Hi
When I wrote last week's letter, I was looking forward to day 2 of Estrellas Madrid. Unfortunately, it could hardly have gone much worse. I went from 26/222 at the start of the day to busting just over 2 hours in with about 150 still left in. First hand of the day I lost a flip against a short stack, and from that point on just couldn't seem to win a hand. The final insuly was getting aces cracked by sevens all in pre. That left me with 10 bigs which were duly sent into battle with KJs, which proved no match for the AK it ran into.
I was at the same table as one of the only two other Irish in the field, Dubliner John Gallagher. He had no better luck busting before me. He'd been at the same table as Ireland's top ranked online mtt player currently, Daniel "danloulou" Smyth, on day 1. I was talking to Dan online and his day 1 sounded like my day 2. Both were telling me about the cash games they played in Madrid, which apart from being the softest they'd ever seen, had one very unusual feature: action proceeded anti-clockwise rather than the more usual clockwise!
Normally I'd jump into a few side events after an early main event exit, but with Mrs. Doke in tow I decided to do the tourist thing instead, and just played a small amount online. I had a reasonably good Sunday thanks to winning another Galway UKIPT satellite, my tenth in all, and a deep run in the Bigger 55. Well done to Feargal "MidniteKowby" Nealon who had a deep run in the Million and was very unlucky not to go farther, and Daragh "INoUrCards" Davey who was 5th in the 35K on Irish Eyes, meaning "other" Daragh notched up back to back final tables in Sunday majors in the last two weeks. Daragh's is my travelling companion and roommate for my trip to Prague on Wednesday so I'm hoping some of his recent form and run good rubs off on me. A number of other Team Irish Eyes players are travelling including Connie O'Sullivan, Kieran Walsh, Jason Arthur, Richie Lawlor and Gerry Kane.
For those that have missed Prague, the next EMOP is in Lisbon. Iron Man VIP Freerolls (6 of them with €2,000 packages in each), as well as regular sats, will start on Irish Eyes on 1st February.
While in Madrid, Phil Baker contacted me asking me if I'd represent Dublin in the fortcoming Inter County Poker championships in April. Given that I was born in Clare, but my family moved to Wexford when I was three, there are a few counties that coulds claim me if they so wished but first come first served, plus at this stage I have spent most of my adult life in Dublin's fair city. My daughter, a rabid Dubs fan in the GAA, will hopefully be proud at last given that she has always treated the fact that her old man is a "bogger" as she diplomatically puts it as the kind of dark family secret best not spoken about :)
Lastly for now, just seen this on the wire, Irish Eyes WINTER FREEROLL is on Saturday, February 21st @ 19:30 with €3,000 in the prize pool. The tournament will have 200 prizes. The tournaments will be open for registration one hour before start and the maximum number of participations is 5000. The buy-in equals to 10 VIP-points and needs to be earned in the last 24 hours before the tournament start.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
The Hive Poker, Instadeal Poker, Casino, Sports Betting, on your PC, Laptop, Smartphone or Tablet.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Letter from Doke (27th January 2012)
Hi,
I spent this weekend in Clane at the IPPF. Very enjoyable and well run tournament, even if I didn't trouble the scorers.
My favoured strategy in softish live events with a good structure is to try to chip up steadily using a smallball approach, rather than making any premature big moves. However, there inevitably comes a time when you have to kick on as blinds and antes escalate. After Gavin Flynn opened to 1700 utg at 400/800 with a 100 ante, I elected to flat call with AK in the small blind. I prefer flatting in these spots out of position against a good player when the effective stack is 40 to 55 bbs, as the threebet just inflates the pot and makes it likely that if we do get it all in pre, I'm going to be flipping at best. I think the threebet also folds out most of the hands in Gav's range that I dominate, while the flatcall disguises my hand. It allows me to get away cheaply if I miss the flop, but potentially win a big pot if I hit. The big blind came along. The flop was 8 high all hearts (I had the ace of hearts). In my mind, I now have enough equity that I'm happy to get it all in, and did after the big blind potted it, GGav folded, and I check raised. I assumed I was flipping nearly always with two overs and a flush draw, but wasn't in this case. I was up against a queen high made flush and didn't get there.
I didn't really think too much about the hand until a good player at the table told me later he didn't like how I played it, preferring the 3 bet pre, and the check call on the flop. I strongly disagree though (I don't like putting in a chunk of my stack when I'm going to have to fold most turns and can add about 30% to my stack without showdown if the check raise gets through), but I ran the hand by a couple of other good players (my friends David Lappin and Rob Taylor who both play it same as me).
