APAT Luton: Friday, 21st October 2011.
Home turf! At the very least it’s probably the most accessible location for me on the APAT schedule until, hopefully, we get to Aspers in Stratford in Season Six. No Des, I’m not going to let that one go any time soon.
A mere hour’s drive around the M25 on a good day but as I was heading there on Friday night after work it was likely to take just a tad longer. As it was I bolted (fair enough, ambled) to the car at 5.30 from work and rocked up at the Days Hotel almost on the stroke of 7 o’clock. Only the usual road works and Friday night traffic to deal with…I’ll take it.
I’d opted to spend an extra £8 a night on an ‘Executive’ room for the two nights I would be there and there was a nice separate ‘work area’ which consisted of an office chair and what as basically a shelf with a couple of extra power points (one of which was broken) but I wasn’t unhappy with it. I probably won’t do it again but you never know.
After last year’s Luton event and the embarrassingly early exit from the APAT Luton Home Game I was eager to get some redemption this time. Oops…just realised I gave the game away with the title of this post.
Of course, last year led to drunken antics, a boozy haze and aching feet followed by a late night kebab…things could only improve.
I wandered the short distance to the Casino after getting settled into the hotel room arriving about 7.30 and met up with the APAT Luton contingent. Drinks were had, Lord I was parched, and we settled into a very nice comp with a decent chip stack and structure organised by the Luton mob. T7,500 and 30 minutes I think it was for £20. Very nice.
I like that Luton is enforcing a penalty for folding out of turn….I approve heartily of this …of course, I was the first to offend missing that Richard Baker hadn’t folded in front of me…DOH! Two hand penalty…I won’t be doing that again.
With everyone knowing one another it was a somewhat more friendly (and this noisier) game than would perhaps normally be the case. We finished up with 22 players (eventually) squeezed on to 2 tables.
I don’t remember any specific hands (I can’t imagine why) but I made it to the final table with a reasonable stack and by the time 2 am rolled around we were down to 4 and I’d cashed at the very least.
As it turned out I got heads up with Sharon Roberts, who I hadn’t met before, and, with all due respect to her, she seemed fairly straightforward. If she had it she bet. However, I could never get a hand against her to do anything with.
As I Sharon had me nearly 3:2 in chips I didn’t think it was my place to offer any sort of deal (plus I kind of wanted to win) but at around 3am, Sharon generously offered an even chop and since there was only £50 between 1st & 2nd I gratefully agreed for £155
After collecting my cash (hotel cost covered thank you very much) I was pretty much wiped out. It was 3.30 in the morning by this time and I’d been up for 22 hours and my eyes were burning like someone had peed in them.
I sauntered back to the hotel and crashed. No fuss, no muss….no bear.
