Despite getting back to Norwich at midday yesterday, I couldn"t be bothered to blog. I remained watching the updates to the bitter end last night and awoke this morning after five hours sleep, so my review of the weekend will have to be in bullet-point form as my brain isn"t up to top speed yet.
In no particular order, here are my good and bad points of the past few days starting with the negative:
1) The journey to Walsall was a pain in the backside. It wasn"t so much the driving in single file at reduced speeds that annoyed me, but that when I reached the junction of the A14 and A1, the police had blocked the former road heading west, meaning I had no option but to head north towards Peterborough. Rather than the automatic pilot trip I should have had, my journey from this point went A1,A47,A43, Market Harborough before rejoining my anticipated route at the point where the A14 and M6 join. This meant Norwich to Walsall took just over five hours going there as opposed to 2.75 hours coming back.
2) Much as I liked room 123 of the Holiday Inn, the view from the window across the car park of the Village Hotel failed to inspire any poetry, meaning I"ve still got a sonnet to write before my class tomorrow night.
3) For the fifth time I failed to make day two at a national. I had aces once which resulted in a few chips after I raised, saw a call and a reraise before I shoved forcing my opponents to back down and Kings once which yielded the blinds after my raise went unanswered. I was feeding on scraps apart from this and never went above 12000 chips.
4) My communication skills need improving upon. Two people tried to speak to me whilst I was seated at the table; Ant the Cat tried to tell me about his departure and Des tried to tell me of the conversation he and TK had had about my T-shirt. Both were met with little more than neanderthal grunts.
In addition, I think my poker etiquette needs a little work. The next time I bite the dust at a major event, I really should remember to say "Nice hand" or "Well played". Maybe, just maybe when Colin O"Prey stood up at the same time as me he was doing so in order to shake my hand rather than because he needed to stretch his legs. Note to self - acknowledge other people at the table when leaving. At least I didn"t drop the F-bomb upon departure, so maybe that"s a step in the right direction.
Now for the good stuff:
1) I"ve referred already to my paucity of playable hands, but I honestly believe I played by far my best poker at any national to date. Although my stack never rose above 12000, I got value from the day by clinging on to life support until about 10.20 pm. I didn"t go into the day with any gameplan, but found myself playing hands that Gus Hansen would have been proud of. I took down pots by raising with 10/3 off, 8/2 off, 7/3 off but my raise with 7/2 was called so I abandoned ship post flop. I"ve never done that sort of thing before and there"s no way I"d have gone beyond the meal break if I hadn"t. I must be getting better. Its just a shame that the abscence of tournament poker in the wilds of East Anglia means that my playing time will be exclusively PC based for a few months.
2) Despite feeling disappointed at my lack of a return, I must remember that for me it was a freeroll. Somewhere out there are twenty-one people who, for whatever reason, voted for this blog in the APAT end of year awards. Without them, I probably wouldn"t have had the opportunity to partake once more in the experience that is the APAT national.
3) I"d like to thank, Des, tighty, TK and anyone else involved in the organisational side of things for all their efforts. Without your hard work, my lifetime live poker experience would probably be condensed into two weeks in Vegas. Cheers guys, hopefully I"ll see you again in Nottingham
