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.

Who says poker isn't a team game
This weekend’s annual team event in the Eglinton casino Galway was an absolute blast. 102 players turned up to contest this year’s event, almost all of whom were jammed into the pub around the corner an hour before kick off. This did lead to a slight delay in the start time but this was no great surprise and the event was on its way by 8pm.
The event does usually lend itself to tight play, nobody wants to be the first on their team to be eliminated, this didn’t slow down the An Nead team by God, every man jack of them came out swinging. Now as much as I admire their aggression, they definitely lacked any control whatsoever and the end result, the entire team gone before the end of level 3. I think new leadership, or any leadership, may be top of the list for An Nead next year.
John Weafer’s team, The Cowboys, suffered a couple of early casualties when they lost the Bommer Nolan and Mattie Doyle in 99th and 98th place. But this did allow the Bommer plenty of time in the pub before he jumped into a cash game, ahh the Bommer in full flight in the cash game is such a happy site it damn near brings a tear to this old fool’s eye.
Paul Lecky was also a man that hadn’t wasted any of his time in the build up and he had a beaming smile on his face and a beer in his hand throughout the night. When his team 5 Men and a Muppet did lose their first payer Paul assured me that the muppet had been taken care of and now the men could get down to business. I asked him if I was to enquire of he teammates if the muppet had in fact been eliminated would they back up his assertion, he declined to comment and drew a veil over the entire issue.
The much fancied Galway Team, it turns out after a little investigation only by themselves, put in a pretty lack luster performance, with Pat O Callaghan, Donal MacAonghusa and Christy Morkan going out with more of a whimper then a roar somewhere in the middle of the field. Fintan “surely you have seen me on TV” Gavin was the only player to actually blind out of the tournament, letting his stack dwindle to almost nothing before sticking it in with Ace rag his was knocked out by Dave Curtis, captain of the Eglinton Casino team. I think this may have actually made Dave happier then the final result.
With 40 runners left it looked like it was between 3 teams, Team Bundy, The Eglinton Casino and Tailors on Tilt ( Team whoring ). Team Bundys chances of taking the title slipped away when Dave Curtis knocked out Noel Hayes and Adam Fallon in quick succession . Their chance of victory were completely gone with the loss of Rory Resse Brennan and Eoghan O Dea before the last 2 tables.
20 players came back for day 2 and the Eglinton team had 5 players still remaining, Dave Curtis had the chip lead and looked like they were in complete control, with Rob Taylors Tailors on tilt the only real danger. But the next hour shook things up with the Eglinton losing Keith McFadden, Ivan Donaghy and Chris Dowling in quick time. Ivan and Chris had been short stacked and didn't get any luck when they moved all-in early in day 2, but the loss of Keith was a big upset as he had started the day 4th in chips. He got himself tangled up in a few bad spots early in the day and just couldn't recover. But the worst part of Keith's exit as far as team Eglinton were concerned was that he gave most of his chips to Cat O Neill, part of Tailors on Tilt their biggest danger.
Tailors remaining 3, Cat, Rob Taylor and Ken Powell all made it to the final table. Ken went out in 10th, much to the relief of the Eglinton.
With 6 players remaining it was still all up in the air, Jaye Renehan and Dave Curtis were still in it for the Eglinton with Cat O Neill and Rob Tailors still there trying to claw back the Eglintons lead. John Weafer and John O Shea were the remaining 2 player and were battling it out for the 3rd place spot.
From here on out John O Shea really controlled the table, he played his huge stack aggressively, taking advantage of the fact that 4 of the remaining 6 were primarily concerned with the team result and were deperate not to get knocked out.
Dave went in 6th when he ran his A8 into John O Sheas 98. The 9 on the flop lead to some wonderfully colourful language in the smoking area, when we return to the playing area John assured me that Dave could have called him anything he hadn’t been called before, he dosen’t know Dave very well, I counted at least 3 things I doubt anybody had every been called before.
Jaye Renehan was short shacked and looked like he was next to go, and the Tailors were in with a huge chance now but then bang, Rob Tailor who was one of the few players to remain on the attack throughout day 2 got cold decked, Queens into Kings and Rob was on the sideline and John Weafer shared the chip lead with John O Shea. Jaye went out soon after, he put out a great fight but was card dead for the whole of day 2.
3 left and it was still to be decided, If Cat could overcome the 2 Johns she would take the title, but to roars and cheers from the Eglinton teams John Weafer got the Kings again when Cat, who played an outstanding game, got it all in with AQ. No Ace and the title was the Eglintons.
John O Shea and John Weafer had to battle it out in a long heads up to decide the individual and the 3rd place team prize. It was pretty damned incredible that Weafer’s Cowboys were still in there fighting for a place after losing 2 player at the very start but unfortunately it was jut to big of an ask and despite a great overall performance from John Weafer it was John O Shea who eventually took the individual title and putt Team Bundy into 3rd place overall in the teams.

