Amateur Poker Association & Tour

Poker Forum => General Discussion => Member Blogs => Topic started by: fandango on November 06, 2012, 17:12:37 PM

Title: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on November 06, 2012, 17:12:37 PM: So after reading many of the other members blogs over the years i have decided to have a dabble at my very own..

I can warn all potential readers that im by far probably the worse person to be doing this, as my grammer, punctuation, and spilling/ spelling are utterly dispicable.. as i should of spent more time learning this at school than acting the class plonker! so if you are desperate enough to read please bear this in mind ;D .

So a little about myself.. Well for those who dont know me my name is Carl Pilgrim, have reached the ripe old age of 41!
I live in Ipswich, and have always been living no further than 15 miles from Colchester where i was born. Have not taken that big step of getting married, but have a wonderful partner of 6 years, who has 3 kids from a previous marriage, and mother to our youngest princess/monster, so as you can guess the home where we live with 4 kids, a puppy :-X, a parrot, 2 fish and 2 Guinea pigs is a joy ;D ;D.

I was born with a medical condition called Muscular Dystrophy, this is a muscle wasting disease that progresses as you get older, there are hundreds of different types of MD and mine has the wonderful name of Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy type 2i. Was first diagnosed with a strain called Beckers MD way back when i was 12, when it was clear to see that my physical attributes where lagging far behind those of my fellow pupils at school, but after further tests 15 years ago was changed that in fact it was LGMD2i, basically same symptoms different genetics. Doctors didnt really know much about MD 30yrs ago, but with todays science great leaps in understanding the disease have taken place, so prehaps in another 30yrs they could find a cure?.. I never really let my condition effect me if i can help it, i feel blessed that i have a milder form of MD and although i have many challengers ahead of me, i was able to lead a relative "normal" childhood, i feel for the poor kids who are born with the horror of Duchenne MD :(. I am fortunate to have a great partner and family who support me day to day, and also very very lucky to have so many great people in the APAT community who i can call true friends, who help me more than they can imagine when i come along to the live events.

So there is a little waffle about me, now for the real reason im writing the blog POKER :).

Having MD restricts the things i am able to do vastly, i was a Chef for 15 years but MD got the better and put a stop to it. So i needed to find something to do as my legs arms etc was getting weaker and weaker as time went by,, i played a lot of pool and snooker and spent hours and hours up the local club, where we would play cards alot, one of my mates was talking about playing poker online at a site called Paradise poker.. so went home downloaded the client, three weeks later Pokerstars was downloaded and it took off from there.
In the early days online poker was very very different from today and actually was quite easy to make a decent $ or two, i played 12 hours a day on Paradise mainly $10 SNGs but after building a roll progressed to the $200nl tables, max buy in $200 min $40.. Played with a few players regular who are now rather well known Durrr being one of those. Well i then started playing the MTT on stars and was doing very well if i dont mind saying so myself :). Started satts into their WPT events, and after numerous FTs i managed to win a seat to a WPT shooting stars event in San Jose California $10,000 buy in!! this would be only my second ever live tournament i had ever played! I had played a $20 freezeout at the Imperial Palace the year before on a family holiday to vegas and won it ;D so i obv thought i was a professional, easy game!.. Well the WPT event didnt go to well lol my utter lack of experience was my down fall, totally out of my depth playing with all the top pros utter carnage, wont go into details but didnt even make first break lol.
Now i had struck up a good online friendship over a few years with a player on Paradise called Divingduck and had met up in San Jose, had learnt alot from him he was a very very good player.
His name was Mark Forrester and lived in Preston, and we played hours and hours together on Paradise and that same year he qualified for the WSOP with Bodog where he had a deep run and cashed for $100k+ in 55th i think it was.
So he kept badgering me to open up a Bodog account for next years WSOP (2006) so i opened up an acc and mainly played their satts, i never had a good bankroll on Bodog after bad management when drawing out large chunks after good wins, so their $250 freezeout satts where out of my price range, the overlays where huge!! always one seat garunteed never reached more than 90 players, needless to say Mark grabbed a seat early on, the pressure was on me to qualify but that meant via a cheap sat, never was able to bink a seat into the Frezeout looked like i had to wait till next year >:(. But then Bodog put on a one off $27.50 freezeout one seat garunteed tourney, so i hopped in for what i thought would be a impossible task, well 5 hours later i was calling my parents to tell them to book their flights to Vegas ;D i had beat 400 others to book a place at the WSOPME $10,000 +$2.500 expenses + enough merchandise to sinl the Bismark Ipod, shades hoodies etc etc, amazing package for $27.50.. The trip will stay with me for ever amazing!! 2weeks of Vegas :) played well in the ME but busted last level of day when was crippled when flopped nut flush, losing to rivered quad 8s, the sound of chip ruffling in the Rios Amazon room is something to behold!! a definate if you ever get the chance to go play..
Apart from Vegas my only other live poker i play is with the APAT tour, and i can say hand on heart i enjoy it more than any other poker i have ever played!! amazing people and well run perfect in every way. Although next year i may be playing a Genting event after i was lucky to be given the chance after winning it as a added prize... This takes me to what i consider my greatest poker acheivement to date winning the ECOAP ;D, i wont go into too much detail ( brag ) but i run like ( ok not run lol wheeled) Usain Bolt for a few hours at the end of day two the rest is history, i did a report on the live update thread a few days after if any one wants the report.. Also winning the POTS at same time another bonus as it gets me a ISPT seat next May at Wembly Stadium!! oh and not to mention £7,500 for my troubles. ok enough bragging.. wait maybe one more small brag while im at it, ummm the little honour of competing for ENGLAND A at the up and coming home internationals at Stoke... GET THE FOOK IN THERE MY SON!!! am so humbled and cant put into words how bloody excited i am ;D.

So if you have made it this far through my attempt at a blog im sure your doctor can prescribe the appropriate medication.. I am not going to be posting daily as to be honest i really dont get out and about that much, will post from time to time about my online/ Brick and mortar experiences, and anything else that you may find remotely interesting ::)

So here it starts... lets hope i can blog some great news like England crushing the home internationals with a clean sweep of Gold Silver and Bronze, Des buying a round of drinks at an APAT event, Ger shaving off his tash for Movember or Phil and Stu staying sober..errrr ok

Thanks for reading :D

oh did i tell you... i hate Beetroot
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Fatcatstu on November 06, 2012, 17:31:54 PM: Top blog that Carl, I will be reading on with interest :)

England will indeed be crushing the Home Nations, of this I have no doubt at all :)

Keep it up please mate, cant promise to stay sober tho sorry :p
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Santino67 on November 06, 2012, 18:30:59 PM: Pilgrim"s Progress....I like it ;)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: duke3016 on November 06, 2012, 18:40:00 PM: Quote from: fandango on November 06, 2012, 17:12:37 PM

Ger shaving off his tash for Movember

Was going well until then ;D I am going to enjoy these words from you ....
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Waz1892 on November 06, 2012, 18:48:42 PM: About time Carl!

One of those blogs that I"m genuinely pleased it has started
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: AAroddersAA on November 06, 2012, 18:50:50 PM: Should be good, lots of poker posts please :-)

Oh and jokes there have to be jokes.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: nosey-p on November 06, 2012, 19:00:05 PM: Good start Carl

Looking forward to reading this
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Santino67 on November 06, 2012, 23:36:51 PM: Quote from: AAroddersAA on November 06, 2012, 18:50:50 PM

Should be good, lots of poker posts please :-)

Oh and jokes there have to be jokes.

Aren"t there enough of these on FB? :D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: PHIL_TC on November 07, 2012, 00:01:15 AM: Wiiii! Look forward to this Carl :)

Quote from: fandango on November 06, 2012, 17:12:37 PM

or Phil and Stu staying sober..errrr ok

Hang on.. you saying we"ve got a drinking problem up North?? ;)

Look forward to reading more of this.. and seeing you in Stoke mate x
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: VBlue on November 07, 2012, 09:20:22 AM: Interesting background in online poker which I would love to hear more about. Playing with Tom Dwan online regularly.

Nice results too. Will follow the blog with interest.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: AceOnTheRiver on November 07, 2012, 12:18:53 PM: Fantastic OP - looking forward to more

Proud to call you a friend Carl
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on November 07, 2012, 13:55:45 PM: Thanks for all the encouraging comments guys, it has given me more confidence to prehaps blog more than i first intended to.

Quote from: VBlue on November 07, 2012, 09:20:22 AM

Interesting background in online poker which I would love to hear more about. Playing with Tom Dwan online regularly.

Nice results too. Will follow the blog with interest.

Thanks VBlue will give a little more insight to the early days of online poker from my perspective..

In "the early days" as i call it, there was few online poker sites available, unlike the hundreds if not thousands there are today.. Paradise poker, Pokerstars, Ultimate Bet, and Full Tilt... and although i had accounts for all of these Paradise was my main stomping ground, and Pokerstars being my other..
Paradise had its so called big names playing there at the the time i recall NSXT2 being the online phenom (Todd Arnold) he was a poker instructor, and Paradise used to "blow some serious smoke up his bottom" he was their ambassador at the time, also Miami John Cernuto was a regular..
PP always endorsed WPT events, and held satts into all their Main events.. Played lots of them myself but only if i satted into them in the first place, although i had a healthy bankroll i never would dream of splashing out $200-1,000 on a single game, the games where pretty soft then and all my 1000s of hours playing i was almost always binking a seat into the daily final, the finals themselves where very well attended and there was usually always 2 seats up for grabs.. and good money for bubble $3-4k .. Although i only ever won seat to the "Shooting stars" tourney at Bay101 San jose, i did bubble a couple of others.. one i remember to this day as it is particulary painful!! :"( :"(.. Was a WPT event final to play at Foxwoods there was 2x $10,000 and $4,300 for third (back then PP bumped all $$ over into bubble), well the long and short of it all was we got down to 3 handed, after my Shooting Stars bink the prevous year i was desperate to win and try again, the $4,3k wasnt even an option!.. well i have now learnt my lesson of never trusting a complete stranger online :"( :"( ... three handed i was 2nd in chips ,CL was miles ahead pretty much secured a seat after i doubled him up when i was a chipleader my AK v AJ AIPF cruel J on river (funny how even to this day i still visualise that J hitting lol ).. no worries i still had a healthy lead on 3rd place guy :).. then it went tits up guy in third announced he wanted the cash and we could have the 2 seats :) happy days we all agreed and he sat out, we went about the business of sharing his blinds for a couple of hands, then the school boy error on my behalf my turn to steal his blind.. instead of min raising i raised all in not thinking that he would do what he would and sit back in and call!!.. :o :o :o WTF It was the dirtiest trick ever, well obv from there on he went on and got 2nd :"(.. the rail went crazy at the guy saying it was the most awful thing they had ever witnessed etc etc.. then a couple of peeps also said it was my fault for trusting him, you know what they where right i was a stupid mug!!.. Well i couldnt sleep for a couple of nights so gutted!! so i emailed PP and explained what had happened, even sent them the chat log in HH.. their reply was that obv it was out of their control etc etc, obv they where right so not alot i could do.. So a couple of weeks passed and they released the holding tank details for Foxwoods, so i scrolled down to see the list of qualifiers and to my amazement the villain was not on the list??.. and in the rules and regulations there was no cash alternative and you could not transfer the seat?.. So i bombarded customer support with emails asking where the seat had gone or who the seat had gone too?.. they forwarded my request to Lucy who was their live events organiser at the time, we had met the year before at SS.. now this is where it gets fishy IMO, she couldnt give me a straight answer where the seat had gone! basically she explained that the villain was infact an underaged player.. so my argument was if in case that was the fact then i should be bumped up into second place, and the $$ go to 4th place.? Well she said this could not and would not happen as it is stated that seats cant be transfered? WTF!! ok then i said if thats the case what has happened to the $12,000 prize generated by all of the players who had entered the tourney? and again i was fobbed off as to say she wasnt in a position to give that information out, and it was the end of the matter, and as a gesture they would give me a free seat into the next WPT event feeder $215, what a load of tosh, just made me so angry that either stole the $12k or transfered it to one of their online pros ( NSXT2, Turniptruck, or Miami John).. i even started a thread on pck5s i was so sickened.. but at the end of the day i guess it was my own stupid fault..
So as i stated i played the $200nl cash tables back in the day. i remember so many of the names i regulary played with.. Divingduck, Gavarillo, Paul Craven, Billiards, Durrrr, Lardbucket and mine and everyone elses fav Oilman..
Now this guy Oilman was an absolute maniac obv had more money than sense or was using others credit cards!! it is no lie that when he came on the table the min raise was $25!! the guy could drop $1,000 every ten mins.. never have i seen a waiting list climb from 2 or 3 to 30+ in mins.. it was like everyone was sitting on PP waiting for him to sit down, i know that Divingduck and myself over the six months that he played easily took $60,000 from him alone.. it wasnt poker it was robbery!! he would obv bust people all over the place and sit with $1,200 at the table now this might not sound much by todays standards but it was classed as a huge stack back then, thing was it would all end up being given back within an hour or so, it was quite sick to watch, and i did actually feel sorry for the guy even though he furnished my flat it was plain to see he had a problem and we was feeding off him..
At the time we was playing on PP Durrr (from Edison) wasnt a well known player to us just another reg playing the $200nl games, infact i had him as a fish on my player notes (ooops goes to show what i knew) as his style was so loose and he did actually donate alot of the times.. then he seemed to go off the screens on PP? Well a couple of years later Mark (Divingduck) and me was chatting on MSN and he said do you realise that Durrr is making millions on Full Tilt on their PLO games and to check it out, so i would spend hours watching him crush on the tables scooping huge pots that i could not believe where real money!! obv my notes where way out.. i needed to look at my own game!!
So the poker Boom had taken off big time!! Chris Moneymaker wins the 2003 WSOP, Pokerstars and FT lead the market, and making money online is no pushover in fact it was hard to make anything like i was when i first started..
My game wasnt any good in the boom of online poker.. my style was TIGHT in fact a player commented on my play which still makes me laugh to this day Quote.. " Fandango you play so tight, i bet you could swallow a lump of coal and s**t a diamond! :D :D ) so an adjustment was needed and tried to adjust to the new way that i needed and its true no matter how many millions of hands you have played there is still so much room for improvement, im still needing to constantly change the way i play, still often curse myself the way i played a certain tournament, not so much a single hand but a tournament on a whole... Prehaps i should start reading books? i have never ever read one but hear that people swear by them, sad as it may sound but i do watch hours of poker from the rail, i almost always stay on the rail after busting and watch especially APAT games and take mental notes aswell as enjoy the banter..

I would love to hear feedback from my other fellow players also, please if there is an obvious flaw in my own game PM me and explain what you see, constructive criticism is always welcome, i think i need help when im at the awkward stack range of 12-15 BBs i think i tend to tighten up too much instead of trying to build and my bet sizing off All in is wrong relative to situation etc should i be sizing 4x 3x to show strength, then what to do when i whiff the flop etc. etc.

Well so much for the small blog hmmm getting carried away with waffle lol..

But if there is any thing anyone would like to ask either poker/non poker related i will endeavour to bore you with an answer..

Quick joke today.. As on FB..

