Season 7 has been done and dusted as far as live events.. Still have the online league to fight for and the WCOAP online series to enjoy..
So gonna give a brief run down on the highs and also lows of WCOAP..
Highs..
As usual the highs has to be meeting all the friendly APAT players and staff, been far too long coming around for my liking, although a number of the usual suspects where unable to make the trip to London, on a whole I thought it was very well represented.
Was great seeing Mark back amongst the team doing his great job of updating along with both Matt and the awesome Tom, Des was his usual jolly self and has promised me his baby making days are OVER !!
Enjoyed meeting some of my fellow Blue Blood team mates, Dawn, John and Jeremy, and any of you who know Dawn will agree that she fits perfectly into the APAT family a breath of fresh air.
Poker for me didn"t have many highs so to speak of regarding play, I was lucky enough to finish 3rd in my first event I played on Thursday in the Antes only, but from there on the "Pilgrim run good" deserted me.
The casino was bar far the nicest I have yet had the pleasure to play in and reminded me a little of a Vegas feel to it, still have a love affair with DTD but as a whole package Aspers has it all IMO, so if we couldn"t play the WCOAP at DTD then this would be a perfect replacement..
Holiday inn across from the casino was perfect as always, I can never fault their hotels albeit pricy I would rather pay the extra as location was amazing!!
The whole shopping centre was pretty impressive and I"m just glad I left the credit card out of reach from Emma
, had some wicked food especially the steak platter on Sunday evening at TGI Fridays nom nom.
Lows...
Can"t really say there where any "lows".. Maybe a couple of frustrations/diss appointments .
Frustrated that the casino couldn"t of invisaged the success of the numbers of players and hadn"t hired enough dealers over the weekend, there where empty tables that could of been used to start up more cash games or SNGS, casino policy was that under no circumstances could there be a "self deal" policy for a SNG which is fair enough, but a few of us where willing to pay the juice for a dealer but alas there where no spare.
Also frustrated about bar prices, I"m not a drinker but was nearing £20 for a round of 3 drinks and when you have a bored partner who likes to let her hair down you can imagine it ended up both messy and pricy lol..
Diss appointed with my performance in both the PLO8 and ME, was so excited about playing the PLO8 as I think it is my strongest game but just didn"t manage to get any momentum going and after numerous outdraws and more important missed draws I didn"t make it deep.. The ME was a complete train wreck for me and dusted of my 20k in record time a combination of running flushes in higher flushes 2 times, set over set and having over pairs to the board 3 times when the same player had bigger each time just meant it wasn"t ever going to be, I guess that"s poker.
I have decided to take a step back from playing APAT live events in season 8 and limiting to perhaps just the WCOAP and maybe if there is a festival style weekend at DTD with some mixed games, think Emma needs some time away that doesn"t involve casinos and card rooms. Will still play all the online nationals etc and any promos that Matt can come up with.
So to sum it up Season7 was amazing (not quite as amazing as 2012
) and with memories of international duties Pague etc and WCOAP I"m confident that season 8 will be a great hit when it is announced..
I must just add.. I have poked fun at JP on his statuses calling him a "fish" when he has reached yet another FT, but joking aside i think the guy deserves massive kudos for his acheivement over the festival, there where many many very capable players who he had to overcome to get into these deep runs, sir I doff my hat to you very very well played..