Donkeys, a Tower and some Blackpool Rock

After a last minute change of plan I find myself heading over to Blackpool with the Pokerevents Irish Poker Team to cover/maybe play the Grosvenor Casino Bonanza Main event whilst Tom runs the Green Joker €250 Freeze out in Drogheda.

I meet up with the team at the airport; everyone is buzzing with confidence and looking to bring a huge amount of sterling back to the Emerald Isle. Along for the ride are Dave O’Callaghan, Eoghan ‘Value’ O’Dea, Dave Masters, Thomas ‘Bomber’ Nolan, Leslie McLean, Paul Corrigan, Fintan Gavin and Simon Kelly from A World of Poker who is also covering the event. Simon lets me know that the Casino does not have a wireless connection so covering the tournament without a mobile card is going to be a problem so I ended up playing.

The Casino in Blackpool is an excellent place for a poker tournament. A spacious card room can accommodate up to 180 players on good large tables. Plasma TV’s all around the walls display all the vital information. The system they use automatically does the draw and displays the seat assignments on the screen, levels up announcements and breaks are announced automatically by the software too. Pre tournament I spot some more Irish contenders. Mick McCloskey, Ivan Donaghy, Paul Leckey, Jim Reid and Bill White have all made the trip and confidence is even higher for a good result for Ireland.

When I arrive at table 10 I find that I only know two players at the table, one is Thomas Nolan and the other is the fast talking Paul Parker from Brighton. With a 10,000 starting stack and a one hour clock there is plenty of time to settle into the game, or as I like to look at it, plenty of cheap pots to mix it up in and gather chips. Things went to plan for the first couple of levels; I made it up to 16000 without going to the river in any of the bigger pots. I did have my chips in the middle with AA on a low flop but my young English opponent had only called my pre flop re-raise and bet on the flop because he thought I was at it. Thomas was building nicely also but unfortunately the rest of the Irish were not having such a good time. Dave O’Callaghan played one round of the table before making a great call against Carlo Citrone for all his chips with KK, Carlo had a pair and straight draw but tripped up on the river to send Dave to the rail.

I was feeling confident I could build up a good stack at the table when I ran into a little trouble. First I found top pair weak kicker from the small blind and tripped up on the turn after check raising the flop against Paul Parker who was in late position. Luckily my show of strength slowed him down and I lost the minimum against his better kicker. Soon after a short-ish stack moves to our table and moves in from early position. I have AA and raise to isolate, it works and we see five cards. He has Ace King with the Ace of spades. Four spades on the board and he takes his jacket back off and I am down to 8000.

Tables are breaking fast and soon we are down to less than 90 players and my table is broken. My new table sees me sat in between London poker open champion Iwan Jones and Trevor Reardon, both well respected players. Tom 'Red Dog' McReady has the button on my big blind, a Jack Daniels fuelled Rob Yong is next him and also at the Table are Steve Jelinek and The Nun from Blondepoker. I manage to keep my stack constant for what seems like an eternity. The structure was so good that at most points I was less than half the average stack but did not drop below ten big blinds until late in the day when the blinds hit 500/1000.

An inebriated Rob Yong made the table very entertaining but also dangerous. The first hand he sat down at the table there was a three way All In when he challenged Des Jonas to move in blind and he would call blind. A short stack in between them saw some value and came along for the ride. The hands? 9 3, 7 8 and 8 2, Des winning with 9 3!

Finally it was getting to the point that I was going to double up or go home. I was in the big blind with 5k left after putting out the 1k blind. All folded to Rob Yong who took time out from his Jack to raise to 3k. I look down and see the tips of two lovely black Aces, shove all my chips in and double up against his 56 off. I steal my way up to just over 20k when Tony ‘Tikay’ Kendall arrives at the table with a similar chipstack. Also in the place of Rob Yong was Norwegian Henning Gradstad, a good friend but formidable poker player. David ‘Doubleup’ McGeachie from Scotland had replaced Tom ‘Red Dog’ McCready two to my left and I was still sandwiched between Trev and Iwan. I had now been at the table for 5 hours and the only hands I had shown were AK, QQ, AQ and of course the Aces. My image was of granite rock and this had helped me build up to a third of the average stack but still having more than ten big blinds. Blinds were now 800/1600 and I look down at my second AK of the day. The standard raise on the table had settled down at 4200 for this left so that was what I raised. It was Henning’s big blind and I had shown AK last time I raised it, he had a monster stack and I was looking for him to disbelieve this time. Before the action got around to him, Tony Kendall had re-raised All In from the small blind. Tony has me covered by about 1k so I am facing a decision for all my chips. Usually with less than a third of the average it is an auto call with AK but I would still have 10 big blinds left if I folded. Tony’s range here I reckon is TT-AA with a small possibility of AK/AQ. After some deliberation I decide that he would more likely want action with AA/KK and therefore would not have moved all in. With my read being at worst a race I decide that it was time to make a stand. He turns over TT and I need to hit to survive. The bells of doom were chiming when a ten arrived on the flop but hope was there with two diamonds to match my suited AK. The turn was a black queen giving me more outs and the river was the most beautiful jack I have ever seen in my life to put a cruel beat on one the nicest guys in poker.

I finished the day with 41k which was below average of the 28 remaining players but with the clock being reset for the current 800/1600 level there was plenty of play left for me to challenge the leaders.

Preparation for the second day involved playing killer pool ‘Galway’ style in our hotel. Fintan ‘You can beat them, they are only muppets’ Gavin being the TD and the players including Ivan, Paul, Dave O’Callaghan et al. I threw the game in mid position and ventured off for some sleep whilst they played on until lunchtime!

3pm Sunday and cards were in the air again, within a few minutes Paul Parker hit the rail and we were down to three tables. Johnny ‘Texas’ Hewston did in his stack with amazing speed and others who started the day with a lot less than his 100k plus also fell by the wayside in the next few levels to leave us with two tables of 18. It was my table that was broken, my new one consisted of from left to right, Trevor Reardon, Gareth ‘The Nugget’ Jones, Mickey McCloskey, Reyaaz Mulla, Nigel Turver, John Exley, Julian Adamson and Chris Johnson. For the next two levels I hovered between 27k and 45k after reaching a peak of 81k earlier in the day when my Aces held up against KQ on a Queen high flop. I had lost a few chips trying to knock Iwan Jones out with the best hand but was outdrawn and was finding my blind hard to defend against Dave McGeachie’s constant raising from the button. I got some back off him but lost some fighting back at the wrong time. Eventually the 18^th place finisher was eliminated and all agreed to take £1k off the top for the 17^th place finisher. This loosened proceedings up and the short stacks began to fall.

My card deadness was terminal, Eventually I found KQ in the cut off and shoved my last 24k in to find Mick McCloskey willing to call with AQ, very lose I thought but what the hell we had swapped percentages so it was going to a good cause! So 13^th place in my second UK event is not too bad and I made some new friends along the way. Credit to the Grosvenor Casino, they ran a fantastic event which was eventually won by John Exley although Reyaaz Mulla got the biggest payday in a deal. Mickey McCloskey played superb to finish third for the second time in the festival.

In the £100 Double chance on the Sunday night both Simon Kelly and Thomas Noland made the final table finishing 7^th an 8^th respectively and Leslie McLean and Dave Masters also went deep but missed out on cashes by a short margin.

Next year I will back for more and hopefully go on a place a bit higher.

Mike

Oh, I have a blog!

I thought it had been a while since I last wrote an entry into this here blog. I didn’t realise it had been a whole six weeks! God I am a lazy fecker….

Ok so a quick update on what’s been going on:

Firstly I have played a couple of live tournaments, sneaking into 18^th place in the Dublin cup where Dave and Tom came third and 12^th respectively, a good result for team Antes Up. Then there was the Irish Open, great event and weekend, bad tournament for me, running into bigger hands all over the shop. Luckily I got it back in the very soft but highly raked cash games,

Online continued where it left off after

Monaco

, I was unable to put in a losing session for almost 5 weeks, and then the wheels well and truly came off. A five buy in losing session crippled my profits for this month. I have still made a good profit but it hurts to see the figures drop so much in a short space of time.

I have not had time to fully digest the results; some of it was my own stupidity like playing heads up for high stakes where the variance is very high. I am actually breakeven I cash over this losing streak, it is tournaments that has been my downfall. I have had some brutal beats, three sets outdrawn by runner runner straights in high buy in tourneys, plus a whole manner of big pots where I was massive favourite then massive underdog in cash games.

The annoying thing is I had set myself a target bankroll and as soon as I hit it the beats started coming thick and fast. However I should have had the sense not to go chasing. Back to the drawing board. A new month starts afresh today.

I have spent a lot of time railing friends whilst plugging away at the cash games. Ken Powell must be the only player unluckier than me! The number of time I see him get to a final table and have an over pair cracked in a massive pot is unbelievable. Dave O’Callaghan keeps telling me he is fed up with poker and is going to take a break, the next day he always seems to have forgotten and goes and wins a huge wedge J

Dave Murray deserves a shout for an entertaining performance winning his WSOP seat. The 6 2 all in bluff was outstanding.

So what’s next? Well I am off to

Blackpool

for the festival with the Pokerevents team. Primarily to cover it for Antes Up but I might end up playing it as well, we will see how the poker fairies treat me this week!

My goals this month are not to lose any more $8.5k pots and to get back to target.

Adios Amigos, I will be back in less than six weeks. Be lucky but don’t steal mine…..

It's a long way from Tipp to Monte Carlo

It’s been a while since I last posted and a lot of things have happened since I last hammered the keyboard with my typing finger.

