Look at that crazy bastard...

Saturday: played another $1500 side event. Decent start with three interesting hands before the break.

Hand 1: Not having won a pot, I'm down to 2300 with 54 in the sb. After two limpers and with a passive big blind I decide to complete. Flop TT9 and it's checked around. Turn is a 9 and I decide it's a decent bluff spot with there being a high likeliohood nobody has anything so I lead out. Folded to the button who calls. The dealer however seems to have forgotten he's in the hand and goes to spread the cards. The button, an Asian guy who seems dreadful, starts to freak out. The dealer reassembles the deck and tries to reassure the player that there's no harm done and he'll deal the river, but the player is having none of it, obsessing over the deck being shuffled so the same card won't hit the river. This leads me to suspect he's on a straight draw so I decide to pot any river blank. I do so, and he folds continuing to complain loudly.

Hand 2: I'm in the BB with 53o in an unraised 5 way pot to see an A53 rainbow flop. I decide to go for a check raise but it gets checked around. The turn brings another 5, the Asian in the SB leads for half pot, I not much than min raise, everyone goes away but him. He checks the river and I don't think he has much so I make it cheap with a half pot bet, which he calls.

Hand 3: Two hands later, I'm on the button and it's the last hand before the break. Three limpers and I raise to 3 bigs (300) on the button with AKs. The tightest player on the table makes it 900 (quarter of his stack) in the small blind. Everyone folds to me while I have a think. I know he has a hand, most likely a decent pair. Flatting at this effective stack is not good, and folding isn't appealling either, so that just leaves the ship. Now it's his turn to tank and after 5 minutes and half the break in there, he folds QQ face up.

After the break, I was priced into calling a shortie shove in the BB with AJs. He had 99 and I lost the race. Same guy won another race against me (this time I had the pair) and now I'm short. With 3300 and blinds and antes 150/300/25, there wasn't much time to hang around and I went for a marginal squeeze in the BB with 66 after MP raiser made it 800 and two guys called in late position. With the amount in the middle matching my stack, I pushed hoping for a race, but the first guy had KK. Flop was about as good as it gets without a 6, 457 all clubs (I had a club, he didn't) but I managed to miss all my outs and that was that. Definitely a marginal squeeze and in other cases I might just fold. Particularly without antes but with a cost per round of 550 I was going to have to push in the next orbit anyway.

Hung out with Nicky Power for the evening. He told me he'd been in a taxi the previous day when the can driver said "Look at that crazy bastard running in the heat" and yup, it was yours truly. My unusual physiological tolerance for heat has been reenforced since I got here: one day I went running at 3 in the afternoon and arrived back to see the TV advising people that with temperatures at 112F, to be very careful if they had to go outdoors. I hadn't even noticed it being particularly hot.

Chatted with Nicky about how when you're in Vegas, the rest of the world just seems to stop existing. This city is designed to let nothing distract you or come between you and the job of extracting all your money, and has already claimed a few Irish victims who have done stuff they'd never do elsewhere.

I decided to take Sunday off from the live grind and played online instead. I won about a grand so felt good about that. Afterwards I went to the Rio and played two STTs (chopping one for a profit of $700) and reg for today's side event, which sold out shortly after I regged.

Played that today and last all of ten minutes until I got it in with top 2 against bottom set and didn't improve. Came vack and potted online for a while. Tried some PLO for a change (not my specialisation to say the least) but finished about 1K up so that was good.

Congratulations to Albert Kenny who made the third last table of Saturday's event.

