I left Johannesburg on wednesday afternoon just after 2.
Michael Simoes called me and told me the border at Oshoek closes at 6 so I had 4 hours to make it there, I was sposed to fetch my protien bars from Henry because I had left them at bulldogs the night before and wanted to take them with to nibble on instead of sweets while at the tables.
I had to give that a skip because the highways were going to start getting packed and I had to get onto the n12 as fast as possible.
filled up just before witbank and drove on, got bogged down in traffic near middleburg because of an accident. Some truck had crumped to peices on the highway and there was wood lying all over the road.
Turned off to Carolina and put foot, not expecting any cops to be trapping on that God forsaken stretch of road.
I managed to keep to about 180 to make up for lost time and luckily dodged a few pot holes along the way. Passed Carolina and headed to the border post, the first sign said Oshoek border post – 70 km. It was 5:15 pm
I had 45 minutes to travel 70 kilometers on a windy road through the hills, and at dusk. Not that theres much traffic up there, but I had to give it some gas. I nearly killed myself a few times trying to make it on time, there was no fucking way I was going to sleep in my car at the border post!
It was now dark and eventually I could see the lights of the border post way ahead in the distance, I had 3 minutes to get there so I gave it some more stick.
Came screaming into the border gates and hopped out my car with my passport and headed for the emmigration and customs offices so I could get my passport stamoed and stuff and asked if they were still open.
“Hauw baba! we close at 10!”
I wanted to strangle Simoes.
Anyway by the time I got past customs and emmigration on the swazi side the excitement had started building up and my breakfast was wanting out. I would not use the bathrooms at the border for love or money and decided to knuip vas and hold on the next 70 km to piggs peak.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a nice highway in swaziland and I was expecting to stick on this road all the way to Piggs Peak, except I saw a saw pointing me off teh highway and onto a road that was dark, unlit and too narrow and winding for overtaking.
Its probably one of the worst roads I had ever travelled in my life but I had no choice but to put foot and put the km’s behind me or risk shitting my pants.
Only on the way back did I realize how dangerous that road was with animals crossing the road at various places and steep ravines on each side. If I had gone over the side I reckon not even lassie & netstar would have found me.
Anyway. I eventually managed to catch up to some local yokel in a bakkie that was doing about 160 km on that road and I stuck right behind him till he drove past the hotel and I turned in.
Checked in as fast as I could, got my keys, tipped the bell boy for taking my stuff to my room, ushered him out as fast as possible and got to my business of pressing a much needed coil.
unpacked my bag, hung my clothing up, packed stuff away, assorted my outfits according to what I was gonna wear and when and went off to have dinner with the other people that had arrived on Wednesday as well.
Eventually my (1st)roomie arrived and checked in as well.
Introduced myself to Jaco Mouton, Peter Vermaas and Martie Farber.
Jaco was super friendly and chatted alot to me.
We hung out in the casino and hit the slots for a while.
I turned in for the night and woke up pretty fresh on Thursday. Went off for breakfast and then went off to get myself registered.
I was given a bag of goodies including my lanyard and add on ticket, a hoodie, a slots card with R200 on it, a card protector, the new bluff magazine, a T shirt and a few other goodies. I then drew for my seat and drew table 5 seat 10. I then had to go cash in some money for receipts so that I could had receipts for my rebuy and add on as they stipulated no cash in the poker room as it holds up the process. I then sat watching the arrivals to see if I recognised anyone. They trickled in slowly through the afternoon to early evening.
Peter Vermaas’ wife wasnt coming through so my roomate was going to stay with him as they were/ are friends and I had to wait the arrival of my new roomie.
After lunch , myself and Jaco hung out in the casino for a bit hitting the dops and eventually I decided to go for a nap.
My new roomate arrived and woke me up. Big Fella by the name of Jaques Tredoux – nice enough guy but fuck me could the man snore???
anyway, I scuttled off to dinner and waited for Simoes other 2 friends to arrive, Damien Cornelli and Mauro de rose.
Time was coming and I went to get kitted up.
Got my hoodie on, my shades, my cap, my card protector, my lucky full house chip, my mp3 player and headed off to the card room.
took my seat and started analyzing the players at my table, especially those 2 or 3 places to the left and right of me.
