What's Another Year!

Who can forget that song from Johnny Logan the first time he won the Eurovision song contest? Well it seems that, it's that very song which will be sung aloud by myself and so many others when it comes to winning this year's Irish Open!
To sum it up – I was feeling great going into this event, having the wind at my back with the road rising to meet me. And if it weren't for my pocket Kings not making up the ground that was required on my neighbour's pocket Aces, then I may at least have continued a little longer on my quest for the Open. But alas it was not to be. You might say it was a bit of a cooler waking up with the Cowboys when my opponent had the Bullets, but it's really not the worst way that one can go out of a tournament…that's for sure.

The thing was, I did pick up a few hands but was unable to get anyone in to play. I had Aces once and made the standard bet but nobody called and then I had Kings against a young kid who made an absolutely brilliant lay down against me when he had two queens on an 8 high flop???? Most of the time I'm going to double up there but somehow he's able to get away from it. It was such a great play from him.

But I'd say the hand that rocked the cradle came against an aggressive Scandi. It went like this…. It was the second level and I chipped up to about 14K after taking 3k off the Scandi already when he tried to bluff me. So with the blinds at 50/100 – I make it 325 from middle position with AJ.

I get two callers before it gets around to the Scandi, who fires out a total of 1800 hundred…hmm he's trying the squeeze here I'M ALMOST SURE OF IT! Figuring if he gets through me then the other two can't call when they couldn't raise me. So with almost 3K out there and me having position on him… I call. It was a Q high flop that missed me completely but I knew it had also missed him.

He bet out 1800 again without even thinking about it. Remember now I only have Ace high but I trust my read and I raise it to 5000 with now having pretty much half my stack out there. But before my chips had even settled, he announced all-in!!

Shiteeeeeeeeeeeeee I'm thinking…I'm still fairly sure that this fellow has nothing but even if I am right and I make the hero call with my Ace high, he's still has a chance to hit one of his two cards to beat me. Also the fact that it was soooo early in the event and I still had 7k, I felt I could pass and still be ok. After all…what if I was wrong and he had AQ? Then I would be drawing almost dead barring runner-runner Jack.

Anyway I decided to fold but only after some deliberation announcing that I didn't think he was strong at all but by him moving all-in, and me only having Ace high – that I couldn't call. And sure enough he turned over 9 high for a SICK bluff…Not so much to rub it in but more so to tell me that my read was indeed right.

"Well done sir" I told him, "that was great play".

Then began the battle of the mind wondering had I called I would have been up to 30k! However it didn't take long for me to get back on track as it was Europe's number one tournament that we were playing for. Though it is some what ironic given the fact that if it had been almost ANY OTHER EVENT I would have snap called him!

Anyway there are still a lot of great players who are left in it, but who's it going to be? There is a host of good players whose lives may well change should they some how take down the PPP Irish Open .

You can follow online here at paddypowerpoker.com for all your updates.