Live Events

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.

I've had quite an uneventful couple of weeks since Poland. I've been playing a lot of cash and some sit and go tournaments online. I'm ahead a little bit for the month after having about nine small winning sessions and wiping most of it out in one large losing one (a pattern which is becoming a bit too familiar for my liking).

Boylepoker.com sponsored pro Padraig Parkinson is a regular contributor to www.cardplayer.com. You can now read his Card Player articles on our poker blog as well.

After snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in my heat in England, I moved swiftly onwards to Amsterdam where I'm told I wasted a lot of valuable Amsterdam time by finishing within a couple of tables of the bubble in both the Omaha and the main event. If this is indeed true, it will have to be put down as very careless.

On an early break I bumped into a good friend of the Irish, two time WSOP bracelet winner Jan Sorensen. The last time I'd seen Jan was in Galway last January where he was unusually bemoaning his luck and worse still, expressing doubts about whether he could ever win again in the modern game.

In Amsterdam he told me he hadn't played since then but then smiled broadly whilst he said that he'd been keeping very busy gambling on football. He burst out laughing when I asked him if he was winning, which I didn't take to be a very good sign. I lost all interest in the tournament when the last Ireland and Boyle's man, Alan Betson, got practically bubbled. A couple of days after I got home Jesse May told me Jan had won. I hope 600,000 is less than he lost on the soccer for the year!

Over the last few weeks it feels like my luck is starting to change a bit. Nothing terrible, but I've lost some big hands at key moments and have been pretty card dead for prolonged periods in recent tournaments.

You might have read Marty Smyth's recent blog from the 888.com UK Poker Open. I also played this event in the Boylepoker.com colours and while I didn't win the $250k first prize on offer, I did manage to make the semi-final and scrape back a few dollars!

I've played 2 tournaments since the last time of writing. I wish to god I had played three. I managed to turn a total freeroll into a 13k loss when I decided to skip the EPT 2k side event in favour of playing online for the day. I promptly lost 13k. I'd had a couple of small wins before that and I've been doing ok since, so I'm around level again for the last couple of weeks.

In the second tournament I managed to get a small cash for £4750, but to be honest this was a bit disappointing too because my exit hand was a pot for 2/3 of the chips in play with 5 left, and would have made me a huge favourite for the title if I'd won. Also on reflection, I think I made a mistake in the hand which makes it even more annoying. 

Maybe they watch too much poker on ESPN but those Ennis boys and girls are going mad for their prop bets lately. Not satisfied with the thrill of taking part in a poker tournament they look to enrich the experience by adding a proposition bet. Only two weeks ago a player turned up to the Ennis 100 game dressed as Napoleon...on a Sunday. Is nothing sacred anymore?

As I mentioned in my previous blog I attended the Bolton leg of the GUKPT. Being a keen online player I decided to enter a £100 side event to test the standard of my live game. I had been out with Marty Wilson the previous night and he kindly offered to stake me (more fool him I reckoned). There were some big names in the tourney including William Van Der Hoffenberger III and John Paul Fitzroy Parker Bowles! I played pretty tight up until the first break and had just below the average stack when we came back.