"Yeah but what's his biggest score?"

In poker, there's an eternal philosophical battle between two camps divided by their reaction to this question. On one side you have what I call the bink merchants, who judge a player purely by his biggest score or scores. On the other, the grinders, who prefer to measure success over statistically meaningful sample sizes of thousands of tournaments rather than the lucky strike.

After the recent IPPF which ended with two proper young online grinders facing each other and agreeing to chop, I wrote in my blog "The last few years have seen the online kids rise to dominate the international stage, and the next couple will see the same thing happen here in my opinion". UKIPT Galway continued that trend: winner Emmett Mullin is a proper online grinder who despite having a biggest P5's score of just over $20k has notched up lifetime online winnings (as tracked by PocketFives) of over $1 million.

Props also to defending champ Nick Abou Risk who mounted a Raymeresque defence of his crown all the way to the final table, and one of the most promising newcomers on the Irish scene John "jwillo" Willoughby who also final tabled. Nick's friend Max Silver also added a high roller crown to his main event crown.

My own UKIPT campaign ended rather miserably with an exact bubble in a side event. After seeing my stack almost disappear near the bubble when I shoved into aces, I'd recovered somewhat on the exact bubble only to lose a flip (queens v ace king). I then more or less replicated my live week on the Sunday grind online, building a few stacks only to see them combust near the bubble and ended up doing another couple of grand.

No point whining or moaning though: after 6 weeks mainly devoted to live poker, it's time to redress the balance and get back to clicking buttons for a living.

As I hung around Monday waiting for my train, I railed the final table for a short while. The one hand of note I witnessed saw Mully get two outered on the river after calling a check raise on the flop, betting the turn (and getting called), and checking behind on the river. I had to chuckle to myself when a cheer went up from the other player's rail as the pot was pushed towards their man, clearly unconcerned about the fact that at every point in the hand when chips went in, he was far behind, and then when he finally did hit a 20/1 shot on the river, not another chip went in. Mully took this temporary reverse without histrionics or even reaction and got on with the job of winning the war: as you'd expect from a man who has played millions of hands online and understands that poker is a game of luck in the short term, but skill in the long term.

Mully is one of the Omagh crew spear-headed by Steve "allinstevie" Devlin which features several top class online grinders and a great guy: when I switched from playing stts to mtts online he popped up a few times on the rail on some of my early Stars final tables to give me some advice on the regs which I greatly appreciated. So I was really thrilled to see him win. He's had a few deep runs and crossbars live before so it was great to see him get his just rewards this time. He has the talent and the dedication for this to be the first of many, but the great thing about being a grinder is that even if it doesn't happen, he'll still keep ticking along online on the way to his next million in lifetime winnings. In response to my tweet celebrating his victory, Mully replied, in his usual self deprecating manner, "thanks a million Dara, pretty unbelievable tbh, this ones for all us grinders out there".

Most of last week was devoted to the European Deepstack. I played the main event and a few side events, and kept running into aces, except in one of the side events where I had the aces. Sadly, they were no match for KTo on that occasion, the only time the aces didn't hold.

I had a spell on the feature table late on day 1A. I'd gone for dinner with Jason Tompkins (who had just won the High Roller - well done lad!) and his lovely girlfriend Joy, Daragh Davey, Nick Newport and David Lappin. I'd stated my intention if I did find myself in the last hour with a 20K stack to get it in a lot lighter than I normally would in the hopes of either doubling up or busting (so I could re-enter 1B). There was general agreement that this was the soundest strategy in a deepstack event where you think you have a fairly big edge over the field: any loss in equity taking sub optimal gambles being compensated by gained equity from giving yourself a second full run at amassing a stack. In the event, my shoves all got through (I had a very good image at the table), which at least saw me move from under 20k to over 30k.

After busting the main event and the turbo side on Saurday, I played a few online games in the room. I late regged for the nightly Night on Stars on French Stars and ended up winning it for just over 10K, so once again it was a case of online to the rescue. The French at my table in the side the following day had heard of my win and were suitably impressed. Humble as ever, I pointed out that I'd actually won this tourney three times in the past few weeks, even though I've only played it about half a dozen times. One of French commented wrily: "You must like French fish". The win moves ne to my highest ever P5 rankings just outside the top 200 in the world. It would be cool to break into the top 100 this year (but I probably need to play a lot less live and more online to get there).

This blog is being written just after busting the main event at UKIPT Galway. After a ropey start I got up to 35k near the end of the day, comfortably above average. I then lost with tens versus jto when I called a 15 bb shove, and kjs v Aj when I'd opened and was priced in to call the reshove. AJ is this week's bogey hand: I was crippled today when I shoved qjs into it, and busted the 6 max side with it versus king 7.

The UKIPT itself seems to go from strength to strength with the number of runners way up this year despite the increased buyin. On Thursday Quentin (one of the Stars managers in the UK) invited the serial online qualifiers out to dinner and was interested to hear our thoughts on what appealed to us about the online sats and what improvements could be made. I think there's quite a widespread view of Stars as an arrogant market leader, so it's always good to see that they are willing to listen and maybe learn.

 I don't normally sell my action in live events any more but my German friend Max Heinzelmann asked if he could buy a "lucky 1%". Max won EPT Player of the Year last year for his achievement of getting headsup in back to back EPTs (Berlin and San Remo) so I figure his lucky 1% could be very lucky indeed. Unfortunately it wasn't to be though.

I still have a few sweats with horses in the main so hopefully one of them binks or else  I'll just have to try to win another online tournament to get out.

At the Deepstack, David Lappin pointed to a tall young guy and simply said "Dick from Nottingham". Finding myself standing beside him later as we filed out to a break, I asked "How are you getting on Dick?" The reaction to this polite enquiry was somewhat unexpected. Mainly because his name wasn't Dick. Turns out Lappin meant dick from Nottingham.

It seems that every year I start with my main New Year's resolution being *more online, less live". This year's good intentions haven't amounted to any more than previous attempts, with practically all of January being devoted primarily to live poker. And February's not looking much better.

I targeted the first leg of the Spanish Estrellas tour primarily as an easy supply of tournament dollars. The online sats are particularly soft so after multiple binks I was effectively better than freerolling in the tournament itself. Just as well, as despite a late rush on day 1 that saw me up in the top 10 in chips, it went south faster than a Ryanair flight to Madrid on day 2. Still, Madrid's not an unpleasant place to find yourself having to pass a few days in January, so with Mrs. Doke in tow for once, I diverged from my normal routine of playing side events and just chilled for a few days. Mrs. Doke is a very gifted linguist who is fluent in four languages and can get by in several others, but sadly Spanish isn't one of them. It was striking to watch how fast someone like her can learn though: by the end of the trip she was gabbing away in Espanol.

My travelling companion to EMOP Prague was the less linguistically accomplished Daragh "Mongoose" Davey, fresh from a number of recent online triumphs. With a very strong travelling Irish contingent that included Connie O'Sullivan, Kieran Walsh, Jason Arthur, Richie Lawlor, Daragh Davey, brother Noel and Duncan Keane, Damien Collins, Rebecca McAdam and her boyfriend Niall, Francis "Wally" McCormack, Kevin Spillane, Gary Clarke, and Mick Rossiter, there were sound reasons to be optimistic that at least one of us would make the final table. In the event, we got two on, my Irish Eyes teammate Connie O'Sullivan, and Kevin Spillane. Connie, one of the most popular figures in Irish poker, played brilliant disciplined poker with a short stack for most of the tournament and was unlucky not to go further than 8th. Kevin, who went deep last year in EMOP Lisbon, also got unlucky on the final table after making a brilliant call with sixes on a 98x flop against two overcards. Unfortunately, one of the overcards hit the river, but it was a great performance by the very likeable Kevin to finish fourth.

