BP:SK

Summer arrived early on Sunday, and after a day spent watching Newcastle United's sorry shower of bastards attempt to keep themselves in with the big boys i felt they deserved to go down, no urgency, no structure, no heart = no premiership next season.

5 minutes after the full time whistle i'm over it and head down the coast for a bite to eat. I end up 'straight loungin'' for 2 hours outside one of the pubs in the sun, eating fish and chips and watching bikini clad girls wander by.

I decided in order to finish this day off in style, poker was required, and so Circus was next on the cards (no pun intended).

I play the £20/£20 and go out to the usual Joe Peel cold deck action hand with JJ (vs AA). Jimmy Chipmunk seemingly getting the message from god passes KK pre-flop.

All is not lost however, walking towards the cash table i see an awesome combination of a bored Gary Collins and an empty chair, and decide to grab it while i can. Gary procedes to raise every hand to at least £4 and i decide to wait for some big cards before getting involved. 3 hands in, my wish is granted. In about 12 hands i see QQ, AK, AA & JJ, all of which stand up against whatever rubbish Gary was in with (not to mention the real hands played by others at the table).

Now considering i played at the Grosvenor for 6hrs the previous night, only to leave £1 up, you can imagine how pleased i am to be 2 and a half buy-ins up in just under an hour.

At this point 3 lads join the table, all suited and booted, fresh from a wedding doo, one of whom tried to sit down with at least £800 in ponies. After being promptly told he can only play with £100 its obvious he's absolutely smashed, struggling to put all his chips in his pockets. Having sat down with £100 he immediately wanders off, the lure of the roulette table too much to resist, only to come back and ask why he wasn't dealt in. With the dealer's obvious response of "you weren't at the table" he decides to sit down and raise £20 first hand. Showing A8o when everyone passes he raises £30 the next hand... i think you can see where i'm going with this.

Needless to say Gary Collins had at this point left the casino, otherwise 'the machine' would have been snap called (or re-shoved) every time.

With a raise of only £10, i finally decide to get involved against him, with the monster that is 53 suited. Having told myself i'm only in for £40 i decided that if i hit, i'm not passing. With a flop of 10 8 5 (i think) i've hit my top pair (with a backdoor flush) and made my mind up that this was enough for me to see this out. I check to the maniac and he bets £30, i call.. i check the turn, which is a blank and he bets £20, i call. I check the river, a deuce i think (leaving me still with bottom pair on the flop). He pushes all his chips over the line, which when re-stacked/counted turns out to be £65.. i call and the Crazy Chef asks me if i'm "trying to be a hero" to which i said "uhh, we'll see in a sec".

The suit turns his cards over 1 at a time as if he's played the whole hand blind (which he had) and showed 7 4 off, for 7 high.. i give it the trademark "Wow" and show my hand, scooping just over £200 from the side pot (the main pot was won by someone who had AA but was all-in pre, luckily he only had £18).

Calling it a night at about 4am i somehow left 9 buy-ins up, which is borderline stupid if i'm honest.

Bottom Pair, Shit Kicker is the future folks, mark my words.

Oh and before i forget, a quick well done to all those who played/cashed in the GUKPT events, well played NPF'ers.