A New Year

I'm sorry to be yet again opening this new post with the same sentence. I really should post more blogs. It’s good that I keep hearing that though. At least people are reading it. I don’t like posting about mundane life sapping poker beats and stories. Basically I will only indulge my ego by writing this drivel if I feel like I have something amusing to say or obviously to cowardly and most importantly slate somebody. Hope that’s ok with you?

Well I played the UKIPT leg in Galway and despite playing pretty solid for the first 7 levels I managed to get my KK in against some fishheads AA. I never fold KK pre flop, just not good enough. Starting to re think that now though, not the fact that I am not good enough, just that it is possible to make the fold every now and again. Was a good weekend though, won a bit in drunken cash games. I think the key to poker is to be a winning drunken player. It’s very important and not talked about enough in my opinion. If you can master that then playing sober should be a doddle. Parky and others do a great job. Won't bore you with more details of the IPC because it was ages ago and I didn’t do much other than drink and terrorize people at cash games.

I didn't play much over the holidays and New Year. I had some personal stuff going on and made the good decision to not play while I was about as emotionally stable as Whitney Houston. At least that shows I'm growing up. This new found maturity has led me to make the effort to play a lot less over the next 6 months while I finish my degree. I will still play a small bit and try and play all the major Irish tournaments. I was out with O' Shea on New Years Eve in Galway and he fair laid into me. John does look out for me and I know he thinks I have talent. Talent doesn’t mean much to him though; he gave me a roasting on my bankroll management etc. I know I have come on here time and time again saying I've changed and that I'm all focused and all that stuff. The reality is that I don't think I want to play for a living after college. I'm happy playing for fun and winning. There are very few guys that are making it in Ireland, managing a normal personal life with poker. I respect the likes of Doke, Big Mick, O Shea, Marty, Reesy and some others. There is a reason they are who they are though. What they do is not easy, it’s not for everyone. Maybe it’s not for me. Maybe I will have the maturity and control someday to do it; maybe I'll have to out of necessity. Who knows but for now I'm happy being happy.

UKIPT

Well I'm off to Galway now for the UKIPT or the Irish Poker Championship as its better known. I qualified on Pokerstars so don't need to worry about hotels etc. I managed to come 10th in this last year and was so close to a final table. I have mixed feelings about last years event. There was the whole cheating scandal, which had a direct influence on my tournament as I played many hands with the accused bastard! In fact one particular hand looks like it was a rigged deck. The more you watch it on TV the more you can tell it was a set up. So obviously I feel like I have unfinished business at this tournament.

My game is in as good shape as its ever been. I think after the decent start to 2009 that I enjoyed, I let myself relax and believe my own hype. I pretty much gave up cashing in any tournament after that for several months. I made a conscience effort a few months back to re-focus on my game and its paying dividends now. I have had a lot of cashes as you have read in my other blogs. I went in to defend the Sports monthly deepstack game. I ended up second to Hectorjelly. It was a good game and felt like I had ironed out a few leaks.

So onto Galway, feels like my Hometown in so many ways. All my friends live there so I'm sure I won't be lacking support. Hopefully this one will be played straight and I can run well and take it down!

Looks like a good bit of value there down the bottom of the betting too!!

The Crossbar Challenge!

Played the Fitz End of Month on Thursday. Recorded an interview for Irish Poker Radio with Iain and Doke before it started. Hope I came across well! http://www.irishpokerradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84

Played about 2 levels before I got knocked out. I opened from early position with 55. A stereotypical Asian, who was making shapes all night long 3 bet me. I was waiting for him to make his move. He was splashing pots and ruffling chips and all that nonsense. Tom Hanlon flatted on the button. Now, Tom needs no introduction he has been one of Ireland's biggest online winners over the last 5 years. I figured he had a big hand here. I decided to call as my hand would be well disguised if I hit and I was almost certain to get a bet out of if not one but both the Asian and Tom. The flop peeled of 5 7 9. Bingo Bango for Roro!!! I checked and the Orient Express wastes no time in firing an over pot sized bet. Tom quickly moves all in. I dwelled for a while. I wanted to just go over the spot in my head. I figured had Tom got a higher set he would of flatted the nutcase again, but with the draws out there, maybe he didnt want me coming along for the ride. My hand is too strong to fold and I called. The Asian thought long and hard and eventually folded 66. Tom was indeed trapping and had KK. A butcher on the river and it was good night for me.

