The good week (poker wise) continues!

My first event of the APAT World Championship of Amateur Poker was yesterday.

Event #3 £60 NLHE 6-Max Championship

80+ runners with a 10k starting stack and 30 minute levels. Quite a good structure so no need to get too out of line early on. Nice hand early on, there's a guy who had folded to a 3-bet the last 3 times he opened. Folded round to him on the button and he opens so I 3-bet with Q2 and he flats.

Flop comes 422

I check, he bets, I raise he shoves! I snap and he turns over KK

I hold and get a nice double!

Fast forward 6 hours and we are on the final 2 tables (12), with 8 getting paid (Min-Cash £120)




I had a bit below average but the guy 2 to my left had 250,000 chips out of the 640,000 in play!

Soon down to 10 and play tightened up as the bubble approached, I lost half my stack after being rivered against the above big stack so was in danger zone. Now on the stone cold bubble I shoved kings and got all folds, and then AQ in the BB after the big stack opened. He called my shove with K8, and thankfully I held. I'd rather go out first than on the bubble!

The bubble burst soon after, and we're down to 8 left. One more to go out then the final 7 return the next day (Today) as the Final Table. I had 10bigs so looking for a spot to double and so get it in with A2 called by KQ.

Flop A104
Turn J
Completely dead!

So bubbled the final but min-cashed for £120. Bit disappointed to not make the final but 3 cashes (including a win) out of 3 tournaments this week (so far), cashed in my first event of the WCOAP and looking forward to the rest, back there this evening to play the £56 NLHE Turbo!

Quite happy with how I've been playing this week, especially after being ill the past 4/5 weeks (Been the Doctors 5 times and the hospital 3 times) and hopefully go on to have a very successful series and April! The winner of each event in the WCOAP gets a bracelet and the top 3 get medals! So I'm hoping for some silverware!

£120 = $148




7/25 Cashes


Have also smashed the mini target of $1,044 by the end of April so that's buried!

My schedule for the 2017 APAT WCOAP 8th - 17th April

#3 £50+10 - NLHE 6-Max Championship
#5 £50+6 - NLHE Turbo Championship
#7 £50+6 - HORSE Championship
#10 £50+6 - ROE NLHE/PLO Championship
#12 £50+6 - NLHE Mix-Max Championship
#14 £50+6 - Open Face Chinese Championship
#15 £50+6 - PLO Hi/Lo Championship

These are the ones I've already pre-registered for, there's a couple more I'd like to play but depends how these ones go as you can only register for one event a day unless you bust. Really looking forward to playing OFC live!

My schedule for the 2017 APAT WCOAP 8th - 17th April

#3 £50+10 - NLHE 6-Max Championship
#5 £50+6 - NLHE Turbo Championship
#7 £50+6 - HORSE Championship
#10 £50+6 - ROE NLHE/PLO Championship
#12 £50+6 - NLHE Mix-Max Championship
#14 £50+6 - Open Face Chinese Championship
#15 £50+6 - PLO Hi/Lo Championship

These are the ones I've already pre-registered for, there's a couple more I'd like to play but depends how these ones go as you can only register for one event a day unless you bust. Really looking forward to playing OFC live!

Well. It's been a month. Not much to report!

The rest of the APAT didn't go so well!

Cashed in that 6-Max, was doing well in the ROE before donking all my chips off

Came close in the Mix-Max. But got absolutely destroyed in one hand

The structure was it starts with as many as are there, then at 36 left it goes 6-handed until there's 18 left, at which points it goes heads up (biggest stack vs smallest stack and so on), until the final table of 9 (final table all paid)




I was doing pretty well, had around 60k with the average at 50 and we were 2 players away from the 18 player heads-up stage.

Then this hand happened...

Blinds 500/1000

I've got 99 UTG +1.

UTG opens to 2,200. I flat.

Guy to my left who had been VERY active 3 - bets to 6k. Original raiser folds but I make the call. (he has me slightly covered)

Flop A72. I know he's not got the Ace. I donk 5k, he min-raises to 10k. I ship it and he SNAP calls.

He turns over 88 Bingo!

Turn brick

River, of course, is the 8. For pretty much the chip lead and 1 player left before going heads-up, where he gets drawn against the smallest stack who had about 8k which he soon knocks out and is on the final, he ultimately finishes in 2nd for the silver medal and around £1.5k.

Not bitter at all I could have not played a hand and gone into heads-up with an average stack and done battle, but when I know I've got him and for that pot. I'll take that spot all day long I think.

