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.