Irish Open Side Event - €150 rebuy 17/4/2006

Played in the SE twice last week, I'll be succinct and give them each a one-liner review!

SE €75 DC 12/4/2006 - 6 tables, some good play, card dead after the break, knocked out in 18th when I ran my A10 into AA and 99

SE €50 DC 13/4/2006 - 10 tables, huge crowd in town for Irish Open, played far too passively, out at 11pm, shouldn't have played as friends were out in the Barge and it was full of fine women supposedly!

Ok, on to real deal: I played in the €150 rebuy Irish Open side event last night, along with 160+ others. Started at 6pm, 2k starting stack, unlimited rebuys for 90 minutes, rebuys and add-on were both 2k. Sat down on table 2, with at least 2 professionals in attendance, one was scottish pro Tony Chessa (sponsored by Littlewoods Poker), the other was a Scandie. Most of the other players were English, all willing and able to rebuy multiple times. Within the first five hands there had been 3 multi all-in pre-flop car crashes and many many rebuys! It would be fair to say I was on the maniac table and out of my depth. I had budgeted to spend €600 at most, and hoped to get by for less if possible. Very tough to play, therefore, with players willing to push all-in blind, and who would call multiple all-ins blind for 'value'! They just wanted as many chips as possible on the table and could easily afford the cost of the rebuys.

So basically I had to hang tight and make my stand with decent hands. I was forced to rebuy mid way through the 2nd level, when I got short stacked and pushed with KQ, was called with A5, villian hit a 5 on the flop. Towards the end of the 3rd level, I more than doubled up with I found AA pre-flop and raised to 700 (blinds 100/200, I had 1500), which in retrospect was a bad move, very suspicious, should have pushed. Two callers, including Tony, T56o flop, Tony pushed, BB folded, I called, he flipped 34o but didn't improve. I was up to almost 4k and was moved to a less maniac table. Took the add on at the break to bring my spend to €450 for the night.

Things really quietened down after the break, but the structure was quiet steep so you couldn't hang around for too long. I made a bad mistake (again, playing much too passively) during the 200/400 level, I was on the SB with J6o, one limper (good Irish player), I complete and BB checks, flop of J87 rainbow. I check, BB checks, limper bets 600. I should have pushed my remaining 4k at this point, I had just enough to scare him and was probably in front anyway, but folded like a deckchair. Ughhh. Tripled up a while later, pushed with AJs after the same player min-raised from MP, BB calls, Irish guy calls, flop was AT6 rainbow, BB checks, Irish guy pushes, BB tells him 'you better have him beat', Irish guy looks confident, I reach for my coat but he flips A9o and I am in much better shape. Won a pot or two to stay near 10k.

Moved again, down to 60 players, blinds now 600/1.2k, getting desperate again. Top 18 getting paid, winner gets €28k, 18th gets €625. Onto a very tough table, a few professionals, EP raiser, I find AKh and push, folded around to villain who has a big stack and has to call, he flips 88, so a race it is, about 15k in the pot...here's the flop, a K, woohoo!....with a Q and...damn it, an 8 :( Only one heart, so running kings? Aces? or hearts? No luck, home I go. Fun night but quitetough and I needed a much bigger bankroll to play in that tournament.` Think I'll take a few days off poker, maybe play the SE on Wednesday but that's it for a while.