Well i really just dont know where to start!!!..
So bear with me while i ramble on cos i have got just so many people to thank for different reasons..
Those of you who know me personally realise because of personal reasons i am pretty limited to the amount of live poker i am able to play, so i will just leave it at that. So when the chance arises a few times a year to play live poker i am like a kid waiting for Xmas morning to arrive, I LOVE POKER FACT!...
Alan Mower introduced me to APAT a few years ago, i joined up to play for Luton in the online league under the Legend that is Warren Fenwick, and i can honestly say i fell in love with APAT.. No other community is like it in the poker world IMO, friendly, competitive, and down to earth a real joy to be involved with..
So when season 6 was announced i marked of a few dates that was a must...Brighton, DTD Euros and DTD Worlds..
Booked my hotel in April for the Festival just gone, as i was determined to make it come hell or high water!!..
Deposited my money on the new APAT cardroom when announced ready and waiting to buy in to all of the events,.. thats when my run good started, managed to sneak a ME seat along with Don the Hammer and Steve Bayliff all for a value busting £20 odd
on first attempt.. just time to wait now for the fun to start on arrival at the end of August!!!
So the Friday eventually arrived yipeee! Drove down from sleepy Suffolk, booked into Hotel and straight down to DTD..
Walked ( or in my case pushed
) into card room to be welcomed by the so many of the Legends that make APAT what it is.. The awesome Ger with the broom above his lip, to be honest he did push me to one side and gave Emma a rib breaking bear hug lol.. the wonderful awesome lovely sweet etc etc @nicestblokeintheworld Phil TC xx, Ian i dont cry honestly its the beer Thompson, JP Round..( all round) gent!, Rich larger than life Curly Baker, Grant Spiers cant find words to express how much he has made myself and Emma welcome, and many many more..
So with the cards in the air for the Team event it was a short wait for the Stud.. 38 runners i believe, had JP at my table and in the first hour i ran like Usain Bolt on speed, making quad Aces three full houses flushes etc etc secured a early chip lead.. Missed a few draws when the blinds really mattered and spewed my stack down, managed to FT and with a short stack somehow managed to sneak a min cash in 5th place £120 and 8 points for player of the series.
Next day was six max, nothing really went right, didnt do much wrong just didnt have the spots to build stack got blinded down to 3k managed to double up with JJ v 77 so 6k was still way under tourney average with 100 players left in.. a few hands later there was a raise early pos to 1.2k small blind playing 4k flats?? i look down at
ship my stack original raiser tank folds, sb announces im sure you ahead but call, turns over KJ off flop J65 Turn... K river blank
few hands later im out.. But on a positive had time to spend with a load of regs on the rail, and the lovely Suzanne Hayward crushed the field to ship Title and GOLD!!! Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiii well done that girl so Deserved xxx
Congrats to Ireland for taking the team gold super effort from Steve, Rich, Tony, Alan and Dan for the Siver after a poor start the HU was a demolition job showed great character to come back to have a fighting chance, and well done Italy for the Bronze..
Sunday arrives and i am excited to get started in the ME get down to the club early have a bite to eat, then look at my table draw... ermmmmm lol intersting this is going to be a test!! FML table 35.. Antony Ross, Kevin O Hanlan (Kohan), Chen i open every pot and c bet Tam
, Dewi James and Grant Spiers..soft table huh
Was a pleasure to play at this table such a great bunch of guys! Chen is a machine that is all.. well i built a nice stack of 27k early doors after flopping a K high flush and getting 3 streets of value, half way through the day a young welsh lad sat to my left with a monster stack think his name was Dean something
. think he was going to do well i thought to myself a very very good player hope i dont lock horns with him too much i was thinking to myself ermmm. Ithink it was obvious he was going to run deep but i never knew it was written in the script the final outcome!!
Well i ended the day on 71k with 53 runners coming back for day 2, not bad i thought with a little luck i might be able to aim for a cash and prehaps a few more points for player of the series..
So day 2 is upon us and the roller coaster ride begins the first couple of levels we are already down 20 players!! then the bubble hits and boy its a long bubble.... i must add i have Suzanne Hayward at my table and i remember that she has 15 points secured for POS and remind not to bubble as 3 points for a cash and she would be in for a good shout to TID, i hope i didnt BOK her as she was unfortunate to be the bubble
, but i can hand on heart say she played a game that would put a lot of players to shame!! unreal heart was shown and she showed courage beyond belief shoving blind twice from SB it just wasnt to be, VWP i say.
So the bubble bursts and the fun really starts get up to around 110k courtesy of flopping quad
.. get down to two tables with a playable stack and Mr Yates sits down to my left sigh, but he has a short stack
ermm not for long
.