Tom felt really bad to be fair and since he had 3 times the average went for a pint with me. It was worth giving him the chips as I tried my best to absorb all the knowledge he was dishing out about the game.

Was feeling pretty good about my game and really wanted to play the €500 main event. One problem though.....I was cash broke. I was owed money and owe money. I had spent the previous couple of weeks grinding online so had no cash flow. Thats a good and bad thing about playing online, you dont seem to spend as much cause you have no cash. Its all online! I was doing ok online, I won a 4.5k package to the UKIPT in Galway in a few weeks and had some decent cashes. Anyway I managed to sell some % to Halibut and felt good about giving him a good run. Im sure he would of been nervous if he wasnt occupied with other things, mainly taking on Isildur HU or bubbling the final table of the 1k PLO ECOOP. Speaking of that ECOOP, Chubs came second in it and scooped a nice 31k for his efforts, but unlucky agin to him. He's hit the crossbar alot more than I have.

Anyway, I started out crushing a few worms in some spots and had a decent stack. James McManus was the only notable at my starting table and I noted very quickly that he was the only one who could play poker. The rest seemed to play it like snap, betting when they matched a card in their hand and folding when they didn't. I was lucky enough to play and win a big pot against James early on. This left him crippled and meant that I had free reign of the table. I was playing quite well, but then made a huge mistake and managed to double James back up! The table broke so we didn't clash again. I ended the day with below average on 41k. Lost a massive pot to some guy who donked with 55 into a KQJ board when I had AK. I flat called, I was 100% sure I was ahead. 5 on the turn and we both check, an Ace on the river. He checked and I value bet 1/2 the pot. He hummed and hawwed and called with the set of 5's. Needless to say myself and the other people at the table with any sort of brain couldn't believe what sort of monkey business this guy was at! I played very well over the day and was happy enough going into the Day 2.

Well, I played so bad for the first 5 hours of Day 2. Was calling when I should be raising and raising when I should folding. It was just horrible, my reads were off and my stack was up and down. Managed to get very lucky on Marc McDonnell with 2 tables out. I raised on the button with A8 and Marc asked how much I had and then moved in. I know its an easy fold as I had about 20 bb's at the time, but there were other factors that entered my thought process. 20bb's was still half the average. Marc knew that I had the perfect stack for me to fold most hands, as we were near the bubble. Marc is very agro and I was tired, frustrated and made the call. I hated making that call and just wanted to go home to bed. He had 10 10 obv and I got lucky on the river. Having gotten so lucky for my monkey play, I decided to really concentrate and make an effort. I then played very well I think and went to the final table as one of the chip leaders.

A guy who had played quite solidly all day long opened, I woke up with KK on the button and flat called. We were so deep and 3 bets were getting through very easily. I wanted to trap this guy and win a big pot. The flop came 2 3 5. He bet and I raised and he moved in. Snappage from me and he tabled 33. I wasn't too unhappy to be honest, I made the play. I know I could of won the pot pre but I wanted to trap and it would of worked most of the time. Its certainly not horrendous, just unlucky that he hit his set. If he has 66-QQ there I win a massive pot and have 65% of chips in play with 8 left. So I had 6bb's and with some re ships I was back to 11 BB's. It was folded around to me on the button and I shoved with J6 of spades. Pretty bad when I think about it, there was so much play left. Guess I was more disheartened with my chip stack being so low and just panicked, thought I needed to push the action when I didn't really. So gone in 9th for yet another crossbar. Getting closer and closer and fixing leaks along the way.

I have a good sneaky feeling for Galway. Hopefully, It won't be another crossbar this time.

Worm crushing!!

I haven't posted a blog in ages! There hasn't been too much to report though over the last few months.

I have been playing a fair bit but its all been so boringly break even really. I won a ticket to the Irish Winter Festival and played Day 1 pretty well. Ended up with an average chip stack. It actually was my first time bagging chips for too long! Day 2 didnt go well at all, gave my chips to Wally about half way through the Day...... ah fuck it, I really felt this one. Had the good vibes going into it! There wasnt much else to do other than get drunk then, good banter about the place.

