Rory "Downtown" Brown

A New Year

2010-02-02T05:24:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-10T08:11:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-11-17T11:01:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-08-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-06-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

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!!

Putting in The Hours

2009-05-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile. That's due to several reasons. I have been sitting exams and not been playing much poker. The exams went well I am happy to say. I also have had some personal drama that has been tough for me. Playing when emotion is high is never a good idea, so I avoided playing for awhile.

I played the IO and was gone mid way through day 1. I played well but didn't get above my starting stack and had a tough day as I always seemed to have the second best hand. No body that I knew in Irish poker seemed to do well. There's always next year and hopefully we can have a bigger Irish challenge.

On the Sunday of the IO, I lodged $400 onto Party Poker to relieve some stress playing a 2/4 PLO game. I won small in the game and went to bed. The next day I decided to try and grind the now $600 in a real amount of money. I was inspired by Pete Murphy's multiplier that he had just completed on Boyle Poker. I played alot of MTT's and grinding PLO cash. Always playing within my bankroll. I quickly moved up the levels and now I am happy to say, some 4 weeks later I have met my first goal of $10,000.

I plan to go to Vegas in early July and play some of the smaller events and the Venetian Deepstack series. I am not sure if I will play the short-handed €1k event this week in Dublin. I'm currently in Galway at home trying to get my thoughts together and grind up some more on Party.

Finally, took a trip down to Celbridge to Chris Dowlings club. It is a nice spot, good action and they sure do look after you. Wish him all the best with it.

Right till later.

Grinding, Galway, GUKPT

2009-03-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Grinding..............

That's exactly what Ive been doing lately. However without much profit. Its funny how poker works. A year ago and I would of told you I was a cash game player, NLH was my best game and I'm a loser in tournaments. In fact I would of even gone as far as to say that i hated playing tournament poker, I didn't rate tournament players either. I was the usual mix of arrogance and ignorance that are most "cash game specialists"!

Well whats changed?

I think I now love tournaments because I've had success with them! There is no buzz in poker like going deep in a High Stakes MTT. I've only had fleeting experiences and can only image what its like to FT a WSOP, be HU in the poker million or IPC as some of my good friends have. Its like a drug and I crave more.

My cash game must have suffered. I have lost nearly all my live cash game sessions since January. Prob losing 10 out of 15ish. I have been winning at cash online but not alot as I'm not putting in the hours. I'll be trying to address this situation and get back to winning ways.

Since my last post I have played a good bit. I went to Dundalk for the BrucePOker game. Its a great game and every young/learning player should be playing these. 25k chips and half hour levels give you so much scope to play.........too much. I busted out in 11th after having over 12% of the chips in play with 25 left. It was a weird enough game. I caught some mulchie cheating. This guy had already got his re-buy for 15k chips and then at the break got his top up to for a further 15k. I noticed this but had my own demons to fight. This turnip plucker hadn't a scoobies of the game of poker. Every time the board came out he was constantly checking his cards against the board like he was matching symbols. I was directly to his right, It was clearly in my interest that he have 30+k instead of 8k! Seen as I'm such an honest decent bloke I informed Paul Smallwood of the cheating bastard. I was fairly diplomatic to be honest but when he starts going on "No one cares if I got extra chips, its only fun etc" I lost it with him. Needless to say after the IPC Im a little sore when it comes to cheating at the poker table!

Anyway, I ran riot for a few hours and once I scooped the 18man last longer for 1k I started to get busy and only had eyes on the 6k first prize, wasn't too upset being knocked out in 11th for €400 plus the last longer money meant I scooped more than 4th. Also it was 6.30am and Id been playing since 5pm!

Ok what next! Oh yeah Galway and the Eglinton Team Event. Prob the best weekend Ive had in Poker. Was tickled pink to be asked on Tilty Taylors team. Rob himself, Doke, Cat O neill, KP and Paul Coyle. Its always nice to be in such company and I just didn't want to let the team down. So much for that, BOOM I was gone in the first few levels. Wasn't the worst play in the world but when Im at my best I would of still been in the game after the hand. Instead I was lining up Jagerbombs with Flipper Walsh. Staggered into the bar at 5am and was delighted to find out that the team was cruising and that we would prob get second. Agh yeah, thanks lads!

We def would of won the award for the creepiest looking team. Doke had brought his pedophile shades and Tilty Taylor went for the beanie under the panama hat look. Albeit Cat brought some glamour to the team we were behind in the fashion stakes. Team Bundy had the legit hoodies on show. Saturday night was an epic piss up of all proportions. Flipper buying shots like no body's business, O Dea creeping out some girls. Noel Hayes dismantling TVs in the clubs and Fallon couldn't of been in anymore bits even if he tried.

We recovered the next day and watched the Scotland match. We watched Reesy play some PLO above.The Team had managed second and I was handed a nice wad of 50's (1200) for my couple hours play! Ah yeh normal stuff. Oh yeh O shea managed to get his monkey off his back and win a live tourney.

The highlight of the weekend was finding Donal Nortons finger. Those of you that don't know, Donal lost his finger in an accident involving Tony Cooneys eye. Anyway we found it in a club in Galway but it is happy with its new life driving rickshaws around Galway.

I won a GUKPT ticket the other night but can't make London as I have exams on this week. Pretty disppointed as I was really looking forward to it. Someday.

Over and Out!

Calm after the Storm.

2009-03-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, Having got some feedback on my last blog. Most of which has been concern for my safety! I think I should clear up a few things.

I wrote that blog at 10am after a massive drinking session with some of the lads followed by a drunken losing session in the Sports. Then we went to the Jackpot at 5ish and having now sobered up (partly because of some arrogant fuck in seat 2 who had over a k in front of him raising and re-raising every pot) I started to play quite well. We soon got a ROE game going and I liked the table, lots of money on it. I got lucky and trebled up when my AA85 cracked other Aces and held against some random hand.

So I was playing 1200 now and playing well. Chris Dowling had moved to the table. I know his game very well as we have had a habit of going deep in the same tournaments. Our styles clash, simple as that and even if we try and avoid each other we seem to be always locking horns. I think he is a great player and always enjoy the challenge. Neither one of us has ever gotten the better of the other. My plan was to try and avoid pots with Chris and take pots off the other opponents at the table.

Ugh.....so much for that plan. During the PLO round Chris raised from the BB. I knew he had AAxx, because he raised from this position. Flop comes QJ5 all diamonds. Chris leads for pot. I had flopped the 10high flush here. I was in SB. The player to my right folded and as he did, I saw the K of diamonds flash. So I had the second nuts here. I played this hand horribly and to be fair was completely out played by Chris. I re-raised and he then moved in on me. I know he is good enough to be doing this with the lone A of diamonds! I decided to make the call........Great call, obviously Chris has the nuts here! What a donkey I am at times.

To show the character of Chris, he came straight outside to me and asked if I was Ok and if I wanted money to get back into the game. I could tell he genuinely didnt like winning that pot against me. Top guy and top player, alot of mutual respect there and I wouldnt be at all surprised if he backs up his IPC result with a showing in GUKPT or the IO.

I was sickened for many reasons. When I got home I assessed the situation again. I was upset about a number of things and these things inspired me to write that blog.

1) I was upset about the money. Not because I lost it, just my attitude towards it. I have had some recent success with nearly 40k in winnings over the last few months and have completely lost all respect for money. I have no mortgage, no kids, no wife, no responsibilities. I just spend, spend spend, gamble then spend some more. Without a care in the world. In this current climate, I felt guilty about it. I felt guilty about putting 1200 euro on the line just because I didn't want to be outplayed!

2) I was upset about my game. Chris is a top player and we have history. I hate being outplayed by him as I'm sure he hates being outplayed by me. Ego's have no place at the table and my ego cost me here. An amateur mistake. I thought I was better than that and that was hard to take. Outplaying an opponent sometimes is to fold. I firmly believe now that you will never be a top player unless you make the wrong folds for the right reasons now and again!

3) I feel like I have lost a small amount of direction in my poker life. I havent moved on from my recent results, rather just basked in the limelight of it all. Taking the adulation and congratulations without being motivated to move on to bigger and better things. If you aren't improving you are being passed out!

I am a really lucky guy. I have everything I could possibly want and I owe it all to poker. Getting upset now and again is OK but I'm a happy guy so no need for concern!!

I plan on getting back on track this week. Im gonna grind online at 2/4 NLHE and PLO. Also I plan on playing lots of MTT's and lots of IO sats, GUKPT sats. The week will finish in Galway where I play the team event. I really fancy our team with Dara O kearney, Rob Taylor, Kp, Cat O Neill and Paul Coyle.

Cheat

2009-03-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in awhile. The reason for that is I have been experiencing the worst downswing ever. I have to say that this is pretty much all self inflicted. From playing drunk, taking shots at bigger games, lending money and playing bad, Ive done it all.

