O'Shea and his bloody man flu

Not much to report from Killarney. Got off to a decent start in the first side event but it went pear-shaped pretty fast. I was down to about 6K when I got moved to a sick table with Nicky Power, Derek Murray, Trevor Dinneen and zuroph and managed to lose half my stack with KK when I raised it utg and half the table called. Flop came ace high and it gets checked around. Another ace on the turn and I made a non-believers call on the river. I couldn't see how an ace wouldn't bet earlier. I was right that he didn't have the ace but was behind to a runner runner flush. Dodgy enough call really, maybe still a little tilted from the RTE heat. Exitted a short while later pushing into JJ.

Hotel (the Brehon) was great and I'm delighted to report that Mick McCloskey has his snoring problems well under control. Potted a little online to little effect: I ended up a whopping $10.

Played Sunday's side event, and played much better. Ended up cashing with an above average stack, but then went card dead and eventually overshipped JJ and got looked up by AA. J high flop, A on turn, and to make matters worse I knew I was now drawing dead as Annette O'Carroll had announced she folded a jack. So 21st for 300 euros.

Great atmosphere down there, kudos to all involved. Was asked at one point on the last day who I thought would win. As I struggled to come up with a name, someone said Tom Kitt would be almost impossible to stop with his commanding chip lead. Tom was indeed playing a stormer but I reminded that Tom had a similar stack in Tramore. A few minutes later, my words proved prescient as Tom got in most of his stack with a flush draw and didn't suck out. To my mind, Tom's the most improved player in Ireland this year even if he's still a work in progress. What a completed work he has the potential to be though: he could be one of those players that just crushes fields periodically if he can learn when to take the foot off the gas. Tom's one of the best characters and nicest people on the scene and I'm sure he'll come through this latest disappointment a better player for it.

Well done to all who cashed, especially Emmet Gough, one of the many very fine players to have come through JP's ranks. Goughy's a great character and an excellent player. I remember my brother asked me who was the best player left when we were down to 6 or 7 in the Irish Masters last year and I said it was Goughy.

Trying to put in more hours online at the moment to build my bankroll back to where I can comfortably play the bigger online games. Since the bank share collapse, I've more or less been treading water, with whatever I make online having to be taken offline to pay the life rake. Obviously I'm not the only one in this boat: I just won a $50 STT on Ipoker that included at least 5 pros, including Tim Blake and Rory Liffey (who I beat headsup). Apart from that, the highlights included having a big stack in Tuesday's $45K on Ipoker near the bubble but still bubbling (three 70/30 reverses in quick succession) and having satted in to two ECOOPs (1 snd 7). Will try to sat in to some more ECOOPs.

Recorded a phone interview with Ian Cheyne from Irish Poker Radio yesterday which will be used at some point I think. Part of it is being used as intro to the IPO show. I'm currently dying with a cold, which is not doing much for my mood, particularly since I can't run. Convinced I caught it from John O'Shea in CityWest. The bounder.

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