Irish Eyes Poker

Letter from Doke (27th January 2012)

2012-01-27T13:29:00.000Z

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

€10,000 Freeroll week on Terminal Poker

2012-01-23T11:46:00.001Z

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.

Letter from Doke (9th January 2012)

2012-01-09T12:45:00.003Z

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

Sharkrankings Online Ranking Event

2012-01-07T14:17:00.001Z

SharkRankings.com Online Ranking Events with Irish Eyes Poker

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

Letter from Doke (4th January 2012)

2012-01-04T12:20:00.000Z

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

Letter from Doke (20th December 2011)

2011-12-20T16:44:00.000Z

Hi,

Doke here again. I thought I came home from Manila empty-handed, but actually brought some sort of Manila flu with me (or maybe just man flu: the jury is still out).I've been struggling with it since but have continued grinding away online, the highlight of which was winning the 8K 10r on Irish Eyes during the week.

I appeared on Dublin City FM's Sunday afternoon sports show, "On The Ball", which is co-hosted by my friend Breifne Earley. I was saying to Breifne this is probably the quietest time of the year as far as live poker goes, and probably my last live outing of 2011 will be the Fitz End of Month. It'll be a busy start to next year though, kicking off with WPT Dublin at the start of January. I'm heading to Madrid for a few days in the last week of January, for Estrellas Madrid (which I also qualified for during the week). The following week the first leg of the next EMOP season kicks off in Prague, preceded by the live final for the top 16 players from last year. My second in Dublin was enough to get me in. Satellites now running for Prague on Irish Eyes. Prague is one of Europe's nicest cities: I've never played poker there but was there in my running days (back in 2008, I won the World 6 Hour Running Indoor championships and set a number of Irish records in Brno, the second biggest Czech city).

This week's strategy section is on rebuy tournaments. There are a lot of misconceptions about rebuy tournaments. A lot of people think you have to gamble more than you would in a freezeout. While you certainly have the option to do so in the rebuy period without worrying about busting, this doesn't mean it's particularly sensible. The chips you gain early in a rebuy are worth no more to you at that stage that in a freezeout (in fact, they may be worth less depending on how the rebuy is structured: more on that in a minute). The correct way to play depends very much on structure. Some rebuys give more chips than starting stack to rebuys, or charge less for the same stack, in which case it is correct to gamble it up as you'll either double up, or be able to buy more chips more cheaply. Other rebuys (like the 8K I won during the week on Irish Eyes) give you the same chips for rebuys but double (or more) for addons. In this case, the correct strategy is to play very tight during the rebuy period, get to the break as cheaply as possible, and then add on.

Let's look at some of the maths here. In the 8K guaranteed on Irish Eyes every evening, starting stack and rebuys cost €10 for 1500 chips. You are allowed 1 or 2 addons, which cost €10 for 3000 chips. So if you take both addons, you can buy 6000 chips for €20. Someone who doesn't rebuy but takes the double addon has a total spend of €30 for 7500 chips, or 4 cents per chip. By contrast, if you have to rebuy four times and take the double addon, you're paying €60 for 12000 chips (5 cents a chip). Anyone who drops out before the addon break (or gets there but doesn't take the addon) is paying €10 for every 1500 chips, almost 7 cents a chip.

I'd like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, and good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)

Doke

Letter from Doke (12th December 2011)

2011-12-12T18:40:00.000Z

Hi,

Doke here again. I'm back from a week in Manila. Not a profitable trip unfortunately, but an enjoyable one, although I seem to have picked up some Mystery Manila Malady.

I didn't get too much to play with all day one of the Manny Pacquiao World Poker Open but managed to work my way up to double stack near the end of play by making the most of what I did get. It wasn't the kind of field where you could do anything fancy without cards, so I stuck to value betting much bigger than I normally would. A series of minor setbacks late in the day saw me drift back from 30k to finish with 21k, 21 bbs when we came back for day 2. We'd lost two thirds of the field so I was well below average but still reasonably optimistic as it was a very soft field.

Day 1 ended early, around 9.30 PM, a pleasant change from tournaments back home where you play til 4 AM and have to be back less than 12 hours later. I was in bed by 10 and slept straight through until almost 7 AM. When I woke and saw the time, I decided to try for another hour or two's kip, since we weren't due to start back until 1 PM. Next time I opened my eyes, I read 1.46 on the clock. I hurled myself out of the bed and into my clothes, and on the sprint to the Pan Pacific, I frantically tried to work out how much of my stack if any I likely had left. Up 5 flights of stairs and into an empty casino except for cleaning staff. I figured I must have blinded out but where was everyone else? Checking the time on my mobile phone (which was still on Irish time), I found it was almost midnight back home.

Subtract 8 hours, so it's 4 PM? No, wait, that's Vegas that you subtract 8 hours from GMT, here you add 8, so.......8 AM. I slunk back to the hotel cursing the clock in my room which I was convinced had malfunctioned. But when I got there, it read 8.15 AM. Somehow I'd read 7.46 as 1.46.

As bad as that false start was, my actual day 2 was even worse. I got off to a flyer, working my way up to 55k in the first couple of orbits. Then I picked up aces, got the lot in preflop against the only guy at the table who covered me. A king on the turn sent me packing back to my hotel. Had my aces held, I'd have been propelled into the chiplead, and strongly fancied myself to go on and win from there in the softest four figure buyin tournament I'll probably ever play.

I wouldn't be human if I didn't feel a bit sick on that walk back to my hotel. It's a long way to fly to sit and wait patiently for more than a day just for that to happen. One of the things I like about online poker is that no one tournament ever means too much if you do it right: it's ultimately just one in a sample size of tens of thousands. But live is slower and you play a much smaller number of them, so it seems like every tournament matters more.

However, I shrug these setbacks off quicker than most. My English mate Mark who arranged the whole trip, great friend that he is, took only a few minutes to learn of my demise and come over to check up on me. He said he expected to find me committing hara kiri, and was astonished at how positive I seemed. It generally takes 10 minutes or so for the mists of disappointment to clear, but once they do I'm done with it and already thinking about the next tournament. Maybe that's something I also learned in ultra running, where I pretty much destroyed my body in every race and crossed every line thinking "Never again" but would have recovered mentally within an hour and physically within a week.

Don't forget, Season 4 of the European Masters of Poker kicks off in Prague on 2nd to 5th Feb next. Satellites are on Irish Eyes Poker for EMOP Prague now.

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

Doke

Letter from Doke (1st December 2011)

2011-12-01T12:22:00.000Z

Hi,

Doke here again. I spent most of this week in the Fitzwilliam, playing their annual festival. First up was their end of month. The field seems to get tougher every month: as evidence of this my starting table had Andy Black (just back from representing Ireland at the Poker Nations Cup), former IPC champion Rory Rees Brennan, and top young Northern Irish player Gertard Harraghy. I ended up cashing but bubbling the final table, getting it all in with A6s versus Dave Masters A4o. The first card on the flop was a rather encouraging 6,but a 4 behind it was joined by another on the turn.

Next up was the main event. I emerged from day one 4th in chips, much to most people's surprise, not least my own. I managed to lose half my stack in the first few hands of day 2, but made one of my trademark recoveries from four big blinds to make the final table, and be involved in a six way chop for €8500. I also had a very hefty chunk of my good friend Rob Taylor who was also in the chop so overall it was a great tournament for me.

Rob and I were back the next day for the team event, joined by two top online players, Padraig "Smidge" O'Neill and David "Lappin" Lappin. I personally got almost nothing to play with in this but the nature of team events is to hang in there as long as you can as the winning team is generally the one with the best "worst" score. I busted in 19th, comfortably inside the top half and we were the last team to have all four in so early advantage to the Old Nits (our team name). Daragh Davey's Team Mongoose were specifically targeting us as their main rivals and unfortunately the draw meant that all four of them had direct position on all four of us. They lost Nick Newport early on which increased their determination to knock us out, meaning the first time I shoved Team Mongoose called with J3o to try to knock me out.

Luckily my fours held, but next time I shoved, my AT was not as fortunate against the Mongoose's Q9. Smidge then got dogged by another Mongoose to go out in 18th opening the event back up, but it swung our way again thanks to a brave and brilliant call by Lappin. Having raised with a pair of eights, after the board ran out T4465, Lappin checked to the Mongoose who had knocked me out, who then shoved for several times pot. After commenting "that bet makes zero sense", Lappin made the call quickly and the Mongoose sheepishly tabled K7. Overbet river shoves often get through against weaker players, but not against top players like Lappin. Lappin and Rob went on to final table, which clinched the team title for us.

This week's strategy section is in response to an email I got from a reader in Brazil of all places, Amanda Medeiros. Amanda was on the bubble of an online tournament recently with 11 big blinds. An aggressive player, thefarmer985, shoved for 60 big blinds on the button, and Amanda called with queens in the big blind. The button had J6o and after the board ran out J66J6, Amanda asks if it might have been more prudent to fold given that it was the bubble.
Well Amanda, while it's true you need to call a bit more cautiously on the bubble, queens is simply too big a hand to fold here, against an aggressive player. While it's always nice to wrap up the cash before having to put all your chips in, it's also a big mistake to pass up very advantageous chances to make chips just because it's the bubble. Aggressive players will look to exploit any reluctance to get involved, and the fact that your opponent showed up here with J6o illustrates that. You're just unlucky that your queens got cracked, but the call was definitely the correct play.

I'm flying out to Manila on Thursday for a week to take part in Manny Pacquiao's WPT there, an all expenses paid trip arranged thanks to my good friend English pro Mark Dalimore. That will probably be my last major live outing this year.

I was chatting to Big Iain today and he asked me to remind you that Irish Eyes are running satellites to Stephen Mclean's Super event. Apparently already 600 seats have been sold so it looks like this will be a massive event.

Also on Irish Eyes, their Advent calendar starts on 1st December and run up to the 24th December with a new promotion every day. The promotions are different every day and are revealed at 6am on each day.

And don't forget, Season 4 of the European Masters of Poker kicks off in Prague on 2nd to 5th Feb next. Satellites are on Irish Eyes Poker for EMOP Prague now.

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

Doke

Letter from Doke (22nd November 2011)

2011-11-22T11:36:00.000Z

Hi,

Doke here again. I spent most of this week in Riga at the European Masters of Poker grand final. A very good Irish contingent travelled, most of them Team Irish Eyes players, but overall numbers for the final itself were disappointing. Speaking to the organisers after, they said they felt that a change was needed for next year, and that Dublin was the best place to have the grand final. There was also some debate as to whether the buyin to the final should be bigger than the other tour stops or not.

I played four official events without troubling the scorers. We got there in time to late reg for the supersat. This was a fast structure and I was gone fast when a bare K2s flush draw got there against my kq on a queen high flop. In the main event, I was drawn at a very Irish looking table, right beside Phil Baker and across from Noel O'Brien. I won a decent sized pot early on where I 7 bet shoved aces against a guy who had committed 45% of his stack with his 6 bet. With that much of his stack in I didn't think he was folding but he did, showing kings. I didn't really mind the fold as it meant picking up almost half his stack rather than risking the suckout. Mathematically there's not much in the difference between the two, When he folded, I had a stack of 23k 100% of the time. If he called, 82% of the time the aces hold and I have 31k (making my expectation 25420) and 18% of the time I'm crippled to 2k (making my expectation 360). Although my
expectation is higher if he calls (25780 versus 23k), from a variance reduction point of view I'd prefer to have a sure 23k at this stage of the tournament. A few people asked me why I didn't flat the 6 bet. I thought flatting for that much of my stack would make my hand look like aces at least as much as the 7 bet did, plus I can't be 100% certain I get the rest of his stack post flop. For example, if an ace (but no king) comes on the flop, he may decide not to put any more chips into the pot as there's nothing in my range now that kings beats. On the other hand, if a king comes but no ace, we are getting it in, so the flat allows him a free shot to outdraw me on the flop.

After that pot, I lost a big one to Noel when we both had overpairs to the board but his was bigger. Noel disguised his hand very well and I wasn't really putting him on an overpair. That left me with a reshoving stack as the blinds rose and the antes kicked in, and I eventually went for what looked like a good spot when Phil opened in the cutoff (which he was doing almost every time it was folded round to him) and I found AJ on the button. Once Phil snap called I figured I wasn't in great shape, and his AKs dominated me. I pulled ahead on the turn with a jack and thought I was still ahead on the river, but wasn't (my jack had given Phil a flush draw that got there on the river). At least my chips went to a good home, and Phil went on to be the sole Irish cash in 15th.

I also played the 500 side event, exiting on the second last table in a similar spot, reshoving a decent suited ace over a loose button raiser only to find myself dominated, and the 200 side event, where I also made the second last table going out reshoving a dominated hand.

Phil Baker organised a special sit n go with himself, myself, Feargal Nealon, Mark Buckley, Noel O'Brien, Jason Barton and 3 scandis. The structure was much better than normal in these things and it lasted several hours. It was a classic clash of styles, with the loose aggro players going at it tooth and nail in the early going. With the slowness of the structure and no antes, I felt tight was right, so I played very tight. When the dust settled, it was the three tightest players on the table left to battle it out. After I won a race to eliminate Jason Barton in third (Jason played absolutely superbly: perfect stt poker despite much ribbing on how few hands he was playing), I was headsup with one of the Scandis. I chipped up at the start, then was left short after I lost a 70/30 for the win. I recovered and then pulled ahead again winning a flip, and closed the deal getting it in 70/30 and holding this time. Only a sit n go but it was nice to get something out of the weekend.

This week is the Fitzwilliam festival and I'm planning to play most of the events including the main. Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)

Doke

Letter from Doke (14th November 2011)

2011-11-14T14:59:00.000Z

Hi,

Doke here again. This week I didn't play live. My wife was visiting her relatives in France which meant not only did I have to look after myself but had been trusted with the task of feeding the household pets (a dog and a rabbit: I'm hoping there isn't any others I didn't know about). All of which meant I couldn't really leave the house for long periods so plenty of time to grind online when I wasn't feeding the pets.

On Sunday, I appeared on Dublin City FM's Sunday afternoon sports programme, "On The Ball". Again the not being able to leave the house thing looked like it might be a problem nbt in the end presenter Breifne Earley was able to ring me, and we had a chat about the recent tournaments in Ireland, and looked forward to Riga. Speaking of Riga, I'm flying out on Wednesday to play day 1A of the EMOP Grand Final on Thursday. There's a very good contingent of Team Irish Eyes players travelling too.

I was asked during the week what the best strategy is in low stakes online tournaments (anything with a buyin of €20 or less qualifies as low stakes). I could write a book on this (but I'm not going to) so just a few quick points on the main adjustments I make for lower buyins.

The biggest difference between lower and higher buyins is people fold less at lower stakes. You have to adjust for this and re-evaluate every play you'd make to see if it's still likely to be profitable. For example, continuation betting when you miss against a player who will call you with any piece of the flop any gutshot or any overcard is still profitable (as players will miss more often than not). Continuation betting against two calling stations, not so much. Continuation betting multiway and barrelling (continuing to bet) every street is just burning money. Three betting light versus one player who'll call but check fold if they miss is still fine, but forget elaborate squeezes. Players will limp or call with 44 and then call a 30 bb squeeze just because they have a pair.

One thing I notice amateur players pay far too much attention to is the average chipstack. Obviously it's nice to be ahead of the average at any time, but really it shouldn't affect how you play. All that really matters is your stack in relation to blinds and antes. That determines which plays are profitable and which ones aren't.

In case any online players missed it, there are three raked hand races left to run on Irish Eyes Poker in November from this week, with €4,000 in each prize pool. Raked Hands from Texas No Limit and Omaha Pot Limit, at stakes from 0.05/0.10 and higher, will count towards the leaderboard.

And for all Sports betting fans Irish Eyes have a New FREE sports info and odds service which gives IrishEyesSports fans worldwide a highly effective free digital service direct to your calendar meaning you are always sure of when and where your favourite team is playing or event is happening. See how it works at www.irisheyes.fixturebox.com

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

Doke

Letter from Doke (10th November 2011)

2011-11-10T15:00:00.000Z

Hi,

Doke here again. I played the JP mini WSOP series this in the Maldron
in Tallaght at the weekend. I made a decent start in the 6 handed but
ultimately went out near the bubble when my AK couldn't hold against
Stewie Samuels AJ. The following day I was back for the main event.
Tough table and card death meant I was happy enough to get out of the
day with just over starting stack. I hung around for much of day 2
with a similar stack, then started to chip up until I finally caught a
hand. I took a risk slow playing a set in a three way pot and reaped
the reward of a full triple up to move to over 200k. I continued to
chip up til I lost a big race, and then shortly after the bubble I
lost most of my stack with a rivered flush against a rivered house.
Another lost race eventually saw me bust in 28th for a min cash (I
also chopped the Irish Poker Boards Last Longer). The following day I
played the 8 game. The most interesting hand was against Kevin
Fitzpatrick in 2 to 7 Triple Draw and it ended rather bizarrely with
me mucking my queen high hand after Kevin declared his hand as ten
high. When the dealer spread his cards out popped an ace so he had
misdeclared his hand, but because I'd already mucked he was still
awarded the pot. My mistake I guess for mucking without seeing all his
cards. I never really recovered from this and didn't trouble the
scorers.

I also did some livestream commentary with David Lappin and Iain
Cheyne on the main event final table. Team Irish Eyes member Colin
Gray was on the final table and hung on admirably with a short stack
for as long as he could. Well done to Ollie Boyce who claimed the win,
and all who cashed.

I got home in time to watch Eoghan O'Dea. Eoghan played superbly but
got unlucky when it really mattered. He did us all proud though both
in his play and his conduct at the table.

This week's most interesting hand was the hand that tripled me up in
JP's mini WSOP. I raised pocket sixes in late position and got called
by both the button and the small blind. The flop came down AT6 with
two hearts and the blind led out. People rarely do this with monsters
so I decided to flat call rather than raise and risk scaring him off.
I was also hoping the other guy would stick around. Even though the
board was very drawy with the possible heart flush draw and any number
of hands with gutshots (KQ, KJ, QJ, 98, 97, 87) I decided to take a
calculated risk to try to get the maximum value for my set. THe button
called too. With the pot now so big my plan was to ship most turns to
charge draws the maximum and protect my hand. However, the turn was an
ace, giving me a monster now and rendering all flush draws and
gustshots worthless, so when the blind led out yet again, I flatted
again. The button also called again. The river was a brick, the blind
led again and now I finally shoved. I figured most likely one of them
had an ace and the other a draw, but was pleasantly surprised to find
they both called with just the bare ace.

My next major live outing is the EMOP grand final in Riga next week.
I'm flying out from Dublin on Wednesday week with Phil Baker and it
looks like there's going to be a very sizable Irish contingent. You
still have the chance to qualify for this in satellites on Irish Eyes.

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

Doke

Letter from Doke (2nd November 2011)

2011-11-02T17:31:00.000Z

Hi,

Doke here again. Well, after a bit of a break from live poker, it was
back on the horse this week. I played the Fitz End of Month where I
didn't really get going, and then the Irish Winter Festival in the
Burlington. Pretty much nothing went to plan in this one, even my
wardrobe. I'd qualified online for the Sole Survivor online so had to
wear the Sole Survivor gear. In previous years this consisted of a top
and optional hoody, so I turned up at the Burlington in my usual poker
gear thinking I'd swap my shirt for the tshirt and keep my jacket.
Unfortunately there was no tshirt this year: just a hoody. Matters got
worse when it emerged the hoody was far too hot to actually wear in
the room. And got even worse again when having got permission to take
it off and put it on the back of the chair, I found that the inside of
the jacket had molted onto my black shirt which was now covered in
green fluff. There's a rather horrible photo of this floating around
:)

The poker didn't really go much better. I moved a little up from
starting stack but after dinner everything went wrong. A series of
small pots and minor setbacks left me short and having to push, and
when I did with AJs, I ran into AK. I played two side events without
troubling the scorers. I got a good start in both. In the last one, I
4 bet shoved kings into ace king which pulled ahead gamely on the
turn. That pretty much summed up my weekend on the poker front, but
you can't expect to cash every tournament and claim to be sane, and
given that this is already my best ever live year nobody should be
expected to put up with me whining about going a few games without a
cash. My good friend and Irish Eyes teammate Mick Mccloskey told me
that one of his many fans told him recently that his 10th Hendon mob
cash this year made him the most consistent Irish player this year in
terms of numbers of live cashes. Mick was feeling chuffed about this
until I pointed out I have 15 on my Hendon mob for this year :)

A few of my good friends went deep in the main event. One I tipped to
Neil Channing as one to watch for the future was Daragh "Other Daragh"
Davey. Daragh has a tremendous attitude and has all the skill
discipline and patience needed to get to the very top in this game. He
went deep in the recent European 6 max, and again here. He always
seems to get horribly unlucky in the end (this time he got it in with
AK v A4 in a massive pot with 20 left) but if he keeps getting into
position it's only a matter of time before the big one comes. Another
Irish Eyes teammate Feargal "MidniteKowby" Nealon got even unluckier,
losing twice to an underpair. Other honourable mentions to Colette
"Smurph" who went deep yet again, Niall Smyth who looked like a rather
unique treble was on for a while, and Chris Dowling who keeps popping
up at these final tables. I did some live stream commentary on the
final table and Chris was unlucky not to finally claim an elusive big
title. A big well done to Noel O'Brien who has only been playing at
this level a couple of years but showed himself to be fearless and
unfazed. Noel's on a bit of a run at the moment too and I expect to
see him at more final tables in the future. Noel told me in the bar at
the weekend he's an avid reader of these letters.

The ultimate winner was popular Northern Irish bookie, John Keown.
John's been a good friend of mine for almost as long as I've been
playing poker and like everyone else he's had to ride through his fair
share of lows so I was delighted to see him land a big score.

This week's strategy section is on the importance of stack sizes. I
saw a lot of amateurs making bad stack size related mistakes at the
weekend. The main big one was raising with 10 big blinds or less and
then folding to a reraise. If you have 10 big blinds or less, you just
can't be doing this. If you decide your hand is strong enough to play,
either shove all in, or raise and be prepared to call anything.
Between 10 and 20 big blinds, you should not be doing too much raise
folding either, so as a general rule only open with hands that can
take a reraise. You certainly shouldn't be 3 betting and then folding
to a 4 bet, as I saw one player do on the final table this weekend.
This is bad for 2 reasons: first you put in too much of your stack to
have to give up if you get 4 bet, and secondly when you do get 4 bet,
you're getting too good a price to fold anything.