I decided to give the ROE €300 game a spin. Wasn't really in the mood for crushing worms or entertaining monkeys to be honest. I was pretty hungover and for once just stuck on the headphones and sat there quiet to the delight of everybody else! I played ok and ended up cashing in 12th. That min cash and a good spin in the PLO cash game and I broke even for the weekend. This is typical of my last few months really.

I was in bed dying after a serious session with my normy friends, when Tom rings me saying we should go play the sports deepstack €120 game. I really was in no mood once again but sure fuck lets play. I had been very low on confidence for quite some time. I knew I was playing badly in spots and making alot of poor decisions. That started to change at the Winter Festival, but it was the Sports game where I really started clicking again. Its a very strange thing, and I'm sure every poker player out there knows what I mean. You just start seeing the game better, reads are spot on, tough spots when running bad and playing bad suddenly become snap folds or snap calls. Its a great feeling and one that I hope to be able to deliver everytime. I cruised to the final table and ran good HU to win outright. I scooped the 2k first prize but really was buzzing with the way I played.

Needless to say, I had the sickness back!! Not the swine time that I got a few months ago but the degen sickness! JP's Mini WSOP couldnt come sooner. The Maldron was a nice location, the 2 rooms they used were both nice and as always JP runs a great game. Once again, I struggled to pick up chips in the first few levels. Ended Day 1 bagging some chips again! Yay me!!

Day 2 was the funniest day of poker I've ever had. I got moved to this table with the usual mixture of a few monkeys, a few worms, some oul fellas and one or 2 good players. I was on form, easy when you pick up aces time and time again! Was flying, then disaster struck........ I was very active all day and raised with the hookers(QQ). Got called in too many spots, flop was J high with two raggy cards. I CBet that mudderfucker and get check raised! Ugh ok lets rock. He has the flush draw. He hits the flush draw. Im low again. If I wasn't having such banter at the table I'd be pissed off. I later found out that the lunatic in question was Kieran Walsh from Cork (not Flipper from D4). Not surprising he sodomized me with 108 of spades considering he is friends with that monkey BOPS.

I have to say, it was a fun table, great friendly banter. I don't remember how exactly I went down to 3200 chips with the blinds at 400-800 but I remember how I got up to ending the day at nearly 400k chips. It all started with a blind shove with 7 3 hearts crushing Oz's K 10 of hearts. Bingo up to nearly 10k now! Then the magic happened. Peel down at 109, whoop ship that in! Kieran calls calmly with the aul KK!!! Granted not great shape here, but after a flop of A 8 3 all diamonds and Kieran holding the K of diamonds I was really fucked.... Then running 9's prompted celebrations of the lewdest nature! I didnt show a hand after that all Day except for crushing a few short stacks dreams. I got moved to Marc McDonnell's table late in the day. I am very good friends with Marc and know his game inside out. That being said I feel he knows my game better than anyone. I was happy when Matthias De Meulder moved to our table. It worked to my advantage as I was sure Marc's sickness would creep in and he would be looking for Matthias' roots! Sure enough they were battling hard. This left me pick off the other players at the table for the most part.

Never got going Day 3 and despite high hopes I cashed in 13th. I would surely of taken it when don to 3 BBs! But i could taste the 25k first place. Again just covered expenses for the weekend. A serious session in the hotel after happened. Although I can't remember much of the night, I 'm pretty sure I was involved in alot of antics!

So thats really it, Ive been grinding hard online. I won a 5k package to the UKIPT, formally known as the Irish Poker Championship. Delighted with getting this out of the way as its a tournament I always love to play and this year with Pokerstars coming on board it looks amazing. Ill try and update more from now on.

Trip to the Zoo!

Well, off I went to Tramore. Great preparations as I was planning a quiet night in before heading down with Dave Curtis but I ended up pissed and being thrown out of a hotel at 11am. Dave wasn't going till near 4pm, so I decided to get the bus with some girls I know from Waterford who were up in Galway for a concert.

So nearly 7 hours later I make it to Waterford and Tom, Chubbs and Mark McDonnell pick me up. The Grand Hotel in Tramore is a cross between Fawlty Towers and the Hotel from The Shining!! It wasn't exactly 2* but well it had character.

