Just a big hole innit (aka Grand Canyon trip report)

After day 1 of this year's Main event, I headed out of Vegas on a 2 day road trip with Mark Dalimore, Mick Mccloskey and my son Paddy. We got to Williams, Arizona late in the afternoon and decided to spend the night there. We stopped at a place called The Singing Pig on the famous Route 66 for some ribs. When you spend 6 weeks in Vegas you get used to seeing unusual or surreal sites on a daily basis, but still: the sight of messrs Mccloskey and Dalimore in pig masks was well weird.

Next port of call was a Mexican stroke Irish bar stroke restaurant rejoicing in the wonderfully bewildered title of Pancho McGillicuddys. Not many seem to realise the Irish Mexican connection via the San Patricios, and this not many included Mick and Mark, so I bored them for a few minutes with the story.

After checking into a hotel on the infamous Route 66, we ate in an authentic diner and had some drinks in a local bar, where Paddy got hustled at darts by Mark, while I maintained my unbeaten record at pool this trip. Game selection was the crucial component to that success.




I was pretty wiped out still from my day one so elected for an early one. Mark, on the other hand, elected to stay up all night, and by the time we woke up, he had seen the sunset, apparently driven through some sort of swamp (we were leaving a mud trail for the rest of the trip), found some bears and who knows what else, and was still buzzing with enough energy to supply a small city. As Paddy and I trailed around a local supermarket looking for something that might do as breakfast, Paddy said with more than a hint of desperation in his voice "How the Hell are we going to tire Mark out?"

We headed for the Grand Canyon national park which, it has to be said, was pretty spectacular. We walked along the rim and every angle gives you a completely different view of the canyon. Paddy and I climbed out on a hidden ledge at one point and shared a sneaky "herbal cigarette" which was pretty awesome.




Towards the end, myself and Mark made an attempt at winding up some locals.
"Gets a bit boring just looking at rocks".
"Yeah. Basically just a big quarry innit? Got one of those in Slough".




After walking for a few hours, we headed out of the park, stopping to eat in a place running by a local Indian (Native American). Mark was trotting out his "Indian expressions" (basically "How" and "I come in peace"). The occasion was clearly getting the better of Mick because after receiving the princely sum of 6 cents as change, he went all in on the tip jar with the six cents. The tip jar was empty up to that point so tipping clearly wasn't the norm here, but nevertheless the Indian proprietor looked like he could hardly contain his disappointment that the first tip he received didn't involve any coinage other than cents. It's hard to watch a grown man have his dreams of generous tips shattered like that, so I dropped a few dollars in the jar.




We drove back to Williams to visit BearIzona, a wildlife park that is home to a variety of the world#s most lethargic animals. Mick who likes value for his buck started complaining about the lack of energy from the supposedly ferocious bears and wolves. He quietened right down when we all started agreeing that the only course of action was to dispatch him forth from the car with a stick to poke a bit of life into them.

As we drove out of Arizona into Nevada, we hit some mini sandstorms, lightning and then a full scale flash storm. Suddenly the highway looked more like a lake and visibility dropped to a few metres.




Thankfully it disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared. We stopped off at the Hoover Dam and O'Callaghan Tillman bridge. At this stage we were in a battle on two fronts against the fading light and rising winds: as we started across the Hoover Dam on foot, one of the locals warned "It's pretty windy so good luck with that".

We got pulled over by a cop in Boulder City for speeding. When he saw Mark's driver's license, he wondered aloud why overseas drivers always seemed to speed. Things weren't looking too good when he offered Mark the option of a night in jail or a fine of $508 (a suspiciously irregular amount that suggested he might be bluffing). As Mark mulled over those two unattractive options, the cop relented and let us on our way with a warning. Who knows, perhaps the extra $8 is intended as a tip to Indian restauranteurs who otherwise would have to make do with the occasional six cents here and there.

All in all, a very enjoyable trip made better by the company. Mick kept us well entertained with tales from previous roadtrips that involved getting run out of small towns in Nevada. He suggested it was for rowdy drunken behaviour and scalping the natives at poker, but the suspicion lingers that inadequate tipping may have been involved.

