London Bound

The last few weeks have been strange from a punting/poker point of view. My only problem last weekend was where was I going to get the cash to lump on Kerry. I have my “life” fund or roll as we call it in this game and I try not to touch it for various reasons from my wife going bananas to the simple fact that I should not have to because I’m supposed to be winning. Anyway after busting the Omaha tournament last week I jumped into what can only be described as a crazy cash game which only got crazier as the night wore on. It was a €1-€2 game with live straddles and with the average stack about €1500 people were managing to get €2k-€3k in the middle every second hand.

Then at about 8 am as I was getting phone calls reminding me that I had agreed to take the kids out that morning I get dealt AA92 with clubs. I flop a flush draw, turn the A and get it in for just under €5k with my opponent drawing dead. I can only presume he had two pair and a worse flush draw but I did not see his hand, all I was thinking was I’m sticking most of this on Kerry -2 and I’ll have €10k heading for London EPT next week.

Obviously that was not my best move as Kerry managed to fuck up a four point lead with seven minutes to go and loose to Dublin for the first time in my lifetime. The next few days were a bit manic I went punting horses and playing live and ended up winning back €5k most of it on a horse owned by a mate of mine called Ard Glen. I played live twice, in Naas on Wednesday and Ken Doherty’s place on Thursday, I would say I’ve not been to any games like them around Dublin. They both play like a game that can normally only be found with a few drunk lads at a festival. Naas was straddling to €40 sometimes on Wednesday which is nuts considering some of the players only have three or four hundred in front of them. The same crack in Ken’s place but without the Omaha it was a little more reserved. Some people seem to think that because Omaha is pot limit you have to bet the pot if your betting at all.

London EPT will be the biggest I have ever paid into a tournament, the other times I handed over 5k it was euro or dollars. It’s probably not the softest 5k buy in tournament around with the French & Italian events having a weaker field but I’m confident that I can do well over there. I suppose I would not be going over if I did not think I could win it but you need so much luck in these tournaments, everything from seat draw to avoiding coolers to the obvious getting your big hands to hold. Hopefully I’ll be doing a trip report in 10 days telling you all how I smashed up the final table.