(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.
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.