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Back home

Nothing really to report, getting back into the online grind, but.......

EOGHAN O'DEA!!!!!

What a performance by a great player and great guy, the perfect tournament so far, and he deserves to go on and win it now. Won't be easy though: it's easily the strongest final table in recent years with a load of online ballas and not one Darvin Moon in sight. The takeover of live poker by the online kids continues.

I (and I'm sure many others) are tempted to go over in November to rail him. The Venetian have a Deepstack series on then too....hmmmm.....

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The end of the dream.....for now

Maybe I should stop writing mid tournament blogs as it never seems to end well. After two days of grinding hard and playing well, I felt like I deserved a little day three luck, but that's not how it works in poker, at least in the short term. Shortly after getting aces cracked by kings to bust this year's WSOP main event, I ran into Parky in the corridor. He expressed surprise at my demise saying that himself and Scott Gray figured I already had enough chips at the end of day 2 to last me a few months. I told him I just wished it had happened late on day 2 instead of day 3, as then I'd be home already and wouldn't have spent another couple of grand on flights, hotels and other expenses. Sharp as ever, Parky pointed out that basically I'd done a mini rebuy.

Parky famously said once that the worst day of the year is the day you get knocked out of the main event. This has been true for me in the past, but not this year. I'd be much more upset if I'd gone out making a bad mistake. The Scandi kid with the kings said "Sorry" immediately afterwards as we shook hands and clearly meant it, showing a lot more class then most I've come across this summer.

I still had two horses in running, Nick Newport and Mark Dalimore, and both got through to day 5. Unfortunately both went early in the day, Mark on the TV table where he affected Danny Negreanu to the point where he celebrated Mark's demise even though he wasn't in the hand (and ran over to tell his friend on the rail that Mark was mad). Danny's reportedly had coaching from some of the younger players to modernise his game this year: maybe some of the Scandi kids might be able to help him show a little more class in other's defeat.

Mark was typicially philosophical after his exit: by contrast Nick was pretty inconsolable. Lacking any real reason to linger further, I decided it was best to get out of Rio. In previous year's, I've lingered too long there after my exit and been left feeling like those guys who continue to haunt the campus long after they've graduated, unable to move on from student life. Mark, generous as ever, got me a suite at the Hilton and the plan til I fly out Tuesday is to chill and decompress with him. We went to the Stratosphere Top of the World restaurant last night and today's entertainment was provided by an excellent no budget movie, "The Encore of Tony Duran", at the Las Vegas film festival (it won the Best Film award at the festival).



In Fremont street with Mark

The end of every WSOP campaign is a time for honest reflection and tentative plans for the following year. My tentative plans for next year is to play more events with less than 1000 runners, and also to try to get my non-holdem games to where I feel I can compete against the best. Most seasoned experts say that there is much more value in the other games these days than in holdem. I also have a bit of work to do on my holdem game. While I feel my preflop game is as good as anyone's, particularly shallow, I need to improve my post flop game against the very best players with more cash game experience than me.

The positives I can take from this year is I broke my duck in bracelet events with 3 cashes, I built stacks in several events, and overall rarely felt outclassed by anyone I played with. While it would have been nice to go deeper, I didn't feel I made many mistakes when it mattered and most of my exits were either standard or unlucky.

Well done to Reggie, Pete, Nick and Eoghan for cashing in the main event, and best of luck to Eoghan who is still in at time of writing.

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Serious business

My plan or at least hope going into day 1A of the main event was to make a fast start and then just steadily chip up all day. I had a tough looking table but got up to 35k in the first hour. A mad Italian then sat down, having bought in late. My first impression, that he was unlikely to last to the first break an hour later, was pretty much confirmed when he started 10x opening every second hand or so. If he got called, his plan B was the 5k cbet.

I figured I needed to play pots against this guy while he still had chips. Against someone like that, I'd be happy getting the lot in with top pair or better even at this early stage but unfortunately I couldn't catch even bottom pair. I was back to 25k when he basically gave his stack to Scott Montgomery. With the blinds just gone to 100/200, he makes it 500 utg (a startling change from the 10x opens: clearly he had a hand this time). Scott who has been playing tight and hasn't 3 bet yet makes it 1500. Back to the Italian who now shoves for 35k. Scott has aces, which holds against the Italians AK.