I never got going in the main event but did at least have the consolation of cashing twice (11th in the Leaderboard final, and third in a turbo side event) to come home with more money than I left with, which is always nice. Daragh bricked everything, despite playing very well, but did have the consolation of hustling me into my first ever degen bet on a sport I know nothing about. After offering me the pick of the teams in the Superbowl, I plumped for the Patriots purely on the grounds that I seemed to recall hearing someone say they were favourites. If the pain of having to part with hard currency wasn't enough to dissuade me from relapsing into such degeneracy in the future, a very strong desire to avoid ever having to witness the Mongoose Celebration Dance which made Madonna's half time show almost palatable by comparison surely will.

This was my first ever trip rooming with Daragh, and you never really know how you're going to get on with someone in that context til you try, but from my end it was a very enjoyable experience. Daragh's good company with a sly sense of humour and a good sport. He even endured having to walk round the same sights of Prague twice to show me around on my day off (we played different day 1's so he'd already done the tourist thing the night before). Better still, and I don't want anyone to think this comment is directed at them personally (even though it is: hello Mick Mccloskey!) Daragh is a very silent and sound sleeper. Maybe a little too sound: getting him up in the mornings was something I felt might challenge a nuclear bomb. But as he pointed out himself, it's a well known fact that the mongoose likes his sleep.

Next few weeks are very busy on the live poker front with the European Deepstack championships being followed by Galway UKIPT. Galway's always great craic and will be a chance to catch up with lots of people. My good friend Keith McFadden who has been off doing other things is making a comeback for this. Keith has a great record in Galway and will be lodds on for a deep run.

I didn't play last year's IPPF so when I said to Mick Mccloskey I'd go with him to this year's version, in my mind I thought I was going to a game with 100 or so runners. So it was a pleasant surprise to learn it'd be more like 400. On the drive down, I made various business calls and found other ways to play with my new smartphone, all the time trying to drown out Mick's complaints about dereliction of navigation duties.

Day 1 went pretty well. I chipped up throughout without any major incident. My table did get progressively tougher as the evening wore on with the arrival of Colin Hammond, John Keown and Ciaran "Tag" Taggart. Otherwise, the highlight of the day was one of the great characters on the Irish poker scene Nicky Power mugging it up for the cameras to take the piss out of my Twitter parody account (choke_doke).


I was happy to bag up comfortably above average having almost doubled my starting stack. By contrast, Day 2 couldn't have gone much worse. I missed the opportunity to triple up when Jamie Flynn opened for the umpteenth time. I was about to threebet light with T7s when I noticed the guy beside me was almost wetting himself with excitement, leading me to suspect he had a hand. So I let the hand go. My read was spot on as my neighbour threebet Jamie. After Jamie peeled, they got it in with 88 and 99 on a J98 board! The board didn't pair so my T7 would have scooped.

My favoured strategy in softish live events with a good structure is to try to chip up steadily using a smallball approach, rather than making any premature big moves. However, there inevitably comes a time when you have to kick on as blinds and antes escalate. After Gavin Flynn opened to 1700 utg at 400/800 with a 100 ante, I elected to flat call with AK in the small blind. I prefer flatting in these spots out of position against a good player when the effective stack is 40 to 55 bbs, as the threebet just inflates the pot and makes it likely that if we do get it all in pre, I'm going to be flipping at best. I think the threebet also folds out most of the hands in Gav's range that I dominate, while the flatcall disguises my hand. It allows me to get away cheaply if I miss the flop, but potentially win a big pot if I hit. The big blind came along. The flop was 8 high all hearts (I had the ace of hearts). In my mind, I now have enough equity that I'm happy to get it all in, and did after the big blind potted it, Gav folded, and I check raised. I assumed I was flipping nearly always with two overs and a flush draw, but wasn't in this case. I was up against a queen high made flush and didn't get there.

I didn't really think too much about the hand until a good player at the table told me later he didn't like how I played it, preferring the 3 bet pre, and the check call on the flop. I strongly disagree though (I don't like putting in a chunk of my stack when I'm going to have to fold most turns and can add about 30% to my stack without showdown if the check raise gets through), but I ran the hand by Lappin and Rob Taylor (who both play it same as me).

I was back later for the side event. I made a strong start doubling my stack early on without any major showdowns. There was one funny hand with Ciaran Cooney. Ciaran 4xed the button to 200 over a limper, I threebet to 550 from the big blind with queens, the limper flatted, Ciaran 4 bet, and after a little deliberation I decided the fold was most prudent here. Ciaran showed 93o. He told me later he'd done it because in his very first live event a few years ago he'd 6 bet me with 23o and got me to fold, so I guess Ciaran's timing is good in that he finds me with the one hand I'd be 3 bet folding here (everything weaker gets flatted at this point, and everything stronger is not getting folded). I'm fine with the fold though, there's nothing wrong with folding the best hand from time to time (it certainly beats calling with the worst every time), and a couple of top players told me they'd make what Lappin calls a "boxy" fold in this spot.

I ruined my good start the next time I got queens. Having raised in late position and got called by both blinds, I chet when checked to on a 542 flop. Smurph called and the big blind now shoved. My instant read on him was that he wasn't strong, he seemed just to be fed up of my constant raising, so I figured he was either overplaying something marginal, or making a spazzy move assuming I couldn't have hit that flop. So I called. Smurph now reshoved and my gut was I was now beaten. However, I only needed to be good about 35% of the time to call, and convinced myself I could be up against a smaller overpair or a pair and a draw hand involving a three. However, on reflection I don't think I'm good here often enough, so not exactly my finest hour. The big blind had 94o, and Smurph a set of 4s. I never recovered from this, being forced to wait for a decent spot to shove. A7 over a couple of limps looked like one but ran into AJ behind. That ended my weekend on the playing front.

I hung round on day 3 as a couple of my friends were still in and going well. Unfortunately it went pear shaped fairly quickly for both Daragh Davey and Padraig "Smudge" O'Neill so it was time to get clane out of dodge, or to dodge out of Clane, and back home for a Sunday grind. I had a bad one, but had the consolation of ending my night railing Daragh and Lappin deep in some majors. Lappin, playing his first major in ages, romped into the last 100 of the Milly like the classic thoroughbred he is, and just as we were both getting excited about the 200k plus up top, unfortunately ran tens into kings with 67 left. Great show by the talented Mr Lappin though, who has also made me the subject of his latest entertaining blog which explains among other things why I'm not David Bowie. He assures me the entry became his most read ever within 24 hours.

Daragh Davey, who bunked on the couch in the suite myself and Mick shared and got a lift back from Clane with us demonstrated his true grit within a few hours. Shaking off the disappointment of playing brilliantly for 3 days to just double his money, he ended headsup in the Ipoker 200K, and was unlucky not to win when his AT was outdrawn by KQ. I'm on record as an admirer of "other" Daragh, and my admiration is based at least as much on his temperament, discipline and attitude as it is on his poker skills (which are considerable). In a world where people often confuse flamboyance with talent, and arrogance with accomplishment, Daragh prefers to just get on with the business quietly and with class. I'm pretty sure this is the first of many big results.

Well done to Danny Maxwell for his great blogging and photographs this weekend (including those that adorn this blog). Danny's blogging for IPB of Irish live events really adds to the occasion. I also ran into Breifne at the weekend, promoting his new venture, SharkRankings.com. The basic idea is to have a ranking list for live and online events. Irish Eyes are running a number of qualifying events at quarter past eight 5 nights a week. I've been hitting these up when I can with spectacularly unsuccessful results (I've yet to cash!).

