An attempt at a new Blog.

[Scousebill]

What little I can recall of how I got involved with APAT is down to this next venue. I was playing on Blue Square or 888 and Googled one of the names on the site, not sure why but I did...

One of them came up with a mention on APAT so I joined... And within a few months I had won a ticket for some tournament in Manchester.

I can"t remember what the Tourney was called but it was my first ever live, actually it was my first ever live game. I had not even played face to face against anybody.. I had played online for about 3 maybe 4 years at the time.

I would say 7 maybe even 8 years I am going back to where my APAT venture started...

Manchester............. Mad For It.....................APAT

[Des]

Best of luck with your blog Bill.  Look forward to catching up in Manchester.

[Scousebill]

The weekend is getting closer on the horizon now.
Friday could end up a bit messy as I am meeting up with "The Tom Clarke Birthday Gang" at some point in the evening.
Not sure if the plan is just to get heavily drunk or if any poker will be involved on the Friday, see what happens anyway.
It wasn"t until Mark Saunders mentioned about defending his European Title that I realised it was the European that I finished second to him at Coventry last season. Different venue this time but I will be trying very hard to initially get some POTY points on the board as I do not have any, after being lucky enough to win POTY last season.

Did one of those Both Teams to Score tonight, 4 selections and the 4 teams won but only one, Man City conceded. Not as easy as it looks so just as well I only spent £6.

[Scousebill]

[Scousebill]

What a weekend that was.

Before I start to read how it was for others I will put what I can remember into words.

The weekend didn"t get off to the best of starts as I turned up a bit late at the Red Hot Buffet and the others had already started, some even on their second plate. Food was good, company was good and the unfortunate incident with Adam Sharples getting soaked by the waiter with two pints of beer didn"t dampen the night. A few pints in the Wetherspoons then off to the Casino. No poker played but plenty of bottles of Punk IPA drunk. Headed back to the Travelodge at about 3am.

Poker, like football, as Jimmy Greaves once said "It"s a funny old game"...

APAT European Championship started and I"m at the table with a seat supposed to be occupied Liam Alcock, but when does he ever sit down early in a tournament. Recognised a few APAT and LPPL faces and then I get moved. Sit down at a table that had 4 or 5 Grosvenor regulars, one who was non-stop talking who won his seat in the club on Friday night. Didn"t get much in the way of cards, managed to pinch the blinds once or twice and took a nice small stack of chips representing a flush when I had a pair of tens. The cards were horrible, but it was nice to see that none of the folded cards landed on the flop so it wasn"t the "Only if I kept them" type of day.
Midway through Level 3 I get KK. Ends up with me and the Talking Man. I raise to 1500 he reraised to 6000 and I called. I was going to shove but decided to see a flop. Board is 10 10 ? and he ends up all-in and I called. Aces he has and I am down to 1525 chips with 15 minutes to go until the break. Somehow I manage to make it to the break with a double up and have about 2-3K.
What happened after the break was crazy. Within about 15 hands I had doubled up maybe three times, lost a few chips when folding after a reraise and won a treble up which at one point I had about 50K. Nothing much else happens as the cards are still useless most of the time. Get a few chips now and again but just keep putting blinds in the middle with no return. Then Tom Clarke sits down to my right. Tom loses a few hands to others then we both end up against each other. I learnt something about this hand though. Play the cards and not what you think the person is trying to do.
I raised about 6400 and Tom shoved, maybe 30K.. I thought Tom was just shoving because he knew I would need a big hand to make the call. I had A7 hearts and for some reason thought that was good and called. His AK smashed me. I stood up, shook his hand and was on my way... Dealer calls me back as I still 3100 chips left. Start all over again.
First hand a blind all-in gets folds all round. Second hand, blind all-in gets a call and I manage to pair a Q to double up. Third hand I look at then fold. Fourth hand I was going to shove blind again, but decide to look and see 99 so shoves anyway and get another double up.
Then something odd happened. I shoved with whatever and big chips to my left calls. Folds around to the bloke on my left and he makes a raise. Big Chips asks why is he betting into a blank pot, why not just call, or even bet at all. Big chips calls the excess.  Cards come over and I end up trebling up with a flush or something but I missed what has happened really as Big Chips starts tearing into the bloke on my left... Tom comes back from wherever he has been and is puzzled to where I have got about 18K of chips from...
Nothing much else happened in the way of getting good cards, the rest of the night basically involved me folding nearly every hand. Won a few chips once or twice but managed to still be in at the end of the day when they announce last 6 hands. Second to last hand I get KK... Do I fold or not.. I shove but don"t get any callers.. Amazingly I make day 2 with 30700 chips.
Day Two... Nothing... Blinds and antes are killing me... On the feature table by now, Shove, Rodders calls me, I double up. Dwindling stack again and an Ace on the flop keeps me alive. Then A3 hearts looks brilliant to me so in they go. They never came back as my ex-mate Craig Dawson had 77.
It has been the two hardest days of poker I think I have ever played. Enjoyed it so much I can"t wait until Newcastle.
Thanks to Brian Yates cashing I won the BCPC last longer for £60. Not much, but it is better than not winning it.
Well done to the APAT Crew who put these events on for us and well done to all who finished 19th onwards and the 15 who have or will cash. I never dreamt I would be sitting at any table today after only just making the first break but to get as high as 20th was a pleasure.
Now to read the reports...

