Weekend details

I'm fully rested and ready to update you all on my weekend, and fill in a little more background detail about what I'm doing.

You may recall (if you don't just read it again!) in my first post, that I mentioned I won a bit of money soon after I'd been made redundant. Well that "bit of money" was actually £5,000.

Shortly before Christmas, I joined The VIP Card Club having been referred by a friend of mine (thanks Martyn!!). They run a prize draw each month for new members, and I qualified for the draw at the end of January, and won it!! Five thousand pounds!! Luckily I didn't get the money straight away (as I think I may have been inclined to deposit a big chunk of it online and probably lose it playing blackjack!!) I had to wait for a cheque. It was while waiting for the cheque that I first started thinking about what to do with it, and that's when the whole poker thing came up.

I spoke to the guys at the VIP Card Club about what I was planning to do (I even offered to write my blog for their site, but was politely declined! Although I have asked them to link to it as I would like a few more readers!!) Anyway, they were pretty helpful and gave me a few tips and pointed me in the direction of a few other places to read up stuff.

I got a call on Friday from them, explaining that they had a space this weekend on "Sky Poker Boot Camp" and would I be interested in going. They'd run some kind of promotion to give away this ticket and the winner had had to pull out at the last minute. Lucky for me! Of course, I accepted and went along on Saturday morning.

Now this was a course for exisiting players who were looking to go onto the next level, so I was a little bit out of my depth. I kept a low profile and tried to take everything in. Some of it was bit much for me, but most of it made perfectly logical sense. The trainers were fantastic, including a couple of professional players who everyone seemed to know but me!

I had to miss the tournament on the Saturday night as I had a prior arrangement, but was back Sunday morning for the second training session and more of the same. Slightly disappointed to miss a chance to actually play for the first time, but I may have embarrassed myself anyway!

All in all a fantastic experience. I fear it may have come a little too early for me to have taken full advantage of it but a lot of it has lodged in my brain and I'm sure having so many things verbally explained to me will really help. So thanks Sky Poker, thanks VIP Card Club for a great weekend.

Now, I can actually start with the book, although that seems a little boring after being trained in person by professionals!!!