IPO by Marty Smyth

The idea was to have a poker tournament that everyone could afford and enjoy, but run it like a world championship event to give players who are new to the game, or players who have a limited bankroll, the chance to get to know what it's like to play a big event and I think it was pulled off to perfection.

Before the tournament started I thought the standard of play was going to be pretty poor, but to be honest judging by the players I encountered throughout the event, the standard of play wouldn't have been out of place at the Irish Open or some of the WSOP tournaments.

Great craic

The buzz around the room at the start of the final table was better than most 5k buy in tournaments that you'd go to, and again, as is the case with any tournament held in Ireland, there was a real party atmosphere. I've said before that tournaments in Ireland seem to differ from tournaments elsewhere because I don't think we take it just as seriously - but that's not to say we don't try as hard. Everyone wants to do well but people just don't seem to get too upset whenever they get knocked out, probably because they know they're going to have a good time at the bar anyway.

I got a reasonable run in the main event going out towards the end of the first day with AK v JJ and the hand played itself given the stack that I had at the time. I took the Saturday off, opting instead to watch the football with a few pints in the afternoon and then to hang around the bar and the poker room later on to soak up the atmosphere.

My brother got a good run in the Saturday night side event finishing 5th (at about 4am) so that kept us entertained for most of the night. Obviously after this I took a bit of stick about being the 2nd best player in the family now, so I got my head down the next day in the €150 Omaha tournament determined to get a top four finish and put him back in his place. Boylepoker didn't make it easy for me with the €1,000 bounty I had hanging over my head, but I actually gave it a good go finishing 7th in the end.

Where's me bracelet?

I had a bit of a scare at one point in the tournament when I really thought I'd lost my WSOP bracelet. I don't like to wear the thing but Paul had asked me to bring it down in case they wanted to do some photos or if anyone wanted to see it, so I kept it handy the whole weekend in my pocket - or so I thought.

At one point just before the final table started I put my hand in my right pocket to take out my eye drops that I've had to use for a few weeks since I had laser surgery, and realised that something else was missing. After checking my left pocket and then every pocket in my jeans three or four times over, I really started to panic.

I checked with Karen and couple of friends who were watching nearby and they all denied knowing anything about it. At this point Joe "The Show" O'Neill who was at the table, enquired what was wrong and asked me if I'd lost money or something. I replied that I wished it had only been money that I'd lost, and whispered to him that I'd actually lost my WSOP bracelet. He shrugged his shoulders and said "don't worry about it - you can borrow mine" and held out his arm to reveal the bracelet that he'd apparently been wearing for two hours while waiting for me to notice!

It transpired that I'd left my coat lying on the floor outside the poker room and Dave Callaghan had seen it and rooted through my pockets to actually see if I'd been stupid enough to leave my WSOP bracelet in my unattended coat, which of course I had (along with my car keys), and eventually the bracelet found its way to Joe O'Neill. I saw the funny side of course and agreed to let Joe hang on to it for luck. Naturally he went on to win the tournament.

Hard work

For the last couple of days I've been reading through the Boylepoker blog from the weekend and watching all the videos and interviews that were done - some of them are great. I said last time that contrary to popular belief, the Boylepoker team actually work damn hard for their money whereas myself and Padraig just have to turn up and play poker for a while. After watching all the interviews that Padraig conducted over the weekend, I'll now probably have to change my statement to "the rest of the team AND PADRAIG actually have to work hard for their money while I just have to turn up and play".

In fairness they all seem to enjoy it, and anyway, it's Padraig's own fault... if he wasn't so good at it then he could have been sat in the bar all weekend with me.

Again, congratulations to all the winners and everyone who did well over the weekend, and congratulations and well done to all the staff who did such a great job making it the event that it was.

ROLL ON IPO 2009.