Running bad, hoping to race better

No joy in the DC Scalps game out in Citywest. Basically, the horror continued. Given the structure it was always likely to come down to a couple of hands and so it proved.

Hand 1: I'm in the BB with AQ. Ace-rag merchant who has already managed to lose his first tranch of chips with A4 (check raised all in on a A26 board and found himself called by AJ) raised 4BB UTG. Two callers, and I decided to flat call. Flop comes Q103, I trap check, he bets almost pot, everyone else drops out. I figure he's either got nothing or he's hit his rag, so I just call. 9 on the turn changes nothing as far as I'm concerned so I continue to trap check, he goes all in, and flips over A9 when I call. So I got what I wanted, at least until another 9 duly hit the river.

Hand 2: By now I'm drifting towards shortstackville so I widen my range and call with QJs on the button. 5 way pot, flop is AJ4, it's checked around to me, and I check. Turn's a Queen, checked around to Irene from the Fitz who pretty much always bets the turn if nobody's shown an interest in a pot, she bets one third of my stack, I don't think she could have AQ (she always raises that preflop), it might be KQ or more likely nothing at all, so I figure this is as good a spot as I'm likely to see and move all in. I know I'm in trouble when she instacalls. At least I'm right that she didn't have AQ: she had K10. Oh well, I still had 4 outs, but I don't seem to be able to hit 19 outers at the moment, let alone 4's.

Staked brother Sean in as a birthday present and for a percentage, and he was going very well early doors, up to 14K, and I was looking like I might actually show a profit on my birthday present. Then the blinds galloped up, it became bingo, he slipped back a little, and with just over 8K at 400/800, he got his money in ahead, into a threeway all in with JJ against two AK's. So great chance to triple up, he stayed ahead on the flop, but the Ace duly hit on the turn to leave the two boys arguing over who got his scalp.

Running horrible on the Internet right now too: just as well we're off to the Czech Republic tomorrow for the race on Friday.

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I've had better days

No joy in the side event yesterday. High quality field and seemed a pretty tough table with just one obvious weak LAG. Card death didn't help either. Best hand I saw the break was Jacks in the SB, a very good American TAG had raised from late position, I flatcalled and check raised him on a Queen high flop only to have him move all in, so down from 7K to 5.6K almost straight away. Got back to 6.5K at the first break thanks to two medium-sized pots, one a legitimate AQ on a Q high flop, the other a very illegitimate Q5s where I came over the top of the weak LAG's call (he was raising total shit like K5 and 106s so I figured his calls were even weaker) but then got scared when a very good French TAG in the blind flat called. Flop came AJx, checked to me, and a half pot continuation bet thankfully took it down. Second session, card death continued and again I only got back in it thanks to a frankly bizarre situation whereby a short stack was all in with 87s against KJ, flop came AQ2 with two of his suit, turn was a 2, and river a Q. Dealer awarded the pot to KJ, the 87 accepted he'd lost and walked off. The dealer went to muck the cards as I stared at the board and asked "Wasn't that a split?" Some other players mumbled about not being sure before one of them decided to back me and we convinced the dealer a mistake had been made. The pot was divvied up and the guy's stack restored, and I went to look for the guy but he'd already left. So now we had effectively a sitout. First time the sitout stack is in the big blind I comment to the guy on my left "There could be carnage here" anticipating everyone looking to make a move on the guy's BB, and nobody thinking anyone else has a hand. In fact, the whole table limps. I'm down to 5K on the button with 86o but I figure it's worth taking a punt for just 200 in position. Flop comes J86, two diamonds. Checked round to guy just before cutoff who bets 1100, or almost pot. Guy in cutoff has a long dwell and smooth calls. There's now 3600 in the pot and I figure my bottom two pair should be good right now but with so many draws out there might not be for long so I push all in. Two long dwells, two folds, and I almost double up. I win the next three pots and with over 10K I', thinking I'm in good shape. Pride goes before a fall and a few pots later, last one before dinner break, I'm in the BB with Q2o, SB completes and I'm happy to check. Flop comes AdQs10s, opponent bets 400 (half pot), I don't think he has an ace or a queen, and decide to just call and let him bluff at it again if he wants. I figure he might also be on a flush draw so I think by just calling I can keep the pot small and minimise my losses if a spade comes on the turn, and alternatively push him off the draw if it doesn't. Turn is Qd so now I've trips. He checks, I bet 800, he raises 2.5K. Suddenly I think he might be playing a disguised ace so I call. Rivers the 9d and he goes into a long speech play asking me if I hit my flush that suddenly gives me the sick feeling that he just hit his flush. It's hard to put him on two diamonds that would justify his bets so far so when he bets 3K, I make a crying call for just under half my stack and get shown the nut flush, Kd4d. Still not sure what his check raise on the turn was all about, I guess I could have gone with my gut and pushed allin then but he'd probably have called as he had only 4K behind. There's no doubt I played the hand badly though: a raise on the flop would surely have sent him away, and the call on the river was retarded given that he'd more or less announced through his speech play that he had the flush. So the story of this weekend has been that sometimes sets are no good. That left me short after the break and I waited as long as I could before pushing with KQs from the CO and getting called by Bob Battersby on the button with AQ. He hit an ace on the flop and another on the turn to totally kill me. Other than that, had a nice day out at CityWest watching the progress of the other boardsies. Seemed like Day 1b was a good one for them but day 2 was a bit of a mare with just Dom and Willie Yuletired making the money. Especially gutted for Smurph who went deep and played some great ninja poker on the TV table, Nicky Power who just didn't get the luck, and Lloyd who played great poker on Day 1b and was unlucky to get his shove called light by Julian Thew. Had no real reason to go out to City West today (my PLO skills not being advanced enough yet to make me anything other than the value) so decided to stay at home and play online, a few $20 SNGs, a satellite to the Monte Carlo EPT Super sat. Came through the sat but never really got going in the super sat and hovered around my starting stack until the blinds got too high and I had to push with AQ UTG and got called by 1010 and QQ. I'll be out there tomorrow though for the DC scalps game. On the running front, I did my last track session yesterday, or tried to. I was supposed to do 8 800s, but after I'd done 6 we were basically ordered off the track by an ALSAA security guy who said we had no right to be there as non-members. Mireille's protestations that I had permission from the athletics club there to use the track and was an international athlete preparing for an important race next weekend fell on deaf or rather stubborn ears, insisting that nobody was booked to be on the track so nobody should be there. Great Irish logic there: the track's supposed to be empty so you can't use it. A very annoying ending to the session as 5 more minutes and I'd have been done. As we were driving home disconsolately, we heard my radio interview being broadcast on RTE's Saturday Sport. Very surreal to hear my own voice like that, something I always hate the sound of. Today I did my last tempo run, 70 minutes at race pace, and it felt like an easy cruise so that's a good sign.

