No French for weirdo

Early on in day 1 of the European Shorthanded main event, one of the French Winamax pros asked me what it was like to be the only Irishman at a table of French.


I pointed out that with a French wife it wasn't exactly a new experience. In truth while it has become sadly fashionable in some quarters of late to belittle the French, I'm a genuine Francophile. I love their food, their country, their attitude to life, their culture but most of all I love the fact that the French are at heart non conformists and not only tolerate genuine eccentricity but savour and celebrate it. My wife tells me that there's no French word for "weirdo".

Anyway, my shorthanded campaign was, well, short and not particularly sweet. Just one of those days when I hit nothing and ran into something every time I tried a move. By level 6 I was short and became shorter after I made a bad fold. I reraised a cutoff raise to 1500 on the button with 99. The French lady in the BB flatted, which sent the other guy running for the hills. She donk led at a T42 flop for 2K, leaving me with a decision that was effectively for my tournament life. Her previous donk leads had all been strong, or at least what she thought was strong. I couldn't rule AT out as she was playing an ace from any position for any amount, so I figured her range was 77+, AT and folded. I showed the 99 and she showed 88. Ugh.

After I'd drifted back a bit, she gave me a partial refund. I shoved A9s and when she snapped in the SB I figured my goose was cooked so was pleasantly surprised to see 65s. A while later I shoved 77 into AQ and the lady popped up on the river to send me packing. Shorthanded with antes is an awful time to find yourself shortstacked so no regrets about the exit: you pretty much have to take every plus Ev shove to avoid being eaten alive by the blinds and antes which race around.

Came back on Saturday for another short run out. Lost a chunk early on with AK v T9s in a 4 bet pot, then the rest reshipping AK over 99 and losing the race. Highlight of the event was Feargal Nealon coming over to tell myself and Rory about some bad beat Rory had put on him. I was just lurking in the background when this was going on apparently. Feargal launched into a detailed hand history of a hand that never actually happened. He just dreamt it. Feargal's a pretty unique character.

The best thing about an early live bust out is getting home in time to play the online nightlies, and Saturday night was very good to me, as I scooped the 6K gtd (for $1800) and the 7K gtd (for $2800). I'd also scooped the 7K gtd the night before so online continues to go very well for me this year. Thanks almost entirely to online, this is already easily my best year ever.

Came back on Sunday with a similar plan to the UKIPT charity event the previous Sunday: gamble early to get a stack or be home in time for the Sunday majors. I should maybe stop approaching events with that plan as it never works. I was short early after Rory sucked out on me (to be fair, he kinda deserved to as he played very well) so the bust early was on until I remembered how to suck out live. Folded to me in the SB, I shoved K3s. The French BB looked at his hand with obvious disgust and a Gallic shrug, went to throw his cards to the muck with a demonstrative "I fooooooooo" before suddenly changing tack to "call" and turning over jacks with a gleefully grin. So basically I was proper slowrolled, or maybe fastrolled is more appropriate in this case since the whole thing only took a few seconds. I'm not someone who gets worked up over slowrolls, but it was quite funny watching my opponent jumping around in an agitated fashion after I binked the king. There may be no French word for weirdo but there is one for donkey, ane, and I got to hear it several times Monsieur Le Fastoller's mood wasn't helped by one of the beautiful French ladies at the table telling him the suckout was karma.

Got moved go a table, pick up the aces in the BB, short stack shoves button, SB flats and calls my shove. I'm up against A4 and AQ and hold and suddenly, boom, 32k. I motor from there up to 50K before I get moved again into a car wreck.

Dave Whitaker shoves utg, I look at his stack and see he has only 3 1K chips and a few clumps of small denom chips. Thinking his shove is for 6 bigs, I reshove AQ in the SB. Up against AK, I lose, fair enough. I ask the dealer how much I owe, she starts counting and to my horror I realize that what I thought were 25 chips are actually 500's!!! He must have had every single one of them on the table for some reason. I made the mistake because I'm colour blind but really the bigger mistake was not asking for an exact count before I called a 30 BB utg shove with AQ.

