Virgin Poker Festival II (Apr 12/13)
It is good to know that the people at Virgin Poker, in particular that nice Joe Legge, listen to their players... and after the debacle of arranging 'VPF I' at a pub with no beer - well, more acurately, a casino with no Guiness - this time they did their research properly and opted for the superb Aspers Casino in Newcastle.
I drove up Friday afternoon and settled into my hotel, before heading up to the casino for their regular £20 freezeout. Played a steady game for about 3 hours before going out with AK vs AJ, when a jack hit on the river. The rest of the evening was spent having a few beers in the company of some friendly 'blondes'... OK, move on, nothing to see here, I'm talking about Ironside, Eck, Laxie, InTheBelly and partner Charlotte.
Saturday started with coffee and a sandwich, across the road from my hotel, in the station, followed up with a little over an hour (that's how long my laptop battery lasts!!), playing 10c/25c 6-max cash on Full Tilt in the hotel lounge, for a profit of about $100. Back to Aspers by about 1.30pm, where I had a chat for the first time with Paul 'M3Boy' Garnham - we had actually stood a few people apart in the queue for a tournament at Binions and sat about 3 tables apart for a couple of hours last year - I got all the details, chapter, verse and FACT, of 'that' Omaha hand on iPoker (it's a blonde thing!)... and so on to the main event.
Before the tourney starts, Tikay introduces the four 'bounties'; matey that won VPF I; 'Elvis' - some guy who bears a passing resemblence to EP after you've had 8 pints of Stella; Maria 'Chilli' Demetriou - the young man who made the final of the last series of LNP; and Lucy Rokach.
I make my way to my table to find that I am sharing it with two of the bounties - Lucy, in seat 2; Elvis in seat 9 - I'm in seat 5. I don't think the guy Elvis was much of a poker player, but I anticipated that with Lucy Rokach sat three seats to my right, things could get interesting once the blinds increased and the antes came into play. As it was I didn't notice her getting too out of line, she just seemed to quietly pick up the odd pot and keep her stack steadily increasing... I guess that may be the measure of how good she is; she just seemed to know when someone was weak and that a timely bet or re-raise would take the pot the down.
My tournament was a bit of a rollercoaster... I picked up some chips early and was feeling pretty pleased with myself; I then played a couple of big pots (badly) with LR, shortly after that I made a questionable call of an all-in, for about 3/4 of my chips, when an Ace on the turn gave me top two pairs (AK), but also put a straight on the board... IF he had exactly QT - he had exactly QT!! Bollox!
I then nursed my short stack for a couple of levels until... Blinds are 200/400/50, I have 99 on the button, with about 4k chips... it's folded to the cut-off who makes it 1200... I push all-in, the blinds fold and after a long dwell matey calls and turns over 66... needless to say a 6 pops up on the river!
So a couple of beers to commiserate myself, a £5 heads-up match aginst one of the Virgin staff - which I won! - and it was back to the hotel for a relatively early night.
Sunday started much the same way as Saturday, except that I only won $35 on Full Tilt. Sunday afternoon was 'The Terminator' touranment, a £30 freezeout, with £20 in the prize pool and £10 bounty on everyone... I picked up £20 for knocking out two shortstacks, before going out in a 'set over set' situation. Ironically, this time I have 66 on a K96 flop... matey2 has pocket 9s!! Bollox again!
So to sum up... 3 days in Newcastle - 3 MTTs, 0 cashes - 1 heads-up match, 1 cash (half of it put in charity bucket) - No Cash games - No Blackjack - Plenty of Guiness!
When's the next one?
(PS. A little bird tells me it might be at DTD)
It is good to know that the people at Virgin Poker, in particular that nice Joe Legge, listen to their players... and after the debacle of arranging 'VPF I' at a pub with no beer - well, more acurately, a casino with no Guiness - this time they did their research properly and opted for the superb Aspers Casino in Newcastle.
I drove up Friday afternoon and settled into my hotel, before heading up to the casino for their regular £20 freezeout. Played a steady game for about 3 hours before going out with AK vs AJ, when a jack hit on the river. The rest of the evening was spent having a few beers in the company of some friendly 'blondes'... OK, move on, nothing to see here, I'm talking about Ironside, Eck, Laxie, InTheBelly and partner Charlotte.
Saturday started with coffee and a sandwich, across the road from my hotel, in the station, followed up with a little over an hour (that's how long my laptop battery lasts!!), playing 10c/25c 6-max cash on Full Tilt in the hotel lounge, for a profit of about $100. Back to Aspers by about 1.30pm, where I had a chat for the first time with Paul 'M3Boy' Garnham - we had actually stood a few people apart in the queue for a tournament at Binions and sat about 3 tables apart for a couple of hours last year - I got all the details, chapter, verse and FACT, of 'that' Omaha hand on iPoker (it's a blonde thing!)... and so on to the main event.
Before the tourney starts, Tikay introduces the four 'bounties'; matey that won VPF I; 'Elvis' - some guy who bears a passing resemblence to EP after you've had 8 pints of Stella; Maria 'Chilli' Demetriou - the young man who made the final of the last series of LNP; and Lucy Rokach.
I make my way to my table to find that I am sharing it with two of the bounties - Lucy, in seat 2; Elvis in seat 9 - I'm in seat 5. I don't think the guy Elvis was much of a poker player, but I anticipated that with Lucy Rokach sat three seats to my right, things could get interesting once the blinds increased and the antes came into play. As it was I didn't notice her getting too out of line, she just seemed to quietly pick up the odd pot and keep her stack steadily increasing... I guess that may be the measure of how good she is; she just seemed to know when someone was weak and that a timely bet or re-raise would take the pot the down.
My tournament was a bit of a rollercoaster... I picked up some chips early and was feeling pretty pleased with myself; I then played a couple of big pots (badly) with LR, shortly after that I made a questionable call of an all-in, for about 3/4 of my chips, when an Ace on the turn gave me top two pairs (AK), but also put a straight on the board... IF he had exactly QT - he had exactly QT!! Bollox!
I then nursed my short stack for a couple of levels until... Blinds are 200/400/50, I have 99 on the button, with about 4k chips... it's folded to the cut-off who makes it 1200... I push all-in, the blinds fold and after a long dwell matey calls and turns over 66... needless to say a 6 pops up on the river!
So a couple of beers to commiserate myself, a £5 heads-up match aginst one of the Virgin staff - which I won! - and it was back to the hotel for a relatively early night.
Sunday started much the same way as Saturday, except that I only won $35 on Full Tilt. Sunday afternoon was 'The Terminator' touranment, a £30 freezeout, with £20 in the prize pool and £10 bounty on everyone... I picked up £20 for knocking out two shortstacks, before going out in a 'set over set' situation. Ironically, this time I have 66 on a K96 flop... matey2 has pocket 9s!! Bollox again!
So to sum up... 3 days in Newcastle - 3 MTTs, 0 cashes - 1 heads-up match, 1 cash (half of it put in charity bucket) - No Cash games - No Blackjack - Plenty of Guiness!
When's the next one?
(PS. A little bird tells me it might be at DTD)
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