Its so frustrating, I used to pride myself on being level headed and even frowned on people who couldn't keep it together and got themselves in these positions.......well now I know how easy it is to loose your sense of purpose, lose your morals towards money, believe that it when the worms say I'm the next big thing.

Time to be honest here. Over the last few months I've had some good results, but not great results. The kind of results that just steadily build the bankroll. I haven't even won a fucking tournament for Christ sake. Ive been spending money like its going out of fashion. I have been living life as if I won the WSOP! Its great to hear some of the really nice things people are saying bout me, seeing myself on TV. Its a great feeling to start being recognised and respected when I walk into a card club or jump into a game......Bottom line is I have achieved nothing and worse I have started to believe my own hype. I have acted frivolously, behaved like a big shot, a high roller. I am none of these things. I am the fraud I never said I would become. I am just a decent enough young player who has shown potential. How many before me? How many after me?

I need to cop on and get back to working hard which I prided myself on. Its what got me to where I am. John O Shea recently called Hollaments out because he believed him to be a fraud. John and Reesy were getting pissed off with all these young guys thinking they are the business, lying about levels they play and getting the plaudits without putting in the work. I'm not quite at that level but I'm in danger of being one of those "nearly made its" that you see in every card room in Ireland. Bitter and broke with only the praise and adulation from the worms to console them.

The lads have always thought me hard work pays. Something I knew myself from spending hours after hour on the range hitting balls trying to iron out a swing fault time and time again when i was younger. In golf the guys who worked the hardest usually came out on top. I wasn't as gifted or talented as a lot of guys but I sure worked harder and could compete. I feel in poker that I do have the natural ability so if I marry that with work ethic I should be very good, but right now I'm just a cheat. In the end only cheating myself.

Time to keep my head down and work my ass off if I'm to get to where I want to be.

Blow Up or Just Unlucky????

2009-02-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

As I'm writing this a mixture of confusion and disapointment fill me.

I've just been knocked out of the European Deepstack Poker Championships. I have never been so confident, so comfortable with my game, my emotions, my preparations. I really thought this was mine for the taking, all I needed was a bit of luck....I knew that if I played to the best of my abilities, that it would be very hard for someone to knock me out. I had sought the advice of many quality players in the strategy of how to approach this particular style of tournament. I was happy enough that I would small ball it for the first day, maintain my chips and try and move day 2.

I sat down at my table and only knew Noel Furlong. That was soon to change as I played a big hand with Nick Slade early on in level 2. There was alot of limping at my table as I had anticipated, people had adopted the strategy of seeing lots of flops and trying to flop gin. I think this is a futile strategy for certain reasons;

1) If everyone is implying this strategy , then despite lots of players being involved in pots it is unlikely that you will get paid sufficently as everyone is in there with muck.
2) You lose the valuble power of image later on in the tournament. In this format where play is deep being able to put a player to the test for all their chips later on is crucial. A good image helps this like nothing else.
3) The most obvious reason is that increasing your stack by 5-10k in the first few levels is largely irrelevant given how deep the stacks are.
4) Psychology wise and fatigue wise being involved in so many pots starts to take its toll, especially if little or no return is produced.

I decided to punish these players in position. There were 4 limpers and I raised up on the button with Q8 of hearts. Noel Furlong called and Nick did also. Flop came down 672. I continued for 2k. Noel folded and Nick re raised to 6k. I thought that he was at it so I made it 15k to go. I knew that he would fold all drawing hands here all 1 pair hands. He then makes it 30k!!!!! I folded giving him credit for a set when he showed A4 for AIR! I dont really like his play here, given the structure its an unwise move but that being said it was a great move.

I was suffering from people knowing who I was a little. This is clearly something I have had no experience of at all. What I do have in my favour was most players think Im a LAG but im really not at all. I had no problem sitting there waiting for my hands and picking up some pots here and there.

I was yo-yoing up and down in stack size. I would consider myself a "nice guy" at the table, always couteous and respectful. however I proformed an angle shoot that in hindsight I am not proub of. I raise with q10 to 600. The Clamper throws in a 10k chip and 500chip, he meant to call but obviously got it wrong. I asked him how much he had left and he said 16k. I shoved all -in and he folded. It was an honest mistake by him but I was frustrated and wanted some chips. If that shove was excusable then showing the Q10 was not. I apologised to him after the break and the gentleman he is he accepted my apology.

Nick was a thorn in my side not letting me play my own game at all, I was delighted when he got knocked out. Infact as soon as he left I went from 40k to 120k in 2 levels. I think those 2 hours of poker were the best ive ever played. I didnt show down one hand, instead just put pressure on and used the structure to my advantage.

Then i got moved to a table featuring Chris Dowling, Donal Norton and Vesty Geoghgan. I played quite tight and maintained my stack. Then I pick up AA in the cut off. I raise to 2k, Donal in the BB calls. Flop comes 78J, He check raises me to 10k. I know Donal so well and he likes to tangle with friends in pots. I knew he didnt know the strength of my hand but he could have anything from a flushdraw to a hand like J10. I decided to raise to 25k, he dwelled then moved in on me. I folded quickly and he showed 109 for the nuts. This was just the start.........

I then picked up AK and raised agin to 2k, a french guy to my left who had been looking to get his 20k stack in all day makes it 6k to go. I shove on him, he snaps with 1010. His tens hold. Now I dont normally play this hand (AK) that strong but in this case I thought Id be getting value from hands I crush AJ-AQ, that he would fold alot of hands that Im flipping against and also that if I call and hit I don't think hes paying me off with an underpair. Thoughts on this?

So I get moved table with a 40k stack. Still more than enough but behind my target of 70k for the day. I had been quite active and talkative at this new table. Talking in between hands is a tactic I use to give the impression of a LAG and hence get paid easier. I picked up AK diamonds and make it 2500 from UTG. The button makes it 8k. Now, as I said I normally call and dump the hand if I miss. I raised to 20k pretty much committing myself. He dwells then shoves, I make the reluctant call and he has KK. K on the turn seals my faith! I was so upset after this, how could I lose a 120k stack at the 400-800 level! Am I as good as I had hoped? Would a more experienced player of played the hands differently? Or was it simply bad luck?

After studying my play I think that I played the AA and first Ak fine. However I should of just called the 6k and dumped to a continuation on the flop in the last AK hand. I do think that if the previous 2 hands don't happen I only lose 6k in the 3rd hand! Either way, I'm nowhere near where I want to be although I have made huge improvements in my game and shown some good results of late without having too much luck. I hate beating myself over this bustout but I really don't know what happened.........Maybe I have just learned the most imprtant lesson of all, poker is poker and sometimes no mattr what you do you can't win everytime.

2009-02-04T03:45:00.000-08:00

Its been awhile since I lasted posted and the buzz of the IPC has certainly passed. I have been away on the trip of a lifetime. Three weeks around Europe and not one hand of poker.

Myself and about 20 friends had booked flights to Amsterdam way back in November , and although I wasnt going to go until the last minute I packed my bags and made the trip. It was a four day binge of fun! It was my first time in "The Dam" and it was amazing, I loved it. Now, I know I said 4days..........so how did that turn into 3 weeks???

Well, my friend lost his passport the day we were leaving. I discovered the missing passport was in my pocket whilst on my way to the airport! So in actual fact it was my passport that was missing, we found the offending passport and had enough time to make the flight but we were fed up and tired so decided to stay.

The next day we went to the train station and booked a 2 week interrail ticket. I wont bore you or go into the incriminating detail but over the next 2 weeks we hit up Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, Interlackin, London and Edinburgh. We went skydiving in the swiss alps, lots of drinking and other "fun activities"!

So that might explain why I have posted in awhile. I got back last week and have been playing a bit online. I plan to play the European Deepstack this week. I really fancy this one, I think my game is suited to deepstack play. I have been seeking the advice of certain players who I consider the best at this format and the have confirmed my own views on strategy. Ive been on a very good run as of late without having oo much luck, so hopefully I can get some hands to hold up.

I have lost nearly $4k in the last two days as I write this. Its my worst downswing in plo that Ive experienced. I have gotten it in a number of times huge favourite and been sucked out on again and agin. Its so demoralising and tilt inducing but I need to just keep patient and grind it back. I cant really complain its my first serious losing streak since I started playing online last April. I take in heart in the fact that I am happy with how I have been playing hands, my only complaint would be that I feel I am losing value on the river. I put this down to be sucked out on so many times that Im checking when I should be betting.

On a happier note I got my exam results and I did alot better than I thought! Also good luck to Pete Murphy in his challenge on Boyle Poker. I certainly don't envy it, turning $100 into $10,000 in only 11 weeks is a hard challenge. Its something Ive often wondered about, would I be able to do it with the right bankroll management? Infact sometimes Ive sat down and said "right im gonna stick to a 18buy in rule and grind it up". If I'm lucky it will last a couple of days before Im taking a shot at the bigger games. Hopefully he can do it and show everyone how possible it is!

