A Day/Night out with Mad Marty

[Dreamkiller]

I arrived in Manchester at mid-day and headed straight for the Circus Casino which was a mere 30 yards away from my hotel. I had travelled from Piccadilly station by tram which is a heck of lot easier than crossing London on the underground ! I watched the first 70 minutes of the Liverpool game (in a familiar state of disgruntled disappointment) and introduced myself to 'Mad' Marty Wilson who had arrived to host the day. I mentioned the Aussie Millions that Helen and Duncan had attended and both Marty and Katharine remembered you both with fond recollection :ok. I told them you had booked your flights and Katharine said they were trying to get there this year as well :) We got a taxi (x2) to Old Trafford but had barely got 20 yards from the casino when Charles (our West Indian / African driver) decided to drive whilst putting on his seatbelt and talk to Marty all at the same time. He didn't notice the 2 kids crossing the road infront of him until about 10 feet away when Marty let out a "watch out" shriek at him !!! Suffice to say he avoided a bad start to the afternoon !! We arrived at the Theatre of Dreams and yes its a very impressive sight (grr) .... the place oozes class (i mean Glass). We had a quick look around the club shop then made our way to the executive box :dude... We were in the East stand just behind the Everton fans which is quite amusing to see what people get up to when they don't realise they are being watched ! We were given a glass of champagne and canapes on arrival and had a great 3 course meal including guinea fowl for main course ...:\ ,,, but it was actually vvv nice... We were treated to a 15 minute magician's act which was pretty amazing as none of us could see how he did any of his card tricks ..... not surprising when the beer is flowing but also the sign of a good magician. We then played the amazing , life changing , copyright and patent pending game of "Win With Wilson" (you may or may not have played it Hel and Dunc :unsure) .... where prizes of (1) a Howard Lederer DVD (2) a copy of Vicky Coren's latest book "For richer , For poorer" and (3) a Man U "Munich" scarf were up for grabs .... Its basically a cross between card lottery and bingo and a cracking game to play when you are pxxxed and having a great laugh !!!! The object is to fill your 3 x 3 card grid as soon as Marty reads the relevant cards from a freshly shuffled pack .... You then place one of 9 provided cards face down to cover a particular card you have that has been read out ... When you have covered all 9 cards you have to shout of "Win With Wilson" to claim your prize...... :nana. The problem was Margs (??) who had got a seat (as did her chap John) was originally from the Dominican Republic (now residing in Norwich :$)... she spoke great English but to her the phrase "Win With Wilson" was a particularly hard tongue twister..... :cry. She covered her 9 cards but didnt say "WWW" ... thus forfeiting her prize ... but only temporarily as Dave Brookes "won" after Margs demise and then gave her the DVD like a true gentleman :clap. The 2nd game came and went but lessons were not learnt !!! .... John from Preston set his heart on the Vicky Coren book (it was on his xmas wish list even) but again he forgot to say "WinWithWilson" at the crucial moment his last card was covered .... thus losing the chance to cross it off his list ....:(. However due to the obvious comradery ..... """""(comradery - 1 definition - A special bond within a group that is in no way erotic or homoerotic. ... on honor, forged by friendship, and bound by comradery"""" ....:rollin ....WTF !!! ...... within this select group he was offered the book by the eventual "winner" ... again the look of joy on his face was a joy to behold :loon. He said it had made his day .... and that was before the football !! We continued drinking until just before the game started when the staff said we were not allowed any drink in the box until 15 mins after end of match :cry. At half time we would have to drink out in the bar area to avoid annoying the Evertonians i guess with their pies and yucky coffee :rollin. We had a go a Betfair free bet where you basically put £5 on Man Utd at 2/5 and you got the stake back as well (a first IMHO) .... so £7 for nothing meant I could have some wacky bets on 3-2 either way 5-0 to Utd and large priced first goal scorers etc .... suffice to say I was not going to benefit from these additional bets ... Also they had a stadium (boxes only) wide guess the half /full time scores competition for a signed Man U something .... I got 1-0 , 3-0 correct but didnt bother trying to find the crowd out as this was a tie breaker and I didn't really care less lol .... (I wish I had now as I was a few thousand out :spank). Of course the game was one sided but at least there was a goal in the first half to um not cheer :eyes. At half time I talked to a mad Evertonian at the bar who hated Liverpool fans and had been drinking since 11am .... He obviously thought I was a Man Utd fan ... he said "Iz youuse all Cocknies" :rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin.... I