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"Out. Already?"

Yup.

One of those days when nothing goes right. Hardly played a pot, and when I did, it just didn't work out according to the script.

First pot of note: 89s, call, and call a small reraise. Flop 762, I bet almost pot, call. Turn brings a 3, I check, opponent checks behind me, so now I think he has two high unpaired cards. River's a 9, I bet half pot thinking my 9 is good, he calls with 109. Ouch.

The hand that crippled me went raise to 2.5 BB from middle position, call, raise from me on the button to 8 BB with AK, fold, call from a guy with (it turns out) KJ.

When the flop comes KKJ I'm obviously thinking happy days, though once I bet 300 and was check-raised to 800 I had to think about the possibility of KJ or JJ. To be honest I wasn't expecting KJ given the pre-flop action (I think most players would fold KJ out of position when a known rock reraises) and was more afraid of JJ. Turn brought an 8 and a bet of 1500 from him, which I called. Once he went all in at the end, I should have thought more about how little I was actually beating, or splitting with (I thought he might have AK), but it's very hard to get away from top set top kicker when you're heads up with half your stack in already and getting 2 to 1 on the call. I know I need to be able to get away from those big hands more though.

That wasn't my exit hand incidentally, but it did leave me crippled and I was out a short while later when I pushed with A9, got called by Q10, and he rivered a 10.

Oh well, just one of those days where nothing goes right. Good luck tomorrow to everyone playing.

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"Wow, nice arse"

Quote one brazen young hussy just after I ran past her and two of her friends in the park today.

When you get my age, you take whatever bawdy comments you get and waste no time considering whether there might be irony involved.

Irish Open is less than 12 hours away, so what am I doing up at this hour? Mundane answer unfortunately: watching some PDF files slowly brewing on my laptop after they whacked this machine several times. Day job commitments.

Paddy and Lisa spent the evening/night with us yesterday so we got the full account of what it's like to be down a hole for 80 hours or so. You have to admire Lisa's resolve and commitment to the cause.

Bit of poker to catch up on: 7th in the Fitz last Friday for 160 Euro. Doubled up early on courtesy of pocket Aces and Mick Duffy. Mick min raised from early, a few callers (I'm obviously not the only one who realises Mick always min raises marginal enough hands), I have pocket Aces in the small blind. I know because of our history that Mick won't fold for any money preflop against me so I raise big enough to ensure it's just me and him. Flop comes AKQ and I know, again for historical reasons, that if I check, Mick will go allin if he caught anything on the flop (and maybe even if he didn't). Sure enough, he goes allin with A-10, and no jack comes to save him.

Continued going well until I picked up Queens in the BB. 5 limpers, and Kevin, the Fitz's answer to Mike Caro, goes all in from SB. I know he could be doing this with any two cards and in any case it's a no brain call. Turns out he's stronger than I thought with AK and hits not one but both.