Tipperary is foggy memory blurred by Guinness, Bulmer’s & Budweiser. The tournament was in Roscrea in aid of the local scout group and from what I remember a success for the cause. My own tournament was a rash of big pots won with the monsters of 8 2 & 3 4 plus a KK thrown in for good measure. My initial chips rose from 2500 to 25000 during the rebuy stage and up to 60000 soon after until I ran top pair into a set and that was that. Guts was the game that followed a series of sit and goes with the DIT lads and lassies before being turfed out the hotel at the ungodly hour of 11am and a horrendous train ride back home.

The night before Tipp I played the Fitzwilliam €270 game. 22nd and four from the money is all I need to say. I also played in the ‘Joe Show’. This was a televised double shootout and I managed to finish second at my first table, an hour long heads up match with Mark McGhee was fun but he won in the end.

Monte Carlo was my next stop on the Antes Up live update tour. The week flew by in a haze of €20 burgers (chips were extra). Actually I never ate one of the burgers after hearing about the rawness of them from others, what is it with the French and raw meat? The rich opulence of Monaco was not that appealing to me, give me the cheap tackiness of Vegas every time. Apart from a sit and go on the first night with the some of the other journalists I got no live poker played. I intended to play one of the side tournaments but too many late nights online hampered that plan.

It was very entertaining over there watching €20k sit and goes and Chinese poker being played for up to €4k a point. Some of the professional poker players are just sick:). Interestingly the €10k and €20k sit and goes were won by none other than Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer, as if they need the money….

My online cash game play is improving each day. My results whilst in Monaco were the best I have recorded so far and the online bankroll is getting to the point where $5/$10 is comfortably within bankroll requirements and $10/$20 is not crippling if I lose a buy in or two. This allows me to play a bit more relaxed at these levels and go with my instincts without fear of bankroll trouble if I am wrong. Poker Tracker support for Tribeca has finally arrived and I am getting the benefit of this now at those tables. I have also re-acquainted myself with Party Poker with great success. It seems a lot smoother than I remember but still just as fishy. I have not tried any tournaments there yet but my cash bankroll there is multiplying nicely.

If you ever get the chance to watch players playing online at the highest level then make sure you pay attention, there is a lot to be learnt. In Monte Carlo I had the opportunity to see a lot of this and it is no co-incidence that my own game has improved.

Lastly, I have been doing some phone in reports on the Irish poker scene for Poker News on Poker zone which can be seen on Sky Digital. This is great fun to do but I have yet to see it myself. If anyone has any good stories or news then drop me a line and I will give some airtime.

Au revoir & bon chance,

Mike

Hectic

jeez the last month has been mad. The first big Green Joker Poker Freezeout which went better than expected and then a week in Deauville for the EPT. Sadly I was not able to win a seat and try and better my 12th place last year. i nearly got in at the last minute as someone offered to back me for €2000. Unfortunately this was late the night before the event and i was full of beer. The hangover in the morning woulf not have been the best for a €4k buy in event, although that didn't hinder James 'Royal Flush' Dempsey who played much better poker on day one when suffering than on Day two when fully recovered!

At both events I met many people who I had only known online before which was good fun. The only live poker I have played were two STT's on the last night in France. the line up included Julian Thew, bad girl, Flushie, Dpommo & Dubai Millennium. Oh and Tom. I won the second which was nice.

Online has been awful to say the least. I dug a hole for myself at the end of January, or at least the river did. In 30 mins I lost nearly $2k. Three 90-95% shots with the money going in on the turn and one ice cold deck was all it took.

In France I almost got it all back in an hour of drunken rampaging on the online tables. Any players with notes on me would have been astounded. On two 2/4 tables with a $300 max buy in I was upto over $1200 on each. At one point I raised ten hands in a row preflop with no action. Unfortunately two big pots where I flopped the almost nuts and my manic image got me all in gave over half of it back. The worst was when I had raised with A 4 and the flop came 2 3 5 my opponent set me in with 66 - call - river 4! $1k pot.

Since I have been back it has been more grinding up and down (ooh er missus). I have tried to mix things up and I am polaying more tournies again. The first positive result came tonight when I was 2nd in the bluesquare $3.5k gtd for $775 profit. This is a great little tournie with 20 mins blinds. 27 players paid $100+$9 so there was a little overlay too (ssh don't tell anyone).

I have also dabbled in some 5/10 limit with mixed results and I have tried the short buy in gamble method. So far I have bought in for $40 at $1/$2 tables 3 times. Once I got up to $440 and quit and the other two times I busted out.

This month looks like it could be more hectic and I need to get some games in for the Antes Up poker team as well as going to Monte Carlo and running more tournies. Time to breath in April I reckon.

See ya at the tables...

Mike

Still grinding...

This has been a long hard month of online poker so far. i have a few days to get back into the black. I am not far into the red but have played so many hours that it hurts not to show a profit.

Cash games have been just about profitable but I would earn more per hour in McDonalds if my hourly rate stays the same. I am still positive that most of it is down to variance, ther have been a lot of big hands where I have been savagely outdrawn or cold decked. When I have had a complete lock on a hand I have not been able to get paid very often. I have only had one big losing session but have had loads of small ones. The few big winning sessions have just about made up for it.

I have played less than 10 Multi's and only have one cash to my name, this is a small sample and again the variance is not in my favour at the moment. Last night I busted with AA vs AQ adn was crippled in another with KK vs 99, both times the one card added to four on the board for a straight for my opponent. In fact last night was particulary cruel as in cash I was victim of a set over set twice :(

Well not to worry, next month is another month....

Cash games stats for 2006

I just spent somne time transferring my data from bluesquare cash games for 2006 into  www.pokercharts.com . It certainly makes interesting reading for me. So far:

Overall

Time Played (table hours) 42hrs 39min
Overall profit $1320.95
Profit/hr $30.97

I multitable at least two at once sometimes three or four.

$10/$20

Time Played (table hours) 1hr 22min
Overall profit $417.52
Profit/hr $304.76

$5/$10

Time Played (table hours) 19hrs 45min
Overall profit $1485.92
Profit/hr $75.24

$3/$6

Time Played (table hours) 16hrs 17min
Overall profit -$592.96
Profit/hr -$36.38

$2/$4

Time Played (table hours) 5hrs 14min
Overall profit $10.07
Profit/hr $1.92

Ok, so the sample size is not that large, 28 table sessions in all. I am obviously happy with the overall profit and because I multitable it is around $50-$60 per hour which is +$2000/week for a 40 hr week. If I could keep that up it is a nice living :). However if the $5/$10 figure stands true then I will be far happier.

At the moment I put the $3/$6 loss down to variance. There are more situations where all the chips go in the middle as it is a looser game than $5/$10.  Certainly that seems to be where I get the majority of suck outs lately anyway.

I would recommend setting up the pokercharts as it does a good job of representing your figures and is quick and easy to use. It is also web based so you can enter the dat from anywhere. There is a fee of $19.95 per year but you get the first month free.

Midway through the month...

Sor far it hs been a grind. The first week of the month I was losing at the start of every session in the cash games online only to claw it back and turn most sessions into a small profit or loss. The Citywest took almost seven days of online poker out of play and i played no live poker other than the Main event. Since then my form has been a touch better although losing $700 in one pot on All In after I was up $1000 for the night hurt. I have been playing the odd tournament including the $2000 $6kgtd which I was first out so that hads dented my profit. Still I am +$600 overalll and that includes -$500 in tournaments! This is no where near where I expected to be playing at the levels I have been. However it is better then being in the red.

The Citywest main event was a struggle. I lost a big hand early on in the 2nd level and then went totally and utterly card dead for 3 hours. I ended up shoving with 2.5k and A10 only to run into AA.

So what's next on the agenda? well to be honest there is shit loads going on. Antes Up is going through a transition period. We are working on some new stuff for the site which will make it easier to navigate and for us to update. Green Joker Poker is expanding so look out for a tournament near you soon. Hopefully I will still get time to play some more online poker but at the moment it is going to be severely limited.

Here's hoping you are all still in the black this year,

Next post will not be so long away.

Mike

Another new year year rolls in...

Well what a year 2005 turned out to be. It was my first full year playing poker, the year before I made over $30,000 from the March onwards. The optimist in me was expecting that to increase with the extra experience and time I had this year. Unfortunately not. With a big swing late in the year I got it up to $18,000 profit for the year. However I feel this year has been more of a learning year than the first. My experiences have been awesome and for a long while I was not playing seriously.

Remember I started playing poker in March 2004. It seems so long ago now that I downloaded VC for the first time. Since January I have played in the World Poker Tour Caribbean adventure, 2 EPT's and 1 WSOP event, cashing in the Deaville EPT. I have come close in a few other €500+ events without having a big win.

I have started this website with Tom and I have also started Green Joker Poker running over 50 tournaments in 2005. Vegas for the World Series was a great experience and covering the EPT's and Pokerevents tournaments has been great too.

So what's next?

Well firstly my own poker playing needs to move to another level. Towards the end of the year I moved into cash games online and my 6 player NL figures have been good. I plan to play a lot less online tournaments and STT's and concentrate on these. I want to comfortably be playing $10/$20 by the summer. I have reset my spreadsheet and will keep figures updated on here as and when I see fit. So far I have won $600 online in two sessions. I have my entry to the Irish poker championships paid and will be trying to qualify for the rest of the EPT's and the WSOP as and when I have time. I only plan to play events €100 and above live this year.

Green Joker Poker will be expanding this year so look out for a tournament near you soon!

Antes Up is also going from strength to strength and you will see some of the changes shortly. Our mission still remains to give Irish Poker as high a profile as we can and provide entertainment for you along the way.

Happy New Year to all. May you win all the time except against me.

