So last weekend was Wembley for the Apat Masters and what a great weekend it was. It all started on the Friday night with a few beers with Curly, Delboy, Joe, Sue and Phil (no, not Phil TC, the other Phil). I really enjoyed this night as we spent it sat outside a lovely pub/hotel enjoying a rare warm summers evening, talking about all things including poker and drinking excellent beer (they served London Pride, from the Fullers brewery I just love that stuff).
The night did not go completely without a hitch though, as apparently I don"t say the name of certain hotels in the accepted form. My efforts to sat "Harrahs" and the "Aria" were clearly epic fails although personally I think I"ve got it right
Saturday morning and the Apat bus arrived to collect myself, Joe and Gareth (welcome to Apat Gareth, hope to see you at many more) from the five star Ibis Hotel situated in Beaconsfield Service Station. With a few more stops along the way, we soon arrived at the famous stadium. As usual, top marks and big thanks to Curly for his organising of the transport, it was a great idea.
You"ve probably read enough about the venue, so I won"t go on about it. All I will say is that they did a great job of setting up the pods on the pitch and I"m pleased I experienced this. The poker was a chance to get back into live play as it had been a while.
After a steady and very tight start I had a pivotal hand. Not sure if I like how I played it or not. I min raised early position with
and after two callers the big blind bumped it up. To be honest I can"t remember the blinds or the raise size, it was about level 4 or 5 though. I called, something I hadn"t been doing up to this point but I wanted to see a flop (they"re suited after all
). The opponent wasn"t tricky so it was fair to assume he had a real hand. Flop
. I check and he bets about three quarter pot. I knew this flop couldn"t have helped him, but thought he could be worried that it helped me as I"d probably play a middle pair the same way. Anyway, I heard someone say "raise" and realised it was me, so I proceeded to 2.5X his bet and look as confident as I could. He looked pained, which was good, but then pushed his stack in which was not so good. At this point I was getting over 4:1 to call so it was my time to look pained and I had to show my hand. He tabled two black kings. A
on the turn gave me the straight though and I took the pot and eliminated the opponent.
Would be interested in views on this hand, althogh it"s a bit difficult without stack sizes etc. i do know there were chunks in the middle by the end though! I think my thought of representing a set was a bit optimistic, as on that board I think most people would lead out with a set. I was 40% against his hand, but he folds AK and AQ there so if he has those hands more than 10% of the time I guess it"s a positive play?
I ended day 1 in second place and returned the following day full of confidence. Unfortunately it wasn"t to be. I had to lay down some hands early on, was getting a bit short stacked when down to the last 15 or so and lost a flip against Phil (yes, Phil TC this time) when his pocket 9"s held v my AQ. Then with a very short stack I picked up
last hand before the break, the first time I had seen them all weekend, shoved em in, got called by
and all was fine until a ten on the turn saw me out.
Pleased enough with the way I played and just over a week now to Vegas. I expect Wembley was a one off, but was well worth it, and at £25 for a burger and chips (I kid you not) and "Guinness" served from a tin it did wonders for my diet.
Thank you APAT for a great weekend. I love the community feel of the APAT events and as usual the game was played in excellent spirit.
