July 2009 Archives

Congratulations to stowjon on winning last week's caption competition with the following entry:

"tonight mathew im going to be lady GaGa"

Been home about two weeks now and I'm pleased to say it's been pretty uneventful. I needed a break after the pain of Vegas, and for me a break from poker involves only playing a few hours online a day. It'd be pretty unrealistic to think I could go cold turkey altogether and take a real break.

Boylepoker.com goes heads up with Peter Murphy.

Music by The Gorgeous Colours.

The craic over the weekend was as good as any tournament I've been to in the country. I met a lot of nice people, the tournament was well run, and the dealers and hotel staff were great. The standard of play in the tournament was also surprisingly good. There were a few bad players around early on, but by the time it got to the later stages it was pretty high.

So, things are looking up a bit... I've now played about 15 tournaments this year and managed three cashes including two 2nd place finishes, which is a pretty respectable ratio and a record that I'd have taken in a heartbeat if I'd been offered it at the start of the year. Unfortunately my timing seems to be a bit off though, in that the two tournaments that I've got my best results in have been the two with the smallest buy-in.

On vient juste d'annoncer que cette année l'IPO donnerait la possibilité d'acquérir des jetons supplémentaires et il n'est pas étonnant que cela n'ait pas été bien accueilli par tous. Il s'agit d'une idée relativement nouvelle et c'est pour cela que je voulais répondre à quelques questions que j'ai pu lire sur les divers forums et expliquer de façon un peu plus détaillée ce qui nous a amenés à procéder ainsi.

Details have been announced of this year's IPO extra chips incentive and unsurprisingly it hasn't gone down well with everyone. It is a new(ish) idea and to that end I just wanted to answer a few questions that have popped up on various forums and also explain in a little more detail the thinking behind it.

On reflection, I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep over a tournament in which the following happened:

- I lost 45K "Sklansky Chips" in preflop all-in situations.
- I flopped one set in 22 hours and didn't get on.
- I had a net chip loss with AA over the tournament.
- I had a ridiculously tough table on Day 1.

Sigh. Frustrating but there wasn't much I could do really. Briefly and without trying to spin anything :

Congratulations to stowjon on winning last week's caption competition with the following entry:

"this is such a cool trick, pull my finger"

For your chance to win €25 and have it deposited in your Boylepoker.com account*, just leave a comment.

I had a great day 1 and finished with 96K even though this looked very unlikely at one point. To start with, Phil Galfond sat down 2 to my left, probably one of the 10 players in the entire event I least want to be on my left playing 300BBs. On his left was a player he obviously knew, who turned out to be Shannon Shorr. Two to my right was a player who entered a ton of pots; initially I thought he might be the value but on the first break I found out it was Scott Seiver. Seat 1 was playing really well too (as Shannon says in his blog).

[x] Gus Hansen haircut
[ ] $130K (can't get it off Stars in time, which is probably for the best)
[x] $25K
[x] Matches
[x] T-shirts with "LDO", "FML" and "ZOMG" written on them
[x] 7-disc Tarantino box set
[ ] Noise reducing headphones, can't find them skjdfbnskjfbdbd
[x] Liqourice comforts and Silk Cut for beleagured front-line troops

Let us gogogogo.

Players can now qualify for Europe's largest live poker tournament directly at Boylepoker.com from as little as $5.50 with three weekly satellites as number of players registered for the event grows.

Boylepoker.com today launches online satellites for the International Poker Open 2009. From today, players can qualify for the $25,000 added, $225 + $25 buy in event from just $5.

With regards to my main event, I busted a couple of hours into day three. I started the day with 130k, while the blinds were at 600-1200-100 and the average stack being about 110k. My table draw for day three was about average, with some good and some okay players; however everything that really could've gone wrong for me, did.

I found a good few big pairs in the blinds or in late position, re-raised with them, got called, the flop came repulsively every time but I usually just C-bet strongly enough and either guys stuck in half there stack or else waited till the river to stick in a sick amount.

Yet another World Series passes. I only played four events; two PLO ($5k and $10k) and two NLH ($1,5k and $10k Main Event) events. I felt I played more or less my best in all, bar the $5k PLO where I was probably a bit impatient and perhaps a little loose.

Congratulations to N hayes on winning last week's caption competition with the following entry:

"DBC later woke up with his head in his cornflakes and went back to terrorising forums."

For your chance to win €25 and have it deposited in your Boylepoker.com account*, just leave a comment.

Well I eventually got out of Las Vegas after a serious week of partying. My sanity was in tatters by the end. So many quality nights and some ridiculous stories but I think it's safer for myself and others that I abide by the rule that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

I decided to adopt a new tactic for the main event this year and got married between Day 1 and Day 2. It didn't help the poker much, in fact, I think it knocked several people out of the tournament. It was a good laugh anyway.

