UKIPT Dublin

No joy in Villamoura. Ran well in the €2k side event and made day 2 only to bust 12 from the money in a big pot with KK v A9 aipf so that was annoying. Played 2 of the nightly turbo tournaments and busted early in both of them.

WCOOP started this week and I intent on playing a good few of them. Played 6 so far and had 1 cash so looking to improve on that. Played 5 step 6/Gs in the past week and failed to cash in any so that sucked. 22/58 now for the year. In a rush now to the UKIPT. Ill do a quick report at the end of the day with my progress

Busto!

Busted today unfortunately, never really got goin, didnt play too good and ran bad, so not a good combination. Just one of those days that your destined not to win no matter what you do. Got AA, KK twice and QQ and took down the blinds each time. Of course my raises with marginal hands got 3bet or called and I missed every flop. Liv Boeree finshed me off when I check raised all in on a flop with the nut flush draw she called with top pair and I missed. Really dissapointed about not getting a run cos Ive been running pretty bad live this year and I was hoping this might be the turning point. Unfortunately not. Although theres a great schedule of events over here so theres still plenty of time to show a profit for the trip. €2k tourney tomorrow at 4 so thatll be my next shot.

Playing a few mtts and steps online at the minute. Played a step 6 just there and won it so its not all doom and gloom. Anyway I better get back to it. Get my game sharp for tomorrows €2k

UKIPT Edinburgh and other stuff

Long overdue an update but its been a busy last couple of weeks. Went over to Edinburgh last weekend for the 7th leg of the UKIPT hungry for my 3rd cash of the tour to keep me in contention for the leaderboard which I was lieing 5th in before the event. No joy unfortunately and I busted 30 minutes from the end of Day 1b when my JJ was no good against AK. Hadnt got much of a stack to be fair so cant really complain. Wasnt too happy with how I played in the tournament overall either so that was dissapointing. No side events interested me over there so I enjoyed Edinburgh for the rest of my stay with a few good nights out on the lash.

Online has continued to go very very well and I ended my recent bad run at the Step 6/Gs. Played 11 of them in total since my last blog. Seven step 6s and four step Gs. Managed to win six of them and cash in another two which was very nice. As I mentioned in my last blog I had planned on playing EPT Villamoura even if I didnt manage to win a package. But I was obviously determined to try my best to win one cos it breaks my heart handing over so much money to play in a poker tournament. I only played three step Gs in total for Villamoura because they simply dont fill very often unfortunately. Anyway I finished nowhere in one, 3rd in another for €3,300 and won the other one. Played a step G tonight for EPT London which Im also playing and won that too which was sweet. Nice to have the package wrapped up so eary and especially when its a big package! (just under €10k). The seven step 6s I played were all for a WCOOP main event seat ($5,200) Won four of them, cashed in another for $1200 and unplaced in the other two. Meaning Im 21/52 in step 6/Gs for the year which is pretty sick.
Mtts have gone ok too with several deep runs but no big cashes unfortunately. Managed to win another two WCOOP seats in those 3x turbo sats keepin me well in profit for mtts.

Heading to Villamoura on Saturday and Im playing Sunday which is Day 1b, so Ill do an update at the end of the day with my chipstack. Good few Irsh seem to be heading over and Im really looking forward to it. Still looking for my first cash in an EPT so hopefully this can be the one!

In non poker news I made the biggest purchase of my life on Monday and bought myself an apartment which Im delighted with! Ok so its not exactly a balla pad, and wont be appearing on cribs anytime soon but its a real feeling of achievement to buy your own place and be living mortgage free at 24. Something to fall back on at least if poker ever does go pear shaped. Not sure when Ill be moving in but hoping to asap!
Bankroll obviously took a massive hit from this and so I cant think of a better time for me to have a big score! Roll on Villamoura...................... : )

Galway

Great craic down in Galway last weekend depite it bein another unsuccesful poker trip. Came 5th in the Irish Champions Challenge Cup when I shoved A 8 from the bb over Marty Smyths button raise who had JJ and held. Paul Carr was the eventual winner so welldone to him. Played the €250 tourney which got 59 players, alot less than I was expecting. But with €2500 added to the prize fund still great value. Never really got goin in this and busted after a few hours. Didnt bother with any poker after that and just enjoyed the weekend. Galway is probably the best place in Ireland for a weekend away imo.

Feeling very unmotivated about playing online the past few weeks or so especially since I decided I wont be chasing Elite this year. This really helped me put the hours in over the past two years cos you have to play x amount before the end of the year. Now I just play whenever Im in the humour. How many times have you got out of bed in the morning and wished you didnt have to go to work? Well poker is no exception and you dont have to go to work so sometimes I find myself lazing around just not bothered playing. Im sure Ill be back grinding as hard as ever soon enough just a little phase I guess.

Didnt have a great week online although I played very little. Played another 3 step 6s with no success so that sucks. 15/41 now for the year. Done good playing the lower steps and various other sngs so that helped ease the pain. UKIPT Edinburgh is my next live event so Ill just grind some online till then

Update

Havent been updating much at all recently. No excuses really just bein very lazy since I got back from Vegas. The week before Vegas I played the Killarney UKIPT and eventually finished 16th. Lost 99% of my chips in a big pot just before I went out with AA v 10 10 so that sucked but what made it worse was that the player I was up against was Michael Hill. Who went on to overtake me on the UKIPT overall leaderboard and go top. Im currently 5th with 3 events to go so still well in contention and Ill be playing the remaining 3 events including EPT London. www.ukipt.com/leaderboards/



Vegas

No success in Vegas although it was probably the best Holiday Ive ever been on. UFC was even better than I expected and I eventually got round to going to the Grand Canyon. Few great nights out and a few shows kept me well away from poker. Didnt play any other poker over there live or online apart from the main event.





