DARE TO DREAM

[BOINGBLITZ]

Why do we play this game ?
Is it to make money ?.....for the fun ?.......to pass the time at the end of a hard days grind ??
I am sure that we all have differing thoughts on this but from my own perspective, I love the uniqueness of this game in that any one of us......ANYONE.....could one day hit the big-time.
  I feel a certain sense of team-spirit in reading last week that "George" Bedi took down first place in the Gala Final in Nottingham. George is one of us, an APAT Team member, so therefore we can say to everyone that one of "Ours" has hit the big-time.
  That result also has to give everyone hope that one day they can do the same.
  I am a very enthusiastic amateur who strives to learn by his mistakes and consistantly improve year-on-year and so far my results since to 2005 tell me that I am doing so.
  Last year I had my biggest win yet when I won a $5500 seat on the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise.
  This was not just a big win in terms of the financial aspect of it, but also in that it meant that my poker skills had taken my wife for 4 days in New York plus a Carribean cruise for 9 days on one of the biggest ships in the world.  It showed her that I really DO win at this game and it also meant that she could see first-hand what amazing benefits a game of cards can now bring in.
  While on the cruise I entered 3 tournaments with buy-ins of $300, $500 and $1000....way, WAY out of my normal league !
  Sitting down in the $500 first, I felt intimidated by the presence of two online pros to my left who were continually discussing what it was like living in the Phillipines on the proceeds of their online prowess. Having just one decent hand and NEVER ONCE getting above my 5,000 chip starting-stack didnt"t help either and I finally busted out after 4 hours when my A-K ran into the monster that is 10-2 off.
  My confidence, while not shattered, was severely dented. Was I so far out of my depth that I was throwing money away here ?
  2 days later, I fared a little better in the $300 tourney and was about 5 hours in when Diana Arama was moved to my right. We had met in a sit-and-go the night before when she had called my pre-flop raise with AA when she held 8-3 off.....and hit an 8-3-3 flop !
  Now Diana is a lovely lady, and no mean player.......but on THREE occasions her husband (Jac Arama) came and whispered in her ear, with cards on the table, telling her strategy tips. This pis.......upset me a little....and I complained about it at the break, only to be told that no rules were being broken !!
  Lo and behold, a few hands into the next session, she took me out with A-K against my 8-8......nothing wrong with that, but I still felt a little aggreived at what went before.
  I had seriously considered withdrawing from the $1000 event....but on leaving the main room following my exit from the $500 tourney, I entered the sit-and-go room where my wife was ecstatic at having won a $20 tourney and beat a Scandie heads-up to win $100 !!
  She went to bed happy and I partied until 7am with friends made onboard......totally forgetting that the $1000 tourney kicked-off at 11am.
  It was too late to back out now so I sat down feeling a little worse for wear and looked around my table. I had Pokergirl1, 2 seats to my right, one of the biggest online winners ever,then there was a Swedish pro next to me, Banksoir to my left, Punk Floyd was there also, plus 2 other faces that I had seen a few months earlier on the telivised poker million heats on Sky.  
   KINELL !!!
  Amazingly, I played good, solid poker and lasted 11 hours, finishing 31st to win my $1000 buy-in back.......no profit, but oh-so-satisfying.
  I had sat down in a tourney with a buy-in that if you took a zero off the end would still be big for me, and I had cashed !
  Dare to dream ??
  When i returned home my live game had improved so much that by the end of April my ROI (Return On Investment) at Walsall Grosvenor was over 200%.
  Fast forward to now, to May 28th and I have hit a bad patch. 14 losing days in a row means that the month of May looks set to be a losing one so can Saturday"s APAT Academy training day do anything to alleviate that ?
  I certainly will be going there with high hopes that the tips we will be getting will improve my game and make the £99 investment a bargain. Maybe a win in the £50 tourney at DTD on Saturday night ??
 Well......we can all dare to dream......can"t we ??!!

