Hi
Welcome to this week's letter. The last letter was written after my day 1 in this year's WSOP main event
where I complained about getting very little to play with. I went back to day
2 to find Daragh Davey to my immediate right and Pete "Multiplier" Murphy
across the table. The rest of the table seemed pretty soft and I won a few
early pots to move up to 55K.
Then I lost a few to Daragh and Pete (jacks v
Daragh's kings blind on blind, straight v Pete's worse straight/flush draw).
Most of these hands were essentially setups and against other opponents I
could very well have gone bust, but the dynamic dicated that we were treading
warily around each other.
Things seemed to be finally turning when I picked
up aces two hands running. First time around, I flatted a raise from
Daragh as I felt a 3 bet was in danger of getting too much respect given
how tight I appeared to be playing. There was a reshove stack behind and
a guy who overrated hands, two other reasons to flat I felt. I bet a
ten high flop when checked to me and took it down.
Next hand I pick
up aces again! This time I open when to 1275 it gets to me, my
standard open at 300/600. Button calls and the guy who overrates hands
threebet huge from the small blind, to 6900. There hadn't been a lot of
3 betting at the table, so feeling he had a hand I clicked it back
to 12925, trying to induce a 5 bet. He obliged, making it 26k at
which point I shove for 40k. After a little thought he called. I
was expecting to see kings but hoping to see AK. He actually had
queens. We both missed the flop, but the queen arrived on the turn to
the exuberant cheers of his friends on the rail.
I left the scene in
a daze, trying to come to terms with the fact that for the second
year running, I'd hung tough through a day of card death only to been
done in a massive pot with aces versus an underpair. Obviously I'm aware
of variance and that you're supposed to lose at least 18% of those:
it just hurts a lot more when it's in the biggest tournament of the
year for about $30k in equity. But that's poker as they say, and there's
no point in complaining. My "job" as a professional player is to get
themoney in good. After that, it's out of my hands.
A few of the
Irish lads got a bit of a run in the main event including Pete who cashed.
Special well dones to Feargal "MidniteKowby" Nealon who busted late on day 4,
and honorary Irishman Nick Abou Risk. Feargal started on an adjacent table to
me and it was clear from the start and every time I ran into him after that
he was focussed and in the zone. Feargal's been itching for a big live score
for a while now and this will give him confidence for the future. Nick really
is one of the good guys in poker and as he was listed on Poker News as
Irish, was officially the last Irishman standing this year. No
surprises there: if I'd been asked to nominate someone most likely to last
the longest, I'd have gone for Nick.
This week's strategy section
looks at some bet size considerations in my main event exit hand. I opened
for my standard min raise. When opening a wide range of hands, it's crucial
not to open different amounts depending on your hand strength, as perceptive
opponents will pick up on this and be able to narrow your range when you do
open based on your sizing. After the button flatted, my opponent with
the queens 3 bet very large. I believe this is an example of a bet
sizing tell: he did this because he felt he had a very strong but
vulnerable hand which he needed to protect. The other disadvantages of this
large sizing are it bloats the pot, reduces the possibility of
getting action from weaker hands, and leaving less wiggle room to get away
ifwe run into a stronger hand.
My 4 bet sizing required a little
consideration on my part, which I'll look at in the next letter.
A reminder about the Kerry September Summer Sizzler, a €200 buy-in tournament with €15,000 guaranteed in Darby O'Gills Country House Hotel Killarney on the 8th September. This is a 2 day event and will no doubt be a great tournament if history of CueClub Events tournaments are anything to go by. Online satellites for buy-in and hotel B&B in Darby O'Gills are on Irish Eyes Poker starting this Sunday evening at 8pm. These €20 buy-in satellites will run each Sunday upto the event.
This letter is being written on the plane home from Vegas to the heckling of Daragh Davey (he does have a nasty habit of turning up in seats to my right) in the next seat. We're both looking forward to
getting back to the online grind after a month devoted almost exclusively to live poker.
