Nine nine nine

Well, some of you may have been following the deepstack blog updates in which case you'll know I went all the way to the final table again before ultimately crashing out in 9th.

Day one was reasonably uneventful. I got a rough enough table draw. Basically the way this tourney panned out, the degree of roughness was directly proportional to the number of Irish at the table. Many had just one, some had two, mine had four, the other three being Graham Masters, Adrian O'Donoghue and (I think) Brian O'Sullivan. Brian gave the most trouble of all, bluffing me off one big pot where I had top two pair, he floated me and shipped the river repping a flush. His river ship was so fast it smelt like a shiff (bluff ship) and I think deeper in the tourney I definitely call, but early on in deepstack slow structure tournaments I tend to err on the side of caution when my whole tournament is on the line so even though I felt I was still good more often than not, I let it go. He showed the bluff.

That knocked me back to 37K but my decision to wait for clearer spots was vindicated when I finished the day with 88K without taking any major risks.

Day 2 started very well for me. Early on I took out Jaye Renehan when Jaye overshipped AJ over my AQ and I held, then won a race (my 99 holding against AK) against a very good young Irish lad I'd not seen before, and then I got a donation from an Italian who limped in MP. The SB completed, I had little interest in the hand with J5o unless I flopped big, which I duly did, J53 with two spades. Check, check, the Italian now overbet the pot and I'm thinking lovely jubbly he's done the old limp-the-aces trick. I reraised figuring he wasn't getting away from his overpair and I'd get him in while I was ahead. Sure enough, he shipped, and I snapped. Only surprise was his hand: QJo.

Got another big infusion with KK (v KQ on a Q high flop) and was now chipleader in the whole tournament with 110 left. In the mean time I had the dubious privilege of sucking out on my good friend Joe O'Neill, someone I regard very highly both as a player, a character and a person. Joe had crippled himself with a three barrel bluff against Jason Tompkins previous hand when he shipped for less than 10 bigs on the button. Figuring his range was close enough to any 2, I made the call in the BB with A6s only to find Joe had KK. He stayed ahead till an ace from space on the river. Hopefully Joe will forgive me some time this side of Christmas.

Towards the end of the day I got moved tables and almost immediately lost most of my stack. A loose raiser raised to 35K, a guy who seemed to be playing scared flatted on the button. I had JJ in the SB. I figured the first guy had nothing much, the second guy had something like AQ/AK/KQ and was unwilling to commit all his chips pre. Any raise pot committed me against the stacks so I decided to just add the 100K in the middle to my stack without risking a showdown by shipping. Nice plan but unfortunately the BB woke up with KK (the Italian who went on to finish second). He took an age to call and admitted he'd have folded QQ. That hand crippled me back to 130K but I recovered to finish with 573K, the main hand being a well timed reship over John Keown with AJs. John called with KJo and I held.

I had a tough table on day 3 with Stephen Barrett (who got horrifically unlucky), future superstar Wayne Condron, Dave Masters and Mick McCloskey. Luckily for me the table got easier when Wayne, Dave and particularly Stephen got unlucky. Mick sucked out on me early on (he was short and shipped 76o into my A2s) and then kicked on to have a big stack. Other than him the table was playing scared and I moved from 500K to over two million without showdown when the next car wreck happened. I raised AA utg to 140K at 30/60, and the button repopped to 360K. I knew he had about 550K behind so I figured he was pot committed but I've seen people do some strange stuff live like put in half their stack pre and then fold to the ship so I figured I'd flat and get the rest in on the flop rather than let him off the hook. Rest went in on the Qc9c4x flop. I figured he had KK and had been coolered so I was pretty stunned to see 72s. Unfortunately the s was c and he rivered the flush.

That hand was a massive turning point for me. It was a pretty soft table (most of the good players were at the other table). If he doesn't river the flush, I have over 3 million and I think I pretty much always get to 6 million or so by the time the final table forms. Instead I was shortish with a horrible stack size that quickly became a ship/fold one.

That hand was the most upset I've ever been at a poker table. Don't get me wrong, I accept that suckouts are part and parcel of the game and I certainly never mind getting sucked out on if it's a good play (like someone open shipping a marginal when they're short), but getting 40% of your stack in pre with 72 when you're not short against an utg raiser doesn't qualify as "good play" imo. However, I think my emotional control and the fact that I never really tilt during a tournament (immediately after is a different matter) is my biggest strength as a tourament poker player and I managed to keep it together. As easy as it was to make a tilty call with A4o in the BB when the SB shipped next hand, I managed to restrain myself (he showed AQ).

