A look back at 2007

I been reading back over the blog and in the very first entry after the team event in Waterford I made the following statements. I think I'm a completely different player to the one i was a year ago and I really believe that a big result is just around the corner and Also I really feel that I will play maybe 15 events at most this year with such a big/good field so realistically if you can manage to go deep in three or four of them it's a fantastic year so it feels like a wasted good run at a tournament. Well I got the big result in the Irish Open and ran deep in four big tournaments so I suppose I should be happy with the year. In general I am but feel that I should of had at least a top three finish in one off those four tournaments so I'm not entirely happy with how the year went. I'll look back at my poker year on a month by month recap.

January

Although its only been running a couple of years now the IPC is in the top three tournaments run in Ireland over the year. I had cashed in this in 2006 finishing 26th of the 393 starters, I started well in the tournament but blew an above average stack with TPTK to a player I thought was bluffing ( I always think northern players are bluffing ). The hand I went out on was bad as I had decided to check/raise the flop and fold to a push. However I had some sort of a brainfart and called the push. I played three live Satts into the tournament and won all three taking €1500 cash twice.

Online Sunpoker had started a mpp race for 100 Vegas packages with the top 60 guaranteed a main event seat. I had decided to go at this and started upping my play mixing a few PLO full ring tables with the stts which I usually played. I made $3000 and broke into the top hundred in the race in January.

Febuary/March

Were very quite months; I had losing months live, the biggest tournament I played was the bigslick team event where I finished 4th of the 240 or so starters. Online I only won $2500 for the two months and broke into the top 60 in the race thing. Sun also had a stt for the top ten hand count players at PLO. I came second in the stt for a $2500 vegas package getting AAxx cracked HU for the $11500 package.

April

Was all about the Irish Open and I did a comprehensive report here in the blog

















I did a interview with Antesup just after being knocked out which many people commented on subsequently to me, heres a link

May

I had a decent run at the Waterford open finishing 33rd of the 180 starters. Would of loved to take this one down but Jakey hit a straight against me on the river for a decent stack which would of put me above average for the first time in two days.

The Macau summer festival is one of my favorite events of the year and I had a good but ultimately very disappointing tournament. To have the chip lead with 15
players left and finish 13th leaves a very stale taste in the mouth and I went out on one of the worst plays of my life about six hands in on day three. I can still picture myself walking around a field 30 minutes outside cork puffing on a smoke and scratching my head at what I'd done.

Online I dropped $2000 in May mainly due to securing the wsop seat. I ended the month 10 tabling 2/4 limit and it was close but I got the package in the end. The last night of the promo was a close call

finish this l8r

Fitzpatrick's Limerick Xmass FO

Finished off what was a pretty good week with a chop in this yesterday. 30 runners for the two day €500 event. I got €4600 and the trophy in the chop, 2nd got €3900 3rd €3500 and 1k for 4th 5th and 6th. Got back for day two with an above average stack of 37000 chips but was going nowhere and down to 11k when the cards turned for me. I cant say enough good things about the casino/cardroom and its definitely in the top three in the country. There seems to be a great bunch of locals playing there and I really enjoyed the game.

I made a right balls of a tournament online tonight 12k first prize over 500 starters. I was second in chips with 12 left and finished 12th which was a fair achievement lol. Badly spewed the chips which leaves me very annoyed ATM.

Have a good Christmas

I'd like to wish anyone who reads the blog a great Xmass and I'll probably do a review of the year at some stage soon. Think I'll play the €500 game in Limerick on the 27th then the IPC and the week after the Festival in Killarney so a busy enough couple of weeks. After this I really need to get some focus on what I'm at online. I've basically been a recreational player online for over six months now and this has to stop. Its either go at mtts on stars in a serious manner or spend some months learning to beat the ring games, be it NLH or PLO. But, I know I cant sustain myself in the game without regular income from online which I just let slip this year as I was well rolled and lazy after the touch I got in the Irish Open.

GJP Xmass game Drogheda

Only 24 Starters for this which was a very disappointing turnout. Suppose the day was in it people just had to much on but a €500 event with a great structure and no reg cost really should of gotten 50 starters. Upon entering the club Joe asked me would I just take €2000 now and leave. He probably had my equity right for a tournament in Drogheda 400/500%

My new nemesis Owen Mullen was at my table but the tournament was missing a bit of value as Fran (Jackyback from boards) didn't play. Started grand, then with about 14 players left I overplayed TPTK and lost most of my stack when I put Baz on a draw instead of a set. Owen was very quick to let me know what a donkey I was; ridiculing me for the play and making sure every one herd. But I had 3k in chips left and told him that he could regret the comments yet.

