Dececmber 2009 was a tough month that delivered a harsh reminder to stay aware of the important things in life. I realised too late that there were so many things I should have said to my Dad before he died, but sadly left it too late.
Dad was never a gambler, and hated anything that was associated with gambling. In my earlier years, I wasted so much money chasing my addiction to fruit machines, horses, and anything else that I could gamble on. Therefore, Dad found it difficult to accept that my time spent playing poker was a good thing. However, when he saw my consistent winnings, and particularly when he framed the photo of my UK Amateur win in Walsall, he came to accept that poker was perhaps something worthy for me. I was gobsmacked when for my 40th birthday last year, he paid my £200 entry to the Sky Poker Tour Grand Final - for him, this was a massive step.
As bad as a month December was for life in general, ironically it turned out to be my best month of 2009 for poker. I had been losing steadily online through 2009 and was finding it difficult to "get up" for poker. On 1st Dec I had $26 left if my PokerStars account, and challenged myself to do "something" with it. Through many $6 Single Table Tourneys, I managed to grow the $26 to $500. Along the way I also took down a $4 Omaha tournament for $450, giving me a PokerStars bankroll of over $900. Not bad for a month's effort, and hopefully a turn around in my online fortunes.
December then culminated in a final table at the DuskTillDawn 20/20 £20k tourney yesterday. From 227 runners, I picked my way to the final table having seen huge hands splashing all around me, but without any cards to speak of myself. My best two hands were 10 10, which was beaten by 33, and AK which was beaten by AQ. My chips had to be won the hard way, and it was over 7 hours before I took a hand to an all in showdown. The final exit was a sickener in the first hand of the final - matey shoved with 32o and I snap called with KJs, only for the flop to give two 3s! If I had won that hand, I would have found myself 3rd in chips, and confident of a deep finish. £427 prize for 9th, but £7,000 for 1st :(
Into 2010, and looking forward to more live play. It would be so nice to win another APAT national to give me something to dedicate to my Dad.
Tuesday 29 December 2009
Wednesday 25 November 2009
European Championships
So having counted down the hours, minutes, and seconds until the big day, it was suddenly upon me, in the wake of a sleepless night spent tossing and turning, and dreaming of what might be.Ever since the moment when my selection was announced, I found myself doubting my ability, which tinged the excitement with nervousness about whether I would fail in the competition. I know there are many people in APAT who are far better poker players than I, and who probably felt they were more deserving of a place (and I would probably agree).... however my run this year has been good, and it was me who had secured the place in the team.
So we hit Luton's G Casino filled with a mix of eager excitement and apprehension - however all the apprehension about my own playing ability was about to be expunged with an extraordinary first day.
The competition was made up of several mini tournaments, mixed between 6 handed single table tournaments, and HeadsUp (1 v 1) tournaments. Each member of our 4 man team played 2 STTs and 1 HU on each of the two days.
My first table provided a pretty exciting start for me, with most of the players seeming equally apprehensive about busting out early - and between myself and Jason Jones (Wales), we ran over the table for most of the game. I did have a decent slice of luck in the midst of the game when all in with 10 10 v the very short stack's JJ and a big stack's AQ... I just needed to hold up against the AQ to profit, and the 10 on the flop gave me a monster stack that I was able to use to good effect and to close out the tourney for maximum points.
A better start than I could have hoped and prayed for - I just wanted to score a point to settle my nerves - all 5 points was a bonus!
Second table was much the same, and when I beat a French players Heads Up during the evening, I had concluded day one as only one of two players on maximum points! Even better - England were at the top of the table, albeit things were very close with just one point separating us from Poland.
Day two started equally well with a Heads Up round, and given my form of day one, I was paired with the Polish player...... a reasonably quick and straight forward game, and England were pulling away at the top!
Sadly, that's where it all started to go wrong - points were dropped throughout the rest of the day and England slipped off the top, and were looking like losing a
ny hope of gaining even a bronze medal. Thankfully, my travelling companion (Brian Yates) was in even better nick than me by now, and scored 19 out of 24 possible points (I ended up with 16 - only 4 from day two having had a couple of yucky beats in the day's two STTs!), and his performance in the final session was enough to see us hang on to third place! Having said that, for the record it has to be noted that Brian did in fact lose headsup in STTs against a German girl..... twice!
ny hope of gaining even a bronze medal. Thankfully, my travelling companion (Brian Yates) was in even better nick than me by now, and scored 19 out of 24 possible points (I ended up with 16 - only 4 from day two having had a couple of yucky beats in the day's two STTs!), and his performance in the final session was enough to see us hang on to third place! Having said that, for the record it has to be noted that Brian did in fact lose headsup in STTs against a German girl..... twice! 
France and Poland ended up tied at the top, and played a set of Heads Up deciders for the championship, with Poland coming through victorious.In my opinion, Poland were very worthy winners, although it would have been nice to see the trophy go oversees into Europe - the Polish team are all resident in the UK, not that this really matters in the grand scheme of things I guess.
All in all, it was a magnificent experience, and I was just so chuffed to come away with a medal on behalf of my country, and even more chuffed to have played so well for most of the competition.
During the next two days, the Individual European Championship tournament was played out - I had the opportunity to score points for the rankings here and close out the 2009 rankings as winner. Sadly things didn't go quite as planned and I busted out 86th having never really got into a challenging position. Luckily, two of those in the chasing pack (Brian Martin and Andy Duncan) who made day two with commanding stacks, did not score sufficiently to overhaul my position at the top, and I was confirmed as 2009 APAT rankings winner. Put that with my England medal, and it was a pretty damned good weekend.
Friday 13 November 2009
For The Honour
As a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, I had a dream (like most lads) that I would one day represent my country. Sadly I turned out to be crap at football, rubbish at cricket, too lightwieght for rugby, and never quite good enough for snooker. Before I realised it, I was too old to have any chance, and my dream died.
I suspect that most young kids who love their sport have aspirations of emulating their heroes, but of all those who dream, only a microscopic proportion actually succeed. This year, completely out of the blue, my dream has been re-ignited, and I will finally have my chance to record a place in my own history that I can take pride in, and look forward to recounting to my grand-children in the future.
After a decent season on the APAT Amateur Poker Tour, my selection to the England team for the forthcoming European Championships of Amateur Poker was assured. It's with immense pride that I shall don the England shirt, and in my own small way I feel that I will have joined the ranks of Kevin Keegan, Steven Gerrard, Ian Botham, Freddie Flintoff, and many other of my sporting heroes, who have all been privileged to have represented their country.
OK so Amateur Poker is hardly Test Cricket or World Cup Football, but my selection is enough to fill me with pride, and my fervent Englishness means my desire to win will be up there with that of Keegan, Gerrard, etc.
With just six sleeps to go, I find myself going to bed and thinking about Luton, waking up in the night thinking about Luton, and going to work in the morning thinking about Luton. I just hope that when the day arrives, I'm able to do my selection justice, and not look back on my performances with regret.
I suspect that most young kids who love their sport have aspirations of emulating their heroes, but of all those who dream, only a microscopic proportion actually succeed. This year, completely out of the blue, my dream has been re-ignited, and I will finally have my chance to record a place in my own history that I can take pride in, and look forward to recounting to my grand-children in the future.
After a decent season on the APAT Amateur Poker Tour, my selection to the England team for the forthcoming European Championships of Amateur Poker was assured. It's with immense pride that I shall don the England shirt, and in my own small way I feel that I will have joined the ranks of Kevin Keegan, Steven Gerrard, Ian Botham, Freddie Flintoff, and many other of my sporting heroes, who have all been privileged to have represented their country.
OK so Amateur Poker is hardly Test Cricket or World Cup Football, but my selection is enough to fill me with pride, and my fervent Englishness means my desire to win will be up there with that of Keegan, Gerrard, etc.
With just six sleeps to go, I find myself going to bed and thinking about Luton, waking up in the night thinking about Luton, and going to work in the morning thinking about Luton. I just hope that when the day arrives, I'm able to do my selection justice, and not look back on my performances with regret.
Monday 26 October 2009
Catchup
Not posted for a while, probably to do with the fact that "I only blog when I'm winning..... blog when I'm winning... etc", and I errr haven't won for a while. In fact, not only have I failed to win for a while, I'm actually losing - something I haven't done for a long time. Still, variance has to get me at some point and I can ride it out.
That said though, I did make a final table at the World Champs of Amateur Poker at DuskTillDawn last month.... and it was in the Omaha event, a discipline in which I have never played live before, and have never played a tournament live or online before. Was a little clumsy handling 4 cards, but got there in the end. Was nice to be back on an APAT final table, and taking another 5 points for the National Rankings.
More recently I experienced the delights of Bolton (sadly I must have missed the "delights" and just experienced the arse-end instead. What a horrible run-down place!) as the APAT tour hit town for the English Amateur Championships. Now, as bad as Bolton is as a town, the G casino is an awesome venue. If they could have figured out how to crank up the air-con and keep the temperature somewhere under 90, it would have been the perfect venue!