This blog is being typed up on the plane to Madrid, where later today I play 1a of Estrellas. Then next week I'm off to Prague (with Daragh Davey) for EMOP (and the live final for last year's leaderboard). With the deepstack following that and then Galway UKIPT, it's going to be a very busy month on the live front, making it harder to keep ticking away online. I rose to an all time high on the PocketFives rankings list after my recent rush of results (in the top 300 hundred in the world, and number 3 in Ireland, although I slipped down to number 4 at the weekend as Jude tore up Stars to move back ahead of me). With more and more top class Irish online players emerging, it gets harder and harder to stay near the top iof the Irish list. When I broke into the top 10, I wasn't even in the top 1000 worldwide: now you need to be around 500 or so worldwide to make top 10 in Ireland.

Finally, speaking of top class online players, a big well done to two of the Dungarvan gang, Mark O'Connor and Gavin Flynn, for chopping the main event in Clane. Both lads are part of the Dungarvan group of players that seem to feed off each other's success, and you'll be hearing a lot more of these lads in future. I heard that two of Ireland's "live pros" were taking the piss out of what they called internet players on their table on day one. While it used to be the case that many online players struggled to transition to live, I think it was noteworthy that when the dust cleared at the weekend, it was two young online players who had risen to the top. The last few years have seen the online kids rise to dominate the international stage, and the next couple will see the same thing happen here in my opinion.

Having viewed my latest career change with a mixture of shock and disdain initially, my daughter Fiona seems to be coming round to the view that there may be something to this poker lark. When she was home for Christmas, she asked me to give her a crash course so she could play with her housemates.  It took only 15 minutes or so as she's a very quick learner (it's clear that whatever talent for the game I possess she has inherited). She's still a novice though, and I got the following amusing text from her this weekend:

"If you're playing holdem and you accidentally say straight instead of flush before you show your hand, do you lose the pot because of it? Or is it just a stupid rule the lads just made up?"

As I texted back to her that they'd made it up, I regretted that we never had that Daddy-daughter talk where I explain that lads are sneaky. Limerick lads especially.

I went in to my first WPT confident about how I was playing and optimistic I could get a result. Maybe I should aim to go into tourneys pessimistic and jittery, because I managed to butcher my first hand of note. After three betting a German who seemed to be playing very aggro with aces and getting flatted, I then got check called on a JT7 board with two clubs and a low diamond. A low diamond on turn made the board even more draw heavy so instead of checking behind for pot control like I normally would this early, I fired again. That's actually ok I think given the drawy nature of the board but once he raised I should have just gone away. Instead I called to see what he did on the river. All the draws missed so when he fired for about a third of pot I levelled myself into thinking it might be a cheap stab with a missed draw or a blocker with a hand like kings. It wasn't: just top set. So my 30k starting stack was now 20k.

Not to be too results based but it probably made no difference as no matter how many chips I had I think I was always destined to be felted when I got set over setted later on. That left me with 10 bbs and there was no recovery. I shipped in with AKs, got called in two spots, then Dermot Blaine squeezed button for almost half his stack. The first flatter now went away, but the second one, Bodog sponsored pro Tatiana flatted again. The board ran out 7 high with no further betting and when Dermot announced ace high I was suddenly optimistic I might be chopping or even winning, but Tatiana somehow had kings.

I was back day for the IPC. Last year I got a number of monkeys off my back like never having cashed in an EPT main event or a WSOP, so 2012 would be a good year to start cashing in the biggest events on the Irish calendar (never having cashed in an IPC, IO or IWF). My tournament started slowly as I struggled with card death and having Nik Persaud to my left. Things picked up when Padraig Parkinson arrived. Parky was clearly enjoying the festivities too much to be overly fussed about the poker, and having bluffed off half his stack to Nik first hand, did likewise with the other half to me next hand. That got me through to day 2, although a period of card death near the bubble meant I drifted back from being well above average after I made a hero call v Marc McDonnell that prompted some banter on Twitter. This whole business of people tweeting at the table makes things interesting (it also means people at home can follow the banter and get hand and chip updates). When I came back on day 2, Jason was sat directly behind me but I learned of his exit via Twitter!

I flipped well on day 2 to get right into the mix, then lost a big one with kings v ace jack all in pre that would really have put me right in the hunt. That left me in 20 bbs mode again and after finding aces I played them in a way designed to try to extract maximum value and a full double up. It didn't really work out on this occasion as my opponent hit a set on the turn, so it was another second final table exit. Good at least to get the year going with a live cash, although to be honest between my own buyins and those of my stable it barely made a dent on my losses for the weekend.

I was home in time for a Sunday grind and thankfully that went well enough to more than wipe out the live poker losses, as I got a second on French Stars. I followed it with a win a few days later in their main nightly which I bought into late. I was intending to have a night off and had gone into town for dinner with an old friend, then caught a movie with Lappin, and some more food with Lappin, Mongoose and Triona, but when I got home the itch was there so I late regged just in time. Pretty glad I did as I ended up binking for for €8300. So as ever, online rule, live drools.



Right before the WPT I had a long interesting chat with Andy Black. He'd been reading up on ultrarunning so was 20 questions, and was telling me about a one week retreat he was just back from which was invigorating. By the end of my few days in Citywest I was feeling (and looking: there's a rather horrible photo on IPB courtesy of Danny) anything but invigorated. My ongoing health problems are probably something I need to start paying more attention to and factoring in when scheduling. I had been thinking of doing the full WSOP this year but unless the health issue has completely cleared by then (which is possible but unlikely) I might need to look at a 2 to 3 week raiding visit instead. I'm also going to have to maybe look at curtailing my domestic schedule too rather than simply playing everything on the calendar.

Tomorrow I'm appearing with Breifne on his Dublin City FM Sunday sports show On The Ball. Think I'm scheduled for arpound 4.30. Breifne is currently launching a rankings site for Irish poker and there's a nightly €33 freezeout on Irish Eyes that I play most nights that counts for points. Irish Eyes Poker have also put a bounty on my head on the night I do play (whoever knocks me out gets entry to a freeroll for the monthly 100K game on Irish Eyes worth €200) so hopefully I'll see you there at some point. Also, I recently did an interview for PocketFives on the occasion of my second triple crown

OK, here goes with the review of the year that was, 2011.

January
My year got off to a quiet start, with January being one of only two months in the year where I didn't get a Hendon mob entry. I did play my first ever EMOP, where I got slowrolled by a granny, and ate sushi with Jason Tompkins and his girlfriend, who was attended on by her own lesbian fan club.

February
Saw me notch up my first official (Hendon mob) cash of the year. Nothing to get too excited about, a min cash in the Nottingham UKIPT, although coupled with the cash in the Galway leg it did see me high up the UKIPT leaderboard and thinking maybe I should play all the legs chasing the points (I eventually gave up after failing to cash in Cork). Highlight online was being told by an English Stars grinder that Stephen "allinstevie" Devlin had told him I was a crazy LAG, "the craziest man in Ireland". High praise indeed.

March
Another UKIPT (Manchester), another cash, but not in the main event. I final tabled the £300 side event but failed to last an orbit on a table with 4 Irish players. Online, I had my deepest ever run in a Stars major, chipleading the Sunday warmup for hours before ultimately bubbling the final table.

April
A big month for me live, as I notched up three Hendon mob cashes in a week, and four in the month. It started with a 4th place finish in Malaga (Estrellas). From Malaga, I headed straight to Berlin for my only EPT main event of the year, and got the monkey of never having cashed in an EPT main event off my back. Having clung on without much of a stack for days (earning me the label of "Grinder of the Tournament" on the official blogs) and then finally got one together with about 70 left, it was a disappointing finish to what looked like being a run all the way to the final table at least. I did make a final table in Berlin, in a turbo side event. I also final tabled (and chopped) another turbo towards the end of the month, at the Irish Open. April also saw me parting company with Bruce poker as my official sponsors. It was an amicable split and Bruce will always have a special place in my heart as the first site to sponsor me.

