JP's MiniWSOP

The Village Green card club Tallaght was the venue for this festival over last weekend. This was my second time visiting the JP's new club and it really is a great spot for a game. JP understands poker players needs and really does cross the T's and dot the I’s when it comes too putting on an event.

 I just played the main event opting for day one-A. The game was a re-entry. When I made day two it felt like a min-cash already, as I wouldn't have too have a second go.

 The day itself went very well after an early mishap. Practically after sitting down I lost a decent chunk to Rory Brown but don’t think I lost another sizable pot over the day. I held AJ on a JJ4xx board against Rory's 44. Lucky enough it was first level I guess, as it could be a tournament ender a bit later on.

 I was moved straight away after this hand and the new table had a lot of familiar friendly faces. Tim Farrelly seems to be a constant on every table I've played on over the last few months and I was sandwiched between Colette 'Smurf' Murphy and Wes Farrell. Big shout out to Wes on his super result in the Sunday Million, definitely one for the good guys.  

 I was going along nicely when I won a big pot stacking Eoin Olin. I flopped a set, Eoin turned two pair and the chip went in. This put me on 90k and I was playing around 100k into the last level of the day when I won a late race against with AK against Paul Carnegie's QQ. I finished on 148k which was 4th biggest chip stack after the two day ones. 
 
 Day two started slowly and ended abruptly. I was playing around 130k just after the first break, blinds 1200-2400. Rasheed Mahmood who went onto finish 5th raised UTG, I 3-bet KK from the BB and Rasheed shipped AK just covering me.

 It's been a recurring theme this year that the 1st time I'm all-in in a tournament I'm out and unfortunately the trend continued with an ace flopping. The pot would of put me in good shape with a top two stack 20 off the money. Instead it was a leisurely afternoons drive back to Waterford. 

I really enjoyed the event; it was good to see so many good players in attendance from all over the country. I feel I'm playing a lot better poker then earlier in the year which I'm happy about. Hopefully I can turn that good play into a few results before the end of the year as it's been abysmal so far result wise. Big well done to all whom cashed, especially Liam O Donoghue on his second place finish and 2012 MiniWSOP champ Chris O Connor.    

IWF 2012

I met that great poker philosopher Mick Muldoon when leaving my room to play the tournament. Mick described the Winter Festival as the best value big buy in event left in Europe. I wasn’t that excited about playing given my recent form but this short conversation totally changed my perspective and got me enthusiastic about playing.

I found some more enthusiasm almost immediately after the poker started. After only a few nothing pots I got a full double. I raised QQ from the small blind after one limper. He called and we saw a QJ2 rainbow pot. I lead; he raised and called my three-bet. I lead 60 (3k) bigs on the innocuous 5 that turned and 160 (8k) bigs on the river 6. This river bet was met with a push for about another 7k, he held QJ. I think 400 BBs is the most I have ever won in a tournament hand.

The next six levels were only memorable for the lack of anything resembling a hand. I had managed to maintain my stack until level 8 when I coolered a player and won a few other pots to get to 75k.

That was to be my tournament peak as I lost 60k of them with AK into AA. You may expect they would go in preflop here but I just called my opponent’s (can’t think of gentleman’s name) 4-bet pre in position. I read him as very strong for a number of reasons and should of just folded. 

It was checked to the turn with the board showing QJJx, I bet 12k he minned, I tanked. Changed my mind a few times at this stage but eventually pushed and got a reluctant enough call I think. I went with my read on the turn and was wrong; I should have gone with it preflop.

I suppose I did well not to blow the rest over the last level after that mishap and returned day two with about starting stack AKA 19.3 blinds.

There were very few chips on the new table on day two, with only Keith McFadden being above average. I got an early double JJ v A10 belonging to Eoin Olin. Shortly after I had Eoin all in with my QQ v 99 too get me to the dizzy heights of 60k but he binked the 9 which was to come back to haunt me.

Towards the end of the second level we had lost a lot of players from the table and it was a getting tougher with bigger stacks. I had 30 blinds and was aware of the blinds rising soon. I 4-bet shoved 43os from the button after Andrew Grimason had opened the hi-jack and Wes Farrell 3-bet. Eoin woke up with QQ in the bigblind and I was on the rail.

I don’t mind my exit. I could of hung around waiting for hands and try worming into a min-cash, but from experience the IWF is a great tournament to have chips hitting bubble time, and that was what I was planning to get.

Next up is JP’s mine-wsop at the Village Green card club Tallaght this weekend; I’m looking forward to it.