Friday, July 20, 2007

Deck in the face

Played the blazinaces monthly last night €200+€20 with 38 runners. Think I had AA 3 times and KK 3 times must of knocked out 15/16 of the field including 5 of the 6 knocked out on the final table. Chopped on chips with four left. I got €2550 think initial first was €3200 so happy enough. Buda got €1700 paddy dooley €1400 and Jason from Carlow €1300. Nice to win a tournament but what a rush of cards like that could of done for me two and a half weeks ago

Monday, July 16, 2007

Trip review


Vegas

My first impression as we travelled to the house from the Airport is this place is a shithole and on the journey to the airport on the way home my opinion hadn’t changed but what a shithole. Now I’m not one to be seduced by shiny things and Vegas is simply the shiniest thing in the world. Having spent many summers holidays around Mediterranean resorts since the mid eighties the decadence of Vegas was nothing new to me its just on a larger scale there with gambling thrown in.

I enjoyed downtown its realer less pretentious and while they still want your greenback they seem to give something for it and don’t want to totally clean you out.

Poker

A number of people had told me that I would come back a better player. I don’t think I have. But what I learned will enable me to go back to Vegas better prepared for a trip there. The size of the field’s there mean it is just not feasible to play tournaments exclusively and any future trips will be incorporating a lot of cash games. Its just fiscal logic but as a tournament player it’s a lesson that had to be learnt.

Having said that I came out about $3000 ahead on poker there if I exclude the $11500 in WSOP entries that I had earned online at no cost. I ran very bad and at times played good and even on occasion great poker.

The standard of the average American playing in the tournaments that I played was shockingly bad. I’m not exaggerating when I say tables that I played in $1000 events there were easier then €25 tournaments run in blazinaces on Monday night. There was the odd good young American but in general the standard was really bad.

AS for the two WSOP events I played. The standard in the $1500 was awful I have no doubt I could of gone very deep except for that two outer when all in on the turn. My main event starting table was very tight for the first level and as that was as long as I lasted I’m not going to make any judgement on the standard of play.

I didn’t like the Rio and its something I’m going to have to get past when I go back to Vegas. This is a flaw in my make up and rather then just play past it and play the four or five WSOP events I had mapped out I opted for the better-structured games in the fantastic Venetian poker room. Logical yes, but reflecting on the trip I regret not playing more bracelet events.

All in all I enjoyed my time in Vegas. The people that I shared the house with were all A-one and I’m sure that many of us will team up again in the future for trips as there was a lot of poker talent there and people who will be in the game for the long run.

So that’s me blogging off for the time being. As I said earlier I wont be updating with the mundanes of my everyday grind but may do a monthly update and will do tournament reviews of any decent events I play.

Friday, July 13, 2007

His sideshowsness 40th

Right I'm back from Vegas and off to the real capital for the big fellow's birthday bash. Hmmm lashing good Heineken and not dealing with American accents is appealing but the Cork accent is just as bad i suppose ah well the drink will be good.

As I said earlier I'll do a full review of my thoughts on Vegas later in the week. As for the blog well I have to decide but I wont be updating it with the nothingness of my weekley grind. Will probably do a monthly update and review any bigger tournaments I play.

The next few months of the Irish calendar look fairly baron for poker so after the Vegas review it could be quite here for a while. I'm looking at doing another challenge like the failed 35k stt one I did last year http://bigslicktour.proboards54.com/index.cgi?board=poker&action=display&thread=1151281951&page=1 but this will be September before I get around to it. So my main aim ATM is to build a bankroll on stars for mtts and on the live seen I want to get to Briton for a couple of the £1k grosvenor events and try qualify for the wsop event in London in September I'll also try qualify for the crypto st kitts thing in november.

A friend just showed me this post irish open interview, I cant believe how happy I seem in it

http://www.challenge.co.uk/ipo/interview22.php

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Thats it I'm off

thats it I'm off going to head home, three weeks+ in this place is enough for anyone me thinks. Played the $2500 in the Venetian without seeing a card for six, hour levels. Finally pick up kings in the bb playing 22k and UTG had pushed for 16 with AK the A on the river was annoying but not as annoying as what happened next.

Very next hand the table has 4 stacks between 4 and 6k including me utg pushes and the other two small stacks call one of the big stacks calls. I've got 8d 10d and decide this is a great spot to get m in . While the other big stack is deliberating a call my phone rings and dopey here answers it and the dealer mucks my hand. Needless to say the flop brought a 10 and 8.

So had A great time here but happy enough to get out of the place now. If I don't count the main event entry which didn't cost me anything then I'm ahead on poker for the trip. Its been a good experience and when I get back here the experience gained this time will be put to good use.

Anyone whose been following the blog well I hope you enjoyed it to some extent; probably a little boring at times but some of the stuff you just cant put out there. I'll do an update looking back next week so until then goodluck2him

Monday, July 9, 2007

Was thinking of trying to qualify for the wpt for a while but the Venetian have a $2500 buy in 15000 starting stack with an hour clock tommorow so that's where I'll be. Been here over three weeks at this stage and thinking of heading home a bit earlier then the pre booked flight on the 19th of July.

Pat Storan who I have been rooming with the last week final tabled yesterdays $1k at the venetian coming 8th for 6k which he really deserved after some pretty sick beats during the week.

Anyhow I'm sure I can bring my A game to tomorrow's game and would be nice to finish with a result as I cant see myself playing again here after this one this trip.

I'll do a lengthy review of how things went here and my feelings about the place at some stage.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Well that was fast

Lasted all of 2 hours 20 minutes here's how cardplayer reported my exit hand

"Power out gunned
Recent Irish Open finalist Nicky Power has been eliminated. 'I found aces the hand before, raised it up and got no callers,' he explained to CardPlayer.com. 'The next hand i found A-K and the flop came K-K-4. All the money went in the middle and the other fella had 4-4. I don't mind really, folding is not a big part of my game so what can you do,' he grinned."


don't know what was up with me today but sat down for my first main event with about as much enthusiasm as a £25freezout in the local club. just wasn't feeling it today. gonna try and qualify for the WPT in the bellagio . have a feeling the main event could be heading to Irish soil this year and as I have a % of about 10 players all may not be lost yet.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

quick update

just doing these from a terminal in the rio so just a quick update. Played the $500 in the venetian again today 315 runners and finished around 45th with 30 paid. Had to take a race as it had gone a bit crapshooty. will do a longer post on the past week when I have the oppertunity. might just take a little break from poker before the ME as I have played a lot over here and want to enter that fresh.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

brief final table showing

made the final table of the venetian $1k deep stack yesterday but only had 6 big blinds and got busted when my J8 push was no good against the BB A7. Got $6.3k for 10th which felt a little low after getting through a field of 545. Picked up another $3.5k for the 10% I had swapped with Derek who got into a chop. Will do a longer post when I get a chance .

At least its a half decent cash and good to go deep after a few early exits. Played a $500 in binions today but really shouldn't of bothered as after I sat down the thought of another 12/14 hour session wasn't appealing