Irish Poker Championship / UKIPT Galway

*** Warning - This blog post may irritate due to severe whining at the beginning! ***

I was working the night before the first day of this event, got home about 7.45am & I felt like utter $hit! I'd developed a chest infection earlier in the week, managed to get an antibiotic, but it was finished & it appeared my chest infection had not. For this asthmatic, that meant more discomfort than for the average person, especially at night when breathing proved a lot more difficult than it should have. Rob was obviously playing the event himself so we packed up the car & headed for Galway.

Monaghan Harps GFC Charity Game

Rob & I nearly slept in for this one. For some reason we thought the tournament started at 6, well it didn't, it actually started at 4 & the 1.5-2 hours travelling time meant we nearly missed it. We got woke up by chance due to an unexpected phone call & shortly afterwards Rob happened to have a quick look at boards to see if there was much interest in the tourney. It's a good job he did as it was only then we discovered the 4pm kick off, doh!

As it turned out the game was delayed anyway, but at least we made it there in time :) Most tables were self-deal which to be honest I hate. I hate it for several reasons, firstly I'm ridiculously bad at dealing, slow clumsy etc, secondly it slows the game up dramatically and thirdly it tends to lead to even more time wasting & uncertainty due to everyone not knowing what most of the rulings are. My table was self-deal for several levels early on, apologies to anyone who was at my table for I know I suck as a dealer!

Fitz Poker Festival 2009

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.

JP's Mini WSOP

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.

Paddypowerpoker.com Irish Winter Festival 2009

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!

Boylepoker.com IPO 2009

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!

IPT Nova Gorica

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!
/rant

Venezia

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.

Irish Poker Festival Killarney 2009

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.
Got off to a decent start in the main event, which pleased me as I didn't have the easiest of tables which was made worse when Oz got moved to it also. I didn't get many cards & found myself lying low, allowing the active players to go at it & kill each other. Only played one large pot where I got into a tricky spot with AK vs Oz's JT, needless to say he got runner runner straight & with hindsight I probably should have folded the river. Guess I slow played my hand more than I should have & allowed him to catch up, my bad.

CSI: The Experience

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.