Staying hydrated in Malaga

After just 24 hours at home after getting back from Manchester, it was time to pack my bags and head to the airport again. The destination this time was Malaga for the PokerStars Open. The first time I was ever in Spain in my life for any reason was Malaga, early in my career, also for a PokerStars event, but I hadn’t been back since. In recent years I was always in Vegas at the WSOP when it was on.

On the subject of the WSOP, many people were asking me why I wasn’t there, and one (Ray) berating me for not being there since, in his words, it’s such a good opportunity. I don’t disagree on the last point, even if almost all my close friends there are doing their bollocks this year: shoutout to my long time friend Paulina Loeliger who is the exception absolutely crushing it. This in itself gives a clue to my thinking on Vegas. Every year almost all of my friends do their bollocks, with one or two exceptions, even if (I’m virtually certain that) they’re hugely plus Ev over there, because that’s how tournaments work (particularly big field ones). Variance gonna variance. 

Looking back at my own sixteen WSOP campaigns, the vast majority of the time I’ve been in the “doing their bollocks” camp, even though I’m massively profitable lifetime there (almost entirely down to one campaign (2015) and one big 300k score). I’ve reached the stage in my life and my career where I don’t need the heartache of spending five or six weeks in an unpleasant desert environment playing poorly run tournaments to almost certainly return home with less money than I went with. 

Most people really don’t understand tournament variance. To be fair Ray is a sharp guy and understands it better than most (bit is running very well right now which brings with it a certain cockiness), but to make my point I asked him a hypothetical question:

“Thought experiment. Someone shuffles a deck and offers you 100/1 if you can guess the exact card on top of the deck. How much of your net worth or annual income would you bet on it?"

His response:

“Not much to be honest. Pure gamble where I’m getting double the odds. I wouldn’t gamble my money on such a high variable outcome that I cannot control"

And there you have it. Faced with a massively plus Ev option (96% long term ROI, almost certainly higher than mine in Vegas tournaments) that can be completed much faster than a summer in Vegas, Ray (and most sensible people) wouldn’t gamble very much of his net worth because he knows he’s going to lose most of the time. 

Meet the housemates 

Our quartermaster David Lappin can always be counted on to get us good digs on trips like this, but this time he outdid himself with a great place on the golf course with a pool. The other housemates were Thomas (Murphy) and Jason (Tompkins) who brought his wife Joy and daughter Fay to brighten things up. 

From a personal point of view the poker could have gone better, but also worse. I slightly better than min cashed the main event and the mystery bounty both on one bullet I had from a Silver Pass, but bricked all the other side events including two high roller bullets. David had a particularly miserable trip with just a mystery bounty cash, Tom was down too, with Jason the only winner in the house this trip due to a deep run in the main and a few other cashes. 

There were a lot of Irish in attendance, not just on the playing side, but also floor staff and dealers. I was on the same flight over as fellow IPT ambassador Tanya Masters (who got 5th in the women’s event), and a special shoutout to John Enright, who took down the Second Chance event. I had an interesting chat with John on my last night in the casino. He was understandably happy with the result, but less happy with the wheelchair accessibility at the event. I repeated some of his comments about what organisers can do to make the experience more comfortable for our wheelchair brethren in the latest episode of the Lock In (which also includes my new favourite moment ever in one of our shows: you’ll know it when you see it).

Some minor gripes

Speaking of complaints, David and I talked in the latest Lock In about what we saw as the overly officious enforcement of time banks and new rules designed to reduce or maybe even eliminate stalling. In every event, a shot clock came into effect, which gave every player 15 seconds on their first decision every hand, and 30 seconds for each subsequent decision. Additionally, players had 30 second time cards they could use at any time for anything up to an additional thirty seconds: we were all given two of these as soon as the shot clock came in, and one additional one at each subsequent break. 

For those who don’t know, here’s how it works. After the dealer has dealt the cards, they press a button on the iPad in front of them that starts a countdown from 15, which gives the first player to act 15 seconds to make their decision (if they don’t act in time they have to give the dealer a time bank card: if they have none the hand is dead). Once the player acts, the dealer presses the button again to start the countdown again, and so on. The fact you have thirty seconds on all but the first decision places an additional attention load on the dealer who has to remember to press a different button to start a 30 second countdown when that happens. 

In one case, I opened, got three bet, and the dealer pressed the wrong button (for 15 rather than 30 seconds). She saved the situation quickly after I protested by pressing the 15 second button again when my first fifteen seconds ran on. Kudos to her, but I don’t like the fact that this additional load is placed on both dealers and players at the point in the tournament when mistakes are very likely to be very costly. In my view, I shouldn’t have to be worrying about dealers pressing buttons on an iPad and watching to make sure they hit the right one when I’m making decisions for potentially a lot of money. 

There were other instances where the dealer forgot to press the reset button when the action was on me, giving me a lot less than 15 seconds to act. I didn’t protest on any of these occasions as I’m not an asshole trying to make the dealers already very difficult job even more difficult, and I never had a decision tricky enough to take more than the 7-9 seconds I actually had, but were I such an asshole looking to stall as much as possible, these dealer oversights afforded me the perfect opportunity to start an argument, potentially call the floor, and run down minutes rather than seconds. 

