NEW YEAR - NEW LOOK

                                         
      No, not me but, my website. Although I was thinking of buying a couple of new shirts in the sales.

A little while back the nice people at Irish Eyes Poker offered to set me up with a new website to coincide with the launch of their own new poker platform. The idea behind their new site is basically that you can play on half a dozen different poker sites, with more to be added, using the same central cashier to move money around between the different sites. Instead of earning player points on different sites, player rewards are all centralised on Irish Eyes. The site can also be used for live and online casino play and sports betting, with Irish Snooker legend Ken Doherty to provide betting tips. It also includes something called Binary Options which allows you to bet on currency movements and stuff like that.

My website will continue to keep you informed of all the major poker events scheduled to happen in Ireland with a new feature where you can click on links to take you straight to the organisers website or to the right page on IPB, for more comprehensive details of the event. I hope it continues to be a useful tool for players planning to play poker tournaments in Ireland.

On a sadder note, an old friend of mine, Mick Hamilton, passed away just before Christmas. Mick was born in London and went on to live a very interesting life, much of it on the outer edges of normal society. One thing for sure, he had plenty of interesting stories to tell. He spent a good few years playing high stakes cash games in London before the big Hold'em boom. In his day the big game was Pot Limit 7 Card Stud. In later years, Mick and I travelled to various places around Europe and he also loved coming to Ireland to play some of the Poker Festivals here, where he met many of the Irish players and organisers.  May he rest in peace.

Mick and me in happier times in Tramore, Co. Waterford. Pic by Paul Smallwood.

Finally, may I wish everyone a happy and prosperous Poker New Year.

The Craic

By Mick McCloskey

One of the things that I think make Irish poker tournaments special and unique is the social aspect. Most of the major festivals are held over three or four days in nice hotels around the country. It gives the players a chance to relax and meet up with old friends and to meet new ones in surrounding and in an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable. The majority of festivals seem to fall into this category but one recent event, for me, fell a little short. The contrast between two particular events was pretty easy to measure and the solution very simple. The two tournaments were held two weeks apart, had the same level of buy in, same sort of numbers, were both held in the same Dublin hotel, The Ballsbridge Inn, but there the similarity ended when it came to the social aspect.

The first event was the Poker Stars UKIPT (718 runners) and the large bar area immediately outside the poker room did not have a single table or chair for people to sit and relax and enjoy a drink. Consequently, the room was mostly deserted over the weekend apart from people passing through or buying something from the bar.
Two weeks later at the Winamax short handed championship (656 runners), same hotel, same room and the place was buzzing with a great atmosphere. The difference? Plenty of tables and chairs around the room for people to use.
So, come on Poker Stars, some tables and chairs in the bar next time please. It’s not rocket science.

IRISH 100’s

This event was an ambitious attempt to create a €50,000 prize pool from a €100 entry tournament. With 457 entries and re-entries over a number of starting days the organisers fell a little short of the 50K guarantee but paid out the advertised amount anyway. The winner, Mustafa Gultekin walked off with €11,000 with Declan O’Connor and Robert Shanley picking up €6,800 each.
The €400 + 40 Irish Omaha Championship was held as part of this festival but only managed to attract 23 entries. The winner, for €4,600, was Colm Faulkner.

EUROPEAN SHORT HANDED CHAMPIONSHIP

This festival, sponsored by Winamax, attracted 656 runners for the €500 entry 6 handed main event. The winner was England’s Steven King who took home €63,000 for his efforts. Second spot and €54,300 went to Belgium’s Michael Gathy with third spot and €34,190 going to Portugal’s Paulo Ferreira.

BETFAIR POKER LIVE

Held over the same weekend and just up the road at Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Club, this was a bounty tournament with a $600 + 50 buy in with $100 from each entry going as a bounty prize. The event was shortened to two days as there were only 73 entries. However, the structure over the two days was as player friendly as you could ever want to experience. If a certain beer company did tournament structures, this would be it.
The winner, for $12,827 was Janos Jeszek with Adam Treanor taking $7,653 for second place and Darius Dirkus picking up $5,093 for third spot.

