Letter from Doke (News and Informantion 15th August 2012)

Hi

Since the last letter, I've left the house precisely once to player poker. I went along to the 888 Super Stack in Citywest with the idea that I'd gamble it up and either get a stack or be gone early. I've often gone into smaller events with that plan but never managed to execute it: in running I seem to be incapable of just flicking it in to gamble. Years of training to wait for good spots is hard to override I guess.

Once again I basically grinded my way through day one to finish up on starting stack but down on average. I've had a lot of short day 2's this year but this wasn't one. I ran very well until the final table but then lost a few flips to bust in 7th. Unfortunately you can't choose when to run good and my year so far proves it: I've run shockingly bad in all the bigger events, and the live events I've run best in tend to be the least important.

I don't plan much else this month live beyond the Fitz End of Month as I've a couple of foreign trips (UKIPT Newcastle and EMOP Barcelona) planned for next month so want to get in good volume online before. Online's been going very well since I came back from Vegas.

This week's strategy section is inspired by a reader who asked me if it was correct to shove all in on the button with 15.5 big blinds and no antes and K8o. My answer was "it depends on what hands you think the two blinds will call with". One of the biggest developments in poker in the past couple of years is that people call a lot more in these situations. A few years ago, typically the blinds would only call with a top 5% hand (some players were even tighter).

Let's look at the maths then. How do we figure out if a shove is profitable or not? The procedure is as follows:

(1) estimate what hands they will call with
(2) work out from that how often you'll get called. For example, if you think they'll both only call with a top 5% hand (99+,AJs+,KQs,AKo), then your shove will get through 90% of the time
(3) from this work out your fold equity (how much you can expect to pick up when they fold): 0.9 times 1.5 big blinds = 1.35 big blinds
(4) using Pokerstove or some other similar tool, calculate your equity when you are called (how often you should win). In this example, K8o has 25% equity against a top 5% hand
(5) you now work out your equity when called as 0.1 (.25*32 - 15.5) big blinds = -0.75 big blinds

So in this case, when the two blinds only call with top 5% of hands, it's a profitable shove. On average every time you do it, you win 1.35-0.75 = 0.6 big blinds.

However, as I said earlier, players call much wider typically these days, which changes the calculations. Say if instead of top 5% we think the blinds will call with a top 15% hand (77+,A7s+,K9s+,QTs+,JTs,ATo+,KTo+)

Now we have less fold equity since we get called 70% of the time. Our fold equity in this scenario is .7*1.5 = 1.05 big blinds.

Because we're called by a wider range of hands, we'll be in somewhat better shape when called, but according to Pokerstove we still only have 32% equity against a top 15% hand. So our equity loss when called is now 0.3 (.32*32 - 15.5) big blinds = -1.650 big blinds approximately. That means that the shove is now unprofitable to the tune of 1.05 - 1.650 = -0.6 big blinds.

A few years ago, most good players who found themselves getting short stacked would shove any two cards if folded to on the button. This was a reasonable strategy at the time as people rarely called but now that most people are calling closer to the correct frequency, that changes things.

How often is the correct frequency? That brings us to another concept called Nash Equilibrium, which I'll explain in the next letter.

Good luck at the tables, unless I'm at the same table!

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.

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

Letter from Doke (News and Promotions - 2nd August 2012)

Hi

Welcome to this week's letter where there is news on new promotions including details of a 'Reload Bonus', a look back at my trip to San Sebastian as well as our poker strategy section.

Since my last letter, I've got in some good online grinding (highlights were a deep run in Super Tuesday on Stars, a couple of high roller final tables and winning a Barcelona EMOP package on Irish Eyes) and a trip to Spain for Estrellas San Sebastian.

I had a pretty good day one, increasing from 15K starting to just over 27k at the end of the day. After a good start to day 2 (I was up to 37k after the first hand), it all went south fairly fast. After losing over half my stack with KQs versus J9o all in pre, my exit was one of the more bizarre I've ever had. It involved everyone folding to me in the small blind after the big blind had failed to protect his cards and had them mucked by the dealer, me shoving from the small blind, and him then being allowed to retrieve two cards from the muck and make the call with kings. I asked the dealer for the floor but there seemed to be a language issue and she didn't seem to understand. I spoke to the tournament director after the event but with the action having already moved on and other hands having been dealt, there was obviously nothing else that could be done at this point.

