PFA Player of the Year: Fulham top scorer deserves recognition

Premier League / Michael Lintorn / 02 February 2012 / Leave a Comment

Clint Dempsey scored his 16th goal of the season against West Brom

"Given that this is the stage of the season in which players are usually hassled for their PFA Player of the Year picks, it would be great if Dempsey proves to be peaking just in time to earn a surprise place on the shortlist."

Michael Lintorn is hoping that there is a shock spot on this season's PFA player of the year shortlist for Fulham's American star Clint Dempsey...

Pavel Pogrebnyak signed too late, Andy Johnson and Moussa Dembele were injured and Bobby Zamora left for QPR on deadline day. None of that mattered though, because as long as Clint Dempsey is fit, Fulham look likely to find the net right now.

Cottagers fans probably won't appreciate the comparison, but Dempsey is becoming a bit of a Frank Lampard figure for the less fashionable west Londoners: critics arguing that he has no outstanding qualities, yet he continues to prove utterly prolific.

The American being a reliable source of goals isn't a new development, scoring at least six in each of his five full Premier League campaigns, however after achieving a personal best of 12 last term, he has scaled new heights this year.

While everyone around him has performed fitfully, the 28-year-old has fired 16 times, reaching double figures in the league with his strike against West Brom on Wednesday to show that he is a serious contender to be one of the division's top four goal-getters at [14.0].

Those ten are three more than Johnson, Dembele, Bryan Ruiz and Orlando Sa have hit between them, and twice as many as Zamora, and it is over the last two months that he has truly flourished, grabbing 11 in 13 appearances.

Given that this is the stage of the season in which players are usually hassled for their PFA Player of the Year picks, it would be great if he proves to be peaking just in time to earn a surprise place on the shortlist.

Charlie Adam and Scott Parker made it in 2011 while representing soon-to-be relegated clubs - the latter also scooping the FWA Footballer of the Year prize - signalling that it's not all about the stars at the top of the table, and Dempsey's feats deserve similar recognition.

The Premier League's all-time leading American scorer is available to back on Betfair, where Manchester City's David Silva is currently a [2.12] favourite.

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Player of the Year Title Caps Off Perfect Year For Sam Trickett

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 27 January 2012 / Leave a Comment

Sam Trickett Winning The $100,000 Challenge

The selection committee chose six players who they thought were worthy of the title European Player of the Year, those being Jake Cody, Pius Heinz, Andrey Pateychuk, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov and Sam Trickett

The Aviation Club de France in the heart of Paris was the venue for the 11th edition of the European Poker Awards, which took place on Thursday. In total there were nine awards presented thought the category that everyone had their eye on was the European Player of the Year accolade.

The selection committee chose six players who they thought were worthy of the title European Player of the Year, those being Jake Cody, Pius Heinz, Andrey Pateychuk, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov and Sam Trickett. Any of the six would have been worthy recipients but when the votes were counted up it was Trickett who had captured the judges imaginations and he was revealed as the 2011 European Player of the Year.

Trickett's achievements during 2011 were nothing short of amazing, notching up close to $4,600,000 in live tournament winnings and a rumoured £1,000,000 cash haul in the Big Game in Macau. His huge winning total was helped by him winning the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge, coming second in the $250,000 Super High Roller (again at the Aussie Millions) and taking down the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event. Just these three results alone made Trickett a worthy winner.

The former professional footballer was also nominated for the Best Tournament Performance but that honour was only ever going to one player and that was the aforementioned Heinz for winning the World Series of Poker Main Event. It is difficult to vote against someone who has navigated their way through a field of 6,865 players!

Two of Trickett's fellow Player of the Year nominees also scooped awards. Grospellier bagged himself the Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Peronality of the Year whilst Pateychuk, who came 15th in the WSOP Main Event before winning the Main Events of EPT San Remo and WPT Prague was crowned the Rookie of the Year.

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies helped himself to the Internet Player of the Year whilst the delectable Natalia Nikitina of Russia picked up the Europe's Leading Lady award. The WSOPE in Cannes won the Best European Event of the year whilst bwinparty's Warren Lush is now the reigning Poker Staff Person of the year. And last, but most certainly not least was the Lifetime Achievement award. This was handed to the legendary Jesse May and there is not a single person in the poker industry who would argue against the judges decision to award the Voice of Poker the prestigious award.

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Betfair Player Wins Big At GSOP Live!

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 11 May 2011 / Leave a Comment

All too often the news related articles on these very pages are full of stories of big name players, or well known online poker stars winning vast sums of money in tournaments around the world. In more recent times there have been plenty of British players making large scores but one in particular is pretty sweet as he is known Betfair Poker player!

Kevin Thurston, a 27-year old from Norwich works as a call centre manager for a marketing firm by day but by night, like many of us, he plays online poker and dreams of making a ton of money from this crazy game. He is known as bigkevzaces on Betfair Poker where he can be found playing multitable tournaments, but recently he had some success in the live arena, finishing as runner up at the GSOP Live Seville Main Event.

There were 190 entrants for the €3,000 Main Event, which created a prize pool of €402,010 to be shared out amongst the top 27 finishers and our hero almost went all the way before falling just short to scoop a wallet-bursting €58,400. He was kind enough to answer a few questions we put to him when he arrived home from sunny Spain.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. How long have you been playing poker and how did you first get into the game?
I've played poker for around seven years now after discovering it on television. I grew up living in a pub so I've always had a decent understanding on different card games.

