Getting the Year Started


First big win of the year out of the way and, hopefully, I can firmly consign the debacle of the IPC to the dustbin of the past. Or something.

The win in question involved me securing my passage to the 2007 Irish Open at the first attempt via a €100 one rebuy or top - up satellite at the Emporium. The long and the short of it is that I played terrible poker till the break, found a few hands immediately upon the resumption of play and got doubled up through Dave Masters. From then on I just played a very steady and conservative game, arriving at the final table with 10BBs. And I just hung in there, did some things right and kept my composure as we neared the ticket bubble. Finally, after over seven hours of play I was one of the three remaining players from the initial 68 starters. The other two qualifiers were Dacman and DocO of Boards. DocO, or Donal, is a cracking bloke and excellent player. I expect him to do well in the actual event itself. Further details of what went down can be found in this thread on Boards:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055044369

This is a huge result for me. It represents a notional profit of €3,300 - but is a much more significant result than the simple figures involved. On Easter Thursday of last year I was playing a €20 freezeout in the Merrion, gawping up at the big Board listing the entries for the main event. A few of the visiting pros were slumming in the tourney for the craic, and there was a real buzz about the place. On the Sunday I wandered over to the event to rail the main event itself for a while. I remember getting a real buzz from simply being in the venue. The set up was obviously amazing and seeing that amount of good players in the one place was fascinating. I was gawping at the surroundings while wondering if I would ever get to that level. This year I will be there as part of the main event itself - and will be competing in my third big Irish tourney in succesion.

To put my progress more bluntly, last year I played a qualifier for the €300 side event at the open. I failed misreably in the event run by Jeff, and couldn't actually justify buying in directly to that sidegame. How times have changed...

And so we roll onto the National Student Championship this weekend. Stephen McClean has put a massive amount of work into this and I am sure that it will live up to his own high expectations. For €70 we will be treated to 10,000 chips, 45 minute levels and the blind and ante structure employed at last year's World Series Main Event. The field will be mixed - a lot of bad players, a lot of tight ABC players, and then a few truly talented players. A lot of people I know will be playing, and a lot of trash has been talked. Therefore, pride is at stake and I will be aiming to go deep - despite the small stake involved. I will stick a report of my (hopefully extended) involvement here.

Adios Baby:

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v210155NMPJteSG;jsessionid=B6EA867A4FB0CEEF769A543DCD5538BD

Poker before the Internet: I don't gamble either Noel!!