How I Won The Irish Open

Just before the Irish Open 2013 I had been reviewing my year as a sponsored pro after winning the Sole Survivor package last April. I had been given €50,000 in buy ins and really wanted to take the opportunity and prove myself as a poker player. I remember in one of my very first articles here at Card Player saying that I wanted to at least make a main event final table and maybe even take home a trophy.

Leading up to the Irish Open I was pleased with my performance in my recent trips, having won a minor side event and cashing in the main event at European Poker Tour London. But I still hadn’t made a major final table through the year. I was happy with my progression as a player, but still waiting on another big score.

That all changed on April 1 and not only did I make the final table at the Irish Open for the second year in a row, but also managed to take down the tournament and win the trophy.

What’s more I popped the question to Emma who is now my fiancée. Life doesn’t get any better. I’m completely overwhelmed with how everything worked out.

Day One

Day one had a rocky start. I took my usual line of seeing flops, playing position, using my deep starting stack of 30,000 to try and build up some chips. Unfortunately my suited connectors and small pairs simply didn’t connect and my stack started dwindling.
My table was a soft one though. There were some inexperienced opponents who made some silly plays, so I kept the faith and kept to my game plan.

My stack took another hit with the 4th diamond on the river costing me a pot when my K was no good. Then another hit to my stack occurred when my K-K lost on an A-A-x board and I paid a bet on the river.

I was down to around 20,000 and the blinds must have been up to around 200/400/25. I managed to get my K-K all in pre flop vs A-K. The ace never appeared and I got up to over 40,000 in chips.

I then get dealt pocket 9s and raise preflop. It comes down A-8-3 and my opponent check raises me. Surely he would have re-raised a strong ace preflop? And surely a middle to weak ace is a bit weak to check-raise as I could have easily raised preflop with A-J+.
Does he have an 8 and is trying to see if it is good? A set? Something about his demeanour told me he was weak so I called. The turn came another 8 which was a worry, he bet again but he just didn’t seem comfortable so I made another call. We checked down the river and he meekly mucked his cards. That pot took me to 61,000.

Then I raised A-7 offsuit and saw a flop of A A 5. I had been very aggressive so bet into the flop. My opponent obliged and fought back with a check-raise. I dwelled for a moment and made the call.

The turn brought the 2. He bet again and I made the call. The river was a blank and he pushed all in. I snap called and he turned K-Q offsuit for a stone bluff.

The key to this pot was my flop continuation bet. I had been aggressive and continuation betting a lot, so a check would have been out of character and actually looked stronger than a bet. He jumped on this and paid me his stack.

I ended day one on 136,000 with the average being around 50,000. Can’t get a much better start than that!

Day Two

So, starting day two with over 2.5 times the average stack was certainly a big advantage. I liked my table draw too. Me and Emma woke up got breakfast and headed downstairs. Some familiar faces from yesterday, and from previous Irish Open’s greeted us warmly and we made our way to the display of the seating draw. Emma’s iPod in hand we begin our research.

I draw a table on a piece of paper write down everyone’s names and chip stacks and then search for their name online. Sometimes you can find out little bits of information by doing a search for player names. Sometimes a complete lack of information is information unto itself. The most important thing was to identify stack sizes in relation to my position and how this would affect my play. Table draw has a huge effect on how the day will proceed and it’s important to be prepared for it.

My first few pots were taken down fairly uncontested. The blinds were 500/1,000/100 and I get dealt pocket deuces. After being the 2nd person to call a raise of 2,500 I’m faced with a squeeze all in.

There was 9,900 in before his shove of approximately 30,000. My odds were roughly 1.4:1 meaning I needed around 40 percent equity to make the call. The main reason I made this call was because he wanted me to fold and I always do my best to disappoint my opponents.
What hand range do we give him that wants us to fold? Small pairs and two big cards. I eliminated premium hands from his range simply because his play was screaming “please fold!”

I made the call and he disappointedly flips over A-9 saying “you’re good”. I flip my deuces over and say “not yet I’m not”. He called it a silly call, I call it a wise investment. I held and sent him to the rail and increased my chip stack to around 200,000.

Having been using my chip stack as a weapon I look down at A-K vs. a button raise. Naturally I re-raise and my opponent makes the call which I believe is mostly due to my reputation. The flop comes A-5-5 and he ships all in vs. my continuation bet. I snap call and increase my stack to 250,000.

My opponents are getting tougher as the day progresses as the weaker players are eliminated. It’s important to adapt your style as this occurs in a multi-table tournament. Players get moved and table dynamics change. A-8 won me a significant pot when I called two bullets when the board showed two over cards by the river and I called down my aggressive opponent.

