I'm not the greatest fan of team events in general. From experience they generally mean playing in above average fields for very little reward. Having said that I was happy enough to play for the CueClub team when Connie asked me last week as I had decided to travel up for the side events anyway.
Our team got off to a decent start and were one of two teams to enter Saturday with a full quota of players. Saturday started really bad losing three players almost immediately, through no fault of there own. The most unlikely of Kerrymen, Willie Clynes being the most unfortunate. The rest of the day went pretty well for us and the remaining three of fought our way back into the mix. As I said these events usually have well above average fields for the buyin and my table saturday was one of the best I played on in Ireland all year. O' Shea, BigGPimpMick, Tilty Taylor, Mouthy Masters, The Pirate, TD Donal ect ect; right craic but no easy chips.
By the time the FT was reached Sunday I was last Kerry Man standing, needing to win to secure second for the team. I was probably 2nd in chips when I raised Ah9h from the SB into the chip leader from Leeds and called his shove. Unfortunately he held AQ. Having seen the gent play the previous day I'm happy enough with my call; its not as marginal as it looks against this opponent. Chatting with Dara after he maintained its a mistake not to call here and although I had some doubt on my drive home, having digested the hand its a call alright.
I'm thinking I'll take the weekend off and I'm back to the City West next for the filming of late night pokerstars which goes out on RTE this Autumn. Here's my heat, should be good craic;
HEAT 3 19:00-22:30hrs
Celeb Ken Doherty Confirmed
Celeb Bernard Dunne Confirmed
Poker Player Nicky Power Confirmed
Poker Player Padraig Parkinson Confirmed
OnLine Qualifier Elizabeth Mullally
OnLine Qualifier Martin McDDonagh
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Chin Up
Headed down for the Macau festival on the Tuesday for a round of golf before the PLO tournament that night; neither went well. Sideshow and Gavin Stevens taking out myself and Flipper. I made the FT of the Omaha but exited in eight before the money, nice showing from Bops who finished second.
The next three days saw more golf twice on the smashing Castlemartyr course with Marty, Paul Spillane and Paul's mate Tristan, who had won the Tuesday nights PLO. Got raped twice playing skins but got most back on Friday in a two man scramble playing with Paul. Had a nice meal and drinks Wednesday night which ended about 6 am in Flippers new Balla pad so decided to go for starting day 2, Friday
My main event starting table was great and I got to 40k in chips with two levels of the day remaining. I did spew a bit after that dropping to 25k before rallying to 33k at the end of play. Day two was going very well and I reached level nine of the game with 80k but that was as good as it got. Most of this came in a double where I raised the cut-off with KJos, SB called and the raise meant the BB was all in. Flop 7 8 10 with two diamonds giving me a double gutter; check/check. Queen on the turn gives me the nuts and I get it in with the SB who to my surprise is drawing to a jack for a chop holding KK.
I had a real momentum stopper in level three when I call a raise on the button with 44, the SB comes along and we see a JJ2, two diamond flop. The initial raiser bet 3.5k, I decided to float. The SB called also. When both checked the 10h turn I bet 66% of the pot. I was sure the initial raiser didn't hold a Jack and having played with the SB before was confidant enough that this bet would take the pot; the sb called leaving about 12k behind ( yuk) and the initial raiser folds. I'm not a happy camper when we check the 6x river to be shown 9d6d.
I get no real hands over the next four levels with a lot of raises snapped off and have about 50k when I play a hand with williamhill sponsored player, James Browning. Blinds 1/2k 200 ante, he limps as does one other and I make it 10k with 88 from the BB. He tanks gives some waffle and ships his 40k, The guy had limped called a ship by me in the gukpt Newcastle earlier in the year with 66 and he had shipped over about three openings earlier where i folded. I was sure he hadn't limped with a premium and think he thought I had him pegged for a total rock and thus will fold most hands to him. Anyway having made up my mind while he tanked, I snapped and was disappointed to be shown 1010.
This saw me drop to 10k; 5 BBs. I managed to get it back to 40k by the end of the 1200/2400 level but blew most of that again with a spewy call when the six of diamonds merchant pushed over my button Q9s raise. I exited in a 65k pot shortly afterwards with QQ v AJ, A on the turn. Think I went out eight off the money in 24th position. Although I didn't play particularly well I enjoyed the tournament and the week in Cork.
The pattern all year for me seems to be to get decent chips over the first 8 levels and then basically go completely card dead and scrape into the money or just miss it. Very frustrating but I'm not reading to much into it as in general I feel I'm playing close to optimally all year.
