GC shoots Government in the foot...

For a few years now the Labour government has been trying to tempt online poker sites to set-up and be regulated in the UK... obviously they can see that they are missing out on a very lucrative tax income. It would appear that the UK Gambling Commision are not singing from the same hymn sheet...

(Copied from http://www.aworldofpoker.com/news.php?id=218)

UK Gambling Commision Bans UK Operators

UK Gambling Commision Bans UK Operators from Offering Overseas Event Seats. New ruling by the GC will change the face of satellites to overseas events for British Poker players.

UK gambling licensees were told by the UK Gambling Commission that they are no longer allowed to offer seats to tournaments outside of the Commission approved white list areas. The impact is obvious, with any UK-based operators holding satellites to non-UK poker events. The ruling was made as offering prizes outside of the UK advertises non-UK approved events, hence violating the Gambling Act of 2005.

Section 331 of the Act details that a person commits and offence if they “advertise foreign gambling other than a lottery.” Initially the clause was inserted to distinguish which operators were allowed to advertise on television, but it has since become evident it doesn’t apply just to the direct form of advertising referenced.

A release from the Commission said, that 'unless the overseas tournament is based in the European Economic Area, Gibraltar, or in white-listed jurisdictions, the advert is likely to amount to the advertising of 'foreign gambling,' which constitutes an offence under Section 331 of the Gambling Act 2005.”

It is not totally clear how the legislation will affect poker sites offering satellites to events like the WSOP, EPT and Aussie Millions, although most of the online poker rooms are not based in the UK. Statements clarifying the positions of the online firms are expected in coming days.

Brick and mortar venues will certainly be affected though, and for many of the new pub league initiatives which have come about in the last 18 months, this will be a major blow as some offer seats to the WSOP or other events abroad. Those who are found guilty of violating Section 331 could face up to 51 weeks in prison and a fine.

Has it really been a month?

How time flies… apologies to my reader for neglecting this diary for nearly a month.

Since the PokerStars Steps debacle I have officially given up with online poker… twice!! I have deleted all poker client software from my laptop - except Dusk Til Dawn, as you can buy-in to their live tournaments via the online poker room; and Blue Square, for the occasional attempt at an APAT online satellite.

-----+-----

At the end of November I played in the inaugural Virgin Poker Festival, at the Broadway Casino in Birmingham. The tournament went OK (wheels didn't fall off 'til fairly late in the evening) and the Virgin staff did their best to make it a fun weekend, BUT I'm afraid no amount of effort on their part could gloss over the horrendous mistake that had been made with this choice of venue - NO GUINESS!!! - Come on Virgin, get your act together. :-) (A little bird tells me that the 2nd Virgin Poker Festival is being considered for next springtime, at Aspers in Newcastle… Top venue, believe me).

-----+-----

The Friday after the Virgin tourney I was due to take part in the 'invite only' Dusk Till Dawn opening weekend £100 freezeout, but in the end decided to leave it until after christmas for my first visit - just too many events one after the other… and the less said about the Pigeons game on Sunday the better!!

-----+-----

The very next weekend was the APAT UK Championships at the G Casino in Manchester… I had really been looking forward to this one, with Ricky Hatton fighting in Vegas on the Saturday night (Sun morning), I was expecting the atmosphere in the casino to be superb. Well, the weekend started badly and didn't really improve!

About 4.00pm Friday evening my car radiator decided to spring a leak, a few miles from home… after an hours wait in a freezing cold car the breakdown truck turned up and took me home. Since I had it on good authority that the G Casino in Manchester would have Guiness (thanks Dewi), I decided that the car could wait 'til Monday and set about checking the train times for Saturday morning.

So, up at 6.00am on Saturday morning... showered, fed & watered and out the door at 7.00 for the 5 minute walk to the bus stop, followed by a 20 min wait for a bus! Arrive at Oxford Station in good time for the 8.36 train to Manchester Picadilly… at least the train was on time and I eventually got a seat (after Birmingham International). Somewhere around Stockport it started raining - it didn't stop raining until just south of Macclesfield, on the way home, Sunday! Arrived in Manchester, at about the same time as Paul 'the game' and bumped into him at the metro station… 3 stops on the tram to Victoria and then about a mile by taxi and we are at the casino by about 12.30.

For the most part I was pretty happy with the way I played the tournament and the only real error was my last hand, it was about about 10.30pm and I had been up for 18 hours - well that's my excuse… I mis-read a large raise from the cut-off as an attempt to steal my BB, I moved in over the top with A4s… unfortunately matey had AKo and called without too much hesitation… that, as they say, was that!

So a few hours to kill before the Hatton fight, time for beer then… and you'll never guess who I found at the bar? No, not Des Duffy… but none other than young Dewi. It would have been rude not join him wouldn't it?

A 'couple' of beers later I see an empty seat at a £1/£1 PLHE cash game and sit down with £100. The details of the game escape me now but over the next hour or two I remember the following… being down to about £50 and getting another £40 out my wallet… being down to around £30 and getting the last £20 note out of my wallet… being down to exactly £12 and saying, "I won't need much to get this last £12 in the middle!"… next hand getting it all-in pre-flop with J9s and getting 3 callers… a Jack high flop and a 9 on the river, giving me the main pot of about £50… 'the game' appearing at my shoulder (he had just been knocked out of the tourney), getting all-in, for something over £100, on the turn with TPTK and the Nut-Flush draw… catching the flush on the river to beat a flopped straight… and finally cashing-out about £320!! :-) Time for more beer!

Suprisingly, Dewi was nowhere to be seen… apparently he had become overwhelmed with excitement and anticipation (or Guiness) while waiting for the boxing, that he had passed out somewhere and had to be assisted back to his hotel… About 3.30am a few of us decide to take up residence soewhere with a decent view of a TV in good time so as to be assured a good view of the fight, and we wait… and we wait… the bar closes… and we wait… and we wait… and finally, sometime around 5.00am, the fight starts. 10 rounds later and a rather dissappointing fight is over and the whole world and his dog pile out of the casino looking for a taxi… there are none to be had!! Now the hotel is about 3 miles away and I don't fancy that walk through some of the less salubrious areas of Greater Manchester. So I am just about ready to walk the mile or so back to Victoria station when a familiar face emerges from the casino (GiMac), who I know is staying at the same hotel… that's 'andy 'Arry!

And finally to bed at about 6.00am… not a day I want to repeat in a hurry!

-----+-----

Leg 3 of the APAT Regional Series, Bristol Harbourside, on Saturday 15th Dec, saw both me and 'Golden Delicious' make early exits… we both showed a small profit at BlackJack though so not all bad.

-----+-----

On Monday I made a half-hearted attempt to win a seat at the APAT Welsh Championships in the $22 satellite on Blue Square, not really bothered about spending a weekend in Cardiff, in January… Remember the saying, "Be careful what you wish for!"… I had a complete maniac seated to my right, he had been making, and showing, outrageous all-in bluffs as well as simply overbetting real hands… "Your time will come", I think to myself… and so it comes to pass, a few limpers including Dr Maniac, I raise it up 10xBB with QQ… just one caller, you can guess who… flop 223 rainbow… Dr Maniac checks, I bet the pot, he calls… "Great", I think… turn 3… "Excellent, please let him have an Ace", I think, as I push all-in. Hoping that he will put me on an Ace and think he's calling to split the pot. Call he does, with A4o… Get in there!... River 5. And that's all I have to say about that!

At least I'm good at 'clickfests'. :-)

-----+-----

So there we are bang upto date again, I will try and keep it that way!

A couple of steps closer to the Caribbean...

… I'm sitting at the other end of the sofa!!

I'm afraid my long term in-ability to beat the SnGs on PokerStars, at any level, was just too much of an obstacle to overcome in my quest for a little winter sunshine at the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. After two more frustrating sessions my $209 (£100) budget was reduced to 50c and I have conceded defeat… Head is hanging in shame! :-(

It's not all bad news though, in an attempt to 'tilt-off' my last 50c I actually ended up with $1.59, playing 1c/2c Limit Omaha H/L. Who knows? I may get it back up to $7.50 and have one more crack at it… no wait! I have a better idea, I'll just withdraw it and buy a pint of Guinness. (hmmm, will $7.50 still be enough to get a pint??)

I don't know what it is about SnGs on Stars, I just don't seem to be able to show a profit - as is plain to see by anyone that uses sharkscope.com - yet on most other sites I have played on regularly, SnGs have always been my most reliable method of making a shilling or two… one of life's great mysteries I guess? :-)

Oh well, who cares about all that… live poker to look forward to tomorrow. It's the two day Virgin Poker Festival at the Broadway Casino, in Birmingham. I won my £105 seat in my second attempt at the $10 online satellites way back in September, with 200 runners and £5000 added by Virgin, it adds up to a nice bit of value on offer. I just hope I make it to the second day and into the money.

