Andy Montgomery enjoys an early night (From This is Hampshire)

Andy Montgomery enjoys an early night

6:00am Saturday 20th March 2010

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ANDY Montgomery, who plays for poker league leaders Testwood WMC A, once lost £700 on one hand.

Ouch!

Andy, who occasionally goes by the name of Alan, plays online. One night he gambled £700 on a full house – against a better full house.

“I went to bed after that one,” said the 47-year-old.

Andy’s team-mate and playing partner Bill Browne, 53, is another internet player. He won a South African Open online. And he reached the top table in a tournament while on a trip to Las Vegas.

So surely the Southampton & District Social Clubs League is a tad tame compared to that?

Bill said: “It’s cracking fun. It’s competitive. You want to win.

“It took me a while to adjust. It’s quite a different format. It’s good to have a good partner and I’ve got a good partner.”

Their captain Jason Hall agreed that this season’s rule change has assisted his team. No longer are partners drawn out of a hat.

“That’s been a big plus for us,” he said. “You get to know how one another plays as a partnership and those partnerships have been solid. That’s been our strong point and why we’ve won so many games this year.

“We’re having a really cracking season.

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve had eight or nine in my squad. I’ve cut it back to a bare seven so we’ve got the continuity this year which we’ve lacked the last couple of years.

“We play a lot of poker within the club. We go round each others’ houses and play regularly.”

Jason worked for ten years at BAT. He’s now a director of minibus firm Paragon Travel.

While accepting luck plays a part in poker, he insists it’s a skillful game - as Testwood’s record proves.

“There’s obviously a certain element of luck in that you need to hit cards at the right time,” he said.

“It’s slightly different when you’re playing this format because you’re playing pairs as opposed to individually, so you have to adjust your strategy. There’s a lot of skill involved, it’s not just the luck of the cards.”

Someone else enjoying the run of the cards is Emma Futcher.

She received a maximum 29-point cribbage hand 13 years after her mum Penny was dealt the very same hand – three fives and the jack of clubs with the five of clubs turned over.

“I actually didn’t know it was 29,” she admitted. “There’s lots of people that have been playing for years and they’ll turn over a hand and know instantly what they’ve got.

“I just thought ‘this is a big hand’. I probably don’t even deserve to have got it – for not knowing. If I’d realised, I wouldn’t have been able to keep a poker face.”

Emma revealed that her reaction was the same as her mum’s.

Penny told Emma: “I was exactly the same. I just put it down and said ‘I’ve got lots’.”