Good luck to Eoghan O'Dea next week in Las Vegas. I was talking to him
at the weekend and he told me he was flying out Saturday morning to
give himself a full week to acclimatise. I think Eoghan has a
brilliant chance to take this down, in fact, I'd make him favourite at
the moment to do so, with Ben Lamb his main threat. Back home, we have
our own version of the WSOP with JP's mini WSOP to look forward to
this weekend in the Maldron Hotel in Tallaght. This is a brilliant
tournament, one of my favourite of the year.

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

Doke

New Sports Service FREE to Irish Eyes members

2011-10-28T12:38:00.001+01:00

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)

2011-10-25T14:59:00.000+01:00

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)

2011-10-18T12:06:00.000+01:00

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)

2011-10-10T15:13:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-04T14:50:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-03T16:42:00.002+01:00

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

Letter from Doke (27th September 2011)

2011-09-27T12:08:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. This week I played a lot of live poker, spending 4
days in the D4 hotel at the European Shorthanded championships. I
played the supersatellite and managed to get a ticket, which I used
the following day, day 1A. I lasted almost 2 hours :) I had starting
stack just before the first break but managed to lose it all in the
space of three hands. First I got set over setted which is never
pleasant. That accounted for half my stack (could have been more but
my opponent decided to slowplay). Half of what was left went on an ill
timed bluff when I was trying to represent a flush to an opponent with
a three high flush. The rest went when I ran AK into aces.

Since the tournament allowed re-entry, I had another bash the next
day. This time I got off to a good start but drifted back after dinner
and busted near the end. The following day I was back for the 300 side
event. Never really got going in this one and eventually lost a race.
I was back for more punishment on Sunday for the last side event. I
managed a min cash in this one, losing with ace 9 against 89o just
after the bubble.

Overall the tournaments were enjoyable though. Once again, the field
was mainly foreign (French this time). The D4 lads always run a good
tournament so I'm looking forward to their next one already (the
European Deepstack, the first running of which I won a few years ago).

Next up for me is the Barcelona EMOP at the end of the week. I'm
flying out on Thursday and hoping for another good run. I'm 7th in the
overall leaderboard after the Dublin leg so another result could
cement my place in the top 10. Hopefully I'll see a few Team Irish
Eyes members there. The following Monday I fly direct from there to
London for the last few side events at EPT London.

Something new and fun on Irish Eyes is Terminal Poker. The basic idea
is similar to rush poker. At the moment it has a growing number but
still small. If anyone wants a freebie to try it out, sign up at my
blog, and then email me your username and we'll give you a 10 euro
free money voucher to get started.

Also best of luck to anyone playing in Killarney. Connie and Matt
always run a great show and Killarney's one of my favourite places to
play poker, but unfortunately I can't make it this year due to the
clash with Barcelona.

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

Doke

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Click on the links in the menu for details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions, including:

Iron Man Barcelona Promotion (€18,000)
September Freerolls (€36,000)
Raked Hands Race (€40,000)
Sit n Go Leaderbaord (€30,000)
Upto 45% rake back
Team Irish Eyes Poker promotions.

Keep up to date on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

Letter from Doke (19th Sept 2011)

2011-09-19T18:49:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. I had a pretty good week online, with more than my fair share of final tables, and better yet managed to win a handful of tournaments, including a ten euro rebuy on Irish Eyes. Cashing is nice but there's nothing like actually winning a tournament to get the blood pumping.

On the live front, I played the 50K guaranteed 100s festival in Maynooth, largely because I was intrigued to see how the novel idea of 4 day ones with re-entries would work. I played day 1c and got through with one bullet (no re-entry), mainly because I got off to a great start. Or should I say a lucky start: the first major hand of note I got it in with the schnuts (second nuts) against the nuts on the flop and still managed to win the hand.

Day 2 didn't exactly go to plan though: I was definitely on the toughest table in the room. I was struggling to get anything going and ended up reshipping queens from the blinds over an early position raiser. He had a huge stack and seemed very spewy so I reshipped knowing full well I could get called very light, but it was still a surprise to see him call fairly quickly with A8. He hit the ace on the turn. I can't really complain though: I'm always happy when an opponent calls it off as a 9/4 dog getting only 6/4. Professional poker players and bookies have one thing in common: in the long run our money all comes from people making bad bets against us at insufficient odds.

This week I'm playing day 1A of the European Shorthanded in Ballsbridge. This is also a re-entry tournament so if I do bust 1A I'll probably be back for more punishment on 1b.

A big thank you to the Irish Eyes team for giving my blog a makeover. It was probably well overdue: the blog had the same look and feel as when I started it three years ago as a secret "Dear Diary". Also, the latest edition of Player Ireland has an extensive description of EMOP Dublin with pictures. Speaking of EMOP, I'm really looking forward to EMOP Barcelona at the end of the month. It will be my first foreign trip since Vegas and while some time at home was needed after Vegas, my batteries are well and truly recharged now and I'm raring to go. I'll be flying directly from Barcelona to London for the last few side events and the EPT Country of the Year freeroll I qualified for.

You may notice ads for various stuff on the new look blog. Not to plug everything, but one worth paying attention to as I genuinely get asked about it a lot (or more generally the best way to get money on and offline). I personally use Neteller and an associated Net+ Cash On Cash Off card which works as a debit card (meaning no credit card fees) against your Neteller account.

This also means no fees when booking flights etc. (Ryanair for example charge you extra for using a credit card), and I can use the card to withdraw cash from ATMs. So click on the Cash On Cash Off banner at the side for more details.

Lastly, I have also tried a new site this week called Terminal Poker. Its like Full Tilt's Rush poker and although it is new its quite a bit of fun. Cash games only. Fold and you move directly to a new table and new players.
Irish Eyes Poker are adding it to their site (although you will need a different account on Terminal than on Irish Eyes)and have given me some free money to give to anyone who wants to try it out. If you click in the link on my blog (there is a link to it from the Irish Eyes blog) or put in the referral code 'doke' when you signup, they will stick 20 euro into your account for free if you email team@irisheyespoker.ie with your username.

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

Doke

----------
Click on the links in the menu for details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions, including:

Iron Man Barcelona Promotion (€18,000)
September Freerolls (€36,000)
Raked Hands Race (€40,000)
Sit n Go Leaderbaord (€30,000)
Upto 45% rake back
Team Irish Eyes Poker promotions.

Keep up to date on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

Entraction blocking players from Canada, Isreal, Norway, Russia and Turkey.

2011-09-12T16:21:00.000+01:00

Entraction, the network on which Irish Eyes Poker runs, has made the decision to block players from Canada, Israel, Norway, Russia and Turkey from their gaming platform. The blocking will commence at 12:00 CET on September 29. Entraction state that the "...decision is preceded by careful considerations and is necessary to fully comply with local laws.

Entraction was recently acquired by U.S. based International Game Technology, IGT, one of the world's largest suppliers of gaming machines and gaming technology. Together with IGT we will be able to offer our partners a stronger and better product as well as a global reach.

Entraction's and IGT's commitment to adhering to the laws of the countries where we offer online gaming opportunities is an important part of building a network that will enable partners and players to enjoy online gaming in a secure gaming environment."

Letter from Doke (14th Sept 2011)

2011-09-12T15:47:00.000+01:00

Hi,
Doke here again. I had a fairly quiet week online. I only played Monday and Tuesday as on Wednesday my friend Mark Smyth had been selected for the "Team Pro plays a home game" segment on the TV coverage for UKIPT Dublin. He invited me, Phil Baker and Lorand Santo along. You're guaranteed entertainment with that crew and hopefully it'll translate to the coverage.

I played Day 1A of the UKIPT on Thursday. Reasonably uneventful day as I chipped up steadily. I peaked at 50k before going card dead towards the end which meant coming back with a reasonable stack of 38k, just over 30 big blinds.

The following day I played a side event and was put at the same table as two of the readers of these letters, wee Bridie Gribben and not so we Steven Byrne. Steven knocked me out of this event in Cork but this time it was Bridie who did most of the damage, living up to her promise to my friends who were watching to make me her bitch :) The craic at the table was mighty and it was a shame we broke. I didn't last very long at the new table.

Day 2 of the main event didn't go so well. I had breakfast with one of the chipleaders, my friend Breifne Earley. Breifne asked me for some tips and I ran through some advice on shoving stacks, reshoving stacks, and ranges. I should probably have checked the table draw first: turns out we were at the same table!

I hovered around for a few hours without getting the hoped for doubleup and eventually went on reraising JTs all in from the small blind over a button min raise only to run into AJ in the big blind. We were about 50 from the bubble but with my stack I couldn't just be hanging round so I have no regrets about the shove.

On Sunday afternoon, I appeared on Dublin City FM's "On The Ball" with Breifne Earley to talk about the success of Team Irish Eyes players at
EMOP Dublin and other recent Irish tournaments. This week also saw the appearance of my first blog for the Star at their website:
http://starbets.ie/poker-blog/grinding-and-an-afternoon-with-roy-06092011/ This blog is aimed at more general readers than my normal blog.

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

Doke

----------
Click on the links in the menu for details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions, including:

Iron Man Barcelona Promotion (€18,000)
September Freerolls (€36,000)
Raked Hands Race (€40,000)
Sit n Go Leaderbaord (€30,000)
Upto 45% rake back
Team Irish Eyes Poker promotions.

Keep up to date on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

Letter from Doke (5th Sept 2011)

2011-09-05T20:32:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. I had a very good week online this week with a slew of final tables and a couple of wins and 5 figure scores. I also final
tabled the Monthly 100K on Irish Eyes tonight. 7 handed, six of us wanted to do a deal as it was getting quite crapshooty and the payouts
quite top heavy (23k for first and only 3k for 7th) but as the saying goes, there's always one. Unfortunately I exitted just before the
conscientious objector in 7th, and after he exitted in 6th, they did a five way chop. Still, after the week I've had, I can't really complain
too much.

Plan for this week is to continue to grind hard online to try and keep my heater going, and then from Wednesday switch my focus to live
poker, in the form of the Dublin UKIPT. I'm planning to play the shorthanded on Wednesday, and then day 1A of the main event on
Thursday. I've been in good form live since I came back from Vegas so I'm hoping for another deep run.

I hear Irish Eyes is now available to play on computers, and players can make cash deposits and withdrawals, in Ken Doherty's club in Terenure, Dublin.
Its a nice new club with full access to the bar next door.

Lastly, check back soon to see the blog's brand new look.

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

Doke

----------
Click on the links in the menu for details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions, including:

Iron Man Barcelona Promotion (€18,000)
September Freerolls (€36,000)
Raked Hands Race (€40,000)
Sit n Go Leaderbaord (€30,000)
Upto 45% rake back
Team Irish Eyes Poker promotions.

Keep up to date on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

Irish Eyes Fantasy Football

2011-09-05T11:48:00.000+01:00

It's no longer just about boasting rights. Fantasy Football comes to Irish Eyes.
Now you can back your opinion with cold hard cash.
That's right - fantasy football just got real!

Large payouts to the winning managers with prizepools starting at €1000.

And its simple to play.
- Go to www.irisheyesfootball.com and signup for your new fantasy football account.
- Select your team(s) weekly.
- Place your bet from €2 to €200
- Pitch your skill against other managers for real money.
- Win your share of the prizepool guarateed each week to start at €1000

www.irisheyesfootball.com

Letter from Doke (30th August 2011)

2011-08-30T18:07:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. Another fairly typical week for me: lots of online grinding during the week, and then some live late in the week. I busted the Unibet Open late on Saturday which left me free to do a Sunday grind, rare enough for me these days. I had one deep run, making the second last table of the Party 200K. There was almost $80k for first so it would have been a good time to run well but instead I lost a huge flip to bust in 17th. I've still been enjoying a fair amount of success in the ten euro rebuys on Irish Eyes: the smaller field sizes and fact you can survive an early bustout suits clearly my game. I started as an online 9 man sit n go specialist, and when I was transitioning to multitable tournaments enjoyed a fair deal of success in the 45 mans on Full Tilt. Live, I cut my teeth playing nightly tournaments with 40-60 runners in the Fitzwilliam Card Club in Dublin.

Speaking of the Fitz, I played their end of month game last Thursday. I was short throughout most of it (watching from a cash table after he busted, I heard my friend Lappin tell someone "Doke spends almost his entire life between a third and half the average") before going on a rush two tables out to move close to the chiplead. I then lost a massive threeway flip on the bubble. Holding AK, I initially outdrew Marc Brody's tens who barely covered me when a king appeared atop the flop. The dealer spread the flop to reveal a ten lurking beneath to more or less kill me. The shortie's AJ pulled ahead when a queen appeared on the turn, and the king of the river did nothing for me but housed up Marc's set of tens. It's always annoying to bubble a tournament but I had no regrets about the manner of my exit as I was more interested in playing for the win and the 11k up top rather than locking up the 400 min cash. My chips went to a good home for once as Marc who was clearly the best player left in my view went on to win.

I also ran into Terry Loughnane, currently top of the Celtic Poker Tour league, in the Fitz. Very nice guy.

My Unibet Open main event was similar in many respects. I hung around well below average for most of it until I was on the right side of a threeway cooler just before the bubble, my kings holding against queens and jacks. Unfortunately, the chipleader (and eventual winner) then got moved to the table. He was hammering us with nobody playing back at him apart from me. Just after the bubble, he raised the button, the small blind reshoved for just over 10 bbs, and I liked my AQ enough in the bb to reshove. It's well ahead of both ranges here and I can't just flat for a third of my stack so the shove is standard in my view. Unfortunately the chip monster on the button had a real hand this time (kings), and an ace which would have saved my day and propelled me into the chiplead never appeared. So all in all a strange mixed feeling of disappointment and pride at another deep run as I was led away to collect my min cash which seemed particularly min given there was over 100 grand for first.

I'd run into Roy the Boy Brindley when I went to dinner in a nearby restaurant with my friend Daragh Davey. Roy was doing the commentary for the live stream and asked me if I'd come on to do some co-commentary if I busted. Since I'd enjoyed a similar gig with Neil Channing at the Irish Open I was only too happy to agree. After my exit the Unibet co-ordinator came scampering over to make sure Ididn't sulk off, so I did some commentary with Roy for a few hours which was good craic.

I am looking forward to EMOP Barcelona on 29th September. Should be a very good turn out. I see on the Irish Eyes Poker lobby there are 125 entrants registered to the event already and there are satellites and qualifiers running right up to at least the 18th September, so many more I expect. Plus Barcelona usually gets a good number of direct buy-ins on the day.
If you want to join me there, as well as sats and qualifiers, Irish Eyes are running VIP-point freerolls starting on the 2nd of September and ending on the 18th September. There is one package to EMOP Barcelona worth €2,000 in each freeroll. Each package consists of tournament buy-in of €1,100, accommodation in a nice hotel for five nights and €350 in travel contribution that is credited to the player's poker account.

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

Doke
----------
Click on the links in the menu for details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions, including:

Iron Man Barcelona Promotion (€18,000)
September Freerolls (€36,000)
Raked Hands Race (€40,000)
Sit n Go Leaderbaord (€30,000)
Upto 45% rake back
Team Irish Eyes Poker promotions.

Keep up to date on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

Letter from Doke (23rd Aug 2011)

2011-08-23T19:13:00.000+01:00

Hi
Doke here again. This week, I headed to Cork to play the Macau Classic. I don't recall ever cashing in a tournament in Cork and I didn't break my duck this time either. Highlight on day 1 of the main event was knocking out November Niner Eoghan O'Dea in an interesting hand. It started with Richie Lawlor (one of the best tourney players on the scene at the moment who came within a hair's breath of the remarkable and unprecedented achievement of cashing in 4 UKIPTs on the trot) opening to 750 utg at 150/300. I flatted with ATs two behind, as did Eoghan O'Dea two behind me. The flop came 764 with two of my suit, Richie led for 1050, I called, Eoghan raised to 3800 with 10k behind. Richie tank folded (queens according to his Twitter) and I had to think now too. Folding didn't seem great when you play ATs and hit a two overs and a nut flush draw flop, calling seemed unpalatable too, so I ran through the math quickly to see if shoving was ok. I figured Eoghan's range as 44+ (that is, sets, overpairs and pairs with a straight draw). I have about 42-43% equity against that range so even if he never folds the shove is plus Ev. If he ever does fold it's even better for me. Also, if I widen his range to include worse flush draws like KQs, my equity gets closer to 50%. As it happened, he had a hand I'd never even considered (76o for top two) but even if I include 2 pair hands (I excluded them because Eoghan was playing very tight and didn't think he'd play something like 76o from mid position with less than 50 bigs) I'm basically a 5/4 dog against the range so the shove's ok with the dead money. And there's always Plan B, hit the flush,
which I duly did. Hopefully Eoghan's getting his run bad out of the way before November.

I ran bad on day 2 though, losing a bunch of races to decimate my stack down to 4K (4 big blinds). I did rally back up to 50k but in the end went out about 20 from the money. The side event was one of my shortest journeys ever: I managed to get over 100 big blinds in second hand with aces against AJs, and lost to a flush. That's poker as they say: the job is to get the money in as good as possible, whatever happens happens after that.

My travelling companion Mick Mccloskey cashed in the side event. His continued involvement meant we didn't get back to Dublin in time for me to play the 35K on Irish Eyes or most of the other Sunday majors.

Instead I signed up for later stuff including the €10 rebuy on Eyes which I ended up winning. There's a few of these on every night and I'm enjoying a bit of success in them (I also won again the following night). They're nice fast tournaments (turbos are still my bread and butter online), you can win a decent pot for a €10 outlay, or if you're in a gambling mood you can treat it as a €40 or €50 game and gamble to get a stack early on.

My next live outing is the Fitzwilliam End of Month on Thursday, followed by the Unibet Open in Citywest at the weekend.

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

Doke

Cash On Cash Off of Irish Eyes Poker

2011-08-17T15:21:00.000+01:00

As we continue to strive to bring our members a better experience, we are delighted to recommend the following website which it is hoped will make it easier for our members to deposit and withdraw funds from our site.

For anyone who would like deposit or witdrawal from Irish Eyes Poker, or to shop online, without using a credit or debit card, here is the way to do it.

www.cashoncashoff.com

To use this, simply click on the 'Sign up for your Free account' image on the Cash on Cash Off page, open an account, fund the account with cash vouchers available from 1000's of retail outlets including PayPoint & payzone points, and then enter the voucher number in your new account to fund it.

Once the voucher is input into your new account, the funds are ready immediately for you to use online.

Then deposit to Irish Eyes Poker through your new account. You can also withdraw funds from Irish Eyes Poker to your new account and then take cash from any ATM.

Verify your account and apply for your pre-paid Mastercard. When you receive this you can use it anywhere online or in retail stores that accept Mastercard.

As a pre-paid Mastercard you only spend what is on the card, it is not a credit card and does not link to your bank account.

It is Safe and Secure, and can only be used to the amount you decide to fund it to. Plus there are many ways to fund your account.

We are happy to recommend this service to our players and hope it helps with any issues players may have with depositing or withdrawing from our site.

Best regards
Irish Eyes Poker

Letter from Doke 15th Aug

2011-08-15T11:23:00.003+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. Not much to report this week, I didn't play live so I've been just grinding away online. I final tabled my favourite nightly tournament, the €10K guaranteed on Irish Eyes one night. I was so short on the bubble that I basically had to try to fold into the money. Having done so and staged one of my trademark recoveries from one big blind, I was optimistic of going all the way but it wasn't to be. A few people have asked me how I keep staging these recoveries and all I can say is that no matter how low you are you should never give up, and it's important to know your preflop equities. A lot of people just shove the next hand after they're crippled or the next one folded round to them, but that's not the best approach. When you find yourself that short, you have no fold equity, you will get called, so it's important to assess what is the likelihood you'll win when called.

For example, if it's folded to you on the button with 3 big blinds and you find 32, just let it go. You're getting called if you shove and no matter what the random hand you're called by is, you're a 2 to 1 dog at best (and 4 to 1 against any pair other than 22). On the other hand, any picture card is good enough in that spot, as you'll generally be no worse than a 6 to 4 underdog and you might even be ahead.

I've also been trying to sort out my live schedule for the next 6 months. There's so much on both at home and abroad that I can't play everything I want. I've decided to skip the Barcelona EPT because it clashes with the Unibet Open in Dublin. It seems a bit silly traipsing off to Spain for an EPT when there's a 1500 event on my doorstep. I'll also miss London as it clashes with the Barcelona EMOP, although I'll go to London straight from Barcelona which should allow me to play some side events as well as the Country of the Year freeroll (Ireland won EPT Country of the Year and as a result the 13 Irish players who cashed in an EPT last year have been invited to a 10K freeroll on the last day of London).

Speaking of the Barcelona EMOP, I was speaking to my friend Matt who played it last year. He was telling me there is a festival on there at the time called La Merce. La Merce is Barcelona's patron saint and according to Matt the city is rocking, for 5 days every square has music, concerts, dancing, fireworks etc. Mrs. Doke has decided to come with me on this trip: usually these poker trips are not her thing but she's never been to Barcelona and is looking forward to it. Satellites for Barcelona are in full swing at the moment on Irish Eyes and I hope to see a good few of you there.

On Friday I'm heading down to Cork to play the Macau Classic with Mick Mccloskey.

Finally, well done to Fintan Gavin who won the Edinburgh UKIPT. I decided to skip Edinburgh but will be playing the Dublin UKIPT (qualification secured tonight).

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

Doke
----------
Click on the links in the menu for details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions, including:

Iron Man Barcelona Promotion (€12,000)
Summer Freerolls (€37,200)
August VIP Matrix Promotion
Sit n Go Leaderbaord (€30,000)
Upto 45% rake back
Team Irish Eyes Poker promotions.

Keep up to date on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

Letter from Doke (9th August 2011)

2011-08-09T12:13:00.002+01:00

Doke here again. After the excitement of Clontarf, it was back to the online grind. I had a reasonable week with its fair share of final tables, but nothing to write home about, or at great length here.