Online so far this year

Hard to believe the year is over half way through already. Really seems to have flew in. I just hope the 2nd half goes as good as the 1st half did. Done alot better than I expected too thanks to my success in the steps and mtts. At the beginning of the year I was slightly concerned about where the bread and butter was gonna come from this year cos I wasnt even sure what games I was gonna be playing. Sngs which I crushed before have become unbeatable for me without rakeback and so I had to look at other options. I always wanted to give the steps a real shot but was never willing to deal with the massive downswings involved in €2k sngs. Anyway at the beginning of the year I had 3 step 6 tickets in my account I decided that if I won anything from these I would leave it in the steps to mess around with. Luckily for me I ran good at them and won 2 out of the 3 getting a refund in the other. Havent looked back since in them and I now buy into any step 6/G which I feel has value in it. Only played 3 of them over the past month or so with no success making it 15/38 for the year in them. Mtts went very well too and I plan on playing more and more of these in the future.

Results for Jan-June

SNGS : -$15k

MTTS : +$75k

STEPS : +$105k

FPPS : +$43k


Live

Live has been a bit of a dissapointment unfortunately with no big cashes. Chopped the Fitz monthly back in Jan for €7k and my 16th in Killarney for €2750 thats about it. Not good considering I played 2 EPTS, 1 NAPT, WSOP m.e, Irish Open and a few other tournaments but hopefully things will improve in the 2nd half of the year. Ive decided not to play EPT talinn. I will however be playing Villamoura, London and at least 1 other probably Barcelona or Prague.
Off to Galway today for a few nights, goin to the races so should be good craic. Bit of poker planned too. Playing the ICCC tonight a €1k sng with 10 players winner takes all, Its made up of 9 invitational players and an online qualifier so looking forward to that. Its actually bein streamed on Irishpoker.tv tonight at 8pm GMT if anyone fancies watching me ship a handy €10k ; )

Busted

Dreams over for another year unfortunately. Another rough day with a solid enough table. Didnt get JJ-AA all day when I picked up JJ in ep just before the dinner break. Raised it up, most agro player at the table put me all in from the bb and I called he had QQ. No suckout and so it was gg me. I could have folded but a combination of him bein the loosest player at the table, JJ bein the best hand Id got all day, and if I folded I only had 17k left made me call. Ah well! not the worse call Ive ever made but just hurts that bit more when its in the main event.

Francis Mccormack aka. Wally was at my table for the day and despite bein down to 4k at one point finished the day with 67k. So goodluck to him and any other remaining Irish.
Im gonna enjoy Vegas for the next week or so with no poker before I head home on Saturday

Day 1 done and dusted

Not a great starting table. I only recognised 1 player on it who was Sammy Farha but it certainly wasnt a soft table. Everyone was playing fairly solid (with the exception of Sammy who played almost every hand) so there wasnt many easy chips to be had. We only lost 1 player the entire day which kinda sums up how the table played. My low point was 15k and high point 35k so happy to have finished on 33k. Grinded hard the last 3 hours of the day to go from 15k to 33k so that was good. Wasnt 100% happy with how I played overall. Spewed a few chips at times and missed value in some spots but nothing too awful. Day off tomorrow then back on Friday which is day 2a. Alot of Irish played today, most of whom survived. Best of luck to anyone playing tomorrow.

Main Event time.

Bein pretty hectic the past week or so and never got round to updating this. In Vegas so dont plan on bein on the laptop too often so Ill do a report of UKIPT Killarney and online progress when I get home. Playing in the main event tomorrow which is Day 1c so Ill do a quick update with my chipcount at the end of the day.

Easy Game

Enjoyed the good weather over the weekend in Galway and a couple of days off. Got home Sunday evening and decided I was gonna play a few tourneys online after getting a taste of success with my $27k win last Sunday. Started at about 9pm and basically regd for any $50+ mtt that was starting in the next couple of hours. Played the million,2nd chance,Sunday 500 and a good few others. Played about 20 tourneys in total and was in for around $3k, before I knew it it was getting late and I only had 1 tourney left! Think I had 1 or 2 min cashes apart from this so needed a result from it. Also played a step 6 an failed to cash so 15/35 now for the year.
Anyway it was the $162 6 max and it got 982 players. I had a decent stack from about 100 out and was really happy with how I played. Went on to win it for a nice $25,778! Although I must admit I got very very lucky in the heads up battle.This was my favourite moment..
I was 2-1 down in chips at 1 stage and got it all in on a 9x 7x 4x board with Q 10 against 9 7. Not the best of shape Ive ever got it in and was typing gg wellplayed etc. when a 10 comes on the turn giving me a chance then BOOM 4 on the river!! WUHOO giving me the chip lead. Got lucky on the final hand too getting it in with 2nd pair against top pair but managed to suck out again. Nice to get really lucky for a change though and I have no problem admiting that I did.

Gave myself a day off Monday and enjoyed some more sun. Hard to motivate urself to grind away online when u won $26k the night before, didnt finish till 6am and its so nice outside. Chilled out most of the day but ended up playing a few hours Monday night. Played mostly steps but played a few tourneys too seen as Ive been running so well in them. Similar to Sunday before I knew it I only had 1 mtt left with no other cashes. This time it was the $50 rebuy. It got 340 players and again I went on to win it for $9,570. We actually done a chop heads up with me getting slightly more cos I had more chips. Another good nights work.

On a real heater atm and its totally taking my mind off missing Vegas. Ive been playing alot of mtts over the past few weeks to get my tournament game in tip top shape for the wsop. Up over $70k the past 3 weeks in mtts so must be doin something right. Heading down to Killarney tomorrow for the UKIPT so hopefully I can keep the form going and get a good run before Vegas

Tipping along nicely

Bein putting in alot of hours over the past week or so to make up for missing Vegas and I got rewarded for it. Played alot of mtts because I was online a few evenings and finally had a decent score in them. Final tabled the $100 rebuy 3 times coming 2nd for $7.5k, 4th for $7k and 2nd again on Sunday for $27k which is actually my biggest ever single win in an online mtt. Would have bein nice to have won it at least once but hey I wont complain with over $40k for the week. Finally sorted out my online mtt record too which a couple of people had bein winding me up about over the past few months! Ive always felt I had a really strong mtt game but lets face it we all over rate ourselves and my results have said otherwise so the stick was much deserved. Also helps when your friends with some of the most successfull tournament players in the world and get to watch them in action. Learned alot this way over the past few months.
Played 2 step 6s and failed to cash in either of them but done very well in steps 3-5 and built up a few more step 6 and G tickets. 15/34 now for the year in step 6s.

