UKIPT Cork & Senior Moments

I was regged for day one A of the UKIPT Cork, which would mean a free day Friday if I managed to make day two. I decided commuting was my best option as stars had monopolised the hotel and a free day spent in Cork means a hangover for day two anyway.

I should of known it wasn't going to be my weekend when on the Thursday morning I put two Weetabix in an ashtray for breakfast; my first senior moment of the weekend.

I felt this was always going to be a sell out and a capacity 602 souls ponied up the buy in for the inaugural Cork leg of the tour, 320 played day one A.

I had a nice steady starting table and was still on my starting stack into level five when things got a bit busy. I was on the wrong side of a set over set incident early in the level and dropped to 6k; before the level finished I was playing forty.

My upward spiral continued for the next five levels and over a few table breaks until level ten when I came unstuck.

Playing a little over 70 bigs I called a 3-bet out of position with AsQs. When I checked raised the Js10c8c flop pot sized c-bet, I was committed. The two red kings my opponent held left me with 37% equity which was ok by me, I was dreading AcKc which would of been much worse.

I was left with 6 bigs after the hand and hung in for about an hour eventually losing a 25 big race in the last level of the day to eventual forth, young Limerick player, Jamie Flynn. I had played with Jamie before at a Macau festival and he has an impressive game and is one to watch out for in the future.

I still had a lot of interest in the event as I had taken percentages of about ten players ranging from 10% to 50%. Thankfully this didn't go unrewarded, I managed to recoup €70 as one of my 10% had a min cash.

I stayed at home- played golf Friday- and returned Saturday for the €330 side event. I was toying with playing the high roller event but Nick Newport told me not to as there wasn't enough money for winning it.

This turned out to be good advice as I played like a numpty in the 300 game. I went out having my second senior moment of the weekend. My 5 bet shove might not seem terrible on the face of it, as it was small blind verses button. In reality it was horrid, the chance my opponent was betting light was about the same as bumping into Elvis in Tesco’s.

My other moment over the weekend involved golf punting. The last time they ran the Volvo Matchplay was 2009 and it was by far my worst losing week on golf ever. After that event I have steered clear of matchplay events,

With this in mind I proceeded to have my biggest pre tournament outright bet of the year on Lee Westwood. Westy was on fire and finished his two group matches in 27 holes total. In fact he was -19 for 45 holes in the tournament after his match with Poulter Saturday morning.

I'm sure this was of great solace to him on the flight home that afternoon; it wasn't much consolation for me. Fuelled by a deep hatred for Poulter I was going to get him for Lee. I proceeded to martingale against him for the rest of the event. There was only ever going to be one outcome- I'm not backing matchplay anymore.

The JP Masters

While the Irish Open is a wonderful event and I wouldn't swap it for all the EPTea's in China; but it does bleed the Irish poker economy.

With Easter falling so late this year, we poker players had just eight days to dust off our Open hangovers and head to the Ballsbridge Inn for the fourth instalment of the JP Masters. Unfortunately many never made it!

It was a very disappointing. 175 players turned out for the main event with all the side events suffering too.

I guess with a congested calendar something had to give, it's such a pity it was the turnout for this fantastic event.

Quite simply JP McCann runs the best show in the country and his tournaments need and deserve to be supported better then this.

The tournament itself was a classic with many of the country's top players fighting out the latter stages.

I cruised through Day 1 with a lovely stack but came a cropper early in Day 2, losing a massive pot to eventual winner, Tony 'The Pirate' Rafter.

Mark McDonell had amassed a huge stack and looked to be unstoppable until the poker Gods decided he was, well, stoppable.

A series of beats saw Mark eventually finish just short of the final table but it really is just a matter of time for this guy.

The class of the final eight was testament to the fantastic structure and Tony can take great satisfaction for seeing off that lot.

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.