BCPC and other stuff

So having set a target of maximised volume rather than higher ROI for September, I managed to conclude the month with over 800 tournaments completed. Sadly, not only did the ROI suffer.... it became non-existent, in fact having spent over $14,000 in tournament buy-ins, my month end profit was a whopping $3, and in line with the terms of my deal, I only received 60% of that! The volume bonus helped a little though. I decided to go to the other extreme for October and aim for quality over quantity, and try to achieve higher ROI and profits.... not a great start though as am over $300 down after one week. sigh........

Live poker seems to be going much better than my online failures at the moment though - and having just reached the finale of the 4th season on Black Country Poker Club, I secured my position as the season's champion, earning a nice little trophy, and a seat into a UKIPT £550 event.

BCPC was the brain-child of founder Brian Yates (although some might say bastard-child rather than brain-child). The concept was to allow like minded low stakes players to pool resources to pay for higher buy in tournaments, and then to play for the privilege of playing in those seats. Our season runs for 6 months with one tournament per month, where players score points dependant on their finishing position in each tournament, which in turn contribute to their overall league placing. The top places in the league then offer a seat to a higher buy in tournament ranging from £110 to £550, with the number of seats on offer being directly linked to the size of the membership.

In season 1, we ran with 8 members and produced 1 seat.... in season 4 we ran with 28 members and produced 9 seats.

The standard traverses the amateur range, with players who are relatively new to poker in any form, to those who bring many years of experience, and those who have done well on the APAT tour. We have members for whom trips to Vegas are the norm each year, members who regularly play the GUKPT, as well as several APAT champions. We claim to be the Best Home Game In The Midlands - and I think that is a more than reasonable claim. To finish atop the league for this season was something I was proud of.

I intend to use my £550 seat at the UKIPT event in Nottingham in Feb 2011, and knowing that the BCPC will be following my progress closely and rooting for success (ok, only cos all club members share 50% of any cash I make, whilst I keep the other 50% for myself) will hopefully spur me on to something huge.

The BCPC has developed a reputation within APAT over the past two years - there are very few who haven't heard of us (mainly cos Brian shouts really loud about it!), but our crowning moment came in the summer this year when we held a Deepstack one off event, and had a guest entry in the form of Paul "Action Jack" Jackson and his son, Ben. Paul is one of the UK's finest and most succesful poker pro's - to have him playing at our little event in a back street pub was a little surreal, but definitely a moment to remember. What was most amazing though was that Paul had only landed in Britain 36 hours earlier having spent several weeks in Las Vegas at the WSOP!!

Lastly, myself, Brian Yates, Tony Trippier, James Edwards, Andy Overton, and Andy Duncan have formed a team to play in a 16 match online league, culminating in a live final at Star City, the winner of which will receive a team trip to Las Vegas in 2011 worth $34,000, covering all flights and hotel expense, entry to a $1k deepstack event, spending money, and entry to a £1k event back in London on the return. Good luck to us!!!!

Time for a Kit-Kat, time for a break..?

Probably the worst mistake I've ever made was posting the previous blog entry. Within a day the downswing set in, and did so in some style. All profits earned early in the month have been washed away, along with another $300 - a $1.1k downswing across ~500 tourneys in three weeks!!

So I would like to take this opportunity to humbly apologise to the poker gods, who I seem to have offended in some way. I would offer up a sacrifice in your honour, but sadly through endless bad beats and lost races, I have nothing left to offer. I don't suppose a toasted lamb will do it?

This morning I watched a 20 min vid someone sent me - a film called The Secret. It talks about the law of attraction, and how negative thinking attracts negativity and negative results.... conversely therefore, the power of positive thinking should be embraced. So, in an effort to try anything to cut the downswing, I thought of all the nice thoughts I could muster, put some nice music on, and set about playing 20 STTs - 14 $10 games and 6 $20 games. I managed to come second in two of the $10 games and lost the rest.... total buy in $286 with a return of $36 - $250 down for the session.

In that 20 game session alone I ran KK into AA 4 times, ran AA into underpairs twice and lost both, and flopped set under set twice. Sighhhhh positive thoughts can go screw themselves!

I feel I need to take a break - not because I need to recover some positive thinking, but more because I just hate the game now, and there really is no point labouring over something I'm not enjoying. Problem is, I need to get through another 40 games in September to reach my next bonus cutoff point - but is it really worth playing those 40 games if all I manage to do is negate any bonus with more losses. Currently I've played 660 games in September over 149 hours for a loss of -$300, and my bonus at this point is +$190.... so if the month ends now I carry a -$110 deficit into October.

What's annoying most is that I'm not actually doing a great deal wrong and am happy with my game. Just once in a while it would be nice if I could win a race.

The Secret....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b1GKGWJbE8

Grinding Good

Back to the grind, and seem to be finding a rhythm - hope this isn't a huge bok though.

Whilst Jul and Aug were both only partial months (started this scheme part way through July, then was away for most of August), September is my first crack at a full month. Jul and Aug were barely profitable, and despite playing in excess of 220 tournaments each month, I ended up just the right side of break even.