[Santino67]

Excellent BB, love the story and I too dare to dream. At the moment I"m very happy playing the £10 & £20 buy in games, normally twice a week and have only been doing this since the end of March. So far for my money I"ve cashed in 7 games taking just over £750 so the small investments have been very worthwhile.
More than this is the experience I"ve gained from coming off line and playing face to face with others like me...........and learning from the (more than a few   ) mistakes I"ve made. Some of the people I"ve met have made it an even more enjoyable experience than I"d imagined and even qualifying for the Scottish National final gave me a huge buzz. I hope one day to be in the same league as some of you guys and get to play with some of the well known names & faces, but think that"s a way off at the moment.

Keeping the concentration, focus and faith is the key I think, but time will tell. Hope to meet in Ireland, good luck till then  

[BOINGBLITZ]

Thanx for the kind comments Santino.
Now onto entry no.2.....

BACK TO SCHOOL

As previously mentioned, my 14-day losing streak had extended itself to 16 days before a 7th place finish in William Hill"s $5k guaranteed tourney on Thursday night gave me a $201 return for my $25 entry to end that sequence, the longest losing run I have ever had.
  I had a bad run a few weeks back but on that occasion I knew I WAS playing very well and just running bad. This time I was playing poorly, playing weak starting hands, making bad calls, generally doing everything that I know I should not do.
  So with that in mind it was off to Nottingham on a very pleasant Saturday morning to make my first visit to Dusk Till Dawn, the state-of-the-art Poker venue where those wonderful APAT guys were staging the first of three "Academy Days" or "Boot-Camps" as the Yanks like to call them.
  At £99 it was a bargain in my opinion and I was delighted to be there and looking forward to hearing from Paul Jackson, Julian Thew and Simon Trumper, the Pros who were to be the Cap-and-gown wearers for the day.
  Paul, I had met before on the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise and I have to say that he is my favourite player for several reasons, not least the fact that he is a fellow Baggie like myself. Also, back in 2005, I reached a milestone in my poker-playing life when I had my first ever FIRST place finish in a tourney. It won me $865 on Ladbrokes one Sunday afternoon and heads-up I beat a very pleasant opponent called ACTIONJACK.......who at that time I had no idea was a professional player !  
  Today Paul dealt with game theory and why you make certain moves and how to put players on certain hands. Being a Black-Country native myself, I had no problem in understanding his accent but I did wonder how the other guys in the room were getting on as Paul"s obvious passion for this game was there for all to see as his words-per-minute seemed to go up in proportion to his enjoyment of the teaching experience.
  After a lunch break Julian Thew came in for a question and answer session on his own career plus what it is like to be a professional poker player. A softly spoken guy, I don"t think you would be able to peg him as a Pro if you were on one of those "Guess the Job" TV game-shows but having said that I found him a very endearing guy, down to earth and someone who obviously realises how fortunate he is to do what he does for a living. I enjoyed his talk and wish him all the good luck possible in the future as people with his attitude to this game deserve to succeed.
 Last but by no means least was Simon Trumper who led us out into the gaming area to go through "The Wonderful World Of Tells". This was a REAL eye-opener.
 As I paid my dosh along with the other 20 or so people there, I ain"t telling you ANYTHING that was passed onto us......but what I will say is this.......When I sat down to play in the evening"s £50 freezeout I IMMEDIATELY saw one guy at my table giving off one of these tells. Then later on another guy sat down and did the same ! Only once did I mis-read either of these 2 players and although I went out 66th (K-9 vs 3-5......3-9-J-3 !!!) I knew that I had learnt something invaluable for my live play from the day and also my online play as on returning home I used some of Paul"s earlier advice and finished 5th of 89 runners to pick-up £156 on William Hill.
  To me, that had paid for the tutorial already !!
 I am now looking forward to Tuesday night when I am making a significant step-up in class when I pay my £200 to enter a freezeout in the Midlands Meltdown at Walsall. I will look forward to seeing if players playing at that level also give off the tells. 
  Watch this space......
   

[Chipaccrual]

Great post.

Was the tell a clenched fist and small whoop ?