Irish Eyes are also launching the new Hand Replayer in July.
To celebrate the launch of the new software which allows players to reply their hands, Irish Eyes Poker is offering prizes for special hands. (The following promotions are valid only in cash games and only when a minimum of three players have received cards.)
Texas Triple AA Special - Win a MacBook Air!
Get AA as your starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table, regardless of the stakes you're playing, and win an Apple MacBook Air notebook (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD)!
This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
Subject: "Triple AA MacBook claim"
- Hand History number of the first AA hand
- Poker nickname
- Full home address
Texas Triple Same Pair Special
Get the same pair, deuces to kings, as starting hand three
times in a row at the same cash game table and win €200.
This promotion
is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players
must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail
should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Triple Same Pair
claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker
nickname
Omaha Quad Aces Special
Get Four-of-a-Kind
aces as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €100.
This promotion
is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a
prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31
July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject:
"Omaha Quad Aces claim"
- Hand History number of the quad aces hand
-
Poker nickname
Omaha High Quads Special
Get Four of a Kind kings, queens, or jacks as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €50.
This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and
4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com
no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following
information:
- Subject: "Omaha High Quads claim"
- Hand History
number of the quad hand
- Poker nickname
Four the Win! - Sit
& Go Promotion
Win four Super Turbo Sit &Go tournaments in a
row on the same level and win a cash prize!
Sit & Go's qualifying for
this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Super Turbo SitGo (PROMO) Holdem NL €2 +
€0.2 Prize = €200
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €10 + €1 Prize =
700
(Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time
of registration.)To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information
to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July.
- Subject "Four the Win
claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit & Go in the series (in the poker
lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname
MacBook Air VIP SPECIAL
On Sunday, 8 July at 20:30, three players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air in a special
tournament. The buy-in is 50 VIP points that must be earned starting from 1
July.
Prizes:
Three (3) Apple MacBook Air notebooks (11" Core i5 1.6
GHz 64 GB SSD). The maximum number of participants is 1000, 3000 in starting
chips, and 12 minutes levels. To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the
following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 10 July.
-
Subject "MacBook Tournament claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home
address
Freerolls:
Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
The Hive Poker, Instadeal Poker, Casino, Sports Betting, on your PC, Laptop, Smartphone or Tablet.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Monday, July 09, 2012
Letter from Doke and News from Irish Eyes Gaming 9th July 2012
Welcome to this week's letter, which contains a catch up on how things are going here in Vegas, a strategy section, news on the Kerry September Sizzler Tournament and online promotions for July.
I'm writing this letter the night before I play day 1B of the WSOP main event. I'm going in feeling confident about my form after cashing in my last WSOP side event, and also in my only Venetian Deepstack of the summer.
In the WSOP side event, I got off to an amazing start, moving from 3K starting to 30K shortly after dinner. Nick Abou Risk tweeted me to say I was apparently chipleader at that point according to Pokernews. Unfortunately I lost a bit of ground late in the day but was still happy to bag up almost 25k. I lost half my stack early on day 2 in an unfortunate hand where I had queens on a t54 flop (versus ten four off), which left me with about 20 bigs. I stayed in that zone for the rest of my time in the tournament, eventually going out shoving king queen into queens. It's probably the least disappointed I've ever been after busting a major tournament as I pretty much felt I'd gone as far as I possibly could have given the cards and situations.
For anyone wanting to follow my progress in the main event, I'll be tweeting updates from my Twitter account (daraokearney).
Things have been going well for the 2 lads I'm rooming with as well. Daragh Davey just can't stop making day 2's and notched up yet another side event cash. And Jason Tompkins achieved the best result of any Irish player so far this series when he final tabled a 1K side event. 6 handed, he lost a massive flip against the best of the other players left. Had he won that, I think he was probably odds on for the bracelet. Amazing run and performance by Jason, who really did Irish poker proud.
