Poker Blog of Kieran "flipper" Walsh

New website: PigSty.ie - Ireland's first online database for cleaners in Ireland

2011-01-17T09:45:00.002Z

I hope everyone enjoyed this season of TV3's "The Apprentice". It was a challenge and you can read all about it over at www.walshengineering.com/blog.

I've recently started a new website called www.PigSty.ie which is Ireland's first online database for cleaners in Ireland. It's been going very well since I launched it and hopefully you'll find it to be a very handy resource.

InBusiness magazine did a feature on the site and myself too which you can see here.

Kieran Walsh on "The Apprentice"

2010-09-09T11:41:00.003+01:00

Meet the men and women preparing for the toughest job interview in Ireland: the ferociously competitive selection process to become Bill Cullen's Apprentice and land a €100,000-year job. Amongst them is www.WalshEngineering.com website founder, Kieran Walsh. Kieran (28) studied for a degree in Economics and Maths in University College Cork. During this time and through his background in maths, he developed an interest in probability, spread betting and poker. The latter grew into a major interest for Kieran and now, he is best known for such high profile wins as the Irish Poker Championship '06 and the CPT Grand Final '09. To date, his tournament winnings exceeds $350,000. Throughout his time as a professional poker player, he was always more interested in commercial business and was involved in several website start ups which ultimately to lead him to the creation and setup of www.WalshEngineering.com.

The Irish Daily Mail quote the following: Another daring contender is 28-year-old Kieran Walsh, who quit University College Cork to become a professional poker player. Undoubtedly his poker face will come in handy when warding off his rivals. While keeping his cards close to his chest regarding a game plan, Kieran admits: "There are about eight people in The Apprentice this year who are better than anyone who's been in it before".

The Sunday Mirror say "Kieran Walsh, a Commercial Director from Cork has recently taken over a section of a family business. He says that ever since he was old enough to make money, he has been driven by the challenges in the quest".

The new series of The Apprentice begins at 9:00pm only on TV3. It will be followed by the "You're Fired" show and then a brand new show called "At Home with The Apprentices" on 3E.

You can view my exclusive blog here

Kieran Walsh update

2010-09-02T14:26:00.001+01:00

Hey all, if you want to catch up with my recent business activity, I will be hosting a blog over at www.kieranwalsh.com. My company www.walshengineering.com is my primary concern now but plan to be back on the live poker scene semi-full time in 2011.

Time for an update...

2008-03-04T19:35:00.002Z

Ok, I've been playing a bit lately so I've lots to talk about:

Waterford Team Event:
I made a last minute decision to travel to Waterford for the Big Slick Team Event. I got off to a sick start and was chip leader out of 200-odd players early on. One big pot involved a huge call by me with 9sTs on a 5c6c8sTc4s board. I put the guy on KcJx when he came firing on the turn but the call (for my entire stack) was good. I then played an 85k pot with the average at 18k when I flat called a mid position raise with JhTh. The flop cam down J68 with one heart. I called a pot sized bet and saw a sweet turn card, the 7h. He led for 3/4 pot and I raised. He tanked for an age and finally pushed in. I was getting 5/1 on my money at this stage and still have 11k to play with if i lost. I called, he had AJ and it held. I built a big stack again, got it in with JJ vs AT in a big pot and got outdrawn. I finally followed this up with a terrible call with A4 to a 4-bet and lost to JJ. I'd also like to give a quick shout out to my friend and idol Nicky Power who managed to once again, blow up in spectacular fashion.

Waterford Cash Games:
I played two evening sessions of 2/5 NLH-PLO round of each. Over the two nights I booked a nice 4 figure win. The biggest pot of the weekend came in PLO. 4 of us saw the flop for €10 each (I was on the button with QQ56ss). I bet the flop of Q25 rainbow only to get check raised to €160 by a guy playing €1,400-ish. With the board being pretty dry, I decided to just smooth call here and peel the turn. The turn came a 6 completing the rainbow and the villain insta-bet the pot of €330. The 6 did fill up a 34xx hand but I've played a pile with this guy before and I never fancied him to play a draw so strong on the flop. Again, I just called. He bet €975 all-in blind before the blank river (a nine I think) was dealt. I call it a blank because if 78xx got there, I can't do anything about it - especially now that he has bet dark. I tanked it for easily 2-3 minutes before making the call with top set. I put him on 22xx or 55xx and even though he just mucked, I'm pretty sure that's what he had. The pot came to a total of €2,940.

Macau €10k Guaranteed:
I hadn't been to the Macau for a while (for no particular reason) but I decided to play the €275 buyin €10k guaranteed tourney they are now running monthly. I built a 70k stack but got it in behind with AQ vs AK and that was that. I then lost my €1,000 buyin in the 2/5/10 PLO game even quicker. I can't even remember the hands but the final one was me flopping top two on a K84 board and getting done by AA8J to a runner-runner straight. The infamous toy-out-of-pram-thrower remained silent as he scooped the €1,400 pot :-) Oh, I also managed to snap call a bet of €300 with 9-high. Amazingly it wasn't good and obviously it was a misread.

Online:
I did everything in my power to try and qualify for the $2,000,000 guaranteed on iPoker this weekend but just managed to lose $1,000 along with my sanity. I played like a tit in every satellite but had my money in good a couple of times to secure a ticket but it wasn't to be.

Personal Stuff:
I'm right in the middle of buying a really nice apartment in the City at the moment. It's taking longer than I thought but when I move in I'll post some pics.

Sunday night Tourneys

2008-01-21T02:42:00.000Z

Had played a satellite earlier on in the day for the $215 buyin $200k guaranteed tourney on ipoker which I won. 996 runners lined up and after 8 or so hours, I found myself heads up for the $44,000 1st prize. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be and even though I had half the Irish poker scene railing me on MSN (thanks lads) I couldn't finish the job. You can see the lobby here. I'm obviously "BradBellick".

Obviously, I'm a bit disappointed right now but I'm sure I'll be delighted in the morning when I look at my balance and see the $24,000 2nd prize. Not much else to say for now so off to bed!

And so for 2008....

2008-01-04T12:33:00.000Z

Hey all, just back from Finland. I'm never in my life been so wrecked! I slept yesterday until 6:30pm, got up and ate breakfast and promtly went back to bed. It's was great craic and the huge crowd (38-odd) made it all the better. I was going to go to Galway for the IPC but I honestly couldn't be bothered. Back to bed for now... Later

Random update

2007-12-18T09:34:00.000Z

Played a bit of PLO on ipoker last night. I was winning $1,600 at 5/10 before I made a stupid call with AAxx on a paired board when every draw missed. He either had nothing or quads and of course... He had the latter. I spotted a bit of value in the $500+$30 $50k guaranteed with only 74 runners so I signed up but busted early JJ to AQ. I ended up buying into the 10/20 10-handed PLO game for $2,000 and accidently posted my BB UTG. But it wasn't all bad as I goit to limp AA89 UTG and catch a 5 was flop of Ac8c4x and getting it all in on a dry turn against the BB who had a flush draw. I edged my way up to a $6,500 stack before running a bluff with the nut-flush blocker and getting called :-( I finished the night soon after showing a $2,200 profit.

PLO cash game in the Bank Casino

2007-12-17T10:04:00.000Z

I decided to play the 2/5 PLO game in the Bank Casino that I had heard so much about on Friday night. I arrived at around 11pm and dicked about in the 1/3 NLH game while waiting for some PLO players to show up. I was showing a small profit after flopping top two on an A45 board and taking some guy for three streets of value. As soon as Gav, Stu and Trevor arrived, the PLO game kicked off.

I bought in for €1,000 (to cover everyone) and I got it in the middle pretty fast with top set and a nut straight draw against two pair and a flush draw to bring me up to €1,800. Actually, the game wasn't together long before it looked like it was going to break, leaving me and Trevor heads up. We were lucky that a guy on his staff night out sat in with €1,000 bringing us up to 3-handed. The guy seemed to like action but it didn't look like he was going to stay too long so I proposed a hike in blinds to 5/10 and both players agreed. I played a couple of big pots with him and even though I ran like a Kenyan all night, I never really got it in behind. I'd say I must have been 4/4 that night with top set. The biggest pot of the night saw me pop it up to €30 from the button with QQ56 and get two callers. The flop was Qc7d2c with a flush draw so I bet €90 to open the action. Our new guy was shortish at this stage (playing about €500) and he popped it up to €270. Here's where the hand got strange. Trevor (playing over €1,400) just smooth calls. I decide to let a blank come off on the turn so I just flat called too. The turn was the 3d - bringing a second diamond flush draw. The shortish stack pushes in for his last €200 and Trevor calls again. I now had two options: Push it in now or wait until the river. I'm pretty sure Trevor was on clubs at this point so I decide to call and go broke on any non club river. The river is an offsuit 4s giving me the nuts. He has already said "I'm betting if I get there and checking if I don't..." and leads for €800. I recheck my cards and shove my €3k stack across the line and he calls with a worse straight and a busted club flush draw.

Trevor then left leaving me HU with the other guy who had reloaded for another €1,000. We went back and forth for a while but we eventually got it in holding TT97 on a T934 board. He had the high wrap and missed. Overall, I finished a €5,100 winner for the night. I do plan on playing this game a lot more in the future and getting back to live winning ways. It's a little easier when you're single to be up all hours on a Friday night playing these games and I really needed the last two months to clear my head. Me and Louise are getting on so well lately again as friends and we're both happy to let time sort us out as we do miss each other a lot but neither of us want to rush into anything. She's been my best friend for 5 years now so that's a huge loss.

As for poker, I've spun up a bit of a roll online so I plan on playing a few bigger tourneys over Xmas. I've got $4k on ipoker, $3k on UB and $6k on stars at the moment and I'm hoping to build an online tank with it. Finally, although I almost never sports bet, I got a huge treble up yesterday with St. Vincents in the Dublin football, Man Utd and Arsenal. This doubled my winnings for the weekend to round off what has been a nice one. If I don't post again before Xmas, I want to wish all of you and yours and Merry Xmas. Be lucky and I'll see you all in the New Year!

The Bank Casino Main Event

2007-12-14T13:01:00.000Z

First off, a quick word about the hand in the last post. "Acesfull" and "anonymous" seem to like different lines. The reason I prefer to jam rather than peel one is 2-fold. 1st off, if I call and get there, my hand becomes quiet obvious and I might get no more anyway. 2nd and more importantly, with over 170k in the pot preflop and with the extra 150k put in on the flop, I'm getting even money on taking it down and 2-1 on a hand with rarely has less than 45% equity. I personally feel this is a perfect spot for a squeeze play - especially against a loose-passive preflop raiser. I have posted the hand on Boards (click here) and we'll see what some of those guys say.

I just got a notion to play The Bank Casino Main Event at the last minute and I'm glad I did. The cardroom is really nice and they really have a great crew working there. They got 39 runners at €150+€15 a piece and they also added €1,000 to the prize pool. I built my stack fairly quickly and I played a couple of big pots early on. One such pot went like this. With blinds at 200-400, Alex makes it 1,200 UTG+2, from mid position, i make it 4k with AcQs. Here's where it got strange... This young guy who seemed nervous just flat calls out of the BB. The flop is a dream Qc4c5c and... he jams his 20k in the middle! I obviously snap-call as I am beating everything he can't re-pop with preflop. He shows JdJs and I hold up.

The only other hand that springs to mind right now happened at the final table. Down to 5 players and just after bursting the bubble, I'm on 100k with blinds at 1,500-3,000. I make it 9k
with As6s from the CO. The BB (very active LAG) just smooth calls (I barely cover him). The flop comes 2d4s5s. I bet 15k and he insta-jams. I called pretty fast knowing the A-high is good here a lot against hands he's cold calling me with. He shows KdTd for no pair, no draw and makes runner-runner flush. Meh. I managed to hold on for 4th place for €820. Again, I recommend that anyone that has the opportunity go play in the Bank. I sure will be there more often.

Back in the saddle

2007-12-11T10:28:00.000Z

Ok, I promise to update more regularly from now on! First off, thanks to everyone who posted comments in the last post. It's tough but I guess the show must go on. I skipped the tourney in the Emporium and the Macau Festival (1st big tourney in a couple of years that I've missed in Cork) but now, I'm delighted that I did. I took the weekend just hanging out with friends and getting drunk.

I've started playing a lot more tourneys on Stars, UB and FTP as of late and I'm running pretty good. Got unlucky last night to finish 19th out of 1,512 runners in the $11 rebuy on stars for a paltry $250 odd bucks. I was playing a little under the average (about 350k - blinds 8k-16k) when I picked up KcQc in the BB. The CO raised to 40k and was flat called by the button, SB and myself. Flop was AcTc6d. I checked, the CO bet 75k, the button called and I jammed after the SB folded. The CO insta-mucked but the button snapped with AK. I missed. I don't think I did much wrong in the spot to be honest... What do you think?

Where have I been?

2007-11-14T17:37:00.000Z

Well some have you been wondering if I'm dead or alive sooooo...... I said it was probably time to check in! I haven't played any poker since the IPO really because I've been going through a rough breakup with my girlfriend of 5 years and cards are the last thing from my mind right now. I'm not really sure why I'm even posting this but I'm doing it out of respect for all the guys who read my blog and have been wondering where I've been.

I'm not sure if I'll play the €500 event at the weekend in Waterford or the Macau Festival yet... I'll see how I'm feeling. If I do, I'll post a report. Later.

Hendon Mob Article

2007-08-30T13:17:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates but I've been really busy and playing little/no poker. Went to Dublin this weekend with the intention of maybe playing some cards but I decided to take it easy for a couple of days at one of my friends houses instead. We did go into town on the beer on Saturday for a little while and I joined the party for Halibut's birthday. Lots of stories, banter and ripping the piss out of Masters... All one could ever want!

Ages ago, Joe Beevers asked me to write a few articles for The Hendon Mob homepage but I'm really only getting around to it now. Just yesterday, they published my first article entitled "Deep-Stacked Tourneys" which you can read here. I plan on doing a few more along the lines of "The Irish Poker Scene", "Switching from NLH to PLO" and "OOP: Irish Position". If you have anything you'd like to see me write on, please post it in the comments section.

Greener pastures at Full Tilt

2007-08-17T01:31:00.000+01:00

I put $600 onto Full Tilt a few days ago in the hope of doing another spinup. So far after 3 days play, I'm up to $3,200. Just tonight, I finished a sickening 8th in the $32k guarenteed.

It was worth $1,031 to me but I'm sick that I didn't go further. I was never so card dead 4 tables out. Nice to get a little result all the same. I've really been putting in the hours in the cash games and as always, the HU SNG's. I'll update on my progress in a few days.

Hitlers' Downfall

2007-08-13T18:12:00.000+01:00

Just saw this on Tillermans' blog. Funniest poker video I've seen in a while!

Tit for tat

2007-08-10T15:53:00.000+01:00

On the poker front, I haven't been playing a lot since my last post and I'm still in the same spot financially. I have been play a few more SNG's - especially Hu ones. The PLO ones on Stars are so soft right now. It's a pity they don't fill up a little more.

The other night, Paul Roper rang to inform me that Roy Brindley had been "plugging" me in the recent Cardplayer Europe magazine. You can read the page here. Now, I had been keeping this little video to myself, but as the title of this post suggests, retrobution must be had. Click on the play sign and prepare to cringe.

Finally, two more blog to add to the list are Patrick Antonius' and also Kaibuxxe from Full Tilt. The latter is on the run of a lifetime winning over $2 million in the last few months.

I was going to travel to Killarney for the weekend to play in Connie's tournament but I've been away for the last few weeks and I fancy a quiet weekend.

I run good!

2007-08-02T19:21:00.000+01:00

Been playing tonnes online these last couple of weeks and as always, I've been playing a lot of PLO. I've been lucky to run so good whilst jumping up and down through the levels and I'm now at a point now where I have a sufficient online roll to play pretty decent games. Before this spin up started a few weeks back, I had intended on depositing €3,000 to Pokerstars to play. Instead, I spun €200 that someone owed me on Paddy Power up to around $1,000 and moved it over to Pokerstars where I have a new account. I can't remember the details but I clicked a three way all-in to get the roll going. I've been playing really well and have started branching into turbo SNG's as well. I've only played 90-odd but I feel that if I had the patience to play them all the time, I could record a nice profit. Just last night, I played 4 x $60 turbos and got 1st twice, a 2nd and a 3rd. Pretty sick run!

Here's a picture of my Pokertracker in just PLO:

And here's a screen capture of my results on Sharkscope. I've blacked out my screen name as I want to keep it private for the time being.

This week, I signed up to Cardrunners.com and as I'm telling anyone that will listen, it's some of the best money I've spent. I payed by Pokerstars transfer of $250 and my account was activated really quickly. I've only watched about 5 or 6 videos so far and I found GreenPlastics' $10/$20 NLH video and Brian Townsends' $3/$6 NLH video to be excellent. They really discuss the hands well and express their thoughts perfectly.

I'm in two minds as the whether or not to play the €200 monthly freezeout in the Macau Sporting Club tonight. Last month got 43 runners which generated a decent prize pool. If I do go, I'll do an update tomorrow. I'm off to Dublin this weekend to hang out with friends that I haven't seen in a while. Should be plenty of drink and trouble-making involved!