[AAroddersAA]

Well played Bill. Look forward to this blog too, will be following with interest.

[Scousebill]

After such a mammoth post recently seems unreal that I don"t have to write about lately...
Played some of Party Poker sats for the Stadium tour thing but failed abysmally... Will grind and build again with the tokens and maybe do a late night $22 purge again with 2 seats gtd and only 7-8 players.
Friday night and forgot about BBC4 music nights... Sitting here listening to Jesus and Mary Chain, KLF, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and the amazing delights of The Cocteau Twins....
Wow.... A bloody massive explosion has just gone off outside my house..... Industrial fireworks...!!!!
Didn"t get a sat for Sundays European Online and likely to be on the pop all day Saturday so not worth trying again...
Busy day in work so more than a bottle of wine drunk tonight... For those of you that don"t know what I do for a living then you still don"t... Tell you in a week or so if this blog continues....
Oh yes..... Half Man half Biscuit... Trumpton Riots
Goodnight All............

[Zozzy]

Then A3 hearts looks brilliant to me so in they go. They never came back as my ex-mate Craig Dawson had 77.

We can still be friends Bill  

Good luck with the blog.

But if you aren"t going to tell us what you do for a job then screw you !

[Scousebill]

Wow.....

Just got back from Wakefield doing a week of Union Learning Training....
I took the laptop with me so I could play a bit of poker but that was a waste of time...
Getting back to my room each night at turned 4am logging on was a chore never mind actually playing. Just as well that the wi-fi was free...

Newcastle may well be on the cards, but unfortunately dreams of being in the team event are fading far quicker than this mammoth hangover I have. Would of loved to have even put my name down to say "Available, if selected" but sadly, chosen or not, I am not available.

Just watching the English batsmen start to collapse after Cook has gone....

[Scousebill]

Not much poker played lately because of the weeks training and then when I get home a bit of excessive drinking then the weekend the house just always seemed to be full of Billie"s mates.
Watched a bit of the Rugby World Cup, how unlucky were Scotland..?
Went for a pint on Sunday afternoon and decided to put £20 on Newcastle to win BTTS and to my surprise it came in quite easily in the end. 4/1 not bad for a home team to win. Have a look at some of the games during the week for another good value bet.
Back to work today and back to online poker tonight.
Trying to get a few of those players choice tokens from PartyPoker to play at one of the football grounds..

[nosey-p]

Bet365 doing the £50 in-play free bet plus Ladbrokes doing the same just £25 but if you know what you are doing you can guarantee yourself money  

[Scousebill]

Just signed in for the APAT Irish....
Made the break with out much drama.... Good small pot with me holding a low card for the flush..
Just lost with   v v Tom Brady.... Raised to 3k I think it was and Tom called... Flop came 2 pair for Tom... Lost a bit but he did think I would bet heavy when he checked...

Didn"t really get a hand all night.... Difficult game this time....18th....

[Scousebill]

Not much poker played, if any at all this week. Makes a blog a bit boring on a poker site when there is no poker being played. What did happen though is I watched the two programmes called "Class of "92, the Salford City FC Story".... Being a Liverpool fan the first part of the title did not appeal to me but being a follower of all things football the second part did.
How good both of those shows were and it does show the United players in a good light. So, Salford City are playing Notts County in the first round of the FA Cup on Friday night. Looking for some value here. Last year in the same round and on TV I had a bet on Warrington Town to beat Exeter City @9/1 and to win 1-0 @ 20/1. Warrington won 1-0 so a nice little return of £205 for £15. Well this year I did Salford City to win 2-0 @ 40/1 with a fiver on it. Got the same £205 return but with £10 less outlay. I wish getting £200 at poker was just as easy.
I have two $550 tickets for DTD and will be looking for January to maybe take a trip down to Nottingham to use them in a £330 tournament or a £550 one  with the change for a nights digs and beer tokens... Any clues on what"s available...?

