Ugh.

Lodged a grand on to an old crypto account on the 10th of January and ran it up to 22k as of start of play today. Then managed to lose 22k playing 10/20 and 5/10 today, Ive been playing so badly on the river for so long now Im beginning to think Im never going to get back to playing properly.

Im having major problems controlling tilt which used to be one of my stronger points, I lost a 7k pot today to a two outer and that was basically that I just called on the river knowing I was probably beat in about ten pots. So instead of showing a healthy profit for January Ive managed to wipe out a months work in one day, well done Eoin way to go very professional. Im so pissed off with how Im playing its unreal, I see all my freinds killing it week in week out and I have to admit that I dont think any of them are better or certainly not much better than I am and I just cant get my shit together. My consistency is non existent at the moment I lodge a buyin run it up to a roll then blow it in one day on insane monkey tilt.

In other news I made the final two tables of the €1500 IPC, played shit on day 1 and really well on day 2 and lost a race for a huge pot to go in 16th for €3 poxy k Id won the buyin in a satellite so it wasnt all bad but still first place was 150k and there was only one or two good players left in it ugh ugh ugh. Then I played the EPT Dortmund satellite on Stars last weekend, 156 runners, 8 tickets and money back for 8th - 20th, I was in the top three in chips from over 100 out untill there were 16 left, then I lost a huge pot with KK against a donkey playing A8, and lost my last chips making a bad call with AQ to go in 12th after leading it the whole way. What a pain in the cock ugh ugh ugh.

Really pissed off with the game at the moment beginning to believe Im a shit player which in a confidence based game like poker is soooooo bad, used to be I didnt care who was at the table I just went with my read and played fearless now Im second guessing everything. There are a lot of people out there who allways said I was a donkey and Id say most of them are probably glad I cant get my feet on solid ground at the moment. Ive had a few digs at me lately on the various forums from people attacking my strategy and seemingly dissagreeing with me for the sake of it to questioning my honesty and also even my belief systems, at one point I was told I was massively arrogant which I certainly dont agree with. So Im not going to bother with the forums anymore I find about 2% of what I read interesting and the rest is either material that doesnt help me anymore or utter tripe.

So my final figures for January is down about $1600 online and up about €2500 live, which is so fucking shit I cant believe the figures at all, I dont know anyone else who speeds up to 20k then busts it in one short session as often as I do.

I think Im going to take a week off and think about wheither Im bothered continuing with poker, due to my competetive nature I will not continue in anything unless I can excel at it and Im underachieveing so drastically its fairly soul destroying. If I dont win 20k in Febuary I think Ill quit playing to provide a serious income stream and just concentrate on other ventures. Funny thing is my cash game has this sinkhole in it of me calling on the river at the moment but my tournament game is probably better than its ever been, in the IPC at Citywest I just killed them on the bubble.

Also started my weight loss programme today, wieghed in at 15 stones on the nose which is frightening, when I was playing football regularly I was allways in and around 12 just call me porkie from now on.

Full Tilt is the Rig.

This post has a bad beat health warning.

Right I have never been a "online poker is rigged" kind of guy but Im going to write about my experiences. Nearly every time I open a new account I go on a heater straight away and run a small deposit up to a playable roll ridiculously fast, but this is allmost allways closely followed bya ridiculous run of savage beats then it evens out to normal luckboxness levels.

I put 600 on to full tilt a couple of weeks ago and was up to 15k in no time at all, then I hit a savage run I mean absolutely savage today alone I have had 2 outers hit against me for full stacks 4 times (I only played 500 hands) then I got it all in in a $4k pot with the nut flush against an overpair that made quads in the end after runner runner perfect, then I had the 2nd nut flush all in on a Q high all heart board against a guy with the bare ace hearts and of course it hits. Then I flop middle set only for it to be no good against top set. I have $1600 left in the account and dont know wheither to just withdraw it or try work it back up I have such a pain in my arse playing 5/10 and lower but I want to work up rolls on sites instead of just lumping on money this year.

