Never one to shy away from a chat, Black Belt Poker's head honcho Neil Channing was back in the limelight recently when he became the latest target of popular website and publication Gambling Online Magazine. Following the likes of Sam Trickett, Tom Dwan, and even ex-Boyzoner Shane Lynch into the hot seat, Neil was ambushed with an array of questions ranging from how he got started in poker to his recent excursions on the tournament circuit.
The chosen location for the interview was the Grosvenor Victoria on Edgware Road, Neil's 'home away from home', and when questioned about his hectic schedule, Neil replied:
"My one regret would be that I'm not getting quite enough time to play poker. I can often go a week or 10 days without having a win and, well, that's miserable, walking around being a loser for a week, so, yeah, it's kind of harder to adapt. In 2007 I pretty much moved in here. There was actually, literally, a time when I didn't come in for three days and someone came round my house to see if I was ill."
After delving back into his poker history, Neil moved onto his recent cash at the World Series of Poker Europe where he was, ironically, staked into the heads-up event. Despite the field being packed with young Internet specialists, Neil managed to beat an impressive line-up - of which included online titan Chris Moorman - before being eliminated at the quarter final stage for £47,045, just two steps away from his first ever bracelet. Speaking about his clash with Gus Hansen, Neil regaled:
"I was tired by the time I got knocked out. I played two matches against [Chris] Moorman and McClean [Karr] and then had to go straight into an 11pm match against Gus Hansen having had like a 15 minute break. And basically got mashed by Gus really. We were joking during the thing that when they interview you afterwards, if the person you played against is terrible, you should say, 'He took interesting lines in one or two tricky spots.' He chose to go for the other one, which was to say, 'You were just unlucky, I had a load of big hands,' which I know, as an old cash grinder, is what you always say when some mug has lost all their money and you're keen for them to come back again."
Neil is well known for his relationship with, and support of, some of the country's young and up-and-coming pros (Neil had a percentage of James Akenhead, for example, in the 2009 WSOP Main Event), and is one of few 'veterans' to have acknowledged the potential of the fresh talent. After critisicing the usual response of some of the game's 'dinosaurs', Neil added:
"These kids are brilliant. Training videos are one of the best ways to learn poker and these people are eating and drinking that stuff. They're reading some really good stuff… People are linking up a lot more and sharing the information. When I started playing, just finding another person that was under the age of 30 to talk about poker with was pretty hard to do."
In this three-part interview, Neil goes on to discuss various other subjects, such as his profile, cash versus tournaments, side bets and Black Belt Poker, including the recently-launched Enlightenment Training Programme and the benefits of being part of a team. If you would like to hear more, and view the complete interview, then simply click play on the videos below.
Click for interview.
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