Luckyblind's Poker Blog

Antesup.com is alive !!! Luckyblinds blog is dead.

2005-06-20T01:17:00.000+01:00

Ok, after a few painstaking months of work in between everything else that has been going on we finally have put Antes up live. The full content is not up yet, we need to get player profiles complete and the tournament schedule and cardroom directory is still under construction.

We have decided not to fill it with backdated news but anything new will be posted as it happens.

Once we get back from the WSOP things will start to be added to create a one stop site for Irish poker. There will also be a lot of stuff to interest non-irish players and our WSOP coverage will include all the well known players we can find amongst the masses. I know I have some US readers, so if you have a friend playing and want me to keep you updated then it is probably easiest if you tell them to tell the person in the Antesup garb that you are looking at our site for updates and we will keep you informed.

Tom and I are quite proud of what we have done so far but we would like to hear peoples views on the site, good or bad,. If you want to do it in public then add a comment here if in private then email me.

As far as 'Luckyblinds poker blog' goes, this is the end of the line. My blog will continue on Antes up under the original title of 'Mike's blog'. So far it has been a fun ride and I hope you will join me as Antes up takes it one step further.

Stay Lucky

Mike 'Luckyblind' Lacey

Fitz €50 Double chance

2005-06-15T13:48:00.000+01:00

Having played no poker at all, not even online, since last week I ventured down to the Fitzwilliam to have a crack at this little gem of a tournament. Eventuelly 57 runners entered giving a 1st prize of €1170 and €540 for second, Third paid out €350, anthing else was not worth aiming for.

The omens were not good when I lost my initial allocation of chips on the first hand I played. I raised it to 150 with AQs, blinds were 10/25 and there had been a couple of limpers. A lady to my left raised up to 300 and by the time it got back to me all the limpers and the big blind had called so I put in the extra 150 for 'value'. The flop was Ace rag rag and when it was checked to me I bet out 200, a third of my stack committed already now. The lady who re-raised pre-flop folded but the big blind made it 200 more ! Everyone else folded so I flat called. I decided that whatever came on the flop I was checking to see what he did. I figured if he made a bet that was half my stack or more he held a weak Ace and I was moving all in. This is exactly what happened and he reluctantly called with A9 of clubs, the turn had put two clubs on the board. He had 12 outs and one of them, a 9, hit on the river. With my second chance 1500 chips I got up to 2800 at the break without showing a hand.

Just before my table broke after the break I moved up to 3500 when I elimated a shortstack with AK vs KJ. My new table was a minefield. Frank, Norman and Kevin Farrelly were all there and chirping away as usual. Norman losing an all in with AJ vs AQ as I sat down made things worse as shortstacked he would move with anything (and did repeatedly). The first playable hand I fopund was AQ and I raised into Norman's big blind. Normally I would have called when he went all in but something told this was the real deal and I folded after a brief show pause. He proudly flipped over KK so my read was spot on.

I survived 2 or 3 orbits nicking the blinds once or twice and then went on a bit of a rush. First I flopped a set of twos from the big blind against Kevin who had flopped a pair of Aces and I more than doubled up in a five way pot. A couple of hands later I have 7 5 offsuit in the big blind. Blinds now 150/300. Frank is the only caller from the small. The flop comes down A34 and Frank bets 600. Mmmm. I am suspicous as he would normally raise preflop with any ace. I decided to call and bet the turn whatever. The turn was a King and he checked to me so I bet 1300 and he took some time before calling. Before I decided my next move the river came a beautiful 6 to give me the nuts! Frank bet 1500. i took some time before raising to 3500 and he immediately moved all in! It is only afterwards that I am confused because he said he hit a straight with his Q5 and I thought nothing of it as I scooped the pot. He must have been having a Ted Lawson moment - "I have a straight, look 3 4 5 6...Damn".

Then came the icing on the cake. I had raised twice to 700 and had to fold to Kings on this table. Why everybody has to show me their cards I don't know. Anyway I got AA on my next button and raised 700 again. Lady who re-raised me earlier on the other table makes it 2000. I immediately push as I have no read on her play. She calls even quicker with AK? No help for her and she is the only player on the table with more chips than me and I double up to be tournament chip leader. Five minutes previously I had 2500 chips and moving into All in with any Ace territory.

I felt that if I got to the final table with 20,000 chips + I would stand a good chance as my game is best as it starts to get nearer the money. I currently had 25,000 so was in no rush to make rash calls to try and knock out shortstacks. I would just play solid and see where it takes me. As it happened I went completely card dead apart from getting AQ in the small blind when someone moved in for 1400, I called the extra 800 and she hit a 9 for her K9 off to outdraw me. As it turned out the Aces were my last pre-flop all in to hold up. I was favourite in all of them bar one.

I got back up to 28,000 for the final table, bluffing Charlie out of a medium sized pot on the river when a possible flush hit on the final hand before we merged back to the last nine. Maybe this stuck in Charlies head as the first hand we played together on the final table doubled me up.
The pot was 5 way pre-flop for 3500 apiece. Blinds were 800/1500 so it was a goodly size pot. The flop came down K 4 2. I initially thought there were two hearts and when the first two players checked and Charlie bet 3000 I decided to take there and then by raising to 10,000. Everyone else folded but Charlie called after some hesitation. I forget the turn but when I looked back at the flop it was rainbow. This made no obvious draws so I put him on AK at least to call my raise. If he had KK he was getting all my chips. He checked and I moved in for 14500. He called pretty quick with QQ and I now had over 1/3rd of the chips in play.

I was still playing steady and kept my stack constant until I played 88 vs a shortstack's JJ and then got more chips in after a flop of Q 10 3 with two hearts to go with my K J of hearts gave me 18 outs against Q6 but none appeared. I briefly slipped down to 40,000 before getting back up to 60,000 when I made anothe good read. I had K8 and made up the blinds from the small. There was one other caller and the flop came 8 5 6, two clubs. I made an information bet of 5000 and was called by the limper. I had played on his table most of the night and knew he didn't have the straight as he would have moved all in. The turn was another 5 and he called again. I bet 10,000 this time and he called again. The river was a 7 which I thought made him two pair lower than mine. I moved all in, I don't think he would call all the way with a gutshot and anything else he raises me. He folded after a thought showing a seven.

Elvis is more alive than the cards I was dealt until we made three handed play. I had drifted back down to 30,000 and was billy low stack. I doubled through the man whose name I cannot recall, although he reminded me and another player of Peter Roche. I made a small re-raise all in on a flop of 5 3 2 with 10 5 and he missed his straight draw. His bet was too big to have meant anything else and he had steadily been increasing the size of bets, no one has a hand as often as his bets claimed. Michael, Happycamper from boards, knocked him out with A2 vs KQ and I arrived at heads up with a 3:1 chip disadvantage. Blinds were only 2000/4000 and I had 51,000 so I still felt confident. I gathered Michael had not much experience of heads up live play and I certainly took advantage of that.

It took me 10 minutes of chipping away to get the chip lead and when I had 3:1 I called his all in re-raise with A4. He had been at it with 96 but hit a 9 and he won a couple of pots to take a small chip lead. Michael then won a larger pot when he re-raised by 7 high bluff and I was back to square one. This was just after we briefly discussed a deal. At that point I had 85,000 to his 110,000. With blinds at 3000,6000 I would only accept 50:50 but he wanted 9:7 so I refused. I quickly regained the chip lead and when he was down to 50,000 I flopped the second nuts with J8 and Q 10 9. I tentative check and he moved all in. Nice. €1100 euro after tips will help my Vegas fund and Catherines 3 weeks in Irish speaking country for her degree.

All in all a satisfactory nights work and I am glad to be back to winning albeit a small tournie with mixed standards of play. My Antes Up partner Tom Murphy also played but was knocked out before the break - hard luck Tom, one day you will outlast me in a tournament!!!

Headless chickens and mad muppets

2005-06-12T22:01:00.000+01:00

Finally I get a chance to breathe and type up a blog for a change!

This has been one of those mad times where I have not had a minute for anything. I finally managed to get my second games store open in Dundalk on Friday. Thanks must go out to Tom Murphy for standing in at my Drogheda store for a few days with 5 seconds training. He developed a love/hate relationship with the till which may last forever.

We managed to get a good bit done for the new Antes Up site which will be launching very soon. Please note when it does my blog will be moving over to it. It should still have a feed for those of you that use an aggregator.

I managed to squeeze a game in at the Fitzwilliam on Wednesday and came 6th out of 53 for a €100 profit on the night. I made it to the final table with the lowest chips and by some strategic folding I managed to creep up 3 spots as people busted before I got my last chips in with KQ vs 66 and JJ. The 66 made a four flush to scoop.

My strategy was simple in this competition. During the rebuys I limped when ever possibe (which was not often, nearly all hands were all in pre-flop) and only play against raises with AQ/AK JJ-AA. I won every pot I played for more than the big blind except one which was four way and won by a pair of tens! I lowered my standards slightly post freezeout and built a nice stack with solid tight aggressive play.

I made one mistake which cost me half my chips with 20 players left. I raised on the button with KJ to 3700 and the big blind moved all in for 8800. The blinds were 800/1500 so I did a quick calcultion of the pot odds and decided to call getting over 2.5:1. I was up against AQ so it turned out mathematically correct but I think I should have folded and waited for a better spot. The player was solid and I knew I was behind.

There were some correct decisions I made such as folding 99 preflop shortly after the previously described hand. I had played with the tournie chip leader most of the night and he moved in under the gun. He had not moved all in as the first raiser all night and had also not hown down a big pair all night so I figured this must be how he played them. Another player decided to gamble with 33 and my read was right as he turned over QQ. However had I ignored my read on him I would have tripled up as a 9 appeared on the river.

This tournament has tremendous value for a half decent player as the standard of play early on is atrocious. On more than one occassion I saw someone raise 35* the blinds with rag Aces. It is a suckout fest because of this. I saw KK cracked 4 times by Ace-rag and Tom had AA cracked by some one calling for all their chips with a gutshot draw and hitting.

I have been keeping tabs on the WSOP so far and am getting very excited about being there to report on the action for the main event. Well done to Andy Black for getting so far in the short handed holdem and good luck to all the bloggers who are playing events. It is also good to see The Camel back blogging, a welcome return Keith, keep playing those heads up matches!

Finally for all you local readers, the next Green Joker Poker tournament is a €25 rebuy at the Europa Hotel nr Drogheda. Cards will be in the air at 9pm, I look forward to seeing you all there.

WSOP here we come !!!

2005-06-03T11:33:00.000+01:00

BREAKING NEWS

I am off to the WSOP main event! unfortunately it is only the second best reason for going as I am still getting terrible beats in th qualifiers. Tom Murphy and myself have been working on a brand spanking new site called Antes Up which will be live in the next week or so. We have been fortunate enough to get enough sponsorship from Paddy Power to travel over and report on the biggest poker show on earth. Tom will be there from late June and I will be joining up with him just before the Main event. You will be able to follow the progress of all the Irish and Uk players on the site.

All going to plan with the technology side of things we will be providing pretty much live updates and we will also be filming some interviews during the event which will be available to download.
We have managed to obtain media passes for the duration so we should get to bring you all the action as it happens!

Obviously I will be still trying to qualify for the big one, but it is great to know that whatever happens I will be there along with a host of great people that I know are already going.

Any bloggers or readers that look at my blog and are off to the WSOP then please get in touch and arrange to rendezvous via email

In other news Dave Kingston, Ned Durnin & Anthony Doherty did a 3 way chop in the latest Drogheda tournie taking home €900 each.

First impressions can be misleading...

2005-05-28T09:48:00.000+01:00

The City West is a great venue for as poker tournament. Located just outside Dublin, just off the N7 it is easy to reach. There are many conference rooms and bars to accomadate any size of function. The craic is always good as there is usually a good mix of golfers, wedding parties, poker players, conference delegates and holidaymakers milling about consuming copious quantities of alcohol.

One day someone will take advantage of all this and run a good tournament here.

The traffic was not as bad as it could have been at 5.30 as I arrived as registration opened considering I (and most other players) have to negotiate the Mad Cow roundabout at peak time to register in time. I arrive to find a queue wind it's way down the staircase that leads up to the room used for this event, the Pokerevents €275 Freezeout.

As the queue moved I entered the room itself and I have to say I was very impressed with the way the room was layed out. There were plenty of tables to the left for non-players and for the players to eat on the break. The tables themselves were covered in VC branded cloths and each table had it's own freestanding lamp over it creating a 50's style club atmosphere. All the tables were of the round variety apart from two in the centre which were the real deal. All in all there were 22 tables and dealers were provided at each one. Two screens flanked the set up, one for the blinds etc, and one advertising future events.

I filled in the 'membership' application with the provided pencil. Name and telephone number seemed to suffice, not ssure if this meets the legal requirement for running a tournament but it wasn't my head on the block. I was able to register Sean Paul without him having to sign anything also.

As with all tournaments it was unable to meet the 7pm start time even with registration being open 1 /12 hours before kick off. As everybody took their seats half an hour late I looked around a room full of the usual local suspects and Ken Doherty who had a €400 bounty on his head. Most of the well known Irish players were there including Scott Gray, Roy Brindley, Andy Black, and Don Fagan. Boards.ie was well represented with myself, Biteme Dave, Bigdragon Dave, Lenny Leonard, NickyOD and Iona Paul. The home game also had a few players; Sean, Sean Paul, Declan, Stevo and Paul. There was a high number of Cork & Galway raiders and a good smattering of women and younger players.

All the tables were named after the Counties and towns of Ireland. Spookily enough I had drawn my home table of Louth. Vernon, Eamon and Adrian Walsh were the only players at the table I knew. There were a few players from Galway and Cork and a young goth looking lad with black painted fingernails. With Eamon and Vernon there it was going to be fun!

I had only come down to enter this because of the fact that it was advertised as a 2 day event with 8000 starting chips and a 40 minute clock. Plus the fact that unlike the €50 rebuy at the Red Cow, this Pokerevents tournament prizepool was not capped.

With the blinds at 25/50 there was no need to hurry and I played a very tight first round. I flopped a nut straight early on in a 4 way pot and was disappointed to find my small bet caused everyone to fold. Level 2 I won the blinds with AA and missed a couple of flops with suited connectors and was comfortable at 7700 chips. Level 3 the blinds were 75/150 and players seemed to be dropping out quite rapidly around the room although we were still at 11 players. Did I mention that they crammed 11 players and a dealer round the table? There were spare dealers and spare tables so this was unacceptable in my view. Anyway back to the event, Just before the break I found KK on the Big Blind and 4 players limped ahead of me. I raised to 1000, I didn't want 4 oppponents. I was only called by the shortest stack who had another 2000 behind him. The flop cam AKx rainbow. Putting him on at least an Ace I put him all in. i wa not surprised when he called. I was however surprised to see Q10 offsuit! He didn't get lucky and I had 10,700 by the time the break came.

The break was a healthy 40 minutes and a nice selection of food was offered up for the players. I partook in some of the chicken and caught up with most of the people I knew to see how they were getting on. Bigdragon & Declan had gone to bad beats, Dave flopping top two and his oppo hitting a gutshot straight. Declan moved All in with KK after the flop and was called by second pair who hit a runner runner flush. Don lost a big pot when he got all in with AK vs 77 on an A 5 5 board, another runner runner four flush for the 7's. Sean Paul and the other dave had almost doubled their starting stacks. Sean Snr ran his AQ into KK and was also gone. Iona Paul had 7500, Dave O'callahan and young O'dea were sitting comfortably. Amazingly Vernon & Eamon were both playing steady rock like games and both had improved their starting chip count.

Sitting back down after the break is when things to started to go wrong for the reputation of this event and I began to see that the negative comments about this Pokerevents company I have seen written by many are true. Remember this is a two day affair. Thay have approximately 20 hours of playing to finish this tournament, maybe more as I heard that it was restarting at 1pm the next day. Gobsmacked was I when the next level was announced. 100/200 with a 25 Ante, almost tripling the cost of a round. I looked round at the display and saw that the next level was due to be 200/400 and a 50 Ante. In two rounds the cost goes up 5x !! 225 a round at level 3, 1100 at level 5.

This escalation started an explosion, literally. In quick succession two of the lamps blew up, sending glass and the lampshades crashing down onto the tables and giving more than one player a heart attack. On the table next to me the hand was declared dead, one guy muchly annoyed having been dealt QQ.

It was obvious to me that quick chip accumulation was necessary and must have been to everyone else as the chips started to fly. A guy from Galway who had been playing a steady game suddenly decided to move all in for 15,000+ with Q4 preflop with only 1200 in the pot. The A10 that called surprised me even more, he claimed he was pot committed but 20% of your stack is not committed in my view, maybe he knew the player. It held up anyway. Eamon raised preflop to over 2000 and got one caller. Eamon was Small blind and moved the rest of his chips in before the flop was dealt. The A10 caller called with pocket 4's on a QQ6 board, Eamon had the bullets.

Then I saw the worst play I have seen for a long time.

Young goth guy raises 2000, a third of stack, from second position. 3 people call incuding myself from the Big blind with 89s. The flop is KJ7 giving me a gutshot. There are also 2 hearts out there. How do you play this from the small blind if you have a set of Jacks with nearly 10,000 in the pot and four players? Do you check every street and call an all in bet on the river when a Q turns up? The young goth was delighted as he was allowed to hit his gutshot for free and more than treble up.

This play was to play a part in my downfall. Young goth surely would not have called a big bet on the flop or turn here and accumulated his tidy stack. In turn he would have maybe hesitated about calling my all in a while later if it was for all his chips too instead of 25% of his stack. I had been card dead since the break and was dealt AQ UTG. With 4000 left and blinds now at 300/600 with a 75 ante I only had one move. Gothy tried to raise this to 5000? It was ruled correctly as a call and I was delighted when no-one else got involved (his attempted raise maybe indicated a strength that was not there) and he flipped AJ of hearts. Of course a bad play here is what I wanted and what I got. As usual however bad plays are often rewarded by the gods of poker and after a safe looking flop of 10 high he lost 3 outs and gained 3 when a K appeared on the turn. As if by magic his 6.81% hit on the river and the crapshoot is over !

I was about 120th out of 241 entrants. By the time I exited, Don was gone as was Iona Paul, Stevo and Lenny. Dave had a reasonable stack, Sean Paul had dropped back a bit, NickOD was looking uncomfortable with about 8-10,000, Ken Doherty had rocketed from 2,500 to 80,000 chips, Roy the Boy was lingering and there were still 5 of the women left including Willow who took most of Sean Paul's chips. I only mention the women as the organisers decided to give a €400 ticket to the one who lasted longest. It is if to say, you are not going to win females so we will have a little prize for the one of you that lasts longest. Plus it is reverse sexual discrimination :)

I hung around to see what developed. there was no copy of the structure available so I had to just note it down as it appeared on the screen. When I left there were 30 players left. the blinds had hit 3000/6000 with a 500 Ante. This meant that the average stack had 4 rounds of the table left. Any preflop raise means you are committing all of your chips. Right before I left I saw Willow's stack decimated as she reluctantly called a re-raise with AK to find herself up against AA. However she was not the longest lasting female, there were still 3 left. I they finish 1,2,3.

A final glance around the tables I saw that Roy the Boy had a large pile of chips as did Ken Doherty. Kevin Williamson who chopped the Fitz tourney the night before was hanging in there and the young lady who finished second in that one had a nice pile too. Goth was still in too. All the boards guys and home game players had fallen by the wayside and the bar had finally closed.

Talking to Don & Scott, they both agreed this tournament was great practice for the WSOP where muppetry abounds and is a minefield for the decent players. Everybody I spoke to thought that although it started off smoothly enough the blind and antes were madness given the time they had to finish the event. From my own experience the dealing staff were of mixed quality, some were very good and others were awful. Sean Paul had to get the dealer changed on his table after there were mistakes on three consective hands.

Will people return? They probably will. At the moment there is no one offering a tournament with a comparable prize pool and you can't fail to enjoy yourself at the venue. Is it a good tournament? Not really. A great opportunity to create a tournament that is free from the time constraints of a one nighter and with the space to accomadate a big field has been wasted. More time spent on the actual poker instead of making things look nice is the key. Both would not have been too difficult. Not for great minds like Fintan & Donal. NickyOD summed it up when I asked him how he went out - 'I was Arse-raped'. Poker was too Nicky.

On my out a guy walked past me and said ' you and your fcuking pair of eights!'
' I wasn't at your table all night', I replied, 'Plus I never had a pair of eights tonight!'
'It wasn't tonight, it was last year...'
I vaguely recognised they guy. It turns out I knocked him out of the €300 rebuy at the Merrion with 88 vs K9.

Just for the record this was the structure up until I left:

40 min clock.

25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200 with 25 ante
200/400 with 50 ante
300/600 with 75 ante
500/1000 with 100 ante
800/1600 with 150 ante
1000/2000 with 200 ante
2000/4000 with 300 ante
3000/6000 with 500 ante

or you can look at it like this:

75 /rnd
150/rnd
225/rnd
550/rnd
1100/rnd
1650/rnd
2500/rnd
3900/rnd
5000/rnd
9000/rnd
14000/rnd

Thankyou and goodnight (or morning as it is now).

An uneventful night of poker

2005-05-27T12:35:00.000+01:00

At the last minute I made the decision to nip down the M1 to enter the end of month €270 game at the Fitz. Not sure if they had the upstairs back open, I called the Pokergimp to make sure I was registered and when I got there I found a smaller field than usual. 107 players turned up, numbers maybe affected by the Pokervents €250 game today the City West.

My opening table was a pretty standard mix. I had Ivan Donaghy to my left and also on the table were Dave (Biteme from boards.ie) and Joan. The first few pots I entered I won without showing my cards and was up to just under 7000 from 5000 starting. Joan was in most of the pots and when I bet out after flopping a small two pair from the small blind she raised back at me. I had her well covered and thought I had the best of it and that she was fed up of me betting at all the pots. I re-raised substantially. After a long thought (this made me almost sure I was ahead) she moved all in for a small amount more than my bet. I called expecting TPTK but was surprised to see she had flopped a set! This set me back to just over 3000.

I went card dead for a short while, Ivan busted when he moved in on the turn with a double belly buster which missed. Vernon joined the table and as usual was in every pot with every type of hand you can imagine. He took a chunk of change off Joe O'Neill when he called a raise with 10 2. Delusions of Dolly methinks.

The next hand I played, I raised with pocket 7's and was called by Joan. I bet out on the flop which was 7 high. The turn brought straight possibilities and I bet out another 1000 leaving me with 700 back. The river made four to a straight and when Joan checked to me I just showed my 7's which were ahead. This got me back up to over 5000. Just before the break I limped with 86s and it was raised from 400 to 1000. With the blinds and my bet also I was getting over 3:1 and called. The flop dropped 8 8 2. I bet 1050 and was called quickly. When a King came on the turn I put my last 2000+ in thinking he might put me on a bluff at the King. After a long thought he folded.

After that I think I only played 4 hands in over two hours. I almost doubled up knocking someone out with QQ vs 55 and I knocked Joe O'neill out with AKs vs 910s. I stole the blinds with 77 and AKs before moving all in for 7500 on the button with A2 and finding both blinds with AJ! 22nd place and just short of the money. It was a good atmosphere and I enjoyed myself and i think I did as well as I could with the hands and positions I found myself in.

Well done to Joe 'Not O'neill' or Joe 'The blog reader' who came in 4th for €2500. Poker gimp went out after me and Davey Devil just before me. Eoighn (probably spelt it wrong again - in future blogs will be known as 'Young O'dea') O'dea was also still in when I left. Kevin williamson was sat next to my left for most of the tournament and was playing solid poker. He has qualified for the World Series, best of luck to him along with all the other Irish qualifiers.

Tonight I may make it to the CityWest tournie and I am also in the Fitz bubble tournie tomorrow.

Stay Lucky

(sorry it wasn't up first thing Joe!)

Mike

Things are getting desperate when....

2005-05-26T13:02:00.000+01:00

You think that because your big pairs are being beaten by 'inferior' hands that if you play an 'inferior' hand you will in due course beat somebody else's big pair.

Unfortunately the gods of Po'Kar do not work this way. Another attempt to qualify for the WSOP falls by the wayside mainly due to trying to get a big stack re-raising from the big blind with AQ and running into KK. I hit an Ace but a King was the first card on the flop! I had been playing a reasonably tight game up until then but as fate would have it I just made my move at the wrong time.

I also played my first round match in the Boards heads up championship. I was up against Oscar, who won a seat to the WSOP in a freeroll. The first match in a best of three went my way easily and the second was looking good when I picked up QQ and re-raised a substanstial amount pre-flop. Oscar called and the flop was 774. I put out another decent bet which was called also. When the turn was a 4 I moved in. Oscar had A4 so it was one all.
I moved into a 2:1 chip lead quickly in the second match and the 'fish' mistakenly thought AA was a good hand and got extremely lucky when I moved all in post flop with a flush and straight draw! Ah well I am busy at the moment so would have struggled to fit in the rest of the matches anyway :) Seriously though, well done to the king of dubious haircuts MK2 (Tom Murphy being MK1). He is certainly the type of player who with a smattering of fortune can go a long way in the big one.

On a side note to all readers in Ireland. Green Joker Poker is holding it's second €50 rebuy tournament next Thursday at The Europa Hotel in Drogheda. The last one paid out over €7000 and the pot is expected to be larger this time. It is also starting at the earlier time of 8.30PM.
The next one after that is booked for 16th June. A €25 rebuy this time.

Also watch this space for some exciting news about to hit the Irish Poker scene !!!

Why I am not going to the WSOP yet..

2005-05-23T21:30:00.000+01:00

KK flop is Jxx I have reraised preflop and move all in first to act on the flop. He committed half his stack preflop, does this give the guy odds to call for the rest of his chips with Ace high? well he did and hit one of his 3 outs.

A few hands later I raise with AQ and fold to a re-raise and re-re-raise, the hands AQ & JJ, the Ace flopped and then the jacks made a four flush.

Next hand I commit the remainder of my chips with AKs and come up against AQ and a Queen flops. Have I upset pokerstars in some way that I do not recall?

Rant over.

Where have I been?

2005-05-20T03:30:00.000+01:00

This is the longest I have gone without posting on this blog. I am still alive! I just have not been playing too much poker and this is a poker blog.

Why am I not playing poker?

I am extremely busy at the moment. I have a new shop opening and also I am involved in a couple of poker related projects.

The first is organising tournaments locally. The first one I am just back from and for a debut I think it went quite well. It ended up starting late as everyone had to become a member of 'The Green Joker Poker club' and also we probably had a too late start time of 9pm. This meant we had to cut down the time of some of the levels to get finished on time. We also had to decide the last 3 positions based on chip counts. Everyone seemed to enjoy the tournament though whether they made the money or not. A fair few beers were consumed and the winner out of the 76 entrants went home €2500 richer with10 players making the money as the bubble was split.

Also I have been writing some articles for Paddy Power's poker room. They are online at the moment and can be found here and here. Admittedly these did not take too long and have been up for a while.

There is also another project happening which I cannot divulge at the moment.

I have found time for a little poker but have had no successes and I have already posted enough bad beat stories in the past. there was the odd hand I went in behind but mostly it has been a case of losing too many 70-90% shots.

Congrats to Ben Grundy for his deal with Betfair and also someone else I know is close to signing a deal.

Sad to hear Mark McMahon lost his second round match in the Worlds Heads Up, but I am sure he is having a great time otherwise over there.

Lastly thanks to all my blog readers who made to the tournie and I hope to see you there next time too! (June 2nd 8PM, The Europa Hotel, Drogheda).

Hopefully I will get to play a little more soon and get some more bad beats up on this blog.

Stay Lucky

Mike

Back on the Horse...

2005-05-06T10:20:00.000+01:00

Over the last two weeks I have only played the Boards online tournies and the main event at the Fitzwilliam festival. Last night I decided to saddle up and play an online MTT. The break has done me good, I am back to laughing at any bad beats inflicted on me.

It was only a $5.50 rebuy on Pokerstars but the first prize was over $3000 as there was 659 runners so it was well worth shooting for.

As usual in these I immediately rebought. The first hand I got KK on the button, half the table was sitting out and I won the blinds with a small raise. From then on through out the rebuy I got nothing higher than Q10. I dribbled down to 1500 and rebought again. 2 mins before the end of the rebuy I am back down to 2000 chips and 2 players go all in before me. I have Q10 off and think 'what the hell' and call. AK & 1010 but I sucked out with a queen and now had 7500, a top up to 9500 and I am just over average at the first break.

The next hour I double up to 18,000. During this I raised with KK again, got one caller and flopped quads. I checked the flop and turn and he folded to my bet on the river. The other key hand was A10 suited where I flopped top pair and the nut flush draw. I end up all in vs the K high flush draw and won my biggest pot of the night.

The next hour I doubled up again to 40,000. I limped with KK UTG and got a raise from the Blig blind, I moved in and took a nice pot without a flop. I tried it again with the boots UTG and this time got no raisers and lost a small pot to a 4 flush. Then I found 10 10 in the big blind and the small blind raised into me. I flat called and for the second time I flopped quads. This time I got action on every street. I flat called until the river where I raised it up four times his bet. I should have moved in because he called instantly!

I upped my bet frequency as the blinds were getting high and won and lost about the same amount of pots. One key hand when down to 25,000 and 2000,4000 blinds I was in the big blind with 88 and reraised a mid position raiser. I won the race with AK after a K on the flop and an 8 on the river!

Down to 34 players and I have half the average chips with 60,000. I am in the Big blind with QQ and there is a raise from one of the chip leaders in mid postion. I move all in and he calls with A8o. An ace on the flop and I am 34th making a grand $40 profit for over 3 hours play!

However it was a 3 hours well spent as I am back happy with my game and did little wrong throughout the whole tournament. 'If it wasn't for bad luck...' as our favourite World Champion likes to say!