I think I play push/fold optimally but in a slow structure like this that generally means treading water until you get lucky, either by being nearer the top of your shipping range than the bottom when you are eventually called, or sucking out. For me it was the latter, I got it in horrifically bad against Mick McCloskey's aces. I had AdJd and was already putting on my jacket when I spotted the first card on the flop was the queen of diamonds. Then dealer then spread the flop to reveal I'd flop the nuts, Broadway. Easy game.

Next time I got it in I had A9 v AJ and again I sucked out.

That allowed me to hit the final table with just under 2 million in chips. Below average but not short by any means and with a few shorter stacks I had every hope of a top 3 finish at least. Instead, my tournament unravelled in just two hands, both against the eventual winner. First he shipped for 7 bigs from the SB, I made the call with A5o. I'm pretty much always a 57/43 favourite here and given how fast the structure was at this point that's too big an edge to even consider passing at that stage. He had J9o and was one card away from elimination but a 9 on the river saved him. Two hands later he raised the CO, I shipped the button with JJ, and in a repeat of my EPT Deauville exit he called with AJ, turned a flush, and sent me to the rail.

To have played for three long days and have it come apart so fast was gut wrenching but I know I'll look back on pride at having made my second final table and third consecutive cash. If only all tournaments could be 50K starting stack slow structure events (or alternatively 3x turbos :)).

Well done to all involved with the tournament, especially JP and Christine who always run a great show. The room was very well set up (by Phil and Lorraine Baker I believe), and the dealers were all top notch. The hotel itself is not the best it has to be said - the "buffet" they hawked us for 10 Euro on the first day which consisted of prison food slop (officially chicken curry) was maybe the worst meal I've ever reluctantly downed. I decided not to dice with food poisoning more than once, which meant eating in the hotel restaurant the other two days, effectively adding €50 to the reg and making it a 22% effective reg. For the most part we've been lucky in Ireland with tourney organisers keeping live regs lower than elsewhere and therefore making live tournaments economically effective for the pro and good value for the recreational player, but of late there's been a slightly worrying trend of hidden extra reg in the form of food and drink costs. We as players need to remain vigilant to stop a slide towards the excessive regs you see in some other places, while tournament organisers would do well to look at the example of the Fitz which continues to thrive keeping regs down below 10% (sometimes below 5%) while supplying high quality complentary food and drink to players. It also has to be said that while it's all well and good attracting 400 foreigners to a tournament in Ireland, you should also look after the locals, and the sight of last year's runners up loitering in the lobby on the alternate's list waiting for people to get knocked out before he could get in was somewhat disconcerting. I suppose so long as you can keep filling your tournaments with foreign players you can get away with not worrying too much about the locals but otherwise it may come back to haunt. Atmospherically it often felt more like a French tournament than an Irish one, and the media intrusion was, well, quite intrusive at certain points. For example, after my big AA/72 hand I returned from a toilet break I hoped would also clear my head to find my seat obstructed by a French cameraman. He didn't respond to a verbal request to let me take my seat and it took a few firm taps on the shoulder to get him even to consider moving. In the mean time, the dealer was killing my hand.

Anyway, I was happy to at least make a brief appearance on another final table and continue a recent good run. As a bonus, Ian of IPR tells me the result provisionally moves me to the top of this year's Irish Poker Rankings. Very early days in the year obviously but it's nice to make a good start. In the latest Irish Poker Radio show (33, downloadable at Irish Poker Radio ), I spoke about the two entirely different approaches I took in the last two years to playing this tournament, and how I was somewhat uncertain as to the best approach this time around. In the end I went with a hybrid of the two, playing much more carefully than last year but less cautiously than the first year.

I took today off but it's back to work tomorrow, where the real highlight will be the bounty tournament for myself, Wally and Ger on Bruce. $150 in easy added money awaits whoever knocks me out. I'm hoping all my friends and foes will turn out. I'm not one for pressuring anyone, but let me just say to my friends that if they want me to ever speak to them again I expect to see them there, and to my foes that the same applies if they want me never to speak to them again :)

On Wednesday it's off to Manchester for the UKIPT and the slightly scary prospect of sharing a hotel room with Wally and Nicky Power. Arguments already raging over who gets the bed and who gets the floor. I'd have to say it's not looking good for Nicky with a Bruce to Boyle ratio of 2:1 in the room but we may take pity on the poor wretch.

Posted in: