This was the question I was asked returning from a smoke in Clane Friday night from a random person I didn't know. Usually I just listen to the persons badbeat, nodding away with a numb brain. This time I just said "not really" as I was a bit steamed on Guinness and thus not at my diplomatic best. I hope the gentleman involved didn't take offence, but I think I was doing him a favor long term.
The tournament was good craic. My starting table had great potential with John O'Shea, Chris Dowling & a few notable IPB heads, unfortunately none of them were on the Guinness buzz with me.
There was six levels played on day one, I spent at least four of those in the bar, making it through the day with an average chip stack. I think my best play of the time I spent on the table was to come up with a nickname for Chris 'showdown' Dowling.
Having had my fill of the black stuff I staggered off to bed about 3am and thought that was it for the night. Imagine my surprise to wake about 5am and find the legendary Mark Reilly on the bed beside me. Now I do like Mark a lot and was regaled by his story of how he went from being on the lash in leixlip to ending up on my bed, but I did ask him to please %&$% off to the poker room when he starting discussing PLO strategy.
The next day didn't go well poker wise. I got my last 20 blinds in preflop with 66 v AK and if I'm honest, I wasn't that gutted to lose the race. My intentions this year are to win races in big buy in events and lose them in the smaller ones.
It was an excellent tournament in a really nice venue but once I was out I headed home. It was a big weekend on the sports betting front for me. To cut that story short I should of stayed where I was.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Irish Poker Championship 2012
I think we've seen this event change in one way or another every year since it's inception in 2006. I never would of foreseen it playing out as a side event, but that's what happened this year. The tournament had a €750 buy in and over 200 starters, add to this the title and it was still a tournament well worth giving your all for.
Contrary to the ribbing I get, I'm not really a great one for side events. Usually after getting knocked out of a main event, I find it hard to give a side event my full attention. This wasn't the case last weekend as my early exit from the WPT meant I felt as I hadn't really played, so was well up for this.
My starting table had a few familiar faces, Including Bomber and Andrew Grimason. There was a real nice atmosphere on the table with everyone in good form.
I started steady enough, then hit a bit of a heater just before and after the dinner break trebling my 20k starting stack. We were only playing six levels and the table broke for the last one. I ended the day with a top ten stack of 66k with around half the field still in.
Day two was an odd one. I loved my starting table but it was first to break. They were breaking tables down one of two lines and every time I drew the next table to break. I'm the type of player ( well i guess most are ) that likes time to settle into a table. Subsequently I was three hours into the day and had broken 5 times.
My stack was maintained until I lost a third of it with AJ v KK, it was a shortish corner and I was happy enough calling the 18 big blinds it cost to call the 4bet shove. Again just after this, I get moved again to the next table to break. I know it shouldn't bother me but it was doing my head in at this stage.
I needn't of worried though as the poker gods were soon to put me out of my misery. I was only at the table a couple of hands when I picked up QQ. First to act opened, and I 3-bet from a 40k stack with blinds 500-1000-100, The button shipped for about 120k holding AQ. An ace on the flop meant no fourth life time cash in the IPC.
It wasn't too disappointing, we were about 40 off the money and, well you want to get them in in that spot every time. I dont know where the IPC as a tournament goes from here, but I think we can assume it wont stay the same as this year. The tournament has a good legacy, and needs to find a stand alone berth.
Contrary to the ribbing I get, I'm not really a great one for side events. Usually after getting knocked out of a main event, I find it hard to give a side event my full attention. This wasn't the case last weekend as my early exit from the WPT meant I felt as I hadn't really played, so was well up for this.
 |
| The Bomber |
I started steady enough, then hit a bit of a heater just before and after the dinner break trebling my 20k starting stack. We were only playing six levels and the table broke for the last one. I ended the day with a top ten stack of 66k with around half the field still in.
Day two was an odd one. I loved my starting table but it was first to break. They were breaking tables down one of two lines and every time I drew the next table to break. I'm the type of player ( well i guess most are ) that likes time to settle into a table. Subsequently I was three hours into the day and had broken 5 times.