Yes, I'm still alive

2007-07-26T20:55:00.000+01:00

I'm just back from a really plesant holiday in Marbella with my girlfriend and I haven't really played any poker at all since the Macau festival. The scene is totally dead until October again when a few of the bigger events start up. The Dublin EPT is so tempting but €8,000 entry is a bit steep. If I can sell 30-40% of myself I might play. If anyone is provisionally interested in a few percent, post in the comments section and let me know. I haven't played online at all in the last few weeks and I have to say, I've really enjoyed the break. I find the swings online so much harder to deal with than live and I find myself spending most of the night in bed running through hands I played badly. I don't find myself doing this when I play live... I feel a lot of this is down to having more confidence in my live play and just generally feeling more comfortable. I've just had my deposit limit lifted on Stars and I'm going to stick in $3,000 over the weekend and start grinding. My whole outlook on online poker has changed. I'm no longer hunting the big score every night. I now see that if I can just snatch a hundred or two most nights, it can be really profitable. I think I'm going to concentrate on HU SNG's for a little while. A while back, I played these almost exclusively and I had a really decent strike rate.

A couple of blogs to mention: Brian Townsend's blog (known as sbrugby online) is just insane reading. He's on the end of a $3 million downswing at the moment from both online and live. oh, and he's only 21!

Daniel Negreau's blog has been around for a bit but it's always interesting and well written. He also has a video blog on there.

Finally, a friend of mine; Noel Hayes (BigCityBanker on boards) started a blog during Vegas. Click here to read it.

New blog to read

2007-06-28T20:27:00.000+01:00

Nicky Power, a friend of mine who's in Vegas has started a blog. Click here to read it. He's promised to update every day so it should make good reading!

In other news, I forgot to announce that HiCloy is the lucky winner of $50! PM me your screen name on Boards.ie to collect the $$$!

Macau Festival round-up

2007-06-04T11:55:00.000+01:00

Ok my Main Event bust-out hand is here if anyone wants to see it. Pretty ugly situation that I almost got away from but as the board was so draw-heavy, it automatically gave me a much bigger range of drawing hands to put him on along with the two over sets. Ah well...

Didn't play either of the €500 PLO (won by Michael Greco) or the €500 NLH games as we spent far too much time in the bar drinking, playing pool, bowling and of course... gambling! One funny incident that came up on Friday night went as follows: Myself and Michael Greco were in the bar chatting and prop-betting. I noticed this girl sitting with her back to us by the bar with her boyfriend and I said "I bet she has hair extensions". Greco didn't agree so a prop-bet was instantly proposed. Mick McCloskey was unfortunate enough to wander upon us just as the bet had been set and he was given the duty of holding the funds and finding out who the winner was. He walked up to the couple to ask the question but as soon as he opened his mouth to say "sorry", the boyfriend turned to him and said "the best thing you can do is to get the fuck out that door right now"!! Mick obliged and legged it past us so fast I hardly saw him!

I'll probably play the final event in the Festival this evening - a €250 NLH tourney. After taking the 1st event down, I'd love to win a 2nd in the same weekend.

€1,500 Main Event..... Uggh.....

2007-06-02T13:59:00.000+01:00

I'm rather hungover now so this will be short. Went out early in a nasty set over set encounter that I couldn't get away from. I'll announce the winner of the $50 tomorrow when I find out what position I actually went out in.

€500 Pot Limit Omaha is today at 6pm so I'm hoping to pick up two trophies in the same week. Later.

€350 No-Limit Hold'em Support Event in the Macau

2007-06-01T05:41:00.000+01:00

Ok, short version.... I WON! 66 runners turned up for the €350 buy-in event. I played well in the early stages but my stack size was constantly fluctuating. This is something I'm working on controlling but I seemed to lose a lot of small 60/40 pots. I got a nice double-up when Jimmy pushed from the SB into my BB and I wake up with AA!

At the final table, the dynamic was a tricky one. Two hyper-aggressive players meant I couldn't play my own aggressive game and I had to settle for waiting for spots. I lost two nice pots with 66 vs T8 and AJ vs 99 in succession but doubled through with AQ vs 55. The sweetest moment of the night had to be raising UTG+1 with AsKs and the BB flat calling. Flop came AA6 and he bet out putting me almost all in! Obviously, I obliged and stuck in the last 12k for him to call. He flipped over K9 for the back door club draw!! For the following hour, I bled chips and when my raise with 33 from the button was re-raised but Jimmy for the millionth time, I just decided to tank it. He shows TT. I, of course lucked out and made a flush! Hehe!

Four handed, I negotiated a pretty sick deal. The stacks were (me) 70k, 80k, 140k and 160k and I convinced them to take €4,500 each and play for €1,100 and the trophy. I knocked Jimmy out with AK vs A4 and then the 3rd place finisher went in a three way pot with me holding Q7 vs KK vs XX on a Q572Q board. Heads up, I asked the guy to take €500 and I'd get €600, the title and the trophy. Very happy with the event overall.

Main Event is today at 6pm so I need to get some sleep. Later!

$530 Sunday Million on Pokerstars

2007-05-28T09:08:00.000+01:00

I wan't going to play at all but a friend asked me to take over his account as he was going out so I obliged. The buyin was $530 and 2919 players lined up. I started poorly after putting $4,000 into a pot with QQ on 37TT4 board and folding to an all-in on the river. I got up to $50,000 easily enough and won a $110,000 pot with KK on a 6s8xKs flop against As5s. An ace fell on the river so I decided to push making me look weak and if he had an ace, he might look me up. He did. I went card dead from then on in and lost what seemed like 10 races to small stacks. Sitting with $100,000 in the BB, the button raised to $14,000, the SB called and I decided to squeeze out the two of them by moving in with A4. The button called with AK. Down to $40,000. I then lost a JhQh vs 88 and finally a 66 vs A8 to finish in 150th for around $1,790. I was so pissed off and played badly in the latter stages. I'll win this tourney some day!

League final and PLO coaching

2007-05-23T18:32:00.000+01:00

Sorry about the delay in updating but I've had tonnes of stuff going on in my personal life and I've not had the time. Well, I'll keep this short! I bounced off every pot in the first hour trying to get a hand paid and it was to no avail. I played crap and played like it was a freeroll. Wrong mentality. Having a poker-free weekend this week as I'm helping a friend to empty out his girlfriends house. The following week is the Macau Festival which I cannot wait for.

Finally for today, I've long been considering offering coaching in Pot-Limit Omaha and I've refused a few people before but recently, I've been thinking that it would help my game as well so if anyone is interested in some PLO coaching, e-mail me at wkieran@eircom.net and we can discuss it.

I'm charging $70 per hour and I'm flexible with regard to length of sessions (1-5 hours is no problem). Ideally, we can use Skype and talk during the hands or even better use a program like this or this to allow me to see your hole-cards. Talking over MSN isn't really suitable in my experience as there is too much of a delay involved. If it's something that you think my help your game along, drop me an e-mail and we can set up a date.

Friday night in the Macau

2007-05-19T14:18:00.000+01:00

Went to the Macau last night for the €50 rebuy and to play a few hours cash game. I ended up winning the tourney for €1,050 and making a loss in the cash game on around €500. This donkey to my left was calling pot-sized bets on the flop with nothing and twice he hit running trips! Hopefully he got a taste for PLO and we'll see him again. On the way out the door, I put €25 on #27 (my birthday) and up it flew! €875 - sweet! The league final is on today at 6pm with €73,500 up for grabs. 1st gets €20k. There is going to be war when everyone hears that Ken expects to give the top 6 tickets for the Main Event in two weeks which they have to play! I think it's a joke that he can rape the prize pool of €9,000. Anyway, I'll report on what happens.

Ramdom cash game post

2007-05-13T19:46:00.000+01:00

I don't often post on random cash games I play but as I'm trying to increase my post frequency, I'll write about Friday night. I went to the Macau mainly to see the new electronic poker table that had been installed. I heard from a friend that guys were playing it like a video game and I figured there might be some value to be had. It's a pretty enjoyable experience actually and we had a good laugh.

6-handed PokerMate table in the Macau Sporting Club, Cork

I made a small profit before retiring to the 1/2 round of each game. The game was actually playing pretty big that night and I managed to squeeze out a €1,600 profit. One interesting hand that came up went as follows:

We were 5 handed and I raised to €20 from the cutoff with 2h3h6c7s. Both the button and the straddler called. The button had been playing well and had shown capacity to fold big hands to me. As we were both playing deep stacked (€1,200 each) at the time, I figured he didn't fancy playing a big pot.

Flop: 4d5cQd

The straddler checked and I bet €50. I've flopped almost perfect for 2367 with 20-card wrap (only for the pesky diamonds). In reality, my hand has huge potential but I'm obviously worried about the flush draw. The button goes into the tank for a minute and raises it to €200. The straddler folds and it's back to me. At this point I figure he has a set as I can't see him having Q4xx or Q5xx in this spot (which he would probably play the same way and this point given my pre-flop raise) so I decided to just call and let the turn card come off. I did a little speech and basically assertained that he did not have diamonds.

Turn: 6s

This gave me the 2nd nut straight and most importantly, a very good card with regard to concealing the strength of my hand. I expect him to have me on a 567x type of hand so a 3 or an 8 might have been more likely to kill my action. I bet out €400 and he took 5 seconds to show me a set of Queens (no diamonds) and fold! I couldn't believe he folded that to my bet and felt that I played it wrong. Any one have any opinions?

Mega $50 giveaway!!!!!

2007-05-06T01:28:00.000+01:00

Ok, I'm bored and had a stinker of a day online. Looking through some blogs and F-Badger's inspired me to do a giveaway to readers! I spent ages thinking of what question to come up with so here's what I've conjured up... All you have to do is guess where I'll finish in the Macau Irish Poker Classic Main Event. Closest gets $50 transferred to their Pokerstars account. Post your answer on the comments page.

Finally for today, an interesting idea came up during a discussion on Boards.ie where a volunteer puts himself and his game up for scrutiny to the public (whom have played with him). I'm first up and you can read "Deconstructing Flipper" by clicking on the link.

Out of the ordinary post

2007-05-05T01:45:00.000+01:00

I don't usually post out of the blue like this and I suppose I should mix it up with a little non-poker stuff. Been sick all week and only really recovered today. Messed around town doing a bit of shopping with my girlfriend and eventually went to the Macau for some live €1/€2 NLH. The game is full of weak/loose nits but I played so bad that when I got felted, I just left without reloading. I just wasn't in the mind for it. The hand where I did the damage is posted here if anybody wants to tell me how bad I played it.

While in town today I went watch shopping. I've a crazy obsession with bling watches and I'm thinking of selling my current one and buying the new Rolex Daytona. There's a long waiting list for this particular one but my local jeweller has one in stock. I'm looking at around €13,500 for the one I want. If anyone is interested in buying my current one it's a 6 month old Rolex Submariner with a custom diamond face. This has to be specially ordered hence the high price. I'll accept offers of around €9,000. Post a comment or e-mail me. Here's a decent pic of it:

Macau League Final is next weekend (hence my recent increase in visits to the place) and it should be tremendous value. I'm leaning towards travelling to Drogheda for the €1,000 event the following week. It's promises to be fantastic value. Finally, the Macau Festival is on the weekend after that. Really looking forward to that one. The cash action should be great.

Spring Festival - Killarney, Co. Kerry

2007-05-02T20:00:00.000+01:00

I had intended on travelling to Killarney on Friday night to hit the town with Sideshow, Nicky, Danny and co. but instead, I decided to put in a few more hours in the Macau cash game as the league final is on Saturday 19th May. The league has been running for almost a year now and there is about €70,000 up for grabs so it'd be a shame to not get to play in that great value freeroll. Click here to see the standings. Unfortunately, as a result I'll be missing the €500 freezeout in Waterford the same day. No hands of interest spring to mind in the 1/2 NLH game and I pulled a €900 profit for the night.

The following afternoon, I travelled to Connie's Cardroom in Killarney for the €400 freezeout. The tourney attracted 52 runners with a reasonably high standard of play. The blind structue was great but I remained card-dead throughout. I took a big hit early on with blinds at 100/200. I'm in the BB with about 11,000 and it's folded around to the button who makes it 700. I look down at AhQh and decide to get tricky and just flat call. The villain had shown an ability to lay down hands on the flop so I was hoping to get him to commit a little more with the worst of it. Flop came Ad2d4d. I check and he bets 1,200. I make it 3,800 pretty quicky and he goes into the tank before pushing in for the lot (he covers me). I thought for a long time about what I could actually beat and decided to give it up. He showed AcKc so I was happy with the laydown. Looking back on it, the right play might have been just to flat call and check-raise all in on the turn (regardless of what it was). Agree?? I found it hard to come back from this and eventually, with the blinds at 800/1600, I pushed for my remaining 9,000 with 99. The BB woke up with AA. Sick.

The cash game was no great value with Dixon, Caoimh, Tom Murphy and Eoin Lyons but I managed another small profit. I was winning €850 at one stage but lost a couple of key pots late on in the night.

One interesting hand from the night was between me and Sideshow. I raised from early position with KcQcJh7h and got a couple of callers. The flop came JcTh6c. I lead at with with a pot bet of €50 and Sideshow raised it to €200. I had a little think about what his holdings could be and I figured more often than not, he'll make the same raise with 2 pair every time so I figured that my hand is in good shape most of the time. I pushed in for the lot and he called instantly. The pot was a little over €1,000. The turn came a 7 and the river was a J. I almost mucked my hand oblivious to the fact that I had made runner-runner house! Sideshow was soooo unlucky as it happened - he revealed TT77. Case 7 on the turn not doing him any favours.

I'll have this weekend off now and that'll be followed my the Macau league final next week and then the Macau Festival two weeks after that. I'm really looking forward to the €1,500 main event - I played well at Xmas to get 2nd for €20,000 and I hope to be in the same frame of mind again.

Live schedule for the next month....

2007-04-16T20:52:00.000+01:00

There's a busy month of live tourneys coming up in the South and I hope to attend most/all of them. here's what it looks like:

Spring Festival - Cub Club, Killarney, Co. Kerry
28th April - 29th April, 2007

Saturday 28th April - 4pm
- €400 + €40 - MAIN EVENT
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
10,000 starting chips & 45 minute clock
2 day event - final table 4pm Sunday

Sunday 29th May - 4pm
- €150 + €15
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
8,000 starting chips & 30 minute clock
---------------------------------------------------------

Big Slick Poker Waterford Open - Woodlands Hotel, Waterford
17th May - 20th May, 2007

Thursday 17th May - 8pm
- €100 + €10 (1 €50 rebuy allowed)
Satellite for Main Event - 8 Tickets Guaranteed

Friday 18th May - 7:30pm
- €500 + €50 - MAIN EVENT
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
10,000 starting chips & 1 hour clock
3 day event - final table 2pm Sunday

Saturday 18th May - 5pm
- €250 (including 10% reg fee)
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
8,000 starting chips & 30 minute clock

Sunday 19th May - 4pm
- €150 + €20
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
8,000 starting chips & 25 minute clock
---------------------------------------------------------

Green Joker Poker - Drogheda, Co. Louth
24th May - 27th May, 2007

Thursday 24th May - 8pm
- €50 + €5 Rebuys
Satellite for €1,000 Main Event

Friday 25th May - 4pm
- €1,000 + €80 - MAIN EVENT
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
15,000 starting chips & 1 hour clock
3 day event - final table 2pm Sunday

Saturday 26th May - 6pm
- €500 + €50
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
10,000 starting chips & 45 minute clock
2 day event - final table 2pm Sunday

Sunday 27th May - 3pm
- €300 + €30
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
8,000 starting chips & 40 minute clock
1 day event
---------------------------------------------------------

Macau Sporting Club - Cork City
30th May - 4th June, 2007

Wednesday 30th May - 8pm
- €200 + €20 Satellite for Main Event
8 Tickets Guaranteed

Thursday 31st May - 3pm
- Ladies freeroll for Main Event

Thursday 31st May - 6pm
- €350 + €50
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
8,000 starting chips & 40 minute clock
1 day event

Friday 1st June - 6pm
- €1,400 + €100 - MAIN EVENT
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
10,000 starting chips & 75 minute clock
3 day event - final table 3pm Sunday

Saturday 2nd June - 8pm
- €500 + €50
Pot Limit Omaha Double Chance Freezeout

Sunday 3rd June - 6pm
- €500 + €50
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
2 day event

Monday 4th June - 6pm
- €250 + €20 Betfair Pub Challange
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Flipper in the Well.......

2007-04-14T00:22:00.000+01:00

I'm doing an "in the well...." style Q & A session over on the poker section of www.boards.ie. Click here to read it. Should be moderately interesting!

Bluescouse (88% guy) is back! Read his blog here and enjoy!

My Irish Open opinions...

2007-04-09T23:47:00.000+01:00

As many of you probably know, I didn't play the Irish Open. I've been going on for ages about how rubbish the structure was and my dislike for Paddy Power in general didn't have me queueing up to pay €3,500 for my ticket! I did play a super satellite in the Macau a couple of weeks ago with 3 tickets up for grabs. I played pretty badly short handed and ended up coming 4th for (getting €1,500 as a runner up prize).

As the day approached, I started gettin cold sweats thinking about missing such a big event with sooooo many bad players in my own country! I rang Paddy Power and asked them to register me out of the funds in my account but (as they probably just couldn't be asred) they refused to do so. This was basically the final straw for me and thought to myself that they can shove their tournament up their holes! Bad idea on my part as I will explain....!

Marty and Roland De Wolfe

I couldn't be happier that 2 of my friends ended up at the final table and made even better by the fact that one of them (Marty Smyth) won it all. It honestly couldn't happen to a nicer guy and I wish him every success. BTW, if I had gone to the Irish Open, we would have definately swapped 5% or 10% so that's a bit of a sickner!

Nicky Power

On a side note, I also want to say that if neither of my friends were to win the Irish Open, I would have loved to see Roland win it. I say that because I'm sick of people saying he's lucky and so on. He hasn't furnished a tourney record like this by being lucky. Well done on the 2nd place Roland.