So it was with great pleasure that a few hours later I raised UTG to 3.5k with KK and the chip lead and Owen pushed his second in chips stack in from the BB with 1010. Sweet or what ul Owen gg lol. I ran sick good at the final table, right from the start and had 120k of the 240k in play with 5 players left. Neill "the poet" Murphy nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback after being sucked out on twice by the maestro Mullen, he got his 175 chips back to about 30k at one stage and was unlucky to bubble.

In the end there was a three way chop, I had doubled up two shortstacks and Ciaran Burke had taken both out so was level on chips with me. Baz had about 35k when a deal was struck; Me and Ciaran getting €4150 Baz €2500. I was happy to deal in the end as it was after one and myself and Pat had headed off at ten that morning and faced the long drive home. It was also important to me that Pats 20% of me was someway decent as that had been one way traffic over the last few months.

Joking aside, Owen and Joe run a great and welcoming club, as players their selves I suppose this is to be expected but its always a pleasure to play in the DPC and as ever a game with GreenJokers involvement is always top class.

IPC SAT Blazingaces

Got my IPC ticket in the €200 freezeout sat in blazingaces tonight which is handy. I played three live satellites for this event last year and got a ticket each time so that's 4 for 4 which is a decent batting average. Pat Storen was very unlucky to run set over set with 6 players left and three tickets up for grabs. The last time I won into an event in the local club was for last years Irish open so hopefully this one can lead to a final table appearance as well.

Travelled up to the sporting emporium for the €100 FO on Monday night. A long way to go for a €100 game but felt like a game and finished forth of the 39 runners. TBH I played shit all night and it would of been an injustice if I had won it, think NFCRob took it down.

EPT Prague brief day two

This is what I wrote on boards before day two started didn't start great and tbh haven't played very well, just one or two small spots I played a little iffy; so happy to be going back with an average stack. It was a pretty tuff table I was on all day but was comfortable enough even without being on top of my game. Hope I play well tomorrow because although its my first EPT I've learned my game is well up to this level and feel with a decent run I could easily win one of these things. I knew there was to be a redraw for seats and that we would be playing 8 handed for the rest of the tournament, all new to me and I had decided to start very tight and have a look at the table. In hindsight this was a mistake and not something I had the luxury to do with my 14m stack. The photo is my a little to smug face at having 14m.

Very first hand I get 66 in the SB and a 14k stack bet the cutoff I folded. Next hand I fold A10 on the button to an early position raise. I'm annoyed over these two hands and its very weak play I should of put the first guy in and 3bet the second. Another spot where I could of been more aggressive was against the eventual second Gino Italian guy. I raise with Ac5c he calls BB. Flop brings 10sQs5d and he bets 5k were playing similar stacks and I thought long and hard about putting him for about 23k total. I think he is betting a draw or hands like QJ A10 which can fold to make my push the right play but I jibbed it in the end. Having read some of the later reports i don't think the guy would of folded A10 QJ type hands anyway.

My exit came half way through the first level of the day. blinds 400/800 100 ante UTG makes it 3 UTG+1 calls I make it 12k with AKs UTG pushes for another 7600 gotta call into AA. Push two hands later for my remaining 5200 with 22 and get through. Next hand button raises 2400 into my BB I call with Qs10s and push my last 5400 on a K 10 X flop into QK. No regrets about the way I played the AK hand except losing chips to Tomas Brolin the ex Leeds and Swedish player. My actual exit hand is bad and could of given up the blind and entered push-bot mode for a while.

All in all I enjoyed the week. I had planed to play the 1k event on Friday but got fairly pissed on Thursday and couldn't get out of bed for the 12 start. I did manage to get out of bed about 7 that morning for a piss with a rather funny outcome whick my good mate and roommate for the trip Gavin Kelly described in his blog "There have been some fun moments - Nicky went to take a piss in the middle of the night and accidentally went out the room door instead of into the bathroom and locked himself out and had to go down to reception in his boxers - from the 8th floor - all because I was conked out and couldn't hear him knocking on the door LOLERZ."