explained I was from Worcester and a Liverpool fan and he proceeded to shout abuse in my face and then laughed and then repeated the process .... I having had 10 pints at this time didn't flinch in true Mad Marty story mode fashion.... I had gained his respect and he scuttled off then :lol. We had been treated to an afternoon of Marty's anecdotes , his 7 world records he holds or had held ... his humour was only surpassed by that of Everton's abysmal play ..... It made me forget where I was and I found solace in a place where I never expected to .... Old Trafford ...:puke...is someone paying me to put this ....:D. I made my way back for the 2nd half but 65 minutes of the match had elapsed ... jeeps I know from my experiences with Samba that Evertonians can talk but this was ridiculous !! We watched the rest of the match and of course most of the room was happy .... I went back to the bar and when I eventually came back it was time for the last game of "WinWithWilson" ..... I couldn't wait for the chance to win the Utd scarf (honest) .... I looked down at my card and saw :9c: :Qs: :4h: :Kh: :8c: :Qc: :3d: :Ts: :8s: Marty uttered the first card ...... :8c: .......... yes I had it ....... this was followed by ... :3d: and :Kh: ...... 3 out 3 ...... I was in a surreal state ... here I was 6 cards from ultimate prize .... Others had crossed one off , maybe 2 .... but not all 3 !! ...... Marty paused to shuffle after a request from one of my fellow players (YOU ONLY GET ONE SHUFFLE said Marty followed by a little ditty) ..... Had my luck changed for the worse .... :8s::9c: and :4h: followed .... 6 out of 6 .... the crowd were going wild .... except they'd all left about 15 mins ago ...:eyes. I was trying to work the odds out ... my mind was elsewhere .... I needed GaF here to tell me it was 2.3 trillion to 1 odds I was defying ... I sensed a work record in the offing .... one Marty would have been proud of .... Someone shouted shuffle ...... NOOOOOOOO ! I thought ..... :Qc::Ts: came ..... I was in a state of shock .... surely ipoker hadn't sponsored this live game of bingo .... I said "surely it can't be the Queen of Spades ..... Marty turned the card over and it was the ......... :Qs: ..... GaF's voice came in my head .... "Col thats 772.67 trillion to one" ........ OMFG .... I sat there ... It just didn't sink in and after 30 secs Mad Marty said "He didn't say Win With Wilson" ..... "he doesn't win" ..... Bang went my scarf , world record odds entry and my dignity in the space of 30 seconds .... all my bad beats combined didn't compare to the way I felt ..... Then Marty and crew all suddenly burst out laughing and said Marty had put all my cards off my card on his chair between his legs and drawn them from there .... Grrrr LOL .... (message to myself :- don't play WWWilson whilst totally wrecked !!). I sat there whilst playing and believed what was going on because my brain was just not wanting to think any different .... surreal is not the word ...:spank. Marty offered me the pack of cards after including those that had been given shelter between his legs but I politely declined ........ Anyway I'm glad it was just not the Liverpool team that got took for a ride on Sunday .... Mr Wilson you are one cruel (and vvv funny) man ...:ok. We left Old Trafford and Charles the taxi driver had no more near misses ... we arrived at the Circus Casino and embarked on a 7 person STT with $200 to the winner and a trophy to commemorate the game. I had AA about the tenth hand and didn't really play it well due to chips with no denominations on , toooo much drink and a complete disregard to what the blinds were .... I ended up raising to 7k total when blinds were 2k / 4k !!! which turned into a minimum raise and 4 callers ...:lol. I still bet out on a Q J 6 board and picked the pot up luckily. I went out in 4th due to nosebleed blinds when my Q5 sooted lost to K5 ..... With 3 left (2 from same household) a final hand of 88 (John from Preston) vs AA (Margs from Norwich) and John (also Norwich) QQ led to a flop of ? Q ? .. turn ? and river 8 ..... John (N) had them both covered and scooped the $200 and trophy ..... the former helped pay towards the excess he spent over his expenses allowance as they got a plane from Norwich to Manchester. They were last spotted at 1am on the roulette tables so who knows as they didn't surface for breakfast ....:eek. All in all it really was a fantastic day / night .... Marty and Katharine really do know how to host these days and make you feel welcome. This tournament was Marty's idea and Gary from Circus Poker had kindly come up with a great package :clap:clap:clap ..... There were 43 runners but if they run it again .... which is 90% plus likely then I can recommend trying to win a package because it really was something i'd love to do again :hope. If you read this Marty / Katharine ... excuse the lateness of the post as I had the kids to do tea for , an ill-fated WSOP package and Talksport final to play for before I attempted this lol ....:lol.

[avongirl]

Re: A Day/Night out with Mad Marty :clap:clap nice one Col. Glad the day lived up to expectations.