JP Mini World Series

JP's tournaments are always great and this mini waop was no exception. About 320 entries for the main event (€350) and I was feeling fairly good on the Friday evening.

Started off playing fairly tight picking up a few small pots to stay around starting stack for a few levels. I got 88 in MP and a raise came in from the player to my right. I flat call and the player to my left re-raises about 2.5x the intial bet. The initial raiser falts and I'm priced to call. The flop gives me middle set and I lead for 4800. Player to my left repumps to 11.5k and othe player folds. I am playing approx 25k and I have a think for a minute and call. KK to the raiser and I hold up. A great start. But really my only real pot of the day. I finish day 1 on 62k.

Starting back we have a redraw and I'm on a fairly ok table. I maintain my 60k stack for what seems like ages but I feel I need tobe adding to it to have a chance. Once the antes kick in a little higher I start playing back at a few pots and I make my way up to about 90k when I am moved to another table with about 150 remaining.

This new table has some very large stacks and a lot more aggressive than the previous one. It takes me a little while to settle in and some of my raises are getting 3-bet a lot. I settle down when I ppick up QQ in MP and raise it up with one caller in EP. QJ9 flop with a diamond fluch draw and I bet out for 18k - other player calls. ( on the turn boats me up and I bet out again for 25k but he folds.

A few other pots sees me up to 120k with about 80 remaining. I get moved again and again I need to get up to speed quickly with the new table. With less than 60 remaining I have about 110k and I make a play at a AAx flop with Jc6c but I am called and plan to surrender the pot to any future betting. The turn brings a second club and I feel like I might pinch it on the river - check/check and the river brings a Qs I check and he bets out and shows the A. I'm down to 80+k

I then get AQ and make a standard raise. A french guy reraises his whole stack for about 35k with TT and I make the call and dont improve. If I get lucky there I might have had a bit more time to get in the money but after a short respite with JJ I go out with A9 against Rory Brown's AK.

All in all a good tournament and a 50ish finish although disappointing is still a good run.

Resurrection

Given that i started this blog I think it's only fair that I try and keep it going despite the fact that it has been over a year since my last post.

I have been playing more poker over the last six months than maybe the previous 2-3 years. Primarily this has been up in Luke Ivory's new club in the Fitzpatrick Casino in Tallaght. Nice spot, friendly and some of the best structured games around. I don't understand why more players don't attend his games - we all know he deserves a break.

It's amazing what a regular run of tournaments can do for your game and playing regularly keeps you focused and you don't feel like you are learning all over again, which was the case when I only played a few tournaments a year.

I have been getting some good results and I feel my game is getting better all the time.

I am going to play in JP's mini WSOP this Friday to see how my game stacks up against a big field. I haven't been involved in any of the big games this year but the few 100+ runner events I did play earlier in the year all ended in cashes so I'm entering this with a little confidence.

I feel the structure this weekend will suit me and I feel I can pick spots to exploit those who don't understand deep stack events. Here's hoping anyway. I'll have a report up over the weekend - hopefully Monday if I'm busy taking it down!


My games reviewing in The Daily Mirror (every Fri if you're interested) is getting some traction. Both Sony and EA have asked me to contribute quotes for their upcoming TV ads of Uncharted 2 and FIFA 10 respectively and I had a good spot on the Gerry Ryan show last Friday (http://2fm.rte.ie/show/get_epg_schedule_item/11/2009-10-30 - 45:00mins in). I hoping to get a console LAN event off the ground before Xmas which are always good craic.

If you ever need a copy of something let me know and I'll see what I can do.