One Year As Poker Champ - I'm A Survivor Part II

Following on from Part I… I did end up getting a good sweat this year when my good friend and roommate for the weekend Conor McElhinney went deep in the tournament and ended up finishing in 43rd. Of course I had a big part to play in this run, managing only to wake him one out of the three nights when returning to the room in the wee hours while he was still in the tournament. I was so quiet one night I even managed to leave the door off the latch. So that is part of my credentials if anyone is looking for a roommate at future events; there is a chance of your stuff being robbed but at least you’ll be well-rested telling the guards about it the next morning.

Paddy Power have yet again risen the bar when it comes to streaming live poker tournaments with their roving reporters bringing us loads of interviews throughout the tournament and also some light-hearted skits, while there was also some slightly controversial but very informative analysis coming from the booth. So a big congratulations to Emmet Kennedy, Dan O’Brien, Eoghan O’Dea, Rory Brown, Rebecca McAdam, Rury Mason, Tom Kitt, and everyone else who took part. I did the quickest (although to Emmet it might have seemed the longest) stint myself, and all I have to say to him is you only have yourself to blame. He had tried to get me to do it before and I have always refused but in a moment of weakness around 12 o’clock on the Saturday night I was talked into it.

All was going perfect for the first 10 seconds while Emmet asked me a question about my bust out hand, I thought this was great as I am able to whine en masse about my bad beat story. About one line in I hear a woman’s voice in the headphones and in my slightly inebriated state start looking around to see who it is and stop talking. By the time I’ve turned back around, Emmet is now full swing into his best John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever) impression with his hands swingy wildly all over the place. Another few seconds of dead air crawl by until I realise he wants me to continue talking, unfortunately being a bit flustered I’m only able to bring a chorus of am’s to this dance act. Thankfully Emmet got us back on track and I left very soon after vowing never to do that again, with Emmet vowing never to ask.

As if it’s not bad enough having to hand over one crown, I had to hand over two on Easter weekend, but a massive well done to Ian Simpson this year’s Sole Survivor, and as Robert Sherwood told me last year, it will be the best year of your life. The highlight for me was following my Irish Open victory with the win down in Killarney but is closely followed in second by a crazy month in Vegas during the World Series. I’d just like to thank the Paddy Power Poker team myself for everything they did for me the last year, you really couldn’t ask for a more helpful, but more importantly, fun group of people and congratulations to them on another superbly run weekend of poker.