Table broke shortly after and most of the rest of the day was a long struggle without cards. So the "build a stack day one" plan didn't come to fruition but in the end I was mainly just relieved to have escaped with 16k.

I ran into Neil Channing a few days later and he commiserated with me on my day 2 table draw. I hadn't seen it yet so asked him why it was bad: he said he recognised two other names apart from me, Keith "The Camel" Hawkins and Chris Bjorin. Both were chipped up and to my left too, and there were also a few online ballas there.

With 32 bbs and a tough table, I figured my best plan was to nit it up and try to minimise the spew. The structure means there's no need to panic and rush into a premature gamble. I folded every hand for an hour. I was down to 11k when I called on the button after three limpers. A small bet on the flop when checked to me took it down to give me some breathing space. I then folded for another hour and was back down to 11k when I found a good spot to 3 bet shove. Chris Bjorin who was playing very loose opened in early position, one of the online ballas flatted and with 4500 out there now KQs was plenty good enough to be going with so I shoved in. Chris folded quickly. The online guy tanked for an age so I figured I was in good shape even if called (unless it was AQ). He eventually did call with jacks so we were flipping. We were still flipping after a 9 high flop with two of my suit and a king on the turn got the job done.

A lot more folding in the next level as I got a serious of rag seven and eights, then an attempted utg steal with 33 went badly awry. The small blind called, the AJT flop looked like a good one to fire a tickler at. After a very reluctant call, the K on the turn looked like a great card to barrel bigger. After another reluctant call I decided not to stick the rest in when a blank hit the river. His KJ took it down.

Back down to 11k, I finally found a hand. Keith the Camel opened to 1500 in early position, John Tabatabai threebet to 4k on the button. I found aces in the small blind and just instajammed to make my hand look like AK or a tilt shove. As it happened, Tabby had queens so was never folding. Then came a weird hand which included the dealer flipping over the entire muck before the flop. I don't want to go into the details of the hand as it's clear to me that opponents are targetting Twitter and blogs for information in running, but while I won the hand to advance to 40k, it was the one hand that troubled me after as I may have lost value. I ran it by Nick (Newport) at the break and he would have gone for more value, but Peter Murphy later told me he'd play it exactly the same way so it's probably ok. In any normal tournament or a faster structure I would have gone for more value but in this event your tournament life is worth a lot more than normally so you have to think very carefully about sticking all your chips in to get a few K extra value.

I steadily accumulated chips for the rest of the day playing tight for the most part, but occasionally swooping in when the time and situation seemed right to try to capitalise on my very tight image. I got up to 60k but towards the end the Camel started 3 betting me a bit more often, perhaps recognising what I was up to. I bit back with a 4 bet at one point so I broke approximately even in my battles with Keith. Keith was the most impressive player all day in my opinion and deserved to steadily chip up to 150k+. I was also impressed how much he'd done his research: we'd never played together before but no sooner had I sat down than he was asking me "Do you still run ultra marathons Dara?".

I drifted back a bit in the last hour to finish with 53200, which is just over 33 bbs, more or less the same stack I started with. I'll be happy enough if I can grind a 30 bb stack all the way to the final table next Tuesday.

I have a 6% stake in my poker soul bro Mark Dalimore who goes into day 3 with 112k and is playing brilliantly, 5% of Nick Newport (just under 50k) and 94% of my own action (I just sold 1% to a friend back home in running to give him a sweat) so it'll be pretty disappointing if I come out of this ME emptyhanded. But I'm not thinking in those terms: I'm feeling very positive as I think I'm playing my A game right now. It's basically been a long hard grind without much help from the deck, but sometimes that's what it takes. I remember a couple of years ago railing Nicky Power as he ground a short stack all the way to the money in the main event with very little help from the deck: Nicky's performance was my touchstone throughout day 2 as I clung to the discipline you need to keep folding when there are no good cards or spots.