" My wife"s face is so bloody rough... her glasses have been boarded up!"
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on November 10, 2012, 16:03:36 PM: So another eventful APAT promotion finished its first of five legs last night .. Bunch of fives was brilliant really enjoyed all aspects of the games played. My results by my own standards where rather disappointing, I like to think I have an above average standard on a couple of the variants especially the PLO Omaha and Omaha hi/lo but one bad beat in the PLO and one cooler/ bad play in the hi/lo kinda ruined my chances of a strong finish.
Andrew and Johnny crushed the league and deserved the top two places, John Murray played very well all week as he normally does and was in with a fighting chance if the other two slipped up.. Looking forward to playing more of these, dunno if I can commit to every week, Emma might go nuts lol so will have to test the waters :D.
Just under three weeks to Stoke.. can"t wait my last live poker game was Nottingham ECOAP where happy memories will always be with me. Been busy on EBay since the call up purchased a few apt patriotic merchandise pieces to bring along with me.. oh and Emma has purchased me " lucky" England boxer shorts, I won"t spoil you all by modelling them, but be rest assured they will be worn on the day.
Tommorow brings another league game for us all, last week the whole of EOE seemed like the bad beats where smacking us all in the face, hate to harp on about them as we all forget the beats we dish out ourselves, but last week was just carnage!! Wayne owned me :"( he did nothing wrong I had position on him from the start he ran his Kings into my Aces only problem was I was drawing dead on turn when he hit four to the flush on the turn with Diamonds, then another hand his A9 beat my AJ on an A high flop with the 9 on river. Then Bill shoved his short stack UTG AIPF with 77 i wake up with JJ in the BB safe flop and turn then the obligatory 7 on river, Bill went on to finish 4th last week, so was quite a great comeback. EOE need a good second half of the season and I"m sure we can be up with a chance of a strong finish, we have a very good strong committed squad so I"m sure a good run is on the cards..

Not going to mention Portugal much but jealouse the end.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on November 17, 2012, 14:38:21 PM: So another great week of enjoying the Bunch of Fives series, although I missed the five card draw to the late reg glitch.
Never had any kind of chance after a terrible week where variance and bad play put that to rest.. Two worthy winners as always congrats to Paul and Tony, the final table will be a hard fought affair and if I"m not lucky enough to qualify I will def enjoy watching it...

Having by my standards a somewhat meagre attempt of playing much poker this month, just playing the APAT games and the odd Micro millions and SNG on stars.. Not enjoying online poker as much at the moment, have had no real deep runs etc, not playing to my full potential!! .. This is because the last month or so I can only think about trip to Stoke, I need a live poker fix! Looking forward to catching up with all the regular faces and having a good laugh.. Will also be nice to catch up with Anne (Nellie) who is Michelles mum, who I havent seen at a live event for a couple of seasons.. Always been such a nice person to chat with at the tables, and also a very tough accomplished player.. So was chuffed when she said she was travelling up with Mich on the Friday to rail, and probably play the ME on Saturday..

With my recent success at the ECOAP I treated myself to a new Samsung smart TV, I have yet to use the 3D feature it has.
So I purchased the Prometheus DVD today as Lovefilm does not have it on their rentals for some reason..gonna sit with Emma and watch it tonight with our funky looking glasses on lol.. have heard mixed reviews about the film so I guess I shouldn"t get to excited, but all the trailers I have seen make it look pretty awesome..
Also with the DVD I got a code for a digital copy that you download to PC, then you can view on PC/tablet etc..
If anyone wants the code number and link to website they are welcome to it, as I won"t be using it myself. First come first served ;D, just reply on this thread if you want it and I will PM you the details..

Good luck to any APATers playing Micro millions etc, good luck to all EOE players this weekend may we have some run good please poker gods!! Special luck to pokerpops of to St Kitts next week bink the win please ;D..

Edit... If anyone needs a new washing machine I believe our good friend Ger may have a spare kicking around :D :D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: duke3016 on November 17, 2012, 14:52:26 PM: Quote from: fandango on November 17, 2012, 14:38:21 PM

Edit... If anyone needs a new washing machine I believe our good friend Ger may have a spare kicking around :D :D

sigh
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Quasar on November 22, 2012, 16:38:57 PM: This is already one of my favourite blogs Carl. Love all the early poker days info and looking forward to lots more ;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on November 22, 2012, 17:22:07 PM: Quote from: Quasar on November 22, 2012, 16:38:57 PM

This is already one of my favourite blogs Carl. Love all the early poker days info and looking forward to lots more ;D

Awww thanks Debbie :-*
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: MintTrav on November 22, 2012, 21:46:04 PM: Quote from: fandango on November 22, 2012, 17:22:07 PM

Quote from: Quasar on November 22, 2012, 16:38:57 PM

This is already one of my favourite blogs Carl. Love all the early poker days info and looking forward to lots more ;D

Awww thanks Kim :-*

It won"t be one of her favourites for long if you call her by her surname.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on November 22, 2012, 22:00:10 PM: Quote from: MintTrav on November 22, 2012, 21:46:04 PM

Quote from: fandango on November 22, 2012, 17:22:07 PM

Quote from: Quasar on November 22, 2012, 16:38:57 PM

This is already one of my favourite blogs Carl. Love all the early poker days info and looking forward to lots more ;D

Awww thanks Kim :-*

It won"t be one of her favourites for long if you call her by her surname.

Ooopps sorry Debbie lol Pilgrim typo thanks Murray :-*
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Curlarge on November 23, 2012, 01:36:14 AM: Excellent reading Carl, esp., the ealy stuff which was before I played and is always of interest.

Looking forward to the Stoke (Championeeeee"s ;)) blog soooooooooooooooooon ;D ;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 04, 2012, 16:47:20 PM: Quote from: Curlarge on November 23, 2012, 01:36:14 AM

Excellent reading Carl, esp., the ealy stuff which was before I played and is always of interest.

Looking forward to the Stoke (Championeeeee"s ;)) blog soooooooooooooooooon ;D ;D

Well Rich here goes, got so much to say its unreal!!... please bear with me while i ramble on..

So like an excited little kid on Xmas day Friday has arrived!!! this can only mean one thing UK Amateur Championship time whoop whoop.
Have a trouble free drive from Ipswich to Stoke, book into Holiday Express at 12.30 and Emma bumps into Phil TC and James in lobby there off out to hunt down red hair dye :) we head off to Genting..

Arrive to meet the usual crowd of degens at the bar, aswell as Lucy who we have the pleasure to meet for the first time, its true what people say she really is a lovely person, who as the weekend goes on Emma forms a nice bond with :).
Also meet my fellow team member Ken Mcbride for the first time, a true gent a pleasure..
So the five of us England A are ready to do battle cmon!! With fake tats, and other various props abound i cant wait for it to begin..

The infamouse Five..

Richard the lion heart Baker
Don the Hammer Roberts
Ken Mcbride
Glen Laming
and myself

So i sit down at the first SNG and are confronted with a table full of complete sharks ( and Stu )..Adam Sharples, Stu Ward who looks like "quote" a russian peado, the APAT final table monster that is Darren Shallis, Steve Rodderick!!, Kevin O hanlon, Tom Clarke and no other than MR Charlie errr Grant Spears!! easy table then hmmm...

So without much to talk about the key notes on the way the table played was Kevin got shafted very hard where it hurts when Steve holding Ace Five on a board of A.. 5.. T.. took on Kevin who was holding AT, obv Leigh cant push a button like he can online so instead he rigged the deck so the 5 would river... poor Kevin but like a true Gent took it well, But Kevin is a great player so winning the MTT was no suprise to me and justified why he was picked to represent his country, congrats Kevin well deserved..
Well back to the SNG was a tough grind believe me, Grant was down to about 1.2k very early on, and uttered the words " i can still do some damage".. ermmm and damage he did totally destroyed the table, ran like Usain Bolt as Grant will confess, but also played his stack very well when he got there, and was no suprise to me when he secured the win, beating Adam HU who played an absolute blinding game,... Now Adam ended up being the Highest individual points scorer out of the whole International field and should be very proud of this acheivment, and his medal he won with his team.. i know Adam was worried about being Justified for being picked as he explained to me that day.. Adam take a bow sir no need to worry mate. Me i grinded a third which i was happy with as i believe my best hand was JJ and i had to pick my spots very carefully, with Grant beating me up!!.. So after the first round of SNGs with Don winning his heat, and the other 3 all doing great England A was top going into the PLO..

So its PLO time... I love PLO so was excited, not going to lie though i played awful far to spewy and ended up going out 5th, no one could contend with Gordon at our table, he was a monster making some calls which to be fair if i was honest where rather loose, but it worked for him and he destroyed us all, my final exit hand was a three way all in when i was holding QQ88.. i was a river card away from tripling up on a straightning board, both Gordon and Stuart both needed one of the 2 remaining 8s in the deck to complete the straight (unfortunatley for Stu it was the dummy end).. haha dummy get it!! sorry Stu xx love you :-*.. and lo and behold Leigh had yet again rigged the deck boom 8 on river... but cant complain damage was done before then with my spewtard ways..
Richard showed his immense PLO capabilities and with no suprise to me won his SNG.. well done skip..

So after that set of SNGs there where still many things that could happen with the way the top 4 would be decided.. i dont thing Ireland could really do any damage unless basically the whole squad made a FT and Wales where also struggling.. so there was still lots to play for, Scotland B though was doing very well and if a couple made deep runs they would cruise into top 4 ..as they did :)..

Now there are many debates ongoing about point scoring structure etc etc, im just going to say IMO its hard for the guys to please us all all of the time, sure timing etc etc needs to be looked at,,,, but at the end of the day basically its the same for us all so no one is benefitting more than another.. i will play whatever even if its a 3 min hyper turbo lol i just love it, so what ever is decided for future events im cool with if i ever have the honour again..

The MTT ran its cause and i managed to reach the final table.. i was short stacked and all the maths basically meant if Gordon went out before me then i would have to finish either 1st or 2nd to push Scotland A out of 4th and us into 4th.. well the cooler blind on blind with JP holding AA and Gordond KK this scenario now had arisen!!.. i now had a rather large bullseye on my forehead ::).. and not to mention a few kilt wearing bystanders funking on me to bust.. well the short of it all was i pleased the masses and errr busted next :D Tom the Bomb woke up with the monster K2 off ;D and decided my calling range was?? any how with not many BBs AJ looked rather tasty to me, i snap call his all in.. Now its rather silly of me i know Leigh rigs the decks aswell sigh ;D but on a K2x flop im looking rather dodgy but a J turn did give me a little sweat and the team.. but blank river meant some rather happy scots and happy England B players ;D..

I normally would of hung around and watched to see how the HU matches finished, but after a 3 hour drive etc i was knackered and went back to the hotel for some well deserved sleep...

Oh just a quick move back to the MTT game, i must also congratulate Ruddrs Snr on what can only be a sick of sickest lay down reads.. when i flopped a set of 8s on a K high board, when i check raised him he announced i had 888 and he was laying down AA.. kudos sir kudos..

So i wake up Saturday afternoon, missed brekki ooops.. read the good news for Scotland B well done Davie and team well played... Also congrats to England C and B enjoy those medals, it was funny watching Stu shuffle up and down the cardroom like an expectant father lol..

But i had other things on my mind the little matter of the UK main event, couldnt wait to get started it was my first live individual game back since my ECOAP bink at DTD excited as always, as i have stated before i dont get out much lol, makes a change for me other than clicking buttons.. ;D ;D
Arrive after a healthy breakfast of Burger king from down the road Double bacon burger obv FTW ( well it does have bacon in ).. get into card room find my seat, have Ben B next to me, doesnt look anything like Des if you ask me, des doesnt wear specs!! and also have Phil Colis opposite to me a very tough cookie to crack..

So cards are in the air and we are off... Ben started off his usual aggressive style, i was lucky to have position on so we didnt tangle early on, but he was getting outdrawn out flopped big time, and a guy at our table who was either very nervous or either a great actor, his hands where shaking uncontrollably from the off and was calling hitting every single hand, and soon 20+k.. me? well i can put hand on my heart and say it was the most un eventful 90 mins of poker i have ever played!! i even tweeted that day i had not won 1 pot the whole 90 mins and it was the truth, i had set mined a few times and limped folded AJ/AQ etc out of position i was down to 4 chips ;) 12k...

Funny how your mind works, i was sitting in my chair looking around me at all the tables full of incredible players, thinking to myself how the hell am i expected to even make day 2 if i have yet to win 1 hand in the first 2 levels?.. 167 players with prehaps alternates there is no way!!.. then i remembered the fact that after making day 2 at DTD with 18 players left i had 1 big blind left, here i have in contrast gazillions of play left dont be so negative, patience the cards will come..
Well i didnt have any major card rushes, and was on my original table for the first say 9 levels, only memorable hand was when Susiepea got moved to my table, she raised early pos x4 i have QQ.. now i didnt re raise here as i know Susies range and believe it or not even calling scared me a little, silly i know but i smelt a big hand.. well the flop came AQJ Rainbow, well most would of loved that flop but if i was honest i wasnt thrilled lol .. but the oblig all in from her made me feel a little better, dont think she would ship top set so quickly but stranger things have happened.. so i aploogised and said im not slowrolling after taking about 10 secs to call, she understood and flippped AK, lucky me cooler flop..
Then i get moved after table breaks.. Rita Galvin moves with me to a table with Paul Guppy Guptha and Vaino (sorry if spelt wrong guys).. and the dealer deals me AA first hand in lucky for me not so lucky for the short stack Rita who went all in for her last 5k i announced " i will protect you " this may come across as a little angle shot, wasnt meant to be but i can see how it might and raised to 10k then Vaino re shoved over the top for about 15k i think it was with 77, Rita flipped over A7 of spades ;D no sweat for either really, think Leigh had missed rigging this deck (ok thats the last rigged deck statement promise) and i had about 40k my highest stack so far.. forgot to mention that i had CL Dan Field at my previous table.. WOW 200k infront of him.. two hours of folding was in order as he was raising my BB 75% of the time and i had absolute nothing to defend with in that time..
Must state now i have never played live against Paul but he is a monster online his live game is just as impressive!! only a cooler took him out, but the time i spent with him at the table was a blast!! banter flowed and flowed..
So before i knew it level 13 had reached us amazed to have grinded my way this far it was the final level of the day with 30 odd left of the original 167 i had about 30 k which wasnt going to be enough.. this might of been the turn around for me.. was the final hand of the day every body milling around and i look down at QJ .. well i thought to myself i dont really want to come back tomorrow very low stacked maybe the risk of doubling up here might be worth a punt, even if no one calls my all in i add about 5k to my stack with the blinds and antes.. if i get called and lose the i can either play the PLO Sunday or take Emma for a nice meal before we head home... ALL IN!!... Guy next to me re shoves ooops.. every one else folds, cards on their backs Oooooopps he has KK oh well i have done well to get this far.. flop QXJ turn blank river blank .. Leigh perks up you will be comong back tomorrow :D..

Sunday morning.. Miss brekki again got in at 4.30 am after a few shenannagins with the others, Emma had quite rightly let her hair down and was having a good time which pleased me as i owe so much to her having to sit hour upon hour with not much more to do than read books!!..
So leave hotel and grab a quick sarnie from Sainsburys before getting back into the action...

