Wednesday, April 28, 2010

EMoP Italy Live satellites


EMoP Italy Live satellites are taking place soon around the country. If you want to win your ticket to the EMoP Italy at the end of May with over 300,000 euro in the prizepool, check out one of the live satellites below.

More live satellites will be added. Details will appear here when dates and venues are confirmed.


Friday 30th April: Atlantis Casino, Carlow: €200+€20 F/O. Starts 8.30pm.

Monday 9th May: Cue Club Killarney; €80 + 1 rebuy or add-on €50. Starts 7.30pm


Thursday 13th May: Fitzwilliam Card Club, Dublin. €100 F/O. Starts 8.30pm


Sunday 15th May: Bridge Club, Banbridge. £200+£20 F/O. Starts 5pm

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Irish Eyes Poker - New sponsors of the Celtic Poker Tour

Irish Eyes Poker are delighted to be the sponsors of the Celtic Poker Tour, the Premier Poker Tour of Ireland.

The Celtic Poker Tour run live poker events every week in venues around Ireland. For a list of upcoming events check www.celticpokertour.com

As part of our sponsorship of the tour, you can now win your seat to any of Celtic Poker Tour event in our Monday night FREE entry satellite at 8.30pm, with one Celtic Poker Tour ticket to any weekly event guaranteed. The satellite has an optional €10 rebuy and a €10 'double chip' add-on.

We are also delighted to announce the new Players Championship 2010/2011 where Irish Eyes Poker and Celtic Poker Tour are guaranteeing €25,000 to a FREE entry live tournament in April 2011.

To be able to enter this event you must achieve one of the following:

Win any Celtic Poker Tour Live Event

Win any EMoP Package on Irish Eyes Poker

Accumulate 50 player points from Celtic Poker Tour weekly events AND 10 VIP player points on Irish Eyes Poker between now and April 2011

Accumulate 1000 VIP player points on Irish Eyes Poker AND play in one live Celtic Poker Tour event between now and April 2011.

You can also increase your changes of winning the Players Championship live event by building your starting stack at the event by accumulating player points and online VIP points.

The starting stack at the live event is 5,000 chips.

However, for every 1 live player point earned at Celtic Poker Tour events over the required 50 points to enter, you receive 100 extra starting stack chips. Example, you have 70 live player points, then you get 7,000 chip starting stack.

And you can increase your starting stack through VIP points online also.
For every 200 vip points earned online over the required 1000 vip points to enter, you will receive 100 extra starting stack chips.
Example, you have 9,000 vip points, then you get 7,000 chip starting stack.

It is also possible to get your entry of 50 live players points or 1000 vip points online by pooling both your live player points and online vip points together.
Example, you have 25 live player points and 500 online VIP points. This will get you your free entry to the Players Championship final with €25,000 guaranteed prize money.

The Players Championship Live Final in April 2011 will be a members only entry event, with a free buy-in, one re-buy and one add-on available for €50 each. All rebuys and add-ons will be added to the €25,000 starting prizepool.

Players will have starting stacks in line with the accumulated live and online points as outlined above. No player will be allowed to start the tournament with more than 25,000 chips.

For more information contact promotions@irisheyespoker.com or speak with Fionn or Liam at any Celtic Poker Tour event.

Spring is in the air!!

Couple of weeks since I last posted. There hasn't been a lot going on in the poker world in the last few weeks for me. The weathers been great down here in Kerry, so we took avail of it at home. Had a barbecue at home in the evenings and generally chilled out. Played some online poker, but not as much as I usually would.

I see that the entraction network (irisheyes)are introducing a spring series. They are a list of different price games, with great guarantees and various size buy ins, suitable for all pockets. Tonite for instance, there is a €10,000 guarantee for a €20 freeze-out (only 230 players registered with 20 mins to go, so should be a nice overlay in that. Also, tonite at 8pm, there is a STS €50,000 gtd game for a €100 F/O and also there is just over 200 registered so far. Some great value tourneys there, and hopefully i can run well in them. Also tonite, there is the invitation tournament satellite for the EMoP Italy. This is a tournament where the only players allowed to enter are the players that actually competed in the EMoP Lisbon. Matt won this tourney last month, so hopefully its my turn!! Although, having played quite a lot already today, I wouldnt be filled with confidence. I made 6 final tables today, got my chips in ahead on all of them, but came out the wrong side. And they werent all flips either. Lost AQ v Q-10, AK v AJ, 10-10 v 3-3 and a few flips. Happens to everyone, I understand that, just hoping to run better tonite.

