Hi all and welcome.
In this letter I will look back at some of the games I played recently, look forward to WSOP in Las Vegas and give you the chance to win a % of me in this year's WSOP Main Event. Irish Eyes are running a promotion starting this Saturday and are adding 5% of my main event winnings to some of our poker players. See below for more details.
Looking back first though on recent poker play, at the end of April I played the monthly game in Joker's Casino in Mullingar. No joy in the game itself where I busted in tenth, but the atmosphere in the club was great. I went down with Chris Dowling, and Chris said to me at one point "This is my new favourite monthly game", and I tend to agree. I also played the Eastern open with no success, but a big well done to my oldest poker friend Mick Mccloskey who made yet another final table and now tops the Irish Poker Tour leaderboard.
UKIPT Dublin was another personal disaster. I never really had a stack in the main event which meant craping through day one and a short day two. I was chipleader early on in the High Roller but couldn't seem to win a race when it mattered or dodge a couple of crucial gutshots. I was very disappointed to bust four from the money, particularly since this was the first event in a very long time for which I'd sold some action. I was hoping to give my investors a return on their money.
Thankfully, my weekend was saved by one of the young lads I stake, Padraig "Smidge" O'Neill, who barnstormed his way all the way to the final table. He was eventually fifth for just over 20K, but was unlucky not to go even farther.
I'll also probably sell some action for the WSOP: Vegas can be pretty expensive otherwise. Stay tuned for details on how you can win some of my WSOP action below.
Apart from that, I've been grinding away online. A highlight was a 1-2 in the new Double Chance tournaments that run every night at 8 PM on Irish Eyes. These are great tournaments: I got another second this week and one of the young guys I stake, James "Jaymo" Noonan matched my 1-2 the night after I did it.
The plan for the next few weeks is to try to get good volume online before I head to Vegas in the middle of June, as I won't be able to play online there.
While I was in Mullingar, someone asked me about my general strategy for tournaments online. Although it's not always accurate to generalise, and it always depends on a number of variables such as structure, table dynamics and opponent tendencies, as a general rule I play a lot looser and more aggressively online than I do live. I think people are more inclined to fold when they have nothing or a marginal hand online than live. I sometimes wonder if this is just because online there's always another hand or another table, but live, it gets boring sitting there making "correct" folds, so people just lose patience.
And so to the WSOP. As mentioned above, you can win or share in 5% of my action in the WSOP Main Event with Irish Eyes Poker starting from this Saturday 26th May. To get your share, win any of the following tournaments any day on Irish Eyes Poker between 26th May and 1st June 2012.
Tournaments are:
1,500 Euro Guaranteed 10 Euro Rebuy at 3pm
Deepstack 20 Euro Freezeout at 7pm,
5,000 Euro Guaranteed 10 Euro Rebuy at 7.20pm
Double Chance #1 at 8pm
Double Chance #2 at 8pm
2,500 Euro Guaranteed rebuy at 9pm
Sunday Special 10,000 Euro Guarantee at 6.25pm
All Irish Eyes Poker players that win of any of the above tournaments in the designated period will receive a share in the 5%, and if I strike big in Vegas that could amount to a nice earner.
If you fancy a trip to the WSOP yourself, the WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 to be won (WSOP Side Event 56 is held between 2nd to 4th of July). The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. The last WSOP Sunday final in this series is on Sunday 3rd June so get playing.
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
The Hive Poker, Instadeal Poker, Casino, Sports Betting, on your PC, Laptop, Smartphone or Tablet.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Letter from Doke (News and info - 25th April 2012)
Hi all.
Welcome to this week's letter.
No live poker for me this week meaning I got in good volume online, the highlight was winning the €7500 gtd on Irish Eyes one night. I will have some exciting news in the next letter on the online tournament front on Irish Eyes coming in May.
This week I'm playing two end of month tourneys: the Fitz (on Thursday night) and an addition to the calendar, in Jokers Casino in Mullingar on Sunday at 6 PM. This is a $150 +10 freezeout, and I hope to see some of you there.
I'm starting to look forward to Vegas. My original plan was to only go for 2 or 3 weeks this year, but the guys I'm going over with wanted to be there for a bit longer so I'm going for a month now, flying out the 15th of June. I'm planning to play the WSOP main event and a bunch ofno limit holdem side events.
The topic of this week's strategy section is pot control.
Pot control is a concept all top players understand but a lot of amateurs have no real clue about. Imagine you pick up AK on the button and there's a raise before you. You reraise and the original raiser calls. The flop comes K82 rainbow, you bet and your opponent calls. The turn is a queen, you bet again and get called again. The river is a five, your opponent checks again, and thinking you have the best hand you bet again. Your opponent now check raises all in.
You're now faced with a horrible decision:
(i) you either call really only beating a bluff, or
(ii) you fold (and you might be getting bluffed off the best hand).
How could or should you have played this hand differently?
Betting the river is a mistake since while you may have the best hand, it's unlikely your opponent will call if you have. His call on the flop suggests he has something. With no obvious draws, this could be a worse king, a pair (lower than kings) or a set. Your opponent's call on the turn suggests it's unlikely he has just a pair lower than kings. He might call one bet with nines or tens but he's unlikely to call two unless he's very stubborn. So it's more like he has the king, or a set. If it's just the king, then it's probably either AK (which you chop with) or KQ (which you're now losing too).
Therefore when he checks the river, you should check behind.
Another way to play the hand, and one I prefer, is to check behind on the turn. The queen may have improved him so it's prudent to be cautious and wait to see what he does on the river.
If he bets, you can call (he might bet KJ or tens or jacks thinking he has the best hand), and if he checks, you can bet (and you're more likely to get called by worse kings or jj/tt type hands).
By checking the turn, you're controlling the size of the pot, and you may induce him to bluff or value bet hands you beat on the river.
On the promotions front, Irish Eyes Poker are still running Iron Man VIP point freerolls with the next ones on 25th and 29th April. After these five more VIP point freerolls will run between the 1st May and 17th May. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 in each freeroll. Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winners' poker account. Join me in the Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria between 28th May - 3rd June.
The WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. Lets meet up in Vages!
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
Welcome to this week's letter.
No live poker for me this week meaning I got in good volume online, the highlight was winning the €7500 gtd on Irish Eyes one night. I will have some exciting news in the next letter on the online tournament front on Irish Eyes coming in May.
This week I'm playing two end of month tourneys: the Fitz (on Thursday night) and an addition to the calendar, in Jokers Casino in Mullingar on Sunday at 6 PM. This is a $150 +10 freezeout, and I hope to see some of you there.
I'm starting to look forward to Vegas. My original plan was to only go for 2 or 3 weeks this year, but the guys I'm going over with wanted to be there for a bit longer so I'm going for a month now, flying out the 15th of June. I'm planning to play the WSOP main event and a bunch ofno limit holdem side events.
The topic of this week's strategy section is pot control.
Pot control is a concept all top players understand but a lot of amateurs have no real clue about. Imagine you pick up AK on the button and there's a raise before you. You reraise and the original raiser calls. The flop comes K82 rainbow, you bet and your opponent calls. The turn is a queen, you bet again and get called again. The river is a five, your opponent checks again, and thinking you have the best hand you bet again. Your opponent now check raises all in.
You're now faced with a horrible decision:
(i) you either call really only beating a bluff, or
(ii) you fold (and you might be getting bluffed off the best hand).
How could or should you have played this hand differently?
Betting the river is a mistake since while you may have the best hand, it's unlikely your opponent will call if you have. His call on the flop suggests he has something. With no obvious draws, this could be a worse king, a pair (lower than kings) or a set. Your opponent's call on the turn suggests it's unlikely he has just a pair lower than kings. He might call one bet with nines or tens but he's unlikely to call two unless he's very stubborn. So it's more like he has the king, or a set. If it's just the king, then it's probably either AK (which you chop with) or KQ (which you're now losing too).
Therefore when he checks the river, you should check behind.
Another way to play the hand, and one I prefer, is to check behind on the turn. The queen may have improved him so it's prudent to be cautious and wait to see what he does on the river.
If he bets, you can call (he might bet KJ or tens or jacks thinking he has the best hand), and if he checks, you can bet (and you're more likely to get called by worse kings or jj/tt type hands).
By checking the turn, you're controlling the size of the pot, and you may induce him to bluff or value bet hands you beat on the river.
On the promotions front, Irish Eyes Poker are still running Iron Man VIP point freerolls with the next ones on 25th and 29th April. After these five more VIP point freerolls will run between the 1st May and 17th May. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 in each freeroll. Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winners' poker account. Join me in the Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria between 28th May - 3rd June.
The WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. Lets meet up in Vages!
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Letter from Doke (News and Promotions 18th April 2012)
Hi all.
Welcome to this week's letter where I have news on the UKITP in Nottingham and an interesting strategy section from a hand I played in the Irish Open against Kevin Vandersmissen, plus some great promotions coming up online including WSOP Express, EMOP Bulgaria, Crazy freerolls and tonights Irish Eyes Facebook €100 freeroll.
My trip to Nottingham for the latest UKIPT was a pretty miserable one. I made a reasonably promising start to day 1B having worked my way up to 20k from 15k starting, but then lost a race on the river in a 15K pot. As the blinds climbed I survived a few allin shoves preflop before running into aces and not getting there. In the 300 side event, usually a good one for me (I final tabled it in Manchester last year and won in Galway), I made a good start before losing most of my stack having gotten in with a straight versus two pair. The only other event I played was the Sunday charity event, which ended in similar fashion to my Irish Open: losing a race to Jude Ainsworth.
I got back to the hotel in time to do a bit of a Sunday grind. I had a few deep runs in the Sunday majors including the €35k on Irish Eyes but busted them all four or five tables out. A profitable day overall but still the main feeling was what might have been. After a few weeks where the focus has been on live poker, I'm looking forward to getting back to grinding online before I head to Vegas for the WSOP in mid June.
In last week's strategy section, I talked about a hand I played in the Irish Open against Kevin Vandersmissen where my opponent's bet sizing led me to draw several conclusions about his hand at different points. Most players are aware of physical tells which can be important in live poker, but bet sizing tells are at least as important. Pay attention to opponents bet sizing when you're not involved in pots, as this information can be useful if you do end up in a pot with them. Some players bet bigger when they're bluffing and smaller when they think they have the best hand and are trying to get value. Other players do the reverse. Of course good players will mix it up, so you have to be careful not to be too definitive. Just because a guy bet big on a bluff once doesn't mean he's bluffing every time he overbets.
When sizing your own bets, first consider what you are trying to achieve with the bet. In general, there are three good reasons to bet:
(1) To get called by worse hands (value betting)
(2) To get a better hand to fold (bluffing)
(3) To protect what you believe is to be the best hand right now from being outdrawn (this obviously doesn't apply on the river)
When your primary purpose is to protect your hand, select your bet size so that your opponent does not have the correct odds to call if he is on a draw. For example, if you get to the turn and you believe your opponent to be on a straight or flush draw, then with either 8 or 9 outs from the remaining 44 cards that could hit the river, he's either just under 4 to 1 to hit (a flush draw) or 9 to 2 if he's on a straight draw. If you bet half the pot, you are laying him odds of 3 to 1, so he is making a mistake if he calls. If, on the other hand, you bet only quarter the pot, you are pricing him in to call laying him 5 to 1.
If you think you don't have the best hand, you have two options: either give it up, or try to bluff. The usual recommendation on sizing bluffs is to bet the smallest amount you think you need to bet to get your opponent(s) to fold. This is why it's so important to pay attention to opponent's tendencies when not in a hand. Some players will call with marginal hands up to a certain bet size: for example they'll keep calling if you keep betting half the pot, but fold to a pot bet or bigger. Others may chase draws to the river but then give up to very small bets if they miss (tiny bets of 20% or less can be profitable against these players on draw heavy boards where the draws don't fill by the river).
If you believe you have the best hand, the traditional advice used to be essentially the reverse of when you're bluffing: bet the most you think will get called. This has been stood on its head in recent times by aggressive Internet players who will bet a bigger amount than they expect to get called so long as there's a reasonable expectation of being called. For example, say the pot on the river is 10k and you want to bet for value (you're confident you have the best hand), and:
(1) You think if you bet 3k, your opponent will always call
(2) You think if you bet 7k, he will call half the time
(3) You think if you move all in for 20k, he'll only call a quarter of the time
In this case, we can work out our expectation for each bet (how much we will make on average):
(1) If we bet 3k, we win an additional 3k 100% of the time, so expectation is 3k
(2) If we bet 7k, we win 7k half the time, and nothing the other half.
Expectation is 7k divided by 2, or 3500
(3) If we shove, we win nothing 75% of the time, and 20k 25% of the
time. Expectation is 20k divided by 4, or 5k
So even though the shove is the bet that will get called the least, it has the highest expectation.
On the promotions front, Irish Eyes Poker are still running Iron Man VIP point freerolls with the next ones on 19th, 25th and 29th April. After these five more VIP point freerolls will run between the 1st May and 17th May. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 in each freeroll. Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winners' poker account.
Join me in the Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria between 28th May - 3rd June.
The WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. Lets meet up in Vages!
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
Welcome to this week's letter where I have news on the UKITP in Nottingham and an interesting strategy section from a hand I played in the Irish Open against Kevin Vandersmissen, plus some great promotions coming up online including WSOP Express, EMOP Bulgaria, Crazy freerolls and tonights Irish Eyes Facebook €100 freeroll.
My trip to Nottingham for the latest UKIPT was a pretty miserable one. I made a reasonably promising start to day 1B having worked my way up to 20k from 15k starting, but then lost a race on the river in a 15K pot. As the blinds climbed I survived a few allin shoves preflop before running into aces and not getting there. In the 300 side event, usually a good one for me (I final tabled it in Manchester last year and won in Galway), I made a good start before losing most of my stack having gotten in with a straight versus two pair. The only other event I played was the Sunday charity event, which ended in similar fashion to my Irish Open: losing a race to Jude Ainsworth.
I got back to the hotel in time to do a bit of a Sunday grind. I had a few deep runs in the Sunday majors including the €35k on Irish Eyes but busted them all four or five tables out. A profitable day overall but still the main feeling was what might have been. After a few weeks where the focus has been on live poker, I'm looking forward to getting back to grinding online before I head to Vegas for the WSOP in mid June.
In last week's strategy section, I talked about a hand I played in the Irish Open against Kevin Vandersmissen where my opponent's bet sizing led me to draw several conclusions about his hand at different points. Most players are aware of physical tells which can be important in live poker, but bet sizing tells are at least as important. Pay attention to opponents bet sizing when you're not involved in pots, as this information can be useful if you do end up in a pot with them. Some players bet bigger when they're bluffing and smaller when they think they have the best hand and are trying to get value. Other players do the reverse. Of course good players will mix it up, so you have to be careful not to be too definitive. Just because a guy bet big on a bluff once doesn't mean he's bluffing every time he overbets.
When sizing your own bets, first consider what you are trying to achieve with the bet. In general, there are three good reasons to bet:
(1) To get called by worse hands (value betting)
(2) To get a better hand to fold (bluffing)
(3) To protect what you believe is to be the best hand right now from being outdrawn (this obviously doesn't apply on the river)
When your primary purpose is to protect your hand, select your bet size so that your opponent does not have the correct odds to call if he is on a draw. For example, if you get to the turn and you believe your opponent to be on a straight or flush draw, then with either 8 or 9 outs from the remaining 44 cards that could hit the river, he's either just under 4 to 1 to hit (a flush draw) or 9 to 2 if he's on a straight draw. If you bet half the pot, you are laying him odds of 3 to 1, so he is making a mistake if he calls. If, on the other hand, you bet only quarter the pot, you are pricing him in to call laying him 5 to 1.
If you think you don't have the best hand, you have two options: either give it up, or try to bluff. The usual recommendation on sizing bluffs is to bet the smallest amount you think you need to bet to get your opponent(s) to fold. This is why it's so important to pay attention to opponent's tendencies when not in a hand. Some players will call with marginal hands up to a certain bet size: for example they'll keep calling if you keep betting half the pot, but fold to a pot bet or bigger. Others may chase draws to the river but then give up to very small bets if they miss (tiny bets of 20% or less can be profitable against these players on draw heavy boards where the draws don't fill by the river).
