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!!!
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!!!
1 comment:
I was 4th, throw me a fricken bone
Post a Comment