The Fitz festival main event

2005-05-02T13:20:00.000+01:00

This was a €385 double chance. I think some people thought is was a €20 rebuy. The play I saw was absolutely terrible. Unfortunately every instance of bad play I saw was rewarded.

My tournament started off with few premium hands just the odd smattering of small pairs and suited connectors. Early on at my table I saw that raises were not being respected so I just limped along with everyone else trying to hit a hand. I made two small pots and trickled my way down to 4000 of the 7000 starting chips. My biggest loss was when Harold, who eventually finished 6th turned a set of jacks, that only cost me 1500 chips. There was a guy who had frittered away half his starting chips in the first half an hour who called a raise with 2 4 suited from his big blind. He was up against two players and his call was 25% of his stack. The flop? A 3 5 of course. The initial raiser had A5 and the other caller AK, suffice to say he tripled up.

I was moved table after the break and moved back up to starting chips when I was the second caller of a steamers raise. I had J10s and a J high flop with two of my suit. I moved in for about the pot and they both folded. The steamer was steaming because he had raised without protecting his cards and the dealer only saw the callers chips and cards and accidentally mucked his hand! He went on to call IonaPaul's all in raise with QJ. Paul had AK and the steamer hit a Queen.

Shortly after this I found AA in the big blind. This was level five and blinds were 200/400. A lady raised to 1200 and the small blind called. With 2800 out there and 6000 in front of me I decided to go all in and take it there and then. The lady called so quick I thought she may have the other two Aces or at least KK. Wrong. I found a muppet who thought K10 was worth calling nearly all your stack with in the early stages of a tournament. Suffice to say a 10 on the flop and a King on the river ended my night early. For the first time in a live tournament I lost my cool a little and very loudly said ' How the F*** can you call for nearly all your chips with K10, nice hand!' and stormed off for a pint! I should be glad I found someone playing so bad as normally I would be in a good position after this hand but it hurt to get sucked out on in a decent tournament. I heard she later did something similar to a friend of mine. Please god let me drawn on her table again sometime soon....

Afterwards I had no luck in the cash game and blew off another couple of hundred, losing most when flopping a small house for someone to turn a bigger one. At least that pot went to someone I knew ! I gave up shortly after that and went for a few drinks.

A quiet week

2005-04-30T13:09:00.000+01:00

This week I have played almost no poker, the first time in ages and I actually feel better for it. I only played the Boards Omaha tournie and I did not fare too well in that. I flopped a house and NickyOD turned a bigger one!

One of the reasons I have not played is that I started playing World of Warcraft online. It is sooo addictive!

Well tonight I am off to play in the Fitzwilliam Festival's main event so hopefully a long tournament report will follow tomorrow....

A Night to forget...

2005-04-23T09:40:00.000+01:00

A welcome return last night to the Friday game. Or was it? I hadn't played in a while and I also brought along Dave AKA The Poker Gimp.

The first game started Ok when I won the first pot I played. Then the wheels came off. I called Steve's raise with KK out of position and on a Q high board managed to only lose half my stack when he showed AA. Check min-raising him on the turn and a small bet on the river saved my chips here as he was worried I was milking him when he called on the end!

Unfortunately the second time I ran into Aces I could not keep my chips. I reraised Declan all in with AK and met my doom. Dave was second out so not a good night for us.

Second game I built up a big stack with 5 left, having half the chips on the table. Suddenly my hands went dead and I was bleeding chips as the blinds started to get high. I managed to bubble when I put my last 10,000 in with A10 and ran into Sean's JJ.

Third game was more of the same. Within the first round I had two pair beaten by a flush and then I made a move with AJs and was called by A8o. No need to worry about a night with no sleep as the 8 came straight away on the flop.

I also had a last longer bet with Sean in the first game so it was not a great night profitwise!

Down & Down & Down & Up...

2005-04-19T10:45:00.000+01:00

Strange day yesterday.

I moved up in limits online and tried out the $5/$10 on Pokerstars. Not sure if my bankroll is quite ready for this! I was playing steady and had bulit up a slight profit when I called a raise with JJ109 double suited. The flop was a beautiful J 7 2 rainbow. Preflop raiser bets the pot - Aces must be methinks, So I reraise all in. Of course I was right but he hit his two outer on the river to wipe me out. Thats Omaha.

Next stop was the £2/£5 at Betfair which looks pretty fishy. This time I lost my wad when I failed to spot if my opponent had a 2 and a 4 in his hand he would have a straight and I called thinking my trip Aces were good. Lesson learned. I rebought and got back to even on Betfair.

In the evening I had a meeting in Dublin which conveniently finished in time for the €100 freezeout. Well in time for me to play 8 hands! My downfall was started when I disbelieved Dave O'Callahan and called him all the way down on a 66546 board with JJ to find him with KK. I got the remainder in with 44 on a flop of 567 and was up against an AJ flush draw. Black Ace on the river sealed my fate and I was first out!

Whilst waiting for more dropouts to start the cash game I played a few hands of blackjack. I am currently reading 'Bringing down the house' so my interest in this game is rekindled. I won 10 hands in a row with two black jacks which was nice. Pity I am not much of a gambler as I only had €5 on each time.

I was called to the €50 Omaha only which was made up of a lot of the bigger game players. First hand I make a full house only to run into Quads - BUY IN! From then on things ran a bit smoother, obviously with the odd hiccup, it is Omaha after all! By the end of my session I had turned my 2nd €100 into €855 which was nice. Especially as most of the table could normally be found regularly in the bigger game.

Oops!

2005-04-16T10:53:00.000+01:00

I went down to the Fitz last night to play the €50 rebuy. There was a smaller field than normal, seventy seven players took their seats including a couple of spare dealers.

The first pot I limped along with the whole table with a A8 suited and the flop had two of my suit plus a pair. I was the only one to call a bet of 200 and it was then checked down to the river where my ace was outkicked. This was really weak by me, but with everyone in the pot I expected him to have a 10 and that he was waiting to trap me!

The table was allowing a lot of limping, I did not have the cards to stop this but had a look at the flop a few times myself without hitting. With the blinds at 50/100 I got JJ and raised to 400 only to be called by Vernon. A 10 high flop looked safe enough so I bet out another 400 and was called. An Ace on the turn and I bet again, he calls again. The river was a rag so I moved in for 600, he had only 225 left and folded.

After he lost his remaining chips Neil took his rebuy chips off him with JJ!

I lost a little here and there including 600 to Neil when he flopped a boat and slowplayed allowing me to put in a small bet on the river with my measly underpair! Just before the break I picked up AQ and with only 1200 left in front of me and 3 limpers I moved in. Kevin decided to see if I was robbing with A10 and I doubled up.

With the add on I started with just over 6000 after the break which I thought was comfortable. I lost over a 1500 quite quickly in missed flops with hands such as KQs and J10s and then I looked down at QQ. I was in early position so I raised it to 1200 which was four times the big blind. I was called by one player in the small blind. He had slightly more chips than me. The flop was J high - all clubs. I had the Q of clubs. He bet 1500 into a pot of 2800. Assuming he would not lead out and bet with a flopped flush I moved in. Oops. He had thought that A3 suited was worthy of calling off a fifth of his stack with pre-flop. Well you want them to do that I suppose but it still hurts when they get lucky. Really I should have known he would not bet without a hand, I seen enough of his play. He had called 1000 preflop when blinds were 50/100 with 89s and called the rest when he flopped a flush draw.

I went down to the cash game though and had my best result in it so far. I bought into the €50 game for €160 and left with €686. So I made €416 profit on the night which is not too bad.

I love paddy power !

2005-04-14T03:06:00.000+01:00

I really really really do! After another bubble finish in the boards tournie I decided to have a go at the $7,500 gtd. For the second time in a week I have won a multi on Paddy's. This time a for a very nice $2648.

Interesting hands:

Early in rebuy I move all in with 10 10 and get two callers I make quads on the river.

Later on I limp preflop with 88. Flop is 88J and someone moves all in in front of me! Quads twice in a tournament. I have not had them all year!

With a few position plays and blind steals those two pots got me to the final table with 30,000 chips. With 640,000 in play I was in 8th position and in no place to win. However I had a newbie to my left and he had the chip lead. I targetted him and doubled through him twice and stole many pots with nothing. Gradually players were knocked out and by the time there were 3 left I was on 75,000 with the other two on nearly 300,000 each. I got up to 110,000 before doubling through the seeming experienced american player when he did not believe my reraise post flop with AK. There was a king on the flop and he was drawing very thin with AJ! He eventually got his chips back through the newbie who was exceedingly generous at times. He knocked him out and had a 2:1 chip lead over me heads up. First hand I almost doubled up with AQ and took about 10 more hands to finish him off. The final hand I got him to move in when I was holding the 2nd nut flush and he was drawing dead.

During the whole tournament yet again I suffered no bad beats. I went in ahead every time I committed all my chips and was only beaten in a race once when my 88 lost to a shortstacks AK.

Current mood: Very happy.

€50 Double chance

2005-04-13T14:16:00.000+01:00

A few more entries this week saw 44 players contesting this tournament. I doubled up early on through Tom when I made a bad post flop call after he reraised my reraise. I had thought he was re-stealing after losing the last pot. As it was he had flopped a set and I caught a higher set on the river. Sometimes you find that a player has a hold over another player whatever the cards and just seems to win any big clashes. This is the third tournie in a row I have won a large pot against Tom!
I picked up some more chips when a guy moved in and I was holding a set of tens which filled up on the river for both of us, my boat being bigger.

After the break I dumped 1500 chips to Marq chasing a flush draw before the table broke. All my 'be nice to see a flop with this' hands were missing and my stack was dwindling until I picked up JJ UTG. I raised 3x BB and all folded to the big blind who moved in for 250 more. I called and won against 99. The very next hand I picked up AA in the BB. It was raised UTG by Ken Cheah. I missed some value here as I moved in. I thought he was strong enough to call and also that after I had a big pair the previous hand he might not believe me this time. He folded quickly.

Nothing happened for me for the rest of my time on that table and I was moved to table 1 with 14 left. I had 5000 chips and as the blinds went up to 300,600 I found AK UTG. I am almost half average chips and go looking for a double up by moving in. A lady in the small blind takes an age before finally calling with 10 10. I cannot improve and my tournament is over.

I bought into the cash game and after playing for over an hour without winning or losing much I end up all in on a flop of KQ8 with two hearts. I have KKxx. The post flop raiser had been bluffing and held only a gutshot draw which he managed to hit on the river to send me back home with my tail between my legs! This I believe was karma for sucking out on Tom earlier!

Bubble boy no more !

2005-04-11T02:59:00.000+01:00

My weekend of poker started with a 4th in a freezout on Paddy power on Friday for $80 profit. I played a WSOP steps on Party on Saturday and made it to level 2 before falling asleep and finishing in 5th to go back down to level 1. Later in the evening I kept finishing in 3rd or 4th and having a free go back at level 1. Eventually on Sunday I finished 6th and got $7!.

I played in the Boards tournament and the less said about that the better.

I then played a STT on Paddy Power whilst waiting for the $100 Freezeout to start. A 2nd in the STT was followed by my first online MTT win for a while ( Boards excluded ).

There were only 45 runners and as usual on Paddy's it was played like a rebuy. I sat tight and waited for hands and gradually I built an above average stack. Unusually I was involved in no bad beat hands all they way through the tournament. I won most of my chips without a showdown. As the blinds got bigger my aggression increased and my earlier tight image was rewarded. I never put my whole stack at risk throughout the tournament although I made a preflop call for most of my chips with JJ against an UTG raise from a player I suspected was at it, as he had lost a couple of big pots. He was and had 5 7 ! This put me in a commanding position although only 2rd in chips as the final table started.

I had the chip leader two to my left and he was reraising any steal attempts of his blinds. I changed my tactics and just called from the button and bet when it was checked to me. This seemed to work and the small blind nearly always came along so it was more profitable as well. A couple of times my rags actually hit the flop and I got paid.

Another key hand which gave me the chip lead with 4 left was a call of a loose players all in on the river. I had put him on a busted flush draw and I had paired my 7 with a 9 kicker. I would still have had just below average chips and my read was correct as he had overcards to a flush draw only.

I picked off another bluff to knock out the 4th place finisher with another river call with second pair. 3rd ran his KJ into my AQ, he hit a jack but I rivered a wheel. This was the only time I had to come from behind all tournie and I was ahead when the chips went in.

I started heads up with 55k to 35k and had him whittled down to less than 20k quite quickly betting and raising like a mad thing. He was folding or moving in and I knew it would just be a matter of time before I caught him. I made up the blinds with 97 suited and the flop came 9 5 2 with two of my suit. He moved all in and I called. His K 5 never improved and I was $1800 richer.

It just goes to show if you keep plugging away and doing everything right you will be rewarded.

Congratulations to Ben Grundy AKA The milky bar kid who won considerably more than me when finishing 3rd in the 750 pound main event at the Gutshot.

More bubbles than Fairy liquid...

2005-04-08T14:56:00.000+01:00

Again, the 4th time in 4 weeks, I finished on the bubble. Well technically it wasn't the bubble but it was as good as. I was playing the Fitz freeroll and ended up 5th out of 120+. 1st & 2nd got tickets to the €385 main event at the festival and 3rd & 4th got €270 tickets. I got €60 credit! QQ vs AA battle of the blinds killed me off. I was the short stack anyway. Still I jumped into a cash game for an hour and made a €150 profit so it was not too bad a night. It was also good to see my hold over Tom Murphy is still good, Q 8 good enough to crush his AK at one point.

Same old story..

2005-04-06T22:54:00.000+01:00

I had chips - I lost them ! On the bubble....

I was in Dublin for a meeting and ended up in the Fitz to play the 50euro double chance. There were only 37 runners so I fancied my chances. My starting table had only one player I knew sat at it, Graham Thew, younger brother of Julian. After a few hands it was clear who the calling stations were and who could be bluffed. I won a small pot from position with nothing to move straight up to 2000 chips from 1500 starting.

After dabbling in a few pots I found myself seeing a flop of 7 3 2 holding 7 3 from the small blind. The flop was checked and when an 8 appeared on the turn I bet 125 into a 200 pot. I was immediately raised to 400 so I moved back over the top and was called by A 8 and doubled up.

I won a few small pots to keep my stack steady and then saw a flop of 9 10 Q holding 9 10. It had been raised a small amount preflop and there were three of us in. A loose player bet out 200 to make 800 in the middle. I reraised to 1700 expecting to take it there and then. The only guy to act was a tight player and I didn't see him calling a raise from early position with KJ - WRONG! Any how he called and so did the original raiser. The turn brought me no help but I moved in anyway for my last 800. I was called by KJ and AJ and sucked out bigtime when a 10 came on the river to fill me up. Now I was a clear chip leader.

I took my stack up to just over 10,000 until the hand before the break when Graham raised to 300 from UTG. I put 5000 in which more than covered him with AK and he called with Queens. No help and I was back down to 7200, I had taken my extra chips by now but was still above average in chips.

After the break I worked it up to 9000 before the table broke and I was moved to table 2 where Tom Murphy and crazy Vernon sat. I was getting rubbish now and every time I folded a real garbage hand I saw flops come which would have scooped me massive pots!

Eventually I came into a pot from the button with QJ. It was a five way pot and over 1000 chips were in the middle preflop. I have dwindled down to 6850 after my call. The flop is Q Q 7 with two diamonds. Small blind bets 1200, Tom calls, the rest fold to me. I move in and the original bettor folds. Tom is now agonising over whether to call. He must have a flush draw. He did. It missed. I get a lot of chips. He goes out next hand.

I work it up to 17800 when 5 handed and playing for the final table bubble. I see a flop with 99 from the small blind. It is 345 with two clubs. Everyone is in so 4,000 lies out there. I move all in. For some reason Vernon has to think before calling with A2. Vernon is the only guy in the comp with more chips than me. Goodnight.

Stupid or not? A2 or 56 is the only hands I am worried about. The others would not limp with a pair higher than 9's. If I bet Vernon is likely to reraise with anything (he had the goods for a change). If I check I let someone hit a flush or 4 card straight or an overpair. I think I made the right move at the wrong time.

On a really stupid note I forgot to change the default setting on the Boards forum online game tonight and we ended up playing a limit tourney! I thought it was fun but I'm sure people are not best pleased with me! Sorry guys, Omaha High low next?

How to build a stack and lose it ...

2005-04-04T12:15:00.000+01:00

Step 1 : Play premium hands and also capitalise on any sneaky hands you flop from the blinds to get ahead of the rest.

Step 2 : Increase you bugeoning supply of chips with controlled aggression

Step 3 : Lose it all when you put someone on the wrong hand and run into quads! (twice)

Who said poker was difficult?

I played two tournies last night. The first was the Boards end of month ( a week late ) which has double points for the league. I lost a third of my starting chips early and then began to rebuild winning small pots and then took out a player with 4 2 from the small blind. Flop was J 4 2 and after a reraising war it all went in with him holding KJ. I was finding hands that I could reraise with and was taking a lot of pots preflop. By the time we were down to one table I was holding double second places chips. I exited new blogger PokerGimp when he unadvertently ran into my rockets.
Down to 5 players and Ionapaul had managed to build a stack just short of mine when I raised into his BB. I had A10 and I put him on a mid pair or high Ace. I have him marked as a solid player. When the flop came A99, I thought I may be ahead and when he check called I reassessed and put him definately on AK or AQ. The turn killed me. It was a 10. Now I really thought I was ahead and when he checked I bet larger hoping it would look like a steal. I got what I expected when he re-raised. Lovely I thought and shoved them in. Oops. He flipped over K9 and made quads on the river.

Next I played the Betfair £7k gtd. Only 565 runners in this £10 event so a nice overlay. I played really tight early on and was rewarded when a couple of big hands came my way and I doubled up twice in the 5th level. Once I had chips and the blinds had increased I gradually increased my aggression and was accumulating chips nicely. I had well over twice the average when I again ran into Quads. This time it was all in preflop and I was holding QQ vs JJ. No messing, two knaves on the flop and I was badly dented.
I moved back up again, partly due to the rockets holding up again. I flopped sets twice from early position but did not make too much as both flops were suited and straightening and I have a strict no free cards policy in that situation. Unfortunately someone did not understand the policy third time around. On a flop of 10 8 6 I had 66. In early position I bet out the pot only to be called by a goon with 8 5 un suited. Turn was a 5 and it all went in. River was an 8. House over house and I am crippled again.
Back to building, this time taking chances with any hands where I have position in an unopened pot. I peak at 27,000 chips when down to 40 players but the blinds and antes on Betfair at this stage mean it is by no means safe. I am duty bound to call the extra 2000 when somebody moves in for 8000 and the Big blind is 6000 with 8000 in antes also in the middle. Of course my K3 is no good. I end up finishing 19th for £70 when all in from the big blind with 3 6 off suit.

Still I made a profit of over $100 on the night for about 5 hours work.

Live poker is rigged !

2005-03-31T12:18:00.000+01:00

Well the hands I have played in cash games recently certainly come up to the standard that would bring the crys of 'FIX!'.

At the weekend I was playing in a NL cash game at Citywest and managed to build up a nice stack and then get it all in on the flop with KQ on a Q high flop. I was pretty sure I was ahead when I moved in, when he called I thought I had messed up. But no he had Q7, there was no back door flushes or straights available so he was looking at 3 sevens as outs. Sure enough it appeared on the river.

Last night I was in Dublin and ventured in the Fitz and sat down at the €50 PL Holdem/Omaha game along with half of the Irish poker forum.

I lose half my €150 buy in when Norman raises blind UTG and gets 3 callers before me. I call 'for value' with 6 4 offsuit. Flop comes 775 and Norman moves all in. Loose drunk guy calls. I decide to call to see the turn and it is a 3. Loose guy still has plenty and he had previously called an all in from Tom on the river with Q high so I moved in hoping for a side pot saver. After a long dwell he folded and I proudly flip over my straight and Stormin flips over his 55 !

Norman manages to flop another house and get paid about €400 from a couple of other players. One whom had flopped the lower house. Then he raises blind again and I call with A10 along with a couple of others. The flop comes A A 3 ! Surely I have him beat this time? No way jose! he turns over AK when we get it all in. This time an online 10 river doubles me back up to starting level.

A few hands later I manage to get two people all in with Broadway and a draw to the nut flush on the turn. No paired board and I am now up to €380.

I lose a bit here and there until I get into a hand with DapperGent. I have raised with AA74 double suited preflop and the flop comes Q44. Every body checks to me and I bet the pot. Everybody folds to Dapper who moves his chips in so fast I didn't even see it! He shows QQ and I say 'Uh Oh, I need an Ace then?'. Lovely jubbly a big black Ace of spades on the turn! - Sorry Dapper!

Just before I leave I lose a chunk of change to Tom. It was Omaha and I have QQA2, the A2 is diamonds and the board is 10 high with a straight draw but two diamonds. Tom has bet the pot which is €85. I am going to fold but Mark calls. Now I am getting 3:1 to hit any diamond or any queen, almost exactly what I need. Not quite but I figured I would get a little on the river if I hit. Of course I didn't and Tom left up with €700 from his initial €150 buy in. I left with €280 so I made a little profit.

Irish Open Main Event

2005-03-27T21:59:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the big one. I was feeling confident that I was playing well enough to make a decent showing. My bubble on Thursday was disappointing but to get so far through a strong field was positive.

My table had no big players at it, however there were two tricky locals, Christy and Kevin. Kevin had made the final on Thursday and I had knocked him out of the final table at the Fitz the previous Friday.

I played a tight game early on, mainly because I was being dealt a load of rubbish and I am not inclined to bluff my chips off early. The first pot I played was with AK from the small blind. I raised to 250 and was called by the big blind. The flop was 8 9 10. Not great for me and I laid it down to a bet on the turn when a 7 came.

The next pot I played was with JJ from the small blind. I was the only caller to a raise by Kevin. I check called 400 on the flop and turn and when the river completed a board of 10 high rainbow I was surprised Kevin never bet again as he showed QQ. I feel I got way from this hand cheaply as I would have difficulty not calling bigger bets here.

JJ was dealt to me again in the big blind a round later and I called a raise from Tony Cooney who was sitting on my left. When he put out a bet just above the pot on a Queen high board with two spades I had him for AQ and pricing me out of a potential draw ( there was a 10 on the flop as well ). I laid down face up and he showed 7 2 ! I was not too bothered as it gave me a great tight image which I planned to use later on. My table was number 7 and unless I was moved to balance I would be here for a while.

I think my image helped me get some chips back a few hands later when I raised with 77 from the small blind and was called by the big. He bet the flop and turn for 500 each time, the intial raise of mine was to 250. The flop was J 3 5 all hearts, when he bet I could not give him a heart and when the turn and river were not hearts I bet 600. He folded after a long dwell.

I called a few raises with small pocket pairs but missed every time and two were multiway which were bet and raised post flop before action got to me. I was starting to fall behind average when I picked up AK UTG. I decided to play them like AA. I limped and got a raise from Yucel 'The Mad Turk'. His raise was to 900 and the blinds were still 75/75/150. I reraised to 2500 and was surprised to see him call. The flop came queen high and after a short think I decided to move all in for 5300 into a 5300 pot. He thought for a while before folding.

I won a few pots from position and made a peak of 12,000 chips. I kept them around 10,000 for 3 more levels until I dropped to 8000 during the 6th level. Blinds were now 200 200 400 so it was 800 a round. I was not in any real danger but the average chips were now twice what I had. I had picked up nothing for ages, in fact the two pairs of jacks were the best hands I saw all night. I then found AK suited UTG and made a raise to 1100. I was called only by one of the small blinds. When the flop came 6 5 3 two of my suit and he bet 2000, I decided to move all in over the top. I figured I had overcards and a flush draw if he called. I thought my table image would make him drop a small overpair or a TPTK. Unfortunately he had flopped a set of sixes and I missed my spade draw and that was the end of my tournament. 101st from 174 runners.

I could have easily folded to his bet but I wanted to start accumulating chips. With the blinds about to go up t0 300 300 600, I would have had only just over 5 rounds left if I folded. When he bet out I could not take him for a set and I had seen him bluff people out of pots a couple of times earlier. Obviously I am disappointed not to have gone deeper but I still think I played a good game.

I had a good time afterwards doing the reporting for Blonde Poker 's live updates as Tikay was still in the competition. Sean from the Friday game lasted a while longer than me but when short stacked he went out with 'F***ing Sh**e'. His words, not mine.

It was an enjoyable if unprofitable festival. There are some thing that need correcting before the next however.

Three times people came back after a break and chip race to find chips missing from their stacks. I recall this happening to Andy Bloch at the WPC last year.

The blind structure for the main event was a concern for a lot of players as it started to descend into a crapshoot compared to similar two day events. The clock could be increased to 1hr and the levels eased if an earlier start time was used.

Charging 2euro for a coffee stunk. As did the coffe itself.

The chips were too similar in colour, it cost Christy 4000 chips as he threw in a 5000 instead of a 1000.

There were however a lot more positives.

The venue was spacious, if a little cold.

Paddy Power were a great sponsor. Every night they ordered a rake of pizzas for everyone and also provided a chinese at 4.30 in the morning.

There were plenty of satellites to fit all budgets, from 2 tables to 1 table single hand shootouts.

Despite the higher buy ins the turnout was great, with plenty of top players and locals.

The Guinness was good.

And 7 out the final table, which is playing as I write, are Irish !

Bubble Trouble !

2005-03-25T09:39:00.000Z

I wandered down the M1, along the M50 and a little bit up the N7 to the Citywest hotel last night to check out the setting for the Irish Open. I half had a mind to play the €500 rebuy as long as it wasn't going to be a mad all in fest. I bumped into Joe Costello from the Friday home game at the door and as we entered I saw Thomas Kremser and enquired about the structure for tonights event.

5000 starting chips
Rebuys for 90 mins only when no chips left
45 min clock
3 blind structure

Not too bad says I and anted up the €550 and drew a seat.
Notables in the running :

Sean Fagan, Deco & Joe from the Friday game, plus cousin Anthony
Padraig P
Scott Grey
Peter Roche
Mick McCloskey
Alan Betson
Julian & Graham Thew
Julian Gardiner & Dave Gardiner
Mad Marty Wilson
Noel Furlong
Willie Tann
Paul Leckey
Tony ' Tikay' Kendall
Dave 'El Blondie' Colclough
Kevin O'connell
Rory Liffey
Carlo Citrone
Howard Plant
Stormin' Norman
Joe O'Neill
Liam Flood
George Geary
Rumit Somaya
Roy Brindley
John Shoreman
E O'dea

Plus a lot of other top Europeans and the best from the Fitz and Merrion.

My starting table was pretty tight early on, apart from when I raised the pot! Every time I had 3 callers and missed completely. I won a few later on, mostly with weak hands from the blinds which held up in pots checked to the river. My best hand pre freeze was 1010 and that was the first hand dealt to me !

As we entered the freezeout section Joe was in the best shape of the home game players with over 9000, everyone else was around starting chips. 133 players had paid in and they were only paying 13 places, a fact Thomas Kremser did not seem too happy with, but it was out of his control. €38,000 for first would have been nice.

As play resumed I started to make some progress, just before our table broke I was allowed to see a flop from one of the small blinds with K4 of hearts. Flop comes A106 all hearts. Yum. I check, big blind bets 600 into 800 pot. The other two in the hand fold. Here I raise to see where I am. He calls the extra 900. I now am sure he has trips or a lower flush. I forget the turn but it didn't pair the board and I bet half my stack and was called. No pair again on the river and I move my last 1000 or so in and get called. He never showed but said he flopped trips.

The table broke the very next hand and I was moved to a new table containing Sean and Noel Furlong to my right and 'The Brown Bomber' and Joe ' a blog reader' to my left.
The Brown Bomber had the biggest chips stack, Sean named so as he kept bombarding the pots with his brown 5000 chips. Apparently his play and hand selection were not the Mae West. He had sent Noel on tilt earlier, and then the whole table, Mad Russian's have a habit of doing that to you!

I started off wining a fair pot against Noel, I flopped top pair with K9 and called a bet on the flop and turn and raised on the river when no other cards above a 10 where showing with the King. Noel didn't take long to fold. A couple of hands later I picked up 99 and with 2 limpers I made it 3000 to go. Blinds were now 200,200,400. A guy from the Fitz, Dave, came back over the top after limping UTG. Mmmm. Big pocket pair. I was getting over 4:1 from the pot and had the chips to call and he duly turned over QQ. However, for the first time in ages I sucked out on an over pair. Flop came 9 10 J, No kings, Queens or eights saw me up to just over 20,000, well above average.

The Brown bomber then threw away his chips in two amazing pots. It was unbelievable. First he called off half his stack after the river left him playing the board. His Hand? - 9 3 . Then he called on the river again with AK after no aces or kings appeared. Nice donation, why couldn't I have been the recipient?

The table was broken and I moved to another. The only face I recognised was a guiy from the Fitz and Carlo. They both went out on the same hand. Carlo moved in with pocket 10's. Joe Rafferty, the table chip leader called and Fitz guy came over the top with AJ. Joe called after some thought and flipped up KK. A king on the flop and it was over.

David Lloyd joined the table as did Joe from my previous table. Nothing dramatic in the level, I moved in uncalled with JJ UTG and with QQ from the BB also uncalled. This kept my stack level although now below average. I was card dead for a while and chipped down to 14000 before I was moved to a new table.

Dave Colclough to my right, Tikay to my left along with chip leader Andy Black. Just at the right time I picked up KK in the big blind as Dave raised from the button with AK. They held up and I was back over 25,000. I lost all but 5000 to the other member of Blonde Poker when I couldn't get QQ to stand up against his AK.

All folded to me in the small blind. I put all my chips in with J4 off suit and Dave Lloyd passed but Andy Black called with 10 8 from the BB. Two Jacks on the board and I double up. I move in next hand with K7 and take down the 4000 blinds. Next hand I look down at KK. A raise to 6000 before me and lovely jubbly he calls with 77. No need to worry about the seven on the river as a king appears on the flop. A nice swing from 5000 to 34,000 in three hands.