If you believe you have the best hand, the traditional advice used to be essentially the reverse of when you're bluffing: bet the most you think will get called. This has been stood on its head in recent times by aggressive Internet players who will bet a bigger amount than they expect to get called so long as there's a reasonable expectation of being called. For example, say the pot on the river is 10k and you want to bet for value (you're confident you have the best hand), and:
(1) You think if you bet 3k, your opponent will always call
(2) You think if you bet 7k, he will call half the time
(3) You think if you move all in for 20k, he'll only call a quarter of the time
In this case, we can work out our expectation for each bet (how much we will make on average):
(1) If we bet 3k, we win an additional 3k 100% of the time, so expectation is 3k
(2) If we bet 7k, we win 7k half the time, and nothing the other half.
Expectation is 7k divided by 2, or 3500
(3) If we shove, we win nothing 75% of the time, and 20k 25% of the
time. Expectation is 20k divided by 4, or 5k
So even though the shove is the bet that will get called the least, it has the highest expectation.
On the promotions front, Irish Eyes Poker are still running Iron Man VIP point freerolls with the next ones on 19th, 25th and 29th April. After these five more VIP point freerolls will run between the 1st May and 17th May. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 in each freeroll. Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winners' poker account.
Join me in the Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria between 28th May - 3rd June.
The WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. Lets meet up in Vages!
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
Friday, April 13, 2012
Letter from Doke (News and Promotions 13th April 2012)
Hi
This week was all about the Irish Open, which was a bit of a disaster for the Doke bankroll. Including myself I had an interest in a dozen players and despite selecting only what I considered the best we all bricked. A few had big stacks at different points but got unlucky.
My starting table featured a pretty sick lineup that included Faraz "The Toilet" Jaka, EPT runner up (and eventual winner) Kevin Vandersmissen, Nicky Power, Marty Smyth and Aussie beast Daniel Neilson.
I didn't get much to play with all day so i was pretty happy to escape having increased my 20k starting stack to just under 30k. I managed to lose most of my "profit" in my new table which featured Phil Hellmuth, Toby Lewis, Anton Wigg, Ger Harraghy, Sean Prendiville and Donnacha O'Dea. It was a pretty surreal experience sitting across the table from Hellmuth. I ended with just over starting stack so needed to get busy early on day 2.
Card death and another tough table draw (Xuan Liu, Jude Ainsworth, Barry Hand, Byron Kaverman and Donal O'Connor who went on to chop the sole survivor) didn't exactly help my cause. I survived a few hours thanks to a few reshoves and open shoves before I finally picked up a hand, queens. My shove was called by Jude's ak and I lost the race. Well done to Donal on his deep run and chopping the sole survivor.
Normally I'm not a betting man but Paddy Power had a few interesting markets. I backed myself in my matchup against Peter Murphy, and myself and Jason Tompkins in a five man group that also included Peter, John O'Shea and Dermot Blaine. Dermot was the justified favourite but was too short a price to back, and I felt the rest of us were pretty evenly matched, so as joint outsiders I thought myself and Jason were the value. Things looked very good for my bets after Pete busted day 1 and the other two went early on day 2 leaving just me and Jason. Someone told me that someone had to cash in the group for it not to be a push but this wasn't stated explicitly on the PP site and fair play to Paddy, they paid out on me when I outlasted Jason so that was at least some consolation.
The most interesting hand I played in the Irish Open was blind on blind against Kevin Vandersmissen, the eventual winner. He raised from the small blind and I found AJ in the big blind, way ahead of his range. Despite this, I elected to call rather than raise for a number of reasons:
(1) Because Kevin is an aggressive player, he's going to be raising a lot of junk. Reraising will just fold out a lot of this and win me a very small pot
(2) By not reraising, I'm disguising my hand. He'll find it very hard to put me on such a strong ace. If an ace flops he will almost certainly try to represent it, or if he has a weaker ace, bet for value thinking he's good
(3) Early on in tournaments, I err on the side of caution and pot control.
By not reraising, I keep the pot small til we see the flop.
The flop came AJ8 and Kevin fired for two thirds pot. I figured he was doing this on most flops and particularly ones with an ace which he will try to represent as the preflop aggressor. It's possibly but unlikely he has the ace, so I just called again to make my hand look weaker so he'll keep firing with his bluffs. With no flush draws and an unlikely T9 being the only legit straight draw, I saw no real reason to protect my hand here.
The turn was a 4, which changes nothing. He fired for two thirds pot again, and I called again, for much the same reasons as on the flop. The river was a queen which meant that T9 had now got there (or a more unlikely KT), and he fired for pot. I quickly called. Even though I was almost certain I had the best hand, there's no point in raising here, as he won't call with any worse hand. His river bet indicates he has either a very strong hand that beats me or a very weak one that won't call a raise. As it happened, it was the latter, 97o (ironically this was the hand he ultimately won the Irish Open with a few days later in another blind on blind battle).
I also saw Per Hildebrand at the IO. Per is a Swedish player who was one of the founders of Entraction, the network Irish Eyes Poker is on. Per is now heading up Terminal Poker, (a form of rush poker online), and he gave an interview to Poker Tube when in Dublin. An interesting interview about where poker online started, how he was involved, the US market, and Terminal Poker, which can be seen online by clicking the link below.
This letter is being written on the plane on the way to Nottingham for the UKIPT. There's a very large travelling group of Irish so hopefully one of us will run well and bring home the bacon.
On the promotions front, the WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
This week was all about the Irish Open, which was a bit of a disaster for the Doke bankroll. Including myself I had an interest in a dozen players and despite selecting only what I considered the best we all bricked. A few had big stacks at different points but got unlucky.
My starting table featured a pretty sick lineup that included Faraz "The Toilet" Jaka, EPT runner up (and eventual winner) Kevin Vandersmissen, Nicky Power, Marty Smyth and Aussie beast Daniel Neilson.
I didn't get much to play with all day so i was pretty happy to escape having increased my 20k starting stack to just under 30k. I managed to lose most of my "profit" in my new table which featured Phil Hellmuth, Toby Lewis, Anton Wigg, Ger Harraghy, Sean Prendiville and Donnacha O'Dea. It was a pretty surreal experience sitting across the table from Hellmuth. I ended with just over starting stack so needed to get busy early on day 2.
Card death and another tough table draw (Xuan Liu, Jude Ainsworth, Barry Hand, Byron Kaverman and Donal O'Connor who went on to chop the sole survivor) didn't exactly help my cause. I survived a few hours thanks to a few reshoves and open shoves before I finally picked up a hand, queens. My shove was called by Jude's ak and I lost the race. Well done to Donal on his deep run and chopping the sole survivor.
Normally I'm not a betting man but Paddy Power had a few interesting markets. I backed myself in my matchup against Peter Murphy, and myself and Jason Tompkins in a five man group that also included Peter, John O'Shea and Dermot Blaine. Dermot was the justified favourite but was too short a price to back, and I felt the rest of us were pretty evenly matched, so as joint outsiders I thought myself and Jason were the value. Things looked very good for my bets after Pete busted day 1 and the other two went early on day 2 leaving just me and Jason. Someone told me that someone had to cash in the group for it not to be a push but this wasn't stated explicitly on the PP site and fair play to Paddy, they paid out on me when I outlasted Jason so that was at least some consolation.
The most interesting hand I played in the Irish Open was blind on blind against Kevin Vandersmissen, the eventual winner. He raised from the small blind and I found AJ in the big blind, way ahead of his range. Despite this, I elected to call rather than raise for a number of reasons:
(1) Because Kevin is an aggressive player, he's going to be raising a lot of junk. Reraising will just fold out a lot of this and win me a very small pot
(2) By not reraising, I'm disguising my hand. He'll find it very hard to put me on such a strong ace. If an ace flops he will almost certainly try to represent it, or if he has a weaker ace, bet for value thinking he's good
(3) Early on in tournaments, I err on the side of caution and pot control.
By not reraising, I keep the pot small til we see the flop.
The flop came AJ8 and Kevin fired for two thirds pot. I figured he was doing this on most flops and particularly ones with an ace which he will try to represent as the preflop aggressor. It's possibly but unlikely he has the ace, so I just called again to make my hand look weaker so he'll keep firing with his bluffs. With no flush draws and an unlikely T9 being the only legit straight draw, I saw no real reason to protect my hand here.
The turn was a 4, which changes nothing. He fired for two thirds pot again, and I called again, for much the same reasons as on the flop. The river was a queen which meant that T9 had now got there (or a more unlikely KT), and he fired for pot. I quickly called. Even though I was almost certain I had the best hand, there's no point in raising here, as he won't call with any worse hand. His river bet indicates he has either a very strong hand that beats me or a very weak one that won't call a raise. As it happened, it was the latter, 97o (ironically this was the hand he ultimately won the Irish Open with a few days later in another blind on blind battle).
I also saw Per Hildebrand at the IO. Per is a Swedish player who was one of the founders of Entraction, the network Irish Eyes Poker is on. Per is now heading up Terminal Poker, (a form of rush poker online), and he gave an interview to Poker Tube when in Dublin. An interesting interview about where poker online started, how he was involved, the US market, and Terminal Poker, which can be seen online by clicking the link below.
This letter is being written on the plane on the way to Nottingham for the UKIPT. There's a very large travelling group of Irish so hopefully one of us will run well and bring home the bacon.
On the promotions front, the WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Letter from Doke (3rd April 2012)
Hi all
My EMOP Lisbon main event was basically a great day one followed by a miserable day two. I hit the ground running and chipped up steadily to hold the chiplead for much of the day until my travelling companion and roommate David Lappin surged by me late in the day after I was rivered late in the day in a 30k pot. Still, I was very happy to bag up over 90k in chips and was in a great position for day 2.
Day 2 started well when I won a race blind on blind against a short stack to break the 100k mark, but thereafter I barely won a pot. Card death didn't help. Almost every time I opened light to take advantage of not having opened in ages I got three bet. My first three bet got four bet shoved on, and my first three bet shove over a loose button raiser ran into queens. Just one of those days. There was better luck for some of the other travelling Irish: Kevin Spillane was unlucky to go out on the bubble, but Connie O'Sullivan notched up his second consecutive cash, and David was very unlucky not to lead tape to tape.
He was in great shape until he lost a huge pot for 40% of the chips in play five handed, his jacks getting cracked by eights. He exited in fourth, a disappointment to him and me (I had a sizeable chunk of his action) but a great performance nonetheless from an online beast who has made the transition to live play.
While railing him on the final table, I jumped into the PLO side event. Perhaps a little foolhardy as PLO is probably my weakest game and I have probably played less than 10 hours of it in my lifetime, but God love's a trier, and I do believe that in tournament poker, a good knowledge of general tournament strategy is at least as important as poker knowledge. It was quite an interesting experience and I found myself unsure of my likely equity in a lot of spots and trying to work things out from first principles, but somehow I muddled my way through to headsup and was a little unlucky not to win in the end. I committed pre flop with KcKx9c6c, potting over a button raise to get almost half the stacks in, and then shoved a safe looking Tc4c2x flop. My opponent called with Ac6x5c5x and hit the nut flush on the turn to claim the title. Still, I can't complain too much in a tournament where I should probably have been wearing L plates. Don't expect to see too many PLO hands in the strategy section any time soon.
This week's strategy section looks at one of the more interesting hands David Lappin played on his way to the chiplead on day one in Lisbon. Early on, an aggressive German opened in early position. David called on the button with sixes. He covered the German so his stack, about 100 big blinds, was the effective one. This deep, it's profitable to flat medium pairs. There's the chance to set mine and possibly win a big pot if you hit a set, and you can also win in other ways since you're in position and can control the pot size. Sixes is not a hand that can comfortably call a four bet, so against an aggressive young opponent flatting is the best option.
The flop came q77, and David called a 40% pot continuation bet. This is pretty standard as the villain won't normally have hit that flop (he has some queens in his range, but it's very unlikely he has a 7). David's plan now is to bet the turn if checked to, as most opponents will check once they get called. David's perceived range here is much wider, he can certainly have a queen and even a 7 (he might call with hands like A7s, 87s, 76s) so if he fires after the opponent checks, this puts the opponent in a very tricky spot even if he can beat sixes(with something like 88-jj) as he has no way of knowing if his hand is good, and if it isn't he'll face a bigger river bet. The turn comes a three and the opponent bets again. At this stage, his range now appears to be either queens or air. Queens would fire again for value, confident they're the best hand. Air would fire knowing that the only way to win the pot now is to bluff and hope David folds something like sixes. More marginal hands that are winning like AA, KK, and AQ would normally check call the turn for pot control and to get maximum value if David is floating (calling with nothing intending to bluff if weakness is shown). David decided there was far more air in the range
than made value hands so he quickly decided to call. However, he didn't call quickly: he tanked to make it appear like he was making a crying call to induce his aggressive opponent to continue the bluff on the river. The river came a king, his opponent fired a third barrel for 80% of pot, and David called instantly. The opponent had fives.
As a general rule, aggression in poker is a good thing, but here the opponent overplayed his hand with a line which made no sense unless he had a house or quads. Because of this, David rightly deduced he was most likely bluffing. By playing the hand passively, David maximised the amount he would win if his opponent was bluffing (if he raises on any street post flop his opponent folds) and minimised his loss in the unlikely event that his opponent did have the monster his bets were trying to represent. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the hand is David taking a long time to call the turn despite having quickly decided he was calling. Amateurs often call quickly in these spots with marginal hands hoping to appear stronger than they are to discourage their opponent from bluffing, but if the only thing you are beating is a bluff then the last thing you want to do is to discourage your opponent from betting his bluffs.
Next up is the Irish Open. While it's never a great idea to get too emotionally invested in any one tournament, I would love to do well in this one. I feel I'm playing more or less at the top of my game at the moment after a bit of a slump in the first few weeks of the year, so fingers crossed.
The Celtic Poker Tour €120 F/O with €25,000 Guaranteed is on this Easter Saturady in the Clonmel Park Hotel. Reg at 12 noon with a 2pm sharp start. 15K starting stack. This is a one day event. If you are interested in playing and to hold your seat text 0852453679 as the game has limited availability.
A great turn out last Sunday night on Irish Eyes for the Joker's Casino live satellite. 102 runners with player wsop10 winning the live event buy-in. There is a €10 online satellite on Irish Eyes for the Joker's live event every Sunday at 8pm. So if you want to satellite you way into the €160 buy-in main event in Joker's Casino Mullingar on Sunday April 29th make sure to play the online sats.
There was a lot of interest in the WSOP Express promotion on Irish Eyes in March, and I have now learned that this will be repeated in April.
The WSOP EXPRESS has €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money.
All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.
Lastly, Freerolls: Don't forget the Easter Freeroll is on Irish Eyes on April 5th. There is no buy-in and no VIP requirements needed for this freeroll which will take place on the 6th April. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 added. The package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winner's poker account. Max number of participants is 2000 and registration opens 18:30 on the 5th April
There is now a Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night that is password protected. But all you need to do is 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password every week. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
My EMOP Lisbon main event was basically a great day one followed by a miserable day two. I hit the ground running and chipped up steadily to hold the chiplead for much of the day until my travelling companion and roommate David Lappin surged by me late in the day after I was rivered late in the day in a 30k pot. Still, I was very happy to bag up over 90k in chips and was in a great position for day 2.
Day 2 started well when I won a race blind on blind against a short stack to break the 100k mark, but thereafter I barely won a pot. Card death didn't help. Almost every time I opened light to take advantage of not having opened in ages I got three bet. My first three bet got four bet shoved on, and my first three bet shove over a loose button raiser ran into queens. Just one of those days. There was better luck for some of the other travelling Irish: Kevin Spillane was unlucky to go out on the bubble, but Connie O'Sullivan notched up his second consecutive cash, and David was very unlucky not to lead tape to tape.
He was in great shape until he lost a huge pot for 40% of the chips in play five handed, his jacks getting cracked by eights. He exited in fourth, a disappointment to him and me (I had a sizeable chunk of his action) but a great performance nonetheless from an online beast who has made the transition to live play.
While railing him on the final table, I jumped into the PLO side event. Perhaps a little foolhardy as PLO is probably my weakest game and I have probably played less than 10 hours of it in my lifetime, but God love's a trier, and I do believe that in tournament poker, a good knowledge of general tournament strategy is at least as important as poker knowledge. It was quite an interesting experience and I found myself unsure of my likely equity in a lot of spots and trying to work things out from first principles, but somehow I muddled my way through to headsup and was a little unlucky not to win in the end. I committed pre flop with KcKx9c6c, potting over a button raise to get almost half the stacks in, and then shoved a safe looking Tc4c2x flop. My opponent called with Ac6x5c5x and hit the nut flush on the turn to claim the title. Still, I can't complain too much in a tournament where I should probably have been wearing L plates. Don't expect to see too many PLO hands in the strategy section any time soon.
