Loved being part of the APAT Forum Team in Luton and had a superb time. Slightly deflated at the end when we just didn"t get the luck needed to squeeze enough points for the team tourney and Ian just missed out on a victorious end to a fantastic tournament.
For my part it all started really well on day 1, first hand i recall was calling a raise from Ross Johnson (Roscopiko) with
on button,
flop then
turn and river....nice
Soon after raised in MP with jh jd called by Betfair"s gnasher in SB and check called by him on tc td
flop (with his 4th flopped trip tens in first 2 levels or so). VEry pleased to see jc on turn
and think I got got paid off with value raises on river with both hands.
Hit the heady heights of 20k then went card dead for hours and table got a bit more aggro 3 seats to my right once the table balancing started. Spent ages just hoping to get some reasonable hand to play with and got a steady stream of 8/3, 7/2, 9/2 etc etc. The one that hit me hardest was with
td, called by Alan Lake, who check called 2.6k with a lovely flop of
kd
so things were looking up till the qd landed and I found myself down to 6.5k when paying off Alan on the river with his jd qh :"(
Got one double up then dropped back to 8k, again with no spots or cards to play but crucially got a treble up late on Saturday night against Ant and Dan when my QQ held up against AQ and Mr Owston"s mighty 9/2........glad and surpised to have made it to day 2 with 23.5k and into the top 50 for team points.
With BB at 2k on Sunday it was never gonna be a poker game for me if I couldn"t get chips fairly early, shoved behind a raise with 8/8 and got to my highest of around 32k then frustrated having to fold open shoving hands behind a raise and 3 bet/shove on 3 occasions with BB at 3k (my 4/4 would"ve housed on river
), busted out not long after when my AK v 99 fizzled out on a very raggy board and finished in 25th place and 26 points for the team.
Well done to each and every one of our team, particularly Phil, who like me was just clawing and grinding his way through the points with fewer chips and definitely took a few for the team. He got very unlucky when all in with AQ v A6 down to around 30 players, but again had luck against him when he had to chop with a double paired board
What can I say about Ian Thompson, other than I wish I"d had his cards, his skill and his good looks. Great performance mate, shame it was Silver in the end but gotta be happy with how you played. Fantastic preformance from him, also from individual winner Nick, those who cashed and Rob"s Gambling Network Team winners
And to everyone else who played and contributed in the APAT spirit, I tip my hat to you all, including Des and Rich working as hard as ever and Emma and Bridget for looking after Annie Apple on her first ever APAT/poker excursion.
And a few memories to round it off...
Great casino and staff
Friday at the Luton Home Game.........JP and Ian, looking good
The magnificent 7..............and me
Starting day 2 with my small bag of chips, usually I opt for the large bag with brown sauce and black pudding
