Roy’s success has not faded over the years, and he now works as a representative and sponsored player of Ladbrokes, adding writing, broadcasting and PR to his already busy poker playing schedule.

With an extraordinary record, which includes having won a festival tournament in every UK casino in which he has played, the only thing missing from Roy’s poker playing credentials is a major tournament win, a fact he does not shy away from.

Early this March Roy produced what has been described as a flawless display of poker to win the semi-final heat of the televised William Hill Grand Prix of poker, boasting one of the finest fields ever assembled in a European poker event. He then finished third in the final, behind Ram Vaswani and eventual winner Phil “The Unabomber” Laak.

Back in January Whichpoker writer Malcolm Weir caught up with Roy during the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise and over a mudslide cocktail in the Celebrity Show Bar an overworked Roy put his cards on the table.

Q. Hi Roy, thanks for taking the time to talk. I know it’s been a busy cruise for you. How have you found it?

A. Its been good thanks, but a lot of hard work, I’ve barely had time to play any poker. I’ve spent most of my time working with Ladbrokes, writing for the newsletter, commentating on the final tables, compeering and so on. It’s been late nights and early mornings, but good fun.

Q. When you have had a chance to sit down at the tables, how’s your luck been?

A. Not great! I played in the main event and got carded out, eventually going all-in with second pair and coming up against top pair. No help, and that was that.

I also played the Omaha tournament, which was as crazy as expected. It was a re-buy, so on most of the tables there were four or five people all-in on the first hand, trying to quintuple their stacks. The losers then re-buy and go all-in again – you know how it is. Unfortunately I wasn’t on one of those tables, so I wasn’t able to get a big enough stack. Eventually I got knocked out in 60th or so.

I played one cash game early on, and lost maybe 4 or 5 k. Since then I’ve just been too busy with Ladbrokes to play.

Q. Can you tell me a bit about how you got into poker?

A. Well I only started about three or four years ago. I saw a documentary about the ’99 World Series. At the time I was editing a greyhound racing magazine from home and was really into my gambling (though not successfully).

I was blown away by this documentary and was down my local card room – The Jackpot – in no time. I was there every night for six months and never looked back.

I won my first tournament in January 2002 – the Paddy Power Irish PokerMillion Satellite. It was a £10,000 prize – the most amount of money I’d ever had, and I also got a ticket to the Poker Million.

It was a whirlwind year, the highlight (and lowlight) being when I went to the World Heads-Up Championship (in May) and came second, beating the then European number one – Pascal Perrault – as well as the defending champion Bruno Fitousi en route to the final. I got a lot of TV coverage in that tournament, and by the end of 2002 I had won eight festival tournaments and had a sponsorship deal with Ladbrokes.

Q. You were one of the first poker players to get a full sponsorship deal. How does it work, and has it been good for you?

A. I was yes, and it was all down to the extraordinary 2002 and my ability to communicate with people. I mean there are some fine players out there but their personality has been removed and in this job you need to be a people person.

I work differently with Ladbrokes than most other sponsored players who have been on short-lived sponsorship deals. I don’t get direct tournament buy-ins for example and there is no pressure on me to play in certain events. I do wear Ladbrokes branded clothing in events and at corporate functions, I do a fair amount of writing, PR, consultancy and we have just completed filming of an interactive poker school DVD.

I’m happy as we have a good relationship and are about to sign for the sixth year. Do consider that from a standing start Ladbrokes Poker, the first UK betting firm to embrace the on-line poker concept, have held the mantle of Europe’s biggest online poker room, which is impressive considering the site is ‘stand alone’.

On-line poker now accounts for 10% of Ladbrokes betting business and I feel proud to be associated with that success.

Q. Tell me a bit about the World Heads-Up Championship in which you came runner up. You said it was the highlight and the lowlight of your year – what did you mean by that?

A. Ok. Well coming second in the World Heads-Up Championship was obviously a massive moment for me – it was how people got to know who I was, and in many ways it made me as a poker player. But it was also a huge disappointment. I had come there to win, and to come second after getting so close was devastating.

In fact I was quite heavily depressed for two weeks after that, and hardly left my room. It was quite strange I suppose; I’d won €34,000, which was a serious amount of money back then, but I was gutted.

I was so pumped up for that tournament, so focused, so driven; I had never been like that before – and in a way I never quite have since then either. It meant it was a real come down when it was all over.

I remember the tournament was a €3000 buy-in – I’d arrived in Vienna with €3200, and when I got there I discovered there was a €170 entry fee! It left me with €30 for the week. I couldn’t afford a taxi and didn’t know a soul so I had to walk between the hotel and the tournament, and could only afford to eat at McDonalds!

But it didn’t matter to me, I was so focused on winning that tournament, so committed to it, that I wasn’t thinking about anything else. That’s why I was so inconsolable when I lost in the final. It was a heads-up championship – second place wasn’t good enough, just like coming second in the World Cup final isn’t good enough.

Q. How have things gone since then?

A. Well poker wise I was on fire for the rest of that year. Despite the loss I still went on to have an incredible 2002. And of course beyond that it has been tremendous for my career. Along with the work I do for Ladbrokes I now also have a column in various newspapers and magazines.

But in some ways it feels like since that loss in the heads-up championship I’ve not been quite the same, poker wise. I’ve been winning, but without the same intensity I had before.

Q. You played in the 2005 WSOP. How did that go for you?

A. Oh Yea. Well it was good, but no so much for my own performance, as for that of my friend Andy Black. There’s a funny story to go with that actually.

During the WSOP, after the first day I think, Andy asked me if I fancied swapping a stake with him (ed note: swapping a stake is when players agree to give a percentage of their winnings to each other – so if one player crashes out and the other wins it, the winner will give some of his prize to the other, and vice versa.)

I had already given away some of myself and I didn’t fancy giving away any more, so I said no, but Andy wouldn’t let up. He kept pestering me, going lower and lower, till eventually he’d gone from something like 30 percent to just 3 percent. I finally succumbed and we swapped a 3 percent stake in each other.

Next thing I knew I was sitting on my hands and Andy’s at the final table of the WSOP. If he’d won it and I’d had the original 30 percent he was offering I’d have got over $1 million. He didn’t win, but I still got nearly 50K from 3 percent! (ed note: Andy Black finished fifth and won $1,750,000.)

Q. So for all those budding poker players out there (of which there are a frightening number) what do you think makes a good poker player?

A. Well personally I have card sense. I’ve played cards since I was a child, practically since I was a baby, so I just have that ingrained card sense. I don’t mean that it’s innate – you’re not born with it – but the earlier you learn it the better you’ll be. It’s not the same if you try and learn aged 30.

Q. Can you tell us some future players to look out for?

A. Well Stuart Fox is a class player. For some reason unknown to man he didn’t get nominated for rookie of the year in the recent poker player awards, but you will know who he is before long. John Gale is another class act – although he’s no rookie. He’s already won a WPT event and in America he’s a star – but here it seems like no-one knows who he is.

All the facts and figures a rookie player needs can be found at my website: www.roytheboy.net but it does not and cannot touch you that all-important factor in tournament poker, ‘feel.’

Q. And your next tournament?

A. The EPT French Open in Deauville (ed note: Roy ‘The Boy’ Brindley finished in the money but didn’t make the final table.)

Well thanks for talking to me Roy and good luck in the future.