PS: All my family are fish especially Richard who was delighted to knock me out of two torunaments at new year with the monsters of 10 3 and J 3 both offsuit and calling all ins! Carling black label has a lot to answer for, now he thinks he is a poker pro! Stuart did seem to pick up the game pretty quick and could become a good player if he puts his mind to it. Dad needs to learn that calling a 1000 raise because you already have 50 in the big blind is not good. Philip wants to run tournaments but he better learn the rules first :) Oh and I deliberately lost so you could all feel good!

Ouch ! Warning BB post.

Losing at this higher level hurts. For the last week I have been grinding out small wins as I win a big pot then lose one and vice versa. Last night was looking the same until I went from up $500 to down $2500.

Some was due to bad play. I put someone on a big Ace but was out of position and didn't bet the 8 high flop and decided to raise him when a J appeared on the turn. Of course he had AJ which killed my 33. Other hands were people out turning or rivering me. With AQ twice people hit their kicker in big enough pots then the two real killers happened:

First I flop top set with JJ and find myself up against 888 and the turn was an 8. Ouch, $1000 more gone. Then I flop a set of nines on a King high board, turn Ace, river Ace. This guy had limped with AK and not bet a king high board with two hearts and was rewarded with a 20:1 shot and anothe $750 of my money.

I had Aces 7 times and they were not cracked once but the most I made was $200 in one pot. Can paople see my cards? I raise the same amount everytime and virtually the only times I was uncalled was when I had big pairs.

I ran KK into KK, luckily no flush came.

I hit no draws. Not one. Oh ok, maybe I hit one but I definately did not get my EV today.

Still it has to happen sometimes. Bankroll is still way bigger than it has been so i can't really complain.

Merry Christmas

Mike

Variance Schmariance....

Merry christmas and a happy New year to all the outdrawing fish that have been sitting at my table recently. Or am I just playing shite?

Well sometimes this week I have just been playing bad online, others it has been grin and bear it time as some runner runner madness bitch slaps me in an all in situation. Still I have made just under a $1000 this week playing bad and falling foul of the variance fairy so it is not all bad.

For some reason I have lost my nerve in some pots online and not followed through on my instinct and put the pressure back on the other player in a hand. Other times I have rashly called when my instinct tells me I am behind (my instinct seems to be right but my mouse will not obey).

Another reason is that I have not played much and when I have my table selction has been bad. This is mainly due to playing when I can instead of when the tables are best. After the christmas mayhem I will be able to choose the time I play with a bit more freedom. Maybe I should just enjoy christmas and forget about trying to make money playing poker for a week or two. The other option is to withdraw a chunk of my bankroll and deposit at a bigger site where there are more tables and more fish.

This leads me on to a few questions, what is a fish? Is it bad form to call people fish on my blog even though I don't mantion their name? What if I am a fish?

First question first, a list of scaly fin qualities:

• Buying in at a cash table for less than the max - play lower if you can't afford the full buy in, you are asking to be cleaned out.
• When doing the above gill breathers call raises with crap and then try to bluff off all their chips when they miss.
• Our plankton eating friends love to call off all their chips with a gutshot draw and then moan when they miss.
• They have no fear, if a board has flush,straight and house possibilities they think nothing of putting all their chips in with Ace high or calling them off with top pair - no kicker.
• They are mostly American.
• There are lots of them.

I mean no malice by calling players fish. If you are a fish and are offended then stop playing like a fish. If you think I have insinuated you are a fish and you are not a fish, stop playing like a fish.

I probably am a fish.

Best week ever, thank you almighty Po'Kar

I can hear you all now: "he's posting again because he's winning" :)

Well it is sort of true, but to be honest I have not really put in any serious time playing much recently. Well since that last post about rising up to $5/$10 and $10/$20 I have put in around 7 hours more play and my online bankroll on one site has swelled to over $13k. As of this time last week it was $1300.

There is much muppetry at this level and I have taken the odd beat along the way. My only losing session since losing my buy in the first time I played at this level was for $200, however I have been stuck for upto $1100 and managed to finish the session well in profit. On Saturday I managed to double up within 5 minutes on each table I opened! I know I have not played nearly enough for this to be a true reflection of my play but from what I have seen so far I will be able to make constistent profits at these levels, the players are that bad (well some of them). A lot has been written elsewhere about the importance of table selection, fire up some tables yourselves and watch these nutters play. You will soon see that making the right choice of table is not that difficult :)

Anyways it is getting into the really busy time of year for me business wise so I don't know how much time I will be able to spend at the online ATM but the New Year will hopefully see me make a lot more visits.

I would like to make an end of year thankyou to the players who have supported me over the year, you know who you are, your comments have helped me get where I have reached so far.

Stay Lucky,

Mike

Time's are a changin...

Up until recently I have primarily been a tournament player, whether it be multi tables or single tables. I have been reasonably successful at both although playing MTT's can be very frustrating as you can go a long time without winning a large amount of money. STT's also get very boring if you play too many of them. Both take up a lot of time. I do not have a lot of time at the moment as you may have noticed by my lack of posts.

So, I have taken to playing cash games. I started with $300 on Blue square and started at .50/1 and moved up to 1/2 and 2/4 once I was over $500. It took a few weeks but eventually my balance was over $1000. It takes a while to adjust to cash from tournaments but I think I have made most of the changes necessary.

Once I was at $1000 I experimented at 3/6 and also played some Badugi and Omaha as well as No Limit Holdem. there was a while where I could not get my balance up above $1300, I was only ever losing my buy ins at the higher levels and having to go back to 1/2 to build it back up. These losses were mostly to AA getting beat all in pre flop. It always seemed to happen when I was covered which was annoying, especially annoying when you have over $600 at a $200 max buy in table and the only player who has more chips than you gets fiesty with 99!

Anyways, eventually i reach my target of +$1750 to take a shot at $5/$10 knowing that if I lose the $750 buy in I will have enough to rebuild at the lower levels. Initially I was up to just under $1000 in 15 minutes until I picked up AA in the big blind. The button raised to $35 so I pumped it back to $100. He moved all in for just more than me and I called into the biggest cash pot I had ever played. He had QQ and hit a Queen on the turn. Oops!

Unperturbed and convinced I could handle this level I went back to the lower levels and rebuilt another buy in. This time I played the same game and although I lost a few big pots to outdraws I had won enough early on to come out with a profit. Within a few days I was at $2700 even with some MTT losses and a few buy in losses at the lower tables. Game selection is most crucial at this level and I avoid playing when the table is full of long term winning players. I keep an eye on the games when I am playing something else and only enter when there are more than two weak players at the table.

Yesterday I had the biggest win in cash I have ever had when I cashed out $2500 at $5/$10 and $3000 at $10/$20 for a profit of $3250 in 2 and a half hours. I have now lost 3 pots with $2000 in them and each time I am in a pot of that size my heart beats a little slower each time. Since I lost that first buy in I have had 7 winning sessions in a row at $5/$10 and $10/$20 over about 12 hours. This is still a small sample and I know that my run cannot continue forever but I am going to carry on. For the first time I am leaving the winnings in my account to play with. the plan now is to get to $15,000 and then cash $5000 out and repeatt until I am a millionaire!

On the live front my reports will continue elsewhere on Antes Up for the bigger games which is all I will be playing for now. Last night I was at the Friday home game for the first time in ages and finished 7/14 and 3/12 with Mr Fagan snr and Mr Fagan jnr taking my chips. It was great fun to be back playing that game and I hope that after christmas I will have enough time to play it more often.

Stay Lucky

Mike

I was running well..

I have been playing a little online and the poker was going the opposite way to everything else and I was actually winning!  Unfortunately this came to a sharp and abrupt end today when I lost two major pots. In fact the first was probably the biggest cash pot I have played, certainly the biggest I remember anyway. It was nothing unusual, I re-raise from the small blind with AA and I am put all in for $900+. Instacall and a Q on the turn gives him a set. A few hands later I get QQ on a 9 high flop and manage to get it all in again and find Aces again. This pot was only about $300 and after a preflop raise and a flop bet I was pretty much committed to this one.

Time to start building again....

On a side note, I was enjoying a dabble at Badugi on Tribeca and won a little across a few sessions at 1/2 and 2/ Half pot limit but it gets a bit monotonous after a while and also the sharks are starting to appear which makes it harder to win also.

Sligo on Saturday for the Pokerevents €350, so I need to have my game sharp to match Tom's win last week.

Rounders - The final

Three key hands QQ, AA, QQ

QQ - Almost lost this hand. Small blind moved in with me holding QQ, 6 left I have 1200 chips he has 2000 and blinds are 50/100. I call he shows 3 6 off suit, 3 on the flop, 6 on the turn, fourth diamond to match the Qd on the river, Phew....

Two hands later I have AA and raise to 600, blinds are now 75/150, guy pushs for 1200 I call, 6 on the flop - no miracle, he dumps his chips two hands later to chip leader.

With 5 left and 725 left there is a massive chip leader with 9000 of the 15000 chips. I get QQ in the big blind, CL raises to 600, I go all in, he has K9, King on the flop. Bubble.

Damn!

Still Tom won 7k plus a ticket to the Irish Poker Championships today. At least one half of Antes Up can play poker :}

Seriously though it was a great result for him and I believe his biggest cash to date. What are the odds on an Antes Up 1/2 in January? Furthermore what are the odds on us chopping it?

Rounders

I have had little chance to play poker recently (I seem to always be writing that!). Itching to play but not having the time is horrible for someone who just loves to play. I did come across the 'rounders' series of STT's on All In Poker the other day and whilst at work entered level 1 for $5.

First & Second go through to level 2 which you can also buy into for $25 + $2.50. I made it through without any remarkable hands and went straight into the level 2 game. Here the first 2 go through to level 3 and 3rd gets another go at level 2. In my first one I was third but in my repeat I made to level 3 which you can also buy into for $112+$11.25.

