Never made it to Galway in the end between one thing and another. Pity really as €4500 added to a €350 entry event is phenomenal value. Fintan deserves great credit for these value added tournaments they have been running lately. Good to see my Bud Derek pick up one of the value added packages for Killarney. The Killarney game will definitely be one of the highlights of the year, with the €250,000 guarantee for a €500 buy in. I can see a field of 800 runners for that event.
Also great to see my good friend Gavin 'valor' Kelly cash in the sixhanded event at the WSOP. Gavin has a fairly hectic schedule of tournaments planned for the coming month so that good start should be a nice confidence boaster. I wouldn't be surprised to see him hit a huge score.
I was just watching some of the Irish Open 2008 on youtube and about 4 minutes in the segment below the presenter Laure Woods says something like "were 400 down but we still have some of the worlds best still in the tournament" followed by a montage of footage of some of the worlds best :-). These include Brunson, DeWolfe, Parky, me and Tony Cascarino. Obviously whoever put that together knew there poker players.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Sporting Festival
Gamblers are peculiar creatures when it comes to superstitions. You see us believe in some strange rituals or behave in some odd ways to secure the affections of lady luck. Weather its turning up one cigarette in a box or carrying a lucky charm we believe these silly manerisms will enhance our chances of winning, while on the other side there's bad luck to be had from walking under a ladder, black cat crossing your path ect. Then there's the dreaded jinx, there's a guy whom anybody from Waterford who ever backed a horse will remember called Eddie Batt. Some gamblers wouldn't have a punt on a day they saw Eddie while most of us just did our bollix anyway and put it down to the fact that we were unfortunate enough to have bumped into him.
When I started playing poker I had this stupid superstition shit going on in my head all the time; I couldn't help it, it's how gamblers are. So I'd sit down to play and everything would be fine until that bitch of a dealer who always badbeats me comes to the table or Jasper the crow sits next to me or I get dealt JJ' I bloody hate JJ it my unlucky hand; you get my drift. Now I like to think I'm a fairly rational person and after a short time playing I realised that letting this stuff affect my disposition at the table was ridicules. After a while that dealer wasn't such a cow and wasn't deliberately putting those beats on me and I won the odd time with Jasper on the table and with JJ. Soon such nonsense would never enter my head again. Hmmm nearly, theres two things that I still have a bit of a bad luck cloud about that I never managed to shake, these are my jinx's my Eddie Batt ( well I am a dopey gambler after all ). The first is Items of clothing, If I notice that I'm wearing something that I never seem to get a result in then that item is disregarded and added to the heap of textiles never to be worn again in my spare room. The second superstition that affects me is venues/places that i feel I run bad in of which there are two, the sporting emporium and Galway.
My last visit to the SE for a festival main event ended abruptly when I got it in with a set of aces on the turn verses a set of fives. I've played about a dozen SATTs in the place over the last three years and never been successful, while over all I'd have over a 30% strike rate in live SATTS. So if I'm honest I wasn't that hopeful going into the weekends €1100 buy in.
I think everyone more or less knew that the field wouldn't be large and the 49 runners was about what was expected. Looking around at the starting tables it was obvious that there wasn't much dead money in the field and most of the better heads of the live scene in Ireland were in attendance.
I hit some smashing hands in the tournament, flopping three sets and a nut flush. Unfortunately I didn't get paid on any off them. I had about 20k at the end of level three and my stack stayed around this mark for the next two levels. John the card room manager was very impressed that I was still in at the end of level five However two hands ended my tournament abruptly in the sixth and final level of day one. First losing 8k to badbeatjoe calling his 6 high flush draw push with top pair and then losing my remaining chips close to the end of play in a 25k pot getting it in on turn holding AA on a KXXX board Vs Muldoon's KQ, K river lolmickmuldoonaments. Played the €250 event but it was a bit of a non event and eventually donked out badly in level 7 having never gotten anything going. Roll on Galway next week for the WSOP SATT.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Brief update
Haven't been updating much as simply there's not been much to update on. I have been playing a fair bit live locally the last few week's, just small games but have been winning a few tournaments. My online play is non existent ATM just limited to the very odd MTT when at home watching TV.
