Omaha Side Event IPO

Sick game. Sick players.

I was sooo excited about playing this and when they put a 1k bounty on Marty Smyths head it just added to the excitement. I get a late seat after the Omaha filled up pretty sharpish, mainly as they didnt have enough chips for everyone, so when they announced the next two players to the cash desk gets seats in the Omaha, i snatched my chips from the 1 2 cash game and flung them at the poor girl saying "im here".

Sit down and the blinds are already 75 150, its a double chance game with 4k starting stack and 5k for your re-buy/top-up. Pretty nice for a €150 buy in. Theres already bigg-ish stacks on the table so i get to work. Five hands later ive doubled up, and its break time. I come back after the break and have 13k. Im playing pretty tight as its my first big Omaha tournament, and theres a couple of faces on the table i recognise that play the big game in the Fitz. But its not long before i have 6h 7d 9d 10c. I flat call it and it comes back around to the BB, who raises it to 500. I call it mostly out of boredom, and flop comes 8s 2d 6s. he pots it, i re-pot it and he goes all in for roughly half my stack. I know he's on a flush draw and stupidly call. He turns over 4c 5s 6c 7s, has straight flush draw. Now. This is where it gets messy. Dealer accidentaly burns dirt twice. I didnt see this happen as i was looking at the board and the chaps hand trying to work out what had to dodge. Out pops a red Q. Now another player did see it, and he straight away says hold up, you made a mistake, this is what should happen, and he takes the queen, picks up the two burned cards mixes them up and turns one of them over, which was a 4, then says to the dealer "deal on!". Eh, hang on a minute, what the f***? I obviously called Mick Locke, who was the director that day, and asked him to make a ruling, at the same time telling the player to shut up its up to him, whatever he says goes. Mick put the q, plus both burn cards back into the deck, shuffled it up and asked the dealer to deal from there. fair enough. Turn is a 2, river is a 4, giving him the straight and there goes half my stack.

Next hand right after this one and im fuming. Not at the dealer or ruling. But at the player who had nothing to do with the pot and didnt have the right to touch any of the cards that were out. So i barely looked at my hand and the french player beside me raises, i re-raise all in and another player goes all in. french player insta-calls and i turn over kh jh jc 7c. French player turns over q 9 9 8, other chap turns over a a k 10. All i remeber is the suit i had, and flop comes 4h 6h kd, im the only one with the heart draw, and so im hoping i hit, but turn is a blank, and so is the river. Aces hold up and im off home to bed, still pissed off. Apart from the heat in the room, the tournament was nicely run and next year ill get off my butt in time to get a ME ticket.

Ladies Side Event IPO

Went to the IPO not really wanting to play this but as it was on a full 3 hours before the Omaha i said feck it. Paid the €90, sat down amongst mostly Irish, and two French ladies. Never really got going. I find that women rarely believe you have them beat, so on the three rare occasions i actually had some nice hands my chips never jumped above the starting stack of 4k. One half interesting hand i played was this one: 10h10c, stack 1200, blinds 75/150. Raised from player in EP to 650, comes around to me, all in, folds back to the lady and she calls with Queens..Shit..Flop 7 7 5, turn K, river 10. PML! She wasnt best impressed but ah well.Snigger. Ended up short stacked again after getting hands like A10 and 77. So pushed with A 5 off and was called by A J so off to the rail i go.

Ladbrokes Irish Festival Killarney

So im slightly pissed off as i didn't get off me arse and get a ticket for the main event and resigned myself to not going, but after a lot of texts and calls asking me why i wasnt there, and letting me know the cash games were nice and soft, i decided to jump in the car on Saturday and head down solo.

Got to Killarney for 7pm, and bumped straight into Steven Chambers, he was chip leader of the €300 side event, having busted out of the main event on the 1st day, and long story short, he busted out of the side event having been chip leader on day two after just one hour of play. Unlucky mate. Went into the bar and met with the lads from Cork. Peter Higgins had been up all night playing cash and had done very weel, so wasnt bothered about playing again, and Noel Magner was still in the side event, granted though he was going into the bar, having 3 pints, going back to the table and going all in blind, each time knocking some unlucky player out with hands like 7 3 off. Ouch.

So after catching up i headed to the the tournament floor to have a nosey and see who was there. Denis Reyes was playing the side and doing well, Vera Duffy, Smurph, and loads from Dublin were down. Went into the cash game floor and headed straight for a table even though i was wrecked from the drive. Bought in for €150 and sat down. Not much to say about the cash excepthad jacks, queens and kings all in that order and all were no good. Won a few heads up pots with hands like AK and JK, but ended up losing a big pot with AQ on a AQ7 rainbow flop, when the other player hit running spades. So i decided to push all in with my last 25 quid on the blind, after 2 hours of playing, and every player on the table called, flop was 10 9 7, and everyone checked to the button, who made it €100 to go, all folds around to one chap who calls, and the turn is an K, button makes it €150, and the other chap goes all in for roughly €300, button snap calls an trns over JQ for nut straight, other chap laughs an turns over JQ as well, river is a ten and i turn over 10 3...sick. So off to the town for some grub and more drink and then back to bed for 4am.

Woke pretty early and headed for breakfast alone as the lads were hung over, met up with Tadgh, Steven and Mick Stevens in the bar, and then headed into the town for a quick spin with Joan Vickers. Back to the INEC and registered for the €170 side event. Back to the bar and met up with the lads from Cork. Started making my way towards the tables where i bumped into Steven Chambers walking around in a daze after being knocked out. Heres a hug Ste, gotta go...

So im sitting on a table in seat 10, and the game starts pretty well for me. Had A 10 on the button and the flop brings 10 10 7, i bet the pot and get one caller. Turn is an 8, i bet the pot again and he calls. River is an 8 and i bet the pot again and he min-raises it. I re-raise to half my stack and he pushes. I think about it for a minute and go back over it in my head (ie. what would Keith tell me to do...) and i fold with the ten face up. He starts laughing and shows me pocket 8's. In hindsight, i would've prefered donating the rest of my chips to this chap compared to the donkey that knocked me out. And here's why.

Button in making pretty standard raises each time, and it comes around to him again, blinds are 75/150, he makes it 625, SB pushes for 4,000ish, and im on the BB and wake up to AhAc. Happy days. I copunt to ten(dont ask!) and push for 7kish. Folded back to button who thinks about it, humming and ha-ing, before saying oh there's too much value now, i call. I turn aces up, SB turns up 84off, and button laughs and turns up 86off! Flop comes 8 6 4. WTF!!! Turn is a 2, river is a J. Bye Trisha and SB. Nice hand Sir, off to the bar feeling pretty pissed off but laugh about it to Shay and Padraig. Ah well. Ended up heading home early as had been given some bad news about a family member, so didnt get to play any more cash as i would've liked. But roll on the IPO!