Hitting the Post

2009-01-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

It’s been awhile since my last entry. The last month I have been swamped with study for my exams and have played a small quantity of poker but luckily it has been of good quality.

Straight after the Bruce Poker Launch, I played the Sporting Emporium €500 game. Although a small field of 40 or so players I thought it was one of the strongest fields Id played in. I was determined to back up my success with a solid showing. I got off to a slow start but built my stack slowly. The structure was wonderful and I was never under pressure. Late on day 1 I made a hero call and my two pair was a mile behind the flush of my opponent. I was angry at myself for the call, as I’ve been working hard on my tourney game and trying to avoid marginal spots. Fortune favours the stupid in this case and the board pairing gives me a huge stack.

The final table was full of good players most notably Paul, Leckey. Chris Dowling, who came 3rd in the Bruce poker was there and another great performance by him. I was really in control of the table and my own game. I crashed out in 5th. I managed to lose KK to AJ, KK to A5, AK to AJ and KK to A8. At that stage of the tournament picking up huge hands like this generally means a cake walk but some unreal bad fortune and I was walking.

The exams were next priority and two weeks off poker. I was happy with how I did and hopefully the results will be kind. Just chilled out with my friends and had more than a few boozy nights out.

I have been playing a lot of 2-4 PLO and after a break even start I have been winning at the game now for over three months. My PLO game has come on leaps and bounds although I am prone to the major mistake here and there.

I went home for Christmas and the New Year. Galway is always a good place to be for the festive season and spending time with my family ahs been great. I had a rough couple of weeks with my personal life in the lead up to Christmas, so to get away was much needed.

The New Year kicked in and I was considering playing the IPC in Galway. The 2k buy-in seemed very expensive for me, I had been winning quite a lot lately and my bankroll has soared upwards but I still found it hard to justify the price tag. I planned on playing cash, playing the side events and doing some hardcore drunk railing. That all changed when I won a seat in the super sat the night before the big one. I was relishing the opportunity to pit my skills against some of the world’s best players in a decent buy-in tournament.

I started ok. I was at a table with Oz and nobody else I recognised. Oz was quite active and playing very well. I was tired and in no mood for the tournament. I went down to 6k in chips and managed to get in 50bbs miles behind to Oz. His KK was no match for my AK though as the Ace of spades stopped by to say hello and wake me up a little. I woke up after that and a table change was welcomed. I was moved to a table with Liam Flood and he was really running the table. I tried to play back at him and pick up chips when he wasn’t in pots. I did this successfully and ended the day 3rd in chips with 56k. Went for a few beers after and got to bed at 5ish. This tournament was really good fun and I was mixed with excitement and confidence.

Day 2 started and I was beside Rory Liffey, Jon Kalmer and Paul Leckey. I think I played the best 7 hours of poker I’ve ever played. We spent 5 of those hours on the TV table and in those 5 hours I went to showdown only once and managed to build my stack from 60k to 100k. I was so happy with my play given the calibre of the line up and toughness of my seat. We were moved to an outside table for the last hour, we reached the bubble and I raised 7 pots in succession. I have heard of stories of pro’s taking advantage of the bubble but this was the first time I have the balls to e so brash. I increased my stack to 150k and ended the day when the bubble burst. There was some drama about chips being added and the last I heard is that the have evidence of a player adding chips to his stack but he played on. Watch this space; it will be very interesting to see how this unfolds. Poker is a game built on honesty and a man is only as good as his word. I would hate to see the games reputation tarnished due to the greed and stupidity of one player.

I wound down the night with a few too many beers with the lads. Big “C” was in great form and after spending the weekend drinking with him I can confirm that he is a top buzzer! Rees, was still in and doing well. We swapped 5% once we got in the money. Chubs and Fallon were around and Donal was going well in the side event.

Day 3 was a disaster. Simple as that. I picked up no hands and anytime I made a move on anyone I got caught. Ben Vinson was a huge chip leader and pounding away at our table. I had no chips to play back at him. I tried to make a move with J9 but he stuck me in after dwelling for ages. I have been told by the commentary team he had K7. I think it will make great viewing on TV for sure! Reesy was crushing the outside tables and looking solid. We got down to 10 players and I was desperate to make the final table. Ben opened again and I shipped with KJ. I was under the average stack and needed to get busy. He called with his huge stack and tabled K8. I knew the 8 was coming and I was right, in fact 2 eights showed their ugly heads and I was sent packing! Out in 10th. A good result in reflection but I really thought my name was on the trophy this time. I was so disappointed but after some food with my family and a few pints with the lads I was really proud of my self. I was delighted with the way I played and conducted myself over the weekend. Jon Kalmer was an absolute gentleman and had nothing but encouraging words to say bout my game. Liam Flood and Big C also sung my praises. Coming from these guys it’s just an inspiration and such a confidence builder.

All I could do now was rail Reesy and hope he takes it down. I think Rees is the best player I know. His table presence is so impressive and intimidating; he is ice cold and unflappable. Every time I watch him play I really do learn. Chubs, Adam, BCB and Donal were getting a little noisy in the viewing area. Chris Dowling was there yet again. The guy is on a phenomenal heater and I couldn’t wish it upon a nicer guy. Pretty soon Reesy had most of the chips and after a big hand with Ben; he was heads up with Chris. In a match that swung back and forth Rees managed to close it out in the end. A great result and we partied hard into the night. Went to bed after breakfast and some lewd behaviour.

All in all, it’s been a great couple of months for me and the support I get always humbles me and thanks to everyone who wishes me well. In a weekend when the name of poker may have been tainted, I just look around at the genuine support I receive I have no fear for the reputation of this game.

Brucey's Play Your Cards Right!

2008-11-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

No, not the game show with the old racist dinosaur himself. Rather the launch of another poker site, Bruce Poker. It was an eventful weekend to say the least.

14th November Friday.

Bit depressed really, Its my 22nd birthday. No fun past 21, or so my younger friends inform me. Nobody around at all, no celebrations, no drinking. The most low key birthday I ever have had. Got a call from Donal, about this Bruce poker thing. "Sounds good but I think I'll head to the match." I had been looking forward to the All Blacks coming to town now for a long time, had a gut feeling we were gonna do it, despite the odds weighted heavily against us.

Certainly no time for poker, I had been running so bad the last month. At one stage I wondered was it really beatable. I questioned the mathematics behind it, too many bad beats for it to be mathematically correct. Even considered not playing again for the year and concentrating solely on my final year in college.

Then as happens, the sickness creeped in. I craved a bit of live action. I rang Donal back, " Yeah, grand I'll go, pick me up at 2ish". Bad idea but oh well, we'll give it a spin and have a good session tomorrow night regardless.

Saturday 15th November

Up for a soccer match at 11. Played my usual dodgy right back stuff. Despite my general rubbishness we won 6-3. Get ready and Norton and Chub pick me up and off to the races we go. I usually am very confident going into tournaments, excited about my game and just bursting with positive energy and thinking of the endless possibilities. I think strategy before hand, I prepare well. This time was the polar opposite. I was low on confidence. I didn't see my way past the first level and just kept thinking of all the bad beats that were waiting for me. I imagined them lined up like an all you can eat buffet, and boy was I hungry!

Ugh, I should be in Croker. Nothing but worms here and it sure as hell wasn't a rugby hotel. They had Sky Sports News on instead of the Scotland v SA match and wouldn't change. When in Rome and all that but this was a new low in my time spent in Wormville. Watching the score of the Barnet v Scunthorpe match which I imagined wasn't much different than the super league game I had played earlier.

Took my seat and I was delighted to see Tom Kitt to my right. Not for poker reasons but for the Banter Factor. He's a great guy and a solid player. In fact most of my running bad has been due to him, just not believing me! Happy table, only Peter Murphy that I knew and was wary of.

A couple of hours in and no cause for celebration, I had won a hand of TK where we were both messing, but had managed to give it back. Table change, I hoped for similar banter factors but gulped as I saw my table. Paul Lecky, Vesty, Keith McFadden, Chubbs and Liam Barker. Still I kept my head down, played my usual game and watched as they all fell one by one. All except Keith McFadden and Liam. I was glad to see a table change as Keith on my left wasn't giving it to me all my own way.

Late on Saturday, with 40 left and a below average stack, I clashed with Bruce himself. I raised from the button with AK and Bruce flats from the sb. Flop is Q 3 6 and he checks. I have a little more than the pot but not much, I push. Bruce snaps and tables AQ. I need the Kingball and need it bad. A on the turn, no help. Im standing up ready to shake hands, BOOM!!!! The butcher rears his head and I win the Brucey bonus and move my stack up to 200k. That was the only real suckout I had all tournament. I made another brave call with one pair on a J1096Q board and was good. I finished the day remarkably as the chip leader on over 300k. It was 5 o Clock and I needed some rest.

