I GOT BIG DREAMS....

After Nottingham, Kev and myself decided we had to get our grind on. Marc and Tim were flying straight from the UKIPT to Berlin for the EPT. We wanted that to be us, we didn’t see any reason why it couldn’t be. We just had to actually start grinding. But..... The Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona was on.  So we decided to take the Thursday off, and enjoy the game up in mine with my Dad. At half-time, I decided to late-reg the big 11. Instantly regretted it, and tried to punt the shit out of it. I even posted one hand for lols in the MTTc chat where I 4b/c 108 suited and asked for strategy advice.  Some of the dolts actually thought I was been serious. I obviously got there vs KK by the way.

Anyway, before I knew it I’d got down to the last 100 players, and there was close to 13k for the win. I decided I should really try and win this. I mean one table a big to victory? Who lives like this? Chelsea had just defeated Barcelona with 10 men and Torres had scored. Anything could happen.  I was talking to Parker on facebook with about 70 to go, and he made me agree that I’d fly to Berlin in the morning if I won it. Snap agreed of course.

Pretty much coasted down to the last two tables, thanks to no skill at all and my attempts to punt I had gathered quite a stack. Parker and Marc were railing from their hotel room in Berlin, even though they were going to play Day 3 of a 5k the next day. Then with about 18 to go, I got it in with AQcc vs KJcc for all the gold. KJxcc flop. I had this. Was running to good to miss. Brick. Brick. Igh. Down to 7bbs and I’d kept Marc and Parker up railing me to fail. Then I received a txt from my buddy Taz. Simple read, ‘Everyone loves a come back story’. Shipped A4o from the c/o and was snapped by the big blinds A10. 4 on the flop. Ezzzz game. I chipped up slightly, and had around 22 bigs when the biggest hand of the tournament happened. The guy on my left had been jamming over me a tonne. I opened QQ from the cut-off and he minned it back on the button. Straight away alarms went off in my head, and I felt sick. Then the big-blind insta jams all-in. My first instinct was snap fold, but given the positions and how aggro I’d been, plus the fact folding QQ with 20 biebers is usually not great. I put it in. BAM, over-called straight. AA vs KK vs QQ. ‘Fucccck’.. Threw my mouse away, I was so pissed off with myself for not going with my first instinct. Turn away in disgust. And alls I hear from Kev is ‘Omg, hold... Hold...’ Qxx flop. Blank. Blank. Was time to win this tournament.

I had so much fun leading up to the final table. I was literally opening any two cards, and 3-betting every single open. Trying to apply as much pressure as possible. Then on the FT bubble vs the biggest fish left, I lost a huge pot where I had to fold AA on the turn, even though I had about two-thirds of my stack in the middle. Think I puked a little in my mouth at the moment. Didn’t matter though, because the run good continued when we made the FT  and I got 1010 in vs 99 for heaps with 9 to go. However, the roller-coaster was to continue, losing a huge flip with AK to JJ with 7 to go. At this point I was almost accepting defeat. Parker even threw in a new condition, if I were to make top 3 I had to fly to Berlin. I accepted thinking, seriously I have like 2 bigblinds. What are the odds.

Couple of hours later I got second for just under 10k. I punted heads up pretty bad, bluffed raised all in on the river vs the biggest station ever. It was still my biggest score to date, really wish I had of broken the 5 figure barrier however. So then I realised. I actually had to go to Berlin now. I got the man who knows all about last minute flights, Jono Crute to find the cheapest possible flights for me. 180e return, and I would have to go Viva Switzerland and the flight was leaving in 5 hours. I convinced Kev to come with me. I put what clean clothes I could find in a bag and off down to Kevs we were for his Mam to drive to the airport. It was the middle of the night, so obviously I didn’t want to wake my Dad. So I left this note behind for him.

I will finish this trip report over the weekend, got Dublin UKIPT in the morning. And would love to have this up to date. Hopefully will have a final table to write about (sun)

Jaaaagers!!!

Ok, so it's been forever since I updated this. And we've had a few adventures in the mean time.

