TPS 8 `07 SATURDAY 11th August

Winner Andy

2nd Kev R

3rd John

4th Chris

5th Mark

6th Barry

TPS celebrated the start of its third year with a trip to a new venue at Rob's gaff as well as one of the top attendances of the season. The numbers where swelled by 4 first TPS timers, Fergie, Brendan, Barry and Tatter's bro' John T. Plus there was a special guest appearance by TV's own Chris Tweedy star of the ITV 'game show' Goldenballs. And Oz popped round for a bit but he didn't stay.

Table 2 was the first to declare itself finished, with Fergie doing the honours of going out first, quickly followed by Sids. Another newcomer Barry then cleaned up at the expense of Tatter the Elder and the underperforming Steve.

As is usual for TPS games these days, the faster one table completes the slower the next one goes and so it was that Table 1 dragged on and on and on with nobody taking the early lead. Tatter was first to drop, clearly still in the grip of the Poker Yips (see last month), when he called an all in bet by John even after he declared "I bet you've got trips". He should have listened to his own advice as John turned over pocket 10's; the ten on the board tripping him up to take the hand and all of Tatter's chips.

Brendan meanwhile was gradually building up his stack with some aggressive tactics and taking a fuckload of Paul's chips after hitting a much needed King on the river. Then Mark suddenly saw the clock edging towards his appointment with destiny (or was it the Syndicate?), and he began putting down some audacious poker moves that earned him a shit pile of chips.

It was soon down to the last four with Mark well ahead and Andy, John and Paul languishing in low chip limbo. It was then all-in every hand for the chip-lacks with Andy the first to double up, Paul decided to move all in on the next hand but got bubbled by Mark when he hit a very spawny straight, or a flush or something I forgot to write it down.

This left Paul, the previous season's best player by far still without a masters seat and with only 3 more chances available he must be wondering why his Casino form isn't translating to the TPS. Another final table for Kev R meant he was going to stay top of the league no matter what happened and this, his 6th final table appearance of 2007 gave him the lead for the number of finals reached so far. John and Sids come second with 5 appearances each.

The final itself was probably one of the quickest to finish yet, even with the 10 minute chilli beak (cheers Rob). Mark must have been itchin in the kitchen to hit the town as he started making big raises and pushing all in to steal the blinds. Then came a flop that saw Barry push all in. John called only for Mark to re-raise all in. John called that too. Barry turned over 2 pair. Mark though he had it in the bag when he revealed 3 of a kind only for John to lob out a full house, knocking the other two out of the final in one swift move.

TV's own Chris Tweedy was out next and then Andy decided the best thing to do was to start trying to double up and, hitting some great cards on the way, all-inned himself to the Masters with a much deserved, and first since May 2005, TPS win.