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SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

By Mick McCloskey

Due to recent events in Belfast, where local police raided another poker tournament and seized money and poker tables and chips, I have rehashed an article (below) that I wrote almost six years ago. Sadly not much has changed since then.

The island of Ireland is a fairly small place, in global terms, with a total population smaller than that of any one of a number of large cities in the UK. I’m not going to get into the politics of the situation here but, the island is divided into two parts, the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Northern Ireland (NI). As I write a blog about poker, that’s what we are going to look at in a bit more detail.

ROI has a long history of running poker tournaments with the Irish Open dating back to 1981. Even in those early days, the tournament could attract a decent amount of visiting players from the UK and even from the USA. Fast forward to the early part of this century and the growth in poker meant that player numbers had started to outgrow the traditional tournament venues. Hence the tournaments started to be moved into large hotel function rooms, with travelling players staying in the same hotels. The ambiance and atmosphere thus created meant that the tournament experience was combined with a great social experience as well, pretty much unlike anywhere else outside of the old WSOP experience at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas. In both places, you had most of the players staying, playing, eating and drinking in the same venue over a number of days and it was a great way of meeting and getting to know fellow poker players.

 The word of this type of experience filtered down to some of the smaller tournaments and the organizers of events in Ireland, that were able to offer good value, well structured tournaments began attracting more and more overseas players. In the last year I would estimate that the number of visitors, mostly from continental Europe, could be numbered in thousands rather than hundreds. One event alone, normally attracts well over 2,000 high spending Norwegians to Dublin for up to 10 days every year.  All these visitors have helped to create and maintain a vibrant poker industry in ROI, directly creating jobs for dealers and floor people. All these visitors need to get here so the airline industry, as well as other transport providers, feel the benefits. These visitors also need hotel rooms as well as food, drink and entertainment while they are here. All this has benefits for the Irish tourism industry as well as the economy in general. And it is not just the benefit of overseas visitors. Many people from other parts of Ireland and NI tend to stay in the same hotels for the duration of the tournament, normally a stay of 3 to 4 nights. The craic at these events is usually top class.

In NI such large tournaments are outlawed. Even people trying to organize something smaller, on a local basis, are liable to be, and have been, raided and shut down by heavily armed police. Enough said.

Poker Players of Ireland

Interesting picture and sound montage courtesy of Mark Smyth.

GALWAY RACES

Mid Summer in Galway has for many years been synonymous with the week long Horse racing festival at the famous Ballybrit course just north of Galway City. The week has also been well known for the poker action breaking out in various hotels around town every night.

Local Poker Player and Poker promoter, Fintan Gavin, has this year decided to bring a bit more organisation to the whole thing by teaming up with online poker site Full Tilt to run 24 hour cash games and a total of 60 tournaments starting on 27th July, for two weeks. The festival will include not just poker but Pool, 25's, Bridge and Open Face Chinese. As they figured there was nowhere in town big enough to host all this action, they decided to build their own tented village for the duration! The location, I believe, is near the harbour, close to the City centre.

The Poker Festival kicks off on Saturday 27th with The Galway Cup, a €135 + 15 NLH tournament with an estimated prize pool of €100,000.

The Festival also includes a UK versus Ireland heads up competition with a very strong looking Irish team. This event is scheduled to be streamed live. Look out for links on the official website (see below)

 

The Festival also includes the Irish Poker Championship with a buy in of €2,300 + 200.

The poker action culminates with the UK and Ireland Poker Tour main event with a guaranteed €1 million prize pool. Players can qualify online at both Full Tilt and Poker Stars.

A full schedule of events can be found here:  http://www.fulltiltpokergalway.com/

For a bit of background, check out Fintan's own blogs here:  http://fintangavin.tumblr.com/

Galway has always been a fun place during Race week and this combination of Racing and Poker, along with the other events looks absolutely awesome! I can't wait.

€1 MILLION GUARANTEE FOR UKIPT GALWAY

 Full Tilt Poker is bringing Ireland’s biggest ever series of poker events to the West with the inaugural Full Tilt Poker Galway Festival.

The Festival will take place from July 29 – August 12 with the highlight being the five-day €1,000,000 guaranteed UKIPT Main Event, running from August 8 - 12. All the action on and off the felt will take place at the custom-built Full Tilt Poker Village right in the heart of Galway city.

Full Tilt Poker will host a wide range of events throughout the two-week long festival; adding even more excitement to a city already buzzing with people participating in Galway Raceweek, which runs from July 29 – August 4.

The Main Event is just one of over 55 tournaments and events taking place, including the Irish Poker Championship, the UK v Ireland Heads Up Challenge and, for the first time ever, the Irish Bridge Masters.

As well as the chance to compete for a wide variety of prizes and major tournament titles, Full Tilt Poker qualifiers will also benefit from exclusive promotions such as the Last Longer, which will see the last qualifier standing win a prize package for every remaining main event in the UKIPT season. On top of this, qualifiers will receive bundles of extras such as an invite to Full Tilt Poker parties, drinks vouchers, custom avatars to use online, the Full Tilt Poker player bag brimming with merchandise, and lots more.

Prizes will be awarded to any player that wears a Full Tilt Poker patch and knocks out the most number of opponents, finishes on the bubble or is the first to get knocked out. In addition to this, there will also be a Players’ Lounge, free Wi-Fi, and enhanced concierge service for all.

Gus Hansen of The Professionals – Full Tilt Poker’s premier players – will be competing in the UKIPT Main Event; as will the Full Tilt Poker Ambassadors, a team chosen to represent the tour and interact with players on and off the felt. A bounty will be on the head of each Ambassador, with prizes up for grabs for any player who knocks them out while wearing a Full Tilt Poker patch.