In between day 1 and 2, myself, my son Paddy, Mick "Voucher" Mccloskey and Mark Dalimore did a two day field trip to Arizona that took in the Grand Canyon. Awesome trip and I'll write a full report on that at some point with pics. Paddy's now gone home on the flight I originally booked for myself (I rescheduled to next Tuesday and extended my hotel booking so I'm here till then come what may) and most of the other lads have already left town. I've been hanging with my Aussie pal Theos Rippis who just started an excellent new blog from the perspective of an accomplished recreational player, and today grabbed breakfast with my friend Matt McAllister. Matt's a great guy who makes his living as a trader, a life that closely mirrors that of the poker pro but if anything is more high stress.

I also went bowling one night with Theos, Paddy, Nick and Other Dara. Despite having bowled something like 4 times in a 30 year period, I gave a reasonably good account of myself, even if my softly softly technique was a source of amusement to the younger lads. Other Dara compared it to watching Marge Simpson bowl, and it did seem at times like my bowls wouldn't even reach the pins let alone knock them over, but in the end it took a last gasp strike by Nick "The Power" Newport to deny me victory and the cash we'd wagered. I won't complain too much though if the only bad beat I get for the rest of this trip comes in a lane rather than on a table.

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Waiting for the main

Going into day 2 of the latest 1k event I was 13/638 and optimistic, but in the end it was another day 2 disappointment. I barely won a pot and it was one of those frustrating times that every time I bet, they folded when I had it and called or raised when I hadn't. Once the antes start to bite, you I was at the start of the day, reshipping tens on the button for 25 bigs over a loose late raiser. Unfortunately, he not only had a hand he could call with (AK) but he hit the turn and won the race. So another relatively modest cash: my third of the series in bracelet events.

My last attempt at a side event requires even less description: I just drifted back from starting when with 3k left (30 bigs) I got in with kings against aces. That at least left me free for most of the day which was my son Paddy's first full one in Vegas. A night off and out seemed reasonable since I wasn't playing the next day (today) so we headed out with a few others. We started out in an almost empty gloomy bar in the no man's land between downtown and the Strip because a member of the group who shall remain nameless thought it was a karaoke bar. It kinda or more precisely sometimes is: just not on Tuesdays or any day near it. Paddy was at least enjoying the jukebox (NIN, some classic 80s goth and tons of Bowie) and a couple of games of pool against the old man. We split into teams for the last game and the Doke family team were on the verge when the cab we'd called to get us out of here arrived.

It turned out the cab wasn't big enough to take us all, so Paddy suggested we let the others go and we wait for another cab. He wasn't really that keen on karaoke and suggested we might go somewhere else. The night took another turn when the second cab never showed. The neighborhood didn't look the kind of one where loitering in a suit with five figures in cash on you was a great idea (we played a game of "Count the Bail Bondsmen" on the way in). One of the best things about making your own people (that is, having kids) is there's a middling to decent chance they'll inherit your eccentricities. Thus it was Paddy who actually suggested we walk from here to the top of the Strip and then down it. Normally I'm the one making those kind of suggestions only to get poohed poohed and mad looks from whoever I'm with.

The walk through no man's land was certainly interesting. Paddy is very good at recognising gang tattoo markings so I knew which guys not to shout "You suck" at. When Paddy was a small boy and we went for walks in a new city (we moved around quite a bit: Paddy had lived in 5 different countries by the time he was 5), a source of tension was always that he figured the best way to get a look at a new city when you're 5 and tiny was to walk on the very edge of the pavement (they're called sidewalks here). I've since been told that the optimal responsible parenting line is to tell the kid to walk on the inside, but Paddy was such a happy kid it seemed harsh to lay down these kinds of rules, so I generally just kept an eye on him and was on high alert to yank him out of the way of any threatening bus or whatever. As we walked through a less affluent hood, at one point a guy flailed towards me, his limbs thrashing like a windmill. As I tried to decide how to react to this, Paddy just leaned across and gently but expertly diverted the guy away from me. Paddy's a natural pacifist (at one point, he walked back almost a block to give a homeless guy some change he found in his pocket) so it was particularly touching to see this filial instinct to protect the old man kick in. Another of the best things about making your own people.

