Author Topic: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts  (Read 71288 times)

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KarmaDope

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Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« on: December 13, 2012, 20:45:13 PM »
After http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=10096.0 finally got completed I kept having the urge to just post random thoughts in there.

However, it is a very specific blog so I managed to resist.

Then I thought, hell, if Ger can do it, so can I! Let"s see how long this lasts for (over/under - a month).

What to expect? This is me, so random crap is probably the best to hope for. I"ll try and chronicle my saving for Vegas, my life in general, random thoughts, trip reports from APAT and other poker events. I"ll also throw in the odd story from the past, embarrassing and just downright weird.

Oh, and some of the really random stuff that Joobs comes out with, as a bonus. Trust me, that"s worth waiting for!

I"ll start with my memories from the recent event in Stoke that I believe some of you may have attended...

(as an aside, I"ve just seen Heston Blumenthal roll an absolute shed load of bread on a cricket pitch with a roller, WTF?)
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KarmaDope

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2012, 21:36:08 PM »
So...Stoke



I originally wasn"t gonna apply for the England team, as at the time I didn"t feel that I was good enough. But in Glasgow I was talking about it with Asa McGrath on the way home after chatting to Rich Baker on a very funny Sunday night and we both decided to apply on the train home!

Cue the selection night and I was still not expecting to get in - yet still excited. Unlike Asa though, I actually managed to get some sleep and was lucky enough to wake up to it at a decent time! Matt, JP, Mark, Asa and I then spent some time working out what we would do in certain situations - and trust me, those helped in the MTT!!

(Now Heston is making a sandwich of Passion Fruit & White Chocolate cheese with freeze-dried strawberries and bitter dark chocolate...this just sounds wrong)

I very nearly pulled out on the day before though. I"d been up all night with a touch of Delhi belly, and I hadn"t even had a curry!! Decided that I couldn"t miss it though, took Imodium, and jumped on the train to Stoke. Met Asa on a very cold train platform and proceeded to do my own version of a drunk - tripping INTO the Taxi after I missed my footing! That hurt, especially after I managed to scrape my back on the very hard seat buckle. Either way, got to the Hotel that the boys were staying in and had a pre-match drink (well, they did, I apparently sat there looking very ill) before Matt drove to the casino.

And his sat-nav managed to take us off the main road and tell us to get straight back on! That"ll teach him to use an app that cost less than £2.

Get to the casino and receive the white T-shirt. I can"t speak for the rest, but that"s when it became real for me. Do the team photos and the Captains disappear for organisational crap whilst the rest of us catch up with friends who were going to be foes today. We head over to the poker tables and FML, I so got the worst draw ever for my first stt.

1   Grant Speirs (Scotland A)
2   Carl Pilgrim (England A)   
3   Stuart Ward (England C)   
4   Adam Sharples (England B)   
5   Darren Shallis (Wales B)      
6   Steve Roderick (Wales A)   
7   Kevin O"Hanlon (Ireland A)   
8   Tom Clark (Scotland B)

Needless to say, it was a very good table which actually worked for me, as I was able to get shoves through because these guys weren"t calling off randomly. Somehow managed to luckbox a second after losing a flip (Grant, you run too good at flips), and after the first round of STT"s we were 5th, on 20 points. As the entire world waited for John Murray to finish his heads-up, we had a discussion about PLO.

Now, my weakest games will always be PLO and I had a simple strategy - LADDER. JP took me to one side and told me just to play my cards and look for spots, so I did. Some familiar faces on my second table including Tom Clark and Kevin O"Hanlon again (Tom would turn out to be a massive nemesis all bloody weekend) and JB, Rudders, Don Roberts and nyerun to my right. I also managed to survive the mouth that is Paul Gupta ;) I hung on and on until we got 3-4 handed but I knew I was outclassed by Rudders in particular, so I ended up having to turn it into a preflop game, negating Rudders" advantage. Got HU in this one as well and had JB drawing to 5 outs on the turn FTW, but the luckbox hit and I couldn"t finish it off again. JP somehow won and everyone finished at least 5th so we took 30 points from PLO and had 50 going into the MTT...