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Coyler to the rescue

Two more attempts at the Caesars megastack. In both, I experimented wigth a very different style from my normal live one. Early on I went uberlag, opening 80% plus of pots folded round to me. I hit nothing early so I doubled down by degrees only to double back up. I opened KJs utg and got reraised by a young Dutch guy who clearky knew I was opening very light. Normally KJs is a hand I'd bin pretty fast to a reraise (in fact, I wouldn't even open it early) but decided it was a marginal call given how lightly I'm getting reraised here. I flopped an open ended straight/royal flush draw, called a ship after check raising a pot sized bet, and found myself freerolling to the flush against another KJ. The flush duly arrived. A couple of hands later, I got the rest of the Dutch guy's stack when he called a 4 bet shove with AQ v my AK and I held. I motored up to 85K without too much difficulty until rising blinds and antes forced people to start playing back at me. Untimely card death meant I eventually withered out in 29th, 11 off the bubble. Disappointing in the end but I was happy with how I'd played in a style I may wheel out in the main event if the conditions are right. I'm less than convinced my normal TAG live game is optimal in the US and structures with early significant antes. Waiting for big hands works in Ireland where you can play one hand every 6 hours, open AA utg, and find some eejit willing to ship AT behind. That doesn't seem to be the way to go in the US: apart from the fact that you often simply can't afford to wait for premiums, the best way to get action if you are lucky enough to be dealt one is to have riled up the table with constant raising before.

Yesterday I decided to relocate to the Rio for a number of reasons: after a week of near misses in MTTs I wanted to get some actual cash and the soft STTs in the Rio seemed the way to go. Another reason was the treatment I received from the rudest dealer I've ever seen in Caesars the previous night. Met Paul Coyle and he suggested we chop our action in a couple of STTs. This proved a winner for me as I busted out early in both and he chopped both. Std appalling: first one, first hand, everyone playing 1500, blinds 25/25, dude raises to 75 in CO. I make it 225 in SB with KK and we get it in on a T72 flop. He has T9o and pings a 9 on the turn. Gg, wp, inspired call for 15% of stack pre.

In the second one I got an early doubleup and then doubled down with KJ v 64o. Dude called 20% of stack pre with the 64 and flopped the nuts (we didn't get the rest in until a K hit the turn). Same guy managed to donk off a huge stack twice. So basically Coyler saved my day and made it my first profitable one since I got here. Despite apparently having little experience of them he played absolutely flawlessly. A total natural.

Plan was to grind some more today but the young lad needed a day off after his heroics the previous evening so he headed off to Hangover with Chubbs and Big Mick G instead. I played 2 and chopped second for a $700 profit on day. Congrats to dagunman on his second cash of this year's WSOP. Sterling effort.

Tomorrow I play my second WSOP event, so fingers crossed for that.

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Vegas update

Saturday: played my first WSOP side event. Good start, up to 8K without any real hassle, then doubled down in a gay set over set. Loose raiser raises utg, I flatted JJ utg+2, another guy flatted behind. Flop QJ6 with 2 hearts. I led, guy behind flatted, initial raiser folded. Turn a nin heart 4, I led again and got called again. River a scary 9h and I check called a half pot value bet. Tbh I expected to be shown a flush given the preflop action, not top set. Unlucky, but lucky the guy played it slow and didn't get me in on an earlier street.

I was pretty card dead but managed to lift myself up to 7K. The blinds and antes eventually made a move necessary, and I got it in with top pair against bottom 2 in a blind on blind battle and didn't suck out.

Was pretty shattered so went back to hotel and slept for 12 hours.

Sunday: took a day off from live to let my head clear and grinded online instead to no great effect (broke even). In the evening went to lunch with Nicky. We thought it was gonna be just us, Julian Gardner and Paul Spillane, but in the end Marty and his lovely girlfriend Karen, Hali and Bella and the Kabbajs. Very nice evening, even if paying $170 for a plate of halibut was a bit of a bad beat :)

Monday: Played Caesars deepstack. Good start again: up to 25K with no bother. Then prolonged card death and getting all my raises snapped off as the antes kicked in and blinds rose did for me and I went out with AQs v 88. Played the nightly crapshoot in my hotel as it was just starting as I came back. Std appalling (sample: a dude called an allin on a AJ6 rainbow flop with K8o) but still too good for me (QQ less than AJ).

Some of the lads are getting results though, mostly recently Chris Dowling who won last night in Caesars. Fair play: his results in last year are second to none.

Biggest result of all though: Rob and Cat got engaged. Best wishes to the happy couple.

Plan for the week is to alternate between STTs in Rio and deepstack in Caesars. Next WSOP for me is Saturday's $1500 NLH.

