Ah sure the Irish are well used to famine

It's not unusual to hear Mick Mccloskey mourning the absence of a free drink, but in the bar in Citywest one night he pointed out the lack of a "free" meal at the UKIPT (or rather one covered as part of the reg). I noted that this was the first UKIPT stop I could remember where this was the case, and remarked that maybe Stars were assuming that we Irish are well used to famine so no need to feed us.

That night, I was also chatting to Tom Scanlon (who had just knocked Mick out on his latest final table) who told me he knows one of my old Irish ultrarunning team compatriots Richie. Richie and I operated at different ends of what my poker friends tend to refer to as "crazy long distance running". My focus was mainly on winning big city races like the New York ultramarathon in Central Park, whereas Richie's main focus was on setting long distance solo records like across Ireland or the Antarctic. He did however win the first ever running of the South pole marathon. Coupled to his feat of running across Antartica, it's fair to say Richie's a lot better than I am in the cold (bizarrely for someone who doesn't like heat normally, I became national champion and set a few records in 35 degrees heat 90 per cent humidity). Maybe I should have tagged Richie in to play 1A of the UKIPT too. Chris Dowling remarked that we seemed to be playing it in the lobby of the convention centre and a damn cold and draughty one it was too. Maybe Stars think we're taking so well to the austerity currently being foisted on us by the EU and IMF so why not. (To be fair to Stars, whatever caused these indoor Antarctic conditions were sorted on the other days).

My day 1A was a qualified success as I ended it with more than starting stack. My cause wasn't helped by having one of the best players in the field Paul "uwannaloan" Delaney sat to my immediate left. Lovely lad, but I'd rather chat to him at breaks.

But you suck at day 2's dude
As I headed back for Day 2, my friend and business partner David Lappin commented that I suck at day 2's (a dig at several recent day 2's that haven't lasted very long). This one at least made it past the first hour. I should perhaps have guessed it wasn't going to be my day when uwannaloan reappeared at my table to sit down to, yes, my immediate left. It looked like he'd decapitated his starting day 2 table. He'd finished day one with about a third of a starting stack, which he'd now parlayed into three or four starting stacks. I was hovering around my day 2 starting stack when I picked up AT in the cutoff. With 18 bbs, two young online beasts (uwannaloan and entim) just behind and two tight blinds, I decided the best way to play the hand was to min raise with the intention of getting it in versus either of the kids, but folding if either blind three bet me. uwannaloan obliged with the 3 bet, but unfortunately had a hand to call my 4 bets hove with. His ace king held.

Rollin' rollin rollin'
Next up was the High Roller. I got off to a flying start in this, doubling up pretty quickly mostly without showdowns. I was feeling very good about how it was going. My luck changed when the table broke. At the new table, I opened jacks under the gun, Thomas Dunwoody flatted, as did Jason Tompkins on the button. The big blind now shoved, I reshoved, and after the other two folded it was off to the races against ak. After losing  the race to send me back towards starting stacks, I was left to reflect glumly on how often in mtts it seems that early good work is wiped away by a lost race or two. No point in complaining though: you gotta win your races as they say.

Another table change saw me wedged between Lappin and entim. Lappin got dogged early on, and I got a much needed treble up near the end after I finally picked up a hand. I raised aces under the gun playing just over 15 bbs, an aggro Scandi decided to get jiggy with a 3 bet. Action on Jason Tompkins in the big blind and to my delight he reshoved after some thought. The Scandi got the message and left Jason's jacks the opportunity to dog my aces. They didn't and I finished the day on a high.

Day 2 started ok but turned sour when I lost most of my stack with a turned set versus a turned gutshot. That left me needing to get shove happy, and when I did find a hand to shove (KTs) I got called by a better hand (A5) and that was that. Annoying end four from the bubble but I was happy with how I played, and my decision to play. I can truthfully say I was genuinely surprised how much value there was in the field.

There was a young lad from Drumlish...
I can usually remember exactly when and where I first saw or met people, but in the case of Padraig "Smidge" O'Neill it seems that he just showed up one day and before I knew it I was talking to him every night on Skype. I do remember the first time we played live he pwned a certain Nick Newport in a very memorable hand. People who can do that stick in your memory and earn your respect. We'd already played a fair bit online. Naturally chatty, he'd struck up some chatbox convos when we locked horns. I'm not a great one for chatting when I'm multitabling, but Smidge is so amiable and polite it would seem rude not to respond, so I did. Before I knew it, he was not only running more hands by me than anyone else, but I was watching the little Skype box headed "Smidge" buzz more than all the other Skype boxes on my screen as he agonised over hands, whether to play online or live cash that night, what to eat, what to watch on TV and every other decision he wrestled with. I started buying chunks of him in live events, and then when I learned he was considering breaking from his online backers, I pounced at the opportunity to stake him and his friend online beast Jaymo. As a result, myself and Lappin had a major chunk of his action in the UKIPT. We started to get excited about this late on day 2 when word filtered through Smidge had stormed his way into the chiplead. We were both involved in the High Roller at this point, but the reports of Smidge crushing the bubble certainly gladdened our hearts.

The crushing continued into day 3 as the final table loomed. With 20% of the chips with 18 left, but for a dogging in a three way all in (aces v qq and 99) he would have been a commanding chipleader on the final table, but 3/8 was more than sufficient grounds for optimism.

I had been sharing with Daragh Davey but after busting the €300 event Daragh decided to get out of Dodge so Smidge took his place. Sensible lad that he is, he got an early night and was sound asleep by the time I got to the room from the bar. He spent the morning taking calls from family, friends and other well wishers (he's a very popular lad) and then was raring to go. With Lappin and myself hovering on the rail like a couple of pushy parents and joined by a very boisterous rail that included both poker friends (Daragh, Nick Newport, Feargal Nealon, Jaymo, Mick Mccloskey) and non poker friends (a good chunk of the young population of Drumlish), Smidge moved back into the chiplead through relentless aggression early on and was looking good to press on. Unfortunately, even though he didn't put a foot wrong, it wasn't to be, as he was coolered blind on blind.

David and I were tweeting furiously as we railed and for a while smidge2point0 was trending on Twitter, a joking reference to some minor tweaks and adjustments made to Smidge's game since he started working with us. The reality is that there was very little that needed to be done  with his game. His likeability means he makes friends easily, and as a friend of most of the young online beasts (Jaymo, Daragh, Jono Crute, Robbie Scott, Ger Harraghy, Dan Wilson etc etc) he benefits from having so many great poker minds to run things by. Possessed of a calm disciplined temperament and methodical approach, Smidge approaches the game professionally and will go far.

A few other well dones
Well done to Max Silver for getting headsup in the high roller and coming close to claiming a third (High Roller) win. Also well done to Breifne Earley for winning the PLO side event. The driving force behind SharkRankings, Breifne is one of the most energetic and likable characters on the Irish scene.

Also, well done to Mick Mccloskey on his umpteenth final table. As we walked in to marvel at the awe of Ireland's best live pro, we ran into one of the Omagh lads Redbob still smarting from a Micking ("he called my 19 big blind reshove with KTs!"). When we challenged Mick on this inside from the rail, he shrugged and replied "Ah sure.....dynamics!". He's been hanging around with us too much maybe.

And on to the WSOP
I was intending in this blog to give details on how to buy some of my WSOP side event action, but within 30 minutes of putting it on IPB it was all gone. I'll probably be selling some main event action closer to the date so stay tuned for that. In the mean time, you can win or share in 5% of my action in the WSOP Main Event with Irish Eyes Poker starting from this Saturday 26th May. To get your share, win any of the following tournaments any day on Irish Eyes Poker between 26th May and 1st June 2012.

Tournaments are:
1,500 Euro Guaranteed 10 Euro Rebuy at 3pm
Deepstack 20 Euro Freezeout at 7pm,
5,000 Euro Guaranteed 10 Euro Rebuy at 7.20pm
Double Chance #1 at 8pm
Double Chance #2 at 8pm
2,500 Euro Guaranteed rebuy at 9pm
Sunday Special 10,000 Euro Guarantee at 6.25pm

All Irish Eyes Poker players that win of any of the above tournaments in the designated period will receive a share in the 5%, and if I strike big in Vegas that could amount to a nice earner.

If you fancy a trip to the WSOP yourself, the WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 to be won (WSOP Side Event 56 is held between 2nd to 4th of July). The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. The last WSOP Sunday final in this series is on Sunday 3rd June so get playing.. If you're not already signed up to Irish Eyes, use the sign up code "Doke" to receive a 100% first deposit bonus up to €1000 and up to 45% rakeback.

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Old dogs and young chimps

I played the Eastern Open, in theory at least. I didn't play very well: maybe playing online at the table isn't such a good idea (I was two tabling on my Iphone), and my exit wasn't my finest hour. I squeezed with AQs from the small blind after nearly half the table limped, which is fine, but when the original limper perked up and reraised, I should have gone with my first instinct and just mucked. I almost did a few times but talked myself into the call eventually on the grounds that it was less than 10% of my stack to call and the suitedness meant there were a lot of flops I could semi bluff at. I got one such flop: KJx with two of my suit gave me many draws to the nuts (any diamond, any ten) and after my opponent followed through with a chunky cbet, I stuck the lot in. Unfortunately he had top set and none of my outs arrived.

