A Bad Weekend


Bad weekend at the IPC. First off the financial implications:

Mega Satellite: 300 + 30
ME SnG 2 ticket satellite: 300 + 20
750 SnG 2 ticket satellite: 175
Dealer tips: 140
“Media” SnG (see donkfest): 50

Total outlay: 1015

Minus 350 for luckboxing the aforementioned donkfest equals a total cost of 665 for a truly depressing two days of poker. Oh well.


Thursday: Mega Satellite


Arrived for this and quickly realised that the room was full of good players milling about the place. Structure was better than expected – 6,000 starting with 30 min blinds and every level included (running ante from 150 / 300). Top 20% of the field was to get tickets meaning that there would be 27 qualifiers and 800 cash for the bubble. I put my game face on and settled down for a slog…

…Only to exit after 40 mins!! Table had a couple of tough players including the Scandie who finished second in the 750, Walter who split the Fitz 500 a few weeks back and Matt Tyler to my immediate left. Pre – flop action was heavy and most hands were won before or on the flop with no cards shown.

I played two hands in anger before I was chucked out. Hand 1, I find KK UTG + 2, weakest player at the table limps (any Ace / K, any two suited – really awful player), I make it 350 as we are still in first level, folded back around to the dude who calls. I watch him look at the flop. I reckon he has hit – confirmed as he reaches for a 500 chip. I am heartbroken to see an A – 5 – 3 board. Stew for 30 seconds before mucking. He flips over A3 offsuit. Bah. Tap the table and say “good hand sir”.

Hand 2, I have 5,300 remaining. Scandie dude raises to 550 third to act (second level now). I find QQ on the button. Repop to 1600. He thinks, rechecks, and asks me how much I have left before deciding to call. Flop (3350) is 5d5h4d. He checks. Good flop for me. Reckon I am ahead and that he has a weaker pair or AK. The pair could call an all – in whereas I am happy for the AK to feck off (it is a satellite) so I tank it for my remaining 3700. He insta – calls and shows a cleverly played AA. Fair enough. The guy outplayed me and deserved my chips.


SnG No. 1

So, I decide to give a sit and go a shot and resolve not to play the main event if I fail(I would be paying 2150 – automatic bad value). Sit down at a table that includes a few of the English lads, Lam Trinh (more on him later) and Phillip Baker. Do a few things right and manage to get three handed second in chips to Lam and one of the English pros. Get it all in against the short stack with 99 vs A9 and am discombobulated to see and A on the river. Recover to sneak in when I make a call with A3 after Lam open pushes on the button with 74. A on the flop quells the drama. We had been three handed for 35 mins and I was happy enough with the way I kept my cool to push through.


Friday: Main Event

Long, stressful day in work behind me, I managed to get home and change and make it to Citywest in the space of 30 mins. Not exactly ideally prepared, I was dismayed to find myself at a table that included Brendan McKenna, Dave Masters, Eddie “the Eagle” Kavanagh, Trevor McGoona, Vinnie “Longlad” and a really awful calling station qualifier. I was dismayed for a couple of reasons. One, I was hoping to get a couple of big names at my table as I was in on the cheap and liked the idea of playing somebody not on the regular circuit. Two, the table would hurt me if I saw no cards as you will find it difficult to get Brendan and Eddie to lay down hands and Dave would be a concern as he had good position on me.

I lasted five hours. Got 77 four hands in on my BB. It was raised to 225 by the guy second to act. I called, and had to check / fold an Akx flop. Card dead for the rest of the first level. Found AJclubs third to act at start of level 2, raised to 400 and was called by the rubbish qualifier. 9c84 flop with two spades. He checks and I bet 700. He thinks and calls. Q of spades on the turn. Check, check. Another 8 on the river and he checks. I reckon I’m done with this one and check behind. He shows Kc8c. Meh.