In last week's letter, I went through one interesting bubble spot Jason had in the $2500 Mixed Holdem event and mentioned he had another. This was when he opened 99 under the gun, and an elderly recreational player shoved all in for ten big blinds. As a general rule a good player won't raise and then fold to a 10 big blind shove purely because of the price they're getting to call (over 2 to 1 in this case). However, Jason correctly reasoned that the only hand his opponent would move all in with in this spot (on a big bubble) was a big pair. Against a looser opponent who might reshove AK and pairs as low as jacks, it becomes a call. The reason for this is that even though the pairs crush us, we flip with ace king, and ace king is more likely (there are 16 possible ace king combinations, but only 6 of each pair), so against the total range of ace king and jacks or better, 2 to 1 is the correct price.
Curiously enough, if you think he'll shove tens also, it now becomes a fold. The presence of one extra pair that crushes nines in the range increases the pot odds needed from 2 to 1 to 2.2 to 1.
For those interested in a poker trip to Kerry in September, CueClub Events (Connie O'Sullivan and Matt Dobbins) are holding a €200 buy-in tournament with €15,000 guaranteed in Darby O'Gills Country House Hotel Killarney on the 8th September. This is a 2 day event and will no doubt be a great tournament if history of CueClub Events tournaments are anything to go by. Online satellites for buy-in and hotel B&B in Darby O'Gills are on Irish Eyes Poker starting this Sunday evening at 8pm. These €20 buy-in satellites will run each Sunday upto the event.
Irish Eyes are also launching the new Hand Replayer in July.
To celebrate the launch of the new software which allows players to reply their hands, Irish Eyes Poker is offering prizes for special hands. (The following promotions are valid only in cash games and only when a minimum of three players have received cards.)
Texas Triple AA Special - Win a MacBook Air!
Get AA as your starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table, regardless of the stakes you're playing, and win an Apple MacBook Air notebook (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD)!
This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
Subject: "Triple AA MacBook claim"
- Hand History number of the first AA hand
- Poker nickname
- Full home address
Texas Triple Same Pair Special
Get the same pair, deuces to kings, as starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table and win €200.
This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Triple Same Pair claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker nickname
Omaha Quad Aces Special
Get Four-of-a-Kind aces as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €100.
This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha Quad Aces claim"
- Hand History number of the quad aces hand
- Poker nickname
Omaha High Quads Special
Get Four of a Kind kings, queens, or jacks as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €50.
This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha High Quads claim"
- Hand History number of the quad hand
- Poker nickname
Four the Win! - Sit & Go Promotion
Win four Super Turbo Sit &Go tournaments in a row on the same level and win a cash prize!
Sit & Go's qualifying for this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Super Turbo SitGo (PROMO) Holdem NL €2 + €0.2 Prize = €200
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €10 + €1 Prize = 700
(Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time of registration.)To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July.
- Subject "Four the Win claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit & Go in the series (in the poker lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname
MacBook Air VIP SPECIAL
On Sunday, 8 July at 20:30, three players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air in a special tournament. The buy-in is 50 VIP points that must be earned starting from 1 July.
Prizes:
Three (3) Apple MacBook Air notebooks (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD). The maximum number of participants is 1000, 3000 in starting chips, and 12 minutes levels. To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 10 July.
- Subject "MacBook Tournament claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home address
Freerolls:
Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
I'm writing this letter the night before I play day 1B of the WSOP main event. I'm going in feeling confident about my form after cashing in my last WSOP side event, and also in my only Venetian Deepstack of the summer.
In the WSOP side event, I got off to an amazing start, moving from 3K starting to 30K shortly after dinner. Nick Abou Risk tweeted me to say I was apparently chipleader at that point according to Pokernews. Unfortunately I lost a bit of ground late in the day but was still happy to bag up almost 25k. I lost half my stack early on day 2 in an unfortunate hand where I had queens on a t54 flop (versus ten four off), which left me with about 20 bigs. I stayed in that zone for the rest of my time in the tournament, eventually going out shoving king queen into queens. It's probably the least disappointed I've ever been after busting a major tournament as I pretty much felt I'd gone as far as I possibly could have given the cards and situations.