Bad time to lose nearly half my stack as the tourney was now 6 handed and blinds and antes were racing aroung. A lack of good spots and card death saw me dwindle further until I eventually found a plus Ev shove with fours. A blood relative of the infamous Chief who was having to contend with the great man's coaching and constant "you're playing too tight" tirades called, Dave tanked and called too (with a shorter stack than mine), as did the French SB. I was up against the Chief's protege's KJo, Dave's K4s and the French AQ. So technically I got it in ahead but as I remarked to IrishPokerBoards blogger Brian (LaoLao), it would have been a sick hold. As it was, the KJo scooped. I did at least benefit from getting to hear words of wisdom from the Book of the Chief being imparted to his protege ("OK, so I raise, K4, he reraises me big, I call, I'm hoping he has AK obviously"): the poker world's in real trouble once I've fully absorbed it.




Another good thing to come out of this weekend is I finally dispelled the nasty rumours that have been circulating about me only owning one tie, with not one but two new ties making their poker debuts. Although after their performance both will probably be immediately retired to the Unlucky Textile wardrobe.




Great event overall and if all live events were like this I'd probably leave the house more often. I've decided to play the D4 Event in Slovenia the week after Killarney: Mireille's coming with so it's doubling as a holiday.

Well done to all the organisers and especially the Irish Poker Boards bloggers Danny and Brian who did a brilliant job covering the action and conveying the atmosphere. Every festival organiser in the land should hire these lads: it's the best way for folks back home to follow the action and get the atmosphere. Also a big well done to mt Bruce teammate Wally for cashing in the main event, and to Alan for keeping the title in Ireland against the odds after we were greatly outnumbered.

Next up for me live is the Bruce-sponsored monthly game in Newbridge's River club, and then Killarney.

I haven't done much blogging on strategy of late so just to mix it up here are a few thoughts on small ball as an MTT approach compared to big pot poker. I was trying to explain to someone recently why I thought small ball is a more optimal strategy in deep stack slow structure soft field events. In these events I always try to avoid big gambles for my wholer stack on the basis that I can more safely and steadily increase my stack using a small ball approach. Having gone home and thought about the maths, I came up with this (admittedly very simplified) model.

Imagine that in an MTT with a 20K starting stack, you have two choices in level 1:
(1) At some point a 70/30 will present itself for all your stack
(2) At four different points, four 70/30s will arise but you'll only be getting 5K in each time

Which of these is preferable? (1) is essentially big pot poker, and (2) a more smallball approach.

(1) has a fairly obvious outcome. 70% of the time you'll double up to 40K, the other 30% you're bust. Overall expectation therefore is 28K.

(2) is a bit more complicated. You could still have 40K at the end of the level, but this will now only happen 24.01% of the time (you need to win all four 70/30s). You could also be bust, but would have to be really unlucky and lose all four, which will happen less than 1% of the time (.81% to be exact). Most of the time you'll be somewhere in between. The most probable outcome is you'll have 30K having won three and lost one. This happens 41.16% of the time. 26.46% of the time you'll win two lose two to be on starting stack, and 7.56% of the time you'll lose three win one and be on 10K. As you'd expect, overall expectation is exactly the same as for (1): 28K, but essentially you've reduced variance. Almost two thirds of the time you'll have either 30K or 40K, and less than 10% of the time you'll be below starting stack. You'll also almost never bust, unlike the big pot gambler who will either be chipleader or out the door at the end of the level.

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Can't win em all, or any with Anna Kournikova

AK is sometimes called the Anna Kournikova, on the basis that as pretty as it looks it wins nothing. My Dublin UKIPT experience consisted of an endless repetition of waiting to get all in pre with AK.


Exhibit 1: the supersat. Was in two minds about playing this and maybe shouldn't have bothered but the deciding factor was the chance to win a tenth ticket, getting into double figures in a live event for the first time. Tough enough starting table that included Mark Buckley, Frankie Carbin and Danny Maxwell. I escaped from this table after the break with about 17K when I picked up AK in early position with blinds 150/300/25. I raised to 700, got called behind, and then the elderly gentleman on the button unexpectedly bumped it up to 6500. This might look like a squeeze but judging purely on appearances I figured it wasn't. My initial impulse was to play safe and fold but after due consideration I convinced myself that it might be AQ or a small to medium pair that might fold to a shove, so I shoved. Called by AKs, which rivered a flush to scoop. On reflection, I should have gone with my initial impulse and just folded on the basis that I could probably keep chipping up steadily to a ticket without taking any major risks for my entire stack.

