CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS and APAT UK TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP 2011 Part 1
I had been fortunate enough to be working in Manchester from the Tuesday prior to the event and after a short mornings work near Old Trafford on the Friday, I headed off to the Holiday Inn, Bolton for the weekends jollities!
I arrived at approximately midday and got myself unpacked, shaved and,-BE AMAZED-, changed into gym kit for a session in the fitness room and pool
. I have heard that some professional players get themselves prepared for the beize battle via this option... Whether it will EVER work for me is another matter.
I spent about 45 minutes on the treadmill then spent about 15 minutes in the pool, which was very pleasant, very small and very warm and very bad for the eyes, as I'm sure Jon Woodfield would agree. I then hit the sauna for a half hour and left the fitness room feeling refreshed and ready for battle.
Not! I was knackered, been a while since a gym had been visited, still, onwards and upwards.
I came back up to the lobby and saw a few of the usual crew Paulie D, Leigh Wiltshire etc and said my hellos and went back to the room for the final change prior to the nights event.
Back down to the bar 6ish and it's now beginning to get busy, crowds of alcoholics looking forward to falling down and others contemplating naked corridor Olympics later in the evening. I met Asa McGrath for the first time and Carrey Hollick and some random Scotsmen David Blacklaw and Niall Farrell, I had a lengthy chat with Gary Penniket and we discussed the qualities of James Bord and the whole poker million thing, very interesting bloke and friend of Matt McKinlay so gets my vote
The Chezger crew were well on the way to oblivion before we had even contemplated leaving for the G and that crowd as always were magnificent entertainment. Paul Pitchford arrived resplendent in a dodgy looking jacket from Primark, obviously Sarah has got the money in the wedding account now and it's not coming out!!
Rodders and I decided that we were too easily influenced via the drink and decided to take a walk up to the G in the cold night air under the verbal directions of Asa, to attend the shoot-out for 20K!!!!
Surprisingly found the place fairly easily, down the hill then up the hill as far as you could go, right then left past the Town Hall and then right at the junction then straight across main road and you are there, slightly frozen but there! It wasn't very busy inside but I knew it was going to be later when Chezger turned up.
A few niceties were shared as we met up with Warren Jones and Scott Wilson then Dave Howard turned up with a very loud orange hoodie, I saw this as a sign of things to come.
Met up with all the champions, Max, Ben, Gareth, Tod, Steve, Simon, Colin, Brian and John Murray, didn't really get to meet Christophe as he was late arriving if I remember right and moved from my table shortly after I got there.
My first table was as follows :-
2 1 Gareth Johns
2 2 Stephen Wintersgill
2 3 Tod Wood
2 4 Ben Young
2 5 Ian Thompson
2 6 Simon O"Hare
2 7 Scott Wilson
I thought I would see how the evening went and take it from there, possibly an interesting evening in progress.
So most people know I'm very fond of the chips I have in front of me and I don't like to let them go that easily. Mmmmm 3rd hand in I'm in the BB it's folded round to Stephen and he makes it 150 to go, it's folded round to me and I look down at QJ os, lets 3 bet him maybe he has nothing I think, so I raise and all of a sudden the dealer announces re-raise to FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED
................ what, Who said that? FML.....what an eejit!! The initial raiser, Stephen says "I'm in a bit of a spot here", dwells and moves all in! I embarrassingly fold, Ben looks at me in disbelief and says you have to call, I say I'm not going out 1st and Stephen shows Kings, I then proceed to explain that my raise was meant to be to 450 and that my temporary colour blindness would be overcome, it wasn't by the way. The weekend proved that announcing your raise prior to delivering the chips was the way to go. I will remember to do this overbet when I have aces next time Stephen
Still from 5.5K stack I feel I fared pretty well!
I watched some fairly steady play on the table and nothing much happened and not many flops got dealt. Simon seemed to be fairly aggressive, Tod and Gareth were playing confidently and Ben Young seemed pretty laid back but knew where he was at at most stages of a hand.
I can't in all honesty remember specific hand details of all the relevant hands played on my table but I tried to stay focused, and for my part I was drinking tea!
I remember Scott Wilson getting knocked out on a J99 board Ben bet Scott pushed Ben called..... Scott
Ben 9 9 for quads......... so just
10S required for Scott....... didn't come and Scott perished first.
Then Colin Young joined our table and he flopped trip 10's early doors on a 7,10,10 flop and lost a chunk to Gareth Johns who had pocket 7's for the flopped house.
Rodders went out on table 1 and Brian Martin followed shortly after and I was moved to table 1.
Fortunately or not I had Dave Howard to my right and Max Kruis also Chris kreindl, I had Warren to my left and beyond him I had John Murray, a case of out of the frying pan etc,etc.
Colin went out next on my original table, I don't have hand details but I'm sure they're available somewhere, followed shortly after by Simon, whereupon Chris was moved from our table to table 2 and we were playing hand for hand until the next elimination and I'm sure John Murray and Dave Howard were planning for it to be me, fortunately I stood my ground and won one race against Dave with KQ and then I had a hand, the last before a break and I was on the button with A J and raised John's big blind, he asked if I was ready to get knocked out before the break, I smiled and he called.......... I didn't look at the flop, I looked at John and heard the dealer call Jack, four,eight . John bet enough to put me all in and I snap called......"Jeez what's the chances you'd hit a jack" says John "about as good as you hitting your 8" says I. John had 78 suited and was now in trouble.
The break came and went and soon after Chris Kreindl was eliminated and we were down to a final table and we re-drew for seats.
1. Ian Thompson
2. Tod Wood
3. Gareth Johns
4. Stephen Wintersgill
5. Warren Jones
6. John Murray
7. Dave Howard
8. Ben Young
9. Max Kruis
TO BE CONTINUED WHEN I FIND TIME
