January 2010 Archives

Regular readers will know of my allergic reaction to KK and it happened again at the GUKPT Main Event in Bolton last weekend.

The password for this week's Boylepokerblog.com freeroll at 8pm tonight is gukpt. Best of luck!

Congratulations to 1mistag on winning last week's caption competition with the following entry:

"ok boris try take any more of my chips and i'll go all guitar hero on you"

To see last week's image click here.

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

Boylepoker today launches Battle Royale - its Irish Open 2010 promotion, which is open to all poker players who qualify for the event at Boylepoker.com.

Shipped the High Roller $500 on Boylepoker.com the other night for a juicy $13k. Delighted to get the title; I was just saying last week how long it had been since I won a tournament, so I was more than happy to take her home.

Well thank Christ I'm leaving this place in the morning. Went down to give the cash games here one last spin. I decided to go in for $7k while playing $12k and then this hand developed.

In the 1650NL event I had been playing very tight and re-raised from the BB with AK, after an opening raise from mid-position. The flop was Q63 and I made a normal sized continuation bet which he called after thinking for a while.

Well next up was the the $5k PLO, we were losing about $35k for the trip so a cash was needed in this. It had only 23 runners but the field was still soft enough. I finished 12th after losing a pretty big flip. Butty (Dave Callaghan) marched on to the final table chip leader, but with only three getting paid he still had a lot to do.

I go to Killarney at least three times a year to play poker and in general find if very difficult to extract any money from the place myself. On the other hand Pat Storan whom I always go with, has an excellent record down that way. As we generally swap a decent percentage, the petrol money usually gets covered at least.

"boyle poker craic team endure another sleepless night in vagas"

Made it back 'home' to Vancouver, although I'm really not sure if it feels like home. God knows it really doesn't feel like a holiday either, sure who fucking cares anyway!

Played the $500 PLO rebuy the last two days. Me and Dave (the Butt) decided to go 50/50 on it, fearing it could get messy as we are were both running very bad.

Another week of grinding it out. I played about 8k hands in the past seven days, including the weekend where I played very little due to too much sport on TV. I fancied a bit of time to relax away from the computer.

Well there has certainly been no improvement in my fortunes, in fact there have been further "dis-improvements". Ugh, where to start?

This time last year I wrote a blog in which I mentioned some aims for the year ahead. I don't generally like to do that and when I do, I always try to set the bar pretty low to avoid disappointment.

Ran pretty awful in the $5k PLO which was a pretty steep buy-in but the standard was very soft, so was a pity I couldn't get going. The most horrific was the tag team I played with Tony Rafter.

"Fold: I've got the stone cold nuts."

I arrived in Biloxi and have to say, I'm really enjoying it so far, even though I lost in my first poker session. The hotel is really nice and very reasonably priced and the chat at the poker table is absolutely hilarious!

Well that's the slogan for the Caribbean anyway but I'd have to disagree with it, as there wasn't anything easygoing about my week at the PCA in the Bahamas. Unfortunately, the reputation that the locals are easygoing is seriously wrong!

Travelled up to Galway last weekend for the Eglington Casino's party in honour of Misters Parkinson and Marrow. It's a long drive, especially in the current weather conditions, but was well worth it as I had a great weekend - mostly spent in McSwiggen's pub.

Boylepoker.com goes 'Heads Up' with John Weafer.

Things have been going pretty good for the past week, despite a bit of a set back over the weekend. I won the $20k gtd for $6k on Thursday night after multiple suck outs.

Leaving the Bahamas and moving onto WPT Biloxi on the 13th. Poker wise, the Bahamas went well enough - despite not running too great. I cashed in the main event for $20k (1/10) which is a nice start to the year.

Well thank fuck for that, Christmas being over that is, as I never was a big fan of the whole thing and nothing has changed!

Congratulations to grafter42 on winning last week's caption competition with the following entry:

"Congratulations! You won the hat and the teeth and I just got the dicky bow :('"

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

Arrived in the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas the other day. The size of the thing is ridiculous; not only does it have its own island, but also its own toll bridge going to the island.

Boylepoker.com today released new software with a host of new features. We are delighted to introduce resizable tables, the option to pick your own seat, additional avatars, a moving spotlight to follow the action and much much more.

Well, I had a great Christmas in New York and an unreal New Year's Eve in Vegas. I fall in love with NYC every time I go - there's just something about that place. I guess I'll be using the auld, 'What happens in Vegas...' line.

The only thing I played in September was the TV LNSP. My table was epic for all the wrong reasons and I didn't cover myself in glory. I got an awful lot of slagging after getting knocked out by Bernard Dunne, so it was fun seeing him go on to win the thing outright.

May is JP Masters month. I played well in the main event but exited close to the end of play on day one. I did somehow manage to win the PLO event though. It was my first live PLO tournament and 100% fluked, but felt good nonetheless.

The other game I played in May was the GUKPT Newcastle. Myself big Pauly, Keith McFadden and Chris Dowling headed off by road for this one, although we had good craic, the car was noticeably light on Sterling on the drive home.

2009 was a very enjoyable year for me. It started in January in Galway, grinding a short stack into the money at the IPC and funnily enough, ended doing exactly the same thing in December. In between were a couple of decent performances, some horrid beats, as well as the odd mind-numbing mistake. A standard enough year I guess for a live tournament specialist.

Facing into my 5th year as a serious poker player. I ended the first three on the biggest upswings I've ever had, but this year November and December represent my biggest downswing so far.