Exhibit 2: the main event. Got off to a good start in this. Was up to 19K before I lost almost half of it calling down Tony Cascarino's JJ with QQ on a J high board. Not my finest moment as again my instincts were to fold the river because he was very strong. I'd drifted back to 8K when I again raised to 700 and 150/300 with AK, this time in the CO. A foreign player playing tight flatted the button, then an English lag raised to 3200 in the BB. I shoved, the button folded (AQ he claimed) and looking pained and asking if I had a pair the BB made the call with 44. His fours obviously held so I was heading out the door before first dinner break, a rather unusual experience for me in a deepish stack event. No regrets about the exit here though: raise folding AK in that spot with that stack would be awful.

Exhibit 3: A turbo supersat the next day for the first side event lasted until I again found AK in the cutoff and raised an early position limper. The button reraised. Folding wasn't really an option with my stack in this structure and I didn't have enough to make him fold preflop so I decided to stop and go (just call, with the intention of shoving almost any flop). Flop came 887 and my shove was called by KK.

I got off to a good start in the side event until I lost a 17k pot when average was about 12k with aces v JP Kelly's queens (no queens, I got four flushed). Hand was totally standard, JP wasn't deep enough to consider folding QQ pre. I recovered from a low of 5k to get through to day 2 with almost 18k, slightly below average, but day 2 was a short one. Just for a bit of variety, I was holding AQ this time rather than AK, failing to outrace Mick Stephens tens.

Exhibit 4: In the second side event, I had a lively starting table featuring three Belgians and Keith McFadden. One strange hand found me in a Belgian sandwich. The Belgian guy was raising the blinds of the Belgian ladies every time, so when he did it for the umpeenth time, I reraised his 300 open to 1100 with K5s on the button. One of the Belgian ladies now reraised to 3500 and proceeded to stare me down, ignoring the other Belgian who was tanking. He eventually shoved for less than 5k, I obviously folded, and getting about 6 to 1 on the call so did the big blind! Hmmmm. Keith reckoned she hadn't noticed the opener and thought she was just dealing with a button raise from me. I eventually exitted with AK yet again. I reraised a Dutch serial raiser 3.5x on the button, putting in almost a third of my stack. He tank called and then check called my shove on a T64 flop with 33.

Exhibit 5: Wasn't feeling that enthusiastic about another side event but it was for a good cause (Poker For The Homeless) so I decided to donate with the intention of taking all marginal gambles early on to either get a stack or bust in time for the Sunday majors. I don't seem to be able to just chuck them in though and ended up falling between two stools, flitting along well below average until I shoved AK over a Phil Baker's late position raise with A9o. The A9o got there on the river thanks to a gutshot. Another standard hand: Phil was getting nearly 3 to 1 on the call as my stack was decimated by a call with J3s I was priced into making against bounty Reggie Corrigan.

So pokerwise personally, the UKIPT pretty much fell flat on its face. I did manage to get out for a few runs around Herbert Park, met a normy friend for a very pleasant lunch and a natter (it seems a guy we both used to work with recently had to stump up 100 grand over comments he made about someone on his blog: ouch), and had a few other fun meals and other social occasions. Feargal and I ate out one night with Jason Barton and his friend OT. Two very interesting guys with a lot of interesting thoughts on poker. Jason was on his way to snooker superstardom (he was Ronnie O'Sullivan's practise partner) until a serious car accident. Now in property but also an extremely good poker player with some very deep runs in the Sunday majors, meeting him answered a lot of questions in my head as to why snooker players seem to make such good poker players.

The following night I ate out with Mick McCloskey, my friend Michelle and two English pros, Paul Parker and Parvis from Brighton. A chat with Paul about EPTs confirmed my decision to give the London EPT a miss on the basis of it being lacking in value.

