5 Irish picks for Vegas

I have recently gotten back on the horse with grinding live cash and online tourneys. Live cash in Sydney is absurdly soft, maybe 1 other decent player at the table if you are unlucky with a table draw from possibly a handful of 2-5 games. Higher games don't seem to run much. There is a 5-10-20 interest lists which I have only seen run once. This is kinda annoying as I want to play higher not just because of how soft it is but also the rake is ridiculous with a hourly table charge of $10 and 10% rake on each pot capped at $10. Looking at the rake it is simple to see why no good players grind here. If you play high then you get a better rate as it's the same rake no matter the stakes. Hopefully these games run more before I make my annual trip to Vegas this year.

Online has been pretty fun as of late. With the Scoops passing and my deep run in the $2,100 8-max which ended with a horrible beat (I final tabled, only to get 3 outered to finish in 8th, Aks < K9s), oh the equity! The Sunday just gone I had top 5 stack going into the last 100 of the Sunday million only to loose with AK, AK and top set KK in a 4bet pot to destroy my chances of another final table or even dare I say it, winning. With the time zone being so harsh on the Aussie's, I really do feel for anyone playing full time online out here. You are getting up in the middle of the night anywhere between 2 and 5am to begin your daily grind. It truly is gruelling believe me. It will have its perks when the Summer comes round, extra few hours in bed see's you rise at 7am for the daily grind. Perfect.

All these high buy in games are great preparation for the coming Wsop grind. There is nothing more important than having a strong mentality while in Vegas. These beats of late will only help me deal with the onslaught of a packed Wsop schedule. I guess this is a good time to fill everyone in on my Irish Wsop picks for the Summer. It would be about time. Marty Smyth won his almost 5 years ago (5 years on the 29th of this month). 5 long years. To put it into prospective, it is longer time than my career when I first came on the Irish scene in 2009. So I've made 5 picks. Can an Irish person finally win a bracelet?

1. Sean Prenderville

The goat is a beast. By far one of the best players in Ireland and does it without playing nearly as much as the next pro. He has more than one gear but when he gets ahead and has a decent stack that top gear he hits is next to impossible to stop. That's exactly what you need to win a bracelet, build a stack quickly and then be relentless for the rest of the tourney. Sean ticks all the boxes.


2. Daragh Davey

If Daragh can close his eyes and smile when he is all in for that big important tourney pot I would expect him to be able to navigate a big stack to a final table with precision plays. That's how good he is. Can he go from there and win a bracelet? I'd put my house on it! Close you eyes and smile Priest it will ship you a bracelet. If not well at least you get to fiddle all those chips for a while.

3. Dermot Blain

Dermot's game impresses me the most. It's a style I was loosing touch with myself for a while without realising. Playing with him again lately made me realise. He plays so many deep structured games which suit him that I'd expect Dermots best run to come in a 5k event or his favourite Plo tournys. Then again he has surprised me once again with going deep already in a 1k event finishing 23rd. He isn't a fan of those events as he has told me before but it obviously doesn't stop him putting in the time to work out a perfect game plan.

4. Nick Abau Risk

Ok, sure, Nick is Canadian but at this stage I think Irish poker can take some credit from a Nick Abau Risk bracelet win, after all he has lived here longer than Dan Harrington at this stage. Nick is out there for the whole series so it's another reason for his addition not to mention his highly aggressive game that I'm certain will set him up for alot more deep runs than the one he just had, finishing 17th in event 7, a 1k nl event. Plus it would also be great to see John O Shea first hand licking Nicks bald head in the drunken celebrations afterwards.

5. The Unknown

I always have that feeling that some Irish person out of the blue will come along and bink a bracelet, or at least a non well known player. I'm sure there is enough of them out there who have played the series over the last 5 years. Who knows?

I would of put in Jude Ainsworth to this list with his unbelievable form of late but I believe he is skipping the series this year and is expecting another child, so congrats to him.

Any of these 4 above with a little help off lady luck or even a perfectly good 'hold' button will finally land Irish poker it's first bracelet since the new breed of poker players has come through.

Lets shuffle up and deal.

Next

'It's been a while', is how I start most of my blogs. The day I don't start with that opening line is the day I'm writing more regularly, A good day. Considering I'm good friends with Doke & Lappin obvioulsy the two best blogs out there at the moment, you would think I'd be more into blogging, right? I am but my drive to do so is blocked by my constant trolling of twitter or most social media sites. To be honest I get more out of reading 1,000 tweets or posting myself than I do from sitting down and writing even a short blog like this. I'm going to put it down to the lads are too good at it, I can never be better than them and it annoys me. They put me off blogging regularly, cheers lads its clearly all your fault. Social media, my lack of drive or getting caught up in trying to write a blog for days as I just cannot stop writing once I start, obviously, has nothing to do with it!

As for getting into video blogging, it's probably a good idea, god knows I'd be alot quicker doing it, I think? My only fear would be ending up like Negreanu or being as plain as Galfond. Boring! Next! Wouldn't it be great if John O Shea made a video blog? He could go from no one been able to read his blogs to no one been able to understand him speaking in his blogs. Imagine having to put subtitles on your own video blog, now that would be something special. (Told you I'd get you back for your twitter comment blog) John and I have a funny relationship which probably needs clearing up, we slag each other quiet alot on twitter etc but it's all harmless, he likes a good wind up and to be honest sometimes it is more fun to just play along, needling is normal in our world. We chat normally quiet regularly. He actually came out with a cracker of a modified Shakespear quote at Pokerstars party in Cork when everyone was drunk and chirping at him "It's amazing how quickly the mob can turn on you after so long of giving" whilst he stood on a table in the middle of the pub. If you were there you know it was a classic. I think 'mob' was the only reference to Shakespear there.

Ok, to some poker. I recently won my second High Roller title, while it was Ukipt HR it still had lost some of it's ring to it as only 9 players took part. I'm happy tho. I can't have any complaints in general, final table wsop, final table Ept and a final table at start of the year in the Sunday Million on Stars. I finished 6th, 5th and 3rd in those games. The kick start win to my career was a 2nd place finish for 50k & I finished 4th in the Fitz eom just gone to Daragh Davey the eventual winner (who imo is one of the best players in Ireland right now, he makes my top 3 anyway). You might know him better from his other aliases such as Mongoose, Baby Veal, Sheldon Cooper, The Priest & the latest addition Friar Tuck. So yeah, I filled every other finishing position on a final table, maybe just maybe that illusive 1st place finish in a main event is coming. God knows I'm going to be gunning for it until I do.

One last thing to clear up. I think alot of ppl have gotten this wrong. I am Not moving to Australia to live, I am going on a holiday there for about a month maybe a little longer depending on place to stay. I am going with my girlfriend Joy. She is going for a year. I don't blame her either, in what day and age do we live in when you learn your trade for 4-5 years become fully qualified in your field of expertise and you're then told that you are now over qualified to get a job here as you would have to be paid too much. Lol Ireland! Anyway, I can't wait for this trip it's been almost 10 years since I was there last, travelling around Australia. It's going to be great to see how it has developed as a country and also to see some of my close family who now lives out there.

My next trip is this Sunday, I'm off to Ept London. I cannot wait to get there, hoping for a bink like no other. If not there is always the cash games in the Vic.
Back to the above topic on blogging before I sign off, Maybe whenever I feel the need to post on Twitter I'll jot it down here and possibly after a week I will have a blog entry? Yeah, hmmm you're right, I guess that defeats the purpose of Twitter then. Looks like I'm back to square one, blogging regularly without actually doing so. One of these days Rodney, one of these days.