So I get stuck at the hardest table to kick off with. Ah yeh normal enough for me at this stage! That's a sign of how I'm running- like a fat Asian kid with Tourettes. So Smurph to my left, Albert Kenny to my right and Big Al knocking around somewhere in the middle. JP McCann was rattling away there also and some other faces I recognised! Had a great time at the table, spent mostly with Albert and me exchanging loose and lewd stories!

Wasn't long before Big Al ruined my dreams. Crushed me like a bully trampling his younger sisters My Little Pony! Just the set for me and bingo he hits his guterball to send me to the bar!

The bar is where I stayed for the majority of the weekend. Except to entertain the monkeys in the cash games. It was like feeding time in there for them, jumping up and down, banging their heads together. The constant buzzing noise they make as they try and match the symbols and learn what we call poker. Ah Bless those little monkey fuckers.

You can probably guess that the cash games weren't kind to me! Well i won. That's the good news, the bad news is that I was on an hourly rate close to the guy who cleans up the wanking booths in dodgy Amsterdam video stores. Fuck all. The biggest monkey of the all, the king of the monkeys if you will has to be that BOPS muddefucker. Like honestly that guy is possibly the worst poker player I have played with that isnt mentally retarded. I don't normally go all out attack at monkeys here on this blog but BOPS has had it coming. He sucked me off so bad after hours of avoiding slippery banana skins that these guys were throwing. Basically its a 1/2 game, 4 limper's and I make it 25 with JJ. The monkey called with 85 off and pings the 883 flop. Now I know you say he was calling to stack the fish on that 883 flop who can't get away from an over pair- Bullshit. The guy is in bits. Simple as that!

Anyway, Tom played his heart out and was lucky and unlucky to finish 5th. He was hit in the face with the deck but played the first 2 days flawlessly and got max value out of every situation. The final Day was prob just a bit too much too soon and despite making some mistakes he would normally never make he battled hard to finish 5th and I have no doubt he will be back soon.

Bit of craic on the Sunday night, where a group of us had a fair few pints and ended up with a swim in the Tramore waters at 7am. Keith McFadden is a hardy buck alright, no problem jumping straight in. Chubs, Tom, Danny Diamond and myself were next in! Seriously good fun. Went back to the hotel then for breakfast and some sleep.

Went to Galway for a few days. Its race week there and the place is buzzing! The Eglington which has become my official card room is so chilled and relaxed. They were running a festival in conjunction with the Galway Races. Obv, I got sucked off again and again. Sure you wouldn't believe it if I didn't have eye witnesses. My team mate from the team formally known as Team Whoring, Doke saw me with 22 players left in the €100 122 player game, get it in with AA pre against Jude Ainsworths bird with QQ. Obv she spanked the lady on the flop. It was a 20BB pot so it was for a massive chip lead! That last bit is actually not a joke! That being said Galway was well worth while as Andy Black gave some great words of encouragement and advice to myself and Tom over a beer on Galway's Quay Street.

Well, I have been on the road playing poker for the last 3 weeks and have come home with some profit but nothing I couldn't of got slugging away in McDonald's! Next up is Cork Id say and try and sat in or sell some %. I'm playing so well, so if i start to run well these monkeys won't have a chance!!!

Back to Basics

Ok, so basically in case you didn't realise, I was nearly busto. I gave my Dad 10k for my masters. This was really important that I do this as it gave me a sense of achievement from all those hours of degeneracy!! That left me with the guts of 15k. Which I pretty much spent the last 2 months losing nicely! I was fully in bits, no question. I have been so lucky with this game that I have never experienced such violent downswings that make your stomach turn and your ATM card reject you.



Anyway, I came home for awhile and re-assessed. I couldn't go to Vegas now, I never thought Id be in this position after such a good start to the year. I have identified a few reasons why I went close to broke.



1) I didn't play enough. Simple, I played bits and pieces. This was due to my exams and end of college partying. Whenever I did play it was sporadic and I lacked 100% concentration.

2) Bad Bankroll Management. Ugh this again. How many times do we have to mention it before we cop on! I played every €500 + tournament since January. Went something like 11 without a cash. Which is normal enough. However it was about €9k in buy in I spent and add in the hidden factors of hotels, travel and a few beers and I was looking at a -€13k deficit since February! My roll cant handle that!!

