(any errors or omissions in the below, for which I apologise are mine and mine alone, the entry is from recollections of conversations through the year)
It was a Saturday morning, and in a Nottingham hotel Tim Blake was getting ready to play Day1b of a DTD Deepstack that afternoon. However, it was not to be, as Tim suffered a severe stroke and was rushed to the Queens Medical Centre.
Tim was a fixture at the big DTD monthly events, and word reached the club of the bad news, as Simon Trumper relayed it to me, updating, and others.
That afternoon, Tim's wife Hazel rushed from their home near Peterborough to Nottingham. Tim was in a bad way.
Late on in the afternoon, with Tim paralysed and unable to speak, the practicioners in Intensive Care sedated him and carried on monitoring.
At the end of Tim's bed, a Doctor spoke to Hazel, to tell her that it did not look good and that she should prepare for the worst. Indeed, that Tim might not make it through the night.
What they did not know was, a few feet away, Tim was conscious and heard the conversation.
He was now determined not to go to sleep! However, the drugs won of course and Tim drifted off
At (he subsequently learned) about 4am he woke up. Unable to move much, he stared up at a blank ceiling, brightly lit and wondered
"Am I alive?" Of course his last recollection before sedation was hearing that he wasn't going to make it........
I'm not sure how long he was like that, but of course soon enough nurses and doctors were on hand and he was reassured that yes, he was still with us!
This was Tim last month, at the DTD Caribbean Poker Party in St Kitts
| Click to see full-size image. |
| Click to see full-size image. |
| Click to see full-size image. |
which capped an incredible year for him.
I'll do the poker stuff first. After the first stage of his recuperation Tim was back at the poker tables. Movement was not easy, and you could tell he was struggling. However from February onwards, his first month back at the tables, there were a series of small cashes in the majority of months through to October when top form kicked in. This was highlighted by 3rd place in GUKPT Luton and 5th in a £300 side event in the same week, and was followed by top 20 finishes in GUKPT Blackpool and the DTD November £500 and then, of course, the trip to the Caribbean to which he had qualified in a Live satellite.
However the non-poker stuff is more important. It took a lot for Tim to actually get back to the table. Hours and hours of physical therapy for starters. Throughout all that, and each time I would see him through 2012, he would have his trademark broad smile and an attitude to life that was frankly uplifting to see.
So, as this year's advent calendar comes to an end, best wishes for a Happy Christmas to Tim, Hazel and his family.
Author