Interview with forum member RacingDog
PERSONAL RELATED QUESTIONS:
Q: Care to share any background or family related info with THF (have any
kids? a spouse? etc.) A: Historically you don't want to know, but things got better. I've been married for, Jesus, that long!, bloody hell how time flies, well 31.5 years. I have two sons 21 and 17, good lads. Their main shortcoming is a failure to understand the concept of spending their own money.
We used to race our pet whippets but old age and infirmity have claimed the first 6 and we have just one 9 year old left. As I type I'm lying side ways on the sofa, not an ideal typing position, with the dog curled up behind my knees and using me as a chin rest. Being a canine chin rest is one of my more useful occupations nowadays.
And then there are the kids 2 budgies. SHUT UP. Bloody noisy birds.
Q: What is your Profession? Have you had any other professions prior to your current one? A: Professional Layabout. Or put another way, unemployed for nearly 3 years, given up looking for a job, but haven't taken the pension yet.
Before that I was a seriously good software engineer in the real time and telecomms arenas. I was paid more than the junior managers and many of the middle managers. Forgive the lack of modesty, but it is the only thing I have ever been any good at. Your previous generation mobile phone, no matter who made it, will have been tested on test equipment I had a hand in designing.
The last 12 years of employment were in the telecoms sector of the software business. They say software is one of the most stressful jobs. The say telecomms is one of the most stressful jobs. I was doing both. Now ask me if I miss it!
Q: Besides poker, what else interests you? A: Oh hell, I didn't realise you wanted something the length of War and Peace! Lifetime the list just goes on and on, and any one interest could be resurrected at the drop of a hat. At the moment Horse Racing, Cricket, Blues are the main ones, but at the drop of another hat I could be dabbling in anything for a day or two. Hmm, this is getting to sound like a Flanders and Swann discography.
Q: Whats your favorite book/ movie? A: Books - the Discworld series by Terry Pratchet
Movies - sorry they are called films in proper English, not really a film person
TV - Dr Who / Last of the Summer Wine / anything by Fred Dibner / Don't Forget to Write
Radio - Test Match Special / The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (the original format, the subsequent books, TV, film got progressively worse) / Under Milkwood
Q: Any particular songs/genres of music that you relate to?
A: If it's before the mid 70s, most things starting from medieval times.
Q: What are your pet peeves? A: The abuse of the English language and jobsworths.
Q: Your worst fear? A: You mean apart from dying? Spiders I guess.
Also, I wouldn't want to find my name mentioned on anybody's list of good players. I get too much edge from being forgotten about. Cashing with monotonous regularity against allegedly better players at the odd THF event that I turn up for is not something I want to have endangered.
Damn. I just blew my own cover! Never mind, I’m sure you’ll all forget.
Q: Take us through a day in the life for you: A: Well it's a bit boring nowadays, boring for you lot that is. Get up at lunch time. Take dog for a long walk. Then some combination of poker/ IM-ing/shopping/watching horse racing on the TV or listening to Test Match Special. Then cook the dinner (don't read too much into the word cook, mainly just heating things from the supermarket). Then maybe a bit more poker and tv, then go out to the pub or a local gig (which might also mean pub). Come back, chill in front of yet more TV and chill literally with a huge bowl of ice cream. Go to bed in the early hours.
Q: Who are your heroes? A:
The concept of heroes doesn't fit too easily with hippy philosophy. Lots of people impress me, but I shan't be elevating them to hero status.
Q: Are you realted to, or do you know personally, or have met anybody famous? A: That would be incredibly tenuous and therefore presumptuous to mention names, but yes. As for meeting anyone, well one day at Cheltenham Races whilst walking backwards ('cos I was waving to my wife) I came within a yard of bumping into The Queen Mother, literally. Does that count?
Q: Explain what a perfect day would be like for you: A: Winning the lottery. No, seriously, maybe it’s my age, but any nice day will do me just fine.
POKER RELATED QUESTIONS: Q: What is your biggest poker cash or accomplishment? A:
Oh nothing much. I play mainly SnGs. You don’t get much for those, just a steady, reliable income. Beating the massed hordes of a freeroll is always fun, but not very rewarding. There have been plenty of MTT wins, but at the small sites that I prefer, the fields are too small to make headline prizes.
It’s not what you meant, but the achievement of which I am most proud was a couple of years ago on Everest, in a $2 plus whatever the fee was SnG. It was a normal 10 player SnG, not a Turbo. I won in just 33 hands in 31.5 minutes.
Q: Are you more of a tournament player or ring games? What buy-in/stakes do you play at? A: Freerolls to get the BR then SnGs. I work up the ladder. $10 is as far as I ever got, not because I couldn’t play at that level or higher, just because sites change and if I don’t like the changes I leave. I’ve simply not stayed at any one site long enough yet.
