Letter from Doke 15th Aug

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
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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)

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

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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)

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
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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

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/EM​oP-Events.aspx for more details

TEAM IRISH EYES POKER AT EMOP DUBLIN

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)

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
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----------------------------------------------------
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)

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

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

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)

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

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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

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)

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
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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

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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)!

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"!!!!!!!!!!

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!!

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.

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!!

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

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

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.

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

Jasons New Personal Blog can be found here:

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

EMoP Italy Live satellites

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

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!!

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!!

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.