The game itself went reasonably well and I managed to move into top form. For the first two levels I played more than 50% of hands, moved my stack from 10k up to 18k, and never showed a hand! The dynamics of the table changed with the late arrival of a couple of players, and I had to reign in my uber aggressive loose nature, but still managed to stay right on top of the table and drive my stack upwards. A minor accident saw me double up a short stack, who when counted his chips and was a little less short than I had realised - gulp.
It was a horrible feeling when that table broke, and I moved to a new spot with a known aggressive player on my immediate left who was sporting a monster stack of over 90k, making my 30k look a little weak. Still I had enough to make him respect my plays, and history between us in Dublin led us both to avoid each other like the plague. At one point when I raised from the cutoff with A3, and bigstack flat called behind, I thought I woould be taking a huge pot as the flop came 245 (MBN!!). The Ace on the turn both made some action for me (matey had AJ) but also killed the action as my check/min-raise set off too many alarm bells and he was able to get away.
Shortly after, having donked a few chips around trying and failing to get moves thr0ugh, I found myself at risk against the not-so-short-stack that I had inadvertently doubled up a while ago... my 66 was looking very poorly against his QQ, and a board of 742J wasn't helping..... my coat was on, ipod and glasses packed away, hand extended to shake............. til BINK 6 on the river saved the day!
Zero decent hands, several more failed steals, and I'm short stacked. A couple of table moves resulting in complete lack of knowledge of players around me, and a necessity to get my chips in as early as possible, left me in a complete hole. I was down to 10xBB and needing to shove to stay alive - and the guy two to my left had enough chips in front of him to build Westminster and Buckingham Palace!! On the button to his BB I found A6o and open shoved successfully taking the blinds and antes.... and on the next hand found AQs. Wanting a call from a weaker Ace and most pocket pairs, I hoped another open-shove would look weak, and apparently it did as the Big Blind called with ATo for more than half of his stack!! Happy days.... but of course this was to be the one time in five that AT beats AQ.
I was out in 46th, where if my hand had held I would be up to 48k with blinds at 1k/2k, and an above average stack. C'est la vie - need to keep reminding myself I wanted that call from the AT.
So back home early on Sunday afternoon, and resolved to make use of my "poker pass" and play some online cash during the afternoon and tourneys in the evening. Cash was hopeless - in half an hour I ran QQ into KK for one buy in, and a flopped straight into a rivered house for a second buy in. All the evening tourneys saw early exits, except the Sunday 250k on Pokerstars where I managed to finish araound 600th from 30,000 runners - 4 hours work and a late night for a whopping $50 profit, only recouping half of my cash losses. Great. Whilst sitting 12th from 20k+ still in the tourney, I had my eye firmly on the $27,000 first prize :)
So, next stop Luton in November for the European team and individual championships. Did I mention I had been selected to play for England in the European Amateur Team Championships? What an absolute honour and a privilege.
That said though, I did make a final table at the World Champs of Amateur Poker at DuskTillDawn last month.... and it was in the Omaha event, a discipline in which I have never played live before, and have never played a tournament live or online before. Was a little clumsy handling 4 cards, but got there in the end. Was nice to be back on an APAT final table, and taking another 5 points for the National Rankings.
More recently I experienced the delights of Bolton (sadly I must have missed the "delights" and just experienced the arse-end instead. What a horrible run-down place!) as the APAT tour hit town for the English Amateur Championships. Now, as bad as Bolton is as a town, the G casino is an awesome venue. If they could have figured out how to crank up the air-con and keep the temperature somewhere under 90, it would have been the perfect venue!
The game itself went reasonably well and I managed to move into top form. For the first two levels I played more than 50% of hands, moved my stack from 10k up to 18k, and never showed a hand! The dynamics of the table changed with the late arrival of a couple of players, and I had to reign in my uber aggressive loose nature, but still managed to stay right on top of the table and drive my stack upwards. A minor accident saw me double up a short stack, who when counted his chips and was a little less short than I had realised - gulp.
It was a horrible feeling when that table broke, and I moved to a new spot with a known aggressive player on my immediate left who was sporting a monster stack of over 90k, making my 30k look a little weak. Still I had enough to make him respect my plays, and history between us in Dublin led us both to avoid each other like the plague. At one point when I raised from the cutoff with A3, and bigstack flat called behind, I thought I woould be taking a huge pot as the flop came 245 (MBN!!). The Ace on the turn both made some action for me (matey had AJ) but also killed the action as my check/min-raise set off too many alarm bells and he was able to get away.
Shortly after, having donked a few chips around trying and failing to get moves thr0ugh, I found myself at risk against the not-so-short-stack that I had inadvertently doubled up a while ago... my 66 was looking very poorly against his QQ, and a board of 742J wasn't helping..... my coat was on, ipod and glasses packed away, hand extended to shake............. til BINK 6 on the river saved the day!
Zero decent hands, several more failed steals, and I'm short stacked. A couple of table moves resulting in complete lack of knowledge of players around me, and a necessity to get my chips in as early as possible, left me in a complete hole. I was down to 10xBB and needing to shove to stay alive - and the guy two to my left had enough chips in front of him to build Westminster and Buckingham Palace!! On the button to his BB I found A6o and open shoved successfully taking the blinds and antes.... and on the next hand found AQs. Wanting a call from a weaker Ace and most pocket pairs, I hoped another open-shove would look weak, and apparently it did as the Big Blind called with ATo for more than half of his stack!! Happy days.... but of course this was to be the one time in five that AT beats AQ.
I was out in 46th, where if my hand had held I would be up to 48k with blinds at 1k/2k, and an above average stack. C'est la vie - need to keep reminding myself I wanted that call from the AT.
So back home early on Sunday afternoon, and resolved to make use of my "poker pass" and play some online cash during the afternoon and tourneys in the evening. Cash was hopeless - in half an hour I ran QQ into KK for one buy in, and a flopped straight into a rivered house for a second buy in. All the evening tourneys saw early exits, except the Sunday 250k on Pokerstars where I managed to finish araound 600th from 30,000 runners - 4 hours work and a late night for a whopping $50 profit, only recouping half of my cash losses. Great. Whilst sitting 12th from 20k+ still in the tourney, I had my eye firmly on the $27,000 first prize :)
So, next stop Luton in November for the European team and individual championships. Did I mention I had been selected to play for England in the European Amateur Team Championships? What an absolute honour and a privilege.
Friday 7 August 2009
Contemplation
As I sit here in the home office on what is turining out to be a very quiet day at work, I contemplate the sunshine and 25C temperature, and how I wish I was jetting off somewhere to a summer holiday of beer, sun, beer, family time, beer, fun, beer, and sun.
My email inbox is empty, my To Do list is complete, my admin is all up to date. A little surfing, but Facebook is quiet today, the poker forums even quieter.
I mention to a friend online that I haven't played much live poker for a while and am longing for the World Championships of Amateur Poker in late August. Online poker is proving a fruitless exercise right now, and has become a little tedious. Gone are the days of playing at levels that made my heart race - my bankroll is decimated, and the rebuilding is proving to be very very boring. Somehow sitting for hours playing online for pennies is losing the appeal - this time last year I was played in pots that on occasion exceeded $1,000 - now the biggest I see is $20!
It's live tournament poker that gets my juices flowing now, and I wish I could play a little more often.
Whilst I'm sitting in a period of almost meditation, Katharine appears at the office door to check her diary with me as she has an entry that says I'm playing a team game at DuskTilDawn tonight and tomorrow. I ruefully point out that the event was cancelled due to lack of interest....... but then the little imp on my shoulder points out that as I was not expected to be home tonight, perhaps I wouldn't be missed.........
.........and now instead of waiting for the WCOAP in three weeks for my next live poker, I only have to wait til tonight!! Suddenly feeling awake again.
Hopefully my next entry on this blog will be made tomorrow morning in celebration of a win tonight.
---------------
EDIT Saturday morning......
Well, nursed a short stack all evening and finally finished 18th. Had two decent pros (Tom McCready and Tony Phillips) at my table for most of the game, and between them they made play quite tough. Spent three hours playing cash after my tourney exit, and managed a whopping profit of £5. At an earnings rate of £1.67/hour I won't be giving up work any time soon :(
Got home at 3.35 this morning...... yawwwwn
My email inbox is empty, my To Do list is complete, my admin is all up to date. A little surfing, but Facebook is quiet today, the poker forums even quieter.
I mention to a friend online that I haven't played much live poker for a while and am longing for the World Championships of Amateur Poker in late August. Online poker is proving a fruitless exercise right now, and has become a little tedious. Gone are the days of playing at levels that made my heart race - my bankroll is decimated, and the rebuilding is proving to be very very boring. Somehow sitting for hours playing online for pennies is losing the appeal - this time last year I was played in pots that on occasion exceeded $1,000 - now the biggest I see is $20!
