I was in
Galway (briefly) last weekend for the Eglington’s Casino, rather grandly named
Chieftain of the Tribes tournament. It was a €350 game with 110 runners and a
very good structure.
I only
lasted into the fourth level, bluffing off my stack shoving on the river, when
I didn’t think I’d get called; I did. I felt it was a good spot the way the
hand played out but I picked the wrong client who had rivered top pair when in
the hand on a flush draw.
I had
gotten of to a good start adding 25% to my starting stack in level one, but a
few reversals had me playing my exit hand with 75 big blinds. Typing it here
now it’s becoming clear that it was probably an unnecessary risk I was taking
in the hand.
Not having
booked anywhere accommodation wise I didn’t hang around. Galway was booked out
the weekend, I had checked a few online sites and the likes of travel lodge
were priced at €500 a night. Upon further investigation I found out the
scarcity of rooms was because of a huge influx of people for the International
Quilting Festival.
Not being
familiar with the term Quilting, but assuming it had some sexual connotation, I
checked the ‘Urban Dictionary’. This defines quilting as “The act of removing one's clothes as
a professional stripper”. Could it be every hotel in Galway was filled with
stripper for the weekend? Nope I’m afraid not, it was filled with people who
made or had interests in fabric quilts.
Big shout out to tournament director extraordinaire JP
McCann or as I rather refer to him “the Irish Elky”. JP became a player for the
weekend and put in a splendid effort to finish 4th, in the poker
tournament that was, not the quilting.
I played the WSOP mega satt on Boylepoker Sunday night. Got
off to a flyer in this and was 2nd in chips a few hours into the
tournament. Hopes were high of binking one of the 20 x $13,500 packages, but I
lost a big flip AK v JJ just inside 80 players, exiting shortly after.
