Last night I went to one of the APL(Australian Poker League) tournaments hosted at the St. Albans hotel, the pokies/TAB venue next to the trainstation. After a long absence from the APL league(it’s been likes 6 months the last time I’ve been to one of these events), I decided to go with a friend since there was nothing else better to do…
It started well, the first hand I got dealt I flopped 2 pairs and quickly built my chip stack up which let me to sit comfortably for the rest of the tournament. 3 hours later, I got to the final table with a reasonable sized stack but after a few rounds my stack grew smaller and smaller due to the rising blinds. I had about 6,000 in chips and the blinds were about 5,000 and 10,000, so I had to go all in but luckily I won against 2 other players and so my chip stack grew back and eventually I was chip leader.
Finally, after about 4 hours and 80 players later I was crowned tournament winner and received qualification into next months regional finals where cash prizes and qualification into the state finals can be won(I think).
I was confident going into this event but I didn’t think I would win it, this is a testament to the many hours of poker I’ve been playing online and it shows I’ve definately improved from a year ago when I was a noob. After that being said, it’s pub poker afterall, the players are mostly made up of beginners and amatuers so this win doesn’t truly reflect on my skills as a good poker player, to truly test myself, I must enter into bigger tournaments at crown which I have done in the past, making the final table in a 650 player tournament.
What I didn’t realise was that the APL just started a new season and apparently I had won the first tournament of season at St.Albans hotel, which put me straight up to number 1 as the venue leader. Now I must try and defend my number 1 spot…
Check out the Australian Poker League website at www.playapl.com – You can win heaps of cash and prizes for free!