LADBROKES IRISH POKER FESTIVAL

Held as usual in the Gleneagles Hotel, Killarney, this is always a fun weekend with plenty of entertainment laid on. This year had a slightly smaller field for the €500 main event at 569 but still exceeded the €250,000 guarantee.
The final result was anything but usual with at least three great performances deserving a mention. Firstly, the defending champion, Lars Torngren, put up a great defence of his title before exiting in 18th place when he had his pocket Aces cracked.
Second, Ladbrokes pro, Jon Kalmar, managed back to back main event final tables finishing in third place this year after finishing in forth spot in 2010.
Finally, the winner was Niall Smyth, this year’s Irish Open Champion, adding another great title to his poker CV.
The final three players actually did a three way deal taking €45,000 each and playing for an extra €10,000 and the title. The other player in the mix was Eamon Doran who finished second.
There was some talk over the weekend that the festival may be moving to a new venue next year. However, a spokesman for the Gleneagles Hotel Group told me “We are very optimistic that the event will go ahead in 2012. Discussions are ongoing and an announcement will follow soon.”

BOYLEPOKER IPO

This is another one of those Irish fun poker weekends and this year’s event lived up to it’s advance billing with an increase in numbers bringing an international mix of 1,388 players to Dublin to play in the €225 main event. The starting stack was increased to 15,000 this year and with an improved structure another new twist was added to the mix. Rather than play the final table into the small hours of the morning, a WSOP main event type scenario was introduced with the last eight players meeting again on 26th November to complete the tournament, playing for a top prize of over €50,000. The venue is Ken Doherty’s Snooker and Poker Club at Terenure Cross, Dublin and a live stream will be broadcast on the day through the Boylepoker site. Friends and relatives of the “November 8” will be able to catch the action in Brady’s Pub, next door to the venue. More on the final in my next column.
Story of the tournament so far has to be the Lazarus type recovery of Irish poker veteran, Scott Gray. Scott was involved in a Boylepoker promotion which paid the top 20 players involved in the promotion an extra €1,000 on top of any prize money. Apparently, Scott was so intent on getting the extra bonus that he almost anted himself out of the tournament. After paying his ante he was forced to blind off his last 1,000 chip when the big blind was 5,000. He managed to win that pot and, at one stage ran his stack up to around 500,000 before he was eliminated in 21st place. He got the bonus by the way.

UPCOMING

The Firzwilliam Festival is scheduled to run at the Dublin club from 23rd to 29th November with a series of events culminating in the €800 main event which includes a €60 bounty and €40 for reg. This has got to be the cheapest registration fee for any event, anywhere, considering that players usually get treated to a hot meal as part of the deal. If you know different, let me know. Full details can be found at www.fitzwilliamcardclub.com

If you have any news, views or events, you can contact me by email to mickymccloskey@hotmail.com

UKIPT

By Mick McCloskey

In the last stop of Season 2 of the Poker Stars UK and Ireland Poker Tour, before the Grand Final at EPT London, an impressive 718 runners stumped up €560 each to create a prize pool of €348,230 which was paid out to 90 of the original line-up. Taking the lion’s share, and his second UKIPT title, was Dutchman Joeri Zandvliet who takes home €83,500 for his efforts. Joeri won his first UKIPT title in Manchester last year. The runner up was American Chuck Fabian who had to settle for €49,600. Third spot and €30,700 went to Hungary’s Robert Csire, who resides in Ireland. Forth place went to the defending Dublin UKIPT Champion, Max Silver who didn’t give up his title without a fight. Best of the Irish were Jason Tompkins and Noel O’Brien who finished in 5th and 6th spots respectively. Jason, coming off a good win in the recent Waterford Open, started the final table as chip leader but couldn’t maintain his momentum and had to settle for €17,600.