September is going a little better though - just 7 days into the month, and having played 167 tournaments, I've sustained an ROI of over 20%, and am in profit for $718, of which I will be paid 60%, plus bonus dependant on volume.

Within the 167 tournaments in September, there were a few punts at MTTs.... however the bulk were 155 Turbo 6-max STTs, where the profit is $838, and ROI is 24.57. Happy days!!

Hope I can keep up the September win-rate....

Down To Earth With a Helluva Bump

I felt like a kid in the period building up to Christmas whilst I counted down the days (and the sleeps) until the APAT World Championships of Amateur Poker. Arrving at DuskTillDawn and donning the England shirt again was an incredible moment - sadly it was just about the last high I was to experience for the next five days, at least in poker terms anyway.

Five looooong days of wall to wall poker was "interesting", but not something I could repeat every week. Having stuck to 12 pints and 4 cooked meals per day, with the only exercise being an occasional walk to the gents, I can probably be excused the few pounds I gained. Unfortunately, they were the only type of pounds I was to gain this week.

In a previous blog entry, I questioned whether poker was a game of luck or a game of skill, and despite the fact that my results at that time proved that luck has a bearing, I set my stall very firmly in the game of skill camp. Variance is a wonderful thing, and does a good job of making sure that for every bad luck hand there is a good luck hand on another day - as poker players we just have to make the best of that, and minimise losses whilst maximising wins. However, this is tough when it comes to a team based tournament, and all four team members experience the downside and the bad luck at the same time.

From an England team perspective, the wheels were coming off from the very start of our campaign to beat last year's third place finish. We suffered the ignominy of being the first team to lose a player in the first round of single table tournaments - this was around 5 minutes after the event started, and the cruelness of the beat (JJ lost to 55 when all in preflop) was an indicator of things to come. In the course of the event, in the STTs alone, we suffered a total of 7 absolute outdraws when all in with overpairs against underpairs; and at the times that we were mathematically obliged to shove our holdings, there was always someone waiting with Aces or Kings to close us out. I don't mean to bemoan bad luck - as I have said before, it evens out over time.... unfortunately for our team though, the evening out process did not start during the Team Championships. We finished bottom of the 12 team table by some distance, yet having collectively analysed our play at length, none of us were able to point to any mistakes. Where normally some other other home country teams would take huge delight at England winning the wooden spoon, many expressed sympathy at the bad run that we endured - that's how bad it was!!

Many hours at the cash tables during the week saw similar fortunes for us as a team, where I don't believe any of us closed in profit. For me personally, having lost huge cash pots with AA v 89 (on a board of Q72JT!), with AK v T4 (on a board of KQ4xx!), with QQ v 99, and with KK v 35, my cash bankroll was utterly decimated.

Surely the Omaha, 6-max, HORSE, and Main Event, would see a turn of fortune? Nope. Having built my Main Event stack from 10k to 15k, I managed to lose (only) 2k with KK into AJ and A8 on a AAxxx board, then three hands later, lost the other 13k with KK into AA all in preflop. The most annoying part of that was that I just knew Matt Russell had AA, and even told him he had AA when I called and flipped my KK over. Until that moment I had been running over the table and had built my stack up with hardly a single showdown - until that moment I was feeling good about poker again, and fancied my chances of a deep run..... the poker gods clearly had other designs.

Results aside, this was a tremendous week, and a great opportunity to renew acquaintances and friendships, and to meet new people and new friends. It was nice to get home though - being away from home, drinking and playing poker, is okay, but you can't beat being with family. I just wish I could have brought a success story home for the kids to make it all worthwhile.

England Revisited

Absolutely delighted, over the moon, and chuffed to bits, to have been selected for the England Team for this year's World Team Amateur Poker Championships!!

Having been in the team for last year's event, I was hesitant about applying again this year, particularly given that this year's captain is Brian Yates, with whom I play regularly at the BCPC, and someone that I generally tour with. I didn't want to put Brian in an awkward position if he selected me, which might in turn invite suggestions of selection according to friendship rather than ability.

However, when I reflected on my poker achievements this year (and last), and the current state of my game, I figured I was as deserving of a place as anyone one else. Granted, I haven't achieved a massive amount on the APAT tour (so far) this year - in fact I've only played two live events, final tabling one and getting hugely unlucky in the other - however, I have been more successful from an overall financial standpoint this year than I was last year. This, coupled with my current dedication to STTs as part of the my sponsor deal, and the fact that the Team Champs is primarily focussed around STTs, I figured I was as eligible as anyone else, and gratefully accepted Brian's offer of a place.

I feel under much more pressure to perform than last year though - I know that people will question my selection this year, and I must live up to my claims in order that I can silence any critics. Game on!!

Pulling on that England shirt last year was an amazing and proud moment - see further down this blog for a related entry - I'm honoured and touched that I'm going to get a second go!

Last year we finished a really credible third - this year, only first will do!!

COME ON ENGLAND!!!

First month end

So, 10 days into this new venture and I've hit my first month end where the spoils are dished out and bonuses calculated.