Debating on whether or not to Play EPT Tallinn in August but I reckon I will if anyone I know is going over. Gonna take a couple of days off this weekend and head down to Galway with Helen for a couple of nights and drink as much of the Galway water as I can before Vegas.. : )

Quick Update

Good steady week of grinding online since I got back from Alicante last Sunday. Actually was pretty dull until last night when I won a step 6 and came 2nd in the $100 1r1a turbo for $7.5k. So a nice $16k + day to cheer me up. Played 4 step 6s in total since my last update and won 1. So 15/32 for the year now which is sweet.

Played a live game on Thursday night in a new casino in Swords, which is the nearest casino to where I live now. It was there 1st monthly game and it was €230 + €20 so I decided to check it out. Only got 29 runners unfortuantely and I eventually finished 5th for my money back. Nice club though and I enjoyed the game.
Kinda sucks not being over at the WSOP at the minute as its obviously the main topic of conversation among poker players. I had big plans for the WSOP this year and planned on playing alot of events. For one reason or another and despite my bankroll bein healthier than its ever been Ill jus be going over for the main event so a bit pissed off about that but hey the WSOP will be there every year. Also I plan on playing at least 2 EPTs before the end of the calender year to make up for missing Vegas.

No big wins as of yet for the Irish in Vegas but today Nick Heather, better known as Salamander is lieing 4th in chips at the final table of a $1500 nlhe event. So the very best of luck to him. Nick recently won a mini ftops for $165k so obviously in good form and confidence will be high so great chance of scooping a bracelet. The Irish camps spirits seemed to be high heading over and this will do them no harm. Im sure Nick will have plenty of support and encouragement from the rest of the lads.

On 368k vpps for the year and still undecided about going for Elite. Gonna continue to grind hard over the next few weeks and just see how it goes. Next live event I have planned is the UKIPT in Killarney on the 24th of this month. I expect numbers to be affected for this as pretty much ever decent poker player (except me!!!) in the country will be over in Vegas. Thatll be my last live event beore heading to Vegas on the 3rd July for the main even. Got my tickets last week for UFC 116 Brock Lesnar v Shane Carwin and I actually cant wait for this! Im more excited about that than the WSOP if Im to be honest. Not sure if thats a good or bad thing..........

Same old, Same old

Very unenjoyable tournament for me. Completely card dead the whole day and surrounded by people speaking a different language which does my head in. Got AQ twice, lost both times. Got JJ, took down the blinds. Never got AA,KK or QQ the whole day. Eventually busted in level 6 when I got AK for the first time of the tournament blinds 150/300 25 ante, playing just over 10k, raised it up from utg +1 to 800 got reraised from a guy 3 to my left to 2300, I shipped, he dwelled for a while before calling with 77 and held. gg me. I really dont enjoy playing when English isnt the first language at the table. Havent a clue what people are talking about and constantly having to ask the dealer how much is the raise can be very annoying. So not gonna bother with anymore poker. Just gonna enjoy the sun and a few days off.

Off to Alicante

Had a nightmare coming home from Nottingham last week. My flight was at 06:15 on Sunday morning so I decided to do an all nighter rather than going to bed and risk oversleeping. Everything was going fine, arrived at the airport with plenty of time to check in and that so Im standing in the queue 15 mins before take off waiting to get on the plane when CANCELLED!! appears on the screen. UUGGHH... Stressful stuff. Had to take a bus,three trains and a ferry before eventually arriving home at 8pm. Turned out doing an all nighter wasnt a great idea....

Had big expectations for the Dusk till Dawn club cos all Ive ever heard about it was good. Wasnt overly impressed by it tbh. A good club yes but plenty of room for improvement. The tables were a bit tight for a start. Not sure if its always this tight or they crammed a few extra tables in because of the UKIPT. Its in the middle of nowhere.£8 taxi journey from the nearest hotel. Soft drinks and tea arent free. Alot of people were complaining about the food service too over the weekend as it was very slow. And the rake in the cash games is 10%!! capped at £7. The £7 cap is great for anyone playing £2 £5+ but for the small stakes players playing £1 £2 it must be crippling. Not complaining about the club at all as I thought it was well run etc. just pointing out a few things.

Just being grinding away online the past week or so with no live play. Not a great week overall. Played 6 step 6s in total and won 1. Which isnt great but kinda expected as my results in them couldnt keep up. Still 14/28 for the year so far which isnt too shabby. Played a decent amount of mtts too with no real success. Alot of deep runs but no big scores unfortunately.

Off to Alicante now for the Estrellas Poker tour. Never been in Alicante so looking forward to a bit of sun and chilling out. Dont plan on playing any online over there. Playing tomorrow which is day 1a so Ill do a quick report tomorrow night with my progress.

Another one bites the dust

No mircale comeback from me on day 2 despite getting up to 40k I was eliminated in the 3rd level of the day. Eventually getting my last few chips in with A8s which was in bad shape against 66 and A9. Didnt end up playing the £200 6 max event which I was looking forward to playing. Ended up hitting the town instead. Theres a £300 2 day event which starts today and Id imagine will get a big field but I dont think Ill be playing cos Im due to fly home at 8am tomorrow morning. Played a bit of £2/£5 cash the past couple of days and Im glad to say Im in profit. A whopping £200! Still profit though. Probably just play some cash later before I head home in the morning.

Day 2... Wuhoo!!!!!

