blonde poker forum

This is was the first live event I had ever played and was extremely nervous about how I would perform; the entry was a gift from my wife for my birthday later this week which made it extra special.  I have been playing online for about three years now with some deal of success after initial failure. Probably familiar story to most of you started watching late night poker and then WPT and got into the online game. Initially played horribly but learned from forums and website about ways to improve my game worked on it and eventually the results improved to acceptable although sadly not to a spectacular level.

I started to converse with Bain on the poker player magazine forum and we agreed to meet at the event, if I could locate the guy with a beard to make ZZ TOP weep with shame. Needless to say it wasn’t too hard and also got to meet the lovely Helen and the rest of the blonde crew. What a great bunch they where and made me and my wife Karen feel immediately at ease in what are quite unfamiliar circumstances for us ‘fish’.  It was a pleasure to meet John, Glenn, Brendan and Ironside. And the race to get to the hotel and check in against the ranged forces of broken parking equipment and the legendary Hagley road traffic helped take my mind of the upcoming tournament.

I was seated on the same table as Glenn and seeing a familiar face helped me relax a great deal, I was fortunate enough to be dealt absolute rubbish for the first 20 or so hands which helped me settle in as I routinely passed hand after hand. Glenn was not so lucky, in a game of decisions there are some unavoidably difficult choices to be made and although his decisions did not work out I can’t fault his play at any point. I was just grateful I was not confronted with those same decisions (I’d have bust with the tens, no doubt chap).   

I had decided to play mega tight as all I was really looking for out of the tournament was some experience and to enjoy the occasion. Although this meant folding pocket three’s from EP which would have tripped on the flop and made quads on the turn with plenty of action  (Apologies to Dave Woods, the poker player editor was confronted with some gibbering loony he had never meet before on the first break muttering something about quads) I managed to stay out of trouble. My table was extremely aggressive and limping was met with big SB and BB raises.  The first hand I played was AK from early position standard raise three callers King on the flop but all diamonds, I bet out got  but was re-raised by a solid player. I was fairly sure I had the ace of diamonds but did not want to check and give the game up. I re-raised and he passed and showed me tens. I peeked after he folded it was the ace of diamonds; first lesson learned remember the suits when making raises with big cards (so much easier on the net!). Ended level 2 12K in chips.

 Next big hand I played was KK to a committed small stack raiser, He turned over A 10 and the king’s held for a 10K pot. I finished level 3 on 17K chips, my raises where getting respect and I felt comfortable with the table dynamic. I was surprised how quickly I picked up the live actions and this was greatly helped by the superb dealers at the magnificent Broadway casino. Then my table broke and I had to adapt to a new table which was quite difficult, I did not have a strong and solid table image to help me and was dealt nothing for two hours. I managed to steal a few blinds near the end of the evening with late positions pushes and learned just how much more difficult it is to steal with trash in the live game compared to online.   I was one of the small stacks going into day two and was praying for a pair first up as I was on the BB, I got my wish pocket fives but to an all in a call and A re-raise  decided that this was a pass, They turned over pockets 4’s 7’s and 8’s respectively so an easy pass was confirmed. I got ‘shirted’ (all players where given a poker stars shirt on exit) a few hands later when extremely short stacked I pushed with K 10 in an un-raised pot only to be called in LP by pocket jack's, another jack on the flop the flop negated the king that also fell and a king on the river was just mocking!  Can’t complain I had to move and he had to call, that’s poker.

My first live event was fantastic and for this I would like to thank the APAT team, Des, Tony and Mel (sorry I never got to meet the big guy) and the staff and dealers of the Broadway casino. You all did a marvelous job and I implore anyone who would like to try live play to try an APAT event. All the players where friendly and every exit was greeted by a round of applause from the whole field. 

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Glad you enjoyed the event. Thats how poker should be.

 :hello: & ;welcome;

Enjoy the madhouse!! ;)

 :hello:  great first post!  hope you stick around!

very nice post indeed

 :hello: ;welcome; :goodpost:

Good trip report. Hopefully I'll get to meet you in the next round. I was on the reserve list for this one sadly. What are the facilities like at the Broadway? I believe it's quite a new casino, and only been open a couple of years.

Hi Kevin, was great to meet you both yesterday, and well done on making it through the first day. I'm just sorry I couldn't play with you a little longer, that hand with the 10's destroyed me and I think I could have saved myself chips had I not re-raised on the flop,maybe I could have laid it down, but thats poker! I had a great day and night and look forward to meeting you all again soon. The APAT concept is fantastic and I'm sure it will go from strength to strength.

Lets hope Ironside takes it down - he even refused a beer in favour of a hot chocolate back at the hotel, that was a real shock! I have read that Brendan is out but he went deep - well done mate.

Being the first blond out I was consigned to the bar in my official capacity as "First Out buys the beers" which I feel I enjoyed more and more as the day went on... something to do with Kronenburg I expect :D

Bainn , harmnony, Iron, Brendan, Jon, Tikay and all APAT team thanks for a great weekend. See you again.

Glenn   

 

   

 ;welcome;

Nice report mate  :)up

Great report mate and welcome to Blonde :)

Hi mate, welcome to blonde

I was the "big guy" from yesterday and no, we didn't get to meet properly! (I was running around all over the shop!)

Glad you enjoyed the comp and hope to see you soon. Its been an excellent weekend

Thanks for the warm welcome, Glad to have arrived. I also posted on poker player magazine forum as well thats not breaking some forum etiquette is it?

no no, post wherever you like!

hope you like what you see here as you look around!