Tattoos and cold decks

GUKPT in Walsall was my first venture into tournament poker in England and it didn't take long to realise i wasn't in Kansas anymore Toto. Call me an old fuddy duddy but I was a little put of by the skinhead dealer with the tribal tattoo on his skull that was at my first table. In fairness, appearences aside, he was the best dealer I encountered this weekend, maybe thats why they cut him a little slack on his unique look. As for Walsall itself, I assume when it was at school with all the other towns it was voted the mostly likely to be called the asshole of nowhere when it grew up. It certainly doesn't disappoint in this regard.
Bitching aside they certainly know how to run a tournament, I just wish they used decks with fewer aces, during day1 I ran pocket Queens into Aces on no less then 3 occasions. This needless to say gave me plenty of free time over the rest of the weekend, during which our host Paul "Looking directly at me in natural sunlight could cause serious damage to your eye sight" Marrow ensured that Fintan and I were never without a drink. Fintan had freed up his time by being on the slow horse in every race he got into.
The side event went much the same as the main for both myself and Fintan but with a favourable bouncey ball we got out of jail and had a hell of weekend. I would definitely reccommend a visit and plan on making it to the 3 leg of the GUKPT in the London Grosvenor at the end of the month.
There is a satellite for this in the Eglinton this Saturday 7th of March at 8:30

Galway players on top again

Congrats to Jude Ainsworth and Keith McFadden on being part of the 3 way spilt at the Sporting Emporiums May festival main event, these 2 players are obviously in great form this year and we will need to keep a close eye on them in Vegas.
Also I think it is fair to say that this result goes to show that if you are looking for serious poker players you really need to look beyond Dublin. I mean Dublin is fine for some things, like traffic congestion, noise and dirty streets, but really what else is there.
I noticed lately that the Dublin players are traveling around the country to play a lot less then they used to, so I decided to ask a few of them, that still talk to me, why this was the case, and there was an almost unanimous excuse, there isn't any value in the tournaments being run outside Dublin. And I have to say, after thinking about it for a while, they are absolutely right, where is the value in playing a tournament your not good enough to win.

Legend Returns Home

A true leg end of Irish poker is returning to his spiritual home of Las Vegas this year during the WSOP main event, Vinny “The longlad” O’Toole had defied all the odds, the critics and even some of the more flexible laws of physics by rolling a €25 chip up into a ticket to Vegas at the roulette table in the Eglinton and boy was it fun to watch. I did miss the beginning of this wonderful journey and Vinny had already gotten as far as €500 and was trying to decide which of the outside bets to put it on, at this stage quite a crowd, that didn’t actually contain our hero, had gathered around the table. The Longlad was pacing the floor as the wheel spun, everyone waiting

“come on Vinny, you running out of time”,

“RED” , roars Vinny from the far end of the club.

“500 on Red” shouts the croupier.

Calls of ‘ get inta bed ya bitch’ and ‘go on, give the guy a break’ came from the crowd.

“3 red”, announces the croupier but Vinny can’t hear it over the cheers of the crowd.

“That’s it, book the flight” says Pat O Callaghan, “that was the deal, if you make the €1000 I book the flight for you”

“Ok, ok, absolutely , but ah wouldn’t a little spending money be nice.”, suggests Vincent.

For the next 15 minutes Vinny is sitting in the far corner chewing on an unlit fag shouting his bets up to the table, and boy what a show it was. Down to €500 five times he actually made it to the €2000 mark and pulled out, all to the cheers and congratulations of the entire club, even though I suspect that Fintan may not have been 100% overjoyed with the result but at least he managed to muster up a smile.