That left me with 3 big blinds from where a most remarkable recovery was effected. It started wth folding a few times, then noticing the BB had mucked his hand before any one else at the table, so I pushed all in with 73o, and it got through. I then got moved to a new table. First hand, A8 in the cutoff, all in, button calls with A10 and I dog him. Next hand, pocket jacks, all in, same guy calls with queens, and you guessed it, I dog him again. A while later, I'm all in with A 10, he has AJ, hits his jack on the flop, but I runner runner a straight. Scary.

At the start of the final table, I was back up to 40K, somewhat above average, but only 8 BB's! I've drifted back to 25K before I see my first decent hand, A10 UTG, I push, the guy I keep dogging looks at one card, has a bit of a dwell, and eventually decides to call without looking at the other card, because the first one was an ace. Turns out the other one is too, so I'm virtually dead, though by the river I have any jack for a straight and he's getting palpitations, but not this time.

Online, been going well in cash, but keep bubbling or thereabouts in satellites. Latest was tonight's GUKPT, 4 tickets, 8 left, I'm about average, I raise with A 10, BB calls, flop is 10 high, he checks, I bet, he min raises, I move all in, he has queens. Oh the horror.

I'm going in to RTE Radio One on Friday to record an interview for broadcast at 4 PM (I think) on Saturday Sport the following day. I think it'll be mostly about my running, but also the poker.

Right, that file is done so I'm outta here.

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"I wouldn't want a week like that every day"

Quote Mireille this morning.

As I previously reported, eldest son Paddy found himself at the centre of the standoff at Rath Lugh. While very environmentally aware, it's fair to say Paddy wasn't exactly a hardcore protestor on the issue, having only spent a few days at a time there over the last few months with his then girlfriend Lisa, who did feel very strongly about it (and more power to her). Paddy returned there this week purely to support Lisa and act as a liaison between her and the various other parties involved after being nominated by Lisa as someone she would trust. The media seemed to have zoned in on him, so he was all over it the last few days. On Thursday evening he spoke to Matt Cooper at Today FM about the situation, and that night on Primetime he was shown going down the tunnel to interview Lisa on behalf of RTE.

During the Today FM piece, Sean O'Neill of the NRA attempted to trivialise the protest by calling on their parents to intervene. I personally found this both offensive and vaguely ridiculous since Paddy is 23 and Lisa is 26 and both are independent adults long out from under their parents wing, so I sent a text to the show to that effect, and was invited to appear on the show the following evening to make that point.

While I was in the studio with Matt, they got Paddy to call in with an update from the site. I'd been asked how I felt about the thing, was I worried about Paddy, and my response was that I supported their right to protest, I trusted Paddy to look after himself, and he and Lisa were independent adults responsible for and capable of making their own decisions. I also was trying to get across the idea that I felt a happy ending was more likely if the NRA took the concerns of the protestors more seriously rather than treating them as petulant children in need of parental correction. When Paddy rang in, he was in the middle of a very tense situation as Lisa's Dad and uncle had turned up at the site, understandably upset and keen to doing anything they could to get Lisa out. Unfortunately with noone else around they seemed to focus their anger on Paddy (which was understandable but pointless, Paddy had attempted to dissuade Lisa from going in in the first place, and once she was in there, the most constructive thing Paddy could do was to act as a liaison between her and the outside. Had he attempted to pressure her to come out, it would have been counterproductive almost certainly), and Paddy being a very sensitive person took this to heart and in the heat of the moment he blurted out that he'd trade places with Lisa if that would get her out. This blindsided me a little given I'd just spent the last 5 minutes or so repeating that I trusted Paddy not to endanger himself in this way, and I was so flustered I don't even remember what I said after that, but afterwards I rang Paddy and realised the situation and that there was no real danger of him doing this (or being allowed to).

Thankfully the NRA seemed to eventually take the matter more seriously than merely getting the parents on the scene (Lisa was resisting pressure from her family to come out without concessions) as the following day a director from the NRA arrived to start talks. I rang Paddy in the middle of these and he said the proposals would be put to "The Collective" (as the protestors were calling themselves) but it wasn't looking good as the general opinion was it was more or less the same old thing in brand new drag. I reminded Paddy that this wasn't really that strong an issue for him and the most important thing was Lisa's safety, that he was there as a friend to support her, that some concessions were better than none and the reality was that there was no massive public outcry pressuring the NRA to make concessions, and that he should use any influence he had to try and steer things towards agreement between the NRA and the Collective. The weather was also a concern, as it was pissing rain thereby casting further doubts on the viability of the tunnel.

Thankfully common sense prevailed and a ten point agreement was reached with the NRA and Lisa came out safe and sound and in good spirits. I imagine most people would go mental after spending a week in a makeshift tunnel under the ground subject to all kind of psychological harassment but knowing Lisa a little from the times she's stayed in her house, I know she's a very tough cookie with strong principles that she's prepared to take a stand for.