It's live tournament poker that gets my juices flowing now, and I wish I could play a little more often.
Whilst I'm sitting in a period of almost meditation, Katharine appears at the office door to check her diary with me as she has an entry that says I'm playing a team game at DuskTilDawn tonight and tomorrow. I ruefully point out that the event was cancelled due to lack of interest....... but then the little imp on my shoulder points out that as I was not expected to be home tonight, perhaps I wouldn't be missed.........
.........and now instead of waiting for the WCOAP in three weeks for my next live poker, I only have to wait til tonight!! Suddenly feeling awake again.
Hopefully my next entry on this blog will be made tomorrow morning in celebration of a win tonight.
---------------
EDIT Saturday morning......
Well, nursed a short stack all evening and finally finished 18th. Had two decent pros (Tom McCready and Tony Phillips) at my table for most of the game, and between them they made play quite tough. Spent three hours playing cash after my tourney exit, and managed a whopping profit of £5. At an earnings rate of £1.67/hour I won't be giving up work any time soon :(
Got home at 3.35 this morning...... yawwwwn
Wednesday 22 July 2009
The story of the Keys and The Pies
Note that the title of this item is nothing to do with poker, and at times, that reflected the mood of the recent weekend at the latest APAT event in Edinburgh. Usually I return home from these events feeling fulfilled, and eager to write about my experiences - this weekend just wasn't a "normal" APAT weekend though, and was in truth ultimately disappointing.
The usual build up of tension and excitement from a few days out were there alright, and the journey to Scotland was filled with the now familiar butterflies and nervous energy. However, by the time we had arrived at the casino and found the card room, the crappy attitude of the card room staff partially quelled the excitement.
The tournament itself for me was an uneventful affair, mixed with frustrations at the inexperienced dealer (we had the same dealer for 4 hours straight!), the poor quality chipset, the split card room, and the absolutely terrible food. As far as the cards go, I didn't get anything of note, other than making a huge preflop laydown of QQ and feeling ecstatic when two other players reached showdown with KK and AA!!
Dinner break was incredible (incredibly bad that is). I filled my plate at the buffet with two sausage rolls, a "scotch pie", and a number of brown things that looked like something my dog produces when he has a bad belly. The brown things were ok and tasted vaguely of some sort of curry spice, the sausage rolls were ok, but the pies? OMG the pies!!!! I took a huge bite, then spent the next couple of minutes trying to swallow, but the instant film of grease on the roof of my mouth was making me gag. Whilst standing chatting with Brian, trying not to be sick, I tipped the pie up and watched a huge stream of liquid grease run out on to the plate. Brian's untouched pie promptly went in the bin.
The usual build up of tension and excitement from a few days out were there alright, and the journey to Scotland was filled with the now familiar butterflies and nervous energy. However, by the time we had arrived at the casino and found the card room, the crappy attitude of the card room staff partially quelled the excitement.
The tournament itself for me was an uneventful affair, mixed with frustrations at the inexperienced dealer (we had the same dealer for 4 hours straight!), the poor quality chipset, the split card room, and the absolutely terrible food. As far as the cards go, I didn't get anything of note, other than making a huge preflop laydown of QQ and feeling ecstatic when two other players reached showdown with KK and AA!!
Dinner break was incredible (incredibly bad that is). I filled my plate at the buffet with two sausage rolls, a "scotch pie", and a number of brown things that looked like something my dog produces when he has a bad belly. The brown things were ok and tasted vaguely of some sort of curry spice, the sausage rolls were ok, but the pies? OMG the pies!!!! I took a huge bite, then spent the next couple of minutes trying to swallow, but the instant film of grease on the roof of my mouth was making me gag. Whilst standing chatting with Brian, trying not to be sick, I tipped the pie up and watched a huge stream of liquid grease run out on to the plate. Brian's untouched pie promptly went in the bin.
My tournament exit hand just about summed up the whole day for me - a push on the button with A2, snap called by KK in the blinds..... flop was AJA (elation), turn was 4, river was...... K (gutted). My only other hand of note was when I doubled up against the eventual winner who called my all in open shove for 15xBB - he held 10 10....... I had the monster that is 2c4c.
As for the dealer - I was on tilt from the third hand or so...... caused by his constant odd remarks when betting had finished for a round, and he would say "any more players? no more bets". Clearly he thought he was at a roulette table rather than in the card room.
My travelling companion, Brian Yates, and I were sharing a room at a small B&B about a mile from the casino. We had one set of keys which opened the front door and the bedroom door. Brian who wasn't feeling so good left the casino early evening, and suggested I call him when I arrived back at the B&B so he could let me in. At around 11.30, feeling dead tired, I trudged the mile walk along the Glasgow Road and rang Brian's mobile....... the conversation was along the lines of:
Brian "Hello"
Steve "It's me. Let me in please"
Brian "I'll throw the keys out of the window"
Steve "Don't be a twat - just come and let me in the door"
Skylight window opens and Brian appears...
Brian "Here you go - catch"
Steve "Make sure you throw them far enough - mind the gutter"
Brian "Oops, they landed in the gutter"
Steve "Daft twat"
Brian "Sorry mate"
Steve "It's raining, cold, and I can't get in"
A mile in the rain to get back to the casino to find Paul (he was staying in the same B&B). Waited til 2am for close of play and walked back with Paul. Another mile!
It was an interesting conversation next morning when Brian had to ask the old boy who owned the B&B for a ladder to get on his roof!!
So, breakfasted and raring to go, it was off to the snooker hall for the rest of breakfast - several pints of Stella, followed by a trip to a different Edinburgh casino to take the locals on in a £40 tourney.
Well, there was I thinking I would outplay the locals - but it seems that they don't understand "poker", and after several moves that ran into very ropey calls, I was out. At that point an old geezer asked me if I would like to start a cash table with him and two others. hmmmmmm thinks I - if the standard is anything like the tourney play, this could be lucrative....... and it didn't disappoint. Four hours of £1/£1 NLH, and I had won enough to cover all costs from the weekend - £100 became £375 with ease. For Paul, £200 became over £800!!
I flew home on Monday and logged into the APAT forum to post my updates and thanks, and saw some pretty interesting recollections of drunken aggression, cheating, crap food, crap dealers, and crap casino. Just about summed it up nicely.
The next round of the APAT tour is at DuskTillDawn ("Europe's Premier Cardroom") in Nottingham. Having played there a few times, I know that the dealers and other staff are top notch, that the facilities are second to none, the food is awesome, and loud drunken and aggressive behaviour is pounced on and penalised. I can't wait - normal APAT service will be resumed.
Tuesday 2 June 2009
Guinness and Poker
The APAT tour rolled on with the latest leg being played in Dublin. Having never gone abroad just to play poker, it was with great excitement that I started counting the number of sleeps til Dublin from about four weeks out - haven't done that since I was 12 and counting down to christmas!!
5am Saturday morning and the alarm went off to let me know I could get up - I would say "wake up", but to do that I would have needed to have slept. As for Saturday having a 5am - that was news to me!!
Bag packed and off to the airport - first challenge was finding somewhere to park. Having paid in advance for long stay parking, I thought this bit would be easy. Think again. 10 minutes driving round a seemingly endless array of parked cars in a space that would have accomodated umpteen football pitches, I finally found a space that wasn't a four day hike from the terminal building and squeezed in (literally).
Met up with my travelling companions Brian Yates (top bloke, Black Country Poker club secretary, and reigning APAT Welsh Online champion), and Maclolm Howells (new to APAT and eager to get stuck in). Couldn't wish for a nicer pair to travel with.
Next - the departure gate. Of course I was able to skip the queues at check in as I was taking hand luggage only, and had checked in online. As an infrequent traveller who hadn't botherered to read the small print about hand luggage contents, I watched in dismay as my entire toiletries bag was removed from my luggage and dropped into a bin by the kind lady behind the x-ray machine. Shower gel, toothpaste, anti-perspirant, mouthwash - all discarded by an apparently sympathetic person telling me that she had to do this in case I was making a bomb from the liquid contents. I'm sure that the gobfull of Listerine that was left in the bottle could have caused someone a nasty itch if I managed to get it in their eye, but not quite sure how I could have blown up the plane with it. Never mind - through departure and into Boots and purchased the whole lot again (at nicely inflated airport prices) and off to the gate.
Met up with a few other travelling APATers, including Stuart Langford who was shedding a tear having had to pay £20 for a reprint of his boarding pass (nothing fancy - just an A4 page printed from a website that he had already done once at home, but lost at the airport)! Sorry Stuart - but boy did we laugh at that one, particularly when Malcolm went to the same desk and managed to blag a reprint of his for free!! :o)
Uneventful flight on a plane with a vivid yellow interior. God knows what the RyanAir brand designer had been drinking when he came up with that colour scheme - I suspect it may have been Advocat!
