Notts (another) UghIPT

I know it's more than a little self indulgent in these recessionary times to be whining about any aspect of playing cards for a living (or "living the dream" as Chris Fitz calls it) but I'd be lying through my teeth if I pretended I bounded over to Dusk Til Dawn with joy in my heart and a song on my lips to play the Nottingham leg of the UKIPT.


In truth it was more a case of thinking where's a cloud of volcanic ash when it's most needed. I can safely say the UK is my least favorite destination for poker (or anything else for that matter) and I even tried to get Stars to let me transfer the ticket to another leg but they were having none of it.

I flew over that morning and hung around at the airport waiting for Mick McCloskey. He showed up with a gang of the Northern lads, and we split up into two taxis to head into Nottingham. I did get off to great start more or less doubling up in a very strange hand against former GUKPT Luton champ David LaRonde. He limped under the gun, apparently steaming from the previous hand, his first at the table where he got called on three streets by a gutshot that got there. With steam almost visibly rising from him, I figured this would be a great time to find a playable hand against him, and ATo on the button was plenty good enough to raise to isolate. He called, and I flopped gin: KQJr. He checked, I made what looked like a continuation bet of 900, he raised to 4K. After a bit of a think, I decided to flat call. I was pretty sure he had total air as having played quite a bit with him both live and online I think anything on that board he raises pre, so I figured I was going to have to let him get the chips in first. The turn was a Q (pairing the board) and he instashipped the loot in drawing dead with 86.

Apart from that, I didn't play particularly well, getting a few of the marginal decisions wrong, including a big (wrong) bottom two fold to a triple barrel that culminated with a ship on the river (my opponent showed ace high). My mood wasn't elevated by there being no dinner break and the kitchen being totally overrun and unfit to cater for 500 hungry souls (it actually closed for a couple of hours at one point) so when I finally got knocked out late in the day (I shoved a suited ace into pocket tens) it almost felt like a mercy killing. I'm pretty sure this was the last UK leg of the tour I'll be attending. Not fancying hanging around Nottingham for a few days to play the side events, I booked a flight home for the following morning, meaning I was back in time for the opening of the new Parkside casino in Mulhuddart. My friend Dennis Reyes is working there and invited me to be one of the bounty players for the opening night tournament. There was a bounty of €500 on Tom Hanlon and €100 each on myself and three others.

My plan with the bounty was to flop the nuts a few times and shove. Unfortunately the nuts only turned up once and I ended up going out on the second last table shoving another suited ace into another pocket pair. The new casino is a lovely room and hopefully it will take off as it's easily the nearest casino to me.

On Sunday I headed up to Dundalk with Liz Mullally for the CPT game, ultimately going out on the second last table shoving, you guessed it, a suited ace into, yup, a pocket pair. Very enjoyable game though run very professionally in a very good atmosphere.

I also played the Westbury monthly game on Tuesday, bubbling it, or rather getting bobbed on the bubble, getting it in on the turn with top pair top kicker against local legend Bob's open ender and a pair. Keith O'Brien is doing a very good job there revitalising the club which was likely to struggle after Larry Santo's departure.

Other than that I've been potting away online. I got home from Dundalk in time to notch up my biggest ever score in a Sunday major (on Party) . I usually run pretty atrociously in the Sunday majors but ran so well on this occasion I found myself wondering if I'd fallen asleep and was dreaming it. Apart from that, it's been a very good week overall, shipping a few 45 mans on Full Tilt, and cashing in a bunch of WSOP 3x's on Stars. I had a near miss for a full package in my first 3x, getting down to the last 4 with 2 packages. The stacks were 2.5 million, 1.8, 1.5 (me) and 700K when I pick up AK. Blinds were massive so it's a standard ship. The chipleader flatted in the SB, and the guy with 1.8 million tanked, letting his timebank run all the way down before reshipping. The SB had AQ, the BB JJ and I was obviously relieved to be in decent enough shape, basically about a 35% shot for the package. As it happened, the board ran out queen high, meaning the chipleader scooped taking the 700K shortie off to Vegas with him. A subsequent attempt saw me get headsup (only 1 package this time) and it ultimately came down to KJs v A5s. I caught a k on a flop that gave him a flush draw, but he turned the flush. I've also been playing all the major nightly tourneys on Bruce, and on Friday night almost pulled off the double of winning the big two in one night. I got to the final table of both the $12500 and the $15K as big chipleader. I managed to bring it home in the $12500, but ultimately came up short in the $15K, busting in third after losing a series of races. If I'd won even won I'd pretty much have wrapped the tourney up, but I can't really complain as I'd run very well to that point. On Sunday night I went even better, winning both the 15K sand the $7K 30 rebuy, finishing fourth in the nightly turbo, and second on Green Joker Poker in the 20K.

