So....APAT weekend. (Apologies for TL;DR)
Originally Joobs and I were going to head down on the Saturday to save some cash on hotels etc and so we didn"t have to book days off work. Then things changed. I got a nice promotion in work which meant I was changing contracts. Joobs also decided she really didn"t fancy Luton and to be fair, I don"t blame her. She hasn"t really played poker for quite some time now (apart from the odd trip to the aquarium, the last game she played was Chezger in September 2012) and so would have been sat around doing nothing all weekend. Finally, an issue with my access meant I had an unexpected day off on the Friday.
So when I got up on Friday morning I found myself in a Facebook chat with the rest of #TeamBlonde. Needless to say, an hour later I had found a room in the Days Inn for £30 for the Friday night and a cheap train ticket down to Luton, albeit via Crewe, Stoke, Tamworth and London. I eventually got to Luton for about 4.45pm and walked up to the Days Inn. Dumped the bags in the room and then hit the bar for a chat with Glenn and Paulie D. The rest of the travelling contingent of #TeamBlonde eventually made it to Luton (except Rodders) and we all headed to the casino for food and to play the comp afterwards. Vinny showed up with his new "burd" in tow and FML, he"s done well for himself there, Amanda is lovely.
I made the mistake of ordering a pizza, with chips, thinking it would be a small thing and I would need the chips to actually get some sustenance. After 2 almighty cockups with the orders, we eventually get served and the small pizza I was expecting turns out to be a massive pizza that nobody there could have eaten. Complete with chips. After attempting 2 slices I gave up and we headed down to the comp. Sadly, by the time we got there it was Level 3 and nearly the end of late registration. I decided I didn"t really want to play and just anti-railed the rest of them - none of them cashed.
Decided I wanted to play some cash but (and this appeared to be the theme of the weekend) there weren"t any dealers so gave up at 1am and went back to the hotel. Asa left at the same time I did and he dropped me off in a cab on the way. Really thankful for this after what happened to John Murray later that night...
Woke up at 10am Saturday morning and after the usual, I headed down to Tesco to grab some bananas and croissants to keep me going through the day as I felt a bit rough over the whole weekend. Headed back to the hotel and had a nice chat with Leigh before the APAT crew had their usual meeting and the rest of us tried to listen in and not burst out laughing at Team Blue Blood, who for some reason had scheduled a bloody 2hr seminar in the lobby at the Days Inn! What they needed that for I did not know, the Blue Blood player on my table even admitted she was ignoring it for most of the time!
Got to the casino for 1pm and George Bedi was a bit worried because it turned out that Vinny hadn"t got to bed til after 8am and nobody could wake him up! He eventually arrived and we had the team photo taken - Tighty had the best description (7 poker players and some mug in a woolly hat) and I found myself at table 5 seat 3 with Dai Llewellyn and Michael Martin to my left, and my usual APAT nemesis Tod Wood in seat 1. Easy table then!
Sat and folded the first few hands then decided that it would be a good idea to start peeling hands like suited aces and small suited connectors in position, and just generally splashing around in pots whilst it was cheap to do so. Made some flushes and by the first break I"d doubled up without getting it all in and only having to show one hand. After that it all went south. Dai had realised what I was doing and was just flatting all my raises in position. Managed to get him off a few hands but just kept my stack level. Got to the 2nd break and by this point we were already out of the team game.
Tried to set up for a big stack but literally kept raise-folding as it felt like every time I raised, Guy Gullen in seat 4 just 3-bet me relentlessly. However, to be fair, every time he 3-bet me, he did show me QQ+ AK so I think it was just that he was getting monster after monster. Dribbled down to about 22k before the 4th break, then I found a nice cold 4-bet shove with AK at 400-800 for 20k. Got that through to put me back to 26k and just maintained my stack until I found AKhh in the BB and thought it was a good spot to 4-bet shove again. Sadly, this time Tod called with his JJ and despite flopping J-5-4hh he turned a 5 for the house and I was done in 104th, just out of the points.
Sat and chilled with Des and Leigh afterwards railing George and Stato, whilst waiting for dealers so we could play cash. Unsurprisingly (and this is definitely a theme now) there weren"t any. They eventually gave up and started some self deal games but the moment had passed. I coerced Asa into dealing for tips and sat down with £50. This didn"t even last one round of the table after KK was no good vs Q10.
Gave up after that and grabbed some food whilst waiting for Asa, as I had to check out of the Days Inn and into the Travelodge. Play ended as Asa"s cash table was closing up and we got a cab back to Travelodge. Checked in, got my key and went to bed.
Got up the next morning and I had to check out. Had originally agreed to get a cab with Asa back to town but could I get hold of him? Nope. Knocked his door down, text him, phoned him, but no response. He phoned me later to say he hadn"t got to sleep until really late and was dead to the world, so fair play. I checked out at 12 after watching Andy Murray throw away the Australian Open and headed back to the Days. Wandered over to the casino with Rodders but nothing was going on so I decided that Joobs didn"t need to come and get me and just jumped on the train home as I knew I couldn"t play the PLO as I had to work the next day.
It was a very good weekend and I really enjoyed it, despite the usual shiite at the poker. After the beating I"d had online over the last few weeks I really felt that I played well for once (well, I got Dai to fold the best hand a few times, can"t argue there!) but just ran really bad. Either way, I"ll be back for more at the worlds! It was good to see everyone again, the APAT events have become less about winning the tournament and more about playing poker with your mates and having a good time for me, which is probably why I"ve chilled out a lot recently. Coincidentally, I"ve been playing better as well...
Managed to book the time off for the worlds but gonna miss some of it as it"s my brother-in-law"s 40th on the Saturday in Bristol, so I"m gonna see what the side events are and play day 1b of the Main, Joobs has agreed that she will drive me from Bristol to Notts on Sunday morning so I"m sorted there as with it being Easter Sunday, I dont have a chance of getting a train!