The next three days saw more golf twice on the smashing Castlemartyr course with Marty, Paul Spillane and Paul's mate Tristan, who had won the Tuesday nights PLO. Got raped twice playing skins but got most back on Friday in a two man scramble playing with Paul. Had a nice meal and drinks Wednesday night which ended about 6 am in Flippers new Balla pad so decided to go for starting day 2, Friday
My main event starting table was great and I got to 40k in chips with two levels of the day remaining. I did spew a bit after that dropping to 25k before rallying to 33k at the end of play. Day two was going very well and I reached level nine of the game with 80k but that was as good as it got. Most of this came in a double where I raised the cut-off with KJos, SB called and the raise meant the BB was all in. Flop 7 8 10 with two diamonds giving me a double gutter; check/check. Queen on the turn gives me the nuts and I get it in with the SB who to my surprise is drawing to a jack for a chop holding KK.
I had a real momentum stopper in level three when I call a raise on the button with 44, the SB comes along and we see a JJ2, two diamond flop. The initial raiser bet 3.5k, I decided to float. The SB called also. When both checked the 10h turn I bet 66% of the pot. I was sure the initial raiser didn't hold a Jack and having played with the SB before was confidant enough that this bet would take the pot; the sb called leaving about 12k behind ( yuk) and the initial raiser folds. I'm not a happy camper when we check the 6x river to be shown 9d6d.
I get no real hands over the next four levels with a lot of raises snapped off and have about 50k when I play a hand with williamhill sponsored player, James Browning. Blinds 1/2k 200 ante, he limps as does one other and I make it 10k with 88 from the BB. He tanks gives some waffle and ships his 40k, The guy had limped called a ship by me in the gukpt Newcastle earlier in the year with 66 and he had shipped over about three openings earlier where i folded. I was sure he hadn't limped with a premium and think he thought I had him pegged for a total rock and thus will fold most hands to him. Anyway having made up my mind while he tanked, I snapped and was disappointed to be shown 1010.
This saw me drop to 10k; 5 BBs. I managed to get it back to 40k by the end of the 1200/2400 level but blew most of that again with a spewy call when the six of diamonds merchant pushed over my button Q9s raise. I exited in a 65k pot shortly afterwards with QQ v AJ, A on the turn. Think I went out eight off the money in 24th position. Although I didn't play particularly well I enjoyed the tournament and the week in Cork.
The pattern all year for me seems to be to get decent chips over the first 8 levels and then basically go completely card dead and scrape into the money or just miss it. Very frustrating but I'm not reading to much into it as in general I feel I'm playing close to optimally all year.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Cork next week weeeeeeeeeee
The Irish Classic and the Macau festivals in general are one of, if not the highlight of the year for me. This is probably result based as I can usually dig out a result there but I really love playing the festivals in the Macau. I'm fairly sure if the hendon mob did a ranking on festivals there like they do for British casinos I'd be top of the list, fingers crossed I can continue to do the business there next week. I heading down Tuesday for the PLO ( really for golf Wednesday ) and will probably play day one of the main event Thursday.
Barcelona didn't go to well but had a good weekend with Connie who had no joy either. I exited the main event with A10 on a 1055 flop for 50BBs verses 95 in a raised pot in level four. I felt very good about my starting table as it was mostly filled with value. Without going into to much detail I'm happy enough with how my exit played out although it may seem marginal at best at face value. The tournament had 370 starters, the structure was a bit fast at the start for a €1000+150 game ( 1st 4 levels 45 mins , 10k chips) , there seemed plenty play later on and I'll have a few stabs at qualifying for the series final in Malta early September.
With Vegas and that I haven't had much time for online recently but I'm looking forward to getting stuck back into it after Cork. The little I've played on Brucepokers new platform since the changeover has been very encouraging and I really like the new site. I'm intending putting in decent hour over the coming months, probably playing STTs and MTTs and some low stakes PLO, trying to improve in that.
This weekend I'll play the Joan Vickers Charity event in the new Voodoo club in Dublin, a very worthy cause and give me a chance to check of the new club at the same time. Sunday the Brucepoker live show hits Carlow in Atlantis casino, another great spot for a game.
Barcelona didn't go to well but had a good weekend with Connie who had no joy either. I exited the main event with A10 on a 1055 flop for 50BBs verses 95 in a raised pot in level four. I felt very good about my starting table as it was mostly filled with value. Without going into to much detail I'm happy enough with how my exit played out although it may seem marginal at best at face value. The tournament had 370 starters, the structure was a bit fast at the start for a €1000+150 game ( 1st 4 levels 45 mins , 10k chips) , there seemed plenty play later on and I'll have a few stabs at qualifying for the series final in Malta early September.
With Vegas and that I haven't had much time for online recently but I'm looking forward to getting stuck back into it after Cork. The little I've played on Brucepokers new platform since the changeover has been very encouraging and I really like the new site. I'm intending putting in decent hour over the coming months, probably playing STTs and MTTs and some low stakes PLO, trying to improve in that.
This weekend I'll play the Joan Vickers Charity event in the new Voodoo club in Dublin, a very worthy cause and give me a chance to check of the new club at the same time. Sunday the Brucepoker live show hits Carlow in Atlantis casino, another great spot for a game.
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