I had prepared myself for AA by watching hours and hours and hours of TV table coverage so I had a pretty good idea of the players.
in seat 1 – Andre Johnston – loose agressive player that will make moves when in position, will probably try and reraise me a few times if I positional raise.
in seat 2 – Kevin Stanley – tight solid player, likes playing a range of hands with position.
in seat 3 – Kyri Patsalos – previous runner up, solid player, can be aggressive.
3 very good players to my left, oh joy. stealing chips from these 3 was NOT going to be easy. the person with the best position was clearly Kyri with not 1, not 2 but 3 (THREE!!) tight players to his left meaning that he could steal from the small blind, big blind, button, cut off as well as one off cut off. And safe in the knowledge that the 2 players to his right would probably respect his reraises when they tried to make a steal. Kyri was runner up against John Tabatabai in February so his form might still be strong.
in seat 4 – Chris Hadzigrigoriou – my previous roomie, from what he told me I picked up that he was a tight player with 3 or 4 years experience, never played a big game like AA before.
in seat 5 – Nersan Naidoo – know nothing of him. tight.
in seat 6 – Ray Bisnath – quiet bloke, I could pick up that he was a solid rock of gibraltar. so tight that he was the only one at my table that didnt take a rebuy or add on.
in seat 7 – Paul Spies – know nothing of him, but very friendly guy. Tried to build an image as a tight rock but was caught a number of times with his hand in the cookie jar.
In seat 8 – Johan Gaybba – know nothing of him but he flapped his gums alot and told me all I needed to know. I picked up that he had played at the wsop before with team pokerstars. I didnt really want him on my blind.
in seat 9 – Ricky Lewis. Know nothing about him, plays tight.
in seat 10 – me – the mac daddy.
Ed Jordon said a few words and then the cards were shuffled and the game was on.
The rebuy period was 4 hours long – it was very loose and I found myself making loose calls for value and bleeding chips, my raises were not respected ever and Kyri got me to lay down what were probably the winning hands on 2 occassions. Eventually I shoved with the last of my chips and lost those, called for a rebuy and changed gears to extremely tight.
I cut my concerns down to 3 players and those were the 3 players to my left, especially Kyri, but I was slowly and surely getting a read on the man and I was going to punch his ticket for him.
someone at this table was going to double me up and I was looking for weaknesses, tells, anything that was going to give me the edge and get a double up.
Kyri had already made me lay down 2 hands, I was going after him.
Thursday night was hell to try and get some sleep
with a lumberjack in my room and a toothache from hell.
I took a boatload of various supplements with me, brain food, vitamin c, cod liver oil, barocca.
problem is that I only took one sleeping tablet with me and wanted it for the friday night as saturday was gonna be the big one.
I tried to sleep but kept getting woken up with the sounds of gunfire.
it was the dude next to me snoring that sounded like an AK 47.
I eventually slept with my headphones on listening to enya over and over again at full volume.
shot out of bed early on friday headed off to the breakfast table, avoided greasy stuff and piled on the fruit and protein stuff like ham, salamai, boiled eggs, and of course coffee, lots and lots of coffee.
The excitement leads to adrenaline and my stomach wasnt exactly “secure” which is why I stayed away from the greasy stuff.
9 0 clock we were back in the card room and within an hour we lost Johan Gabbya – after him rebuying at least 5 times.
Greg Ronaldson and Darren Kramer out.
Next to go was Nershen, I cant remember who replaced them and then just before the lunch break, Ray went.
I was 2nd in chips at my table after accumulating small pots one after the other and not getting involved in big hands.
I lost a medium sized pot earlier against Ray otherwise I would have been dominating at my table with chips.
an hour for lunch and the place was buzzing, everyone was talking and chatty. We had lunch outside.
After lunch back into the card room, my table was getting moved to the TV table.
After they miked us up, they got us a few new players to join, one was Mark Lifman who was sitting with a big stack of chips.
As the cameras got rolling within the first few minutes, we lost Ricky Lewis.
Neville Eber came to replace him to my right.
After having studied Neville Eber, i had him right where I wanted him, although it was dangerous because I was still stuck between good solid players.
I raise in late with AK off and everyone mucks, I show my ace, Mark lifman makes a comment that I am a fish for refusing to show the other card, I told him thats the way I play a3 off
few hands later on the BB I get j6 off, Kyri patsalos is in the hand with me, flop falls kq 6.
