Played two big tourneys this w/end and came 53rd in both !
So APAT tourney on Saturday at Walsall, had me arriving late due to babysitting times. But 2hr 20 min to Walsall was impressive and meant I arrived only missing one set of blind and just the 150 chips lost from my 10,000. I didn't get any starting hands of note and didn't connect with a thing on the board, but was able to take down a few unwanted pots and stayed at about 11k for the first 2 hours. A loud fella named Scouse was keeping everyone entertained and I clashed with him in two hands where I made good value calls on the river with pocket pairs and this got him a little excited and he started berating me for my play. Out of order stuff really, with a few insults and use of the words retard and idiot, I love that banter/wind-up stuff though and replied with a "not the idiot who bet with nothing" and "I wasn't playing the cards, just the player", give him credit though he came back with "well played Phil" which I thought was a good line. However he didn't know me at the time and I think several players would have taken offence at his comments. He did buy me and a couple of others a beer after he was knocked out and then watched the footy where he got a little excited and expressed himself FULLY! There were a number of players who swore loudly throughout the tourney including a lady so drunk she fell asleep at our table and had to be given a nudge every time it was her turn to act. A few other incidents happened and now there is a fully fledged thread on APAT forum regarding "beer and poker". I personally like to have characters at a poker table and beer often "creates" more character, although swearing out loudly never sits comfortably with me in a public place and I hope that a general consensus comes from the thread http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=2791.90
The table split and for the rest of the night I got moved to a pleasant table and was stayed card dead and got a little low, until I rode my luck a bit when I moved on the turn with bottom pair and flush draw, got called by top pair and hit on the river. I made a nice move with a re-raise bluff and was avereage or slightly above until just as we reached the last level my AK re-raise ran face first into AA. A King on the flop, so even If i had played it cautiously I still would have gone out in 53rd and 40 min short of Day2. Still thought I had played well with so few cards and so many missed flops, so quite pleased.

Got back after driving home in the snow, to put the kids to bed and sit down to play the $10 entry $200k gtee on Stars. This is now becoming a regular tourney for me and was full last night with 30,000 runners! I gradually built my stack steadily, made the cash and then chipped my way up the prizepool ladder. A few weeks back I had come 216th, well that milestone passed and then we got down to the last hundred and I was starting to get quite excited with first prize of $28,500. With 53 players left I got KK on the button and it was folded round to me, picture story to follow:


So All-in pre-flop....M A G I C



So a little dissapointed, as the pot would have put me right in the mix for a massive payday, but hey-ho $480 and a 53rd from 30 thousand players is a PB in this event....



.........One day it will happen LOL.