I’m not the biggest fan of shot clocks in general. I understand that recreationals largely hate stalling (most but not all: some I know actually enjoy it as what they see as an extra strategic dimension), and to be honest I do too. Interminable bubbles where everyone is taking two minutes or more on every decision are pure torture, so I understand the argument for shot clocks. Whether they’re worth the sacrifices involved (recreationals flustered into hasty bad decisions, the almost total loss of an easygoing social atmosphere at the table that accompanies their introduction) is an argument for another day. As an online professional used to making quick decisions, I recognise they give me an advantage over less experienced players who aren’t as clear on their ranges and used to acting quickly, but I’m not convinced it’s a fair one. 

However, I absolutely hate a new winkle Stars have introduced: dealers are instructed to keep an eye on all the players, and call the floor if any player seems to be using the full 15 seconds for every decision. This places an additional burden on dealers, and I really don’t see what the issue here is. 15 seconds isn’t very long: if one player at the table is taking it on every decision, what’s the big deal? 

It did become a big deal near the bubble of the mystery bounty when David Lappin was warned for taking the full 15 seconds every hand. By his account, he reduced that to about thirteen seconds after the warning, but the dealer still took the view this was clock abuse, and called the floor again. David argued his case vehemently (of course), pointing out that short stacked in a mystery bounty near the bubble, almost every hand he was dealt was plus chip Ev, but he needed time to assess the effect of ICM, the bounty aspect, and future game. On an aside the only time in my entire career I have had clock called on me was on the final table bubble of a mystery bounty under the gun after I had been crippled to less than two big blinds. This is a hellishly complicated spot when you get dealt a trash way below average hand but have to try to calculate whether you still have to go with it, factoring in ICM, the chance that someone else busts this hand (securing a ladder and saving you from posting next hand), the mystery bounty aspect (how many more callers you’re likely to get if you go with your hand under the gun compared to waiting to be big blind next hand) and everything else, and when I asked a pro at the table how long they think they’d need to decide whether to go with eight two offsuit his answer was

“Way more than the time you were given”

And there in lies the problem. If you asked your average unstudied recreational (or floor person, who typically has a similar level of strategic understanding), you’ll get one of two snap answers, either “you have to go with any two because you’re so short” or “you have to fold because your hand is so bad”, so to them the pro taking two minutes trying to decide what to do must be just stalling. 

My view is fairly straightforward: if you give players 15 seconds to make decisions, they should have 15 seconds on every decision. If you give them time bank extension cards, they should be able to use them any way any time they want. However, there seems to be a view among some organisers that they can only be used when you have a difficult decision with the cards you have been dealt right now. As I said, I disagree. Tournaments are not just about the cards you are dealt, there’s a host of other strategic factors, and the shot clock and time extensions introduces new ones. Rather than trying to stop that, I think TDs should just accept it. It’s impossible to police if someone has a valid difficult decision or not, and TDs are rarely qualified to make such determinations. 

Another rule I hate is the virtual all in rule (if most of your stack is already in, you’re not allowed to use your time extension cards). This introduces ambiguity about what exactly “most” means in this case, and an unintended consequence of this might actually lead to more rather than less stalling. 

Example: you know you’re going to be forced all in in the next orbit. You also know that if you allow the big blind to hit you, you’re not going to be allowed to use your time cards because of this rule. You’re near a pay jump very likely to be reached in the next five minutes, and you have five minutes worth of time cards. What’s the only intelligent thing to do in this spot? Use your time cards while you can. If you’re under the gun, you should sit there throwing in the time cards until the pay jump is either reached, or you run out of time cards. That’s five minutes of everyone’s life they’re not getting back that might never have to have been wasted (if the player knew they could use them next hand in the case the pay jump wasn’t reached during the current one). 

There is a relevant precedent here. For years, the WSOP TDs used to stop updating the clock with the number of runners remaining in the mistaken belief that this would reduce stalling (players wouldn’t stall when they had no idea how far from the bubble they were). For years, I argued that this was counterproductive, as players erred on the side of caution and started stalling as soon as this part of the tournament arrived. You’re under the gun and the clock says you’re 40 from the money but you know from r patience it might be only 2 and the bubble might go this hand: of course you’re going to stall as much as you can get unless money means little or nothing to you. On the other hand, if the clock is up to date and you trust it, and you see you’re still 20 away….your incentive to stall is greatly reduced. 

I was proven right when the (excellent) WSOP app arrived. Now, dealers can eliminate a player on their device as soon as it happens, and the app instantly updates the player count on the clock. And guess what: bubbles were suddenly much faster. Yes, people still stalled when there were ten or less or whatever away, but not when there were 50 but they thought it might be only ten. 

As I said, I think once you introduce a shot clock and time bank cards you have to accept they add new strategic dimensions. Near the bubble of that mystery bounty where David got into an argument with the floor, I was short enough that I couldn’t play many hands, but not so short I was likely to bubble. However, because I was in such an ICM coffin, I wanted the bubble to go as soon as possible, preferably before the blinds hit me again and took a quarter of my stack. At this point, I was in late position, so really want the bubble to go before I have to post again. A player busts in early position, leaving the under the gun seat open two hands later. As the dealer shuffles, I see out of the corner of my eye that they’re breaking a table. I’m now clearly rooting for a player to arrive and occupy the free seat at my table before the current hand ends. That will give me a whole extra free hand (and an extra player at the table taking time to be dealt in and decide what to do) so it’s clearly to my advantage. As it’s folded around to me, I see players from the broken table (which couldn’t be farther away from ours) take their seats at other tables, but not ours. I also see one player at the broken table who is taking longer to gather his chips, and realise two things: he must be the one coming to our table, and if I fold quickly he’s likely to get to the table too late to pay the blinds. So what do I do? I use a time extension, which ensures that he does arrive with about five seconds to spare…and a few hands later when I’m under the gun, the bubble bursts.

