Grosvenor 3-2-1

Hey Guys. Kind of hear to report on the weekly Grosvenor 3-2-1 but also to discuss my weekend & generally have a bit of a moan about the state of tournament poker in Newcastle at the minute. So Friday evening I decided to head over Grosvenor for the 3-2-1 despite the drop in numbers the previous week & to my disappointment the numbers dropped again which saw only 19 runners but thankfully 18 of them had the full £60 to create a prize pool of £1110;

1) £560
2) £330
3) £220

I was drawn T1-S7 along with Ian Bertram S4 (who I think is Nemesis on NPF but not certain), Kevin Parker S5 (not a regular on NPS but I know him from my Uncles bar Killingworth Arms), & avkid S9 (who coincidentally I’ve shared same starting table with in this event for 3 of the 4 time’s it’s been ran). So quick summary of some key pots;

QJs vs. 34d (Aryan) - All in on 56Qdd flop & river brings flush.
KJ vs. 24s (Kevin) - All in on 35J9r turn & J on the river.
A7s vs. KQo - All in on QAAA turn & dealer didn’t run the river.
AQo vs. QTd - All in PF & board gave villain no help.

So after only losing 1 big pot I made the final table with approximately 28,000 with chip average 34,000 but given the slow clock & 200/400/50 level I still had 70BB & plenty of room for manoeuvre. I was S3 & joined by familiar faces Ian Bertram (1), mulhuzz (4), avkid (5), Neil Robson (7), & MrNiceGuy (8) so again quick recap on an important pot;

FTP GIM: J8h vs. ATo (Ian) - Ian come’s in for 3x at 200/400/50 & I make a light call from the BTN w/J8h knowing he has a wide range. Flop come’s xxJ & it goes check bet call, irrelevant turn goes check check, & after blank on the river it’s checked to me & I go for thin value bet which Ian responds with by putting me all in, I pretty much snap call even though I only have a bluff catcher as his line just didn’t make any sense & I got a double up to 44,500 as he showed AT high.

Apart from that I didn’t play a pot bigger than 15BB & coasted to final 4 staying clear of danger when a 4 way even split was decided on between myself, avkid, Ian, & MrNiceGuy for £270 each & the spare £10 going on roulette (black 29) & it spun 2 out over red 12, FML. So although not much always nice to report some success, If I remember correctly I was home for about 3:00am & tucked up ready for an 10:45 start over JJB Soccer Dome with rest of NPF lads. Basically for my non NPF readers 1 of the members over NPF decided to get all the unfit poker lads off the felt & on the astroturf for a game of football, it gathered a lot of interest & in the end their was 7 teams & I was randomly given captain duties of team 7 which I named Full Radgie Dobbs FC which was basically a play on our squads NPF team affiliate names. I had a great bunch of lads albeit not a talented bunch with teamdobb (player manager), Dreamdobb, Simmy3k, mckinney, s2c, & Adnan so with 7 lads we had scope to use rolling subs to hopefully help with the fitness side of things. Moving on then I arrived absolutely shattered after the late night & had a bit crack & a laugh with all the NPF lads before getting down to business;

Fixtures & Results
Full Radgie Dobbs 2 vs. SamJs Spanners 3
Team Trojan 1 vs. Full Radgie Dobbs 0
Full Radgie Dobbs 0 vs. forget footy it’s the after party 1
Full Radgie Dobbs 0 vs. Team Tangos 2
Green Army 1 vs. Full Radgie Dobbs 1
Full Radgie Dobbs 1 vs. Team2 3

So a disappointing 1 point ensured we finished rock bottom but a valiant effort from the lads & on a different day things could have been different, all things considered I’m a proud captain. So forget footy it’s the after party captained by buzz went on to beat SamJs Spanners in the final & by all accounts they were the best team on paper so I guess no surprises their, nevertheless well done boys. Quick shout out to a few of the lads;

kiddha - Player of the tournament for me, between the sticks for Team Trojan he was almost unbeatable.
mugpunt - Dark horse, doesn’t look the part but deadly up top & if it wasn’t for an injury in the final league game he could have been instrumental for SamJs Spanners in the final.
pads1161 - Best outfield player IMO, his work rate & fitness was key to forget footy it’s the after party's success.
Koyte - Manager of the tournament, up & down the line cheering on his Green Army & even a stint as goal keeper.
FarmerDave - Made it all possible & put endless amounts of his own free time into this which I think we all agree was a 1st class morning/afternoon, huge pat on the back old boy.