On the live front, I had a couple of outings. On Friday, I payed the Bluff monthly game in Swords and had an early bath. The main damage was done when I 4 bet shoved kings from the small blind over a three bet shove from early position. His fives hit a set to leave me crippled, and this time there was no miracle comeback.

The following day I met my friend Lappin for dinner in town. Although not widely known because he rarely played live until recently, Lappin has been one of the top Irish mtt players online for years. He's playing more live these days (and he got off to a pretty good start with a second in his first ever live tournament in Spain for €60K) so we had an interesting chat about the differences he's finding between live and online. He was heading into the Fitzwilliam for their Saturday night game so I tagged along. No joy on the poker front but plenty on the company front. I learned how to play live poker in the Fitz so I'm seen as one of their own, and all the regulars made a point of congratulating me on my run in Clontarf. While I was waiting for my lift home, I sat into the 1/2 cash game for half an hour and managed to recoup my tourney buyin and more. This was the first time I'd played live cash in years: maybe I should do it more often.

I hear a great night was had in Connie's club in Killarney on Friday night last when the Cue Club lads and some of the Irish Eyes Team had a game and went for a few drinks. Side event queen Shella McSweeney was there as was Sandro Taddei who bagged an EMOP Barcelona package last week on Irish Eyes.

For anyone up to join us in Barcelona, the Iron Man EMOP Barcelona freeroll games are running at the moment on Irish Eyes. The next one is on this Saturday at 19.15. 100 vip points to enter with an EMOP Package worth 2,000 euro up for grabs.

And speaking of freerolls, theres a 1,200 euro freeroll every day at 18.15. Registration opens one hour before the game only though so anyone who wants to play needs to get in around 17.15 before the seats are taken.

On Irish Eyes, in addition to my regular nightly schedule, I've started playing a few of the Wild West turbos. No success as yet, but they're certainly great fun. Very unique tournaments.

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

Doke

-----------------
For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in August, including:

Iron Man Barcelona Promotion (€12,000)
Summer Freerolls (€37,200)
August VIP Matrix Promotion
Sit n Go Leaderbaord (€30,000)

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Keep up to date my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

Join Team Irish Eyes Poker and EMOP Ireland on Facebook.

Letter from Doke (3rd August 2011)

2011-08-03T13:11:00.002+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. What a weekend! I'd been telling all my friends for ages that the one Irish tournament I wanted to do well in this year was EMOP Dublin at Clontarf Castle. I played day 1B on Friday. I got a pretty tough first table with Jason Tompkins two to my left. I played a lot more cautiously than usual to keep out of trouble and was very happy to get to day 2 with a well above average stack. Day 2 was a bit of a struggle for me. I managed to get through and increase my stack, but it still meant coming back with only 8 big blinds so I needed some run good early on day 3.

It was all going to plan until I shoved nines into fellow team member Michael Muldoon's aces. I thought that might be it as we were close in stack terms but I had just over 2 big blinds left. With eleven players remaining and half my stack in blind next hand, it wasn't looking good for me to make the final table but then I got some much needed run good. It goes without saying that to recover from 45k to 3.6million (my peak three handed) needs more than a bit of luck. Having done so and moved from the short stack three handed to overwhelming chipleader, I really thought it was going to be my day but in the end I fell at the last hurdle.

It was a great weekend overall for Team Irish Eyes. As the tournament got down to the business end, the Team Irish Eyes shirts started to outnumber all others. Four of us made the final table including my great friend and regular travelling companion Mick Mccloskey, Michael Muldoon and JP Whyte. Robert Shaw, Robert Elkin, Chris Pyke, Sandro Taddei, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Kevin Hanley, Tony Harte, and Gerry Kane all cashed in the main event too. There were also some great performances in the side events, notably from Tony Baitson (who was pipped at the post in the PLO event) and my amigo Feargal "MidniteKowby" Nealon (who hacked his way round the golf course to qualify for the freeroll for a Barcelona package which he went on to win). Pride of place though to the side event queen Shella McSweeney who had not one but two third place finishes.

A great deal for the Team players that played in the main event is they all get an invitation to a Freeroll on Irish Eyes Poker on the 14th August for an EMOP Barcelona Package.

A big thank you to Connie, Matt and the rest of the crew for making this a great event. EMOP Ireland is here to stay and will surely go from strength to strength.

After the excitement of a live outing, it's back to the online grind for me. I managed to snag a Barcelona EMOP package in the satellite on Irish Eyes tonight, and I'm looking forward to it already. Hopefully a good contingent of Team Irish Eyes members will qualify and make the trip.

My only live outing in the next week is Friday's monthly game in the Bluff Club in Swords, run by my friends Larry Santo and Peter Barable, and one of my favourite places to play in the Dublin area.

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

Doke
------------------
For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in August, including:

Iron Man Barcelona Promotion (€12,000)
Summer Freerolls (€37,200)
August VIP Matrix Promotion
Sit n Go Leaderbaord (€30,000)

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Keep up to date my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

Join Team Irish Eyes Poker and EMOP Ireland on Facebook.

EMOP Barcelona Iron Man Freerolls

2011-08-02T17:22:00.001+01:00

In August six Iron Man freerolls will be arranged with packages to EMOP Barcelona as prizes.

Irish Eyes Poker will arrange VIP-point freerolls starting on the 2nd of August and ending on the 31st of August.

There is one package to EMOP Barcelona worth €2,000 in each freeroll. Each package consists of tournament buy-in of €1,100, accommodation in a nice hotel for five nights and €350 in travel contribution that is credited to the player's poker account.

The VIP-point buy-in starts at VIP1 on the 2nd of August and then the buy-in increases for each tournament. It starts out being very easy to qualify but it becomes harder and harder very quickly.

Earn as many VIP-points as you can and get up to six tries to win a seat. A maximum of one package each could be won.

The VIP-points are calculated from the 1st of August until the start of each freeroll.

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/EMoP-Events.aspx for more details

TEAM IRISH EYES POKER AT EMOP DUBLIN

2011-08-02T17:16:00.001+01:00

Congratulations to Team Irish Eyes Poker Captain Dara 'Doke' O'Kearney on his second place at EMOP Dublin. Great play. Well done also to team members Mick McCloskey, Michael Muldoon, JP Whyte, Philip Shaw, Robert Elkin, Chris Pyke, Sandro Taddei, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Kevin Hanley, Tony Harte, Gerry Kane, who all cashed in the main event, and all the Team Irish Eyes Players, and a special mention to team member Shella McSweeney who had two third place finishes in side events. Congrats also to Tony Baitson on his cash, and to Fergal Nealon who won the EMOP Barcelona package.

We were delighted to have such a large team at the event and hope everyone had a great time.

We are also delighted with the entire event and thank EMOP, and Cue Club events with special mention to a long list of people including Connie and Matt of course, but also all the TD's and staff who were brilliant.

Role on EMOP Ireland 2012 and other EMOP events around Europe, wishing continued success to all current and future Team Irish Eyes Players.

For pictures of the event see our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803?ref=mf

Letter from Doke (25th July)

2011-07-25T10:54:00.002+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. I finally arrived home from Las Vegas on Wednesday, to the news that Eoghan O'Dea had just made the November 9. I had dinner a few times with Eoghan while I was still in the Main event,and railed him for a while on my last day in Vegas. He thoroughly deserves to have made it this far and has the pedigree to go all the way. His making the final table is a tremendous boost for Irish poker.

On Friday I headed to Tramore with Mick Mccloskey for the Waterford Masters. Experience has taught me I tend not to be at my best immediately after Vegas, as it takes a while to readjust to Irish players and playing conditions. So it proved again: although I was happy with how I played on day one which I coasted through with an above average stack, I didn't play well toward the end of day 2 and
ultimately paid the price. I was delighted that my friend Jason Tompkins went on to claim the win. Jason has been telling me for a while now he wanted to actually win a live tournament and get a trophy and after missing Vegas due to illness, he was undoubtedly the hungriest player in the field. Also well done to Connie O'Sullivan who chopped the side event to continue his run of recent form.

I've been getting back into the online grind, and showing signs of rustiness. I found to my horror that initially at least I couldn't handle the number of tables I used to comfortably manage. It seems the slower pace of live poker has slowed down my decision making but I'm sure it's just a matter of getting re-accustomed to online. The 6 week enforced break from online play while in Vegas was my longest ever
since I started playing.

Yesterday I appeared on Dublin City FM's "On The Ball" to talk about Las Vegas, and EMOP Dublin in Clontarf at the end of the week. That's shaping up to be the tournament of the second half of this year. Most of the Irish who played in Vegas indicated they'll be making their return to the live Irish scene in Clontarf, and I also ran into a few Scandis in Vegas who said they were coming too.

With two day ones to choose from, I haven't totally decided which one I'll play, although I'm leaning towards 1b on Friday.

Hopefully there will be a good Team Irish Eyes contingent taking part and Irish Eyes poker are running a special promotion for Team Irish Eyes members where members have access to the Irish Eyes Poker Lounge at the event, have an EMOP Bubble Guarantee (€2,000 EMOP package if going out of Main Event on bubble),and the Last Team Irish Eyes Poker player in EMOP Dublin gets a seat to the next EMOP event for FREE (value €2,000). (Note: to qualify, players must wear provided Irish Eyes Poker polo shirts at the event).

See you in Clontarf.

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

Doke
--------------------
----------------------------------------------------
Keep up to date my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in July, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€46,500)
July VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Letter from Doke (18th July 2011)

2011-07-18T20:09:00.002+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. I'm still in Las Vegas. After making it through to day 3 of the WSOP main event, I had to extend my stay here by a week, so I won't be home now til Wednesday. Unfortunately, I then proceeded to bust 2 hours into day 3 when my aces were cracked by kings. Disappointing end but that's poker: there's no point in getting upset over anything other than your own mistakes. I ran into Padraig
Parkinson shortly afterwards and after remarking to him that I just wished it had happened 2 hours before the end of day 2 instead as it would have saved me the cost of an extra week's hotel and new flight, Parky joked "Basically it's like you made a mini rebuy".

Parky famously said once that the worst day of the year for any serious poker player is the day you get knocked out of the main event. This has been through for me in the past but although I was obviously disappointed, in truth it didn't hurt as much as my exit in the Berlin EPT, maybe because I felt I had a very good chance of at least final tabling that with only 60 players left. With 1800 left in the WSOP ME,
it's way too early to be thinking like that.

It also helped that I still had an interest in the main event in the shapers of Nick Newport and Mark Dalimore. Both went into day 4 (the day the bubble usually bursts) relatively short, but both survived past the bubble into day 5. Mark was still short but Nick had got up to average. Unfortunately, both busted early on day 5. Mark at least had the bonus of being on the TV table (ESPN were showing it on a 30 minute delay), and wound Daniel Negreanu up to the point that he celebrated Mark's demise.

The end of every WSOP is time for honest reflection and preliminary plans for how to get yourself back here in a year in good shape.

Having suffered through 3 WSOP campaigns without a cash, 3 cashes this year to break my duck represents progress. My tentative plans for next year is to play more events with less than 1000 runners, and also to try to get my non-holdem games to where I feel I can compete against the best. Most seasoned experts say that there is much more value in the other games these days than in holdem.

I always find it hard to hang around a poker tournament after I've been knocked out so I checked out of the Rio and headed to the Hilton with Mark for my last few days in Vegas for some decompression. Not too much rest for the wicked though: next Friday I head to Waterford for the Waterford Masters. Hopefully I'll shake off any post-Vegas cobwebs or blues there so I'll hit EMOP Dublin in top shape pokerwise.
If I could pick just one tournament in the rest of 2011 to do really well in, it would be that one.

After 6 weeks away from the online tables, I'm also really looking forward to getting back to the night job.

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

Doke
----------------------------------------------------
Keep up to date on how I'm getting on in Vegas on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in July, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€46,500)
July VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Doke in Las Vegas

2011-07-11T12:40:00.001+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again, in Las Vegas at the WSOP.

In the last letter I was hopeful of a genuine deep run in the last 1k event of the series. I came back 13th of the 638 remaining hoping for a genuine deep run. Unfortunately, it was one of those days where nothing goes right and I was knocked out last hand before dinner when I lost a race to get back to where I started the day. A third cash at this year's series but still a big disappointment given how well day 1 had gone.

I played the last 1500 event. Not really too much to be said about it: it was my shortest event, as I ran kings into aces in level 3.

I'd regged for day 1A of the main event which was Thursday. Traditionally the day that gets the lowest numbers, I chose it partially so I could have a few days off before day 2 as I had planned a trip to the Grand Canyon with my friends Mark Dalimore and Mick McCloskey, and my oldest son Paddy.

I was hoping to build a decent stack during the day. It was all going to plan, I was up to 35k (from 30k starting) when a crazy Italian arrived at the table. He started opening for 10 big blinds regularly and betting 3 times pot on the flop. It was clear this strategy wasn't likely to see him last very long and I was just hoping to be the one to catch him. Unfortunately I lost about 10k trying to catch him without ever actually catching him, before he donated his stack to Scott Montgomery, 4 bet shoving almost 200 big blinds with AK into Scott's aces after Scott's very first three bet. Most of the rest of the day came down to me rebuilding slowly only to lose a big pot or have to make a big laydown. I was forced to fold an overpair, two pair and a straight: it seemed like every time I actually made a big hand a bigger one was out there. In the end, I was happy to survive the day with over 16k, the only real plus apart from the fact that I could have gone broke any one of the times I made a big hand but managed to stay disciplined and make the necessary folds.

Day 2A is Monday (8 PM Irish time). With almost 30 bbs it's not panic time yet but I'll be hoping to get off to a fast start.

The road trip to the Grand Canyon was a great experience. We stayed overnight in a small town on the iconic Route 66 where we had good craic in an Irish/Mexican joint called Pancho McGillacuddy's before heading to the Grand Canyon National Park. The canyon is indeed one of the natural wonders of the world and the Americans have done a great job with the park. We also went to a wildlife park called Bearizona on the way back. The bears and wolves were very apathetic much to Mick's annoyance, Mick being a man who likes value for his buck. The rest of us suggested he venture forth from the car with a stick to try to poke some energy into them. We also made a stop at the Hoover Dam on the way back. It was very windy and we kinda felt we were taking our lives into our hands walking across it. But we did anyway.

If I don't make it to day 3 here I'll be flying home Tuesday afternoon. I'm booked to play the Waterford Masters after I get home, and then it's all systems go for EMOP Dublin.

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

Doke
------------------------
Keep up to date on how I'm getting on in Vegas on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in July, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€46,500)
July VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Letter from Doke 4th July 2011

2011-07-04T17:53:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. I'm still in Las Vegas at the WSOP.

Since the last letter I played two more bracelet events, a midweek 1500, and a weekend 1k. I ran pretty badly in the 1500 and exited late on day1. By contrast, I ran very well in the 1k, finishing day 1A with three times the average, and 5th in chips overall. We're back tomorrow (Monday, 10.30 PM Irish time) and I'm hoping to kick on and get a deep run. I have problems tweeting from here but will try to keep any of you who are interested updated on Twitter and Facebook.

In between those two events, I headed downtown to Binions (the spiritual home of holdem, where the WSOP was born) for their main event. Once again I put together a stack early on only to see it disappear in level 12 about 30 from the bubble, losing a 70/30. Downtown Las Vegas is quite an experience, more down to earth than the
sanitised tourist trap that is the Strip.

All work and no play makes Doke a pretty crabby person so I've also done quite a bit of socialising this week. The highlight was Neil Channing inviting me along to a barbeque in his Vegas mansion. The guest list read like a who's who of UK and French poker: Neil knows how to look after people.

A quorum is also now forming most nights at the traditional Irish watering hole in the Rio, Shutters bar. Las Vegas is somewhere it's only too easy to overdo the partying and drinking though, so I'm trying not to do that so to be focused for the main event which starts next Friday. I'm playing day 1A.

My son Paddy is arriving here in a few hours to keep me company for my last couple of weeks here. It's his first time in Vegas so hopefully he'll enjoy it, aside from having to listen to the old man complaining about beats.

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

Doke
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keep up to date on how I'm getting on in Vegas on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in July, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€46,500)
July VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Letter from Doke (27th June 2011)

2011-06-27T23:00:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Doke here again. I'm halfway through my spell in the desert for the WSOP. My day 2 of the 1k event didn't last very long: 30 minutes in to the day I ran queens into kings and aces. A disappointing end but I was happy to at least break my WSOP duck with a first cash.

Since then I played two more bracelet events, both 1500s, cashing in the latest. For the first time I not only made a day 2 but with a decent stack slightly above average) so I was hoping to kick on. It was still going to plan well after the bubble burst: with 200 left I was above average. Then I lost a big flip for half my stack. My exit hand was pretty horrible, and also quite interesting as it illustrates a very common mistake. I opened to 4700 in the hijack (playing 43k) at 1k/2k/300 ante with jacks. My aggro opponent three bet to 14500 on the button. I shoved and he tanked and eventually decided he dad to call getting over 2 to 1 with ace two off. First card out was a 2, next three were all aces! Although it worked out for him on this occasion my opponent made a pretty bad mistake. Not his call: he eventually worked out he was priced in. His mistake was three betting with a hand that's going to be less than 30% nearly every time I shove. You see this mistake a lot: an aggro player finds an ace on the button and when a tight player raises, thinks "I can raise here and take the pot if he folds". The problem with this logic is that with just over 20 big blinds, any decent tight player is not going to raise fold very often. I'm definitely folding less than 10% of the time when I raise with that stack: even if I am light with something like ace ten or pocket threes or a suited ace, I'm going to hope for the best and push my chips in. And even when I am light, I'm more than 70/30 against a2o.

So a2o is a horrible hand to 3 bet here, particularly when it commits you to call. Paul Jackson calls this “poor equity": you're priced in to call the shove (have the correct equity) but a big dog when it happens. In this spot, my opponent is committing himself to put 43k in as a 9/4 dog when he gets shoved on (about 90% of the time). The 10k he picks up the 10% of the time I fold doesn't compensate for this.

This illustrates an important principle in poker: before you put a chip into any pot you should know what you're going to do if you get played back at.

Although I've cashed in two of my five bracelet events to date, the nature of these events is the big money is up top so I'm actually down a bit on bracelet events. But all you can do is keep getting yourself into a position to run good when it really matters. I have two or three more shots at bracelet events before the main event kicks off next week.

Thanks to everyone who's been following my blog and leaving me comments there and on Facebook. Although I'm looking forward to the rest of my Vegas stay and the main event in particular, I'm also looking forward to getting home, and playing EMOP Dublin in Clontarf Castle. I gather satellites are now in full swing so I hope to see as many of you as possible there.

If you are looking for a live venue to satellite into EMOP Dublin there is a list of clubs taking part in the EMOP Dublin live satellite tour on the Irish Eyes Poker Blog.

It’s a good deal if you qualify in the live sats or online as you get Team Irish Eyes bonuses like Last Man Standing, Bubble guarantee and entry to the Team VIP Lounge at the event.

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

Doke

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keep up to date on how I'm getting on in Vegas on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in June, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€36,000)
Daily VIP Tournaments (€36,000)
June VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

EMOP Dublin Live Satellite Tour

2011-06-22T15:32:00.010+01:00

Irish Eyes Poker in association with Cue Club Events have arranged LIVE satellites throughout the country for EMOP Dublin.

All of these satellites come with the following player promotion:

EMOP Live Satellite Tour qualifying players receive:

Membership of Team Irish Eyes Poker including access to the Irish Eyes Poker Lounge at the event.
EMOP Bubble Guarantee (€2,000 EMOP package if going out of Main Event on bubble)
Last Team Irish Eyes Poker player in EMOP Dublin gets a seat to the next EMOP event for FREE (value €2,000)

Plus ALL players that take part in any live EMOP satellite on the tour receive entry to an exclusive online EMOP Freeroll for live EMOP club satellite entrants only, with a prize of an EMOP Dublin seat (value €1,100) FREE.

(Players: please ensure you provide your Irish Eyes Poker username to the live satellite event organisers as it will be the organiser that has responsibilty to provide us with that information).

LIVE SATELLITE TOUR

Poker Ireland Satellites: All at 6pm, all €50 with 1 rebuy and 1 add-on
23rd June Hotel Ballina, Ballina, Co. Mayo
3rd July City North Hotel, Dublin
17th July Cork Airport International Hotel
24th July Stillorgan Park Hotel, Dublin
Contact Stephen McLean for more details.

Fitzwilliam Casino, Dublin: €100 buy-in
7th July
14th July
21st July

Ken Doherty's Snooker Academy, Terenure Cross, Dublin 01 5156092: €50 with 1 rebuy and 1 add-on
8th July 8.30pm

Cue Club, Killarney, contact Con 087 2833343 for details

Jupiter Casino, Roscommon Town. Tuesday 12th July. €100 + 50 rebuy x 1. 8,000 starting stack, 8,000 rebuy. Contact Martin 085 143 2229 for more details

The Castle Card Club, Castlebar, Co. Mayo,contact club for more details

Celtic Poker Tour, contact Liam or Fionn for more details

Atlantis Casino, Carlow. Friday 15th July. Reg 8 start 8.30pm sharp €100 + 10 freezeout.

Eddie Walsh, Kildare. Wednesday 6th July 8.30pm at the River Card Club, Newbridge. €120 F/O. 20 min clock. 20 minute clock. Contact Eddie on 087 1300618 for more details

Adelaide Casino, Sligo, contact the poker manager on 071 9150515 for more details

Cotton Club, Portlaw, Co. Waterford, contact Paddy Shorthall on 087 4155536 for more details

Real Deal Poker Room, Cootehill, Co Cavan. Thursday 21st July @ 8:30 sharp. €110 entry + €15 reg. 20k chips with a progressive clock 20/25mins. All participants Qfy for the Team Irish Eyes package. Contact Damian on 087 7855396 for more details.

The Lighthouse Casino, Athlone, contact club for more details

The Poker Lounge, Waterford, contact club for more details

The Gold Club, Letterkenny,7th July, contact Jimmy on 087 9927523

JP Poker, Molloy's Pub, Tallaght. Sunday 24th July. 4pm . Start. €50 & €10 Reg. 1 Rebuy €50. Starting Chips 5k. Rebuy Chips 7k. Contact JP on 087 6448132 for more details.

