How’s she cutting folks!  After a messed up booking; a late flight, then a missed flight, hours of waiting… and then - a lost bag! – I eventually made it (phew) to London.  You know, I remember when I used to love going to the airport, having a couple of pints, reading the ‘ol paper – those were the days

Ahh – yes!!!  The phone just rang and I’m told that they have found my bad and will drop it off later.  Nice!  I won’t have to go commando at the Poker Million!

Yes, nobody said it was going to be easy

Update time:

I went to the Vic card room last night and I had a blast.  What a card room it is!  The staff, the set up - the whole shebang.  I played some NL for about 6 hours with Neil Channing and a few others.  I was able to get out of there about £2,000 sterling in front, which is always good.  Then I came back to the hotel but unfortunately didn’t get much sleep.

I played on paddypowerpoker.com today for a few hours, a Sit’n’Go, some Limit and No-Limit and I really enjoyed it, playing and speaking with some of the players – great bunch of people.  I enjoyed answering the questions and thanks again for the very kind words from all who I played against.  There’s no doubt about it, Paddy Power Poker definitely has the friendliest players out there, and that’s why I love this site!  The play is good and craic is great!!

With that my friends - I play in my heat today in the Poker Million so fingers crossed!  It is being filmed for Sky Sports so I’ll be giving it hell – you know that!  He-he   It has some of finest players in the world attending so it is sure to be top class.

Play well all and remember, if you think you’re beat – you probably are!

Ciaran

Yes, you read that correctly!  We’ve launched our latest cash table promotion, which awards an Irish Winter Festival super satellite token worth $55 to any player that is Just A Jack Off before the end of August.  It is relatively easy to snag your prize, just play on our cash tables, miss out on a Royal Flush by only a Jack, email our Gaming Support team and we’ll send you the IWF token as quickly as we can.  Of course, there are a few conditions to check out, but you get the drift!

Our Sunday night Irish Winter Festival $215 super satellites are going well, three more players qualified last night for the big tournament in October.  Remember that we are now running IWF $55 super satellites on Tuesday nights, last week we almost had enough runners for two full packages and I expect we’ll have enough for two tomorrow evening.  I won’t be playing in the Irish Masters as I’ll be there blogging my little heart out, but hopefully will still enjoy the excitement of the event - who knows, I could be posting up a few entries about you over October Bank Holiday weekend if you manage to make it there!

Good luck on the tables - I’ll be throwing up a caption competition later in the week.

There is no denying that November is a month that often brings the heavy rain…however, I doubt that any dark clouds will be accompanying the nine players that are fortunate enough to be returning to Vegas for the WSOP final table.

That’s right - all are now assured a minimum of almost a million dollars each… not to mention a chance at poker immortality!  Yes folks, I get chills just thinking about it.  It’s true; I’m happy for all – though I can’t say that I’m familiar with any.

Brandon Cantu and Tiffany Michelle were probably the last two that I had any dealings with in the past - Brandon and I had played against each other at least twice before and Tiffany of course is the lass that does most of the interviewing for Pokernews.com, and I had the pleasure of doing a few with her in the last year or so.

So it’s to be someone else.  But who?  I don’t know – we’ll just have to wait and see.

I, for one, will tune in to watch it – not necessarily to root for one for over the other, but more to show my support for the game in general.  Because it is our game… and we owe it those chosen individuals who some how managed to do the impossible and make it to the end.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you “The November Nine”; well done indeed!!

Anyway, turning away from the WSOP for a while – I’m fully recovered from my exit from the “you know what” and I’m already looking forward to my next event, which just happens to be next week in London – the Poker Million.  Now this really is a great tournament. There are a total of 72 players (I believe it is about 36 invited Pros and 36 online qualifiers) broken into 12 heats (with 6 players per heat) and you have one player advancing from each heat.

Each of the 12 second place finishers will play in one of two second chance heats where the winner of each heat will advance.  Two other players will get direct entry to the last 16 (something to do with how they qualified).  So, you are left with a total of 16 players.

There will then be two semifinal heats, with 8 players in each heat, and the good thing here is that the top three from each semifinal will advance into the six player final (yeah, it is fairly complicated!)  Basically, the tough part is getting through the first round; if you can do that you give yourself a great opportunity to make the final.

It’s sure to be a blast as each heat is being recorded for Sky Sports TV and the final I believe is going to be on live!