A bit of a talking point among some of the players over the weekend was the minimum payout at this event, which was €650 compared to most of the other UKIPT legs which paid a minimum of £/€750. As it was day 2 of the tournament before any players were paid, a €90 profit didn’t go a long way to cover the players travel and hotel expenses. In fact I would suggest that many of the players who cashed in the lower spots actually lost money on the deal. Considering that the Dublin leg attracts players from Europe as well as the UK, a little better reward for actually cashing may have been in order.

IRISH CLASSIC

This annual festival, run by the Macau Club in Cork, is one of Ireland’s longest running poker events but, because of the times we live in, and probably because of the packed poker calendar, it has seen a steady decline in numbers over the last couple of years. Consequently, a decision was made this year to reduce the buy in from €1,100 to €550 for the main event. This helped the numbers but the event has become just one of a number of €500 tournaments that players have to choose from. I noticed that none of the guys who used to travel over from the UK for this event turned up this year. Despite this, it’s good to see that the legendary Macau Club hospitality remains in place with the club still laying on the best poker buffet in Ireland. Talking about legendary, possible future legend, November Niner Eoghan O’Dea turned up to play in Cork over the weekend, courtesy of tournament sponsors Betfair. He was telling me that he was in the process of signing a sponsorship deal with Paddy Power Poker.

156 players entered this year and the tournament ended in a three way deal with the title and €19,000 going to Paul Curran. David Croke and Tony Collins took home €15,000 each for second and third spots.

A special mention must go to Alex Lopez who took down the €300 PLO event as well as a €270 NLH side event during the week. I hadn’t come across this young player in Ireland before but having played with him in Cork, I think he may be one to watch out for in the future.

UNIBET OPEN

This is yet another one of these Europe wide tours making its first stop in Dublin this year. The event was held in Dublin’s City West Hotel and had 260 players anteing up €1,650 each. I didn’t manage to make it to this event but, by all accounts, it all went pretty smoothly with the help of some of our experienced local tournament organisers. The majority of the players travelled from Europe and Scandinavia, with a smaller than expected number of Irish and UK based players and this was reflected in the final table which had no Irish representation. The winner was England’s Paul Nunes who picked up a juicy €105,300 for his efforts. Second place and €66,300 went to Denmark’s Emil Pederson with Dutchman Pim van Riet taking home €39,000 for third spot.

One complaint I did hear about this event was that for a €150 reg. fee the players did not receive a player buffet or even a food discount voucher which could be used in the hotel. Bit mean I thought. Maybe Unibet thought that spending the money on a live internet feed would be more satisfying for the players. Another issue I heard about was that 5% of the prize pool was withheld for a leader board promotion effectively making a 15% registration for each player. I know that this extra 5% deduction actually effected some players’ decisions about whether or not they played the event.

UPCOMING

IPO

The Boylepoker International Poker Open comes again to the Regency Hotel, Dublin from 21st to 23rd October with a mission to set another new record for numbers playing a poker tournament. Last year 1,293 players turned up with the winner taking home over €50,000 for an outlay of €180 + 20, and the organisers are hoping to improve on that figure this year. The starting stack and the structure have both been improved this year and the buy in has been increased to €200 + 25. Another innovation for this year is a November 9 type scenario with the final table scheduled to be played out on 26th November at a yet to be announced location.
With a mixture of well known poker pros, celebs and players from all over Europe in attendance, this is, for me, one of the most fun weekends of the year. Only online entries are being accepted so if you want to be part of a possible record breaking event, sign up at Boylepoker.com now.

IRISH WINTER FESTIVAL

The Paddy Power sponsored IWF is scheduled to take place in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin from 28th to 30th October, starting with a €100 + 10 (rebuy) super satellite for the €1,100 main event on the Friday evening. The three day main event starts on the Saturday afternoon. A full schedule of side events is planned for the weekend including the Blind Mans Bluff World Championship and the Irish Mythical Championship.