Over the coming weeks there's the sporting emporium festival with a €1,000 main event and the Waterford open and I'll play both. The SE game doesn't look like it's gonna get good numbers about 50 or so I'd imagine and while playing a multi day game in a Dublin casino isn't my ideal tournament I've decided to give it a go. I think I'll probably just travel up and down each day as play wont start until 7 each evening. There's also a WSOP SATT in Galway with $7000 added which is good value for a €350 FO so I think I'll travel up for that the following week.
Over the coming weeks there's the sporting emporium festival with a €1,000 main event and the Waterford open and I'll play both. The SE game doesn't look like it's gonna get good numbers about 50 or so I'd imagine and while playing a multi day game in a Dublin casino isn't my ideal tournament I've decided to give it a go. I think I'll probably just travel up and down each day as play wont start until 7 each evening. There's also a WSOP SATT in Galway with $7000 added which is good value for a €350 FO so I think I'll travel up for that the following week.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
JPs Irish Masters
I generally don't enter any tournament these days with a preset strategy but this time I had. I knew there would be plenty dead chips in this one and with a 90 minute clock for day two my strategy was simple; get to day two with a stack anywhere near the average. I figured I could achieve my goal by just playing small pots and playing very tight and thats what I did.
My first table had a mix of player standards with one particularly bad player. I got away from a few big hands cheaply getting AA busted and losing the minimum with 108 on an A88 flop. Table two saw me hit a 7810 flop holding 77 but the turn 8 and river 10 meant I lost a few here. I did pick up a nice pot from Damo Kavanagh after he limped the button with QQ and I turned a wheel. My third table of the day was aggressive enough and had Micheal Trinby and Shane aka Phantom lord from boards on it. I just coasted to the end of the day playing tight ABC stuff winding up with a 45,000 stack which was just ahead of the average with 77 of the 188 starters left in.
There was a redraw for day two and I was happy to see the table loaded with chips, there was over twice the average for a table on this one which meant a real chance of getting a final table stack. Rob Taylor seated on my direct left wasn't the best seat draw but from experience playing with Rob we don't get to involved with each other that much as we generally know there's easier chips to be had at most tables. The biggest pot I played here was against a lad from Dundalk where I raise AQ got two callers- bet the flop A J X, and was raised from the button. I was about to give it up as I wasn't ahead of a whole lot but decided to have a look at him and he looked very weak. When i saw his jaw drop when I stated " you know I'm holding AK here " I was convinced I was looking at AQ or A10 so went with it and re raised enough to cover his stack which took the pot.
You see some odd things at the tables but what happened soon after was unprecedented for me. Mick Muldoon was nursing a shortstack and playing like a rock which in itself is odd. He gets a walk in the bigbling and turns AA. It's still the topic of conversation when the dealer is shuffling the cards on Micks bigbling on the next orbit. I comment wouldn't it be really funny if he got another walk and had AA again. Amazingly its folded to him again; having not looked at his hand he turns the first card an A and sure enough the second matched it; sick stuff.
By the Dinner break were down to four tables. The dinner break itself caused a few problems. It was a finger buffet but the food was impossible to get at with what looked like the Munster front row blocking the grub. Time to think outside the box, I know Johnney Weaffer is very positionally aware at dinner time and was probably camped outside the kitchen for a while waiting for the grub to show so i decided to look for him. Sure enough I spotted him towards the end of the room with half the cocktail sausages in play and a nice stack of mini pizzas.
Back after the munch I was playing about 60k which was about 55% of the average at this stage but 45 big blinds which is testament to how good the structure was. My next table was the last one and had an changing lineup for the six hours or so I played on it. Some of the noticeables included Paul Smallwood, Emmett Gough, Stephen Murphy, Damien Kavanagh, Dara O’Kearney, Phil Baker and BigMick from boards. With three tables left I limp the button with KJ and four take a flop of Jc 9c 6x . Folded to me and I bet 6k and Bigmick is the only caller in the cutoff, turn is a non club three and I bet 13k after Mick checked; he moves in for a total of 30k and I'm never folding for 17k with 70 in the middle. Luckily enough his Ac3c misses.