Finally, I've done a bit of spring cleaning on my page and added new links for some blogs. F-Badger, Pinky, the Hit Squad, Drembler, 20k Mission and 1st rule of poker are all worth a look. If anyone else wants to swap links just add me to yours and leave a comment.

Adivce on preparation for tourneys

2007-04-01T17:21:00.000+01:00

Someone posted here recently asking what is the best way to prepare for and get through a big NLH tourney. I posted the following:

I think it's vital to be physically ready for the event. The day before the event, I try to eat and drink nothing but fruit and loads of water. I know it's sounds gay but a quick detox does wonders for your concentration and stamina. Try to eat well on the day and stay away from sugar as it just gives you highs and lows. Stick to bananas or something!

DO NOT arrive too early as hanging around observing all the bussle will probably only make you nervous. Try to stay away from the beer during play and if you make it to day 2, don't have more than 1 or 2 at the end of play on day 1. It'll help you sleep. I made this mistake in Singapore: With 80 left, myself, halibut and Marty Smyth were amongst the chip leaders. We decided to go for a couple of beers and ended up drinking until 4 hours before the commencment of day 2. Not a bright idea and WAS the reason I was eliminated in 35th. (Not concentrating and never saw a EP raise before I announced raise with trash.) Hali and Marty suffered similiar experiences. One of my biggest ever mistakes.

I think the biggest mistake I see being made is inexperienced players failing to adjust to the rising blind levels. I remember last year that 40+ players fell during the first ante level!

In the early stages (25/50 to 50/100), pay close attention to the hands as they play out and try to put each player on a hand. Watch out for overplayed AA & KK and also to the players that tend to check/call (most nitty players have a habit of doing this). Metally seperate the players into groups and try to focus in on the players willing to pay your nut hands off. As a result, playing suited connectors and all pairs (for set value) against these nits is very +EV. The bigger the fields, the bigger the percentage of weak players so pay close attention! Finally, I like to massively overbet my made hands as ALL amateur players seem to be allergic to folding (I think that psychologically they feel that they are being bullied and want to stand up to you).

Around the 200/400 level, I like to start getting creative by raising and re-raising pretty frequently. The positive results of this a two-fold: 1: obviously, you will build your stack through aggression and without showing down many hands and 2: your table image with be altered as your pre-flop raise percentage rises. It's most important at this point that you look objectively at what type of player your opponents are perceiving you to be. Use this "read" and play you hands accordingly.

Remember, tournaments aren't about survival, they are about chip accumulation!

From there on in, fortune almost always favours the aggressive so play your best TAG game and always trust your instincts. If you start second guessing yourself, you won't be playing your optimum game. At this stage, I think it's imperitive that you avoid all-in pre-flop situations without goods. You didn't bust your ass for 8 hours to toss a coin for the lot. Around bubbletime, keep telling yourself that there is only one prize: 1st place. Seperate yourself from toughts of getting a pityful €4k and destroy all the people that are thinking just that. Playing to win can be explosive but if you do break into the money, you'll have the chips and the momentum to carry you really deep.

In conclusion, tourneys are easy. Stay out of marginal situations and trust your instincts. Be aggressive and always get your chips in first!

Prime Poker - Cool new poker site

2007-03-15T18:19:00.000Z

I've recently struck up a relationship with this site. They're good guys and really look after their customers. If you get a chance, click here and have a look at it.

Vegas Challange Update 2

2007-03-14T21:36:00.000Z

Should really make this title "the final update"... Well, I'm living proof that you should definately not play outside your limits! Was playing 25/50 PLO and was losing a few thousand when this happened:

PokerStars Game #8902451293: Omaha Pot Limit ($25/$50) - 2007/03/14 - 17:30:27 (ET)
Table 'Almaak' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Gladys67 ($317 in chips)
Seat 2: pokerplat ($3088 in chips)
Seat 4: wkieran ($5730 in chips)
Seat 5: MissAction ($4383 in chips)
Seat 6: svesken ($5398 in chips)
pokerplat: posts small blind $25
earljason: is sitting out
wkieran: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to wkieran [9s 5c 9d Jc]
earljason leaves the table
MissAction: folds
svesken: raises $125 to $175
Gladys67: folds
pokerplat: calls $150
oskar92 joins the table at seat #3
oskar92 is sitting out
oskar92 has returned
wkieran: calls $125
*** FLOP *** [9h 2h 6c]
pokerplat: checks
wkieran: checks
svesken: bets $523
pokerplat: folds
wkieran: calls $523
*** TURN *** [9h 2h 6c] [Qc]
wkieran: checks
svesken: bets $1569
wkieran: raises $3463 to $5032 and is all-in
svesken: calls $3131 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [9h 2h 6c Qc] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
wkieran: shows [9s 5c 9d Jc] (three of a kind, Nines)
svesken: shows [Qd Ks Ah Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
svesken collected $10969 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $10971 | Rake $2
Board [9h 2h 6c Qc Ad]
Seat 1: Gladys67 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: pokerplat (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: wkieran (big blind) showed [9s 5c 9d Jc] and lost with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 5: MissAction folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: svesken showed [Qd Ks Ah Ac] and won ($10969) with three of a kind, Aces

I feel physically sick and very disappointed with myself for not sticking to the game plan. In truth, I deserve to lose the money. I did withdraw the $500 so I actually broke even on the project but it doesn't seem like that. Uggh.

Vegas Challenge Update 1

2007-03-12T21:35:00.000Z

Well, what a start! Ran like an oven tonight and picked up $2,000 in the 2/4 and 3/6 game. Jumped into the 10/20 with $1,000 and spun that up to enough to play a little 25/50. All went well there (except for losing a $4,600 pot to a two outer) and I finished the day with $12,044. One interesting hand that came up is posted here. I don't expect for things to continue like this but with $12k, I now have a nice platform to work from. Also, I gotta stop myself jumping into the higher games with such a small roll!
Not going to change my tactics at the moment but I am going to be frequenting the $55 freezeout and the $55 rebuy tourneys most nights now. I really want to sharpen up my Hold'em game which (at the moment) is worse than useless.

The Vegas Challenge

2007-03-12T09:50:00.000Z

With the World Series only around the corner, it's time to start deciding if I'm going to go or not. I reckon that there's no point in going with less than $40,000 in cash with me so I'm using that figure as a target for my current "challenge". I'm attempting to win the $40k playing just PLO and tourneys on Pokerstars between now and the time I leave (probably around mid-June) all out of $500. I started last Wednesday and so far I've been running well. Playing mainly 2/4 I've managed to hit a high of $5,630 and right now I'm on $4,750. Personally I feel that the hardest part is over and as long as I don't go busto, I should go close to completing this.

Now even if I complete this challenge, I still might not go and if I don't finish it, I might still be at the WSOP. It's just something to shoot for at the moment. Later.

Uggh, maybe I should just retire

2007-03-05T23:00:00.000Z

I can't take anymore bad beats. I feel totally drained from poker at the moment and I think one of my yearly breaks is on the horizon. here's and example from tonight:

Full Tilt Poker
Pot Limit Omaha Ring game
Blinds: $25/$50

Stack Sizes:
Button: wkieran ($6,704)
SB: gkdk111 ($5,218)
BB: benba ($10,795.50)
UTG: korosh ($3,509)

Pre-flop: (4 players) wkieran is Button with Ah As 5c 8s
UTG calls, wkieran raises to $225, SB folds, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: Ad Qs 4d ($700)
BB checks, UTG checks, wkieran bets $700, BB folds, UTG raises to $2800, wkieran raises to $6,479, UTG calls all in.

Showdown!
Button: wkieran shows Ah As 5c 8s
UTG: korosh shows Qc Qh Kd 2d
Uncalled bet of $3,195 returned to wkieran

Turn: 9d ($7,266)

River: 7d ($7,266)

Total pot $7,268 | Rake $2

Button: wkieran lost with three of a kind, Aces
UTG: korosh won ($7,266) with a flush, Ace high

I'm losing the bones of $40k over the past few weeks and I can honestly say that (bar bankroll management) I've played near perfect. No real point to this post..... Just venting my anger! Grrrrr!

My Poker Bookshelf

2007-02-22T21:02:00.000Z

I think I pretty much completed my book collection today. I just received Phil Gordon's "little Blue Book" from Amazon and also "Pizza, Pasta and Poker" from Pokerstars - and upon early inspection, the latter looks like utter garbage! I think most of mine are shown here - although two of my favourites (Tournament Poker for advanced players by David Sklansky and Making the FInal Table by Eric Lindgren) are out on loan. Here's a picture:

I have a couple of favourites that stand out and have contributed greatly to my development:

Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha by Rolf Slotboom
- best book in my collection. Ok, it's not as complex as The Theory of Poker of some other great titles but I like it simply because it's the first real Pot Limit Omaha book out there. Great section on buying in short. Buy it now.

The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky
- Seriously hard reading (and I did maths in college) but well worth it. No other book to compare it to really.

Harrington on Hold'em Vol 1 & 2 (NOT 3!!!) by Dan Harrington
- I can say that I learnt more about Hold'em from these two titles than from any other book. The first is a great beginners book but a worthwhile read as you can get a feel for his mentality before reading the second. Pity the 3rd volume is WRONG most of the time!

High-Low Split for Advanced Players by Ray Zee -
I like this for much the same reason that I like Rolf Slotboom's book. It's different and it takes a difficult subject and covers it concisely.

Winning Concepts in Draw and Lowball by Mason Malmuth
- Same as above but also because it is the only book to cover 5 card draw with joker wild - the game I play a lot. I've come on leaps and bounds since buying this.

The Psychology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker
- Even though it tells me that I pay wrong, I find the sections about playing against different players with varying mentalities to be very insightful.

Zen and the Art of Poker by Larry Philips
- Completely different to what you read in other books and has helped me in dealing with tilt and swings more than anything else I have read.

There are a couple I haven't read yet and also a couple that I ddn't learn much from but found very interesting:

The Professor, The Banker & The Suicide King by Michael Craig
Holdem Wisdom for All Players by Daniel Negreanu
Championship Hold'em Tournament Hands by McEvoy & Cloutier
Swimming with the fish by Des Wilson
Kill Phil by Lee Nelson
Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein

For some reason I only saw today that I had a load of comments left on my blog over the last few months that I had to moderate. Now that I know, I promise to reply! If you know of any good book that I'm missing, please post a comment and let me know.

Big Slick Team Event in Waterford

2007-02-22T19:17:00.000Z

As Nicky Power so aptly pointed out, I haven't posted in a while. Overall, I've been doing quiet bad online. At the moment, I'm multi-tablinig the 2/4 - 5/10 PLO on Full Tilt while playing a serious amount of Razz 15/30 up. In my opinion, it's the most beatable game on the net at the moment. I hope to get back to 10/20 - 25/50 PLO soon - need to rebuild my online roll first!

Really haven't played much live since the Irish Championship although I did enjoy a peaceful evening in the €1/€2 NLH in the Macau recently... I say "enjoyable" because Sideshow wasn't present! He's actually in the middle of opening his own card room in Cork City and I hope it all goes well for him. Last Sunday, we played Big Slick's team event in the Tower Hotel in Waterford. It was an amazing success and really well run. I started well and ran that way until we reduced the field from 220 to 18. I played one massive pot (avgerage was about 80k at the time) when the button went all in for 80k and I called from the BB with Aces. That pot gave me 200k (2.2M in play) but I didn't hold onto them for long. I proceeded to loose 3 x 50/50's, one 60/40 and one 70/30 (behind in that one) to short stacks and that saw me back to 70k. I picked up a few blinds before I pushed from the SB with 8dTd and the rock in the BB called with A4. Of course I flopped the nuts (9JQ) and he hit running TK for the higher straight. Finally, I pushed again from the cutoff with J9 and was called by 33 (lol). No improvement and I'm out. I think I was the bubble for the individual money. My team member, Sideshow wasn't far behind me so no $$$ this time. I played some light PLO after to wind down and made a small loss. I had the pleasure of playing with the imfamous Maggie Cook and with the "enigma" Hector Jelly - who (despite sometimes coming across as a bit of a cock on Boards) is actually a really nice guy - no value though!

No plans for my next tourney but I must say that I am becoming bored of the whole poker thing. Lately, I'm been driven by working in my family corporation and I'm reasonably happy there. That is, of course where I see my future - not playing poker. Next event will probably be the Irish Open although I'm considering not paying €3,500 to buy in direct as I think the blind levels on Day 1 are awful crapshooty. I'll almost certainly travel up for the cash games and the side events (PLO rebuy and €1,000 event).

Irish Poker Championship 2007

2007-01-12T08:32:00.000Z

I've been a combination of too lazy and too busy to do a full post on the IPC just gone by but here's a very brief overview:

I registered for the Super Satellite (€300 + €30) on Thursday night even though I was a little tender from the booze in Flannerys and Copper Faced Jacks the night before. 170-odd runners and there was 27 tickets up for grabs. The table was a pretty friendly one with Paul Roper and Mick McCool (the eventual winner) just to mention a few.I found myself on a short stack early on a did reasonably well to hold on and finish in..... 28th place!!! Oh, the bubble. Got €600 so it's not all bad.

I had a disaster in the Main Event. I didn't play a single hand well and deserved to be out by level 4 - which I was. I tried to get a proper nights sleep before the €750 supporting event but myself and KP stayed up til all hours playing 10/20 PLO on Full Tilt. We rose the following day at 5pm!

The €750 went well for me. I played a really loose game overall. I recieved a couple of awful beats but I gave one too! My eventual downfall came just as the bubble burst. I raised in early position with KK only for Fintan to reraise all in with As9s which I instantly called. The pot was over 150k when the average was only 70k so I really fancied my chances if I took this one down. The board came XxKsXsXsXs and it failed to pair up to give me the winning house. I finished 16th for €1k in the end but was totally gutted.

Don't know what I'm going to play next but the E-WSOP in Vienna (really enjoyed that last year) and/or the EPT in Warsaw are two possibles. For now, I'm running quiet well on both Tribeca and more so, Full Tilt. I'm going to invest more time into online PLO and try to get back to the gym for the new year. I've turned into a lazy blob this year and it's time to break the routine!

PLO = Very sick game

2007-01-08T22:25:00.000Z

What a sick game Omaha is. Just played this pot on Tribeca. I'm RU$TY.... Just love the checks all the way to the river!

: Churchill Falls 10474803-73998 PLO $10/$20
: Hand Start.
: Seat 1 : tuy999 has $1,500
: Seat 2 : mercedez1 has $1,528
: Seat 3 : PARIS40 has $1,500
: Seat 4 : TrippyH1ppy has $3,114
: Seat 5 : RU$TY has $2,431
: Seat 6 : mturk has $897
: mturk is the dealer.
: tuy999 posted small blind.
: mercedez1 posted big blind.
: Game [73998] started with 6 players.
: Dealing Hole Cards.
: Seat 5 : RU$TY has 7h Jh 7s 4s
: PARIS40 folded.
: TrippyH1ppy folded.
: RU$TY called $20
: mturk folded.
: tuy999 called $10
: mercedez1 checked.
: Dealing flop.
: Board cards [7d 7c 3h]
: tuy999 checked.
: mercedez1 checked.
: RU$TY checked.
: Dealing turn.
: Board cards [7d 7c 3h 3c]
: tuy999 checked.
: mercedez1 checked.
: RU$TY checked.
: Dealing river.
: Board cards [7d 7c 3h 3c 4d]
: tuy999 bet $60
: mercedez1 folded.
: RU$TY called $60 and raised $180
: tuy999 called $180 and raised $540
: RU$TY called $540 and raised $1,620
: tuy999 called $700 and is All-in
: Showdown!
: Seat 5 : RU$TY has 7h Jh 7s 4s
: RU$TY has Four of a kind: 7s
: Seat 1 : tuy999 has 3s 9d 9h 3d
: tuy999 has Four of a kind: 3s
: RU$TY wins $3,017 with Four of a kind: 7s
: Hand is over.

I'm just back from defending my title in the Dublin at the Irish Poker Championships. I'll post a full report tomorrow...

New 3-monitor Setup!

2006-12-20T22:02:00.000Z

I've had the monitors for a while now but only just got around to setting it all up properly with a new desktop PC. 3 x 19" Ultrabright LCD's and the Triplehead2go by Matrox and you're all set. I've got a 3640 x 1024 resolution and you can play 12 tables comfortably and even 27 tables on Pokerstars (not advised thou)! Looks amazing and plays great too. I can see how the head movement might become too much but I'll give it a trial run for a few days first.
Just played my first lot of 12-at-a-time SNG's! I opted for the $3 + .40 SNG on Pokerstars. It took me 40 minutes to finish them all and I finished 1st three times and 3rd twice.

Total outlay: $ 40.80
Total return: $ 63
Profit: $ 22.20 (52% ROI!!)
Result: a throbbing pain in my head!!!!

Ladbrokes Poker Million V Party

2006-12-18T20:44:00.000Z

Apart from missing my flight home, the whole weekend was absolutely fantastic. I've always said that Betfair and Ladbrokes are the very best in customer care. The latter just proved it this weekend. As for Marty.... AA into JJ on QJ8 board and he was out in 6th place. He (like me) was totally gutted but still got $100,000 for his troubles. I'm actually doing an article for the The Hendon Mob on the party and the buzz surrounding it so I've save my ramblings for then. I post a link when it's up.