The Crystal Casino, Waterford, contact Neil Kelly on 087 2828744 for more details

The White Fort Inn, Belfast, contact Sam on 0044 787 1314771 or Jim on 0044 797 7820907 for more details.

The Fortune Rooms, 1a Valentines Road Bangor, Contact Desi on 0044 793 3239140, for the Cookstown or Barney on 0044 771 4684804.

More information on dates and buy-in's for all games will be added when confirmed by the organisers.

Any operator/club that would like to be involved in this tour please contact us on promotions@irisheyespoker.ie

See you in Dublin!

Letter from Doke (21st June 2011)

2011-06-21T13:52:00.002+01:00

Hi,

Doke here. I'm still in Vegas at the WSOP. Overall it's been a pretty good week for me. I played two more $1500 bracelet events and although I didn't trouble the scorers I was happy with my play. I'm putting together stacks early doors more readily in these this year: I've generally been increasing my stack early on by 100 to 400 per cent. The nature of these events that have to whittle down 3000 runners plus to a winner in three days means you need to win flips from fairly on, and that's where I've been falling down so far.

I did get a number of results in smaller non bracelet invents, including a win in the nightly turbo. While I'd prefer to get my run good in a bracelet event, you can't really choose what tournaments you're going to run well in, and it's always nice to win a tournament whatever it is.

I also played my first 1K event. Actually, played is the wrong tense as I'm still in the event, going back to play day 2 in a few hours. The bubble broke at the end of day 1 so it marks my first cash in a bracelet event. It's good to have broken that particular duck: I ran into Andy Grimasson at the break and he told me he's now played 35 or
36 events without a cash. Andy's a great tournament player: it just shows that no matter how good you are, you need luck on your side, or at least not against you.

I go back a bit below average with just over 20 big blinds hoping to kick on now I have the "never cashed at WSOP" monkey off my back.

This Vegas campaign has a very different feel to it. In the aftermath to the FBI's crackdown on Stars, Tilt and Ultimate Bet, the absence of logos has been very striking. Most of the time my Team Irish Eyes polo is the only logo at the table. The big sites have no lounges here this year, and no lavish parties. People are also approaching the poker much more seriously: less drinking and socialising, more early nights. I did score an invite to one of the few big parties here this year: Bill Chen's pool party next week. Bill wrote one of my favourite books on poker, "The Mathematics of Poker".

I also celebrated my birthday during the week with a couple of drinks with my friend Mark Dalimore and Irish poker legend Padraig Parkinson. Padraig's one of the few Irish players going well in this series, having notched up a few cashes already.

I was following updates from the Irish Eyes Northern Open. Sounds like it was a great event and well done to Stephen Sammon who came 7th and to my good friend Connie O'Sullivan for figuring in the chop. Connie's an example of a great player who just hasn't been getting the breaks lately, so it's great to see him get a decent cash. Another example is my friend and fellow Wexfordman Andrew Dwyer, also a Team Irish Eyes member, who went deep in UKIPT Newcastle. My amigo Feargal "Midnite Kowby" also finished a very creditable fourth in the side event there. Great to see so many Team Irish Eyes players doing well in the runup to EMOP Dublin and I see a good many clubs around the country are signing up to run satellites on the Irish Eyes EMOP Live Satellite tour. (http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9599)

While I'm in Vegas I've been updating my blog more frequently than normal, every day or two. I've been overwhelmed by the reaction so far with so many people taking the time to tell me how much they enjoy it, which makes it all worth while. Neil Channing sent me a message earlier inviting me to meet him for a coffee in the Rio and to tell me how much he's enjoying the blog.

I'm still missing playing online and the nightly tournaments on Irish Eyes. As soon as I get home I also intend to get cracking on qualifying for EMOP Dublin.

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

Doke
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keep up to date on how I'm getting on in Vegas on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in June, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€36,000)
Daily VIP Tournaments (€36,000)
June VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Super Poker Event of Europe

2011-06-14T11:07:00.000+01:00

Super Poker Event of Europe with €1.4 million prizepool is on in Dublin next February. Win your seat in the new online satellite series from only €2 on Irish Eyes Poker.com. See www.superpokerevent.com for more details.

Letter from Doke (13th June 2011)

2011-06-14T10:53:00.002+01:00

Hi,

Doke here. I'm in Vegas at the WSOP. I feel this to be something of an
achievement in itself as late last Tuesday I found myself in Heathrow
wondering why my Virgin Atlantic flight to Vegas wasn't appearing on
screens, only to realise that the reason was fairly simple: the flight
was from Gatwick. A couple of trains later and I was at least in the
right airport, if not quite the right terminal.

After 30 hours of travel, I was wrecked enough to pass out immediately
in my hotel room in the Gold Coast. The rest must have done me good
though as I woke up full of beans (but starving!) and ready to get my
fourth WSOP campaign on the road.

It started in the $1500 event that kicked off last Saturday. I got
through day one but was shortish with just under 12k. A few times I
was getting a stack together only to lose a big one. Day 2 didn't last
very long: I got in with AK against QT and lost not that far off the
bubble. Hopefully things will get better from here.

I'm missing online like a sick addicted man misses whatever it is he's
addicted to. Apart from my favourite nightly mtts on Irish Eyes I
talked about last week, I was also enjoying the superturbo stts. My
first year as a pro was spent grinding stts, mainly on Ipoker, Tilt
and Stars. Like many others, I eventually gave this up as not that
good a way to scratch out a living, bowing to the fact that rising
standards made them beatable by smaller and smaller margins. But I
still love a good sit n go so I decided to investigate the ones on
Irish Eyes. To my delight, I found them as soft as these things used
to be on other sites a few years ago. I did recognise a few
screennames as old regs I used to play with on Ipoker: they obviously
have found this secret corner where stts are still very profitable and
are doing their best to keep quiet about it. But keeping my mouth shut
has never been a strong point of mine, so I'm prepared to be the
whistleblower on this one. In particular, I'd suggest the superturbo 6
mans as a great way to grind up a roll quickly: they're over so fast
you can bang out a lot of them in an evening, and with rakeback they
should be very profitable for anyone who plays push/fold well.

While I'm in Vegas I'm planning to update my blog more frequently than
normal, every day or two. This will probably give the blog more of a
Dear Diary feel than normal, but hopefully it'll be of interest to at
least a few of you.

Best of luck to all the Team playing in the Irish Eyes Poker Northern Open this weekend in Dundalk. And to Team Pro Paul Lucey who coming to Vegas next week.

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

Doke

Keep up to date on how I'm getting on in Vegas on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in June, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€36,000)
Daily VIP Tournaments (€36,000)
June VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Letter from Doke (6th June 2011)

2011-06-06T16:35:00.002+01:00

Hi,

Doke here. I'm heading to Vegas for the WSOP this week. Over the next
few weeks, I'll be keeping you all updated as to how I'm getting on
over there and also on Irish Eyes news.

I've settled into a fairly steady nightly routine playing mtts on
Irish Eyes. My favourite is the main €10K game that starts at 8. I've
had a lot of success in this in recent weeks and this week got my
first actual win in it, or to be more precise, 4 way chop. I don't
usually agree to chops online but the other 3 players left at that
stage were all pretty good so I reckoned it was going to come down to
flips and coolers. I also had the disadvantage of being to the
immediate left of the most aggressive player on the table. I wasn't
enjoying the fact that he was reraising me almost every time which
meant I was either going to have to wait for a hand against him, or
make a big risky move without a hand that could come a cropper if my
timing was off and he actually had a hand. The final factor was that
this was the last tournament of my evening session to finish (which
tells you how good the structure is) and Mrs. Doke was getting
impatient about dinner :)

For those of you who like faster tournaments (and I love a good turbo
myself), there are two good €10 rebuys that start at half six and
twenty five past seven that are great craic and very good value. I
also had a go at qualifying for EMOPS Dublin on Irish Eyes during the
week. I made the final table with a decent stack, but then lost two
races in quick succession (the second and fatal one to well known
Irish player Tony Baitson). So I'll have to give that another crack
when I get back from Vegas.

Live, I played the CPT grand final in Carlow. I never really got a
stack going but hung in as long as I could. I eventually busted about
a dozen or so from the bubble, but I enjoyed the weekend. Last year I
lost a flip in this event 4 handed to eventual winner Sean
Prendeville. Sean went on to claim the title and chop the money with
Jason Tompkins. As many of you may know, Jason is in bad health at the
moment and required an operation during the week. Jason's one of my
favourite people in Irish poker and I'm gutted for him that he can't
make Vegas this year but I know he'll be back.

I also ran into my Irish Eyes team mate Paul Lucey in Carlow and we
talked about our plans for Vegas.

The other highlight of the week was claiming a so called Triple Crown.
This means nothing to most people, and you get nothing for winning
one, but means a lot in terms of bragging rights for serious online
mtt players. To win one, you have to win three big tournaments on
three different sites in a 7 day period as verified by online site
Pocket Fives. Someone told me I am the first Irish player to have won
one, but I don't know if this is true.

On Sunday afternoon, I appeared on Dublin City FM's afternoon sports
show to talk about the WSOP. This was my second appearance on the show
and I look forward to making more when I get back from Vegas.

In addition to this weekly letter to Irish Eyes players, you can keep
up to date how I'm getting on in Vegas on my blog
(http://dokearney.blogspot.com/) and on Twitter (daraokearney).

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

Doke

------------
For details on all Irish Eyes Poker promotions in June, including:

Iron Man Dublin Promotion (€20,000)
Summer Freerolls (€36,000)
Daily VIP Tournaments (€36,000)
June VIP Matrix Promotion

See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/monthly-promotions.aspx

Dara 'Doke' O'Kearney New Team Captain

2011-05-14T16:13:00.000+01:00

Irish Eyes Poker are delighted to annouce Dublin card shark Dara 'Doke' O'Kearney is the new captain of our growing poker team.

Since winning the European Deepstack Championship in 2008, Doke has established himself as one of Ireland's top tournament players and one of the more consistent Irish performers on the European circuit.

Despite learning the game less than four years ago, and despite never depositing a cent online, he has already notched up more than $1 million in lifetime tournament cashes on the internet, and more than $300,000 live.

O'Kearney, 45, is a former international elite distance athlete -- he won the prestigious 60-kilometre New York Road Runners ultra marathon in 2007 -- and he now hopes to run good representing Irish Eyes Poker.

The father-of-three commented: "I look forward to meeting all Team Irish Eyes Poker representatives at the European Masters of Poker event in Dublin in July.
"I'll be there to help our crew with coaching and advice in the run-up to the EMOP, so as to give local players the best possible chance to get a good result."
Doke will also be personally emailing all Irish Eyes Poker players with updates, news and strategy tips.

Irish Eyes Poker chief Steven Merrick last night welcomed O'Kearney to the team.
He said: "We're delighted to have Dara on board, we've been monitoring his performances online for some time and we feel certain he's the best man to captain our crew.
"His online results are nothing short of phenomenal and he's also hugely respected on the live baize all around Europe."

Players can keep up to date on Team Irish Eyes Poker promotions and EMOP events by reading Doke's blog at http://dokearney.blogspot.com/.

You can find Doke playing the many guaranteed tournaments each night on Irish Eyes Poker.

Welcome on board Captain.

News from Irish Eyes Poker

2011-03-01T15:26:00.003Z

There's lots going on at Irish Eyes Poker these days what with D-Day Poker, EMOP Lisbon this month and EMOP Ireland coming in July. Plus we have some great new promotions for March including Raked Hand Races, EMOP Iron Man freerolls, Triple Aces & Pairs and Quads added money, and our new Fantasy Football Betting.
Plus we welcome our new UK Partners Team Blue Blood Poker, and new casino and card club partners - the Bank Casinos Cork and Tipperary, and Duff's Card Rooms Bournemouth, Southamption and Basingstoke.

March Madness
Big money to be won in March on these promotions:
€10,000 RAKED HANDS RACE
€15,000 TEXAS TRIPLE ACES
TEXAS TRIPLE SAME PAIR
OMAHA QUAD ACES / OMAHA HIGH QUADS
€12,000 EMOP LISBON IRON MAN

EMOP Lisbon 23rd to 26th March The second stop for EMOP season III will bring us to the Casino Estoril in Lisbon, Portugal, and takes place between the 23rd and the 26th of March 2011.

Satellites online now for €2, €5, €10, €100, €200. Win your package worth €2000 including buy-in, 4 nights hotel accomadation, €350 travel expenses, and Irish Eyes Poker hospitality at the event.

D-Day Poker April 1st: Where will you be playing?
D-Day Poker is an exciting new poker tournament on the Irish Poker calendar. D-Day starts on April 1st 2011 and will see over 100 venues jointly host D-Day 1 Live. For an entry fee of only €60 you can compete in a local game for a prizepool of €100,000est.

See where your local game is on or register your club, pub or home game today and play in what could be Europe's largest event poker tournament in you local game.

EMOP Ireland July 2011
Irish Eyes Poker and Cue Club Events are delighted to announce that The European Masters of Poker will take place in the luxurious setting of Clontarf Castle Hotel Dublin on July 28th-31st 2011.

The main event is €1000+€100 and will be supported by a full programme of side events. A more detailed programme will be announced later. Online sats will be on Irish Eyes Poker and there will be live satellites in selected clubs and casinos around Ireland.

Weekly Fantasty Football betting. Win €100's for as little as €2.
Football fans....check out the new betting site for fantasty football. Weekly guaranteed prizepools starting at €1,000.

Join up, choose your dream Premiership team, place your stake and compete against other fantasy football team managers each week for big money prizes.

Visit www.irisheyesfootball.com for more.

Team Blue Blood joins up with Irish Eyes Poker
Irish Eyes Poker welcome our new partners in the UK, Team Blue Blood Poker.
Team Blue Blood are a team formed of players to promote the great game and to learn from each other and teach. Founder members of the team are: Peter Wigglesworth AKA semtex, Graham Pound AKA the wizzard, Karl Lorenzo AKA the cod father, Craig Mariner AKA the wiltshire warrior. Newest players to join the team are Tim Timotheou and Carloine Cove. Read their new Blue Blood Team blog at http://teamblueblood.blogspot.com

Plus we offer a 100% first deposit bonus up to €1000 and up to 45% rake back.

See you at the tables.

D-Day Poker April 1st 2011

2011-02-22T13:26:00.003Z

Irish Eyes Poker are delighted to announce D-DAY POKER.

D-Day Poker, a colloboration between Cue Club Events, Poker Ireland, INEC and Irish Eyes Poker, is an exciting new poker tournament on the Irish Poker calendar. D-Day starts on April 1st 2011 and will see over 100 venues jointly host D-Day 1 Live.

For an entry fee of only €60 you can compete in a local game for a prizepool of €100,000est.

On April 1st, in each participating venue, every player will start with 8,000 chips and the game will run with a 20 minute blind clock. This clock will run on www.d-daypoker.com.

Play stops in each venue when 25% of that venue's starting field remain in the tournament. (Example: in a game with 20 players, the game stops when there are 5 players left).

The local tournament director will then be responsible for keeping a record of the qualifiers and their respective chip stacks, which all go forward to Day 2.

Day 2 at the INEC Killarney will see blinds begin at the 200-400 blind level with a 40 minute clock. The average chip stack for Day 2 will be 32,000 chips or 80 big blinds.

Players who make it to Day 2 face no further tournament charges as the original €60 comprises €50 tournament entry fee and €10 registration fee.

Players that don't make it to Day 2 in D-Day 1 Live still have a shot by playing the D-Day online series every Friday from April 8th on Irish Eyes Poker.com Click here for more details.

Any player may enter Day 1 Live and any number of subsequent Day 1’s Online. If a player qualifies on more than one occasion for Day 2, only the largest chip stack attained will be in play on Day 2. For more see 'Event Rules'

There will be absolutely no direct buy-ins to Day 2 at the INEC. The only way a player can compete in Day 2 (like any other tournament) is to make it through D-Day 1Live or the subsequent D-Day online series on Irish Eyes Poker.

For more information see www.d-daypoker.com

Barcelona or bust

2010-09-21T23:44:00.003+01:00

Just thought I'd scribble a few lines before I head off to Barcelona tomorrow afternoon. Myself (and my good wife Patricia) are flying out from Cork tomorrow for the E.M.O.P Barcelona tournament that starts an Thursday. This is another leg of the EMOP series around europe which we travel to as members of team Irisheyespoker, and barcelona is one I have been looking forward to for a long time. Really enjoyed it last year when i travelled with Nicky Power, and though we had no luck at the tables, we still had a great time. Nicky is travelling as well this year so the craic will be mighty again,
In fact, theres a huge contingent from the Irisheyes poker team travelling, and at the last count, I believe we have 25 players attending the event, and the nightlife should be some thing to remember as most of those travelling will be known to me. Mr CEO of Irisheyes, Steven Merrick is also going, so drinks all round at the bar I hope steve!!!
Rob, barry and Pat, 3 friends of mine from Bandon, are travelling,Jason thompkins, Paul Carr, Paul Lucey, Derek Murray, Tony harte are just a handfull of the lads travelling, and Ill update this blog during the weekend to let ye know how everyone is doing.

Im hoping for a deep run myself in Barcelona, mainly because my form has been very good of late. A month ago, I finished 11th in the Maccau festival (reported on my last blog)and felt i played very well, and then 2 weeks ago, \i moved on to play the UKIPT game in Dublin. a field of 600 players (and a strong field) and once again, I felt I played quite well and eventually finished in 14th place. So thats 2 nice deep runs in the last 2 3 day events I played, and heres hoping for another one this weekend.
So, lunch on wed (later today) in Cork in my fav chinese resteraunt, The Pearl River. Then a couple of sociable ones with the lads before heading for the airport.

Talk later
Connie

Chance of substantial cash disappears!!

2010-09-06T18:09:00.003+01:00

Last time I wrote, I had just won my satellite ticket into the Macau summer festival game which was 100k gtd. With 130 players turning up, the prizepool was a healthy €130,000.
I started on day 1b, and got quite a tough table to start, with some of my opponnents being Jason Thompkins, dave Mccarthy, Donal o Connor, Sean Coughlan and a few internet qualifiers. I didnt get much going all day to be honest, and after starting with 20,000 chips and a 75 minute clock, I was down to 12,000 with about a half hour to go in the days play. I made a decision there and then that i was either going to make some chips or lose the ones I had before the end of play, as I wasnt staying in Cork, i had to drive 1 hour home, and to drive back again the following day, I wanted some chips to come back with. So I started playing very aggressively, which took the table by surprise as I had been doing my rock image all day. Still, nothing much happened and with 5 seconds to go, I had about 16k. I urge the dealer to give us 1 more hand which he kindly agreed to. I limp Jd-9d utg looking for action really. 2 more limpers for 300 when a Limerick player makes it 1200 to go otb. Bb flats and I shove for 15k. Folded back to the raiser who starts asking me all kinds of questions. Then he tells me about the respect he has for my game and says fold, and the bb folds instantly as well. The raiser reaches in and turns over his cards, As-Ks (he was sitting on about 45k). Theres a redraw the next day, so i flick over the J9 and he goes ballistic. God, I took some abuse from him, but all i could do was laugh, which made him worse. Finished the night on 19,950 chips, down 50 chips from my start stack.

Redraw on day 2, and another tough table. But there was a lot of decent players there, so no table was easy. The internet qualifiers were about the softest target, but i just couldnt seem to pick up a hand against them. Them he limps utg, couple of more limpers, I make it up in the sb with A-3. Flop is K-3-3. I bet 70% of the pot, only he calls. Turn is a queen, I lead at it again, he reraises me, I call. I know I have him here. River is a goddam ugly K. I check, he bets, and i fold, showing the 3. "How can you fold the 3?" he says to me, as he tables KQ. Lol. Nothings happening for me really, but im picking my spots well and maintaining my stack which is well below the average. get down to 2 tables and there is money for 14. We play a full 2 blind levels without losing a player, when the td says thats it for the night and we're back tomorrow. Somebody suggests a deal to make sure everyone coming back for day 3 gets money, and everyone agrees.

back on day 3 and I get a good seat, with Jason Thompkins on my right, and dermot Blaine 2 to my right. I just have the right size stack to shove over their raises, and so it proves on day 3. Got a scare all right when one of my shoves got called. I had 99 this time, and my opponnent had 99. 3 diamonds on the flop, and he had the 9d. But the rest of the board blanked out. hen I got lucky when I reshoved for 90k with JJ, only to be called by QQ and I hit the J. Now I had chips for the 1st time in the tourney, and in the next half hour, I took it up to 270k, and chip leader at the table. Jim from waterford had about 250k, and dermot blaine had about 180k, We were 11 left now, my table 6 handed. Jim was in the bb, when i raised to 24k with QQ pf. Jim looked down at his cards and said "im all-in". Now this is a monster pot. Ive played with this lad before, and again here, after playing 2 days on his table, I cant fold to his shove. So I call.
Me--QQ
Jim--As-5s.
Flop---------K-2-J rainbow.
Turn is a 3
River is a 4 to give him the wheel and leave me with 3 bb's.
If I win that pot, i have 520k with 10 players left, and only 2 million chips in play. I was fcuking sick in my stomach. I made my exit soon afterwards and got €3,000. But really, I was looking at a decent 5 figure sum if that hand holds up (35k 1st, 23k 2nd, 16k 3rd and 11k 4th). Its a cruel game at times.

Still, Im happy that I played pretty well and look forward to my next outing. Im playing the UKIPT this week in Dublin, and then on to Barcelona for the EMOP on the last weekend in september. Hopefully some good news to blog after that.

On the golf front, really enjoying the game atm, and had a great game with nicky Power last week when we played 36 holes around the 2 championship courses in killarney. Fantastic weather, fantastic courses, and fantastic company. what more can a man ask for.

On the online front, started a bit of staking for the deepstack tournaments on irishEyesPoker. I think these game are redic soft if your a good player, so i started staking a few IPB'rs into them. It helps that the quality of player that looked for the staking is high, but things are working out fine at the moment anyway.