The next day I found some free time and played the level 3. In these you need to finish top 4 to progress to level 4 and 5th gets a knock back to level 2. Well I made it through this one although the standard of play got a lot better compared to the early levels. I would have to say the majority of the 5 knocked out at this level qualified from level 1 as they clearly didn't understand how to play to make sure you finished in the top 50%.

On returning later that evening (well early morning) from one of the tournaments I run, I fired up the PC and found a level 4 about to start. These give 5 places in the Final level. This was quite clearly full of experienced players and for the first three blind levels no-one was up or down more than 400 chips from the 1500 starting stack. Once a few players dropped below 1000 chips their blinds were constantly being attacked and inevitably players started to bust. Strangely this was the only one of the 5 I have played that did not make it to the hour mark as the five necessary eliminations were done within 20 minutes of the first.

So now I just need to be around when one of the $550 + $50 rounds starts up and I will have a shot at this payout structure:

1st $3000
2nd $1200
3rd $800
4th $500

All for just $5.50 and about 4 1/2 hours of play so far. The structure on these is much better than most STT's on the net. 1500 starting stacks with 10/20 first level and 10 min level increases, there is also a toilet/fag break each hour which is unusual in STT's.

If you want to try one of these and don't have an All In Poker account, sign up here.

My next live tournament looks like being the Pokerevents €350 + €35 in Sligo on November 25th. Until then most of my nights will be taken up running tournaments. The first big buy in tournament I am running is on Feb 5th at the Boyne Valley Hotel, Drogheda. We are guaranteeing €30,000 as a prizefund although it should be around €43,000 as it looks like it is going to sell out way in advance. There is also a chance to win a seat in the 2006 WSOP main event as the winners of the first six monthly €250 Freezeouts will play off for a seat plus travel and accomadation.

888 888 8888

No it's not a phone number for my new hot chicks line, its 3 hands from Athlone. The two 888's were mine and the 8888 was the hand that knocked me out in 8th when I held the beautiful but deadly American Airlines. Other than the Super Satellites reports from which are on the main Antes Up page, I have not played too much poker other than the odd STT online. That is something that will not change for a while as I have so much else going on at the moment. My next tournament is likely to be the Sligo Super Satellite at the end of November unless my schedule free's up dramatically in the meantime.

What are the odds?

What are the odds of someone having 4 pocket pairs in 9 hands and hitting a set with all of them? I only ask because the fourth time Denise hit a set in the Fitz 270 game last night it was against me to crack my Aces (The first time I voluntarily put chips in the pot!). Admittedly she did not play one of the pocket pairs but a reliable witness saw them. Should I have laid them down that early in the tournament when she moved in on a Q62 flop with two spades? I had the Ace of spades. I dunno, tough one. I called pretty quick, moving in looked like AQ or even the second nut flush draw. As it was I was drawing to runner runner flush as two other people had an Ace. It was also a 3 way pot so there was a lot in the middle for her to take down if no-one had hit. I would have had 3800 from 5000 starting had I folded and blinds had just gne up to 50/100 so I would have been in good shape. Darn those rockets...

Citywest tonight, I am going to win this one :)

Keeping the head

It's times like these when I wonder why I don't explode. I have had the worst week ever pokerwise since I started playing. At 7.30pm on Friday when I got an early double up in Galway I was thinking totally different. However a week later I am struggling with my sanity. Am I getting bad beats? Some of time. Am I running into big hands? Some of the time. Am I playing bad? Some of the time. 3 * Some of the time = All of the time!

I was at my lowest on Monday afternoon. The previous night I played 6 tournaments and failed to make the hour mark in all of them. Bar the boards Omaha I ran into Aces in each one and also had Aces cracked in 3 of them!!! Do I want sympathy? Not really. I lost the head in the $12 re-buy tournament on Paddy Power. The guy in the seat to my left was winning every hand he played, calling all in with 3 5 off suit at one point pre-flop. I went on major tilt and moved all in 6 times in a row until I won an hand. I was called and lost in alll of them until J3 flopped a house for me in a 4 way pot. I went on to make the money but still did not get enough to cover the re-buys.

Since then I have flopped the second nuts when some else has flopped the nuts so many times it is unbelievable. I have lost with AK vs Ax countless times and even had Aces cracked by the same guy twice in one STT. My online bankroll has took a major nosedive and I am not sure that I have enough left to play through it.

But I still love poker. It is like being hopelessy in love with the women of your dreams yet she cheats on you all the time and you always forgive her. I plan on forgiving poker when I win at Citywest tomorrow night. If not I will forgive some other time. What must it be like to have that power that you will be forgiven at somepoint whatever you do? I want it and I want it now!

See you at a table soon, If you can't stay lucky then keep trying until you do!

Whats been happening?

Since the EPT? Not a lot worth mentioning. I have final table about half a dozen times in MTT's without getting into the bigger payouts. I have won and lost in cash games, nothing spectacular apart from a brief unsuccessful attempt at $5/$10. I would play it again but only when I have the sufficient bankroll to take the beats. I keep missing the Dublin EPT qualifiers but I think I have about 4 chances left so hopefully I will get in. There is not enough time in the day to make a solid commitment to playing too much poker at the moment. I am either running tournaments or reporting. After Christmas I may take a month off all other activities, well I will at least stop working in the shops during the day and limit myself to one tourney running a week. I would like to see if I can make money just playing poker online as a job. If I get a chance to do this then this blog will become a bit more active :) I have been reading about the new proposed structure for the €350 Pokerevents tournament and I have to say it inrigues me. I also think it may suit me so I may pop down to Galway for that time permitting. Back again soon when someone else reminds me I have a blog....

London EPT...

Or was it the Wednesday game in the Fitz? The structure was similiar and my exit was worthy of a newcomer's move in a €20 game!

Firstly the organisation at the Vic was akin to a €5 game in the local pub. They even managed to put the wrong chips out at the start and had to change them before we began. Nobody knew how long the levels were until the actual tournament started. Then the blind structure itself was a joke considering it was a £3000 buy in event. 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400 WTF?

Anyway my first table was interesting with Simon Trumper to my left then Paul Roper, David Colclough, Richard Gryko, Unknown, Jan Boubli & Stuart Nash. Nice. Actually I was pleased with this as unlike most people I seem to do better against better players and prefer it to a table of novices. I didn't get much early on, QQ which I bet on an all hearts flop and won, AK which took the blinds & AK which I re-raised Jan Boubli Pre-flop and won. I nicked the blinds with middle holdings and kept myself at starting stack through the first three levels. Then for some reason towards the end of the third level they moved me from a table of 8 to make a table of 7 back up to 8? strange? This new table I knew no-one and soon the level was over and it was the dinner break.

When I came back from the break I was not in the best of form. Perhaps it was the fact I had not really slept for 36 hours and I was not at my best. I had it in my head that I really needed to start motoring and when I flopped top pair with Q 7 from the blinds I went a little mad and that was the end of my tournament. Doh!

Brimming with confidence..

Maybe I should be careful of a big comedown in London at the weekend but at the moment I am full of confidence about my play and it is showing in my results. Yesterday I played 4 tournaments, cashed in two, one of them made the final table. One of the others I was bubblicious as i picked the wrong time to get aggressive with a big stack! On top of that I took some of my winnings into a 6 handed $2/$4 No Limit game on Paddy Power and after 4 hours play cashed out $1150 from an initial $300 buy in.

Cash games have not really been a priority or a forte in the past but lately i have been doing well whenever I have gone into a decent level game. This time I am not going to cash out all my tournament winnings and I am going to give a few more of these a go. I probably still do not have the bankroll to play these level of games but I believe I am a good enough player to do well in them. So I will take the profit from last night and see what I can do. It gives me 3/4 buy ins at that level without busting my bankroll and if I can continue a good run then it won't be long before I am playing within the required bankroll levels.

I am really looking forward to London, this will be my 4th €2000+ buy in tournament and I am looking to improve on my 12th in Deauville earlier in the year. The field is limited to 256 runners and rumours abound that it is a one hour clock which will suit my style of play. The good thing about qualifying for these in a satelllite is that you are not 'scared' money and over some of the professionals that are not running so well that is a good advantage. It also evens out a little the advantage those with deep pockets who can afford to play the game without worrying about losing a coin flip.

Hopefully I will have some good news to report on Sunday.

Stay Lucky,

Mike

Marathon for London

Jeez yesterday was a long day. I started playing poker at around 2pm multitabling single and double table tournaments trying to build my account up to take the entry fee into the London EPT satellite. 5 ITM with one win and three seconds saw me get just enough to take my shot.

Before that started I decided to have a go at the $50k Guaranteed on Paddy Power. Nearly 900 runners at $36 a pop and the prize pool jumped to over $70k with all the re-buys and add-ons. I did not get off to a good start and nearly didn't add-on. In the end I did and lost half my stack straight after the break when AK failed to draw...

I built back up with no spectacular hands before raisng with A10s. The flop came down 9 high and when it was checked to me the demons came out and I pushed. I was called by 88 but hit a ten on the river to double up. I think you need to get lucky at least once to go deep in a tournament and that turned out to my one piece of luck. I was able to consilidate from there when I picked up a few big hands, AA,QQ and AK that hit the flop. Very soon I was in the top ten chip stacks and that was where I stayed until the last 18 players remained.

By now blinds were high and any raise was pot committing. I lost 40k of my 270k trying to take out a short stack with A8, he had A9. I lost another 32k when I had to lay down to a re-raise. Eventually it came down to a race as I found 10 10 on the big blind and the pot was opened for a raise in early position. I was up against AJ and although I hit a ten on the flop he made a straight to the Jack and that was it. 14th and $1053 for my efforts.

