Irish Classic Poker Festival

How I won the..., by Andrew Grimason

I'd always planned my first blog to be titled how I won the WSOP main event, but over time accepted that the Irish Open would be an acceptable substitution. Then Ciaran Corbett got onto me last week about doing a blog for the prestigious Boylepoker, as everyone knows it's like when Real Madrid come a knockin, ya just can't refuse.

So with Cork on last weekend I decided my first blog would be "How I won the Macau Irish Poker Classic" (better not write IPC or I'd have Reesy after me claiming that's some Mickey Mouse rip off). Anyway, I ran so fuckin bad and couldn't win a 160-1 never mind the dream WSOP (7000-1) or IO 700-1 shots. So I guess it will have to be "How I won 10th place in the Macau Irish Poker Classic."

The Macau structure was incredible and so was the place to be fair. Big buffet on the breaks, quality TD in Donal and just a nice place to play, albeit there was a bit of a sauna effect down the back. It started on time everyday, which was a shock departure from normal Irish tourneys and resulted in me being late the first two days.

Anyway, won't be going into the technicalities of hands etc as it nearly always bores me when reading others doing it. I finally ran 33 into 99 when short stacked. The only interesting hand was when Irish Poker Rankings leader, the elusive Keith McFadden got moved to our table on day 1. He brought his steamroller to the table but it didn't quite go to plan for him, he bluffed off a chunk to me when I had the nutleys.

Then I hero called him down a few hands later with AJ high to beat his announced "pair" which turned out to be A10 high. "Fuckin Dublin players always making the Hero calls, thinkin they're great. How you get any results?" was his reaction.

I quickly reminded him I don't and he was back happy again. In fairness to Keith, he's a top man and I think he went very deep in the side event to keep the IPR points ticking over. Of course, Johnny O'Shea got in on the mix with a very impressive 3rd place, also BigMickG (proving again he's not just a SNG grinder, although the sceptics are still out there), Troy and Pauric cashed too. Peter "Knuckles" ended up scooping 1st, fair play to him, he played very well and was good craic at the tables.

Left Sunday in the Butt mobile (Dave Halibut's car) as I had to get back to Dublin and get crackin on a thesis I have due for the end of the month. I've tested the "It won't write itself" theory to the max and finally accepted it to be true so there'll be a rough couple weeks ahead. I probably won't be potting too much (obv lies) with that to do, I guess I'll update the blog every once in a while. Won't be as often as that eager beaver John that's for sure.

Was gonna finish this with some sort of tosser "may all your cards be premium and your wins be huge" shite, but instead I'll tell a quick laugh from Saturday night. Me and John were walking back through the elegant and classy Cork city at 3 ish in the morning. The streets were packed with drunken lunatics and we were obviously regretting still being in the tourney the whole walk home. There was a group of lads eating their chips, when a few girls walked by across the street, they'd taken their shoes off and were carrying their stilettos. The guys were shoutin the usual "howaya love" etc, when one pipes up with "ah it's your one from barefootblowjobs.com".... gave me a lol anyways.

Summer has rolled on by and once again and the main event of the Irish Poker Classics in the Macau Sporting Club, Cork was upon us. I had intended to play the PLO on Tuesday but the small field put me off it. I opted instead for a couple of rounds of golf with Nicky Power and a few nights on the beer with all the lads that rolled into the city for the weekend.

Macau Main Event Diary, by Flipper Walsh

As John O' Shea will attest (congrats on the 3rd place finish Johno), the Macau do run the best structured tournaments in Ireland today. The 20k starting stack, 75 minute clock and repeated levels are the answer and the organisers of the Irish Open should take heed for next year.

I arrived about 20 minutes late and found myself at a pretty tricky table. Rob Taylor, Big MickG and Pete "The Multiplier" Murphy were all there to greet me and it wasn't long before I played the first of my two key tournament hands. I was in the hi-jack with A6dd and called the BB behind a few other limpers.

Flop: K66 with one diamond. A young, aggressive guy in the BB lead out a bet close to the pot, got one other caller and I called. Raising here would have been fine I think and it would look a little like a bluff (at this point, I've no reason to believe that I don't have the best hand) but I wanted to peel off a turn before isolating the player with a hand that will pay me off.

