Chezger Visit - Saturday

First Dragons, Then Fish...Now That Damned Bear!

I thought I was safe here in the wilds of Cheshire but OHHH NO….not on your life. Somehow "Ursus Imbibus" had tracked me down…and he wasn't happy about it. Suffice it to say that my sleep was disturbed. A restful night it was not and I could tell he was super mad about having to come to Cheshire because he'd smacked me in the head extra hard.

It took me more than a few hours and a couple of cups of coffee to get my brain even close to working right. However, I managed to get myself together enough to make my way out for lunch.

I had to get petrol so I drove down to the Sainsbury's near the Cheshire Oaks shopping centre and popped into the Old Hall Farm pub.

However, the place was rather busy and the menu wasn't quite what I was looking for. I fell back on an old favourite and headed over to The Rake (a Hungry Horse pub) a short distance away.

I order the all Day Breakfast and a pint. It took me the best part of an hour to finish the pint. The food took substantially less.

In due course, I parked up outside of Chezger and made my way inside being the first to arrive. I declined another beer and Ger and I sat outside and whiled away the time as the remainder of the field made their arrivals.

Game time rolled around and I had a couple more beers and was starting to feel better. However, this did not help my play and I left the fray in the first few making a move with AK that was torn a new one by AA.

GG Paulie….you fish!

Left pretty much to my own devices (don't you just hate being one of the first out?) I ended up sitting watching X-Factor…something I just don't do.

However, it had a soporific effect and after the previous night I wasn't feeling up to snuff. I was hoping to get a small PLO8 game going but the action going on in the converted garage was some crazy version of cards that I'd never heard of; 11-card double flop Omaha I think.

Not my cup of tea.

Although it was my earnest wish to enjoy the weekend, I was dog tired and I had a long drive the next day so I regretfully called it a night before midnight. I made by goodbyes to Ger, Phil, Stu, JP and a few others and drove back to my lodgings.

In the morning after a proper night's sleep I made the straight run back to home in three and a quarter hours (Avg 68.9mph, I just worked out)…I may have bent a couple of speed limits there.

Yarm next….Lord help me

Chezger Visit - Friday

Here Be Dragons...and Fish

Say what you like about Ger (and you can, he won't mind) but the last thing you could call him is inhospitable. Inviting nearly 40 people to one's suburban home for a monster beer fest (and a purely incidental poker game) is something I suspect most of us would think a few dozen times about. Ger didn't even think twice.

The calendar and distance have always mitigated me away from attending (since I've known the man) but when the offer came this time I snapped his hand off.

When the day came, I left home around 10.15 for the drive to the unknown regions of Ellesmere Port.  Google Maps wasn't much help, just a blank space with "Here Be Dragons".

Fortunately, my satnav app was a little more helpful. I left home around 10.15 in no special rush. I'd planned to take it easy on the drive up and arrive around 3pm. I had no trouble on the motorway and the M6 Toll was, once again, a joy to drive. Well worth the £5.50.

I stopped, as planned, at Norton Canes at the northern end of the M6 Toll for a cup of tea, a lovely Double Chocolate Muffin and a 'comfort' stop after a couple of  hours.

Suitably refreshed, I headed off again but as soon as I'd left the Toll Road the clouds rolled in as though I had entered Mordor. The rain began and the traffic began to slow.

Rolling past Stoke I had a good gauge of how long the drive would be at the end of November which was handy. I reckon it's about the same rough distance for me as Nottingham. A couple of hours or so during the day should be no problem.

Although progress was slow as the M6 joined the M56, once I was past it, I was on the move again and rolled into the Premier Inn (Wirral – Two Mills) [known locally as the Tudor Rose after the Brewer's Fayre pub attached] bang on 3 o'clock.

Part one of the travel plan accomplished. I'd barely sat down and plugged in the laptop before Ger is on the phone wanting to know if I've arrived. I indicated that I was and I was in the bar a couple of minutes later when the Ellesmere Port Mafia turned up with Glen Laming in tow.

I got a round in which didn't last long and soon we were off for some scran. We piled into Carl's car and headed a couple of miles down to The Wheatsheaf Inn for a very nice carvery meal.

After that, we made our way back to Chezger. When Ger offered me a Fresca I was expecting this…

but instead was handed this…

Oh well, I hate to say no…but I should have.

Before long it was time to head over to the Whitby Sports & Social Club (ex-the Shell Club) but known APAT-wide as 'The Aquarium' which is a great venue for the local community.

All the stories are true. I donked out to Carl pretty early on and had a couple more beers while waiting for the action to end.

If you can take the variance, I guess you could call it a laugh but the game setup is wrong for proper poker.

They only get 4 hours of play at most as the club has to close. To make matters worse, the starting stack is a ridiculous 20,000. Then again, the blinds start (IIRC) at 100/200.

This means the blinds are 14 minutes (why not 15 minutes?) and the blind structure is steeper than the side of K2.

I seriously think they would be better off running a shootout format of 3 - 4 tables (with small stacks) taking 2 from each and making a final table out of that.

Whatever, it's their game and if they are happy with it…!

By the time midnight had rolled around I was pretty tired. Ger had called cabs but they took an age to arrive. As it was, I tried to hijack one to continue on to my hotel but the Irritating Man had snaffled it first.

No matter, another was called and I was back into my hotel room by 1am.

A good night…I thought.