Made Day 2 of a tournament for the 1st time since the NAPT in Vegas back in February. Ok so Ive a measily 12,300 with the average bein over 30k but anything could happen tomorrow. Started off on a really nice table which was broken after an hour unfortunately. Got moved to a much tougher table which included Jude and a number of other capable players, so I had to pick my spots wisely. Didnt go great for me but happy enough with how I played and glad to be still in. Jude busted in level 3 losing the majority of his chips in a sick cooler hand. He had As 8s on the bb with an ep raise and 3 callers so he calls. Flop comes Js Qs Ks. And he leads every street before getting it all in on the river up against 9s 10s. Ouch!

Played a few mtts online last night with a few decent runs. Had a sick misclick in the $50 1r1a with 12 players left. Guy goes all in, I snap call him as quickly as Ive called in my life with the old K4os. His A9 held and that was me done. Pretty sick but couldnt help but laugh after I got over the initial disapointment of it. No plans for today cos theres no side events worth playing until tomorrow night which Ill probably give a go if Im not still in the main event. Anyway goodluck to any Irish playing today

JP Masters

Another bad festival for me and I yet again failed to make day 2. To make things worse I cant just blame running bad on this one cos I played pretty awful too. Played several hands poorly in the 1st few levels and so my stack was steadily dwindling. Exited in level 7 I think it was when I decided to 4bet shove the old A7. Ran into KK and so it was gg me. Silly move brought on by sheer impatience and dare I say it..... tilt! Was really dissapointed after my exit as I was determined to get back on track in this event with it bein such a good structure and having a decent amount of value. Drowned my sins afterwards and decided I was gonna try make the most of the weekend. Great bit of craic anyway to take my mind off the poker.

Decided to play the €300 side event the next day which started at 6. I gave the tourney my full attention and played really well. My stack increased from the word go and I picked up alot of chips early on. (It was a 10k starting stack and I got up to 40k with the average bein 20k. Found AK on the button, raised, the Dokester reraised from the sb, I shipped and he called with JJ which held. Just under 80k pot with the average bein 20k so that sucked. I was left with a couple of bbs after the hand but no miracle recovery and it was gg me a few hands later.

So another 2 tourneys with no cash. Ive lost count at this stage how many live games its been since my last cash but dread to imagine. Off to Nottingham tomorrow for the 4th leg of the UKIPT. Looking forward to playing in Dusk till Dawn as all Ive heard is good things about the club. Hopefully this will be the tourney where I finaaly bring to an end this awful live run.

Grinded a few hours online Sunday, pretty much the whole day yesterday and a few hours today in an atempt to recoop my live loses from the weekend which I done with ease. Makes me wonder why I bother with live donkaments. Had a couple of nice runs in mtts which is a needed confidence booster to prove to myself I have the game to crush mtts and Im not just a sng grinder. Only small buyins unfortunately but still feels great to come through decent sized fields. Won a $20 tourney with 360 players for $1,500 and came 2nd in a $30 one today with 500 players for $2,200. Also grinded hyper turbos steps and sngs. Passed the 300k vpps milestone today which is good for $3,600.

Quick congrats to Sean penderville on winning the Jp masters to follow on from his win in the cpt final last week. Sick run by him, back to back live tourneys for around €80k

And of course Thaddeus on chopping SCOOP event 19h for a nice $106k. Sick sick man just never stops

Back to normality

Well Monte Carlo certainly didnt go as well as I might have hoped. Played 6 tourneys in total. The €10k main event, 2 €1k events and 3 €300 turbos. Didnt have a single cash! Oh! I also played the Supernova Elite freeroll and got beaten heads up. Which kinda sums up how Im running live lately. The freeroll had 45 players. Each player had a €100 bounty on them and if you made the final table you got a $215 or a $530 tourney ticket depending on if the eventual winner beat Barry Greenstein in a heads up match. The winner got $2.5k or $5k again depending on if they beat Barry Greenstein. So I got heads up and we were fairly even in chips so we done a bit of a deal. We gave $1k to whoever came 2nd. Anyway I ended up losing but still got $1k +$500 from bounties + a $530 tourney ticket because the guy who beat me beat Barry. So wasnt too bad for a couple of hours in a freeroll.

Played a few hours online 2 of the nights over there and done much better luckily enough. Played 2 step 6s. The 1st of them was a 9 seater wsop. Got 1 outered on the river in a big pot when we were 6 handed which hurt real bad. Managed to grind my way back into it and eventually finished 3rd for $3k. Played another 9 seater wsop 1 and managed to ship it which felt great considering how shit I had bein doing over there. Putting in a decent amount of hours the past few days since returning home. Doing well across the board. Playing a real mix of games atm. Mtts, regular sngs, hyper turbos and steps. Played 2 step 6s since returning home, a 6 man scoop 1 which I finished 4th in and another 9 man WSOP one tonight which I won. Wuhoo! So thats 2 wsop seats so far. Hoping to win alot more though. And 13/22 for the year in step 6s which is soooooo sick! Especially considering that 16 of those 22 had only I package. I said earlier in the year when I wasnt planning on going for sne I was gonna hit the steps hard and theyd either make or break me. Well so far so good, Ive got off to a start that I couldnt have dreamed of. Not only in the step 6s but in all them. I seem to be constantly accumalating step 6s from step 3s. Hopefully this can continue

The SCOOP is in full flow atm but Ive only played 1 event, 03m. It was $50 rebuy 6 max. 4444 players. I finished 993rd with 660 paid. Planning on playing a few more though but dunno which 1s.
Ive 288k vpps for the year so far which is a fair bit of sne pace, so I need to start grinding more if Im to stay in contention.

