APAT Cardiff

I entered my 2nd APAT tournament, this time in Cardiff which was on 24th/25th February 2007.

The only person I had planned to meet there was Simon (BuzzBeeSi) from ITH. Other than that I didn't really know anyone else apart from the odd face I recognised from the tournament in Birmingham. There was also a large contingent from the forum at BlondePoker.com. I joined there recently after being recommended it by Matty Millne. I had made a few posts there, and recognised some people, but didn't really 'know' them. As it turned out, over the course of the weekend, I got to meet quite a few 'Blonde' members.

Day #1.

What a bizarre day! I started off on the same table as Brendan & InTheBelly from Blonde with Colchester Kev as our celebrity dealer (he had appeared on TV on Sky Poker a couple of nights earlier).

I was card dead for well over half the day and kept yo-yoing from short stack to very short stack. I soon dwindled down to 5400 in chips, then back up to 11,200. At the first break, Simon had text me to say he had already been knocked out. Just after the dinner break, my AK ran into Brendan’s KK. Back down to 3200.

This is when I got the hand of the day for me. At this point with blinds at 400/800, I decided to push with A4 UTG before the blinds hit me. I got 2 callers. Flop was KTx. One player bet out forcing the other out. He showed KT for top 2 pair. I had nothing but Ace high. As I picked up my jacket, the turn was an Ace, then the miracle river 4 came down to give me a better 2 pair. I tripled up! My opponent was visibly stunned (so was I!).

Shortly after this I moved tables and sat next to Sheriff Fatman (one of the BlondePoker mods). I again went short by making a bad call with KQ against a shortie’s Ace rag. Then I went on a rush.

I managed to make double ups with JJ v AT, AK v JJ, AA v KQ & AA v AK. Next thing I knew I was up to ~100k.

I finished the day in 7th place with 96,500 and chip leader for my table. I was over the moon that I'd gone from nothing to one of the leaders in a short space of time. Out of 220 entrants, there were 32 players left with top 22 getting paid. I only had to wait for 10 players to bust.

Day #2

I don’t mind admitting I was very nervous for day 2. I certainly wasn’t safe and with blinds starting at 4000/8000, my M was only 8. All the people on my table that could crippled me were all to my left. I had to be very careful.

But I started the day well. I knocked out the Sheriff when I pushed from the SB with Q5 (his stack had been decimated a couple of hands earlier from a tough beat). He felt he had the odds to call with his 72, but my hand held up and I knocked him out. Shortly afterwards I knocked another shortie out with my AA v 66. I was up to a peak of around 135k.

The bubble lasted longer than expected. Although I was relatively safe, it was still a tense affair for me. Eventually it burst with 2 players going out at the same time, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I felt confident I could make the final table from then on.

Unfortunately my dreams were shattered in 2 hands. At this stage blinds were now 8k/16k. First a short stack pushed in EP. I had an easy call from the BB with KK. He showed A3s and caught his A on the flop. Back down to 79k. Ironically, this was the same player who outflopped me in Birmingham with my AQ vs his AQs. I went up to him afterwards and reminded him of it.

A few hands later, it was folded round to me in the SB. I looked down at A6 and pushed for my last 63k. The BB thought for a while, considered his pot odds then called with KT. My hand looked good until the Ten cruelly came down on the river.

I went out in 17th for a nice £300 payday. Considering I was almost out in around 170th, I’m very happy with the way things turned out.

This really boosted my confidence, and taught me 2 important lessons:

1) With the slow blind structure (40 minute blind levels), you can afford to be patient and not panic. I got lucky, but most importantly, I didn't panic.

2) When blinds are high, and you get a rush of cards you can inflate your stack very quickly. Again, if you have 10k and the leaders have 100k, don't panic. It doesn't take much to catch them.

I also got mentioned in the official APAT tournament report (along with my photo).:

http://www.apat.com/Review_Welsh.html

I'll publish the link to the official photos when they come out.