August 2009 Archives

After playing all night on race week Monday, I managed to get two hours sleep before Fintan Gavin phoned me to ask if I fancied joining him for lunch. As I was still half asleep, I lost a coin flip and said yes by accident. No would have certainly been a better idea, especially as before we'd finished eating, we'd been joined by Manus, Big Sean and Andy Black, all of whom seemed to think that it could be our last day on the planet and were acting accordingly.

I've got the old driving test coming up again on Wednesday and hoping for a different result from last time. Found out how to open the bonnet so feeling a bit more confident this time. According to my driving teacher, if I take the gamble out of my driving I should be ok. Easier said then done.

Did about $3k for the week. Lost €3k as well on the old sports betting. Paddy had some mare this weekend bagging 5 losing bets from 5 picks. At least my rugby radar is still sharp South Africa doing the business yet again. Fair play to Dermot Blain doing the business in Macau, taking home the cool $550k!!!!

Boylesports.com have opened a betting market for the upcoming Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge, making U.S. phenom Tom "Durrrr" Dwan 1/3 favourite with courageous British challenger Sammy "Any Two" George the outsider at 9/4.

The last 2 days have been pretty meh. Just grinding my losses back in the 75/150 Hi/Lo limit game with a reasonable degree of success. Probably breaking even now after my Monday blues.

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

"Ciaran was confused about the criteria required to be a contender in The Rose Of Tralee."

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

Boylepoker.com goes 'Heads Up' Eoin Olin.

I enjoyed this documentary which someone linked to in a thread on 2+2. It's one of those "pick 4 people and follow them through the WSOP" jobs, in this case Isabelle Mercier, Fabrice Soulier, Luca Pagano and (somewhat incongruously) Joe Hachem. This takes place in 2006 when Hachem was the "defending champ".

Both these hands occur on day two with the blinds at 500/1000 and antes at 100. The table is weak passive, which is a dream for me, and I have my favourite seat, seat six.

I don't know any of the players at the table except for seat nine, which is being occupied by the great Nicky Power. Nicky has 50k and he tells me that he's in reverse as he was up at nearly 100k. I have read quite a few of Nicky's blogs where he gives tournament reports so I have some idea how he will play from this spot despite having very little table time with him.

I got an email from my liver in July, politely suggesting that I spend just four or five days rather than the usual week at the annual party (heavily disguised as a horseracing festival) in Galway. Instead, I added a wedding and a party onto the trip and turned it into a ten-day mission. If you start taking shit from body organs, there's no telling where it could all end up.

I've been doing a fair bit of chipping on the golf course and at reaching my goal of $200k before Christmas. I played 9 holes, three times over the weekend. Didn't really shoot anything special but Rory has my swing in transition, so I've been working hard on the pointers he's giving me.

Online poker radio show, The Poker Show sponsored by Boylepoker.com is back, with new schedule on new nights, new guest presenters, including Neil Channing on the debut show, and new guests to brighten up any online poker evening.

So far, I have played a total of three hours poker this week and am down $1,500. It's been a combo of over playing last week and running a lot of errands. I've been doing a lot of house keeping of my affairs. Moving in to the house took a lot more effort than I thought, I thought it would be like packing your suitcase and going on holiday, it's not.

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

"Gerry would never admit to having farted for the umpteenth time that evening, no matter how much they stared."

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

I stayed at home last weekend, the first one I've spent in Belfast since before I went to Vegas. We went to the Belfast Food and Music Festival in Botanic Gardens on Saturday night and then again Sunday afternoon. It was a great set-up and some of the food was fantastic.

The Irish Classic Poker Festival was held at the Macau in Cork last weekend and proved to be a major success. Here, Andrew Grimason and Flipper Walsh tell us how they got on and Rory Rees Brennan explains why he didn't attend.

Boylepoker.com goes 'Heads Up' with Mick McCloskey.

Here's my first installment of a four part article going through eight important hands that I played on my way to my 3rd place in the Irish Poker Classic. Sorry to anyone offended in these but there's no point doing them if I am not 100% honest.