Fuck full tilt anyway its the fucking rig.

2006 Review and 2007 Goals.

At the start of 2006 I set out what I wanted to achieve for the year and my goals were,

"1. €150,000 profit in online cash.
2. Play 2 EPT events and 2 other big buyin tournaments cashing in at least one.
3. Improve my Omaha game to the same standard of my Holdem, and hence be beating the biggest PLO cash games on the cryptologic network.

I think these poker goals are achieveable but not easy, I will be happy with successfully earning the €150k and achieving one of the other goals Also setting some personal goals for 2006.

1. Pay €40,000 extra off my mortgage.
2. Lose a stone.
3. Pass all my quantity surveying exams."

Ok well as far as my 3 poker goals went I managed 1 and 2 but never really gave the time required to achieve number 3, and as far as my personal goals went I achieved 1 and 3 but never really gave the required time to achieve number 2.

In general I suppose I have to consider it a successful year, but to be honest I am fairly dissapointed in how its panned out. As regards profits in online cash my profit figure for 2006 is €177,000 and change but when I was heading to the wsop back in the summer I was allready at €171k so basically the last 6 months Ive turned a €6k profit, I could have made more money if I took a job in burger king on the weekends. I had a horrid horrid run of severe variance through the end of August and September where I just could not put a win together despite playing some excellent poker, that put a bit of a dent in my earnings and then during November and December I made a decent recovery despite playing quite badly for most of the time.

Highlight of the year 2006:

Without a doubt the time in Vegas it was such a blast and I made some great freinds. Also I thought I played perfect poker in the main event which was probably the only time I have managed that this year.

Lowlight of the year 2006:

Well it has to be my performance in the Irish Open and the Dublin EPT, in both competitions I had twice the average chips approaching the bubble and managed to get myself knocked out by playing marginal situations too aggressively, I really have no excuse whatsoever for not making the final table in at least one of these events.

So all in all mixed fortunes during 2006 but Im going to hope I can pick up again in 2007 and am going to set the bar high in my 2007 goals. I saw good profit in cash games but only made a tiny sum on tournaments and that really isn't good enough.

Poker Goals 2007:

1. €200,000 online profit.
2. Final table in a big tournament such as EPT or WSOP and cash in one other.
3. Qualify for more live events.
4. Get my omaha game up to scratch.
5. Stop playing pissed unless its live because even pissed I should be a favourite in those games.
6. Get control of my tilt button.
7. Turn a $1k deposit in to $100k in under ten weeks (this is just a fun experiment I fancy giving a lash I managed $1k to $40k in 7 weeks earlier this year).

Personal Goals 2007:

1. Lose a stone in weight, Im taking this one seriously now Im beginning to resemble Masters in shape :)
2. Pass all my college courses.
3. See United break the chelski stranglehold on the premiership.

So thats the aims for 2007. I'd like to put as one of my aims to "not play tired" but unfortunately that would just be unrealistic and I may as well be honest here. At the moment Im playing mostly on full tilt trying to build a roll to have a shot at the big games there, its the usual story with a new site, I deposited $600 and within ten days I had over $15k then I went on monkey tilt the other night after getting 2 outered twice both times for full stacks at 5/10 and proceeded to lose back 10k over the last couple of days so grinding 5/10 and 3/6 there at the moment untill I get to 20k then Ill appoint half that for a shot at the 25/50 which is and unusual game, Ive been watching it lately and sometimes it plays super tough and others like your average 5/10 game so hopefully I can run good and start to get some of the money they never stop talking about on 2+2. Heres the thing though, at the moment I am playing bad, very bad now its not the end of the world I can still beat 5/10 playing badly but if I dont sharpen my game up before starting to sit in that 25/50 game I will be an undoubted loser. I have turned into such a calling station on the river its ridiculous and I am making some BASIC mistakes, at the moment I wont even dare open up tribeca in case I see the 20/40 game running because I know I will not be able to resist playing it and at the moment Ill probably lose and I dont want to give back what I won there in December.

