Random

WTF is going on with the boards.ie poker forum the last few weeks. I've been a regular poster/reader of that forum for the last couple of years and always found it a great resource on a number of levels but jesus its been hard to open a tread the last few weeks. There's basically been a number of people pebble dashing every tread with complete drivel. It's probably the time of year where the forum is most inactive generally but these guys are harming the place I feel. There are some great posters and very helpful people who are only to happy to give there time to new players or help oldies like me with poker software ect. However I cant help feeling that many quality posters will be lost to the place if the current trend continues.

On the poker front having left it to late to go to Killarney, myself Pat and Colin Fardy headed to the Fitz for the €120+5 freezout. The Fitz has seemingly been killing the opposition in Dublin lately for bums on seats and maybe the reason can be seen in my last sentence. A €5 reg for a €120 buy in certainly got my attention. It seems they have a policy in place to get you through the door and keep the place busy. There's a lesson there for other operators, tournaments will always be a loss leader but they are a must; theres nothing more off putting to go to an empty venue and many never return. The Fitz is getting them in with player friendly tournaments and going by the eight or so cash tables running there last night there reaping the benefit.

I ran kings into aces in the €120 early enough. Played the round of each with 4 rebuys which was good craic. Having exited that bought into the 1/2 plh game for €300 and got it in with Ks6s V 10s 3s on a 5s4s7x flop against some danish guy. When he hit a 10 on the river I decided that was enough poker for the night so had a nice feed from the very reasonably priced menu on offer.

On the local scene Seamus who has run caesars palace in New Ross for the last few years has expanded to Waterford taking over the poker room in the Olympus casino. I went down for the opening on Friday night and it looks great and really enjoyed the game there and wish Seamus well as he is a top bloke. I don't know how Waterford can support two card rooms so interesting times for players down this way. I hardly ever play cash but know that the games locally have deteriorated over the last year and as cash is where these places make a bob I cant see both poker rooms being profitable but who knows.

Was just looking at recent wsop results on the HMD when a bracelet winner and second in the last few days caught my eye. They cashed 3rd and 19th in this event which I cashed in last year. Fingers crossed it's an omen for my good mate Mr Murry who finished 5th in the same event.

Common spot

The following question was asked in the comment's section of my last post and its something that all mtt players have to deal with one time or another. My answer is anything but definitive, just some rambling thoughts on the issue but relative enough for a post I think.


Could I ask how you deal with the massive swings in tournament poker? I'm on my worst run ever of 31 games without a cash. From the last 18 I have busted from 12 despite being at least a 70/30 fav.

It's really starting to get to me now and I'm thinking I could be a donkey!

Matthew I don't think anyone has the answer and everyone reacts differently to a bad run. I've played thousands of stt and these give you some idea of how bad you can run as the variance can be pretty sick in them and there is even more variance in MTTS. It's conceivable that someone can run good or bad in mtts over there whole life.

The only advice I can give is if you feel how your running is affecting how your playing adversely then take a break. If you feel your still performing to the best of your ability then just play though it as its all you can really do, it can and has for me in the past changed very quickly.

I was asked my expectations for the coming year in a Q&A I did on boards .ie back in January and answered it "because the variance is so much in mtts i wouldn't be surprised if I didn't say have any results that register for all of 2008 on the hendonmob data base on the other hand i wouldn't be surprised to have ten results on it in 2008, thats the nature of being a live mtt tournament player". We have to expect to hit bad patches its just the nature of the beast.

I read an article by Tommy Angelo where he says something along the lines of downswings or upswings for that matter don't exist as you only play in the present. I like what he is getting at as the game your playing or even the hand is what really matters as whats gone before and the future is out of our control, what we should be focusing on is to play in the present the best we can. Anyhow keep the chin up.

Weekend Washout

Started the weekends Waterford open on Friday in a fairly aggressive manner. My VP€IP/PFR would of been about 40/38 for the first 90 minutes and I built my 15k starting stack to 20k in that period. After the good start I walked into a few hands and was chased down by a couple of bad draws that hit. I was down to about 8k by the last hand of level 4 and raised Ac9c UTG and got it in on A Q X two diamond flop which was a horrendous brain-fart. The hand was pure tilt and not like me. Seemed a quality FT and unlucky to my m8 Alex Collier who finished tenth. I think bigslick were a little disappointed with the numbers which were down on last year at 140 but i think this may of been a good thing for them. While the majestic was a nice venue it just about had space for the 140 runners and anymore would of been to cramped.

Decided to play the €250 event at the last minute having initially returned to Tramore to go on the beer. I was messing a bit in this and stacked a guy early in a 3 bet pot with 35os. Shortly after I made a pretty sick river 10k shove into a 15k pot with nine high which got through. I exited in level three in a huge pot for that stage. Three way limped pot with me checking my option with J9os, flop K99 and I go bust to the UTGs A9 . I think I might of gotten away from the hand but I'm not sure about it.

Played a couple of WSOP satts on Sunday. Had a run at the 20 package mansion tournament. AT $320 entry this was huge value as it needed 1070 players to meet the guarantee but only 515 started. I was going well with approx 140 left but got RR flushed for a really healthy stack. Hung around for a while but eventually went out 73rd pushing my 9 BBs with a button A10 into AK.

Also played the big stars qualifier busting out about three hours in when the average was circa 15k. Exit hand is below and the second i 3bet I knew I should of just pushed, not that I don't want to race here but I think 3 betting often folds out bad pairs where a push looks like AK here and I can often get called by a hand I dominate.

Me & Tony C

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.

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.

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.

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.