You might not think saving myself those two big blinds is a big deal, but anyone who knows anything about mystery bounty strategy (buy the book) will recognise what a difference it can make, and indeed did make in this specific example. The following day, the mystery bounties came into player, and I coveted three players at my table I wouldn’t have covered if I had two big blinds less. 

In conclusion

Wow, that was quite the detour. I do t want to give the impression it’s a massive gripe because it isn’t: it’s just a minor one that takes a long time to try to explain fully. 

Overall, I have nothing but good things to say about the staff who worked the event: dealers, floor staff, reg and payout people, take a bow. You blow away your competition across the pond in Vegas, and are the biggest reason why I’d much rather spend a mid summer’s week in Malaga.

On my last day in Malaga, I walked back to the venue to meet Willie Elliot and his brother Dode. As I walked through the summer sun, I remembered previous trips to Spain, and wondered how much longer I'd be doing this for. In the cab to the airport, Willie and I reminisced about a trip to Marbella 13 years ago when Willie drove me around the hills. Willie asked

"Do poker players retire?"

which I took to mean "Will you ever retire?"

My answer was that my past to this point indicates I lose interest in my obsessions when I realise I've plateaued. Chess was first: as soon as it became clear I'd never be a grandmaster I lost interest in a game that had held my thoughts captive all through my teens. Bridge and backgammon fell by similar waysides, as did marathon running in my late 30s. When it comes to poker I do know the game will one day pass me by, as it does everyone, but I still have no sense that that day is here, or even near. And even when it does come, I imagine I'll still show up at the Irish Open and maybe the WSOP main event every year for as long as I can. Unlike the other activities I quit, fleeting glory is still possible long into your decline.

Next up for me is a week at home catching up on some writing, coaching and study, then on July 6th I fly to Vegas to enter the WSOP main event the following day, which is day 2. I have a return flight booked to London late on the 9th for the Party event there, which I will have to miss if still in the main late on day 4. In that scenario, I'll have to skip London and will probably stay to the end of the series, but either way I'll be home in time for the Summer in Dublin in the Green Isle.

Read More

Glowed up Manchester

 Last Friday, I travelled to Manchester for the latest stop of the Party poker tour. In truth, I was probably looking forward to it significantly less than previous stops. I have been to Manchester several times for poker, but not since the pandemic, and while I have made some fond memories there, it hasn't really been at the poker table for the most part, and my impressions of Manchester as a city weren't great.

Mystery man

My first ever visit to the venue, the Manch235ter casino, was back in 2014. Coincidentally, my current sponsors Paddy Power were flirting with signing me back then and paid for me to appear at their Winter Open there, which was an attempt to raise the profile of the then struggling Irish Poker Open in the UK.

My biggest memory from the tables involve an aggressive American to my immediate right who late regged. From the table chat, I gathered that he was known to most of the English players at my table, and had played all the bigger events at the recent WPT Nottingham. He was playing almost every hand, so I couldn’t just wait for a big hand before getting involved. I lost chips after he check-raised me in two pots on the turn. But then I finally found a hand, [As-Ks] under the gun. It was the American’s big blind and I was not anticipating a fold, so I raised bigger than I would normally, to 525 at 100/200. A loose-passive player called on the button, and the American pumped it up to 1,900. I elected to call, and after the button folded, the flop came down Q-6-6 with two spades.

To my surprise, he checked, setting off alarm bells in my brain. Queens, really? I postponed my aggression until the turn and checked behind. Next came the four of spades and my opponent checked again. With the nut flush now made, it seemed like high time to bet, but I was still a bit suspicious, so I bet less than a third of pot. My opponent now clicked it back, and the alarm bells grew louder. However, getting odds of five to one on the call, against an opponent who had already pulled this move twice successfully, I couldn’t really just fold, so I called again to re-evaluate on the river.

That river was a fourth spade, and I wasn’t sure what I was doing if my opponent bombed into me. Thankfully, he checked, and after rejecting a value bet on the grounds that the best hand he could have that might call was jacks with the jack of spades, I checked behind. He rolled over queens for the flopped house and I was relieved to have escaped so lightly. 

“I guess you have too much information on me!” The American chimed, smiling ruefully. I assumed he meant from the fact he had played almost every hand to date.

“You do like your check raises!” I said, but at the break I found out that my neighbour was none other than Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi, who I had not recognized, probably due to jet lag, possibly senility.

My main memory away from the tables as I wrote in my Bluff Europe report at the time was the Aseefo Night Tour of Manchester given to me by my friend Asif Warris. He busted just before me, and gave me his personally guided tour of Manchester at night, taking in a wonderful Pakistani restaurant and shisha bar. Asif was such good company that the night flew by and before I knew it, I was heading to the airport for my flight home.