MINI WSOP

The start of November (3-6) sees the return of J.P. McCann’s Mini WSOP which just happens to coincide with the final table of the real thing over in Las Vegas. The event on this side of the pond is a much more affordable affair with the three day main event costing a modest €360. It takes place in the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght, Dublin and offers a full schedule of side events including short handed and heads up events and a 8 game mix event. JP intends to have a live feed from Vegas in the hotel over the weekend so that we can all keeps tabs on how Irish contender Eoghan O’Dea is getting on. We will all be rooting for you Eoghan. Take it down.

If you have any news, views or events you can contact me by email to mickymccloskey@hotmail.com
You can also check out my website www.pokerinireland.net for archive articles, Irish poker news and links to Irish poker sites.

Blogs from the Past

Tales from Europe - 2005

Here's a little competition for you, and there is an Irish connection to at least one of the tales.

WHO were the poker players who got arrested on the way home from a poker tournament in Russia? Apparently there are certain rules and regulations relating to bringing currency in and out of Russia. As I understand it, you are supposed to declare to Customs on entering the country the amount of money you are carrying and you are only allowed to take a small amount of winnings out of the country in cash.
Now a couple of the guys had done all right in the game and were carrying a large wad of US Dollars. After they had checked their bags in at the airport, they were challenged by a number of Russian officials about the cash. They were given a choice. Either spend a couple of days in jail before going on trial, and maybe face a prison sentence, or pay a “fine” on the spot and carry on home. The fine demanded was $10,000 per head but the guys managed to negotiate a discount before they paid up and went on their way. True story, so if you are going to play poker in Russia, you have been warned.

WHO were the two two poker players who set off on their journey to play in the Amsterdam Classics and found that they were a day late for their flight? Luckily there were some spare seats on the flight so, after paying another airfare, they were on their way. However, their troubles were not over. When they arrived at the hotel they had booked they had already been charged for the previous night and the room had been re-let. No other rooms were available so they had to search for another hotel which could accommodate them. Needless to say, neither of the two figured in any of the poker tournament results. At least the intrepid travellers managed to catch the right flight home.

WHO was the poker player who got locked in the shower for two hours in his hotel room in Amsterdam? The guy went to take a shower and closed the cubicle door which had a small latch or catch. When he had finished his shower, he could not get the shower door open. After about two hours of shouting and trying to force the door, both in vain, the latch finally opened after, apparently having dried out. The very cold and hoarse player had some choice words with the hotel management but we at Poker Europa are not privy to the outcome of his demands for compensation.
If you can name all the players involved, you could win a small prize. However, only entries submitted to Poker Europa on the back of a 20 £ / € / $ note will be considered.


Mr.Nosey

By Mick McCloskey

The following story happened in the U.K. but it could have been anywhere.
Mr. Nosey, hereafter referred to as Mr. N, turned up at the poker room to play in a big poker tournament. Having registered, he found his table and sat down. As the tournament got underway, the table filled up apart, from the one seat to the immediate right of Mr. N. As the tournament progressed, Mr. N found nothing but unplayable hands. His own cards that is. However, living up to his name, after mucking his own cards, he would have a peek at the cards in the empty seat before mucking them. After almost every pot, Mr. N would announce that the missing player would have won the hand with big pocket pairs, AK suited, AQ suited, whatever it took. The missing player would have been on a major rush if only he had turned up to play his cards. This went on for about half an hour or so until the missing player eventually turned up. He looks around the table, looks at his seat card, looks around the table again, taps Mr. N on the shoulder and announces “Excuse me, I think you are sitting in my seat.” DOH!!!! The moral to the story is to always check you are in the right seat and, just in case you are not, never look at a missing player’s hole cards.