I'd like to thank the NRA for (eventually) handling the situation responsibly, and particularly the local Gardai for keeping the situation under control. Paddy is actually covered in bruises at the moment, not because of the Gardai, but because of Ferrovial personnel who manhandled and roughed up the protestors when they were chained to construction equipment. One man in particular, who Paddy believes is a Spanish director of Ferrovial, attacked Paddy when he was in no position to defend himself, and the Gardai had to intervene. This is unforgiveable behaviour in my view from someone representing a large corporation making a lot of money in our country.

Anyway, it's a big relief that Paddy is now at home with us safe and sound, and I'm proud of the way he conducted himself as a moderate and sensible voice of reason in the middle of a very tense situation.

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Hippies in holes

Eldest son Paddy wins the today's "Most Interesting Life In The House Right Now" award. He's at the epicentre of a tense standoff involving his ex (an M3 protester down a tunnel in Rath Lugh), the cops, the fire brigade, construction workers and the media. Mireille had to get out of her bed this morning to drive down there to bring Paddy a key so he could unchain himself from something or other. The aforementioned ex has apparently chained herself in a tunnel or hole at the scene that's in danger of collapsing and Paddy's acting as a go between between her and the various other parties at the scene.

More on the Tara M3 story at http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0313/tara.html

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Memories

Didn't play much today because I had a race in the evening. Race went ok. Played a bit of cash online just for the heck of it afterwards, and did very nicely. In between I chatted on MSN with friends in the States about Vegas this summer.

One of them had been at a Night At The Races thing in her local church recently, those deals where they show some old races from some obscure and unacknowledged track from the other side of the world and get you to bet on who will win each race based on zero information.

One of my favourite gambling memories is from just after I returned from Hong Kong where I'd spent a brief stint as a professional gambler and was dragged along to one of these things. After generally being the damp squib asshole and poo poohing these events as ridiculous luckfests quite beneath a gentleman gambler such as myself to all my friends (when you're that age, and a guy, all social occasions pretty much boil down to displays of oneupmanship where you simply must prove yourself the superior of all your friends), my eyes widened like saucers and my mouth dropped open when they showed the first race, and not only did the track look eerily familiar (surface was sand, which really narrows it down) but I suddenly caught a quick glimpse in the crowd of a young man in a very snazzy jumper that I recognised as one of my own and realised that tonight's programme came from a meeting I'd actually attended in person in Hong Kong's Happy Valley, and better yet, I could recall all the winning horse's names. By God I cleaned that poor church out that night, they're still organising cake sales to pay off the debt, and Satan (I imagine) and I had a really good laugh about it later.

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Nearly night

A couple of final tables in satellites last night but no ticket this time.

Final tabled in a GUKPT satellite and was going okay, medium stack of 6.5K, when I decided to get creative with Queens in early position and just flat called with the blinds 100/200. Button who just barely covers me raised to 2K (10 big blinds!), I moved all in, and got insta called by AQ. Happy days only there's an ace on the flop.

I decided my short-handed game has improved to the point where it was reasonable to resume my quest to qualify for the Ladbrokes poker million. Second in the 2 PM satellite for a cash prize that represented a modest profit, but gutted because at one point I had the guy outchipped 10-1 heads up. Better luck in the 5 PM satellite where I won a ticket for the daily final. Going well in that early doors until I reraised all in with top pair/open ended straight draw, got called by an overpair, and lost most of my chips, forcing me to slowfold until the addon break. Nursed my short stack to the final table and eventually to 4th for $260 in cash. So a nice profit but no ticket and never any real prospect of one.

Today's main amusement was having finally persuaded Mireille to give this online poker lark a try, I got to watch her nurse a $25 starting stack on a beginner's table up to $41 in 4 hours (turns out she's a bigger nit than I am!) until a car crash. She was BB, 2 limpers, small blind made it $2.50, Mireille called with 87s, limpers both call. Flop is K87, Mireille leads out for $4, SB calls after a long dwell. Another 8 on the turn, SB checks, Mireille bets $8, another long dwell and a call. 10 on the river, villain bets $5 after a long pause, Mireille raises to $10, villain moves all in, Mireille calls, villain has 1010 for a house in Foxrock. Just as well it was Internet poker as Mireille had to be restrained from punching the screen. So I don't think I'll be encouraging her to try live play any time soon.

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Rush continues, sort of

I played in the Fitz 80 Euro FO tonight and ended up 2nd. I think I played pretty well without doing anything particularly brilliant. I'd almost doubled up by the break, and then I was up and down (mostly down) until a rush of cards on the cusp of the final table saw me getting to the final table with the second biggest stack. Card death ensued right up to the bubble (there were 5 prizes) and by the time the bubble burst I was down to just over 3 big blinds. I also had the worst seat at the table at that stage with the aggressive big stack (Jude McCarthy) to my immediate right.