The stars EPT qualifier started before that one finished and I got off to a good start when I got paid after flopping a set of queens. I was playing uber tight but still getting some action on my big hands and turned my starting stack of 2500 into 7500 by the second break. These qualifiers have 30 min levels so there is plenty of time to sit and wait.

I got up to 11k without showing a hand and stayed around that mark for an hour and a half just winning the blinds here and there. There were 226 runners and 12 seats being given away plus 13th-21st got their money back. For most of the tournament I was in the top 20. However as the money bubble approached my hands had dried up and I was in danger of missing out. After 5 hours of play the blinds were starting to catch up and I needed some chips. As in the Paddy Power torunament I got the A10 demons. I raised pre-flop and was called by the big blind. The flop came 9 9 7 and I held my breath and moved in. He folded pretty quickly. phew. Up to 18k now I was back at average.

From then on in it was a tense game of uncalled raises to keep myself level, the odd round I would getin two to make up for the ones where I got in none. The money bubble passed but it was still tight. Most people had more than 10x the blinds so there was no sign of anyone panicing yet. Eventually after 7 hours of play the blinds were having an effect. I was in 11th place of 13 on a table of  7. The two shorter stacks than me were on the other 6 handed table.  Most people on my table seemed content to let them blind out and most hands were folded to the blinds. I picked up AA & KK during this period and minimum raises took down pots that saw me go up to 30k+ and 8th position. It was now obvious that one of the two small stacks was going to fall but it took over 30 tense minutes for the 13th player to eventually get knocked out. London here I come, yeah baby!

Frustrating times...

Ola ! Back from sunny (well most days!) Barcelona and time for reflection on my tournament play.
I had only intended on playing the satellite for a seat in the main event but ended up playing the €500 event also. These tournaments represent great value both for the money up for grabs and the experience you gain from playing them.

The first prize in the €500 was €77,000 and the field was pretty similar to the main event. My starting table had Edgar 'Ragde' Skervold, the WCCOOP 2004 winner and Robert Binelli minus his trademark wild moustache. When this table broke after lunch I was moved next to Willie Tann and opposite Dave Colclough. Dublin EPT third placed Jamie Drummond was on my left, we had played the same table in the super satellite also. Within a few minutes David O'Callaghan arrived to my right.

Willie was in an usually bad mood and the slow dealer's were taking the brunt of it. I thought the table might get a little easier when he eventually busted but in his place sat Robert 'Le Dangerous' Cohen of late night poker fame. In fact his episode against Phil Hellmuth ranks as one of the most enjoyable pieces of televised poker I have seen.

I was having an excrutiatingly bad runs of cards in this tournament. As well as the aforementioned players there was an extremely drunk player 3 to my left who had a few chips and I think everyone was looking to make a hand and get paid off against him. His uncontrolled aggression made it important that you did make a hand when in a pot because he had no hesitation putting you to the test. I made the mistake of playing back at him with Ace high post flop and ended up losing a few chips. In the end it was Dave Colclough who got rid of him when he picked up KK behind one of his raises.

In the end I had to start to try getting some chips before my stack got so low I had no moves left other than all in. An English guy called my raise with AQ and I put him on a similar hand. Earlier he had re-raised when I raised with the same hand and when I folded he declared a mid pair. He had position on me so I checked the 6 high flop to him and he bet out the pot. I immediately move in trusting my read and after an uncomfortable delay he eventually folds.

This got me a little bit more respect and I was able to keep my stack from dwindling too much but still no big hands came to increase it by much. I won a four way pot which was checked to the river with 66. I won the blinds with JJ and AK. I picked up JJ again in the big blind and Robert Cohen limped from UTG and there were 2 other limpers. Usually I move in from this spot with a stack my size as it is big enough to make most hands fold and sometimes you will get called by a mid pair, however Cohen had not limped all day and I could smell AA so I just checked. The flop came down AQQ and after everyone checked the flop Dave Colclough put out a small tester which was raised by Cohen who show the flopped house when Dave folded.

This was a more intense table than I ever experienced before. There were 4 good solid players, 2 weak players and 3 loose aggressive players. I was sandwiched between all the loose aggressive's and usually any mistakes by the weaker players were punished by one of the two Daves. Jamie was the Big blind when I was the button and he was grinding it out like myself and I knew that his blinds were not going to be the easiest to steal, I managed a few but I'd say we were even after a couple of all in's by him. Eventually the table is broken and I draw the same table as Dave O'Callaghan. Also seated at the table were two WPT winners, Juha Helppi and John Gale as well as an english player John 'Texas' Houston who was coming off the back of two UK final tables. Maybe they moved me to a main event table?

My stack was now half the average and I was down to one move. I got away with it a few times. I escaped when John Houston called with AK versus my A9 when the board double paired. We split another pot when I got it all in with A4 on a AKx board, he had A2. Eventually though it was he who got me. I was in the small blind with A5 an 11k in chips. Blinds were 800/1600 with a 100 ante. John Gale raises to 3500 from the cut off. I know he could have any hand here so I shove all my chips in and John Houston quickly calls from the big blind, uh oh. Gale mucks and I find myself up against the snowmen and don't catch an Ace. 47th out of 244. 20 short of the money.

So back in Ireland I played a $22 re-buy on Pokerstars for over 3 hours only finish 55th from 440+, 45 got paid. The only time I made a move with garbage I ran into KK in the big blind and that was that. Before that I could not get TT to hold up against 88 in the Paddy Power $99 re-buy. Then last night I get down to 5 from the bubble in the Paddy Power $7.5k Gtd and hit an Ace with AK vs 77 but the board ends up making a straight for a chop, a few hands later I have the same match up and get knocked out 32nd. Hopefully sometime soon my 'not scared of finishing on or around the bubble' attitude is going to get me back up into the winners circle!

Barca Blues

Tom has been hogging the laptop so I have been late in updated my blog. I arrived in the Spanish Capital on Thursday afternoon and after an hour driving around the City without a map I stumbled across the Casino and dumped the car (upgraded from a Clio to a nice Beamer) in the Car park. The super satellite was starting at 6 so I had an hour to get my bearings before starting to play poker.

The Super was a €200 re-buy with 1000 starting chips and 20/40 starting blinds. The first 3 levels were 1/2 hour long and re-buys were unlimited. There was also an optional 2000 chip add on for €200. I lost 250 chips in the first level trying to see cheap flops. Just as we entered the second level I picked up the rockets on the button and re-raised an UTG raise and found myself all in vs Jacks. They held up and a short while later I got my chips in with JJ vs 99 and again my over pair held up. I won a few more big pots to be on 7000 by the end of the re-buys. I decided not to add on as even though all the players on my tabel did, I was still the chip leader without it. By the break I was up to 10k and cruising. It was announced that this tournament had generated 40 seats,a massive €170,000 from a €200 re-buy! 280ish had started so I was in with a good chance.

Just after the break I picked up KK on the button. A crazy player who had given me a lot of my chips raised from the cut off and I put in a big re-raise. He flat called and moved all in on the AKx flop. Lovely. He turns over AQ when I call. Lovely jubbly. Turn Jack, River Ten, oops. He was the only player who could really hurt my stack and I was down to 2500.

The very next hand I get 44 and with a couple of limpers I call also and the flop brings a 4 and two clubs. All check to me and I thought if I moved in they may think I am steaming and call but nobody had enough of it.

The table broke shortly afterwards and on my new table I moved in with A10 from the button and a German guy called with 55. K5J flop and I turn a Queen to throw him on major tilt :) Karma. I picked up 88 three times and won races with two of them and got up to 20,000. The blinds were getting hefty and with 55 left I had dribbled down to 15k. The blinds just went up and it was going to be 4800 a round. I have seen these sats before and I knew that it would take a good couple of hours to get down to the seats as everyone tightens up. I look down at AKs on the small blind and call a raise from a guy who has rasied the last three pots. The Big blind calls hesitantly and the flop comes 10 high with two of my suit. With 12,000 in the middle and only 11k left in my stack I know I am not folding if one of them puts me all in so I decide to put them to the test with a lot of outs. Unfortunately the Big blind could not lay down his Jacks and I never hit a club or an over card. C'est La Vie!

Tonight is the €500 re-buy and I have been backed to play for Tom and Myself so hopefully I can get deeper this time.

King bloody Jack!

I was in the Fitz playing the €100 Freezout and I must have been dealt KJ 8 times at least, so it was always going to be a hand that got me into trouble.

Firstly when I got it in the big blind the flop was K rag rag and I check called Brian (Musician on boards.ie) who had limped in early position. The turn was another K and I check raised him all in. With no raise I couldn't put him on AK, I had him for a mid pair. Unfortunately he had KQ and I was down to 800 from my starting 4000. Luckily I had won a few early pots or else I was gone. The blinds went up to 100/200 next hand and I managed to double my chips up to 1600 with some well timed all ins that were not called.

By the break I had worked it uncalled up to 3900. Then I raised to 1200 from the cut off with A4 trying to steal Brians blind. Unfortunately the button woke up and threw his last 1200 in with A9 and I did not get a miracle.

By the time the blinds got back to me I had 2300 and had to put 400 in. The cut off raised to 1000 and when I looked down and saw two paint cards - KJ again I moved in. He had to call and was on the steal with J4 of hearts. Nice. But oh dear the flop comes 775 with one heart. Then the river is the six of hearts. With a gazillion outs I am in trouble and yep a heart hit to send me back up the M1. Bugger.

Still it was a good nights craic, I was at a friendly table with some strange players, especially one from Mayo who had been watching far too much poker on TV.

Next time....

I wish I was a lucky donkey...

