I had never made it past level six in an IPO. My goal entering day
one was to make level seven, which I managed by twenty minutes. A success? Debatable, but one thing for sure IPO2012 was a huge success.
Playing the IPO conflicts me a little. As a Boylepoker representative
I feel I have a certain role to play over the weekend. Do some
commentary on the live stream, help out where I can, be social, meet and
have a beer and generally be nice to people.
This is where the conflict arises; I almost feel it’s my duty to get
knocked out. I dogged a chap that had travelled over from Holland in
level six blind on blind and I was honestly gutted to do so. It’s a
funny one.
My tournament ended in a pre flop all in cooler involving my AK and
Jay O’Toole’s 7h8h. Jay flopped the world and I left the tournament as
un-gutted as a man will ever be upon exit.
This freed me up for live stream commentary duties that I enjoyed a
lot. The streaming at the IPO is done in a very informal manner, it
differs from the norm but I think in a way that’s a great fit for this
tournament. Over the weekend I got to ‘chew the fat’ with some of my all
time poker hero’s.
Watching Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson commentating on Late Night
Poker got me interested in the game so it’s quiet surreal to actually be
chatting with them on the live stream. Neil Channing, John O’Shea and
Ciaran Corbett aren’t the worse for an old natter either.
The IPO has a history of innovation and this year Iain Cheyne
unveiled his EVCount system. The system lets people at home follow the
chip counts and tables of every player in the tournament in real time. I
suppose it’s like an online lobby for live tournaments and by all
accounts was a huge success. No doubt Iain will make millions from it so
well played that man.
The Bluff Irish poker awards took place on Sunday night of the IPO.
Ciaran had booked a magician as the warm up act and he was great craic. I was up
for two awards, best blogger and best spammer, aka best social media
user. I don’t really get the second category but need not of worried, as
I failed miserably to bink. I don’t think anyone could of argued with
the winners TBH and it was nice to be nominated.
It was a pleasure to be there to see Padraig pick up the legend
award. Not that we needed any confirmation that the man is a legend.
While the IPO has a relatively small buy in, it’s a huge tournament.
Ciaran, Gerry and all the Boylepoker crew, Stephen and an army of staff
all put in a huge effort to make sure everything is in place for us
players to enjoy ourselves. Huge well done to all those involved for
making IPO2012 such a fantastic celebration of poker.