After that debacle I was in no real humour to play any side events so I just chilled for the rest of the trip. There was a good travelling Irish contingent that included David Lappin, Gary Clarke, Feargal Nealon and Annette Carroll. Feargal was chipleader for a while on day one and continued his recent run of good form with another cash. Feargal is looking very focussed at the table these days and I don't think it's a coincidence that his recent run of form has coincided with his getting into great physical shape (he recently won a bike race in Sligo!).

This week's strategy section continues my exit hand from the WSOP main event. After my opponent threebet big, my next decision was whether to flat call or raise, and if I did raise, how to size it. In these spots I would prefer to flat if I thought there was any danger my opponent would fold, but based on the way he was playing and his three bet sizing, I didn't feel this was likely. So I elected to raise. When sizing the raise, the main considerations were to size it so that it was (a) not too big that he might fold (if I shove all in for example or bet enough to make it clear I'm pot committed he might get the message) (b) not too small that he can profitably set mine.

Set mining is where you figure that you have a smaller pair and call with the intention of giving up if you don't hit a set because you feel that you'll win a big pot when you do hit a set to make it profitable. You flop a set 14% of the time so it needs to cost less than 14% of what you'll win to call preflop for it to be profitable (actually a bit less, since you can't be certain you'll get fully paid when you do, and occasionally you'll be set over setted or lose some other way even when you do hit your set). With a stack of 40k I therefore wanted to raise a bit more than 5600 to make set mining unprofitable, so I elected to raise just over 6k to 12925. This bet size is less than a third of my stack so my opponent might reasonably think I'm not committed (which is what happened).

Inspired by the 2012 Summer Olympics, Irish Eyes Poker is organizing its own Poker Olympics where poker champions get the recognition and the prizes that come along with the thrill of victory.
A MacBook Air, the new iPad, a trip to EMOP Barcelona, and cash are just some of the rewards at stake. Choose your event: 400 meter hurdles? The triple or high jump? A marathon? Enter the events and find riches on the road to glory! To enhance these exciting contests, players can receive an extra bonus by participating in the Reload Bonus during the second week of August.

MARATHON

Starting 9 August at 20:00, Irish Eyes Poker will run a weekly Thursday Marathon tournament, where players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air 11" (Core i5, 1.6 GHz, 64 GB, SSD) notebook or a cash prize. The buy-in is 20 VIP points that must be earned 48 hours prior to the start of each tournament.The maximum number of participants is 1000, 5000 in starting chips, and 20 minute levels.

The winners will be determined two hours after the tournament start. At approximately 22:00, the tournaments will be stopped. Depending on stack sizes at that time, all qualified players will receive their prizes.

When the tournament is stopped, a special The tournament is pausing note appears on all tables and all current hands are played out to the end.
The final standings of the tournament can be found on the Players tab.

MacBook Air, players must send an email with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Friday, 31 August:
- Subject: "Marathon MacBook claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home address
- Phone number
Cash prizes will be paid out within 48 hours after the tournament end.

ATHLETICS

Triple Jump

Get the same pair as a starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table and win €300.
This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables.

To claim a prize, players must send an email with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Friday, 31 August:
- Subject: "Triple Jump claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker nickname

High Jump

Get a Royal Flush in any suit using at least one of your hole cards and win €100.
This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables.

To claim a prize, players must send an email with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Friday, 31 August:
- Subject: "High Jump claim"
- Hand History number of the Royal Flush hand
- Poker nickname

400 Meter Hurdles

Win four Super Turbo Sit and Go tournaments in a row on the same level and win a new iPad (4G, 16 GB, White) or a cash prize!

Sit and Go's qualifying for this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time of registration.
To claim the new iPad, players must send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Friday, 31 August.