Anyone who follows Irish Poker Boards will probably know that having announced at the start of the year that the person who topped the Irish rankings at year end would win a 10K package, Boyle's changed their mind recently and decided that instead the 10K will go to the winner of a two table live final. At the time of the announcement I was on top of the leaderboard with approximately 250 points, ahead of Fitz regular Paddy Hicks with about 190. I made my views known on Irish Poker Boards and elsewhere that I don't think it's kosher to be changing the rules and moving the goalposts mid season. Irish Poker rankings has an unfortunate history in this regard but in my view for a rankings system to have any credibility at the very least there should be no major changes mid season. Ultimately it's Boyles decisions as the sponsors and they have said the decision was made on the grounds of their own commercial interest, which is perfectly understandable.

I'm starting to get excited about Vegas now. I feel the fact that I've moved away from specializing in stts to mtts has greatly increased my chances of landing a big one outside Ireland, and Vegas would be a great place to do it obviously. I booked the Gold Coast for the first couple of weeks, I decided close proximity to the Rio is the main consideration. I'll be sharing a room with Rob Taylor for two weeks until Cat arrives to kick me out

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Overs/unders

It's been a kind of steady as she goes period since my last blog. Online it's been a steady trickle down apart from one amazing night when I cashed in a couple of SCOOPs and made four final tables on Bruce, including a win in the $6K shorthanded and a second in the $30 rebuy.
In the one I won, I ended up headsup with one of the Longford lads, one of the best mtt players on the whole Cake network. I was reliably (well, not that reliably: Big Iain) informed it was a lad called Locko, and I ran into him at the JP Masters this weekend where he final tabled the PLO. Quality player.



I was chipleader in one of the M SCOOPs from about 200 left to 120 or so. In the end I was gutted to go out in 62nd, it basically went away from me on a few big hands, two of them involving AQs. Hand 1 was standard in my opinion: loose raiser raised in the CO, light 3 better reraised on the button to 20% of their stacks, and I have AQs in the BB and ship. Unfortunately the CO had AK and held. Just before I'd lost an 800K pot blind on blind, QQ v JJ. The jack bunk on the river made the difference between having 1.5 million (when second in the tourney had 800K) and being knocked back into the pack. The 200K loss immediately after obviously made things worse. I regrouped back up to 650K when the second AQ arrived. This time I called a raise with it on the button behind a loose raiser. This was a mistake: I should have raised but perhaps was still a little gunshy from the previous AQ. Also the BB was a very loose squeezer so I was hoping to induce a worse ace or queen squeeze from him but instead he just flatted. The flop came QT6, the raiser cbet, I flatted, and the BB (a very good Canadian who went on to win the event) reraised. The original raiser got out of the way and I decided to call and re-evaluate on the turn. The turn was a rather horrible J, the BB tanked and then shipped, and seeing nothing I could be beating now other than a total bluff or KQ, I folded. I think the fold is ok, his hand looks mostly like a set of sixes to me: it was more a case of a mistake on an earlier street (pre) making life more difficult later on.



I was hoping to go well again this year in the JP Masters main event but it wasn't to be. I did better on day one this year than the last two, finishing just under 30K, but it quickly went pear shaped on day 2. I was to the immediate left of the tricky Frenchman Pierrick Trossaro who ended up coming second after handing out some quality doggings along the way. I was trying to play as many pots as I could in position against him but wasn't able to catch him for the double up. As the blinds rose I found myself stagnating in that horrible 30 big blind zone where your options are severely limited. A desire to escape this zone contributed to my decision to make an uncharacteristic big move. I definitely don't make the big move as often as most top Irish players, yet bizarrely on the few occasions I do they seem to come a cropper more often than not. So it was again: folded to a Russian who had an Attempt to Steal stat of 100% so when he raised I'm not necessarily crediting him with much. I called in the BB with QJs and liked the 442 flop that gave me two overs and a flush draw. Or so I thought until we got it in and it turned out I had two unders and a flush draw to his aces. Needless to say the flush didn't hit and that was that. Disappointed to exit but not the manner of the exit. Most of the time my opponent has nothing he can call my check raise with in that spot and I take down the pot uncontested, and even when called I have decent suckout equity.



