I really liked the structure of the first ever APAT Counties event with the STT and the tagging in and out options so i decided to put myself forward for selection. Based on the selection rules I would’ve been able to play for Hertfordshire (Residing) and Essex (Birth). I applied for Hertfordshire and was delighted when selected plus I knew the other guys that were play for Herts 🙂
After a 4hr drive up to Manchester the trip didn’t start too well when I went to get some money out of the cash machine, took my card and walked off (who does that?)!!
We arrive at the casino, grab something to eat, greet many many familiar faces and then start playing the first STT. I didn’t play too many hands and found myself becoming shorter and shorter by the orbit so we made the decision to tag me out for our short shark ninja – Ben Greer! He got a bit unlucky and we bust in 5th so gained a few points which was good. The rest of the team had very similar scores which put us middle of the road.
The second STT was a survivor shootout, most people didn’t really understand the structure until the first few players had gone out which was good (points mean…..er…..qualification??), with 5 left I became the big stack and until heads up we didn’t play other pot as we were guaranteed 2nd at least. Heads up came round against Joby Plunkett, I had him covered, 2 to 1 roughly. On the other tables Lisa Greer had a decent finishing position, Ben Greer had a massive stack so didn’t need to play a hand to win his STT, we had some decent points in this round locked up. I should’ve really took an age over every hand, I might just have held on for the win. However that’s not me, we lost a flip and Joby just sat out until he won 🙁
The third STT was anti’s only, by that time most of the card room had quite a few beers inside them and that definitely worked in my favour. After three hands we were down to 5players, Lisa Greer then tagged in for me and won a huge pot. I then sat down and took out a few more players and we found ourselves heads up with Stu Ward who could hardly see his cards. Surprisingly this went on for quite a while, we end up chipping away at his chip advantage to get even with him, pick up AQss, we limp, he min raises, we raise and end up getting it in, he flips 64ss and of course he hits a 6 and we lose 🙁
Another second place finish along with results from my team mates Ben Greer, Lisa Greer and Paul Beard were enough to see us through to day 2 which we were all really pleased with.
Day2 there was a final STT where you needed to win your table to take a 10k stack through to the final table. If two of your team qualify then you start with 20k, three 30k and so on. I got to heads up and Paul Beard also was at the heads up stage so we had the potential to take through 20k and start the final table 7handed with a 10k chip advantage. The Sunderland guy i was playing had me covered by 3-1, we pick up 77 and he puts me all in, I call, he flips over 1010 and it holds….sigh 🙁 Lisa, Ben and I rail our other team mate and he ends up winning us a spot on the final table.
The final table gets underway, our captain Lisa Greer was first up, almost immediately we find ourselves short as she got really unlucky with KK. We see two other counties go out and we are now on the money bubble with one other short, all of us tag in and have a go on the final table, Ben Greer doubled with A4 by hitting a 4 on the river which was a nice feeling after being done with a raggy Ace early on 🙂
Then a few hands later we were out, gutted to not cash and go further but all in all it was a superb weekend and being the 5th best county isn’t so bad 🙂 – Can’t wait for next year, well if they pick me again that is 🙂
