Had such a good time in Spain so a quick trip report ftw. Actually it"s quite long now that I"ve finished it!
Set off from Gatwick Friday morning. Sat with Ian and Don on the way over and that was good as we"d never really spoken too much before and that was very much a theme for the weekend - going to an overseas venue definitely gives you more time to chat away from the poker table.
Met a load of other APATers at the airport including Darren and soon arrived at the Excelsior in Lloret. Shower, change and straight down to the bar. There was a nice outside bar at the hotel and a good bunch had already gathered including Craig, Beth, Alan Lake, mad Stuart, Brendan and a load of others too numerous to mention them all. Stuart I hadn"t really met or talked to much before, but he is quite a character and had apparently spent the day before sat on the beach reading Gus Hansens book.
Congrats to Craig who went to great efforts to explain to Max, the non-English speaking waiter, why we were all in llorett. Apparently if you stick an "A" on the end of APAT, the Spanish will understand. So after explaining were were all from "APATA", Max nodded his new understanding as he went off to fetch another dozen cervezas.
Tighty, Duke snr and junior and Jack and Petch and others arrived, we ended up on a what goes on tour stays on tour night at Gerrys bar. Gerry is a swedish (I think) rocker with a ZZ top beard. Great night, my staking on wee Ger to win the killer failed to see any return, and I have no idea who trashed the table outside in the early hours smashing two dozen glasses - honest officer!
Saturday morning afternoon and still no food since I arrived, but was too tired to eat, and by the time I surfaced everyone was in position drinking away, so I took my place and nodded quietly when asked if I wanted a beer. 6 or so cervezas later I head up to the casino. FFS they said its only a 5 minute walk. Yeah right, maybe for the youngsters but the hill was steep and long. Taking my seat at the table I didn"t really have a great days preparation!
"Shuffle up and deal" or whatever the Spanish is for that. My starting table included Ger junior, Chen, and mad Stuart. Now I have read Gus Hansens book too, but I missed the chapter which suggests you donk off 6k at level 1 with 4 high, but fair play to him, I expect he normally accumulates chips early and unfortunately he chose the only player on the table who was bad enough to call him down. My own first few levels were uneventful, I was wearing my new hoodie given to me for Christmas by my two nephews. They told me to play with the hood up, so I did! They said it would bring me luck, so let"s see if that works as well!
Buffet break was well timed. The food was served with bottles of wine so I topped up my glass but that was the only drink I had at the casino until late in the day. A few 50/50 flips went my way. I 3 bet all in for 15 bigs with AJ against 77 and hit, and the won a load of chips late on day 1. I think I tilted the local two to my right. He was LAG, so everytime he raised I either folded or pushed all in. I built my stack with him folding each time and muttering away and waving his hands and randomly trying to put on an English accent and mutter "all in, all in". The last hand of the day he raises, I shove, he gets annoyed, he calls, I have AK he has KQ and hey presto I end day 1 in 3rd place. What a miracle!
Meanwhile Beth has built a big stack too and we head back together, with Alan as tour guide , and Gary who had also played really well to make day 2 . Alan had an interesting route for us to take back to the hotel. It entailed numerous stops with someone pointing right, the other left, the third straight ahead and all convinced "it"s this way". We got there in the end, and as it was only 6.30am we persuaded the night porter to serve us a few cervezas.
Woke up late on day 2. Had a walk, grabbed some food, a load of APATeres had headed to the football, others off to a bar, and I grabbed some grub before eventually starting the long walk up to the casino. On my way up I get a text from Laxie. Something along the lines of "oi you stupid fecker get your ass up the casino they"ve started without you". I thought day 2 started at 6. But apparently it started at 5. so not only have I got to walk up this hill again but now I gotta walk fast. FML.
Flustered I sit down, count my chips, realise I"ve lost about 12k in blinds so it"s time to get busy. By the time I arrived we were down to 2 tables. I dont like to get too short stacked on day 2"s in relation to the blinds, so after dropping to below average i shove UTG with something like Q8 or J8. I get called by A 10, but the flop had 2 8"s in it so that was nice.
The key hand for me came after the money bubble had burst. My nephew danny keeps on about how you have to go for the win when you"re down to 2 tables, and I knew the big prizes were up top. So with 44 I raise, get called by matey to my left and we see a flop of AQx. Bet call, turn is a blank, I check he bets. If I fold here I"ve dropped a lot of my chips. But matey is a LAG, he"s impressed me with his play and I just dont put him on the ace. "All in" suddenly comes out of my mouth and I"m pushing my stack in the middle. No snap call, thats good. No snap fold, thats bad. He takes at least 5 minutes, and eventually hero calls with 88. I respect his courage there, he would have looked silly in so many situations, but I think we both knew each others play too well and to me it"s a great hand to have been involved with. Matey meanwhile is lapping the casino high 5"ing all the Spanish in sight. He didn"t account for the poker gods which led to my fist pump as the 4 hit the river. That"ll teach him for making such a donk call (only joking!).
I feel like I"m freerolling, and my luck returns when I knock out the final table bubble guy who was foolish enough to shove AK when I had A7 in the small blind (7 on river obv).
The Spanish like to celebrate making the final table. It was like the scene from the world series when the money bubble bursts, all clapping and hugging. Beth was also there which was great. We had not been on the same table all tournament, but would now be sat on the final one. We did a deal to chop the last longer, and off we went to play to the end.
I gave quite a bit of action on the final table, donking off too many with K 10 (but they were sooted!) to the Irish guy Robbie. Not met him before but he was over with a nice crowd and he played a great game. Later, shoving the small blind against the big, I chop a pot with Q7 or some rubbish like that against KQ (K on the river gave us both a straight, but nobody could tell the other guy quickly enough to stop him setting off on a lap of honour around the casino!). I got a big treble up with AK to get us 4 handed and I then had the chip lead. I fancied my chances at that point, but it wasn"t to be. A big all in shove by an oppo with 22 was snapped by me with AK, flop paired the board but all of my outs never came. I was down to less than 1 big, which was gone on the next hand. I know it"s always gutting to get ko"d at such a late stage, but I really enjoyed this tourny and felt I had played a good game in terms of going for the win, and can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable tourneys I"ve ever played. The Spanish were good sports (mad Stuart doesn"t like the dealers though, apparently they tell him to shut up too often!) and the staff and TD were in my opinion top notch.
Back to the tables, and Beth did the travelling contingent proud in finishing 2nd - well done Beth, awesome in only your second live tourney!! The rail cheered her on and if she could have binked the last hand it could have been the gold. Our winner was a deserved one and post tourney it was time for a good few beers at the bar to see out the last night of the trip. Taxi to hotel FTW this time.
A quiet and uneventful journey home. A few had sore heads, but the end of a great few days. Saw Ger at the airport for ten minutes or so before he had to get on his plane, and these events wouldn"t be the same without him. I"ve rambled on long enough and apologies for any names I"ve missed out, as the best part of this trip was getting time to speak to so many people who I knew from APAT events but didn"t know that well. I hope we do this event again, it was a great venue and I hope to be able to reurn next year. Special thanks to Tighty and Leigh, they do a sterling job and we played 11 hours flat on day 1. Thats a lot of updating!
See you all at the tables, at the bar, at an airport or somewhere random. gg Spain, it was emotional!
