Saturday, September 19, 2009

Early morning stars of poker

Found out when Im playing in the Late night stars of poker. Altough Im not too sure about this name given that Ive to be in the Citywest for 9am!!!! Ill be in the first heat on the 2nd of October and its due to start at 10am. Ive to be there at 9 for interviews etc. Not sure whos in my heat except Dara o kearney has told me hes in it. Really looking forward to playing against Dara as hes bein taking the piss out of me quiet a bit this year. And so it would be nice to get 1 over on him at the tables.

I was scheduled to go down to Killarney early on the 2nd for there festival but it looks like Ill be arriving a few hours late. Gonna leave as soon as my heat is over and should be down there before 5pm. (hopefully). Killarney is a 15k starting stack and 1 hour blinds so bein a couple of hours late isnt that bad. Organisers of the stars thingy generously said theyd sort out a flight for me to killarney but I think Ill just drive as I hate waiting around aiports!

Bein grinding away online with nothing much to report. Im quiet happy with how Ive adapted to mtts and there goin well. Still no big scores but plenty of deep runs so Im happy enough. Tomorrow is the wcop main event and Im looking forward to it. Maybe this could be the 1????.............

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Back to work

Saturday went out for the Ireland match with the lads from Cork who we met up with over there. Knuckles and Trevor Dineen and a couple of others. My first time really meeting them and there all sound blokes. We went to an Irsh bar for the match so was good craic. Ended up being an all nighter as I kinda expected. Went to a club after the match and god knows what time we got home.

Sunday spent most of the day in bed nursing a hangover. Eventually got out of bed some time in the evening and just had time to get a bite to eat and hit online. One of the biggest days of the year online I reckon with the wcoop bein on and all the sunday majors. Played a few mtts meself but no real success. couple of small cashes but ended up a losing night. I was done and dusted in all the mtts I played relatively early around 2.30am I think. Derek was going well in the wcoop 9 which was a $215 tourney with $1m guaranteed. It was in place of the usual sunday warm up. As expected it got a huge field!! 11131 players to be exact. Anyway he was doin well all the way through and so I decided to stay up and rail him. Derek is an excellent online mtt player without doubt 1 of the best in Ireland and so it was somewhat a priviledge to be watching him in this tourney goin so deep. He eventually finished 40th for around $3.5k losing a massive race on his exit. Unlucky not to go further cos these games are so top heavy. It was redic late when he finished, up or should I say early. around 10am I think it was.

Monday again spent most of the day in bed cos Id been up so late the night before and didnt end up playing the €2k ept event which I had planned on playing. Chilled out most of the day. Played a step 6 on stars later in the evening cos it was redic soft!! IT was a 9 man with 5 places paid. 1st-3rd wcoop main event tickets. 4th-5th $1200. Finished 5th which I was really pissed off about cos it was such a soft table. Lost a huge race which was basically a $4100 flip. Blind on blind, he ships from the sb and Ive AK on bb. snap call obv and he has TT which holds.

Tuesday we played the €1000 ept side event. It got 144 players with 18 paid. It was a 2 day event. The first day was played until the final table was reached. Anyway theres 28 players remaining with 18 paid. Derek was doin well but I was quiet short and needed a double up when this hand happens. Blinds are 600-1200 with a 100 ante and Im on the bb playing 16k. Folded to the button who ships in for 15k, sb folds. I wake up with Jc Jh on the bb and call. Button turns over 2c 9c. Flop comes with two clubs and I think to myself.. OH FUCK! 9h on the turn giving him a few more outs. Club hits the river and I feel like clubbing him in the head! 1k left and there was no miracle comeback by me eliminated in the next hand. Derek went on to finish 13th for €2300.

Overall Barcelona was cool enough even though it was my first losing trip in quiet some time. Pity to see so few Irish travelling to these events. Out of the few Irish that were over there even less of them played the main event. Welldone to Daniel Smith who was the top Irsh finisher in the main event afaik.

At the bar drinking away one night when we got chatting to an Irsh guy who I wont name. Basically he was saying he and some of his friends who are very well off are looking for Irish players to stake into big events like this. We were chatting about it for a while anyway discussing the ins and outs. Not sure if it was all drink talk tbh but the idea of this got my attention and it would be great to see some Irsh players being staked into events like this. Only time will tell I suppose.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Barcelona

Arrived in Barcelona on tuesday night and spent the night chilling having a few beers. Met up with a few of the other Irish players who are out here. Alot more Irish players here than I had expected. Although most of them dont seem to be playing gthe main event.

Wednesday there was an €1100 freezeout which we all played, it got 160 runners creating a nice prizepool. Almost €60k for the winner. Unfortunately none of us had any success.

Yesterday there were two €200 rebuy satellites for the main event. The 1st of them started at 2pm. Again myself Derek and Jude gave it a spin. And AGAIN! No success!! : ( I got eliminated around 7.30pm. The last sat started at 8pm and I decided Id give it a bash but it wasnt to be. So no ept Barcelona main event for me this year.

Derek and Jude both played today which was day 1a. It only got 204 runners which is a fair bit less than expected Id say. Jude didnt last too long and struggled from the start. He eventually got his 9k stack aipf only to find himself against AA and QQ. No help on the flop and he was out before dinner break. Not in the best of form as is expected when your eliminated from an ept, Jude headed back to the hotel and booked himself a flight home. Leaving Derek to fly the flag. Derek was doin fine at the dinner break and was on 33k which was right on the average but unfortunately he too is now eliminated. No details of his exit hand.

Not much to do now for the next couple of days except enjoy Barcelona I suppose. My first time here and its a lovely city. Theres a €2k event on Monday and a €1k on Tuesday Ill defo be playing in at least one of these.

Its not all bad news for me in Barcelona however as I recieved confirmation on Tuesday that I will be playing in the Late night stars of poker. This should be great craic and Im really looking forward to it. Not too many details atm about my heat etc. but Im sure Ill find out soon enough.

Online has bein going ok lately. Just grinding away as usual racking up the fpps. i decided to start playing a few online mtts to try and sort out my awful online mtt record which Ive bein getting some abuse about recently. Made back to back final tables last week in the $109 freezeout which is on stars at 2pm daily. Came 4th and 5th for over $4k combined. Also won a few $60 45 mans. So Im having reasonable succes. The wcoop is underway now and Im gonna try play a few of the events. Im defo playing the main event anyway which is a $5k entry $10million!!!! guaranteed 2 day event. Im put into this for being Elite. Would be very nice to run deep in this