When the bubble finally burst I got an immediate double up courtesy of General Zito. He pushed from the button on my BB, I have an ace so it's all in despite the other card being a 3, he says automatic call with K7, and my ace holds up. From there I finally started getting some hands and was up to 90K at one point and chip leader. Jude lost a few pots and was suddenly vulnerable and I almost had him when i got him to commit three quarters of his stack to a pot by the turn before I showed any strength by check raising him. I assumed he was pot committed but he must have had absolutely nothing because he folded. The hand that swung it back around was when Tommy Buckley raised big for half his stack, a move I always associate with him having a low pocket pair or a rag ace, I moved allin from the SB with 10's, and Jude woke up with Q's in the big blind. Tommy folded a pair of 5's and isn't happy when the flop comes 552! That left him hopelessly short and on his next BB I have aces on the button, I make my standard 3BB raise and he pushes all in with AKs. Two of his suit flopped though so it was a nervous turn and river. That left just me, Jude and my almost namesake Darren Kearney (fighting his customary rearguard action with the short stack: at one point on the bubble he had 2 BBs left). Darren wriggled and wriggled until eventually his Ace Jack was KQs and we were heads up with Jude outchipping me 3 to 1. By now the blinds were ridiculous so it was pretty much allin or fold poker. I got it back to 2 to 1 when I had A6s and Jude called my allin with J9o and hit a 9.

Jude's a great player though so it was a well deserved win for him. There are a lot of weakish players in the Fitz but some very good ones too like Vivian and Irene, and there's no one better than Jude. I always enjoy playing in the Fitz: the manager Deniece is a very nice person and a great laugh. So the Fitz does kinda feel like my poker home still: it's where I learned to play live.

I'm starting to get excited about next week's Open now too. When I qualified I thought it would be the biggest thing ever to play in, then there was the whole surreal experience of winning in Drogheda, but now I'm looking forward to it again and hope I can continue my good form and luck.

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I am the Satellite king

Just won a ticket to the Irish Masters in an online satellite, so I'm well chuffed about that. I seem to really click with these online sats: I've never worked it out exactly but my ROI must be running at something ridiculous like +2000%. Not sustainable long term, but I do reckon there's real value in these events.

I ended up headsup with The Al Lad from boards.ie. He played a great game: was short stacked early on so great comeback by him. At one point I think I was outchipped about 4/1 when we were HU, but then it swung around the other way and we ended up all in and my 2's held against his ace 2. As is usually the case when two players are pretty evenly matched, the cards decide when it's HU.

You see some amazing shit in these satellites though. I was playing another one recently, a freeroll, and there were 6 left for 5 tickets to a better class of satellite. So we're all sitting there with between 100K and 500K in chips, except the small blind, who after he's posted his blind has 250 left. Or about 1/40th of a big blind. Folded round to button, button raises, and you're thinking automatic call with any two cards from Mr. "My M is 0.025 if I fold here", but no, he folds!

So now there's 5 blokes sat there with between 100K and 500K, and one guy with less than 1K, so you're thinking everyone will fold until he gets into a pot, then everyone calls and checks it down. Right? No, wrong.

Few hands later, bloke who button raised raises 3BB (ie, 30K) UTG, it's folded round to the BB, who calls. Flop comes Jack high, BB bets, UTG moves all in (!!!) with a pair of 10s (!!!!!!!), gets called by the BB who has a jack, and the guy sitting there with 2.5% of a big blind wins a ticket!

No wonder so many of the live pros regard us online qualifiers as "the value".

In other news, I booked the Vegas trip for me and my bro. We'll get there the 26th (of June) and stay there till the bitter end (the 17th). I'm also planning to play the GUKPT Manchester at this point. Speaking of which, a big thumbs up well done to Fran "Jackyback" Egan for another great result, 7th in the London GUKPT event.

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Slump over, kinda

I think the traditional route into poker is either online -> live, or home game -> pub -> club. I just kinda launched straight into live play by heading into the Fitz one night (and coming second in my very first tournament).

As such, when I finally started playing a bit of pub poker late last year, it was quite a culture shock. Some differences:
(1) More of a social occasion, obviously. People in generally better form, banter more light hearted, nobody trying to tilt anybody else
(2) People just telling you their hands (either literally, as some sort of bravado, or indirectly, like "Ooo, my favourite hand" or "Oh, have to play this, it's my favourite hand" when they told you last week what that was)
(3) Players varying from loose aggressive to loose appalling
(4) Nobody varying their game. Trappers always checking their big hands, bluffers betting at anything that moves whether or not it shows weakness
(5) Deceptive structure in that you typically start with 160-200 big blinds, but with the blinds doubling every 20 minutes, all it means is the early levels are generally meaningless and the crapshoot arrives pretty fast.
(6) Everyone giving off tells like it's a sign language convention

I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship, or rather hate-hate. It's the only area of poker where my ROI sucked (admittedly, on a small sample). In 4 tilts at my local pub, I netted only one cash, for an ROI of -25%. On the other three occasions, I ended making the short walk home muttering to myself about fish who'll call your first raise all night with J8 and proceed to crack your Hilton sisters. Obviously there was bad luck involved, and with the reg being a steep 20%, you need a goodish edge just to break even. But clearly I wasn't adjusting my play optimally either from club to pub. So basically I decided last time "Never again".

