Poker Blog - GuestBlogger

In October 2009 Derek Thorpe triumphed over a table of our top online players in Citywest Hotel to become paddypowerpoker.com’s very first Paddy Power Poker Pro, winning a €60,000 pro package.  He achieved this by maintaining a high level of play throughout summer 2009, playing the online grand final down to eight players and knocking the other seven out when the final table restarted live during the weekend of the Irish Winter Festival.  Here is his first report as our sponsored pro:

It has been just over four months now since I managed to win the first Paddy Power Poker Pro competition. After a rather uneventful first outing under the sponsorship, which ended in an exit early on day two of the Irish Winter Festival, it was time for a brief stint in Australia and as a result there have been no live appearances since.

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After the four starting days of the WSOP in Las Vegas have been consigned to the dustbin of history, we’ve still got five brave warriors with chips in front of them and fire in their bellies, ready for the two Day 2s - one of which starts in just a few hours!

Please keep your fingers crossed for the Paddy Power Poker standard-bearers:

- Gary ‘rag2gar’ Clarke - 45,500 chips
- Peter Davies - 40,775 chips
- Francis McCormack - 39,450 chips
- James McManus - 33,725 chips
- Bob Willis - 26,825 chips

Eric has asked us to pull on some cheerleading costumes and pose for a photograph to encourage the lads onwards and upwards - believe me, if we pull these one, no-one would be cheering and many would be weeping!

If any make it to Day 3, I promise to find a photo of REAL CHEERLEADERS to motivate them :)   Go go go!

I had what could only be described as a grueling day yesterday - I somehow just about managed to crawl across the first stage finish line (day one) and though you’ll not find the yellow or green jersey draped over the chair at the end of the bed due to a big chip lead, no… if anything it would be more like a bloodied towel from a boxing match as a spin up the Alps may very well of been an easy task on the day

Let me explain; after arriving at my table (one of the three TV tables) and on what could only be described as the table of death / doom / pain or all of the above; I knew that a tough task was ahead.

With arguably three of the top ten players in the game right now sitting at the table, players who need absolutely no introduction, such players who have accomplished more in the poker world that if you were to put pen to paper and start listing all their achievements you would almost certainly run out of ink before you had completed your task, ladies and gents , Boys and Girls – I give you…Julian Gardiner - Mark Goodwin – and Marty Smith.

Then you throw in the ever-talented Nicky Power into the mix, who his capable of making such moves / plays that you won’t find in any book because “let me tell ya!” when that man slips into that other-worldly zone, you’d do better to volunteer to be the first man in for the polar dip in Fountainstown on Christmas Day rather than trying to get into his mind.

And a man who’s probably taken that dip more than once himself, is cunning Cork pro from Mertiville, ‘Sideshow Bob’, who made a few moves himself. Then round up a couple of others who were all quite handy as well…sure Big C would have been forgiven for turning around and heading straight for the airport as opposed to tackling that lot but sure…what fun would that be? He he!

Anyway, the crazy thing with all of  this is that none of these players (nor me) was the better player on the day. Nope, it was a girl called Maria who was from Spain (sounds like the name of a song, doesn’t it) who had her way with us boys…point and case being, “She basically kicked all of our asses!”

Back to work  on Day Two - say a prayer for me.

Ciaran

Just a short one - I’ve been at home in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, for the Christmas and New Year and was joined in this beautiful city (if I may say so myself!) by both Big C and our Operations Manager Noel ‘BCB’ Hayes last night as the build-up to the Irish Poker Championship draws to a close.  The €2,000 main event kicks off at 6pm today and I’ll be keeping track of how Ciaran does - one more time Big C!

There are a load of big name poker players knocking about - I shared a table last night at the Super Satellite (unsuccessfully, damn it!) with Neil ‘Bad Beat’ Channing, the current Irish Open champ, and there are more professionals on the way for tonight’s action.  Maybe we’ll get some good photos for the caption competition!  That reminds me, gotta choose a winner or two (or three), it’s been a while!

This report has been provided by PPP player Gary ‘Rag2gar’ Clarke, one of the most well-known and respected players on the Irish and UK poker scene:

I was delighted to be in London last month competing in the GUKPT Grand Final. Having qualified online with Paddy Power Poker just a few weeks prior to the event, my taste buds were tingling as I counted down the days to Nov 27th. The opportunity to play with the big boys of world poker does not come around often for us recreational players and I was excited at the thought of the names I would no doubt be tangling with at some stage in the tournament. Ironically, my first shot at a GUKPT would be the grand final itself, eek!

I choose Day 1A as my start day for a one reason. Should you make it through the day it allows for a day in between days one and two. The time for rest and relaxation is often over looked by poker players who favour a plane-play-plane strategy. No sooner has their plane landed than they are due at the casino as cards are in the air in 20 minutes. They then play a full day of grueling poker, get a maximum of 6 hours sleep and are back for another full day’s play. I wanted to avoid this.

