Letter from Doke (16th Feb 2012)

Hi all.

Most of last week was devoted to the European Deepstack. I played the main event and a few side events, and kept running into aces, except in one of the side events where I had the aces. Sadly, they were no match for KTo on that occasion, the only time the aces didn't hold. I don't want to be one of those people who complains about bad beats solet's just leave it at that. :)

I had a spell on the feature table late on day 1A. I'd gone for dinner with Jason Tompkins (who had just won the High Roller - well done lad!) and his lovely girlfriend Joy, Daragh Davey, Nick Newport and David Lappin. I'd stated my intention if I did find myself in the last hour with a 20K stack to get it in a lot lighter than I normally would in the hopes of either doubling up or busting (so I could re-enter 1B). There was general agreement that this was the soundest strategy in a deepstack event where you think you have a fairly big edge over the field: any loss in equity taking sub optimal gambles being compensated by gained equity from giving yourself a second full run at amassing a stack. In the event, my shoves all got through (I had a very good image at the table), which at least saw me move from under 20k to over 30k.

Sadly there were no Irish on the final table. It's a worrying trend that we're having more and more major events in this country with few or even no local players on the final table.

After busting the main event and the turbo side on Saurday, I played a few online games in the room. I late regged for the nightly Night on Stars on French Stars and ended up winning it for over 10K, so once again it was a case of online to the rescue. The French at my table in the side the following day had heard of my win and were suitably impressed. Humble as ever, I pointed out that I'd actually won this tourney three times in the past few weeks, even though I've only played it about half a dozen times.

One of French commented wrily:
"You must like French fish".

This week's strategy section is a hand from my Irish Eyes teammate Connie O'Sullivan at the final table of EMOP Prague. Connie opened AQo utg playing just over 20 bbs and got reshoved from the small blind by a good player. Most people's instinctive reaction is you can't raise fold a hand as strong as AQ with 20 bbs and when Connie posted the hand in the theory section on IrishPokerBoards, a few people basically said this. However, Connie's not a man to act rashly, and after considering the hand carefully, he eventually folded. Apparently the live stream commentators thought this was a terrible fold. I disagree: considering all the information available to Connie, I think it's a fold too.

A very important consideration is perceived image. Because Connie was playing tight and would be perceived as very tight by the villain, the villain should not be shoving very many worse hands than AQ (in fact, he may be shoving no worse hand). Connie's more or less at the bottom of his perceived range. If he was a looser player with a wilder image he could expect good opponents to shove a lot of worse hands so AQ would be a call. Last night I was down to the last 6 of a final table and busted when in a similar spot where I reshoved AT and got snapped by AJ. A few friends who were railing were surprised at the snap call but I thought it was pretty standard as the villain was hyper loose and therefore had to expect me to play back with a lot of worse hands. When playing against good thinking opponents, it's very important to be aware of your own image and how that impacts on ranges (against unthinking players this is less of a consideration, as they either will be unaware of your image or adjust incorrectly to it: for example, a lot of bad loose players think tight players are good targets to reship light on, but a good tight player will call you as frequently as a good loose player and you'll be in bad shape when he does). To see a full discussion of the hand, go to http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12866

This letter is being written on the train to Galway where I'm hoping most of the week will be devoted to UKIPT Galway. I have a pretty decent record in Galway: I went deep in the main event last year (busting two tables out) and won the side event there the year before. I don't normally sell my action in live events any more but my German friend Max Heinzelmann asked if he could buy a "lucky 1%". Max won EPT Player of the Year last year for his achievement of getting headsup in back to back EPTs (Berlin and San Remo) so I figure his lucky 1% could be very lucky indeed.

On the Irish Eyes front the new software update due to take place on the 14th is now rescheduled for next week on the 21st Feb. The new update brings the awaited 'Preferred Seat' function to the poker client. This feature gives a player the option to choose a favorite seat on the tables. All tables will virtually be adjusted so the player is shown to sit at the same seat at all tables regardless of game, limit or number of seats. Great addition for multi-table play.

If you fancy joining the team at the next EMOP in Lisbon, Irish Eyes are running 6 VIP point freerolls between the 1st March and 22nd March. There is one package to EMOP Lisbon worth €2,000 in each freeroll. Each package consists of tournament buy-in of €1,100, accommodation for four nights and €350 in travel contribution that is credited to the winners poker account.

The VIP point buy-in starts at VIP1 on March 1st and increases for each tournament. It starts out being very easy to qualify but it becomes more difficult and rewards the higher value players. Earn as many VIP points as you can and get up to six tries to win a seat.

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

Doke