My stack was maintained until I lost a third of it with AJ v KK, it was a shortish corner and I was happy enough calling the 18 big blinds it cost to call the 4bet shove. Again just after this, I get moved again to the next table to break. I know it shouldn't bother me but it was doing my head in at this stage.
I needn't of worried though as the poker gods were soon to put me out of my misery. I was only at the table a couple of hands when I picked up QQ. First to act opened, and I 3-bet from a 40k stack with blinds 500-1000-100, The button shipped for about 120k holding AQ. An ace on the flop meant no fourth life time cash in the IPC.
Monday, January 9, 2012
WPT Dublin
The general vibe leading up to the inaugural WPT Ireland was that the tournament would not be a success. My gut told me differently, I had told the man behind bringing the tournament here ( Ian Langstaff ) a couple of months ago that I thought it would work and we'd get 300 starters.
I thought the event had three big positives going for it; 1, Ireland has a history of a big field buy ins the first week in January. 2, the City west venue, overseas visitors like it and come back. 3, the brand, every poker player in Ireland would fancy a crack at a WPT title.
As it played out, the event was a resounding success attracting a field of 333 starters, including a host of big name stars from around Europe. In fact it could well of been the best field ever assembled in the country. Dom Hever who blogs for irishpokerboards described the field as " being like the Irish Open, without the 300 bad players".
One area where the WPT people got it very wrong was the chips. Each denomination of chip was a plethora of colors with the 5000 and 100 chip closely resembling each other. Barney boatman was the main sufferer of this when he mistakenly opened for 15,000 instead of the intended 300 and a player put him in holding QQ. Barney call with 1010 for a very unfortunate exit.
While the tournament itself was a huge success, my own display was an abysmal failure. Looking at some of the starting tables I had definitely drawn a good one. However that wasn't much consultation exiting in level five.
In honesty I made no mistakes so cant be too disappointed, it was just one of those days where my opponents kept having the goods or got there as hands progressed. On four occasions I had to fold after putting a decent percentage of my chip into pots, and each time was shown the nut flush. Just a bad day at the office.
As the tournament progressed Dave Shallow became the dominant force. The home contingents performance wasn't great with the notable exception of Ronan 'Gilly' Gilligan, Ken Doherty & Dan Smyth.
The 1997 World Snooker champ taking down a major poker title would of been the biggest headline grabber. However, the talented Doherty's run would end in a creditable 16th place finish.
Dan Smyth, owner of a surname that's synonymous with taking down major Irish events looked like making a big challenge for the title, when he grabbed the chip lead two tables out. Dan has a fantastic online record but a number of reversals saw his commendable challenge peter out in 11th.
This left Gilly as the remaining Irish hope. A Galway based player Ronan was rooming with my mate Derek Murray. Derek has mentioned to me on a number of occasions that he rates Gilligan very highly as a player and relayed to me pre-tournament that Ronan had won entry in a $50 satellite and his intentions were to play the event as it it was a $50 buy in rather then a €2,500.
True to his word, Gilly got his full 300 big-blind starting stack in verses two sets (one folded ) in only the second hand of the tournament, pushing a flush draw and never looked back. His third place finish was a swashbuckling display and is a fine addition to his 2nd place finish in the 2010 UKIPT Dublin for his CV.
In the end Shallow was a worthy winner of a fantastic tournament, which is a wonderful addition to the Irish poker calendar.
I thought the event had three big positives going for it; 1, Ireland has a history of a big field buy ins the first week in January. 2, the City west venue, overseas visitors like it and come back. 3, the brand, every poker player in Ireland would fancy a crack at a WPT title.
As it played out, the event was a resounding success attracting a field of 333 starters, including a host of big name stars from around Europe. In fact it could well of been the best field ever assembled in the country. Dom Hever who blogs for irishpokerboards described the field as " being like the Irish Open, without the 300 bad players".