Anyway my friends, I look forward to playing some tourneys on paddypowerpoker.com next week while I’m in Europe, so look out for me at the tables (be gentle)

Ciaran

Just a quick reminder to all you C*A*S*H VIP level 2 and 3 players (LIEUTENANT and CAPTAIN levels), we are running your monthly money-added tournaments tonight at 8pm and 9pm - with $500 added for Lieutenants and $500 added for Captains, these are tournaments you don’t want to miss

Wow!  After 7 long days of poker, the massive WSOP $10,000 Main Event field of 6,844 has been reduced to just 9 - all guaranteed at least $900k, with the winner scoring $9.1m….  In a break from tradition, play has now been suspended until November 9th, when the final 9 will return and play out the final table in front of the world’s media and under the scrutiny of every poker player on the planet…we’ll all be glued to the reports!  Imagine the pressure they’ll be under between now and then, to land the best endorsement deal, get as much poker coaching as possible, try to handle the pressure….still, for the payday they’ll all expect would any of us turn down a chance to swap places with them!

As usual, Paddy Power is quickest out of the traps and we already have the Outright Winner betting market sorted!  With the chip leaders at 4/1 and the table short stack at 50/1, you have a range of odds available to you, whether you like to back the favourite or shout for the underdogs!

Who do you fancy for the big one?  I’ve never heard of any of them before, I have to admit, but I’ve just been told by Noel that Peter Eastgate is his pick of the bunch…

A couple of days ago I was playing four Single Table Tournaments (or Sit ‘n’ Gos) on my laptop in front of the TV - I know, I know, I should have been concentrating on the poker and not allowing myself to be distracted, but what are you gonna do - anyhow, by some miracle I manage to get heads-up in each one, all within minutes of the other!  Now I’ve often heard that professional STT specialists stagger the start times of their games, as they don’t want to end up in the pickle I found myself in, tables flashing and beepers beeping as each table seemed to require a decision every few seconds.  I normally just start up all my STTs at once though, as I don’t particularly expect to get heads-up in all of them, even getting to that point in 2 of them is a good achievement for me!

It is very tough to play a good end-game (where all the money is to be made, as you know, so it is where you should be at the top of your game) when the poker tables themselves seem to be harassing you!  In the end, I managed to come 1st twice and 2nd twice, so not the worst result really.  If any of you have some tips for the best way to handle being heads-up on multiple tables (or good ways to stagger starting games!), let me know.

A different type of image for our caption competition this week: this was snapped by Noel last week in the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas - the home of the WSOP.  Mr. Paddy Point had just downed two cocktails and was ready to hit the town, but with so much on offer - poker, casino games, shows, bars & clubs and much, much more - what do you think he wanted to do?  Answer as many times as you want and the top three score an Irish Winter Festival satellite token worth $6 (remember we’ve introduced a whole new IWF Qualifier Schedule, I’ll decide on the winners on Monday or Tuesday.

Also, did you know that if you are the first player to sit down at our Paddy Power Poker-only cash tables (listed in green in the Cash Tables section of the poker room), you earn x1.5 Paddy Points?  Great if you’re saving them up for a new laptop or PS3!  Plus the banter will be much better of course, PPP players are the most fun on the internet!

Take it easy over the weekend and good luck all!

Hey folks,

Well I am back in Dublin now having returned from Vegas safely and in one piece. I did have an incident with my phone though which to cut a long story short involves me not having one anymore!

At the time of writing a number of the Irish guys have made it back to Day 3 of the main event at the WSOP. Unfortunately BigC isn’t among them but he will have other days for sure. As a rough list we have Donal Norton, Dave Murray, Gary Clarke, Reggie Lyons, Pat O’Callaghan and James McManus. Im sure others are there also but my eyes are weary at this time and I am about to get a few hours kip to recharge the batteries.

Stay tuned here for further updates, I will also get around to writing my Vegas round up about my experiences on the trip over the coming week.

Be good,

Noel.

It seems that Paul Young may have been on to something!

My friends, there’s only one way to spell the word “out” and unfortunately for me, it’s now tattooed onto my brain!

Not even Cork’s great GAA Football comeback against Kerry last Sunday can soften the blow of how I feel at this moment! Still though, “greater men have suffered more than I” - never let it be said that I went down with out a fight!  It just wasn’t to be, that’s all.

I never saw Aces, I had Kings once (and had them beaten), I never had Queens, I had Jacks Once.  I had AK about four times and AQ twice and that’s all she wrote!  If it weren’t for picking my spots and making a few moves here and there, I probably would have been out on Day 1.  It was cold deck after cold deck.