We stopped at the Stratosphere to watch a bungee jumper. We also stopped off at Circus Circus, where I stayed the first time I came to Vegas. Paddy is an even bigger Hunter S. Thompson fan than I am and told me tons of interesting Hunter stuff I didn't know. It's a proud moment in any father's life when he realises his son has grown into a man who can teach him stuff. We had a long natter about life in general and both our chosen paths (he's had to watch me change careers several times in my life, and recently set up an urban composting business of his own) as we meandered down the strip stopping to tour a few of the other iconic hotels and resorts.

We did eventually end up rejoining the others in the karaoke place. The musical selection was a lot less to Paddy's liking though so we didn't stay that long, walking back to the Gold Coast for a 4 AM pre-hangover feast in TGI Fridays.

Today is an official rest day for me. We also moved into the Rio this morning as final preparation for my main event. I decided to play tomorrow's Day 1A. Most of the other lads are playing other days for a variety of reasons. With 3 cashes and 4 day twos in side events, I'm going into the main feeling very good about the my chances. I've been accumulating stacks regularly in the side events and with the better Main structure there's more time to do that. So fingers crossed.

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Women problems

It's easy at times to kid yourself into thinking that your problems are bigger than they are, or you're the only one with problems. I was waiting this morning for the elevator to go for breakfast. When the doors slid open, I was confronted with a guy whose problems were quite different from those of a poker player running bad, and probably more serious. He was looking sheepish while the other occupant of the elevator, an angry looking girl, berated him. "You absolute dick!!! The threesome with my best friend was your idea in the first place!!!!"

I maintained a perfect poker face all the way through the eight floor descent, all the time wondering where the friend was now.

I got off to a good start in event 54, moving up to 4k (from 3k starting) in the first hour. Then at 25/50 (level two) I managed to play an 11k pot. It started innocuously enough with three early position limps. I limped along with pocket eights in mid position. The small blind, playing only 2k, made it 325. The first two limpers called and they both had stacks bigger than mine, so I called too, figuring I was mainly setmining. Flop came 567r, the raiser checks, the first limper bets 675, second limper calls, as do I. The raiser now shoves for 1k more, the bettor folds, the other guy reshoves and my first instinct is even though I'm clearly behind I'm probably going to have to call for the price. I spend a few minutes running through the math. Based on the pot size and what I have behind, I need about 26% equity to call. The most likely scenarios, in order of most to least likely are:
(1) First guy has a pair bigger than 99, second guy has a set. In this case, I have 32% equity.
(2) One of them has 99, the other a bigger pair. This is actually worse for me as I have less outs (8's no good, and only 2 nines left), and I have only 25% equity
(3) They both have tens plus. This is better for me: I have 39%.
(4) They both have sets, in which case I have about 34%

Overall, it's pretty clear that I have on average about 32% so it's a fairly clear call. If I somehow found myself in the main event in this spot I could consider folding even if priced in on the basis that there are safer ways to chip up than getting all your chips in when 2 times out of 3 you're going to lose. But a 3k starting stack event is a different matter entirely. If I folded I'd soon be down in the <30 bb arena where your hands are largely tied. There's added equity in getting a stack early in these shallow events so even if it was closer (like I thought I only had 27% equity) I'd still call. So I called, knowing I was basically gambling.

As I anticipated, the first guy had a big pair (qq) and the second a set (55). I binked a 4 on the turn, much to the chagrin of the set holder who started berating me as a "lucky Irish donkey". I opted for diplomatic silence as I raked in his stack but he kept ranting. Another guy upped the ante though saying "I call there too" which didn't really calm the situation. "No you don't. It's an awful call, how can eights be ahead". One of the Ritalin kids piped in "I don't think he thought he was ahead, just priced in". The ranter was unwilling or unable to accept this argument. I concluded it was more likely the latter when I saw how he played the 10 bbs he was left with: first he called a 4x raise to fold on a jack high flop, then he limp folded with 5 bbs. When he was eventually put out of his misery and stormed off, the entire table (including the dealer) cheered.

I'd moved steadily up to 18k when I was on the right side of a cooler. A shortie shoved for 2k, a very good aggro Russian reshoved for 12k, and I found kings in the big blind. The Russian kid had AQs. Bit of a sweat when he turned a flush draw. When you're running bad they always seem to hit against you, when you're running well you fade them, as I did here. I continued chipping up steadily to have 36k after 4 levels at dinner, with blinds still only 100/200.

