Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Finally won one

Don't be silly, of course I didn't win a poker tournament, I'm talking about Tiger.

I did like him at Bayhill and took some 8/1. However I hadn't the heart to go in as strong as I did on his last outing at Doral. I was on such a terrible run and hadn't the confidence or balls to really pull the trigger again. Nice to book a winner and break the bad run anyway.

I put in a poor showing in the JP Masters. I called a 50 blind turn shove in Level 5 with AK on a KK107 three-spade board. I read the guy as being terrified of the call, when he was just terrified I had a bigger Flush. In reality it was an awful call as his hand was pretty transparent the way it had played out.

The tournament itself was packed with good players and offered very little value. Every good grinder in the country had turned out with the promise of loads of Norwegian value to be had. The Vikings never showed, and the result was a field of only 88 players with five or six recognisable players on every table.

JP seemed pretty gutted with the turnout for his flagship event and more or less said he'd got it wrong and should have held the tournament back until this weekend. Hindsight and all that, but thankfully the numbers have picked up since, and the masses have arrived from Norway, just a little bit later then expected.

My good buddy Knuckles from Cork took the event down. While the prize pool was down, it certainly played out as a hugely difficult tournament to win. Peter is a top player who never complains on a bad run, this is a well-deserved victory and hopefully the start of a good run for one the games nicest people.

I thought about playing the €300 game on Saturday but with the poor numbers opted for the golf course instead. Golf is such a frustrating game, I was on fire a few weeks ago, at the moment I'm hitting the ball like an eighty year old. At least the weathers good and the lads are generous with the handicapping.

I'll be back to the City West Thursday for the €150 shootout and hopefully play the €500 game Friday. Badly need to get some practice in for the Irish Open the following week.

Friday, March 16, 2012

I'd love to be able to drive the ball like that

No poker to report on over the last two weeks so it'll have to be a drinking and gambling blog. I missed the Western Open as it clashed with my youngest brother - Anthony's - stag. About twenty of us hit the stag mecca of Kilkenny for a good day and night without to much damage.

Last weekend the WCG at Doral was the center of my universe. I try to avoid lumping on pre event these days unless it top ten or twenty markets. However I got stuck right in here, I felt that Tiger would be punted hard for the event, so decided I should be able to get a nice freeroll before kick off by taking the Monday prices 

As the week went on I got stuck into a lot more bets. Westwood 6/4 top ten looked huge, Kaymer 40/1, I'll have some of that EW, and it went on. Meanwhile the big tipsters who have a huge say on how the golf markets develop, totally ignored Tiger. I decided to run with him and go for the touch.

By Sunday I was buried. I punted Bradley to get out, and that looked good for the front nine before he surprisingly imploded. It was a disaster of an event for me.

With Cheltenham on the horizon, I felt I could dig myself out of a hole. I was interested in the leading trainer market. I made it a dead match between Mullins and Henderson, and priced it 4/5 n' 5/4. I thought getting the 5/4 Mullins when I made him 4/5 was great stuff altogether, and punted it accordingly with numerous firms. Oh how I wish I had decided the 2/1 Henderson when I made him 5/4 was where the value lay.

Most other bets I had for the week involved 'Hurricane Fly' in one form or another, so it was all pretty grim. By 3.30 Thursday I rang my brother Robbie and asked if he fancied a few holes of golf.

Anyone who has ever played golf with me will know I'm the worst driver of a ball in the world, historically I hit my 5 iron further then my drives. I started using a new driver recently with much better results.


We were only playing 13 holes and played up the 18th with another two ball. After I pinged my drive, a chap in the other group commented, " Jesus, I'd love to be able to drive the ball like that". It brought some grin to my face, the losses of the previous seven days faded to a distant memory.

Back to the poker next week with the JP Masters Friday, this is the start of a fantastic 12 day festival in the City West with an amazing 51 tournaments scheduled.