LTDPA - The Licensed Taxi Driver's Poker Association

Welcome to The Licensed Taxi Driver's Poker Association - LTDPA
The Licensed Taxi Driver's Poker Association (LTDPA) is a non for profit organisation, run by taxi drivers for taxi drivers from all over the United Kingdom.

We at the LTDPA are now taking rest from organising Poker Evenings. Watch this space after the Kids go back after the Summer 2010 School Holidays for a date when we'll possibly start up again. Any comments, all the usual channels still work.

We are also delighted to announce due the success of The LTDPA Events in London we've secured sponsorship for the launch of The UK Taxi Poker Tour, UKTPT.

Our first live land based nights of passionate tournament Poker outside of London for Taxi Drivers and there selected guests will be in:

Coventry at The G Casino under the Ricoh Arena on Wednesday June 2nd at 7pm.

For all UKTPT Events tournament structure of Buy in's, Starting Chip Stacks & Blind Clocks etc...please go the Events page.

Please go to www.taxipoker.net and you'll be able to qualify on-line for all LTDPA Events via our nightly multi-table Texas Holdem Freeze-out at 9pm or for those of us who have a little less time try your luck in Six or Ten Seater Sit & Goes in the Taxi Driver section. Please check back regularly for more information or keep updated with our Newsletter.

Congratulations to our May 2010 winner

I'm very happy to report that the final three left standing at May's Event decide to split the top three's Prizepool. Ivor Oberchowski (pictured left) was crowned May's Champ after his AK off suit held up in an openly dealt three way coup for the bragging and photographic rights. Ivor who I've personally known for over 30 Years is one of your own. He's been pushing the Cab for nearly 14 Years and a true night man. He doesn't know how to price a job on rate One & Two. He's a proud Father of Three and been married 25 Years. He absolutely loves his Golf and has been an integral member of a strong twice weekly Society at Hainault Golf Course and obviously he knows his way round a Poker Table also, so a very well done Iv !!

Congratulations are extended to Peter Gold our February 2010 winner.

Peter is a 57 year old Grandfather who isn’t a Taxi Driver. However he has been a friend to the trade for many years and is very well known within the Kalooki – 79 Rummy fraternities thats for sure. He has been semi-retired Bookmaker since I can remember and is very keen to challenge anyone on the golf course with his 8 handicap….

Initially Peter had 2-1 chip lead that had been mainly manifested prior to his arrival to the final table. He then became involved with Mark and his inexperience of a Heads Up Battle at this time showed. His lack of aggression alluded to Mark – who is also a non Taxi Driver that plays 3 / 4 times a week to a very competitive standard – being a 3-1 chip leader. Eventually Mark pushed with 10/8 suited and China called with his K/4 off suit. China’s King stood up and he then found a new vein of aggressive form that saw him power through for the points victory, although after the K/4 pivotal hand they agreed to carve up the finances. See you next month Guy’s on Tuesday March 2nd 2010 at The Loose Cannon.

Moving on to November’s Winner. I was delighted to receive the congratulations of our members as I/ME, yes ME !! won my first ever Poker Tournament.

I’ve had my Green Badge for over Ten years and I’m married with Three Children.

Moving on to September’s Winner we must congratulate "Bling Bling" again!

Jim now has a form guide to envy most of our members. He’s won it twice and also finished second. Jim himself is a Green Badge holder and has been for nearly 10 years. He is a proud father of Seven and originally from Camden Town. However as time has gone by, he has now migrated further North into Bedfordshire.

Now a hearty congratulations is extended to June’s winner, Terry Stephenson.

Terry is one of our founder member’s and never misses an event, unless he get’s stuck out at Heathrow !! and is very popular with anyone everyone his path crosses. Terry is 59 years old and is also a proud father of 4.

He’s had his Green badge for over 30 years also. Although we had only 41 runner’s again, these are the hard core of our membership and the standard is very tough. Terry made it to the final table and eventually the final 3. Robert Richland and Michael Collins certainly made Terry sweat for his triumph. Michael who came second is a regular also at our Events and Robert makes the Events when he can is more of an on-line player he tells me.

However the battle began, all 3 green badge holders went Toe To Toe for a good 40 minutes. " All in " was the repetitive declaration followed by the out draw and suck-outs and exasperations of the bad beat’s regularly occurring, echoed by shrieks of delight of the river card supplying the 3-outer needed to stay alive. All said and done, well played Terry and very well done…..