I jumped into a single table satellite for the 300 event which I duly chopped, and then into the side event itself. I didn't play very well at the start, couldn't seem to find my rhythm and wanted to play too many hands. Before I knew it I'd drifted back to 3K and it was time to get serious or get out. I got a fortuitous more than double up when a loose guy raising junk like A4o utg limped utg, setting off a chain of calls behind. With jacks in the big blind I had a no brain shove. When the original raiser quickly flatted I assumed it was the old trick with KK/AA, but no, amazingly enough I was a mile ahead against eights. I've seen that trap limp move with medium pairs a lot lately: someone's going to have to explain its merits to me as I really don't see them.



I was quickly moved to a new table. My 7500 was still pretty short, especially compared to the snappy dresser to my immediate right, one Big Mick G, who was pwning his way to a giant stack as per usual. I figured more than likely it wouldn't be long before I'd be standing up to shake his hand while the dealer pushed my chips into his stack, but after three big hands, we were standing to shake all right but it was Big Mick who was out. I'd love to be able to say I owned one of Ireland's finest young Internet players but the truth is the three hands were all bog standard and I had a big pair each time. The first one had Mick opening the cutoff. His range was pretty massive as he was wielding his stack well and I felt he was folding most of it to a reship from me so I flatted with aces. I got a continuation bet out of him after which he sensibly shut down, so I think I got the most I was ever going to get from a top class player. The next hand was the big one that Mick describes on his blog. I was certain he had a big hand as his hands were visibly shaking as they moved chips into the pot but if you want to win tournaments you can't really be folding jacks in the SB to a button raise less than 40 bigs deep. My raise size was chosen to make it look like I hadn't fully committed to the hand while making it unprofitable for him to set mine if he had a lower pair. After he announced all in I was somewhat relieved to be racing because, as I say, I had a strong physical read that he was not light. And even more relieved to hold obviously. I finished him off with queens v A5 a short while later. Mick's finding out the hard way this year how cruel variance can be live, but it's really only a matter of time before he binks a big one.



I cruised from there to a commanding chiplead of over 130K by the end of the day, despite losing a 60K pot at the end, my QQ v A9 all in pre, claiming another notable scalp along the way (AllinStevie also losing a race against me).



The redraw for day 2 brought some interesting faces to my table. Two seats to my immediate left was Rory Brown, who arrived talking the big talk. I'm on record as saying how impressed I've been every time with Rory in the past so I hope he won't mind me saying that he didn't seem to settle at all and seemed to put himself off more than anyone else with his table banter. He did claim one nice pot from me when he called ny first three bet with A9 and led at a raggy flop getting the fold and proudly showing the bluff. Designed to tilt me perhaps but as I said to him at the time, now I knew what he looked like when he was bluffing. That was the only hand he won against me, and he told me later that he realised I'd picked up a tell on him and started hiding his face in pots against me. So good readjustment. After he got moved table he clearly settled better and was unlucky to lose a massive race in the end.



To my immediate left was the always impressive Cat O'Neill, a player who never exhibits any evidence of failing to settle. She ran woefully on day 2, kept running into monsters when she tried to make a move, and still navigated her short stack to the final table and ultimately 7th. Cat has probably the best temperament of any tournament player in Ireland, nothing fazes her, and this is a big part of why she does so well consistently.



The second last table didn't exactly go to plan, and by the time the final table formed my 160K stack was decidedly average. I was still optimistic but it unravelled pretty quickly as the short stacked Gordon Cowan (who played a really good tight aggressive game that ultimately got him second) did unto me what I had done earlier unto Big Mick. First it was folded to me in the SB. With 15K in the middle and Gordon playing very tight with just over 60K behind I'm shipping a very wide range of hands here. I decided that Q7s fitted the bill. Gordon tanked so I knew I was behind if called. He did call and turned over AQs. Flop was Q7x but he received a justice ace on the river. An absence of good spots caused by the aggressive chipleader opening a lot of pots in the seat just ahead of me and me failing to find a decent reshipping hand behind led me to conclude I'd have to take any decent ship that presented itself to get back into it. Folded to me in late position I decided KTs was plenty and shipped in. Gordon quickly reshipped so I knew I was in trouble, and so it proved, my KTs no match for his aces. Again, I'm happy enough with the hand as I think the ship usually gets through. The only argument against shipping there is that Cat was very short behind, but I generally shoot for the win or at least the top spots on final tables rather than worrying too much about the more minor pay jumps early on. Well done to Gordon for a great performance. His game reminds me very much of my own when I first came on the live scene and I hope it continues to bring him success.



