Irish Poker Open Champ Steps Down

Smyth Wins Irish Open… That’s what I hoped the poker headlines would be today. And they are. Unfortunately for me though, I’m not the “Smyth” that they’re referring to.

I knew it had been a while since I last updated the blog but I didn’t realise it had been quite this long since my last post. There really hasn’t been anything to write about though, and as well as that, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about poker after I split with Boyles. It did cross my mind to just completely quit the game, but I decided to take a break for a few months and then see how I felt about it.

I was certainly more enthusiastic about playing after having the break, and I feel like, in both tournaments that I’ve played since I came back, I’ve played as well as I’m capable of playing. The first was Neil Channing’s Blackbelt live tournament in London a couple of weeks ago, where I busted in 21st place after getting my chips in with K-Q versus a flush draw and gutshot on a Q-Q-8 flop in a big pot which almost certainly would have seen me make the final table with a decent stack.

The second was the Irish Open at the weekend, where I feel I played really well right up to my exit hand. I never really had a great stack throughout the event, and did well to get away from a couple of very bad situations relatively cheaply, and make the most of the few good spots that I managed to find. I definitely think I played my exit hand badly though. I was actually fairly OK with how I played it, until I had a drunken conversation with Tom Kitt in the bar afterwards and he explained how it was actually pretty bad of me. It’s not always nice to hear that after you’ve just busted, but I honestly appreciate the other take on it. I’d rather know that I made a mistake than do the same thing again the next time I’m in that situation. He was absolutely right as it happens, and having thought about it more I know that my all-in was definitely wrong.

Before the hand in question I’d just gotten my biggest stack so far in the tournament by making a good call with 2-2 on a K-8-6-4-4 board after my opponent bet the turn and river. I’d been playing really tight up to that point, and I made a decision after that hand that I was going to get more aggressive and try to get some chips together. I was only on a small percentage of myself after selling off a few 5 percents to friends and swapping with a load of guys, so there really wasn’t a huge difference in prize money for me in moving a few spots up the ladder. I also knew how huge it would be to win the Irish Open twice in the modern era from such big fields, so it was more than happy to gamble if required.

I was playing a little bit under 400K when I raised to 45,000 in mid-position with 3-3 and a certain Niall Smyth re-raised to 100,000. I didn’t have much info on any of the guys at my table, but Rob Taylor had told me that Niall had been 11th a couple of years ago and was pretty aggressive. From the short time that I’d played with him, I could see that he had a bit of game to him and I thought he was capable of making a move. As well as this, he was one of the Sole Survivors (playing for a 100k package from sponsors PaddyPowerPoker) and had the biggest stack of his remaining rivals, so I didn’t think that he would want to jeopardise this position with anything but an ultra-premium hand.

These were the kind of thoughts that were running through my head when I pushed my remaining chips into the pot. I think that there probably were a few hands that he could have raised me with, which he would have passed for my all-in, but realistically not enough hands to make my all-in the right move. Maybe if I’d thought about it a little bit longer I’d have seen sense, but then I wanted to act relatively quickly so as to appear a bit stronger.

As it happened, it would have taken a gun for me to make him pass his hand. He called quickly with A-A, made quads, and went on to win the tournament. I’m honestly very happy for him. I spoke to him briefly in the bar afterwards and he seems a genuinely nice guy. He conducted himself well at the table and he seems like a very good player too.

As for me, I definitely feel a bit better about poker. Barring that one mistake I’m delighted with how I played, and if I’d picked up a few good hands on day 3, or enjoyed a huge slice of luck with the 3-3, then I’d have had a real chance. I’m definitely not going to quit playing totally, but since I won’t have a sponsorship deal with a site, then I’m going to stick to playing the occasional small tournament, and maybe a couple of bigger events per year if I can sell some of myself off.

I’d really like to play the Cork UKIPT in a couple of weeks, but I’ve already arranged a family holiday at the same time so I’m going to have to miss it. I’ll be in Vegas over the WSOP as I have a friend who’s getting married there at the same time, so I may play 1 or 2 small events, but I’m not intending to stay there for very long. After that my next confirmed tourney will be the Unibet Open in Dublin at the end of August. All in all, I only expect to play five or six live tournaments over the next year, and since I don’t expect anyone really wants to read about me sitting at home playing small tourneys online and betting on everything that moves, I don’t think there’s much point in me keeping the blog going any longer.

On one final note, at the start of the year I said that if there was anyone else out there with a fondness for buying WSOP bracelets, then I’d give mine away in exchange for them making a $10K donation directly to a charity of my choice. I don’t really expect any interest but the offer is always open, so if anyone wants it then I’m sure they can get in touch with me easily enough.

Thanks to everyone who’s read over the last couple of years, and good luck to everyone.