Poker Blog - BigC

Well, at least while bearing the mighty and excellent emblem of the paddypowerpoker.com crest that is! And though I am obviously somewhat saddened by this, as I’m sure many of you here at PPP who have followed me over the last year here  will be, I want you all to know that the Paddy Power Poker brand and Ciaran ‘Big C’ O’Leary, part ways on the very best of terms!

For me over the lastyear it was always about “the Pride of the Jersey!”

Although it should be interesting to see where I will end up next, one thing for sure is that Paddy Power Poker nnd the elite group who play on this great site will always hold a fond spot in the Big C’s heart.

Cheers to my dear friends Cormac, Paddy, E-man Eric, Orla, Noel, Paul, Ross, Mike, Evan, Margot, you were all an absolute pleasure to be around.

And cheers also to the many PPP players who would routinely stop by the Big C section and see how I was doing…thanks to Hijack, paddysWARRIOR, d1antheman1, Islander, KerryBob, JP, Marcus, Aspiringpro, Seanmurph11, Paul from SF, BigSlick, Diamondace, Kilkenny Jim, Johnprout, and the hundreds of others.

On a final note for those of you who wish to continue to follow my blog – you can always find my pieces on CardplayerEurope and can contact me at bigcoleary@gmail.com and Bigcpoker.com

Take care my friends,

Ciaran

65th - Gert Cooman - €3,500

66th - Lasse Lien - €3,500

67th - Francis McDonald - €3,500

68th - Roar Wang - €3,500

69th - Carsten Joh - €3,500

70th - Packie Quinn - €3,500

71st - Eldon Orr - €3,500

72nd - Sean Donalson - €3,500

Who can forget that song from Johnny Logan the first time he won the Eurovision song contest? Well it seems that, it’s that very song which will be sung aloud by myself and so many others when it comes to winning this year’s Irish Open!

To sum it up - I was feeling great going into this event, having the wind at my back with the road rising to meet me. And if it weren’t for my pocket Kings not making up the ground that was required on my neighbour’s pocket Aces, then I may at least have continued a little longer on my quest for the Open. But alas it was not to be. You might say it was a bit of a cooler waking up with the Cowboys when my opponent had the Bullets, but it’s really not the worst way that one can go out of a tournament…that’s for sure.

The thing was, I did pick up a few hands but was unable to get anyone in to play. I had Aces once and made the standard bet but nobody called and then I had Kings against a young kid who made an absolutely brilliant lay down against me when he had two queens on an 8 high flop???? Most of the time I’m going to double up there but somehow he’s able to get away from it. It was such a great play from him.

But I’d say the hand that rocked the cradle came against an aggressive Scandi. It went like this…. It was the second level and I chipped up to about 14K after taking 3k off the Scandi already when he tried to bluff me. So with the blinds at 50/100 – I make it 325 from middle position with AJ.

I get two callers before it gets around to the Scandi, who fires out a total of 1800 hundred…hmm he’s trying the squeeze here I’M ALMOST SURE OF IT! Figuring if he gets through me then the other two can’t call when they couldn’t raise me. So with almost 3K out there and me having position on him… I call. It was a Q high flop that missed me completely but I knew it had also missed him.

He bet out 1800 again without even thinking about it. Remember now I only have Ace high but I trust my read and I raise it to 5000 with now having pretty much half my stack out there. But before my chips had even settled, he announced all-in!! Shiteeeeeeeeeeeeee I’m thinking…I’m still fairly sure that this fellow has nothing but even if I am right and I make the hero call with my Ace high, he’s still has a chance to hit one of his two cards to beat me. Also the fact that it was soooo early in the event and I still had 7k, I felt I could pass and still be ok. After all…what if I was wrong and he had AQ? Then I would be drawing almost dead barring runner-runner Jack.

Anyway I decided to fold but only after some deliberation announcing that I didn’t think he was strong at all but by him moving all-in, and me only having Ace high – that I couldn’t call. And sure enough he turned over 9 high for a SICK bluff…Not so much to rub it in but more so to tell me that my read was indeed right.

