My NPF Championships

My NPF Championships

Funny old game this poker mullarkey. Ill be 1st one to admit pokerwise the last 2 month had been awful for me. Im normally very positive in my approach but had been totally not feeling the poker and knew it and even spoke to a few of my close friends about taking a couple of weeks off from playing but decided to try and play through it. Hardly play online at all now apart from the forum games and a nice little touch from the AWOP Vip club taking down a £500 UK Live event seat gave me a lift and also despite some bad beat exits in some local live games I did feel I had been playing well.


In the build up to the NPF Championships last years experiences certainly helped in the organisation side of things and although theres a lot of unseen things that most people don’t realise I certainly think everything went like clockwork and that’s a big big hats off to everyone concerned and the efforts they put in.

Personally I had decided to try and prepare properly for this game by limiting what I played and getting some proper sleep in so Id be alert & fresh for when Saturday arrived because obviously I so wanted to do well in this game for obvious reasons. Lol fk that I end up playing Tuesday at Circus going deep and then rail a few NPF ers online till the early hours most nights, get to bed at 2.30am on Friday to be up at 7.30am for dog walking then work in the morning till 12.00 and arrive at Circus at 1.30 to make sure all is sorted for what was going to be a fabulous weekend with a lot of fantastic people and some cracking poker players in a field that the NPF should be proud of. Had to be one of the best fields ever put together in any event in Newcastle this one.


Cardguard did what Cardguard does best and hes got everyone buzzing as we shuffle up and deal and the 2nd NPF Championship is away and running.
Happy with my table although a very tough starting table apart from the fact that its one of the old round tables and its on the outer edge of the room. Picked up hands early doors tbh and apart from a decent raise with AK being busted by 53 off from the big blind ( Brenos!) for not too many chips I made good progress helped when 88 sets up and a decent pot. 1st damage gets done when raising with 10 10 mid for Lozzy to ship all in costing me another 3k to look him up. He had lost big pot earlier to Chipmunk and when Chipmunk in the BB tanked thinking of calling I had decided to call if Chipmunk folded putting them both in big Ace ranges. My call was wrong as he flipped JJ which held and the early work was undone. Still kept reasonably active and then our table was broken taking me to my 2nd table. Apart from not having enough chips very happy with table especially seeing Faetzy & Ridla there who I always enjoy having on my table. It was a real grind here tbh made even worse when Tom”Hitthehole” Middleton joined the table holding a huge stack of chips which was always going to be bad news for small stacks like me.


Key hand coming up and one of the highlights of the weekend for me. Ive only got something like 5500 and make it 2500 to play. Reasons I play this = best hand Ive seen in about 5 orbits. Reason I don’t ship is I think my bet represented more strength by doing that to those left to play. Fold to sb Lozzy who caused me prior damage who ships his stack in followed by TxTrev who ships in. With only 3k behind although Im obviously totally fooked by at least one of them I simply cant pass and reluctantly put my last in knowing Im totally dominated and looking for a miracle. On ya backs and omg worse case scenario with AQ AK & my A10



This is where is was totally manic when with a lot of people around the table it was like a strange silence surrounded it when Faetzy starts screaming at Gary the dealer like a total lunatic “ come on Gary ya fkn c**t don’t ya know whos in this pot. It’s the fkn bloke that’s arranged most of this give him a fkn hand ya c**t” The flop came down like in slow motion tabling J27. “Come on dealer give him a fkn chance at least”screams Faetzy and the turn brings the 9 for a gutshot. Its at this time I joined in with Faetzy screaming at the dealer come ya fkr give him it give him it and bingo Ga ry flips over an 8 giving me the straight to the 10. We were up on the seats like total nutters cuddling each other with people pissing themselves laughing at our antics but simply highlighting as well what this game is all about. I now at last had some chips but not for long when my mid position raise with 99 was shipped on by Benh which I called for his QQ to have me crushed.

Back into danger terrority again and Middys aggression simply was non stop and being totally pissed out his head made him even more. Hbos also joined the table who is another non stop aggressive player and with a 3 way pot I ship my AK for Hbos to pay me off with A5d I think. Middy went to war on a few hands and lost a lot of chips before eventually busting out and Hbos did the same which if im brutally honest I was delighted about purely from a selfish point of view as they are such top top players .
I then went on a run of hands which held and got paid off so started to have a very healthy stack and we now down to only 21 players left when this hand happened which turned my whole tournament around on its head.
We were 6 handed and Scotty raised my BB utg+1 (standard raise tbh) and all fold to me looking down at AA. The famed hand of AK v KK came straight into my head tbh versus Scotty from a previous game and I was positive a ship was possible from him when 3 betting his raise. I remember staring at his hands and chips trying to look worried tbh. He then stacked them up twiddled the chip in his hands and shipped them all in over the line. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee call and up out of my seat as Scotty looked down totally gutted flipping KdJd. Win this and I know Im chip leader with 20 left into day 2. Flop comes down and I here Cardguard voice go into hype mode as 2 diamonds hit the flop. Fuck off ya twat Im thinking no way don’t fkn do it to me. Not sure what the turn was but when peeled off the river I could see it was black. Get in I thought and 143k chip leader going into day 2.

