Irish Classic

The Irish Classic in Cork was the target last weekend. I always look forward to playing in the Macau sporting club, generally you can be assured of some banter on the tables and historically I do well there. The banter was great last weekend, unfortunately the poker didn't go so well.

My starting table included Paul Carr, Fintan Gavin and the WBO International Middleweight Champion Gary 'Spike' O'Sullivan. It's unusual to see a total novice in a €500 buy in but Gary had never played poker before so I guess that could be considered a good table draw. Fintan ever the gentleman took Spike under his wing and gave him loads of advice. Well maybe not loads but he showed him a hand ranking chart on his phone and told him to fold every time Fintan raised him.

It was a pretty good table and I doubled my 20k starting stack over the first six levels without playing a sizable or memorable pot. The last two levels of the night went bad for me and I returned day two with 28k which was 28 bigblinds.

My starting table on day two was tough including Chris Dowling directly on my left and good young Cork players, Tadhg Ryan and Colin Hammond. I found Kings, Aces and AK early but had to fold the kings on a ace high 3 spade flop after my continuation bet was raised and just took a few bigs with the other two premiums.

My exit came at the hands of Dowling in the second level of the day with 36 of the 103 starters remaining. I shoved 19 bigs over a button open with AJ and Chris woke up with AQ in the big blind. A jack on the turn game me a glimmer of hope but the Queen to follow on the river meant that hope didn't last long.

I was chatting to fellow Waterford native Dave 'Kakak' McCarty before start of play on Saturday. Dave is a real enthusiast of the game but wasn't overly confidant of his prospects in the conversation we had so it was a nice surprise to see he finished second for €10,000. 

The Irish Classic used to be the major Irish poker event of the summer months. Unfortunately recent years have seen a sizable drop in buy in, numbers and consequently prize pool. The extent of this could be gleaned from the fact that cashing for 5th place in 2008 was equal to 1st place money this year.          

It's a harsh environment for tournament operators in Ireland at present. With a glut of events and patrons disposable income almost non existent, putting bums on seats has never been more difficult.
It's probably nostalgia  on my behalf but I do feel bad about the decline of the event in recent years.   

Compulsive Viewing

Congrats to John O’Shea on his great run in the WSOP Main Event. I must admit to being very impressed with the fact that John needed to finish around 12^th in the main event to get out on the trip. Such a pity he couldn’t catch a few breaks inside the last 200.Would of made for some ending to the documentary Setanta are shooting about John. 

I played the Munster Masters in Tramore last weekend. The €250 buy in tournament only got 50 runners and I finished 6^th for a little over double the buy in. While the numbers were small, it was an enjoyable game with a good structure.

I lost a big pot with about 15 players left and never really recovered. Being in shove mode for so long it was inevitable that I’d get called at some stage and in reality I was a bit fortunate to even make the money.
I’ll be on lock-down mode this weekend watching the Open Championship. This is my favourite weeks golf of the year and I’ll be glued to the TV savoring every minute of the forty or so hours coverage.

I’m not going to try tipping a winner as I’m a bit perplexed and don’t really have a strong fancy. I had a few small speculative bets on the outright markets, but will mainly play that in running.

A couple of bets I’ll be having on other markets include; Mark Leishman at 10/1 for a top twenty finish with Boylesports. Leishman is a recent winner on the PGA tour and a player goes a bit under the radar. He’s generally over priced as is the case this week and is in the form of his life.

I’ll also be having a decent punt on Ben Curtis for his opening day three ball against two players woefully out of form in Trevor Immelman and Paul Casey. 18-hole three ball markets aren’t usually a place that I often get involved in, but this one looks too good to pass up.

Musical Chairs

There were two games on last Saturday. A €120 game in the City West and a €350 two day game which was part of a ‘Summer Festival’ in the Fitz. I opted for the latter, which unfortunately only attracted 26 players, the game in the City West got a massive 500 players.   

The Fitz game started with two tables and when a few more entered, I was moved to the third table. After 20 minutes on my new table I ran a King high flush into the nut flush of James 'Hawkeye' McManus. Meanwhile I looked across to my old seat, which was filled by Fintan Gavin, and he had quadrupled his starting stack in that time. I kind of felt it wasn’t going to be my day.

Nothing went right after and I exited in 16th after roughly 3 hours play, at least I lasted long enough for the legendry Fitz feed. I had travelled up with Ian ‘Bops’ Ronan and although we had swapped percentages, I’m ashamed to say I was more hoping he got knocked out quickly rather then win the thing. Bops is never one to hang around short-stacked, luckily he finished 14th.

I had dropped into the City West on my way to Dublin and the numbers for that game were astounding. Celtic poker tours with their regional partners, JP and Nick O’Hara in this instance, have been putting on these €120 buy in $25,000 guarantees for over a year now.