Landed in Dublin and met up with Sam and Will - two brothers that Brian knew from previous poker outings - who were travelling from Belfast to Dublin for the tournament. The quiet journey in the car hid the weekend full of laughs that was to come from these guys. Note to self - don't ever make a 1 Euro bet with Sam - I cannot win!!
Having dropped the bags at the hotel, and taken a tram into the beautiful city of Dublin, stomach's were rumbling and the time was right for lunch - so off to Larry Murphy's for a couple of pints of Guinness in the sunshine. Food? For wimps!!
14:30 Saturday afternoon - excitement reaching fever pitch as everyone was seated in the Fitzwilliam Card Club, and the TD called out for the dealers to Shuffle Up and Deal. Hopefully I would get a good rush of cards, big pots, lots of chips, a few knockouts, and would be chip leader at the Dinner Break, just like Cardiff. Things didn't quite go as hoped, although I was never in trouble - just took down a few small pots, and kept my stack intact. A couple of pints during he dinner break, and I loosened up a little in the evening session, and managed to make day two with a 28k stack (blinds were 1500/3000 - so a little shorter stacked than I would have liked!).
Having won round 1 in Walsall, then suffered issues away from the table during round 2 in Cardiff but still scraping to day two, I was chuffed to make day two in Dublin and maintain my 100% record of day two progressions during Season 3's live schedule.
Back at the hotel on Saturday evening, some pillock (er, me) suggested a quick €10 sit and go - even though it was after 2am. With 6 of us playing, three of us took it in the correct spirit and donked our chips away as fast as we could so we could have a kip whilst the other three played as if it were the WSOP Main Event final table. Believe it or not - at 3.10am, they decided to do a deal and chopped up the €60 in a 3 way split!! I'm sure Brian would have seen the funny side of this and had a laugh, had he not been sprawled across the leather sofa snoring like a tractor.
Given that we didn't need to be at the Card Club until 2pm on Sunday, and we didn't get into bed until nearly 4am, we decided to not worry about the breakfast schedule, and just to sleep through for as long as felt good...... that was until Sam called at 7am to tell us it was morning and he hadn't been to bed! Cheers mate!!
Day two was going to be an interesting affair for me. I had committed not to let my short stack bleed away, and would be all in with any two cards in the first hand that folded round to me. It didn't take long to get my chips in, although with no callers - but the blinds and antes were massive in relation to my stack size, so two more uncontested shoves later, and I had some breathing space. Then, for the first time in the tournament I was at risk - I called all in with AQ against Will Young's (not that Will Young!) shove with 55, and hit a Q. Two hands later I was at risk again having called all in from the big blind with 99 against a button shove froma big stack with A10.... 9s held, and I was above average stack for the first time in the competition.
In Cardiff I was the big stack all day, right from Level1 until late evening when things away from the table turned sour. In Dublin, I had a completely different tournament, and nursed a short stack all the way to the brink of the final table. Unfortunately the wheels came off when my short stack shove with 33 on a 5 handed table was called by QQ (Will Young again!) and I was out in 10th, bubbling the final table.
Chuffed, elated, and gutted, all at the same time. Kind of wierd feeling.
The disappointment was soon forgotten as my travel companion, room mate, and good friend, went on to use his large chip stack to great effect throughout the final table, and to win the championship! Massive congratulations to Brian Yates. The timing could not have been better for Brian, having suffered a family bereavement a couple of days before the event - this win was dedicated to his father in law. Brian, if you read this, just know that he would have been watching from above and sharing your excitement and enjoyment throughout. You played it like a pro, and so deserved the victory.
So, with Brian, Will, Malcolm, and myself all making the cash, our party (7 of us) went to grab a quick beer before the pubs shut. It was around 11:30 as we arrived at the first pub, and thinking that we might only have a few minutes, the first pint and chaser didn't touch the sides before the next round was poured. Of course, we would have taken it slower had we realised the pubs would be serving until 3am!! There were several rather green faces in the back of the taxi minibus - I just had everything crossed that we would get to the hotel before the inevitable happened.
Barf. More barf. Headaches a plenty. Crappy overpriced hotel breakfast didn't help much.
Airport - need water. Buy big bottle. Off to departure gate to watch it thrown in the bin - flipping heck, don't we learn!! Unlike the mouthwash, I really don't know what injury I could cause with a bottle of cold sprint water, even if it did cost me €4!
On to the plane - Oh My God, remember the yellow colour scheme I mentioned earlier? It was bad enough sober, but with a stinging hangover........ Sat at the back in the seat nearest the toilet (just in case, you understand)
Landed, said goodbyes, found car, drove home, end of story.
A bloody marvellous weekend. Dublin is a helluva city, with some lovely people. To be in a foreign country but to made to feel so welcome by such friendly people was just awesome. Due to the poor £ to € exchange rate, the weekend was extremely expensive (over €5 a pint!), but well worth it.
I like to consider that the organisers and players on the APAT tour are included amongst my best friends. The tour rolls on to Edinburgh in July..... can't come quickly enough!
5am Saturday morning and the alarm went off to let me know I could get up - I would say "wake up", but to do that I would have needed to have slept. As for Saturday having a 5am - that was news to me!!
Bag packed and off to the airport - first challenge was finding somewhere to park. Having paid in advance for long stay parking, I thought this bit would be easy. Think again. 10 minutes driving round a seemingly endless array of parked cars in a space that would have accomodated umpteen football pitches, I finally found a space that wasn't a four day hike from the terminal building and squeezed in (literally).
Met up with my travelling companions Brian Yates (top bloke, Black Country Poker club secretary, and reigning APAT Welsh Online champion), and Maclolm Howells (new to APAT and eager to get stuck in). Couldn't wish for a nicer pair to travel with.
Next - the departure gate. Of course I was able to skip the queues at check in as I was taking hand luggage only, and had checked in online. As an infrequent traveller who hadn't botherered to read the small print about hand luggage contents, I watched in dismay as my entire toiletries bag was removed from my luggage and dropped into a bin by the kind lady behind the x-ray machine. Shower gel, toothpaste, anti-perspirant, mouthwash - all discarded by an apparently sympathetic person telling me that she had to do this in case I was making a bomb from the liquid contents. I'm sure that the gobfull of Listerine that was left in the bottle could have caused someone a nasty itch if I managed to get it in their eye, but not quite sure how I could have blown up the plane with it. Never mind - through departure and into Boots and purchased the whole lot again (at nicely inflated airport prices) and off to the gate.
Met up with a few other travelling APATers, including Stuart Langford who was shedding a tear having had to pay £20 for a reprint of his boarding pass (nothing fancy - just an A4 page printed from a website that he had already done once at home, but lost at the airport)! Sorry Stuart - but boy did we laugh at that one, particularly when Malcolm went to the same desk and managed to blag a reprint of his for free!! :o)
Uneventful flight on a plane with a vivid yellow interior. God knows what the RyanAir brand designer had been drinking when he came up with that colour scheme - I suspect it may have been Advocat!
Landed in Dublin and met up with Sam and Will - two brothers that Brian knew from previous poker outings - who were travelling from Belfast to Dublin for the tournament. The quiet journey in the car hid the weekend full of laughs that was to come from these guys. Note to self - don't ever make a 1 Euro bet with Sam - I cannot win!!
Having dropped the bags at the hotel, and taken a tram into the beautiful city of Dublin, stomach's were rumbling and the time was right for lunch - so off to Larry Murphy's for a couple of pints of Guinness in the sunshine. Food? For wimps!!
14:30 Saturday afternoon - excitement reaching fever pitch as everyone was seated in the Fitzwilliam Card Club, and the TD called out for the dealers to Shuffle Up and Deal. Hopefully I would get a good rush of cards, big pots, lots of chips, a few knockouts, and would be chip leader at the Dinner Break, just like Cardiff. Things didn't quite go as hoped, although I was never in trouble - just took down a few small pots, and kept my stack intact. A couple of pints during he dinner break, and I loosened up a little in the evening session, and managed to make day two with a 28k stack (blinds were 1500/3000 - so a little shorter stacked than I would have liked!).
Having won round 1 in Walsall, then suffered issues away from the table during round 2 in Cardiff but still scraping to day two, I was chuffed to make day two in Dublin and maintain my 100% record of day two progressions during Season 3's live schedule.
Back at the hotel on Saturday evening, some pillock (er, me) suggested a quick €10 sit and go - even though it was after 2am. With 6 of us playing, three of us took it in the correct spirit and donked our chips away as fast as we could so we could have a kip whilst the other three played as if it were the WSOP Main Event final table. Believe it or not - at 3.10am, they decided to do a deal and chopped up the €60 in a 3 way split!! I'm sure Brian would have seen the funny side of this and had a laugh, had he not been sprawled across the leather sofa snoring like a tractor.
