Day 1b at EMOP Lisbon.

Obviously, after my exploits yesterday,(day 1a), I was not involved in the playing side of things today, but as 6 of the team Irish Eyes group were playing day 1b, including my wife Patricia and daughter Ciara, I decided to go to the casino and lend my support. And truthfully, it was more draining than the hard slog on the table the night before. Its one thing to be in control of your own destiny, but when your just sittting or standing there watching the games go on, you feel powerless and everytime you see one of your own entering pots, your heart would be in your mouth. But sure, I suppose thats why we love this game so much.

The 6 irish eyes qualifiers today were patricia, Ciara, Jamie Lowe,(Killarney), William Brown, (Bangor), Thomas Collins, Castlemaine and Janus Jeszek (Dublin).
William had the best start, and sure why wouldnt he. in the 1st blind level, he had AA,KK,QQ,JJ and 99, as well as flopping a set of 4's. Considering he missed his flight out here and had to go to lots of trouble to get another one on time, and then proceeded to lose his passport since he got here, his luck was bound to change!!!! Having said all that, his luck ran out just before the end of the day when he raised with Ad-Kd, got 1 caller, flop comes Qd-10d-6d for a pure gin flop. Willian bets out the flop as he's thinking to himself "how do i get his chips here?". he didnt have to think for long when his opponnent announced "all-in". William snap calls him obviously and they both have 50k in the middle. Opponnent has 10-10 and an ugly 6 on the river gives his opponnent the full boat and see the chips sliding across the table. A sickener really for william, but thats poker for you.

Janus was just as unlucky. Blinds were 500-100 and Janus was very comfortable with 50k. He raises with AA, and opponnent annouses reraise all-in. A delighted Janus insta calls, yer man has 6-6, and a 6 on the flop ends Janus's hopes.

Jamie Lowe had got off to a quick start as well, racing up to 38k when the average was only 23k. But then he suffered a few hours of being totally card dead, and after dropping to 24k, he got it all-in preflop against AK with 99, but the river brought a king to eliminate Jamie with just an hour of play left in the day.

Enough of the sad stories now, as our other 3 contestants successfully made it through day 1 and into tomorrows play to join myself and Paul Lucey as the 5 team Irish Eyes players still in the tourney. With over 400 starting the event, its a great achievement to get 5 of our 11 qualifiers through to day 2.

Ciara was card dead all day and never got past her starting stack for the 1st 8 hours of play. She finally got the double up her patience deserved when she raised of the button with 33, got called by the Bb who had KQ, and the flop came K-9-3. The bb duly obliged and doubled Ciara's stack from 15k to 30k. Ciara stayed card dead for the last 2 hours, but some aggressive short stack play saw her maintain her 30k stack at the end of play.

Patricia, who is only playing the game 2 years, has played extremely well once again and qualified for day 2 with 45.5k. This is her 4th EMOP event, (and are the only 4 big tourneys she has ever played in),and this is her 3rd time making it to day 2. Its truly an advertisment for the tight is right bregade. Her big hand came when she had about 17k, she raised with JJ, got reraised by a scandie in the blinds, and she shoved her stack in. he called with AK but the JJ's won the race.

Last but not least is Thomas Collins. Thomas doesnt get to play many live tourneys, but he took to it like a duck to water. He gathered a tight image all day and then used it when the blinds got bigger. he got very unlucky when he called a shortstacks all in for 12k late in the day when he had 88, and the shortstack turned over J-2. A 2 on the flop, and another 2 on the river saw tom lose the pot. He was down to 13k himself then, but he recovered brilliantly to finish up the day on 35k.

So thats it for today. I'll report back tomorrow night with news on how the last 5 team members do on day 2. Paul Lucey is nicely stacked on 95k, while the other 4 are all less than the average stack. But each of them is only 1 hand away from being right back in it. 125 players return to do battle with a new table draw. 45 player will get payed. heres hoping we'll have something to cellebrate after tomorrow.

Connie