Very busy few weeks ahead of live poker. Starting tomorrow with the JP Irish Masters which is being held in the Maldron hotel in Tallaght. Its a €750 buy in with 200-250 players expected. Ive played this event the past 2 years and its great. Excellent structure and alot of recreational players who wouldnt usually play a €750 game make it an excellent tournament. Funny memory from this game last year. Its 1 hour levels and were in level 3. Its a 3 day tournament btw. An old guy calls off his whole stack (which was just under what he started with) facing 2 all ins already with AQs. Needless to say he was in bad shape and was eliminated. When the cards were turned over he says "I havent had a hand all day"!! I thought it was a classic.
Anyway hope I can get back to winning ways on the live scene. Then Wednesday Im off to Nottingham for the 4th leg of the UKIPT. Thats it for now Ill do an update on my progress tomorrow night if Im still in

Busto

Such an anti climax. Failed to make day 2 again! Been running shit in live tournaments since the start of the year but Ive tried to not let it bother me too much by trying to convince myself Id run like god when it mattered most. Unfortunatley that wasnt the case.Had a rough day and a tough table draw. Won the first hand of the tournament and it was a steady decline from then on. Had 11k in the last level of the night blinds 500/1k/100. Guy in mid position raises to 3k with Kc9c I ship with AQos and he calls. Flop comes Q high with two clubs, club on the turn and its gg me. Didnt play great tbh but I wasnt exactly spewing either, just one of those days when nothing seems to go your way. Two Irish made it through. Liam Flood on 78k and Derek Thorpe on 37k. Jude plays today so goodluck to him and any other Irish.

€1100 turbo at 2pm is my next tourney. Not the same buzz as the main event but still decent money at stake so plenty of time to make a profit for the trip.

Monte Carlo EPT Grand Final

Well like I said before this is the tourney I most look forward to playing each year. I know for most people its the wsop main event but for me its this. Arrived today and took the bus from Nice airport. One of the most amusing bus journeys Ive ever been on. The sceneary on the way is amazing driving down along the windy mountain roads I had forgot how stunning looking this place is. Although unfortunately thats about all it has going for it is its amazing sceneary as its really a very dull and boring place once the novelty of looking at multi million euro yachts, cars, fancy restuarants, over priced shops and hotels wears off. Not the kind of place youd come to let your hair down and party. The Devilfish best described it to me last year as "Alcatraz for millionaires".

On my own atm but Mr Ainsworth arrives tomorrow to keep me company and help fly the Irish flag. Very few Irish usually play here but Im sure theres at least a handful of others that Im not aware of. I play tomorrow (1a) and so Ill have a day off before day 2. (Hopefully) Theres an excellent schedule of side events this year especially compared to last year which was really bad. I plan on playing as many as possible if the main event doesnt go as planned. I played the nightly €330 turbo tonight but had no success.

Speaking of flying the Irish flag the wpt final 6 gets underway shortly and John O Shea is still in. Unbelieveable stuff and really hope he takes it down. John seems determined to get that life changing score this year by playing as many big buy in events as possible. John is a truely dedicated professional with an excellent all round game and mental attitude, I cant think of a player in the country right now that deserves a result more than him for the time and effort he puts into the game.

Online hasnt seen much of an improvement. Went on a nice little upswing in the hyper turbos but quickly came back down again. Played another 2 step 6s with no success making it 11/18 for the year. Last few days went well in steps 3-5 though and Ive a nice amount of tickets built up. The wsop sats have started on stars and I plan on winning a few packages Also won a package to the Estrellas poker tour in Alicante which is on the end of May so its not all bad. Anyway main focus for the next week is on the Live scene obv, Ill do an update after each day with my progress.

UKIPT Coventry

Another disspointing tourney for me unfortunately. Played on Day 1a which was Thursday. Got off to a steady enough start before losing a big flip in the 4th level. Got it all in on the flop with my 10c8c on a 6c 9c 3h against AA. turn and river bricked leaving me short. Then ran KK into AA in the 5th level for my last 6k. Kinda glad I didnt have a bigger stack at that point as I probably would have lost it all anyway. Played 8 live mtts so far this year and 5 of them I ran KK into AA. LOL

Online has been pretty shit over the past week or so too. Been playing almost only hyper turbos and have been doing awful. On a $15k+ downswing in them at the moment and its starting to look a lot less likely that its just variance and a lot more likely that I simply dont have an edge in them. Only managed to play 1 step 6 since my last update which I came nowhere in. But still 11/16 for the year so cant complain. Id like to play alot more steps but the problem is I play during the day mostly and the steps rarely fill. April is looking like its gonna be my 1st losing month of the year which sucks but March was my most profitable month ever so not too bad.

Next up is Monte Carlo. I considered going to San Remo but it would have meant I was playing a live mtt every weekend in the month of April so decided against it. Monte Carlo is the biggest tournament for me each year and I look forward to it even more than the WSOP main event. Such a big buy in and a relatively small field make winning it seem achieveable. Where as the WSOP is kinda like winning the lottery imo.

Hoping things will turn around online if not Ill just have to take down Monte Carlo I guess!

No joy

No joy in Irish Open for me this year, busted 2nd last level of Day 1. Never managed to get a stack together despite getting a lot of big hands and having a relatively soft table draw. Peaked at around 14k and it was all downhill from there. Didnt bother with the €1500 side event, gonna go on the lash tonight instead. Best of luck to all the Irish still in. Although theres very few people I know still in. Needs an Irish winner this year after last years massive dissappointment of no Irish on the final table. Hopefully this wont be repeated.......

That time of year again

Wow I honestly cant believe the year is a quarter over already. March was another great month for me meaning I havent had a losing month yet. Wont speak too soon though. Hyper turbos went bad in March and I managed to lose over $6k in them which is worrying. Until now I have been comfortably crushing them so not sure if its variance or if I no longer have an edge in them or whatever. Only time will tell I guess so Im gonna stick with them for now anyway.Main goal for March was to grind at least 100k vpps which I did so was happy about that, managed to get 108k meaning I played more in March than January and February combined. Currently on 216k vpps which is just behind current SNE pace of 249k. Got a nice $3,400 bonus for reaching the 200k milestone meaning I got well over $10k rakeback in March which was sweet. Majority of my profits for the month came from step 6s again. Havent played any more since my last update but plan on playing as many as I can over the coming weeks.

