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DARE TO DREAM

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BOINGBLITZ:
Why do we play this game ?
Is it to make money ?.....for the fun ?.......to pass the time at the end of a hard days grind ??
I am sure that we all have differing thoughts on this but from my own perspective, I love the uniqueness of this game in that any one of us......ANYONE.....could one day hit the big-time.
  I feel a certain sense of team-spirit in reading last week that "George" Bedi took down first place in the Gala Final in Nottingham. George is one of us, an APAT Team member, so therefore we can say to everyone that one of "Ours" has hit the big-time.
  That result also has to give everyone hope that one day they can do the same.
  I am a very enthusiastic amateur who strives to learn by his mistakes and consistantly improve year-on-year and so far my results since to 2005 tell me that I am doing so.
  Last year I had my biggest win yet when I won a $5500 seat on the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise.
  This was not just a big win in terms of the financial aspect of it, but also in that it meant that my poker skills had taken my wife for 4 days in New York plus a Carribean cruise for 9 days on one of the biggest ships in the world.  It showed her that I really DO win at this game and it also meant that she could see first-hand what amazing benefits a game of cards can now bring in.
  While on the cruise I entered 3 tournaments with buy-ins of $300, $500 and $1000....way, WAY out of my normal league !
  Sitting down in the $500 first, I felt intimidated by the presence of two online pros to my left who were continually discussing what it was like living in the Phillipines on the proceeds of their online prowess. Having just one decent hand and NEVER ONCE getting above my 5,000 chip starting-stack didnt"t help either and I finally busted out after 4 hours when my A-K ran into the monster that is 10-2 off.
  My confidence, while not shattered, was severely dented. Was I so far out of my depth that I was throwing money away here ?
  2 days later, I fared a little better in the $300 tourney and was about 5 hours in when Diana Arama was moved to my right. We had met in a sit-and-go the night before when she had called my pre-flop raise with AA when she held 8-3 off.....and hit an 8-3-3 flop !
  Now Diana is a lovely lady, and no mean player.......but on THREE occasions her husband (Jac Arama) came and whispered in her ear, with cards on the table, telling her strategy tips. This pis.......upset me a little....and I complained about it at the break, only to be told that no rules were being broken !!
  Lo and behold, a few hands into the next session, she took me out with A-K against my 8-8......nothing wrong with that, but I still felt a little aggreived at what went before.
  I had seriously considered withdrawing from the $1000 event....but on leaving the main room following my exit from the $500 tourney, I entered the sit-and-go room where my wife was ecstatic at having won a $20 tourney and beat a Scandie heads-up to win $100 !!
  She went to bed happy and I partied until 7am with friends made onboard......totally forgetting that the $1000 tourney kicked-off at 11am.
  It was too late to back out now so I sat down feeling a little worse for wear and looked around my table. I had Pokergirl1, 2 seats to my right, one of the biggest online winners ever,then there was a Swedish pro next to me, Banksoir to my left, Punk Floyd was there also, plus 2 other faces that I had seen a few months earlier on the telivised poker million heats on Sky.  
   KINELL !!!
  Amazingly, I played good, solid poker and lasted 11 hours, finishing 31st to win my $1000 buy-in back.......no profit, but oh-so-satisfying.
  I had sat down in a tourney with a buy-in that if you took a zero off the end would still be big for me, and I had cashed !
  Dare to dream ??
  When i returned home my live game had improved so much that by the end of April my ROI (Return On Investment) at Walsall Grosvenor was over 200%.
  Fast forward to now, to May 28th and I have hit a bad patch. 14 losing days in a row means that the month of May looks set to be a losing one so can Saturday"s APAT Academy training day do anything to alleviate that ?
  I certainly will be going there with high hopes that the tips we will be getting will improve my game and make the £99 investment a bargain. Maybe a win in the £50 tourney at DTD on Saturday night ??
 Well......we can all dare to dream......can"t we ??!!