We are now down to three tables and soon two as the shortstacks start to fall. Joe ends up about 20th. After a rush of cards I find I have gone card dead again. They are definately like buses! I find one spot to steal, otherwise the pots are opened by the bigger stacks and I do not have enough to make them lay a hand down.

As we hit 14 players I am the lowest stack with 21,000. I think it could be my day when Mika Pura clashes with Dave O'Niell and is left with 1500 chips. A few hands later he has 34,000! He should have been knocked out when all in vs 3 players but a numpty decided his Ace with very weak kicker was worth a bet on the turn. Marty folded a weak flush draw and Mika showed down a better Ace to quadruple up. I believe he then had Aces twice in a few hands.

Marty then became the shortest stack. He had loads of chips but a badly timed all in from the BB cost him half. 57 offsuit vs AA doesn't win often. He lost more when he made a flush vs a full house. He went all in with KQ vs 3 players, I could see his queen from standing behind him. Another value bet, on the river this time. When it was called I thought Marty must be gone, but no the other two had smaller pairs.

Meanwhile on the other table I found myself down to 13,000 with 4000 of it in the big blind and two more 2000 blinds to move through me. The levels were going up by the next time the blinds came round. I looked down and saw 66 and made my last stand when a small raise came from Dave Gardiner from the first small blind. I was happy enough when I saw K6. Only one overcard is about the best I could hope for. A king came early on the flop to put me out of my misery and into it so to speak! My second bubble in as many weeks ! Still the from is still good so my hopes are high for the big one on Saturday.

It was good to get used to the 3 blind structure, it creates a lot more action. It was also good to meet some more great players and readers of my blog. It is weird to find out players like Alan Betson and Scott Grey have read it. It is almost like a Leinster league player finding out Roy Keane reads his Blog! I cooled down in the bar listening to Mad Marty ( he exited the hand after me!) , Sean, Scott & Alan swapping tales and jokes, mostly jokes.

Sean played in a one table satellite for the main event and after saying he would come back and win it when forced all in from the big blind with his last 400, he did. He ended up beating John Shoremand heads up and now plays on Saturday for only €216. Nice one Sean.

Well it's back down tonight after 2 hours sleep to play the €100 rebuy. There may be a report tomorrow morning if I have time. Hopefully two bubbles is my lot for March.

All systems go..

2005-03-24T16:16:00.000Z

So I failed again to qualify for the Irish open online last night. I am not surprised, the loose play on Tribeca does not suit my game at all. I did not find any hands other than QQ twice. I double up with it in the rebuy and had to lay it down post flop in the freezeout section. I ended up making a move with 55. Now I called with this hand to a raise of 4000 from early position. Blinds were still 300/600 at this point but I only had just over 3000 left. I ended up in a race with K7. That just goes to show the standard of play. Who in their right mind raises such an amount from this position with this hand ? From the cut off or button I can understand, but can you really call a reraise with it ?

Anyway I am definately playing in the main event. I have been backed for part of the buy in by some people who have confidence in me. I was really very surprised at the amount of people who have offered to buy a % of me, most of whom I only know through this blog or Boards.ie. Obviously I will be doing my utmost to give them a good return on the investment.

I will also be playing the €100 rebuy tomorrow night and the €150 rebuy on Sunday. There is a slim chance I may have a crack at the €500 tonight if I get there in time. It depends whether it is unlimited rebuys or a rebuy and top up. If I can double up early I won't be at much of a disadvantage if I don't top up.

Reports will be uploaded whenever possible. Blondepoker will be providing live updates on the forum.

Happy easter everyone. Don't eat too many eggs !

Getting there...

2005-03-22T10:03:00.000Z

This weekends MTT's although not a resounding success, certainly do something for the confidence. From Friday through to Sunday I played 7, finshing in the money or at the final table of 6 of them.

First was the live €50 rebuy at the Fitz where we chopped most of the money 5 ways. I finished 5th officially when I suffered the worst outdraw ever when the Hammer was cracked by AK!

Saturday night I played the Irish open Qualifier and made the final table, finishing short of a seat when AK was beaten by AQ,

Sunday I played a freeroll Omaha H/L on VC whilst waitin for the Forum tourney to start. With over 100 runners I made it to third for $60 of free money.

In the Forum Tourney I came back from a low stack heads up to beat Imposter1 for my first win in this one. Only 14 runners, probably due to Liverpool vs Everton but still a MTT!

Later in the evening I played two Betfair MTT's. One a $20 affair with 82 runners. I finished 7th when A10 ran into the monster that is A9 - Some day someone will miss their low kicker against me ! The other was a 361 runner $10 event. I made it 22nd, once again crippled by two outdraws in succesive hands - AK vs A6 and JJ vs K7. K7 guy reraised me all in thinking my raise was a tilter! All in all these Betfair jobbies netted me about $100.

I am beginning to wonder what is worse, me getting married to AK or the other folk trying to take me off pots with Ax and getting lucky. I am due a run where AK holds up about 10 times in a row to make the amount of times it has cost me a good position. It does hold up for me occasionally, I won a big pot with it at the final table on Friday, but at the moment it is probably the most costly hand I play.

The Week Ahead

Well it is Irish Open week. Time to play a few against the big boys and see what happens. Still debating with myself whether to commit the extra money for the Main Event. I know I can cut it amongst the competition, but it is a lot of money to lose on the turn of a card. So far I have people who want to buy 20% which is halfway there to not having to dip into money previously taken out of the bankroll. There is still one more qualifier on Paddy Power, hopefully I can win a seat there. If not then I am definately playing the €100 rebuy on the Friday and the €150 rebuy on the Sunday. If I cash on the Friday then I am in on the Saturday.

There has been a lot of negativity about the Irish Open this year, particulary on The Hendon Mob Forum. Some of the comments are beyond belief. I did make a boob in my reply when I metioned the added money and that the EPT did no have any. This was of course incorrect and was taken as a knocking of the EPT which wasn't what I meant. Pokerstars and John Duthie put a lot of time and money to make it the event that all large buy in events should aspire to be like.

The two events are comparable though. The Irish open has a similar amount of added money - €20,000 to be exact and as Padraig Parkinson pointed out, Paddy Power have probably spent a lot more than that promoting the event. All the qualifiers online are partly subsidised by $300 a piece. The move out of the casino into a hotel is a good thing. Firstly it opens up the capacity to provide a bigger field. To be able to hold a big field in one room also makes for a better run tournamnent and a less cramped atmosphere. Yes, the locals will have to travel outside of town, but do they all really live in the city centre anyway ? Yes, the buy ins are more than usual, do you want to play against the best players for a big prize ? If you want smaller buy ins then the Fitzwilliam has an excellent festival on at the end of April, but don't expect the same kind of prize pools. The registration fee of the Main Event is also being criticised, but at €150 it is only 7 1/2% of the entry fee which is not excessive and can you really expect people to organise tournaments for you and make no money? Come on, live in the real world - poker is a business!
What astounds me most at the person complaining most - Mr Mark Strahan, runs one of the biggest rip off websites out there. £65 + delivery charge for WPT 2005 DVD's and only recently has he stopped charging people for access to his website which is just a collection of links. Pot calling the kettle black is a phrase that springs to mind.

Anyway rant over ! I'll be there all weekend anyway !

Is the Irish open not to be ?

2005-03-20T00:27:00.000Z

I played in the Irish open qualifier on Paddy Power last night and after a shaky start I built up a good amount of chips. In the rebuy period I had AK beaten by AQ and also ran 1010 into JJ. I still managed to get up to 9600 including the top up. I worked that up to 50,000 by the final table and was sitting comfortably in 3rd position. A big call against the guy who outdrew me with AQ was instrumental in my chip increase, I had been waiting for him to bluff into me all night and finally got him calling with J10 on a 10 high board with a 3 flush on it. I have not been so confident in a call like that for a long time !
I also took some chips off Mick O'hara (culchie) when he minimum raised my blind and I called with Q5 offsuit and hit a set of queens on the flop. Obviously not paying enough attention to my blog Mick! This was almost exactly the same as the hand against The Camel in Deauville. I wish however I had set Mick all in and he had a hand to call as he came to back to bite me ! Twice !
I had raised my standard 3 times the blind UTG with 6 left holding AK. Mick obviously thought I was at it as he reraised all in for about 10,000 less than I had. For the second time in the night AQ outdrew my AK and I was down to 12,000 with the blinds coming at 800,1600. I probably was not low enough to justify moving in UTG with A6 suited but I was steaming a little. Anyway Culchie woke up with AQ again and I decide not to outdraw him :)
The other guy who outdrew me with AQ finished fourth and Culchie bubbled - so let this be a warning to you all - OUTDRAWING ME DOES NOT PAY! Only kidding, I wanted Culchie to win it but he ran QQ into a flop with AK and this left him short and then he was outdrawn himself with QJ vs Q7, two sevens hit the board.
After he was knocked out, Culchie phoned me to apologise about the hand which was a nice gesture, but unneccesary. I can't fault anybody making a move with AQ six-handed.
I am happy with the way I am playing and may use last nights win to finance an entry into the Irish open but I don't really want to add 900 euro of non bankroll money. Anybody who fancies a stake in me - 200 euro for 10% then let me know. I can't promise I won't get outdrawn though. With over 200 confirmed already 1st should pay over 140,000. 14,000 is not a bad return for 200!

I wasn't supposed to be there !

2005-03-19T10:44:00.000Z

Friday night is home night. Well it is normally. Half way to Dublin I get a call from Sean Paul to let me know they don't have enough to play a game for various reasons. He says there may be some other players who may come but he would phone me back within 15 minutes to let me know. I decide to carry on an head to the Fitzwilliam if the game is off. I get no phone call so carry on to the Fitz and take a seat in the €50 Rebuy. Just as I take my seat a message comes through via text - 'Game on'. 'Ah well too late', I reply,'I'll phone when I'm knocked out'.

I never made that phone call as I was still sitting at the table in the Fitz at 4am.

The competition started off pretty dreadful. I had about 1200 left of my starting 2000 by the time the add on came. I won one pot just before the add on when I moved in UTG with AQ and took the blinds. The add on is 3000, you only get a rebuy or an addon so it is almost like a €100 double chance.

A few hands later I raise from late position with AJ frustrated at getting no cards. The button and Big Blind call. Flop is A rag rag with two diamonds. I bet out 800 into a 1200 pot and am raised to 3000 by the button. I have only seen him play a couple of hands and he had good cards in both and showed down a winner each time. I had to give him credit for a better kicker or two pair.

The cards failed to appear for the next hour or so and I was moved table with 2000 chips left. I came in near the button and was moved just as the blind was about to hit me into the button of another table! I played no hands until the blinds had moved through me. They were at 200/400 by now so I had 1400 left. A young guy (Owen from Wicklow) open the pot for 1500 in mid position and all folded to me. I looked down at JJ and threw in my 1400. For some reason he though it was a good idea to rob with 10 7 off suit and I doubled up.

I move table at least 3 times in the next few rounds and by the time the blinds are 400/800 I have dwindled down to 2100. I move in UTG+1 with Q8, the cards I was getting this was a monster! I am called by QJ. Oh dear. Not so, a lovely 8 on the flop and I have the most chips I have had all night - 5200!

Things start to look up when I am in a pot with Owen again with JJ vs his 77 and double through again. AA vs KK and I manage to cripple a guy, I finish him off with AJ vs J5. Then I take out Owen with A10 vs 1010. I had raised preflop and he flat called. Flop is all low clubs, I have the Ace. He checks and I put him all in. He calls and the jack of clubs hits on the turn.Some nights one person seems to have the beating of you, tonight I was that man for Owen.

We are down to 3 tables from the initial 97 players and I have gone from 2000 to 35000 chips in a round. Another table move as we hit 20 players and I have 40,000. My new table has John Paul who plays in the Forum tournies and Mark McMahon who is a friend of Catherines friend and has just won seats online to the Irish Open and the WSOP. John Paul runs JJ into KK. Mark and I make to the final table.

There was a bit of a mix up with out chips at this point. We went outside for a smoke to come back and find out chips moved for us. They didn't look right though, Mark had too many and me too little but apparently the stacks had not been mingled. We sort of worked out what each other should have had. I knew I had over 30,000 and settled on 32,000. Apparently it was out fault for not waiting until the new table had formed before having the break. Mark, fair play, still thought he had too many chips but we couldn't be sure and Luke was getting agitated by now so we left it at that.

The blinds by now had turned it into a crapshoot. 5000,1000 and the average was 54,000. It took a while to lose the first player. Lots of uncalled all ins. Eventually there were a few clashes and we were down to six. Mark was unlucky to run into Aces and was seventh. The guy with the Aces had exactly the same hand twice in a row - two black aces. It was the second one that accounted for Mark. I manage to knock out the 6th place finisher. he had lost a lot of his stack and he moved in on my big blind. Well I can't throw away AK suited here ! He had JJ and I had a flush draw going to the river but it was an Ace that sealed the deal.

Deal time. We all had pretty much equal stacks and with blinds now at 8000/15000 with an average stack of just under 100,000 we split most of the money equally. The original payout was €500 for 5th up to €3150 for 1st. We took €1000 each and paid from €200 to €600 extra depending on the actual finish. This created a lot more action and after a few all in confrontations the blinds were moved up to 10000,20000 with still 5 of us with nearly equal stacks but now if you lose your blinds it is 30% of your stack gone. I decided to make a move from the small blind with 'The HAMMER' ! I was horrendously outdrawn going in as a massive favourite against AK. I hit a deuce and a seven but two kings on the board meant it was goodnight.

Overall I was pleased to cash again in the Fitz but I am still of the opinion that these games can only be played for the social value due to the structures required to finish in one night. I also managed to put faces to a few other names who play in the forum tournie, notably Chris and Paul. Paul also made the final table and was still there when I left.

Hail the new King of Bloggers !

2005-03-19T10:32:00.000Z

Not me obviously !

Ben 'Milkybarkid' Grundy has made the final table of the €10,000 EPT Grand final in Monte Carlo. Not bad for a €500 Satellite. He is now guaranteed at least €60,000 in prize money. He is also the first blogger to make a major final table - That is something that no-one will ever be able to take away from him. You can follow his progress at Blonde Poker in the forum where the workaholic Tikay is covering the event.

Also at the final table, in fact chip leader, is Brandon Schaeffer. I played against him at the French Open and he is a formidable opponent and all round nice guy too. To think he won the French open for €144,000 and now is also guaranteed €60,000 plus a good shot at €600,000+ for first. All for 15 Frequent player points !!!

Why I only bet the Gee Gees twice a year !

2005-03-18T09:22:00.000Z

Yesterday was Paddy's day, I think! After a hearty fry up, Catherine and I headed down to the local at midday to meet up with our friends and celebrate all things Irish. In general terms this means drinking loads and dumping Paddy Power a few euro's on Cheltenham. This year was no different, after an each way second in the first race I managed to find the donkey in the next five! Baracouda cost me the most in the World Hurdle. Last year I backed Moscow Flyer, probably the only time he lost a race! By early evening we were drunk and home with a nice chinese. In between snoozes I was keeping tabs on The Milkybarkid progress in the EPT final in Monaco via the Blondepoker forum. Currently he is on track to be the first blogger to make a major final table. He has a comfortable stack and is in the last 38. I hope he makes it. Declan Barker, who lives in a town nearby me is also still in, maybe as it is Paddy's week he will win? Best of luck to the both of them, they both qualified online via different sites so any money finish is a nice profit.

I played another Irish open qualifier on Wednesday night but I couldn't get anything going, eventually going out in a war of the blinds. Luckily, I am having a good run in the STT's otherwise my bankroll would be taking a hit entering these and the WSOP satellites. I was struggling to sleep last night after all my napping in the evening so hangover already kicked in I had a go at a $33 Freezeout on Stars. No Joy there either, I finshed 241st out of 440 when AK was not enough to beat KQ. It was one of those annoying 'is poker rigged moments'. All the money was in preflop and the software froze temporarily after dealing the flop and then, like lightning, dealt a Queen on the river.

Over at the Irish Poker Forum there is an interesting debate going on about the clarity of privately organised poker tournaments. They are popping up all over the place and buy ins range from €20 - €250. What is concerning some people is that prizepools are being capped and also that there are no records kept of how many rebuys and top ups are taken. Some of these are for charity and in that case I can see that capping the prize pool is OK as long as it is clear that the rest of the money is going to the specified charity and that it is all accounted for. Some of the other tournaments though are guaranteeing a first prize and getting many more entrants than needed to pay it out but are not adjusting the prize correspondingly. This is disturbing.
I have looked into the costs of setting up a tournament and I am likely to run one in the near future. Whilst a private tournament cannot be run as cheaply as one in a card club where they make a lot of money from table games, there is no excuse for not being transparent with figures.
People are now suggesting that we set up a players association and produce a guideline for how we would like tournaments to be run. I see this as something that can only be positive for the future of poker in Ireland. Certainly one thing that will definately happen is that a guideline will be set up for tournaments advertised on the forum, although not having to comply, they will have to state whether they do or not. What we are looking for is clarity in the following:

1: How much of the prizepool is being taken for costs
2: Whether dealers are to be supplied or not
3: What is the blind structure
4: Who is the tournament director
5: Who is organising the event

I personally don't think that is too much to ask.

WSOP Crazy !

2005-03-15T10:02:00.000Z

Everyone seems to have gone WSOP crazy !
After a sickening bubble on Sunday night I thought I better get back into the water lest my taste for poker be spoiled. I felt worse about busting out in 7th than I did when I busted out of the EPT in 12th. Looking back I don't think I did too much wrong when it got to the final table. I was never in a safe qualifying position and in the end it came down to the cards. It was maybe a mistake to put pressure on one of the smaller stacks with only A7, especially when I had seen him call with very mediocre hands. I am not going to be a big favourite against him unless he has A2-A6. As it was he had KQ and when he makes two pair it puts me further down in the chip stacks. On the flipside had he folded or I won that hand then I was safe enough.
Anyway, I entered a $11 rebuy yesterday afternoon and without rebuying I was up amongst the chip leaders with 17,000 and only 2 minutes left of the rebuy period. There was only one other stack on my table over 3000 and he had 14000. I was dealt KK and came over the top of an early position raiser only for the other large stack to wake up with AA ! Back to the drawing board. AK next hand almost doubled me up and with the add on I was up to 7000+, just below average. I was only able to make this last until 34th out of 181 and out of the money.
Later in the evening I played a STT on Betfair, not noticing until it started that is was £30 not $30! Still I worked another shortstack through to 3rd to get a bit of profit back. I loaded up Pokerstars to set up the Boards tournament and had a quick look at the WSOP qualifiers. A double shootout was about to open for registration and after checking how many were getting seats from the turbo qualifier, I decided to try and get in. 46 seats were gone in the qualifier leaving 35 for people to snap up. And snap up they did. Before I had time to move my mouse over the confirmation of entry fee the tournie was full ! Then I noticed someone unregister and that seat was instantly filled. I waited with my finger over the register button and sure enough some one else unregistered and my reflexes were quick enough to get a seat. I am presuming these people unregistering were qualifiers who took the $T to use another time.
Unfortunately I did not play my best and a few stupid moves cost me dearly. The last being calling what looked like a bluff to me. Unraised preflop the board came 55AK2. I had AJ. I had called a bet on the flop and the turn and then the guy moved in just covering me on the river. As it was unraised and he had been raising a lot preflop I couldn't put him on a big Ace. He had voluntarily put money into the pot though. I figured he could have a mid pair or KQ/KJ. As it was he had limped with AK and anothe r chance at Vegas was gone.
This morning I got an email from Starluck casino, whom I had bonus whored a while back, letting me know they had credited my account with $5. I went straight to the BJ table and in 10 mins starting of with $1 bets and moving up to $5 and then $10 and after a couple of setbacks $25, I got it up to a nice $205. Then I remembered that BJ doesn't count for the wagering requirement so I took the $5 and blew it on some slots and now tommorrow I can cash out a free $200! Nice...

So close....

2005-03-13T23:26:00.000Z

461 runners. Betfair satellite for WSOP 2005. 6 places paid. Where do I finish ? 7th !
How p**sed off am I?
In the end it came down to a 60/40. All the final tabled I had hovered between 6th and 7th and after a round or two with no clashes three people went out in quick succession. I had lost a 60/40 with A7 vs KQ just before which would have knocked a guy who eventually made it out.
The blinds had just gone through me and I had 54,000 left. The blinds were 8000/16000 with a 2000 ante so I needed to move soon. I couldn't see them playing against each other as they all had at least 100,000. I had QJ on the button and when it all passed to me I moved in. Unfortunately the chip leader woke up with AQ !
Nothing at all for 7th as the event was undersubscribed. 6 seats gtd, packages worth 12,000 plus hotel and prize pool was only 69150.
No bad beats along the way either for me or against me. It was my first tournie on this site and I think I may play more as it is easy to get paid off with a good hand.
Still there are many more qualifiers to go yet :} No more bubbles after 5 1/2 hrs of play please.

The revenge of Mr Fagan

2005-03-12T11:39:00.000Z

Do you ever notice how some days you just seem to give your chips to one person in particular all game long, no matter who had the best starting hand ? Last week it was Kev who was getting all my chips. This week it was Sean Snr.
Sean and I have developed a friendly rivalry in the home game and it always seems that one of us is trying to get one over on the other. A few weeks back I had knocked him out on the bubble when he tried to get fancy with a minimum raise UTG with KK. I had called with 10 5 suited and hit two pair on the flop and got all his chips in by the turn. At the time he was disgusted that I had played such muck. Last night he wanted his revenge.
He got it in the first game by taking me of a large pot when we were 4 handed. I had made a substantial preflop raise with A10s and he called from the Big Blind. There was over 6000 chips in the pot and the flop came J 5 5. He led out with 2500 and my first instinct was that he was at it and that I should have gone back over the top. Then I started second guessing myself. I thought as he knew I may do that he was setting me up, so still thinking I had the best hand I called. I also called the same size bet on the turn when another 5 fell. The river was a 2 which couldn't have helped so why did I fold to a 5000 bet on the river ? I am not sure. I still had the second highest chip count as I had double up through Sean Paul a few hands before when I flopped trip jacks from the big blind and came back over the top of his bet on the turn which unsually for the rock of gibraltar he called with 10 10 ! The real reason was he had me in two minds and when in two minds usually the best bet is to wait for another spot. It was his good psychological gameplay that had me in two minds in the first place so credit must go him for outplaying me. Had I called it would have been a split as he also had an A (with a 4!).
It was Sean Paul who finally got all my chips a while later. The blinds had started to rise and he and I were almost equal in chips with Kev really lowstacked. Sean had a massive chip lead. Sean Paul moved in UTG which I correctly interpreted as a weak ace. He had been minimum raising with big hands all night looking for action. It was A8 for him vs my AJ. Two hearts on the flop to match his two hearts, but it was the 8 on the turn that did me. Why did I not play sensible and fold until Kev got knocked out? 3rd paid €300 and I only got my money back as we paid 4 places as we allowed a few rebuys during the first few levels.

In the second game I went much earlier. I had lost a few chips here and there. One particular early pot I had Q9 and the flop came 9 high. I check-called Brendan all the way down. It was an unraised pot but he was in early postion. The board brought a possible straight but it was the 4 on the river which matched the 9 & 4 in his hand to win the pot ! My exit hand was where Sean Snr finally got to bust me. I came back over the top of his bet on the flop with an up and down straight draw and one overcard, a virtual coin flip. He made a call with second pair and none of my outs came so he has had his revenge !

In between games I had a couple of sit and go's on Party poker where I haven't played for a while. I have also played a couple of the steps $11 ones this morning. I came second in a $30 last night but failed to place in the other 3. What amazed me was that in total I saw ( unfortunately not all dealt to me ) Aces 18 times ! And they only got beat once ! This was amongst a plethora of KK's,QQ's and JJ's also. Sean Paul also had Aces 4 times last night and won with them every time ! Stevo was unfortunate to run his AK into AA and KK ! Not many outs there mate. For the first time in a while we saw two pokers in one night, Brian getting paid when he checked 4 9's on the river to Stevo who thought he was value betting a house and gladly called when Brian came back over the top. Declan, the King of bad beats, had another rough night but only ran into bigger hands. Kev is the new Rock, playing three hands voluntarily to make the money in the first game. Tripling up with Aces on the first hand he played helped !

This week you will find me mostly on Pokerstars trying to quailify for the WSOP in the Double Shootouts.

I can't believe I did this...

2005-03-09T03:01:00.000Z

After successfully wielding the mighty HAMMER in the boards online tournie then proceeding to lose a race with 88 vs AK, I had time to nip down the M1 to Dublin and try out the Double chance freezeout.

As tournament structures go, I like this one. 1500 chips to start and you can take another 1500 at any time up to the first break. I was able to leave the 1500 as an add on as I almost tripled up early on when QQ held up 3 way vs 1010 and 79s. I lost a couple of big pots with A10 vs A2 and QQ vs KK but was still ahead of the pack after the break. I proceeded to go card dead for about an hour, kepping my stack level with the odd steal. Then I did something I have never ever done in live poker before. I looked at my cards and reraised a substantial amount with AK. Pot committed I called all my chips to someone who had reraised me with 88. Fine, I thought, a race. Not so bad, could have been up against KK or AA. That is until I flip my cards and find my hand has magically changed to K4! Doh ! As it was AK would not have been enough, but I did hit a 4!

Sick at my mistake I joined the celebrity cash game and proceeded to build a nice stack. The celebrity in question was Steve Davis and a nice friendly chap he is. He had been knocked out of the Irish Masters by Stephen Hendry and also the freezeout by someone else. He was still there when I left at 2am dead even for the night and I thouight he was joking when he said he was staying to play all night and then catch the red-eye back to London.

What happened to my nice stack you may ask ? After playing solid for 2 hours I made a big mistake on a 300 euro pot. I made the nut straight with a wrap on the turn and when stormin Norman bet 25 into a pot that was already over a hundred I only raised 50 more. Norman passed but another older chap had called. There was a flush draw out, although that missed and the board paired. I felt obliged to call his 125 bet as I thought he maybe at it nand if I lost I was still even for the whole night. Of course he had called with two pair and filled up. It was a bad call but if I had correctly bet the pot I would have won over a 100 instead of losing 200+. I left then not wanting to tilt off the rest.

I can't remember the last time I played so bad. Bring back the bad beats, I can take them better !

The way forward

2005-03-08T11:32:00.000Z

Frustrated at going a dozen or so MTT's in a row without getting a cash, I decided to go back and play a few single table tournamnents. The variance in these is so much smaller than in a multitable. You can have your hand stand up 3 or 4 times in a row in a MTT then get sucked out on by a bigger stack and all your effort is gone. If you get a couple of hands stand up in a STT you are usually the big stack and can take a suck out and still come back. Another factor is also the standard of play in STT can often be excruciatingly terrible, it is often as simple as not playing anything other than big pocket pairs and AK until 5 or 6 players are left as they will knock each other out with their K7 offsuits and Ax's. Usually they are not savvy enough to notice you have not played any hands all tournamnent and will gladly reraise you all in with nothing when you pick up a hand.
I think one of the reasons for this is there are a lot of 'quick fix' players out there who do not have the time for a MT but want to play a little poker every now and again. Anyway I have played 5 STT's this weekend on Pokerstars and Ultimate bet with 2 firsts, 2 seconds and a third which is nice for the bankroll. All the pokerstars ones were $55 normal STT's and the Ultimate Bets were $33,$33 and $44. This equals a profit of $445 which just about covers my MTT losses.
I have found that playing two at time helps with the boredom factor playing these. I wish I had spent the extra couple of hundred euro and got a 19" TFT so I could play 4 without overlap. Some people may be able to multi table with overlap, but I can't !
Still I need a new PC for my new shop, so I may use the 17" one there and get a 19" for home. I am going to try and play more STT's this week instead of MTT's. I would like to be able to play a few hundred and see how I get on but I know I probalbly won't have the patience. A couple of other bloggers namely HectorJelly and PokerNerd seem to be doing well at this.

Game, set & more sets !

2005-03-07T11:52:00.000Z

This weekend of poker I have seen more sets than you will ever find at Wimbledon. Unfortunately the vast majority have been held by another player with a lower pocket pair than mine !

After Kev sticking it to me on Friday night the run just went on & on. Actually thats a white lie, the first tournament I played on Saturday was the Irish open qualifier on Paddy Power. That was a tale of two races after I had quadrupled up early on. The quadruple up was a rare occasion I got slighty lucky. I had moved in with QQ during the rebuy period and found my self called in three spots. I was up against A10,K10 and JJ, so I had to avoid 8 cards 5 times, which means 40/45 times I need a Queen. I didn't get a queen but I avoided the other cards and was now in great chip position. The blinds go up faster on Tribeca sites than most so I still needed more chips to give myself some breathing space. A few hands later I found AKs and raised the pot. A guy with just over half my stack made a massive reraise all in. I fancy in this situation he has a small to medium pair and if I win this pot I am way out in tournament chip lead. Unfortunately I was correct, but he hit a 6 on the turn and I was back to just above average. I muddled my way through to the last two tables when I found JJ with two limpers before me I move in on the button. Blinds were 600/1200 by this point and I have about 9000 so it is about the last round I may have the chips to steal although I am happy with a race here. I wasn't too disappointed for the BB to wake up with AK, I was due for a race win. Alas I drowned in the river yet again so will need to try again next week.

Sunday was the day when sets really did for me. I played two FPP and one cash quailifier for Monte Carlo and in each I was outdone in massive or tournie ending pots when a lower pair hit a set against me. Each time I had made a reasonable preflop raise and had one caller who hit the set on thge flop. Each time I had an over pair to the flop and played it strong. KK vs QQ, KK vs 66 and QQ vs 1010.