Just to add my thanks to everyone  involved for a most enjoyable and well organised tournament, played out in exactly the right spirit. Looking forward to the announcement about the next one.

Great first post!

Wonderful report but I dont understand this bit:

Hope the advice helped Kev ;applause;

thanks to all for a super 2 day event....i finished 2nd after limpin in with 5/6 clubs, Dan called with j/2. The flop came 8,2,2... both checked then came a 6 giving me 2 pair, i pushed 200k in, Dan wnet all in i called, he showed trip 2's... Good game. Heads up only lasted 2 hands...sweet!!!

cheers all


Mark

well played Mark and welcome to blonde. Gutsy performance today.

Certainly was Dik, enjoying the event and making day two where my main objectives and accomplished both. Also what you said about the Broadway staff was spot on, they are a tremendous team.

Hey Mark welcome to blonde mate... great showing :) Dunno if you remember earlier on after I spotted that straight that we would be heads-up at the FT... wasn't far off lol

also well done to scottm who came 4th. !!!

oops missed the other thread for this, sorry to hyjack thread.  :blonde:

Nice report Kevin, It was nice to meet you and Karen over the weekend, I think the group of us that formed, early on Saturday lunchtime, all enjoyed ourselves,  except poor Bainn, who was really annoyed by his early exit... these things happen M8 don't take it to heart.

On reflection what the APAT seems to prove is that in poker, so many people come from all walks of life and get together to enjoy a game they have interest in, and can compete on a level  playing field.

Even though there is prize money involved, competitors,can share  time together as we did ,over drinks, lunch, ( All day two players and there friends were invited to a Chinese buffet on sundaycompliments of APAT) and buffets provided by the broadway, on both sat and sunday evening.

All this goes to prove that far from the degenerate lowlife bunch of layabouts some people class us poker players to be, the APAT seems to prove that this to be pure twaddle.

Thanks Brendan it was a pleasure to meet you too, you are a scholar and a gentleman (and one hell of a card player as well!). I can’t praise the APAT staff and members highly enough, as you mention there was significant prize money at stake but I don’t remember it being mentioned by a fellow competitor once. I think I can say without fear of contradiction pretty much everybody was there to play the game they love and have a good time.

KVNSTV, Teditu, Dougal, welcome to blonde, glad you had a fun weekend, thanks also to Suited Jock, (so unlucky) EricStoner (ditto) & BigFella for your comments.

Yoi have no idea how much this positive feedback means to all at APAT, but especially to me. We've been subject to a barrage of negativity for APAT's efforts, (mainly from non-Members) so it was a sweet, sweet weekend to see eveyone - everyone - enter into the spirit so perfectly, & exactly as we envisaged.

Many new friendships were forged, we've got new friends from all over the UK - Cornwall, Isle of Man, even Liverpool, Kidderminster (what?), all over the UK.

The Broadway gave us two wonderful buffets, 50 or more of us went and had some dinner at a local eatery on Sunday, and the bustees all stayed behind to watch the Final, (played in a wonderful spirit) which we made railer-friendly with a bit of light-humoured commentary.

And what a Final it was, with the table chip geography going to & fro throughout!

We said we'd start at exactly 3pm on Saturday, & finish at exactly 11pm, we did. We designed the structure so that it would not finish too late on Sunday (folks have to work), we wanted it to be over by 11pm Sunday. So Sunday was spot on too - we began at exactly 3pm, & the Final hand was played at about 10.52pm.

Happy Days! To all the APAT Members who made it such a stunning success, a big thank you.

xx

Thanks again ;tk;

Have the Police been round yet Matthew? I mean, I've never seen so much stealing.......

Greetings Kevin, and welcome to blonde.

Wow, what a fantastic event the inaugral APA event was, i will do a full post when i get back from work as the whole weekend was quite tiring.

But importantly, a big thanks to the APA team, everyone at the Broadway, our fellow players and of course, the rail-birds who supported us all over this weekend.

I supported you catweazle .... I even managed to stop laughing about 1 hour after you got busted ......:)

Love from kev x

LOL

But seriously, explained to Dave woods what a muppet you are at poker, ie, "Fish".

Thanks for doing the updates, will make a full post later.

 ;welcome; :hello: :birthday: Kevin,

great post - good to see you have joined the forum. Hope you are having a good birthday today - what a lovely birthday present Karen bought you, hey - your chance to take your drawn seat at the APAt Live Inaugural Event at The Broadway!  Well played in the Event, Kevin.  It was great to meet you and Karen and Bainn and I look forward to further meetings live and online with you two. Send our best wishes to Karen and Becky.

It was a great weekend and good to catch up with the Blondes we met at bB3 and to meet new Blondes too - we made many new friends - Blondes and APAt members and it was great meeting each and everyone of you all. That was very much a big part of this event - the friendliness amongst like-minded folk.

Welcome to Teditu and Dougal7878 also.

Hi to all our new Blondes who have joined since the APAt Event at The Broadway. ;welcome;

Thanks Harmony had a lovely birthday, busy trying to convince Karen that we can afford to attend the next APAt event. Karen Says I will have to win the money, so looks unlikely! Will definitely make the London event as we have accommodation covered. 

Which London event?......

We do not currently have an Event scheduled for London in Season One.

Tikay I thought that was where the UK Amateur Poker Championship in December was being held, Sorry I must have been misinformed.

It's true that event takes place at the end of December, it's very unlikely to be London though

Sorry tighty my apologies for spreading disinformation, any news on most likely venue (please say broadway).

I honestly don't know, we've been concentrating on Event 2.