Well its that time of year again, Easter weekend meaning the highlight of the Irish poker calender is upon us. The Paddy Power Irish Open. The buy in is the same as last year €3,500 which I like. Not too big not too small. Expecting around 600-700 players meaning a prize pool in the region of €2 milliuon. This is only my 2nd year playing the Irish Open and Im 100% up for it. Got my %s swapped and Im ready to go. Not gonna stay in the hotel cos Ill only end up on the beer. Cards in the air at 3.30 so Im gonna go get ready. Ill do a very short update at the end of the day with my chipstack (hopefully)

March so far

Ill really have to start trying to update this more often. The weeks just seem to be flying by lately. Havent played a whole lot the past week cos I headed over to Amsterdam on Wednesday for four nights on a non poker break. One of the few places Ive always wanted to visit but hadnt managed to get too until now. Amazing place and well worth a visit as I expected.

Still havent had a live outing since Vegas but Ive a hectic April coming up with the Irish Open, Coventry UKIPT and of course Monte Carlo. Im still undecided wheter or not to play the satelitte the night before the Irsh Open, probably just see how I feel when it comes round I guess.

Managed to play two step 6s in the past week. The 1st of which was last Monday and it was a 6 max with one scoop package and $1,700 for 2nd. Played awful in this tbh and finished last! Another step 6 with no cash! I was gutted! It was the second step 6 I failed to cash in so far this year. Really have to get my act together. Played another one on Sunday night after returning from Amsterdam. This time it was a 10 seater with two scoop packages. Managed to keep focused in this one, no acting the bollox and so it was ship ship.... making it 11 out of 15 for the year so far and 2 bubbles/refunds gotta be happy with that.

Hyper turbos havent been gone great for me lately but Im hoping variance is just to blame as they are quite high variance stuff.
Ive 176k vpps so far this year which Im fairly happy with. Not exactly on pace for SNE atm but considering the amount of time Ive taking off its alot. Earning over 5k vpps a day atm. So Im just gonna grind hard for a few weeks before making any rash decisions.

Big welldone to Andrew Grimasson aka Chubbs. on his 3rd place finish in Barcelona in an ecpt. €65k very nice payday. Great player and cool guy long overdue a live result. Another congrats to Jorj95 on becoming the latest member of Team Pokerstars. Welldeserved and one of the names I expected to see as an online Team pro when they were 1st announced. George has probably been the most profitable sng player on the planet the past couple of years. And while everyone is complaining about how tough the games are getting hes just looking for any kind of sng he can 20+ table, pay a sick amount of rake and destroy continuing to make insane amounts of money from sngs. So best of luck to him

Lesson learnt

Well everything has being going so smoothly lately I shoulda know I was due a change of luck. Followed Wednesday up by another great day on Thursday scooping another 2/2 step 6s. A Monte Carlo one and a SCOOP one. For back to back $25k+ days. Something Ive never done before. Yesterday I put in a solid days grinding playing mostly hyper turbos and a few steps, but no step 6s. This afternoon I decided to put in a couple of hours before I headed out for the day. Was hammering away at the hyper turbos when this happened.....

Basically I got disconnected and was blinded away in any game I was playing or was registered for. This is something I have always feared happening but was always well prepared for. In my old house I used a fixed internet connection but had a wireless modem on stanby incase my main internet connection went down. Even had a laptop ready just incase the electricity were to go.

In my new apartment I was caught with my guard down and wasnt so well prepared unfortuantely. Ive just bein using a wireless broadband modem cos I havent got round to getting a fixed internet connection. It has being working fine until today when I was disconnected for about half an hour or so. Which seems like about 3 weeks when your 15 tabling hyper turbos. Managed to finish 3rd in 2 of the games that I was blinded out in. Which is pretty lol. Finished 3rd in 5 games just after getting disconnected but I was doin well in these games and more than likely woulda won them had I not bein disconnected.

Cost me around $2k I guess. Costly lesson but no use crying over spilt milk. Needless to say Ill be getting broadband sorted asap to avoid this happening again.

No news is good enough

Didnt realise its been over two weeks since my last update. Ive just been settling into the new apartment and grinding online since I got back from Vegas. Havent had any live games. Next live game Ill play will probably be the Irish Open which is on the 2nd of April.

Bein grinding a decent volume the past week or so and Ive got 38k vpps so far this month which Im happy with. Bein sticking to the hyper turbos and steps as my main games. Hadnt played any step 6s in about 4 weeks until Sunday when there was alot of traffic and I noticed them filling so I jumped in obviously. 1st one I played was a 6 max step 6 with one ticket to a $10,300 scoop event and 2nd place got $1,700. Finished a dissapointing 4th for no cash! My 1st no cash in a step 6 of the year. A step G filled up in the mean time with 1 Monte Carlo Package for 1st and €2,250 for 2nd and 3rd so I gave that a go. Managed to scoop the package to take my mind off not cashing in the other step 6. Another step G for Monte Carlo filled soon after and sure enough I gave it a go. Unfortunatley finished 2nd in this one and felt really hard done by. Really felt like I outplayed my opponent heads up and he just got lucky. Main hand we got it aipf with my A 10 versus his A 6 and he manged to river a straight, leaving me crippled and didnt recover.€13.5k for 1st and €2,250 for 2nd is a huge jump but I wasnt too dissapointed as Id already won 1.

Tonight the steps were filling again and I took full advantage. Played 1 step 6 6 max for a $10,300 scoop ticket which I took down, no messing about and quickly followed it with success in another step G Monte Carlo sat for a nice $25k day. So my step 6 record for the year so far is as follows.
Played 11
Won 8
Bubbled 2 (which I got my money back in)
Lost 1!

Over $50k profit from 11 sngs which is very nice. Not sure exactly how far above ev Im actually running at these atm or how long this run can keep up but Im not gonna think about it too much and just enjoy it while it lasts.

Gonna keep the head down in March as I want 100k vpp month to get me back on track for SNE which Im still undecided about. Well see how the next few weeks go I guess................

Busto!!!!!!