Well done to all who cashed. Sean Prenderville pulled off an astonishing double to win the main event (I co-commentated on the end of the headsup with Big Iain for IPRTV), and my former Irish Poker Radio colleague Liz Mullally played brilliantly to cash in the 150 side event and was very unlucky to exit in the end after a great call which saw her dominating her Ross Houghton's Q6. I lost a race in this early on against one of AllinStevie's crew, Mully. As so often happens, we were chatting away very friendly and before we knew it, we were in a big hand against each other and both stacks about to go into the middle. As Willie Clynes said recently on his blog, it's always easier to accept when your chips go to a good home.



Also, very well done to JP and all his crew. Talking to JP after, he expressed concern at the sharp decline in dealer's tips. JP had a visible tips jar which is a great idea as that way everyone can see what's been left. We're blessed with great dealers in this country who depend on tips to make it worthwhile so don't forget to tip when you get a score. Personally, I think a system where, say, a flat 3% of every prize pool is deducted for dealers would be best, but so long as that is not the case, it's important winning players share the wealth.



I recorded my last IPR radio shows at the weekend with Iain and would like to thank Iain and wish him and Manus continued success in the future with the show which has been a tremendous resource to the Irish poker scene.



Last major live event for me before Vegas is the Nottingham UKIPT. With the uncertainty over travel to this I was hoping Stars would let me transfer the ticket to a later event, but no dice. If I'm honest I'm not really enjoying these UKIPTs in the UK, so this might be my last one.

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Instead of Durr there's Doke

Who needs the Monte Carlo EPT Grand Final when there's the Carlow CPT Grand Final?


This tournament has been called the best value big buyin tournament in Ireland and it's not hard to see why. A 20K starting stack, superb structure, and a field with a high proportion of players not used to deepstack slow structure events.



The usual Doke approach to live 3 day events in Ireland is SAD. Survival (day one), Accumulation (day 2), Drive on (day 3), but with such a mix of some of the best players in the land and some easy chips, I felt it was important to try to get some of the easy chips before they fell into the hands of the better players. I got off to a flyer getting up to 50K and apparently the chiplead in early going before I lost a big one. I opened to 525 at 100/200 with aces utg. Brian from Fermanagh made it 2200 just behind. A lady playing very solidly flat called in the blinds. After checking the two stack sizes (both in the region of 20k), I reraised to 7500 to commit against their stacks. Brian called and the lady folded. I check raised all in on a KJx flop and when I was called, I was hoping to see AK but fearing KK. As it happened, it was the jacks, and the flopped set held.



To make matters worse, I got moved to a tougher table with Jason Tompkins and Marc McDonnell both chipped up already and in full flow. Prolonged card death and a lack of good spots saw me wither back to 11K early on day 2, before I got an effective double up in a four way pot that I'd opened. Jason led out from the blinds on the flop and folded to my shove. Even better I got moved to a new table (Jason said "Good riddance" as I left which I took as a compliment). I made steady progress up to 45k there before my next big decision. At 400/800 the button opened to 3300. I made it 10600 in the SB with eights. Back round to him and he instantly shoved. I took a lot of time to make the call, something Noel Hayes expressed surprise at the time and Chris Dowling and Donal O'Connor in the bar later. Getting 6 to 4 on the call, I'm obviously priced in to making the call against any normal 4 bet shoving range there. However, even getting 6 to 4 I'd be happy enough to fold in this specific instance if I thought it was almost certainly a race or 50/50. The reason for this is that in a slow structure with a relatively soft field I think there are much better and safer ways to accumulate chips than taking 50/50s for most of your stack. I'd moved from 20k to 45k on the new table with no risk or major scares. So why did I call in the end? I got a strong physical read from my opponent that he was not strong, and table talk had indicated he was losing patience, so in the end I decided that there were a lot of hands in his ranges that I crushed (lower pairs, ace rags etc.). As it happened, he was even lighter than I could have imagined with 64s and although there was a bit of a sweat after a flop that brought a 7 and a 5 and a turn that was a 4, I held. That helped me finish the day around average just under 100k.