I was back later for the side event. I made a strong start doubling my stack early on without any major showdowns. There was one funny hand with Ciaran Cooney. Ciaran 4xed the button to 200 over a limper, I threebet to 550 from the big blind with queens, the limper flatted, Ciaran 4 bet, and after a little deliberation I decided the fold was most prudent here. Ciaran showed 93o. He told me later he'd done it because in his very first live event a few years ago he'd 6 bet me with 23o and got me to fold, so I guess Ciaran's timing is good in that he finds me with the one hand I'd be 3 bet folding here (everything weaker gets flatted at this point, and everything stronger is not getting folded). I'm fine with the fold though, there's nothing wrong with folding the best hand from time to time (it certainly beats calling with the worst every time), and a couple of top players told me they'd make what Lappin calls a "boxy" fold in this spot.
I ruined my good start the next time I got queens. Having raised in late position and got called by both blinds, I cbet when checked to on a 542 flop. Smurph called and the big blind now shoved. My instant read on him was that he wasn't strong, he seemed just to be fed up of my constant raising, so I figured he was either overplaying something marginal, or making a move assuming I couldn't have hit that flop. So I called. Smurph now reshoved and my gut was I was now beaten. However, I only needed to be good about 35% of the time to call, and convinced myself I could be up against a smaller overpair or a pair and a draw hand involving a three. On reflection I don't think I'm good here often enough, so not exactly my finest hour. The big blind had 94o, and Smurph a set of 4s. This hand illustrates an important point: sometimes you have so much of your stack in already with a strong hand (a big overpair in this case) that you feel committed to call off the rest, but you still shouldn't unless you think you're going to be good enough of the time for the call to be profitable in its own right. I never recovered from this, being forced to wait for a decent spot to shove. A7 over a couple of limps looked like one but ran into AJ behind. That ended my weekend on the playing front.
A few well dones are in order to some friends who did well in Clane and online. David Lappin, playing his first major in ages, romped into the last 100 of the Million on Stars like the classic thoroughbred he is, and just as we were both getting excited about the 200k plus up top, unfortunately ran tens into kings with 67 left. Great show by the talented Mr Lappin though, who has also made me the subject of his latest entertaining blog at http://www.dublinbellybusters.com/blog.html which explains among other things why I'm not David Bowie.
Daragh Davey, who bunked on the couch in the suite myself and Mick shared and got a lift back from Clane with us demonstrated his true grit within a few hours. Shaking off the disappointment of playing brilliantly for 3 days to just double his money, he ended headsup in the Ipoker 200K, and was unlucky not to win when his AT was outdrawn by KQ. I'm on record as an admirer of "other" Daragh, and my admiration is based at least as much on his temperament, discipline and attitude as it is on his poker skills (which are considerable).
Well done also to Rob Taylor. Rob's been playing on Irish Eyes a good bit recently and in his first crack at the Sunday major there, final tabled the €35k guaranteed.
Also a big well done to two of the Dungarvan gang, Mark O'Connor and Gavin Flynn, for chopping the main event in Clane. Both lads are part of the Dungarvan group of players that seem to feed off each other's success, and you'll be hearing a lot more of these lads in future. I heard that two of Ireland's "live pros" were taking the piss out of what they called internet players on their table on day one. While it used to be the case that many online players struggled to transition to live, I think it was noteworthy that when the dust cleared at the weekend, it was two young online players who had risen to the top. The last few years have seen the online kids rise to dominate the international stage, and the next couple will see the same thing happen here in my opinion.
I also ran into Breifne at the weekend, promoting his new venture, www.sharkRankings.com. The basic idea is to have a ranking list for live and online events. Irish Eyes are running a number of qualifying events at quarter past eight 5 nights a week. I've been hitting these up when I can with spectacularly unsuccessful results (I've yet to cash!).
This letter is being typed up in a hotel room in Madrid, where yesterday I played 1a of Estrellas. I started fairly miserably and was down to 6k at one point but managed to maintain my discipline and composure to finish with 52k, comfortably above average. Fingers crossed for day 2 tomorrow. With a prize pool in the region of half a million euros, it would be a nice time to get some live run good.
Next week I'm off to Prague for EMOP (and the live final for last year's leaderboard). I know some other prominent Team Irish Eyes members like Connie O'Sullivan, Richie Lawlor and Kieran "Croc" Walsh are also travelling so it should be a fun trip.
Finally, I'll leave you for this week with an anecdote about the funniest text I've received in a while. Having viewed my latest career change with a mixture of shock and disdain initially, my daughter Fiona seems to be coming round to the view that there may be something to this poker lark. When she was home for Christmas, she asked me to give her a crash course so she could play with her housemates in Limerick where she now lives. It took only 15 minutes or so as she's a very quick learner (it's clear that whatever talent for the game I possess she has inherited). She's still a novice though, and I got the following amusing text from her this weekend:
"If you're playing holdem and you accidentally say straight instead of flush before you show your hand, do you lose the pot because of it? Or is it just a stupid rule the lads just made up?"