However, I relented last night. I'd been thinking of playing in Drogheda but didn't feel up to the trip (and more importantly, Mireille didn't feel up to driving me), so the idea of a game just a five minute walk away suddenly appealed.

Twenty minutes in and a couple of cracked big pairs later that have seen my opening 8K stack wither down to 1500 and I'm in a fouler "What is the European Deepstack champion doing even gracing people with his presence at this fishfest?" mood than ever. One fucker even slow-rolled me: apparently that falls not under the category of "poor etiquette" in the pub but rather "great craic". Then I pick up 8d9d in late position, there's the customary entire table of limpers. Flop is QdQhJd. Bet, raise, I'm all in and already thanking myself for the early night when my bingo card, the 10d comes on the turn. Ooo, look at that, a straight flush. Now I'm just praying the Ace or King doesn't come on the river. It doesn't, and I quintuple through to 7500 (probably the first and last time I'll ever get to use the verb "to quintuple").

After that, my mood lightened to the point where I was able to stop scowling at everyone. Before I knew it, I was even talking to people in a manner that might almost even pass for friendly.

Anyway, by the time we get to the final table, I'm second in chips with 23K. Chip leader has 39K, and as is typical, everyone else has under 10K and is thereby short-stacked. I tighten up like a Legion of Mary trip to Rome until the short stacks clear each other out and we're in the money (4 getting paid). 3 left, I've about 20K, other two are 40-50K. Blinds are 1K/2K, so it's time for some ninja poker. I've good reads on the two opponents. The guy with immediate position on me is the better player in my opinion, hard to read physically, but his betting patterns give him away. He folds to any bet no matter how small on the flop if he has nothing. He bets anything that's checked to him: if he has something, he bets pot, if not, more. I'll leave it to yourself to figure out the best way to play against that.

The other guy was much more timid, and also easier to read physically. Didn't tend to fold at all preflop, but folded to one bet post flop if he missed. If he hit, he bet into you, but if you called, he'd fold anything but a monster to a turn bet. So basically I just floated every flop against him.

All of which meant I worked up to 90K in chips without ever having to show a hand. It became abundantly clear that my edge late on dwarfs my edge early on in these kinds of situations. Ignorant aggression carried the day and I ended up winning handily enough.

When you play almost exclusively in a club, you can start thinking there's one correct way to play. You forget that it always depends on what everyone else is doing. Bizarre that I figured that out quicker for something like the European Deepstack than I did for my local pub event.

I've been thinking a lot about this recently, especially whenever I see people discussing the "correct" way to play a hand. If everyone played the "correct" way, someone playing incorrectly would have an advantage (so long as there was some method in their madness).

Bridge is a game which supposedly takes years of lessons to master. I learned it one afternoon, and that evening in the prestigious Civil Service club with several top class international players in attendance, I won my first ever bridge competition. The background is that in my first programming job, myself and a Malaysian colleague used to while away the down time playing chess. I'd retired from the game a few years earlier, so I was rusty, so he won the first two or three. Then I got a lucky win, and after that he couldn't beat me. Jacob was an even better bridge player than chess player, but had trouble finding partners due to a tendency to, to put it in poker terms, tilt. Plus he didn't suffer fools gladly: if his partner made a mistake, they got to hear about it. He had this notion that any good chess player could be a great bridge player, so one afternoon he taught me the game, and that evening we won the tournament together.

How was this possible? Jacob was a truly great player, but I was the least experienced one there, and one of the shakiest technically. We did, however, have a secret weapon. Apart from the play of the cards, the most crucial thing in bridge is the bidding. This is used to convey information to your partner about your hand so that you end up playing the right trumps and trying to make a makeable number of tricks. What sounds like "1 Heart, 1 Spade, 2 hearts" actually can mean "I have good hearts, Well mine aren't great how are your spades?, Crap but my hearts are good enough that we can probably make 8 tricks even if yours aren't great".

At the time, and I presume still, just about everyone else we played against used a system called ACOL, generally agreed to be the "best" system. The only major alternative to this was a system called Precision devised by a Taiwanese electronics engineer, which dispensed with "natural bidding" (that is, bidding your strong suits) to codified bidding (using bids to ask specific questions, or to convey precise information about your hand in response to specific questions). Jacob had come up with an even wackier home-brew version of Precision, so the system we were using was unique to us. Bridge etiquette requires that you inform your opponents if you're using an unorthodox bidding system and explain what each bid means. Naturally, we abided by this, but being told what every bid means before the bidding starts, and remembering it precisely once the bidding gets going, are two very different things. People schooled through 7 years of classes to believe that ACOL was the only legitimate bidding system found this particularly hard to take. Plus they'd been schooled in interference and defence tactics against ACOL, but the same tactics didn't work against Jacob Precision. So we knew how to fuck up their bidding conversations, but they were looking at us like we were talking a different language, which we were. Theoretically, our bidding system might have been inferior, but competitively, in the real world, it gave us a massive exploitable edge.

