The Weekend

Unfortunately last week I overfilled the landrover with oil, the experts at pub tell me this is serious business, the black smoke billowing from the exhaust would certainly support this hypothesis. It's now being given a service.

Phoned "Raz" the taxi driver from Torquay casino to come and pick me up. He was rather happy to, as earlier in the week he ran his £4 up to £80 flipping coins against me, despite me having negotiated a 3:4 payout scale!

Went out and ended up in "Bohemia" where we are semi regulars. After having sorted a table with bottle of spirits, mixers etc, we were plagued by people trying to ask Scott if they'd seen him on the TV, whilst their accomplices attempted to filch our redbull or help themselves to vodka. We relocated to the balcony where we were adorned with green bracelets to ward off the marauding masses.

The following day, after a very fine cheese and onion sandwich made by Mongy's Mum I headed back to the casino, where a very juicy 10/20 game was running. However, this was just a prelude to the £50 competition with one rebuy. With a field of just 22 players I was hoping to pass the time until the dealer's choice cash game. However, i got riled up early by one husband and wife combination, the wife delighted in telling me that my waterfall shuffle did not constitute a proper cut, rolling my eyes and exaggerated cutting seemed like an appropriate retort. As we got slightly deeper her husband (around 13/15 big blinds) bet/4bet all in the cut-off after I 3bet AK OTB. I Mach5 call, and he quips "that good eh?" before rolling over KK, the board runs out x x x x, but as the river A completes it's my cue to snipe with "It is now.." as he's dispatched to the rail.

I'm dealing the table, and as the final table approaching his wife is pretty tormented, as I am banging out the hands as fast as possible to make sure I bolster my burgeoning stack further. She's moaning constantly at me how "It's not fair, I 'fink' you're really mean" etc. She eventually announces she will be stalling every hand, but after I call clock on her after 5 seconds the first time she tries it, she developed some kind of self-respect or just resigned herself to the inevitability of the situation.

She did make the final table, not much of an accomplishment in a 22 runner field. There was a brief mention of paying the bubble but I soon snuffed out that hope, unfortunately the guy who bubbled is a pretty nice guy, not nice enough, however, for me to tell him opening AQ in ep for 10k out of a 30k stack @ 2k/4k and folding to my shove is probably not so good! Upon making it heads up against another lady in the field I joke to her "Aren't you glad we didn't pay the bubble now? More money for us". She looks genuinely horrified and replied "No. I'm decent and honest and always pay the bubble and I'm....well I better not say that". Wellss he obviously bit her tongue and stopped short of calling me a totalvagabond, but it does amuse me how they think changing a predetermined payout is in anyway honest or decent, strikes me as more feeble and pathetic, some kind of badge of honour for those weak tight nits trying to slime their way into the bubble money. Not on my watch!

Raz had been supplying me with a steady supply of G&Ts so after scooping the tourny for £800 and a £100 ticket to am upcoming freezeout it was not long before I got a lift back with him. The first half of the journey he was busy telling me how it was obvious I was going to win and how next time he plays a cash game he will bring £1k and not let me bluff him out.

Jason Mercier will resume playing today, so fingers crossed his success continues.