Full Tilt Poker players can win prize packages and seats to the UKIPT Main Event online from as little as $1.10. Satellites kick off today from 10.25 ET with the first qualifier beginning at 15.30 ET.

NEW VIDEO CLIP RELEASED

ROOM 114 AND 2 FAT LADIES

This article was first published in March 2005

Is poker success down to skill or luck or fate? Or is it a combination of all of these?

I have had a few experiences that would seem to suggest that fate may play a part. One of these relates to a trip I made to Barcelona in September 2003 for the Barcelona Open tournament, the predecessor of what would become the 1^st leg of the European Poker Tour the following year.

When I arrived at my hotel I was allocated room 13 on one of the floors. (I can’t remember which.) I really didn’t think anything much of it and carried on with business. Over the next 2 or 3 days I played in various tournaments and satellite games and some cash games. Whatever I played in, I couldn’t seem to do anything right. I couldn’t win a flip to save my life. Even if I had AK against an Ace with a smaller kicker I still couldn’t win!

After about three days of this torture, I decided that my room number may be the root of the problem. So, I rang down to reception to ask if I could move to a different room. The guy at reception seemed very concerned and asked if there was something wrong with the room. "No" I said, but explained to him that I was playing Poker and that the room number seemed to be unlucky for me. “Aaahhh” says he, knowingly, “I understand”

A room change was arranged immediately – a triumph for international customer services in Spain.

So, anyway, I entered the main event the next day and proceeded to get a very nice payday with an equal three way chop in the tournament

My new room number was 114. Number of players in the main event? 114. Scary or what?

Looking back at the results, I noted that the buy in for this event was €1,000 with a €50 Reg. fee on top. For this we were treated to a three course meal, with wine, in the casino restaurant. How times have changed!

Another similar experience happened in Slovenia about eight months later. The difference here was that I was running pretty good. I made a final table in one of the side events and won my seat for the main event in a satellite.

The main event was a two day affair and I was chip leader when we got down to the final table of nine at the end of Day 1. After the chips were counted, the seating draw for the final table took place. The way they did this in Slovenia was that that the lowest stack got to draw the first seat and so on down the line. So, when it got to me, there was only one seat left. Table 8, Seat 8. Now, this sounded quite good to me as I had recently read somewhere that under some Chinese birth chart, my lucky number was supposed to be 8.

In the final the next day, I never lost the chip lead and when play eventually got heads up, I had about a 3 – 2 chip lead.

After a bit of heads up play, I picked up a pocket pair on the button. I made a standard raise only for my opponent to move all in. I made the call and he turned over AQ or AJ.

When the dust had settled, he did not improve and my pair held up to win me the tournament.

My pocket pair? 8-8!

Strange but true.

REVIEW

Since I no longer write for any magazines, I thought I might use this blog to have a look at some of my older articles which, I hope, are still interesting or relevant, especially to newer readers. So, let's start with a New Year review from January 2006. Have seven years really passed since then?

Poker for all. New Year - 2006

By Mick McCloskey

Another year has slipped by and, for some people, it’s the time to reflect on what has happened in the previous twelve months and to make plans, and perhaps resolutions, for the coming year.

My own reflections on the past year include my meeting a guy in Las Vegas a few days before the start of the main event of the World Series of Poker. His name was William ( Billy ) Rockwell. I had entered a small no limit tournament in Binion’s (Horseshoe) Casino and had taken my seat for the start of the event when Billy turned up to take the seat beside me. The first thing to grab my attention was that Billy had only one, apparently lifeless, arm. This observation was borne out when his girlfriend proceeded to remove Billy’s right shoe and sock. He planned to play cards using his toes!

As the game started, it was obvious that Billy had done this many times before. He had a large coin or medallion which he placed on his hole cards, for protection. He also had a little wooden wedge which he placed up against the edge of the table. He was then able to push his cards, one at a time with his toes, up the wedge so that he could peek at the corner of the card, without exposing them to the other players. He was able to do all this while remaining seated in his chair. He was also able to separate and push his chips into the pot using only his toes.

We got talking and he told me that he had almost died in a motorcycle accident when he was a teenager. The result of the accident was the loss of one arm and total disability in the other one. He was wearing a branded shirt and cap and, it turned out, that he had obtained sponsorship, from an internet poker site, to play in the WSOP main event. A shrewd move by the sponsor as Billy was almost guaranteed media coverage whether he did any good in the tournament or not. This was borne out when I was reminded of our meeting when I was watching the television coverage of the WSOP recently. There was Billy getting his 15 minutes of fame on network TV. He had managed to make it through the first day before getting knocked out on day 2. Not a bad achievement considering the huge field he had to survive.

 It was a real achievement in the first place that he could overcome his physical disability to play the game at all. I have seen other Billys, mostly in the USA, who have overcome enormous physical odds to sit, or in some cases, lie down at a poker table to play and compete in the game we love.

 So the next time you are tempted to whinge about a bad beat, or have to listen to one, just think about Billy and others like him. It might put the whole thing into perspective. And just remember that Billy, I’m sure, has taken his share of bad beats. His consolation is probably the fact that he is in a position to be there at all, to take them.

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!

