I"ll raise my glass to that!
Joining APAT was my first foray into bigger buy-in tournaments. It was never my intention to start playing them all the time but over time and meeting the people i"ve met through them they"ve become my favourite tournaments and when the schedule comes out I immediately start looking at which ones i can play.
For me APAT is all about the amateur player (hence the name!). Through APAT and through being in the BCPC i"ve been given the chance to play in both a UKIPT and a GUKPT. I couldn"t possibly afford to play in those any other way (although i did once spend my whole winnings from a tourney to play in a £500 deepstack but that was a one-off!). Therefore, playing the APAT events for me is a fantastic way to get to play in a 2 day deepstack for a reasonable buy-in.
I sometimes play other events where the buy-ins are higher but they are much more solitary affairs. Heading home from DTD having lost £100 playing in one of there events doesn"t come close to getting knocked out of an APAT event. One involves a long drive home thinking what I did wrong or what a bad beat i"ve just had. The other involves heading to the bar to see Ger, Scouse, Dan Owston, Paul McGuiness, Carl Lybert, Paul Pitchford, Jo Sharp, Debbie Kimm, Grant Speirs, JP Round, Jaxie, James Barber, the whole APAT crew, all the BCPC crew, the long suffering Mrs O etc etc etc etc etc etc and having a great night. That"s one thing the Sky Poker Tour and no other i"ve played at has got.
I"d love one day to be able to play all the time and have the dollar to afford to play the bigger events but until then i"ll keep on playing the APAT events as they"re a great way to get to play fantastically structured tourneys at a decent price, and more than that a fantastic way for amateur players to learn the game and to do so surrounded by some of the nicest people on the poker circuit, many of whom have become good friends. Had they been much more i doubt i"d have ever started playing them and that would be a big loss.
And besides, where else can you get to pay just £75 and get to play along such luminaries as Tony Trippier who won a bronze in the stud?!