Given that we didn't need to be at the Card Club until 2pm on Sunday, and we didn't get into bed until nearly 4am, we decided to not worry about the breakfast schedule, and just to sleep through for as long as felt good...... that was until Sam called at 7am to tell us it was morning and he hadn't been to bed! Cheers mate!!
Day two was going to be an interesting affair for me. I had committed not to let my short stack bleed away, and would be all in with any two cards in the first hand that folded round to me. It didn't take long to get my chips in, although with no callers - but the blinds and antes were massive in relation to my stack size, so two more uncontested shoves later, and I had some breathing space. Then, for the first time in the tournament I was at risk - I called all in with AQ against Will Young's (not that Will Young!) shove with 55, and hit a Q. Two hands later I was at risk again having called all in from the big blind with 99 against a button shove froma big stack with A10.... 9s held, and I was above average stack for the first time in the competition.
In Cardiff I was the big stack all day, right from Level1 until late evening when things away from the table turned sour. In Dublin, I had a completely different tournament, and nursed a short stack all the way to the brink of the final table. Unfortunately the wheels came off when my short stack shove with 33 on a 5 handed table was called by QQ (Will Young again!) and I was out in 10th, bubbling the final table.
Chuffed, elated, and gutted, all at the same time. Kind of wierd feeling.
The disappointment was soon forgotten as my travel companion, room mate, and good friend, went on to use his large chip stack to great effect throughout the final table, and to win the championship! Massive congratulations to Brian Yates. The timing could not have been better for Brian, having suffered a family bereavement a couple of days before the event - this win was dedicated to his father in law. Brian, if you read this, just know that he would have been watching from above and sharing your excitement and enjoyment throughout. You played it like a pro, and so deserved the victory.
So, with Brian, Will, Malcolm, and myself all making the cash, our party (7 of us) went to grab a quick beer before the pubs shut. It was around 11:30 as we arrived at the first pub, and thinking that we might only have a few minutes, the first pint and chaser didn't touch the sides before the next round was poured. Of course, we would have taken it slower had we realised the pubs would be serving until 3am!! There were several rather green faces in the back of the taxi minibus - I just had everything crossed that we would get to the hotel before the inevitable happened.
Barf. More barf. Headaches a plenty. Crappy overpriced hotel breakfast didn't help much.
Airport - need water. Buy big bottle. Off to departure gate to watch it thrown in the bin - flipping heck, don't we learn!! Unlike the mouthwash, I really don't know what injury I could cause with a bottle of cold sprint water, even if it did cost me €4!
On to the plane - Oh My God, remember the yellow colour scheme I mentioned earlier? It was bad enough sober, but with a stinging hangover........ Sat at the back in the seat nearest the toilet (just in case, you understand)
Landed, said goodbyes, found car, drove home, end of story.
A bloody marvellous weekend. Dublin is a helluva city, with some lovely people. To be in a foreign country but to made to feel so welcome by such friendly people was just awesome. Due to the poor £ to € exchange rate, the weekend was extremely expensive (over €5 a pint!), but well worth it.
I like to consider that the organisers and players on the APAT tour are included amongst my best friends. The tour rolls on to Edinburgh in July..... can't come quickly enough!
Wednesday 8 April 2009
More important things in life than poker (really!)
Having been on a major cooler since earning the title of APAT UK Champion, and having received much feedback about simply being lucky when winning in Walsall, I was determined to make a good showing in Cardiff at the APAT Welsh Championship, if only to demonstrate that Walsall wasn't just a weekend of luckbox poker.
I left in plenty of time to get to Cardiff for lunch, and decided to pop in to see my Dad on the way.... having been ill for some time, it made a pleasant change to find him in good spirits, and that set me up with a good mood for the journey to Cardiff. The good mood dissipated a little when my TomTom took me to a housing estate instead of a casino - perhaps I should have learned from the same mistake made last year!!
Arrived at the casino in time to grab a beer before seating began for the tournament.... but wished I'd had a few more when I saw that Gareth Ower and Darren Shallis (both APAT champs) were both sat to my left!! No hanging around today though - had made a conscious decision to play fast and aggressive from the off.
Toward the end of Level One I started to realise why I had the luckbox title - Darren Shallis raised under the gun and I called from the button with QQ. The flop was AT4... Darren checked and I checked behind, scared to death of the Ace, and ready to fold if Darren had made a c-bet. The turn was a J, and now Darren lead out for a bet sized at half the pot..... I decided to call thinking that as he had checked the ace hig flop, there was a marginal chance I was ahead, plus I was getting 3:1 on the call, and hopefully may get to a showdown fairly cheaply. The river was a magical K giving me the nut straight - Darren bet again, and even though there was four to a straight on the board, he couldn't possibly fold to the small raise I issued. So - chip leader at the table by end of Level One.
Within a few moments I had a similar river catch for another broadway straight against another player, and was tournament chip leader by the first break!! Woohoo - see, Walsall was not just a fluke!!
Stayed fairly steady during the second session, then managed to find myself in a monster hand just before the dinner break. Ger Smyth raised under the gun to 3xBB and with a caller in mid position, I was getting good odds to call from the BB with QcJc..... the flop came a rather tempting Kc Jh 8c giving me middle pair and the second nut flush draw. I checked to Ger who made his c-bet, and I figured I was against AK or AA, meaning at this point I was just about favourite to win the hand. I tanked and after having a clock called, decided to shove.... Ger called and showed his AA..... and I binked a third J on the river! WOOP WOOP!!
Chip Leader at the dinner break - see, told you Walsall wasn't a fluke!!
Continued to play well (and run well) through the evening session and stayed on or around the chip lead, and was starting to believe that back to back APAT wins was a possibility. Then, at around 11:15pm I got a horrible call from home - Dad had been rushed to hospital in an ambulance with chest pains and breathing difficulties.
A call to the hospital and a 20 minute conversation with the consultant suggested that he wasn't in imminent danger, and was being stabilised with breathing apparatus. I decided to continue playing, and to visit hospital in the morning, and then come back to Cardiff if things were OK.
Only problem was, when I returned to the tables, my 70k tournament leading stack had reduced to around 45k with antes and blinds being taken in my absence. My mind and heart were no longer really in the right zone, and I just sat and waited for a big hand, which didn't come. At around 1am, I was in a position where I was looking to return with only 35k on Sunday, and with blinds scheduled to start at 3000/6000 this was just too short to make the journey worthwhile under the circumstances. I decided to push all in blind on the last hand of the day in an effort to gain a playable stack for day two, or go home and concentrate on other things.... I lost the hand, but thankfully was left with 2050 chips in change which meant I could at least claim to have made Day Two of another APAT National Championship!
Got home at 2.50am, into bed at 3am, and the phone rang at 3.04. Dad had suffered a full respiratory failure and I was to get to the hospital immediately, and to expect the worst. When I arrived he was laying in a bed in Intensive Care, with tubes and pipes in every available orifice. A scary sight!! His lungs had packed up, and the machine was doing the breathing for him.
Thankfully two days later, his sedation was stopped and his lungs responded. He's now off the life support system, and back in a standard ward where he will stay for around a week.
For sometime now, my addiction to poker has over-ridden all other matters in my life. Last weekend brought it home that there are things in life far more important than poker!!
That said, my passion is not reduced in any way, and I can't wait for Dublin. Given that I won't be able to race home at the drop of a hat, I just hope and pray than things remain stable at home.
I left in plenty of time to get to Cardiff for lunch, and decided to pop in to see my Dad on the way.... having been ill for some time, it made a pleasant change to find him in good spirits, and that set me up with a good mood for the journey to Cardiff. The good mood dissipated a little when my TomTom took me to a housing estate instead of a casino - perhaps I should have learned from the same mistake made last year!!
Arrived at the casino in time to grab a beer before seating began for the tournament.... but wished I'd had a few more when I saw that Gareth Ower and Darren Shallis (both APAT champs) were both sat to my left!! No hanging around today though - had made a conscious decision to play fast and aggressive from the off.
Toward the end of Level One I started to realise why I had the luckbox title - Darren Shallis raised under the gun and I called from the button with QQ. The flop was AT4... Darren checked and I checked behind, scared to death of the Ace, and ready to fold if Darren had made a c-bet. The turn was a J, and now Darren lead out for a bet sized at half the pot..... I decided to call thinking that as he had checked the ace hig flop, there was a marginal chance I was ahead, plus I was getting 3:1 on the call, and hopefully may get to a showdown fairly cheaply. The river was a magical K giving me the nut straight - Darren bet again, and even though there was four to a straight on the board, he couldn't possibly fold to the small raise I issued. So - chip leader at the table by end of Level One.
Within a few moments I had a similar river catch for another broadway straight against another player, and was tournament chip leader by the first break!! Woohoo - see, Walsall was not just a fluke!!
