117,595)
6. Erick Lindgren ($82,303)
7. Taylor McFarland ($59,291)
8. Darren Elias ($59,291)
9. Paul Sheng ($43,941)
10. Evan Panesis ($43,941)
11. Anthony Roux ($33,476)
12. Lucas Greenwood ($33,476)
13. Samlane Phomveha ($26,188)
14. Christian Harder ($26,188)
15. Eugene Todd ($26,188)
16. John Conkright ($26,188)
17. Dmitry Motorov ($26,188)
18. Tyler Kenney ($26,188)
19. David Ulliott ($21,036)
20. Javier Martinez ($21,036)
21. Matt Brady ($21,036)
22. Oscar Erixon ($21,036)
23. Matthias Neu ($21,036)
24. Thomas Marchese ($21,036)
25. Anthony Spinella ($17,325)
26. Matthew Graham ($17,325)
27. Ryan D’Angelo ($17,325)
28. Tony Dunst ($17,325)
29. Sanghyon Cheong ($17,325)
30. Xavier Jacquet ($17,325)
31. William Dorey ($14,629)
32. Chris Bell ($14,629)
33. Shannon Shorr ($14,629)
34. Keith Ferrera ($14,629)
35. Russell Weatherford ($14,629)
36. Ryan Thurlow ($14,629)
37. Nico Behling ($12,653)
38. David Jaoui ($12,653)
39. Jose De Paz ($12,653)
40. Andrew Robl ($12,653)
41. Helen Ellis ($12,653)
42. Matthew Schwarmann ($12,653)
43. Joseph Ebanks ($11,345)
44. Michael Hauptman ($11,345)
45. Benjamin Spindler ($11,345)
46. Toto Leonidas ($11,345)
47. Mclean Karr ($11,345)
48. Thomas Laumer ($11,345)
49. Isaac Haxton ($10,171)
50. Eric Baldwin ($10,171)
51. Christian Iacobellis ($10,171)
52. Rodney Pennington ($10,171)
53. Shawn Buchanan ($10,171)
54. Craig Marquis ($10,171)

Gordon Brown and David Cameron

The General Election in the UK has just taken place and it is going to be a hung parliament which means that no one party can govern outright. This is very unusual as it means that to have a government you need to have 50% of the seats. So now the horse trading begin and it will resemble a poker game in which a three way pot was split between two of the players but squeezing the third player.

In this scenario the third player squeezed has to be Nick Clegg the Liberal and Democrat leader. The lucky player is the present Prime Minister and Labour leader Gordon Brown, who looked down and out when the flop happened, but, managed to split the pot on the river with the Conservative leader David Cameron.

Nick Clegg flopped top pair but David Cameron also flopped top pair with a good kicker. He should have made a ‘questioning bet’ not big enough to look like a over bet, but big enough to drive out any potential drawing players – in this case Gordon Brown – and keep it to two players in which he would be winning due to the kicking. In fact David Cameron checked, Nick Clegg made a flat bet this was called and Nick Clegg went on to lose to the straight draw.

Poker and politics can be dirty business. The plans by the Conservatives were to get radical parties such as the British National Party to split the working class vote. The Liberal Democrats wanted to squeeze the traditional progressive vote by having a fresh faced wunderkind as leader. The Labour tried to scare the voters with tales of massive cuts and money going to the rich friends and family of the Conservatives. All the time the Labour party have hidden that they will have to make cuts, maybe on at the size that the Greeks are making as of now.

So in the next few days Gordon Brown who was never elected as leader, survived a massive recession and numerous coup attempts is now in the position to form a government if he can persuade the Liberal Democrats and other smaller parties to support him. Obviously he has a carrot for those and its primarily electoral reform and scrapping the ‘first past the post’ system.

The reason why David Cameron will probably not form the next government is that he has ruled out electoral reform, because, he thought he would glide to power on the anti-Brown wave of support. This is like a chip leader watching his chip stack melt away just so he could get into the money by default. So the moral of this tale is that when playing poker and you have your opponent on the ropes, never let them get a chance to get back in the game – take them out when you can.

