Well what a couple of weeks!!
I have always strived to be honest with myself and the readers of this diary and about 6-8 weeks ago I took a decision with Petra's understanding that if someone texted me some info or I read something on TFT etc that I would have a punt or two as although I wasnt missing punting I felt there was an edge missing in ME!!!
So to safeguard everything that I have built up and not to fall back in a hole I set up Petra with access to all my accounts and my online banking password (GG life!) just so that she could check whenever she wanted to basically which in turn keeps me in check and I allowed myself a little roll to play with which turned from a couple of hundred into a grand fairly quickly of which I withdrew half and gave that to the boss.
Then an amazing set of results happened based on my vision, Trigg which meant that in the past 7-10 days I have had my personal biggest single bet on a horse 3 times (might not be big to some obv and may be massive to others).
First of all I had watched a maiden race at Goodwood and was impressed by a couple of the runners and noted the names down and watched for them to re-appear along with another horse who showed signs of greeness and whilst waiting for them to come out I had built the monkey roll upto another grand when the following text came in from Trigg
"Back xxxxxxx today at 5/1"
"They fancy it strong and I have xxx on"
So I had £260 win on this good thing and it duly dotted up against the short priced favourite having been backed into 2/1 for a lovely return and a few days later I read something that made me start backing a horse called Mecca's Angel for the Nunthorpe on the Ante Post which was a risk in itself as this horse had been withdrawn from 3 engagements this year where the ground was considered too quick for it to run and if anyone doesnt know unless you get NRNB (non runner no bet) then if it doesnt turn up on the day it's GG monies so within a few days I had amassed £200EW at an average SP of 11/1 and then decided to wait.
Last week the two horses I had been waiting to come out duly appeared in the entries list and were both running on consecutive nights at Kempton in maidens so I firstly had £150 win on Kasseopia at 5/1 and double on the PLACE (can come 1-3rd) market at 8/11 as I couldnt see it out the frame and texted Trigg to let him know. The favourite in Kasseopia's race had actually finished behind the one I really liked the look of on the Weds so was hoping for a dece run but obviously wanted Kasseopia to win, anyway Kasseopia was backed throughout the day and finished 11/4 iirc but the fav blew it away by 6 lengths and I waited with anticipation for the prices for Weds as Miss Blondell had finished 1.5 lengths ahead of the fav in the Goodwood race and was down 2 grades llike the one that had just dotted up so when she opened up 11/4 I called in a few favours and within a short space of time had managed to get £600 on at effectively 5/2 which now became my second biggest single bet ever.
During the Tuesday I had the Met Office Weather Forecast open on in the browser set over YORK RACECOURSE and it was drizzling all day which meant a going change was defo going to happen so I texted Arbboy about an easy back to lay as this horse would go off 6-8/1 and was still available at 12/1 with Paddy Power who unfortunately would only let me put £74 pound odd on it and I had to take some 9/1 and 10/1 elsewhere whilst waiting for Miss Blondell to run.
Despite looking green around the bend at Kempton she quickened up the straight to win going away by 2 lengths and a few oioi's were heard in the living room and a couple of hours later I left home to head up to Nottingham in great spirits for the Sky 6 max events of which I was playing the main and sides if required and although Petra and the kids were due to come with me for a couple of days she had a couple of work bookings so they stayed back which meant on Thursday I could do some shopping and watch a few races from York before heading to Dusk to play the 6pm flight of the main.
As avid followers from the start will know, I LOVE a Placepot (only on the big meetings) and permed a few horses up in the tougher races hoping for a result or two having bankered the first 2 favourites and as you can see below I got 3/4 up in a big handicap at big prices and a further couple of double ups which meant I had the pot for £5.40 and picked up about £1500 leaving me even more blessed!
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The Main event flight was abysmal tbh as it was put back with there only being 6runners as I regged and whilst outside on the phone they then started a bit earlier that they had said and I got back to the table having been blinded away and missed a couple of hands when I wouldnt have played with just 2 tables and would have fired both flights Friday instead (obv had to do that in the end). I really love the Sky events and they are always played in great spirits with a great bunch of people and across the few days of play I never had a bad table with me playing with a lady who qualified in a freeroll for her first ever live tournament who was obviously very nervous but I am sure enjoyed her experience greatly all the way through to being sat with Fett (keep getting table draws vs him but we run good vs him so it's all good) and some amazing battles with Leon Campbell, Leo Mclean and then in the sides with Paul Jackson, Ian Gascoigne (SORRY MATE) and a young guy who peeled all my opens as I did to him called Chris Dougherty and I have never had so much fun at the tables across the few days of pokering.
Anyway!
Come Friday morning I tot up how much I have on Mecca's Angel and it totals £450 EW across sites, slips etc at an average SP of 10/1 and is officially the biggest single on a horse I have placed and I was really confident with the ground that she would be in the first 3 so decided to sweat it and whilst playing the 1pm leg I logged into a site on my phone and watched the race when it eventually went off to see Meccas track the pace with Paul Mulrennan taking a sneaky look across to see where the favourite Acapulco was and despite the other horse trading 1/25 in running when it shot clear a furlong out Meccas Angel came flying through in the last 100 yards to win going away by 2 lengths and get a return of approximately £6000 and I texted Petra to say something really good had happened and I would talk to her on the break.