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Santino67

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2012, 21:55:34 PM »
Yeah I run good in general mate :) Even by APAT standards I"d agree that NLHE STT was one of the toughest line-ups I"ve ever faced as well. The hand I remember most was the one I got so so wrong, on the jack high board when I called your Q/Q all in with 10/10. I remember saying "There"s a load of hands I"m beating here"  :D Epic fail on my part! You played very well on that table and didn"t luckbox anything that I remember. You"re overall individual finishing position after the MTT said it all really  8)
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Supernova

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2012, 21:59:25 PM »

Yeah I run good in general mate :) Even by APAT standards I"d agree that NLHE STT was one of the toughest line-ups I"ve ever faced as well. The hand I remember most was the one I got so so wrong, on the jack high board when I called your Q/Q all in with 10/10. I remember saying "There"s a load of hands I"m beating here"  :D Epic fail on my part! You played very well on that table and didn"t luckbox anything that I remember. You"re overall individual finishing position after the MTT said it all really  8)


+1 You played ever so well, that well I might even forgive you for the rubdown the day after!!! :P

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Fatcatstu

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2012, 22:09:47 PM »
That table was utterly vile. This is all
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KarmaDope

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2012, 22:18:27 PM »
So we head to the MTT and the table looks like this:

Team                                        NLHE   PLO   MTT            TOTAL
                                                                                                                                       
Scotland B   28   26   0            54
England A   30   20   0            50
Wales B   28   22   0            50
England B   20   30   0            50
England C   20   29   0            49
Wales A   22   20   0            42
Scotland A   16   20   0            36
Ireland A   16   13   0            29

This was the weirdest MTT I have ever played. Nobody bust before the 1st break, which was 3 levels in. Hell, even the WSOP ME has bustouts by then! It was the nittiest game I"d ever played. Not any fault with the structure, just that people knew that staying in was important and they were happy to fold, fold, fold down to 1xbb. It eventually got to the stage where it did become a crapshoot after the second break at the end of level 5. At that break, I think 38 people were left in, including all 5 of us. Then 5 minutes after the break, I got moved.

To JP"s right.

Oh, hold on, we"d planned for this! I was short and JP had chips so let"s just say I got a few walks and leave it at that. I"ll save the team game discussion for another post. Shortly after that though, Mark, Matt and Asa all bust early, and we were down to 2 whilst most teams had 4-5 left. JP and I had a quick chat and again, this was an advantage. Everyone else wanted/needed to stay in. JP and I couldn"t care less. We couldn"t nit it up because we were practically out - so we played poker. We went for the individual win.

And people kept busting. Soon we had 4 tables.

Then 3 tables.

Then 2 tables. And we were still there, sat next to each other, keeping up with the average chip count.

It was only then that we realised "hold on, we can still qualify for the finals here!" Matt, Mark and Asa were constantly keeping us updated on the scores. Ireland were out but every other team still had a chance...but now WE had the player advantage! Scotland B had 4 and every other team had 1 or 2.

Then we got to 13 and it all changed. Scotland B were assured of a HU for Gold spot so they loosened up, and we had to slow down again. Some very quick maths by Mark told us which players we had to aim for, and JP and I focused on their blinds, until I got moved. I had average chips, albeit 8bbs, but was the 2nd biggest stack at my table.

On the other table I was the shortstack.

Next thing I knew, I"d played one round of the table and we"d gone from 12 to 8! We knew we could only get 3rd/4th, but it was ridiculously close and was as simple as "finish higher than Carl Pilgrim". Yeah, easier said than done. I"d also realised that I was close to scoring the highest individual points and that only two people on the final table could beat me if I finished 8th or 7th. One of them was Paulie D but I was lucky enough to see him lose 2 coolers and bust 7th.

The other person? JP Round.

I really wanted a medal. However, I REALLY wanted to be the highest points scorer. I needed it. I"d spent a month doubting myself that I was worth my spot and I needed to prove it.  So I hung on, and on. Then I found a pair of Queens and shoved. Can"t remember if I got called. Either way I won a pot. I was just focused on staying in and getting us 3rd.

