Although I’d worn the famous Blue Blood hoodie many of times during 2018 this was the first time i got to represent Blue Blood in a team event which I was very excited about! I had a good 5hr run up to Blackpool and got there about midday on Friday, I met up with Steve Redfern and some of the BCPC lads for a couple of beers, a few games of snooker/pool and a catch up. We then headed for “The Velvet Coaster” (what a name!) to meet the rest of the Blue Blood guys, gals and partners, Steve and I obviously turned up half cut from the days drinking session. The meal was good, the company was great, I managed to keep it down and continue the drinking session. We then all headed over the road to play in either the APAT PLO or NLHE sides, I went for the PLO as it was dealer dealt and by that stage I was no longer fit to deal in the other one. However a few hands in, I quickly sobered up, I managed to chip up quite nicely, the rebuys were coming to an end, the tables were slowly breaking from 7, down to 6, down to 5 and so on. We then were rapidly approaching the money bubble and the others offered a deal which was accepted by all. At about the same time my headache started to kick and in, I then was hoaxed into exchanging 10% of any winnings for two tablets and massage (both worked wonders), then managed to cash in 4th for £260 (minus Dawn Cooke’s 10%) which was a decent profit and nearly paid for the weekend. The next morning it turns out that 10% I gave Dawn for the massage was actually the best piece of business i’d done in the long time – I felt like a new man!!
I woke up had breakfast with Lisa Greer and the East Herts Poker League guys who were also attending the event, won the knock championships twice over for a cool £14 profit, gained a nice looking £5 Scottish note off the Scotchagezzer Russo and then headed off to the casino to meet the Blue Blood Guys and our Leader/Captain/Tony Adams – Di Farrell. Di handed me a couple of outfits for my son Ozzy which I loved (she really is the most thoughtful person ever!), we had the mandatory pictures, beers and then tournament started, I hardly played a hand in the first three hours, which in five hours I found myself with a short stack after my AK didn’t flop well and my QQ was cracked by A7o. Same old story for me in this event so I thought I’d have some fun by putting a prop bet on with Stuart Ward and his big bushy beard that offended me for most of the day/year! He told me that I needed to raise £500 for “Raise For Jack” in order to shave off his beard, personally I think he set the bar to low and didn’t factor in all the people he had annoyed since the start of APAT’s existence. We started a collection and thanks to the generosity of the APAT community the £500 was raised very very quickly. I then busted out of the tournament very shortly after with top two into a low pair set 🙁 When all the levels of day1 played out we got two teammates through to day2 so were disappointingly middle of the road.
Sunday came round I watched and cheered our teammates, they eventually busted out and then we got to shave Stuart Ward’s bushy beard off for charity. Fair play to him, he kept his end of the bargain and his 5year old beard eventually came off after a lot of wincing. It had been that long since he had seen his chin he had to double take in the minor to recognise himself! I then decided to play the NLHE side event which was running, Dawn comes over gives me one of her amazing/lucky massages, deals at 10% and we make another final table, we end up locking up 7th spot for £145 (minus Dawn’s 10% – of course) – The bust out hand was my A10 vs Q9 from the button who had been raising light all night, I made a good call and the poker gods seemed to have enough of me for one weekend so we bust out.
All in all it was a superb weekend, we made a profit but most important we laughed until it hurt!