I got a fair bit of coverage during the event on pokernews mainly because the reporters were Irish, Mike Lacy and Nicky O' Dee but it still amuses me when I see my name mentioned in the the poker media. When I read things like " 75 would go to the rail in the first two levels. The rapid bustouts of the first few hours saw popular pros such as Rolf Slotboom, Nicky Power and Katja Thater all eliminated," on the pokernews homepage I realise that I've had a good year profile wise. Now all I need to do is win a major event and I might really feel like a pokerpro rather then someone who has found a temporary means of dodging work

EPT Prague Day one

my table had Annette_15 in my cut off and allinstevie to her direct right so expected plenty action from these two online stars the rest of the table was an English Asian and random scandies. I knew Annette obviously and Mike from greenjoker who was covering the event for pokernews filled me in Stevie ( I checked his online record later and its very impressive ). Anyhow I knew I could expect an active table and it didn't disappoint.

The first hand that I played was against Stevie's Qs9s on an Js8s8xXxAs board holding AJ it cost me about 2500 and I played the hand badly; mainly bad bet sizing which meant that I actually saved chips on the hand because I was always calling his river value bet as I didn't put him on the draw. I knew it had actually saved me chips but I was quiet annoyed after the hand at how I'd played it. Shortly after this I raise my button with KJ os and get a call from the SB and a Kh Jh ragx flop. I bet full pot on flop and a bricked turn, the river brings an A, not a heart but its a bad card for me and I check behind. The SB tables AK to take the pot. I'm down to under 5k in level two but this hand actually puts me in better form as if the guy had bet the river I'd of called so feel I'd gotten away very lightly. Here's my happy down to under half my starting stack first two levels face.

I then play two semi strange hands first one there 4 limper's in the pot before me so I limp the button with Ah8h. I put 2x100 and 1x25 chips in the pot instead of the 150 so its deemed a minraise and everyone calls it. Flop brings A1010 and the six players in the hand now check it to the river where my A is good. Shortly after I pick up AA UTG and raise to 450 with 5 callers; they don't look so good now until the flop brings A56 with a flush draw. Both blinds check there option and I bet 1500 praying someone has hit a set or fancied playing a draw aggressively but no action comes. I drop back down to 5k again through a badly played hand then double up with AcQc when i get my 5k in on a 10 high two club flop Vs JJ hitting an A on the turn.

It's the forth level 100/200 at this stage and where Annette goes out in a rather strange spot. She had been playing pretty LAG with lots positional raising and 3bets. I hadn't really tangled with her, I think I had 3bet her twice to take down pots pre but had given up my BB to her and Stevie easily enough at these cheap levels. She had doubled through rather luckily when she 3-bet pre with J4 and hit JJ9 flop. In her exit hand a pretty bad player limped for 200 in the hijack Stevie made it 800 from the button and Annette repopped for 2800 all standard enough until the bad players calls. Now at this point its very clear to me that this guys got a premium hand. A raggy flop was checked, she bet 3750 on a J turn and pushed a brick river into KK. I'd say the guy owned her in the hand but tbh he had no idea what he was doing, she said in her blog that she had air and put him on a draw when he called the turn but I thought she played the hand totally spewy after he called the 2800 pre she should of closed shop and given up on the hand.

At the 150/300 25 ante level I get AA again in early position put in a standard bet get raised to 2700 and then another player pushes for 10k the 3-better folds and I hold against AK. Think I peaked for the day at about 32k and never really saw a hand for the last three levels so feel I did well to get back for day 2 with a near exact average stack of 28400.

close to another handy one

Nearly picked up a handy EPT Dortmund package tonight worth $13000. It was another one of those one seaters and hit the final table with the chip lead and 25% of the chips in play but finished bad fifth. Never saw a card at final table and lost an early race then pushed my remaining 6bb which was 14% of the chips in play with 25os SB into QJ. Would of been deadly to pick up another package like this

Macau Winter Festival

Headed down to Cork Thursday with high expectations as I've had atleast some sort of result at my previous four festivals in the Macau; but alas not this time.

Was going along grand in the main event with about 18k in level three then get these three hands in the space of four hands, call a four bet on a flop with st flush draw, check fold the turn because I've 12k left and I know he has top set. Next hand run second nut flush into nut against a guy who had no idea what he was doing. table breaks 2nd hand on new table 6 k left flop top two with AK into KK.

Played the €300 event where I lost a race against Rob AQ V JJ for 35k, average was about 20k at the time with circa 30 players remaining.

Cashed in Sunday million last time for the first time for a whooping $412. I've only played this about five time and really should play it more often as there's great value in it.

So I'm off to Prague on Sunday for my first EPT and while I'm not exactly in a rich vein of form ATM I feel I'm playing well and hopeful of a good tournament.