TPS 3 `08 'The Tripple' SATURDAY 1st March

Winner Paul

2nd John

3rd Kev Mc

4th Tatter

5th Chris

6th Mark

Aslo played: Dave, Rob, John T, Andy, Steve, Mike, Sids, Jordan.

Total: 14

Venue: Sids'

After the drunken shambles of the previous TPS tournament, your ever-vigilant editor has vowed to stay sharp and pay attention to the action from now on.

The TPS season took a trip to Sid's house in Poulton for it's third outing of the year and 14 players came along for the ride, including first timer Mike and a welcome return from Tatters bro' John. Noticeably absent was last years league champion Kev R, who was away in Cuba hoping to take advantage of the ensuing power vacuum to install him self as the worlds first 3rd world dictator to come from Wigan. This would be the first official TPS without Fidel Rigby since the beginning back in `04.

However, before the poker could begin there was the not insignificant matter of Rob's TV debut on ITV1's prime time 'quiz' Duel. Robert, (28 from Blackpool) in dazzling red shirt, (courtesy of the wardrobe dept- his own clothes having been deemed too 'individual' for Saturday night telly- the moo-ing ITV watching hordes can't handle anything more than simple primary colours and bland easy to follow ideas at this time of night), got off to a shaky start, but some quick thinking, judicious use of the 'accelerator' and an unfathomable knowledge of the name of Gerri Halliwell's progeny saw him quickly dispatch a jock bin man and an OAP. (Robs stint on the programme continues next week - March 8th).

And so with Robs first 15 minutes up the tournament got underway with Jordan the first follow the jock bin man and the OAP and lose all his chips after going all in with King 5 off and getting called a nano-second later by Sids, who'd managed to flop an Ace high straight. Kev Mc went all in against John with a pair of Kings only to discover that John had a pair of Aces, but his few remaining chips where enough to reach the final table along with Chris and table 1 winner John.

They where joined in the final by Mark, Tatter and TPS 08 two time winner Paul. Mark, who seems to be making a habit of winning his table then ducking out quickly in the final was unlucky to do so again, this time his pocket Queens loosing out to Paul's 2 pair. In the space of a few hands Chris said 'adios' after his trip 4's met John's flush and Tatter was out when his 2 Jacks got into a scrap with Paul's 2 Queens and lost.

Kev Mc hung on a little longer but it was soon down to Paul and John in only his second TPS heads up. Unfortunately for John this was to be a repeat of his last shot at a TPS title, almost a year before in TPS2 07 (that time against Sids), when he played too cautiously for his own good, failed to make any moves until it was too late and gave away a Masters place, giving Paul his hat-trick and making him the first player to win three on the bounce, taking his total TPS wins to 7 and becoming the first player to score over 100 All Time Leader Board points.

We don't call it Tids' Poker Series for nothing and with Paul being 17 points clear at the top of the table it's not so much a case of when he's going to stop but who's going to stop him. At this rate Decembers Masters is going to be less of a poker game and more of a prize giving. It's still early enough in the season for someone to make a move; Kev Mc's finished in the top three every game so far and we should be seeing more from Tatter Rob and 'MR. Consistency' Kev R. Andy and Sids usually win at least one game a season and it's been a good start to the year from Chris. You never know, it may even be John or Steve's year to finally hit the big time. Or maybe not.