Sunday 16th November

Straight into it on Sunday around 1ish. Didn't really recognise anyone at my table bar Liam whom I had now played over 18 hours poker beside. I was comfortable and had a plan. As happens when you start getting comfortable, disaster struck!! In the second hand of play I lost 2/3 of my chips and after 10 hands of play In what was the only hand I felt I really misplayed I had laid down the best hand. I was sick with what had happened. Smurph was railing and gave me a lot of support and brought me a Lucozade and told me to keep the chin up. I know it sounds silly but I was aware that Collette reads my blog and had taken on board what I had written bout discipline and tilt. I wanted to throw my chips in several times after that but felt it would be hypocritical. So I folded and folded and then folded some more to the constant re raising I was under. Then I shoved on the button for 7 bbs and got the fortunate double up, I picked up QQ and doubled through again. Before I knew it I had an average stack and we were now 14 handed. I decided that a top 5 place was where the money was and I didn't care bout coming 13th or 8th! I upped my aggression and re shoved 5 times in a row, with speculative hands. By the time the final table came I was sitting pretty on 400k.

Ugh, Keith now on my left yet again! The defining hand of the tournament for me was a few orbits into the FT. Keith opened utg for 40k, 2 callers, I looked down at AA and moved in. I knew it would be hard for Keith to lay down any sort of hand here. He had seen how aggressive I was all weekend. He moved in and showed JJ. I held up and doubled through to nearly 900k. I had crippled my biggest threat also. I played solid from then on, and chaired a few deal making sessions that I think worked out for everyone. We were soon 3 handed, I had made a good call with 88 after being check raised all in on a Q high board. Chris and Owen got in a huge pot. They both flopped the straight, Owen the higher straight and I was fortunate to be heads up.

I had 20% of the chips to Owen's 80%. He was playing excellent and I knew with the sizes of stacks that I couldn't out play him on flops. I had to double through quick, so I pushed nearly all hands. Eventually he called my K7 with AJ and the K high flop was no good as he rivered trip J's. Still I was delighted and proud of my performance over a tough field. I took my novelty cheque and alot more from the weekend.

I headed out to Coppers with some of the lads and we celebrated hard.

Thanks to everyone who supported me on boards, I was taken back by all the well wishes. Special thanks to Tom Kitt who was there for every hand I played after his deepish run ended late Saturday night. To Smurph, Tadgh, Donal, Rob Taylor, Chub, Paul, Gary Clarke, Sam and Adam and the ever beautiful Vera Duffy who railed me all the way. Jp and Bruce poker who were as always brilliant in their running of the tournament.

Check my pockets, but there ain't no change.

2008-10-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well, headed south to Killarney for the wormfest. Have to say was a great weekend, well run and everyone seemed to have a great time. I for one certainly did. It got off to the worst possible start for me when I discovered my bank card had been broken and the strip damaged to the point that it couldn't work. Ugh, busto is no fun. I borrowed money off the lads for the weekend but it gave me a real insight into worming it up! My experience, albeit different than most that borrow ( due to the fact I have the money), was not fun. Playing with borrowed money, does something to your psych! I didn't like it and needless to say will never let it happen again. The life of a degen worm is not for me! Trust me, they were out in full force at the Glen Eagles. All shapes and sizes, genders and abilities made the pilgrimage to The Kingdom. All were chasing the prize, the 100k first prize that everyone could taste.

I didn't play the super sat, instead did a quick monkey in the cash tables, before having a few beers. The night was quiet enough. Just enjoying the banter and the excellent bar facilities offered. Seemed like everyone I knew who played the sat, won a ticket. The mainer itself was short lived for me. I went out after the dinner break, I never got over 17k chips and just couldn't get anything going. Bluffs weren't working, I was being bluffed and every time I woke up with a hand someone had a better hand. Ended up getting it in in semi good shape, open ended straight flush draw against the aces. No BOOM BOOM time for me. Blessing in disguise really as I was first to the bar and dint have to Que!

Went out to hit Killarney town hard! Had hit up the offy for supplies when we got back. Went to this place the Grand. Some band were playing some quality tunes and the place was in full flight. The place was strange, a traditional Irish bar in the front. Walk through past the stairs that leads down to the toilets and you find yourself in a club. Not just any club, I felt I had landed in Offaly somewhere, it was a pure pilled up rave! Needless to say all the worms had found their way here! Some serious rounds being drank quicker than they got drunk. Ended up back in the apartments with Tom Kitt banging out the tunes on the guitar! Some crazy home game poker action kicked off, prob the biggest game in Ireland happened in our apartment in the early hours of Saturday morning. Good thing I was passed out cold, or I would of been borrowing against my tilt a/c to get in and lose it!

Saturday started slowly, availed of the leisure facilities on offer to cure the hang over. Watched a bit of X factor with the lads while nursing the longnecks down. Went over to the mainer where Fallon was still ploughing away. Had a few more beers before back to the pill fest. Unreal night of dancing, drinking and dropping trousers and taking off shirts. Throw in a few lessers and another few Vodka redbulls and it was amazing. O Shea was up to his usual tricks. Harassing good looking girls, abusing fat birds and assaulting absolute munters. Now in full flight, ripping plants and hurling them like bombs. I decided it was time he was taken down a flight of stairs after getting a Rhododendron right in the face.I got confirmation off Tom and Norton that this would be funny and he would do it to me. I banged in 999 on the blower and reported a huge disturbance. Literally, 3minutes later two squad cars and a van showed up, swarming O Shea full all sides.

He turned into the biggest softie in the world. The guards had a sense of humour and made him replant the plants lying about the street! We had left him and were now back in the bar with Fallon and Noel Hayes. Their reaction to what happened confirmed that it was indeed the right thing to do! O Shea came back an hour or so later, just in time to fuck Fallon into the torn bushes. Then we fucked O Shea in the bush. A good Samaritan arrived to help pull both of them out. As soon as he had helped O Shea out of the bush, O Shea decided to throw him in the bush! A move he didn't take kindly! Norton used he's diplomatic skills to cool it down. Diplomacy mustn't be Tipperary's forte as he received a box in the nose for his efforts. A bit of handbags ensued, but nothing more. Again, headed back for some drinking and singing in the apartment.

Sunday was a blur to me, no chance of heading back to Dublin. Obviously O Shea declared war and is planning my downfall. We'll see how much game he has!Instead went for a great meal with the company of Vera and Kevin Duffy. Afew glasses of wine and we were ready to rock again. Same winning formula, out to town and back for a session. Scott Grey and Parky giving me a brief history of poker and some of their stories are priceless.Lasted till 8 in the morning before we were kicked out.

I'm dying now but what a weekend. Not much poker played on my behalf. Was disappointed with my performance and certain aspects of my game. Grinding away online now and concentrating on my studies. Apologies to anyone who was offended by any of the antics. Hope everyone had a great weekend and well done to all those that won.

You Wouldn't Know A Squeezin' From A Shaftin'!!!!

2008-09-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Haven't had much to report the last few weeks. I am really enjoying being back in the college buzz and have been attending lectures quite regularly. Poker has taken a back seat. I took all my money off my Full Tilt and Party accounts there last week, with the idea to open an Ipoker account and playing exclusively on it. I have to say that probably my best achievement in poker has been my Party account. In Vegas back in June, under the influence of Chubs and John O Shea, I realised that online was the way to crack this game. The amount of time I spent grinding it out in the SE could of been used to much greater effect online.

Like most live players I had dabbled in the online realm. Depositing $100 dollars here and there for a tournament spin every know and again. I had some success, in fact I managed to cash in the $750,000 on Tilt. Inexperience costing me a final table spot as I crashed myself out in 10th. The following week, a mixture of determination and naivety banked me a 18th finish in the same event. At the time I didn't realise how rare those opportunities come by, I do know that I am better prepared now if the opportunity arises again. Still those cashes really got my bankroll rolling and whet my appetite for this game. Needless to say I cashed out the full amount the very next day.

So lying on my cheap bed in my even cheaper hotel room, I opened up the lapper and clicked on the Party Poker icon. I had deposited $500 in it one boring evening and tried my luck at 5-10. Needless to say I spun it up and then watched helplessly at it spun back down. So I was surprised to see that I had $37 left in it. I went to deposit but because I was in the States I was unable to deposit. Ugh, well here goes nothing. I jumped into four $5 dollar sng's and as soon as I had a buy in for $200 NL that's where I headed. Needless to say I ran like god, I managed to make 5 withdrawals of $1000 each while I was in the States. I took the rest of the money off the site last week and I felt great satisfaction in turning $37 dollars into $7500 without going bust in 3 months.

