Letter from Doke (3rd April 2012)

Hi all

My EMOP Lisbon main event was basically a great day one followed by a miserable day two. I hit the ground running and chipped up steadily to hold the chiplead for much of the day until my travelling companion and roommate David Lappin surged by me late in the day after I was rivered late in the day in a 30k pot. Still, I was very happy to bag up over 90k in chips and was in a great position for day 2.

Day 2 started well when I won a race blind on blind against a short stack to break the 100k mark, but thereafter I barely won a pot. Card death didn't help. Almost every time I opened light to take advantage of not having opened in ages I got three bet. My first three bet got four bet shoved on, and my first three bet shove over a loose button raiser ran into queens. Just one of those days. There was better luck for some of the other travelling Irish: Kevin Spillane was unlucky to go out on the bubble, but Connie O'Sullivan notched up his second consecutive cash, and David was very unlucky not to lead tape to tape.

He was in great shape until he lost a huge pot for 40% of the chips in play five handed, his jacks getting cracked by eights. He exited in fourth, a disappointment to him and me (I had a sizeable chunk of his action) but a great performance nonetheless from an online beast who has made the transition to live play.

While railing him on the final table, I jumped into the PLO side event. Perhaps a little foolhardy as PLO is probably my weakest game and I have probably played less than 10 hours of it in my lifetime, but God love's a trier, and I do believe that in tournament poker, a good knowledge of general tournament strategy is at least as important as poker knowledge. It was quite an interesting experience and I found myself unsure of my likely equity in a lot of spots and trying to work things out from first principles, but somehow I muddled my way through to headsup and was a little unlucky not to win in the end. I committed pre flop with KcKx9c6c, potting over a button raise to get almost half the stacks in, and then shoved a safe looking Tc4c2x flop. My opponent called with Ac6x5c5x and hit the nut flush on the turn to claim the title. Still, I can't complain too much in a tournament where I should probably have been wearing L plates. Don't expect to see too many PLO hands in the strategy section any time soon.

This week's strategy section looks at one of the more interesting hands David Lappin played on his way to the chiplead on day one in Lisbon. Early on, an aggressive German opened in early position. David called on the button with sixes. He covered the German so his stack, about 100 big blinds, was the effective one. This deep, it's profitable to flat medium pairs. There's the chance to set mine and possibly win a big pot if you hit a set, and you can also win in other ways since you're in position and can control the pot size. Sixes is not a hand that can comfortably call a four bet, so against an aggressive young opponent flatting is the best option.

The flop came q77, and David called a 40% pot continuation bet. This is pretty standard as the villain won't normally have hit that flop (he has some queens in his range, but it's very unlikely he has a 7). David's plan now is to bet the turn if checked to, as most opponents will check once they get called. David's perceived range here is much wider, he can certainly have a queen and even a 7 (he might call with hands like A7s, 87s, 76s) so if he fires after the opponent checks, this puts the opponent in a very tricky spot even if he can beat sixes(with something like 88-jj) as he has no way of knowing if his hand is good, and if it isn't he'll face a bigger river bet. The turn comes a three and the opponent bets again. At this stage, his range now appears to be either queens or air. Queens would fire again for value, confident they're the best hand. Air would fire knowing that the only way to win the pot now is to bluff and hope David folds something like sixes. More marginal hands that are winning like AA, KK, and AQ would normally check call the turn for pot control and to get maximum value if David is floating (calling with nothing intending to bluff if weakness is shown). David decided there was far more air in the range
than made value hands so he quickly decided to call. However, he didn't call quickly: he tanked to make it appear like he was making a crying call to induce his aggressive opponent to continue the bluff on the river. The river came a king, his opponent fired a third barrel for 80% of pot, and David called instantly. The opponent had fives.

As a general rule, aggression in poker is a good thing, but here the opponent overplayed his hand with a line which made no sense unless he had a house or quads. Because of this, David rightly deduced he was most likely bluffing. By playing the hand passively, David maximised the amount he would win if his opponent was bluffing (if he raises on any street post flop his opponent folds) and minimised his loss in the unlikely event that his opponent did have the monster his bets were trying to represent. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the hand is David taking a long time to call the turn despite having quickly decided he was calling. Amateurs often call quickly in these spots with marginal hands hoping to appear stronger than they are to discourage their opponent from bluffing, but if the only thing you are beating is a bluff then the last thing you want to do is to discourage your opponent from betting his bluffs.

Next up is the Irish Open. While it's never a great idea to get too emotionally invested in any one tournament, I would love to do well in this one. I feel I'm playing more or less at the top of my game at the moment after a bit of a slump in the first few weeks of the year, so fingers crossed.

The Celtic Poker Tour €120 F/O with €25,000 Guaranteed is on this Easter Saturady in the Clonmel Park Hotel. Reg at 12 noon with a 2pm sharp start. 15K starting stack. This is a one day event. If you are interested in playing and to hold your seat text 0852453679 as the game has limited availability.

A great turn out last Sunday night on Irish Eyes for the Joker's Casino live satellite. 102 runners with player wsop10 winning the live event buy-in. There is a €10 online satellite on Irish Eyes for the Joker's live event every Sunday at 8pm. So if you want to satellite you way into the €160 buy-in main event in Joker's Casino Mullingar on Sunday April 29th make sure to play the online sats.

There was a lot of interest in the WSOP Express promotion on Irish Eyes in March, and I have now learned that this will be repeated in April.
The WSOP EXPRESS has €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money.
All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.

Lastly, Freerolls: Don't forget the Easter Freeroll is on Irish Eyes on April 5th. There is no buy-in and no VIP requirements needed for this freeroll which will take place on the 6th April. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 added. The package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winner's poker account. Max number of participants is 2000 and registration opens 18:30 on the 5th April

There is now a Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night that is password protected. But all you need to do is 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password every week. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803

And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.

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

Doke