[BOINGBLITZ]

But....but.....I thought EVERYONE did that when they got aces !!!!

[APAT]

lol....this does make me laugh.  

[Santino67]

Just reminded me of Greg Raymer"s story of the guy he played who nodded his head everytime he"d a good hand and shook it everytime it was bad   ..............should stick to watching countdown or playing solitaire methinks  

[BOINGBLITZ]

Just to give you another laugh......and I SWEAR that I am not making this story up.......I am off to a Gay Wedding this Saturday (A friend of my wife"s from work.....nothing to do with me, you understand !!)
   Well the two participants in these forthcoming nuptuals paid us a visit last week and I was playing a tourney on Poker Stars at the time.
   They walked in and said "Hi Bri".....just as I looked down at my hand.
   As Rolf Harris would say....."Do ya know what it is yet ??"

 

Correct.......a PAIR OF QUEENS !!  

[Santino67]

Just to give you another laugh......and I SWEAR that I am not making this story up.......I am off to a Gay Wedding this Saturday (A friend of my wife"s from work.....nothing to do with me, you understand !!)
   Well the two participants in these forthcoming nuptuals paid us a visit last week and I was playing a tourney on Poker Stars at the time.
   They walked in and said "Hi Bri".....just as I looked down at my hand.
   As Rolf Harris would say....."Do ya know what it is yet ??"

 

Correct.......a PAIR OF QUEENS !!  

Bet they got humped by the cowboys  

[clynd99]

How"d you bost on in the midlands meltdown?
Are you going to be playing the Poker Player game in Walsall? If so you will have to introduce yourself.  

[BOINGBLITZ]

Clyndd mate...I WILL be there on Saturday....so keep an eye out for the guy wearing the Virgin Poker Festival t-shirt........which brings me to...........

ARE WE REALLY ONLY HERE FOR THE BEER ?

Since my last posting on here there has been mucho happenings in my insignificant-but-enjoyable Poker "Career".
  Firstly, my dabble at higher stakes at the Midlands Meltdown £200 event.
  I arrived with high hopes of a decent performance in this but as I sat down in seat 2, Dave Colclough positioned himself in seat 7 and two-hands into the proceedings, a late-entrant that looked suspiciously like Mickey Wernick sat down next to him in seat 8. I should have read the signs then really.

  Having donked off a severe amount of my chips in an idiotic fashion with an overplayed 5-5 on a low-board, I found myself, at only the back-end of level two, with just 875 chips left.
  I had spotted one of Simon Trumper"s tells from our Academy Day being given off by a Walsall regular in EVERY hand he played and this guy is a GOOD player too. Unfortunately, he wasn"y involved in the hand that saw me back home in time to enter the William Hill $25 tourney at 11pm.

  A 100-to-225 raise from Colclough was called by Wernick and I decided to call in the BB with K-Q.
  The flop came K-8-5 and I checked. Colclough bet 300 and Wernick called. I moved all-in as I couldn"t have hoped to see many better flops......but when Colclough also pushed all-in, Wernick folded, almost knowing before he turned them over that his fellow Pro had Aces.

  Disappointed, I took this as a lesson to be learned and on the 14th June, I set off for Dublin and the APAT Irish Open.
  I met up with a few pals who, before I stepped on the magnificent Independence Of The Seas in January for the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise, I didn"t know at all. Matt and Sohan, both playing their first APAT events, had finished 1 & 2 in the PokerPlayer "PokerGod" tourney while Steve, Sam and Stuey came down from Lisburn, also for their first shot at APAT. We call ourselves "The Laurel and Hardy Club",.....but that"s another story.

  After a few Pints of the Blackstuff in the local pub, where we agreed to a 20 euro last-longer comp,it was off to the Fitzwilliam for the 2.30pm start and lo-and-behold, Stu was seated in seat 3 with me in seat 4 !!
  Having played in many a drunken sit-n-go on board ship, I think we knew to give each other respect on what proved to be quite a strong table.

