Team Ireland, Las Vegas

I myself was welcomed by 'Team Ireland' a few years ago when I somehow managed to fluke my way to a heads up battle in a no limit tournament in Paris against a Frenchman who was being cheered on by about 30 supporters: I had none.

I had none that is 'til word reached the bar that the bloke with the Irish parents was heads up and struggling to work out a fair deal. The next thing I know there are Irishman everywhere going toe to toe with their French counterparts arguing over what was a fair deal. The arrival of 'Team Ireland' happened just in the nick of time and saved me from giving away about 2,000 euros too much to the guy in second - no prizes for guessing how that money was spent!

It's not just the live players that root for each other: the online players share the same good-natured camaraderie. I really like the fact they will all socialise and very rarely will you hear a story about poker unless it's in no way related to a poker hand. Many of the great and good were out at a house a few of the Irish players are renting on Sunday. It was nominally for a barbeque held in honour of the new WSOP PLO champion but really it was just an excuse for another get together. The carnage potential for these kinds of things are massive but days of partying had caught up with everybody and instead we all settled down to some tasty barbecue food, a few good laughs a reasonably early night (by Vegas standards).

In my last blog I mentioned our online qualifier Tim who had not been to sleep the night before his starting day of the WSOP Main event. It appears I did him a disservice as he hadn't gone out drinking all night. He had in fact gone to bed for a few hours but couldn't sleep because of the excitement so had got up and had 'a few' beers before the main event. I watched the tennis with him before seeing him take his seat on a table just a few yards away from Phil Ivey's table and set about his task of becoming Boylepoker's second bracelet winner this year. And what a day he had. 76,000 chips at the end of the day, a new table and the chance of two days rest before day 2, come on Tim!