In search of Atlantis (Session 7)...

Well one week in and it's right back to square one! I played both the Step 3 and the Step 4 tournaments last night - dumped out of both, with no return... Go direct to Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect £200!! :-(

Played the Step 3 first, things were going quite nicely, until I pick up KK and this happens - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1711481 - Shortly after I push my last 865 chips in with AKs and run into QQ!

And then, 2nd hand of Step 4, KK again - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1711470 - The odds of me winning, as this hand progressed were as follows...

Pre-Flop 70/30
On the Flop 87/13
On the Turn 91/9

I think that classifies as a 'bad beat'.
It's a cruel, cruel game!

Going to take a day off today and go to church, in search of divine inspiration.

In search of Atlantis (Session 6)...

Played the Step 4... played like a tart!

Fought back from a really short stack to make it into the last 5. One big stack and the other 4 of us taking turns to be shorty for about 2 1/2 levels. On one of my turns as short stack I re-raise all-in with TT... big stack calls with AQ and hits a Q first card out! Back to Step 3. Bollox!

Played the Step 3, plus bought direct into a Step 2... 1st in both so another crack at Step 4, and another Step 3, tomorrow night.

Fri 16/11
- $215 Step 4 SnG - 5th Won Ticket for Step 3 ($82)
- $82 Step 3 SnG - 1st Won Ticket for Step 4 ($215)
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 1st Won Ticket for Step 3 ($82)

- Balance $119 + Step 4 Ticket ($215) + Step 3 Ticket ($82)

Theoretical Balance $416 (+$207)

In search of Atlantis (Session 5)...

Prize structure for Step 3 is...

1st & 2nd - Ticket for Step 4 ($215 SnG)
3rd, 4th & 5th - Ticket for Step 3 ($82 SnG)
6th to 9th - Put your hand in your pocket and buy buy back-in!!

so, it shouldn't be toooo difficult to at least stick at Step 3 should it? Well, just in case, I've decided to play another couple of Step 1s before attempting the Step 3... just to warm up really, you understand. :-)

Thu 15/11
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 5th, all-in PF with KK v AKo, flop TJQ! Bastards!
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 1st Won Ticket for Step 2 ($27 SnG)
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 8th... Aaarrgh!! Take deep breaths, calm...
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 3rd Won Ticket for Step 1 ($7.50 SnG)
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 4th Won $1.50
- $82 Step 3 SnG - 1st Won Ticket for Step 4 ($215) Get in there!!!

- Balance $146 + 1 x Ticket for Step 4 ($215)

Theoretical Balance $361



Early finish for tonight and attempt Step 4 tomorrow night... a $215 SnG... shit!! never played a SnG for this much before, the Step 3 one made me sweat!

In search of Atlantis (Session 4)...

After 2 days of standing still and/or going backwards, I have finally made it to Step 3... Yippee!!




Wed 14/11
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 4th Won Ticket for Step 2 ($27 SnG)
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 5th
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 2nd Won Ticket for Step 3 ($82 SnG)
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 4th Won $1.50 (or lost $6!!)

- Balance $167 + 1 x Ticket to Step 3 ($82)

Theoretical Balance $249 (+$40)

In search of Atlantis (Session 3)...

Well tonight has seen a succession of beats, of varying degrees of badness, ranging from 'coin tosses' to '1 outers' on the river. Found myself back at Step 1, a rather ignominious 9th place, then after spending $15 to buy into two of them, I eventually managed to get back to a Step 2... and stay there!

Tue 13/11
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 6th Doh!!!
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 5th Won Ticket for Step 1 ($7.50 SnG)
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 9th
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 4th Won $1.50
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 1st Won Ticket for Step 2 ($27 SnG)
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 4th Won Ticket to Step 2 ($27 SnG)

- Balance $180.50 + 1 Ticket to Step 2

Theoretical Balance $207.50 (-$1.50)

In search of Atlantis (Session 2)...

Step 2 prize structure...
1st Ticket to Step 3 ($82)
2nd Ticket to Step 3 ($82)
3rd Tickey to Step 2 ($27)
4th Ticket to Step 2 ($27)
5th Ticket to Step 1 ($7.50)
6th - 9th You lose! Thankyou and good day, Sir.

Mon 12/11
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 4th Won Ticket for Step 2 ($27 SnG)
- $27 Step 2 SnG - 4th Won Ticket for Step 2 ($27 SnG)

- Balance $194 plus 2 x Step 2 Tickets

Theoretical Balance $248 (+$39)

Step 2 again tomorrow night then!

In search of Atlantis (Session 1)...

I've noticed a couple of threads on the blondepoker forum in relation to 'Steps' Sit & Go tournaments, on PokerStars, to win seats at big buy-in live events i.e. EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Sydney. Now, I've never been a big fan of the 'Steps' concept, my dislike was based on the cash steps that started on Party Poker sometime ago. I didn't like the fact that there was no way to bail out if you find yourself out of your depth... you either win the end prize or you lose all the money [and time] that you have invested.

Some of what I've read recently (penned by people who I believe to be good players and who know what they are talking about - not you Ironside!), has prompted me to look again and I have decided to 'invest' £100 and try to win a seat at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, to be held in January, at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.


The buy-in for Step 1 is $7.50 (this is where I am going to start), Step 2 is $27 and I think Step 3 is about $80. I have always been comfortable playing $20 - $25 SnGs so I would expect to get to Step 3 with out too much trouble, but from there on in I am playing at stakes far higher than I have ever played before (for online SnGs), hopefully the majority of my opponents will be small stakes players who have also come up through the steps, but I know that a lot of people (better players and/or bigger bankrolls) will be buying in directly at the higher levels and the standard of play is bound to raise considerably as you near your goal at the end of Step 6.

The $7.50 Step 1 tournaments pay as follows -
1st Ticket for Step 2 ($27)
2nd Ticket for Step 2 ($27)
3rd Ticket for Step 1 ($7.50)
4th $1.50
5th - 9th Nowt!

So, the story so far is...

Sun 11/11/07
- deposit £100 ($209) in PokerStars
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 1st Won Ticket for Step 2 ($27 SnG)
- $7.50 Step 1 SnG - 1st Won Ticket for Step 2 ($27 SnG)

- Balance $194 plus 2 x Step 2 Tickets

Off to a good start... I'll tackle the first Step 2s this evening. I'd better get down to Boots and see if they've got any suncream left!! :-)

The weekend round-up...

Saturday, Nov 10th, APAT Regional Champs Leg 2…

With the Gala Harbourside Bristol hosting the £2500 final of the GBPT, the only other venue in the 'Western Region' was the Grovesnor Cardiff… yes, Cardiff, that's in Wales you know!!! Well there is no way that I'm paying good money to cross a bridge to go into Wales, at least not until they start charging 'them' to come into England. And so, following lengthy, high level negotiations with the APAT top brass we obtained special dispensation, from the Central Office for Special Dispensations at APAT HQ, to play leg 2 at the next closest venue to home and to be able to transfer any ranking points that we might score (ha) onto our Western Region total.

And so, it was with great excitement and eager anticipation that me and the 'Golden' one set off for the Big Smoke and our first visit to the spiritual home of UK poler - The Vic… I actually think that Rich's excitement and eager anticipation was largely down to the hope that he might catch a glimpse of Vicky Coren in the flesh. Alas, Miss Coren was not in residence, add to that the fact that, while the Vic card room was perfectly adequate, there was nothing about the place that filled either of us with any great desire to rush back… essentially just another Grosvenor casino.

The tournament started on time at 2.30pm… I was eliminated on the last hand of level one at exactly 3.00pm! That's all I have to say about that.

Rich on the other hand put in another decent performance, managing to at least stay in until it got dark, until the wheels fell off and he was bounced out in 16th place… respectable enough from a field of 71, but no money, no points, no medal, no glory!

With no comfy sofas in sight in which to relax for the afternoon I initially wander downstairs into the casino. I buy a pint of Guinness and stand and watch the action on the first craps table that I've seen in a UK casino… I think you could stand watching craps for a week and still have no idea what the hell is going on, it is a total mystery to me? The one thing that is glaringly obvious, is that in any game that has 4 members of staff running it, the house must have a huge edge… I think I'll stick to occaisionally watching in amazement. I did spend about 30 mins on a £5 minimum Blackjack table, made £50 profit and left.

