blonde poker

The Grosvenor Casino Cardiff hosted their first festival event this weekend, and 105 players turned up for the £500 double chance no-limit freezeout. There were more familiar faces there than just the usual tournament hoppers, too – quite a few staff from Luton were in Wales for the occasion, and Director Helen (‘barflies' on blonde) was on hand to ensure the smooth running of the event. Snoopy and I got a kind of podium right next to where the tournament tables were set up, and from our raised vantage point had a pretty good overview of the whole room, and players like Carlo Citrone, El Blondie, Lawrence Gosney, Burnley John, and Julian Thew. We all know which one of those is Welsh, but being Cardiff and all there was some stiff competition from the Welsh, including Iwan Jones and Jeff Burke, Martin Cavanagh and a certain Edward Aris. More on him later.

105 runners sounds like a very manageable number of players to keep an eye on, and indeed it was, especially as the double chance format and 45 minute levels kept everyone in the same place for at least an hour or so. Apart from Barry Neville, whom we think had the dubious honour of being first out during the early stages. But for every early exit there's an early double up, like that of Paul King whose Queens gave him a head start; his run was ended abruptly, however, when his Aces were cracked by Tens in one of those four-flush moments. He approached our corner with a grin and that old favourite, “Anyone want to hear a bad beat?” Also, it must be said, for every dramatic up and down, there's someone like Tikay stealing some pots here and there with a 10 3 suited. We hung around his table when he became short-stacked around dinner but he proved remarkably tenacious, with Lawrence Gosney, Iwan Jones, DC and Burnley John all being eliminated before his last chips made it in the middle.

Jumping back in time briefly, after two levels we were left with a better idea of the leaders and trailers, and it was Joe Grech who had raced ahead, ducking and diving in a manner which Tikay said was great fun to watch, especially combined with table-mate Lawrence Gosney and a couple of others helping to generate action. Something about a 3 5 offsuit was mentioned. Tikay himself was on Joe's left, and that table soon filled with blondeites – Adrian Swingler, Chili and Red-Dog among them at different times. Adrian (Mole) had a pretty good night, knocking out Carlo with an Ace-high flush (the Ace alone actually winning when the money went in on a raggy flop) and going on to finish the day third in chips.

Chili Pepper (Maria Demetriou) had come along on a fish-free night, was there right in front of us, and suddenly almost not there, after a disastrous early straight vs. better straight left her with just 3,000 out of a potential 10,000. As ever with those pesky double chances, it was tough to gauge early on who had had a good start and who had just taken their second lot of chips, unless we just asked them. Chili wasn't shy about telling us, though, nor was she disheartened by being one of the short stacks all the way through the first six hours of play. Far from it, she held on with determination and was even responsible (much later) for reducing Tikay to 100 chips after his move with Sevens found her with the AA…

If Dave Colclough was sporting a brand new blonde shirt with ‘El Blondie 99' on the back, Tikay was bringing out the bling with a kind of gold (effect?) chain and bracelet which made him look a bit like a gangster. The eventual winner's dad later called him “The Godfather of poker,” although Chili heard “Grandfather.” Quite apart from those two, it became apparent that we'd have our work cut out for us following the blondeites as a sizeable handful were still in (and prospering) as the evening went on. Red-Dog, although appearing to take few risks, underplayed his efforts, saying “it's easier with a short stack.” He made a crucial call with AJ on an Ace-high flop after one of several limpers put him to the test for all his chips, and was vindicated (and boosted to 35k) when he saw Queens against him. Elsewhere there were a few close calls for Paul ‘M3Boy' Garnham, but he, along with Ian Woodley made it through the dinner break (or should I say, midnight snack).

The end of Day One saw the rise and rise of Julian Thew. One minute he had a big stack of greens (25s) and a level on there were big stacks of all denominations. He had a couple of fortunate turns (and rivers) later on, but it all really started when he eliminated Ronnie ‘de Bollox' calling a raise with JQ and finding both a flop of 8 9 10 and Ronnie with Aces. He never looked back and finished the day chip leader, 20k clear of anyone else. Hugging the middle of the field, and not previously mentioned were also Edward Aris, Charlie Tsolakides, Matt Tyler, David Gent, Brian Rees, and two Smolinskis, who were sat next to each other and turned out to be father and son.

When play finally ended at half three in the morning, there was a rapid dispersal of players who were looking a little tired (as could be expected) but Snoopy and I managed a tea (or beer) flavoured nightcap in our hotel conveniently located across the car park. With us were Julian and Red-Dog who both looked like they might need a rest, but it's always nice to unwind a bit after one of those long poker-filled nights, and how better to do it than in the company of Chili, M3Boy and Tikay, who were all rooting for them to come back and win some money in the morning.

