Other Stuff

This isn't a blog that's going up on Boyles. I seem to be getting caught up a lot in writing over the last year - the bluff column and more recently for the poker supplement in the star and while I enjoy it - I need to be a bit more reader focused then having a good old waffle like I used to here. I always liked blogging but never envisaged my bull being published in magazines and newspapers. The only real conclusion I can come up with on those happenings is the community is severely starved of literary talent.

I never made Vegas this year which I dont really regret, there was a number of factors why I didn't go but the main one was I hit a bad run punting and didn't have a spare 25k lying around. I could of went down the road of selling action but just didn't fancy it, the enthusiasm just wasn't there and I have no regrets of not making a better effort to get over.

The few games I did play over the last month were more piss ups then serious games. Not very professional I know but the buyins were small and killarney and tramore - well its hard not to hit the beer in those spots. I'm a bit involved in putting on the tramore tournament so I'm not 100% comfortable playing it for that reason and might not play it next year.

There's a couple of really good games on the horizon and you wont see me touching a drop at these starting with the EMOP this week.

There's a real change in the landscape of Irish poker this year and while I'm happy to see tours like the emop and unibet hitting these shores. Along with the ukipt They're definitely squeezing the traditional events that existed but if it gives players shots at bigger prizepools then I suppose that's what we want.

The other side of the coin though is I hate seeing tournaments like the winter festival and the Irish Classic dropping buy in to try compete. The classic had a near 300k prizepool in 2008- it looks like it will do well to have 100k one this year. I guess its survival of the fittest and if you dont have a way of mass producing qualifiers your going to suffer in the current macro-eco climate.

On the punting front I lost the plot completely on the golf for a while- punting in grands pre tournament on outright market is just too high variance for my liquidity and that's well reined in. TBH if I spent the time I spent watching and punting golf on my poker game over the last 18 months.......you get the picture.

I'm not sure if anyone still drops in here anymore but I'll try post here the odd time with stuff that I feel falls outside my role with Boyles just to keep the old blog going.

Open Time

On the poker front I played twice the weekend- the monthly game in the poker lounge Waterford where I came third and the summer game in the Cue Club Killarney where I lasted about a third of the time it took me to get there. Still Killarney's always great craic to go out in this time of year so wasn't a wasted trip.

A couple of great event coming up - we have the Boylepoker Waterford Masters next week; the Masters is always a top class little tournament with a great atmosphere. Then the following week the EMOP visits Ireland for the first time. This takes place in Clontraf Castle and a good purse is guaranteed.

This weekend will be spent watching the Open Championship. I'm punting Kaymer; he's been going through a swing change and watching him play in France two weeks ago he looked nearly right to me. He's on record as saying he doesn't love links golf but in reality has a superb links record, he's also one of the best ball strikers in windy conditions which we can expect over the four days. All in all 25/1 looks a very decent price and well worth a bet. I should add however that this tip comes with a public warning, I'm very much out of form punting wise the past two months.

Celtic Poker Tour Grand Final

The Celtic Poker tour has been running since 2004 and every year has a grand final.

Initially you had to win one of the many tour games to get into this, but they opened it up to all comers since 2008. Every year more regulars of the wider Irish scene find their way to Carlow for the finals and one inevitably wins- this year was no different.

The CPT is predominantly a rural tour and the demographic of the tour regulars would be mainly over forty. The events are a social night out for them and an enjoyable atmosphere to play poker is always in place. However over the three day excellently structured Grand Final the regular's style of play just isn't up to it.

The Final table was littered with recognisable 'names'. Colette Murphy and Mick McCloskey both had good runs but fell short on the final table. Alan McIntyre followed up his 5th place finish at the JP Masters by filling the same spot here.

With four remaining, Tom Kitt took total command in a massive pot with AQ v KK, the ace on the river added to Tom's already impressive stack and sending Noel 'twang' O'Brien to the rail in cruel fashion.

After a few hours sparring and the stacks levelling up measurably the three remaining players, Kitt, Tommy Walsh and Dimitri Pembroke decided to deal with Tom taking 19k and the trophy, Tommy and Dimitri getting a healthy 15k each.

I managed to increase my side event specialist reputation (which I hate) over the weekend taking down the €220 game for 4k and was very close to getting the best deal of my career in the process.

Three-handed, with me holding a huge chip advantage, the two lads discussed chopping second and third place money and giving me first. A ticket for a future event included in the second prize eventually killed the deal but it would have been fun to get full first place money in a deal with three players remaining.

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.