  I managed to reach the tea-break with a decent chip-stack after I took out one guy with A-Q spades against his Q-Q.....not with an ace, but with a flush made on the turn.
  His demise saw Bobby Murphy arrive at our table with a monster chip-stack and he used it well, although one of his all-in pushes would have got a call from me as if the other guy had looked at him rather than his cards, he would have seen that in no-way did he want a call.....Bobby could hardly catch his breath !!

   My mate Stu crashed out soon after dinner and by 10.30pm I was beginning to dream of a 2nd-day return and a first APAT medal. By this time I had won our last-longer bet so was basically freerolling but I then went on to crash out in a pretty sick fashion.
   An early position all-in push for 38k just had my 34k covered but looking down at A-K I felt compelled to call, putting him on no better than 10-10. Well after everyone else folded, he did indeed show 10-10 but I was delighted to see the A come on the flop. A blank turn left him just 2-outs......but as we all know, this internet poker is fixed !!!    His rivered trips sent me out in 34th and so my APAT medal stays in it"s box for yet another tourney.

   On day two only Matt and myself remained from our "Laurel and Hardy Club" and so after a very interesting chat with an ex-member of the "Leeds United Service Crew" from the 70"s (Hope that is the correct name.....i like living !!) in another local establishment, it was back to "The Fitz" for the 27 euro tourney at 4.30pm.
   Supposedly this was capped at 44 players but ended up with 77. Matt crashed out before an hour was up and so went off to lose 50 euros in 2 hands in a cash game before losing a bit more on the roulette tables.
   He decided to head back to the hotel to change before we hit the town on our last night in Dublin.... but after returning at 9pm, he found me still playing and close to the Final Table, which I subsequently made. Bye-Bye night out on the Guinness !!

   On reaching the Final Table, which included Bainn (I think) and was dealt for a while by, I believe, a guy Christened by Swinebag as "The Shermanator" ?....dealing was later taken up by someone who resembled a slightly-rotund version of Charlie Sheen......he also talked in a strange foreign lingo, as did a few other of the players involved.......I think they called it Scorrrtisssshhhh.
   I lost a big chunk of my stash when my 10-10 got done by 8-8.....but soon after I looked down at K-K, pushing all-in before trying to do my best impression of some one who didn"t want a call. The guy to my left was tighter than a Duck"s rear-end but after a long-dwell he folded, only for the chip-leader to decide to take me on. Everyone folds and I stand up and say "You got Aces?"....to which he replies "YES !!" ......and he looked NOTHING like Dave Colclough !!
  Exit BOING in 7th spot but with 130 euros to add to a decent weekends work and a top poker experience. 
  Apologies to Matt if my success wrecked our drinking plans but I never expected the afternoon game to still be going on early on Monday morning. Then again, I never expected to see Aces there either............
 

[BOINGBLITZ]

MY WEEKEND SPENT WITH VIRGINS (A first !!)

PART-ONE
Having returned from a week in sunny Malta, it was a tanned and optimistic BOING that set off for Dusk Till Dawn and the Virgin Poker Festival on Saturday June 28th.
   Undetered by the battery going on the Sat-Nav as I left the M1 and finding that the fuse had gone in my ciggy-lighter-thingy, I finally made it to DTD in time to see Swinebag waiting for the pint that I had promised him several blogs ago.
   We had a general poker chat before settling down at 2pm along with the other 257 entrants who included several well-known and respected APAT "Names", three of which I found were on my opening table. They were Dewi to my right, Brendan Hartnett to my left and Scouse3465 at the bottom end of the table.

   Richard Branson sent us a good-luck message before Kick-Off although quite how he managed to send his voice over from his yacht or wherever he was, 30 seconds before his image arrived on screen, I couldn"t quite grasp.

   Dewi and Scouse opened proceedings right away with Dewi taking down about 1500 chips with some excuse for a hand, to become immediate chip leader. Playing next to him live for the first time, having faced him many times on different online sites, was a most enjopyable experience and it"s easy to see why so many of you guys like this bloke. He is a top guy and a fearsome opponent too.