The thing is that my "A" game (how bent sounding is that?) is good enough to beat basically any nl online game however I unfortunately possess a "B" "C" "D" and down probably as far as "H" games as well, at the moment Im probably playing around the C - D level but I do know where my leaks are and I intend to stop them.

Happy hunting in 2007.

The Christmas Party.

As most of my poker buddies are pros with no normal jobs and hence no xmas party we decided we would arrange a night on the piste as a sort of "office" party. We started off with dinner in FXBs in temple bar, present where KP nuts, NCFC Rob, Dave Callaghan, Dave Murray, Dave Masters, Conor Doyle and my good self.

We moved on the The Quays Bar then on to Flannerys (where else?) where we met up with Joe O'Neil and Eoin Mullan, once we were all suitably locked we wandered down the lane to Coppers where a highly inetoxicated Niall O'C joined us. Once that was finished we ended up in Callaghans house where the session continued untill late morning, quite an excellent night was had from what I can recall, below are the pictures for your viewing pleasure.

In the restaurant whilst sober, from left to right KP, Dave C, Dave Murray, Masters, Me, Rob and Conor.

Niall and Jamie looking demented.

Dave and Ken having a prop bet on who can keep their eyes closed longest.

Ken acting his age.

Now ladies the present you all want off Santa.

Rob leering at something/someone.

The Joe show in full flow on home territory at Flannerys.

Not very hard to spot the two who spent the last 6 weeks in Asia and the two who spent it in sunny Dublin.

Roundtower trying desperately to spurn Callaghans unwanted advances.

Is that a spot of dirt on the lens? oh no its Daves beard hehehe

Ok so its nearly the end of the year and in the next few days Im going to write some sort of analysis of the year, but for the moment I want to put in the blog a couple of things I forgot to write about during the year.



All Ireland Team Championship.



This was organised by pokerevents in August and was basically an intercounty championship with each county in the country being represented by a team of 10 players who each paid €500 entry so €5k a team.



Having failed to make the Dublin team I was asked to play for Leitrim who were short on numbers, the Leitrim team was actually quite strong and we were 2nd favourites in the betting before the off. Well long story short over 300 players lined up and we won the team event by a country mile getting 4 players invluding yours truly to the last 2 tables and with Paul (slegs) winning the individual tourney so clean sweep for my ........... ahem home? county lol. So we scooped €70k between us and Paul got 12k on top of that for first. It was a cracking session at Citywest as usual and the highlight for me was drinking champagne out of the cup!! It was a little bittersweet as I took 3 tremendous bad beats on the 2nd last table to go from 2nd in chips to busto, every time the money went in I was a mile ahead and in the last one I flopped the nuts only to see Rory Liffey hit a runner runner flush, sometimes its just not your day lol.



Scarborough Charity Heads Up Tournament.


Back in September I went over to Scarborough with a group led by Mike Lacey to play a series of challenge heads up matches against an English team only things didnt exactly go to plan.

To begin the casino the game was to take place closed down at short notice so a last minute venue had to be found, hence Scarborough, then there was no hotel accomodation so we ended up staying in . , , , , , , wait for it . . . . . . a caravan! Yes I shit you not we were booked to stay in caravans for the weekend now thats ballin!! We had gone from suites in the Palms the month before to 5 men to a caravan lol, dont get me wrong as caravans go they were nice, but they were caravans all the same. But wait this was only the beggining of my adventures in Scarborough.