....as it seems the world is full them, or at least the tables I play on. I must go to the tackle shop and get a stronger rod as the fish keeping breaking mine. WTF. 5 tournaments today, 3 bubbles and 5 exits to moronic bad play that is rewarded from the river gods. From now on I am only playing the absolute nuts, getting all in as a 20:1 favourite is not enough. Mind you they will still find a way to outdraw me.

I am off to batter some penguins.

Round & Round

I seem to be going round in circles at the moment whenever I get chance to play poker! Firstly I managed to dump back half of my cash game winnings from the last post in less than an hour in my most recent visit to the Fitzwilliam. Part of the Omaha swings I suppose but there was one horrible horrible play by someone at the table which cost me dearly. Of course most of the time he acts like an ameoba I make a huge profit /'sigh'.

Online I managed a fourth in a $36 freezeout on Paddy Power and a mixture of bubbles and such in Stars two table STT's. Last night I played 3 MTT's on Paddy Power, the first a €24 freezeout I was out first hand! The other two, the $7.5k Gtd & $4k Gtd I went deep without cashing. In the 7.5k I was in the top 10 with 54 left when I picked up QQ and raised to 2400 from mid position. The tournie chip leader was big blind and called the extra 1600. The flop came 2 3 5 all hearts, I have no heart. He checks to me and I bet out 3200 leaving 13,000 behind. He decides to raise to 9600. This is a player I have seen at final tables and I know he is capable of putting me to the test with nothing. If I fold I have 13k with blinds at 400/800 if I get the rest of my chips in, most likely being ahead then I have nearer 40k and 2nd position in the tournament with just over 50 left. Trusting my feelings I push and make him a bigger chip leader when he calls with KQ of hearts!!!

The last tournament I was like a yo-yo moving between 2k & 6k until there were 32 left of the 139 starters. Blinds are still 200/400 and I have AJ of hearts in early position. It is a pretty passive table by Paddy Power standards so I raise to 1200 and get 3 callers which is not ideal. However it puts 5k in the pot in total and the flop is Jack high with two hearts which is nearly the best I can hope for. The big blind moves in for more than me, there is no way I can fold and I think I am ahead of him anyway. What I dont like is one the other players behing me calling also. Well I had outs and more than the odds to try and hit them. The Big blind had 8 10 for a pair of eights. The other caller had 88 for trips. Thats life.

In other news we will be at Barcalona and London to cover the EPT events. Well Tom is 100% going to Barca, flights & such booked. I will be there as long as I can get some cover for my shops & poker tournaments.

Stay Lucky

Mike

Poker.ie game

Last night I ventured down to the Fitzwilliam to play in the Poker.ie €50+€5 Freezeout. 40 players turned up to play with everyone starting with 4000 chips and 20 minute blinds. Cian and Cormac supplied everyone with free bottles of Miller, although those unlucky enough to be drawn on table 4 upstairs were not allowed to partake as alcohol is only allowed on the balcony. My tournament started off well when I got lucky in a pot with JTs against the player to my right. I had called a raise and when the flop came two of my suit I called a bet. Turn was a Jack and I raised the bet this time. It was called and when a 10 appeared on the river I re-raised all in. Eventually he called with AJ and I doubled up to nearly 8000. I got up to just over 9000 partly by wielding the hammer with a raise pre-flop. I got two callers who both checked the 9 5 5 flop to me. A bet took it down with Rory showing a 9 as he folded. Nice. Of course I had to show. Shortly after that I took NickyOD up on a 5:1 bet on me winning and the BOK was on. I lost a few smallish pots to go back down to 6000. Got back to 7500 before losing 1500 straight away when Cian 'The Rock' decided to move all in over the top of my button raise. The next hand I pick up AQ and move in over the top of an early position raise. Big 'un decides after a lengthy dwell to call with JJ. The first card I see on the flop is a Queen but it is hiding the dirty Jack and I am down to 400 chips which go in with KJ to no avail. I was sent packing to the cash games and arrived just in time to get the last seat at the main €50 Omaha only game. I have grown to prefer Omaha to Holdem in cash games and have always done well in the main €50 game. For some reason I struggle at the feeder tables. I played a solid game for most of the 5 1/2 hours I played but a big mistake won me the biggest pot of the night! I ended up cashing out €1012 from my €200 buy in so was well pleased with my nights work.

Tumbleweed spotted rolling through blog

I have not really played that much poker in the last two weeks. I managed to get down to the Fitwilliam to ply in the €50 Double chance but themost chips I had during my 2 hours play was 2050. I did my first allocation of chips when I re-raised Stormin Norman all in for 1000 with 44 and he managed to call the extra 750 with 56 off suit - "I was hoping you had Ace King and they would be live". Grrr.

In the cash game I did my initial buy in but got the majority back with a good run of cards that held up in the holdem rounds but I missed every single big draw I had in the Omaha. I finished even for the night - 7 hours of play.

Online I have only had an hour or so here and there and I have spent those multi table the turbo 2 table SNG's on Poker stars for a reasonable profit. I find them much better value than the STT versions. If I had more time I would play the full 10 min blind versions as there is a little edge lost with the 5 min clock in the turbo's.

It looks like my poker playing time is going to reduce even more as I know have a tournament to run on Friday nights at the AUL club in Dublin. This will run under the same format as the Drogheda game and the details will be up in the tournaments section very soon. The first game is on Friday 2nd September.

Hopefully online qualifying will start soon on Pokerstars for the EPT in Barcelona as I would like to be plying although hopefully all going well I will be there whatever in a reporting capacity.

The start of the EPT will be the end of the lull of poker news in Ireland and you should see more new content up on Antes Up.

Stay Lucky

Mike

Lastminute.com

Last night I was in the big smoke at a business meeting and as it finished around 9.30 I gave Mr Murphy a call to buy me into the €20+€5 re-buy and top me up if I was late. As it happened I manage to get to the Fitzwilliam at 9.58pm in time for the last two hands of the re-buy period.

First hand I was UTG and had muck so folded while two players took each other on with AJ & A6, the best hand held up and the all in player had to re-buy. Next hand I am on the big blind (50/100) and look down at AJ, 6 limpers - ALL IN I announce. Foldy, foldy, foldy, and I have 1600, add the top-up and I have 4100 at the break going into 10 more minutes of 50/100 before doubling to 100/200. It amused me greatly that the aforementioned Mr Murphy had used all his re-buys and yet had slightly less chips than me! I am sure it was a bad beat but he did not last long after the break.

I, however benefitted from I kind 'non-believer' chap who called me pre-flop and on every street with Ace high whilst I was value betting my pocket nines until I was all in. I had messed about in a couple of pots so this got me up to 7300. Shortly afterwards my table was broken and I moved to table 2. Pretty soon I find KK in the big blind and there is a raise to 3000 from early position. I move all my chips to the centre and he calls with pocket jacks, no bad beats and I double through. Easy this poker lark.

Three hands later I get dealt JJ and UTG limps. I put out a test the water raise, more to see what other players with larger stacks had. Everyone folded and UTG moved all in for 6300, only 2300 more than my raise, an easy call and A5 was no good for him. 66 holds up against another shortstack who dared raise my next blind and I now have 26,000 with blinds 500/1000 and 4 tables left.

Hands dry up and I limp/blind off 4000 before one of the key hands of the night happens. I am in mid position with pocket fours and UTG limps. The button makes it 4000 and both the big blind and UTG call. 'Value', says I and call also. Th big blind bets 10,000 on a flop of 4 6 9 with two hearts. I re-raise and he calls the 8300 extra (funnily enough we had exactly the same amount of chips), he flips over 56 and I nicely increase my stack to 53k.

Steady Eddie saw me play few pots and get to the final table with 62k and just about the chip lead. Then it went horribly wrong...

First I raise to 7000 (blinds 1500/3000) and have to fold to an all in for 36k. Then a few hands later I raise to 7000 again and this time the shortest stack moves in for 21k. Getting 2:1 I call and he flips up QQ, bye bye more chips. Eventually with 6 players left I move all in from the small blind for 18k when the button limps. Mumbling something under his breath he calls with 33 and lo and behold a lovely painted knave falls on the flop to get me back in it.

Re-vitalised I raise my way up to 80k without a showdown and we are down to 4, I am covered only by a lady whose name I am not completely sure of but I will call her L because it begins with that. I lose half my chips to her as she began a rampage, I flopped a flush with 67s but she turned a boat. I called her bets all the way and was lucky (or stupid) to only lose half my chips. The next hand she busted a player with a better two pair and the following hand she flopped TPTK to outkick the next one into 3rd.

So we are heads up, I have 45k, she has over 250k. A deal was politely refused and rightly so. L was a very tight player and although I tried not to show it, I was very confident even though I was outchipped by more than 5:1. Blinds were still 3000/6000 as they were frozen at 2000/4000 for ages. It was also nearly 4am. Anyway after gaining the chip lead and then losing it gain I managed to secure the win and pocket a lovely €1450.

So far this year my stats for live tournies are played 25 won-4 other cashes-4 bubbles-1. This only makes for $3,000 profit but I have paid into 3 tournaments totalling $4,000 that I really should not have considering my bankroll! Add that to the 2 wins and a couple of other final tables last year and I feel I am not doing too bad for a 16 month rookie!

Catching up..

Well it's been a while since I arrived home from Vegas. I have not managed to play one hand of 'live' poker since I got back and the drought continues as I am nipping over the pond to visit the folks in Englandshire.

I have managed to play a little online in between catching up with the business and reporting on the IPT final. I am pretty much even for the 10 days or so. I have been grinding away in the low limit cash games and using the resulting winnings to fund the MTT entries. Unfortunately the MTT's have not been good to me although I have not played that many. I seem to be in the 'getting deep, but not deep enough' mode (ooh er!).