Plus ca change

I fired two bullets at the main this time, and would have bagged up well above average if my AK had held versus the AJ of Platinum Pass beast Matt Harniman (who it was lovely to finally meet in person). The other highlights were the other great people I met and had chats with, including Barry's friend wonkyJim, Marta, and recent Chip Race guest Andrew "BowieEffect" Wilson. Local hero Andrew who lives within a stone's throw of the casino got headsup in the main event against Simplify Poker student Michael Breen. It was a breakthrough win for the Irishman, who I believe was the first Irish winner of a main on the relaunched tour. Michael travelled over with Liam McVeigh, and it's great to see more Irish players travelling as word gets around what a great atmosphere and structure the tour provides.

I particularly enjoyed a long chat with Andrew outside the casino after the main. He told me he hasn't been playing much this year, instead focusing on coaching and fitness. He's dropped ten kilograms and is looking great these days. I always love seeing guys his age put focus into their physical well being: as I said to him, the older you get the harder it gets to correct course, and the older you get, the greater the difference it makes to your quality of life. Andy's a deep thinker across the board, and I enjoyed hearing his thoughts on a bunch of topics outside poker.

Manchester has significantly improved since last I was there (it'll be interesting to see if the mayor most credit that improvement to, Andy Burnham, can repeat the feat for Britain when he becomes Prime Minister, as seems almost inevitable now) and is now a buzzing vibrant city that is totally different from the rather grim depressed Manchester I remember. Once again, a highlight of this trip was getting the Aseefo tour, which included walking the Curry Mile (four times!), and he was kind enough to drop me to the airport at 3 in the morning.

Next up for me is a week in Malaga, then a week at home before I fly to Vegas for the WSOP main event. If I don't go deep in that, I'll be heading straight from Vegas to London for the next leg of the Party tour.

Read More

A mad ride in Madrid

Bricks and mortar

It’s an oft repeated cliche that recreational players are the life blood of poker, particularly live poker. Like most cliches it’s pretty much totally true. We have reached that point of the year when much of poker social media is given over to professionals complaining about things that displease them about this year’s WSOP. Despite all this naysaying, the WSOP pretty much goes from strength to strength, largely for one reason: they never lost sight of what recreationals care most about. 

In Europe, the people who have had this clearest vision recently of what you need to grow and sustain a live tour includes Party Poker, and they are now reaping the rewards, as more and more recreationals give them their vote with their feet, as well as a growing band of professionals like myself and David Lappin who think there’s more to a live stop than hard EV calculations. 

To brick or not to brick 

When I started travelling the Irish and European circuit, it wasn’t unusual for me to brick (not cash a single event) an entire festival. Back then, everything was a freezeout, so a brick might only represent three or four tournament bullets without a cash (I did however brick several early WSOP campaigns which involved many more bullets).

Then the era of multiple reentry started, and much more varied side event schedules. The recent Irish Open had about 100 side events, whereas Andy Black told me he remembered one only a couple of decades ago where the number of side events was just four (one for each day). It therefore became rarer for players like me who commit to volume to totally brick a festival. It has happened a couple of times already this year though, and it’s not a habit I want to get into. 

I flew into Madrid on Friday afternoon, and fired my first bullet at the main event. Bullets 2 and 3 were fired in the final hyper flight the following morning, but no bag was secured. That freed me up to late register the Faded Spade side event. That was looking very good for a while when I was second or third in chips with 12 left, but one hand left me short with 8 left (6 paid). A recreational whose approach to final tables seemed to be just “shove any decent hand from any position for any amount” shoved from early position. He’d done this enough times I was already starting to think his definition of decent might extend to half or even quarter decent so when I see jacks in the small blind I have a very easy reshove. I was ahead of the shover’s ace seven off but not the kings I ran into in the big blind, which left me with a few big blinds I was unable to spin. So a rather disappointing stone bubble and by now I was starting to wonder if I was going to brick another festival. 

The nightly hyper did nothing to dispel this notion as I lost twice with the best hand to king queen which rather optimistically called my shoves, leaving only the high roller to avoid the total brick.

Rolling in the deep

The high roller started poorly, at definitely the toughest table in the room including as it did Firaldo and Spanish Party pro Barbara Jimenez, as well as several other more than decent players. I drifted back to half starting stack before I started to get something going. For once I had a decent stack on the bubble which I successfully navigated. I got lucky against John Cahill when my queens rivered his kings. A couple of other successful all ins meant I got to the final table fourth of seven. That became third of four when the chipleader limped from the small blind and I looked down at 97o. With ICM here, there’s even less reason to raise, so I checked my option to see a “free” flop. He’d been raising or shoving previously in the spot leveraging his ICM advantage, so when he limps it’s likely he’s very polar (he either has a very strong hand that is hoping I raise or shove, or a very weak one that is too weak to shove). If I raise here, he will go with all the strong hands and a few bluffs and I’ll have to fold. Essentially this is a “miles ahead or miles behind” spot where I’m either way behind the strong hands he’s limping, or well ahead of the weaker ones. In these spots, raising makes no sense. 