Stayed fairly steady during the second session, then managed to find myself in a monster hand just before the dinner break. Ger Smyth raised under the gun to 3xBB and with a caller in mid position, I was getting good odds to call from the BB with QcJc..... the flop came a rather tempting Kc Jh 8c giving me middle pair and the second nut flush draw. I checked to Ger who made his c-bet, and I figured I was against AK or AA, meaning at this point I was just about favourite to win the hand. I tanked and after having a clock called, decided to shove.... Ger called and showed his AA..... and I binked a third J on the river! WOOP WOOP!!
Chip Leader at the dinner break - see, told you Walsall wasn't a fluke!!
Continued to play well (and run well) through the evening session and stayed on or around the chip lead, and was starting to believe that back to back APAT wins was a possibility. Then, at around 11:15pm I got a horrible call from home - Dad had been rushed to hospital in an ambulance with chest pains and breathing difficulties.
A call to the hospital and a 20 minute conversation with the consultant suggested that he wasn't in imminent danger, and was being stabilised with breathing apparatus. I decided to continue playing, and to visit hospital in the morning, and then come back to Cardiff if things were OK.
Only problem was, when I returned to the tables, my 70k tournament leading stack had reduced to around 45k with antes and blinds being taken in my absence. My mind and heart were no longer really in the right zone, and I just sat and waited for a big hand, which didn't come. At around 1am, I was in a position where I was looking to return with only 35k on Sunday, and with blinds scheduled to start at 3000/6000 this was just too short to make the journey worthwhile under the circumstances. I decided to push all in blind on the last hand of the day in an effort to gain a playable stack for day two, or go home and concentrate on other things.... I lost the hand, but thankfully was left with 2050 chips in change which meant I could at least claim to have made Day Two of another APAT National Championship!
Got home at 2.50am, into bed at 3am, and the phone rang at 3.04. Dad had suffered a full respiratory failure and I was to get to the hospital immediately, and to expect the worst. When I arrived he was laying in a bed in Intensive Care, with tubes and pipes in every available orifice. A scary sight!! His lungs had packed up, and the machine was doing the breathing for him.
Thankfully two days later, his sedation was stopped and his lungs responded. He's now off the life support system, and back in a standard ward where he will stay for around a week.
For sometime now, my addiction to poker has over-ridden all other matters in my life. Last weekend brought it home that there are things in life far more important than poker!!
That said, my passion is not reduced in any way, and I can't wait for Dublin. Given that I won't be able to race home at the drop of a hat, I just hope and pray than things remain stable at home.
Friday 27 March 2009
Online is definitely better than live!!
At least I think so after last night's debacle. I made my annual outing to DTD with the intention of playing the £55 Thursday night tournament, and then a little cash if knocked out early.
Having played successfully for a while during the day online and clearing just over $200 playing .25/.50, I was full of confidence. I took my seat in the tourney, and got active early taking small pots and building a LAG image.... then lost half my stack with KK v AJ. An hour later, and after one shove too many, I was out.
So, onto the cash tables armed with £200 in chips. Sat at a £1/£2 table thinking £200 was the capped buy in.... only to find a guy with £3000 join on my immediate left after three hands - not good, and became impossible to play..... moved to a more comfortable 50p/£1 table and proceeded to donk off £200. Gave up at 3am and hit the road dejected and down hearted. All night it had been the same story - rubbish cards, played really badly.
On the M1, the gantry signs told me the M42 was closed - bugger! That meant my 90 minute journey was going to be even longer, and bed was even further away. Down the M1, M69, M6 and finally onto the M42. At J6 on the M42 the gantry signs warned of queue on slip road and 40mph speed limit - I don't think so!! I cruised through at 90+ and onto J5..... same signs, same reaction. Before J4, the world turned blue and Mr Plod asked me to have a seat in the back of his rather nice Jag. The video showed me at 100.39mph, but he pointed out that my driving was fine and the road deserted, so no court summons required and fixed penalty would suffice (whew!).
Then he pointed out that I had gone through the two 40mph sections at 90+, and would probably pick up tickets from the cameras!! I argued the toss that to have a 40mph speed limit on an empty three lane motorway at 4am was just plain daft - he agreed, and said the signs were probably still left on from the previous evening's rush hour, however I must still obey them.
So, in summary, £30 worth of fuel, £242 for poker, £60 fixed penalty, £120 more fixed penalties possible, and between 3 and 9 points on my license. No matter how bad a night I have playing online, I never ever get results like that..................... QED online is just so much better than live!!!
Having played successfully for a while during the day online and clearing just over $200 playing .25/.50, I was full of confidence. I took my seat in the tourney, and got active early taking small pots and building a LAG image.... then lost half my stack with KK v AJ. An hour later, and after one shove too many, I was out.
So, onto the cash tables armed with £200 in chips. Sat at a £1/£2 table thinking £200 was the capped buy in.... only to find a guy with £3000 join on my immediate left after three hands - not good, and became impossible to play..... moved to a more comfortable 50p/£1 table and proceeded to donk off £200. Gave up at 3am and hit the road dejected and down hearted. All night it had been the same story - rubbish cards, played really badly.
On the M1, the gantry signs told me the M42 was closed - bugger! That meant my 90 minute journey was going to be even longer, and bed was even further away. Down the M1, M69, M6 and finally onto the M42. At J6 on the M42 the gantry signs warned of queue on slip road and 40mph speed limit - I don't think so!! I cruised through at 90+ and onto J5..... same signs, same reaction. Before J4, the world turned blue and Mr Plod asked me to have a seat in the back of his rather nice Jag. The video showed me at 100.39mph, but he pointed out that my driving was fine and the road deserted, so no court summons required and fixed penalty would suffice (whew!).
Then he pointed out that I had gone through the two 40mph sections at 90+, and would probably pick up tickets from the cameras!! I argued the toss that to have a 40mph speed limit on an empty three lane motorway at 4am was just plain daft - he agreed, and said the signs were probably still left on from the previous evening's rush hour, however I must still obey them.
So, in summary, £30 worth of fuel, £242 for poker, £60 fixed penalty, £120 more fixed penalties possible, and between 3 and 9 points on my license. No matter how bad a night I have playing online, I never ever get results like that..................... QED online is just so much better than live!!!
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Glory is fun, but counts for nothing back in the real world
So having won the APAT UK Championship, I spent the next week trying to come down from an incredible high. The volume of personal well-wishes from the forums I contribute to was amazing and made me feel on top of the world - thanks to everyone who took the time to pass on nice comments.
I've been on TV twice in a week, mentioned in a local rag, and interviewed for a poker wesbite news item. Wow!
BUT, as I have found at back at the felt and virtual tables - it all counts for nuthin, nada, zilch!!
On Monday I visited the Broadway in Birmingham to participate in a side event of their winter festival. Prior to my APAT win, a £110 was beyond my bankroll for a live MTT - now I had no qualms investing at this level. I arrived full of confidence and it was a pleasure to meet a fellow APAT forumite at the bar who recognised me from my publicity :) I also bumped into a mate who I hadn't seen in over 12 years!!
I took my seat and didn't recognise anyone at the table - but two people asked me if I had won something recently a they recognised me from TV - flippin eck, this is getting silly now! One empty seat at my table immediately to me right - checked the ticket, and OMG it was only Dave Colclough!! What a great opportunity to test my new found confidence.
El Blondie turned up 10 mnutes late (customary late entrance for a pro?) and proceeded to play the first hand he was dealt.... and I managed to give him a third of my stack when I turned a set against his nut straight - happy to say that I managed a good fold to his river raise though. The tourney didn't last too much longer for me, and I exited after running 99 into AA just after the first break.
So back to online grinding with little success, and confidence from the APAT win is waning. Then IT happened. IT being the most amazingly bad 12 minutes of my poker playing career.
I joined two .25/.50 NL ring games on Titan, and in the first hand on one table I ran KK into AA all in preflop and lost a buy in.... and in the first hand on the other table I ran TT into 66 on a board of 689 and lost another buy in. Within 3 hands of that, I picked up KK and managed to get all in preflop against AA again! Decided it was less risky at this stage to try a Single Table SnG for $22.... but in the first hand I picked up AQo in a multiway limped pot and saw a flop of AQJ (all diamonds).... an opening bet and two flat calls gave me loads of value to make a big squeeze bet, and that coupled with my tilty state of mind left me with one option - I shoved, and the guy who called must have wet himself - he had flopped a royal flush!!
After 12 minutes of play, and total losses of $193, I decided my bankroll needed a rest and I quit!!
So APAT glory is one thiing, and I welcomed and enjoyed all the aftermath - but the level of over-confidence it has given me is punishing!! Back to the micro stakes grind for now, and off to Walsall for a GUKPT side event on Sunday.
At least my feet are firmly back on the ground going into the Walsall event!!