Turn: 7d giving me a flush draw. Again, the BB led out a pot-sized bet, the other caller folded (probably KJ or something but the fact that he passed what looks to be a king is important for the card removal properties of the hand), I raised and got quickly re-raised. I didn't love this spot anymore but can't put him on KK, however K6, 67 and 77 are all part of his pre-flop range in this spot.

I decided to call (the pot was now at around 5.5k). The river was an off suit 8, which I hated. I don't think he ever beats me with a straight here, so I just have to decide if he's overplaying 6x, coolered me with K6 or housed up on the turn or the river. He lead the pot one more time and even though I probably should have folded, I called and just thought FML when he tabled K6. I don't think I did a pile wrong here but it cost me nearly half my stack.

I didn't exactly shower myself in glory with the other hand I'm afraid. The Multiplier opened to 3x and I (with AQ) and a few others called.

Flop: Q92 rainbow. The Multiplier led out, I smooth called (probably should have raised here for info and folded to any additional heat) and Rob Taylor also called in position. Turn was a total blank (like a 6 or something) and Pete led at it again. I hate that I called here but did pretty quickly and Rob put on a show before folding. River was a T and I made a totally stupid call of his river bet (I made a comment that we probably had the same hand) only to be shown a set of 9's. If we had the same hand, Pete would certainly have checked the river. I have no real excuse for playing this hand this badly but I had been having the banter with Pete I thought he was capable of a 3-barrel bluff on me - hence calling him down so light. Lesson #1: Don't let your ego make the calls.

I never recovered from this and eventually 4-bet all-in with 99 only to run into AA. Good game etc. The rest of the weekend was a good laugh and it was great to see all the Dublin lads whom I don't meet all that often. Myself, Marty, Halibut2, Eoin Olin, Doc and the Multiplier all hit the nightclub on Saturday night and made a pretty good night of it.

Marty made every effort to make the female tenant in my apartment to leave when he stormed into her room on Wednesday night at around 6am looking for the jacks. Surely no one would be stupid enough to do it again 15 minutes later...? No, no, Paul Spillane is. She was most displeased. Speaking of my place, Ciaran recorded episode 1 of Poker Player Cribs this weekend and should be on the blog pretty soon. Hope it comes off ok.

Don't know what event is coming up next but the Winter Festival, IPO and Killarney are all on the calender,

PS: shout out to Chubs for his deep run (10th) and congrats to Peter Higgins of Cork on taking the Main Event down.

You know the way I hate Vegas?, by Rory Rees Brennan

Hey guys, as I write this I'm actually sitting in Atlanta airport waiting for a flight to Las Vegas of all places...ye once a year just isn't enough pain for me these days, so I'm getting another dose in before the summer's end!

Nah, I'm actually just going to Vegas to meet up with some friends that are on the west coast for the summer. I'll spend two nights there (hopefully play no poker....well one session max), then I think I'm going to travel down the coast with my friend Lyanne and do some normal stuff like go to L.A., the beach and fun-parks and stuff - they're the sorta things normal people do for fun ye? I have no tennis or poker commitment this week so why not eh.

I decided not to play the €1k tournament in Cork last weekend (despite saying I would all summer) because I was flying out of Dublin on Monday morning. But the lads did me proud with Big Mick G coming 12th, Chub 10th, John 3rd and most surprisingly of all Halibut (Dave O'C) making Day 2...a strong showing from the Dublin boys, well done all.

Despite not heading south, I did however get some good grinding in online. I knew I wouldn't be playing much this week and that I'd probably be drinking a fair bit too, so I decided not to go out on either Friday or Saturday night and instead stay in and pick off some people that did decide to have a few drinks. Overall I had a really good week online, one of my best ever. However, as we all are beginning to learn, anything I can do, John can do better!

He too was having a good week online but since Friday and Saturday were particularly lucrative for me I had out-done him for the week...or so I thought. The swine then goes and peels off a third place for €18k ish down in Cork, and beats me.

I'm just thankful he didn't go and win the thing. I should remember that it's not a competition and I should just be happy with my own week...although it kind of is...SHIP THE IPC??

Probably won't play much this week but might post how I'm getting on with my normal antics or something.

Good Luck,

Reesy