The bubble is bust when Phil Baker negotiates payment for the 19th player. This was good business on Phil's behalf as I cooler him shortly afterwards with AQ on a Q33 flop Vs his KQ. I peak for the tournament at about 260k around this time but that was as good as it got. I hit a really bad run of cards and the guy on my direct left was snapping off a lot of my raises. He was very unorthodox opening pots for 25k with the blinds 2k4k and such. My stack dropped to about 150k through having raises snapped off and calling a few raises with small/mid pairs set mining. This is usually not an option at this stage of a tournament and I could of played those pairs a bit more aggressively but the way the table was playing and with so many bigblinds I felt that fit or fold the flop was my best option; probably a bit weak I know.
We played 11 handed for about 90 minutes I think and I was so dead I was just waiting for one player to go and get back to the final table the next day. It was twelve hours into the day and I was having trouble with the table dynamic. Four of the six players played together all the time which lead to some play that you usually wouldn't see at this stage of a tournament like this and I was finding it hard to get to grips with TBH. I then pick up KK on the button and pick up the blinds :-(, it was the third time I had KK over the day with no action. The next orbit I get AKos in the cut off and the guy who I felt was overly aggro towards me re pops I figure my AK is huge against his range and cant get all my chips into the pot fast enough, but his KK holds and I'm out in 11th for €1750. Disappointing as I was eyeing up the €40k first prize as a good fund for Vegas.
Ultimately another good showing but missing out on the real cash. This has been the story for me since last years Irish open. I was going through my results since then and in 12 tournament of a €500+ buyin with > 100 runners I have finished 10th/545 11th/188 12th/288 and 13th/136. This looks like the record of someone just getting into the money short stacked but in fact in all those tournaments with 16 players remaining I had well above average stacks. I firmly of the opinion these days all you can do is keep putting yourself in position to run well in the latter stages. The long run is so long in live mtts that while you can have an advantage because of your skill the main factor is running good late. If you can get deep more then others then that's the secret as eventually things will run your way. Ironically I played a small 44 player game in the local club on wednesday night, get an average stack with 16 left and run like god to the finish.
Finally well done to all that cashed esp Paul, Shane, Emmet and Dara, I met some great people over the weekend and cant say enough good things about the organisation of the festival and the staff; well done to JP and all involved.
My first table had a mix of player standards with one particularly bad player. I got away from a few big hands cheaply getting AA busted and losing the minimum with 108 on an A88 flop. Table two saw me hit a 7810 flop holding 77 but the turn 8 and river 10 meant I lost a few here. I did pick up a nice pot from Damo Kavanagh after he limped the button with QQ and I turned a wheel. My third table of the day was aggressive enough and had Micheal Trinby and Shane aka Phantom lord from boards on it. I just coasted to the end of the day playing tight ABC stuff winding up with a 45,000 stack which was just ahead of the average with 77 of the 188 starters left in.
There was a redraw for day two and I was happy to see the table loaded with chips, there was over twice the average for a table on this one which meant a real chance of getting a final table stack. Rob Taylor seated on my direct left wasn't the best seat draw but from experience playing with Rob we don't get to involved with each other that much as we generally know there's easier chips to be had at most tables. The biggest pot I played here was against a lad from Dundalk where I raise AQ got two callers- bet the flop A J X, and was raised from the button. I was about to give it up as I wasn't ahead of a whole lot but decided to have a look at him and he looked very weak. When i saw his jaw drop when I stated " you know I'm holding AK here " I was convinced I was looking at AQ or A10 so went with it and re raised enough to cover his stack which took the pot.
You see some odd things at the tables but what happened soon after was unprecedented for me. Mick Muldoon was nursing a shortstack and playing like a rock which in itself is odd. He gets a walk in the bigbling and turns AA. It's still the topic of conversation when the dealer is shuffling the cards on Micks bigbling on the next orbit. I comment wouldn't it be really funny if he got another walk and had AA again. Amazingly its folded to him again; having not looked at his hand he turns the first card an A and sure enough the second matched it; sick stuff.