The flop came 875 with two clubs (I do not have a club in my hand). He now bet small and this is no longer a “miles ahead or miles behind” spot but more a case of usually ahead but very vulnerable, sometimes behind with decent equity. In these spots you obviously can’t fold, and calling is unwise as you won’t know how to proceed on most turn and rivers cards facing the almost inevitable continued aggression of the chip leader, and as the third biggest stack of the four remaining, I have massive risk premium (ICM), which means to call a shove I need a lot of equity, and unless my hand improves I’ll never have the equity on turn and river. So all you can do in those spots is put the chips in yourself first, forcing your opponent to fold a lot of equity if he’s behind, and getting to realise your own equity and the chance to suck out if he’s ahead. Or in layman’s terms, you’re rooting for the fold, but know you nearly always have a decent chance to suck out with your pair and gutshot. 

Not on this occasion though: my opponent snapped my shove with 64o for the flopped straight and instead of the 9 outs I’d usually have when behind, I only had the three remaining sixes. None of them obliged with an appearance on turn or river, so I ended up busting in fourth for €5500. After the initial disappointment faded, I was happy to have emerged from the festival healthily in profit, and with my own performance to keep plugging away when it seemed the deck was not cooperating. In a forthcoming episode of the Chip Race, we talk about the importance of resilience in tournament poker in an excellent interview with Brandon Sheils. 

Some shoutouts 

The first final table I made of the festival (when I stone bubbled) was one of the friendliest I’ve ever been on. Mother and son Angela and Darach Rogan were sat side by side in seats seven and eight at the start, and ended up getting headsup, with my namesake claiming the trophy. Not to be outdone, Angela got her own trophy taking down the mystery bounty the following day, to cap off an incredible twenty four hours for the Rogan clan. I chatted to them both before I left and what seemed like a great feel good story from the outside us even more so when you get talking to them: a lovelier mother and son you couldn’t hope to meet. Darach is full of the enthusiasm of youth and all in for poker now: it’ll be very interesting to see how his caress develops but he’s off to a flier already with two live trophies. 

Also on that final table was a very friendly Scottish gentleman Edward Cherrie, who had quite the festival also. He followed up his fifth place finish in the Faded Spade with a win the nightly hyper, and he got headsup the following day in the last side event. He asked David and myself for a photo on that occasion and we were only too happy to oblige. Also shoutout to his home game Live At The Shed. Every so often, there's a lot of noise trying to create an antagonistic atmosphere between pros and recreationals, but one of the unique things about poker is how both can not just co-exist but compete at the same events, creating a much more enjoyable experience for both overall.

My roommate, cohost, valet, travel and accommodation booker, and butt of my incessant fat jokes David did that most professional of things: he chopped the PLO Masters event three handed before snap busting in third. 

Alexey Neofitov took down the main event, with Federico Estrada claiming the mini main.

And finally, a shoutout to all the marvellous Party live events staff who made this stop their biggest and best yet, and to the gentleman I probably chatted the most to at this stop, John Cahill. John expressed a great mental attitude towards bad beats (that they don’t bother him because he’s done what he was supposed to with his hand), but I still felt for him when my Queens rivered his kings near the bubble of the high roller. As I’ve often noted in the past, this is a sick game where we routinely break the hearts of friends and people we like, and they do the same. But we keep coming back as long as live organisers keep putting on great live events like this one in Madrid.

Read More

Monster

 When my brother first taught me the basics of tournament poker almost 20 years ago, he said something in the first lesson that always stuck with me.

"About thirty seconds before you bust most tournaments, you'll be feeling absolutely brilliant".

What he meant by that was that usually you'll be looking down at a great hand and getting all-in, but sometimes you'll be up against a better hand, if not immediately then by the river, and you'll be out in a spot where you thought you were doubling or better.

I was reminded of this when I got in Ace king threeway with just under a hundred players left in the Monster main event in the Green Isle for double the average. I was up against Ace jack and queens so not great but not terrible, almost 35% to triple so a profitable spot.

When the flop came KJx my 35% surged to 80% and now I was feeling great, but my 80% shrivelled to less than 5% on Queen turn. No miracle ten on the river, so quite the rollercoaster 30 seconds.

Loser. So who did win?

Robbie Bryant was a very popular official winner, taking the lion's share of an 8 way chop that saw 7 other players take home between €14k and 27k. The incredibly consistent and popular Helio Netto got €1k. Robbie's win propels him to the top of the IPT leaderboard ahead of the always stylish and impressive Davide Raschella.

Robbie's twin brother Ray was busy taking down the Monsterstack side event on the last day for €7540, so it was quite a day for the popular Tullamore twins. And yes, I'll be the first to admit I'm one of those who never knows which twin I'm talking to.

Other non losers

Daniel Gilmartin took down the Opener on Thursday for €3605. JJ Hazan chopped the Omaha 300 on the same day and bought, I mean, won the trophy, a feat he repeated the following day in the Omaha Progressive Bounty (chopping on this occasion with Doke student Patrick Eagers and friend of Doke Jason Tompkins), a double we are unlikely to hear the end of as long as JJ draws breath. The former Dragons Den star has been begging to get on the Chip Race for a while now, and will finally get his wish in the coming months before an event he's organising in Nairobi.

Speaking of doubles and trebles

Speaking of doubles and trebles, Jason Tompkins had quite the festival, chopping the first three events he entered. He followed his chop in the Omaha PKO with a headsup chop on the NLH PKO the following day (the trophy on this occasion went to the charismatic Pavlo Havrylyshen), and then chopping the high roller headsup with Richard Halabi. He also cashed the Monsterstack on the final day.

