I recently Qualified for the 5th Leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour. This is what happened on my trip.

I flew from Edinburgh to Gatwick in the early AM on Friday, arriving in Gatwick Airport at some unholy hour (It was my first time there, I am usually flying into Luton when I hit London).

Upon arrival, I noticed some signs which informed me that I needn’t have ditched my lighter, toothpaste and other liquids (grr).. Paying £1.50 for a lighter pisses me off, but then so do Airports in general.

My plan was to meet up with some poker players I know in Brighton (some of guys from team trotter (the poker.co.uk pros, and Matt “Donk” Dale) before the comp, to meet them in the flesh (I know them from playing online…)- and of course to see if they had any advice to give me, given their years of experience on the live circuit.

I was scheduled to play on day 1b, and I had heard that Matt played in day 1a, and had accrued a nice 35k (ish) stack. The rest of Team trotter (Dan Carter, Pete Singleton and Lucy Lucy Rokach) were due to play on the Friday (day 1b), the same day as me.

I wandered through the Airport with the alarms and verbal alarm warnings being blasted over the PA System (nobody paid any attention to the alarms strangely..), I proceeded to pay £13 for a ticket to Brighton (where the sun allegedly always shines), and away I went on my adventure.

Circa 45 minutes later I rolled into Brighton, got off the train and tried to call Matt (pool, a beer and some cards I thought..) Straight to Answerphone.. Grr.
4am finish -> Hangover… I reckoned – so I decided to explore sunny (edit: Bloody Windy) Brighton.

After walking down by the waterfront and checking out some shops, I hit an internet café to read some mail, played some old slot/fruit-machines to kill some time, and finally I managed to get in touch with Matt who said he would be down at the Casino later.

I headed to the Grosvenor Casino for about 2:30pm for the “online qualifiers welcome reception” which comprised of a handshake, goodie bag, some sandwiches and beverages. I love goodie bags.. that’s just me.. They always have something novel in that I can give away to a friend or family member – So I wasn’t dissapointed when I opened mine. It contained a GUKPT MUG (not just any mug – It is a self-stirring mug (Gasp! When I donk out I can drink my tea in a self-stirring mug- I chuckled to myself). Also in the bag was a Brighton Rock (Sugar-tastic), and 2 GUKPT Polo-Shirts.

The welcoming guy informed all online qualifiers that if they wore the GUKPT branded stuff they would get entry into an online poker freeroll for the next 1k GUKPT Newcastle seat (worth $2100). With a mere 50 runners, this sounded good, but since I am already sponsored into the Newcastle event, I called Matt to see if he wanted me to wear his poker.co.uk shirts (oh of couse, I was going to haggle a price, however I ended up wearing the GUKPT gear in the end.) (Where is my email, telling me about this `roll? Grr…)

I spotted Dan “lucky Scrote” Carter, whom I recognized from his msn avatar, and ambled over to introduce myself.. Dan wasn’t giving any tips away (sly dog.. no doubt he will make good on his offer to give me some tips when I am playing with team trotter in the Newcastle GUKPT). When I quizzed him, he claimed he was going to play loose at the start and try to get stacked early on – the opposite of my strategy.

Matt Dale arrived (he was away looking for plasters as he had injured himself with a nerf rocket LOL – after beer poker and smokes, and a 7am beer carry-out (You have got to love English drinking laws! You can buy beer 24/7! – I live in Bonny Scotland, where the alchoholic beverages may only be purchased in shops etc between 11am and 10pm).

I met Pete “the Professor” Singleton, whom I recongised from TV, as well a few other renowned players, and I also saw a few familar faces such as Willie Tann on the tables around me.

Around 4:10pm the seating order was announced on the big screens around the casino, and to my annoyance I wasn’t on the list! I contacted the organisers and they assigned me seat 1510. I didn’t recognise anyone at the table, so thankfully I didn’t feel too intimidated (of course I knew that every player there knew how to play poker, so I wasn’t going to be complacent).

