Wowsers, if I may quote Chris Peers for a moment. I have had a fantastic five days at the APAT WCOAP at Dusk Til Dawn in Nottingham. I met a lot of people I hadn't met before and quite a few that I had. The thing that you notice first whilst around these APATTERS is the camaraderie! As a lone traveller to this event (no mates and my wife hates gambling) it does help offset the awkwardness and I'm sure that goes for a lot of people that turn up for their first live APAT event.
Well lets try a brief (lol) summing up of The Worlds
Thursday 26th AugustI arrived in Nottingham for the Heads Up and couldn't check into the hotel nor could Chen Tam, he went shopping for more chips and I went to DTD. Initially met up with John Murray and Vivienne Barber after a walk across the duel carriageway in the ever so slightly windy conditions. I got into the bar area and was confronted by a myriad of people, some I'd met and others I hadn't yet.
The 1st tables of the team events got under way and it wasn't long before the start of the HU and my 1st round opponent was Gavin Jones(Jagshemash) we played a steady game of HU and I had Gavin all in with 6 3 at one point but he went on to take that down and got to the QF. WP Gavin
Dave(DWH103)Howard took down the heads up which was a gr8 start to the tournament for me as Dave was probably one of the first guys I talked to at an APAT event....Well done Dave....then Guinness kicked in mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm always nice.
Great to see Paul MCGuinness and the rest of the Welsh team for a drink later on even though Dan Owston wasn't drinking this night and he stood by his captains request to lay off the drink and only had 12 pints! Gr8 effort Dan
Friday 27th August:
I woke up from my Guinness induced coma on the up again.... excited, always am at an APAT!!
Showered, changed, refreshed etc take a slow walk to DTD, emerges in a Skoda JP Round, makes phone call, Chris Peers appears with keys, into bar for a quick drink before setting off to DTD with Phil TC, Chris-driver and JP. This was to be mine and Dai Boots day not to mention a quartet of Welshmen with a Scouse coach.
For the Stud event I had the pleasure of being seat 1 on my 1st table,I had Chen Tam on my left along with Chris Salmon(shout out), Derek Rowlands, Matthew Whiting, Paulie Davis and Robert Gerrard. There was some interesting play in the first few levels and we were all a bit concerned as to whether we would have playable stacks in a few levels time, but this didn't really materialise unless you had been particularly foolish.
My next table was over in the far corner of the venue where Gavin Kan was holding court and most of the tables chips, closely followed by Chen Tam I stayed out of their way, whilst they waged raising wars with all and sundry, with my initial target to reach the FT being foremost in my mind, fairly soon we arrived at the Final table.
The final table was my first in a live Apat,-specialist series aside-, and I was chuffed to bits for just accomplishing that, my fellow combatants were Dave Potter, David Llewellyn, Paul(Furness Poker)Robinson, Chen Tam, Paul Pitchford, Gavin Kan and Kevin Fleming.
I got very lucky a few times during the event but fortunately for me I was raising and betting every street to get a very good poker player in Gav Kan to lay down trip 7"s on 6th street but he did have Chen calling me behind and my Aces up held and I never really looked back, Kevin was really short stacked and we lost him first then we lost the luckbox Paul Pitchford who to be fair tried to steamroller the Ft but couldn't hit a barn door if he had tried. Ul Paul....
My friend Dave Potter was the money bubble unluckily and now I was looking to get into the medals(it is amazing the thoughts that run through your mind when in this situation) and Vivienne Barber was keeping me supplied with the Black stuff so no worries there.
I had tried to bluff Chen off a pot betting from first card up to last but he was having none of it and declared a pair!!! WHAT! I said, I think that's all I've got showing a pair of 2's but I had inherited Pitchies usual luck and I had received a last card 2 to trip me up. Sorry Chen!
Note to oneself do not try to bluff Chen Tam
So from zero to lots and then all of a sudden a hand develops between Chen and Paul and Chen takes it down and Paul Robinson is out in 5th place this guy was a crowd pleaser to say the least, I could never put him on a hand and nor could he!!! Nice guy
Not long after our 10 minute break a hand developed between Chen and Gav and this hand effectively crushed Gav and soon after he was out 4th. In the meantime there had been some interesting hands between Chen and Dai, Quad 7"s to Chen and 7"s and 9"s to keep him in the hunt but eventually Chen went out in Bronze medal position and I was going to play heads up with Dai for the Gold.
We were both made up for each other as we had only met at Swansea this year where we had a great laugh and I am sure we dug the foundations for a good solid friendship,-this result aside-, a couple of hands in I managed to get Dai all in and he took it down and I said to him you only have to double up 4 more times and we'll be level, that broke the tension and eventually my queens up took it down and I think Leigh interviewed me and Simon Trumper presented the medal and I went to the bar with Dai, Paul McGuinness, Dan Owston, Phil TC, JP Round et al and we had drinks to the early hours the Welsh celebrations were excellent and I was very happy myself.
I treated David and myself to a steak baguette which was gorgeous and then got a cab back to the Travelodge with Phil and JP and started planning my next adventure!!
Which will follow soon....................... Saturday 28th August :