Thoughts were now were fook me I got great chance to take this down now lets go home, get some sleep and come back refreshed for tomorrow. WRONG!!!!!!
Get home tossing n turning all night and then with the dog going mad in the morning Im up at 7.00am taking him out and its absolutely pissing down. Was mint actually and may sound daft walking around the streets with a little white Bichon Frise getting soaked which made him look like a drownded rat at that time in the morning but it did make me wide awake. Got back in and had some brekkies then caught up with some stuff on forum and before I knew it Stumpy was on asking if I fancied having Sunday dinner before going over which me and Scott did. We even went to Can Only get Betters Mams pub obviously looking for discount but COGB was obviously hiding from us.


Kick off day 2 and Im surprised tbh how many people were back as the place was really busy with the Walkers Sensations out in force and in their normal vocal selves which made for a guaranteed cracking atmosphere.
Was active very early picking up chips with early casualties falling as well. Important hand early was I make raise mid position with 77 to Stumpys BB who ships all in and Stumpy aint a player Im wanting to double up cos he would be so dangerous but I decide to make the call and he flips big Ace over. 1st card out is the Ace diamonds but quickly followed by the 7 diamonds and a big danger is out.
Im raising Jc10c to be shipped on by small stack and call which makes straight on the river to cause another casualty and then fellow Dobba Mg1892 had the misfortune to ship 66 from sb into BB who wakes up with KK to get crippled and a few hands later he becomes the final table bubble boy for the 2nd year running. VUL Colin.



Final table and Im very happy with my seat position and the atmosphere was well typical NPF style noisy. Cracking crowd and away we went.
Had planned to simply take it as it came and had good knowledge on most of the players there. 1st to fall was Fat Fish Steve Brennan who had well impressed me at the two tables I had been with him with his fearless play and it seemed he was totally card dead at the final table making a move with KJ to walk into KK followed by Can Only Get better in 9th.
Was well pleased with how I used my stack size to 3 bet raisers off pots and I steadily grew my stack. Players dropped at a steady rate and BenH was only one who got anywhere near my stack size although he did lose a massive pot K10 ship by BGR to his KJ which rivered the 10 and if he had of won that maybe a diff game wudda been on. Quite ironic then he ships K4 making a move and I call out of sb with AQ and he doubles through with flop of KQJ before doubling again when K10 v KJ happens again with BGR but this time no 10.
3 handed I raise AJ into Jnr Bomber who ships KQ and my hand holds so heads up with a huge chip lead and tbh with all the respect in the world I think I had most people wanting only one person for the win for an unreal end to an absolutely fantastic weekend of poker.
Heads up lasted 4 hands as I raise with KJ for BenH to ship A3 and the Jack flop makes me the NPF Champion for 2009.



The actual game value is nothing in comparison to some of the tour games etc that go on like GUKPT & Coral but for me personally this meant so so much more in terms of prestige to be honest. I know the quality of that field over the weekend and I also know how much other players wanted that title. For me to be able to take it down simply ended an absolutely fabulous weekend and an experience Ill never forget.

People to thank:

Wow so so many.
Each and every member who played and made this game what it was
The planning and organisation of S2C which as normal was spot on and it all ran exactly as he predicted
The staff at Circus who were brilliant accepting a lot of stuff that simply other casinos wudnt allow making this event what it is
To BenH for being a worthy runner up especially coming through such a tough seat sat with Tom Middleton and Hamid to his right who would of scared the shit out of most.
To those that donated prizes and to Juicey Oranges who totally skint the bookies
To Spoona for the odd hand dealt of the bottom of the pack
To Phil Mcnally for proving that gravity does exist
To Junior Bomber and Pads who came back from their challenge disappointments to prove they actually can play this game.
To the Walkers Sensations who were absolutely magnificent over the full weekend and have something very special there in my opinion and in my opinion in Farmer Dave they have found an absolute diamond funny guy who kept so so many people laughing & entertained
To Dreamdobb who also added his piece of crazy humour and the sight of Mr Flushy trying to deal with handcuffs on was hilarious
To all that took the photographs which are superb and a special mention to Kiddha who volunterred to do day 2 live updates onto the forum which tbh were absolutely spot on and so accurate.
To Looseman for his support and donation of the trophies once again

LAST BUT NOT LEAST THE UNBELIEVABLE EFFORTS AND CONRIBUTION THAT THE CARDGUARD KID MADE TO THE FULL WEKEND. AN ABSOLUTE LEGEND AND THE NPF ARE SO SO FORTUNATE TO HAVE SOMEONE LIKE HIM INVOLVED WITH US. HE MAKES WHAT HE DOES LOOK SO EASY AND QUITE SIMPLY- NO ONE ELSE HAS GOT WHAT WE HAVE GOT



Strange pattern though which I hope continues: Smoggie Unofficial Online leagues were won by Myself, Xenocode, Cardguard and PJB Aces.
NPF Champ 2008 Xenocode, NPF Champ 2009 Teamdobb

2010 NPF Champion The Cardguard Kid ?

YOU DECIDE!!!!