May
Got off to a ropey start when I turned up at the wrong hotel for the JP Masters. Once I showed at the right hotel, things went a bit better, as I final tabled the main event for the second time in my relatively short career. After busting in 7th, I jumped into yet another turbo, primarily attracted by the kick of having two Hendon mob entries for the same day. Alas, it was not to be, as even though I won the turbo (or more precisely chopped it with my good friend Breifne Earley), Hendon records entries under the date the tournament starts rather than finishes. Highlight of the month though was my appointment as Irish Eyes Team captain. A couple of other sites had expressed some interest after I left Bruce but after speaking to Steven there was always going to be only one winner, as the Team captain role was much more appealing than the traditional "sponsored pro".

June
Was meant to be all about Vegas, but I left for Vegas on a high having become the first Irish online player to claim a PocketFives triple crown. A few weeks previously, Jono Crute had a triple crown sweat during the week he stayed in my house, and had told me of his ambition to be the first Irish player to get one. His ambition became mine too and was achieved a few weeks later. The Triple Crown is a notional award dished out to online players who win three big tournaments on three different networks in a seven day period. Having won the 30 rebuy on Ipoker on Monday and the 15k turbo on Merge on Thursday, I had to head to Carlow for the CPT final so the triple crown was looking unlikely (I'd actually decided if I didn't bink on Thursday I'd give up trying and take a few days off before Vegas instead). However, having busted in Carlow in time to get back for a Sunday grind and a last tilt at the crown, I signed up for as many 100-200 runner fields with a sufficient buyin to qualify on various sites, to give myself the best possible chance of binking the all important third win. So I ruled out all the Sunday majors as too much of a longshot. Ironically, the one "major" I did play, the Bodog 100k, was the one I ended up binking. I only ended up playing it for a couple of reasons: first there was a significant 25k overlay (I can't resist an overlay), and also I'd just busted my Stars account and couldn't get more money on so I couldn't sign up for any more Stars games. So not only did I claim the triple crown, but did so in style with my biggest online score to date, 25k.



I then headed to Vegas and my blog detailing my less than optimal manner of so doing became my most read blog entry to date. An entry with zero poker content: a lesson there perhaps. In Vegas, I got another monkey off my back, the "never having cashed in an official WSOP event" one, as I cashed in two side events.

July
I went into the WSOP main event on something of a high having notched up a third cash at a WSOP side event. Having pessimistically booked my flight home for before day 3, I had to change my plans and hang round for day 3 which I made with a decent stack. A few hours in though, it all came crashing down, as my aces got busted by kings. Still, good overall Vegas for me and I came back feeling good about my game. The undeniable highlight of the month was leading four Team Irish Eyes players onto the final table of EMOP Dublin. Having been crippled just before the final table, I was happy to get headsup, where I managed to get it in ahead, but didn't manage to stay ahead. Still, my second place finish represented my second biggest ever score, and it was particularly sweet to reward the faith Irish Eyes had shown in appointing me Team captain.



August
A relatively low key month saw me continue to tick over online, and I notched up a min cash at the Unibet Open. Having put together a stack after the bubble, I was disappointed to get coolered, but you can't win them all. You can only try to.

September
Another lowkey month, where I notched up a minor cash in a side event at the European Shorthanded Poker championships.

October
Saw me hit my second EPT of the year (London) but get there too late for the main. I did have a good trip though, final tabling the EPT country of the Year freeroll and also cashing in the 1K side event, maintaining a near perfect record of cashing in at least one event at all but one of the EPTs I've attended. October was a sad month for Irish poker though, with the death of one of its greatest characters, Sean Gregory.

November
Another "four Hendons in one month", starting with a minor cash at JP's mini WSOP (where I also chopped the IPB Last Longer: one of several I managed this year). I ended the month on a high, winning or chopping two events at the Fitzwilliam festival (the main event, and as part of the Old Nits team in the team event), and cashing in a third. I also won a specially organised sit n go at EMOP Riga in between.

December
Another lowkey month live saw me threatening to move into the chiplead near the bubble of APT Manila only to have aces dogged by kings again at a crucial point. The month and year finished on a real high online though, as I bagged ny second Pocket Fives Triple Crown. Having won a $109 freezeout on Stars on Tuesday, I followed it up with a $50 freezeout on Ipoker the following night. After busting the Fitz EOM in time to play a few night games the next night, I got headsup with the chiplead in the High Roller on Carbon, but lost a bunch of races and 40/60 to lose to Portugal's Miguel Silva. It all came good the follwing evening though, when I got down to the last three of a $100 freezeout on Party. However the other two still standing were online beasts, Joao Mathias "TDurdenWar" and Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikerski. This time I got headsup with Joao and after a ding dong headsup battle, we got it in racing and this time I won.



This upswing right at the end cemented 2011 as my best and most profitable year ever in poker. Online, I matched the year I had in 2011, but live and overall had my best year ever. I also made a bit of money on staking and other bits and bobs.

Staking
I did a lot more staking this year, and had a profitable year, thanks primarily it has to be said to my good friend Rob Taylor, who I had 10% of in the Irish Open (which he final tabled) and 25% of in the Fitz main event (which he chopped with me and 4 others). Next year's going to be even bigger for me on the staking front and I'm going out on more of a limb, so fingers crossed it works out for me.

Blog
I've always been surprised at the number of people who read this blog. I started it purely for my own benefit, and even now I see its primary purpose as providing a snapshot of where I am in poker at any given time and a sort of online chronicle or scrapbook I'll have to look back on when it's all over. It's very hard to keep a blog fresh, the typical trajectory with most blogs is after a period where every entry is basically the same they fizzle and die. I'm conscious of having to make an effort to avoid this and thankful to my many friends for being much more interesting characters than I am myself and therefore providing me with fresh fodder thanks to their antics. Special mention to Jono Crute whose truly bizarre antics and letters to poker site support staff kept ius all amused. After that "How I got to Vegas" blog proved an unexpected success in terms of attracting readers, readership of the blog actually built on that through the rest of the year. My blog has always been well read in Ireland, but this was the year that saw it build a bigger readership outside Ireland (approximately 75% of my readership is now overseas).

Other media
I'm a fairly unrepentant social network whore and anyone wishing to follow my career in excruciating detail can do so on Twitter and Facebook. This year also saw me contribute a monthly column to Player Ireland, a blog for the Star website, and a weekly "Letter from Doke" for Irish Eyes team members. I've also become a frequent contributor to Breifne Earley's Sunday afternoon sports show "On The Ball" on Dublin City FM. There have been times I've been concerned I might be overpressing and overstretching a little but hey, as my granny used to say, if something's worth doing, it's worth doing to obsessive extremes.

Commentary
This year I also provided regular live stream commentary at several major events. Particular highlights included chatting with Jesse May and a personal hero of mine Dan Harrington at the Irish Open, providing commentary on the final table with another personal hero and best in the business Neil Channing, commenting with my good friend Lappin at the JP mini WSOP, and working with Rebecca and Emmet at the Irish Winter festival. I also did some commentary at the Unibet Open (with Roy Brindley).

The Dokes
Readers of my annual wrapups from other years may recall that I usually hand out awards to Best Player and Most Promising. The Dokes are even more notional than the PocketFives Triple Crown, but here goes anyway.

Player of the Year
Last year I gave this to Sean Prendeville, who crushed both live and online. This year is a little different with no one player crushing across both, so I'm splitting the award in two.

Live Player of the Year has to be Niall Smyth. Not only did he win the biggest tournament on the Irish calendar (the Open) but he followed it with another win in Killarney, and a deep run at the Winter festival where it looked like a unique treble was on. Obviously Eoghan O'Dea deserves special mention: his appearance in the November 9 was the biggest thing to happen to Irish poker in years, but it's my award to give, and reflects my belief that the true measure of greatness in poker is not the one big one, but consistency. So it has to be Niall for me. Special mention also to Dermot Blain who is phenomenally consistent, and hopefully it's only a matter of time before he wins a really big one.



