I'm not sure what happened to my blogs.........so I'll start again!

Pre Tournament

Well the big day arrived and off I went to the Café de Paris for the Maxim King Of Poker.

The room I shared with Pokerbarney, MoFace and Masterplan was er…a room, tastfully decorated with jam and marmalade on the ceiling. 2 single beds and a bunk bed. Rotten sods made me, the old man, sleep on the top. At £15 each for the room, it wasn’t that bad. I had to put up with Masterplan’s stinky feet so they had to put up with my snoring.

In the bar of the Regent Hotel I found Morlspin and Chelski (where else) closely followed by MoFace, Ronay and Masterplan. Poker Barney was on the missing list so I met him later. After a couple of beers, chatting and trying to guess who was Runadrum & Avongirl in the crowed, we went off to get changed and made our way to the Café de Paris.

We didn’t have to wait long before they let us in. Registration was in 2 parts.

The Fun tables: You were given a 1k chip to play on these tables for 45 minutes trying to accumulate the largest stack you could. There were prizes for 1st - 10th but I can’t remember what they were. This was for everybody including the qualifiers after they had been knocked out.

The Main Tournament: After registering you were given a card with the table number and seat number where you where playing plus a Bounty chip which as the rules stated, if you get knocked out you had to give your Bounty chip to whoever knocked you out. If you got knocked out you only had to give the winner 1 bounty chip and the rest (if you had any) were exchangeable with Oscar, the VC rep for $10 for every chip you had.

Those of us on the reserve list were asked to go back to the registration table about 7pm to find out if we were going to get a game. 3 names being announced straight away, Morlspin and Runandrum, who I thought deserved to play after the fantastic job he did with the unofficial but more accurate, Leaderboard.
Not long after Moface was called to play.
My face must have been a picture because Morlspin came over and gave me a hug just as they called my name to play. I think I was one of the last to get a seat as it started not long after.

The Game

I was on table 1 sandwiched between DaMatrix (last years MKOP) and Mivi. To the right of Mivi was Sly Snake, who was keeping pretty quiet in case anybody decided to get him back for all the chat over 4 months. He did go a funny colour when I told Mivi whom he was. Spurman was to the left of DaMatrix but I didn’t know who the rest were. If you were from PL I apologise.

For a few hands I got rubbish cards until the BB when I checked with Q9s. The flop was

J K 10 rainbow

I hit the straight and bet 100 to be raised by the guy next to Sly Snake. I called and the turn was (I think) a 7

I put him on a pair and bet again which he raised again. The river was a 10. I checked and he bet 500. With a rush of blood I called and he turned over KK. It was very well played and suckered me in.

That took half of my stack and for about 15 hands never saw a picture card. I bluffed a couple and stole some blinds but never got back into it. My last hand was pocket 6’s under the gun with 725 chips left and the blinds had just gone up to 150/300. Time to push. Everybody folded around to Mivi who said, “Sorry mate I gotta call this” 6 6 v 9 10s. A 9 came on the turn and that was the end of me.


Post Tournament

The things that stick in my mind were,

Ubermonkey with an all in raise on the fun tables with 72o and seeing the faces of the people around the table. Obviously they don’t know the magic of 72o!

Ubermonkeys’s wife wearing Dan Arama’s hat whilst fleecing the players on the fun tables and announcing that Michael Grecco was a low grade celeb with him behind her.

Watching VC Jemma’s face change from horror, because she must have thought that we were gonna straighten her out after the misinformation about who is playing, to a smile when Morlspin introduced us to say hello.

Nearly getting a Champagne Flute dropped on my head after a girl dropped it from the balcony as I left the bar.

Chelski – Could you stand there for a photo?
Girl – Could you F**k off!

Lemonjohn’s infectious laugh

Chelski asking at registration “Do you think the reserve list will get down to number 725”

Meeting one of my Heros, Teddy Sheringham

Avongirl taking a picture of Runadrum’s chip stack before it disappeared.

Morlspin having a nice chat with VC Matt, (PR if you are reading this Morl would make a fantastic Ambassador for the poker section of PL) about how the MKOP could be better run next year (or is that this year??)

Summery

It was a brilliant night meeting lots of people and putting faces to names. Everybody was friendly and I hope had a great time. If I missed anyone, I’m sorry and will catch you next time.

Well done to all who played especially to Hulagirl who came second, Morlspin and MoFace who made the final table.

I think all the pain and agro, tanrums and tears was more than made up for by being at the Grand Final.

Would I try to qualify again next year??………………………Bet your last chip on it.