Other non losers included the always impressive Veaceslav Jumir who took down the Holigames side event, and Micheál O'Neill who won the Omaha 4/5 card event (after a 5 way chop). I first played with Micheál in the Irish Open this year, and can't remember the last time I was as impressed with an Irish player I hadn't played with before (actually I can: it was when I played with Stephen Kehoe at the European Deepstack back in 2020).  Micheál also featured in the 8 way chop in the main event so he had quite the festival.

Dan Lewis took down the Sunday €10k, after giving me some stick for not picking him as one of my "three to watch" ahead of the festival. Actually he should be thanking me as I think the three I did pick got one min cash between them, so I might be renaming that to "three to jinx" in future. Joking aside, and despite the fact he's a Spurs fan, I was thrilled for Dan, one of the nicest gents you'll ever meet at a poker table.

Someone called Daryl McAleenan took down the final Omaha 4/5 event. If like me you have no idea who he is, I encourage you to check out the most recent where he gave a great account of himself in his best telephone voice. The final side of the festival was won by the popular Jorrit "Dutchy" Baars.

What's next?

The next IPT stop is the Siege of Clonmel that runs from May 22nd to May 24th. €10 satellites are running nightly on my sponsor Paddy Power Poker. Before that, I'm heading to Madrid for a Party poker event.

Read More

Irish Open 2026 trip report: Slings and bullets

The day before Christmas

The day before the Irish open for a poker player always feels a bit like the day before Christmas when you were a kid. I was going into this year‘s Irish open feeling good about my game and in shape, as one of the book his favourites. That lasted until just before 4 pm that day, when I jumped up quickly from my desk and turned, intending to go for a run. I caught my trailing leg on some furniture and went flying awkward through the air. I landed semi side on, and instantly felt a crack in my left shoulder. Realising I couldn’t stand up, I rolled onto my back, pulled down a cushion from the sofa for my head, and then I did the thing that any totally normal person would do in the situation.

I took a selfie. 

I posted it on Instagram. Next, I sent David Lappin a message saying I wouldn’t be able to promote the Chip Race podcast free roll Irish Open satellite on Paddy Power Poker that night. I then got a phone call from a friend in New York, who had seen my Instagram story, and wanted to know if I’d actually fallen over or if it was a joke. After assuring her it was real, she asked me if I had called an ambulance. At this point I realised that was probably a good idea, and rang 911.

I then spent the next 90 minutes on the floor waiting for an ambulance that never came. Luckily, my wife arrived home so I was no longer alone in the house. With help from our lodger, she was able to get me to the car, and drive me to the hospital.

Once there, they handled me very efficiently. I was being x-rayed within five or ten minutes to confirm that no bones were broken, then about 10 minutes later was having my shoulder relocated by an Iranian doctor, and then 10 minutes later was being x-rayed again to make sure it had been relocated properly.

Nothing broken, just a few bruised ribs and a dislocated now relocated shoulder, so as I hobble to the car with my wife, I did what any totally normal person would do. I asked myself

“ I wonder what time the late reg on that satellite closes?”

I registered it on my phone with my bad hand (I’m left-handed and with the left shoulder being the dislocated one my left arm was in a sling), and proceeded to win my 29th Irish open satellite this year.

Mistaken identity

Early in my poker career, I was mistaken a few times for Marcel Luske, presumably because we both wore a suit at the time when playing, and were approximately the same age. In Vegas, I’ve been mistaken far or at least compared to Devilfish a few times. I don’t really see that one, but others do. However, on my first day at the Irish open, I was mistaken for somebody I could never have dreamed I’d be mistaken for.

It was in the one day mystery bounty, and I was chatting to an amiable Irish man. Peter Roche is a bit of a legend in Irish poker circles, but in many ways is my polar opposite. He’s mainly PLO, I mainly play no limit Holdem. I’m a tournament player, he mainly plays cash. I play mostly online, he’s a live player. As such, our paths have never really crossed, so neither of us knew who we were speaking to. 

At least until the following conversation happened:

“ How are you enjoying Ireland?”

“ Huh?”

“ You’re Faraz Jaka, right?”

“ What?”

“ You’re here taking part in that coach challenge against Dara O’Kearney, right?”

“ No, I’m Dara O’Kearney”

“But the other guy in the photos looks more Irish than you”

It’s at this point I realise the misunderstanding. Peter has seen the photographs taken to promote the Battle of the Coaches with Michael Dwyer deputising for Faraz Jaka in his absence. Not unreasonably, Peter Roche and probably many others have assumed that one of the two of us is Faraz, and I guess in my colourful shirt, I look a bit more Farazzy than Michael. 

Scores on the doors

I did seven bullets in the 1K mystery bounty without finding a bag. I did another one in a 1K, getting through day one with a decent stack but lasting only three hands on day two. I then did seven bullets in the main event before I finally bagged. As the unsuccessful bullets mounted up, most people who asked me seemed to find it hilarious that the person with the most bullets was firing them in such spectacularly unsuccessful fashion. Even I have to admit it is kinda funny, objectively. 

Day two of the main event started well for me, and I chipped up but then lost two  70/30s to bust a couple of hundred spots from the money.