I went for a drink with Donal O'Connor and Sean Prenderville who were both still in and well chipped up. Donal remarked that table draw was going to be huge the following day. When we came back and redrew, I only recognised four faces at my table, Kevin Fitzpatrick (who was very short and didn't last long, reshipping Q7s over my aces), Alan McLean (Stephen's dad), Brian from Fermanagh and legendary Tipp hurler Pat Fox (who I'd played with for much of day 2). Alan commented "you probably think this is an easy table", a little unkind on the unknowns perhaps, but I will concede I was glad to have avoided the likes of Jason, Sean, Donal and Marc for now. It was time to put phase 3 (Drive On) into action, and I moved from just under 100K to 550K by the time the final table formed without major incident. I played a lot of pots with Pat Fox after I commented that my father (from Tipp and an avid hurling fan) would never forgive me if I knocked him out. Pat's a great character who was clearly there to enjoy himself. Using table talk to draw others into playing pots against you is something I've seen others like Keith McFadden and Nicky Power to par excellence but never really done myself before, but it's always a good idea to try to add more weapons to the arsenal.



My table draw for the final table was a mixed bag: Donal O'Connor was across from me, I had position most of the time on Sean, but Jason had position on me. Most of the rest of the table were good solid players, and seat 1 was a real wild card. The tone was set third or fourth hand in when I opened tens under the guns for a small ball raise (13k), Jason flatted just behind (nines he said later), and seat 1 shipped in for 500k or so. I found some hands early on and got them to hold and moved into a commanding chiplead. I held this until we got five handed when the momentum swung away from me to Benny Carroll in three hands.



Hand 1 didn't involve me, but I'll mention it since I believe it was crucial to the next one. Jason opened the cutoff for a smallball raise (22k), Benny flatted on the button playing about 220K, and the self confessed wild man in seat 1 shipped the lot in for the umpteenth time. Jason didn't think too long before folding his small pair, Benny tanked it a bit longer before folding AQ. When he told us what he had, both Jason and I said we'd have happily called in that spot against that player. Benny's mood wasn't lifted when seat 1 threw over his hand: 23o.



Next hand, Jason passes, and Benny opens for 25k in the CO. Folded to me in the BB and I find AK. Benny's been playing very cautiously so far but is visibly tilted after the last hand so after a quick peak at his stack to see how much he has, I raise to 70k, sized to induce a tilty ship from a weaker ace or king. Benny ships in, I snap, and he has KQ. A queen on the turn drives the supporters from Mayo into wild celebration which is fair enough, outdraws are part of the game, although I could have done without being told my call with AK was donkey stuff ("it's a raising hand, not a calling one", the book apparently says).



Very next hand, Benny finds aces and gets it in against seat 1's kings and Sean's queens and holds to knock seat 1 out and have nearly half the chips in play. I'm now the shortie and the real disadvantage of having Jason to my immediate left quickly becomes apparent: he simply won't let me get away with opening light and three bets me every time I put a chip into the pot. Perfect strategy as it prevents me from getting back into the tournament without finding a hand or being willing to take a flip, so I switch to push/fold. 4 handed with antes you can blind out pretty quick so there was no ducking races or marginal ships at this point. I won a blind on blind flip against Jason (I shipped in with sixes, he eventually called with A7) and then took a few more small pots to move back into it with about 450k when the exit happened. I saw a flop of Td8d7c with Sean holding 98o. Sean checked, I fired in 45k, he raised to 110K, I shipped, and he sighed and then said "yeah, I call", turning over Kd7d. I'm technically ahead but it's essentially a flip, very marginally in my favour, 51/49. That margin increased when a non diamond 6 hit the turn to give me a straight, but the story of my year to date has been "flush gets there on the river", and so it proved again. I was obviously gutted as had I held I'd have been back to almost a million in chips. I felt at the time that whoever won that pot would go on to chop the tournament with Jason, and so it proved.



Most of the hands on the final table were pretty standard. There was one hand against Sean I played a little unusually that generated a bit of discussion. Jason felt at the time I should have bet the flop but I felt I had good reasons to play it differently from the way I normally would. I'd opened with T9s, Sean defended in the BB (which he does with a very wide range), and the flop came down A76 with two of my suit, so I have a very strong draw (flush draw and a gutter). When Sean checks, there's a very strong case for me betting to represent the ace, and build the pot, since even if I get check raised all in it's not a disaster in theory as I have enough equity to call. However, I decided instead to take the free card for a number of reasons:



(1) If Sean has the ace he will check raise me all in and if I call I'm essentially flipping for my tournament life with 6 left. In this specific case, I hate to have to do that as I was picking up a lot of risk free chips using a smallball approach. Barring coolers, I felt I was likely to get down to the last two or three without having to flip for it. Given those factors, I'd have to seriously consider folding if Sean does check raise me all in despite clearly having the price I need to call. If I do decide to fold, I surrender a lot of equity. Either way, I can avoid this nasty spot simply by checking behind. If Sean was the most dangerous opponent left in the tournament, I'd be much more willing to take a flip here on the basis that if I win it my expectation increases greatly with the most dangerous opponent gone, but with Jason waiting in the wings, I felt he'd be by far the biggest beneficiary of myself and Sean flipping at this point.