3) I wasn't playing that well. Again this happens from time to time. Its a vicious cycle, I was playing bad because of reasons 1 & 2.





Anyway, I needed to do something. I could cut my losses, take whatever surplus I had left and get a normy job. I thought bout this, wondered if I had the dedication to grind again. Had i lost the enjoyment for the game?



I decided that I hadn't lost the enthusiasm, I just had to get smarter about it. You look at the likes of John O Shea, and Doke and they have such excellent work ethic and Roll Management that they make it look so easy at times. If anything had happened in the previous year , I had proved to myself that I can do this for a living and that I can compete with every player and hold my own. I believe I'm good at this game, well at least alot better than 80% of the field, which is what matters.



I went up to Dublin, Stayed with Tom Kitt and we grinded the cash games. I needed 30 hours to qualify for the cash league. I had 3 days to get them. I got the hours and despite running so bad, I won small in the game. Then the cash league came around. I started with the shortest stack. I played some excellent poker and never felt uncomfortable. Myself and Tom refused a deal from as many as 14 out. We chopped it up with 3 left. We got €1500 each. Add that to what i picked up in the cash games and just shy of €3k for the week. So nice week. Just need to be a bit more careful with my roll. John was telling me that when he had a 20k roll it was a huge decision to play a monkey game. He's rather grind it in cash. So I think that's what I'm gonna concentrate on now.


Next up is Waterford, Its a 40k GTD tournament with only about 200 players. Hopefully I can get a result there and steady the ship a bit more.

Why Bother!!

Well I have no excuses for not posting in awhile. I have just been lazy to be honest. After a year now of blogging, I have to say I find it to be tedious sometimes. Overall its been good though, to vent some anger, rejoice in some wins and generally share some good times.

I got my exam results and did very well, so I'm happy bout that. Don't know how I did so well considering I spent the last 3 years studying poker!

Ok so onto the Poker!! Well I took a chunk off Party about 4k and decided I would grind some live. I played the €1100 European 6 max in the old Jury's Hotel at the start of June. I sold a bit of action to some friends after failing to win a ticket in the 2 satellites I played in.

No good for me there unfortunately, I had a decent enough table draw and was playing quite well but never managed to get going. I always seemed to have the best hand and be constantly outdrawn, which made for a sharp exit. I was pretty down but I was feeling good about my game. I went straight home and got into a $700 20 man WSOP main event package sat. I got down to the last 3 and was pretty short. I played quite tight, opting for the re-steal instead of trying to steal from the button. I still had some fold equity in my short stack. With a few resteals I was back in. I was soon HU and at a 4-1 chip disadvantage. I played pretty well. The lads were watching over in Jurys and they were of the opinion I played too tight. I disagree to some extent, I certainly wouldn't be known as a passive player. I chipped up to a 3-1 lead. Then I played one hand poorly and was back at a 3-1 disadvantage. I disconnected and came back with only a few blinds. It was heart breaking. That would of set my summer up nicely.

Running bad happens. Simple as that, and when it happens yo just have to ride it out and try not to lose more by tilting. However what i cant explain is that it always seems to happen at the worst possible time! Just when I needed to run well before Vegas and the Summer....Boom I'm in hot soup. Played some live and constantly dropped buy in after buyin. I played the PLO game in the fitz and was up 1500 and then got involved in a pot with the Coo for all the bananas. I was a good favourite. Probably about 67% and we ran it twice. We chopped the first and he won the second! Pretty normal to be honest.

I came home for awhile to Galway. Well its where my parents live. Ive spent the last week surfing everyday and working hard on my golf game. I hope to get down to scratch soon. I am hitting it well and enjoying the time off.

My lifestyle was so horrible for the last month. I was out grinding till 6am and then up at 4pm everyday. Missing the Sun and everything else. Its not so bad when you are winning but it really is soul destroying when you are losing!! Been out drinking alot lately too and thats usually 2 days recovering before I have the focus again for poker.

Anyway my plan is to go back to Dublin next week and start grinding again. I don't think I'll go to Vegas this year now. It will realistically cost me between $8-$10k and I can not afford to come home broke!

Anyway hope everyone is well. Sorry for not posting in awhile, Hope you guys are still reading!!