Just let me say how proud I am of Marty and Tom for making the final table in the $10k Pot Limit Omaha World Championship – it was amazing.  And for Marty to go on and take it down was INCREDIBLE – you’ll never beat the Irish!  I intend to write a nice piece on that great day in a few days time but until then, congrats to you both, you did us proud lads!!!!!

Poker update - I’m happy to report that I made it through Day 1A, along with many of the other Irish and English lads.

The funny thing was that for some reason I had a feeling that I was going to be at one of the two featured tables – and sure enough when I got to the area where my table was supposed to be, I was told that I was to report over to the TV area.  Ok says I, and over I went!  How weird is that?!

Bill Gazes was about the only player I knew at the table.  He is a great player and a really sound bloke!  He and I have played against each other before and have a lot of respect for each others’ game so we tried not to bang heads and instead go after the other lads.

Now one very interesting thing about playing at the TV table is that it always seems to change the way a lot of people play, nobody really wants to look like a plonker in front of ‘seventy nine million people’ (the amount that reportedly watched the WSOP last year).  For many it’s their first time.

They know that their family and all their friends and maybe even the doctor that brought them into the world are going to tune in to watch them on this big occasion, so as a result it changes the way they play.  They might not want to fold a pair if they believe you’re making a move on them, or sometimes they themselves feel like they must get in there and make a Hero move to impress their friends at home.

Anyway I chipped away and got my stack up to 25k (we started with 20k) and then came this hand.  With no action around to the player in the cut-off (one to the right of the button), he raised 3xBB.  The button and small blind fold and I was in the big blind and look down to see KK, YUMMY!  Now I want to try and get as many chips here as I can - so I just flat call.

I check dark wanting him to make a continuation bet.  The flop came Q99.  He bet 300 and I just called.  Then the turn brings a 10- hmm, I check, he bets another 300 so I raise it to 900 and he calls (I don’t like it but I still might be ahead).  Here comes the river – it’s an Ace (Nasty) but there is about 3k in the pot and I know I can’t check call him here because he might make it 3k or 4k (which I can’t call) so I bet out at it but only a 1000k (a blocking bet).  He puts on this face and tilts his head from one side to another (I find this is usually a strong tell) and then raises it to a total of 3k (sh*te) so I announce to the table that this hand has got worse and worse for me and I muck my KK face up and he very graciously shows me a huge hand - A9 for a full house!  Yuck - still though, not too much damage done.

Now an important note here friends is that even if raise him pre-flop, it wouldn’t have in anyway changed the outcome here as he definitely would have called and seen a flop with A9 in that spot, and of course when the flop comes Q99 – just like it did – he’s married to it!  So no matter what happened I was destined to lose that particular hand.

Then this crazy hand comes after about another hour.

A lad opened to 3xBB in early position and is called by the player two from the button (the same lad that had A9 earlier), I’m in the small blind with pocket eights (88), so rather than trying to flop a set here (it’s about 8/1 to flop a set / three of a kind) I decided to raise it and try and win the pot right there.  So now it’s back over to the original opener and he thought about it for 3 minutes before he folding and then it’s back to our friend again, (A9 guy) and guess what he did?  Well he moved in for about 13k… WOW – Interesting!

What is this guy trying to represent here?  Remember he only called the original bet from the early position lad (who has now folded) so that rules out 99-TT-JJ-QQ because there’s no way he can afford to take any of those hands up against two or three players, besides, he would have to find out how strong the early position raiser was.  Hmm, but what could he have?

He’s already shown me that he plays his big hands slow (remember when he flopped the three nines against me), so he wouldn’t shove here if he had KK or AA with only he and I left in the hand.  It just doesn’t make sense to me - So with the ESPN cameras in my face and a huge crowd of spectators on the rail looking on, I started talking out loud and I go back through the hand and again…the hand that he’s trying to represent…well - he just can’t have!

I have always trusted my instincts a lot and even though I didn’t have a big hand myself, I believe based on what I had seen from him up until this point, I felt I was good!

So I said to him “Sir, I really don’t have that strong a hand here but I believe I’m good as your hand isn’t that strong either” I counted my chips down and it was only going to leave me with about 9K if I’m wrong.

So I trust me read and I call……………….Great call he says and he turns over A6 and turn over my 88.  Wow, everyone goes nuts; “wow” “what a call” rains from the rail.

I bolt, I’m gone, I can’t look!  I’m about fifty feet from the table!  And here comes the poor ESPN cameraman flying after me (they love it, they’re always laughing; it’s a wonder they can keep the camera steady! )

Of course, he flopped a flush draw but my hand holds up.   Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww – nobody says it was going to be easy!

After eight hours of TV they broke our table and sent us off to different tables.  It took a while for me to get a read on the new table and I ended up dropping about 12K in that last couple of levels.

I finished out the night with just under 40K.  I feel good my friends and “I do believe!”  I have to!  Keep the fingers crossed all.

Talk soon and God Bless

Your poker pro,

Ciaran

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