Gonna concentrate on qualifieing for the italian leg of the EMoP after that. I've been reading up on it, and it really looks like its worth a visit. the tournament is being played in campione, which is on the border between Italy and Switzerland, with the casino situated on the shores of lake Lugano. Its supposed to be the biggest casino in Europe, so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully, we'll have a gang again on the Teamirisheyes contingent. We've a lot to live up to though, as one of the lads, Tim from London, managed to actually take down the EMoP portugal for an €85,000 pay day. 1 guarantee anyway is that the craic will be good!!! For those of you that dont know, qualifying can be done on line on Irisheyespoker.com There are 3 finals a week with 20 seats guaranteed between them, on Tuesdays, thursdays and Sundays, with €2 satellites on every day into them finals. Also now, because of the increasing popularity of the EMoP's, there are a number of live satellites on around Ireland. they will be in the Cue Club, Killarney, The Bank casino in Cork, the Fitzwilliam casino in Dublin, the Atlantis casino in Carlow and the Bridge club in Banbridge.

Lets change the subject away from poker for a minute. Lets talk snooker.And mostly, about steve davis. What a fantastic performance he is putting in at the world championships in sheffield. I'm delighted for him, as I know how much pride he takes in his own performances. Now that he has reached the quarter final, I'm gonna head off over to the Crucible tomorrow in time for the quarter final against neil robertson which is on tuesday and wednesday.

Will write a bit of a trip report next week on that.

Connie

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Oh what a night!!

Oh, man, what a night. Irish Eyes players finishing 1st and 5th. Team Irish Eyes taking over the casino bar. Chants of “ole, ole” and “you’ll never beat the Irish” temporarily stopping the roulette and blackjack. All followed by a late bar, where our host (and by Sunday night, good friend lol) Antonio was prepared to draw drink until the sun was well and truly up!
My own tournament didn’t run so well. First I lost half my stack with tens on a ten high flop. The hand played out like this: local hero raises to 300 (he has raised about 60% so far). I repop next to act to 850, he calls. Flop is T9x rainbow. He leads for 350 and I raise to 1200, he calls. I raise here because on the evidence so far, this guy isn’t folding anything that’s hit and I want to build a pot. It would make no difference to him that this is the first pot I’ve played!! Turn brings a K, completing the rainbow. He checks, I bet 2800, he calls. River is a J and he leads for 4k. WTF? I think about it for a minute or so and think it looks like he’s hit 2 pair on the river and consider raising to try and get it in. In the end I decide to be cautious and flat call, to be shown Q9 for the straight. WP NH.
I took a breather after this and told myself not to panic, I still had 11k and the blinds were still only 50/100. However, the day got worse after this, with AK on a K high flop having to be folded to a check raise on the turn, 99 getting beat by the T7 of my local hero friend and JJ having to be folded on the flop. With around 6k left, I’m looking for a spot to double-up. When I raise with QQ, I think I’ve found it when I get repopped by a good aggro Scandie. I ship and of course he has AA.
In the side event, I decided to play pretty snugly and hope to hit something to double up with. I had increased my stack to around 9k, without having to turn over any hand at all and knew that I was playing well. I called a raise with 77 from a decentish player. The flop came AA7. If he’s got the A here, I’m thinking, this is my opportunity. He leads and I decide to raise. He insta-shoves and I snap obv. He has AT. Turn 9, river 9. Hasta la vista, baby.
On the plus side I won 2 out 3 €100 sit and go’s, to keep turnover on the up a bit.
My job for the rest of the weekend, I decided, was to support the other Irish Eyes players still in the main event.
I was absolutely gutted when Patricia went out with JJ vs A6 just a couple of spots off the money. She had played superbly well and used her (rock) image to good effect in a couple of spots to steal nice pots. She was just waiting to get her double-up from the A6 guy and pounced at exactly the right time, only for the poker gods to shoot her down. It won’t be long before she gets a right run at one of these.
That left Paul and Tim to cheer for. Paul had played out of his skin all weekend. He showed balls of steel with 16 left to win a nice pot. He raised in early position. The BB min-reraised and after a dwell Paul called. The flop came AQJ and after a little hesitation, the BB checked. Paul instantly reached for chips and counted out a 90k bet (nearly a pot sized bet). The BB gave Paul a stare for about 60 seconds and folded KK face up. Nice fold says Paul and flips 44. Beautiful. Tim, meanwhile, stayed out of trouble until 13 left. Then he let loose and seemed to raise every second or third pot. He ran through 2 players very quickly, including Patricia’s conqueror and built a nice stack for the final table.
The final table was a blur. Action seemed to be like a waltz. Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. Paul and Tim both hunkered down and watched the carnage going on around them and picked their spots well. Paul’s exit hand was standard. He shipped with T7 over the SB’s open and got called by A8. A flop of 89x gave some hope but he missed and was out in 5th. A brilliant performance by him.
Tim then made a big call with J9 on a 9 high flop against the chip leader, who was trying to bully his way to the title and never looked back from there. The bullyboy was dispatched in 3rd place and the heads-up didn’t take very long. There were no deals and Tim walked away with close to €87k.
Which brings me back to the night after. Oh, what a night!!
As usual, the EMOP team ran a superb weekend of poker and craic. I made some new friends among the Irish Eyes qualifiers, met some old ones from previous events and generally had a ball. My only gripe is that I’m yet to get any sort of run at one of these. Roll on Italy.