Some stats:

• Days played - 8 (joined part way through month)
• STTs played - 221
• Total Buy in - $3,521
• Total Winnings - $3,550
• Total Profit - $29
• ROI - 0.8%

I get 60% of profit earned, so a whopping $17.40

On the face of it, a lot of effort for little reward. However it was all zero risk effort. In future months I anticipate earning volume related bonuses, which means break even is an ok result. I've found that I can maintain a much higher ROI when playing just one or two at a time, but when playing 6 to 8 at a time, the ROI declines to break even. I think I need to find the right balance between volume and profit.

It was a roller coaster period with early loss, followed by profit, ending in break even.

August will be another short month given that I'm holiday for the first two weeks, then away with APAT for the final week, so not expecting any miracles this month - will probably play when I can for max ROI rather than any futile attempts at volume.

Deep and Steep

On another note, played the £110 Deepstack at Walsall last night. What a pathetic attempt a depstack tourney!! Granted we started with 10,000 chips, and in the first level that equated to 200 big blinds.... but given that there was no 75/150 level and no 150/300 level, with 30 minute levels it wasn't long before we were playing 300/600 and the average stack was little more than 20 big blinds with a 100 runners still left in. On a table full of weak passive calling stations, on which 5 limpers per flop was about average, I just couldn't find a spot. On my BB with AK, there were 5 limpers, and I raised to 9xBB - and got 4 callers. A King on the flop (2 clubs on flop) and I bet pot with one caller. Another King on turn and I bet pot again and caller calls again. Club on the river and he bets 100 into a 7000 pot - thankfully, as I was stacking off there if had shoved. So shortstacked early on, recovered to starting stack by 300/600 but was still in shove mode. Looking around other tables, everywhere was in shove mode at this point - there was no poker left to be played..... and consider that we were only in the 5th 30 minute level at this point. A truly awful tourney, and a complete waste of £110.

Looking forward to APAT WCOAP at DuskTillDawn over the August Bank Holiday weekend - back to proper poker!!

Cyprus here we come - packing done, gardening to be done, then taking dog to kennels (poor fella). Leaving for Gatwick at 7am tomorrow.

Finding feet

That profit on Day3 made a significant difference to my mindset, even though it ended up being quite a very small profit in the end - $40 at 6% ROI..... but a profit is a profit, and it's wayyyy better than a loss!!

Importantly, it reminded me that I can play, and that I shouldn't play scared of losing someone else's money.

• Day4: 21 STTs, profit of $296, ROI 67%
• Day5: 8 STTs, profit of $146, ROI 121%

Total for first 5 days:

• STTs played - 120
• Buy in - $1,881
• Payout - $2,122
• Profit - $241
• ROI - 13%

So, feeling a little better, and looking to try and maximise profit for what's left of July. Am away for most of August, so again will looking to maximise ROI over a small number of games. September's target though will be to break even over a much larger set of games and to earn a volume based bonus - need to get in 1500 tourneys in the month for a $2k bonus on top of any profit.

Just wish I could do this on PokerStars instead of iPoker - the traffic volume on iPoker really is poor, even at peak times. That's my biggest challenge to getting through the significant volume requirements.

Sponsored losses!

So with nerves and trepidation in abundance, I got through my first two days of sponsored play.

Day1: Squeezed out 20 SNG tournaments at a cost of $286, with a return of $174 - a negative ROI of -39%. In summary, played ok, but ran real bad.

Day2: 29 tourneys at a cost of $396, with a return of $266 - a negative ROI of -32%. Bigger cash loss, but slightly improved negative ROI. Ran worse than day 1.

Start of Day3: Wrote email to mentor - worried about how these early resultswould be viewed, but apparently everyone loses in the first few days until they get used to the concept of playing with someone else's money, and find their feet with their standard game

Day 3 so far: 13 tourneys up to 14:30 today, cashed in 7, total buy in $187, with a return of $282 - positive ROI of 51%.

I like Day3 best.

Am playing a mix of $11 and $22 Single Table Tournaments, some 6 handed and some 10 handed, some standard clock and some turbo...... seem to be settling on the 6 handed turbos though as a means of getting through more volume (they also give me my best ROI at present at +18% for 37 tourneys)

Overall so far - 62 tourneys played, $869 buy in, $722 return, $147 loss, negative ROI -17%.

Summary - must do better.

Onwards and upwards?

Mildly excited, having just secured a sponsorship deal to play online poker!!

So, for the next few months I will become a "SNG Grinder" looking to achieve significant volume commitments (ideally need to get through 1500 tournaments per month - gulp) to qualify for volume based bonuses on top of any profit which is paid at 60%.

Have long dreamt about giving up work to play poker full time - that's still a thousand miles away, but 12 months ago it was at least a million miles away - this feels like progression to a desired goal.

Aside from this latest development, I have made the firm decision to get my ass to Vegas next year, and the savings account is filling up nicely from a decent winning streak over the past month (cashed the same tournament on Betfair for 7 nights in a row).

This poker feel good factor comes at a time when I'm winning the league at the Black Country Poker Club, and have just made my way to the top of the all time rankings for the club.

There that's it - I've probably just bokked myself beyond all reason, and the downturn to poorer times will return...... but until it does, I'm loving this rich run of form. Everything in poker is so good right now!

