Glimmer
An improvement of sorts at the Irish Open and hey, I even made it through to Day 2. The first two levels were woeful, I played a whole bunch of hands, mostly crud, missed everything but still tried to get clever and all of a sudden I was down in the doldrums with just 4000.
I got a reprieve though, finding kings when someone had queens, swiftly followed by a Brucie bonus, getting ejected to another table. Paul Zimbler was chipped up and captaining the new line-up with ease. I managed to squeeze a couple of make or break moves past him, though given the amount of times he raised my blinds we probably ended up about even on a chips garnered count.
My biggest triumph of the day occurred when I was up to 11k. The button min raised to 600 and I called with K-Q from the SB. We checked the 3,4s,6s flop, I checked the jack on the turn and he bet 1600. I raised him 2800 back and he just called. With 5500 left I was pretty sure I’d fire once more on the river but when the Qs fell betting out no longer felt like the compulsory play. I checked it to him, he looked at my stack and bet 4500. I wearily called and breathed easy when he mucked an A-5.
Chipped up with average chips for the first time all day, I then donked-off 6000 making it 1900 to go with 8-9s. A short stack then pushed for 6000 with A-10s; I know that’s what he had because I called that bet. Perhaps a pass for the other 4100 would have been a better decision, but I guess I wanted to test my momentum; if you can win one or two of these punts you feel unstoppable: conclusion = poor momentum.
Eights then came to the rescue. I‘d made it 1900 again and got re-popped to 6000 by an aggressive Dane with a big stack. This guy ticked just enough boxes to make a stand for my last 10k and to my relief I was well in front of his sixes.
I was more than pleased to end up bagging 25,500 at the close of play, an average stack, after what had been a tough day with very few big hands or straightforward decisions.
My good fortune continued when, despite my raging thirst, I skipped the option of a Guinness or two and headed straight back home (Mum‘s house), running into a Garda checkpoint, my minty fresh breath meaning I was waved along.
Day 2 had all the makings of being something very special. In the first level I picked up K-K five times and A-K twice. Of course the two times I got action I got spanked, running into a set of sevens with the kings and missing everything in a re-raised, bet the flop pot with the A-K.
This meant that despite still having 25k I felt very hard done by. The gloves came off and a level or two of yoyo-ing then followed, with lows of 15k and highs of 35k.
I made my last stand with A-5 against Ian Woodley during one of the lows, re-pushing from the BB for 15k in the face of his 5k late position raise. He didn’t think too long, told me I was in front and called with K-Js. It was a good flop, A,J,5 but he hit a king on the river and I was gone.
Given my performance in the last three events I’m gonna have to continue managing my budget with care, which means skipping the 25k event at the Bellagio…a shame but as I don’t yet feel I’m playing even close to where I could, or should be it’s the sensible choice.
Finally, I’d like to wish Xuyen and Steve Vladar, formally aka Smokie and Badgirl all the best as they have chosen to move onto pastures new. Though they barely knew me, they were instrumental in helping me garner a sponsorship deal with William Hill in 2004 as well looking after me once I was in. We shared many great trips and Xuyen’s excellent, if short-lived babysitting potential will be missed.