So 17 people get paid and 29 people return. now normally my stack size of 59k would of been near the bottom, but due to CL Dan having over 400k i was in fact sitting in 16th place with 20 k being the short stack..

There was a few quick exits and the numbers tumbled quickly to 20 i had doubled up to 70k after finding AA against George who was also going for a second APAT win..
I had yet to reach a tourney average and still was below but i wanted to at least scrape a min cash for my troubles and more important to me a point or 2 for the live APAT rankings..
Well as it happens at 3.00pm the bubble burst shame to see Karen and Michelle fall short, but it has to be someone i know just wish it wasnt a APAT reg and maybe a local would of been more fitting ;)

Paulie had gone on a heater and was cruising :) was nice to see... well i dont know what happened to Dan but was bizarre the way he blew up? Ian was the recipient of his chips after Dan decided to cold 4 bet all in with KT v his AA now Ian was also cruising, Dan fell away to the wayside and never made the FT..

So in what seemed a blink of an eye i had made it to my second Final Table on the trot!! wow i run good..

With the live stream running i wont go on about loads of hands and how they planned out.. but the main cliffs where.

1. Most important hand of my tournament.. My button shove with A4 George isolates from small blind with A5.. Ant folds AJ from his BB.. Ant calls im sent packing.

2. My min 3 bet with A4 suited v QJ then trap check flop of A4J

3. My KQ v Paulies A5 suited when i trap check flop of KQX

4. My 78 of hearts float heads up when Ben was agressor on a board of A95K i floated flop after a large C bet on flop and turn then Jammed my flush draw and inside straight.. Sorry Ben i know this was the turning point for you i could see the angst in your face..

With such a large CL HU the KK was perfect timing after i gambled on Ben having any kind of hand indeed him finding an Ace my over sized raise pre was the clincher..

BOOM!! OMFG had i just done it???.. now i never like to celebrate overly when i win as i have to consider my opponent sitting there, so my little fist pump was the show of just how much this meant to me.. UNREAL!!

Damn i said i wasnt going to waffle on so 2 hours on im gonna wrap this post up...

APAT is simply the best of the best thanks guys, you know who you are...

APAT members are simply the best FACT!!

Carl Pilgrim is the biggest APAT luckbox FACT!!

Carl Pilgrim is the biggest 2 time APAT luckbox Fact!! ;D ;D

Thank you all so much for the kind words on here and Face book , text messages, etc etc.
my personal chip stackers Paul and Chris.. i am totally humbled believe me it sunk in yesterday reading all the messages i was an emotional wreck FACT!!

Thanks Genting and the staff dealers, hope my little tip showed my gratitude..

So how long till the Worlds???? can i really wait that long oh damn its ages away :( :( sigh...
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: mporter123 on December 04, 2012, 17:08:34 PM: Quote from: fandango on December 04, 2012, 16:47:20 PM

4. My 78 of hearts float heads up when Ben was agressor on a board of A95K i floated flop after a large C bet on flop and turn then Jammed my flush draw and inside straight.. Sorry Ben i know this was the turning point for you i could see the angst in your face..

This was soooo good! Was fist pumping in my lounge when you snap shoved.. a really great play. You have heart!!

Watched the whole final table, you played perfectly. You come across so composed and your decisions seemed so well thought out. A really deserving victor - chuffed to see you take it down.

Great write up as well. Congrats again.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 04, 2012, 18:16:24 PM: Quote from: mporter123 on December 04, 2012, 17:08:34 PM

Quote from: fandango on December 04, 2012, 16:47:20 PM

4. My 78 of hearts float heads up when Ben was agressor on a board of A95K i floated flop after a large C bet on flop and turn then Jammed my flush draw and inside straight.. Sorry Ben i know this was the turning point for you i could see the angst in your face..

This was soooo good! Was fist pumping in my lounge when you snap shoved.. a really great play. You have heart!!

Watched the whole final table, you played perfectly. You come across so composed and your decisions seemed so well thought out. A really deserving victor - chuffed to see you take it down.

Great write up as well. Congrats again.

Thanks Mark... shame there is no way that the Final Table feed can be re run, would love to see how a few hands where played on all streets,.. my thought process was always going to float with this hand pre.. kind of hand that you can be " creative" with the flop being Ace high was always going to be C bet, i made my mind up with the gut shot straight on flop if any heart hits turn im going to jam, lucky for me it was a heart :) .. my logic was he could only call with a strong Ace.. as it panned out after asking Ben he was betting complete air with Q high.. but it did knock the stuffing from him i could tell as his body language he looked deflated..
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Santino67 on December 04, 2012, 22:16:49 PM: Quote from: fandango on December 04, 2012, 16:47:20 PM

So how long till Luton?

FYP ;)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Chipaccrual on December 04, 2012, 22:54:48 PM: ;)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 15, 2012, 20:53:39 PM: Quote from: Santino67 on December 04, 2012, 22:16:49 PM

Quote from: fandango on December 04, 2012, 16:47:20 PM

So how long till Luton?

FYP ;)

Grant have you a crystal ball sir??...

So I get a text on Friday from Leigh.. Basically saying that between Des Matt and himself they had voted to nominate me as captain of the Forum team in the up n coming championships at the G casino Luton would I like to consider it??

Well as you could guess I was honoured to be regarded as a fitting skipper, and without to much thought greatly accepted the mantle..

Wow 2012 poker wise has been so incredibly amazing, I"m still waiting to wake up.. When you succeed in something that you love the feeling is multiplied..

There are many things I miss doing since MD has moved the goalposts further away so to speak, i loved playing pool and snooker, and wasn"t to shabby at pool, but it became impossible to play when the MD caught up with me, I loved fishing aswell although I still go the odd time on my dads boat sea fishing, I still miss the independence of being able to go on my own, sit at a lake or river and just relax and watch the world go by..
Now the past time i miss the most and lots of people frown upon and laugh about is Metal Detecting, have always been interested in history and walking fields finding ancient coins and artefacts fascinated me..
So as poker is a non physical past time you can guess why my love for it is so strong, ok if I run deep I must admit to struggling to stack chips, but I can live with that..

So now comes the monumental task of having to select a squad!!.. So many worthy people, not enough places, this is going to be hard..

Whatch this space..
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Santino67 on December 18, 2012, 00:55:42 AM: Quote from: fandango on December 15, 2012, 20:53:39 PM

Quote from: Santino67 on December 04, 2012, 22:16:49 PM

Quote from: fandango on December 04, 2012, 16:47:20 PM

So how long till Luton?

FYP ;)

Grant have you a crystal ball sir??...

My half a brain, you"re love of all things APAT and your place in this amazing community made that piece of stargazing pretty much an absolute certainty TBH mate. We should rename you Frankel :)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: AMRN on December 18, 2012, 08:52:05 AM: Quote from: fandango on December 15, 2012, 20:53:39 PM

......Now the past time i miss the most and lots of people frown upon and laugh about is Metal Detecting.........

That might explain this desire to keep racking up APAT medals!!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 18, 2012, 12:59:49 PM: Quote from: AMRN on December 18, 2012, 08:52:05 AM

Quote from: fandango on December 15, 2012, 20:53:39 PM

......Now the past time i miss the most and lots of people frown upon and laugh about is Metal Detecting.........

That might explain this desire to keep racking up APAT medals!!

Ha Steve believe me I never found anything quite that "precious" in my time, maybe a few old roman and medieval coins and artefacts.. But never a priceless APAT medal :D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Santino67 on December 18, 2012, 20:49:59 PM: Quote from: fandango on December 18, 2012, 12:59:49 PM

Quote from: AMRN on December 18, 2012, 08:52:05 AM

Quote from: fandango on December 15, 2012, 20:53:39 PM

......Now the past time i miss the most and lots of people frown upon and laugh about is Metal Detecting.........

That might explain this desire to keep racking up APAT medals!!

Ha Steve believe me I never found anything quite that "precious" in my time, maybe a few old roman and medieval coins and artefacts.. But never a priceless APAT medal :D

Couldn"t resist ;D

(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_KJLieIUxMJY/TJ-WJUGRwSI/AAAAAAAAmYI/-SqI6KM_zMI/IMG_3957.JPG)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 18, 2012, 20:57:09 PM: Quote from: Santino67 on December 18, 2012, 20:49:59 PM

Quote from: fandango on December 18, 2012, 12:59:49 PM

Quote from: AMRN on December 18, 2012, 08:52:05 AM

Quote from: fandango on December 15, 2012, 20:53:39 PM

......Now the past time i miss the most and lots of people frown upon and laugh about is Metal Detecting.........

That might explain this desire to keep racking up APAT medals!!

Ha Steve believe me I never found anything quite that "precious" in my time, maybe a few old roman and medieval coins and artefacts.. But never a priceless APAT medal :D

Couldn"t resist ;D

(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_KJLieIUxMJY/TJ-WJUGRwSI/AAAAAAAAmYI/-SqI6KM_zMI/IMG_3957.JPG)

HaHa.. spot on Grant spot on my "precious" :D :D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 31, 2012, 18:26:37 PM: Well Christmas is over for another year, and I have been fortunate to be able not to worry so much about the cost this year.. Being on benefits, most years is always a time of the year when I have to plan well in advance.. But with my ECOAP success it made it a lot easier, I even spoilt myself to a top of the range Samsung smart tv!!.. Then Stoke was the icing on the cake, with Christmas sorted out, I booked next years holiday to centreparcs.. Although it would of been cheaper to have two weeks abroad, having 4 kids ranging from 16-4 it has a little of everything for them all, and on the plus side it is disabled friendly.

Emma can"t wait and has started the 7 month countdown already lol.. I"m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn"t coincide with an APAT event also a few days after it is the Genting series at Westcliff so it may be a busy August!!

So I was honoured with being made the forum captain, I was overjoyed with this as it is always one of the blue ribboned events.. I was lucky in the fact that the previous year I made a team which was invited by APAT being that of " team Luton " and enjoyed the tournament immensely!! I think Luton has one of the best casinos in the country and always enjoy playing there..
Now I had the dubious task of picking just seven fellow team mates out of over 20 applicants.. May sound easy I know, but believe me when you are dealing with applicants that you know personally, respect and consider close friends it is really not easy one little bit!!

I had in my head from the start a plan that I wanted to give a chance to some of the community that had not played in a team event before a chance this time, and I thought this may of been frowned upon a little as in most cases these certain players may not of had real high forum activity.. Being a forum team event it may of been outside the box a little, but I wanted to stick with my gut feeling, I only hope I didn"t upset people with my choice.
But at the same time it was easy to pick a couple of the team, due to their outstanding patriotism to APAT and their amazing enthusiasm.
Really looking forward to the team meeting up and sharing a laugh, a couple of the team are guys who I have never met personally, but have read their blogs and followed their game and even punted a stake with one of them.

Have to say I was blown away with the freeroll response!! what started off as idea to give something back to you guys who in a way I feel you are my extended family, escalated into a mega charity raise..
In the beginning I was just going to make it a free roll where every APAT member could play regardless, but then someone suggested that why not make it a charity freeroll where anyone who wants a punt makes a SMALL donation.. great idea i thought it might raise a couple of hundred quid for Muscular Dystrophy.. So when you lot started donating £10, £20,£50 even £100!! it was no surprise the figure shot over £1,000 then £1,100 and so on.. Totally amazing what with Christmas just days away... I railed the tourney from start to finish,,shame I couldn"t chat but watched the fun, the bounty element makes some interesting dynamics, and at one point I even though Grant might win the lot, but that honour went to Tom who played like a boss all the way through, hope he can spin it up and make a few quid for Lucy and Glen along the way.. So I know I have said it a hundred times, but really THANK YOU ALL totally amazing the lot of you xxx

So as 2012 comes to an end, I have to say its been pretty amazing for me poker wise, met some great people who I would like to now think are both mine and Emma"s friends.

Been awesome to see Leigh back in the APAT fold, from my first ever APAT event he has always made me feel welcome and has always been there to help with anything I have needed.

Des has continued to bring APAT forward and make it more competitive in a fast growing market, and can only be applauded for his greatness and I owe Des a lot this past year and his kind gestures on a personal note have been greatly received.

A huge welcome to Matt Dale, Matt is my lucky charm and I would like him to be at every event I play ;D, also Matt was kind enough to set up the freeroll and came up with the brilliant idea of giving a % to second and third, long may his updates grace the forum..

So I would like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous NEW YEAR may 2013 bring you good health and some Pilgrim run good !!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Waz1892 on December 31, 2012, 18:33:01 PM: Best wishes to you, Emma and your family. :)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 31, 2012, 19:07:39 PM: Quote from: Waz1892 on December 31, 2012, 18:33:01 PM

Best wishes to you, Emma and your family. :)

Thank you Warren have a great new year see you in a month or so ;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: duke3016 on December 31, 2012, 19:56:53 PM: all the best to you and huggle bear ;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 31, 2012, 20:18:07 PM: Quote from: duke3016 on December 31, 2012, 19:56:53 PM

all the best to you and huggle bear ;D

Thanks Ger and you too have a great time :) xx
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Curlarge on December 31, 2012, 20:45:12 PM: much cuddliness to you and the buxom cockney wench :-* :-*
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Santino67 on January 01, 2013, 23:34:06 PM: Quote from: Curlarge on December 31, 2012, 20:45:12 PM

much cuddliness to you and the buxom cockney wench :-* :-*

^^^^^Couldn"t have put it any better than this^^^^^^^ ;D

All the best for 2013 mate
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on January 28, 2013, 15:20:31 PM: Sigh.. Since I have had regular flu jabs over the past five or six years, I have been lucky and avoided nasty bugs and colds..
Then last Thursday I began to feel a little ill with the usual cold/flu like symptoms, grrrr please not this weekend!!

Alex our son had spend the week off school with a virus which really hit him for six, and Emma had also been feeling decidingly dodgy.. So I was praying that we would be both fit for the team event Saturday..

So Friday the weather looked fine in Suffolk, no chance that the weather would be a factor in spoiling the trip for me, unlike some from "up t North" who where faced with real weather worries!!

Feeling pretty crappy I went to bed early Friday evening, Emma had made homemade chicken soup a sure fire winner to fight the bugs.. So was in bed at 8pm tucked up with a DVD, expendables2 hmmm not brilliant but I guess there are far worse action movies out there!!..

So managed to get a few hours sleep and wake up at 4 am.. Luton is only 100 miles drive for me, so wasn"t planning to leave until 10-11 to have enough time to book into hotel and get to casino for team meet up and photos etc..
But feeling pretty crappy I just couldn"t get back to sleep!! So after sitting up for a couple of hours decided to give up and get showere etc and make a early leave grab a brekki and not rush about like we usually do..

So we where out of the house by 9am and on our way.. had been in contact with the rest of squad and where all making there way to Luton..

Stopped for a breakfast of kings at Mcdonalds, was bloody Hungary and this made me feel a lot better so perhaps I was getting over the bug??..

Now I like to be errr how do I put it.. Prepared!! So I had booked my Hotel well in advance, I always use Laterooms.com and have never had any problems.. Had booked a hotel for 1 night £65 breakfast included, car parking WI FI and disabled access room which is the most important thing, booked into a hotel called "Quality Skyline" .. had phoned them a couple of days before to confirm everything and also to request an early book in so I could get to casino in time..