The results are as follows:

1st: Rajesh Modha - $1,200,000
2nd: Claus Marcussen - $500,000
3rd: Andreas Hoivold - $250,000
4th: Mel Judah - $150,000
5th: Mats Jungsand - $125,000
6th: Marty Smyth - $100,000

Paddy Power Xmas Cracker €500 tourney

2006-12-10T20:24:00.000Z

Had a great weekend. Played the Fitz €100 omaha game and won €2,500 on Friday night. Followed this up with a decent 5th in the main event of the Paddy Power Xmas Cracker tourney for €5,000. I was disappointed in a way put never got a look-in at the final. Biggest hand I saw was AJ! 5am and I made my way the the Jackpot for the €50 omaha 1-1-5 game and won €3,500 there. Holding 3s4sxx, the flop came As2s5s!!!!!!!!!! Sick. As if it were scripted, some poor individual had the nut flush and the board never paired. The only other pretty sick pot was on a flop of 4h5hJc. I held 3s6h7h8s and got all my money in on the flop. My opponent held middle set and I filled the second nut straight on the turn. My hearts were live so I was actually fav on the flop. The game broke up and I rang a taxi and paid him €300 to drive me back to Cork! I don't I was the best companion for the driver as I pretty much passed out for the most part! That's probably the end of the poker for the year for me now... I'm traveling to London to the Poker Million V final on Thursday. Last year was supposed to be amazing and hopefully we'll be celebrating with Marty.

Macau Xmas Festival- Main Event Report

2006-12-06T21:55:00.000Z

Once again the Macau Sporting Club put on a fantastic tournament. The structure was ideal and made for a whole lot of play. I started in my usual manner - stack fluctuating all over the the place. During the first level, I was down to 5k from the starting 10k. Nothing really exciting happened during the first day of play but I did manage to get my stack up to a respectable 40k by the end of the night's play. One hand that springs to mind went as follows: I was dealt AJ in the BB and was the only caller of a 600 raise from mid-position. The flop came JJJ...... wow! I immediately bet out 900 and as I hoped, the villian raised to 2,200. I called. Turn put another heart on the board and I checked as did the villian. At this point I figure that he has AA, KK or QQ and is trying to trap me thinking that I may have a hand like TT or 99 etc. The turn was another heart (blank) and I bet 2,200. He quickly raised it up to 4,400. I paused and pushed the remainder of my stack in the middle - committing him for the 3,000 he had left. He thought about it for an age and folded (supposedly KK).

Day two was even more up and down. I built it up to 80k early with the average at about 35k but then went on the repeatedly run big hands into big hands. TT into QQ, 99 into JJ, TT into KK... the list goes on. I lost nearly every race with short stacks and it wasn't long before I was back to 25k. I think I got my money in behind twice during the night. Once I pushed with 9dTd and was called by AKos. Flop came 7d8d3c!! Not surprisingly, I won that one. The furthest I found myself behind was when I pushed with Qd9d and was called by KJ. I made a double belly-buster draw on the turn and filled up on the river. That pot got me back up to about 35k and in the next hand, Colm pushed UTG with TT and I woke up on the button with AA. Winning that moved me back up to nearly 80k. From there, I had my leverage back and when we went 10-handed, I was holding 102k of the 1,020,000 in play. The hand of the tournament for me happened only a couple of minutes into our final 10-handed table. I had just folded AsKs UTG so was treading carefully. This weak UK player whom I had bluffed twice during the night (and shown) limped UTG - this stood out like a sore thumb!! I flat called in the SB with 22 and "Captain" Tom Franklin checked. The flop came 2JJ. I checked as did Franklin and the limper bet 6,000. I delayed and made it 17,000 (re-creating a play I made earlier while bluffing him) and almost instantly, he moved all-in! I insta-called and he turned over AK!! We packed up our chips for the night and I returned the following day with 211,000 - the chip leader.

The final table was a pretty uninteresting affair. I stayed out of the way for the first while as there was a few players whose only moves were all-in or fold. We found ourselves 5-handed rather quickly and Caoimh was unlucky to re-raise me with QQ while I was sitting pretty with KK. That pot gave me a big lead with almost 460k. From this point, nothing went right for me. I lost 4 races without even 1 going my way. I had Captain Tom all-in 3 times with the best hand and every time, he got out. I eventually got to knock him out when I got him to CALL all-in with A-high and a club draw on the turn. Amazingly, I won that and went heads-up with a chip lead. The very first hand heads-up, I raised with AJ and Mike re-raised. I got brave and stupid and moved all-in and Mike instantly called with AK. The worst hand stood down and I was left nursing a 250k stack. I got back up to 450k and the final consisted of me moving pre-flop with AQ and being called my TT. No help for me and I had to settle for 2nd place. I felt so horrible about my HU play. Looking back on it, I knew I could outplay him on the flops so I don't know why I didn't do just that. We actually did a 3-way chop which was VERY +EV as Mike had half the chips in play at the time. I took €20,000 for my troubles but I can't help thinking that with a tiny bit of luck, the trophy would be on my mantle now.

The final results were as follows:

1st: Mike Corcoran
2nd: Kieran Walsh
3rd: Capt. Tom Franklin
4th: "Guppy"
5th: Caoimh O' Sullivan
6th: Matthew Arnott
7th: Carol "Popcorn"
8th: Ricky Cosgrove
9th: Kevin McDonnell

Not going to be playing a lot until after Xmas as I've just got too much on. I'll be going to London to support Marty Smyth in the Ladbrokes Poker Million V final on the 15th and I really hope he goes all the way. I might play the monthly €200 freezeout in the Macau tomorrow night for a laugh but I'm honestly so sick of poker at the moment that I'll be happy if I don't see another deck until the Irish Poker Championship in City West in January.

Macau Xmas Festival - Main Event

2006-12-04T18:43:00.000Z

Finished 2nd for €20,000. I know I sound selfish when I say that I'm utterly devastated with not coming first. Short version is that I lost four races at the final table and any one of them would have basically given me the win. I'll post a decent report tomorrow but for now, I'm just too upset.

Super Satellite in the Macau

2006-11-30T18:08:00.000Z

Not a whole lot to report except that I won my seat in the Main event. I think there was about 55 runners and with all the rebuys and add-ons, we had 9 €1,000 tickets to play for. I suppose the only hand that hurt me all night was when my A9 was busted by K5. I would have sealed a ticket from a distance out only for that but I played a short stack well and just got through.

I'm really hyped up for this one after coming off a good run in Singapore. I'm going to skip cash games completely until I'm eliminated this time (I think this was my downfall in the summer) but the cash games in Cork are where it's at!

Still addicted to Backgammon and I'm actually managing to win a few games. I really enjoy the way you can see your progress much more easily than in poker. I'm sure this fad will be gone in like a week and I'll be back to multi-tabling but for now, I'm gonna continue rolling those dice!

Backgammon - the NEW poker

2006-11-29T18:58:00.000Z

For the last few days, I've given up poker to do a crash course on Backgammon. I had no clue how to play at the beginning but I think I'm slowly getting a little better. I've been playing on both Party Poker and Gammon Empire but I've found the latter to be a lot more playable and also has a lot more players. I've placed a banner on the right that will link you to it.

I'm going to go to the Macau tonight for the Super-Satellite for the Main Event. I'll obviously buy in even if I don't get a seat tonight but it's always nice to get a cheap ticket :-)

Drunken Idiot in Singapore

2006-11-24T00:48:00.000Z

During one of our many drunken nights in Singapore, we got stuck talking to this clown about poker. He was wrecking our heads so me and Marty Smyth starting taking the piss out of him straight to his face. Like a true idiot, he sat there absorbing every bit of it. I've had the videos on my phone since then and only just figured out how to get them off and on to my blog. Enjoy!!!

Video 1: Just talking general rubbish and demonstrating that he has no clue.

Video 2: Here, our hero offers some advice... "never underestimate the power of middle pair". No wonder he's making up to £200 a week.

Video 3: Finally, Marty asks for some advice on tilt control. Most be hard for this chap...

Betfair Asain Poker Tour - Day 4, 5, 6 & 7

2006-11-22T23:51:00.000Z

Ok, the internet in my room started acting up big-time so I had to put an end to the "live" updates. The outcome of the Main Event? Well, I went into the 2nd day with 48k and within the first level, I was up to about 90k. I think the only notable hand of he 2nd day was the one that I made a major blunder in. I had raised quiet a few pots during the first level so my table image was not the best at this time. With the blinds at 1,000-2,000, I raised from the cut-off (+1 maybe) to 7,500 with AsQs. The action was folded around to Yani Sointula (Hellraiser) in the BB. He instantly moved all in for 45,000. If I was to make the call, I would still have about 35k behind. I went through all the hands I thought he might have to make that move and for some reason, I convinced myself that he had TT or JJ and that I should make the call. After a few minutes, I said "I hope I'm right" and moved my chips in the middle. He quickly turned over KK. To add to the ups and downs, An Ace was the first card on the flop but alas, following by a third King. Shortly after, I doubled up again with 77 against 22 in a BB/SB confrontation. It wasn't long before the bubble burst. At this time I had been moved to the feature table.

My elimination came in a pretty horrible way. I blame it on a combination of tiredness and stupidity. I was on the feature table and was sitting on the button. When the action came to me, I looked down at A9 and announced raise. (I had about 50k at this stage and blinds at 3,000-6,000 and ante 300) What I didn't realise is that the player UTG had raised to 10,000 already. Of course, I was now obliged to mini-raise to 20,000. When the action came on him, he moved all in (of course i called for the rest of my chips getting 3/1) and turned over AQ. Of course, the best hand won and I was out. I felt absolutely horrible. I still do.

I finished 35th and cashed for $5,800 which wasn't a bad result but I'm kicking myself that I didn't go much further.

The full list of cashes can be found here. I'm happy that a top pro won the event and Tony G is actually a total gent. The rest of the week was spent partying and spending our hard-earned money on electronics.

I'm taking a week off now and probably won't bother traveling to Drogheda for the €1,000 main event. I will however, be playing in the Macau Sporting Club Xmas Festival the following week. The schedule for the weekend is as follows:

29th November - 3rd December, 2006

Wednesday 29th November - 8pm
- €100 + €10 Rebuys 60 min & Double add on
Satellite for main Event

Thursday 30th November - 3pm
- €1300 per team - 4 players per team!!
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Friday 1st December - 6pm
- €1,000 + €70
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT - MAIN EVENT
3 day event - final table 4pm Sunday

Saturday 2nd December - 6pm
- €300 + €30
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Sunday 3rd December - 6pm
- €250 + €20
PUB POKER CHALLENGE
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Betfair Asain Poker Tour - Day 3

2006-11-14T13:56:00.000Z

Not much to report today as I only got up at 6pm. I did play the super satellite alright... Never had chips but it did open my eyes as to how truly awful some of the players are. Huge over-raises, calling all-ins with draws etc. It's making me feel even more confident that I can produce a good result in the Main Event.

Taking it easy tonight and definitely hitting the sack at a reasonable hour. The Main Event starts tomorrow at 1pm. Hopefully, I'll have good news to report at the end of it. Will probably go the cinema with a few of the lads or just chill out. I promised a few pics so here they are:

The Hotel Madrian from the street

The Street we're on (Orchard St. I think)

The Hotel Lobby

The Poker Room

The Feature Table (hopfully, I'll be here on Friday!)

Betfair Asain Poker Tour - Day 2

2006-11-13T18:48:00.000Z

Ok, I know that there's no day 1 in my posts but I was too wrecked to even be bothered to turn on my laptop, let alone go to the trouble of paying $157 for the use of the internet for the week! The flight over was a killer. I think it was about 13 hours or something like that... 5 of which were spent playing chinese poker and various blind-hand games. I think I won about $50! The hotel itself is enormous - 35 floors and luckily, I'm in the hotel where the tournaments are being held. A couple of the lads got shipped off to some other place miles away.

Yesterday, I played the $400 super satellite for the main event. 13 tickets up for grabs. Only notable player on my table was John Phan. I didn't hang around long as an elaborate bluff with J7os went a tad wrong. It wasn't long before most of us Irish were gathered in the bar drinking some sort of fruity coctkail in gigantic glasses. We hit the town pretty early and had a storming night. One thing I will say is that the drinks over here are a crazy price! We eventually found our way back to Dave Callaghan's hotel room where we occupied ourselves by placing ridiculous orders with room service. My particular favourite is when KP requested 3 black straws and 1 white straw to go with his "fluffy omlette". I passed out at some stage and woke this morning to find Ken killing the $10/$20 Omaha!

Couldn't be bothered playing the $150 freezeout today at 1pm but I did give the $300 Limit Hold'em event a go. 95 odd runners and $10k for first. I started well and built my stack from the initial 2,500 to about 7,500 but then went completely card-dead. I must have got AK 8 times and missed the flop every time. My downfall was betting my flush draw only to walk into a set. I actually filled the flush on the turn but the board paired on the river to send me packing.

The hardest thing to cope with over here is the time difference. We're 8 hours ahead and it feels like the day is gone by the time you wake up. Other than that, I love the place and the group of lads over here make the trip even more enjoyable.

Tomorrow's schedule looks like this:
1pm - $300(+30)No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT
7pm - $400(+40) NL FREEZEOUT Supersatellite for Championship Event

I haven't decided what I'll play yet but most likely just the $300 tourney if I can get up. I'll try and put up some pics tomorrow but for the moment, here's a look at the hotel room.

EPT - Dublin

2006-11-01T21:20:00.000Z

Flew to the UK last week on the spur of the moment to go buy a car to replace the one I bashed up - which by the way, I sold for €2,000... So sick. Anyway, bought a Celica this time. Much quicker than the BMW but not as comfortable. I'll hold onto it for a few weeks at least. On my way back (coming into Dublin port) I decided to call into the EPT for a few days. I've gone off tournaments completely lately and just fancied playing some cash. When I arrived, there was a Super-Satellite for the Main Event about to start and with the Omaha games pretty dead, I decided to play. 215 or so runners and I eventually finished about 40th. Only the top 17 got tickets. I eventually got all my money with AK vs AQ and of course, the Queen duely arrived on the flop to eliminate me. Pity too because I would nearly have scraped a ticket from there. I had actually intended to sell it anyway so I wasn't too upset.

Sat into a pretty good Omaha game for the night with forced blinds of 1-2-5-10 and straddle of 25!! We played it this way to avoid playing the higher rake (kind of ironic when there's €25,000 in play!). I won about €2,000 the first night (after some serious setbacks) and was feeling good. Felt I concentrated all night (despite being taunted by Eoin Mullen all night about writing off my car!) and was confident going into the following day. Started well but lost a bit pot with 8834 on a 8s2s5x board when I got by KsKxTsXx. King on the turn sealed the faith of that €4,000 pot. At that point, I'd had enough of poker and the total kip that is The Regency Hotel. Oh, forgot to mention - no running water for two days.... Two days!!

I haven't been playing that much recently as I'm more involved with my family's company than I've ever been. I think sense got a hold of me and made me realise that there's a brighter future to be had by going that road than the whole "professional poker player" route! Still do a lot online and had a BIG touch in the $25/$50 omaha game on Stars recently which was nice. I'm looking forward to getting over to Singapore and hopefully doing well in the Omaha games. Of course, a decent result in the Main Event would be nice too!!

Oh, I just want to say contratulations to Roland de Wolfe on winning the Main Event. From my brief encounters with him, he seems like a very plesant chap and I wish him well.

Betfair Asian Poker Tour

2006-10-23T09:19:00.000+01:00

Played a qualifier in the Macau Sporting Club for the Betfair Asian Poker Tour Package last Thursday night. The format was a €200 rebuy and a €200 double top-up. I never needed to rebuy and after adding-on, I went into the freezeout section with about 11,000 chips. I think there was 48 runners which gave 3 full $8,500 packages (I think Betfair made up the price of the 3rd one).

Everthing went well for me on the night. Three hands in a row basically summed it up. I get Jd9d in the cutoff and raise the pot. The BB calls. The flop came AdKdXd and he proceeded to move all in. Of course, I called and he was in fact, drawing dead. Raising most pots helped me with the next two hands. I found AA in late position and made the usual raise (after a speech). The player on my left then re-raised it to 5,000 (about half his stack) and I was the only caller. Queen high board, I checked and he went all in. I of course, called and he showed AQ. To top it off, this is followed by KK. Basically, 8K8xQ board and I got the guy to put all his chips in with AQ. I think that run of cards put me on 65,000 with the average at 22,000.

When we got to the final table, there was some "suspect" play on show - calling all-in's with A7, KJ etc. One final hand basically secured my package. I had ground my way up to about 80,000 at this stage. The player on my right was short stacked but had moved all-in 3 times in a row and got through each time. Once again, he moved all-in for his 26,000. I looked down at TT and (figuring I was going to be 70/30 fav most of the time) I called. I didn't expect the player on my left to call off half his stack also though! 3 players to the flop of 9J9 which a liked a lot. Of course, I couldn't bet as he'd probably called with any two cards with nearly 90K in the pot. We checked it down (turn Q, river 2) and the initial raiser showed KT and the guy on my left had called off half his stack with 88!!! I didn't play many more hands after that as I had 1/3 of the chips in play and the final player to go couldn't crack TT with AK.

Brian O' Meara (Qualifier), David Wilson (Betfair), Kieran Walsh (Qualifier), Ken Corkery (Macau), Sean O' Sullivan (Qualifier) & Graham Gibney (Tournament Director)

Flying out on November 11th and staying for 8 days (I think). Also going from the Macau are Ken Corkery, Sideshow, Pat Griffin, John Quinn and the other two qualifiers, Brian O' Meara and Sean O' Sullivan. From Dublin, Dave Masters and Ken "KP Nuts" Powell are also travelling. The schedule of events is as follows:

Sunday 12th November - 8pm
- $400(+40) NL FREEZEOUT
Supersatellite for Championship Event

Monday 13th November - 1pm
- $150(+20)
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Monday 13th November - 7pm
$300(+30)
Limit Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Tuesday 14th November - 1pm
$300(+30)
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Tuesday 14th November - 7pm
$400(+40) NL FREEZEOUT
Supersatellite for Championship Event

Wednesday 15th November - 1pm
$ 5000 (-7% reg)
Main Event DAY 1

Thursday 16th November - 1pm
$ 5000 (-7% reg)
Main Event DAY 2

Thursday 16th November - 4pm
$500(+50)
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Friday 17th November - 1pm
Side events TBA 10 tables

Friday 17th November - 4pm
Main Event Final Table

I hope to update my blog as much as possible from over there on the progress of all the Irish.