As for the low limit (10/20c - multitabling) it is sooooo fishy and I am averaging about $40/hr when I get chance to play. Example - I have raised with QJs and the flop is Qxx, I call a bet and the turn is a J, there are no straights or flushes (apart from draws to the river) and my oppo bets half his stack (?) which only equates to about $5 so I put him all in figuring I was pot committed if I called. He called instantly and I thought uh oh a set, but no he had 22! Another hand I was called on a Ace high flop for all his chips with Q high after a raise-reraise war, I had a set, he had Queen high (no draw)! I asked him if he had pressed the wrong button. 'I thought you were at it' was the reply.

Also I have started playing on a top secret site that is in beta testing (although it is real money I am playing with). Again I am swimming in the low limits to fund MTT entries, today I had quads and a straight flush in one session and got paid on both. Yummee.

blog before bedtime...

Back in sunny Drogheda, the world series of poker adventure is over for 2005 but I have a strong feeling that is only the beginning of an interesting year for irish poker. Firstly I would like to give a personal congrats to Andy Black for his WSOP performance, he was easily the player of the tournament and that is a view shared by all the people I met at Binions on the final two days, including a certain Mr Hellmuth.

My own personal two weeks was one of mixed feelings and results. Poker-wise it was terrible, I played two tournaments and 5 cash game sessions, I bombed out of both tournaments, one to a real bad beat and the other I was a big pre-flop favourite. I only won in 1 of the cash games after being up in all the games at one point or another. In fact in nearly all the cash games I got off to a great start before losing monster pots. The worst was just after Andy was knocked out of the WSOP and I was playing 2-5 NL. I had started well moving my stack from $500 up to $700 with some solid play and then it got messy. I decided to call a $20 raise with 6 3 off suit. Well there were 4 other callers already! I got a dream flop of 6 3 9. I was first to act and bet out $30 to see what happened, I had a feeling I was going to get re-raised by an overpair. The original raiser called and the button raised it another $100. I was pretty sure that either he was the over pair or else he had A9s. I am more worried about the original raiser who flatcalled, he had about $200 in chips in front of him (or so I thought) and this led me to believe he did not have a set as he did not have enough to money to scare off an overpair. I believed he would have moved in with a set or at least raised so I went with my feelings and moved in. Original raiser dude moved his chips aside to show a wad of notes equalling about $5k and thought for about 3 minutes before calling with the immortal words 'I think you have a set but I can't let it go...'. The button folded his A9 face up and my opponent flipped pocket Kings. I like my position now as he needs a 9 (one of which is gone), a King or the board to pair the turn and river to win. Of course the board pairs the turn and river and I am potless again! Another big pot earlier in the week saw me put in a big raise only to be called by A3s, I flopped a set and she flopped a flush, I almost folded even though I had the odds to call her all in as I knew I was behind but I couldn't and as usual I never hit my outs (unlike my opponents when the situation is reversed!)

The other bummer of trip was having my laptop stolen from the press room on the second day. That left us with just Tom's steam driven Dell and that was the reason we did not have as much multimedia content posted as we would have liked. Just to rub it in, I brought some stuff to Binions on the second last day in the bag for the stolen laptop and some fecker stole the empty bag!

Overall though the trip was excellent. being involved so closely with the biggest event in history was amazing. We met some really great people, there are far too many to list but the picks of the bunch were Pauly, Dan, Otis, the gutshot crew, Phil Gordon, Andy Bloch, Robert from The Hendon Mob (he does far more work than Barny, Joe , Ram or Ross) and as per usual the Blondepoker team of Tikay and Jen were gems.

Also I solidified my friendships with a lot of the Irish players. I had only known most of them as players and only ever met them at the tables but after Vegas I feel I can now count them as friends (until I meet them at a poker table again). I also briefly met Scott Gallant, better known as Doubleas to blog readers, he was very unlucky not to become the first blogger WSOP bracelet winner in the $1500 event, check his blog for a blow by blow account.

That was my trip to Sin City, losing at poker and working 16 hour days following the Irish poker heroes. There is a lot more juicy stuff I could write about some of the things that I witnessed but you know what they say - 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'. Plus I may recoup my poker losses via blackmail!

Antesup will begin to update again as soon as Tom gets back and tells me the new FTP password (we had to change it when my laptop was nicked and I forgot to ask what it was changed to!)

I am off to bed at 2.30PM, damn jetlag.

A long two weeks

Finally it is time to leave Sin City. Not that we've had time to do much sinning. Andy's long haul to 5th spot took up most of our time. In between the hours of 3am and 11am there was precious little that happened, I did get to play a little unprofitable poker and we had a few drinks. As long as my memory is not wiped during the 24 hour trip home, I will blog about it in the next few days.

First thoughts...

4 hours sleep in 72! This place is mental. There are somethings I cannot describe or even take pictures that would convey the massiveness of it all! The queues for everything are humungous, cash games, satellites, the cash desk, registration for the main event. There is not one queue I can fit in a picture.

If it wasn't for the rarified air I would be dead on my feet. Even though it is 108 degrees I am still white! I only see the sun when walking from the gold coast to the Rio! About 100 yds of fresh air. I have only spent money on tips and two losing sessions of poker, the comps for media are excellent. We are off to the Pokerstars party tonight for more free booze and food!

It is great meeting so many people who I only know through the electronic airwaves. Everyone is so friendly and willing to introduce the 'Irish Bloggers' to whoever!

The ride continues, hopefully lots more to write about tomorrow. The WSOP main event begins at 11am so we will be bringing as many live updates as possible. The task is enormous, 200 tables to find 30 or so players, by the time we get to the media room they will probably have moved! One thing is for sure - we will do our best!

A little bit of catching up....

I was already looking forward to going to Vegas and playing the American tourists. It seems like everyone I know over there at the moment is making a killing in the cash games. After just arriving home from playing an American tourist in Dublin. I am even more keen to get there, even though he managed to bust me out of the tournament.

It has been a busy week for me. I have been getting the shops ready for my impending departure and also had to run two tournaments. Along with this I also needed to play some poker. Both tournaments I ran went well, although the numbers for Wednesday’s charity event were not as good as expected. Even with only 28 runners we made over €1000, thanks to the winner, Enzo, donating an extra ton. I ended up in another pub at 2am playing in a 14 man single table tournament. Yep, 14 at one table, says it all really. Suffice it to say I was locked.

The usual Green Joker Poker tournament was well attended even though we did not advertise it. 61 players turned up and that included another 24 new faces. The atmosphere was great. This was due to the abundance of ‘Mad yokes’ as the droghedeans call them. Paddy started it all with his rendition of ‘Boom shake the room’ as he sucked out on someone and from then on all massive pots had the tables singing the same tune. In the end 3 players did a deal splitting 2690 between them. Martin Buckley was the unlucky player who lost the low card for the tenner less. Fergus Gosson and Stephen McIlarney took €900 apiece. 8 were paid cash, serial final tabler Junior was 4^th for €360 and ninth also got 2 tickets to Fitzwilliam Festival tournies.

Back to last night. I started off in the Fitzwilliam €50 re-buy but was gone shortly after the break. I was knackered and playing like Nemo, I ended up on 2500 at the break having rebought and also having cracked Aces with Q 10 and also bluffing someone off a nice pot with 99 and a board of QQxx, KK was shown by the foldee. Dave ‘BigDragon’ Kingstonwas eliminated just before the break and had headed round to the Merrion for the €25 re-buy. I decided that was a good plan for me as I was beginning to wake up.

It took me longer to wake up than I thought it would, as in the 30 minutes that remained I had to re-buy 3 times. Eventually after a another strong coffee I came to my senses and started playing some poker instead of snap. I gradually built my stack up to above average and was going along nicely, picking my spots well to make moves and gaining the respect of players I don’t play against that often.

As mentioned in the beginning I was playing against an American tourist. His name was Dan. His card playing was desperate. His luck was humungous. He had a habit of showing his cards after he won a pot with a bet. He very rarely raised pre-flop but nearly always flopped top pair. I had a pretty good read on him, garnered through his incessant gabber and I took off a few pots. When we broke to two tables he followed me to table 2. After he hit another flop against me I was down to 9,200 chips. I limped along with 4 other players from the button with KJ and the flop came down K rag rag. It was checked to me and I bet 4000., leaving me with 4200 back. He called. I knew I was ahead. At best I thought he may have a weaker King. He would have raised with two pair or K better kicker from his form. The Turn was an Ace and he checked again. Now I know I am ahead and move all in. He calls like a shot and I initially think I have read him wrong, but no he turns over Q 10. So he has called a near pot sized bet on the flop with Queen high, picked up a gut-shot on the turn and decided to take it to the river. I have one of the Jacks he needs but the god of Po’Kar decides this is the night I put all my chips in as a +95% favourite and lose as one of his two outs hits the river. Line them Yankees up !

From one big thing to another

The mesmerising bass lines pulsing through the brain like a perfectly orchestrated series of explosions. Searing guitar riffs chopping through the night air, delicate plucks turn into deafening crescendos of sound. Drums pound in a hypnotic rhythm as 82000 hands clap in time. A familiar voice echoes round the packed stadium…’Un, Dos, Tres……’ No-one can hear the music anymore as the chorus is sang by the crowd, drowning Bono’s voice into a whisper.

One week until I hit the biggest poker game in town, last night I was at the biggest rock concert in town. A visual and audio masterpiece it was too. Following a beautiful day’s sunshine the boys from Dublin proceeded to blow Croke park away in what the loyal ‘I went to all three’ fans were saying was easily the best performance of the weekend. ‘Big’ is probably the only similarity with what I will experience next week. Bono preaches about human rights, equality and sharing. Vegas is about ‘sin and win’. Winning is something the Irish have already started doing early into the green armies arrival in the real City of blinding lights. The omens for Mark McMahon are good as the first two interviewees of Antes up are already $17,000 richer after splitting a Bellagio tournament. Any one wishing to be added to the list of pending interviews please queue in line!