Online Player of the Year has to be Big Mick G. He's topped the Irish rankings at Pocket Fives for most of the year, and broken into the top 100 in the world.



One to Watch in 2012
I'm tempted to give this to last year's recipient Jono Crute just for the sheer LOL factor of giving it to the same again more than once (Tom Kitt used to win it every year in the old Boards awards). However, Jono's had a great year online and is likely to rinse and repeat in 2012, and I don't think he'll be giving live poker much more focus than he did this year. I'm also tempted to give it to David Lappin who has become a formidable live player this year (not that he was ever bad: he did chop the first major live event he ever played, a Unibet Open) and after taking a lot of this year off to pursue other career interests has vowed to return to online with a vengeance in 2012, but giving it to someone who has already achieved as much as Lappin has seems foolish. So instead I'm going to nominate Daragh "Mongoose" Davey. The Mongoose has been knocking on the door in major events all year (and getting it slammed in his face in the form of horrible doggings late on) and is the one young player I think has all the tools to crush both online and live.

Special mention to two hotbeds of upcoming talent. Dungarvan has several top young players coming through (Mark O'Connor fted the IPO) and Drumlish is threatening to be the new Claregalway with two of the most promising young players in the country.

2012
If 2012 is anything as good to me as 2011 was, I'll be a happy man writing another annual review blog in a year's time. Hopefully, it won't be a case of pride goes before a fall, and with a little help from my friends I'll continue to improve and adjust as needed to stay ahead of the curve, May we all: me, my friends and all my blog readers, have an awesome 2012. Gl us.

Not a lot to report since last blog since I haven't been out of the house except for my daily run followed by taking the dog for a walk as a warmdown. It's a sign of the times, or rather my age, that the dog forces me to run faster on the "walk" than I do on my actual run. The rest of the time I've been grinding away steadily, with good results. This week I've already won a $109 freezeout on Stars and a $50 freezeout on Ipoker to set up a triple crown sweat for the rest of the week. I've also shipped various satellites, won't bore you with the details here (that's what Twitter and Facebook are for).



Readers of the last blog entry will be relieved to hear that my friends Jono and Karl Henrik made it back safe and sound from the USA's most criminal city. Like a lot of young guys who makes his fortune from clicking buttons online, Jono's wealth is primarily of the "number on a screen" variety and he struggles to get his hands on actual currency. Since I possess some actual currency, I volunteered to help him out by swapping some of his online moneys for the money he'll need to fund him and his stable at the WPT. Stars seem to be slightly dubious of this young guy routinely moving around vast sums of money (obvious drug dealer), so when he transfered to yet another new person (ie., me), they sent him this email:

"Dear GAWA9,


As this transfer is very large, and you have not transferred to this player before, please confirm by email that you would like us to proceed with your request.


Please include the real name of the intended recipient in your response.


Thank you for your co-operation in this matter. We apologize if this extra security measure causes you any inconvenience.


Regards,


PokerStars Security"

To which Gawa9 replied in his own inimitable manner:
"Hi,


Please proceed, his name is Dara O'Kearney, hes an excellent card
player, a good friend and has a hot daughter.


Cheers"

I say his own inimitable manner as Jono has considerable pedigree in support banter, with the following one he sent to Party a while back ranking as surely the finest piece ever by anyone anywhere:

"Hello Party Poker,

As Im sure you are aware, your server went down again today in the
middle of many tournaments. I am currently in the 20r 10k, 50 10k and
the 110 speed as well as registered for the 33t, 10r speed and 90 7k.
Obviously I expect refunds for all of these to be in my account by the
time I wake up tomorrow. Having dealt with this before its very
possible you will tell me this is a problem with my internet however I
am playing many other poker sites as well as browsing the world wide
web with no problems and all of my friends who play on your site have
the same problem so I think it's best if we dont drag this out and you
just hurry up and give me my money back.

If I were to liken your site, "Party Poker" to a party I might go to
in real life it would be a house party in which the host promises
girls and alcohol of the highest standard (great tournament schedule
and software) and the beer will be free (no rake) and the females lack
morals (soft fields). However upon arrival you discover that whilst
the alcohol and girls are amazing, they just randomly leave and your
left with frustrations of wondering what the fuck is going on and
nothing but a skanky hooker and a few cans of cheap lager.

I hope my analogy makes you see the error of your ways and maybe one
day you may even offer a quality service.

Thanks for the refunds in advance

Jonathan Crute

xoxo"

It's that time of year where players start to reflect on the year they've had, and in some cases go a bit mad. (More on that later).

As the year draws to a close, it's time to look back and reflecting how I did overall this year and whst I can do better next year.

Online
Barring a major bink or downswing in the next few days, my bottom line profit for 2011 is comfortably over $200k but down on 2010. I probably worked harder this year online and had my biggest scores this year (a few 5 figure ones), and I think I ran ok overall (certainly not below expectation) so I think the dip is down to a couple of things:
(1) Game selection. I didn't game select as well this year as previous years. I tried a number of bigger higher prestige games and while I more than hold my own overall in these, these are essentially the poker equivalent of vanity publishing in my book (I summed up my thoughts on this during the week on IrishPokerBoards). Practically all my profit comes from $100 and less buyins. For example, on Stars this year, I beat all six levels I played decent volume at by a hefty margin (261% ROI in the $60-$100 group). Big Mick G and Jude both said to me in London at the EPT that there are no good games (apart from Sunday) with a buyin of over $150 these days: it's just the best players in the world swapping $'s and paying rake.
(2) Tougher year. Online inevitably gets tougher over time. Several of the other top Irish online players have seen their bottom line plummet this year. Some have even recorded losing years. At the end of the day (or year) when you toss in rakeback, bonuses and other extras, making over a quarter of a mill clicking buttons at home is more than acceptable.

Nicky (Power) said to me in Vegas a few years ago that the game passes everyone by in the end. This stuck in my memory and made me determined to make the most of it while I can still beat the game online. To be honest, live is so soft that I can't imagine ever reaching the situation where I wouldn't have a fairly clear edge outside of EPTs and WSOPs, but online I can definitely feel I might be looking at a 3-5 year shelf life. Hopefully when that point comes when I can't beat online any more by a worthwhile margin, I'll be able to step back, see it and walk away, without having to do my roll first all the time complaining about variance. They say that all political careers end in failure: too many successful poker careers end in busted bankrolls.

Live
2011 was my most profitable year live to date, helped in no small part by my second place finish at EMOP Dublin. But like my online year which was very consistent (I made approximately the same in both halves of the year, and don't think I had a losing month), I've been really consistent live this year in terms of notching up the results. I'll do a fuller summary in my end of year blog, but apart from EMOP Dublin, other highlights during the year included getting the "never cashed in an EPT main event" monkey off my back in the only EPT I played this year (Berlin), as well as the "never cashed in a WSOP event" one with 3 cashes in Vegas this summer. I also ended the year on a high chopping the Fitz main event and being on the winning team in the team event. My consistency this year is highlighted by the fact that I got a Hendon Mob entry every month this year except January and December, a total of 19 over the year which is my most ever in one year.

Onwards and hopefully upwards in 2012
Adding online and live together, 2012 was my most profitable year to date in poker. However, there's no disputing that I ran above Ev live (and possibly online too) so there's no room for complacency. I have to keep working to improve my game to stay ahead of the training sites curve. I have a very good brains trust of top players to discuss hands and strategy with. They're all top class players in their own right, and perhaps more importantly, they cover the entire spectrum of winning playing styles, so I get top class advice from every angle.

