Poker Million!  Raised on songs and stories, Heroes of renown…the passing tales and glories, that once was Dublin town!  Go-won ya good thing!

Though the appropriate song should be: Oh Mary this London’s a wonderful sight… That’s right my friends – the goal here is to the show the world that Paddy Power Poker players mean business!   And that’s what we did last Thursday.

I was delighted to have the mighty Noel Hayes in attendance and in full voice to enjoy this great (first step) victory for the Paddy Power green!  After promising the Sky Sports team and assuring me that he would not STREAK across the set, Noel was indeed allowed into the treasured green room.   Well done Noel - I know that was a big step for you!

With a line-up that included some of the best in the world – yours truly managed to get the job done.  When nobody was looking I was able to pinch a few chips here and there and managed to end up with ‘em all.   LOL - but I didn’t try to pinch Ms. Tillys’ bum.

That’s right - the wonderful Jennifer Tilly was a delight as always and was ever so entertaining, but unfortunately as it is with poker, someone has to go out first and Jennifer happened to be that person.  She moved in for her last 40k-ish with 88 and I was fortunate enough to wake up with QQ in the big blind and with no help from the board, Jennifer was eliminated.

Thanks again Jen for being sooooo nice to everyone at the table, you are such a lady – and to Phil Laak – (Jen’s boyfriend) “you’re a lucky rascal – ya did well kid, fair play!” 

So the good start and having the chip lead enabled me to get in and play a few pots.  I had Sligo’s own Paddy O’Connor to my right, who I believe to be one of Ireland’s best players.  He has a great presence at the table and understands the game so well!

The big hand between Paddy and I was in the first level.  It was folded around to the button, the internet qualifier from Norway, and he made it 7K to go; Paddy (who was in the small blind) raised it to about 21K.  I was in the big blind and look down to see AA – yippee.  Ok, now what to do?

Well the way I see it here is, if I just call, that more than likely I’m only going to see the flop with one person, and not two.  I’m sure that if the button (Norway Kid) has one of the top four hands like AA (unlikely, as I have that), KK, QQ, JJ or possible even AK – he might shove in if I just call!  He either has a hand or else he’s on the hustle and he can’t possible afford to gamble here risking another 14k in hopes of hitting a miracle flop if he’s got nothing.

So if he does have a big hand and he does shove in Paddy would surely fold and of course then I’d call.  Or if the Norway Kid folds, it will be only Paddy and I.  So here’s what happened – the button did fold and it was indeed Paddy and I to the flop.

It was a 3-4-5 flop, an absolute gem for my hand and there’s no way really that I see it changes anything.  Paddy was first to act and only after about two minutes he decided to check it to me.  The hand that I thought Paddy had, (given the fact that it was early in the first level and people were playing tight) is one of four hands TT, JJ, QQ or AK.  I did not think he had KK!  Basically when someone has AA or KK and given that flop with only two players going to it – well…those hands just seem to play themselves and more than likely he would have led out at it.  Remember now, that there is the guts of fifty thousand in the pot at this stage and we only started with a 100K so if he had KK he would not want to let me see a free card and possibly catch up if I had one of the those four hands that I mentioned.

So for all the same reasons mentioned above I wasn’t going to give him a free card because if a Q, J or a 10 arrives on the turn and he moves in?  I would not like it!!  So I bet and Paddy makes a world class fold – well done indeed!

I’m going to give you a further update in a couple of days with some more hands revealed so be sure to check back.

Back to Seattle for me my friends.

Until next time; play well.

Ciaran

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 10:10 am and is filed under Big C. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.