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Running bad, running good, running long

Not a great deal to report pokerwise. Played another IO sat in the Emporium but never really threatened the scorers. Got little or no cards but still managed to work up from the effective starting stack of 8.5K to 17K just after the break through decent enough play without doing anything brilliant or spectacular. I did make some good laydowns, unusually for me. I'm learning to be a better folder.

I'd drifted back to 8.5K without even seeing a flop (thanks to some of the aforementioned good laydowns pre-flop) when I called an allin from a very loose player UTG with AK. He had QJ, but he spiked a queen. That's tournament poker. Funnily enough, with just over half a big blind, I almost got back into it. After folding two hands (thereby losing 20% of my stack in antes!) I picked up AJs. UTG raised, two callers before it gets to me, I call, small blind calls, so now my 425 is in a main pot for over 3K! It gets better when the flop comes QJx with two of my suit. No club, but an ace arrives on the river and I'm briefly thinking I might be good until the initial raiser bets 7K, another guy raises to 21K, and now I'm pretty sure I have the worst hand of the three of us. And I have: UTG has completed a set of Aces, and the other guy has K10 for the straight.

I still maintain these sats are good value. I certainly saw some bizarre plays last night that probably won't be going in my playbook. Like on a board of A 10 5 4 with 3 spades, the turn betting goes check, bet, reraise all in, insta call. The insta caller had KJ with nary a spade. I guess he felt a queen was coming.

Online I've been doing very little, just faffing about really. Most of that faffing has been in $5 6-seat SNGs. The idea being to improve my short-handed play, which seems to be my largest remaining weakness, and one I think that's cost me lots late on in MTTs. Too many times I've blown promising positions with 25-30 left through weak short-handed play. Even in Drogheda it was notable that I drifted back from a very good position (over 1 million in chips for chip lead) to being the 3rd shortest stack at the final table, although there I think I played the short handed section ok. Funnily enough when it gets short-handed at final tables I have a great record, probably because my ignorant aggression at that point works more often than not as people tense up. But in situations like 6-seat sats where everyone is forced to play for the win rather than nudge up the money table, I'm not so good.

Anyway, my play has definitely improved thanks to the SNGs. The main flaw I identified was playing too many marginal hands, and pushing them too hard.

I was thinking of going up to Drogheda tonight but don't feel up to it. Might go Saturday instead, if I can persuade our friends Sean and Anne to reschedule our social night. Sean's a novelist, one of the few professions even more precarious than poker. Sean was thrilled with my recent win in Drogheda, telling me he reckons it's now good for his CQ (coolness quotient) to be associated with a poker shark, as opposed to when I was just some loon running ridiculously long distances. My other novelist friend, Michael, sent me a hilarious congratulations on my win in Drogheda which I won't repeat here for fear he'd sue me for breach of copyright. These novelists, they sell a book to Anthony Minghella or get Booker-listed and before you know it, their emails and grocery lists are copyrighted.

Spent some of Sunday evening with my friend and mentor Tony Mangan (great 4 page feature on him in last week's Sunday Tribune) talking about our forthcoming trip to Brno, where we're hoping to do Irish ultra running proud. Tony's going for the 48 hour race he won last year (in which he broke the world record, running a mind-bending 10 full marathons plus in 48 hours), and I'm going for the baby version of same (6 hour race). Tony asked me what my aims for the race and I told him I'll be trying to win, and also break his Irish record. Tony smiled and pointed out that many have tried but nobody has ever succeeded in breaking a TM record. Good banter. Tony's a total legend in my eyes. In my opinion, he's the greatest Irish athlete operating at the moment. What other Irish athlete can claim over a dozen national records, 3 world records, a dozen major race victories? It's just a shame he's operating at the end of the spectrum where the media here doesn't really pay much heed to. Tony's known all over the world and is better known in most countries than he is at home.

On a more positive poker note, Poker News are going to publish a piece from me on the European Deepstack Championships. I think it'll be in their April edition. Also, Richard Donovan is interviewing me for a piece for Irish Runner, which will focus mainly on my running but also on my recent conversion to poker. The idea of me being interviewed by the legend that is Richard Donovan (Pole explorer extraordinaire, conqueror of Dean Karnazes, and the only man who could keep running through kidney failure in the Amazon jungle) is vaguely ludicrous but flattering nonetheless.

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The slump continues

Two more close-but-no-cigar second-last-table-but-not-final table nights.

