Irish Open

I’m getting to old for this shit, 6am and I can’t sleep due to the horrors of 2 days solid drinking. I would play some online poker to past the time but the internet connection in the bloody hotel room here is so bad you can barely check your email and the thought of going into the cash games in the poker room fills me with even more dread, so here I am reduced to updating my blog to keep the shadow monsters at bay.
I had to fight my way through a mountain of discarded cardboard in the delivery entrance of the conference centre when I got here at 11 am on Thursday to be greeted by the rather impressive sight of 100 poker tables spread out across the room. The smell of furniture polish was overpowering and the level of activity in the room could only be described as frantic with dozens of people scurring to and fro and up and down ladders taking care of all the last minute details to ensure everything was perfect for the opening day of the tournament. To be honest it all looked fine to me and I figure if anyone had stopped to take a look around they would have probably agreed, but after getting one eyeball of the adrenaline fuelled determination in the faces of the people here I decided to keep my opinions to myself.
A couple of arguments later and I had managed to get rid of the heads up poker machine that I had been shanghaied into delivering to the event, I'm still not sure how I got tagged with the job, it had originally been a couple of kids I was asked to drop off on my way to Dublin but the children had turned into a poker machine by the time I was leaving, quieter but a damn site heavier.
So there I was in the bar off the hotel, laptop and bag in hand thinking a shower and a couple of hours kip before the super sat at 6 would be the perfect thing, but in my usual style I had neglected to book a room before arriving and yes indeed the hotel was completely book out. Of course experience has taught me that hotels are never actually fully booked it just depended on who you were asking, but this was a problem I wasn’t going to be able to resolve until later in the day.
So plan B, get a coffee, no drink until after the super sat, we are taking this seriously, and play some online poker in the bar and chat to the hundreds of players that will be wandering by over the next few hours. I hadn’t actually managed to sit down before the first of these happened by, Lawrence Goussney an English player I hadn't seen in well over a year and one of the games great gentlemen.
“Manus ya big lump, it great to see you.”, he boomed “a Guinness I take it”
“Jesus no, trying to keep my head for the sat later, a coffee will do me”
I expected a look of either surprise or disappointment but I forgot how good he was at reading people and I got a look that said, coffee my ass, your getting a pint and you’ll be happy with it. So 6 happy pints later I am sitting in a €200 unlimit rebuy satellite and the only thought going through my head is, you have a budget for this asshole don’t go nuts and blow your whole tank. By the grace of god I hit some cards early, didn’t manage to win a seat but I did get through the rebuy stage without doing my entire role. Aside from a couple of brief but very successful visits to the cash games we have been at the bar since and man but it has been great fun, mostly hanging around with Lawrence because he hates talking about poker and will chase of anyone that wanders by and tries to share the bad beat stories, every tournament should have one.
Time for breakfast i think, the Omaha is next on the agenda at 6 this evening, so I will get back to you all after that to tell you how I won it.