WSOP 2011 Part 2

By Mick McCloskey

Well, unless you’ve been living as a recluse in a cave somewhere, you will know by now that Ireland has a very able representative still playing for a WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 main event. Dublin’s Eoghan O’Dea made the final table, otherwise known as the “November Nine” second in chips with just under 34 million. The final 9 will meet up again in the Rio Casino at the start of November to finish their business and play down to a winner, who will walk away with $8.7 million and instant fame as the 2011 WSOP Main Event Champion. Ninth spot is already guaranteed $782,115 with all left to play for.
26 year old Eoghan is a pro player who makes a lot of his money playing online but is no slouch at live tournaments having several large cashes to his name in the past including a second in the Poker Million and another second in a World Poker Tour event. Let’s hope he can go one place better in November. Eoghan has some poker pedigree being the son of Irish poker legend Donnacha, who has a WSOP bracelet of his own for winning the $1,500 PLO event in 1998, defeating Johhny Chan heads up. Wouldn’t it be great if Ireland could produce the first ever father/son combo of WSOP bracelet winners?
I hear that Eoghan, a keen tennis player, is getting extra fit for his big opportunity in November by training to take part in a triathlon. He will need to be totally fit, mentally and physically for this, potentially life changing challenge. I’m sure you will all join me in wishing Eoghan all the very best in November.

With Eoghan sort of overshadowing all the other Irish players this year, a well done mention must go to a few others who cashed in the Main Event. Congratulations to Nick Newport, Pete Murphy and Reggie Lyons for their efforts.

WATERFORD MASTERS

This festival, held in the seaside resort of Tramore, is always a pleasant way to spend a weekend in the summertime. The town always seems to be buzzing at this time of year and the poker was getting into the same mood. 152 players turned up to play the €400 + 40 main event and Jason Tomkins, recovering from an illness which prevented him from travelling to Las Vegas this year, took the title and €12,000 after a deal which saw Michael Walsh picking up €10,000 for second spot and Adam Early finishing third for €8,500. 2010 Irish Open runner up, Paul Carr, picked up €6,500 for 4th place.

EMOP DUBLIN

The European Masters of Poker made it to Ireland for the first time at the end of July. The Irish leg was part of a Europe wide tour featuring a number of €1,000 + 100 well structured main events. The tour tends to be made up from a large number of online qualifiers from Scandinavia and Europe and quite a good number of local entries. A total of 303 players took their seats over two starting days at the Clontarf Castle Hotel. I’m no great expert on ancient Irish history but, I believe that Clontarf was the scene of a major battle back in the 11th century. When it got down to the final table it was a battle for the title between 5 Scandinavian and 4 Irish players. The numerical advantage may have been a deciding factor with Denmark’s Soren Larsen defeating Ireland’s Dara O’Kearney heads up for the EMOP title and a first prize of €71,210. Dara, putting on a great display for his sponsors, Irish Eyes Poker, part of the sponsoring network, had to settle for €42,720. Third place and €27,880 went to Finland’s Jukka Nyback with yours truly picking up €16,970 for fourth place.

UPCOMING

The month of September is pretty saturated with poker festivals in Ireland with two events actually taking place on the same weekend in Dublin. The Poker Stars UKIPT Dublin has already been previewed in my previous column. The three weekends in a row after that event are fully booked for any player who wants back to back action.

IRISH €100’s

In an interesting tournament variation, Bruce Poker, along with various partners, are involved in running a €120 buy in event with a massive €50,000 guarantee. There will be 4 starting days with half the field from each day qualifying for the final stages. The twist is that players can re-enter, as opposed to re-buy. Players can even do multiple re-entries if they qualify with a short stack and want to take a shot at going through with a bigger stack. The venue is the Glenroyal Hotel in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. The event runs from 12th to 18th September. Full details can be found on Irish Poker Boards.com

IRISH OMAHA CLASSIC

This event is being run in conjunction with the Irish 100’s, detailed above, in the same venue and is a €400 + 40 Pot Limit Omaha treble chance event starting on Friday 16th September and finishing on Saturday. Players start with a 10,000 stack, playing 60 minute levels, and can take another two 10K stacks as required up to the end of level 4. Again, full details can be found on Irish Poker Boards.

WINAMAX EUROPEAN SHORTHANDED CHAMPIONSHIP

This event returns for the third time to the Ballsbridge Inn, Dublin from 21st to 25th September and, as the title suggests is a 6 handed max event with a buy in of €500 + 50 with a guaranteed €150,000 prize pool. There are two starting days and players knocked out on day1a can re-enter on day1b. The event is organised by local promoters D4Events and full details can be found on their website as well as on Irish Poker Boards.

BETFAIR POKER LIVE

This is a bounty tournament with a buy in of $500 + 50 with an additional 100 for the bounty for a total of $650. It is scheduled to take place in Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Card Club from 23rd to 25th September. There has been no real publicity effort to promote this event in Ireland but Betfair are running regular online satellites so I can only assume that they are targeting their own customers for this event. There might be a bit of value to be had here if you would rather play a full table rather than the short handed event just down the road in Ballsbridge. Full details can be found at www.poker.betfair.com

LADBROKES IRISH FESTIVAL

If you are not pokered out after all that action over the previous three weeks then why not take the trip to Killarney for one of the biggest and most fun events of the year outside of Dublin. This is always an action packed weekend at the INEC at the Gleneagles Hotel with 633 runners last year, a load of online qualifiers, a €500 + 50 main event and a €250,000 guaranteed prize pool. The event is scheduled to run from 29th September to 2nd October. Details can be found at Ladbrokes.com or on Irish Poker Boards.

FINALLY

I’m almost exhausted already just looking at that schedule for September. There is a lot on and I just hope that they all do well.

Another first for Ireland is the recent announcement that the World Poker tour is coming to these shores for the first time. A €2,500 buy in event will take place in the City West Hotel from 5th to 8th January 2012. This event is being sponsored by PKR.com who, I assume, will be running online satellites. More on this in future columns.