I then three-bet A-Q and faced a four-bet all in. I was priced in against the short stack shove and spiked a queen to eliminate him and advance my stack to 360,000 and give me the chip lead.

This didn’t last as long as I would have liked. I find myself on a tough feature table with the deck seemingly out to get me. My K-K was faced with another A-Ax flop and I ended up paying off A-K on the river. Unfortunately I don’t have a record of all the hands, but there were a number of tough spots which had me beat down to 170,000.
Having Dermot Blain on my immediate left certainly didn’t help. However I found the lovely K-K again and get doubled up. I didn’t stop there and powered my way through to an 800,000 stack going into day three.

Day Three

Day two ended without the bubble bursting. Possibly thanks to the 30,000 starting stack (10,000 more than last year). There were 63 players left going into the day and 54 of those got themselves a €4,350 pay day which is huge to a satellite qualifier who may have won his package for one percent of that sum.

I had Dermot Blain at my table again but this time to my right. We pretty much wake up on the bubble and I get away with murder. I had intended to come into play all guns blazing and that’s exactly what I did. I won the first five pots on the bounce with A-A Q-Q K-10 A-9 and 5-5 two of which were threebets and all of which were taken down preflop.

This gave me the chip lead. I open-raised and threebet mercilessly as no-one at my table had even 50 percent of my stack. I started day three on 800,000 and thanks to applying maximum pressure on the bubble I accumulated a 1,700,000 stack. I actually didn’t mind my A-Q losing to a micro stacks all in with A-8 because the bubble staying alive was worth more to me than that pot.

It was still an intense bubble for the rest of the room. Play lasted well over an hour and a half on the immediate bubble. We had all ins announced by the tournament director regularly. We saw A-A vs A-A and K-K vs K-K. We even had three all in confrontations at once, each one being played out separately and announced to the players and spectators. All three survived.

Eventually though the bubble burst, and yet again it was time to change gears. As I say I had gotten away with murder raising maybe 70-80 percent of hands. The opponents were too scared to bust on the bubble or in the case of Dermot Blain who had a strong stack, wise enough not to risk an all in confrontation with such shortstacks in the room. I changed gears and tightened up as I knew that players would now open up and start shoving their stacks in more liberally over my raises. After the bubble players dropped like flies.

Then I make a mistake. I started the hand on around 1.3 million in chips and raise it up pre flop with K-Q suited. Tom Brady makes the call and Kevin MacPhee calls on the small blind. The flop comes down Q T 5 and I lead out.

Tom Brady makes the call and Kevin MacPhee raises all in for what must have been around 300k. I glance up and Tom must have had 500k behind. What on earth does MacPhee flat call with on the small blind that now wants to shove this flop? He wants us to fold, that much I’m certain. Surely Q-Q 10-10 and A-Q would re-raise preflop on the small blind to take down the pot and negative the positional disadvantage? How about the A with a random card, possibly something making a pair like A-10? Maybe even Qx-J?

What about Tom Brady? I sensed he was uncomfortable, but there’s still a chance he will get involved, but I don’t put him on a strong hand.

I go with my gut and shove all in. Tom calls along and I see the bad news. Tom Brady was the one with the A accompanied with a 10 giving him 2nd pair and the nut flush draw. Kevin MacPhee had A Q and all of a sudden half of my stack is on the line. The turn brings an A giving me some outs to a straight but a spade on the river solidifies Tom’s flush draw knocking out MacPhee and leaving me on around 25BB’s.

How do I handle such a big loss? I look up to Emma, my biggest fan, who winks and smiles reassuringly reminding me that I’m here to have fun. I say out loud “Nice hand bud, back to the grind for me”.

Then the commentators accuse me of a tilt all in. As if! Seriously though I understand why they thought that. I go all in preflop vs a raise with J-10 offsuit and Q-Q wakes up behind me. I was simply putting the pressure on a timid player who had opened and this was one of those times a big hand woke up behind me. It was also one of those lovely times when two jacks greet me on the flop to double me back up to over a million.
Of the 63 players fighting on day three for first place only eight could make the official final table. Those eight eventually turned out to be:

Day Four

Two years in a row I manage to make the final table of the Irish Poker Open. Last year I entered as the chip leader and finished 4th. This year I entered 4th in chips and managed to finish first.

I had mixed feeling on my table draw. To my right I had two dangerous players Mark Davis and Adam Fallon. Adam and I had played together on the feature table and I knew he had an aggressive style, so having him to my right was a bonus. Ditto Mark Davis who I had spent less time playing with than Adam, but I had played enough to know he had an aggressive streak as well.