It's been a while.......

2006-10-10T15:54:00.000+01:00

I've been neglecting my blog over the last month but I thought now would be a good time to post again with regard to a scary moment I had last Sunday night travelling home from a game. The road was wet, covered in leaves and the County Councils' incompetence by leaving cones all over the f**king road didn't help matters. All I can remember was the car flipping over and me waking up in the back seat. Pretty scary stuff but I'm fairly lucky to even be alive. To add to the good news, I had no comprehensive insurance so that's €28,000 down the drain. Here's a pic of my former BMW...

If anyone is interested in buying this for parts or to fix themselves, drop me an e-mail - wkieran@eircom.net

Irish Classic Festival 2006

2006-08-09T18:11:00.000+01:00

I'm really looking forward to the festival in the Macau Sporting Club next weekend. I plan to take in all the events plus a whole lot of cash games. One of the punters from my recent trip to Waterford has asked if I'll play him heads-up for €5,000.... I very well might. The schedule for the weekend is as follows:

16th - 20th August, 2006

Wednesday 16th August - 8pm
- €100 + €10 Rebuys 60 min & Double add on
Satellite for main Event

Thursday 17th August - 6pm
- €300 + €30
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Thursday 17th August - 9pm
- €500 + €40
Pot limit Omaha - Double Chance FREEZEOUT

Friday 18th August - 6pm
- €1,000 + €70
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT - MAIN EVENT
3 day event - final table 4pm Sunday (televised)
€10,000 added by Betfair

Saturday 19th August - 6pm
- €500 + €40
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Sunday 20th August - 6pm
- €250 + €20
PUB POKER CHALLENGE
No Limit Texas Hold'em FREEZEOUT

Poker at the Galway Races

2006-08-09T14:10:00.000+01:00

The Galway Races always attract a huge number of punters - and A LOT of them can play poker... Or so they think! I headed up on Wednesday and hoped to take in the €400 freezeout that Poker Events were running. I got off to a stormer - doubling up when I flopped a set and slow played it only for the Ace to come on the river to induce a bet from the AK of my opponent. However, AK was to be my downfall! Sitting on about 13,000 (average 11,000) I raised 3 x BB on the Button with AK. The BB muddled about with his chips before moving over the top to put me all in. He had just come to the table so I had no clue what his game was like. I took a look at the average and the clock and said "ok, I'll gamble"... which is what I thought I'd be doing! I should have been delighted when he turned over K4 but (in keeping with my recent luck) a 4 came on the flop to finish me off.

It didn't take long before we found ourselves in the Casino sitting into the €5/€10 omaha game. I got off to a bad start when I stupidly walked the 2nd nut flush into the nuts. €,1000 down the drain. I reloaded and played pretty solid for a few hours - refusing to gamble for €1,000 a couple of times pre-flop with nice hands. I rebuilt my stack up to about €3,500 before getting my top set on a Q72 board busted by a runner runner flush. Day one in Galway and I had made a dismal €300 profit. The following day was spent drinking before heading to the casino to pick up where we left off. I didn't stay long as I was totally furious over two hands - one after the other. I raised a pot on the button with 3456 only for "Gary" to re-raise it to €300. I called hoping to bust a big pair. The flop came 323 giving me trips with the up and down. "Gary" bet out about €600 and I raised him all-in. Of course he called for an additional €350 with 77xx. Needless to say, the 2-outer obliged on the turn and a 4 on the river gifted him the pot. I was absolutly fuming with his call but I guess he was pot committed. Bad luck I suppose. Very next hand I get JJ89 in a raised pot.The flop comes AA3. It's checked all the way around and the turn comes (the card I didn't want to see!) - a Jack. Checked to me again, I bet the pot. One caller. At this point I've written the hand off. The river comes a 9 and he checks to me. I assume he had an Ace and way trying to connect with a kicker. However, I thought it would be best to check my house. I declared my hand and put (what I thought was the winning hand) on the table. He just said, "yep, you're up" and threw his hand face up. Only for the dealer informing him that HE had a house of Aces (A3 in his hand) and that he had won. Bye bye another €1,200. I finished the trip to Galway practically even (down €90 actually!).

Team Event - Waterford

2006-07-24T11:51:00.000+01:00

Neil and the lads at Big Slick Poker put on a fantastic show in the Tower Hotel in Waterford last night. The event in question was a €100 team event (4 per team) with 45 teams registered to play. My team consisted on Ken Corkery, Eoin Tobin, John Quinn and myself. Unfortunately, our team became an early casualty with Ken getting busted by runner-runner flush and some other hard luck on Eoin and John's part. I had flat called in early position with 88 and found one caller on the button. The SB and the BB also joined us to the flop. It came 4s 6s 8c. The SB bet 600 (pot) and was raised by the BB to 2,000. Figuring that anyone with the made straight may slow up a bit here, I moved all in for 7,000. The button called instantly and left little choice for the SB and BB but to fold. To my disgust, the button turned over 5s 7s for the made straight and up and down straight flush draw. No help for my top set and I was sent to the rails. I guess he played 5s 7s because they were sooooooothed. To the cash game.

The game was a €2/€5 NL Holdem game. That's right... A No-Limit game. I bought in for €300 (about what everyone else had) and we got going. Initially, we were 3 handed and the first hand was to set the tone for the night. I raised pre-flop to €15 only for the SB to raise all-in for €300. I had A6 but opted to wait for a better opportunity. He showed A5 and burst into laughter. We were 10-handed with 10 minutes and my hero from the first hand was at it again. With the pot containing about €20, he raised all in again for €600 this time. Folded all the way around to him and he showed 9 2 os. Again, he erupted into laughter. It wasn't long before I had built up to about €2,500 - courtesy of my "all-in hero". He raised to €40 pre-flop which I made €150 with AA. While he was thinking, I just said, "look, come on, you're not calling". Of course he replied "I am calling!!". A 10 high board came and he stuck in the rest of his money. I called and he showed 10 8 os. My AA took it down.

My big pot of the night came when I re-re raised a pot with KK to €400. One caller to the flop. It came 4h 5d 7s. I bet out €600 to see where I was. He just said "sure, we're here to gamble" - basically telling me his hand (I was guessing a gut-shot draw which he had done twice earlier for €2,000+ pots) and moved all in for €1,400. I called and he turned over 6h 6d. Surprise surprise his 6 outer didn't happen and I picked up nearly €4,200 in that pot. At that stage, there was over €20,000 at the table. Tiredness eventually became a big factor and I decided to call it a night. I made €4,300 on the night and a quick €150 off Ken in a blind hand of Omaha made the night even sweeter. Never in my life have I been to a cash game so soft. I might visit the lovely people of Waterford again very soon.

888.com UK Open

2006-07-18T12:50:00.000+01:00

Like I said in my last post, I've been asked to compete in the 888.com UK Open. I'm not allowed wear logos during the event but I'm selling a percentage in myself if anyone is interested. The details are as follows:

Buy-In $5,000
Total Players 108
Total Prize Fund $540,000
Structure 18x 1st Round Heats consisting of 6 players in each heat
3x Semi Final Heats consisting of 6 players in each heat
1 x Final Heat consisting of 6 players

Prize Money Breakdown

Winner $250,000
Runner Up $75,000
Third $50,000
Fourth $32,500
Fifth $25,000
Sixth $22,000
Semi Final Winner Final (min $22,000)
Semi Final R/U Final (min $22,000)
7th/8th/9th (Semi Final Third Place) $10,000
10th/11th/12th (Semi Final Fourth Place) $7,500
13th/14th/15th (Semi Final Fifth Place) $6,000
16th/17th/18th (Semi Final Sixth Place) $5,000

Anyone that's interested can buy 1% for $75. The whole thing is televised on Challange TV and has all the big names playing. If you're interested, please e-mail me at wkieran@eircom.net. I can take payment through Full Tilt, Pokerstars, Neteller or cash.

No joy in the WSOP qualifiers

2006-07-18T11:41:00.000+01:00

Like I said in my last post, my final crack of the WSOP whip was the 100 and 150 seats guaranteed tourneys on Full Tilt and Pokerstars this Sunday just gone. I'm sad to say that I didn't pick up a ticket in either. I played like a prick in the Pokerstars one - throwing most of my chips away on a draw. I decided sharpen up for the Full Tilt one which began as I was exiting the Pokerstars tourney. I caught some nice cards from the off - doubling up with KK against QQ. I was up to 11,000 (average at 5,000) when it all went sour. I flat called on the SB with 33 and the BB checked. The flop came 3h7sQh. I checked and the BB immediately bet out 800. With two hearts on the board, I was happy to end the pot there and then with a raise to 2,500. To my disgust, he moved all in for 7,900 total. Obviously, I had to call but was sick when he turned over 77. I never really recovered from that hit and exited a short while later. It looks like a World Series free year and I'm really not that bothered. Saying that, I'll probably play that $650 qualifier on Stars on Sunday anyway.

I've been asked to play the 888.com UK Open which I'm delighted about. The buy-in is $5,000 and with a structure the same as the Poker Million, I'm giving it a lot of consideration...

WSOP vs EPT

2006-07-16T20:07:00.000+01:00

Some time ago, I posted a thread entitled "WSOP vs EPT" on www.boards.ie (if you wish to read it, click here). For a while now, I've been getting the idea that while the WSOP is probably a fantastic experience; it is immensely bad value. I had initially ear-marked €40,000 for the WSOP - about the same amount it would take to buy into ALL the EPT's (including expenses). This got me to thinking... Would my money be better invested in 7 events on the European circuit (where there would be better exposure and value)?

I have a fair bit of money put away now to invest in a development and I still want to keep $30,000 in my online accounts. With all that taken into consideration, I couldn't afford to invest €80,000 in large buy-in events without putting myself under unnecessary pressure. With that said, I have decided not to go to the WSOP unless I qualify for the main event online. Up to now, I haven't really being trying. I bubbled twice ($33+R on Stars and $10 freezeout on Paddy Power) but have only attempted the $650 on Stars once - with no sucess.

Tonight is do-or-die for my WSOP with the 100 seats guaranteed on Full Tilt and 150 seats on Pokerstars. I have already registered and I hope to do the business in one of them.

2nd Day in Brighton

2006-07-10T18:17:00.000+01:00

With absolutely nothing to do for the day, I got up even later than usual. I went for a quick walk in the town before settling in for a day of $3/$6 - $10/$20 omaha on Full Tilt. The Omaha games are scarce on Full Tilt at the best of times but the atrocious play on there makes it all worth while. Had a couple of horrible swings during the day but eventually showed a nice profit of $2,300. I took a short break to grab something to eat before sitting into the $1,000,000 guaranteed on Pokerstars and the $200,000 on Full Tilt.

Short version of the story: On Pokerstars, I doubled up within the first few hands when I flopped a straight (holding 8h9h on a 7h10cJs board. My unlucky opponent had flopped a set of tens. During the break, I took the add-on but alas, it was just to be $215 wasted. I picked up AA on the button shortly after the break and made the standard raise only to be re-raised by the BB. Attempting to trap him, I flat called. The dream flop of K72 rainbow was bet out by the BB and I raised. Instantly, he re-raised all in and after I called, he showed what I had first expected, AK. Blank on the turn and of course, the King on the river. Exit stage left.

The Full Tilt $200,000 guaranteed was a similar story. With no rebuy option here, I assumed the play would be tighter... I was wrong. The pot is re-re-re-raised before it gets to me and I find KK in late position. I contimplated flat calling and folding if an Ace came but I felt that this might entice players in early position to come into what looks to be a value pot. My best move was all-in. Only the re-raiser and the re-re-raiser called. KK v QQ v JJ. As the story goes, both a Queen AND a Jack hit the board and my chance to land a huge pot disappears. Oh well, there's always next Sunday.

£500 Double-chance Freezeout in Brighton

2006-07-09T14:52:00.000+01:00

It was a bit of a last minute decision to travel to Brighton for this event but after a delayed flight, missing the train and falling down the stairs at the hotel, I got to the Rendezvous Casino with about 2 minutes to spare. I "rendezvoused" with Roy and Nigel from Ladbrokes (who sponsored the event) and met with a few tourney regulars. I was impressed by the number of quality players who had travelled for the event. Bambos, Tikay, Arashad Hussain, Denis O' Mahony and Jon Heuston had all turned up. 115 runners in total.

The casino itself was nicely done but the cardroom left something to be desired. The first thing I noticed as I sat down to my seat was the lack of a screen telling the level, time, average chips, etc. The only familiar face at my table was Jonny "Texas" Heuston. Up to now I had never been impressed with him but I must say that my opinion has changed. He played quality poker and got so unlucky (to a 4-outer) to get knocked out really early on.

I laid down AK 3 times during the first 3 levels and every time it was the right move. Everything was going to plan and by level 5, I was up to about 15,000 from the starting stacks of 8,000 (including the add-on - which I took at the start). My usual 2 hours of dead cards followed and with blinds and 400-800, I chose my clients wisely and stole the odd blind to keep my head above water.

With about 50 players left, my stacked had dwindled down to about 11,000. The handed was folded all the way around to me on the SB with 2s4s. The player on the BB had always seemed to be happy to see a flop during one of our BB/SB battles so I flat called and as expected, he checked. The flop came 2h5s6s. I checked and he bet 1,200. I had been playing tightly for the past hour and felt now was the time to make a move. I moved all in - hoping that my gross over-bet would give him an easy decision. It didn't. He thought about it for a LONG time and eventually called with Ks6h. Actually, I'm pretty happy with his call as I now have 15 outs-twice. The bad news is that I missed everything. I didn't hang around for long and on my way out, I met Roy who had gone out in similiar circumstances. Nigel from Ladbrokes gave us a lift back to the hotel where the icing on the cake was the internet not working.

There's a £50 rebuy event on tonight which I don't have a lot of mass on but I may play it anyway due to lack of options. The Grosvenor have a place around the corner so I may venture there to see what kind of action I can get.

Monthly €200 freezeout in the Macau

2006-07-07T21:31:00.000+01:00

It's been a while now since I've played in the monthly freezeout in the Macau. With starting chips of 6,000 and a half hour clock, there's always loads of play and a decent payout. 33 runners turned up including about 10 Waterford lads. I got off to a pretty poor start by making a call with a pocket pair to a 2,000 bet on a pretty co-ordinated board. I played the guy for AK but I found out to my disappointment that he had flopped a pair of tens. I didn't wait long to push my chips in the middle... Holding 6d4d on the BB, the flop came 10d9d4s. I checked and the same guy I lost my chips to raised me. I was hoping he had J10, Q10 or something like that so that I would have a full 14 outs. I moved all in and after a long think he called with A10. My diamond arrived on the river and I was up to 7,000.

A few hands later, I picked up KK on the SB. With blinds at 100-200, The pot was raised to 800 by a weak player. The button called and action was on me. I paused and re-raised to 2,600. The raiser called and the button folded. The flop came something like 246 rainbow. I felt my opponent was genuinely terrible so I felt ABC poker was the best move. I paused and checked trying to look weak. It worked a charm and he asked how much I had left. "5,500" I said. He bet 4,000 to which I replied with an instant all-in. The funny thing was how long he thought about calling! I mean, why make such a ridiculous bet with nothing. The check behind would have made things much more difficult. He called with KQ and I doubled up to 16,000.

After that, I was up and down like a yoyo. Involved in every race and most hands to the flop, I remained fairly steady. 45 minutes of dead cards followed. I dropped down to 7,000 before I moved tables. Soon after arriving, I found J10 suited I moved all in and was called be AKos. Not too bad. The flop came xJ10 and of course, the Queen landed on the turn to fill the straight for the AK. My 4 outer never materialised on the river and I was out in 10th.

Playing the $198 rebuy qualifier for the WSOP on Tribeca in a couple of hours now. I've heard from a few people that it's pretty soft.

Leaving for Brighton in the morning to play the £500 freezeout tomorrow evening. 120 players and £5,000 added by Ladbrokes should make for a bit of value. I'll write a post on my progress from over there.

"Loyalty bonus" on the Tribeca Network

2006-06-29T17:27:00.000+01:00

I've just done a deal with Blonde Poker that offers a "loyalty bonus" every month on the Tribeca network (Paddy Power, Blue Sq & VC Poker etc). To get it, all you have to do is click HERE and download the software. The rest is automatically set up. Your rake will be paid at the start of every month. If you have any questions, e-mail me on wkieran@eircom.net

No joy in London

2006-06-18T11:41:00.000+01:00

Didn't get a chance to upload an update on my progress in the Ladbrokes Poker Million V this weekend due to the dodgy internet connection in the Hilton. I'm currently in the middle of writing an article on the whole experience for a website and when it's up, I'll post a link here.