Another week of hardly any poker playing is facing me before I leave. I have a charity tournament to run on Wednesday at the Star and Crescent Pub in Drogheda. Everyone is welcome, the charity is ‘The Drogheda Rape Crisis Centre’, it is a €25 re-buy and depending on the number of entrants upto 50% of the pool is going to the charity. No money is take by the venue or promoters. The following night is Green Joker Poker’s €25 re-buy at the Europa Hotel. Things kick off at 9pm sharp, once again everyone is welcome.

Friday I am hoping to get down to the Fitz to play the €50 re-buy and accumulate some more Vegas bankroll. My final poker before I go will be the €20 re-buy on Sunday in the Fitz also.

I land in Vegas on Tuesday afternoon which is also my birthday (21 again!), it will be too late in the day to pick up my press credentials so I will have to settle for a few beers and maybe a little cash game or three. Wednesday is the Celeb/Media event which Tom and I will be playing in and then on Thursday it is the start of the ‘Big One’. With both of us covering this we should have updates posted every 15-20 minutes at least during play so make sure you check back regularly.

Fitz €50 Double chance

Having played no poker at all, not even online, since last week I ventured down to the Fitzwilliam to have a crack at this little gem of a tournament. Eventuelly 57 runners entered giving a 1st prize of €1170 and €540 for second, Third paid out €350, anthing else was not worth aiming for.

The omens were not good when I lost my initial allocation of chips on the first hand I played. I raised it to 150 with AQs, blinds were 10/25 and there had been a couple of limpers. A lady to my left raised up to 300 and by the time it got back to me all the limpers and the big blind had called so I put in the extra 150 for 'value'. The flop was Ace rag rag and when it was checked to me I bet out 200, a third of my stack committed already now. The lady who re-raised pre-flop folded but the big blind made it 200 more ! Everyone else folded so I flat called. I decided that whatever came on the flop I was checking to see what he did. I figured if he made a bet that was half my stack or more he held a weak Ace and I was moving all in. This is exactly what happened and he reluctantly called with A9 of clubs, the turn had put two clubs on the board. He had 12 outs and one of them, a 9, hit on the river. With my second chance 1500 chips I got up to 2800 at the break without showing a hand.

Just before my table broke after the break I moved up to 3500 when I elimated a shortstack with AK vs KJ. My new table was a minefield. Frank, Norman and Kevin Farrelly were all there and chirping away as usual. Norman losing an all in with AJ vs AQ as I sat down made things worse as shortstacked he would move with anything (and did repeatedly). The first playable hand I fopund was AQ and I raised into Norman's big blind. Normally I would have called when he went all in but something told this was the real deal and I folded after a brief show pause. He proudly flipped over KK so my read was spot on.

I survived 2 or 3 orbits nicking the blinds once or twice and then went on a bit of a rush. First I flopped a set of twos from the big blind against Kevin who had flopped a pair of Aces and I more than doubled up in a five way pot. A couple of hands later I have 7 5 offsuit in the big blind. Blinds now 150/300. Frank is the only caller from the small. The flop comes down A34 and Frank bets 600. Mmmm. I am suspicous as he would normally raise preflop with any ace. I decided to call and bet the turn whatever. The turn was a King and he checked to me so I bet 1300 and he took some time before calling. Before I decided my next move the river came a beautiful 6 to give me the nuts! Frank bet 1500. i took some time before raising to 3500 and he immediately moved all in! It is only afterwards that I am confused because he said he hit a straight with his Q5 and I thought nothing of it as I scooped the pot. He must have been having a Ted Lawson moment - "I have a straight, look 3 4 5 6...Damn".

Then came the icing on the cake. I had raised twice to 700 and had to fold to Kings on this table. Why everybody has to show me their cards I don't know. Anyway I got AA on my next button and raised 700 again. Lady who re-raised me earlier on the other table makes it 2000. I immediately push as I have no read on her play. She calls even quicker with AK? No help for her and she is the only player on the table with more chips than me and I double up to be tournament chip leader. Five minutes previously I had 2500 chips and moving into All in with any Ace territory.

I felt that if I got to the final table with 20,000 chips + I would stand a good chance as my game is best as it starts to get nearer the money. I currently had 25,000 so was in no rush to make rash calls to try and knock out shortstacks. I would just play solid and see where it takes me. As it happened I went completely card dead apart from getting AQ in the small blind when someone moved in for 1400, I called the extra 800 and she hit a 9 for her K9 off to outdraw me. As it turned out the Aces were my last pre-flop all in to hold up. I was favourite in all of them bar one.

I got back up to 28,000 for the final table, bluffing Charlie out of a medium sized pot on the river when a possible flush hit on the final hand before we merged back to the last nine. Maybe this stuck in Charlies head as the first hand we played together on the final table doubled me up.
The pot was 5 way pre-flop for 3500 apiece. Blinds were 800/1500 so it was a goodly size pot. The flop came down K 4 2. I initially thought there were two hearts and when the first two players checked and Charlie bet 3000 I decided to take there and then by raising to 10,000. Everyone else folded but Charlie called after some hesitation. I forget the turn but when I looked back at the flop it was rainbow. This made no obvious draws so I put him on AK at least to call my raise. If he had KK he was getting all my chips. He checked and I moved in for 14500. He called pretty quick with QQ and I now had over 1/3rd of the chips in play.

I was still playing steady and kept my stack constant until I played 88 vs a shortstack's JJ and then got more chips in after a flop of Q 10 3 with two hearts to go with my K J of hearts gave me 18 outs against Q6 but none appeared. I briefly slipped down to 40,000 before getting back up to 60,000 when I made anothe good read. I had K8 and made up the blinds from the small. There was one other caller and the flop came 8 5 6, two clubs. I made an information bet of 5000 and was called by the limper. I had played on his table most of the night and knew he didn't have the straight as he would have moved all in. The turn was another 5 and he called again. I bet 10,000 this time and he called again. The river was a 7 which I thought made him two pair lower than mine. I moved all in, I don't think he would call all the way with a gutshot and anything else he raises me. He folded after a thought showing a seven.

Elvis is more alive than the cards I was dealt until we made three handed play. I had drifted back down to 30,000 and was billy low stack. I doubled through the man whose name I cannot recall, although he reminded me and another player of Peter Roche. I made a small re-raise all in on a flop of 5 3 2 with 10 5 and he missed his straight draw. His bet was too big to have meant anything else and he had steadily been increasing the size of bets, no one has a hand as often as his bets claimed. Michael, Happycamper from boards, knocked him out with A2 vs KQ and I arrived at heads up with a 3:1 chip disadvantage. Blinds were only 2000/4000 and I had 51,000 so I still felt confident. I gathered Michael had not much experience of heads up live play and I certainly took advantage of that.

It took me 10 minutes of chipping away to get the chip lead and when I had 3:1 I called his all in re-raise with A4. He had been at it with 96 but hit a 9 and he won a couple of pots to take a small chip lead. Michael then won a larger pot when he re-raised by 7 high bluff and I was back to square one. This was just after we briefly discussed a deal. At that point I had 85,000 to his 110,000. With blinds at 3000,6000 I would only accept 50:50 but he wanted 9:7 so I refused. I quickly regained the chip lead and when he was down to 50,000 I flopped the second nuts with J8 and Q 10 9. I tentative check and he moved all in. Nice. €1100 euro after tips will help my Vegas fund and Catherines 3 weeks in Irish speaking country for her degree.

All in all a satisfactory nights work and I am glad to be back to winning albeit a small tournie with mixed standards of play. My Antes Up partner Tom Murphy also played but was knocked out before the break - hard luck Tom, one day you will outlast me in a tournament!!!

Some WSOP predictions

1. Neither Tom or I will win the media/celebrity event although it looks like we ARE playing. This is because I will hit a runner runner gutshot straight flush to crack his Quads when I re-raise all in preflop with 5 2 (sooooted). I will then proceed to lose a 20:1 chip lead heads up with Britney Spears when the gods of Po'Kar decide to exact revenge for my suckout on Tom.
2. An online qualifier will win the main event.
3. 2 Europeans will make the Final table.
4. Daniel Negreanu will not make a final table all series (just a feeling, I think he is the best tournament player around but he doesn't sound to focussed on his blog).
5. The Hendon mob will cash 16 times betwen them but will not make a final table.
6. A blogger will get into the money in the main event.
7. An Irish player will make the final 3 tables.
8. Over the 3 starting days a total of 4 players will exit on the first hand gettin AA cracked by KK.
9. Someone will bluff with the hammer and crack Aces in a massive pot.
10. None of last years final table will make this years final table.

A new era of blogging

Here we go with a new blog. Luckyblind's blog is no more! Plain old 'Mike's blog' takes it's place on this funky new poker site! On the nickname front it has started to get a little bit confusing for some. I met KPnuts (Ken Powell) the other night in the Fitz and after going through all my aliases he eventually got my real name. Now it is time to wipe the slate clean, from now on I am just 'Mike', hopefully that will be easier for everyone.

As for this new blog, why move it? Well Tom and I have started up this site and it doesn't seem right to posting stuff elsewhere and thanks to Tom's genius (well eccentric computer talent anyway) we have blogging software embedded so why not use it? Regular readers will not notice much difference except that I should be back to my usual 3 or 4 posts a week very soon.

Anyway I hope you all find the site interesting. We will be doing our best to bring you all the latest news and live updates from as many tournaments as possible.

Apparently there is an RDF feed for this blog, I will post it when I find out what it is!

I hope you all enjoy our new little baby and if you want to give us any feedback, good or bad, then please do so in the forum.

Stay Lucky

Mike