Galway IPC

I've played the IPC three times now and have never done well in it. In fact, this was by far my best effort yet, as I scraped through to day 2 with less than my starting stack and then bust with v .

There really isn't much to report about any of the hands that I played. I was pretty card-dead throughout and even my exit hand with the was fairly standard, given the size of my stack at the time. I did hear about one quite remarkable hand though. Some guy managed not to go bust against Jude Ainsworth by only calling Jude's final re-raise, when he held on an Axx22 board; a spot where most players would slaughter their chips even in 6-card Omaha.

I saw that when the hand was reported on Boards, a few people slagged him off, saying that it was terrible play and not to put the rest of his chips in with such a powerful hand, despite the fact that Jude happened to have quads. I do kind of understand what they are getting at.

A bad play can still be a bad play, even if it turns out to be the best move with hindsight. However, after hearing the way the hand played out, I think it was a great play. I can't remember exactly how the betting went, but it sounded like Jude could only have had quads or a smaller house. You have to be aware that if you've played the hand from the start as if you had , then a good player like Jude might figure this out by the 3rd bet on the river and perhaps not re-raise you again with a small full house.

I knew Padraig was long overdue a big result and his victory was no surprise. It might sometimes look like Padraig doesn't always take tournaments that seriously these days. In the early levels of tournaments, he can spend as much time wandering around talking to people as he does at the table, but as he showed in the IPC, once he gets the bit between his teeth there's nobody better.

I left Galway as soon as I busted on Saturday as we'd had a family bereavement, but from what I hear he played near-perfect poker to beat a very formidable final table and I'm genuinely delighted for him.

It was a good weekend overall for Boylepoker with new pro Nicky Power having a deep finish in his first outing, and even more impressive, Dave Callaghan making day 2.

Speaking of Nicky, I'm delighted to have him as part of the team. He's one of the best players in the country and one of the most popular. I know that Paul Spillane was thinking of approaching him to be part of the team last year, but unfortunately he was snapped up by another firm. I think he'll have a great year and go on to win more side-events and charity tournaments than the rest of the team put together!

Hope you all have a good new year.