BREAKING NEWS

Congratulations to Fintan Gavin who just took down the Edinburgh leg of Poker Stars UKIPT. Fintan, who lives in Co. Galway, overcame a field of 519 players to take the first prize of £61,500 and the UKIPT title. You can see how he did it on Channel 4 television in September as part of the UKIPT coverage. Very well done sir.

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

WSOP 2011

WSOP 2011

By Mick McCloskey

With all the side events completed, there have been no final table appearances for the Irish contingent and, unfortunately, not a lot in the way of cash returns. As I write, Day 3 of the main event is in progress and it looks like Day 4 will be bubble day. Still in the mix are Eoghan O'Dea, Nick Heather, Nick Newport and Pete Murphy, along with a few lesser known players. Best of the bunch so far, in the side events has been Omaha specialist Dave Callaghan from Dublin who narrowly missed out on a final table seat when he was knocked out in eighth place in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 6 handed event. He picked up $53,210 for his finish, the highest return for any Irish player in this year’s series. Next best was Galway’s Jude Ainsworth who picked up a total of $36,342 for two cash finishes. Most prolific of the Irish in WSOP events were Eoghan O'Dea and Dara O'Kearney with three cashes each.

Despite the closure of the major online poker sites to American players, and lack of access to online funds in some cases, the numbers for the WSOP side events this year were generally up on the previous year. Poker players are a resilient lot so, if they can’t play online, they might as well turn up in Vegas to play live. There certainly seems to be a lot more cash action this year and the main event numbers have been more than general expected. I will update the Irish results in my next column

NORTHERN OPEN

This is a brand new event on the poker calendar and was backed by Irish Eyes Poker.com. The €260 + 40 main event was held over three days in mid June at the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk. The organisers included two Northern Irish based players, Paul Lecky and Seamus Birt along with Martin Silke, who organised a similar event in his native Mayo earlier in the year. For this size of tournament, the structure was excellent with a 15,000 starting stack and 60 minute levels. It certainly attracted good numbers for a new event with 200 players turning up to try their luck. The good structure was probably a factor in the eventual deal made between the final six players who decided to chop the remaining prize money based on chip counts. Aidan McAllister was declared the winner and took home the trophy and $9,300. The rest of the money was divided as follows:-

2nd Alex Scullion €7,100
3rd J.P. Whyte €6,475
4th Stephen Neeson €5,830
5th Con O’Sullivan €5,520
6th Jeff Jones €4,925

UPCOMING

IRISH CLASSIC POKER FESTIVAL

Following a bit of a breather during the early summer, for those who weren’t in Las Vegas that is, the late summer and autumn sees a marked increase in the number of Irish events. First up is the annual trip to Cork for one of the only week long poker festivals in the country at the Macau Sporting Club in the City, scheduled to run from 15th to 21st August. Included in the schedule are PLO events, short handed events, turbo events and satellites leading up to the €500 + 50 three day main event. The buy in has been reduced this year from the previous €1,000 entry fee so we may see more runners as a result. The main event will have two starting days on the Thursday and Friday. I’m a bit intrigued by the final event on the Sunday when you can choose your own buy in, either €100, 200 or 300, with a €30 reg. fee. Not really sure how that works but will no doubt find out.
The Macau Club always put on a good show and the hospitality during the festival is next to none. Full details can be found at www.macausportingclub.com

POKER IN THE PUB

The same weekend in August sees the Grand Final of Season 4 being held at the Regency Hotel in Dublin. Players can qualify or buy in direct for €175 + 25. Further details can be found at www.pokerinthepub.ie. I’ve never played in any of these particular events but have take part in something along the same lines. If this event is anything like the ones I have experienced, it should be a fun weekend.

UNIBET OPEN

Another major European Tour comes to Ireland for the first time from 25th to 28th August. The Unibet Open main event has a €1,500 + 150 buy in and the venue is Dublin’s City West Hotel. I believe that this tour attracts a lot of European players and has other stops in Malta, Barcelona and Riga. The main event has a 20,000 starting stack and has two day 1s on the Thursday and Friday. Full details can be found at www.unibetopen.com

UKIPT

The start of September sees the return to Ireland of the Poker Stars UKIPT for the Dublin leg of the tour. The venue this time round is the Ballsbridge Inn from 8th to 12th of the month. The €500 + 60 main event will have a guaranteed €250,000 prize pool and will be capped at 700 players. If past experience is anything to go by, this will be a very popular event so, if you want to be part of it, early booking may be advisable. You can try to qualify online at Poker Stars or, failing that, buy in directly online. Full details are not available as I write this but I would assume that there will be two starting days for this event. Check out the website at www.ukipt.com for full details.

FINALLY

Irish snooker pro Ken Doherty has opened a snooker club in Terenure Cross, Dublin 6 at the rear of Brady’s pub in Terenure Place. Ken is also quite fond of a game of poker and has decided to combine the two disciplines under the one roof. He is currently running a cash game there on Thursday nights and hopes to run poker there most nights of the week in future. Here is your chance to take on a living legend at snooker or poker. I would suggest you may have more of a chance at the poker table than the snooker table. Whatever your choice, good luck. Ken is quite handy at both games. Details, mostly regarding snooker right now, can be found at www.kendoherty.ie or you can call the club on 01 515 6092 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01 515 6092 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

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

Vegas Trip in Tipp

VEGAS IN TIPP?

