Westbury EOM

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.

Galway Team Event

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!

The Big Move South!

So we made a life choice , time to move in together, the next decision was where . . . & the winner was . . . . Dublin!
Not a hugely tough decision in the end:

Belfast: Bank job, New house expense, Pretty much no poker

Dublin: New job, No new house expense, Loads of poker

Hmmm . . . . tough decision!

So I start my new job in 2 weeks and now have 2 weeks to unpack, settle in and fit in some poker too :)

Fitz EOM

This month's EOM was held on the last Saturday to allow for Christmas falling on it's usual date. True enough it got a decent amount of runners coming in at around the 91/92 marker.

After a patheic start I find my stack dwindling away at a rapid pace then manage to lose most of what I have left when I run a J high flush into a Q high flush. This leaves me with 1100 chips and screwed basically. Next hand I'm UTG with K6 and I go for broke open shoving to get 4 callers! To my surprise my 6 hit and was good! This was a nice boost in chips, still very short but the newly found momentum was certainly welcome.

SE €250 Game & Degen Cash Sessions Afterwards!

Since Rob and I were back in Dublin, we headed into town to play the EOM game in the SE. After reading boards we weren't very hopeful of the turnout but headed in to see what sort of numbers they would get all the same. When we got there there were 2 full tables with the potential to get a 3rd one going, so we decided to stay and play it.


I really wish people would be more proactive on boards with regards to their intentions of playing tournaments. I know there must have been at least 30 or 40 people who would have liked to have played that tournament, if they would just post to indicate they would be up for it, it would encourage several others to post something similar or even just make their way in for the tourney. I would have posted to say something had I have been sure I was going to be able to make it. Unfortunately I planned on still being in Cavan but as that didn't go according to plan I figured the SE game was the next best option for my Saturday night.

Cavan Poker Open

First of all, the roads in Cavan are shockingly bad! The mortality rate in that county for deaths on the roads has to be ridiculously high! I mean, we all allow for country roads to have the odd bend, bump and chicane thrown in, but personally when driving in the dark on unknown roads, I'd rather if they didn't feel like a rally asault course . . . rant over.


So I arrive about an hour late, find my table and discover that my table is a self-deal! I was disgusted, not only was I late and had some catching up to do but my table was getting a hand in on average every 10 mins, just not good enough IMO! So I sit down and spend the first 15-20 mins watching people.

Bruce Poker Launch Festival

Fresh off the plane from Blackpool, we headed to the Green Isle hotel to check out what was going on with the Bruce Poker Launch Festival.

The cash tables were going rightly and Rob (as per usual) made it his business to check up on every player he has ever met before that was still actively participating in the tournament. After about an hour of meeting, greeting & general chit-chat we stuck our names down for the cash. Yet again Festival Cash Games didn't disappoint and by 3am (4-5 hours later) I had successfully put myself at risk from a severe case of food poisoning (dodgy burger, thanks Rob) and managed to make about €760 in the 1/2 NLH game.

Boyles IPO

Unfortunately due to the GUKPT event we missed this one, would have been a great one to play, especially for the small buy-in, there was fantastic value. But that said, where there's a festival there's always excellent cash games!


And so that's what I concentrated on, the tables were mostly full of foreign players, primarily French, with a few Dutch and Scandies to make up the numbers. I sat at one cash table in particular for a few hours, 2 young Dutch fellas on it, they had been up for 3 days solid and were recharging the batteries with Red Bull! They certainly weren't the value at the table but they did provide the entertainment. It's fair to say that it was the most entertaining cash table I have ever sat at. As well as the ladies event I did play one of the small side events, but unfortunately due to a pretty poor structure it was a crap-shoot from the off and as I didn't get the cards it was over and out for me pretty swiftly.

GUKPT Thanet

Headed to Thanet with Rob, he was playing the main event whilst I was playing the slightly more modest side event. It was a one day NLH with a £100 + £10.50 buy-in. Yes that's right! The reg fee was £10.50!!

The structure wasn't great as is typical for the smaller buy-in English MTT, but it was something to pass the time while Rob played in the main event. I got off to a decent start, managing to stay one step ahead of the shorter stacks and was in even better shape after knocking out Nik Persaud and Jeff Kimber.

SE Betdaq Bubble

Rob & I both played the Betdaq Live Sat in the SE. Rob had won his €400 + €40 ticket in a sat the night before and we bought my ticket off Ian who had also won a ticket in the same sat but was unable to actually play the event.

There were a lot of good players in this sat, so to win 1 of 3 tickets was never going to be easy. My first table featured Donal Norton, Dennis Reyes and Kevin Farelly so it was never really quiet, even early on there were several raised pots preflop. From memory I had very little cards to see a flop with and pathetically managed to blind myself down to around 4k by the break. Great! Just in time for the break time questions . . .
"How are you getting on?"
"About 4"
"40? no way!"
"No, 4, well 4ish "
"Oh"
Like these questions weren't awkward!