One thing I want to focus on more (again) in 2012 is game selection. Game selection has been the key to my career to date, allowing me to build from a bankroll of zero (I never deposited a cent online: everything I've won has been spun up from freerolls) following the path of least variance. While I'm now in a position bankrollwise to take a sustained and nasty downswing, and it could be argued it would be more profitable for me to focus on more profitable high variance games, I feel myself that I'm psychologically better equipped to deal with sailing along with no losing months (but also no massive scores). After all, I've always been a long distance runner, not a sprinter.

This year my game selection suffered slightly. I still made money across all the sites I played, and I played a good spread (my biggest winners this year were Bodog and Ipoker). But I definitely played quite a few games which would not be that profitable for me long term, so next year the plan is to stick more rigidly to the bread and butter games.

Live: well, we'll see what comes. Live is always such a small sample size that luck is the main determinant of success in any one year. That said, game selection is vital here too, and with the exception of the WSOP which I see as my one shot at glory every year, I won't be running around playing EPTs full of the best mtters in the world.

THIS GUY
I was finishing my night grind a few nights ago around 6 AM when my laptop started making that "You've got Skype" noise. Clicking the answer button, I heard the distinctive voice of Jono "Gawa9" Crute. As I recall, the conversation went along the lines of:

Gawa9: Doke, what's the name of that form you have to fill for the US?
Doke: Eh? Why?
Gawa9: Me and Karl Henrik are going to Detroit in a few hours.
Doke: Again, eh and why?
Gawa9: We just decided we wanted to go to the US.
Doke: When?
Gawa9: An hour ago.
Doke: And Detroit?
Gawa9: There were flights. What's that form?
Doke: ESTA. I'll skype you the link.
Gawa9: ESTA, that's it. Doke, you're a legend. See Karl Henrik, just gotta ask a Vegas veteran these things
Doke: When's your flight?
Gawa9: 10 AM. From Dublin airport.
Doke: Really? How you getting to Dublin?
Gawa9: Hmmmm. When do we need to be there?
Doke: Probably around 8, you have to clear immigration on this side.
Gawa9: Karl Henrik, we're gonna need a cab.
KH: Where to?
Gawa9: Dublin airport.
KH: OK.
Doke: You realise Detroit's not exactly one of the US's prettiest cities right?
Gawa9: Really? That sucks
Doke: Be like some Americans randomly deciding to fly to Milton Keynes for Christmas
Gawa9: That makes me sad
Doke: You're going through with this?
Gawa9: No choice now. Flights already booked
Doke: Enjoy Detroit so. Go visit a car factory and walk 8 Mile imo
Gawa9: Not doing 8 Mile! Can you ring my Mum and explain if I don't come back?

Obviously there was drink implicated, and Jono apparently woke up on a transatlantic flight wondering how he'd got there remembering only that he'd gone pub the night before. Since then, Facebook and Skype has been unusually entertaining with glimpses from the most awesome poker road trip ever. Highlights include a novel solution to what to do when you want to drive away from Detroit but have no credit card with which to rent a car (correct answer, it turns out, is ask a cop who drives you round to cheap second hand places where you eventually buy a red 1995 pickup), a decision to drive to Chicago stopping at the funniest town name they could find (Welcome to Climax was an early contender, but with no room at the Inn they ended up in Kalamazoo). I'm sure Jono will be posting a trip report on the crazy kid's blog at some point, but I just felt this whole moment of seasonal madness was just too good to go unnoted on my blog. Jono: in a world of people pretending to be "characters", you're a genuine eccentric, and I love you for it.

On paper, it looked easy enough: Dublin to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Manila. I knew from past experience that Amsterdam airport is big and can be tricky to connect through, but it was Hong Kong where I almost came a cropper.

Proof that I shouldn't be allowed out of the house alone, part one
Having been warned that Hong Kong doesn't do gate PA announcements, I located the Cathay Pacific flight to Manila on the screens and installed myself at the indicated gate. While I waited there in the eery silence, I availed of the free Wifi to chat to some friends. The spell and silence was eventually broken by a PA announcement warning Dara O'Kearney that his flight was now closing. I strolled over to the official. He strolled away. Another passenger looked at my ticket and pointed out it was not for this flight to Manila, but another one just leaving from some other gate. A quick look at the screens confirmed there were two Cathay Pacific flights to Manila, and the one I was supposed to be on was departing. As I checked the gate, the flight literally disappeared from the screen. A panicked run through the terminal and I zoned in on an empty gate with no display but two security guards. Good news: this was the gate. Bad news: the flight had departed. As I was processing this piece of info, a female Cathay Pacific hostess emerged pointing at the shute and shouting "run! run!" Having no reason to believe that this was anything other than sound advice, I ran ran. Down the shute, round the corner, and I literally hurdled into the plane as the door was sliding shut. The air hostesses on the plane found this incredibly amusing.

This is Manila
My first impression of Manila was that it was a symphony of praise to chaos theory. On the cab ride in from the airport, I observed that motorists paid little heed to lanes or the like, but liked to beep their horns every few seconds. The cab weaved in and out and around to a constant cacophony of beeps. Took a bit of getting used to, but once I did it seemed to me that as lawless and chaotic as it appeared, traffic was flowing much faster than it would anywhere people respected lane rules and traffic lights.

The hotel where the tournament was taking place was booked out for the first night, so I scooted round the corner and found another. Scooting is probably not a good verb here: although the hotels were only a few hundred metres apart, every time I walked it it felt a bit like obstacle course with the beggars, the hustlers, the street kids, the working girls, the street traders and the unreliable pavement. The kids were probably the saddest aspect: I read in the local paper that there are an estimated quarter of a million of them here. Kids as young as four trained to trot along beside you, one hand outstretched to beg, the other tapping you gently on the belly or side to get your attention. I find it very hard to see such visible desperate poverty, and not feel a bit guilty and worthless when I reflect that I make a small fortune from exploiting a superior knowledge of game theory and probability.

Day 1c
I'd originally planned to play 1b (Friday, the day after I got there) of the Manny Pacquiao World Poker Open (which despite the name was an APT event rather than a WPT one) but my friend Mark Dalimore who had arranged this entire trip was delayed and didn't arrive in time to play it, so we both registered that evening to play 1c, the last day. A few pool tables had been set up in the poker room. Manila is infamous for its pool hustlers and Mark willingly donated. I decided an early night was in order for me. Surprisingly I was having no jetlag problems but a good night's kip before a major tournament is never a bad idea.

I didn't get too much to play with all day but managed to work my way up to double stack near the end of play by making the most of what I did get. It wasn't the kind of field where you could do anything fancy without cards, so I stuck to value betting much bigger than I normally would. A series of minor setbacks late in the day saw me drift back from 30k to finish with 21k, 21 bbs when we came back for day 2. We'd lost two thirds of the field so I was well below average but still reasonably optimistic.

Mark got knocked out early and turned up late in the day with legendary Welsh wizard Dave "El Blondie" Colclough, who lives out here now. Dave had played 1A and got through as one of the chipleaders.

Day 2 - Take 1
Day 1 ended early, around 9.30 PM, a pleasant change from tournaments back home where you play til 4 AM and have to be back less than 12 hours later. I was in bed by 10, keen to stick to the plan to get enough sleep as possible. When I moved from marathon running to ultra running, I hooked up with Norrie Williamson as my coach. Nobody has studied ultra running as scientifically in the world as Norrie: he literally wrote the book on how to train, eat and live for optimal performance. Nobody has yet done anything like that for poker, and it remains a matter of conjecture rather than scientific method as to how much things like good diet, general fitness and rest affect poker performance. One thing I've noticed from observing most of the top players who are consistent performers is that they sleep far more than I do, and far more than the average person. Given that the key skill that top poker players have (particularly online players who multitable) is the ability to identify and process relevant information at lightning speed and make decisions, it is not surprising that an activity which places such high demands on the brain requires that the brain be given ample recovery in the form of sleep. I've never been very good at sleeping. This flaw was a major advantage when I was running 24 hour races but may not be when it comes to playing poker (although mental stamina and the ability to make good decisions when tired is important in tournaments with long days), so that recently I've been trying to improve my sleeping (or at least do more of it).

