Doke in Las Vegas

Hi,

Doke here again, in Las Vegas at the WSOP.

In the last letter I was hopeful of a genuine deep run in the last 1k event of the series. I came back 13th of the 638 remaining hoping for a genuine deep run. Unfortunately, it was one of those days where nothing goes right and I was knocked out last hand before dinner when I lost a race to get back to where I started the day. A third cash at this year's series but still a big disappointment given how well day 1 had gone.

I played the last 1500 event. Not really too much to be said about it: it was my shortest event, as I ran kings into aces in level 3.

I'd regged for day 1A of the main event which was Thursday. Traditionally the day that gets the lowest numbers, I chose it partially so I could have a few days off before day 2 as I had planned a trip to the Grand Canyon with my friends Mark Dalimore and Mick McCloskey, and my oldest son Paddy.

I was hoping to build a decent stack during the day. It was all going to plan, I was up to 35k (from 30k starting) when a crazy Italian arrived at the table. He started opening for 10 big blinds regularly and betting 3 times pot on the flop. It was clear this strategy wasn't likely to see him last very long and I was just hoping to be the one to catch him. Unfortunately I lost about 10k trying to catch him without ever actually catching him, before he donated his stack to Scott Montgomery, 4 bet shoving almost 200 big blinds with AK into Scott's aces after Scott's very first three bet. Most of the rest of the day came down to me rebuilding slowly only to lose a big pot or have to make a big laydown. I was forced to fold an overpair, two pair and a straight: it seemed like every time I actually made a big hand a bigger one was out there. In the end, I was happy to survive the day with over 16k, the only real plus apart from the fact that I could have gone broke any one of the times I made a big hand but managed to stay disciplined and make the necessary folds.

Day 2A is Monday (8 PM Irish time). With almost 30 bbs it's not panic time yet but I'll be hoping to get off to a fast start.

The road trip to the Grand Canyon was a great experience. We stayed overnight in a small town on the iconic Route 66 where we had good craic in an Irish/Mexican joint called Pancho McGillacuddy's before heading to the Grand Canyon National Park. The canyon is indeed one of the natural wonders of the world and the Americans have done a great job with the park. We also went to a wildlife park called Bearizona on the way back. The bears and wolves were very apathetic much to Mick's annoyance, Mick being a man who likes value for his buck. The rest of us suggested he venture forth from the car with a stick to try to poke some energy into them. We also made a stop at the Hoover Dam on the way back. It was very windy and we kinda felt we were taking our lives into our hands walking across it. But we did anyway.


If I don't make it to day 3 here I'll be flying home Tuesday afternoon. I'm booked to play the Waterford Masters after I get home, and then it's all systems go for EMOP Dublin.

Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)

Doke
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Keep up to date on how I'm getting on in Vegas on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in July, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€46,500)
July VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx