IO 11

This was my sixth Irish Open and having done nothing in the event since 2007 I was determined to make some sort of run. In the end I finished 36th for €7,500, disappointing in the end, but definitely a decent showing.

The pre tournament preparation involved three days in the wonderful surroundings of the kclub. The first two days it was the usual suspects; Marty, Julian and Paul Spillane. Yet again Smyth showed his philanthropic side by covering all our expenses for the coming weekend with his loses on the course.

Thursdays outing was organised and bankrolled by Mr Liam Flood; thanks for the inclusion Liam. The four-ball I played in consisted of myself and three legends of the game, Bellagio Tournament Director Jack McCelland, WSOP finalist George McKeever and Mayo's finest Danny McHugh.

I was a great honor to spend an afternoon with such greats of the game. I do sometimes worry about Marty, he managed to lose money to 13 of the 20 players in the group; obviously the other six were unlucky he hadn't a bet with them.

After some grub in the Kclub it was onto the Burlington and straight to bed. Hmm not, the best laid plans and all that, I did manage to get to bed by six though.

My starting table was christened the table of death on the reporting sites. I'd imagine we killed off a few viewers from the live stream anyway for the two levels we featured. The table included Johney Weaffer, Doke, Reesy, Mark Spellman, dutch sensation Paul Berande.

Every chip won on this table was like drawing blood, except for the 5k I spewed to John early that is. No idea what I was at in the hand but It had me on the back foot for the rest of the day.

At one stage on the feature table I dropped to 10k and remember thinking thank God they increased the starting stack to 20k this year. I was really just hanging in most of the day until I won a race with Queens in the second last level.

I ended the day on 30k, a bit behind the average but 30 bigs going back was fine by me. My only goal going into the day was to be still in at the end. I've been having a lot of good day two's in recent tournaments and was hoping for another.

The first level on day 2 I added about 15k to my stack, then early in the next level I caught a beauty of a hand that got me right into the tournament.

Jason Tompkins min raised the cut off and the button called, I decided to see a flop with 6d3d giving Jason some verbals " blame the button when smash this flop". I think 334 flop could be considered smashing it. I checked, Jason raised 4400 and button flatted, I bumped it up to 13,400. Jason got out of the way but the button shoved 99 covering me.

This put me on about 95k and I was able to add to this steadily for the next 5-6 hours without setback until this table broke.

I had 170k ish when I moved to my new table. On my left on this table were two very aggro well stacked players, eventual finalist Finn Aleksi Savala and a good young English Lag. Whit most opens getting three and four bet I figured tightening my opening range optimal.

I added a handy 50k to my stack when a player shoved AJ and I woke up with the Aces. Then added another fifty when I opened 88 to 13,500, the English lad flatted and the Finn bumped it to 27,500. I felt it a good spot to 4-bet and my raise to 65k took it down.

We were on the bubble at this stage and I was about to pull my move of the tournament. David O'Neill, the tournament director announced over the mike while standing behind me that the sponsors would be giving the 65th place finisher free entry into next years event.

I said, " God bless Paddypowers", Dave obviously though this was a nice statement and asked would I say it over the mike. Always happy to oblige I got my hands on the mike and proceeded to say, " I play on boylepoker.com, you should to". A few choice words followed from Dave, which are unrepeatable here.

With the bubble broke the chips started flying in as usual. I raised 77 in early and a player called in the big. This gent had been all in numerous times and his modus was to flat and shove the flop. Sure enough he shoved the k55 flop, it's 100k to call but I feel I'm ahead of his shoving range here.

I tanked for a good while and my gut was telling me he had a small pair. I gave it some verbals but made a mistake, I said, " I have pocket tens and think I'm good here". His face visible dropped and I called to be shown 99. Why I didn't say I held eights is beyond me.

This was a very important pot to get wrong, It meant coming back for day three with a grinding stack of 180k and thirty bigs instead of a possible 380k stack with a lot more manoeuvring room.

My starting table for day three had Tureniec and Earmes and another few big stacks. I wasn't going to be opening to light but felt I could hopefully get a few chips 4-bet shoving as there was bound to be a lot of levelling going on. As it turned out the table broke after one level and I left with what I had started.

My new table looked light on chips and a lot easier, I had direct position on the Finnish player from the night before and relative stacks meant I was a threat to the players with position on me.

I was quiet comfortable for a level on this table and really felt if it didn't break I could of manoeuvred my way to the last two tables easily enough. That was until the last hand before the break.

Aleksi opened the SB and I decided to take a flop in position with Kh Jh, and what a flop I got Kx 5h 3h. He leads and I bump it up, which he flats. Ac on the turn went check/check and I called a bet on a blank river to be showed A2os. It was a bit of a sicken-er and left me with 8 bigs, which I shoved blind when folded to me in the cut off just after the break. I was racing J6os v the buttons A9 and although I hit the front on the turn the river sent me to the rail.

I hung around railing Marty and then Jude but wasn't in any mode for celebrating and headed home upon the two lads exiting.

I was happy to get some sort of run on reflection, I feel I played well on the whole and that's all I can do really. I think it was the best Irish Open I've played, the increase in starting stack made a huge difference and I think It showed with the quality of field left in on day three.

From what I saw Niall Smyth put in a fantastic performance and was a deserved winner. We needed to keep the title at home for the first time in four years so big well done to Niall for achieving this.

Looking towards the Irish Open

It's nearing the big one! The Irish Open once again becomes the focus for every poker player in the country. The tournament quiet simply dwarfs everything else that plays out over the year here.

An idea of the magnitude can be gleaned from the fact that a fifth place finish will guarantee a bigger payday then winning the next biggest tournament in Ireland for the year.

I first played the Open in 2006 when it was a bit a benchmark year, as this is when the game really exploded in Ireland.

I had won a one-seat satellite in Waterford and headed for Dublin full of naive confidence. I had only played a couple of ranking events at this stage and was totally blown away by the whole set up when I arrived at Jury's Inn for the event.

No such thing as a super satellite the previous day back then, we had a €400 re-buy with 2000 chips per buy-in and 4000 for the top up. I thought it better for my pocket to give up after four buy-ins and just hit the bar, having not reached the add-on.

My starting table the next day included Mike Caro, Marty Smyth, Rob Young, Simon Trumper and Steve Jelinek. Caro had been brought over by the sponsors as a "star" player and a hand I was involved with him in level two, is still the weirdest I have ever played.

With the blinds 50/100, three players including Caro on the button limped into my big blind, I checked my option holding Q7. The Q77 flop looked very nice and I checked, as did the next two players.

At this stage I'm thinking to myself, the best way to extract a thousand or two in chips when Mike suddenly announces all-in. It took a few seconds to register what had happened but sure enough he moved his 8,600 stack into the middle to win a pot of 400.

I obviously called and Mike turned up A2 off suit, for no draw no pair. Caro is known as the mad genius of poker and was clearly operating on a different planet to the rest of us mere mortals with this advanced play. It went way over my head anyway.

I remember accumulating a lovely stack for the next few hours, but I was to become unstuck before the end of play. Eventual sixth Paul Daly was moved to my table and we played a monster pot with all the chips going in on the turn, where my set of Jacks looked very healthy until the King on the river matched the two he held.

The beat haunted me for months afterwards, but a lasting addiction with the tournament had been formed.

The 2011 Irish Open will be held in the Burlington Hotel from the 21st to the 24th of April; one time.

No cigar in Castlebar

The Breaffy House Hotel, Castlebar, was the venue for the inaugural Boylepoker sponsored Western Open.

It's the type of event that epitomises every thing that's good about Irish poker. A well-run, excellently structured main event, plenty of support events, crazy cash action and a 24-hour bar, all in a self-contained arena.

I really like these types of games coming to new regions. They're generally very well supported by the natives and give regulars who travel the country from that area a well deserved break from pounding the road to the more familiar destinations.

A knock-on bonus is that for probably 50% of the field it's their first taste of a major poker festival and a lot of these will subsequently travel to other events in the future.

Martin Silk was our host and as is Silky's character, you'd expect something a little different; he didn't disappoint. On the Thursday night, celebrity boxing brought the crowds out in force.

The heavyweight bout between Fintan Gavin and Liam from Celtic Poker was the main attraction. Fintan never ceases to amaze and I was shocked to see some serious boxing skills on show in the match; check it out on Youtube.

The other quirk was taking 10% from the prize pool and splitting it between the chip-leaders on day one and two. I'm all for innovation and trying new things but I'm not a fan of this one. Giving ten times the buy-in twice, was too much and while everything was transparent here, I think it can lead to possible skullduggery if it became the norm.

My tournament went well enough. After scrapping through day one with less then the starting stack, I managed a good day two, getting my humble 13k to a respectable 220k by the time the bubble broke and we finished for the day.

There was 24 returned for day three and I made the final eight with about average. With five left I still had average chips but walked into a few hands here and exited for €3,000. A little disappointing to only get three as there was close to €50,000 still in the pot when five of us remained.

I went out pushing 14 blinds over a cut off raise, but the big blind and eventual winner Aiden Culllinane, woke up with a hand. I had played with Aiden for the three days and there was a Jamie Gold type of inevitability about his march to the title.

All in all, an enjoyable weekend with a satisfactory showing in the tournament so I can't complain. Well done to Aiden and everyone else who cashed and everyone involved in putting the festival together.

Some Superbowl Run Good

I had some pretty funny run good during the superbowl. Its half time and there four of us in a group conversation on msn (John O'Shea, Marty Smyth and Paul Spillane), I'm fairly drunk and that lads are saying the under line at 54.5 looks good at 10/11.

I decide to have €330/300 for an interest, I then think this isn't enough and go in for another €770. I relay my bet to the lads and John asks can I get 1100 on for him as he can’t get on where he is at the moment. I do it and cut n paste the bet receipt in to msn. Marty cops that I've actually done the overs by mistake.

I get straight onto live chat to try reverse the bet, its taking time and when the operator gets back to me; I've actually done the €770 on the overs as-well by mistake. I decide now this is a total mess and I'll just take the hit myself so I inform John the bet is cancelled and tell the live chat to just leave the bets stand.

Now I'm left with 1440 net on the overs line, which I don't want. An early second half Steelers touchdown then changes the line to 57.5. Eureka, I have another 1440 on the unders at 5/6 which means I'm out for a tiny loss and freerolling 55-57 pts for €2,500. That field goal two minutes from the full time to bring the total points to 56 pts was very sweet indeed.

European Deepstack Poker Championship

The fourth installment of the European Deepstack Poker Championship took place in Dublin at the weekend.

I've always felt the structure for this one a bit gimmicky, you get a mass of big-blinds on day one to mess around with, but the subsequent days play out like any other tournament.

However, you can't argue with a turnout of 740 players, of which amazingly only about 15% were Irish.

The majority of overseas visitors to the event were French, with a healthy sprinkling of Danish, Belgium and Germans. I really don't understand the bad press French players get, I always enjoy playing with them as there generally funny, cordial and make for a very active table dynamic.

I played Day 1A, which as it turned out was good idea. The day ones were a gruelling fourteen hours, so a day's rest in-between was a benefit.

The day went well over-all. I started fast, dropped a bit, got lucky to cooler Dennis O'Kane and played a good last level to finish on 110k, which was average.

There was one rather odd occurrence on my first table.

I was chatting away and a chap standing behind me, whom had been talking to the player sitting beside me, asks me am I from Waterford? I reply, 'I am', thinking he's picked up on my accent.

He then proceeds to ask me do I know Nicky Power and was he playing today. Now I'm a little taken aback by this but I tell him "He is and I think he's on table two", (I'm sitting at table two). The gent proceeds to tell me that he knows Nicky well and must go over and have a chat with him. It was all rather confusing.

The first two levels of day two were quiet. I then lost 66% of my chips in an v flip leaving me rather short. Luckily I was able to double shortly after with v in a short corner and never looked back for the rest of the day.

In about a four-hour period I managed to get 90k to over 700k without ever having more then a small portion of my chips in at showdown.

Again, with about two levels left my table broke. The new table was a different proposition, with many big stacks held by very good players including the unstoppable Sean Prendiville.

We were approaching the bubble but it was a funny dynamic as the table was stacked and mostly by "players", so no-one was able to take control and abuse the bubble.

I finished the day on a healthy 640k, with the average 500k and 72 players remaining.

Going back for day three I felt I had a right shout at the title. Instead, I had one of those days where it just went against me.

It started brightly when I called a 150k shove with Jacks and got to over 800k but that was to be my peak.

I was bet off a few pots and lost two 40/60 for smallish showdowns. With the blinds rising, I was left with a shoving stack.

I hung in for two levels but just never found a hand to double and inevitably I eventually ran into a hand, when I shoved 10BBs with into .

So, out in 27th on a split pay bubble for €1425. It didn't feel like a lot for over two days hard work, but its good to play well and get a cash on my first outing of the year.

In general I think the Irish put in a good showing over the tournament, we had 33% of the field with thirty players left. It went a bit wrong for us from there on in, last men standing were Sean with another great performance to bubble the final table and Fergal Cawley who came sixth.

The Irishpokerboards forum live updates are getting better every event they cover. The lads are doing super work and certainly adding an enjoyable dimension to these events. They're covering these voluntary and deserve big thanks from us all for the fantastic service they provide.

Soft launch 2011

The Irish poker calendar used to kick off with a bang, but with the Irish Poker Championships and the Lakes of Killarney both moving from their traditional berth, it's a very quiet start to the year.

A new tournament I will be playing is the Irish Premier Poker Festival (I.P.P.F), with a buy-in of €250, and €50,000 guaranteed, this looks like a decent game.

The festival is held at The Westgrove Hotel, Clane, County Kildare, from the 20th to 23rd of January. A smashing venue and a full programme of support events ensure a great weekend of poker.

I've been pottering away a good bit online for the first time in ages. I have been cashing in a lot of MTT's but no real joy as yet.

The Winter Promotion series of tournaments on Boylepoker seem to be going great. While the potential for overlay never materialised, there seems to be great value in the events and it just goes to show what can be achieved with a pro-active satellite schedule in place for the nightly guarantees.

The best run I got was 75th in Sunday's $200,000 guarantee losing a big flip v to exit. I'll definitely have another go at that one this Sunday.

2010 Reviewed

I've been blogging for four years now and each year I've done a yearly review. The previous ones were relatively successful and always included a few decent scores. This year's review reads basically; got knocked out, got knocked out, got knocked out etc etc...

From a personal point of view I really enjoyed myself in 2010. I enjoy the lifestyle and freedom poker has afforded me over the last five years and last year was no different.

The highlight of the year for me is always Vegas. The highlight for my ego was being on the cover of Cardplayer magazine, although the airbrushing was a bit iffy. I also started a monthly column in Bluff magazine, which I enjoy and seem to get good feedback from.

It was a great honour to represent Boylepoker.com for the year. I feel these days sponsorship from a site involves a lot more then turning up at a tournament and wearing a patch.

I'd like to think I have added value for Boyle's from a marketing position and hopefully was seen as a good ambassador for the site.

From a poker perspective, the first five months of the year I was worried if I'm honest. I couldn't seem to get anything going, exiting loads of events without getting above the starting stack. A lot of these tournaments I felt I was just making up the numbers and didn't think I was playing well.

The last seven months I think I played very well, accumulating stacks freely in the early to middle stages of events. However, I kept falling short in tournament after tournament. I've practically never bubbled over my poker years, so seeing myself outlast 75-85% of fields in event after event and then exiting was surprising to me.

I like to think I'm pragmatic about how I'm playing and couldn't see how I was doing anything wrong over that seven-month period. All I can put it down to honestly is variance catching up with me.

Win a race here and there, the main event day three springs to mind, and it could be very different looking back. Basically that's how small the margins are between a great or terrible year in tournament poker, a flip here and there.

When I did a 'well' on the old boards forum, (John is doing an excellent job on his one, at irishpokerboards.com ATM, check it out). Tony 'Flushdraw' Baitson asked the following question...

What is your poker expectation from 2008?

I answered, "Because the variance is so much in MTTs,i wouldn't be surprised if I didn't have any results that register for all of 2008 on the Hendonmob database. On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised to have ten results on it for the year. That's the nature/reality of being a live tournament player".

When I did my poker accounts at the end of the year it showed around €20,000 in profit. The only reason it was in profit was Boylepoker.com were picking up the tab for most of my tournament entries.

As my poker expenses over the year would have been close enough to €20k. The bottom line is a bad losing year relative to my buy-ins, but not on my pocket.

This isn't the first time I've had a losing year playing live MTT's, 2006 was similar but well offset back then by online profits.

The past two years I'm more of a recreational online player, playing just some of the big Sunday tournaments if I'm at home, or the odd tournament during the week. I did have a decent enough year punting golf, which always helps.

Looking towards 2011, I'm confident, if I keep playing like I have since June, it's only a matter of time before I click again. I do intend to play more online over the coming year.

I've never been much of an online MTT grinder but my intentions are to get stuck into them this year and see how it goes.

I kind of fell out of love with playing online, but I can feel a real zest for playing building in me recently. I even bought a new desktop and installed hold'em manager this week, in preparation.

Anyway, I hope people have enjoyed reading the blog for the year gone. Have a great 2011.