Been a While....

Well its been a few months since my last blog,since which ive attended an Ept,a French poker series event as well as a number of irish events including the euro short handed, the ukipt Dublin, ladbrokes Killarney and the Iwf.

Looking back at this list im certainly disappointed that i only managed to cash in one of these; Killarney, where i finished outside the big bucks in 17th. Too much time has passed to properly review these events with hand analysis but i'll try to give a brief synopsis of how my events went to bring the blog up to date

Euro short handed
Great wee, very well run tornie and a credit to the D4 boys, Mike and Brian that they somehow manage to attract so many French players into one room for a 500 buyin, a typical table would consist of 5 frenchies + one paddy. It had a great deep structure, i rocked and rolled it up to 3 times starting when i managed to get a young French lad to commit over 100 bbs with aj on a 669 board v my kks, went runner runner flush for what would've been a chipleading stax. Baz Hand was at my table for this + he did a great job nursing a short stax into the $. Met Danny Maxwell here, who put on a one man blogging extravaganza over the weekend, a team of bloggers is one thing thats been missing from the irish poker scene, Danny and the ipb lads have expanded their operations since and would be great to see some backing for the lads to follow the Irish poker community here and abroad.

Ept Villamora
Bagged 3 packages for this one. Twas my 4th Ept and made my 4th day 2 and still i've yet to cash, had a very tough table on day 1, with no cards/situs but thanks to the great structure even though i was below starting stax, i still had enough to do damage on day 2. Was redrawn on the same table as Luca Pagano + David Williams , got an early triple up before Williams strolled in kool as a breeze over an hour late, didnt see him involved in too many hands to comment on his play but holy shit can that lad stare u down, between the stare, the fro and the tasche i was half expecting him to pull out a gun and belt out Ezekiel 25:17 any minute...I couldnt get over how nitty Pagano was, played really snug, and when his opens were 3bet he showed no interest whatsoever in playing back at the aggro foes to his right. Doke was on his table on day1 and noticed the same thing. The mans got a serious record of Ept cashes and final tables, he's obviously clued into how to beat these games. My theory after was that he's so aware of the continentals style that he can afford to nit it up against these guys; between their spews, the aggro net kids raising wars and the slow ept structure, he knows exactly what to do to get the job done. Which probably explains his many cashes yet lack of an outright victory.


So anyways i blew my stack with a foolish hero call against an italian all singing, all shouting nut job and that was that. One incident in Villamora cant go by without comment; On the last day a group of us headed to the local waterpark, here despite much peer pressure and slagging, Doke refused to go on any slides and ended up minding the bags/cameras as we all got to act like kids for the day. So we head for the big roller coaster at the days end, Doke delighted with himself that he's manages to stay bone dry throughout. As we walk over a foot bridge to get to the last ride, a cart comes speeding down under the bridge, splashing a huge wave up which soaks the whole bridge and leaves Doke completely head to toe drenched, i fell to my knees, in tears at the sight,still makes me laugh at the keyboard here, priceless...

Ukipt Dublin
While i did manage to bink 6 packages for this,it wasnt enough to topple sat master Dokes haul of 9 though!! Dave Curtis greeted us with some friendly banter about bringing down their player numbers, with the way things went i couldve done with 6 starting stacks mind!! Went out when i couldnt but go with my overpair and ran into a flopped set, least i got to sit beside Vanessa Rousso for a couple of hours.




Ladbrokes Killarney
Finally made the money at my third attempt down in Killarney for the ladbrokes Festival, it came whilst i was in the middle of a six week detox, I was off all dairy, yeast, alcohol, sugars + chocolate. Not sure if it's a result of this but my concentration and focus online + live was better than ever. It all seemed to come together here, managed to rock up to around 80k on day 1 and ploughed on through the bubble to finish day 2 with close to 300k + in the top 5 with 40 or so returning. The final day turned a bit crapshooty with 20 or so left the average was between 15-20bbs, which is a shame since the structure was fantastic up until this. I know they are appealing to the recreational player who has to be back at work on the monday but i felt that it was too good a structure for the second part of day 2 and maybe this couldve been sacrificed a little to allow for more play at the bigger payjumps. Anyhow i reshoved my 15bbs with aqs from the bb over the button who had ak and held, fair play to Paul Lucey who grinded a short stack on day 2 brilliantly + well deserved his 2nd place finish.

Irish Winter Festival
Satellite disaster; just like the Open i got somewhat obsessed with the added value of the sole survivor promotion and just as i did back before Easter i bubbled at least 5 satellites for this, if anyone remembers an Elturf faltering at the finish line nightly, well that was me, went way beyond a joke. Played anyways, no joy, out day 1, without getting going at all. Was on the final week of my detox, somehow i managed to resist the drop despite the rockin atmosphere in the bar over the weekend, wasnt easy though. Congrats to Tom Finneran on his well deserved 3rd place finish and to Nick Newport on his victory, he was also deep in Killarney and obviously has a top mtt game.

French poker series, Lyon
Myself, Doke and Danloulou headed over for this 1.1k buyin, a poker stars event. It was either this or Malta and i left it down to whichever i binked a seat for first. Just like the iwf, never got going here, and despite grinding my stack up above starting, i lost 3 flips in a row to bust, hopped into the €550 6max turbo which i was chewing up til i flopped bottom two in a limped pot in my bb when the other big stack aggro head flopped top two et cest la vie... Beautiful city, great food + architecture, took the Sunday off and despite trying four different Irish pubs, none were showing the Fai cup final over the premiership, so had to rely on text message updates, safe to say i fairly shatterred the peace and serenity of one otherwise romantic cobbled street when word of the rovers win came through :)

Online has been good the past month, started playing on ipoker midweek and shipped the ipoker 60k and came 2nd in the 40k a few days later, an eircom upgrade in my area cost me at least 5k in equity when my broadband went down at two decent final tables though. Still havent binked my Galway 3x package yet, lost to doke heads up, whose 2-0 up in packages at the moment, still time to catch him...

As i write John O'Shea is chipleader after day1 in Malta, seems to be a huge crowd of Irish out for this, best of luck to them, surely at least one final table sweat is on the cards here.

Had the pleasure of msn railing the monkeybudgie from 100 down during his Sunday Brawl win. The man plays fantastic big stack poker, always goes for the win,destroys bubbles, shows no fear nor stupidity. A beast of a player, gent of a man who deserves all the $ + credits coming his way, hats off Sean Prendiville...


Thanks to the ipb team for the photos