Mile High Club

By Mick McCloskey

A Dublin couple, identified only as Eamonn and Willow, have developed their own version of the mile high club-the mile high poker club. On a flight from Dublin to Malta for their honeymoon, the newly weds passed the time with a game of Texas Hold ‘em, as you do. The fact that they had left their own deck of cards in the hold luggage, and that the flight crew could not supply a deck, did not deter them in the least. The pair were not going to be beaten by such a small technicality. With the aid of a couple of pens and pieces of paper, the couple set about inventing their own version of the game. It works something like this. One person writes down their two hole cards while the other writes down the flop, turn and river. Whoever hits the most hands wins. What they used for chips or what the eventual prize for the winner turned out to be, only the happy couple know.


Skinny dipping and mistaken idenity at WSOP 2005

By Mick McCloskey

WSOP 2005

This column could be subtitled “The Irish in Las Vegas” as there were plenty of great performances and stories to come out of the WSOP this year. Pride of place goes, of course, to Andy Black who took home $1.75 million for 5th place in the main event. Andy also picked up an early $25K for 10th spot in Event No.6, the £2,500 NLH freezeout and a further $8,490 in the $5,000 NLH event. A man on form, or what!
Another great performance came from Conor Tate, originally from Lurgan in N.Ireland, who placed 12th in the main event for a payday of $600,000. Conor qualified online and this seems to be the first time he has cashed in any ranking tournament anywhere. What a great way to start.
Eamon Grimes, from Donaghmore in Co. Tyrone, will long remember his trip to the WSOP. Another internet qualifier, Eamon cashed for $24,365 in the big one. Having only ever played live at his local pub, Eamon found himself playing at the featured television table with some of the stars of poker, including “The Professor” Howard Lederer. Eamon remained unfazed by all the attention and managed to move up from being the short stack on the bubble to take 267th spot.
Other Irish who cashed out in the main event were Stephen Dunphy, Michael O’Sullivan and Anthony Fagan.
Another big result came from Martin Green who cashed twice in the WSOP. He took 4th place, from a field of 1,071, in the $1,500 buy-in NLH for $88,680 and picked up a further $10,085 for 18th in the $2,500 buy-in NLH event. Others to cash out included Patrick O’Connor from Dublin and Zeik Tuit from Cork. Oh, and I nearly forgot, yours truly came 3rd out of the 245 media people and celebrities who took part in the WSOP Charity Tournament.
Congratulations to all the Irish players who cashed at the WSOP and, if I have missed anyone, please let me know.

SKINNY DIPPING

Away from the green baize Las Vegas has plenty to occupy idle hands, or other parts of the body for that matter. One of the attractions to tempt the Irish contingent was a 4th July house party and barbeque hosted by Jesse May. Jesse, along with his wife Micki and the crew from The Poker Show, had rented an up-market property on the outskirts of Las Vegas, for the duration of the WSOP. A shuttle bus was laid on from the Rio casino to the house and most of the Irish in town, along with a few other nationalities, managed to arrive for the free booze and the USA size T-Bone steaks. Despite the fact that Roy “The Boy” Brindley was left in charge of the barbeque, the food turned out to be pretty good. I think that Jesse may have had an ulterior motive for the party as the cameras were running and the microphones were live for most of the night. Nobody seemed to mind however and the food and drink probably tempered any stage or camera fright there might have been. As the fireworks flashed and exploded in the night sky, the alcohol intake seemed to reduce some other inhibitions among the assembled guests. It could have been the heat of the desert air or the attraction of the cool blue water in the pool, but some of the guys decided that a swim was on the agenda and the lack of bathing trunks was not going to be a problem. Whether the cameras caught the ensuing action or not, I really don’t know. Only time will tell. It’s amazing some of the footage that turns up on the internet or on video clip tv shows these days.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

