A RANT:

So I saw this in Muso’s Vegas blog:

“Time to cheer on the other Irish involved in the main event. Good Irish players whose names won't be known by ESPN. Because they don't throw tantrums when they have a bad beat. They don't berate players for bad play. They don't wave crappy shark card protectors in front of cameras. They can't afford to play all 50 or so events at the WSOP. One of them might end up being remembered - for the right reason. We can but hope. That’s a biased view of course but I'm just a little fed up of some of these so-called big name players. If it is a pro that wins it let it be a pro we can respect. A pro who doesn't think the sun shines out of his arse because he won some tournament a few years back and has been milking it ever since when in reality they just got sponsored because obnoxious sells.”


And it annoyed me. Any Irish poker players without the tank to go to Vegas or without the tank to enter many events cannot consider themselves unlucky. I wasn’t over there because I didn’t put the necessary time and money into ME qualifiers. If I had gone over without a ticket, I could personally afford travel, accommodation (three weeks max), ME entry, $5k in side tournaments – and then I would be poker busto. The fact that I haven’t got the kind of tank that would allow me to be there for seven weeks and play $100k worth of events is because I haven’t won that type of money. Because I am not good enough at poker to have won that sort of money. It is not a case of hard – luck, or not getting sponsored because I lack the requisite level of obnoxiousness – it is simply because I am not good enough.

From reading 2 + 2 over the past six weeks and the blogs of many of the young internet professionals over in Vegas really giving the tournaments a run (either through being good enough to convince a backer to pay 100% of entry fees // selling a lot of their action // being profitable enough to self stake themselves for whatever tournament and cash games they want to play) it is clear that if you are serious about the game – you should be seriously competing in the WSOP. The tournaments have big prize pools, big fields, big fish. While some of the structures for the smaller buy – in WSOP events are bad, those events are the most positive EV because they attract the worst players. The sit and go action and satellites at the Rio sound mind boggingly awful in terms of standard. So you need to be hitting these events hard. And before anyone starts muttering “lol donkaments” or starts babbling on about how real poker players play cash, etc – consider the fact that each WSOP event has been filled with high stakes cash game players (both live and online). In the eyes of the best poker players in the world, the events are just too soft and cannot be missed. The chance of a big score is too great to pass up.

Now Muso is correct when he says that some of the “TV pros” are noticeable for the wrong reasons – and many of them are far from being perfect, non – leak poker players. But it is not just the big known pros who are cashing left, right and centre – the Hendon mob database is filling up with previously unknown names of young 20 something’s who are graduating from the interweb. Yes, there is massive variance. Yes, not every bracelet winner or dude who made a final table from the past month and a half will be a great player. But it would be churlish to ignore the fact that good and great players are getting rewarded in Vegas. Guys over there getting sleep before playing, not fucking themselves up with alcohol and allowing themselves the greatest chance of success are getting paid. Padraig Parkinson threw a post up on boards complimenting the Irish contingent and noting how they had done themselves proud and weren’t “grim” like players from other nations. That’s nice and all, but the flag in Vegas is being carried by the likes of Alan Smurfitt and old war horses like Donnacha O’ Dea, Scott Grey and Padraig himself. The truly successful younger players like Halibut, Eoin Olin, Valor, Robin Lacey, NFR, KP etc, didn’t hone their skills and sharpen their fundamentals on the way up to where they are now by reading boards.

For all the Irish people playing a decent amount. For all of the guys taking time to post strategy on boards every day – there are very few that have reached the highest levels. And it ain’t something that we can put down to anything other than our own incompetence. Having success playing cards in Ireland doesn’t really amount to much at the end of the day. And not having a big enough tank to play tournaments you want to play is not the fault of ESPN or the big name pros. It lies squarely on your own shoulders.

Finally, there will be those who will read the above and argue that poker is supposed to be “fun”, or contend that they only play it for the “craic”. Whatever. It is a competitive game. And we keep score by how much we win. If I am not in Vegas at the moment it means that I have failed at poker over the past 12 months. Hopefully, the next 12 months will be different.

End vent.


OTHER THINGS:

I have half written a report on GJP 2. I may finish it and stick it up. I may not. It was massively disappointing to work hard for two days and just fall short of a cash finish.

I have decided to take a notebook with me to the next couple of tournaments I play and record key hands – so that I can make a detailed record and start reviewing things more closely. I’m not playing very well at the moment and am down a bit on the year. July – November is the period of the year that I am not as busy in work and I should be playing less tired and distracted. Therefore, it seems the right time to really focus on my game.

I’m thinking that I will play the JP game this Sunday (expect funny looks from the pub players when I am scribbling in a notebook, lol) and record all significant hands and write out one of those really boring hand history type trip reports with thought processes, etc. It will be boring to write and read – but should prove beneficial.