Back up to the card room, Rich was still going well in the tournament so I put my name on the list for the 50p/£1 NL cash game. Just a short wait and I'm soon seated, there seemed to be a global shortage of 50p chips so the game was actually £1/£1, no problem. Well, the Vic may be the spiritual home of UK poker, but it still attracts some seriously bad players at the lower limits. :-) That said I still managed to find myself £40 down after an hour or so, anyway I top back up to the £100 max buy-in and after another couple of hours I cashed out £312 for a £170 profit.

Rich had just been knocked out of the tournament, we had drink and a bite to eat, it was a bit after 8.00pm and too early to go home so both of us go on the cash game waiting list and fairly quickly get seated… a 90 minute session sees me give about £80 back and Rich a profit of £15.

And that, as they say, was that… if you leave out the traffic jams and diversion on the way there and the fact that 3 Oxford Tube buses passed us while we waited in the cold, for an hour, for an Oxford Express bus on the way home… it was a nice day out.

BTW, 'the game' played the APAT tourney in Blackpool and finished 9th of 30.

Sunday, Nov 11th, £10 Freezeout at the Pigeons…

Such is the prestige of this bi-weekly poker extravaganza that 'the game' caught the afternoon train back from Blackpool just to be part of it! To add a bit of extra interest (not that it needs it) to the tourney, we three had a little side action… whoever knocks out Tim collects a fiver from each of the other two. What we hadn't counted on was for the first time in months the game attracted more than 9 players and went to two tables, with only Rich getting drawn on Tim's table… damn! As it happened Tim was first out but, fortunately, not falling victim to Rich.

It has also been noted that unless you are called Steve you are at a distinct dis-advantage… The first four places were filled by Steves!! Rich did manage 5th place, but then he's a STEVEnson. :-) I demand a Stewards Enquiry!!!

APAT English Amateur Poker Championships...

Well I made the 2nd day of a 2 day tournament for the first time at the weekend... before exiting in 16th place, of 201 runners, in the English Amateur Poker Championships, pocketing the princely sum of £400 for my trouble. But more importantly earning my second entry into The Hendon Mob Poker Database, catching back up with Rich and in fact just edging him on total prize money by a couple of $s. :-)

The Grosvenor Walsall was the venue for this, the first national championship event of the APAT Season 2. Such is the popularity of these tournaments that people were queuing outside more than an hour before the casino opened at 12:30, in order to get on the Reserve/Alternates list. Indeed our very own 'Golden Delicious'** was there at 11:30 and was number 6 on the list.

** We'll drop the 'Buffet Queue Kid' nickname [for now] following Rich's recent success in Slovenia and two cashes at Barrington!! :-)

As it turned out there must have been 5 people ring up to say that they couldn't make it to the casino, by the time the tournament started 'GD' was top of the list and poised, like a coiled spring, to take his place in history as the 1st Alternate to take a seat at an APAT National Championships... praying for someone to be eliminated before the end of level 2.

The Poker God smiled on 'GD' on this occasion, when the first, and the only elimination, during levels 1 and 2, happened half way through the second level and he was in... And he made it past the dinner break again!

As for the story of my tournament, there's not too much to say really. I had some big hands early and didn't get paid on many of them. I had to lay down pocket Aces on a QJx flop... a young lady had made a 3 x BB raise from early position... one Mid-Position caller, before I re-popped it from the button... the Original Raiser calls without too much thought and the MP caller folds... the OR pushes all-in on the flop... I think QQ or JJ is far more likely than any of the hands I can beat, I tell her that I have a big hand and ask politely if she'll show if I fold, to which she replies "Yes." She seems quite comfortable and in the end I make what I think is a quite easy fold... I flip over my AA and she kindly shows me JJ.

Most of the big pots I won were when I had been allowed to limp in, or call small raises, with things like suited connectors and raggy suited aces... and then got lucky when the flop hit my hand nicely... that is not to say there was no skill involved, in each case I was able to keep the strength of my hand hidden until my opponents had committed large portions (if not all) of their stack to a pot that they couldn't win! :-)

The end, when it came after about 30 minutes of play on day 2, was quite bizarre. I had started day 2 with 60,500 chips, 12th place of the 20 remaining players, the blinds were 3000/6000. After about 15 hands I had posted the binds once and stolen them once and so still had 60,500... 10 x BBs, or an M of 6.7, whichever way you look at it I need some chips soon... four of the other short stacks had already been eliminated!

Day 2, Hand 15... UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 20k... I'm UTG+2, I have 99 and decide that my 60k chips might just be enough to get everyone to fold and allow me to pick up the 29k pot... all fold to the SB, who asks for a count of my chips and then after some deliberation the SB pushes all-in (appx 150k)... "Oh dear", I think... and then the BB, who has about 50k, announces, "I have absolutely nothing, but I could get lucky and more than treble-up." And he proceeds to push his chips in the middle as well... ffs!! The OR then has his few minutes in the tank before eventually folding AKo face-up. "On their backs." announces the dealer... the SB turns over Ako... the BB has the monster 6d2d... and all of sudden my pocket 9s don't look so bad. The warm feeling that had flowed over me didn't last too long... first card on the flop is a King, closely followed by a 3 and a 5... and I'm behind and drawing to two outs... turn is a J, which is no help to anyone... and the river card is a 4, which sends me to the rail, gives the BB a straight and about 180k chips and leaves the SB looking like he's lost half a crown and found a shilling!!!

Waiting patiently for '62s boy' to call... "Do I look bovvered?"

So that's poker... the best hand of 3 going in... the worst hand of 3 at the end!

All in all another excellent APAT tournament, well done and a big thank you to the APAT team and to all the staff at the Grosvenor Walsall.

At the end of the day all my old teachers weren't far of the mark with their comments on virtually all of my school reports - 'Tries hard, could do better!"

Those nice folk at Virgin Poker...

Then there were two...

The Witney (inc. Carterton) Mob will be playing two handed for the forseeable future as Paul 'the game' has decided he was in need of a change of scenery and has headed north to try his luck in Blackpool.

So if you go up to see the lights this year and you see this guy weaving down the Golden Mile, wearing a 'Kiss Me Quick' hat, on a Saturday night... say hello. (The one on the left, wearing the deckchair, not the old bloke off the telly.)

You will be able to keep upto date with his exploits at - blackpoolboy.blogspot.com

Good luck Paul.

Perla Freezeout, Slovenia 2007

Day 1, Thu Oct 18th

- Our party of 15 gather in the departure lounge at Stansted airport for the 2 hour flight to Trieste.
- Arrive Trieste pretty much on time, two mini-buses waiting to take us 25 min drive to hotel... compliments of hotel.
- All rooms ready and waiting for us, as reserved by email with Poker Room manager... no deposits required.
- All checked in and time for a couple of beers in hotel cafe/bar before start of 1st tournament at 5:00pm.
- 13 of us enter the €360 + €40 Freezeout... total entries 57... we have two on Final Table - Jimbo placing 4th and Kathryn 7th.
- I went out in around 40th place. :-( After a look around the casino I decide to give the cash games a try... A bit of a shaky start, losing the €300 I had on me, I borrowed €300 (Thanks Tony) for one more crack at the €2/€2 NL game. After grinding it out til about 5.00am, I cashed out €1680 to show a nice profit at the end of day 1 (or was that the start of day 2?).

Day 2, Fri Oct 19th

- I spent most of the late morning and afternoon sitting in the sun outside the hotel cafe, preparing myself for the evening's tournament and watching Matt, Pete, (big) Rich and 'The Bookie' playing backgammon.
- Around midday, half a dozen of the more adventurous / younger / fitter / less hungover set off in search of the town centre... I don't know what they found by way of a town centre, but they obviously found some bars!!
- I think only 10 of us made it into the €550 + €50 Double-Chance Freezeout at 5.00pm. Jimbo & Kathryn deciding not re-invest but to bank their profits from the previous night, whilst another (who shall remain nameless) heard that 'the game' was on in town and went off in search of some heads-up action! - more detail can found on Rich's blog!!
- The tournament had 61 entries and our party surpassed itself with 4 of us (sorry, that should be 4 of 'them') on the final table... 'The Bookie' exited in 6th place, The Buffet Queue Kid missed the buffet and made 4th place - cruelly robbed by the Poker God when his AK couldn't hold up against Paul Mac's AJ... Down to three-handed and a deal was thrashed out which guaranteed all 3 of them €6000 with the winner taking the remainder, another €3k or so. 'Big Tone' and Paul Mac then took 3rd and 2nd place respectively.
- Oh yes, I finished in 23rd place!
- The events of the rest of the evening have become a little hazy now... if I'm honest they were a little hazy the following day!! I recall cashing out with a few hundred €uros profit from the €2/€2 NL cash game and then playing some Blackjack with Rich (The BQKid), which I think also showed a small profit... we then sat for ages playing Video Poker with €10. About 8.00am we headed out of the casino, Rich went off to bed and, as they were already serving breakfast I thought I'd get that out of the way! After brekkie I sat outside, in the sunshine, with a coffee until about 9.00am - then went to bed!