   I got involved with a hand against a young guy on our table during level two which I was quite proud of the way I played. Dewi said nobody could get anything past him because he had a von-DUTCH cap on !!!
   His name was Jamie O"Connor and he would go on to finish 3rd for almost £4k.     There were 3 limpers for 100 chips and he came along for the ride in the SB. I had
jc  tc
and was delighted to see a flop of
qc    
Dewi bets 300 and I smooth-call, only for Jaime to raise to 1200. Everyone folds to me and I have about 6k left. Having limped in the SB he could easily have 2 clubs but do they include a K of Ace ??
 I chose to re-raise to 3k leaving me 3k behind, but almost immediately he pushed all-in. Did he have the bigger flush ??
 Although he had made a few moves, I had got the answer in my opinion to the question that my re-raise had asked. If I was going to call an all-in push I may aswell have pushed all-in originally.
  I folded my cards face-up to a few gasps from our table ....and he then showed
ac  ::
 He said later to me that there was no-way that he would have folded my hand in that situation and he could not believe that I had done so. 

 I was still in but short-stacked when Scouse, shorter even than me, went to war with me, in what turned into an amazing situation.
 This time I had
kd  td
in the BB and Scouse flat-called.
The flop came
qd    
Which we both checked.
The turn added
jd
and after my check, Scouse pushed all-in.
Having folded the big-hand earlier, I decided to play this as I had an open ended straight AND  a flush-draw, even though he was probably ahead.
I announced "I have to call" and showed my hand, and Scouse tabled
kc  ts
and laughed as he said "I had the same hand"
Well I was delighted to hear that as I obviously had the flush draw and could only split the pot at worst ......right ??
As Brucie used to say...."NOT IN THIS GAME !"

The dealer picked up ALL of the cards and began to shuffle them on the felt. I remonstrated with him as I had called, a fact heard by at least 2 others at both ends of the table. The floor were called but as she could not see ANY cards, Scouse was entitled to keep the pot. To his eternal credit, Scouse said he would split the pot with me......an honourable decision and one I would like to think ALL APAT members would have done also. He could also have been rattled at that time too as he had been warned for shouting ("WOOP-WOOP ??!!" ) looking at his cards while standing up and leaving the table early while still in the hand. Do these Scousers break ALL the rules on purpose ??  

  That move kept me alive and when our table broke I remained with Brendan, although Malcolm Muskett, a DTD regular, was at my new table along with John Murphy, an APAT Final Tablist in Dublin and a player I respect a lot.

  I would eventually knock-out Brendan when he got into all-in-or-fold territory but John folded
:as:   qs
pre-flop against me later on when he was BB after I re-raised him.......a monsterous laydown in my opinion.

 As day one closed at 12.30 am I won an 8k pot on the final hand of the night against a new player at the table who arrived with a decent size stack. This gave me 50,400 chips to take into Day Two with the average at 46k, the first time ALL-DAY that I had been above average.
 Ironically, both the new guy at this table (Frazer Beattie) and the aforementioned Muskett would reach the Final Table on Sunday........
 To be continued.........

[Santino67]

Hi mate

After reading the Martin Klaser story just thought I"d send you a wee reminder to never give up the dream. Keep the faith mate and the cards will come. It was great meeting in Dublin, hope my short spell dealing at your final table served you well, I see you ended up 7th for E130 so not too bad a result.

Anyway hope to catch up again soon

Cheers

[BOINGBLITZ]

MY WEEKEND SPENT WITH VIRGINS

PART TWO

Day two of the Virgin Poker Festival kicked off at 1pm on Sunday June 29th with 52 players looking to fill the 27 money slots on offer from Mr R.Branson & Co.

  Coming in with approximately 50k in chips, I picked up 4 top hands in the first 10 minutes and soon I was up to 134k and life was GOOODDDDDD.