As I texted back to her that they'd made it up, I regretted that we never had that Daddy-daughter talk where I explain that lads are sneaky. Limerick lads especially.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
I spent this weekend in Clane at the IPPF. Very enjoyable and well run tournament, even if I didn't trouble the scorers.
My favoured strategy in softish live events with a good structure is to try to chip up steadily using a smallball approach, rather than making any premature big moves. However, there inevitably comes a time when you have to kick on as blinds and antes escalate. After Gavin Flynn opened to 1700 utg at 400/800 with a 100 ante, I elected to flat call with AK in the small blind. I prefer flatting in these spots out of position against a good player when the effective stack is 40 to 55 bbs, as the threebet just inflates the pot and makes it likely that if we do get it all in pre, I'm going to be flipping at best. I think the threebet also folds out most of the hands in Gav's range that I dominate, while the flatcall disguises my hand. It allows me to get away cheaply if I miss the flop, but potentially win a big pot if I hit. The big blind came along. The flop was 8 high all hearts (I had the ace of hearts). In my mind, I now have enough equity that I'm happy to get it all in, and did after the big blind potted it, GGav folded, and I check raised. I assumed I was flipping nearly always with two overs and a flush draw, but wasn't in this case. I was up against a queen high made flush and didn't get there.
I didn't really think too much about the hand until a good player at the table told me later he didn't like how I played it, preferring the 3 bet pre, and the check call on the flop. I strongly disagree though (I don't like putting in a chunk of my stack when I'm going to have to fold most turns and can add about 30% to my stack without showdown if the check raise gets through), but I ran the hand by a couple of other good players (my friends David Lappin and Rob Taylor who both play it same as me).
I was back later for the side event. I made a strong start doubling my stack early on without any major showdowns. There was one funny hand with Ciaran Cooney. Ciaran 4xed the button to 200 over a limper, I threebet to 550 from the big blind with queens, the limper flatted, Ciaran 4 bet, and after a little deliberation I decided the fold was most prudent here. Ciaran showed 93o. He told me later he'd done it because in his very first live event a few years ago he'd 6 bet me with 23o and got me to fold, so I guess Ciaran's timing is good in that he finds me with the one hand I'd be 3 bet folding here (everything weaker gets flatted at this point, and everything stronger is not getting folded). I'm fine with the fold though, there's nothing wrong with folding the best hand from time to time (it certainly beats calling with the worst every time), and a couple of top players told me they'd make what Lappin calls a "boxy" fold in this spot.
I ruined my good start the next time I got queens. Having raised in late position and got called by both blinds, I cbet when checked to on a 542 flop. Smurph called and the big blind now shoved. My instant read on him was that he wasn't strong, he seemed just to be fed up of my constant raising, so I figured he was either overplaying something marginal, or making a move assuming I couldn't have hit that flop. So I called. Smurph now reshoved and my gut was I was now beaten. However, I only needed to be good about 35% of the time to call, and convinced myself I could be up against a smaller overpair or a pair and a draw hand involving a three. On reflection I don't think I'm good here often enough, so not exactly my finest hour. The big blind had 94o, and Smurph a set of 4s. This hand illustrates an important point: sometimes you have so much of your stack in already with a strong hand (a big overpair in this case) that you feel committed to call off the rest, but you still shouldn't unless you think you're going to be good enough of the time for the call to be profitable in its own right. I never recovered from this, being forced to wait for a decent spot to shove. A7 over a couple of limps looked like one but ran into AJ behind. That ended my weekend on the playing front.
A few well dones are in order to some friends who did well in Clane and online. David Lappin, playing his first major in ages, romped into the last 100 of the Million on Stars like the classic thoroughbred he is, and just as we were both getting excited about the 200k plus up top, unfortunately ran tens into kings with 67 left. Great show by the talented Mr Lappin though, who has also made me the subject of his latest entertaining blog at http://www.dublinbellybusters.com/blog.html which explains among other things why I'm not David Bowie.
Daragh Davey, who bunked on the couch in the suite myself and Mick shared and got a lift back from Clane with us demonstrated his true grit within a few hours. Shaking off the disappointment of playing brilliantly for 3 days to just double his money, he ended headsup in the Ipoker 200K, and was unlucky not to win when his AT was outdrawn by KQ. I'm on record as an admirer of "other" Daragh, and my admiration is based at least as much on his temperament, discipline and attitude as it is on his poker skills (which are considerable).
Well done also to Rob Taylor. Rob's been playing on Irish Eyes a good bit recently and in his first crack at the Sunday major there, final tabled the €35k guaranteed.
