In the absence of a Round Two thread (is it worth creating one for each Division for the sake of banter alone?) I wanted to share my experience as a first-time Captain in the National League structure.
After an OK start last week in terms of recruits and a relentless campaign of hunting down the entire poker playing population of Cumbria available to me through online communication, Carlisle managed to put 9 players out last night. Whilst that may not sound like a lot, I think we did very well, and I wager it is the best turnout Carlisle has put out - certainly since I first played a game for the team in Season 3.
This is the first season I have really committed to playing every game and on another night (Masters Golf and one or two other distractions for a few players) we could have numbered 15 and I have asked every player to recruit one more by Round Three on May 8th.
With 9 bought in and a very standard exit for me last week I then went about firing everyone I could up in the FB chatbox and this proved to be my demise at the tables. Firstly, I was catching a few online who had said they would play but did not buy-in and ensuring they knew the dates for Rounds Three and Four in May. Then I ended up answering questions about points positions, added prizes, team-play, and more. At the tables, and perhaps my reputation as the "tightest player in Cumbria" is out amongst the APAT community, my raises were getting maximum respect and I drifted up to 3.5k by 1st break.
At this point, Carlisle had occupied 2nd and 3rd for a good period with 2 contrasting styles of player making good progress on 6k and 7k respectively.
Being seatd to the left of 2 of my team members did not detract any of us from playing our games and we set off in search of emulating the early progress of our oppos. I then saw our two shorter-stacked players make progress from being below 2k and we lost our first player of the night.
My demise followed not long after, as for the second time in the game I made a mis-click, unfortunately the second had put me to all my chips and I called having not seen the flop (3 low cards) where I would have insta-folded if I had - i.e. I would have been all-in pre with KQ against TT.
I was very impressed withe eventual finishes and got very excited when I saw that Paul Roper had taken 2nd spot after a good run that ultimately did not hold up last week and points finishes for Ken Johnston and Bob Cloudsdale, so scanned down to see how many points Carlisle had taken for the team, only to be disappointed to see we had come 4th by a single point. This obviously makes my massive balls-up all the more disappointing.
I will be focused on the game next time and I hope to see our good play in Rounds One and Two finally pay in Rounds Three and Four.
GG.
VBlue
