New Sports Service FREE to Irish Eyes members

Irish Eyes are delighted to announce a great new FREE sports service to all Irish Eyes members.

IrishEyes FixtureBox gives Irish Eyes Sports fans worldwide a highly effective free digital service that means you are always sure of when and where your favourite team is playing or event is happening.

As we are all aware, fixtures and events are subject to change due to TV scheduling, Champions League commitments, Cup replays and other factors, and this can present a problem to fans as they try to manage their busy lives and diaries.

Irish Eyes FixtureBox is a fully automated service – you decide what information you want to receive, then the fixtures & events, along with times, dates, any changes for TV schedules and up to date Irish Eyes Sports Odds, are automatically inserted into the e-calendar or email program of choice – if the fixture or event is changed the service will automatically update you of the change.

Signing up is simple. Just go to the site, choose your favourite team(s) and events, input your email address and Irish Eyes username, and thats it.
This is a completely FREE service for Irish Eyes members. Click here to start using this service today.

You can also receive your fixtures into your phones calendar and always keep up to date without having to use an app.

Once you have choosen your teams (you can upate them later at any time), click 'Finish'.

Then to start using the service, follow these easy steps if you use any of the following calendars - Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Lotus Notes or Microsoft Works. (Note: choose 'Email only' at set up if you do not use a calendar and would like to receive information via email only.)

Click the Download button to begin:

Step 1: Save File

Step 2: Open File

Step 3: Click 'Run'

Step 4: Click 'Next'

Step 5: Enter the email address you used when you created the Irish Eyes FixtureBox account, choose which calander program you use, and click 'Update Fixtures'.

Once the fixtures are updated through the service they will appear in your calendar on the relevant dates and times and include up to date odds from Irish Eyes Sports.

This is a completely FREE service for Irish Eyes members. Click here to start using this service today.

Letter from Doke (25th Oct 2011)

Hi

Doke here again. I played absolutely no live poker again this week, but had a pretty good week online. The nightly 10k that starts on Irish Eyes at 8 has been particularly good to me: I think I final tabled it four times in a row. My next major live outing is the Winter festival next weekend.

After that I will be playing in the JPPoker WSOP Mini Series on from the 3rd-6th November in the Maldron Hotel Tallaght. The main event has a buy-in
of €360 including reg, with a €40,000 guarantee, and there will be a super satellite on Irish Eyes Poker next Tuesday 1st November at 8.pm. Buy-in of €20 for 1500 chips, with one rebuy/add-on for €20 for 2,500 chips. 12 minute clock.

The TV coverage of UKIPT Dublin started on Channel 4 last Tuesday. They used a short soundbite from an interview they recorded with me at the event (which I can honestly say I have no recollection of!).

This week's strategy section is in response to Peter, a reader who says he has tried everything,cash, mtts, back to cash, back to mtts, sit and gos, multitabling at cash, then one tabling, but who can't win at any of them. He was looking for any general tips and in particular how to play sit n gos and 180 mans.

Poker can be very frustrating at times when things are going bad. First thing I'd say is it's important to try to focus on medium to long term rather than short term. If you're having a bad session or day, just accept it. Don't try to chase your losses as in the long run that just leads to more losses.

As far as sit n gos go, the best way to play them is fully explained in Colin Moshman's book "Sit n Go strategy". To summarise, he recommends playing tight early, then loosening up and looking for good restealing opportunities as the blinds rise, and finally switching to allin or fold as the stacks drop below ten big blinds. He has a good chart in the back of the book on which hands are good to shove for different stack sizes and positions.

If you're trying to make money from poker long term, there are a number of things that are important. First is bankroll management. Make sure you have enough buyins to cover bad runs. The usual recommendation is 50 for sit n gos and 200 for mtts. Second is to try to find something you can consistently beat. This means focussing on one game, whether that's €1 stts or €10 mtts, and playing enough to accurately assess if you can beat them and how much by. With sit n gos you need to play at least 500 to get an accurate picture, and ideally 2000. Third, look around to find your best option for long term profit. When I started I specialised in sit n gos. I moved away from them as the general standard improved and my edge shrunk (most of the other top sit n go players did the same). These things go in waves though and the fact that so many top players stopped playing them may make them softer again. But Stars stts may not be your best option, as Stars attracts a lot of good grinders because of the volume it affords and the VIP benefits for 20 tablers. It's worth trying stts on other sites like Irish Eyes. On Irish Eyes there are also a number of 10 euro rebuy multitable tourneys that are very good value.

