On a malahiding to nothing

Well. Pride goes before a fall, sayeth someone very annoying. After puffing out my chest and bragging about my Silver Star status as one of the biggest winners on Ipoker this year, I promptly had my biggest ever losing day online (just over 2K), resulting in loss of said silver star. Rob says I'll have it back within a week. We'll see. I dropped another $500 the next day, but got it back yesterday, so hopefully that corner has been turned.

Pride may come before a fall, but a fall comes before redemption sometimes if you are persistent. Having had my worst ever online day, I headed out to my favourite tournament, the Malahide monthly (which I had chopped twice and was fourth last month). The field gets stronger and stronger every month: at my table alone, there was Donal O'Connor, Rob Taylor, Liam Barker, Gerry Jones, Christy Smith, Ken Powell, Joe O'Donaill, Eamon (from the SE) and Sean Gregory. Other tables featured Paul Coyle, Anto O'Callaghan, Fran Egan, Ozzy, Dave Masters, Eoin Olin and Pete Murphy. Bob was also at my table, to my immediate right, and I have to say I'm warming to the old duffer. It helps that my strategy of keeping my head down and choosing my spots very selectively was greatly helped by frequent donations from Bob. It's a lot easier when you're sitting beside him as he has a foot tell. At one point, I called him down with a 5 high four flush on a paired board much to some's amazement, but I was so confident in my read that I would have been gobsmacked if he'd turned over a house or a higher diamond.

Anyway, I played very well, which I'm proud of given the mauling I'd just had online, and also got the luck when needed. Three handed, a chop was agreed where I effectively took second prize (3K), Joe (who had 70% of the chips) took first minus 500, and a local lad David took third plus 500. I briefly considered rejecting the deal or trying to get more as I was in quite a good spot pushing into David who was playing tightly, and I think at last 4 times out of 5 I end up headsup with Joe from there. If I do, it's effectively a superturbo HU STT which are my specialty these days. However, I also know that even with an edge it's never that big an edge in those things if the other guy knows what he's doing, which Joe clearly does. Given that I sometimes get the hee bee gee bees playing superturbos for $200, playing a 2K one is probably best avoided. In any case, it was a marginally good deal for me (I got almost $100 more than ICM would give me), and a great one for Joe.

I really love the Westbury: if it were local to me I'd be there every night. Highlights of the night included my favourite dealer Jerry chanting my name from the other side of the room (at the blackjack tables) during the final table, and inadvertently giving the waitress Tanya (the most beautiful woman in the world, and one of the warmest and friendliest) a fit of the giggles afterwards.

Played a few sats last night with mixed results. The good: qualified for the weekly WSOP final on Laddies. The bad: crashed out in 9th in the ticket only IO sat on Ipoker (4 packages, 4 $320 cash prizes, so I actually bubbled the fucker) after my AT button shove ran into AT (not a typo). The meh: money back in the GUKPT sat.

I'll probably play the Fitz (scalps) tonight, definitely play Fitz (cash league) tomorrow, and Sunday night will probably be sat night again (qualified for the IO one from a feeder). Tuesday I'll be back at the Westbury, and then Thursday I head for my first GUKPT of the year. Really looking forward to that as after a dodgy enough first effort in Mancland last year, I made the second last table on my next two efforts (Newcastle and Luton). Given a bit of luck, I think I could get a really big score in one of these things before too long. Looks like there could be a decent Irish contingent in Walsall: I know Sean Gregory, Fran Egan, Mick McCloskey and Paul Coyle are all heading too.

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