I fired four bullets at the €250 mini main, which I cashed for €1470. I’m max late registered the €3000 high roller, and played the €350 triathlon, which I cashed for €1100. So

Total Buyins: €20,450

Total cashes: €2570

Net loss: €17,880

I bought into all these events using online satellite tickets, which led some players to tell me I was “freerolling”. That’s not really the way I see it: I still see it as a loss of almost €18,000 just as much as if I’ve actually paid in with cash. The fact that I made a profit of almost €30,000 in satellites obviously cushions the blow, but all of those profits are still locked up in the form of Stars tickets that have to be used at live events. I also swapped and bought pieces of others profitably this Irish open to make a dent on my own losses.

While obviously not happy with the results, I was very happy overall with my level of play. I don’t think I allowed my injury to affect my play, other than making me very awkward handling cards and chips. I didn’t take a single day off during the festival, and mostly played very long days, so I was satisfied with my stamina at this point in my career and life. It is important however to pace yourself over a long festival, and I stuck to my no alcohol until the playing is done rule, made a point of eating healthy, and getting as much sleep as I could. I was still pretty shattered by the end of the festival, but happy that I essentially emptied the tank.

Battle of the coaches

At this year‘s open, there was a loose team competition between my training site Simplify Poker and Jaka coaching. We ended up losing quite heavily on the official points total, although I would still argue we had the more successful festival overall. We had three big results:

• The main event (Michael Prendergast, 14th for €27710)
• The Spraggy mystery bounty (Baris Topuz chopped for €37590)
• Liam Flood turbo (Cenk Nigbolu 1st for €19460)

However, because our team had far more members than theirs, none of these actually counted for points: had even one of them counted for points we would’ve won but congratulations to Michael Dwyer and his team on their victory. Our team members seemed to enjoy the competition and camaraderie and this is something I could see expanded in future with the inclusion of more teams.

Commentary

I squeezed in a few spots in the commentary booth. In my time in there, I was very impressed by the play of Daryl McAleenan. To my mind, Daryl is the consummate live professional grinder. He’s been getting bigger and bigger results in recent years, and set a new high score with his five way chop for over a quarter of a million euros. I was genuinely thrilled for Daryl, and we will be talking to him more about his result in a forthcoming episode of the Chip Race.

I was also impressed by the play of a player I hadn’t seen before, Edward Dunphy. Edward stopped me at one point to say he’d satellited in for not very much after reading and consuming my satellite content. This was a common message I heard over the festival, and it’s always gratifying to hear in person how much impact the books and courses have had. Edward impressed me with his composure on the big stage, particularly after he admitted to me just how inexperienced he was.

Update: John Farrell broke my shoulder 

I’m finishing this blog in the Outpatients department of James Connolly hospital, where an X-ray has just confirmed that although there was no break at the time, there is now a small crack on my shoulder bone which will take at least 6 weeks to mend, and is causing a fair degree of pain. The main thing I learned at this year’s Open is that poker players as a whole are shoulder grabbers and punchers. I never twigged that this was a traditional method of greeting, at least in the case of muck savages like John Farrell from primitive places like Longford. 

While a great number of people touched, grabbed or even gently punched the shoulder (despite it being in a sling) by way of greeting, I’m pretty sure John the one responsible for the crack, as he followed up a particularly vigorous punch with an even more vigorous “you’re grand, you’re grand” grab and squeeze after I screamed in agony, which drew a “What the Hell is wrong with you?” from my American neighbour at the table who didn’t even know either of us.  

Best open ever

The Irish Open seems to go from strength to strength every year, and in my opinion this was the best ever. One of the reasons for this I believe is that JP and Paul are always looking to improve, and willing to listen to constructive criticism.  For example, the toilets while not exactly luxurious were a considerable improvement on previous years. 

The only substantive criticism I heard this year was raised by Dr Kamikaze on Twitter about the ventilation. I have to admit a few times I felt very drowsy, and wondered whether it was a side-effect of my injury, but it seems the carbon dioxide levels were quite high when the ventilation was off. Every so often the ventilation would come on and I would immediately feel refreshed. I spoke to JP about it afterwards, and he said it was something that was within the control of the venue rather than them as organisers, but promised to see what could be done to improve it next year.

A lot of the dealers were new to me, and I heard that the event suffered from a lot of dealers heading to Prague for WSOPE instead, but with very few exceptions the standard of dealing was top-notch. The registration staff the floor staff and everyone else were also all top class. Special shout out to Ramona Bruza, who I genuinely believe to be the best tournament director in the world, in particular when it comes  to handling frenetic bubbles. I had sung her praises to David Lappin in the past, and he saw himself just how impressive she is whether she’s telling Tomas Flanagan she’s going to make him do 10 push-ups if she catches him vaping again, or spotting somebody trying to duck the blinds eight tables away. Ramona is always at the top of her game and can diffuse tense situations with a combination of her firm authority and biting Baltic wit.

Perspective

As I walked in on the last day with Benjamin Spragg, I heard someone calling my name. I quickly localised it to an older gentleman in a wheelchair. He stood up to give me a hug, and seemed very excited to see me, which is always flattering to my ego. He said he was a big fan of the podcast and the books, and then went on to say his name was Seamus (Quinn) and he had a brain tumour and 8 weeks to live. I was taken aback by his openness and incredible courage: something I'm pretty sure I couldn't match in his shoes. I had no idea how to react appropriately to that, so went with giving him another hug and thanking him before heading on my way. The frenetic nature of poker festivals means while you meet a lot of people, you rarely get to spend as much time as you’d like with them. I never felt this more keenly than at this moment as I rushed back for my restart. My friend Katie Swift said at the end of the festival that she goes into every event with an unrealistic expectation of being able to catch up fully with everyone, but it’s never actually possible. I very much feel the same. 