The  argument for a balanced parliament is overwhelming. Therefore, where labour are second and the Tories are first, vote labour. Where The Liberal Democrats are second and the Tories are first, vote Liberal Democrats. Simple!

Organise your friends and allies to help do this as it is very important to make sure the Tories do not have majority.

4/6 is generally available for a hung parliament with no overall majority. This is a very solid bet and i will be very surprised if any party has an overall majority. However Labour only have to get their vote out and be in 3% of the Conservative overall percentage to be the party with the most seats and this is because it generally takes 15,000 vote to get a Labour MP and it takes 20,000 to get a Conservative MP.

With the polls tightening is makes sense to take a gamble that the Nick Clegg factor will get out the left wing Liberal vote to stop a Tory majority and therefore give Nick Clegg the kingmaker role and a new voting system a chance of getting on the statute book.

GET ON THE 8/1 FOR LABOUR TO HAVE THE MOST SEATS!

Unless you have been in Iceland recently you will have probably heard that there is an election taking place in the UK which is both interesting and fun. Fun because there is always gaffs and slips being made such as David Cameron targeting China for the attention of Polaris submarines – which seemed a bit off to the British public. Also, there are loads of opportunity to have bets on a relatively fair event and thanks to The Magical Tipster we should be showing a nice profit at the end of it. 

However, there is another intriguing side show of this election and it is the poker game and personalities of the main players Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. The reason why it is intriguing is that politics is so much like poker in that you have to make moves at the right time and in the right way. Also, as the former Prime Minister Harold McMillian once said ‘…events dear boy, events…’ meaning that things will happen that will turn the best played hands into losing hands due to random things happening. Just as in a game of poker a player goes all in with 7 2 unsuited against a pair of Aces and the 7 2 unsuited wins when the flop and turn showed 7 2 Ace 8 with 3 hearts giving the Aces a flush draw as well as trips, but, then the river produces another 2 for a full house. 

In the US its been traditional for presidents to be poker players at it lends its self to the American psyche of gung-ho individualism and the wild west culture, therefore the loneliness of decision making at the poker table, playing your opponent as well as the cards works well. In the UK it has tended to be chess and more Machiavellian tactics that seemed to be the template, This maybe due to the UK being a relatively small nation which once had an empire stretching across the world and was mainly due to playing people against people to do so. However times have changed in the UK and with recession, global meltdown and now a three horse race being tight this resembles more poker than chess.

Gordon Brown can be seen as your typical tight/passive player who keeps his cards very close to his chest, only tends to play premium hands and is a grinder par excellence. In fact his partner and long time opponent Tony Blair described him as a great big clunking fist. Playing a solid game is all well and good but because he does the same things in the same way over and over again, this makes his game open to a well timed bluff and he has been bluffed a few times by David Cameron!

David Cameron is a tight/aggressive player but he has the ability to be very loose when he needs to be. Being loose against a tight passive opponent will lose you hands, but, if the cards fall right can get you a nice payoff to cover the loses and make a profit. So far he has had things mostly his own way politically and the cards have fallen nicely. For example when the expenses row kicked in, he managed to not get burned even though out of all the leaders his expenses was the most outrageous because he claimed expenses to clear up the wisteria from his second home! However, his luck may have turned against him.

Nick Clegg is the knave in the game. His pattern of play has been loose because he has been constantly short stacked but the first TV debate between the leaders gave him a nice little 8 7 of diamond on the big blind, both opponents just called and he flopped 4 5 6 of diamonds giving him a straight flush. His too opponents decided to battle each other and he got paid off big style. Now the question will be what is his table image. is he a mug gambler or does he have a solid game? No one is really sure but the next TV debate will be interesting because he now has the chips to play his hands in an aggressive way. But if he plays too aggressive he may give all his chips back too his opponents. More on this on Friday 23rd April, 2010

The biggest race in the World is about to be mercilessly promoted by all those in the racing game. Bookies, trainers, writers and everyone including their dog will have something to say. The only people who will guarantee a result will be the bookies who will go onto the Aintree course with their pockets bulging after the massive win they had at Cheltenham.

