Paddy Power Poker Goes Global

Paddy Power Poker was well represented in terms of their poker roster as aside from Smyth making waves on the Irish poker scene, Dublin-born Eoghan O’Dea did the country proud on an international level. Boosting players’ confidence all over Ireland and injecting excitement into the community, O’Dea finished an impressive sixth in the 2011 WSOP main event for a whopping $1,720,831. With both champions preparing for this year’s Irish Open, Card Player caught up with O’Dea to talk about his main-event experience, the all-important final table, and how his life has been since.

Rebecca McAdam: Looking back on the main event, what are your thoughts?

Eoghan O’Dea: It was a really good buzz. In some ways I didn’t really like the long break, just waiting for the day to happen, but it helped boost everybody’s profile and it was kind of fun going around tournaments and everyone asking me questions about it, so it was a pretty good way I suppose to play it. There was a lot of buzz near to the day as well.

RM: How did you find the reaction back home?

EO: It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. When I came back I saw all the stuff in the papers, I didn’t think it would be like that, so I was kind of surprised how big it was.

RM: Would you be on the side that there shouldn’t be a break in the event?

EO: Not really, I think it might have suited me to play right there, I probably had a better chance to win it maybe, but I think it was good in a lot of ways. One way it was bad was with the delay, airing on TV 30-minutes later, I didn’t like that really, especially as it suited the American players because all their friends were there and they could discuss hands outside on the break. Then Matt [Giannetti] was saying he had it recorded and was going to watch all the hands from the day on the dinner break. And even for other people like [Martin] Staszko, I’m not sure if there is even ESPN in the Czech Republic … but it was pretty hard for all the Europeans. I think there’s probably a better way of doing it, like giving them our phones or not allowing us to talk to people who have been watching. It’s probably hard with the crowd but I think they could have done it somehow. When I played the Poker Million I remember you couldn’t talk to any of your friends and that worked pretty well, it was live on Sky Sports, so I’m sure there’s some way they could do it. I didn’t like that aspect of it.

RM: What was the Irish turn-out like for your support?

EO: It was really funny, everyone was going mad. I left the night before at about 2, and I had just two or three drinks and everyone seemed to be taking it easy. I’m sure they were waiting for me to leave so they could go mad. I thought they’d have a few drinks and go to bed early because we needed to be up at 11 a.m. for the final table but they all seemed to be very hungover or still drunk coming in! [Laughs].

RM: What was the final table like? Where they playing the same way as they had beforehand?

EO: I thought Martin Staszko would improve a bit because he’s a chess player and he’d probably try really hard. He plays all the tournaments online all the time, so I knew he was pretty good, but I think he was hiding all his stats, so he was probably putting the most effort into sharpening his game up because he was a little weaker than some of the others.

RM: People did ponder about his play before the final table.

EO: He looked a bit like he didn’t know what he was doing — there was some weird hand when he three-bet Bryan Devonshire and I definitely thought he was really weak and Devonshire four- or five-bet for a good bit of his stack and Staszko was like, “Ughhh… all in.” I saw on the TV later he had a set. When Devonshire got knocked out he asked him what he had and Staszko said, “Oh bluff, bluff…” I think he was better than average, he seemed a bit weak in some spots, but he was definitely better than people thought.

Then at the final table I thought he played very well. I thought he probably played the best. I thought Matt Giannetti and him had the best game plan, or just the way it turned out, it was good timing for both of them. I thought Ben Lamb played too tight maybe and then got a bit desperate in some spots.

RM: And then he knocked you out!

EO: [Laughs] Yeah. That was ok though I think… his play against me.

RM: Of the hands most people were talking about, can you discuss when you had the A-Q versus Pius Heinz and his pocket queens?

EO: Yeah, Heinz raised with a pair of queens and Ben called. I was the small blind, and at the time when Heinz raised I just felt he was really weak. I thought I might reraise and then I looked down at A-Q. I just thought I don’t think he really has much so I might as well re-raise and then he called pretty quickly, so I didn’t really like it too much but I didn’t think he has aces/kings so I was really unsure what to do with the hand. Then it came 8-8-4 with two clubs and he’s obviously going to call again, which he did. I thought he’s probably not going to risk his whole life so I’ll have to bet the turn again, and it came 3 which was pretty horrible as I had no club, and I bet again and quite a bit of my stack was now in there. I thought there was a chance he might just throw it away because it was the main event final table, and it was kind of bad because he had the queens and one was a club, which was a really tough decision for him. He thought for five minutes and looked very close to folding, but then pushed it in. [O’Dea then folded and dropped down the chip counts]. One thing was he was one of the guys that doesn’t really fold much and I knew that, so I could just not have bothered. I think if it wasn’t the main event final table I probably wouldn’t have bothered against him but I just thought there was a fair chance I could get it through.

RM: Has it all sunk in yet after the hype of everything?

EO: Yeah, everything’s pretty much back to normal now.

RM: Did you do anything with the money? Like are you going to play more events?

EO: Yeah, I’m with Paddy Power so I’m playing more events than I would usually. In previous years I had kind of stopped playing EPTs and I probably only went to a few events in Europe but now with Paddy Power I’m playing a lot more EPTs and stuff so it’s more fun. I enjoy playing live so it’s good.

RM: You must be feeling differently about the WSOP heading into it this year?

EO: I’m definitely feeling more confident. When I first started playing live tournaments I didn’t get a result for so long, especially the bigger tournaments, and back then you’re going in feeling so much tension just to cash. It does help a huge amount when you get a good result from a tournament.

RM: What do you think of Irish poker at the moment, especially in terms of the quality of players we have?

EO: It’s always good fun to play in Ireland, it’s just the games are a little too small. I don’t really play much here, I used to play more in the UK. There is a huge amount of young, good Irish players coming along now though.

RM: What are your thoughts on the Irish Open?

EO: The Irish Open is always a really good buzz. When you play a €5,000 buy-in EPT, there’s always another EPT, but with the Irish Open there’s only one. It’s probably the biggest tournament in Europe, for me anyway, to play. It may not be the biggest prize money but it means the most.

RM: Your Dad [Donnacha O’Dea] has final tabled the Irish Open, so it must be something you have your eye on?

EO: Because it’s your home country and it’s such a big tournament, there’s huge prestige in it. It’s always good to go for! ♠