So where are you going this wet weekend? Why Blackpool of course and whilst some raised their eyebrows, I couldn’t have been more excited.
One of the best weekends of the year happens in the dreary part of January as 35 teams of 8 turned up in force to the Grosvenor Casino in Blackpool for the UK APAT Team Championships. This year I was playing as part of the Essex Home Game team, a group of people I have been playing with for the past 9 years and proud to call friends as well as poker pals. We arrived excited and buoyant with expectations on the up after our 3rd place at the APAT Counties event in December and the team got off to a flying start. 280 players quickly dwindled down with our team only losing one player outside the top 100 (but my word didn’t that man look smart in his jacket!). We then lost both Gary and myself in quick succession with myself losing to two bad beats but had great fun in the process. The weekend didn’t stop there, the team managed to get 5 players into day2 and my role on the Sunday was to whizz round keeping track of bust outs, points situation and generally pep talking. The team agreed that this was needed to keep them focused on the game in hand and not having to worry about the other stuff.
Players dropped and points racked up as slowly we crept towards the medal positions and wasn’t long before we locked up bronze and then silver! With 34 players left and 5 players still in we had the magic moment of being crowned Team Champions and the Whoop Whoops rang round the cardroom. An awesome team effort with everyone playing their part. A special mention to Blue Blood’s Shirley Cole, who as also playing for the EHG, she came back to day2 really short and worked hard to protect her stack, she then went all the way to just fall short of the FT but a great performance.
The weekend wasn’t just about the team event, it was about the fun, laughter, silly side games and meeting up with old and new friends.
So when I tell you next year I am off to Blackpool just nod and smile as you know I will be having a great time 🙂