By the Dinner break were down to four tables. The dinner break itself caused a few problems. It was a finger buffet but the food was impossible to get at with what looked like the Munster front row blocking the grub. Time to think outside the box, I know Johnney Weaffer is very positionally aware at dinner time and was probably camped outside the kitchen for a while waiting for the grub to show so i decided to look for him. Sure enough I spotted him towards the end of the room with half the cocktail sausages in play and a nice stack of mini pizzas.
Back after the munch I was playing about 60k which was about 55% of the average at this stage but 45 big blinds which is testament to how good the structure was. My next table was the last one and had an changing lineup for the six hours or so I played on it. Some of the noticeables included Paul Smallwood, Emmett Gough, Stephen Murphy, Damien Kavanagh, Dara O’Kearney, Phil Baker and BigMick from boards. With three tables left I limp the button with KJ and four take a flop of Jc 9c 6x . Folded to me and I bet 6k and Bigmick is the only caller in the cutoff, turn is a non club three and I bet 13k after Mick checked; he moves in for a total of 30k and I'm never folding for 17k with 70 in the middle. Luckily enough his Ac3c misses.
The bubble is bust when Phil Baker negotiates payment for the 19th player. This was good business on Phil's behalf as I cooler him shortly afterwards with AQ on a Q33 flop Vs his KQ. I peak for the tournament at about 260k around this time but that was as good as it got. I hit a really bad run of cards and the guy on my direct left was snapping off a lot of my raises. He was very unorthodox opening pots for 25k with the blinds 2k4k and such. My stack dropped to about 150k through having raises snapped off and calling a few raises with small/mid pairs set mining. This is usually not an option at this stage of a tournament and I could of played those pairs a bit more aggressively but the way the table was playing and with so many bigblinds I felt that fit or fold the flop was my best option; probably a bit weak I know.
We played 11 handed for about 90 minutes I think and I was so dead I was just waiting for one player to go and get back to the final table the next day. It was twelve hours into the day and I was having trouble with the table dynamic. Four of the six players played together all the time which lead to some play that you usually wouldn't see at this stage of a tournament like this and I was finding it hard to get to grips with TBH. I then pick up KK on the button and pick up the blinds :-(, it was the third time I had KK over the day with no action. The next orbit I get AKos in the cut off and the guy who I felt was overly aggro towards me re pops I figure my AK is huge against his range and cant get all my chips into the pot fast enough, but his KK holds and I'm out in 11th for €1750. Disappointing as I was eyeing up the €40k first prize as a good fund for Vegas.
Ultimately another good showing but missing out on the real cash. This has been the story for me since last years Irish open. I was going through my results since then and in 12 tournament of a €500+ buyin with > 100 runners I have finished 10th/545 11th/188 12th/288 and 13th/136. This looks like the record of someone just getting into the money short stacked but in fact in all those tournaments with 16 players remaining I had well above average stacks. I firmly of the opinion these days all you can do is keep putting yourself in position to run well in the latter stages. The long run is so long in live mtts that while you can have an advantage because of your skill the main factor is running good late. If you can get deep more then others then that's the secret as eventually things will run your way. Ironically I played a small 44 player game in the local club on wednesday night, get an average stack with 16 left and run like god to the finish.
Finally well done to all that cashed esp Paul, Shane, Emmet and Dara, I met some great people over the weekend and cant say enough good things about the organisation of the festival and the staff; well done to JP and all involved.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Meh
I wanted to never go down a moaning route for the blog, people whinging about bad runs never appealed to me and I assume most people are the same but I guess I should be balanced and not just post the good stuff. I made a post last week that I deleted the next day saying I needed a fairly long break from the game but it was an in the moment, feeling sorry for myself on a loosing run thing. Bad runs aren't the best for the ego and unless you can be objective a person can start wallowing in self pity, a good kick up the hole is needed now and then. The first four months of this year have been my worst run since I started playing and while my poker losses for the period are extremely small the life rake and ones vices reduce the bankroll over that long a stretch. I don't think I'm gonna make Vegas this year barring a live touch between now and mid June as I'm just not rolled for it now.