Then Carl busted.

We had 3rd. We were playing for a medal.

Then Leigh came over and said that there was no point us playing on...and if everyone agreed, finishing positions would be decided by chip counts. I did some VERY quick maths and worked out that I needed to finish 4th if JP won as a tie gave it to him. On chip count he was 3rd, so I was guaranteed to finish highest points scorer.

Damn right I said I was happy with that!!

So we head to the HU matches. JP had decided our order before the STT"s. He was going to lead off with Mark, Matt would go 3rd, I would go 4th, and Asa was the death man.

I just sat and watched as Mark beat Jo Sharp, JP got lucky against GiMac and Matt got an early lead and never looked back against Grant. I got to start my match with Mary but we played half of the first level and that was it!

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KarmaDope

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2012, 22:21:52 PM »
It was a great day and I"m really proud to have been a part of it. Big thanks to JP for having faith in me and actually selecting me. Thanks to the rest of the team for getting us over the line. It might be a bronze, but it takes pride of place on my bedside shelving (where the cat cant get it), unlike Joobs, who has a silver and it"s in a drawer somewhere.

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KarmaDope

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2012, 22:22:53 PM »


Yeah I run good in general mate :) Even by APAT standards I"d agree that NLHE STT was one of the toughest line-ups I"ve ever faced as well. The hand I remember most was the one I got so so wrong, on the jack high board when I called your Q/Q all in with 10/10. I remember saying "There"s a load of hands I"m beating here"  :D Epic fail on my part! You played very well on that table and didn"t luckbox anything that I remember. You"re overall individual finishing position after the MTT said it all really  8)


+1 You played ever so well, that well I might even forgive you for the rubdown the day after!!! :P

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I didn"t mean the rubdown deliberately, whatever I said! xx
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Supernova

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #8 on: December 13, 2012, 22:29:35 PM »
I know you didn"t hence the  :P!!!, still think you played brilliantly for the team  ;D
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Des

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #9 on: December 13, 2012, 22:47:37 PM »
Great posts Adam and really well deserved success.
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amcgrath1uk

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #10 on: December 13, 2012, 23:54:20 PM »
Liking the start of the blog Adam, I"ll imagine you"ll keep yours up to date better than I do with mine!

Definitely deserving as the highest points scorer at the team event, both yourself and JP in the mtt were immense which got us over the line.

I actually wasn"t aware of how ridiculously tough your NLHE table was in the stt ( to be fair they all were but that took the biscuit!)

One thing of note, putting the shirt on also made my heart start beating a fair bit quicker, so I know how you felt!

The thing with the bronze... same with me, I didn"t care about the colour and still don"t, the first one is going to be special, and I can see more coming!
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KarmaDope

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2012, 16:15:09 PM »


It appears that Norwegian pilots do have a sense of humour when circling to land...this is the route one particular pilot decided to take...
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KarmaDope

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #12 on: December 14, 2012, 21:03:36 PM »
Braving the fun at the Aquarium tonight...
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KarmaDope

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #13 on: December 15, 2012, 21:26:39 PM »
The Aquarium last night was a bust, but still good fun albeit lacking Ger so a little bit quiet. Shogun won, again.

I got to go cos Ju had a works xmas party in Manchester and she was staying overnight. Met her in town today and we went around the Christmas Markets. I don"t really get them to be fair, it seemed massively overpriced for what it was, anybody else think this?
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amcgrath1uk

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Re: Obsessive and slightly random thoughts
« Reply #14 on: December 15, 2012, 21:32:03 PM »

The Aquarium last night was a bust, but still good fun albeit lacking Ger so a little bit quiet. Shogun won, again.

I got to go cos Ju had a works xmas party in Manchester and she was staying overnight. Met her in town today and we went around the Christmas Markets. I don"t really get them to be fair, it seemed massively overpriced for what it was, anybody else think this?


I suppose the stuff they sell is a lil different, but to be fair, I don"t really look ( or shop!) at them!
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