Neil Channing is the life and soul to many a poker table on both sides of the Atlantic. Neil, a recent and popular winner at the Gutshot European Series of Poker in London, made the money in last years Main Event of the WSOP. I had a chat with him before the ‘Big Dance’ 2005 began…this is how it went.

David Lloyd: Hi Neil: What are you having?

Neil Channing: Sprite…but I’d rather have red wine or Guinness.

DL: You’ve been here since the start…Are you missing the Vic and shepherds pie yet?

Neil: (laughs) I don’t like the food here actually, I had some fish’n chips tonight and it was rubbish…they give you such big portions here, it just puts me off

David: Would you do the full stretch next year?

Neil: Yes, I did a month last year and I was quite worried about doing two months this year and I thought it was a bit daunting…It’s a tough town to adjust to and you can’t crack up…you know there’s other stuff, table games, drinking that can distract you from it and you have to approach it differently as a job thing…I’ve coped with that quite well and I haven’t had any problems with that and I’ve just got into a routine…

David: You never eel you’re overdoing it?

Neil: Well, I’ve played every day, but then I generally play most days at home…I certainly gamble every day.

David: The sponsorship deal with www.betUSA.com  apart from playing in events, what else are you doing for them?

Neil: Well I did originally say that I’d help them with odds compiling on poker because they are a sports book taking bets on mostly American sports and obviously poker’s taken off massively in America and no one in the USA is betting on it…so I said to them this is err a sport really…the ice hockey strike means that poker is now the 4th TV sport in America…possibly the 5th after Nascar and I basically said we should be doing odds on it so I’ve helped them wit the prices, there’s a bit of promotional stuff…got their name around a few internet sites, writing my Vegas diary, which Gutshot.com have been putting up…and the Hendon Mob and its on the betUSA site….signed a few people up, tried to start an affiliate scheme with some people for referring new accounts so I’ve done a fair amount outside of playing for them.

David: Three picks for the main event?

Neil: The favourites are Ivey, Negreanu, Hellmuth and Lederer. Players that I respect and I think will do quite well in the event…one that we’ve laid quite heavily, someone who always does quite well and I’m sure he’ll do well again is Dan Harrington. I’ve backed Phil Ivey to make the final table…I think 50/1 is a big price and this guy doesn’t play that many tournaments…he probably plays eight a year and he’s got a tremendous record. Daniel is maybe thinking about other things…he’s busy with the Wynn, he’s got his heads up matches, his blog, all this that and the other. Phil Hellmuth’s completely gone…he’s doing a million other things. Chris Fergusson, well you know I don’t personally rate him as highly as other people.

David: Every time I’ve seen you this year, you’ve been chopping up a 5K satellite..

Neil: Yeah, I wish you’d have seen me a bit more often…I had about ten days where I didn’t get a single chip out of one.

David: How many of those have you been averaging per day?

Neil: I try not to play more than three a day because it’s hard to really put the intensity into them…they’re taking around two and a half hours, so you don’t really want to be doing more than three.

David: Any other decent results while you’ve been out here?

Neil: I’ve had a couple of little touches here…I’ve played the 11.00pm freeze-out…it gets between 150 and 300 runners. I came second in the first one I played in and got $10,700 which was a disappointment really because I had the guy 5/1 heads up and there was over $20,000 to the winner and he was very inexperience but he won a couple of big 50/50’s and they really swung the whole thing. Other than that I’ve played the Palms comp 5 times and I’ve made the money twice.

David: What about playing here at the Rio…missing Binions at all?

Neil: There’s some things about it that I like…I like the tradition of Binions…I always used to stay at the Nugget and the Nuggets very nice and you can walk across the road and you’re in the Horseshoe or in the Vegas Club. They’re all close together and the foreign community, mostly the British and the Irish have a lot of Cameraderie and I think that’s a really good thing. In all the years before, you could wander into the bars and you’d always see someone you know, a friendly face…and this place…its massive! We’re a fifteen minute walk from the main casino of the Rio and the cage and the rooms here..

I have to say I don’t miss Becky Binion…she screwed it as much as she could but Harrahs are not much better. Obviously they’re a corporation and I understand they need to make money but they’re short sighted. They charge £8 for a hot dog at the only place you can eat within a 2 minute walk of the arena. They don’t have enough bathrooms nearby…they don’t send enough cocktail waitresses around the room…it’s just short sighted. If I ran Harrahs I would get the money in a much more subtle way…The NBA finals were on while we were here…they never had a sports book in the room or anywhere near the room…I would have had windows for betting and TV showing the sport so that the punters could bet on it. Harrahs would have made a fortune out of it and the poker players wouldn’t have minded losing their money because they would feel like they were getting a spin.

David: Going back to the main event…you’re drawn on day 2, do you have any tactical plans for the table and a bigger picture?

Neil: Yeah, normally if I can get to find out who’s on my table in advance, I like to do a bit of scouting work…I’ll ask around. I’m a big fan of starting conversations early in the game…finding out whether they have a job or whether they play for a living…whether they’ve played in the event before…did they win it online and I’ll do it in a friendly way…some people might think that’s a little bit underhand but you know, it’ll come across as natural conversation. Obviously, later on, when it gets to making a tough decision, I want to know whether the guy’s got much experience…is he capable of making a move on me or does he just not understand or is he not capable of passing an A/Q whatever…you’ve got to judge it on something. If I can find out that he’s just a multi millionaire who just doesn’t care or somebody who’s just in for five bucks and doesn’t really know…it might be a factor in some close decision later on…

David: You’re making a cup of tea for Simon Trumper…you ask him how many sugars…he has a think…how long before you put the clock on him?

Neil: There’s got to be a Greenstein joke in there somewhere but I can’t think of one. Actually Simon doesn’t do that stuff with me…I’d probably say hurry up before it gets cold like Carlo’s did!

David: Is there anyone in poker who can out talk you at the table?

Neil: Paul Parker! (Neil gets the answer in before I can finish the sentence and someone a hundred yards away echo’s the sentiment!)

David: What was the last CD you bought?

Neil: I think I bought a couple of Dylan CD’s because it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t actually own any of his CDs. Other than that Morrissey…possibly REM.

David: Three favourite movies?

Neil: Godfather II, Goodfellas, Hannah and her Sister…maybe.

David: A favourite quote?

(Neil immediately goes into a Francis Rohan impersonation)

Neil: “If you keep playing like that, you’ll be back to livin’ on cat food!”

David: A classic! Have you seen Francis recently?

Neil: He was over here at Christmas for the Bellagio thing and I asked him how well he was doing…he said, “I’m playing so xxxxxxx well now…the dealers are tipping ME!”

David: Talking of Francis…who would you want for company on a slow boat to China?

Neil: Possibly the Camel…because you know, if we had to turn to eating each other…I would never go hungry!

David: If you could give any advice to someone who’s only been playing for a few months….

Neil: One sentence? Don’t think you know it all straight away…it takes a lifetime!

David: Thanks very much Neil…over and out…

Neil: Thank you