Upstairs, Downstairs

The Irish Open is alive and well. In these tough times, players will travel to the events where they are best looked after and a good time is guaranteed and the fact that seven hundred turned up in Dublin reflects this. Congratulations to Liam Flood, The Jackpot Club and Paddy Power on making this happen.

As usual, there was a shit lot of dead money around. This year, it was the Boylepoker team. Though that wasn't the fault of the online qualifiers who showed us all up. I had breakfast on day three with Andy Ward whose top 400 finish was an example to us all. Ciaran O'Leary had told me that the numbers in the Bellagio were way down this year and Andy explained that The Camel and several others weren't actually in the Bellagio but were in their rooms banging away in the something coop.

Nicky Power, not for the first time, got the last word in, when he remarked that it was no surprise there were no Irish around at the business end of things. "If they keep the bar opened all night on Good Friday, what do they expect?" He probably had a point.

The most important hand of the weekend was dealt in the 1500 side event. Last year's IPC Champion, Jude Ainsworth got dealt pocket aces, got the lot in against the sevens and was rivered just in time to get back to his room with five minutes to spare before the last super-turbo satellite for the Coop main event. The rest is history. Luckily, on Monday night I'd drunk as much Club Orange as I could without risking instant diabetes and went to my room to watch his final table. He didn't just win, he ran all over them and won a million dollars. You'll never beat the Irish!

Jesse May has had some crackpot ideas in his time but a live interactive poker radio show for nine hours a week is up there with the craziest of them. But he's my friend, so I'm in. If you're as sick as we are, you can listen to it on the BoylePoker site on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights. On the negative side, we don't really know what we're doing but a big plus is two great interviews we did with Dan Harrington and The Don (not the geezer the AIB are complaining about. Our one.) If you've got something you think people might like to hear, give us a call on the show. If it's a bad beat story, phone someone else.