Nick Wealthall makes a new enemy...

As I've noted to the point of Grandpa Simpsonesque repetition, the down times associated with foreign trips is the best time to blog, and this one is being tapped up in Dublin airport at the ungodly hour that exists between 5 and 6 AM as I wait for my Ryanair flight to Manchester for the next leg of the UKIPT. Aptly enough, a few hours ago I watched myself feature on the latest Channel 4 episode of the Galway UKIPT. Feature is perhaps too strong a word for what was essentially an extras role, but I did at least get to see what I look like moving all in with AT. I also got to hear myself being described as "looking a bit like a badger" by the commentator, much to my own amusement but not that of Mrs. Doke. I've grown accustomed to comments on my appearance ranging from the mildly disparaging to the psychotically offensive, poker players being the cruel superficial lot that they are, so I don't tend to worry too much about them. It was tremendously amusing to see Mrs. Doke go on instatilt and start swearing death threats in French at the TV though. She then upped the hilarity content by going on to earnestly compare the commentator to "looking like a chihuahua, and not a nice one but an annoying little one you just want to kick or squish". Not a big dog lover, Mrs. Doke, and being French she doesn't need any real excuse other than an English accent to get her blood boiling. Quelle bande de cons ces anglais, je vais lui faire sa peau.

The next few weeks are going to be very busy on the foreign trip front, with Lisbon (EMOPS), Malaga (Estrellas) and Berlin (EPT) all on the itinerary. I'm looking forward to all three for different reasons.

The online grind has been going very well this year, no major downswings to report. Qualification for my first EPT this year was secured in a 3x. I won't bore you with the details of my other recent online results: anyone sufficiently curious can check them on OPR or PocketFives, or, heaven help us all, Facebook or Twitter.

I also booked Vegas: I go out on the 8th of June and should be returning on the 12th of July, unless I'm still involved in the main event. I'm sticking to a similar plan to last year: staying in the Gold Coast until the main event at which point I'll be moving in to the Rio. My oldest son Paddy has kindly agreed to fly in as the main event kicks off to help keep his old man sane. This should be a very timely boost as Paddy is quite simply one hell of a guy. Even if he wasn't my son he'd be one of my favourite and most admired people.

I'm here in Manchester til next Tuesday. Looks like a good Irish contingent, and I should learn the answer to one of life's big questions: does Feargal Nealon snore? Although Feargal's been my main man as far as poker friends go for a while now, this is the first time we've actually roomed together. I'm pretty sure that even if he does snore he can't be as bad as Mick Mccluskey, who sounds like a chainsaw, only worse. More like a chainsaw being used to kill an opera singer who swallowed an amplifier. He should even be an improvement on Nicky Power, who even if he isn't as bad as Mick is bad enough that Marty Smyth advised me to be prepared to sleep in the bath with ear plugs in and the noisy air conditioning on.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I don't normally plug other people's blogs but, actually scratch that, I probably do plug other people's blogs more than most. Anyway, my good pal Jason Tompkins latest blog entry on his approach to live mtts in Ireland is a must read for any serious student of the game here and goes a long way to explaining Jason's consistency.

Finally (really this time, I promise), well done to Jason who shipped the Ipoker 200K and had a 3rd in the 100r on Stars the same day, and to Feargal who got coolered to bust in 12th in the Ipoker 200K the following week when he was looking odds on to repeat Jason's success. Feargal's record in these events speaks for itself and it's only a matter of time before he binks big again.

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