Golf and poker

2010-08-20T09:19:00.003+01:00

Well, it has been a quite summer really, as I didnt really get to play at many of the poker festivals. The exceptions were the Waterford and Tramore games which i supported as the lads are always good to support anything we run in Killarney, so fair is fair. I did ok in both without shooting the lights out. In the Waterford game, I lasted into day 3 without making the money, which was disappointing, as i felt I had played very well for 2 days without any premium hands. Made 2 big laydowns preflop when I folded queens twice, and both times I was shown KK, so i was happy enough with my reads on players. Finally went out when I shoved 4s-7s in the sb when I was the shortest stack left, bb woke up with KQ, and even though the board ran out 9 high, I didnt hit ewither card and made my exit. Still, I won the entry in the satellite the night before, and I went on to finish 3rd in the side event, plus I had a successfull night on the cash table there, so overall, a winning weekend which is what its all about.

On to the Tramore weekend. This was just a big struggle. Started with 15000 chips, and I never got going really, and lasted well into day 2 before being knocked out. Another festival of mediocre cards. I guess I knew it wasnt going to be my week when the following hand happened. We are in day 2. Blinds are 300-600. I raise to 1700 with 66 in mid position. A rock in the c/o flats me, bringing in the button and the bb into the hand as well. Flop is a glorious A-K-6, rainbow. Now someones gotta have a bit of this. BB checks to me, I bet 4k, and all 3 opponnents fold!!! I so much expected a reraise there. Pretty sick really. I know I could have checked it, but its a dangerous flop and I had been having my c bets snapped off all day. just wasnt to be. Finally went out when I raised from the c/o with 44, a friend of mine in the bb reraised, and I 4-bet all-in. he took an age to decide, eventually calling with AQ and hit the Q on the river to knock me out. Again, I was happy enough with my play in this tourney. But again, i was disappointed with the lack of starting hands. I understand that sometimes you have to wait for these, but I feel Ive done my fair share of waiting. Hopefully the dry run of cards will change soon, and hopefully that will be in a decent size game!!!!

And now, the Irish Classic Poker festival is upon us. This is held in the Maccau club in cork city. I had pencilled this tourney in from early this year, as its one of my fav tournaments. I headed up to cork on wednesday night with Keith Cummins and Michael o Brien to play the satt. €110, with 1 rebuy only at €50. 8 tickets gtd. Finished up with 74 runners and 11 tickets. Just played a tag game here, and had Johnny keown 2 to my right. I was glad to have position on him, because he can be a nightmare on the table, depending on what kinda mood he's in!!! kept myself out of trouble early doors, and as the blinds increased, kept myself in the game with some timely 3-bets and reshoves. Had a good dublin player on my immediate left, although I didnt know his name. When we got down to about 15 players left, the game was becoming a crapshoot, but if you werent prepared to put your chips in the middle, you couldnt survive. The blinds at this stage were 4k-8k with a 1k ante, so 20k to be picked up if a pot was won uncontested. Ave stack was about 70k at this stage. The 2 to my left both had about the ave stack (same as me), so i was just shoving the button or the sb when folded to me to keepmy stack together. Finally got to 12handed when a deal was struck for all 12 to get tickets and everyone agreed.

2 starting days this year, 1a is Thurs and 1b is Friday. Ive decided to go with 1b. 25,000 chips and a 75 minute clock. Should be a great game. I dont know if any other members of team irish eyes are playing the event. Hopefully there are.

Got home from the satt on wed at 5am, and was up again at 9 to play golf!! I used to play a lot of golf a few years ago (well, 10 years ago), but I started playing lately with a few friends, and the bug has bitten again. so much so, that i went and joined up membership at thew local club, something i thought was behind me really. Myself and my brother Tim play fourball against my son Derry and his best friend, Mark Coffey. Tim is a 12 handicap, me 14, derry 10 and mark 18. No love lost here with all 4 players being extremely competitive creatures. I must say, its very enjoyable, and I guess the enforced exercise id doing me no harm!!

As for the online poker, I dont play as much in the summer as I would in the winter. Ive been concentrating really on the 2 new deepstack games on Irisheyes. A €15 f/o at 2.30pm aqns a €10 f/o at 4pm. 5,000 chips in both tourneys, and a 15 minute clock. Most of the players who play in these deepstacks havent a clue how to play them, willing to get it all in during the early levels with top pair etc etc. If 130 play, the field will be down to about 50/60 after 1 hour!!! They really are a soft touch for a decent player.

I'm heading off to Cork later for day 1a of the festival, and hopefullt, I will get to do a trip report here when I return. Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!

Connie

Party time (unfortunately)!

2010-08-01T10:51:00.002+01:00

I've been looking forward to Bulgaria for some time now. Things have been going well poker-wise for the last month and I felt on top of my game coming here.
The weekend started well when I won a satellite for the 550 side event on the first night I arrived and I felt good.
My table draw could have been better. Just one local and of the others there was only one I didn't recognise as a good player from previous tournaments. He was one to my left, more of him later.
The tournament couldn't have started worse for me. First hand utg, the local, opened for 175. I flatted in mp with JJ and 2 others called. Flop of T62 looked good for me and I raised his cbet, which he called. He then check-called my 80% pot bet on a 3 turn and lead the 9 river for 25% pot. The only hand that made sense to me here was 99 but i called anyway given the price I was getting and he showed 78. NH.
This took me down to 16.5 k from the starting stack of 20k. I grinded for the next few hours without making any real progress. The player to my left turned out to be the table fish that everyone was after, obviously totally unused to playing live, limp calling all the time and generally being awful. The only hand of note that I played in the early levels came when he opened utg and got 2 callers. I reraised from BB with AQs, the 2 callers got out of the way and I won the pot on a raggy flop. This pot took me back up to about 18k, which as it turned out, was as good as it was going to get. I lost another 7k to the local when he raised and I made the call from BB with KJs. Flop of AJJ looked good but to cut a long story short, he called flop and turn with KTs and runner-runnered the flush. At 11k and the blinds at 400/800 I was getting into short-stack country. My opportunities were very limited, however, as most pots were opened before I could act and I blinded down to 8.5k before I made my move. A good Swedish player on a stack opened from mp to 2.5k and I shoved from the button with 66. He made the call with QJs and a J on the turn ended my tournament.
The rest of the team didn't get any luck either. Sandro went out in level 4, shoving AK from the BB, for 19k, after a raise and 2 callers. One of the callers made a hero-call with 99 and held. Dave departed after correctly putting his opponent on AK on a K high flop and playing his hand like a set, shoving the river for most of his opponents stack. Feargal grinded for hours without cards and shoved for 20k with KK after a raise and 2 callers to run into the AA of the or. Jamie went in the second level running JJJ into QQQ on the flop. Robbie went out on a Q high flop with AQ to Q7 in a reraised pre-flop pot. Lisbon winner Tim made day 2 but went out when he shoved 37k over a raiser with TT, only for the raiser to call with QT and make a straight.
We all went to the player party on Friday night but I can't remember anything at all about it!!
On Saturday I played in the 550 side-event. The structure, in direct contrast with main event, was essentially a turbo. 30 min clock and 5k stack. We really are spoiled in Ireland. I played well in this and thought at one stage that I would make the final table. With 12 left and 8 getting paid I opened from the CO with KQs and the chipleader shoved from the sb. If I fold I have 15k left at 1/2k blinds with a 2oo ante. His range is huge as he's been bullying lot's of raisers into folding so I made the call. I hit my K and he hit his 4 for 444. I win the race there and I ft for sure with a chance.
I'm not going to play any more poker on the trip. The weather is fantastic and I'm going to soak up a bit before I go home. The locals are friendly and welcoming food and drink are ridiculously cheap and this is a real party town. I'm surprised it hasn't been "discovered" yet by the young holiday crowd. Cheap booze and all-night music bars would make it a cheap holiday. Kinda like Spain 20 years ago.
The Irish Eyes crew are going out on the town together tonight. Could be interesting!!
The next EMOP is Barcelona and all the talk here is that it will break records for numbers. The biggest EMOP so far was Barcelona last year with 399 and 430 is confidently being predicted. We will have at least 20. If you want to join us and have a great weekend of poker and partying, satellites are running now on Irish Eyes Poker from €2. We will also be running live satellites around the country. It would be great if we could bring a team of 30 or more and turn Barcelona into a big Irish party.

I used to love the "ladies"!!!!!!!!!!

2010-07-11T12:28:00.003+01:00

Well, ladies and me usually get on pretty well, but even though Ive only encountered them a few times this weekend, I'm sick of them already! Of course I'm not really talking about ladies in the flesh, but i am referring to being dealt QQ. I've had them twice here at the ISOP in Waterford, and they have cost me quite a lot of chips.

This tournament has a sick structure (good I mean), but it started on friday evening at 4pm with only 70 runners. It really deserved much more than that, but i guess with the economy in the state its in, and a lot of the serious players in vegas for the World series, low numbers was understandable. Theres also a bit of political unrest down this side of the country between the different poker fractions, so i guess that didnt help either. But the game deserved a much bigger crowd, because you'll have to go a long way to find a better structure than this.

I came up to Waterford the night before the event, decided to play in the Sattellite and managed to luckbox my way to a ticket for the ME. A lot of the players in the satellite didnt realise the difference between playing a sat and a tourney, and I used this to my advantage on many occasions during the night. It was an enjoyable game with a great "craic" athmosphere. With 12 players left and 10 tickets the prizes, I was 12th in chips. We then lost a player and we were on the bubble, and I went from bottom stack to CL and only having to show 1 hand! Played all night on the same table as Vera duffy, and she showed her class by playing great poker.

On to the ME. 20,000 chips, 1 hour clock on day 1, 75 minute clock on day 2 and a 90 minute clock on day 3 for those lucky enough to make it there. The minds a bit of a blank right now, but i'll run through a few of the most important hands.

day 1--sitting on approx 26k at the 100-200 blind level. A serial limper limps, I limp behind with 77, and larry ryan(playing 50k) (of EPT fame) makes it 750 otb. Limper calls, and i call.
Flop comes Qc-7c-3h. all check to the raiser, and he bets 1700. Limper folds. I dwell for a minute. i know larry has a hand here, either AQ or an overpair at a guess. His bet size tells me that from what i know of his play. I reckon if I jsut call and a club comes, it will slow him down a lot, so i reraise larry to 4,500 hoping he might think Im playing a flush draw aggressively. It worked anyway, because he insta shipped all-in and I snapped. he had AA, and i made quads on the turn to take away any bit of a sweat I had!

Finished day 1 on 58k.
Day 2--Still on the same table. Good player(MD) 2 to my left that is a boardie and well known to me. Blinds 300-600, I make it 1650 to go from mp with QQ. MD raises me to 5,200. Folded back to me. I think for a minute. Now MD knows me well, he's well aware of my image that I have cultavated at the table, so i reckon theres a chance he could be reraiseing me light enough here, but I figure AK to be his most likely holding. I 4 bet reraise him to 13,750. he asks me for a count, I still have 45k behind. He tanks and goes all-in for 32k more. Im sick in my stomach now, cause I know Im behind here to MD 100% of the time. I take my time but do the manly thing and fold. He shows KK. Everyone says "great fold", but its not really. Its pretty standard in my eyes.

Later day 2--I grind and grind and just love this table i'm on. Pick my spots carefully, and get up to 80k over the next few hours, and I dont remember losing a hand at showdown, not that I got to many showdowns anyway. Then my table got broke, and that was a big dissapointment.
On to my new table, and nothing really happened for me here. Had about 80k going to the table, and after about 5 or 6 hours playing there, still had 80k. So blinds are 800-1600, and a good dublin player(playing 120k) raises mp to 5,200. Im next to act, and I have 2 red queens, and Im playing about 75k. I make it 15k to go. Folded around to him, and after a 2 minute dwell-up, he flats me. Hmmmmmmmm! Flop comes 4x-4x-3x. He checks, I bet 22k, he insta ships all-in. WOW!!! Im in a world of pain here. I have nearly half my stack in the pot, and normally, its an instant call. But theres a few things that have to be weighed up, and these are the decisions that count in this kinda tourney. So what went through my mind in the few minutes i dwelt up that seemed like a few hours?
1-This is a good player. Ive been chatting away to him over the last 5 hours, and I know he loves the structure of this tourney like i do. He has told me a couple of times how he doesnt like to play too many big pots in this type of game, because theres plenty places and time to pick up chips. And I agree with him.
2- He should be aware that my range here is minimum JJ. Really, I can only have 1 of the 4 big hands. Ive half my stack in the middle, so there no way he can think he can bluff me off the pot, so i can rule a bluff out of the equation.
3-If I rule a bluff out, I now know he just has to have Kk or AA. He could do that with QQ, but aS i have that hand, he cant have it. He never does it with JJ, so he has to have KK or AA.
4-The structure. Blinds are 800-1500, I still have 35k or 24 bb's, blind levels are 75minutes long. Its a lot less than what Ive had all day, but its definately enough to play with and try to get back into the tourney.
So I fold. I tell kieth what im folding, and he's kind enough to show his KK. Even though its the right fold, I still have a pain in my gut for the next hour!!

I just grind away for the next 2 hours, and i finished the day on 44k. Blinds are 1000-2000 for another 15 minutes, and then 1200-2500 for 90 minute blinds for the rest of the day. 14 players left, and 9 for the money. Heres hoping for a run of cards today. I just have to win the first serious pot I play. 1 time and all that!!!

Busy month ahead!!

2010-07-05T20:00:00.003+01:00

Havent been blogging for a while cause Ive been quite busy with a lot of things happening in June, and not a lot of time for poker.(unfortunately). Ive been doing alright on line without shooting the lights out, but Ive made myself a promise to play much more in July, and thats a promise I intend keeping.

Had great fun last week with the Lakes of Killarney festival of golf. This was a 2 person team 3 day event (details can be found on www.par4golfevents.com) played over the 3 sister courses at the Killarney golf club complex, Mahony's point, Lackabane and the Irish Open course, Killeen. With 3 days of glorious sunshine, the 3 courses looked fantastic and all competitors had a fantastic time. Money was also raised for the Carers association through the event, so kudos to my brother Tim who spearheaded the project. Over 60 teams competed from all over ireland,with some from the UK and Germany, and no doubt, it will be a definate sell out next year is the response of this years competitors means anything.

Back to poker,and 3 decent live events to be played this month, 2 of them in Waterford, and finishing with the EMOP in Sunny Beach in Bulgaria.
The 2 Waterford games are similar in buy-in (€500), they are both 3 day events with excellent structures. The 1st one is on next weekend in the Tower Hotel, run by Big Slick events. With the numbers playing these mtt festival games dropping around the country due to the economy, the organisers are unsure of the expected numbers, but I expect something between 120 and 150. (thats well down on their previous expectations, but coming on the back of the WSOP, I thiunk my estimate is close enough).
The 2nd event is on in Tramore on the last weekend of the month, run by Waterford poker club and Pronutz. Another excellent strucure here, and im hoping to go a few steps further than last year when I exited around the bubble time even though I had a healthy stack. I flopped a set of 8's against jay renehans flopped flush, and no help on the turn or river saw me going out and Jay went on to win it.I expect close to 200 runners at this one.

The final event of the month for me is the next leg of the EMOP in Bulgaria. A good friend of mine qualified online last night on Irisheyespoker.com, (sandro taddei), so the craic should be good out there. (the craic is always good at them anyway). If your reading this and you fancy a trip to Bulgaria, pop on to Irisheyespoker.com and you could get yourself a package for as little as €2. The casino in Bulgaria is in Sunny beach, a tourist destination, although with a bit of luck, I wont get to see much of the beach as I want to run deep in one of these EMOP's.

On other topics, went to the Kerry-Limerick munster final yesterday, and i was very impressed with the Limerick performance. I think they will take a bit of beating in the back door tournament to qualify for the latter stages of the All Ireland championships, and a few quid could be made on them.

On the sports betting front, I was extremely sick after the US open golf championship. I met my brother Tim for breakfast on the Thursday morning it was starting, and he told me he had just backed Ernie Els for ther US Open. I told him I was going down to Ladbrokes to back Graham McDowell at 60/1. He said I should go up town to PP as he saw McDowell at 80/1. So off I went and could only see 60/1 everywhere. So I said Id wait until I met Tim again that evening to find out where the odds were. And you know what happened next. Never got to see Tim again that day, never got to put my bet on, never saw any price again like 60/1 after day 1, and never felt so sick over a missed bet as I was on the sunday night. Delighted for McDowell of course, just sick at my stupidity.
On the plus side, I had the Gooch backed at 11/2 for the 1st goal yesterday, and then invested a decent chunk of the winnings on Ryan Moore @ 13/2 without justin Rose in the US golf, so feeling a bit better this weekend.

before I finish, I must congratulate sean Prendaville on his tremendous showing so far at the WSOP. Before he went over, he won two big MTT live tournaments here in Ireland, the CPT grand final, and the JP masters back to back. Then he hit for Vegas, and within 5 days of getting off the plane, he has gone deep in two fields of over 3,000 players, finishing 15th and 24th for about $50,000. He's on a heater at the moment, and when theres a good player on a heater, its almost impossible to stop him. I just hope it lasts for him into the ME.
I didnt have the chance to go to the WSOP this year, but hopefully, I'll return there in 2011.
Finally, GL to all the Irish playing in the WSOP ME. Hope ye run like god.

2010-06-18T13:10:00.003+01:00

EMoP Bulgaria Live satellites starting soon.

Celtic Poker Tour / Atlantis Casino Live EMoP satellite in the Atlantis Casino Carlow on 4th July. 170 entry. 2 packages worth 2,000 euro guaranteed. Entry to this live satellite can be won via the CPT Monday night 20 euro F/O satellite on Irish Eyes Poker at 9pm.

Entry to the Live satellite can also be won at any Celtic Poker Tour event between now and 4th July.

Join the Team in Bulgaria from July 28th to 1st Aug.

EMOP Italia!!

2010-05-29T03:12:00.002+01:00

Im writing this overlooking lake como on the Italian/swiss border. We are here to play in the EMOP Italy. Unfortunately, this will not be a very long post, or a post about being successfull, because i have failed to make it through day 1.

The tournament had a great starting field of 400 runners. The only downside of that was that over half of them were itallian!! Now Im not racist, or anything like that, but i have yet to meet an Italian who is a good poker player. Im sure they are there, i just havent come across them. On the 2 tables I played on today, I came across about 12/15 of them, and the mind boggles. heres an example;

we start with 20,000 chips. 3rd blind level, blinds are 100/200. Utg raises to 550, 2 callers, C/O reraises to 1400. All 3 who had raised and called the raise called the reraise, putting approx 5.5k in the middle. flop comes A-7-5. UTG shoves for 23,000, all 3 fold after a dwell. UTG proudly turns over A-10 to show he wasnt bluffing!!!
I knew if and when I was going to get stuck in a pot with them, I was going to have to play a big pot. But you want players of that standard on your table whenever you play.

So, on to my own tale of woe. Nothing much happened in the 1st couple of levels, but in the last hand before the break, there was a raise to 250, 2 callers and i called otb with 22. Flop comes 2-4-6, with 2 clubs. Raiser checks, Italian bets 600, i call, oroginal pf raiser folds. turn is 4s. Italian bets 1300, I dwell for a while, hoping he will put me on the flush draw, and call again. River is a 10d. He bets 2,200. I dwell again, and make it 8,000, and he snaps. I show the 22 for the boat, he yells yes and turns over 4-7 for trips. he thinks hes ahead until the dealer shoves the pot to me.
I get moved table, and things are going fine and i have 28,000 when the blinds are 150-300. i raise the c/o with 77 to 750, sb and bb call. Flop is a golded J-J-7, 2 hearts. Checked to me, I bet 1,500. Sb folds, bb makes it 4,600. (he is italian, and im estacic!!). I pause and reluctantly call. Turn is the 4h, and I hate this, because Im scared he might think I now have a flush, and his J might not be any good anymore. He checks, and i fire 6k into the pot. He announces all in for another 13,000, and i have my chips in before him. he proudly flips over A-J for trips, and i show 77 for the boat. Im mnot so happy though when the dealer somehow finds another ace on the river to steal the pot from me. I now have 3.5k when I should have 55k. Its a sick sick game we play.
I climbed back up to 13k in the 400-800 level, when I raised to 2,200 from the c/o, and same player reraises me. This time, I have my best starting hand of the day, and I shove with QQ. He has to call now, and he has AK. Two kings on the flop, and the 4th king on the river seals the deal, so i will have to wait for EMOP Bulgaria to make a name for myself.

patricia ran queens into Aces, and later kings into aces to go out day 1, while teamtom gort very unlucky when he clashed with another big stack and had his aces cracked by 33 late in the day. EMOP champion from Portugal, Timothy Timmotheu, is also gone, as his big crash came when he ran kings into aces.
Dunno if im gonna play the side games, as this is a beautiful area and Im anxious to see a bit of it while im here. I believe george Clooney owns a big property on the lake here,and Im not surprised about that at all. Words dont do it justice, and when i find out how to transfer pics from a mobile onto this site, Ill post uo a few.

Ill try and write another piece for here tomorrowe night, depending on the humour im in. But sure, it cant be any worse than i feel tonite.

Connie

June Newsetter

2010-05-26T15:05:00.005+01:00

Welcome to our June Newsletter where you will find information on all of our new promotions, including a 100% RELOAD deposit bonus for June, and news of the next EMoP leg in Bulgaria.

Team Irish Eyes Poker had a fantastic trip to Lisbon and scooped 1st and 5th place in the main event. The Team are now off to EMoP Italy and hope to bring back even more prizes. Make sure you join the Team for EMoP Bulgaria.

EMoP Bulgaria, Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria from 28 July to 01 Aug 2010

The fifth stop for European Masters of Poker in Season II will be in Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria from 28 July to 01 Aug 2010. Join the Irish Eyes Poker Team at EMoP Bulgaria for the great EMoP Team Party. Main qualifiers from €100 and Satellites online now from €2.

Keep upto date on the Team's progress at EMoP Italy this weekend, and all other EMoP announcements by joining our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803?ref=mf

Celtic Poker Tour

Our association with the Celtic Poker Tour, Ireland's Premier Poker Tour gets stronger and stronger. We have some great promotions with the CPT including a new CPT Irish Eyes Poker Live event in the Bridge Club, Banbridge on 20th June, with 7,000 euro guaranteed. Capped at 100 players, registration online only, is available now.
We are also delighted to announce that you can now deposit and withdraw funds in cash from your account at any CPT event.