“Well done sir” I told him, “that was great play”

Then began the battle of the mind wondering had I called I would have been up to 30k! However it didn’t take long for me to get back on track as it was Europe’s number one tournament that we were playing for. Though it is some what ironic given the fact that if it had been almost ANY OTHER EVENT I would have snap called him!

Anyway there are still a lot of great players who are left in it, but who’s it going to be? There is a host of good players whose lives may well change should they some how take down the PPP Irish Open

You can follow online here at paddypowerpoker.com for all your updates.

Ciaran

Touch down in the land of Collins… Casement and Cahill Bruagh, in the middle of the pouring rain and though I did not see Elvis…I did meet some of the shooting stars.

After spending a night with my darling mother in Cork - I was away off to Dublin to meet up with my good friends Jamie Gold and cool kid Mitch. They, like me, have only just arrived, are feeling a bit tired but there’s no time to waste! Jamie in particular is really excited to be here as it’s his first time back to the land where his grandparents were born and raised. I almost got him to come over last year but he was unable to make it, however this year there was absolutely no stopping the 2006 World Champion from making the trip back to visit the home land.

Ahh sure you had to know that he had Irish in him given the fact that has a sliver tongue and a golden handshake and well able to get a rise out of people… which we all got to witness while on route to winning the top title in the poker world along with 12,000,000 smackaroos.

Anyway i’ll take them around town so they may take in the sites and sounds while experiencing  the craic and the lilt of Irish laughter. So check back tomorrow for the up date and I’ll let ya know how the day went.

Talk soon,

Ciaran

Indeed - that’s what the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open is truly all about. It’s an event that brings all kinds of people together…from far and wide to share in the fun and ecitement in hopes of capturing one of poker’s most prestigious titles. And with the numbers expected to be up near the seven hundred mark, it really should come as no great surprise to anyone as to the amount of craic and the camaraderie that is almost certain to take place in this coming week.

However, the Open didn’t just happen overnight…Oh no…my friends, this event has been brewing for a long time and has crowned such Irish champions as Noel Furlong and Liam ‘The Gentleman’ Flood and if i may be so bold as to say so myself, the Irish Open title might be second only to the WSOP main event in the hearts of Irish men who lust for great poker titles.

Any person who thinks that they are going to turn up to Citywest Hotel in Dublin and capture this elusive title should prepare themselves mentally and physically for a battle like no other; a tournament like no other… as the biggest of big are making there way to lay their claim for the title of Irish Open champ.  Yep, we will see Jamie Gold, Neil Channing, Tony G, Brian Townsend, Marty Smyth, Dan Harrington and many more!

Get the pints in the air

Wish me luck,

Ciaran

There are few that will truly ever master the game of poker, but for all of those who try; one essential tool that is definitely required is being able to work out and understand pot odds.

So on this particular topic - I was thinking…that who better than a bunch of lads like us to at least take a look and see what we can come up with in understanding this important part of our game Indeed my friends, with the bar in poker set as high as it is and with so many people in search of answers… let’s see how high we can leap in trying to decode this crucial part of the game!

Right, now it’s true that many people have different views regarding Pot Odds and rightly so…as there are many ways of looking at it, so with that in mind, we’ll try not to make it too complicated and keep it simple.

First of all – I know that many of you sharks already know this but for those of you who don’t and who might only be new to the game; the main jest with Pot Odds is calculating the amount that you need to put in to the middle / pot, in order to win the amount that’s already in there.

However, as is often the case with poker, it is no where near as simple as that; as there are literally dozens of other things that one must also factor in!

One of which is you must determine how many cards / outs are remaining in the deck - that you can hit - that will help you make / define your hand and then by dividing that number of outs by the total amount of money which is in the pot, you can then see if you are getting the correct odds (which aides you with your decision at that time on whether or not you should call).

A bit confusing I know, so here is an easy example:

Let’s just say that only you and one other person see a flop and with $75 in the pot, your opponent bets only $25 making it a total of $100, so it’s going to cost you $25 if you want to call / continue with the hand. So this means you are getting 4/1 on your money if you decide to call, ($25 to win $100) Ok, fairly straight forward.

Now lets just say in this same example you have an up-and-down straight draw or as we like to say “you’re open-ended”, you basically then have eight cards that you can hit to make a straight, guaranteeing you a win providing there is no pair or flush on the board.