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Anyway had a bit of a break, including an actual holiday away (to Chessington Theme Park in London for a week), including coming face to face with a lioness who for some reason took a shining to me and headed for me and was literally inches away (Through glass obviously...) and wouldn't look away





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My local cardroom has changed its schedule and replaced the Sunday round of each comp now with a cheap £10+£5 rebuy or add-on. Played it the first week and made the final though didn't cash.

The week after I did though, although there wasn't many players! The casino added £200 to the guaranteed £400 and soon after the break we were down to the final 7! A couple of players wanted to chop for £60 each ??!! FK that! The same player kept asking after literally every hand which soon caused some tempers to go and arguments between a few players. I just kept quiet and kept stacking the chips... I wouldn't have agreed any deal but someone was already denying it so I didn't have to say anything

Ended up taking it down for a decent enough £210

So the ball is rolling again on my challenge!

£210 = $272 so...




8/25 Cashes

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Not quite where I want to be, but planning to be playing more live after not playing much for a month, plus I have some big comps at Dusk Till Dawn to play, and then there's the Goliath festival in July and also planning to go to the Pokerstars Festival in Dublin in September, possibly with @CGPoker so that could be fun!

Goliath is in August mate

Well, whatevs

Played at a new casino on Wednesday, was in the area so decided to play the afternoon tournament at G Casino Liverpool (Also known as Leo's). With it being an afternoon tournament, wasn't sure what the numbers would be like but had a decent turnout with 30+

Just a small £15 + £10 rebuy or add-on comp with £650 guaranteed.

Nice view from the card room though (right on the docks in Liverpool)





Probably because it's an afternoon comp, it attracted a lot of "older" players, players who like to limp a lot


Took advantage of this and at the first break had quite the chip lead with 90,000 chips against an average of 25,000!

Was able to get to the final table a couple hours after this with around 120k to the FT average of 80k.

Couldn't do anything on the final table. Card dead doesn't come close.

Then got involved in a huge pot with 108 on a AK9 flop!

Ended up with 3 of us all-in, and I was against AA and QJ (:|(punch)

Busted in 4th for £85. Not too bad for the first time playing there against players who obviously all know each other as regular players as well. Will probably return soon and play the same comp as I feel it's very beatable!

£85 converted = $111




9/25 Cashes

Played live last Monday... no good, played a bit of A2CA, and it didn't work out

Back last night for the cheap Sunday comp, £10 + £5 rebuy or add on, plus the £6 reg fee makes it a total of £21. More runners than usual last night due to it being a bank holiday weekend so the first time in a while the prizepool has beat the £400 guarantee (by £155).

Anyway, came 2nd for £145. Made couple of big folds which worked out in the end, and managed to dodge a million outs in a three way all in with Q10 on a Q45 flop against the 67 of one player and flush draw (with 1 over) of the other!

Heads-up only lasted a few minutes as with pretty even stacks we got it in with my AK unable to improve against his 99. Pretty standard flip.

So £145 = $186




9/25 Cashes

Not far off the $3k mark, hoping to pass this today as I'm heading to a casino I've not been before in Bolton, for a PLO comp (only one remaining in the Manchester area)!

£6 reg fee? On a £10 tourney? Is that normal for come places? I know more rake is better but c'mon!

BTW do you thermometer cash raised take into account the buy in? Or is it just money won?

Hope you crush 'em!

Yep £6 although it has now gone up to £7 in Grosvenor's!

The Thermometer is just the buy-in, I was tracking all profit and loss at one point but got bored doing it

Well up for the year though, not where I want to be at the minute though

Yeah that 6 quid fee sounds super high in relative terms. I hope you're getting a drink out of this or something like that I guess they can get away with it because even though £6 of reg fee in a £10 tourney is an EV suicide it's also a really small price to pay in absolute terms.

Wow mate you are crushing!

Honestly this is not a photoshop

Ha well I'm playing a £1million GTD live tournament tomorrow so who knows?!

Seems my photoshop didn't fool anyone!

Ha well I've had a big boost on that, finally!

Been a quiet couple of months, not played much live at all.

Before this weekend, my only cash was a third place in a 5-Card Omaha competition in Bolton. Need to get up there to play this comp more often - very beatable! Kind of wanted to win but got coolered 3-handed.

I had AKJ109 in the small blind. Button folds, I min-raise it and big blind calls.

Flop comes AK4. I check and big blind leads out for around 3/4 pot. I raise and he pots it so we get it in.