Win your seat to any of Celtic Poker Tour's weekly events in our Monday night satellite at 8.30pm, with one Celtic Poker Tour weekly ticket guaranteed.
Plus we can announce the new Players Championship 2010/2011 where Irish Eyes Poker and Celtic Poker Tour are guaranteeing €25,000 to a FREE entry live tournament in April 2011.

June 100% Reload Bonus

Reload your account this month using reload code 'june500ie' and we will match your deposit up to €500, (except cash deposits).

Any amount up to €500 can be deposited to get your bonus. Deposit €100 and get €100 bonus. The deposit is released into your account after 30 days at a rate of 5 euro per 100vip points earned.

VIP150 ENDURANCE CHALLENGE (€20,000)

In June two endurance challenges are arranged.

All players who earn 150 VIP or more every day (00:00:00 to 23:59:59) from the 1st of June to the 15th of June will equally split a prize pool of €10,000.

All players who earn 150 VIP or more every day (00:00:00 to 23:59:59) from the 16th of June to the 30th of June will equally split a prize pool of €10,000.

All winnings are paid out directly to the players' accounts after the challenges are concluded.

SIT & GO LEADERBOARD (€30,000)

The leaderboard is divided into three different levels: Low €1 - <€10, Medium €10 - <€50 and High €50+. All Sit & Go tournaments except Double or Nothing (DoN) will count towards the leaderboards. Ranking, point distribution and payout structures can be found under the Account Information tab in the poker client.

Over €5,000 in Freerolls Monthly.

With Daily prize pools of up to €100, and small player fields, the next batch of upcoming freerolls are not to be missed! Freerolls include:

€100 Exclusive Affiliate Freerolls. Wednesday Nights 21.00. Password Wednesdays on our Facebook page.

€20 Freeroll Daily Mondays to Fridays 18.20.

New Team Irish Eyes Poker Live VIP Tournament Bonus club coming soon.

Best of Luck
Irish Eyes Poker

EMoP Live Super Satellites this week

2010-05-10T18:41:00.003+01:00

Team Irish Eyes Poker EMoP Live Super Satellites this week:

Tuesday 11th in the Bank Casino, Cork at 8.30pm. €100 F/O.

Thursday 13th in the Fitzwilliam Card Club Dublin at 8.30PM. €100 buy-in.

Sunday 16th in the Bridge Club, Banbridge, at 6PM SHARP. £150+£15 buy-in. 15K Stack.

Sunday 16th in the Cue Club, Killarney, at 7.30pm. €80 buy-in. 1 Rebuy OR add-on €50.

Win your package and join the Team at EMoP Italy or any EMoP event of your choice. See http://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/EMOP.aspx for more details.

Irish Eyes Poker May Promotion: New low buy-ins to guaranteed tournaments.

2010-05-07T16:34:00.001+01:00

Irish Eyes Poker May Promotion: New low buy-ins to guaranteed tournaments.

All next week we are offering half price or less buy-ins for daily guaranteed prizepools in the following tournaments:

Time Name Old Buy-in New Buy-in
14.00 €1,000 Guarantee €50 €25
15.00 €1,000 Guarantee Shorthand €40 €10
16.00 €1,000 Guarantee €75 €25
17.00 €1,000 Guarantee €50 €25

The lower buy-ins for these tournaments will be available for one week between 8-14th of May. Don't miss out.

Jason Tompkins New Irish Eyes Poker Pro

2010-05-03T01:32:00.001+01:00

Jasons New Personal Blog can be found here:

http://jason-tompkins.blogspot.com/

EMoP Italy Live satellites

2010-04-28T22:51:00.009+01:00

EMoP Italy Live satellites are taking place soon around the country. If you want to win your ticket to the EMoP Italy at the end of May with over 300,000 euro in the prizepool, check out one of the live satellites below.

More live satellites will be added. Details will appear here when dates and venues are confirmed.

Friday 30th April: Atlantis Casino, Carlow: €200+€20 F/O. Starts 8.30pm.

Monday 9th May: Cue Club Killarney; €80 + 1 rebuy or add-on €50. Starts 7.30pm

Thursday 13th May: Fitzwilliam Card Club, Dublin. €100 F/O. Starts 8.30pm

Sunday 15th May: Bridge Club, Banbridge. £200+£20 F/O. Starts 5pm

Irish Eyes Poker - New sponsors of the Celtic Poker Tour

2010-04-25T19:14:00.001+01:00

Irish Eyes Poker are delighted to be the sponsors of the Celtic Poker Tour, the Premier Poker Tour of Ireland.

The Celtic Poker Tour run live poker events every week in venues around Ireland. For a list of upcoming events check www.celticpokertour.com

As part of our sponsorship of the tour, you can now win your seat to any of Celtic Poker Tour event in our Monday night FREE entry satellite at 8.30pm, with one Celtic Poker Tour ticket to any weekly event guaranteed. The satellite has an optional €10 rebuy and a €10 'double chip' add-on.

We are also delighted to announce the new Players Championship 2010/2011 where Irish Eyes Poker and Celtic Poker Tour are guaranteeing €25,000 to a FREE entry live tournament in April 2011.

To be able to enter this event you must achieve one of the following:

Win any Celtic Poker Tour Live Event

Win any EMoP Package on Irish Eyes Poker

Accumulate 50 player points from Celtic Poker Tour weekly events AND 10 VIP player points on Irish Eyes Poker between now and April 2011

Accumulate 1000 VIP player points on Irish Eyes Poker AND play in one live Celtic Poker Tour event between now and April 2011.

You can also increase your changes of winning the Players Championship live event by building your starting stack at the event by accumulating player points and online VIP points.

The starting stack at the live event is 5,000 chips.

However, for every 1 live player point earned at Celtic Poker Tour events over the required 50 points to enter, you receive 100 extra starting stack chips. Example, you have 70 live player points, then you get 7,000 chip starting stack.

And you can increase your starting stack through VIP points online also.
For every 200 vip points earned online over the required 1000 vip points to enter, you will receive 100 extra starting stack chips.
Example, you have 9,000 vip points, then you get 7,000 chip starting stack.

It is also possible to get your entry of 50 live players points or 1000 vip points online by pooling both your live player points and online vip points together.
Example, you have 25 live player points and 500 online VIP points. This will get you your free entry to the Players Championship final with €25,000 guaranteed prize money.

The Players Championship Live Final in April 2011 will be a members only entry event, with a free buy-in, one re-buy and one add-on available for €50 each. All rebuys and add-ons will be added to the €25,000 starting prizepool.

Players will have starting stacks in line with the accumulated live and online points as outlined above. No player will be allowed to start the tournament with more than 25,000 chips.

For more information contact promotions@irisheyespoker.com or speak with Fionn or Liam at any Celtic Poker Tour event.

Spring is in the air!!

2010-04-25T18:32:00.002+01:00

Couple of weeks since I last posted. There hasn't been a lot going on in the poker world in the last few weeks for me. The weathers been great down here in Kerry, so we took avail of it at home. Had a barbecue at home in the evenings and generally chilled out. Played some online poker, but not as much as I usually would.

I see that the entraction network (irisheyes)are introducing a spring series. They are a list of different price games, with great guarantees and various size buy ins, suitable for all pockets. Tonite for instance, there is a €10,000 guarantee for a €20 freeze-out (only 230 players registered with 20 mins to go, so should be a nice overlay in that. Also, tonite at 8pm, there is a STS €50,000 gtd game for a €100 F/O and also there is just over 200 registered so far. Some great value tourneys there, and hopefully i can run well in them. Also tonite, there is the invitation tournament satellite for the EMoP Italy. This is a tournament where the only players allowed to enter are the players that actually competed in the EMoP Lisbon. Matt won this tourney last month, so hopefully its my turn!! Although, having played quite a lot already today, I wouldnt be filled with confidence. I made 6 final tables today, got my chips in ahead on all of them, but came out the wrong side. And they werent all flips either. Lost AQ v Q-10, AK v AJ, 10-10 v 3-3 and a few flips. Happens to everyone, I understand that, just hoping to run better tonite.

Gonna concentrate on qualifieing for the italian leg of the EMoP after that. I've been reading up on it, and it really looks like its worth a visit. the tournament is being played in campione, which is on the border between Italy and Switzerland, with the casino situated on the shores of lake Lugano. Its supposed to be the biggest casino in Europe, so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully, we'll have a gang again on the Teamirisheyes contingent. We've a lot to live up to though, as one of the lads, Tim from London, managed to actually take down the EMoP portugal for an €85,000 pay day. 1 guarantee anyway is that the craic will be good!!! For those of you that dont know, qualifying can be done on line on Irisheyespoker.com There are 3 finals a week with 20 seats guaranteed between them, on Tuesdays, thursdays and Sundays, with €2 satellites on every day into them finals. Also now, because of the increasing popularity of the EMoP's, there are a number of live satellites on around Ireland. they will be in the Cue Club, Killarney, The Bank casino in Cork, the Fitzwilliam casino in Dublin, the Atlantis casino in Carlow and the Bridge club in Banbridge.

Lets change the subject away from poker for a minute. Lets talk snooker.And mostly, about steve davis. What a fantastic performance he is putting in at the world championships in sheffield. I'm delighted for him, as I know how much pride he takes in his own performances. Now that he has reached the quarter final, I'm gonna head off over to the Crucible tomorrow in time for the quarter final against neil robertson which is on tuesday and wednesday.

Will write a bit of a trip report next week on that.

Connie

Oh what a night!!

2010-04-08T00:55:00.000+01:00

Oh, man, what a night. Irish Eyes players finishing 1st and 5th. Team Irish Eyes taking over the casino bar. Chants of “ole, ole” and “you’ll never beat the Irish” temporarily stopping the roulette and blackjack. All followed by a late bar, where our host (and by Sunday night, good friend lol) Antonio was prepared to draw drink until the sun was well and truly up!
My own tournament didn’t run so well. First I lost half my stack with tens on a ten high flop. The hand played out like this: local hero raises to 300 (he has raised about 60% so far). I repop next to act to 850, he calls. Flop is T9x rainbow. He leads for 350 and I raise to 1200, he calls. I raise here because on the evidence so far, this guy isn’t folding anything that’s hit and I want to build a pot. It would make no difference to him that this is the first pot I’ve played!! Turn brings a K, completing the rainbow. He checks, I bet 2800, he calls. River is a J and he leads for 4k. WTF? I think about it for a minute or so and think it looks like he’s hit 2 pair on the river and consider raising to try and get it in. In the end I decide to be cautious and flat call, to be shown Q9 for the straight. WP NH.
I took a breather after this and told myself not to panic, I still had 11k and the blinds were still only 50/100. However, the day got worse after this, with AK on a K high flop having to be folded to a check raise on the turn, 99 getting beat by the T7 of my local hero friend and JJ having to be folded on the flop. With around 6k left, I’m looking for a spot to double-up. When I raise with QQ, I think I’ve found it when I get repopped by a good aggro Scandie. I ship and of course he has AA.
In the side event, I decided to play pretty snugly and hope to hit something to double up with. I had increased my stack to around 9k, without having to turn over any hand at all and knew that I was playing well. I called a raise with 77 from a decentish player. The flop came AA7. If he’s got the A here, I’m thinking, this is my opportunity. He leads and I decide to raise. He insta-shoves and I snap obv. He has AT. Turn 9, river 9. Hasta la vista, baby.
On the plus side I won 2 out 3 €100 sit and go’s, to keep turnover on the up a bit.
My job for the rest of the weekend, I decided, was to support the other Irish Eyes players still in the main event.
I was absolutely gutted when Patricia went out with JJ vs A6 just a couple of spots off the money. She had played superbly well and used her (rock) image to good effect in a couple of spots to steal nice pots. She was just waiting to get her double-up from the A6 guy and pounced at exactly the right time, only for the poker gods to shoot her down. It won’t be long before she gets a right run at one of these.
That left Paul and Tim to cheer for. Paul had played out of his skin all weekend. He showed balls of steel with 16 left to win a nice pot. He raised in early position. The BB min-reraised and after a dwell Paul called. The flop came AQJ and after a little hesitation, the BB checked. Paul instantly reached for chips and counted out a 90k bet (nearly a pot sized bet). The BB gave Paul a stare for about 60 seconds and folded KK face up. Nice fold says Paul and flips 44. Beautiful. Tim, meanwhile, stayed out of trouble until 13 left. Then he let loose and seemed to raise every second or third pot. He ran through 2 players very quickly, including Patricia’s conqueror and built a nice stack for the final table.
The final table was a blur. Action seemed to be like a waltz. Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. Paul and Tim both hunkered down and watched the carnage going on around them and picked their spots well. Paul’s exit hand was standard. He shipped with T7 over the SB’s open and got called by A8. A flop of 89x gave some hope but he missed and was out in 5th. A brilliant performance by him.
Tim then made a big call with J9 on a 9 high flop against the chip leader, who was trying to bully his way to the title and never looked back from there. The bullyboy was dispatched in 3rd place and the heads-up didn’t take very long. There were no deals and Tim walked away with close to €87k.
Which brings me back to the night after. Oh, what a night!!
As usual, the EMOP team ran a superb weekend of poker and craic. I made some new friends among the Irish Eyes qualifiers, met some old ones from previous events and generally had a ball. My only gripe is that I’m yet to get any sort of run at one of these. Roll on Italy.

EMoP Lisbon - A Result

2010-03-30T14:58:00.004+01:00

TEAM IRISH EYES POKER PLAYER WINS EMOP LISBON.

A huge congratulations to Timothy Timotheou (centre picture) who won the EMoP Lisbon main event on Sunday last 28th March. Timothy is a great tournament player and qualified online to win his EMoP package. Tim won out in the final hand against Lithuanian Povilas Portukas.
How it happened: Purtokas completes and Timotheau checks. Flop 74K rainbow, check-check. Turn J. Timotheau bets 140K, Purtokas shoves all in, call. Timotheau has K9, i.e. top pair, Purtokas only TT. Only one of the two remaining tens would save the Lithuanian. But a 4 falls.

A big congratulations also to Paul Lucey from the Atlantis Casino in Carlow who came 5th.
And to Patricia O'Sullivan one of the last 2 ladies in the event who just failed to make the prizemoney.

Well done to Timothy, Paul, Patricia and all the Team Irish Eyes Poker players.

EMoP Lisbon Top 5
1: Timothy Timotheou - 86 680€
2: Povilas Portukas - 53 190€
3: Henrik Torstensson - 34 672€
4: Diogo Borges - 22 064€
5: Paul Lucey - 17 336€

Top Team Irish Eyes Poker EMoP positions.
1st - Timothy Timotheou
5th - Paul Lucey
48th - Patricia O'Sullivan

Day 1b at EMOP Lisbon.

2010-03-27T04:38:00.004Z

Obviously, after my exploits yesterday,(day 1a), I was not involved in the playing side of things today, but as 6 of the team Irish Eyes group were playing day 1b, including my wife Patricia and daughter Ciara, I decided to go to the casino and lend my support. And truthfully, it was more draining than the hard slog on the table the night before. Its one thing to be in control of your own destiny, but when your just sittting or standing there watching the games go on, you feel powerless and everytime you see one of your own entering pots, your heart would be in your mouth. But sure, I suppose thats why we love this game so much.

The 6 irish eyes qualifiers today were patricia, Ciara, Jamie Lowe,(Killarney), William Brown, (Bangor), Thomas Collins, Castlemaine and Janus Jeszek (Dublin).
William had the best start, and sure why wouldnt he. in the 1st blind level, he had AA,KK,QQ,JJ and 99, as well as flopping a set of 4's. Considering he missed his flight out here and had to go to lots of trouble to get another one on time, and then proceeded to lose his passport since he got here, his luck was bound to change!!!! Having said all that, his luck ran out just before the end of the day when he raised with Ad-Kd, got 1 caller, flop comes Qd-10d-6d for a pure gin flop. Willian bets out the flop as he's thinking to himself "how do i get his chips here?". he didnt have to think for long when his opponnent announced "all-in". William snap calls him obviously and they both have 50k in the middle. Opponnent has 10-10 and an ugly 6 on the river gives his opponnent the full boat and see the chips sliding across the table. A sickener really for william, but thats poker for you.

Janus was just as unlucky. Blinds were 500-100 and Janus was very comfortable with 50k. He raises with AA, and opponnent annouses reraise all-in. A delighted Janus insta calls, yer man has 6-6, and a 6 on the flop ends Janus's hopes.

Jamie Lowe had got off to a quick start as well, racing up to 38k when the average was only 23k. But then he suffered a few hours of being totally card dead, and after dropping to 24k, he got it all-in preflop against AK with 99, but the river brought a king to eliminate Jamie with just an hour of play left in the day.

Enough of the sad stories now, as our other 3 contestants successfully made it through day 1 and into tomorrows play to join myself and Paul Lucey as the 5 team Irish Eyes players still in the tourney. With over 400 starting the event, its a great achievement to get 5 of our 11 qualifiers through to day 2.

Ciara was card dead all day and never got past her starting stack for the 1st 8 hours of play. She finally got the double up her patience deserved when she raised of the button with 33, got called by the Bb who had KQ, and the flop came K-9-3. The bb duly obliged and doubled Ciara's stack from 15k to 30k. Ciara stayed card dead for the last 2 hours, but some aggressive short stack play saw her maintain her 30k stack at the end of play.

Patricia, who is only playing the game 2 years, has played extremely well once again and qualified for day 2 with 45.5k. This is her 4th EMOP event, (and are the only 4 big tourneys she has ever played in),and this is her 3rd time making it to day 2. Its truly an advertisment for the tight is right bregade. Her big hand came when she had about 17k, she raised with JJ, got reraised by a scandie in the blinds, and she shoved her stack in. he called with AK but the JJ's won the race.

Last but not least is Thomas Collins. Thomas doesnt get to play many live tourneys, but he took to it like a duck to water. He gathered a tight image all day and then used it when the blinds got bigger. he got very unlucky when he called a shortstacks all in for 12k late in the day when he had 88, and the shortstack turned over J-2. A 2 on the flop, and another 2 on the river saw tom lose the pot. He was down to 13k himself then, but he recovered brilliantly to finish up the day on 35k.

So thats it for today. I'll report back tomorrow night with news on how the last 5 team members do on day 2. Paul Lucey is nicely stacked on 95k, while the other 4 are all less than the average stack. But each of them is only 1 hand away from being right back in it. 125 players return to do battle with a new table draw. 45 player will get payed. heres hoping we'll have something to cellebrate after tomorrow.

Connie

Team Irish Eyes Poker at EMOP Lisbon.

2010-03-26T14:11:00.005Z

TR from EMOP Lisbon.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, after the last EMOP in Gran Canaria, I said I'd do another TR from the next one in Lisbon, so here we are. I'll try to keep it a bit short though as its 4.45am out here, and I could do with some sleep!!
Flew out yesterday with some of the family, my wife Patricia, and daughter Ciara and her boyfriend Jamie, as well as Lplate and his wife Sheila. They're all playing in the tourney(all qualified online at irish eyes poker.com) except for Sheila who doesnt play, so theres a bit of pride in the last longest. Theres a good gang from Ireland here this time, with 12 qualifiers in total from Irish Eyes Poker.
We're staying in the beautiful Palacio hotel in Estoril (just outside Lisbon). Its a 5 star, but it was part of the package, so 4 nights of granduer guaranteed. The casino itself is the biggest I've ever seen outside of Vegas. Its a really classy joint, with 4 large restaurants, live music and as much gaming as a man could want. (1,000 slots!!).

There are 2 starting days, 1a (Thursday)and 1b (Friday)with a cap of 250 each day. I decided to go with 1a, for no particular reason except that they are having a €300 2 day event as a side event and that is starting Friday night, and I reasoned that if I didnt make it through day 1a, I would be free to play the side event. That doesn't mean I don't expect to make it through day 1, but it was enough reason to make me decide which start day to play. Spotted a good few lads I know quite well by now from playing these EMOPs, and also had some Irish playing 1a as well, LPlate, Paul Lucey from the Atlantis casino in Carlow, a guy called Finn O' Sullivan from Dublin and a friend of Paul's from Carlow called Connor. I met with Finn in the queue to register. Finn doesn't play live much but plays quite a bit online. He was really looking forward to the experience.
20,000 starting stack, the 1st 4 levels are 45 mins, and then its an hour clock for the rest of the tourney. The only difference in this tourney from our well structured ones in Ireland is that they dont have a 75/150, and when they introduce antes, they dont replay a blind level. Other than that, the structures are pretty much identical.

I started really slowly, failing to get any hands of note, and failing to hit when I got in there with the speculative hands. I was playing basically ABC poker and would have a tight image to the rest of the table. The standard at my table was surprisingly good, as I had been told that the Portuguese were very poor players, but I had 4 of them at my table and I thought they player quite well. I didn't see any of them making any big mistakes. One thing I was happy about is that I was drawn on table 13 of 25, so I knew I'd have plenty time to create an image for myself as they break tables out here from the highest number down. (Is there anything worse than creating a tight image for yourself but finding your table breaking before the blinds go high enough and you have to change gear)?

We went to the dinner dreak after 5 levels, and I had only 6 pots of note played in that time. And I was only down 400 from my starting stack, which was an achievement of its own!! I had 1 pair in that time (QQ) which I won with, and A-9 was the biggest ace I saw, so timely 3 bets were keeping me in the game. We were schedueled to play 10 levels, with the last level being 800-1600, so I knew I'd have to get chips from somewhere if I wanted to stay in the game.
I dropped as low as 13k on this table, and got it back again without showing hands (which was as well!!), and when my table finally broke, I still only had my starting stack, and this was the middle of level 9. I was down to 15k with blinds at 500-1000 when I won a race with AQs against 99, and suddenly I had 30k, my high of the day!! Then, a very tight Portuguese player got moved onto my table, 4 to my left. (he had been on my 1st table all day so I knew how tight he was). Of course when it was folded to me when he was in the bb, I was raising as he knew I was tight and with the blinds now 500-1000 and 100 antes, it was worth stealing. But when raising from the HJ, I kept being repopped from the button or sb, and I done 10k there over a few laps. So we moved into the last blind level of the night, and I was in trouble again. I kept looking for a spot to get them in with as I needed a double up, but all of a sudden I had only 12bb, and thats not enough to get raisers off pots (especially scandies), so I was tring to pick my spots carefully and now open shove instead of reraising.(Thats all you can do with 17k-18k, blinds 800-1500, 100 ante).

