Bolton Trip Report (part 1)

[DonkBox]

Bolton Trip Report: It's in two parts mainly because i want to go home now and not in half an hour)

Well my first foray into major festivals didn’t exactly go as planned but was still well worth the long trip (Train timetables definitely own me!).

Arriving late Thursday I joined Grandad, Del Boy and Rodney around midnight. At the impressive Bolton casino, I hope Gala’s long awaited card room is like this because, it’s open and there’s three different areas and room for 20 tables.

Matt had busted (and was busy getting drunk), Dan was playing a 5/5PL against players like Mickey Wernick and Pete was still in the 200 freeze out.

Much as I could’ve just sat round and drunk me body weight in Magners I’d come to play poker (and then get pissed once knocked out – not much else to do in Bolton).

I found a 2/2 PL cash game – min buy-in £100 and sat with £200. Dan joined me, two to my left (cheers Dan) and sat with over 1k. I was just killing time to a £100 satellite to the Walsall leg of the GUKPT filled.

Now strange thing about the cash games in Bolton is that the button posts the small blind which is odd but essentially doesn’t make a lot of difference except that you should play more hands from the small blind as you’ll obv act last on subsequent streets.

Well third hand in I look down at two shiny aces  and pot it after three limpers and get one caller. The flop comes with an A-K-x, two diamonds. I lead out and get called. Turn is a diamond ffs, I bet he raises me all-in; I can’t pass now but no worries as oh hi mr king on the river, which fills me up. Not being able to let go of good second best hands will be a feature of this weekend (and a major leak) but this time I wasn’t punished.

After a non descript sng – I push for just over 2k at 100-200 with pocket 4s (next hand 200-400) and get called by 10s no help, so back to the cash game after waiting for a seat to come up.

I don’t remember that many hands (magners Alzheimer’s had set in) apart from one where I fired at the flop and turn with ace high only to river a str8, my opponent – an attractive lady wearing a short skirt (Dan sitting opposite – dropped chips on the floor a number of times!) – folded two pair – although calling my original bet with K-2 was questionable.

I obv took down a hand with 7-2. one player called my pre-flop pottage and I check raised an ace high flop and showed the bluff.
The game only stopped because the casino was shutting I was up around £150 including the £100 downtick from the sng.

Matt meanwhile was down ‘this much’ and had agreed to sponsor someone in an upcoming event, oh boy.
Got back to the hotel and played some crazy poker variants with some AWOP people incl 10 card omaha hi-lo, it was at this point that I decided to have breakfast and hit the sack.

Late afternoon, the next day myself, Dan and a worse for wear Matt decided to head to Riley’s as we had some time to kill before the 9pm main event. Matt decided to have a pint (oops) and lots of hilarity ensued as vast sums (for me anyway) were wagered on Golden Tee – Dan missed a few Dennis Wise’s (nasty little five footers) and the money was Matt’s. It was more even on the pool table, Matt even coming back from a potential 7 balling against me to take the frame.

Matt managed to lose his coat somewhere along the way and on the way back to the hotel we tried to work out if he’d left it in the pool hall, the pub or the restaurant. After ruling out the restaurant as Matt had been trying to grab some kip in the pub and had been resting his head on his arm (fluffy fleece made it comfy) matt reckons on leaving it in Riley’s – saying a who’s who of poker is on his mobile and he can’t play poker without tunes (only one of them is true btw!). Dan and I joke that he’ll have to final table the main event to break even after donking a grand on poker/blackjack and losing his phone and mp3 player (although we were joking we were just about on the money as 9th paid £2.8k).
So to the main event…

[PokerWoody]

good report so far! - sounds like fun.

[Alex_B]

Matt - did you find your coat, etc?

[trustme]

Now strange thing about the cash games in Bolton is that the button posts the small blind which is odd but essentially doesn’t make a lot of difference except that you should play more hands from the small blind as you’ll obv act last on subsequent streets.

Nice report Nick, did you ever find out why they do this? seems a bit odd

[CitrusSR]

Good report, I look forward to part 2!

[Matty H]

Good stuff Nick. Looking forward to the next piece

[DonkBox]

Nice report Nick, did you ever find out why they do this? seems a bit odd

I think it's just local rules and that's how its always been done there. At least that's what i gathered by talking to the locals who joined the cash game i played on the Friday night. In that cash game they weren't any locals playing when the game began, so we played with the blinds in the usual spots.

[FirePhil]

Part 2 Nick?

[Dice Man]

Part 2!