Back in Ireland

Flew into Galway from Manchester on Aer Arran. When I told an official at Manchester Airport I must have pronounced it wrong, because she pointed me towards a flight to Tripoli or Tehran. Don't think they have many Poker tournaments served by "Air Iran".

The plane was a "twin engine propeller" type which makes some passengers used to jet planes a little nervous. I have flown a lot on small planes over the years on business and this reminded me of some of the "jokes" that pilots used to come up with "to lighten the mood".

I asked a pilot once whether a twin engine prop was twice as safe as a single engine prop (the ones with the propeller on the nose cone). The pilot said: "The only difference between a single prop and a double prop is that if one engine fails on a twin engine prop, the other engine will take you to the scene of the crash." I decided not to share that nugget of information with my nervous co-passengers today.

Another "gem" was the story of a couple of Ryanair co-pilots I will call Ciaran and Gerry. Due to inclement weather they are forced to land their plane at an unfamiliar airport. As Ciaran touches down he quickly applies the brakes and the plane screeches to a halt in less than 2 seconds. Ciaran says, "Well Gerry, isn't this the shortest runway you have ever seen!?", to which Gerry replies, "No doubt Ciaran, but have you seen the width of it?"

Anyway looking forward to playing some live deep-stack poker tomorrow and with a star studded line-up I am bound to get on an interesting table. Good luck to all Boylepoker players at the IPC!