Is Poker a game of luck?

I say not. As the FullTilt advert says, if poker were a game of luck, how come the same faces consistently make the final tables of big tournaments.

The US government seem to believe it's a game of luck - they grouped it in with gambling and banned the online elements.

The UK taxman seems to believe it's a game of luck - he applied casino gaming tax to DuskTillDawn (despite it being a poker establishment with no table games) which so nearly put it out of business.

The unwise majority believe it's a game of luck, particularly those that wrinkle their noses when I say I play poker for a second income. For some, the word poker seems to conjure an image of a seedy basement room with degenerate gamblers drinking whisky and smoking fat cigars - personally I prefer the comparison to the wild west saloon, with 6-shooters laying at the side of the table waiting for that big showdown hand to go bad.

Flipping a coin and betting on the outcome - that's gambling on luck. The coin will either be heads or tails - a 50/50 gamble. Winning or losing is based purely on luck.

Backing horses, or betting on the outcome of sporting events - that's still gambling, but with knowledge and research, the winning gambler will reduce the impact of luck.

It's obvious that Chess is a game of pure skill - there is no luck in chess. So, if we play chess for money, we are gambling on the outcome of the game, but not betting on a luck variable. I say the same for poker.

Apparently, 90% of those who play poker are overall losers - therefore only 10% are overall winners. If poker were a game of luck, surely 50% of players would be losers, and 50% would be winners.

Poker is a skill game, despite what the US politicians say. The better poker players are the ones who negate the luck factor, use their skills to make the right decisions at the right times, and avoid situations where they would consistently lose money. The key word is consistency - to consistently win a gamble proves that luck is a minor factor when compared to the value of the skill factor. Clearly a poker player cannot win each and every hand they play - the random shuffle of the deck plays a part, and sometimes the poor or incorrect decisions of others will be rewarded - however over a significant volume of hands, these variables generally even out.

It's widely accepted that to judge a player as a winner or loser requires at least 10,000 hands to be analysed. The concept being that over a significant volume of hands, the luck factor will play less of a part. Thinking back to the tossing of a coin - toss it 10 times, it could land on tails 8 and heads 2. Toss it 10,000 times, and it's highly unlikely that it will land on tails 8,000 times.... it's far more likely to be nearer 5,000 each.... the 50/50 luck factor flattens itself out over time and volume.

From my own personal perspective, I recognise that winning a hand through luck, ie hitting that miracle 2 outer on the river, is nice but little to do with my skill as a player. I also understand that for every one of those I win, I'm just as likely to lose one. I stand firm to the long term view.

Now, the purpose of writing this??

In the past month, I have played well. I know I've played well, and I've done my best to stay upbeat about my game, despite being in the hole financially. Four weeks ago I was playing $1/$2 with a $200 buy in, and being successful. I made a decent sized withdrawal, and accepted that I was going to drop back down the limits to rebuild the bankroll. So, back at 25c/50c with a $50 buy in, and still playing well. But winning? No. Unlucky? Very.

It felt like every time I got my money in good, I was being outdrawn. At one point I was so low I felt like taking a break - poker just isn't working, and I am continually losing, therefore I must be playing badly, not well. BUT, I did some statistical analysis to try and identify the leaks, and found that my Expected Value, ie the amount I could expect to win at the point when my chips went into a pot was significantly higher than the amount I actually ended up winning - indication of numerous outdraws....... and did I get the upside to counter the downside? Not yet!!



The top line on this graph is my Expected Value over the last 7,000 hands, and shows a steady increase - the lower line is my Actual Value, which shows the exact opposite trend. The two lines are around $1,000 apart - ie, if luck were not a factor, I could be as much as $1,000 better off over the last 7,000 hands.

So yes, luck does play a significant part in poker, and yes I acknowledge I've had my moments where luck has played a part in my favour. But looking at this from a career perspective, would I really want to invest my livelihood in something where luck can be so damaging?

In my tournament poker, I am a consistent winning player, particularly in single table tournaments...... yet through this past month I have a negative ROI for the first time in 4 years, despite continually playing acceptably well.

There are two conclusions I can draw from this whole luck vs skill debate.

1. Poker is definitely a skill game.
2. In mid May, I must have run over a feckin robin!

That was the weekend that was

With the APAT UK Amateur champs looming, my chance to defend my title, and a loooooong weekend in prospect, an early night on Friday was in order. So, lets go and play the BCPC game instead - but it's ok cos every round this BCPC season, I've busted out well before 11pm and been home early. However, try as I might, I just couldn't lose my chips this time, and ended up hitting the final table at midnight. In a strange FT affair, their were 7 players out of 10 on the table who could still win the league if results went in their favour, but I could win nothing.... and I had the chip lead! Cue some fun and mayhem!! 45 minutes of relentless raising and 3-betting with rags, and I had more than half the chips in play, but nobody had busted (bunch of nits!). At 12:45 the first exit finally happened, and that meant Nathan had guaranteed enough points now to put him at the top of the league, subject to others now finishing in certain positions..... from here on in things loosened up and the other 8 exits took me just 30 minutes (4 bustouts in 3 hands was nice!). 8 of the 9 kindly volunteered the remainder of their chips to my stack and I took it down - nice ego boost ahead of the APAT weekend, but bed at 2.30am was not the best plan.

