So now the long version of my exploits!
I set off to work around 8am, with my 'poker outfit' packed and did my rare commute into London for a hard days graft...I would tell you what i do, but then I'd have to kill you...yep, you guessed it, civil servant. Then I left work around 5:45 after changing into my less formal and hopefully lucky poker attire, including 'THE T-shirt' and headed off to 'The Vic' full of anticipation...oh and full of coffee and red bull too!
I meet fellow grassrooter whyi in reception and after registering for teh £300 game we had a drink and a chat in the bar, soon to be joined by other grassroot players. Must admit i think that helped to calm the nerves and was good to have some banter about how we had all got through to this stage and a feeling of 'Team Ladbrokes' rather than competitors and egos. Only disappointment was no Ladbrokes poker representatives, but I understand that The Vic has a strict 'No cameras and no filming' policy which would have prevented any filming so understandable. Seems they are very aware of that policy too, as before i knew it, having raised by phone to take a picture of the card area for a 'tweet', the barman in a polite but very firm way told me to put it away...which explains the lack of my tweet picture updates...well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Anyway, before we knew it, the caller announced it was time for players to take their seats and so we wished each other good luck and found our places...and it was time to see if i could put all my 'studying' to good use.
Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately) the next 6 hours for me were generally quite uneventful...no big hands, no big wins and no big losses. At the first break i had increased my chip stack from teh starting 10k to 16k and was pretty much running average. That was teh situation at every single break up until teh reaching the final table, where i found myself within 1k of teh average chipstack each time.
Having said that i came across Palser, a fellow grassrooter, who went all in with a dwindling chipstack, and finding QQ i had to call and knocked him out...sorry, but had to be done.
At each break it seemed one or two more grassroot players had been knocked out, except for Baby Face...sorry, we did say our first names, but terrible with real names!!
So, 5 or 6 plus hours later myself and Baby Face found ourselves on teh final table of 10, which from the 56 runners The Vic was only paying to 7...oh dear. During table talk the grassroots promotion came up and what it involved and how fortunate we were and one of teh players on teh final table did try and strike a deal with everyone to take a slice off of teh prize fund to guarantee each place some money, even if only a £10 so that we would secure some cash to top the stage 3 poker winnings. However, a certain Neil Channing said 'no' and so that was that...which at the end of teh day is fair enough and certainly no hard feelings.
Slowly we got down to teh bubble and Neil Channing (who I found to be quite entertaining with his table talk) after losing a hand and a stack of chips went all in (42os...not for teh 1st time either) with his remaining chips. The blinds were 4k/8k and i was in teh big blind so SB called and i matched the all in holding K8 os, which was only around 9k more i think and we checked down to the end, where i won with a pair of 8s (hit on teh turn) and hurray...I WAS IN THE MONEY!
So a quick hand shake and congraulations with baby face and some cheers from whyi and Alvin who had both stayed to watch and support us (MANY THANKS GUYS!!) and teh game carried on.
Eventually babyface was knocked out in 5th place and with a smallish stack on teh SB, the 1st position had raised around 19k so i went all in with KQos (holding less than 10bb...still at 4k/8k) and found myself called against A6os. Thinking back that probably wasn't a good move as a raise, even with only players probably indicated at least Ax and so my hand was slight underdog...but hindsight is such a wonderful thing isn't it? Anyway, hit a K on the flop but then an A came on teh turn and that was the end of me...
...well the end in that game anyway, but i think the start of grassroots stage 3 as i think i have secured my place in teh next £500 round with my poker play rather than having to hope for a 'social media' wildcard.
SOOOOOOOOO PLEASED & EXCITED!!
And after grabbing a train with babyface from Victoria towards Brighton, where i came off at Gatwick, I rolled home at 6:30am and managed to wake up my son creeping up the stairs...he asked how i had done, so i showed him my wad of newly acquired £50s and his whoop woke the rest of teh family up...and their whoops probably woke next door too!!
And then to get the notice from Ladbrokes later that morning saying that we could keep 100% of our winnings...well, needless to say that after a long daytime sleep we celebrated most of teh weekend!!
Thank you again Ladbrokes and hope both the poker and teh social media side are doing you proud!
Can't wait for teh next game...though don't get ahead of yourself Mr G...you're not a poker pro...YET!!!
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