Upon arriving on the Friday myself and Dave Callaghan having secured what was to be our bedroom but could at best be described as a closet, we all headed to the casino for booze and a warm up rebuy tournament for charity as the main business was to take place next day. The tournament was a £20 rebuy and myslef and JP Kelly managed 14 rebuys a piece and were the first two eliminated after the break, I play so good. So we all got ourselves knocked out in quick succesion (apart from Rob Taylor who managed to win the thing) and proceded to the bar where Masters did his best to chat up the local talent (talent = random heavy ladies) and the rest of us got poleaxed. Come 3am I decided I would give a cash game a shot and wandered over, I gave the dealer some money and he gave me some chips and I sat down at this point some locals started complaining that no new players are allowed in for the last hour of the game, I ask why the dealer gave me chips then and one local tells me that he is down a grand and no one fucking new is getting in the game (this makes little sense to me as surely after 15 pints I represent the best value) I then tell him if he wants to play a mans game he better learn to lose like a man, at this point he smacked me in the jaw lol I know that was a little insensitive to the mans ego but come on!! So all hell breaks loose and pretty soon we are all being escorted out by the bouncers and I am told my presence is no longer welcome at the casino, a bit rich considering I was the one who got decked, but their choice I suppose. So outside the casino myself and Damo nearly end up in my second row of the night I cant really recall why this one began but looking back it was highly comical. So let me set the scene Damo and myself are being broken up by the rest of the group apart from a couple of lads who are too busy trying to keep Rob Taylor upright as he is puking his guts up at the feet of the bouncers from the casino lol and we are meant to come back the next morning.


But wait my tale of adventure does not end here. So we eventually get back to our luxury accomodation and get to bed, then I go sleepwalking, yes sleepwalking, I manage to get out of bed and walk next door to the toilet and proceed to relieve myself, but wait what is that noise? someone is calling my name, I look to my left and there is a bed, whats a bed doing in the toilet you might ask? and a good question it is too well as it would turn out I wasnt in a toilet at all and was taking a leak in the corner of Colletes (the only woman member of the team just to make it a little more embarrassing) room, well let me say this much Im pretty sure she was the only one as surprised as I was to find me pissing on the carpet lol. So far too drunk to deal with this set of circumstances right here and now I turn tail and return to my bed lol.

Well all I can say is I am eternally grateful to Collete for being as nice about it as she was, Im sure she probably could have had me arrested if she liked :( So the next day a deal was negotiated with the casino where the event could go ahead with one condition, that condition being my abscence, so as everyone went to play poker for the day I was confined to barracks in the luxury caravan that now also stank of piss!! And people tell me poker is glamourous lol. After sitting in the caravan for half the day with no one to talk to I decided to get a train to Manchester, I arrived in Manchester at 11pm and stayed in the Radisson, ahh as I sat in my bed in the 5 star hotel I spared a brief thought for my poker comrades trying to sleep in the now not quite so luxury caravan. I also got to go and watch United Vs Newcastle the next day which was an excellent game with Ronaldo in tremendous form, so something at least was rescued from the weekend.


Needless to say I wasnt asked to play for the Ireland team in the return leg at the Fitz lol.

EPT Dublin 2006

I wasn’t sure if I was going to play this or not, I have been running bad in cash games and didn’t particularly feel I could write off a €5k buyin on a whim. I gave a satellite a go in the jackpot a couple of days before the main event started it was a €150 + one rebuy or topup 50 runners generated 2 tickets and some cash for third, by the time we were down to the final table the line up was as follows Andy Black, Tom Hanlon, Conor Doyle, Eoin Mullins, Scott Gray, Goran, Johnny and yours truly. LOL not exactly a soft line-up 3 guys who have made the final 12 of the world series, Tom and Conor who are both smashing players, and Goran and Johnny aren’t any value either. It turned out they were all in to pay for the Main Event and as the sat was on decided to give it a whirl. As the final table formed Andy and I were chip leaders but not by much and it was anyone’s game, Scott commented that the final table of the main event would be an easier ask lol. A chop was offered 5 handed that would see Andy get the lion share, Andy had as usual amassed a massive tank, Conor and I refused and as luck would have it I went out next when I played back at Andy with 55 only to find him with a real hand KK oh well. That rightly pissed me off and in the end I decided Id regret it if I didn’t play so I walked across the lane and paid up at the colossus.

Day 1

I was playing Day 1A and as I took my seat I surveyed my opponents and didn’t recognise anyone, always a good sign.