So congrats Vincent and best of luck in Vegas, that town may never be the same after the Longlad gets his claws into it.

As for everyone else, don’t say you weren’t warned. My advice would be to keep a well bankrolled gullible yank close at hand in case of a near Vinny experience.

Into level 2 and we have 2 casualties, Shane Keary and me. Ran my jj in AA and then lost the rest with 10,9 on a j 10 9 flop, monkey boy( same fucker that had the AA) had KJ and hit runner runner 44. Well fuck, another night down the toilet.

Here We Go Again

qualifier up for grabs I expect a good turn out, even without all those sad Liverpool supporters who are still desperately grasping for past glory, remembering back to a time when Liverpool were a team to be feared. Let it go lads, it's starting to get a little embarrassing. We're here in the Eglinton for yet another €100 freezeout, and with tickets to this Fridays WSOP .

So just before the tournament begins we are fortunate enough to have Christy “The Morbid” Morkan, winner of the most recent league in the Eglinton, join us and let us in on some of the secrets behind his phenomenal success at the poker table.

Q. So Christy, what single thing do you think has contributed most to your recent success?
A. If I had to pick 1 thing it would be my IPod, I find it helps me clear my mind and I can focus some much more on my game.

Q. Clears you mind eh, well tell me, were you surprised to find that there was anything in there that needed clearing?
A. To be honest, I’m as surprised as anybody, but apparently there is something bouncing around in there.

Q. I know there are some players that think you talk your way into the money, what do you think about this?
A. It’s true, I do love a bit of speech play and I think I’m getting good at it. I can definitely talk someone into folding when their ahead.

Q. There have been some rule changes in the club regarding speech play, a player can not longer mention specific cards when talking about their hand, does this affect your game at all.
A. You bet your ass it does, it a pile of cock. I mean how the fuck am I supposed to know what they have if their not allowed tell me.

Ok clock is starting, thanks for your time Christy, maybe we can finish the interview later. We’ll be back in a while with updates from the tournament.

Back From The Pub

Just back from the pub and the league final has taken a nose dive into mediocrity. I only say that because the one hit wonder Paul "The Syrian" Joubi is still in with 7 players left. I am rutting for the short stacks Ronan "Shaken Hands" Gilly and James "The Liverpool Nutjob".

Good news for those in my camp, Gilly has doubled up.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

Among the first casualties in the league final are a couple of notable names, reigning champion Dave Curtis has validated my one hit wonder comment by bluffing of his entire stack in level 2 to a guy holding the nut flush, if your going to blow it you might as well do it in style i suppose. Also gone is Vinny "The Longlad" O Toole and in exiting he has demonstrated how much things have changed on the Galway scene. I think it fair to say Vinnie is a legend in the Irish poker world, the reasons don't really matter, but when I heard the shout "player gone" and asked one of the people at my table who it was, and got the response "the big guy in the orange jumper". Apparently its true that time waits for no man, but it is a little sad when one of the greats doesn't even get a little name recognition

League Final

Tonight is the €10000 spring league final in the Eglinton, the top 50 will compete for a piece of the prize pool. Oh sorry, there will actually be 52 runners in the events, the previous league winner Paul “Mr Fish” Joubi and the final winner Dave “The Sweet Talker” Curtis didn’t manage to qualify but have been given wildcard entries (I doubt the phrase wildcards has ever applied more). I have asked both players about missing the top 50 and each one assured me that it was due to circumstances beyond their control, outside commitments keep them from attending events on a regular basis. So it appears that rumours the pair are just talentless one hit wonders, who couldn’t find their ass with both hands and a road map, are completely unfounded.

Way to early to be in the club

Monday night and I'm in the Eglinton way to early, it's really eerie, dealers wandering around with cans of pledge polishing in silence, Vinnie "The Longlad" mouching around like a ghostly presence. I'm telling you it is not a place for a normal person, not that I for even an instant consider myself anywhere near normal.

Wow, tournament is starting, 6 runners so far, guess I might aswell jump in. There are 3 young fellas I have never seen before, Vinnie, Steve "I hanew you had that" Kovacs and Ivory "I have never seen a hand I wouldn't play to the end".

