The latest fad: re-entries

I played the 50K guaranteed 100s festival in Maynooth, largely because I was intrigued to see how the novel idea of 4 day ones with re-entries would work. I played day 1c and got through with one bullet (no re-entry), mainly because I got off to a great start. Or should I say a lucky start: the first major hand of note I got it in with the schnuts (second nuts) against the nuts on the flop and still managed to win the hand. My opponent, a friend of the legendary Bomber Nolan, took it in good spirits. I guess any friend of the Bomber gets used to outrageous doggings of the sort.



Day 2 didn't exactly go to plan though: I was definitely on the toughest table in the room. I was struggling to get anything going and ended up reshipping queens from the blinds over an early position raiser. He was a foreign lad with a huge stack and seemed very spewy so I reshipped knowing full well I could get called very light, but it was still a surprise to see him call fairly quickly with A8. He hit the ace on the turn. I can't really complain though: I'm always happy when an opponent calls it off as a 9/4 dog getting only 6/4. Professional poker players and bookies have one thing in common: in the long run our money all comes from people making bad bets against us at insufficient odds. And I've been known to make a few bad ones in my day too (see the first paragraph).

I had a pretty good week online with lots of final tables and better yet a few wins. I won the €10r on Eyes one night, and the $22r on Stars twice this week. Most recently tonight. At the start of the final table, I realised I needed to win the tournament to break even on the day, the Sunday grind having been something of an epic fail to that point. Somebody asked me at a tournament recently how much I'd be down in an average night if I didn't cash in anything. The answer is a couple of grand most week nights and up to double that of a Sunday.

The new Player Ireland has a piece from me on EMOP Dublin. I'm playing the European Shorthanded on Thursday (day 1A). This is also a re-entry tournament so if I do bust 1A I'll probably be back for more punishment on 1b. I think re-entry tournaments are a great idea overall, but I hope organisers follow the example of the Macau in charging reg fee only once per player (not per entry).

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