By Mick McCloskey

News has just come through that a proposed major development in Co. Tipperary has received planning permission to build a brand new complex which would include a casino, a 500 bedroom hotel, a horseracing track, a Greyhound racing track and a golf course. The 800 acre site would also include a full size replica of Washington DC’s White House and a heliport. It is estimated that the complex would provide around 1,000 construction jobs over a three year period and would create 2,000 jobs in the long term.
I don’t know when the original plan was put forward but, in these economically challenging times, I’m not quite sure if the country is ready for such an ambitious project, especially one which is quite some distance from Ireland’s capital city. For the casino part of the plan, there would also have to be a change in the law relating to gaming, although such a change has been in the pipeline for a while now.
Whether the project will go ahead right now or will be put on the long finger, only time will tell. It is certainly an ambitious looking scheme and would probably be a great venue for major poker tournaments in Ireland in the future.

POKER STARS UKIPT

The tour rolled into Cork in May and attracted 602 players from 28 countries to the Rochestown Park Hotel for the €500 + 60 main event. The winner was England’s Sam Razavi who took the trophy and €71,000 after a heads up battle with Ireland’s David O’Connor, who had to settle for the consolation of taking home €41,200. Quite a nice first entry to have on your Hendon Mob profile for David. In third spot was Germany’s Martin Mulsow who picked up €25,200. Martin got really unlucky when he had pocket Aces cracked by David’s AK.
Unusually for an event with two starting days, day1a had more players than day1b. UKIPT Tour boss, Kirsty Thompson put this anomaly down to the Queen’s visit to Cork City on day1b but I’m not quite so sure. Part of the problem, I think, was the fact that Poker Stars online site had stopped taking registrations for day1b for at least two weeks before the tournament. I assume that this was to encourage more people to register for day1a but, I think that this strategy may have backfired a little. Players were left with the impression that day1b was full and were unwilling to travel to Cork unless they were guaranteed a seat in the tournament. I don’t think it helped that Poker Stars had decided to run this event by themselves without a local organiser in Ireland who could have kept the local players up to speed on the availability of seats for each day. I really feel that the numbers for a tournament of this quality could have been higher in Cork. Hopefully, Poker Stars will have a look at this issue for future events in Ireland.

CELTIC POKER TOUR

This is a grassroots tour which organises events all over Ireland throughout the year. Each event awards tickets for the annual Grand Final to the top qualifying players. The Grand Final took place in the Dolmen Hotel, Carlow at the start of June and the qualifiers were joined by anyone willing to put up the €600 + 75 buy in for the main event. The numbers were probably a little disappointing for the organisers with 136 players taking to the tables to fight it out for the title. Even with these modest numbers, the 20,000 starting stack and the slow structure ensured lots of play over the three days needed to find a winner. With 16 players being paid, a deal was done at the end of day 2 to pay the bubble, so 17 players returned for the final day. Another deal at the final table between the last three saw Dublin’s Tom Kitt take the title and €19,200, which included a €1,100 ticket for EMOP, Dublin and a €600 ticket for next year’s CPT Grand Final. The next two also had CPT 2012 tickets included in their prizes. Dimitri Pembroke was second for €15,200 and Tommy Walsh took third for €14,700.

UPCOMING

WATERFORD MASTERS

This festival takes place in the Grand Hotel, Tramore from 22nd to 24th July. The buy in for the main event is €400 + 40 with a guaranteed prize pool of €40,000. This is one of those Irish festivals with its own unique atmosphere. Maybe because it’s held in a small friendly hotel, in a family orientated seaside resort, at the height of the summer holiday season but there is definitely a holiday feel to the whole thing. It’s not the best hotel in the world but the general friendliness and helpful attitude of the staff more than compensates for that. My room is booked already. Full details can be found on www.irishpokerboards.com

EMOP DUBLIN

Yet another Europe wide tour comes to Ireland for the first time this year from 28th to 31st July. The venue is the Clontarf Castle Hotel and the buy in for the main event is €1,000 + 100. Satellites are available on Irish Eyes Poker as well as on other sites on the Entraction network. There are two starting days on the Thursday and Friday. Not much more I can say about this event as I have never played any of their tournaments but, as this is stop 4 of Season 3; they seem to have some experience behind them. Further details can be found on www.europeanmastersofpoker.com

SUPER POKER EVENT OF EUROPE 2012

Although it’s quite a way off right now, I think it deserves a bit of advance publicity because of what I can only describe as its epic scale. The man behind the Boylepoker IPO, Stephen McLean, along with fellow tournament directors John Scanlon and Lee Johnston, has come up with an ambitious plan to seat up to 4,000 players at the same time, same venue, at the end of February next year. The venue is the City West Hotel, Dublin and the buy in for the three day event is €300 + 40, creating a possible prize pool in excess of €1million. Actually, looking again, they plan to get to the final 9 at the end of day two as day 3 (the final table) will take place a month later at a yet to be announced venue. I checked with Stephen to make sure he hadn’t totally lost his marbles and he assures me that the plan is perfectly feasible and that the venue can quite easily accommodate that number of players at one sitting. He is already running a series of live satellites at various venues around the country so, look out for one in your area. Further details can be found on www.superpokerevent.com and on Irish Poker Boards.

FINALLY

It’s that time of year again when many Irish players head off to Las Vegas to take part in, or just to soak up the atmosphere at the WSOP. By the time you read this, I will be there myself and I hope to report back on any Irish success stories in the next issue. In the meantime, I just want to wish all the Irish players out there the very best of luck on their trip.

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

Irish Title Returns

IRISH TITLE RETURNS

By Mick McCloskey

The title of Irish Open Champion returned to these shores after an absence of 3 years when Co. Clare’s Niall Smyth overcame a field of 615 players and a tough heads up against the very experienced Surinder Sunar at the Burlington Hotel over the Easter weekend. Niall picked up €550,000 for his weekend’s work as well as an extra package worth €100,000 for winning Paddy Power’s Sole Survivor promotion for online qualifiers. Sunar took €290,000 for runner up spot with Denmark’s Martin Petri coming third for €180,000.
Niall revealed that his success had all come about after he placed a €10 each way bet with Paddy Power on the winner of the English Grand National. He used his winnings to play an online satellite and went on to spin it up into an Irish Open seat worth €3,500. The rest, as they say, is history.