Basically, I got off to a flying start but the cards soon dried up and with 100,000 starting chips and blinds of 1,000-2,000 and rising every 30 minutes, I needed to get busy. I raised a few pots in position with the blinds at 3,000-6,000 to 18,000 only to get called every time by Johan Ostberg who was sitting on my left. Unfortunatly, he was holding a big hand every time (AA & QQ) and I was lucky to get away from them. We lost Tony G after about 12 hands and I was 2nd to leave after Martin Smyth raised my BB to 18,000 to which I responded with "all-in". I had 99 but I really wanted him to lay down as I didn't really fancy a 50/50 at this stage. Of course, he called with AJ and when an Ace came on the flop, I was out. Martin went on to win in out after beating Ian Gerrard heads up. The only good news from the weekend was that myself, Martin and Ian all swapped 5% of our action and with Martin now heading on for the semi finals, I wish him the best of luck and hope he brings it home.

UK Poker News interview

2006-06-15T09:17:00.000+01:00

I forgot to mention that I did an interview for uk.pokernews.com recently. It was uploaded in two parts and can be viewed by clicking on these links:

Only a few days to go now...

2006-06-12T23:13:00.000+01:00

The Ladbrokes Poker Million V is only around the corner now. Travelling over with my girlfriend on Thursday Morning on the 1pm flight. Supposed to be meeting the people from Ladbrokes for dinner in the hotel they are putting us up in. After that, all I know is that my heat is the PM one and the players are as follows:

Heat 3 - June 16th

Tony G
Johan Ostberg - parsons
Ian Gerrard - MRGERRARD
Kieran Walsh - walshie
Martin Smyth - macedonia
Henrik Baertelsenk - AKK

Not a bad draw I think... only one I really know of is Tony G. I just posted all the players and their respective heats on boards - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054945003 for anyone who wants a look.

Had such a bad week in Dublin at the IPT (done about €10K both online and live) and that trip to Spain was just what I needed to get back on track. Even left my laptop in my car in Dublin airport (probably not the smartest thing to do) just incase I stumbled upon a wireless zone! Lapping up the sun in Marbella and getting inebriated in Linekers most nights with a few friends all made for a fantastic holiday with the exception of loosing my new €600 Nokia along the way. Oh well... If I win the $1,200,000 first prize in the Ladbrokes Poker million V, I'll buy a new one!

Day 3: 2nd day of the €3,000 main event

2006-06-03T17:29:00.000+01:00

Well this won't take long!! With my very short stack, I knew I had to make a move basically before the blinds got to me. 1st hand = Q6... No good. 2nd hand = JQ suited.... Hmmm. That'll do. I raised all-in under the gun; it's folded around to Ram on the BB and he looks down to see at least 1 Ace. He shows it to me and says he's gotta squeeze. To my horror, he finds a 2nd Ace!! No bad beats and I'm on in 79th place. I've already registered for this €800 freezeout tonight but am contimplating not even playing.... I'll decide in the next 10 minutes.....

Day 2: 1st day of the €3,000 main event

2006-06-03T12:54:00.000+01:00

A total of 161 players turned up for the main event yesterday. Upon registering, I was drawn on the feature table, "Derry". Of course, the feature table had it's fare share of well known players; none more so than Ram Vaswami who was sitting to my right. Throughout the night, Padraig Parkinson, Bad Girl, Stephen Hendry and Tommy Tiernan (amongst others) also joined the table.

A bad start saw me drop down to about 8,ooo from the initial 10,000 and it really never got any better from there on. Throughout the whole night I was totally card dead. The two best hands I saw were AK and AQ. Unfortunatly, I had to lay them both down pre-flop! I had raised UTG with the AK only for the pot to be re-raised by the player on my left and re-re-raised by Tommy Tiernan. Of course, I got of the way and AA v KK went to war. No bad beats and Tommy Tiernan was sent packing. Nothing funny about that. Same story with the AQ except there was no showdown (although the re-raiser claims he had QQ - which I believe).

At the end of the day's play, I was down to 4,125. With the average at about 17,000 and blinds now at 200-400 with 25 running ante, I'm in serious of 2 quick double ups when we get back. I expect to be sent to the rails within the first hour but you never know. Fngers crossed as we resume play at 2pm.

Day 1: €300 Charity Event

2006-06-02T16:58:00.000+01:00

Not a lot to report on in this event. I had decided to either accumulate masses of chips in the first few levels or hit the bar. Needless to say that I was propping up the bar with Jessie May after 15 minutes. Walked into the nut flush. I played a couple of sit-and-go's and swapped 30% with Paul Roper in the one he ended up winning. The low point of the night had to be playing some fish from Dublin heads up for €500 only for him to suck out a 3-outer when I had him all in. Oh well.. Just limbering up for tonight with a bit of $5/$10 on Stars at the moment. I'll put up a detailed post of tonights proceedings tomorrow.

Bubble City

2006-06-01T01:21:00.000+01:00

Sick. It's horrible to go so far in a tourney only to bubble. It's even sicker to bubble in 2nd place when there's only a prize for first!! Oh, and it's the 2nd time it's happened!! (First time was in one of those $33 rebuy events on Pokerstars with one seat for the WSOP for 1st.)

It's happened all over again tonight :-( I decided to blow the dust off my Paddy Power Poker account and play the $10 freezeout with a 1st prize of a WSOP package. With 410 runners, it looked to be a tall order. Playing under the username "RU$TY", I had a terrific tourney. I won and lost a lot of races (pocket 7's seemed to be my hand) and made a good recovery from being down to my last 600 when the average was 12,000! On the final hand, the board read K - J - 2. My opponent bet and (figuring I could end it there and then), made an all-in move with 10 high. Of course, he was holding the King (the only card he would have to call and the rest, as they say, is history.

Might give the qualifier on Stars a shot on Sunday as I've been running so well on there lately. Roll on the weekend!!!

Why not?........

2006-05-31T22:08:00.000+01:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5755937

Good to be back....

2006-05-30T19:47:00.000+01:00

I must say that after my self-imposed poker ban, I feel fantastic. I've been tipping around on stars lately and doing really well. Played my first $1,000,000 guar on Sunday night and finished 120th-ish for about $1,200. I had a fantastic run on the $5/$10 omaha and after collecting about $15,000 in 3 days, I moved up to the $10/$20. On memorable hand for the week was in the $10/$20 actually... Sitting on about $4,500, I picked up KKQx on the BB. It's raised and re-raised before me to about $150, which I call. Flop comes AKK!!!!!! I check and the other two begin a betting war in which I just plod along calling every bet!! The final pot was about $9,950. Obviously, one guy had AA and the other with the case A. I did however lose a $4,000 pot to Jinx1 when my AAQQ double suited was busted by his AK57. Flop trips his 7's up. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Really looking forward to the weekend now... Going to travel up on Thursday during the day and will probably play the charity event that night. Going to Spain for a few days on the 5th before playing the Ladbrokes Poker Million on the 16th. I was drawn in heat 3 (afternoon of the 16th). I txt'd Roy to find out who's in my heat... The reply came " Negranu, Devilfish, John Shipley, Begnt Sonnert and Helmuth". Of course, he's joking... I hope!

I'll be doing an update on this blog every night from Citywest to keep ye all up-to-date on the goings-on.

30% Rakeback Deal

2006-05-02T22:15:00.000+01:00

Hey all, I've just sorted a deal with a new UK poker-room that will allow me to offer Irish players 30% rakeback. The site is on the same network as Daniel Negreanu's site Full Contact Poker, Pokerroom and Hollywood Poker. There's plenty of cash action in a variety of games (Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card stud, 7 Card stud Hi/Lo and 5 Card Draw. There's also a private table section. There's also some HUGE cash games on here for your viewing (or playing) pleasure!

On the tournament front, there's loads of choice with the focus being on the $5 million guaranteed comp (final in Barcelona) qualifying now for later in the year. Loads of feeders and satellites for that.

I can only offer the rakeback to a certain number of players so it's on a first come, first served basis. If you're one of the first in, you'll then be able to offer your friends rakeback of 25%, 20%, 15%, 10%, 5% or 0%. Like All-In poker this will work all the way down so if you issue someone 25% and they find customers and put them on 20% who go on to find another customer and put them on 15% etc etc etc you will get a percentage of rake from everyone.

I've been warned to keep the top of the tree small so if you want to play on a nice site, get some rakeback and all while making some money, drop me an e-mail (stating your name and phone number)to wkieran@eircom.net and I'll send you details of how to get started.

By the way, make sure you obtain the code from me before opening an account as the rakeback code cannot be added later on.

A career break.........

2006-04-28T23:06:00.000+01:00

6 months ago, I did something most poker players would never even dream of doing... I took a break from the game. Now when I say "a break", I don't mean easing down from 18 hours a day to 12; I mean STOPPING.... completely. At the time, it was difficult (sometimes, it's easier to turn on the PC that not to) but I stuck to my guns and when I returned to playing in January, I had what will probably be the most amazing month of poker I will ever have.

Lately, I've been feeling the weight of the business firmly leaning down on my shoulders. I feel a constant pressure to succeed and have a mindset that someone is always watching and analysing everything I do and every play I make. I went through a lot with rumours that I had blown all my winnings etc. but I'm proud to say that I'm €172K ahead for the year in total and with €100K invested, there isn't much chance of me going bust from the game. With moving up into the bigger games, I have been both making and losing more money. Even though my win percentage hasn't really changed, the amounts of money that I am now dealing with have massively increased. One day alone could see me +/- €10K. I really feel I went too far too fast and now I need to step back and review my situation.

I've decided that last night was as good a time as any to begin a poker-free month. After all, I have some big events coming up (IPT final, Poker Million & WSOP) and I really do want to be fresh for them.I played the €100 omaha game in the Macau for a few hours and after cashing in for €1,500, I eventually cashed out for €7,000. It was an eventful night in general, but more about that in my next post. It is a comforting feeling that my last game for a while was a profitable one. I'll keep everyone posted on how things are going and we'll see if it has the same effect as the last time.

WSOP Preparation

2006-04-24T18:36:00.000+01:00

Ok, attempting to organise my trip to the World Series today. The events I'm planning on playing in are:

18 JUL #27 - $1,500 - No-Limit Hold'em (2 day event)
20 JUL #30 - $5,000 - No-Limit Hold'em - Short Handed (3 day event)
23 JUL #34 - $1,500 - No-Limit Hold'em - with re-buys (3 day event)
25 JUL #37 - $1,500 - No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event)
28 JUL #39 - $10,000 - No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event
5 AUG #41 - $1,500 - No-Limit Hold'em (2 day event)

I possibly won't play them all but the ones I'm certain of are #27, #30, #39 & #41.

After being asked by a couple of people, I have decided to sell a percentage of myself. The price is €500 for 1% of my TOTAL tournament action (or €250 for .5%). That is, any cash I have in the above events. If any of you guys are interested, please e-mail me: wkieran@eircom.net.

League Final (Cash) in the Macau Sporting Club

2006-04-23T13:38:00.000+01:00

Playing this on thursday and i'll post a report ASAP

League Final (Tourney) in the Macau Sporting Club

2006-04-20T13:33:00.000+01:00

Back in Cork and my next event was the tournament league final in the Macau. The league works over 4 months with 10% of the prize pool from 4 nights of every week contributing to the total prize pool of the final. Your finishing position in every tourney is matched with points (40 =1st, 33=2nd etc.) and when the final comes about, your starting chips on that night are your number of points multiplies by 100. (I had 105 points = 10,500 chips). The top 63 in the league qualify for the final. I hadn’t played much since December in the weekly tournaments (with the exception of the €100 Monday night freeze out) so I was way down the list (56th I think). The chip leader was Eoin Tobin (450-odd points). Eoin is a terrific tournament player with a bright future ahead of him. He finished 15th in the Irish Open at the weekend and was unlucky not to go further.

Before the start of the final, we had the option of buying an add-on (€250 for 10,000 chips). I gave it a lot of thought and with such a big prize pool, I decided to buy 15,000 chips for €375. The tourney got underway and I tried to dominate the table with raises and re-raises. I ran into a hand once or twice but overall, I remained on my starting mark of about of 26K. Maybe 2 hours into the night and on the SB, I picked up pocket 2’s (again). Blinds at 300-600, it’s folded all the way around to me. I flat called the BB. Just like two times before in the same situation, he raised to 2,400. I instantly called trying to represent strength. At this time I figured he had a medium pair or AK/AQ. The flop came 10-2-3. Perfect. “I’ll check”, I said. BB comes out with a bet of 5,000. I pause and call (hoping the board doesn’t come a third club). Another 3 on the turn. I’ve got the 2’s over 3’s. “I’ll check”. BB moves all in (I’m covering him by about 6K) and I call instantly. I can only smile when he turns over QQ. My joy is short-lived when the river comes a big, ugly….3!!!!. Three 3’s on the board and BB fills 3’s over Q’s. That’s a bad beat.

The very next hand I look down and find QQ. On the button, I’m delighted to see three calls of the BB. I move all in for my remaining 7K. Caoimh takes an age to make up his mind under the gun, and eventually folds. He told me after he had 88 and would have called if there wasn’t players to act after him. Much to my disappointment, I got no action. Break time.

The very first hand after the break, I pick up 55. Again, I raise all in hoping for a caller (at this stage, I was willing to trade my short stack for a seat in the €100 Omaha game that was filling up). I’m called by 99 and as you’d expect, they stand up (actually, they fill a straight!).

It takes me about 10 seconds to settle into the afore mentioned game. I sit down with €1,200 and it’s not long before I give it all to Zeek and need to reload. Another €2,000 invested into the game. Some nights I just find that you know you’re not going to win. Some nights, it’s just not your night. I think this was one of mine. I was missing every single flop. That wouldn’t be too bad except most of the pots were made €50 to go pre-flop… You need to win one every now and again! I dropped down to €1,000 fairly quickly after missing a few draws. At this stage, I looked down to find JQ910 single suited. Pat had raised on the blind so when it came back around to me, I re-raised. As I expected, he re-re-raised and the upshot of it was that we both ended up all in. I had decided that if I lost, I was going to pack it in for the night and cut my losses. The flop came J-Q-8. Not bad I thought (as long as Pat didn’t have 9-10). The turn was a blank and the river, another Q. I’ve sucked out the house. I’m surprised when Pat turns over 9-10 and gets up and leaves. I got lucky there but I felt I deserved some after the rest of the night.

I wasn’t really involved in any other huge pots for the rest of the night (with the exception of when Zeek and I both flopped the nut straight and it never changed). Chop it up. I really didn’t have a good night - both fiscally (down €1,100) and otherwise. All night long, I put up with the same “material” from Rob, Gary and “the amateur” but to be honest, I take absolutely no notice. For the most part, it’s all pretty much in good spirits. Two particular players who don’t actually come into the club that often anymore decided to “throw their toys out of the pram” at various stages during the night. One of these players WAS someone that I had a lot of admiration for but after seeing how petty he really is, I now see what a fool I was to look up to him. The other (during his short visit to the table to drop his money) decided to have a go at me for no apparent reason. Supposedly, when I can “match his results, I can talk”. I think my results for the year so far are ok but hopefully he (and others like him) will eventually accept that I’m here to stay - and I will keep producing results. Just another two be-grudgers. As a consequence of this abuse, I’ve decided not to play in the cash game with either of these anymore if I can avoid it.

Poker Million V Qualifier in the Merrion Casino

2006-04-20T13:30:00.000+01:00

Sunday night and I get a call from Ken Corkery. I’ve just driven down from Dublin with Gavin and Mick getting a lift. He says he’s getting the train back up to Dublin again to play in the Poker Million V qualifier in the Merrion Casino on Monday. I’m not doing much so I agree to go too. I’m not one for buses/trains so I told him to meet me at my house in Mallow and I’d drive from there. As expected, he arrives exceptionably late and I didn’t help matters by making him hold on for 10 minutes.. I was playing “Melanie1” heads up in the €10/€20 Omaha. I made €1,800 and decided enough was enough. We didn’t end up leaving until 4:30pm. A quick stop in Abbeyleix for a steak and chips and we were really running late! We rang Roy Brindley and got him to put our names down for qualifier. We arrived “fashionably” late. Quickly handing over the €400 buy-in, I was shown to my seat, Table 3, Seat 1. Of the players at my table, I was delighted to see “the amateur” from Cork in Seat 9. We started with 4,000 chips and after 1 hour, we would have the option of adding on an additional 4,000 chips at a price of another €400. Nothing of consequence happened for the next hour - I built my stack up to about 6,000 before the break was called and we slipped off to the bar around the corner for a quick pint.

Arriving back just in time, I availed of the €400 add on purely because I thought the field was weak and the prizes were worth investing in - an €18,500 package for first and €10,500 split up between 2nd and 9th. I got to get my own back on Paul “The Hangman” Roper by sending him to the rails but I’d rather to have done that last Saturday! Soon after, I got moved to Roy’s table. Also in attendance were Ken and Johnny “Texas” Heuston. From the moment I sat down, I noticed Roy was playing aggressively and raising every pot (not a good idea with Mr. Heuston on you right I thought!). Again, nothing significant happened until I made the silly move of trying to push Heuston off one of his many, many raises. I had KQ (seems to be a very “eventful” hand for me) and of course, Johnny Heuston called. This time (unlike when he knocked me out of the €400 rebuy during the Irish Open) he was ahead when he turned over A8. No help from the board for me and I’m out.
Myself and Ken headed off to find a hotel at which time we met up with “the amateur”. We decided a quick drink in town would be the best way to prepare for the imminent night ahead in the Fitzwilliam. Down to Flannerys where we met with a “legend” - Joe O’ Neill. He’s quite a character alright and we ended up following “The Joe-Show” to Copper-Face Jacks. We only had about an hour to drink as much as possible before we found ourselves outside again hunting for a taxi to the Fitz.

