A look back at March

Obviously there was a huge overlay but on the plus side one Adrian McCarthy came 6th for a six figure sum. For those of you who need reminding, Adrian is the guy who was inspired to deposit €100 onto the site after reading about the Murphy Multiplier and then turned that into 35k by winning six progressive sit & go's. As it stands, he has turned that €100 into $135,000, nice work Adrian.

Also, Mr. Murphy's not playing too shabbily; he currently has over 5k in the Murphy Multiplier account with a week to go. My laying him at 4-1 doesn't look so clever now.

iPoker once again endeared themselves to cardrooms and players alike by introducing upgrades that either weren't tested, or if they were, weren't tested properly. I know the issues were not introduced deliberately but it meant we spent much of the month placating players and trying to repair the damage. To be fair to iPoker they are normally reliable and this is the first time we had consistent issues with the software. It does all seem to have been sorted out now though.

On a happier note, all the players returned from vacation and the star man Marty returned an engaged man (man down, one free seat). Congratulations to him and Karen, I trust she will have a 'lucky logo' on the wedding dress (that's if they sell the rights to Hello or OK; if not just at the reception will be fine). The team couldn't be happier for them and wish them all the very best for the future.

John O'Shea's blogs started in earnest and I always get a good chuckle out of them. The story of him ripping up the euros had me lol-ing for 20 minutes.

Reesy (our hero) finally has his poster done and it will hanging on the reception wall of Boyle Towers from next week. If you would like a signed one please send in a request, if you would like one unsigned to throw darts at then send in a request too.

Much of the focus in March was on the 'Be our Sponsored Pro' (BOSP) promotion which culminated in nine players making their way to Dublin for a live sit n go, the winner receiving a small term sponsorship package.

Congratulations to Noel Magner who did the business and we will be expecting big things from Noel as he told us later in the bar, "I'm better than all your pros except maybe Marty", (later one of his friends told us he actually was being polite and thinks he's better than Marty). To be fair, he would have been fairly tired and emotional after the final and a few pints of the black stuff.

The BOSP promotion concluded in the Jackpot club on Saturday either side of a couple of other sponsored events. Friday we hosted the Padraig Parkinson Charity event in aid of the Simon Community and 92 players including past champions from the Irish Open turned up alongside Ken Doherty, Eamon Dunphy and the lovely Rosanna Davidson.

Saturday was the grand final of the BOSP and afterwards, as described above, a few drinks were consumed and a few interesting bets were made. None more so than Flipper Walsh taking on our new pro Noel in an arm wrestle. Noel was so confident, he allowed Flipper to use two arms, his confidence wasn't misplaced.

Sunday was the team event and 24 teams competed including the Boylepoker team who hadn't gone to bed until approx 10.30 am that Sunday morning (this was due to the clocks confusingly going forward). The event kicked off at 4pm, after a strategy meeting in Ryan's pub Lisa and I took our seats and fell asleep whilst Ciaran (bubble boy on Friday) and Peter 'Murphy Multiplier' (late substitute for Gerry) set about accumulating chips.

Four tables out we were the only team to have all four players left and were in with a shout and then Ciaran ran his Kings into Aces and Marty slow played his Kings against Lisa's Ace King and suddenly we were back in the pack. Peter and I were faced with a difficult choice; stay in the tournament and grind it out or have to go to the growing party in Ryan's and begin drinking again; we both made the final.

The first place in the bag we did the honorable thing, got knocked out, went to the pub and set about spending the winnings.

Finally in March, in the penultimate satellite for the Irish Open and one of our favourite customers Don Fagan won a seat taking the Boyles team to approx 20+. Don's results are outstanding and with him in the team along with all the other quality players wearing the lucky logo we have a real chance at a run at this year's IO.

The IO is one of greatest tournaments in world poker and the craic is mighty. We will all be there of course but mostly playing, playing golf or drinking, hopefully the former.

Lastly we have prices on the IO up on the site and you will see we will be adding 20% extra to any winnings if the event is won by a Boylepoker player, fingers crossed!