Talking of history, the last Irish born Champion, winning the title at the same venue in 2007, was someone else called Smyth, Marty of course. It was a case of almost like old times when I ran into Marty and Nicky Power in the hotel foyer at the end of play on day two. By this time the field was down to 55 players, who were all in the money. Just like 2007, all three of us were still in the mix, with Nicky going on to make the final table and Marty winning it. This year, also just like 2007, Marty went on to outlast the pair of us!

I must put my own deep run in this year’s Irish Open partly down to my first day table draw. I spent the whole first day in the company of Neil “Bad Beat” Channing and felt very relaxed all day chatting away to Neil. Well, to be honest, Neil did most of the chatting, as he does. But it did keep the atmosphere at the table in a light mood, or so it seemed to me. Not too sure how the rest of the table felt but, I was enjoying his company so much that I gave him a double up when his chip stack started to get a bit low. That’s the kind of guy I am. Actually, it was one of those classic race situations, my poor Pocket Queens versus his mighty AK. It also helped that I got a double up of my own early in level 2 when a young aggressive player floated my flop and turn bets before firing out a river bet and pushing all in after my raise. Unfortunately for him, I had made the nut full house on the double paired board and he could only beat me with quads. When I made the call I actually thought it was going to be a split pot before he announced he had no hand!

Virtually everyone I spoke to this year agreed that the new starting stack of 20,000 chips, doubled from previous years, made a big difference and provided a lot more play this year. The sponsors, Paddy Power, also did a great job in providing live online streaming all weekend. This included a feature table as well as roving reporters and camera teams and a studio area where Jesse May talked to various high profile guests. Well done to Iain Cheyne and all the live streaming team for all their work over the weekend. Having watched the first two TV shows on RTE I’m afraid to say that these productions failed to live up to the high standards set by the live streaming team.

One other matter I have had issues with in the past at Irish Opens, and I really thought it should have been sorted by now, was the payout structure. Most major tournaments worldwide these days pay out around double the tournament buy in to any player making the money. This year just over 10% of the field made the money, 64 of 615 players. The reward for the first 8 to be paid was a payout of €4,100. A measly €600 profit for outlasting a tough field for a full two days of play. After paying for their travel and hotel expenses, they didn’t really have much to show for their efforts. I really think it’s about time the organisers had a look at this issue again.
After all is said and done, the Irish Open is Ireland’s premier poker event and I would really love to see it continue going from strength to strength in the future.

JP MASTERS

J.P McCann’s Masters event was held over the first weekend of May at the Ballsbridge Inn, Dublin. J.P. and his team provide, in my opinion, the best run, best organised and best structured events in Ireland and I always look forward to them. This year the numbers suffered a little mainly from a combination of the tournament being squeezed between two other major events in Ireland, namely the Irish Open and the Poker Stars UKIPT in Cork, and also a move to this new venue, away from his natural customer base around the Tallaght area of Dublin. J.P. does a great job at grassroots level, and now around Europe as well, and definitely deserves better support than he got on this occasion. Despite the numbers, the weekend went without a hitch, with a load of added value and prizes for those lucky enough to cash or bubble all tournaments. The €500 main event ended in a four way deal with Tony Rafter taking the title and €14,875 in prize money. Eoin Olin took €13,330 with John Gallagher taking €11,400 and Con Collins picking up €11,000.

As a side note, it seems to help some players if they don’t actually manage to turn up at the right venue for the tournament. I reported on the Dublin Deepstacks event a few months ago when a player turned up at the wrong hotel and then went on to make the final table of the main event. Something similar happened at the JP Masters when a player, who shall remain nameless, apart from sometimes being known as “Doke” managed to turn up at the wrong hotel on the first day. To be fair, he went to the hotel where the event was held in 2010 so a mistake anyone could make, but didn’t. Anyway, he had the last laugh as he went on to make the main event final table and take home a nice wad of cash, assuming he managed to find his way home!

GAMING REVIEW N. IRELAND

The Dept of Social Development has published a discussion document in the run up to a possible change/update in the North’s gaming laws. As regards casino games, there would appear to be no changes on the horizon, apart from a possible clampdown on Bingo halls trying to doubles as mini casinos. As regards poker, there seems to be a possibility that poker tournaments will be allowed in pubs and registered clubs, subject to certain limits, yet to be established. All of this will depend on the attitude of the as yet unnamed minister in charge of the Department, following recent elections. Being new to the ministerial job, I’m not expecting a quick resolution to these matters from the new assembly in the North. You can view the document on the DSD website.

UPCOMING

NORTHERN OPEN

With the WSOP getting into full swing in Las Vegas, there’s not much on the horizon for the home based players. One exception is a new event scheduled for 17th to 19th June at the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk. The Northern Open is being organised by Martin Silke along with Paul Lecky and Seamus Birt and has a buy in of €260 + 40 and a guaranteed prize pot of €40,000. The starting stack will be 15,000 chips with 60 minute levels. Irish Eyes Poker are sponsoring the event and running online satellites twice a week on their site. Further details can be found on Irish Poker Boards.