Day 2 was a grind of a day to say the least. I was shortstacked for all of it. The most chips I got to was 75k which was still well below average. I eventually finished the day on 37600. Blinds starting back on day 3 at 2k 4k 400 ante I needed help fast. Unfortunately it didnt happen and I busted a few hands into the day. Managed to steal the blinds with a shove that got through. Very next hand I shove AQ and run into QQ. I had him covered though so I was still in with about 2bbs. At this stage needing a miracle. Got it in with 45s against KK and no miracle busted about 10 places from the money which sucks after playing over 2 days in a tourney. John is the only remaining Irishmann in with less than 90 players left. So goodluck to him! 5% of $850k would do me nicely

40600 going into day 2 in NAPT

Arrived in Vegas on thursday evening after the grueling travelling! 8 hours time difference takes some adjusting so my body clock is kinda fucked atm. Rooms in the Venetian are pretty sweet! Im rooming with John O Shea who is also still in the main event hes on about 45k. Not many Irish here for the event but still a few. Andrew Grimasson (Chubbs) is struggling and on 17k, Eoin Olin was knocked out today unfortunately and Dave Callaghan is on 50ish I think. Thats all the Irsh I know of that are here. Hopefully we can push on tomorrow and get some chips.

Seems to be a pretty tough field. I had an awful table today with little or no soft spots, so not too dissapointed with how I finished up. Chatting to the other lads they were saying tables were also tough. Such a big field I expected there to be alot more value. Gonna get a decent nights sleep so have a good head for tomorrow.......zzzzzz

January Review

No joy in Manchester busted out in level 6. Uneventful tournament for me, got no luck and played pretty shit tbh. 1st tournament Ive played in a long time that I felt I played bad in. No interest in any of the side events so Ill just save myself for the NAPT in the Venetian next week. Flying out next Thursday so really looking forward to that.

Alot of the time when people dont update there blogs its cos there running like shit and dont wanna talk about it. Luckily for me that certainly hasnt been the case as Im on somewhat of a heater lately. Played live once since I got back from Deauville, The Fitz monthly which is a €250+20 and the only regular Dublin tourney worth playing imo. Got 158 runners so a nice prizepool for a Thursday night. Managed not to run KK into AA for the entire tournament!! So went on to do a 3 way chop at 7am for €7k each. Nice nights work and a great confidence booster. Chopped that tourney the last 2 times Ive played it now which is impressive. Last time was a 5 way chop in October. Would never usually consider chopping a tourney 5 ways but I got a sick deal that night so couldnt refuse.


ONLINE

Mentioned in my last post I had won 2 out of 3 step 6s that I had played and was goin to focus on the steps for a while. Well I have. Despite not playing much the past couple of weeks cos Ive been so busy moving etc when I have played Ive done sick good! Played another 3 step 6s since the last post and managed to win the 3 of them. 5 out of 6 in total and a healthy $37k in cashes from 6 sngs. Id love to know what my hourly rate online is so far this year. Doin great overall in the steps playing pretty much every step 3-5 and D-F that fills while Im playing. Ive 2 step G tickets atm and 2 step 6s. Dont fancy Copenhagen or Berlin and Ive stuff on for Austria so not sure exactly when Ill get a chance to use them. Also been playing alot of hyper turbos which are going really well too.

At the start of the year I was about 90% certain I wouldnt be going for SNE this year for a number of reasons which I already mentioned. Now Im about 50-50. I can rack up alot of vpps in a short space of time playing the steps and Hyper turbos. Got 7k vpps in 1 day there 2 weeks ago which grabbed my attention and made me have 2nd thoughts about not going for SNE. Still very uncertain though cos Ive played so little so far and have so many trips planned for this year. See how it goes over the next couple of weeks I guess.

Thats pretty much it for now. Next stop Vegas Baby!

UKIPT Manchester

Been really busy the past week or so and havent got a chance to update this. Had a lot of stuff going on and I just moved into a new apartment in Ashbourne so been sorting stuff out for that.

Arrived in Manchester last night and Im playing today which is day 1a. Ill do a proper report later on when hopefully Im chip leader cos it starts in 40 mins, better go...........

Live poker is rigged

Busted the EPT Deauville towards the end of day 1. It was a 30K starting stack and my stack was between 20k-40k for most of the day. Was on 21k when I picked up KK in the sb. about level 7, so its folded round to the button who raises I reraise he ships I call he has AA. Im like omfg surely I cant go out of another tourney with KK v AA? Nope! KABOOM! K on the turn and Im up to 43k. Biggest stack Ive had so far so Im on a real high and feeling confident especially after just getting so lucky.

So Im playing away and pick up a few more small pots and get my stack up to just under 50k. In the mean time I text Derek telling him I just ran KK into AA again but sucked out. Bearing in mind Ive been knocked out of 2 of the 3 tourneys Ive played this year with KK v AA. If I had gone out with KK v AA again I would have cracked I said to him. So blinds are now 400-800 and Freddy Deeb raises from utg to 2500 its folded rounded to me in the sb. I look down at KhKc and make it 7500. He thinks about it for a bit before making the call. Hes playing about 100k at the start of the hand. Flop comes Qs 10s 4h. I check and he bets out around 12k I ship the rest of my stack. And he asks for a count and thinks about it for some time. At which point Im 99% sure Im ahead. As any hand that is ahead of me is surely a snap call. AA,QQ,10,10. 44 is unlikely but well possible so I think he has something like AQ or maybe AK,AJ with a flush draw. Anyway he calls and turns over AA!!! I was in shock. No miracle K on turn or river and Im busted. Av. was less than 50k so I was absolutely gutted. So a quick recap on my live play so far this year. Ive played 4 tourneys (excluding ept sat) all of which I exited by running into AA. 3 of which I had KK. And ran KK into AA 4 times in total. Pretty nasty start to the year but hopefully it will change.

