Eoghan O'Dea - My European Poker Tour London

A year a go I played the EPT London and bubbled. It was the first time that had happened to me in a major tournament. And I felt sick. There’s nothing more tilting than having the room erupt in applause, delighted to have made the money right as you stand up to go on your walk of shame with thoughts of my final hand racing through my head making me wonder could I have played it any different. Being the bubble boy put the nail in the coffin of what was a horrible week of poker for me. I had been losing playing cash every day and just when I thought I was going to get a break, I bubble.

This year I wanted to avoid that sickening situation and the experience of that entire week. I’d been taking it pretty easy in the run up to the event but got involved in a big cash session the day before the main event and only finished up 5 hours before I was due to play. I had been winning though, which is something.

I’d love for this to be a blog about how I took down, or at the very least cashed in the event. However, things didn’t really go to plan. I was below average throughout the entire tournament and there weren’t really any spectacular or noteworthy hands and I eventually fizzled out and busted eight spots off the money. I was pretty happy with how I played for most of the tournament, it was just one of those tournaments where you have to try and make your own luck because the deck isn’t giving you a helping hand at all. At least I avoided last years experience but unfortunately busted out the wrong side of the bubble.

After busting, I went straight into a cash game and played a long 13 hour session until 8am. I didn’t start off so well and was in a hole for most of the session. I left the table down a small amount but that’s because I played pretty badly at the start of the session. I think it’s pretty easy to play poorly in a cash game after busting in a tourney but I’m just too sick to pass up on the action.

There are a lot of tournaments on offer during the EPT here but I decided to only play 2 of them and focus on cash the rest of the time. Tournament registration fees are flying through the roof in lots of festivals nowadays with more money been taken out of the prizepool as fees than I can ever remember. The only other tournament I’m playing is a $10k freeroll that’s exclusive to Irish players who have played an EPT in the past year. I think there’s only going to be something like 11-13 players in it so it represents a rare bit of value.

While I’m at the tables, the one thing that everyone is asking me about is the November Nine. The funny thing is that I had almost forgotten about it when I was back home with my family and friends. It’s great to get other peoples perspectives on it and to hear what they’d do in my shoes. I’m really going to put my mind into it now and will be looking at all the videos to see if I can pick up anything on the other players.

I’m off to Cannes shortly to play in the WSOPE. I’d love to manage a deep run in this with the atmosphere being pretty similar to what it is in Vegas. Speaking of Vegas, if you want to join me at the final table of the WSOP then you should sign up to the November 9 games on Paddy Power. After Cannes I’ll be coming back to Ireland to play in the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Winter Festival alongside Niall Smyth who I’m looking forward to congratulating in person for taking down the Irish Poker Festival in Killarney last week.

That’s all for now, I’ll be back again shortly to let you know how I got on in Cannes. If you can’t wait until then, I’ll be at my Cash Table on Tuesday from 8-10pm.