So at this moment you know five of the cards – the 3 on the flop and the 2 in your hand and from 52 cards in the deck that leaves you with 47. So basically out of the 47 cards remaining 8 are going to make your straight.

Next you divide your 8 outs into 47 which is almost 6/1 (5.875 if you want to be precise) but remember you have 8 outs twice… as you are going to get 2 shots at hitting one of your 8 outs (the turn and the river). So the price you’re actually getting or as they say, your pot odds are almost 3/1 - for those of you who love your attention to detail, that works out at 2.90625 to 1 to be exact. Because if you miss on the turn you are now drawing from only 46 cards on the river unlike 47 on the turn which changes the percentages slightly.

Anyway, so with $25 to win $100 = 4/1 and with your chances of making your straight being 3/1, you are easily getting the right odds and a call is probably in the beckoning.

Again…as you can see this is a fairly simply example, but where it starts to get interesting is when you begin to factor in many of the other important details, like chip stacks, how accurate is your read on this bloke, how have you been running against this guy and also you might want to put some thought into the projected odds factor as well. Projected odds mean how much more you can win in addition to what’s already in the pot should you hit your card and make your hand.

Granted…all this has been said before, there’s nothing new really, but one thing I can tell you that is rarely mentioned…is the next time you are about ready to call someone based solely on the fact that you are getting the right odds is consider before you put your money in that you should probably assume that you are not going to see those chips again!

What…what are you talking about Ciaran?

The point and case my fellow fanatics is that when using our 3/1 example, that means that 3 out of 4 times you are not going to hit your card and therefore you are going to lose the hand and those chips. So…no shame in letting one slide now and again and not always assuming that the call is always the correct play. Because… I believe it isn’t.

Remember as I’ve said before every situation is different and no two players are the same, if it happens to be that you are in a $50 freezeout and you’re a 3/1 dog and you don’t really care if you get knocked out or not, then by all means go for it. Or if you happen to have a huge chip lead and you have a chance to take out a dangerous player …then why not - go for it. But if it’s the case that you are at the final table in a big event with a nice pay day at stake then you might not want to gamble and take that 3/1 shot. Wait for a better spot as you really need all the chips you have and therefore you stay clear of that old mentality that many share, believing that if you are getting the right odds then you must always call.

Fascinating isn’t it - I suppose what it comes down to is this - like anything else there’s an argument for both sides, but with me I often like to get a lot more than just the right odds because unfortunately the maths and the odds don’t always break even at a time when you want them to the most. You may win the time you are in the $50 freezeout but lose the time you are playing for a huge title as the cards, the maths and the odds have no way of knowing the importance of one tournament over the other  and obviously can’t determine which is the more important event to you all they do in the long run…is break even.

All we did here is scratch the surface and it helps keep us thinking about things as there are so many bits and pieces to banter about regarding this topic so we’ll tackle it again soon.

You tell me – what do you think my friends?

Ciaran

Did you ever hear a dream talking…well I did!

That’s right – after a bottle of red wine and a couple of pints, I was away off on a lovely dream for myself last night. It was a dream like no other; because in this dream I found myself face-to-face with none other than the ghost of poker…and in his eyes I saw every bad beat, every slow play and every great call that was ever made and laid by late great Stu Unger. However, the crazy thing with all of this was not that I was dreaming such a dream, but more the fact that during this dream, the poker ghost stood aloft and began to sing Kenny Roger’s classic song – The Gambler.

Ahh, such beauty it was to my ears…”his face lost all expression…if you’re gonna play the game boy …ya gotta learn to play it right, you gotta know when to hold’em – know when to fold them…la la  la la di di de de!”

Now me being the good listener that I am, I sat back (in my dream) and soaked it all in, absorbed all those gallant words that were bellowed out and by the time I awoke this morning – my heart was pumping and my head thumping… I was  ready to take on the day at hand.

Granted- I did have the song in my head all day but sure it could have been worse, like the Macarena song…heeeeeeeeeeeeeey Macarena!