Day 3, Sat Oct 20th

- No poker tournaments today... The instructions were, "Meet outside, at the cafe at midday - we're going on one!!"
- I'm there at midday, the 'Backgammon Four' are already shaking and moving, but they don't look like they are actually planning on moving very far.
- By about 12:30 there are seven of us ready to venture into the wild blue yonder... the plan is to head to 'Mama's', a bar that the advance party found yesterday, about 400 yds away. We settle in, outside in the sunshine, around two tables only to be told that 'Mama' wasn't in today, one or two who had been here yesterday seemed dissappointed - I didn't ask! So the beer's start coming, periodically interupted for a round of Sambucca (urgh, but it had to be done!). After a disastrous attempt to try and introduce some of us to game called 'Liar Dice' it was decided that we should play 'Spoof' and the losers would split the bill, when/if we decided that we had had enough beer. The mere mention of the word 'spoof' made Paul 'the game' so excited we thought he was going to pop - indeed he might have done but for the events of the previous night!! - so excited that it prompted the immortal declaration, "I will play anyone [at spoof], anywhere, anytime - for all the tea in China!"
- The spoof lasts for 4 games, Paul & Kathryn lose two each and have to split the bill between them... but this is Slovenia and it is cheaper than the UK, the bill for a couple of hours worth of beer and Sambucca for seven people comes to just €72... luckily for Paul no-one took him up on the Tea bet! :-)
- Just as the subject of conversation turns to that night's rugby world cup final, three of the 'Backgammon Four' arrive on the plot - Matt, Pete & John 'The Bookie' - along with Martin. Not being one to let patriotism get in the way of a gambling opputunity, Paul 'the game' offers to lay England with a +12 point handicap. A couple of handshakes later and Paul feels he's fully committed with €100 or so at risk, and so Martin asks 'The Bookie' if he'll take €500 on the handicap bet. Well, of course 'The Bookie' is a bookie, and thinking that Paul was laying at the 'official' handicap, he gladly accepts Martins bet at +12 points. Then for some reason 'The Bookie' decides to borrow someone's phone and ring home, he had wandered away from tables to get a bit of quiet and after a short conversation, those that were facing towards him could tell that all was not well in bookieland... John's face changed through several shades of red and then green, I swear this was as close as it is possible for someone to become physically sick just through the power of words!! The bad news?... It seems the 'official' handicap was +8 points not +12... oh dear!!
- As the sun dissappears behind a tree and it gets a bit chilly a few head of back to the hotel, while some of us head inside for a game of darts... That is throw some things that resemble darts, with plastic points, at a thing that resembles a dartboard, that is a plastic thing with little holes in it... to cut a long story short Jimbo relieved 'The Bookie' of a few more €uros, in response to a 15/1 "You can't hit the Bull/25" challenge.
- The exact sequence of events from here on has been lost with the passage of time, but I remember a group of us setting of to find a sports bar that was going to have the rugby on and someone saying, "We don't need a taxi, it's not far", and after wandering aimlessly around Nova Gorica for 30 mins, when it became clear no-one had a clue where they were going, some of us gave up and headed back to the hotel... I remember playing some €2/€2 NL cash and losing a couple of hundred €uros... then finding Rich (The BQKid), Jimbo & Kathryn watching the rugby on a TV just outside the poker room! Then playing some €2/€4 NL cash and losing some more! :-(
- My night ended in the casino playing Blackjack and drinking complimentary large Jack Daniels & Cokes... I sat at the BJ table with €200 and played for ages, on two seperate occaisions I had my last €20 or €30 committed but kept fighting back (getting lucky!). I then hit an amazing rush for 20-30 mins and finally cashed out €800, recouping the day's poker losses. :-)

Day 4, Sun Oct 21st

- Not much to be said about Sun... got up... felt like shit... waited for the mini-buses to take us to the airport.
- Mini-buses arrive out front of hotel, spot on time and take us to airport.
- Sat in airport departure lounge... felt like shit.
- Slept most of the 2 hour flight and 2 hour drive home.

--- The End ---

A nice bit value...

I just happened to notice a $25 tournament on Blue Square last night had a $500 guarantee and only 5 players, with 5 mins to go... it actually started with 7, but still a nice overlay -

Back a couple of weeks... still catching up!

Sun Oct 7th - The Mob attends the £10 freezeout at The Pigeons mob handed... I'm out 1st, closely followed by 'The BQ Kid', Paul hangs in a bit longer; but essentially it's another embarrassing display!!

Mon Oct 8th - Whilst I had won right to a seat in the APAT English Champs, since I played my regional qualifier at a Gala casino I was paid out in full, but with the option to buy... So anyway, with nothing better to do on Monday night I decide to enter the online APAT satellite on Blue Square, a $20 + $2 freezeout with one seat for every 10 players... with 161 players there would be seats for the top 16. These satellites are 5000 chip / 15 min blinds affairs and no antes in the structure on BlSq they tend to drag on a bit! Now at 00:45 on Tuesday morning there are still 25 left, I have just gone into a good chip lead with a little over 80,000. I had calculated that average chips when down to 16 was going to be a little over 50,000. So I decided I had enough chips to fold into the last 16... and went to bed! It appears I was still in 2nd chip position when the tournament ended... so another seat won and an additional $50 in my BlSq account! Since the seats are not transferable I emailed APAT and told them I would not need the one I won in Bristol and it could be re-sold in the click-fest.

And there's more......

Something fishy at Absolute Poker...

I began to suspect there were dark forces at work at Absolute Poker last weekend when they sent me one of those "haven't seen you for a while... we have deposited $10 in your account" emails.

Well, I fire up AP, sit at a 10c/20c PLO cash table with my full $10... and do you know what? Within 10 minutes I had lost the lot... wtf!

So I did a bit of detective work and look what I found - http://www.thehendonmob.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=145424#145424

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12523924&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Another go at catching up...

So, way back on Saturday, 6th Oct, me and the 'Buffet Queue Kid' were back at the Harbourside in Bristle. This time it was Leg 1 of the APAT Regional Championship, a freezeout with 3000 chips and a 30 min clock... a pretty good structure for a £20 tournament, especially as there is no reg fee. Added to that, it is all dealer dealt and a free buffet (oh dear!)... just about reason enough for driving nearly 70 miles for an 80 seat (max), £20 tourney.

This turned out to be a day of mixed fotunes for the Withey (inc. Carterton) Mob... unforunately the 'BQ Kid' made the BQ in good time, while yours truly went on to take 3rd place (of the 61 entries), £190 and an APAT bronze medal as well as the option to buy-in to the English Amateur Championships (more on this later). Rich did make the final table of their regular Saturday night £10 freezeout... only to go out in 10th place and out of the money. But at least it was a few hours poker for his money.

To be continued....

Time to catch up...

No... Can't seem to get in the writing mood! Perhaps I have 'writers block'?

Out early, and it could have been even worse

Posted by Golden Delicious..

It's fair to say I didn't last too long. Four blind levels I think, but it may have been even sooner had DJ mateyboy been playing the game longer than two days.

At my table we had a local radio DJ who had been invited by SkyPoker to give the event some local publicity. Apparently he was given a few hours tutorial to prepare him for the event. If he'd had a four or five hour lesson, I'd have been out within two blind levels.

I had J10 in the small blind, DJ mateyboy limps in from middle position, folded to me, I make a wee raise, BB folds, DJ matey boy calls. Flop AhKh6c. I check. DJ mateyboy checks. Turn - 6d. I check, DJ matey boy checks. River - Qh. I have made a braodway straight, but with three hearts on the board I check. DJ mateyboy checks too, and I flip over my hand. DJ then flips over his hand. A6 for a boat, sixes over aces!! Gasp..I was prepared to pay somewhere around 800 if he had value bet his hand, so this saved me. And I was then able to go on and, well, get busted later.

But, still phew eh?

Coming soon to TV screen near you...

if my one hand at the final table of the Sky Poker £7k guaranteed live tourney, doesn't get lost on the cutting room floor! :-)

Myself and the Golden one made the trip to the new Gala Bristol Harbourside, along with 138 other hopefuls... 120 of whom had pony'd up the £55 buy-in. The remaining 20 being guests of Sky Poker, who included poker-pro Mark Banin and Sky Poker presenters Jason Barrasford and DP Fitzgerald.

