Hello

I’d like to thank Carl for letting me be a part of a blog people actually read (as opposed to my standalone blog). For those that don’t know me, I am Barry Carter and I’m in a similar boat to Carl – online poker pro from Sheffield who writes for every poker magazine under the sun. I write for Pokernews, PokerPro, The Hendon Mob and WPT magazine to name but a few (actually that’s all of them).

From today, my online game takes a back seat for a while as I have some very important live tournaments coming up. I’m off to Dusk Till Dawn tonight to play in their £100 freeze out which attracts a lot of big names. Next Saturday I’ll be there again for their monthly £300 deep stack event which I plan on going to pretty much every month.

But on the 6th is possibly the biggest game I’ve ever played. The PartyPoker European Open. Its a 6 handed studio heat that is being broadcast on channel 5 and features some of the biggest names in poker – Phil Hellmuth being the obvious draw. My first heat won’t be easy, I have two Irish Open Champions - Liam Flood and Marty Smyth at my table. I have to come 2nd to progress to the next round and a shot at a £100,000 first prize. As a result, I might have to drop my usual NLHE/PLO cash games and concentrate on 6 handed SNGs for a week or two, as they most closely resemble the format. For a while last year, I crushed the 6 handed STTs on Stars and was in the top 5 on sharkscope for them – so hopefully this might be the very small nugget of edge I can claim in an event I am a big underdog in.

 Then finally I will be more than likely playing in the Walsall Leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour. I made a plan to play in every other event of the GUKPT using rakeback and it looks like I’m generating enough to just about do that.

February is the shortest month and it looks like one of my busiest, stay tuned to see just how out if my depth I am as the cameras look down on me in London.