I slept straight through until almost 7 AM. When I woke and saw the time, I decided to try for another hour or two's kip, since we weren't due to start back until 1 PM. Next time I opened my eyes, I read 1.46 on the clock. I hurled myself out of the bed and into my clothes, and on the sprint to the Pan Pacific, I frantically tried to work out how much of my stack if any I likely had left. Up 5 flights of stairs and into an empty casino except for cleaning staff. I figured I must have blinded out but where was everyone else? Checking the time on my mobile phone (which was still on Irish time), I found it was almost midnight back home. Subtract 8 hours, so it's 4 PM? No, wait, that's Vegas that you subtract 8 hours from GMT, here you add 8, so.......8 AM. I slunk back to the hotel cursing the clock in my room which I was convinced had malfunctioned. But when I got there, it read 8.15 AM. Somehow I'd read 7.46 as 1.46. The following photo taken at 7.59 illustrates that this is easier than it sounds.

Day 2 - Take 2
If someone had told me that I'd be gone within a couple of orbits, I'd have assumed it meant I waited for a standard reshove spot, got called, and lost. But while I was indeed gone in a couple of orbits, in that time I got myself into a spot where I was more than a 4 to 1 favourite to move into the chiplead in the tournament. So, quite an eventful half hour.

Hand 1: I raised an ace in late position and get the blinds and antes to move to 23k.
Hand 2: I'm not in this hand, but it was hugely significant in hindsight given what followed. El Blondie opened in early position, called by a loose local just behind, and an elderly guy in the blinds. Flop was 744, it's checked to the local who fires in a chunky bet, the elderly guy raises, El Blondie flats, and the local folds. The turn is an 8 and the old guy shoves and gets snapped by Dave Colclough. The hands are 33 and A4s. The old guy catches his 2 outer on the river to cripple Dave and become table chipleader.
Hand 3: After 2 more blind steals that see me move up to 27k, I flat a late position raise from a loose aggro French guy I barely cover with kings in the big blind. I check call an ace high flop, and a blank turn. When a second ace hits the river, it gets checked down and my kings are good. I'm now up to 40k.
Hand 4: The French guy limps utg playing 15k. I find AQ on the cutoff and raise to 3K, happy to get it in if he shoves. The local on the button flats, as does the French guy, The flop comes AT4 with 2 spades, I cbet 5k, the local raises to 13500, the French guy folds, and I shove. The local folds. I'm up to 50k.
Hand 5: Two more blind steals and I have 55k. I find aces in early position, and make my standard raise to 2200. The local just behind who seems to be gunning for me since Hand 4 flats. The old guy in the blinds who also seems frustrated by my apparent aggression threebets to 5600, I four bet to 12500, and after an eternity, the old guy shoves. He has kings, and binks on the turn, which is fair enough.

That's poker
I wouldn't be human if I didn't feel a bit sick as I walked back to my hotel. It's a long way to come to sit and wait patiently for more than a day for the rush to come, and then when it does and you get it in 81/18 to move into the chiplead in one of the softest 4 figure buyin tournaments ever as the bubble starts to loom on the horizon and you know that with a stack you'll be able to cruise to a megastack. One of the things I like about online poker is that no one tournament ever means too much if you do it right: it's ultimately just one in a sample size of tens of thousands. But live is slower and sample size necessarily tiny by comparison, so it seems like every tournament matters more (even if it really doesn't. I was talking to Lappin recently about my "take it or leave it/not that pushed either way" attitude to chops and said jokingly I wish I'd chopped Dublin EMOP headsup as I'd be 10-15k richer. Lappin responded saying 10k is nothing compared to what you will win in your life playing poker).

However, I shrug these setbacks off quicker than most. Mark, great friend that he is, took only a few minutes to learn of my demise and come over to check up on me. He said he expected to find me committing hara kiri, and was astonished at how positive I seemed. It generally takes 10 minutes or so for the mists of disappointment to clear, but once they do I'm done with it and already thinking about the next tournament.

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Welshman walk into a bar
The following day I spent some time chilling with Mark by the pool, then we met Dave for some midday drinks. Dave's a great guy with a great attitude: despite all he's achieved in poker to date, his ego doesn't seem to cloud his perception and his desire to keep up with the ever evolving game. Mark always gives me some interesting stuff to consider every time we meet. This time he suggested that I might benefit from either a total break from poker, or regular mini breaks. My work ethic is probably the one thing I get the most comments and compliments on from other players, and I do see it as one of my biggest strengths, but there may be a case for taking more breaks as periods of reflection, so I don't end up chasing my tail.

This year is winding down, and overall it's my most successful year to date (albeit only marginally more so than last year). It's a natural point at which to stop, reflect, and plan for next year. On the poker front, I think I need to narrow my focus to home in on the games that mean the most to me (live) and are (likely to be) the most profitable for me online. Away from the table, I probably need to get a bit more balance back into my life, and give greater consideration to my health, fitness and diet. I'm almost 2 stone heavier than when I was running, and while it's unlikely I'll ever tip the scales at 10 and a half stones again, I want to drop at least a stone.

Downtime
Busting a tourney relatively early with no side events to play and an internet connection too unreliable to play online (I did try though!) makes for a fair amount of down time. Generally when you're abroad you're drawing to a few movie channels and a music channel or two as far as English speaking stuff goes. I found myself watching a lot of Fox News, purely as entertainment, something I generally associate with Vegas. Now that they're not even pretending to be in any way balanced any more, it's always good for a giggle. Usually this takes the form of endless variation on current far right wing dogma (currently there's a feverish attempt to portray the Republican nomination process as anything other than a parade of Crazy Bobs), but one amusing piece that caught my eye was some bloke who wrote a book on how to win the lottery (seriously: or at least how to increase your odds of so doing).

Apparently it boils down to three basic tips (how he managed to expand this into an entire book is surely a more miraculous feat than his claim to have won the lottery 7 times):
(1) When buying 10 scratch cards (this in itself qualifies the tip as a fail), buy ten from the same game rather than spreading it over 10 different games
(2) When deciding which scratch cards to buy, check how many grand jackpots for each are still in play (apparently they make this information available to the public in the US)
(3) Don't QuickPick: always play the same numbers.

(1) is basically a trick of mathematical semantics. Let's say each scratch card has a 1 in a 1000 chance at the start of winning because 1,000,000 were issued and 1000 are winners. If you buy cards from ten different games, each card has precisely a 1 in a 1000 chance. But if you buy from the same game, you have to factor in losers (in the same way you remove known cards from poker probability calculations). So if the first one is a dud, the second one has a slightly higher chance of being a winner (1 chance in a 999999/1000). If that's a dud, the chances that the third one is a winner is ever so slightly higher, and so on. Therefore, your chances of scoring precisely 1 winner in your batch of ten is very slightly higher than if you buy ten different games. The key phrasess in that last sentence are "precisely 1 winner" and "very slightly higher". The increase is almost insignificant: if the first nine are duds, your chances of the tenth being a winner rise from 1 in 1000 to 1 in 999.991. Big whoop. Also, this increased chance is "paid" for by it being significantly less likely you'll score more than one winner using this method. Either way, your expected value is precisely the same: the only difference is that when you buy ten from the same game more of this equity resides in your chance of hitting one winner. Naturally, the guy didn't explain any of this or the math underlying the other two points: he just presented them as indisputable facts.
(2) actually has some mathematical validity. Or rather, could have, if he related it number of cards remaining. In the example he quoted, he said that you should always go for the option with the highest number of grand prizes remaining. This is not true. If option A has 6 grand prizes remaining but only 10% of the cards sold to date, then it's a much worse proposition than option B which has 5 prizes remaining but 90% of cards already accounted for.
(3) is not only rubbish: it's actually wrong. Whether you pick the same numbers every week or you do a random QuickPick, your chances of winning are precisely the same. The only difference is that it's actually worse (in terms of expected value) to pick the same numbers every week as there's a much higher chance you'll split the jackpot if you do win as opposed to the quickpicker.