This tournament was going to play a bit like an online 'turbo' jobby... 20 minute levels and no 75/150 or 150/300 levels. With this in mind I decided that there was no time to waste and all 'orphan' pots were going to be mine! Earlier in the week I had gone back to reading a book which I had started a few months ago - The Poker Tournament Formula, by Arnold Snyder - which details the authors strategy for low buy-in, fast structured tournaments... nothing too radical, but it did provide a few reminders for me to focus on.

I think that the trauma of the buffet debacle at the APAT event in Newcastle last year - being too far back in the queue and not getting fed - has had an indellible effect on Mr Delicous' psyche... not for the first time since then, he departed the tournament just before the dinner break! Rich, I think you should take a packed lunch next time, perhaps it will remove thoughts of the front of the dinner queue from your subconcious! :-)

If I do say so myself, I think I played the whole tournament rather well. I nicked the first pot, kept busy and maintained a healthy stack right the way through to the money places (18), without having any real premium hands. The biggest pocket pair I saw all night was Jacks and I had to lay them down to a raise, on a Q high, all hearts flop... I even had the Jh!! I busted the 'bubble boy' with a great read and call... he had minimum raised in early position, folded to me in BB with J8s... I call the raise and check the T82 rainbow flop... he pushes all-in for about two-thirds of my stack. I had seen him make this same play a couple of times and was fairly confident that he had AK or AQ and that my pair of 8s was good. I was keeping an eye on him as I counted out my chips and he really didn't look very comfortable! So I make the call... he actually had A6o... no Ace on the turn or river and we're down to 18 and all in the money.

Then it all went Pete Tong!! Very next hand all fold to me in the SB (1500)... the BB has just 1500 more chips, for a total of 4500... I have 6c8c and put him all-in... he calls with 93o. I catch an 8 on the flop, he finds a 9 on the turn... he now has 9000 chips. Next hand it folds to me on the button, I only have 84o but figure that the SB wont want to put his newly won 9k in the middle without a real hand, the BB hasn't played a hand since I've been at the table... so I raise it up to 10k! :-) Matey pushes the rest of his 9k in, the BB folds... my 84o, even with it's triple-gutshot straight draw and two flush draws, was no match for the pocket tens... he now has 21k!!!

Over the next half-hour or so I get outdrawn by all-in shortstacks three times and get comitted to another pot with my nemesis on my left... the result of this is that with 11 players left I find myself with 7k chips, UTG with blinds at 2000/4000. The blinds are posted, the dealer is finishing the shuffle and just as I am about to push my tiny stack in 'blind'... the TD shouts "Stop!", someone has busted on the other table and we are down to ten.

Now you might think that I should be pleased that I have made the final table, and I suppose part of me was. However, I had a premontion of what was about to happen. If I tell you that the tournament started about 25 mins late and that every break had dragged on 5-10 mins longer than intended, you should be getting some idea of my fears. It was almost spot on 10:00pm when play was paused... by the time the Sky folks had set up tripods, cameras, lights and microphones; then seats were re-drawn (I get seat 2 and the SB!); then Tikay makes the introductions of the FT players... it was about 11:20pm when play resumed.

And so it comes it comes to pass, Final table, just over 2 mins of 2k/4k level remain, 1st hand... I post 2k for the SB, with 5k behind. I resist the temptaion to just push blind, but don't look at my cards until it is my turn to act. All fold to the cut-off, who raises to 10k and the button folds. When I finally look at my cards I see what is probably the worst kind of hand for this scenario - A7o. If the CO has raised with any sort of a real hand then I'm behind and probably dominated with only one live card... but it is an Ace and doubling my 7k (plus the BB) would give me 18k, even I see a better opputunity in next 5 or 6 hands and double my remaining 5k I would probably end up with less chips. So I make the call... A7o vs AKs... no suck-out for me and my TV table experience is over. But I pick up £150 for 10th place, so not all bad.

The day that Doyle Brunson met...

the South American Amateur Champion -

He's been talking about nothing else ever since! The pic was taken when we were both in London recently, for the WSOPE. He even asked me to sign one of his books, bless him.

And one for Paul -

Mob domination of PLO at Barrington continues

Posted by Golden Delicious.....

My appalling series of tournament performances came to end on Monday as I won the £50 freeze-out Pot Limit Omaha tournament at Barrington. About time too. It's late so there's no need to go into details, but if anyone tells you I only won this thing by a combination of blind luck and various other forms of luck, well don't believe 'em.

While it is true I don't really know how to play this game beyond beginner ABC strategy, I have cashed in every Omaha tournament I've played in. All four of them. This is of course, because most of the other players I'm up against don't know how to play the game either and so it becomes a matter of mooching about patiently, hoping the good players get busted out by fishy play from someone else and hoping the few goods hands I do play are able to stand up and can then go on to out fish the other fish.

This is a talent in itself in my opinion, as I have no patience as a rule. I have no virtues as it goes, but especially no patience, so I feel this is a deserved victory. And..aaaand, if you happen to ever peruse the Blonde Poker forums, my winning hand was 7-4-x-x with a flop of 7-4-4.

How to play WITHOUT looking at your cards...

Taken at face value this is truly remarkable... back in July, Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad - newly crowned WSOP Europe Main Event winner - won a $4 x 180 seat SnG on PokerStars, without looking at her hole cards!! Barring taking a peek on hand #47, she claims to have made all decisions based on position, betting patterns and situational opputunities.

There is an animated hand-history of the tournament posted on PokerXFactor, here - http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HH72069/4%20180%20blind%20play - you need to register (free) in order to watch it.

And there is a discussion about it on the PocketFives forum, with comments from Annette.

Erm..I think I made an error. A big one.

Posted by Golden Delicious, who has been neither Golden nor delicious since the name was unveiled.

The Pigeons - 10 runners. September 16th.

Hand number 36-ish. I'm guessing.

Blinds 300-600 about 6 or 7 players left. Bird swearng its tits off in the corner.

-UTG raises to 1200

-Seat two (Tim) All-in for remaining 1600 (an under-raise it's just occurred to me)

-Called by seat three (Steve - Not four times champion Steve, and not Peachy either, the other one)

-Action on me...now then, what I actually did was go all-in for 7,100

-Original raiser folded, and Steve called. I get 100 back.

The hands were as follows:-

Tim - Nothing really (can't remember actually, think it was Ace x)










Steve III









Me

Now then, now then, now then...as Tim's all-in was an under-raise, I should NOT have been able to re-raise, is that right?? I think I should only have been able to call and had I remembered this I would saved myself an awful lot of chips as the flop had overs to my tens and I would have passed to any significant bet from Steve III with his Jacks, or just checked it down.

Did I get this wrong and thus cost myself what surely would been a victory?

Incidentally I was able to claw my way back from my single 100 chip to 2,000 but was cruelly busted when my AJ was AK'd by Neil. Not policeman Neil, the other Neil, the Neil who always beats me cause...well, cause he plays better hands than I do.

But anyway, so did I make an error with the re-raise someone?

Gus Hansen smells...

It all started with an email inviting me and Teresa to "Meet Doyle Brunson in London at the DoylesRoom.com Player Appreciation Party!" So we thought why not, we'll have a ride upto London, and since the Doyle Brunson thing was in Shaftesbury Avenue about 200 yards from Leicester Square, why not pop into the 'Casino at The Empire' and see how the main event of the WSOP-Europe is going on.

We arrived at the Century Club, in Shaftesbury Avenue at about 8.00pm, to find about 40 people milling around the room, it didn't appear that any one had any idea of what might be going happen... but free beer and wine was on offer so no one seemed to mind too much! Two glasses of wine later and with probably nearer to 100 bodies in the room it was beginning to get a bit hot and stuffy, we were just about to leave and have a look around outside when "the man" appeared in the doorway.


After posing for some photos, he then proceeded to give away signed copies of his book "My 50 Most Memorable Hands", this presented the opportunity to have a few words and get your photo taken with him (Just not sure how to get a copy of the pic, or how much!!).

So that was it for for the 'DoylesRoom.com Player Appreciation Party', by this time I was melting rapidly and we both needed some fresh air... and so, with 'goody bag' and signed book in hand, we head off to the Casino at The Empire, which is underneath the Empire Cinema, in Leicester Square.

By the time we get the membership formalities sorted, make our way into the casino and find where the poker is happening, we find that the players have another hour of the dinner break left!! There were a few 'known' players wandering about and the first one we bumped into was Gus Hansen - who, as Teresa tells me, smells nice and has cold hands!!

Next to walk by was Annie Duke, but she was on the phone to 'Bubba' and so we thought it might be a bit rude to bother her for a pic!