As I said, poker has taken a back seat lately. My only venture into the sickness was on my new Boyle account, where I put $500 on and managed to bust that pretty quick. Myself Donal and Chub decided to SE Killarney sat a go last night. There were 4 tables going and some colourful characters there, which made for good fun. I had been upset with my tournament form lately. Felt I didn't have the patience required and most of my exits were on bluffs. I seemed to regain some control on my game and was never under pressure as I picked up a ticket. Vera, Sam Ali among the others who scooped one.

Killarney is next now. Won't play a huge amount before then. Really looking forward to it and bout time I put in a decent performance. I will be working on patience and control and hopefully the rest will take care of itself. More importantly, its shaping up to be a great weekend and a highlight of the poker calender as so many of Ireland's poker aristocrats will be there.

Good Luck to all involved and see you there!

A New Year!

2008-09-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

Started back to college on Monday. I had some re-arranging and fiddling to do with my course, so I was extremly stressed the last week. I didn't do too well in my summer exams so this year, will have to be an improvement.

Playing alot of Omaha latly. Mostly playing 1/2. However there was only a 2/4 deepstack game going on Tilt when I logged in. I sat down with $400 and within the first hour had got it up to 1200. Then I was involved in what turned out to be my biggest pot I ve played online. 2 players at the table covered me. All 6 players saw the flop for $14 dollars, I held the Ad 5d 4x 4x. The flop came 2.4.5. Nice I check and the initail raiser pots it, I flat and 2 others do too. The turn comes Qd. This gives me the nut flush draw to add. I check raise and all 4 of us get it in. The initail raiser held A 3 Q Q, another A 3 7 8 and the shortie had clubs. I prayed the board didnt pair and a nice diamond hit.......Bingo a 4 for quads. The pot was over 4k. My biggest online pot and a nice way to relieve some stress.

Starting a new college semester is very much the same as starting a New Year to me. Its full of resolutions, excitement and hope. Coincidentally, just like a New Year, it ends , in breaking all resolutions, creeping into bad habits and in a ditch as people shout the countdown. This time though I am determined to change all that. I am cutting back on my live poker in order to study more. Well atleast make my lectures. Up all night in the Sports isnt good preparation for a 9 o'clock lecture! I intend to make better use of the hours I have been given. That means, no more procastinanting on the couch watching Dr. Phil and Jeremy Kyle back to back. No more Playstation, a gym routine that Mike Tyson would of been proud of and a strict rule about still attending my lectures even when hungover! Your sitting there reading this rightly shaking your heads thinking " This is the biggest load of codswapple I have ever heard." Maybe so, but the intentions are there. Thats all that matters....Right?

My poker calender tends to coincide with the commencing of my college year. Its when my profit and loss accounts are tallied up and the previous years bottom line is determined. Its also when I write down my poker goals. I'm still only new to this game and last September was my first profit and loss account and my first time setting goals. I had to laugh when I read my goals for last year. They read as such;

Win afew live tourneys in the SE.

Win 75% of my Live Cash sessions.

Start playing online more.

Read lots of books and study my game.

Concentrate on the winning players in the SE game and study their game.

Make 5k for summer.

Im glad to say I achieved all my goals! Infact I exceeded my goal of making 5k by some margin. All in all, I had 2 losing months( May, June). I won a little shy of 30k live in Dublin, with most of that coming in the No-Limit game in the Sports where I quite to my astonishment won 75% of my sessions. My biggest losing night was 1400 and my biggest winning night was 3700. I was a loser in live tournaments, down roughly 3k. More importantly I was very happy with my development as a player. I have a long way to go but feel like I can mix it with alot of players now that last September would of moped the floor with me.

So when writing out my goals for this year, well they were extremly different. I won't get into them in specifics, because they are personal and I don't want a situation where someone thinks my goals are out of reach for me and I have disillusions about my ability. They include, moving up levels online, become a solid Omaha player and a good showing in a major tournament. Like my college goals, my attempts may prove futile but I'll have a hell of a time trying!

I'll leave you with a quote that I have had on my wall since I can remember.

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them."

Denis Watley

2008-09-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

The 3 P’s

Patience

· Patience is a well known attribute that all top poker players have. It is important to distinguish between being loose and being impatient. Famous LAG’s such as Gus Hansen and Dario Mineri may appear to lack patience. These players don’t lack patience and when the game requires it, have no problem sitting waiting for hands. Poker, unlike say blackjack, has no memory. The cards do not remember the previous hand. You are never “due” in poker. It is important to remember this and not to let your standard of decision making drop because you have lost patience. It is also important to remember that we are all human and will for whatever reason lose patience now and again. The key is to recognise this and simply leave the table. Patience is not sitting there waiting for Aces and Kings, it is the ability to consistently play your own game and keep your standard of decision making high despite long runs of bad cards.

Persistence

· Poker is a game of odds. A good player can only try and get his money in on the right side of the odds. This player will win in the long term; in fact if adequately bankrolled and consistent then this player will never be broke. Simple really. Well, not quite. There will be times when you lose despite huge mathematical advantages. This can be depressing, expensive and tilt-inducing. Having the ability to keep faith in your own game and not let your standard drop as a result is a key attribute of a winning player. Persisting with your game despite long losing periods will pay dividends. With patience, persistence and self-confidence you will be using your mental game to help rather than hinder your performance.

Practice

· Practice is hugely important. Most players don’t practice; they turn on “auto-pilot” and glide through sessions. Every session and tournament is practice. You should be dissecting your performance and learning all the time. Smaller tournaments should be seen as practice opportunities to try new things and learn from them. You can practice poker. When we are under pressure, we revert to habit. When we practice we should imagine ourselves at the final table of the Irish Open or the WSOP. It is important to remember that practice doesn’t make perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect. When you play a “practice” game (any small tournament or cash session) what you do will become habit. So if you let yourself tilt, in essence you are practising tilt. Then there should be no surprise when you do find yourself tilting in a pressure situation. Practising good qualities, like patience and consistency will stand to you and may make all the difference when you do find yourself in a pressure situation.

It’s easy to see that these characteristics overlap and is heavily linked. Reaching your potential isn’t easy, if it were poker would be a much fairer game. In all sports and games where you try to outwit and out-play your opponent, there is no room for compassion. You try and find your opponents weaknesses and exploit them. This is ever truer in poker, where weaknesses are mental. If you make a conscience effort to practice and incorporate good habits into your game then your weaknesses will be harder to find, thus harder to exploit.

The Importance of a Pre-Hand routine.

Again in sports where you start the action such as golf, snooker and darts. The pre-shot routine is vital to ensuring your consistency. Your Pre-hand routine is nothing more than a mental state of mind where you focus on getting yourself mentally and physically ready to make the best decisions possible- it frees your mind from negative thoughts and allows your body to stay relaxed by keeping physical motion constant. You should look at your cards, the same way every time. Try and avoid placing a chip or card protector on your cards only when you plan on playing a hand. Avoid having your cards ready to be mucked before the action gets to you. You’d be surprised the amount of bad habits that players have pre-flop. Chris Ferguson’s pre-hand routine is the most consistent. Watch him, he gives nothing away. A pre-hand routine should clear your head of any past hands and enable you to make the best decisions possible on the particular hand in question.

The 3 C’s

Confidence

· I have already discussed the differences between game confidence and self confidence. Confidence is probably the attribute that links the top players together more than any other attribute. You need to have an inner self arrogance. You need to feel you are the best, in order to compete with the best. I don’t mean being cocky and arrogant at the table, just a quiet confidence. Often a brash and cocky player will give of the impression he/she thinks that he/her is the best. A lot of the time these players are the ones most liable to tilt and are often hiding their insecurities in themselves as a player. A true confidence in oneself doesn’t fluctuate, is not jealous, and just is there. A truly self confident player should be able to give of the aura of confidence without doing anything. Being able to portray confidence in your ability at the table is a huge weapon to have in your artillery.

Consistency

· In poker you need to constantly mixing you’re game up in order to succeed at the higher levels. When I talk about consistency, I mean you’re mental consistency. You should work hard on getting a consistent level of performance. It is important to play every session and tournament with full concentration. Work hard at making consistent decisions at a high level of thought. Tiredness and tilt is the number one reason that a players consistency slips. If you practice hard at not letting bad beats affect your next decisions, and not playing when you are tired you will see more consistent results. Everybody tilts, but most players just let it happen. Make a conscience effort not to tilt and with your pre-hand routine you will improve your mental consistency and thus improve your results.