I've been on TV twice in a week, mentioned in a local rag, and interviewed for a poker wesbite news item. Wow!
BUT, as I have found at back at the felt and virtual tables - it all counts for nuthin, nada, zilch!!
On Monday I visited the Broadway in Birmingham to participate in a side event of their winter festival. Prior to my APAT win, a £110 was beyond my bankroll for a live MTT - now I had no qualms investing at this level. I arrived full of confidence and it was a pleasure to meet a fellow APAT forumite at the bar who recognised me from my publicity :) I also bumped into a mate who I hadn't seen in over 12 years!!
I took my seat and didn't recognise anyone at the table - but two people asked me if I had won something recently a they recognised me from TV - flippin eck, this is getting silly now! One empty seat at my table immediately to me right - checked the ticket, and OMG it was only Dave Colclough!! What a great opportunity to test my new found confidence.
El Blondie turned up 10 mnutes late (customary late entrance for a pro?) and proceeded to play the first hand he was dealt.... and I managed to give him a third of my stack when I turned a set against his nut straight - happy to say that I managed a good fold to his river raise though. The tourney didn't last too much longer for me, and I exited after running 99 into AA just after the first break.
So back to online grinding with little success, and confidence from the APAT win is waning. Then IT happened. IT being the most amazingly bad 12 minutes of my poker playing career.
I joined two .25/.50 NL ring games on Titan, and in the first hand on one table I ran KK into AA all in preflop and lost a buy in.... and in the first hand on the other table I ran TT into 66 on a board of 689 and lost another buy in. Within 3 hands of that, I picked up KK and managed to get all in preflop against AA again! Decided it was less risky at this stage to try a Single Table SnG for $22.... but in the first hand I picked up AQo in a multiway limped pot and saw a flop of AQJ (all diamonds).... an opening bet and two flat calls gave me loads of value to make a big squeeze bet, and that coupled with my tilty state of mind left me with one option - I shoved, and the guy who called must have wet himself - he had flopped a royal flush!!
After 12 minutes of play, and total losses of $193, I decided my bankroll needed a rest and I quit!!
So APAT glory is one thiing, and I welcomed and enjoyed all the aftermath - but the level of over-confidence it has given me is punishing!! Back to the micro stakes grind for now, and off to Walsall for a GUKPT side event on Sunday.
At least my feet are firmly back on the ground going into the Walsall event!!
Monday 9 February 2009
UK Amateur Poker Champion
I put it in the title of this post, but I just gotta type it again.... UK Amateur Poker Champion!! Wow that feels good.
Arrived at Walsall on Saturday with the usual mix of nervousness and excitement going into an APAT National, and unlike previous competitions where I had set my goal at making the dinner break, I was a little more ambitious this time and decided I wanted to get to day two. The new slower tournament structure certainly helped that ambition as 47 people made day two, as opposed to the 23 that would make day two under the previous structure.
I had a gameplan that I stuck to right from the start. In previous APAT Nationals I had played far too tight, and was definitely playing scared of an early exit - this time I accepted that I could be out early, but if I was, it would be through playing "proper poker". During the first two levels I probably played around 30% of hands, opening with a raise for most of them. Did the new loose "Gus Hansen" style work? er...... well 7 hours after the tourney started I managed to increase my stack back up to the dizzy heights of my starting stack!!
BUT, then it happened.... for the first time in seven hours I was at risk, with my AKo getting all in preflop against QQ, and also called behind by another AKo.... oops, looked like being home in time for bed...... until the 4 outer hit, the QQ was out, and the two AKs breathed a sigh of relief. For the first time I was above my starting stack.
Lift off!! Didn't look back - pushed on to around 30k chips, had a great read on the whole table, and was taking charge. "Big Blind please" said the TD - bugger, that's me, and I was off to a new table.
In keeping with my new found loose style, I simply had to open for a raise UTG in first hand on new table with A10 - didn't really like getting a call though. An Ace on the flop looked nice, but the hand got a little scary when my lead out bet was called. Turn checked, and then without knowing where I was, a little stopper bet on the river felt right..... scared to death that I would be re-raised, but thankfully a flat call from another A10 - pot chopped. Whew!
Courtesy of winning a race with AA v flush draw, had a tasty double up to over 60k, and feeling very strong now....... so, time to move tables again. Saw the evening out at the new table, and finished day one as tournament chip leader with 84k - feeling great about life right now.
Home to bed by 2.30am to lie in the dark seeing hearts and spades, chips and cards, and listening to ghostly voices raising and calling. I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes at one point - not really sure.
Sunday - 13:00 arrived at the casino to drink coffee and watch the football..... eyelids already heavy, and we still have 90 minutes til day two starts!
We're off and running - just need to push on with my chip lead and put msyelf into contention for the final table...... just need a hand now........... any hand with a picture card will do............ any hand higher than a 6 will bo ok.............. OK this isn't funny - two hours in, and hardly played a hand - that was definitely not the plan. All change - moved tables, thank god for that. No disrespect to Alan Armitage, but I really did not like sitting on his right with his monster stack staring at me!
New table, new dealer, new cards - much more like it. Pushing on again. New player at the table after an hour..... Alan bloody Armitage!! Slowed down again.
Sitting in the small blind with around 240k - somewhere near the chip lead. All fold round to me and I look down at A10 - time to make the easy steal from the big blind - all in........ big blind insta calls and shows AJ oooooooooops - that was not the plan! Looks like I will be down to 80k and amongst the short stacks. Oh well - still time to recover. We both missed the flop - I asked the poker gods for a 10, and the turn was a glorious and beautiful 10 of clubs..... suitably humble, I shook the guys hand and mumbled something about being sorry (of course I wasn't sorry!). Up to 400k, and significant chip leader!
All fairly standard from here to the final table, and landed with 458k - second place had around 260k. Oh my God - that presenter bloke from Sky Poker just came over and asked for an interview....... I'm gonna be on Tele!!!
So, big stack on final table - shall I sit sight and wait for the big hands? Will I heckers like!! 8 high looks good for a first hand raise - pot taken. Couple of hands later on the button to Noe's Big Blind and I look down at 55..... standard 3xBB raise to look like an obvious button steal, knowing I was insta-calling if SB or BB shoved.... Noe called. First card on flop was a 5... Noe checked, and knowing she only played big cards, I thought a small steal type bet might induce action, but sadly Noe lost faith in her AQ and let it go :(
Here starts the roller coaster - from big stack to middle stack to small stack to big stack again - that was my final table story as other players dropped out along the way. Down to last three, and SirPercival is micro-stacked..... so I decided to double him up. Then, having given a dangerous player some chips to play with, I decided to double him up again, and give him a proper stack that he could damage me with - not my best move of the weekend!!
SirPercival all in with AK - me calling with 99, and a 9 on the board, and Tod and I are Headsup for the title. How the hell did I get here? What was going on? Someone pinch me and wake me up.
Tod playing a little more aggresively headsup than he had in past half hour - needed to be careful here as I didn't think I would be getting any bluffs though. He looks tired and will probably call me down with any picture card..... standard button raise from Tod and I find 79 suited - perfect hand to shove all in and try and take the pot away from Tod....... hang on, didn't I just say he would probably be calling me light? Oh yeah - and guess what, I got called..... he showed KQ. Oh well - racing, but starting somewhere behind the start line. Flop 28Q - not good, hands on head, crowd chuntering, tv camera zooming in - this is the moment when it all finishes. I need a miracle, and a big one at that - I need running cards to save this one. Turn...... J!!!! Ok now I have 4 outs. I decided once again to pray to the poker gods for a 10, and just like last time they duly complied!! (reminder to self to make sacrifice to poker gods to thank them for their generosity!)
So, Tod down to under 200k, and I have 1.8m - just a matter of time. My button next hand and I look down at 62...... fold. Next hand Tod shoves with 93 and I call with two 85 - Tod wins and is up to 400k.... must make sure I don't double him up again. Next hand I look down at my first card which is a Q - don't need to see the second card... All In...... Tod calls and shows J6 - I hope to see something big with my Q.... sadly only a 3, but I'm going to the flop in the lead, and when two Qs hit the board........
.....and after 22 hours of poker, I am UK Amateur Poker Champion!!
What a weekend!!
Many thanks to APAT, to Des, Tighty, Tikay, to the guys from Sky Poker, and to everyone who entered and helped to make this such a memorable weekend for me. I had a blast guys!!
Onwards to Cardiff for the Welsh National Championship in April.
Arrived at Walsall on Saturday with the usual mix of nervousness and excitement going into an APAT National, and unlike previous competitions where I had set my goal at making the dinner break, I was a little more ambitious this time and decided I wanted to get to day two. The new slower tournament structure certainly helped that ambition as 47 people made day two, as opposed to the 23 that would make day two under the previous structure.