I only played cash for a couple of hours over the weekend of the Waterford Masters and despite losing in the game, I could still see that it was good value. I was too drunk to take advantage of it, but I'd like to think that if I'd put in a few sober sessions over the weekend then I could have done pretty well. With this in mind I decided to drive down to Galway over the racing week to play cash games for a couple of nights.

Just out of the Macau Irish Classic in 3rd place for €18k. Despite playing like a complete retard for the first level, close to the worst I have ever played I think, I would rate my overall performance as the best I have ever played in a live tournament.

Serie D was so open from the start and never really had a front runner. The top spots chopped and changed throughout and in the end, pkaces impressive eight wins from nine games secured the title and $636. The other two top spots were taken by max power and premierstone who bagged almost $600 between them.

This was the closest league of the season with none of the money spots decided going into the last round of games. In the end tipp86 secured a victory, and with results going his way, he scooped first prize and over $1k.

Having to settle for second place was shano_88, gkenny, babymaker6 and laolao all finished in third place on six wins from nine matches. On another day, these players could have been first or second which shows how close the league was!

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

"This is the third Oompa-Loompa he's ordered tonight. This Marty Smyth guy must be some sicko."

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

Well I had a nice plan of easing back into playing 6/7 hours a day @ 2/4 - 5/10 and a few tourneys, but in all honesty we all knew I am well too sick for that. Averaged about 10 hours Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and thanks to me persevering with my jet lag, I have put six hours in from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. already today.

Boylepoker.com goes heads up with VIP manager Ciaran Corbett. The interviewer is interviewed!

Music by The Gorgeous Colours.

The Improver set the early pace in Serie BB but couldn't maintain the challenge and finished fifth in the end. The honours went to DeadParrot who finished level on points with bohsman, but as DeadParrot won the all important clash between the two, the win and $1,802 was shipped his way. Bohsman and enzo scifo took second and third place for $1,020 and $578 respectively.

Just like Serie A, the Serie BA crown was claimed by a heads up specialist. This time, WSOP debutant Digiman took the spoils and increased his bulging bankroll by over $2k.

Pauric had to fend off some tough competition and it was neck and neck from week one. Digi finally got a little breathing space to win the league by four racking up 10 wins along the way.

I got back from America on Monday. Had a great holiday and feel fully rested. I'm looking forward to getting back to the grind and have played a few hours already. I lost about $1k but was happy with how I played. So what's the plan now?

After a long period off, like I have just had, I like to ease back in. For the next few weeks I will be sticking to 2/4, 3/6 and 5/10 PLO. I will probably play about 30/40 hours a week for August before returning to my normal 50/60 hour week in September.

After 13 long games, the winner of the Boylepoker Heads-Up Serie A league is Rob "Norwich Fan Rob" Taylor. Rob impressed everyone on his way to the title tasting defeat just once, at the hands of debutant BitToad. Rob collected a cheque for $3,949 which he put to good use freerolling a couple of games in Vegas while preparing for the Main Event.

In 1999, Scott Gray, Julian Gardner and I made a point of going to all the big European nights at Old Trafford. United won the treble and within three years between us, we had finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the WSOP main event. Maybe we should have brought along a 4th guy!

Well, after nearly three months living in America basically like a king and spending a small fortune I had decided that when I got home I would play online for a solid month and hope to cover my expenses for the trip, which I would be very happy with if I achieved it.

Congratulations to Stephen.M on winning last week's caption competition with the following entry:

nicky power July 31st, 2009 12:51 pm - "feckers".
"That such Samantha thing to say".

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

Boylepoker.com goes 'Heads up' with JP McCann.

Music by The Gorgeous Colours.

If it's not too late, anyway :-). I've seen them (semi-final and final) and they both make me look like a dork. Partly because I have this habit of swaying back and forward in my chair like a 6-year-old, but mostly because of the way the poker hands look.