On the subject of parties, the ever elegant Hendon mobster, Joe Beevers held a small champagne reception in a suite in The Golden Nugget a few days before his marriage to Claire. Family, friends and some stragglers still in town at the end of the WSOP were invited. As the night wore on, some of the guests moved from the suite to one of the bars downstairs in the casino. This move took place partly because there was no smoking allowed in the suite. Anyhow, Padraig Parkinson’s beautiful French partner, Veronique, was at the bar chatting to some friends when Padraig arrived down from the party. Padraig spotted a young lady with long dark hair sitting at the bar beside a couple of blonde girls, who had also been at the party, so he walked up to the bar and grabbed her from behind. Now I don’t know if it was the effect of the champagne or if Padraig’s eyesight is getting worse, but the young lady that he grabbed was a complete stranger! A very embarrased Padraig only managed to avoid getting thrown out of the casino by finding Veronique and explaining to the young lady how the two girls looked similar from behind, despite the fact that they were dressed completely differently. You’re going to have to pay more attention to what Veronique is wearing in future Padraig. Either that or an eye test!
Best wishes to Joe and Claire for the future.
Another poker wedding took place in Vegas during the WSOP. Best wishes to renowned tournament director Thomas Kremser and dealer Marina for their future.

Alan Betson left speechless

By Mick McCloskey

Anyone who knows Alan will consider the above headline to be extremely unlikely. Alan is well known for his quick wit and the ability to come up with the perfect quip or put down for any situation. However, I’m told that he may have met his match, in the form of a Dublin taxi driver, recently. Alan was on his way to a tournament in Europe and was running a little late for his flight from Dublin airport. When his cab turned up to take him to the airport, Alan recognised the driver as a well known part time debt collector and enforcer for a local bookmaker. Now, if this guy turned up at your door, you would be more than happy to pay off your debts immediately and maybe less than happy if you did not. The man had arms on him like tree trunks with some very nice tattoos to match. So Alan requests an extra quick drive to the airport, so he could catch his flight. However , the driver happens to be in a very talkative mood that day and proceeds to regale Alan with tales of his latest debt collection exploits and what he did to who and what he intended to do to his next “client “who refused to pay up. The more this guy talked, the slower the progress of the cab towards the airport. The upshot was that Alan missed his flight and had to pay quite a bit extra to get onto the next available flight. Despite this setback, he thought discretion might be the better part of valour and he managed to keep his lip buttoned, and his thoughts to himself, as he meekly paid his cab fare. I would imagine that he even managed to reward the driver with a nice tip for his services!!

Hand of the Month

by Mick McCloskey

A certain American poker pro. used to write a “Hand of the month” column in a U.S. magazine, usually extolling the virtues of his play in a certain situation, or explaining his latest bad beat story. Here is my take on the same subject, which could be subtitled, “ The luck of the desperate” (or the luck of the stupid). I was playing in a no limit hold’em tournament in Belfast’s Cavendish Club. The buy-in was £100 with one rebuy allowed. We were down to the final four players and were all in the money, but no deals had been made.
Consequently, everyone was playing pretty tight and solid. I was the short stack and the other three were pretty much even in chips. The blinds were 3k-6k and I was first to act. As my previous dozen or so raises (with premium hands I might add) had all been uncontested, I decided to try to steal the blinds, so I moved all in for 26k with the computer hand, Q7 offsuit. My timing could not have been worse. Dominic, on the button called immediately, with AQ. Even worse, Richard, on the small blind, raised all in for an extra 35k, with pocket 9’s. Now Darren, on the big blind, looks at his cards and he also finds a big hand, pocket J’s. O woe is me. What are the odds against me winning this pot. I seem to be drawing pretty much dead. Darren does the sensible thing and folds the best hand. Dominic calls the extra 35k and we see the flop. It comes Q x x. The turn is another blank and Richard and me are about ready to go collect our winnings when, lo and behold, a miracle 7 comes on the river! From the out house to the penthouse, I now find myself chip leader. Talk about doing the wrong thing at the right time! What a stupid game! But I suppose that’s what keeps us coming back for more. No matter how bad things look, there’s always hope.
We played a few more hands, without much chip movement, before I decided, (being the generous guy that I am), to give the lads a three way split. Well, it seemed only fair after the great escape!