This week's strategy section looks at one of the more interesting hands David Lappin played on his way to the chiplead on day one in Lisbon. Early on, an aggressive German opened in early position. David called on the button with sixes. He covered the German so his stack, about 100 big blinds, was the effective one. This deep, it's profitable to flat medium pairs. There's the chance to set mine and possibly win a big pot if you hit a set, and you can also win in other ways since you're in position and can control the pot size. Sixes is not a hand that can comfortably call a four bet, so against an aggressive young opponent flatting is the best option.
The flop came q77, and David called a 40% pot continuation bet. This is pretty standard as the villain won't normally have hit that flop (he has some queens in his range, but it's very unlikely he has a 7). David's plan now is to bet the turn if checked to, as most opponents will check once they get called. David's perceived range here is much wider, he can certainly have a queen and even a 7 (he might call with hands like A7s, 87s, 76s) so if he fires after the opponent checks, this puts the opponent in a very tricky spot even if he can beat sixes(with something like 88-jj) as he has no way of knowing if his hand is good, and if it isn't he'll face a bigger river bet. The turn comes a three and the opponent bets again. At this stage, his range now appears to be either queens or air. Queens would fire again for value, confident they're the best hand. Air would fire knowing that the only way to win the pot now is to bluff and hope David folds something like sixes. More marginal hands that are winning like AA, KK, and AQ would normally check call the turn for pot control and to get maximum value if David is floating (calling with nothing intending to bluff if weakness is shown). David decided there was far more air in the range
than made value hands so he quickly decided to call. However, he didn't call quickly: he tanked to make it appear like he was making a crying call to induce his aggressive opponent to continue the bluff on the river. The river came a king, his opponent fired a third barrel for 80% of pot, and David called instantly. The opponent had fives.
As a general rule, aggression in poker is a good thing, but here the opponent overplayed his hand with a line which made no sense unless he had a house or quads. Because of this, David rightly deduced he was most likely bluffing. By playing the hand passively, David maximised the amount he would win if his opponent was bluffing (if he raises on any street post flop his opponent folds) and minimised his loss in the unlikely event that his opponent did have the monster his bets were trying to represent. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the hand is David taking a long time to call the turn despite having quickly decided he was calling. Amateurs often call quickly in these spots with marginal hands hoping to appear stronger than they are to discourage their opponent from bluffing, but if the only thing you are beating is a bluff then the last thing you want to do is to discourage your opponent from betting his bluffs.
Next up is the Irish Open. While it's never a great idea to get too emotionally invested in any one tournament, I would love to do well in this one. I feel I'm playing more or less at the top of my game at the moment after a bit of a slump in the first few weeks of the year, so fingers crossed.
The Celtic Poker Tour €120 F/O with €25,000 Guaranteed is on this Easter Saturady in the Clonmel Park Hotel. Reg at 12 noon with a 2pm sharp start. 15K starting stack. This is a one day event. If you are interested in playing and to hold your seat text 0852453679 as the game has limited availability.
A great turn out last Sunday night on Irish Eyes for the Joker's Casino live satellite. 102 runners with player wsop10 winning the live event buy-in. There is a €10 online satellite on Irish Eyes for the Joker's live event every Sunday at 8pm. So if you want to satellite you way into the €160 buy-in main event in Joker's Casino Mullingar on Sunday April 29th make sure to play the online sats.
There was a lot of interest in the WSOP Express promotion on Irish Eyes in March, and I have now learned that this will be repeated in April.
The WSOP EXPRESS has €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money.
All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.
Lastly, Freerolls: Don't forget the Easter Freeroll is on Irish Eyes on April 5th. There is no buy-in and no VIP requirements needed for this freeroll which will take place on the 6th April. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 added. The package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winner's poker account. Max number of participants is 2000 and registration opens 18:30 on the 5th April
There is now a Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night that is password protected. But all you need to do is 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password every week. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Letter from Doke (29th March 2012)
Hi
This letter comes to you from the JP Masters in Citywest. I've been here since Friday when the main event started. My main event was nothing to write home about, much less write to you all. Day 1 was basic misery as I withered down to 4k, which meant coming back to day 2 with just over ten big blinds. They went in with an ace but never came back after they ran into Emmet "Mully85" Mullin's bigger ace. Mully went on to another deep run finishing fifth in the end, so well done to him. Well done to the other Irish final tableists too, especially eventual winner Knuckles who was left to fly the Irish flag against two Norwegian invaders.
I was starting to think it wasn't going to be my week when I lost half my stack almost straight away on in the 300 side event in one of the funniest hands I've been involved in in a while. Having raised with pocket fives and only the big blind electing to give me a spin, we saw a Qc5c3x flop. The big blind led, I raised, he reraised, I fourbet and he flatted. The turn was a rather ugly ace of clubs, so when he bet small (about 20% of pot) I just flat called. The river four of clubs put 4 to a flush and a straight out there so when he checked I checked behind remarking "I really hope you have a set of threes". He actually had Qx7c for a rivered 7 high flush.
I managed to nurse a fairly small stack to the final table by picking my spots well. I ran well on the final table getting respect when I needed to and luck when the respect dried up. My roommate for this week Daragh Davey got very unlucky not to move into a commanding chip lead five handed, and then again when he lost a race against me to be left short. I ended headsup with English pro Mark Segal and managed to fight back to level pegging after a marathon headsup that I started with a 6:1 chip deficit. I then got lucky winning a 70/30 when we got it in with an ace against a pair to effectively wrap up the win. This was my first live tournament win in a while so it was particularly sweet.
The following day I did some live stream commentary on the final table with Big Iain and played the rebuy side event. No personal joy in this one, but young Master Davey played brilliantly to achieve his second final table and cash in two nights. He mowed through the final table to claim his first ever tournament win outside the Fitz. It's not exactly a secret how big a fan I am of Daragh, and I expect this to be just the start of great things to come.
On Wednesday I head to Lisbon for the EMOP there with David Lappin. April's going to be a very busy month for me on the live front, starting with the Irish Open, then Nottingham UKIPT, the inter county event, and ending with a new monthly tournament in the Joker's Casino in Mullingar on the 29th. The inaugural running of this has a 5k estimated prize pool with a 150+10 buyin. Irish Eyes are running satellites to this starting with a freeroll this Sunday at 8pm where the winner will pick up entry to the event and overnight accomodation in the Austin Friar Hotel. And with Mullingar being central to both Galway and Dubin, this monthly tournament is a welcome addition to the calendar.
The most interesting hand I saw in Citywest featured me as a pure spectator. After I'd folded under the gun, the Norwegian livewire (who was raising hands like 52 from early position) raised to 2100 (at 400/800 with a 100 ante). Young Master Davey threebet small to 4800, and it was then folded to the big blind. He announced raise and threw in the same amount as Daragh's bet. The rest of the table waited to see how much he was raising, and he kept us waiting. Eventually the dealer realised he thought he had already raised, not having seen that Daragh had already done so and intending to raise only to the same amount. When he was told he now had to raise since he had announced raise, he thought for a long time. He had the option of raising to a minimum of 7500, but after some thought he went for a much bigger raise, 13k, effectively pot committing himself with a third of his stack. If he was hoping this would scare Daragh off, he was disappointed as Daragh quickly shoved. Given that he was pot committed, he now had to call it off with the one hand you hate calling a five bet shove with, ace queen.
The point I'd like to make about this hand is not related to his initial mistake (trying to 3 bet not realising Daragh had already done so) but the fact that having made one mistake, he compounded it with another, pot committing himself with a hand that plays terribly against the range of hands his opponents would 5 bet shove. The first mistake could have cost him almost 20% of his stack, significant enough, but it was the second mistake which cost him his tournament life after he had accumulated an enormous stack. While you should always try to avoid making big mistakes in a tournament, if you do find yourself having made one, it's important not to dwell on it or try to retrieve the situation, but to deal with the reality of the new situation you find yourself in, and make the best decision in the changed circumstances. Don't make things worse by making an even bigger mistake.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
This letter comes to you from the JP Masters in Citywest. I've been here since Friday when the main event started. My main event was nothing to write home about, much less write to you all. Day 1 was basic misery as I withered down to 4k, which meant coming back to day 2 with just over ten big blinds. They went in with an ace but never came back after they ran into Emmet "Mully85" Mullin's bigger ace. Mully went on to another deep run finishing fifth in the end, so well done to him. Well done to the other Irish final tableists too, especially eventual winner Knuckles who was left to fly the Irish flag against two Norwegian invaders.
I was starting to think it wasn't going to be my week when I lost half my stack almost straight away on in the 300 side event in one of the funniest hands I've been involved in in a while. Having raised with pocket fives and only the big blind electing to give me a spin, we saw a Qc5c3x flop. The big blind led, I raised, he reraised, I fourbet and he flatted. The turn was a rather ugly ace of clubs, so when he bet small (about 20% of pot) I just flat called. The river four of clubs put 4 to a flush and a straight out there so when he checked I checked behind remarking "I really hope you have a set of threes". He actually had Qx7c for a rivered 7 high flush.
I managed to nurse a fairly small stack to the final table by picking my spots well. I ran well on the final table getting respect when I needed to and luck when the respect dried up. My roommate for this week Daragh Davey got very unlucky not to move into a commanding chip lead five handed, and then again when he lost a race against me to be left short. I ended headsup with English pro Mark Segal and managed to fight back to level pegging after a marathon headsup that I started with a 6:1 chip deficit. I then got lucky winning a 70/30 when we got it in with an ace against a pair to effectively wrap up the win. This was my first live tournament win in a while so it was particularly sweet.
The following day I did some live stream commentary on the final table with Big Iain and played the rebuy side event. No personal joy in this one, but young Master Davey played brilliantly to achieve his second final table and cash in two nights. He mowed through the final table to claim his first ever tournament win outside the Fitz. It's not exactly a secret how big a fan I am of Daragh, and I expect this to be just the start of great things to come.
On Wednesday I head to Lisbon for the EMOP there with David Lappin. April's going to be a very busy month for me on the live front, starting with the Irish Open, then Nottingham UKIPT, the inter county event, and ending with a new monthly tournament in the Joker's Casino in Mullingar on the 29th. The inaugural running of this has a 5k estimated prize pool with a 150+10 buyin. Irish Eyes are running satellites to this starting with a freeroll this Sunday at 8pm where the winner will pick up entry to the event and overnight accomodation in the Austin Friar Hotel. And with Mullingar being central to both Galway and Dubin, this monthly tournament is a welcome addition to the calendar.
The most interesting hand I saw in Citywest featured me as a pure spectator. After I'd folded under the gun, the Norwegian livewire (who was raising hands like 52 from early position) raised to 2100 (at 400/800 with a 100 ante). Young Master Davey threebet small to 4800, and it was then folded to the big blind. He announced raise and threw in the same amount as Daragh's bet. The rest of the table waited to see how much he was raising, and he kept us waiting. Eventually the dealer realised he thought he had already raised, not having seen that Daragh had already done so and intending to raise only to the same amount. When he was told he now had to raise since he had announced raise, he thought for a long time. He had the option of raising to a minimum of 7500, but after some thought he went for a much bigger raise, 13k, effectively pot committing himself with a third of his stack. If he was hoping this would scare Daragh off, he was disappointed as Daragh quickly shoved. Given that he was pot committed, he now had to call it off with the one hand you hate calling a five bet shove with, ace queen.
The point I'd like to make about this hand is not related to his initial mistake (trying to 3 bet not realising Daragh had already done so) but the fact that having made one mistake, he compounded it with another, pot committing himself with a hand that plays terribly against the range of hands his opponents would 5 bet shove. The first mistake could have cost him almost 20% of his stack, significant enough, but it was the second mistake which cost him his tournament life after he had accumulated an enormous stack. While you should always try to avoid making big mistakes in a tournament, if you do find yourself having made one, it's important not to dwell on it or try to retrieve the situation, but to deal with the reality of the new situation you find yourself in, and make the best decision in the changed circumstances. Don't make things worse by making an even bigger mistake.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Letter from Doke (20th March 2012)
Hi everyone
No live poker this week, so a lot of online grinding. Highlight of the week was a win in the €7500 guaranteed on Irish Eyes. This game runs every night at 8 and has a buyin of €30 with an optional reby or addon. It has a very good structure and is one of my favourite nightly games. I almost pulled off a double that night as I got headsup later in a €10 rebuy but unfortunately lost a flip for it.
After a few light weeks on the live front, I have a busy schedule over the next few weeks starting on Friday with the JP Masters. This is one of my favourite tournaments on the domestic calendar: I final tabled it in my first year on the circuit, and again last year. This year's festival incorporates the Norwegian championships and with a fizzy array of side events will be the fullest festival ever staged in Ireland. Myself and Daragh Davey have booked a room out in Citywest to play as many of the events as possible before I head to Lisbon the following week for the EMOP there. After that is the Irish Open, and then UKIPT Nottingham.
This week's strategy section looks at some of the maths behind push/fold. You occasionally hear players, even good players, saying they'd rather shove 98o than A2o because it's less likely to be dominated if called. The view that 98o plays better against calling ranges than A2o is old school (and also ignores the fact that with an ace as a blocker in our hand, we're less likely to get called than without one due to card removal).
Let's look at some of the maths:
If we think the calling range is top 10% of hands, then 98o has 30.3% equity and A2o has 34.9%
Top 20%: 98o 33.1%, A2o 41.7%
Top 40%: 98o 36%, A2o 46.7%
Atc: 98o 48.1%, A2o 54.9%
So across all calling ranges, A2o has more equity than 98o. The reason why some players seem to think otherwise is unnecessary fear of domination: yes, you're more likely to be dominated when called with A2o, but this is just a small part of the time and the rest of the time you're going to be better off with the A2o. People also tend to overstate how bad it is to be dominated. A2o v AKo is only 26%, but 98o is less than 10% better. This 10% in this specific case doesn't compensate for the times we get called by, for example, KJo (98o 36%, A2o 54.9%) or tens (98o 14.2%, A2o 28.7%).
A head's up on something coming on Irish Eyes in April - the Easter Freeroll. There is no buy-in and no VIP requirements needed for this freeroll which will take place on the 6th April. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 added. The package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winner's poker account. Max number of participants is 2000 and registration opens 18:30 on the 5th April.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Irish Eyes Poker March Promotions
WSOP Express promotion will see 3 players win a package to this years WSOP (including entry to side event 56). Entry to try and win a package is only 1 earned VIP point.
Sit & Go Most Played Race worth €22,500
Endurance Challenge worth €8,000
6 EMOP Lisbon Iron Man Freerolls worth €2,000 each.
No live poker this week, so a lot of online grinding. Highlight of the week was a win in the €7500 guaranteed on Irish Eyes. This game runs every night at 8 and has a buyin of €30 with an optional reby or addon. It has a very good structure and is one of my favourite nightly games. I almost pulled off a double that night as I got headsup later in a €10 rebuy but unfortunately lost a flip for it.
After a few light weeks on the live front, I have a busy schedule over the next few weeks starting on Friday with the JP Masters. This is one of my favourite tournaments on the domestic calendar: I final tabled it in my first year on the circuit, and again last year. This year's festival incorporates the Norwegian championships and with a fizzy array of side events will be the fullest festival ever staged in Ireland. Myself and Daragh Davey have booked a room out in Citywest to play as many of the events as possible before I head to Lisbon the following week for the EMOP there. After that is the Irish Open, and then UKIPT Nottingham.
This week's strategy section looks at some of the maths behind push/fold. You occasionally hear players, even good players, saying they'd rather shove 98o than A2o because it's less likely to be dominated if called. The view that 98o plays better against calling ranges than A2o is old school (and also ignores the fact that with an ace as a blocker in our hand, we're less likely to get called than without one due to card removal).
Let's look at some of the maths:
If we think the calling range is top 10% of hands, then 98o has 30.3% equity and A2o has 34.9%
Top 20%: 98o 33.1%, A2o 41.7%
Top 40%: 98o 36%, A2o 46.7%
Atc: 98o 48.1%, A2o 54.9%
So across all calling ranges, A2o has more equity than 98o. The reason why some players seem to think otherwise is unnecessary fear of domination: yes, you're more likely to be dominated when called with A2o, but this is just a small part of the time and the rest of the time you're going to be better off with the A2o. People also tend to overstate how bad it is to be dominated. A2o v AKo is only 26%, but 98o is less than 10% better. This 10% in this specific case doesn't compensate for the times we get called by, for example, KJo (98o 36%, A2o 54.9%) or tens (98o 14.2%, A2o 28.7%).