So sat nav takes us to a residential area, and we eventually find Hotel :o umm ok from the outside it looked a dive but hey ho it"s only 1 night, and it"s somewhere to sleep..
The car park was like an ice rink!! Not cleared no disabled parking, hmmm ok not to worry minor problem lets get booked in and get off to casino!!..

So we get to the reception, lol i say lol because the ramp into reception was like a wooden homemade job at a ridiculous gradient, poor Emma was getting so stressed with it all.. Better was to come!!!

So after a little mountaineering to get into reception, we are greeted by a couple of Russian girls who spoke poor English.. Explained I had made booking etc, she says you are early room not clean.. I say I called etc to confirm early booking.. No problem she say I call housekeeping, at this point Emma starts looking worried!! The reception still had tinsel above on the ceiling lol.. So another Russian woman in dungarees shuffles into reception and says no problem I have clean room for you no worries follow me to lift.....

LMAO the problem being the lift is up a flight of three steps.. Not little steps but big deep steps!! No way I was getting up them, Emma at this point losses the plot and demands money back, housekeeper saying no problem we help you "lift" him up steps, errmm don"t think so!! So reception speak to an Asian man sitting on a pc in foyer and he reluctantly gives us our cash back.. Struggle back down ramp and back into car.. 1 quick phone call to Holiday inn, booked in for that night £39 with complimentary breakfast to boot SORTED!! First bit of weekend run good..

So after we had booked in we where off to casino wiiiiii..

Now I had began to go a little downhill from this point, my throat had a tickle that just wanted to make me constantly cough!! And my headache was a monster..

So he team talk kinda went a little tits up, Liam was having a nightmare journey with the coach breaking down, and was having a breakdown himself poor buggar, he was really worried that he was letting everyone down by being late.. I was explaining not to worry and get here when he can, the structure allows you to be late not a problem, we missed the team photo so decided to have it in the dinner break..

I was on a table wich for me was a bloody nightmare to get to and from.. Was in seat 10 on table 7 had to negotiate my way through a mass of players, and then do a 50 point turn to get my wheelchair into a small slot up against a wall, so my apologies to all the peeps who had to keep moving every time I was going to and from my table..
I had a great friendly table with a notable couple of APAT regs Pat Kelly (padster) who I was lucky to have position on , as he raised 75% of pots ;) and Gi mac who had position on me, also had a player on my table who was known by Pat and Gordon but must admit myself had never met, Clare Duffy..

We had by far the noisiest table in the poker room!! .. I usually love the poker banter and the craic as its known, but I guess the combination of the headache etc I really wasn"t enjoying some of the table talk, maybe in another frame of mind mood it wouldn"t of bothered me but I must admit I wasn"t that upset when Clare exited after a couple of brutal beats, Sorry Clare im sure on any other given day I would of joined in but it was just badly timed..

I"m not going to go into a long and detailed waffle about all the hands on my table I played, just perhaps explain a couple that spring to mind..

One hand was early on when I found KK and raised, Gordon then three bet me, Gordon hadn"t played one hand up to that point of any note and being a complete nit I know he is decided to keep it "sensible", smooth called his three bet.. Now I just checked called all the way to river on a raggedy board, I didn"t want to check raise with just one pair, Gordon could of easily been betting three streets with AA and didn"t want to face a all in, the pot was considerably big to blind situation so this was a major factor to the way I played the Kings.. Gordon even checked the river himself and we both flipped over KK for split pot, think we both played it well..

I stayed around 15-18k for the first six levels without much to talk about, then I doubled up with a cooler of a hand. I raised pre with A2 of hearts and flopped a flush draw, I checked the flop which was a straightening flop for a range of KJ, the gin card came on the turn, it was either the 10h or 9h can"t recall, but it was unfortunate for my apponent as I checked the turn and he overbet the pot obv scared about me getting a cheap river heart, but obv with the nuts unless he had a set he was drawing dead, I forgot to mention Adrian Was in the pot aswell so I did Hollywood a little to get him to call my all in, but he folded, and indeed the guy was drawing dead, and I was up to 40k, which was well above average at this point..

Played the rush of cards I was getting and picked up a few small pots to peak at about 45k..

Then my one mistake of the tournament.. Table nit raised early pos to 1.8k blinds where 300/600 I was in BB with 88.. So i decided to smooth call to see a flop and new he would continue bet any flop, as he had 100% of the hands he had played, and if the flop looked wet I would put him to the test.. ( early on he had raised a pot pre flop and then bet 10k into a pot of 1600? ).. So the flop came Q high two rags, he bet 3k which left him 16k back, so without thinking I shoved all in... Ooopps he flips over QQ lol Ermmmm terrible terrible play by me I was just being a bully I need to learn pot size didn"t need to do this really..
Then the key pot which was the killer, new player had come to table and was aggro from the off, open shoving into limpets pre flop, he dusted off some chips when three people limped (including me with A8 suited) he did his raise which I knew was coming, but early limped shoved all in, I folded faster than a cheap tent, he snapped called with KQ guy flips over AJ which held.. Then this happened, after my 88 hand I still had just over 30k blinds where 400/800 so plenty of room for play, I look down at QQ raise to 3.6k, a hefty raise I thought, to pick up blinds and antes, guy then snap shoves all in from button I think it was, I was in H/J I had him covered by about 3 k, so was looking at a 60k pot, I called he flips over AK safe flop dreaded A on turn.. Down to bowl of rice..
Few hands later I get it in with TT in a crazy pot pre.. KK v AK v QQ .. Also Gordon shorts tacked folded 44 and table nit folded JJ .. The dreaded A on turn won taking KK and myself out QQ was the guy who crippled me (lol not literally that"s the MD ) so I guess you win some you lose some..

Think on a whole considering I felt utter toss, apart from the 88 hand I never put a foot wrong, and played really well, happy with that just need that flip to go my way and who knows I might of been able to score a few points for the team..
As far as the rest of the team went, they ran pretty awful themselves, our hero of the tournament was Warren who scored all of our points !! And managed to cash aswell as winning the last longer trophy .. Well done Waz 14th was a sterling effort wtg..

I really wish to apologise to my team members.. David, Brian, Warren, Naz, JP, Michelle, and Liam.. I felt my captaincy skills where utter rubbish!! I hate to harp on about the bug but it did knock me for six!! I felt like I never took the time to bond with you like I should of done in the breaks etc and after.. Just wanted to get home to be honest..

Was a pleasure meeting David and Brian for the first time, hope to see you at future events, Adrian was a pleasure meeting you aswell as a few others who I have never met before..

Congratulations to the medal winners, GNF have to be banned next year? .. Another awesome weekend arranged by APAT as always!! Looking forward to the worlds c"mon GET IN THERE,,!!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: adilong1 on January 28, 2013, 16:14:10 PM: Pleasure to meet you too Carl, your Hollywood needs some work though!! Lol.
As for that crazy crazy 4 way pot WOW, I think even Gimac said just after folding 44 " I guarantee there will be a 4 coming! "
And lo and behold a 4 on the river!! Ha

Great weekend for me as its my first live tournament and my first APAT event, 52nd not too bad really.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: s4ooter on January 28, 2013, 18:03:59 PM: Hehe, now In the Muck have a foot in the door, ill just put the GNF team under the ITM banner once we are banned 8) 8) 8) 8)

Nice to see you again matey!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: amcgrath1uk on January 28, 2013, 20:09:28 PM: Was lovely to see you both, and hope you"re both feeling much better x
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Waz1892 on January 28, 2013, 21:18:07 PM: Your captaincy was fine Carl. It was clear you were under the weather, and I"m glad you had an early night, as your health was more important.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on February 05, 2013, 15:24:58 PM: Probably one of my shortest entries...

RUSSIAN OMAHA/HL players tilt me and should be banned from Pokerstars ... THE END!!! :-X :-X :-X
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: pokerpops on February 06, 2013, 14:01:37 PM: Quote from: Waz1892 on January 28, 2013, 21:18:07 PM

Your captaincy was fine Carl. It was clear you were under the weather, and I"m glad you had an early night, as your health was more important.

+1

Thanks for the opportunity, shame I couldn"t grasp it better. I let myself get carried away by a decent start in a dream seat.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on February 11, 2013, 13:43:22 PM: I"m never one to really complain about life etc etc.. The way I look at things is I have a amazing family, a roof above my head, awesome friends, food clothing etc etc etc.. and compared to some I"m spoilt in the riches of all these things.

But every now and then I have to admit that I do get angry/ probably more frustrated at what other people moan/complain about.. I shouldn"t feel sorry for myself and I sure as hell don"t want anyone to ever feel sorry for me regarding my disability!..

When I was younger and my muscles where a little stronger, I was able to work and in fact working was a blessing in disguise, I worked 40-60 hours a week as a chef and the long hours hard graft kept me going, and sure like most i found it mundane etc etc, I also was able to do mundane chores like cooking, cleaning, walking the dog although at my own slow pace I was ABLE to get it done..

Last week I got down in the dumps a little, what with the whole house getting the virus at some time meant that at one time or the other the kids where off school.. Now I know kids are kids and they don"t mean to complain to upset people, lets face it we where the same im sure at that age and they didn"t ask to be born lol (have to say this as its their great comeback), they get pocket money every week, and are expected to "help" out a little to earn it, e.g. Walk the dog, tidy bedrooms etc etc.. But just seemed to get nothing but complaints when they where asked to do them arguing between them on whos turn it was walk Lexi, do i have to tidy my room can I do later and so on, all the time me getting more and more frustrated that they are at least physically able to do it without a fuss grrrrr

Ironic I guess the simple things I used to also hate doing I now wish I could..

Febuary 1st was my princess Ava"s fourth birthday and the 5th was my Grandads 93rd, so last Sunday the whole family got together for lunch ( Emma had to stay at home with Millie as they had the bug! :( ).. Always nice to get the whole family together like that and was especially nice for my grandad..

Arthur Pilgrim (Woody to most).. Now I know everyone always say how much they love and respect their grandparents, and rightly so.. But hand on heart Woody is the person in my life who I can say without a shadow of a doubt I have the highest respect admiration for..
I could spend days blogging about him and the amazing stories from his life, but i wouldnt be able to fit it all in and do it all justice.. From his early days as a professional Speedway racer for Exeter, to his time spent in Italy fighting the war, to the time he spent in raising money for charity, his success in business, and his amazing respect gained by his family.. the list could go on and on a truly remarkable human being.. Who I"m going to miss incredibly much :( sadly yesterday Woody passed away in his sleep.. It has yet to fully sink in yet but when it does I"m glad that i have such great support from family and friends.. I"m so grateful we all got time to see him last Sunday and he celebrated his 93rd on the Tuesday and he left us in his sleep in no discomfort..

R.I.P. Gandad I can"t begin to explain how much respect I hold for you in my heart xx

Poker.. My online poker is pretty much restricted to APAT games. Knockout cup, Bakers dozen and hopefully some sattelites into some WCOAP side events, with no great results of late just steady finishes to earn a few points for the team.. Will forget about last weeks Bakers dozen, decided to call a small pre flop raise with A7, something that I rarely do as I know it only causes trouble.. Flop.. A 7 8 with two diamonds we get it all in, I"m putting Alan on AK/ AQ maybe a flush draw, but he flips over 88 ;D bad play by me should never of got involved pre flop the end!

Now most days I play the $2 n/l Omaha h/l on stars.. it is a re buy 90mins late reg and add on for 30,000 .. So I late reg at 1 hour 29 mins for the $2 depending on where your seated you can usually make the add on slot with not spending no more than $6 so effectively you go into the tournament with at least 33k.. But often can spin the 3k initial starting stack to 20-30k believe me it"s a crapshoot until the latter stages but if you use your position wisely and dont get involved in multi all in pots you can play pretty much normally there after..

I find that it is full of Russian maniacs, dunno what draws them there but believe me it gets messy very messy, but at the same time for a small investment the rewards can be great, have been lucky and won it a few times and there is always 1k+ up top, ( more on Sundays, and evenings).. So I hopped in yesterday did my usual late reg played well and ran my stack up 300k near the bubble, 81 got paid with $ 1,700 up top $1,100 second and $800 for third.. So managed to ladder to 27th and have 40k with blinds 20k/40k with antes so basically one BB and it"s my turn to post BB :( bazinga get dealt AA24 and three callers and with antes manage to scoop pot not amazing still only 4 bigs, but manage to run it up to over 3 mill and make final table.. Eventually get 4 handed and they want to discuss a deal, I"m happy to, but I play on my IPad so I can"t press the discuss deal button, explain this so we agree to "sit out " and call for a floor man, but for some reason the sit out box has disappeared?? Now I don"t want to disc and re launch app in case I can"t get back in so we play on, get 3 handed and I"m slight CL, find AA25 shove and get called by BB with his AQ78!! Needless to say he scoops pot with a river flush for 17 mill pot.. Fight back to second in chips and then lose to same guy when he rivers straight, happy with third but could of been $900 more so also stung at the same time..

So with a heart tinged with sadness at the loss of a immense human being, I"m so so looking forward to the WCOAP my Grandad took keen interest in my poker and I"m going to try my damned hardest in the events I play to make him continue to make him proud as he looks on down upon us..

LOVE YOU GRANDAD R.I.P. xxx
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Santino67 on February 12, 2013, 20:15:29 PM: So sorry to hear about Woody, Carl :( Sounds like you"ll have a ton of good memeories to get you and the family through the worst of the sadness so stay strong mate.

I know it may only be a small token but I"m glad to say I"ve got the green light to hold a dress down weekend (probably 2nd & 3rd March) in NHS 24, to help boost the funds for your Muscular Dystrophy charity fundraising. In addition, I"m also hoping to organise some kind of walk round about the same time to raise a bit more. I"ll keep you posted once i have more info.

Hugs to you all, our thoughts are with you.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Curlarge on February 12, 2013, 22:40:25 PM: Very sorry to hear about Woody mate, sounds like a really great guy. Love to the family and v. much looking forward to seeing you and the BCW in Nottingham. xx
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: petersimon on February 13, 2013, 16:09:53 PM: I"m really sorry about your lost Carl!
I hope you can win in the WCOAP and dedicate the victory to your grandad... if not, dont worry because i"m sure he is already very proud of you!!!
Best of luck!
Pedro Simoes
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Des on February 13, 2013, 18:37:35 PM: Really sorry to hear about your granddad Carl. Keep your head up.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on February 15, 2013, 20:40:14 PM: Quote from: Des on February 13, 2013, 18:37:35 PM

Really sorry to hear about your granddad Carl. Keep your head up.
Quote from: petersimon on February 13, 2013, 16:09:53 PM

I"m really sorry about your lost Carl!
I hope you can win in the WCOAP and dedicate the victory to your grandad... if not, dont worry because i"m sure he is already very proud of you!!!
Best of luck!
Pedro Simoes

Quote from: Curlarge on February 12, 2013, 22:40:25 PM

Very sorry to hear about Woody mate, sounds like a really great guy. Love to the family and v. much looking forward to seeing you and the BCW in Nottingham. xx
Quote from: Santino67 on February 12, 2013, 20:15:29 PM

So sorry to hear about Woody, Carl :( Sounds like you"ll have a ton of good memeories to get you and the family through the worst of the sadness so stay strong mate.