First hand in I get dealt KK in the cut-off, nice way to start the day I think to myself.
Utg raises to 300 straight off and gets one MP caller.
I repop to 1000 in the cut-off and Utg player does a whole lot of Hollywood and asks me if “I want to go broke on the first hand?” before flat calling my bet, hmmm that’s unusual me thinks. MP folds and we take a flop.

Flop comes 2 4 4 rainbow, and Utg immediately leads for 3000, well he can’t have a four so it’s obviously an overpair or an extremely poorly played AK. I count out the 3k and put it aside and take a moment before, as I fully intend to do, raising. At this point I have a look at my opponent, he was a qualifier I earwiged on a conversation he had with the player beside him before we started and he was saying how this was the biggest game he had ever played, the more I looked at him the more I knew he wasn’t one bit nervous. This disturbed me I just didn’t think this guy came all the way from Europe to play one hand of poker, I decided that he had to have one of four hands AA KK QQ JJ maybe tens or nines, but his demeanour and the speechplay just was too accomplished for a newbie to do with nothing and then show zero nerves on the flop. I folded thinking that if he had anything other than AA I would pick up on some tension, as I mucked he threw his cards face up proudly displaying his black aces. I tap the table and say nice hand whilst mentally I’m giving myself a big pat on the back, if he doesn’t show there then I am probably going to head fuck myself over the hand for the next hour or so.

As expected the table was very easy to play against and I was confident that short of getting unlucky I would finish the day with good chips. I didn’t get over the starting stack until the last couple of levels but despite no cards I was playing a good few pots maintaining my stack and setting up the two most aggressive guys at the table, by the time we had played 3 levels I had both of them exactly where I wanted and knew I’d get paid off by either of them if I caught a hand. Recently I’ve been putting a lot of thought in to my deep stack tourney strategy seeking to change my game a bit, I used to be of the opinion that I should be playing as many pots as possible for small raises in the early levels looking to stack someone with a heavy flop for me, although I still believe this to be a good strategy I’ve eased off on it slightly in favour of a new one. I still play pots in position in the early levels but I now think that the time to really accumulate is when the blinds get a bit bigger around the 150/300 level, I now try and come in for the reraise with the same range as I would open raise for, in position obviously, this seems to be a more effective way to build than set mining in the early levels as it doesn’t depend on having to hit a hand however it does depend on better and more marginal decisions having to be made.

So I built steadily and eventually got one of my aggressive friends to pay me off with middle pair when I flopped a flush then got the other to move all in on me when I was holding QQ he had K10 and didn’t improve, this was a bit of a gift from him actually when he just got annoyed with me constantly reraising him. These two hands were the only two hands I showed down in the whole of day 1, and I finished on about 48k with the average stack at 30k. I could have finished on 70k except for the last half hour of the day Johnny Lodden was moved in to my immediate left and he got the better of me in an interesting pot where I nearly pushed all in for the fourth raise with A9 feeling I was being bullied slightly, I decided to just fold and wait for the seat redraw for day 2 which was only 3 minutes away. If we were keeping the same tables on day 2 I think I would have asked him a question in this spot.

Day 2

I had a look at my seat draw for day 2 in the morning on Mikes laptop and it was lovely I was raising into Neill Channing and Luca Pagano both very good players but not very likely to get way out of line, and I also had position on William Thorsen who had the chip lead with 200k, this really looked a good spot to accumulate a lot of chips. Unfortunately this table was broken after about a half hour and my next seat was emm less appealing. At my new table were Dave Murray and Andy Black both on my right, with Willie Tann and Dave O’Callaghan on to my left. Not exactly a lucky table draw with so many aggressive players I had a feeling we were going to see some big pots played out. I threaded water for a while just maintaining my position then Dave O’C was knocked out with 55 against QQ, and William Thorsen was put in his place, so now I had two very aggressive players one with the chip lead sitting on my left not exactly the perfect spot.