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Slow start

Played Caesars 11 PM just after getting here. Probably a mistake as I was pretty knackered but tbh didn't make any difference to the outcome. The structure is pretty fast, I got nothing early doors, and had drifted down a bit from starting stack and getting shortish when I got it in with JT v KQ on a JT3 board. You know you're running bad when you start expecting the beats so I sat there waiting for the 9 or A to hit but no, turn a 3, river a K, counterfeited.

Played the Venetian deepstack the next day. Started extremely well and got up to 20K with no incident and was feeling good about myself as the last hand before the first break was dealt. Looking down at KK, I raised a very bad player's utg limp, a good old school pro called on the button, as did the big blind and the limper. Flop 532 with two spades, checked to me, I bet 1500, only to get check raised to 6000 by the limper. After due consideration, I decided my kings were probably good with his most likely holdings either a draw or a smaller overpair, so I shipped. He was on a draw all right: K6s (spades). He hit his flush on the turn with the 2 of spades, which did give me some hope of a redraw to a house on the river, but no. To make things worse, he celebrated exuberantly and started trying to explain how he'd played the hand perfectly. Ever the gracious loser, I said I thought iot was pretty horrible play particularly pre, but hey he'd got lucky so well done. Actually, I think I may just have said the first part :)

Short after the break, I did get a needed doubleup. My exit was pretty std: playing 7K and with 3K in the middle after 4 limpers, I decided KQs was good enough to ship in the circumstances. The second limper, an old school Texas road gambler pro, called with a most unexpected AK. Very unusual way to play AK, and not without merit, keeping the pot small initially and inducing squeezes from worse aces and kings behind.

Ran into Nicky Power in the Rio and set up his Internet for the poor scared old guy, ran into John O'Shea and Marty who had just cashed in the 5K PLO, went for something to eat with Paul Coyle (who is crushing 2/5 out here) and BigMickG (who went deep in yesterday's 2K event). Paul and myself heading to Caesar's for the nightly tourney. Played some 2/5 cash for an hour before in a very soft game where despite card death I ground out a princely $64 profit. Paul made money too. We both made the second last table but ultimately no good. Std was dreadful: two sample hands. Having again drifted back to 4K, a late position guy raised to 325, I made it 1100 in the BB with AQ, and he called. I check shipped a K52 all club flop (I had the A of clubs) and was called and up against a very surprising Q5o, I rivered an ace. Then playing 7K with blinds 200/400/50, I shipped AK from mip position and the same guy called for most of his stack with AT. Pretty shocking call live (online it happens all the time which is why AK is a great ship in those spots), and I held up. Exit hand reasonably std. Blinds 600/1200/100 and playing 17K, utg limp, mid pos call, Paul bumped it up to 3600 in the CO, and my AK in the SB is a pretty std ship. Utg reshipped JJ and held.

Overall happy with my play so far and hopefully I can keep it going when it counts more in tomorrow's WSOP side event.

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Leaving (for) Las Vegas

I fly out tomorrow morning, which also happens to be my 45th birthday. I remember a few years ago assuming I'd mark my 45th with a race somewhere in a sneaky angleshoot at the First O-45 category prize, but since then things have moved on and poker has replaced running as my primary competive outlet.

24 days in Sin City, away from the support network of family, will be a challenge. Slightly more so since for the last week I've run like an hippo online: lots of effort, but to no great avail. When I was running like God in May I naively assumed it would continue and was already adding "IK a day, give or take" to my Vegas roll, but in the last week subtraction has been the more frequent arithmetical operation. On the positive side, I think I'm still playing well, and I've battled on through it without getting too upset with myself or the world.

Talking to other players who consistently do well, it's clear to me that their success is not solely down to them being good players who know all the plus Ev moves, or running well, but also preparing well, both mentally and physically, so I've put a lot of focus on that this week and in the next two before the main event.