I know it may only be a small token but I"m glad to say I"ve got the green light to hold a dress down weekend (probably 2nd & 3rd March) in NHS 24, to help boost the funds for your Muscular Dystrophy charity fundraising. In addition, I"m also hoping to organise some kind of walk round about the same time to raise a bit more. I"ll keep you posted once i have more info.

Hugs to you all, our thoughts are with you.

Thank you for your kind words guys they really do help...
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: HOLDorFOLD on February 15, 2013, 23:26:00 PM: Oh Carl, I have only just seen this ... I am so sorry to hear of your loss.

Biggest hugs for you ... PM on way xxx
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on February 16, 2013, 14:09:55 PM: Quote from: HOLDorFOLD on February 15, 2013, 23:26:00 PM

Oh Carl, I have only just seen this ... I am so sorry to hear of your loss.

Biggest hugs for you ... PM on way xxx

Thanks Mich much love xxx
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on February 26, 2013, 22:01:05 PM: Last Friday.. As a family we said our final farewells to Woody, a short ceremony at the crematorium followed by a church service, then onto the wake.. An amazing speech by my uncle telling some truly epic stories of my Grandads life, some of which I had heard about and some of which where new to me, and my respect and admiration just grew and grew, never ever have I met such an inspirational human.. Some of the stories had the whole church including a rather straight faced vicar in fits of laughter, tears of joy sorrow and laughter all rolled into one..

Also in the holidays we where graced with the lovely Lucy Amos and her son Louie.. Another couple of nights of hysteria, who would of thought a tv programme centred around the daily going ons in a fried chicken shop could make us laugh so much, and as for dog poo watch now there"s another classic story all together. Our daughter Millie and Louie struck up an instant friendship!! and to see the tears from both of them on departure was so sad in a cute kind of a way, promises of more get togethers in the summer hols I hope will help..

Well as far as poker has gone, obv no live poker for me since Luton.. Online just the odd tournament on stars, and the APAT games, we made it to the knockout stages where we lost to a strong side captained by a certain John Murray, a good battle but in the end the better team where victorious, they had gone in as number one seeds, and proved their worth..
Still playing the Bakers dozen on a Monday evening, rather badly mind you I think I"m bottom of the leader board ;D if going by games played, not going to make excuses but I have run like poop in them lol.. But the small buy in epic banter and worthy cause really makes it all worth while, cheers Rich was a great idea.. Also I would like to thank Grant who has organised a dress down day at his work with all proceeds going to Muscular Dystrophy, thanks matey much appreciated xx

Well to top off a simply amazing season six for me, is that I have been picked to join Steve, Asa, Tony and Stuart in team England at WCOAP!!
An amazing feeling and I"m like a kid at Christmas time and just can"t wait!! Bloody chuffed and honoured, a really strong team picked by Steve and I"m sure we are going to be in the mix come late Friday evening.. Mind you looking at all the teams I can"t see any weak links (ok Scotland have Naz ;D) ..

So GOOD LUCK ALL TEAMS .. Will see you all in Nottingham for what will prove to yet be another superbly run APAT event..
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Curlarge on February 27, 2013, 00:32:57 AM: Quote from: fandango on February 26, 2013, 22:01:05 PM

Last Friday.. As a family we said our final farewells to Woody, a short ceremony at the crematorium followed by a church service, then onto the wake.. An amazing speech by my uncle telling some truly epic stories of my Grandads life, some of which I had heard about and some of which where new to me, and my respect and admiration just grew and grew, never ever have I met such an inspirational human.. Some of the stories had the whole church including a rather straight faced vicar in fits of laughter, tears of joy sorrow and laughter all rolled into one..

Also in the holidays we where graced with the lovely Lucy Amos and her son Louie.. Another couple of nights of hysteria, who would of thought a tv programme centred around the daily going ons in a fried chicken shop could make us laugh so much, and as for dog poo watch now there"s another classic story all together. Our daughter Millie and Louie struck up an instant friendship!! and to see the tears from both of them on departure was so sad in a cute kind of a way, promises of more get togethers in the summer hols I hope will help..

Well as far as poker has gone, obv no live poker for me since Luton.. Online just the odd tournament on stars, and the APAT games, we made it to the knockout stages where we lost to a strong side captained by a certain John Murray, a good battle but in the end the better team where victorious, they had gone in as number one seeds, and proved their worth..
Still playing the Bakers dozen on a Monday evening, rather badly mind you I think I"m bottom of the leader board ;D if going by games played, not going to make excuses but I have run like poop in them lol.. But the small buy in epic banter and worthy cause really makes it all worth while, cheers Rich was a great idea.. Also I would like to thank Grant who has organised a dress down day at his work with all proceeds going to Muscular Dystrophy, thanks matey much appreciated xx

Well to top off a simply amazing season six for me, is that I have been picked to join Steve, Asa, Tony and Stuart in team England at WCOAP!!
An amazing feeling and I"m like a kid at Christmas time and just can"t wait!! Bloody chuffed and honoured, a really strong team picked by Steve and I"m sure we are going to be in the mix come late Friday evening.. Mind you looking at all the teams I can"t see any weak links (ok Scotland have Naz ;D) ..

So GOOD LUCK ALL TEAMS .. Will see you all in Nottingham for what will prove to yet be another superbly run APAT event..

As if that was ever in doubt ;D. Well done mate, Woody would be very proud :)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: PHIL_TC on February 27, 2013, 11:48:40 AM: Congrats on the pick Carl, really deserved, and really sorry to hear about Woody. Hope you"re OK fella and HUGE hugs at DTD on there way x
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: technolog on February 27, 2013, 12:52:55 PM: I"ve only just read about Woody, Carl. He sounds an amazing fella. Condolences x
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on March 12, 2013, 12:52:46 PM: 16 Days to go!!!

As much as Paulie hates countdowns, (although I"m sure he loves them really) I must say I"m like a child waiting for Christmas day to arrive!.. Sounds a little sad I know, but considering my last live poker game was the APAT UK Team championships I"m allowing myself this guilty pleasure..

Since losing in the last 16 of the knockout cup I haven"t really played much online poker, but I still play the Bakers Dozen on Monday evenings, after eight rounds I had only scored once that being the first game of the series, so I was pretty much at the bottom of the table with just 8 points.. Two weeks later and two consecutive wins I"m third in the table with 58 points only 7 points of tops with two games left!! Funny old game huh?.. Must say the scoring system F1 style is for the help of this, and it gives pretty much everyone in the top 15 or so a good shot at a placing, I applaud this think it should be introduced in forthcoming events like Bunch of Fives etc..

Also jumped into the 3k garunteed TV tournament last night.. Was great to see so many APAT players in the tournament think this might be a popular promotion.. As far as the tournament went for me?,, well started off like a freight train and was quickly in the top few after the first couple of levels.. had bossed my table and felt very comftable making some nice hands and gaining some respect to my 3 bets and 4 bets, then got moved to a new table with Michelle..

Few hands in I found pocket tens in mid position and standard three times raise, one other caller blinds where 400/800 so was a healthy pot brewing.. Flop was 9 high, I C bet he called safe turn I bet he raises me enough to commit me so I shove the rest of my stack, bad play in hindsight with just one pair, he could of easily had JJ QQ.. But saw the bad news of him having 99 for flopped set.. Oh well only myself to blame think I could of should of gotten out on turn, still had 15bb.
Popped back to watch FT for a bit to see Dan Williams S4ooter run deep, only to lose a huge flip blind on blind for CL, still a nice return considering he stated in..

Going to be playing a few of the Micro millions next week as part of a staking agreement, so hope i an run well for the investor and me..

Good luck to anyone else involved in these and hope to see you at some final tables ..
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on March 26, 2013, 17:53:44 PM
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Curlarge on March 26, 2013, 18:22:39 PM
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on April 03, 2013, 18:12:24 PM: Sooo where to start.. Ok let"s go, Last Wendsday night wasn"t the best preparation for WCOAP, went to bed early managed to sleep until 2 am then with a few disturbances mainly a four year old wide awake, I didn"t really sleep again..knackered.com.

So Emma did the school run to dispatch the kids, last bit of packing dog to kennels and off we went..

Arrived at hotel after stress free 3 hour drive bunged luggage in room and was off for team meat up at Frankie and Bennys.
Walked in to bar and was greeted by Lucy, Stu an Asa, Steve and Tony arrived shortly after that, few other APAT members had also frequented the establishment team Canada and Jaxie also made an appearance..
So after we had donned the obligatory tattoos badges wristbands etc, stuffed our faces and talked tactics it was off to DTD to do our business..

Now Steve had really done his homework and had calculated that because of the scoring system it was pretty much a must to try and score in the top 3 each SNG to garunteed a top 2 finish going into the HU.. No pressure then let"s do this..

So the cards where in the air for the first SNG, first hand in I had the tricky but very talented Warren Jones on my table, he raised very first hand 125, I look down KK nice start huh re pop it to 300.. Warren comes along for the ride, flop comes Q 9 *. Two spades, not a bad flop for me.. So I lead out for 450 Warren calls spade on the turn hmmm.. He leads out for 600 I call even though I have no spade in my hand I have him on perhaps AQ with A s.. River was a brick he bet 800 I think and turns over Js 8s so was basically a 2 k loss first hand in great start grrr.. Few hands later I tangle with Warren again I re pop his raise with QQ and he out flops me with AK hitting the K on the flop, another 2k pot slides his way.. So I have to pick my spots and play really well from there on and eventually manage to get HU which I lose to a American guy .. I Was disappointed with my HU play and missed some big opportunities to accumulate chips.. Oh well pleased with that got in the top 3 as been requested, with Asa winning his heat and the other guys all picking up good starting points we where off to a flyer.. But a long way to go..

Next it was PLO time I really enjoy PLO and was looking forward to playing these as I was reg for ME Sunday when the PLO was being played. Played really well on a tough table, Carey was beating us all up and I was lucky to turn the nut straight versus her top pair nut flush draw, never really looked back from there on and managed to win my SNG without to much fuss.. Asa was on fire and won his SNG aswell for 2 wins on the trot!! Steve also getting a 2nd and Tony a 3rd Stu a 4th we was still on top and flying.. We finished the day in a healthy position coming back for day 2 but there was still lots of points to win and to,lose before we could dream of playing HU!!

Friday was upon us after a great nights sleep!! And drove back to DTD to commence battle.. So it was back to NLH and if I was honest I can"t remember much at all about the SNG apart from the finish lol.. Basically I got HU versus Craig captain of Canada, with a slight chip lead ;D.. Ok I was 29-1 Craig had less than 1 BB.. 15 mins later I finished 2nd lol after losing every all in / flip.. Not to worry another top 3 finish as requested by the skip..Steve also getting a second and both Asa and Stu securing third we where still flying..
Back to PLO and the wheels came off our run as to speak two of our players where both first out only scoring 1 point. Stu and myself managed third and Asa was the star winning his game .. PHEW!!
So as it was pointed out it was ours to lose going into the final SNG we still held a slender lead, but the others had bunched up behind us waiting to pounce on our every failure.. Our main rivals where Italy, Portugal, Canada and Ireland, this is where the tatics really needed to be employed..
That session of poker was the most stressful painful sickening session I have ever played, I can"t begin to to describe the emotional ups n downs I / the team went through, basically at the business end of things it was just Steve and me left with the other guys running around like headless chickens totting up points telling us we need to hang on etc etc.. I even had to fold AK versus a crazy French guy something I could never invisage doing in a million years, but when your playing for your team mates it all goes out of the window, you would sacrifice a kidney if it meant you stumbling across the line..
So the immortal words from Stu, Asa and Tony was we have made it we are garunteed a top 2 finish..YES!!!! GTFI ..
I had managed to get 3 handed versus France and Frank from Ireland, sick exit hand but I didn"t care we had made it roll on the HU..

So we had actually fallen into second place behind Italy in the group standings, with Canada and Spain duelling it out for the bronze.. But did we care we had fallen into second?? NO we felt invincible it might come across sounding cocky big headed and i apologise for this, I knew it was England"s year and I knew nothing was going to spoil the party for us NOTHING!!
We sat down and Steve asked us which of us wanted to play first last etc etc, I didn"t care just wanted to play, so Steve decided I went first Asa last and the others jammed in the other positions.. But DTD found the extra dealers and this made for an even more exciting format, we all would play simultaneous ..

We all sat down with one thing on our minds GOLD and Jangle Jangle ( Tony had coined this expression for the Bracelet)..

We had the best rail ever Emma and Lucy with homemade Pom poms cheering us on and in a flash there was a whoot of delight as Stu had won his HU in record time 1-0 to the England.. Now I had gotten off to a flyer and had my opponent down to his last 1k within no time and he had his back up to the wall, I raised his BB every hand and he had shoved on me every time, so it was a matter of time before I would find a hand to go with.. A few hands later I find JJ min raise and the inevitable shove came from my apponent, he flips over Ten 2 no real sweat and the rail erupts again we was 2 up,..

I just said after this to Emma we only need 1 more win and we have done it!! I had barely finished my sentence when there was an almighty roar from Tonys table he had won!!

Cue the celebrations the guys clambered and climbed over the tables to come and give me a group hug!! Something that will stick in my mind for ever.. What a feeling cue the cheesy football songs etc.. Now usually before I celebrate a win I always firstly shake the hand of my oponent/s but this seemed to go completely out of my head but I did shake hands a little while later with Italy, obv they where gutted but was very gracious in defeat.. Canada secured Bronze after a monumental tussle with Spain eventually with Cath winning her heads up, many congrats to Craig and his team they played an absolute blinder the two days..

To be continued...
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: cincicrappykid on April 04, 2013, 11:53:59 AM: Nice Carl, reading it brings it all back . emotional times .
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on April 04, 2013, 17:46:37 PM: After a few drinks/shots which i obstained from, it was time to head back to the hotel for some well deserved rest..

Woke up at 11.30am on the Saturday, and treated ourselves to breakfast in bed ;D well what else do you expect from a World Champ jangle jangle, Steve and Tony where rumoured of having a champions breakfast in Frankies and Bennys.
Today it was HORSE, a tournament which i was really looking forward to, as i had missed Stud and i enjoy playing this both with OHL it was a must to play, only downside was that i was missing the PLO on Sunday :(..
Maybe next season they can keep the PLO as the Monday game, also would be immense if they added a PLO/HL side event i know this would sell out in a heart beat..
As far as the HORSE went, well it started fine for me accumulated 2k pretty early on, then it seemed that the structure caught up with us all and one bad outdraw really ruined your whole tournament, played the HORSE last WCOAP and it seemed to be different? Dunno maybe it was just me but seemed to go in a flash, by no means i wish for this to sound derogitary but there where a few players on my table who just seemed to have no clue? Paul Mcguiness was on my table as was Matt Carter and could not believe some of the calls etc that was occuring, saying that i did get rather lucky in a Stud round chasing a flush to only make 2 pair :) on 7th street.. so hey ho.. So after i exited there was no more poker that day for me, as the cash tourney had started..