I won a biggish pot then when a 25k stack opened for 5k blinds 800/1500 and I moved all in with AJ he took an age to call with AK but I got my piece of luck in the tournament when I hit not one but two jacks on the flop lol. Shortly after that I made it 7k in the cut-off with AQ, the BB a player I played with the whole of day 1 called and we saw a Ah 10d 2d flop, he led for 20k with 20k back, the bet doesn’t look like a set so it’s a flush draw AQ AJ AT or maybe A9 he would have played back at me with AK pre flop, I move all in and he calls with 7d8d and misses his outs that put me up to over 100k with the average at 60k so I’m flying but unfortunately Andy also has 150k Willie has 90k and Thorsen has about 250k so it isn’t really a big stack relative to the table.

We then get made the TV table. Dave Murray gets unlucky in a pot with Thorsen were Thorsen makes a house of sixes and exits shortly afterwards when he loses a race with 88. I to and fro a fair bit and am playing a few pots without really having any hands, I call Thorsen down with ace high for a 40k pot then again with a weak king on a straightened flushing board for another small pot, and all of a sudden I think I can play him pretty well and have a fair idea where I am against him in pots. Then it happens Willie Tann makes it 7700 utg and everyone folds to me in the bb (blinds 1500/3000) I call with 4d5d and we take a Qd 2h 3h flop.

I check and Willie bets 17k, we engage in some table chat and I am sure he is strong a queen or a pp higher than nines, he asks me if I’m going to go all in with a flush draw, I tell him no and then move it all in, he calls with AQ and I hit a five on the turn but miss the river. I really thought I could get him to fold this one I knew he was strong and I was sure he knew I knew he was strong so I assumed he would put me on a set the way it plays with me flat calling his utg raise pre flop. He came over to me later on in the day to talk to me about the hand he told me that me having a set was in his mind but he felt that I have a worse Queen too often in that spot for it to be a fold for him. The play of the hand is ok and if I win the pot I have 240k in chips with the average at 90k and I am in a great spot to go really really deep. However this is another tournament where I managed to get myself knocked out on a marginal aggressive play close to the bubble. I exited in 40th spot with 32 getting paid, it was unnecessary though there was no need to play such a big pot there when I was in fine shape anyway, if I only had 50k it would be a no brainer but with a 100k stack it was a bit of a reckless move.

So I’m very annoyed at myself but that was one of the best standard tables I’ve ever played at and I think I played well the whole tournament and more than held my own against quality opposition. I have played five of these big buyin deepstack tourneys this year and I have only cashed in one, but I have built chips in most of them and gone quite deep in them all ( except Deauville where I went out with set over set in a cooler hand ). I really feel that I am knocking on the door and I am close to really having a breakthrough result.

Haven’t bloged in an age so this will be just a summary.

World Series Main Event.

It ended up being the most disappointing day of the year, I got no cards but played every hand as good as I can I don’t think I made a mistake all day but I just couldn’t gather any chips and eventually went out in the last level of Day 1 when I pushed with KQ in the BB for 8k after 6 people limped, the first limper had KK and that as they say was that.

My heartfelt congrats to my friends Ken Powell and Rob Taylor who cashed for $20k and $50k respectively, my congrats are heartfelt because I had a saver with both of them LOL. Also, I have to mention the stellar performance of Dave Murray who managed to book $165k payday, unfortunately I had no swaps with him.

It wasn’t all bad in the WSOP though I managed to win $10k in one of the last super sats a couple of nights before the main event started, this was probably the easiest score I ever managed and I will definitely be playing more of these super sats next year the standard is so poor.

Once out of the main event I basically partied for the last week, unfortunately I had to head home the day of Jesse Mays Irish party which I had been looking forward to attending.

Cash Games.

Since Vegas I have run very poor in cash games and I actually have been taking a break for the past 6 weeks because I went on such a bad downswing. I will probably get back in the ring in the coming weeks and Im sure all will be rosy in the garden of eden again but as a result of my inactivity I don’t have much to talk about on this front.

Viva Las Vegas ……… Yada yada etc etc

Ok been here a week and this is my first report basically because I have had very little to report.