I got a little unlucky when I got em all in with my AQ againgst scandies A-10, with the board running out K-9-3-9-9 for a split pot when I could have done with the chips. But not long later, the same guy raised my blind and I found QQ. He had 10-10 and mhig and I'm up to 33k. Still not great, but I have some power back. 2nd last hand of the night saw a Portuguese player raise to 4,000, scanie flats otb and I ship in the sb for 35k. Both fold quickly, and I finish the night and bag my chips with 45,000.

I suppose its not great when the average is 65k. (210 players started 1a, and 65 left I think). Day 1b is on Friday, with day 2 on Saturday. We go back to 1,000-2,000blinds. I have enough chips to work with though. I had QQ twice today, and had 3 small pairs dealt to me as well, 1 x AK and 3 x AQ's, so if I can hang in there long enough, the tide might turn and I might hit a few hands. Thats the plan anyway, but sure isn't it everybodys!!!

Other team member news, Matt Dobbins didn't make it through day 1, he had a lunatic of a Portuguese player on his immediate right who trebled up early and just had to play every hand. Lplate managed to trick him into getting all his chips in on the flop with Matt holding top set, but the Portugues man-o-war called him with 2nd pair and managed to runner-runner a straight. Last I saw of Matt he was propping up a bar counter (or it was propping him up, I'm not sure which way it was!!). Paul Lucey from the Atlantis casino in Carlow has 100k and is in prime position. Connor got coolered when he he's KK in a raised pot. Flop is K-10-10. Bet, reraise call. 10 on the turn, bet call. Ace on the river. Opponnent bets 10k out of a 15k stack and Connor folds.
Finn had no luck either, losing a couple of big races before finally getting his chips in with AQ only to lose the race.
Day 1b sees Patricia and Ciara o Sullivan in action, along with Jamie Lowe, Thomas Collins, William Browne and Janus Jeszek. Hope a couple of them will join Paul and I in day 2 in our assault on the title.
I must say that the new Irish Eyes Poker uniforms look stunning. I'm just about to head down to the casino and lend my support to the lads and lassies.

Thats it for now,

Connie

2010-03-11T18:24:00.002Z

Hi there,
Just updating. travelled to Cork last Tuesday night for a satellite in the Bank casino. The satellite was a live satt. for the EMoP in portugal (Lisbon) later on in the month, and I'm glad to say it was won by a friend of mine, Rob Quinn from Bandon. So Rob is the latest man to make it onto the Irish Eyes team for lisbon. We had only 3 runners at the last EMoP in Gran canaria, but it looks like we will have between 10 and 15 players on our team heading to portugal. Hopefully, 1 of us can go deeeeeeeeep!!!!
I never got going myself in the satellite, absolutely card dead the whole night. I lasted about 3 to 4 hours, but that was only from making moves in the right places. After getting no pair all night, I finall picked up a half decent hand in the 400-800 blind level, As-Qs. I raised to 2,500 but got reraised. I only had 9k starting the hand, and i didnt really feel like folding the best hand I seen all night, so i stuck them in only to see KK by my opponnent. Two spades on the flop gave me some more ouits, but it wasnt to be and the best pre-flop hand won.
I must say, gavin, Ger and the lads have a fine job done with the Bank casino. Its very comfortable in there, and its definately a place i'd return to.

Online is going ok, not spectacular, but OK. I cashed in the 20k gtd,cashed twice in the 8k gtd, and had a great run in the 12noon €30 F/O, chopping it twice and finishing 4th and 7th in 4 days. maybe I should stick to that tourney!!! I won an online satellite to Lisbon last week on IrishEyes, and so did my wife patricia. Patricia is only playing 2 years, nut she is improving all the time. She definately has the patience required for the game. Matt won his package as well, and I was delighted to see a Cue Club regular, jamie Lowe, also win a package last sunday night in the Sunday final. We have a live sat in the Cue Club on Saturday night next, so hopefully that will see another cue club regular make the trip to portugal. Should make for a good party out there!!!!

Well, thats it for now, I'll update before we head out to lisbon. talk soon

Connie

Exclusive EMoP Live Satellites

2010-03-05T16:20:00.002Z

Team Irish Eyes Poker are coming to a casino near you soon for our Exclusive EMoP Live Satellites

If you would like to join Con, Matt and the Irish Eyes Poker Team in Lisbon Portugal at the European Masters of Poker event from 25th to 28th March, make sure you qualify for your package online or at one of our exclusive Live EMoP Satellites.

EMoP Live Satellites:

Tuesday 9th March: Bank Casino, Cork, starting at 9pm. One seat worth €1,650 GUARANTEED.
€100 Freeze-out, 10,000 starting stack, 20 minute clock.

Wednesday 10th March: Atlantis Casino, Carlow, starting at 8.30pm.
€150 Freeze-out, 10,000 starting stack, 20 minute clock.

Thursday 11th March : Fitzwilliam Card Club, Clifton Hall, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, starting at 8.30pm.
€100 Freeze-out, 10,000 starting stack, 20 minute clock.

Saturday 13th March: Gold Club Casino, Letterkenny starting at 9pm.
€50 buy-in for 6,000 starting stack (plus 1,000 early bird available)
€50 re-buy for 6,000 chips
€50 add-on for 8,000 chips

Sunday 14th March: Cue Club, Hilliards Lane, Killarney stating at 7pm. One seat worth €1,650 GUARANTEED.
€80 buy-in for 7,000 starting stack.
€50 re-buy or add-on 9,000 chips

Or Qualify for EMoP Lisbon in our EXCLUSIVE €100 freeze-out Super Satellite on Monday 15th March at 7.30pm.
Daily and Weekly satellites to the Super Satellite online now from €1

Qualify online in our frequent daily satellites from only €2. Over 100 EMoP packages GUARANTEED.

Take the opportunity to participate in a live poker tournament with a decent buy-in without having to beat all the professional players in order to claim the first prize.

1st live outing in the IrishEyes colours!

2010-02-28T17:14:00.002Z

Well, as those of you that read the blog now know, I've recently signed up as a sponsored player with Irisheyespoker.com. It's a great thrill for me to be a sponsored player, and it means I'm gonna get to play all the EMOP events, and with them being my fav tourneys to play in, then thats a real bonus!!! The EMOP is the European masters of poker, a series of tournaments that is the flagship for the entraction network, of which Irisheyes is a part of. I've been qualifying for these over the past few months on irisheyespoker.com, but even though I'm now going to be sponsored into the tourneys, I'm still going to go down the route of qualifying. If I get another package, there's plenty family members to make use of it!!!

The next stop on the EMOP tour is in Lisbon, Portugal on March 25th. Myself and patricia have our flights and hotels booked (Patricia won her package last tues night in the Tuesday final), so its all systems go. Hopefully, I can get a result out there. we're staying on an extra few days, going down to Villamoura for 3 days after the poker, so that should be nice.

Well, I made my first live outing last Friday night in the irisheyes colours, and a successfull outing it was!! Travelled up to Cork to play in the Maccau monthly game, which is a €250 + €25reg game played on the last friday of the month. 50 players turned up for the game, which is well down from a few months ago,creating a prize-pool of €12.5k. 15,000 chips and a 30 minute blind clock meant for a decent structure, and in fairness, when it was pointed out to the td that the 150-300 level was skipped, he gave us an hour at tyhe 200-400 level to make up for it. To make a long story short,made it to the final table with the average stack. Two players had big stacks, 1 of them I didnt know, the other being Nicky Power who drew the seat directly to my left. Didnt really like that as Nicky would know a lot about my game, and my raises would probably get snapped off here, so I had to ne careful. Some were talking about a deal for for 7th, 8th,and 9th (6 being paid), but there were 3 short stacks on the table, and nicky refused (quite rightly imho) as he felt if everyone was in the money,it would just become a push fest and take away his advantage. All the shorties finished up doublig up, and at 6am, we were still 6 handed. the players started talking about doing a deal on chip equity as it was so late, (chop the prizepool 6 ways according to the chips you have). While this discussion was ongoing, I shoved twice in a row (blinds 5k-10k), and picked up a handy 30k before the chip counts were done. We done the deal asnd I got €2,000, near enough the same as coming 2nd, so i was happy enough with that.

Thats it for now. Let all your pots be monsters!!

Ups and downs

2010-02-27T22:44:00.000Z

I played my first decent tournament under the Irish Eyes banner at the Macau end of month game in Cork last night. It’s a €250 + €25, €10k gtd game, with as decent a structure as can be allowed for in a one-day game. With 49 runners, it generated a prizepool of €12.25k and a good first prize of over €4k.
I decided going in to play a pretty standard ABC tag game and see how things developed. I got a few hands from time to time and chipped up to 40k by the end of the 300-600 level and felt well in the zone.
My stack took a severe knock in the 400-800 level when a young guy in mid-pos open pushed for 15k and I woke up with 2 black kings in the sb. I made the call and he showed 2 red nines. 4 hearts later and I’m back to 25k. In the not too distant past this would have triggered the tilt monster in me but I’ve done a lot of work on this problem and took a 5 minute breather, coming back still believing I would do well. Before the end of the level I was down to 11k!! My 99 no good for A7 aipf.
I stole from the button once and tried it again next round having seen just an A. The sb called with 99 and I hit runner-runner 5 to my kicker. Talk about swings and roundabouts.
The table wasn’t too difficult, with the exception of Nicky Power and Trevor Dineen and I was able to pick out my spots quite well. I took out the A7 guy with 99 (again) against his A5 and found myself up to 55k. There were 12 left at this stage but the blinds had gone to 1500-3k, so it was pretty much all pre-flop ninja stuff.
Nicky had been pretty active with his big stack and 2 hands later he raised to 8k. I looked down at AK in bb and dropped 22k over the line with the full intention of calling a shove. He shoved and I beat him in. QQvAK, classic match-up. A on flop K on turn, nice. Q on river not so nice and I’m walking. If I had to give them to anybody at the table, then Nicky is the man. Not only a great poker player but a gent as well.
With the blind structure, the hand played itself as limping to the final table short is not my style. A pretty standard tournament really. A few downs, a few ups and I felt did as well as I could with what I was dealt.
Following my 3rd place in the Cue Club last Sunday and this game, I know my game is in good shape and with a bit of luck at crucial times I’d be hoping to score sooner rather than later.
Nicky went on to take the lion’s share of a 6-way chop, with Connie next in line. With his confidence restored, Connie is going to be a major force for the next while.
Watch this space!

Con O'Sullivan and Matt Dobbins join Team Irish Eyes Poker

2010-02-23T18:51:00.013Z

Irish Eyes Poker are proud to announce and delighted to welcome Con O'Sullivan and Matt Dobbins onboard as our new Team Irish Eyes Poker Sponsored Players.

Con and Matt are very well known in the Irish Poker Community and will be playing poker in Ireland and around Europe in the EMoP events, including the upcoming EMoP event in Lisbon, Portugal, on 25th to 28th March, as part of Team Irish Eyes Poker.

Team Irish Eyes Poker are aiming to take at least 10 players to the EMoP Lisbon and many more Irish players to later EMoP events around Europe.

And you could join Con & Matt and Team Irish Eyes Poker at the European Masters of Poker events by winning your package through many of our daily EMoP satellites from only 2 euro; or in our weekly finals on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday nights; through our Iron Man qualifiers, and in our VIP Freerolls. We guarantee over 20 packages each week, with each package worth 1100 euro seat, 4 nights in a 4 or 5 star hotel, and 350 euro travel expenses.

Plus to celebrate Con and Matt join Team Irish Eyes Poker, they will be in a casino near you soon holding exclusive EMoP Live Satellites. (A list of casinos holding live satellites for EMoP packages will be listed here shortly.)

In addition, there will be an exclusive Irish Eyes Poker only online satellite with a 100 euro buy-in on Monday 15th March where we will guarantee another Irish player will be joining the Team in Lisbon.

With so many ways to win your seat, or you can buy in directly through your Irish Eyes Poker account, we hope to welcome you to Team Irish Eyes Poker and see you in Lisbon and other EMoP events.

For more information on EMoP Live events and online satellites go to www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Promotions/EMoP-Events.aspx

And don't forget, drop Con and Matt a line here on our blog.

See you at the tables.

Dave McLachlan in Gran Canaria

2010-02-13T11:46:00.004Z

Just back from playing in the EMOP tournament in Gran Canaria, which I had qualified for in a 2 euro rebuy on Irish Eyes. What a brilliant time I had. The craic was excellent! There were playersof all age groups, and I met some great folk and spent four days playing poker and partying!

The weather could have been hotter, but after leaving Inverness (-10c and 40cm of snow) +17c felt like a tropical paradise, and I managed to get a tan (though most of that is peeling off my balding head!) Next year I'm taking a sun hat! The hotel was excellent, and even though I think that they are more used to people in Armani suits than hoodies, the staff were very friendly and helpful. The food was good, as you would expect, and the drinks affordable.
Apart from the sell out main event (in which the devilfish Dave Ulliot was playing), there were cash tables and sit and go games organized, and two side events, as well as the casino to play in.
I was a little unfortunate to go out of the main tournament on the first day. My button push (JJ) over the top of an all in (88) being called by the big blind's QK off suit. The Q came on the river! That's poker. (or so I was told!) However, it wasn't all bad news, as an Irish Eyes player, Connie, won the Sunday Tournament. The vocal support he was getting from the other Irish Eyes players who were there helped to put the pressure on the eventual runner up!
This was my first EMOP experience, but hopefully, not my last. In fact I'm going to be trying hard to qualify for the next round in the series in Lisbon, Portugal in March, so watch out!

January sun

2010-02-12T11:32:00.005Z

Qualified for the Gran Canaria leg of the EMOP on Irish Eyes and headed away from the freezing cold at home to the sunshine. During the cold snap we had no water at home for 2 weeks and having a large family I had to move into an apartment, so a bit of sunshine was welcome.
This was my second EMOP after Slovenia last November and I have to say I'm in love with them. The team in charge of running them are top class and the craic is mighty. My wife lolled when each night I sent the same text "on the piss with a bunch of mad... " Finns/Danes/Swedes/Brits depending on the night.
The main event started slowly enough for me. My table wasn't bad at first. A couple of bad locals, a couple of bad lags, a couple of good lags and one good player that I recognised from Slovenia (he final tabled there). I was biding my time trying to figure them out when, 30 minutes in, Dave Ulliot lands in the empty seat to my right. He limped utg with his first hand, set off a chain reaction and won a 10k pot from a bad player in mid pos with QJ after flopping JT8 to his 79! My only hand of note early was a rr with AK that won preflop. Meanwhile Ulliot was flopping houses and sets like there was no tomorrow and moved up to 50kish effortlessly.
I lost a decent sized pot in the 200-400 level that set me back a bit. Cut-off (good lag) raised to 1050, Ulliot flats otb, I rr to 4000 from sb with QQ and BB (young guy who hasn't been out of line) tanks for 3-4 mins and repops to 10000. I have to let them go here and he flashes KK. This brings me down to 14k from my starting 20k. The only other interesting hand I was involved in came in the next level. First hand back from the break and there's just 3 of us at the table, with both blinds missing. I look down at AJ in early position and make it 1600 to go. A very agg Scandie instaships for around 8k. Now, Im thinking that I must be ahead of his range here as he will automatically assume I'm stealing in that spot. I drop it after a sweat and he flashes an Ace. Good or bad fold? Still not sure. Our table breaks shortly after.
The new table dosen't change things for me. I'm still totally card dead and drop to 7kish when I ship over a raiser with AK. He calls with QQ, I hit the K and am off again. I battle up to 18k or so through restealing a couple of pots and we're nearing the end of day 1 when the car crash happens. Utg+1 raises for the umpteenth time, weak player to my right flats and I look down at JJ. I ship, only to see mr rocky mcrock to my left reship!!! Utg reships!!!! Weak player calls!!!!! Rocky has QQ, utg has KK and weaky has AK. Obv AK wins a huge pot and I'm out. I spend the rest of the night in the company of some Danes getting pie-eyed.
I played the 1 day side event but suffice to say that I lasted about 7 minutes in that after 4 betting QQ preflop and being called by T6 soooooooted. The rest needs no further explanation.
Absolutely delighted to see Connie take this down (see his trip report, it's a cracking read). He deserved a win and it'll do his confidence the world of good. An amusing footnote to this is that on the winning hand, myself and Connie's other supporters started chanting "spade, spade, spade" after the turn. The Finnish player's mates then joined in with us and cheered just as loudly when it fell!! Wonder what his enemies are like?
Met loads of nice people, drank loads of beer and manged to get a bit of sun.
I said I'd say hi to Dave McLachlan who also qualified on Irish Eyes, so Hi Dave.

emop gran canaria

2010-02-11T19:46:00.010Z

Well, blogging is new for me, and as I'm not the most computer litterate person in the world, it might be fun. I was updating my trip on the irish poker forum, irishpokerboards.com, so I'm gonna try and lift the reports from there and reprint them here. Wish me luck!!!

Originally poster 30/1/2010

Well, I said I'd report back, and so I'm doing.
Good news first, made day 2, but only just about. But i guess you cant win it if your out, so hopefully can start fast today.

Flew out on thursday to las Palmas, where as expected, the weather is nice even if a little windy. Hotel and casino are lovely. These EMOP's seem to be running underneath the radar in Ireland (theres only 4 irish here in total, and 3 of us are here together). The field is capped at 300 runners with 2 day 1's, A and B. (The casino cant hold any more runners than that). Of the 150 that played day 1, 54 players remained, and of the 150 that played day 1b, 53 remain.

The structure is pretty good to be fair, although due to silly dealer hour restrictions here in the Canaries, there are 2 blind levels missing from the last EMOP I played in Ljubljana. The TD explained to me that the tournament can not run for more more than 8 hours a day due to the local laws on dealer hours so we started at 5pm, and finished about 1am. He reckoned he had to drop the 2 levels and shorten from 1 hr blinds to 55mins as well as shorten the breaks to finish the tourney in 3 days. 20,000 starting stack.
Played 9 levels, 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400 (25), 300/600 (50), 400/800 (50), 500/1000 (100), 600/1200 (100). The 1st 4 levels were 45mins, and all others were 55mins.

Started slowly enough, being at a particularly aggressive table. (Three quarters of the field are online qualifiers, mostly scandanavians, the rest are locals who dont have much idea about whats going on.) I won the first 2 pots i was involved in, which is always a nice feeling, 1 gratifying one when i called down an annoyingly aggressive scandy on the river with just a pair of 7's and i was good. He seemed to take issue with this and he definately set out his stall to play hands with me after that, which I was happy enough with cause i was fairly confident that if I got the goods, he would pay me off.

2nd blind level and i'm sitting on about 23k. I raise QQ utg, (300), tight player flats otb, the scandie repops in the sb to 1650, I repop it to 5,150, button obviously folds, scandie makes it 14,500. I hate it, but i fold. (he did tell me outside later that he had AA, but sure what else would he say).
Not much happening for a few levels after that, but now I had a pretty good handle on my table and i was able to pick mt spots pretty well, not making much ground, but maintaining my starting stack pretty comfortably while awaiting my oppertunity to make some chips.
Guy to my left who had been playing pretty well, lost most of his stack with a very badly played AA, and he was now in push or fold mode. Folded to me(playing 20k) in the sb and I look down at 88, blinds 300-600 (50). I make it 1700 to go, he shoves for 5,100. I insta call, he has A-7, ace on the flop of course and I'm down to 15k. Get down as low as 13,300 when i get my double up. The scandie raises to 2600 and i see KK otb. Now Ive 13,300. I think about my options. The bb has about 15k. Im thinking of just shoving, but I havent had many hands and figure I gotta gamble and try and get some chips. I'm pretty sure he'll c/bet any flop, and I'll give the BB a chance to squeeze as he is a decent player, and he would have been aware of the battles me and the scandie have been in all day and might just like a squeeze there. BB folds and we're off. before the flop is out, scandie asks me how much i have. I tell him 10,500, that its not much and I probably wont be able to fold. Flop is 10-6-4 rainbow, and he bets 10,500. Snappage, he has A-6 and doesnt improve and I've 28k. I chip up to a high of 37k over the next half hour until I get moved table.

Played the last 2 blind levels of the night on this table, and nothig went right. Anything i tried got snapped off, my only successes being reshoves over aggressive players. Was hoping to find a spot in the last 20 mins to gamble them up with, but nothing doing. Going back today with exactly 22,000, with blinds at 800-1600 and either a 100 or 200 ante. So the M is around 7 and I wont be hanging around. I guess I'll either have 50k at the end of the 1st level today, or i'll be back here finishing this report!!!

I must say though, these EMOP's are extremey enjoyable tournaments. the emphasis seems to be on player friendly, with all players being booked into the same hotel and the socialising with each other is great. The hotel standard is very high. Although I must say, the dealing standard is the worst i,ve seen in any casino. Just simple things like no dealer seems to be able to concentrate and they never know whos turn it is to act. They are also clueless as to rules, but nobody's mahing an issue of it. The TD team are scandanavian and are a class act.

Thats it for now. Back at 5pm to play, so talk later.

Connie

Originally posted 31/1/2010

EMOP TR part 2.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well I'd love to be on here giving ye all the great news, but it doesnt pan out that way. Still, no real bad beats to report (tg), but an interesting days play to say the least.

Went back to a redraw of seats with 22,000, ave about 50k, blinds 800-1600 with 100 ante. Obviously, got drawn in seat 3 with the button on seat 1, so straight into the bb. The bb and sb passes through me effortlessly, with raises from ep. I was happy enough with my seat draw, because I had a 100k man to my immediate right, and the 4 to my immediate left all had 30-40k, so they couldnt call me light whenever i decided to move (or so i thought). So folded to c/o next hand, table cl raises and i shove shite otb, and he passes. Round 1 to me.

