Live Events

Seeing as this is my first blog for Boylepoker, I better make it worthwhile. I have been studying for my final exams for the past few months and only playing the odd live cash game or online tournament.

Went from chip leader to smallest stack over the course of the nine hours we played yesterday, but I survived I suppose.

Had a really good day yesterday. Went from short stack to chip leader with 10 left. Not going to mention anything about the poker, as some of my opponents have been keeping on an eye on the Boylepoker blog.

Back for day four of the WPT and still a long way away from the cash. 18 get paid and there are 35 left. I am sitting on 308,500 chips with the blinds at 4k/8k and 1k ante.

It got a bit messy for me on Saturday night after watching the boxing with my mate Jez. I had a few beers with Nicky, a few other guys who were out, Marty and "the little fella", and also John Weafer whom I had met at the BOSP final.

Wow - so that was my first Irish Open - what an experience!!

I headed to the Burlington Thursday evening, full of the hope that the poker gods would shine on me and my name would be on the trophy come Monday evening. I'll be back next year with the same optimism.

Since my last blog I've been pretty busy with playing the Irish Open, getting drunk, getting handcuffed to a dwarf, and getting married. In that order.

Well I've certainly had worse weekends, ended up finishing in third place at the Euro City Poker Tour Barcelona for a tasty 65k.

I played the UKIPT Leg 2 at G Casino Manchester last weekend and achieved my 1st cash for Boylepoker, but it could have been even better.

Regular readers will know of my allergic reaction to KK and it happened again at the GUKPT Main Event in Bolton last weekend.

With the run up to Christmas and having three sons ranging from seven to 15, plus a real job to worry about, this is the first time I have had chance to reflect on the IPC in Galway.

I headed off to Galway for strangely enough, my second Irish Poker Championship of 2009. I don't know the official line on whether it was the 2010 championship, so we'll go for the 20??

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I was playing live every day for the past week in Portugal. The hotel didn't have wireless in the rooms (just the lobby) and if truth be told, I couldn't be arsed getting up early to do a blog.

After the early action in the first half hour of day 2, the rest of the day went fairly smoothly for me. I got up to 115k, which was ahead of the average, with my QQ v KK double up. I was reasonably comfortable for the rest of the day, eventually finishing on around 180k.

I think this time last year if I'd finished 10th in a tournament and picked up £38k whenever first place paid over £800k, I'd have felt pretty disappointed at ending up with a relatively small amount after getting so close to such a huge score. This time my circumstances were very different though, and when I busted out of the London EPT in 10th place I was just delighted to have had some kind of return to form after the way things have gone for me this year.

After having way too much fun in Galway, I was delighted to get back to Paris and intended to follow through on my New Year resolution to take things a bit more seriously and to play a lot of side events rather than just piling straight into the bigger tournaments.

I was going to play just about every event at the Paris festival but due to a family bereavement that wasn't possible, though I did get back in time to play the main event. I didn't think it would be huge value as there were a lot of big names around for the poker awards but the French love satellites, so I was wrong again.

The PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship kick-started the year with the first major tournament of 2009. Enthusiasts wondered would the trophy and title stay in the Emerald Isle or would it travel overseas to its new home abroad once the deed was done. The €2,000 buy-in televised event attracted many poker thoroughbreds such as Mike Sexton, Kenna James, Donnacha O'Dea, Marty Smyth, Padraig Parkinson, Ciaran O' Leary and Julian Gardner. But it was one young up-and-coming Irishman who topped the 255-strong field and sailed easily to the finish line, after making a comeback late in the event. Card Player wanted to learn more about the winner, Dubliner Rory Rees Brennan, and so caught up with him straight after he received his first major title, trophy, and €160,000.

Okay I'm definitely finishing the IPC on this entry, I promise! Before I do that I'd just like to congratulate Flipper on winning the CPT event, well done buddy.

So, to continue from my last post. The situation was nine handed and we had to lose one more player before the final table. Unfortunately, we lost Rory Liffey after his KK got done by JJ in pretty brutal flushing fashion; poker can be cruel but gg Rory. Also, gg Rory Brown who had a great tournament and got unlucky to finish in 10th, well done and well played.

After I got knocked out of the main event in Galway, I decided to do the sensible thing and go to bed at 9 p.m, to try to shake off whatever viruses were attacking me. Vero stuffed me up with lots of herbal medication and promised I'd be in good shape for the charity tournament the next day. It all went according to plan, well nearly.

"Start as you mean to continue", that's how the old proverb goes anyway. Unfortunately, I've never been a person for this whole clean living malarkey, but only getting two hours sleep the night before the Celtic Poker Tour grand final was a bit extreme, even by my standards. I actually had intended to be well rested, but as it turned out Friday night had different plans for me. Nevertheless, I found myself at The Park Hotel in Clonmel at 2:45pm on Saturday - 15 minutes before kick-off.

Congratulations to Boylepoker player Rory Rees Brennan, winner of the Irish Poker Championship 2009. Rory defeated a field of 254 players, earning him the title of Irish Poker Champion and a whopping €160,000 prize money.

To celebrate Rory's success Boylepoker.com will be hosting a bounty tournament. If you knock out RoryReesBrennan you will earn yourself a cool $500 bounty. The details are as follows:

Event breakdown:

Name: Rory Rees Brennan Bounty

Date: Thursday January 8^th

Game: No Limit Hold'em

Type: Rebuy - 1 Rebuy + 1 Add on

Start time: 21:00

Buy-in: $10 + $1

Prize: $500 added bounty on RoryReesBrennan

Starting Chips: 1500

Blind levels: 10 minutes

After the semi final was over the main feeling I had was not one of excitement for the final, but of relief that I hadn't busted out in the semi final. I know even making the semi final of an event such as the Poker Million is an achievement in itself, but that still wouldn't have made me feel any better about things if I hadn't got through, and I feel very fortunate indeed that I haven't had to deal with the feeling of busting in a semi final yet.

As you can imagine, there was plenty of celebration after the semi final. A few more friends had arrived from home and when I got back from the studios they were already four or five pints ahead of me. I did my best to catch up. We just hung around the hotel bar for the rest of the night and it was a great night's craic.

I think people might believe that I was lying, or maybe just trying to be modest when I said before my semi that I really didn't expect to get through to the final, but that honestly was the case. It's not that I felt out of my depth or anything, but I knew that it was a tough heat, and with only the top three players qualifying out of eight, I reckoned my chances of progressing were only about 40% or so.

Several eyebrows were raised when I was asked to captain and select an Irish team to take part in this year's Poker Nation's Cup. I think the reason I was chosen as captain was so that the captain wouldn't have to worry about me! Several more eyebrows were raised when I named my team.