The Doke rap

When I started blogging in secret about 3 years ago, there were a number of other blogs I read religiously and looked up to. They've all pretty much disappeared one by one. I used to wonder why people stopped blogging, but these days I appreciate that most of us simply run out of new stuff to say, or at least struggle not to fall into rewriting the same story over and over. As I sit down to write this, I have no real notion where it's going or what I have to say, but let's give it a lash and see.

The holiday season in Doke Manor was very pleasant indeed, with the old man potting away quietly in the corner. The grown up kids all returned to the nest so it was a nice family occasion, with the potting pleasantly interrupted for family meals, hot whiskeys and communal scoffing at bad TV. All well and good except my plan to shed some pounds and get back into shape took a bit of a hit. The problem with grinding through the evening and night is that by the time I get up it's dark outside and a run seems like the least appealing thing in the world at that point so I'm trying a new regime of going out for a run before I retire to bed around 10 AM after a night's grind. It's probably debatable how healthy it is to force your body out into the cold damp morning air dog tired and with some possibly unmetabolised hot whiskey still in your system, so it will come as no surprise to me if I wake up one of these evenings to the news that I dropped dead of a massive coronary.

2011 got off to a good start on the potting front with a 14K upswing. Easy game, I was thinking, long may it continue, I rule, and how. Pride comes before a fall and before I knew it I was swinging the other way to the tune of 7K. Wasn't all just variance or karma either: there was quite a bit of playing like a plonker on hot whiskey in there. Things have since swung back the other way for 7k so it's been a decent start to 2011. Time to get the live show on the road now.

Next Thursday I'm off to the Canaries for my first EMOPS. Looking forward to it and seems like there will be a few Irish among the tides of Eurodonks. I may or may not be hitting Deauville EPT just after that, I haven't decided yet. If I do it'll mean 3-4 weeks devoted solidly to live which is a bit more than I'd like at this stage of the year. Hot on the heels of that is my favourite tournament of the year, the European Deepstack, now bigger and better with two Day 1's. Then it's off to Nottingham for the next leg of the UKIPT, and then back home for this year's Irish Poker Rankings live final. I got 2010 off to a great start by winning the inaugural version in Galway. It was a very enjoyable experience sitting down to play a deep stacked one table tourney with 9 of the best players in Ireland. This year it's 18 players and there's at least as many top class players in there. I watched the online freeroll qualifier and three top class players emerged as qualifiers, Dave Masters, Aidan Connelly and Keith Maguire. Some good chatbox banter railing that: we started abusing one of the participants on the very reasonable basis that we thought he was Tom Kitt. He took it in good spirits but after a while pointed out he wasn't actually Tom. He only really took offense when I told him he played exactly like Tom. Turns out the mystery man was none other than Peter "The Multiplier" Murphy who had been up for 24 hours straight grinding online. That's the kind of sickness you really have to admire.

Anyway, I guess I'll feel a bit like last year's Miss Universe going back to see who takes my crown, although of course I'll be in there myself doing everything I can to prove I'm still the prettiest girl with a burning passion for small furry animals and an earnest desire for world peace.

My oldest son Paddy turns 26 today so a big shout out to him. He's just about the most admirable human being I know bar none, far too nice and decent a chap to ever be a good poker player, and he has made a quarter of a century of fatherhood nothing but a delight. I'm trying to persuade him to come to Vegas with me this year to help keep me sane.




I think we've all had enough of my wittering for now so I'll leave you with something a little different. I got a lot of great gifts over the holidays but my personal favourite comes courtesy of Dan "DatWillDoPig" Rankin (member of the PoLao collective) who came up with this rap in my honour:

"Dara grinds he never stops,
He grinds all day until he drops,
One o those games will be his last,
It will happen soon it will happen fast!!
He will even lose when he flops top set
And im suprised it hasn happened yet "

If I do make the final table of the Irish Open or WSOP this year, I want to make some sort of grand Hellmuthesque entrance with the Dan Rankin Doke rap blaring out over the speakers. Peace out y'all :)

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