Dublin Poker

22 today... don't like this whole getting older thing!

Had a good weekend, went paintballing on Saturday, have the scars to prove it! Went into the Fitz on Saturday night and had my worst night ever at the poker table. I was on a high from winning €1K last week, and felt I could do well at the cash table, so I decided to head in after town, a little worse for wear (bad idea, I KNOW!). I sat down with €150, plenty to start off with at €1/€2.

I have limited experience at the cash tables so I decided to play tight until I got a feel for the table. I hadn't played a hand for the first hour until I picked up aces on the button. Everyone limps so I pot it, about €15. I get two callers, so the pot is looking good. Flop come A 10 4. Checked to me and I pot it again, €50 I think, one caller. Turn comes a rag, 2 I think, so I push for the rest and he calls with the monster that is QK?? A jack on the river and the dealer pushes a pot of well over €300 quid to some stoooopid fish.

I am a little drunk and almost open my mouth to say something, but bite my tongue and keep my manners... just. I can tell the rest of the table is shocked by the call, and I can hear whispers among the rest of them. I can see they are dying to clean this donkey out, and as I would love to retrieve my chips I (stupidly) reload for another €200.

I sit back on this again for a while and start playing a little looser, but still not comitting myself without having a hand. As this is happening I am seeing Mr Fish clean the other players out, playing absolutely terribly. He was in the usual 'Lucky Fish' mode, chasing minor hands hitting them on the river and cracking better hands.

I am dying to get a hand, as this fish is so easy to outplay it was doing my head in. Eventually I picked up KK and pot raised it again. A decent player would have realised that I had a good hand, as it was only the second time in 2 hours I had made this move, the first being with Aces. As expected, all of the better players folded, and as expected the fish called. I knew that he wasn't even thinking about what I had, he was just hoping to get lucky.

The flop came 8 J 2 rainbow, and I looked straight at him when it came down. I saw his head bobbing up and down counting to himself, so it was clear he was on some sort of a straight draw. I bet the pot and he quickly called. the turn came a blank again, and I felt I needed to end it on the turn in case he hit the river. If I just bet the pot I thought he would just flat call, so I checked it looking a bit annoyed, as if I had missed entirely.

The bluff worked (it wasn't even a good one ffs...) and he decided to try and steal it. He raised the pot (almost $100), and I pushed for another $100 on top. He thought about it for ages and finally called for almost all his stack. I flipped over the Kings, and I could see he wasn't happy. He kept his cards face down and the dealer dealt the river, the Qd. "Unlucky mate", he says and flips over 9 10 for a rivered straight.

So here I was losing pot for well over $400, against the fish of the century who was willing to call his whole stack on an open ended straight draw. As I was getting up I muttered something about being a fish which I instantly regretted, it was the dring talking. However, he simply said "listen mate, I won the hand get over it, you were outplayed...". Before I could come up with a response (which would have been nothing more than saying well done, as I was still feeling like an arsehole for calling him a fish...), the whole table burst out laughing, and some old lad, a Fitz regular (Johnny I think his name is), turned to him and said "you river the young lad twice, and now you insult his intelligence? Ah leave him alone will ya!". With this, the fish grabs his chips and leaves! He looked very embarassed as he was going.

Now I was VERY annoyed at losing two of the biggest pots I played in to such a bad player, but I feel like an arsehole for what happened. I was out of order calling him a fish, it was just because I was slightly drunk, but I think that the rest of the table were a bit unfair to him. Fair enough he was a bad player, and he was getting incredibly lucky, but there was no need for the whole table to laugh at him. In future I'll just shut my mouth when I lose a pot...

Anyway, I wasn't happy at all leaving the Fitz, and I was down €350 after only playing in two big pots, losing with Aces and Kings both on the river to badly played hands. Even still, I'll take responsibilty for losing it, as I should never have been tempted to go down there in the first place. Until I learn a bit more about cash games I'm not going to bother with them.


As for online po....po... pok... no I still cant bring myself to call it poker! As for that online game, I'm still making a small profit on PPP, although I am still amazed by how bad the standard is. It is simply amazing how bad some players actually are. And somehow this is carrying on to casino's now! I'd love to say I am getting better, but I think the average standard is just getting worse. The last three big live games I've played I've gotten far without too much effort.

The Angler's Rest game I was very hungover, and I won it. Then I played the SE €75 and got 5th. Then last week I won the €50 DC in the SE. And in all these games I can honestly say there was never any major challenge. I managed to come back from 1xBB in the €50 game ffs! As I said before I'd love to believe that I am simply getting better, but I think its a case of all the good players moving up levels, and me staying swimming with the fish...

Perhaps its time I started saving up and playing €500 and €1000 games. I'm dying for some sort of a challenge! I miss playing the Fitz €270, where I would always feel like I was the Fish hoping to get lucky. I havent played this game in months due to work commitments, but I would love to give it a crack.

As always, I am still dying to win a ticket into a big game. I have played a few Irish Open qualifiers, and I've won a few tickets, but never got further than 20th. This week I'm having trouble even winning a ticket, as I think I'm still on tilt from the weekend! It doesn't help when you get a donkey knocking you out on the bubble when his A5 rivers your AQ...



Ive lost almost half of what I won last week, and I can honestly say that I cannot understand how. Other than bad decisions in choosing to PLAY poker, I havent made any major mistakes in the games themselves. I'm just a fucking FISH magnet!

Ive got the BSOP monthly final to look forward to, at least I know I will enjoy it. Regardless of being card dead, outdrawn, outplayed... at least I know it will be FISH-FREE!