PART ONE.............
Well its the morning after the morning after the night before and i finally have the energy to write my memories of BB3. It may take a while however as I'm sure that extra snippets of information will jump out at me (apart from 3 minutes of the final table when for some reason my memory is a blank!!).
Arriving at the Village hotel with BigArmo at around 2.15-2.30 where we were greeted with a sign of what was to come for the early part of the day - a long queue full of blondeites!! It appears as though most of the hotel had been booked by us judging by the fact that 3 out of every 4 people i saw milling around i recognized either from a previous blonde bash or from their picture on here. After dropping our stuff in the room and getting ready for the afternoon/evening/nights entertainment we made our way down to the bar. Said hello to a few of the blondeites waiting patiently there for the casino to open, Nakor, Booder, Bongo, Gatso, Dewi and Newportlad before we made our way over to the casino and yet another queue.
I doubt that Grosvenor Walsall had ever greeted so many "new members" in one go before - why will they not allow it so that when you join one Grosvenor Casino then you become members of all Grosvenor casinos? Your details are on their database, your picture is on their database - why have to fill out a "new members" form for each individual branch? Anyway at least while we waited to fill out the forms it gave us chance to meet and greet more of the faces, Thewy (thanks for showing us all your curry wound), Ericstoner,
The kitten kidnapper Dingdell, Sheriff and Sophie, M3Boy - as per usual the Scots were last......... though this time it just meant having to wait a little longer than the rest of us!!
Once inside we were immediately accosted by Poppet and Londonpokergirl (not that I'm complaining
) and presented with my name-badge once poppet had decided which breast it should go on. Mel had suggested that i show some cleavage as all name badges should be stuck there but as most people hadn't yet eaten i decided that probably wasn't a good idea! Waved
to The Nun as i waited to get served at the bar before someone told us that we needed to sign in quick as it was getting near to 4 o-clock - woohoo another queue. Fortunately as we joined the back of the long line to the cardroom Tightend also said that you could pay at the cashier desk - bonus!! A quick spin round and a wander over to the cashier desk where we bumped into the bronze medalist of BB1 paddyjim who seemed impressed not only that i remembered his position but also the fact that he was quoted as a 150/1 shot in the virtual odds. We signed Tikays birthday card and wandered back to near the entrance of the casino. This was a strategic location chosen by myself as not only did it mean we could greet people as they entered the casino but it meant i could keep an eye on the football score (though being 1-0 down at Stamford Bridge i was hardly brimming with confidence that the scoreline would change for the better).
Managed to meet and greet some more faces before the tournament began, Bainn and Harmony, Reddog came over with his name-badge stuck on the back of his suit - i quickly remedied that by returning it to its rightful place, not because i didn't want people not knowing who he was (of all the people attending BB3 he would be one of the only people not to need a name-badge!!) but i thought that as Red was going through such a purple patch both online and live that maybe some of the good vibes would rub off on me!! Silo Graham (though i was most disappointed to see that the captain of team Silo dressed normally - we had expected them to all arrive in pantomime cow costumes!), Tank (sporting his floppy hat) and RodParadise (sporting a blonde goatee). Excellent news arrived in the form of a Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink equalizer in the 52nd minute before it was announced that the draw had been made and could we make our way to the cardroom.
We wander over and i see that i am seated on Table 5, Seat 3. Within 3 minutes of finding my seat i hear that our elation of maybe getting another point at the bridge was short lived as we had conceded another goal - nevermind maybe the poker would take my mind off the score. Bumped into Simon Nowab just before the tournament got underway, it has been a while since our paths crossed regularly at blackpool so it was nice to catch up a little and even nicer to find that he wasn't actually at my table!!
My starting table consisted of NewportLad in seat 1, Mrs Sharpy in seat 2, Apologies to the blondeite in seat 4 but i didn't catch your name and i guess you didn't get accosted by poppet in the bar as you weren't wearing a name-badge!), Indestructable in seat 5, an attractive young lady in seat 6 who's name-badge may have said Brado but i might be wrong (i tried not to continually stare at women's name-badges in case they got the wrong idea!), Suffolk punch in seat 7, mango99 in seat 8, L3on (or Mr. poppet as he was known for the rest of the evening) in seat 9 and Maddog in seat 10.
We had the presentations before the tournament kicked off which included a introduction to poker for RobertHM who later impressed me with his speed-reading skills to be able to finish the book so quickly as if memory serves me right he ended up being the longest surviving Moderator in the tournament!! There was a quick birthday presentation for Tikay where i see that it must have been decided that it WAS too difficult to wrap a zimmerframe in birthday paper. An extra loud three cheers from all the members of team primate, as you said in your speech to get the community of blonde to where it is now in just over 18 months is one heck of an achievement - my hat is tipped in your direction squire.
Well I'll be back to write part two soon where I'll remember my exploits in the tournament itself...... (better go do some work before the letter "P" is followed by the numbers "4" and "5"!!
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