This and That

By Mick McCloskey

Two lucky lads from Belfast recently won trips to Paris, courtesy of Ladbrokes Poker, to play in The European Hall of Fame Tournament. This is an invitation only event held during the Euro Finals of Poker in the prestigious Aviation Club de France, situated in the heart of Paris on the famous Champs Elysees.The $10,000 event gives internet qualifiers the chance to meet and play live against hall of famers in the grand surrounds of the ACF.Although not all the advertised players made it to Paris the two tables sat down to pit their poker skills against former World Heads Up Champion, Bruno Fitoussi,Hall of Fame founder, Bruce “Elvis Senior” Atkinson and Dave “Devilfish”Ulliot. For a $22 investment, Martin McCabe took home 3,415 euro and, for an outlay of $10 Desi Graham pocketed 1,700 euro. The two will, no doubt, also take away some nice memories of their experience. I’m not sure, but I would be surprised if they didn’t get a song or two, and maybe a duet, from Elvis and the Devilfish. Surprise, surprise, Devilfish ended up winning the tournament. No problem for Dave then, playing internet players.

A word of caution for anyone playing E.P.T.and perhaps some other events. The new Tournament Directors rulebook brings in a couple of rules which could trip some players up. On tables with action lines drawn on them, any chips that cross that line have to remain in the pot. So, if a player lifts a stack of chips to call a bet, puts them across the line and drops off the required chips to call, this action is ruled to be a raise for the whole stack, unless he has verbally announced a call before the chips crossed the line. Quite a few players were caught out by this strictly enforced rule in Deauville and Vienna recently. There is, therefore, no such thing as a string bet once chips cross that line.So, beware, you have been warned. Some of the more astute angle shooters have already misused this rule by pretending to be caught out by the rule, when they are in fact holding a monster hand. This is something which I think, the organisers need to look at. Also beware making any hand or finger movements when it is your turn to act. Such movements may be ruled to be a check.

The Belfast player, formerly known as “Madmax”but who now wishes to be known as “Sanemax”recently had an unfortunate experience online. He was playing cash NLH on Betfair when he picked up AQ hearts on the big blind. Everyone folded except the small blind. The flop comes K,J,10,all hearts! Small blind checks,Max checks. Then the unthinkable happens. The software freezes and the hand is folded.Max immediately contacted Betfair,who to their credit, paid out the Royal Flush bonus of £300.Whether he would have got any action from the other player we will never know. As for the new name? Frankly I am not convinced there has been any change!

Winner, Winner.

By Mick McCloskey

There must have been something in the air in December, or in cyberair at any rate. It so happened that two columnists specialising in Irish poker cashed out two very nice five figure sums on the net. Both wins were in large field multi table tournaments. One of the very happy hacks is yours truly. The other, who writes for some other magazine, is Roy “The Boy” Brindley. As I write, Roy is just back from a holiday in Florida and I am about to head stateside in a couple of days time. O the dull life of the poker writer. Talking about poker writers, maybe you should know that the managing editor is currently in Australia and the editor in the Bahamas. Dull, dull, dull! Dunno who’s gonna edit my copy this month.
Other recent Irish winners include Mike Magee, who won the main event in Luton, and Martin Farranger, who won the £200 PLH rebuy event at the same venue. Further afield, Frank Callaghan picked up 9190 euro in the 50 euro buyin NLH Progressive event. He’s going to have to explain how that works, next time I see him.
Congratulations to all.
Here’s another winner’s tale. There may or not be an Irish connection. I certainly hope not. A little bird tells me that a regular player recently won his first major ranking event on the European tour. As well as picking up a five figure sum in cash, he was presented with a very pretty and unique piece of sculpture. He promptly sold his hard earned trophy, for a paltry sum, to a poker pro, who had cashed in at the final table of the same tournament. The pro in question should not be short of legitimate trophies of his own. I’m not quite sure who is the saddest, the seller or the buyer!