Won a small pot when I completed my small blind with K5. The flop brought a K and two clubs. Checked around and we saw a 5 on the turn. I bet the pot and Trevor called. As the button was thinking, one of the bad dealers turned over the river (Qc). Hated that card. I made it look as if I was annoyed and was reluctant for the card to be reshuffled in and a new river dealt. I now knew that Trevor wasn’t on the flush but the button was. Donal was called over and the table informed of the procedure. Button realised his flush was less likely and he folded. New river is a red A and I make a weak half pot bet hoping that Trevor will figure me for an annoyed missed flush. However, he passed. I reckon a non – Ace would have given me some value.

Got to the first break with 6900. I had bled off some chips to Eddie when I raised in early position with KQ and he called in the small blind. He checked dark and I followed suit on an AQx rainbow board. He checked a turn that put two to a flush out. I bet the pot of 800 and he minraised me. That’s a fold against Eddie. Other than that, I had just missed flops everytime I was forced to call on the small blind or button when given huge odds and had found nothing to get dramatic with.

Back from the break, I make an opportunistic steal of a late returning blind. Raise in early position with A9 and get a continuation bet through against one caller on a K high flop. And then that was it. Nothing to play, I couldn’t hit a flop when able to complete. My image was rock like – so I could steal once every other round from earlyish position as everyone would have to put me as mega strong. But this was a risky business and I couldn’t find a way to accumulate chips. Vinnie was eventually busted (he played some good poker including savage laydown and was quite unlucky in spots) and replaced with Lam Trinh. Lam came over with a big stack of 25,000 or so. He was quiet for a few hands but then got busy. Very busy. He was raising about 6 or 7 of 10 hands during the 150 / 300 level. Always for 850 pre – flop. He would follow through on all streets and was forced to show A8 and Q10 – however he also won a couple of decent pots and showed KK once.

My exit. Last five minutes of the 150 / 300 level. I get 99 on the button – best hand of the day. I am on 7300 chips. Lam makes it 850 from early position. I figured his range was huge and that I was most likely ahead. I was therefore willing to go to the bat with the hand if necessary. So, I repopped to 3200. If he wanted it in pre – flop that was fine by me, if he wanted to go away then that was good also – given that there was now 1300 in the pot. I reckoned that if he laid down it would signal that he should stay away from me – leave my blinds alone etc. I was sticking half my stack in and hadn’t really played a hand since he moved over to the table.

He called. Wasn’t expecting that. Board came 7 – 5 – 2 with two to a flush. I had decided that he would stick me in on any flop. He did as I expected. I made a quick call. He had JJ and my tournament was over. Ho hum. Lam would finish day one as chip leader, and be up to 250k a few hours into day two before bluffing away his stack. He played hyper – aggressive at all times. I guess the thing is that when a guy like that gets a hand he gets paid off.

I was furious with my exit. I have position on the guy – I should call. Putting in half my stack there is real donkish. I’m making it so he can only play with a range of hands that beats the crap out of 99. If I call, I would still have lost money on that board – but I would be giving myself an opportunity to get away – or some fold equity if I re – raised the flop. I had never gone through five hours at a table with such a run of cards and I was frustrated from being unable to get anything going. Tired from a full day at work – it was hard to keep patient and convince myself that it was a marathon, not a sprint. This all contributed to my exit – but it just isn’t good enough at that level to go out like that.



SnG No. 2

Joined the antesup updating team for a while and was convinced to play a SnG qualifier for the 750 by Donal O’ Connor (former SE dealer – DocO on Boards). I was only too happy to do this, as, within three hours of my exit, I was nicely beered up. We joined a table that had Paddy McClosky, Eddie “the Eagle” Kavanagh (busted despite amassing 27,000 chips in the first three hours), MD Wexford of Boards and Brendan Walls.

Again I did a couple of things right and found myself three handed with Eddie and Donal. Got Eddie over the line when he was shortstacked after he pushed on the button with 33 into my big blind and I found AA.