When you play poker do you prefer cash games or tournaments?
I only ever play tournaments as I believe them to be better value. I find cash games extremely boring, soul destroying in fact.

How did the tournament (GSOP Live Seville) progress for you? What was the standard of play like? One of the reasons the online equivalent of the GSOP is so popular is skill levels of the participants is pretty low.
On Day 1 I was incredibly hungover and I was contemplating skipping the first few levels because I really needed some sleep! Throughout Day 1 I was never in danger, never in a position where I had my tournament life on the line. At the end of Day 1 I was amongst the top 10 chip stacks and stayed there for a sustained period. All in all I can't complain with how things went!

The standard of play was quite mixed but you could easily tell who the solid and weak players were quite quickly.

You started the final table third in chips, did you feel like this was your chance to win a major live event and take home a big money prize?
I could tell that some of the other players on the final table were worried about laddering for the money and had never seen that amount of money before. I knew that I could use that to my advantage and did on a number of occasions as I wasn't overly concerned about the monies!

Did you have a gameplan going into the final table? Did you have to deviate from this plan?
I never had a specific game plan so couldn't deviate, instead I decided to take each hand as it came. I knew how tight it was going to be so I always had that in mind when opening pots up.

You doubled up early on with aces to eliminate Joni Joujkiumainen. At this point did you really start to think you could win GSOP Live Seville?
It was a significant confidence booster, but I already knew I had the ability to beat anyone. I'm not intimidated by any chip stack or a player's reputation. I knew it was always going to be an uphill struggle but I always knew I was capable.

You reportedly bought four bottles of champagne for the rail and table. Is this true and was there any particular reason for it?
Some people had been standing on the rail for the best part of three hours and some other Betfair Poker players who were staying at the same hotel as me went out of their way to support me so I felt it was the least I could do to enhance their experience of the final table.

According to the GSOP Live blog you were playing a rather unorthodox style that saw you frequently open-shoving from the small blind. Were there any strategical reasons for this?
I am an unorthodox player and I didn't want to let my opponents have a read on me. It was all relative to the chipstacks. If the roles were reversed then I would have played the exact same way he did...tight.

Going into heads-up you trailed Anders Henriksson by 3,069,000 to 754,000 chips. I used to play HUSNG so I know this is a huge disadvantage. That said the effective chip stacks were still pretty substantial with plenty of play left. Did you have a game plan for the heads-up section?
I planned on doubling up early doors and then play a more structured game. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out this way.

The last hand saw you make your trademark over-bet shove of 60 big blinds with As3s and you were called by the pocket sixes of Henriksson, which held to ship him the title. Was the shove designed to mix your play up or were there other reasons behind it?
As aforementioned I like to keep myself unpredictable. Also, I didn't want to bleed chips off by limping into pots.

Any plans for the €58,400 you won for your impressive runner-up finish? What are your poker plans for the next few months?
I'm going to Las Vegas for the WSOP, playing the Main Event and a few side events. A Betfair Poker sponsorship wouldn't go amiss so pull some strings, LOL!

So there you have it, one of our very own taking on some of Europe's finest poker players and almost coming out on top. Keep an eye out for Mr Thurston's progress at the upcoming World Series of Poker, which gets under way at the end of May.

For a chance to qualify for a future GSOP Live event for a fraction of the cost Join Betfair Poker Now!

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Miami Masters Tips: America's next top tennis player?

Events / Ben Caudell / 30 March 2011 / Leave a Comment

Ben's backing Mardy Fish to be the American number one

"If Fish wins today, not only would he reach the semi-finals of this event for the first time, he would also become the top ranked American for the first time in his career."

He'll have home support on his side and a strong record against top ten players, but can Mardy Fish overcome David Ferrer in what is likely to be a long match?

David Ferrer (ESP) v Mardy Fish (US)

After surprising first round losses for both these players at Indian Wells a fortnight ago, Miami has proved to be a different kettle of 'fish'. With the Spaniard and American firing on all cylinders and with both players yet to drop a single set, we can look forward to a real corker of a match that looks evenly balanced on paper but not in the match odds where Fish can be backed at [2.80].

The head-to-head record reads three wins apiece with only two of the six matches having been won in straight sets. However, it's been nearly four years since these two stalwarts last competed against each other, so history shouldn't have a significant baring on how this quarter-final pans out.

What is important, though, is the fact that Fish is coming into a purple patch of form at the right time. Having completed notable wins over former top ten player Richard Gasquet 6-4 6-3 and former US Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro, the American has another incentive that will give him an extra adrenaline boost. If Fish wins today, not only would he reach the semi-finals of this event for the first time, he would also become the top ranked American for the first time in his career.

Fish has a great record against top ten players and he recorded a positive 5-3 stat in 2010. He's appearing in his third ATP World Tour quarter-final or better this year and his fourth ATP World Tour Masters quarter-final. An important fact to note is that from his last three appearances at this stage of a Master series event Mardy has gone on to reach the final.

There will be a lot of home support cheering Fish on. This match will probably go all the way but my money is going on the soon to be top American.

Recommended Bets
Back Mardy Fish @ [2.8] to win match
Back three sets @ [2.44]

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