As the players began appearing for the start of play others spotted were Jen Harman & hubby Marco Traniello, Humberto & Mrs Brenes, Greg Raymer, Gary Jones (with green hair!), Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad, Hoyt Corkins, Erik Lindgren, Ram Vaswani, Dave Colclough and last but by no means least, drunk and being more obnoxious than usual, Phil Hellmuth.

We spent a few minutes watching the 'TV Table', which had Jen Harman, Vicky Coren, Greg Raymer, Ram Vaswani and Gus Hansen along with a few players I didn't recognise... however, there were no monitors in the room and the view from the seats showed nothing of what was going on.

It (or I?) just gets worse...

£50 freezeout at Barrington last night... 5000 chips and a 30 min clock... 8.00pm start - out just before 9.00pm!!! And it seems the distant headlights that kept catching my rear-view mirror belonged to none other than Mr 'Golden delicious'

Ohhhh, woe is us! :-(

£75 Freezeout, G Casino, Luton - again...

90 min drive there... 20 min wait for tourney to start... tourney started at 8:30pm (on time!!)... home at 11:30pm. Work it out for yourself!!!

54s returns to haunt me...

Outplayed again, by the Three Pigeons regulars!!! What on earth is happening to poker these days?

First off, you have Peachey re-raising and betting every street with a flush draw, which hit on the river (also pairing the board)… I called it down and then re-raised him all-in on the river; whilst he was concerned that I had made a full house he wasn't good enough to lay down his nut flush!!

And then two hands later, with only 650 chips left, I push with pocket Aces… I get two callers - the toenails (sorry, that should be the 'two Neals'). The flop is 678, with two spades, and I fear the worst… Neil #1 dwells for a while before checking and then Neal #2 reaches for chips and tosses in a bet of 1000 - now I know I'm in trouble!! Neil #1 dwells a while longer before eventually folding… Neal #2, almost apologetically, turns over 4d5d and I flip over my two black Aces to a round of oohs & aaahs… a spade on the turn offers a momentary glimmer of hope, but no miracle flush for me and I'm out in 8th place, 5 minutes before the first fag break. :-(

Still, some positves to come from the evening… another final table appearance and a league point gained on the other two 'Mobsters', who where conspicuous by their absence.

Congratulations to 'Anonymous Steve' who took it down and now holds the all time consecutive wins record at the Pigeons, at 4. (PS. I've heard that both Bjorn Borg & Roger Federer will be at the next game, to see if Steve can join that elite band of 5 time winners.)

THE APAT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

(As recalled by Paul "The Game" Townsend)

Bank Holiday weekend saw 300 "amateur" poker players make the trip to the G casino in Luton for the penultimate major APAT event of the season. These APAT events are clearly becoming something of a cult. Among the throng were the infamous Witney (inc. Carterton) Mob. Such is the media attention that the mob have been receiving of late, we needed a police escort this time, in the shape of Neal "The Enforcer" Templey, who also played in the event. Unfortunately he must have been urgently called to work to chase down some villains, that's surely the only way he could exit half way through the 2nd level with Q9.

We had the now standard four pints of Lager (Guiness, in Alans case) before the start (as advised in Harrington on Hold Em, Book 4, Page 27). Tikay then announced "Shuffle up and deal", and the game was on. Alan and Rich both got off to very good starts as is their custom. I was on a very tight table and although I had some fairly good hands on the first two levels, there was little action. There was a guy on my table with a shirt on that said "Deadly" Daz Sutton and was sponsored by AT Motorcycles in Stoke... Nice to see that there is room for sponsorship deals in amateur poker. I made the Lunch break with the same amount of chips as I started (not bad considering I lost with AA and KK). Rich was still going very nicely, although unfortunately Alan was eliminated shortly before the break, obviously wanting to be at the front of the queue for the buffet, which wasn't the worst idea.

To cut a long story short, Rich was eliminated after a couple more levels, meaning I had won the £20 "last longest" bets. I battled on gamely with a stack never higher than 20,000 chips all day, until about 10.30 when I was knocked out in 48th out of the 150 runners on day 1b.

Of course, live poker tournaments are very boring things, but the upside is that they take place in casinos, which are the complete opposite. I took a break for some more liquid refreshment only to find Alan playing in an ultra loose cash game with Dave "Compo" Compton and a few others, so with one seat left, I sat down with £200. The next hour was a thing of beauty as Alan won a huge pot with 45 offsuit (ahem, excuse me... they were suited, spades if memory serves correctly. Ed) against AQ all in preflop, and I busted a guys pocket aces with 75 suited (not all in preflop).

We both left that with some profits and headed to the Blackjack table. Rich was playing possibly the worlds longest sit and go at the time. I actually played the most disciplined Blackjack of my life to grind out a £10 profit. The waitress tried and probably succeeded to take the longest time ever to bring two pints over. If she worked in the three pigeons, Steve would sack her after twenty minutes. Just as I was getting into an intellectual conversation with the dealer on the ins and outs of Big Brother 8, Alan politely informed us both to shut up, as he can stay at home and watch that rubbish.

So it's now late in the evening, we're all alcoholically challenged, and Alan goes in for another cash game while I try my revolutionary Roulette system. I'm £200 up in about 10 minutes. The trouble is, I haven't got any system at all for three card poker, so I lose the lot and a bit more, unless my Dad is reading in which case I put the money in my high interest building society account.

After 6 hours, Rich has finished his sit and go, and I've drunk Luton dry of Vodka and Red Bull. Another long but enjoyable day out, even if none of the mob could make day 2. We will keep trying though on the basis that if you throw enough shit against a wall, some of it has to stick.

Broadway bound...

With a mixture of skill, cunning and outrageous good fortune I have secured a seat at the Virgin Poker Festival, to be held at the Broadway Casino in Birmingham on the 24th & 25th November. Get in there!! :-)

Golden Delicious predicts...

While discussing tomorrow's APAT tournament on MSN, Rich came up with the following prophecy...

Alan says:
I reckon they'll get to 20 a bit before the scheduled finish
Golden Delicious says:
yes easily...I think with a bit of patience tomorrow making day 2 should be fairly straight forward
Golden Delicious says:
people getting too busy too early today looks like
Alan says:
I'm going to print that last bit!
Golden Delicious says:
ha
Golden Delicious says:
yeah well...I stand by my words. I'm ready for this now, I've got my poker libido back

A quiet week...

Nothing much to report this week... I'm still on my break from online poker, except the odd satellite or PokerPlayer mag freeroll.

Two small live tournaments... Last Sunday was the fortnightly £10 f/out at The Pigeons, which saw the biggest field for sometime, at 11 players. Unfortunately, the details of the night have faded with time (and maybe the Guinness!!), however I am reliably informed that even with 'The Mob' at full strength we were all on the rail well before the money places!! :-( 1st place money, for the 2nd week running, was taken down by 'Anonymous Steve'.

Monday night was the Invitational League Playoff at the WVCC. This is a 16 player tournament for the top points scorers over the year, for a prize of a seat at a big live event. I actually finished in 17th place in the league, but was invited to play as someone else was on holiday. Rich was also there, having qualified in 11th place. Starting chips were dependant on points scored; I started with 2625, Rich with 3125, while the big stack was 6425.

I think Rich said he had to get home early - to wash his hair or something?? - anyway he hit the road in 15th place... I struggled on but, card dead all night, the blinds eventually caught with me and my last 1600 chips went in with KTs only to be called by KQo, first card on the flop was a Q and that was that, out in 9th place.

We are all now looking forward to Sunday and Day 1b of the APAT European Championships at the G Casino in Luton. 'The Mob' will be 4-handed for this one, with a guest appearance by 'The Enforcer', Neal T. Hopefully some of us will be making the return trip on Monday for Day 2!

Remind you of anyone?

£75 Freezeout, G Casino, Luton

A last minute decision yesterday afternoon, saw me make the trip to Luton, on my lonesome, for the £75 freezeout. Things started nicely and within about 45 mins I had increased my starting stack from 5k to around 8k... then a mis-timed bluff cost me about 3k, the rot set in and at the first break I was down to 3.5k chips. I battled on for another 90 mins or so, then with AJs in the cut-off I raise it up... all fold to the BB who re-raises all-in, I'm pretty much committed to the pot and call, leaving me with about 700 chips... I'm pretty happy to see him turn over A9o, until the dealer turns over a 9 on the river! Doh!! A couple of hands later I push with KTo, two callers followed by an all-in... the two callers fold and the cards go on their backs... I'm actually in much better shape than I expected, having two live cards against his AJo... even better when the flop is AQJ, no nightmares A or J on the turn or river and I have enough chips to be able to shuffle again... the recovery was short lived though, next hand I push with AQs and run into QQ... out with about 35'ish of the 60 runners remaining.