A head's up on something coming on Irish Eyes in April - the Easter Freeroll. There is no buy-in and no VIP requirements needed for this freeroll which will take place on the 6th April. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 added. The package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winner's poker account. Max number of participants is 2000 and registration opens 18:30 on the 5th April.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Irish Eyes Poker March Promotions
WSOP Express promotion will see 3 players win a package to this years WSOP (including entry to side event 56). Entry to try and win a package is only 1 earned VIP point.
Sit & Go Most Played Race worth €22,500
Endurance Challenge worth €8,000
6 EMOP Lisbon Iron Man Freerolls worth €2,000 each.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Letter from Doke (12th March 2012)
Hi
I only got out of the house once this week. That was for an Irish Open satellite in the Burlington. Only 17 runners meant only one ticket and €1300 for second. I played and ran pretty well and ended up chopping it headsup with my namesake, Daragh Davey. Daragh played brilliantly: one call he made with sixes was one of the best I've ever seen live. I did have to get very lucky in the end: threehanded I shoved with pocket twos over a button raise only to be snapped off by 99. The old saying "pocket twos never lose" held true though and a flopped set saved the day.
Other than that I've been solidly grinding away online. I've been specialising mainly in satellites online and have been binking fairly regularly. I did have the disappointment of bubbling an online satellite for an Irish Open package. With two packages up for grabs, threehanded I was at different points a 70% favourite and a 93% favourite to get home, but managed to lose both.
I managed to pick up a few points on the Sharkrankings online table this week. Most nights there are points for anyone playing on Irish Eyes in three tournaments: for a full list of the tournaments, the current leaderboard, and the prizes on offer, see http://www.sharkrankings.com
I also won a "normal tournament" on the Merge network. I ended up headsup with former PCA final tableist Ricky Fohrenbach (regularly ranked in the top 100 in the world online) although I didn't realise it was him at the time. I'd love to be able to say I outplayed him headsup but since it was a turbo, it essentially came down to push/fold ranges.
As the Kenny Rogers song tells us, you have to know when to hold them, but also when to fold them. Folding is probably the weakest part of my game: maybe it's a result of learning the live game in Ireland where most casual players think the game is all about bluffing (and therefore do far too much of it) but I tend to be a bit disbeliever and end up calling it off with marginal hands more than I should. In his book Daniel Negreanu says that you should work on the assumption that people are not bluffing unless they give you clear evidence to the contrary. Well, that might work in Canada, but if Daniel does appear at the Irish Open this year, I'm pretty sure he'll quickly find out we do things a little differently here.
However, being able to fold when you're beaten is as vital a skill in poker as any other. Chips saved when you make a good fold are actually more important than chips gained from a good call. I've recently been reading a very good book on how the human mind works lent to me by Albert Kenny. It looks at how we reach decisions. Different types of decisions use different parts of the brain. Some decisions are best left to the rational calculating part, while others are best resolved by the instinctive emotional part. A friend who is also a professional player was joking to me that I was a pretty bad player when I started. Although disagreeing with him (I was a solid winning player from the start, both live and online, unlike most players who start as losing players), I did accept that on the technical and mathematical aspects of the game I was a lot less knowledgeable than I am now. But I pointed out that since I was aware of my deficiencies as a novice, I relied much more heavily on instinct and reading other players physically than I do these days. I often think that while I have obviously gained a lot from a sound understanding of the technical and mathematical details of the game, I have also lost something too.
Recently when playing live I've been trying to re-engage the instinctive part of my brain to read other players rather than just focusing on the technical aspects of the game. One hand I played early in the Burlington, I raised a limper with AK. The flop came AA6 and my continuation bet was called. The turn was an innocuous looking 8 and my opponent again check called. The river was a 9 and my opponent instantly shoved for twice the pot. This completely went against the flow of the hand : till now it looked like my opponent was either trying to keep the pot small with a marginal hand, or on a draw (there was a possible flush draw on the flop that didn't get there). When you're facing a river bet, you should replay the hand in your head to see what kind of hands your opponent could conceivably play this way.
In this case:
1) He could have a hand that I was behind even before the river so he didn't need to worry or even think about the river before shoving, like A6/A8/66/88. All these hands could conceivably be limp called preflop, and play the flop and turn as played
(2) The river could have improved him (A9 or 99)
(3) He could be overplaying a worse ace assuming it must be good
(4) He could be bluffing with a missed flush draw
Having done the analysis with the rational part of my brain, I now tried to look at what my instinct was telling me (what most players call their "gut"). My opponent looked very comfortable so I really didn't think he was bluffing. He also had not got out of line up to this point. I thought some weaker aces like AQ or AJ would most likely raise pre, and if I ruled them out, the number of hands I was beating shrunk even further. My gut instinct was my opponent wouldn't do this with a missed draw at this point, and when I put it all together I decided either I was beaten before the river, or got outdrawn on the river, so I folded. After I folded, my opponent showed A9, and when I told the table I'd folded AK, Daragh Davey was surprised saying "surely he can have a worse ace". The rational part of my brain agreed, but the instinctive part had convinced me he didn't in this
instance.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Irish Eyes Poker March Promotions
WSOP Express promotion will see 3 players win a package to this years WSOP (including entry to side event 56). Entry to try and win a package is only 1 earned VIP point.
Sit & Go Most Played Race worth €22,500
Endurance Challenge worth €8,000
6 EMOP Lisbon Iron Man Freerolls worth €2,000 each.
I only got out of the house once this week. That was for an Irish Open satellite in the Burlington. Only 17 runners meant only one ticket and €1300 for second. I played and ran pretty well and ended up chopping it headsup with my namesake, Daragh Davey. Daragh played brilliantly: one call he made with sixes was one of the best I've ever seen live. I did have to get very lucky in the end: threehanded I shoved with pocket twos over a button raise only to be snapped off by 99. The old saying "pocket twos never lose" held true though and a flopped set saved the day.
Other than that I've been solidly grinding away online. I've been specialising mainly in satellites online and have been binking fairly regularly. I did have the disappointment of bubbling an online satellite for an Irish Open package. With two packages up for grabs, threehanded I was at different points a 70% favourite and a 93% favourite to get home, but managed to lose both.
I managed to pick up a few points on the Sharkrankings online table this week. Most nights there are points for anyone playing on Irish Eyes in three tournaments: for a full list of the tournaments, the current leaderboard, and the prizes on offer, see http://www.sharkrankings.com
I also won a "normal tournament" on the Merge network. I ended up headsup with former PCA final tableist Ricky Fohrenbach (regularly ranked in the top 100 in the world online) although I didn't realise it was him at the time. I'd love to be able to say I outplayed him headsup but since it was a turbo, it essentially came down to push/fold ranges.
As the Kenny Rogers song tells us, you have to know when to hold them, but also when to fold them. Folding is probably the weakest part of my game: maybe it's a result of learning the live game in Ireland where most casual players think the game is all about bluffing (and therefore do far too much of it) but I tend to be a bit disbeliever and end up calling it off with marginal hands more than I should. In his book Daniel Negreanu says that you should work on the assumption that people are not bluffing unless they give you clear evidence to the contrary. Well, that might work in Canada, but if Daniel does appear at the Irish Open this year, I'm pretty sure he'll quickly find out we do things a little differently here.
However, being able to fold when you're beaten is as vital a skill in poker as any other. Chips saved when you make a good fold are actually more important than chips gained from a good call. I've recently been reading a very good book on how the human mind works lent to me by Albert Kenny. It looks at how we reach decisions. Different types of decisions use different parts of the brain. Some decisions are best left to the rational calculating part, while others are best resolved by the instinctive emotional part. A friend who is also a professional player was joking to me that I was a pretty bad player when I started. Although disagreeing with him (I was a solid winning player from the start, both live and online, unlike most players who start as losing players), I did accept that on the technical and mathematical aspects of the game I was a lot less knowledgeable than I am now. But I pointed out that since I was aware of my deficiencies as a novice, I relied much more heavily on instinct and reading other players physically than I do these days. I often think that while I have obviously gained a lot from a sound understanding of the technical and mathematical details of the game, I have also lost something too.
Recently when playing live I've been trying to re-engage the instinctive part of my brain to read other players rather than just focusing on the technical aspects of the game. One hand I played early in the Burlington, I raised a limper with AK. The flop came AA6 and my continuation bet was called. The turn was an innocuous looking 8 and my opponent again check called. The river was a 9 and my opponent instantly shoved for twice the pot. This completely went against the flow of the hand : till now it looked like my opponent was either trying to keep the pot small with a marginal hand, or on a draw (there was a possible flush draw on the flop that didn't get there). When you're facing a river bet, you should replay the hand in your head to see what kind of hands your opponent could conceivably play this way.
In this case:
1) He could have a hand that I was behind even before the river so he didn't need to worry or even think about the river before shoving, like A6/A8/66/88. All these hands could conceivably be limp called preflop, and play the flop and turn as played
(2) The river could have improved him (A9 or 99)
(3) He could be overplaying a worse ace assuming it must be good
(4) He could be bluffing with a missed flush draw
Having done the analysis with the rational part of my brain, I now tried to look at what my instinct was telling me (what most players call their "gut"). My opponent looked very comfortable so I really didn't think he was bluffing. He also had not got out of line up to this point. I thought some weaker aces like AQ or AJ would most likely raise pre, and if I ruled them out, the number of hands I was beating shrunk even further. My gut instinct was my opponent wouldn't do this with a missed draw at this point, and when I put it all together I decided either I was beaten before the river, or got outdrawn on the river, so I folded. After I folded, my opponent showed A9, and when I told the table I'd folded AK, Daragh Davey was surprised saying "surely he can have a worse ace". The rational part of my brain agreed, but the instinctive part had convinced me he didn't in this
instance.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Irish Eyes Poker March Promotions
WSOP Express promotion will see 3 players win a package to this years WSOP (including entry to side event 56). Entry to try and win a package is only 1 earned VIP point.
Sit & Go Most Played Race worth €22,500
Endurance Challenge worth €8,000
6 EMOP Lisbon Iron Man Freerolls worth €2,000 each.
Monday, March 05, 2012
Letter from Doke (5th march 2012)
Hi all
With no live scheduled this week, it was a week of solid online grinding. I had a pretty good week overall, the highlights being winning three Nottingham UKIPT packages, an EMOP Lisbon package tonight, and the Sharkrankings game on Irish Eyes. I booked the flights for Lisbon tonight. Mrs. Doke can't come with me on this trip so instead my friend David Lappin is travelling with me. David's a colourful character to say the least so it should be an interesting trip. Irish Eyes are still running satellites so I hope a few of you will join me there too. Lisbon (or rather Estoril, where the tournament is) is a really beautiful seaside resort.
This week's strategy follows on from last week where we looked at the maths behind raising with AQ out of the small blind is a better play than shoving when the big blind has a 20 big blind stack because when it induces the shove it makes 4.6 bbs on average. This is greater than the 2 bbs he gains if he open shoves and gets it through. While this is always true, there are certain situations in tournaments where the open shove is preferable because the few additional big blinds gained are worth a lot less than the risk of losing a big chunk of our own stack. These situations arise in or around bubbles, particularly in satellites. On the bubble of satellites, a few extra big blinds gained are worth a lot less than those lost when we lose a flip or a 60/40. So in those situations, if you decide to play the hand, it's better to maximise your fold equity by shoving.
A big well done to my good friend and fellow Team Irish Eyes member Mick Mccloskey. Mick came second in this weekend's Western Open and while I know he'll be disappointed not to have won but it's a great run by the veteran.
Finally, Sharkrankings have revamped their online tournament list on Irish Eyes Poker where players can earn Sharkrankings points for the online poker leaderboard. Weekly online tournaments with over €80,000 in prizemoney guaranteed can now be played to earn points. See www.sharkrankings.com for more details.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irish Eyes Poker March Promotions
WSOP Express promotion will see 3 players win a package to this years WSOP (including entry to side event 56). Entry to try and win a package is only 1 earned VIP point.
Sit & Go Most Played Race worth €22,500
Endurance Challenge worth €8,000
6 EMOP Lisbon Iron Man Freerolls worth €2,000 each.
With no live scheduled this week, it was a week of solid online grinding. I had a pretty good week overall, the highlights being winning three Nottingham UKIPT packages, an EMOP Lisbon package tonight, and the Sharkrankings game on Irish Eyes. I booked the flights for Lisbon tonight. Mrs. Doke can't come with me on this trip so instead my friend David Lappin is travelling with me. David's a colourful character to say the least so it should be an interesting trip. Irish Eyes are still running satellites so I hope a few of you will join me there too. Lisbon (or rather Estoril, where the tournament is) is a really beautiful seaside resort.
This week's strategy follows on from last week where we looked at the maths behind raising with AQ out of the small blind is a better play than shoving when the big blind has a 20 big blind stack because when it induces the shove it makes 4.6 bbs on average. This is greater than the 2 bbs he gains if he open shoves and gets it through. While this is always true, there are certain situations in tournaments where the open shove is preferable because the few additional big blinds gained are worth a lot less than the risk of losing a big chunk of our own stack. These situations arise in or around bubbles, particularly in satellites. On the bubble of satellites, a few extra big blinds gained are worth a lot less than those lost when we lose a flip or a 60/40. So in those situations, if you decide to play the hand, it's better to maximise your fold equity by shoving.
A big well done to my good friend and fellow Team Irish Eyes member Mick Mccloskey. Mick came second in this weekend's Western Open and while I know he'll be disappointed not to have won but it's a great run by the veteran.
Finally, Sharkrankings have revamped their online tournament list on Irish Eyes Poker where players can earn Sharkrankings points for the online poker leaderboard. Weekly online tournaments with over €80,000 in prizemoney guaranteed can now be played to earn points. See www.sharkrankings.com for more details.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irish Eyes Poker March Promotions
WSOP Express promotion will see 3 players win a package to this years WSOP (including entry to side event 56). Entry to try and win a package is only 1 earned VIP point.
Sit & Go Most Played Race worth €22,500
Endurance Challenge worth €8,000
6 EMOP Lisbon Iron Man Freerolls worth €2,000 each.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Letter from Doke (29th Feb 2012)
Hi everyone
Last Thursday I played the Fitzwilliam end of month tournament. The Fitz is where I cut my teeth on the live scene and is still one of my favourite places to play. The field seems to get stronger every month and this month included a double UKIPT winner (Nick Abou Risk) and a November Niner (Sam Holden). I made it to the final table with just below average stack, but as one friend remarked with average stack just 11 big blinds, it's basically a hyper turbo at that point. I won two of the first three hands but then ran nines into kings to exit in 7th. No matter how far you go in a tournament you're always disappointed (unless you win it) and before I was even home I got atext from a friend saying a four way chop had been agreed. Still, I feel like I've had a fairly barren start to my live poker year by my standards with just a second last table in the IPC and a 3rd in an EMOP side event, so it was good at least to notch up another cash and a final table.
I played the Super Poker event at Citywest on Saturday. The tournament drew a lot of criticism from some quarters (when I asked one young pro if he was playing it, he responded drily that he'd rather purchase three hundred and forty five Lottery scratch cards) but I enjoyed it (albeit not for very long). I always seem to run bad in Citywest: I haven't cashed in too many events out there and so it proved again. I also played an Irish Open satellite where I got it in on the second last table with two pair versus one on the turn but was not victorious. I did get a run in the last turbo side event I played but was hampered by getting kings cracked repeatedly and ended up going out next the bubble.
I recorded a brief interview with Iain Cheyne which I think you can see at the event website, and myself and David Lappin provided livestream commentary on the final table. I always enjoy commenting on the action and my friend David is a thoughtful contributor.
This week's strategy is a look at a key hand on the final table of the Super poker event. Folded around to eventual winner Vincent Buis, he covers Alan Mclean (father of tournament organiser Stephen) who has around 20 big blinds. This is almost the perfect stack size to reshove over a raise. Vincent is aware of this so he raises to induce Alan to shove if he has a strong but weaker hand (which he did with KJs). You sometimes hear players saying they'd prefer to just shove and get KJs to fold so they can take the blinds and antes without risking a suckout, but when stacks are this shallow you need to take every edge you can get. Let's imagine for a second that Alan would fold KJs to the open shove (which is not certain), then the gain from shoving including antes is about 2 bbs. Now compare this to what happens if Vincent induces and calls Alan's shove:
(1) AQ is approximately a 60% favourite over KJs, so 60% of the time, Vincent wins 21 bbs. 60% of 21 is 12.6, so when this happens Vincent can expect to gain 12.6 bbs.
