Not much happening poker wise

Being really busy since I got back from Vegas so havn't got a chance to play much poker at all. I've got maybe 6-8k hands in so far this month which is about 25-33% what I normally play in a month for the last 18 months. When I got back from Vegas I worked 2 long days and then went to Killarney on the Thursday and Friday to be groomsman for one of the lads I was good friends with at college. Had a great time down in Killarney, great town to go out on the beer in but was a bit wrecked as I never really got a chance to recover the jetlag from Vegas.

To be honest I'm still not recovered I don't think. It just seems to be all go all the time. For example I get up on Sunday after 3 days drinking and have to drive from Killarney to Dublin to get home and get clothes and stuff for a return journey for work on Monday morning. Work a long day on Monday, then finish at 10pm on Tuesday night followed by a meer 10 hour today which is very short really for me lately. Weekend is coming up now so heading out on Friday for work drinks and then heading to U2 in Croke Park on Saturday night. The following weekend I'm going to plan to just relax and maybe get back to playing a bit of poker at the weekends once again. I have some golf lessons to take which expire soon and also a helicopter lesson to take so that weekend should be a good time to take them. But seeing as its a bank holiday weekend something will probably crop up.

Poker wise there is a festival coming up in Cork that I would like to play in. There are a few online satellites for this so will probably give them a go. I probably won't play it otherwise as the buyin is €1.1k and I can't really spend that much of my bankroll on one tournament. I might try and sell some percentages for it if anyone is interested. I guess I will see how this months results go.

Down in Bantry for work at the moment and there is not much to do here at all. I wanted to watch Dragons Den on BBC tonight but there is only the 4 Irish stations in my hotel room which kinda sucks. Will get it recorded and watch it again. There is some poker player on it trying to sell himself to the Dragons. They will buy him into some tournaments and he will give them a % back. Would be interesting to see how the Dragons react to such an offer. As far as staking goes I made a slight profit from the 2 players I bought stakes in for Vegas. I had 1% in Nicky Power who just transferred me a cool $300 as he cashed for the guts of $30k in the WSOP main event. A really nice man and was so happy to see him go deep in it. Was really hoping he was going to final table it so I could fly back to Vegas in November and watch him take down the $8.5million. 1% of that would set me going nicely!!!

Next update will probably be end of the month when I should have all my hands on the one laptop and hopefully produce a winning online month. Till then, good luck...........

Home time

So I got knocked out of the WSOP on Wednesday, really wasn't bothered in putting in an update that I busted out!! Of course if I had of made it through I would have been the firs to update!!! Heading back to Ireland now in a few hours, really long trip ahead of me and I am dreading it to be honest. I hate flying so much and the thought of an 11 hour flight and then another 1 hour flight scares me!!!

Vegas has went well since that, just after I bust from the main event me and another Irish lad go playing crabs with "Mc Lovin" from Superbad, hes busto and we all pool together $60 each and play together on the same table, 2 hours later we leave with $1.5k which was pretty sweet. I have just been on the beer since I got knocked out, went to an amazing night club last night called "XS", it really is the place to be in Vegas. The nightclub is out of this world and if you are single or even not you will definetly love it!!! Girls are amazing in there!!!

I played some live poker yesterday and lost $400, on my very last hand I pick up AA and of course I lose an $800 pot with them to an aggressive Norwegian high stakes player who is just after being busted from the main event and is playing some small stakes for the fun. He literally doesn't care about money!!

Overall the trip has been profitable, online I won about $1k for the 3/4 hours that I played, live was obviously not but I was freerolling here so not to bothered about that. Had a great time and played with some of the best player in the world, learned alot and really looking forward to coming back next year. Will keep things updated once I get back home with the usual online stuff. Also a bit hungover while writing this so apologies for any silly English!! Laters...........

Through to Day 2

I made it through to day 2, absoulety horrible stuff for the last 7 hours of play. I had the softest starting table ever and left it with 62k. I then get moved to a new table and I have Elky 2 places to my left (for those who don't know him he's this guy) and to be honest I was scared ****less of him the whole day, he just didnt seem to make a mistake the whole time at the table and chipped his way up to 120k by opening every other pot and not getting involved in any big hands. Pretty class act, and of course my dumb self tried to bluff him with 3 barrells. Hand went like this:

I'm at the table about 45mins or so and havn't had to show down a hand yet, I've got about 60k and Elky covers, so loose enough player who is starting to get a bit drunk limps in in MP, I isolate him with A7o OTB to 1100 with the blinds at 150/300, elky calls from the BB, which he has been defending quite a lot too, MP also calls. So flop comes KK9 rainbow and both players check, I bet 1700 and elky calls and MP folds. Turn is a 6c which puts 2 clubs on board. Elky checks again. I bet 3.5k and he calls again. River is a blank and I fire the third barrell for 7.5k I think. He thinks for 1-2mins and calls with AcQc. So after this hand I am in bits and quite annoyed, don't play a hand for ages because I am so card dead and also a bit tilty.