Whilst I really don't like re-buy tournaments, they have a £50 plus 1 re-buy/add-on tournament, on Wednesdays, which I think actually represents better value. The £75 f/out is plus £10 reg fee, making an outlay of £85 for 5k chips. Since the £50 re-buy only has a £5 reg fee, this means a maximum total investment of £105, for 8k chips (2 x 4k).

So near yet so far....

Attempt number three to win a seat at the Virgin Poker Festival, in an online satellite, saw 32 people taking part in the $10 + $1 tournament. With one seat for every $210 this meant only 1st place got the target prize, with second place, that'll be me then, taking the odd $110.

On reflection I think the luck, good & bad, evened itself out in this tournament... it's just hard to take when the good luck comes early - and you pick up some small, inconsequential pots - and the bad luck comes right at the end and you lose all your chips in a couple of bad(ish) beats!!

Well, that, as they say, is poker. At least the $100 profit will pay for a few more attempts.

APAT - World Cup Of Amateur Poker

The World Cup Of Amateur Poker (WCOAP) is a series of five online tournaments, held between 04/08 - 12/08, that formed the climax to season one of the APAT Online Series.

Due to holiday commitments (in that grey and wet land where men wear skirts!), I was unable to play in the first three games... Rich hopes to make the final tourney, he doesn't have a proper computer (something to do with poker sites and raincoats not being compatible??) and has to borrow his dad's... And so it was that the responsibility of continuing to raise the profile of The Witney (inc. Carterton) Mob was left in the capable hands of Paul, who, remarkably, allowed the first event (7 Card Stud) to go un-contested... this wasn't a 'stick chucking' night so not sure how this happened?

Paul redeemed himself with final table appearances in events 2 & 3... 5th place in the Omaha and 8th in the Razz - very well done. These two results saw him leapfrog me in the APAT rankings, now with 21 points to my 18 - unfortunately Rich is languishing on 1 point, gained in the live event in Newcastle.

It was Paul's sudden rush of points that 'forced' me into entering event 4, my worst nightmare, the Heads-Up tournament... Aaaaaarrgh!!! Now here's the thing... You should only ever have to play heads-up poker at the end of a proper tournament, when you are already well into the money, the blinds are huge and you can push with any hand better than Q7o. It's that simple... end of!! I take my hat off to the poor soul who endured 5 consecutive heads-up matches over a period of 5 1/2 hours to take this one down... me, I lasted 13 mins!! Paul was again absent, I find it hard to believe that he found something better to do on a Saturday night? Watching paint dry probably!

(To be continued following tonight's main event, the WCOAP $55 NLHE)

Just a quick update: Neither Paul or Myself made any impression on the WCOAP Main Event and Rich was feeling a bit under the weather and didn't get to play.

Barrington August Cup £5 re-buy frenzy

As seen by Rich 'Golden Delicious' Stevenson.......

Two handed the Mob may have been, but that was plenty enough guns to take down the £5 re-buy shoot-out and the Undisclosed first prize just in case Paul's father is reading this.

Congratulations to Paul who, once the final table was established held the chip lead and never let it go. I myself trickled away in seventh place and my final chips entered the pot with plop rather than a splash never to be seen again. As a partnership we were a kin to conjoined twins and in order for one us to survive the other had to die and the role of empty carcass was mine.

My own chances of making the money places (5 places paid) ended when Matt Bowden doubled up after calling an all-in raise from Paul Peros with A-8, which outdrew the A-K of Mr Peros. As "stacks" go, I was an 11 year old girl to the money places' Pamela Anderson and my plopping of chips came when dealt 10-9 and was unable to catch against Matt's Ace-3.

Paul however had no such problem and after relieving a mateyboy of his 20,000 stack, the tournament looked in the bag, even the crap shooty influence of rapidly increasing blinds and Paul's tendency to fall asleep were not to stand in his way of victory.

I was tucked up in bed with a mug of Horlicks and a copy of Womans Weekly by this time, so details of the final stages will have to be left to Paul, suffice to say he wasn't put off by the other players stacks (especially Rachel's) kept his focus and the undisclosed first prize was his.

The Isle - £30 double-chance - Tuesday 31st July

View from Mob member, Golden Delicious

With a rather embarrassing display at the Pigeons still hanging off the Mobs back like a Monkey, it was off to Coventry again on Toosday where were would set things right again at the Isle Casino’s £30 d/c freeze-out. A quick stop at the Esso for some fuel where the early summer evening had brought out a lovely pair of buttocks attached to a young Miss, thinly veiled in white cotton and baring an uncanny resemblance to two boiled eggs in a handkerchief, and suddenly I felt warm inside and kind of funny in the tummy and hoped this was not the only juicy pair I’d be seeing that evening. Meanwhile, Alan hadn’t noticed at all.

Now, you’ll notice that so far I haven’t yet begun my recount of the Poker Tournament. Well, unfortunately there is very little to say.

I managed, astonishingly, to give away half of my stack again with pocket jacks and again on only the third hand of the night. I was stunned into an almost unshakeable paralysis from thenceforth and slowly bled myself away as the twenty-minute anti’s gobbled up my stack and out I went when my Ace-three was dominated by a Brummie mateyboy’s Ace-Jack. Just as in my Mothers favourite desert, Golden Delicious had been crumbled.

Alan was unable to repeat his previous victory and took a seat next to me on the rail after his all-in raise of over 7000 from the Big-Blind with the anti’s at 400-800 was called by the Small-Blind who had pocket fives!! We agreed this was a loose call on the young misses part, but in her defence she must have had half her head caved in from some hideous road accident judging by the look of her and so was probably missing most of her brain. Then there was one.

As Alan stood up, Paul was all-in himself with pocket fives. His caller, holding king-jack, was unable to catch and a juicy pot was taken down and the mobs last remaining hope for success was left to it while Alan went off to win his buy-on back at the Black Jack tables and I bumped into my future wife dressed in curtains.

Unfortunately Paul was unable to progress to the final table and joined Alan and by now, myself at the Black Jack table where a dealer, who incredibly, was unable to count to 21, was taking our money off us nonetheless. Alan eventually recouped his buy-in, I lost a bullseye and Paul eventually took down nearly a £750 profit, which he promised to give to his father.

Not a very successful display from the Mob (again), we died a slow death but a thorough poker autopsy on the way home showed significant mental illness in our opponents and it was agreed that the pleasant surroundings and quality of the card-room is not commensurate to the quality of the play and we had all given too much respect to the collection of Brummie wife-beaters and beaten wives masquerading as poker players.

The Mob will be short handed for it’s next assault; the August Cup at Barrington as Alan is off to Scotland to remind himself how the English used to live five hundred years ago. Man down we may be, but things can only get better.

Vegas Flashbacks #2...

The Freemont Street Experience Light Show

Now where were we...

As anticipated, the 'Mob' were present en masse on Saturday night, it may have just been a £20 deepstack freezeout but there was a distinct 'buzz' about the room. It was a short-handed (6-max) event, the final table started with all three of us right in there with a chance of taking this baby down... the whole table was pretty even in chips, in fact we all had exactly 10k??

Early doors I had the whole table completely in my pocket, totally baffled by a stunning display of 'power poker'. Unfortunately the wheels fell off after about an hour and a half, when Neil refused to believe that I had flopped a flush, and then after the turn King paired the one in his hand he made a good read and called my 4k river bluff. That was the beginning of the end and I was soon banished to the rail in 6th place. Unfortunately Rich followed suit not long after... Two down, One to go!

Surely a player of Paul's standing could triumph over these other three, after all he is the 3rd best amateur poker player in Ireland!! Well, that's as may be but he's still only 4th best at the TPs.

Teresa fell by the wayside in 3rd... and then promptly fell asleep.

After a lengthy, tactical heads-up battle the victors spoils eventually went to 'anonymous' Steve... leaving 2nd place leftovers for my nemesis - Neil. Well played chaps... the 'Mob' will be back!!!

Sunday night I tried my hand, for the first time, at the 'Sunday Hundred Grand' on PokerStars, an $11 freezeout, with a capped field of 20,000, 3k chips and 10 min levels. I forget just how long I lasted but I finished in about 13700th place... a long, long way off the money.

Monday night saw the first opportunity to win a seat in the Virgin Poker Festival Main Event. This is a £105 buy-in, two day, deep-stack tournament, which takes place at The Broadway Casino, Birmingham on November 24th & 25th. This is a slightly odd set-up as there will be no option to buy directly into the tournament; all seats must be won via online satellites on Virgin Poker. There will be direct buy-in, value-added supporting tournaments on both days so it looks like it will probably be worth a visit anyway.