Ah, things are brightening up a little Laurane and Siobhán have just arrived in, would love to join in now but Steve is telling good bet stories, and the people around him look like they are thinking of a warm bath of water and a razor blade.

On break now, 27 runners in total and just under 2 grand in the kitty, we wouldn't say no to a piece of that. The breaks in these things are way to long now that I am back directing tournaments in here the odd time, as staff I can't play the table games, BEST RULE EVER.

Fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. 1 hand after the break and gone, to stupid to lay down AK on a king high board against a knuckle dragger with AA. On the bright side Fintan just got knocked out as well, can try and make my money back playing him in pool.

Steve Kovacs has been eliminated which is a suprise because he hanew what the other guy had, but there you go ever the best among us can make mistakes.

Midnight Madness

Welcome once again to the Eglinton club. Tonight is a €200 freezeout with a 12 o’clock kick-off and has apparently has been named the midnight express but no matter how hard I try not to, I keep calling it midnight madness. Special guests tonight include Ken Doherty, Steve Davis and Tommy Tiernan, and the rest of the field is made up of the usual nut jobs you find in this lunatic asylum. But I have the feeling its going to be a cracker.

Deal or No Deal

A deal at the final table of a tournament is as common as Fintan “Arthur Daly” Gavin blowing his chips on a bluff, it happens every time. And there is absolutely no doubt that the poker Gods look poorly on anyone that refuses to make a deal. I know a lot of people who think players that won’t deal are cheap ass, tight fisted, miserable bastards, which of course could very well be true, but this isn’t what causes affront to the Gods, no no, make no mistake, if a players refuses to do a deal at the final table he is saying he is better then you, the fact is you are lucky to be at the same table as them. In a game which relies so heavily on luck these players have elevated themselves to an almost divine level in their own minds and this is what incurs the wroth of the true Gods and divine retribution will be theirs.

One of the most recent and well know occurrence of a deal gone bad involved Adrian “The Negotiator” Walsh in the IPC, he tries to come across as a man of the people, a one love hippy type with all that long hair and silent contemplation, but I have heard rumours from people close to him that it’s a wig and in reality he’s as bald as Danny DeVito, and I know for a fact he is a man. utd. supporter, so right away you now there is a certain amount of mental instability. With 30 players remaining and 26 getting paid at the IPC a deal was suggested, money back, €2000, for the players 27^th-30^th and of the 30 he was the one man that stood alone and refused, he was knocked out so fast he nearly went back in time, I mean it, he was actually eliminated before some of the player found out he had rejected the deal. And he used to be such a nice lad until he got mixed up with that Lesson Lounge crowd.

Another occurrence of the phenomenon was witnessed last Saturday at the Eglinton in the Irish Open satellite, John Ward was chip leader with 4 players left, there was 3 tickets and €900 for 4^th, it was suggested that they take €3600 each and anyone playing the open just add €900, John refused, a ticket or bust he said, oh how small and petty the pokers Gods can be. I hope he buys himself something nice with his €900.

We’re all gamblers and chancers and we all get our run of luck, so please, next time your running hot don’t start strutting around like your something special, remember the Gods are watching and they have a sick sense of humour.

Congrats to our latest Galway Qualifiers

Well done to Keith "Space Cadet" Mc Fadden, Keith usually takes forever to make a discussion and having played with him dozens of times I still can’t tell if he is thinking or if there is a hamster in there with a roll of insulating tape and a pliers working frantically to reconnect the wheel to the generator in his brain, and Mark "The Lemming farmer" Spellman, in truth they are cows but the rumor last year was that they were chucking themselves of cliffs and shit, makes you wonder what kinda place Galway is when even the cattle are losing the will to live. Anyway I digress, the 2 boys won the packages for the Irish Open last Friday in the Eglinton, so happily the West will find itself strongly represented by these two bandits.

Also a quick heads up for anyone who has been living in a cave, the satellite for the Party Poker Cruise is on this Friday in the Eglinton, €350 with one €200 rebuy/top-up, and there are 4 $12,000 packages guaranteed (not be me, and if any of these details are incorrect don’t bother telling me, I don't care that much). Seems like good value though, I have heard that there are a number of players coming from all around the country for this but there is still a good chance of an overlay.

