My journey to Vegas got off to an inauspicious start as I struggled to make my way from Mile End to Heathrow in time for my early morning flight to Las Vegas. I was up by 5 o'clock, but the simple fact was that I hadn't allowed enough time to get from one side of London to the other. In particular, Acton Town to Heathrow seemed a lot shorter (an inch between thumb and forefinger) than it actually was. Note to self, notches on the Piccadilly line are not to scale. Punctuality has never been my strong suit, it's not in my genes to be reliable. My mother bumped in to my father on the main street the night before their wedding at 5.25pm. 'Did you get your suit sorted?', she inquired anxiously. 'Of course', he grinned confidently.'What kind of man do you think I am?', he bluffed as he scarpered off before the shops shut. Though my flight hadn't left, it was too late to board by the time I arrived but perhaps my father's smile came in handy as the clerk put me on the stand by list for other transatlantics at no extra cost. When my name was called at the departure lounge it was for a business class seat to Denver with a short connect to Las Vegas. As I relaxed in my massaging chair, sipped champagne, and savoured course after course of gourmet food, my early morning tube scramble seemed a world away.
My room at the Wynn was pretty sweet, and the hotel is quite spectacular, undoubtedly one of the most luxurious on the strip. As this was my first trip to Las Vegas, I spent much of the first couple of days wandering around slack jawed and gawping at the plastic world around me. In an effort to familiarise myself with my surroundings, I decided that despite the baking desert sun I would walk to the Rio. While my depth perception and inner compass worked fine and I was correct in thinking that it really wasn't all that far, I entirely underestimated the heat, and sweat so much that I was soaked through, the protective factor 30 washed away. Of course, I wasn't actually soaked through, rather I would have been, had the hellish sun not evaporated any liquid in seconds.
I familiarised myself with the Rio and its layout and later that day I played the first of two $500 WSOP mega satellites that I would play on the trip. I was unsuccessful in both attempts, and these are short stack, fast structured events. Having said that, I think there is tremendous value in playing them as I saw some pretty horrible play and a fast structure is really just something to adapt to rather than something to complain about. You know what it is before you play it. Many seasoned pros play these regularly leading up to the Main Event and sell the 'lammers' or tournament chips as they win them. If a decent player was to play 20 of these and end up with less than $10k in his balance, he would have to consider himself pretty unlucky. Over the rest of the week, I met up with Rob regularly for a beer, a burger, etc and Neil was kind enough to treat us to dinner one night at the Wynn in the company of Jesse May, Barny Boatman, and Anne Laymond. Rob and I sat back and let the storytellers get on with it (not that we had much choice) and it was one my personal highlights of the trip.
My first WSOP bracelet event was event #54 $1000 No Limit Holdem. The event is a bit of a blur to me but I was happy with how I played, and proud to make day 2 in my first ever event. My day two table was really soft but featured two familiar faces, Paul Mulvihill (Leedutd22 online) from Dublin and Antonio Salorio (famous for losing $100k playing deuce seven on season 4 of High Stakes Poker). I had chatted with Paul a bit the previous day as I was familiar with him from grinding the same games online, and as a fellow Irishman. Antonio, I had played with a lot the previous day though we had barely tangled and I respected his game. Though I started well and built my stack up a bit by being quite aggressive, I ultimately played a weak ace too fast on an A high board and Antonio snapped me off with a deceptively played AK. I was happy with my play over all but should probably have taken my foot off the gas against Antonio in this spot, there were plenty of cheap chips to pick up uncontested if I had concentrated on that. 520/3844 wasn't quite good enough to cash and though I was disappointed to bust out, I had definitely gained some confidence with the big one still to come.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Killarney UKIPT
My latest tournament outing at the UKIPT Killarney was my first since Nottingham, and while I was confident of performing well, I was also aware that nothing is certain in tournament poker except the variance and that a lot of luck would be required to go deep again. There was some cause for optimism though, as there were a number of factors which helped make this a good value proposition. Having a €1,000 event scheduled at a remote location during the WSOP and just before the Main Event immediately ruled out many casual players and ‘big name’ professionals and there was some speculation that the €250,000 guaranteed prize pool would include an overlay. While this turned out not quite to be the case, I would still say that this was probably one of the best value tournaments in the UK and Ireland this year.
Also making the trip were fellow Irishmen and former Graders Richard Hinds and Gerrard Harraghy. Gerrard has had some impressive tournament success recently and had actually qualified online in the very same satellite as myself, while Richard had intended to come down the night before to play the mega satellite. As he arrived late, he turned to blagging his way in to the event instead, as only he can, and managed to persuade Julian Thew, Nick Wealthall, myself, and a couple of others to take a 10 percent stake to limit his exposure and make the fee a little more affordable. I’m pretty sure that Richard could blag his way into just about any V.I.P. party, exclusive nightclub or other restricted event, and I fully expect to flick on ESPN to see him sitting between Ivey and Antonius at the $50,000 Players' Championship next year, looking cool and relaxed, having persuaded Doyle to stump up the buy-in. He’d probably do all right too; confidence and charm go a long way.