The big hand of Day 2A that went against me was as follows…I had AK in middle position and with  no action around to me I bet 3xBB – it was folded over to the small blind who called.  The flop comes K-8-2 (a huge flop for my hand), he checked, I bet and he called.  The turn brought a Queen, he checked again and I bet 10,000, which was almost all his chips.  He instantly shoves in for his last few thousand.  I mutter sh*ite under my breath because I know now that I’m beat but for only 2,000 more I can’t fold.  He turns over 88 for a set of eights and I was drawing dead!  To really rub it in I hit the Ace on the river to give me top two pair – how cruel this game can be!

I went out just before the dinner break, when a late position player made what looked like standard raise and I called in the big blind with J-10.  The flop was 10 high with no draws so I shoved about 14,000 into a 9,000 pot (so I’m forcing him to have a hand here or else I take it down), of course he has QQ so it is an easy call for him and I don’t improve –nasty!

Thank you again for all the good wishes – there are still a good few Irish lads that are still in it so we must hope for the best.

I’ll give you my overview of the WSOP in about a week – until then my friends, play well!

Ciaran

Hi folks,

Just stopping in for another quick update. Well the numbers are in for the main event in the WSOP and it is officially the 2nd largest field in history with c.6,800 players taking their shot at glory. There were 4 day 1’s and today is a rest day before breaking into 2 day 2’s and proceeding then to the final 9 players. Of those who have taken their chance 666 of them will win money for their endeavours and the winners prizepool is approx $9.1m. That does sound appetizing doesn’t it?

Of the Irish players returning to day 2 we have some mighty strong contenders for glory. Our very own BigC is part of the assault group which also includes Donal Norton, Gary Clarke, Marty Smyth, Andrew Grimasson, Eoin O’Dea, Dave Murray, Donnacha O’Dea and other besides. Watch closely folks, id have a hefty wager on one of these guys making the money.

Otherwise life in Vegas has been good, myself and Ciaran have been out for dinner with guests a few nights and as those who know me might have guessed, I havnt found a steak in Vegas that I havnt liked.

I bumped into Jesse May down the Rio the other day and he told me of a cunning plan he had for yesterday. “I’m getting a bus Noel, doing a pub tour around Vegas starting at midnight and then heading for Red Rock Canyon with a cooler full of champagne to watch the sun rise at 6am, now all I need to do is find 20 people who are willing to drink through the night with me”, knowing Jesse and the calibre of people out here in Vegas I’d wager that he hadn’t too much hassle in sourcing 20 people of such disposition.

So I finally bit the bullet and played my first poker tournament out here in Vegas. I have a preference for cash games and really feel that tournaments are a soul destroying exercise. Sitting for 10 hours with minimal or no return just doesn’t appear to me, but every now and again I like to punish myself and play one.

My poison on this occasion was the Bellagio nightly $1,080 tournament with 142 runners and $50,000 for first. With 12 players left I got involved in a massive pot when the table loon pushed over my raise and I snapped it off with AJ, he tables A10 and I’ve to dodge 3 outs to become the massive chip leader and assume a killer position approaching the final table. The flop bricks but the turn is the ugliest 10 in the deck to cripple me and put me down to 4 big blinds. I’m sickened, dejected and reminded once again of why I hate tournaments!!

Never mind I battle on and push bot my way back into the game and before I know it I’m gathering a small few chips – enough to make others fold at least. I make the final table which was one of the softest I had been on, I’m rueing the demise of my AJ because I really feel if I had chips to work with that I would walk across the table. There was one exception to this though in the shape of Eric Larcheveque, an excellent player whom I had played with before and who held the chip lead in this years Irish Open for a considerable time before eventually finishing in 8th place. With blinds of 4k/8k and a running ante of 1k I have pushed my stack from 60k up to maybe 110k as there is 19k in the middle every time I steal but then I push my AQ in Erics KK and despite turning a Q I fade my remaining outs on the river and I’m el busto in 7th spot for $3,500. A return not to be sniffed at but I would rather the $50k for first. Eric was a commanding chip leader when I exited at 6am and as he is such an experienced player I will be shocked if he hasn’t won it by now.

That’s all folks, the tournament is played in the Bellagios Fontana lounge which looks out on the famous Bellagio fountain, here is a nice shot of the fountain with Paris in the background. They have it all in Vegas folks, including the Eiffel Tower.

Be good,

Noel.

Just let me say how proud I am of Marty and Tom for making the final table in the $10k Pot Limit Omaha World Championship – it was amazing.  And for Marty to go on and take it down was INCREDIBLE – you’ll never beat the Irish!  I intend to write a nice piece on that great day in a few days time but until then, congrats to you both, you did us proud lads!!!!!

Poker update - I’m happy to report that I made it through Day 1A, along with many of the other Irish and English lads.

