As most of you are aware by now, the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour has really taken off, and I for one have been hypnotised by the structure offered and the prize money we can play for.I suppose that qualifying for the first Bolton event for £50 (no re-buys or add on) did not help - from the moment I played in Bolton I was hooked and being taken out by John Gale just before the end of level 2 just added to the magic of that night. Dewi cool eliminated by a WSOP bracelet holder, I don’t care about being knocked out, this is my claim to fame.
I was devastated that I never made Walsall, to the extent that prior to the Cardiff event, I attempted weeks of satellites. Realising that I only had the Sunday online satellite left to get me seat, I decided to travel to Cardiff to play a £200 main event satellite.
Even though I live in Wales, getting to Cardiff is not as easy as you might think! The A470 is a 180-mile long road and takes me four and a half hours to get there. On top of that, I need a Hotel and whilst the Future Inn is handy, it means another £75 leaves my bank account. Considering the two days holiday I had to take (my last two as it happens), this poker lark’s not cheap, is it?
I arrive at the casino to a warm welcome, as always down there, and meet up with Cash, Jac and all the lads. 44 entries mean that there are 8 seats to play for and a further £800 for ninth. Keeping in mind that my live experiences are limited to about 6 tourneys, and not very positive outcomes of that, things are not looking good. In truth, my main problem with things like this is that the Guinness seems to take over proceedings and I must confess to consuming my fair share of the dark stuff that night.
With 30 left, I was doing all right, but moved table to join a young (well, young compared to me) Roberto Romanello who was slightly short-stacked. In my opinion, he plays a tremendous game of poker, folding hands pre-flop that I could never lay down in a million years, but at the same time planting tiny droplets of information into peoples’ minds in order to prepare them for his next steal – Roberto laying down a medium pocket pair when he has nothing in the pot is a good investment for later on when he steals a big pot with 7-2 off.2am and 16 pints later, there are around 15 players left. At this point, I decided to push all-in from the small blind with the mighty 4-7 to nick Ed Arees’s big blind, but Ed woke up to find a pair of jacks in front of him. A straight on the board and I’ve done him over, but, as ever, Ed is a gentleman in defeat even though he had played for six hours only to endure a really nasty bad beat.
Not long after, Roberto is still short stacked and still playing mind games, but running the table with his constant chatter - there is no doubt he has the respect of he table. I am still comfortable in terms of chips and alcohol and we are down to 11 when the inevitable happens… The Guinness, the travelling, and the 6 hours of playing poker finally take their toll and I make my first mistake of the night.
I am in the big blind and find A-Q and there is an all-in from middle position for about 70% of my stack. This player had been playing tight aggressive poker all night and has always shown the goods come the showdown, but, for some reason, I knew he was weak and felt I could take him out to more or less ensure my seat in the main event, so I called. On their backs, he had K-T vs. my A-Q and, at the time, I thought great play, until of course the inevitable ten hit the flop. Thinking back, it was a very bad call. Soon after, I pushed with any two cards and was gone.Roberto, even though he was short stacked throughout, qualified, and based on his performance in Day 1A in the main GUKPT event, showed that he is more than worthy of his third place finish.
Now I am sure some of you will say that the money spent on my visit to Cardiff was not + EV in terms of the travelling, buy-in, hotel and days off work, and you would be right, if it were not from what I learned from Roberto that night - that was truly PRICELESS.