  The first target of the day was to make the money slots and in these situations, I always like to count down in tens. We quickly reached 50 players and then 40 but it seemed to take an age to reach the 30 mark. Once the magic 27 mark was reached, we were all in the money and that"s when I got my first real stroke of luck all weekend. I made a positional all-in move for around 70k in an un-raised pot with  

jd  td
and Malcolm Muskett went into the tank for a good 3 minutes before calling. That was not what I wanted to hear but on seeing his

 
I was not too upset and when the flop brought a  
js
I was more than happy and that held up to move me well into contention with around 165k in chips.

   18th was the next money slot and I made that comfortably and once down to 2 tables it was time to focus on that Final Table spot and a shot at the big-wonga.

   I was the guy who put out the young lady to my left in 10th who was well short-stacked for ages when my ace was good enough and so it was onto my 101st Final Table of the year, but by far the biggest live one I have ever been on.

   My good friend Swinebag had also made the end-game and we discussed our opponents before the start to try and help each other out with tips on the players who we had previously faced in this excellent tourney.

   Soon, Simon Trumper was introducing us one-by-one and before long we were off and running.

   Frazer Beattie was easilly the short-stack and it was no surprise to see him go out first.

   Chip-leader Steven Doherty tried an early raise of my big-blind but his weak-looking bet had been predicted earlier by Mr Swinebag and my all-in answer got the feeble response of "I thought you were the short-stack !"

   Not long after I got caught out in a similar manner when my 60k raise from the button got re-raised and forced me to fold with around 170k behind me.

   On the very next hand I looked down at
:as:  
and raised it to 50k, a move which got an all-in call with
ah  qd
and despite the scary looking board of
 js  ks  jd  qs  kd
I had doubled up and was back in it big-time.

   Soon after came the defining moment of my tourney and one which gutted me for a good while afterwards. Jaime O"Connor to my right pushed all-in to an unraised pot for approx 75k and when I looked down at  
th  ah
I also pushed all-in. Jaime announced "You got me " as he showed
qh  
but after I hit a 10 on the flop, he found one of his three outs (Q) on the river to decimate me to about 75k and leave me in all-in mode.

  This was devestating because I KNEW I was ahead before he showed me but hey, that"s poker and you have to take the rough with the smooth.

  3 hands later I made a move with  
 
but was called by
kc qh
and when he hit the flop it was all over and time for exit stage left for BOING with £831 to show for it.

  Jaime went on to finish 3rd for a big pay-day but ironically, as if to show what goes around comes around, the hand that he went out on saw him lose with  A-5 against 10-5 when the 10 made a straight on the river although to add insult to my wounded poker-pride, he was then awarded the 50,000 air-miles for the weekend"s worst bad-beat. He lost to a 6-outer whereas he beat me on a 3-outer. There is no justice in this world !!

  In summing up, the tourney was a terrific experience and for me, deep-stack poker is the only way to play the game.

  Great tourney, great venue, great players, great weekend

[BOINGBLITZ]

THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS.......

After finishing 8th in the Virgin Festival, little did I know that success in that tournament was only the beginning of a week that previously I could only have only "Dared to dream" about.

   I sat down on Thursday July 3rd to play in the Latvian Open and after twice hitting runner-runner flushes when behind, I somehow found myself crowned Champion around midnight to take down a $240 prize but more importantly, my first ever APAT medal AND Title.

  Now while a lot of you cynical people out there would say that winning an online Title is devalued by the lack of numbers in the field, the tourney still has to be won and I am proud to be able to say that I am now a Champion and that I have realised one of the goals that I set myself at the start of 2008 - namely to win an APAT medal. Anyone who enters any of these APAT events would gladly trade places with me today as we ALL play with the ultimate goal of winning in mind.....and you can only attempt to finish ahead of all the opponents infront of you, be it 4 or 444.

  After throwing my arms up in the air and doing my best Meg Ryan impersonation (Yes, Yes,......YESSSSSSSSSS !!! ) I carried on playing in my 2nd tourney of the night, a $25 freezeout on Laddies, which had the added touch of being played on their all new improved software. Well lo and behold, 2 hours after becoming Latvian Open Champion I was claiming my 2nd first place of the night, winning a tidy $1050.....the first time I have EVER won back-to-back tourneys on the same night (This poker lark is easy !)