Concentration

· Poker players are used to playing long sessions, 10 hour sessions are normal. Therefore keeping concentration levels high is fundamental to success. T.V commercials are usually 15-30 seconds long because that is the standard length of time a human can keep attention for without their mind straying. Try looking at a pen and fully concentrate on the pen, it won’t be long before you lose concentration. Schools have 40-60 minute classes because that is the recommended time a teenagers mind can concentrate on a subject without a break. So when you consider a 10 hour session, it is impossible to keep full concentration for that period of time. Top golfers are taught to concentrate on anything but golf in between shots. Tiger Woods, renowned for the best concentration of any golfer only gets in the “zone” once he is within 10 steps of his ball. Until then he chats, jokes with his caddy and takes in the atmosphere. The tough thing about poker is that even hands you are not involved in are crucial to you. I would recommend trying hard to concentrate on any serious hands that are taking place. Trying to guess you’re opponent’s hole cards in serious hands you are not involved in. In between these serious hands and hands in which you are involved, concentrate on other things. If you are a talker, then talk, bout anything other than poker. If not then listen to music. If you don’t listen to music and don’t like talking, then practice some meditation techniques that can relax your mind and improve your concentration. If you can improve your concentration then you will not fatigue as easily and thus continue to make better decisions.

None of these techniques matter if you are lacking any of the 3 D's.

Desire
Discipline
Determination

These are self explanatory, and I feel are the hardest to practice. You either have these attributes or don't. That's what makes them the most important, because without a desire to improve or a determination to succeed, nothing else matters. On the flip side with these attributes in abundance, I believe that you can overcome natural abilities and punch well above your weight!

As I said, these last few posts are thought processes that help me and my game. Hopefully they may of helped you.

2008-08-25T06:18:00.000-07:00

I will go through certain aspects that have been important to my game. I can not stress enough that I am posting this because these thought processes have helped my game and maybe it will help your game too. I'm not a psychologist(although I do study it), these are merely my observations. The next few posts will go over some processes that have helped my game, my profit and my attitude at the table.

It is important to distinguish between game-confidence and self-confidence.

· Game-Confidence

When a player is running good, winning pots and hitting cards he/she has game confidence. This is the feeling you get when every pocket pair you look down at, you have no doubt you are hitting a set. In reality, you are still going to miss flops and look down at rags just as much as usual but it is your mental attitude that causes you to see only the positive side and the possibilities that your hand offers. Needless to say this is where players are most profitable, make better decisions and portray the characteristics that make a winning player. Usually a bad beat, tiredness or long run of average cards are what ruins a players game-confidence. When you merely have game-confidence, you believe that you will do well because you have recently been doing well. This confidence disappears quickly as soon as flops are missed and hands don’t hold up.

· Self-Confidence

Self-confidence differs from game-confidence, it’s your fixed view of your game. A player that hopes to win needs self-confidence. This is confidence in one’s ability to consistently win. Confidence to consistently make the correct decisions and accept the outcomes. When a player lacks self-confidence, they will struggle to enjoy themselves at the table and will almost always lose. Self-confidence is far more valuable, with self confidence you know that, no matter what the circumstances on any given day you can play your game. You can not develop self-confidence over night but it is important to work at if you are to maximize your potential.

Acceptance

When playing a session of poker you must turn off the critic inside. Every poker player is their own biggest critic. Self analysis is crucial for improving your game but will be a hindrance during a session. This is where acceptance comes into play. If you are accepting of your results during a session, you can stay in the present; the hand you just played is in the past. Acceptance of your results will help stop you from steaming until after the session. This is obviously far more profitable in the short and long term. By making acceptance part of your mental approach you will be a far more formidable opponent. You will be able to make clear decisions based on logic rather than trying to rectify previous hands you played badly. Once the session is over, you should go home and then go through the hands you played and critic them as needed. Get angry about the mistakes you made after the session, rather than during the session.

This is a technique that Padraig Harrington has applied. He credits the technique of acceptance in having a defining role in his recent major triumphs. He says that because he can accept the outcome of his shot before he hits it then he eliminates added pressure that he puts on himself. Also if he does hit a bad shot the next shot won't suffer as a result of tilt or anger. I believe this technique can be applied to poker with similar effects.

The Poker Mind

2008-08-13T23:02:00.000-07:00

When I was 16 I was a promising young golfer. I was working hard and on my way to a collegiate golf scholarship in the States. I had finished my leaving cert and was working at the K Club in Kildare where I would practice 6-8 hours a day. It was a lonesome sort of existence and I would spend large periods of time with just my thoughts and a bucket of balls. I learned a lot about myself and what it takes to reach your potential. The sacrifices that is necessary in order to reach your goals.

I spent countless hours reading psychology books about controlling your emotions and getting the best out of yourself. I have been fortunate to have worked with some top sports psychologists also. Sports in general are “reaction” sports. An athlete is trained to react. A tennis ball fired at you, you have no time to think, and you just react. A gun fires and you just run, or swim. No questions, no doubts. You just do it. In soccer a ball fizzes into your path and you just kick it, instinctively towards the goal or a teammate. This is where golf differs from most sports. You start the action. Therefore you have time to think. There is time for negative thoughts or last minute doubts to creep in. Take for example a penalty shootout. Some of the best players in the world have missed crucial penalties, give them a pass in the same position with defenders around them and they just hammer the ball into the back of the net- instinctively. Put them in a dead ball situation and doubts and negative thoughts can cause them to miss. You need your mental game to help you rather than hinder you.

Poker is very much like golf in this regard. Poker is not psychical, it is mental. It is not based on reactions. You have time to think, so how you think will determine how well you do. Good mental habits are needed to succeed at poker. Over the next few weeks i will be posting what I believe to be crucial in order to succeed. I don’t claim to be an expert on anything; these are simply my observations and an insight into my preparation and thought process that has improved my poker game.

2008-08-02T13:58:00.000-07:00

Had a quiet few days in Newport before heading to the Commerce on Wednesday. My girlfriend and her friends were over from Chicago and wanted a night out in Hollywood. Managed to get a quick session in at the 2-5 level. First hand, haven’t even got any chips in front of me, as the chip runner has gone to get me them. I’m in the BB and 8 limpers and I look down at Q10. I check y option and the flop comes QQ10. Good start. Small blind decides to have a bluff at it which I think will screw me as no one else calls. To my surprise the idiot decides to have another stab at the pot, this time I push him all in and he makes the crying call with AK. Thank you very much. My chips arrive just in time for him to double the stack.

The hotel gets us a car into Hollywood. We go to the club “Les Deux”. The girls had their hearts set on this club. No chance we’re getting in, the red carpet is out along with photographers and a horde of good-looking people trying to talk their way in. I go up and check what the crack is.

“We’ve one table left sir”
“Eh, how much is the table”

What she said next seemed ridiculous, but we only live once. After all, we’re a bunch of poker creeps who have on more than one occasion played with the case money in front of us. A river card away from ending our short trip into poker degeneracy. It was a drunken night to say the least and everyone got well acquainted.

Played another two sessions in 5-10. The 400cap 5-10 game is way softer than the 1500cap 5-10 game. I won both my sessions in the 5-10 and was happy with the way I played. Continue to do well online. I plan to be playing 2-4 comfortably online by Christmas. Was talking to John the last night and he said my biggest challenge will be keeping my enthusiasm for the game. I am confident in my ability and if I am still playing with the same vigour and determination this time next year I am sure I will meet my goals.

2008-07-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

Finally got out of Vegas. Mixed emotions leaving Sin City, but he overwhelming sense of relief is unrivalled. Like so many other players who made the annual pilgrimage to Vegas I have learnt a lot about my game. I never thought I was the finished article and this trip just confirms that. I am a young player learning my trade and until I lose that hunger and eagerness to learn I will continue to develop as a player. I was down in live cash over here, which I thought would be my bread and butter. Despite playing some good poker in the tournaments I failed to cash in any of the 4 I played. It’s not all doom and gloom though, I was an online winner which went some way to cover my expenses. More importantly I made some great friends. I had some of the best nights out that I’ve ever had and the memories and images will always be with me.

As I’ve said before Vegas is a mixture of dreams and desperation. It’s a constant assault on all your senses. You can’t stop and smell the roses without something buzzing and flashing in your face. When you do get a moment to smell them, you soon realise they are fake. I certainly leave Vegas a better player than I arrived, even if I have emptier pockets. Education in Ireland is free; you don’t see all the hidden charges that add up. A poker education is the same, it’s not a free education and if you want to be the best you can be then you pay for it. Hopefully I’ll reap the rewards in years to come.

Flew down to Newport Beach late Friday evening. It's great to be back here with my college friends. Had a messy night on Friday, we played Edward 40 hands. This involves strapping two Forty ounce bottles of beer to your hands and you can only remove them when you finish. Obviously the things we take for granted, like peeing, become extremely hard tasks. Saturday night was the best night I’ve had in the states. We went to the local park that overlooks the OC and my friends were on the guitar pinging out the tunes. Had a few tins and a good chat with my best friends. Poker has taken a back seat for the time being, but I’m sure it won’t be long till the sickness creeps in again.