Last night it was a Freeroll Satellite, which started with 331 entrants. There were 2 seats to the live main event, plus places 3 - 22 won $23 seats in Sunday's weekly final. The weekly finals will provide one live seat for each $230 in the prize pool.

I made it into 'the money' with a decent stack, largely due to some imaginative play while 'on the bubble', only to crash and burn in 15th place following three disastrous all-in confrontations... nicely in front going in, pre-flop, horribly behind on the river!! So I have a seat in this Sunday's weekly final, which I won't be able to play in! Hopefully an email to that (very) nice man, Joe Legge, at Virgin, will see me moved into the following week's final.

So it is a game of skill...

or is it just the way the scandies play it? Well, according to uk.pokernews.com a Danish court has ruled that poker is a game of skill.

The same story claims that in Russia, a court has declared poker to be a sport. Well, call me old fashioned if you like, but I find it difficult to classify any game that you can play sitting down, with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, as a sport!!! Hmmm, London 2012… Perhaps an Olympic Gold Medal to sit alongside my APAT one... I think Comrade Judge Ivan should lay of the Vodka until after work

See full story here http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2007/7/poker-game-skill-denmark.htm

The Poker Gods ease up on Rich...

Whilst large areas of Oxfordshire & Gloucestersshire lie submerged under several feet of flood water, 18 brave souls made their way to Windrush Valley Card Club on Monday night. I say 'brave' souls because, believe me, this £20 re-buy Pot-Limit Omaha is not for the faint of heart.

My tournament got off to good start, after about an hour I had increased my 2000 starting chips to almost 8000, with no re-buys. Then it all went a bit 'Pete Tong' when I got all my chips in on the turn with a wrap and a flush draw against top set... and missed all my draws! Three re-buys and an add-on later, I go into the break with exactly 5k chips and £100 'in the hole'. At the break I find Rich has faired even worse... he also has £100 invested and only 3.5k chips.

After the break, things obviously started going right for both us, as we are still both there when we get down to the final table of nine players. Rich finally departed with the 3rd place (sorry chap!) money, of something over £200... and just a few hands later I was stuffing the winners envelope, and £612, in my back pocket.

'The Mob' is definitely running hot... I predict a strong showing on Saturday night when all three of us will be playing the same tournament... Watch this space!!

Easy Come, Easy Go...

Bouyed by last night's APAT online performance I decide to re-invest some (most) of my winnings. The target was the $215 Sunday Warm-Up, on Stars, which has a guranteed $400k prize pool. I also entered an $11 deepstack tournament, which started about 45 mins earlier. The theory being that playing two tournaments would give me more hands to play and stop me getting bored. So much for theory!!!

I only lasted 36 mins in the Warm-Up, finishing 1898th of 2156. My exit was facilitated by some seriously bad play... by both myself and some opponents!! I lasted a little longer in the $11 deepstack, 376th of 1074, but again I can't really blame anyone else but myself - not even those much maligned Poker Gods.

APAT Irish Open...

Having pretty much given up on online poker, I still find myself drawn to the APAT online series of tournaments on PokerStars. Having suffered with lack of concentration / interest in recent online attempts, I was especially pleased with my play in the Irish Open last night

It is a 'star studded' opening table, I have the live APAT Irish Champion, Jacques Kieft (CRAIC) sat on my left, the live APAT UK Chanpion, Max Ward (Spurs79) sitting opposite. I got off to a bit of a dodgy start, down to a little over 3000 chips (from 5000 at start) at the end of the 2nd level. The recovery started halfway through lev 3 (25/50)... I have AdKs and raise it up to 200 from early position, and get 3 callers... flop is Kh 5d Jc, BB checks and I bet 500... fold, big stack raises to 1000, fold... I re-raise all-in for a total of 2685 and matey calls with Kc 4c!!! For once the miracle river card doesn't come and I'm up to 6220. :-) This increases to 7220 at the first break

The next hand of note comes when Max minimum raises (to 400), with 1600 behind, it folds around to me, I now have a little over 10k, and I make 2000 with Ah Kc, they fold to Max who calls and shows two red Queens... this time the 'miracle' King does come on the river!

I take another big pot with A9o aginst AQo... all the money goes in on the turn with an A92,J board. This puts me on 16.7k as the table breaks. After picking up a few small pots, taking me to 18k, I take a 6k hit when I 'overplay' pocket 9s against AKo... suprisingly the King came on the flop not the river... back to 12k.

There were lots more big pots on the way to the final table but it was pretty much plain sailing. I had a well above average stack all the way through and only once was I all-in against a bigger stack... I had flopped quad 4s!! :-) It was still going well on the FT, being chip leader for much of the time. Until... Did I need to go out here? -

POKERSTARS GAME #11061993426: TOURNAMENT #51604458, $20+$2 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XVII (4000/8000) - 2007/07/21 - 19:30:27 (ET)
Table '51604458 15' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: FTMLS (435653 in chips)
Seat 3: duke3016 (99939 in chips)
Seat 4: smacl02 (Me) (292248 in chips)
Seat 9: TOOL ON TOUR (37160 in chips)
FTMLS: posts the ante 400
duke3016: posts the ante 400
smacl02: posts the ante 400
TOOL ON TOUR: posts the ante 400
smacl02: posts small blind 4000
TOOL ON TOUR: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to smacl02 [Kd Kh]
FTMLS: raises 8000 to 16000
duke3016: folds
smacl02: raises 24000 to 40000
TOOL ON TOUR: calls 28760 and is all-in
FTMLS: raises 395253 to 435253 and is all-in
smacl02: calls 251848 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [2d 8h 6s]
*** TURN *** [2d 8h 6s] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [2d 8h 6s 4h] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
smacl02: shows [Kd Kh] (two pair, Kings and Deuces)
FTMLS: shows [Ad Ah] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
FTMLS collected 510176 from side pot
TOOL ON TOUR: shows [8c 8d] (a full house, Eights full of Deuces)
TOOL ON TOUR collected 111880 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 622056 Main pot 111880. Side pot 510176. Rake 0
Board [2d 8h 6s 4h 2h]
Seat 1: FTMLS showed [Ad Ah] and won (510176) with two pair, Aces and Deuces
Seat 3: duke3016 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: smacl02 (small blind) showed [Kd Kh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Deuces
Seat 9: TOOL ON TOUR (big blind) showed [8c 8d] and won (111880) with a full house, Eights full of Deuces

I don't know... I 'knew' he had Aces, I wanted to fold, but it was half-past midnight and I had had enough really. I figured that only one of them could beat me and at worst I get 3rd place, $450 and a bronze medal. As it was I took $277 for 4th place... 1st was $1038!!!

The Isle Casino, Coventry...

Last night TW(iC)M made the 1 hour journey to the brand new Isle Casino, at the Ricoh Stadium. The target of this foray into the hinterlands of Coventry was the £30 D/C Freezeout. We all thought that Aspers in Newcastle was probably the nicest UK casino that we had ever been in... well, in my opinion, The Isle has re-raised the bar... very, very nice!

During our pre-match team talk, in the bar, myself and Rich were joined by Daniel Phillips (APAT English Amateur Champion), who joined in with our last minute tactics and strategy discussion... me & Daniel decided it was best to stick with what we know best - Guiness - while Rich felt the caffiene rush provided by a Coke was probably the best preparation. Paul, meanwhile, was continuing his ongoing research to determine if the Blackjack Gods and the Poker Gods really are one and the same.

A total of 60 players started in the tourney, a little after the scheduled start time of 9:00pm, and me, Paul and Daniel all managed to get drawn on the same table... leaving Rich to plough a lone furrow through the field.

I'm afraid the effects of just 2 1/2 hrs sleep since Sunday night have taken their toll and I really don't remember too much detail of the actual tournament... I know Daniel got moved off of our table and then a little while later was bidding us farewell.

Rich continues to be punished by the Poker Gods for some heinous crime in a former life, as he exited without bothering the cashier, while myself and Paul made it through to the final table. Paul's demise came when I raised it up with QQ, on his BB... he woke up (literally!) with 99 and re-raised all-in... I call, my queens hold up and Paul exits in 7th place, for £60 (I think). To cut a (very) long story short, at about 3:45am, we are down to the last three... we are all pretty much level in chips, a deal is agreed and we chop the remaining prize money and take £400 each.

Home and in bed by about 5:15am... up for work at 6:30am. Doh!!

All in all, a nice tournament, in a very nice poker room, in (for the most part) very pleasant company... We will return!!