Last thing I'd say is that making your living from poker is essentially a shift job. It's important when you play. If you play during the day, there's a lot more grinders and a lot less amateurs, so you should play in the evening which is when the recreational players get on after work. Weekends are good for the same reason.

Another question I get asked about is about rake back. Irish Eyes Poker are just about to announce the launch of a new ‘INSTANT’ reward program starting on 1st November. This reward program is a new initiative that rewards loyalty without the boundaries of a normal monthly schedule. You earn Loyalty points, rise in Loyalty Level and collect your rewards instantly. No more waiting till the end of the month to collect your rake back or bonus. Called the Instant Reward Program, players should register for it by emailing their username to promotions@irisheyespoker.ie

To launch it there is a November Promotion for IRP Enrolled players called the LOYALTY POINTS RACE worth €20,000. From the beginning of November for the players participating in the new loyalty program there will be a seven day long Loyalty Points Race. The prize pool is €20,000 and there are 100 cash prizes.

All kind of earned points will count; you can earn Loyalty Points in cash games, tournaments and Sit & Go tournaments.It's earned points that count,
if rewards are purchased the points will still count towards the leaderboard. The race is held between the 2nd (00:00 CET) and the 8th (23:59 CET) of November.

Lastly, if anyone is interested in playing the €100 Freeroll on Irish Eyes this Wednesday evening at 21.00, the password is ladies43.

For details on all the promotions click on the links above.

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

Doke

Letter from Doke (18th Oct 2011)

Hi,

Doke here again. I played absolutely no live poker this weekend, which
meant I got to put in some quality hours with my one true love: online
poker :)

I had a very good week, twice chopping my favourite nightly
tournament, the €10k gtd on Irish Eyes that starts at 8, as well as
winning a number of other tournaments and making more than my fair
share of final tables. The €10 rebuys on Irish Eyes in particular have
been good to me. I'm convinced that the nightly €10k on Irish Eyes is
the softest online daily tournament anywhere with a buyin of more than
€50. My friend Kieran "Croc" Walsh railed me the first night I chopped
and commented afterwards that the standard was lower than you'd expect
in a $5 rebuy anywhere else.

Since I didn't play live this week, no particularly interesting hands
spring to mind for this week's bit of strategy. I was watching Late
Night Poker during the week. Luke Schwartz was running like God in his
heat and got headsup with a big chiplead against Roberto Romanello.
Vicky Coren in commentary suggested that with such a chiplead, he
should just shove every hand. This is truly horrible advice! Dan
Harrington correctly pointed out once that the skill in poker more or
less boils down to using all the available information to assess your
odds of winning the pot, and comparing that to the odds you're being
offered. If you think you're 2 to 1 against winning the pot, you
should fold if you're only getting evens, and call if you're getting 3
to 1. Saying you should shove any two just because you have way more
chips is the same as saying you should go around offering people odds
of 2 to 1 on a coinflip just because you're much richer than them.
There are spots where shoving any two is okay, but they generally
involve a combination of much shallower stacks (less big blinds) and
an inept opponent who will fold too much when shoved on. Shoving every
hand just removes all skill from your own game while allowing your
opponent to play perfectly. Since he knows your range is any two, all
he has to do is assess what chance his hand has against a random hand.
On the final table of an online turbo a while back, I snap called a
shove from the small blind with J6o in the big blind. A number of
people railing asked me how on earth I could make such a call. My
answer was that all available information (my statistics for the
player in question) suggested he would shove here 100% of the time if
folded too, so his range was any 2 cards. While J6o is a below average
hand, it has about 48% equity here (48% chance of beating a random
hand). This was way more than the 40% equity I needed to make the call
(I was getting a price of 6 to 4 on the call) so it was actually a no
brain decision. In fact, in this spot, I'd have called with a lot
worse. The worst hand I'd have called with is Doyle Brunson's
favourite, t2o, as this is the worst hand that has 40% or more equity
against one random hand. The fact that my opponent's random hand in
this case was J5o was all the sweeter.

My next major live outing is the Winter festival next week, but before
that I'll probably pop into the Fitzwilliam some night.