- Subject "400 Meter Hurdles claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit and Go in the series (in the poker lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname
- Full home address
- Phone number

RELOAD WEEK (6 - 12 August)

Reload your account between 6th and 12th August to receive a 100% deposit bonus. When depositing 50 euro use the code deposit50 or when depositing 100 euro use the code deposit100. Then when you have earned 500 vip points after the 50 euro deposit or 1000 vip points after the 100 euro deposit (there is no time limit to when you earn the vip points) you will receive your bonus.

SPRINT CHALLENGE - WIN A SEAT TO EMOP BARCELONA

Compete in the Sprint Challenge at 100, 200, 400 and 800 meters between 8 August and 29 August and take a chance to win a travel package to EMOP Barcelona worth €2,000! 
Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €1,100, fours nights' accommodation, and a €350 travel bonus, which is credited to the winners' poker account.

The buy-in in VIP-points is the same as each distance and is calculated from 1 August 00:00 until the start of each challenge. I hope to see you there.

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

Letter from Doke and Irish Eyes Gaming News (17th July 2012)

Hi
Welcome to this week's letter. The last letter was written after my day 1 in this year's WSOP main event where I complained about getting very little to play with. I went back to day 2 to find Daragh Davey to my immediate right and Pete "Multiplier" Murphy across the table. The rest of the table seemed pretty soft and I won a few early pots to move up to 55K.

Then I lost a few to Daragh and Pete (jacks v Daragh's kings blind on blind, straight v Pete's worse straight/flush draw). Most of these hands were essentially setups and against other opponents I could very well have gone bust, but the dynamic dicated that we were treading warily around each other.

Things seemed to be finally turning when I picked up aces two hands running. First time around, I flatted a raise from Daragh as I felt a 3 bet was in danger of getting too much respect given how tight I appeared to be playing. There was a reshove stack behind and a guy who overrated hands, two other reasons to flat I felt. I bet a ten high flop when checked to me and took it down.

Next hand I pick up aces again! This time I open when to 1275 it gets to me, my standard open at 300/600. Button calls and the guy who overrates hands threebet huge from the small blind, to 6900. There hadn't been a lot of 3 betting at the table, so feeling he had a hand I clicked it back to 12925, trying to induce a 5 bet. He obliged, making it 26k at which point I shove for 40k. After a little thought he called. I was expecting to see kings but hoping to see AK. He actually had queens. We both missed the flop, but the queen arrived on the turn to the exuberant cheers of his friends on the rail.

I left the scene in a daze, trying to come to terms with the fact that for the second year running, I'd hung tough through a day of card death only to been done in a massive pot with aces versus an underpair. Obviously I'm aware of variance and that you're supposed to lose at least 18% of those: it just hurts a lot more when it's in the biggest tournament of the year for about $30k in equity. But that's poker as they say, and there's no point in complaining. My "job" as a professional player is to get themoney in good. After that, it's out of my hands.

A few of the Irish lads got a bit of a run in the main event including Pete who cashed. Special well dones to Feargal "MidniteKowby" Nealon who busted late on day 4, and honorary Irishman Nick Abou Risk. Feargal started on an adjacent table to me and it was clear from the start and every time I ran into him after that he was focussed and in the zone. Feargal's been itching for a big live score for a while now and this will give him confidence for the future. Nick really is one of the good guys in poker and as he was listed on Poker News as Irish, was officially the last Irishman standing this year. No surprises there: if I'd been asked to nominate someone most likely to last the longest, I'd have gone for Nick.

This week's strategy section looks at some bet size considerations in my main event exit hand. I opened for my standard min raise. When opening a wide range of hands, it's crucial not to open different amounts depending on your hand strength, as perceptive opponents will pick up on this and be able to narrow your range when you do open based on your sizing. After the button flatted, my opponent with the queens 3 bet very large. I believe this is an example of a bet sizing tell: he did this because he felt he had a very strong but vulnerable hand which he needed to protect. The other disadvantages of this large sizing are it bloats the pot, reduces the possibility of getting action from weaker hands, and leaving less wiggle room to get away ifwe run into a stronger hand.

My 4 bet sizing required a little consideration on my part, which I'll look at in the next letter.