I haven't the heart for playing stts online. I really tried to motivate myself to do so in my last post but it's just not happening. I knew writing that post my heart wasn't in it and I was trying to kid myself into grinding a few thousand of them. Something Hectorjelly posted on boards a while ago has really stuck in my head; basically that the constant battle with the bubble wore him down eventually playing stts and he also just had enough playing no decision poker.
I always treated online as a kind of basic salary and have always known that my talent/skill is live tournaments. I have no doubt in my mind that I will always be a winner in them but because of the variance in live tournaments it is impossible to be comfortable/secure without a huge win or sponsorship. Thus anyone whose only income comes from poker must have a constant cash flow coming from the Internet.
I think I'm gonna try playing 6 handed omaha online, start small and try move up through the levels. I always knew stts were never a long term solution which I emphasised in my well on boards.ie on a number of occasions. I was considering playing NLH ring games last October and was discussing it with Valor who is a smart guy. He reckoned that if he was in my shoes omaha would be the better choice for a number reasons, So I think thats what I'll try. I played about 60k omaha hands at 1/2 over a year ago and was a small winner but that was full ring and I was just nut-peddling for a rake race. So its basically starting a new game from scratch which I hope gets the juices flowing as I feel pretty stale ATM.
On the live front I'm looking forward to JP's masters this weekend. I've been playing a good bit live the last three weeks in smaller events and I'm happy enough with how I'm playing. This structure is as good as it gets and hopefully I can gather a few chips and get a decent run at it.
PS still shit at golf, getting better with this computer stuff though took me 8 months to learn how to put a link in the blog, now I can even put videos in
I haven't the heart for playing stts online. I really tried to motivate myself to do so in my last post but it's just not happening. I knew writing that post my heart wasn't in it and I was trying to kid myself into grinding a few thousand of them. Something Hectorjelly posted on boards a while ago has really stuck in my head; basically that the constant battle with the bubble wore him down eventually playing stts and he also just had enough playing no decision poker.
I always treated online as a kind of basic salary and have always known that my talent/skill is live tournaments. I have no doubt in my mind that I will always be a winner in them but because of the variance in live tournaments it is impossible to be comfortable/secure without a huge win or sponsorship. Thus anyone whose only income comes from poker must have a constant cash flow coming from the Internet.
I think I'm gonna try playing 6 handed omaha online, start small and try move up through the levels. I always knew stts were never a long term solution which I emphasised in my well on boards.ie on a number of occasions. I was considering playing NLH ring games last October and was discussing it with Valor who is a smart guy. He reckoned that if he was in my shoes omaha would be the better choice for a number reasons, So I think thats what I'll try. I played about 60k omaha hands at 1/2 over a year ago and was a small winner but that was full ring and I was just nut-peddling for a rake race. So its basically starting a new game from scratch which I hope gets the juices flowing as I feel pretty stale ATM.
On the live front I'm looking forward to JP's masters this weekend. I've been playing a good bit live the last three weeks in smaller events and I'm happy enough with how I'm playing. This structure is as good as it gets and hopefully I can gather a few chips and get a decent run at it.
PS still shit at golf, getting better with this computer stuff though took me 8 months to learn how to put a link in the blog, now I can even put videos in
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Move along pls nothing to see here
Not a lot to really post on since the Irish open. I took a few days off and started thinking about Vegas. Last year I got my main event seat through a rakerace and while I didnt spot anything similar this year I don't think I could of went down that avenue again for the sake of my mental health.
After some thought I decided to grind a Vegas fund from stts; now I'll play a few satellites and such along the way but devised a plan to cover Vegas if I don't win a main event package anyway. Its simple enough play between $160,000 and $200,000 worth of stt buyins and beat them by approximately 10% over a 10 week period. So my plan was to gather at least $23,000 for the trip, $7,000 of it from rakeback - What could be easier.