2008-07-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been spent recovering from some serious sessions with the odd bit of poker on the side. We had a pretty heavy night out there, myself and Donal bumped into KP and Pillow who were causing some trouble in the club! We were invited over to Marty’s for a kind of celebration get together. KP and Mr. Pillowtalk were doing a great job on the BBQ. Their house is unreal. There’s 8 or so staying there easily. It’s away from the hustle and bustle of the Strip, which is ideal. Definitely think it’s the way to go next summer. Less drinking than I thought took place; instead we just chilled in the hot tub, lazed around the pool and played some high stakes pool. I took some money off the basketball court, never knew I was a free-throw champion! Lost it all back to Marty and KP who were cleaning up on pool. Thanks to the lads for having us over.

Played the 1k mega sat for the main event. They got 290 runners, with 30 seats. It’s very crapshooty but very beatable. I had 20 big blinds with 50+ runners left. Got it in with AK against 55. He sets up and I’m sent packing. Win that flip and I’m pretty much guaranteed a seat. Still no joy over here. Just back from Caesar’s, where I played the 1k deep stack. You start off with 25k chips, but they skip nearly every second level and with antes you need to get motoring. That I did, I was up to 47k when I called a raise in the BB with 59c. 6 of us saw the flop which read 678 with two clubs. Happy days. Check raise the flop, guy in late flats. 3h on the turn, I lead he flats. 9s on the river. It’s all going in whether I check call or push. He tables j10 for the gutter! Nice back down to 20k and after losing a few small pots, I push with the open ender into the over pair. I’m a little frustrated here and can’t wait till we get back to Newport after the main event. Nothing has happened for me here. Been consistently winning on line which is bailing me out all the time. Along with the help I’ve been getting from John, Chub and Rees, I think I will be playing 80% of my poker online when I return to Ireland. Obviously I’ll still be dropping into the SE to say hi to the chief now and again.

Finally, we are finding it hard over here to get boards, but I managed to get on it due to Chubb’s ip changer. I can’t say I was surprised, but I found it sad to read some of the comments about Donal. I can only put it down to jealousy. Donal has enjoyed great success in such a short time playing. It’s important to realise that he is only playing for 2 years. More importantly, he has never claimed to be the finished article or a great player. I think comments like some of the ones made are in poor taste. He is doing well in the main event here, currently on 100k in day 2. Long may it continue.

2008-07-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

Vegas is the best place in the world. This statement is true, is you happen to be winning. The excess and affluence that Vegas throws at you if your winning is endless. Limo’s comps and easy women pour themselves at the winner. Private tables in fancy clubs, cocktails with more umbrellas than Gene Kelly. It takes awhile to get used to Vegas. If you’re winning, it’s the only place in the world. It’s easy and tempts you into thinking that it will never end. Its romantic, it’s epic and not real.

I have found Vegas draining. If you’re losing, it’s a cancerous cest pit. On the outside it looks as though Vegas is built on dreams. In reality, it’s built on desperation. Its wearing me down I really have to say. As the days and nights merge into one. The endless droning of slot machines and cheap singers is forever ringing in my ears.

I played another 3 sessions in the Venetian. I lost 2 of them. I’m constantly being dealt the 2nd best hand. As poker players know, the second best hand is the worst hand to have. I ended up getting it all in with AK on an AK8 board only to be shown 88. Standard really. Donal had a good session in the 5-10 game. Our spirits were contradicting as we left the Venetian.

I heard that Marty and Tom were doing well in the 10k plo and decided to go watch. The final table had just started and not that many people were there. The action was slow and after an hour I decided to leave. I went for some food and a swim. As I was walking back to the Rio a few hours later I was still depressed and wondering what was wrong with my game. I had no idea what was about to happen. My mood was about to take a dramatic change, for the better.

The Amazon Room in the Rio is enormous and was as always a wash with people from every walk of life. Some were losers, some were winners. There was a different kind of buzz in the Rio than I had experienced before. I walked past a crowd watching Phil Hellmuth try and win his first non-holdem bracelet in the 1.5k horse. I continued on around the back of the stand that over looked the main event. I was greeted with an inspiring and exciting sight. Anyone who was anyone in Irish poker seemed to be jammed into the stands. Noel Hayes was throwing beers to the people in the back like peanuts are dished out at a baseball game. The security was pleading with us to take our seats and keep quiet. It was a futile task as there wasn’t enough seats; we were standing in the aisles 6 deep. Neil Channing was nearly removed for jumping the rail to catch a glimpse of the action. Beers were being drunk and chants of “you’ll never beat the Irish” were filling the Amazon Room.

It was a sea of proud Irishman, cheering on our remaining hero. It was more reminiscent of a boxing match than a poker game. Marty soon was heads-up and hold the chip lead. Finally Marty called an all in from his competent opponent. They both held the nut straight; however Marty crucially had the redraw to the flush. The chants started “ Freeeeeeee Rooooolllll” over and over again. The Canadian support rallied together with responses of “ Brick, Brick Brick”. They got just that with the shiny red 8. Never mind, we were free rolling for a bracelet! “Club, Club, Club” rang aloud. Phil Hellmuth now looking on at the orgy of excitement. BOOM! The 6 of clubs hits. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion for the next few moments. Marty was engulfed by a sea of proud countrymen. Milwaukee’s best light was being thrown around in an endless supply.

After the formalities, we went to the nearest bar in the Rio. KP was quick to order “as many drinks as you can fit on the counter”. The hero arrived shortly after and we partied long into the night. There was no limos, no private tables at fancy clubs. Just a group of Irish poker players, celebrating, drinking a few beers and chatting. This is what I came to Vegas for, we were all winners.

2008-06-30T00:48:00.000-07:00

When your in Vegas for any substantial period of time, quite quickly you start to loose sense that you take for granted. Your body clock no longer knows what time it is. I recently woke up, glanced at my watch and had to work out whether it was 2am or 2pm. I've found myself eating more red meat than ever before. Worse at strange and unhealthy times of the day. All too often I have been eating a steak sandwich or a cheap Chinese at 4 in the morning before I go to bed. Waking up at 10 and having a pizza, isn't unusual. Only in Vegas for sure. I'll only be here for a week longer at most, so time to make the most of it and hopefully take some cash out of this Lego land.

Have won 75% of my cash sessions here, but can't seem to win more than a buy in at a go. Not a bad complaint to have but when you total all the expenses of hotels, food, and socialising, it feels like I'm only breaking even everyday. I have played solely in the Venetian whilst here. I would of liked to play in other casinos, but since its a great poker room and I've been winning there, I have seen no need to change it.

Decided to play the 1k Venetian Deepstack game today. Donal took some of my action and there were some other Irish playing. 15k starting stack and hour blinds. However they do skip the 150-300 and 500-1000 levels. I was playing really well and hoovering up the chips. I got my stack up to 50k when the average was bout 30k. Then disaster, with 119 left out of the initial 365, I flopped top set of Jacks, got called by QQ and turn comes the Q. Not too upset, if I win that pot Ive over 100k in chips when the average is 30k.

John, Chub and Valor have been helping me out with my online game and that has helped. I'm up nearly 4k online since I got to America. Spun $35 into 1k grinding through the levels the last week. Donal is low in spirits to be honest. He has had a mixture of running bad and playing bad but hopefully that will change. I'm sure he'll tell you bout it when he returns.

Went out with Donal O Connor and some more of the guys the other night. We went to Playboy bar in the Palms. It was unreal with a 360 view of Vegas. Some drunken scenes later on which John hinted at but I too must keep quiet bout the incident and protect the person involved. Plan on playing a few mega sats and more cash. Then back down to Newport for some more drunken antics.

2008-06-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

Newport was the best fun I've had in a long time. In what basically amounted to the equivalent to a week in Santa Ponzo, we arrived in Vegas late last night shattered but refreshed. On our penultimate night in Newport there was an all day pool party with dj's and plenty of drinking. Myself and Donal will def be heading back there after the WSOP and I think John and Chubb enjoyed it so much they will too.

Anyway we set of early on Wednesday morning. We rented a car and the plan was to get to 6 flags theme park, spend the day there and get to Vegas by midnight. Donal was driving and John was the co-pilot. Donal's driving was border-line wreck less and scary to say the least, bit like his poker. He got us to 6 flags nonetheless. It was a great day and we went on nearly every ride. We did a bungy jump thing, which involved me, John and Norton strapped together and hoisted up on a rope 200ft in the air, then released. We free fall 50ft before the rope takes control and we glide back and forth. There's a video of it floating around somewhere.

We got back on the road and arrived in Vegas at bout 2. Booked into the Gold Coast for the next 2 weeks. Played today in the Venetian. Played the 2-5 game. Was sitting next to Gary Clarke. Managed to walk away with $500 profit. Donal's gone playing the main event super-satellite. Heading out on the booze with Chubb later. Met Lloyd there, he was going deep in the Venetian plo 500 deepstack. Good luck to him.

Should be good fun out here this week, lots of the Irish starting to roll in. Hope to play a few Venetian deepstacks and some satellites for the main event. Been getting a lot of help off Chubb and John with my online game. So hopefully that will continue to grow.