(2) Of course, that means that 40% of the time Vincent's AQ gets sucked out on and he loses 20 bbs. So his expected loss is 40% of 20, or 8 bbs.
Subtracting 2 from 1, we see that on average Vincent can expect to make 4.6 bbs when he raises and induces a shove from AQ. This is greater than the 2 bbs he gains if he open shoves and gets it through, so mathematically raising to induce is a better play as it is more profitable in the long run.
The plan is to take a break from live poker until EMOP Lisbon. I'm looking forward to being able to devote myself more fully to online poker. One new feature I'm greatly enjoying on Irish Eyes is the introduction of a Preferred Seat option which allows you to always be placed at the same seat (table position). This is very useful when multitabling as your eye becomes accustomed to looking there and you can more quickly process your cards and make a decision.
On the promotions front, things to look out for on Irish Eyes in March include their WSOP Express promotion which will see 3 players win a package to this years WSOP (including entry to side event 56). Entry to try and win a package is only 1 earned VIP point.
Theres also a Sit & Go Most Played Race worth €22,500, an Endurance Challenge worth €8,000 and 6 EMOP Lisbon Iron Man Freerolls worth €2,000 each.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Last Thursday I played the Fitzwilliam end of month tournament. The Fitz is where I cut my teeth on the live scene and is still one of my favourite places to play. The field seems to get stronger every month and this month included a double UKIPT winner (Nick Abou Risk) and a November Niner (Sam Holden). I made it to the final table with just below average stack, but as one friend remarked with average stack just 11 big blinds, it's basically a hyper turbo at that point. I won two of the first three hands but then ran nines into kings to exit in 7th. No matter how far you go in a tournament you're always disappointed (unless you win it) and before I was even home I got atext from a friend saying a four way chop had been agreed. Still, I feel like I've had a fairly barren start to my live poker year by my standards with just a second last table in the IPC and a 3rd in an EMOP side event, so it was good at least to notch up another cash and a final table.
I played the Super Poker event at Citywest on Saturday. The tournament drew a lot of criticism from some quarters (when I asked one young pro if he was playing it, he responded drily that he'd rather purchase three hundred and forty five Lottery scratch cards) but I enjoyed it (albeit not for very long). I always seem to run bad in Citywest: I haven't cashed in too many events out there and so it proved again. I also played an Irish Open satellite where I got it in on the second last table with two pair versus one on the turn but was not victorious. I did get a run in the last turbo side event I played but was hampered by getting kings cracked repeatedly and ended up going out next the bubble.
I recorded a brief interview with Iain Cheyne which I think you can see at the event website, and myself and David Lappin provided livestream commentary on the final table. I always enjoy commenting on the action and my friend David is a thoughtful contributor.
This week's strategy is a look at a key hand on the final table of the Super poker event. Folded around to eventual winner Vincent Buis, he covers Alan Mclean (father of tournament organiser Stephen) who has around 20 big blinds. This is almost the perfect stack size to reshove over a raise. Vincent is aware of this so he raises to induce Alan to shove if he has a strong but weaker hand (which he did with KJs). You sometimes hear players saying they'd prefer to just shove and get KJs to fold so they can take the blinds and antes without risking a suckout, but when stacks are this shallow you need to take every edge you can get. Let's imagine for a second that Alan would fold KJs to the open shove (which is not certain), then the gain from shoving including antes is about 2 bbs. Now compare this to what happens if Vincent induces and calls Alan's shove:
(1) AQ is approximately a 60% favourite over KJs, so 60% of the time, Vincent wins 21 bbs. 60% of 21 is 12.6, so when this happens Vincent can expect to gain 12.6 bbs.
(2) Of course, that means that 40% of the time Vincent's AQ gets sucked out on and he loses 20 bbs. So his expected loss is 40% of 20, or 8 bbs.
Subtracting 2 from 1, we see that on average Vincent can expect to make 4.6 bbs when he raises and induces a shove from AQ. This is greater than the 2 bbs he gains if he open shoves and gets it through, so mathematically raising to induce is a better play as it is more profitable in the long run.
The plan is to take a break from live poker until EMOP Lisbon. I'm looking forward to being able to devote myself more fully to online poker. One new feature I'm greatly enjoying on Irish Eyes is the introduction of a Preferred Seat option which allows you to always be placed at the same seat (table position). This is very useful when multitabling as your eye becomes accustomed to looking there and you can more quickly process your cards and make a decision.
On the promotions front, things to look out for on Irish Eyes in March include their WSOP Express promotion which will see 3 players win a package to this years WSOP (including entry to side event 56). Entry to try and win a package is only 1 earned VIP point.
Theres also a Sit & Go Most Played Race worth €22,500, an Endurance Challenge worth €8,000 and 6 EMOP Lisbon Iron Man Freerolls worth €2,000 each.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Letter from Doke (21st Feb 2012)
Hi all
My UKIPT Galway campaign can best be described as pure misery. I did build a bit of a stack on day one to have about 35k (comfortably above average) with about an hour to go on day 1 and could have been up to over 50k after calling a shove with tens. Instead I lost a chunk to jt and after another reverse found myself bagging up with less than starting stack. That meant having to get busy early and either double up or bust on day 2. Unfortunately it was the latter. I could describe the side event misery in detail but let's just say I ran bad, and also made a mistake in the 300 side event (more on that hand later).
The event was at least very well organised and good craic with all the familiar faces and characters. When the dust had cleared it was a very high quality final table that included online beast Emmet "mully85" Mullin, defending champ Nick Abou Risk, and one of the most promising newcomers on the Irish scene John "jwillo" Willoughby. Mully is one of Allinstevie's Omagh crew and a great guy: when I switched from playing stts to mtts online he popped up a few times on the rail on some of my early Stars final tables to give me some advice on the regs which I greatly appreciated. So I was really thrilled to see him win.
This week it's back to the online grind for me. I'm hoping to fit in the nightly SharkRankings game on Irish Eyes at 8.15 most evenings. I'm currently languishing in mid table obscurity in the 10K league so it's time to do something about that.
Next weekend sees Stephen Mclean's Super Poker event in Citywest. While I'm feeling a bit live pokered out, this should be a pretty cool tourney with a very big prize pool. It would be a good time for me to start running well again live.
This week's strategy is a look at some of the maths of 3, 4 and 5 betting wars. In the 300 side event, I had 9K at 100/200 when I found jacks in the small blind. The cutoff opened to 450, I quickly threebet to 1150, he made it 3200 and I shoved. He had aces and held. At the time I didn't think too deeply about the hand as on the face of it it doesn't seem like that big a mistake to get 45 bbs in with a hand as strong as jacks against a player in late position. However, after analysing the hand, I think the villain here is opening top 20% of hands. That means the hands I can legitimately threebet for value are top 10% (hands that are stronger than the top half of his range).
Similarly, he can four bet top 5% of hands for value, and I can then 5 bet shove top 2.5%. Jacks falls just outside this range. Threebet folding a hand that strong seems a bit wonky, so on reflection I think the best play is to just flat the open and play the hand cautiously. Note that the maths here depends heavily on the opener's range. If he's a very loose player opening, say 80%, then the 3 bet range becomes 40%, and the 5 bet shove range 10% so I'd be perfectly happy to get it in with jacks.
Finally, today the new Preferred Seat option was launched on Irish Eyes Poker. For anyone wanting to multi-table and sit at the same postion on all tables just click on the 'Options' tab in the poker client lobby and choose your preferred seat position. This position will be applied to all tables you play at regardless of game or table size.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
My UKIPT Galway campaign can best be described as pure misery. I did build a bit of a stack on day one to have about 35k (comfortably above average) with about an hour to go on day 1 and could have been up to over 50k after calling a shove with tens. Instead I lost a chunk to jt and after another reverse found myself bagging up with less than starting stack. That meant having to get busy early and either double up or bust on day 2. Unfortunately it was the latter. I could describe the side event misery in detail but let's just say I ran bad, and also made a mistake in the 300 side event (more on that hand later).
The event was at least very well organised and good craic with all the familiar faces and characters. When the dust had cleared it was a very high quality final table that included online beast Emmet "mully85" Mullin, defending champ Nick Abou Risk, and one of the most promising newcomers on the Irish scene John "jwillo" Willoughby. Mully is one of Allinstevie's Omagh crew and a great guy: when I switched from playing stts to mtts online he popped up a few times on the rail on some of my early Stars final tables to give me some advice on the regs which I greatly appreciated. So I was really thrilled to see him win.
This week it's back to the online grind for me. I'm hoping to fit in the nightly SharkRankings game on Irish Eyes at 8.15 most evenings. I'm currently languishing in mid table obscurity in the 10K league so it's time to do something about that.
Next weekend sees Stephen Mclean's Super Poker event in Citywest. While I'm feeling a bit live pokered out, this should be a pretty cool tourney with a very big prize pool. It would be a good time for me to start running well again live.
This week's strategy is a look at some of the maths of 3, 4 and 5 betting wars. In the 300 side event, I had 9K at 100/200 when I found jacks in the small blind. The cutoff opened to 450, I quickly threebet to 1150, he made it 3200 and I shoved. He had aces and held. At the time I didn't think too deeply about the hand as on the face of it it doesn't seem like that big a mistake to get 45 bbs in with a hand as strong as jacks against a player in late position. However, after analysing the hand, I think the villain here is opening top 20% of hands. That means the hands I can legitimately threebet for value are top 10% (hands that are stronger than the top half of his range).
Similarly, he can four bet top 5% of hands for value, and I can then 5 bet shove top 2.5%. Jacks falls just outside this range. Threebet folding a hand that strong seems a bit wonky, so on reflection I think the best play is to just flat the open and play the hand cautiously. Note that the maths here depends heavily on the opener's range. If he's a very loose player opening, say 80%, then the 3 bet range becomes 40%, and the 5 bet shove range 10% so I'd be perfectly happy to get it in with jacks.
Finally, today the new Preferred Seat option was launched on Irish Eyes Poker. For anyone wanting to multi-table and sit at the same postion on all tables just click on the 'Options' tab in the poker client lobby and choose your preferred seat position. This position will be applied to all tables you play at regardless of game or table size.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Letter from Doke (16th Feb 2012)
Hi all.
Most of last week was devoted to the European Deepstack. I played the main event and a few side events, and kept running into aces, except in one of the side events where I had the aces. Sadly, they were no match for KTo on that occasion, the only time the aces didn't hold. I don't want to be one of those people who complains about bad beats solet's just leave it at that. :)
I had a spell on the feature table late on day 1A. I'd gone for dinner with Jason Tompkins (who had just won the High Roller - well done lad!) and his lovely girlfriend Joy, Daragh Davey, Nick Newport and David Lappin. I'd stated my intention if I did find myself in the last hour with a 20K stack to get it in a lot lighter than I normally would in the hopes of either doubling up or busting (so I could re-enter 1B). There was general agreement that this was the soundest strategy in a deepstack event where you think you have a fairly big edge over the field: any loss in equity taking sub optimal gambles being compensated by gained equity from giving yourself a second full run at amassing a stack. In the event, my shoves all got through (I had a very good image at the table), which at least saw me move from under 20k to over 30k.
Sadly there were no Irish on the final table. It's a worrying trend that we're having more and more major events in this country with few or even no local players on the final table.
After busting the main event and the turbo side on Saurday, I played a few online games in the room. I late regged for the nightly Night on Stars on French Stars and ended up winning it for over 10K, so once again it was a case of online to the rescue. The French at my table in the side the following day had heard of my win and were suitably impressed. Humble as ever, I pointed out that I'd actually won this tourney three times in the past few weeks, even though I've only played it about half a dozen times.
One of French commented wrily:
"You must like French fish".
This week's strategy section is a hand from my Irish Eyes teammate Connie O'Sullivan at the final table of EMOP Prague. Connie opened AQo utg playing just over 20 bbs and got reshoved from the small blind by a good player. Most people's instinctive reaction is you can't raise fold a hand as strong as AQ with 20 bbs and when Connie posted the hand in the theory section on IrishPokerBoards, a few people basically said this. However, Connie's not a man to act rashly, and after considering the hand carefully, he eventually folded. Apparently the live stream commentators thought this was a terrible fold. I disagree: considering all the information available to Connie, I think it's a fold too.
A very important consideration is perceived image. Because Connie was playing tight and would be perceived as very tight by the villain, the villain should not be shoving very many worse hands than AQ (in fact, he may be shoving no worse hand). Connie's more or less at the bottom of his perceived range. If he was a looser player with a wilder image he could expect good opponents to shove a lot of worse hands so AQ would be a call. Last night I was down to the last 6 of a final table and busted when in a similar spot where I reshoved AT and got snapped by AJ. A few friends who were railing were surprised at the snap call but I thought it was pretty standard as the villain was hyper loose and therefore had to expect me to play back with a lot of worse hands. When playing against good thinking opponents, it's very important to be aware of your own image and how that impacts on ranges (against unthinking players this is less of a consideration, as they either will be unaware of your image or adjust incorrectly to it: for example, a lot of bad loose players think tight players are good targets to reship light on, but a good tight player will call you as frequently as a good loose player and you'll be in bad shape when he does). To see a full discussion of the hand, go to http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12866
This letter is being written on the train to Galway where I'm hoping most of the week will be devoted to UKIPT Galway. I have a pretty decent record in Galway: I went deep in the main event last year (busting two tables out) and won the side event there the year before. I don't normally sell my action in live events any more but my German friend Max Heinzelmann asked if he could buy a "lucky 1%". Max won EPT Player of the Year last year for his achievement of getting headsup in back to back EPTs (Berlin and San Remo) so I figure his lucky 1% could be very lucky indeed.
On the Irish Eyes front the new software update due to take place on the 14th is now rescheduled for next week on the 21st Feb. The new update brings the awaited 'Preferred Seat' function to the poker client. This feature gives a player the option to choose a favorite seat on the tables. All tables will virtually be adjusted so the player is shown to sit at the same seat at all tables regardless of game, limit or number of seats. Great addition for multi-table play.
If you fancy joining the team at the next EMOP in Lisbon, Irish Eyes are running 6 VIP point freerolls between the 1st March and 22nd March. There is one package to EMOP Lisbon worth €2,000 in each freeroll. Each package consists of tournament buy-in of €1,100, accommodation for four nights and €350 in travel contribution that is credited to the winners poker account.
The VIP point buy-in starts at VIP1 on March 1st and increases for each tournament. It starts out being very easy to qualify but it becomes more difficult and rewards the higher value players. Earn as many VIP points as you can and get up to six tries to win a seat.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Most of last week was devoted to the European Deepstack. I played the main event and a few side events, and kept running into aces, except in one of the side events where I had the aces. Sadly, they were no match for KTo on that occasion, the only time the aces didn't hold. I don't want to be one of those people who complains about bad beats solet's just leave it at that. :)
I had a spell on the feature table late on day 1A. I'd gone for dinner with Jason Tompkins (who had just won the High Roller - well done lad!) and his lovely girlfriend Joy, Daragh Davey, Nick Newport and David Lappin. I'd stated my intention if I did find myself in the last hour with a 20K stack to get it in a lot lighter than I normally would in the hopes of either doubling up or busting (so I could re-enter 1B). There was general agreement that this was the soundest strategy in a deepstack event where you think you have a fairly big edge over the field: any loss in equity taking sub optimal gambles being compensated by gained equity from giving yourself a second full run at amassing a stack. In the event, my shoves all got through (I had a very good image at the table), which at least saw me move from under 20k to over 30k.
Sadly there were no Irish on the final table. It's a worrying trend that we're having more and more major events in this country with few or even no local players on the final table.
After busting the main event and the turbo side on Saurday, I played a few online games in the room. I late regged for the nightly Night on Stars on French Stars and ended up winning it for over 10K, so once again it was a case of online to the rescue. The French at my table in the side the following day had heard of my win and were suitably impressed. Humble as ever, I pointed out that I'd actually won this tourney three times in the past few weeks, even though I've only played it about half a dozen times.
One of French commented wrily:
"You must like French fish".
This week's strategy section is a hand from my Irish Eyes teammate Connie O'Sullivan at the final table of EMOP Prague. Connie opened AQo utg playing just over 20 bbs and got reshoved from the small blind by a good player. Most people's instinctive reaction is you can't raise fold a hand as strong as AQ with 20 bbs and when Connie posted the hand in the theory section on IrishPokerBoards, a few people basically said this. However, Connie's not a man to act rashly, and after considering the hand carefully, he eventually folded. Apparently the live stream commentators thought this was a terrible fold. I disagree: considering all the information available to Connie, I think it's a fold too.