Well done to JP, John Scanlon and all the dealers for another well run event. Also well done to local lads Ciaran "Tag" Taggart and Tom "Ugg" Kitt for their deep runs, and to Cat O'Neill for maintaining a 100% cash record in Irish UKIPTs.

Next up is the European shorthanded championships, which I'm looking forward to. Mike and Brian always put on a good show. Hopefully I'll be saying the same for myself afterwards.

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Obrigado

This blog is being written on the plane home from another profitable poker trip. I seem at last to be getting the knack of simultaneously enjoying myself and not losing my nuts on these trips away.


I arrived in Vilamoura just in time for the end of the Poker Stars party where I hooked up with my amigo Feargal and his better half Sinead. Quality food (veal) and company set the tone for what was undoubtedly my most enjoyable poker trip away to date.

Feargal played day 1A the following day while I pretty much just lazed around and railed him intermittently. I'm not the greatest railer in the world it has to be said: I see poker as right up there with golf when it comes to "dull stuff to watch no matter how much fun it might be to play".

I played 1B and for once got off to a good start. First big pot of note was against a really friendly Iranian guy to my right who was playing very tight. A loose older spewy Norwegian guy limped utg at 75/150, I called in the cutoff with 7d5d, and my neighbour bumped it up to 600 on the button. The Norwegian folded, and I decided we were deep enough that I could call here against a tight opponent who clearly has a hand and is therefore more likely to pay me off if I flop big. Flop was Qd7x5x giving me bottom two and a backdoor flishdraw and I led at it for 1200. My opponent called looking a little perplexed. Turn is 3d adding the flush draw to my portfolio and I led again for 2500, quickly called. River was a Kd completing my flush. I fired for another 6k and was almost immediately minned to 12k. Fearing the bigger flush I elected to just call and my opponent turned over KK. On reflection my call on the end is a mistake that lost me some value. With both the king and queen of diamonds on the board my opponent pretty much never has the flush as I don't think he raises pre with any other Axs or continues past the flop.

Apart from that my hands were all pretty standard. After getting up to almost 60K at a tough table, I took a few hits with expensive second best hands to drop back to 30k before finishing with 38k. The table featured Luca Pagano, Danny Neess and Carlos Mortensen. One interesting hand against Pagano: I raised utg with QQ. The table fish called, as did Pagano on the button. Flop came 772r, I led, the fish folded, and Pagano flatted. Turn was a 9, I check for pot control if I'm beat and to get value from one pair hands that I beat but will fold if I lead the turn. Pagano bets, and I call. River is a ten which I'm not all that happy about since it means another one pair hand in his range just setted up, so I check. He fires reasonably big again and after some thought I decide I can't fold as played and call. He turns over 88. Pagano played very well all day and ended up cashing but his bet on the end is a bit of a headscratcher as it works neither as a value bet or a bluff (I won't call with anything he beats and I won't fold anything he doesn't).

Day 2 falls under the category of so very standard. I drifted back into the 20s before a timely double up with kings v AQ all in pre, and pretty much jogged up and down on the spot (40-50K) for a few hours until my exit. At 1k/2k, JP Kelly opened to 5K in the hijack. I slid in one third of my stack with tens, committing myself to the hand. Eventual winner Toby Lewis made it 32K on the button. Hating my life after JP folds but knowing I can't fold tens in this spot at this point and praying for 88/99 or at least a race I slid the rest of the stack in, only to have my worst fears confirmed when Toby turned over jacks, a hand that was good to him all day (earlier he'd been all in for his tournament life against queens).