A reminder about the Kerry September Summer Sizzler, a €200 buy-in tournament with €15,000 guaranteed in Darby O'Gills Country House Hotel Killarney on the 8th September. This is a 2 day event and will no doubt be a great tournament if history of CueClub Events tournaments are anything to go by. Online satellites for buy-in and hotel B&B in Darby O'Gills are on Irish Eyes Poker starting this Sunday evening at 8pm. These €20 buy-in satellites will run each Sunday upto the event.

This letter is being written on the plane home from Vegas to the heckling of Daragh Davey (he does have a nasty habit of turning up in seats to my right) in the next seat. We're both looking forward to
getting back to the online grind after a month devoted almost exclusively to live poker.
Irish Eyes are also launching the new Hand Replayer in July.
To celebrate the launch of the new software which allows players to reply their hands, Irish Eyes Poker is offering prizes for special hands. (The following promotions are valid only in cash games and only when a minimum of three players have received cards.)

Texas Triple AA Special - Win a MacBook Air!

Get AA as your starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table, regardless of the stakes you're playing, and win an Apple MacBook Air notebook (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD)!

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
Subject: "Triple AA MacBook claim"
- Hand History number of the first AA hand
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Texas Triple Same Pair Special

Get the same pair, deuces to kings, as starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table and win €200.

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Triple Same Pair claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha Quad Aces Special

Get Four-of-a-Kind aces as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €100.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha Quad Aces claim"
- Hand History number of the quad aces hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha High Quads Special

Get Four of a Kind kings, queens, or jacks as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €50.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha High Quads claim"
- Hand History number of the quad hand
- Poker nickname

Four the Win! - Sit & Go Promotion

Win four Super Turbo Sit &Go tournaments in a row on the same level and win a cash prize!
Sit & Go's qualifying for this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Super Turbo SitGo (PROMO) Holdem NL €2 + €0.2 Prize = €200
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €10 + €1 Prize = 700

(Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time of registration.)To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July.
- Subject "Four the Win claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit & Go in the series (in the poker lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname

MacBook Air VIP SPECIAL

On Sunday, 8 July at 20:30, three players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air in a special tournament. The buy-in is 50 VIP points that must be earned starting from 1 July.

Prizes:
Three (3) Apple MacBook Air notebooks (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD). The maximum number of participants is 1000, 3000 in starting chips, and 12 minutes levels. To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 10 July.
- Subject "MacBook Tournament claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Freerolls:
Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803

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

Doke

Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here

Letter from Doke and News from Irish Eyes Gaming 9th July 2012

Welcome to this week's letter, which contains a catch up on how things are going here in Vegas, a strategy section, news on the Kerry September Sizzler Tournament and online promotions for July.

I'm writing this letter the night before I play day 1B of the WSOP main event. I'm going in feeling confident about my form after cashing in my last WSOP side event, and also in my only Venetian Deepstack of the summer.

In the WSOP side event, I got off to an amazing start, moving from 3K starting to 30K shortly after dinner. Nick Abou Risk tweeted me to say I was apparently chipleader at that point according to Pokernews. Unfortunately I lost a bit of ground late in the day but was still happy to bag up almost 25k. I lost half my stack early on day 2 in an unfortunate hand where I had queens on a t54 flop (versus ten four off), which left me with about 20 bigs. I stayed in that zone for the rest of my time in the tournament, eventually going out shoving king queen into queens. It's probably the least disappointed I've ever been after busting a major tournament as I pretty much felt I'd gone as far as I possibly could have given the cards and situations.

For anyone wanting to follow my progress in the main event, I'll be tweeting updates from my Twitter account (daraokearney).

Things have been going well for the 2 lads I'm rooming with as well. Daragh Davey just can't stop making day 2's and notched up yet another side event cash. And Jason Tompkins achieved the best result of any Irish player so far this series when he final tabled a 1K side event. 6 handed, he lost a massive flip against the best of the other players left. Had he won that, I think he was probably odds on for the bracelet. Amazing run and performance by Jason, who really did Irish poker proud.