If anyone is interested in playing the €100 Freeroll on Irish Eyes this Wednesday evening at 21.00, the password is 27off42

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

Doke

Letter from Doke (10th Oct 2011)

Hi,

Doke here again. After Barcelona, I headed to London. I got there in
time to late register for the 1k side event. I had an up and down day
one but a late rush saw me finish with about 56k, in or around
average. Day 2 got off to a bad start when I got rivered in a big pot.
That left me with less than 6 big blinds well before the bubble, but I
managed to stage a recovery to be back to near average after the
bubble broke. Then I got rivered in another big pot to be short again,
and never really recovered, exitting in 16th for £2800. Still, I was
glad to keep up my record of cashing in something in every EPT I've
attended but one.

I played a couple of turbo side events, one of which featured an
unusual twist: every player still in the hand by the river was dealt a
separate river, which almost changes the game into a cross between
holdem and seven card stud. This changes things a bit more than most
people think. I'd like to play this variant again in a non turbo.

The next side I played was a hyperturbo. I almost didn't play this as
a protest against the exorbitant reg (effectively over 23%).
Hyperturbos are frantic at the best of times, but live ones are
essentially farcical. Blinds were rising twice an orbit, tables were
breaking faster than the floor staff could handle it, and you could go
from having too many chips to shove to being so short you had to call
any two in the big blind within a few hands. Which is basically what
happened to me. Bob Willis described it as the poker equivalent of
pitch and toss, which sums it up nicely.

Last event for me was the 10K freeroll for Irish players who played an
EPT Main event last year, as recognition of Ireland winning EPT
Country of the Year. 38 players qualified, but only 14 showed up. I
ran really bad in this, picking up only two premiums, AQ in the big
blind, which crippled me after Big Mick G shoved just under 10 bbs utg
with KTs and hit a king, and queens next hand, which lost to Feargal
Nealon's qjo (he hit a runner runner flush). That knocked me out in
8th: the only consolation being that 8 spots were paid, so I collected
another £500 for my trouble. Marty Smyth was playing this at the same
time as the final table of the Omaha, and was struggling to live
multitable. He ended up cashing in both though, so fair play.

On Saturday I headed up to Belfast for the wedding of my friends Rob
Taylor and Cat O'Neill. Both Rob and Cat are top class players: Rob
final tabled the Irish Open this year, and Cat is a former final
tableist of both the IPO and the IPC, so there's a really strong
possibility that any children will grow up to be top class players :)

This week's strategy hand is not one I was involved in but the crucial
hand from the London EPT main event final table. I didn't see the hand
at the time but when I went over to chat to Nick Abou Risk and Jesse
May they were debating the hand. It happened early on on the final
table. There were two giant stacks, a few short stacks, and some
medium ones. One of the shorter stacks opened in early to mid
position, chipleader Benny Spindler flatted on the button, and the
other giant stack threebet in the big blind. The short stack folded
and Benny now shoved, a massive shove several times the pot. After
some thought, the big blind called with AK and found himself in a race
with Benny's tens, which held. Both Jesse and Nick were questioning
whether the AK call was correct.

In my view, it wasn't, in this specific situation. When you have two
giant stacks that tower over all the other stacks, they risk a
considerable amount of equity in a confrontation. This means that the
player calling it off has to think he's well ahead for the call to be
correct. This concept is explained in detail in the book "Kill
Everyone". Benny's hand looks like tens, jacks or queens once he
shoves (aces and kings are unlikely, because his opponent has one of
each, and he probably wouldn't play them this fast). In "Kill
Everyone", the authors describe play between two big stacks in these
situations as a "game of chicken". Correct strategy is to either get
the chips in first (since your opponent is then making a mistake if he
calls it off when he's not clearly ahead), or keep the pot small. In
this spot, I'd probably have flatted with AK rather than threebet, to
keep the pot small (and also disguise my hand). The AK may have
threebet thinking if Benny made a normal sized 4 bet, he could 5 bet
shove. Benny's overbet shove is great play as it deprives the AK of
this possibility. This illustrates an important concept that crops up
a lot late on in tournaments: if you decide to raise, decide in
advance what you will do if you get shoved on. If you decide you have
to call because of the price you'd be getting, but you'd rather not
get shoved on, then shove in first, even if it's an overbet. Another
example of this is if you raise a weak ace on the button or in the
small blind, and the stack(s) behind are 15 big blinds or less. You
can't raise fold even a weak ace at this effective stack, so if you
think your opponent will reshove a lot of hands you'd prefer him to
fold, just shove rather than raising. A6o is ahead of JTs, but it's
virtually a flip (51/49), so if you have A6o and your opponent JTs,
you're better off shoving to get him to fold rather than make a normal
raise that induces him to shove.

