Irish Open

One of my favourites this one. It’s not often you see a seven hundred runner field all start on the same day but the City West venue just outside out Dublin accommodates everyone with ease. I got off to a good start picking up aces when someone overplayed tens & moved from 10 to 15k right off the bat.

All of the tables I played on had at most two, maybe three pro players & there was one memorable but all too short stint on a table where half the players were counting down the last two levels, content to bag up for Day 2 with starting stacks intact.

I’d chipped up to 30k when I got moved tables again with twenty minutes left on the clock. Right away I picked up kings on the BB, re-raised the late position raiser & we got our stacks in on a 7,8,9 flop.  His tens weren’t in too bad a shape but luckily for me my kings held & I ended up bagging 61k, a top ten stack with three hundred players remaining.

Day 2 didn’t start too well in that I picked up Q-Q when a 15k stack found K-K; to make matters worse someone else had folded the other two queens & no sweet surprises were forthcoming.
I chipped back up then ran 10-10 into A-10, lost that one & that seemed to set the pattern for the day. My stack just couldn’t seem to move beyond the 40 to 70k range.

Fast forward to the penultimate level of the night, 1000/2000/200 ante, 60k stack, about ninety five players still in with seventy two getting paid & it’s folded around to me in the SB. I make it up with A-J & the BB who has me covered raises to 6k. I re-raised to 20k & he shoved. Boy did I ever feel sick. A clock was eventually called & I eventually folded - he very kindly showed me A-Q.

On the very next hand it went raise to 6k, call, call & I found A-Ks on the button. What a beautiful spot. I shoved & they all folded except for the last guy who’d called the raise who tabled K-K. I swear to god I nearly fell off my chair. He didn’t quite have me covered & I was left with a 10k lifeline. A few hands later I shoved with K-J, the SB called, BB shoved with tens & we got to race it out. Lucky me I rivered a king.

That got me up to 32k & having being so close to the felt I was feeling super confident. It was now the last level of the night, 1500/3000/300 ante & I really felt I was going to spin my short stack up into six figures.  So obviously when the button made it 9k & I peeked down at A-10 in the BB it was an auto shove. Unfortunately he had an auto call with A-K & I couldn’t muster a suck-out.

April is one of the biggest months on the calendar as the next two stops are the last two EPT’s of Season 5, San Remo then the big one, Monte Carlo. Next updates from there, good luck me!