Greetings!
Tempted as I was to go the way of numerous Scottish football fans in Buenos Aries, 1978 and never return, I have finally made it back from the Baltics having had a few extra days in Tallinn followed by 3 nights in Riga.
Most of it has already been said so I will do my best to avoid labourious detail and bullet point the highlights of my trip in chronological order
Friday
1. Everything runs smoothly for the very early flight and I find a seat next to Don Roberts (Hammerite). We had never me before but exchanged pleasantries on the forum so it was a pleasure chewing the fat with him discussing all things APAT for the duration of the flight.
2. Caught up with the Teesside Massive, Don L & Ger in the bar and the session began
3. Following serveral beers in the hotel bar, we investigated the casino where Sweeney"s chat up technique had me in stitches as he insisted to the georgeous bar-maid that he was looking for more than just a bar.."Ahm lookin" fah Kul-Cha!" - although he was to have the last laugh - vnh sir!!
4. Hit the old town, Karaoke Klearance (see prev.) and a few beers o/s the Peppersack where we met the random finnish, welsh, canadian, yorkshire couple.
5. *
Saturday
6.12 noon on saturday I receive a text from TC and a phone call from Don L checking i was ok? That"s nice!
7. Make it to the hotel barwhere Don informs me that in the middle of the night we were the last 2 out and as he tried to bundle me into a cab to come back with him the response was , "F**K It! I"m staying Out!"
8. Suppose we had better play some poker... well not that much as it happens
9. Onto my tournament in a minute(what there was of it) but first news reaches me that Fatcatstu is out in a bit of a cooler. Apparently he had top set of a 10 high board when all the money went in and his opponent had pocket Kings. Unfortunately his oppo spiked a king and that was that but given Stu"s approach to poker and life in general he took this all in his stride and never again mentioned it the entire weekend
10. My own tourney was short-lived. Despite Don L"s advice "do not bluff these people" I proceeded to attempt just that and had 4k before you knew it. I recovered to almost 8k but ultimately went out with KK- I may post my exit hand in the right place, but not here
11. With a lot of the day remaining I headed for an ultimately profitable cash session. It is 17 EEKs to the £ and we played 25 / 50 DC the highlight of which was scooping an 8k pot (probably the last chance i"ll get to say that!!) in a PLO game with Quad
12. Headed to the old town
13. **
14. Returned to the casino to find Ger holding court as a kind of Irish Rowley Birkin QC with the Teesside Massive in absolute hysterics.
15. Ger Fell asleep
Sunday
16. It"s been mentioned on the thread I"m sure but the local beer is "Coq". So the first words I hear from Ger"s Mouth on Sunday are "Coq Please"
17. Railed young Matty for a while, sadly for far less time than we"d hoped. UL & GG Young Man.
18. Hilarious SNGs, absolutely hilarious - with the UK APAT contingent, and a couple of random locals - Ger you are a legend and I do not think I have ever enjoyed a game so much purely for the fun of it even if you continually out-drew me like a ******* - In fact you sucked out so hard and so often I think we could get you a job in one of Tallinn"s ..... errr....entertainment establishments
19. The arrival of Mrs River and an entirely different few days begins
* Point 5 has been omitted due to a complete loss of memory
** Point 13 has been omitted in the interests of Mrs River remaining Mrs River
Thanks again to everyone involved, the staff, the locals, the lads!!