Speaking of the running, I'm back training somewhat seriously. While my international career is over, I see no reason not to continue at the highest level as an individual, and I'm already tentatively targetting a few races in the next 12-18 months. Yesterday I went for a session of 200 metre sprints to start the messy business of getting some speed back into these ageing legs. A few kids kicking a ball around asked me "for a race". I was more than happy to oblige them as it broke the monotony of solo 200 metre sprints. Eyeing them up, practically every one of them looked like a potential banana skin, particularly the sleek kid apparently of eastern European origin who asked, the two wiry African kids (well, we all know them blacks run faster than whitey, right?). Ironically I kicked all their asses except one very unhealthy looking local kid I'd almost totally discounted who effortlessly kicked mine. So you never can tell. Thankfully, I'm past the age when losing a sprint to a 12 year old could be regarded as humiliation (in fact, I'm also past the age when beating a number of 12 year olds in said sprint could be regarded as a triumph of sorts). So for once I was a perfectly good loser, shaking the young man's hand.

One thing I found very heartening is that in a resoundingly knack...er, working class, area such as Blanch, here you had a bunch of kids from a mix of ethnic backgrounds all happily playing and identifying together, all speaking with the same accent. I'm not saying that integration should ever be foisted or forced on immigrants, but when it's offered in friendship as a positive, it's refreshing to see it bear fruit. In our council constituency, three African candidates ran, one for FF, one for FG, and one as an independent. While none of them were elected, all performed creditably, and I think it is to our credit as a society that within a decade of arrival immigrants are already participating in our political life and starting to climb the ladder.

Also good to see Joe O'Higgins get elected to Europe. Even if I weren't an unapologetic left wing fanatic (and I am), Joe would be exactly the kind of principled contrarian I'd want representing me.

And how funny was it to see the latest in the long line of creepy Christian right startups, the creepily "full marks for echos of Latin splurging clergical child molesters" titled Libertas, get their comeuppance, or rather they're thanksbutnothanksance, from the general populace? How funny was it to see yer man Ganley bleating about miscounted votes only for it to emerge they'd been overcounted to the tune of 3000 votes? Adding further evidence that extreme conservatism is a mild undiagnosed form of mental illness sharing many symptoms (paranoia, lack of empathy, delusions of grandeur etc.) of other mental illnesses. Also funny to see Ganley publicly announce he was taking his ball and going home.

Today I was eating breakfast when suddenly the kitchen door was flung open with considerable force. I prepared my vocal cords for a "what the fuck?" shout at whichever of the kids was responsible when I noticed there was nobody there. I peered out into the hall. Nothing. Then down. And there, looking up at me, was my daughter's dwarf rabbit, with a look of defiance that said "I am Craig O'Kearney, and I will open doors anyway I damn well want, so deal with it old man".

I love that rabbit. Not to speak ill of the dead or anything but our last poor unfortunate, Pebbles, was a very dim creature by comparison, only vaguely aware of his surroundings at the best of times, a tragic perpetually puzzled creature muddling through life in a fog of confusion before dropping dead from a heart attack in the aftermath of an unprovoked feline attack which presumably simply reenforced the point that he'd have been safer staying in his box permanently. But Craig is an explorer that no box could ever hold back, an adventurer, a risk taker with a glint of curiosity in his eye and a cut to his jib that says he's ready to take a big hearty chomp on the carrot of life. He also responds to his own name an a few commands, and anticipates the opening of doors in advance so that he's poised to bound through them before they shut again, which in my book makes him a kind of rabbit Einstein.

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Short changed

I'm not going to do a lot report on the European shorthanded as there's not much to report other than that I didn't play particularly well and exitted the main event just before the end of day 1. I got a reasonable start up to 27K but after that couldn't win a pot. No major mistakes on any hand but strategically I think I played too many hands. You need to loosen up to some extent 6 handed but people tend to overdo it, and I think I certainly did. Scott O'Reilly at my table gave a master class exhibition on how the TAG game can be brutally effective with minimal risk even short handed. In retrospect I wish I'd played the way he did obviously.

I also played the 500 side event. Played better but ultimately went out on an uncharacteristic big move. Nothing wrong with the move I think: nearly every time I try one it works leading me to believe I should try them more often, but on this occasion I ran into top set. One funny hand with Mick Stevens early where I flopped a monster so big I felt no need to protect it, and ended up letting him hit runner runner with a most unexpected holding. Again, I think I played the hand fine (though Oz for one disagreed) so no real regrets.