A very important consideration is perceived image. Because Connie was playing tight and would be perceived as very tight by the villain, the villain should not be shoving very many worse hands than AQ (in fact, he may be shoving no worse hand). Connie's more or less at the bottom of his perceived range. If he was a looser player with a wilder image he could expect good opponents to shove a lot of worse hands so AQ would be a call. Last night I was down to the last 6 of a final table and busted when in a similar spot where I reshoved AT and got snapped by AJ. A few friends who were railing were surprised at the snap call but I thought it was pretty standard as the villain was hyper loose and therefore had to expect me to play back with a lot of worse hands. When playing against good thinking opponents, it's very important to be aware of your own image and how that impacts on ranges (against unthinking players this is less of a consideration, as they either will be unaware of your image or adjust incorrectly to it: for example, a lot of bad loose players think tight players are good targets to reship light on, but a good tight player will call you as frequently as a good loose player and you'll be in bad shape when he does). To see a full discussion of the hand, go to http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12866
This letter is being written on the train to Galway where I'm hoping most of the week will be devoted to UKIPT Galway. I have a pretty decent record in Galway: I went deep in the main event last year (busting two tables out) and won the side event there the year before. I don't normally sell my action in live events any more but my German friend Max Heinzelmann asked if he could buy a "lucky 1%". Max won EPT Player of the Year last year for his achievement of getting headsup in back to back EPTs (Berlin and San Remo) so I figure his lucky 1% could be very lucky indeed.
On the Irish Eyes front the new software update due to take place on the 14th is now rescheduled for next week on the 21st Feb. The new update brings the awaited 'Preferred Seat' function to the poker client. This feature gives a player the option to choose a favorite seat on the tables. All tables will virtually be adjusted so the player is shown to sit at the same seat at all tables regardless of game, limit or number of seats. Great addition for multi-table play.
If you fancy joining the team at the next EMOP in Lisbon, Irish Eyes are running 6 VIP point freerolls between the 1st March and 22nd March. There is one package to EMOP Lisbon worth €2,000 in each freeroll. Each package consists of tournament buy-in of €1,100, accommodation for four nights and €350 in travel contribution that is credited to the winners poker account.
The VIP point buy-in starts at VIP1 on March 1st and increases for each tournament. It starts out being very easy to qualify but it becomes more difficult and rewards the higher value players. Earn as many VIP points as you can and get up to six tries to win a seat.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Letter from Doke (8th Feb 2012)
Hi all
This letter is being written on the plane back from EMOP Prague. A very good Irish contingent travelled including Connie O'Sullivan, Kieran Walsh, Jason Arthur, Richie Lawlor, Daragh Davey, brother Noel and Duncan Keane, Rebecca McAdam and her boyfriend Niall, Francis "Wally" McCormack, Kevin Spillane, Gary Clarke, and Mick Rossiter.
With such a strong turnout there were sound reasons to be optimistic that at least one of us would make the final table. In the event, we got two on, my Irish Eyes teammate Connie O'Sullivan, and Kevin Spillane. Connie, one of the most popular figures in Irish poker, played brilliant disciplined poker with a short stack for most of the tournament and was unlucky not to go further than 8th. Kevin, who went deep last year in EMOP Lisbon, also got unlucky on the final table after making a brilliant call with sixes on a 98x flop against two overcards. Unfortunately, one of the overcards hit the river, but it was a great performance by the very likeable Kevin to finish fourth.
I never got going in the main event but did at least have the consolation of cashing twice (11th in the Leaderboard final, and third in a turbo side event) to come home with more money than I left with,which is always nice.
This week's main focus is the European Deepstack in D4 hotel. This tournament will always have a special place in my heart given that it's where it essentially all started for me. I was a novice who had only been playing a few months when I won the first running of it in 2008, and that and a few other results around the time convinced me to take a chance and see if I could make a go of playing professionally.
I have a very good overall record in this tournament, finishing 15th the year after my victory and final tabling it for a second time the following year, so I'm hopeful of another deep run. This year's programme also includes a High Roller event starting tomorrow which I'll probably play too if I'm not too tired.
For this week's strategy section, I want to talk about a hand I wasn't involved in (I wasn't even in the game) but witnessed in Prague. I was chatting to Team Irish Eyes member Gerry Kane from Scotland, a very good solid player who has cashed in a number of WSOP events and qualified for TV tournaments through small feeder satellites (a great way for recreational players to take shots at the big stage without straining their finances). Gerry was playing in a cash game which was playing very looe, with a mix of players between those who were happy enough to gamble it up with a very wide range of hands, and some (like Gerry) who were sitting tight waiting for good spots to exploit the gamblers. The action started with a raise in mid position, which Gerry flat called on the button. The big blind was a gambly type player and true to type he now stuck in a big raise. After the initial opener had folded, Gerry quickly shoved. After some speechplay which indicated that the big blind was far from happy calling Gerry's shove with whatever spanners he had, he did anyway. Gerry had pocket eights and flopped the nurs (top sets) which became quads on the river.
There's a general belief in poker that aggression is good and that raising is always better than calling. Aggression is good but there are spots where if you have a hand strong enough to call you should raise, but like all general rules it has many exceptions. The key to how Gerry played this hand is his hand is a mile ahead of the range of hands the loose player lurking in the blinds will make a move with, it's unclear whether he's ahead of the opener. He's almost certainly behind the opener's four bet shoving range and I'm pretty sure Gerry would have folded if the opener had four bet. So by flat calling, he gets a clearer view of the opener's hand strength before committing many chips to the pot, and he has set up a very profitable situation where he can often get it in against a worse hand, but can get away cheaply if he's behind the opener.
On the Irish Eyes front, some very interesting news is that a new software update is due to take place next week on the 14th. The new update brings the awaited 'Preferred Seat' function to the poker client. This feature gives a player the option to choose a favorite seat on the tables. All tables will virtually be adjusted so the player is shown to sit at the same seat at all tables regardless of game, limit or number of seats. Great addition for multi-table play.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
This letter is being written on the plane back from EMOP Prague. A very good Irish contingent travelled including Connie O'Sullivan, Kieran Walsh, Jason Arthur, Richie Lawlor, Daragh Davey, brother Noel and Duncan Keane, Rebecca McAdam and her boyfriend Niall, Francis "Wally" McCormack, Kevin Spillane, Gary Clarke, and Mick Rossiter.
With such a strong turnout there were sound reasons to be optimistic that at least one of us would make the final table. In the event, we got two on, my Irish Eyes teammate Connie O'Sullivan, and Kevin Spillane. Connie, one of the most popular figures in Irish poker, played brilliant disciplined poker with a short stack for most of the tournament and was unlucky not to go further than 8th. Kevin, who went deep last year in EMOP Lisbon, also got unlucky on the final table after making a brilliant call with sixes on a 98x flop against two overcards. Unfortunately, one of the overcards hit the river, but it was a great performance by the very likeable Kevin to finish fourth.
I never got going in the main event but did at least have the consolation of cashing twice (11th in the Leaderboard final, and third in a turbo side event) to come home with more money than I left with,which is always nice.
This week's main focus is the European Deepstack in D4 hotel. This tournament will always have a special place in my heart given that it's where it essentially all started for me. I was a novice who had only been playing a few months when I won the first running of it in 2008, and that and a few other results around the time convinced me to take a chance and see if I could make a go of playing professionally.
I have a very good overall record in this tournament, finishing 15th the year after my victory and final tabling it for a second time the following year, so I'm hopeful of another deep run. This year's programme also includes a High Roller event starting tomorrow which I'll probably play too if I'm not too tired.
For this week's strategy section, I want to talk about a hand I wasn't involved in (I wasn't even in the game) but witnessed in Prague. I was chatting to Team Irish Eyes member Gerry Kane from Scotland, a very good solid player who has cashed in a number of WSOP events and qualified for TV tournaments through small feeder satellites (a great way for recreational players to take shots at the big stage without straining their finances). Gerry was playing in a cash game which was playing very looe, with a mix of players between those who were happy enough to gamble it up with a very wide range of hands, and some (like Gerry) who were sitting tight waiting for good spots to exploit the gamblers. The action started with a raise in mid position, which Gerry flat called on the button. The big blind was a gambly type player and true to type he now stuck in a big raise. After the initial opener had folded, Gerry quickly shoved. After some speechplay which indicated that the big blind was far from happy calling Gerry's shove with whatever spanners he had, he did anyway. Gerry had pocket eights and flopped the nurs (top sets) which became quads on the river.
There's a general belief in poker that aggression is good and that raising is always better than calling. Aggression is good but there are spots where if you have a hand strong enough to call you should raise, but like all general rules it has many exceptions. The key to how Gerry played this hand is his hand is a mile ahead of the range of hands the loose player lurking in the blinds will make a move with, it's unclear whether he's ahead of the opener. He's almost certainly behind the opener's four bet shoving range and I'm pretty sure Gerry would have folded if the opener had four bet. So by flat calling, he gets a clearer view of the opener's hand strength before committing many chips to the pot, and he has set up a very profitable situation where he can often get it in against a worse hand, but can get away cheaply if he's behind the opener.
On the Irish Eyes front, some very interesting news is that a new software update is due to take place next week on the 14th. The new update brings the awaited 'Preferred Seat' function to the poker client. This feature gives a player the option to choose a favorite seat on the tables. All tables will virtually be adjusted so the player is shown to sit at the same seat at all tables regardless of game, limit or number of seats. Great addition for multi-table play.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Letter from Doke (31st January 2012)
Hi
When I wrote last week's letter, I was looking forward to day 2 of Estrellas Madrid. Unfortunately, it could hardly have gone much worse. I went from 26/222 at the start of the day to busting just over 2 hours in with about 150 still left in. First hand of the day I lost a flip against a short stack, and from that point on just couldn't seem to win a hand. The final insuly was getting aces cracked by sevens all in pre. That left me with 10 bigs which were duly sent into battle with KJs, which proved no match for the AK it ran into.
I was at the same table as one of the only two other Irish in the field, Dubliner John Gallagher. He had no better luck busting before me. He'd been at the same table as Ireland's top ranked online mtt player currently, Daniel "danloulou" Smyth, on day 1. I was talking to Dan online and his day 1 sounded like my day 2. Both were telling me about the cash games they played in Madrid, which apart from being the softest they'd ever seen, had one very unusual feature: action proceeded anti-clockwise rather than the more usual clockwise!
Normally I'd jump into a few side events after an early main event exit, but with Mrs. Doke in tow I decided to do the tourist thing instead, and just played a small amount online. I had a reasonably good Sunday thanks to winning another Galway UKIPT satellite, my tenth in all, and a deep run in the Bigger 55. Well done to Feargal "MidniteKowby" Nealon who had a deep run in the Million and was very unlucky not to go farther, and Daragh "INoUrCards" Davey who was 5th in the 35K on Irish Eyes, meaning "other" Daragh notched up back to back final tables in Sunday majors in the last two weeks. Daragh's is my travelling companion and roommate for my trip to Prague on Wednesday so I'm hoping some of his recent form and run good rubs off on me. A number of other Team Irish Eyes players are travelling including Connie O'Sullivan, Kieran Walsh, Jason Arthur, Richie Lawlor and Gerry Kane.
For those that have missed Prague, the next EMOP is in Lisbon. Iron Man VIP Freerolls (6 of them with €2,000 packages in each), as well as regular sats, will start on Irish Eyes on 1st February.
While in Madrid, Phil Baker contacted me asking me if I'd represent Dublin in the fortcoming Inter County Poker championships in April. Given that I was born in Clare, but my family moved to Wexford when I was three, there are a few counties that coulds claim me if they so wished but first come first served, plus at this stage I have spent most of my adult life in Dublin's fair city. My daughter, a rabid Dubs fan in the GAA, will hopefully be proud at last given that she has always treated the fact that her old man is a "bogger" as she diplomatically puts it as the kind of dark family secret best not spoken about :)
Lastly for now, just seen this on the wire, Irish Eyes WINTER FREEROLL is on Saturday, February 21st @ 19:30 with €3,000 in the prize pool. The tournament will have 200 prizes. The tournaments will be open for registration one hour before start and the maximum number of participations is 5000. The buy-in equals to 10 VIP-points and needs to be earned in the last 24 hours before the tournament start.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
When I wrote last week's letter, I was looking forward to day 2 of Estrellas Madrid. Unfortunately, it could hardly have gone much worse. I went from 26/222 at the start of the day to busting just over 2 hours in with about 150 still left in. First hand of the day I lost a flip against a short stack, and from that point on just couldn't seem to win a hand. The final insuly was getting aces cracked by sevens all in pre. That left me with 10 bigs which were duly sent into battle with KJs, which proved no match for the AK it ran into.
I was at the same table as one of the only two other Irish in the field, Dubliner John Gallagher. He had no better luck busting before me. He'd been at the same table as Ireland's top ranked online mtt player currently, Daniel "danloulou" Smyth, on day 1. I was talking to Dan online and his day 1 sounded like my day 2. Both were telling me about the cash games they played in Madrid, which apart from being the softest they'd ever seen, had one very unusual feature: action proceeded anti-clockwise rather than the more usual clockwise!
Normally I'd jump into a few side events after an early main event exit, but with Mrs. Doke in tow I decided to do the tourist thing instead, and just played a small amount online. I had a reasonably good Sunday thanks to winning another Galway UKIPT satellite, my tenth in all, and a deep run in the Bigger 55. Well done to Feargal "MidniteKowby" Nealon who had a deep run in the Million and was very unlucky not to go farther, and Daragh "INoUrCards" Davey who was 5th in the 35K on Irish Eyes, meaning "other" Daragh notched up back to back final tables in Sunday majors in the last two weeks. Daragh's is my travelling companion and roommate for my trip to Prague on Wednesday so I'm hoping some of his recent form and run good rubs off on me. A number of other Team Irish Eyes players are travelling including Connie O'Sullivan, Kieran Walsh, Jason Arthur, Richie Lawlor and Gerry Kane.
For those that have missed Prague, the next EMOP is in Lisbon. Iron Man VIP Freerolls (6 of them with €2,000 packages in each), as well as regular sats, will start on Irish Eyes on 1st February.
While in Madrid, Phil Baker contacted me asking me if I'd represent Dublin in the fortcoming Inter County Poker championships in April. Given that I was born in Clare, but my family moved to Wexford when I was three, there are a few counties that coulds claim me if they so wished but first come first served, plus at this stage I have spent most of my adult life in Dublin's fair city. My daughter, a rabid Dubs fan in the GAA, will hopefully be proud at last given that she has always treated the fact that her old man is a "bogger" as she diplomatically puts it as the kind of dark family secret best not spoken about :)
Lastly for now, just seen this on the wire, Irish Eyes WINTER FREEROLL is on Saturday, February 21st @ 19:30 with €3,000 in the prize pool. The tournament will have 200 prizes. The tournaments will be open for registration one hour before start and the maximum number of participations is 5000. The buy-in equals to 10 VIP-points and needs to be earned in the last 24 hours before the tournament start.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Friday, January 27, 2012
Letter from Doke (27th January 2012)
Hi,
I spent this weekend in Clane at the IPPF. Very enjoyable and well run tournament, even if I didn't trouble the scorers.
My favoured strategy in softish live events with a good structure is to try to chip up steadily using a smallball approach, rather than making any premature big moves. However, there inevitably comes a time when you have to kick on as blinds and antes escalate. After Gavin Flynn opened to 1700 utg at 400/800 with a 100 ante, I elected to flat call with AK in the small blind. I prefer flatting in these spots out of position against a good player when the effective stack is 40 to 55 bbs, as the threebet just inflates the pot and makes it likely that if we do get it all in pre, I'm going to be flipping at best. I think the threebet also folds out most of the hands in Gav's range that I dominate, while the flatcall disguises my hand. It allows me to get away cheaply if I miss the flop, but potentially win a big pot if I hit. The big blind came along. The flop was 8 high all hearts (I had the ace of hearts). In my mind, I now have enough equity that I'm happy to get it all in, and did after the big blind potted it, GGav folded, and I check raised. I assumed I was flipping nearly always with two overs and a flush draw, but wasn't in this case. I was up against a queen high made flush and didn't get there.
I didn't really think too much about the hand until a good player at the table told me later he didn't like how I played it, preferring the 3 bet pre, and the check call on the flop. I strongly disagree though (I don't like putting in a chunk of my stack when I'm going to have to fold most turns and can add about 30% to my stack without showdown if the check raise gets through), but I ran the hand by a couple of other good players (my friends David Lappin and Rob Taylor who both play it same as me).
