Dublin Poker

Think its about time I start evaluating my play, and recording how I am getting on. It would probably be best to do this every three months, and see if I am in fact improving! I will split this into both a live and online update, as I see both as being such different games.

Live
I couldn't be happier with how my live game has been going this year. I've made the top 10% in every live game I have played this year...until last Sunday when my 'record' was cruelly cut short with my AA getting cracked by J10 in the Fitz €30 shorthanded game. Ah well!

The only problem I seem to have at the moment is not playing enough live poker. I'm lucky if I play one game every two weeks, which is doing my head in... The Sporting Emporium is becoming an ATM machine for some players, and if I hear about Paul winning any more money from there... Other than my disastrous debut, I've only got down there twice since it opened, spliting the €50 for €1K and getting fifth the other time for €100. After the nice win at the Anglers Rest Team Event in February, I'm up about €2,500 so far this year from live tournaments, although I dropped €350 of this to a super-fish in the Fitz when I STUPIDLY decided to give a cash game a go after a night on the piss... a costly mistake.

I'm still missing a big win to set me up nicely for the summer. Last year I hit the jackpot when I split the Fitz €270 for €4K just before the summer. I haven't even played this game in months... I'm facing a BIG decision in the future, because it doesn't look like I can continue the job I'm in and play as much poker as I want to play. I'm only in this job a few months, but it has cutback HUGELY on how much live poker I can realistically play. I'm not talking about 'pulling a Nicky' and quitting my job to play poker, but I feel like a job in the poker industry with more night hours would suit me better. I'm NOT a morning person... and definitely not a 6am morning person! (as I'm writing this it is 6:34am... COFFEE please!) I won't be doing anything about this for a while, but it has been at the back of my mind since getting this job.

Overall, I am very happy with how my live game is going, and I definitely feel as if I'm improving in leaps and bounds. I am placing well in almost every tournament I play in, and I am starting to notice that I am a lot more suited to shorthanded play. I noticed this last week in the Fitz shorthanded game, but I've always known it was one of my strengths. I have never placed 2nd, 3rd or 4th in a big live tournament (other than freerolls!), yet I have 6 wins under my belt. I feel a lot more comfortable when there are fewer players at the table.

Online
Online 'poker'... where to start? After I took a long 3 or four month break from this I decided to give it another go, with proper bankroll management. The first week of my 'comeback', I managed to pull in about €500, easily my best week ever online, which says a lot! Since then, I have been making a steady profit, although I lost a good chunk of it last week when I couldn't fold the 2nd nuts on the turn in a $300 pot... I'm obviously not THAT good yet to fold this! I didn't have a great week last week, finishing 6th in the Drogheda feeder (two tickets), and also finishing 288th out of about 900 runners in the $100,000 gtd on PPP last night. This was in some way down to the servers on Tribeca constantly crashing.

There was uproar on boards.ie as players were losing chips due to play continuing while a lot of players were away from the table. This was ultimately how I ended up losing. I was sitting shortstacked on 4K and the blinds were just about to hit me (600/1200). The system crashes for about 5 minutes, and I come back to find myself with 1000 left, in the small blind... my K7 doesn't hold up against JQ and Ive gone from being shortstacked with a chance of a comeback to gone. Fair enough, I din't have much of a hope, but I'm still angry about not even having a chance to comeback. What is more annoying is TWICE during the game, I went all in with the nuts after a raise... connection gone,... hand doesn't count! Grrrrr... I only lost $3 from this, as I won my $54 ticket, but A LOT of people will be angry this morning. Ken Powell won't be one of them though, the fecker bagged a ticket for the Irish Open amidst all the confusion!

I'm still playing as much satellites as I can, still hoping to bag a big ticket. I haven't played a decent game since Drogheda, and I'm dying for a game against a decent standard of players. I feel like I play my best poker against a tough field, and I have to be due a win on my decent live form... we'll soon see!

until next time...

gl