Laura's friends from Wales came over a couple of weeks ago now. Made me realise that Dublin has actually got to be a terrible spot for tourists. When asked what to do, I was really stumped. I mean the only touristy thing I can think of to do is visit the Guinness factory, of course living up to the typical drunken Irish stereo-type.

We brought them out to get fucked up however. Went to 'The Palace' on Wednesday, hadn't been there since I was living in town last year when was living in town. Think the girls had a good night so that was all that mattered really. After failing in bribes to the man on the door of the girls hotel in an attempt to gain entry, ended up back in Kev McKeown's house. 5 of us the bed. Zero sex had. #Losing.

Few of the Cardiff girls

 I'm pretty sure I mentioned in a previous post that I was heading over the the UKIPT in Nottingham. And of course Kev managed to somehow get himself into the tournament as well, between selling action and getting Zima taken some of it on his deal. We got over there on the Wednesday and were playing day 1b on the Thursday. So of course the plan was to have a quiet one or two. That's always the plan.

Laura and Emma had come down with Bristol, and a few of the lads Kev knew from Ibiza and I had met at Laura's birthday were coming out too. The first bar we got into had a problem. We were faced with this sign.

Now rather than accept defeat. With the shots been £1, our first round consisted of two tequilas and two sambucas each. There was no salt or lemon. Itssssss a probluuuum. So after taken approximately a thirty second break between one of my shots, Marc and Kev made me 'Man the fuck up'. Three more of these rounds, and the night is a bit of a blur. All I have to remember about it is this picture.

Looks like we were having a good time anyway

The next morning we had a case of Déjà vu, going to play $1ks and hanging like never before. Marc hated me like never before also. He needs to learn to drink. Couple of shots and he's bed bound for up to two days. There was rumors that you had to abide by the 'The Dusk till Dawn' dress code, however I laughed this off, considering we were paying almost 100e in rake. No laughs when we got there, and Kev and myself were sent back to the hotel to change out of our fatmans. Wasn't a great start to the day needless to say. 

Even though I was hanging, when play finally got under play, I approached it a lot differently to UKIPT Galway. I felt in Galway I was just too nitty pre-ante. I decided I was either going to accumulate a lot of chips early or go busto. I got a pretty soft table draw originally, and went from 15k - 30k with very little showdowns. I was constantly moving around tables for the day, usually I'd consider it a disadvantage, however the fact that I was so active, moving around a lot allowed me to get away with it all day. Towards the end of the day, I'd chipped up to approx 90k, aided by two orbits in a row the button shoving 10 bigs into my Kings in the bigblind.

We'd been playing for approximately 12 hours, and there was one more level to go, and yet again I got moved table. Kev and Conor had long busted, and were tempting me with a session. Add in the fact that Emma and Laura had come down from Wales, ALSO, that had the next day off because was the third day 1, I thought it'd be rude not. I worked it out and coming back the next day at t1600 I'd have at least 50bigs. So I cleared it with the TD that my stack would be looked after and off I was. Got royally fucked up with Conor and Kev, stayed drinking in Tom and Darrens house until about 9/10am. Went back to the hotel, got a few hours kip. I of course was full of good intentions, but that night after Aaron came down from Leeds. We ended up out again. Not the best preparation for my first day 2 of a big liveament.

I was still pretty drunk I think the next day, talking nonsense at the table. When the bubble burst, I got 6/9 of my table to agree to do Jaggers. Which was a pretty good effort. Even got me a cool live pro pic on the blog because of it.

How Jelly You Marc

I triple barreled in a pretty questionable spot just before the money. Which left me with a shortish stack. When the bubble burst, I chipped up a bit, as live players are just so nitty. Then with about 110 to go I lost a flip with 66 vs AQ. Was still a cool experience and has me looking forward to Dublin.

 I've probably missed loads of this, and haven't included a lot of pictures I wanted to. I'm going to put up a better post in the next few days about one-tabling a dream to victory ha. Hopefully it be a bit better and not as rushed.