Cardiff

I enjoyed Cardiff and the APAT live tournament at the end of February.

The casino was handily placed for the etap hotel and the waterfront and I'd be happy to go back for a better look round.

Re the poker I played woefully up to the first break - the worst sin was with 22. After the break I got my first piece of luck with AK catching a K on the flop to beat 77 and then a ridiculous call really with ATc with two clubs on the flop knowing I'd have to get lucky - but the guy who had gone all-in had A7s (no 7 or T came but the other card on the flop was a spade as was the turn so it got a bit hairy !).

I joined the table I went out on with about 3.5 hours to go on the first day and soon more than doubled up to get to over 50k with AJ v KT. Shortly after came one hand which could have made a difference - I was dealt AJ under the gun and should have been first to act from seat ten and whilst I was mulling over how large my raise should be I heard the short stack in seat one say he was going all-in, which was not a surprise as he only had enough for one blind - 3k. I heard him but from where I was sitting could not see him so didn't know he had pushed his chips. Next thing I know everyone has folded round to the BB - I'm confused thinking I've made a mistake and the BB more so as he mucks his cards and takes his chips and those of the SB not knowing the short stack had called ! The ruling was that he had mucked so his cards were dead as were mine as everyone else had folded theirs ! The BB was holding KQ and agreed he would have called my raise so who knows !

After that I couldn't find another hand I wanted to play and for the last 2.5 hours my blinds just went leaving me 22.5k at the start of day two, in 30th of 32 left in. The one hand I played was from my BB with 58, calling the SB's all-in after a flop of 665. He had 39os and hit a 9 on the turn. 58 got me to Goa and for a brief moment I thought it might get me to the money in Cardiff (down to 22nd) but it wasn't to be. 28th place was 4 places and about as many hands further than I got in the first APAT tournament in Birmingham and apart from playing too loose early and too tight for the last four blind periods on the first night I think I played ok.

Only advantage of being out early on the Sunday was that I got away before the end of the Carling Cup and beat that traffic, and I still needed to pack for Goa !