  I had the day off on Friday so that on Saturday July 5th I would go to my "Home" venue of the Grosvenor Casino Walsall feeling supremely confident as I contested the PokerPlayer Championship Leg 2. This would be a £50 buy-in with 10,000 starting chips, a 30-minute clock and a field limited to 100 runners. Could I make it a Hat-Trick of First places ?

  Well the tourney began quietly for me until I got involved in a monster pot that ended up being strangely similar to one that I was involved in in Nottingham last week.....on that occasion I layed-down a flopped flush.

  This time I made an attempted button-steal with

td  

but a young guy who had played back at me on a couple of previous occasions was having none of it on his BB and called my raise.

  The flop came down

 jd    

which he checked and when I made a continuation bet, he called.

  The turn brought

 

  which gave me a pair to go with my flush draw.  This time he bet out and I called. The river brought

::

  which completed my flush. He checked and I bet 1500 to take the pot up to 2800, but he came right back at me by doubling my bet to 3000. Off came my "Uniform" of sunglasses and cap and I went into the tank. What could he have ?  He had checked the flop yet bet out on the turn and now check-raised me on the river. His play where he bet out on the turn didnt suggest to me that he was holding one of the 3 diamonds that could be beating me and if he did have a big hand, I couldn"t see it being good enough to beat my flush and so, I told him "I folded in a similar situation to this last week and was proved right. Today I think folding would be the wrong play. I call "
  He smiled and said "Well played" as he turned over

 

He had missed his open-ended straight draw and didn"t even have a pair. "I thought I could get you off it with a re-raise" he said. Thankfully, this week, as with last week, I managed to read the situation correctly and make the right decision (Is there a better feeling in this game ?) and was rewarded by suddenly having 15,000 chips, despite not having having had a higher pair than 8-8.....and I FOLDED THEM !

  I continued to play reasonably well and was feeling very confident, especially when I finally began to get a few hands, although my old Nemesis A-Q continued to get me into a little trouble as I lost 2 races against pairs and also lost to A-K once, although the one time I did win with it I beat A-K to send one guy to the rail. (I must ask Swinebag how to play A-Q !)

  As we reached the bubble, we had 6 players on our table when I looked down at A-5 in the SB. It was folded to me and I pushed all-in against the tight lady in the BB to my left who was trying to limp into the money slots. "I have to call" she said.....and turned over A-K !!  Losing that hand would have lost me about 20% of my stack, having earlier called an all-in after, MUCH deliberation, for 38,000 chips and leaving myself with 68,000 after A-K dominated my........A-Q !!.  This time my luck was in though as a 5 fell on the turn to take us to the Final Table and leave myself with a very healthy stack of around 90,000 chips.


FINAL TABLE (With apologies to the Rolling Stones !)

So SURPRISE SURPRISE, here we were at a second straight Final Table at a big tourney in successive weekends. ANYWAY YOU LOOK AT IT it could be a LONG LONG WHILE before that happens again. These are GOOD TIMES at the moment and poker"s HAND OF FATE is being dealt to me and EVERYTHING IS TURNING TO GOLD.
  But when it"s all over, will I be doing the CASINO BOOGIE tonight or will I be left SAD,SAD,SAD ?

  NEW FACES were moved to our table including, in seat 4, a Jimmy Carter lookalike, while to my left was one Michael Jagger....the inspiration for this little blog-entry.

  With the LUXURY of 90k in chips infront of me, the action began quickly and with a few short-stacks now at the table, I thought "IT WONT TAKE LONG before some of these are GOING HOME "
  It was time to HOLD ONTO YOUR HAT as almost every 4 or 5 hands another player was OUT OF TIME and SLIPPING AWAY to the bar, left SHATTERED at the ROUGH JUSTICE this game can give out.

