Down to two tables, I was on the same table as Noel ‘Big City Banker’ Hayes, Ricky ‘the Chopper’ Cosgrove (who had a big stack!)and Vera Duffy and I slipped under average stack for the 1st time in the tournament. It was a few painful hours of being completely card dead, painful stuff! I hoped we would play on until the money if possible, not wanting to come back again on Monday to play for a few hours for not even money back! However, the decision was made to finish up around 3.15am and come back at 2pm the next day….without Noel unfortunately, who was knocked out by the Chopper on the final hand of the night.

Day 2: I had about 70k in chips, with the average stack being about 75k, not too bad, but was starting on the more difficult of the two tables of 8 I think, with three big stacks (including Yuletired and the Chopper) on the table. 12 of us were being paid and knowing we would probably pay the bubble their money back (we actually decided on €500 for lucky 13th) it was ninja shortstack play if I wanted to survive and have a chance at a run on the big money….5th €2000, 4th €2500, 3rd €3500, 2nd €6500, 1st €11000. I would have taken 8th for €1000 if you had offered it to me at start of play on Day 2 actually, felt like I was up against it. On the plus side, there was a player at our table with only 16k, he allowed himself to be blinded away the night before, which was crazy.

So 16 players were vieing for 13 paying places and €32k in the prizepool…if the blind structure hadn’t been changed it would have been a crapshoot for the 1st time in the otherwise excellently structured tournament…to JP Poker’s eternal credit, however, the poker player comes 1st and they altered the structure for us without being pressed! The last blind level of Day 1, 1500/3000/300 was repeated for us and the blind levels increased to 60 minutes! Wonderful, I wasn’t in as much trouble as I had thought I would be and could play a bit.

Another iffy hand for your delectation; with blinds of 1500/3000/300, I was big blind and the shortstack was small blind with only 9.8k after posting the ante…it was folded to him and finally he found a push…I looked down a and was being asked for another 6.8k, more than 10% of my stack at the time. Should I have called? There were still 16 players in it so I really needed those chips. He had and doubled up to about 20k, I was down to 48k or so. More ninja shortstack stuff, pushed on the button on two consecutive orbits to stay respectable.

Within two hours the bubble had burst and then soon after we were on the final table. I was shortstack with 50k+, the blinds had just moved to 3000/6000/500 I think, not sure. Yuletired had a big stack, the Chopper was healthy too, a few others with 150k and the rest with between 65k-80k. Time to make some moves for ionapaul!

I had drawn a good seat in Seat 1, I had position on a player I thought I had a good idea of his play, and Jude Ainsworth and the Chopper were in seats 3 and 4, where I preferred them to be honest! I doubled up the 1st hand to over 100k when a player raised in mid position, I pushed in late position with , he called quickly and two queens on the flop put paid to his mid-pair. Now I could play a bit. I further increased my stack against the same player a blind level or two later when he raised to 24k or so and I pushed my 90k in with , he folded that time.

Jude was playing well I thought and making interesting sized 2.5 or 2.8 times the big blind raises when he decided to get involved in pots, he must have missed a lot as he was subsequently check raised off a few pots and his stack was really depleted. Yuletired also suffered greatly from being re-raised, it seemed every pre-flop raise of his was met with an insta-shove, he must have lost over 1/3 of his big stack in less than two hours in this way, it was almost funny (but a little sick). He had some bad luck I am sure, lots of raising hands but no calling ones, just once if he had a monster he would have won a big pot and jumped into a big chip lead.

My next installment will cover the rest of my time on the final table of this two-day tournament…hopefully it is not too boring for the action junkies out there!

Below is the first post of the three part trip report covering my experiences playing in a €300 freezeout tournament live in Dublin recently, hopefully it will prove interesting to some readers…

After spending the Friday and Saturday of May Bank Holiday weekend in Galway with my family, I got back to Dublin on Sunday in time for the €300 freezeout side event of the JP Poker Masters at the Red Cow (the main event was a €750 freezeout that I would have loved to have played). 120 runners took to the tables at 4pm, all trying to make it to Day 2 and shooting for poker glory! My opening table were all unknowns to me apart from Smurph (unfortunately she was knocked out early) and Mick McCloskey. I was dealt on the very 1st hand in mid-position and won a fair sized pot from the table calling station, a very nice guy who was known to some of the others but who was just making up the numbers and wouldn’t be there for very long.