Anyway folks,  the moral of the story is don’t drink a bottle of red and rake of pints on an empty stomach

I played in a small game last week, fifty runners and took it down – it was only a $25 freezeout but I had a blast. Other than that I haven’t been up to much. That said, I am very very excited about the PPP Irish Open that is only around the corner at Citywest. It will be great to see all my mates and many of the PPP elite.

Well friends, the last caption comp was brilliant!! Ionapaul could probably run for office and get in after such a great pic …yummy - what a lucky bloke Paddy Power is

I would also like to congratulate KerryBob on the great piece he wrote and posted on my blog last week, nicely done sir indeed!!

All the best,

Ciaran

That’s how fast I was out of the European Poker Open - ouch!

I was out the door and the down the road before the dried ice / smoke had even settled. And the person that sent me on my way was none other than Maria from Spain! Do you remember me telling you about her during the Irish Poker Championships when she basically ran over all the lads on the first day. Well, it’s the same girl. She is very aggressive and is without a doubt a very difficult player to play against.

Anyway, the hand went like this: With the blinds at 1,000/2,000 I opened from early position to 5K with KQ offsuit. It was folded around to Maria in the BB who announced raise and made it a total of 13K – sensing that she had only a medium-strength hand I asked her “so soon Maria” and she replied with “no, too early for that” basically telling me that she had a strong hand, which of course only confirmed my belief that she ‘did not’ have a strong hand. So I contemplated re-raising her but then decided just to call as I had position on her.

The flop came A-T-3 rainbow and Maria led out with what I considered to be the standard continuation bet. So again I consider raising her even though all I had myself was a gutshot straight draw. However, rather than raising I decided once again only to call with the intentions of taking it off her on the turn, as I assumed she would check it to me. This might also, I felt, give her some concerns as to me having a big Ace. Here comes the turn…it’s another Ace and just as I predicted she checked it to me. Now by this stage I’m not sure if that second Ace is a good or a bad card for me but with 30% of my stack in there I was going to stick with the plan and trust my initial read that she wasn’t strong, and with two hearts now on the board I decided that the kamikaze play was the way to go so I moved all in to apply the maximum amount of pressure.

The first thing that came out of her mouth was “I have the Ace” whoops / nasty / shite all came to my mind; however, she didn’t seem overly confident with her hand. Again I’m still thinking “Ciaran you are some eejit, what did you do that for - so much for that strategy!”

Anyway, I was also trying to think of something I could say to try help put her off the hand a little… but once more I didn’t trust myself to say anything as I didn’t know if she would take it as me being strong or weak and the fact that she had taken about three minutes by now.  Maybe the best thing was to keep quiet and say nothing as she looked like that she was at least maybe contemplating the fold but no sooner had I convinced myself of this she called…”good call”… the funny thing was I seemed to have convinced a couple of others at the table that I had a monster hand because before I had turned over my hand someone had asked – “full house Ciaran?”  Nope says I…King high…Maria flipped over the A 8 and I was drawing to one of four jacks to make a straight but none showed up and I was out.

Let’s take a closer look at how I played the hand and where I made mistakes.
The first mistake I made was not going with my initial read that she was weak enough to begin with…I should have re-raised pre-flop and taken it down right there. That is unless of course she pulled off some kind of a sick, sick re-re-rebluff but I doubt that.

Point being with a re-raise I would have most likely have won it and we’d have been on to the next hand.

Anyway, next mistake was not re-raising her after she bet on the flop…as again there was a good chance that she would have passed it there…but the donkey that I am, trying to be too cute I went for the stop-and-go (call the flop with the intentions of taking down on the turn) so I just call. Then there was the Ace on the turn and in hindsight was a bad card for me as she now had three aces. If a blank had come I would have done the same thing and moved in after her check. And then my last mistake I believe was not saying anything to her after she told me she had the Ace as it had to be a weak kicker with it based on my gut feeling from the start and the fact that she hadn’t insta-called me.

What I could I have said you ask …well, if I said or at least tried to say something like…”what size is your kicker Maria”…had she thought about why I was saying this she might have felt that I was trying to get an weaker Ace to call me if I had myself a hand like AQ  or AJ as I raised pre-flop and remember I did call her bet on the flop, as I would slow play a big hand there with such an aggressive player in the hand.