At that stage there were just over 100 left with 56 paid so I think it possibly qualifies as my deepest EPT run. I've now played 5 EPT main events, made 4 day 2's, but never cashed. I was one of the overnight chipleaders in Deauville but got setted over setted early on day 2. In Austria and Vilamoura I finished on just over starting stack, while in Berlin I came back short. This record obviously lead to a bit of personal reflection as to why I've never managed to cash. To be honest I don't think I've done much wrong, at least in the last three I've played: I just haven't got the necessary breaks on day 2 yet. But it also must be said that these EPT fields are getting tougher with less and less amateur players. I think my strategy is optimal: playing looser than normal early when we're deep and targeting the amateurs while they still have chips. The fact that I've made day 2 in my last four attempts indicates this. Day 2 is a totally different day though with far fewer weak players and less big blinds to speculate with, but I think my record in turbos both online and live proves I can play optimally under these conditions too: it's just you're never going to have much of an edge and it inevitably comes down to winning the crucial allins. That said, there's no excuse for complacency and the goal should always be to eliminate all mistakes. I think my only mistake in the tournament was my weak river call against the Iranian but that mistake cost me 7k in chips which translates to about €1500 in equity.

After going for a run to clear my head and grabbing a quick dinner with Sinead and Fergal (cataplana, at Sinead's recommendation) it was straight back onto the horse in that evening's bounty turbo. If you want to play poker for a living it's very important to be able to shake off disappointment quickly, and I was rewarded by running hot. I got to the final table with no major scares. An example of how good I was running: the button ships on the FT, I'm short in the SB so my calling range includes any ace, I look at first card, it's an ace, so I slide the chips in. He flips over Q5o, I show him the ace and say "only one I looked at", then flip the other one over and it's another ace. Then five handed the blinds made any ace a ship in the cutoff, Pieter de Korver calls on the button asking "do you have an ace?". When I confirm I have, he enquires after my kicker. I tell him I don't know yet: he turns over A6 and I flip the other card over: a king.

I moved into the chiplead before losing a massive non-flip. The rather wild German in the SB shipped big, I saw an ace and slid the chips in as I looked at the second card. It was AQs v 94o and the lowly 4 won the day for Deutschland. At this stage I was short again, the German was overwhelming chipleader, and the others were all around average. De Korver then lost a big one to drop to 60k and immediately suggested a chop. I'm sitting there looking at my stack, 30k, also known as 3 bigs, thinking no way the boys will agree to this but to my considerable surprise the force of De Korver's personality got it through. We took 3500 each and played on for the other 1300. Shortly after, I doubled up through De Korver with a dominating ace blind on blind, the German took out the next biggest stack with an amazing call (the other guy, playing tight, shoved almost 20 bigs on the button with AQ and the German found the call with KJo). I then finished De Korver off when he shipped utg and I called in the BB with A7. He had KT and I held. I then trapped the other guy into shipping T6o in the BB after I limped JJ in the SB to get headsup. The German had an overwhelming lead but I chipped away at it a little. Eventually he looked like he might be in a mood to chop the headsup portion so I offered him 700 and took the other 600.

I played another turbo the next day and was at the same table as Fergal and Nick Heather. I outlasted both without going particularly deep.

Next up was the 1K side event. I got off to an absolute flyer. By the end of level 2 (50/100) I'd chipped up steadily to 28k without winning any one big pot or all in. An incredibly drunk (and therefore loud and obnoxious) Carter Philips was at my table, and in between him telling us how much money he had, how many females he'd had intimate knowledge of and how retarded we all were for taking a 1K event so seriously, we played some interesting hands. He three bet me a few times and showed trash before I decided to pull out the light four bet shove. Bad timing as this time he had jacks and my T9s did not suck out. He gleefully told me that that's what happens when you three bet trash, which is undoubtedly true, but I wasn't exactly overflowing with gratitude for the impromptu poker lesson from one of the greats. A short while later I opened QTs, he threebet again on the button and I went through all the options none of which seemed particularly appealling. I couldn't really just keep folding to his three bets, but we were now deep enough that the light 4 bet didn't appeal either as he was certainly well capable of 5 bet shoving junk as well as the goods there. In the end I decided the peel was the lesser of 3 evils as it was a min raise. Although even very drunk Carter was playing very well post flop I felt I had a reasonable enough read on him at this stage not to be too intimidated about playing a pot out of position. Flop came KJT giving me bottom pair and an open ended straight draw. I check called and the checked the turn, another ten. Carter checked behind and then fired reasonably big on the blank river. After I called, he turned over 52o.