(2) Even if Sean doesn't have the ace, he's perfectly capable of check raising me all in here with air, as he'd already done earlier against Nicky Power in a hand Nicky mentioned on his blog. This puts me in a horrible spot again of either flipping for my tournament (assuming his air is marginally better than mine) or surrendering a ton of equity if I decide the fold is more prudent. In his book, Daniel Negreanu makes the point that while you should nearly always bet a strong draw in position when you're the preflop raiser, the one exception is when you're up against a very tricky opponent capable of check raising with air, as you surrender a ton of equity if forced to fold your draw. I agree with this, and this was by far the biggest factor in my decision to check behind.



(3) Sean's hyper aggro style is such that if the flush or the straight comes, he will almost certainly try to represent it and I can expect to win a big pot (therefore there's less incentive to build a bigger pot until I actually have something better than ten high). He's going to find it difficult to put me on the draw after I check behind on the flop. Sean has a lot of low connectors in his range too so it's also possible that if I hit gin with the 8, it makes him a worse straight or two pair and we get it in on the turn.



In the event, the turn was a brick and Sean fired in a small bet which I called. The river was another brick, Sean checked, and I gave up on the basis that he's not going to suddenly believe I have a hand if I bet. As it happened, he had one of the very few hands that beats me that he might fold to a river bet (JT) so I was kicking myself for not firing a small bet designed to look like a thin value bet.



Other than that, the hands were pretty standard and as is generally the case when everyone is playing close to optimally, the cards ultimately determined the outcome. There was a great atmosphere in the place added to greatly by my good friend Andrew Yates who ran a book on the final table. That meant he was on hand to give boisterous support in his inimical style which I greatly appreciated (particularly since the way it worked out he stood to gain more financially if anyone other than me won). If ever there's a man who could outshout a horde from Mayo, it's Andrew. My wife Mireille came down to keep me company, watered and massaged. At one stage she came back with a bottle of water, went to open it, and sprayed my hair and shirt in the process to much general amusement. It looked like a premature champagne celebration done on the cheap. I used to wonder why places like the Fitz have waterproof gear in their poker clothing line: now I know.



Although I was disappointed after the exit, Andrew who was on hand to give me a much appreciated man hug also pointed out that driving home with 12 grand in the car is never to be sneezed at, and he's obviously right. The other positives are that I was very happy with the way I played over the three days, it was good to be able to prove that I'm not just a 10 big blind shove it in online turbo merchant but can still do it in a slow structure, and I'm very happy with my live form as I face into my third WSOP campaign in Vegas. I ended last year on a high winning an IPC side event and notching up a number of other results late in the year to give Wally a run for his money in the rankings, and this year has been even better so far, winning the headsup event in Killarney, making a second last table in Deauville, chopping a number of Dublin monthlies (JP's WSOP game, and the Westbury one), a fourth in the Loft monthly and now this latest result. I'm also having a phenomenal year online across a number of different sites since I switched my focus to mtts, so I have every reason to believe my mtt game is in great shape to stage a serious WSOP challenge.



A big well done to all responsible for making the CPT final such a great event, especially Liam and Fionn who have done a great job revitalising the CPT, and the dealers (especially my friends Laura (who did a brilliant job on the final table) and Liz (always a source of entertainment)). I'd also like to thank Mireille for driving down on Sunday to keep me accompanied and watered. She hates watching poker and isn't a great fan of what goes on around it so I know it's a bit of a chore. I'd also like to thank Bruce for extending my sponsorship deal: I'm delighted to continue representing them and also glad to have got a result in my first event under the extension. Lucky Bruce shirts ftw.



Next up for me is the JP Masters, my last major outing in Ireland before Vegas. JP and Christine always run a great tournament, and I particularly love this tournament. I final tabled it two years ago to shake off the "Jamie Gold of Irish poker" tag, and make the second last table last year. Hopefully I'll give it a good old rattle again this year.



In case anyone is wondering about the title of this blog entry, it's something Jason and Marc were saying in jest when I came to their table first. Jest or not, I have to say I quite liked it as a slogan, and I'm hoping it might catch on

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