APAT CARDIFF NATIONALS - Trip Report

[morlspin]

Had a great weekend of poker after travelling down to Cardiff for the APAT Welsh Open at the Grosvenor Casino at the atlantic wharf, which for anyone who hasnt been there, is a great casino!

Saturday started very early when i had to get up for my lift to the airport at 5am, way way earlier than i usually surface, but with a 7.30am flight its gotta be done, easyjet were great, no problems or delays and we touch down an hour later in Bristol, with a little transfer and a 45min train to Cardiff Central we arrived at the ETAP Hotel around 11.00am.

As usual the hotels wont allow early check-ins so we decided to head strait over to the casino, so we could chuck our bags in and have a walk around and see the sites.....well the millenium stadium, which had a cracking caravan exhibition on this weekend :lol

We head back to the casino where i find theres 190 players and im on the same table as an aggressive female player, who i recognised but didnt have the faintest idea who she was, it turned out i was watching her on channel 5 the day before in the ladies poker championships, it was the beautiful LIV BOEREE

http://www.livboeree.com/, who eventually finished in 7th place for £600

Im getting no cards and on an aggressive table it takes me 64mins to win my 1st hand!! Again i go back to my usual rubbish cards and by the 2nd break im struggling on around 5k:$ til a minor miracle happens and i pick up Ace 5 of hearts and i flop a flush, i check the hand, 2 other check, then a King is turned, again i check, followed by the 2 checking again, desparate to get some money i know i need to bet, but wanna make them pay me off to the max, so again, on a nothing river of 4c i check..... praying for a bet or two:hope The 1st guy after me bets out 1500 chips and the 2nd guy re-raised all in for 6k and i have a quick think....i have the nuts! im all in too!! the 1st guy insta folds and im back up to just over 12k!! geet in! Soon after i get moved tables where after sitting almost dead for 4 hours and having very little action or chat, i get sat next to 3 people i have played against before, and a female player (Rhianydd Sandford) who is chatty and good looking at the same time lol, i get up to 23k by some decent play, conversation is good and im having a good day, it dosent get better than this at the poker tables! Along comes the dinner break and ive made my sole target.....to not get knocked out before it and we head off to the local entertainment complex where i destroy my mate at crazy golf and have my customary burger and fries ;) returning 10 mins early to collect my gold medal from the Newcastle Regional that i won! After the lunch break i get moved tables and am sat on the same table as the eventual winner Tim Magnus , and a previous APAT nationals winner Daniel Phillips and again i get no cards and no luck. Its now 11.10pm, ive been playing poker for 9 hours and im tired, ive only got 17k left and i finally get a hand good enough for a small raise, its A10o so with blinds of 1k/2k and 3 mins before they go up, i decide to lead out UTG with a 6k bet, 3 folds and then an 18k bet......i decide that with 4 or 5 big blinds left i cannot really put it down so i call and await the outcome. He turns over KK and with only a single 10 on the flop im doomed, ive had a great time but its just not meant to be! i finally finished in 49th and in the top 25% so im happy! Ive been very negative about previous issues etc with APAT and if Des happens to read this, i'd just like to say thanks very much for all the hard work you guys do, it cant be easy and i'd like to congratulate you on another great event and i'd encourage anyone who has considered playing live poker for the 1st time, to get yourself along to one of the regional tournaments so you can learn the game and possibly qualify for a bigger game like this! :ok

[BAM]

Re: APAT CARDIFF NATIONALS - Trip Report Nice report G and it is nice to see you make it to the dinner break for once. I know what you are saying about APAT and nobody is denying the work and effort they put in but it is a little dis-heartening when you sit down in an amateur championships with pros's. I played in Manchester and I came up against 3 pro players. I haven't got a problem with this but they are not in it because it is a £75 freezeout, they are there for the added value (which is usually a big ME package) and the fact that they will see it as a 'soft' tourney and I thought APAT was about giving the 'little guy' a chance. Fortunately none of these gatecrashers have won one yet and it is nice to see Tim win this one as I have met up with him a few times at these events and he is a nice lad :clap I'm not sure if I will be playing any of these again unless they are local. I will see how it goes, maybe be tempted by Edinburgh but that will be more about socialising with Ed and Dan Dan then playing poker :ok