I booked my flights to next European Masters of Poker event in Riga on from the 17 - 20 November in the Royal Casino Spa & Hotel Resort. There is a lot of interest in this final EMOP event of the year with a good many Team Irish Eyes players attending. If you want to join us, there are satellites from €2 and qualifers from €100 on www.irisheyespoker.com. I hope to see you there.

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

Doke

New Instant Rewards on Irish Eyes Poker

Irish Eyes Poker is delighted to announce the launch of a fantastic new ‘INSTANT’ reward program starting on 1st November 2011. This new reward program will replace the existing VIP Cash Back Monthly Bonus and all players on that program will automatically be enrolled in this new program.

The new reward program is called the Instant Reward Program which is a unique system that rewards loyalty without the boundaries of a normal monthly schedule. Earn Loyalty points, rise in Loyalty Level and collect your rewards instantly. No more waiting till the end of the month to collect your rake back or bonus.

The Instant Reward Program works as follows:
For every €0.50 raked in cash game or €0.50 paid in tournament fee one (1) Base Point will be awarded. (Partial Base Points are also awarded.)
Loyalty Points are also awarded and depending on your Loyalty Level you will earn a certain number of Loyalty Points for each earned Base Point, the higher the level you are on - the more points that are awarded.

You can see your Loyalty Points represented as stars in the poker lobby.

More information is available in the Loyalty Status Window.

Your level is based on the number of Base Points earned during the last 60 days. Base Points are awarded for both real money cash game and real money buy-in tournaments.

The difference between Base Points and Loyalty Points is that at least one Loyalty Points is awarded for every Base Point you earn and the number of Loyalty Points awarded per Base Point will go up as you move to a higher Loyalty level. Base Points are only used for level calculations and cannot be used to purchase rewards.

You can purchase rewards for your Loyalty Points in the Loyalty Status Window. The reward will be available instantly on your poker account.

LOYALTY POINTS (LP)

How fast Loyalty Points are earned depends on the players’ Loyalty Point Ratio, for example if the player is on Level 3 the player will earn 1.4 Loyalty Points for each earned Base Point.
Loyalty Points can be traded for a reward at any given time as long as the player meets the level requirement for that reward.

Loyalty Points are awarded on the following ratio:

Level Loyalty Point Ratio
Level 1 1 BP = 1.00 LP
Level 2 1 BP = 1.20 LP
Level 3 1 BP = 1.40 LP
Level 4 1 BP = 1.70 LP
Level 5 1 BP = 2.00 LP
Level 6 1 BP = 2.30 LP
Level 7 1 BP = 2.70 LP
Level 8 1 BP = 3.00 LP

LOYALTY LEVEL (LEVEL)

The Instant Reward Program contains eight (8) levels. All players participating in the loyalty program will start at level one.
A player’s current level is based on how many Base Points the player has earned during the last 60 days. All Base Points earned from midnight 59 days ago and including the current day are counted.

Example: If the time is 14:54 on the 30th December the Loyalty Level is based on Base Points earned since midnight (00:00) on the 1st November (60 days).

Loyalty Level Requirements
Level Minimum Base Points earned last 60 days
Level 1 0 BP
Level 2 100 BP
Level 3 225 BP
Level 4 500 BP
Level 5 1,000 BP
Level 6 3,000 BP
Level 7 6,300 BP
Level 8 14,000 BP

A player may gain or lose multiple levels at this time, all based on how many Base Points the player has earned during the last 60 days.

REWARDS

A player can collect rewards at any time in the Loyalty Status Window. All available Loyalty Points can be used for collecting rewards that will instantly be available in the players poker account.
The availability of the rewards depends on the player’s Loyalty Level.

Available Rewards
Available at level Loyalty Points Euro Awarded
1+ 60 3
2+ 100 5
2+ 150 8
3+ 200 11
3+ 300 17
4+ 430 25
4+ 600 35
5+ 1,350 80
5+ 4,200 250
6+ 5,000 300
6+ 11,500 700
7+ 13,000 800
7+ 25,000 1,550
8 31,000 2,000
8 46,000 3,000
8 60,000 4,000

Note: Loyalty Points are not VIP points, which will still be awarded and can be used as normal to buy into tournaments and Sit n Go’s.