I then entered the Pokerstars $215 tournamnent which got over 2500 runners for a first prize of over $100,000. Within a few hands I was tournament chip leader. I had QQ and raised 3x BB. Three callers and flop is Q34, two clubs. I make a pot sized bet and am reraised all in. Another guy calls the all in before it gets back to me. I know I am up against at least one flush draw but figure I have the nuts at the mo and outs should a club hit the turn so I call. The original reraiser has a K high flush draw and the other guy has JJ, not the best plays for a large freezeout. Anyway a 3 comes on the turn so I triple up almost to over 7000, and see my name on top of the leaderboard ! This didn't last long as I see a flop of Jxx from the BB, calling a 3X raise preflop. I check to the raiser who makes an overbet of the pot so I stick him all in figuring a bluff, he had already lost 1000 chips so could have been steaming a little. In fact he had QQ and hit a Q on the turn to leave me drawing dead and down to 5500, still healthy but not as ! I was moved table a couple of times in quick succession picking up 1010 & JJ along the way and losing a few chips when flops both contained two overcards and the post flop betting got heavy. I held at the 4000-5000 chip level for the next few levels, not finding any hands and only seeing flops when my blinds were not raised. Once the antes kicked in I made a few successful and a few unsuccesful steal attempts and still stayed around the same chip mark. I lost about 2000 chips when I raised on the button with KQs, I flopped the worlds fair and called an an all in bet for 1400 against a guy who had top pair. None of my 19 outs materialised. Shortly after I picked up AA and raised to 600, blinds still at 100/200 with 25 ante. One caller, flop 10 6 x. I bet the pot and pot committed call his reraise. He has 66, for the first time I remember I hit a 22.5:1 shot to outdraw him on the river when an Ace appears. I am then chipped away to 3000 when the blinds move up, one failed steal with A10 and some undefended blinds. I then get QQ and against the same guy flopped the 6's I raise, get called, bet a flop of undercards, bet the turn which is a blank, pot committed I call his reraise here for all my chips to find he has flopped a set of 10's and makes quads on the river !
I enter another tournie on Ultimate bet and in the second level manage to lose nearly all my stack with KK vs 22, another flopped set. The rest I lose with QQ vs 66 and you guessed it - another flopped set !
The only good result of the weekend was when after losing 1200 of my 1500 starting chips in the Irish Forum Tournie to another flopped set where I flop top two pair, I claw my way back and end up finishing 2nd. I win a few all ins here with AK, the only time all weekend, but never against a pair ! It was always a weaker Ace. I need to get my fitness up to win races ! I also managed two hours of playing two Omaha cash games winning slightly on both and also working off some of my Ultimate bonus money.

Without being bigheaded I think I am playing some good poker at the moment, I just keep running into big hands. I can see where some people think online poker is rigged after a weekend like this, however I know it is just how the cards run sometimes and if I keep playing like this I will get a run where the majority of hands hold up.

Plus I have built a shrine to PO'KAH and am offerinfg scarifices to it three times a day. If that doesn't work I will have to go searching for a four leafed clover.

Finally congratulations to Ben 'Milkybarkid' Grundy who texted me last night to let me know he had won a seat to Monte Carlo on Betfair - Jammy B'stard ! I am presuming the 5% I had of him in the Deaville €1000 event carries over to this one !

Kevin 'The Doctor' Horgan

2005-03-05T09:31:00.000Z

Last night I was murdered.

There is only one suspect. There are many witnesse's. It was a brutal crime. He must pay ! Beware if you see this man at a poker table. He shows no mercy. He takes no prisoners.
He must be stopped at all costs.

List of evidence.

All times approximate.

11.30 pm Friday 4th March.

The accused flops a set of 8's in a 4 way pot with victim who has raised preflop with JJ. After both blinds check the flop, the accused moves in for 3800 into a 2800 pot. The accused has never been seen before betting out into a pot with the best hand. Solid previous evidence shows this man to be a serial trapper. In fact he has several major convictions for this terrible crime. Throughout time master criminals have evolved. This evil man has obviously been influenced by some dark, dark thoughts. It is thought the victim, aware of this mans past, innocently called this bet expecting to be way ahead of A8 or one the many pairs that have missed this flop. Luckily the victim had enough chips to survive this vicious attack with only slightly less than average chips.

11.40 pm Friday 4th March

Not content with this solitary beating, the seemingly innocent looking Doctor raised from UTG. Zapped but still conscious victim fight back with an all in raise with a powerful looking KK. Innocent bystander, Mr Sean Paul Fagan, was caught up in this latest attack when he quite rightly put his last chips into the pot with AA. Showing no fear or remorse for his previous misdemeanors, the villian proceeds to call both victims with JJ. This creates a sidepot of just less than the average chips with the main victim. The hounds of Satan are clearly ruling this man as he hits a J on the turn to complete his massive robbery.

3am Saturday 5th March

Fully recovered despite having developed a nervouse disposition around hooded men with evil grins, our victim is again brutally attacked in a way totally in character with the previous pummellings. Again the accused is the same man. Brazen is the not the word to describe this man, it is too kind. The victim raises from under the gun 5 handed with a good stack of chips in front of him. Showing no respect, the sinister Doctor reraises all in with QQ. A few hands previously, the victim had almost made up for his initial beatings by calling an all in with JQ, facing A9 he was not too far behind, but alas the doctor lived to fight this battle. Seeing that the Doctor is holding a filthly hand, the victim has no hesitation in calling with his mighty pocket Kings. It seems that as well as having the fluffy white snowmen under his control and bribing the spineless knaves, the Doctor is chief pimp of the Queen whores and another one is duly found on the flop.

Again the Doctor finishes of his victim by having the brass neck to put the victim out of his misery by reraising on the flop holding a measly two pair to the stunned man's up and down straight flush draw. Not one of 15 reported outs came to the victims aide despite having two clear opportunities to help the man fighting for his life.

And to think this man benefitted from his crime by winning €500 for a first and subsequently €300 for a second.

Justice must be done ! The god of PO'KAH will see you get your come-uppance !

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In all fairness Kev played a great game depsite being a spawny git. My call with the jacks was purely a playing the man decision I got wrong. The others - my time will come !
Other highlights
No brotherly love when Sean Paul called Declans raise and then bets on the turn and river holding AK, correctly assuming Declan had AQ or AJ and had missed too. he had AQ and was thoroughly disgusted with his siblings call !
I managed to fulfil my last post's prediction by rivering Declan. Not with my cards but when I was dealing. On the bubble he moves in blind on the button with K2 offsuit. He was called by Joe with pocket 4's. He was delighted when he saw a King and a deuce on the flop but sick when I turned over a 4 on the river !
The final hand of game 2 saw some justice dispensed on Kev ' outdraw ' Horgan when he was all in against Declan with K6 vs Declans K5. A 6 on the river did not win it for Kev as it made a straight for the Decodevil.
Deco also made a great call against Joe with pocket 3's on a board with 5 overcards. Apparently Joe never bluffs !

How to commit Hari Kari in a poker tournament..

2005-03-04T13:41:00.001Z

After losing my first round World cup of poker qualifier I decided to play a MTT on VC. In preparation for the Irish Open qualifier on Saturday I chose the $27 rebuy tournament along with 180+ others.
As usual I played it tight and waited for premium hands knowing with the looseness early on in these tournaments I was likely to get paid off. It took a while but in the last level before the rebuys ended I got KK three times. Once I only won the blinds with a raise, once I got one player all in and won, once I got two players all in and won. With the add on I was nicely positioned in the top 15 and ready to move up the leaderboard.
Before the second break I was chip leader with over 25,000 chips. I got the max out of a flopped set of sixes which turned into a boat. With pocket 7's I got someone to move all in on the turn on a board of 2456, he had 85. When I played A10 to a limper and the big blind with me in the small, the board came AKxJQ. I had bet it all the way and someone called all the way with A7 !
Then it I went a bit loopy. I had been playing well so far and proceeded to lose half my stack on a very badly played hand. I picked up JJ on the cut off and it was folded to me, I raised 3 * the big blind and would have been happy just to take them. The BB however was having none of it and called. The flop could not have been much better for pocket jacks - 1083 rainbow. When it was checked to me I decided for some inane reason just to bet half the pot. The BB had just over 20,000 at the start of the hand, only 5,000 less than me. When he called the bet I put him on maybe A10, although I thought if he had that a VC move here is usually to reraise, Also on VC overpairs tend to reraise here, as do flopped sets. This was my first mistake, you cannot generalise all players just by the site! He had just moved to our table so I had no idea of how he had got his chips. The second mistake was not thinking about what he had actually called with, I had just focused on what I thought he didn't have. I was right about what he didn't have. Trouble is if I had used this information to determine what he did have then I wouldnt have made 2 more 3200 called bets on the turn and river. The turn and river were A & Q. As soon as he just flat called my river bet I knew he had AK, even before his cards flipped up to show me !
Why did I only bet half the pot on the flop ? I figured I was ahead and for some stupid reason thought I would stay ahead ! I should have gone with the standard pot size bet here, if he is a good player he cannot call this with over cards. As it was I bet 1800 into a pot of 3900 giving him over 3:1 to hit an Ace or King which is just about right with 2 cards to come. If I think about this hand I still might give him the odds to call with AK and then move in when one doesnt appear but get away from it when it hits. As it was I just gifted him 6400 chips !
I managed to raise and reraise myself back up to 15,000 after dribbling some more chips away.
Then a player raises to 4000 from UTG, blinds are 400/800 and I am in the small blind with pocket 99's. I have seen this player move in and call all in's with 88 or lower pocket pairs and decide that he is at it. Can these players get good hands as well ? Of course they can, we all get them. What does he have ? - KK ! Oops ! As well as having KK, he had more chips than me, so in two rounds I went from chip leader to chip loser. And I have no-one to blame but myself.
In another tournament on Ultimate bet I reraise someone all in on the turn with 95 ! I have a flush draw and middle pair - my oppo has the nut flush draw and top pair - This was just after busting out of the other tournament and I didn't want to play any more poker.
This is where this blog benefits me most. I know I was stupid, but writing it down seems to work it out of the system. Look out home game players I will be on form tonight ! (Hope I don't regret writing that). Whether I win or not, I am gonna river Declan again, just for the craic !

How to commit Hari Kari in a poker tournament..

2005-03-04T13:41:00.000Z

Ultimate virgin

2005-03-03T01:08:00.000Z

I finally got around to trying out Ultimate Bet tonight. I want to have a crack at the WPT in Aruba, Catherine needs another nice holiday !

My first impressions of the site were mixed. I think it looks good and the tournament structures seem very good. The interface could do with a bit of tweaking but I got used to it in the end.

I first started out in a $100+9 MTT which had a $10,000 gtd prize pool. It started with 119 players and you get 2500 chips. The blinds start off at 5/10 which is the lowest I have seen. The levels are also 15 minutes long so there is plenty of play. Even so nearly half the field was gone by the hour break. I have a feeling I may like playing tournaments here. The standard did not seem too much better than any other site I have played on. Two players getting All in Preflop on the second hand with AQ ofsuit and 77 !
Unfortunately I did not catch any cards early on. Not even anything worth getting in for 10 chips ! This meant that everyone folded when I picked up QQ in midposition and made a little raise. A few hands later I got the same and again evryone folded. I needed to loosen up and began to see some flops but missed by miles. My chips were dribbling away, a failed reraise post flop and more missed draws. I called a big raise with 88 and the flop brought me trips but with 3 hearts, a fourth and fifth lost me the pot ! As I was left with just over 1000 chips and the average was over 5000, I made a reraise all in with AK to find myself in a race with JJ. I hit a K but a J on the river and it was over ( no different to other sites then ! ).

I then entered a couple of STT's. One for $20 and one for $30. Key hands held up and I even flopped quad 9's and managed to get someone to move in on me on the turn ! I ended up winning both playing tight early and moving through the gears as people fell by the wayside. The structure in these is also the best I have seen online. Again you start with blinds of 5/10 with 10 min levels and 1000 start chips.

I think I am going to play here some more !

World cup of poker

2005-03-01T14:38:00.000Z

Last night I decided to have a crack at quailifying for the Irish team in The Pokerstars World Cup of poker.

It was an interesting format of heads up knockout competition. 41 players were in the running, some got byes into the next round due to the odd numbers, I was not one of them. My first match went on for about an hour, one of the longest. I had control most of the time although I was caught out at one point and was down to 200 chips from 1500 starting. My opponent was a typical tight weak player and constant betting and raising helped me chip back up and eventually overcome him. My second match was much the same and again I was caught out and had to come back from a low stack to win. Third game was over within 20 hands or so, I took a big lead after the first two hands and never let go. In the fourth game ( 8 players left ) I took a massive 22,000 to 2,000 chip lead very early and then proceeded to bluff it all away, although the call he made on the last hand with second pair on a flushing Ace high board took some believing ! My own fault for playing King high !
I will probaly give it another go on Thursday.

Hot news !!!!
Clan poker is now selling poker chip sets at great prices. 300 chips with aluminium case and cards for only €59.99 . Price includes delivery to UK or Ireland.

I hate it when this happens..

2005-02-28T17:22:00.000Z

Played in a $50 quailifier for the $500 Pokerstars tournament, over 240 players, 27 get a seat and I finish 30th ! Damn !
I played well enough, never had cards and had to build my chips without showing down hands. The key hand was with about 50 left I called a 3000 all in with AK. I had just over 10,000, if I win this I can probably fold to the seat. Unfortunatley I lose a race vs JJ and this leaves me short of safety. With just over 3000 left and 29th out of 30 it is all folded to me on the button. Blinds are 600/1200 and the blinds only have 6000 and 7000. Hoping they feel they can fold to the money I move in with A4. The big blind calls with A7 and I am gone. If I take the blinds here I think I would have made it. With only 7000 chips and 3 players to go until I have a seat I don't think I could risk calling with A7. Unfortunately I am not playing with myself !

As this was finishing I was starting the Boards tournie and I was not in the right frame of mind to play and busted when I flop top pair with 96s from the blind and move in against an overpair !

I played a $22 rebuy for the Monte Carlo Quailifier and KK vs 910 - lose to a straight. Rebuy. Top up.AK vs A9. 9 on flop. Bad mood worsens. No more poker.

Today I bust out of $25 STT with AA vs 96 ! Went on to come second in $50 STT so have a little back !

Tonight I am going to try and qualify for the World Cup on Pokerstars. Tommorrow is the midweek boards tournie and I am going to try and FPP qualify for Monte Carlo. Saturday there is a $54 rebuy qualifier for the Irish open on the Tribeca sites such as VC and Paddy Power so will give that a shot too. If I fail to quailify online, I have maybe 3 home games to get most of the entry fee, a first and a second in each will get me 75% of the entry fee.

Friday night is bad beat night

2005-02-26T10:36:00.000Z

9 players in the Friday game last night and every single one of them must have suffered a bad beat. Mostly at the expense of myself or Banksie. Actually most of the bad beats were taken byDeco, two of them inflicted by me ! Last time at the home game, I hit the river to bust him as well. Both of the times I outdrew him were not that bad plays by me or him, just the way the cards fell.
The first was when on a Q55 flop het bets in position and I come back over the top with QJ to find he was not robbing and had AQ. Fortunately for me the case Queen arrived on the turn for a split pot !
The second was when down to 4 or 5 players and Deco short enough stacked and steaming a little found himself with AQ and moved in. Disbeliever that I am, I call with A10 of diamonds, first 3 cards on the flop are diamonds and it's good night Deco. Just to rub it in a fourth diamond hit the turn. Also he can't blame the dealer as it was his good self !
Might as well finish off his beats here. In the second game he raises with 99 and is called by his brother Sean. The flop is 10 10 x. Deco moves in after the flop and after a long dwell Sean Paul calls and flips up AK deciding Deco is at it. King on the river and this time Deco does actually go to bed !
I managed to come second in the first game, a long heads up battle between Sean Paul and I finally ended when I put my last 3000 in with 79 vs Q10. I had started heads up with a 3:1 chip dis advantage and took the lead, lost it, regained it before a loose call with a medium A preflop gave him back most of the chips.
The second game I was building chips nicely, flopping a set of threes on the first hand and getting paid. A few medium pots here and there and with Deco and Joe gone already I was in a nice position.
Then Banksie's good fortune came into play. He had just knocked out Joe and taken a lot of Sean Paul's chips when he raised, Joe re-raised and Sean Paul re-raised all in. Sean Paul had KK, Joe a mid pair and Banksie ? Ace rag suited ! Of course an ace came on the river.
A few hands later he raised my 100 blind to 500 and I have pocket sixes and call. Flop is 10 4 2. I check and he bets 1000. I am sure he has nothing, KQ maybe, Ace + high card maybe. If he hit with A10 he would have moved in. So I figure he can't call a raise and raise it up to 3000. He has 2700 left and puts it in. for 700 I have to call and figure I must have got it wrong and need to get lucky. Wrong, he turns over A5 offsuit for a gutshot and 3 aces to win. Not the player to make a move on as he hits an Ace on the river to become chip leader. A couple of hands later I put my last 1500 in with 10 8 suited and he called with KQ to send me home. I have not found out if he managed to win yet as I was too sick to hang about !
Ah well 70% of the time I take a big chip lead there. It is risky playing against these loose calling stations but it is worth having at least one or two in every game in the long run !

I am not so superstitious so why....

2005-02-25T09:22:00.000Z

did I put all my chips in last night with J9 offsuit ?

I was playing in the Fitz €270 Freezeout and was not really getting going. Blinds had just gone up to 300/600 and they were coming around to me. I had 3200 left out of 5000 starting chips. I had won the 2 pots I entered with a raise and one pot that I limped with KJ late and hit a K. The highest I had got to was 5600. The two pots I raise were both with AK, one everybody folded and one I missed the flop but won with a bet anyway.

I had the odd low pocket pair, two of which people had already gone all in before the action got to me and the other one the board was all overs and two people already had chips in after the flop. I also limped in to a few pots with suited connectors but missed everytime and was in no position to steal. I also folded an AK to a big early raise. At the time I had a funny feeling I was up against a big hand, two players had just been busted limping with AA and KK respectively. I thought this guy did not want to make the same mistake. The raise was 2000, blinds were only 100/200 and I had 4500 left so I knew even if he had a small to mid pocket pair I was getting called, I didn't see the point at the time of putting my chips in so early on and being a coin flip at best. Thinking back with 20 minute levels I should have took a chance as if you don't get chips early then you will struggle.

My reasoning was for moving in with J9 was twofold. Firstly in 3 hands I would be down to 2600 and any move was likely to be called anyway. I have been playing tight so I thought I may get the 900 blinds. If I get called and win I am back up to 7300 and have a more playable stack. Also I was talking to Tom Murphy just as I recieved the hand and had said to him I was going to go with the hand if I am dealt it after it saved me in France. Well very next hand I got it, and although I had solid tactical reasons for moving in, the fact I got the hand as I was talking about seemed like an omen. When I was called by AJ and a 9 hit the flop I thought I was in, however an Ace fell on the river and its 'Goodnight from me'. - No complaints, I was slightly off form and paid for it.

Deco and his dad Sean were still left as it moved down to 4 tables. Hopefully they made the money.

It was the first time I had met Tom Murphy in the flesh and he is one of the most avid supporters of the Dublin poker scene I have met. How he juggles running the Boards forum, running his own website - Antes up , works as a dealer, plays poker and writes for Paddy Power's new poker site I will never know !

Lastly a word of warning about online passwords. Chatting to Scott Grey for a while and his Party Poker account password was cracked and he was robbed of $4300. Another Dublin player had his Pokerstars account wiped out too. Scott's password was not an obvious one but the other player had used his nickname ! Be Careful ! As it happened Scott will not get his money back but Pokerstars did refund the other guy.

Stay Lucky !

And remember not to go with favourite hands unless it is a full moon and your chip count is the same as your birthdate multiplied by the number of fish in your aquarium, three black cats have ran over your keyboard and you find a 4 leafed clover underneath your mouse.

Ouch !

2005-02-22T11:47:00.000Z

My head hurts !

Last night I ventured down to a local pub called Foley's for a NL Holdem shootout. Apologies for any slllurred words as I had far too many pints of the black stuff. If I remember correctly it went something like this:

64 man shootout - €50 entry. Half the proceeds go to a local cancer charity. It is organised by Benny and it is sold out in advance. I have only ever been in this pub for lunch on a Sunday so I wasn't expecting to know anyone. I wander in just before 9 and order my first of many drinks. There is already a buzz about the place. It is the first event of this size held here, you can get a friendly sit and go most nights ( no rake - Mr Plod ). I had a Pokerstars jacket in a bag for the raffle and nothing else on my person to identify myself as a player. I start to drink my guinness and start hearing people talking about some hotshot from the World poker tour who is coming to play ! I step about outside for a smoke and a group of other smokers are talking about me !
"That would be me then.." I offered and from then on I spend the rest of the night ith a target on my head. Everyone was very friendly and I tried to tell them I did not have much of an edge in this type of competition.

I met Benny and he took me up to look at the set up. I was impressed by the way he had organised the tournament. Downstairs was a list of each table's players and upstairs where the contest everything was ready to go. 5000 chips each, a card shuffler on each table to mix up the new decks, namecards in each seat, local rules in each seat and 4 fold out octagagonal table tops to play on. There was a bar upstairs and Benny and a barmaid provided table service. No room for spectators so when you bust you leave the room. A quick run through of the rules from Benny over the PA and we are off.

Blinds start at 50/100 and double every 15 mins. Thats right they double all the way - 100,200 then 200/400 - 400/800 - 800/1600 - 1600/3200. Thats as far as it got, I ended up heads up with Red who had played well and who also had AA twice which helps in a structure like this ! I had a slight lead but moved in with 68o and was called by 98 which stood up ! I can't remember the last hand but I lost it anyway.

Sandwiches and more guinness and a couple of €10 games later I find myself staggering home in the early hours. I won one and second in the other made me evens for the night cashwise and I made a few new friends. In the game I came second I had my Aces cracked by K6 when in a big heads up lead and then A10 beaten by A6 suited finished me off !

All in all it was a god fun night, next time though I suggest they slow the structure a little and start earlier for a proper result. I will be back sometime for more guinness and sit and go's - I find they mix well !

Close but No cigar !

2005-02-21T16:26:00.000Z

Apologies for the lack of posts - The internet cafe in Deauville closes at the weekend. I have put a full event report with photo's up at Clan Poker.

By now most people will know I never quite made it to the final table. However I had a great time and although I also played the €550 rebuy with no success I still had a good profit on the trip and also met some great people.

Firstly I met up with Tikay from Blonde poker. He is a great guy and made the money in the super, the main event and also the €550 rebuy - what a grinder !

Ben Grundy AKA The Milkybarkid was also there and we had a few beers and a nice Italian. unfortunately he had a bad run apart from winning a fun Stud Hi/Lo split game we played with all the William hill mob - Smokin Steve, Julian Thew an Xuyen ' Bad Girl ' Pham. Also playing were Eugene and Mel from Pokerology.

Julian is another top bloke and a great player, he sold me 5% for the €1000 freezeout as did Ben but alas neither made it far. Spookily though they drew seats next to each other. I chided Julian for not dumping his chips to Ben when he exited early !

I met some great unknown players also - Mike Aiken from NY, Boaz from Isreal who has qualified for three EPT events via FPP's, Justin who made the PartyPoker.com European open Final and many others. Congrats also to Jim Moult who won the €1000 and finalled in the €500.

I hope to see most of the faces again at other events in the near future. I am off to play a charity shootout tonight so will have a report tomorrow.

Stay Lucky

Mike

Patience, Timing and a bit of luck

2005-02-18T09:49:00.000Z

Just a quick post as I don't have too much time.

I started on 55000 but was down to 13000 after four levels. This was mainly due to no cards and also having 3 All in or nothing Scandinavians to my left. I kept from busting by reraising Willie Tann a few times. I then moved in from the small blind with AJ and was in a race against the BB's pocket 8's. Two Aces and a Jack saw me double up. I also doubled up with AQ vs A10.

Just before the bubble I doubled up again thanks to 'Mr loose' Sam Orams. I had been waiting for a spot to catch him out and on a flop of 457 and I have 67 he called my All in with A2 ? Thankyou very much.

Once we were in the money players dropped quite quickly. I double up again vs John Gale in an battle of the blinds. All in after a K high flop, I have K9 he has K6 and the 9 played. Early I had got away with a monstrous error against John. In another blind battle pot the flop comes down with two spades. I am down to 40000 and there was 12000 or so in the pot. After he checks I move in with 52 of spades - Or was it ? Oops, after he folded I re-checked ny hand and the 2 was a diamond ! Almost 'The Hammer'.

The last interesting pot was vs Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins. He limped UTG and I made up the blinds with Q9. AA or KK is my immediate read on him. Flop QQ7 Two clubs. I check, he bets 16000, I raise to 32000, he calls. Turn J of clubs. I check qnd true to form the aggressive Camel bets 40000. I know I am ahead here, one of the few times I am really confident about my read but I am worried about the A or K of clubs so I move in for my last 110,000. It didn't take him long to fold. I want a bit of respect from him so I show him the Q. He said he had KK with the K of clubs.

So end of day there are 18 left. 3600 gtd now and I am third in chips with 246,000. Bob Coombes has 350,000 and Patrick something has 254,000. we are all on the same table with The Camel not too far away with 180000.

Today we start at 2pm local time and will play down to the TV table of 8. Blinds are 5000/10000 with a 1000 ante. Should be interesting !

Stay Lucky

Mike
Ps.3 Apologies for any spelling mistakes - French keyboards are weird !

Lows & Highs

2005-02-17T01:15:00.000Z

Just a quick update on my progress in the EPT. With 1 1/2 hours left of the first day I was sitting on 3000 chips. I pushed in with J9 after 3 limpers, blinds were 200/400. The BB called with QQ and I hit a miracle straight on the river to double up. I doubled up again against Willie Tann with 88 vs AK, 8 on the flop. Then I more than doubled up when I was the 4th caller of a raise holding 76 hearts. Flop 773 two clubs. I bet out and was reraised - flush draw! I call he misses - 33,000. Next call a raise with 77 hit a seven on the flop but 2 diamonds. Bet half the pot by mistake, he calls. Third diamond ! I move in as if he calls I am getting 3:1 and will bust him. Board pairs - Bingo ! All day I had played good hans and missed the flop - I definately would be rather lucky than good ! I finish the day with 55,000, above average. About 112 left out of 245.

Thanks to Brad 'Otis' Willis, the Pokerstars blogger, for letting me use his laptop to write this.

Keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow !

Mike

Thanks ...

2005-02-14T16:48:00.000Z

....to all those who have wished me luck for France. It is much appreciated. As far as Stan James are concerned I do not stand a chance ! I was looking through the odds and they have people listed at upto 200:1 but my name doesn't seem to be there - It must be a mistake. Maybe they will sponsor me when I win it and save them paying out anything on the event !

I am all set to go after a profitable week on the poker front. About $1300 up for the week which gives me a bit of money to enter some of the smaller events. The only disappointment poker wise this week was not making the money in the boards tournament although I did manage a creditable 5th to follow my 7th last week. The critical hand for me has been discussed in the comments section of my last post so I won't go into detail apart from congratulating Oscar for taking all my chips to go on and win the thing. I did however successfully wield THE HAMMER twice and also after seeing Oscar misplay 92o, I showed him how it should be done a few hands later - raise preflop and check raise on the turn !

For any Irish players who need poker chips I have some sets coming into stock which will be reasonably priced. €50 for a set of 300 11.5g with case, cards & dice. €25 for a set of 200 lesser quality chips in a tin with green felt and chip rack. Anybody interested email me and I will get you more details when I am back from France.

Internet connection allowing there should be plenty of updates here letting you know how I am doing.

Stay Lucky,

Mike

Two out of three ain't bad II

2005-02-12T09:29:00.000Z

Last night saw my first Friday game of 2005. Ten of the regular players and a new blind structure mirroring the one used in the Bahamas for the STT. The ten where Sean Paul, Deco, Sean Snr, Peter, Joe, Kev, Steve-o, myself, Gerry & his brother Brendan.

In the first game I went into an early chip lead with a few medium hands that got paid at the river. I was cruising until with 5 left the cards went from playable mediocre to absolute muck. By this time the blinds were up to 300/600 with a 75 ante and the shorter stacks were going All in often. Joe was up and down like a yoyo. At one point he was down to about 500 but kept htting cards and with 4 left I found AJ on the button and moved in for about 4k into a 1k pot. There was Joe with KK and I bubbled nicely ! Sean Snr finished 3rd and the Sean Paul beat Joe in a short heads up battle.

The next game only reached 100/200 with 25 ante as Gerry was hitting cards and knocking everyone out. As with the first game I had the initial lead but was quickly overtaken as he busted almost everyone. I kept my position as second in chips when I made a good call against Sean Paul when he moved in on the river. The hand went like this:

Blinds were 50/100:

I raise from mid position to 300 with pocket sevens.
Sean Paul raises to 600 on the button.
Gerry calls from the blind.
Flop Q103 rainbow.
Checked all around.
Turn Q.
Checked to Sean Paul who bets 600 into 1900 pot.
Gerry folds, I call.
Turn 9.
I check, Sean Paul moves in for 1100.

I have 3600, starting chips were 2500. I put Sean Paul on AK at the start of the hand. I think if he had a big pair he would have raised more to tempt me to come back over the top. It is confirmed when he checks the flop. I view the bet on the turn as a weak attempt to represent the Queen. When he moves in, he thinks I can only call with a Q which he obviously thinks I don't have. It can only be a bluff as if he wanted a call he would have bet smaller. So I call and am spot on for a change.

Final three - Deco shortstacked with about 1200, Gerry with about 18000 and myself with about 6000. I double up when Gerry loosely calls my All in with K3. I have 99 and turn a set.
Then my prophecy on the Irish poker forum came true when I rivered Deco with JQs vs his pocket 2's. We split the money as there was not much in it and we wanted to get a third game in.