I got stuck in four days after the open with my new plan of a target amount of stts to play a day. In the past I've always found it to easy to leave a session when running bad so the daily target was to stop me noticing short term results. Anyhow I got stuck in and played my daily target of at-least 50 a day most days, about 5 hours play in total over three sessions; grand only problem is I'm running like a one legged man. I played about 700 stts for a 13 day period break even on the two sites I'm playing. It isn't great for the head not to be making any money but on the other hand I've had longer baron spells before but don't think the cards have ever treated me worse. In fact I don't think this swing can last and I take two positives from it; 1st I'm not losing, 2nd the standard. Now its generally accepted that the standard of online poker has improved much over the last year or so and all games are getting harder. Thankfully this doesn't seem to be the case outside of the big two (stars/tilt ) re stts so I take great solace from that.
Live poker was to be ditched for the period with the exception of the JPmasters and the Waterford open. However with cabin fever setting in I did venture out Thursday and Friday. Thursday was a WITstudent event run by bigslick with added money from bodog, only a €50 FO but with €3100 added by bodog to the live game and $5k for an online game it was definitely good value and good to see this type of value added event in Waterford. The fact that it was in a hotel with full bar and Bob and Caoimh were coming down from Cork for it made it a must. I went last hand before the first break when my flopped set of 4s got out-turned by 66 on a J104flop which I lead into, guess he was floating me; but had a good night anyhow.
Friday played a satt in blazing aces for JPs game, didn't really want to play the game and some chimp called Jakey busted me scalphunting with 62s after i raised pre with 1010 and he couldn't fold his 6 high draw on the flop. I only really played as I had posted on boards that the event should be supported as JP puts great effort into his tournaments and if truth be known was happy to get knocked out as I was feeling a bit burned out. I probably wont play live again until that game the first weekend in may. I urge anyone considering playing this not to miss it, 20,000 starting stack and all levels for a €750 event has the making of one of the highlights of the year in Irish poker and knowing JPs events no stone will be left unturned to make sure every player need will be met. Were really lucky to have promoters in this country like JP Bigslick and Connie who run events for this type of medium buy in that offer such great structures and it will only last if we the players support them.
I'll probably just play a few mtts tomorrow/Sunday , maybe a wsop satt and get stuck back into the stts on Monday, hope I run average coz that will do me; wish me luck. On the golf front I've changed my grip and hope this is the catalyst for massive improvement, Dannyboy your going to be so owned in May.
After some thought I decided to grind a Vegas fund from stts; now I'll play a few satellites and such along the way but devised a plan to cover Vegas if I don't win a main event package anyway. Its simple enough play between $160,000 and $200,000 worth of stt buyins and beat them by approximately 10% over a 10 week period. So my plan was to gather at least $23,000 for the trip, $7,000 of it from rakeback - What could be easier.
I got stuck in four days after the open with my new plan of a target amount of stts to play a day. In the past I've always found it to easy to leave a session when running bad so the daily target was to stop me noticing short term results. Anyhow I got stuck in and played my daily target of at-least 50 a day most days, about 5 hours play in total over three sessions; grand only problem is I'm running like a one legged man. I played about 700 stts for a 13 day period break even on the two sites I'm playing. It isn't great for the head not to be making any money but on the other hand I've had longer baron spells before but don't think the cards have ever treated me worse. In fact I don't think this swing can last and I take two positives from it; 1st I'm not losing, 2nd the standard. Now its generally accepted that the standard of online poker has improved much over the last year or so and all games are getting harder. Thankfully this doesn't seem to be the case outside of the big two (stars/tilt ) re stts so I take great solace from that.
Live poker was to be ditched for the period with the exception of the JPmasters and the Waterford open. However with cabin fever setting in I did venture out Thursday and Friday. Thursday was a WITstudent event run by bigslick with added money from bodog, only a €50 FO but with €3100 added by bodog to the live game and $5k for an online game it was definitely good value and good to see this type of value added event in Waterford. The fact that it was in a hotel with full bar and Bob and Caoimh were coming down from Cork for it made it a must. I went last hand before the first break when my flopped set of 4s got out-turned by 66 on a J104flop which I lead into, guess he was floating me; but had a good night anyhow.