So I didn’t have time to hang about for the charity auction & awards ceremony as I was looking to make Aspers £75 (+£5) so I thanked Dave for organising it, paid my way with a little extra for the charity & got on my way. In a rush to make it for 16:00 I quickly showered, ironed my clothes, straightened my hair, & had a bite to eat all in space of an hour to make sure I was on time & didn’t lose 2,000 chips for being late. Anyway I still didn’t make it on time & arrived at 16:15 & I was just going to accept my late penalty but my efforts were to no avail as the game had been scrapped despite reading on the NPF that the receptionist had told people on the phone it was a 16:00 start. I was most disappointed but at the same time I was kind of ok about it because a few of my non poker playing mates are off to work in Australia & it was their leaving night out, so after a quick chat/moan with Mark & Jimmy Chipmunk about the lack of available information they decided to enter the £25 (+£2.50) freezeout they were running & I boycotted it out of principle. I rang Downie to see if he could pick me up which he kindly did & bought a pint whilst I waited, we got to Igg’s for about 17:00 & there was already about 15+ of my boys (Saturday Crew) their & I was quickly happy that poker was off as the crack was awesome. By 20:00 I had drank half litre of vodka & litre of Lambrini so I was well on my way by the time we headed into town, I don’t remember exactly where we drank but I was drinking pints of skittles which is like a sugary green vodka mixer, very nice & pretty strong. So anyway I was wasted by this time & don’t remember anything until being in Aspers pretty late (which is normal for me as I’m not a fan of clubbing so when they head off their I either go home or head to the casino) & sitting over 200NL with the last £100 in my pocket & getting AIPF w/AKo vs. 66 & missing FML. So I headed to cash point & withdrew £200 to reload but on route back to the table I thought better of it giving my impaired state & rang my Dad who taxi‘s around town on the weekends for a lift home. So an eventful & thoroughly enjoyable Saturday which I can see by looking at the t-shirt I wore yesterday as it’s covered in mud & spilt drinks, LOL got to love binge drinking with the Saturday Crew.

So now in general the state of poker in Newcastle is heading in the wrong direction IMO, Aspers have dropped their monthly £75 (+£5), Circus are looking to drop their monthly £75 (+£7.50) if numbers don’t increase in March, & weekly Grosvenor 3-2-1 is struggling to attract 2 full tables. The standard weekly games aren’t all that appealing with poor prize pools & I really look forward to the monthly games so for me personally (& I speak on behalf of Mark) it’s most disappointing, basically my live monthly schedule will be along these lines for the time being;

1st Tuesday - Circus £50 (+£5) w/£500 Added
1st Friday - Grosvenor 3-2-1
2nd Saturday - Circus £75 (+£7.50) w/£500 Added (Subject to change to Friday Grosvenor 3-2-1 if game is dropped)
3rd Saturday - Gala £100 (+£10) w/£1000 Added
4th Thursday - Private £20+R
4th Friday - Grosvenor 3-2-1

It’s unlikely you’ll see me around Aspers in the foreseeable future as after dropping the £75 (+£5) game they don’t have a single game that appeals to me, maybe I’ll be around for some side game action but that will be the extent of my visits. I’ve supported Grosvenor 3-2-1 every week since it’s launch but it’s having too much of a detrimental effect on my social life away from poker as I like to go out at least once a weekend, so I’m having to drop it from my schedule when it coincides with a monthly Saturday game & support it the days it doesn’t which gives me scope to go out which ever day I’m not playing. Finally Tuesday see’s the monthly £50 (+£5) which I’ve played every month except when I’m out the country, so I’ll be reporting that & Mark is away to DTD for the £300 (+£30) deep stack next weekend which he’ll report so best of luck to him in that.

Talk to you all later guys