My most dangerous opponent however was the online pro Calvin Anderson. He was unfortunately two spots to my left. This did mean however that when I was in my strongest positions, the button and the cut off, he was in his weakest positions, the small blind and the big blind. That initially dictated slightly more selective play than normal when not in these positions.

Calvin Anderson knew that we all knew how aggressive he had been leading up to the final table, and I quickly realised that his initial game plan wasn’t to come out all guns blazing. In fact had he picked up a premium hand I’m sure his reputation from previous days play would have gotten him nicely paid.

I also figured that his first threebet would be with total trash if he could help it. Who wants their first threebet, the one that gets the most respect, to be with aces?
Just before I look at my cards, I started whistling Pop Goes The Weasel. Don’t ask why, I guess I was just in a whimsical good mood. I hadn’t looked at my cards, but quickly realised that if I suddenly stopped whistling when I looked at my cards my opponents might just pick up on something! I made a point of continuing my whistle and finished my tune as I looked down at pocket jacks. Well hello weasel. With blinds of 20,000/40,000/4,000 I made it 85,000.

Calvin threebets me to 185,000 on the button. I called for two reasons. First I have no idea what his fivebet range is, I didn’t play with him at all until there were nine of us left, and that only lasted two hands. I really didn’t want to see a fivebet against my J-J vs a online pro when I have no idea what his range is.

Secondly I think a fourbet with J-J may well chase out all the hands I’m ahead of while pays off those hands that have me in trouble. I’d rather try and extract more money from cheeky threebet stealing hands by taking the war to the flop.

The board ran 10-4-3 and naturally I check to the raiser. Calvin makes it 147,000 and I call. If I raise here I probably chase away all of his air hands and pay off all of his better hands. I may get some value from him when he has top pair, but that isn’t a big part of his range on this board. The turn comes the 8.

Calvin is aggressive enough to fire multiple streets so I check again. He checks behind and the nasty A lands on the river. Or is it nasty? It’s such a good card for Calvin to bluff with it means he will bet 100 percent of the time here. It makes my call automatic. I’m certainly not folding such a relatively strong hand to such a creative aggressive player. I call his bet on the river and he turns Q-3 suited. Remember what I said about his first threebet?

Then I get dealt 6-4 offsuit on the big blind. Calvin raises his usual min-raise to 100,000, Tom Brady calls on the button and I take a flop with my one-gapper. The flop is a rather interesting 10-4-4. I check, Calvin bets 100,000 and Tom makes the call. I then check raise to 355,000. Calvin knows I can make moves and his weak bet on an uncoordinated board may seem like the perfect spot for me to squeeze both players out of the pot.

Calvin makes the call and after a big dwell up Tom surprises everyone with an all in. I wonder if he thought me and Calvin were having another raising war with weak hands just trying to make the other back down? I was worried about A-4, probably suited but I moved all in myself. Tom had Q-10 and didn’t improve. As Calvin folded he flashed a 10. I wonder just how much he would have paid off? If he’s calling the flop, he must surely be ready to go to war and call my inevitable future bets. In any case, Tom’s monster stack was severely hurt in this hand and I took the chip lead with over five million in chips. Happy days!

Namir threebets all in and I re-shove with 10-10. Gemma’s face, the dealer who dealt me out of last years Irish Open in 4th place when my pocket 10’s were outdrawn, was priceless when I pointed out the situation. Same hand, same dealer, same position as last year. However my 10-10 held strong and true and knocked out Namir in 4th place.

Mark Davis then threebet Farrelly and I look down at 7-7. I ship as I am ahead of his threebet range and he looks me square in the eye and asks “do you have pocket 7’s? Maybe 6’s?” I’ve no idea how I kept a straight face. Could he actually see into my soul?
Apparently not, as he eventually called with A-7 suited and left the tournament unimproved by the river, but €99,000 richer.

Heads up lasted two hands. Micheal threebet me off the first one and I took a flop with 4 3 facing his small raise to 240,000. The flop came down Q 6 5.

I bet 375,000 and he makes it one million. Even though it has only been two hands I know he has changed gears and I’m not about to be pushed around. I re-shove my open-ended straight draw (I think he had 2.8 million behind but I can’t be certain) and he turns over the most sickening sight of 7-4 offsuit for a better draw!

The turn gave him his straight, but it was a 4th diamond. The river brought the 2 and everything froze for a beautiful second that lasted longer than any other in my life. Not only had I won the Irish Open, but I could finally pull the engagement ring out of my pocket and make the biggest and most important move of my life. ♠