One area where the WPT people got it very wrong was the chips. Each denomination of chip was a plethora of colors with the 5000 and 100 chip closely resembling each other. Barney boatman was the main sufferer of this when he mistakenly opened for 15,000 instead of the intended 300 and a player put him in holding QQ. Barney call with 1010 for a very unfortunate exit.
While the tournament itself was a huge success, my own display was an abysmal failure. Looking at some of the starting tables I had definitely drawn a good one. However that wasn't much consultation exiting in level five.
 |
| all the cool kids are wearing these |
As the tournament progressed Dave Shallow became the dominant force. The home contingents performance wasn't great with the notable exception of Ronan 'Gilly' Gilligan, Ken Doherty & Dan Smyth.
The 1997 World Snooker champ taking down a major poker title would of been the biggest headline grabber. However, the talented Doherty's run would end in a creditable 16th place finish.
Dan Smyth, owner of a surname that's synonymous with taking down major Irish events looked like making a big challenge for the title, when he grabbed the chip lead two tables out. Dan has a fantastic online record but a number of reversals saw his commendable challenge peter out in 11th.
This left Gilly as the remaining Irish hope. A Galway based player Ronan was rooming with my mate Derek Murray. Derek has mentioned to me on a number of occasions that he rates Gilligan very highly as a player and relayed to me pre-tournament that Ronan had won entry in a $50 satellite and his intentions were to play the event as it it was a $50 buy in rather then a €2,500.
True to his word, Gilly got his full 300 big-blind starting stack in verses two sets (one folded ) in only the second hand of the tournament, pushing a flush draw and never looked back. His third place finish was a swashbuckling display and is a fine addition to his 2nd place finish in the 2010 UKIPT Dublin for his CV.
In the end Shallow was a worthy winner of a fantastic tournament, which is a wonderful addition to the Irish poker calendar.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Back to Work
Hope everyone had a good Chrishmas and got over the New Year without too bad a hangover. I must admit to being a bit of a Christmas grouch, although I hide it well enough and the feast of sport on over the holiday keeps me some way sane.
It's back to work this week. 1st up is tonight's fantastic $10,000 added Festival Frenzy tournament at Boylepoker. I'm sure most of you will have qualified for this non-direct buy in event already; if you haven't satellites are running all day today ending at 6.45 with the main event starting at seven.
On Thursday I'll be at the City West for the WPT Ireland. When I started out playing the game, this date was always filled with the Irish Poker Championship at the same venue and that event returns to it's spiritual home as a side event of the WPT starting the Friday.
The WPT is a hard one to call turnout wise. On a negative its relatively big buy in for a country where disposable income is at an all time low. This makes it hard to see where the walk in buy ins will come from. There's also the clash with the PCA, which could affect overseas visitors.
The positive is the brand, every poker player in the country will fancy the title of WPT champion, so a few mattresses will be raided to come up with the buy in.
I've herd people predicting very low turnout for the event, but personally I think the numbers will be decent. I'd call anything over 150 starters a relative success for this type of buy in, in its first year. Hopefully it gets over 250 and establishes itself as a permanent way to kick off the poker year.
I, as every other Irish poker player, kinda like the ring of " Irish WPT Champion".
It's back to work this week. 1st up is tonight's fantastic $10,000 added Festival Frenzy tournament at Boylepoker. I'm sure most of you will have qualified for this non-direct buy in event already; if you haven't satellites are running all day today ending at 6.45 with the main event starting at seven.
On Thursday I'll be at the City West for the WPT Ireland. When I started out playing the game, this date was always filled with the Irish Poker Championship at the same venue and that event returns to it's spiritual home as a side event of the WPT starting the Friday.
The WPT is a hard one to call turnout wise. On a negative its relatively big buy in for a country where disposable income is at an all time low. This makes it hard to see where the walk in buy ins will come from. There's also the clash with the PCA, which could affect overseas visitors.
The positive is the brand, every poker player in the country will fancy the title of WPT champion, so a few mattresses will be raided to come up with the buy in.