These games have become hugely popular attracting more and more recreational players to them, rather then playing the expense laden multi-day festival event. Professionally run; low buy in, softer fields, with a chance of a decent score at the end. What’s not to like? With the economy in the state it is Celtic Poker Tour have clearly produced the product that fits the current market well, and these event will be where much of the poker playing community will be getting their fix for the foreseeable future.         

Well done to Jason Tompkins on his WSOP final table in event #54 last night, a great performance getting through 3,200 players to finish 6th. BigMickG aka Mick Graydon is currently 12/22 in event #56 so hopefully another late nights railing lays ahead tonight.                    

Quilted

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 4^th, 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 2^nd 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.

Finally it’s the US open this week and at the risk of being unoriginal I’m backing Kaymer EW and 18/1 top European. As much as Augusta doesn’t suit Herr Kaymers swing; this place is made for it, with fading the ball off the tee a must.

I got knocked F%^&ing out - UKIPT Dublin

This is the sixth calendar year I've been producing a blog and I know I've produced the odd decent one and many mundane ones. You win a bit, lose a bit, win a few 50/50s 70/30s; lose a few. Only so many ways you can describe it.

These days I produce most of my blogs for Boylepoker and tbh, I try to describe as few poker hands in them as possible. They've become boring to me to write so I assume the reader must feel similar. Unfortunately this blog is going to contain many poker hands as I have nothing else to give. 

I only lasted into level six on day 1A of UKIPT Dublin but got to play a heap of big pots for the short time I was in. The first of these was level two, blinds 50-100. I flopped a set of two's on a K 10 2 rainbow flop from the small blind in a four-way pot.. I lead the flop and the button was the only caller. Turn was a 9 and I bet again, the button raised and I called. River was a Jack and I blocker/value bet 20 BBs into the 50 BB pot, button calls and holds KK for flopped top set. It's not often your happy after losing a relatively big pot but this was such an occasion.

The next orbit I pick up the boots, I'm in SB again and playing 12k. There's a raise early and button flats, I raise chunky and both call. Flop K 10 8 with two clubs, I lead for 1,150 and get raised by the button to 2,850. With the board texture and the fact that the same opponent had flat the set of Kings the previous hand, I decided to 'get' m in'. He held 10 8 for bottom two and a King fell on the turn to counterfeit.

This got me to 25k and I had worked this to around 38k  over the next two levels until I run Kings into Aces preflop for around Twenty of them. The owner of the Aces dwelt and announced "I think I have to call" when facing the final pre-flop raise, which lead me to believe he didn't hold Aces, however I think it was more the ultimate nit-roll rather then slowroll.

I get the chip back shortly after in a dream spot. I raise 33 in early position, the button min raises, the guy who had the aces in previous hand calls from the small blind and I call to hit a set. Flop A J 9 and I'm suprised to see it checked through. My head is thinking   3  3  3 PLS - bink - a beautiful 3 amazingly appears. SB leads for 1,500, I make it 3,500 and the button now flats, SB folds. I jam 13k on the blank river and the button tank calls. I asked him what he held and he said A J which would kinda make sense except I saw a queen in his cards as he folded. The SB told me later he held Kings in the hand. I'm Lucky in so many ways in that hand.

The table broke immediately and my new table was well stacked and filled with "playa's". Think mirror shades, beat headphones and European accents. I lost 15k of my 40k in a blind on blind debacle. I call the SB raise in position with A6, flop is 10 7 4, I float. The 8 on the turn gave me double gutter outs and with the ace, I decided to put my opponent to the sword, unfortunately he held kings which held.

My exit hand was to the same opponent a few hands later. I had 80 Blinds at the start of the hand, blinds 150-300-25. He raises cut-off and I 3-bet AK from the button. he four bet to 14 BBs and knowing my image isn't great, i elect to shove feeling I can get looked of light enough. Sure enough he calls it off with AQ and gets there.

Usually getting knocked out this early doesn't bother me. Your simply not in the tournament long enough to be emotionally attached. However I was a bit gutted this time around. I consider this a good thing as it should matter and hurt.                               
    

    

Some thoughts on this years Irish Open

Below is the tournament part of my IO this year that went up on the Boyles blog yesterday. Basically just had a bad  tournament, 20k to zero in six hours. That's the way it goes sometimes, wasn't anything I could of done differently. I just want to add a few observation here on my personal blog; well moan a bit I guess.

"

My starting table included Dara O'Kearney, Faraz 'the toilet' Jaka and eventual winner Kevin Vandersmissen. I had a miserable tournament. I lost 25% of my chips when Jaka got there on the river in a hand I played well bar him hitting a three outer. Another 25% of my stack went when I raised KQ; hit a lovely QQ10 flop but lost to a turned gut shot. 