These were some of the returns
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I didnt manage to get through the 1pm flight which meant it was likely to be a long day as we snap late regged the 6pm flight to try and make day 2 and aim to better our 11th place finish in this event last year. Now for those who notice these things you may have seen a slightly more svelte looking Eso over the past few weeks as I had put on a considerable amount of Timber over the past 6-12 months and had decided to do something about it so have been eating really good and not snacking and also been getting to the gym 3 times a week doing some high intensity circuit training to shift the extra "Terry" that I have put on but I have had a bad back hence the reason I partook in about 2 hours of massage over Fri-Sun which is something I wouldnt normally do (drains the poker economy douc) but needs must and Sofia really sorted me out!
I managed to make day 2 with 50 odd bigs so was hopeful of a deep run and early on day 2 the deck kinda hit me in the face which meant I got to double average in super quick time and despite the inevitable "Espew" (copyright Celtic) where I took off on the bubble with Q3hh utg we sailed into the money and then rebuilt to make the top 30 and be in with a shot but then we had to grind as we got very few spots eventually busting in 21st for £2500 and a return for my backers in the staking boards of £8250 from effectively a freeroll of a extra WPT seat we won the month before.
The Saturday football consisted of one bet after a call from big bad "Barry Neville" who told me a football match in England was 100% going to be "both teams to score" and most likely 1-1 and a sea of blue was on oddschecker so we availed ourself of £500 at 4/5 and it finished 1-1!
After a few hours sleep and following Peter27 in on some of his F1 bets (TYTY) I headed back to dusk to play the 6max Mini event in the turbo which I had chipped up from 50k to 150k by the end of level 3 having decided if you are going to fire 2 bullets in the turbo you may as well bust early so just played uber agg and knocked em bandy but then lost out a bit later on to finish with 106k at 4kbb for day2 but bust in a standard spot having been on the table and introduced myself to the lovely Bromley's (HI) so went to late reg the £10k guaranteed 6max event which was already a few levels in and sat down at the funniest table I have been on in ages.
Everyone was having a great time with even the dealers getting involved in mine and Chinese Frankies banter and after hovering around SS for ages I realised there were chips to be had here but needed to open up a lot, so just chipped up solidly to amass a decent stack as we broke to 3 tables and then again hovered around the average as we broke to 2 tables which now consisted of Moi, Ian Gascoigne (sorry again) Paul Jackson, Di from Blue Blood, the aforementioned Chris Dougherty and a Leicester cash game reg and as the blinds started to get hot and only 6 people getting any money I managed to first of all double through GAS1 with KK vs his 1010 all in on a 6 high board and then double him back his 99 vs my A10hh with the first two cards out being the sweaty
but bricks after and with me about to have 20bbs in 5 mins Di Farrell open shipped 42k at 8k bb and Ian 3b to 120k with 45k back and I had AQo and decided this was an opportunity to get an FT stack so I asked Ian what he had back to which he replied
Well I'm not folding and if you have Aces then so be it!
Never one to shirk a challenge I thought if we bust I am in bed back in Essex at 2am and if not then we may earn some more £££ so reshipped and Ian snapped and were on the backs in pretty bad shape vs Ian's "KINGS" and DI's AKdd but this is 2015 Eso and despite Ian's protestations of "dont do it George" he managed to roll out the board of 5 A A 2 2 meaning that not only did we scoop the main but also miraculously chopped Di's side pot and could then set about making the FT which would be the bubble with 6 paid and obv 6max finals being 7 handed.
We managed to make the FT 4/7 and picked a few spots to maintain until the Cash reg bust and we were gtd £600 but we didnt want that and then despite a guy called Luigi chipping up and busting people I chipped up vs him and others and eventually bust Waco from Sky to leave us 3 handed with Di immediately asking for a deal which I said no and when Luigi knocked her out there was just Us and Davide the dealer and Mitch, Nick Hicks and Giblin playing various punting games before going home and when they left having started heads up with 900k vs 2million of Luigi I managed to chip him down before peeling a button open with 67o and flopping A76 doubling through vs A10 and holding to get him 2.1 million to 800k and when he got back to 1.1mill we got it in where I opened A7ss and he shipped over the top 40bbs and we snapped off to the races vs 55 and was hopeful on the JJ6sxx board but we bricked to reverse positions and despite getting just under level again the deck hit him harder at 4.45am to 5.05am eventually me ripping 14bbs with K3dd but him waking up with A10 and holding (luckily there was no trophy) but we won a further £2250 to add to the weeks spoils which must be my biggest ever month totalling over £16500 in returns plus another WPT seat for the boys.
I left DTD at 5.10am and managed to catch all the traffice going to work at the bottom end of the M1 getting home at 8.30 and a quick shave and shower after a 10 minute love in with Petra and the kids meant I was sat at the desk at 9.20am.
Hanging now though!!
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