The final game was 9 handed as Peter had gone home. It looked like a repeat of the second as Gerry took an early lead knocking out his brother with AA vs AQ, however he lost his chips quickly this time. Joe had got some chips but made the fatal mistake of goading Sean snr and he took them off him in two well played hands and was in a commanding lead. I was steady in second but won a few pots against Sean snr who can be very hard to play when he has chips. The key hand came when down to Sean, Kev, Deco and myself. I had a good lead and next was Sean closely followed by Kev and then Deco. I am in the Big blind with 105 of spades. Blinds were 200/400 and Sean minimum raised under the gun. For him this means usually means a big pair and wants someone to come over the top. If he calls or raises big he could have literally anything but I have never seen him minimum raise with less than JJ. Folded to me and I decide to have a look at the flop getting 3 1/2 : 1 and even better implied odds. The Flop comes 10 5 8 rainbow. Nice. I bet 1000, I figure if he flat calls I am right about my read. He flat calls. Turn is a a 7. If he had called or raised bigger before the flop I would have been worried here as 46 or 96 could easily have been in his hand. I am also confident that he doesn't believe I have anything more than a 10 with a good kicker. I put him in for his last 2500 and he calls quickly. When I announce two pair he is rightly disgusted and flips over KK ! River is a 4 and he is the bubble. It took a while to convince that my preflop call wasn't that bad considering my chip position and odds both pot and implied. It also helped when I reminded him that he is probably the only other person at the table who would have also called in the same situation !

I made a mistake next hand as Deco moved in for 1200 and Kev then moved in for 3300. I had K3 of diamonds and made the mistake of thinking I could knock them both out with this powerhouse of a hand. I know if Tom Murphy is reading this he will agree that this is a mighty fine hand although not quite as powerful as the all conquering Q3 suited, his own destuctive weapon of a hand ! As it was both cards were live but Deco hit a J and took the main pot. Kev's AQ was good enough for the side. The next few pots were taken by Kev and Deco and by the time Deco finished of Kev we were even and it was 5am. We took €350 each and played a fun hand for the odd €50. I dealt us each 3 hands and we could choose which to play. It was then treated as an All in, who ever won would keep the €50. Just to ram home the prophecy, I made a straight on the river to beat his paired Ace and ended up driving home €500 up for the night but very down on sleep !

Tomorrow is the Irish forum tournie on Pokerstars and that will be it for poker until France on Tuesday.

I see some satellites are starting online for the WSOP so that will probably be my next goal. Unless of course the god of Po' kar shines on me and I win the EPT.

It's a small world but the river never changes..

2005-02-10T13:45:00.000Z

Playing on Pokerstars this afternoon in the $30 freezeout and someone from another table asks me how I'm finding Drogheda.. I check his name in lobby and see he is from Drogheda too. I ask if he is from the Irish one and he says yes I live in ******, which happened to be the same complex as me. Freaky ! Anyway's I told him I owned the Gamepad and he holds a weekly game so I may need to give it a try if he pops in.

As for the tournament itself, nlo luck there. Within the first level I flop the nut flush (I have four to a royal). I am put all in. No brainer call. River pairs the board to fill his boat and another early exit without bad play.

EDIT - Later on I played another Pokerstars $30 MTT and ended up on the same table as someone else from Drogheda ( well Termonfeckin, but near enough ). This time he had actualy heard about me as he is good friends with my brothers Father-in-law to be ! The World is shrinking !

Hopefully all the hands that hold up are waiting for me in France where there is more at stake. There is a likelyhood that due to the rising popularity of the EPT events that the field will be split into two to accomadate all the players. I hope I am in the first day so if I bust out I can get home early.

The Friday game looks like it might be on. I have only made it once since the new year, I need to get myself on the leaderboard.

Quick on the draw

2005-02-07T03:53:00.000Z

Just back in from playing in a 5 Card draw poker classic in aid of one of the local Gaelic football clubs. These are not something I usually play in and due to the payout of about 33% of the take, they are not something I am going to play in more either. However I was on a freeroll as one of Catherine's friends had won the €100 ticket in a raffle and asked me to play it for him.

Almost 200 people turned up to play and they were paying out €3000 for 1st, €1000 for 2nd, €800 for third and €600 for 4th. 5th-8th got €400 and 9th-14th got €150. This is a total payout of €7900 and entry fees added up to well over €24,000 including rebuys and top ups. However it is for a good cause so no complaints, just not great value for serious players - of which there seemed to be many who play up to 4 of these a week. Would love to see their return on investment figures !

The structure was rather strange as you started with €1000 and a started dealing for 50. The levels went up fairly swiftly and soon we were dealing for 500. Initialy a rebuy got you €1000 but when it got to €500 deals you got €2000. When we reached dealing for €1000 you could add on for €10,000. All rebuys and the top up cost only €10 ! I busted twice just before the top up and rebought as with the top up it levelled everyone out again.

From there I manged to make the final 8 without winning many big pots, but getting enough small ones to survive. I had the second least chips when the final table started and when it was down to 5 I had the smallest stack of monopoly money. On the hand before I had to put my last 60,000 in to deal I opened with 8855x and got 3 callers. I drew nothing extra and a drunk guy opened the betting and the two others folded and my two pair was good. Next hand I got 6644x. It was opened and with the drunk guy calling as well I put the 80,000 in and drew a K which still left me with two pair. The drubk guy opened the betting again after the draw. If I called it would leave me with 70,000 and he had 60,000 left in front of him. He had been unsuccessfully bluffing all night so I put him All in and he called with a pair of Jacks ! That was it as when it gets to 4 players in these events a money count is done and the placings decided. It turned out that i had moved from last to 2nd in two hands and left with a nice €1000 to split with my backer ! Not bad for my first sponsored entry !

Live practice and boy do I need it !

2005-02-05T13:07:00.000Z

Last night I ventured down to the Fitwilliam for a bit of live practice as I have not played since The Bahamas.

Firstly I would like to compliment the club on the new room upstairs for tournaments, it is much better than playing in the cramped space downstairs. Hopefully this extra capacity will lead to some bigger better structured tournamaments in the near future. From a players point of view I think it is a better venue than The Merrion if not quite as plush !

Also the new initiatives for the tournaments are well thought out and make for a bit of fun. The extra starting chips for those who arrive within the first level is a good idea. My favourite is the scalp bonus. For anyone who has not been since this was introduced this is how it works. Everyone is given a Brown Scalp chip. When you are All in this chip is put into the pot and if you lose your opponent gets to keep it and can cash it out for $10. In the rebuy stages you can make a few euro simply by winning a few multi way pots ! Unfortunately I never won any last night !

As for my game it was not so good. I was patient during the rebuy period, waiting for a decent hand to scoop a big pot, the best hand I saw though was Q9o and I folded after a small raise and 4 callers as it looked like the player to my left was going to move in for his last 1000 chips. As it was he didn't and just called. The board obviuosly came Q9x and the subsequent action would have given me a nice pot and a couple of scalp chips !

I took the add on and felt comfortable with 5000 chips, the average must have been about 6000 or so as you could only have one rebuy or the top up. 2400 to start including bonus chips and 3000 for rebuy / addon. Second hand after the restart I get QQ UTG and raise from 200 to 400. 2 callers and the flop comes Q high with 2 diamonds. In order to make sure anyone chasing the flush paid for it I bet just under the pot and everyone folded ! Any other hand on this table and it would have prompted at least 3 All ins.

Shortly afterwards the table broke, which was a shame because it was loose and I felt I could gain some chips here. I moved to another table and after 5 hands or so of rubbish I found myself in the cut off with no callers before me. I only had K4o but thought a raise might win me the blinds and if not I had position to play the flop anyway. Button and BB call and flop comes QQ4. I had seen the button player unsuccessfully chase down a flush to the river on one of the previous hands and when she called my 800 bet and the BB folded I stupidly put her on the same thing again as there were two spades on the board. Anyhow the next card was the third Queen and without a thought ( which is something I have moved out ouf my online game ) I moved all my chips in with my little house. I had my opponent cover by about a 1000 chips and fully expected her to fold for some reason. But I hear the dreaded word 'call' and know I am beat. I know she has no Queen but he had slowplayed the rockets to perfection! A few hands later I put my last chips in with KQ the second best hand I have seen all night ( I was not even dealt a rag Ace in 4 rounds !) and was called by two players, one of whom paired an Ace on the board to send me back home. Nice, and hour and a half driving for an hour and twenty minutes practice !

When I got home I played a reckless 900 runner $10 MTT on Pokerstars and was out about 850th, but it's a great way to blow off steam.

Then, a bit tired by now, I go to set up a private tournament on Pokerstars for the members of the Irish Poker forum. I meant to set it up for Tuesday as that is the quietest weeknight in Dublin for poker. I thought I had, however for any forum members who read this, it is Monday at 8pm. I wish I work out what the date will be in few days time !

Blogger Tournie + New Site Bonus deal

2005-02-03T09:57:00.000Z

I played in the blogger Tournie last night on Pokerstars. It was fun to play in, everyone was good humoured and I belive Dr Pauly cracked Aces and Kings with the hammer. His blog will surely have details of this feat if you care to check. In fact I have just checked and he posted the hand history and he did them both in the same hand, it certainly pays to hit the hammer hard !

My own tournament did not go so well, I chased a straight flush draw with 78h with the 69h on the flop and ended up making a flush to be outkicked by Doublas friend Curzdog. This left me with 163 chips and I managed to get back up to 1500 with some successive All in coups with low pairs until I ran into 1010 when I pushed with AK and I was out in 90 something place from 150+ runners. Hectorjelly , my fellow Irish blogger managed to place better than me by not turning up !

Looking back through this years stats I have been knocked out of 7 MTT out of 14 with AK ! Soon it will be relegated to auto fold...

Check 'n' raise poker have what seems to be a good bonus deal on at the moment. You can deposit up to $500 and get a 100% bonus. As with most bonus offers you must work it off, however there are no time limits and you get 12.5 points for every $1 you contribute in rake. 600 are needed for every $25 of bonus. This works out to be slighty over 50% rakeback which is not to shabby. For full details and to sign up are here. Mac users should be able to use this site too as it is Java based.

lady luck answers !

2005-02-02T01:10:00.000Z

After bowing to lady luck in my last post she finally came good for me. Not in the outdrawing people way, but in my hands holding up for a change.

I entered the $50 freezeout on Pokerstars, 272 runners and a first prize of $3700.

It started slowly and by the first break I was still at starting chips. A succession of ill timed moves saw me down to 600 chips when the average was over 3000. Two small pocket pairs held up and I was back up to average.

I managed to steal a few blinds here and there but was below half the average when I found AK in the big blind and groaned when I moved in aagainst AQ. This has been my nemesis match up lately, but for a change it held up and I went straight into blind stealing mode as almost a grand was in the pot preflop. I moved within touching distance of average through this and stayed level for a while before another double up was needed.

I snuck into the money in 27th place of 27 paid spots and lo and behold two more pocket pairs held up and I was into the top 10 stacks and able to play some poker. I moved up a gear and was raising and using position when called to win pots, then I got into a war with another large stack and was back down to 11th of 11. I really need to learn how to throw away AJ when in the blinds and facing a large raise from a big stack !

However I picked up 77 and moved in to be called by 6's and again no horrific outdraws. I then busted a shortstack, the only time I outdrew someone all night - k5 beating k9 ( I was in the BB and the pot was giving me 2.5:1)

I made it to the final table after raising half my chips and being called then moving in when he checked to me - I had diddly squat but i figured I needed some chips. At the final table i used the same move when I raised with 77 and the flop came AA6. I think I had the best here.

I went card dead for a while but managed to get into 4th place stealing here and there. Finally after an hour of the final table I was forced in with a J5 vs Q10 and no help left me with my best non satellite of the year and a nice $1088 to put me back into profit excluding the seat at Deauville.

I was sat next to one of my favourite bloggers The Camel for a short while but never had chance to introduce myself as he proceeded to have AK beaten two hands in quick succession, both against pocket 9's.

I repeat my mantra 'ITS ALL LUCK' and hope for more of the same tommorrow !

Should never have critisised luck !

2005-02-01T17:30:00.000Z

In my last post I attempted very feebly to argue the case for skill in poker. I take it all back, it is all luck !

Hopefully now I have admitted that, I will be looked down upon favourably by lady luck. The last two MTT I have got through more than half the field and when it really matters have gone in as a massive favourite against only one player and both times been outdrawn to the kicker! AK vs AQ and K10 vs K3. Not so much of a favourite but the other tournament I have played since posting my AK was cracked by someone calling with Q9o !

The AK vs AQ was most annoying as two hands previoulsy I had lost most of my chips with KK vs A5 !

I repeat again in case she wasn't listening..... ITS ALL LUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!

Skill Vs Luck

2005-01-31T10:49:00.000Z

A recent post on the Hendon Mob Forum had me thinking about how much skill is actually involved in playing poker. I am only going to concentrate on tournaments as that is all I really know about - my cash game sucks !

Immediatley players such as Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Devilfish, Gus Hansen and even Phil Hellmuth spring to mind. All have multiple wins in large field multi table tournaments and even more final table finishes.

Lets use Daniel Negreanu as an example. Going back over his performances for the last year he has the following finishes :

3rd out of 512
1st of 376
1st of 302
1st of 68
1st of 287
3rd of 538
2nd of 546
3rd of 221

Plus 8 other money finshes, mostly top tens.

If it were purely down to luck the odds of these 8 top three finishes are:
171:1 + 376:1+302:1+68:1+287:1+179:1+273:1+74:1 = 1730:1

My reckoning is that if it was all down to luck ten that means he would have had to enter 1730 tournaments to achieve these results. You may be able to do that in one year online but live tournamnents ? He probably entered less than 50. That means he achieved over 30 times his expected results if it was all down to luck.

Now let's look at Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott. Not a particulary stand out year for him but his best 8 finishes were:

5th of 454
1st of 85
4th of 59
3rd of 82
1st of 171
3rd of 128
1st of 60
2nd of 58

Combined odds of 521:1

Now Dave plays a lot of tournaments but again he probably played no more than 50 in a year so he acheived 10 times his expected results if it was down to luck.

You could go through the results of a lot of players and the findings would be similar and if you go back long enough for most of them you will find that they get more than expected return most years. I think most people will agree that although not statistically impossible, nobody has a run of luck that lasts that long.

Of course there is luck in poker in the short term, I am sure that everyone at some point has had someone hit a 1 or 2 outer on the river against them to knock them out of a tournament, but I am sure that if you kept count of how many times you won a similar hand then in the long run you would be well ahead.

So where is the skill in poker ?

A not exhaustive list of skill points:

The ability to read other players
The ability to pass a good hand when you know you are beat
The ability to use your position to its best advantage
Knowing when and when not to play poor starting hands
Patience
The calmness to avoid 'steaming'
The ability to 'change gears' when necessary
Knowing how to adjust your bet size to extract the most out of a winning hand
Knowing your outs on any given hand
Ability to correctly determine 'pot odds' and 'implied odds'
Knowing the point you need to gamble
Luck !

To sum it all up in whose words I am not sure but ' A good player has more bad luck than a bad player ' - I must be a very good player because I have had lots of bad luck recently :-)

What's happening ?

2005-01-28T11:27:00.000Z

Not much really ! Still slogging away at the heads up on Stars. So far W20 L6 at $20, W3 L4 at $50 and L1 @$100 so a bit of way to go to make it profitable but having fun learning!

I played a few tournaments and every time I have got into good position by halfway and then had a dominating hand cracked as I push for more chips. Each time it was the first time I had called or gone All in pre flop, sooner or later one will hold up and a final table will be mine. So far this year my MTT is not so great, two just in the moneys other than the satellite wins. I am not too despondent as you only need a couple of final tables to reset the balance.

Other poker sites

I have cleaned up my links so that only the best of the other blogs and sites are there now.
There are some good new blogs and sites out there, if you haven't found them yet then here is a rundown of my favourites.

Blonde Poker

A new site run by Tony 'Tikay' Kendall and Dave 'El Blondie' Colclough. The tournament reports from Tikay are very colourful and the site is updated on a regular basis.

Antes up

Another new site aimed mainly at the Irish poker scene. Run by Tom Murphy a regular at The Fitzwilliam. Set to include profiles of all the lesser known Irish players.

Milkybarkid

Ben has just taken the decision to go Pro. Best of luck, should be entertaining reading how he gets on.

Daniel Negreanu

Daniel's site has a lively forum and he is also very open in his blog which you can access through his site.

The Camel

Keith has at last hit a good run of form and he seems to be one the good guys of poker although his writing pulls no punches when necessary.

Terence Chan

Another pro's blog which is written well and frequently updated

Fifty outs

A german player who frequents a lot of major tournaments with his partner who also plays.

These are just some of the good reads out there, pretty much all the links to the left have some good posts/content in them. Have a look for yourselves when you have the time.

Trip report with pics

2005-01-24T01:28:00.000Z

My trip report with pictures is now up at Clanpoker.

Hopefully internet access will be better in France for quicker progress updates.

Of to France

2005-01-23T05:03:00.000Z

Finally after 6hrs of play in a satellite for the EPT in Deaville, France.

PokerStars Tournament #4624413, No Limit Hold'emSuper SatelliteBuy-In: $360.00/$20.0098 playersTotal Prize Pool: $35280.00 Target Tournament #3251223 Buy-In: $2600.009 tickets to the target tournamentTournament started - 2005/01/22 - 18:00:00 (ET)
Dear Aces_Mike,
You finished the tournament in 1st place.You qualified to play in Tournament #3251223 and are automatically registered for it.See Tournament #3251223 Lobby for further details.In addition a $1,000.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

It was touch and go for a while, I lost two big pots early on with AK and was down to 1300 from initial 2500 chips. Patience prevailed and I climbed back up to 5000 without showing a hand. I dropped back to 4000 and when down to 30 or so I took a shot with 99 and it held up vs A10, shortly after I called an UTG raise with JJ. I had seen the guy raise from here with nothing so when the flop came 988 then 7 on the turn I called all his bets then a J hit the turn also bring a flush possibility. He moved in and I was up into the top 10 for the first time.

Patiently winning small pots here and there and also flopping a set of Queens vs a set of Jacks I made it to 2nd place with twenty left. It took forever to get to 16 players which was the bubble for the $380 consolation prizes. I was picking up no cards at this point and when I did pick up AK it cost me 6000. 9 places were up for grabs and I had been whittled down to 10th place with 11 left. I had 6000 and the blinds were 600,1200. A guy folded his small blind to me and was criticised by the other shortstack on the table. I was pleased when the guy replied ' Mike can play I did not want to double him up with a weak hand '. This seemed to satisfy the complainant who eventually went out on the bubble. I took as a sign to move in 3 pots in a row and was soon back up to 15000 and then Mr complaining reraised a big stack only holding QJ and found himself up against a lovelyBig slick which held up and I will be joining Milkybarkid in France.
Hopefully I can do better than my WPT effort although I don't ssuppose the Holiday will be anywhere near as good as the Bahama's !

Stay Lucky !

Mike

Heads up

2005-01-21T15:57:00.000Z

I still can't overcome the luck factor in the Turbo STT on stars so I ventured into a new arena - Heads up matches. So far I have played 8 at the $20 level and am undefeated, when moving up to $50 I am 2 wins - 3 losses. Biggest comeback was when down to 300 chips and so far no match has gone any further than 3 levels and I have only gone all in once with a substantial amount of chips pre flop, AKs running into AA in a $50. I had been raising a lot pre flop and this was the first time he had come back at me rather than call so I should have known better !

No poker tonight though it is time for a few drinks, hopefuly tomorrow nights France Quailifier will go well and I will get a shot at the European Pro's in February.

The right fold is the wrong fold

2005-01-20T10:32:00.000Z

As well as the Turbo STT I have played a couple of $10 MTT on Pokerstars over the last couple of nights. I was running well in both until similar situations occured. Both times until I saw my opponents cards I thought I had made a good fold when in fact I would have won massive pots that would have put me in or very near the chip lead.

Firstly was a $10 Rebuy and first paid approx $5000. I had got to the last 130/515 and was comfortably above average with over 30,000 chips. I had not rebought and only added on. There were two stacks on the table bigger than mine. One was immediately to my left and one opposite me. In my small blind I picked up K10 of clubs and it had been called by the big stack opposite and I called, the other big stack let us see a flop. At this stage blinds were 1000,2000 with a 100 ante so there was 7000 in the pot. Flop comes 3 8 10 with two spades. Not wanting to mess about I led out with a pot sized bet. Big blind immediately moves in and without hesitation the other large stack moves in as well ! I figure at least one of them has a set or A10 at least, one is most probably drawing to the flush. Well I was right about one thing, there was a flush draw - Q high ? and pocket nines ? The nines held up and I was gutted to have missed out. A few hands later I flop TPTK with A10 also holding nut flush draw and move in only to be called by a set which held up.....

Secondly was a $10 Freezeout and we are down to 30 from 1080. First pays $2700 and I am just below average chips. Blinds are 1500,3000 with 150 ante. I have picked up QQ in the BB. Then UTG moves in for 40,000, table chip leader re-raises in for 80,000 and then SB puts his 40,000 in the middle. QQ cannot be good here ? I never thought about the pot odds of over 3:1, I just assumed there was no way I could be ahead and folded to wait for a better spot. What did they have ? First player A3 offsuit, Chip leader JJ and the third player had called two All in's with AJ offsuit ! Unbelievably the ladies would have been a preflop 65% favourite in 4 way pot before the flop. To rub salt into the wounds a Q appeared on the flop and I am left wondering how I would have got on with a massive chip lead with 28 to go ! My next big blind I get A10 and see a flop of A103 and find out I am up against pocket 3's. At least I got $50 back in this one....

As far as the Turbo's go I have played 25 of each of the $55 and $25 versions. I am up $50 for the $25's and down $100 for the $50's. Even though I am not really winning in these I am sure I can beat them when the cards even out. So far 20 of my exits in mostly 4th & 5th place are when I am better than 4:1 preflop, yet not once have I outdrawn I higher pair myself when All in preflop. Reading The Camel's blog, the general opinion is that these are the best for regular profit but everybody finds them boring. I just find them frustrating at the moment !

I have also qualified for the French EPT final quailifier on Saturday night, we had planned to go out for drinks so I will have to stay sober and go home at 11pm to play. Whilst on the EPT, I am not sure if anyone who reads this blog is likely to pay the €10,000 entry to the Monte Carlo Millions, but if there is anyone then buy in direct through Pokerstars. They are only charging $12,300 which at the current rate is only €9389, not a bad saving !

Turbo Turbo turbo

2005-01-19T02:30:00.000Z

I have now played over 40 NL turbo's in 3 days and apart from the two runs into bad beat beat city I am enjoying them immensely. I am over my moaning now, it was just the worst run I have seen. I know in time it will even itself out but I am convinced it is skewing my ROI figures at the moment. I am going to continue on with the $25 ones where at the moment I am getting back 30%. The games are soft though that when all bad beats are averaged out over say 200 games I am sure I can get it up to 45%. I would have kept on at the $55 level but my bankroll is not big enough for the swings just yet. I think 20 buy ins is necessary for these turbo's as sometimes you need to take a chance due to the speed of them. If only I was rich enough not to have to withdraw all my big online wins for other stuff !

This now officially a bad beat blog !

2005-01-18T13:35:00.000Z

This is now getting hard to stomach, I know it will run my way just as much over the long run but short term I am getting killed whenever I get involved preflop with pocket pairs. I thought it had changed after playing 6 $25 NL turbo's last night and getting 3 firsts, 2 seconds and a third for a healthy profit. I never had AA, KK or QQ once in all of these and the worst beats were AK vs Ax both time when heads up with the chip lead !

However it has gone back to good old outdraw city this morning. So far I have played 3 and these are my exit hands :

KK vs QQ
QQ vs 1010
QQ vs 99

All in before the flop and each time a set flopped against me !
Odds of this happening are 64:1, I'm off to the bookies to find a longshot to lump some money on.

Anybody got any lucky charms for sale ?

It gets worse - 4th game AA vs 57 and you guessed it 346 on the flop ! over 300:1 now !

What are the odds ?

2005-01-17T20:29:00.000Z

I know it sounds like I am moaning, but the deck has been hitting me right where it hurts recently. Last night I started playing the $55 NL Turbo’s on Pokerstars. At first look they are a really soft game, although there are a few good players lurking for feed. It started of well with 2 wins and 2 seconds without getting many big hands, just playing good solid positional poker. On the back of this I entered the $215 Tournie. No complaints in that one apart from running KK into AA twice ! I came back from the first one but could not do it again and finished 1343 out of over 2200.

Then I went back to playing the turbo’s. As I was still suffering from jet lag and had slept all day so I ended up playing another 16 and only got one third ! This is the reason why:

AA vs Q5 and Q4 Board 109J8x
AA vs 22 and 2 flops
KK vs 99 and KK vs 88 and KK vs QQ set each time
KK ran into AA twice
AK vs Ax lost 3 times
99 vs 88 you guessed it an 8 flopped

Others were closer but I was ahead every other time bar one on my exit hands and the one I was behind was AJ vs KK and it took the proverbials by giving me an Ace on the flop only for a runner runner flush for the Kings !

I have dropped down to the $25’s tonight and am so far 2 wins for 2, hope that is not an omen. I am gonna play 100 of each in total and see where the land lies and if I can get an ROI of 40% I am getting a new desktop for the home with a big monitor and am gonna multitable 4 at a time. That works out at roughly $80/hr and will do nicely.

$1.71 update

This challenge has finally bitten the dust in the heated battlegrounds of the VC ½ Omaha tables. I worked it up to over $300 and blew it an entertaining afternoon, the table included a hungover Hectorjelly and also briefly Hyzepher from Boards.ie.
Ah well it was fun while it lasted.

Pokerstars goodie bag

I forgot to mention on my trip report how good the Pokerstars goodie bag was. First of the bag was a large holdall with a disrceet Pokerstars logo and also embroidered with my name. Inside were 8 different tops including polo shirts, ice hocky tops, a nice WPT jacket and the obligatory T shirts. There was also a Sterling silver card protector, a Zippo luggage tag, a fan, a beach towel, a hat, flip flops and a $10 phone card. Thanks Pokerstars.

I also forgot to mention what a nice guy Lee Jones is. We got talking to him a few times on the trip and he always made time to answer our questions.

As I am finishing this I have just won my third in a row so maybe my luck is on the change !
Stay Lucky !

Mike

Sometimes you wonder what you have to do !

2005-01-15T10:43:00.000Z

Whilst wide awake from the jetlag, I decided to join Jerry who I met in the bahamas in a $55 Turbo on Pokerstars. Unfortunately our reunion last two hands as my river misfortunes continue.
Here is the hand history.

PokerStars Game #1078977025: Tournament #4613632, Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2005/01/14 - 20:50:49 (ET)
Table '4613632 1' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: hankhankhank (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: Aces_Mike (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: Stoffers (1480 in chips)
Seat 4: sophieday (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: nycjoshie (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Susp3nc3 (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: argofys (1120 in chips)
Seat 8: fatjim (1460 in chips)
Seat 9: BARJA55 (1950 in chips)
Stoffers: posts small blind 10
sophieday: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Aces_Mike [Qd Jc]
nycjoshie: folds
Susp3nc3: calls 20
argofys: calls 20
fatjim: folds
BARJA55: calls 20
hankhankhank: folds
Aces_Mike: calls 20
sophieday said, "finished 7th and top 4 where getting a seat into the 650 tourney"
Stoffers: folds
sophieday: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kh 7h Tc]
sophieday: checks
Susp3nc3: checks
argofys: checks
Aces_Mike said, "ul"
BARJA55: bets 40
Aces_Mike: calls 40
sophieday: calls 40
Susp3nc3: calls 40
argofys: folds
*** TURN *** [Kh 7h Tc] [9d]
sophieday: bets 120
Susp3nc3: raises 180 to 300
BARJA55: raises 1590 to 1890 and is all-in
Aces_Mike: calls 1430 and is all-in
sophieday: folds
Susp3nc3: folds
*** RIVER *** [Kh 7h Tc 9d] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BARJA55: shows [Kd Ts] (a full house, Kings full of Tens)
Aces_Mike: shows [Qd Jc] (a straight, Nine to King)
BARJA55 collected 3550 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3550 | Rake 0
Board [Kh 7h Tc 9d Kc]
Seat 1: hankhankhank folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Aces_Mike (button) showed [Qd Jc] and lost with a straight, Nine to King
Seat 3: Stoffers (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: sophieday (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 5: nycjoshie folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Susp3nc3 folded on the Turn
Seat 7: argofys folded on the Flop
Seat 8: fatjim folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: BARJA55 showed [Kd Ts] and won (3550) with a full house, Kings full of Tens

Usually I make no comment but a 'ffs' was in order here !

Ah well it must change soon, I did manage a 3rd in a similar game earlier, but busted out of two Monte Carlo qualifiers early on.

The massacre part II and Trip summary

2005-01-14T03:59:00.000Z

It is 4 o'clock in the morning the day after our return to Ireland and jet lad has officially kicked in. We arrived home at 5pm yesterday and I have spent most of the time sleeping, hence me being wide awake now! At last I have some time and access to finish off my trip report.

I left off after my third hand played on day two and I had around 13000 chips. We started playing the last 30 mins of level 6 which was 200/400 with 75 ante. By the time the level finished I had posted another BB & SB and had not played a hand so was down to under 12000. This was still more than I started the day with but the blinds were now 300/600 with a 100 ante so it was 1900 a round to play.

Players were falling at a rate of nearly 1 per minute and soon from a starting 258 on day 2 there was less than 200 left. My table had seen its fair share of casualties. 'The Grinder' took out 4 people in less than a round. KK and AA taking out two players each and he was table chip leader with over 75,000. He lost a big pot vs Daniel Larsson when whe came back over the top with QQ and Daniel called with AK and made Kings full.