So bleary eyed I arrived at the Vic in London at 11am, and headed straight for the nearest cash table. It was plainly obvious that there was money to be made on this table - the standard was frankly awful. The standard raise seemed to be 10x the Big Blind! Three hands in and I'm on the Big Blind.... every single player at the table limped, and I found Aces in the BB.... raised to £20 (20xBB!!)....... and got 5 callers!! loooool. Ended up losing the hand, and an hour or so later, left the table £50 in arrears!

Met up with many APAT regulars, and had a few beers, followed by a few more. Interesting conversation with James Edwards - damned volcano caused his trip to Vegas to be cancelled the day before, hence his presence at the Vic.... unlucky James!

For me the Main Event was (ahem) short - I made it to level 4! Some defence that turned out to be!! No problem with my play though - got my stack all in on a flop of QJ10 whilst holding QJ, only to be called with Q10 (happy days?), but the rivered 10 was the end. Why do I always bust these APAT events to an 8% chance? I get my chips in as a 92% favourite again, and lose again.... and still the forum has notes about my luckbox status - unbelievable!

With not much else to do for the next 24 hours before the Razz side event on Sunday, I of course had £50 to recover on the cash tables..... spent an awesome 8 hours on a table with Paul Haycock where we fleeced the locals (ok, most were from Greece, but I class them as locals), and I closed the day around £300 up.

Hotel by 2.30am...... and back at the cash table by 10am (and many people from the night before were still there!!). Another 3 hours session - another £300. Now £600 up for the weekend. There was the most unbelievable fish at the table - a local asian lad who turned up with his missus, and she sat dutifully behind him continually handing him another £100 until the £1000 in her handbag was all gone. I was somewhat gutted when the call was made for the start of the Razz tourney - surely staying at this cash table would be far more profitable?! Meanwhile Andy Overton had busted the Main Event, and was looking for something to do while I played Razz...... a nudge and wink, and he took a seat at the cash game, and took the donkey's last £300 (no commission for me though!)

Played Razz. zzzzzzzzzz. Razz tourney still going. zzzzzzzzzz. Actually not that bad - had a huge laugh with the table, particularly Clare, Rudders, JPRound, and Aneurin. Made final table - missed the money. ho hum - had fun.

All in all - brilliant weekend. Great poker, great people, great food (bloody marvellous food actually!), shite beer (but couldn't really taste it by the end), and then a trip from Central London to Andy O's house in Malvern (130 miles) in under 1 hour 30!

So weekend over - no longer the UK Amateur Champion, but will never lose the feeling of holding that title for a year. Wish I could have gone deeper in the Main Event, but C'est La Vie and all that.

Spending my cash winnings on the £560 UKIPT Event in Nottingham in May. 24 sleeps til Notts :)

Back on track

It's strange how sometimes in life, the smallest things can provide the biggest kick start. Attention to detail on one area of life can lead to huge improvements in other areas for example. March has been a helluva month!

Throughout February, I've been dictating to my eldest that success doesn't come without effort and practise - he's ben training for a Biathlon. Having won the West Midland regional event last October, he qualified for the National event at Crystal Palace, and this took place last Sunday. I've been pushing him hard to train and improve his running - his swimming is all good, but his running was pretty poor. To have any chance at the finals, he needed to take a big chunk off his track time. His reluctance to train was so disappointing and frustrating, but with a boot up his backside he would get out for the odd run here and there. And boy, did those begrudged training runs do him good - in fact so good that he sliced 25 seconds off his personal best track time for a 1km run! On the day, it transpired that if he had extracted just 1 second more, he would have finished in the medals - an awe inspiring performance considering he arrived at the event ranked 25th!

Hats off to Anthony - well done lad... really proud of you!

I think the attention to detail that I forced upon Anthony in his training has done something to my poker mindset too. Before the GUKPT event at Walsall, I read a lot of MTT strategy articles to try and get my head in the right place, and to load up with tactics and strategies from the pros. I wasn't really sure that it would do me any good, but it felt right to be "training". At Walsall, I played just about the best tournament poker I've ever played, and in the end was unlucky.

Coming back to real life and the daily grind of online poker, I've come to realise how much I benefitted from that hard work and revision. Considering that last year online was a losing year for me, and I was down in 10 months of 12, I had started to question whether I had the patience for this game any more...... this year so far, I have yet to have a losing week, and am already more than $5k up.

In the past fortnight, I've cashed in the opening round of the APAT online season, also scoring valuable ranking points; have final tabled a $33 MTT on PokerStars for $760; have min-cashed in the PokerStars $215 Sunday Warm Up for $400ish; have min-cashed in a Betfair $22 MTT; have final tabled the same Betfair tourney the next night finishing 2nd for $640; have cashed in a $33 PLO tourney on PokerStars; then last night final tabled a $60 MTT on Betfair coming 4th for $960. All in all, a pretty good month. My mojo is back, and like Anthony, I'm back on track.

