A tale of two Dokes

"You worked harder and prepared as well as anyone and better than most for this year's WSOP, only to lose every flip and get nowhere. You'd have been better off staying at home printing online at the softest time of the year and saved yourself the ordeal of watching guys who put in less than 10% of the effort flip donk and dog their way to success"

I know from past experience that I always come back from Vegas drained, both mentally and physically. If my preparation has gone well, the version of me that gets on the plane to vegas is the fittest and healthiest all year. Irrespective of how it's gone, the version that gets off the plane in Dublin at the end of summer is always the unfittest and unhealthiest. The only questions are exactly how unfit tired and run down, and how long it will take to recover.

A few days after flying back from Vegas this year, via Manchester where I spent a tired eight hours waiting for a one hour flight to Dublin, I found myself back in Manchester, playing poker at the MPN stop there. Somebody at the table asked when I'd gotten back from Vegas.

After opening my mouth to answer, I realised I didn't know the answer. After another minute of wracking my brain, I was forced to admit I still didn't.

That's how tired I was after Vegas this year.

A few days later I found myself in Malta at the Unibet Deepstack Open there, still very much unrecovered from Vegas, still battling with jetlag, and still looking forward to getting home to what Tommy Angelo calls "real food". The happy fit optimistic version of me from just two months earlier that set off for Vegas off the back of a Powerfest win and my best ever SCOOP didn't just seem like a distant memory: it seemed like a whole different person.

I pride myself on having a strong mental game, without having to work particularly hard at it. One thing that pleased me from the WSOP was despite running almost as bad as is possible, I kept plugging away and playing my A game. But I was a little ashamed to find myself listening to an inner voice expressing the injustice tilt contained in the first paragraph of this piece.

Then I remembered that
(a) that's not how poker works
and
(b) the work I put in and the benefits reaped in terms of improving my game didn't expire like lammers at the end of the WSOP

So back to the online grind.

The fact that I basically picked up where I left off back in May is more than heartening. I may have forgotten how to win flips in Vegas, but I still remember how to play the game. The final tables and profit started to flow again, and I chopped the Party major for over 23K wiping out the losses of Vegas in a night, if not quite the memories.

It's good to be back.

The Chip Race

With the Chip Race on hiatus for a few weeks, it's worth reflecting on how that particular comeback is going. We'd be the first to concede we got off to a somewhat shaky start when we came back earlier this year after a couple of years away, but the first half of season three has seen us go from strength to strength, both in terms of listener numbers and our own satisfaction with the show. For this, a lot of credit goes to a lot of people (Unibet, technical people behind the scenes, guests, contributors, helpers, supporters, listeners, retweeters, critics) but most of the credit goes to one person: my cohost David Lappin who works and frets tirelessly over every episode, and whose vision we largely follow. What started as an Irish poker podcast has now grown into something that must hold the attention of poker fans outside of Ireland, and we are grateful to have that new audience. Most podcasts vlogs and blogs see their number dwindle rapidly once the novelty wears off, but we are thankfully moving in the upward direction. We have a number of exciting guests already lined up for the second half of season three, the most special of whom we will be interviewing in london on our way to UKPT Nottingham.

If you enjoy the podcast, please take a minute to rate and review us on iTunes as this greatly helps promote it there, which makes it easier for us to continue getting great guests, and encourages us to continue.

Strategy Newsletter

Every so often I get a random request for coaching. I generally know even before writing back that the rate I charge is too much for this person, and even though I have to charge a reasonable rate both to compensate for my time and making the games I play in tougher, I always feel a little guilty.

So my objective in starting a free strategy newsletter (which will remain totally free for as long as I keep it going, with no hidden catch) is to offer a helping hand to people who either can't afford to pay for coaching, or for whom it doesn't make much sense to do so (because they don't play high volume or whatever). The good news is there has never been a better time to learn poker for free with a wealth of good online content out there. The bad news is that there is also a glut of really bad content and for people at the start of their poker journey it can be daunting sifting through it all and deciding what's good and bad. Learning bad habits can be very detrimental to a player's development as they have to be unlearned before you can learn the good stuff.

The main focus will be to direct people to good free content (my own primarily, I am not a modest person on this front, but will also throw in shoutouts to content from other guys I think you could find useful), but from time to time I hope to provide some free articles or videos I make exclusive to newsletter subscribers. And I'll include one MAILBAG response per newsletter that is content that won't be available elsewhere.

In the latest newsletter that went out last Friday, I included a secret I guarded closely for years even from my closest friends and players I staked (and if I  had to guess I'd say it netted me close to six figures of profit online).

You can sign up to the newsletter by sending me an email with SUBSCRIBE as the subject at dokepokercoaching@gmail.com

Satellite course

Almost six months ago I announced I was developing a course on advanced satellite strategy which I would deliver as a webinar. Yes, it's taken me that long, as I wanted to run all the sims I felt were needed and written all the materials.

The webinar will be delivered next Thursday (August 17) and again on Saturday (August 19) at 8 PM GMT (9 PM CET, 3 PM EDT, Noon PDT). I have no idea how long it will take but I'd guess somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours.

I'm capping the participants both days to a dozen or so to reduce the risk of technical issues and allow audience participation, on a first come first served basis. To attend you will need:
(1) Send me an email at dokepokercoaching@gmail.com saying which day you want to attend (the same material will be covered both days)
(2) Ship $100 to me on Stars (SlowDoke), Party (okearney), ACR (Doked), Paypal, Skrill, Neteller or bank transfer (details on request)
(3) Skype. Send me your Skype ID so I can add you (mine is dara.o.kearney)
(4) TeamViewer. Download latest version at www.teamviewer.com

All participants will receive a recorded video of the webinar afterwards.

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