Also a big well done to two of the Dungarvan gang, Mark O'Connor and Gavin Flynn, for chopping the main event in Clane. Both lads are part of the Dungarvan group of players that seem to feed off each other's success, and you'll be hearing a lot more of these lads in future. I heard that two of Ireland's "live pros" were taking the piss out of what they called internet players on their table on day one. While it used to be the case that many online players struggled to transition to live, I think it was noteworthy that when the dust cleared at the weekend, it was two young online players who had risen to the top. The last few years have seen the online kids rise to dominate the international stage, and the next couple will see the same thing happen here in my opinion.
I also ran into Breifne at the weekend, promoting his new venture, www.sharkRankings.com. The basic idea is to have a ranking list for live and online events. Irish Eyes are running a number of qualifying events at quarter past eight 5 nights a week. I've been hitting these up when I can with spectacularly unsuccessful results (I've yet to cash!).
This letter is being typed up in a hotel room in Madrid, where yesterday I played 1a of Estrellas. I started fairly miserably and was down to 6k at one point but managed to maintain my discipline and composure to finish with 52k, comfortably above average. Fingers crossed for day 2 tomorrow. With a prize pool in the region of half a million euros, it would be a nice time to get some live run good.
Next week I'm off to Prague for EMOP (and the live final for last year's leaderboard). I know some other prominent Team Irish Eyes members like Connie O'Sullivan, Richie Lawlor and Kieran "Croc" Walsh are also travelling so it should be a fun trip.
Finally, I'll leave you for this week with an anecdote about the funniest text I've received in a while. Having viewed my latest career change with a mixture of shock and disdain initially, my daughter Fiona seems to be coming round to the view that there may be something to this poker lark. When she was home for Christmas, she asked me to give her a crash course so she could play with her housemates in Limerick where she now lives. It took only 15 minutes or so as she's a very quick learner (it's clear that whatever talent for the game I possess she has inherited). She's still a novice though, and I got the following amusing text from her this weekend:
"If you're playing holdem and you accidentally say straight instead of flush before you show your hand, do you lose the pot because of it? Or is it just a stupid rule the lads just made up?"
As I texted back to her that they'd made it up, I regretted that we never had that Daddy-daughter talk where I explain that lads are sneaky. Limerick lads especially.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Monday, January 23, 2012
€10,000 Freeroll week on Terminal Poker
Terminal Poker will start this year with a massive Freeroll Week. €10,000 has been added to the freerolls throughout the week. This means that the schedule will look a bit different, but we are sure it is changes that you will gladly embrace.
Monday to Saturday at 20:00 CET you will be able to play a €1,000 freeroll and the Sunday freeroll is even bigger with €2,000 added.
The major freerolls come with a raked hand requirement that is easy to complete, so having money on your poker account has never been more valuable than now. If you thought the freerolls already had great value, then we are sure that you no longer have a name for how good they are this week.
---------------------------------------------------------
Schedule for the biggest tournaments during the Freeroll Week:
Monday-Saturday
€1,000 Freeroll at 20:00 CET
Registration requirement: 100 raked hands within 24 hours before the tournaments starts.
Sunday
€2,000 Freeroll at 20:00 CET
Registration requirement: 500 raked hands within 7 days before the tournament starts.
We also run €75 warm-up freerolls three times every day at 12:00, 16:00 and 23:00 CET. To play in these you only need to play 10 raked hands the last 24 hours.
We wish you the best of luck in the tournaments and we recommend you to start earning the raked hands already now as tonight at 20:00 the first tournament will start.
We also recommend you to try the mobile client on your smartphone or tablet. It is really cool but please note that you can only play the freerolls from the download client.
Signup today and get a 200% deposit bonus up to €400. Click here to get the bonus.
Monday to Saturday at 20:00 CET you will be able to play a €1,000 freeroll and the Sunday freeroll is even bigger with €2,000 added.
The major freerolls come with a raked hand requirement that is easy to complete, so having money on your poker account has never been more valuable than now. If you thought the freerolls already had great value, then we are sure that you no longer have a name for how good they are this week.
---------------------------------------------------------
Schedule for the biggest tournaments during the Freeroll Week:
Monday-Saturday
€1,000 Freeroll at 20:00 CET
Registration requirement: 100 raked hands within 24 hours before the tournaments starts.
Sunday
€2,000 Freeroll at 20:00 CET
Registration requirement: 500 raked hands within 7 days before the tournament starts.
We also run €75 warm-up freerolls three times every day at 12:00, 16:00 and 23:00 CET. To play in these you only need to play 10 raked hands the last 24 hours.
We wish you the best of luck in the tournaments and we recommend you to start earning the raked hands already now as tonight at 20:00 the first tournament will start.
We also recommend you to try the mobile client on your smartphone or tablet. It is really cool but please note that you can only play the freerolls from the download client.
Signup today and get a 200% deposit bonus up to €400. Click here to get the bonus.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Letter from Doke (9th January 2012)
Hi,
Doke here again. I spent most of this week out at Citywest at the WPT. On Wednesday I played the supersat and had a fairly early bath losing with an overpair v an underpair.