It didn’t take long for us to find ourselves in the €50 Omaha game (the only game going that night). I had already paid a quick visit to the blackjack table where I had netted a cool €200 profit. The game had being flowing along nicely and I had turned my initial €1,200 into €2,400. It was all looking good with the morning fast approaching. An Asian man called “lamb-chops” sat down and pumped a pot I had already raised. I was holding QQK8. The upshot of all this was that he ended up all in for €1,100 and I had committed the same. Before the flop was dealt, “the amateur” commented “you may get slow-rolled in this hand” but I was too busy asking the man in question if he had the Aces. He announced to the whole table that he did and when the board came Q-J-10-7-x, I assumed my trip Queens would win the pot. I threw down the ladies only for him to pause for easily 15 seconds before slamming down the 89. He had no Aces. He led a tremendous chorus of Chinese laughter but I could only think what a wanker he was! I didn’t mind him lying about the Aces but to slow-roll the nuts is a low blow. That “lamb-chopped” my stack back to €1,300. I was pretty furious over the last hand so I decided to call it a night. I walked to the cash desk and cashed out €1,300. €300 profit wasn’t bad I suppose but I was still showing a loss for the night. One last hurrah at the roulette table I felt would fix that. I stuck a few quid on 12, 25 & 27 and twice one of them came in. Back to the cash desk with my additional €400 profit. Not a fantastic trip to the big smoke but an eventful one all the same.

Day 2: Cash Games at the Irish Open

2006-04-20T13:29:00.000+01:00

Enough of my statistics! I only took 20 minutes for me to find myself settled in a €250 Omaha game. The action was hot and heavy but I felt that if I played a little tighter and was more selective with my starting hands than what I would usually be back in Cork; that I would have a relatively easy time making a profit. One quick look around the table and I instantly knew I was mingling with some quality. Notably, Denis Winters (well known as the most successful cash game player ever in Ireland) and Bambos (regularly plays in the biggest Omaha games in London). I sat down to the table with €3,000. For the first twenty minutes I just saw some flops; bet when I was ahead and only drew to 12 or more outs. I was up to €3,500 when I picked up AAJJ double suited. Blinds at 5-10-20, it was raised under the gun to €75. I was next to act and I re-raised to €260. I got two callers: the original raiser and the BB. The flop came A33. Check, Check and I decided to make a continuation bet in the hope someone would think it was just that. €600 was the bet. It really upset my plans when the original raiser acted out of turn by calling. The BB looked disgruntled and mucked his hand. The only good thing about this is that I felt both players might have had a 3 meaning the quads weren’t possible giving me the nuts. The turn was a K and the BB who had folded threw his eyes to heaven. KK or K3 I suppose. This time, my only customer bet €1,500. I hesitated before moving all in for a total of about €2,600 and of course, he calls. I immediately throw out my AA (Winters just said ”as advertised!!“) and the river comes a blank. He shows A3 and mucks his hand. The BB who folded due to the out of turn action said he had KK3x. I would have got his entire stack too. However, a pot of about €7,200 wasn’t a bad catch. I sat for another 45 minutes before cashing out. Not a bad profit for the night and all the costs for the weekend covered. What more could I want!

Everything considered, the weekend was a fantastic experience and my hat goes off to Liam Flood, the Merrion Casino and Paddy Power for orchestrating the whole experience. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Day 2: €3,000 event at the Irish Open

2006-04-20T13:26:00.000+01:00

There was an electric buzz around the whole of Jury’s Hotel that day. I had just been for a bite to eat in the restaurant with Declan Fagan and a couple of his mates. Declan was the poor bloke whose KK I busted with the KQ back in City West in January. It was good to finally put it behind us and we had a few laughs while waiting about an hour for our sub-standard food.

Back in the main hall, everyone attempted to make some pleasant small talk regarding topics such as the great turn-out and the table they’ve drawn. Underneath it all, no matter how cool or composed they looked, everyone was in some way nervous. I sure was. I wandered around for a short while taking in all the legends of the game and wishing most good luck. I was the last to take my place at Table 7 seat 7 (lucky number 7???) and I got a rather pleasant surprise… The only players I knew were Rory Matthews (Scottish Team in the Grand Slam) and Stephen Dunphy. I did a quick bit of homework on the other few and found that I had some total rocks along with a healthy dose of complete donkeys. Nice result.

Liam Flood (after another lengthy lecture on the rules) delivered the line everyone had been waiting for: “Dealers; shuffle up and deal!”. Off we went. If I knew the meaning of irony, I think the hole cards I was dealt in the very first hand might well personify it. Pocket 2’s (the hand I won the Irish Championship with“). From mid position, I raised from mid position x3 BB and got two callers. Up popped a third 2 on a totally uncoordinated flop and the day was already looking good! I led at it with a bet of 300 and managed to keep one of my customers. The turn then paired the board for me, I bet out again and the chap to my left promptly folded. Not all bad though; I picked up an 800 pot; became chip leader for about the next 15 seconds and an aggressive image already established. If the rest of the day went this well, I’d be a very happy chap indeed.

We were only 5 or 6 hands in before the monotonous clicking of chips from all over the hall was totally drowned out by the awed murmurs of the other 338 players as they all popped their heads up to see who was first gone. I looked behind me and it was none other than Ken Corkery (Macau boss from Cork). Ken holding A8 from mid position had a tussle with the BB over a board reading 44567. The chips ended up in the centre and his opponent turned over 89. I can’t really account for either players’ madness with a paired board but I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

The cards dried up for a long time and it was 3 or 4 hours before the first hand of real significance. I had amassed about 13K at this stage. With blinds at 200-400, Stephen Dunphy raised under the gun to 1,400. I looked down and found KK. I paused and re-raised to 3,500. Folded all the way round to Stephen and he flat called. The flop came Q-10-8 all in clubs. Stephen checked and (wanting to take the pot down right there) I bet 5,000. An added bonus to my over pair was that I was holding the K of clubs. Stephen just smiled and said “great bet!” before pausing for 3 or 4 minutes. I knew at this stage that he was either drawing to the flush or had a dodgy pair (like Jacks). He finally raised all in with his remaining 1K, I called and he turned or A clubs 5 spades. Damn. I’d rather he had Jacks! He had a big draw right now with 3 Aces and 8 clubs and when I hit a third King on the turn, it only made his draw bigger! The 4 Jacks would now make a straight for him too! Luckily for me, he missed when the river came a blank and after a quick hand-shake, I was up to about 23K.

Soon after, a couple of quality players came to the table in the shape of David Lloyd and Bambos and they sat on either side of me. Fortunately, I know both personally from the UK circuit and we had a good chat. Bambos was always short stacked but David on the other hand seemed to be printing chips. For the next couple of hours, I stayed out of trouble as much as possible. I grinded out a little bit extra and I reached my peak of about 27K. The next player to fill a gap at our table was……the infamous Paul “The Hangman” Roper. I had heard a little about this guy the night before in the bar and that caused me to make the mistake that led to me “hittin’ the showers” five minutes later. At this stage, I had changed gears and became much more aggressive. With blinds now at 400-800 and a running ante of 50, I raised on the button with JQ to 2,500. Everyone folded and Paul called on the BB. Now with Paul sitting on about 31K, I almost assumed I was in for easy money. The flop came Q-7-2 with two diamonds. Paul checked and I bet 4,000. He responded by quickly re-raising to 12,000 total. On the surface, it looked like a bluff to me but before I did anything, I tried to work out what he might have called with pre-flop. He couldn’t have 2-7, 7-Q or 2-Q and I had taken him as a player that would raise with ANY pocket pair: 22, 77 and QQ. I also felt he would re-raise pre-flop with AQ. I quickly (and carelessly) disregarded all the above permutations and moved on to what I thought he did have. All I could figure was A-rag in diamonds and I thought that his bet was merely protecting his nut flush draw. I thought by pushing it all in that I might get him off the hand… Unfortunately, he called instantly and revealed 77. I was drawing very slim (running JJ, QQ or JQ) and when the turn came a blank, I turned to leave. What “surprised me” is that as Mr. Roper was anxiously awaiting the meaningless river card, he started screaming “NO QUEEN!! NO QUEEN!”. Maybe he was lost in the moment of becoming the new tourney chip leader but somehow I couldn’t help feeling that this little outburst was only reiterating what I had been told in the bar the night before with regard to his “questionable” ability!! Regardless, I was out and extremely unhappy with the way I had played.

I try to learn something from every game I play and I learnt a vital lesson that evening. You should never underestimate your opponents. A lot of players on the circuit have a reputation that proceeds them. I hear so often that a certain player is too tight and that one can re-raise him off anything or other players that will call any bet. The simple fact is that on the Irish (and particularly the UK) circuits, very few of the players are total mugs. They’re investing large sums of money in buy-ins and won’t usually see it squandered. Typically, I find that internet qualifiers are the easiest to play with as they are usually new to live games and are often quite nervous. I think you’ll agree with me when I tell you that of the first 80 people eliminated from the main event, 40% of them were internet qualifiers. Now, I don’t know the exact number of qualifiers in attendance that day but I do know that Paddy Power put in 48 players and Ladbrokes put in 3. If we assume that there was 55 out of a total of 339 players; they would have only accounted for about 16% of the field.

Day 1: €400 rebuy event at the Irish Open

2006-04-15T12:31:00.001+01:00

It’s Saturday morning and I’m lying in bed dying of a hangover. Probably not the best idea getting pissed the night before the main event but it seems to earn your place in the poker fraternity, you don’t really have a choice but to follow suit. Ok, the rebuy event. Pre comp I had budgeted €1200 in total for one rebuy and an add-on. Much to my surprise, Mr. Flood announced during his pre-comp rant that there was no add-on’s…just rebuys. Now, from the fiscal side of things, that wasn’t a bad thing but as it turned out, not offering an add-on only served to greatly reduce the prize pool (which eventually went on to be about €135K) and to completely remove and any skill in the game by level 10. By that point, EVERYONE was “short-stacked” (less than 10x BB).

I drew Table 31 seat 1 to start. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my table consisted of mostly local guys. The only guy I know to be a decent player was Arashad Hussain (2nd in Monte Carlo two months back). We got going at about 4pm and only took one hour to lose the first 50 of the 245 that started. We started with a stack of 4,000 and after picking up KK twice in the first hour, I had nurtured that into about 9,000... and all this without using a rebuy. I also laid down JJ to a re-raise. Sure enough, the guy showed QQ. After a short break we were back for the freeze-out section of the tourney. Unfortunately, my table was one of the first to be broken and I was promptly shunted into a table with Julian Thew, Tim Flanders and Owen Mullen. During the next two hours the only hand I played out (besides a few blind stealing missions) was with AA. Guy raised under the gun, fold, fold, fold, fold, and back to me. I simply made a mini raise just to inform the next player to act that this was my party and he wasn’t invited. My lone punter called. Board came Q high. He led at it with a bet of 2K. I did all the dramatics and flat called. I next card was a total blank and He tried again with 4K. This time, I push all in. After a bit of procrastinating, he calls and turned over what I expected… AQ. I now have 20K and was right on target.

Another table break and now I’m sitting with John Falconer, Stewart Nash and Mickey Wernick among others. I really just didn’t catch cards at all from that point on. 2-5, 3-9, 4-J- that was the kind of trash I had to put up with. Like I said earlier, the blinds were rising so steeply that we were all just a bunch of one trick ponies… ALL IN. I got blinded down to about 9,000 (blinds 1,000-2,000) before Mickey Wernick doubled me up with his Q7 against my AK suited. Back to 22,000 again (exactly average stack at that point). We had a newcomer. Johnny “Texas” Heuston. Now usually, I’d be happy to have someone like that who can’t really play at all but this time I was content with the bunch of rocks I had. On the first hand after Johnny sat down, he raised under the gun to 7,000. The important thing to know is that that could be ANYTHING. Folded around to me and I pick up AJ. I like my hand and I push all in for a total 22,000 ready for my double up. Instantly, Johnny announces “call” and turns over A10, delighted with his “read on me”. The board dually helps Mr. Heuston out of this fine mess he got himself into by producing a 10. Out the door in 60th place (27 for the money).

A lengthy stay in the bar that night and here I am, bleary eyed 3 hours before the start…. And the mini-bar’s out of water!!!!

First night of the €5/€10 Omaha game

2006-04-14T00:41:00.000+01:00

Like I said in my last post, I can’t remember the last time I had a losing session in the Macau. For the last month or so, I made it my business to play the €5/€10 NL Hold’em on Irish Eyes Poker on the computers in the club. Every single time I follow the same routine. I lodge €1,000 and play until I hit €2,000. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes and sometimes it takes an hour but during my last 10 trips, it has been followed by 9 successful cash outs. Not a bad record I feel. Maybe if my critics knew the truth about my finances, maybe they might give the gossiping a rest. Or maybe it would just make them even more jealous.

I find I play better online in the Macau for two reasons. The first reason is that with so many people floating around and watching your every move, I find I make less marginal calls than I would in the privacy of my own home - purely because I’m the only one who can criticise my bad play. In the club, we have some resident “experts” who seem to be able to see into the future. It’s amazing they still play 10c/20c games with such an inside track on the game. The second reason is that I can get my winnings paid in cash on the spot. It seems to provide an extra incentive to succeed. It serves to remind you that the “chips” you’re playing with is actually real money. It does actually buy stuff in the real world. This is something that occasionally seems to go over my head when playing at home. All I see is figures in the balance column going up and down like a yoyo. $14,000 one day, $3,000 the next, up again to $20,000, down to $50. When you take a step back and look at it from the outside, you start to realise how crazy the whole business is.

On top of the success on the computers in the club, I’ve had a great run in the live cash game. My preferred game is the €2/€5 round of each (NL Hold’em & PL Omaha). However, the last two nights have been crazy. Two nights ago, it all kicked off with a €5/€10 Omaha game. My bankroll for the night was €3,000. It got off to a bad start with a bad out-draw costing my €1,100. I’m never one to complain about “bad beats” in Omaha because I’m aware of how many more variables there are in the game so, next case. I re-built my stack up to peak of €4,900 which is when I made what I think is the most expensive bluff I’ve ever made. "Rob" is a loose player and in any game, I’d be delighted to have him there. That night was starting to look like it might be an exception. He had filled quads twice against "doc" when he was holding the big full house. It looked like he could do no wrong. The hand in question was raised and re-raised pre-flop. I had two pair in my hand. The flop was totally uncoordinated and with a sizeable pot already in the middle, it seemed like a great time to take it down right there. I lead at it with a €400 bet. "Rob" instantly came over the top and re-raised to €2,000 trying to bully me. The third player in the pot folded quickly. Now, most of the time, I probably would have given the pot up without a fight but given the fact that he was trying to buy every pot, I gave it a second look. I looked over at him, and said, “I re-raise. All in. €4,900 total.” The idea of the bet was to put him to decision for all his profit for the night. He laid it down and I mucked my hand.

We continued playing for another hour or so until “last three hands” was called at 5:30am. I would have left with all of that only for "Gary" coming back to the table. He had left an hour before hand after having a very bad night. With his remaining €35, he put it on number 17 and of course, he returned with €1,260 - more that enough for a good player to control the table. He gave me a taste of my own medicine too… Earlier on in the night, I slow-rolled the 2nd nuts in a €1K pot. Bad ethics but he was wrecking my head. Needless to say, as soon as the opportunity arose for him to do the same, he took it. Annoying, but I maintained a cool head. By the time the game finished, I had exactly €5,200 in front of me. An eventful, but profitable night.

Next post: The woes of the night after..............

Three Days to go......

2006-04-14T00:34:00.000+01:00

It’s Wednesday. Three days before the biggest tournament I’ve ever had the chance to be a part of takes place - The Paddy Power Irish Poker Open. I don’t know if it’s anxiety building inside or just feeling ill from having woke up after having my first losing night in cash game in the Macau in what seems like months. Oh, and what a bad night it was…. But more about that later.

It’s midday and I’ve just risen from my comatose-like sleep. A quick shower and I’m downstairs to indulge myself in a couple of books that I purchased during my trip to Luton last weekend for the “Springfest Festival” in the Grosvenor. I’ve got “Championship Hold’em Tournament Hands” by Tom McEvoy & T.J. Cloutier and “Caro’s Book of Poker Tells” by Mike Caro. I’m particularly looking forward to getting stuck into the latter. Mike Caro is widely considered to be the world’s foremost authority on poker strategy, psychology and statistics…. Or so the cover says.

Speaking of Mike Caro, he’s just one of the legends of the game participating in the €3,000 main event on Saturday. Of the many players flying in for the event, one player that I really admire in Charalambos “Bambos” Xantos. I had the pleasure of playing with him a while back in the £1,000 main event during the “Heart of England” festival. I love the way he plays the game. What I loved the most about his play was his ability to maximise the return from any pot. He seemed to be totally fearless of any board and was more than capable of outplaying most competitors on the flop. He’s also a real nice guy.

Qualifying for Ladbrokes Poker Million V

2006-04-14T00:26:00.000+01:00

I’ve been having such a great run recently. Getting to travel all over Europe doing what I love and sitting across the table from guys I idolise like Ram Vaswami, Dave Colcough, Dave Ulliott and Willie Tann to name a few. After winning the Irish Championship, I travelled to Birmingham with Ken Corkery and won (well, split 3-way) the £500 double chance netting £9,500. We did the split purely to allow us all to compete in the £1,000 freeze out which was already underway. On returning to Cork, I won the €200 freeze out in the Macau. I was in the Vic in London a month ago for the European Classics where I finished 8th in the £300 rebuy event. Two weeks ago, I got to attend Springfest in the Grosvenor in Luton (what a shithole of a city). Unfortunately, that was my first trip that i didn't turn a profit on - probably because I played NO cash games. A very profitable week (thanks to some mad Chinese bloke who gave me everything he had in the cash game) in Vienna with a great bunch of players from all over the country was the icing on the poker-cake for the first quarter of the year. I felt like I was unstoppable. Much success online and in live cash games in between and then, out of nowhere came last Sunday.

