Dublin Poker

Almost missed playing this one! Had put time aside to play last nights $30 freezeout on Paddy Power, as I really wanted to play in the big Drogheda game in February. It worked out at a ticket (worth $300) for ever 10 players. I think we started with 48 players so we were looking at 4 tickets and $240 for 5th.

Anyway, couldn't get onto the computer until 8.58pm because my sister has exams and needed the PC. Still, with the game starting at 9pm and was cutting it close! So the game started and I have a glance around my table. Des to my right and Dave two to my left! Should be good!

Was playing pretty tight for the first few levels, and slowly built my stack up. I was getting good cards but instead of slow playing I had decided to simply try to raise people out of pots. It was Paddy Power after all! Aces are only good preflop! Made a few big preflop raises with Kings and AK and took down pots uncontested, which is best when playing PPP.... ok I'll stop :)

Got Queens a few levels in and got into a pot with Des. Two Aces on the flop but Des bets out and gives me a nice hint. I check the turn and let Des bet the river which I duly raise! Nice one Des!

Up to about 3K and i double up with AK vs AJ on an A high flop. Was second in chips now and when I went to check the leaderboard I noticed Rounders was top of the pile! I went back to my table and then noticed that he was after getting moved to my table! Shit! Anyway, grinded away for the next few levels until we were down to 2 tables. Nothing exciting, just knocking out a few players with better hands.

Dave and Des both got knocked out on bad beats I think, and if i'm not mistaken, both by Rounders! Down to 10 and I was sitting pretty on about 13K. Waiting for it to break to 9. And waiting. And my stack started dwindling as the blinds went up and the cards dried up. This has happened to me before in games. Down to 10 and I'm to distracted by the short stacks play to keep an eye on my own.

Anyway when we FINALLY broke for the final table, I was down to about 9K, which wasn't great. Average would be about 11K. There was a few boardies still left; Rounders and Gholimoli that I remember. Anyway, I didn't get much until I picked up 10 10. I raised it up to 2.5K and got 1 caller. Flop comes AQx. She pushes all in. SHIT! Foldy foldy down to 6K.

Robbed a few blinds and got up to about 8K and then got AQ. I raised it up and got 1 caller. Flop comes A78 and I push. He takes ages and finally calls with AJ. No Jack and I'm up to 16K. Lovely! The very next hand I get AK. Theres a 3K raise ahead of me so push all in to isolate. He finally calls with tens and the flop is no help to me. Back down to 10K. I don't think there was any need for me to make this move with such a flat payout structure, but we were down to 8, and one lad only had 1K, so if I had won the hand we would have been down to 7 with one very shortstacked player. Ah well.

Another bluff knocked me back down to 6K and I was starting to sweat now. The shorty got knocked out so now we were 1 place off the bubble. Agghhh! Thankfully Rounders came to the rescue and knocked 2 players out in 1 hand to ensure I get a ticket or cash! Nice one!

We were going to just throw all the chips in but I persuaded the lads to play on for Pride! We played on and soon me and Rounders were heads up and I had a slight chip lead. The penultimate hand came when he pushed with 55 and I called with A6 soooted. I saw a magic Ace on the flop but straight away saw the 5 beside it! Damn! Ah well, I might not have got a ticket without Rounders knocking the other lads out!

See you all in Drogheda!