After dinner I got moved to a much tougher table with a few online superstars. After losing KT v K5 when a shortie shoved, I found myself down below 30k again. I decided to tighten up, coming out once in a while to three bet the internet lags. As one of them eventually remarked, they were getting through 100%. I won a race against a shortie to move back to 40k when I got moved to a much softer table (no one under 30). I made hay as people locked up for the night and finished with 59500, three times average and fifth in chips according to Poker News. So a good day's work and a healthy situation going into Monday's day 2.

After we'd bagged up, I had a quick walk around to see what else was happening. The ladies bracelet event was down to two tables, and one of the tables had a much bigger and more vociferous rail thanks to another guy with women problems, albeit very different from elevator guy's. Every year a few brassnecked men insist on entering the ladies, and one now remained. Every time he put a chip into the pot he was roundly booed and heckled by the rail.

Sometimes, you can have too much balls in this game.

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Barbeques >> live poker

Mark came with me to Neil Channing's Black Belt mansion barbeque. Neil really looks after his lads, some place he's set the lads up with, complete with its own tennis court, swimming pool and Xbox. Being poker players, it seems the availability of the Xbox trumps the pool and tennis court. Great night with most of the UK's "poker royalty" in attendance and a few stray foreigners like recent bracelet winner Fabrice Soulier. Most people are just not very entertaining when they're running as bad as Neil right now, but not Neil who has taken on seems to be turning into the Victor Meldrew of poker mantle, complaining about aggro whippersnappers making poker a preflop game in hilarious style and abusing them in the social media he's such a master of. You tell 'em Neil!

Mark's a great guy to bring to something like this as he buzzes with positive energy. We had a good natter with a nice couple from England, Martin Johnson (independent bookie of the year in the UK) and his wife Nadia who is the very definition of bubbly despite being teetotal. When Nadia expressed concern at Mark's status as designated driver as he skulled the beers, I told her I wasn't too worried about that: Mark's eyesight being a far bigger concern :)

The drive home was quite entertaining as Mark identified the first exit at the last possible millisecond. He wasn't quite so sharp on the second one so we had an exciting little offroad excursion before we got back onto the ramp (as did the driver right behind us).

Next morning, Mark picked me up to go to the Binions main event. After a tilting hour in the reg line, we got in just before the first break. I still managed to do about 3k barrelling in the one hand I did play. No biggie when you have 30k starting though, and I played very well from there to get to 80k before I butchered a hand that left me with 20k. I rebuilt again to just over 110k. It wasn't the easiest of tables: mostly silent robotic Ritalin kids (the dealer actually said at one point that Binions had a new rule: you're allowed to talk at the poker table), apart from one kid whose meds must have been misfiring and couldn't sit still (or shut up).

The gabby redneck kid was no fan of the Irish either: after initially accepting the view of the guy beside him that the redneck accent is just about the worst, he said "wale, thuh Arish eck say aes even ugliuh ah gaysssss". I don't think he realised I was Irish though, my accent clearly not complying to his version of Arish.

At the dinner break I walked around the Downtown area a bit. Fremont Street is something to see. Then you get to the end and wander a bit more into what look like pretty dodgy slums. Fearing for your wallet, you immediately u turn back to the more sanitized Fremont Experience with its street showgirls and hawkers.

My exit, in level 12, was pretty tilting. Card death and an attempt to do something about it getting a few loose raises and threebets snapped off saw me drift back to 75k at 1500/3k when I opened jacks in mid position to 6300. An English kid I'd never seen before or heard of (he didn't seem very good, or rather he was like a lot of onliners: good enough to recognize "spots", but not good enough to be able to distinguish the good ones from the bad ones taking game flow and table dynamics into account) threebet the button to 15k and then announced he was obliged to call after I shoved. He had ATo and binked an ace on the turn, which is rapidly becoming my least favourite street. Live poker is pretty tilting at times: like when you sit and play well for the most part for 12 hours only for that to happen. But that's (live) poker.

Next up is tomorrow's 1k bracelet event, which would be a great time to start running well live again.

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