I was finding it impossible to make a move. Each side of the table there were large stacks raising and re raising each pot and every hand I had in postion was unplayable. At one time I had 7 2,8 2, 9 2 , 7 2 and 10 2 in consectutive hands !

Daniel Negreanu took the seat to my left when a player was eliminated and he was soon chirping away even though he was not playing many pots with his less than average stack of around 20k.

I had let myself get down to 5200 chips when I picked up AJ of clubs third to act. Danny Ashman had made it 1500 to go from UTG, Mark Smyrski folded and I moved all my chips into the middle. He had been rasing with any two face cards and when he was the only caller with KQ I found myself a 60/40 facourite to double up.

The flop came K 10 J all red and with no more Jacks or Queens coming on the turn or river I made an exit in 187th place. By the end of the day over 200 more players had been eliminated.
At the end of Sunday 9 remained and it took only 1hr and 15 min on Monday for the final 6 to be decided.

Suprisingly I felt quite calm and relieved when I went out. I am confident I did about the best anyone could with the cards I was dealt. I made a couple of good laydowns which on another day I may not have made. I was shown trips vs my top two both times.

Summary of hands dealt

I was dealt KK once - all folded to my small raise in late postion
QQ once - hand described above
JJ twice - held up to the river twice
AK 3 times - twice won blinds. Once I reraised a possible blind steal and lost a couple of thousand chips when up against AA !
AJ/AQ 4 times - won medium pot with flush, blinds once and laid down top two vs a set post flop and also this was my exit hand!
A10 3 time - won blinds twice - laid down top two vs set once.
88 first hand of tournament - folded after a A high flop had a bet and a call, 8 came on river but was early on and correct move was to fold after flop with two overcards and action.
55 once in BB and called raise to fold to a bet on AKx flop
22,33,44 once each in late position - unplayable as each time there was a raise and reraise ahead of me.
Suited connectors - 10,7 twice, managed to limp but missed flop completely both times.
Junk hands - way too many to count !

Other poker action

I played in two $100 Sit and gos and finished 5th twice.
I also played two $300 tournaments and after doubling up early in both without showing a hand I was crippled in both holding the nuts on the turn only for some one to suck out and river first a flush then a full house. The second one I was knocked out by Tom McEvoy who sat down in the small blind on my big blind after arriving late and took my last 50 chips with 10 7 vs my 78 !

Strangest moment 1

I was sitting on the toilet reading a local paper someone had kindly left behind and started reading an article on the tournament and found myself reading about a certain Mike Lacey from Ireland who had qualified for $160 !

Strangest moment 2

I was temporarily barred from the casino because they thought I was dealer in the poker tournament (I was wearing Pokerstars Polo Shirt along with about 50 other gamblers I could see in casiono!) and therefore prohibited by Bahamain law from gambling!

Casino Gaming

After deciding I needed a break from poker I played a bit of Caribbean stud and Let it ride and overall made a profit of about $800 plus 3 nights of free drinks. Total and utter gambling but good fun! Saw a crazy beat in Caribbean Stud when a guy from Boston played KKAQ2 and dealer had KKAQ3 ! Then two hands later he played a hand blind, the dealer quailified and he flipped over Four jacks for a $1500 score. This hand may have been mine as Colin and I decided to leave and this was the first hand dealt without us and would have been mine had both of us stayed !
Catherine became addicted to a nickel slot called Power Slotto and I became a mini addict myself as well to this and Video poker . We won about the same as we lost on these and quailified for a lovely Atlantis beach towel with our slot points - High rollers or what ?

Stars spotted

Excluding all the top poker players

Michael Jordan playing blackjack for 10,000 a hand, three hands at a time.
Rick Fox playing Caribbean stud.
Barry Bonds walking around resort.

Great people met

Colin and Donna whom we spent a lot of time with. Colin is one of the top players on the Canadian circuit which has a lot of 300+ runner $500 and $1000 events - I see a trip to Canada coming soon.

Jerry 'Sophieday' Lotterman III. Played on my table the first day and on many of the same Caribbean Stud tables - Some heads up Pokerstars action looming.

Vinnie Lawrence - Every time I raised a pot it seemed to be on his blind !

Mark Smyrski - Sat next to him on Day 1 & 2 and glad to see him make last 30.

Spiro 'Lucky55' and wife Jenny. Spiro finished 17th and it was his wife who taught me caribeean stud.

Ronnie, Annie and all of the gang from Norway.

Resort rating

Poker aside this was a fantastic holiday and I could not recommend Atlantis enough. It is a beautiful, clean and well run resort with plenty to keep everyone entertained. It can however be very expensive. A five minute phone call home was $40 and you need at least $100 per person a day just to eat. When I have a bit more time then I will put all these reports up on Clanpoker including photo's.

Now I have to go and try to get back to noramlity !

Stay Lucky !

Mike

The Atlantis Poker room massacre

2005-01-09T19:09:00.000Z

Apologies for the late posting, the hotel has no travel adaptors for UK/Irish appliances so I have had to wait for one of the 4 computers in the Library to become free. I only have 15 mins so will have to be brief. A full trip report will follow as soon as I can.

So I sat down on Day 2 as a shortstack with 9325 chips. 258 people had made it through in total out of 461 entries. This is more than double last years numbers. The total prize pool is almost $4million and first pays nearly $900,000. They are paying 80 places, the minimum payout is over $11,000.

I start on the button and I am drawn with 3 average to large stacks to my right. Mark Smyrski from my table yesterday is first to my right with over 25,000. Danny ' The Bruiser ' Ashman is next with over 40,000 and 'The Grinder follows him with almost 20,000. Daniel Larsson is at my table again three to my left. The other two players to my left have 10,000 and 17,000 respectively. The shortest stack is 7000.

First hand I pick up QQ and it raised to 1500 UTG by Daniel. No callers to me and I push All in and after some thought he folds a small pocket pair. Two hand later I get KQs and it is folded to me, I raise and pick up the blinds. When my big blind comes around I have pocket 5's and call a 1200 raise. Flop AKx, I check and fold to a pot size bet.

That was the last hand I played until over 70 players had hid the dirt. I had no hands and most pots were raised and reraised. Times up now I finished 187 will finish report later !

Day one

2005-01-07T04:25:00.000Z

So we arrived last night and went down to the Dig Deck for the Pokerstars Cocktail Reception.There was plenty of free drink and we made the most of it. We met a couple from Canada, Colin(Kanuck) and Donna, with them we made the most of Pokerstar's hospitality and much Vodka, rum and wine was consumed.Afterwards we made the 15 minute trek across the resort to the poker room. There is not normally poker at Atlantis so Pokerstars had to build a room from scratch.They have done a good job with well over 30 tables and a large projector screen for the tournaments.Colin entered the super satellite for $200 which attracted well over 200 entrants. He finished 50th which was not good enough for one of the 18 seats or $8000 cash on offer.I entered a $100 Sit and Go to get a feel for the place and was quickly up from 1500 chips to nearly 4000 without showing a hand. I had the goods most of the time !Then with 5 left it all went pearshaped, an ill-timed postflop bluff ran into a set and then AA was cracked when J10 made a straight. Finally AK failed to improve against 88 and it was time for bed.

The main event started late as the organisers struggled registering everyone in time. They have changed the process for tomorrows half.We finally kicked off at 1pm, an hour behind schedule. 10,000 chips to start and blinds of 25/50. The only player on my table I recognised was Daniel Larsson. I was on table 12 in seat 2 and he was in seat 5. We were due to play five 75 minutes levels today. I finished the first level on 1500 chips, AJ of hearts making a flush on the turn which i bet as the board had also paired.The next few levels I was up and down a few chips here and there. Every time I raised with a hand everyone folded. Everytime I called with a hand, I missed the flop completely and was forced out.The table was very tight and no-one was up or down much early on.At the end of level 4 I was down to 6000 chips. Mostly due to losing 2000 when I re-raised a button raise from the small blind with AK. Yet again the flop missed me completely and I was put all in post flop. I couldn't call and was now one of the short stacks on the table.
Three hands into the fifth level, blinds 150,300 with a 50 ante, I flat called a 600 raise on the button with JJ (my biggest PP so far). The flop came 336 and it was check to me and I bet the pot. It was called only by the initial raiser. Next card was a 7 and I bet 3000 of my last 4000 and he set me in. I had to call and was relieved when he showed pocket 8's and I doubled up.

Shortly after that I picked up the hooks again in a five was unraised pot. The flop and turn was Q high with no flush or straight. I put no-one on a Q when it was checked around and when the turn was rag I called a 500 bet along with 2 more players. River was rag and it was checked around and my Jacks stood up again!This was the high point of the day and I finished the level down at 12600. Just before the level finished they announced the 6th level would also be played today and after much argument it was decided it would be a 45 minute level. Blinds were 200,400 with a 75 ante. I picked up not one hand to play this level and I finished the day on 9325 chips.
201 players started today and 117 or so are left. The highest stack on my table was 38,000. Daniel Larsson has about 25,000 along with a couple of others. We lost 3 players all day and we saw the rockets at least 6 times, to my knowledge they were not cracked all day. Bad beat of the day, A french guy to my left tried to knock out a shortstack with KK and was beaten by A10 when two tens flopped.My best hand was KK which I raised and everybody folded. Other than the flush I made nothing higher than a pair when I saw the flop.I made the right play everytime today, I just could not hit the flop when called or calling. Daniel was easily the best player on the table and made some strong moves on scary boards. The table chip leader hit at least three nut flushes and the rockets twice.Other notable players still in are Chris Moneymaker, John Juanda and Carlos Mortenson. I chatted briefly with Surinder Sunar and also Daniel when on breaks and the both seemed like nice guys. Also at my table everyone bar one annoying loud American played in excellent spirit.
Catherine spoke to Chris Moneymaker and told him not to knock me out. He looked bemused when he asked who I was and she told him I wasn't even on his table!
All in all, I have enjoyed the experience so far. I am not entirely happy with my chip postion though and will have to double up early on Saturday when the two halves combine. It is still 75 minute levels and blinds are 300,600 with a 100 ante.
I have forgotten my camera lead so no pictures to post yet, I will try and borrow one to upload what we have taken so far. The resort is fabulous and I am looking forward to a day by the pool in the late 20's heat !
Apologies for the formatting I had to write in notepad as the Dail up is so expensive!

Arrived

2005-01-05T22:29:00.000Z

Arrived safe and sound after a 19 hr journey ! We are on the 20th floor of the west Tower - Great views ! Dial up is a bit slow though, wish my wifi had arrived in time.

Just getting ready for the pre tournie cocktail reception.

Will update with more details later.

A New year to end the year...

2005-01-03T13:45:00.000Z

As we see in the new year it is drawing to the end of my first year in poker and my biggest test yet is a mere three days away. I am finding it difficult to think about anything other than the Bahamas and the WPT. Even Catherine is having trouble sleeping !

It is merely the fact that such a huge sum of money is closer than it ever has been before in my life. I cannot expect to win, but I will be doing my best to win. Of course like many others it is more likely that I will bust out on the first day than to get to the final table. As long as I have done my best I will be happy. If I am busted on a 40:1 shot on the river I will be happy. If I have one of the moments of madness like I get sometimes in smaller stakes games I will be very unhappy!

Last night was the first home game for a while and we started earlier than usual to fit in 3 games as we were all hungry for some live action. The line up was as follows:
Myself, Deco, Sean Paul, Kev, Steve (Tiny Tim), Anto, Sean Snr, Joe, Pat, Jerry and his brother Brendan.

Everything was going well in the first game, I slowly built up my chips, the deck was hitting me in the face for the first couple of levels. In a multiway raised pot I hit a straight on the flop and after a bet and a call, my raise was big enough to get rid of any flushers. Things then started to dry up card wise, but I was still chip leader (just), when we were down to five.

I was still getting no cards and foolishly called a raise from Deco with K9 suited and when the flop came Q high I bet out 3000 into a 4000 pot. He only had 4000 or so left so he was allin or nothing. I thought the flop had missed him and he wouldn't be able to call. I was right, it had missed him, however he correctly deduced I had no Queen and that his pocket jacks were good !
A few hands later I lost another 4000 or so when I was allowed to see a JJ5 flop from the big blind holding a 5. I made a small bet to see where it was and it was called by Deco. It was checked to the river where another 5 fell and I was sure I was beat but for some reason bet another 1000 and felt I had to call the other 1000 he raised me in order to find what I already knew !

By then I was low chipped and Deco took the rest of my chips when I went in with cards I forget now but were marginal favourites. I was just destined to give him all my chips. He went on from having 2000 chips to splitting the pot with Joe. Jerry finished 3rd.

The second game had a faster structure and there was a lot more gambling going on. I lost almost half my chips trying to bully Deco out of a pot with a pretty looking but useless KQs. Then a few hands later I more than trebled up when I called a raise from Joe along with four others with JQ. The flop was JQ and Joe bet, Brendan called and I moved in. To my surprise they both called, Brendan with Qx and Joe with pocket Kings. No help for either and I was back in good position.

The blinds were rising pretty steeply and I had bled off to about starting chips (6000) when the blinds hit 800/1500 with still six left. I went All in with nothing twice in a row and picked up the blinds and without realising it the chip lead also ! If I had have noticed I had more chips than anyone I probably would not have done it for the third time in a row! As it was I did with KJ UTG and was promptly called by Kev with KK, he had 500 chips less than me and next hand my K6 never held up All in from the Big blind! Brendan went on to beat his brother into second place, Anto finished 3rd.

The third game I think I played my best poker and made into the last three with half the chips and up against Kev and Sean Paul. I say I played good poker but I made one bad move against Sean snr. With Four left I pushed All in on a K high board with K10. I had said before I did it that for a change he was playing big cards but I wanted to gamble. He had AK and I hit a 10 on the river to knock him out ! It was the only time I came from behind to win a hand all night, although plenty came from a short way behind to beat me!
This was a tough one and there were more flops seen than usual when down to the last three. This suits me and I was winning my fair share but could not finish anyone off ! Twice I lost big pots Allin pre flop and crawled back up to the chip lead. I am not superstitious but I think it was Karma that Sean Paul kept outdrawing me. Earlier in the game I had called with 22 and the board fell 663. He bet 600 into a 2000 pot and I knew he didn't have a six so I raised another 1200 and he folded after a bit of thought. I showed my 2's and he was a bit annoyed to say the least as he had pocket 7's.
I ended up finishing third as every attempt to knock out either when they were shortstacked backfired on me. I flopped two pair agaisnt Sean Paul's one, only thing was the board was all spades but I called his all in as it was for so little chips and of course the 4th spade hit to match his 6 of spades ! I lost more chips when I made a straight against Kev's higher straight. I was finally All in for my last 4000 with 8 10 against Kev with J10. I hit trip 8's on the flop but the turn and river were 7 9 to send me home down 1 buy in !

It was good to get 10 hours of live poker in before Thursday and I would like to thank everyone who has wished me well and I am determined to do well. It was especially good to get a phone call from Anthony Fagan who you may have seen on the WPT series two final table at Aruba giving me some tips !

My side of the draw is getting a bit tougher as late entries include Carlos Mortensen, John Juanda, Surinder Sunar, Kathy Leibert, Chris Moneymaker, David Williams, Howard Lederer and the Fossilman. If I do go out early it would be good to get to play with a few of these guys first, however it will be even better if I get to bust a few of them!

Hopefully I will be able to update this blog from there. There is Dial up in the hotel but I don't know if I will be able to use it with my Irish account. Apparently there is also WiFI access but I don't have my WiFi card for my laptop yet. If I can get good access there will be full reporting including pictures at Clanpoker . If you haven't checked the site out yet than have a look, it is starting to take shape and there are some articles up now from Ben Grundy AKA The Milkybarkid. More are promised from other good bloggers/writers.

Hope you all have a good New Year !

Mike

Signs....

2004-12-28T10:54:00.000Z

My big poker adventure starts in just over a week. Last night I logged on to Pokerstars and saw that they are running the first part of the tournament in two halves. I am in the first half starting the day after we arrive. From the list of nicknames I can only see a few top pro's in this half, Hoyt Corkins, Erick Lindgren, Isabelle Mercier and TT Tran. The other half looks a bit tough with Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstien, Daniel Negreanu, Eric Siedel, Juha Helppi and Josh Arieh. So far so good !

Christmas day was also a bit spooky. I am not normally anywhere near superstitious but something strange was going on. At the meal we pulled our crackers and I managed to win a miniature pack of playing cards. Later on in the evening another box of crackers was opened and yet again I won the miniature cards ! I am considering using one of these as a marker for my cards in Atlantis !

Just a reminder, internet connection permitting, I will be keeping a diary of the WPT event at Clanpoker.com .

I have played a couple of tournaments online over the festive season and have made the money both times for a grand profit of $30 !! The first was a 1800+ Party Poker tournie and I managed to make it to 176th Position. Every time I got into a good position I was whacked by the gods of poker. Twice I had the nut straight and once the nut flush by the turn only for the board to pair on the river to give someone a boat and cripple me again. I finally put the last of my chips in with AQ and was called by J10 suited and Ace on the flop but running clubs on the turn and river and I was gone. The second was a VC rebuy. It was only $3 but first paid almost $500. I made it to the money and then picked up the rockets. The table chip leader went in before me and I called to find him with pocket 2's. I had seen the 2's hold up early and they did so again and I was out in 21st of 167.

The rockets have not been good to me lately, I have been having a go at limit poker and picked them up twice last night only to get an ace on the flop both times and still lose ! So 0/3 last in total, hopefully it will even out next week !

The $1.71 challenge is still going, although I am not giving it a great deal of attention at the moment. I am hovering around the $130 mark and am currently playing limit .50/1 with the odd small priced MTT thrown in for good measure.

If I don't manage to post again before the New Year I would like to wish everyone a GOOD ONE!

Also well done to fellow blogger Milkybarkid who has qualified for the EPT event in Deauville through Pokerstars. Also to the dealer at the Fitz whose real name I forget, who quailfied for the Copenhagen leg, online he is CrazyGrace !

My first year in poker.....

2004-12-23T09:48:00.000Z

As the year draws to a close it is time for me to look back on my first year in poker. It all started when I saw Late Night Poker on challenge TV early in the year. I found it strangely compelling viewing and watched it regularly, slowly learning the rules and becoming familiar with some of the plays that were made.

At this time I had no idea that you could play poker online until I was at my supplier's warehouse and heard them talking about Party poker. Having some spare time on my hands one afternoon shortly after I saw an advert for Freeserve poker on a website and downloaded the software. I deposited $100 and started playing some low limit tournaments. The date for this momentous occasion was March 10th 2004. Until that day the nearest to poker I had come was playing Bastard brag at school!

Straight away I was hooked and won my first Multi table tournament within a few days, netting me about $110. I downloaded Ladbrokes software and won another multi, this time netting me $324. From this time onwards I have never been in the red for my poker career. Having these few early wins helped in more than one way. Firstly once I was up I was able to tell Catherine that I was now playing off winings and if I lost it I hadn't really lost ! Secondly it gave me the confidence to start playing live.

I was asked by one of my customers to play in their home game and won 2 of the 3 small but in tournaments in my first visit. Then I was invited to Sean Paul and Declan's home game. The standard here was a lot higher, poker is in their blood. Their father, Sean is an ex Irish Open winner and their uncle Donald has long been a top high stakes player, making an appearance at a WPT final table as well as winning other big tournaments in Vegas before the poker boom.

The first game here I finished out of the money but cleaned up in the cash game afterwards for a $300 profit on the night. It was this win that allowed me to enter my first live multi table tournament. My account of this is here.

Not long after that I picked up $770 in a freeserve MTT and went down to the Merrion to try and quailify for the World Poker championship event. I had no expectation of qualifiying as the field in the satellite had some quaility names such as Devilfish, Lucy Rokach, Andy Bloch, Miami John, Simon Trumper, Steve Vladar to name a few. It was a €150 rebuy and I had brought enough for one rebuy. I used this early on as I found myself pot committed with Top pair weak kicker. The very next hand I was in the big blind and held K 2. The flop contained a 2 and was checked around. The turn brought another 2 and I bet half the pot (this was a pot limit event), it was called in two places. The river brought the case 2 and I checked, One player bet the pot and the other folded, I raised a small amount more All in and put myself in a nice position.

I went on to make the final table and when it was down to myself, Lucy Rokach and Tom Hanlon we decided to do a deal. The payout was a €6000 ticket for 1st, €6000 for second and €2450 for third. As they had already payed into the event the ruling was if I finished second I would have to take the ticket, so the most cash I could have got was €2450 for third. I offered them €5k each and took €4200 the rest going to the dealers. I figured I didn't stand much chance yet against the top players in the world so was very happy with the cash !

That was my largest cash in a live event so far, however I have won a smaller event in the Fitzwilliam and made the final table of a ranking event in the Merrion in October.
So far in live poker I have staked €5270 and won €10,650 for a profit of €5380. This includes all tournaments and cash games. The only place I am in the red is the Fitzwilliam, mainly due to the €270 event in which I have yet to cash and also the cash games! If anybody in Ireland is new to poker and wants to play live I would reccommend giving the Fitz a go. The Staff and customers are very good and having read about some other poker rooms I would say it is one of the best run in Europe.

Back on to Internet poker. So far major wins include over €10,000 in a Party satellite which crashed and paid out cash instead of a ticket to the Euro Open. $1300 and $5400 cashes in +1600 runnere events on Party and Pokerstars. Not forgetting winning a seat at the WPT event in the Bahama's in January ! So far in total my internet profit stands at €12,953. Plus holiday and $8000 entry paid.

I am very happy with how poker has gone for me this year, the money has been very handy as I am only 15 months into my business and the early time for a business can be tough. Having a very understanding partner also helps. Although the Bahamas is the third holiday paid for by poker in the last 9 months so it is easier for her to let me stay out/up playing !

My aims for next year are to consilidate on last year and travel over to some of the festivals in Europe along with some of the guys from the home game. You will be able to follow our progress at Clan Poker. The site is up and running and access permitting I will be updating my WPT diary live from the sun! We have some budding poker writers contributing articles for us and they should be up in the new year sometime. If you have a look at the site you will see it contains a lot of poker related links. If you think something is worth linking to then please let me know and I will update it.

Lastly, I would like to wish everyone who reads these ramblings a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.!

Stay Lucky !
Mike

Reading between the lines....

2004-12-18T10:55:00.000Z

After reading that a few other bloggers had given the Party Poker Step challenge a bash I decided to have a go myself. I started at level 2 and won so moved up to level 3. My first go at level 3 I finished 7th so was given another shot at this level.
Unfortunately I busted out in 15th when my Aces were cracked by an AK making a flush.

I had looked at this like many as a good way to try and get a big score from a small entry fee. That is until I was reading Andy Ward's Blog. The rake on this event is huge. I did a few sums and was very suprised. This is what I worked out:

To fill level five it takes 2.5 level four tournaments, so therefore requires 2.5*20 players = 50.
To get those 50 players requires 8.1 level 3 tournaments which equates to 162 players.
162 players at level three = 40.5 level 2 tournaments which is 810 players.
To get 810 players in level 2 there must be 202.5 level 1 tournaments which is 4,050 players paying $11.
So 4,050*11 = 44,550.

Payout is $20,000 @ level 5
$75 at level 4
$283.5 at level 3
$1215 at level 2

Total = $21573.50

So total rake = $44,550-$21573.50 = $22976.50 This is 51.57% of total paid including initial $1 reg fee!

I am not sure how to work out the effect of people moving up and down the levels, but I can't believe it adds up to much out of the +$20k rake!

The worst thing about this is is taking huge lumps of bankroll out of play which cannot be good for poker.

Website update:

I have been working on a website which will eventually replace this blog. It is designed to follow the adventures of myself and 4 other players from the Friday game as we venture further into the poker world. My Diary from the WPT in January will be there and ther is also a plethora of links to all thinks poker related. The articles section will be up and running soon. Anyone who wishes to contribute anything then please feel to email me.

The site can be found at www.clanpoker.com . Any feedback, positive or negative will be greatly appreciated.

Party Poker rocks....

2004-12-15T10:40:00.000Z

For myself and Sean snr anyway!

After messing about in some pot limit Omaha cash games, winning a bit and losing a bit, I decided to try some Party Poker tournaments. I have been playing tournaments on pokerstars recently but at the moment there is only WPT statellites running at a suitable time.

When logging on I noticed Sean was registered for the $100 tournie. I did not have enough in my account to join him as I had transferred him some for cash earlier in the week and I am trying not to redeposit anymore money. I kept the window open so I could check in how he was doing later.

First I entered the next $50 NL tournie and was gone before the first level overplaying AK after missing on the flop. Next up was an Omaha H/L which used up all my balance, I bust out of that on level three when I flopped a full house and ran into quads! With my balance gone I loaded up pokerstars and played some more Omaha whilst watching Sean in his tournament.

With about 40 left he was on 2000 chips, a few minutes later he was up to 5000 and above average. With the field dropping fast he began to move through the field and when his AA held up with 18 left he was above the average stack. He was picking a lot of people off with well timed reraises and easily made the final table where there were a few stacks the same size as his. There was one guy with 5* most stacks. It didn't seem to long that Sean had eliminated most of the others to end up heads up with a slight chip lead. First hand they ended up all in on an A high flop and his AQ held up over AJ for a nice $6.5k win. When he is in the mood he can certainly mix it with the best!

Inspired by his result I decided to top up my account and entered a $20 tournament with 1667 runners.

I dodged a bullet early on when with AK vs A10 the board read x A 10 10 with only the river to come. Luckily the case Ace popped up at 44-1 to save me! This was the only slice of luck I had throughout the rest of the tournament as played a very tight aggressive game and I had built up a 9000 chip stack from my initial 1000 by the time the bubble approached.

Trying to take advantage of the players trying to drift into the money and make a $4 profit I lost half of it when one of the loser players called with A10 clubs vs my AKo. When the flop came A High I called his All in bet and lo and behold two clubs appeared to give him the pot!

Once we were in the money I had the cards to pick off players as the game loosened back up and was soon up to over 40000 when KK held up twice and AK once within a couple of rounds. It is amazing how many players on this site are willing to put an above average stack on the line with Ax ! Now I was in position to make the final table but the cards went completely quiet and every time I was in a postion to steal I had rubbish or some else had put in a big raise.

I tried to take out the big blind from the small blind three times in a row and ran into pocket tens twice and AQ which all held up against my small pairs and an A10. Down to 9000 and blinds of 3000,6000 I finally got a hand in KK again and it held up as two stacks checked down my raise. I had been on table two for ages and now I had chips again my tight image helped as I stole my way back into contention before being cut in half when I flopped a set of eights from the small blind only to find someone had limped with the ladies and made a set also.

By now it was 6 am and I had been playing this tournie for 4 hrs and stood to get only $250 if i missed the final table! I managed to bluff a few flops after limping and missing and then AK hit against pocket sevens and I was at the final table 4th in chips with over 250,000.

By now blinds were 15,000 and 30,000 so everyone was a shortstack and almost every pot was won before the flop with a raise. I blew off half my chips when I made top pair when a K hit the turn, unfortunatley my opponent had paired his 6 as well as his King, a possible flush on the river saving me the rest of my chips.

Amongst all the too-ing and fro-ing I had the lead twice and was shortstack twice, I think everyone at the table was the same. Eventually I was left with 93,000 and was next on the Big blind which was now 40,000 and went in with KJ hoping top get lucky. The hand I never had all night (ok i had KK 3 times!) - the Rockets sent me packing in 6th for a healthy $1300. 65x my buy in almost exactly the same multiple as Sean won!

I was more than satisfied as this was only about the 5th 1500+ runner event I have entered. I have finished just in the money twice and made 2 final tables as well winning over $6000 in the process.

3 weeks 'til the WPT in the Bahama's - They have just started re-runs on challenge TV at 10pm so will be watching them all looking for tells! I got one good note last night - reraise Paul Philips and he will fold the best hand and call when he has the worst! Fair play to him though, next time he made the final table he won it to set the record straight...

Mixing it up

2004-12-11T10:08:00.000Z

Thursday night had a bash at the Omaha on Pokerstars as I didn't fancy another late tournament night. I managed to turn my initial $85 buy in into $220 before calling it a night. I just played every cheap flop and won a few small pots and also won and lost a few big ones! I don't know how people can play this game all the time but it was good fun all the same.

Friday was the home game and Kev, Steve and I had a little suprise for the regular hosts. Myself and a good friend - Barry the builder, had built a full size holdem table complete with leather padded rail by way of a christmas thankyou for running the game every week. It seemed to go down well and now when we have a big turnout we won't have to make a second table out of two small ones.

Only seven showed for the first game which is the lowest turnout for months. It was the usual €100 in and we started with 7000 chips and blinds of 25/50. We ran a 25 minute clock to give plenty of play and things got off and running nice and early for a change.

There was not much action early on until Declan arrived a little late. Having ante'd a few chips away he came in very aggressive and ended up losing his chips to Banksie quite quickly. Things slowed down again then and it was a few more levels before anyone else got into trouble. Normally I can remember most of the key hands but today my mind is scrambled through too many late nights. Banksie seemed to be getting the best of the action and Gerry was probably a close second. I was staedy on just over 7000 chips most of the way through, apart from AK second hand I saw no cards all night and missed every flop. I kept in by playing the people rather than my cards.

Gradually my stack diminished and I had about 3000 chips before every thing went my way four hands in row. I made a straight to Kev's top pair and for the life of me I can't remember the other hands! It ended heads up between me and Banksie. I was outchipped by 2:1 and got my second pocket pair of the night - sixes. I raised all in and he called with J 2 suited ! I doubled through and then chipped away at him until he was down to 6000 when I put him in with Q 10. Unfortunately he picked up AQ and doubled up. After about 10 hands with no action I pushed in again with A7 suited and he called with Qx. A queen hit and we both had exactly the same amount of chips and decided to take €300 each.