You also have to understand that I can’t simply move my bankroll to a new site and play at the same level there. Why not? Because once I cash out of a site the money is mine and my money never goes into a site except to meet cashout requirements. I never play with my money.
Q: Do you play competitively or for recreation? How much time per week do you spend on poker? A: I was born in Yorkshire, you are taught to win in Yorkshire. So I’m doing both at the same time.
The time varies wildly, some weeks it can be at or close to zero, others around 40 hours.
Q: Do you have a favorite poker pro? If so, why are they your favorite? A: Has to be Annie Duke just for what she did to Helmuth in the 2004 TOC. It’s hardly original to show just one card when the opponent shows two, but when she did that to him she just couldn’t have picked a better victim or a better time, an exquisite moment to be treasured.
Q: Briefly explain how you got into poker (Possibly include age, influences, and location) A: Ignoring the occasional and very rare game for matchsticks, it would have to be when we gave the world televised poker with displayed hole cards. Channel 4’s very first series of Late Night Poker. Actually playing regularly only started about 4 years ago when I stumbled upon a site that had play chip SnGs (in other words similar to the format I’d seen on TV). Then about 6 months later I equally accidentally discovered freerolls on a different site and the world changed.
Q: What is your favorite poker site to play on? A: I’d have to duck that and say both CelebPoker and Poker4Ever as the reasons for liking them are different and I have no idea how to quantify such diverse reasons.
Q: Do you have a favorite (Hold'em) hand? A: Nah. Just so long as they win I don’t care.
Q: Whats your favorite tourney format? (Possibly include ideal # of entrants, blind level timer, type of game, buy-in, etc.) A: Well SnG obviously. Despite the thoughts of others to the contrary, I prefer a 10 player table. 1500 chips, initial blinds at 10/20 and 10 or 12 minute rounds.
Q: In live games, do you have a good pokerface? A: Dunno, never done it.
Q: As of today, what are your poker ambitions? A: Stay at a site long enough to find out just how far up the SnG ladder I could get. That rules out the smaller sites because the higher value games never happen. But that still isn’t going to tempt me to play at PokerIdiots. I love small things, I hate big things and PokerIdiots is the biggest, so my choice not to play is a no-brainer.
Q: If not for poker in your life what would you do in your spare time?
A: Loads of things if circumstances were different, but right now with no job? Spend more time volunteering on The Cholsey & Wallingford Railway where I am both Station Master and Booking Clerk at Cholsey Station (because my underlings can’t add up)
THF RELATED QUESTIONS: Q: How did you find THF and why did you join? A: I didn’t. Freeroll Forums was a good place for both freerolls and freerollers. Then it got merged with THF before eventually being split off again. So here I am.
Q: Who's poker related posts on THF do you find most useful or most agree with? A: I think everyone makes valid points at least some of the time, we are fortunate to be a dummy free site, and I really wouldn’t want to swell those big heads any further by naming names.
Q: If you could choose one player on THF to play heads up against for $1000 who would you choose? A: I’m going to have to pass this and the next few. I just haven’t played enough THF games to give a sensible answer. Let me re-phrase that, there haven’t been enough non-PokerIdiots games to give a sensible answer.
Q: What do you think would improve the THF? A: Stop automatically presuming that everybody wants to play at PokerIdiots.
Q: What was your favorite THF moment?
A: Q: Who on THF do you think is most likely to be the next person banned? Winning the Poker Rewards League last year. It was weird for two very different reasons.
Firstly, the 6 player Final game was working up to being a long drawn out affair. After 35 minutes it was still all very careful and we had lost nobody. Then, for no reason I ever understood, everyone seemed to acquire a communal desire to commit suicide. Apart from the odd hand I just couldn’t lay down, all I had to do to get heads up was just sit there and let it happen.
Secondly, I very nearly deliberately threw the heads up because I had mis-read the prizes. I thought first got a goody bag but no cash and I wanted the cash. It was only because a non-THF friend was railing and spotted my mistake when we were still 3 handed that I realized there was also $50 for first and that I had better damn well play for it!
A: Q: What was your least favorite THF moment? A:
Well, you people know me, I’m not averse to a good argument and when things have been quiet you may have noted me being deliberately provocative. But the depths to which some of the personality wars sank the other year was very sad.
Q: Who on THF do you think is most likely to be the next person banned? A: Oh that will be me. I’m a wind up merchant and some day somebody is bound to take me too seriously. Guys, let’s get this straight, love you all, but I’m English and there are no sacred cows in English humour (don’t presume sacred cows and bad taste mean the same thing, they do not). But there are other countries which take their sacred cows far too seriously.
Q: Who are your top 5 players on THF: A: Same comment as before, I wouldn’t know.
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Thanks very much to RacingDog for taking the time to answer our questions
Thanks to Kaartkeizer for sending these questions. 
Weekly Member Interview: RacingDog 
