Walsall, weekend of a WAG

Photos here but they don't work for me, do on other people's comps though. Must be my firewall.
http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?c=3oxbo47h.36orbc5p&x=0&y=-mr3jc0

The players:
Ed - hubby and poker player.
Steph - Ed's best pal and poker player.
Susan - Steph's WAG
Me - Ed's WAG

Fri 24th Nov
Weekend started with a run to the first train station by Steph's brother and his son (who screamed the whole way there), Ed looked a wee bit frazzled by the time we got there. Robbie the wee sole in question turned out to be ill and threw up everywhere when he got home.

Train to Glasgow, Susan had the biggest, pinkest, heaviest case i have ever seen. She still managed to forget a pair of jeans! Hernias all round for the blokes getting it on and off the trains.

The trip from Glasgow to Birmingham was whiled away by the consumption of lots of lager. This, added to the fact that both the guys were slightly hyper and loud led to strained relationships by the time we arrived at the Village Hotel in Walsall. So much so that I thought that Ed and Stef were going to be bunking together over the weekend! I wonder if Posh and Cheryl Tweedie have the same problems?

We met Scott and Evie (another Sporting Odds PL qualifier and his WAG) as we arrived at reception, they had flown down from Aberdeen. After freshening up Ed and I met them in the bar while Steph and Susan went for dinner.

Stupidly I moved from the drinking of lager to the drinking of vodka. A couple of hours later and I'm being escorted to my room plastered by similarly plastered Ed. We had only taken one room key so i was swiftly dumped in the dark as Ed headed back to the bar. I then had to get changed for my bed with one foot in the door to see what i was doing. (the lights go out when you remove the key!!!) Would have been quite some sight for anyone passing :-)

Sat 25th Nov
Up bright and early for breakfast, feeling okay only because I had been up at about 6am taking lots of painkillers.

We are meeting all the Sporting Odds team at 1pm in the lobby so by 11am there is plenty time for a few lagers for the boys, wee half pint for myself. Rest of Sporting Odds team turn up and introductions all round. Ed and Steph have met Joe Legge (poker manager) before and his girlfriend Sarah. There is Tony Tikay Kendall who they have met before too. He is Sporting Odds resident professional. Then there is Dan Ainsworth who works for Sporting Odds doing lots of counting, programming, technical stuff. He had bought himself into the tourney but was wearing the SpOdds team shirt.

Sarah is armed with camera (oh no, if you've seen the previous ones on SpOdds of Steph and Ed), we head off to the Boathouse in Sutton Coldfield which is in the middle of no-where. Lovely place. More beers for the Scots boys at lunch. I'm was sitting across from Tikay who is hilarious, he takes great offence to any vegetable that arrives on his plate. He even let out an involuntary cry when his dessert arrived, until he decided it looked quite erotic and wobbily, then it was ok!!!!

Back to the hotel to get ready for the tourney. Meet Scott's brother and his wife. Time for some more beer for the blokes again! We meet up in the lobby again to go over to the Grosvenor. We meet another Sporting Odds team member who wasn't at the lunch, Mark Blandford and his WAG Pat. He is the founder of Sporting Bet and he has been at the races where his horse was running. It didn't do very well in the wet.

There is a taxi and Tikay is also taking people over, for some reason Tikay ends up with a car full of ladies, he is such a charmer. We leave before the taxi yet the taxi arrives before us. Irate husbands at the door waiting for our arrival. LOL

We meet Lucy Rokach at the casino, our final team member, she won the £250 competition the night before so seems to be in fine form. The tables are announced and Ed is at Lucy's table. (OH NO!) The players head off and the rest of us start the drinking. Joe does a fantastic job all evening running back and forth checking if everyone is okay, got drinks, doing well etc. Sarah takes lots of pictures and us WAG's harrass Joe about getting a ring for his lovely girlfriend.

Steph makes periodic visits to our table giving us a run down on how he is gubbing Ash Hussein, very amusing.A friend from PL, Brian and his wife Diane arrive and join us in the drinking.First SpOdds player out is Scott, then Steph. When Ed goes out it's to Lucy, as detailed in the post below. Time for serious drinking now.

Diane goes off to play roulette and Ed keeps telling me I should give it a go but I'm not interested. Eventually at about 3am I cave and take £20 off to the roulette. Diane shows me what to do as I haven't a clue. I proceed to lose the lot. I have 50p chips and there are some crazy Welsh guys at the table with £10, £50 and £100 chips. At one point one of them puts his chips down on my 50p chip, he then picks them up and says WTF is this! I say that's my fucking 50p chip. He puts one of his chips on my forehead and asks for a number, then add 4 subtract etc till i have a number and we put our bets on that. Loses of course, never like that in the films is it? Think he lost £10k that night. Pished as a fart.

Head back to the hotel at about 4am, Tikay driving. I'm ready to keep partying but Ed is holding the wall up so off to bed.

Sun 26th Nov
Up early again for breakfast and an early lunch, Susan goes off to buy a pair of jeans. Lunch this time is Pier 39, Sutton Coldfield. Apparently when Joe Googled where to eat in Walsall, Burger King came top of the list.
This time I'm sitting next to Mark at the table and I am well impressed to find out he is one of the people with a warrant out for him in America. I told him that was cool and he laughed. He was a lovely man, as was his wife Pat. At the casino the 3 Scots are out but Mark, Dan, Tikay and Lucy are still in. Tikay just missed the money, Dan finished 18th, Mark finished 14th and Lucy who was chip leader walked away with the most money when a deal was struck with the last 5, officially she finished 3rd.

More PL friends came along to meet everyone. Sam, Andy and Big Andy. We had a great time with them too. It's great meeting these people you talk to everyday but have never seen before, other than in photos on the forum.

I loved watching the play towards the end. When it gets near the bubble everyone gets quite aggressive and personal with each other, I would not like that if i was playing but once they are in the money everyone relaxes and they are all joking with each other. By 11pm Ed was almost dead with drink, rolling eyes the lot. He was down annoying the tournament director who was the double of Antnee who won Big Brother last year! He had to put barriers up to keep Ed away from the tables. When Ed passed the barrier and tucked into the player's buffet I knew it was time to leave. Again does Posh have this problem with Becks?

Andy and Sam go home earlier. Sam is recovering from an op and it's great that she made it over to see us.
We go to say goodbye to Tikay and he offers to take us back to the hotel, what a gentleman he is. He tells me I'm cool so he's okay by me. We leave poor Big Andy there as his taxi won't be for another hour but Ed is seriously ill and needs his bed.

On the way into the hotel there is a huge girl in a yellow chair throwing up into a bucket, lovely. Susan, who is training to be a nurse is worried about her and she tells me the next morning that she did eventually go to hospital.

Mon 27th Nov
Home, much quieter journey back in the train this time. I read a WPT mag I bought in the station and sleep a wee bit. The boys have a few beers. When we reach Glasgow there is a lot of people waiting to catch the train to Kilmarnock so when it's platform is announced I'm throwing small children out of my way to get a seat! I succeed.

All in all - What a weekend.