The Fox presenters of course lapped up this nonsense without any attempt at criticism. I guess it's what they're programmed to do when dealing with right wing nuts spouting propaganda: it's probably naive to expect them to develop the ability to think critically all of a sudden just because the topic changed from voodoo economics to junk mathematics. Fair play to your man who wrote the book though: good game selection sir. If you need to reach the gullible fools who would be your target audience here to lap this nonsense up, where better to promote yourself than on Fox?

With barely a day to recover from my return from Riga, I was starting to feel very like a live pro as I headed into the Fitz to play their supersat for the main event there. The festival ran for a full week, and my plan was to play at least 5 of the 7 days.

Having played it cautious and folded my way through early card death, I was hoping to exploit the tight image when the shipping portion started. Unfortunately, one of the D4 lads who it's safe to say wouldn't be buying the tight old man image got moved to my table just as the time to cash in on the image arrived, and first time I shipped KQs over a Vera Duffy limp, he snap reshoved AQ and held.

Thursday was effectively the end of month, rebranded as part of the festival. I ended up bubbling the final table. When I reshoved A6s over Dave Masters button raise and got called, I was happy to see him turn over A4o. Two rag aces are often a chop, but when the first card to flop was a 6, this was looking less likely, and it seemed I was on my way to a doubleup. However, a 4 appeared beneath it on the flop, and another on the turn to send me packing. Dave went on to chop the event with James Waldron, both continuing a fine run of recent form. Also well done to my friend Padraig "Smidge" O'Neill whio chopped this last month and was unlucky not to do so again this month after final tabling.

I took Friday off (or rather grinded online) but was back the next day for the main event. First there was a diversion to Ken Doherty's place to contribute an interview to Eoghan O'Mahony's documentary on Irish poker. I ran into Parky who was there to do livestream commentary on the IPO final table. Anyone who has read his recent blog will know he was less than happy with the performance of his team, in particular one member. He filled me in on the gory details and other gossip from the event.

After my interview with Eoghan, I stuck around Brady's bar where they were streaming the IPO final table. There was a brilliant atmosphere there: all the final tableists brought their own supporters, particularly Rory Brown whose cheer section was led by the inimitable Tom Kitt. There was also a good crew of the young Waterford lads I've become pally with this year, to support Mark O'Connor. Mark's online record suggests he was the strongest player on the table, but was hampered by being the short stack. In those situations it often means you need to get lucky early on, and he did just that, getting it in dominated but getting there to double up. The other Irish lads started short too, but any worries about them being first out were quickly allayed. Rory played a waiting game early on and his patience was rewarded when he caught a few big hands to propel into the chiplead. He and Mark got it in virtually flipping, and Rory was looking good to win when he held. However, it was Paul Purcell who stayed under the radar to get headsup with the eventual winner. Well done to the 3 lads though.

From there I sped into town with Nick Newport who drives like he plays for the Fitz main event. I could have had an easier table: Conor "TommyGunne" Fennell a few to my left peppered me with three bets, and further on down there was Smidge, and IWF champ John Keown. I managed to keep out of trouble and chipped up steadily to end the day with over 80k despite losing a couple of big races. The biggest pot I won eliminated John Keown: I flatted a raise called by John in the blinds with tens, flopped top set, and got the lot in on the turn which gave John a smaller set. This left me fourth in chips overnight much to many people's surprise given my reputation as someone who grinds short to medium stacks rather than accumulates big ones. In fact, I think I get big stacks as much as most top players, but the fact that when I don't I tend to hang on longer than most with the short stack creates the image of a short stack specialist.

In the event, my status as a big stack didn't survive long into day 2, half of it disappearing when I lost a race. A while later I lost another one and was looking at elimination with just 4 big blinds left, but I staged one of my trademark recoveries to make the final table. With 6 left, three of us were approximately level in chips, and the other three while shorter were not yet desperate, so a deal seemed prudent. Eventually we agreed that my good friend Rob Taylor, Declan O'Connell and me would take €8500 each, with Big Mick G, Jude McCarthy and James Waldron taking €7500 each. We played on for the remaining €2250, which Jude claimed after he overcame a 3:1 deficit headsup with Rob. It was another great effort by Rob who hasn't played live much this year but has still managed to final table the Irish Open and chop the Fitz end of month tournament a few times. He was unlucky not to claim the win here: had his jacks held against Jude's A4o ghe would have, but it was not to be. Big well done to Jude too who was a reg when I started going to the Fitz first 4 years ago and is one of the few regs from back then still in the game.



The following night, Rob and I were back for the team event. Calling our team the Old Nits, we were joined by Smidge and possibly the best online mtt player in Ireland Lappin (David, but generally known by his surname which is also his screen name). Rob only made himself available at the last minute and I had been intending to ask Daragh "Mongoose" Davey (in my opinion one of the best young live players on the scene if not the best) to join our team. In the end, Mongoose (as he is affectionately known) assembled a team of his own that included Nick Newport. On paper, they looked like our main competition, and once the tournament got underway it became clear they saw us as theirs, as they were targeting us specifically. With all four of them having immediate position on all four of us, this gave them a big advantage, and seriously curtailed our play. In team events, it is almost always the team which keep all four members in the tournament the longest that ends up winning, so it's crucial to avoid early bustouts, and we all managed this. Rob and Smidge are nits by nature, and I reverted to my original style for the occasion, which just left Lappin to worry about, but he assured us he would do his best not to get a hundred big blinds in preflop with AQ early on :)

I got almost nothing to play with and with Team Mongoose member Noel who I have a fair bit of history with sitting to my right making it clear he was calling my shoves with any 2 and trying to verbally goad me into shoving light, I let myself get a lot lower than I would have in an individual event while I waited for a decent spot. Noel was good to his word and when I finally found a pair of fours in the small blinds, he called with J3o. I held, which bought me some more time. Next time I shoved I wasn't so lucky, my AT losing to his Q9. I was less than pleased by some of the Mongoose celebrations that accompanied my exit (I know it's a team event, but still) and a comment Noel made to me in the heat of the moment, so I went for a walk round the block to clear my head before coming back to rail my remaining teammates. I came back to find Smidge had also been dogged and eliminated by a Mongoose. Things weren't looking that promising for us until a moment of madness by my vanquisher Noel was trumped by a moment of genius from Lappin. Having raised a pair of eights, Lappin saw Noel and the big blind call. The T44 flop was checked around, a 6 appeared on the turn, and Lappin made a weak looking quarter bet pot, called by Noel. A 5 on the river saw Lappin check, and then Noel unexpectedly shoved for several times pot. Lappin quickly concluded that, in his words, "the bet made no sense" and called. Noel had king high and had crippled himself and propelled Lappin into the chip lead. Both he and Rob outlasted the remaining Mongooses, to clinch the team title (in the end, it was Marc Brody's American team which almost snuck up the inside to take advantage of the Nits and the Mongeese spending too much time worrying about each other). Poker's not really a team sport, and as the Fitz paid us and took our "winning team" photo they commented that we were the only team that stuck around to rail each other, but these team events are always good fun and a pleasant change from the ruthless individual events.

The biggest problem with playing all this live stuff is it eats into the day (or night) job: grinding online. I eased myself back in Tuesday, and managed a few final table on Stars. Then it was back on a plane, this time heading for Manila (via Amsterdam and Hong Kong) for Manny Pacquaio's World Poker Open.