A loud welsh player was on my right, and he seemed to know half the players and dealers and “talk the talk” as it were.. I knew I had to watch out for him. Early on play was reasonably tight. I had decided to play like a rock for the 1st part of the tournament, and refused to see any preflop raises unless I had a decent hand.

I stole a few pots with reraises when I sensed weakness, and made two big laydowns before getting dealt the first memorable hand of the day.

In late Position I was dealt As3s, and it was checked around to me. I checked, and the flop came 3s7s9 – giving me the Nut flush. The Player in sitting opposite me me raised it 5bb, the guy to his left called, and the players in front of me folded. I pondered for a minute, trying to look reluctant to call (but not too reluctant), and I doubled his raise. Thankfully he called – the other player in the hand folded. Next card out Qs which ruined my chances of milking this guy. He bet the pot (I put him on 2 pair or a flush) so I decided to eyeball him for a bit. Well, It turns out I am not good at eyeballing people I think I managed about 4 seconds before I looked away.. Playing online doesn’t exactly make you good at eyeballing, and when I play live I try to hide my face with shades and hat.. [note][to][self-][do][some][eyeballing][practice][in][the][mirror,][or][on][the][train][Lol] -anyway I raised for about 3/4 of his stack, he looked disgusted and folded. I was up to about 14k and the first break was coming.

I managed to donk off 3k of my stack by making a great fold in a massive 3way pot. I was holding AK , the flop was KxT, turn T. One guy had KT, giving him a full boat, so I enjoyed a drink while reflecting on how glad I was I had folded.

In the second round I was so card-dead it was sick. I was dealt 73 at least 6 times, and the hammer (72os) about 3 times. The luckbox on my right was doing my head in yakking about cricket to a guy on the opposite side of the table, the air cond was blasting freezing air into the whole room (everyone was wearing their coats it was so cold!!!). I played 22 and won a 6k hand with a set, then watched the welsh luckbox knock out another player with his 444 v 333 (he called a 6xbb raise with 44!). Once stacked, this guy was a calling station.

About 10 mins before Dinner, I was dealt JcKc. Every Time I see JK I think of Phill Hellmuth’s famous rant, and I always remember it’s not a strong hand, however given my run of dirt cards, I thought there was no harm in seeing a flop. 4 of us saw the flop: rainbow TKJ (T clubs). Player 1 raised 3xbb, player 2 folded. Welsh guy on my right called, and I considered my options. I figured I had the best hand and mega outs- any J or K for a full-house, and possible backdoor flush (yeah right!) possibilities. I raised all for about 14k. The guy to my left went into the tank for a good minute, before I chirped “you are dominated man”… He looked at me and at the cards and said he was counting his outs. Welsh Luckbox on my right chipped in “don’t forget about me”. The guy to my left eventually folded. I was suprised when the welsh guy on my right grabbed his stack and shoved it into the middle of the table, and said “call”.

What did he have? of course he had flopped the straight, and had QA. D’oh. Turn and River didn’t offer me any salvation – I was out! I grinned, shook his hand and said good luck to the players and went off for food and a drink with Matt. I told him how it went down and we chatted. I asked how team trotter were doing and it seemed that Dan “lucky Scrote” Carter had run QQ into AA and had gone home (Dan’s off to Barca for the Heads up Championships this week).. I chuckled a little – being glad that I had outlasted at least one of team trotter – and hey – the whole learning experience was Free! (Thanks InsideEdge and Bluesquare!)

I headed off into the lively Brighton night confident that I would never play JK suited like a donk ever again. I’ll be back GUKPT.. just wait and see

Oh yeah! Did I forget to mention the hot chicks???? There were a good selection of hot ladies available during play, to give players shoulder massages while they played. Weeeeeird. Thankfully I didn’t play against anyone while they were having their shoulders massaged by one of these elegant ladies.. I would imagine it would have felt like chatting to somebody who is stroking a cat… but the player would be the cat.

I can highly recommend playing in a big money tournament such as the GUKPT – the experience can only make you a better player, and the prizes are hell-a-tasty!

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