I bet out on my 6 and get raised hard by kyri.
I studied him for a full minute before deciding to reraise, he mucks.
I pick up aq, Eber raises, I was waiting for something like this and insta reraise – he mucks.
few hands later I pick up AA and shove all in after a raise and a reraise, I spoke Paul Spies out of the hand – stupid move, he mucks ak
I pick up a nice pot.
Few hands later I get aq, I raise and get called by Kyri
flop is king high, no queen, I toss in a c bet, insta call by Kyri, I study the board, 2 clubs, hmm, he is on a draw.
Turn is a queen, I toss in another 18 000 and he reraises all in, I call, river nothing, Kyri out, I am now strong with the force and with chips.
We break for dinner and I am in 13th place with chips
after the dinner break my table was moved off the feature table and off to the regular tables.
Previous final tablist Ryan Kelly joined us as well as Jaco Mouton.
It was insane that I was picking up big hands while on mouton’s blind and I was whittling his massive stack down little by little.
Jay Sookoo joined our table and every 2nd hand he would shove. he started at about 40k and ws soon up to 50 k, I was sitting on 250 or so and decided to call him with 77 – he flipped over aq
I spiked a 7 on the turn and he was drawing thin. river rag and he was gone. I was up to about 320 chips and picked up pocket jacks against Jaco Venter’s AQ
I call his all in and he spikes a queen, taking 30 k off my stack.
2nd last hand of the night and stanely shoves on my big blind, I look at mycard and I see ak, I call.
he flips over pocket 2’s and spikes a 2 on the flop and even though I have a flush draw, he turns a full house, I had 1 out to make a straight flush. that doesnt happen.
I am left with 220 k in chips.
off to bed and I pop my tablet and manage to get a few hours sleep, we only start at 10 so I am fine.
Take a nice long shower and head for the breakfast table and then off to play cards.
the morning sessions starts with 24 of us left and I come out of the gates firing wildly and missing, I got called down on every bluff I made and wasnt taking any pots.
I lose 70 k in chips very quickly, mark lifman walks into pocket kings and he gone.
Ryan brauer is next to go.
Then Kevin stanley embarked on a mad rush and mad calls with mad results.
first he shoves with 46 into Stan Caruthers pocket aces and spikes 2 pair, the very next hand, Terry brookes shoves with pocket 8’s , Stanley makes the call with k9 and hits an over card on the river.
Damien Cornelli and Nahum Lum do the long walk and Kevin Stanley shatters Ryan Kelly’s pocket q’s with 78 off
few more players drop off, and my chip stack is looking very very VERY bleak
Darren Chandler and Armand Saayman take a walk and we are down to 14 players.
I pick up pocket 8’s on Peter vermass’ big blind – I shove, no action.
Few hands later I pick up kings UTG and decide to slow play them seeing as I still had so many aggressive players to my left.
It gets folded around to the BB who checks, I slow play them all the way to the river and then make a mistake when trying to raise a bet I managed to squeeze out of Reynhart Van Rooyen.
I just tossed in my chips instead of announcing my raise.
bah too bad. The kings were good anyway, I pick up the blinds and antes and move on. 4 hands olater I am in cut off and get a9 off, it gets folded around to me and I raise, Jim Gubb calls.
The flop comes 9 high. I shove, he calls and shows pocket 9’s
gg
I throw my cap to the floor in dismay and look to see if I will hit any miracle cards – nothing.
I walk around the table shaking hands with everyone and leave the card room amidst players congratulating me on my performance.
I walk to my room and lay down on the bed – grab my phone and send out the bad news.
I start packing my bags and taking stuff to my car.
I wait for lunch, eat and try to get some sleep, its impossible.
I go down to the card room where I see stanley get knocked out after him having 500 000 in chips at one point.
I stuck around for the final 10 to be decided and watched as my new friend Jaco Mouton picks up the biggest bubble in all africa history and go out in 11th.
I walk around from player to player and congratulate them all, say good bye to everyone I met, I check out and get back to my car.
The hotel staff had cleaned it for me.
I climb in, sigh a huge sigh.
Start my car and drive the long way home, replaying the hand that sent me to the rail over and over and over again in my mind.
