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I said in my last blog that I was gonna be staying at home for a few weeks and grinding back the money I'd lost in my disaster of a night in Brisbane. It hasn't quite worked out like that, but it's not for the want of trying.
I've probably played about 50 hours per week since I got home, which I know is pretty normal for some people, but it's a real slog for me. To be fair, 60 hours per week used to be the norm when I started playing online back in 2002, but it was much easier to put the hours in when the standard was horrendous and I was winning 90% of the time.
I ran pretty terribly for the first week or so when I got back, but things have picked up over the last week and a bit, and I'm slightly in front now for the month. I'm playing fairly well and have even been enjoying it, which hasn't been the case online in quite some time.
I'd quite like to be playing a few live tournaments at the minute while I'm feeling good about things, but I'm a bit busy with other stuff and to be honest, there just isn't that much on at this time of the year that I fancy playing. There's no end of good tournaments towards the end of the year and I always seem to be really busy from September onwards, but really, the Irish Open is the only must-play tournament for me in the first half of the year before the WSOP.
I did manage to get out of the house for a bit of live poker on one occasion last month, when Barney and Bridie Gribbin invited me to come up and play in their weekly game in Toome. I met up with a guy there who I used to work with called Frank Kearns. Frank almost ruined my life 12 years ago when he warned me as I left my civil service job, "remember... you'll never make any money gambling". Luckily I didn't listen to him.
The tournament was a £12 freezeout and good craic, but to be honest, it was also a bit sickening. After having a pretty bad time of things online for the previous couple of days, I had the best run of cards that I've probably ever had in a tournament in the first hour and half. If I went through all the premium hands that I was dealt you'd think I was exaggerating, but to give you an idea, I ran my 
2k starting stack up to 45k at the first break, and it's not like everyone was playing crazy.
My most important piece of good fortune last month probably came at the K Club, where I played with Nicky, Paul and a friend of mine Kevin, who probably won't be invited back after turning up with a 20 handicap and almost breaking the course record. In fairness to him, I think a bit of handicap-fiddling is understandable given what the loser was going to have to go through that night.
We played golf on the first day to see who had the misfortune of having to share a room with Nicky Power. I mentioned Nicky's snoring in my last blog and anyone else who's ever shared a room with him will know that the stakes were pretty high here. So high in fact, that my nerves got the better of me and I ended up shooting a seven at the last when I was 20 yards from the green after two, and I only needed a six to win. Fortunately, that made it a draw between me and Paul Spillane and I managed to win the tie-break in the bar.
I'm gonna be putting in another 50 hour week on the internet, then maybe going to the Eglington in Galway for their 1k PLO tournament on Saturday, if it looks like they're gonna get a half-decent turn out. Fintan assures me they will and even if they don't, I'll probably go anyway for a bit of a break if I can post another decent week online.
Comments (3)
Thanks for coming to the home game Marty, it was a great nights fun and you made Big Dave's year, LOL