My starting table was littered with stars. Surinder Sunar, Barney Boatman, John Tabatabai, Mats Gavatin and William Martin. 182 players registered for the event. There was no use fretting at the table draw however as most tables were completely value-less as well. For the early levels I sat tight and avoided any creative plays as the table was playing fast and loose. I figured that should I pick up a premium hand I was likely to get paid as there was a queue of people opening pots.

Having seen little in the way of glorious cards I was forced to open my game a little as the day went on. I accepted I was against more experienced opposition but I might as well go down fighting. My tight image allowed me to steal some nice pots as the day progressed and I was happy with how I was playing. I never got above the average chips level for the whole of day one and ended second from the bottom in chip positions. I was through to day two albeit with a short stack.

For my day off I did a tour of London and did a little shopping. I avoided the Vic as I wanted to keep my mind fresh from poker for Saturday’s play.

When Saturday came around I got down to the Casino early before play re-started. I was given a table re-draw and this time was drawn alongside fellow Irishman Fran Egan. We both had short stacks and an uphill battle to reach the top 18 that would ultimately get paid. I started off well and got lucky twice with two early doubles up. I was confident I could play my way back into the tournament.

There was still a long way to go though and I would need continued good fortune as the blinds were going up and the stacks were becoming shallow. Having lost some pots and watched as my chips depleted, before long I was back to a short-stack. Fran Egan was having similar woes and finding it difficult to increase his stack also. With 50 left I could sense the end was near. With less than 10 big blinds any poker player would think the same.

My exit hand was AJ versus AQ. I got my chips into the pot first only to be called by Ketul Nathwani with a dominating hand. The board came low and dry and I was out in 31st place. I headed for the rail to cheer on Fran Egan in the hope that the last Irishman in the field could come out with a result. It was not to be as unfortunately he would be the victim of the bubble and a cruel 19th place finish.

I was happy with my efforts and was delighted to be there to compete. You can only learn from playing in tough tournaments and this was the most difficult I have played to date. We all want to cash but you must remember only 10% can achieve it. I was proud of my performance and look forward to another shot in the future. With Paddy Power Poker offering satellites to all the GUKPT events, I am hoping I will be back again in Season 3.

Thanks Gary and better luck next time!  A nice plug right at the end as well Should I give him a token for that?  Probably!

Ireland has always been a land that has been rich with song and story; with pride and with laughter, and always with a sense of accomplishment. So it should come as no great surprise to anyone that we must now add some poker accolades to that list of achievements.

And the reason for this? There’s a man from Belfast who is leading the most amazing charge to capture every great poker title that exists and during this process he truly has become one of Ireland’s greatest poker players - I give you Mr. Marty Smyth!

It is no secret to most that I have been playing this game for a long time and is definitely no myth as to how much the game actually means to me, but what I witnessed last week in the finals of the Poker Million was enough to set the ghost of any uncertainty to rest as to who the best player in Europe is at the moment. It’s as simple as this; what Marty Smyth has done over the last two years is simply amazing, and he has my complete and utter respect for it! Well done and congratulations to you, Marty!

On a personal note

I had an absolutely amazing time over the last few days in London and though it’s fair to say that I’m still a little bit disappointed by not winning it myself, I do find some consolation in the fact that I finished in third place. But it’s like this my friends – as I have said and wrote before: The sad thing with poker events in general is that there is typically only ever going to be one person that is truly happy with the final outcome of the tournament, so really, all you are ever doing is delaying the inevitable unless you are fortunate enough to go on and win it! 

Thank you again to everyone for the kind words, Paddyswarrior, redmanbeard, Kerrybob, Matt, John P, smurph, Sean, Mike, Evan, Noel and to all of the other great people who took the time to either text, leave a voicemail or post a comment on my blog – I appreciate it.

Someone asked me if I was nervous knowing that the tournament was going out live on Sky Sports? Hmmm - I don’t think I was at all nervous, although I would say that I was probably more anxious than anything due to the long layoff between the heats and the semis but as soon as the cards got in the air, I was ready to go!

The next stop is the Irish Poker Championships in Galway in early January, so I hope to have a good run in that like I did last year when I finished 13th.

Happy Christmas PPP players, god bless and we’ll talk to you soon!

Ciaran

I hope you were all watching Big C’s performance on Friday evening live from London on Sky Sports?  It can’t be denied, he did us all proud!  Myself and the rest of the PPP posse were there at the Poker Million party (when he was involved in big hands the cameras cut to our table, oh yes we enjoyed the limelight as well as the champagne!) and when the field was reduced to the four Irish lads who all knew each other fairly well, the atmosphere was electric. As we were all saying to each other, no matter who won, the four of them and Irish poker were big winners - don’t worry, we sneakily still wanted Big C to wipe the floor with the other three

Norman Pace (of comic duo Hale and Pace) was the MC for the night, beautiful Michelle Orpe was on the mic for the TV production and model Danielle Lloyd was wandering around as well (unconfirmed rumours indicate that she was seen chatting up Noel ‘Big City Banker’ Hayes later in the night) - not only that, but Devilfish and a few of the other top pros were there to enjoy the party was well!