DATABASE

Player Ireland is in the process of setting up a new website which will include a list of Irish poker events. Casinos and tournament organisers are invited to send details of their upcoming events to info@playerireland.ie

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

Pastures New

By Mick McCloskey

As some of you might know, I have been producing an Irish column for Poker Europa magazine for a just over the last six years. Unfortunately that publication has recently gone out of business after twelve years of reporting on the European poker scene. Consequently, I was put out to pasture, as it were. But, as they say, “Whenever one door closes another one opens.” I have now been given the chance to continue with my scribbling by the editor of Player Ireland, a chance for which I am very grateful. Over the coming months I will endeavour to bring you all the news from the Irish poker scene and details of upcoming events as well as opinions on various issues regarding poker and any interesting stories I may come across.
For those of you who don’t know me from Adam and for those who do but maybe don’t know my history, here is a little bit of background.

I first started playing poker some thirty years ago, so obviously I’m no internet whiz kid. In those early days I played mostly Dealers Choice cash games. Some of these poker variations were weird and wonderful but they certainly kept you focused as you were playing a different game virtually every hand. It was a really good education for the all rounder. Around this time some local sports clubs and other organisations started running fund raising poker tournaments and the game of choice at that time was half pot limit Five Card Stud, in my part of the world, Northern Ireland. The same sort of thing was happening in the Republic of Ireland, with the game there being mostly Five Card Draw. After fluking my first tournament win, I was hooked on tournament poker. Some time later I met Terry Rogers, the legendary Dublin bookmaker and Godfather of Irish poker. Terry had come north to organise a fund raising tournament which had a first prize of a trip to Las Vegas and entry into a WSOP side event. I failed to win this prize but was totally fascinated to hear stories about this great event being held in Binion’s Horseshoe every spring. So fascinated that I promised myself that one day I would go there to see it all for myself. That day came in the spring of 1987 when, under the wings of Terry and Liam Flood I made my way to Las Vegas for the WSOP. That was one hell of an experience. In those days all the Irish players got the full Las Vegas VIP treatment. Limos, shows, free rooms, food and drink. I hadn’t played much Texas Hold’em before so that trip was a learning experience for me. I had to learn pretty fast to avoid going broke in the cash games. I learned so much on that first trip that the cash action back home seemed pretty easy after that. Since that first trip I have been to Las Vegas pretty much every year since then. In the late 90’s I started to spread my wings when tournament poker became a bit more prevalent and I began to travel a little to the UK and Europe to play some events. I enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to take a year off work in 2000 to play full time. I spent 3 months of that year travelling around Nevada and the West coast of the USA with a friend, visiting virtually every card room there was at the time. The rest of the year was spent travelling and playing in Europe and the UK. At the end of the year, or more like 13 months as it turned out, I had actually made money during my travels. After bagging my biggest ever cash, in an online tournament at the end of 2004, I gave up work and have been writing and playing full time ever since. I play mostly in Ireland these days but still manage the odd trip away now and again. There’s just so much going on in Ireland that there’s not such a great need to travel any more.
I don’t for one second claim to be a great technical player, so don’t be expecting any strategy advice here but what I have done over the years is build up a great number of valuable contacts in the professional poker ranks and in the poker business in general so, if I don’t know the answer, I probably know a man who does. So feel free to get in touch with any queries you may have regarding the poker scene in Ireland and beyond.

RESULTS

My last outing in Ireland was to the Irish Omaha Masters at the Eglinton Casino in Galway. The €500 main PLO event was won by local pro, Derek Murray, who took home €6,000 after a three way deal with Vincent McNella and James Groark who picked up €4,500 each. In what I believe was Ireland’s first ever Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament, Sonny Murray and Frank Dunleavy took €395 each with Donal MacAonghusa picking up €200 for third spot.

As I went specifically to play the Omaha events, it was a bit ironic that I ended up winning the final event, a €135 Hold’em tournament. Still trying to figure that one out! It was actually a three deal between myself, Barry Murray and Joe Sweeney. The records show my official share as €1,450 with the other two lads getting €1,300 each. Just noticed that it seems to have been a great help to have the surname Murray that weekend.

UPCOMING

UKIPT

The next major event in Ireland is the Poker Stars UK and Ireland Poker Tour leg, coming to Cork for the first time from 18th to 22nd May at the Rochestown Park Hotel. This tour has been getting great numbers recently with new records being set in the Nottingham leg at Dusk till Dawn and I would expect good numbers for Cork as well. The main event buy in is €500 + 60 and there will be two starting days on the Thursday and Friday. Full details can be found at www.ukipt.com

MAY MADDNESS DEEPSTACK

This a €200 + 20 buy in tournament scheduled for 28th to 30th May at Fitzpatricks Casino in Limerick. For further details log onto www.fitzpatrickscasino.com

CELTIC POKER GRAND FINAL

After a series of qualifying events held around the country, the Celtic Poker Tour Grand Final takes place in the Dolmen Hotel in Carlow from 2nd to 5th June. The main event buy in is €600 + 75. Full details can be found at www.celticpokertour.com

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

IRISH POKER AWARDS 2010

IRISH POKER AWARDS 2010

By Mick McCloskey

These awards, organised by Irishpokerrankings.com, were held in February at the Fitzwilliam Card Club in Dublin. The awards were the result of a public online vote and the winners of each category were as follows:-

Best Irish poker blogger – John O’Shea

Best poker forum – Irish Poker Boards

Biggest Contributor to Irish poker – Boylepoker

Best online poker site – Poker Stars

Best club/casino/tour in Ireland – Poker Stars UKIPT

Most improved player on Irish poker scene – Sean Prenderville

Best TD/Organiser/Club manager – J. P. McCann

Best poker event 2010 – Boylepoker IPO

Best online player – Jude “J. Thaddeus” Ainsworth.

Player of the year – John O’Shea

Lifetime Contribution to Irish Poker – Padraig Parkinson

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for these awards in 2010.

