A little bit of catching up....

I was already looking forward to going to Vegas and playing the American tourists. It seems like everyone I know over there at the moment is making a killing in the cash games. After just arriving home from playing an American tourist in Dublin. I am even more keen to get there, even though he managed to bust me out of the tournament.

It has been a busy week for me. I have been getting the shops ready for my impending departure and also had to run two tournaments. Along with this I also needed to play some poker. Both tournaments I ran went well, although the numbers for Wednesday’s charity event were not as good as expected. Even with only 28 runners we made over €1000, thanks to the winner, Enzo, donating an extra ton. I ended up in another pub at 2am playing in a 14 man single table tournament. Yep, 14 at one table, says it all really. Suffice it to say I was locked.

The usual Green Joker Poker tournament was well attended even though we did not advertise it. 61 players turned up and that included another 24 new faces. The atmosphere was great. This was due to the abundance of ‘Mad yokes’ as the droghedeans call them. Paddy started it all with his rendition of ‘Boom shake the room’ as he sucked out on someone and from then on all massive pots had the tables singing the same tune. In the end 3 players did a deal splitting 2690 between them. Martin Buckley was the unlucky player who lost the low card for the tenner less. Fergus Gosson and Stephen McIlarney took €900 apiece. 8 were paid cash, serial final tabler Junior was 4^th for €360 and ninth also got 2 tickets to Fitzwilliam Festival tournies.

Back to last night. I started off in the Fitzwilliam €50 re-buy but was gone shortly after the break. I was knackered and playing like Nemo, I ended up on 2500 at the break having rebought and also having cracked Aces with Q 10 and also bluffing someone off a nice pot with 99 and a board of QQxx, KK was shown by the foldee. Dave ‘BigDragon’ Kingstonwas eliminated just before the break and had headed round to the Merrion for the €25 re-buy. I decided that was a good plan for me as I was beginning to wake up.

It took me longer to wake up than I thought it would, as in the 30 minutes that remained I had to re-buy 3 times. Eventually after a another strong coffee I came to my senses and started playing some poker instead of snap. I gradually built my stack up to above average and was going along nicely, picking my spots well to make moves and gaining the respect of players I don’t play against that often.

As mentioned in the beginning I was playing against an American tourist. His name was Dan. His card playing was desperate. His luck was humungous. He had a habit of showing his cards after he won a pot with a bet. He very rarely raised pre-flop but nearly always flopped top pair. I had a pretty good read on him, garnered through his incessant gabber and I took off a few pots. When we broke to two tables he followed me to table 2. After he hit another flop against me I was down to 9,200 chips. I limped along with 4 other players from the button with KJ and the flop came down K rag rag. It was checked to me and I bet 4000., leaving me with 4200 back. He called. I knew I was ahead. At best I thought he may have a weaker King. He would have raised with two pair or K better kicker from his form. The Turn was an Ace and he checked again. Now I know I am ahead and move all in. He calls like a shot and I initially think I have read him wrong, but no he turns over Q 10. So he has called a near pot sized bet on the flop with Queen high, picked up a gut-shot on the turn and decided to take it to the river. I have one of the Jacks he needs but the god of Po’Kar decides this is the night I put all my chips in as a +95% favourite and lose as one of his two outs hits the river. Line them Yankees up !