The turning point of that tournament for me saw me get it all in with AQ on an ace high flop against a bare flush draw that got there. The loss of that 20k pot left me with a stack with no real room for speculative splashing around any more so it was back to disciplined <30 big blind poker, and I went out in 14th shoving an ace over a loose late position raise into a bigger ace in the BB. There was one earlier spot I probably should have taken in hindsight. Playing 19k at 400/800 with a 100 ante, I min raised ATs utg, primarily as a blind steal. A young German pro made it 3900 on the button. He was 3 betting his button and blinds a lot and had already squeezed me with 65o very early in the tourney so I considered the shove. In the end I folded but on reflection I think that while it's a clear fold against a solid player, it's probably a shove against that type of opponent. I think ATs is ahead of most of his range and I can even get called by worse (KQ/KJ).

Next up was the 1K turbo the next day. I got knocked back from 20k starting to 12k in the early going before Christer Johnanneson doubled me up. I raised KK in late position, the fish on the button called, as did Christer in the BB. Flop was Q42r, he checked, I bet, fish folds, and Christer raised. After I flatted and we saw a king hit the turn, he check raised me all in with JTo and I held. I then doubled up again through him after he squeezed with AQ, I called with tens and held. At this stage I was chipleader and it was looking good, but it all fell apart in one of the worst hands I've ever played. With 100K with 12 players left and the average 40K, I should have been looking to stay out of trouble, but somehow played a 160K pot against an aggro Scandi who flopped a set in a battle of the blinds (I just had bottom pair but attempted to hero call him down). That meant I got to the final table with 4 big blinds, which eventually went in with 76s v KTs. I flopped a 7 but he rivered the ten to send me packing in 7th (only 3 paid: these late side events really struggle for numbers) still cursing my stupidity over the hand that gifted the Scandi kid the chiplead.

The last 330 turbo went no better and I was an early casualty, unable to survive my first "the blinds made me do it" all in, KJ on the button v A7 in the SB. An unhappy and unsatisfactory last day's play in a week where I give myself maybe 7 or 8 out of 10 overall on the report card with an additional "must try harder to eradicate mistakes" note.

No such doubts over the non-poker aspect of the week, which gets a resounding 10 out of 10. Great place, great weather, great people and great company. There was a very good relaxed atmosphere among the Irish players out there with none of the usual tensions that can arise when a bunch of big egos come into close proximity. I had breakfast most mornings with my partner in crime Feargal and his lovely better half Sinead, who enlivened proceedings considerably by turning the tables when Liam Flood tried to take the piss out of her. Official score card: Sinead 3, Liam 0. I also had breakfast with Teddy Sheringham (one of Liam's poker proteges) who was also very sound. He asked me who I supported and when I outed myself as a Gooner grinned "you must have hurled abuse at me down the years then". No point in lying to the man: given that he played for Spurs, United and Engerland, he pretty much ticked all the boxes in that department. Hopefully cheering for him on the final table was some sort of amends.

Also went for dinner with messrs O'Shea, G (Big Mick), Heather and Blaine, and ran into Mark Spelman, Ciaran Burke and Bobby Willis. Bobby cashed in the main event for the second year running, and John showed his resilience and mental strength after a challenging time of late by cashing in the NLH/PLO mixed event and the super satellite. While it's disappointing that none of us went deep in the main event, I think it's only a matter of time before an Irish player final tables one of these and hopefully takes it down.

Socializing highlight of the week was a trip to the waterpark with Fergal, Sinead, Andy Black and his partner Nicoline, and Andy's son Zack who is a barrel of laughs. Some of his one liners had us in stitches but are not really for repeating on a family blog (or anywhere else for that matter). I resisted peer pressure to go on any of the slides but still managed to get drenched much to the other's amusement.

Despite playing a lot of live poker, the week had a very holiday feeling to it. When I'm at home my days are essentially spent sleeping and my nights grinding online, so it was refreshing to be getting up with the sun, going for a run, eating at normal times and generally living like a normal human being again.

Next up is the UKIPT which should be a good occasion. I do think Stars are taking liberties with the reg (12%) and the hotel room rates for satellite qualifiers. They clearly view these regional tours as additional money making ventures rather than giving something back or promotional, so it would be nice to see them doing more to foster grassroots poker in Ireland rather than merely being the biggest beneficiary.