In last week's letter, I went through one interesting bubble spot Jason had in the $2500 Mixed Holdem event and mentioned he had another. This was when he opened 99 under the gun, and an elderly recreational player shoved all in for ten big blinds. As a general rule a good player won't raise and then fold to a 10 big blind shove purely because of the price they're getting to call (over 2 to 1 in this case). However, Jason correctly reasoned that the only hand his opponent would move all in with in this spot (on a big bubble) was a big pair. Against a looser opponent who might reshove AK and pairs as low as jacks, it becomes a call. The reason for this is that even though the pairs crush us, we flip with ace king, and ace king is more likely (there are 16 possible ace king combinations, but only 6 of each pair), so against the total range of ace king and jacks or better, 2 to 1 is the correct price.
Curiously enough, if you think he'll shove tens also, it now becomes a fold. The presence of one extra pair that crushes nines in the range increases the pot odds needed from 2 to 1 to 2.2 to 1.

For those interested in a poker trip to Kerry in September, CueClub Events (Connie O'Sullivan and Matt Dobbins) are holding a €200 buy-in tournament with €15,000 guaranteed in Darby O'Gills Country House Hotel Killarney on the 8th September. This is a 2 day event and will no doubt be a great tournament if history of CueClub Events tournaments are anything to go by. Online satellites for buy-in and hotel B&B in Darby O'Gills are on Irish Eyes Poker starting this Sunday evening at 8pm. These €20 buy-in satellites will run each Sunday upto the event.

Irish Eyes are also launching the new Hand Replayer in July.
To celebrate the launch of the new software which allows players to reply their hands, Irish Eyes Poker is offering prizes for special hands. (The following promotions are valid only in cash games and only when a minimum of three players have received cards.)

Texas Triple AA Special - Win a MacBook Air!

Get AA as your starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table, regardless of the stakes you're playing, and win an Apple MacBook Air notebook (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD)!

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
Subject: "Triple AA MacBook claim"
- Hand History number of the first AA hand
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Texas Triple Same Pair Special

Get the same pair, deuces to kings, as starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table and win €200.

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Triple Same Pair claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha Quad Aces Special

Get Four-of-a-Kind aces as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €100.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha Quad Aces claim"
- Hand History number of the quad aces hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha High Quads Special

Get Four of a Kind kings, queens, or jacks as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €50.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha High Quads claim"
- Hand History number of the quad hand
- Poker nickname

Four the Win! - Sit & Go Promotion

Win four Super Turbo Sit &Go tournaments in a row on the same level and win a cash prize!
Sit & Go's qualifying for this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Super Turbo SitGo (PROMO) Holdem NL €2 + €0.2 Prize = €200
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €10 + €1 Prize = 700

(Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time of registration.)To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July.
- Subject "Four the Win claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit & Go in the series (in the poker lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname

MacBook Air VIP SPECIAL

On Sunday, 8 July at 20:30, three players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air in a special tournament. The buy-in is 50 VIP points that must be earned starting from 1 July.

Prizes:
Three (3) Apple MacBook Air notebooks (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD). The maximum number of participants is 1000, 3000 in starting chips, and 12 minutes levels. To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 10 July.
- Subject "MacBook Tournament claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Freerolls:
Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803

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

Doke

Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here

Letter from Doke and News from Irish Eyes Gaming

Welcome to this week's letter, which contains a catch up on how things are going here in Vegas, a strategy section on bubble situations, some tournament news from Irish Eyes and online promotions for July.

Almost halfway through my Vegas campaign and it's a case of 5 down 5 to go in terms of bracelet events. I played another couple at the weekend without any joy. In Saturday's 1500 I built a stack early peaking at four starting stacks which unfortunately disappeared late in the day as the blinds rose. Sunday's 1k was a much shorter affair where I never really got going and was gone after the first break. I haven't been playing as much on my days off from the WSOP as in other years. This is the first year I've sold action for the series and given that that means I'm partially playing other people's money I want to be certain I'm well rested and able to play my A game.

My two roommate on the trip notched up cashes in the main event. Daragh Davey went deep in the 1k and Jason Tompkins cashed in the 2500 NLH event that started Monday. It hasn't been a great series so far for Irish players do I'm hoping that turns around.