We then started a second game. €50 in with only 5000 chips and 50/100 starting blinds. We shortened the clock and kicked off with 8 players this time. I was still getting no cards and with the speedy structure of the game I decided to have a go at Jac Arama style raising and betting everything. I almost doubled my chips without a showdown in two early pots and started betting heavily on any flop I had a small piece of.
Against Gerry, Sean Paul and Banksie I came from behind to knock them all out. Hitting two pair twice and making my up and down straight draw. I had almost 25,000 of the 40000 in play when we were down to four.
Declan got a bit wise to my moves and got a few chips off me when I min raised his 1500 bet on the river with a possible flush out there. I know he had nothing, but I only had 72 and couldn't call his all in. I was hoping the raise would look like a milker compared to the bigger bets I had been making. Fair play for him not believing it!
By the time I had eliminated Paul in third with KJ vs K6 there was not too much in it and it was 3am so Deco and I decided to do another split and I got in the Van I borrowed to deliver the table and drove the hour home happy with my €350 profit.
I was very happy with my play as the best starting hands I had all night were KK once - no action. AK twice, AQ,99 and 66 !
I am going to take a new table to all the games I play in from now on!

Stay Lucky!

Getting better.

2004-12-09T09:34:00.000Z

Things have started to improve on the poker front over the last couple of days. Frustrated by cards I decided to go back to the $1.71 challenge and try some STT's. If you have read previous posts you will know that the funds had dropped back down to $30 from a high of $160. 3 STT later and it was back over $100 thanks to 2 firsts and a fourth. The last one was a $15 entry and the cards were acting nicely to me for a change. Going into the last five I was the shortstack and found 10,10 UTG and went All in. I was called in two spots and they both had AK, none of the four remaning A's & K's hit and I tripled up. From then on all my hands held up and it was about 15 hands until I was the victor.

That was Monday night and Tuesday I was unable to get a game in. Last night I was out but logged on at 1am when I arrived home and entered a $30 Pokerstars MTT. There were 500 runners and I noticed fellow blogger Doubleas was playing. Unfortunately I never got to say Hi, as when I found his table he had been crippled when out kicked with Trip Queens and had just exited.

I played a solid tight aggressive game and halfway through I was average in chips. I noticed on my stats at this point I had seen 21% of flops. I had won over 60% of the flops I had seen, nearly all without a showdown. In fact the only one I had lost was when trying to knock out a shortstack who hit a flush on the river to beat my straight.

From here I dropped back slightly when I missed a couple of flops and was set All in both times with no chance I could call, this dropped me back down to 2500 chips and almost half the average. I had had no premium cards up to this point and then the all came in a rush. It started when I was dealt A 10 of hearts two hands in a row. It was getting late and I decided to either get in a winning chip postion or bust out and get some sleep. I raised all in both times and was called both times by small pocket pairs. I made AA first hand and two pair the second and was now up to over 10k. Soon after this was over 20k when I made a bad call after the turn with trip 6's and needed the board to pair to beat a straight. It duly obliged pairing tens on the river. I then had AK 3 times within 4 hands and AA a couple later. I only got action on one of the AK with which I knocked out another small stack, although I showed the AA and another AK which seemed to give the table a lot of respect for all the raises I made afterwards, most went completely unchallenged and I was able to increase my stack steadily without making any hands.

Every time one of my preflop raises's was called, a bet on the flop was usually enough. Looking at my stats I had now won 9/11 showdowns and 22 other pots without a showdown. I took second posistion on the leader board when I picked up a pair of Queens and another lady joined them for afternoon tea on the flop. Some one bet all in for another 15,000 chips with a flush draw, luckily the board paired nines on the turn as the river brought the flush.

Chip leader had 50% more chips than me, 3rd had nearly 50% less so I was feeling confident with 52 left. As the money approached I stole the blinds 4 times in a row and hit over 60,000 of the 750,000 in play. Hardly any of my preflop raise were getting called now, I had been on the same table for most of the tournament. The ones that were were with premium hands and I lost a few races against the shortstacks but all the raising kept my chips level.

Down to the last 18 and I was still second in chips although a lot of the smaller stacks were taking each other out and there was not much in in, there was over 7000 in each pot before the flop, so if a really shortstack won a hand they were right back in it. The player to my right had built a reasonable stack and when he raised my small blind whilst I was sitting on the Cowboys I thought this was my day. When I put him all in I was even more pleased to see he had K10 so I was over 85% to win the hand. Why he was prepared to risk all his chips on such a hand when he was in a good position I don't know, but suffice to say he got lucky with a flush on the river and I was back amongst the pack.

With all the closing in of the field I found myself 13/13 with still 25000 chips, but the blinds were now 3000/6000 with a running ante and I knew I would need to double up soon. When we were down to the last 10 I was still last and UTG I went with a weak Ace and was called by the chip leader ( who was all in as a shortstack many times until the late stages ). He hit a card and I didnt and that was it. Over 3hrs over good play for a measly $165!

I think the key hand was when my Kings were cracked, I had been lucky once earlier so I can't really moan too much. At least if I can get this far through the field in the Bahamas the payout will be a bit better!

Kev and Declan represented the Friday game in the Merrion on Tuesday in the $100 freezeout. Deco just missed the money and Kev made 4th for his 3rd recent cash in the event.
Hopefully I can improve on my third last week in the game tommorrow.

The downward spiral continues....

2004-12-06T16:47:00.000Z

I tried a couple of the turbo $10 qualifiers for the Pokerstars $215 Sunday tournament and each time bombed out just after the rebuys when my dominating hand was cracked. AK vs AQ and QQ vs JJ. With the cards running like this I was not going to pay the $215 in, that is until I entered a STT for the $1.71 challenge and won it with such ease. I went into the heads up outchipped 2:1 and proceeded to win 23/25 of the hands, only losing twice when outdrawn, having him Allin low chipped. Third time I had whittle him down and flopped a set to his TPTK and game over. This got my confidence back up and I gave the big one a shot. Bad Move..

After winning the first small pot I entered, I found myself whittled down to half my starting chips. A couple of reraise preflop with KK & AK got me back up to 2500 but I was starting to get frustrated again and found my self calling off half my chips chasing the nut flush draw which never came.

I got lucky when my AJ hit TPTK and called All in against a set. K Q on turn and river gave me a straight to beat the trip 10's but I was still well below average. I made my final stand with AQ vs A9 but as usual a 9 came and I was out in with still over a 1000 runners left of the 2053 entries.

This should have been a sign to go to bed but I stayed up stewing whilst watching the badly produced Pacific Poker Open. I logged into Coral and entered a $50 NL game and after keeping my patience committed my chips after a rainbow flop which was contested four way. I had a draw to the nut straight but it never came!

This afternoon I decided to go back to the STT on Coral/Party to build back up my depleted bankroll and proceeded to finish 4th in all 3! All 3 races I was ahead going in and behind at the end!

Delighted to see some other bloggers having some luck though, Milkybarkid and Hectorjelly having a great run at the moment.

All will turn around I am sure, hopefully around January the 6th when hopefully all my hands hold up and when I am behind I am the one sucking out on the river! Looking like it's going to be a big event as over 200 have already qualified online, including WCOOP winner Ragde who I was playing in a tournament the other night. Sat at our table also were Mr Steal and ItsButta who have also quailified! Josh Arieh is among the Pro's who have paid in.

Link Request !!!

At the moment I am setting up a website dedicated to poker. It will contain links to all the best stuff on the web about 'the beautiful game'. If you know of any gems out there the please let me know in the comments section.

Damn cowboys!

2004-12-05T15:39:00.000Z

This is not usually a blog of bad beats or bad luck, but today I must make an exception just to work it out of my system.

Last night I was in the Pokerstars $50 and running well until just before the money. With 50 left out of the 350 who started I was sitting in 37th position. I was the second short stack on the table and had survived a couple of close calls before the cards dried up and I found myself being blinded away. I pick up 99 on the button and pushed in. I would have been happy to take the blinds at this point, but a race would have been OK, I needed to double up to stand any kind of chance. Lo and behold the Big Blind calls and turns up KK and with another K on the flop I was doomed.

Today in the VC $18 rebuy I found myself in 3rd with 18 left, only 9 got paid. This was the chance I was looking for to get the $1.71 challenge back on track. In fact if I won it I would only be $100 short of the $1000 target. Unfortunately the cards dried up at the wrong time and with the table of seven the blinds ate me away down to 11th out of 12 remaining. an UTG raise stole me the blinds and moved me up to 10th. but I still couldn't wait to slip into the money. The challenge fund is nearly gone so I could have done with the $83 for 9th.
Next hand I found myself looking down at QQ in the BB. UTG raised half his stack. The warning bells went off, however I had seen him do this with A7o and small pocket pairs. Without seeing this I would have let the ladies go. Unfortunatley it was the Cowboys again and they stampeded my ladies when a third hit the flop.
The shortstack challenge is now desperately low at only $30, I shouldn't really of entered this tournament with such a small bankroll, but I figure a big win is on the cards at VC. It has more calling stations than Party Poker! And that is saying something! The biggest danger here is getting one of the inevitable bad beats at the wrong time. I have yet to play a Multi on this site without some calling off a large stack of chips on a gutshot draw or overcards to a paired flop.
I suppose it's back to the $3 STT to build up a fund to get into some more of these rebuy tournaments. So far I have entered 4 and only rebought once in total, each time I have been within a table of the dough.

WPT time is exactly a month away now, the last month since qualifying seems to have dragged on forever so I hope this one goes a bit quicker!

Stay Lucky

A night of hands

2004-12-04T03:23:00.000Z

The Friday game was back on last night and a respectable 14 players ante'd up a €100 to give us a €700, €400, €200, €100 payout. We started with 2 tables of 7 and played with a 25 minute clock, 6000 chips and 25/50 to start.

Within the first couple of rounds I picked up JJ,QQ*2,KK, AJ,AQ & AK. Not much action from them though, however I ended up at about 9500 chips after taking most down by the turn. The Kings turned into a boat full of tens on the flop and I managed to get one caller from my position bet. I was hoping for some more action but there was none forthcoming. By the time we got down to the table of 10 I had the most chips from our table - about 15,000. The other table had lost 3 players and there were 2 stacks about the same size as mine.

One of them was Sean Snr and he is a nightmare to play when he has chips and he soon had more taking out Peter early. He is very aggressive though and if you pick up a good hand behind him you can get a few chips off him. Players were dropping like wildfire and we were soon down to 6 and the blinds were still only 300/600.

I had lost a lot of my chips after raising preflop with A 10 and betting from postion on a flop of 2 3 4. A King came on the turn and Jerry moved in on me and I was unable to call. He had A 3!

Declan was next out his K 9 running into K J.

I picked up AK and put the next shortest stack to me all in, he called with AJ, no improvement and I was in the money. Twice I was All in against John with AK vs 77 and A3 vs A10. Both times I came from behind to win and soon after Jerry put him out and it was down to 3.

With some Aggressive short stack play I got up to almost average a couple of times before being knocked backed down again. Once when I raised with KK from the BB and was called by the SB who moved in on a flop of AJJ. I laid it down and he showed the A which would have knocked me out.
I had KK again soon after but went All in this time and got no action.

Before I describe the final hand, I have to mention the amount of massive hands. There were 3 pokers, two of them for Sean snr and way more than a fair share of high pocket pairs being dished out. There were also some good lay downs, especially from some of the newer players who would usually have gone bust. Huey laid down AA after a Board of JJxxx with Steve lying in wait with the other two Jacks!

Onto the big finale....

Blinds are up to 1500/3000 and everyone is watching waiting for the second game to start. I pick up AK in the BB and Sean limps in from the button. Jerry makes it 5000 more and I move in. Sean instantly announces he is All in too and then Jerry calls straight away!
Not really sure about Jerry's call here as he only had pocket fives and would have still been in good shape had he folded. Unless it was a split pot he would have been almost guaranteed 2nd.

Sean flipped over JJ and I thought I wasn't in that bad shape.

The First flop card is an Ace!

Oh yes!

The second card is.....

A Jack!

Oh No!

The third is a 5

Rubbing Jerry's nose in it!

So Sean wins the loot, Jerry has more chips so I finish 3rd

Steve is sacked as Dealer!

All in all it was a great nights poker, I am working today so I gave the €50 tournie a miss and drove home reflecting on what was almost a very profitable night.

Stalled

2004-11-30T01:27:00.000Z

Well the $1.71 challenge has stalled anyway. After hitting a peak of $160 it now is back down to $98. After bad beats then more bad beats at the NL ring games I decided to give the $27 Multi a shot, I figured the play would be a bit better. How wrong I was. In the low limit games players will call with a gutshot nearly all the time, usually this is good, but when the cards are not running for you it can cost you a lot.
In the main tournie, A large buy in for VC players I expected different. But no, they will still call with virtually anything even after the rebuy. A group of players were berating another for calling with a 4 outer. One of them promptly called an all in after the flop with nothing but bottom pair and runner runner straight draw. Guess what the runner runner hit and his mates were congratulating his excellent play!
As it happens my exit was pretty undramatic, with less than 5* the blind I found KQ in late position and with no callers so far raised all in. I was called by AJ, no complaints, no help and the challenge is hit again. earlier I had made the final table of a $12 tournie and went out on the bubble! My mistake looking back, I played too soft and when everbody folded to the SB on my BB he made a min raise. I had AJ and just called. The flop came J 5 5 and when he bet half my stack I raised all in, I couldn't put him on a 5 after raising so thought my top pair top kicker was good. Not against 9 5 offsuit though!
On a happier note all is going well on Eurobet. I started with $64 and have grinded it up to over $600 playing the NL tables. So far I have had 16 sessions totalling just over 20hrs and have made a profit in 12 of them.
Also I made a suggestion on The Hendon Mob forum about running a private forum tournament online and it seems to have been well recieved. The mob are talking about getting some added prize money going so get on over there and register on their forum if you want to play!

3 for the money

2004-11-28T13:26:00.000Z

All in all a quiet week on the poker front. I only managed a couple of hours online mainly in NL cash. Managed to win $160 overall. There never seemed to be a decent tournie on when I was able to play, I entered 2 $10 Pokerstars tournies and after being card dead for the first hour in both I managed to get AA cracked in both - once by Q6 suited and once by KK which made a flush! In fact if you include the cash games I had QQ or above 8 times and only won one hand ! Sometimes these things happen, my best starting hand was 910 which I made 2 straights and a full house with, each time getting the max from the hand.

The Friday game had a couple of entrants in the Merrion €100 on Tuesday but neither Steve or Kev ( last weeks winner ) made the break. Steve had it all in on a Q high board with KQ and was called by QJ - J on the river sent him packing. Not sure what happened to Kev as I was a bit worse for the drink when he told me!

Thursday's end of the month €270 we were only represented by Declan and his Dad who managed to both finish in the money - 16th and 13th respectively out of over 120 runners. This event seems to get bigger every month. I feel if we could get one of the Dublin venues to run one over two days with a decent clock we could have a great tournament every month. The current one is too much of a crapshoot with a 20 min clock.

Friday there was no home game as it was Declan's 21st Birthday. A good night was had by all, was not so great having to work the next day though. Sean had entered a $30 limit tournie on Party poker while he was waiting for everyone to get ready and when it was nearly time to leave he started playing aggressively with a view to losing his chips and ended up very near the chip lead. A phone call to his brother and Donald signed in and took over the game. Now Donald was in the last 13 when it was time for him to leave so he phoned his son who logged in and took over the game. Anthony managed to get 3rd for Sean worth over a grand! I feel sorry for anybody who had started to get a read as all three play different styles of poker!

I also heard a great story which shows poker players in a great light. I can't mention any names but it invloves a well known European player and a very well known American. The American was down on his luck in the late 90's and borrowed $5000 from the European player. The next year when they met up again the American handed back the $5000. The European asked him how much he had left in his pocket. '$1000' was the reply. He promptly handed the money back and said ' I only want it back when you can really afford it.'.
Moving on until recent times and the roles have reversed. The American is in a very good financial position and the European is not doing so well. Remembering how he was treated the American has paid the European into the last few WPT events.

Memories of Mullets

2004-11-26T01:03:00.000Z

It's not often I post about anything other than poker. This is one of those rare occassions.
Today I was humbled by small statement.

Please remember this day all of your lives. It's Important.
Remember the day you wanted to help.
Remember the bands and crews who did it. The professionals who made it an extraordinary technological feat.
Remember the dying who were allowed to live.
Remember the day you die, there is someone alive in Africa 'cos you watched a pop concert.
Remember your tears and your joy.
Remember your love.
Remember on that day for once in our bloody lives WE WON.
Remember the dying goes on and remember so that as time passes you can tell others 'its possible, I know'.
What a day, what a lovely day.

Bob Geldof July '85.

I was reading this whilst also watching children dying at the beginning of the new Live Aid DVD.
I was a fresh faced 14 year old who loved music when this all happened. Along with 1,500,000,000 other people, every TV and radio in our house was tuned to this momentous occasion. It is a day I will never forget. But to be honest at the time I don't think I really understood the magnitude of the event. I was enthralled, because the cream of the world's musical talent at the time were playing one after another. All the talk the next amongst my friends and I was about the bands. How Freddie Mercury rocked, how nobody but the Quo could have opened the show, how the generators packed in and we missed part of the Who's set. We were more worried about how we were going to get our hair to look like Simon Le Bon's and how we would afford an electric guitar to become rock stars. As 14 year olds I think we can be forgiven for not thinking too much about the starving children.
Deep down I think it had an effect on me back then even though I probably didn't know it. I have always had a positive outlook on my own life no matter what I have been through. I believe that events like this helped instill in me the philosophy that 'it could be a whole lot worse'. There are many people in the world who would glady swap a life full of my low points for their own.
I am not sure if I actually have a point to make here, other than that if you think things are bad then watch something like this and you will soon realise it is not really that bad at all. I would urge anyone to buy this DVD. There are some great performances on it and it is a reminder of how if people pull together they can make a difference, however small. Also you will be giving something to a deserving charity ( not that other charity's aren't just as deserving ). Try also to buy it from a retailer who is selling it at cost price, everybody else involved is doing their bit for free so why should the retailer make any money out of such a good cause? As a retailer I can tell you that the cost price is €36.50 plus VAT. Many stores near me are selling it for €60. That means they are making over €15 on every copy they sell! To me (a businessman who is always looking for a quick profit) this is wrong and goes against all something like this stands for. As long as I can get stock it will be on sale in my shop ( The GamePad in Drogheda - have to plug it somehow) for €44.

By the way I am proud to say that by the time I was 17 I had got my hair long enough to have it permed at the back and crimped every night before I went out on the town!

Challenge takes some beats

2004-11-24T11:50:00.000Z

The $1.71 challenge has take a couple of beats to slip below $100 temporarily. However a 2nd in a freeroll has put it back up above again - only just. I had got as high as $145 but 2 out of the money's in $10 STT and a buy in loss at a .50/1 NL hurt like hell. Both STT I went out having Aces cracked and the cash game loss was KK vs AJ on a K high flop and I called an all in bluff only for runner runner straight to appear! All this just after setting myself a time limit to reach the $1000 goal.
At the same time as I started the challenge I also opened an account with Coral Eurobet which is the European skin to Party. I did this as I was offered a rake back deal and saw it as an opportunity to get some ring game practice in. I started with $64 and so far have it up to $374. If the $1.71 challenge was on Party/Eurobet I may have already reached my target!

Excellent blog - http://wiseowlpoker.blogspot.com well written and covering subjects not touched on by many other bloggers.

Also about time I thanked all the well wishers for my trip to the WPT. With all the luck I have been wished I may go on and win the thing! It is aslo good to see a few more europeans have joined the qualifying list including someone else from Ireland. So far there are over 140 quailifiers from Pokerstars and a few direct buyins listed including Barry Greenstien. Last I checked online pro Ackbleh had also made it. Dont know how many times he tried but he always seemed to be in the double shootout qualifiers and he knocked Sean Paul out of one.

Finally one of my customers dropped in Rounders on VHS so I am looking forward to watching it soon.

Stay Lucky !

Finding the time

2004-11-23T11:24:00.000Z

I am finding it difficult to fit in any poker at the moment. I want to play as many live tournaments as possible in the run up to the WPT, but things keep getting in the way. I have made only 1 Friday game in the last three and am going to miss out this week as well as I have family visiting. Mind you I can't complain really as usually I can play as much poker as I like thanks to a very understanding Catherine.
I wanted to play the Merrion €100 tonight but have to miss that due to other commitments. Hopefully I will be able to get to the Fitz tommorrow and play the €20 rebuy, not my favourite tournament as it can turn into a crapshoot quite quickly.
I have only managed one online session in the last week which was last night on Pokerstars. I found a 1/2 NL table and was up almost $100 in no time and then all my good hands were getting beat and I ended up down $5 after an hour and a half. Thrice I had trips beaten by runner runner flushes and straights. Considering this I was glad not to lose all my buy in.
In the abscence of my own play I will try to update with reports from the others in the Friday game. More success on Sunday as Sean Paul's Cousin won $16,500 in an Ultimat Bet Tournie after qualifying in a $5 satellite. We are currently blessing some lucky shamrocks with our fortune as we speak. They will be on sale in a poker store near you soon!

Watch this space!
I am currently involved in setting up a new poker website which will contain links to all the best poker content on the net, updated daily pointing to all the latest articles, blogs and forums. You will also be able to follow the fortunes of five relatively new players as they progress in the world of live and online poker tournaments.

$1.71 update
Not been able to play much but up to $130. have set myself the aim of reaching $1000 by the WPT to use as spending money so will have to find the time to start playing again!

Two maidens

2004-11-20T09:38:00.000Z

Back into the usual Friday home game last night after shaking off the hangover from Thursday. I was looking forward to playing some live poker, but for the most part it turned into dealer practice for me! At least I wasn't as unlucky as Joe who after paying his €100 entry found himself eliminated on the first hand! He was the victim of playing it cute and allowed Declan to draw a monster. Declan had raised with Pocket Kings and Joe had called with AJ. Joe chose to check the flop of AAQ and Declan bet slightly more than the pot and Joe called. Next card was the Killer King and this time Joe bets out and is put All in by Declan. No help on the river and we were down to 10 straight away.

There was one other exit before I managed to put all my chips in on a read when the river took away my chances of only splitting the pot. There were four players in the hand an I was on the button with K 10. It was unraised pre-flop. The flop was J 9 x with two spades. After the flop was checked around, the turn brought the Q of spades giving me the nut straight. Sean Paul led out with a small feeler bet which was called by John and then raised by Peter. I was sure Peter didn't have the flush made, more likely a J or a Q with an Ace. Sean Paul would have waited for someone else to bet if he had it and John usually makes a small raise if he has a hand. I decided to push in and Peter called announcing he expected to be behind. Unfortunately for me he was holding the same hand as me, only with the King of spades. One of the 9 remaining spades hit the river to allow me to deal the rest of the action!

I am glad I got my reads right but I really should have just called and made sure the spade never came. I could have gotten away from it then and although I would have been extremely short, at least I would have still been in. Well done to Peter though, he went on to win for the first time in only about his tenth game.

One big pot that he won almost had Declan and his Dad coming to blows though. With five left, four getting paid, Peter raised to 2000. Blinds were 300/600 I think, He was called by Jerry and Sean snr. Declan thought for a while before folding. Then the flop came J 7 7 and Deco got up from the table cursing. Peter bet All in. Jerry folds and Sean thinks for a minute. He announces that he heard Declan saying something about folding a 7 ( in fact he had pocket 7's), although he considered it unfair it had him convinced that Peter was on a bluff and that his Ace high was good. He called and Peter flipped over JJ ! This gave Peter a large lead he kept all night apart from when Steve doubled through on him heads up. It also set the Fagans on tilt. Declan was affected more than his Dad and made a massive error on the bubble. Jerry had only 1000 chips left and the blinds wer 500/1000. It was his BB in two hands. Declan had called a small raise with AK vs Peter. The board flopped K rag rag and Declan immediately put all his remaining chips into the pot with TPTK. Peter had K rag and had been on the steal but his rag gave him 2 pair and no Ace saved Declan, Jerry delighted to slip quietly into the money.

Jerry then Sean were next to leave. Peter was a big chip leader when up against Steve and managed to hold on despite going behind at on stage.

We had a €50 game afterwards, there were 10 for this one as only Joe had left when busted. We had to play with shorter levels and higher starting blinds as it was getting late. After slipping down to 1500 chips from I ended up heads up with Huey. I was a way behind in chips but managed to get him outchipped 2:1 by raising almost every pot. Huey is relatively new to the game and it showed as for the most part he allowed himself to be dominated during heads up play. The only problem with my strategy was that whilst he would fold most hands to an All in, including A 10 at one point, he would call a large raise with virtually anything so I was have to put my chips at risk quite often, but it was working so far. After winning 4 or 5 pots in a row uncontested I decided to limp in with 6 8 and the flop came 6 2 2. Now it is pretty difficult to read Huey in unraised pots as he could have anything, he had previously shown down High Aces and pocket queens in similar pots. He would call anything less than all his chips with overcards in this situation. The mistake I made was not checking to him, as he only ever bets when he has something. I would have then laid down my hand. Instead I put him all in and he called with his 2 6 and even made a poker on the river. This put him almost level and a few hands later, after everyone else telling him he needed to stop waiting for premium hands he called one of my All ins with Q 8. I had only 10 5 and no improvement saw me down to just 5000 with blinds of 1500/3000. Next hand I was all in and my J 3 was beaten by Huey's K 7 so there was another duck broken.

I should have won this one so I am a bit annoyed with myself. Never mind though I was only down €50 for 9 hours entertainment!

And now for something comletely different...

2004-11-19T10:13:00.000Z

Oh dear my head hurts!

Last night I was invited to play in local charity event to raise money for a school. It was being held in a pub in a village a few miles from town. The local rag had run a story the previous week about my trip to the WPT in January. Apparently it is good story, or thats what my girlfriend's brother told me ( The editor of the paper! ). The organsiser of the event is a customer in my shop and she had sent someone in to sell me the €25 ticket. I have had more response from the article than any advert so I am glad I did it now.

Anyway back to last night. Catherine dropped me up to The Harbour Bar in Clogherhead a few minutes before the tournament started so I could get in a quick pint and read the rules. I have never played 5 card draw before and the betting rules were also a bit foreign to me. The dummy money looked like the kind you get in monopoly and we were given 1000 units each. 47 people turned up in the end with half the money going to charity and half in prizes. First got 300 second 100 and the rest of the final table got their money back. It started off with 7 tables, my table had seven players, most who knew the rules thankfully!

The betting was 20 in by the dealer and openers were jacks or better. Nobody could open for the first 4 hands so the pot was building up nicely. You were allowed to open for upto half the pot and I never saw anyone open for less. The maximum raise was 100 and the maximum bet was 200 but nobody seemed to pay any heed to this. I found a few high pairs to start but never improved them and was losing money fast. The expectation on me was high because of the article and I sensed nobody believed I hadn't a clue with this game. After about 20 minutes I think they started to realise I was telling the truth as I had the least money on the table!

The guinness was flowing well and as it started an hour late everyone was in great form. It was played in the spirit of the event and the only pot that wasn't taken to a showdown was one that I opened and bet after the draw with only my opening Aces! At one stage 4 hands in a row were won by boats and 2 by flushes. There was a king high straight split pot but nobody on our table managed a poker for which there were spot prizes of a bottle of whisky. One table had two! After just over an hour of great fun it was time to count the money and see who made the final table. Amazingly enough with the looseness of the game two players on our table tied with 1830 each and i dealt them 5 cards each and Michael O'Niell won with King high!

I proceeded to lose another 30 euro's in a cash version of the game afterwards and plenty more on the Black stuff, Finally at about 2am it was time to get a €20 taxi home. Apologies to some of the guys who were playing pool and were to share my taxi. Neither the driver or I realised it was to be shared until the driver was radioed asking where he was. By this time we were almost at my house, I hope they didn't have to wait too long for another!

All in all it was a great night, but I don't think draw poker is for me unless it is for very low stakes. If I can shift this hangover I will be playing in the Friday game tonight and there will be a report tomorrow.

The Athgoe Aces are on a roll!

2004-11-17T11:27:00.000Z

Things are finally clicking into place for our Friday night game players. Last night Kev added to our successes by chopping the $100 at the Merrion for a $1500 profit. Joe who plays on occasion with us went into the final table with a massive chip lead but managed to blow it off and finished 6th. Kev had better luck with his Aces than on Friday night when he got them twice early on and both times found himself up against Kings. They held up both times and he got to the final table in average postion whithout finding anymore big hands. A key hand that got him down to the last two was when becoming short stacked he made a move with pocket 8's and found himself called by both the chip leaders. Joe with AJ and another guy with 7's. They held up and he tripled up and cruised to the final two.

This caps off a great week in style for us. just to recap the month so far:
Sean Paul won $5000 in a Party $50 MTT
Kev €1500 in Merrion €100 and also €1100 in Merrion €150 rebuy during festival
Steve had a 3rd in Merrion €100 for €500
Declan had a 7th on Party for $770 and turned $130 into $2000 in a cash game on Party this weekend.
I had a $2400 in the Merrion festival, €1100 in a Fitz €20 rebuy, a seat in a WPT worth $11000 and $5000 in Pokerstars $215 on Sunday.

Not to mention occasional players like Ciaron's 3rd in Merrion and Joe's 6th. Plus Sean Paul's dad made a top five in the Fitz €270.

Keep the cards coming!

Ps. Strange 100NL cash game on Party last night. Doubled up first hand when my AQ made Q's full then after 2 rounds of junk I raised with AK suited and someone made it $50 i called and hit another boat! after another hour of junk I left with a nice profit from 2 hands!