I played the main event the next day. The 30k starting stack allowed for a lot of play, but I handicapped myself by starting with 20k after losing 10k almost first hand with aces. More on that hand later. I barely won a pot and before the dinner break I got set over setted. That left me with ten big blinds which went shortly afterwards with AKs. I got called by the English guy who had set over setted me, Bodog sponsored pro Tatiana Pasalic, and then Dermot Blain squeezed for almost half his stack. Tatiana called again and when the 7 high board was checked down I was starting to think I might be good for at least a chop. Dermot announced ace high and turned over Aj, but Tatiana had kings!
I was back the next day for the IPC. In truth my table was a lot tougher than my WPT table, so I hunkered down through a period of card death until Padraig Parkinson doubled me up trying to bluff me off the nuts. I more or less tread water til close of play. Day 2 was a long tough grind where I never managed to get past the 100k mark, and towards the end of the day drifted back to 40k before the bubble burst.
So back to day 3 short but in the money. I needed to find something quick, and a couple of races won with AK were just the ticket to put me right into the mix. I then lost with kings v ace jack all in pre. Had I won that, I'd have been up over 250k and above average. Instead I hung round the 125K mark until my exit, aces against nines. A friend commented "another standard live cooler for Doke" and I do seem to go out of a lot of tournaments in similar fashion. I know nearly every poker player complains about running bad and thinks they run worse than they do, but I do genuinely feel I've run well below expectation live, at least at the business end of tournaments. I always seem to lose a big 70/30 or 80/20 at the crucial time, and while I can't complain about my consistency (which apparently attracted the attention of the Hendon Mob: Mick Mccloskey told me at the weekend I was the answer to one of their annual guiz questions: "Which Irish player had the most Hendon mob cashes last year?"), I do feel I could have won a couple of major live titles for now with a little less bad luck at the right time. This felt like another such occasion.
Well done to a few of my friends who did cash: Cat Taylor and David Lappin both final tabled the 250 side event (David also won a seat in the supersat), and Jono Crute also cashed. Also very well done to Kieran "Croc" Walsh who won the EMOP Ironman freeroll for a package to
EMOP Prague. Check out Irish Eyes for the many ways you can qualify for this.
You can see a teaser clip of an documentary on poker in Ireland I contributed to, which was directed by Eoghan O'Mahony at http://youtu.be/MOWy09t9CfY
Also this week I was interviewed by PocketFives about my second triple crown. You can read the interview at http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/doke-wins-second-triple-crown-587072/
This week's strategy for once features a hand I made a mistake in for once. It started with a competent aggro German opening in early position. I found aces behind. Flatting with aces has come back into fashion and in some instances I would but on this occasion I decided the threebet hoping to induce a light fourbet as my opponent was capable of doing this and we had some history (I'd already threebet folded to him). He flatted, and the flop came JT7 with two diamonds.
This is about as bad as flops get for aces as it smacks the flatter's range. However, I usually have the best hand on a draw heavy board so I have to bet when checked to. My opponent again called. So far so standard. The turn was a five of clubs bringing a second possible flush draw. Here's where I went wrong in the hand. When my opponent checks to me again, it's a tossup between checking behind for pot control, or betting if I think he's on a draw. However, if I bet I should fold to a reraise as then my opponent's range swings away from draws to hands that beat me (sets and two pair hands). Instead, I bet and called the check raise. The river blanked, he bet quite small, and I made a crying call in case he was value betting something like kings, or bluffing a missed draw.
SharkRankings.com is a new website that presents a ranking system for poker players to compare their results across the entire spectrum of the poker community in Ireland incorporating the results of nominated Online games as well as Major Championships such as the Irish Open, WPT, IPO, UKIPT, the domestic festival circuit and the clubs schedules currently on offer in casinos, card clubs and pubs around the country.
The rankings include an online ladder specifically for Irish Eyes Poker which will display the accumulated points totals for all players entered in the daily ranking tournaments running on the site which awards Shark Ranking points.
The ranking tournaments will run daily, seven days a week, at 8.15pm and will be €30 + €3 deepstack freezeouts with a starting stack of 3000 and a 12 minute clock. These tournaments will run from January 9th 2012.
SharkRankings.com online ladder points will be issued to all players who finish in the top 10% of the field in each tournament - with at least 3 players receiving points. Ranking points are calculated based on the number of players, the tournament buy-in and the finishing position of each player.
As well as the bragging rights that go with being at the business end of the rankings, the top ten players in the overall Online ranking leader board on SharkRankings.com at the end of 2012 will qualify to participate in the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll with a guaranteed prizepool of €10,000.
Irish Eyes Poker are also pleased to announce that the overall winner of the individual Irish Eyes Poker ranking ladder will also qualify for the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll. The Irish Eyes Poker rankings will consist solely of Irish Eyes Poker players who accumulate ranking points via Shark Rankings events on Irish Eyes Poker.
And if that wasn't enough, we have also placed a bounty on my head. Eliminate me from any of the Shark Rankings nightly games and you will be entered into a freeroll with a chance to win a €200 ticket to the €100,000 guaranteed monthly game right here on Irish Eyes Poker.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Doke here again. I spent most of this week out at Citywest at the WPT. On Wednesday I played the supersat and had a fairly early bath losing with an overpair v an underpair.
I played the main event the next day. The 30k starting stack allowed for a lot of play, but I handicapped myself by starting with 20k after losing 10k almost first hand with aces. More on that hand later. I barely won a pot and before the dinner break I got set over setted. That left me with ten big blinds which went shortly afterwards with AKs. I got called by the English guy who had set over setted me, Bodog sponsored pro Tatiana Pasalic, and then Dermot Blain squeezed for almost half his stack. Tatiana called again and when the 7 high board was checked down I was starting to think I might be good for at least a chop. Dermot announced ace high and turned over Aj, but Tatiana had kings!
I was back the next day for the IPC. In truth my table was a lot tougher than my WPT table, so I hunkered down through a period of card death until Padraig Parkinson doubled me up trying to bluff me off the nuts. I more or less tread water til close of play. Day 2 was a long tough grind where I never managed to get past the 100k mark, and towards the end of the day drifted back to 40k before the bubble burst.
So back to day 3 short but in the money. I needed to find something quick, and a couple of races won with AK were just the ticket to put me right into the mix. I then lost with kings v ace jack all in pre. Had I won that, I'd have been up over 250k and above average. Instead I hung round the 125K mark until my exit, aces against nines. A friend commented "another standard live cooler for Doke" and I do seem to go out of a lot of tournaments in similar fashion. I know nearly every poker player complains about running bad and thinks they run worse than they do, but I do genuinely feel I've run well below expectation live, at least at the business end of tournaments. I always seem to lose a big 70/30 or 80/20 at the crucial time, and while I can't complain about my consistency (which apparently attracted the attention of the Hendon Mob: Mick Mccloskey told me at the weekend I was the answer to one of their annual guiz questions: "Which Irish player had the most Hendon mob cashes last year?"), I do feel I could have won a couple of major live titles for now with a little less bad luck at the right time. This felt like another such occasion.
Well done to a few of my friends who did cash: Cat Taylor and David Lappin both final tabled the 250 side event (David also won a seat in the supersat), and Jono Crute also cashed. Also very well done to Kieran "Croc" Walsh who won the EMOP Ironman freeroll for a package to
EMOP Prague. Check out Irish Eyes for the many ways you can qualify for this.
You can see a teaser clip of an documentary on poker in Ireland I contributed to, which was directed by Eoghan O'Mahony at http://youtu.be/MOWy09t9CfY
Also this week I was interviewed by PocketFives about my second triple crown. You can read the interview at http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/doke-wins-second-triple-crown-587072/
This week's strategy for once features a hand I made a mistake in for once. It started with a competent aggro German opening in early position. I found aces behind. Flatting with aces has come back into fashion and in some instances I would but on this occasion I decided the threebet hoping to induce a light fourbet as my opponent was capable of doing this and we had some history (I'd already threebet folded to him). He flatted, and the flop came JT7 with two diamonds.
This is about as bad as flops get for aces as it smacks the flatter's range. However, I usually have the best hand on a draw heavy board so I have to bet when checked to. My opponent again called. So far so standard. The turn was a five of clubs bringing a second possible flush draw. Here's where I went wrong in the hand. When my opponent checks to me again, it's a tossup between checking behind for pot control, or betting if I think he's on a draw. However, if I bet I should fold to a reraise as then my opponent's range swings away from draws to hands that beat me (sets and two pair hands). Instead, I bet and called the check raise. The river blanked, he bet quite small, and I made a crying call in case he was value betting something like kings, or bluffing a missed draw.
SharkRankings.com is a new website that presents a ranking system for poker players to compare their results across the entire spectrum of the poker community in Ireland incorporating the results of nominated Online games as well as Major Championships such as the Irish Open, WPT, IPO, UKIPT, the domestic festival circuit and the clubs schedules currently on offer in casinos, card clubs and pubs around the country.
The rankings include an online ladder specifically for Irish Eyes Poker which will display the accumulated points totals for all players entered in the daily ranking tournaments running on the site which awards Shark Ranking points.
The ranking tournaments will run daily, seven days a week, at 8.15pm and will be €30 + €3 deepstack freezeouts with a starting stack of 3000 and a 12 minute clock. These tournaments will run from January 9th 2012.
SharkRankings.com online ladder points will be issued to all players who finish in the top 10% of the field in each tournament - with at least 3 players receiving points. Ranking points are calculated based on the number of players, the tournament buy-in and the finishing position of each player.
As well as the bragging rights that go with being at the business end of the rankings, the top ten players in the overall Online ranking leader board on SharkRankings.com at the end of 2012 will qualify to participate in the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll with a guaranteed prizepool of €10,000.
Irish Eyes Poker are also pleased to announce that the overall winner of the individual Irish Eyes Poker ranking ladder will also qualify for the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll. The Irish Eyes Poker rankings will consist solely of Irish Eyes Poker players who accumulate ranking points via Shark Rankings events on Irish Eyes Poker.
And if that wasn't enough, we have also placed a bounty on my head. Eliminate me from any of the Shark Rankings nightly games and you will be entered into a freeroll with a chance to win a €200 ticket to the €100,000 guaranteed monthly game right here on Irish Eyes Poker.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Sharkrankings Online Ranking Event
How Do You Compare against the Best Poker Players in Ireland
SharkRankings.com is a new website that presents a ranking system for poker players to compare their results across the entire spectrum of the poker community in Ireland incorporating the results of nominated Online games as well as Major Championships such as the Irish Open, WPT, IPO, UKIPT, the domestic festival circuit and the clubs schedules currently on offer in casinos, card clubs and pubs around the country.
The rankings include an online ladder specifically for Irish Eyes Poker which will display the accumulated points totals for all players entered in the daily ranking tournaments running on the site which awards Shark Ranking points.
The ranking tournaments will run daily, seven days a week, at 8.15pm and will be €30 + €3 deepstack freezeouts with a starting stack of 3000 and a 12 minute clock. These tournaments will run from January 9th 2012.
SharkRankings.com online ladder points will be issued to all players who finish in the top 10% of the field in each tournament – with at least 3 players receiving points. Ranking points are calculated based on the number of players, the tournament buy-in and the finishing position of each player.
As well as the bragging rights that go with being at the business end of the rankings, the top ten players in the overall Online ranking leader board on SharkRankings.com at the end of 2012 will qualify to participate in the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll with a guaranteed prizepool of €10,000.
Irish Eyes Poker are also pleased to announce that the overall winner of the individual Irish Eyes Poker ranking ladder will also qualify for the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll. The Irish Eyes Poker rankings will consist solely of Irish Eyes Poker players who accumulate ranking points via Shark Rankings events on Irish Eyes Poker.
And if that wasn’t enough, we have also placed a bounty on the head of Dara ‘doke’ O’Kearney (okearney) captain of Team Irish Eyes Poker. Eliminate Dara from any of the Shark Rankings nightly games and you will be entered into a freeroll with a chance to win a €200 ticket to the €100,000 guaranteed monthly game right here on Irish Eyes Poker.
Tournaments are running nightly so get started on accumulating those points. Full details can be found on www.sharkrankings.com
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Letter from Doke (4th January 2012)
Hi
Doke here again wishing you all a Happy New Year. May 2012 be the year when all our hands hold and all our draws are filled.
2011 ended on something of a high for me online. On Tuesday I won a $109 freezeout on Stars. The following night, I won a $50 freezeout on Stars to set up a possible online Triple Crown (given out by Pocket Fives to players who win three large tournaments on three different networks in a seven day period). Thursday was supposed to be a day off, or rather offline, but a relatively early bustout in the Fitz end of month gave me some time to sneak in a few games online. I ended up headsup with Miguel Silva in the High Roller on Merge. Unfortunately,I busted shortly after losing a flip for the win.
The following night I was down to the last three in a $10k $100 freezeout on Party. Unfortunately, the competition couldn't have been much stiffer: Brazil's Joao Mathias Baumgarten and Canada's Sebastian Sikorski are two of the top online mtt players in the world. Fortunately, I managed to win my flips on this occasion after getting headsup with Joao to clinch my second triple crown (my first, the first ever by an Irish player, was won just before Vegas this year).
Of course, the first question most of my friends asked when they heard was that most Irish of questions: "How much did you get for it?" The answer is nothing (beyond what I got for winning the tournaments themselves): it's purely an honorary achievement.
Also, I'd like to say a very well done to my good friend Feargal Nealon, who chopped one of the Stars Sunday majors, the Supersonic turbo. Feargal crushes turbos so the result comes as no surprise.