I changed my flight so I would get in a day early and be able to play the $5k shorthanded NL, I really felt this would be my best chance at a bracelet, I play basically exclusively short handed for the last 2 years and against all the tourney pros used to 10 handed I really fancied my chances. Alas I ran into Dave Masters about an hour after I got in and we proceeded to prop up the bar until 5am and the next morning after getting up and narrowly avoiding being sick I knew that I would be wasting 5 grand the condition I was in (beware this becomes a feature of the post). So with that tourney a write off I basically didn’t play poker until the $2k event.

For the $2k event I played the best hour and a half of poker I have played this year, yes that’s right hour and a half lol. I got a brilliant first table with only one guy who wanted to play and he and I just avoided each other. In the first level and a half I had won more than half of the pots played and only been to showdown once, I was up to 5k from the starting 2k and was flying, then it happened. I raised to 150 in the cutoff with 8d9d and the bb (the only other guy playing) calls with a 5500 stack.

Flop comes 5s 6d 7d ding ding ding ding
Made nut straight and a straight flush draw on the flop.

He checks, I bet 300, he calls.

Turn is a 5c

He bets 750
I know he doesn’t have the full from the bet and I make it 1000 more he moves it in and I call.

He turns over Jh5h

And hey presto the river runs a Jack and I am out with him doing a dance beside the table, how classy.

If I win that pot I have 10k in chips when the average is 2500 and I am in great shape to go deep………… cest la vie.

So that was it then for a couple of days poker wise apart froma couple of winning sessions at Caesars and Flamingo where I beat the cash games for a couple of grand. The real story of the last couple of days have been the marathon 18 hour drinking sessions myself, KP, Dathio, Niall, Tom, Dave M and Dave Callaghan have put ourselves through, so much fun that it actually makes being stuck for a few grand worth it. I would love to provide further detail of these however my memory is hazy at best, the lot of us went to watch superman in the Palms yesterday to try and dwell out collective hangovers.

Dave Callaghan, Dave M and myself all played the $1500 Nl event today and none of us made it past level 2. The two lads got unlucky Dave Callaghan losing a race against Phil Laak and Dave M getting outdrawn by and Ace on the river. I on the other hand played 2 pots one I played well and in the other I said to David Chiu “Hey David Im going to play this hand about as badly as it can be played would you like all my chips?” Being the nice gentleman that he is he of course obliged me, I would go into detail but lets just say that my play was awful in the pot and amongst other errors included a check raise from the small blind ugh ugh ugh.

I have also been running bad online the last couple of weeks and am down on there between a mixture of drunken bad play and good play being hijacked be unwanted rivers. I think I should actually put a bad beat/moaning health warning on this post.

I really don’t mean to sound negative, yes I have lost a few quid and played badly today but also I have had an extremely fun week with team Dublin here and if there is ever a world series of propping up the bar I’ll take our action every time. I must also note that playing KP for money at pool is –EV and would advise those travelling today against it at all cost lol. We have been to many bars and restaurants etc but two stand out in my mind, Voodoo at the roof of the Rio gives the most fantastic views of Vegas and is a must go for all, and also the Loose Caboose bar and grill by the Palms open 24hours (we know because we stayed 24 hours) nicely chilled (apart form the guys with hands on their guns asking if your nearly done with the pool table) and a welcome break when the slot machines get too sore on the eyes.

I have grown a bit bored of the Flamingo so myself and Dave Callaghan are relocating to the MGM from tomorrow and are being joined I think by Niall, Dave and Oscar.

At the end of the day this trip is all about the main event and cashing for a million, I can click a couple of grand at home easy enough so Im not going to kill myself to try and win back tourney entries in cash games, so apart from the daily Bellagio and Wynn tourneys I think I probably am going to just focus on the ME. The cash games here are very soft but the poker is a bit ABC which bores me a little.

So onwards and upwards, heres some pictures so far.
KP and Ocallagh warming the bar seats.

Dave “Im backed by boardies and going to win the ME” Masters looking pensive.


View from the Flamingo.

Random Online Tips

Ive gotten a few emails recently from people looking for general advice about playing online. Im really not a great person to ask as I just sort of play natural but this is an answer I fired off to one of these mails the other day, its basic enough stuff but worth a read if you are transfering your game from live to trying online for the first time.