My morning came around 3pm and the final a few minutes later. A struggle with the wireless (buying ‘vouchers' feels a bit like paying for air) ended in our favour and we were just in time to catch the first eliminations. Very quickly the chips headed, as if by gravitational pull alone, towards Julian, starting with A. Davies' – his pocket 8s played Julian's AQ after some preflop raising, and although there was no help on the flop, the rest went in and the rivered Queen confirmed the chip lead was with YoYo.

James Akenhead (not local but apparently just having “a few days off,” and what better way to spend it than in Cardiff playing poker) went on a bit of a rush early on, winning four hands in a row – two early position raises uncontested, followed by a re-steal (probably) off Adrian Swingler from the big blind, followed by another blind. It's probably worth mentioning that the blinds alone made up 4,500 per go now, and in fact there was quite a bit of pressure on the vast majority of players at this stage. Players such as Martin Cavanagh and David Gent were on around 35k and while David went out a little later, Martin took out a handful of players on the way to the final.

The chip disparity grew even greater – the moment that sums it up best is when they were down to two tables and the big blind (Julian) had to move to balance them. He brought with him more than the entire other table had put together, in two racks and a handful. It looked like people wished he'd stayed where he was. Most people left now made the money, (places 18 to 10 paid £500), like Adrian, Simon Ness and the Smolinskis elder and younger. The latter suffered at the hands of Red-Dog's Qd 10c – his red AQ were no match for an all-club board and that propelled Tom all the way to the final, most of the way through it in fact. Joe Grech took a couple of dents to his stack from James Akenhead and Julian, but the bubble was Lee Walker, whose AK was well behind Julian's A4. Well, not when the board came out 5 6 7 6 8, at any rate. This meant that he had nearly 400,000 going into the final nine, with James Akenhead in second with 130k, Joe Grech, Brian Rees and Charlie Tsolakides around 100k and the others (Matt Tyler, Martin Cavanagh, Edward Aris and Red-Dog) with about half that again.

Unsurprisingly, there was a fair bit of action at the beginning, with a double for the Dog from the chip leader, and 9 th place for Matt Tyler. The prize for tough luck is definitely B4Matt's who qualified on Blue Square and played solidly through both days, surviving a KK vs AA loss which almost busted him earlier, only for exactly the same thing to happen on the final table. But he was supported throughout by ‘the nun' online and we were wholly won over by his upbeat attitude. Brian Rees followed him in 8 th as his A4 found Julian with pocket Sevens. 7 th went to early leader Joe Grech, as Charlie T's KK found him with 99. The same hand (pocket nines) took a chunk out of James Akenhead's stack, at the same time doubling up a rather fortunate Martin Cavanagh's A7, leaving him to finish in 6 th place.

The flatness of the payout structure at the bottom meant that there was only £900 separating these players – it was at the top that the money made a huge jump, more than doubling from second to first. So they were all trying to make some kind of inroad into the huge chip lead that Julian still possessed (he was on 600k at this point, having more than half the chips in play). Martin was the first to try it with with 44, which were unsuccessful against Julian's QQ and he exited in 5 th for £2,880. It was relatively quiet local Edward Aris who accumulated the chips during this period, firstly in a very fortunate hand against James Akenhead, where his two pair was saved from James' trips (AQ vs QQ on an A Q x board) by the Ace appearing on the turn, and then taking most of Charlie Tsolakides' stack with 99 vs. A7. So Charlie T finished 4 th (£4,080) and cries of “WOOF” came thick and fast as the quiet competitiveness of Red-Dog had got him what turned out to be third spot, and £6,000.

So with blonde already delighted, there only remained the heads up battle between Julian Thew and Edward Aris. The gap between them was shortened, and then became almost nothing, then first Edward, then Julian took turns doubling up. Such is the nature of no-limit hold'em: a two pair for Ed on a raggy flop with Julian holding top pair was the big turning point in the battle. It was decided when Edward got the remaining chips in when he had a straight, and to the delight of the Welsh crowd, their lad took the top spot and £19,200, giving Julian what seemed like an anticlimactic 2 nd . Still, there was £9,600 for him and a curious glass decanter trophy, minus the glasses which were surely the pride of the Champion.

It must be mentioned that Rhowena and gang were there and the TV cameras rolling off and on through the second day, and those fortunate enough to make the final also got their moment of televised glory (Red-Dog reminded us casually that this wasn't his first time…). It was the early side of midnight when everyone wrapped up for the day though, and seeing as we weren't used to having such an early night, we hung around for a while until the drivers decided to make a bid for the border and I settled in to wait for the train. The year has gotten off to a flying start for the blondeites, and that must be a good omen for the busy months ahead.