As I lay on the floor in my house the day before the Irish Open starting to come to terms with the fact I’d dislocated my shoulder, I thought the next few weeks or months of my life are really gonna suck. No running, constant pain, no who knows what else. As I came in to the last day of the festival still cashless (my two cashes both came on the last day), I was also feeling a little sorry for myself on the poker front. Meeting Seamus quickly washed all that away and reminded me how insignificant short term variance is in the big scheme of things. Most years I lose money at the Open. That’s just the way tournaments work: rare big scores that (hopefully) more than wipe out otherwise almost permanent downswings. Some years early in my career, these felt and maybe were career threatening. As my career stabilised this was no longer true, but a bad Open could seriously dent my annual profits. These days, with much more diverse income streams coming from sponsorships, coaching, writing and content creation, this is even less the case. I’m extremely lucky to have reached such a position in such a precarious profession, and I’m very thankful for that and for all who have helped me achieve it. I’m also extremely grateful that in all likelihood I can look forward to not just next year’s Irish Open, but many more to come. My main goal is to try to keep improving at least as fast as my opposition and to remain competitive for as long as I can. I’m lucky enough to be in very good health overall for my age, and I’ll try not to break or dislocate anything on the run up to next year’s Open!

Read More

SimplifyPoker.com

 Barry and I just launched our new site

https://simplifypoker.com

You can sign up to our free newsletter there and find lots of free stuff.

Who is the guy in small print on all your books?

Barry Carter is a writer and certainly not a professional poker player. He is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and co-authored the best-selling Mental Game of Poker with Jared Tendler. He approached Dara about possibly writing a book on satellites, given Dara was widely considered the authority on the format.

The Origin Story

That book became Poker Satellite Strategy, a book which not only allowed thousands of amateur players to qualify for large events but also significantly increased the traffic to satellites live and online.

We quickly realised we had a natural partnership when it came to creating strategy content. Barry would come into a topic knowing (sometimes less than) nothing about it, whereas I was the expert. I would share with Barry everything I knew about a topic, then Barry would attempt to create a draft of a chapter from that knowledge. When it became clear that Barry had missed the point several times on important lessons, we would hash it out again, and again (with lots of verbal and occasionally physical abuse). Eventually, when it got to the point that Barry was able to communicate my ideas with authority, we knew that we had boiled down the information to a level which our target audience would understand. Barry served as a stand-in for the audience and was not afraid to ask the questions others would be embarrassed not knowing.

This became a winning formula and after several books had been released, we got a sense of who our target audience was. Smart recreational players and professional players who, for whatever reason, felt they had been left behind in the modern solver era. Players who had perhaps been winning players before, but have struggled in recent years to stay profitable.

Our work is best described as simplifying the complex lessons from solvers in a way that anyone can understand, without having to spend 30 hours a week in front of GTO Wizard. It worked for Barry, who is by no means a crusher but has been a consistent winning player online ever since working with me.

That is the mission statement of Simplify Poker, whatever your level, our content is designed to save you time and stress trying to make sense of the modern game. You don’t need to feel left behind anymore and you can get back to winning ways in no time.

Read More

Tournament Poker Study Simplified explained

 Barry and I just released Tournament Poker Study Simplified. It's a new video course which breaks down the fundamentals of poker while also giving you a framework for how to study poker on your own, without a coach.

Since I started writing books, demand for my one-on-one coaching has skyrocketed, so much so that I often have to turn away a lot of potential new clients. 

Whatever level they are, I always like to start with the fundamentals: GTO, exploits and ICM. What I often find after working with a client for a while is they are often missing these foundational building blocks which would allow them to study on their own.  

The course replicates the process I go through with my one-on-one clients and Barry sits in to play the role of the student. We cover all the major aspects of poker including

• Preflop opens, flats, 3-bets and defends
• How to study post flop hands
• How to play different board textures
• Bet sizing strategy including leads and overbets
• Turn and river play
• Blind vs Blind
• Bubble and final table bubble play
• Short, Medium & Big stack ICM strategies
• Final table strategy
• Exploits and node locking

Barry and I have released a number of free extracts from the course on our YouTube channel:

• An overview of the contents
• When to limp the small blind
• How to analyse a poker hand

We have over 20 hours of video and we will be updating the course in the future with more stuff. This is all for a fraction of the price of my private coaching (if you are one of my existing students, please message me for an exclusive discount code). 

In addition to all of that, for a short time only you will also get our three exclusive webinars on Milestone Satellites, Mystery Bounties and playing soft live fields, for free! 

My hope is that by the end of this course, you will not only have developed a solid understanding of the fundamentals of poker, you will also have developed a framework for how to study poker alone, without the need for a coach. 

Next up

Since Vegas I've been concentrating on content (have also started on the next book with Barry in addition to completing the course) and coaching, but I have another solid three and a half weeks of live poker coming up starting this Friday. I'll be playing the Dublin Poker Club 1k, the Irish Poker Tour Lunasa Lunacy in the Green Isle, then it's a full two week in Barcelona for the EPT stop, topped off by a week at The Festival in Malta. Hope to see you there at some point! 

Read More