Friday played a satt in blazing aces for JPs game, didn't really want to play the game and some chimp called Jakey busted me scalphunting with 62s after i raised pre with 1010 and he couldn't fold his 6 high draw on the flop. I only really played as I had posted on boards that the event should be supported as JP puts great effort into his tournaments and if truth be known was happy to get knocked out as I was feeling a bit burned out. I probably wont play live again until that game the first weekend in may. I urge anyone considering playing this not to miss it, 20,000 starting stack and all levels for a €750 event has the making of one of the highlights of the year in Irish poker and knowing JPs events no stone will be left unturned to make sure every player need will be met. Were really lucky to have promoters in this country like JP Bigslick and Connie who run events for this type of medium buy in that offer such great structures and it will only last if we the players support them.
I'll probably just play a few mtts tomorrow/Sunday , maybe a wsop satt and get stuck back into the stts on Monday, hope I run average coz that will do me; wish me luck. On the golf front I've changed my grip and hope this is the catalyst for massive improvement, Dannyboy your going to be so owned in May.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
IO 08
Last satellite attempt turned out to be a fun one. Very first hand I flop a set and get paid . Now the last live set I flopped was the in the sporting emporium game at the end of November and that got one outed so when I hit one here and it held I started thinking nice thoughts. The table was conservative to say the least; I had expected loads of scandies firing chips all over the place but in fact at least four on the table didn't even top up. Bracelet winner Alan Smurfit was on the table for a while and after he left former main event winner Noel Furlong joined it. I hadn't played with Furlong before but knew he had an erratic reputation however one of the hands he played has my head still spinning a bit. The blinds were 600/1200 and the BB had one BB behind, I raise the button to 3600 with Q7 Furlong calls and pushes on an 6h3h2h flop with a black 89!!
Anyhow ran good in the satt and although it was close at the end managed to get in. Think all the shorties like myself owe Noel Magner a big TY for his swashbuckling bubble buster with QQ.
Decided to go for day two as I fancied a few drinks after the satt; ended up having an unplanned few two many the Thursday night as well but hangovers never stopped me playing well before. So it was a sicknic that faced the starting table of;
Jesper Hougaard 27 1........... asicknic
David Craig 27 2
Roberto Merida 27 3
nicholas Howard 27 4
Frannie Hogan 27 5
Nicky Power 27 6
Conor Tate 27 7
Kevin O'Connell 27 8
Julian Thew 27 9
I could think of three easier to have lined up to your left but wasn't that bothered tbh. First three levels were fairly quiet, the biggest pot i played being for about 3k which i took down on the turn against Thew. My stack had just dropped from about 13k to 10k when the following hand occurred. I get 9s10s and complete after a button limp and we take a flop of 8s7c4s. I lead and Conor Tate raises from the BB; I push for another 7k and get called by Ks7s. Although I didn't expect to be called I wasn't gonna be in terrible shape against any-hand but Conner's was the worst possible hand to find calling leaving me with 36% equity I think. Thankfully a Jc on the river doubled me through. I wasn't happy to see the table break shortly afterwords.
My new table had Dave masters, Liam Flood on my right, scandi and french biggish stac
ks to Liam's that were raising every pot. This table was explosive with players busting every other hand. I lost any chance I had of mixing it up on the table when my stack dropped to 8k when I flopped a set of 4's on an 8c4c3h flop and called Liam down on the turn and river when the club hit the turn having re popped him on the flop. I think the hand was a cooler and tbh i did well not to go broke. The last two levels were a real struggle as there were 5/6 big stacks on the table and without seeing anything that resembled a decent hand I survived with 10275 chips for day two.
I was feeling really good despite my chip count and was confident I could get into the tournament but it wasn't to be. Having snapped off a raise and playing 13k its folded to me in the sb holding Q10, the bb seems tight to me so i decide to put him in for his 7k and after some deliberation he calls with 77. I'm happy its a race but although a KJ flop gives me hope I'm down to just over 6k. Three hands later I pick up KK, push and get called by AK an A high flop sends me to the rail. I wasn't disappointed as I has played as good as I could through the tournament and that's all one can really do in such a big field. That and hope the poker goods shine on you.