Ace on the flop. 3 on the turn. 3 on the river.

Pretty shaken after that but clung in to secure a ticket along with Donal after we managed to edge Eddie out.



Saturday: 750 sidegame

The structure for this was awful for a buyin of this level. 4 x 25 min levels // running ante in from level 5 which reverted to a 40 min clock // 8,000 starting chips. I would never have paid in directly.

Starting table tough. A couple of English pros, Mick McClosky, Brendan Walls and a good TAG German player. I chipped up to 10,500 before I got QQ UTG in the 75 / 150 level. Raised to 700 and an English player to my immediate left called. He had been calling me frequently and trying to play me off pots. I was getting the better of him thus far however – and he was down to his last 4500. The flop was low and raggy. I led out for 1500, fully convinced I was ahead. He deliberated for a second or two before tossing the rest in. I’m always calling – he always has AA. I was lucky he didn’t have more chips I suppose, but it was just a sign that things were not going my way.

At the break I had 6300. I came back to 150 / 300 / 25 so had to start finding steals. Managed to maintain my chipstack throughout the level despite going terminally card dead again. First few minutes of the 200 / 400 level I find AA in the Small blind. Finally!! Folded all the way around to me. The big blind had only just joined the table and goes: “I’m getting a walk here right?” I raise of course, and he wastes two minutes of everyone’s time with a stupid dwell up before folding. Bah.

A steal in the cutoff is snapped off and I am down to 5300 when I find 22 third to act. There is 825 in the pot pre – flop at this level. I have only shown down two hands up to this point: QQ and a suited Ace a few hands in to the first level which held up after some checking following my bet of an A high flop. My image must therefore be tight. The big blind is some old guy with a beard who is as loose as they come. He has been at the table since the break so will have seen me do little for about an hour. He has been calling with all sorts of mad stuff – I figure he will call a standard raise and I will hate every flop. So I push.

Folded to the old guy. He thinks for a few moments. Rechecks. Asks for a count (he has 8000 chips by the way). Reluctantly puts in his chips after a further minute or so of dwelling. Does he have a bigger pair? I won’t cry if I see overcards. He waits on the dealer to count chips and prepare his change. I show my ducks. He pauses. Rechecks. Finally flips over KK. Slowrolling cunt. It’s not big. It’s not clever folks. Why do they do it? I had maintained a fairly pleasant demeanour at the table and certaintly didn’t do anything out of order. Fucking sick.



Updating, Boozing and Luckboxing

So I spent the rest of the night helping with the updates. I luckboxed a mad €50 sit and go which included Lacey, Pat O’ Callaghan, Jen and Snoopy from Blonde Poker and Big City Banker. Beat Snoopy heads up when I:

Got it in with K3 on a KQ9 board. He had Q9. I turned a 3 (Mr Pillow Talk told me to ship it).

Got it in pre – flop with J10 versus Snoopy’s AA after he raised the button (Mr Pillow Talk looked at me as if I was from the planet “aquarium” when I shipped it). J on the flop. 10 on the river.


Rather be lucky than good right?


Random Observations

The updating is tough. I don’t think I will ever enjoy watching the business end of a big one after being there myself before. How Tom, Mike, Jen and Adam do it on a regular basis is beyond me.

Slowrolling cunts deserve to die. The sooner that kind of behaviour is eliminated from the game the better.

Smurph fully deserved her final table and would have gone all the way with a bit of luck. Great performance from a great player.

Eoin Olin will get a big result this year.

Ollie Boyce made a great point on the Friday that work and good poker don’t mix. You can’t expect to play your best when tired and stressed out from a long day at work. Next time I play one of these big events I will have to have a day off before. It really helped in Drogheda looking back and, although I was in on the cheap for this one, I may have done better if I was rested and properly focused. If you don’t give yourself every opportunity to play well you can’t be too disappointed when you don’t.

Oh, and - apparantly I rock at sit and goes!!