We had the second instalment of the Waterford Masters over the weekend. This is my local tournament, and with some personal involvement in putting it together, it was great to see it filled to capacity again this year.
I more or less missed the first two levels. I was out spanking Marty, Paul and Ciaran on one of my local courses, Faithleg, which made me an hour late. The second hour was spent just catching up with people when I got to the Grand.
At the break my first table broke and I was moved to the Irish Elky's table, JP McCann. Anyone who reads my blog regularly will know the esteem I hold JP as a tournament director/operator in, but JP seemed to think he had suddenly become a world class poker player.
In fairness, he was doing a great impression of it for a while! He had more moves than Michael Jackson on a Friday night. It was the best craic I've had on the poker table in a few years, with about ten epic hands between us.
I doubled JP up three times over four levels and finally got rid of the fecker early on the Saturday.
I had ended the Friday on 
19k having peaked earlier with 30k. On Saturday I hit a bit of a heater early, knocking out three players before I coolered Richie Lawlor (Cork) in a big pot - 
v 
. This gave me about 90k and I kicked on to about 120k, taking the chip lead a couple of levels during the day.
I played well over the next six levels but wasn't adding to my stack. I lost a biggish pot to a Mark McKeever set, with on a Q 9 2 flop. It seemed standard enough but I could have gotten away from it.
I managed to chip it back up over the next three or so hours but it just turned on me then. Late in the day, I moved tables and went out playing about 70k blinds 1200/2400, in a blind on blind situation.
Carl Fitz-the proud owner of 20 pro V one golf balls and a renowned economist, raised from the sb 7500 and I called with Ah 5h. Kx 10x 2h flop, went check-check. Carl bet 7500 on 4h turn. I over raise to 29k, basically committing myself to the pot and call his AK when he shoves.
I'm a bit ambiguous about my play in this hand. I don't think it's good but I don't think it's bad either. I suppose I could have just called the turn but at the time this felt a little weak with my holdings.
I had been on the previous table for nine hours over the day and lasted three hands on my new table. To go out in 36th was disappointing, continuing my run of semi-deep runs in tournaments without a conversion.
The Boylepoker sponsored pro's were put to shame by VIP manager Ciaran Corbett, who put up a great performance to make the money and last two tables, so kudos to C.
Well done to everyone who worked hard over the weekend to make the festival a success and a big thanks to everyone who travelled to the event and all the locals for the support.
Also, it was good to see the title stay at home this year! Congrats to Chris Frisby on taking it down.
Going to head to Galway for the racing festival. There's a 1k buy-in exhibition STT Thursday night in the Eglington Casino which looks like easy money, so I'll probably play that.