I was back later for the side event. I made a strong start doubling my stack early on without any major showdowns. There was one funny hand with Ciaran Cooney. Ciaran 4xed the button to 200 over a limper, I threebet to 550 from the big blind with queens, the limper flatted, Ciaran 4 bet, and after a little deliberation I decided the fold was most prudent here. Ciaran showed 93o. He told me later he'd done it because in his very first live event a few years ago he'd 6 bet me with 23o and got me to fold, so I guess Ciaran's timing is good in that he finds me with the one hand I'd be 3 bet folding here (everything weaker gets flatted at this point, and everything stronger is not getting folded). I'm fine with the fold though, there's nothing wrong with folding the best hand from time to time (it certainly beats calling with the worst every time), and a couple of top players told me they'd make what Lappin calls a "boxy" fold in this spot.
I ruined my good start the next time I got queens. Having raised in late position and got called by both blinds, I cbet when checked to on a 542 flop. Smurph called and the big blind now shoved. My instant read on him was that he wasn't strong, he seemed just to be fed up of my constant raising, so I figured he was either overplaying something marginal, or making a move assuming I couldn't have hit that flop. So I called. Smurph now reshoved and my gut was I was now beaten. However, I only needed to be good about 35% of the time to call, and convinced myself I could be up against a smaller overpair or a pair and a draw hand involving a three. On reflection I don't think I'm good here often enough, so not exactly my finest hour. The big blind had 94o, and Smurph a set of 4s. This hand illustrates an important point: sometimes you have so much of your stack in already with a strong hand (a big overpair in this case) that you feel committed to call off the rest, but you still shouldn't unless you think you're going to be good enough of the time for the call to be profitable in its own right. I never recovered from this, being forced to wait for a decent spot to shove. A7 over a couple of limps looked like one but ran into AJ behind. That ended my weekend on the playing front.
A few well dones are in order to some friends who did well in Clane and online. David Lappin, playing his first major in ages, romped into the last 100 of the Million on Stars like the classic thoroughbred he is, and just as we were both getting excited about the 200k plus up top, unfortunately ran tens into kings with 67 left. Great show by the talented Mr Lappin though, who has also made me the subject of his latest entertaining blog at http://www.dublinbellybusters.com/blog.html which explains among other things why I'm not David Bowie.
Daragh Davey, who bunked on the couch in the suite myself and Mick shared and got a lift back from Clane with us demonstrated his true grit within a few hours. Shaking off the disappointment of playing brilliantly for 3 days to just double his money, he ended headsup in the Ipoker 200K, and was unlucky not to win when his AT was outdrawn by KQ. I'm on record as an admirer of "other" Daragh, and my admiration is based at least as much on his temperament, discipline and attitude as it is on his poker skills (which are considerable).
Well done also to Rob Taylor. Rob's been playing on Irish Eyes a good bit recently and in his first crack at the Sunday major there, final tabled the €35k guaranteed.
Also a big well done to two of the Dungarvan gang, Mark O'Connor and Gavin Flynn, for chopping the main event in Clane. Both lads are part of the Dungarvan group of players that seem to feed off each other's success, and you'll be hearing a lot more of these lads in future. I heard that two of Ireland's "live pros" were taking the piss out of what they called internet players on their table on day one. While it used to be the case that many online players struggled to transition to live, I think it was noteworthy that when the dust cleared at the weekend, it was two young online players who had risen to the top. The last few years have seen the online kids rise to dominate the international stage, and the next couple will see the same thing happen here in my opinion.
I also ran into Breifne at the weekend, promoting his new venture, www.sharkRankings.com. The basic idea is to have a ranking list for live and online events. Irish Eyes are running a number of qualifying events at quarter past eight 5 nights a week. I've been hitting these up when I can with spectacularly unsuccessful results (I've yet to cash!).
This letter is being typed up in a hotel room in Madrid, where yesterday I played 1a of Estrellas. I started fairly miserably and was down to 6k at one point but managed to maintain my discipline and composure to finish with 52k, comfortably above average. Fingers crossed for day 2 tomorrow. With a prize pool in the region of half a million euros, it would be a nice time to get some live run good.
Next week I'm off to Prague for EMOP (and the live final for last year's leaderboard). I know some other prominent Team Irish Eyes members like Connie O'Sullivan, Richie Lawlor and Kieran "Croc" Walsh are also travelling so it should be a fun trip.
Finally, I'll leave you for this week with an anecdote about the funniest text I've received in a while. Having viewed my latest career change with a mixture of shock and disdain initially, my daughter Fiona seems to be coming round to the view that there may be something to this poker lark. When she was home for Christmas, she asked me to give her a crash course so she could play with her housemates in Limerick where she now lives. It took only 15 minutes or so as she's a very quick learner (it's clear that whatever talent for the game I possess she has inherited). She's still a novice though, and I got the following amusing text from her this weekend:
"If you're playing holdem and you accidentally say straight instead of flush before you show your hand, do you lose the pot because of it? Or is it just a stupid rule the lads just made up?"
As I texted back to her that they'd made it up, I regretted that we never had that Daddy-daughter talk where I explain that lads are sneaky. Limerick lads especially.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
I spent this weekend in Clane at the IPPF. Very enjoyable and well run tournament, even if I didn't trouble the scorers.
My favoured strategy in softish live events with a good structure is to try to chip up steadily using a smallball approach, rather than making any premature big moves. However, there inevitably comes a time when you have to kick on as blinds and antes escalate. After Gavin Flynn opened to 1700 utg at 400/800 with a 100 ante, I elected to flat call with AK in the small blind. I prefer flatting in these spots out of position against a good player when the effective stack is 40 to 55 bbs, as the threebet just inflates the pot and makes it likely that if we do get it all in pre, I'm going to be flipping at best. I think the threebet also folds out most of the hands in Gav's range that I dominate, while the flatcall disguises my hand. It allows me to get away cheaply if I miss the flop, but potentially win a big pot if I hit. The big blind came along. The flop was 8 high all hearts (I had the ace of hearts). In my mind, I now have enough equity that I'm happy to get it all in, and did after the big blind potted it, GGav folded, and I check raised. I assumed I was flipping nearly always with two overs and a flush draw, but wasn't in this case. I was up against a queen high made flush and didn't get there.
I didn't really think too much about the hand until a good player at the table told me later he didn't like how I played it, preferring the 3 bet pre, and the check call on the flop. I strongly disagree though (I don't like putting in a chunk of my stack when I'm going to have to fold most turns and can add about 30% to my stack without showdown if the check raise gets through), but I ran the hand by a couple of other good players (my friends David Lappin and Rob Taylor who both play it same as me).
I was back later for the side event. I made a strong start doubling my stack early on without any major showdowns. There was one funny hand with Ciaran Cooney. Ciaran 4xed the button to 200 over a limper, I threebet to 550 from the big blind with queens, the limper flatted, Ciaran 4 bet, and after a little deliberation I decided the fold was most prudent here. Ciaran showed 93o. He told me later he'd done it because in his very first live event a few years ago he'd 6 bet me with 23o and got me to fold, so I guess Ciaran's timing is good in that he finds me with the one hand I'd be 3 bet folding here (everything weaker gets flatted at this point, and everything stronger is not getting folded). I'm fine with the fold though, there's nothing wrong with folding the best hand from time to time (it certainly beats calling with the worst every time), and a couple of top players told me they'd make what Lappin calls a "boxy" fold in this spot.
I ruined my good start the next time I got queens. Having raised in late position and got called by both blinds, I cbet when checked to on a 542 flop. Smurph called and the big blind now shoved. My instant read on him was that he wasn't strong, he seemed just to be fed up of my constant raising, so I figured he was either overplaying something marginal, or making a move assuming I couldn't have hit that flop. So I called. Smurph now reshoved and my gut was I was now beaten. However, I only needed to be good about 35% of the time to call, and convinced myself I could be up against a smaller overpair or a pair and a draw hand involving a three. On reflection I don't think I'm good here often enough, so not exactly my finest hour. The big blind had 94o, and Smurph a set of 4s. This hand illustrates an important point: sometimes you have so much of your stack in already with a strong hand (a big overpair in this case) that you feel committed to call off the rest, but you still shouldn't unless you think you're going to be good enough of the time for the call to be profitable in its own right. I never recovered from this, being forced to wait for a decent spot to shove. A7 over a couple of limps looked like one but ran into AJ behind. That ended my weekend on the playing front.
A few well dones are in order to some friends who did well in Clane and online. David Lappin, playing his first major in ages, romped into the last 100 of the Million on Stars like the classic thoroughbred he is, and just as we were both getting excited about the 200k plus up top, unfortunately ran tens into kings with 67 left. Great show by the talented Mr Lappin though, who has also made me the subject of his latest entertaining blog at http://www.dublinbellybusters.com/blog.html which explains among other things why I'm not David Bowie.
Daragh Davey, who bunked on the couch in the suite myself and Mick shared and got a lift back from Clane with us demonstrated his true grit within a few hours. Shaking off the disappointment of playing brilliantly for 3 days to just double his money, he ended headsup in the Ipoker 200K, and was unlucky not to win when his AT was outdrawn by KQ. I'm on record as an admirer of "other" Daragh, and my admiration is based at least as much on his temperament, discipline and attitude as it is on his poker skills (which are considerable).
Well done also to Rob Taylor. Rob's been playing on Irish Eyes a good bit recently and in his first crack at the Sunday major there, final tabled the €35k guaranteed.
Also a big well done to two of the Dungarvan gang, Mark O'Connor and Gavin Flynn, for chopping the main event in Clane. Both lads are part of the Dungarvan group of players that seem to feed off each other's success, and you'll be hearing a lot more of these lads in future. I heard that two of Ireland's "live pros" were taking the piss out of what they called internet players on their table on day one. While it used to be the case that many online players struggled to transition to live, I think it was noteworthy that when the dust cleared at the weekend, it was two young online players who had risen to the top. The last few years have seen the online kids rise to dominate the international stage, and the next couple will see the same thing happen here in my opinion.
I also ran into Breifne at the weekend, promoting his new venture, www.sharkRankings.com. The basic idea is to have a ranking list for live and online events. Irish Eyes are running a number of qualifying events at quarter past eight 5 nights a week. I've been hitting these up when I can with spectacularly unsuccessful results (I've yet to cash!).
This letter is being typed up in a hotel room in Madrid, where yesterday I played 1a of Estrellas. I started fairly miserably and was down to 6k at one point but managed to maintain my discipline and composure to finish with 52k, comfortably above average. Fingers crossed for day 2 tomorrow. With a prize pool in the region of half a million euros, it would be a nice time to get some live run good.
Next week I'm off to Prague for EMOP (and the live final for last year's leaderboard). I know some other prominent Team Irish Eyes members like Connie O'Sullivan, Richie Lawlor and Kieran "Croc" Walsh are also travelling so it should be a fun trip.
Finally, I'll leave you for this week with an anecdote about the funniest text I've received in a while. Having viewed my latest career change with a mixture of shock and disdain initially, my daughter Fiona seems to be coming round to the view that there may be something to this poker lark. When she was home for Christmas, she asked me to give her a crash course so she could play with her housemates in Limerick where she now lives. It took only 15 minutes or so as she's a very quick learner (it's clear that whatever talent for the game I possess she has inherited). She's still a novice though, and I got the following amusing text from her this weekend:
"If you're playing holdem and you accidentally say straight instead of flush before you show your hand, do you lose the pot because of it? Or is it just a stupid rule the lads just made up?"
As I texted back to her that they'd made it up, I regretted that we never had that Daddy-daughter talk where I explain that lads are sneaky. Limerick lads especially.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Monday, January 23, 2012
€10,000 Freeroll week on Terminal Poker
Terminal Poker will start this year with a massive Freeroll Week. €10,000 has been added to the freerolls throughout the week. This means that the schedule will look a bit different, but we are sure it is changes that you will gladly embrace.
Monday to Saturday at 20:00 CET you will be able to play a €1,000 freeroll and the Sunday freeroll is even bigger with €2,000 added.
The major freerolls come with a raked hand requirement that is easy to complete, so having money on your poker account has never been more valuable than now. If you thought the freerolls already had great value, then we are sure that you no longer have a name for how good they are this week.
---------------------------------------------------------
Schedule for the biggest tournaments during the Freeroll Week:
Monday-Saturday
€1,000 Freeroll at 20:00 CET
Registration requirement: 100 raked hands within 24 hours before the tournaments starts.
Sunday
€2,000 Freeroll at 20:00 CET
Registration requirement: 500 raked hands within 7 days before the tournament starts.
We also run €75 warm-up freerolls three times every day at 12:00, 16:00 and 23:00 CET. To play in these you only need to play 10 raked hands the last 24 hours.
We wish you the best of luck in the tournaments and we recommend you to start earning the raked hands already now as tonight at 20:00 the first tournament will start.
We also recommend you to try the mobile client on your smartphone or tablet. It is really cool but please note that you can only play the freerolls from the download client.
Signup today and get a 200% deposit bonus up to €400. Click here to get the bonus.
Monday to Saturday at 20:00 CET you will be able to play a €1,000 freeroll and the Sunday freeroll is even bigger with €2,000 added.
The major freerolls come with a raked hand requirement that is easy to complete, so having money on your poker account has never been more valuable than now. If you thought the freerolls already had great value, then we are sure that you no longer have a name for how good they are this week.
---------------------------------------------------------
Schedule for the biggest tournaments during the Freeroll Week:
Monday-Saturday
€1,000 Freeroll at 20:00 CET
Registration requirement: 100 raked hands within 24 hours before the tournaments starts.
Sunday
€2,000 Freeroll at 20:00 CET
Registration requirement: 500 raked hands within 7 days before the tournament starts.
We also run €75 warm-up freerolls three times every day at 12:00, 16:00 and 23:00 CET. To play in these you only need to play 10 raked hands the last 24 hours.
We wish you the best of luck in the tournaments and we recommend you to start earning the raked hands already now as tonight at 20:00 the first tournament will start.
We also recommend you to try the mobile client on your smartphone or tablet. It is really cool but please note that you can only play the freerolls from the download client.
Signup today and get a 200% deposit bonus up to €400. Click here to get the bonus.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Letter from Doke (9th January 2012)
Hi,
Doke here again. I spent most of this week out at Citywest at the WPT. On Wednesday I played the supersat and had a fairly early bath losing with an overpair v an underpair.
I played the main event the next day. The 30k starting stack allowed for a lot of play, but I handicapped myself by starting with 20k after losing 10k almost first hand with aces. More on that hand later. I barely won a pot and before the dinner break I got set over setted. That left me with ten big blinds which went shortly afterwards with AKs. I got called by the English guy who had set over setted me, Bodog sponsored pro Tatiana Pasalic, and then Dermot Blain squeezed for almost half his stack. Tatiana called again and when the 7 high board was checked down I was starting to think I might be good for at least a chop. Dermot announced ace high and turned over Aj, but Tatiana had kings!
I was back the next day for the IPC. In truth my table was a lot tougher than my WPT table, so I hunkered down through a period of card death until Padraig Parkinson doubled me up trying to bluff me off the nuts. I more or less tread water til close of play. Day 2 was a long tough grind where I never managed to get past the 100k mark, and towards the end of the day drifted back to 40k before the bubble burst.
So back to day 3 short but in the money. I needed to find something quick, and a couple of races won with AK were just the ticket to put me right into the mix. I then lost with kings v ace jack all in pre. Had I won that, I'd have been up over 250k and above average. Instead I hung round the 125K mark until my exit, aces against nines. A friend commented "another standard live cooler for Doke" and I do seem to go out of a lot of tournaments in similar fashion. I know nearly every poker player complains about running bad and thinks they run worse than they do, but I do genuinely feel I've run well below expectation live, at least at the business end of tournaments. I always seem to lose a big 70/30 or 80/20 at the crucial time, and while I can't complain about my consistency (which apparently attracted the attention of the Hendon Mob: Mick Mccloskey told me at the weekend I was the answer to one of their annual guiz questions: "Which Irish player had the most Hendon mob cashes last year?"), I do feel I could have won a couple of major live titles for now with a little less bad luck at the right time. This felt like another such occasion.
Well done to a few of my friends who did cash: Cat Taylor and David Lappin both final tabled the 250 side event (David also won a seat in the supersat), and Jono Crute also cashed. Also very well done to Kieran "Croc" Walsh who won the EMOP Ironman freeroll for a package to
EMOP Prague. Check out Irish Eyes for the many ways you can qualify for this.
