What's your name?

Festive greetings to you all. I hope everybody has as good a Christmas as I did.

My brothers and Mum at Church on Christmas Morning

Earlier this month I was in Prague for the annual winter poker festival and I arrived on a early morning flight from Riga very tired and not really relishing the prospect of diving straight into a 12pm start for the Eureka main event. If I'm short of sleep I find it really hard to stay focussed and even awake on day 1s. Pre-antes is always much less interesting and you're supposed to play tight blah blah blah so you just end up folding a lot and there's no adrenaline rush of being close to the money or the final table or anything to keep you going so I find it pretty hard. I always try and get at least 8 hours sleep before I play a live tournament.

I had something to eat, drink, some proplus tablets (they do a great job in keeping my eyes open!). I arrived at my table and there were 7 unknown guys at my table and no-one was saying a word. I was really hoping to get a table with someone I knew so I had someone to talk to all day! This is going to be a struggle...

I'm usually pretty sociable at the table. In the UK and certainly at DTD you'll never see me with headphones on, hoodie up etc. I'm always trying to have a laugh at the table, I think it's really important for so many reasons, the main one being - it just IS more fun than sitting in silence!

In foreign countries it's a bit more difficult because of the language and cultural barriers but still I'll never shy away from a bit of table banter, but I'm not usually the one to start it if at a table of unknown Russians or Czechs!

45 minutes in, PKR pro Sofia Lövgren sat down and still nobody said a word. Then she asked the most simple question in the world to her neighbour.

"What's your name?"

And from that one question the entire day was improved. She and the guy chatted for a bit, limited English on his part wasn't really an issue, they found things in common despite being from different countries and different ages groups. Then I found something to latch onto and join in and before you knew it, everyone was talking to each other. There was some country banter about scandi's, greeks etc, and not only was it so much more enjoyable, it was massively useful too - learning where someone's from, their poker background etc. is really helpful when playing pots with them. I learned that one player was a satellite qualifier and he said this was by far his biggest ever tournament. He was a lovely guy and he showed us pictures of his two young children and the whole table was sorry to see his cruel bust out with the nut full house vs quads. Even the guy with the quads!

It was rather sad that the 8 adult males couldn't spark this conversation by themselves and it was down to Sofia to get the ball rolling, and also how easy it was once the ice was broken. Everyone was sociable and friendly really, but at the start it would appear that everybody was rude and sullen.

So I guess the aim of this blog is to encourage everybody else to do the same. It's absolutely fair enough if you prefer sitting in silence, being 100% focussed on the job in hand and get irritated by small talk etc. I'm not trying to criticise those people.

But if' you're like me and you DO prefer having a good laugh at the table and like meeting new people - then next time you're at a table where nobody is talking, ask the guy next to you his name. Ask where he's from. There's no downside and there's plenty of upsides. You can still be focussed and concentrating. It actually helps me focus because it stops me drifting off, day dreaming, going on facebook/twitter etc. And if you're at a table with me and I'm being moody and unfriendly, then talk to me and snap me out of it!

Yes, those are my pants

Plans for the rest of the year include the DTD £500 Christmas deepstack tomorrow. A Sunday grind online. A trip to Oxford to visit the Grandparents and then it's NYE. Next blog will probably be wrapping up 2013.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!