Online still going much better than live, leading me to wonder if I'm perhaps allowing a bit too much of my more hyper online game bleed into my live game to its detriment. Something I'll have to think about more. I find it harder and harder to be patient live.

Finally, for something a bit diff, here's my instant guide to spotting a probably not great player online:
(1) Location: France or Italy
(2) ALLCAPSSCREENNAME
(3) POSSIBLYWITH ANEXCLAMATIONORTWO!!!!!
(4) Ridic vainglorious screen name like UPAYMYRENT or UPAY4MYPORN or IMAPRO

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Grindward ho

On second thoughts, maybe best leave the word inventions to the likes of Jemmy Joyce.

Not really much to report. Livewise, I played the Bruce event in Maynooth. Great fun, great value, I got doubled up first hand when some loon nonsensically shipped the river. I say nonsensically because the line made zero sense except as a lunatic bluff. Going well until a very bad read lost me half my stack. I raised with 66 and got called by a blind. Flop T42 and my cbet was called. Turn another 2 and he shipped. I found it hard to believe he had a 2 in his hand, or anything on the board for that matter. Having played with the gent in question before and knowing him to be a very good player well capable of a move in this spot against someone like me most likely holding two unpaired high cards, I decided to call. I was right in my view that he hadn't hit, but he didn't need to. Slowplayed aces. Nice.

A few hands later, the rest of my stack was now Bruce's stack, after his 9s made a set against my aces. Oh well, not to worry.

As already reported, Sunday's highlight was qualifying for the WSOP ME on Stars, and snagging a ticket for the ECOOP main event. Played the shorthanded $300 event tonight and cashed for just over $800. Played very well although on reflection my exit hand is a bit dodgy. Holding AT in the BB and looking at a button raise to 3600 (3 bigs) and a small blind flat, I decided this was a great squeeze spot and shipped for 28K. Pretty standard under normal circumstances. If they both fold my stack increases by 30%, and I shouldn't be in that bad a shape if I get called as normally the button could have almost anything, and the SB most likely has a pretty two picture card hand such as KQ, or a smallish pair, or suited con artists. "Under normal circumstances". These were not normal. I failed to take into due consideration that I'd already pulled this move at least twice, thereby establishing a very blind defensive image, and the button had backed off for a while, so his raise now was more than likely legit and perhaps even trapping. Furthermore, the SB was a total nit so while the aforementioned hands like KQ were in his range, so too were hands like AK and QQ that a normal person would reraise.
As it happened, they both called, the button with AQ and the SB with AK, so yeah, pretty horrible. In general, my more hyper style online as opposed to live is paying dividends, but in some senses I still have LAG L plates. Most of my mistakes stem from undue consideration of the very different table image I typically have online to that I would have live. Oh well, all part of the learning curve.

Other than that, the grind has been going very well. Most days I clear $1K in profit in sit and gos without too much effort. I've set as my goal to establish my Full Tilt account as the best in the world at my chosen specialisation. So far I'm well on track. The ranking is done by average profit per tourney, and at the moment the top performers average in the mid $30s. I'm averaging over $50, but you need a sample size of 500 to be considered (so far I've played 228).
My typical schedule at the moment is grind SNGs in the afternoon, play MTTs in the evening, and switch back to SNGs after midnight.
Next on the agenda live is this weekend's European Shorthanded which I'm looking forward to, and Vegas is only two weeks away now. Eek.

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Get in ship etc.

Just qualified for the WSOP main event on Stars, essentially for $7.50 (Step 1 -> step 4 -> supersat -> WSOP ME). Had two shots at it today as I also qualified yesterday for Ipoker's one. I was flying in that early doors but ended up going out on the second last table (JJ on the button < 33 in the BB) whereas I was barely surviving in the WSOP thing. With over 1000 starters and only 51 packages I'd almost written it off after the bad start but in my usual style I nursed the short stack. I don't think I ever had even half average after the first level, and from 200 out I was one of the shortest stacks the whole way, which make for a very nerve-wracking bubble experience. Greatly helped by dudes doing mental shit like calling allins with Aq for 90% of their above average stacks.

I also snagged a ticket for the ECOOP main event next weekend (feeder sat -> supersat), so all in all, a very good night's work.

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