When all was said and done, former Irish Open winner Marty Smyth took 1st place, Eoghan O’Dea came 2nd, Big C a very respectable 3rd and the legend that is Liam Flood came 4th - a bit of a whitewash for the Irish!  The party lasted long into the night and it is fair to say a pint or two was had :)  My memory gets blurry right around 3am, and the trip back to Ireland next morning was painful!  But if we have the chance next year….we’ll be front and centre on the way to London!

Once more: WELL DONE CIARAN!

I’m happy to report that Big C’s quest for the Poker Million is still alive.

The first of two semi-final heats took place yesterday at Sky Sports studios, and with only three players out of each semi assured a spot in the final, it was no wonder that there were a lot of twists and turns before the final outcome was decided. It was only after about four hours of play that we finally got down to the three remaining players.

It was an entertaining heat, as you can well imagine as there was loads of action, but by days end, only three players - Liam Flood, Kevin Allen and yours truly (the chipleader :)) - had their tickets punched into the final of one of Europe’s biggest events, ‘The Poker Million’.

The next step is the final table on Friday the 12th, which will air on Sky Sports live that day, so it goes without saying that I’m looking forward to it…

Thanks to all those who have wished me well via the kind words and the texts that I received. They are greatly appreciated!

As for today, I will go back out to Sky to watch and cheer on Marty Smyth and Eoghan O’Dea. Both are very, very good players and should prove very tough opponents for the likes of Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott and Tony G.

Come on lads - you can do it!

With that folks I’m off for a quick nap – very tired!!

Ciaran

Make sure and tune into Sky Sports 3 tonight; Big C plays his Poker Million semi-final today and the highlights are shown at 9pm tonight on Sky Sports 3.  Eight of the world’s top players are in each of the semi-finals, with the top three making it through to Friday’s final, shown live on Sky Sports!  At this stage, Ciaran is guaranteed a $20,000 payday, but will be guaranteed $75,000 if he makes it through his heat and of course the winner on Friday snags a very, VERY tasty $1,000,000.  That’s a lot of zeros!  So check it out - I promise there will be fireworks with Liam Flood and the Boatman brothers sitting beside Big C today!

To celebrate, we’re running our very classy Poker Billion promo - it’s very simple, we’re running $5 + 50c Poker Billion Semi rebuy tournaments tonight and Thursday at 8pm with $250 added to each, with the $5 + 50c Poker Billion Final rebuy on Friday at 8pm with $500 added PLUS a Doyle Brunson poker book for the top 12 finishers!  Yes, that’s a billion-worth* of prizes added!

*Zimbabwean cents

I played a fair amount of poker, both live and online, over the weekend.  On Thursday night I played in a €250 + €20 tournament, which made up part of one of Dublin’s finest card room’s winter festival.  I played quite well to begin with, doubling my stack within the 1st three levels, but mid-way through the tournament I lost a crucial race when my pair of Tens was outdrawn by Ace-Jack (my opponent made a very bad move against me, he re-raised me after I raised Under-The-Gun, a pair of Tens was the weakest hand I was going to continue the hand with) and went out shortly afterwards.

On Friday evening, before going out I made my 1st attempt at 6-tabling STTs (Sit-N-Gos), as I recently purchased a lovely new 22″ widescreen LCD for my PC!  I could only play for 90 minutes before heading out.  So I immediately loaded up 6 x $25 + $2 turbo STTs, placed 1st in two of them and crashed out of the other 4, which still resulted in a $60 profit.  Later that night I engaged in some live cash game action when slightly enebriated - not a good idea!  I was down €450 and managed to leave at 6am down €150 - RESULT!  Rivering two houses after all the money went in helped the comeback, I have to admit

Despite the hangover, I managed to play a few live STT satellites on Saturday afternoon to the main event of the festival, a €1,000 + €75 tournament with an excellent structure.  The card club generously added €525 to each STT prizepool (in order to increase the number of seats won), so 10 of us paid €55 with the outright winner taking the €1,075 ticket.  Online players with any kind of STT experience have a HUGE advantage in these kind of satellite, most live players do not understand the strategy needed in STTs, as their experience lies solely in cash or MTTs.  I won the ticket on my 2nd attempt, winning a big pot with 4 remaining that gave me 40% of the chips in play - hard to lose it from there!  As I was so tired after the night before, I eventually decided to sell the ticket for €800 (I’m too generous!) - the tournament was appealing but I really needed a nap!

I played a lot of online poker on Sunday, the usual mixture of satellite MTTs and turbo STTs with a cash table or two mixed in - Sunday is definitely a good day for chilling in front of the TV with your laptop beside you, watchin sport and building the bankroll!  I played the final event of the live festival last night, a tournament that cost €155 to play, I was card dead throughout (the best hand I was dealt, AK, was received very 1st hand after registering!) and went out a very disappointing 14th position, with the top 9 being paid.  I made a few hundred over the weekend but it could have been so much more - isn’t that the way it always is!  I’m planning to 6-table turbo STTs for the next couple of nights to build up the online bankroll again; I often turn to STTs when my cash game is letting me down.  What game do you fall back on when you’re bankroll needs a quick boost?