I misplayed a hand against Mick during the 2nd or 3rd level; I limped from MP with with two limpers before me, Mick flat called on the button and the SB and BB came along for the ride as well. The flop was . It was checked to me and I bet about 400 into the 1000 pot, Mick raised to 1200 and I hesitantly flat called, intending to check raise him on the turn. The turn was a , I checked, Mick bet 1500 and I quickly raised to 6000 – I honestly don’t know why I went so big, no flush draws on the board and I knew he wasn’t re-raising me on the flop with an OESD (open ended straight draw). He deliberated for about 3 minutes and folded faceup. I mucked and stayed quiet but cursed myself for re-raising so big, stupid!

Sometime afterwards (the early hours of these things always blur together after it’s over, don’t they?), maybe during the 150/300/25 level I picked up in MP, raised to 1100 and was called by a player who fancied himself as the table captain; a regular who liked to play most pots in position, loved to float, pounce on weakness and raise any continuation bets. I’m sure any strong players at the table had him and his growing stack in their sights. The flop was K-high, he checked, I bet ½ pot, he raised as expected, I gave it a bit of Hollywood for a minute or so (a shake of the head, staring at him as if I couldn’t figure out what he had, etc etc…) and pushed all-in (yes, very obvious by me!), he shook his head and called. Shook his head a bit more as I was pushed most of his chips when his didn’t crack my aces!

I now had a 25k+ stack when the average was 13k or so, and didn’t slip back below average until quite late on Day 1. I was moved to a table with Willie ‘Yuletired’ Clynes, managed to stay out of his way and had the sweetest of double ups when I limped / flat-called a min raise (can’t remember!) in late position with , the flop was and I got all the chips in on the turn against . That was another big pot.

I played quite tight with my big stack, I am no-where near as active as many others, I prefer to focus on a few exploitable players at a table and just target them, rather than get aggressive with other aggressive players. For the next few hours I was content taking a number of medium sized pots without showing, usually having the goods but occasionally not; no-one would ever know as when I very rarely showed, I showed my monsters.

Down to three tables, I had Yuletired immediately to my right and he was active! I didn’t want to tangle with him but my blinds were constantly under threat and I found it hard to play back at him post-flop without the goods. It was folded to him on the button on one occasion and he made a 3.5xBB raise (maybe 9k or so?), I looked down at and pushed for 58k or so…happy to take the 14k or so in the pot. He folded after a minute or so, I think he mentioned he had an ace, I told him I had and he questioned my risking my tournament as I could have been against AA or KK. I’d do it again!

Hey folks, another short post listing some of what’s going on paddypowerpoker.com this weekend:

1. Win your seat at one of Ireland’s must-attend poker tournaments, the Irish Winter Festival, on Sunday evening at 9pm
2. You can start your quest to play in the World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event by playing some of the many feeder satellites live on paddypowerpoker.com or our weekly Super Satellite tournament on Sundays at 8pm
3. Our May Day Mayhem raked hands race is continuing and there may still be time to play your way into the prize winning spots
4. Continue trying to snag the big prizes in the Billionth Hand promotion by playing our cash tables - any type of poker, any stakes!

Enjoy and see you on Monday, I’ll try to get another caption competition going next week for another token or two

After listening to the loyal blog readers who responded to my question last week, I’ve decided to give away a WSOP Executive Package Sit ‘n’ Go token (worth €24) to whoever can come up with the best caption to the photo below; what is WSOP bracelet winner Ciarán O’Leary thinking?

Remember to include your paddypowerpoker.com screen name in your entry!  You have until Friday at noon to reply

Our Irish Winter Festival, World Series of Poker and other satellites are really attracting a lot of players at the moment - maybe the arrival of the summer is reminding all of us that we need a holiday and how better to relax than travelling on Paddy Power Poker’s dollar and playing some poker? With that in mind, I think we’ll run another of our hilarious (or not) photo caption competitions next week and give away a feeder satellite token to the winner, so what do you think: should we give away an IWF feeder token or a WSOP feeder token? This is assuming you don’t all win tickets in the grand final sats over the weekend, good luck to those who try!