SUNDAY MILLION

There has been some talk lately that online poker was struggling in the current economic climate. If all the sites are struggling like Poker Stars they should be doing OK thank you very much. The 5th anniversary running of the Sunday Million has just taken place on Stars, who guaranteed a total prize pot of $5million for this $200 + 15 buy in event. The winner was guaranteed $1million as well as a brand new Lamborghini Gallardo 5.2 litre V10 super car. In the event, the amount of money up for grabs was more than double the guarantee at a staggering $11,825,600. The number of players trying their luck was a record breaking 59,128. Can you just imagine how big a venue you would need to run this as a live tournament? The number of players who made the cash in this event was 7,450. This number is something like the total number of entries to the world’s biggest tournament these days, the WSOP main event. There seems to be a bit of life left in online poker yet.
For the record, the winner was Luke Vrabel from Connecticut, U.S.A. who took just over $671,000, as well as the car, after the final 9 did a deal to chop the remaining prize money. Nobody actually got more than $1million with the top cash payout being around $844,000 and the smallest being $263,888. Not a bad return for a $200 investment.


NEWS

IRISH OPEN

The main event in Ireland this month is the Irish Open, scheduled to run over the Easter holiday weekend in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel. Things kick off on Thursday 21st April at 7pm with a €200 + 20 super satellite with rebuys for the first three levels (90 minutes). The four day main event, starting on Good Friday at 2pm, has a buy in of €3,200 + 300 and this year features a 20,000 starting stack with 60 minute levels for the first 6 levels and 75 minute levels after that. Ireland’s richest festival also features a full schedule of side events over the weekend, including a €825 Pot Limit Omaha event and a €330 Ladies Championship event.

JP MASTERS

The beginning of May sees the 4th edition of this popular festival being held in Dublin’s Ballsbridge Inn from 5th to 8th of the month. Things kick off on the Thursday night with a €150 short handed tournament at 8pm. This is followed at 10pm by a €100 super satellite for seats to the €560 main event. On Friday there is a €100 last chance turbo satellite for main event seats. The €500 + 60 main event starts at 6pm and features a 30,000 starting stack with 60 minute levels, increasing to 75 minutes for the final table. There is a full schedule of side events over the weekend including a Pot Limit Omaha tournament and nightly turbo events for the action junkies.
Full details of the festival and hotel deals can be found at www.irishpokerboards.com

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

RIGHT TIME, WRONG PLACE

RIGHT TIME, WRONG PLACE

By Mick McCloskey

I heard a funny story at the recent European Deepstack Championship in Dublin. I spoke to the man involved so I’m sure he is happy enough to have his name in print after his escapades. His name is Fergal Cawley. He lives in Co. Sligo and would not be a regular in Irish ranking events but he decided to come to Dublin to play in this one as a friend of his was playing. Unfortunately, when he arrived in Dublin he headed to the Burlington Hotel even though the tournament was actually taking place in the Ballsbridge Inn. After looking around the hotel foyer for any signs of a poker event, he asked the people at reception about the poker tournament and, naturally enough, no one knew anything about a poker event in the hotel. So, he called his friend and told him he was in the hotel but could not find the tournament room. The tournament was already well underway by this stage so his friend gave him directions about how to get from the hotel reception area to the tournament room. Fergal hung up and went off to search for the poker area, as directed, again without much success. He called his by now exasperated friend again to tell him that he still could not find the poker room. The two now decided that the next logical step would be for Fergal’s friend to get up from his own poker table and for the two to meet up in the hotel reception area. Naturally enough, as they were still in separate hotels, this plan was no more successful than the previous ones as the two lads stood waiting for each other in different parts of Dublin. So, it was onto the phone again and, eventually the penny dropped. Fergal finally made his way to the right hotel, found his table and seat and sat down to play poker, some four hours late.

The story has quite a happy ending though. Fergal managed to double up after playing only two or three hands and then went on to make the final table and finished in 6th place for a €14,200 payday. I’m not quite sure how Fergal’s friend reacted when the two met at the first break (the first break they happened to be in the same hotel that is) to be told that Fergal had by then twice as many chips as he had, despite only playing for about an hour or so compared to his friends 6 hour session. Perhaps his 10% share of Fergal’s winnings helped to dull the pain and the possible sense of injustice. After all, how can a man play proper poker with all these distractions going on!

NEWS

IRISH OMAHA MASTERS

After what seems like a deluge of poker tournaments coming thick and fast in Ireland, the month of March and the early part of April, before The Irish Open, is pretty much free of major events right now, especially for Texas Hold’em fans. There is a little something for Pot Limit Omaha fans in the form of the Irish Omaha Masters, scheduled for the 25th and 26th March at the Eglinton Casino Galway. The €500 + 50 main event is a triple chance affair with a 10,000 starting stack and two more chunks of 10,000, for a total of 30,000 chips, with 60 minute levels and is set to run for two days. The tournament starts at 7pm on the Friday night, with a cap of 108 players, playing 6 levels on the first night meaning, with breaks, a 2am finish to day 1.The main event action continues on Saturday at 3pm.

Saturday at 5pm sees the start of, what I believe, is Irelands first ranking Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better tournament. This is also a triple chance tournament with 10,000 chip stacks and add ons for a total of 30,000 chips. The levels are pretty short at 20 minutes so the action should heat up pretty quickly. The buy in is €90 + 10.

For the Hold’em fans there is a €135 + 15 freezeout of Saturday night at 8pm with a guarantee of €5,000.

Sounds like a different and interesting weekend, if you like that sort of thing. Full details can be found on Irish Poker Boards or on www.irishomahatour.com. For details of local accommodation email info@theeglinton.com or call 00353 (0)91 569222 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 00353 (0)91 569222 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

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