Newcastle

Went up North for the APAT live tournament at Aspers Casino in Newcastle on Saturday and Sunday.

I was conscious of my effort in the first of these in Birmingham when I survived to the Sunday, only to go out on the very first hand of the second day. That was partly the result of being short stacked in comparison to most and I was determined to either build up a decent stack with which to attack the second day, or go out on the Saturday as a result of trying.

Only a couple of highlights to report - first winning an all-in with A9 v A6 with a flop of A96 (to get me back up to 12k) and two hands later folding AK post flop (AQ10) after a reraise by an opponent holding the straight.

I never got above 15k in chips and went out when the blinds were 800/1600 in what I think was 99th place when my raise with 1/3 of my chips from the SB with A4 ran into an all-in reraise from the BB with KK. I knew I was behind but had bottled out two of the previous three hands so took a stand. I have a good poker face in that I don't believe I give anything away when looking at my cards but I now think there must be something in the weakness of my betting that is my downfall (although the Kings were going to call however strong my first move had been !).

Also in my mind was that if I got home in good time on the Sunday I could play the PokerPlayer magazine version of the freeroll qualifier for a seat at the MaharajahClub Asian Poker Classic in Goa in March in 2007. You may recall I came second in the InsideEdge magazine version so was keen to have another go ..... and I will leave that report until tomorrow !