Anyone with an Irish Eyes Account that is not currently on a reward program and would like to register for this program, please email your IRP request and username to promotions@irisheyespoker.ie

Letter from Doke (3rd October 2011) EMOP Barcelona

Hi,

Doke here again. This week I headed to Barcelona to play the EMOP there, struggling unmanfully with a flu. I played day 1b, and early on nothing was happening for me. I'm a great believer that in slow structures with softish fields patience is a big virtue and you're usually better off trying to hang in there long enough for something good to happen rather than trying to force it when it's not happening.

Recently I've been trying some of the mental techniques I used to prepare for running to see if they help with the poker, and one area where I've noticed a definite improvement is in my patience early on. The biggest mistake I see predominantly online players (myself included) live is to get bored, play too many hands, and try to force things prematurely.

Anyway, it paid off on this occasion: I think I'd lost the minimum through my early period of card death/making the second best hand a lot, so still had 13k left when I was on the right side of a cooler. At 150/300, a loose player utg raised to 800, a loose Scandi flatted just before me, and I found aces in late position. I threebet to 2600, and after asking how much I had left the initial raiser threw in a clump of chips to make it just over 9k. The other guy unexpectedly flatted, I shoved, and now the initial raiser was annoyed to discover he couldn't reraise to force the other guy out as my shove represented an underraise (an elementary mistake you see online players make live more often than they should, particularly after taking the trouble to get an exact count from me). So he flatted, as did the other guy. The board ran out KT896 with three diamonds and they turned over queens and jacks. So a timely triple up. From there I moved up towards 70k without any major setbacks. Late in the day I lost with tens against a shorty's A5 to finish with 56k, around average.

Unfortunately day 2 didn't go to plan. I was card and spot dead for the first three hours and struggled not to fall too far back, kept afloat by the occasional well timed steal or resteal. I had just over 40k shortly before dinner, less than 20 bbs, when I got moved to a new table. First hand: I shove AJs and it gets through. Second hand: I shove sevens and runs into kings behind. I was left with a pile of small denom chips which represented just over 3 bbs. I was bb next hand so with over a third of my stack in (counting antes) and getting over 2 to 1 to call I was more or less committed. After a late position raise I checked one card to make sure it was higher than a 7, and seeing a queen reshoved. My opponent hummed and hawed as the dealer counted my mountain of small denom chips before announcing, "OK, I call", and turned over aces, which held against my Q9. An annoying end to my tourney about 40 from the money but no major regrets: I felt I'd done as much as anyone could given what I had to work with. The tournament itself was a massive success, with over 450 runners, an EMOP record that proves that the tour is going from strength to strength. Roll on the live final in Riga.

Mrs. Doke was struggling with the same flu so this curtailed our sightseeing a bit, but what we saw of Barcelona was absolutely brilliant. I also ran into Team Irish Eyes member Noel Keane on day 1 (he busted just after dinner unfortunately). Noel's an interesting guy with a very interesting background and "how I got into poker" story.

A number of readers have asked for more strategy in these letters so from now on I'll either talk through a hand I played myself, or answer "What would you do here?" type queries which you can send me at dara@irisheyespoker.com. This week's hand illustrates the math based approach my game is largely based on, but also I hope will illustrate that you don't need to know the math in detail, just the implications. The hand in question was late on day 1a here in Barcelona. After my triple up, I'd moved up to about 50k, but after a period of card death had drifted back to 30k when this hand happened. One opponent in particular was giving me a lot of trouble, threebetting me a lot, and apparently bluffed me off the best hand (tens) when an ace hit the river and he bet big in a threebet pot. Folded to me in the cutoff, I made my customary min raise with A3s when my nemesis was bb. This is my standard raise size for more or less all my range as it fits in with my overall smallball strategy. I had no reason to change it here because my opponent never seemed to fold his bb, but rarely threebet either out of position, so with two tight players between him and me, the most common scenario was I got to play a pot against him in position as the preflop aggressor, a profitable situation,
particularly attractive since this is a rare chance to do so (I'm usually out of position against him).

