Back to winning (or at least chopping) ways

As Mireille was driving me to the Westbury monthly game in Malahide, she commented that if I didn't cash it would be the first time since I started playing poker that I'd have gone into double digits without a cash. She keeps more meticulous records than these things so I took her word for it.

In the event, the threatened first ever breach into double digits didn't happen as I ended up chopping with Mark "The Undertaker" Buckley. Mark's very unorthodox aggressive style does really well in there and there's noone like him to build a stack, which he did several times in this one tournament.

We got three handed with Massimo, who started agitating for a chop. Mark had 60% of the chips and said it wasn't really choppable. I didn't take any part in the discussion: I'm generally happy to discuss deals either as chipleader or as shortie but never initiate these discussions or push for a deal. A few hands later Mark knocked out Massimo and immediately offered an equal chop, which I was happy to accept.

Online's been going very well this week although it could be even better if a few big pots had gone the other way. Highlights include winning the nightly Deepstack on Bruce, coming second in the $10K guaranteed and $7K guaranteed as well as a number of other final tables on Bruce, and a third for $1250 in the WSOP shootout on Full Tilt, as well as a win in a $75 45 man on Full Tilt.

I'm also thrilled to announce the extension of my sponsorship deal with Bruce. I've felt very honoured to represent Bruce this year and wear the shirt and look forward to continuing to do so.

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Waiting for Godot

The dynamics of the table for my UKIPT Coventry main event seemed to suggest playing a much looser style than my normal live one was optimal. I ended up playing a styler closer to my normal online one, which made for a much swingier day than I'm used to. Although I initially drifted back from 15k to 9k I think I played fine (although some tweaks are still needed to adapt my online game to the live setting to take into account that live players just don't fold that much): I was just consistently outflopped or outdrawn. I lost a chunk with a flush versus a house. Then a rush saw me surge up to 30k, but it was all one way traffic after that. I lost half my stack with top pair versus a gutter that got there on the river to drift back to the shove or fold zone late in the day. I had a chance to get right back into it when I was in with queens versus tens but the board ran out AKKKA to chop the 25K pot. I then shoved jacks over a button raise and it turns out he had queens. No suckout and that was that. Well done to Fintan Gavin and Mike Lacey who both cashed.

The less said about the 100 side event the better. Sufficient to say it was one of those tournaments where I never got going and the first time I shipped and got called I was out. Despite hitting a house (my opponent only went and made quads).

I at least got a decent run in the 300 side event, getting through to day 2 with 75% of average. Card death at the wrong time and losing a flip left me very short on the final table bubble when I decided to make a stand with T9s in the BB when the SB shipped in. When I called he announced that he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but unfortunately for me he had a hand that dominated me, Q9o. Exitting just before the final table didn't do much to lift my mood already dampened by a week of struggling unmanfully with man flu and the fact that my roommate for the week, Phil "Godot" Baker, never made it across from Aintree where he was gallivanting for the week.

Shared a cab to the airport with Toby Stone and had a good natter about different events and trends in the poker world.

I booked my flight back late. My strategy when it comes to booking flights home is predicated on a fear of rushing, but I might have to rethink that as it invariably means having to hang around a freezing hangar masquerading as an airport for most of a day, something I hate. I think some famous philosopher once said that life is a choice between security and boredom, and I'm tipping away from a fear of rushing to a loathing of waiting. To relieve the boredom, I went for a Costa capuccino just now. Faced with a decision on size, out of the corner of my eye I saw an old lady struggling with an enormous cup and decided to play safe and order a medium. The cup I got was actually bigger than the old lady's. Not so much a cup as a small bucket. If I don't manage to make it through the cup before I finish this blog entry, I might go for a swim in it instead.

In any case, I just have one more trip planned before Vegas, the Nottingham leg of the UKIPT. I want to be fresh for Vegas and I'm starting to find these trips which I embark on feeling chipper looking dapper and return from feeling the effects of a week of bad eating, bad sleep and some foreign bug and looking like a homeless accountant about to be interrogated by West Midlands police quite draining. (I was actually stopped, briefly, by the West Midlands police. The policeman I was dealing with was a smiling affable sort who seemed a little embarrassed and intrigued when he learned my profession. He obviously knew a bit about the game judging by his knowledgeable questions about it and the fact that he knew that the G Casino in Coventry was in the football stadium).

Anyway, enough with the moaning already. As Chris Fitz reminds me every now and then, I'm living the dream making a living playing cards so there are no serious grounds for whining. The live plan for this week is the Westbury monthly game tomorrow, and possibly the Eglinton on Wednesday. The main focus between now and Vegas is to grind as much as possible online while getting myself into the best possible mental, physical and financial shape to give the WSOP as good a go as I can.

A very well done to my friend Feargal Nealon on his second place finish in the Ipoker Monthly Million for a very nice $110K score.

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Sad IO and sadder taxi driver

It's pretty safe to say the Irish Open didn't exactly go to script (or at least the script I'd have written). I oscillated between starting stack and 8K for three levels, then towards the end of level 4 I ran kings into aces. It's ironic that in my last blog I talked about trying to move away from making standard decisions: since as soon as I got reraised my brain was telling me "Folding kings to a single raise with 50 big blinds is a big theoretical mistake" but my gut was screaming "Aces! Aces! Aces! Man have aces. Maybe red, maybe black, maybe one of each but man definitely have aces". Online I'd just move the slider all the way to All in and not even think about it before or after, but live I think I might have got away. I said to Nik Persaud immediately afterwards that I had seriously considered folding and he said "You can't fold Dara, not if you're trying to win the tournament which I know from playing with you before that you always are". I think most good players would agree but I'm still not 100% clear whether it really was that straightforward. There are very few opponents whose three betting range in that spot is just one hand, but I think my German opponent may be one of the few.

In any case, I was unwilling to fold (stacks ruled out calling to set mine unfortunately which might have been an option if the Irish Open wasn't just about the only big tournament left in the world with a miserly 10K starting stack) so I just shoved and hoped for the best. But got the worst. When the dust had cleared I was left with less than 2 big blinds, which I duly pushed in next hand over a limp with AJ. Pretty much the whole table called and it got checked down to the river until one guy hit the nut flush with his A7s and bet it.

It wasn't the easiest of tables with a very good online MTTer from Toronto to my immediate left and Nik Persaud next seat over. Throw in Ray Masters, a couple of very good Scandis and a French EPT final tableist and a super solid German and you had a pretty tough table with only one or at most two soft spots at it. I wasn't sure whether that was representative of rising standards in general or not: Rob Taylor who had an equally tough table draw reckoned we were just unlucky and there were lots of softer tables.

The Irish Open is one tournament I'd love to get a run in but it wasn't to be this year. I never like hanging round the scene of the crime so I just headed straight home and back to the online grind. I compensated for my Irish Open disappointment with a decent weekend online. I made the second last table of the 50K guaranteed on Bruce and also the 250K on Ipoker. It could have been an outstanding weekend if I hadn't been rivered in a race in the 250K, but all in all it added up to about 5K profit so that was more than acceptable.

I went back out to the Burlington on Monday to record an Irish Poker Radio show with Ian. My mate Mark Dalimore (who recorded a great interview for the show) was lying second in chips overnight in the 1500 event. I thought the Irish Open side events this year were a poor crop at best but the last one, a 330 scalp event with a 5K starting stack and a fast structure, looked right up my alley. Unfortunately I got mugged in the alley: familiar story this year of falling to a flush draw on the river.

There was good craic round the Burlington. I went to dinner with Phil Baker (dressed as a penguin for his announcer gig), Rebecca McAdams (dressed as a Goddess for her web commentary gig), Liz Mullally and Liz's friend Michelle. It used to be debatable as to whether Phil could be taken anywhere: the matter has now been decisively resolved as a resounding No. Bex in particular had to endure the fabulous Baker boy's jibes and innuendos but she took it very well with her usual ladylike poise and got in a few good ones of her own. All good healthy banter but Bex definitely won this round according to this judge.