It was a very interesting table with 'The Toilet' running riot over the first four levels. He was playing about 70% of hands and hit a lot of lucky rivers when barrelling to amass a 70k stack by dinner. One level later he was out after getting smashed up by an excellent Australian player whose name I never got to know. 

Vandersmissen was having a similar day to myself until he made a sick call for his tournament life. He held pocket sixes, on a paired board with all over-cards facing a river bet that effectively put him all in. It was a hugely impressive hero call and he amassed chips with ease after taking that pot.

My own tournament ended in level seven. I got 17 blinds in pre-flop with AK verses AQ to no avail"

A few observations on the event.

The antes: 

It may seem a small thing in the overall scheme but It's inexcusable to have ante's of 1/16th & 1/20th of a bigblind in a major tournament. Like who the hell produces the structure because it's certainly not someone that understands tournament structures. How hard can it be to consult someone on what a proper ante to BB ratio should be. As I said it may see a small issue but its unprofessional and looks bad to oversea visitors. Having said that it's something that's easily fixed and the overall structure has come on heaps with the increased starting stack. I remember playing the IO in 2006, with a 10k starting stack, no repeat 150/300, or 500/1000, 1200/2400 levels.

The Field: size reduction and demographic 

these are the numbers from recent years
2007 = 708  
2008 =  667 
2009 = 700         
2010 = 708
2011 = 615
2012 = 502

Big reduction over the last two years, a number of factors in play here, the recession and a saturation of tournament's would  be the major ones. I'm sure PPP are doing everything they can on this front but it's just a sign of the times. It's worth noting that finishing second in 2008 got you the same money as winning in 2012.

As for the make up of the field. Someone commented the field this year was if 300 bad players were taken out and replaced with 100 top class online MTT players. Again this is a sign of the times, black Friday and in general online grinders realising the value in this event.   

The Hotel 


I'm not a big fan of the Burlington. I booked the poker rate for 4 nights, went for breakfast the first morning and was told that there wasn't a breaky included with my booking. On a normal week it's €69 a night to stay there with breaky included, poker players rate €79 with no breaky. It's not a huge deal but an example of players being screwed over. I think the food in general and pints in the hotel bar are over priced slop. I had a few nice pints in a pub across the road on Saturday afternoon and the difference in quality was huge, clean the pipes pls, drink is important. 


 Final Table Atmosphere

This is a trade off, we saw it in 2006 when the FT went live on Skysports and again this year for hole cards to be shown on the stream. The quality and coverage available on the stream production over the event is second to none and ground breaking.  However, below is a video from the 2007 final, watch the last 20 seconds or so. The atmosphere was electric, compare that to the sterile offering this year. This is what made the tournament special for a lot of people. I think the tournament is probably giving up too much for the viewer at home to be allowed to view the hole cards.          


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpGgbWWNb6o&feature=g-hist&context=G26a294eAHT4WDqgABAA


 These are just a few observations and areas where improvements can be made. Overall I think PPP do a great job on the tournament.
 

More City West

I travelled back to the City West Friday to play the €500 side event. What a contrast from the previous week, the place was hopping. The Norwegian Masters itself had over a thousand entries and there must have been nearly double that amount travelled over from the Scandinavian country.

There were up to 45 cash tables running at peak times, with games running round the clock. These guys certainly came to gamble from some of the stories I was hearing, crazy action by all account.

My table in the €500 8-handed consisted of seven Norwegians, two decent players; the rest weren’t up to much. I lost 90% of my chips in the 75-150 level when I hit a set of two’s on a 932 flop. I check raised heavy into multiple players on the flop, and put in a chunky bet on the 5 turn to one player.

I hated the 4 on the river and blocker bet 3k. The opponent shoved for 10k, it was now 7k to win 40k. After deciding this person was capable of spazing in the spot, I called to be shown pocket sixes. I was at least proved correct on my assumption on the player later. A guy bet 3k on the river on an AAJ83 board from 7k and she put him in with air, he had quads.

Anyhow, that hand in level three left me 3k. I still felt I had a chance to get back into it; the table was just so good. I ground a micro shortstack for the next three levels nursing it up to 12k and then won a race, 88 v AJ.

Just as I hit the dizzy heights of 25k into the last level of the night I got coolered blind on blind, AQ into AK. Disappointing as I had fought very hard for the resurrection.          

JP deserves a medal from Failte Ireland for bringing this event to these shores. It was without doubt the busiest poker festival I have ever seen outside Vegas. The income statement for March in the City West resort’s books must look very healthy indeed.

All roads lead to the Burlo this week for the big one. If I told you I was confidant it would be a lie. I don’t feel I’ve played well in recent events, but the Irish Open usually brings out the best in me, so fingers crossed. I should arrive relaxed anyhow. Keeping with tradition, I’ll be spending this week at the Kclub in preparation.