First tournament of the year - €250 8/1/2006

Below is a tournament report from the 1st played this year, the €250 freezeout, day 3 of the Irish Poker Championship:

I was late going out to City West and arrived in time to join the back of a very long line for registration. They were giving out all the seat 11s by the time I got to the top. Cards in the air at 3 (IIRC), didn't know a soul at my table. There were 258 runners. Had an uneventful first few levels, trying to identify and categorise the players at my table. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing, though two were very tight and passive.

Interesting hands from the first few levels: blinds were around 100/200, I had AKh, UTG+1 raised to 600, I flat called (tried to vary my play all day yesterday, so it wasn't as easy for them to put me on hands, as it can often be!), nice flop of KQ6 with two hearts. He unfortunately checked out of turn (which was picked up and pointed out by everyone), which left me at a loss of what to do to get more of his stack into the middle. I decided to make a big show of laughing and making a big overbet, hopefully indicating weakness and looking for him to push and 'force' me off. Well I over-thought it and he reluctantly folded, saying 'you have nothing, but it is probably better than my nothing' - it almost worked! When the blinds were 200/400 I picked up JJ twice in a few minutes, raising to 1500 each time. The first time I got one caller (the BB), the flop was ten high, I fired in a 1/2 pot bet and off he went. The second time I also got a single caller, this time one of the tight passive players, which was a little worrying, as he hadn't played many hands and was a real rock. The flop came K high, I again fired a 2/3 pot bet at it and he very reluctantly folded. The only other notable hand of the early part of the tournament was against the same player, I raised 3xBB at some point holding 99. He called, flop was something like K 10 6 rainbow. He checked, I bet 600, he called. Worrying. Turn wasn't scary, he checked, so I decided to bet 600 again, he called again. River was another rag, he checked and I knew he was worried he was behind. I hoped a big bet would win it here (I think he probably was in front, A10s, QQ or JJ, he was very tight) and make the earlier bets look like I had been milking him. I bet the pot, he thought about it for ages, staring at me, eventually folded. My heart didn't beat that fast all night!

Went into the first break with 8.5k, a little more than average. Can't remember much from the middle portion of the night, I know I stole the blinds a few times and played a few pots, getting up to 12k at one stage. Didn't go to showdown many times, the table really respected my raises. However, I didn't hit a few times with AQ and the like and only had 6.5k by the time of the second break at 10.30 - it's amazing there was over two hours of play between the breaks and I can't remember a single hand!

I met Culchie during the break and heard his story. When the play restarted around 11, he stood behind me for a good long while and then realised the player beside me was an old school friend he hadn't seen in years! This island's a small place, isn't it? At one point I mentioned to him that I had just limped for the last time, I had around 6k and the blinds were either 300/600 or 400/800, had to make a move. Move I did, to a different table. Average stack at this point must have been about 15k, with more than half the field gone. Changing table did me the world of good - I went all-in a number of times to take the blinds (once with 98s) and finally was called for about 7.5k by a big stack on the BB, he had AJ, I had AQ and I doubled through. A few hands later I got AA for the first and only time that night, the same player raised to 5k (blinds were 500/1k I think), I reraised, all the chips went in, he turned over AQs and I doubled again to over 40k, average stack was around 21k. Ten minutes later I lost a good few chips when my AK missed the flop, but next hand found 10 10. The same player (still with a nice stack, 30k), raised to 3k, another player called, and I decided to make a move and force them to make a decision for their tournament (I had both covered), all-in I went. The poor chap dwelt for a while and called, the other lad folded, I flipped over my black tens and he sighed and turned over 99, both black. The tens held up and I had a big stack, biggest by a way on the table. I lost a few chips over the next few levels, as a short stack twice went in against my BB (he was on the button), first time he had 1.5BB so it was an autocall, his AJs held up against my K9o, the second time he was back to a respectable 15k and he caught a 9 for his lousy A9 against my magnificant AK! Knocked me back to 50k or so, but I got the last laugh, he tried it again 1/2 hour later with A8 or something, I found KK for the first and last time that night and the cowboys held up. Had over 100k in chips (average stack around 30k I suppose), lost 25k just before the next break when a very agressive player arrived at the table, he limped for 3k UTG, I had AQs in the SB, raised to 13k, Christy Smith in the BB folded (had a good laugh with him throughout the night), UTG called, I missed the flop but fired into it anyway, he called, I checked the turn and he as expected pushed on my weakness and took it down. On the break there were 35 players or so left, 21 get paid. I still had a nice stack.

Eddie The Eagle, a Vegas Nights regular, now had a monster stack (140k) after knocking two players out on another table. After the break he moved to our table, and it was very hard to play against him, he layed the hammer down with great force whenever he had anything decent. Only Christy played back at him and won a decent pot, Eddie crippled others who tried this. I moved table again when we were down to 30. Blinds were getting very big at this stage, 3k/6k and then 4k/8k. I went card dead for the next hour, and when there were 23 left I only had 25k, in dire straights. Down to 22, I was certain I was going home without a penny, there were a few others with similar stacks but I just had an awful feeling that what happened last month in Galway would happen again.

A great cheer went up from one of the three remaining tables - we were all in the cash! I was UTG, found A10o, threw it in, called by the BB with muck, double up. Lost my BB to a big raise, next hand found Ax in the SB, it was folded around to me, I pushed and took the blinds and antes. Same thing next hand, folded around to my button, I had KJo or something and pushed again, both folded (I could tell they were getting sick of this though!). An orbit later I found 88 in MP, pushed, called by one of the regular Fitz cash game players with AKo, my eights were alright and suddenly I had over 100k and in great shape, average stack was 91k but Eddie had over 300k, I was probably 2nd or 3rd biggest stack. No more post flop action, it was all pre flop with the huge blinds and antes. On my SB with blinds about 5k/10k, the button pushed with approx. 40k (he was table shortstack I think, most had 60k or so), I called with A10o (much better than most of the range I had him on), he actually had AJo and doubled up. Maybe I should have picked a different moment to get so many chips into the middle, as now I was right back in trouble with everyone else. We got to 10 players, the final table, around 4am, blinds 8k/15k. For the last 90 minutes I was like a zombie, finding it very hard to concentrate and needing long walks outside in the freezing cold to wake myself up.

On the final table I was 2nd shortest stack with about 40k, 1st hand Eddie (UTG) min raised, folded to Steve Davis in the BB, who very calmly pushed his medium stack all-in. Eddie showed (A9?) and folded. Next hand I got A9o, Eddie on BB. One limper before me, I actually started throwing my hand away, changed my mind mid-throw and instead pushed my chips in! My obvious change of mind got a laugh, shouldn't have made such a hasty decision, though I'm sure it was the right one. I knew Eddie would call with anything, it was almost an autocall with the blinds and antes. The shorter stack thought about it for a while, then pushed himself, Eddie called and the other limper folded. Knew I was up against it, Eddie has AQ and the shortest stack had 77, flop was Q10 10, no help for anyone else on the turn and river, and the short stack was out for €1,250 and I got €1,500. This was 4.30am, after 9 1/2 hours play on the clock. Spent 20 minutes de-icing the damn car and home I went.

All in all it was a long but great night for me, been a long while since I cashed properly, and I felt I played well over all, I never needed to outdraw anyone at any stage, though I admit I got some nice cards and in particular got the callers I needed when I needed them. Now I hope the remainder of 2006 goes as well for me and everyone else too, of course!