I will be covering the event here on the blog so if any of you want to know anything about what is happening on the night just throw a comment in here. I would normally be playing but I get sea sick just drinking a glass of water, so we’ll be giving it a miss.

Oh ya, nearly forgot, there is another Irish Open Satellite on this Saturday in the club €250 buy in with a €150 Rebuy/Top-up, what a great excuse to spent the weekend gambling in Galway.

SDG Fever

As any Sick Degenerate Gambler (SDG) will tell you there are times when you find yourself over taken by the fever. Winning and losing become a blur, it’s you against the world and you’re going to show them who has the biggest brass balls. Poker players call it tilt, and there is nothing nicer then having a player on tilt at the table, 9 times out of 10 he is leaving the money behind, and you got to appreciate the 1 time that they actually creams some bastard at the table with a massive suck out, I mean let’s be fair, we have all been there and if you never won, nobody would ever tilt. Tilt at the poker table is usually a result of a bad beat, with the exception of the odd player like Dave “Silver Tongue” Curtis who, as far as I can tell, actually turns up on tilt, and after the poker god have fucked you, and only because they are spiteful and petty because you’re a good person and deserving of the luck, the initial reaction is to get as much money as you can into the next pot, preferably with the worst hand possible. Anyway, we’ve all seen it and we’ve all done it, and any player that says he doesn’t tilt is a bare faced liar.

I have experienced some bad nights at the blackjack myself but nothing of any major consequence, oh that I could afford to be a big loser at the gaming tables. However, being an SDG and having spent far to much time in casinos, I have had the pleasure of watching some of the big boys go at the blackjack and I can tell you tilt works the same here as in poker, you start to lose and the bets get bigger and bigger, soon the manager is over and your getting the limits on the tables increased, you can actually feel the heat of the laser card burning in your wallet it been through the machine so many time and similar to poker 9 in 10 times there is no way back.

But tilt is not the fever, oh the fever and how glorious it is to behold. There is only one game that can truly induce this intense high and it is roulette, the speed at which it runs, no stops for a shuffle, 2 dealers, one just for building castles out of the rainbow of chips, the true random nature of the game, the fact that most players, even regular ones, don’t know their 35 times tables and have no idea how much they should get when they hit a number, the sea of arms stretching across the table desperately trying to get their bets on, it’s wonderful maddness. And the fever is a very different creature to tilt, the fever hits when you start winning, you become invincible, you actually zone out the rest of the world, eyes darting from the bets to the wheel, “No more bets” calls the dealer, the lull, you hold your breath, you hit, the celebratory roar, my favourite of these is belong to Christy The Morbid One “ Go on magunya”, if you hear it 17 has just hit., the dealer passes you your winnings but you’ll have to wait for the lull in the next spin, there’s betting to be doing, and these dealers ain’t paid to hang about, it’s time to strap in your going for a ride.

I have only recently started play a bit of roulette, a game I have actually laughed at people for playing before, and I am hear to tell you, if you’re an SDG and haven’t ever tried it, next time you find yourself with some disposable cash, stay away from the blackjacks and the brags and give it a go. Don’t misunderstand me, I take back nothing I ever said about it before, it is idiotic and you need to be mentally ill to play it but the same can be said for most things in life the can truly give you a great high.

Stick with me, I’ll make ya famous

My 15 minutes of fame has come, I will be on the roger tonight, actually playing poker with some really big names. When I spoke to other players at the event the general consensus was that they would hate to be on the tv table, the standard of opponent seemed to be a little higher, despite the complete random nature of the draw and that being on the box would make them more nervous. Well I am here to tell you that they are wrong wrong wrong, if you have any fantasies about making it big in the poker world then tv table are something you got to get used to, and the sooner you experience it the better, because it does take some getting used to. And as for the standard of player being higher , I am not sure this is a bad thing, playing tight and disciplined against them will work, they actually notice a guy who hasn’t played a hand in an hour and give the respect he deserves. All n all I got to say I loved the experience and feel I am a better player for it, of course lasting 5 hour in a 3 day tournament does leave the maximum room for improvement in ones game.

Thanks to Sharon O Grady for the photos