The funny thing was that for some reason I had a feeling that I was going to be at one of the two featured tables – and sure enough when I got to the area where my table was supposed to be, I was told that I was to report over to the TV area.  Ok says I, and over I went!  How weird is that?!

Bill Gazes was about the only player I knew at the table.  He is a great player and a really sound bloke!  He and I have played against each other before and have a lot of respect for each others’ game so we tried not to bang heads and instead go after the other lads.

Now one very interesting thing about playing at the TV table is that it always seems to change the way a lot of people play, nobody really wants to look like a plonker in front of ‘seventy nine million people’ (the amount that reportedly watched the WSOP last year).  For many it’s their first time.

They know that their family and all their friends and maybe even the doctor that brought them into the world are going to tune in to watch them on this big occasion, so as a result it changes the way they play.  They might not want to fold a pair if they believe you’re making a move on them, or sometimes they themselves feel like they must get in there and make a Hero move to impress their friends at home.

Anyway I chipped away and got my stack up to 25k (we started with 20k) and then came this hand.  With no action around to the player in the cut-off (one to the right of the button), he raised 3xBB.  The button and small blind fold and I was in the big blind and look down to see KK, YUMMY!  Now I want to try and get as many chips here as I can - so I just flat call.

I check dark wanting him to make a continuation bet.  The flop came Q99.  He bet 300 and I just called.  Then the turn brings a 10- hmm, I check, he bets another 300 so I raise it to 900 and he calls (I don’t like it but I still might be ahead).  Here comes the river – it’s an Ace (Nasty) but there is about 3k in the pot and I know I can’t check call him here because he might make it 3k or 4k (which I can’t call) so I bet out at it but only a 1000k (a blocking bet).  He puts on this face and tilts his head from one side to another (I find this is usually a strong tell) and then raises it to a total of 3k (sh*te) so I announce to the table that this hand has got worse and worse for me and I muck my KK face up and he very graciously shows me a huge hand - A9 for a full house!  Yuck - still though, not too much damage done.

Now an important note here friends is that even if raise him pre-flop, it wouldn’t have in anyway changed the outcome here as he definitely would have called and seen a flop with A9 in that spot, and of course when the flop comes Q99 – just like it did – he’s married to it!  So no matter what happened I was destined to lose that particular hand.

Then this crazy hand comes after about another hour.

A lad opened to 3xBB in early position and is called by the player two from the button (the same lad that had A9 earlier), I’m in the small blind with pocket eights (88), so rather than trying to flop a set here (it’s about 8/1 to flop a set / three of a kind) I decided to raise it and try and win the pot right there.  So now it’s back over to the original opener and he thought about it for 3 minutes before he folding and then it’s back to our friend again, (A9 guy) and guess what he did?  Well he moved in for about 13k… WOW – Interesting!

What is this guy trying to represent here?  Remember he only called the original bet from the early position lad (who has now folded) so that rules out 99-TT-JJ-QQ because there’s no way he can afford to take any of those hands up against two or three players, besides, he would have to find out how strong the early position raiser was.  Hmm, but what could he have?

He’s already shown me that he plays his big hands slow (remember when he flopped the three nines against me), so he wouldn’t shove here if he had KK or AA with only he and I left in the hand.  It just doesn’t make sense to me - So with the ESPN cameras in my face and a huge crowd of spectators on the rail looking on, I started talking out loud and I go back through the hand and again…the hand that he’s trying to represent…well - he just can’t have!

I have always trusted my instincts a lot and even though I didn’t have a big hand myself, I believe based on what I had seen from him up until this point, I felt I was good!

So I said to him “Sir, I really don’t have that strong a hand here but I believe I’m good as your hand isn’t that strong either” I counted my chips down and it was only going to leave me with about 9K if I’m wrong.

So I trust me read and I call……………….Great call he says and he turns over A6 and turn over my 88.  Wow, everyone goes nuts; “wow” “what a call” rains from the rail.

I bolt, I’m gone, I can’t look!  I’m about fifty feet from the table!  And here comes the poor ESPN cameraman flying after me (they love it, they’re always laughing; it’s a wonder they can keep the camera steady! )

Of course, he flopped a flush draw but my hand holds up.   Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww – nobody says it was going to be easy!

After eight hours of TV they broke our table and sent us off to different tables.  It took a while for me to get a read on the new table and I ended up dropping about 12K in that last couple of levels.

I finished out the night with just under 40K.  I feel good my friends and “I do believe!”  I have to!  Keep the fingers crossed all.

Talk soon and God Bless

Your poker pro,

Ciaran