It was galling to miss the APAT Welsh Open last weekend - the opening event of APAT's live season, but family came first for a change. Katharine and Rebecca were off to the ballet on Saturday, and Sunday was our day at Crystal Palace. In some respects, missing the Welsh Open wasn't so bad - the memories of last year's event are not good ones... this was the time when the seriousness of Dad's illness became apparent and I had to rush home. Next month the tour is off to the Victoria Casino in London for the UK Amateur event - my chance to become the first APAT player to successfully defend a title.... to say I'm "up for it" is an under-statement. This run of form could not have come at a better time, and my seat was won during the very first satellite tournament (wonder if that's a sign?!).

In closing, this weekend will see the second weekend on the Worcestershire county swimming championships, at which I will be officiating, and hopefully Anthony will be adding to the two bronze medals he won at the first weekend a fortnight ago. The only problem with this weekend is that the clocks go back, meaning a lost hour of sleep in the middle of an extremely arduous and exhausting weekend - couple that with the fact that the next APAT online tourney is on Saturday night.... Sunday looks like being a really tough day. I won't even be able to get an early night on Sunday as I've qualified for a Battle of the Planets $50k shootout on PokerStars, courtesy of a strong performance in a string of 20 Sit And Goes earlier this month. I look forward to Monday, and getting back to work for a rest!!

Til next time...

The pinnacle (so far)

For winning the 2009 tour rankings, I was awarded a £1070 seat in a 2010 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Main Event. For reasons of posterity, I chose Walsall as my target event as that was the scene of my UK Amateur win (plus the fact that it's only 30 minutes from home and being a tight git, I didn't want to spend money on hotels etc!)

Whilst the tour isn't attracting the numbers that it did last year and the year before, there were enough entrants to develop a prize pool in excess of £200,000, with £55,000 to the winner. Almost as important from my perspective was the fact that it attracts a whole bunch of faces I know from TV, and not just from poker circles. (Remember Beppe?)

There were a number of other players from the APAT tour who had won seats for various accomplishments through last season, plus a couple of APAT players with deeper bankrolls who had bought in directly. It was great to have friends around to relieve the stress and tension (which was not insignificant!).

The first thing I did when the table draw was published was see if I recognised any names at my table, and figure out who I should be wary of. The best part of my first table was the inclusion of Tony Trippier (APAT and BCPC player) - was good to have a friendly face there. On my immediate left was a name I knew from the recent Poker press - Jake Cody... a 21 year old online pro who recently won the EPT event in Deauville for €750,000. and on Jake's left was Chaz Chattha, and a couple of seats further round to Stuart Rutter. Sigh!!

I had intended to follow the example set by Alan McBride at Luton last year, and record every hand I played for a write up afterwards (a la Gus Hansen's book), but the problem with this is that my approach to the early stages of a deep stack is to play lots of hands - hence simply no time to record details. That said, there were a few hands of note that stuck in my mind that I can share.

I had decided I was NOT going to play the first couple of hands as I just needed a moment to settle the nerves, and watch things go round for a fiew minutes. However, first hand on the button, an early position raises, and 4 people call.... I look down at 7c9c (my absolute favourite hand - ask Tod Wood!) and make the call. The flop comes 568 (rainbow) - WOW! Initial raiser makes the continuation, and Stuart Rutter raises..... Now comes my first mistake of the day.... rather than flat calling to try and maximise the value, I got over-excited and re-raised - both players insta-folded. ho hum - at least the nerves were settled, and I already had a good table image growing.

It was a relief when our table broke after about an hour - and even more of a relief when there were no big names at my new table. However, one young lad hiding behind his hoodie, proceeded to give me a lesson for four hours in the art of aggressive poker. I subsequently discovered him to be Tom MacDonald - a 19 year old with two decent wins to his name already. A little while later, Praz Bansi arrived on my left, and I had thought he would slow Tom down a bit - not to be.... in fact, Tom completely owned Praz (several times over!).

During that table - two massive hands of note (massive for opposing reasons).

1. With several limpers, I limp on the button with 3h5h. Flop was Tc 9c 5s. It checked round to me, and I bet around half the pot. A guy in the SB called so fast he nearly burnt his hands on the felt - and his hands were shaking like, well, like very shaky hands shake! All others folded. the turn bought the 5d, and the SB guy bet out about a quarter of the pot - I raised with my trip 5s, only for him to re-raise around half his stack. So, having played a raggy hand and made a very strong hand out of it, I was faced with a decision for my tourney - I knew that if I called here, I would have to call the rest on the river..... so my only option was to shove all in now, or fold. I didn't particularly want to shove my stack when I could be drawing dead to a made full house, so folded. I was desperate to see his cards, even if it was a weak hand or a bluff - so I showed my 5. He mucked, and the whole table, and a player on the next table, berated me for a terrible fold. I still maintain it was an ok fold at the time, and under the circumstances.

