Irish Poker Open - Day 1 (and done)

Making the day one cut was within my reach, but it was not to be mine. I exited in the sixth level and they would play eight levels on day one.

Overall, I'm rather happy I made it to the sixth level. A third of the field exited the tournament before I did. So for being the first major tournament I had ever played, I sure can't complain. The first person exited within ten minutes of the start, and everyone applauded as though it were a sign of respect. TV cameras were everywhere, but I'm pretty sure I didn't make any of the coverage. :)

It was also the most difficult tournament I had ever played. I learned at lot playing at this level. So it was simply a fantastic experience and I'm glad I did it. I enjoyed the longer rounds (60 minutes versus the usual 10-20 minutes), better dealers, more chips (10k versus the usual 3-4k) and of course, the more skillful play. The tables had fresh new felt, the chips were clean, and brand new plastic cards.

I was assigned Table 27, seat 8. Seat 8 is usually a nice seat, because in nine-handed play, you can usually see everyone except seat one. I did have a few Americans at my table (one from Birmingham, AL) My strategy coming in was to be very conservative, fold the mediocre hands, and observe some of the play before trying to engage in a hand. I don't think I played a hand for the first twenty minutes or so.

Some of the more skilled players seemed to be counting on just that and came out of the gate aggressively. The first big hand I played was from the big blind with Kc 8s. The board read Kd 6h 7c 9d Td. I was happy that I had made my straight on the river, but the board had a possible flush out there. I tossed out another 900 in chips and my opponent (who had called my bets all the way) comes back over the top and bet 2700. I thought about it for a bit and folded. That hand cost me about a fifth of my chip stack, but it could have cost me a lot more if I had called it and lost. Maybe I could have been more aggressive with the pair, but my kicker wasn’t all that great.

I played at this same table with the same folks for the first four hours before we saw the first person declare "all-in". He survived and shortly thereafter we went on our dinner break. At the dinner break I was down to about 6200 in chips from the original starting stack of 10,000. Though down, I was growing in confidence that I could still make the first day’s cut.

And then I got moved to table 16, seat 7. Not just any table either. I was seated with (I think) three pros, including Andy Black for sure. Doyle Brunson is on the table just behind me. You can tell who they are because the media comes up often asking them for counts of their chip stack and jotting down hands they are playing. Sometimes they give short little interviews, too. Well, I’m seated between two of them with a short chip stack. It was time to go into Hail Mary mode. Thankfully, I started getting some decent cards at this table. I moved all in for the first time at this table and on the second hand. No callers, everyone folded. I did this twice more and still no callers. By this point the antes had started kicking in, so I needed to double up pretty fast to stay alive. I’m then dealt KK for the second time at this table, the second strongest starting hand you can get. I did get a caller this time, but he had the strongest starting hand – AA. I didn’t improve, and I was done. After 5-1/2 hours of play, and I went out at about 390th of 630 players. Almost half way in the field.

I also chatted a little with JJ Liu on this trip and I thought she was quite pleasant. She went out of the tournament about a half hour after I did. In the end, no regrets on my play. Of course, I didn’t win, but I wasn’t exactly expecting to. I only wanted to come out of this learning some new things without punching out too early and doing so without embarrassment. Call it a success.