I've herd people predicting very low turnout for the event, but personally I think the numbers will be decent. I'd call anything over 150 starters a relative success for this type of buy in, in its first year. Hopefully it gets over 250 and establishes itself as a permanent way to kick off the poker year.
I, as every other Irish poker player, kinda like the ring of " Irish WPT Champion".
Friday, December 30, 2011
State of the nation
Hope everyone had a good Christmas. I usually do a long annual review but I'm just not in the writing rambling mode ATM and feel it wouldn't be interesting for me to write or for anyone to read.
The Hendon Mob database will show six cashes for a total of $30,000. I probably did about $20,000 in buy-ins over the year if even that, and wouldn't have played more than 15-18 tournaments that register on the HMD.
It's not as abysmal as last year anyway, and the fact that Boyles sponsored me for my tournament entries mean that at least the $30k was profit.
The highlight of the year was a semi-deep run at the Irish Open. I had a lovely stack deep into Day 2 but made a big call, which was wrong and saw me return day three with a playable 30 bigs. I got unlucky in a hand with four tables remaining and bar that a final table was a definite possibility.
The year was going very bad for me punting wise and doing €25,000 in May sports betting more or less meant no Vegas - I really couldn't face doing another 25k over there and I'm sure that's what would have happened had I went as the noggin wasn't in the right place.
I hit a punting downswing for six months in the middle of the year that was character building. Thankfully things picked up significantly from October on or I could have been busking to get over the Christmas.
In general I think 2011 was a very good year for Irish poker, mostly down to Eoghan and Dermot final tabling the WSOP & WSOPE main events. There were more events than ever played in the country and generally numbers held up well in very difficult financial times for people.
Hopefully, this remains the case for the year ahead - I'm really looking forward to kicking it off with Ireland's first WPT next week, what better way to start the year then a major buy in at City West. Anyhow, thanks to everyone who read the blog over the year, I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year!
Monday, December 12, 2011
Macau Winter Festival
If I'm ever feeling poker isn't going great, the answer is always to go and play in Cork.
There's number of factors in play here, good banter at
the tables, I generally run well and I pass the accounting practice I
used to work in on the drive to Cork.
An office environment was never really for me, I'm much more suited to gambling and golfing everyday, and passing that place always brings into perspective how lucky I've been to be able to do what I like everyday for the past six year since I left that job.
I arrived at about 45 minutes into level one and proceeded to add 30% to my starting stack the very first hand I sat for. I raised Qc10c, hit queens full of tens, and got 120 big blinds of value from the hand.
My starting table was decent with plenty of banter. John Keown & Lucky Jimmy McSweeney are always great craic and good action players so it was a very enjoyable table for me.
We were only playing seven levels on day one and I got a big double in the last level where I made a call for all my chips on the turn with top top against Tony 'the coo' Cooneys 75 big blind check shove. I felt I was good and this was the case, so I had a nice stack to head back with on the Saturday.
I had played Thursday and after Friday's Day 1B play 45 was returning of the 94 starters with me lying third in chips. With15 players left I had a 1/4 of a million and was feeling pretty good about things. I had a steady enough day without ever being under any pressure. I then lost 170k pot to the eventual second AsQs v his KK, the QSS flop looked well but I didn't improve.
It had bee a long day and I was anxious to watch the golf from Dubai the next morning so I suggested to pay two extra places so we could get finished for the night at about 2.30am. Everyone seems happy enough with this, our table was very closely matched in chips and no one was really going to be able to run over the bubble.
I was home at 4.15 and up at 8 for the golf. I got a nice little scoop from Quiros on a spread market, but that was to be the highlight of the day. I had 153k returning, which was above average, but I just couldn't get anything going in the first two levels of the Sunday.
My seat draw wasn't great, Albert Kenny on my direct left, the shove happy Mark Spellman next and then eventual winner Jamie Flynn. Spellman must have shoved over 80% of my opens in those first two hours and with the blinds rising I was left with a shoving stack myself. My 19 bigs went in over a Jamie min open holding 33, he had 1010 so out the gap.