2. Shortly after that hand, and while people were still talking about me being a complete nit, I raised UTG with AQo. 2 callers. Blinds fold. Flop 345 (rainbow). I c-bet a third of the pot, and get one caller. Whilst the turn card was dealt I was watching his face, and his whole demeanour sank when a 7 was dealt - I just knew he hated that card so much, and figured he must have had an absolute monster - either A2 for a flopped straight, or a flopped set, and was now scared of the four to a straight on the board. I checked and he bet the pot - I knew now I was going to take this away from him, but figured that if I raised here he would call to chase his full house, so flat called (could see that he hated that too). When the river came a blank Jack, I insta-shoved with my Ace high. Nearly 5 minutes later I wanted to ask the dealer to call a clock, but didn't dare speak for fear that my voice would quiver and give my bluff away, so sat in silence...... eventually, he folded 33 - he did indeed have a set of threes and was miles ahead of my paltry AQ (I showed him the Q for good measure, just so he knew he had been taken off the better hand). For me, that was probably one of the best hands I have ever played - and would have been impossible to play online.... for probably the first time ever, I knew from body language exactly where he was, and how to play him off his hand.

So, another table broken and time to move to pastures new - with a decent stack of 40+ big blinds now. The best bit - moving away from Tom MacDonald. My new table had Brian Yates on my left, and I had to take seat 5 (seat 6 was also empty). Looked around at the stacks, and the only stack bigger than mine was on my immediate right - perfect. No sooner had I hung my coat on my chair, the other vacant seat on my immediate left was filled...... by Tom MacDonald. FML!!

Things were going well for a while though, and I grew my stack to over 70 big blinds, and was joint chip leader at the table, and in the top 10 for the tournament overall.

CRASH!!!

Don't know if it was tiredness, or just blind ambition, but the train fell right off the tracks. I raised UTG to 2.5xBB with AK, and the only other player at the table with a big stack re-raised to 10xBB. He was an extremely active player who had just fluked his way to a big stack by calling an all in shove with AQ v AK and spiking a Q. There was no way I was folding to this raise, but didn't want to make a standard re-raise as I couldn't see him folding, and I would then be playing the rest of the hand out of position. My gut was telling me to shove, but my head said shoving 73 big blinds at this stage was just spewy. I elected to call, with the intention of check/folding a flop that I missed, or getting it in if I hit...... flop was KQQ. I checked with the intention of raising........ but he insta-shoved for around 3x the pot. I thought for about 0.3 seconds, before making the call. What a donk! Clearly there was very little that I could actually beat here - had had AQ. On reflection my call was very poor, but I think his shove was so odd that it just threw me off track, after all who in their right mind would shove 3x pot with what is practically the nuts?! Still it worked for him, and he took my chips all the way to the final table for a decent payday.

I look back at that hand, and consider that if I had indeed shoved my 73xBB preflop, assuming he folded his AQo (of course he would, wouldn't he?), I would have been vying for the chip lead, and cruising to day two.

All in all, it was a fantastic day out, which has given me a wealth of new experience, and I am extremely grateful to APAT and to BlueSquare for the opportunity.

------------------------

Back home, still feeling a little hollow, I wanted to play a decent tourney on Sunday night, and made a deposit from the bank account to allow me to play the PokerStars Sunday Warm Up ($215 entry, 4000+ players, circa $155,000 to the winner). This is something that I've absolutely never done before, and felt the pressure from the off - I was using housekeeping money to play poker - bad move!! Confidence was high though, and after the first hour I never dropped out of the payzone - made the money, then proceeded to bust out shortly after the bubble. But at least I recovered the housekeeping :)

Also, in the meantime on Saturday night, had managed to gain my first points of the new APAT season in the Welsh online championship event, finishing 12th from 144. Let's hope that's a sign of another good APAT season to come........

The other guy ALWAYS has Aces!!

So with this new approach to bankroll management, and the continual small withdrawals, my bankroll doesn't build to a level from which I can take a shot at the $215 Sunday majors. Instead, I have to make do with the Pokerstars Sunday donkament - the $11 buy-in $250k guaranteed..... my attempt to try and win big from a small buy in.

It's such a fishy tournament that cashing is rarely a problem, despite the fields regularly growing to over 25000.... however cashing with a big enough stack to get really deep is a different issue.

Last night saw a field of just under 37,000 runners, and for the first time ever, I hit the money with a decent stack that might, just might, make a difference. Without getting many strong hands or situations, I somehow found my way to the last 300, and at one point was as high as 30th.

After a table move, and finding myself two the left of a humungous stack who seemed to be playing every hand, I found what felt like a great spot for a re-steal. In the Big Blind with pocket threes, it felt like the perfect spot to shove over the top of the humungous stack's button raise - so in went my 2x average stack, and of course he had...... AA, and despite a flush draw on the turn, I was out at 01:30 this morning for $150, falling 252 places short of a $30k payday.

Mildly gutted to say the least. Why do they always have Aces?

Busy Times

Wow what a start to 2010 - one of the busiest periods of my life so far in many respects. My poker life is re-ignited, my work life is booming, family life has been intense, Anthony's swimming season has started with a bang, and through all of that I've been looking after and closing Dad's affairs.

With Anthony's swimming, it seems that the poor performances of the last 18 months are now well and truly behind him, and he's working well with the new coach at the club. Every time he swims he turns in such a strong performance, and is breaking PBs for fun again. The downside is the new early morning training regime - every Friday or Monday (my choice to do Friday in case I go deep in a Sunday major!) I have to have him in the water by 5.30am! The early get-ups hurt, but I seem to play some excellent poker whilst sat in the car, and during these sesssions over the last month I have an ROI of over 300%!!

