PokerPlayer forum regular Steve Redfern talks to us about his recent APAT triumph
Here at PokerPlayer we are always very happy when one of our readers goes onto have success in the poker world. Steve Redfern is a great example of that having recently taken down the APAT Walsall event for a tidy £3,500. A longtime reader and regular poster on the PokerPlayer Forum under the handle ‘AMRN77’, I recently caught up with Steve to chat about his win.
Can you give us a brief background of your poker career?
I’ve been playing since I was at school 30 years ago. It was behind the bike sheds sort of stuff. I’ve only been playing seriously online for about two years though. I progressed from the microstakes up through the cash game ranks. I had the first year of constantly loading up and I think September 2007 was my last deposit that I ever made. Since then it has funded itself with several withdrawals along the way. I got myself up to playing $ 2/$ 4 no limit cash for a while but I had a crash and ended up back down at 25c/50c no limit, which is where I am at the moment.
$ 2/$ 4 no limit is quite a big game. Did you have a quick rise up through those levels?
I did the Chris Ferguson Bankroll Challenge after I read about it in PokerPlayer. That was September 2007. I made a £50 deposit on Titan and turned it into $10,000 in just over six months.
Was it through cash games that you built your bankroll?
Mostly cash, with a few SNGs along the way and two little MTT wins in there as well, of about £500 or £1,000 each.
Your APAT Walsall win was one of the biggest of you career. Can you talk is through how that tournament went for you?
First off, as with every other APAT event it was an absolutely brilliant day out. If people haven’t played them they really should try it, it’s a cracking group of people, a cracking tournament.
The first day was just one of those perfect days for me, it got to the point where on the first table I had a good read on everybody, I pretty much knew where I was at all times and was never at risk. I pushed my stack on, had a couple of big hands in the evening and was chip leader by the end of the night. I didn’t get any sleep at all that night because I was buzzing. I went back the next day and it went on from there, and carried on in the same vein.
We were pretty close to the final table when I won an absolutely massive hand. It was folded round to me in the small blind with A-10 and I shoved. The big blind made the call for around 30 big blinds with A-J and I somehow got there to win the hand. That put me on the final table as the massive chip leader.
The final table was an interesting affair; I went from the massive chip leader to the micro-stack and then back again, it was a real rollercoaster. It was really, really passive and I was trying to be the aggressor but I kept getting caught and in the end it all came down to one hand when we were heads-up. I had 7-9 of clubs, shoved it and the other guy called with K-Q. The flop came J-Q-2 before an 8 on the turn and 10 on the river gave me the perfect runner-runner straight!
How important was claiming an APAT trophy as opposed to the cash?
To be honest the cash was irrelevant, I’d have played the same way if there was no cash involved – I was playing it for the trophy.
Why is that? Is it the prestige of the APAT series?
I think it’s generally accepted now that the strength and depth in the APAT tour is actually pretty high, so to be able to come away and say I’ve won an APAT competition was really big for me. I’ve won MTTs in casinos with 150 runners but it’s never felt anything like winning an APAT tournament.
You’re a regular poster on the PokerPlayer forum – how important to your game is the support of friends from the forums?
It’s more important than I ever thought actually, the concept of discussing hands in the forums, taking tips and thought processes away from it. We break hands down and it’s funny how often I’ll sit there playing online and a hand will come back to me that we’ve been discussing on the forum that has some relevance to the hand that I’m considering. So I think poker forums have become a very important part of the game nowadays. Before them, hands used to be discussed in a casino bar somewhere not online!
Steve loves PokerPlayer magazine so why don’t you try it for yourself HERE
