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.

Brain Pain

I travelled to Cork on Friday for the three day Christmas festival. Having got through day one with an average stack, I was having a good day amassing a healthy stack through day two.

When we took a fifteen minute break at nine I had about 10% of the total chips in play, with 24 players remaining. For the first twenty minutes after the break I hit a brutal run of reversals, losing four all-in pre flop showdowns in the space of about eight hands - v , v , v and v .

Throw in losing with KK and JJ in between the showdowns and I went from chip leader to short stack. A fairly brutal turn of events and I never recovered, eventually going out with a badly timed shove in 13th position.

You'll never hear me moaning about how I run. Variance is a huge part of tournament poker and I generally take the bad with the good and just get on with it, but I must admit to feeling a little sorry for myself on the drive home after that run.

The Macau Winter Festival was the first tournament I ever won on a national stage back in 2005. That year there were 67 starters at a buy-in of €1,100. The tournament was televised on one of those magazine type poker shows Sky used to do. I'd say the make-up of the field in 2005 was about 33% locals, with the remaining field consisting of sponsored pro's.

This year there were 75 starters at €550, with probably 90% locals. The tournament is a good example of how the landscape of tournament poker has changed. In 2005 there was a handful of national level tournaments, these days there seems to be one every other week and no doubt the prestige that the Macau Christmas tournament once held, has now been vastly diluted.

There has been a plethora of new successful events that have sprung up over the last few years. These events have generally been smaller a buy-in, with larger fields then the traditional "big" tournaments that existed.

Seeing the success of the new tournaments, it seems that the organisers of the existing events have decided the best way forward is to reduce the buy-in of their events to mirror the new successful games. This has been seen over the last two years, with The Irish Championship, The Irish Classic, European Deepstack, JP Masters, Macau Winter Festival all reducing their entry fees.

I totally understand why the promoters of these events have reacted in the manner they have. Poker festivals make money on cash game rake not the tournaments, so it's understandable that the promoters have all adopted the pile them high, sell them cheap logic.

However, I think they have in general made a mistake. They should have embraced the uniqueness of the events instead of just falling back into the pack. Events with legacy have lost their potential for real continuity. In most cases, instead of promoting the unique selling points of these events, the easy option has been chosen.

What we now have is a calendar packed with more and more none-descript monkey buy-in events. Instead of six or seven must-play unique tournaments that attracted overseas visitors we now have two, the Winter Festival and the Irish Open.

This has left a gap in the market for bigger buy-in games and it seems that slack is going to be taken up by the overseas tours. This coming year there's an EMOP coming to Ireland late in July. There are also solid rumours of a leg of the Unibet tour and WPT hitting these shores.

I have no idea how these new events will run in the current recessionary climate. What I do know is I would much rather win a 400 field €1,500 buy-in, Irish Classic or European Deep-stack, then EMOP or Unibet leg.

RIP IPC

Following on from my unplanned visit the previous week, it was back to Galway on Thursday for the UKIPT-IPC.

The weather had become a lot worse in Waterford but I was sure once I got about 20 miles west, the rest of the trip would be ok. As I suspected it was, and it took me the standard three hours to get there.

I found it quite amusing when Neil Kelly told me that he had decided his best option was to get to Galway by motorway, so he went Waterford-Dublin-Galway, taking a wonderful eight and a half hours, WP!

When the event finally kicked off after a day's delay, my starting table looked horrific with Rory Rees Brennan, Dermot Blaine, the eventual winner and benefactor of my chips was Nick Risk, who I'd played at the IWF and Nick Silver who won the UKIPT Dublin last year, basically ten pros.

The first real hand I played, I spewed about 4k of my starting twenty in a bad spot. The second hand I played, I went out in an odd one.

Nick one raised and was called by Nick two. I decided to just call from the small blind with , disguising the strength of my hand. Rory also came along from the BB. The JXX dry flop was checked to Risk who bet 650, I called and the other two got out of the way.

The turn was an innocuous three and I checked again. This is where the hand got a bit strange. Risk bet 6100, which stunned me a little and took me a few seconds to assimilate.

He'd either mistaken a 5k chip for a 500 one, was making a rather strange bet or was pulling an angle for me to believe he'd mistaken his chips. I was leaning towards the first and this was confirmed, when Silver pointed to his bet size and his face dropped.

I decided to just push, as I felt he wasn't putting another chip in the pot if he was bluffing and I was getting called by many worse hands because of the odd dynamic. He vocally made a crying call which made me think I was good, but was in fact drawing to two outs against a turned set of threes.

It was disappointing; I'd probably have lost a third of my chips in the hand anyway but would never have burst. When I found out that there was a table re-draw for the tournament after the second level, this tilted me a lot more as the starting table should never have been.

It was a simple error, whereby the shuffle button on the software on the list of entries was never pressed. This meant that the players were seated in the order as they were received. Basically all Stars' qualifiers were seated together, same for live qualifiers, direct buy-ins etc.

I think someone should have copped what happened earlier when the four Pokerstars pros were seated in a line on the same table.

For the rest of the weekend I played two side events, lasting until the last three tables in the first and murdering my chips in the second.

I said before the event that I wasn't a fan of reducing the buy-in, as I felt it reduced the prestige of the Irish Championship. The event was hugely changed from previous years and for me just hadn't the same buzz.

It's a pie in the sky dream but I'd love to see two top tournaments in Galway, a UKIPT leg and bring back the old IPC.

I did hear a funny story from the cash tables late on the Saturday night. One of the players wasn't happy with a ruling given by the floor staff. The irate punter somehow thought the matter merited the attention of the guards, who duly arrived and arrested him!