He has AA in his hand HOW!! The board bricks and I'm down to the bare bones and bust next hand.

3rd place was good for £65 ($84) (Will tally this in the next post)

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Then came Goliath weekend, and 4 days in Coventry with @CGPoker .

As well as the Goliath Main Event, there was also a few side events to play, including a number of APAT tournaments which were the 8-Game, NLHE championship and PLO Championship.

Bust, bust, bust The Goliath is a minefield to get through anyway, did OK in the 8-Game (first time playing it), lasted around 6 hours. Did better in the Omaha and Stud hi-lo rounds than any other game.

The PLO event was going well, had well above average a couple of hours in, also had Christin Maschmann on my table who was nice to play against. The key hand I had AAK10 in mid position, pot it, guy in late position pots it to around 3k. Back to me and I repot to 11k-ish (I had 28k, him around 24k - average was 15k). He tank calls.

Flop comes 235 with 2 hearts. I have the K10hearts. I shove and he snap calls... with 5689rainbow. Really? Turn is an offsuit 8 and river bricks for a ridiculous sized pot and I bust a few hands later so that was my whitewash Goliath festival over with!

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Not played much live since Goliath save for a couple of local freeroll ($10 rebuy) comps with no success.

Last week I entered a competition on Facebook where the winner won a DTD200 seat (£220 competition at Dusk Till Dawn, £100k guaranteed with £20k for the winner). It was the last DTD200 to run (they are reducing it to a £110 with a £50k guarantee), and I was lucky enough to win the free seat!!

It has Day 1's both live and online and I headed to Nottingham on Sunday to buy in direct to Day 2 with 50bb (100k) - saves on hotels and stuff buying into Day 2, though I did get a hotel for the Sunday night - thankfully it turned out!

250 played Day 2 (from a total of 453 entries), with 55 getting paid a min-cash of £400.

I never went below starting stack.

Even though I started with just 50bb, it was a decent enough structure and I was able to start picking up chips, including 2 hero calls with ace high and then 4th pair, and I was soon above average with 600k chips.




This was still relatively early on and it would be nearly another 4 hours until the bubble finally burst (30mins playing hand for hand).

With the min-cash locked up (£400 pure profit for me), this hand happened... everyone knows I talk about 6-3 being the best hand in poker and I've written articles about it, so getting dealt 63 when it's folded to me on the button is just a sign!

I had around 750k with the blinds at 15000/30000. I raised to 75,000. Small blind folds and the big blind adds another 75,000 on top. Of course I call.

The flop comes Q36 and the big blind insta-shoves!

I call.




NEVER FOLD 63!! I'm now up to around 1.4million!

Fast forward a few hours, and we are down to the final 2 tables and £900 locked up and playing of a near 6million stack from a 3.8mill average




The Top 10 players also got a £1,100 seat so play tightened up with 11 players left! I had Pokerstars Team Hippodrome player Kelly Saxby on my right, she busted before the final table, I then took another player out at the same time as someone else busted on the other table, so we were now 8 left and onto the final table (taking an 8million stack)!

Official final table photo:





Repping PokerVIP there, who also got a mention on the live stream Final table starts around 5 hours 45mins




My first "feature table", however shortlived it was

The first A9 hand, I was pretty close to calling. Although he was a short stack, 2.2million was still a chunk of my stack and I had 2 big stacks behind me. If I'm in the blinds I call, and that could change the whole dynamic of the final if I have 10million with 7 left. The AJ into AA, I expected him to shove, I'd be playing with him for a couple of hours and was very aggro, had had 3BB at one point and was continually 3-bet shoving and getting folds. I kind of hoped he would shove after the previous hand so I was never folding. How he wakes up with AA

So, 8th.

Can't complain. It's £2,250 (from a freeroll) plus a £1,100 seat that I'm using this weekend in a £500,000 tournament! Never really thought about winning, but gutted to be first out after being I think 3rd in chips going onto the final table. A couple of ladders and I'm looking at £4k+. Looking forward to playing this DTD1000 though, will likely be some big names playing as well so a good experience either way and my biggest ever tournament. Have sold action privately as well so already made a couple of hundred from it

£2,250 into USD is $2,905 + the $84 from above is $2,989 to be added to the tally.




11/25 Cashes

Finally over the half-way mark of the challenge after a slow couple of months.

4 months left of the year, and of course I have this £1k competition... min-cash would be £2k so I will take that! Only joking, the £100,000 top prize is juicy and life-changing!

Next comp is tonight though, freeroll at the local G for a chance of pace!