The Real O.C

2008-06-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Newport and is been a messy few days. The Commerece got us a car from the casino to Newport Beach. It was slightly embarrassing arriving in a blacked out Lincon. We're staying here with my college friends. These guys are struggling to get jobs over here and trying to get by on no more than 20 bucks a day, so I'm always conscience of that fact and don't want to be telling them bout my 3k swings. Obviously they all know that Donal won that amount of money but things couldn't of been smoother and we all got on really well and went on a great session. It really is a different life we( the poker community) live. We don't value money the same way as "normal people". I hung out by the pool for a few hours drinking a few cool ones. Then I decided to go and do some potting upstairs. I played on Party and won a little over a thousand dollars in under an hour. As I was closing the laptop one of my friends was dressed in a dickie bow and was off to work as a cinema usher, in what will amount to no more than $7 an hour. Its both humbling and puts things in perspective. This was me last summer on a J1 in Canada before I stumbled into the poker world by accident. Some year!

The first night we got here, we all went out on the lock and hit a really good club just down the road from the apartment complex we're staying in. I decided to jump into the pool with my clothes on when we got back. Soon everyone was doing it and bodies were flying. The security guy wasn't impressed to say the least so we moved the party to one of the girls apartments. Nothing to report there. Donal briefly got into a bird's bed but only because he was passed out!

John and Chub then came down here yesterday night. The four of us went out for dinner and when the bill came we played scissor-paper-rock to see who picked it up. John destroyed Donal in the semi and I scraped past Chub in the other semi. So Donal and Chub went heads-up for the honour of buying dinner. Donal's bad run continued as he ran bad and went with scissors, no match for Chubbs steady rock. Game over, unlucky kid. On the way back we went to buy beer. John and Chub bought beer and Jager for my friends to thank them for putting them up. We all got wrote of then with beer bong after beer bong followed by jager chasers. Across the road to the Club for some karaoke. Unfortunately I was too late to sing any Westlife. Outside the club there was a stretch hummer filled with girls and one guy. John thought this was too good an opportunity to miss and started berating one of the hookers, giving her saggy tits extra abuse. She jumped out and proceeded to chase John around the parking lot. There was the usual drunken antics then and we finished up in the hot tub, where the lads jocked me and took my clothes. Sure enough the security guy came up and made me get out. To their credit they left me a shoe to cover my bits with. John decided to have a cheeky spin on cake at 4 in the morning off his face. My friend was watching and John said he was gonna put him into the game for half what John won to pay for his summer seen as he was having a tough tome getting a job. John made some ridiculous bluffs and was up 10k pretty soon! think he gave my friend a couple hundred bucks which he was delighted with. Not bad for watching a drunken degen play!! All in all good time. Won a bit more on party now so up bout 3k online and breaking even live over here. Going out tonight and then back to the Commerece on Sunday for fa ew days then Vegas Tuesday.

City of Angels, suckouts, massages and fake breasts.

2008-06-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Myself and Donal got over here to LA eventually. Bit of a struggle the morning of the flight. I went to the Sports with Kev for a few hands before my flight. Couldn't get a hold of Donal cause his phone was turned off so at bout 6 made my own way from the Jackpot to the airport. He arrives a little worse for wear but we make it anyway.

Get into LA at 1pm and go straight to the Commerce Casino. Its the biggest poker room in the world. We check in and hit the tables straight away. We jumped into the 5-10 game and Donal was quickly up 2k. I took a few beats ended the day down 1k. Donal broke even after tilting off afew chips. So not a good start but we were tired, jet-lagged and hung-over. Three reasons not to sit at atable unless its the round of each in the Jackpot.

The hotel is big, like eveything here in the states. Talking of big, the boobies that these girls have on them is amazing. It really is a wonder to behold. They would be constanly offside in a soccer game they are that big. Just a side note really.

Tuesday started better, I played the 2-5 game and was able to get back the money i'd lost before. Donal jumped into the 10-20 game but quickly jumped back out. Apparently they don't watch the Irish Open. He's loving the asian girls that go around giving massages at the table. Think he's in the hole for a few quid on them.

We were supposed to meet John and Chub in LA today and all drive down to Newport Beach but got onto John last night and he has final tabled the 6max event. This is a great achievement and I hope he takes it down. Been playing with John for quite some time and he's a very impressive player. He' sgone through some losing weeks leading up to Vegas so this is a great result. Myself and Donal toyed with the idea of catching a flight up to rail him but at 4am with the final table starting at 2pm it wasn't possible.

We've just checked out and we're heading to Newport Beach for some drinking and surfing. Going to Vegas next week, Donal is going to play the 5k 6-handed event. I'm playing the Venetian deepstack series and alot of side games as that seems to be where i have an edge. All in all i'm up afew hundred bucks from our stay here in the Commerce and Donla got some bad coolers today and is in the hole for 4k i think. Hopefully he'll run better and get it back.

Other People's Money

2008-06-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

Credit rating..................
Quite simple concept really. If you have a bad credit history then the bank won’t lend you money. No qualms, no arguments, no pleading, quite simply no dice. This is how it works in the real world. It seems quite logical that if a person has a history of fudging repayments then that person will no longer be entertained when he/she comes knocking once again on the bank managers door. On the flip side it seems logical and a no brainer that a person with a diligent and clean credit history will be rewarded accordingly. Therefore, it is in your interest to strive to make these repayments on time and with no fuss. To make sacrifices in order to pay your dues. So it’s easy. Any 2 year old if asked to draw up simple rules for fianancing people would come to those basics.

This is where the poker world differs. It is possibly the greatest testament to poker and at the same time its biggest cancer. In a poker room your credit history doesn’t have to be good. You don’t even need one. You don’t have to show document after document vouching for your creditability. Things are done with a smile, a nod or a wink. No questions asked. No interest, no direct deposits, no worries. It is a beautiful ideology, everyone pulling together and trust being the fuel that the poker world runs on. It is the romantic world.

However, all too often we hear stories of people not making good on their repayments. Degenerate gamblers being loaned money when it would be more beneficial to hand them a gamblers anonymous form. These railbirds are at every casino in Dublin, it’s against the law for a casino not to have them. They add to the scene, jokes and banter at their expense is all well and good but it’s a heavy price that we pay for that banter. It is true that some of these railbirds are very good and competent players. Some just have bad game selection and bad money management skills. These problems aren’t terminal. All they need is some good strong advice. Then there is another breed of railbird. They have other vices in which they have given into. They are constantly broke and tapping people up as they seek to hit that number that will ease all their problems and help them sleep easy. Addictive by nature, sports betting, horses, alcohol and in some extreme cases drugs often too affect them. It’s often a sad sight to see these people lose their money or someone else’s money just because of a lack of the fundamental skills required to win at the game. Traditionally these people were lent money because they paid their dues back.

It’s important to state that these are not bad people, they are not unlucky either. They are just gamblers with a sickness that deadens the soul. Poker players have always been involved in a heated debate with non poker players claiming not to be gamblers and harping on at the differences between poker players and gamblers. As Anthony Holden puts it in his book Big Deal, poker players are realists and gamblers romantics. Here in lies the problem, poker players are realists trying to live in and create a romantic world. A conflict of interests on a colossal scale.
It seems that it is human nature to have your own favourite people that you want to help. That you want to see succeed. It’s a good feeling to help someone out and see them do well. Just as it’s like a drug to be a railbird asking for money, it’s a drug to give away money too. Some see it as good karma, but more realistically it cements your place in the poker standing. You are loaning money therefore you have money, it’s a self gratifying thing. People tend to think about themselves 90% of the time. You can be sure that when we loan money, it’s because we want to. It’s a price we are willing to pay for the feeling we get from it. Make no bones about it; it’s no different from giving money to charity. It’s a selfish act of an unselfish nature. Studies have proven this to be true. It’s important to note in the majority of these cases there is absolutely no benefit financially to the lender.

Like it not this has been the way it is for decades and decades of poker playing. A poker player is only as good as his word not his game. A concept we all bought into when we started playing this wonderful game. Recently though I feel a change in things. This could be due to the poker boom, which has the mixed effects of creating more money floating around and also introduces numerous more poker player s who may be uneducated on the ideology’s that are the very fundamentals of the poker world. Either way, I feel more and more people are dodging their repayments. This threatens the bedrock of the poker world. Poker is built on other people’s money and that will dry up if it proves a constant hassle to retrieve the money that has been lent. Traditionally, although the money may not be paid back straight away it was paid back. It’s sad to see but at the same time hard not to justify when someone is publicly ousted on an internet site as has been the case. I would hate to see a stop in money lending as it’s a tradition unique to poker and is so simplistic and wonderful. The simplicity of lending money because someone has none and then being paid back. However I’m afraid this is just another change to the poker world that could be for the worse as too many people have been caught with their fingers burnt by not being paid back, quite soon the poker world could be running on our money rather than other people’s money. This is just bad business.