Well done to Neil Channing. Neil is one of my personal poker players, someone I have the highest respect for both as a player and a person. I've been fortunate enough to share a microphone with him commentating on the Irish open a few times and it's always been illuminating and entertaining. Aside from possessing a great poker mind Neil is a very funny man and great storyteller. He was clearly devastated in the immediate aftermath of losing heads up but the 400k and the flood of messages of support that proved how popular he is are a consolation I'm sure.

This week's strategy section looks at bubble situations in large runner fields. These are interesting because the fact that if you have a below average stack so much of your equity is tied up in just making the money it makes for some very unusual spots. Jason found himself in a couple of these on his bubble. The first occurred when there was a raise under the gun and a three bet on the button. Jason found himself with jacks in the small blind and just folded. In normal circumstances this would be a very nitty fold but it's totally standard in this spot unless you're certain both villains are maniacs looking to abuse the bubble. Most people's ranges tighten right up in bubble situations and sudden jacks is in pretty poor shape against the raiser's range. Queens may even be a fold here.

Jason's other spot was even more interesting and I'll talk about it next week in the strategy section.

A note from Irish Eyes regarding this monthy's Monthly €50,000 guaranteed tournament - due to the fact that it overlaps with the Final of EURO 2012 it has been moved to an alternative starting time.The tournament has been rescheduled for Monday, 2nd of July at 20:00.

On the promotions front, this summer Irish Eyes Poker is offering players a chance to win a MacBook Air. Players can get their hands on this prized notebook either by winning the "MacBook Air VIP Special" tournament or by getting AA as a starting hand three times in a row in our "Summer Special Hands" promotion. In addition, players are eligible for cash prizes by winning four Super Turbo Sit&Go's in a row and one of five trips to the European Masters of Poker (EMOP) tournament in Barcelona.

Plus get an Extra hot summer offering with our Reload Bonus week during the first week of July (Deposit between 2012-06-02 and 2012-06-08) {NOTE: These bonuses are NOT available on cash deposits or transfers.}

Reload Bonuses:
Use Reload Bonus Code EURO50IE to get a reload bonus of 100% up to €50 paid when 500 vips are earned.

Use Reload Bonus Code EURO100IE to get a reload bonus of 100% up to €100 paid when 1000 vips are earned.

Use Reload Bonus Code EURO200IE to get a reload bonus of 100% up to €200 paid 2000 vips are earned.

Irish Eyes are also launching the new Hand Replayer in July.
To celebrate the launch of the new software which allows players to reply their hands, Irish Eyes Poker is offering prizes for special hands. (The following promotions are valid only in cash games and only when a minimum of three players have received cards.)

Texas Triple AA Special - Win a MacBook Air!

Get AA as your starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table, regardless of the stakes you're playing, and win an Apple MacBook Air notebook (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD)!

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
Subject: "Triple AA MacBook claim"
- Hand History number of the first AA hand
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Texas Triple Same Pair Special

Get the same pair, deuces to kings, as starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table and win €200.

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Triple Same Pair claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha Quad Aces Special

Get Four-of-a-Kind aces as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €100.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha Quad Aces claim"
- Hand History number of the quad aces hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha High Quads Special

Get Four of a Kind kings, queens, or jacks as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €50.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha High Quads claim"
- Hand History number of the quad hand
- Poker nickname

Four the Win! - Sit & Go Promotion

Win four Super Turbo Sit &Go tournaments in a row on the same level and win a cash prize!
Sit & Go's qualifying for this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Super Turbo SitGo (PROMO) Holdem NL €2 + €0.2 Prize = €200
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €10 + €1 Prize = 700

(Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time of registration.)To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July.
- Subject "Four the Win claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit & Go in the series (in the poker lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname

MacBook Air VIP SPECIAL

On Sunday, 8 July at 20:30, three players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air in a special tournament. The buy-in is 50 VIP points that must be earned starting from 1 July.