As expected, he defended, and checked the Q42 flop. Against many opponents I'd cbet this flop on the basis that I probably have the best hand and might get a very cautious opponent to fold better (like a bigger ace or pocket threes). Let's run through some math at this point:
(1) I have the best hand here unless my opponent started with a pair
(about 6%), hit the flop (about 30%) or has a bigger ace (11%). Knocking off a few percent for very strong hands he'd threebet means I have the best hand here 55-60% of the time.
(2) It's important to remember that there are always three good reasons to bet: to protect what you believe to be the best but vulnerable hand, to get a better hand to fold, or to get called by a worse hand.

Looking at these three reasons, against this specific opponent:
(a) it's difficult to imagine he'd fold a better hand than mine to a bet
(b) it's equally difficult to see him calling with worse
(c) if my hand is best now it's not all that vulnerable as there aren't many draws he can have.

A big reason not to bet here is a very aggro opponent will look at that board and rightly conclude I will have missed it more often than not, and be prepared to follow through on this read with a check raise bluff. If I get check raised here I'm in a pretty horrible spot where I could make a big mistake either by folding the best hand or calling when I'm behind. Furthermore, a very aggro opponent is likely to keep barreling and I don't really want to play a very big pot at this point with ace high, so more than likely I'm going to have to fold to the check raise. Even if I'm behind, I'm giving up a lot of equity if I do this as with my gutshot I probably have either 7 or 10 outs, or between 25% and 40% equity. So to save myself this spot, I just check behind. My hand has decent showdown equity (meaning there's a very good chance it'll be best at showdown) and several ways to improve so the last thing I want to do is put more chips in now only to get bet off the hand.

The turn is the perfect card for me: a 5 completing my straight. My
opponent leads fairly small here. Again, my reaction to this very much
depends on my read on the villain, and my history with him. If he was a cautious tight player who might be "betting for information" with a marginal hand that he will fold to a reraise, I'd prefer to flat call here (and hope he weak leads the river or makes a crying call to a small value bet), or taking a stab with air but giving up if I show resistance. But against a very aggro opponent far more likely to not only be bluffing but to continue the bluff rather than just give up, and less likely to give up on a marginal hand, I prefer the small non-pot committing raise, which gives him the opportunity to come back over the top if he believes he has the best hand but needs to protect it, or is on a bluff and believes I'm either bluffing or have a marginal hand that can't call an all in (here the history between us is important as he may think I'm simply fed up of folding to his bets and reraises and therefore more likely to be on a total move, or taking a stand with a marginal hand). My opponent briefly thought about it before shoving, and after I called tabled 52o for two pair.

It's important to note that while my decisions at every point in the hand were based on and supported by the math (particularly on the flop), they took into account opponent tendencies as well as likely hand ranges. Most good players would come to the same decisions without necessarily being aware of the math. Most players learn not by analysing the math in detail but observing situations and noting how other players play them, both to see what they can learn from good players and what mistakes bad players make that should be avoided.

I was struggling with the wifi in the hotel for most of my time in Barcelona, but got it working briefly on the Sunday, when I found out that Irish poker legend Padraig Parkinson had suffered a heart attack two days before. I sent him a tweet wishing him a recovery and apologising saying I was out of the loop due to dodgy wifi in Barcelona. Parky tweeted back asking whose dodgy wife, so clearly his humour is not impaired, which must be a good sign :)

I also heard the very sad news that my friend Sean Gregory passed away at the weekend after a long fight with cancer. Sean was one of the first to befriend me when I appeared on the scene, and he always had a smile and a positive outlook on everything which made him a real pleasure to be with, except at the table where he was one of the most ferociously difficult to play against LAGs in the country. A lengthy conversation with Sean in the Red Cow early on in my career gave me many telling insights into the intelligent LAG's game at a time when all my mentors were TAGs, and I would say Sean had as big an influence on my current online game as anyone. One saying of his in particular stuck with me - "Keep putting the worms out there and sometimes you lose a lot of little worms before you catch the giant fish that makes it all worthwhile". Like everyone else, Sean struggled with the variance and the highs and lows of poker, but his positive attitude always shone through, and I took it as one of the most genuine compliments I've been paid when he came to me about a year ago looking for advice on the online game. Sean had some considerable successes in the last year online and had his career not been cut short I'm certain he would have proven what a tremendous natural talent he was.

This letter is being written on a plane from Barcelona to London. The plan is to play an EPT side event or two before the EPT Country of the Year freeroll on Thursday, and then it's back to the online grind for a while.

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

Doke