I'd arrived a little late and by the time I got there, my buddy Mick Mccloskey had already lost half his starting stack. Nevertheless, I swapped my usual 10% with him, patting myself on the back about how charitable I was to old dogs. Of course, within a couple of hours I'd managed to donk the lot off, while Mick had not only recovered but he ended up on the final table. Unfortunately the old dog took a most horrible dogging to exit in eighth, but nevertheless another great result for Mick after he also final tabled the Western Open (and got dogged there too).

I'd won a tournament on Merge the night before giving me another Triple Crown sweat, but on this occasion the third win eluded me.

One thing that always interests me at live Irish tournaments is to hear players talking about the game, to hear how they view it, and how they judge and rate other players. One thing that usually strikes me in Ireland is how much the average poker punter focuses on flashy moves and big bluffs. They seem to feel this is the very essence of the game. My view is that while they are part of the game, they are a relatively minor part. If I were to use an analogy from another sport, I'd say it would be like if football fans only rated players by how likely they were to score from the half way line. Yes, it's awesome to watch when it happens, but it doesn't happen often enough to be much of a factor in long term success. If a player was obsessed with scoring from the half way line to the point that it's all he did (take pot shots from there), would football fans applaud his va va voom and regard him as the best? Doubtful. More likely they'd berate him for eschewing more sensible plus Ev options like passing the ball, or dribbling closer to goal before shooting. That's because football fans understand that the game is mainly about winning: not how. Poker players should really get this too: after all the purpose of poker is to win money. Yet somehow long term results are not necessarily seen as an indication of merit. If I had to dispense one piece of advice to the average Irish poker player, it would be to stop trying to score from the halfway line. Make the simple pass.

Over the week, I watched the World Snooker championships on and off. I've always been fascinated by Ronnie O'Sullivan, a man blessed with great natural gifts and cursed by psychological doubts and turmoils. He was clearly a lot happier in Sheffield this year, and that was being attributed to a sports psychiatrist he is working with. In a BBC interview, the psychiatrist described how MRI scanning technology has identified how different parts of the brain can "think" conflicting things at the same time. One part can think "I want cake" while another part thinks "No I don't: I need to lose weight". He described the rational part as "the human" and the more primal part as "the chimp". He suggested that to be successful, sportsmen had to learn to put their chimp in a box. I think this is a very apt description. It seems to me that the poker players who are the most consistently successful are the ones who learn to control their chimp, while the ones who aren't are the ones who let the chimp lose the run of himself.

On Sunday night I watched one of the lads I stake with Jason, Colin "hammo" Hammond, win the Ipoker 25K. Colin has tremendous raw talent, but also tremendous control. When it got short handed, the chipleader was automatically three betting every time he opened. Colin kept his composure. He four bet, got five bet, and still kept his composure, ignoring the impulse of his inner chimp to fling his chips all in. He waited in the long grass. When he got headsup, his opponent was clearly one who was quite happy to let the chimp call the plays. He was maniacally aggressive. Players read that aggression is the key to poker, but it really isn't. Controlled aggression is vital, but there's no easier strategy to counter in poker than mindless undiscriminating aggression. Because all you really have to do is wait til you have it, then watch your opponent spaz. And so it happened: the first time Colin 4 bet headsup, the chimp decided to 5 bet spaz shove A3o.

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GG downtime

"There goes what little remained of down time".

My words to Chris Dowling in Mullingar as we both played on our Iphones at the same time as playing the (live) monthly game in Jokers Casino there at the weekend. Chris was trying to become the first man to win the Sunday Million on an Iphone: I was content with just trying to win another Dublin UKIPT seat. I at least had the consolation of achieving my objective.

Jokers turned out to be a lovely spot with a great set of local characters, which served as some consolation as the so called pros (me and Chris) got our asses handed to us by the reigning All Ireland County poker champions. It kinda felt like we might have been hustled, as club owner Mark and his sidekick John crushed the final table. However, like all the best suckers for punishment, I'm pretty sure we'll be back for more at some point.

After that latest live foray, it was back to doing what I'm best at: clicking buttons. After every prolonged spell of live, I feel it takes me a while to get back into the swing and rhythm and metagame of online poker (Tony Dunst noted similar personal experience in The Raiser's Edge), but tonight everything clicked. Another Dublin UKIPT package, a number of other deep runs, and another win in the Night on French Stars. I got the chiplead in this with about 60 left and held it til a mishap with kings against sixes all in pre (six on the river) two tables out. I regained the chiplead on the final table with 6 left and never lost it again.

It was actually the great Chris Moorman I defeated headup (defeated is such a kinder word than "two outered"): something I didn't become aware of until after it was over. He's not called Moorman on French Stars.

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