Prizes:
Three (3) Apple MacBook Air notebooks (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD). The maximum number of participants is 1000, 3000 in starting chips, and 12 minutes levels. To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 10 July.
- Subject "MacBook Tournament claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Freerolls:
Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803

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

Doke

Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here

Letter from Doke and Promotions 20th June 2012

Hi all

I arrived in Vegas last Friday night with Daragh Davey and Jason Tompkins. We're staying in the Jockey Club for the next 5 weeks. We got a very good deal on it with the location being so good (it's stuck between the Bellagio and The Cosmopolitan in the heart of the strip).

So far I've played two bracelet events with no joy. In Saturday's 1500 I never got up much past starting stack and before I knew the time had come where I had to make a move. More on my exit hand in the strategy section.

Sunday's 1k event was a very different experience. I chipped up steadily with no real setbacks from 3k starting to 15k. Unfortunately my first real setback was fatal as I lost a 40k race with aks versus jacks and a short stack's fours. It would have been a good flip to win as when the bubble burst a few hours later average stack was 27k. Well done to my roommate Daragh Davey for his deep run.

I have 7 more bracelet events scheduled before the main event so I'm optimistic of getting a run at some point. Tomorrow's 1500 would be a good place to start.

This week's strategy section looks at how to recognise good reshoving spots and when they have to be taken. 15 to 20 big blind stacks are ideal to reshove over an opening raise. The reason for this is risk reward and price. With more than 20 big blinds you're risking too much for too little if you do run into a hand. With less than 15 big blinds the original raiser is priced in with a wide range of hands so it's much more likely you will be called. In my first bracelet event this year I found myself with 3400 at 100/200. However within a few minutes the blinds would rise to 150/300, at which point I couldn't expect to have fold equity on my reshoves. Therefore I was on the lookout for a good reshove spot. I was dealt a5o. Not exactly a great hand but good enough for the situation that developed. Folded to a loose player in the hijack seat, he opened as he was doing over 50% of the times it was folded to him. Two bad loose passive players behind called. They almost never have a hand that can call a shove, and the opener usually doesn't so it was a good spot to try to add 50% to my stack. In these spots the shove gets through often enough for it to be profitable to shove a wide range of hands. How wide? Pretty much any hand that has about a 30% chance or better of winning if called. A5o fits the bill as it will be about 30% against any calling hand (other than aces and the ace in my hand makes it less likely someone has aces).

As it happened the original raiser had aq and held. But in the long run moves like that are profitable and have to be made.

On the promotions front, this summer Irish Eyes Poker is offering players a chance to win a MacBook Air. Players can get their hands on this prized notebook either by winning the "MacBook Air VIP Special" tournament or by getting AA as a starting hand three times in a row in our "Summer Special Hands" promotion. In addition, players are eligible for cash prizes by winning four Super Turbo Sit&Go's in a row and one of five trips to the European Masters of Poker (EMOP) tournament in Barcelona.

Plus get an Extra hot summer offering with our Reload Bonus week during the first week of July (Deposit between 2012-06-02 and 2012-06-08) {NOTE: These bonuses are NOT available on cash deposits or transfers.}

Reload Bonuses:
Use Reload Bonus Code EURO50IE to get a reload bonus of 100% up to €50 paid when 500 vips are earned.

Use Reload Bonus Code EURO100IE to get a reload bonus of 100% up to €100 paid when 1000 vips are earned.

Use Reload Bonus Code EURO200IE to get a reload bonus of 100% up to €200 paid 2000 vips are earned.

Irish Eyes are also launching the new Hand Replayer in July.
To celebrate the launch of the new software which allows players to reply their hands, Irish Eyes Poker is offering prizes for special hands. (The following promotions are valid only in cash games and only when a minimum of three players have received cards.)

Texas Triple AA Special - Win a MacBook Air!

Get AA as your starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table, regardless of the stakes you're playing, and win an Apple MacBook Air notebook (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD)!

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:

Subject: "Triple AA MacBook claim"
- Hand History number of the first AA hand
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Texas Triple Same Pair Special

Get the same pair, deuces to kings, as starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table and win €200.