  I picked up Q-Q and A-K to take out a couple of players, one of whom was in George Bedi"s party and had GOTTA GET AWAY to Dusk Till Dawn for the big comp there.
  Suddenly I was chip-leader. "YOU CAN"T CATCH ME" I thought. "I"ve got you UNDER MY THUMB & now I WONT HOLD BACK and SPARKS WILL FLY"

  The real HOT STUFF at this table now though was Mick Jagger as he astonishingly picked up A-A in successive hands to leave 2 more players HIGH AND DRY and BEGGING FOR MERCY MERCY.
  "LOOK WHAT YOUV"E DONE" I said "LITTLE BY LITTLE you are catching me up. I WISH I"D NEVER MET YOU"

  Three-handed I had 240k of the 440k in play with Mr Jagger COOL,CALM AND COLLECTED on 120k and Jimmy Carter the short-stack on about 80k.
  APAT friends & fellow Walsall locals were coming & giving me words of support during a short break. "YOU CAN MAKE IT IF YOU TRY" said one. "You got him by the SHORT AND CURLIES" said another.....but would I end up taking the CONGRATULATIONS or would it be me with the EMPTY HEART ?

  Well after a day of solid play I managed to blow it all in just two hands & left myself CRACKING UP & in need of EMOTIONAL RESCUE. With blinds at 5k / 10k I raised Mr Carter to 30k with my 4-4. "PLEASE GO HOME" I thought....I AIN"T TO PROUD TO BEG", but he pushed all-in for his last 73k.
  If I call I am hoping he ain"t got a pair but we would be racing at best  I could end up PRETTY BEAT UP if I lose. THE LAST TIME I was in this situation I decided to PLAY WITH FIRE and paid for it.
  "WHAT TO DO ?" I ALMOST HEAR YOU SIGH ?

   "I CAN"T BE SATISFIED with a race. I AM WAITING for SOMETHING BETTER" I said, and folded.. Jimmy seemed HAPPY as he showed an Ace. LAUGH, I NEARLY DIED.
   "YOU BETTER MOVE ON" I said to myself and decided to get those lost chips back immediately with a button steal on the very next hand. Looking down at

ts  

I raised it to 25k......but Jagger called me. I guess YOU CAN"T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT in this game.
  The flop came

qs    

& I took the FIGHT to him with a 30k bet after he had checked. "I have the Queen....HONEST I DO. IF YOU REALLY WANNA BE MY FRIEND you will fold" I screamed inside.  But I guess I was LOSING MY TOUCH as he check-raised me to 75k, forcing me to fold.  WHAT A SHAME....but it"s NO USE IN CRYING over spilt milk......until the reality of losing 85k in just 2 hands hit me. I was no longer chip-leader !

  My head was spinning AROUND AND AROUND at my loss of focus & it seemed like 100 YEARS AGO that I had those 240k in chips.
  Jagger eliminated Mr President soon afterwards & so we went to heads-up with him holding 260k to my 160k.  It would be a HEARTBREAKER to lose this from such a strong 3-handed position but I wouldn"t mind WINNING UGLY if it meant I was the SOLE SURVIVOR.

  I had the worst possible start to the final showdown, getting hands like 2-6, 3-8 and 4-9 & pretty soon it was all-in or fold time. On my 3rd push, Mick Jagger called my

kd   qd

with his

ts  

"COME ON!" I screamed, but with all my nerves TORN AND FRAYED, the flop came down

th     ::

and so that was me BACK TO ZERO.

  "IT"S ALL OVER NOW" I said, without seeing the turn and river.....but I would be a FOOL TO CRY as the £950 2nd prize was my biggest-ever cash......and it was great that my wife was there to see it.
  "THINK, she said "£950 is not THE WORST thing that could happen to you and at least YOU GOT THE SILVER"

  That was very true, but the £1700 first prize, plus trophy, plus Title, plus entry into a 7-handed £2500 guaranteed tourney with a GUKPT Final £3150 seat for the winner.......would have been better.
   And I know it was mine for the taking !

P.S.  I make that 72 Rolling Stones song titles....congratulations to Michael Jagger and good luck in the final mate.