Also a special mention goes out to Steve Mahoney who had our first " ROYAL FLUSH " at June's Event !!

Steve had AK Hearts “in the hole“ and the flop duly obliged with J, Q, Hearts and then the beautiful 10 of Hearts on the river. LOVELY!

In turn now gets Steve free entry to July’s event, well done Steve………

Moving on to May’s Winner we must congratulate Barry Brennan.

Barry is 50 years old and has been a Green badge holder for over 17 years. He’s father of FOUR and he’s eldest is 22 and youngest is 15, fantastic, very well done. I haven't known Barry that long and he come's across as very cool guy with a laid back attitude I’d say. He who has been supportive to most of our event’s and it was his time.

After making it through to the final table and eventually the final 3, he had a right old ding dong with Phil Holsman and Paul Twinn. Now to regular’s at our game you’ll understand this was no mean feat. Phil is well up the leader board and a worthy adversary to anyone and Paul is one of if not the best cash player we have in our midst, so again very very well done Barry.

He’s originally from Leeds but now live’s in Brixton and work’s in central London fixing computers for a living. He first started playing poker 3 years ago on line but now prefer’s live play and is a regular in the Redtooth Pub Poker League. He made it to the national finals this March but finished just outside the money. He was introduced to the LTDPA back in September last year by Green Badge holder, Jamie Castell and upon meeting him I can personally vouch for him as a really good guy. It was his 5th appearance at our Monthly Event and with the high standard of play he count’s himself very lucky to have made it to the end - And wishes he could play like that every time!

He came through a strong field of 70 runner’s to eventually beat very own “ Tin Tin “ heads up to win it. It all went pre-flop, “ Tin Tin “ had pocket 6’s and after a couple of re re-raises Oliver called the “ All in “ with A J suited. Oliver was given immediate service on the flop with an Ace and never looked back. This action left Richard with only 26k and Oliver 464k and it was all over the very next hand as they both went “ All in “ blind and Oliver was triumphant.

Our congratulations must now be extended to March’s triumphant Winner Brian Hallow is a 55 year old Father who has been a Green Badge holder for over 17 years. Known to the few Taxi drivers that play regular live Poker, it isn’t a surprise that Brian did so well, but its still a great achievement to come through such a strong field!

And December's Winner is Gerald Zimmerling, a 63 year old Grandfather of four who has been married for over thirty seven years. He has held his Green Badge for more than twenty years and travel's in daily from the Hemel Hempstead area. He is without a doubt one of the trades character's and very well known throughout the Cab trade after conducting my searches. He made the final table after many hours of play and with only five remaining he was the " Low stack ". He then battled his way back to be a 2-1 chip leader at the heads-up stage. At this point the two finalists split all the prize money on offer to them and Gerald was announced as the winner. Well done Gerald from us all !!

Please check-out January's upcoming Newsletter for further information about upcoming Events.

October
Due to October's event being won by a guest, not a Taxi Driver. He was signed in by a Green Badge Holder, and has been perceived by a very small minority of our members as a high standard player, hence we now have had to introduce some regulations to protect those members from this happening again. This problem highlights that all our members are amateur/social players enjoying a night out once a month playing a little Poker and would not readily enter another Poker tournament of this size, other than these staged by the LTDPA.

Paul and I will vigorously endeavour to no longer allow a high standard player entry into the event. We are very confident of monitoring this from now on but we also feel very strongly that we can’t 100% ensure this situation occurring again without your help. We are appealing to the “integrity of our members” and “trust in you” to only invite social players and we will end up with a truly great night-out once a month, playing a little Poker against a level playing field of competition for a very healthy prize-pool and a generous donation to the allocated charities. The positive responses we have received and our growing database with the increasing entrants at every event staged, give’s me the confidence that you will accept our request for help. Looking forward’s to seeing you at our new home on the first Monday of the Month.
C’mon guys, let’s keep it real for all our members and well selected guests.

Very Important Changes At Our Last Event!
Due to some of our member’s wanting to bring guests to enhance there night and our prize-pool we have now had to introduce another prize structure.

The last standing Hackney Carriage Licensed Taxi Driver in the tournament will WIN now only a one off £250.00 payment.

Please arrive at 7.00pm with Badge and Bill etc. as registration will take time and we will " Shuffle up and Deal at 7.30pm ".
There will be a delayed registration period of 30 minutes which is the first two blind levels.
If you are going to run late, no problem, you be "blinded off" when you arrive and purchase your chips.