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:

- Subject: "Triple Same Pair claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha Quad Aces Special

Get Four-of-a-Kind aces as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €100.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:

- Subject: "Omaha Quad Aces claim"
- Hand History number of the quad aces hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha High Quads Special

Get Four of a Kind kings, queens, or jacks as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €50.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:

- Subject: "Omaha High Quads claim"
- Hand History number of the quad hand
- Poker nickname

Four the Win! - Sit &Go Promotion

Win four Super Turbo Sit &Go tournaments in a row on the same level and win a cash prize!

Sit & Go's qualifying for this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €2 + €0.2 Prize = €200
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €10 + €1 Prize = 700

(Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time of registration.)To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July.

- Subject "Four the Win claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit &Go in the series (in the poker lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname

MacBook Air VIP SPECIAL

On Sunday, 8 July at 20:30, three players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air in a special tournament. The buy-in is 50 VIP points that must be earned starting from 1 July.

Prizes:
Three (3) Apple MacBook Air notebooks (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD). The maximum number of participants is 1000, 3000 in starting chips, and 12 minutes levels. To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 10 July.

- Subject "MacBook Tournament claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Freerolls:
Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803

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

Doke

Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here

Win a 4G iPad in June on Irish Eyes Poker. Added Prizes of iPads in our Surprise Tournaments

June Surprise Tournaments

Eight tournaments with two iPads in each prize pool!

Win a fantastic 4G iPad in the Irish Eyes Poker Surprise Tournaments every Tuesday and Friday in June. The tournament buy-in is €5 and maximum number of participants in each tournament is 600. The tournaments will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each tournament.

Notification about the tournament can be read by clicking the small envelope, which will appear in the poker client or on any open table.

Registration will open 15 minutes before the start of each tournament, the tournament will also appear in the poker client at the same time. 2500 starting chips. Level length: 10 minutes.

In addition to the distributed prize pool, the top two players of each tournament will receive a new white 4G iPad (16GB).

To claim the prize players are required to e-mail their poker nickname and full home address to promo.interactive@igt.com no later than Monday, 30th of June. The subject in the e-mail should be “New iPad claim”.

Tournament dates:
2012-06-05 (Tuesday) sometime between 16:00 CET and 23:00 CET
2012-06-08 (Friday) sometime between 16:00 CET and 23:00 CET
2012-06-12(Tuesday) sometime between 16:00 CET and 23:00 CET
2012-06-15 (Friday) sometime between 16:00 CET and 23:00 CET
2012-06-19 (Tuesday) sometime between 16:00 CET and 23:00 CET
2012-06-22 (Friday) sometime between 16:00 CET and 23:00 CET
2012-06-26 (Tuesday) sometime between 16:00 CET and 23:00 CET
2012-06-29 (Friday) sometime between 16:00 CET and 23:00 CET

Best Of Luck.

Terms and Conditions

1. All eligible players automatically participate in ”June Promotions”.
2. Players playing from the jurisdiction of the Danish Gaming Authority (DGA) are not allowed to participate in “June Promotions”.
3. ”June Promotions” scores and prizes presented by Irish Eyes Poker are undisputable and final.
4. In “Surprise Tournaments – Win the New iPad” Irish Eyes Poker reserves the right to compensate the winners with €500 in cash instead of the New iPad.
5. The prizes will be paid as cash to winners' poker account no later than 10th July, 2012.
6. ”June Promotions” prize is not deductible from any other bonuses or promotions.
7. Team play is strictly forbidden. If evidence arises that more than one person has played on a poker account, the account will be disqualified from this campaign.
8.  Irish Eyes Poker reserves the right to close any account that is suspected to be involved in the abuse of this campaign and confiscate paid prizes on such accounts.
9.  Irish Eyes Poker reserves the right to reasonably use player’s nickname for marketing purposes and in future promotions without additional compensation.
10.  Irish Eyes Poker reserves the right to cancel or withdraw a promotional offer as well as changing the criteria for taking part of the offer at any time regardless of any information given in conjunction with the offer.
11. The regular [Terms & Conditions] applies on all promotions.
12. The original English version of this Terms and Conditions may have been translated into other languages. In the event of inconsistency or discrepancy between the English version and any other language version of this Terms and Conditions, the English language version shall prevail.

Letter from Doke (24th May 2012)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.