Last Sunday was one of the best days I’ve ever had in the industry. I rarely play on Ladbrokes site purely because the games I play ($5/$10 Hold’em or Omaha) rarely have more than one table going at any one time. Just browsing through the software that morning, I saw that the weekly final of the Poker Million V qualifier was on a 4pm. Knowing that I wasn’t doing a whole lot for the day, I decided to give it a go. I tend not to use my credit card for online deposits too often so I took a trip down to my local Ladbrokes shop to make a cash deposit. To my surprise, the maximum deposit they would allow was €750. When I got back to my computer, I found that after the currency conversion, I didn’t have enough for the $900 + $50 buy-in. Bugger. Right, Plan A: I gave one of those $55 express satellites a go. I’d never played an “express” satellite before. I didn’t realise they were a total farce. Blinds rise every minute and you start with a monstrous stack of…… 100 chips. So basically after 3 or 4 minutes, your entire stack IS the big blind… And that’s if you’re lucky enough to be drawn behind the button! Even after crossing my fingers for any all-in type hand, it failed to materialise. Eventually put it all in with AJ against A7 and…. Up flew the 7. Plan B then……… I decided to put all my eggs in one basket. Off to the $5/$10 PL Omaha table with my remaining $820. Ten minutes later, I’m sitting on about $1,450. Jackpot. A quick visit to the lobby and I’m registered for the tourney in question. Roll on 4pm.

The tournament was in a 6-handed format which I felt would suit me. 171 runners and I had anticipated a field of some quality. The only person I recognised on my table was Kim Callow who won the main event in the Irish Classics in the Macau last summer.

7 hours later, my aces cracked twice and we’re down to 6. The money has taken a sharp rise and we were all guaranteed at least $ 6,500. I had my eye on 1st or 2nd - both receiving entry into the final 72 of the Poker Million. I was maintaining an average chip count and I was attempting to dominate the table. Raising most pots, it wasn’t long before I was tackling “Hellraiser” in Seat 6 for the chip lead. All of a sudden, things weren’t looking so good. I picked up A7 on the big blind. The button raised 4x the BB and as I had being doing all along, I re-raised. To my horror. the guy pushed all his chips in. Losing the hand would have crippled me. The cards are turned over to reveal his AQ. All looked lost until the river card when like a poker fairy, up popped a 7. A bit of retribution for what happened in the express satellite I suppose but the stakes were a little higher this time! Now I’m in control of the table. We were down to four within a few minutes. Myself in seat 2 and ”hellraiser” in seat 6 had about 200K each. Seat 3 and “Ambi” in seat 4 each had about 6K. Everything was going to plan. Stealing the odd round of blinds, I was staying out of trouble. This went on for what seemed like an age when all of a sudden, we lost the player in seat 3. Now we were into the serious money. $18,500 for 3rd, $3,500 +$22,500 ticket for 2nd and $25,000 + $22,500 ticket for 1st. Bit top heavy I think you’ll agree. Now in most of the tournaments I play, I play to win. This situation was a little different. I never lost sight of the primary goal here - to get the seat. Now, the cash was an issue but I decided I’d jump that hurdle when we went heads up. Again, I made staying out of trouble my main objective. “Ambi” to his credit was playing a fantastic game and was getting the better of “Hellraiser”. He soon took 2nd place in chips and after picking his moment, he got his chips in the middle with the best hand and it stood up. $18,500 for “Hellraiser”.

Heads up and suddenly the cash became a major factor. I suggested a 50/50 deal but he declined. The chip breakdown was roughly 65/35 in his favour. I picked up J9 hearts and flat called the big blind. The board showed promise with two hearts and my Jack as an over card to the flop. I lead at the pot thinking maybe I could take it down right there and even if he called, it would serve to disguise my hand. Ambi made a nominal raise which I called. The turn revealed my money card - a 5th heart. I paused and checked. Ambi bet half the pot which I just flat called hoping that a blank would come on the river so that I could check raise. A blank arrived and I checked as per the plan but to my disappointment, Ambi checked back at me. I turned over the winning hand.

We were now exactly 50/50 on chips. One more time I popped the question; “50/50 split on the cash?”………. A long pause………. “OK” he replied. The poker manager butted in immediately to confirm that we both agreed. Deal done. Although neither of us were exactly sure what we’d even split (the cash prizes for 1st & 2nd were not listed in the lobby) it appeared that we both collected about $14,500 each. We still had to play out the game. With the onlookers filling the chat box with cheers of “All in!!! All in!!!”, we dually obliged. My pocket 5’s got busted by Ambi’s 68 os and the job was done. A quick barrage of “wp”, “gg”, and “ty” and I logged off with a happy grin on my face. Thank God that last hand was of absolutely no consequence!

Opening my cashier the following morning brought an extra little surprise. Included in the package, I had received $1,750 for “travel expenses”. Now, as Ladbrokes are paying for the hotel, I should be able to save a few quid out of that after paying for the Ryanair flight from Cork to Gatwick. I’m not complaining! $17,000 in cash and a ticket for the televised stages of Europe’s richest tournament. All I’ve heard so far is that my heat is on around the middle of June - shortly after the Irish Poker Tour Final.

The Irish Poker Championship

2006-04-13T21:59:00.000+01:00

I only made the decision to write this blog the other day after thinking about it for a while. One of the regrets I have for this year is not keeping a diary during the Boyle Sports Irish Poker Championship but I’m asked about it so often that most of it is still fresh in my mind. I’ve never actually put any of my thoughts down on paper before so here it goes.

Funnily enough, I wasn’t even going to go to the event. I had a go at the €50 rebuy satellite in the Macau a few weeks before the event but had no joy. Ken had a few tickets to get rid of and kind of convinced me to give it a shot. I sold 25% of myself to my uncle before the event. I just figured that it would cover the cost of the hotel. Ken was driving up so I caught a lift with him. We left early that morning so as to give us an hour or two to grab a shower and a bite to eat before the event.

There was an electric buzz around the City West Hotel. Players had travelled from all over the UK and Ireland, each stumping up the €1,000 buy-in to take part in a tournament which would end up being the biggest ever field assembled in Europe - 391 runners. I had drawn my table a little earlier - Table Carlow, Seat 6. When I sat down, I didn’t actually recognise anyone. From talking with a few of them, it became apparent that many of them had got their seats through satellites on the Irish Poker Tour. All this just added to my confidence. During the first few hours, I played like a rock. My first target was to double my stack to 20,000. Now to be fair, I got some nice cards. Pocket Kings twice really helped with proceedings. It was at this point that I decided to change gears. A big stack got moved from the table which left me with the table chip lead. Opportunity knocked. I decided to start leaning on the short stacks (less than 4,000) now that I had the opportunity. I knocked out 2 of them without a problem. Now, there is a lot of talk about how “lucky” I got over the three days and one of the two times happened right then. My stack was about 28,000 and the player in seat 4 raised the pot. He had about 10,000 in front of him. I re-raised with A10 just to “test the water” and he flat called. The board came rag-rag-10. I lead at it with about a 1,500 bet to which my opponent re-raised to about 6,000. Now, it was thinking time. From his initial raise, I had put him on AK so I went with that read. I re-raised him all in and to my disappointment, he called instantly. He turned over KK. Didn’t like my hand so much then. Well I’m still here to tell the story so I’m sure you can guess that the I hit. Another 10 came on the turn. A disappointed punter left the tourney.

Soon after that, a real legend of the game came to my table. Mick McCloskey is known all over the country as a real player. Years of consistent results and great reporting have cemented him into the history books. I decided to take this opportunity to try and make an impression on him. Talking to him after, I think I did just that. I played an ultra aggressive game; raising every pot and making some good calls and lay-downs. By the end of day one, I had near on 55,000 in chips. As far as I can remember I was chip leader.

We quickly hit the bar, a couple of hours sleep and on to day two.

In all, 150 players made their way back the following day at noon to pick up where we left off. The atmosphere was somewhat different that day…. Much more tense. It seemed like no time before I was falling into the same routine as the day before. Kept hitting flops, getting my money ahead and it usually stayed that way. By 9pm I had roughly 200K in chips. I wasn’t sure if I should be excited or devastated when the other chip leader (also on 200K) David Lloyd was moved just to my left. All it took was one look at each other’s stack and we almost formed a non-verbal bond - stay away from each other!! Around the same time, Mukesh came to the table. He tried to be aggressive at first, but every time he’d raise, I just kept on re-raising him… I nearly drove him mad!

By midnight, we were approaching the money. I never had any worry about not making the money so I used this to my advantage; raising every single blind where short stacks trying to cling on for the money were involved. I have just been moved to another table, where I would remain for the rest of the night. When moving tables, I took a quick look around for players from the Macau. The only one left besides myself was Pat Griffin. Pat is a local legend for his play. Hyper aggressive, and probably the person I would least like to be sitting with at that stage. My personal favourite story is when he knocked out Andy Black - Pat’s 36 os vs. Andy’s QQ. He’s someone who can amass huge amounts of chips and is someone to be feared. The most recognisable player at the table I was moved to was Barny Boatman; a player I very much respect. As it happens, he was very nearly the cause of my demise. With about 30 players left, the field seemed to loosen up ever so slightly (probably because we had just entered the payout stages), I picked up AK in late position, I raised the pot to 40K, expecting to just pick up the blinds and antes. Fold, Fold, Fold, Fold and then Barny on the BB. “I’m all in” he proclaimed. Another 80K to me. Looking back on the whole thing, I sorry I didn’t just lay it down. I knew I was behind but pot odds dictated a call. Barny turned over QQ. Not a bad result for me…. Until those 5 cards in the middle of the table offered no help. I lost 125K in that pot.

Now, my next action I just can’t explain. I’m not one for going on tilt, but oh boy, I sue did then. The VERY next hand, I looked down… KQ suited. “Raise” I said. “50,000 total”. Fold, Fold, Fold “I’m all in”…. Bugger. The rock of the table had re-raised. Now in my defence, it was only another 30K to call. Losing the hand would have left me with about 40K (half the chip average). The young guy across the table turned over KK. I just said “boy, I’m in bad shape” as I showed my KQ. We both stood up. Then in an instant it happened. The flop read A - Q - J. Not a bad start. I’m almost wishing for that 10 for the split. I didn’t even see the Q come on the turn. The place erupted. The river brought no help for the guy and my heart really did go out to him. But, I was back in action with about 240K.

I left the table for 10 minutes to clear my head. During this time I had a quick chat with Mick McCloskey who had been watching from the stage behind me. I really didn’t get involved in many pots for the next couple of hours but by staying active pre-flop, I had amassed a sizeable stack of about 350K. As we approached another step in the prize money, I changed gear once again in an attempt to pick on the short stacks. I finished one or two of them off and before I knew it, I was approaching 400K with 12 players remaining. At this stage we took a ten minute break during which I had a chance to chat to Laurence Gosney (WSOP 2005 bracelet winner)who had been standing right behind me. He complemented me on my play and then offered me one bit of advice. He said to me that at this stage, I should target the people who are only interested in making the televised final table. It was sound advice which I put to good use.

We lost two more players relatively quickly. Now we were playing two tables of five. I must admit, the whole ordeal at this stage was getting fairly nerve-racking! Barny had the chip lead with about 750K. I was close to being second in chips with about 425K. No common sense would say that we stay away from each other and out of trouble and we’d be fine… Oh, but no! What happened next is what I consider to be the most important hand in the whole tournament for me. I was on the small blind with J9 clubs. Mukesh was on the big blind. Barny had flat called out of position which immediately struck me as unusual. I called the big blind and the 3 of us saw the flop. It read J spades - 4 diamonds - 9 spades. Immediately (hoping to take the pot right there), I bet out 60,000 - A pot sized bet. Mukesh folded and around to Barny. “Raise. 250,000” he said. Now, I had a lot of thinking to do. First thing I considered is if I really wanted to put my tourney at stake right here. The mentality I had was that I was there to win the tournament - not to just make the final table. I knew this was my opportunity to go to the final table as a big chip leader. Now, I had to work out what Barny was holding. First off, I didn’t believe he had a set because if he did, I think he would just be flat calling my bet in order to trap me. Another factor is that there were only two Jacks and two nines left in the deck so it was highly unlikely he was holding them. I didn’t believe he would even call with pocket 4’s from early position at such a crucial time in the game. What I really believed he was doing was betting a draw. Now, it was unlikely he was calling pre-flop with Q-10 so it had to be a nuts flush draw…. Probably AK spades. If my read was right, I knew I was 4/7 favourite. After a LONG pause, I pushed all in. Barny thought for about ten seconds before calling and to my delight, he turned over A8 spades. I wasn’t out of the woods yet… I still had 9 spades to dodge… twice!!! Thankfully, the turn and the river brought two beautiful red cards. When I gathered in that monstrous pot, I had nearly 900K. Five minutes later, we lost the final player of that night. We had played for nearly 17 hours that day and I was never so tired.

Not a whole lot of sleeping was done the night before the final. We had to meet downstairs at midday to have make-up done and get microphones fitted. I couple of delays and we were finally sitting at the TV table by 2:30pm. A quick round of handshakes and we were underway. I begun the day with about 860,000 in chips. For the first 2 hours I pretty much sat back, stole a few blinds here and there and watched as we lost Mick Boland, Bill O’ Keeffe, Pat O’ Callaghan, Mukesh, and Keith McInerney. With the exception of Pat and Keith (who went into their final pots as 50/50 and underdog respectively), the other three all got unlucky. However, that’s poker and we were down to four. Myself, Barny, Damien Kavanagh & Dave Masters.

We had one more to lose before the serious money. Barny (after losing a BIG pot to Damien) was now the short stack. Barney raised on the button (3x the BB). Fold, Fold and back around to me. I looked down and saw AK. I decided to flat call. Flop came Jack-rag-rag. I checked and Barny instantly bet out a sizeable amount. From this, I know he hasn't made a set (because if he did, he would check-raise). At this point, I've convinced myself that he has a middle pair and I KNOW he is still in front.... BUT I decided the best play was to represent the JACK. So I called (thinking that I would go into the turn and the river as the aggressor - and leave barney believing that I was trapping). When the turn comes a RAG, Barny and I both check. At this moment I figured if the river came higher than a 10, I could pump the pot and Barny would have to lay down (he would be expecting me the go All-In anyway). Also, I was getting a free card. When the river came An ACE, I bet small (hoping that Barney would think HE could represent the ACE).... Barny came over the top and we ended up all in. My pair of ACES beat Barny's pocket 77.

One thing that really bothered me at this point was the lack of sportsmanship displayed by Dave Masters and this came across terribly in the televised show. I can understand that it was worth €12,000 to him but I still considered it to be well out of line. Down to three. I think we all wanted to discuss a deal at this stage so it wasn’t long before we were all standing in a little room off the hallway getting down to business. The chip standings were as follows: Myself: 1,500,000, Damien: 1,600,000 and Dave: 800,000. Official prizes were as follows: 1st: €150,000, 2nd: €70,000 and 3rd: €30,000. There were a total of €242,000 left to play for (we were all given €3,000 tickets for the IPT final in June as well). We all agreed that the prizes were a little top heavy so we set about solving that little problem. I was first to speak. I suggested that Dave take €55,000 and myself and Damien would take €82,250 each and we would play for €7,500 for 2nd and €15,000 for 1st. This was the only deal I was really willing to do. Damien was fairly happy with my proposal but Dave Masters was having none of it. He wanted an even three-way split. I basically told him that there was no way I was doing that and after about 5 seconds of a heated exchange, Damien just proclaimed, “let’s just play some fuckin’ cards!”. I concurred.

We quickly made our way back into the studios where myself and Dave where the first to sit down. I’ll always remember the unsavoury moment which happened next. Clearly disgusted that I had turned down his “offer”, Dave proceeded to inform me that him and Damien had “already done a deal together”. “So, can I expect ye to be working together then?” I asked. The answer I got infuriated me so much… “Ah, you’d never know”. I only had one goal from there on…. To make sure Dave Masters got what he deserved. 3rd place… without the extra €25,000 I had offered. It wasn’t long before I got my wish. Dave filled a straight on the turn and slow played it allowing me to catch my flush on the river. I bet out, he dramatically moved all in and I called. One of my proudest moments in poker.

When we got heads up, Damien and I decided it was in both our interests to chop up the money. The deal we agreed on was to take €100,000 each and play for €12,000. We played heads-up for about 2 hours during which time I was never not in control. At one stage just before the break, I had nearly a 7/1 chip lead. I was ready to finish him off when we came back but to my surprise, Damien had totally changed his game and it took me a while to adjust. All of a sudden he was raising every pot and being very aggressive. I decided to take a back seat for a while as I felt there was room for only one aggressor. He fought his way back to about 900,000 before we came to the final hand. I picked up 22 on the SB and I made a nominal raise which Damien flat called. The flop came 7-7-5. I made a small feeler bet and Damien INSTANTLY announced “all-in”. I had a big decision to make. I knew that even if I lost the hand, we would still be pretty much 50/50 on chips so I still had a lot breathing space. I figured he couldn’t have any of that board purely by the way he moved all in. Best I could figure, he had two over cards to the flop which would make me favourite. If I was right, he would have 9 outs on the turn and 12 on the river. After a great deal of deliberation, I called and Damien turned over K8. I was so nervous and the cards were being turned. Turn came and Ace. A long pause by the dealer and the river…. A ten. It was over. I had beaten a field of 391 players and I was just in a daze. I took about a half hour to record interviews and acceptance of prizes but when it was all over I felt like the king of the world.