Jan 16th & 17th - Dublin

Jan 16th - €100+€10 NL Hold'Em - Fitzwilliam (Dublin)

This event provided one of those occasions where I instigated my own demise and illustrates how easy it is to get carried away with extremely good starting hands. In this case - KK.

For the first 30 mins or so I played ABC poker. Raised with good to great starting hands, called with calling hands and passed all else. I then get KK in LP.

With antes at 50/100 there's a raise to 600 from the guy to my right. I immediately make it 1200 to go and its all passed back around to my sole opponent who reluctantly calls. Now of course the thing about holding KK, and with a caller of a decent sized raise, in tow is that you're praying for no Ace on the flop!

A flop of A-9-7 shattered my illusions and I gave a deep sigh (silently of course). My opponent immediately bet out 800. Now, of course, I'm pretty sure he has the Ace and should of swallowed my loss without further ado but noooooooo. I can't pass KK and immediately go all-in!

In some instances this MAY induce your opponent with A-low kicker to fold. After all he doesn't want to go out showing A-5 or A-9 as that would show him up to be a plonker in the case where I flip A-Q or A-K. Unfortunately for me though my opponent held A-Q and even though he dwelt fot some considerable time he called and I couldn't find another King to help me out!

Lets face it I'm just not good enough to pass KK!

Entries -> 70 - Place -> 62nd - Loss -> €110 ($132) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> -$436

Jan 17th - €150+€10 NL Hold'Em - Merrion Club (Dublin)

My first trip to the Merrion club for a while. They're attempting to get going a €10000 guarantee tourney (with 45 players) so I thought I'd give the place the once over and see if the numbers stood up.

With unlimited €100 rebuys, in the first hour, I could see the prize pool getting quite high but only 23 turned up. Never mind though...after rebuys & top ups there was still a pool of €5750 to play for.

Within 3 hands I had a rebuy. Holding KK (again) I went all-in against a player who held A-K. Needless to say an Ace appeared on the flop and my hands were in my pocket. A short time later I get KK again. Again all the chips went in! This time I was up against QQ and with no Queen on board I was feeling a little bit happier!

With lots of chips to play with and a clock of 25 mins I never felt under any pressure from then until the top-up. Another 4500 for €100 was pretty much obigatory so after the break I have around 14000 in chips.

With only 23 runners the final table came around quite quickly but with only 5 prizes paid out there was still work to be done.

One by one the players dropped. Soon there were 7! I get AA in LP and was pleased to see that the player, to my immediate right, pushing all-in himself for around 10k. I, of course call, and he's gutted as he flips K-K. I know how he felt!

Six soon became five and we're in the dough. The chip leader kept calling everyones all-in (and winning) so I was pleased to keep out of his way and continue to push up the leader board.

I took out 4th place when my A-K beat out 10-10 with an Ace on the flop.

With 3 of us left nobody wanted to deal so when the short-stack (circa 25k) went all-in with 4-4 I was pleased to see the chip leader call with 10-10 and hold on for the win!

We did a deal where I got €1800 and he got €2500. Back in the black...which was nice!!

Entries -> 23 - Place -> 2nd - Win -> €1440 ($1728) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$1292