Saturday evening was also the presentation of the APAT awards, i was nominated for APAT Player of the Season, a huge honor and was chuffed to bits to secure enough votes to win!! many thanks to the commity for the inclusion and many many thanks to all of those who voted for me, my trophy takes pride place along side my medals and bracelet.. Was great to see Suzy win breakthrough player of the year, David for his award of best performance/s outside of APAT, Lucy was so pleased and so very very proud.. And as for Paulie being inducted into the Hall of Fame what else can i add to what already has been said before so so deserved, his commitment has been second to none!! and seeing him fight back the odd tear on collection was a moving and awe inspiring moment i will always remember, Paulie i tip my hat to you sir may we see you for many more seasons to come..

Huge congrats to Steve for winning his second bracelet i cant wait to watch the vid when it is posted sounds exciting stuff!! After staying to rail the win it was another 12+ hour day gone by, need sleep to come refreshed for my attack on the ME Sunday..

Sunday is upon me, after sleeping like a log i felt refreshed and raring to go i was going to play my heart out i was so focused on a deep run.
So i sit down at my table and is greeted by some familiar faces, Adam Sharples, Cath Gartmann, Rita Galvin, Vik Mehta and after a bustout Peter Wigglesworth!! Holy crap what a tough table..
Vik Mehta in my opinion is one of the strongest players amongst the APAT community, a awesome player who i believe is a nailed on cert for a national title one season..
Adam got of to a flying start and we clashed many times in the early stages, with Adam getting the better of me on the whole, it was only a complete cooler that crippled Adam when he run his Kings into Aces and never really managed to rebuild his stack above the starting 15k..
Rita was very very unlucky just wasnt her day, she did nothing wrong in my eyes just got called down after milking a guy who had JT on a J high flop, her betting repped to me a large pair, and on showdown i announced she must have KK, indeed she had shame the guy hit the 10 on the river, it left her with a bowl of rice :(.. on a side note it kinda makes me chuckle when after i announced Rita had KK, the villain then proceeds to blurt out, "yeah i put you on an overpair aswell".. ok good read so why keep calling when Rita was betting overpot size bets basically for your whole stack?
Then this hand played out between me and Peter, Pete had been very active peeling off many flops and C betting leading out etc etc.. I believe he had limped early and i found Ad Qh mid position and raised 4xBB, cant remember levels was fairly early on.. Flop came Kd Qd 7d so Peter leads out a pot size bet i call turn was a blank, so Pete then bets large again probably just under pot.. Now im in a tough position has he flopped the flush? and protecting the board? or is he betting K and protecting board? now i think long and hard, and eventually after about 3 mins Pete calls the clock on me.. Now i think this was a mistake not because of sour grapes etc, i think he wanted me to fold so before the floor even made it to the table i called.. River was Ac making me 2 pair, ok doesnt really change much in fact it couldnt of made him broadway? .. So then he overbets the river 9,800!! basically leaving me with 1,300 chips if im wrong if i call.. So after another long hard thought i decided that he didnt have the flush it just didnt make sense to me the way he was betting from the flop, so if he had flopped a set or rivered a straight so be it nh etc etc.. Call... he announces 1 pair and doesnt show as i announce 2 pair, and a huge pot slides over to me.. Very next hand in a 4 way pot i double him back up he flops straight i flop 2 pair ;D i put him on a tilt flush draw and was wrong hey ho i was nicely chipped up..
Our table didnt break all day, and had numerous players join and exit through out the day, i had continued to chip up nicely and with my stack was able to get lets say a little "adventourous" one of the players who had joined our table was pretty active from the start but at the same time willing to fold to a raise, we had played a few pots previous and i think i must of won 90% of them from him..
Then this happened, blinds where 300/600 with antes he raised from UTG 2,400 everyone fold to me in the HJ.. i look down at 8s 4s so decide to steal and make it 6,100, it works and after a shake of the head he releases his hand, i show the bluff (was setting up for a move prehaps later if i had the goods).. So very next hand it folds to me on the button and i look down at Ah Kd and proceed to raise the same guys BB :) perfect he puts in a big re raise, great hes making a tilt move!! i ship he instant calls and flips over Ac A s lol ooops flop comes K high all red turn is a heart so he sweats any K or any Heart, river is red but wrong shape :( so all my hard work has been frittered away as a 90k+ pot moves his way.
Just to add to my pain after Alan Storey departed from my left his seat was filled with no other than Tod Wood!! great..
Basically i was card dead from there on and was dying a slow and painful poker death, just before the last few hands of the day i moved all in with 88 and was racing v KQ managed to run out with quads lol but still only had 10 bigs to play, oh well im gonna shove any picture card, PP in the next ten mins i have always got the HU to play on Monday.. well before i could do it after some slow and painful hands from the rest of the table Day had finished!! and i was coming back with 19,800 chips around 5 BB.. Oh well the dream of the hatrick is still on but only if i run incredible again on Sunday, bagged up my poultry amount and made it back to hotel for more sleep..

Woke up Monday checked out of hotel and went for lunch at the Mexican opposite F+Bs, stuffed myself with too much garlic bread ;D must of stunk to high heaven, this could work for my favour lol..
Now it being April fools day when i looked on forum thread and saw that all 64 remaining players had got paid i thought it was a joke!!.. but no on chatting with Des it was correct a decision that DTD and he had made yippie i had cashed :)
Now could i spin my 19k up and make a run or would i bust and join the HU? time will tell it was going to be messy thats for sure :).. First hand in lady to my left doubled up with AA v TT nothing much strange you may think? but if rumours where correct i belive she doubled up last hand of day1 with AA MBN lol..
So hadnt played with any of the players on my table before, had Dan Williams to my right and knew he had a good game, the rest i hadnt a clue? not that it really mattered i had just one move and one move only ALL IN!!
First all in i picked up the blinds and antes with KT after everyone folded, and was up to the giddy heights of 24k!!.. then next it was blind on blind i shoved with the mighty J2 ::) and managed to bink the 2 on turn to beat A6..Wiii above 50k..
Two hands later get dealt AA now because i had shoved every hand i decided to do the same hoping for a call maybe a x3 raise would of looked to strong? anyhows everyone had folded and just picked up blinds and antes again
So was at my highest chip count of whole tournament 60k!! average was 135k one more time and i was in with a chance..Then the hand that ended the dream occured basically it was a re run of a early situation and was folded around to me in the sb, i look down at K2 of clubs and ship all in BB snaps with QJ he had 46k behind so was standard call, flop came K*j turn J river blank so i was felted and running on fumes.. made it almost another orbit and we got the rest in blind on blind he had KT i had K6 we both flopped our kickers but i couldnt suck a 2 outer and i was gone as my hatrick dream too.. £225 was banked -10% i had swapped so i cant complain had a profitable series..
Said my goodbyes to all that where left behind and drove back to silly Suffolk...

Well thats the end of season 6.. WOW an unbelievable season for me, if anyone would of ever said i would win 1 National title and Gold medal in all the years i play APAT events i would of snapped their arms off!! So as you can imagine i still need pinching every now and then when i cast my eyes on the shelf with my medals etc on :o :o

Have to say a huge huge thankyou to Des, Leigh, Matt all the others Ian,Paulie Ger Phil etc etc that makes APAT the success it is and of course the members who are in a league of their own..
Bring on Season 7 and more fun events and meet ups with my special APAT freinds.. :)

Will be playing the Southend leg of the GPS in August really looking forward to this, and i may venture into my first staking request, will announce nearer the date once im registered, getting excited already....

Enough Pilgrim ramble for now and eagerly await the season7 announcement..
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on April 08, 2013, 20:12:51 PM: (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i302/fandango_32/medals.jpg)

Got Lucy around showing me the wonders of how a computer works!!.. Who knew that you could do all these clever things other than playing poker and sending emails and posting rubbish jokes on FB!!

So this is my first ever image i have posted on the forum ;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: mousebob on April 08, 2013, 20:55:12 PM: That"s a very fine collection of cufflinks you"ve got there.
N1 ;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Chipaccrual on April 08, 2013, 21:58:06 PM: Good God, he"s got a photobucket account. We"re all in trouble now ;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on April 08, 2013, 22:00:51 PM: Quote from: Chipaccrual on April 08, 2013, 21:58:06 PM

Good God, he"s got a photobucket account. We"re all in trouble now ;D

Wiiiiiiii ;D ;D Blame Lucy I even know how to use the control buttons on my PC!!!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Santino67 on April 10, 2013, 12:28:59 PM: Best opening photograph ever if you ask me 8)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on April 17, 2013, 18:37:51 PM: Had a very successful online WCOAP..

First up was the Stud event, not a great lover of limit poker myself but managed to play some good starting hands/draws and managed to "get there" when needed..

One very sick hand springs to mind when I was short stacked .. Had AA in the hole and re raised all in my last few chips after a guy in early position, only to be re raised by Dave Howard also short stacked.. Original raiser had 77 in the whole and Dave had KK.. Well as it goes so fast as all streets are dealt it ended up Dave hit a King on fourth street to make trip kings original raiser with 77 also made JJ and 7.. On 6 th street to make 7sfull.. I hit 22 on remaining streets and by the power of grey skull hit the case Ace on 7th street to make Aces full!!! My lucky mascot Lucy Amos was staying with us and we high fived the eventual win ;D .. WCOAP online Stud champ who would of funked it?

Also put me on top of the POTS table with 15 points..

Next day was PLO.. Love playing this game and enjoyed the games when playing for team England in the sngs.. Played very solid and didn"t really have any scares, managed to get HU with Don, and after a see-saw battle claimed my 2nd win of series !! WCOAP PLO champ aswell wow I was on a complete heater.. Thanks to Lucy again no doubt for her excellent railing abilities..

Another 15points towards POTS and had opened up a nice gap..

Thursday saw two games six max and PLO/HL .. I play mostly h/l on stars and was really looking forward to playing this big time.. Six max went really well picked my spots really well and managed to get to the final table of six, 5 getting payed.. Jo Sharpe was unlucky to bubble and with 5 left me and Liam had jostled for CL since early on.. Then the wheels came off for me, I made a dubious call with 44 v Liam"s 77 then Mark Gray played AA very well to stack me, smooth calling my re raise of AT and on a T high flop my fate was inevitable.. John Murray also acknowledged the good play and indeed it was.. So 5th for me and another cash and more points towards the POTS..
The H/l was going to plan played my best poker of the week in this.. early on in the first hour really had no playable hands/draws... Lost a three way all in with AA3* when Tony Trippier made trip kings (fish!) but the side pot was enough to keep me in with 4.8k.. Then I doubled up v Liam who I"m sure will admit his knowledge of high lo is somewhat limited, made the nut lo and nut wheel to bust his set to move up to over 10k.. A few hands later made nuts again to scoop with A s 2s3* when flopped nut flush draw and nut lo draw when the 6s hit on turn I knew this helped Mark Gray as it was an obv flush draw for him, needless to say when I min bet the turn and he shoved the remainder of his stack with Q high flush no lo draw I was delighted..
Top 3 places payed in this event and four handed it was Phil TC , Don Roberts, John Murray and myself.. Phil was on fumes and after a small rally bubbled in fourth..
After getting beat up by John Don fell in third place, and it was me and J M heads up..
I held a good chip lead and was playing good, then kinda let it slip with a couple of mis timed plays ;D.. John is a great player and knew what I was doing and correctly called my bluffs and missed draws.. Tried to bluff him off a flush draw when he had trips aswell when I only had an open ended straight draw I think was the final nail in my coffin.. John deserved the win and I had to settle for second place.. Excellent performance by JM making 2 final tables on the night aswell and scoring well in the POTS..

Well what with my finishes over the first five tournaments I had secured enough points to go into the ME knowing I had secured POTS and a prize of a ISPT day1 ticket.. It would of been interesting if John had managed to play the Stud event as I"m sure he would of pushed to also win the POTS, but due to the late reg cock up it wasn"t to be.

The Saturday was the ME and was looking forward to this good deep stack to play with just up my street..
Was a strange tournament for me, just didn"t "feel" it don"t know if it was my state of mind or just not focused never really got going!.. Had one interesting hand and don"t know if indeed I played it wrong or not or I should of folded.. The reason I ask is was the comment from Ian after the hand, perhaps I took it as a rub down (although im sure he didn"t mean it like that) or indeed he was right?? But this is how it played out..

Can"t remember the blinds exactly maybe 50/100 .. Ian (thehealer) raised early position to 300 folded around to me in the HJ.. I have AA and raise to 650 I believe, and Ian calls.. Flop JJ8.. Ian checks .. I check to hopefully induce a bluff on turn.. Turn is a brick rag Ian leads out for abou 900 I call the river is another blank .. Ian bets 2.3k.. I call and he flips over AJ .. Ok standard beat move on, well that was until Ian said " bad board for AA Carl".. Now this got me thinking, was it a bad board really? Well I guess it is if someone has J or 88, but I didn"t really put Ian on 88 or any J pre flop with the re raise, I"m thinking he had AQ/AK .. With the betting on turn and river is this a sigh fold?

Well as I said couldn"t really get going and was hovering around 8-9k.. I found 88 early position and raised 3x standard raise I other caller in late position and Richard Baker in SB shoved for his last 3.8k, I re shoved and got rid of the other caller to get HU, safe flop and turn but Rich spiked K on river to leave me with around 5k.. Few hands later I limp with KQ early position guy next to me raises 3x folds back to me and I complete, flop comes Q85 I check he C bets I snap call 6 on turn I check he bets 2 on river I check to raise all in, he puts me all in I snap call he flips over 66 .. GG me ;D .. I can"t ever complain about taking beats in poker, after my run over the last 12months I think I would be lynched lol..

I was never going to play the ISPT tour, I had won a package when taking POTS at ECOAP and was fortunate enough to receive a cash equivalent.. So winning he WCOAP POTS online although was another feather in my cap the prize was always going to be given away in another charity freeroll, the logistics of London for me in a wheelchair is a bit of a nightmare so will give it a miss.

So let"s hope we an all make the charity freeroll another huge success as before and raise some much needed funds for Muscular Dystrophy..
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on May 01, 2013, 14:23:56 PM: Really chuffed that between us all we managed to raise over £2,600 for Muscular Dystrophy, what started off as a idea to prehaps raise a couple of hundred quid when I decided to give away one of my GPS seats kinda snowballed..

Rich coming up with a great idea and gesture to set up the Bakers dozen series I can"t thank him/ you all enough, was a great series and very successful with so many winners..

The ISPT freeroll was a great success I really enjoyed setting this up with Matt, and on the night it played out great and in true APAT spirit :D some of the table banter was epic!!

Steve and Tom having a bounty on their head made for extra fun (at one point i was sure Tom was gonna win it all again until Rich took the wind out of his sails with his errr "creative" all in versus Toms QQ ::) )..
Congrats to Mark on winning a bounty and the ISPT seat and Sue for another bounty, I will try to bink us some cash in my GPS quest.. Also hope Mark can make the final stages of ISPT and win some money for himself, MD Suzanne and myself..

As poker goes for me.. I have no plans at the moment, just awaiting what season7 is going to bring.. May look into prehaps asking to be staked for a couple of the SCOOP events coming up on Stars, I never play buy in tournaments over $20-$30 as a rule unless I satt in or they are APAT online events.. I have never really had a BR to justify lumping $200+ in one go since I have had lets say more important use for my poker winnings.. So will see how it goes, never asked to be staked so it will be a first if I do.