Before then it's back to the online grind for me for a few days (or nights rather). I recorded another vlog in Vilamoura which is now up at www.irishpokerlounge.com. Thanks to all who told me they enjoyed the first one, which encourages me to go to the effort of doing a few more at least.

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Dry run continues and ends, and the latest Doke scandal (Tiegate)

This blog entry could also be called same old same old I guess, since apart from a few ties it's mostly going to be about more live flops and online scores.

Live first. I played the Bruce sponsored Leinster Champs. Day 1 went grand although I definitely had a much tougher table than average, featuring the very aggro Michelle "Gaviganator", two good solid players Val Gabriel and Donal Mullally, and a few others who knew what they were at. I didn't get a lot to play with but made the best of it and finished the day around average. It was the first time I'd played with Michelle live (we've crossed virtual swords online a few times) and she ran amok for much of the day and finished with the most chips, and it was no surprise to me she ended up on the final table, a second good result for her after her recent deep run in the Poker in the Pub grand final. It's great to see more good female players appearing on the scene. Michelle plays more like a mad Scandi than your typical female player: in fact I'd say some of her moves would be make Annette15 blanch, and has massive potential once she adds a bit of technical nous to her game.

Our table also featured brief cameos from the legend that is Nicholas Power. Nicky turned up a couple of hours late and announced his intention to sit tight til the 200/400 with an ante level and then start reshipping, which is more or less what he did. Unluckily for him, the first time he reshipped a suited jack it was straight into Donal's waiting kings. Always good craic with Nicky at the table even if he often seems to see it as a diversion from following the golf these days.

Day 1 ended rather surreally with a very drunk Reggie Corrigan telling me what a great guy I was but how I needed to lose the tie, and me mounting the Marcel Liske defence for the tie.

Day 2 got off to a bad start and went downhill from there. I did quarter of my stack when I raised AJ over a late position Gaviganator limp and cbet a KQx flop. When that got called, I shut down and she won the pot with Q9o. Another 25% instalment went when I raise a raggy ace in late position, got called by the BB, checked an ace high flop and turn and called a river bet to confirm my worst fears of being outkicked. That left me in ship or fold mode and my first called ship, a wheel draw suited ace got called by kings and that was that. Overall I was reasonably happy with how I played, although I should have tackled the Gaviganator earlier in the proceedings before she had a chance to chip up
. There was also one other spot where I made a weak/prudent fold. I raised the button for the umpteenth time, the lady in the BB made a very petulant looking reship, and the accompanying glare she gave me suggested my A5s was more than likely ahead. Getting 6 to 4 on the call I'd consider it totally std online but after a bit of reflection I decided there would be clearer or better spots and folded. The subsequent speechplay pretty much confirmed I was ahead. As I said, online I'd happily go along with the maths that says 6 to 4 is a call: maybe this is one of the reasons I seem to be a better online player these days? Great tournament though and good craic, with my favourite mood elevator Andrew Yates (the Anthony Soprano junior of my home town Enniscorthy) on hand to keep me entertained and enthralled with some wacky cash games tales and lines.

Next up was Cork. I got off to a good start before I leaked a few chips late in the day, and then ruined the parade by making a bad call. I called with A9s in the cutoff after two limps from loose players who could have almost anything. An older gentleman from Galway who was playing reasonably solid called behind. Five to the AT3 with two hearts (not my suit) flop. When it's checked to me I probe bet 1k into 1500. The Galway man called quickly and everyone else folded. Turn brought a 9 making me two pair so I bet 2K assuming I was still ahead until my opponent instaraised to 18K (effectively all in, he just had a few small chips behind). My gut reaction was I'm beaten here, but then I sat there thinking wtf, how did that 9 make his hand so much better? I ruled out AT/TT/99 based on previous form, he was raising or reraising all decent aces and pairs preflop. I thought 33 was unlikely on similar grounds although conceding the possibility that it might be too low a pair to be in his raising/reraising range (he had already 3 bet me with 44 however). All this plus the fact that he looked unbelievably uncomfortable as I tanked convinced me T9 was his most likely holding and I made the call. Bad read, as it was 33, and he explained the reason for his visible discomfort as a fear that he'd been set over setted. A few hands later I shipped KQ into AK and that was that.