My stack dwindles down to about 33k or so and I get it back up to 52k again before the last break. After we come back, I make a bad call in a 15k pot and lose more momtemum, I play maybe 3 more hands after this were I cbet and am raised or I call and don't hit the flop and give up. Table was very very aggressive with there always been a raise and plenty of 3betting also with a few shortstacks who were shoving over raises and stuff. So after the blinds go through me a few times and just missing flops I finish the day on 22,175 chips. Was just glad to make the 2nd day tbh and get a new table draw. That table was easily the toughest tournament table I ever had to play on and was just delighted to get away from it with some chips. Easily the most frustrating day I've had in poker for a while. Also its pretty true that when you can't spot the fish at the table then you are the fish!!

Will be great to have today off now and I can relax and hopefully the jetlag will have left me by the time tomorrow comes around. Going to take it really easy today and definetly not playing any poker, was pretty sick of it after 10 hours of playing yesterday. Going to go to the Vegas Shopping Mall, then hit the pool/man made beach. Will probably go for some nice food then and afterwards catch a show somewhere.

Landed

Landed in Vegas yesterday, feeling a bit worse for wear at the momemt. Trying to get used to the time difference so stayed up until 5am Vegas time and got 6 hours sleep last night. Going to go shopping today now with Annette just to relax and try not think about poker or that too much.

Went down to the main even yesterday just for a look. Place looks amazing with all the lights and 1k players playing. The sound of people playing with chips is unreal, seen a few of the pros playing. Met up with a few Irish lads last night and went to one of the nightclubs in the Bellagio. Put $50 on black in the Rio before we went and of course we all hit. Had $25 on 27 as well as thats my birthday but 29 came up!! So we went to the Bellagio after this and I went to the ATM as I had no money yet. Went to bring out $2k and the ATM is charging me $55 so fuck that. The other lads are at the roulette table and of course I miss it because the ATM is trying to screw me and what do you know but 27 comes up twice in a row just as I am missing, just my luck!!

Went to "the bank" night club, Annette says its some famous place that people from the Hills go to but wasn't that great to be honest. Place is just a rip off. Cost $40 to get in and the was $15 per drink, pretty expensive for a night out!

Of out for the day now so will update tomorrow

June and Vegas

June is just over and it was probably my best month ever in poker. I won 2 satellites for tournaments in Vegas with one being the World Series of Poker. I have everything sorted for that now. I am registered for the main event, I just need to turn up on the day and show them ID and I get my seat number and I am ready to go. I got an email from the WSOP saying that I was registered and they also said that I could unregister if I wanted and pick up $10k instead!!

This was incredibly tempting for me and I was seriously considering taking it but ever since I started playing poker or watching it on TV all I wanted to do was play in that tournament. So now that I had the chance to play in it then I couldn't really turn it down. It's like the World Cup of poker with all the top poker players from all over the world meeting up in Vegas for the biggest poker tournament of the year. I guess it was the appeal of this that attracted me so much. It's not like there is many other sports in the world were you can actually play with superstars in their field. It would be like turning down the chance to play against Man Utd or Barcelona in the Champions League final.

I am heading off in the morning on a 6:40 flight to London and then a direct flight to Vegas, pity I hate flying but what can you do!! 4 flights in a week will probably scare the bejesus out of me but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. I will arrive in Vegas at 2:10pm (Vegas time) on Saturday and will probably just try and relax that evening and not do much, the following day I have off and will probably use it to go shopping or something not to stressfull. I don't intend to play any poker anyway!! The Monday is the day I am registered to start the event (Day 1D), there are 4 starting days for this as there will be 6-8k players in this tournament. Everyone seems to say that day 1D is the toughest due to more pros playing that day, but I think if I played the Sunday I would be to wrecked from travelling all day the previous day and the 8 hour time difference will have me in bits.

Regardless of wether I get through Day 1D or not I will have the Tuedsay off with more play then on Wednesday if I get through. Then on the Thursday is another break in the tournament were I am set to play in another small tournament that will have only 27 players with 6 WSOP packages for 2010 on offer and also $20k for the winner. I hope to do well in this, seems a bit more achievable.

Cash games in June went poor enough, hardly got to play at all and any time I did play I was probably too tired to be playing and thus ended up losing about $1k this month. I guess thats what happens when you work 99hours of overtime in 1 month!! Plus I said last month that I hadn't had a losing month in 7 months so I was due one at this stage I guess.

Thats it for now, I might bring my laptop with me to Vegas if I can get the screen to work again and keep this updated with how Vegas is going for me.