Thanks for reading anyway...  

[Scousebill]

Again not much to write home about poker wise. I won one of the APAT Thursday Sats so I now have two tickets. Still trying to get to Newcastle but it is not looking too good at the moment.
*****STOP PRESS*****STOP PRESS*****STOP PRESS*****
I have just heard Lynne say on the phone "That big **** has won a ticket for Newcastle this weekend, looks like he will be going there on his own and I will not be driving to Nottingham as our Billie doesn"t want to go"...... Looking Good....
Things are very odd on the gambling front though...
Since that Salford wing I have done a few bets with some very unusually good luck.
Phil Taylor when he was 4-1 down to Terry Jenkins I bet £5 on him to win 10-6 @ 15/2 and won £42.50
Next match I did Barney to beat James Wade 10-7 @ 12/1.... Wade missed 6 darts I think to make it 9-8 but Barney stepped up to make it 10-7 winning me another £60.
Few days later I did ROI to beat Bosnia in a £5 double with Northwich Vics to beat Boreham Wood in a FA Cup replay. Ireland won comfortably in the end 2-0 and Vis where 2-0 up when that match finished. Wood got a late consolation goal but again I won £70 this time...
It hasn"t all been about winning but I think I have lost about £180 - £200 on stupid bets so until the weekend I was still showing a monthly profit of just around £255...
Saturday...
Looked at a few bets and went against doing Liverpool to win @4/1
Done a few Win BTTS bets and lost a few pound on that
Liverpool to win BTTS @ 7/1 for some reason I ignored.
Don"t ask me why but I stuck £5 on Liverpool to win 4-1 but I did...
At odds of 90/1 on Corals I was so happy to hear that final whistle after Skrtel had scored that rocket.
Just as well that Citeh and especially Sterling were not firing on all cylinders, but so what... £450 in my pocket..

Poker.... Maybe I might just carry on doing mad bets, it"s far easier than grinding..

[Scousebill]

Newcastle was a lot like the weather that weekend..... A horrendous experience....
As you already know the game started late so that kept me in a bit longer technically...
Met a few of the old faces, not as many as usual may I say but also met a few new ones... Mark Lassman, Tom Clarke and his mate whose names escapes me, Big Dekka, Izzy and a few others... Steve from LPPL and the bloke who won his seat on Thursday called Wibblewobble or something...
The game starts off fine... A few too many people involved in hands initially but as the table went on it looked like everybody at some point was getting a good hand beaten by a better one. That is before the river bandits started winning that is..
I lost a far bit of my chips early on with KK v AA... Can"t remember the flop but it paired anyway. The bet I did was called as I think he thought that I had trips. A raise was called on 4th but it was checked on the flop. He flipped AA reluctantly, thinking I was going to show the trips then he sighed when I folded face down.
I had a few small wins then won a nice pot off a bloke who was losing some close hands. This time I had a straight flush draw against as it turns out two pair. On 4th I had a high pair but raised 2K, was called and the Ace on the river gave me the flush. A 3K bet was called and he turned over saying, "You have the flush don"t you"
Then after that it went rapidly down hill...
We saw flushes beaten by Full houses. Two pairs beaten by Trips. Some strange calls with nothing but the river winning it for them then off I went. Flush beaten by a flopped Full House. The annoying thing is that the FH was with four in.
I had   and went 500 I think, a caller, then a raise to 1K then another to 2K....
I called the 2K then the other two folded.
Flop    . I was sort of happy. This is then were my brain doesn"t slowdown and think as it should.
He shoves, leaving me with All-in to call....
I sit and think for a minute or so, I said fold to myself several times but then called.
I know now it should of been an instant fold because of what happened. I also know that I will fold in the future.
The cards came over and he only had   .
I heard someone say "You raised with that" My thoughts exactly.... Again I shouldn"t of called really... OUT before the first break, disaster....

I didn"t hang around, said my goodbyes and within 40 minutes I was back on the road to Liverpool....

Sort of enjoyed it but nevermind....