An Interview With A Fox
Monday, February 4th, 2008As huntsmen in big red jackets all over Britain are now well aware, its now almost impossible to catch a fox. Well I caught one for a few minutes earlier on today and lo and behold, he could talk!
I had a lively chat with Brian “The Fox” O’Keeffe, whose 5th place finish in last years Open netted him 130,000 Euro and asked him just what the whole 2007 PPP Irish Open meant to him.
So did you have a grand plan as you sat down for your first hand?
To be honest, I very nearly didn’t play. Myself and Nicky Power (who finished 6th in the Open in 2007) won the tickets at my local club Blazin Aces the night before in the League Final. I really thought I would be out of my depth and I was planning on flogging the ticket. I got very nervous. But Dave McCarthy (kakak1 on boards.ie) persuaded me to play. He told me it was a once in a life opportunity and to grab it. So I did. When we did sit down and start I felt relaxed and focussed purely on what was going on at my table.
When did it dawn on you that you could go deep in this tournament?
Sunday night (day 2). I was moved to a new table and got a rush of cards. I had stayed roughly to average chips through day 1 and most of day 2 and thought “this is going well”…..and then the cards came for me. I got myself into a position to challenge and before I knew it I was going to the final table I was 2nd low stack.
And what happened?
I decided to play very aggressively or as aggressive as I possibly could. From 200k odd I went to 1.2 million chip and then I got pocket 9’s.
Oh Yeah…
De Wolfe pushed and I called with the 9’s. He’s got Ace rag, one heart. I hit my set on the flop and the roof lifted. All the lads who had come up from Waterford…the support was brilliant. Then when another heart came on the turn I started to worry a bit. All I could hear was the crowd shouting “BLACK BLACK BLACK!”…but no, he hit his flush on the river. I was 98% to win after the flop. I really thought i could go and win The Open if that hand had worked out for me. Gutted. The atmosphere was brilliant all through and it seemed to stun the crowd because they all f***** off when I got knocked out!
And I would like to say that the rest of the lads on the final table were gentlemen, every one of them. You hear of a lot of young upstarts who think they’re the business but these lads were class, all of them. And it was really good to have Nicky there at the table with me. These millionaires and brilliant poker players and here are two lads from Waterford city putting it up to them. I remember John Quinn had a Creme Egg beside his chips for the whole weekend and that must have been a mess. Thomas Finneran who won the Paddy Last prize was great craic. Sorel Mizzi - a lovely fella, we had a great chat about Ireland and he was saying he’d love to come back here. It was some buzz, I won the Oscar Traynor Cup as manager of the Waterord League which was very big achievement and the Open last year was as good. A brilliant experience…as Dave McCarthy had said, once in a lifetime.
Jaysus…pass the tissues there could be a film here! Any funny stories from the tables?
On the final table prior to getting knocked out myself and Roland were in a hand and he threw this look across the table at me, you know when he throws a stare…well I just stood up and said “hey you know what they say, The Wolf won’t be catchin The Fox!” Lifted a bit of tension…
So what about the next day?
What about the next day?!! The Yellow House is my local bar. So I had got 20 grand in cash from the payout and I was in the Yellow at 10.30 am. So I can safely say that 20 grand went to the Yellow. By 1 o clock there were guitars out! Full blown sing song. It was mental. And it was only Tuesday, remember. I swear to God it was like Christmas Eve in the pub that day. It went for 14 hours…10.30am til closing time. Talk about poisoned.
So how did you spend the cash?
I did a lot of things people save for a lifetime to do. Looked after my family and friends. There was a young lad in our local club called Danny O’ Connor who tragically died around that time, so we set up a memorial tournament for Danny. Thats going to be an annual thing He was a respected member of ther club.
I have gone over to see my beloved Gunners a load of times this season. And I lost my virginity while over there too. Result!
When I was in London for one of the matches I stopped off at The Vic for their big Saturday freezeout and won that! I knocked out Willie Tann from that tourney…. he started shouting “HE CAN PLAY” when i busted him.
Its been a fantastic year.
So are you coming back this year?
Certainly will be. The lovely lads at Blazin Aces are sponsoring me for this year so batten down the hatches. And I want to be on day 1a ok? Will ya sort that out for me?
I will indeed…cheers Fox and see you in CityWest.