Obviously disappointing to bubble the final table, but it hasn't changed enthusiasm for playing poker in Cork and nice to end the year with a cash. I still had an interest with 10% of Bops who put in a good performance to finish 5th. Well done to Jamie on the win, I flagged him as one to watch earlier in the year in the blog and know the [W] meant a lot to him.
An office environment was never really for me, I'm much more suited to gambling and golfing everyday, and passing that place always brings into perspective how lucky I've been to be able to do what I like everyday for the past six year since I left that job.
I arrived at about 45 minutes into level one and proceeded to add 30% to my starting stack the very first hand I sat for. I raised Qc10c, hit queens full of tens, and got 120 big blinds of value from the hand.
My starting table was decent with plenty of banter. John Keown & Lucky Jimmy McSweeney are always great craic and good action players so it was a very enjoyable table for me.
We were only playing seven levels on day one and I got a big double in the last level where I made a call for all my chips on the turn with top top against Tony 'the coo' Cooneys 75 big blind check shove. I felt I was good and this was the case, so I had a nice stack to head back with on the Saturday.
I had played Thursday and after Friday's Day 1B play 45 was returning of the 94 starters with me lying third in chips. With15 players left I had a 1/4 of a million and was feeling pretty good about things. I had a steady enough day without ever being under any pressure. I then lost 170k pot to the eventual second AsQs v his KK, the QSS flop looked well but I didn't improve.
It had bee a long day and I was anxious to watch the golf from Dubai the next morning so I suggested to pay two extra places so we could get finished for the night at about 2.30am. Everyone seems happy enough with this, our table was very closely matched in chips and no one was really going to be able to run over the bubble.
I was home at 4.15 and up at 8 for the golf. I got a nice little scoop from Quiros on a spread market, but that was to be the highlight of the day. I had 153k returning, which was above average, but I just couldn't get anything going in the first two levels of the Sunday.
My seat draw wasn't great, Albert Kenny on my direct left, the shove happy Mark Spellman next and then eventual winner Jamie Flynn. Spellman must have shoved over 80% of my opens in those first two hours and with the blinds rising I was left with a shoving stack myself. My 19 bigs went in over a Jamie min open holding 33, he had 1010 so out the gap.
Obviously disappointing to bubble the final table, but it hasn't changed enthusiasm for playing poker in Cork and nice to end the year with a cash. I still had an interest with 10% of Bops who put in a good performance to finish 5th. Well done to Jamie on the win, I flagged him as one to watch earlier in the year in the blog and know the [W] meant a lot to him.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
It's an addiction
I suffer from a golf watching addiction, if there's golf on the TV from anywhere in the world I cant not watch it. This time of year it's all from Asia and the Southern Hemisphere so I'm pulling a lot of all nighters.
I had a good bet on Germany each way in the world cup last weekend. They looked a bit off the pace going into Fridays third round, which suited me as I had to head up to Dublin early Saturday morning to do the commentary for the IPO Final table.
I went to bed about two, was reading for a bit and decided to check the scores on the phone before I slept. Germany were -6 through nine holes and joint leaders. This meant getting up to watch the rest of the round, and heading to Dublin with no sleep.
I enjoyed covering the final table with the legend that is Padraig Parkinson. The three Irish lads put in great performances, huge well done to Rory, Paul and Mark. Considering they were the bottom three in chips going into the day, to finish, 6th, 3rd & 2nd was super stuff. Also, congratulations to 2011 IPO champion Luke Martens.
John took over from me at around six to allow me head into the Fitz for their festival main event. If I'm honest I'd have rathered go home to bed as I was fairly shattered. As it turned out this would of been a good move, as I never got going in the event.
I exited in the 300-600-25 level shoving 22 big blinds with 22 over an UTG raise. A very questionable shove and staying with a trend in recent tournaments for me, I walked straight into the aces again. I got home about 1 am and there was only one thing to do - stay up all night again watching the golf!
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