Latest live outing was the Fitz end of month. Tough table draw on the atmospherically lacking balcony but I managed to get a decent start and built slowly but surely. I was short near the bubble but thanks to some optimal push/fold got through it intact before I caught my first real break. Teddy 5xed it on the button as he tends to with small pairs and raggy aces, I found jacks in the BB and shipped, knowing full well Teddy last raise folded some time in the late 1950s. Sure enough, he snapped with 55 and I held. I moved from there up to 200K as everyone clammed up but then a couple of doggings (tens v a3 blind on blind) and ill timed moves into rocks with big pairs knocked me back down. One hand I was particularly proud of: I raised on button, Mahmood (the eventual winner, a wild aggro player who benefited from multiple suckouts) defended. The way the dynamics were flowing I pretty much decided he had had enough of me and my crap and was going to check raise me on the flop come what may. I missed the flop by a country mile but went with my read: as soon as he check raised I clicked the shove button with the Nicky Power (no pair and no draw) and he snap folded. Sweet.

Final table was the usual Fitz "everyone has 6 bigs, chipleader has 9" affair. I clung on until 7th, then shipped a rag ace into Q8 and lost to the eight. Still, it was good to notch up a cash before flying out to Vilamoura for the EPT. My record of never getting into double figures in a no cash streak was looking in serious danger.

Fitz is always good fun if you can handle the unoccasional dogging and the Fitz EOM is a social occasion as much as anything else, a chance to catch up with old friends and new. Had a good natter with Barry Donovan and got the latest Rob Taylor bad beats. Highlight (or lowlight, I'm not sure) was looking up at the TV screens and seeing myself on Setanta's coverage of the Deepstack (the infamous AA v 72 hand). One of the resident wags remarked "Doke's wearing the same tie" and I laughed until I suddenly realised oh my God he's right though. Subsequent speculation on Facebook as to whether I have only one tie left me unsure: I need to consult with my wardrobe department on that one.

Online has been going, well, well. Yawn I know. I won a few more tourneys on various sites, shipped a few more packages etc. I'm currently second on the Merge's network's higher limit MTT leaderboard (I'd be top if I played everything) so basically it's been going, well, well.

This blog is being typed up on the flight to Vilamoura. I'm hoping to give my latest EPT tilt a good old ratlle: I'm certainly high on confidence at the moment as these EPTs play more like online tourneys these days and I feel my online mtt game has really clicked in the last few months. That said, your average EPT these days has all the top Stars MTTers so nobody can really have that much of an edge. In any case, I'm playing day 1b, Sunday, to give myself an easy day in Portugal before. Also expecting my friend and friendly rival Feargal Nealon to go well, so much so that I've swapped a percentage with him, something I rarely do these days. Well done to my other friend Mark Dalimore begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting who cashed in Tallinn. He was going well until he was crippled near the bubble but he got through it before bad luck struck again. Following on his WSOP ME cash, Mark's in hot form at the moment. He was hoping to make it to Vilamoura to room with me but couldn't get flights so he's probably playing Partouche instead although he may turn up by car. Otherwise I'll just have to endure my plush suite on my own for a week. Tough life.

In other news, I've launched a vlog (video blog) and the first edition with my thoughts on Vegas and a few other things is now available at www.irishpokerlounge.com. The plan is to do one every couple of weeks so I'll probably record another one in Vilamoura: I'll try to twist Feargal's arm to liven it up a bit. I'm also tempted by reports of really good cash games in Portugal to try to overcome my aversion for live cash. In any case, I've brought a decent tank in the shape of a big bag of cash over to give it a lash if I feel so inclined. But my main focus for the next week is to give the main event as good as I've got. One time etc.

TIE UPDATE: According to my wardrobe department, I actually possess a considerable number of ties (a number so considerable in fact that there's an entire wardrobe given over to them), including several dozen "poker" ties. The poker ties are all red though, hence the confusion.

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