Tikay and I drove up to Newcastle at 3am on Saturday morning, having decided that the best thing to do Friday night was play the crazy £20 Pot Limit comp at Nottingham and “drive up when we get knocked out.” Unfortunately, I'd held on 'till the totally profitless position of fifteenth, resulting in both of us having about three hours' sleep on which to update the rebuy-fest' which was the Charity event held at Gosforth Civic Center. So, as far as Friday was concerned, we tired blondes had to content ourselves with Julian's phenomenal rise from tiny stack to second place. That's how it's done.
We eventually managed to find the place (only three circuits of roundabout necessary) and discovered a throng of people around the bar and a large room wherein T.D. Mel Lofthouse and Eugene Cummins had already laid out the battleground. 14 tables, starting stacks of 500 chips and all the usual paraphernalia were all in order by the time the draw was announced. Openly rigged, if you paid a fiver you could take on At-it, Fugu, Joe Beevers, Carlo Citrone or Ram Vaswani, to name but a few. People were hesitant, but this didn't stop a few crazy tables from being formed. It was obvious which ones those were; Eugene told me he just stood next to them with a box of chips.
With the ability to rebuy straight away, and half the prize pool going to the worthy cause of disadvantaged children, players attacked the rebuys with a vengeance. Before I come to the eventual ‘rebuy winner,' it must be said that Tikay's table (sporting Ian Bradley, Jonathan Rabb and James ‘Royal flush' Dempsey) might have thought they were in the running, with Ian going nuts right from the word go and plenty of response for David Newth's frequent cries of, “Who wants to see X raise the next hand blind?” But nothing matched Robert HM's table where Joe Beevers re bought like there was no tomorrow, amassing nine within the first quarter of an hour. When he went to the bar, he apparently left a stack of money on the table and just told the others “I'm all-in every hand.”
This continued for the first two 45-minute levels, by the end of which it occurred to Mel that the sheer number of chips in play might necessitate a reduction to 20 minutes fairly shortly. There wasn't too much complaining; after all, it was for charity. For charity and a share of the £5,745 which was the prize pool half of the money. And for one of several cut glass trophies which came with a special extra prize of a Fray Bentos pie.
So with all to play for, and in between a few short breaks for an auction of poker books and a raffle (in which I won myself a dangerously large bottle of Martini) the players entered the freezeout stage full of beer and charitable goodwill. Robert HM fell fairly soon to Joe Beevers' flopped two pair, but this leads on to Joe's true achievement – the unprecedented 63 rebuys he'd managed to clock up. Congratulations.
Tikay got himself all but knocked out in an unlucky hand by Pete Steele whose all-in with pocket nines was called by Tikay with JJ but even though the 8 9 10 flop left him some tempting outs, they were not to come and he was knocked out soon after. Elsewhere the blonde effort was supported by Keith ‘The Camel' Hawkins who put up a good fight but exited from one of the last three tables. James Dempsey played like a nutter all day and eventually found himself all-in under the gun with 10 2 (“suited!”) and the 66 which called him ended his extraordinary up-and-down run.
The blondeite doing the best at the time was Ian ‘At-It' Bradley, and it was no surprise that he made the final in decent chip shape. It was hardly more surprising that he went on the attack, knocking out at least three of the final ten and suddenly looked in a position to win the thing. And all the time he was having to hear himself referred to over the mic' as “the man with a girl's car.” Not to be fazed, as Paul Reast, Carl Jackson and Pete Steele fell, he continued his aggressive calling policy with great success. Peter Katz fell in seventh finding himself against a bigger pair, followed by Dave Rose – this tournament had actually been his first live event. A trophy and a pie, and £375, not a bad result.
Ian then knocked out M. Bramall calling his all-in with KK, which picked up an unnecessary full house to beat the suited Q 10. Soon thereafter Ian knocked out VC's Andy Horne in fifth and there was no stopping him from there. Doig Rudling, and Mark Scope were the only players left between Ian and victory, and after Doig moved all-in with an ill-fated 9 2, the tournament was decided when Mark's Q8suited was beaten by Ian's Q9suited. The remaining blondeite was the champion, getting a slightly bigger trophy and a silver shield on an even bigger one.
We eventually left the Civic Center at around midnight, thoroughly knackered but pleased that the day had gone so well. People had all entered into the spirit, bidding for things and buying raffle tickets and it was great to see single table tournaments pop up as people busted out of the event. Tikay played in one of those, but the less said about that the better.
People had come from far and wide to support Poker 4 Charity and enjoy a good game, including Karen West from Cornwall who took the Highest-placed Female trophy, and Steve Meehan, who may or may not have had to work for Poker 425 at the same time as playing the tourney. Final table finishers got their moment On Camera with the immaculately-dressed Rhowena who stayed cheerful despite the length of the day. Ian, getting into his girl's car, looked pleased to have secured first place, as one might expect. And just think, most of them intended to come back the next day and give the pot limit one a go. Congratulations to the winners and the other ninety-odd players who made the day a success.