In the meantime, I hope you are all giving a lash at our May Day Mayhem promotion (which started only yesterday), remember that the top 10 players who amass the most raked hands at table stakes $0.25/$0.50 and higher between May 1st and May 14th will snag some tasty cash prizes. The leaderboard is updated daily, so you can check your progress and those just outside the top 10 can make a push for glory! Have a great weekend

Yep, that time of the week again, a time to sharpen your hunting skills and target the bounty player in the Bounty Hunter tournament at 8pm! You can snag a tasty $100 by knocking out the bounty, and hopefully with his lucky chips in your stack and the soaring confidence that comes with taking out a targeted player, you’ll be able to make a push for the final table. Remember, if you knock out the bounty player, YOU will have the bulls-eye on your back the following week (as well as an additional $100 in your account, my, paddypowerpoker.com are generous souls!)

Not only that, but win two Bounty Hunter tournaments as the bounty player and we’ll reward your cunning and self-preservation skills by providing you with an additional $1,000 bonus! Fighting your corner and clinging onto your chips for dear life have never been so important! See you on the tables.

In honour of the two massive Champions League matches this week and the footballing superstars we all know and love that will take centre stage, we’re adding $500 to four tournaments (two tonight, two tomorrow) in our Dive into the Champions League promo! Ronaldo and Drogba only look like big strong fellas, actually a strong breeze could knock either one over so there shouldn’t be any surprise to see them fall over in the penalty area TEN TIMES A MATCH!

The tournaments are at 7pm and 9pm each of the two evenings and the $1 + 10c speed rebuy tournaments should feature action as wild and combatative as we all hope this weeks matches will be See you on the pitch….in the pool….err, across the felt!

Just a quick one (I know you love it!) listing some of what’s going on paddypowerpoker.com this weekend:

1. Tonight (Friday) at 8pm is the final April Golden Shower tournament, your last chance to win a Playstation 3 or Ipod Nano from your uncle Paddy for only $5.50
2. Win your seat at one of Ireland’s must-attend poker tournaments, the Irish Winter Festival, on Sunday evening at 10pm
3. You can start your quest to play in the World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event by playing some of the many feeder satellites live on paddypowerpoker.com - the 1st weekly Super Satellite tournament iwill be on Sunday April 6 at 8pm
4. Continue trying to snag the big prizes in the Billionth Hand promotion by playing our cash tables - any type of poker, any stakes!
Enjoy and see you on Monday

With the 950,000,000th hand on our poker network being dealt on Tuesday and the prize giving period well and truly underway, Paddy Power player targuste is one of the early winners, sharing in a Countdown Hand Bonus (awarded every 200,000 hands on the way to the Billionth Hand). Congratulations!

The numbers of players on the cash tables have exploded since the 1st prizes were won and I’m sure more and more will pile onto the tables as we come closer to the magic number…I fancy a bit of multi-table action myself, now that I think about it! See you on the tables, I’ll be the player with the shortest stack and the hang-dog expression…

Yes, it is that time of the week again, a time to stick Rocky IV into the VHS player, hum the Eye of the Tiger to yourself, run up and down stairs and scream ‘Adrianne!!!!’ at the top of your lungs. Out of the corner of my eye I can see our champion slugger, Paddywhacker0, lacing up his gloves and preparing himself mentally in front of the mirror for the battle that’s coming later this evening. It’s Paddy Whacker time!

As always, simply log onto paddypowerpoker.com, register for the $10 + $1 Paddywhacker Bounty freezeout at 9pm and knock our man out for a cool €100 bonus…watch out, though, he’s been promised a month in the sun (or at least two days off in ’sunny’ Siberia!) should he win the tournament outright and save our $100, so he won’t be no Apollo Creed-style pushover…think of Ivan Drago instead (’I must break you’) and you’ll be closer to the challenge you face playing the tournament!

In other news, Daragh Thomas has a new strategy article up in our poker academy: Relative and Absolute Position

Check it out!