Also I couldnt stop thinking about 1 hand in paticualar in which he doubled up. Now freddy Deeb needs no introduction and has been playing poker before I was born, has almost $7 million in hendon mob cashes and would be regarded as 1 of the biggest cash game players in the world. Anyway heres the hand.

Im utg playing 25k and dealt 22 blinds 300-600 50 ante. I raise to 1650, Freddy is 2 to my left and calls playing around 19k, guy to his left calls as does the button so theres 4 of us going to a flop. Flop comes Jh 3s 6h and I press the check/fold button. Checked round to the button who bets 3.5k. I fold, Freddy calls, other guy folds so 2 of them go to the turn. Turn is a 7d and they get it all in. Not sure exactly how the betting went. Anyway button turns up JQos and Freddy has 45os! for the turned straight. Now Im not 1 to go slating other peoples play on my blog especially a household name. So I wont comment on the hand but found it very interesting. Calling an utg raise from utg+2 for 9% of ur stack with 45os is intersting to say the least imo.

Anyway was in no humour of playing after my exit and just hung around waiting for Jude to finish up who was going very well. Myself and Derek played a bit online the next day as there was no side events on till 9pm. I didnt really know what to play cos I dont like playing a high volume on the laptop. Then I remember I had 3 step 6 tickets which I had built up from playing a load of step 3s in December. So I jumped into a step 6 for the NAPT in the Venetian and took it down wuhoo! Took my mind off my main event exit anyway. Decided not to bother with the €2k side event cos I was due to fly home the next day so we just went on the piss instead.

Jude busted just outside the money which was pretty sick seen as he basically bubbled in Prague too. Pity about the lack of Irish playing these international tournaments as they are by no means tough fields. There was a total of 4 Irish players afaik in the main event, none of which cashed unfortunately.

Got home on Saturday night and just chilled. Put in a couple of hours grinding on Sunday and played another step 6 cos if I won another package I would get tournament dollars. Managed to get lucky again and shipped $7k. Used up my last step 6 ticket tonight but unfortunately bubbled a ticket by coming 3rd. But 3rd and 4th get $2k so wasnt all bad. Besides 2 out of 3 aint bad. Won another UKIPT Manchester seat the other night so a healthy $10k few days online.

Gonna focus on the steps for a while and see how it goes. See you at the tables.............

Ept Deauville

Headed down to Killarney on Friday. Got there just in time for the start of the main event which was 5pm. Bit dissapointed with the turnout though it only got 106 players. I expected about 150. Great tourney anyway and a great weekend but no success unfortunately as I ran KK into AA for the second tourney in a row. Hopefully it doesnt become a habbit this year.

In Deauville atm for the EPT. Played a sat last night and managed to get a ticket so Ill be playing tomorrow which is Day 1b. Oops laptop battery is gonna go and Ive no adapter yet. Better go. Ill update tomorrow see how I get on

Hectic start

Been a busy start to the year with lots of travelling. Headed over to Manchester on the 2nd with a load of friends for the United v Leeds match. Disastrous! Not only the result, and been beaten by a 2nd Division team but the atmosphere in Old Trafford was the worse Ive ever seen. Made the most of it anyway and had a good drinking session.

Headed down to Galway last Friday for the Eglington IPC party. Great craic, as is always expected when you go to Galway. Again, was more of a drinking session than a poker one tbh. Played my 1st outing of the year there and bubbled the ft when I ran my KK into AA. Had a great weekend anyway so cheers to "The Legend" himself Mr. Dave Curtis and co. for putting on a great weekend.

Killarney today with the Lakes of Killarney festival on. Its a €500 3 day event with a great structure and Id expect around 150 players so a decent enough prizefund. Going over to Deauville on Tuesday to try and sat into EPT Deauville main event. If Im unsuccessful Ill just play the side events.

Online hasnt been going too good so far. Got off to a good start and picked up about $5k 1st few days. Lost all that back since then unfortunately. Still havent really found my main game for the year and have been playing lots of differents sngs and mtts. Wont be playing much at all over the next week or so with Killarney and Deauville so hopefully Ill get back to a proper grind after them. Better go catch my train

09 Review

Well 2009 was my second full year as a full time poker player and all in all it was a success. No life changing results and I didnt make as much online as I might have hoped but all things considered Im pretty happy how it went. The games online got increasingly tougher as I expected especially towards the end of the year, even the $60 9 mans became a regfest.

I decided in December I wont be pursuing Supernova Elite this year. I got it the last two years but decided Im not willing to put in the time and effort it requires for a third year running. It really is a big commitment and becomes very stressfull towards the end of the year. I will of course maintain it until the end of September this year provided I get 50k vpps each month.

So grinding online will certainly still be my bread and butter this year but I plan on playing alot more live poker, especially big buy in tourneys. I didnt play as much live poker in 09 as I had orginally intended but still managed to play a fair bit. Unfortunately I dont keep live records anymore so Im not sure exactly how much I made but considering the amount I played (or lack of) it was a great success. Highlights of the year would have to be my min cash in the WSOP main event where I played at the ESPN feature table and was eliminated by the man himself Mr Ivey. And my 4th place finish in the IPC just a few weeks ago which was my biggest cash to date. €36k.

Online was pretty uneventfull with no big wins probably because I played so few mtts. But was a solid, steady grind none the less until the last two months when I went on a bad downswing finishing getting SNE. 9 man sngs are pretty much solved imo and so this year Ill be trying to move away from these. Plan on playing mostly 18-45 mans and try more mtts.

Stars recently improved there vip system which means everyone will be getting a higher % rakeback which is nice. In December they also announced there online Team pros. Big welldone to acoimbra who I play with regularly and I believe reads this blog. Im sure hes over the moon with that so welldone mate and goodluck with it.

I decided not to go to the PCA for a few reasons and so Ill be going to wsop and Monte Carlo as part of Elite. Hoping to play a couple of EPTs also this year and all of the UKIPTs. And pretty much every major festival in Ireland

Heading down to The Eglington in Galway tomorrow for one of there infamous parties and my first live outing so that should be good craic.