Sitiing with around 180k i think Brian about 70/80 ish Tony Trippier throws Brian a card guard with some gay looking fruit berry thingy lol, Tony pipes up " point it at who you want to bad beat" or words of that kind lol.. well all i can say is RIBENA!! obv it folds around to me in the SB i look down at AT happy days "all in " Brian looks down jumps up flips AA and obv it holds up WTF rigged.. lol nh
Then the killer hand ( or what i thought) 90k ish stack well below average short stack ships all in for 80 ish i look down at
re shove.. cards on back he has 44 we are off t races.. flop QQ4 oh poo im out im thinking as the board doesnt run AAor KK (RIGGED).. I text Emma to bring over the legs for wheelchair im going out, next hand i have 89 with my ante in i have 10k which i think was the Blind level lol so 1 BB obv throw it in Brian isolates with all in K rag flop a 8 and am up to 34k! two hands later i throw it in with TJ UTG and all hell breaks loose, flat call mid pos, Button flats and BB re shoves all in button thinks he is commited and calls so im looking a Quadruple up if i am lucky.. mid folds button calls cards on their backs button has 89 suited, BB has AJ i have TJ poo im sooooo dominated to AJ .. flop brings the T wiiiiiiiiiiii turn and river both bricks wowowowowowow im back in the saddle.. funny game huh..
Before i know it im on the FT i cant belive it and with a playable stack for once
.. The rest to be honest is all a bit of a blur but i had been informed from Matt that i needed a top 3 finish to secure POS could i pull it off??
Well after some key pots mainly from a nicely timed AK v AQ courtesy of Dean then the key pot versus Liam my button 88 raise versus his AQ and TT v AK i think it was winning both races before i knew it i was chip leader!! and i had secured POS and a bronze at least, felt like after everything that had gone before me i was on the biggest freeroll of my life..
Pat played a great game but was unlucky at the key time after the T on river crippled him earlier on he fell short of second and ended up a very well deserved third place a great acheivment and played very well.
So here i was HU versus some Welsh guy called Dean Mardon oh wait it was that same guy who impressed me so much on day one to be honest and i mean this as no disrespect to any of the other guys who sat at the FT but he was the last guy i wanted to play HU he was an amazing player!!
So i had him out chipped heads up and we kept about the same with no major clashes.. then on a small pot flop the board came 855 we managed to get it all in.. poop i thought he either has the 5 or an over pair im in trouble!! we flip over i have 87 he has 86 oh well its gonna be a chopped pot most of the time unless i get lucky with 7 or runner rags that doesnt pair 6.. Q on turn oh well chop it up i thought oh poop he has 4 to the flush diamonds no diamond please dealer umm river diamond poop im now short stack
.
Then the key hand i have 77 Dean raises i snap shove all in he uber snap calls and shows TT oh well i was thinking i cant complain i have had an amazing tourney and ridden my luck, then it happened after the flop bricked the turn brought the two outer 7!! no T river and again i was chip leader.. Dean looked gutted and i dont usually feel sorry for a player as it happens to me enough over the time, but then it dawned on me never has it happened to me in this circumstance and with this much riding on it, and i did feel bad for him..
Well i think it was destiny because a few hands later we got it all in when Dean flopped middle pair and i flopped a flush draw with overs and a inside straigth draw lots of outs, the dealer obliged with my over on the turn and just for good measure the flush on river.. wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Well it had happened i had only gone and won quite an amazing feeling, i have to give huge congrats to Dean who was an amazing player and i hope the silver medal and and the 4k+ is consolation at just falling short vwp sir.
So after that theres the small task of thanking a few people well i am going to try and start but i dont honestly think i will be able to thank you all enough so here goes..
1. The rail both at DTD and on the forum bloody hell i feel humbled with all the well wishes and funks you guys are seriusly the BEST you dont realise how much it helps!!
2. Warren those texts mate are priceless kept me going
3. Ian, Grant JP AND ALL of the other railers at DTD who helped Emmas stay so memorable big guggles next time she meets you.
4. Des, Matt, Tighty, Leigh and Genting etc for the added value and hard work gone into making the event such a great success.
5. DTD dealers and tournament Directors i hope the gratitude i left shows how much you hard work was appreciated especially the TD who helped me stack chips as my arms felt like they was falling off lol..
6. And a very big ty to Emma who puts up with having to sit around for hours upon hours listening to all us degens talking poker bad beats etc when the cold facts are she hates poker!! how lucky am i
love ya xx
So if there is any one who i have forgotten to thank and not mentioned above TY xx
Congrats to all those who managed to cash in the festival im sure i speak for you all when i say how much we appreciate the chance to play in these well run events APAT you rock.. well im off to polish my gold medal and edit my signature on profile and maybe find a joke to post on Facebook for Tightys pleasure, thanks again one and all ..Carl xx