First off I dont really know your game so my advice is more on general internet play than how to adapt your particular style to internet poker. First off dont worry about not winning at the start I was messing around online for about 8 months before I started seeing some results. So here goes:

1) Get pokertracker and update all your hand histories into it, dont lie to yourself and not upload losing sessions. Once you have about 5k or more hands uploaded go on to twoplustwo.com and do a search for pokertracker stats and compare yours to the stats the winning players have, this will give you a good idea of areas to change in your game.

2) Decide what kind of player you are, players have different success at different forms of online poker. Some players do very well at sit&go's whilst they struggle at cash games, some players do well at mtt's and some do well at cash games. Some do well at all games but I would say concentrate on the form you are most proficient at to begin with then work on the rest after time.

3) If you are struggling to begin with then eliminate bluffing from your arsenal of weapons, too often online bluffs are ineffective and to be honest at the lower limits they just arent required. Play just premium hands and bet them hard, that is enough to beat lower stakes online, when you get used to online and start moving up you can begin to open up your game, but allways remember a bluff is more likely to fail on the internet and hence you should trap with strong hands less than you would live too, just bet them strong in general.

4) Game selection is useful look for games with the highest average pot size and players to a flop %.

5) Tilt control is infinately more important online than live. If you go on tilt in a casino you lose whats in your pocket but if you tilt online you can lose everything in your account and the rest of your credit card balance. It is far easier to tilt online , there is noone there you know so you arent embarrased by a bad play or horrid call so some players who wouldnt play tilty live tend to tilt online. The thing is that if you are inclined to tilt then it is really important to get a grip on this before you commit to being an online player.

6) The most major thing that I changed in my game when I started playing online was how I played AK. Instead of reraising with it I often (not allways) just call behind, I do this so that if I miss the flop I can get away from it but also if I hit the flop I often dont get put on AK and get paid off, but the main reason I changed this online was to try and play smaller pots pre flop. This is quite important, as much as I dont mind putting all my money in on a 50/50 preflop I mush prefer to keep the pot small preflop and get busy on the flop. This is an important part of my game, I play small preflop and steal a lot of pots post flop but it costs me a lot less to steal on the flop as we havent put so much money in preflop, and if I run into a hand I can now get away from it without commiting my whole stack.

7) Bankroll management is vital the 25 x a buyin is a good rule of thumb, do a search on any of the internet forums for oodles of threads on this, it really is hard to set a hard and fast rule as how much bankroll you need changes depending on the type of player you are and the stakes you play.

8) A lot of people say to start out on the micro limits and work your way up, but if you are used to playing live cash then I would say start off at 1/2 nl as the stakes lowwer than this dont really represent a real poker game.

9) If you are starting out new to online poker dont multi table, play one table at a time untill you are comfortable.

10) For low limits like 1/2 and 2/4 the softest games on the net are generally Party, or where when I played that low it has been a couple of years since I played that low but when I did Party was where the fish were at, I doubt thats changed.

11) Without doubt the most profitable time to play is between midnight and 4am as this is the time all the american market come online.

There is a lot of other general stuff like taking player notes etc but the above are probably the main things that helped me when I was starting at internet poker. When you have a couple of thousand hands loaded into poker tracker at a certain level send me your stats and I will be able to give you a couple pointers more specific to your individual game. Remember there is no reason why a player who wins live wont win online and vice versa but it is a different media and as such requires a different approach.

I hope this helps and Im sure I have left out loads of tit bits, but the main thing is this, when you play online it is MUCH easier to play badly, you need to build up a dicipline where you actively try to play your best every session. If you are facing a bet and you reckon you are beat you probably are, you wont call it live but for some reason a lot of people find it hard to not call online. I dont know why this is, probably the fact no one can see their bad play.

Anyways good luck and let me know how you are doing.

All the best,

Eoin.

Not exactly groundbreaking stuff but I just thought I'd stick it in the blog.