I still had a bit of an interest as I had swapped a few % with the Fox and Derek Murry and had done a deal with last years winner Marty where if either of us cashed big they paid the other into the WPT final which would of been nice but alas none made the end of the day. I was talking to Marty later and he told me how after he found out of my exit he said to his girlfriends mate that meant he had no shares left. He said she was very confused by this and he spent 15 minutes explaining about swapping shares to her until he realised she thought he was saying swapping showers lol.
As ever paddypower put on a super show the room being magically set up but while the city west is a splendid venue for me it just didn't reach the great atmosphere of the previous two years although I cant explain why. I was happy Neill Channing won in the end; I played with him a few times and always thought him one of the good guys. I was speaking to him just before the FT started and told him he deserved the win as he had worked hard for it. He knew I meant all the time he had spent over the years playing the game and replied with the look of a person totally confident " your right I do deserve it"
Anyhow ran good in the satt and although it was close at the end managed to get in. Think all the shorties like myself owe Noel Magner a big TY for his swashbuckling bubble buster with QQ.
Decided to go for day two as I fancied a few drinks after the satt; ended up having an unplanned few two many the Thursday night as well but hangovers never stopped me playing well before. So it was a sicknic that faced the starting table of;
Jesper Hougaard 27 1........... asicknic
David Craig 27 2
Roberto Merida 27 3
nicholas Howard 27 4
Frannie Hogan 27 5
Nicky Power 27 6
Conor Tate 27 7
Kevin O'Connell 27 8
Julian Thew 27 9
I could think of three easier to have lined up to your left but wasn't that bothered tbh. First three levels were fairly quiet, the biggest pot i played being for about 3k which i took down on the turn against Thew. My stack had just dropped from about 13k to 10k when the following hand occurred. I get 9s10s and complete after a button limp and we take a flop of 8s7c4s. I lead and Conor Tate raises from the BB; I push for another 7k and get called by Ks7s. Although I didn't expect to be called I wasn't gonna be in terrible shape against any-hand but Conner's was the worst possible hand to find calling leaving me with 36% equity I think. Thankfully a Jc on the river doubled me through. I wasn't happy to see the table break shortly afterwords.
My new table had Dave masters, Liam Flood on my right, scandi and french biggish stac
ks to Liam's that were raising every pot. This table was explosive with players busting every other hand. I lost any chance I had of mixing it up on the table when my stack dropped to 8k when I flopped a set of 4's on an 8c4c3h flop and called Liam down on the turn and river when the club hit the turn having re popped him on the flop. I think the hand was a cooler and tbh i did well not to go broke. The last two levels were a real struggle as there were 5/6 big stacks on the table and without seeing anything that resembled a decent hand I survived with 10275 chips for day two.I was feeling really good despite my chip count and was confident I could get into the tournament but it wasn't to be. Having snapped off a raise and playing 13k its folded to me in the sb holding Q10, the bb seems tight to me so i decide to put him in for his 7k and after some deliberation he calls with 77. I'm happy its a race but although a KJ flop gives me hope I'm down to just over 6k. Three hands later I pick up KK, push and get called by AK an A high flop sends me to the rail. I wasn't disappointed as I has played as good as I could through the tournament and that's all one can really do in such a big field. That and hope the poker goods shine on you.
I still had a bit of an interest as I had swapped a few % with the Fox and Derek Murry and had done a deal with last years winner Marty where if either of us cashed big they paid the other into the WPT final which would of been nice but alas none made the end of the day. I was talking to Marty later and he told me how after he found out of my exit he said to his girlfriends mate that meant he had no shares left. He said she was very confused by this and he spent 15 minutes explaining about swapping shares to her until he realised she thought he was saying swapping showers lol.
As ever paddypower put on a super show the room being magically set up but while the city west is a splendid venue for me it just didn't reach the great atmosphere of the previous two years although I cant explain why. I was happy Neill Channing won in the end; I played with him a few times and always thought him one of the good guys. I was speaking to him just before the FT started and told him he deserved the win as he had worked hard for it. He knew I meant all the time he had spent over the years playing the game and replied with the look of a person totally confident " your right I do deserve it"
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