I had a gameplan that I stuck to right from the start. In previous APAT Nationals I had played far too tight, and was definitely playing scared of an early exit - this time I accepted that I could be out early, but if I was, it would be through playing "proper poker". During the first two levels I probably played around 30% of hands, opening with a raise for most of them. Did the new loose "Gus Hansen" style work? er...... well 7 hours after the tourney started I managed to increase my stack back up to the dizzy heights of my starting stack!!
BUT, then it happened.... for the first time in seven hours I was at risk, with my AKo getting all in preflop against QQ, and also called behind by another AKo.... oops, looked like being home in time for bed...... until the 4 outer hit, the QQ was out, and the two AKs breathed a sigh of relief. For the first time I was above my starting stack.
Lift off!! Didn't look back - pushed on to around 30k chips, had a great read on the whole table, and was taking charge. "Big Blind please" said the TD - bugger, that's me, and I was off to a new table.
In keeping with my new found loose style, I simply had to open for a raise UTG in first hand on new table with A10 - didn't really like getting a call though. An Ace on the flop looked nice, but the hand got a little scary when my lead out bet was called. Turn checked, and then without knowing where I was, a little stopper bet on the river felt right..... scared to death that I would be re-raised, but thankfully a flat call from another A10 - pot chopped. Whew!
Courtesy of winning a race with AA v flush draw, had a tasty double up to over 60k, and feeling very strong now....... so, time to move tables again. Saw the evening out at the new table, and finished day one as tournament chip leader with 84k - feeling great about life right now.
Home to bed by 2.30am to lie in the dark seeing hearts and spades, chips and cards, and listening to ghostly voices raising and calling. I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes at one point - not really sure.
Sunday - 13:00 arrived at the casino to drink coffee and watch the football..... eyelids already heavy, and we still have 90 minutes til day two starts!
We're off and running - just need to push on with my chip lead and put msyelf into contention for the final table...... just need a hand now........... any hand with a picture card will do............ any hand higher than a 6 will bo ok.............. OK this isn't funny - two hours in, and hardly played a hand - that was definitely not the plan. All change - moved tables, thank god for that. No disrespect to Alan Armitage, but I really did not like sitting on his right with his monster stack staring at me!
New table, new dealer, new cards - much more like it. Pushing on again. New player at the table after an hour..... Alan bloody Armitage!! Slowed down again.
Sitting in the small blind with around 240k - somewhere near the chip lead. All fold round to me and I look down at A10 - time to make the easy steal from the big blind - all in........ big blind insta calls and shows AJ oooooooooops - that was not the plan! Looks like I will be down to 80k and amongst the short stacks. Oh well - still time to recover. We both missed the flop - I asked the poker gods for a 10, and the turn was a glorious and beautiful 10 of clubs..... suitably humble, I shook the guys hand and mumbled something about being sorry (of course I wasn't sorry!). Up to 400k, and significant chip leader!
All fairly standard from here to the final table, and landed with 458k - second place had around 260k. Oh my God - that presenter bloke from Sky Poker just came over and asked for an interview....... I'm gonna be on Tele!!!
So, big stack on final table - shall I sit sight and wait for the big hands? Will I heckers like!! 8 high looks good for a first hand raise - pot taken. Couple of hands later on the button to Noe's Big Blind and I look down at 55..... standard 3xBB raise to look like an obvious button steal, knowing I was insta-calling if SB or BB shoved.... Noe called. First card on flop was a 5... Noe checked, and knowing she only played big cards, I thought a small steal type bet might induce action, but sadly Noe lost faith in her AQ and let it go :(
Here starts the roller coaster - from big stack to middle stack to small stack to big stack again - that was my final table story as other players dropped out along the way. Down to last three, and SirPercival is micro-stacked..... so I decided to double him up. Then, having given a dangerous player some chips to play with, I decided to double him up again, and give him a proper stack that he could damage me with - not my best move of the weekend!!
SirPercival all in with AK - me calling with 99, and a 9 on the board, and Tod and I are Headsup for the title. How the hell did I get here? What was going on? Someone pinch me and wake me up.
Tod playing a little more aggresively headsup than he had in past half hour - needed to be careful here as I didn't think I would be getting any bluffs though. He looks tired and will probably call me down with any picture card..... standard button raise from Tod and I find 79 suited - perfect hand to shove all in and try and take the pot away from Tod....... hang on, didn't I just say he would probably be calling me light? Oh yeah - and guess what, I got called..... he showed KQ. Oh well - racing, but starting somewhere behind the start line. Flop 28Q - not good, hands on head, crowd chuntering, tv camera zooming in - this is the moment when it all finishes. I need a miracle, and a big one at that - I need running cards to save this one. Turn...... J!!!! Ok now I have 4 outs. I decided once again to pray to the poker gods for a 10, and just like last time they duly complied!! (reminder to self to make sacrifice to poker gods to thank them for their generosity!)
So, Tod down to under 200k, and I have 1.8m - just a matter of time. My button next hand and I look down at 62...... fold. Next hand Tod shoves with 93 and I call with two 85 - Tod wins and is up to 400k.... must make sure I don't double him up again. Next hand I look down at my first card which is a Q - don't need to see the second card... All In...... Tod calls and shows J6 - I hope to see something big with my Q.... sadly only a 3, but I'm going to the flop in the lead, and when two Qs hit the board........
.....and after 22 hours of poker, I am UK Amateur Poker Champion!!
What a weekend!!
Many thanks to APAT, to Des, Tighty, Tikay, to the guys from Sky Poker, and to everyone who entered and helped to make this such a memorable weekend for me. I had a blast guys!!
Onwards to Cardiff for the Welsh National Championship in April.
Saturday 17 January 2009
APAT Qualification for UK National Championship
So with three satellites on Blue Square, and the ensuing "Clickfest" (online purchase lottery that manages to clear out 150 tickets in 120 seconds), I would surely be able to bag myself a ticket for Walsall in Feb09.
My preparation for the series of satellites was to spend much time reading Gus Hansen's book, and with my new found concept of loose aggressive play Hansen stsyle, I hit the Blue Square tables. After playing gadzillions of hands early on, I was with the chip leaders after 20 minutes in the first satellite..... but out before the first break. Ho hum - let's try Tuesday........ once again, up near the top early on, but gone before the break. Gus Hansen approach almost working - just a couple of imperfections to iron out - like recognising that sometimes rag hands can lose!
On to the third and final satellite - a $5 rebuy. I hate rebuys!! I'll say that again - I hate rebuys!!!! I had no chance in this game, and decided to have fun and be uber aggressive (more than usual) from the first hand. 54o was good enough for an opening raise, but the re-raise didn't look too nice, especially when it attracted 2 other callers - however I couldn't now fold my 540 as the odds were far too attractive. When the flop came 23Q, I knew my double buy in was going to end up in the middle. Fortunately, even with 4 people looking at the flop, it checked around for a free turn card.... which was a blank. At that point it went crazy with everyone moving in.... I fished, and the beautiful 6 came on the river. After a couple more crazy hands, I had 39k, whilst average stack was only 4.5k, and second place had 16k. Easy ride from here on in?...... not! Ended up clinging on as the shortest stack when the bubble came, and with a bit of bad luck elsewhere, managed to scrape through. Whew!!
Thank God I avoided the lottery that is Clickfest - I don't think my nerves or fingernails could stand two nights in a row.
So, on to Walsall in Feb - can't wait.
My preparation for the series of satellites was to spend much time reading Gus Hansen's book, and with my new found concept of loose aggressive play Hansen stsyle, I hit the Blue Square tables. After playing gadzillions of hands early on, I was with the chip leaders after 20 minutes in the first satellite..... but out before the first break. Ho hum - let's try Tuesday........ once again, up near the top early on, but gone before the break. Gus Hansen approach almost working - just a couple of imperfections to iron out - like recognising that sometimes rag hands can lose!
On to the third and final satellite - a $5 rebuy. I hate rebuys!! I'll say that again - I hate rebuys!!!! I had no chance in this game, and decided to have fun and be uber aggressive (more than usual) from the first hand. 54o was good enough for an opening raise, but the re-raise didn't look too nice, especially when it attracted 2 other callers - however I couldn't now fold my 540 as the odds were far too attractive. When the flop came 23Q, I knew my double buy in was going to end up in the middle. Fortunately, even with 4 people looking at the flop, it checked around for a free turn card.... which was a blank. At that point it went crazy with everyone moving in.... I fished, and the beautiful 6 came on the river. After a couple more crazy hands, I had 39k, whilst average stack was only 4.5k, and second place had 16k. Easy ride from here on in?...... not! Ended up clinging on as the shortest stack when the bubble came, and with a bit of bad luck elsewhere, managed to scrape through. Whew!!
Thank God I avoided the lottery that is Clickfest - I don't think my nerves or fingernails could stand two nights in a row.
So, on to Walsall in Feb - can't wait.
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