There was a notable difference between the way that people played in Killarney from my experience in Nottingham. While there was the usual mix of good players and weaker players, I felt like the bad Irish players were more inclined to run big bluffs and make mistakes by being too loose or overly aggressive whereas their English counterparts tended to be too rocky or tight. The Irish love a rogue, a chancer, a rebel, and faced with more of this type of opponent, I had a much more up and down tournament than the month previous in England.
While I never got too low in chips, I also never got a very big stack together, and each time I thought I was on the verge of it, I would get bumped back down. I was in the middle of the pack throughout Day 1 and Day 2, and naturally enough entered Day 3 about halfway down the leaderboard. With only 30 plus people left, I had a reasonable shot now of making back-to-back final tables. Coincidentally, there were 4 or 5 players that had previously made UKIPT finals in that group, and odder still was the fact that when we were down to two tables, two other players from my home town of Wexford remained.
Alas, it wasn’t to be for me this time as I eventually came up short when my 9-9 couldn’t catch up to K-K all in preflop against an aggressive player and I was out in 13th. My opponent had shoved over the top of an open raise two hands previously with A-2 and was raising three or four times an orbit so I was happy that I had made a reasonable play and really wasn’t as disappointed as I might have been.
Fellow Wexfordian, Femi Fakinle, ended up taking down the event and it couldn’t have gone to a nicer guy than the hyper aggressive soon to be father of three. Richard’s money finish also made me pleased personally and for my mate. I was also delighted that the finish put me fifth on the overall UKIPT leaderboard but with people like Big Mick Graydon, Michael Hill, and Chris Brammer also vying for position there, I’ll have my work cut out to keep myself in contention for the rest of the season.
So from the lakes, luscious hills and horse drawn carts of Killarney I headed off to the desert and bright lights of Las Vegas for my first WSOP experience where I hoped I had a little run-good left in me and could make an impression in the big one. Team Black Belt's aims were to make it a Lutonesque November Nine.
Also making the trip were fellow Irishmen and former Graders Richard Hinds and Gerrard Harraghy. Gerrard has had some impressive tournament success recently and had actually qualified online in the very same satellite as myself, while Richard had intended to come down the night before to play the mega satellite. As he arrived late, he turned to blagging his way in to the event instead, as only he can, and managed to persuade Julian Thew, Nick Wealthall, myself, and a couple of others to take a 10 percent stake to limit his exposure and make the fee a little more affordable. I’m pretty sure that Richard could blag his way into just about any V.I.P. party, exclusive nightclub or other restricted event, and I fully expect to flick on ESPN to see him sitting between Ivey and Antonius at the $50,000 Players' Championship next year, looking cool and relaxed, having persuaded Doyle to stump up the buy-in. He’d probably do all right too; confidence and charm go a long way.
There was a notable difference between the way that people played in Killarney from my experience in Nottingham. While there was the usual mix of good players and weaker players, I felt like the bad Irish players were more inclined to run big bluffs and make mistakes by being too loose or overly aggressive whereas their English counterparts tended to be too rocky or tight. The Irish love a rogue, a chancer, a rebel, and faced with more of this type of opponent, I had a much more up and down tournament than the month previous in England.
While I never got too low in chips, I also never got a very big stack together, and each time I thought I was on the verge of it, I would get bumped back down. I was in the middle of the pack throughout Day 1 and Day 2, and naturally enough entered Day 3 about halfway down the leaderboard. With only 30 plus people left, I had a reasonable shot now of making back-to-back final tables. Coincidentally, there were 4 or 5 players that had previously made UKIPT finals in that group, and odder still was the fact that when we were down to two tables, two other players from my home town of Wexford remained.
Alas, it wasn’t to be for me this time as I eventually came up short when my 9-9 couldn’t catch up to K-K all in preflop against an aggressive player and I was out in 13th. My opponent had shoved over the top of an open raise two hands previously with A-2 and was raising three or four times an orbit so I was happy that I had made a reasonable play and really wasn’t as disappointed as I might have been.
Fellow Wexfordian, Femi Fakinle, ended up taking down the event and it couldn’t have gone to a nicer guy than the hyper aggressive soon to be father of three. Richard’s money finish also made me pleased personally and for my mate. I was also delighted that the finish put me fifth on the overall UKIPT leaderboard but with people like Big Mick Graydon, Michael Hill, and Chris Brammer also vying for position there, I’ll have my work cut out to keep myself in contention for the rest of the season.
So from the lakes, luscious hills and horse drawn carts of Killarney I headed off to the desert and bright lights of Las Vegas for my first WSOP experience where I hoped I had a little run-good left in me and could make an impression in the big one. Team Black Belt's aims were to make it a Lutonesque November Nine.
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