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.