The Magical Tipster’s long range bet Big Fella Thanks is now 10/1 favourite from 16/1 and he has already selling it because he thinks it has reached the lowest it will reach.

Therefore the only chance you can have of making money is to have a go at our post Grand National Pokerknave freeroll tournament (Sunday 11th, 2010 at 8pm GMT) with our friends AWHPOKER.COM – again it is for €50 and the only way you can enter is to join up via our dedicated banner link.

So get your friends and neighbours to have a go because we are looking out for grinders to sponsor in real cash games. Great strategic play is important if you want to be staked as a horse so show us your skills

After some serious consulting with the runes, bones, stars and other mystical omens our very own man of mystery The Magical Tipster has conjoured up a special plan which is devastating in its complexity and deviousness.

Big Fella Thanks
Joe Lively
Cloudy Lane
BallyHolland
Sunny Morning
Erics Charm
Ballyfitz
Arbor Supreme
The Package
Piraya
Palypso De Creek
Mon Mome
Comply Or Die
Silver Birch

The biggest race in the World is about to be mercilessly promoted by all those in the racing game. Bookies, trainers, writers and everyone including their dog will have something to say. The only people who will guarantee a result will be the bookies who will go onto the Aintree course with their pockets bulging after the massive win they had at Cheltenham.

The Magical Tipster’s long range bet Big Fella Thanks is now 10/1 favourite from 16/1 and he has already selling it because he thinks it has reached the lowest it will reach.

Therefore the only chance you can have of making money is to have a go at our post Grand National Pokerknave freeroll tournament (Sunday 11th, 2010 at 8pm GMT) with our friends AWHPOKER.COM – again it is for €50 and the only way you can enter is to join up via our dedicated banner link.

So get your friends and neighbours to have a go because we are looking out for grinders to sponsor in real cash games. Great strategic play is important if you want to be staked as a horse so show us your skills

The biggest race in the World is about to be mercilessly promoted by all those in the racing game. Bookies, trainers, writers and everyone including their dog will have something to say. The only people who will guarantee a result will be the bookies who will go onto the Aintree course with their pockets bulging after the massive win they had at Cheltenham.

The Magical Tipster’s long range bet Big Fella Thanks is now 10/1 favourite from 16/1 and he has already selling it because he thinks it has reached the lowest it will reach.

Therefore the only chance you can have of making money is to have a go at our post Grand National Pokerknave freeroll tournament (Sunday 11th, 2010 at 8pm GMT) with our friends AWHPOKER.COM – again it is for €50 and the only way you can enter is to join up via our dedicated banner link.

So get your friends and neighbours to have a go because we are looking out for grinders to sponsor in real cash games. Great strategic play is important if you want to be staked as a horse so show us your skills

The biggest race in the World is about to be mercilessly promoted by all those in the racing game. Bookies, trainers, writers and everyone including their dog will have something to say. The only people who will guarantee a result will be the bookies who will go onto the Aintree course with their pockets bulging after the massive win they had at Cheltenham.

The Magical Tipster’s long range bet Big Fella Thanks is now 10/1 favourite from 16/1 and he has already selling it because he thinks it has reached the lowest it will reach.

Therefore the only chance you can have of making money is to have a go at our post Grand National Pokerknave freeroll tournament (Sunday 11th, 2010 at 8pm GMT) with our friends AWHPOKER.COM – again it is for €50 and the only way you can enter is to join up via our dedicated banner link.

So get your friends and neighbours to have a go because we are looking out for grinders to sponsor in real cash games. Great strategic play is important if you want to be staked as a horse so show us your skills