My own experience of the main event was a little bit frustrating. I think I played ok, but overall I had reasonably easy tables and I kind of feel that I've missed a good opportunity this year.

On day 1 I started off badly, losing a few small pots and then a biggish pot when I check-raised with top two pair on the flop and followed though on the turn, only to pass on the river when the worst possible card appeared leaving me with about 17k out of my 30k starting stack. After that, things went quite well though and I managed to work my way up to 46k by the end of the day.

So Vegas is pretty much over for another year. It's been a little bit disappointing in terms of poker, but not overly so. I played five tournaments in total - the 5k and 10k PLOs, two $1500 events and the 10k main event. I said before I came out that I would be reasonably happy if I had a good run in one of the tournaments and picked up a bit of cash and although that's what happened, I still feel a bit disappointed overall.

If my only cash had come in the 10k PLO or main event then I'd probably have been pretty satisfied, but instead it came in the 5k PLO where I went out just after the bubble for a relatively small amount.

As the World Series of Poker comes to an end, The Poker Show will track down some of the chip leaders for a chat while looking back at this year's event and anticipating what will be happening this side of the Atlantic next season.

Boylepoker.com goes 'Heads Up' with Stephen McLean.

Music by The Gorgeous Colours.

Congratulations to SimianNo5 on winning last week's caption competition with the following entry:

"The start of play bell had Quasimodo reaching for his chips as it sent him into a betting frenzy."

For your chance to win €25 and have it deposited in your Boylepoker.com account*, just leave a comment.

Well I'm still alive in the WSOP main event. I am playing again on Friday and have 132,400 chips with the average being about 90,000 I think; so I'm in decent shape, especially with the blinds being at 600-1200-100 when we go back.

Other Irish players still in are Marty, Nicky Power, Andy Black, Albert and Big Mick G. I'm sure there are others but they're the only ones I can really think of at the moment.

Well, I crashed out of the main event of the WSOP on Day 1 after seven hours or so. Played pretty average poker and ran really bad. In one way, I was annoyed to be out but I was relieved that this run of tournaments is over. I am truly sick of poker after the ECOOP and WSOP series. Came out of this 40 day marathon about $70k in front so even do I feel a bit shit now, I have to remind myself it was a reasonable success.

Things have been fairly quiet for me by Vegas standards this year. Since the 10k PLO, I've played a $1,500 Omaha Hi Lo event, and a $1,500 NLH event, both of which didn't go terribly well, despite a Poker Million-style comeback from 100 chips in the NL event. I lost a big pot with QQ v AA that left me with 100 when the blinds were 75-150, and managed to fluke my way back up to 4200 before busting out on a 50-50 hand.

Apart from tournaments, I've played a few single table satellites in which I'm ahead a small amount. I haven't bothered playing any cash at all yet, and I'm not sure if I will. Even though I've won a little bit on cash the last few years, I've never felt the games were much value.

Europe's largest live poker tournament is back this October with $25,000 added by sponsors Boylepoker and a unique twist -- players can boost their starting stacks by playing at Boylepoker.com in August and September.

Boylepoker.com today announces the return of Europe's largest nolimit Texas hold'em poker tournament, the Boylepoker.com International Poker Open 2009. The $225 + $25 buy-in freezeout again features a capacity of 1,300 players and will run from October 16 to 18 at the Regency Hotel, Dublin.

As the World Series of Poker main event gets underway The Poker Show talks to triple bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro and checks in on the progress of its friends at the biggest poker game on earth.

Congratulations to chuboots on winning last week's caption competition with the following entry:

"chief running bear is none to happy when he realises that he has turned up at the wrong SCALPS tournament"

For your chance to win €25 and have it deposited in your Boylepoker.com account*, just leave a comment.

Have been in Vegas three weeks now and it feels like I arrived yesterday. It's hard to assess how to judge my performance so far. It's been a case of close but no cigar, should I be happy to be going deep continually or pissed off I have very little reward to show for it?

Since my last post where I talked about the $5k n $10k PLO tourneys I have played a $300, $500 in the Venetian and a $1500 WSOP event.

I cashed in the $300 even earning a cool $550 after wading through a field of over 900 morons. I finished 82nd in the $500 with 62 making the money from a field of 700 odd morons and then in the WSOP event there was 3000 complete morons and I managed to finish 390th with 300 making the money.

So yeah, shipped the Warm Up on Sunday for $130k which was great. It was a strange one, for most of the night I had a better shot on Party and I was focusing more on that. When I busted Party in 18th there were still 80 players left in the Warm Up; the Party tournament only had 1,200 runners compared to 4,000 in the WU so it ran much quicker. From that point I grinded along until I suddenly won two flips to take me from 23/26 to 2/26 in five minutes.