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Durrrr and Isildur might have become the epitome of ‘degeneracy’ to most, but back in the good ol’ UK, Black Belt Poker co-founder Neil Channing might be able to give them a run for their money having confessed in his latest blog entry: “We disembarked from the plane at midday and were on a train at 9pm. By midnight we could just about see the Pleasure Beach, and feel the wind and rain on our faces.” Yes, swapping his front row seat at this year’s WSOP final for the piercing cold drizzle of Blackpool, Neil completed the rarely witnessed Vegas/Blackpool double to participate in the GUKPT’s penultimate outing of the year.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom, as Neil soon found himself sooted and booted at Les Ambassadeurs Club in Mayfair to watch poker’s high stakes behemoths tackle durrrr in the Full Tilt Million Dollar Challenge. A good friend of Sammy [George], Neil was graced with a ringside seat and unveiled: “In the end he lost $750,000. Tom let him off really. Sammy wanted to carry on and pull up another half a mill. He was really starting to steam. Durrrr told him to get some sleep and come and play another day.”

Whilst Neil was livin’ it large in London’s finest, Hugo Martin was tucked away in the murky depths of the Vic cash game, observing his familiar surroundings with his usual elping of sardonic wit and cynicism. In his latest blog entry, Hugo introduces us to the YAG (young-aggressive) and tells of how a fallen victim refused to relinquish his seat. “I’ve seen this sort of thing happen in tournaments before when players have gone broke, but stay sitting in their seats. Usually they are novices who haven’t played much before and they don’t really understand that that’s it. Nobody cares anymore, you’re brown bread and it’s seat open!”

As well as touching upon the offbeat topic of ‘manicured hands’, Hugo also reminisces (not necessarily fondly) on yesteryear, and in particular the characters of downtown Vegas: “At one point,” comments Hugo, highlighting a player commonly know as ‘Cowboy’, “this philosopher of the felt makes the wise observation, ‘There’s no shame in being broke, only shame in staying broke.’ Considering that all the interview footage with Cowboy takes place outdoors near the bus station downtown, which leads me to guess that Cowboy’s home is one of several park benches near by, he should know all about always being broke.”

To read more from either Neil or Hugo, then be sure to check out their latest blog entries in our blogs section and keep those eyes peeled for future entries.