At home, Katharine has been under the knife for an operation that will hopefully bring an end to an escalating series of pains that she has endured for the last year. All seems to have gone well so far, and it won't be long before she's back on her feet. I never realised how many times the washing machine has to go on in a week!!

At work I made a terrible mistake - I flagged to my leadership that I had bandwidth to spare as my account was in a quiet spell. Another account was passed over, and within days my original account suffered a horrendous SOX audit resulting in a mass of remediation actions that have turned my nice quiet account into one requiring 14+ hour days! sigh - that's the last time I ever tell anyone I don't have enough work!

Had to go to court yesterday to confirm all that I had submitted in writing with respect to my application for probate for Dad's estate. Six weeks I had to wait for that appointment, then it lasted less than ten minutes, and now I have to wait another two weeks for them to send me the probate certificate - and who said the court system was slow!!

Through all this, I've found time to play a massive amount of poker. Since the re-emergence of my Pokerstars account in December, I've rediscovered the art of winning single table sit and go tournaments. What's more, I've found that I can play 6 of these at a time, rather than my usual 1 or 2, and have sustained a decent ROI through a hugely increased rate of tournaments. In December I played 151 STTs, was ITM 41% with an ROI of 2%, and a profit of $53. In January I played 192 STTs, was ITM 39%, with ROI of 11%, and profit of $630. BUT, in February when I started aggressively multi-tabling, I played 351 STTs (so far in first 15 days!), was ITM 36% with ROI of 7%, and profit of $614. So in conclusion, my earnings per day have doubled in February whilst playing slightly lower stakes - just need to keep this going now. When the bankroll allows, I hope to be multi-tabling $60 games and sustaining this level of ROI - then I can give up work!

Live poker's also been good to me since my last post. Apart from the local pub game where I run like a dog, I've cashed in every live game I've played since I lost my Dad! Twice in December at DTD, and once in January. The January one was particularly special. After a good run through 2009 on the APAT tour and finishing atop the rankings, I was included in TeamAPAT for the UK Poker Forum Team Championship event in Manchester. This was a 160 runner tournament, made up of 20 teams of 8 players, with everyone who made the top 40 scoring points for their team - 1 point for 40th, and 40 points for 1st. With 3 APAT players making the points (myself included for finishing 20th), we acccumulated enough points to win the event my a decent margin. Another APAT trophy for the collection (well, one eigth of an APAT trophy anyway).

With respect to the local Black Country Poker Tour - I must re-evaluate and reconsider my approach to these games. Last week I was knocked out whilst once again getting my chips in with the dominating hand only to see a cruel river end the night. I just run so bad in those games it hurts!

An interesting week to come - On Saturday I have my final practical assessment in my exam series to try and become a fully qualified British Swimming referee. Losing sleep over that one already, and it's only Wednesday! Then next Friday, I'm off to Walsall to particpate in a GUKPT (Grosvenor UK Poker Tour) Main Event - a £1,060 buy in three day event which should provide a first prize of over £80,000. By far my biggest event to date, and entry is a prize from APAT and Blue Square for winning last season's rankings. Whatever happens in the game, I fully intend to make the most of the experience. I think it might be best if I refrain from autograph hunting though :)

To close this entry - I had the wierdest of telephone experiences earlier this week. The phone rang, and the conversation went along the lines of:

Me: "Hello?"
Electronic voice: "This is Pipex customer services. You are being transferred. Please hold."
Three minutes on hold and waiting.... (ffs!!)
Pipex: "Hello. Please confirm your surname and first name"
Me: "Sorry, but why are you asking my name - you obviously already know it"
Pipex: "For data protection"
Me: "How does me telling you my name protect my data?"
Pipex: "Have to confirm you are the right person before I speak with you"
Me: "Steve Redfern"
Pipex: "Your address and postcode please?"
Me: ... gave address and postcode
Pipex: "Sorry your postcode is wrong - please tell me the right one"
Me: "Eh? What? I know my own postcode!! What is it you want to tell me? Why are you ringing?"
Pipex: "Can't tell you that sir, unless you tell me your correct postcode"
Me: "OK fine, don't tell me - I don't particularly care"
Pipex: "I have information I need to give you about your account"
Me: "OK so tell me..."
Pipex: "Not until you tell me your correct postcode for data protection"
Me: "How do we overcome this? I only have one postcode and I've told it to you already"
Pipex: "Could you call us back tomorrow with the correct postcode?"
Me: "No"
Pipex: "I will have to speak with my supervisor, then call you back on another day"
Me: "Fine! bye!"

12 minutes of my life lost!!

Letter arrived from Pipex today telling my I hadn't paid my January bill for Broadband. It's on Direct Debit, and the bank have not declined any DD requests for payment! sighhhh

A month of highs and lows

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.

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 any 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.

It was such a pleasure to meet so many new friends from various corners of Europe. The APAT just goes from strength to strength.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!!!

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!!

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.