During this festival I happened to have only one night off work meaning the only game I could play was the €75+R on Monday night. I hadn't been sleeping great for a few days & there was a large part of me resigned to spending my night off catching up on some sleep. Rob however was determined to head in for this game & somehow managed to drag me into town with him.
This was always going to be a great festival for many reasons but in particular it was inevitable to run like clockwork, have plenty of sat winners & a decent prize pool. The venue turned out to be pretty good, handy parking, fair sized room & the food was also better than average. My first table was a bit of a mixture, some good players mixed with complete dunkeys. Needless to say everytime I got a run going I would suffer an equally sized set-back. I survived the first day albeit short, but a new day, new table & hopefully a new run of cards.
I'd never actually played the IWF before, last year I was working the Saturday morning so never even bothered trying to qualify. With recent success and a 10% swap with Jaye in the IPO, it seemed like fate I should play it, with the 10% swap working out within €50 of the main event buy-in. Definitely a sign!
I had never actually got to play the IPO before. Last year we were in England as Rob was playing a GUKPT event & we called in to play some cash. My brief taste of the atmosphere last year was enough to make me want to play it this year, so I arranged the time off work & made sure I registered in advance as recommended by the tourney organisers. Well was I glad I made the effort in advance, as predicted it sold out & my preferred day was snapped up pretty quickly!
Rob & I both satted into this €2k main event in Nova Gorica which is in Slovenia but barely across the Italian border. What does a poker tournament on the Italian border mean? Oh yes, loads of Italians! 
Our hotel was a fair trip away from the casino but with a hire car this didn't present a major problem. The hotel itself was quite quaint, old fashioned but clean & comfortable. The drive down from the hotel to the casino was glorious, with the sun splitting the trees, this winding road which ran along side the 'Emerald Trail' offered spectacular views & proved to be an enjoyable & relaxing start to each day.
I had a tough table including a few pros & truth be told I never actually got going. It was a 20k starting stack so I had plenty of time to wait for a hand, however the problem was I got hands, they just didn't hold up. I lost reasonably large pots with pretty much all of them. My hate affair with JJ continues as I lost 2 large pots with them & I ran A9 soooted into 88 on a A98 flop. Even after a few potential disasters I still had about 70% of starting stack. That was until I got KK which I had to fold on the river when the board double-paired. So I round things off by shipping AK from the blinds over the top of a standard raise & yet again lose. It was at least a quick death in that I was up against JJ & he flopped a set. JJ always ends in disaster whether I have them or am up against them!
En route to Nova Gorica for the IPT event, we had time for a couple of days in Venice! Always wanted to see Venice, the sort of place I'd heard loads about but never actually got the chance to go to myself.
Enjoyed my time in Killarney last year so was looking forward to another weekend away & hopefully some profit to go along with the nice scenery. The venue same as last year was something else, fantastic room for a poker tourney with the added benefit for a large balcony for food and drinks as well as spectating. 
Headed down to this with a friend after seeing the ad on tv. We expected a lot from this, raving reviews on tv and online, no idea how much it cost but happy to pay whatever based on the assumption we would not be disappointed.
After attending a way busier than expected wedding fair in Belfast we headed home to play the SE's 'September Weekender'. This looked like a super tourney and promised a good few numbers with the numbers going slowly back to the old haunt. Such a disappointment . . . 19 turned up meaning there was actually a €250 overlay.
Got the opportunity to play this with being off work and due to the numbers it never disappoints. Feel like I played ok, won a few small pots and got a decent stack together after the break. Had a tough table, the average standard at my table was certainly tougher than average but I was coping. When the antes were introduced I was conscious of not blinding away and tried to steal a few pots. This worked initially then I ran into a couple of big hands and had to pick my spots better. Unfortunately with the typical Fitz player liking to call you need to keep your shoves a lil bigger than usual to get them through and with an active table I failed. I finished in midfield in around 50, with 120 runners. Hopefully I'll get to play it again soon, consistently great prizepool, it's a great tourney to get a run in.
This whole weekend turned into a bit of a disaster, mainly in terms of numbers. At the beginning it was billed as one of the largest poker festivals of the year . . . in the end it was a mediocre one at best. Now don't get me wrong, the dealing standard and professionalism was as expected, second to none . . . well it was TD'd by JP after all. The atmosphere, the buzz, the craic, well let's just say there was something lacking.
Before we knew it, it was time for Vegas already. Rob was only getting a short stint in Vegas this year as his one and only sibling was getting married in the middle of the Main Event. We decided to go for 2 and a half weeks at the start so he could play the $2.5k shoot-out and I could play the ladies event (I know . . . another fecking all girls, no poker logic, crapshoot, bingo session).
I was so nervous entering this for several reasons . . .
This was my first JP Masters, but I'd only heard good things about this event. The dealing standard as I would expect from a JP event was second to none and the tournament was very enjoyable from the off. I felt like I played some really good poker, had some tricky decisions in the few levels after the dinner break and came through them quite well.
Not much to report here, this was my first Irish Open and it certainly wasn't one of my best poker experiences. Nothing seemed to work for me, when I got a big hand I either got no action or else got it busted. I decided to take the cautious approach, thinking that patience would pay off and it nearly did, well sort of.
When I lived in Belfast this tourney was never possible for me, Tuesday nights playing poker in Dublin were just impossible. So this being my first chance to play the Westbury was always going to be an opportunity not missed.
There were high expectations for this event but at the same time it was always gonna be tough. We had a good team, a very good team but we weren't the only ones. Our team had Rob, KP, Dara, Rory Brown, Paul Coyle and little old me. On paper, our main rivals were the Bundys: O'Shea, Brennan, Fallon, O'Dea, Walsh and Hayes. There was some side action between us and the Galway Team, in fact I'm pretty sure there was some side action between the Galways team and most teams!
So we made a life choice , time to move in together, the next decision was where . . . & the winner was . . . . Dublin!