This week's strategy looks at preflop bet sizing. The trend online (and more recently live) has been for smaller and smaller opening raises. Towards the end of tournaments, I tend to take this to the extreme and always open for a min raise. A lot of players think they have to defend against a min raise, but this is a mistake. The hand that crippled me in the Fitz EOM illustrates this. I opened for a min raise, got one caller behind, and the big blind decided he had to defend because "it's only a min raise". When the flop came A22 with two clubs, I was pretty sure my AK (with the king of clubs) was the best hand when the blind decided not only to lead out on the flop, but to shove all in for several times the pot. It's difficult to see him doing this with any hand that beats me (like a 2) so it's pretty much always either a worse ace or a flush draw. I therefore called instantly, and he sheepishly turned over 7c3c. Although it worked out for him on this occasion (he hit his flush on the river), his play both before and after the flop is losing long term. With 73,he's either going to have to flop two pair or better (approximately a 25 to 1 shot) or a flush draw (a 9 to 1 shot) to be able to continue profitably past the flop. And even when he does flop a flush draw, it generally just means he'll be getting his stack in as a 2 to 1 if called, as happened on this occasion. The flop play is unprofitable too: he's risking several times the pot hoping neither me nor the other guy have an ace, and if we have one, two times out of three his tournament ends here. People sometimes ask me why I don't raise more to try to get people to fold preflop, but my answer is I don't want 7 high folding in the long term.
This week sees the first ever Irish WPT, and I'm looking forward to playing Day 1 on Thursday.
Irish Eyes are again running their Winter Tournament Series at the end of January. This is great value with five tournaments in each of two series, one for low stakes and one for high stakes. It's two daily tournaments, one with a €5 buy-in and one with a buy-in of €50, running between Sunday January 22nd and Friday January 26th. There's €21,000 in added prizemoney for the players who come at in the top places in each league including an EMOP Prague package also to be won. There more about this on the promotions page of the Irish Eyes website.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Doke here again wishing you all a Happy New Year. May 2012 be the year when all our hands hold and all our draws are filled.
2011 ended on something of a high for me online. On Tuesday I won a $109 freezeout on Stars. The following night, I won a $50 freezeout on Stars to set up a possible online Triple Crown (given out by Pocket Fives to players who win three large tournaments on three different networks in a seven day period). Thursday was supposed to be a day off, or rather offline, but a relatively early bustout in the Fitz end of month gave me some time to sneak in a few games online. I ended up headsup with Miguel Silva in the High Roller on Merge. Unfortunately,I busted shortly after losing a flip for the win.
The following night I was down to the last three in a $10k $100 freezeout on Party. Unfortunately, the competition couldn't have been much stiffer: Brazil's Joao Mathias Baumgarten and Canada's Sebastian Sikorski are two of the top online mtt players in the world. Fortunately, I managed to win my flips on this occasion after getting headsup with Joao to clinch my second triple crown (my first, the first ever by an Irish player, was won just before Vegas this year).
Of course, the first question most of my friends asked when they heard was that most Irish of questions: "How much did you get for it?" The answer is nothing (beyond what I got for winning the tournaments themselves): it's purely an honorary achievement.
Also, I'd like to say a very well done to my good friend Feargal Nealon, who chopped one of the Stars Sunday majors, the Supersonic turbo. Feargal crushes turbos so the result comes as no surprise.
This week's strategy looks at preflop bet sizing. The trend online (and more recently live) has been for smaller and smaller opening raises. Towards the end of tournaments, I tend to take this to the extreme and always open for a min raise. A lot of players think they have to defend against a min raise, but this is a mistake. The hand that crippled me in the Fitz EOM illustrates this. I opened for a min raise, got one caller behind, and the big blind decided he had to defend because "it's only a min raise". When the flop came A22 with two clubs, I was pretty sure my AK (with the king of clubs) was the best hand when the blind decided not only to lead out on the flop, but to shove all in for several times the pot. It's difficult to see him doing this with any hand that beats me (like a 2) so it's pretty much always either a worse ace or a flush draw. I therefore called instantly, and he sheepishly turned over 7c3c. Although it worked out for him on this occasion (he hit his flush on the river), his play both before and after the flop is losing long term. With 73,he's either going to have to flop two pair or better (approximately a 25 to 1 shot) or a flush draw (a 9 to 1 shot) to be able to continue profitably past the flop. And even when he does flop a flush draw, it generally just means he'll be getting his stack in as a 2 to 1 if called, as happened on this occasion. The flop play is unprofitable too: he's risking several times the pot hoping neither me nor the other guy have an ace, and if we have one, two times out of three his tournament ends here. People sometimes ask me why I don't raise more to try to get people to fold preflop, but my answer is I don't want 7 high folding in the long term.
This week sees the first ever Irish WPT, and I'm looking forward to playing Day 1 on Thursday.
Irish Eyes are again running their Winter Tournament Series at the end of January. This is great value with five tournaments in each of two series, one for low stakes and one for high stakes. It's two daily tournaments, one with a €5 buy-in and one with a buy-in of €50, running between Sunday January 22nd and Friday January 26th. There's €21,000 in added prizemoney for the players who come at in the top places in each league including an EMOP Prague package also to be won. There more about this on the promotions page of the Irish Eyes website.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)