One quick brag.. Was randomly going through my stats etc on certain sites and on the Hendon Mob site noticed that I"m now ranked number 2 in all time cash won at APAT events!! Just behind Dave Garden :)

As for total cashes in APAT events errr a certain fish called John Murray kinda owns that.. Must of been really soft in the early days IMO ;)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on June 26, 2013, 16:05:14 PM: Well have not had much to report of late.. so have been pretty lazy in updating my blog ::)

Poker has been restricted to the daily Stars $2 NL OHL with no real results for a long time managed a few min cashes but nothing like the results i was having 6 months ago.. Been playing a few of the APAT/LPPL games, great fun and managed to win a few along the way to keep my bankroll ticking over..

Saturday brings my next live poker game, since the WCOAP!! can not believe how much i am looking forward to playing and meeting up with some real good friends 3 more sleeps wiiiiiiiiiiii..
After the long awaited season 7 announcement i have been through and marked my events for the season, so if all goes to plan i may even venture abroad with APAT to Prague!! ;D

So hopefully next week i can update my blog with some news on how the poker went in Coventry..

Hope to see some of you at the weekend.. take care safe journey to all those making their way there.. xx
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: adilong1 on June 28, 2013, 19:52:35 PM: Quote from: fandango on June 26, 2013, 16:05:14 PM

Well have not had much to report of late.. so have been pretty lazy in updating my blog ::)

Poker has been restricted to the daily Stars $2 NL OHL with no real results for a long time managed a few min cashes but nothing like the results i was having 6 months ago.. Been playing a few of the APAT/LPPL games, great fun and managed to win a few along the way to keep my bankroll ticking over..

Saturday brings my next live poker game, since the WCOAP!! can not believe how much i am looking forward to playing and meeting up with some real good friends 3 more sleeps wiiiiiiiiiiii..
After the long awaited season 7 announcement i have been through and marked my events for the season, so if all goes to plan i may even venture abroad with APAT to Prague!! ;D

So hopefully next week i can update my blog with some news on how the poker went in Coventry..

Hope to see some of you at the weekend.. take care safe journey to all those making their way there.. xx

Be good to see you again Carl, looking forward to some more Hollywood lessons!! ;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on August 28, 2013, 19:19:09 PM: Time to update my blog me thinks...

Will keep it as short as possible so as not to ramble on too much ::)

Coventry was a little bit of a blur to be honest never really got going and probably never got above 18k all day!!

Remember getting moved table early evening with a short stack of about 12k, had Tod Woods and Chris Hiam aswell as Brian Yates so was a very tough table..
Lost a couple of grand when my KQ lost to T5 after i flopped top pair he flopped middle pair and called a flop bet and turn bet to river another T, lucky for me he checked river and my spidery senses worked it out and lost min..
Couple or orbits later i raise mid pos with 66 with a 8k stack and short stack decides to commit his last 6k with K7 and flops the K.. Very next hand i shove my remaining chips in with TT and same guy re shoves with 55 so was looking good for a small dble up but the 5 in the window saw paid to that..
Was looking forward to the PLO on the Sunday, and shared a opening table with Dann Williams, John Murray Andy Cairns and Brian Frew.. Started off won a small to get above starting stack and then a train wreck of a hand crippled me, cant quite remember the positions and betting but basically i called a pre flop pot raise by Dann with J98T ds. Brian Frew came along for the ride.. flop was 99J Brian led out for around half the pot and i put him on either A9 or a straight draw, Dan re potted! at this point i was thinking a combo draw prehaps AAQT or AA9T i had flopped the world and decided to get my chips in and if either of Brian or Dann had JJ so be it, Brian thought for a while and sigh folded Dann snapped me off and tabled JJ obv a mis step on my behalf but didnt put him on JJ after a raise pre.. A few hands later my fate was sealed by John when in my BB i flopped a set of fives, John flopped the nut flush draw and my paltry few chips went across the felt, John missed his flush but the turn gave him a gut shot str8 aswell and the dealer dealt my fate on the river.. Coventry was over for me.. But huge congrats to Warren the machine Jones for doing the double, and Shaz for securing a silver.

International duties beckoned for me next and after having the honour of being skipper choosing my team had its usual heart wrenching moments..
So after days/weeks of pondering i decided my team to represent England would be Tod Woods, Adam Sharples and Joe Car-Hill.
The weeks of waiting was over and the home internationals where upon us, after a quick meet up in F+B we was straight into 2 days of action.
Wont ramble on to much so basically i was rubbish and my 3 team mates where utter stars!! my poor results aside we entered day 2 as point leaders.. Tod and Adam along with Joe all won at least one of their SNGs Tod was his usual machine self and never struggled to score high points..
Day2 the wheels came off for Wales A and England A, infact in 1 SNG Wales A lost all 4 of their players first!!.. We had a terrible PLO round and terrible last round of NLH and when all the points where totted up Ireland A+B would duke it out for Gold and Silver England A+B for bronze.. (kudos to James who amazingly hung on in with 1 blind to outlast Wales A to secure enough points)

Frank and his team spanked Brians team 4-0 in the HU to secure gold!

Then it was our turn to play Stuarts heroes.

First blood to us Tod beats Stuart.

Then i have James all in when i have a 2-1 CL i hold AA James 77 .. James binks 7 on turn game back on, was looking good for a 2-0.

Then Joe looses out in his HU to Dann honours even 1-1

Then Paulie gets the better of Adam after a topsy turvy see-saw battle to go 2-1 up

Then James finishes me off after i have to gamble with T9 v JQ.. Ship the bronze to Stu and his team, guess if we had to lose it was fitting it was England B.

I was very proud of my teams performance overall albeit my bad results didnt help they played their skin out!! a better run late on day2 and we would of been hunting the gold..

Big thanks to Adam who helped me along the way in fact he was doing some of my captain roles with keeping us all informed of chip counts points etc, as its not poss for me to keep jumping up and checking ;D .
Big thanks to Tod for being a poker machine his skills are unbelievable and cemented the fact why he was my automatic first addition to the squad.
And last but by no means Joe, what can i say Joe was like a kid in a sweet shop!! his exuberance and excitement both leading up and during was like having a fifth team member, and scoring top points in the first PLO put us in a great position.

Cannot wait for Prague now and my three pokerteers of Rich Baker, Paul Haycock and Tony Trippier im sure will carry me across the line to GOLD!!

Now the team event was over it was ME time..

Shared a table with Bob Bulmen and Craig Dawson (Zozzy) on day1.. was a very aggressive table right from the start (and not just poker wise lol). Some guy managed to spunk his 15k off in the first level with a dummy straight v broadway on a board of TJQ87 after original raiser was betting every street.
Then fireworks was going off as seat 8 and 9 had a leveling war after they had clashed in numerous pots.. this happened bearing in mind they both had 150 BB each it was amazing to see it go all in pre..
Blinds 75/150 seat 8 raises to 1,800 pre!! seat 9 re raises to 5k!! seat 8 re raises to 8.5k (lol) seat 9 ships both with a little over 25k.. On their backs, seat 8 QQ seat 9 AK .. flop AKQ turn J and lol river T chop it up..

Seat 9 tilted his chips off after losing QQ v AA blind on blind.

Seat 8 made a terrible play to gift a talented young player 80% of his stack with just QT on a Q high flop after the youngster had flopped the nuts, he just couldnt take his foot off the pedal. So this is when a sick spot arised for me and Craig put me to the test, my memory is a little fuzzy but im sure Craig will correct me.
I limped EP with 66 and Craig limped next to me (im in seat 6 Craig 7) seat 8 shoves the rest of his stack around 6k.. folds around to me, now i thought i would smooth call to indicate real strength so Craig would fold and i get HU.. whoops Craig re shoves for another 7k hmmmm not looking good lol but obv im priced in and have to call the extra 7k, leaving me only 10k if i lose.. On their backs Seat8 KT me 66 Craig KQ suited.. flop K** ughhhh turn * river 6!! bink sorry Craig.. Set me up well and was cruising.. Then get Steve Redfern get moved next to me and Vik Metrum also gets moved oh Joy!!.. Get some great cards AA twice flop sets etc and heading towards last level of the day sit with average stack of 60k+.
Well its always a disadvantage when you get players who know your game so well and having Steve on the table with position was making my life harder, i had been adjusting bet sizes pre to disguise my hands and i think it worked as i was getting questioned why ;D thats perfect Steve is having to work out how strong/weak i am. I know that Steves Knows my game and he realises im pretty nitty and i often fold to a shove pre. So i had been playing a 60k+ stack for a while and Steve was sitting on around 40k still plenty of play as it was 500/1k with antes, now i know Steve likes to go into day 2 with a decent stack so would be pushing on to try and build and my plan was to try and catch him out.. So i decided to limp with AK and Steve duly shoved in on me for 40k ish, folds around to me and i call, Steve groans and flips over AJ rag flop with 2 hearts on board, turn another heart gulp i have no heart Steve has J of hearts, Steve politely asks dealer for J or heart and bink heart on river, Steve up to over 80k im down to 20k. Managed to build stack up to 43,200 with no showdowns of note, just picking up pots by shoving, and was in the last 34 heading back for day2.

Monday we met a few in the pub for lunch then back to DTD for the final push. Had Steve on my table when we got moved with 27 left aswell as Mark Porter, Gary Phillips, and Chris Hiam. The long and short of it all was i basically nursed a 70k stack into the cash, and then ran into the inmoveable force that is Chris Webber, shoved my last 40k (5bb) mid pos with A3 hearts, Chris with a gazillion chips correctly called with A5 couldnt manage a chop when he turned the 5 gg me in 15th place, no hatrick for me or title defence but a cash and more importantly a fab weekend!!

So next live poker for me is a few months away.. but it will be worth the wait PRAGUE baby bring it on!!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on November 28, 2013, 15:28:19 PM: This time next week will be in Prague, excited much ;D..

Will hopefully do a full report when I get back with good news!!

Have not played any live poker since Coventry (apart from Chezcurly) so I"m chomping at the bit to get on the felt, had a few wins on Pokerstars to pay for all my Prague trip mainly in the daily $2 NL/HL re buy so kinda freerolling for the few days.

The dates for the team championship sadly clashes with my youngests birthday, so I can"t apply to play that event wich is a shame, if I was lucky to get a pick in either squad it"s a great honour to represent APAT.

So 6 more sleeps .. ( Paulie dons his ban hammer for countdowns )
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Paulie_D on November 28, 2013, 15:33:02 PM: Quote from: fandango on November 28, 2013, 15:28:19 PM

. ( Paulie dons his ban hammer for countdowns )

One does not "don" a banhammer, one wields it like a Norse God!

(http://images.wikia.com/disney/images/2/23/Thor.jpg)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 10, 2013, 19:31:54 PM: Well the Prague report is not the good news I was hoping to report in regards to poker winning..

England where well placed after day1 with all to play for going into the MTT, but the crux of it all was we couldn"t deliver enough players into the too 18 to score enough points to secure a medal.. Tony was our top player and probed his worth by making the final table of the MTT finishing 3rd, shared 2nd in the individual table with Duffy and was in a good spot to win, but just made a crucial mis step against the wrong player.. Richard was steady getting a 3rd and winning his HU match against Herbie in 1 hand!! Paul had a complete nightmare of a trip and was running so bad, you know it"s not your day when you flop an open ended straight flush draw v the table lunatic and miss the world, he never got going all through the 2 days and by his own high standards was so upset. I was "happy" with my play over all took some amazing beats HU in the PLO to only get 2nd and bombed out of the MTT when I played back at a player when I should of prehaps re evaluated my position.
At the end of the day e stats don"t lie, Germany where immense and deserved the Gold over the two days, Toms Belgium where worthy of Silver, and it pains me to say Gordon, Duffy, Tom and Herbie where steady over the 2 days and getting 3 into the points in the MTT they deserved to overtake England and Slovakia, Duffy was patient picked her spots well and crushed Tony HU lol she played great the whole festival.

The ME started well for me and we played 4 handed for quite a while, I managed to chip up to 19k early on.
Just before the first break I was dealt KK UTG, blinds where 75/150 and I raised to 450, Duffy re raised to 900, the guy next to her flatted th 900, then it was either the Button or SB re popped to 3k!!.. I sigh tank folded, Duffy called as did the other guy so there was nearly a 10k pot at 150 level.. Well on a rag flop carnage erupted, Duffy checked as did the other guy, the guy who popped to 3k bet 9,000 leaving under 1k back? Duffy shoved other guy tank calls other guy throws remaining few chips in aswell.. Cards on back Duffy AA, other guy QQ other guy AK ;D phew..

Was moved shortly after onto an aggressive table with John Murray doubled John up when I missed an open ended straight flush draw on turn and was down to 6k and had to grind a short stack, doubled up courtesy of AA v KK won another 5k with a flopped set and was back to 16k.. Then with blinds getting serious find QQ to shove AIPF only to,lose a flip to AK GG me.

Good to see a few of the heroes make day 2, well done Ger, Rich and John all cashing.. John making yet another FT!! have to say I"m impressed how he doesn"t go bust when he has 66 on a flop of KK6 prehaps the river K was his lucky card ;) it managed for him to lose what was probably the min.

Sunday was a trip into Prague as it was Emma"s day, eventually our cab dropped us off and we made our way to Rocky O"Reilys a traditional Irish pub after a quick pint of Magners and a all day brekki with Ger, Paulie, Rich, TT, Duffy, Tom, Don, Lee and there friend (sorry my memory is terrible for names) we wheeled our way to the old square.
More drinks flowed in the outside bar with the most beautiful backdrop, with the best bunch of guys / Duffy/, that any human could wish for!

Summed up... Disappointed with not winning team event or defending title, the obvious lack of disabled facilities.. BUT have to say the people around me completely made up for everything, Prague is beautiful it wasn"t sub zero and will take some great memories back with me.

I could mention numerous people in my blog who made my stay special you know who you all are, esp Kevin who went out of his way to make sure I was safely in my hotel room each night.

ECOAP 2013... HIT!!

Did I mention I was looking forward to WCOAP :)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: DodgyEnd (Tom APAT.be) on December 11, 2013, 10:29:12 AM: Hey buddy,

You were probably the person I was most looking forward to to meet... Online it was clear that everybody here sees you as one of the greatest guys... Now that I met you, I can understand why. We didn"t have that much time to talk, and hopefully the WCOAP provides some more chances, but in every short conversation we had, you showed the love of life, and the love for the game.

You are just a great guy!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on March 03, 2014, 22:35:53 PM: CABIN FEVER!!!

No live poker to speak of since ECOAP...I have got Cabin fever

Roll on WCOAP the end.......
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Curlarge on March 04, 2014, 09:55:26 AM: Quote from: fandango on March 03, 2014, 22:35:53 PM

CABIN FEVER!!!

No live poker to speak of since ECOAP...I have got Cabin fever

wow great write up mate. Direct and to the point. More of the same please :))

Roll on WCOAP the end.......
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on March 04, 2014, 13:41:18 PM: Quote from: Curlarge on March 04, 2014, 09:55:26 AM

Quote from: fandango on March 03, 2014, 22:35:53 PM

CABIN FEVER!!!

No live poker to speak of since ECOAP...I have got Cabin fever

wow great write up mate. Direct and to the point. More of the same please :))

Roll on WCOAP the end.......