You can see a teaser clip of an documentary on poker in Ireland I contributed to, which was directed by Eoghan O'Mahony at http://youtu.be/MOWy09t9CfY
Also this week I was interviewed by PocketFives about my second triple crown. You can read the interview at http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/doke-wins-second-triple-crown-587072/
This week's strategy for once features a hand I made a mistake in for once. It started with a competent aggro German opening in early position. I found aces behind. Flatting with aces has come back into fashion and in some instances I would but on this occasion I decided the threebet hoping to induce a light fourbet as my opponent was capable of doing this and we had some history (I'd already threebet folded to him). He flatted, and the flop came JT7 with two diamonds.
This is about as bad as flops get for aces as it smacks the flatter's range. However, I usually have the best hand on a draw heavy board so I have to bet when checked to. My opponent again called. So far so standard. The turn was a five of clubs bringing a second possible flush draw. Here's where I went wrong in the hand. When my opponent checks to me again, it's a tossup between checking behind for pot control, or betting if I think he's on a draw. However, if I bet I should fold to a reraise as then my opponent's range swings away from draws to hands that beat me (sets and two pair hands). Instead, I bet and called the check raise. The river blanked, he bet quite small, and I made a crying call in case he was value betting something like kings, or bluffing a missed draw.
SharkRankings.com is a new website that presents a ranking system for poker players to compare their results across the entire spectrum of the poker community in Ireland incorporating the results of nominated Online games as well as Major Championships such as the Irish Open, WPT, IPO, UKIPT, the domestic festival circuit and the clubs schedules currently on offer in casinos, card clubs and pubs around the country.
The rankings include an online ladder specifically for Irish Eyes Poker which will display the accumulated points totals for all players entered in the daily ranking tournaments running on the site which awards Shark Ranking points.
The ranking tournaments will run daily, seven days a week, at 8.15pm and will be €30 + €3 deepstack freezeouts with a starting stack of 3000 and a 12 minute clock. These tournaments will run from January 9th 2012.
SharkRankings.com online ladder points will be issued to all players who finish in the top 10% of the field in each tournament - with at least 3 players receiving points. Ranking points are calculated based on the number of players, the tournament buy-in and the finishing position of each player.
As well as the bragging rights that go with being at the business end of the rankings, the top ten players in the overall Online ranking leader board on SharkRankings.com at the end of 2012 will qualify to participate in the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll with a guaranteed prizepool of €10,000.
Irish Eyes Poker are also pleased to announce that the overall winner of the individual Irish Eyes Poker ranking ladder will also qualify for the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll. The Irish Eyes Poker rankings will consist solely of Irish Eyes Poker players who accumulate ranking points via Shark Rankings events on Irish Eyes Poker.
And if that wasn't enough, we have also placed a bounty on my head. Eliminate me from any of the Shark Rankings nightly games and you will be entered into a freeroll with a chance to win a €200 ticket to the €100,000 guaranteed monthly game right here on Irish Eyes Poker.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Doke here again. I spent most of this week out at Citywest at the WPT. On Wednesday I played the supersat and had a fairly early bath losing with an overpair v an underpair.
I played the main event the next day. The 30k starting stack allowed for a lot of play, but I handicapped myself by starting with 20k after losing 10k almost first hand with aces. More on that hand later. I barely won a pot and before the dinner break I got set over setted. That left me with ten big blinds which went shortly afterwards with AKs. I got called by the English guy who had set over setted me, Bodog sponsored pro Tatiana Pasalic, and then Dermot Blain squeezed for almost half his stack. Tatiana called again and when the 7 high board was checked down I was starting to think I might be good for at least a chop. Dermot announced ace high and turned over Aj, but Tatiana had kings!
I was back the next day for the IPC. In truth my table was a lot tougher than my WPT table, so I hunkered down through a period of card death until Padraig Parkinson doubled me up trying to bluff me off the nuts. I more or less tread water til close of play. Day 2 was a long tough grind where I never managed to get past the 100k mark, and towards the end of the day drifted back to 40k before the bubble burst.
So back to day 3 short but in the money. I needed to find something quick, and a couple of races won with AK were just the ticket to put me right into the mix. I then lost with kings v ace jack all in pre. Had I won that, I'd have been up over 250k and above average. Instead I hung round the 125K mark until my exit, aces against nines. A friend commented "another standard live cooler for Doke" and I do seem to go out of a lot of tournaments in similar fashion. I know nearly every poker player complains about running bad and thinks they run worse than they do, but I do genuinely feel I've run well below expectation live, at least at the business end of tournaments. I always seem to lose a big 70/30 or 80/20 at the crucial time, and while I can't complain about my consistency (which apparently attracted the attention of the Hendon Mob: Mick Mccloskey told me at the weekend I was the answer to one of their annual guiz questions: "Which Irish player had the most Hendon mob cashes last year?"), I do feel I could have won a couple of major live titles for now with a little less bad luck at the right time. This felt like another such occasion.
Well done to a few of my friends who did cash: Cat Taylor and David Lappin both final tabled the 250 side event (David also won a seat in the supersat), and Jono Crute also cashed. Also very well done to Kieran "Croc" Walsh who won the EMOP Ironman freeroll for a package to
EMOP Prague. Check out Irish Eyes for the many ways you can qualify for this.
You can see a teaser clip of an documentary on poker in Ireland I contributed to, which was directed by Eoghan O'Mahony at http://youtu.be/MOWy09t9CfY
Also this week I was interviewed by PocketFives about my second triple crown. You can read the interview at http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/doke-wins-second-triple-crown-587072/
This week's strategy for once features a hand I made a mistake in for once. It started with a competent aggro German opening in early position. I found aces behind. Flatting with aces has come back into fashion and in some instances I would but on this occasion I decided the threebet hoping to induce a light fourbet as my opponent was capable of doing this and we had some history (I'd already threebet folded to him). He flatted, and the flop came JT7 with two diamonds.
This is about as bad as flops get for aces as it smacks the flatter's range. However, I usually have the best hand on a draw heavy board so I have to bet when checked to. My opponent again called. So far so standard. The turn was a five of clubs bringing a second possible flush draw. Here's where I went wrong in the hand. When my opponent checks to me again, it's a tossup between checking behind for pot control, or betting if I think he's on a draw. However, if I bet I should fold to a reraise as then my opponent's range swings away from draws to hands that beat me (sets and two pair hands). Instead, I bet and called the check raise. The river blanked, he bet quite small, and I made a crying call in case he was value betting something like kings, or bluffing a missed draw.
SharkRankings.com is a new website that presents a ranking system for poker players to compare their results across the entire spectrum of the poker community in Ireland incorporating the results of nominated Online games as well as Major Championships such as the Irish Open, WPT, IPO, UKIPT, the domestic festival circuit and the clubs schedules currently on offer in casinos, card clubs and pubs around the country.
The rankings include an online ladder specifically for Irish Eyes Poker which will display the accumulated points totals for all players entered in the daily ranking tournaments running on the site which awards Shark Ranking points.
The ranking tournaments will run daily, seven days a week, at 8.15pm and will be €30 + €3 deepstack freezeouts with a starting stack of 3000 and a 12 minute clock. These tournaments will run from January 9th 2012.
SharkRankings.com online ladder points will be issued to all players who finish in the top 10% of the field in each tournament - with at least 3 players receiving points. Ranking points are calculated based on the number of players, the tournament buy-in and the finishing position of each player.
As well as the bragging rights that go with being at the business end of the rankings, the top ten players in the overall Online ranking leader board on SharkRankings.com at the end of 2012 will qualify to participate in the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll with a guaranteed prizepool of €10,000.
Irish Eyes Poker are also pleased to announce that the overall winner of the individual Irish Eyes Poker ranking ladder will also qualify for the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll. The Irish Eyes Poker rankings will consist solely of Irish Eyes Poker players who accumulate ranking points via Shark Rankings events on Irish Eyes Poker.
And if that wasn't enough, we have also placed a bounty on my head. Eliminate me from any of the Shark Rankings nightly games and you will be entered into a freeroll with a chance to win a €200 ticket to the €100,000 guaranteed monthly game right here on Irish Eyes Poker.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Sharkrankings Online Ranking Event
How Do You Compare against the Best Poker Players in Ireland
SharkRankings.com is a new website that presents a ranking system for poker players to compare their results across the entire spectrum of the poker community in Ireland incorporating the results of nominated Online games as well as Major Championships such as the Irish Open, WPT, IPO, UKIPT, the domestic festival circuit and the clubs schedules currently on offer in casinos, card clubs and pubs around the country.
The rankings include an online ladder specifically for Irish Eyes Poker which will display the accumulated points totals for all players entered in the daily ranking tournaments running on the site which awards Shark Ranking points.
The ranking tournaments will run daily, seven days a week, at 8.15pm and will be €30 + €3 deepstack freezeouts with a starting stack of 3000 and a 12 minute clock. These tournaments will run from January 9th 2012.
SharkRankings.com online ladder points will be issued to all players who finish in the top 10% of the field in each tournament – with at least 3 players receiving points. Ranking points are calculated based on the number of players, the tournament buy-in and the finishing position of each player.
As well as the bragging rights that go with being at the business end of the rankings, the top ten players in the overall Online ranking leader board on SharkRankings.com at the end of 2012 will qualify to participate in the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll with a guaranteed prizepool of €10,000.
Irish Eyes Poker are also pleased to announce that the overall winner of the individual Irish Eyes Poker ranking ladder will also qualify for the SharkRankings.com Final Freeroll. The Irish Eyes Poker rankings will consist solely of Irish Eyes Poker players who accumulate ranking points via Shark Rankings events on Irish Eyes Poker.
And if that wasn’t enough, we have also placed a bounty on the head of Dara ‘doke’ O’Kearney (okearney) captain of Team Irish Eyes Poker. Eliminate Dara from any of the Shark Rankings nightly games and you will be entered into a freeroll with a chance to win a €200 ticket to the €100,000 guaranteed monthly game right here on Irish Eyes Poker.
Tournaments are running nightly so get started on accumulating those points. Full details can be found on www.sharkrankings.com
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Letter from Doke (4th January 2012)
Hi
Doke here again wishing you all a Happy New Year. May 2012 be the year when all our hands hold and all our draws are filled.
2011 ended on something of a high for me online. On Tuesday I won a $109 freezeout on Stars. The following night, I won a $50 freezeout on Stars to set up a possible online Triple Crown (given out by Pocket Fives to players who win three large tournaments on three different networks in a seven day period). Thursday was supposed to be a day off, or rather offline, but a relatively early bustout in the Fitz end of month gave me some time to sneak in a few games online. I ended up headsup with Miguel Silva in the High Roller on Merge. Unfortunately,I busted shortly after losing a flip for the win.
The following night I was down to the last three in a $10k $100 freezeout on Party. Unfortunately, the competition couldn't have been much stiffer: Brazil's Joao Mathias Baumgarten and Canada's Sebastian Sikorski are two of the top online mtt players in the world. Fortunately, I managed to win my flips on this occasion after getting headsup with Joao to clinch my second triple crown (my first, the first ever by an Irish player, was won just before Vegas this year).
Of course, the first question most of my friends asked when they heard was that most Irish of questions: "How much did you get for it?" The answer is nothing (beyond what I got for winning the tournaments themselves): it's purely an honorary achievement.
Also, I'd like to say a very well done to my good friend Feargal Nealon, who chopped one of the Stars Sunday majors, the Supersonic turbo. Feargal crushes turbos so the result comes as no surprise.
This week's strategy looks at preflop bet sizing. The trend online (and more recently live) has been for smaller and smaller opening raises. Towards the end of tournaments, I tend to take this to the extreme and always open for a min raise. A lot of players think they have to defend against a min raise, but this is a mistake. The hand that crippled me in the Fitz EOM illustrates this. I opened for a min raise, got one caller behind, and the big blind decided he had to defend because "it's only a min raise". When the flop came A22 with two clubs, I was pretty sure my AK (with the king of clubs) was the best hand when the blind decided not only to lead out on the flop, but to shove all in for several times the pot. It's difficult to see him doing this with any hand that beats me (like a 2) so it's pretty much always either a worse ace or a flush draw. I therefore called instantly, and he sheepishly turned over 7c3c. Although it worked out for him on this occasion (he hit his flush on the river), his play both before and after the flop is losing long term. With 73,he's either going to have to flop two pair or better (approximately a 25 to 1 shot) or a flush draw (a 9 to 1 shot) to be able to continue profitably past the flop. And even when he does flop a flush draw, it generally just means he'll be getting his stack in as a 2 to 1 if called, as happened on this occasion. The flop play is unprofitable too: he's risking several times the pot hoping neither me nor the other guy have an ace, and if we have one, two times out of three his tournament ends here. People sometimes ask me why I don't raise more to try to get people to fold preflop, but my answer is I don't want 7 high folding in the long term.
This week sees the first ever Irish WPT, and I'm looking forward to playing Day 1 on Thursday.
Irish Eyes are again running their Winter Tournament Series at the end of January. This is great value with five tournaments in each of two series, one for low stakes and one for high stakes. It's two daily tournaments, one with a €5 buy-in and one with a buy-in of €50, running between Sunday January 22nd and Friday January 26th. There's €21,000 in added prizemoney for the players who come at in the top places in each league including an EMOP Prague package also to be won. There more about this on the promotions page of the Irish Eyes website.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Doke here again wishing you all a Happy New Year. May 2012 be the year when all our hands hold and all our draws are filled.
2011 ended on something of a high for me online. On Tuesday I won a $109 freezeout on Stars. The following night, I won a $50 freezeout on Stars to set up a possible online Triple Crown (given out by Pocket Fives to players who win three large tournaments on three different networks in a seven day period). Thursday was supposed to be a day off, or rather offline, but a relatively early bustout in the Fitz end of month gave me some time to sneak in a few games online. I ended up headsup with Miguel Silva in the High Roller on Merge. Unfortunately,I busted shortly after losing a flip for the win.
The following night I was down to the last three in a $10k $100 freezeout on Party. Unfortunately, the competition couldn't have been much stiffer: Brazil's Joao Mathias Baumgarten and Canada's Sebastian Sikorski are two of the top online mtt players in the world. Fortunately, I managed to win my flips on this occasion after getting headsup with Joao to clinch my second triple crown (my first, the first ever by an Irish player, was won just before Vegas this year).
Of course, the first question most of my friends asked when they heard was that most Irish of questions: "How much did you get for it?" The answer is nothing (beyond what I got for winning the tournaments themselves): it's purely an honorary achievement.
Also, I'd like to say a very well done to my good friend Feargal Nealon, who chopped one of the Stars Sunday majors, the Supersonic turbo. Feargal crushes turbos so the result comes as no surprise.
This week's strategy looks at preflop bet sizing. The trend online (and more recently live) has been for smaller and smaller opening raises. Towards the end of tournaments, I tend to take this to the extreme and always open for a min raise. A lot of players think they have to defend against a min raise, but this is a mistake. The hand that crippled me in the Fitz EOM illustrates this. I opened for a min raise, got one caller behind, and the big blind decided he had to defend because "it's only a min raise". When the flop came A22 with two clubs, I was pretty sure my AK (with the king of clubs) was the best hand when the blind decided not only to lead out on the flop, but to shove all in for several times the pot. It's difficult to see him doing this with any hand that beats me (like a 2) so it's pretty much always either a worse ace or a flush draw. I therefore called instantly, and he sheepishly turned over 7c3c. Although it worked out for him on this occasion (he hit his flush on the river), his play both before and after the flop is losing long term. With 73,he's either going to have to flop two pair or better (approximately a 25 to 1 shot) or a flush draw (a 9 to 1 shot) to be able to continue profitably past the flop. And even when he does flop a flush draw, it generally just means he'll be getting his stack in as a 2 to 1 if called, as happened on this occasion. The flop play is unprofitable too: he's risking several times the pot hoping neither me nor the other guy have an ace, and if we have one, two times out of three his tournament ends here. People sometimes ask me why I don't raise more to try to get people to fold preflop, but my answer is I don't want 7 high folding in the long term.
This week sees the first ever Irish WPT, and I'm looking forward to playing Day 1 on Thursday.
Irish Eyes are again running their Winter Tournament Series at the end of January. This is great value with five tournaments in each of two series, one for low stakes and one for high stakes. It's two daily tournaments, one with a €5 buy-in and one with a buy-in of €50, running between Sunday January 22nd and Friday January 26th. There's €21,000 in added prizemoney for the players who come at in the top places in each league including an EMOP Prague package also to be won. There more about this on the promotions page of the Irish Eyes website.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
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