2 hand later, utg open shoves for 17.5k, folded to me. I have approx 26k. I see Ah-Qh. I decide i'll take the race and shove in too (if he has AK, then cee-la-vie). All fold, he has 88, I hit the flush on the turn and I've 45k. 20 mins later, utg raises to 4.5k (he's playing 25k, his 3rd raise in 1 lap), folded to me in the c/o,i reraise him to 15k with AKo, he asks me if I'm Italian,(must be the good looks and fashion sense I guess), I answer "si signor". He says, "I call so" and tables 99. I spin over AK, tell him not only am I not Italian, but I'm Irish and have the luck of the Irish as well!!! Flop Q-4-Q, Ace on the turn, harmless river and I'm on 70k at the end of todays 1st blind level. My target was 50k, so everythings going well, isnt it?

2nd blind level (1,000-2,000) is not a good one for me. Theres lots of 3 betting going on around the table, and indeed 4 betting. I get done for smallish money 2 hands in a row. I raise to 5,200 otb with Kd-Jd, sb (39k) repops me to 14,800. He's a young scandie (isnt eeveryone here!) and my gut tells me he's making a play on me. But I can let this go and Ive still 70kish with the average 67k, or i can 4 bet him. I decide to let it go, but because i have a pretty decent image so far, I show him the KJdd, and he shows me 9s-6s.
The very next hand, folded to me on the button, I raise 10h-8h (as you do), bb shoves for 33k, I fold slowly, he shows me AKs. Back down to 60k, I get 2 sets of blinds but probably unlucky in both. I get KK and QQ, but both utg, and my open raises got through uncontested which was very unusual really (not just my raises, most raises were being repopped).

So, we're 3 minutes from the end of the level when i raise Ac-Qc in the HJ. Button,(80k) not long at the table but has called 3 seperate raises in position in the 40 mins he's been there, flats me, while the bb, another extremely aggressive scandie wants to know how much i have behind. I tell him about another 60k approx. he counts out 15,500(out of a stack of 130k) and dwells for ages. I have at this stage decided that if this guy reraises me here, I'm 4-betting all-in. He eventually just flat calls. Flop come 7x-8c-Qx. Scandie leads out of the bb for 13k. I'm pretty sure I'm good here so i just tank it in. The button snaps me and the bb folds his 3rd pair. Button has 88 and thats all she wrote. Maybe I played the hand less than optimally, but I reckon I win that pot there most times unless the bb has flopped gin. Extremely dissappointed to be knocked out to be honest. I got off to a flier today as I had hoped I would, its just a pity i got no action on the couple of big hands i picked up. The way the table was playing, I could have easily built a big stack but them raises went through uncontested.

Still, it was extremely enjoyable. The biggest raise i saw out here was 3x bb, but nearly always 2.5bb. I was a bit surprised by the amount of 3 and 4 betting going on, maybe it was due to the amount of internet qualifiers (or indeed, the amount of scandies). The couple of things i learned more than anything else are:

1--When you do pick up your big hands, DONT get them utg. Most players still respect that raise.
2--When you have the goods, let on you're Italian. Your guaranteed action!

Now, off to chill out for a few days. Will play the 1 day side event tomorrow, then a bit of sun and home mid-week.

Talk soon

Connie

Originally posted on 2/2/2010

TR EMOP side event €200.--doing it the scandie way!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, after 2 days of playing the well structured ME, it was down to the casino again on sunday at 6pm for the 1 day €200 f/o. 7,000 chips, 20 min clock, 120 runners and a guaranteed crapshoop to arrive upon us. The only thing different today is that I have no intention of being "scandied", or at least, thats the plan anyway.

1st table
Nice draw. 5 scandies and 4 spannish. All the scandies were capable, all the spannish were useless (bar 1 maybe who'd score maybe a 4/10). 1st test came in the 1st level, I raise 150 in c/o with 4d-5d. scandie repops from the button (surprise-surprise) to 425, i call. Flop is 6-3-8 rainbow. I lead for 650, he makes it 1575, i shove for 8k total. He folds. I put up with these guys 3 and 4 betting me in the ME, and my mind is made up that I'm going to turn the tables on them today, or at least i'm gonna get them in 1st and put the decisions on them.
Anytime the spanish are in a pot, the scandies are following them in cause
they realise theyre chips to be had. With the blinds at 100-200, I'm in the bb with 88. The 4 spaniards and 2 scandies limp in, I make it 1950 to go. Spanniard in mp, (3rd player to limp) decides he's going all-in for 7k. Everyone folds and I call. hed has A-6 and I now have 17k, double the average. 1 lap later, spanniard min raises to 400, 4 callers, i ship for 17k otb with As-Ks. he snaps me with A-10 and I've 27k, 3 times the average.

Table 2.
I get moved table, and sit beside a germasn lad who i know is a good player as i have played some of these EMOP's with him before. But he only has about 10k, and he's on my right. I dont know any of the other players at the table, with only 2 of them having stacks, a youngish scandie 4 to my right with about 30k and an oldidh (65ish) spanniard 2 to my right. i decide to bed in here for a while to pick up a few reads. I get a couple of raises snapped off but i also snap off a few lp raises myself and increase my stack quite gradually. The old spannish man is being quiet enough, he raised twice in the hour or so Im here, and the german snapped him off both times. The german lad told me your man got his stack pretty mirraculously, so thats all the info I had to go on.
Then with blinds at 700-1500, i find AA in MP for the 1st time in 3 days. I make it 3800 to go. Folded to the scandie in the bb who asks me how much i was playing. i understood what he said, but let on I didnt, and spread out my raise and said "3 thousand, 800". He says"NO,No, how much do you have behind"? I tell him i have about 33k more, and then he declares he's all-in for 40k. My chips hit the felt before his, no miracles and i'm near 70k. Drop a bit from there when I took on a short stack when i has AJ, but lost the race with his 44. So Im at about 46k when Im in the sb. Folded around to spannish guy who ships from the c/o for 44k with blinds at 700-1500!!! I look down at JJ, I call, he has K-6o and I have 90k. Unreal.
Not long later we're down to 3 tables, average stack is now about 30k, and i have 90kish.

Table 3. (WANKER-A$$HOLE-KNOB_END, what dont they understand)?

I got my 1st ever time penalty from a poker table here today. i'll go through the scenario, and you can make your mind up for yereselves, but it was 1 of them you gotta be there to understand it moments. Now I never lose my cool with anybody, and especially at a poker table, so this was very unusual for me.
So Im sent back to my original table that i had started on and theres still about 4 players of the original starting crew there. 1 snug spanniard in seat 1, and 3 remaining scandies. I lose some chips here when I raise Ac-10c from the c/o to 7,800 (blinds 1.5k -3kante 300), and scandie otb shoves for 28k. I figure my range is good here against this character, i call but he has JJ and I'm down to 60k. Next lap, in the very same position, (c/o) I pick up the rockets for the 2nd time this weekend. I make the same raise, 7,800. this time, scandie flats me behind with ?? otb, then the sb tanks and ships all-in for approx 30k. This is working perfectly, but how do we play out the scenario? So i ask the dealer for an exact count of the sb's stack. The dealer takes about 30sec to count it up, and says its 24k more to call. Before i get a chance to say anything, immediately the spannish guy in seat 1 (not involved in the hand at all) says "clock".
"what did you say?" says I
"I call for clock" says he.
"I have only had 30 seconds yet, why call clock" says I, diplomatically.
"I no understand " says he.
"Thats pretty fcuking obvious" says I.
The scandies complain that the clock is a rediculous call on me, and i ask for the td. The spanniard in 1 just cant shut up.
"He have to make decision" says he, trying hard to impress anyone he knows whos standing near the table.
"Your a fcukking wanker" says I, "with a head like a knob-end".
The td arrives and tells me im now on the clock. Scandies complain but its on deaf ears.
I say its fine, I'm going all-in myself whilst "raging".
Now the scandie is in the tank, and after about 5 mins, he reluctantly folds.

I spin over my AA and say good fold buddy. He looks relieved. SB had 77 and no miracles, so im back up to over 90k.

Now I ask the spanniard why he called the clock because it made absolutely no sense to me (although the scenario that was playing out was actually ideal for me at the time, but it didnt make it right. He was mumbling some shyte and i told him he wasnt involved in the hand, there was no time elapsed and it was none of his fcuking buisness.
"I no understand" says he again.
"Well understand this," says I, "your a fcucking a$$hole". And just in case he didnt understand, I turned around, bent over, pointed at my a$$hole, then pointed at him and asked him did he understand now?"
The td put his arm on my shoulder and told me to take
I says theres no need, I'm going all-in as well a 10 min break from the table. I left to go for a smoke with a round of applause from the scandies and fits of laughter all round.
I dont know what came over me really, it was like a red mist. He was just such a complete %^%&^*, and although I do regret losing my cool, if I was to lose it, he was the only person i ever shared a table with that succeeded in making me lose it.
When I eventually got back on the table, he shoved for 19.5k and I called him out of the sb with 2h-3h, and when i paired the 3, i sent him packing. I did sing him a bar of a song as he made his exit from the room just to show there was no hard feeling.

Part 2.

Final Table

We eventually reached the FT, with moneys for last 10. It started at 400 for 10th, up to 4k for 2nd and 6,800 for the winner. There was only 1 player at the table that i felt was a very good player, although in fairness, all the rest bar 1 seemed to be decent players, the weak 1 being the only remaining spannish guy. Blinds started on the ft at 4,000-8000 with a 1000 ante, so 22k in the middle. With the av stack being 80k, the m was under 4, so that'll tell you the kinda crapshoot it had become. I have about 90k on ft.
We lose 2 players early, and the one player I didnt want to get the chips took both out and made him cl easily enough. he was on my immediate left now, but as there was no play in it, i just decided that i would only use my chips with 1 move only. I managed to shove 3 hands in a row (havent a clue with what holdings to be honest) and got through uncontested to pick up over 60k.
Got my lucky break on the next lap. blinds 10-20k, 3000 ante. Folded to me otb, I shove J-9o(for 150k). Scandie folds, lady(60k) in BB snaps with AK. J on flop, 9 on river and i'm over 200k. Play on for another while and another scandie shoves otb(90k), i'm in bb with AQ, and call, he flops an open ender but bricks out and Im up to 300k. 3 players left now and i manage to take out the shortest lad when his JQ couldnt beat mt KQ.

Heads-up.
Get a toilet break and meet up with the finnish guy thats heads up with me. I have approx 400k, and he had about 350k. I had a quick word with matt (Lplate) just before and he said if there was going to be a deal, we should leave out a few quid for the dealers before doing the chop. I told matt that normally i have no problem with doing a chop, but i felt coming out here i was due a result, and i wasn't going to mention a deal at all. If he did, well then i would have considered it i suppose, but i had learned from a scandie i had befriended out here that this young lad was 1 of the highest rakers on the entraction network, so i dont think the money made much difference to him at all. He actually did say to me on the way back to the table that there was very little difference in the prizemoney, and i knew from the way he was talking that he had no interest in any deal. I wasnt going to mention it because 1)-I wanted to win this for my own confidence sake and 2) I felt it would look weak from me to talk about a deal, and that was 1 thing they didnt see from me at any time today, and I wasnt starting now.

The heads up started funnily enough. he was being aggressive at the start, but we were both winning the pots in position and there wasnt much change. i actually felt i played the heads-up very well and felt in control all the time. he had a big bunch cheering him on (well actually, he said they were all chanting for him to lose. I had my own cheering section as Lplate gathered up any irish and UK people present and made quite a racket.
2 interesting hands from the HU that gave me control:
He raises button, I call with 5d-3d.
Flop 8-4-3'
I check, he checks.
Turn is 4, he bets 40k, i call.
River blanks, he bets 60k, I call, he has Q-9.

He limps button (he has done that last 2 times and i'm not sure if he's trapping).
He has 300k, I have 430 approx.
I have 4c-5c.
Flop is Ks-Qs-5x
Check check.
6 on the turn, check, he bets 50k. I cant see anytime he would check that flop if he had the k or the Q, so unless he got lucky on the turn, then I'm ahead. I call.
the river comes another K. I check. he bets 85k I still think im good, but I dont wanna call and be shown the 6. So I deliberate for a while, and eventually put in enough chips to put him all-in. he folds, and the momentum is mine.
The last hand is a lucky 1. he has only 140k left and Im on 600k. Blinds 15k-30k with 4k ante. He shoves the button, I see Ks-2s in the bb, I think thats ahead of his range so i call." Ive no isea what I have", says he as he flipped over K-8o. Spade on the flop, again on the turn and AGAIN on the river say all the chips coming my way to the sounds of ole ole ole from the irish/uk fan club LOL.

Must say i really enjoyed the experience. Im flattered by the well wishes coming from everywhere. Hope I didnt bore ye.

PS: Found an all night cafe/bar by the docks. full of police on duty, so poker player and police on the all-nighter. Great craic, long night, sore heads, but oh so worth it!!!!

Roll on the EMOP Estoril in Portugal in March. We'll head there with a bit of confidence!!

Connie

Well, that was a bit long i know, but hopefully, you found it worth reading.

Gold Club Casino Letterkenny

2009-06-30T16:04:00.001+01:00

Best of luck to all players taking their seats at the Poker Festival this weekend in the Gold Club Casino Letterkenny. Make sure to say hello to the Irish Eyes Poker players.

TV Ad

2009-06-30T16:03:00.002+01:00

If you haven't seen out tv ad yet...check it out on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsxsnzDTBTg

Hold'em Odds Calculator

2008-06-06T11:19:00.001+01:00

If you haven't seen it yet, check out our new poker odds calculator, FREE to all Irish Eyes Poker players.

When used in auto-read mode, it will observe your game while you are playing, providing you instantly with odds and percentages regarding your hand and also precious tips about the actions to take. This is a great advantage during the fast online game.

We are also working on an Omaha version of the calculator so all you Omaha players keep your eyes on Irish Eyes Poker for more on this soon.

Click on https://www.irisheyespoker.com/en/Poker/Odds-Calculator.aspx for more details and to download the Odds Calculator for free.

Irish Eyes Poker Player Survey

2008-06-06T11:12:00.001+01:00

The Irish Eyes Poker Player Survey received a great response and we thank all those who participated in it. We are looking through the results in great detail and will start work immediately on your suggestions to improve our site. Some of the suggestions already being worked on include a new website design, bigger tournaments, bigger freerolls and a more frequent newsletter. We are also working on getting Laser debit cards accepted for deposits and hope to have this available very shortly.

We put all the survey responses into a draw for 250 Euro and the winner was player username sammy66. Well done and thank you.

Remember to keep your eyes on Irish Eyes Poker to see your suggestions coming soon.

Lakes of Killarney Poker Festival

2008-01-17T13:33:00.000Z

The Lakes of Killarney Poker Festival, sponsored by Irish Eyes Poker, took place from 11th to 13th Jan 2008 in the Kilarney Avenue Hotel.

A fantastic event was run by Cue Club events with the eventual winner Noel Magner, playing out of the Macau Sporting Club, Cork. Congratulations Noel.

Second place went to Adam Fallon from Dublin, with third place going to Eoin Dixon, Cork.

Corkman at Vienna Royal Poker Main Event

2008-01-17T13:28:00.000Z

Congratulations to Irish Eyes Poker player Keith Buckley from Cork who qualified online for the Vienna Royal Poker Main Event and came 11th.

Here is a picture of Keith with poker professional Marcel Luske at the event in Vienna.

Well done Keith.

2007-03-22T17:45:00.000Z

Irish Eyes Poker have just released a new great feature in our poker software. Resizable tables!

Now you can set the size of the poker table you play at to a bigger screen size or smaller size for easier overview of multiple tables!

Deposit Bonus

2007-03-08T22:16:00.000Z

Sign up with bonus code irisheyes200 and get 100% (max 200 euro) on your first deposit. The bonus is paid out after 30 days with 100 euro per 1500 vip points earned.

Play Poker Online with Cash

2007-03-08T22:03:00.000Z

Did you know that Irish Eyes Poker now have over 40 locations around Ireland where you can top up your online Irish Eyes Poker / Casino or Sports Betting account.

There's a club near you.

See the full list of clubs and interent cafes on our Poker website - www.irisheyespoker.com/Poker/Clubs.aspx

Irish Eyes Sports

2007-03-08T21:59:00.000Z

New Sports Betting on Irish Eyes.

Fancy a flutter on the match? Check out www.irisheyessports.com

For the best prices online, on Irish and English Soccer - all divisions, Golf, Tennis and much more, check out Irish Eyes Sports.

Irish Eyes Poker in Polish

2007-03-08T21:34:00.000Z

Irish Eyes Poker is now available in Polish.

Other languages are coming.

Click on the drop down menu on the top right hand side of the page to choose see the language options.

Irish Eyes Poker

Merry Christmas from Irish Eyes Poker

2006-12-18T14:52:00.000Z

Hello All Poker Players

We at Irish Eyes Poker would like to extend our warmest best wishes for Christmas and 2007 to you and your family.

We would also like to take this opportunity to assure you of our continued efforts to bring you the best online poker games, casino and sports betting.

Poker players will note we are one of only a few sites that offer Hold'em, Omaha, 5 Card Draw, Stud, Soko, Telesina and Americana.

We have action to suit all pockets in cash games and tournaments; add 20,000 Euro to the tournament prize pools every day, and hold a 100,000 Euro guarantee tournament every month.

Add to this our Tournament Top List, Bad Beat Jackpot, VIP Cash Back Bonus, 100% Deposit Bonus, Refer a Friend Bonus, and No Deposit Fees, and you get the Best Poker option on the net.

And we will be adding even more new features in 2007, so make sure to return to www.irisheyespoker.com every time.

Happy Christmas.

Irish Eyes Poker

Tournament Top List

2006-11-20T18:22:00.000Z

Irish Eyes Poker website has now a number of new features.

Tournament Top 30 Winners
You can now see the Tournament Top 30 winners on our website. Click on ‘Tournaments’ and then on the ‘Top 30 Tournament Winners’ link in the left hand side window.

We will soon be adding extra links here for:
“Top Players last 31 days”
“Top Players Weekly”
“Top Players Monthly”.

100,000€ Guarantee Tournament

2006-11-20T18:21:00.000Z

100,000€ Guarantee Tournament

On October 29 at 18:15 we ran our second 100,000€ guarantee. The buy-in is 200€ and the tournament is a freeze-out with 20 minute levels and 5,000 in starting chips.

Hourly satellites with various buy-in levels as well as freerolls for this tournament are available daily.

EPT Copenhagen

2006-11-20T18:19:00.000Z

EPT Copenhagen

We are currently running daily satellites to the Copenhagen EPT final, played at Casino Copenhagen between January 17 and 20.

On November 29 and December 27 we will host final satellites with 3 EPT seats guaranteed in each final satellite.
Daily Super Satellite EPT CopenhagenBuy-in €2, Unlimited rebuys + addon 18:45
Daily Super Satellite EPT CopenhagenBuy-in €5, Unlimited rebuys + addon 20:45
EPT Copenhagen Final SatelliteBuy-in €100, 1 rebuy29/11 18:00 27/12 18:00

3 seats to live event guaranteed (€5,000 value each).

Make-a-deal in Tournaments

2006-11-20T18:17:00.000Z

We have just launched an exciting new feature on Irish Eyes Poker tournaments.

Players have now got the possibility to make a deal at the final table in a tournament.

When the players reach the final table a checkbox with “Make-a-deal” appears. If all players check the box a popup will show a suggestion of a deal for the remaining players. If all the players accept, the deal will be made.

The player with the largest amount of money will be the winner. If one or more players do not accept the deal the game will continue. The players can try to make a new deal again after a player has left the table.

New Prize Pool Distribution

2006-11-20T18:16:00.000Z

New Prize Pool Distribution:

Irish Eyes Poker announce a new structure for the tournament prize pool distribution. The new structure is steeper and increases the difference between finishing in the top places, making tournaments more competitive and the make-a-deal function more lucrative.

Daily Added Value Tournaments

2006-11-20T18:12:00.000Z

Daily Added Value Tournaments.

We have recently launched a new Texas NL freeze-out with a guaranteed prize pool of €7,000. The buy-in cost will be €10. We expect this tournament to attract a lot of new players within the coming weeks.

The combination of being a freeze-out tournament, the extra value, and a low buy-in, will make it attractive to the players.

This raises our tournament prime time value up to 20,000€ guaranteed.
18:30 GMT €40 freezeout, €3,000 Guarantee
19:00 GMT €10 freezeout, €7,000 Guarantee
20:00 GMT €75 freezeout, €10,000 Guarantee

New Features coming to Irish Eyes

2006-05-23T17:32:00.000+01:00

We are all very excited in Irish Eyes right now, as we are currently working hard on designing our all new website and our new sports betting facility. We are also working on some big new promotions, so whatever you do, keep an eye on Irish Eyes Poker.com

Connie O'Sullivan

2006-05-23T17:01:00.000+01:00

Connie O'Sullivan sponsored by Irish Eyes playing in the Irish Open last April.

Fitzwilliam Card Club - €100,000 Poker Tournament

2006-05-22T13:46:00.000+01:00

Irish Eyes Poker and the Fitzwilliam Card Club in Dublin will be holding a €100,000 Texas Hold'em tournament in September. Online Satellites will be held exclusively on Irish Eyes Poker for this event. Entry for the main event is €500+reg. This event is limited to 200 runners.

SATELLITE SCHEDULE FOR IRISH EYES CHAMPIONSHIP

Super Tuesday

Every Tuesday at 8pm 35+ 2 Euro multi-table super satellite. 1 in 20 players receive 700 Euro package (550 Euro entry plus 150 Euro spending money).

Feeder Satellites to Super Tuesday every day at 8pm except Tuesdays. 4 Euro entry, 1 in 10 qualifies for Super Tuesday.

Super Thursday

Every Thursday at 8pm 70+ 3.50 Euro multi-table super satellite. 1 in 10 players receive 700 Euro package (550 Euro entry plus 150 Euro spending money).
Feeder Satellites to Super Thursday every day at 8pm except Thursdays. 8 Euro entry, 1 in 10 qualify for Super Thursday.

Every Day

Every day from 4pm to 11pm on the hour. 14 Euro entry 1 table satellite.
First 73.50 Euro entry to Super Thursday
Second 37 Euro entry to Super Tuesday
Third 19.50 Euro cash

IMPORTANT
Seats to the IRISH EYES CHAMPIONSHIP are non-refundable. Multiple winners will have the cash equivalent credited to their account.

Welcome

2006-05-22T12:58:00.000+01:00

Welcome to our new Blog.

Please feel free to participate and have fun.

Irish Eyes Poker Team