Wow great use of the quote function.. More of the same please :D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: HOLDorFOLD on March 04, 2014, 13:55:01 PM: Quote from: fandango on March 04, 2014, 13:41:18 PM

Quote from: Curlarge on March 04, 2014, 09:55:26 AM

Quote from: fandango on March 03, 2014, 22:35:53 PM

CABIN FEVER!!!

There you go, ask and you shall receive ;-)?

No live poker to speak of since ECOAP...I have got Cabin fever

wow great write up mate. Direct and to the point. More of the same please :))

Roll on WCOAP the end.......

Wow great use of the quote function.. More of the same please :D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: PHIL_TC on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM: TILT!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: HOLDorFOLD on March 04, 2014, 14:03:15 PM: TILT!!!!!!!

Quote from: PHIL_TC on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

ING!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Fatcatstu on March 04, 2014, 22:10:55 PM: Quote from: HOLDorFOLD on March 04, 2014, 14:03:15 PM

TILT!!!!!!!

Quote from: PHIL_TC on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

ING!!!!!!!

why?
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: duke3016 on March 04, 2014, 22:51:47 PM: Quote from: Fatcatstu on March 04, 2014, 22:10:55 PM

Quote from: HOLDorFOLD on March 04, 2014, 14:03:15 PM

Quote from: EEJIT on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Quote from: COCK on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Quote from: ROCK on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Quote from: FOSSIL on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Quote from: DA MAN on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: PHIL_TC on March 05, 2014, 09:17:18 AM: Quote from: Fatcatstu on March 04, 2014, 22:10:55 PM

Quote from: HOLDorFOLD on March 04, 2014, 14:03:15 PM

Quote from: EEJIT on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Quote from: COCK on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Quote from: ROCK on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Quote from: FOSSIL on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Quote from: DA MAN on March 04, 2014, 14:00:39 PM

Skills.

Although Stu holding some eejit"s cock on a rock talking about fossils with a man does sound like a typical intro into a stu story :) x
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on April 22, 2014, 16:34:41 PM: Season 7 has been done and dusted as far as live events.. Still have the online league to fight for and the WCOAP online series to enjoy..

So gonna give a brief run down on the highs and also lows of WCOAP..

Highs..

As usual the highs has to be meeting all the friendly APAT players and staff, been far too long coming around for my liking, although a number of the usual suspects where unable to make the trip to London, on a whole I thought it was very well represented.
Was great seeing Mark back amongst the team doing his great job of updating along with both Matt and the awesome Tom, Des was his usual jolly self and has promised me his baby making days are OVER !! ;)
Enjoyed meeting some of my fellow Blue Blood team mates, Dawn, John and Jeremy, and any of you who know Dawn will agree that she fits perfectly into the APAT family a breath of fresh air.
Poker for me didn"t have many highs so to speak of regarding play, I was lucky enough to finish 3rd in my first event I played on Thursday in the Antes only, but from there on the "Pilgrim run good" deserted me.
The casino was bar far the nicest I have yet had the pleasure to play in and reminded me a little of a Vegas feel to it, still have a love affair with DTD but as a whole package Aspers has it all IMO, so if we couldn"t play the WCOAP at DTD then this would be a perfect replacement..
Holiday inn across from the casino was perfect as always, I can never fault their hotels albeit pricy I would rather pay the extra as location was amazing!!
The whole shopping centre was pretty impressive and I"m just glad I left the credit card out of reach from Emma ;D, had some wicked food especially the steak platter on Sunday evening at TGI Fridays nom nom.

Lows...

Can"t really say there where any "lows".. Maybe a couple of frustrations/diss appointments .

Frustrated that the casino couldn"t of invisaged the success of the numbers of players and hadn"t hired enough dealers over the weekend, there where empty tables that could of been used to start up more cash games or SNGS, casino policy was that under no circumstances could there be a "self deal" policy for a SNG which is fair enough, but a few of us where willing to pay the juice for a dealer but alas there where no spare.
Also frustrated about bar prices, I"m not a drinker but was nearing £20 for a round of 3 drinks and when you have a bored partner who likes to let her hair down you can imagine it ended up both messy and pricy lol..

Diss appointed with my performance in both the PLO8 and ME, was so excited about playing the PLO8 as I think it is my strongest game but just didn"t manage to get any momentum going and after numerous outdraws and more important missed draws I didn"t make it deep.. The ME was a complete train wreck for me and dusted of my 20k in record time a combination of running flushes in higher flushes 2 times, set over set and having over pairs to the board 3 times when the same player had bigger each time just meant it wasn"t ever going to be, I guess that"s poker.

I have decided to take a step back from playing APAT live events in season 8 and limiting to perhaps just the WCOAP and maybe if there is a festival style weekend at DTD with some mixed games, think Emma needs some time away that doesn"t involve casinos and card rooms. Will still play all the online nationals etc and any promos that Matt can come up with.

So to sum it up Season7 was amazing (not quite as amazing as 2012 ;D) and with memories of international duties Pague etc and WCOAP I"m confident that season 8 will be a great hit when it is announced..

I must just add.. I have poked fun at JP on his statuses calling him a "fish" when he has reached yet another FT, but joking aside i think the guy deserves massive kudos for his acheivement over the festival, there where many many very capable players who he had to overcome to get into these deep runs, sir I doff my hat to you very very well played..
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Dawnie on April 22, 2014, 16:45:34 PM: Was great meeting you too, shizzles and giggles is what I like about poker and there were plenty of those :)
see you again soon
xx
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Paulie_D on April 22, 2014, 16:47:33 PM: I have three words for you.

"Jngle Bell Rock"

See, you"re doing it again. :)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on April 22, 2014, 17:04:45 PM: Quote from: Paulie_D on April 22, 2014, 16:47:33 PM

I have three words for you.

"Jngle Bell Rock"

See, you"re doing it again. :)

FFS.. Sigh!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: MintTrav on April 22, 2014, 18:37:19 PM: Quote from: fandango on April 22, 2014, 16:34:41 PM

I have decided to take a step back from playing APAT live events in season 8 and limiting to perhaps just the WCOAP and maybe if there is a festival style weekend at DTD with some mixed games

Booh!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: AMRN on April 22, 2014, 21:22:09 PM: Quote from: fandango on April 22, 2014, 16:34:41 PM

I have decided to take a step back from playing APAT live events in season 8 and limiting to perhaps just the WCOAP and maybe if there is a festival style weekend at DTD with some mixed games, think Emma needs some time away that doesn"t involve casinos and card rooms. Will still play all the online nationals etc and any promos that Matt can come up with.

Really nice write up Carl...... but hate ^^ this bit! Won"t be the same without you there.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on April 23, 2014, 12:07:57 PM: Quote from: MintTrav on April 22, 2014, 18:37:19 PM

Quote from: fandango on April 22, 2014, 16:34:41 PM

I have decided to take a step back from playing APAT live events in season 8 and limiting to perhaps just the WCOAP and maybe if there is a festival style weekend at DTD with some mixed games

Booh!
Quote from: AMRN on April 22, 2014, 21:22:09 PM

Quote from: fandango on April 22, 2014, 16:34:41 PM

I have decided to take a step back from playing APAT live events in season 8 and limiting to perhaps just the WCOAP and maybe if there is a festival style weekend at DTD with some mixed games, think Emma needs some time away that doesn"t involve casinos and card rooms. Will still play all the online nationals etc and any promos that Matt can come up with.

Really nice write up Carl...... but hate ^^ this bit! Won"t be the same without you there.

Thanks John/Steve probably a knee jerk statement, but I do need to see what season 8 has in the pipelines, you never know there could be a Omaha tour which could persuade me to play a couple more..

WCOAP is always a 100% yes for me and any festival that offers prehaps some mixed games PLO/PLO8 would be hard to miss.. But I guess we will all know SOON :D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 07, 2014, 14:28:39 PM: Well I have been rather lazy and not updated this since April! so thought I would jot a few words down as i wait for the wench to serve me my lunch.

So the idea of me not playing any events this season kinda went out of the window, wich is a good thing.. My goal was to prehaps focus more on weekends away with Emma non poker related.

So I did manage to whisk her away to Stratford upon Avon for a very nice long weekend, visiting all the Shakespeare tourist attractions etc etc.

Then I get a plead from the wench to go to Luton in September!! Obv the draw of drunken shenanigans with the other degens was just too much for her ;D, but alas I had already booked tickets for a family day out that weekend, and it was our eldest daughters 18th birthday, so we had to for go the trip..
Then there was a plead to go to Leeds?? Wtf is going on I have converted her to wanting to go to a poker weekend wiiii.. So without a second thought we booked and had a fab time as always, the TGI Fridays on the Friday evening was hilarious as was the whole weekend lol.. Bamber Gascoigne!! Enuff said.
Now it was time for Manchester, as skipper of Blue Blood poker for the online league we qualified by finishing 2nd, so I had been looking forward to this for months. We as a team didn"t perform well and ended up near the bottom of the pile >:( only two of us managed to score points, I scrapped into day two but exited 35th after losing a big flip JJ v AK the old A on the river.. But was able to jump into the PLO side event, which tbh I should of been out in around 20th but a young lad protected my all in and JP had to fold on turn held the nut flush other guy Q high flush JP a set, river paired the board phew.. We got to final 7 and agreed a bubble saver of £50, I was happy as I had 3 bigs.. Well without babbling on I short stack ninja my way to HU with Ady, we do a deal and flip FTW I flipped best lol, a nice little bink to cover hotel and bar bills for 3 days.
Now it"s Coventry next ;D again Emma pleaded to go so as a good caring partner I obliged and booked hotel the day we returned.
So looking forward to Covenrty in Febuary and WCOAP in March/April, so much for a quiet season 8..

Oh and a blatant brag!!.. One of my goals for 2015 was to top the APAT all time money earners, I was playing catchup to Dave Garden, my little bink in the PLO took me to the top so goal achieved in 2014!!

Now I"m chasing John Murray for his top spot in cashes, but the old codger has a very impressive record and will be hard to beat!!

Enjoy Ireland you lucky lot, that is one event off my radar :( would love it but it"s a def no no.. See you soon
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: AMRN on December 08, 2014, 09:50:31 AM: Quote from: fandango on December 07, 2014, 14:28:39 PM

Oh and a blatant brag!!.. One of my goals for 2015 was to top the APAT all time money earners, I was playing catchup to Dave Garden, my little bink in the PLO took me to the top so goal achieved in 2014!!

Now I"m chasing John Murray for his top spot in cashes, but the old codger has a very impressive record and will be hard to beat!!

don"t want to piss on your parade, but I just heard from Tom that the non festival side events were never supposed to be HDM flagged events. Tom is doing an audit at the moment, and all itty bitty sides are going to lose their flags - guess that might impact your stats (and mine)
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Chipaccrual on December 08, 2014, 10:29:15 AM: Quote from: AMRN on December 08, 2014, 09:50:31 AM

Quote from: fandango on December 07, 2014, 14:28:39 PM

Oh and a blatant brag!!.. One of my goals for 2015 was to top the APAT all time money earners, I was playing catchup to Dave Garden, my little bink in the PLO took me to the top so goal achieved in 2014!!

Now I"m chasing John Murray for his top spot in cashes, but the old codger has a very impressive record and will be hard to beat!!

don"t want to piss on your parade, but I just heard from Tom that the non festival side events were never supposed to be HDM flagged events. Tom is doing an audit at the moment, and all itty bitty sides are going to lose their flags - guess that might impact your stats (and mine)

But the internet says.........

(http://www.thepokeriety.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Screen-Shot-2014-12-08-at-10.26.09.png)

And the internet must be right :)

Just remember Carl, whatever happens, whatever Tom might audit, whatever The Hendon Mob might delete, they can never take that screenshot away from you. Never. Ever. It"s your"s. Cherish it.

;D
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Jon MW on December 08, 2014, 11:41:10 AM: Quote from: AMRN on December 08, 2014, 09:50:31 AM

Quote from: fandango on December 07, 2014, 14:28:39 PM

Oh and a blatant brag!!.. One of my goals for 2015 was to top the APAT all time money earners, I was playing catchup to Dave Garden, my little bink in the PLO took me to the top so goal achieved in 2014!!

Now I"m chasing John Murray for his top spot in cashes, but the old codger has a very impressive record and will be hard to beat!!

don"t want to piss on your parade, but I just heard from Tom that the non festival side events were never supposed to be HDM flagged events. Tom is doing an audit at the moment, and all itty bitty sides are going to lose their flags - guess that might impact your stats (and mine)

I thought the Hendon Mob Database was meant to cover all tournaments which fitted their criteria?

If the side events fit that criteria it seems odd that they"d be excluded.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on December 08, 2014, 11:51:17 AM: Quote from: Chipaccrual on December 08, 2014, 10:29:15 AM

Quote from: AMRN on December 08, 2014, 09:50:31 AM

Quote from: fandango on December 07, 2014, 14:28:39 PM

Oh and a blatant brag!!.. One of my goals for 2015 was to top the APAT all time money earners, I was playing catchup to Dave Garden, my little bink in the PLO took me to the top so goal achieved in 2014!!

Now I"m chasing John Murray for his top spot in cashes, but the old codger has a very impressive record and will be hard to beat!!

don"t want to piss on your parade, but I just heard from Tom that the non festival side events were never supposed to be HDM flagged events. Tom is doing an audit at the moment, and all itty bitty sides are going to lose their flags - guess that might impact your stats (and mine)

But the internet says.........

(http://www.thepokeriety.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Screen-Shot-2014-12-08-at-10.26.09.png)

And the internet must be right :)

Just remember Carl, whatever happens, whatever Tom might audit, whatever The Hendon Mob might delete, they can never take that screenshot away from you. Never. Ever. It"s your"s. Cherish it.

;D

Haha thanks Leigh.. I trust the internet!!
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on September 08, 2015, 14:31:00 PM: Just a quick update..

Haven"t played a hand of poker now for 5 weeks!!.. On a sabbatical while I"m having some disabled adaptations done to house. Hopefully be back on it next month, all these excellent results from the "degenerates" are giving my appetite for poker back.

Huge congratulations to Curly and Dan for their recent scores, and Rodders for his deep run on home soil.

Have parted company with Blue blood poker which was a tough decision, but with some internal politics currently ongoing and my involvement with Bank Roll Supply playing a major factor these things happen in the cut and thrust of the poker world.

Gutted to be missing the APAT team event qualifiers and the recent Welsh online and Manchester jollies >:(, but family always comes before poker.
May have to beg a team for a spot in Luton as I will obv not be asking/qualifying as a Blue Blood captain/player this year.
Take care folks and hope to catch up with a few of you in the near future.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: Paulie_D on September 11, 2015, 06:52:13 AM: Somehow missed this post over the last couple of days.

Family before poker...+1 to that.

Hope to see you back in the swing soon.

Best to Emma.
Title: Re: Pilgrims Progress
Post by: fandango on September 11, 2015, 22:17:07 PM: Quote from: Paulie_D on September 11, 2015, 06:52:13 AM

Somehow missed this post over the last couple of days.

Family before poker...+1 to that.

Hope to see you back in the swing soon.

Best to Emma.

Cheers fella looking forward to catching up, Emma has a special hug at the ready as always!!