First, Cool Hand Luke's EOM. Only 27 or so runners. Started very well, and eddied and edged up from my 10K starting stack to 30K with 10 left when the hand that crippled me arrived.

Willie, who I know well from the Fitz and elsewhere, raises 4BB to 3000 from earlyish position. I'm in the BB and see AK. I figure any decent raise pot commits me, or at least him if he calls (he's playing 24K, though I actually thought it was less, damn my colour-blind hide), and since I'm going to be out of position I might as well go all in. I know from past experience that Willie, who is a lovely guy and a comic genius to boot but also something of an Ace rag merchant, sometimes calls these with worse aces which would obviously be a great result for me, and I also know his range here is pretty wide (any ace, any decent king or queen, any pair) so to be honest I'm expecting him to fold, but I'm happy if he calls too as if I win an allin, I'll have a commanding chiplead. Back at Xmas when I was reviewing my results for the first 6 months I'd been playing, I noticed that:
(a) I made a lot of final tables (about 35% of the time), but more often than not I was short stacked
(b) My results with a short stack were slightly (but not greatly) better than could be expected. Only once did I win from an intitial short stack, and only one other time did I make the top 3 (which is really what you should be shooting for)
(c) My results with the big stack were much better. 6 times I was the big stack, and all 6 times I won the tournament

90% of the time I made it to the first break with well over the average stack, so why was I generally arriving short at the final table? I decided the problem was I was playing the second last table too cautiously and tightly, concentrating too much on hanging in there until the final table (and the bubble burst). So my new year's resolution was to take much more risks on the second last table with a view to getting a big stack, which I seem to play better late on in tournaments than the short stack.

So in short, I'm quite happy to stick all my chips in if I think there's a decent chance my opponent will fold or call with a worse hand, and at worst I'm probably in a race if he calls.

Anyway, turns out Willie has just about the best possible hand I could have put him on: jacks. He has a long dwell and decides I couldn't be making this move with Aces or Kings (not quite accurate: I did it with both aces and kings at the final table in Drogheda), so decides to put me on either queens or ace/king, and eventually makes a great call. He wins the race: c'est la vie. Next hand, down to 5K, it's folded round to my Q-10s in the SB, I'm all in, and the big blind calls with A4o. I lose and in two hands I've gone from almost chip leader to out.

Then tonight in the Sporting Emporium, sameish story, second last table, up from 7.5K starting to 30K thanks to some very solid play and some great (if I do say so myself) soul reads. Probably the best I've played since Drogheda, don't think I made a single mistake, and made some great reads and was picking up on physical tells all over the shop which allowed me to make a couple of hero calls.

Blinds are 400/800, antes 50, I'm playing 30K when the only bigger stack at the table playing about 40K raises 3 BB UTG. Folded to me in the BB, I have AQ, I think about reraising to define my hand, but any decent raise is quarter my stack, and besides, I know the guy has a hand because he's a solid tight player. I figure he has a medium to high pair, or AK, or at a stretch AQ. So I decide I'll just call, keep the pot small, and make a decision on the flop. I've successfully read the guy every hand we've played so far so I'm confident I'll be able to figure out where I am, even out of position.

Flop is A65. The two rags are spades, I don't have a spade, but I figure that's immaterial. He doesn't have trips and if he's on the spade draw, so be it. I check, he bets 4K, I call, figuring I'll check the turn no matter what comes, see what he does, and see if I can read him. If he bets big again he probably has AK. If he has a pair and doesn't hit his set, I think he'll check behind me.

I hit my bingo card on the turn, the Queen, and check. He bets 7.5K. I'm now 99.9% certain he has AK, so I move all in. He says something about being pot committed so he's calling even though he thinks he's behind, which he is because my read is spot on again, he has AK (with no spade). All well and good, until he hits his king on the river and I'm out. That's poker, baby. Again, if I'd won that pot, I'd have been in a commanding position with over 20% of the chips in the entire tournament, and almost half the chips at the table.

I was surprisingly philosophical about it all. I don't really have a problem accepting suck outs or the luck element in tournament poker. As my brother says, good players can only be unlucky as they always get it in ahead, though that's not entirely true since to win 3 70/30's in succession (as I did in Drogheda) is just as lucky as to win one 30/70. So long as I've gone out playing well, I'm happy I've done my job. If I go out to a mistake, it's much worse and the cat gets kicked (or would do if I had a cat). I know I'm still learning and have room for improvement at this game I took up less than a year ago, but my recent performances give me hope that more big results like Drogheda aren't too far away.

By the way, the reason I called this post "The slump continues" is that I realised I'm in the middle of my worst ever cashes/tournament run: only 1 cash in the last 10! Lucky for me it was the right 1 though. I'm putting the "slump" down to statistical clumping and some short-term pain from my new more aggressive second last table strategy which I think will pay dividends in the longer term.

I know, I know: this post has just been one long "I keep losing but I'm still not a bad player, dammit Jessie!" post.

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