Ah well - I seem to have found every way to screw up that hand and I was out like I deserved I – with the speed of Usain Bolt!

It’s like this mates - when I play bad I deserve to get knocked out. But make no mistake about this…I will learn from these occasions.

Maybe you can pick something up from them also

Talk soon,

Ciaran

After I arrived here in Essex for the Party Poker Open I settled in to tackle one of the many important tasks that I had ahead of me this week. The first thing on the agenda was to play in the first of the three Big C Stalker bounties tournies and let me tell ya - they came at me with force and their intentions were to take me out and send me packing! Mission accomplished lads - what a tough bunch we have here at PPP.

That’s right we had paddysWARRIOR, Colla, Viper, Suzzie and a host of other great players… all vying for my scalp, all after the $100 bounty.  After my pocket tens failed to hold up, leaving me with a mere 10 chips and by the end of it, with them all smelling the blood in the water, they came in to finish me off. Yes sir, I had at least four callers when I got knocked out due to being so short stacked and vulnerable.

However, I’m not quite sure who actually got me in the end…so whoever it was, be sure to post it on here and I’ll give you my congrats! Well done to you all!

Now, for those of  you missed it and would maybe like to take a shot at yours  truly, don’t worry as we are having at least two more of these bounties over the next couple of days, so be sure to get in and have a crack at it my friends.

Live Poker update:

As I said, I’m in London for a tournament and there are a lot of other pros about, some of those I met included ‘The Gentleman’ Liam Flood, Padraig Parkinson, Warren, Beiju, Spiver, Ozzy and big John, all about the place at the Marriott Hotel in Essex and I think its fair to say that all we’re in good form. That was until some of them suggested that we go out for a nice HOT curry. Ok says I - that sounds good - and off we went.

The food was grand and the night went well that was until I found myself awake in the middle of the night in the fetal position – two seconds later I was doing a hand stand in the cold shower…it was crazy - it felt like one of those scenes from the X-Files… ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my stomach!

Now those of you who are well used to eating Indian food will know that it can be risky business; sometimes if you order it too hot. And it was only thinking back now that I should have seen some of the warning signs telling me that it was going to be very spicy – for a start - it should have been a red flag when I heard the waiter humming that song from Jonny Cash…a burning ring of fire… :(  not to mention the door man was wearing a house of pain t-shirt…ahhhhhhhhhhh….ah well what ya gonna do - lucky for me that the smoke detector battery was low and only chirped for a few minutes.

Did I mention I’m playing poker in minute – bag of ice please – to go!

Anyway I’ll check back in tomorrow and let ya know how I got on in my heat

Ciaran

I was playing in a small tourney a couple of weeks ago and bumped into an old friend that I hadn’t seen for about ten years. He was telling me that he had taken up golf about five or six years ago and how he now believes it to be the most frustrating game in the world. He went on to say that if he had only stayed away from golf and stuck with poker then he’d be better off as a result.

However, I was quick to point out to him that poker must also be considered right up there with golf as to the biggest brain-tingling activity out there. I mean think about it, both of these games can give you instant gratification and two minutes later can drive you absolutely demented!

One minute you’re staring down a birdie putt and the next minute you’re over to the hole in the wall to pull out another $300!

So, as a result we began an hour-long debate as to which of the two games can be the more frustrating to play. And let me tell ya – there was some great arguments for both but by the time we parted ways we could only reach the conclusion that each game is as equally frustrating as the other.

I do know that you need a strong mental game for both and you need a hell of a lot of heart to go with it. You must be able to commit to your decision and trust your reads and of course having a little bit luck doesn’t go astray either.

So you tell me…what do you think; which one has you breaking the china in your house?

We will be giving out a couple of Irish Open feeder tokens so be sure to leave a funny story about either one if you have one.

Speaking of poker – I’m off to London on Monday for a tournament. It is the Party Poker World Open and I believe has the same structure as the Poker Million so I’m looking forward to that. We’ll probably have a couple of Big C bounties next week and I’ll also be playing some cash games as well so keep an eye out and don’t be surprised to see sitting next to ya in some 5c 10c games and ready for chat

With that, we’ll talk to ya later

Ciaran