For anyone wanting to follow my progress in the main event, I'll be tweeting updates from my Twitter account (daraokearney).
Things have been going well for the 2 lads I'm rooming with as well. Daragh Davey just can't stop making day 2's and notched up yet another side event cash. And Jason Tompkins achieved the best result of any Irish player so far this series when he final tabled a 1K side event. 6 handed, he lost a massive flip against the best of the other players left. Had he won that, I think he was probably odds on for the bracelet. Amazing run and performance by Jason, who really did Irish poker proud.
In last week's letter, I went through one interesting bubble spot Jason had in the $2500 Mixed Holdem event and mentioned he had another. This was when he opened 99 under the gun, and an elderly recreational player shoved all in for ten big blinds. As a general rule a good player won't raise and then fold to a 10 big blind shove purely because of the price they're getting to call (over 2 to 1 in this case). However, Jason correctly reasoned that the only hand his opponent would move all in with in this spot (on a big bubble) was a big pair. Against a looser opponent who might reshove AK and pairs as low as jacks, it becomes a call. The reason for this is that even though the pairs crush us, we flip with ace king, and ace king is more likely (there are 16 possible ace king combinations, but only 6 of each pair), so against the total range of ace king and jacks or better, 2 to 1 is the correct price.
Curiously enough, if you think he'll shove tens also, it now becomes a fold. The presence of one extra pair that crushes nines in the range increases the pot odds needed from 2 to 1 to 2.2 to 1.
For those interested in a poker trip to Kerry in September, CueClub Events (Connie O'Sullivan and Matt Dobbins) are holding a €200 buy-in tournament with €15,000 guaranteed in Darby O'Gills Country House Hotel Killarney on the 8th September. This is a 2 day event and will no doubt be a great tournament if history of CueClub Events tournaments are anything to go by. Online satellites for buy-in and hotel B&B in Darby O'Gills are on Irish Eyes Poker starting this Sunday evening at 8pm. These €20 buy-in satellites will run each Sunday upto the event.
Irish Eyes are also launching the new Hand Replayer in July.
To celebrate the launch of the new software which allows players to reply their hands, Irish Eyes Poker is offering prizes for special hands. (The following promotions are valid only in cash games and only when a minimum of three players have received cards.)
Texas Triple AA Special - Win a MacBook Air!
Get AA as your starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table, regardless of the stakes you're playing, and win an Apple MacBook Air notebook (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD)!
This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
Subject: "Triple AA MacBook claim"
- Hand History number of the first AA hand
- Poker nickname
- Full home address
Texas Triple Same Pair Special
Get the same pair, deuces to kings, as starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table and win €200.
This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Triple Same Pair claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker nickname
Omaha Quad Aces Special
Get Four-of-a-Kind aces as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €100.
This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha Quad Aces claim"
- Hand History number of the quad aces hand
- Poker nickname
Omaha High Quads Special
Get Four of a Kind kings, queens, or jacks as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €50.
This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha High Quads claim"
- Hand History number of the quad hand
- Poker nickname
Four the Win! - Sit & Go Promotion
Win four Super Turbo Sit &Go tournaments in a row on the same level and win a cash prize!
Sit & Go's qualifying for this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Super Turbo SitGo (PROMO) Holdem NL €2 + €0.2 Prize = €200
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €10 + €1 Prize = 700
(Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time of registration.)To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July.
- Subject "Four the Win claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit & Go in the series (in the poker lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname
MacBook Air VIP SPECIAL
On Sunday, 8 July at 20:30, three players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air in a special tournament. The buy-in is 50 VIP points that must be earned starting from 1 July.
Prizes:
Three (3) Apple MacBook Air notebooks (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD). The maximum number of participants is 1000, 3000 in starting chips, and 12 minutes levels. To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 10 July.
- Subject "MacBook Tournament claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home address
Freerolls:
Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
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