Santino67:
Excellent BB, love the story and I too dare to dream. At the moment I"m very happy playing the £10 & £20 buy in games, normally twice a week and have only been doing this since the end of March. So far for my money I"ve cashed in 7 games taking just over £750 so the small investments have been very worthwhile.
More than this is the experience I"ve gained from coming off line and playing face to face with others like me...........and learning from the (more than a few  :o ;D ) mistakes I"ve made. Some of the people I"ve met have made it an even more enjoyable experience than I"d imagined and even qualifying for the Scottish National final gave me a huge buzz. I hope one day to be in the same league as some of you guys and get to play with some of the well known names & faces, but think that"s a way off at the moment.

Keeping the concentration, focus and faith is the key I think, but time will tell. Hope to meet in Ireland, good luck till then  8)

BOINGBLITZ:
Thanx for the kind comments Santino.
Now onto entry no.2.....

BACK TO SCHOOL

As previously mentioned, my 14-day losing streak had extended itself to 16 days before a 7th place finish in William Hill"s $5k guaranteed tourney on Thursday night gave me a $201 return for my $25 entry to end that sequence, the longest losing run I have ever had.
  I had a bad run a few weeks back but on that occasion I knew I WAS playing very well and just running bad. This time I was playing poorly, playing weak starting hands, making bad calls, generally doing everything that I know I should not do.
  So with that in mind it was off to Nottingham on a very pleasant Saturday morning to make my first visit to Dusk Till Dawn, the state-of-the-art Poker venue where those wonderful APAT guys were staging the first of three "Academy Days" or "Boot-Camps" as the Yanks like to call them.
  At £99 it was a bargain in my opinion and I was delighted to be there and looking forward to hearing from Paul Jackson, Julian Thew and Simon Trumper, the Pros who were to be the Cap-and-gown wearers for the day.
  Paul, I had met before on the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise and I have to say that he is my favourite player for several reasons, not least the fact that he is a fellow Baggie like myself. Also, back in 2005, I reached a milestone in my poker-playing life when I had my first ever FIRST place finish in a tourney. It won me $865 on Ladbrokes one Sunday afternoon and heads-up I beat a very pleasant opponent called ACTIONJACK.......who at that time I had no idea was a professional player !  
  Today Paul dealt with game theory and why you make certain moves and how to put players on certain hands. Being a Black-Country native myself, I had no problem in understanding his accent but I did wonder how the other guys in the room were getting on as Paul"s obvious passion for this game was there for all to see as his words-per-minute seemed to go up in proportion to his enjoyment of the teaching experience.
  After a lunch break Julian Thew came in for a question and answer session on his own career plus what it is like to be a professional poker player. A softly spoken guy, I don"t think you would be able to peg him as a Pro if you were on one of those "Guess the Job" TV game-shows but having said that I found him a very endearing guy, down to earth and someone who obviously realises how fortunate he is to do what he does for a living. I enjoyed his talk and wish him all the good luck possible in the future as people with his attitude to this game deserve to succeed.
 Last but by no means least was Simon Trumper who led us out into the gaming area to go through "The Wonderful World Of Tells". This was a REAL eye-opener.
 As I paid my dosh along with the other 20 or so people there, I ain"t telling you ANYTHING that was passed onto us......but what I will say is this.......When I sat down to play in the evening"s £50 freezeout I IMMEDIATELY saw one guy at my table giving off one of these tells. Then later on another guy sat down and did the same ! Only once did I mis-read either of these 2 players and although I went out 66th (K-9 vs 3-5......3-9-J-3 !!!) I knew that I had learnt something invaluable for my live play from the day and also my online play as on returning home I used some of Paul"s earlier advice and finished 5th of 89 runners to pick-up £156 on William Hill.
  To me, that had paid for the tutorial already !!
 I am now looking forward to Tuesday night when I am making a significant step-up in class when I pay my £200 to enter a freezeout in the Midlands Meltdown at Walsall. I will look forward to seeing if players playing at that level also give off the tells. 
  Watch this space......
   

Chipaccrual:
Great post.

Was the tell a clenched fist and small whoop ?

BOINGBLITZ:
But....but.....I thought EVERYONE did that when they got aces !!!!

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