Milestone reached

2004-11-16T21:28:00.000Z

For any of you who are still following the $1.71 challenge a landmark has been reached. After hours of labour in the torrid world of low limit poker, mixing with the best the poker world has to offer, the bankroll has moved into 3 figures. The princely sum of $100.34 now sits proudly in my VC account. I am going to give it a well earned rest before pushing it to the limit and aiming for the magic $1000 mark.

For all the hours I have put in to achieve this ( Brian, I am not forgetting your contribution coming third in a $.10 STT for me!) you may think it has not been worth my while. However, the patience and discipline in required to achieve this without busting out has improved my overall game considerably. I have no doubt that it helped in coming 9th for $5k on Sunday night. During that tournament I correctly laid down many more hands than I would have previously and also managed to control my sometimes mistimed aggression.

I would recommend that everyone attempts something like this to enhance their game.

The challenge will continue, be afraid anyone who meets me in my next game as I am determined not to let the balance slip below $100!

It took a hit and run to push it slightly over the $100 as after winning a $5 STT I was sitting on $99.84. I dived into a .5/.10 game and got AK second hand. Raised, one caller K on the flop with two spades, All in, he folds and I collect and leave. Bad form I know, but I just wanted to get the magic figure on the board. Next up will be some more low No limit ring games to get up to $120 before hitting some more $10 STT. I have multiplied my initial bankroll by over 50x and only need to get it up another 10x to hit my target. Somehow I think it will take more than a fifth of the time so far!

Stay Lucky !

Mike

The weekend rush continues.....

2004-11-15T09:43:00.000Z

After not playing any poker all weekend I managed to get some game time in yesterday afternoon. I played a $6 Multi to get back into the swing of things and give the challenge a boost. All was going well until I lost a big pot with kicker problems and I ended up 13/100 to increase the fund by $2.40! It seems to be treading water a bit now, I think a few sessions in the low limit ring games are required to give it a wee bump up.

I fancied a shot at the Pokerstars $350,000 Gtd later on so I entered a $10 turbo satellite and although 78 seats were up for grabs my crapshoot luck fell short with 150 left. I hate paying in to any tournament over $50 unless I win in or am up for the day so I opened up two NL50 tables on Eurobet with a view to getting at least half of the entry paid. On one table I had Aces three times in 20 mins and every time I saw the flop they held up. Unfortunately the other game was killing me as I was outkicked and outflopped constantly and I ended up losing nearly all I won on the other table!

Still I had a feeling about entering the big one. Catherine and her brother were there about to watch a film on DVD and I was umming and ahhing as to whether to enter or not. By the way do not watch Boat Trip, it is the worst film ever, why they picked it out of the 600 other films in my shop I do not know! In the end Brian's comment of 'he's gonna enter in anyway' rang true and I payed my $215 along with 2092 and sat down with $2500 chips.

Pokerstars early levels are among the best on the net and I was confident that my game was up to accumulating a healthy stack to enter the more crapshooty levels later on. I spent most of the game folding and folding, the odd hand I played missing completely until I was down to 1400 chips and finally I hit the flop with AK and managed to get back up st starting level. By the first break I still had only $2600 although about 700 of the field had gone by this point.

At the halfway point as far as runners were concerned I had seen my stack dwindle down to $800 then I was dealt 10 10 on the button. I called Catherine over and showed her my hand and announced this could be it as whatever happened I was going All in. As it was I was the first to go in and managed to get a call from the BB, a mad man who had bluffed and called off a stack of $17000 down to$6000 in the last few minutes. Unsuprisingly he turned over 8 6 offsuit and I was still in. A few hands later I picked up JJ and tripled up vs 2 AK's and then I eliminated the madman when my A10 suited which I raised him with, made a flush to beat his pocket jacks. I had gone from being in the last 20 in chips to the top 50 in the space of 10 minutes.

The rush soon dried up and I was also moved table. Every thing after this was a bit hazy as it was getting late and the blinds had increased to a level where almost every contested hand was an All in unless contested by large stacks only. Key hands though include my Aces holding up and eliminating a small stack when my 33 hit the flop to bust his aces, by the time it got round to me to call his bet the blinds, antes and stack size gave me 3:1 which when I explained this to him didn't calm him much!

I was leaking chips to the player to my left. His name was Rich_Fish. Everytime I was in position to steal the blinds I was rereaised back by him. The 3rd time he did I had the weakest hand that I attempted to steal with K9 suited - The sawmill as Mike Sexton loves to say. We had just scraped into the money by this point. It was about $7200 to call with abot $24000 already in the pot. I was convinced he was bullying me and figured at over 3:1 I was only a big dog against 10 10 to AA and also AK. Well it turned out he had AK but the poker gods were smiling and a lovely nine came to my rescue. This guy actually took it well, a fact i think that saved him from some abuse later on when he was up agianst AQ with A8 and the flop came A Q 10 and then runner runner 8's to fill him up!

I managed to double up once agian with Big slick suited vs AQ, A Q on the flop but a King on the river to save my skin. By now I had over 50,000 chips and was in the top 20 out of 180 left. There was only one guy on the table who had me outchipped and he had been playing well for the time he had been on our table. It would be wrong to say I feel sorry for the guy because what happened next has happened to me more than a few times. I picked up the rockets, Bigalspo ( i think that was his correct name ) was on the button, I made a raise of 4 times the blinds and he re-raised. Well I wasn't going to call and be outplayed on the flop so moved in. He called in a flash with his KK. No help for him and I was now 3rd in chips for the tournament. The odds of this guy seeing this are small but he was the best loser I have seen in a long time. He popped up 3 or 4 times later on to cheer me on from the rails. I would also like to thank DesD and others who were funking for me. I don't even think I have played against these guys before and I was up on my own now, Catherine long ago in bed. A bit of support can give you a little bit of extra confidence.

I stole a few blinds and took out another shortstack to put myself in the outright lead with 86 left. I was not naive enough to think that this gauranteed myself a final table so tried to keep my play as solid as possible. In the end I got fed up of folding my blinds with semi playable hands and called a minimum raise with J10 suited. The flop was J 8 8 and I checked only for him to bet $16000. I called and the river was a 7 I think. Anyway I check called another $16000. The river brought a King which made 3 spades on the board and again I checked. When he check I thought for an instant my J was good enough but alas he showed AJ and I was outkicked. I was however happy not to lose all my chips here as I have found myself check raising in this situation before.

I forget what hand I had that doubled me up a short while later, but after that the cards dried up and i was gradually slipping down the leaderboard as the blinds and antes ate away at my stack. By the time there were 24 left I was 17th. The prize money jumped up to $3300 for 18th an increase of $1500 dollars. When my blind came up the Hand for hand message was displayed and I looked at AK of spades. It was raised in early position and to call would have put me All in. I thought for while and even went into my time bank. I called reasoning he might not have anything special as most would be wary of commiting their chips so close to big prize increase. I have another blank as to what he had but it wasn't enough to beat me and I now went into the last 18 with just about average chips.

The prize money stayed the same until 9th. I presume this was the reason for the aggresive play that followed. The only pots I won was when they all folded to my blind and one steal. The blinds were now $15000,$30000 with a $1000 ante and very shortly I found myself at the biggest final table of my short career! However I was the shortest stack by some way and knew that any move I made would be called by someone. I started the final table on the button and was dealt JJ straight away. I folded them after a raise and a re-raise. I was hoping the shortest stacked guy would lose but he had a better kicker to his Ace and won when another A hit the board. I folded 10 10 later a few hands later for the same reason and the short stack won again. Both hands would have eliminated me if I had called.

By now I was down to less than $100,000 chips and was next for the $40,000 blind. I didn't want to be ante'd away and moved in with A5 suited. The big blind called with Q 10. Unfortunately although 2 of my suit came, a 10 appeared on the flop and I was out in 9th. Still it was a good feeling to beat over 2000 other players and the profit of $5200 is not bad either.

I am not sure if there are many repeat final tablist's in this one as it is a bit of a race from 200 out. If you are going to play a hand from then, and you need to play some, it is likely to be for all your chips. When I was chip leader with 86 left I had only 20 times the BB and average stacks had less than 10x. However I will have another go soon. Thanks again to all those cheering me on and by the way for any europhiles out there, the final nine included 3 Irish, 1 Welsh, 1 English and 2 French players. Not a bad result considering the overwhelming majority of players on stars are American.

Seanie Short Stack Fagan - The Rock of Gibraltar

2004-11-14T13:28:00.000Z

Due to my social diary being full this weekend I have had no chance to play any poker yet, apart from a quick half an hour for the challenge in which I took $4 to a cash game and had it up to over $20 in half an hour. If I had more time I'm sure I could have ran it up much further as the table was so loose and full of calling stations.

The weekend however belongs to Sean Paul who is a co-host of the Friday game along with with his brother Declan. After the rebuy and top up fiasco of last week a freezeout structure was decided on and they managed too fit in two games one €100 and one €50. The only details I know so far are that Kev was busted out on the first hand in the €100 when his Aces were beaten by J 5! I believe his raise was called by one of the blinds who hit two pair on the flop. All the money then went in and he had a long wait for the second game. Sean Paul it seems managed to nurse a short stack through both games and end up victorious, hence his new long winded nickname. It was a good weekend for the tightest player in the world as he did exactly the same on Party Poker last night in a 400 runner $50 tournament taking $5000 for first.

The trip to the Bahama's is slowly beginning to sink in as I was contacted by Pokerstars to reserve my room, however for some reason the website they use was unable to book my flights. These however have now been booked through British Airways and I decided to pay a little bit more for flights that only stop in Heathrow before Nassua instead of stopping at Manchester and Miami. This gets us there a few hours earlier and gives us the whole day after we check out to ejoy the last rays of sun before heading back to Mid-Winter Ireland.

Pete Tong....

2004-11-11T18:57:00.000Z

All has gone wrong in the $1.71 challenge! After steadily climbing up to $64 without finishing out of the money more than once in a row the cards have turned on me..,.. 3 out of the moneys in $5 tournies and two bust outs in the low limit ring games have seen the bankroll almost halve to $34. In earlier posts I mentioned that some of the play at the extreme low limits is not actually that bad, however step up to $5 sit and go's and it is terrible! Early in one game a guy went all in UTG and I was sitting with AA on the button, all fold to me and obviously I commit all my chips. To my delight the crazy player has gone with 7 2 ! Horror set in as the flop was 2 7 K and no help on the turn or river. All of the other games I witnessed similar plays by other players. Other examples include a guy calling for all his chips with K high against a flushing paired board - he was second chip leader out of 5 left before this hand, two other stacks including mine barely enough to cover the blinds! My own play has also been the downfall, two exits almost identical, with AA and KK my raises were called and both times the flop was rainbow, unsuited and unstraightening. Both times checked to me. Both times I bet too much and am pot committed. Both times I am up against a flopped set. Both times no ace saves me! In a tournament last night the same thing happened against the only player at the table who could bust me and I was only 4 from the money and well above average chips. All the players who busted me I had seen bet and call into boards far too dangerous for their hands.... How come they managed to hit one when up against me! Damn those poker gods!

I played stud Hi/lo for the first time last night as pokerstars had a $1 tournie going. For the first hour or so I was doing well. I won 17/19 hands that went to showdown, although none were full pots. Then all of a sudden I was getting beaten by Nut flushs with a low against my K high flush and 8 low and found myself short stacked. I decided to bet all my next hands as it was getting late and managed to win 4 in a row before taking it a step to far against a large stack. I had a low but his wheel took all the chips and i was gone 100 out of over 400. I will definatley have another go as it was fun but I don't think I could play stud for serious money.

Beats, beats and more beats !

2004-11-10T03:05:00.000Z

Went to the Merrion tonight for some more live game practice ahead of January. I was joined by three of the Friday game regulars and we joined over 40 others in the $100 freezeout. I have always been impressed by the Merrions structures in my previous visits and it is the scene of my 2 biggest live wins. Unfortunatley I have a false impression as I have only played there during festivals. These tournaments are just like the ones in the Fitz with only 20 minute doubling blinds.
I was never able to really get going and every time I won a small pot, I lost a bigger one shortly afterwards. One that springs to mind is where a small stack went all in after the flop and I called knowing my second pair was best. It was, however he hit one of his 5 outs on the river to stay alive and knock me down another peg.
I managed to steal my way down to the last two tables along with Kev and Ciaron from the game. Steve went out early when his K high flush was beaten by an Ace high one. After raising with pocket eights I was reraised by a player who had double me up a few hands before calling with A2 vs my A9 and had also called an all in with pocket 5's. I quickly called and was right to do so as he had pocket sixes.
Then the cruellest thing happened. The flop came 10 9 7 meaning if he hit his 6 I made a straight. This was my only thought and was stupidly thinking the pot was mine when the turn brought an 8! obviously the board never paired and his straight (2 outs after the flop!!! excluding running 6's) knocked me out.
Kev had a similar beat when his pocket pair hit the flop only to be cracked by a straight.
Ciaron however was hitting cards all night and managed to cash in 3rd for a healthy profit.
I moved over to the cash game and twice had all my money in with the nuts on the turn only to be outdrawn on the river. Both were 5:1 shots but when your luck has gone it has gone!
Never mind it will be back sometime, hopefully soon.

Something I probably have no right to comment on, but will anyway is the flaming that goes on amongst the Hendon mob forum. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but lately there are whole threads ridiculing someone who posted a stupid question. I see no need for this and think the flamings far more annoying than the stupid questions! It just creates a mess to look through and find an interesting discussion. Sometimes people just need reassurance that they have done the right thing and posting a question in forum is a good way of establishing this. What seems futile to some is important to others. If you don't like the topic just move on too the next one!

Also look Hendon Mob cos when we think of a name our mob will be after your crown. Ciaron's cash was about the 6th or 7th time in a row one of us has been in the money when more than one of us enter a tournie!

Patience

2004-11-09T13:17:00.000Z

A few steps forward and a few more back yet the challenge fund is moving forward slowly but surely. I had Kings full beaten twice in one day. Playing $3 sit and go's I have never finished out of the money twice in row. However it is getting a bit frustrating waiting for tables to start. I am used to Party where if you register you are usually playing within a minute. Having waited for half an hour for a table to start to fill I left my lonely seat and took $4 into a .05/.10 ring game ind 1hr later I was $10 up. Now the fund is at $55 I can start to play the $5 sit and go's and hopefully we will see some rapid upwards movement.

Although this is really just a bit of fun, now I have got this far I intend to see it to the end. It has also added to my game overall. When you have a very limited bankroll, patience starts to become a great factor in success. I find myself passing middling hands that have been my downfall in cash games before and taking much more notice of other players at the table instead of just playing my cards. Spotting the players who are willing to put all their chips in on top pair in a flushing board or with A low kicker is far more profitable than waiting for the rockets. It is amazing how many of these kinds of players abound the net. To be honest I have been gulity quite often in the early stages of my poker career, but gradually have tried to erode these maniacal plays from my game.

Since starting this quest I have also been playing 25NL cash games on Eurobet and I think it is no coincidence that I have had 4 winning sessions out of 5. Beforehand it was usually the other way round in cash games, ie: 4 losing out of 5. If this keeps up I think I will stick to these rather than the sit and go's. I have a good record in STT on Party/Eurobet but I think per hour there is more to made in the cash games.

Other Blogs

You may have noticed I have updated the links section to include more blogs. Some of these are well worth a read if you have'nt already. Iggy is a bit mad but collects a lot of articles from all over the net. Felicia Lee is great for inside views on events. Paul Phillips is a bit hit and miss. Simon Trumper has great tournament reports. The Camel puts across some fine points ( the ones about poker anyway). Doubleas is another part time player like myself. Andy Ward is another who brings up some interesting topics. The internet pro is. Suited Aces are a group of young poker players from ireland, there are so may of them that one of them is bound to have a big success at somepoint. Eye of sauron is new and adds something different. Milkybarkid is unfortunate if he looks like his namesake!

The challenge takes a beat......

2004-11-08T14:18:00.000Z

Not really a bad beat as I was behind all the way once the flop came, but time out is needed to chill. I have KK and blinds are 50/100, I have average chips. It is raised 500 UTG. Everybody folds to me in the big blind and I flat call. The flop comes QQ2 and I put out a tester 400 bet out. It was called and the next card was the 7 of diamonds. This made two diamonds on the board and I was sure now he had a Queen. This time he bet 400, I called thinking if a diamond came I could take him off at the end. The River was the King of diamonds, giving me Kings full of Queens and now I think I have him beat I go All in. He calls straight away and then I am dismayed to see the money slide over to him! He had QQ, It had to happen sometime, but this is the biggest hand I have lost with so far! I am sure there are many of you out there who have had bigger hands beaten but it is still a sickener!

Luckily for the challenge I had just come second in the previous Sit and go so we are back to level for the day.

$1.71 challenge update

2004-11-08T09:58:00.000Z

I played 3 more $3 Sit and go's last night, managing a 1st,3rd and 5th. This puts the bankroll up to $38. This 22x the starting level. For all the slagging VC gets on the forums for its bad play, the standard is not too bad at these low levels. The win was a long drawn out affair and the heads up lasted over 15 minutes, an eternity in a VC sit and go! It all came down to a lucky draw out for me, I had double the chips of my opponent and when he raised all in, I called with my A4. It seemed like the titanic struggle we were in was set to continue when I saw he had A5. However a lovely 4 came on the river and we are a couple of wins away from moving up another level.

I have decided not use freerolls to try and obtain my objective as I feel it will take away from the pureness of the quest.

Trying to make real money last night proved very difficult indeed. I played in a couple of $30 STT on Pokerstars and finished nowhere as first Aces and then Kings were cracked. The Aces were in the 3rd hand of the game and my initial raise was raised again, I pushed in, got the expected call and was horrified to see a King on the flop to make the guy a set! Second game I made it a bit further until the same thing happened with my KK vs 77.

I bombed out of a $11 rebuy satellite for the $350,000 Gtd when shortchipped I found AK and my all in was called in two spots by AA and A8 - Goodnight Vienna.

Whilst watching Paul Phillips throw away victory in the WPT at the Bicycle I managed to regain some money in NL ring game on Eurobet, turning my $25 into $75 in an hour. If a multi-millionaire can crack under pressure, what chance for me? Although you will not find me playing J2 suited in any game unless forced in the blinds! Well done to Paul though for not letting it get to him and winning one later in the series.

I have had offers to sell a piece of my action for the WPT in January and am still in two minds as whether to accept or not. whilst $3200 for 40% would make a nice bit of spending money, if I made the final table, giving someone $40,000 for every $100000 seems harsh! I think if I had paid into the tournament my feeling would be differerent. I think in the end I will not give into temptation and keep all of myself.

Stay Lucky!

A long way to go...

2004-11-06T17:11:00.000Z

Last night I had the priviledge of getting some poker advice from a very experienced poker player. More than that I actually got to play in an online tournament with him looking over my shoulder. I should mention that this player has made a WPT final table and played in some of the biggest private games in the world.

It was uncanny how he managed to call other peoples hands correctly so many times. A lot of the time we were not in the pot but every time he called someones hand and there was a showdown he was spot on. Some of the things he told me I could understand but most of it just seemed to be experience. He reckons he can read players better online than in a live game and from what I saw I have no reason not to believe him. If I can bring even a few points into my game from this it will give me a better chance in January.

$1.71 Update

Due to a technical problems the challenge stalled yesterday as I had no internet access all day. However since the first day things have moved forward slightly. I have played 6 STT for $1 and won 2, come 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th once each which although increasing my hefty bankroll by about 20% still left it at just short of $20. I decided to move up early to the $3 levels. Now I know thats sounds like I am getting out of my depth, but I really felt inside that I was ready for this leap. As it happens my confidence was well placed and I tore through my 8 opponents to claim top spot and move my balance to just shy of $30.

There is something I am having trouble with. I am accrueing action points which can be used to enter freeroll tournaments. If I use these am I cheating my experiment?

Anyway, once I have reinstalled VC's software back onto my PC on Monday the challenge will continue full steam ahead. Beware Luckyblind is on a roll, bankroll up 1500% and showing no signs of flagging!

The $1.71 challenge Part 1

2004-11-03T13:27:00.000Z

Not satisfied with playing in a WPT event in January I have set myself another challenge....

To turn $1.71 into $1000 dollars.

I thought I had cleared out my Victor Chandler balance, but lo and behold there is this princely sum sitting in there going to waste! I was at Catherine's brothers last night, he plays a bit of poker at home and watches it on TV so I was trying to convince him to start playing online. I told him to deposit a small amount and start at the micro limits and see how he gets on. Whether he does or not is up to him, but I am determined to show that you can start with a little and roll it up nicely. I may not succeed, especially as VC is full of novice's at the lower levels who can bust you with a multitude of suprising hands, but it will be fun trying.

I will only be playing during work, so I will be at a disadvantage as my customers must come first. However at the low limits I think I will still have an edge. Here's the plan :-

1. Take my humungous bankroll to a .05/.1 NL table and work it up to $11
2. Most people would quit while ahead with 500% profit. Not me! I will then use to enter $1 Sit'n'Go's.
3.On reaching 10 buyins for the next level of buy ins I will move up.
4.Wake up!

The First round

Shaking somewhat I found a full table and stuck myself on the waiting list and within a few minutes my hard earned wad was at the mercy of a table full of seasoned VC sharks.

My first hand was a monster. It had been raised in early position and although I was sure I had the best of it, I overcame the desire to max raise all in and clicked my 7 2 off suit into the muck.
10c down already and the blinds were coming round to me. The bullies on the table stole both and I had lost over 10% of my stack already. Not to worry, AJ next hand, raised 4x blinds and now they all fold to the new master of the table.

99 next and again I raised. Respect does not last long amongst these streetfighting players and I am called in 2 spots. Flop contains a magic nine but also 2 diamonds. My mouse hovers over max and I close my eyes and pull the trigger. When I open them I see that I now have $5.07. Dunno what they called with but I saw a diamond on the river!

Too much confidence can be a dangerous thing and a few hands later I am left teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Having raised with AQ suited before the flop and been called by two players, I was first to go on a board of A 9 7 rainbow. Before I could resist I was all in again. This time I was called by a psychic with 10 6 who hit his 8 on the river.

Now only 60c left I sat out a few hands whilst having a ciggie to calm my shredded nerves. I decided to go back and wait for AA and quadruple up. However when dealt KQ hearts my finger slipped and I was all in and my life was on the line as two riverboat gamblers called and proceeded to bet in a side pot after the flop which contained the A of hearts. Imagine my suprise when the turn and river were both hearts and I scooped a pot worth $1.94. Back into profit. Ker-ching!

KK late position, 3 limpers, ALL IN, not one measly caller - chickens.

Miss a few flops, down to $1.50

AJ - raise gets two callers, A high flop, ALL IN, two callers! back up to $4.73

Limped with 5 5 checked down by 3 others, 4 overcards on board, 5's held up.

5 8 in big blind. Flop checked giving me a free 9 on the turn to make my str8. Put low stack ALL IN. He called, now up to $7.54

Nothing for a while and the pick up AK off suit. Raise it up to .5. Low stack calls. J 9 7 flop. Bet half his chips and he called. Turn 2d making 3 diamonds. Put him ALL IN. At last someone folds a hand after the flop!

Only $3 off my target to reach stage 2. Playing poker of this quaility and against such world class players is exhausting, but I manage to hold myself together until this happened :-

A2 clubs, limped UTG. 3 other limpers and blinds see flop of A 9 2, two hearts.I bet .40 and was called by one player. Turn is 2 of hearts. BINGO. I use all my hyena like cunning and pause then check. He throws out a $1 chip and I pause again before raising up to $3. With a zen like belief he has me like a rabbit in the headlights of his 4*4 he re-raises me ALL IN. Quicker than a flash of Janet Jackson's nipple, I am in the pot and now my treasure trove stands at $15.69! I am dealt the next hand before I can leave the table and decide to see the flop with Ac 8s. When the flop comes three clubs I call a $1 bet before folding to a $5 on the turn which is red.

Enough! I said to myself, my basket is full - no need to be greedy. I left the table and made my self a cup of coffe to celebrate!

If you are able to stand the suspense, please tune in for the next episode soon......

Completely off topic but hers's a plug for Anthony's website. A must for any one interested in the mythical history of Ireland. Newgrange in particular. http://www.mythicalireland.com

Long shots.

2004-11-01T14:35:00.000Z

Since my last blog I have had a little time to take in the possibilities that lie ahead after winning a seat in the WPT Event in January. It would be wrong to say it has been a lifetime dream as I only really found out about poker in March. It has however been a long time dream to be rich - as I am sure it is most peoples!

I know that winning this event will need me to have a little bit of luck, but the Moneymaker and Raymer wins show that it can be done. Not that I can compare myself to either player. I am sure they had been playing poker for a lot longer than I have. But I am still in a no lose situation. The worst I can come away with is a cheap luxury holiday for Catherine and I. However, I cannot help but think what a difference winning this would make to our lives. It is also hard for me to write off my own chances . Three times this year I have played in tournaments with some of the top european Pro's and finished 1st and 8th in two of them. I have won tournaments online and live.I have an advantage as I can watch the top players and learn how they play. Nobody knows me, so at least for the first while they will be a bit cautious around me ( hopefully!). I figure that whilst I won't be the best player there, I won't be the worst either.

In reality, from now until the last card is dealt I am going to be living in a state alternating between heaven and hell. At the moment I have have my own business and it pays the rent and a little bit more, It also gives me the freedom to do what I like ( to a degree). I have plans to expand but it would take between 5 and ten years to earn what this tournament paid out to first place last year ($455,000 to Gus Hansen). Yet I have a chance to do it in 5 days.

I am under no illusions that it is a long shot. But how often do long shots come in? How often are you beaten by a 2 or 3 outer on the river? The lottery is 14,000,000 : 1 but invariably someone wins every week. I have seen my home town non league football team, Weymouth, beat Manchester United. Greece won the world cup. I had money on Last Suspect when it won the Grand National at 50:1. I saw Boris Becker win Wimbledon at 17.

My aim : To join that list and be another winning long shot.

If not, a suntan and plenty of weak american beer will have to do!

I am sure my feelings about this will change over the coming weeks and I am going to use this blog to try and make sense of them. Also when I get there I will post updates during the competition. Hopefully you will have a lot of updates!

Unbelievable !

2004-10-30T03:39:00.000+01:00

Readers of this blog will know that the last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster, After cashing 8th in the Merrion winter festival and winning the Sunday tournie in the Fitzwilliam I have been on a suicide poker run, busting out on amateur mistakes in three live tournies and countless online ones. I had almost used up what was left in my Party Poker and Poker stars accounts trying to play myself back into the 'zone' ( If I ever was really in it!).

In fact I have 53 cents left in Party and had only $143 left in Pokerstars. I am not looking for handouts as I have only paid 200 into party and cashed out over 10k, and on Pokerstars I had only ever put in $100.

I had just busted out of another Pokerstars tournamnent chasing a flush and was looking for the next tournament when I spotted a Double Shootout quailifier for the WPT event in the Bahamas just after christmas. With 15 mins to kick off there were only 21 runners and they were guaranteeing a seat worth $8k, hotel and $1000 if there were at least 9 runners. the only problem was the entry was 150 + 10. I waited for a few more minutes and it was still only half full. Max was 81. I thought about it and got out the old plastic and topped my account up to $300 and registered for the game.

I was quite confident as I have played a lot of STT on Party and am just over $1000 up on them so far after playing 50 at 30 & 50 buyins. I have not played many on Pokerstars but the 9 handed play with more chips and timed levels suits my type of play when I am on form which is patience, slowly building my stack and picking off shorter stacks as the game progresses.

Eventually 67 people signed up so there was only a small amount of value but I was back to my confident self. I really do think the short levels and steep blind increases at the Fitz are bad for my style of play. I am going to try the Merrion for my next few ventures into town.

It was unerring the way my chips grew steadily through the first table. I noticed early on that if you bet small the players either folded or called along with the worst of it. I made it heads up without having to come from behind and the chips were even. 6050 for me and 5950 for my opponent. In the next fifteen minutes I just gradually chipped away at his stack. My small bets winning 8 hands in a row at one point until I folded a small blind. He never raised me back and there were plenty of occasions when I would have folded. He was down to 1800 when he finally went all in against my flat call. This time the rockets held up! and I was at the final table.

This table was a lot tougher, the players seemed to know one another and most had support from the virtual rail. I quickly lost a few chips and was down to 1000 from 1500. Eventually when I was down to 750 I went all in UTG with AQ. It held up and and I was back in the game. However we were down to 6 now and I was second low stack. Soon after the most critical hand of the game occured. I had raised on the button 3 times the blind with A 10. The big blind called and the flop came J 10 2 two clubs I had the A of clubs. It was checked to me and I bet the pot with my pair of tens. The Big blind immediatley raised all in. The speed of the raise and the fact that as the short stack albeit by not much I thought he would have reraised on the flop with 10's J's or AJ. I was worried about KJ of QJ, and used over half my time bank before deciding he wouldn't take that chance so near to the prize and he wasn't that short. In the end I decided to call and he showed KQ. I few tense moments as the cards came out 6 and then a 10 to make me a set!

A few hands later I doubled up again against the most dangerous player on the table, he was playing and winning a lot of pots. Everyone seemed to be giving him a lot of respect. Any way I went back to my small raising and betting game and slowly built up to 7000 agianst 2 others both with 2500 each.

Mr Danger, I have forgotten his name already! something like askbeh, called my BB. I was holding K7 both spades. Two spades came on the flop and I called his 400 bets on the flop and turn. Another spade hit the river and he went all in. The board had not paired and there was no way I was folding second nuts after chasing it! As it was he had only 2 pair and I was heads up for an $11,000 value prize. I held a 5:1 chip lead and there was an agonising 5 minute break before we started. First hand, a small raise and his blind was mine. I felt as confident as one should with this lead and only 100 200 blinds. Next hand I picked up A9 suited, He raised me all in. Heads up with this lead I felt it was an easy call. He had J10 of hearts and although the first two cards were hearts, no more came and Bahama's here we come!