Mark ended up on the final table of the 1500 event, going out in 8th after a succession of sick beats of the KK v J9o variety. We stayed around a while to drown his sorrows.

This morning I flew into Birmingham for the Coventry leg of the UKIPT. I'm playing Day 1A tomorrow. The cab ride from the airport was quite surreal. The taxi driver seemed to be having a constant crisis of faith, looking at the address of the hotel on the printout of the PokerStars email I'd given him, jabbering away to himself and sometimes me in Hindi shaking his head dubioudsly while rustling the sheet hopefully as if that would somehow change the address to something more familiar. Eventually we're parked outside the Coventry football stadium while he stream of consciousnesses "This is address, but no hotel here. No hotel, but this address. This address, no hotel......" like some sort of cross between Manuel from Fawlty Towers and Rain Man. As he continued to permute the same words into exciting and unexpected new combinations, I decided it was best to run for it, paying him off and reassuring him that I'd find it somehow. He drove off sadly shaking his head like a man who had just failed in his mission in life.

It turns out the hotel is the football stadium, and the casino is here too. But you can't check in til three, so I'm typing this in the mean time.

Wish me luck, I seem to need it live these days. And if you see a sad taxi driver in Birmingham talking to himself in Hindi, tell him that everything worked out fine in the end.

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Two in one night and Doke's theory of evolution

Almost.....almost.....I almost did the double of winning the two biggest nightly MTTs on Bruce last night. I was second in the $17500 guaranteed (K7 < T8) and then won the $20K gtd. $20K was one of the most fun tournaments ever for me: I hit the final table with nearly half the chips already which is always fun, and by the time I got headsup had almost 95% of them. I also cashed in the $10K so overall was a very good night, one of my best ever.

Recorded an Irish poker radio Irish Open preview show with Ian yesterday too, it's up already if you want to hear my top 10 tips for this year (and Ian's too of course).

On Tuesday, I played Sean from Ballyhack in Wexford on Bruce headsup. Sean tells me he's a novice but he played brilliantly, really really aggro, and gave me some pounding early doors. I don't know if he was angleshooting me with the talk of being a beginner: if he really is he clearly has huge potential. Remember, if you sign up for Bruce and use the code Doke10, you'll get a free ticket to play me headsup for a prize of $60 on a Tuesday evening.

Also played a few more games in the Boards HU league: unfortunately these didn't go to plan and I lost both 2-1. At least I can say I joined the club of people who have been one outered by Marty Smyth. Marty apologised profusely but pointed out it was kinda due as it was at least a couple of hours since he'd hit a one outer. Marty's bang back in form and was one of my tips for the IO. He's getting married to the lovely Karen next week: unfortunately I'll be in Coventry at the UKIPT so can't attend but wish them both the best.

Other than that, it's all hands to the Irish Open. I'm playing the supersat tonight, partly because I love supersats, partly as a social thing, but also I want to see the room. I've been thinking a lot this week about my evolution as a player. When I got my first big results I was still quite a limited player technically, but I think I compensated for this with good instincts and reads on people and situations. Then I played a gazillion hands online, got much better technically, and reached the stage where 99.99% of decisions are ones I can make instantly (if I'm playing online). This year I came to the realisation that while I gained a lot from the work I put in to get better technically, I also lost something: a kind of heightened observation and antenna that fed it into my instincts and helped me get the difficult decisions right. So this year I've been trying to slow my decisions down live, think the whole situation through, continually be on the look out for physical indicators, and going on instinct more. Rather than simply thinking "8 big blinds, ace on the button, standard shove" I'm now trying to think "Yes, this is a correct shove theoretically, but I shoved 2 hands ago and 6 times in the last two orbits, the big blind is loose and gunning for me and more likely to make a loose call, but in two hands that old guy who I have never seen defend his BB will be in the BB so it might be better to let this one go". Paul Coyle said to me once he hates hearing the phrase "standard", which Internet players routinely bandy about. Things are rarely as standard as they seem, and even if they are, it doesn't cost you anything to pause for thought and think the whole situation through.

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